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Honor, glory, and prestige. Such ephemeral and intangible concepts, yet, it has great effects in this society. Those with great potential get showered in money and power, in the hopes that their investment grows and brings them higher.

But it is not just a tool for growth, in some way, it is also protection from those who would aim to do me and my loved ones harm, and god knows I have made enough enemies already.

So, in order to get honor, glory, and prestige, I need to put myself out there and show that I am worthy of it, and all that comes with it, good or bad. That means I will need to show off at this tournament, the question is, which one?

Entering the Combat Event is a no-brainer, which means I will be entering the Swordsmanship Duels and the Melee Battles, but I do not know if I should go solo or group up with others in my class for the Melee Battles, I have not really teamed up with anyone in my class before, so I think I will try to go at it solo.

As for the Jousting and Archery parts of the Combat events, I think I would sit them out, besides riding around with Dad while following him around the territory, I have yet to try out mounted combat. As for Archery, I can confidently say I have shot a bow less than twenty times in both my lives combined, so I could hardly count myself as competition-worthy in that field.

As for the other events I want to take part in, that would be all of the Magic, and Mixed/Specialized Events, those fall well within my wheelhouse. I was tempted to also try my hand at the Artisan Events, but unfortunately, the time overlaps with the Combat Events and is at a different location.

“Those who want to take part in the events can come up and get a form to fill out, please hand in the form to me by the end of the week. No late hand-ins accepted.” Professor Fairfax said and soon continued with class.

After class, I went up to grab a form and filled it in while Professor Fairfax was still at his desk doing some marking. I put myself down for Swordsmanship Duels, Melee Battles, Spellcasting Duels, Enchantment Competition, Illusion Contest, Elemental Control, Array Competition, Battle Mage Trials, and Monster Hunts. When I handed it to him, Professor Fairfax raised an eyebrow while reading my form.

He then put down the form and looked at me, “Luke, while I do not doubt your abilities as being the best among this cohort, are you sure you want to take part in so many events? You applied for nine competitions, and even though they may be spread over the course of a few days, it would be a tiring process, are you sure about this?”

I just nodded and answered, “Yes professor, I understand the difficulty of what I will be undertaking.”

The professor, stared at me for a while, before sighing, “I hope you know what you are doing. Take care of yourself and make sure you get proper rest between events.” he then signed the bottom of my form and stamped it before filing it away.

After that, he waved me off to my next class.

***

After school, I went to meet up with Dave and Sam to head out into town to try out a new bakery that opened recently, when I arrived at our usual meeting spot, I saw the both of them talking animatedly with big smiles on their faces while each of them had letters in their hands.

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“Hey guys, what is all the excitement about?” I asked as I joined them.

Dave turned to me, “You remember all that gold we got from selling those uncut gems?” after I nodded, he continued, “Well, we each sent home all but one gold, and our families used that money to get a few things.” Dave said while passing his letter to me, and so did Sam.

In the letters, which were from their parents, was an account of what they did with the gold the boys sent their way, the first thing they did was buy more land. With the new land, Dave’s family, who had more arable flat land in their direction, started planting cash crops and other types of grain crops, his father eventually realized that he bought and seeded more land than his own family could farm, so he had to hire some neighbors as farm hands, but fortunately, they still had some leftover money to pay the farm hands until harvest time.

As for Sam’s family, they had more hills and a small lake in their direction, so instead of the usual farming, they went in the direction of livestock farming. While the land they bought was not as big as Dave’s family, they spent the rest of their money to get some livestock. Cows, sheep, chickens, and even ducks for the small lake they bought in their property expansion.

The amount of land purchased did not leave Sam’s family with much gold to purchase a large quantity of livestock, so they had to wait a year or two for the livestock to reproduce before they could get any serious money out of selling their meat, and even then, it would only be the ducks and chicken that will be eaten until the cows and sheep population gets big enough, for now, they were depending on their by-products like wool, milk, and eggs to generate some cash flow, but if all else fails, they still had crops on their old plot of land to feed them.

“Wow, that's some big changes going on back home.” I exclaimed when I was done with the letters.

“Yeah, give it a few more years, and our families will most likely have enough to renovate our homes. And it's all thanks to you for pinching those gems. Thanks again, Luke. You will always be welcome in my home, and I am sure Sam would say the same.” said Dave, and Sam nodded in agreement.

“In fact, why don’t you drop by our village on your way home during the end-of-year break, it's on the way to your home, isn’t it?” Sam proposed.

“I should be ok with it, was planning to go home by stagecoach, but since I deposited those uncut gems under my family’s name, I don’t feel so guilty about splurging a little, how about I book a private fast carriage to your village at the end of the year? It will shave a few days off the journey.” I offered, to which the boys happily agreed.

All this talk of letters and home makes me feel a little homesick as I think of all the letters I have been corresponding with my people back home.

From what they write to me, Mum and Dad seem to be doing fine despite the shitstorm my attempted kidnapping caused, Grandma wrote that the moment they got the news of my attempted kidnapping, Grandpa had to stop Dad from rounding up his men and riding hard to the capital to terrorize the local underworld for answers and some heads. As for Mum, Grandma said she had to stop her from doing something drastic and refused to elaborate further.

As for my siblings, they are behaving more like children their age than I have ever been, instead of reading and practicing magic all day, Charlotte and Cedric are happy to play all day and get grumpy when they have to learn their numbers and letters, as most kids do, but despite their grumpiness at needing to learn their letters, they make an effort to put their letters to use, as along with the usual correspondence with my parents and grandparents, I would also get letters from Charlotte and Cedric with their still messy handwriting, but I appreciate it none the less.

And last but not least, I also get letters from my childhood friend and personal maid in training, Emma. From what Emma writes me, and what Mum says in her letters, Emma has been busy studying so she can join me at the Royal Academy on scholarship, and besides her studies, she has also been taken under the wing of the head maid to teach her etiquette. Besides that, she also writes about playing with my siblings and going into town with them.

I can't wait to go home and see everyone again.