The Student Council was not pleased to hear about Cæ's unwillingness to take into account consensus and dissenting opinions. Unfortunately, there wasn't much they could do about it since the Headmistress herself had appointed him as the leader of the program. Additionally, the more self-aware and sincere ones among them could understand that they truly were unequipped to deal with operations in the slums.
"Let me begin by laying out the precise conditions of the Outer District Talent Acquisition Program in accordance with the exact wording that Headmistress Lenolia has chosen to pen down," Cæ explained. "The exact precise wording of the objective of the program is, quote, 'to search for, identify, and compel individuals with magic aptitude falling within the range of the talent of all admitted students of the Elendir Institute of Magic, to join the Institute thereafter.'"
Ordinarily, the exact wording was not all that important in a casual conversation regarding the program, but for the student council, their performance would be evaluated based on whether or not they fulfilled the objectives of the program in accordance with the penned objectives.
"In other words, we are not expected to find the absolute most talented individuals of the entirety of the slums," Cæ remarked knowingly. "We just need to find individuals with enough talent that would have gotten accepted in the Elendir Institute of Magic had they taken the magic aptitude test in the inner city. With that in mind…"
He directed a sweeping gaze across all members of the Student Council, "We do not need to conduct a magic aptitude test on literally every individual in the slums. However, we just need to target enough of a proportion of the slums such that we are very likely to run into as many admissible, magically talented individuals in the slums as possible under our constraints, which comprise things like…"
He gestured to the table, "labor. We only have so many student council members, and we cannot expand our council. Only the Headmistress possesses that authority. Even when we consider the executive wing of the Elendir Institute of Magic, they're not enough. Large as they are, they are also burdened with an enormous number of other tasks and operations, including the ones that keep this massive magicademy running and functioning."
The members of the Student Council stirred at his words.
Although almost none of them were pleased by Cæ's appointment as the highest leader of the program by the Headmistress, they had to admit that his words were quite sensible and logical.
"Another constraint is magicapita," Cæ remarked. "We only have a budget of ten million leenars."
Cæ couldn't even believe that he would ever utter those words, but here he was.
And he was right, ten million leenars was a lot to him in isolation, but when one considered the fact that they had to scour the entirety of the slums looking for magically talented people while also tackling the liabilities of the operations such as the resistance from the gangs and the Colohen Mafia that would definitely fight back against Elendir Institute of Magic stealing the magic talent that had essentially belonged to them all this time, then one realized that it ten million wasn't that large sum of money.
"We also have time constraints," Cæ reminded them. "If we had a whole year for this operation, we would have been able to get more done. But with less than two months at our disposal, we have almost no breathing room whatsoever. The time constraint, in particular, prevents us from developing extremely sophisticated or complex plans. We won't be able to engage in the comprehensive research and testing of these plans to know whether they are effective or not."
Because the Headmistress had to wait until she could squeeze the most political capital from Cæ as an asset, she could only unveil her plan at his graduation, which was, of course, at the end of the year. It meant that they would have a very short period of time to find the students of the sum.
It meant that they would have to resort to unsophisticated plans with low complexity; they needed a leader who was able to operate in the slums without the need for extensive research and preparation.
With that in mind, it was no wonder that the Headmistress was adamant about having as the leader the program.
"With limited time, capital, and labor, we will keep our strategy simple," Cæ replied. "We will rely on powerful incentive structures to attract the citizens of the slums to undertake the magic aptitude test. With no familiarity with how the test works, we cannot expect our slum applicants to complete the test quickly or easily, so it will be more time-consuming than the relatively quick affair that the magic aptitude test is in the inner city of the slums."
The members of the student council stirred as they leaned in closer, intrigued by what he was saying.
"We cannot rely on force or pressure of any kind, of course," Cæ remarked. "The Elendir Institute of Magic will need to attract these potential students with incentives alone."
"…Will it really be that difficult to attract them to the Elendir Institute of Magic?" one student asked with a raised eyebrow. "They're highly impoverished, are they not? We won't need to dangle too many fruits to get them to leap with ecstasy, will we?"
A wave of chuckles emerged from some of the students while Cæ simply gazed at them with an impassive expression.
The air grew strangely tense as his frosty eyes remained fixed on them.
"Your question validates the Headmistress' decision to entrust this operation to me," Cæ replied calmly, much to their chagrin. "Unfortunately, you're completely wrong."
Several members of the Student Council frowned in confusion. "But how? Isn't it true that the people of the slums are extremely impoverished? If that's the case, isn't it also true that they will be very desperate for the most basic commodities?"
Cæ heaved a sigh. "Do you not know what is the one thing that the people of the slums lack more than those basic commodities?"
They frowned again.
Was there something that they were deprived of to a greater extent?
"…It's trust."
Cæ's tone was solemn.
His sharp eyes swept over the members of the Student Council. "They lack trust more than they lack the commodities you speak of. You need to understand that these people live in a place where deceit and deception are the bread and butter of many to rob or scam others. Very frequently for something as simple as theft, but many a time for something more insidious, such as human trafficking.
The students froze at those words.
"Human trafficking, particularly of women and girls, is particularly rampant in the slums," Cæ continued with a chilling tone. "And while the media portrays human trafficking to be a violent crime where the victims are dragged off with force or after being drugged, most human trafficking occurs through deception and deceit primarily. You are lured with compelling and tempting offers of a promise of a better life, and before you realize the scam, you are already trapped with no room for escape. That is what the people of the slums are accustomed to. And so…"
Cæ eyed the visibly unsettled members of the Student Council.
"How do you think the people of the slums will react if you make them wild promises of a wonderful and heavenly life?"
Realization dawned on the ignorant students as they understood the point that he was making.
Not a single person in the slums would take them seriously.
It didn't matter if they had fancy magic attire, wands, and spectacular magic. It didn't matter if they had documentation proving that they were authorized by the Elendir Institute of Magic, which was strictly in adherence with the law of the land.
They simply would not trust them.
"Then…" one of the students murmured with a confused expression. "Then how the hell are we supposed to convince them to join the Elendir Institute of Magic?"
The smallest of smiles uncharacteristically cracked at the edge of Cæ's mouth for a brief moment.
"Let's just say that I have something special in mind regarding that. A solution that involves using magic in a rather inventive way."
The members of the student council frowned as they exchanged suspicious glances with each other, before turning back to Cæ with dubious looks in their eyes. They also remained quiet as they ultimately decided to get with the program and simply accept him as the leader of the program.
They wanted the perks of a successful operation, so they weren't going to allow themselves not to be a part of this operation. The entirety of the Student Council watched and listened as Cæ continued explaining his plan to all of them.
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