CH 66

Then, with the particular accent of Milescet nobles, Lilith spoke in a nasal tone as she began to gossip about Ophelia.

“There’s not one noble in the capital who doesn’t know that she’s terribly ashamed about her lowly status. Because of that inferiority complex, she’s displeased with every single thing that I do.”

“Lowly status? But she’s called an imperial princess.”

And the problem here was this: that Yennit was the kind of person who couldn’t resist her curiosity.

She listened intently to the story about Ophelia, but there was one part that she couldn’t understand. Her habits from when she was attending school were brought out.

“I heard that you’re just a noble, but can a noble like you say that a member of the  Imperial Family is a lowly person?”

“O-Of course I can. Are all princesses just princesses? The person who gave birth to her was only a maid.”

“So her mother’s a maid, but she’s a princess. What’s the difference?”

When Yennit asked in a truly sincere tone as though she didn’t know, Lilith was so frustrated that she felt like she was going to die. She yelled.

“It’s different! Isn’t it obvious?! Her lineage is different!”

“Ah, I get it. You guys are doing the same thing as breeding stallions?”

“W-What did you say?”

“I’m just asking. You keep yammering on about birth this and lineage that. Am I wrong?”

Yennit asked back still with the same tone, as though she was really clueless.

The magic tower was a meritocracy through and through.

Of course, a family that produced high mages existed because mana was an attribute that’s greatly influenced by heredity, but an outstanding mage’s child could also turn out to be a worthless fellow.

Or, an individual could also hone themselves and acquire tremendous skills even if their family didn’t have a history of magic.

‘My case is the former.’

And Alejandro Diarmuid, her master who was called a genius like no other, was the latter.

Of the people living in the tower, eight out of ten people were mages.

When outsiders hear about this fact, they usually react in two ways—that there’s so many mages, or that there’s so many non-mages.

‘Mages except for the ones in the magic tower got wiped out, so it’s understandable why people react that way.’

After the temple’s regulations on magic were lifted, all the countries in the Maynard continent had opened their eyes to securing mages.

They thought that only temples could be used until then, but they couldn’t help but look this way as well.

If they could foster a mage alone, then it was no longer necessary to appease the temple just to gain the divine power they provided.

After hearing that there was someone talented at magic out there, the monarchs of all countries started gathering them all. But despite such efforts, there were still less than fifty mages across the entire continent.

The country with the largest group of mages, with about thirty mages in total, was the Milescet Empire.

With the magic tower being equivalent to a huge city, when people hear that most individuals in the tower were mages, how could they not be surprised?

However, after hearing about the tower, people started expressing their doubts about the latter case.

—If the mages escaped persecution, why are there so many people who aren’t mages?

The explanation was simple.

Because when the mages had moved into the magic tower, they also brought people who had no magical power, like their spouses or siblings. And, because even if mages were to marry each other, it’s still possible that their offspring wouldn’t be able to wield magic.

Fortunately, Yennit didn’t end up that way—but the problem was that her parents were two of the leading mages of their generation.

Yennit’s parents were typical geniuses. And they were quite distressed by the fact that their child turned out to be mediocre.

—At your age, why is it that you still can’t understand how this calculation is done?

—Is there something wrong with your head?

When people say that a genius won’t be able to understand a mediocre person, they were exactly like that.

—I heard that the child Lord Abel brought in is absolutely brilliant.

—I think he’s even better than me when I was young. They say he’s already about to graduate from the advanced course.

—Is the child chosen by the Tower Lord different?

Alejandro Diarmuid. It was through her parents that Yennit first heard his name.

Not much was known about him yet until then. Everything that’s known about him were only that he was an orphan brought in by Abel Diarmuid—the lord of the magic tower at that time—that he started from the bottom of the tower and rose through the ranks all by himself,

‘And that he’s also a natural at magic since he was young.’

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that he’s like a crane that came out of a chicken’s egg. Those who were at the bottom usually wouldn’t be able to learn magic.

That’s why some people also talked about how Alejandro would be nothing—even as he rose from the lowest rank all the way to becoming the youngest person who became the lord of the magic tower.

Even so, not many people were dissatisfied with him.

It must be reiterated—the magic tower was a meritocracy, and it was undeniable that Alejandro was head and shoulders above anyone when it came to capabilities.

But then here, when Yennit got to live in the world outside the tower, she saw that people were dividing each other through status.

Either bloodline or status. She didn’t care.

Thanks to this, Yennit had to go through quite a bit to adapt to this outside world. Still though, there were times when she encountered things that she really couldn’t understand.

Just like what was happening here.

Without a single pause, Yennit spat out a barrage of questions.

“If, say, someone’s born differently, yet their skills develop despite that bloodline, do you think that’s because of their lineage? Or do you think it’s a change brought upon by that person’s environment? If a noblewoman like you can speak down at a member of the Imperial Family just because she was given birth to by a maid, does that mean hierarchy is divided through birth and not the blood in their veins?”

If that’s not it, then she really couldn’t understand.

At Yennit’s questions, Lilith slightly made an exhausted expression. ‘How can there be such a person,’ was what that look said.

Of course, this was Yennit’s daily life anyway.

When Yennit didn’t give in even at the look Lilith gave her, Lilith eventually cleared her throat several times and began to talk about foundation.

“One’s birth is not so important, but there’s something called a person’s foundation. Even if they have aristocratic blood, if it’s mixed with a lowborn’s blood as well, isn’t it natural to consider that the offspring’s value is lowered? Her Highness Ophelia must also know that she is inferior.”

“Is that so? It doesn’t feel like that though.”

“Hmph, if you talk to her even a little, that lowborn aspect of hers jumps out. She can’t learn anything properly, but she always oppresses other people while saying that status is the most important.”

Yennit was itching to speak up again this time.

If Ophelia was the type of person who would oppress people under the basis of status, then shouldn’t she have done that to Yennit, too? But throughout her stay here, Ophelia paid close attention to Yennit, and to Cornelli as well. She didn’t flaunt her title as a princess either.

‘And I don’t think she can’t learn anything.’

She recalled the many times she visited Ophelia’s office.

First of all, Yennit came to this place for the purpose of treating Grand Duke Ronen, so because of that, she had to report the grand duke’s condition about once or twice a day.

Whenever she did, she’d see Ophelia with a book in front of her.

Sometimes it was a map.

Ophelia would draw several symbols all over the diagram of the sea, and just looking at the arrows made Yennit dizzy.

Yennit couldn’t see the details so she couldn’t be too sure, but those symbols were definitely something like surveying. What she wrote down looked considerably high-level, too.

‘And I saw some documents spread out before her that had the ancient language to boot.’

In Ronen, where surveying and trade flourished, all the nobles were adept enough in those topics because they were considered to be fundamental areas of study. But ancient language was a different matter.

Ancient language was the basis of the official language used across the Maynard continent and the magic tower, as well as the regional languages in each individual country.

Also, in order to graduate from the advanced course, some proficiency in the ancient language was required.

The runes used when doing magic were based on the ancient language, and there’s a lot of runes involved in the formulas. It would be difficult to do higher calculation levels and wider scopes if you don’t know the ancient language.

This was why Yennit could understand it, too, but she was surprised to find out that Ophelia could as well.

—Um, Ophelia. Perhaps, can you read what’s spread out in front of you?

—There lay a connection between life and decay. We corrode, and we meet our demise. Therefore, it would not be an exaggeration to say that, in essence, the sea where everything that which had decayed flows, can be paralleled to the netherworld. We–

—Never mind. That’s enough.

So she really could understand the ancient language.

But Lilith was saying that Ophelia can’t learn anything?

“Do you know how to speak the ancient language?”

“Is there anyone who still studies that?”

“…I’m curious about why Ophelia’s good at it, that’s why I asked.”