Cæ's delivery of a fair and impartial resolution earned him some degree of greater respect and appreciation from both sides, even if tensions hadn't entirely gone down, the two teams were able to function alongside each other.
The best part was that there was no real degree of interaction or exchange between the employees and students of the Elendir Institute of Magic and the workers of Trinity Housings. Thus, as they kept each other at arm's length, they were able to coordinate with each other without needing to actually interact with each other.
That was good enough as far as Cæ was concerned.
CLACK
The final set of supplies had been docked and were ready.
All the members of the mission were garbed with enchanted gear, from the most powerful of magetants that donned full-body magic raiment artifacts with innumerable runes encrypted upon the artifact.
Cæ, to his surprise, had also been authorized to wear a special artifact that covered his entire body. The powerful artifact brimmed with magical energy that made his hair stand on end.
The differences between enchanted items and artifacts were that the magic was imbued in the latter from the very inception of the creation of the artifact, while enchanted items simply received enchantments after the item was already created.
The former allowed for a much greater amount of magical energy to be imbued within the artifact than the latter, making for significantly more powerful products, and he could clearly feel it after he donned the black single-piece suit that ran across his entire body with a grid of glowing lines that flowed through many magic circles and runes across the thick fabric.
The protective raiment artifact even had its own name.
[Fyreveil]
It had been crafted by none other than a master mage of the Elendir Institute of Magic, making it an exceptionally powerful artifact that could protect him from great punishment. Cæ already understood that the fact that the Headmistress felt the need to authorize this particular artifact for his protection showed that there had been developments in their enemies' preparations against the slum talent acquisition.
CLASP
He fastened his wand holster upon the belt of the Fyreveil before turning to the gathered task force and sales team of Trinity Housings.
All preparations were complete.
All participants of the operation were entirely ready.
He nodded with a serious expression.
"Time to commence our departure."
Immediately, they each began entering their respective transport buses while the various vehicles in the dispatch facility of the operations department of the executive wing of the institute began rumbling with life, before departing from the Elendir Institute of Magic in specific order according to protocols.
The storage trucks formed the perimeter of the convoy of vehicles traveling together across Colohen City. The travel time of the convoy had increased due to the increase in the size of the convoy, with the addition of the sales teams of Trinity Housings.
The infrastructure of the central districts that housed the Elendir Institute of Magic was as advanced and extravagant as always. The task force, largely comprised of commoner students, couldn't help but be immensely amazed as they passed through the central districts, characterized by large estates, mansions, and manors.
The resplendent magnificence of the homes of this district was enhanced by the bright light of the morning Sun in a cloudless sky.
Growing up in such prosperity was beyond anything that most ordinary people could ever hope to achieve.
And yet, the students of the Elendir Institute of Magic dared to harbor such dreams.
For they truly had the potential to achieve just that.
Their talent was elite.
Them becoming senior mages was extremely likely simply by virtue of their talent.
It was an echelon of power that could allow them to enter the ranks of the rich of the country.
It was one of the reasons that the yet-to-be-tested adolescents dreamed of entering the ranks of the Elendir Institute of Magic.
It wasn't just about the quality of education and training, although there was that too.
Entering the Elendir Institute of Magic represented a future prosperity and flourishing for not just them but their families and their descendents as well.
Cæ's eyes sharpened as they passed by the Karjakin Family estate as they traveled through the central districts of Colohen City. Each time they traveled to the slums in the past few operations that they had committed, they had passed through this particular route and through this particular estate.
And each time, he found a scowl emerging on his face.
These were among the prime opponents to the Slum Talent Acquisition Program, it was deeply unnerving to pass through enemy territory in such a loud and pronounced manner. He had no doubt that the upper echelons and even the Matriarch of the Karjakin Family was aware of their presence so close to their base of power.
It made him nervous.
It made his nerves tingle.
Of course, he didn't particularly expect anything to happen.
It would be beyond maniacal and utterly demented for the Karjakin Family to mount a terrorist attack on the passing convoy. Powerful as they were, they didn't have the power to get away with such absurd attempts to destroy their political opponents, that too on property and students of the Elendir Institute of Magic.
It would destroy the Karjakin Family in one day.
Still, it made him nervous knowing that he was this close to his enemies, and should they have chosen to deploy their power against him, they had no choice.
"Thinking about the President, big bro?" Sorenon's smile was mischievous. "Too bad she isn't part of this task force, isn't it?"
He was, of course, entirely clueless about the political battle that was being waged in the background. He was far too young to even be cognizant of such high-minded matters and nothing about his upbringing had given him an eye for understanding political intrigue.
Cæ threw an unamused glance at him, shaking his head lightly.
The kid wasn't even going to believe him if he was told that President Mileila Karjakin's name hadn't even crossed his mind.
Of course, he wasn't going to lie and say that he didn't consider her to be a friendly acquaintance.
However, it would be beyond irresponsible not to keep his guard around her.
Up until that point, she had always engaged with him in good faith.
Even a whole year before the talent acquisition was abruptly and shockingly announced in the graduation ceremony of the previous academic year, when he was still a bit of an outcast among half the students of the magicademy, she had reached out to him with courtesy and respect.
She had treated him no differently from other students of the Elendir Institute of Magic and had even risen to his defense multiple times. She had even insisted that he call her by her name, a request that he had honored despite the complications that were generally associated with it.
This was not the actions of someone who had hostile intentions.
Cæ found it really hard to believe that she was some sort of sleeper agent who had solely befriended him in some scant possibility that he ended up becoming antagonistic to the political ambitions of the Karjakin Family.
And yet, at the same time, the battle lines had been drawn in this city-wide political conflict over the talents of the people of the slums and their place in their society. And much to both their misfortunes, they found themselves belonging to opposing sides.
She was firmly entrenched with the Karjakin Family, and while he wasn't entrenched with the Headmistress, he was very on her side in this particular political battle.
He shook his head as they departed from the central district, heading deeper and deeper.
Naturally, the familiar degeneration of infrastructural quality ensued as they headed further and further away from the depths of Colohen City.
It was a depressing sight.
To know that only a small portion of the city's elites had access to what was paradise, while the rest of the city began deteriorating slowly, corresponding with the socioeconomic class of the district.
The outer districts were also further and further away from the manaplant that was in the center of the city, supplying magical energy across the entire city. Districts that were closer simply gained more magical energy than those further away, causing estates closer and closer to the manaplant to be more expensive.
It explained the lackluster state of housing at the very edge of the inner city.
And yet, none of it even began to compare to what they saw when they entered the slums.
Many students stiffened when they entered one of the inner districts of the slums. Despite having been back and forth to the slums in the past week to more than a dozen districts, they still couldn't stomach the sheer dismal poverty that they bore witness to within the slums.
Their expressions curled with disgust as a foul, toxic smell entered the armored buses they were in from the massive dumps of garbage, both organic and inorganic. Massive heaps of garbage produced by the people of the city were simply dumped in this district, rendering it so immensely uninhabitable that not even the people of the slums dare to live anywhere in the district, making it a simple landfill.
And yet, they had no intention of stopping in any of the inner districts of the slums, heading deeper and deeper into the Colohen Slums as they sought to enter one of the deeper districts.
One with a high youth concentration.
VRMMM…
The prominent convoy of trucks zoomed boldly into district one-hundred-thirty-five.
A satellite district that was very much on the outer perimeter of the Elendir Institute of Magic.
The quality of infrastructure was somehow even worse than that of the inner districts of the Colohen Slums, which shocked most of the members of the task force.
At least the shabby, if decrepit, huts and shacks of the slums were somewhat intact.
The housing infrastructure of this particular district was even worse, with most buildings being reduced to complete rubble.
It was like they were gazing at a city that had underground a horrifying, destructive earthquake, rendering all the buildings completely destroyed.
The people of the districts were notably different, as well.
There was an air of peril lingering in the air as several people immediately began converging upon the recently arrived with rapid gaits. They were different from what they encountered in the less dangerous districts of the slums, because they congregated into large groups as young individuals as opposed to poor families on the outskirts of the slums.
Their faces were covered with masks, concealing their identities.
Their bodies were covered with tattoos, with several common symbols and signs appearing in common with all of them. Their hands were prominently buried in their pocket, wrapping around knives and enchanted magiguns.
They began circling around the convoy for sharks.
Some even drew their weapons and opened fire.
Unfortunately, they realized too late that they were dealing with a force that was far beyond their pay grade.
The gangs of the slums were dangerous.
But only to civilians and non-mages.
Compared to the elite-trained non-mage and magetants' security groups that emerged from within the security trucks of the convoy, armed with cutting-edge enchanted gear, the motley crew of misfits froze with terror.
"DROP YOUR WEAPONS AND RAISE YOUR HANDS!" the leader of the armed security force pointed a fully automated enchanted magigun at the young men, who silently obeyed as dozens of heavily armed security forces and floating mages emerged from within the security trucks that were on the perimeter of the convoy.
It wasn't long before all of them were completely disarmed, and the crew of testing teams emerged from within the convoys to test the dozens of youth who had conveniently gathered themselves.
"Time to get started," Cæ emerged from the convoy with a determined expression as his gaze swept across the gathered gang members.