STEP
The moment he set foot in the student council meeting, he could feel the anticipation in the air. The members were eager to get started and deliberate on the matter of participant selection and training methodologies.
Although it was just the second day of the year, each student was eager to finalize this matter so that they could immediately commence the selection competitions and finalize a set of candidates for each participant role. The sooner they got the matter out of the way, the more time they had.
Rather than deliberating on it for a month, it made more sense to make a decision as soon as possible, have the decision implemented, and make use of the extra time. Cæ drew brief attention from the students as he entered, taking his seat, nodding at Melia, and a few others he had worked with in the Slum Talent Acquisition Program.
He directed a friendly glance at Mileila, who smiled at him welcomingly.
Within minutes, every last member of the council had arrived, taking their seats at the table.
"Now that everybody is here," Mileila began as she leaned forward on the table, "we can commence the meeting. The purpose of this meeting is to deliberate on the selection methodology for participants of each competition. I hope to be able to finalize the decision today so that we can immediately commence the process. However, if the situation truly demands a little bit more time to finalize the matter, then I'm more than amenable to it."
A wave of nods emerged across the students.
"Let me begin with the most obvious and straightforward competition, she flipped through a document placed before her, among others. "The combat competition."
She turned to a young man several seats away.
His uniform was somewhat untidy and crumpled, while his long, dark hair was tied in a messy bun.
"This is a proposal submitted by our logistics manager, Merl Nircant," she remarked. "One that has earned a large number of signatures from many of you to signify your support for this proposal."
She flipped through to the next page before continuing.
"It proposes an elimination tournament featuring all applicants who seek to compete for the spot across the entire school," she continued. "Each applicant will have to face another applicant and overcome them in a duel of three rounds to move to the next round. This will filter out a lot of students, leading us to one winner. However…"
Her golden eyes lit up with interest. "What is especially interesting about this proposal is that it insists on not finalizing the winner unless the winner is overwhelmingly the best candidate, as judged by Professor Mercile. It proposes that the two finalists and the two semi-finalists are maintained as potential candidates and are pitted against each other in a duel of three rounds, and their total scores are later compared to detect the role of compatibility in the outcome of the final match. A rather thorough and elaborate manner of making sure of the final issue. However…"
She directed a pointed gaze towards Merl. "…Is this not excessively elaborate and time-consuming?"
Merl smiled knowingly. "Ah, but the delay will only be a week, Prez. I highly doubt that whatever we lose by delaying the training by a week is worth not being thorough and careful when we evaluate exactly who we select."
He had a point.
The selection was much more important than just the training time that the selected applicant would undertake. A mistake in the former would likely be more than what the latter could compensate for.
It was better to spend a little bit more time to ensure that there could not be any mistakes.
"But it isn't exactly just one week, is it?" President Mileila raised an eyebrow as she skimmed through some of the following pages. "You want to have these two candidates remain candidates and each undergo training until the final moment where the decision becomes absolutely clear."
"Well, yes. I believe that you were hardly against this measure, President," Merl raised a lazy eyebrow. "After all, there is no other way to account for potential for growth in roughly ten months' time without actually having them all grow for that period and treat them all like they have been selected."
"I don't mind doing it for the top two candidates," she replied with a thoughtful tone. "However, what I do mind is doing it for four."
Merl frowned, tilting his head sloppily. "How does the addition of two more make that much of a difference?"
"The doubling of two is how you should look at it." She heaved a sigh. "The more candidates there are, the more Professor Mercile's attention will be divided. He will only be able to offer each candidate one-fourth the attention he would be able to offer if he had to focus on only one candidate. Only half as much as if he had only two candidates. I don't think this is worth it, diluting any to such an extent. This training is meant to be highly intensive, and it requires the full focus and attention of the professor, as much as we can afford to get."
Many students gained complicated expressions on their faces as they considered her compelling counterargument.
"Well, then, how can you possibly choose between four candidates that are all potentially equal?" Merl raised an eyebrow at her. "Sounds rather impossible, no?"
She shook her head. "You speak in abstractions and in general. But I highly doubt that we will be confronted with this particular problem this year. In our student body, one student clearly stands out among seniors above the others."
They knew who she was referring to.
Their gazes shifted to Vice President Virlyid Mir, who sat immediately to her right with a heavy, eye-drawing presence. He was like a boulder among them, with how domineering his stature was compared to others.
He was clearly much older than almost all, with a three o'clock shadow for facial hair.
He was also recognized as the strongest student in the senior program and the entire magicademy.
"Honestly…" one student murmured with an uncertain tone. "Is all of this really necessary? Can't we just… choose Virlyd?"
This appealed to many of the students in the council who also felt the same way.
And it wasn't hard to understand this kind of thinking.
After all, he was the strongest.
Thus, he ought to have been chosen, shouldn't he?
They would be wasting far too much time and resources trying to be clinical about their choices regarding their picks, despite the fact that the obvious choice was staring them in the face. Aside from perhaps President Mileila herself, nobody could even rival him!
"No."
His deep, gravelly voice rejected the line of thought.
He directed a sweeping gaze across the entire table.
"I do not believe that I am necessarily the strongest," he remarked. "More importantly, any training and effort I go through from this point on will be slow and reluctant in the growth that it yields. We have some young, rising stars in the Senior Program who have achieved great power despite just having entered the Senior Program. This skyrocketing growth means that they have the potential to surpass me in ten months' time under the guided training camp that they will undoubtedly prepare for us."
Everybody knew exactly who he was talking about.
Their gazes shot between two people.
One was Silian Sylvester. A prodigal genius who had begun learning magic at a younger age. His growth over the past year, strangely enough, had been even higher than it had ever been in the past as he put everything he had into training and increasing his skill and power as a mage.
He was just seventeen.
Everybody had high expectations for him.
There was no doubt that he would eventually go on to become the strongest senior student in the magicademy. However, many were uncertain if this adolescent could possibly hold a candle to Virlyd himself.
The other candidate was, of course, the one who defeated Silian in their duel in the combat exam of the Apprentice Program.
He was an even stranger case than Silian, in the eyes of most.
He had begun learning magic just a little over a year ago.
And yet, he had accelerated in growth at a pace that exceeded even Silian's.
This was despite the fact that he was just as old as Virlyd.
It was genuinely unfathomable, for one generally expected that the age of rapid growth came to an end by one's mid-twenties.
Yet, Cæ's most recent exploits in the Slum Wars, as people in the know had come to call it, made it clear that he was only growing stronger.
"Do not be so assured in my victory," Virlyd warned everybody with a humility that was rare for someone who came from an affluent background. "Even if I win this competition, I may lose by the end of the academic year."
His modesty and openness to challenge, and the possibility that he was not optimal for the role, only drew inspiration from others.
"…Very well then," President Mileila heaved a sigh. "Let us go ahead with this proposal, then. We shall choose to err on the side of caution and ensure that we have picked the most reliable and undeniable candidate shortly before the due date for registration is up. All in favor of this proposal?"
A show of hands revealed that almost everybody was on the same page.
"All against?"
Not a single person raised their hand.
"Very well then, we shall pass Proposal #A342 to be implemented immediately," she declared. "Now…"
Her golden eyes glinted with a hint of eagerness.
"…we must do the same for the remaining seven contests."
The student council rapidly and decisively ruled on each of the remaining seven competitions that comprised the Magic Contest.
This was despite the fact that the remaining seven competitions were more complicated than the combat contest.
They were not easy competitions to rule what the best methods of contestant selection were.
Capture the flag was simple in concept, but such a free and open competition meant that there were countless variables that affected the outcome. It was truly difficult for them to narrow down on a selection method. Thankfully, they could rely on experts from the executive wing of the Elendir Institute of Magic, who provided them with broader templates with which they could work.
Another game that they found difficulty choosing contestants for was Hide and Seek.
A simple child's game could be elevated to a ferocious competition when expanded over a vast area and with magic added to the game, with many terrain options including forests, hills, and mountains, caves, as well as urban and slum-like conditions.
It was a game that was meant to test divination and stealth.
Tag was another simple child's game elevated to extravagant levels with magic. It was not just an avenue to display speed, agility, and maneuvering magic; it was also a place to demonstrate one's creativity and special skills that could be useful in combat.
The Contest of Creation was a creative-oriented process that provided an avenue to show off crafting. It was more straightforward than the rest, of course. The Contest of Wills, on the other hand, was a competition of defense and endurance.
Siege Wars was an unusual choice that involved two teams, each comprising a great number of people, building a fort from scratch with the help of magic, and then doing everything in their power to ensure their opponent's fort crumbled first.
Treasure Hunt was a game that tested divination, making it a simpler group game than the others.
By the end of the session, the Student Council had ruled on a selection method for all eight competitions in the Magic Contest.