Idle Mage: Humanity's Strongest Backer

Angelica pulled out a briefcase out of nowhere which surprised Ashton, though he didn't show it in his face of course.

From the briefcase, she took out stacks of papers, all are neatly arranged and placed in their respective folders. She laid them out on the table in front of Ashton and said:

"Mr. West, you've received 5 offers for your sponsorship. 4 of them are from our long-time partners and the last one is from one of our private clients."

"Private Clients?" Ashton was confused.

"Yes. Private Clients are people who doesn't represent any agencies and preferred their donations and identities a secret. Most of the Private Clients offers sponsorship to students they taken interest to and their contracts often works the same as the agencies does, only instead of answering to a entire company of people, you'll only answer to one should you decide take the offer of our Private Client."

"As for their legitimacy, no need to worry about that. Every Private Clients had their backgrounds checked and monitored by our Academy. If they turn out to bad people and cause harm to students, the Academy will personally step-in to the students aid, given that enough proof is provided."

"I see..." Ashton nodded in understanding. He then looked at the folders in front of him and asked: "Can I...?"

"Go ahead." Angelica nodded.

Ashton then picked one of the folders and started reading through them.

The first thing that he noticed is the huge logos printed at the top of the contract. One was a royal blue crest with golden frame and has a capital 'M' embedded at the very center.

Ashton had seen this before, this is the crest that represents the Mystic Academy. This crest was also present on the exam papers he answered.

The crest of the academy was on the leftmost side of the contract while on other is, presumably, the agency where this contract is from.

The icon was a capital 'C' which is made out some fancy font. It is golden in color and really unique.

'Crossford Inc.' Ashton murmured inwardly upon recognizing the logo. He did some research last night and remembered the logos that agencies used.

Ashton then began reading through the contract. He took his time and analyzed every single clause included in them. It took him around 10 minutes to finish this one. Once he's done, he released a breath and analyzed what the contract was asking in exchange for their support.

'Alright first and foremost, the sponsorship is shared between the Academy and the Agency. The support I'll receive is divided into 50:50 between them. Each side has an expectation from me and I have to do my best to follow them in order to keep their support.'

'For the Academy's side, they're expecting me to have an A-rating on my Major Subjects. I also have to make sure I don't violate the rules too much and always be present in class.'

'I'd also get a bonus if I reach the Honor Roll. I get more bonuses the higher my ratings are and any unique academic achievements will be rewarded as well.

'Everything is understandable and it doesn't sound hard but with the inclusion of other requirements from the partner agency, things can become hectic.'

'Crossford Inc. requires me to work as an intern on their Academic Branch. They said that my schedule is going to be flexible but I don't trust it, I've seen this pattern before. If I signed this, they'll have my shift start as soon as my school schedule is done. They didn't say how many hours I'd have to work for each day and that's mighty suspicious.'

'Though their offer's quite good though. Basically, if I sign this contract, I'll have a massive boon technologically wise. They'll update every piece of technology I have in this home to the most modern one for free and this includes vehicles too, I'd also receive their newest product, also for free.'

'Additionally, the monthly allowance I'll receive from them would be 1 Million Federation Dollars and 500,000 High-Grade Mana Crystals. Which insane if you ask me.'

'There's also an additional clause saying that if I graduated with a spotless record, they'd offer me a new contract and they will hire me as one of their 'Private Inspectors', whatever that means.'

Clearly, these numbers are too, too big. Especially for an orphan like him. That's so much money! More than he knows where to spend it on.

Yet Ashton, despite being impressed by their generosity, cannot be fooled by this.

'Nah, it's way too suspicious. I can smell a trap here. This a slave contract. They want me to be an intern yet they couldn't even be bothered to add how many hours I need to work everyday? They included at least ten paragraphs here glorifying their history and expertise yet they can't even jot that down?'

'They also said that they'd 'hire' me after I graduate? I don't get to choose then? Nah. Nah...no way. I'm not signing this shit. Thank you next, b*tch.'

Ashton's inner voice was snorting in disdain yet on the outside, he looked like he's just thinking. Yep, at this point this can be considered as a talent already.

He picked up the next folder and read through just as carefully as he did on the first one. Once he's done with that, he moved-on to the next one and then the other one...all they way until he finished reading through all five of them.

'The expectations of the Academy towards me is the same for each contract. They just want me to be an exemplary student and that's it. The better I perform the more bonus I'll receive from them.'

'As for the Agencies...Crossford Inc. is a no for me. The others are White Corona Group, Crimson Crusaders, Blue Skies Empire. Their requirements are very different from each other.'

'Starting with the Crimson Crusaders, they are expecting me to join their Academic Branch as well but instead of an Intern, they want to train me as a Peddler.'

'Apparently, the Crimson Crusaders are like the Adventurer's Guild of this world. They want students like me to know more about the trade since one day, if I decide to work for them, they'd take me outside for Adventure.'

'First of all...no.'

'More specifically...no!'

'You want to train me as your lackey? Excuse you. You're offer isn't even as good as Crossford Inc. All you offered me was money, mana crystals and training. That's like...nothing so, no thank you.'

'Alright, moving on.'

'White Corona Group, oh boy.'

'In my research, I learned that these people are the 'Church' of this world. They all about kindness, generosity, salvation and all that...'

'They call magic as 'Miracles' which is just...no.'

'They want to train me to become a 'Holy Child' which is just a fancy term for a Priest. The work's mostly volunteer work and the schedule's flexible enough, they even allowed to allocate the work hours myself.'

'It sounds good and all but it's still a no for me.'

'There were many incidents reported of these group taking it too far in their Worship of their 'God'. The articles he read came from a reliable source too so it has credibility in it. And frankly, I just don't want anything to do with that.'

'Their offer for me is also a no. '

'I mean, they said that they will teach me all sorts of 'Miracles' to perform which is tempting but still no. I appreciate the offer really, but I refuse.'

'Next, Blue Skies Empire.'

'Now this offer looks very sincere to me.'

'Just like the first two, they also require me to join their Academic Branch. The difference is that, the Blue Skies Empire is also closely related to the Morning Sun Federation. Which meant their business has something to do with the military.'

'Working for them is more like enlisting. I'll receive Military Training from their Academic Branch which honestly doesn't sound too bad. Receiving this kind of training will help me survive the dangers of this world so that already sounds attractive.'

'If I complete their training while also keeping my records clean, they'll upgrade my citizenship to 4-stars, which is a very attractive offer since that will give me more privileges in the future. Plus once I graduated, I'd work for the Federation itself.'

'It sounds dangerous but that's the training's for right? Also, they'd teach me all kinds of skills and spells for free which is neat.

'According to what I heard, they're also a rowdy bunch. There are frequent tournaments within their Academic Branch and winning these tournaments will grant me bonuses as well. Which is kind of okay.'

'The monthly allowance they'd give me is the same as the Crossford Inc. was offering, just minus the upgrades part. Which is still a lot. But that also meant that the training is going to be hard.'

'Honestly, I'm really leaning towards this but...'

Ashton bit his lips as he stared at the last folder he read. This one came from the Regal King and honestly, their offer sounds extremely tempting as well.

'Knowledge about Magic...'