“That’s because he failed in the test of equality!!”

The old headmaster said hurriedly, the fear about losing his dear life completely apparent in his tear-moist eyes.

How pathetic... how did he even become a headmaster? Aren't bigshots in this world supposed to be strong? I never thought I would see such a wuss here.

Coming back to the topic,

Test of equality, before explaining that I guess I should explain about what the word ‘equality’ means to the government… no, before that I guess I should explain the situation of the Galandora continent first.

You see, if someone were to divide the entire population of the Galandora continent on the basis of class (commoners, nobility, royalty, and clergy) then it would come out as something like this,

Commoners- 70%

Nobility- 20%

Royals- 6%

Clergy- 4%

And if someone were to do the same thing with the entire population of Magnolia then it would come out like this,

Commoners- 90%

Nobles- 9%

Clergy and Royals- ~1%

Because of Magnolia being an aristocratic country in the past the number of royals and clergy was almost nil.

As for the number of nobles, well, during the last 30 years many of the nobles married their daughters to commoners in order to safeguard their lineage and culture from the democratic government in power. This practice led to a sharp decline in the noble population throughout the country.

I know it's pathetic but this was the best thing those noble families could have done to save themselves.

There's also one more reason for the low number of nobles; in the past when the nation of Magnolia was still known as the Aristocracy of Magnolia, it was run by a ruling body called the 'Council of High' which consisted of prominent nobles from all over the nation.

Each of these nobles, though they might appear to be friends on the surface, considered each other as enemies. That's why wars between noble families weren't an extraordinary thing back then.

Most of the time the big noble families instead of fighting directly used smaller noble families to fight for themselves. Just like pawns in a game of chess.

That's why, as a consequence of this inner enmity and the reckless usage of smaller noble families as pawns, the number of noble families dwindled drastically around the nation. Most of them fell out of grace and simply got reduced to the status of commoners, as for the rest of them, they eventually died out due to the conflict.

Either way, all of this caused the nobles to eventually get weaker over time and thus, helped the democrats to cease power from the 'Council of High' and finally establish a democratic government.

Well, not straying away from the point of conversation,

As anyone could see, the majority population of Magnolia or the continent of Galandora consists mostly of the commoners, but despite this, the distribution of wealth couldn’t be any more different.

The high classes like nobility, clergy, and royalty still own more than 60% of the entire continent’s wealth despite being only around 30% of the total population.

This created a lot of disparity among the populace and thus caused a big uproar throughout the entire continent so, in order to combat this problem the governments of all the three nations held a meeting and decided to make a law to grant equality to everyone, this law was named the ‘Law of Equality’.

The law of equality, just as its name might suggest, was made to ensure equality for each and every person throughout the continent irrespective of their race, class, or sex when it comes to educational and job opportunities.

On the surface, something like the ‘law of equality’ might sound like a great law that was there to ensure justice for everyone, but in reality, this law was nothing short of the biggest mistake in the history of humanity, as in the end, the only thing this ridiculous law did was to make the disparity between the different classes even larger.

Using this law as the base, the government further divided the population into two parts, one was the Enlightened Classes (EC) which included nobles, royals, and clergy, and the other was the Benighted Classes (BC) which included the commoners.

The government, as it said, started working for the ‘uplifting’ of the Benighted Classes (BC) which seemed more like the ‘down-pushing’ of Enlightened Classes (EC) to me. It added many clauses to this stupid law that made the lives of everyone from the EC category a literal hell, one of those cursed clauses went like this,

“True equality can never be achieved unless and until we bring both the EC and the BC at the same starting point. Nobles, royals, and clergymen are born with superior talents, wealth, and power as compared to the commoners, so in order to bring about true equality, we have decided that 80% of the seats in educational and job facilities each will be solely 'reserved' for the people who belong to the Benighted Classes (BC), meaning, that no one apart from them can apply for those seats or posts. As for the remaining 20% seats, they will be 'free' for all”

In simpler terms,

If there are 100 available seats in any particular educational institution that I wish to get admitted to, then out of those 100 seats, 80 of them are solely reserved for the commoners, meaning that someone like me who’s a noble will only get to compete for the remaining 20 seats. As for those 80 seats, I can say tata goodbye to them and just hope that the government doesn't decide to increase the reservation rate anymore.

But the story doesn’t end here, those 20 seats that I am allowed to compete for, have ‘free’ status which means not just I or anyone from the EC category but also the candidates belonging to the BC category can compete for those 20 seats!!!

So this was the so-called ‘Law of Equality’ that was made to ‘ensure equality’ for all.

I have never seen a law more biased than this in my life.

I mean, wasn’t the main aim of the democratic government to ensure that any form of discrimination would end? That there would be no inequality on the basis of birth? Then why are people like me made to live like this? Was it my fault that I was born into a noble family? Why am I being stripped of my civil rights when I haven’t even done anything wrong!?

Although I didn't want to admit this at first but after living in this world for so long, no matter how hard I try, I can't deny this conclusion that had formed in my head just a couple of seconds ago,

'It's as if the government is purposefully targeting people like me'

Tch… no use thinking about it now!

***

And that brings me here to this present situation,

Standing in front of the school gates, almost everyone present there was looking at me and my parents with different gazes, some looked at us pitifully and some looked at us gloatingly, but none of these gazes seemed to have any effect on my parents, as my father yet again raised his hand and said,

“That’s not possible. I watched my son during the entire examination period and I never saw him discriminating against any of the children. So I cannot accept this as a valid reason, sir headmaster. Do you have anything else to say? Because I am nowhere near convinced of this pathetic excuse. If need be, I'll talk to the mayor about this as well”

My father said, his words implying an open threat to the headmaster.

The headmaster, although looking pale and nervous at first, stood straight and said,

“That’s because Mr. Patrick your son Peter is just... too talented! Just his presence here is enough to scare all the students, both EC and BC alike. That’s why I said he failed the test of equality. He has the ability and potential to induce discrimination and inequality in our school that’s why he has been designated as a 'potentially dangerous element' by all of the staff here and therefore has been barred from taking admission. As for informing the mayor, you might do so if you would like to but I doubt even he would go against the law”

Potentially dangerous element? Me? What the hell is even he talking about!?

You can’t be serious about this, right?

“What the hell!!!? What…”

It was my mother, she was about to say something but my father stopped her.

The headmaster looked at my parents again and said,

"If you don't mind, then Mr. Patrick if I were to be completely honest, it would be almost impossible for your son to get admission anywhere, well, apart from the Presidency Institute of Eminence (PIE) in the capital, anyway. So it would be better for you to train him as an adventurer. That would be the best career option for him"

This piece of shit!

There was a faint smirk on his face and I really wanted to beat this guy up.

I was about to jump at him alongside my mother who was blatantly releasing a dangerous aura all around us but my father stopped the two of us.

“I see” that’s the only thing he said and then the three of us left the place.

***

Throughout our entire way home none of us spoke even once,

My mother looked unimaginably angry, it was as if she would burst anytime now, as for my father, he looked unbelievably calm and silent, he looked as if he was thinking about something extremely important, I, on the other hand, didn’t know what to do or say, so I just kept silent throughout our way home.

We reached our house and settled in the living room. Dad sat on the sofa and I sat on the floor,

It was then that my mother started shouting,

“Patrick! Why didn’t you arrest that headmaster!?”

'Agh!!! Stop shouting so loudly in front of your kid!' I wanted to say but I was afraid that she might beat me up so I didn't say anything and silently endured the hellish noise pollution.

I could see her eyes going red from anger, they looked as if they would pop out anytime now.

My father looked at her with an expressionless face and said,

“Because that headmaster was not wrong and any more ruckus would have brought us trouble down the line. Such a big trouble that we might not have been able to get rid of it for our entire lives”

Not wrong? Seriously!? And what does he mean by trouble!?

“How can you even say that!? Do you really think our son is a potentially dangerous element? Do you really think he's going to become a criminal or something!? He is such a good child, don’t you remember how he gave away his toy to Brutus when he was just an infant!? And how would a child who’s barely even 4 years old ever incite anything even close to discrimination in the school?”

My mother didn’t seem much convinced with my father and kept on arguing with him. I thought they might get into a big fight but contrary to what I thought, the two of them didn’t get into any fight as my father got up and hugged my mother,

“Kristen, don’t worry. It’s fine that Peter didn’t get admitted into this school”

He separated from mother and looked at her

My mother still baffled asked him,

“What do you mean by that?”

"Didn't you understand the hidden meaning behind the headmaster's words? He threatened me by saying that he would report Peter as a potentially dangerous element. What do you think would have happened to us and to little Peter if the headmaster were to do that?"

My father said in a deep voice, to be honest, I didn't really get what he meant by that, but for some reason, I had a hunch that if my father hadn't retreated from there then it might have cost us heavily.

"What are you trying to say, Patrick?"

My mother asked him in a serious voice. Never in my life had I ever seen her look so serious before.

"It is said that the government has established a few institutions throughout the nation for people who have been designated as 'potential dangerous elements', these institutions are called the Moderation Centres"

He continued,

"On the surface, these institutions are there to provide a better environment and education to people who have been designated as potentially dangerous elements so that they might change their way of thinking and become ready to join the mainstream society and contribute to the overall development of the country, but in reality, it is nothing more than a concentration camp for dangerous and potentially dangerous elements. People who go there never return back. Do you want Peter to go to such a place as well?"

What the hell!? What kind of place am I living in?

Aren't nobles supposed to be the rulers or the ones who discriminate against the commoners? Then why the hell in this case the nobles are the ones being discriminated against!?

What is this, some kind of Reverse-Dystopia universe!? Why the hell was I ever born here!? (Reverse-Dystopia from Reverse-Harem)

"Patrick, hahaha y-you must be joking"

My mother said in a shaky voice, looking at my father with hopeful eyes. As if all that she wanted in her life was for him to say 'yes, I was joking' but contrary to her expectations my father never said a thing, he just kept on looking at mother with serious eyes.

Color faded from my mother's face and she hugged me tightly as if I would disappear somewhere.

To be honest, even I was afraid of all this Moderation Camp thing, it's not like I discriminated against the commoners or anything, I was just aggrieved that the government was not fair to me.

But if being aggrieved meant going to some kind of an internment camp then I would rather just become mute and live my life without making any noise. I was never a revolutionary-kind of person to begin with, so as long as I get to live a respectful life I would not mind keeping my head low and living a modest life.

"Those pigs...! They wouldn't dare to touch my baby, would they!? Tell me, Patrick! Tell me Peter's going to be safe, please!!!" My mother said in an almost crying voice.

I patted the back of her head to comfort her, when I did that mother silently started sobbing while hugging me tightly. I could feel how terribly scared she was, her entire body was shivering from fear and it seemed to me that she might break if she is not handled properly.

My father didn’t reply to her, he just looked at her, smiled, and shook his head implying that she didn't have to worry about it.

After that, he looked at me and called me over,

I left mom and ran towards him,

He held my hand in his hands and asked me,

"Peter, are you scared?"

I tried my best to feign confidence and shook my head.

But I underestimated a parent's intuition, as my father just put his hand over my head and I don't know why but beads of tears started rolling down my eyes as soon as he did that.

“Peter, would you like to go to a big city?” he asked me with a smile on his face.

A big city?

“Patrick you…”

My mother was about to say something but when my father looked at her she stopped midway.

“I don’t get you, papa”

I said in a voice that was cracking due to me trying to hold back a cry to which he just smiled and said

“I mean would you like to live in a big city? There you can get admitted into a better school and also find better friends. And yes… when I say big city I mean the capital of Magnolia, Santa Magnum, you have read about it, right? It’s a great place, would you like to go and live there, Peter?”

'Why are you asking a 4-year-old this kind of question? How am I supposed to know what’s better for me? Aren’t you supposed to decide my future?' is what I would have said in any normal situation but I knew that this time I won't be able to play it off as someone else's responsibility.

But well, going to a place like the national capital couldn’t be bad, I guess. And I really want to get admission into a school as soon as possible too, I don’t want to become a NEET, after all.

So I decided on my answer and then without any hesitation said,

“Yes I want to”