The Grandmaster calmly sized Jasmine up before talking to her and was surprised by the poor state of Jasmine's well being. Her clothes were tattered, her shoes were worn out and overall, she looked extremely weary and malnourished. It was clear that she hadn't had access to any clean water for a while because her face was quite dirty and her auburn hair was messy and dirty.

"Your name is Jasmine?" The Grandmaster softly asked.

The weak, young girl in front of the Grandmaster calmly nodded, her big hazel eyes briefly staring at him before moving away from him and onto the nearby fruit basket.

"Don't be shy. Feel free to take something." The Grandmaster warmly said, deciding to stay seated until Jasmine grew used to the new room, the situation and most importantly, his rather imposing aura.

Jasmine's ears perked as she got permission to take a fruit and she quickly dashed to the fruit basket, grabbed an apple and returned to her spot. She quickly ate the apple, looking at the Grandmaster, waiting for him to continue speaking.

His gaze had yet to leave the little girl since she entered the room and noticing Jasmine's urging gaze, he continued. "Before we talk about anything else, I would like to ask you one question, Jasmine. Your last name, is it Navbel?"

A few seconds passed, a look of surprise, disbelief flashed across Jasmine's face. It took her a few seconds before she recovered, she looked at him with wary eyes and slowly nodded.

The Grandmaster drew in a long breath. "Jasmine, from now on you cannot tell anyone else your name! You can't even mention it to me anymore! If the wrong people find out that your last name is Navbel, very very very bad things will happen. Even worse things than have already happened to you. Do you understand this?"

He wanted to be more wordy about it and explain in greater detail as to why she could and should not divulge her identity, but then the Grandmaster realised she was only a seven year old and that he should keep everything concise and as simple as possible. In reality, he was now talking to her the same way as he had talked to his soldiers back in the day. While that was somewhat belittling them, at least he had never had any problems with soldiers not being able to remember the general plan.

Jasmine looked confused, thought for a few seconds and then nodded her head in understanding. "I'm the enemy?" she asked, a hint of confusion still lingering in her voice.

A grave expression appeared on the Grandmasters face. "Yes and no. You yourself are obviously not a threat to anyone, but your parents... let's just say many people really dislike your mother and father and if they learned that you were their daughter they would harm you very badly and I do not want that to happen."

"Why do you want to protect me? What's your reason?" Compared to her age, Jasmine was a lot further ahead than her peers. Even if she was only seven and still looked very innocent and cute, her intelligence definitely couldn't be underestimated. With just these two questions she had shown that she both understood everything the Grandmaster had said and that she had grasped that there was an underlying reason for everything that had been said so far.

"Haha, seems like I have been found out. So I will stop circling around the matter at hand. After seeing your test results and knowing that your last name is Navbel... I, Rickert Quinn, would like you, Jasmine to be my foster daughter." The Grandmaster proudly said.

"Uh, eh? Ah?!?!?" Jasmine uttered, absolutely speechless. She was happy, yet still unable to suppress tears from rolling down her cheeks. The last couple of weeks since she lost her parents had not been easy on her. At first, she still had some of the caretakers from the castle accompanying her, but food proved to be very hard to find. Their side had used the tactic of the scorched earth, which now proved to be an enormous problem for any refugees that sought to join the empire in hopes of surviving, knowing that their side was doomed to lose due the loss of their two best tacticians.

Due to the lack of food, the caretakers gave what little they found to Jasmine, knowing full well that the little food they had found was not enough for an adult to live on. For a little girl, however, it would just barely be enough to hold on. Thus, the caretakers had all sacrificed themselves so that Jasmine could live on.

Jasmine had felt an enormous burden to survive and to hang on ever since. She had fought tooth and nail to survive, even on days when she felt she would draw her last breath, she had done everything and anything, just to survive a little longer. Finally, after three long weeks, she had been able to reach the great city of Artez. Ever since she arrived here, food had been easier to find and after finding out about the exams just a few days ago, she had been unable to contain her excitement.

Now just being able to speak with Rickert, a strategist even her parents praised, had already made her incredibly happy. Being asked to become his foster daughter was icing on the cake and even though she was stunned, she still wanted to shout "YES!" from the top of her lungs. Still, she didn't do so, unable to subdue the doubt and fear in her heart. She did not know his aims and she honestly did not think he was just doing it out of the kindness of his heart.

Seconds passed as Jasmine involuntarily thought back to everything that had befallen her in the past couple of weeks. Once she snapped out of her memories, she looked at the Grandmaster and sighed deeply. "Why me?" She weakly asked.

"Jasmine..." Rickert started, sighing gently after saying her name. "It's simple, really. I just do not wish for harm to come to you for I really do respect your parents. On top of that, the empire as it is is rotten to the core. I want for it to change, but I cannot do that by myself. To achieve that goal I need truly talented strategists by my side. Uncut gems that have yet to be tainted by the empire. I will also need to do it without alerting any of the other factions."

"So it all boils down to, me respecting your parents and hoping that you will want to help me change the empire in the future. Of course, this means I will do everything I can to make you the best strategist that exists. Whether you help me, in the end, will still be up to you."

Jasmine was a little taken aback at the barrage of words, but she got the gist of it. She did not really understand why the empire was rotten at the core, why it needed to change or how she was supposed to end. Regardless, as long as it was true that she would get the choice to help out when push came to shove, this really did not sound like too terrible of a deal for her. She would have a roof over her head, properly fed and clothed for a start. On top of that, she would have a guardian and a better mentor than she could have asked for.

"F...fine." She slowly said after giving it enough thought. She still thought it was a little rash, but at the moment she did not see why she should not accept Rickert's offer.

A warm, joyful smile appeared on Rickert's face. "Then from now on, your name shall be Jasmine Quinn."