It's been roughly three months since I was exiled. My place on the floor of the carriage has been pretty uncomfortable and the soldiers have been treating me pretty roughly, much to Lucia's apathy. The bag on my head is only taken off my head twice a day, so that I can eat and to make sure my muscles don't atrophy and my eyes don't start getting blinded by normal sunlight. Those thirty minute walks were wonderful. Even if I was still bound and the soldiers stuck to me like glue, it was much much better than the cold hard floors of the carriage.
By the chatter I hear outside it seems it will take around 2 weeks more from reaching our destination. It seems my father wasn't magnanimous enough to provide a mana processing specialist that could increase the speed of the cart, so the horses are travelling at the usual, pretty slow pace when compared to modern vehicles. Though I guess I shouldn't really be looking forward to getting to the place I'm headed to, if its anything like the books I read and the experiences I had in my past life.
According to the books in the library, the slums are a lawless area that covers around one fourth of the central continent’s southern sector, or around one sixteenth of the central continent as a whole. Similar to earth, it's a place where all the outcasts of the central continent gather, from murders and exiled nobles like me to those with simply no place to go. It is a large area that spans around 150 000 square kilometers, and is composed of shaky structures on top of shaky structures with only maze-like alleyways to navigate between them. The images I’ve seen of it through books suggest it looks very similar to Earth’s ‘Kowloon Walled City’, simply on a much much larger scale.
Through the years the slums have apparently developed their own laws and government, though not much is known about the specifics.
You’d think that the royal family wouldn’t let something like this be. A new government is being built right within its borders after all.
Though I think the kingdom turns a blind eye for 3 main reasons.The first is convenience. It's a convenient place for the nobility to conduct activities that need to be kept secret like purchasing drugs, or hiring assassins. The second is the area itself. The slums are built on what's essentially a desert, with very little natural resources to be found. In other words, it's a trashy, inadvantageous area that the kingdom doesn’t necessarily want to spend time managing.
But the third reason is probably the most significant, it's the chance that a grandmaster level warrior and a formally established mana art exist within the slum’s borders.
I mentioned that aptitude significantly determines your maximum potential, however the actual strength one has as a fighter is measured differently. Generally within the central continent, strength is divided into 6 ranks:
Third rate - has the strength to take on around 10 elite fighters that do not have the ability to manipulate mana. It is believed to be the maximum potential for those that have below average aptitude.
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Apprentice - has the strength to take on around 10 third rate warriors. It is believed to be the maximum potential of those that have average aptitude
Adept - has the strength to take on around 10 apprentice level warriors. It is believed to be the maximum potential of those that have above average aptitude
Master - a significant leap from adept level strength, masters have the ability to level whole sectors on their own. It is believed to be the maximum potential of those that have unique aptitude. In the central continent, it is believed that only the three dukes and 4 generals of the royal guard posses this level of strength
Grandmaster - godlike existences that can level whole continents on their own. It is believed to be the maximum potential of those that have generational aptitude. In the central continent, only the head of the royal family, Lionel Reinhardt has this incomprehensible level of strength.
The separation between aptitude and actual strength was established because of course, you needed to train and be given the proper resources to be able to even have the chance to reach your full potential.
As you go up the ranks it gets harder and harder to improve, so much so to the point that 90% of those with low level aptitudes reach their maximum potential of third rate while only less than 1% of those born with unique aptitudes ever reaching the rank of master, with most being stuck at adept for their lifetimes.
That's the case for most in the central continent except for the royal nobility, which have around a 95% success rate for them and the soldiers of their domain to reach their full potential. This is one of the main reasons why there have been so few notable rebellions in the kingdom’s history, as though there may be hundreds of geniuses born every day among the billions of people in the known world, next to none are able to get even close to their true potential.
This miracle for the nobility, and misfortune in the eyes of those that desire change come about through mana arts tomes, special books that contain the insights of warriors of at least the master level on the nature of mana, and a proposed system to control it. With these tomes, you go from fumbling around in the dark to having a glorified textbook on an established mana control system that's been the backbone of a noble family for a thousand years.
When the nobility took over a millenia ago, any existing mana arts tomes the population had were confiscated. Without the tomes, no new masters were able to be born as well thus no new tomes could be written. A vicious cycle huh.
The fact that one slipped into the slums could mean two things. The first is that a tome simply slipped through the grasp of the nobility through one way or the other.
Or the second, scarier option.
Someone was able to figure out how to get to the grandmaster level from scratch without any textbooks to guide them. A feat that hasn’t been achieved since the dragons ruled over the known world.
Either way, if there was a grandmaster and an army of warriors trained through the mana arts tome inside the borders of the slums then the Reinhardt Royal Family couldn’t carelessly attack them. Afterall, with the existence of a grandmaster they might even lose if they attack in the enemy’s home turf, and even if they don’t they’ll lose a great amount of military power. Something they cannot afford with 4 other forces surrounding them.