The Perfect Knight and the Illusionist (BL)

MARIUS

I was on another mission. This time, to inform the debate club about topics that were prohibited from being discussed at the Autumn Festival. The list made sense to me, but yet another request for a club to modify whatever they might have planned, and the possible resentment that might cause—I wasn’t looking forward to it the way I looked forward to other challenges.

It also didn’t help that Briant and Alexis were in the debate club. The best I could do was make sure this did not create friction between us the way it did with Janice and Thomas.

When I arrived at their club room, I could already hear a loud and heated discussion taking place inside—to the extent that they did not hear me knock until the third time I tried.

Instead of someone yelling at me to come in, I heard footsteps approach. The door opened, and I was greeted politely by one of their members, a student I hadn’t seen before. As soon as he saw me, he greeted me politely and said,

"Mr. Valenkraft, welcome to the debate club. How may I help you?"

"Marius is fine. And thank you."

I felt like I hadn’t said that in a long while.

"Please come in."

I walked in and saw that the room was divided in half, with rows of desks lining each side and the man I assumed to be the club president chairing the discussion.

"Oh, it’s Marius Valenkraft," the man said and walked over to me, offering a handshake. Warm, friendly, and deliberate.

I reciprocated appropriately.

"I came here on behalf of the student council with a request, which the council would like to kindly ask you to accommodate," I said. As friendly as possible.

"And what could this kind request be?" the club president said with a grin, as if he knew I was going to visit sooner or later.

"I have a list of topics that the student council suggests not be discussed during your public debate session."

"What’s your argument for it?" someone shouted out from the group, and there was laughter, while I heard another voice soon follow up with, "Let’s hear it first."

The club president gave me a nod, so I took out the paper and read out the topics.

"The topics not to be discussed are, in no particular order, as they are all to be equally avoided: anything about the Royal Family; any debate over historical diplomatic or military conflicts with the surrounding kingdoms; any discussion about minority citizens; any discussion about trade and tax policies; anything related to social class disparity in the Empire; and any other topics that could be considered controversial or divisive. That would be all."

My read-out was met with loud, sustained booing.

"Marius, we can’t do that!" I looked over and realized it was Alexis who had just stood up and shouted.

"No way," one of the members from the other side of the room concurred.

"The whole point of the debate club is to tackle, obviously, debatable issues!" someone else raised her voice.

"With all due respect, Valenkraft, this isn’t something we can comply with," the club president said, his grin turning into a smirk.

"The student council strongly implores that this request be met," I stood firm.

Amidst the loud booing and jeering, I saw Briant stand up and wave to everyone to calm down. Once people settled down a little, he spoke in a measured voice.

"Marius, besides the fact that this goes against the spirit of the debate club, there’s also the practical issue that we have already chosen a topic which happens to be on that list—we have been preparing for that discussion for the past few weeks."

Thomas, Janice, now Briant and Alexis—not to mention all the others to whom I brought nothing but requests and demands that made them unhappy... I wanted to handle it well. I wanted to perform my duty, but I didn’t want to hurt anyone either.

"What would the topic be?" I asked.

"It’s about socio-economic class division in the Empire—precisely the topic that is explicitly on the list. I’m sorry, Valenkraft, but please tell the president we cannot comply," the club president said, no longer grinning, his voice now firm and serious.

This wasn’t going to be easy.

Talk it through, Marius. Talk it through—I told myself.

"How would the debate be held? What is the plan?" I asked.

"One side will argue that it is an injustice, while the other side will argue that it is a necessary and natural social hierarchy that stabilizes the Empire," the club president explained.

I was standing in front of at least twenty students who all loved to debate and were probably very good at it.

But I wouldn’t shy away—I tried to quickly think of how to convince them.

Then something in my mind clicked. Of all people and occasions, I suddenly thought of my sparring with Dorian on our first day of combat training. I beat Dimitri while taking him head-on because he was so straightforward in his approach, but for all intents and purposes, Dorian defeated me—because he simply did not fight in the way that I was trained to.

"Dear comrades," I began to speak, taking a step forward.

"What is the purpose of a debate?" I asked the room.

"To present a logical argument that the other cannot refute," one of the members spoke up.

"So debate is a competition?" I asked him.

"It’s a battle of wits, intelligence, and logical thinking," he stated.

"That is a great answer," I said, then continued, "but I think we may be missing something."

"What is that?" Alexis asked this time.

"Isn’t the purpose of wits, intelligence, and logical thinking to get us closer to the truth and to better solutions to a problem?"

The room now listened.

"Socio-economic class division. Is it right or wrong? I do not know, honestly. But I believe we all agree that it exists. Otherwise, there would be nothing to debate over, correct?"

My eyes met Briant’s. He gave me a nod and a smile.

"I propose a little shift in perspective. Why don’t we, instead of debating whether it is right or wrong, use all the wit, intelligence, and logical ability we have to try to find a solution that will benefit the Empire the most? The topic is discouraged precisely because it is divisive. Why don’t we, then, try to find a way to address this very divisiveness? Instead of debating who is right or wrong, we can debate what is the best way to reconcile the differences."

The room was quiet now. People were thinking about it. They just needed a little push.

"A clever man may win an argument. A great man elevates others and brings unity to the Empire. Let’s aspire to be great, my friends."

After another moment of silence, the club president announced,

"I can accept the proposal."

Then he asked,

"Does everybody agree?"

The answer was a resounding ’yes.’

"You might be the first one to get this bunch to all agree on one thing, Marius."

With a handshake, the job was done.

This wasn’t exactly what the student council wanted.

But seeing the contented faces of everyone, including Alexis and Briant, I knew I did the right thing.

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