It wasn't easy trying to protect his business from the possibility of the court filing an injunction on the Slum Talent Acquisition Program. After all, much of his business and commercial strategy had relied on the availability of the ready protection of the Elendir Institute of Magic to go deeper and deeper into the empowered markets of the slums, thanks to the credit program that the Mendel Administration had launched.
Without the protection of the Elendir Institute of Magic, they wouldn't be able to safely conduct business in the Colohen Slums. They would need to move to other cities and towns around the entire country to expand their markets.
This was much more capital-intensive than just heading deeper into the Colohen Slums. They would need to contract with other contract manufacturers based in those cities, or invest heavily in their own native transportation and storage facilities in their new markets.
They would only need to spend a lot to hire workers native to those markets since Cæ obviously couldn't have Dlint and his subordinates running between cities and towns.
Cæ did indeed intend to expand Trinity Housings to other cities and towns, but he truly wanted to maximize all potential gains from the Colohen Slums before moving on so that it could fuel his expansions to other markets with the revenues that he would be getting from it.
Unlike the first time, he wouldn't be getting any more sponsorship from the Elendir Institute of Magic—not under these circumstances, with a spotlight blaring all over the Headmistress and her potentially illicit activities alleged by the Nelnmont Family.
It had greatly funded his initial expenditures, such as purchasing their factory bases and hiring workers, even before he had made a profit.
Of course, there were other sources of magicapita, for example, loans or even going public and selling shares of their company in the Elendir Stock Exchange to raise magicapita for their ventures.
He shook his head as he returned home after his talk with the Headmistress.
The talk with them had at least helped clarify the truth, unless she was blatantly lying to him through her teeth, which wasn't impossible. It also helped him understand the risks and benefits that were associated with a continued association with her.
He also understood the potential consequences of this lawsuit, no matter what he chose to do.
If the judge agreed to place an injunction with all funds and resources associated with the allegations, if found credible and urgent enough, then he was screwed no matter what he did.
One thing he definitely didn't want to do was shine a glaring signal that all the allegations made by the Nelnmont Family were true by trying to cut all ties with the Headmistress, for example.
Innocent people didn't act so erratically in the face of false claims. He didn't want to give the impression that he had something to hide that could potentially be used as evidence by the Nelnmont Family.
He would need to continue with the slum talent acquisition programs as well.
Not just because Trinity Housings' protection was contingent upon it, but also because he didn't want to give the Nelnmont Family what they wanted. They were doing all this because they didn't want people from the slums gaining power and climbing the ranks of the political echelons of Elendir by gaining magic power.
The more enfranchised and empowered the people of the slums became, the more they could threaten the power of incumbent power blocs like the elite families of the nation. Not to mention, the people of the slums hated said power blocs, even if they weren't too literate to understand exactly what was behind the source of all their suffering.
Keeping them in the slums was the best bet for families and that pissed Cæ of enough to want to sabotage their goal.
It wasn't that he had suddenly become an ally to the people of the slums, although anybody would conclude that he was some sort of equitist activist based on his actions.
Low-profit margin housing units for people in the slums.
Leading the operations of a program meant to empower the people of the slums and giving them the opportunity for great upward mobility.
It lent credence to the allegations that the Headmistress had brainwashed him with her known equitist leanings.
However, in truth, Cæ was only doing this for economic and financial motives, but he didn't mind the satisfaction of watching the elite families gnash their teeth with each elite talent he found in the slums and brought back to the Elendir Institute of Magic.
With each success, he made the prospects more alluring for not just the Elendir Institute of Magic but the other elite magicademies.
They were watching very closely, trying to evaluate whether doing all this work in the slums was truly worth it or not. One thing that helped was the fact that the Elendir Institute of Magic was selling magical talent data of the people of the slums, allowing those with decent talent to potentially be approached by magicademies.
Everybody in the magicademics industry understood that this was perhaps the most important phase in what would prove to be a success or a failure, and Cæ had no intention of allowing his enemies to get what they wanted.
CLACK
He heaved a deep, tired breath as he locked the door to his dormitory room behind him, despite the fact that the entire dormitory was largely empty because of all the students who had gone back home for the holidays, leaving a few students in the student council, like Sorenon and Melia, among others.
Having just come back from a long day of fighting against the mafia mages and stressing about the lawsuit, he was truly quite exhausted, lazily turning on the television in the living room of his extravagant dormitory room, skimming through several news channels.
He froze as he came across one featuring an image of Headmistress Lenolia.
Beside the image was a live feed of a young anchorwoman, neatly dressed in classy but formal attire and a well-groomed appearance, gazing straight into the camera.
"…And for the latest news on the very recent shocking news of civil lawsuit from the Nelnmont Family upon the Headmistress accusing her of nothing short of embezzlement!" she continued with an emphatic tone and exaggerated energy, practically shouting at the camera. "A statement from the lead counsel, who is none other than the patriarch of the Nelnmont Family himself! Confirms that the Nelnmont Family is indeed going to be pursuing punitive damages and potentially collaborate with the relevant investigative agencies and prosecutors for criminal charges! With us, we have a popular political pundit, Mr. Sharn Morilin, writer of the popular book 'The Dichotomy of Elendir', with us right now—"
The stream shifted to feature the feed of an older man in a formal suit in what appeared to be a domestic study room with a camera angle inclined upward, causing him to appear to loom over the camera unnervingly.
"Mr. Sharn," she continued with projected interest. "You made a claim on online media, declaring this as nothing more than a simple political powerplay from the Nelnmont Family to try and sabotage the Headmistress, could you elaborate more on that, please?"
"Of course. Let me begin by thanking you for having me on. And to answer your question…" the older man smiled. "The fact of the matter is that if there was any misappropriation of funds happening in the Elendir Institute of Magic, it was most likely nothing major and certainly nothing that would explicitly violate the rules, I would imagine. That's not to say that mishandling of funds for personal use is acceptable, but the fact of the matter is that there have been even shadier dealings in the past in ventures that the Nelnmont Family is a part of, where they have chosen to remain silent and not act. So it really begs the question—"
He shrugged exaggeratedly. "Why the hell have they chosen to make such a big fuss this time? And the answer is obviously political, most likely linked with this so-called slum talent acquisition program that had hit the news a few months ago. And that would explain why the Headmistress has not yet been fired from her position. It's all just a political game!"
"Very fascinating," the anchorwoman replied with apparently immense fascination at his argument. "Joining you today to defend the Nelnmont Family and offer some pushback upon your perspective is activist Melina Meerheart from the Elendir Students' Rights Group, who seeks to protect our students from the faults of the education sector. Welcome to the show!"
A third feed, featuring a middle-aged woman with graying hair smiling at the camera. "Thank you for having me on. I would like to begin by saying that I find it appalling that credible allegations of harmful interactions between the Headmistress and the student in question are not the central issue of the matter here. We should be fully investigating Headmistress Lenolia after firing her from her position to ensure that she cannot do more damage to her students. I believe that the state should—"
"With all due respect, Miss Melina," Mr. Sharn scoffed at her words. "It's just absurd to even pretend like there's any reasonable case to be made that she's engaging in any form of student abuse whatsoever. There's no credible evidence, and even the lawsuit blatantly admits that there's only circumstantial evidence in favor of its absurd claims. The notion that the Headmistress of the Elendir Institute of Magic is trying to brainwash one student for her own means is just preposterous! The Headmistress has a squeaky clean record and has clearly acted above board."
The older woman glared at him. "The idea that there needs to be absolute proof for each accusation is absurd! With someone as powerful as her and someone who specializes in divination as she does, it would be effortless for her to ensure that there is never any concrete proof. Circumstantial evidence is still considered powerful evidence in a court of law. Not to mention—"
She threw her hands up, leaning forward with frustration. "She announced the program right before he could make his graduation speech, for crying out loud! It's clear that she has gained control over him as she is exercising an abusive relationship over her student!"
Cæ's expression increasingly degenerated with disgust as he watched the two guests lashing out at each other rather aggressively and impatiently, constantly cutting each other off as they made great, emphatic arguments, declaring the other's points null and void.
It was truly unpleasant that the media weaponized something that was extremely serious to him into some sort of clown show form of entertainment. None of it was being covered with the journalistic integrity that he felt he deserved, although admittedly, he was happy that they didn't aggressively plaster his face across the screen.
In truth, they were both right and wrong to a certain extent.
Mr. Sharn was correct about the motive, but was being naive about the Headmistress' innocence, while Ms. Melina was far too caught up in her own politics to even consider this matter objectively. But they had rather sharply opposing views, making for an intense back and forth while the anchor remained silent, happy that she could just let the two of them at each other and keep the show engaging nonetheless.
BZZZT
He switched off the news in a bad mood before simply retiring for the day.
There were many things to consider and think about that he had yet to.
And yet, he was done for the day, desperately needing some rest.