Will awoke to a windy late summer morning. Outside his loft's window, Will saw the leaves desperately hold onto their branches, as the wind flung them side to side.

Today was the first day of classes, and this year Will had classes at both the Knight and Mage Academies. Will dressed quickly and made his way downstairs.

On the kitchen table was a note left by Elder Thaddeus, "Dear boy, I'm off to work. I left your schedule and a new spellbook next to this note. Have a good first day of classes.

I Will looked at the schedule. Truthfully, he hadn't thought about the schedule since the carriage ride from the Tribal Lands to Guidon. Looking at the schedule, he was registered for Knight and Mage Academy class on opposite days. Today, his classes were at the Knight Academy. The first class, battle tactics was from 8th to 10th bell. This class required students to compete in chess. The instructor argued chess made for good tactical training. Troop Leadership lasts from 10th to 11th bell.

From the 11th bell to the 12th bell he would fulfill his word quest in the library. From the 12th bell to the 13th bell was lunch. From the 13th bell to the 14th was noble etiquette. He would conclude his day, by working an hour or two as Quartermaster in his guild office. That would be his schedule on the first, third, and fifth days of the week.

On the second and fourth days, he had conjuration was from the 8th bell to the 10th bell, followed by transfiguration from the 10th to the 12th bell. After an hour's lunch, he had formation from 13th to 14th bell and the arcane blacksmithing was 14th to 16th bell.

Next to his schedule sat a booklet labeled, [Journeyman Earth Mage Spells] by Saturn vont Cornelious. Five spells were explained.

The first was [iron body], which was an upgrade [rock armor]. The spell [iron body] turned the caster's skin into iron. The second spell was [sandstorm], this spell was more advanced than [quicksand]. [Sandstorm] allowed the caster to gather sand from the ground and whip it into a ferocious storm. With [sandstorm] the caster could camouflage himself and stealth attack his opponent.

The third was [modeling], which allowed the caster to reform any rock, sand, stone, or metal into any object. This spell was a degree of difficulty higher because the caster had to have expert knowledge of the object he wanted to create. Will understood now why his master recommended he take arcane blacksmithing as an elective.

The fourth spell was [erode] which was Will's first counterspell. Using this spell, the caster could corrode another caster's spell that had an earth element. For example, if a fire mage cast [meteor], Will could counter his spell with [erode] reducing the meteor to a speck of dust. Will could also use this spell to remove terrain.

The last spell was [poison cloud]. This spell was also known by another name, [farmer's poison]. Despite the name, this was a versatile spell. This spell evolved [entangled] to [poison vine]. Afterward, it allowed the caster to gather the poison from the plant and direct the poison to a location. The poison is toxic to people and animals, but no plants or crops, thus title [farmer's poison].

After putting down the book, Will heard the 7th bell tolling from the Mage Academy clock tower. Grabbing his schedule and booklet, Will ran to the Knight Academy dining hall for a quick bite, before his class on battle tactics.

Will ran across the Mage Academy, down the street to the Knight Academy to the dining hall. The dining hall was packed with students. The first-year stags sat awkwardly at a table introducing themselves.

It took Will a minute to find his friends, but he followed the angry yelling he heard to pinpoint his friends. Most of his classmates were seated, proudly displaying their second-year wolf pins. The only two standings were Anne and Vincent.

"You did it! You burned down my family's bakery! Why?" Anne was visibly shaken, if she was a cartoon character smoke would rise from her out of her hair.

"That's what you get commoner, for your remarks at Death Valley. You commoner wanted to expel me a noble. You got your comeuppance as far as I'm concerned," said Vincent sneering.

"You…" Anne started to say.

"Yes me what?" Vincent asked. This was part of his plan. If Anne public disparaged a noble in public, she would be jailed.

Realizing his ploy, Anne she instinctively backs down. She was angry, not stupid. As her emotion cooled, she realized belittling a noble would reflect badly on Will. Moreover, hadn't Will imprisoned his troubadours for that and more. She sat down wordlessly, ruining Vincent's hopes.

"Well, I came at an awkward moment," Will chuckled. Chloe, Mark, Evan, Vincent, Sarah, Anne, Grace, Samuel, all turned their heads and smiled at Will.

"I was wondering if you were going to show up?" said Mark.

Will stared at Mark, who bulked up. Mark looked like a budding bodybuilder, Will had seen from his past life. Mark's forearms were large, muscular, and brutish.

"There is our hero," said Chloe.

Chloe looked even more beautiful, but her aura felt murderous. Will thought she must have taken a dangerous quest this summer.

"Will!" Grace and Sarah ran up and curtsied to Will. His Deputy Quartermasters had not changed much since summer.

"Sarah, I want to thank you for training my business staff in double-entry accounting. Your instruction made it much easier and faster to review my accounts," Will replied.

Samuel, Evan, and Vincent greeted Will with their eyes and a nod. In the short time they had before class, they talked about what they did over the summer.

Chloe went on a dangerous quest to Albania with her master, the Knight Academy's Valkyrie Guild Master. The women went on a treacherous journey to retrieve a female spy and implant another. Chloe spoke about the dry Albanian weather and seeing the ocean for the first time.

Mark spent his summer training with the Golden Knights in the capital. According to Mark, their exercise routine made Marshall Rolf's training look easy. If his arms were any indication of the difficulty, it had to be on par with the special forces back on Earth.

Everyone had a typical summer break, with some minor requests sprinkled here and there. Vincent, Evan, and Chloe spent the summer with their families. Evan spent the summer working in the Guidon's Guardian Guild office. Evan worked as a messenger. Sarah, trained Will's staff before she left to spend the summer with Chole.

Anne went first, describing her tumultuous summer. When she mentioned her family's bakery burned down, Vincent laughed in righteous indignation. Their argument was when Will approached the table.

Everyone described their summer, except for Samuel. Samuel refused to give details about his summer. After a few minutes, he broke down and said, "I can't say much. I swore an oath of secrecy. All I can say is that I completed my first assassination."

Mark was the first to congratulate him. Hearing Mark's praise the rest of the class chimed in as well. Will lauded him as well.

The class spent the last minutes comparing electives. Mark, Vincent, and Evan enrolled in the master of arms, horseback riding, jousting, and archery. Instead of jousting, Vincent had noble etiquette. Samuel enrolled in horseback riding, archery, and alchemy.

Chloe, Grace, Anne, Sarah all enrolled in home economics. In addition to that course, Chloe registered for master of arms, horseback riding, and noble etiquette. Grace, Sarah, and Anne also registered for music and art.

However, they all desperately wanted to know Will's schedule. When Will shared his schedule they were impressed.

"How unfair, you can take electives at both Academies," said Chloe.

"Just when I thought I closed the gap, you decide to learn formations. The midyear battles are too unfair," Evan replied.

They all laughed and departed hearing the 8th bell ring. As a group, they set off to their first class, battle tactics. Will was secretly excited; this was his first time being in class with his classmates.

Will followed everyone to the pagoda. Last year, Will learned the first and second floors were the quest office. Similar to an Adventure Guild, these floors listed general quests, received quest materials, and distributed quest awards.

Will also learned guild offices were located on the upper floors. The smaller guilds shared a pagoda floor. The larger guilds, like the Guardians, had a floor unto themselves.

Will was surprised to learn; the classroom was also located in the pagoda. Will followed his classmates as they walked up to the fourth floor. Outside, the first door on the right had a sign that read, 'Battle Tactics with Retired General vont Ying.'

Will was the last in the door when he saw a tall muscular woman in a brown military uniform. The woman stared imposingly at the students as they filed into the classroom. Here graying black hair, age-worn smile, and upright posture hid a lifetime of sorrow.

"Hurry up and sit down! Let's get started. I am your instructor retired General vont Ying. As the future military leadership in this country is important you under how great past commanders utilized weapons, technology to their success or detriment.

Victory, that's what you'll learn to achieve. To achieve victory, you must know the rules of war, principles of strategy, essential tactics, and decisiveness in battle. These can be taught, but for the best commanders these are instinctual," she finished eyeing Will's medal of valor.

She continued, "Strike your enemy's weakness, compensate for your weaknesses Ambush your enemy when their strength overwhelms your own. Attacking, counterattacking, retreat, feigning retreat, defensive maneuvers, technological superiority, the importance of good engineers and quartermasters, and geographical advantage. These and more are what you'll learn this year.

The wages of battles and war can be won and lost by a single commander. History has shown this maxim to be true. Pay attention and you can become a glorified commander, forever enshrined in the hearts of many."

Will looked around the room, and most of the students were captivated by her opening words. Especially the infantry types like Mark, Evan, Vincent, Chloe, and others. Others like Grace and Sarah looked uninterested.

The retired general began, "We'll begin by studying the rules of wars. These are agreements set by nations, but by artfully applying the rules of war a commander can decide the fate of a nation."

This class remains me of Sun Tzu's 'Art of War.' Sun Tzu was a famous Chinese general from Earth's antiquity. He wrote a book on military strategy, that focused on the same proverbial phrases the general lectured.

Will first read the 'Art of War' in his M.B.A. program. Back then his business instructor used the book to describe the similarities between business and war. His business instructor made the point of showing how cutthroat mergers and acquisitions were n business.

Even now he remembered his favorite quote, "The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting." In the past, Will used this adage to commit hostile takeovers of his competitors. He would use charities and shell companies to vote out a contrarian C.E.O. or board member and then take control of the company.

As Will dazed off, thinking about those fond memories, he faintly heard the bell tool in the background.