The Heavenly Slaughter Star Becomes a Racist
The Heavenly Slaughter Star had become a racist. Bator, a member of the covert operations unit under Labellion Kingdom's intelligence department, could not hide his shock as he stared at the audacious boy before him. 'He noticed my presence?' Though not particularly outstanding in martial prowess, Bator was a veteran at tailing targets. Under the right conditions, even Master-level experts failed to detect him. Naturally, it should have been impossible for anyone to sense his presence. It was simply that Enoch, whose senses had developed abnormally from constantly trying to detect Rionne's aura, was the anomaly.
With a rumble of thunder, Bator's vision flashed a piercing blue. From within that brilliant purple lightning emerged a beast. Under normal circumstances, a clash of power should never have occurred, but…
"Tch, I'll subdue him first…"
Bator immediately drew his dagger and moved. With a light tap against the ground, his agile body vanished. Kicking off the alley wall once and then a scattering fragment, his figure appeared behind Enoch.
[How disappointing.] The spirit who met his gaze clicked her tongue. [Why is he so bad at fighting!]
Even as the thought crossed her mind, the ground beneath him flashed. His startled eyes dropped downward. A magic circle. In that split second of judgment, he threw himself aside. Flash—! One of his feet was scorched by the lightning that shot skyward.
"Urgh…!"
Suppressing the pain, Bator looked ahead. The boy was charging. The lightning gathered in his hand was clearly a form of Hand Qi. Bator hastily imbued his dagger with Sword Qi as well. Sword Qi and Hand Qi—both were manifestations of mana used to amplify destructive power. They were also symbols. The mark of those who had reached the Expert realm, the starting point of superhuman ability, often called the realm of knights.
'An Expert at that age, and he's using magic too?' Setting aside the realm itself, the technique felt familiar. Perhaps the kingdom's assessment had been correct after all. Bator cursed his own ignorance for having dismissed that judgment as absurd.
"Hup…!"
Gritting his teeth, Bator desperately swung his dagger. Enoch handled it with ease. Pressing down with two fingers like a hook, he pulled the blade toward him. Bator's torso was left wide open. In Enoch's opposite hand, a terrifying amount of lightning gathered, shining brilliantly.
"W-wait…!"
Just as Bator tried to cry out in panic, a voice called out.
"Enoch."
The killing intent in Enoch's eyes vanished as if washed away. Soon after, Enoch blinked his round, adorable eyes and toddled over to embrace the owner of the voice.
"Rionne?"
"What happened?"
"That man was following me."
Enoch pointed at Bator. Bator steadied his tingling body and managed to bow his head.
"P-please wait a moment…! This is a misunderstanding!"
The Sword Queen was known to be relatively moderate among superhumans. In case of emergency, there had been orders to reveal his identity. Bator caught his breath and continued.
"I am Bator, affiliated with the kingdom's intelligence department. We received information that the Sword Queen had taken in a human disciple, so I thought perhaps…"
Rionne cut him off.
"Tell the king this."
"…Yes."
"If you lay a hand on Enoch, it's war."
The Sword Queen had left her family behind. It was an arrogant declaration that she would face the kingdom alone, but Bator did not dare open his mouth. Setting aside the fact that the Sword Queen possessed that level of skill, his body simply refused to move. It felt as though all the air around him had turned into blades aimed at his throat.
Only after Rionne withdrew her pressure could Bator finally speak.
"…Understood."
"Get lost."
Bator obeyed without hesitation. Once the man had disappeared, Undine poked repeatedly at Rionne's arm in the ruined alley.
[Rionne! Rionne!]
"What is it… My head already hurts enough as it is."
[That's not the important part right now! Enoch, that kid! What on earth have you been teaching him!?]
Rionne frowned. What had she taught him? Undine had seen everything, so what was she talking about?
[Do you know what that brat said?]
The spirit spilled every detail of the conversation she had overheard. How that insolent little runt casually spewed racist remarks as if they were nothing…! Upon hearing it, Rionne was genuinely horrified.
"Enoch…!?"
Enoch knew as well. This was not something to be praised for. So he mumbled an excuse.
"I mean… It's true, isn't it? Humans are inferior."
"Enoch……!!??!"
Rionne looked ready to faint on the spot. The child she had raised with such care was spouting racist nonsense…! And Enoch himself was human!
"E-Enoch…! Racism is wrong."
"…But elves are far superior to humans."
"No! Humans are plenty excellent too! Just look at the continent—humans hold the largest territory!"
Even if that was the achievement of a single individual rather than the human race as a whole, it was true that humans occupied the most land. And Rionne herself had taught Enoch that fact.
"That's because the emperor is exceptional, not because humans are."
"Aah…"
"Elves have much higher mana affinity and spirit affinity too."
"Ugh…"
"They're physically superior as well."
"Hup…!"
"And their appearance is far better. They're called the race of beauty, after all."
Since when had Enoch become so articulate…? Rionne, thrown into panic, could only open and close her mouth helplessly. No, this wasn't the time for that. She needed to properly guide Enoch.
"B-but still, Enoch. Even though you're human, you're far more outstanding than other elves. When I was your age, I couldn't do anything!"
"That's not because I'm human—it's because I'm exceptional."
"Ah…"
It was true, but… Eventually, Rionne's eyes began to tremble, losing focus. She had no words left…! And that was an opportunity. Enoch, who had noticed sharply, delivered the finishing blow.
"Besides, humans don't even live a hundred years. Elves, beastkin, dragons—even those short dwarves live for hundreds of years."
"…What? The puppy I raised long ago lived for a hundred years too…"
Ah, no. She mustn't be persuaded.
"S-still, Enoch! We're all intelligent beings. Living together like this, that kind of attitude isn't good."
"Humans keep kidnapping elves, so we're not exactly on good terms."
"……"
What had she been teaching him all this time…? Come to think of it, most of Enoch's common sense had come from Rionne. She finally realized there was a serious problem with her own teaching methods.
"No, wait…? Hold on. Humans don't live even a hundred years?"
That was something she had never taught him. It was a fact Rionne herself hadn't known. Human lifespan wasn't exactly a secret, but Rionne had never taken much interest in humans, so she had remained ignorant until now. If she didn't even know the lifespan of honey badgers living in the forest, how would she know about humans?
"Ah."
Enoch also realized his mistake and closed his mouth.
"Ugh…"
Rionne clutched her throbbing head. In any case, what mattered now was Enoch's education.
"Enoch, you mustn't discriminate against people like that. If I suddenly became so powerless that I couldn't do anything, would you ignore and discriminate against me too?"
"No…"
"And honestly, elves aren't that great of a race either. Just look at dragons."
In truth, that was why dragons tended to look down on other races by default.
"Anyway… This is a problem."
Rionne regretted her past habit of casually dismissing dwarves. Elves and dwarves had historically been on bad terms, so the words had slipped out habitually. Perhaps that was what had led Enoch to think this way.
"Enoch, come with me."
Rionne made up her mind. She would buy books about racism from the bookstore and properly guide Enoch's thinking. However, Enoch, who had kept his mouth firmly shut, had reached a different conclusion. Dragons were greater than elves? Unacceptable. He would make elves supreme. If dragons were superior to elves, then he would simply overturn that. Then discriminating against other races wouldn't really count as racism, would it?
[What on earth is all this commotion?]
Haah… The spirit watching from the side could only let out a world-weary sigh.
*
Upon returning to the forest, Rionne immediately postponed all other lessons. The most important thing right now was character education! If Enoch strayed down an even stranger path, he might become a public enemy of the continent! She studied knowledge about racism along with information about humans, gradually gaining new insights.
'Ah, so humans are considered adults at twenty?'
Elves had no fixed age for adulthood. Whether or not one held a coming-of-age ceremony, around that age one was roughly considered an adult. That was the general feeling. The fastest might hold the ceremony at eighty, and even the slowest usually did so by one hundred fifty, so anyone over one hundred fifty was regarded as an adult. Since becoming an adult didn't bring any particular changes and the ceremony only needed to happen before marriage, that was how elves perceived it.
'And most humans don't even awaken to mana… Is that really true?'
Rionne tilted her head. The aunties in the village where she had lived used to coat kitchen knives with Sword Qi and sometimes even Sword Gang, so it didn't quite make sense to her. That passing elf was an Expert, that elf over there was a Master. Wasn't that common sense? As she continued reading, she found it surprisingly interesting, so Rionne ended up staying up all night.
And the next day.
"Uh… Maybe elves are a bit superior to humans after all…?"
[Hey! You crazy bastard!]
*
"Ahem. Anyway, Enoch. You shouldn't divide people's worth like that. Of course, there might be priorities in terms of military strength or national systems, but every person is a precious life."
"Mm…"
Enoch seemed to not fully understand, but Rionne wasn't too worried. There was still over a hundred years left…
"Huh…!?"
This was bad. Enoch was currently thirteen. Humans became adults at twenty. That meant she only had seven years left to teach Enoch…!