Chapter 6: Contract Student

"The reason you think this way is because you lack a sufficient understanding of the obligations required of contract students, and you know nothing about the origin of this financial aid system," Mr. Javier stated bluntly, pointing out right to Joachim's face that his thinking was far too naive.

The "contractual student loan" had actually evolved from the "indentured servant" system.

As everyone knew, the immigrants who came to the New World to make a living were mostly poor wretches who could no longer survive in the Old World, or even criminals, eight or nine out of ten belonging to the dregs of society. Very few of them could afford the travel expenses for themselves and their families, let alone possess the capital to settle down in the New World.

In order to expand colonial enterprises in the New World, colonial institutions such as the Wilnoah Colonization Company and the Pike Bay Company were in urgent need of labor. Consequently, they introduced a welfare system: providing a sum of travel and settlement expenses to immigrants who lacked the means to pay, while the immigrants were required to sign a contract to work for the company as "indentured servants" for a period of time—usually four to seven years.

During the period when the contract was in effect, the wages paid by the company to the "indentured servants" were typically far below the average level of free laborers in the same industry, barely enough to keep body and soul together. The servants were assigned job types at the company's whim with no right to refuse, forced to endure uncomplainingly whatever work they disliked or were unsuited for, holding a status as low as that of slaves, and having to slog on until the contract period expired to regain their freedom.

The "student loan contract" that Joachim had signed with the Wilnoah Colonization Company was actually cut from the exact same cloth as the contracts signed by "indentured servants." The only difference was that the colonial company was far more willing to invest heavily in a wizard apprentice than in an ordinary laborer, expecting him to serve the company after graduation and recoup the principal with interest.

Thus, it was conceivable that in order to recover the loan from the "contract student" and extract as much profit as possible, the colonial company would resort to every possible means to squeeze them dry, and a long and arduous period awaited them after graduation.

Joachim came from a poor background and was not afraid of hardship and toil, but after all, he lacked social experience. When he signed the contract initially, he failed to notice that some of the clauses were built upon an unequal foundation, and he had unwittingly taken a disadvantageous position.

"For example, there is an additional clause in the contract you signed requiring the signatory to obtain a graduation certificate within five years, isn't that so?" Javier asked Joachim.

"That's right, there is such a requirement," Joachim recalled the contract terms. "If I fail to graduate on schedule, in addition to the normal loan principal and interest, I have to pay the company a large penalty for breach of contract, an amount equivalent to the principal of the five-year student loan."

"That is precisely where the problem lies." Javier sighed, gazing at Joachim with a look of pity.

Joachim frowned, utterly unable to figure out what was unfair about this clause.

The company provided money to fund students so that they would help the company make money after graduation. If a student kept being held back and couldn't graduate, wouldn't the company's loans become a losing investment thrown into a bottomless pit? Therefore, he felt that this "breach of contract clause" was both reasonable and very necessary. Why did Mr. Javier loathe it so deeply?

To take a step back, he was neither stupid nor lazy, so graduating on schedule should not be a problem. Why should he care about this breach of contract clause that would never come into play?

Javier seemed to see right through Joachim's thoughts and smiled bitterly as he revealed the answer.

"If you examine this supplementary clause in isolation, it does sound reasonable and fair. But when you connect this clause with the reality of the environment, things become complicated. The core of the matter is: can you really graduate smoothly within five years?"

"Why wouldn't I be able to?" Joachim asked, puzzled. "Could the headmaster deliberately make things difficult for students and refuse to issue graduation certificates?"

"The headmaster wouldn't stoop to such despicable behavior, but certain black-hearted mentors certainly would!" Javier's words were startling. "Since its inception, Leyton College has practiced the mentor responsibility system. If a mentor claims that one of his students fails to meet the graduation standards, the headmaster cannot say much against it."

"I must say, the character of certain mentors at Leyton College is abysmal. They deliberately nitpick to prevent students from graduating, finding all sorts of excuses to refuse signing their students' graduation certificates, and squeeze young people under the guise of making them pay repeat-tuition fees and student loan breach-of-contract penalties. This forces the students to work as assistants in their laboratories to pay off debts, essentially acting as cheap labor, exploiting the students to earn money and steal prestige."

"Steal prestige?" Joachim echoed in a daze, feeling more and more at a loss.

"It sounds a bit unbelievable, doesn't it? Yet this is the fact. I will give you an example and you will understand how black-hearted mentors use students to earn fame and fortune."

Javier took the pipe handed over by Kalandil, lit the tobacco, took a deep puff, and continued speaking to Joachim:

"Take, for instance, those magitech devices in our shop engraved with the makers' prominent names. On the surface, they appear to be crafted by those venerable arcane mentors of Leyton College. In reality, many of them were not manufactured by the signatories themselves at all. Those mentors merely propose a general research topic, while all the dirty, exhausting work that actually consumes painstaking effort and mana is dumped onto their assistants and students. The latter do the vast majority of the work yet are not qualified to have their names left on the works. As for the income obtained after the magitech devices are sold, a conscientious mentor keeps eighty percent for himself and distributes the remaining twenty percent to the students, while a conscience-less one won't even give a single penny, considering it generous enough to treat the students to a good meal."

Joachim was dumbfounded as he listened, with only a single thought running through his head: the city runs too deep, and he suddenly wanted to go back to the countryside.

Mr. Javier, as if fearing that the shock he had received was not yet enough, continued to expose the unknown dark side of Leyton College, this seemingly glamorous "ivory tower."

"Those malicious mentors are mostly bullies who fear the strong; they wouldn't dare exploit students from wealthy family backgrounds, but instead demean themselves to pander to these rich and powerful young masters and misses. They put on a harsh and cynical face toward contract students who are forced to apply for student loans, and those who are exploited the most miserably tend to be contract students like you—from the countryside, powerless, and poor. Therefore, you must be on your guard and never be deceived by those black-hearted mentors who look sanctimonious on the surface."

Having listened to Mr. Javier's warning, Joachim's mood became heavy, and his student life, which had originally been filled with bright expectations, inevitably cast a shadow.

Next, Javier continued to expand upon this topic, reviewing the current mentors of the Leyton College Arcane Department one by one, warning him which mentors were superficial, which were harsh and mean-spirited, and which were trustworthy.

Joachim committed them to memory one by one, but what good would it do for him to know all this?

As a country youth like him, who was penniless, powerless, introverted, and poor with words, even if he knew very well that a certain mentor was intentionally making things difficult for him, it seemed he had no other recourse than to grin and bear it. Just as he was secretly worrying, a servant knocked on the door and entered to inform Mr. Javier that a guest had arrived.