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Last Embryo Volume 4 Chapter 2 Part 4

Translator: DarkHeartedAlchemist

「You know, I really am grateful that you think about helping me so much, but would you really be okay with that, Suzuka? Ultimately, you should stop worrying about me and prioritize the things that you yourself want to do first and foremost.」

「Yes, I am well aware of that. Which is why I keep telling you: helping you is what I truly want to do. Now think about it for a second. If the two people from hailing from the same orphanage ended up working at a facility of a national level, the range at which we could support it would be that much larger, and if we also had the backing of such a colossus like Everything Company, then who knows, maybe we would even be able to expand Canaria Family Home, making a bigger, better place than it us now!」

Homura was stunned seeing how Suzuka was able to talk about her dream with her arms opened up like that. But it was not this unusual openness of hers that he found to be the most amazing thing about her. Rather than that, the thing that was the most spectacular with that declaration of hers was how realistic it was and how it followed a solid, actually doable method.

When it came to Canaria Family Home, the orphanage where Homura and Suzuka grew up, the efforts of one person, even if that person was the one who truly possessed something that could be described as nothing other than a true talent for something and used that talent to stand out from among the rest of the crowd and began to collect achievement after achievement, that would not be nearly enough to keep the orphanage operating they way it was operating for a past few years, because no matter how you would try to stretch it out or change the truth to suit your own needs, it remains an undisputable fact that the achievements of that one person will always be perceived as belonging to that person alone, not the entire place where they were living, no matter how hard that person would try to claim that it was otherwise.

But if it just so happened that an orphanage, say, Canaria Family Home for example, were to produce not only just one person with outstanding abilities, but two, or three, or a whole bunch of them and all of them made a name for themselves, then people would have no other choice but to stop evaluating them as individuals and stop to evaluate the facility that gave rise to them.

Canaria Family Home already has Homura, who is one of the main researchers of the Star Particle Bodies and recently got involved with the work related to the competition of the Environmental Control Tower, so if Suzuka also managed to actually land herself that job as a librarian at the 3^rd National Diet Library, then maybe it would actually be possible to show both the big shots at Everything Company and other potential sponsors that the orphanage definitely has the potential to create more outstanding individuals like them, which would in Farsight allow them to secure better living conditions and futures for the other kids living there who were not lucky enough to get affiliated with any of Everything Company’s endeavors…. did she really….

「Suzuka…. did you really thought that far ahead into the future?」

 「Well, now that you put it like that, then. . . then I guess I did.」

「Amazing, that is simply amazing, Sis! I always knew that you were amazing, but this is on an entirely different level!」

「Oh stop, you’re going to make me blush! I mean really, there is nothing all that amazing in starting to seriously think about my future, you know? Up until now all I was doing was depending on both your and Aya-chan’s kindness, but if that state of things continued in the future, then what kind of an older sister would that make me look like in the eyes of the other kids back at the orphanage, that is for sure! I would be so embarrassed I could die, so I simply started thinking about what I could do in order to not let that happen, that is it.」

*BISHI!!!*

Despite her humble words, Ayato still followed them up with a wide grin and a thumbs up pose. Arjuna, who was listening to Suzuka’s story from the sidelines was impressed at the level of determination and thoughtfulness she was showing at such a young age, but nevertheless he had to tilt his head to the side and ask:

「It is good to see that even in the modern times there are youths such as you who know what path in life they want to walk down and who consequently do everything they can to see it through to the end. It might be presumptuous of me to ask you this, but I would like you to cherish that dream of yours and do everything in your power to protect it until it comes to fruition. . . oh, and by the way, exactly how valuable is that. . . 『Library』. . . that you were talking about? I assume it has to be an institution of great importance since you were thinking about getting both yourself and Saigo Homura affiliated with it.」

「How valuable? I mean, culture-wise I guess you could say they are invaluable because of all the knowledge from the books that are being kept there, but other than that. . . I guess they are free? As in, anyone can come and go as they please as long as they are mindful of the closing hours? Is it not right, Homura?」

「Yeah, the libraries are free for everyone to use.」

Arjuna kept opening and closing his mouth like a fish stranded at the seashore, that is how shocked he was at what he heard just now. During the times when he was alive, you had to be a born member of the Brahmin or Kshatriya caste to be allowed to study, and even then you still needed to obtain a special permission to be granted access to the sacred texts containing knowledge. But now, there he was, hearing that in the Outer World of the modern day knowledge stored in the libraries is available to anyone without the need for any kind of permissions from the country’s rulers. Generally that was indeed the case around the world, but with the 3^rd National Diet Library things were supposed to be a little different, since the scientific research materials and the more sensitive and valuable texts are going to be kept under strict watch without being accessible to ordinary citizens, but as for the rest of the library’s contents, they will indeed be free to peruse for anyone who will fill in an application during the first visit and will be given the entry card.

Returning from the state of absent-mindedness that all those information driven him into, Arjuna switched his expression to a deadly serious one and asked:

「Forgive me for asking something that might be pretty obvious for you two but. . . but does that 『free for everyone to use』 bit holds true for the members of all castes? Including the Slaves caste as well?」

「S-Slaves?! What the hell dude?!」

「Yeah, exactly what Bro said! What the hell man, cut it out!」

This time, it was Homura and Suzuka’s turn to be outraged when Arjuna spoke that outrageous word like it was nothing. Neither of them expected that they could experience a genuine culture shock from hearing literally a single word, but there they were, looking like they were about to have seizure attack. That is how much or a taboo and a foreign, barbaric concept the words 『Slave』 and 『Slaves』 are to those who live in the cutting-edge era of the 21^st century. Enslaving people and exploiting them might have been fine and dandy back in Arjuna’s days, but today, this practice has already been abolished, and for a very good reason. In the era of relative peace and advanced democracy, if you were to as much as speak the word 『slaves』 in a public space, you would be immediately branded as a monster, racist and a social outcast. That is how heavy the meaning of those words has become nowadays.

Life without freedom. Life without basic human rights. Life while being treated as little more than an object, a mere possession to be treated however your owner saw fit. That is what slavery was. A relic of the dark times when humanity was still too blind to see the proper value of a human life, and one of the most detested and universally criticized inventions mankind has ever came up with.