There's a lot of that Haroun doesn't know how to address.  "I - I realize that this isn't the major issue here, unless it is, but - it's the part that I understand the best, so - ordinary good people was meant to exclude... about 80% of the nobility.  If you survive your battle, you wouldn't be the first Summoned Hero to go around executing every surviving king who allowed slave collars.  The Hero before the Hero before you did exactly that.  The problem is, after the Summoned Hero dies, people figure there's not much chance of the next Demon Lord appearing in the next year.  And a century after that, they figure it's not likely the Summoned Hero will show up that decade.  So here we are.  And you - you might be smarter not to let on how you feel about slave collars.  I mean, you would get stronger support from maybe half the people, including me and my family, and most of the professors I know.  But this is a country where slave collars are legal, so the King and the nobility would - try to arrange for neither you or the Demon Lord to survive the final battle, I'd guess..."  Haroun realizes he's not really supplying emotional comfort here.  "Uh, the final battle does usually come down to magic instead of swords, if that helps.  If what you want is for there to not be a final battle at all, with swords or without them - you'd have to break the entire system, or find some way to force the Demon Lord to back down without a fight.  And Professor Nightstar acts like that's an option and Summoned Heroes are to blame for not doing that, but he's never said one word about how or why that would be possible.  But we could go to my academy and you could talk to him, if you wanted to take the risk on trusting him..."  Haroun sighs.  "I'm sorry.  I wish I had something less awful to say.  Uh, there might be some interesting magic you can cast with a tenth of mana, if you can cast arbitrarily complicated spells just by reading them out of books?  It - it might take some rejiggering to get it down to literally a tenth.  I mean, people aren't optimizing spells for that.  But high-Skilled people can rejigger things."

There's a lot of that Haroun doesn't know how to address.  "I - I realize that this isn't the major issue here, unless it is, but - it's the part that I understand the best, so - ordinary good people was meant to exclude... about 80% of the nobility.  If you survive your battle, you wouldn't be the first Summoned Hero to go around executing every surviving king who allowed slave collars.  The Hero before the Hero before you did exactly that.  The problem is, after the Summoned Hero dies, people figure there's not much chance of a Demon Lord appearing in the next year.  And a century after that, they figure it's not likely a Summoned Hero will show up that decade.  So here we are.  And you - you might be smarter not to let on how you feel about slave collars.  I mean, you would get stronger support from maybe half the people, including me and my family, and most of the professors I know.  But this is a country where slave collars are legal, so the King and the nobility would - try to arrange for neither you or the Demon Lord to survive the final battle, I'd guess..."  Haroun realizes he's not really supplying emotional comfort here.  "Uh, the final battle does usually come down to magic instead of swords, if that helps.  If what you want is for there to not be a final battle at all, with swords or without them - you'd have to break the entire system, or find some way to force the Demon Lord to back down without a fight.  And Professor Nightstar acts like that's an option and Summoned Heroes are to blame for not doing that, but he's never said one word about how or why that would be possible.  But we could go to my academy and you could talk to him, if you wanted to take the risk on trusting him..."  Haroun sighs.  "I'm sorry.  I wish I had something less awful to say.  Uh, there might be some interesting magic you can cast with a tenth of mana, if you can cast arbitrarily complicated spells just by reading them out of books?  It - it might take some rejiggering to get it down to literally a tenth.  I mean, people aren't optimizing spells for that.  But high-Skilled people can rejigger things."

There's a lot of that Haroun doesn't know how to address.  "I - I realize that this isn't the major issue here, unless it is, but - it's the part that I understand the best, so - ordinary good people was meant to exclude... about 80% of the nobility.  If you survive your battle, you wouldn't be the first Summoned Hero to go around executing every surviving king who allowed slave collars.  The Hero before the Hero before you did exactly that.  The problem is, after the Summoned Hero dies, people figure there's not much chance of a Demon Lord appearing in the next year.  And a century after that, they figure it's not likely a Summoned Hero will show up that decade.  So here we are.  And you - you might be smarter not to let on how you feel about slave collars.  I mean, you would get stronger support from maybe half the people, including me and my family, and most of the professors I know.  But this is a country where slave collars are legal, so the King and the nobility would - try to arrange for neither you or the Demon Lord to survive the final battle, I'd guess..."  Haroun realizes he's not really supplying emotional comfort here.  "Uh, the final battle does usually come down to magic instead of swords, if that helps.  If what you want is for there to not be a final battle at all, with swords or without them - you'd have to break the entire system, or find some way to force the Demon Lord to back down without a fight.  And Professor Nightstar acts like that's an option and Summoned Heroes are to blame for not doing that, but he's never said one word about how or why that would be possible.  But we could go to my academy and you could talk to him, if you wanted to take the risk on trusting him..."  Haroun sighs.  "I'm sorry.  I wish I had something less awful to say.  Uh, there might be some interesting magic you can cast with a tenth of mana, if you can cast arbitrarily complicated spells just by reading them out of books?  It - it might take some rejiggering to get it down to literally a tenth.  I mean, people aren't designing spells for that.  But high-Skilled people can rejigger things."