Here's where the premise just falls apart. It's now revealed that there's a whole other faction for "swords" that exists apart from mage society. Will is no longer the hard working but talentless MC cast away by society. He's not a failure, incompetent, or even special in any way (that we know of). He's just literally at the wrong place. Why are we letting someone with not a single shred of magic into a mage academy, let alone graduating?