"I just don't get it. I have read about population growth and statistics - thank you, eidetic memory potion - and the way people in the Scholomance act like other people dying somehow improves their odds doesn't make sense to me. Sure, in a graduation horde of a bajillion mals, you don't want to be in the slow half of the class, but in the four years before that, there is safety in numbers. Sure, some mals will eat somebody and then spend the next year happily digesting, but there are just as many that breed or split or bud or upgrade and are hungry again days or weeks later. Predator populations grow when they hunt successfully!" He runs his fingers through his short hair in a frustrated gesture.
"And this idea drives everything we do, including the nastiness with nobody wanting to lend a hand to the mundanes who get pulled in, or the freshmen who make mistakes."