After Wizard Melanie Carlisle left with her student, Harlan Vela quietly explained to Locke, "Melanie is actually quite a decent person. She's just not very good at teaching students, nor does she pay much attention to what they're really thinking."
"Melanie is Secret Fire Academy's most steadfast advocate for war against Black Wizards, and among those advocates, she is the First-Ring Wizard with the purest motives. She simply believes that Black Wizards have desecrated magic and stained truth."
Now that Locke had become a Formal Wizard, Harlan Vela instinctively began discussing things with him that had once been inappropriate to mention to an apprentice. "Within the White Wizard Association, there are many wizards who support war, and they have all kinds of reasons for it. Some want to sell weapons of war; some want the resources of a certain region, but its current price is too high, so they want to use war to devalue the region before acquiring it."
"Others believe that Black Wizards make extensive use of Undead Creatures, and because Undead Creatures have insufficient purchasing power, they harm the economy. So they want to force Black Wizards to buy large quantities of our goods, while restricting evil Spirit Magic..."
Harlan Vela adjusted his flat glasses. "Everyone thinks differently."
Locke nodded slightly. During the Wizard Apprentice stage, everyone had believed that the White Wizard Association loathed Black Wizards because they were evil, lacked morality and values, or because the two wizard organizations simply shared some deep historical hatred.
But after becoming a Formal Wizard, everything he had seen and heard had shown him that every move the White Wizard Association made against Black Wizards concealed particular economic objectives.
Many of those hidden motives stemmed first and foremost from certain interests.
Take the White Wizard Association's restrictions on the