............ In the world, it's money.


　I still believe that this idea is not wrong.
　We need money to live, no matter what.
　No matter where you are, no matter how far you go.
　Money comes later and later.


　In life, or just in life, we always spend money.
　Or for clothes.
　Or for food.
　Or for housing.
　Or for taxes.


　The money we need to live is always running out, and even when it's not, it's running out.
　I can't remember a time in my life when I didn't have money.


　............ I come from a farming family in a cold village.
　My family consists of seven people.
　We wake up at the crack of dawn, take care of the livestock, and work on the farm.
　Of course, the income of the two parents was small, and they had no money to spare, just enough to feed their family.


　The only difference between my family and other families was that my family had a book of legends that mages were said to have.
　The rest of the family was almost the same, a common family that could be found anywhere in the kingdom.
　In such a family, I was always told by my parents.


Money is valuable because you have to work hard to earn it. Money that is earned with lowly hands becomes lowly.


"Don't steal from people. Don't trick people. Don't steal from others. Don't ensnare others. Money earned that way undermines your own value.


Only have as much money as you need. When you learn to hoard money, you will want more.


　These were the words that my parents used to preach to us about the preciousness of work and the value of money.
　However, I had always been dissatisfied with my parents' way of thinking.


　Certainly, it is not good to commit evil.
　Hard-earned money is worth more than the fruits of your labor.
　But why is it not good to earn more than necessary?
　Living with the minimum amount of money makes people dull.
　There is always a shortage of time because life is all about work.
　Even the money earned from such work is hardly enough to buy food for ourselves and our livestock.
　So, if the harvest is a little less, they will soon be miserable.


　How many times have you felt miserable because of this?
　I used to look at my two parents, who spent their days laughing despite such a life, and wonder.
　Is it really a good thing to suffer because you don't have much money?
　Is it really the right thing to be stubbornly protective of your money and live in poverty?
　Is it really good to suffer because you earn less money?
　When I ask my parents, the answer is always the same.


　--Human greed is an ugly thing. When you get something expensive, you want something even more expensive.


　--And to get more money, you always make someone else unhappy.


　--Money and money are not traded on an equal basis.


　--Money and money are not traded equally.


　To be able to create such connotations, those parents had a certain amount of education.
　It seems that before they became farmers, they got involved in business and made a lot of people unhappy.
　As a way of atonement, they do not try to make more money than necessary.
　However, I could not accept the idea that we should be the ones to suffer the consequences.
　The older brothers and sisters were always occupied with their work.
　My younger brothers and sisters were always on the dole.


　I hated that kind of life.
　That's why I read the scriptures, which had become an ornament, and set my sights on becoming a mage.
　If you become a mage, you don't have to do business that your parents don't like.
　I would receive a fair reward and be able to help others.
　Once I learned to use magic, I enjoyed it.
　In my home and village, I received many thanks for using magic.
　However, I did not receive any money related to magic because of my parents' wishes.
　Despite the fact that I have certain consumption.


　--No money should be accepted.

　--To serve selflessly is the best way to be human.


　I was constantly frustrated by such an overly selfless way of thinking.
　I wondered if that's how much he wanted to look good to the people around him.
　Did you want to be a good person?
　I wondered if I could be pure if I didn't accept money.


　I guess that's part of the reason why I got into magic.
　As long as I was devoting myself to my research, I did not have to deal with the stringency, the pain, or the biased thinking of my parents that produced it.


　It was during this time that an official from King's Landing took notice of my talent and sent me to the Academy of Magic in King's Landing.
　Of course, my family was happy to send me off, and I studied hard so that I could become a skilled mage and make things easier for my family.
　I studied hard so that I could become a skilled mage and make things easier for my family.
　Because of this, he faced a lot of criticism from the nobility and discrimination against him as a commoner, but this did not bother him particularly.


　Compared to life in the countryside, it was nothing.
　Compared to the cold wind in the middle of winter, the abusive language used against commoners was nothing.
　The constant harassment is nothing compared to the hardships of a bad harvest year.
　As a person who was always on the verge of death or life, I didn't think of such things as a hardship.
　But he had no way of knowing that his parents had borrowed money to send him to King's Landing.


　The amount they borrowed was not very high.
　Even a simple farmer could pay it back if he worked diligently for a few years.
　It would be enough to pay him back if he worked as a mage for a while.
　But the moneylender was corrupt.


　The other party was a nobleman who ruled over a large area of land, including the village where he lived, and he was constantly charging exorbitant interest on the loans he made.
　The interest was collected on top of the tax, and it was growing year by year.
　The parents' income alone was not enough to cover the debt.


　In the end, the debt was not repaid in time, and my youngest sister was taken into the debt.
　Because of her cleverness, my family was always the one who had to put up with the most.
　Of course, the family did not remain silent.
　They resisted the lord, saying that the interest rate was wrong.
　But that was not good.
　The family was immediately accused of treason against the lord, and everyone was killed except for myself, who was away in the capital.
　I only found out about it a few days after I graduated from the Academy of Magic.


　When I found out, everything was over and there was nothing I could do.
　I was helpless.
　And that's why I think this.


　If only we had money at home.


　If only my parents had made enough money to pay for their old sins.
　If I'd had some money when I did my magic.
　If only I'd had a little money when I did my magic, maybe things wouldn't have been so tragic.
　I was so bound by the words "lowly" and "noble" that I always chose the means and never tried to earn it.
　How many times have I wished that I had never done that?


　So from then on, I went against my parents' teachings and ran for money.
　I received a lot of abuse related to money, such as being greedy, money-grubbing, and despicable.
　But such people are the ones who have the wrong ideas.
　Show them the money, use the money to remind them.
　There was no better feeling than that.
　But warming my pockets in this way did not satisfy me.


　Because you know what?
　If I'd had the money then, my family wouldn't have died.
　If I had money, my sister would not have died.


　Yes, that's why the world is all about money--