Confession 2

Mariana froze for a while.

After a long silence, she finally said, "All right, my child. Since you already know, what do you think of it?"

"Do you want the truth?"

"Of course!"

Paul shrugged. "Incredible. Or rather... absurd!"

"Absurd?" Mariana frowned and said unhappily, "Is that how you view the cause your own mother has devoted herself to?"

"Don't you think..." Paul said with a hint of amusement, "that the so-called Human-Demon War myth was merely a conflict between primitive tribes in the ignorant ancient era?"

"As for those mysterious celestial phenomena, they were just coincidences. Or rather... as long as one stretches things far enough, any two things in the world can be linked."

"Or perhaps... this is merely an excuse—an excuse for the Spellcasters to step into the sunlight."

Mariana smiled. "What, is that a bad thing? If Spellcasters could stand in the sunlight without restraint, our family wouldn't have ended up like this."

"Yes, of course that's a good thing." Paul agreed with her. "But I think achieving that goal requires making Spellcasters ordinary, letting them blend in with common people, and turning magic into an everyday skill, like writing, martial arts, or even shoe repair and sewing. But the Secret Art Society's approach seems to be making Spellcasters exceptional. That's just moving from one extreme to another."

Paul's words made Mariana angry for a moment. He had actually compared great magic with the crafts of those ordinary mortals. It was practically blasphemy.

But she quickly calmed down and soon found a reason for her son's attitude.

Poor child. He must be feeling wronged. They had been born to the same mother, but his younger brother had displayed extraordinary magical talent and been taken along by their mother, while he lacked such talent and had even