Contestant Selection

Cæ's gaze shifted over to the boulder of a man with a raised eyebrow.

It wasn't that he hadn't seen him before, but only that he didn't think particularly highly of him. He was among the oldest of students, which meant that he had taken the longest time among all his peers in the senior program. Despite being the oldest among all his students, he hadn't managed to get his hands on the vice-president seat or the president's position.

Of course, that didn't mean he was bad by any means, but it simply didn't compare to the more dazzling growth rates that were exemplary.

"I am honored by your trust and regard," he replied with a solemn tone and a deep voice. "I will serve to the best of my abilities."

President Mileila smiled with a firm nod. "Then come and take your place at the very side of the head of the table."

He immediately got up before taking the empty seat to the president's right side.

"With that out of the way, we now have a fully operational student council," President Mileila remarked. "There are students who have yet to appear due to still recovering from injuries in a recent operation, and they will be absent until they are entirely healed. We will have to make do without them for now, although the Headmistress has assured me that the executive wing of the Elendir Institute of Magic will take over wherever it can. Now, for the first topic on our docket…"

She turned towards Cæ with an expectant gaze. "The Headmistress has finalized the Outer City Talent Acquisition Program into our annual budget. We will be expected to engage in talent acquisition programs in the slums and identify adolescents and young adults with elite talent. And for that, we will need to standardize a system of operations and protocols. Given that you have successfully led the program as director, you will need to aid in the creation of a finalized guidebook for this particular program so that future directors will know what to do."

Cæ nodded. "I can help with that. I myself have learned a lot of new things throughout the entirety of the program, ways to better handle the situations that we tackled and ran into. I will be sure to pass on my improvements to the administration."

She nodded with an appreciative expression. "Then, do you intend to become the director for this program in your remaining years in the Elendir Institute of Magic?"

Cæ shook his head. "No. While it was a fruitful venture for experience in leading operations on the ground, it would be redundant for me to do it again. Thus, I will be washing my hands of this program this year itself. I don't mind serving as a consultant next year."

"That is understandable," President Mileila nodded. "Your consultation will be appreciated by next year's task force, I'm sure. This is still a new program that has only been executed once, that too, in haste. The executive wing doesn't yet have the experience needed to ensure that it flows smoothly with each passing year. The Headmistress intends to increase the budget next year and ensure that we can find as many elite talents in the slums, and it is an initiative that I approve of. For people like yourself and Miss Vloria have proven that we have ignored the potential of the people in the slums for far too long."

The air grew tense.

The atmosphere grew electric.

The mood seemed dark despite the gentle light of the evening illuminating the student council headquarters.

Many of the older students understood the gravity of President Mileila doing what she had done.

The students with affluent families also clearly understood the sheer significance of her words, staring at her with a horrified expression.

She had directly opposed the stance that her family had taken, openly disrespecting her own family and undermining their political goals of sabotaging this program and the interests of the people of the slums.

Cæ raised an eyebrow at those words.

He didn't understand why she was doing that.

Even if she believed what she said and was truly sympathetic to the plight of the people of the slums, she still didn't have to outright disavow her family's political stance on the issue. The air grew uncomfortable as several students, especially the students with affluent backgrounds, stirred in their seats with visible apprehension.

The commoner students, however, were a bit more pleased by her statement and her non-elitist attitude. They weren't entirely cognizant of just how difficult it was for her to state what she had said, for they didn't come from rich families and were more separated from the political conflict that had and still was unfolding between the Headmistress and the elite families of Elendir.

The only one who appeared entirely clueless was Vloria, who simply sat there with an inviolable and fierce aura about her, unchanged.

Of course, given that she was from the slums, she would naturally have no idea about the political struggles between Headmistress Lenolia and her associates and backers, nor did she appear to know much about the students.

"Now, having said that, let's move on to the next agenda on our docket," she remarked, flipping a page before her. "The next agenda we have to deal with is…"

Her eyes lit up with enthusiasm. "The Magic Contest…!"

Immediately, the tension in the air was dispelled as the Student Council grew charged with anticipation and excitement. Not even the worries of being caught in the crossfire of the political conflict could dampen the sheer hype that students felt for this event."

"President, we have to ensure that we send the best of the best that we have!"

"We must ensure that they are as well-trained and well-prepared as they possibly can!"

"We have to win!"

Many student council members erupted with determined declarations, commoner and affluent alike.

She smiled with confidence and sincere enthusiasm.

"We have to win. No…"

Her tone grew more determined.

"We will win."

The student council members erupted in cheers.

One would think that they were about to partake in the Magic Contest right then and there.

"However," President Mileila continued as she leaned with her elbows on her table. "In order to win, we will have to do exactly as many of you have wisely declared. We must ensure that our members are the most fit of the given six competitions."

The Magic Contest contained eight competitions, four of which were team competitions and the other four were individual one-on-one competitions. Each magicademy would need to bring four individual contestants and four teams of contestants for the competition.

Additionally, each competition was divided between the apprentice and senior divisions, so that students of each program would get the opportunity for representation.

Naturally, it wasn't easy to vet the most fit for each competition among their students. The manner in which they evaluated this would decide everything, and a process that wasn't perfect could make it so that they would not choose the most suited students to compete.

There were many variables that needed to be evaluated, of course.

Talent was a huge factor; the Elendir Institute of Magic only selected elite talents, but even within elite talent, there were still many levels and tiers. Most likely, the team would have to consist of the best of the best talents, because it would have an impact on the outcome.

Of course, this was hardly absolute.

Because the Elendir Institute of Magic only selected for talent and nothing else, it didn't necessarily select the most dedicated and hard-working students. There were many highly talented students who lazed around and fooled about while those with lesser talent worked their asses off to make the most of what they had.

There was also a fit and compatibility with the competition, in particular, as well as how well each candidate worked in a team. Their skill and competence for the competition needed to be precisely measured.

Then there was also the fact that they wouldn't directly be competing after being chosen; the Magic Contest was at the very end of the year, after the exams. And thus, there was plenty of time to be trained and coached by the Elendir Institute of Magic.

However, just because some students may have performed less well in the try-outs, it didn't mean they couldn't end up being better after ten months of coaching. There were many students who had a lot of potential for growth and could end up becoming better by the end of the year, rather than people who were better during the time of selection.

Thus, even potential for growth, usually evaluated by age, needed to be accounted for.

However, it was not possible to evaluate potential perfectly from age alone.

Someone like Cæ was the best example, although he was more of an outlier than people realized. He started learning Magic at the age of twenty-four and began growing at unfathomable rates after he started, outpacing even touted geniuses.

In order to truly evaluate the rate of growth, multiple plausible candidates would be chosen for each contestant spot on their roster and would all be put through the training process.

And only shortly before the Magic Contest commenced would the decision for each member be finalized.

Thus, the process of selection for each contestant on the roster needed to be scrupulously perfect, otherwise it could lead to imperfect decisions.

"I believe that the best way to select the contestants will be to simulate the competitions as accurately as possible and have all students try out for them," President Mileila remarked. "That is the best way to go about it; it is also the most tried and tested method of producing the most optimal results. The number of factors that could cause a wrong decision decreases the more accurately we simulate the competitions. However, it won't be easy with competitions that are much larger and difficult to recreate, like Capture the Flag."

That competition in particular required expansive settings and a lot of space, reducing the number of students for whom they could try it. It meant that they couldn't possibly have try-outs involving each and every student.

"We will have to be a bit more approximate in our testing standards," Vice President Virlyd mused with a composed tone. "We will have to have discrete tests for each of the roles of Capture the Flag, or each of the traditional roles, anyway. These tests should allow us to separate the wheat from the chaff efficiently. Even if the tests are not entirely accurate simulations, they should easily filter out people who are simply unfit."

"We can focus on more accurate simulations for the candidates who manage to pass the basic filters," another older student council member remarked with a knowing tone. "Once we have come down to the most realistic candidates to fill our roster, then we can be more rigorous about testing them."

"We can also borrow or hire specialists from outside the academy," another member of the student council remarked. "This way—"

"No."

President Mileila's tone was resolute.

Her expression grew serious.

"Any outside element from this point on should be assumed to be compromised," she mused with a knowing expression. "You simply cannot trust people. You have no idea to what extent the thirteen great families will go to outcompete each other to win."

The students froze at those words as they understood the gravity of the situation.

One of the reasons there were thirteen branches of the Elendir Institute of Magic was that each of the thirteen Great Families of Elendir sponsored one branch in particular in their city.

In the case of the Colohen Branch, it was the Karjakin Family that sponsored this branch.

It meant that the victory or defeat of each branch was associated with the families, and given how inviolable their prestige and reputation were to them, they took the Magic Contest extremely seriously.

It appeared that this contest was even more serious than any of them had realized.