In the fifth year of school, Mike, who was seven years old, and his classmates were taken to the holy city of Wallfront.
The city was very close to the southern wall of human civilization and was home to over 500,000 inhabitants. It was one of the largest settlements near the wall and served as the main operations base for the military; most jobs in the city were related to supporting military needs. Mages were a common sight in the city, and most residents had military roots.
The city was called 'holy' because of one person: Max, the Great Savior, who was said to have been born there. Many statues around the city depict him as a tall man with a long beard but no mustache, while some older ones show him with a full beard and mustache. Recent research has proven he didn't have a mustache, so nowadays, the older statues are considered inaccurate.
Human civilization protected itself against demons with the help of the Great Wall, which encircled the entire human population, making the inside relatively safe while the outside remained extremely dangerous and home to many demons who loved to eat human flesh.
Before the construction of the wall, humans lived in cities, each with its own wall. However, city walls were not as powerful and were regularly breached by powerful demons. Once a wall was breached, those living inside were just meat for demons.
This situation led to the aspiration for a huge wall covering all cities. Many mages theorized about it, but bringing it into reality was very different from theorizing.
Eventually, the Great Savior Max was born during a time when humanity was desperate for protection. He was extremely powerful and decimated demons wherever he went. He attacked demonic cities and looted them, finally gathering enough magical stones and other resources to construct the wall. The Great Wall was completed and protected the entire human civilization by the end of Max's 100-year life.
It is said that even though Max died at age 100, his soul and strength partly remain in the wall, protecting it even today. Though this belief is common among the populace, magical experts who have researched the matter unanimously reject it.
With the wall protecting them, human civilization began expanding, developing, and flourishing. Still, everyone was aware of the danger lurking outside, so they remained prepared.
The original territory within the wall was quite small; there was not enough arable land to feed the population, which boomed after the end of demonic terror. To increase the size of the territory and protect themselves against the ever-present demonic threat, humanity's leadership changed course.
Until the policy change, all demon-born humans above the yellow level—namely orange, red, and black—were directly killed. Even green and yellow demon-borns were ostracized by society. After all, it was easy to spot them, as they had a pair of horns on top of their heads. There were few mage schools, and the magician population was extremely tiny.
But after that day, everything changed. The government began heavily propagandizing and promoting the notion that the pair of horns of demon-borns did not represent their closeness to demons but their potential to be heroes.
Gradually, having demon blood transformed from being a stigma to being a badge of honor. Human parents began giving birth repeatedly in hopes of having demon-born children.
The government increased taxes and poured money into schools specializing in teaching and training demon-borns. As time passed, demon-born children who graduated from these schools started using their magical talents in innovative ways.
They designed and crafted magic formations to increase agricultural harvests, facilitate mineral mining, and invent new magical medicines. These innovations truly launched human civilization like a rocket.
As humanity got richer, so did the government. With the government getting richer, it began pouring more money into the education of demon-borns. This virtuous cycle continued to prosper human civilization.
From time to time, the government sent its army outside the wall, clearing an area, building walls around it, and closing it off to demons, thus liberating more ground.
The Great Wall today is much vaster than the original wall created by Max.
The demons outside had no unified resistance. There were quite a few big demon cities, but they were all fighting with each other and couldn't agree on anything. Furthermore, human forces didn't stir up demons in big demonic cities; they carefully chose areas with lower concentrations of demons.
Despite having many powerful mages, even the entire human army might not be an opponent for a single big demonic city. Sure, defeating demons with impure blood might be possible, but pureblood demons are another matter.
All demons born outside the wall have 100% demon blood; that is unquestionable. However, very few have 100% pure blood. Less than 1% of all demons have a blood purity of above 80%.
However, demons with both a blood concentration of 100% and a blood purity of 100% are extremely powerful. They usually rule big cities and are the biggest obstacle for humanity in retaking the world. To fight against a single such demon, humans must put up at least 20 human mages with a blood purity of at least 80%.
Each demonic city has tens of thousands of demons, with hundreds having a blood purity of over 80% and a few with a blood purity of 100%. Even if humans manage to defeat one such city, the casualties would be enormous.
Even now, with human civilization much stronger than before, the Great Wall is still the main reason humanity can weather the storm of demons. If the wall disappeared, humans would eventually be defeated, no matter how many magicians they have.
Max's greatness lay not only in his powerful personal strength but also in his remarkable ability to design the Great Wall, which changed the course of human history. Even now, they still utilize the wall design left by Max without any omission or improvement. What Max left behind was simply perfect; any modification would only degrade it.
The Great Wall that protects humanity today is not just a simple wall. It has many different layers; it is a composite magical formation in the shape of a wall. Building it is expensive, but not so expensive as to make it impractical; it strikes a balance of power and cost-effectiveness.
It is not that stronger wall designs have never appeared. There are many wall designs with stronger resistance against demons than the one left by Max. However, those are extremely expensive to build; even one meter of them may be more expensive than a kilometer of Max's wall. The power of Max's wall is incomprehensible in terms of its price range.
There are theories that Max intentionally left a small loophole in the wall to allow a small amount of demonic energy to leak in, enabling the appearance of demon-born children. This theory is contested, with many arguing that their savior, Max, would never intentionally leave a loophole for demons. His other titles include Demon Killer, and he is quite famous for his hostility toward orange demon-borns. This is a piece of history that may never be entirely uncovered; in those days, humans were more busy surviving; no one was paying attention to recording history. All of the histories taught today were written years after the creation of the Great Wall; there are many missing pieces. They even weren't sure how the Great Savior Max looked until a few decades ago.
Mike and his classmates were brought to Wallfront City, believed to be the birthplace of Max, to witness these historical artifacts and stories up close. Teachers and instructors told the entire history of the Great Wall and Max, leaving no details behind.
The children attending the S-Grade schools are destined to become high-ranking military officials or combatants. They would eventually learn the truth, so it's best to tell everything when they are young. The parts about killing orange and red demon-borns were not censored either, though the teachers condemned it and told everyone that things are different now.
For the government, the most important thing is the loyalty of demon-borns. One effective way to enhance that loyalty is to tell them the great story behind humanity: their survival against the odds, their struggles, their flaws, their greatness, their aspirations, etc.
After seeing everything up close, everyone was astonished. These children, mostly born into ordinary families, had never heard of their civilization's storied past. Many began to look forward to their future, dreaming of one day becoming one of the heroes who would liberate the world.
Demon-borns are truly considered heroes. There are many books with names and pictures of great battle mages in the past and present. The heroes in storybooks are usually demon-borns, and protagonists of stories are depicted as demon-borns. Magazines and newspapers run positive stories about demon-borns daily.
On the other hand, nothing negative about demon-borns is allowed to be published.
There are some secret societies that work underground to 'expose' crimes committed by demon-borns, but those are fringe groups with little popular support.
The government dedicates a week every year to demon-borns, celebrating and appreciating them. Mike and his class were brought to Wallfront City during this exact week.
When they returned to the capital, people watched from the sides of the street, cheered, and gave them a hero's reception as if they had come back from a hard-fought battle.
After they finally returned to their regular classes, Mike's classmates were extremely bright and happy. They were all looking forward to graduation day, the day they could fight for the greatness of human civilization.