The Perfect Knight and the Illusionist (BL)
Chapter 34: History and Truth

Chapter 34: History and Truth

LEO

I had a hard time following the lesson. I wasn’t sure how knowing the history of the Empire would help us in situations like the ones we faced a few nights ago with the bandits. I did like tales of the old days that the village elders used to tell. It wasn’t so much that history wasn’t interesting, but the way Professor Hobbs told the story was so boring.

"On October 26th, in the Imperial Year 236, our Imperial Diplomat visiting the City of Braga in the Ostwalden Kingdom was assassinated. Ostwalden officials concluded the investigation only after three days. They caught the bandits who they claimed were the culprits, and then promptly executed them the next day. Now, could you explain the significance of this event, Marius?"

Marius was always favored in these classroom questions, I noticed. At least as the first student to answer because he always knew the answers. I think teachers thought that would encourage others to raise their hands and volunteer for the next question, but personally, I thought I’d be more scared to answer after someone got the answer right just before me—that’d make me stand out more when I failed to answer myself.

"The assassination was correctly identified as a staged act by our own Imperial Bureau of Investigations. The ’bandits’ were too organized, knew the path of the convoy in advance to set up an ambush, and specifically targeted the diplomat while some others were merely wounded. The Imperial Bureau of Investigations also received supplementary information that the attack was planned with the involvement of Ostwalden’s Security Council. As such, this could only be interpreted as a declaration of war, which led to our second major war against Ostwalden."

’How does he say all that stuff without pausing for breath?!’

"Well done, Marius. Now, moving on—let me see..." then Professor Hobbs looked through the student list kept at the podium, as it was still early in the semester and not all teachers were familiar with our names yet.

"Leo Skylark. You are from... Erdville in the South, correct?"

’Dear God, please help me.’

"Leo?" The professor asked again.

"Yes, Sir!"

"Can you tell us what you think of the Yapians?"

Huh?

"I’m sorry, Sir... but... what are Yapians?"

I mustered up the courage to ask. Everyone seemed a little shocked.

Damn... this must be some really basic knowledge my uneducated self was missing.

"The islanders in the Southern Sea. The ones who fly the flag of red and white and often wear round hats. Does that ring a bell?" the professor asked with a knowing smile.

It did indeed ring a bell.

"Yes, it does, Sir! In the South, we call them Yeps. They are good traders and bring many exotic fruits and handcrafted ornaments. The cloth fabrics were also said to be of the highest quality. In fact, I think almost everyone in my village has an ornament or two from the Yeps! They are super nice and affordable!"

The entire classroom went silent, and someone muttered,

"They... trade with the Yapians?"

Then someone else said,

"Yapians are invaders who pillage the coastal cities."

This was the first time I had heard anything like this.

I looked over at Mario Boy, and even he looked very surprised, almost as if he’d just heard that people in Erdville eat cow poop for breakfast.

"Now, class," Professor Hobbs raised his hand to silence everyone.

"What you see here is the difference between written history and lived experience."

With that, he asked Alexis, who was raising his hand as if to say there was something important he wanted to say,

"Right, anything you’d like to say?"

"Sir, Yapians are vile savages who have been tormenting our Southern Coast for centuries. I believe Leo might have mistaken something. It can’t be that Yapians are good traders, let alone have cultural appreciation and techniques to make beautiful ornaments and textiles."

"But it is correct that Yeps is a Southern dialect for Yapians, I must tell you," Professor Hobbs said, and asked me,

"What do you have to say about that?"

"Alexis—that is not true! There was even this one time when the Yeps arrived on our harvest festival day and joined us for the party. They had instruments that made funny sounds and we danced together all night. They are peaceful and fun people!"

"That cannot be true!" Alexis yelled back across the classroom.

"It IS true!" I wasn’t going to back down here, thinking about the funny dances they taught the villagers that we came to call the tappity-tap dance.

"Now, calm down, gentlemen," Professor Hobbs cut us off, but rather than looking stern, he had a content smile on his face.

"Everyone—on one hand, most of you have been taught at schools about the Yapians. But has any of you ever met a Yapian in real life?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"On the other hand, we have Leo Skylark, from the South, who HAS met the Yapians—on multiple occasions. Do you think Leo is lying?"

Thankfully, everybody shook their heads again.

"Now, I must tell you. Neither perspective on the Yapians is false. So the real question becomes—why do you, the ones who were born and raised in the capital and have received educations for years, only know one side of the Yapians?"

Briant slowly raised his hand, and upon the professor’s acknowledgement, he said,

"Because we learned only what was written."

"Exactly!" the professor exclaimed and clapped his hands.

"Leo Skylark, do people in your village keep written records of the Yapians’ visits?"

"I... don’t think so, Sir."

"Is there a library in your village that has books on the cultures and traditions of the Yapians?"

"No, Sir."

The professor then gestured for me to sit down, let the silence sink in for everyone, and whispered quietly so that all of us had to pay extra attention to catch his words.

"That was the main point of the lesson today. Remember—only written history is taught and preserved in academia. But at the same time, no matter what anybody writes, you cannot erase the lived memory of people who were there."

There was a solemn mood in the classroom as we all tried to make sense of what Professor Hobbs just said.

For a moment, I thought history wasn’t too bad after all.

And I’d be happy to write about the real story of the Yeps someday.