Prior to that moment, Elenel Motors had been an invisible fixture in the background of Cæ's life. Although he remembered the accident well, he didn't remember the model of the truck or the plate number due to the bright headlights flaring into his eyes.
However, Elenel Motors was a nigh omnipresent brand within the Democratic Republic of Elendir. The trucks and buses that the task force used for day-to-day commutes to the slums were manufactured by Elenel Motors. The trucks that Marshall's Manufacturing used for transporting manufactured Haven units were also manufactured by Elenel Motors. The trucks that Trinity Housings rented for selling Haven units in the slums were also manufactured by Elenel Motors.
He couldn't even walk across the street without running into countless automobiles manufactured by Elenel Motors.
His eyes flared with a profoundly deep hatred and frustration.
A part of him almost wished he hadn't had to read this document.
Because it made him feel helpless.
What the hell was he going to do against one of the most powerful men in all of Elendir?
At his current stage of power, he was nothing but an insect before Bardur Elenel, the man who stood at the very top as the founder and CEO. He was merely an apprentice graduate who ran a small or medium-sized business.
At this point in time, there was literally nothing that he could do to exact his vengeance, which meant that he would have to spend his day walking around the Democratic Republic of Elendir, surrounded by Elenel Motors and all their prosperity and power.
And there was nothing he could do with it.
"Damn it all." His voice was venomous with hatred.
While he had expected that he wouldn't be able to get his revenge any time soon, given that just the fact that someone was powerful to bury the investigation and the charges this well was proof enough that he was dealing with someone powerful.
That in and of itself was fine. He didn't mind waiting.
Revenge was best served cold.
But what he did mind was being forced to see Elenel Motors every day until he finally destroyed this company and everybody who had any responsibility over what happened with Lilia.
Ideally, he would have loved to grow more powerful than his enemy and then learn of their identity, but that risked him potentially building a positive relationship with them before he discovered their connection to what happened to Lilia.
Unfortunately, he would have just had to live with the cards that he had been dealt.
At least, he could ensure that the flames of his hatred would never perish with each passing day as he was forced to confront Elenel Motors.
He heaved a deep breath.
He knew that there was no point in even plotting for his demise at this stage. He was far, far from anywhere near as powerful enough, magically, politically, or financially, to have any hopes of success. Thus, he simply tossed the idea out of his mind and channeled his bloodlust into the two agendas that he had.
Cultivating and mastering magic.
Both of those agendas had been going quite well.
Trinity Housings had experienced great success with an even greater surge in net sales in the slums and had tapped into many, many districts across the entirety of the slums, tapping into more than half of all districts of the entirety of the slums.
He had gained great magicapita from it thanks to his stake in the company.
His magic mastery had come along well, having consolidated what he had learned in the magicademy with actual experience in the field, achieving a level of combat power. Although the apprentice mages of the slums were of the lowest quality, it was still powerful combat experience that allowed him to grow even more able in combat magic, which was one of the electives that he had chosen for the Elendir Institute of Magic.
He was making great progress with each of the two agendas that he had set for himself to help fulfill his ultimate ambition.
And yet, he wasn't the most satisfied.
"It's not bad, but…" his eyes sharpened with a knowing expression. "…I could be doing more."
Of course, he had already achieved what would have been an unsustainable level of productivity for others. Managing a successful, booming business while simultaneously taking on a challenging talent acquisition program was something that very few people would have been able to manage.
And now, the talent acquisition program had finally ended, and he was free from this duty; he had plenty of time to spare.
"At least until the Senior Program begins."
The Senior Program was a lot more intensive and testing than the apprentice program, which focused on honing the basics and the foundation of magic. The Senior Program would go one step further and begin tapping into higher forms of magic and higher applications of magic.
It would also equip them with industry standards for some of the largest magical industries across not just the country but the entire world.
He had already chosen the electives for his Senior Program.
[Combat magic]
This was a no-brainer.
Combat power was the most fundamental and intrinsic power upon which all other forms of power existed.
Political power, economic power, institutional power, authoritative power, all of these kinds of power were constructs that could only exist within a state, an institution with a monopoly on violence, that gave people other forms of power artificially.
And if he intended to destroy the world order at its very foundations, then the most important power he would need to harness was combat power.
[Divination Magic]
He knew full well the power of information and had witnessed the power of divination in this regard in his little partnership with the Headmistress. She had been able to use divination to secure the needed evidence and proof to have the Nelnmont Family by the balls and gain tremendous leverage over them, allowing her to ultimately win her political battle.
Information, intelligence, and knowledge were certainly the next most fundamental kind of power after violence.
Although he was far from delusional enough to think that he would be able to replicate even the tiniest morsel of what Headmistress Lenolia was capable of, it was still useful to have a grasp on this field.
[Alchemy]
He had gained a lot of regard for this field from Seliphaz and the fact that it allowed the haven units to become viable housing for the people of the slums. Alchemy was perhaps the one field that did not require a constant supply of magic power for its utility to remain. Not only was it a great and dominant industry of its own, but it was also a complementary and supplementary sector to many other great industries around the world.
He couldn't go wrong by choosing alchemy.
[Enchantment]
A versatile and fundamental field of magic that focused on imbuing items and substances with magical power and giving them powerful magical effects. It was this field that was at the very epicenter of the Magindustrial Revolution, among others, allowing for the mass production of magical goods. He couldn't possibly go wrong in gaining a foundation in this field.
[Artificing]
This was, in many ways, very similar to enchantment. However, artificing was a specialized enchantment for premium high-value goods created from scratch with the purpose of being enchanted. It allowed for such an astronomical value addition to singular enchanted items that they were deemed to be artifacts.
It could be considered to be highly overlapping with Enchantment, but it also meant that the burden for learning this field would be reduced due to the overlap. In return, he would need to learn the art of craftsmanship.
Many powerful mages above a certain standard tended to gain some mastery in artificing to fulfill their own needs for powerful artifacts that are perfectly custom-tailored to their needs.
[Magerial Science]
This was important because the world they were in was filled with magical material science. So much so that many speculated that all substances were magical, only that most of them were so faint in their magic that they were simply not noticeable. Regardless, magerial science was an extremely important field of magic that delved into the magical properties as well as the substances that could serve as sources of magic; mana crystals.
Without this field and the insights it provided, modern magic civilization would collapse as the world knew it.
[Magineering]
[Information Magitechnology]
Both of these fields were heavily applied fields of magic for magitechnology centered around enchantment, but also magimaterial science, as well as mechanical engineering, and information science. It was a very hybrid field that combined insights and knowledge from many other fields to create magitechnology and the magical communication technology, including the maginet that webbed the world.
Given that they formed the very fabric of human civilization, Cæ would need to gain an understanding of them if he wanted to create a better world order.
[Healing Magic]
This was the one field for which he had the least imperative to learn. While medicine and healing were fundamental aspects of human civilization, he didn't have as much of a clarity of their necessity for his ultimate goal, compared to how vital the other fields were.
However, he strangely felt the need to take it anyway.
It was the only choice that wasn't based on a clear-cut rational thought.
Perhaps he was influenced by the fact that healing magic could have saved Lilia.
Regardless, he had already made his choice about it.
That left the two final choices.
[Six Greater Elements]
[Advanced Fundamental Forms]
This was one of the most foundational of all forms of magic when it came to eidos mastery. He chose the former simply because he was a poly-elemental mage by virtue of being a pure mage. He could use all six elements equally well and didn't suffer any shortcomings in any of them.
He knew that his was an extremely rare gift among mages, who were usually limited to one or two elements. The number of mages with two, three, four, and five elements was even scarcer.
And very few possessed an affinity for all six elements.
Heaven and earth.
Life and death.
Light and darkness.
The six elements covered all dimensions of the world.
It was said that anybody who gained dominion over all six greater elements would gain the power of God.
With his affinity for all six elements as a pure mage, it was definitely power worth seeking.
The final field he had chosen was very different from any of the other fields that he had chosen.
[Magiconomics]
Defined as the field of study of the flow of mana due to human behavior as a relationship between ends and scarce means with diverse utility. This was a field that studied the flow of magicapita, value, and goods and services across people and parties. It was a purely theoretical field of the social sciences and the humanities.
This was one field that catered to neither of the two agendas that Cæ had set out for himself, cultivating and mastering magic. No, it related directly to his ultimate goal and ambition of wanting to understand how the world worked and how the current world order was structured.
Because his goal was to create a better world order, he needed to understand how it currently worked, and magiconomics was just one part of all the knowledge that he would need to learn.
And with that, his selection was complete.
He knew that he would be called a madman for choosing not to specialize in a handful of fields but spreading himself thin. The mage labor market had no use for a jack of all trades in a variety of fields.
However, he knew that having a broad and diverse set of competencies would help him think outside of the box when it came to thinking about creating new commercial ventures. He was undoubtedly going to have the most unique selection of electives for his Senior Program. There was no doubt about that.