The seventh day, was the day of rest, despite being in another world some things were still oddly the same, such as a week length or season duration or some traditions, while Ethan’s fathers went out to the fields to do some necessary chores for the farm, I initiated plan find a way to escape farm life.
“Mum I’m going into the village,” He said to his mum, hoping she wouldn’t question him too much.
“Really? Well, have fun!” Samantha excitedly proclaimed, happy that her child was going out to have fun instead of staying indoors.
Sensing the misunderstanding, but doing nothing to correct it Ethan darted out of the house.
Running to the village, it came into sight within a minute, cobblestone houses with wood and thatched roofs, trees lining the road and people in cotton brown and white clothes similar to his own, happily chatting as they mingled about.
Well time to find a job that’s much less work than farming.
~~~
Everything sucked.
From blacksmithing to sheep handling, to cloth-making, every job looked tedious and long.
Although that should be expected, this was a small sustainable village that barely had any outside contact except for tax season, the only job that looked kind of reasonable, was guard duty with the small-town garrison, and that job was 95% standing around doing nothing, better than farming, but he’d be right back to boredom.
Thus, here he was now, sitting and watching two old men play some board game that reminded him of chess, having given up from finding a good career for today and tired from talking to so many people about their jobs.
It looked like chess however the bishop was replaced by some magician piece that could take pieces with moving and every other piece had some unique function to it as well, truly it was a head-spinning game to those who had only played chess before.
“Kingsmate! Hah, I’ll be taking that jug of beer you have now” one of the rowdy old men spoke, his long black and white pepper beard touching the board.
“Fine! Fine, I knew I should have never expected a game from you, you always somehow win, I’ll take that gold sometime though you mark my words!” The other bald man said, handing a jug towards the other and grumpily marching off.
“Hah, sore loser means more free beer for me,” the First man said, happily gulping down some of his winnings.
Well, seeing as the show was over, Ethan guessed it was time to head home, he really couldn’t muster the effort to talk to more people at this time.
“So kid, you want to learn the game and play some with me” the old man startled him with his question.
“really,” Ethan said, this was a better option than doing nothing at home.
“sure, I got nothing to do today, unless some more suckers appear” the old man spoke.
“Ok” Ethan spoke, walking up and sitting on the stump opposite the man across the board.
“Good, so what’s your name kid?” said the old man, setting up the pieces back into position again
“Ethan, what’s your name old man?” kind of annoyed at the usage of the word kid, even if it was appropriate, he mused
“Oliver, just call me Oli like everyone else though” spoke Oli, finishing the board setup.
“Right here are the rules listen closely” spoke Oli, carefully beginning to explain the rules of a game similar but also vastly different to chess.
~~~
“what’s the name of this game?” Ethan question beginning the third game between them, it had taken a good half an hour to understand the rules and he lost the past two games, but he was starting to get into the groove of it, his past life experience with chess shining through
“Huh, I didn’t say it? It’s called Magess” the old man said, eyes not moving from the board with furrowed eyebrows.
This man must hate to lose, he’s taking it so seriously against a kid, Ethan mused. Enjoying himself at finally finding something to do in this world.
The game continued, far more even than the previous game, and while Ethan had managed to gain some skill in the game, Oli’s vast amounts of more experience had him winning again, although with more difficulty than before.
“You know kid,” Oli said setting the board for the fourth game “your pretty smart, you managed to get this good at Magess within only a few games, makes me wonder if you’d be smart enough to get into the academy” Oli mused setting his first piece forward.
“Academy?” Ethan questioned back, nonplussed at the random topic, Setting forth his piece
“Yeah, there’s this school in the capital for nobles to learn noble stuff and magic when they turn 12, the thing is the previous kind 15 or so years ago, set up a national scholarship that allows 1 non-noble from each fief to be enrolled in the school. Of course, the standards you have to meet are far more than the average kid from a small village like this would meet, and so usually its always some rich merchants’ son that manages to get in, although I heard that the chief’s son from the neighbouring village got in a couple of years ago” he mused, not keeping his eyes off the board as he moved his next piece.
“….”
“Ethan? Are you going to move or what?” Oli spoke questioningly looking up from the board to see the boy frozen there
An academy of magic? An academy, academy, education? Which means… more job prospects, which means… GOODBYE FARMING.
Darting up, Ethan slammed his hands upon the board and leaned over to Oli, peering up at his startled eyes.
“Tell me everything you know about this academy!” Ethan demanded
After apologizing for being rude and knocking pieces to the ground, Ethan had managed to get several pieces of information out of the man, first of all, the academy scholarship tests were held in the eastern fief’s capital of Morrow, south of Shortbeck by about a week, 2nd he had 6 years to prepare for said exams and thirdly someone had attempted said exams about 4 years ago in the village, but failed and now was the junior bookkeeper for the chief.
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And thus, was Ethan’s destination set, or it would be if it wasn’t growing dark, and he had to go home, the quest to obtain details of the exam would have to wait for tomorrow Ethan decided, walking back to his home, his stomach craving food from a lack of lunch.
~~~
It was the next day in the afternoon when Ethan trudged up the biggest building in the village, the Chief’s residence.
He would have come earlier but sadly it was not the seventh-day bur the first day of the week, and he had been once again ploughing and seeding the fields under his father’s proud gaze, god Ethan wished he could punch it off.
The building of the chiefs was a two-story long wood residence, having none of the typical cobblestones like so many of the other houses of the village, truly those at the top had the best in life.
Knocking on the door Ethan waited to start to wonder if it was appropriate to just approach the chief of the village, although he was too tired to care at this point.
“Yes, who is it?” spoke the man who opened the door, he was lanky and thin with short brown hair and Ethan really couldn’t care about the rest of his appearance
“I’m Ethan, I’m looking for the junior bookkeeper,” Ethan said
“Oh, you’re looking for Henry? I’m not sure why you’re looking for him, but he just got done for today so I’ll get him for you” the lanky man said, retreating into the house.
Ethan waited patiently, until eventually, the sound of footsteps returned, and outside stepped a short youth of around 16, with straw-coloured hair and an upturned nose.
“Can I help you?” questioned the teen, looking confused at the kid before him.
“I wanted to ask you questions about the academy exam” Ethan quickly said, eager about obtaining more information.
Henry winced, reminded of painful memories, “look I’d rather not think about that kid” Henry spoke, hesitancy evident within his voice.
“Please, I need all the information I can get If I hope to pass,” Ethan said, deciding to play up the innocent kid act with puppy eyes, there were some advantages to being so small and cute.
“…Fine, come in and I’ll tell you what I can.” Henry sighed, moving back in.
Ethan quickly followed his lead, down past the first hallway and into a room on the right, the room had several shelves of books and folders holding parchment work with writing scribbled down here and there all over the room.
“Oh, what did the kid want?” said the lanky man from before. Sitting at one of two desks within the room and writing something down.
“He wants to know about the academy exam” explained Henry, sitting down at his desk and facing Ethan.
“You were quite the bright kid and you didn’t stand a chance, and this boy wants to attempt it?” the lanky man said, peering over his desk to look curiously at the child”
“Yeah, yeah, I’ll let him know how hard it is, and then see if he wants to try for the exam,” Henry said.
“What’s your name kid?” said the lanky man
“Ethan” Ethan replied impatiently, waiting for the exam information.
“Ah Samantha and Tom’s kid, there were mutterings that you were a strange child a couple of years ago. Ah where are my manners, I am Gerald, the bookkeeper for chief Hagar” spoke the now revealed to be Gerald
“Nice to meet you, Gerald, now can I know about the Exam please?” showing both manners and his impatience Ethan pressed for the information he desired.
“Yeah, yeah kid, ill tell ya” muttered Henry, exhibiting his reluctance.
“Ok so, there are few things to know about the exam, first of all, the knowledge required.” Said Henry, shifting to a lecturing tone quite naturally. Perhaps he had an aptitude for a teacher, Ethan thought
“Secondly magic talent, while not necessary to pass, you’ll have a much higher chance of doing so if you have even a moderate amount of talent, I failed partially because when they tested I had very little of it.” Said Henry, grumbly a little at the unfairness of it.
Ethan had to hope he had enough magic talent for the exam, he would hate it, to fail because of that part.
“Thirdly, physical ability, they test everyone to see how good they are in a fight, as a lot of graduates tend to become knights for the realm, considering most students are 2nd are 3rd children of noble houses, it makes sense,” Henry said.
At the very least the farm work Ethan had to go through will help.
“And finally, and arguably the most important, the entry fee,” Henry said
“…The what now?” Ethan spoke blandly, hoping he misheard Henry.
“The entry fee, it costs 1 gold to enter the exam, it takes a bit of work to carry out an exam that will only pass one student. Of course, they increase the price a bit, so most commoners like us don’t flood the exam, it makes sense after all most people can’t even read that well, you can’t expect them to expect much of us except for the rich among us, who can afford tutors and such for their children.” Spoke Henry, smile knowingly down at Ethan, seeing the thoughts running through his head.
1 gold, that was a price far out of an average commoner’s hands, to put in perspective that was the entire farms yearly profit margin, and most of that was spent on food, soap, clothes and other daily necessities, Ethan knew his only retained about 5-10 silver after all expenses, and Ethan knew his parents were saving it for something, because they kept hinting at him they were going to have a surprise for him, any kind of surprise will definitely cost more money, and even if they saved that 5-10 silver each year, they would only end up with a third to half of the exam admission cost, all in all, a hopeless case.
“My family can’t afford that!” Ethan Exclaimed panickily.
“Well, that’s too bad isn’t it” Henry spoke smiling brightly at the boy before him
‘I’m going to punch him’ Ethan spitefully said to himself, preparing to do just that before Gerald interrupted his thoughts.
“Now, now, that’s enough teasing Henry” Gerald spoke calmly with a smile on his face.
“Now before you panic anymore you should know, that if you work hard and pass the chiefs own test, any time before the exam, he’ll pay for the cost of not only the exam, but the transportation there and back, and you won’t have to pay him back either,” Gerald said.
“Seriously!” Ethan exclaimed, feeling as though light was shining down upon Gerald beckoning forth a grand proclamation.
“Yes, after all, if a known member of our village managed to enter, the Royal Academy, then it would bring good recognition to our village, and to the chief that means Extensive bragging rights to the nearby chiefs, although don’t tell him I told you that” Gerald winked mischievously.
“Then ill pass that test and then pass the exam selection” Ethan proclaimed, happy to have found that his path was viable
“Then ill hold my expectations for you high” spoke a new deep voice
Spinning around, Ethan nearly tumbled back the bear of the man who towered above him, seeming to be made of muscle and hair, Ethan couldn’t help but wonder how the man had snuck up on him with such a huge build.
“Ah Chief Hagar, this is young Ethan, who was enquiring about the academy Exam” spoke Gerald.
Chief Hagar looked down upon Ethan past his rugged beard and spoke “if you want to pass my test, then I’ll give ya a few years to prepare for it, you can come here and grab whatever book to study or pick Gerald’s brain if he’s not working. That’s the most amount of knowledge you can get in this Village, Henry will also help tell you what’s on the exam, you’ll also have to go to the guard force, and ask for training, that’s on you to prove yourself though, If you slack off, I won’t let you get any more freebies, so work hard if you want to pass kid.”
With that, the man turned around and walked away silently.
“You’ll have to get used to the Chief’s abrupt manner, he’ll show up, only say what’s needed and then leave without a look back,” Gerald said.
He didn’t mind, he finally had both a way out of farming, but the means to do so, it might be a lot of work, but anything was better than getting back at those fields and mindlessly ploughing away.
“Oh yeah, one last thing, you’ll have to get your parents’ permission to come study here and take the exam,” Gerald said musingly.
…Ah, he knew he was forgetting something.