I was staring at the paper in front of me. Yes, they have paper here. I think it's made out of old fabrics and no it's not that expensive. The kingdom always has nice weather with occasional rainy seasons that are never too long. As long as you don't mismanage your land you'll always be fed and many farmers grow flax-like plants as a side business. Most trades consist of fabric, technology or exotic materials. No noble house imports food because that's seen as a sign of weakness.

Back to the paper. In my hands I was holding a two page gossipaper. It started as a way to deliver information to the most reclusive sages. To try and force them to participate in the community. Obviously the academy has a deep seated culture of skepticism. No sage would actually trust what he read on a stone tablet that somebody else wrote, let alone something that's written on a tearable material. Stone tablets have a standardized thickness and most theses are published on them. However, younger students who want to familiarize themselves with a thesis go to a library where they read wooden encyclopedias. They are lighter and take up less space. Yes, it's possible to file and rewrite pages which is why most libraries only house engraved albums, filled with tablet replicas.

The gossipaper was very successful in dragging reclusive scholars into petty disagreements. It often included obviously false or badly defined statements on purpose just to force people into engagements. It was then promptly banned by the council of sages for damaging the quality of academic discourse.

However, a decade later it was reinvented. But this time its purpose was cataloging the whereabouts and doings of important scholars. Kind of like a telephone directory for important people. It was once again attacked but it survived because it became an important facilitator of transactions and the ownership was later transferred to the council.

And now I find my own name printed on it.

"Low category combat redefined?"

I looked to the side and noticed James glaring at me.

He gave me that "main character glare" and spat at me: "Are you proud of what you've done?"

James, James, James… You'll never understand that it's not a matter of pride but a matter of survival. She was weak, too weak. And the weak should not compete with the strong.

Those were my thoughts but my words were: "James, you can't blame me over a duel she consented to."

"You're right. I like her too much and when I saw you I was overcome by passion. She was sent home, you know. Back to the countryside. I won't see her for a long time."

After a short pause he continued: "I know you don't gain anything from seriously wounding her, so I think we should reintroduce ourselves."

He handed out his fist: "I am James."

I bumped his fist with mine in all seriousness: "Ren."

Well, his name isn't really James. Etymologically it's based on the character for "protector." It's even spelled similarly and when writing you use either the character for "protector" or for "shield" and you add a crown to the top as a signifier of personality.

"James" is my translated and adapted version. I could just call him "Sikh An" but I bet that would be confusing.

"So how reliable is this new invention of yours? Does it really change warfare? It looks kind of similar to a rifle."

"It's essentially a slave rifle. It can be crafted with a farmer's daily income. But it can only ever have an impact on lower stratum warfare. As reliable as it is, it's purely mechanical and is superseded by the most basic of tourmaline rifles."

"So you'll market it as a pest control tool?"

"Most likely yes. Or I'll sell the design to a sage in exchange for a mentorship."

"You were thinking this far ahead!" James almost shouted.

Well, yes I did use your girlfriend as a marketing doll but what did you expect? That I'll pass on the opportunity to promote myself? The academy is an intellectual market. The brightest minds win. I am not smart so I have to use other strategies.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Not to mention…

"Can you guys shut up? The lecture is about to start."

A girl from the row behind us interrupted.

The auditorium we were located in was in a hexagon shape with multiple rows of seats that ascended as you moved outward toward the walls branded with hundreds of stained glassy blocks.

A spiral rainbow illuminated every row but the middle. The center contained a raised podium and above it many glass screens. They worked as slide projectors. Above them was a long chimney that used a combination of mirrors to create a bright stream of light, illuminating the slide that would be telekinetically inserted into the contraption.

The result was six TV-like displays pointed in every direction. On them was displayed the title of the first and only mandatory lecture I was going to attend at Polygon, Sumeria.

An apprentice went around and handed us standard-thickness stone tablets with the contents of the lecture written on them.

Just like in the gossipaper that I didn't get the chance to read, the content was written with Akkadian characters neatly arranged in a spiral. In the middle of the tablet was the title of the piece: "Choosing your academic path." Then around the title, like a tiny snake, were arranged hundreds of characters. To read it you would follow the spiral, sometimes reading from left to right and sometimes upwards. The direction wasn't important. Just the spiral. You would follow the "snake of meaning" till you arrived at the edge of the stone tablet at which point the snake would bite its own tail, metaphorically. There are no dots to delineate where sentences end. That's because the ending is self-evident when you read the text out loud. It would be hard to explain without getting into the phonetics of the language. Essentially, you're singing a song when you read. That's the easiest way to explain it.

However, no one was reading right now. They were all staring with glee at the person that had just arrived on stage. An old white haired man with a blue mortarboard hat. The golden tassel shone in the sunlight as the man ascended the podium. The auditorium was filled with pin-drop silence. The only source of noise was the beeping ball of brass that floated behind the sage. Multiple vials with neon green liquid were attached to it and it was sprinkled with what looked like service lights. It reminded me of a robot from a sci-fi show. Below the automaton were suspended glass slides for the natural-light projector located above the podium.

This was a grand sage!

He had a long white beard and a thin monocle, he carried himself with absolute confidence despite his apparent old age. Wearing a blue hat, engraved with a smiling dragon...

The character for wisdom looks like a smiley face, so the engraving on the hat must be a poetic "play on characters."

A grand sage was a rank above the normal sages, well versed in many academic pursuits but that was not the requirement for becoming one. The requirement for becoming a grand sage was the creation of your own field of thought supported both empirically and philosophically by your own theses that have been validated by the community. The rank of a grand sage meant that you had to address him as the Wise.

"Sage Lecter the Wise" was the first slide that was displayed to us. The milky white slate simply floated off of the stand below the brassy automaton and flew into the projector. Such profound control over magic! I could barely suspend a small coin midair.

"Today begins your academic path! Today is the most important choice of your life. Because today you will choose your mentor and become his apprentice until the day you ascend to the rank of sage yourself."

I blinked my eyes at his well played theatrics. This old man was a natural speaker. He could move the masses with a single word.

The slide changed with a click.

"The study of magic is a hard, bumpy road, filled with surprises and roadblocks. The first theory of magic that seeked to explain it all was created by Tesla Of Akkad. The first supreme sage that took control of the kingdom after the Millennial King vanished. His theory is called the Theory Of Mana and it seeks to explain magic as a consequence of a type of energy. After him was Holius Of Akkad who invented the Clergical Theory where magic is a phenomenon of liturgical worship. What came after was an unprecedented revolution with hundreds of theses being published. A true academic explosion! Among these the most popular was Spirit Communion Theory developed by Nekros Of Akkad."

The slide changed to a spiral diagram of every field of thought.

"I myself invented the Poisonous Mana theory and now run a small workshop in the northern part of the city. In my younger days I dabbled with the Atomistic Theory before disproving it and moving onto Mana Theory where I studied with Tesla's contemporaries. I then split off into my own field on the basis of the inconsistent results of "controlled inhalation studies" that you can read about in the Mana Library section "L."

The three biggest fields glowed bright above the auditorium. Mana, Clergy and Spirits.

You will have a week to study the different fields yourself and take interviews offered by different sages."

The grand sage spread his hands in a pompous way.

"Your academic path begins at this very moment. Take charge and follow the Akkadian way!"

The entire auditorium saluted by standing up, straightening their backs, and hitting themselves on the chest twice.

"For Akkad!"