Two Month Montage

Two months quickly passed by. Tomorrow marked the start of Fall Break for the Knight and Mage Academies. Moreover, a week after that we're the midyear exams and tournament. The past two months had been a blur of training, sparing, classes, and work.

During Fall Break, cadets, mages, and Guidon citizens who lived on farms would leave the city to help gather the harvest in their local villages. The same went for the military, an exodus of infantry soldiers would head home to help their families. However, with the war on the horizon, the king wanted a more coordinated way to rotate troops from the battlefield to the fields.

The king decreed the army should handle the logistics of moving the infantry to help with the harvest to make sure the borders remained secured. Since Will was the Guidon's Quartermaster, it fell to him to coordinate moving troops from the frontlines to the surrounding farms.

After two weeks of planning and preparation, Will scheduled four platoons to help harvest the crops around Guidon. Will sent out two platoons, broken down to 8 squads of 12 infantry to different quadrants around Guidon. Will, Sarah, and Grace have spent hours designing a map of Guidon's surrounding farms into quadrants. The four platoons rotated every two weeks until the harvest was finished.

Fortunately, for Will, the army equipped soldiers with tents. Which made it easy for Sarah to find lodging for only the officers. The troops slept in tents outside the farm and the officers lodged at an inn. Each squad's second lieutenants. As a first lieutenant Will was the commanding officers for the platoons stationed around Guidon. As a second-year cadet, Will found himself commanding much older second lieutenants and sergeants.

During the past two months, Will and his family sent dozens of letters to each other. Will's most memorable letter came from his mother. She scolded him for reprimanding Vanessa, for helping her find Will a fiancée. Helen vont Ballard, was a quiet homely woman, for her to admonish Will was meant she was very upset. In the face of his mother, he could only have to back down. To upset his reincarnated mother, who had taken care of and provided for him, he could only admit defeat.

Other letters came from his father, Jason, and Marcus. Will's father informed him, he and his mother, and Rebecca were traveling to Yorkshire to see Will bestowed the peerage of a baronet. Will welcomed them to stay at his house. Jason's letter apologized for missing his peerage ceremony and informed Will, the war would likely start after new year's celebrations finished. As for the reason, why the war timeline had been move forward, Jason provided no news.

Will also received one letter from Marcus. Marcus wrote to inform Will, he left the army, to rejoin his party to complete Will's wyvern quest. Moreover, Marcus wrote how all his adventure buddies laughed at seeing his little brother at the Adventurer Guild. In the future, he asked Will to come to him if he needed any materials. In the letter, he joked he wouldn't be able to sleep if his little brother's heart gets broken because he didn't get his core. Marcus ended the letter by telling Will not to write a reply because he had already set out on the quest.

In two months, Will's classes had progressed some. Will Battle Tactics course and started playing chess, to practice strategy. Will was the only undefeated person. His classmates wailed that playing the game's creator put them at an overwhelming disadvantage. Retired General vont Ying, said in the army they would also face overwhelming odds, but they were expected to persevere against all odds. Will agreed, as the person who wrote the rule book, it was almost cruel to have people matched up against him.

When Will played chess against his classmates, his mind often wandered to different business ventures. There were several strategies and military conquest board games. There was one game in particular people enjoyed when he was in college, Risk. Risk was a military strategy board game, where players rolled dice in an attempt to get their army to take over the world. Players could also form alliances.

The downside was niche games, like Risk, had a limited market. Since the game market had been flattening, maybe it was time for Will to create niche games. He wondered if he could talk Headmaster Abe into sponsoring the board game just for the academy. Will decided to ask Dhriti to carve a prototype he could show Headmaster Abe.

In Will's Troop Leadership class, Marshall vont Cheng demand the class learn an approved list of 200 drill commands. At the end of the fall term, each cadet had to successfully demonstrate at least 20 commands to their squadron of six soldiers around the coliseum. Failure to demonstrate would lead to a loss of academy points. Thankfully in a letter, James vont Ballard wrote he and Jason would provide and quarter the troops at no expense to Will. Jason even promised to send his six best soldiers, because he remembered how difficult this assessment was with their family's untrained soldiers.

The marshal also lectured on marching, camping, how to boost morale, and how to reprimand soldiers. The marshal was all about moderation. Recommending the cadets to eat with their troops, from time to time to boost morale, but not too frequently, after all, commanders also had to maintain their distance from soldiers.

In noble Etiquette, Will and Chloe decided to practice with other partners. After the slave auction, Will and Chloe were immediately inundated with questions about their secret relationship. Even his mother and Baron vont Hernandes wrote to ask if Will and Chloe had been secretly courting this entire time. Unhappy with the stares and questions, the two decided to appear separately for time being.

Poor Chloe, half of the girls mobbed her for gossip, and the other half sent her death threats. Will didn't fare much better, Vincent pulled Will aside in a candid moment to ask if Will was secretly courting Chloe. When Will told Vincent, the truth Vincent still didn't believe him. Will was stunned that Vincent had a crush on Chloe, even though all he did was pick fights with her.

Finally, after a month the rumors died down and Will focused on dancing, eating, horse riding, and talking like a medieval gentleman. Of all the lessons, dancing was Will's worse subject. Dancing on time and in rhythm, was not Will's strong suit. Will danced well enough, to know he should dance. While most male cadets worried about dancing with a woman at the Winter Ball, Will worried about the choreography.

Will spent two months perfecting his spells in his Conjuring class. Professor Argüelles focus on preparing the mages for the midyear duels. Thanks to Elder Thaddeus, Will's spellcraft was as efficient as possible. Except for her lectures on the principles of casting and mana manipulation; Will spent time meditating.

When Will mediated, he drew his focus into his mana whirlpool. Lately, the more he concentrated the newer thing he observed. In the past, Will could observe his mana pool swirling like a vortex. But now he realized, his mana whirlpool sat in a cavern. In the dark cavern, his mana pool was a brilliant blue, almost like there was light under the water shining brightly. Moreover, the cavern was full of holes, they slightly resembled airways.

As Will spent more time, in the cavern he pictured himself sitting beside his mana pool. As stood near his mana pool, he examined the cavern's holes, he could feel the flow of mana. He could feel the mana leave the pool and travel through the holes. Indescribably, he knew, he just knew that mana was circulating his body, constantly seeping into his muscles and bones. As he moved his focus to his mana pool beside him, Will examined how the mana was like a torrent.

Inside the cavern, Will practices casting his earth spells. Whenever Will cast a spell in his cavern he felt more connected to his conjurations. When Will cast [iron body], he felt like he was wrapped in a silk cocoon, or when he hast [rock golem], Will could feel his conscious slip into Rocky. Have two different perspectives typically gave Will a headache, but in his mana cavern, there were no side effects.

For two months, Magister Wright had the students transfigure non-animated objects to other non-animated objects. Finally, just before Fall Break, Magister Wright taught the students the incantation for transfiguring animates into inanimate objects.

It took Will a while, but he was finally able to transfigure a frog into a stone. However, for Will to transfigure the stone back into a frog, would take a few more weeks of practice. With each class, it grew more apparent, Will did not penchant for transfiguration unless it meant turning things into rocks. That he could do in superbly. Ryan was all too happy to see Will struggle.

Will figured if he ever wrote his biography, Ryan and Vincent would certainly be the antagonists.

The Formation class was Will's most frustrating class. After two months, Will was able to connect two of the five rotating pentagons. Will came up with the solution in his mana cavern, it just came to him like an epiphany.

Yet now, he struggled to connect the second and third pentagons to make the earth mana gathering formation. Each new pentagon was smaller than the previous but twice as difficult to connect.

Seated with his legs crossed in his mana cavern, next to his mana whirlpool, Will visualized a 4D mountain made from rotating pentagons. Week after week, Will sat imagining the different ways to connect the second and third pentagons, but he was stuck like bad writer's block.

In two months, Master Duncan promoted Will from working the fire to smelting copper ingots. Will sat next to Master Duncan, making copper ingots. Every class, Will had to produce a greater number of copper ingots, and he was not allowed to leave the forge until he met his quota. Moreover, his promotion also triggered an upgrade to Will's stats. Under abilities, it read [novice blacksmith 2, 25]. Will checked out his stats.

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 (52)

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

Abilities: Journeyman Swordsmanship (1, 50), Journeyman Terramancer (1, 50), Gaia's Blessing (multiplies your spell strength x2), Novice Blacksmith (2, 25)

Will liked his stats, even though after all his two months, his Journeyman levels in swordsmanship and as a Terramancer didn't rise. He knew it was only a matter of time, before his stats rose again.

For two months, in between his library duties, Will read books about the bestowal ceremony, the capital, Yorkshire's history, and geography. Standing before the king and court, Will wanted to repeat his oath with minimal mistakes. Learning more about the ceremony, capital, and geography help him get acquainted to Yorkshire. Will also rehearsed his oath, as he wrote students names and points on the cards.

Outside of classes, the Thompson brother's finished with bank, and Mei and Will wrote each other on a biweekly based in preparation for his arrival to the capital. It was clear that Mei was excited to show Will her hard work, and Will was excited to tour his investment properties. In their last correspondence, Mei had secured a platoon of Merchant Knight to meet him at Yorkshire's border. She also hired a separate platoon of Merchant Knights to guard his capital theatre day and night.

Seeing the guards around the theatre, through the Fermion nobles into frenzy. There was even more excitement around the auction. The duke even decided through a ball after the auction. In the capital, status was everything. It would not be hyperbole to say the auction was the hottest ticket in town. Nobles without an auction invite were mocked as being poor and pedantry.

Thankfully, the Yorkshire Merchant Guild was responsible for the ticket distribution, and allocation of bidding paddles. All Mei had to do was make sure the theatre was clean and secure. Under Will's instructions, Mei even bribed the Thieves Guild not to snoop around. Even though, bicycles were kept hidden in Will's Yorshire general store warehouse. Daska has also finished the bicycles and they were hidden in the Guidon general store warehouse.

Lastly, Will had also gone on another date a month ago with an Earl's daughter in the Knight Academy. She was also a second year, but in a different class than Will. Will was in class 1-A. The Earl's daughter was in class 3-A and was also a member of the Valkyrie Guild. The date took place at her manor, and she spent the entire evening investigating every girl with whom Will had a relationship. She particularly did not like, Chloe, Sarah, Anne, and Vanessa. The woman gave off some serious possessive vibes, and he did not need another jealous in his life, his sister was plenty for him. Even worse, she discussed their wedding at dinner.

Two months flew by for Will and tomorrow he'd set out for the capital. Will fell asleep dreaming about Yorkshire earning.