Isn't being in the army, even a magic army, the very definition of "regular work for a wage"?

"Regular" has the same etymology as "rule". And what's a military about if not following rules and enforcing the rule of their ruler?

As for the wage part... "Soldier" etymologically means "paid", it comes from the name of a coin in the Roman empire, the "solidus".

If you call Mr. Kimberly a 'Rent Seeker' your city gets buried in trauma-slime.

Its a little bad, that its the maniac in charge of training the Royal Guard, who are the one that made the reasonable suggest "add a bit of carrot" >.<

Mr. Kimberly is too familiar with we-won't-give-you-a-raise-this-year pizza parties to recognise this as anything but the exploitation that it really is.

Oh, those Elite Peon seem to be few. I guess, as I assume their housing would be more spacious.

My gut reaction? Less like a wage more like "gold star sticker" to some students. Obviously, to me, yet another lever to pull some students, like BBs, into cooperation.

If students get a wage of some kind by default, I presume peon's will be lower, Elite Peon would be higher that that, because they are soooo accomodating to them, and Upper Ring classes higher yet. Incentives and all.
I mean maybe elites agreed on basis on some more privileges, like "bribes".

Will Kimberly get eventually demoted to peon because of "excess napping"?

Soo... question. Where do the White Berets have their lodging? We were told peon's were in the lower quarters, and everyone before Elite was placed in the upper ring. Elites here in the "park". Then we were told about WB, so... I presume they live somewhere else, surely they are few, but... were do they live?

Ahhh finally the spark of rebellion appears and well its not an office Cubicle for now but I'm sure its going to be lots of paper work at some point.

Also at some point when all these comments finally get loaded up its going to make anyone reading things in the future wonder what the hell is going on I suspect with people repeating the same stuff and looking quite mad for so little and I'm loving it already!

So did Windows earn any credit by helping capture the Malhartian sproglings? Not to mention leading them all to Chernyl (although given they were communicating with Ciel, she may have had the credit there).

Mr. Kimberly should be doing pretty well for Haven related activities (if such credit was awarded) for that matter.

With every passing day, I like Mr. Kimberly more and more. He is so inherently relatable.

I am pretty sure at least half the students will blow their cash for useless nonesense within record time, first and foremost Felix.

This is better than wages, Kimberly. This is scrip so it's not even useful if you manage to get out.

What does the store sell, though?

Mr. Kimberly prefers unpaid work. Y'know - slavery.

Mr Kimberly, I'm expecting that the Credit System is entirely for luxuries, not basic necessitates. You don't need to pay for room or board, and if you don't do your job your head comes off. But, if you're good at your job, you get Credits you can use to buy better clothes, extra deserts, or fancy TV's.

@Straightbackward: With regards to the White Beret lodgings, I see two possibilities (presuming there are no pocket dimensions or the like involved) that have been shown on the maps, the upper quarters (above the peon barracks and either just below or surrounding the wild park) and the superior staff ring (which is above the coloured beret ring).

Of course, it is entirely possible that the location is classified and they're somewhere that she's "inadvertently" ruled out.

Oh no, easy mistake to make, but that's not working for a wage - that is just straight-up exploitative labour for company scrip.

Also, I am willing to bet that they will be offering some extra "carrot" to anyone willing to denounce fellow Project Barnrose members who harbor less than perfectly loyal sentiments towards their employers/the Empire soon. They have already started inciting rivalry and mistrust between them - this feels entirely calculated.
If the Project members can't trust one another, they will not be able to muster an effective resistance, enabling the Empire to keep them under their control even despite the overwhelming magical powers these kids (and Mr. Kimberly) have.

I think this is more, work to not-die