Eppy was escorting me towards the library. Since the correctional class was in a secluded area of the school, as we travelled inwards, more students filled the halls. I coughed as second-hand smoke filled my lungs. “Can you stop smoking so close to me? The fumes aren’t healthy.”
Eppy inhaled some more smoke and puffed a smoke ring towards my face. “Nonsense, smoking is good for you. It builds character.”
I wafted the smoke away with my hand. “What it does is build lung cancer.” I decided the best way to avoid her smoke was to occupy her mouth with something else instead. “Can you tell me what kind of classes they have at this school? Try to be as detailed as possible.” With any luck, her explanation would reduce her smoke output.
“There’s far too many to remember. Didn’t you get a leaflet when you enrolled?”
“No, I didn’t. Just try to give me as much information as you can.”
“Uh, sure, why not? There are various different kinds of magic classes like: elemental magic, healing magic, sealing magic, stealing magic, cartwheeling magic…”
“Enough with the rhymes please.”
“There’s botany, alchemy, history… Hmm, what would a boy like you be interested in, anyway? You could learn how to be an influencer, or how to make clothing transparent, or take a course on which half-human milk is the tastiest, if you’re into that sort of thing.”
I scrunched my eyebrows together. “What sort of person do you think I am?” The morals of this world were truly lacking.
Two ladies approached Eppy. “Hey, girl, what’s up? You missed class.”
Eppy gave them both a fist bump. “I was just practicing my magic. There’s nothing for me to learn in Professor Ham’s classes anyway.” Eppy nudged me. “The library is at the end of this hall. You can’t miss it. I’m going off with my friends, ok?”
One of the girls bent down towards me. “Oooh, who’s this cutie? Your little brother?”
Eppy waved her hands in the air dismissively. “No way. He’s just some random kid.”
I looked up at Eppy with the most pitiful expression I could muster. “Older sister, why do you keep telling people we’re not related? Are you ashamed of my existence?”
“What are you talking about?” Eppy replied in confusion.
The two women glared at Eppy. “That’s not very nice, you know? You should treat your little brother nicely.”
“No! He’s not my brother! I seriously don’t know him.”
“You shouldn’t be embarrassed by your family in front of us. We’re friends, aren’t we? We wouldn’t make fun of you for having a cringey brother.”
“But he’s not my brother. He lied. I wouldn’t joke about something like this!”
The two girls did not believe her.
I walked off while Eppy tried to explain herself in front of her friends. She deserved no less for blowing smoke into my face. My target was the library, so I read each sign I passed by until I noticed one that caught my eye. It wasn’t the library. It read, ‘Professor of Ethics, Darlaston’.
“Ethics?” I was surprised that word even existed in this world. I knocked on the door and heard a gentle voice welcoming me inside.
I opened the door and saw an old man with frizzy grey hair sitting at a desk. “How can I help you?” he asked.
“I was wondering if I could ask you a few questions? I’m one of the king’s heroes.” I added the last bit to add a small amount of undeserved credibility to my name.
“Of course, you can. Fire away, young boy.” He turned his attention away from his work and focused on me.
I twirled my hair. “Actually, I’m not a boy, I’m a girl.”
“What? Truly?”
“No, sorry. I was lying. I just wanted to try that out. Anyway, do you think slavery is wrong?” I thought it best to be forthright.
He looked a little taken aback but he took no time at all to respond. “Of course. It’s a vile custom that has lasted all too long.”
A single tear formed in the corner of my eye and rolled down my cheek. “This world isn’t hopeless after all.” I pat the old timer on his head. “You’re wonderful. A small ray of light in this dark and twisted world.”
He seemed uncomfortable. “Erm, thank you.”
“What shall we do professor? How can we best abolish it? Should we create a band of stealthy minions to help us free slaves? Or maybe we hire assassins to kill slavers? What do you suggest?”
“Oh goodness, no!” He furrowed his brow. “Assassination is completely immoral. We cannot do that.”
I brought my fist to my mouth and coughed into it. “Yes, that’s true. My bad. I didn’t mean that. I got a little too excited. What do you think about secretly freeing them, though?”
“That’s wrong too. It’s blatant theft. Thievery is not an action I can condone.” He tutted at me.
“Then what should we do? We both agree that slavery is unjust, so what’s the plan?”
“Dialogue.”
“Hmm? Just talking? Who would we even talk to? Are you suggesting we convince the king to make it illegal?”
“No. The king will not end slavery. It’s not in his interest to do so.”
“You’re right. Kings are usually selfish. I suppose he has plenty of slaves himself that he wouldn’t want to lose.”
“Wrong again.” He smiled sweetly at me. “The king has no need for slavery to continue. Even if it was abolished right now, the king has enough power and money that everyone in this kingdom is already his slave.”
“What?” I folded my arms. “I’m not his slave, that’s for sure.”
“If the king offered you one million GP to bark like a dog, would you do it?”
“Woof woof!” I answered yes in dog language. “Ok, point taken, but then doesn’t that mean we should be able to convince him?”
“The king must always weigh every decision he makes on a scale. On one side is the benefit to himself, and the other side is the discontent of the people. Freeing the slaves would be of little benefit to him but of great discontent to the people. He would be a fool to do so.”
“Then what are our options?”
“We must persuade the people. Through dialogue we can sway the people towards viewing slavery as unethical. When sufficient people call for the end of slavery, the king will have no choice but to listen. Since he does not care either way whether slavery is legal or not, he will always submit to the will of his subjects. Slavery is a matter for the general populace to decide upon.”
He made a lot of sense. He was a professor, after all. He had clearly put great thought into this topic. “How long will it take to convince the people?”
“By a rough estimate, I would say no less than several centuries.”
“Centuries? That’s way too long! What can we do to stop the suffering that’s happening now?”
“You are a hot-headed one, aren’t you? The methods you proposed would be ethically wrong. I cannot condone breaking the law in the pursuit of justice. It would be imposing my morals on others.”
“What’s wrong with that? Why can’t we do crimes if the outcome is good?”
“As a thought experiment, imagine a person who thought it was morally good to mercilessly kill half-humans. If we allowed ourselves to break the law for our own justice, then we would also allow that person to slaughter half-humans for his justice.”
I was having trouble speaking. “I guess that makes sense. Logically it does but I feel like that’s wrong.”
“We must never let our feelings win over our minds. It is important to have emotions, however you cannot let yourself be controlled by them.”
“Then the only option left is just to try to persuade people?”
“We may be looked upon as pariahs in this day and age, but history will remember us as the paragons of justice.”
“Who cares how history will see us? Do you want me to just stand by and watch as slaves are mistreated right in front of me?”
“Yes. It is hard, I know. You must stifle your fury and bring about change the right way.”
The professor’s tone was so gentle and soothing. His words made sense, but I couldn’t bring myself to agree. “Can I pose a thought question to you Professor? If you could free a slave without any consequences from the law, would you do it; knowing pre-emptively, that the slave would not be recaptured and there would be no legal repercussions for your actions?”
“I would not. That would still be theft. The slave owner would have his property stolen. I would be financially harming someone to further my own ideals.”
“But people aren’t property!” I stomped my foot on the ground. “What does it matter if a slaver loses money?”
The old man sighed and collected some papers on his desk. “If I can teach you one lesson today, it is to have compassion for those you find contemptible.”
I squinted at him. “Professor, it seems to me that you have more compassion for the oppressor than you do the oppressed.”
He tapped the papers on his desk to bring them together. “Do you have any further questions for me, dear pupil?”
I supposed that meant he had nothing more to say. “I guess I do have one final question for you Professor, and it’s one I really hope you know the answer to.”
He raised his grey bushy eyebrows. “What is it?”
“Where are the bathrooms?”
After relieving myself, I finally entered the library. I took in a breath of air through my nostrils and smelled the wondrous scent of dusty old books. The place was huge. The ceiling was tall and there were books going all the way to the top. There were large adjustable ladders that one could make use of to reach the upper levels of the bookshelves. I walked through the rows of shelves and took notice of the categories.
There was a subsection on runes. I already knew enough about those, so I skipped past. There was one on trains. I didn’t even know they had those in this world. Another on potions. I considered reading those another time. Cacti? There was an entire genre for cactuses? I pulled out the first book. The title read, ‘The big question answered: is it cacti or cactuses?’. I looked for the blurb only to be met with an advert for the book’s sequel, ‘The second big question answered: is it octopi or octopuses?’.
The literature on monsters was what most intrigued me. The more I learned about this world, the more I felt the monsters might have been right in trying to destroy human civilisation. Trouble was that I knew nothing about them. The monsters could be worse than humans.
I skimmed through the books in the monster section. I learned that unlike the human kingdom, which was united under one language, the monsters had many different languages. Goblins had their own tongue, ogres had a language, even slimes had their own form of communication with each other. This separation meant that there wasn’t much cooperation within the demon kingdom. In fact, there was a lot of infighting that occurred.
Despite this, humanity could still not best the monsters during millennia of war. This was attributed to many factors. One being that monsters were born with levels, whereas humans were always born at level zero. Plus, most monsters could both propagate and grow faster than humans ever could.
As an example, take goblins. They were creatures that could be found all over the world due to their nature. They were quick to multiply. They were swift and stealthy. They made their villages at an unrivalled pace. Even if one such village were to be burned, you could be sure that a few goblins escaped to make tribes of their own, elsewhere.
The book described them as similar to weeds.
As I closed the book, I couldn’t let go of one thought. There was living slime in this world? I imagined a snot bubble just shuffling around. The existence of moving jelly was so foreign to me. The book said they ate just about anything. I really wanted to see such a creature with my own eyes. I wondered what it would feel like to touch one.
On that note, I thought it best to complete my research with some real-world knowledge. I decided to make contact with monsters.
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