《Strategy&#x27;s Mistress》


 Strategys Mistress: Preview

    Ambiox empire, one of the largest empires in the known world has never knowna peaceful day. Their emperor''s lineage has an endless hunger for more territory and their sharp blades are forever turned towardsthe outside world. No country is safe from them. Not even a speck of dust can remain in the hands of others as long as the empire lives and breathes.

    Their forges burn day and night, endless fields of crops grow to sate the hunger of their vast army, cobblestone roads connect every corner of the empire to its heart, troops are rallied on a daily basis to replenish the ranks and not a day passes before the news of another conquered town or large battle rings throughout the empire. This empire lives and breathes for war! If one wanted to bring themselves to fame in this kind of place, there was only one profession that could bring what you wanted.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

    Only strategists had the right to be famed in the Ambiox empire, besides their king, only they deserved to be revered and respected. Every noble, every citizen hoped and wished that their son or daughter could enter the only academy in the empire that produced strategists, the Richter Academy. Named after their first supreme strategist, the academy produces heaven defying strategists by the dozen every year.

    Even though the number of expert strategists the academy produces is high, the number of failures is unimaginable. At least a thousand students fail for just one true strategist to be born. Each of the major cities in the Ambiox empire has an exam center for the academy, which are filled to the brim every day with young and old taking the exams, hoping, wishing that their dream of becoming a renowned strategist may become true.

    Today, in a major city near a recently conquered kingdom, a small seven year old girl with auburn hair quietly lines up at the exam center...

 Chapter 1: A seven year old...

    It was early in the morning, no later then seven, yet the floundering city Artez already buzzed with activity. On a particular street, a flock of female officers on leave were busy gossiping. A big burly woman suddenly ran over to the group and shouted at the top of her lungs, scaring nearby bystanders. "There is a little girl waiting to take the strategist exams! I''ve heard that she is completely alone, looks really thin and malnourished and that she looks no older than 8!"

    "What? That young and attending alone... Magda are you joking?" One of the women said, clearly taken aback by the news.

    "Of course not! When have I ever lied about something I witnessed myself?!" Magda fiercely rebuked.

    Laughter rang out as Magda said this, one of the women couldn''t help and playfully say "So you do lie to us at times, Magda?"

    "You! You!" Magda stammered, shaking her fist angrily, but when she thought about what she said, she laughed. "Okay, you got me with that one. But seriously."

    Another woman, a slender blonde, muttered as she spoke her thoughts. "That young, malnourished and alone... she couldn''t be an orphan could she?"

    Magda''s mood visibly plummeted at this point as she recalled the little girl''s expression. "Nobody knows, General. When I asked her a few questions she just sighed and muttered ''leave me alone'' in a weak voice. I just could not bring myself to prod further. She sounded so weak and fragile. I asked a few other people waiting in line and she had said the same thing to each and every one of them."

    "Magda, please do not call me general when we are on leave. You know how much I hate that. We''ve been friends from the moment we were born. That counts for each and every one of you ladies. There is so much history between us, you really do not need to use honorifics when no one else is around. It makes you guys feels so distant when you do and it makes me feel lonely." The general softly said.

    An apologetic smile appeared on Magda''s face. "Sorry Irina, it has just become a habit at this point. I really don''t mean anything with it."

    "It is okay, just remember it next time. Anyway, about that little girl, was she really that bad off?" Irina replied, her voice carrying a hint of worry.

    "Yes she was, it felt horrible to see her that way. I wanted to help her someway but she refused all help. She did not even take the food or coin I offered her. At least she still had enough energy to be stubborn about it."

    Another woman who had not spoken yet interjected. "Poor thing... why does she even wait. She won''t make a chance on those exams. I have tried and they are just impossible."

    "Serina, love, with your brain every exam is impossible. Have you forgotten you needed to take the officer exam FIVE times?" Magda calmly said, upon which more laughter followed as the women teased the woman who just spoke up.

    Serina face flushed red as she cried out. "Magda!!!!! Stop reminding me!"

    Irina suddenly put a crescent smile on her face. "Ladies, calm down now. I have decided that I will be going to check up on that little girl myself. If there are any of you who wish to follow me, you may, otherwise you can take your leave. We are here for some much needed R&R, after all. I think we have been gossiping more than enough so early in the morning."Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

    Having said that, Irina turned around and started to walk towards the examination center. The other women looked at each other for a moment, nodded and hurriedly followed after Irina, their heavy duty boots clicking on the ground. Even though they were on leave, none of them had taken of their uniform. After having been in the military as long as they had, they just couldn''t bring themselves to take it off anymore. Their uniform, medals and rank were a huge source of pride after all and many of the citizens looked at the women with reverence when they passed.

    After a few minutes, the group arrived at the long line near the administration center. Magda and the others were quietly whispering to each other while they followed a small distance behind Irina, quietly discussing what they thought Irina would say to the little girl among themselves.

    Irina quickly reached the little girl and walked over to her with a small smile. "Hey there little girl." She said. "Why do you want to become a strategist? I''m really curious, so would you mind telling this big sister?"

    The little girl looked at Irina, her stomach grumbling continuously. "I, uhm..." She shyly started. "My dad... was a strategist. He thought me from when I was two. I like it, strategy... love it."

    "Oh... I see. So your daddy is a strategist himself?" Irina asked quietly, nearly so quiet that only the little girl would be able to hear it.

    The little girl nodded. "He was the best! Mom too!"

    Irina bit her lip as she heard this, hearing that, she had a faint idea as to who this girl''s parents were and what happened to them. "Is your last name Navbel?"

    "mhm! Does that mean you knew my parents?"

    Tears formed around Irina''s eyes. She opened her mouth to say something and then closed it again. A few more seconds passed before she whispered. "Yes... yes I knew your parents. They were the best strategists I have ever laid eyes on."

    When the group of women behind Irina heard what was said, they had to collectively gulp and their hearts started to feel as if they were ripped apart. How could they not know who this girl''s parents were! Their corps of fifty thousand strong had been sent to fight the girl''s parents'' personal regiment of three thousand strong. Even with the huge disparity between their forces, the battle had been one of heavy losses for their side and over the course of the battle they had lost over ten thousand of their own.

    Even as a full fledged three star general, while she was destined to win in the end by vastly outnumbering her enemy, all she had been able to do was reduce her own losses as much as possible. Even though they were the aggressors, even though they had been on the offence the whole time, all she had been able to do was reduce the losses to her own troops. The girl''s parents had delegated their army masterfully and Irina''s respect for them was boundless. She had tried to win both of them over but... she had not been able to. In the end, both of them had taken their own life.

    It was because of this reason that it was so hard for Irina to talk when the girl confirmed her thoughts. "What is your name, little girl and how old are you?"

    "Jasmine and I''m seven. What''s your name?" The girl whispered, only allowing Irina to hear her name and age.

    "My name is Mindy Richards. I am actually fairly well known at the exam center so if you don''t want to wait anymore I can take you straight to it."

    "No, I am fine waiting, everyone else has to wait too, it wouldn''t be polite of me!" The girl said, a hint of pride on her voice.

    Irina smiled softly even though her eyes were still wet. "Okay then I wish you good luck on the exam little one!"

    Jasmine nodded and then focused back on the line. The line had moved up quite a bit, but everyone who came after the girl quickly made place for her, allowing her to take back her original spot. At the rate the line was moving it would only take her a little more than ten minutes at most before she would be able to enter the exam center.

    Just a little longer and it''s my turn! Mommy, Daddy. If you''re watching... Mine is doing this for you!Jasmine thought, hungrily staring at the entrance.

 Chapter 2: Examination

    When it was Jasmine''s turn to enter the examination center, one of the guards couldn''t help but ask "Little girl... are you sure you want to attend the examination?"

    "Yes mister!" Jasmine said, her tone filled with determination.

    Hearing Jasmine''s tone, the guard nodded and said. "Go ahead then. Good luck!"

    Jasmine quickly skipped past the guard and entered the examination center''s hallway. A look of disbelief flashed as she saw the inside of the place. Compared to what she had expected, the examination center did not match her expectations at all. She had expected grandeur, yet what she saw was... very minimalistic. There were no busts, sculptures or suits of armour on display. There were only a few paintings on the wall which depicted nature, making her feel that they served no other purpose than just dressing up the place a tiny bit.

    The hallway was filled to the brim with men and women, both young and old, who had various feelings showing on their faces. Sadness, joy, rage, anxiety, ... name the feeling and it could be found within crowd. This was par for the course since the hallway contained those who were waiting to take their exams, those who had received their results and those who had yet to get them.

    Slipping past the crowds, Jasmine quickly made her way to the intersection in the middle of the hallway. "Examination room, examination room .Aha! To the right!" She muttered as she looked around at the variety of signs on the wall. Having a destination, she quickly darted to the examination room.

    She quickly entered the room and took one of the remaining free seats. One of the invigilators came by and after seeing Jasmine, he thought and frowned before walking out of the room, only to return with another man a minute later. The two of them walked over to Jasmine''s desk. The invigilator who had initially looked at Jasmine spoke up. "Since you are so young, it will be Master Ian who will watch you take the exam instead of me. He will explain any and all questions that you don''t understand."

    If not for the grand master''s orders to allow anyone to partake the exams, the invigilator would have long sent Jasmine home. Even though he still wanted to do so, the matter of fact was that he did not dare to go against the grand master''s orders.

    "Master Ian, I leave her in your capable hands." Having said that, he gave a polite bow before leaving to watch over another person''s exam.

    "These are the examination sheets. If there are any questions that you do not understand, feel free to ask me. Likewise, if you are not sure how to formulate an answer you can also ask me." Master Ian calmly said. It had long been a custom to help kids fill in their examination sheets. Some considered it a form of cheating, but when one thought about it, it would be quite hard for a kid to write a well formulated answer, so no one really complained about it. Those who did dare to complain about it, quickly realized that all they were doing was making a fool out of themselves.

    "Thank you very much." Jasmine said politely as she accepted the examination sheets, flipped them open and looked at the questions one by one. She had always been taught by her parents that before starting to answer an examination sheet, she first had to seriously read each and every question and at least try to understand each and every single question.

    There were many different questions. Some were very basic and she could answer them straight away, others were a little more complicated and finally there were a few pictures of battle situations with a little summary of the available troops for both parties, it assigned you one of the two sides and asked what you would do if you were that side''s strategist.

    Master Ian was surprised at Jasmine''s serious attitude and her little frowns or her mouth suddenly widening in a quiet "oh" expression as she looked at the answers. This made him think that the little girl was at the very least taking the exam serious and in some cases even understanding the questions. He had personally overseen many children below the age of twelve take the exam, but he had never seen one that had been so serious and was so caught up in the exam''s questions.Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

    However, when he thought about it this did not come as a surprise. Most children that did take the exam were nobility after all and they never took it serious because they were only there to gain some experience and considered it a mock exam. It would only be at the age of sixteen, on the day that they would gain adulthood that they started to show up with serious attitudes.

    While Master Ian was thinking that to himself, Jasmine quietly finished reading the questions. She flipped back to the front page,took her pencil and started to write down keywords next to each question before Master Ian could even offer his help in explaining the questions she did not understand.

    When she was done with writing down keywords to one question she moved on to the next one. Writing keywords down before answering the question had also been taught by her parents and since she was taking this exam to make her parents proud in the hereafter, she was going to take this exam exactly the way they had taught her.

    This girl understands every question? Master Ian thought to himself, seeing that Jasmine did not even bat an eyelid as she started writing down keywords. A slightly astonished expression settled on his face, one that only grew more and more intense as he stared at the keywords the little girl was writing down.

    One of the other invigilators noticed Master Ian''s expression and shot him a warning glance before resuming his duties. Master Ian wryly smiled and fixed his facial expression, yet the more he watched the girl at work the more astonished he became. He did not have a clue how such a young girl could write these keywords down.

    Jasmine had no clue what feelings her actions were stirring up in the old man next to him and honestly she could not care less about others. This exam was way too interesting to her! While some questions were too basic for her, the others were things she had given some serious thought before or they were questions that were hard enough to give her a challenge.

    To her, these questions were of a normal level. After all, she had been thought by not one, but two of the best strategists in recent history. Even if she had not been a diligent student under her parents tutelage, she still would have at least been able to write down half of these keywords. But she had not merely been a diligent student, she had been much, much more than that, at least the last two years she had nearly devoted all of her time to strategy. She did not understand why it held such a great interest to her, but at the moment she just liked everything about it.

    A quiet sigh of relief exited her lips as she finished writing down the keywords. She had never liked doing this and in the past she had skipped doing it more often than not. Flipping back to the first page, she put down the pencil, closed her eyes and just as she had been taught before, gave herself a moment to get herself to a peak state of mind. By doing this, she looked more like a little adult than as a small child in Master Ian''s eyes.

    A minute or two passed before she picked up the pencil again and started writing down the answer to the first question. This was a rather simple and basic one. She had to name all the different types of military units. Starting from fireteam, squad, platoon and battalion all the way to field army, she wrote them all down without missing a single one unit type or average number of soldiers in each unit.

    With the first question done, her confidence in the exam grew and she quickly filled in a couple more of the more basic questions on the first two sheets. After that the questions only grew harder, but her determination to solve them grew bigger and bigger. In the end, the only ones she slightly struggled on were the questions regarding battlefield situations. It was not that the questions were too difficult, it was just that she knew of more than one way to deal with the situation and could not quite figure out which one was the right given the situation. She shook her head on these questions as she just did not have any idea how these questions would be graded and she just filled them in with the answer that seemed the most fitting to her.

    All this time, Master Ian just stared, inwardly in disbelief as the questions were answered with great speed, each answer being good enough to get full marks, but that was only when taking the average test taker in account. Master Ian was a pretty accomplished strategist himself and could clearly see from the little girl''s answers that while yes she could answer the questions nearly perfectly, her understanding was still on a superficial level.

    Then again this was normal since a girl this young could have never touched a battlefield. If she had... Master Ian did not even dare to think of the possible answers the young girl could have given. In truth, deep down, he was absolutely frightened by this girl''s understanding, even though it was merely textbook level knowledge!

    While deep in thought, Jasmine suddenly called out. "Uhm, Mister? I am done with my exam?"

    Snapping back to reality, Master Ian quickly took the Jasmine''s exam and said "Don''t move. Stay here!" as he rushed of.

 Chapter 3: The grandmaster

    Master Ian sped through the hallways of the examination center, making his way to the grand masters office. He was walking as fast as his old legs could carry him, he simply did not dare to let the others invigilators see this exam. The score this girl would get on the exam was simply too frightening.

    The academy was not as simple of a place as it appeared to be at a first glance. With strategists having such a big influence in the empire, there were many nobles, guilds and other parties who would try to draw promising, faction-less recruits to their side and in this way tried to increase their power and influence in the empire. Due to this, there were a myriad of factions within the academy vying against each other, doing everything they could to suppress geniuses of other factions or trying to draw in more geniuses of their own.

    If word of this exam got out, far too many factions would do everything in their power to get their hands on this little girl. Even kidnapping would not be too far fetched. Luckily for Jasmine, master Ian had no interest in the power struggles between all the different factions. For one he was too old and besides that, everything he did was for the empire. He did not understand why there should be infighting. In his eyes, if everyone just gave their fullest for the glory of the empire, the empire would be a far better place.

    He did not know just how many casualties the infighting had caused thus far but he know that it was no small number. If all those casualties had been able to live up to their potential, the empire surely would have conquered every corner of the continent by now. At least that is what master Ian believed to be true.

    Arriving at the grand master''s quarters, Ian straightened his robes and gathered himself before lightly knocking on the door.

    A few seconds passed, silence reigning through the hall until a calm voice resounded from inside. "Enter."

    Master Ian pushed open the doors and quietly walked a few steps forward, his body not even showing a hint of the rushed appearance he had before. After his few initial steps inside the room, he came to a halt and waited until the grand master permitted him to walk further. He glanced around the room and noticed that, just as always, the two deaf guards in the room had their weapons slightly unsheathed, ready to strike if Ian made a single step that was not according to the rules.

    While the grand master could easily have guards stationed outside of the room, he had never chose to do so, instead he had trained those who were permitted inside of his rooms to follow a stringent set of rules. One step not in accordance with those rules would end up with their life being taken.

    Besides the guards, the room was filled with shelves, each of which was absolutely filled to the brim with scrolls and books on warfare. The scrolls within this room had detailed accounts from even the smallest skirmishes to the largest battles the empire had fought. Ian let out a small sigh as he remembered that only the grand master was allowed to read every scroll within this room. If a puny figure like himself wanted to read any of these scrolls he would need the grand master''s permission.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

    Ian''s gaze wandered to the middle of the room, where two leather couches sat parallel of each other, a bit of longing filling his heart as the running had tired his old legs. Yet he didn''t dare to move until the grand master told him to do so. Yet another small sigh escaped his mouth and Ian looked at the grand master who was seated behind his desk.

    Currently, the grand master was reading the last lines of a scroll with an extremely pensive expression on his face. After finishing the scroll, he took up a pen, wrote down a few sentences on the scroll and looked straight at Ian with hazel eyes that seemed as if they would pierce through him.

    Unlike what one would expect the grand master was merely in his late thirties. His face was quite handsome even with his dissheveled hair and thinking wrinkles. A small smile suffused on his lips as he saw Ian and he called out with a voice filled with warmth. "Master Ian. What brings you to my quarters?"

    "I was overlooking the exam for a seven year old earlier. You need to take a look at her answers, grand master." Ian hurriedly said.

    The grand master let out a surprised "oh" and beckoned Ian to come closer, who hurriedly stepped forward and handed over the exam sheet.

    Without saying another word the grand master focused on the examination sheet. After a silence that lasted more than a quarter of an hour, the grandmaster looked up and stared at Ian with a grave expression. "All of this was really written by that seven year old girl? None of this was due to your help?" He slowly asked.

    "She never asked for help grandmaster. I watched her fill the exam in from start to finish. With every line she wrote I grew more and more astonished. She is only seven yet the things she wrote... I have absolutely no idea how a seven year old can possess knowledge of such high level tactics. Even if she would be lectured from the day she was born, it would be unlikely for a girl or anyone else of her age to be able to understand any of it. It is apparent that she has yet to fully understand them but this exam alone proves that she will grow up to be an absolutely monstrous strategist!"

    He paused for a moment to catch his breath and then continued. "Even if we put the high level tactics aside, her other answers show a fierce and cruel decisiveness, one only rarely seen even in experienced generals or strategists. It almost seems as to her, a battle is just a game of numbers. However inhumane a tactic is, she seems to be willing to use it if it meant that her chances of winning would increase. Honestly, I can only describe this girl as an absolute monster, grandmaster."

    The grandmaster nodded. "I agree. Bring this little girl to me. I wish to meet her."

    "Yes grandmaster!" Ian dutifully replied before turning around and preparing to leave.

    Right as he was about to open the door, the grandmasters warm voice sounded out from behind his back. "Ian, depending on how my conversation with this little girl goes, I might have to start my own faction. I hope you will not blame me for this. The situation surrounding this girl... I fear it is a lot more complicated than I would like. If my suspicions are true, she will need my full protection lest she be killed."

    Ian stopped in his tracks and calmly replied. "I understand grandmaster. I will not blame you if it is to save a life." Having said what needed to be said, Ian opened the door and quickly and quietly brought Jasmine over to the grandmasters quarters. Following the same protocol as before, Ian quickly introduced Jasmine to the grandmaster before turning around, leaving the room and waiting in the hallway for further instructions.

 Chapter 4: Rickert Quinn

    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.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.

    "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."

 Chapter 5: Broadening her vision

    A few minutes passed, during which Rickert had filled in the required documents to officially adopt Jasmine as his foster-daughter. He had long since prepared a number of these documents for such an occasion. However what he had never expected was that the child he would adopt would be such a prodigy. If she lived up to the potential that she had displayed so far, he did not even need to recruit anyone else into his faction. Just her alone would be enough to change the fate of the empire!

    Rickert glanced at Jasmine with a warm gaze in his eyes and chose his next words carefully. He had to let her know that while yes her exam was flawless if you looked at the questions alone but it had also been very clear that she did not have a clue that she should also think of the bigger picture. She had never considered rations or where the battle would take place for starters. There was one answer which clearly showed that she was lacking in this aspect.

    The question had stated the following: ''You have command of a ten thousand strong army and are currently near the Ygdrasil forest. The enemy numbers one hundred thousand strong and is three days away from your position. Describe your course of actions.''. Jasmine had chosen a rather drastic answer to this question. She had chosen to head deep into the forest and to leave a visible trail for her enemies. During her trek deeper into the forest she would prepare numerous traps. When the enemy arrived and headed into the forest, she would direct her army to be out of the wind before burning the forest down.

    While this was a good tactic, there was only one huge problem with it being used in this situation. The Ygdrasil forest was the largest, most ancient forest in the empire and countless citizens depended on it to survive. Even if the fire was well controlled, burning would still spell disaster.

    There had been many other questions Jasmine had answered in a similar matter. No matter if the battle happened near a city, near a mine, near farming fields or any other type of infrastructure that was important to the economy or happiness of the people in the empire, she showed a complete disregard for it and only focused on how to win the battle in the most effective way possible.

    Rickert realized this was a huge problem and praised himself lucky that Jasmine was still young. Once strategists settled into this sort of mindset, it was very difficult to change it. Luckily, Jasmine still had to experience much of the world and thus as long as she was properly guided in the right direction, it should not be all too hard to change her view on things.

    Moreover, this situation made him realize that there was a problem with the examination itself. War is not about one army versus another one. If it were, the empire would not have to spend nearly as many resources into grooming a strategist as they currently did. Thus he decided that after today the examination needed some changes.

    Rickert stroked his chin, wrinkles appearing on his face as he lost himself in his thoughts. ''Still, how do I explain the problem to Jasmine. She''s just a small girl. Even if I point out what is wrong, she might not understand it. Moreover, she might not want to accept it in the first place. Everything she knows so far has been taught to her by her parents and if I suddenly blurt out that what she has been taught is not completely correct, she will most likely not have a positive reaction to it. I need to find a way to that allows her to realize what is wrong with her way of thinking. The only problem with that is... she''s so young. Hmm... what if I showed her the war room? That might broaden her vision. Hmm... that might do.''

    A constant stream of thoughts flashed through Rickert''s mind as he realized that there might have been a lot more things Jasmine had yet to learn. His expression suddenly shifted into that of alarm. He looked at Jasmine and asked. "Jasmine, have you ever learned anything besides battle tactics? For example, anything to do with supplies, keeping the integrity of the troops or equipment management?"

    The small girl slowly shook her head, confirming Rickert''s suspicions.

    This situation was less than ideal. Even though her battle tactics and general view of tactics was great, Jasmine had no clue of everything else a strategist needed to be aware of. In a normal situation, this was not a bad thing, but Jasmine knew high-level tactics without realizing what she needed or required to utilize them. While troop count and tactics were one thing, there was a vast amount of other things a strategist needed to be aware of and take into account before being able to successfully command an army.

    A sigh escaped Rickert''s mouth. ''Training her might become more troublesome now. Oh well, first things first we have to show her that she has to broaden her vision.''

    "Jasmine, follow me." He said as he walked to the right side of the room and opened the door to the adjacent war room. Normally he wouldn''t let anyone inside the war room, but Rickert saw no harm in letting Jasmine in. The war table was clear after all. He knew the position of each of the empire''s many armies by heart.

    Even though he had stepped down as minister of war, he was still updated on any troop movements the empire made and the current minister of war frequently asked for his advice in troop movements.

    The war room was a large, empty room which had a number of chairs neatly stacked next to the door. Besides the chairs, only an extremely large and heavy table sat in the middle of the room. Displayed on the table was an exquisitely sculpted map of the continent, with the territory of every known faction clearly mapped. The mountains, forests, significant rivers and other important landmarks had all been sculpted by hand, each one true to their real size.

    It could be said that this war table was unique in this world. There was none other of his kind. No one had ever thought of sculpting a true to scale map of the continent. At least not until Rickert came along. At a very young age, he had realized that merely choosing the terrain you fight on wisely, can change a crushing defeat into a Pyrrhic victory. Conventional maps could never quite satisfy Rickert, hence he had long ago specifically requested the construction of this one particular map. It had been constructed in such a way that he could take it with him wherever he went and as such, it had always accompanied him.

    On the map, one could see that the Ambiox empire lied near the middle of the continent. Due to recent victories, the size of the empire had increased to span about five percent of the entire continent. While it might not seem like an overly large percentage, the rest of the continent was divided by hundreds of small tribes, kingdoms and empires. What was more surprising, was that the empire used to be one of those small kingdoms just a mere two hundred years ago. Even more unbelievable was the fact that twenty years ago the kingdom had not even occupied one percent of the whole continent. Ever since Rickert had taken over as minister of war, the empire''s advance had been unstoppable.

    Rickert sighed as he remembered all this, a hint of regret filling his heart. While the empire had expanded quickly, it had also become riddled with opportunists and as a result, it had become less cohesive as a whole. The myriad of factions and tribes that the empire consisted of constantly fought with each other to gain an inkling of an advantage over one another. To him, the whole situation felt like a powder keg that was going to explode sooner rather than later. If his own vision had been broader in the past, things would not have escalated to the current state, but alas what could he do by himself now that things had reached this point? He had never restrained those eager to take territory to himself, on many occasions he had even given the land freely himself.

    Luckily enough, the empire was currently in a quite peculiar situation as their advance had been halted. To the east lied vast open plains, home to a single enormous nomadic tribe that they currently didn''t dare face. On more than one occasion they had clashed and in each skirmish, they had been worse off than the nomads. Rickert had never chosen to clash with them and had only pushed into territory the tribe had not been interested in.

    To the north, the empire had conquered everything up to the Azure mountains. The majority of the citizens never understood why the empire never pressed further north as the Azure mountains were known to be rich in ores. However, the top brass knew exceedingly well that if they really wanted to push further, they would have to pay a heavy price.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.

    The azure mountains were home to a large variety of small tribes. While each tribe only numbered a few hundred to a few thousand warriors, the mountains were their home. On top of that the mountain tribes continuously fought against each other over even the smallest gripes, so no one dared to underestimate their strength. Couple that with their familiarity of the treacherous terrain and it was no wonder that the empire was hesitant to push further north.

    Hence the empire only had two options for the time being. Push south or push west. Neither was a magnificent option as the kingdoms bordering their southern border had formed an alliance they could not look down on and the empires to the west sported quite a large number of famous strategists that were far from easy to deal with. This locked the empire into a stalemate, a stalemate which in Rickert''s opinion hadbought the empire some much needed time. Based on the reports he had gotten he knew that it would not be all too hard for him to change the current situation if he personally went to the front lines. Yet he knew that the order for him to set out to the front lines would never come, something he felt glad about.

    Rickert had feared that if the empire had continued to depend on him alone to shoulder the burden of conquering more territory, they would likely be dealt a crushing blow the moment of his death, which would be an opportune moment for another faction to rise to power.

    The Emperor and Rickert had spent many hours discussing these topics and it had caused the former no small amount of worries. While his achievements as an Emperor dwarfed that of his ancestors, the throne had never been as unstable as before. Rickert stepping down as minister of war had given them some more time to deal with their internal issues but both of them knew that something had to change if they were to avoid disaster.

    In the end what they had decided on was for Rickert to step down as minister of war so he could focus on starting his own faction. He would then seek another supreme strategist that had yet to affiliate himself with any of the factions, something that had seemed like an impossible task. He had found Master Ian early on, but he had been unable to convince him to his cause.

    "Mister?" Rickert snapped back to reality as Jasmine called out to him while gently tugging his left sleeve. A soft sigh escaped his mouth. He always briefly lost himself in his own thoughts when he saw the war table. He could not help it, he simply had too many things on his mind. He reached out and absentmindedly patted Jasmine.

    "Sorry, I lost myself in my thoughts for a moment." He said before he picked Jasmine up and placed her on a chair, helping her to get a good overview of the war table.

    "Uwaah... pretty!" Jasmine gasped as she looked at the detailed war table. Her parents had a war table with a map of the continent as well, but it was not nearly as detailed and as pretty as the one before her. Moreover, this was not just a "flat" map, it was a delicately sculpted masterpiece! Her gaze darted across the map as she took all of it in.

    A gentle smile suffused around Rickert''s lips as he watched Jasmine''s expressions. ''Children can be so damn adorable at times.'' He thought. He opened one of the cabinets under the war table and took out an assortment of differed coloured pawns that he used to indicate army positions on the war table. He took out four colours; red, blue, yellow and green.

    He chose a random kingdom that bordered three others, chose the colour blue for it and set the armies up in such a way that there were two armies at each border. Then, he took the remainder of the blue kingdom''s armies, placed them at the southern border and put the yellow kingdom''s armies right across them. As for the green and red kingdoms, he placed two armies a distance of the border and put the rest of the armies down in a random fashion as the position for the red and green kingdom''s armies did not really matter.

    After giving the board one final glance, he looked at Jasmine who had been carefully observing his every move and pointed at one of the armies at the frontline that guarded the left flank. "To keep it simple, all the troops are spearmen. That blue army is ten thousand strong, the yellow army is fifty thousand strong. The other armies that are faced off against each other have similar troop numbers to each other. What would you do?"

    Jasmine squinted her eyes as she looked at the board. Her instinct told her that she should withdraw her troops to preserve strength as she couldn''t win a straight up clash. Yet as she imagined doing so, she couldn''t help but glance at the other armies across the board. If she really withdrew, the army that was facing her could move about freely. Realisation flashed across her face, she had never been taught how to deal with a situation like this. She had only ever been taught how to win against other armies by choosing her battles wisely. "Stall?" she quietly asked, unsure of her answer.

    Rickert nodded and continued as he moved another blue pawn next to the ten thousand one. "Now imagine the situation as follows. Instead of one army of ten thousand, you have an army of ten thousand and an army of twenty thousand. What would you do?"

    Jasmine sank in thought. She was quick on the uptake. The previous question showed that there was more she had to take into account than just her own troops and the similar situation with the first question had helped her realize this. While she could use the ten thousand troops to draw in the fifty thousand and then flank from both sides with ten thousand each, she started to wonder what else she could do with the troops at her disposal. Her attention inadvertently shifted to the rest of the battlefield.

    A few minutes passed before Jasmine finally spoke up. "I''m not sure." She started and then stilled as she continued to think.

    In the end, she had not been able to think of the best way to act and that bothered her. She could just fight her own fight and depend on her allies to win their own battle. She could also stall with her ten or twenty thousand troops and use the rest to aid her allies in various ways, be it flanking or harassing. Another thing she could do was to just join up with another army and take the battle from there. The problem was that... none of these actions that she could do was wrong in her mind. Each would reach a similar goal.

    On top of that, she had never been taught how to deal with these kinds of situations. Whenever her parents had taught her it concerned one or multiple armies that she controlled. Thus she had never had to think about things like allies and how they would react and how her actions could influence the rest of a war or battlefield. All Jasmine knew was winning a single battle. Her face scrunched up as she kept thinking about what to do.

    A calm smile sat on Rickert''s face. This is what he wanted. He wanted to see her thinking about what to do. To have so many options, yet none that seemed better than the other at a first glance. He really wondered what she would choose to do in the end.

    ten minutes passed, then fifteen. Silence reigned over the room until Jasmine finally cried out, stamping her foot on the wooden chair. "I don''t know! There are too many things to think of! Unfair!"

    hahaha. Laughter resounded throughout the room. "Jasmine. War is not fair. There will always be too many things to think of. Just think of what you think is the best thing to do."

    Jasmine pouted and replied in an uncertain tone. "I think I would fight, use ten thousand to stall and make the rest of the troops do a pincer move. You?"

    "Me? I would not do anything straight away. I would try to wait out the day and let most of my troops rest. Once night falls and the enemies retreat to rest up, I would send in a few soldiers to burn as much of their supplies and tents as possible. As soon as the flames are blazing, I would march my troops in and encircle them. I would force the enemy to fight near the raging fire. I would utilize a shield wall formation and order my soldiers push the enemies into the flames."

    "In truth, the tactic I am describing right now might not be the best one either. Unless we have more information, whatever tactic you feel has the most chance of succeeding will be the best one to choose. If we had more information on the enemy officers, if we had different troop compositions or even something as simple as heavy fog settling on the battlefield, a whole array of new possible strategies would have opened up."

    Rickert took out more pawns and changed the situation time and time again, continuously asking Jasmine what would do in this new situation. Slowly but surely she started to grasp the general concept. At times she answered quickly, at others she took her time and considered the situation of the battlefield as a whole. Her answers still ended up to be too restrained, too focused on what she had been taught so far, but he knew that changing this could not happen in a day. Still, Jasmine already had the makings of a grand strategist in her. She just needed proper guidance and most importantly, she needed to experience the wide open world.

    Only when their stomachs started to growl did the duo take their eyes of the war table. The two of them looked at each other and laughed. "Jasmine... what would you like to eat?"

    "Jasmine... what would you like to eat? You can choose whatever you want."

    "I can choose? Whatever I want?" She asked, a baffled expression on her face."

    "Of course! We have to celebrate that you are now my foster-daughter after all!" Rickert said, then pausing momentarily. "Oh. I guess I should also go shopping with you tomorrow. We need you to get some proper clothes."

    Jasmine''s eyes brightened up at the mention of new clothes. She had always adored shopping for clothes! She was very peculiar in the type of clothes she wore. Before she became an orphan, she would almost always be dressed in a colourful qipao. When she was young, a travelling merchant from a country at the other side of the continent had visited their home town and she fell in love with it at first sight. Ever since she had almost always dressed in a qipao.The only exceptions to this were the sparse events where she was to wear a formal dress.

    grumble grumble. Jasmine''s stomach reminded her that she was hungry and that she was allowed to choose whatever she wanted. Her lips curled upwards and an honest smile appeared on her face. "I want to eat a strawberry pie!"

    "Haha, strawberry pie it is!" Laughter rang out through the war room once more as Rickert offered Jasmine''s hand, both of them leaving to find themselves some strawberry pie.

 Chapter 6: Shopping

    The next day, Jasmine and Rickert left the academy early to head to the high-class shopping district. Even though the duo arrived early, they were already met with countless other shoppers who had the same idea same idea as them. The moment the duo entered the shopping distract, many curious glances were cast towards them. It wasn''t because they recognized Rickert, but solely due to the armed escort that they had brought.

    Rickert wished he did not have to take an armed escort wherever he went, but with his status it was impossible to do so. His privacy solely existed within his own quarters for the moment he entered the outside world, he no longer had any privacy. He had never went out much with his uniform or used his name in public during his time here and as such not a lot of people realized who he was, even though there was not a single citizen in the country who did not know his name.

    "Hey, who''s that? Why does he have such a large armed escort?" One woman whispered to her husband.

    Her husband looked at Rickert and shook his head. "I have no idea. Probably military but he can''t be a simple person with such a large armed escort. Judging from their armour, those are elite guards from the military."

    "Elite guards of the military? Husband, go strike up a conversation with that man!"

    "Woman, do you think a simple noble like me can just go out and talk to a man who has ten elite guards from the military as an escort?" The husband said as he shook his head. "Come, let''s continue shopping. He is not someone who mingles with people of our level."

    "Husband... " The woman started. "This is why you will never climb the social ladder! Look let me go out and talk to him!"

    The woman walked towards Rickert but the moment she got within range one of the guards stepped forward and blocked her.

    "Sir, do you know this woman?" The guard asked with his hand hovering over the hilt of his sword.

    "I have never seen her before."

    nodding slightly, the guard calmly spoke. "Milady, please remove yourself from the vicinity of my lord. My lord has no time for you."

    "You!" The woman cried out before shutting her mouth as the guard shot her a dangerous glance.

    Her husband quickly took a few steps forward and dragged his wife back. "See! What did I tell you! We cannot just start talking to people of his level! Look at how you embarrassed yourself now!"

    Rickert chuckled as he overheard the conversation. In truth, he would not have minded striking up a conversation with the woman''s husband as he seemed like a good, honest man, but if he struck up a conversation with that man, then he would have to strike up a conversation with everyone else who would like to do so.

    All the other shoppers who had noticed the commotion quickly made way for Rickert and Jasmine. Previously, Jasmine had already mentioned to Rickert that she liked to wear qipaos and as such Rickert was taking her straight to the part of the shopping district that sold them.

    The duo walked for a few more minutes before they arrived at a small corner shop that specialized in foreign clothes.

    "Welcome! Welcome esteemed guest!" A fat, stocky storekeeper politely welcomed the duo. He had run over the moment he had seen Rickert and his guards walking to his store. If he could convince this guest to buy something, it would undoubtedly be a good thing for his business! "What does the esteemed guest need today?"

    Rickert smiled and pointed at Jasmine. "My daughter desires some new clothes. She prefers wearing a qipao. Show her what you have."

    "We have a nice selection of qipaos for kids, so please follow me!" The storekeeper led Jasmine and Rickert in the store and quickly showed various brightly colored qipaos to Jasmine, who eagerly tried each and every one of them on, asking Rickert his opinion every time she stepped out of the changing booth.

    He had to agree that qipaos fit the small Jasmine very well compared to the regular clothes she was wearing now. The whole vibe he got from Jasmine changed the moment she had put one on. Before, she just gave of the vibe that she was a small, fragile child but with the qipao on, she looked like a small adult.

    In the end, Jasmine chose three qipaos that fit her well, each of them having a flowery motif to them.

    The two visited a few more stores and ended up buying a total of 10 qipaos with two of them being a bit more fancy, so Jasmine could wear them to formal events. It was almost noon at this point so Rickert took Jasmine and his guards to a restaurant for a small meal.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

    He had decided on a small restaurant near the center of the town, nothing too fancy yet not all too shabby either. A place where everyone could eat a meal at a decent price. The twelve of them quickly ordered their food.

    While they were eating, the captain of the guard asked. "What are your plans for the rest of the day sir?"

    Rickert only spoke when his mouth was empty. "We should be going back to the academy soon. There is plenty of work I have to get back to and I have to get Jasmine settled in a little more. However, I would like to make a stop at the square of the gods."

    "Very well sir." The captain of the guard nodded and continued eating.

    Affter their meal, Jasmine and Rickert were quickly escorted to a nearby square. A golden plaque which read ''Square of the Gods'' hung over the entrance. Rickert smiled as he saw the square filled to the brim with statues of gods that belonged to many different religions. Over hundred different kind of gods were displayed here and it gave the square a divine aura.

    It was not weird to see a square filled with so many different kinds of gods from so many different religions. The empire embraced all customs, cultures and religions. Instead of persecuting, banning or even trying to convert those who did not believe in the same gods or those who did not have the same customs or culture, the empire had just embraced everything. This caused the empire to be an enormous amalgamation of cultures and religions.

    Of course not everyone was happy with this. Especially in the beginning many of the empire''s original citizens thought it was a disgrace to their own gods that the conquered territories where still allowed to worship their own gods. As the empire grew, the citizens realized that this one move was the smartest thing the empire could possibly have done.

    Even though the rulers would change, the peasants would only notice that their taxes were suddenly lower, something they welcomed very much. The reason for the reduced taxes was simple. Upon conquering a nation, the empire would always remove the kings, rulers and leading nobles. They might not even account for less than a thousandth of a percentage in the country, yet the majority of the taxes ended up in their own pockets. With those people gone, it wasn''t hard to imagine the effect it would have on the taxes.

    Moreover, a smaller kingdom needed a large army if they wanted to defend themselves from the neighboring kingdoms. In comparison, the empire did not need nearly as a normal kingdom to keep their territory, the mere size of their army enough to scare them off. While some smaller kingdoms needed a hundred thousand troops to guard their kingdom, the empire only needed to add an additional thirty to fifty thousand to receive the same effect.

    While the empire did disband the armies of conquered nations, they still eagerly accepted any of the soldiers that wanted to fight under their banner, in many cases even retaining their original weapon of choice.

    All these small things added together made it hard for the average peasant to revolt. While things did change in some ways, their every day life did not undergo tremendous changes.

    What did the small nobles and peasants care if their rulers changed if it brought money to their pockets? The answers was simple. They were more than happy to embrace their new rulers. While small things changed in their town, they were allowed to keep their customs, culture and religion. Thus... with their monetary situation improving and nothing else changing, the peasants and small nobles were not really quick to revolt.

    Of course, some of the fanatics and nationalists were hard pressed to accept this change, yet when they realized that they could not gain public support, there was not much what they could do.

    Rickert silently prayed in front of the statues of each and every god, Jasmine looking at him strangely as he did this.

    When he finished, Jasmine couldn''t help but ask."Why are you praying in front of every statue?"

    Rickert''s lips curled upwards. "What is the difference between Odin, Ares and Mars, Jasmine?"

    "Eh?" She exclaimed. "I... uh... they''re all gods of war?"

    "Which means?" Rickert probed with a sly smile on his face.

    "Uhm... I don''t... know? That there is not really a difference?"

    "Exactly! In my opinion, since there are not really any huge differences between gods, does that not mean that they all believe in the same thing?"

    Jasmine''s face scrunched up as she thought long and hard about this. "It makes sense... but... it feels weird? I mean, it does not make sense to worship all these different gods?"

    Rickert chuckled. "Jasmine, is the way you believe a battle should be fought, the only way a war can be fought?"

    A confused expression settled on Jasmine''s face. "What has that to do with believing in gods?"

    "Just answer the question." He playfully responded.

    "Of course the way I think a battle should be fought is not the only way... What has that to do with gods though?" She still did not understand why Rickert had asked this question.

    "Isn''t it the same for gods?" Rickert started. "The way I believe in a god may not be the same for you or for anyone else. Hence, be it Odin, Ares or Mars, who is to say that they are not the same god? Maybe people just believe in the same god in another way. At least that is what I think."

    "I...I guess?" Jasmine could not really make sense of it but she did feel that it was quite logical from a certain point of view. Still, she could not quite accept it as it did not feel right.

    The captain of the guards smiled slightly as he heard this. He had been one of Rickert''s guards for most of his life and thus understood his master very well. Seeing that he was actually imparting Jasmine some of his own views to her so eagerly, a warm feeling rose up from within him. It was rare for his master to care for someone and seeing him place so much value on Jasmine already, he couldn''t help but smile.

    Seeing the smile on the captain''s face, Rickert continued. "But of course not everyone thinks like me. Enough dilly dallying though, we should be getting back to the academy."

 Chapter 7: A tour of the academy

    On their return to the academy, Rickert took Jasmine straight to the second floor of the main building of the academy, the captain of the guard in tow. On their way there, he told her about the building''s fist floor. "The first floor of the main building is nothing special as there are solely examination rooms. Besides taking an examination here every now and then, you will rarely spend time on this floor."

    "As for the second floor, it holds the academy''s library along with private rooms. The private rooms can be used to read in peace in quiet, to study together with other students or to get some advice from any of our advisers."

    "There are no teachers?" Jasmine asked?

    "Teachers? No. We do not work with teachers as we had way too many cases in the past were some talented students received a bad teacher. This resulted in those students not growing a lot during their time with that teacher. While every adviser here is a great strategist in their own right, they might not all be the best teachers. However, answering questions is not a problem to any of them."

    By the time he was done explaining all of this, Rickert had taken Jasmine straight to the second floor. Half of the second floor contained the library of which a fifth was a quiet space. Jasmine was surprised to see that there were barely any free seats. Many students shot her glances of envy. Getting a tour from the headmaster itself was a rare honour.

    Rows upon rows of bookcases filled the rest of the library. Even though a lot of books were lend out to the students, the bookcases still looked as if they were filled to the brim.

    Rickert looked at Jasmine and quietly spoke. "So many books might seem daunting but with how many students we have, we have a couple of copies of every book. That''s why many of the bookcases seem so full. However we placed the basic knowledge books at the front. So the further back into the library you go, the emptier the bookcases will be."

    Slowly nodding, Jasmine accompanied Rickert as they took a small tour around the different sections. Whenever Jasmine saw a book she was interested in, she memorized the name of the book so she could pick it up later.

    When they left the library, Rickert showed her one of the various private rooms. The private rooms were just a few square meters big and held a table with four chairs, a blackboard and a couch.

    "Why is there a couch?" Jasmine could not help but ask.

    "Well, because students can book a private room just for themselves and we used to get a lot of complaints from those who did so that the private rooms were not comfortable enough. Hence we installed couches for those who like to hang about when they are reading one of the books. Whenever you want one of the rooms, you just go to the reception at front and ask for a free room. If there would be no free rooms you''re out of luck. Normally you would not be allowed to take books of this floor but if every private room is full, you are allowed to do so as long as you pay a small fee."

    "In any case, for the next few years most of your time will be spent on this floor. Once we get back to the fourth floor, I will give you a list of books you will need to start comprehending from start to finish. Once you are done with those books I will give you a little reward. Just like every student here, you will borrow the books from the library and study in a private room. However, should you find that every private room is booked, you can always come to my study. I got a copy of every book and I''ll let you borrow my copy for the day."

    "Oh. One more thing about the second floor. As you may have noticed I just said that you can not take any of the books of this floor. So it is imperative that you take notes so you can go over them at night. This floor closes at eight in the evening every day and only opens at eight in the morning on the next day. I know I said I have the book as well but, I will have the same rules as the library. So if you want to study outside those hours you will either have to take notes or buy the book."

    "But I don''t have money to buy books!" She said as she pouted.

    "Well, I will give you one gold coin each month as allowance. However, one gold coin will only buy you two or three books at most."

    "One gold? I have no idea how much that is..." Jasmine responded with a blank expression on her face. She had always been doted on by her parents and had been allowed to buy pretty much whatever she wanted. Hence she never learned the value of currency.

    Rickert chuckled. "Then I definitely can not give you any more until you figure out the worth of a single gold coin. Your clothes and food will all be paid by me. Everything else you will have to buy for yourself."

    "O-okay..." Jasmine uttered, clearly unsure of what dealing with her future finances meant to her.

    "Let us move on to the third floor." Rickert said as he guided Jasmine to the third floor.

    The third floor held more corridors filled with rooms upon rooms, although there weren''t as many doors as the second floor.

    "The third floor has debate rooms, both with and without war tables. The rooms with the war tables are debate rooms that are used to simulate conflicts of any and all scales. Be it small territorial wars to enormous battle lines stretching between multiple kingdoms, these war tables have seen it all. "

    "The debate rooms are split up according to the ranking system we use in the academy." Rickert paused for a second, then chuckled. "How foolish of me. I have yet to explain our ranking system to you! We have five different ranks in the academy. You can only debate or ''battle'' against students of the same rank in the debate rooms. The topics for debates or mock battles that are available depend on your ranking. The lowest rank is a junior student, which is your current rank. The other ranks are senior student, junior apprecentice strategist, apprentice strategist and senior apprentice strategist."

    "Once you attain the rank of junior apprentice strategist, you are allowed to accompany a strategist or master strategist to the battlefield. As for graduating.... To graduate, you will need to go through an extremely tough exam and mock battle. On top of that you will need the approval of three strategists or one master strategist. Trust me if I say that the approval of a strategist is NOT an easy thing to get."

    "A person''s rank is denoted by a badge which each student and advisor is recquired to wear at all times when they are in the main building. Without the badge you will not be granted entry. You can recognize someone''s rank by counting the stars on a student''s badge. Students who have a badge with one star are junior students, students with two stars are senior students and so on and so forth. As for our advisors, they have six to ten stars depending on their prowess and battle record as a strategist. However, it is best to not underestimate the rank of an advisor. There are a few six star advisors who would be able to easily beat ten stars advisors if they met on the battlefield!"Stolen novel; please report.

    "This is solely due to the fact that winning a hundred small skirmishes can theoretically allow you to become a ten star advisor."

    "Why are there so many advisors?" Jasmine slowly asked. Thus far she had seen plenty of advisors and this struck her as something that was odd. Leading an army to battle was the highest honour in the empire after all, so why would so many strategists become advisors? She just did not understand it.

    "Ah. Well, since being a strategist is an easy way to gain a name for yourself and since it opens so many doors, many people will attempt to become one. While there''s a fair of dropouts, there is still a sizeable amount of graduates each year. In truth while being a junior apprentice strategist allows you to accompany a strategist to the battlefield, it is not an easy thing to do so. There just too many apprentice strategists and too few battles to allow everyone to experience a battlefield."

    "So this means that some graduates have yet to see a battlefield. It is not uncommon for a recently graduated strategist to be sent out to the battlefield and realize that they are too weakhearted to be on a battlefield. In the past, those strategists had two choices, either persevere or become a failure. In recent years we gave those strategists a third option and that is to become an advisor. Unlike many of my colleagues who look down on these advisors, I think it is rather admirable that they are able to decide that the battlefield really is not the right place for them. If you have the opportunity I suggest that you ask some six or seven stars advisors about their experience with the battlefield."

    "uhn." Jasmine slowly nodded. Her head was starting to spin from all the information she had been given by Rickert. He had continued talking almost ceaselessly in the past hour and thus she had not been able to slowly process everything she had been told.

    "There will be a few more things. Every day from seven to eight am you will practice martial arts, from eight to nine you will be taught etiquette and from nine to ten you will be taught one of the three languages, starting with Ashvahlen. If you dare slack on any of this, I will double the duration for a month."

    Rickert moved on wards to the fourth floor with Jasmine quickly following him.

    The fourth floor was rather small, about a fourth of the fourth floor''s size. From the staircase, one could see that the there were four corridors. Each hallway was lined with doors and name plaques.

    Jasmine stared at the nearest name plaque. She mumbled. "Master Rin''s office..."

    "Yes, the fourth floor is where the rank six to ten strategists have their offices. There is not really much to show you here, honestly. If you ever need to find someone, feel free to check their office. Each strategist has a secretary assigned to them, so if they are not present you can check with their strategist when they are expected to return."

    "So that concludes my little tour for the main building. As for all the side buildings, they are merely boarding rooms, so there is no need to show them to you. Let us return to my place."

    The trio quickly left the academy and arrived at the academy''s plaza. The plaza connected the main building to the two boarding rooms at the side and the mansion opposite of it. The mansion sat opposite of the academy and was tightly guarded by a group of no less than twenty guards wearing a set of black armour.

    As soon as the three of them got in the vicinity of the mansion, the guards stood at attention and saluted.

    "At ease!" The captain of the guard that accompanied Jasmine and Rickert said.

    "Yes sir!" The guards replied.

    "Captain, feel free to take a rest. Jasmine, follow me." Rickert opened the door and headed straight to his study, took a list from his desk and gave it to Jasmine. "This is the list of books I want you to read. I also want you to study these subjects in detail."

    Jasmine accepted the list Rickert gave her. It listed a total of thirty books.

    - History of the Ambiox Empire, Volumes 1 to 10

    - Compendium of the gods, Volumes 1 to 3

    - Basic math

    - History of the contintent Volume 1 to 3

    - Crop management

    - Dictionary

    - A quartermaster''s diary

    - Brawl versus Brains! Volume 1 and 2

    - Geology Volume 1

    - A guide to carpentry Volume 1

    - Basics of fortification

    - Compendium of poisonous plants and creatures volumes 1

    - Durnish for beginners

    - Ashvahlen for beginners

    - Ta''Si for beginners

    - Law - commoner edition

    "Wha!?" Jasmine exclaimed as she looked at the list. There was not a single book about strategy in the whole list! Everything was just general knowledge or books for other professions.

    "Hahaha. You must be confused why I gave you this list of books?" Rickert said, suppressing his laughter.

    "Yeah, I do not really get it? Aren''t half these books useless to me?"

    "Useless? What books do you think will be useless?"

    "I just don''t know the use of knowing about gods, geology, woodcutting, foraging, being a quartermaster, hunting, toxic plants and animals?"

    Rickert looked around himself from the corner of his eyes and then whispered. "I should have figured as much. While strategy is important, it is not the only thing a strategist should know. The reason why I want you to read all of these books is not alone to broaden your knowledge but also because I believe these books to be the bare minimum of basic knowledge a junior student should have before being allowed to advance to a senior student."

    "Why?"

    "Because, if you would merely have to study about battle tactics... why would there be a use for strategists? Just your average general would suffice, no? Have you never wondered why there exists such a clear distinction between a general and a strategist?"

    "I..." Jasmine started but she was immediately interrupted by Rickert.

    "It is precisely because a strategist has to take more things into account. If a general can think three steps ahead, then a strategist has to be able to think thirty ahead! For example, take the compendium of the gods. It might not seem like it can help you much at first, until you realize that one of the kingdoms we conquered believed that the gods would smite them if they fought on the day of a solar eclipse. Due to a lucky coincidence a solar eclipse happened a few years ago and in one fell swoop our cavalry slaughtered half their army."

    "Do you know why our cavalry was so swift to attack? Because I once read in an astrology book that every hundred years there would be a solar eclipse. When I read this, I instantly tried to find records of the last solar eclipse. The last one had been ninety seven years ago. For the next three years I steadily increased the amount of cavalry at that border and told them that the moment the eclipse happened, they would set out and sweep through our enemy''s armies."

    "Of course it was sheer luck that the eclipse happened early in the morning but it still goes to show that random pieces of knowledge can actually prove to be extremely important."

    "As for every other book, they have uses in many similar ways. Look, we strategists do not have to worry about winning fights alone, we also have to be able to handle the aftermath of a victory. How to bring the civilians over to our side, how to keep the territory we gained and the list goes on and on. If the empire just wanted to win battles, they would only be training generals and they surely would not be spending as much resources as they are to train a legion of strategists."

    "Moreover, the more knowledge you have, the less likely it is for other people to influence your decisions and it will be easier for you to notice those who are working against you. Now I know that I have been telling you a lot today and that you will have forgotten most of what I said by tomorrow, but I hope the most important bits stick."

    "That is everything for today. Next week I will hold a banquet to celebrate that you became my foster daughter. I will invite some of the most influential nobles in the area, so try your best to befriend some of their kids. It will help you out in the long run. The more friends you can make now, the less enemies you will have further in life. Making friends should not be too hard for you though. Since you''re now my foster daughter, there will be many nobles who will try to make their kids curry favour with you. After all, as long as they can befriend you, then they can possibly build a good rapport with me."

    "O-okay." Jasmine said a little confused. "Do I really need to study all these things?"

    "Yes Jasmine. From seven pm onward you can ask me all the questions you want. I know all of this is a lot to take in but do you have any questions about today at all?"

    "I-I do not think so..." Jasmine uttered.

    "All right, if you need anything then you can knock on my door anytime, okay?"

    "Uhn!" Jasmine said.

    Rickert ruffled her hair. "All right. I really have some stuff to do right now. You can ask one of the guards or housekeepers if you need anything." Having said that, Rickert waved Jasmine off.

 Chapter 8: The first day of her new life

    DONG!! DONG!! DONG!! DONG!! DONG!! DONG!!

    The sounds of the bells tolling woke Jasmine up. She let out a long frustrated sigh before leaving the bed, washing up and changing into a bright green qipao with a flowery pattern. After putting up her auburn hair so that it would not get in the way, she headed to the dining room.

    Rickert was already present there, seated at the head of the table which was generously filled with various kinds of cheese, bread, fruits and meat. On Jasmine''s arrival, Rickert put down the book he was reading and warmly smiled at her, lightly patting the chair on his right.

    Jasmine returned the warm smile, glanced at the book and saw that its name was ''Devil''s wit''. she sat down at his right side and politely said. "Good morning dad. What were you reading?"

    "I was reading ''Devil''s wit''. It is a fictional story about a little demon who lies, cheats and tricks his way into becoming the devil. It is rather interesting."

    "So I should read it?" Jasmine said, her eyes twinkling with interest.

    "Only when you are older. You can read it after you become an adult!" Rickert quickly said. The book had quite a few adult and gory scenes in it and it was not something a young girl like her should be reading.

    Jasmine''s shoulders drooped and she pouted. "Fine."

    "Anyways, have a nice meal! Make sure to eat your fill because you''ll only be able to get another hearty meal this evening." Rickert ruffled her hair and started helping himself to everything the generously filled table had to offer.

    "Have a nice meal!" Jasmine replied before focusing on the food on the table. Even though she had seen the same scene the night before, after weeks of having to scavenge for food, the table in front of her looked like a dream. Only after a minute did she snap out of her daze and grabbed whatever was closest to her.

    During the meal Rickert started explaining how her first four hours of the day would look. "So at six, we eat here together, afterwards you can change into something comfortable to move around in and wait at the back yard for your martial arts teacher to arrive. Don''t be scared of his appearance, he looks tough but he''s a very friendly fellow. After you practice martial arts for one hour, I will personally teach you etiquette for an hour. I will not teach you too dilligently as in reality only the basics are important. You will pick up everything else you really need to remember in time. As soon as you master the basic rules of etiquette, we will switch this hour with one hour of me personally teaching you strategy. As for the final hour, the first few months you will be learning Ashvahlen and it will be taught by one of my best friends."

    Jasmine just nodded and continued stuffing herself with a large variety of the available cheeses. The moment she tasted the first cheese, she was determined not to leave the table before she had tried all fifteen of them! Cheese had always been one of her favourite things to eat and it had always been hard for her not to overeat herself when it was presented to her.

    They conversed for a little longer after the meal until Jasmine noticed that it was nearly time, at which point she darted out of the room, changed herself and walked to the backyard where a ratherferocious looking man dressed in black shorts and a white shirt was waiting for Jasmine.

    She estimated him to be in his late twenties, even though his long braided beard and bald head tried to convince her that he was much older. His bald head was covered in runic tattoos and scars littered every part of his body.

    Noticing the little girl walking up to him, the man extended his thick muscular arm towards her. "Nice to meet you. Henry is my name. I am a berserker. Rickert said I should teach you some martial arts. I will teach you foot work today. Watch me." His loud, raspy voice reverberated throughout the yard.

    From the way he spoke, it was obvious that the man was not from around here and the way he spoke nearly made Jasmine burst out in laughter. However the moment the man started moving, Jasmine was utterly astonished. The movement technique he was displaying was simply much too gorgeous, yet at the same time it felt powerful. The astonishment caused her attention to wane and thus she was not able to capture all the movements from the start.

    After he finished showing what she would learn, Henry asked. "Good, right?"

    "Very good!" Jasmine said, her mouth still half open.

    "Okay, I will teach now! Point is to move with little waste. Little waste means effective. Movement depends on terrain. It flat and loose sand like here, we move like dance. It rough terrain? We move chest more than legs! Many terrains, many many differences! You will understand in time!"

    Jasmine nodded and attentively listened to Henry. While it was hard for her to hear someone talk like this, it was obvious that Henry was trying his best to explain and thus she did not dare to not pay attention to him.

    An hour quickly passed and after the initial explanations, Henry taught her by showing how the movements were done and then made her try them on her own. Every time she made even the smallest mistake, Henry quickly pointed out where it was and had her adjust until she got it right.

    Sweat poured down Jasmine''s back at the end of the hour and a wry smile sat on her lips. "I only learned two very small steps."The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

    She had lost count how many times Henry had said "Again!" and "No no no, Like this!", but she was sure he said it more than a few dozen times. Her movements needed to be small and without waste. Only when she completely succeeded with one step was she allowed to move on to the next one.

    So far what she had learned was to quickly slide to her left and back, both basic steps to dodge attacks. Both were not terribly hard to do on their own but what Jasmine found hard was to keep her balance while she did that as Henry made her move twice in a row and after the first step, she easily lost her balance and found herself unable to complete the next step.

    She quickly washed up and changed back into her bright green qipao again and joined Rickert in the ballroom. The next hour was spent learning about the various rules of etiquette she would have to follow if she meet the emperor, a marquis and anyone else with a higher rank than hers.

    Afterwards, Rickert took Jasmine to the dining hall where she would be joined by Rickert''s friend who had yet to arrive. To help her wait, Rickert gave her a book on the Ashvahlen language as that was the language she would be learning today, leaving her alone as he had many matters to attend to.

    Half an hour later the door to the dining room opened and Rickert entered the room.

    Jasmine looked up from her book and saw that a tall, slender women with blonde hair dressed in a long, vermilion dress stood just behind Rickert, only a few centimeters between the two of them. Her face was not the prettiest nor was it the ugliest. Her grey eyes were set a little further back in her head and her nose was long and sharp. Yet her shy smile and expression made her unusually charming which made Jasmine feel as if she could not quite size her up.

    "Jasmine, this is Iris. She is a very good friend of mine and will teach you the Ashvahlen language. She is the most proficient person in the Ashvahlen language in the whole empire and also part of my retinue. The past few days she was undertaking a mission on my behalf and that''s why you have not seen her before."

    Iris visibly winced the moment Rickert said friend, something that did not escape Jasmine''s eyes. A soft smile settled on her lips.

    "Nice to meet you!" Iris shyly said as she stepped forward and held out her hand.

    Jasmine reached out with her tiny right hand and politely shook Iris''s hand. "Nice to meet you miss Iris!"

    "Seeing as you two have met each other, I will leave you two alone now." Rickert said before leaving the room.

    "Now that the ''nuisance'' is gone, I will start explaining a bit about the Ashvahlen language before we start the lesson. The Ashvahlen language is one of the, if not THE, most ancient language on this continent." Passion filled Iris''s voice the moment she started talking about the Ashvahlen language.

    However, before she could continue, Jasmine asked. "This continent? Does that mean there is more than one continent?"

    "You don''t know?" Iris asked, a hint of confusion in her eyes.

    "No?" Jasmine responded with a wry smile.

    "Well, your clothes originate from one of the other continents so I assumed you knew. There are a few other continents that we know of, however the empire has no access to the sea and thus we do not have the ability to go there. Anyway, if you really want to know about the continents, you just have to read through the list of books Lord Rickert has given you. I will not say which book mentions the other continents."

    "So where were we?" Iris paused and bit her lower lip. "Oh I remember! So, the Ashvahlen language is the oldest language on this continent and also the most widespread. This is because at one point in time the Ashvalen empire controlled the whole continent for a few centuries! However in time the Ashvahlen empire met with a few calamities and ended up losing its power."

    "There still exists a remnant of the Ashvahlen empire to the north of the continent. Yet it is abandonded and no one goes there for it is considered a haunted place. Strange things happen there literally all the time. People go missing, strange voices are heard at night, et cetera. It is not a place people would like to live at."

    Iris suddenly paused for a moment and laughed before continuing. "Excuse me, I got sidetracked. I just really like everything about the Ashvahlen kingdom. It''s all so interesting to me! Anyway, the Ashvahlen language spread across the continent because the Ashvahlen empire had control over it for such a long time. Hence, every language in the current day and age is based on it and it is why most people still learn it to this day. Moreover, due to how polite the language sounds, it is often referred to as the noble language. Learning Ashvahlen will allow you to converse with nearly everyone you meet, no matter where you go even though most people do not speak it only a daily basis."

    "The language is rather difficult to learn so one usually starts to learn it after their eleventh birthday or so. If you feel anything is too difficult or if you feel I need to slow down on teaching you things, feel free to speak up!" Iris said, finally stopping her explanation.

    "Yes miss Iris!" Jasmine politely shouted.

    "All right, let us get started on your first lesson. Today we will focus on learning all the vowels and consonants along with their sounds. This will not be all too hard as most of them are very similar to those we know. There are only three exceptions to this but usually they are not too hard to learn. The real difficulty with the Ashvahlen language is due to the way sentences are build. It is completely different to how we do it but we''ll keep that for a later lesson."

    A little less than an hour later the lesson finished and Jasmine''s head was left spinning. Even though she had not learnt all too much in the past hour, Iris had nearly been talking non stop despite her shy demeanor.

    Afterwards the lesson she quickly visited Rickert and asked him if he could buy a dictionary from her allowance and headed to the library. She quickly looked for the book ''History of the Ambiox Empire - Volume 1'', checked it out with the clerk, took a random free seat in the library and started reading. Every now and then she would jot down a note when she read something interesting in the book.

    Quickly a small list of years and accompanying events filled her notepad.

    - Year 3075 of the Ashvahlen calendar: After the collapse of the Ashvahlen empire, many former dukes erected their own kingdom. The flames of war raged across the continent.

    - 3161 of the Ashvahlen calendar: After eighty six years of war, Leonard Ambiox settled down near lake Valest.

    - Year 3165 of the Ashvahlen calendar: four years later, Leonard Ambiox conquered the nearby tribes and formed a small territory of his own.

    - Year 3169 of the Ashvahlen calendar: On one of his various conquests of nearby tribes, Leonard Ambiox died of dysentery. His son Deodrick took over his throne and continued his conquest.

    - Year 3188 of the Ashvahlen calendar: After 19 years of conquering the nearby tribes and stabilizing his power, Deodrick decided to establish the Ambiox kingdom.

    When she finally crawled in her bed that night, Jasmine sighed and muttered. "So that was the first day of my new life, huh..."

 Chapter 9: Banquet

    A week passed in the blink of an eye. Jasmine was still getting used to the new structure of her daily life and while it was exhausting, she felt it was awarding at the same time. At first, she did not want to read and study all these books that had nothing to do with strategy but after reading the first two historical volumes of the Ambiox empire she found that there had been quite a few interesting events in the book and she was eager to know what happened next.

    However, she had no time to read today. Today Rickert would be presenting her to the nobles and formally acknowledge her as his foster daughter! While the paper work for this had been finished long ago, no one would really accept her without a formal introduction. It was for this reason that Rickert threw the banquet.

    Currently, Isis was straightening Jasmine''s hair for the party. Over the past few days, both of them couldn''t help but grow closer to each other and Jasmine ended up spending much of her free time in Iris''s company. While Iris had been rather shy and introverted at first, the more the two of them bonded, the more of a waterfall of words Iris had become.

    Jasmine had donned a plain candy apple red qipao for the occasion. As was customary, a small round badge with a single star was pinned to her qipao at the height of her heart.

    As for Iris, she wore a white dress with a deep cut that clung tightly to her slender body. Her long blonde hair was put up in a neat bun, besides a few strands at each side of her face which she purposefully did not incorporate into the bun. The shy expression she usually had on her face coupled with her tendency to bite her lip made Iris look rather bewitching in this dress, something Jasmine did not fail to notice.

    "You look very pretty, miss Iris!"

    "Jasmine!" Iris exclaimed. "How many times have I told you to just call me Iris already!"

    "Y-yes mi... Iris!"

    A soft smile surrounded Iris''s lips and she giggled while laying the finishing touches on Jasmine''s hair. She held a hand mirror in front of Jasmine''s face and asked. "All done now, what do you think?"

    Jasmine looked and saw that unlike normally where her auburn hair curled ever so slightly, it now fell straight to her shoulders. "I love it!"

    Knock knock knock!

    "Are you girls ready yet? We can''t be late for our own party!" Rickert said while knocking on the door.

    Rickert had rented out the city''s ballroom for the occasion. He had invited over a hundred of the most prominent nobles and other prominent figures in the area. While the ballroom in his own mansion was by no means small, it still was far from able to hold a hundred nobles, their wives and their children.

    Iris and Jasmine opened the door seconds later. "We are, are you?"

    Rickert just rolled his eyes and offered both of them an arm. "Let''s get moving."

    They soon arrived at the city hall accompanied by a large host of guards. In the end, they still arrived early enough and had half an hour before the first guests would arrive. Rickert left the ladies by themselves for a moment to check if everything was in order. He was sure that there would not be any problems, but he still had to check as he hated when things were not completely under his control.

    The tables had been prepared with the most exquisite cutlery and dishes available. Beautiful flowers and candles adorned gave the tables something extra. To the sides of the tables was plenty of space for the guests to walk or dance.

    In the kitchen, the kitchen staff was busy preparing the humongous amount of dishes they had to prepare. With over one hundred nobles and their relatives coming, the number of dishes they had to prepare was literally astronomical. Seeing Rickert in his kitchen, the chef instantly chased him out, fearing that he would run late if he didn''t. Rickert took no offense and instead was happy that the chef did so as this meant the chef did take his job seriously.

    Having checked that everything was in order, Rickert went back to the ladies and waited for the first guests to arrive.

    Half an hour passed in the blink of an eye and the nobles started entering one by one, each which brought a valuable gift and congratulated Rickert with his daughter.

    At this point in time a chubby, two-meter tall man walked over to Rickert. At his side was his wife, who was equally chubby and who had a warm smile plastered on her face. The man pulled Rickert in for a hug and hugged him very tightly. "Rickert! I am glad to see you finally decided to start a family! So does this mean you are going to get yourself a wifey soon, my friend?"

    "Rodrick!" Rickert exclaimed and for the first time in a while, he had no idea what to say in return. His cheeks flushed but quickly returned to their normal colour.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.

    "Hahahahaha!" Rodrick let go and slapped Rickert on his shoulder. "I just have to mention women and you become like a shy little teen! hahaha!"

    Shifting his attention from Rickert, Rodrick looked at Jasmine and noticed the one star badge pinned on her qipao. "Well look at you, don''t you look like a little lady. How old are you this year, sweetheart"

    "I am seven years old this year!"

    A thoughtful expression appeared on Rodrick''s face. He glanced at Rickert and quietly whispered. "You''ve picked up a real gem this time."

    Rickert calmly nodded and exchanged some more pleasantries with Rodrick before the latter moved on and headed to Iris''s side.

    As she was just a part of Rickert''s retinue, she did not need to greet the guests and as such she had taken a seat to the side and was sipping from a glass of wine.

    Rodrick''s wife who had been silent all this while awkwardly smiled and offered some kind words before quickly following her husband.

    "Ah, miss Iris, as always you are a pleasure to the eye." Rodrick said as he took Iris'' hand and kissed it.

    "Hello marquis Rodrick, Miss Selene." Iris gave both of them a deep bow. While her position as part of Rickert''s retenue was by no means low, it could not compare to a noble rank and as such customs required her to bow.

    "Iris, you don''t need to stand on ceremony with us." Selene said with a stern expression. She rather hated it when those whom she considered friends had to bow to her just because their rank was lower.

    "Even if you two do not mind, I fear the other nobles will not share your opinion. You both know how sensitive people are about etiquette. Moreover, even though being part of Rickert''s retinue means that I do have quite a lot of influence, more so than most nobles present, it does not make me equal to a noble." Iris said with some hesitation.

    "So, just make Rickert swoon for you then and problem solved." Rodrick said teasingly.

    "It is so obvious that you love him dear. Why don''t you make a move? What are you scared about?" Selene said.

    "I- I''m afraid that things will change. I like the way things are right now and I''m afraid that if he does not feel the same way, our interactions will change." Iris weakly said.

    "But what if he does love you? Are you afraid of that too?" Rodrick asked, a tinge of worry in his eyes.

    "I- I don''t know."

    Sighing, Selene gently caresses Iris''s cheek. "Sweetheart, you are already in your late twenties. You can''t keep your feelings hidden if you ever want to start a family. We both have told you this before."

    "I know, I just... We will see what happens." Iris said, biting her lip and bringing the conversation to an abrupt end as she really did not feel like discussing this any further.

    Rodrick and Selene talked with Iris for a while longer until Iris got up to socialize with some other nobles she knew. Watching her leave, Rodrick kissed his wife and started. "This situation is so silly."

    Selene nodded and sighed softly. "If only they weren''t so stubborn. They both love each other but they are both afraid to talk about their feelings. Especially Rickert''s an idiot! How can he be such a good strategist but so horribly bad with women?!"

    Caressing his chin, Rodrick thought for a while before replying. "I do not think it is him being bad with women as he has noticed it with some other women who were hitting on him. I think it is mainly because he trusts Iris with his life and thus doesn''t do his whole ''seeing through everything about her'' thing that he does with everyone else, us included. In any case, I hope they get together for I think they would make a cute couple."

    "mhm." Selene replied.

    Meanwhile Jasmine and Rickert had finished greeting the guests and were starting to mingle within the crowd.

    After two hours of mingling, Jasmine did not really feel like talking to anyone anymore and just ran around looking for Iris. The sheer amount of people that had paid attention to her made her feel a little suffocated and she hoped that the pressure would lessen with Iris around.

    Even so, people left and right were trying to strike up a conversation with her and each time she had to make sure she talked for a bit before she was able to excuse herself. This caused her to proceed through the room at a snail''s pace, something which did not help with the feel of suffocation.

    Finally, after what felt like a lifetime, Jasmine spotted Iris sitting to the side from the corner of her eyes. She quickly excused herself from the group of nobles that had struck up a conversation with her and darted to Iris''s side, shouting her name in relief. "Iris!"

    Seeing the young girl rushing to her side, a hint of worry flashed in Iris''s eyes. She picked Jasmine up and pulled the little girl on her lap, worriedly asking "What happened?"

    "Too many people talking to me." Jasmine replied, pouting a little.

    "Awww. Don''t worry, we should be seating down for dinner soon and that will allow you to rest for a little bit." Absentmindedly patting Jasmine''s head, Iris''s gaze flitted across the room, checking which nobles had attended. She knew most of the nobles present and had talked to them prior to today, but today, besides Rodrick and Selene none had bothered to spare her some of their ''precious'' time. Iris rolled her eyes at this and silently told herself that she would get those nobles back for it at one point or another.

    In truth, Iris''s current status was somewhat unusual and special. She had neither a noble nor a military status and while nobles generally did not converse with those of a lower status, if Iris were to strike up a conversation with them, they would be unable to ignore her. This was not only due to her being part of Rickert''s retinue but also because she was his first choice whenever he needed someone to speak on his behalf.

    However what every noble failed to realize was that Iris was slowly racking up merits this way, something which would eventually enable her to become a noble. With all the knowledge that she had of these nobles, it would spell disaster for the moment she did receive her noble rank. While she was a rather shy and timid person, this did not mean she could not hold a grudge. How could she possibly not hold a grudge? After all she had been ignored at every party she had attended ever since she had become a part of Rickert''s retinue all those years ago.

    She had never been a schemer but after spending so much time with Rickert, his ''wickedness'' had long since rubbed off on her. Due to this, Iris looked forward to the day she would get a noble status.

    While Iris was thinking all of this, Jasmine quickly closed her eyes, hoping that this would deter people from talking to her for just a little bit. She had been talking to all the nobles and their children for the past three hours and it had been draining on her.

    Minutes later it was finally time for the guests to take their seat at the table.

 Chapter 10: Its a promise!

    The city''s ballroom was filled with clamor of the attendees talking among themselves as they took their designated seats. As was custom, the seating arrangement had been carefully planned by Rickert to make sure there was as little conflict between guests as possible.

    While it was custom that seating arrangements would be made so that the highest ranking nobles seated closer to the host, Rickert had decided that he would not adhere to these customs as he knew that if he did that, there would undoubtedly be problems between the various nobles he invited. Most of them would keep their calm but he had invited some nobles who were not quite as good in keeping their calm.

    As such, a lot of nobles were surprised when they found out their seating arrangements were not were they were supposed to be and instead sat at a completely different place than they expected. Some were pleasantly surprised to find themselves near fellow friends, while others were annoyed that they sat further from the host than they were supposed to.

    In the end, Rickert knew that he could not satisfy everyone and even though some nobles shot him a disgruntled glance, he paid it no heed. He had realized full well that diverting from the custom seating arrangements would make some nobles unhappy.

    However due to his careful planning, only a small minority of the nobles was unhappy and the majority of the nobles gave Rickert a nod of approval. Especially the smaller nobles were incredibly relieved that the customary seating had not been followed as the smaller houses usually did not have a great relationship as they all had to vie for each others land and business if they wanted to keep their rank and wealth. Unless they wanted to compete with higher ranking nobles, but there were few who had the stomach to do that.

    Rickert ticked his spoon to his cup, trying to catch the attention of the guests who had now taken their seat. "My esteemed friends and guests, may I have your undivided attention for just a moment?"

    Only after repeating the same sentence two additional times did the room finally quiet down enough for Rickert''s speech.

    "As you all know, I have gathered all of you here today to celebrate a joyous occasion." Rickert started before looking at the room with a serious expression. "I am grateful that you have all accepted my invitation and that all of you have been so utterly generous with your gifts."

    "I have never been a father before so the coming times will surely be rough on me but as many of you have told me today, there will be many beautiful moments as well. On top of that all of you have assured me that I will make a great father, although frankly, I am not sure why you think I will be a good father. I am grateful that all of you think like that and I will do my best to fulfill your expectations."

    "On top of that I hope that all of you will impart your knowledge to Jasmine in years and meetings to come and hope that you can build as good as a rapport with her as you have build with me. While Jasmine is not my flesh and blood, on this day I promise that I will always consider her my flesh and blood and I will spare no expense to keep her safe from harm and do whatever needs to be done to make her happy."

    "As a token of my appreciation for your gifts, well wishes and advice, I now invite you to indulge yourself in this feast the kitchen staff has prepared for us. If I may now invite the food tasters to taste the wine in everyone''s presence so we can raise our glasses to this joyous occasion."

    Food tasting had to be done and could partially prove that there was poison in the food or wine. However Rickert knew that the more scary poisons could not be found this way. Only poisons that acted quickly could be found in this manner while the slower killing ones would be missed.

    Poisons that acted up instantly were used for the shock effect and horrifying scenes they would cause more so than anything else. He felt that if a poison master really wanted to kill someone in a covert way, he would not do so with a quick acting poison. For one, no noble would ingest any food unless it was tested by a food taster and on top of that it would be rather easy to trace it back to the source. In example, while wolfsbane, belladonna and the blue ringed octopus''s poisons are very potent, the perpetrators were more often caught than not.

    In reality Rickert did not feel like these poisons were so scary as simple food tasting allowed you to spot them. Instead the ones that scared him were the slow acting poisons. Not only were they hard to trace back to their origin, one would not be able to figure out when or where they had been poisoned and by the time they found out that they had been poisoned it was usually too late. Mushrooms toxins were particularly popular in this regard. Both the death cap and fool''s webcap were widely used in a large number of suspicious deaths.

    Even scarier were poisons that simulated organ failure. If the target was someone with a preexisting condition, it was unlikely that poison would be linked to the sudden passing.

    Of course the sole reason that Rickert knew so much about poison in the first place was due to how useful it could be on the battlefield. While he preferred not using it, his supply caravan always had a single cart full of toxic materials. This ranged from hallucinogenic toxins to pots upon pots of belladonna extracts. Even so, the number of times Rickert had actually deployed poison in battle could still be counted on one hand.

    A few seconds passed at the banquet before the food tasters were ready to taste the wine. One by one they drank from the different barrels until suddenly one of the food tasters choked.

    The whole ballroom was instantly in an uproar. "Poison! He''s been poisoned!" Various nobles cried out, jumping up from their seats and backing away, dropping their cups of wine in the process. The ballroom instantly was a mess as wine was spilled all over the tables, dying the cutlery and plates a deep red.

    "Quick! Leave! The food is not safe!" One noble said to his wife. Both quickly got up and prepared to leave.

    Seeing one noble getting up and ready to leave, many decided to follow suit and panic quickly broke out.

    "Wait! Wait!" The food taster in question urgently exclaimed while heavily coughing and wheezing. "I just choked on the wine, nothing is wrong!"

    Hearing the food taster shout, the ballroom quieted down. Only after an awkward silence of a minute, did the nobles who had reacted hastily return to their seats, their faces flushed red due to embarrassment.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    "I am so sorry for scaring all of you! My apologies! Please find it in your heart to forgive me!" The food taster responsible for the commotion cried out, apologizing profusely and only leaving the room after Rickert told the guards to escort him out.

    The spilled wine was quickly cleaned up and empty cups were refilled.

    Seeing that everyone was ready, Rickert raised his glass and said "To Jasmine!".

    "To Jasmine!" The nobles shouted in unison as they raised their glasses.

    The food was quickly brought thereafter and the nobles quickly filled their plates after the new batch of food tasters confirmed that nothing was out of the ordinary.

    They did not use a second batch of food tasters due to what happened previously but solely because once upon a time there was a baron who did not drink wine. To be able to easily get away with the murder, the poisoner had put the antidote in the wine and had spread the actual poison throughout the rest of the food. As such, even though everyone else had been poisoned, only the baron ended up dying.

    Ever since, no one dared to let everything be tasted by one and the same food taster and instead, multiple food tasters were now the norm.

    The rest of the meal passed in an orderly fashion and two hours passed swiftly.

    Near the end of the meal the children grew restless, unable to stay seated for too much longer. As the nobles would be staying and chatting for a while longer, the nobles agreed to let the children leave the table after a short deliberation.

    Of course, due to the encouragement of their parents, many of the young nobles ended up swarming Jasmine, with only a few other groups forming around the various sons or daughters of the marquises and similarly high ranked nobles.

    Soon after a few of the groups started playing games with each other, laughing happily as they did so. None of the kids dared to bully another noble, at least not as long as they were within the ballroom. While they were still children, none of them turned out to be simple, something Jasmine experienced first hand.

    While she had somewhat expected that the young nobles would have a certain level of intellect, she quickly realized that she had underestimated them, much to her surprise. However this was a very pleasant surprise as she had been rather afraid that the conversations would be boring.

    The young nobles quickly started to talk about the academy. After all, many had already been admitted to the academy and those that had not had at least started studying for the exams. At first they asked some probing questions to see how much Jasmine knew because even though they saw the badge with a single star adorned onto it, they did not fully believe it to be true. After all, Jasmine was only a seven year old girl and thus it was hard to believe that she really could enter the academy by her own right.

    However, the children quickly realized that Jasmine really had entered the academy by relying on her own strength and this caused them to feel a mix of emotions. Envy, astonishment, jealousy, disbelief and respect could be seen in their eyes. of course Jasmine made full use of this occasion to answer any and all questions the young nobles had. On top of that she also asked any and all questions she had herself, hoping to gain at least some answers from the young nobles.

    All in all, Jasmine was able to at least gain some standing with the young nobles. Still, the group surrounding her had instantly diminished by a fair amount the moment the young nobles figured out that she had in fact passed the exam on her own. A few of the ones who left formed their own little group, while others reported back to the sons and daughters of the various marquises.

    What Jasmine was left with were mainly the sons and daughters of lower ranked nobles, with one exception being Jacob, Rodrick and Selene''s fourteen year old son who had arrived half an hour after them. Jacob resembled his father in quite a few aspects. He was tall and his face was surprisingly similar to his father and he carried himself in a very similar matter. However there was one aspect of Jacob that was completely different from his father and that was his build. Jacob was muscular, much unlike his chubby father. Even though his clothes tried their best to hide this fact, the outlines of Jacob''s muscles could still be seen very clearly.

    Surprisingly, Jacob was not very popular with the other young nobles, something that struck Jasmine as rather weird. Jacob was tall, muscular and rather handsome, yet none of the other children paid any attention to him whatsoever. At first Jasmine did not pay attention to it, until she noticed that Jacob was not taking part in any of the conversations and just stood there as if he were a guard.

    This caused her to speculate on what was going on. She excused herself for a moment and ran over to Iris. "Iris, why are all the other nobles ignoring Jacob?" She quietly whispered in Iris''s ear.

    Iris looked at Jasmine with a questioning expression before realizing that Jacob had been part of her little ''circle'' ever since they left the table. She quietly replied, whispering so silently that Jasmine could only barely understand her. "Ah. Uh. How should I explain... The other nobles do not really like Jacob, because Jacob''s not really... all too smart? He has no chance at becoming a strategist so the other nobles avoid him."

    Jasmine''s face scrunched up and she replied a little angrily. "That''s unfair!"

    Patting Jasmine softly, Iris hushed her. "I know, Jasmine, I know. But you can be his friend then, can''t you?"

    Nodding and getting the hint, Jasmine ran back to her group and poked Jacob''s side. "So, Jacob! Why are you so strong?"

    Jacob was a little surprised at Jasmine''s sudden interest in his strength and it took him a little to reply. "Uhm. I-I am planning to become a general." He said with a mix of embarassment and pride in his voice.

    "A general... I see! No wonder you are so strong! Oh. OH! How about this, Jacob! When I become a strategist... you can be my general! hehe!" Jasmine said with an innocent smile on her face.

    Jacob pasted a polite smile on his face and said. "Sure, that would be nice."

    While he was not the smartest, Jacob still realized that Jasmine was saying this to draw him into the conversation and help him to build a better relationship with the other young nobles. At first he did not like her doing so, but after thinking about it for a few seconds he realized that it would not be such a bad thing to play along. Even if it was just a superficial promise now, it could still serve as a once upon a lifetime chance for Jacob to build a good friendship with Jasmine.

    "Great! It''s a promise then!" She winked with her tongue stuck out.

    Many of the surrounding children were taken aback at this promise and quite a few of them realized that in the future they should act a little more cordially towards Jacob.

    Some of the nobles overheard the children and they frowned as they lost themselves in their thoughts. No one could say what they were thinking but one thing was certain. After today, Jacob could no longer be disregarded. At least not by the nobles present.

    In the next few hours, Jasmine kept socializing with the young nobles surrounding her and at the end of the night she had been able to make befriended two other nobles who were already attending the academy. They were the twelve year old Nolan and Nelly, a pair of twins whose parents ruled over a small plot of land nearby. While merely children from what others might consider a lowly count, Jasmine had truly enjoyed talking to the two of them.

    As for the other nobles that she had socialized with, they were more like acquaintances than they were friends. After all, the younger ones were still too oblivious and many of the older ones already had their own agenda. Only Nelly, Nolan and Jacob had given her the feeling that their interest in her was pure and innocent.

    When they finally ended up arriving at their mansion that night, Rickert tucked Jasmine in and asked. "So, what did you think of today? Were you able to make some friends?"

    Jasmine yawned and had trouble keeping her eyes open. "I''m tired, tomorrow?"

    "All right we will talk about this tomorrow, good night Jasmine." Rickert mumbled as he ruffled Jasmine''s hair.

    "Nini." Jasmine mumbled, falling asleep almost instantly afterwards.

 Chapter 11: Legendary battle of the Tinan bridge!

    A couple of weeks later, in a private room on the second floor of the academy.

    "In the year 3298 of the Ashvahlen calendar, the Indolian empire sent out a fifty thousand strong army to conquer the Ambiox empire. General Odillion of the Ambiox kingdom quickly gathered his two thousand strong army and went to the three kilometer long Tinan bridge, sending out word that any civilian who would join his ranks would be given a bow and would be heavily rewarded for doing so. His plan was to stall the fifty thousand strong Indolian troops until support arrived." Nelly''s sweet voice rang through the room and Noland and Jasmine listened to her with rapt attention. Nelly had a gift as an orator and was a diligent student. Nolan on the other hand was lazy and always made his sister narrate whatever they were learning at that point.

    Currently, Nelly was narrating the legendary battle of the Tinan bridge, one of the most famous battles in the Ambiox kingdom. Even outside of the kingdom this battle was widely known. This battle dated back to before the Ambiox kingdom became the Ambiox empire and it was by many viewed as the pivotal point in the history of the empire.

    "Unexpectedly, the citizens were more than eager to join the army for this battle and reports state that more than 8000 civilians heeded the call. Most of the civilians ended up bringing their own longbows. This could be due to the popularity of archery in the Ambiox kingdom at the time, which was most likely a result of the successful defense by civilian bowmen in both the Vigil and Serva cities in the years 3253 and 3254 respectively."

    "The Indolian troops arrived on the third of July, a day after General Odillion. Their troops consisted out of twenty five thousand infantry troops, twenty thousand archers and five thousand cavalry. As per usual, the Indolians infantry consisted solely out of their famed scimitar and buckler wielding troops and their archers only carried flexible short bows. A combination which had granted them many victories on the battlefields over the years. The cavalry were similarly outfitted with a scimitar and a buckler."

    "With the buckler only offering a limiter amount of defense, the Indolians always suffered massive losses before a melee broke out. However, the buckler''s small size and low weight meant that their troops were more agile and it was this agility that became their biggest weapon during the melee."

    "As for the flexible short bows, their low weight similarly allowed the archers the ability to move around on the battle field. While their range was even shorter than the average short bow, the increased mobility allowed them to continuously harass and rain down death on their enemies."

    "With their high numbers as well as with their well known battle strength, the Indolian''s victory was thought to be a certainty. However General Odillion still brought his men and halted the Indolian''s advance. He stationed half his troops at the end of the bridge in a v shaped formation along with four thousand of the peasant longbow men. The rest of the troops were spread out along the nearby riverbanks."

    "A regiment of the Indolian''s famed infantry equipped with a buckler and scimitar along with half a regiment of their short bow men were sent out as a first probing attack. Once the Indolian infantry entered the range of the long bow men, they were instantly greeted with volley upon volley of arrows."

    "Due to heavily being out ranged, the Indolian archers found themselves being absolutely slaughtered before they were able to even fire a single arrow. Without any support from their archers, the infantry suffered major casualties before even entering the melee."

    "Blindly believing in their own strength and that they would crush the enemy upon entering the melee, the Indolian commanders did not order a retreat and instead commanded their troops to push forward. With a rain of arrows ceaselessly bringing death from above, none of the Indolian troops reached the other side of the bridge unharmed, which made them easy pickings for the kingdom''s infantry."Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

    "Moreover with the troops being in a v shape formation in front of the bridge and only twenty men being able to run across the bridge side by side, a bottleneck was soon created. Only after half an hour of their men being slaughtered did the Indolian commanders start to realize their foolishness. They ordered a hasty retreat, which resulted in many more of their troops being shot in the back or worse, trampled by their fellow countrymen."

    "It was only after they returned to the other side of the bridge that the Indolians realized how bad the situation had been. More than half of their infantry had died, along with about a third of their archers."

    "Seeing their troops return in a sorry state, morale dwindled among the Indolian troops. The ruthless general of the Indolian troops decided that he were to raise morale by ruthlessly massacring the defeated troops in front of his entire army. This decision however, caused his own army to revolt and it was the general that ended up being mercilessly slaughtered in front of the entire army."

    "With heavy casualties, low morale and a dead general, the Indolian commanders saw no other option than to retreat. After clearing the bridge and river of bodies, the total of dead Indolians numbered over eight thousand while the dead of the Ambiox empire''s troops did not even number over two hundred."

    Nelly let out a long sigh as she put down her book and stopped speaking. After drinking a few mouthfuls of water she sat down on the couch next to Jasmine and slumped back.

    Nolan and Jasmine both sat there and let the story sink in.

    "So there will be a question about this battle on the exam?" Jasmine asked after a while.

    "It is basically guaranteed! It is like, THE textbook example for why one should try to drag their opponent into a bottleneck battle and why one should avoid being drawn into a bottleneck at all costs! On top of that there are so many questionable decisions made by the Indolian general that there simply is no end of things you can learn from the battle."

    "Just think about it, what would have happened if the Indolians had let their cavalry advance by themselves? They would have arrived long before general Odillion''s troops would have. Without the bottle neck, general Odillion''s troops would have lost."

    "Plus, it is like a pivotal fight in the history of the kingdom. If this battle had been lost, the whole kingdom might have been lost! Then we would not have been citizens of the Ambiox empire but citizens of the Indolian empire. Moreover, after this victory we figured out how to deal with their troops. Afterwards, we were easily able to crush the Indolian empire in the consequent battles, which resulted in our kingdom conquering every last bit of their empire. Only after we took over all of their territory did our Ambiox kingdom become the Ambiox empire..."

    "There is a whole book dedicated to analyzing everything about this battle. While junior students will only have to answer superficial questions, the senior students, junior apprentices, etc I spoke to all said that the questions regarding this battle became increasingly harder. They all recommended me to do a light reading of the analysis as it would prove to be very helpful for the exam."

    "Right, right, so you will read the analysis for us next?" Nolan lazily remarked, slumping back even more, only the back of his head still leaning against the back of the couch.

    Nelly rolled her eyes and sighed. She could not really say no to her twin brother, but she never really liked his laziness. Nolan was far, far smarter than her, yet all he cared for was being lazy. If things took effort he just would not do them. Hell, he would not even have bothered to pass the exam if it were not for their father''s stern warning that Nolan would be sent to the army if he did not pass.

    "I think I will read the analysis on my own." Jasmine muttered. "But I would like to discuss it with the two of you another time!"

    "Oh, okay..." Nelly started. "Well, just let either of us know when you are done with the analysis!"

    "Will do!" Jasmine hopped of the couch and ran out of the room.

    --

    Meanwhile Rickert was reading a report in his study. Finishing the report he crumbled the paper and slammed his fist on the table. "Damnit! Guards!"

    The door to his study opened and the captain of the guards walked inside. "Yes sir?"

    "Prepare the fifth legion''s horse archers and berserker''s. We will march out at dawn!" Rickert yelled, his voice thick with fury.

    Noticing that it was not a good time to ask questions, the captain of the guard saluted and yelled. "YES SIR!"

    "Dismissed!" Rickert quickly replied.

    After the guard left, Rickert walked to the small war table in his study and gazed at the map. "Liana... why would they attack Liana of all places?"