Jeb waited for the Dean to tell him what the exciting part was. The Dean stared at Jeb, as though waiting for him to ask. Jeb made the choice not to rise to the bait. Seeing that the Dean was staying quiet, he tried to eat through the breakfast he had taken.
He had been surprised at how hungry he felt. When he considered the fact that he had missed most of his meals the day before, to say nothing of increasing his Tier, though, it made some amount of sense. Jeb was not certain that rising in Tier made people hungrier, but it would make some amount of sense.
Dean Aquam clearly got the message that Jeb was not in the mood for games when it came to his debt to the Censusmaster, because he sighed and began to speak. "Due to the circumstances of your Class, you have been placed in Remedial College," he said. "Now, there are very few provisions in the Academy Charter and treaties with the Republic that deal with the Remedial College. As I searched last night, that made some amount of sense. After all, the Remedial College is less than a thousand years old."
Jeb couldn't resist rising to that question. "How old is the rest of the Academy then?"
"Hmm?" Dean Aquam seemed confused by the question. "Oh, to the best of my knowledge, the Academy dates to approximately the same time as the founding of the Republic." Seeing Jeb's blank expression, he continued, "Which was at least two calendar shifts ago. I do not know the exact conversion off the top of my head, but I can show you where to find that answer if you are truly interested."
"Thank you," Jeb replied. "How does the Remedial College being young help me, though?" While he didn't think that the Dean was going to go off track, Jeb wanted to find out what the exciting news. He didn't think that all of the background information about founding the Remedial College would be needed.
"Well, that is the interesting part. I know that there are a number of the bylaws that are unique to my role as Dean of the Remedial College. In new editions of the Academy bylaws, they are explicit in referencing the Remedial College for these regulations. However, any addition to the bylaws needs to be ratified by a vote of the Faculty Senate. The votes in question almost all happened more than a thousand years ago."
"Wait, if the Remedial College is only a thousand years old, how were there votes on how it would be run before it was founded?" Jeb asked. Immediately, an answer came to him. "Oh, were they voting preemptively in case a Remedial College was ever formed?"
The Dean chuckled. "No, though that has happened in the past. When I went through the minutes at the Faculty Senate meetings in question, I found that what we refer to now as the Remedial College once went by a different name. Prior to the renaming, it was known as the Preparatory School."
"Ok," Jeb said, hoping to move the conversation along.
The Dean must have picked up on Jeb's desire to learn how all of this affected him, because he spun his finger a few times. "Now, while all that is interesting, and the renaming in particular is a fantastic example of the ways that political maneuvering in the Academy can span generations and centuries, that is less than relevant to the situation at hand. Nearly all of the relevant case law pertaining to the Academy and its relationship with the Republic comes from more than two millennia ago, for a variety of reasons. The Preparatory School, unlike the Remedial College, has a number of such treaties."
Jeb stopped eating, now drawn into the story.
"So," the Dean continued, "I began to dig into the reason for the Preparatory School's founding. In the early days of the Academy, the faculty noticed a trend. With each passing generation, the diversity of the student body was decreasing. More and more of the incoming students came from the same families, and the number of people with no connection to the Academy before enrolling were dwindling."
"Is that where the nobility formed?" Jeb asked.
The Dean nodded. "In part, yes. Now, the prevailing feelings about this burgeoning elitism are hardly relevant, though they make for an interesting diversion. What is important is that some portion of the faculty thought that this creation of a stratified culture around Magic was a problem. They looked at the reasons that potential students chose to enroll in the Adventuring Corps or military instead of the Academy. When pressed to answer, a majority of people answered that they had not been accepted into the Academy due to a lack of academic preparations." The Dean looked at Jeb as though he wanted him to continue.
"And so they created the Preparatory School to make sure that students would be academically ready for admission into one of the other Colleges, which would hopefully make the system fairer?" Jeb guessed.
The Dean shrugged, waggling his hand. "Partially. That is close enough for this explanation, at least. So, we have a Preparatory School, whose purpose is ensuring that students who would otherwise be unable to enroll in the Academy are now able to. A few generations later, University bylaws suddenly become filled with regulations pertaining to debt. The reasons for these bylaws are themselves interesting, though ultimately unimportant at this moment. What is important is that, once more, students not from historically Magical families are not enrolling. As this new generation of faculty searched for a reason, the debt bylaws appear in the reasons for non-enrollment."
Jeb leaned in, excited. This sounded like exactly the sort of thing that be relevant to him.
"Now, for reasons which are also hardly relevant, the Academy wielded significant political power during this time period. As a result, the Preparatory School was able to secure an interesting way of restructuring debt for any of its students. In addition to the interest being frozen, as was true for every student, students enrolled in the Preparatory School were allowed to pay down the principal of their debts first, rather than beginning with the interest."
"Why does that matter?" Jeb asked, "I still have to pay interest on the interest. It shouldn't matter whether I'm paying interest or principal."
"That is because all debt these days is structured to pay off interest first. Well, that and another old quirk of law." The Dean sighed, "without getting too far into the woods, there is an old and rarely referenced provision in debt law that any debt without principal behind it is null. With this law in mind, however, students in the Preparatory School were able to pay off their debts far more quickly."
"How do I restructure my debt?" Jeb hoped the process would not be too difficult, though he mentally prepared himself to find out that it would be a years long ordeal.
"I must ask your forgiveness," Dean Aquam replied, "I presumed that you would want your debt restructured under this plan and so took care of it last night. Due to a number of interpretations and legal decisions over the years, the Censusmaster was required to list a full, itemized, and verified list of sources of principal debt. Apparently," the Dean rolled his eyes, expressing his disbelief, "he lost a number of the receipts, and so your principal is much smaller than it was before entering this restructuring, to say nothing of the lack of interest on it."
"Thank you so much!" Jeb replied. "What is my debt balance now?"
The Dean shrugged, "I do not have the numbers off the top of my head, though it will appear on your tuition lines until you have either left Remedial College or paid it off."
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Jeb paused at that. "Do the same rules which affected the Preparatory School still affect the Remedial College?"
The Dean nodded. "There is a treaty and a bylaw explicitly about this name change, and far too much case law about renaming organizations generally. In short, yes. Unless explicitly demarcated, anything which was true for the Preparatory School is true now about the Remedial College." By the time their conversation had reached the conclusion, the dining hall had begun to fill.
The Dean gestured to the gathering crowd as he spoke again, "now then, would you like to finish your meal? Once you have, we can continue the conversation in my office. We still need to plan out your schedule for the term and plot out your plan for your experience in the Academy." The Dean began slowly eating his broth, and Jeb hurried to finish his plate.
Jeb’s Status Sheet at End of Chapter:
Jeb Humdrum Human Age: 16 Class: Wizard Level: 2 Experience: 1365/202
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Total Statistic Load: 593 Physical Load: 223 Strength: 52 Dexterity: 53 Endurance: 54 Vitality: 55 Presence: 9
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Mental Load: 370 Intelligence: 73 Willpower: 80 Magic Affinity: 79 Mana Depth: 69 Charisma: 69
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Mana: 1755
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Glyph Attunement: 31 Least Shape Earth (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Earth (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Earth (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Earth (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Shape Earth - Efficient (Modified) Tier 3 Spell Lesser Shape Earth (Modified) Tier 3 Spell Least Shape Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Shape Water - Efficient (Modified) Tier 3 Spell Lesser Shape Water (Modified) Tier 3 Spell Least Hold Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Conjure Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Conjure Water - Efficient (Modified) Tier 3 Spell Least Destroy Water (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Move Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Air (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Move Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Hold Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Destroy Fire (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Least Create Mud (Modified) Tier 2 Spell Attune Earth Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Water Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Water Mana - Efficient (Modified) Tier 2 Spell Attune Air Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Fire Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Attune Sand Mana (Modified) Tier 0 Spell Least Create Sand (Modified) Tier 1 Spell Attune Sand Mana - Efficient (Modified) Tier 2 Spell
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Bard Songs Known: 1 Lute Enforcement
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Skills: Meditation Spell Glyphing Gift of Gab Identify Soil Savvy Animal Handling Fertilizing Lute Playing Singing Musician Pollination Brewing Distilling Smithing Wood Identification Woodworking Soil Improvement Glassblowing Magic
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Achievements: Focused Meditator Student of Magic Glyph Specializer
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Quests: Major: Slay the Dragon of the West (Progressive)