Fanatics of the Magic Academy

"I will wipe out all believers in this world."

Rose fell silent upon reading this sentence.

From just a few words, Rose felt the bloodshed of that era known as the "Age of the Gods".

One-third of the population is not considered human; they are bought, sold, manipulated, and sacrificed at will.

Even as the intensity of war increases, or when famine strikes,

The lowest-class members of the remaining two-thirds population will also become sacrifices.

In order to obtain divine blessings for favorable weather and bountiful harvests.

From this perspective, the civilization of magic, which prioritizes reason, is already quite advanced compared to the civilization of gods.

At least for now, the magical civilization outwardly promotes "freedom," "equality," "science," and "rationality."

Rose now understood why the Magic Federation so deeply resented believers, even making the extermination of believers a social consensus.

Even people in the slums, upon seeing a believer, would instinctively kill or arrest them.

Take, for example, the three people who earned their first fortune in Rose.

After thinking and processing the information for a while, Rose continued reading.

After explaining the historical reasons for the Magic Federation's extermination and suppression of believers, the author...

He went on to elaborate on the Magic Federation's suppression of believers.

After the "War of Dawn" ended, the temples of the "Age of Gods" were demolished and the priests were executed.

Those fanatical believers who participate in and preside over blood sacrifices, and who are incapable of being taught or believing in the truth...

The Magic Federation chose an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. From the very beginning, the Magic Federation...

They were a group of "sacrifices" lacking any talent for faith, who escaped the rule of the gods.

They gradually developed a completely new magic system, which eventually led to a social system different from the rule of the "gods".

In the course of their development, too many like-minded people were condemned as "heretics" by the "gods" and priests.

He was eventually burned at the stake.

And now, the Magic Federation has also sent these incorrigible fanatics to the stake.

From then on, this became the tradition of executing believers; as soon as a believer was discovered, he would be sent to the stake.

Furthermore, the Magic Federation enshrined the execution of believers in its constitution.

What began as a simple cleanup later evolved into eliminating hidden dangers, for the following reasons:

First, new beliefs continue to emerge. Even after the "Age of Gods" ended, there are still people in the new era who attempt to revive the old gods.

Secondly, believers do indeed possess extraordinary power, even compared to the magical system.

A belief system, if it is willing to pay the price, can quickly reach the level that a magician has cultivated for many years, which is not conducive to rule.

Third, the very existence of believers is a desecration of the new era.

The existence of the Magic Federation is justified by the principle that "reason outweighs fanaticism" and "reason is supreme."

If believers could also gain power, and even have the potential to surpass magicians, it would be an insult to the Magic Federation's "rationality above all else" principle.

Therefore, the federal government also enacted relevant laws, forming a complete legal system against religious believers, the most important of which is the Religious Prohibition Act.

The core terms are as follows:

Article 1: No natural person or organization may worship, sacrifice, pray to, or believe in any deity, spirit, ancestor, or other supernatural being in any form.

Article 2: Anyone who becomes physically alienated because of their faith shall be arrested, tried and executed in accordance with the law.

Article 3: Anyone who provides food, shelter, clothing or any form of assistance to believers is guilty of the same sin as the believers.

Article 4: Anyone who discovers a believer and fails to report it shall be subject to a fine and imprisonment.

Furthermore, the high bounties offered to believers have made it virtually impossible for believers to survive within the Magic Federation's sphere of influence.

This is also why Rose's parents were constantly on the run, and why the "Self-Nature All-Spirit Cult" was located in the most remote places.

However, before that, the Magic Federation had to face a problem: in the early days after the end of the "Age of Gods,"

There are too many people living in the "Age of Gods".

If all believers were simply slaughtered, there would be far too many people to burn; it would be impossible to burn them all.

Moreover, it was too extreme and was opposed by the vast majority of members of the Arcane Council at the time.

Therefore, the Magic Federation established "Believers' Containment and Observation Points" to educate those who were not novice believers and to help them gradually reintegrate into society.

However, as the author's research deepened, he discovered something extremely strange.

He discovered that even though the Dawn War had been won more than 3000 years ago, there were still strict laws governing believers.

There is almost no fertile ground for believers to survive, and a considerable number of believers are still executed every year.

Furthermore, although the "Believers Containment and Observation Points" have disappeared, observation points in most areas are still operating.

Moreover, there are annual funding allocations.

The annual execution of believers seems to have become as integrated into people's lives as the annual celebrations of the victory in the Dawn War.

It has continued for more than 3000 years.

However, few people think about it.

Where do these believers who are executed every year come from?

Afterward, the author began investigating and infiltrating, eventually uncovering a secret that shocked him.

Even now, the so-called "believers' detention and observation points" are still, on the surface, places for the "re-education" and "social reform" of believers.

In reality, however—

1. Secretly adopt unregistered orphans from the slums and train them to become believers.

Furthermore, these individuals, after growing up, are trained to become the next generation of believers at the "Believers Containment and Observation Point."

This kind of training method produces a next generation of believers who are more likely to become fanatics.

2. "Specialization training" is conducted on all believers, meaning that faith is used to cause physical mutations in the "fanatics."

However, because the gods were imprisoned and weakened, they were unable to use their divine power.

3. Transport these fanatics as special commodities to the upper-class nobility, or simply use the observation points as entertainment venues.

4. Finally, the useless and aging believers are "executed" in order to meet the annual quota.

Thus, the Magic Federation's treatment of believers is no longer about eliminating a "threat."

Instead, they create "threats" to defraud taxpayers of their money.

And they turned the "threat" itself into commodities, entertainment, and profits.

Instead of eliminating "heretics," they nurture them and then squeeze every last drop of value out of them.

Finally, they were sent to the stake.

Finally, the author concludes the book by saying:

"In that case, the 'civilization' that the Magic Federation promotes—'freedom,' 'reason,' and 'equality'—that defeats 'ignorance,'"

Is this really reasonable?

If a country intends to keep young people from the lower classes in captivity and use them for the amusement of the upper class,

After squeezing out all their value, they were sent to the stake to make the lower classes cheer.

Only in this way can we maintain our own 'rationality,' 'freedom,' and 'equality'.

Therefore, I believe that this kind of "rationality" may not be any more noble than the "foolish oracles" of the age of gods.

I believe that a country's true 'rationality,' 'freedom,' and 'equality'...

It's not about how it treats its glamorous citizens.

Rather, it's about how it buries the corpses in the darkness.

I did not experience the "Age of Gods," nor did I experience the era of the most glorious "Beacon of Reason" in the magical capital.

Some now say this is an era where "everyone will be killed," but perhaps in a few hundred years, new interpretations will emerge.

But I know that no matter how the story changes, under those bridges, in the sewers, in the tents of the slums,

People are always dying.

"The content of this book is largely based on real data from the Lovellia Archives and archaeological discoveries related to the Battle of Dawn."

The data regarding the "Age of Gods" is compiled from multiple documents, and the specific figures may vary.

However, the approximate scale and institutional descriptions have been verified by cross-referencing multiple historical materials.

—Lia Wien