And thus, the academic year commenced.
Cæ soon became absorbed into the academics, both theory and training. The Elendir Institute of Magic was one of the most pressuring and challenging magicademies as far as its difficulty went. As the magicademy that received the most talented students across the entire nation and even other nations, it bore the responsibility of forging powerful mages from them that would go on to become the master and archmages of the future.
And thus, while there were plenty of privileges that students of lesser magicademies could only dream of, there were also considerable burdens that came with it.
There were very few students who could afford to spend much time on anything else outside of their training or studies.
Cæ was among them.
Although his Acquired Savant Syndrome wasn't particularly helpful with his theory, he still found himself being able to digest the knowledge at a remarkably quick pace, getting rid of the need to spend many hours on it after class.
It left him enough time to spend his after-class hours exactly the way he wanted, whether it was spending time within the magicademy or outside meeting Mr. Norton for the reply to his offer.
"Thank you for coming to see me on such short notice, Mr. Cæ." Mr. Norton's tone was friendly and flustered. "I apologize for calling you on such short notice."
"Not at all," Cæ replied with a slight nod. "I was quite happy to get your message."
After all, Mr. Norton had chosen to reject his offer outright, he most certainly would not have requested to speak with him in person.
This was a sign that, at the very least, he was interested in what Cæ had to offer.
The man smiled sheepishly as he shifted his glasses. "I'm sure that you have already gleaned my intent to a certain extent, but before I begin I would like to thank you for offering me an invite to your business venture."
Cæ simply gazed at him with a light nod, waiting for him to continue.
"This is a bit personal and embarrassing to admit to someone I'm meeting for the first time, but it has helped my self-esteem," he tried to avoid his inner awkwardness from creeping into his tone. "I wanted to inform you how much it meant for someone to approach me regarding a failed venture of mine and value my skills and experience the way you have. Frankly, I don't know whether I will look back on this decision with regret or relief, but I just wanted to let you know how much I appreciate your offer because…"
His tone and expression grew severe, "…I have decided to accept your offer."
A small, brief smile appeared on Cæ's face. "I look forward to working with you. My offer of a greater signing salary than your existing salary and equity in my yet-to-be company will be honored, rest assured. I welcome you on board as a part-owner and manager of the company. My strengths are in business strategy. I hope that you will be able to handle execution and operations with your skillset and experience."
"You can leave it to me," Mr. Norton's expression and tone grew more confident. "I have experience with scheduling and inventory management for the production of mini-housing units in my old business. And even though your micro-housing units are different from the product I tried to sell, the experience should be largely translatable."
"Brillant," Cæ grew more enthusiastic. "For now, I think we should flesh out our vision more. Then set up tentative conditions and goals to achieve that vision, and then set a realistic timeframe and a plan to fulfill those conditions and goals and eventually achieve our ultimate vision."
"Then, let's do that," Mr. Norton nodded. "Frankly, fleshing out our vision with absolute clarity itself will take many more meetings. But it should be fine to chart out at least a broad direction."
Cæ nodded, reaching for his bag placed at the side of the table.
"Oh, looks like you have come prepared," Mr. Norton noted.
"I did predict that you would likely say yes if you had requested for this meeting. I didn't want to waste this opportunity, so I decided to bring the relevant materials to facilitate a meaningful discussion."
He pulled out a binder of several sheets that he had gotten printed at the magicademy, placing them on the table.
Most were data sheets citing relevant statistics of the slums, including estimated population, income per capita, and other estimates on the number of housing units consumed by the residents of the slums.
Another was a map of Colohen City.
"To reiterate, the proposed business model I have in mind is rather simple," Cæ began. "We manufacture, distribute, and sell micro-housing units to the residents of the slums. The business strategy is to tap into latent, untapped demand for housing that is both safe and able to protect them from the elements. We will tap into demand that nobody else in the housing industry is tapping into due to the low purchasing power parity by getting rid of ninety-nine percent of the material and labor costs of conventional housing with micro-housing units."
Mr. Norton nodded thoughtfully. "The most fundamental condition for success in business is finance. If you are lacking in this particular area, then your business is beyond doomed. Last time, you told me that you are able to tap into prime business loans by virtue of your identity as a student of Elendir, and I do agree that is a good reason to be confident, but the loans that you are able to get your hands will serve as our venture magicapita constraint."
Cæ shook his head. "Don't worry about magicapita. I already have an extremely reliable and stable line of funds."
He briefly told him about how he had gotten accepted for the extra-curricular sponsorship program, although he didn't tell him how. The contract he signed with the principal included a non-disclosure agreement that he didn't want to violate.
Especially since the principal has already revealed that the magicademy was keeping a close eye on him.
"Oh, and you got in with no strings attached?" Mr. Norton's eyes widened. "These kinds of programs usually demand stake in the firm, did you concede that to them?"
His tone reflected concern.
And rightfully so.
Obtaining a stake in return for funding was one of the most classic means by which oligarchs managed to control small and disruptive businesses and ensure that they didn't make business decisions that could affect their oligopoly.
All his flustered sheepishness disappeared as he peered into Cæ's eyes with a pointed gaze.
If Cæ had chosen to essentially sell the company stake out for some money, then he would have backed out from the venture then and there.
"Relax," Cæ assured him. "I did not sell stake or any other means of control over the company I don't intend to make this line of funds a regular source to fund our operations. There are other commitments, but they are purely personal in my capacity as a student and entirely detached from the business."
Mr. Norton heaved a sigh. "I'm glad to hear that. No good would come of allowing a detached and powerful third party like the Elendir Institute of Magic to interfere. Regardless, that does indeed cover magicapita. However, to understand how much magicapita we precisely need, we will have to iron out all other aspects of the business."
Cæ nodded. "This is where your experience as a manager will be most needed."
The man nodded. "We have a business model, strategy, and financing. I believe the next most important step to flesh out what is the very core of this business strategy: The output. The micro-housing unit is at the very core of this business strategy. Only after fleshing out the product will we be able to identify the estimated cost of production and necessary inputs. Only after we have identified those two variables can we begin to flesh out the other aspects of the business, such as production, management, marketing, sales, and operations, and so the question is…"
His eyes peered straight into Cæ's.
"Whether you have done enough market research into the slums to identify what the constraints for the cost of production are based on your research and experience with the slums?" he continued. "What is your estimated consumer base within the slums, and what is the median income of this segment of the slums?"
Thankfully, Cæ had done his homework on this.
He reached for the binder that he had gotten, consisting of several sheets featuring data on the slums and its residents.
"Collecting economic data on the slums is unfortunately very difficult, so all the data that I'm about disclose comes with an asterisk," Cæ began. "For one, about forty percent of Colohen City's population belongs in the slums, slightly below average for the nation's cities. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median income of the residents of the slums is…"
Cæ gazed up. "…about one-thousand five hundred leenars."
Mr. Norton winced. "That… that is worse than I had imagined."
Cæ nodded. "Even with micro-housing units, it's fair to say that those within the slum who earn this much, or less, are most certainly outside of our targeted market segment. In fact, I can safely say that ninety percent of the slums will not be able to afford the proposed micro-housing."
Mr. Norton nodded. "That means that even if we're targeting the slums, it's actually a very small part of the total population."
It could be helped.
The slums were the slums for the reason.
If a large majority of the slums were able to easily afford micro-housing units, then they wouldn't have been living in slums in the first place.
"According to the wealth distribution within the slums, we are aiming for the very peak of earners," Cæ passed the data on to Mr. Norton, who studied it carefully. "Assuming that daily expenses are in the range of fifty leenars, then…"
"The report specifies that daily expenses are estimated to be only twenty leenars, though," Mr. Norton frowned.
Cæ shook his head.
"That data only accounts for basic necessities, but what people outside the slums don't know is that simply not being targeted has its costs," Cæ explained. "They're known as collections."
Mr. Norton tilted his head. "…Collections?"
"The slums are not safe," Cæ's tone grew dark as his gray eyes grew fierce. "Especially if you live deeper in the more dangerous areas. Without the protection of the law, men round up in gangs and claim entire segments of the slums as their territory. People living within those territories need to pay 'protection fees', which is essentially just thinly veiled extortion. They pay up a small amount to buy their safety from, not just the gang of their area, but also the gangs of other turfs. This expense is not included in daily expense reports of these bureaus."
The atmosphere grew heavy as a flood of unpleasant memories surged within his mind. This hateful and frustrating protection fee that gangs collected was one of the most powerful drives for Cæ's previous goal of simply getting out of the slums and living a decent life in the posher districts of Colohen City.
Cæ had made sure to stay far away from claimed gang territory the second time around when he returned to the slums after being discharged.
Mr. Norton simply gazed at him with a stunned expression. "…You have my condolences."
Cæ shook his head. "It's in the past. More importantly…"
He pulled a map of Colohen City, drawing an imaginary line around the innermost circle of the marked slum areas.
"The innermost portion of the slums closest to the inner districts are the places we will be targeting. These are where the less poor people reside and are the people that we will be targeting with our business. I already have a pretty good estimate of about one thousand leenars as the total cost of production when considering their purchasing power and our profit percentage."
His gaze returned to Mr. Norton.
"This estimate will serve as the constraint for the research and development targets. Once the product development process is done, we will slowly be able to flesh everything else."