I know I swore off Forewords way back in the middle of Spirit Dream, but I had to make an exception for this chapter to warn you about it containing a brief topic of discussion that one might interpret as political.

As such, reader's discretion is advised.

Forewords end here.


Y.G. International Academy

When the first day of her first semester began last Monday, Bella wondered why Y.G. considered Social Etiquette and Morals to be a mandatory course.

Now she knows why.

It turns out that when Adam said two weeks ago after the Matriculation Seminar that the British government declared prejudice and discrimination illegal, he wasn't joking or exaggerating at all.

The UN has determined that racism is so rampant in the US because the First Amendment gave too much freedom on what Americans are allowed to say, including hate speech, which in turn led to the anti-China policy that devastated the US economically. And to make sure history does not repeat anywhere else, many countries passed new laws that declared discrimination of any kind illegal. In the case of the UK, it became state policy for all schools and universities to educate students on the "evils" of discrimination and how it should be avoided.

Such was the reason Y.G. implemented Social Etiquette and Morals, aka "Political Correctness Class", as a mandatory course for all programs.

And so Bella finds herself sitting in an auditorium-sized classroom jam-packed with every single first-year students in Y.G., listening to the professor on how not to discriminate against people who are "different or have unique conditions". And it is no exaggeration that every single student including Bella finds it a bit boring. Too bad for everyone that they have to pay attention, as the professor said that failing Social Etiquette and Morals just once is grounds for immediate expulsion (students were allowed to have up to three tries with the other courses each).

Politics. Possibly the only subject in the universe other than quantum physics that nobody, not even geniuses, can fully grasp. And not like there's anything Bella can do about how governments tackle problems. So might as well pay attention to the lecture and get it over with ASAP.

"Now, can anyone name a prominent example of prejudice and discrimination in history?"

Darn, the professor's asking a question right now, and Bella has no idea how to answer it. She kept her hands down when most of her classmates did, in the hopes that she wouldn't get picked by the professor...

Luckily for her, she wasn't picked.

"The German Third Reich and their belief that only people with blonde hair, blue eyes and white skin are considered truly human." The student sitting directly behind Bella stood up and cited.

The professor nodded. "We as the human race heard that one so many times since 1945 that it doesn't sound scary anymore by now. But good example nonetheless." He then gestured for the student to sit down. "Anyone else? How about you?"

Another student in the opposite end of the classroom stands up as she got picked. "The Apartheid Era, when the South African government made it illegal for black people to use the same public facilities as the white people." She cited

"Still a bit of a cliche, but still a good example." The professor commented, before gesturing for the student to sit down. "A third example, anyone?"

No hands are raised this time. Either nobody knows any other examples, or the only examples they know of are such cliches that there's no point in repeating them for the millionth time in human history.

"No one?" The professor said, neither exasperated nor annoyed by the lack of response. He seems to have figured out why nobody raised their hands, though. "Look, I don't care if political correctness is all too much of a cliche, but YGIA and every other school in the UK are required by law to teach this to ensure that we do not get a repeat of-"

The professor is interrupted when a single hand is raised amidst the auditorium-sized classroom.

The student sitting directly in front of Bella stood up without being called by the professor. "-Ze bill to ban China itself, written by ze American government - or ze Sinophobia Accords as it came to be mocked as - all because-"

"-The US government cannot even tolerate the idea that another country could take its place as world's most powerful." The professor finished the sentence for the student. "I was going to cite that one, actually. Were you actually waiting for me to point out why this class exist before citing that, Miss... what's your name again?"

"Constanze. Just Constanze." The student introduced herself with a not-too-thick German accent.

As the now-named Constanze gets told to sit down by the professor, Bella can't help but notice that she is the same brunette with a braid that sat through Basics in Psychology, Social Etiquette and Morals, and Mathematics with her since the semester began.

There seems to be something Bella finds peculiar about this German lady, just like when she first met Renko. This aura she radiates doesn't seem normal, but what does it signify...?

Then something creepy happened: Constanze seemed to know that Bella is observing her, as she turned her head slightly to look at the American by the corner of her eyes.

Shocked, Bella averted her gaze from the German, and pretended to write down the professor's lectures on her notebook.

She's probably just looking at something behind me... Bella spent the rest of the class thinking.

...

It is already 4 PM when the class ended. As Bella has no more classes for the rest of the day, she went straight to the campus cafeteria and found herself a seat at one of the tables. She then decided to spend the time revising the notes she wrote down during the class.

Renko and Jing-Jun still have classes to attend. While Adam didn't have any classes on Thursdays, today he has some urgent matters to tend to with his family, so the club meeting he originally planned on Tuesday to be held today ended up being cancelled. Which leaves Bella all by herself...

"Is zis seat taken?"

Well, that wasn't very long before someone else decided to sit down with her. Bella looked up from her notes to see the person...

It was Constanze.

Bella blinked, wondering why it was her German classmate, of all people. And a classmate she barely even knows about, at that...

"Is someone else here, fraulein?" Constanze asked again when Bella didn't answer the first time.

The American is snapped out of her thoughts. "O-oh, no, I'm by myself here."

"Then I hope you don't mind me sitting here with you." Constanze replied as she pulled back a chair and sat down opposite of Bella.

"O-oh, yeah, sure..." Bella said before going back to her notes.

Minutes passed by in the campus cafeteria, Bella and Constanze paid little mind to each other as they both focused on revising their notes.

It isn't very long before Bella finished revising her notes. She remembered the assignment given by the professor - to write a short essay on one example of prejudice and discrimination that had a huge impact on human history - and decided that she should do it too.

Apparently Constanze has the same thought. The German took a ballpoint pen out of her pencil case and started writing her essay on a blank sheet of paper.

Bella heed that no mind - it is probably just a coincidence that Constanze is doing the exact same thing as she does. She grabbed her pen and started working on her essay too.

Before the American knows it, another 10 minutes has passed by...

...And she had only managed a single sentence on her essay, because A) discussing about the idea of prejudice and discrimination isn't her forte, even though she came to study Psychology with the intent to find out why the idea exists, and B) she was distracted for the past 10 minutes thinking about Constanze, especially the peculiar thing she saw about the German lady.

Curiosity got the better of Bella as she briefly averted her gaze from her barely-started essay to glance at Constanze...

...Who had finished writing her essay at that exact moment, and then instantly noticed Bella glancing at her as she put down her pen.

"Can I help you?" Constanze inquired, seemingly not amused by Bella glancing at her.

Bella almost jumped from her seat. "N-no, I'm fine. Thanks..." She replied. Does she have a Six Sense or something?

Constanze raised her eyebrows for a moment, then her expression went back to normal as she packed up her things.

"If you have something to say, Bella, then say it now." The German lady said as she stood up from her seat.

"Oh, no. It's fine..." Bella replied nervously.

Constanze narrowed her eyebrows again. Without saying anything else, she then walked away from the table and out of the cafeteria.

That was roughly 20 minutes of Bella being so nervous around someone she barely knew. She has never been this nervous ever since the Homecoming Dance Party at her second year of high school back at the US (never mind that nobody back then enjoyed it because they are still trying to recover from the aftermath of the "Sinophobia Accords" that decimated the country's economy).

However, there is something else about Constanze just now that bugged Bella. Namely the fact that the German lady referred to her as "Bella". While the professors of the three classes Bella shared with Constanze all did role-calls, they all read her name out as "Maribel Lutwidge Hearn". The common shortening for a first name like Maribel is usually "Mary" or "Merry", and sometimes "Bel". Almost no one would think of "Bella" in first meetings because it is such a unique shortening of Maribel. And then there's how Constanze narrowed her eyebrows when Bella denied glancing at her, and again when she denied having anything to say...

She wasn't imagining things or overthinking anything, there is something peculiar about this German classmate of hers...


And here it is, everyone. A new chapter of Mystical Knowledge, eight months after the previous one was posted.

And also here is the introduction of a new OC: Constanze. Although that's as much as I'd reveal about her here as I'm building up a suspense for her full introduction that will be reserved for the next chapter (that's also the reason why I didn't put up a profile for her here). Is she a potential new member of the International Sealing Club? Just go read the next chapter once it comes out...

Oh, and speaking of profiles, I just found out that I totally forgot to put Ke Jing-Jun's birthday in his profile. I'll be fixing it ASAP. Man, it is very embarrassing for such an obvious blunder to go unnoticed for nearly a year...

With that said, I will be resuming updates to MK, and Exotic Inventory will be put on hold until I finish the EoSD arc of Seasonal Fantasy.

"And that, as they say, is that."

Afterwords end here...