Education and History and Society

Author: Iwashi-zukushi
Raw: https://ncode.syosetu.com/n3388fm/40/
Translator: Lilia v4
Editor: Yuriko AYA

“First, to learn that much content, there would never be enough time.
In other words, in the world you were in, children applied themselves to study and hardly worked. Is that wrong?”
“It is as you say.
To be precise, having children work was restricted by law.”
“I see. I could not imagine going that far… but I also accept it.”

Lady Grace nodded at my answer, looking convinced.
That’s how it is. In Japan, children did not need to work.

“In other words, there was no need to have children work.
That much surplus could be held in production and the like.”

I can only say, as expected.
Lady Grace probably understands that as well.
Yes. That world could turn society on adults’ labor alone.
That there happened to be an industrial revolution, and mechanical civilization developed after that, had something to do with it, I suppose.
I am not so much a romantic as to think the ideal of not having children work came first.
But when surplus arose, that they did not take children as labor is something I wish to pay respect to.

…Well, around the industrial revolution there is also a history of working children hard in coalfields and factories, because they could be put into narrow places.

“Then, classification as learning, and depth.
At present, observation of natural phenomena, consideration, theorizing… such things are hardly done.
As for geography, there is no unified map, and history… each country compiles its own, but verification and the like are not done, as things stand.”
“Limited to this country, I am a living witness… but that, too, is only history as I saw it.”
“It is not of course that I do not believe Your Majesty, but I would like materials to reinforce it after hearing your talk, as well.”

Lady Grace and the Demon King went on washing out the problems, the two of them.
And yet… these two are seriously too much of a cheat.
From only that much talk of mine they have a fairly accurate whole picture, and what is lacking at present is clearly in view as well.
Or rather, the Demon King does not treat herself as absolute; she has a bird’s-eye view…

“In other fields… music, too, composers and players make it by personal sense.”
“Hmh. I had thought that a matter of course, but thinking after hearing it can be established as learning… analyzing and then theorizing might, unexpectedly, be the fastest thing one can do?”
“Having the sirens and Harpyiai try it might be interesting as well.”
“Ah. They seem the sort who would find it amusing, unexpectedly.”

Incidentally, sirens are sea monsters like mermaids, and Harpyiai I touched on before: monsters like a cross between a bird and a human, with wings.
Both love song, and the sirens’ song in particular is said to hold magic.
They were getting lively with that talk when the Demon King suddenly looked back at me.

“By the way, Asha, what did you learn in music?”
“Ah, yes. At first we entered from the history of music, what composers there were, what pieces there are.
From there, what patterns of melody there are, what structures of chords, what melodies are pleasant, and so on, we learned by higher education, but music theory beyond that I am sorry to say I do not know.”

I am truly sorry about that, but I cannot say something slipshod, so I answered honestly.
It is outside my specialty, and they seemed to understand that; they nodded, light.
But Lady Grace put on a thoughtful face and thought a while.

“I see. History… not only music but art as well, techniques developed with the times, and fashionable styles changed.
Learning those would make it easier to acquire the foundation of technique, and perhaps easier to think of new techniques.”
“Indeed, that is so as well.
That something one announced thinking it new already had something similar long ago is a common thing.”
“In technical fields it happens now and then. There is even a phrase, ‘reinventing the wheel.'”
“Hoh. A rather interesting turn of phrase.”

I cut into the two of them’s talk, if I may be so forward.
Far from shutting me out, the atmosphere was rather that they welcomed it.

Reinventing the wheel. That is, a person who did not know something that already existed struggling and making it again from the beginning.
A waste that arises from not knowing, one could also say.
Reducing this, too, I think is a significance of history.

“The significance of history, is it… Asha, what did you learn in the history of your country?”
“Ah~… er, you see…”

I found myself faltering at the Demon King’s question.
Yes, of course I had thought about this too. I had, but.

“What, you have suddenly gone poorly spoken.”
“Um, you see. Talking to the two of you takes quite a bit of courage, or rather it seems likely to become a shocking talk.
There is a possibility of it becoming, somehow, a disrespectful content…”
“What a strange thing to worry about. It is the history of the country you were in in your previous life, is it not?
That is that, this is this. Speak without minding it.”

The Demon King said it as if exasperated, and beside her Lady Grace nodded, smiling.
…You said it, yes? I heard you, yes?

“Then, though I am unworthy, I shall say it.
It begins with what manner of life people lived in a primitive age when there was not even a country.”
“Wait, wait, you have started saying something tremendous all of a sudden. How did you know such a thing!?”

Yes. Honestly I, too, think people in that field are amazing in earnest.

“The doubt is fair, I think. It is an age when even writing had not been invented, so there are no documentary materials.”
“Is that not so? How did you know, then?”
“What is easy to understand is perhaps earthenware and stone tools used in life at the time, discovered from inside the ground.
Besides that, from a great quantity of shells gathered in a way that could not occur in nature, perhaps they ate the shellfish and threw the shells away here… and so on: there were a great many researchers who inferred such things.”

At my words the Demon King and Lady Grace were struck dumb.
After a silence, the Demon King opened her mouth, as if exasperated.

“What patience and funds and human resources would make one think to do such a thing…”
“Well~… this one I cannot imagine either~…”

Ordinarily you would overlook it, right. You would not think it meant anything.
But they read all sorts of things from it…

“Seeds of crops were left stuck to the inside of discovered earthenware, so they inferred that cultivation had begun around this period—that sort of thing, but I think it is an amazing imagination.”
“No, before that, how do you specify the date?”
“Er, explaining that would run long, but by making use of learning in another field, one can tell that this part of the ground is from thousands of years ago, or by analyzing a thing, from what is contained in it, one can tell it is from thousands of years ago.”
“I understand. That it, too, is by learning, I understand well.”

The Demon King shook her head as if to say she yielded.
To be honest I think it is amazing they discovered how strata form, and when it goes as far as dating by carbon I even think, how do you come up with that.

“Returning to the talk… first one learns the process of people beginning cultivation, forming settlements, villages, and in time making a nation, and one learns the process and significance of a thing called society being formed.”
“The process of society being formed began from a place I had not imagined…”

Lady Grace muttered, a hand to her brow, perhaps having recovered.
But at the punch line she will probably be struck dumb again…

“I understand. But by learning from here, I think one can learn that a thing called society is necessary to begin with.”
“I think that is true as well. After all, a human alone is only a weak existence.”

I nodded at Lady Grace’s words.
Especially living in a country that comes into contact with demonfolk and monsters.

“Continuing the talk, after a nation is formed that way, we also learned how the structure of the nation changed and was refined.
The process of arranging law and its design, how organizations such as government offices came to be composed, and so on.
Of course we also learned how the wars experienced in the process of growing as a nation occurred.”

Personally I think the place Toyotomi Hideyoshi could not do well was here… I wonder.

“I see. By learning that way one can avoid thinking up a system that already existed long ago, and one becomes able to imagine how a new system ought to be.”
“If those who belong to a nation learn the process by which various systems and laws were established, they might also be able to obey with conviction.”

The two of them nodded, yes, yes, looking convinced.
Now then, it is about time to drop the bomb~…

“Yes. I think one can expect the effects you say.
And more than anything, one can also expect the effect of giving the people the knowledge needed as parties to politics, and prompting them to awareness.”
“…Hm? Parties to politics?
Wait. Come to think of it, this was talk of education given to commoners, was it not?”
“Now that you mention it… indeed, for commoners to learn, there is quite a lot of talk of politics and the nation?”

As expected, even these two, so perceptive, did not quite understand.
There was even a place they were confused because they were perceptive.

“Yes. In fact… in the country I was in in my previous life, the king had no political power, and the existence called nobles was gone.”
“…Ha?”
“Yes?”

Yes~. Your eyes go blank, don’t they~.

“The making of law, the composition of budgets, political decisions… all of those are executed by people of a profession called representatives, chosen by the people.
Ah, there are some exceptions.”

There are cases where ministers are not members of the Diet, so I added that as an exception.
Well, whether they heard it I do not know.

“…The people choose? In other words, political power lies with the people.”
“That is so. That said, election… voting for those who stand as representatives and selecting them is the main form of involvement.”

In ancient Rome they apparently did direct democracy.
But that apparently only held because there was slave labor, and there seem to have been various problems as well.
Well, the labor conditions were apparently much better than the slavery Japanese people imagine.

“I see. It is limited, then… even so, how to put it… I can only come out with the impression, how did it come to this.”
“If I begin talking there it will become a history lesson, so I hope I may talk another day.
And so, limited though it is, for the important judgment of choosing representatives as well there is a need to acquire this wide a range of learning, and for that the educational system was enriched: that was one aspect as well.”
“How to put it… as royalty I find myself holding complicated feelings…”
“Indeed. I understand why Asha first found it hard to say.”

Lady Grace and the Demon King looked at each other with complicated faces.
But they did not fly into a rage of disrespect! at me.
Ah, good, I seem to have escaped beheading. No, I talked because I thought the two of them would not do such a thing.

“Well, setting the political structure and so on aside.
Limited to education, what we will do from here has come into view as well.”
“Yes. We will need to arrange an environment for deepening what ought to be taught as learning… but we must make the national strength, the surplus, to support those as well.”
“That is so. Those in this country now are almost all working adults.
If it is to be time to study, we must raise the efficiency of food production and the like even more than in Asha’s country.
That, however, will take time, and is a thing to take on in the middle and long term.”
“In the short term, I would like to become able to teach reading and writing of letters, and how to calculate, more efficiently.”

When Lady Grace muttered that, the Demon King suddenly looked at me.
I started, my shoulders jumping, and she stared at me hard.

“Say, Asha. That face of yours as if to say ‘I have a plan’ is not my imagination, I take it?”
“Er, if you put it that way, there is a place that makes it hard to speak…”

No, I do have something I am thinking, yes.
Being expected that far is pressure, you know? I was thinking, when.

“It is all right, Asha. Her Majesty will not dismiss your words.”
“No, I will not deny that, but being told so categorically is, you see?”

Dorothea, who had been listening quietly beside us, opened her mouth and backed me.
I could not help laughing, kusu, at the Demon King’s grumble.
Lady Grace, too, smiled kindly and prompted me to continue.
Yes, it would be a waste not to propose here!

“Then, though I am unworthy, I shall say it.”

I steeled myself, and opened my mouth to propose what I had been thinking, in my own way.