Hill had indeed sensed that something was off at the time, but he had truly thought it was because the entire world was simply too poor.
Although the explanations given by the Despair Tower were somewhat insufficient, from Hill's perspective... there had been nothing wrong with those words.
Of course, he had not used himself as the standard for comparison. At this point, even if he did not know the full extent of his own wealth, he could not possibly have had no concept of it at all.
So, he had calculated things according to the capabilities of ordinary Mage Towers.
By Hill's estimate, in this world that appeared fairly powerful but was actually lacking in resources, even if the major Mage Towers—especially the famous Ten Great Mage Towers—had seized over fifty percent of the world's wealth... the rest was naturally in the hands of the Devils... it would still have been difficult for them to maintain sufficient resources for Advanced Magi.
Then the resources they could provide to apprentices could basically only ensure their living expenses and basic spell research.
For example, the resources the Black Enigma Tower provided to its apprentices.
After Hill had seen them, he had felt that those apprentices were truly somewhat pitiful. That was why he had let Russell and Carpenter send those things back to the Hainalson Family.
Although he had said nothing, the supplies he had stuffed into the two children's bedrooms and studies proved just how little he thought of them.
But Hill also had to admit that those were indeed the most basic supplies. At the very least, they allowed an apprentice to barely continue down the path of a Mage, though there was absolutely no possibility of pursuing any side profession.
Forget the money-burning fields of alchemy and magic