Truth Weavers - Vol. 6 Ch. 30

[MangaDex]

 

[Kendama]

Well, the author's back from a hiatus, and we're caught up with Japan again.

This series has monthly releases, but as often in digital format, they release half-chapters of 10-20 pages each time, though sometimes they do drop a full, 35-40-page chapter.

Whenever they release half-chapters, we'll wait to compile and release them as one, so sometimes it may be two months between releases.

 

[ciera]

Thanks so much

 

[Baelgun]

So it's the girl his master was teaching at the beginning ?

 

[nodamnbrakes]

Thanks for the chapter.

 

[YerRob]

Thank you for the chapter, glad to see this is back!

Memory's a bit hazy, this chap's girl was the rich dude's daughter right?

 

[Kendama]

So it's the girl his master was teaching at the beginning ?

Yes, it's Rosalind.

 

[PinkSakuraFlower]

Thanks for the translation! Great work as always!!

 

[hierof]

Yes, it's Rosalind.

thanks for reminding me. its the local noble girl that the master had taught alongside zechs separately and she really wanted to meet zechs as her fellow students.

 

[Ghxzt]

W

 

[PatotaSalad]

Don't even remember what's happening anymore, lol

 

[InsaneAwesomeTony]

Thanks for the chapter 👍🏼

 

[YerRob]

Don't even remember what's happening anymore, lol

Zechs lost his spellcasting (likely temporarily), he left the rebel army in search of his master to overall apologize.
He brought his childhood friend with him, but she decided to stay behind on an outpost to help people.
His master is serving as a healer/medic for an army

That's all i remember, but should be enough to get up to par, i think

 

[HelioCesar]

Our girl has grown so much

 

[Kendama]

I've been thinking about one of the main objections by readers to the plot of this series, and I think it's worth writing about it here since it's the most recent chapter and chances are a little higher that someone will read it.

The objection is that the protagonist has lost his purpose, and that the message of the series makes no sense. Some readers have said that there was nothing wrong with the mages' insurrection on the side of the Kadensha, since both groups have been harshly oppressed by Lavarta. Atrocities happen in wars and the resentment that fuels them is a lamentable side effect of the yearning for freedom.

Normally I'd agree, and I think the argument holds in the case of Kadensha. If you don't want dead civilians on your side, don't oppress the other side, it's simple as that.

But not so in the case of the mages. I think Aster and Zechs made a serious miscalculation when they decided to "make their own country".

Namely, that mages aren't a people.

Magecraft isn't hereditary. Mages will always be a scattered minority. Rebelling makes as much sense for mages in their society as it would, I don't know, for people with diabetes to rebel in ours. (I know there is a genetic component in diabetes, give me a break, I was just trying to think of something that isn't merely hereditary.)

The problem, I believe, resides in Aster's misinterpreting of the Epic of Sailama the Bard back in chapter 12. "The mages built a vast empire of magic" only makes sense if the roles were reversed: they were a dominant minority and oppressed the muggles in a class society, not a caste one. So what Aster is modelling his ideal after must have been an equally flawed society as their current one.

And all the indications that their thinking is flawed are scattered through the story. Rijitt has a muggle sister. Aster's parents are muggles, as were Zechs'. Even if mages were to make their own country, they'd soon be outnumbered by their own muggle descendants. The vein of guidance is a rare occurrence that shows up stochastically. There isn't a lynchpin connecting all the mages, they can be born anywhere.

And in fact, the agreement to supply mages and magecraft knowledge to Ermynn is even more dangerous than Fio thinks back in chapter 23: if magecraft is not hereditary, and if Ermynn has completely suppressed knowledge of magecraft to the point they can't even recover it, then… what are they doing to Ermynnian children who're born with the vein of guidance if they don't have the knowledge to teach them magic control? Ostracising them in ghettos is the least horrible solution I can think of. (Or it may be just a plot mistake. But I don't think it is, because Ermynn wants magic, not mages specifically, so I'm assuming they do have their own population of people with the vein of guidance but lack the means to train them.)

Aster and Zechs should be thinking in terms of class more than in terms of ethnicity. Peoples secede. Classes seek enfranchisement and equal rights.

Suppose the armistice is signed. What will happen to the mages? Will Kadensha become an autonomous country and offer refuge to all mages by granting them equal rights? Will Lavarta allow mages to migrate and lose their military leverage against the bigger countries around them? It seems Edgar can get his independence (and silver mines), but I can't think of anything in the deal for the mages.

So yeah, the mages are just fuelling more resentment against themselves with this insurrection. Even if the ones in the Rebel Army earn some respect and a place to live in Kadensha, these will be gains at the level of the individuals directly involved. But for all the other mages in the country who didn't join the insurrection because of their family or otherwise personal attachments, the insurrection has meant persecution and death, and a Kadensha-Lavarta armistice will hardly make things better for them - unless Aster can get measures for enfranchisement of Lavartan mages thrown into the deal. Given that Edgar doesn't need those to get what he wants, I doubt the Kadenshan side will lobby very hard for that at the negotiation table. In fact, throwing the mages (and Aster's neck) under the bus to appease the Lavartan side after the atrocity of Arka might sound tempting to Edgar right now. It might even have been in Ermynn's calculations.

I guess the resolution of this conflict will tell us how much thought the author gave to these issues.

 

[Grimmycoffee]

Magecraft isn't hereditary. Mages will always be a scattered minority.

Holy shit, oh wow. Damn. I haven't thought about that that much. Yeah, it's gonna be hard to really make a place in the world for a group of people born purely out of rng. This also adds some more context on what the Iron Fortress means for mages. Even with the state's clear hatres, the mages has a pretty solid ground to work with in theory, not just being a solid and legal military force (which must've gain them with a decent amount of influence), but also as a place of study where mages' training and knowledge can be taught and nurtured like a culture.

 

[YerRob]

And all the indications that their thinking is flawed are scattered through the story. Rijitt has a muggle sister. Aster's parents are muggles, as were Zechs'. Even if mages were to make their own country, they'd soon be outnumbered by their own muggle descendants. The vein of guidance is a rare occurrence that shows up stochastically. There isn't a lynchpin connecting all the mages, they can be born anywhere.

Could just be a theocratic state with mages held in higher authority, the opposite of how they're usually treated.

We had and still have plenty of countries irl where the rulers are treated as inherently superior or even divine, and we also have stuff like india where castes are just an inevitable social ocurrence, even without the slightest of slightest proofs that any of them are more special than the others.

In here though, it would be impossible to deny the "specialty" of the vein of guidance, since it's obvious even at a cursory glance, all that would be left would be cementing that caste as the de facto rulers

 

[Kendama]

Could just be a theocratic state with mages held in higher authority, the opposite of how they're usually treated.

Well, like I said in my previous comment, that's what apparently happened in the distant past. So they would change from oppressed to oppressors. From what it says in chapter 12, when they were on top, the empire they built collapsed due to "excessive use of magic", in Aster's words. That seems to explain why magecraft and mages are objects of contempt by the common people: it's because they brought ruin when they were in charge.

To be honest, I like the concept of this series. Most fantasy series have mages as exalted beings who are in control and fight off demons. Here we have an author's idea of a society that has already gone through that, and it didn't end well. I think that's interesting, and I'd like to see he deliver on showing the reader how they'll solve the inequality and disenfranchisement of mages without repeating the past.

 

[YerRob]

Well, like I said in my previous comment, that's what apparently happened in the distant past. So they would change from oppressed to oppressors. From what it says in chapter 12, when they were on top, the empire they built collapsed due to "excessive use of magic", in Aster's words. That seems to explain why magecraft and mages are objects of contempt by the common people: it's because they brought ruin when they were in charge.

To be honest, I like the concept of this series. Most fantasy series have mages as exalted beings who are in control and fight off demons. Here we have an author's idea of a society that has already gone through that, and it didn't end well. I think that's interesting, and I'd like to see he deliver on showing the reader how they'll solve the inequality and disenfranchisement of mages without repeating the past.

That seems like attributing fault to mages as a governing entity when it's a problem of time weathering away everything, as always. Throughout all of our own history we've seen empires come and go cause they started out well but went to shit later.

But the fact that the other empire failed doesn't mean this one has to either:
Just look at how some theocracies get couped in single digit years, while Imperial Japan (though the clergy held no real power, the emperor was basically always understood as inherently divine, even if he was often just a figurehead) has been going on for over two thousand years and up til the end of WW2 they still believed (and some still do) the god emperor mojo.

For all we know, these guys could come to be (if they win lol) the equivalent of Imperial Japan of this universe (unlikely tho, they don't seem to have any particularly good plan for the future from what i remember, though i guess they're kinda busy defeating the ones trying to kill them to worry about that yet)

 

[heml8ck]

I’m loving this story, so insanely glad it’s being scanlated by a good group so we can fully enjoy it. Too many interesting manga are only uploaded as unreadable MTL these days T_T