Chapter 2: State of the World
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As I made my way to the apartment, I decided to be lazy and chose to stop by the convenience store near my home to buy my dinner.

As I walked into the cool and well-lit convivence store, I was greeted by the clerk who was just fiddling with their device a few seconds ago

Seeing all these appliances powered by electricity always makes me marvel at the civilization I am living at. Despite magic and mana being a major part of the Empire, scientific improvement has not been halted at all and instead is even growing together with our understanding of the arcane arts. This might also be due to the number of people with no or low mana being commonplace in our country, and the other interesting fact about our country is that there is pretty much no discrimination towards the population with inadequate mana since there are many jobs they could do and even excel at compared to the people bestowed with mana.

As I picked up some reheatable foods from the refrigerators I thought about this morning when I saw that red harried girl and how she felt so familiar to the girls I met in my dreams, could it be a coincidence or is there something related to that girl and the ones I met in my dreams. I could not just go and ask that girl directly since it would just make me looks like a person who lost their marbles.

If only I could ask the people appearing in my dreams that question and what's their relation with us. But I have not heard of magic related to talking to people in dreams or from the past, even if there were such techniques it would probably cost a lot of magic power and I am someone who is not blessed with a lot of mana so it would be impossible for me to try that method.

While I was thinking that, I realized I was standing near the fridge for too long so I just quickly picked out something and left the store by paying with my Personal Device.

I have to put aside those thoughts for now and focus on tomorrow's appraisal ceremony and trying to improve myself so that I can climb up the ranking while in this academy, but I wonder how my four Armaments will affect the <Class> that I am assigned since it should try to give me a class that can fit all those weapons. As far as I remember there is not one class that can utilize all these weapons, but it just might be knowledge on the <Classes> failing me.

I made it home while I was thinking about tomorrow, and opened my door while saying “I am home” even though I have been living alone for quite a bit, but this has still stayed as a habit I could not easily get rid of. I was still continuing to think about what will happen tomorrow as I took off my bag and put down the plastic bag, I got from the convenience store.

I first took out the contents of the plastic bag and put it in the microwave oven, there are versions of this appliance that is powered with magic power, but since I do not have that much mana in me I opted for the electronic variant.

I then took out my Personal Device and put it in the charging dock which automatically activated my personal computer, it then started to play the news since I only kept my Computer on the news channel.

"The Gosei Republic has declared various local organization in port city Kominato as organizations that are rebelling against the country and are trying to suppress them despite objections from the local citizens in Kominato. There is also various outcry from different countries worldwide saying how the measures that the Republic is doing is impacting the freedom of rights promised to its citizens.”

“And in order to fight back against the tyrannical measures of the Republic those various organizations and local citizens are constantly arranging rallies to garner international support. We would be follwing this incident as it unfolds”

Hmm, the situation is getting pretty heated between Kominato and the Republic. They never really had a good relationship since the rule of the Republic has changed a few decades ago, coupled by the fact that the cultural differences between the two. Kominato has had a more open culture that accepted most of the cultures that come to the port and it had been a mixing pot of cultures after the decades of accepting various people into the port. While on the other hand, after the ruler of the republic changed it had been much less accepting of other cultures and tries to suppress the rise of other cultures and also import of foreign cultures since the current leader believes the Gosei culture to be superior to the rest. And the port city has been a thorn to the republic suppression of cultures and often tries to harass the city, and if the world was not watching the Republic, they might even attack the city without mercy.

But the other countries cannot also directly intervene against Gosei as well, due to the fact that they are at a disadvantage when trying to fight against them in their home court. If they ever tried to attack Gosei they would definitely suffer a huge loss since Gosei is known for their defensive tactics and structures plus they are also home to a large number of talented <Guardians> and <Barrier Masters>. Causing a stalemate in which both sides are not doing anything directly for now, but it seems that recently the Republic is becoming bolder in their suppressions since they are getting more confident that the other countries would not be able to do much against them and their defences. But fortunately, the people in Kominato will have an easy escape route through the seas even if Gosei really goes in with their military, and this also means that Gosei would lose the power of the Kominato Navy which is on par with Navies of the big countries. Though, the Kominato citizens are obviously trying to avoid being refugees since they would lose their homes and might have to live in places and work for people they are not familiar with.

I took off my clothes to put into the washing machine as I entered the shower, while the Personal Computer still played the news

“On the other side of the planet, there has been news of escalating tensions between the Grüne Riesen Alliance and the Aotsuki Principality due to both trying to expand their influence in the Isupae continent. Although there have not been any large-scale conflicts yet, plans of peace talks have fell through and militaries of both sides have started to arm and position themselves near the borders”

Grüne Riesen Alliance is a relatively new country compared to the Principality, their incorporation of Magic into their scientific weapons is one of the top among the countries on this planet due to their extensive long-term research and also the special alloy they developed that allows them to conduct mana efficiently. They have used their alloy to make weapons for their soldiers and have developed their very own Magical Knights units. It has been said that they first began this research in order to catch up with the rest of the world, due to the populace in Grüne Riesen Alliance having a lower amount of mana compared to the rest of the world. In exchange for their lower mana and magical abilities, the people born there having better body structure and better reflexes allowing them to pick up how to use different weapons starting from a young age. Their strong body and reflexes plus the alloy weapons, make them one of the strongest warriors in the continent despite their low magical ability.

While on the other hand, the Aotsuki Principality has an extensive history of magic and prides itself on its magical combat abilities. It is said that the majority of the people born of Aotsuki blood and in Aotsuki have high mana capacity and magic abilities due to their close proximity to a mana hotspot that they refer to as a <Dragon Vein>. The effects of the mana hotspot are so potent that even if a person living in Aotsuki moves to another country, their children will still inherit a high level of mana. The opposite also holds true, if a person with zero Aotsuki blood moves to Aotsuki, their mana capacity and magical abilities would get a boost, while their children born or conceived there would receive much more boost compared to their parents. Although most of the people born here tend to lean more towards <Mages>, <Druids> and <Shamans>, it does not mean that they would be crushed when it comes to close-quarters combat, there are various families in Aotsuki known for being excellent <Samurais>, <Ninjas>, <Lancers> etc. In fact, Nozomu Miyamoto origins probably lie with the Miyamoto family of the Aotsuki Principality, although I am not sure if she is from the main family or the branch families that have the clan.

These countries have a different length of history and different things that they excel at, but one thing is for sure and that is they are both very strong. If a full-scale war ever breaks between them, it would last very long and would cause many deaths. Hopefully, it would not ever come to that.

I turned off the shower after cleaning my body and started to search for clothes in my wardrobe as I dried myself, and the news anchor also moved on to another news.

“The Arteria Kingdom has recently appointed their new Pope after losing their last Pope to old age, the new Pope hopes that they would be of service to the recently crowned King Richard in leading the country to prosperity.”

The Arteria Kingdom is also another country with a long history of being aggressive expansionists, but after losing much of their power due to the rise of other superpowers they switch to being more moderate and now focuses more on building up their infrastructure in order to avoid being left behind by the world. They are most known for their ability to use <Holy Magic> and have a large number of <Paladins>, <Clerics> and <Priests> serving as their main forces, their most elite members are called <Acolytes of Avalon> and have the ability to use rank 10 Holy Magic such as <Avalon> and <Divine Avatar>. In addition, it is proven that most of the modern military tactics were crudely taken from the ones used by the Kingdom, thus making their military strength nothing to be scoffed at.

I think this should be most of the news for today, I should probably unplug the device so that I can look for something to read while I wait for the food to finish heating up. I was on my way to unplug my phones when the news anchor started to read the last piece of news.

“And for our last piece of news it's something more lighthearted, today is the day most of the schools in Rengo Empire begin their school year and we from the studio wish all of you will have a wondrous school year. Thank you for watching and we will return tomorrow morning with the morning news at 6am.”

Rengo Empire is probably one of the more unique superpowers out of the 5 on the planet, it can be seen as a country version of the Kominato Port City. It pretty much accepts any people into the country and does not put any emphasis on specific cultures allowing the various cultures in this country to flourish without problems. And in addition to this, there is also nothing that the Empire particularly excels at, it can be seen more as a jack of all trades, master of none type of country. It is also due to the fact that there are many cultures in this country, that the military of the Empire has one of the most diverse selections of classes and make it very versatile when it comes to its tactics.

Another way to refer to the Rengo Empire is as a meritocracy where the people who are talented are valued and take over much of the higher tier posts in the structure of the Empire. And despite being called an Empire, the decision for the country is made by the Council which is made up of 7 elders and the Emperor, meaning that the Emperor is not allowed to be a dictator and is balanced out by the elders.

Oh, wait, now that I remember there is something that is very unique to the empire, and that is the existence of a <Freelancer> class. Although this class is very rare, its <Job Deck> ability allow the user to change between classes during and out of battle, making it an easy class to build a team around. In addition, this is also the class that can use all the Armaments I possess, which I could not recall earlier.

I unplug my device from the computer and look for something to watch as I eat, and I found the match records from last year's School Rumble. After watching and eating for a while, I finished and packed up everything as I proceeded to go to bed due to my fatigue catching up with me.

Lying in bed immediately made me feel how tired I was since I instantly felt my eyes drooping and drifted off to sleep

….......

H..ey.y..y.yyy.yy

 

 

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