Sorenon's eyes lit up at those words. "Really?"
"You have my word," Cæ replied with an amicable tone. "More importantly, what have the doctors said about your condition? Will you get better soon?"
Sorenon's expression grew complex. "It can be healed and… I will likely make a perfect recovery according to the doctors; however, we have had difficulty with scheduling a heart healer, unfortunately. The hospital has said that the number of patients needing their care greatly exceeds the number of heart healers."
Cæ frowned lightly. "That's unfortunate."
"The worst part is that..." He winced. "Things will get a lot worse the longer I'm not assigned a heart healer. And if it's too late, then... there could be permanent... problems and complications."
The air darkened.
The atmosphere grew a little tense as Cæ's expression worsened.
"...Let's hope you get assigned a healer-surgeon soon. I wasn't aware that there was such an imbalance. How long will you have to wait?"
Sorenon heaved a sigh. "They are… unable to provide a definitive estimate. It has been very frustrating to get our hands on the information."
Cæ's expression grew serious. "But you will miss the start of the coming magicademic year then."
Sorenon nodded with an unsatisfied expression. "The only saving grace… is that Headmistress Lenolia has promised grace time and covering the expenses… of remote tuitions for the pure theory topics. So I will be able to minimize how much I fall behind."
"Ah, that's good," Cæ nodded with a hint of relief. "You will be able to catch up with no time once you get back to the Elendir Institute of Magic. Let's just hope that you find a heart healer specialist soon. Healing magic is a very popular field in magic because of how much it pays and the fact that it has the least combat risk, so there's no doubt that you will find a heart healer."
"I hope so…"
"And…" Cæ's tone grew serious. "How do you feel?"
Sorenon's expression fell at that question.
His eyes darkened a little.
It was to be expected that he wasn't the most mentally well after being almost killed at the hands of a master mage.
Cæ was able to shake off the psychological distress of his own mortality quite quickly due to his history in the slums. However, Sorenon was just a boy, a seventeen-year-old boy who had almost had his heart crushed in the hands of a master mage.
"I can still feel his hand on my heart."
Sorenon's voice quivered as his eyes grew alarmed.
"I still see the hooded figure when I go to sleep sometimes."
Cæ's expression grew sharp at those words.
It appeared that he had definitely suffered some trauma from the highly perilous event, and understandably so.
Sorenon heaved a shaky sigh.
"…I am not fit for a combat role."
There wasn't even the faintest doubt in his voice regarding that. The entire incident had clearly left a mark on him about the dangers and risks that came with being a magetant. It was clear that he had been shaken by how close he had come to death.
"I think… I will become a magic scholar or something like that," Sorenon murmured. "I would much rather spend time compiling new rune additions to the script of magia for newly discovered magic and figure out ways to make magic circles more efficient and easy to digest. I don't want anything to do with combat magic."
"That's completely understandable," Cæ reassured him with a calm tone. "Not everyone has an affinity for the battlefield and combat. We have our strengths and weaknesses."
Sorenon nodded with a more relieved expression. "I will leave all the combat to Kelton."
"I'm sure he's already in the magicademy by now," Cæ remarked. "Since students will have already transferred shortly before the Elendir Institute of Magic. I'm sure that I'll see him and Natana soon enough. I haven't had the time to see them yet."
The two of them had gone home for two months for the break and had only just come back. Of course, Cæ hadn't even had the opportunity to go to the apprentice dormitory from which he had already shifted out to the senior dormitory.
There were also a few others he knew that he looked forward to seeing, although he knew that he wouldn't be able to spend time with them as a senior attending different classes in a different complex of buildings in a different part of the magicademy.
Cæ spent some more time engaging in light banter with Sorenon, trying to gauge a better understanding of his state of mind. He appeared to be entirely fine except for when the topic of the accident came back, which caused him to stiffen very subtly.
While he had been affected by it, it didn't appear that he was deeply traumatized by the event, which was good news and likely meant that he would overcome it entirely as time passed.
"Speaking of what happened, I hope you won't let this event obscure the real accomplishments that we have made with the program," Cæ reminded him with a composed tone. "We found one hundred elite magic talents on the level of the two of us that will now strengthen the nation as they inevitably yield great mages in the future. Not to mention, we documented thousands of others with lesser talent and shared them with other magicademies who are willing to take in these non-elite talents and give them the opportunity to turn into mages. Do you understand?"
Cæ directed a meaningful gaze. "We have given people with no hope or salvation an opportunity for greatness and prosperity. It is undeniably an act of great good and one that you can rest knowing that you have contributed greatly to."
Sorenon's eyes lit up at those words, as he nodded.
"I won't… forget that. It is… the one thing that makes me feel overall positive about my experience in the task force. That… and the credits and merits on my resume… hahaha."
He winced at the pain from the effort of laughing, causing him to break into a bout of coughing. His worried mother immediately reached out to him, directing a pointed gaze at Cæ.
"He needs some rest now."
"…I understand."
Cæ got up slowly, directing a last smile at Sorenon. "Alright then, I'll come and visit once more another time. Get well soon and let me know when you get booked for a heart healer."
He bade goodbye to the three of them before departing from the medical room, heading to the other rooms to speak to some of the other members with whom he had built a rapport while leading the task force.
He wouldn't have gone out of his way to meet them in person if not for the fact that they were situated close by in the same block in the cardiac section of the hospital.
His conversations with the others were more brief and perfunctory.
Many were more traumatized and shaken than Sorenon was, while others were entirely unbothered by it and were even grateful for the experience. However, the one commonality he got from speaking with all of them was the fact that they had yet to be assigned a cardiac healer.
If not for the Elendir Institute of Magic promising to take care of all the costs and the time lost to the best of their ability, they would have undoubtedly been more anxious. By the time he left the hospital more than an hour later, he found himself wandering back through the cardiac section of the hospital.
The sterile air and the smell of rubbing alcohol, as well as the general atmosphere of sickliness, made him feel uncomfortable and eager to leave.
And yet, something caught his attention that made him frown.
[Colohen Hospital employs five hundred of the best cardiac healers at all times.]
Five hundred was a lot for one hospital.
And yet, they weren't able to offer the patients of the task force a cardiac healer any time soon?
They weren't even able to confirm a date for the booking.
"…What?"
Perhaps there were a lot of cardiac patients in the hospital?
He wasn't sure.
Regardless, he simply shrugged before moving on.
He had better things to spend time on.
After getting his wand back and departing from the Colohen Hospital, he flew towards the Elendir Institute of Magic in a thoughtful mood.
WHOOSH…
The chilly winds of winter swept past him as he soared through the skies. His silver hair fluttered in the air while his clothes danced in the winds, while several magic circles emerged before him as he cast flight magic.
Despite having plenty to do, he couldn't help but take his time flying through Colohen City, taking in the expansive cityscape that extended as far as the eye could see.
"Tomorrow is the big day."
The Senior Program was to commence.
Two months had passed since he graduated from the apprentice program.
And yet, so much had happened in those two months that it had felt like a year to him. Each day was filled with either managing his business or managing the task force. And as valuable as the experience of the task force was, it was truly taxing on him. He definitely didn't want to get involved with another student council program like that ever again.
"I need to get back to cultivating magic. I have spent enough time away from it."
He had spent enough time cultivating magicapita with Trinity Housings business and commercial venture, now he needed to spend enough time elevating his magic skills and diversity to a new level, and continue his journey to the Senior rank.
That wasn't all.
"I need to come up with a new commercial venture."
As much as he had come to grow fond of Trinity Housings, it wasn't going to get him to the level of magicapita he needed to for his ultimate objective. In fact, there was no single business in the entire world of Alaria that gave him enough power to achieve his objective; he had always known that.
It was time to create another commercial venture.
He could choose fields in which he had some experience at this point.
He had experience in the food industry.
He had experience with the housing industry.
He had gained a lot of operational management experience with the task force and the student council.
His rich imagination stirred as he conceived a variety of fascinating ideas.
From legal espionage and investigative services inspired by Headmistress Lenolia, who cracked the Nelnmonts and gained dirt on them, to a magic mercenary group based on the experiences of fighting in the security teams of the Elendir Institute of Magic and their protocols. From expanding on his meat bun idea into a more comprehensive franchise to tapping into other markets in the housing industry.
He also considered other markets in the slums that may not have been tapped, just as housing hadn't been tapped before him.
When he closed his eyes, his vivid imagination allowed him to intricately simulate how these businesses would function.
Each of them was exciting and intriguing, which stirred his creativity.
And yet, there was one idea among the myriad of ideas in his mind that drew his attention more.
One that tapped into not just the creative aspects of his mind, but also the destructive aspects of his mind.
"An automobile company."
One that would allow him to crush Elenel Motors.
His unnerving gray eyes flared with chilling hatred and rage.
His expression crumpled with menacing bloodlust.
"This is the way."
He hadn't even conceived of this idea before.
But now that he had, he felt a profoundly deep drive to realize this idea.
Of course, this was extremely difficult to actually achieve.
If Selvig's Ristorante and Trinity Housings were hard, then this was herculean.
Nigh impossible.
"A long-term project."
He was willing to work as long as needed towards the goal.
And just like that, he had decided the direction for the future.
He was about to commence a new chapter in his life.
His first day in the Senior Program was to begin tomorrow.
And the first step towards revenge.