On the bright morning of the very next day, many students had gathered in the general hall of the Elendir Institute of Magic, seated in two different sections. One section, further away from the podium, was comprised of students wearing the usual uniform of the Elendir Institute of Magic.
Another smaller section of students was seated in front, closer to the podium, garbed in black cloaks and a black hat with a circular rim and a square top.
The classic graduation attire.
A wide banner hung atop the podium with the title 'Elendir Institute Graduation Ceremony 1046-47,' proudly announcing the event to all those who beheld it.
The atmosphere tingled with anticipation. The students, apprentice and senior alike, chattered with each other, infected by the air of jubilation that made them more excitable. They constantly threw glances behind them to the third section that occupied more lavish and spacious arrangements of more extravagant seats.
They were noticeably not a part of the Elendir Institute of Magic, with many of them fashioning graying, salt-pepper hair. Their attires were ostentatious and luxurious, woven from the finest of silk, armed with all manner of enchantments that made the air tingle with its magical attire.
A myriad of family crests were proudly embroidered on the chest of the clothes, proudly announcing to the world which family they were.
Many of them had an extraordinary aura of power that sent chills down the spines of the seated students, adding to the nervous energy in the air. They were the parents of many of the graduating students who had, for once, merely appeared exclusively in their role as parents.
Their heavy presence out-shadowed the other half of the parents, who were more humble in their attires and conduct, finding themselves nervous by the sheer extravagance of what was otherwise a fairly grounded event in other universities around the entire nation. The commoner parents of the scholarship students didn't look entirely comfortable in their place, but they were still there to show their graduating children the support that they deserved.
All the graduating students looked nervous and excited, save for one, who simply sat at his seat with his usual stoic severity. Still, even Cæ had to admit that he was enthusiastic to be there. Magical mastery was one of his two primary agendas to fulfill his ultimate ambition.
He had taken a major step in achieving his goal.
STEP
STEP
STEP
The students stirred as their gaze was drawn by the dignified gait of none other than Headmistress Lenolia herself. Her baggy cloaks glowed with numerous runes, many of which were entirely beyond Cæ's understanding. Her smile was perfunctorily knowing, as though she knew much that the students before her did not.
Which she most certainly did by virtue of her position as Headmistress and her rank as a master mage.
She arrived at the speaker's stand, directing a sweeping gaze across the students and parents at the back.
"Dear students and honored parents," she began with a measured and formal tone. "I welcome you all today to this important and significant event celebrating the graduation of students of the Apprentice and Senior Programs alike. We will be honoring and rewarding the years' worth of hard work, perseverance, and brilliance of the students who have earned their respective degrees, marking their newfound qualifications as mages of their respective ranks. Today, we shall…"
Cæ's zoned out of the excessively long and cumbersome speeches of formality, laden with word salads that he simply could not be bothered to listen to. His gaze shifted behind him as he caught a glimpse of the various families that had gathered to observe and celebrate their children's graduation at the edge of his vision.
These were among the rich class that held a very small stake individually. Most of them had too little influence over the Elendir Institute of Magic to get away with much, much to Cæ's relief.
Regardless, he eyed them, hiding his disdain for them.
His ambition of destroying the world order would earn him many enemies.
These families that controlled massive amounts of magicapita were probably number one on the list.
His attention returned as he made eye contact with one particular family that gazed at him with a hint of disdain. A fat man with a balding head, donning a grey formal attire with the crest of a hawk embroidered on the chest, and an older woman with a frosty cold gaze that chilled the air around her.
The Nelnmont Family.
Cæ's gaze returned as he eyed Meilia sitting beside him with a scrutinizing gaze.
She did not display nervous excitement as the other students did.
She displayed fear.
Terror.
He closed his eyes, his gaze returning forward to the Headmistress giving her speech as he tried to get what he saw out of his mind.
He understood what was going on.
They hadn't given up.
And the girl sitting beside him was the one who bore the burden for that.
As long as he played along, he could probably build a decent working relationship with the rich and powerful family and get a pretty lucrative deal out of his relationship with them. Turn a blind eye and pretend he didn't understand what they were doing to her.
Logically, it was the most lucrative course of action, allowing him to squeeze as much out of the family while she endured all the weight and the pressure from her family to successfully marry him eventually and the consequences of her eventual failure. Technically, he wouldn't be doing anything overtly bad, just going with the flow, knowing that it would fully benefit him at the cost of the girl beside him.
This was objectively the best decision to fulfill his ultimate ambition.
He knew that.
'So, why am I hesitating?'
He heaved a sigh as his attention returned to the ceremony.
Before he had realized it, the Headmistress had already begun calling upon students to hand them their graduation certificates, one after another.
He watched Senthil and Meilia get called upon, as well as virtually all other graduating students, while he simply sat there, waiting for his name.
His eyebrow rose.
This was on purpose.
Yet, he knew she wouldn't do something like this if she didn't have something in mind.
"And finally, I would like to call upon the final graduating student of the Apprentice Class," Headmistress Lenolia's commencement of the actual graduation ceremony drew his attention. "Student Council member and the Honors Students of the Colohen Branch of the Elendir Institute of Magic, Mr. Cæ."
A roaring round of applause emerged from the crowd of the student body as Cæ promptly got up and swiftly walked to the stage with a confident gait. He made his way to the speaker's stand, smiling perfunctorily to the Headmistress as she handed him a certificate.
His Apprentice Program certificate.
"I hereby declare you an apprentice mage!" Headmistress Lenolia powerfully declared, as her announcement evoked an even greater applause from the student body. Half of them once detested him based on his background in the slums.
Since then, many things have changed.
His academics, his magic, and particularly his dominance in combat magic earned him a wave of admirers from the commoners and the affluent alike. His aesthetics, which he viewed as tainted and dirty, turned out to be a hit, as many students, in their juvenile admiration, regarded him as 'cool.'
His scars, a painful reminder to him every single day of what he had lost, gave him an air of peril and mystery that completely had the teenagers he was surrounded completely infatuated with him.
While there were still plenty who hated him, viewing him as a slum rat like Silian or simply jealous of everything he had achieved, the sentiment among the students had shifted positively, reflected in the thundering ovation he received.
Cæ accepted the certificate with grace and dignity, giving a pointed and purposeful gaze at the Headmistress.
Headmistress Lenolia smiled with a hint of satisfaction.
In exchange for the venture magicapita that he had gotten from the extra-curricular sponsorship program as per his agreement with the Headmistress, he was to become a leader.
Unfortunately, he had no idea how he had done in her eyes. He had taken some leadership roles as a student council member, however he was not the most outgoing and approachable person and he wasn't particularly helpful and kind to others.
However, it became evident that he had given Headmistress Lenolia enough ammunition to work with.
"And on that note, I would like to take this moment to introduce you to a new program and initiative that the Colohen Branch of the Elendir Institute of Magic will be commencing from the next academic year onwards," she smiled mysteriously. "Students and teachers, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce the Outer-District Magic Talent Acquisition Program to all of you."
The screen behind her lit up, flaring a neat and elegant brochure displaying several key points and other pertinent information.
"As all of you know," she began. "For the first time in the history of the Elendir Institute of Magic, we have had a student from none other than the slums of Colohen City."
Cæ's eyes sharpened with a hint of displeasure.
He didn't appreciate being turned into such a literal prop for her political movement, even if he had agreed to be turned into political capital.
"A single student from the slums has achieved extraordinary results in the span of just one year into his journey into the abyss of magic," she remarked. "A single student has managed to become an important and significant leader-like figure that many look up to and admire amid the apprentice program."
Her smile deepened.
"A single student from the slums managed to achieve such extraordinary results despite having faced hurdles and challenges in his life that many of us cannot even begin to imagine."
A wave of thoughtful silence spread across the crowd.
"The slums of the city contain nearly forty percent of the population, with millions and millions of people living in abject poverty," she continued with a heavy tone. "Many of them are born with the potential of greatness, not unlike Cæ here. Just how much of such talent and potential has been squandered? How much of it has gone to waste, entirely unrealized? Just where would he be if Mr. Cæ here had the opportunity to enter our esteemed institute at the age of sixteen, like everyone else has?"
It didn't take a genius to figure out that he would have achieved extraordinary success, setting him apart as an unparalleled genius. The fact that he had managed to complete the Apprentice Program in one year at the age of twenty-four was proof that he had boundless potential within him. It was truly unfortunate that he had only managed to realize it this late.
Headmistress Lenolia smiled as she set the atmosphere exactly where she wanted it to be.
"We at the Elendir Institute of Magic pride ourselves on taking in the best talents that our nation has to offer, but…" she continued with a heavier tone, "are we?"
The students and teachers alike stirred.
"Are we truly taking in the best talents of the nation when we're not even taking into account almost half the population?"
Displeasure flickered in the eyes of many of the wealthy families that had gathered at the graduation ceremonies.
They were not pleased by this initiative whatsoever.
And they had been completely blindsided by this announcement.
They weren't stupid, of course. They understood that she had been waiting for this day, preparing everything so that she could push for this policy with great momentum, making it much harder for them, as stakeholders of the Elendir Institute of Magic, to push back against her infuriating equitist policy.
"And so," she remarked, "from this year, the Colohen Branch of the Elendir Institute of Magic will be conducting its own magic aptitude test in the Colohen Slums and will be admitting any and all individuals of a fitting age to partake in our program."
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