"I wonder what it is this time."

Alec's footsteps echoed down the hallway. The number of students in the hallway had decreased with every floor he climbed, eventually reaching zero. On the upper-most floor was a waiting room for the professors who didn't want to leave the building during the short breaks. Other than that, there were some small meeting rooms practically unknown to the students.

Alec had just been called to one of these meeting rooms by Professor Howard. Meeting Room #0 to be exact. Though, he couldn't for the life of him find such a place. The lowest number written on the door tags was 10. Quickly understanding the situation, Alec sighed and activated the mana brain. Coupled with the ongoing incense in his wrist compartment, Alec's eyes caught on a door.

"Really funny..." Alec muttered under his breath before opening the door. "Huh?"

Alec was met with an awkward scene, one no other student had likely witnessed before. A dark room, illuminated only by a small, floating ball of light in the center, greeted him. Inside were ten armchairs, their surfaces upholstered in crimson velvet, with delicate golden embroidery lending them a regal air. The armrests curved outward like the arms of a throne, and gilded accents capped their edges, making them appear larger and more imposing than they truly were.

But the most surprising thing wasn’t the chairs—it was the people sitting in them.

'Enoch, Miriam, Maximus, Simon...' Alec counted their names in his head one by one. They were all professors he had taken a class from. Others, not so much. He had seen their faces before, and even knew one's name – She was called Bianca and was a part of the jury during Professor Andrew's thesis defense – but he hadn't taken classes from them.

Then there was the man...

'Professor Howard...'

Sitting in a bigger armchair with the same design, arms resting on the armrests, he seemed unbothered by Alec's arrival.

'What the fuck did I get mixed up into? Is this a fucking cult?' Alec questioned in his head.

"Come, Mr. Alec. Sit," Professor Howard opened his mouth. His voice was more imposing than normal as if he was straining it by choice. He gestured toward an armchair, which was empty.

Alec nodded and sat down. He found it strange that he had been sat on one of the armchairs. It made him look almost like he was their equal.

"Greetings, committee. Today, we are welcoming our newest member," Professor Howard said, again, with a strained voice. "This is Mr. Alec Greenwood. Albeit his status as a student, I have deemed him worthy of the tenth seat."

'Oh god, this is definitely a fucking cult. Maybe I shouldn't have come. Though what the hell am I gonna do? Snitch on them? These ten are probably stronger than the rest of the school combined!

"We would have liked to be informed earlier, Professor Howard!" The man named Enoch said. He was also a jury member and a young-looking man with purple hair.

"Why? What would you have done if you were to be informed?" Professor Howard asked, his eyes locking onto the man.

"What if I had a better candidate in mind?"

"Then call them too. We will see if they can beat Mr. Alec here. In theoretical knowledge, of course," Professor Miriam interfered. The green-haired woman had her arms crossed with a frown on her face, seemingly frustrated at Enoch, who was blatantly antagonistic toward Alec.

"Hmph, maybe I will," Enoch answered, mimicking her and crossing his arms.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"Let's calm down, everyone, we are not setting a great example for Mr. Alec here," Professor Howard took over the conversation. "I would like to open today's discussion–"

"I'm sorry Mr. Howard, but I don't understand what is going on," Alec finally said. He was brought to a shady location, watched incredibly powerful people argue about his presence in an eerie, dark room, and was meant to join their discussion? About what?

"You didn't tell the guy?" a professor named Simon said. He facepalmed. His body language didn't betray dissatisfaction but bafflement.

"I thought he would have guessed it by himself," Professor Howard answered. "Anyway. This is the review committee, Mr. Alec. The tenth seat of the committee has been open for some time and we wanted someone who knows their thing to join."

'Oh,' Alec finally understood. He inspected the others' expressions before turning his head back to Professor Howard. 'I must've shown too much potential. They would be willing to accept a student into the fray? And by the way, why did they make it so shady? Is it because of some esoteric mage fetish?'

"I would be just as surprised if you dumped that on me out of nowhere," Miriam added. Alec particularly liked the woman as she was constantly taking his side.

"Not to mention, the tenth seat is supposed to be for the anti-memetics review board, what the hell does Alec Greenwood have to do with that? Doesn't he specialize in fire magic?" Professor Enoch retorted, his voice rising slightly toward the end.

'The anti-memetics review board seat is empty? Is it because the previous one died?'

"There haven't been many high-level anti-memetics papers in a long time. I doubt it will be a problem. Either way, Mr. Alec will be a great addition to the committee."

Professor Enoch didn't refute further and crossed his legs with a quiet sigh.

"I can do it," Alec suddenly added. If he had to be honest, even with the lack of extra mana brains and mind stat, he could deal with reviewing anti-memetics papers on par with other professors. It was the magical branch he had the most theoretical knowledge. Not to mention, because the memetic magic branch had been shrouded, most of the foundational knowledge of anti-memetics was being ignored, making it very hard to create new papers.

"Really? Prov–"

"Enough, Mr. Enoch," Professor Howard cut him off. "If Mr. Alec says he can do it, he can do it. Instead of meandering around like this, I would like to open today's discussion."

Suddenly, red holograms of circles appeared in front of everyone. With a small nudge of mana, the mages turned those circles green one by one. Alec followed along and did the same, assuming it was some kind of "ready" signal.

Once everyone's lights turned green, Professor Howard started talking.

"The first topic I would like to discuss is one that has been discussed many times. With the recent advancements made thanks to Mr. Alec, I'm starting the session regarding the renaming of elemental magic systems."

The mages of the committee started whispering amongst each other utilizing silent communication spells. Alec felt a bit like an outcast watching them that way. Fortunately, Professor Miriam reached out to him and started explaining.

[As this is your first day in the committee, I'm going to run you through what they are talking about,] she said. Alec traced the source of the communication, as the voice was a bit janky because of the spell, and noticed Miriam looking at him.

[That would be great. Thank you very much.]

[No problem, it's good to see a fresh face here finally. I hate being around these geezers all day.]

'Huh... Is she younger than them, perhaps? Or is she trying to be a hip grandma?' Alec couldn't help but think. The system made it really hard to gauge people's seniority. That was the main reason behind strength and knowledge being the deciding factors of respect in this society. At least that was what Alec thought. After all, he didn't have a Transmigrator's Guide to the New World’s Societal Norms.

[You see, the upper echelons of magical academia have been discussing whether or not to amalgamate all the elemental magic branches under fire magic and call it something else,] she said, ripping Alec away from his thoughts. [After all, there are many problems with the current classification.]

[Huh. Isn't that a no-brainer? What is there to discuss?] Alec asked.

[It's too much of a hassle, that's the problem. The classes will have to be reshuffled, professors will change their classifications... Still, Professor Howard himself was the one to stand against it, it's surprising that he proposed it himself this time around,] she said while holding her chin thoughtfully.

'I wonder if it has something to do with what I did,' Alec thought. In the end, he was on the side of changing the classification. Separating what was essentially the same thing into arbitrary categories like water, fire, and earth, was incredibly boring and unnecessarily complicated. It was also wrong, which only strengthened his point.

After everyone finished their personal discussions, Professor Howard gathered their attention by clapping his hands.

"Now that we are ready, I would like to proceed with the first round of votes, which will be followed by the first round of open discussions..."