"Good Morning students, welcome to Imperial Binder History class, I am your teacher, Professor Orlgard", a tall portly woman announced as my friends and I settled into our seats at the back of the classroom. I wasn't sure why the teachers at this school reminded me of animals, but the woman in front of us reminded me of an elephant, but a tad smaller and friendlier looking.
"Now my binders to be, I'm sure you have plenty of questions for me, or at least, curious as to why you're currently taking a history class, correct? Or any of the other classes? Shouldn't we be focusing on combat training?", she asked the room once the other students had taken their seats. As her gaze swept across the room, I noticed several of the other students either shrink back or pretend to be inattentive. This strange act kept going for what felt like hours, so I decided to just break the tension and ask what everyone was thinking...up until someone else just said it before me.
"I mean... you're not wrong professor. Why are we learning this stuff? Aren't we training to fight the majimonsters and reclaim the Wildlands?", a boy covered head to toe in bandages asked.
[I'm going to guess horribly ugly face], Voxea commented.
[Voxea, that's rude. He could just be shy].
[Or horribly scarred], she quipped.
"An excellent question, mister....".
"Pharonketh".
"An excellent question, Mister Pharonketh. The reason why your curriculum includes more than just combat training is threefold. The first is due to magic being a multidisciplinary art", Professor Orlgard explained with a smile.
"By exercising your minds, bodies and willpower to a variety of subjects, stimuli and stressors, you'll be to draw out more and more of your inner magical power and make your monsters that much stronger".
[She's not wrong you know. Specific types of maji had very different training styles from one another. Paladins for example had to be well-versed in weapon forms, while druids had to be in tune with nature. I once met a geomancer who had buried himself under a mountain to better understand, and I quote here, "the weight of the world". Ironically, I think he was the guy who made the Omukade...].
"The second reason is a bit more practical. The Wildlands is full of ruins from the Old Empire. A good chunk of these ruins are fallen cities and castles, full of history and information from our ancestors that have been lost to the ages. It is a great boon to traveling binders to understand the origins and values of such ruins. As well, it has been recorded that some ruins that belonged to maji have death traps that are usually connected to puzzles and tests related to non-magical subjects, to serve as security".
[Wait, what? You guys use puzzles as security systems?], I asked Voxea.
[To be fair, the ones who usually go tomb robbing tend to be on the dumb side or the over analyzing side. Besides, if anyone is gonna be trying to steal our stuff, they might as well be bright enough to think like us. I wouldn't want a pyromancer to get their hands in my goodies].
[You are surprisingly nonchalant about people profiting from your death].
[Meh, that's what the death traps are for].
"And the last reason my dear students, is so we don't repeat the mistakes of our forefathers".
[Pardon]?
"It is an established fact that the world as we know it today is due to the majimonsters populating it, and that the majimonsters are a result of the hubris of the maji", Professor Orlgard said in a serious tone, "As binders, we represent a new age of magic, the blood of the maji of old flow through our veins. We are able to control the very forces of nature that threw down our ancestors and has plagued us to this day. As such, the rest of humanity see us as both its greatest defenders and its most terrible foe. The responsibility we carry is heavy, so we must learn from our past, from the mistakes of our ancestors, lest we are doomed to repeat it".
A silence overcame the class, as we digested the weight behind her words. I couldn't help but notice that the demeanor of many students from inattentive to respectful after the professor's speech.
It seems that the professor managed to earn the respect of everybody in the class with that speech.
[You know, I resent at least part of those statements].
Okay, mostly everybody.