As a demon born with S-level potential, Mike was required to attend school when he turned three years old.
The government provided all he and his family needed, but in exchange, they lost much of their freedom. His parents were required to live wherever the government dictated, and he was required to attend school full-time from a very young age.
The human civilization of this world was generally not very free; the government played a significant role in everything, with so many laws and regulations that one would get dizzy trying to look at them.
There were laws forcing children to attend school; basically, children were not solely under the control of their parents. According to the country's constitution, parents were the default caretakers of their children, but the government could intervene and take the children away at any time.
There was no homeschooling, no private schools, no school choice, only government-funded schools.
Ordinary children usually attended preschool and primary schools in their district. In primary school, teachers and evaluators rated children and grouped them based on their talents. From then on, those children would only be allowed to attend schools specializing in subjects relevant to their group. If a child was placed in the wrong group, they could only complain to themselves; there was no process to appeal the teacher's evaluation. After all, rating so many children was already a difficult task, and allowing appeals would increase the burden immensely; the government didn't have the resources for that.
As is the case with governments, there were always those who fell through the cracks, but overall, the system worked quite well. This was because, even though the human civilization of this world was very authoritarian, at least they were competent. There was very little corruption; teachers and school managers were extremely honest and would never accept bribes or place children in non-matching groups out of malice.
One reason for this integrity might be that many demon-borns were skilled in mind-reading. Any investigation into corruption would be conducted by mind-reading agents from the Department of Investigation; virtually nobody could resist those scary agents. Therefore, no one dared to accept bribes or do illegal things.
The tax burden was very high; there were 3 tax brackets:
Those with income in the 1st to 80th percentile were required to pay 51% of taxes; those from the 81st to 98th percentile were required to pay 61% in taxes, and those from 99th and higher were required to pay 75% in taxes. Also, all of the natural resources in any land were the property of the government by default; there was no private mining; those things were all completely government-run.
Such massive taxes may look strange, but in this world, everyone was used to them and didn't see them as strange.
Even though the taxes were sky-high, there was no welfare; the government spent most of its money on its army, schools, and on its many demon-related departments. Of course, if someone was hungry, the government had food banks; virtually no one actually died of hunger.
The human civilization of this world was always under threat. It was quite impressive that it managed to survive for thousands of years. It can be said that one reason so many humans of different shapes with so many diverging views managed to stick together as one was the constant threat of demons outside the wall.
...
It is said that ten thousand years ago, a big demon fell from the sky; they called him the Original Demon. It had two big white horns and a humanoid body, and it was huge, the size of a big mountain.
Human civilization at that time had no idea what to do with it. In the end, one of the countries fired a big nuclear bomb at the massive demon.
Unfortunately, the big demon didn't die; instead, it turned into millions of pieces, each of which turned into a smaller demon.
For thousands of years since then, humans have struggled and somehow survived.
A thousand years ago, the great savior Max built the Wall and cleared the area inside it.
Unfortunately, the Wall was not foolproof; from time to time, wisps of demonic energy leaked in and infected those especially susceptible: children in the womb.
That is how demon-borns appeared.
At first, humans considered demon-borns a threat. Still, over time, they understood that if they wanted any chance of long-term survival, they had to start integrating demon-borns into the government, maybe forming a military force from them.
The demons outside the walls attacked it from time to time; without anyone to defend it, it would eventually fall; the savior, Max, was able to protect it with his unmatched strength and intelligence, but in the end, even Max died from old age.
The only ones who had the ability to defend the wall were Demon-borns.
After all, ordinary humans were weak and unable to cast magic, while demon-born humans were strong and capable of learning magic even better than most demons.
Over the years, the government propagandized its population, concealed a lot of truth, and turned demon-borns into heroes; any negative news regarding demon-borns would be suppressed with maximum force.
The government was very wary of alienating demon-borns from humanity; if people started calling them monsters, then demon-borns might really act like monsters. On the other hand, if people start calling them heroes, they will most likely act like heroes.
Over the years, the government's theory was proven entirely correct.
Many people underestimate how important words are.
If people called someone brave, chances were that person would start acting brave because they believed they were brave. Even though just talking wouldn't be able to change one's essence, it would change perception. If one thought of themselves as brave, they would at least try to act like brave people.
The government knew this and always wanted to maintain a positive living environment for demon-borns; it succeeded, and it can be said that it even over-succeeded.
By now, Most of the higher echelons of human civilization are actually made up of demon-borns; usually, among the top executive leadership, only the elected president is not a demon-born.
...
Mike and his parents moved to the capital. The government sent five nurses and servants, along with ten guards. After all, the house given to Mike and his family was huge; just three people had no chance of actually being able to maintain it.
Mike was confused in the first few months of his life. He didn't understand the language and didn't know what was going on. Eventually, he learned the language and started picking up clues.
"Demons? What is a demon?" He started racking his brain; aside from some legends from his previous life, nothing else came up.
"It looks like I am born into a well-off family," Mike sighed with relief. He didn't want to be born into a poor family; after all, poor people struggle for their food, while rich people struggle with their love stories or which clothes to wear.
The funny thing is that even though those born rich obviously have an easier life, from a certain perspective, their life is not necessarily 'better.'
After all, everyone dies in the end; even demon-borns die of old age. In this world, even demons die of old age. At the end of the day, the thing that matters the most is how much one can experience before death.
Those born to rich parents would probably never get to experience life to its fullest; their parents just feed them whatever they want. Anything they achieve in life would inevitably be attributed to their parents.
Conversely, poor people are usually more independent and experience the world more deeply.
Of course, 99 out of 100 would still choose to be born rich rather than poor, but from a soul-growth perspective, being poor would be more beneficial.
This world has reincarnation, and soul growth matters, so in this world, suffering a lot would, in fact, purify the soul and be truly beneficial for one's long-term prospects.
This world works in strange ways.
No one, including demons, can live beyond the age of 100. After death, one's soul is sent into the reincarnation cycle and reborn.
Humans are reborn into wombs, while demons would be reborn as pure-blood demon-borns outside of the Wall.
Sometimes, demons from outside the Wall try to penetrate it; they inject their demonic energy into the weak spots. Still, most of that injected demonic energy would never enter the inner area; even if it did, it would most likely take many years.
When the injected demonic energy enters the inner area, it would, in many cases, attach itself to a fetus and contaminate it. This is not by luck; demons outside knew what to target for the biggest chance.
Nobody knows how or why the big demon appeared or why all demons want to kill humans, but among humans, nobody thinks deeply about these things.
They know they must destroy demons, and most are ready to sacrifice their lives to achieve it.