Will woke up to a flashing light in the corner of his eyes. Groaning awake, he concentrated on the light and his screen appeared.

Name: William vont Ballard

Race: Human

Rank: 0

Class: Merchant

Sub Class: Spellsword

Attributes:

Constitution—50

Strength—50

Dexterity—46

Intellect—66

Charisma—15

Ranks Skills: Management (50), Diplomacy (35), Accounting (50+2)

Class Skills: Appraisal (15, 100), [Radar]

Abilities: Journeyman Swordsmanship (1, 50), Journeyman Terramancer (1, 50), Gaia's Blessing (multiplies your spell strength x2).

He was right, after level 50 it would be harder to level his stats. In the past, he would have earned a minimum of five points reviewing his companies' accounts. Now the number reduced to two. All that work for two points seemed a little merciless.

However, instead of complaining he rolled over and put his head under the sheet. He wanted a few more minutes of sleep. As soon as he closed his eyes, he felt Archimedes jump on the bed and clawed at his blanket. Archimedes clawed at the bed sheet attempting to lower it from covering Will's head.

"Fine, I'll get up! Quite batting at my head. I'm getting up," Will yawned, stretching his arms above his head.

Satisfied with Will's response, Archimedes climbed down from the bed and walked down the loft's stairs.

As Will rubbed water on his face from the washbowl, he was unaware of last night's commotion. The Guidon Merchant Guild Master, Sir. vont Navarrete informed the capital's Merchant Guild of Will's shareholder auction.

Merchants in Guidon and the capital were in an uproar about shareholding. The novelty over owning a portion of the Silver Pheonix café, casino, and theatre brought excitement.

The excitement created a frenzy competition among nobles and merchants. The excitement was palpable. None knew how many shares Will would sell, but the A and B shares only further drove men to competition.

Even King Remus Albus Fermion IX felt owning A-shares was part of the kingdom's national security. The king and his advisors saw this as another revenue line item. The king, his advisors, nobles, and merchants remember Will's last auction and the grandmaster beast core sale price. While the shares would not sell as much, everyone wanted to make sure they had enough liquid capital.

All over Fermion merchants and nobles prepared for Will's visit to the capital. One such person was Timothy vont Alms, the Guidon City Lord.

"Bradley, Bradley, get in here!" the City Lord shouts echoed throughout the manor.

This was how the gangly, nerdy Bradley woke up this morning. He quickly dressed and nimbly walked into this father's study carefully. Bradley knew his father was paranoid and angry and usually made all attempts to avoid him. But ever since his father came up with the plan to court William into his fraction, he had been insufferable to him.

"Yes, father?" Bradley asked unaware of what his father wanted.

"Change of plans, you'll meet with Sir. William vont Ballard today for lunch at his café. I already sent a servant with the invitation last night," the City Lord said expectantly.

"Last night, I received a letter from Sir. vont Navarette informing me of Sir. vont Ballard's auction to sell portions of shares of his company. He plans to sell a limited number of voting and non-voting shares for each of his companies. You know I own two percent of the casino, it's a necessity that our family own voting shares in it," the City Lord explained.

"You must arrange with Sir. vont Ballard to let us purchase a casino voting share at the auction," the City Lord implored.

Bradley had never seen his father like this before. He could tell the seriousness of his father's attitude. Bradley knew his father was a schemer, he would sell his child if he thought it would secure his position as City Lord.

"Father, why don't you invite William to lunch yourself?" Bradley asked trying to get out of his father's scheme.

"The Merchant Guild forbade auction bidders from speaking with Sir. vont Ballard until after the election. To keep the auction fair, bidders must refrain from bribery and coercion…at least openly," the City Lord laughed at the last part.

That's when Bradley realized why his father asked him to meet William, instead of himself or his older brother. He and William were classmates, guild members, it would not strange to see them having lunch in public.

No doubt other nobles with children in the Mage and Knight Academy would conceive the same plan. Bradley realized he was but one cadet, who was probably given the same mission. The difference being his father was an upper noble, a city lord who commanded respect.

"Alright father, I'll meet Will for lunch," Bradley sighed. He wished this to be the first and last time, his father used him as a pawn in one of his plots.

***

At the same time as people were planning for Will's auction, there were a group of men conspiring for Will's death. In a secret, a group of nobles met in a viscounty's manor to plot out Will's demise.

For these men, Will's youth, wealth, and power were threatening. They feared what would become of this young man in the future.

Moreover, his piles of gold rejected convention. If it was this easy for a 14-year-old, should it be this easy for these old men? If this young man grew up, what else could he achieve?

Better to kill him now and split the wealth between themselves. In the medieval period, there was no last will. If Will died, his companies and gold would transfer to his father James vont Ballard.

Then it would be easy for them to coerce and manipulate James until they controlled all the companies. But for their plan to work, they had to kill William vont Ballard, before the auction. Once, he auctioned off the shares it would be much harder to wrestle control over the companies.

"Send out the contract to the Assassin Guild," said a fat vile man. For some reason sending out the contract relaxed him, he felt comfortable knowing Will's days were numbered.

The plan was simple, after his appointment to baronet he would meet an unexpectant end. The conspirators laughed gleefully thinking of Will's death and bathing in his piles of gold.

***

After drying his face off with a towel Will walked downstairs to the table. Tea, toast with marmalade, and eggs filled the table. The warm tea's fragrance filled the small cottage aromatically.

"Ah," Will whispered after sipping his first taste of tea. For Will, the first sip was the most delightful.

"Classes start tomorrow Will, are you ready?" asked Elder Thaddeus.

"Yes, master. I plan to visit the Mage Academy library to read about conjuration and transfiguration," Will replied honestly.

Truth be told, the thought of going to the library trigger memories of Teacher Eleanor's death. Yet, he knew he had to move on with his life. The thought of receiving a spirit animal-filled Will with excitement.

"Master, if I get spirit animal, would they be able to communicate with Archimedes?" Will asked curious to know the answer.

"Why yes, animals from the spirit world can communicate with each other," Elder Thaddeus answered.

This excited Will even further. In his youth, when he was a boy on Earth his family had a pet dog. He wondered again, what it would be like to have a spirit wolf.

"Will before you go, you received an invitation to lunch with Bradley vont Alms at your café," Elder Thaddeus said nonchalantly.

"Bradley, I wonder what he wants?" Will thought out loud. Bradley was an introvert's introvert. Bradley was known to talk to engineering designs more than people. Will hadn't even heard of Bradley until the Guild Wars.

Will planned to reach out to Bradley in the future for help with an ambitious project. 'But for Bradley to reach out to me, this could only be a ploy of the City Lord. I'll play along, I wonder where this will lead?' Will thought.

The morning flew by quickly. After breakfast, Will and Elder Thaddeus did Tai Chi, followed by spellcasting, sword fighting, and a bath. Then Will sat in the Mage Academy for two hours reading about conjuration and transfiguration.

Hearing the 12th bell, Will made his way over the café for lunch. Earlier he sent a message to Vanessa asking her to reserve a table for him and his guest.

As Will wove through the streets of Guidon, he was stopped by at least a dozen people asking about his shareholding auction. Will guessed the Merchant Guild has sent out the auction notice. Person, after person, stopped Will to ask questions, gain favor, or bribe him for more detailed information.

"How many shares are you planning to auction?"

"Besides voting and non-voting what are the other differences?"

"Is there a shareholding limit?"

"If your selling shares, are you still the owner?"

These and other questions were continuously thrown out to Will as he walked to the café. Will graciously answered each question. While he was gracious, he repeated he had a standing appointment for which he couldn't be late.

Slowly and methodically, Will navigated the sea of questions. All the while, slowly making his way to the café. Finally, after half-past noon, he walked through the café doors.

Bradley vont Alms sat in the back corner, playing chess against himself to pass the time. Of all the board, card, and domino games, chess was his favorite. Although Go was a close second.

"Having fun?" Will called out to Bradley smiling.

"Ah yes, chess is my favorite. I wondered how you came up with such a good game?" Bradley asked curiously. He wasn't the only one, people wondered how Will invented such addicting games. Most people just assumed it was due to his young age and passion for strategy.

"Have you never designed anything?" Will asked circumventing the question.

"All the time, yet my fathers and others cannot understand its utility," Bradley was frustrated.

To him, his designs, inventions, could help so many people, yet no one supported him. However, he was sure Will heard the same negativity, yet he preserved ahead. Bradley secretly admired him for that determination.

"How about a game, before lunch and business?" Will asked.

"A match? You should know the engineering class plays this game competitively," Bradley's eyes lit up, at the mention of his engineering class.

Bradley and Will moved the chess pieces to their starting positions. With every game sold, Will included a booklet with detailed instructions, game rules, and legal moves. While Will couldn't remember all the chess moves, he wrote what he remembered about castling, en-passant, three-fold repetition, promotion, stalemate, time control, and the infamous touch move.

Bradley went first as white. While Will was not a master chess player, in fact far from it, he only knew one opening move the Ruy Lopez. The Ruy Lopez was the common opening chess, and Will learned it to impress a client once. As William and Bradley concentrated on the board, the café customers stared at them playing.

Even though Will was the inventor of the game, Will never played chess in public. Will never participated in the chess tournaments held at the café. Vanessa received many requests from people to play against Will in reversi, checkers, chess, go, cards, and dominos. Everyone wanted to see how they matched up against the god of games.

Even Vanesa could not take her eyes off Will playing chess. She had seen countless other plays, supervisor tournaments, and rivalries. But, this was a first. She smiled because this was the first time she'd seen her boss having fun.

When the 13th bell sounded, the game was over. Bradley admitted defeat admirably. There was no shame in losing to the inventor of the game. Bradley learned a lot from the way Will played chess, Will was a calculated risk-taker. Likewise, Will learned Bradley was methodical and was careful to choose the safe option. This allowed Will to trap Bradley into a checkmate.

"Let's order, I'm starving," Will said queuing Vanessa to bring over the waitstaff.

After the men ordered, Bradley felt his consciousness weighing on him. William was always so nice to him, even granting him a game. Bradley was aware Will had never played chess with anyone in public, yet William easily mentioned having a game with him.

"William I have to confess…" Bradley began before being interrupted.

"Will, call me Will. My friends and family call me Will," Will said drinking a cup of water.

Bradley stunned, did Will sincerely know no bounds. Bradley could not figure why Will was treating him so friendly. Bradley knew he was not charismatic or diplomatic.

"Will I have to confess, my father set up this meeting to secure a casino voting share," Bradley shut his eyes. He was prepared for Will to tell him off. For this nice rapport to end.

"I know," Will said eating once the food arrived.

"…"

"You knew this entire time?" Why are you treating me so nicely, I'm here to deceive and bribe you?" Bradley said embarrassed.

"Funny enough, I came here for the same reason. Bradley, I liked you come work for me?"

"…"

"Say again?" Bradley asked in bewilderment.