Chapter 35: History Of Magic

The teacher of History of Magic definitely arrived much earlier than Teacher Zen did earlier. It was only 12:45 when the female teacher arrived. It's a good thing that we returned from the cafeteria around 12:30, but I guess it'll be fine either way if we arrived much later since the teacher did also say that she wouldn't consider a student late as long as they arrive before 1:00 PM has passed.

Somehow, there was also this tacit understanding in the whole class to just let the seating arrangements be the way it is before – letting groupmates sit close together. So we all still ended up together.

The female teacher didn't say much, and after introducing herself, she immediately started teaching.

"As some of you might have already known, Magic is given to us as a blessing and gift by Linus, the God of Creation who have given life to everyone and everything in this world," the teacher paused, then she raised her hand that's holding some sort of a small remote control, pointing it towards the viewing screen.

The white screen then change, and an image of a vague figure clothed in a cloak appeared. The face isn't visible because of the cloak, and there's also no way to tell if it's a. man or woman. Moreover, the image shown is merely gray and black.

I didn't listen much to what was being discussed since I already know about it. Glancing for a moment at Anastasia and the others, it seemed like they also don't plan to listen much... aside from Percival that's probably pretending to listen even if he definitely already knows.

Linus, the God of Creation is portrayed like this in this world because no one really knows what they look like.

It just seems like the citizens or humanity of this world has already known about a being called God that exists from the very beginning, thinking that since they exist, there must have been someone who created everything that this world has now. It was then solidified when thousand of years ago, Linus is said to have given their message to a priest of their temple 'Linus Temple'.

"Only 37% of the world is blessed with the gift to control Mana. When Magic was first discovered, people were shocked and didn't know what to do – until they encountered monsters."

That caught my interest a little, and at the same time, the image on the viewing screen changed again. From the image of Linus to the image of... monsters.

Hideous monsters with different appearances – one picture is a seemingly big snake, there's a picture of a goblin, an abnormally large and feral-looking wolf, and more.

I usually don't like listening to lessons unless it's something I'm interested in, and this is definitely becoming one of them. After all, it's History of Magic, and Magic is what I love so much. Learning about its history is different from taking a math or science class – I'm exactly saying that I hate them, and I'm aware there are people who like taking them, there are even rare times when I'm actually interested in them.

But most of the time, that will only be the case if I can actually understand the lesson or whatever it is that was being taught.

Learning History of Magic is more like... learning

"Monsters are one of the enigmas of this world. One day, they just seemed to have appeared out of nowhere – creatures who feast on pain, destruction, and chaos, the natural enemy of humankind. This made the people question Linus. But then, another message was given," The image on the viewing screen change again to something like a cartoon image of a female priest kneeling on the ground with both palms pressed together.

"The priest chosen by Linus to be their messenger told everyone, these are monsters! Beings that are created and born naturally because of all the world's natural flow as well as its cruelty, negativity, and wickedness. Instead of getting rid of them, Linus thought of an alternative instead because even if they erase them at that time, if it's born from the world's natural flow and not by their creation, then as long as the world and other living organisms exist, monsters will also continue to just be born."

"Thus, there was Magic." The viewing screen flashed, the priest replaced by an image of a bright, glowing ball of light.

"Linus has given humankind a little of their power and authority, allowing them to control and gather energy from our environment – that's Mana. The priest that was chosen by Linus then delivered the God's message, use this power to defend yourself from monsters! However, although overjoyed by this new blessing, the people didn't get used to it that quickly."

"They keep on experimenting how to use Mana and later on, those who can use them started being called Mages – humans who have to ability to wield Mana and use Magic. But then... the people also of course noticed that not everyone can control Mana. At first, they thought the blessing or gift of Linus just haven't been given to them yet, and they just have to wait. However..."

The image change again, this time, it's two transparent blue body figure of a human. The one on the right seemingly has a white energy flowing inside their body and veins, while the one on the left... just remained blue and empty.

"When an excellent Mage made a study regarding this matter with the help of other Mages, studying the difference of a someone who can use Magic and someone who can not – they discovered that a person who isn't blessed at all with Magic from the very beginning doesn't have any Mana on their body, thus they came up with the conclusion that not everyone has been gifted Magic by Linus."

"Then by conducting another study, they discovered that perhaps only 37% of the world's population have Magic."

Even without hearing or knowing myself about what actually happened after... I can already guess it. The world was probably in an uproar for a while. Knowing that only the chosen ones can have that kind of power which can both use to harm and defend – they might have not been able to accept it.

Or to be more precise, they feared it.

Even if that power was somehow from their God, the fact that they don't have it themselves can be something that they can't accept. They will continue on thinking; Why not me? What if those people use this power to take advantage of everyone else? What if they use it to harm us?

Well... I guess it is quite normal for humans to fear the unknown.

Thus – "There was a protest. A division. Organizations opposing Magic users were formed, and they demand equal rights as well as a promise that everyone must stand on equal footing, even with or without Magic. However, some people also went extreme by demanding they should kill all the Mages."

"Back then, humanity still stands as a whole. There are still no Kingdoms or rulers, but that changed when the Great War happened – a war originated from those who have Magic against those who do not. Some evil people took advantage of the situation, Mages with malicious intentions joined the side of those who do not have Magic, promising to help and later on find a solution to erase their own Magic themselves."

"As time passed, things got more complicated and intense – which then resulted to a full-blown war, the Great War, and the very first one in History."

I stared in front, unconsciously tapping my fingers on the table silently as I listen. It's kind of difficult to understand how they have to go to war because not everyone has Magic, but at the same time, I also understand it.

If you think about it, even if some Mages with evil intentions didn't interfere and manipulated the situation into going that way... it might have still ended in a war. After all, the world and some humans are just like that. They desire power, and they can't just easily stop themselves from doing anything to achieve it so.

It's not something new. Even from my world, wars happen because of a fight for power, territory – political, religious, economic, or for ideological reasons, and such isn't unseen.

– Well, at least that's what my knowledge tells me.

"That's when 6 excellent Mages team up to form a plan and stop the war," My attention was gathered towards the viewing screen again, this time, the image showed is six mysterious silhouettes of people.

"They thought about it a lot until they finally decided that to maintain order, there must be a law, and to maintain the law, there should be someone who oversees the order of this world – a ruler. With this plan, they fought hard against the opposite side while also trying to negotiate, promoting and saying they promise equal rights."

Equal rights... In my own opinion, there's no such thing as a true equal in terms of wealth, power, and such. Even if they say that we are equal because we're human and everyone is born the same, that doesn't mean that they will all be able to live the same life, have the same privilege and blessings. But... as I said, that's my opinion.

"At the end, when the war finally ended. The 6 great Mages implemented their plan, and after talking about it, instead of just one ruler, they will form 6 Kingdoms. Laws regarding Magic and such was then immediately established."

Another image flashes, an image of four elements, fire, water, earth, and wind.

"Magic was studied further, leading to finding more ways in using it. From the simple term 'different types of Magic', they were officially named as Basic and Advance Magic, Elemental Magic, and more."

– Then the viewing screen turned blank again.

The female teacher smiled, "And that's it for the Introduction of History of Magic. Next week, we'll go into much more detail so do look forward to it."