"Teacher, you are right. Whatever Master Max did, it obviously worked. I do admire him despite what he did," said Mike calmly.
The old man listened to Mike with interest. He smiled and said, "You are smart, Mike! I like that you don't put emotions ahead of rationality!"
"However, teacher, even though I admire him, that doesn't mean I approve of what he did. Master Max doesn't seem like someone I would want to associate with or befriend; he reminds me of someone," Mike thought of his previous life.
Jack was also as ruthless and pragmatic as Max was. He did whatever suited his purposes without caring about anything else. Mike used to nearly worship Jack in his previous life, but after coming here, his fondness toward him disappeared entirely. He doesn't understand why he was so loyal to him before and why he isn't anymore.
"Let me tell you, Mike, you don't want your leader to be someone you want to be friends with. You want your leader to be someone with a clear mind, able to see the larger picture, and who makes tough calls that must be made. If Master Max had been weak at that time and hadn't seized the opportunity he was given, those Northerners would have survived, but the entire human civilization would have been denied the chance to unite and thrive."
"So what if innocents died? Innocent people die all the time, every second and minute. Sacrificing half of human civilization, even 99% of human civilization, to completely eradicate demons is entirely worth it. Sure, many innocents would die, but a peaceful future is worth it."
"Mike, even though you are smart, you are still young. You haven't seen outside; you never fought demons. Believe me, outside the Great Wall, it's hell. People don't understand how dangerous the world is because they live in a bubble."
"If a big demonic city suddenly decides to attack us and completely eradicate us, we could not resist them even with the great wall. In this situation, emotions are not of any use. We need another great leader like Master Max. We haven't had a strong leader for a long time."
"Mike, I hope that one day you can be the great leader we need. You are extremely talented and smart."
"I told you the truth for a reason. I have been looking at you for a few years, and I see that your mental maturity is far beyond your age."
"If you heed my advice and see things as they are, you will have a chance of becoming a great leader of human civilization, another star in the sky!" the teacher said.
Mike pursed his lips. His teacher thinks he lacks experience, but the truth is that Mike is far older and more experienced than the 'old' man in front of him.
"Teacher, you are correct; we need competent and rational people to lead us," Mike said. From his view, what his teacher said was nearly entirely true; the two seem to be able to see eye to eye on these topics.
A good leader is someone whose aim is the prosperity of his people and who is willing to do all it takes to achieve it. Advanced civilizations take this to the extreme, giving the leadership to an AI and letting it make decisions based on rational thoughts without any emotions.
Emotions are very beautiful in a personal setting: a mother loving her child, a man loving his wife, a brother's love for his sibling, etc. However, emotions are only obstacles and confusing factors in larger settings.
This is because of inconsistencies.
The world is mostly a zero-sum game; giving something to someone probably means another person somewhere wouldn't have it. One can't see it, but it is probably true. Saving a bird from a fox means the fox's cubs would be left hungry. Saving a tree from being cut means grasses under it may not receive enough sunlight. Spending the government's money to help those who experience homelessness would mean less money on other things, such as education.
A kind leader is only useful in a world with endless resources. In the real world, where resources are limited, what a country needs is a leader who thinks and decides based on rationality.
Unfortunately, in most places, countries do not get a rational or kind leader; instead, they get a corrupt leader.
The basic premise of allowing someone to rule a country is to expect them to do whatever they think would be best for their country. But corrupt leaders put their own personal interests ahead of the country.
A good political system and transparency can solve the issue of corrupt leaders. The human civilization of this world is very transparent. The incomes of all members of parliament and their families, judges and their families, and ministers and their families are public. All their belongings, including their homes, places of stay, and the gifts they receive, are public knowledge.
Master Max set up this system specifically because he understood human nature. At 90 years old, he was concerned about what would happen after his death, so he set up the best system he could think of.
That great system worked amazingly, keeping everyone honest throughout the centuries.
One amazing feature of the system Max set up is that it effectively prevents strong magicians from getting high-level civilian positions. Many members of parliament, the prime minister, and ministers are demon-born, but they are weak demon-borns.
Strong demon-borns would never be given positions of power, which has prevented too much power from being concentrated in the government. Sometimes, a party won a sweeping victory and took the absolute majority of the seats in the parliament, then tried to change the law to weaken the transparency provisions, but strong magicians protested and forced the parliament to back down; the two factions of magicians in the military and politicians in the government counterbalanced each other.
For a king, the worst thing that can happen to them politically is to have a court filled with people from one faction; unity of ministers would render a king irrelevant; for this reason, most smart kings throughout history kept two factions in their court, and played both sides, in the process making themselves stronger; the same is true for a country; those places which are ruled entirely by one faction are usually not well run; there must be at least two factions for the system to work well; Max knew it and designed the system this way.
As a result of all this, even though the current government is the tax-and-spend type and considers itself the people's daddy, it was at least not corrupt.
Mike said," The current government is quite competent; why should I bother myself? I am not good at leadership." Mike knew his weak points. Being a leader was never one of his talents. He still has issues communicating with other people, just as he had in his previous life. A leader must be a good communicator.
Mike's teacher said, "Being competent isn't enough! It only means that they are capable of running things in a stable fashion. In this world, just being stable is not enough. Demons outside are a constant threat. We must expand, Mike! At our current pace, it would take around 1,000 years to double our current territory! 1,000 years! Who knows when demons will start attacking us? We need to accelerate our expansion. Mike, as the most talented student in the last century, can I count on you? Can you lead us?" asked the teacher.
Mike sighed and said, "I guess. I didn't want to get too involved, but it seems I have no other choice."
The teacher said, "Great! Ask me any question you have regarding history. I don't like bragging, but I am quite an expert when it comes to history," the teacher said. As someone who was chosen to teach at the S-Grade school in the capital, he is probably one of the best historians in the world.
"Also, I would like to introduce you to a few of my friends; I will call you when the time comes," the teacher said.
"Thank you, teacher!" Mike said with a smile.
…
Knowing the dark truth about Master Max didn't change anything for Mike. He already expected it to be dark anyway.
He spent his days working hard on his spellcasting ability. He learned new spells and also practiced old ones. His talent was really showing; he was the best in his class in spellcasting and magical theories. He was also good in physical combat, but because of his relatively small body size, he wasn't the best in that area.
Mike was only 1.5 centimeters at the age of 10; he was quite tiny for his class. Of course, for mages, physical skills are not really important; a magician's power depends solely on the spells they can cast and how fast they can cast them.
The school tested the student's demonic bloodline when they reached the age of 10; Mike's has 6% of the bloodline of the 'Lone World' bloodline. The Lone World bloodline is one of the better-known ones. It's said that there was a demon in the big demonic city in the northwest that had 60% of the bloodline.
Fortunately, that demon was killed many years ago; otherwise, it would have been dangerous for Mike. When he was born, they put him inside the compass, and it didn't point in any direction. The main reason it didn't has to do with the death of that demon; if it was alive, the pointer would have pointed at it. Even though Mike is extremely talented, he only has 6% of the Lone World bloodline. Faced with that demon, who had 60%, Mike would have been helpless and may even have been dominated.
That demon died in the last 100 years, which means there is almost no chance of the bloodline appearing again in Mike's lifespan, which is good news.
Most demonic bloodlines are extremely splintered, distributed nearly evenly among the muddled blood demons. Only a few lucky ones would get lucky and receive pure demonic bloodlines.
Mike's Lone World bloodline is considered one of the better ones. He has the bloodline spell of transforming his body into that of a wolf, along with many other spells, such as the roar spell, bite spell, wolf armor, and many others.
Unfortunately for Mike, even though he has them, he cannot use them. Using bloodline spells would dramatically increase the chance of failing; Mike wouldn't risk it.