Angell met the Rune Apprentices he had hired a week and a half after signing an agreement with the Magic Association.
They had arrived four days later than Branch President Hume had promised.
"Sorry, we were delayed on the way," said Will, the Magic Association president's assistant, looking ashamed.
Angell said he understood.
After all, this world hadn't developed high-speed rail yet, and Steam Trains weren't fast. Just traveling from the City of Academies to the Magic Capital took three days and nights, even without delays. The route also went through the infamous Mist Forest, where any little mishap could set them back by days.
"Thanks for all your effort," Angell said stiffly.
He glanced at the employees he'd soon be working with.
This wasn't Angell's first time hiring employees (uh, the C-section last time didn't count). The game company he'd worked for in his previous life was more or less a major studio, and every graduation season they went through the same routine.
In Angell's experience, the kids hired straight out of school were all a bunch of naïve idiots.
They hadn't yet been beaten down by society, and most thought far too highly of themselves. Those with a bad case of chūnibyō were full of ideas about making an AAA masterpiece and saving the gaming industry. They had three or four invisible horns growing out of their heads, and not even a wrench could straighten them out. So Angell had to be ready to give them a rude awakening.
In a different world, as graduates with a Magic Major, they were probably about the same... right?
At least, the rookie Mages Angell had met in the Mage Tower before had been pretty much like that.
But the boys standing here looked as if they'd already been beaten down. They had none of the sharpness of youth. Most had dull eyes and vacant expressions. Even though they were at the place where they'd soon work and live, their gazes were dead, without a trace of curiosity. The more timid ones kept staring at the ground.
Even someone with Angell's level of social awareness could tell the atmosphere was a little strange.
Angell couldn't help taking a closer look, especially at the one with the strongest mana fluctuations among the boys.
That kid really did have a pair of horns, though they weren't deer antlers. They were huge ram's horns, curling around three times on either side of his head like a Demon's. Unfortunately, his expression was as vacant as an old goat's. He stared straight ahead at the empty air, and Angell was half afraid he'd bleat, lower his head, and start eating grass.
Assistant Will noticed Angell's gaze and tried to say something.
But Angell didn't wait for him to speak. As if he'd lost interest, he looked away and turned his attention to the round, middle-aged man beside Will.
Among all these boys, this middle-aged man was the one who made the least sense.
"Who is this...?" Angell asked.
"This is a friend of Branch President Dunlop's," Assistant Will said with an awkward smile, vaguely. "He heard about your hiring by chance and came to have a look."
For some reason, he didn't introduce the man's name or position.
"Heh heh, that's right. Don't mind me," the round gentleman said with a beaming smile.
But Angell didn't want anyone looking around.
This was just a hiring process. Angell didn't want the Magic Association or anyone else interfering too much with his Workshop.
—At the end of the day, his social anxiety was acting up.
"There's nothing much to see," Angell said with a frown. "These kids must be exhausted after such a long journey. We might as well let them rest early today."
"Aren't you going to interview them?" Will asked in surprise.
"In a couple of days, once everyone's had time to recover?"
"Um, could we do it sooner?" Assistant Will asked awkwardly. "The Association hopes you'll make a decision quickly so we can adjust the places available for the other graduates."
As he spoke, he looked at the students. "You don't need to worry about everyone's condition. We had a good rest on the Train, and everyone would rather get the results sooner... right?"
He directed that last question at the students.
No one answered.
The mood grew a little awkward, and Will gave Angell an uncomfortable smile.
"All right, if you insist," Angell said with a nod. But he still didn't seem inclined to interview them right away. "Before that, let's get everyone's luggage settled and have something to eat."
"Just think of it as a tour of your future working and living conditions, meow!" Mithril said, trying to smooth things over behind Angell.
It wasn't talking to Assistant Will, but to the middle-aged man.
Mithril had a vague feeling that the fat man looked familiar. It remembered he was someone important and figured it was best not to offend him.
Unfortunately, Angell had no such awareness.
As soon as he'd spoken, he turned and walked off, without caring how the others reacted.
The boys glanced at each other. One of them, a boy with ash-gray hair, followed Angell first. The others trailed after him one by one.
Assistant Will and the middle-aged man were left behind.
Will apologized to the middle-aged man in a dry voice. "I'm sorry, Mayor Owen. The Workshop Master doesn't know who you are..."
"It's fine. Isn't this exactly the effect I wanted?"
The man called "Mayor Owen" chuckled. He didn't seem at all displeased.
Seeing his reaction, Will frowned instead. "But..."
"The Magic Association cares about graduate placements, too, doesn't it?" Mayor Owen said. "We might as well see how the Workshop plans to arrange things for these kids!"
Owen looked at Angell's retreating back.
Owen Simor, mayor of Cecilia City, had met Will, an assistant to a Magic Association branch president, on the Train.
Mayor Owen had just returned from an ordinary meeting in the Royal Capital.
That meeting had left him furious.
It wasn't that there was anything wrong with the meeting's topic. The problem was that some bastard had once again cautiously suggested abolishing the Magic courses in compulsory education!
Owen knew that some bigwigs up top were behind the idea.
They'd never intended for commoners to learn Magic in the first place. They'd only included Magic courses in compulsory education because they needed Mages, who held lofty positions in academia, to lend their support to the program. Now that they'd gotten what they wanted, they were naturally ready to kill the goose that laid the golden eggs.
But what infuriated Owen most was that plenty of High-level Mages in the Royal Capital actually agreed!
They thought that compulsory education had been around for years without producing many real Mages, and that sending students to the City of Academies was a waste of resources. Besides, there weren't any jobs for them. Abolishing those courses would make things easier for everyone.
Those idiots hadn't even considered that industry had replaced the need for Mages below the Intermediate level, and that Low-level Mages no longer held prestigious status. The nobles weren't willing to spend time training their children to become Mages the way they had in the Magic Era! The only people now studying Magic at the City of Academies were commoners!
If even those students were gone, the middle and lower ranks of the entire Mage system would be hollowed out completely. They were already nearly there, to the point that many Intermediate Mages had to leave the Mage Tower and abandon their research because they lacked assistants. Did those High-level Mages think they alone could carry on the future of Magic?!
Owen had been so angry that he'd flipped the table at the meeting, and the discussion had ended without a result.
Still, he couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong.
He didn't think those people would abandon their plans so easily. Those profiteering bastards would be happiest if they could send every child to work in their factories after a little basic education!
So when Owen passed through the City of Academies on his way back, he'd wanted to get off and take a look at the promising young people who mattered to the future of the magical world.
He hadn't even had a chance to get off the Train when he saw an assistant from the Magic Association board with a group of boys.
"Have this year's job placements already been arranged?"
Mayor Owen was very surprised. Of course he knew how his old friend Hume lost handfuls of hair every year over finding jobs for the graduates.
Owen was rather optimistic—though that was probably because he wasn't the one actually responsible for it. He thought that, with the Mage Towers short on people, they'd eventually be willing to train commoner Mages who'd graduated from the City of Academies.
Maybe this year would be the turning point?
Owen asked eagerly, "Which Mage Tower are they going to?"
As soon as he said it, Owen sensed that something was wrong.
Owen wasn't like Angell; he had better social awareness. When he mentioned the Mage Tower, he noticed some of the boys looked unwilling, while others seemed full of sorrow. The ash-gray-haired boy in particular clutched his suitcase so tightly that his knuckles had gone white.
"What's going on?" Owen's voice turned cold.
"Ah..." Will smiled bitterly.
After settling the students in, he told Owen about Magic Gear's recruitment of Rune Masters.
Owen was furious as soon as he heard.
"Absurd! How can an Alchemy Workshop compare to a Mage Tower?!"
Now he understood why the boys all looked that way. Hadn't they studied Magic because they wanted to become Mages? But instead of going to a Mage Tower, they were being sent to an Alchemy Workshop. No wonder they looked utterly hopeless.
"And wasn't Magic Gear nearly bankrupt? Even if you want to solve the employment problem, you shouldn't send people there!"
For a moment, Owen suspected that the Magic Association in Cecilia City had betrayed him, too.
"Apparently, they've solved their financial problems and found a backer."
Will repeated Branch President Hume's speculation from that day.
But Owen wasn't buying it. "The Roy Family? Hmph. Why would they care about reviving Magic?"
They were a thoroughly Royalist family!
The Roy Family had once been a magical family, but they'd always excelled at changing sides to suit the times. Especially after the Industrial Revolution began, they'd abandoned their magical traditions at once and latched on to the new nobility. They'd even betrothed their eldest daughter to the future Crown Prince when she was only five.
Owen couldn't imagine that family supporting an Alchemy Workshop.
Owen fumed. "Hume's gone senile! Just wait. When I get back, I'll pull out the last few hairs he has and knock some sense into him!"
"Mayor Owen..."
"My lord, Magic Gear is the Alchemy Workshop of the Cecilia Family—the family that gave the Magic Capital its name."
Just as Will was at a loss for how to persuade Owen, a remark from Owen's old butler brought him back to his senses.
"The Cecilia Family..."
Owen sighed and leaned back in his seat.
"I'll go and see for myself, for the sake of its former glory," Owen said. His round face was full of menace. "But if he's going to ruin those promising young people, then even if he's from the Cecilia Family, I won't let him get away with it!"