Shouts of military orders and the sounds of thousands of horses being woken up and readied for the march back to the capital woke Jessie at around the break of dawn. He had logged back in around 2 o’clock in the evening in the real world, which equated to about 2 o'clock in the morning in game. It was nice that Jessie could play the game at night in the real world and have it be day in game, he was also not about to question why that was the case as he was sure there was going to be a long and complicated answer to it. A banging on his door forced Jessie to finally get out of bed, still dressed in the clothes he was wearing earlier in the morning, another interesting fact the Jessie was not going to question was that the clothes he was wearing didn't seem to smell or get dirty, he just chalked it up to divine shenanigans and let it be.

  Opening the door Jessie was met by a young soldier who informed him that commander Arundell would be joining them for breakfast and would prefer them to take it sooner rather than later due to how long they intended to march. Thanking the soldier, who he was sure was the squire to one of the knights in the army, Jessie walked to the next door down and knocked on it, when only a groan was heard he simply opened the door and realised Kairo hadn't bothered with the lock. Jessie chuckled a bit as he realised the dragon was absolutely not a morning dragon as he was lying face first on the bed, all his clothes but for a pair or comfortable pants lay scattered around the room where he had clearly just thrown them off before sleeping.

  “Get up.” Jessie said as he walked up to the bed, the only response he got was a groan.

  Putting his hand on Kairo's shoulder Jessie rolled him over.

  “Get up, the commander wants to meet us before we leave.” that got a response as Kairo groaned again but muttered

  “Fine, be down soon.”

  “You better be.” Jssie said as he patted Cairo's shoulder before leaving the room.

  Heading down to the ground floor Jessie found the commander already waiting at a table with a plate of eggs and bacon and a mug of what looked like coffee. Sitting down Jessie requested the same thing from a passing waiter.

  “Where's the other one?” Ciran asked onec Jessie had placed his order

  “Turns out he's not a morning person.” Jessie replied. “He did say he would be down soon though.”

  “Good.” Ciran replied. “Because we have a month and a half march to the capital and we want to try to cover more ground to get there earlier.”

  “And how do you plan to cut a month and a half journey shorter?” Jessie asked confused

  “We camp at dusk and march at dawn of course.” Ciran replied with a smile that looked slightly sinister.

  “Would be faster to fly there.” Kairo muttered as he dropped into a chair between the two

  “It would.” Ciran acknowledged. “However there aren’t any airship docks or safe landing places near the fort or the village.” Ciran thought for a moment. “That’s more the publicly available excuse as to why we don’t use them, aside from the cost of course.” He paused here as if contemplating whether he was allowed to say or not. “The actual reason is that the marquis of this region refuses to allow the airships into his territory.”

  “Sounds like a right bastard.” Kairo muttered still half asleep

  Ciran only responded with a tight smile, almost like he wasn’t meant to comment on the marquis, before finishing off his breakfast.

  “I’ll let you two finish your breakfast.” He said as he stood up. “We aim to leave in about an hour.” He paused for a moment then continued with a slight undertone of humour to his voice. “And don’t worry, it’s not a month and a half march to the capital. That’s only to the nearest city outside of the marquis territory.” And before either of the two, mainly Kairo, could reply he walked out of the inn and towards the assembling soldiers.

  “How big is this place for it to take a month and a half to cross the march.” Kairo complained

  “It’ll take longer than that.” Jessie replied, smiling slightly. “It’s a month and a half to cross the march, yes, but then maybe another week or two to reach the nearest city.”

  “So a two month march, or ride, just to reach a city with airship capabilities, that’s outside this bastard's march?” Kairo groaned a bit of annoyance coming through his voice.

  “Yep, so eat up.” Jessie said as he tucked into his breakfast. “We have to leave in an hour.”

  The two met commander Arundell at the southern gate an hour later, and were surprised to see thousands of soldiers, mounted and on foot, lined up in orderly ranks ready to set out on their return journey. Ciran was currently talking with a group of soldiers just off to the side of the ranks with an annoyed but resigned look on his face. As Jessie and Kairo passed through the gates they overheard the tail end of the conversation

  “Don’t want to do it, these men are returning after two years away from their families.” Ciran was saying

  “We don’t have a choice sir.” Said a woman off to his left.” It came from the academy bearing the imperial seal, we can’t ignore it.”

  “I know Trish.” Ciran sighed. “It's just, it’s going to add another 3 weeks onto our trip.”

  “Could be worse.” Said a man to the commander's right. “Could have asked us to head to the marquis city.”

  “Bran is right.” Said another officer. “It could be much worse, at least they asked them to stay along or near the route we take.”

  “You’re right.” Ciran sighed. “At Least we won’t be picking up any noble brats.”

  “You including your kids in that bracket?” The third officer said with a slight smile

  Ciran gave him a mock glare. “Think carefully lark or you'll have to walk back.”

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  Lark raised his hands backing up.” Sorry sorry, I’ll tell the captains of the change.” He said laughing a bit

  As lark left, so did Bran and Trish to see to the support caravans and the remaining command staff leaving Ciran standing by the gate. He sighed slightly before turning to Jessie and Kairo

  “How much of that did you hear?” Ciran asked the two of them as he motioned for them to walk with him.

  “Something about most people hating the marquis and an extension to our journey.” Jessie said after looking at Kairo, who was lost in staring at the mass of orderly soldiers and realising that he wasn’t going to say anything.

  “The marquis.” Ciran gave a sigh after that. “The imperial academy lets in commoners and nobles alike and teaches everything from basic etiquette to military battle tactics, enrollment for this coming year starts in two months and will last for two weeks.”

  “Why does this concern us?” Kairo asked

  “Politics.” Ciran said simply. “The marquis, and a large portion of the nobles in this Dukedom actually, are part of a noble faction that believes they are the best, and that peasants only exist to serve them.”

  Jessie inferred what was happening. “And because of this the marquis only lets those of noble blood use the airships in his domain.”

  Ciran gave a resigned nod. “Correct, so all the common folk who wish to enter the academy have been, over the last few weeks, sent to a bunch of villages, towns and cities along or close to our route. Because of that, we have had to requisition several carriages from this town.”

  As they had been talking the trio had walked towards the central ranks of the formation where a dozen passenger wagons were hitched to horses. Both Jessie and Kairo were surprised to note that one of the carriages already had occupants.

  “You two are also heading to the academy?” Kairo asked as he saw who was sitting in the lead carriage.

  “Of course we are.” Emily said as she hopped out to greet them. “Everyone of age wants to try entering the academy.”

  “And you bosses don’t mind?” Jessie asked directing the question to Both her and Astra

  “Of course.” Emily said. “Turns out both of them tried for the academy, and while they didn’t get into the imperial academy they both got into branch academies where they learnt their trades.”

  “Branch academies?” Jessie asked

  This time it was Astra who answered, though he still had his head in a book. “The imperial academy is the one everyone wants to enter, it’s where commoners can join noble ranks or become famous heros, if one fails to enter the imperial academy there are a bunch of off shoots where commoners are taught various trades and weapon skills, the later is more for of conscription is ever implanted so the empire won’t have an untrained army in times of war.”

  Jessie looked between Emily and Aster. “I’m guessing that’s common knowledge?”

  “Indeed.” Emily replied with a slight smile.

  While they were talking they heard Ciran as voice sounding over the assembled soldiers informing them to get ready to march.

  “We should probably get in.” Kairo said gesturing to the carriage. The carriage was spacious and could comfortably seat about six to eight people, so there was plenty of space for the four of them to settle down. A minute after they had boarded the carriage they heard the sound of horns, followed by the rhythmic stamp of boots and the creak of wheels as the carriage lurched forwards.

  “So, do you two have an idea of what pathway you intend to study if you get into the academy?” Emily asked as they settled down for the long ride?

  Jessie glanced over to Kairo to see if he would answer first, but to his surprise the young dragon was fast asleep again.

  “He acts more like a cat than a…” Jessie muttered before answering Emily. “I honestly don't know, probably something magic related.” He absentmindedly flipped the magic tome Fulor had given him in his hands for a bit before noticing the wide eyed looks of surprise on Emily and Astras faces. “Hm? What’s the problem?” He asked

  “You. You have a spatial ring!?” Astra half shouted jolting Kairo awake.

  “Huh. What. Ow” Kairo exclaimed in quick succession as he jolted upright in fright before banging his head on the carriage roof before curling up and groaning in pain.

  “A spatial ring?” Jessie asked “what are you talking about?”

  Astra just looked at him like he was an idiot but before he could continue Emily chimed in.

  “One moment you’re answering my question with your hands empty, the next you have a rather large tome in your hands, with no sign of where it came from.”

  Jessie looked down at the tome in his hands. “Technically it’s a grimoire.” He said before he put the book back in the ring.

  “See.” Aster said in a slightly quieter voice than last time. “You just put it away, don’t lie about not having one.”

  “I wasn’t going to lie about it.” Jessie muttered

  Emily just seemed slightly exasperated at this point. “It can’t be that high quality right?” She asked almost pleadingly.

  At this point Kairo, who had finally stopped groaning in pain from where he had hit his head, spoke up. “I’m not quite sure about how magic items are classified.” He said. “But the ring he has I think is soul bound.”

  Both Emily and Astra stared at Jessie in shock for a long moment before Astra sighed and said slightly sarcastically.

  “Next you're going to tell us you have a divine relic in that ring aren’t you.”

  Jessie didn’t look at him and shifted rather uncomfortably under the stares of the other three

  “Um, no?” Jessie muttered uncomfortably and very unconvincingly.

  “Lucky bastard.” Was all Kairo said before he curled up again laying his head in the middle of the bench he and Jessie were sitting on. Both Aster and Emily were staring at Jessie with uncontained shock and curiosity.

  “Can I see it?” Emily asked before Astra could ask the same question

  Reluctantly Jessie removed the morphic weapon, still in staff form, from his spatial ring and handed it to Emily who immediately started looking at it from every angle taking the whole weapon in.

  “It’s a lovely colour.” She said as she admires the swirling green and gold top half of the weapon.

  Astra was just staring at the weapon with uncontained excitement as he waited for Emily to finish looking at it. After a time Emily finally relinquished the weapon to Astra who spent almost a quarter of an hour looking at it. While Aster was staring at the staff like it was the only thing in the world Emily asked if she could see the magic tome.

  “Uh, no.” Jessie said much to Emily’s disappointment

  “Why not?”

  “Cause it contained spells that are likely to get him executed.” Kairo muttered from his curled up position

  Emily stared at Jessie eyes wide.

  “Really?” She asked Kairo, mainly due to Jessie looking out the window and pointedly ignoring everyone else.

  “I dunno know.” Kairo mumbled. “I’m just guessing based of the title of it.”

  “The title?” Emily asked a bit of excitement entering her voice. “What’s the title?”

  Jessie’s head snapped around fast as he sternly told Kairo to shut up. Cracking an eye open Kairo craned his head around so he could look at Jessie.

  “The abyssal grimoire of divine magics, I think.” He said just before Jessie whacked him on the head.

  Asters head whipped around to stare at Jessie while Emily, who was already staring at him, widened her eyes in shock, her mind trying to form a sentence.

  Jessie simply sighed. “And now you know why I won’t share it.” He said before turning back to the window.