With that incentive in mind, Cæ was finally genuinely intrigued by the notion of working in the Student Council. Until now, accepting the offer was simply a matter of obligation with his deal with the Headmistress, or other unrelated benefits to the job.
But with this, he saw the merit of the work itself.
"Not to mention," President Mileila continued with a wry smile. "This isn't unpaid labor. Although the pay is extremely humble, it isn't bad."
"Oh?" Cæ raised an eyebrow. "How much is it?"
"I project that you will earn around a hundred thousand leenars a month," she murmured thoughtfully.
"Wha—!" Cæ did a double-take as he stared at her with a stunned expression. "That much?!"
Her confident smile grew a little befuddled. "Ah, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to belittle the sum. But yes, that is indeed roughly how much someone in the position I'm offering you will be paid."
He forgot that she was extremely wealthy.
She was the heir of the Karjakin Family, after all.
One of the thirteen great families of Elendir.
It was no wonder she thought the amount was very humble. Although she spoke with a well-adjusted and grounded mannerism, her world view and especially her perception of money was undoubtedly very warped by her upbringing.
"…Just a heads-up, next time, you should start with that," Cæ gazed at her with a hint of disbelief in his gray eyes.
"Yes, it was quite remiss of me," she accepted his advice gracefully. "Once again, I'm happy that you have accepted my offer this quickly."
Cæ nodded. "Thank you for inviting me. I was curious about a particular matter that I was hoping you could help shed light on. Is the student council more comprised of commoners or the wealthy?"
It was a pointed question.
With some not-so-pleasant implications, that the distinction and composition did matter.
And the truth was that it did matter.
The fact of the matter was that this was something he needed to know about ahead of time, since it would affect the environment there for him. Pretty much all noble students that he had interacted with until the President herself was, well, unpleasant, to say the least.
Five of them had basically tried to murder him on sight.
That was a big matter to him on whether or not he wanted to deal with the people that he was working with were good people or not.
She directed a knowing gaze at him. "The Magicademy prohibits discrimination and mandates merit. We have plenty of students of all manner of backgrounds because we adhere to school standards."
Cæ raised an eyebrow.
He didn't buy the first half of that.
Or rather, even if it is was true, he didn't think it changed the point he was making. Rules could not stop discrimination, if it could, the world would be an astronomically better place.
Of course, he doubted that the President before him would happily disclose any of the negative incidents that she had undoubtedly witnessed over the years at the Elendir Institute of Magic.
"Well, I appreciate hearing that there are students of all manner of backgrounds," Cæ replied. "I hope that we have a harmonious work environment. I would be… disillusioned, if there were any substantial occurrences of prejudicial hostility between students based on their backgrounds."
"You have my word," she assured him, "that that won't be any such workplace hostility. One of the most important parts of being part of the Student Council is being able to work with others. We do not choose students who display a propensity for conflict. For example…"
A small smile emerged on her face. "Silian Syvester of the Syvester Family. A highly gifted talent from a prestigious magic family. And yet, he disqualified himself from our consideration the moment he attacked you during the transfer period."
Cæ stirred at her words.
Indeed, this was much more compelling than some pretty promises.
"The same is true for Delilah Dovelhoun," President Mileila explained. "We are not interested in troublemakers, regardless of their background, for the Student Council."
Cæ was a little surprised that she was able to be as impartial as she claimed.
After all, the wealthy private class had great stake and influence over the magicademy. They would surely be able to leverage their influence to get their heirs into the student council, right?
"I know what you're thinking." She heaved a sigh. "Unfortunately, you have underestimated the significance of the Elendir Institute of Magic. Nepotism is indeed very rampant in the upper echelons of our country. However, the Elendir Institute of Magic was founded by all powers of this nation with the one and only one purpose."
Her eyes grew more intense.
"Forging the strongest and most powerful mages out of the very best talents in the entire nation. Yes, the ten great families are stakeholders of this nation, but individually, they have a very minor ownership over the magicademy. That includes my own family. Do you think this is enough to throw their weight around in this magicademy when there are other stakeholders that oppose them and use their influence to negate theirs?"
"Ah…" Cæ's eyes lit up with a hint of intrigue. "I see, it would be against the interest of some of the other interest groups and power blocs if more affluent families use nepotism to further their own benefits at the cost of the mission of the magiacademy."
She nodded with a composed expression. "There is a reason that every single power within the nation has gotten a piece of the pie. It's so that nobody will have enough influence to override the interest of others to perpetrate their own."
Cæ raised an eyebrow.
He found it interesting that the President was telling this to him so straightforwardly.
It was a sensitive topic, and even if she was trying to convince Cæ of the merits of this strategy, he found it interesting that she was so open about such controversial matters.
And yet, he stayed his tongue.
He had just met her that very day.
He didn't know anything about her and they certainly weren't friends.
"Well…" Cæ broke the silence. "I suppose that brings me to an end to all the questions I had to ask regarding your offer. I appreciate it and being recognized for my merit. I look forward to working with you in the Student Council."
She smiled appreciatively. "As do I. It should be official by tomorrow, but we can start the initiation process today, if you'd like."
Cæ nodded. "I'd appreciate that. However, I did have an inquiry, do the student council have access to the student database? With profiles as to what all the students and teachers specialize in?"
She raised an eyebrow. "Well, yes. However, I need to mention that you will be swearing a non-disclosure clause in regards to all classified information, which is, well, everything. But especially applicable to the personal data and profiles. There will be consequences of suspension and potentially expulsion should this be broken, do you understand?"
Cæ raised his hands lightly. "I do not intend to violate that clause. I am simply looking for someone, and I do hope that the student database will help me find them. I won't be taking any records of the data out of the headquarters nor communicating confidential information to others."
She grew relaxed at those words. "If it's merely to find someone, of course, you can use the student database. Is this related to academic or non-academic purposes? Depending on what it is for, you might be able to get more clearance."
"Clearance, you say?" Cæ raised an eyebrow. "I didn't know that there were such sophisticated protocols surrounding information."
"It is to be expected," she remarked. "The information in the student database includes but isn't limited to background checks, public surveillance reports, disciplinary records, grades, and other things. This isn't mundane information and is, in fact, information that a lot of people would kill to get when you consider just how high profile some of the students are, whether because of their background."
"That makes sense," Cæ agreed. "What clearance level would I have?"
"A level-one clearance," she remarked. "You can access low-priority information that will likely be publicly available. Certain basic academic records will be available to you, including the details you mentioned."
"Ah, then that's good enough," Cæ reassured her. "I presume that I can only begin exercising my power as a student council member."
She nodded, stretching her hand sideways to her desk as a small magic circle appeared before her. Her pupils dilated as the runes in the circle evoked an eidos template in her mind that she altered and fleshed with her imagination while her mana-motive force drove mana to converge with the eidos she had created.
And thus, a magic spell was born.
WHOOSH
A package of books rose and gently glided towards Cæ, slowing down right before him.
CLASP
Cæ grabbed that package with raised eyebrow. "This…?"
"It contains guides for the administrative protocols for the student council," she replied. "Read it. Memorize it to the best of your ability. The rest you will pick up with a day of hands-on training, and the remaining details with experience."
It was the smoothest way to get him on track.
"I imagine this will take a week to memorize," she remarked. "So, start with simply getting a broad understanding of everything and we will slowly warm you up with everything in the mean-time with hands-on demonstration and experience."
"Understood, President Mileila." Cæ nodded.
Her smile grew a little wry. "You don't need to address me like that, you can just call me Mileila."
"Then, you can call me Cæ," he replied simply, studying the package. "Well then…"
He turned towards her with a nod. "I appreciate the offer and am grateful for the time that you have taken to speak with me. Unfortunately, it seems I have a lot of work, as I'm sure you do too, so I should probably head back home to the dorms and get on top of all of this."
"Of course, we can chat more tomorrow."
The two of them shook hands before parting ways.
Cæ fell into thought as he pondered about his current situation.
"I… am going to become very busy."
That was an understatement.
He was juggling academics, business, and now the student council simultaneously.
He wasn't going to have even the slightest amount of free time from this point on until one of them let on and gave him some room to breathe.
"…Business should be more manageable once a certain degree of success is achieved, right?"
He wasn't optimistic.
A business, especially a new business, was like a newborn baby that required constant attention at pretty much any time of the day. If he didn't have Mr. Norton on-board, this idea would have been screwed from the very start.
"My academics cannot suffer, no matter what."
Not because of the grades or the report card.
"My mastery of magic cannot fall behind."
Magic ran the world.
The most powerful people in the world were mages.
They were power in its very purest form without any social or legal structure propping them up.
If he wanted to destroy the current world order and build a better one, he would need to accrue mastery of magic.
'The student council gig is the most unimportant to me.'
Compared to business and academics, the student council gig didn't contribute to his two agendas of cultivating or mastering magic as much directly.
But he knew that there was a good chance that it would be of great use in the future when he wanted to set out on a venture and he had this merit to his name. He would be able to lower the skepticism that he would encounter in his business ventures with the merit.
"In order to manage all three perfectly, I will need to be extremely effective, efficient, and productive," his eyes steeled with determination. "Not a single hour of the day can go to waste."