[Sinseki Era - 21 Years Prior]
[Central Nations · Holy Capital Strahl]
In the calm of daily routine, two weeks quietly passed.
During this period, the association continued hosting examinations for mages as usual.
However, as the examination period neared its end, the mages coming to participate had declined considerably in both quality and quantity compared to before.
Usually, only single digits could pass the preliminary selection in an entire day, and as for those who could catch Serie's eye, there wasn't even one.
Having previous experience at Äußerst, Gut wasn't surprised by this phenomenon.
As examination time lengthened, such situations were inevitable.
Conversely, among the group, it was girl Sola, who seemed least related to the association, who appeared most anxious.
She not only actively asked Serie whether they should post recruitment posters in other parts of the city, but also put her mind to work, proposing many interesting recruitment ideas that added some fun to the hall's bland atmosphere.
Serie waved her hand, initially wanting to indicate these weren't necessary.
However, Gut standing beside his teacher lightly patted the elf's shoulder. After interrupting his teacher's rejection, Gut said the girl's proposals were very interesting, especially the one about printing examination advertisements and distributing them along streets where mages gathered.
Gut expressed his willingness to fund the printing and hoped the enthusiastic girl could take the introverted Zenn along to distribute flyers, to properly train junior disciple Zenn's shy personality.
"Eh?!!!"
The little shota hiding in a corner of the hall was startled and immediately tried to shrink back.
However, before he could refuse in his mosquito-like voice, the girl beside him nodded in agreement, saying she would work hard with Mr. Zenn to distribute these flyers to mages interested in the examination.
To the side, after hearing his sister would be acting alone with another male, Hafka's eye corner twitched twice.
Though based on his understanding of fellow disciple Zenn, this child probably wouldn't have such thoughts at all.
But...
It was still somewhat annoying.
Finally, Hafka chose to also join the flyer distribution team.
Gut was naturally happy to see this.
He hadn't held expectations that they could attract many mages anyway - consider it a small team-building exercise.
Indeed, that's exactly how it turned out.
After the three spent nearly half a week working hard, the number of mages coming to participate in examinations hadn't changed at all compared to before, and had even decreased somewhat.
After all, so much time had passed that mages in the Holy Capital had probably all heard about it.
Unless the three could travel to more distant regions to distribute, like the magic academies in the Royal Capital, there might be some effect.
After this commotion, girl Sola finally settled down. Looking at the increasingly sparse candidates outside the hall, the already not very diligent elf, after reluctantly continuing business for a few days, completely gave up.
She dumped everything examination-related onto chief disciple Gut. As for herself, she could beautifully stay home freely researching magic, enjoying a relaxed and comfortable life.
She only needed to go out briefly in the evenings, visiting the association to answer her disciples' cultivation questions and provide guidance.
After all, as a teacher, she still needed to fulfill her proper responsibilities.
As for interviewing candidates who passed the preliminary test that day - this project that should have been the main objective became incidental due to the truly small numbers passing.
However, mages who could pass the preliminary selection were already qualified, and the elf didn't easily let them go.
Occasionally encountering mages who, limited by insufficient qualifications or temperament to be taken as disciples but did have merit, Serie would ask after elimination whether the candidate wanted to join the Association.
The current Continental Magic Association had just been established and was extremely short-staffed, precisely when it needed filling.
Becoming an Association member, though unable to possess money and power like selling oneself to royalty and nobles, in terms of cultivation, as long as one made corresponding contributions to the Association, one could read the vast majority of magical texts in human history without restrictions based on status or position.
Moreover, these two points weren't mutually exclusive.
----------
Powerstones?
For 20 advance chapters: patreon.com/michaeltranslates