"When will this damn orc stop beating my ass?" Zane complained as he exited the training hall.
"I know, right?" Evelyn sighed.
"The worst part for me is still the ice bath to deal with the soreness," Keesha sighed.
"Ice bath? Damn it, why didn't I think of that?" Zane exclaimed.
"What have you been doing for the pain?"
"Mana channeling."
"The effect is ten times better after an ice bath," Keesha explained.
"I'll try it today," Zane nodded.
"Oh, by the way, are you coming to the mixer?" Evelyn asked.
"What mixer?"
"A few others and I are organizing a mixer between the men's and women's dorms. The flyer should be in the entrance of the Crimson Scale Yard."
"I must have missed it," Zane shook his head. "When is it?"
"This Sunday."
Zane frowned.
"What? Do you have something better planned?"
"I was planning to do guild missions that day." He still needed to preserve his membership in the Arcane Guild.
"It starts at 8, so you should have all day for that," Keesha added.
"Alright," Zane nodded. He planned to sleep for a few extra hours in the morning and do the missions at night, but there is still room for maneuvering.
Zane walked the two of them to the Scarlet Feather Yard before leaving. The boy's yard was still a bit of a distance away, so Zane continued on his own. After returning to his dorm, he found no one there except Evans, who looked much better than before, though his eyes still looked tired. The latter only wanted Zane's class recording and to take a picture of his notes. Once that was done, Evans thanked him before returning to his room.
Zane then headed directly to his bathtub and activated the ice bath mode. Keesha and Evelyn were right: mana channeling was ten times better at alleviating the soreness with the bath. Zane felt immensely refreshed afterward, and he was in an excellent mood to continue his schedule; so he read, finished his homework, and continued working on a few dark web missions, ending the night at around 3 AM. Three hours later, his eyes opened, feeling fully rested.
However, the moment he opened his eyes, he sensed something from his crest and glanced at his left arm: the crest was glowing blue. Something important must have occurred for the tower to use the second-highest level of warning. Zane couldn't help but wonder what had happened now as he opened his magic webpage.
"A direct email?" he thought. Last time, the tower posted on the student board, but now there was an official email from the Director of Communication herself, Sara Madini.
[Dear Earthlings;
[Under normal circumstances, I would start this web-mail with pleasantries, but this is not a situation that warrants niceties. As such, I will be direct and blunt]
"Okay, now, I'm nervous," Zane thought before continuing to read.
[An accident occurred yesterday afternoon, at 4:38, in class 304B, in which one of the students called their teacher a "knife-ear."]
"Knife-ear? Is this a reference to an elf? No, hobgoblins and a few races also have long ears," Zane frowned.
[I would like to remind all of you that we are intimately aware of everything about your dimension: from your history to the references used in your pop culture and media — it is our duty to be well-informed. As such, we are well aware of the derogatory terms associated with many of your words, slang, regional vernacular, and day-to-day vocabulary. And our database is from every language in your dimension, some of which you haven't even discovered yet. So, please, do not try to use language or cultural barriers to hide your offensive and vile behavior.]
Zane squinted. Ms. Madini was not mincing her words, which gave him an inkling of what was going on.
[Now, according to the rules clearly laid out in your student book (which is still accessible through your profile), the tower has a zero-tolerance for racism, bigotry, and discrimination. We have prided ourselves on building a multi-racial, multi-civilization community dedicated to providing aid and hope to countless endangered civilizations throughout the cosmos.]
Zane clicked his teeth. The tower is a business, but it also develops its own philosophy to build personal cohesion and maintain a positive image. Although a bit cliché, it seems they chose a positive philosophy, such as "unity, acceptance, diversity."
[And in that spirit, we have decided to impose severe punishment on any trainee who dares to break this rule.] As such, the student in question was expelled from the program, had his soul crest removed, his mana permanently drained, his memory wiped, and his awakened soul sealed.]
Zane took a deep breath. What a harsh punishment! Although it's been three weeks, Zane cannot imagine the pain of losing all his magical powers, or even access to the magical world. It's one thing if he never had them, but losing his powers after they've already become such an essential aspect of his life? That would be horrifying.
[According to the Supplementary Accord, we cannot force you to share our views and ideologies. However, you must learn to keep your racism and bigotry to yourself. In our presence, in our program, you must follow our rules and code of conduct. Zero tolerance means zero tolerance. Now, I hope this event serves as a warning to many of you: conduct yourselves appropriately from now on.
[Have a wonderful day — Sara Madini.]
"The tower is not even hiding that they are punishing the student as a warning to others," Zane thought as he signed up for the student board. There were some things he did not truly understand in this situation, for example, the origin of the word "knife-ear." As expected, he found one post with millions of students discussing the email. After a brief search, Zane discovered that the term "knife ear" originated in a 2009 video game and was indeed a derogatory term used against elves.
Now that he had the key information to understand the situation, Zane became interested in exactly what had happened. He scrolled through the post for a few minutes until he found an explanation.
[Butterfly2456: We've only had our abilities for three weeks and spent only 1 week in school, but you people had to ruin it. White people, you couldn't even control your racism for more than a week?]
[HaloSub: We don't know if it was a white person.]
[Butterfly2456: I'm willing to bet all the money in my account that it was a white person.]
[Afro-Armani: I second that]
[Anonymous 12276: They used a game term, so it could have been anyone.]
[BlueCloud: It was a white man.]
[Anonymous 12276: How do you know?]
{BlueCloud: It happened in my class.]
[Butterfly2456: Girl, give us the tea.]
[BlueCloud: There is not much tea. We were having a class about the history of the Astral Cosmos. Once we reached the Divine Epoch, a student began arguing with the elf professor over using the word "god" to describe the epoch or the 7th-tier creatures; he also rambled about the One True God and so on. The professor tried to de-escalate the situation, but he didn't back down. The professor told the student to leave the class for being disruptive, but the student wouldn't listen. In the end, the elf tried to drag him out, and the student yelled: "Don't touch me, you disgusting knife-ear."]
[LesMis09: Why am I not surprised it was a Christian?]
[GodOfWar01: Right? I'm willing to bet it was an Evangelical Christian too.]
[CountDouku87: Guys, now is not the time. BlueCloud, what happened next?]
[BlueCloud: The teacher no longer wasted any time with him. She bound and silenced him with one spell before contacting someone through her crest. Less than two minutes later, a knight and a mage came and took him away.]
[Butterfly2456: Good riddance. I'm glad the tower responded so swiftly. Racism has no place in the world.]
[ParisSG10: But, wasn't the punishment too harsh? It was one minor mistake.]
[Butterfly2456: Of course, for people like you, racism is a minor issue.]
[ParisSG10: That's not what I mean.]
[Butterfly2456: What did you mean? Did you want the tower to give him another chance to reform? To prove himself? It's 2016, for God's sake. Shouldn't you already know racism is bad? That it's not okay.]
[ParisSG10: You're taking my words out of context. What I mean is everybody can make mistakes, and if we want to create a better society, we should be more open.]
[WonderWomanFan23: Girl, don't waste your breath on these people. The one good thing about all of this magic is that we finally have the power to control our destiny without these white people playing in our faces. We no longer need them — especially those white liberals — to create a better tomorrow for our community.]
Zane read through the entire post thread, learning a great deal from the discussion. The event seemed to have opened some old wounds, turning the entire post into a racial debate. And after reading everything, he also recognized the changes to Earth's society that lay beneath the surface. As he had foresaw, a power shift will occur on the planet, and the issue of race will play a crucial role in that shift. And as a Ghanian-African man living in the US, his position was already determined.