The next day, as Cæ was returning back to the dorm after class with Sorenon, Natana, and Kelton buzzing by his side, he paused as he heard his name being called.
"M-Mr. Cæ!"
It was a familiar voice.
He turned around to spot none other than Seliphaz Nermandel.
Her breathing was ragged and exhausted as she leaned on her knees, wiping sweat from her forehead. It took her several seconds to catch her breath as she readjusted her misaligned glasses, before shifting a tuft of her blue hair out of her face.
Kelton and Sorenon studied her with a curious expression while Natana glanced back and forth between Cæ and the older senior student, trying to ascertain their relationship.
"I'm glad to see that you have recovered from your collapse yesterday, Miss Seliphaz," Cæ regarded her with a friendly tone. "I hope you're feeling better."
"I-I am, thank you very much!" she began with a vigorous tone. "T-Thank you for carrying me to the medical ward while I was unconscious! And…"
She lowered her head in apology. "I'm very sorry for mistaking you as a mafia thug!"
Kelton grinned as he struggled to contain his laughter while Sorenon simply tilted his head with a hint of confusion.
Natana, on the other hand, was more focused on the 'carrying me' part.
Cæ simply raised a hand. "It's alright, I suppose the reaction is a little understandable, given my unsightly visage. It was resolved quickly enough by Mileila, so there was no problem."
Natana reacted to both his statement about his appearance and his addressing of the Student Council President by her given name so informally.
"T-That's not true at all!" she chided him lightly, before her cheeks flushed red. "Your features have a very mysterious and dark allure to them!"
Natana nodded with firm agreement.
His expression grew bemused and skeptical.
He wasn't sure why she was lying, perhaps to try and make him feel better because she called him a thug?
There was nothing pretty about a face mangled with scars and a damaged iris that was an eerie light shade of grey.
"You are very kind," he replied with a small, brief smile that faded away as quickly as it came. "Regardless, I'm glad that we are finally able to speak. I had approached you because I wanted to speak to you about your specializations and to make you an offer, if you are interested."
Her face lit up at his words. "Yes! I most certainly am interested! I-I also want to make it up to you for the mess I created yesterday."
"Well, in that case…" Cæ stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Why don't we meet up at the school cafeteria for dinner tonight? It's an elaborate matter that I can't really discuss standing here."
Natana turned towards him with an aghast expression. "A d-date?!"
Cæ frowned as he turned to the girl. "It's just a meeting. Don't say strange stuff."
She winced under his gaze, nodding with a dejected expression.
Cæ turned towards Seliphaz as his eyebrows knitted.
Her cheeks were flushed red.
"…Miss Seliphaz?"
"N-No, it's ok, we can have dinner together."
Cæ simply gazed at her with a strange expression.
"It's a business meeting, I don't intend to discuss anything academic or personal at all," Cæ informed her. "I'm not interested in your academics. At least, not directly for the academic stuff itself."
Her expression lit up with a hint of confusion.
"Business?"
Cæ nodded.
"I'd like to discuss a business venture with you, one that I'm working on."
Her green eyes lit up with surprise. "A b-business venture? Aren't you in the apprentice program?"
"Yes."
She was surprised with that, but readily nodded. "T-Then, let's meet up at the Institute cafeteria tonight.
The two of them bid each other goodbye before parting ways.
"Big brother Cæ, who was that?!" Kelton asked with a curious expression.
"I didn't know you were starting a business," Sorenono remarked with an intrigued expression.
"What are you going to talk to her about?"
Cæ heaved a sigh of exasperation. "Just a business venture I'm working on…"
He straightforwardly explained what kind of business he would be working on, earning their fascination.
"I never took you for a businessman," Kelton murmured. "You always seemed more like a magetant to me!"
"So you plan to hire her for her skill-set." Sorenon thoughtfully remarked.
"Ah, so it truly is purely business…" Natana heaved a sigh of relief.
Cæ raised an eyebrow. "I like to think that was very clear in the conversation."
He indulged the adolescents as they made their way back to the dorm, before isolating himself in his dorm room and immediately getting to work.
The academic pressure on him began escalating tremendously a week into the academic year of the Elendir Institute of Magic.
Especially when he juggled student council matters while also making time to do the research needed to finalize the decision for whether he wanted to pursue production in-house or outsource it.
The week deadline that he had set for himself was rapidly approaching.
He needed to iron out a decision soon.
If his talks with Seliphaz didn't go well, then he would simply give up on in-house development and outsource it to professionals.
Yet, he saw her potential in her.
She specialized in the necessary fields with an express interest in mana-independent engineering, which was one of the prime factors that he was looking for, and why he was reluctant to go to conventional development magitech companies.
All engineering in the modern world was centered around the premise of enchanting magical effects into the magineered product that would require an influx of magical energy. He needed somebody who could engineer functional products without enchanting energy-consumption as a requirement.
Later that night, Cæ dressed up casually with clothes that Mrs. Selvig had had him buy before he departed for the Elendir Institute of Magic. A white t-shirt with an over-shirt and a simple black pair of pants.
STEP
He arrived at the Institute cafeteria ahead of time, directing a sweeping gaze across the entire place.
'This is a cafeteria in name only.'
In reality, it was a massive luxury buffet restaurant with a wide array of spacious seats, enough to accommodate the entirety of the student and staff body. Leather chairs and tables made out of a premium wood, while chandeliers hung from the ceiling, lighting up the entire cafeteria in their golden glow. A large army of waiters and waitresses swiftly crossed the entire restaurant, taking orders and serving dishes.
"H-Hi!" he heard Seliphaz calling out to him from behind him, drawing attention. "Did I keep you waiting?"
She was dressed in a casual t-shirt and skirt that matched the color of her blue hair. Her expression flustered at meeting somebody from the Institute without her student uniform on.
"Not at all," Cæ replied with a composed tone. "I just got here myself, let's have a seat… there."
He pointed at a more isolated part of the cafeteria in the corner, without as many tables nearby.
Her cheeks flushed as she simply nodded.
The two of them sat down before ordering some food.
"…I-I am surprised," she stammered with a flustered expression. "I thought you were a really scary person, but you're actually very… normal."
Cæ raised an eyebrow with a bemused expression. "I'll take that as a compliment. I will admit that our first interaction was… not what I'd expected."
"…I'm really sorry about that! P-Please forgive me!"
She lowered her head apologetically.
"It wasn't my intention to discomfort you like that," Cæ raised his hands. "It's just that when I read about how niche your specialization was, I expected running into someone very bold."
She smiled self-deprecatingly at his words. "…I did indeed choose a very divergent path, didn't I?"
"Well, yes. But in my opinion, that is a good thing. The world has enough magineers as it is, what we need are engineers who don't try to solve every problem with magic," Cæ replied. "It will only cause us to hunger for more and more energy while depriving those without access to that energy will lack even the most basic amenities of modern civilization."
He spoke from experience.
The slums were essentially a century behind the rest of civilization. Those living within them essentially never even experienced the benefits of the Magindustrial Revolution. The more the world focused on enchantments, the more the people in the slums would suffer.
Her smile grew bittersweet and melancholic.
"You see, my father lived his life in the slums."
She spoke with a heavy tone.
One that weighed down on the atmosphere.
"Even when my parents had me, we were just barely within the inner city, living a humble but relatively modern life," she continued with a hint of sorrow in her tone. "The slums were always just around the corner for us. And as bad as we had it…"
Her expression fell even further, "…they had it even worse."
Cæ simply listened to her wordlessly.
"When I scored very high on the magic aptitude test, just enough to get into this magicademy, I was thrilled." Her smile was bittersweet. "I wanted to make life better for people who had gone through what I had gone through. And those who lived through much worse than I have had to. I suppose that has played an important role in my decision to choose such a niche…"
She stirred out of her immersion as she grew flustered under his intense stare. "S-Sorry, you probably didn't want to hear all that."
Cæ simply gazed at her with greater respect in his eyes.
"If anything, I'm even more certain of wanting you on-board with my business venture."
"E-Eh?! Isn't that quick?!"
Cæ found her flustered panic to be rather adorable.
"Let me explain," Cæ calmly replied. "Once I explain what my business venture is, you will understand why I want you on our team, if you are willing to explore the possibility further."
And thus, he explained his business idea, model, and strategy to her.
Her eyes lit up with surprise as he explained that was targeting the slums and why he was targeting the slums. He explained to her what kind of product he was aiming to create and what kind of specialists he needed.
By the time he was done, she looked amazed.
"…I see," she murmured. "N-No wonder you were looking for me. Based on everything you have described, I am perfectly suited to aiding with the product that you have described."
A micro-housing unit that functioned without needing any energy input. Enchants were automatically gone with that requirement, leaving someone like her for the job.
"I-I don't think I've ever heard of any housing company try to create a product that is entirely devoid of magic," she told him with a thoughtful tone. And yet, the more she thought about it, the more she realized that his decision to approach her was truly well-thought.
She specialized in alchemy, mana-material science, and structural engineering.
Alchemy allowed her to develop new materials and substances with special properties that could be used to diversify the kind of engineering products that could be created from it. Mana-material science gave her an in-depth knowledge of the vast variety of substances and materials that possessed mana and had magical properties as a result.
Structural engineering allowed her to leverage these fields to produce remarkable outcomes without even the slightest need for any magical energy supplied to it.
She was perfectly equipped to take on the project of developing the micro-housing unit that Cæ had in mind.