Two days later, Derek was standing in front of his mother’s mansion bidding his mother goodbye. He had his equipment packed in his storage pouch and assorted goods in his backpack. His mother was mounting a carriage with Alicia and her mother. His grandmother, Rebekah, was also waiting to board that carriage. Ovid was already mounted on a bay stallion.

The armsman looked at Derek, “I must watch over your mother on her trip, so I cannot join you on this campaign. Do not concern yourself too much. There will be experts from the Academy with you, but try not to rely on them. This campaign is for you to temper yourself, not learn to rely on others.”

Derek nodded, “I know master. I will do my best.”

Seeing the passengers had mounted the carriage, Derek approached it. His mother reached out her hand to touch his head, “Son, your column will pass through Telis in a month. I will see you then. Take care of yourself.”

Smiling, Derek reached up and held her hand for a moment, “I will, you take care of yourself as well. I really don’t have a good feeling about those people from Elnon. Don’t let your guard down near them.”

She smiled, “I understand your concern, Derek. Do not let it bother you too much, one of the Academy’s Ancestors is coming with us and the princeling’s retinue will only be released when his family sends over their ransom. They should not be quick to lose more after how badly they have been gouged this time.”

Derek nodded and said goodbye to her and the others in the coach again before stepping back. Surrounded by Telis and Windreach guardsmen, the line of carriages left for the north. Derek watched them go before turning to his grandfather. The man smiled at him, “Well, now it’s your turn boy. Be decisive about it, lingering only makes parting harder.”

Smiling at the old smith, Derek responded, “You sure you don’t want to come with us?”

The old man had a wistful look in his eye before shaking his head, “No, boy, I will stay here. I feel like I am close to breaking through with my forging again so I will spend the summer here working on some things. Quite a few of the Association’s smiths are joining the Crusading forces so I suppose I can help out with the Association as well.”

Shrugging his shoulders, Derek turned to walk away, “Well, if that’s the case, then I should go down to the mustering grounds then. See you in a few months grandfather.”

The old man laughed, “That’s the spirit boy. Have a grand adventure this summer.”

Derek waved back to his grandfather before turning down the avenue towards the gates to the outer city. He mused that he had learned some odd things along with blacksmithing from that old man. This walking away with decisiveness, he supposed was one of those things the old man considered something ‘cool’ people would do.

Smiling, Derek made his way across the Academy and was joined by a few of his older classmates. Seeing that they were all headed in the same direction, they walked together. As they went more students joined them. After a while Derek saw and greeted Tristan. Tristan smiled when he saw him, “Derek, good to see you. I hear Garrett’s coming too. He’s at his parent’s place now. We should see him when we arrive at the mustering fields.”

Derek nodded, “That’s good, joining this campaign should help him with the essence he needs to regain his strength.”

“Regain, you say? He’s already almost as strong as before his reset, but I get what you mean. The essence will be necessary if he wants to get back to tier one. Personally, I am hoping to get firmly into tier three this summer.”

Looking out of the gates as he passed through them, leaving the Academy grounds and entering the outer city, Derek smiled, “I think we can both expect tier three from this and if we are lucky tier four. From what I heard from the people at the Cathedral, they expect this campaign to be rather tough. We should definitely expect some sharp engagements.”

One of the other students who had been walking nearby, a gregarious fourth year named Bruno overheard them and interjected, “Do you really think they will let us participate in the thick of it or do you think they will shield us since many of our force will be students?”

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Tristan glanced at him before looking at their group. Derek could see him analysing their group with a trained eye. Tristan wasn’t the Crown Prince of his country for no reason. Derek heard that he had scored quite well in the state craft and war craft classes he had taken this year. It seemed beyond his talents as a mage, the young man had been trained from birth as a leader for his country.

After analysing the students and thinking of the total number that would be joining their company, Tristan finally spoke up, “Bruno, students or not, all of us going are at least tier two. I mean, Garrett’s a bit of a freak, but in any other free company, tier twos would be cavalry troop leaders, or infantry platoon leaders at the minimum. Some less fortunate ones would have the tier twos as hundred man leaders and squadron commanders.

“As for our Company? Fully half of us will be tier two. The supporting troops will all be elite armsmen of Windreach tasked with protecting us. There are likely to even be some experts hidden among them to ensure our safety. I wouldn’t be surprised if somewhere in our baggage train, they hid an Ancestor just in case some disaster may happen. The odds are that the people in the baggage train will be the best professionals the school can provide, including healers and blacksmiths.

“No, with how powerful our force is likely to be, I doubt we can expect to be shielded on this campaign. I would expect us to be put on the front line first thing. We can expect many opportunities to hone our skills and improve ourselves during this campaign because of it.”

Derek nodded in agreement. Watching Bruno and the other students, they seemed thrilled by it as well. As Derek was about to resume talking with Tristan, he heard an amused voice from behind them, “Oh, it seems our junior knows his stuff, Xavier. He looks to have clear eyes and an analytical mind. It’s a good thing at least one of us has those traits.”

Derek turned to see another group merging into theirs from a side street. These were older students and they were led by Marcus and Xavier. Xavier turned to the battlemage and responded, “Yeah, well I have an excuse. As a martial warrior I am expected to lead from the front. You are a mage, yet you are always at the front as well. Shouldn’t you be more like this younger classman?”

Laughing, Marcus waved it off, “I could, but that would be boring. I much prefer to contest on the front lines.”

Derek smiled at the two. He had gotten a chance to meet them both. He had fought Marcus in the competition, but Xavier he only got to meet during the awards ceremony. He was particularly grateful to his older classmate for saving him from that assassin. “Marcus, Xavier, it is good to see you. This is Prince Tristan Brennon of Dewnens. Tristan, these are Marcus Riley and Xavier Cortez. I am sure you know who they are.”

Tristan nodded to the two of them, “Call me Tristan. I was impressed with both of your performances during the competition. I hope we can work well together this summer.”

The other two laughed and exchanged pleasantries as well. The group continued to make its way through the city, gaining a few students here and there and even some of the Windreach armsmen joined their group on the way. After a while they came to the north gate and stepped through. On the plain north of the city, there were several encampments already set up.

Several had the flags of the Church, representing forces gathered by the Church for this campaign. A few belonged to neighboring lords. Even more common were the encampments of Free Companies that had been paid to fight in this campaign.

Nearer to the city were several encampments with the banners of house Windreach and the city. The majority appeared to be the official forces of the city, while one nestled near the center of the group had the flag of the Academy itself.

The group that had been growing like a snowball rolling downhill made its way to that encampment. As they arrived they saw a clerk sitting at a desk near the entrance to the encampment. Being well trained by the school, the students formed a line while the armsmen broke off to join their units or to create another line in front of that desk.

After a while, Derek made it to the front of the line. The clerk looked up disinterestedly, “Name?”

Derek went to respond, “Derek Thorne, I am to join…”

The clerk glanced down and marked him off on a sheet, “Don’t care, head to the big tent in the middle of the encampment, move along.”

Stepping into the camp, Derek waited for Tristan who apparently was to go to the big tent as well. Marcus and Xavier both went other directions. The two youths made their way to the striped tent that took up the middle of this encampment. When they arrived, they were barred by the guards until summoned inside.

Ducking his head into the tent once he had been summoned, Derek was pleased to see Captain Drake standing there. The man smiled at the two youths, “It is good to see you both have arrived. I have requested both of you to join my staff once I saw that you were coming. Derek, I will have you serve as my Adjutant during this campaign. Tristan, we will make use of your Dewnens’ famed art of war as my strategy advisor. Please make yourselves comfortable. The other officers will be joining us soon.”

Derek was thrilled, he thought at best that he would be a messenger when he was assigned to the command unit, but to be an adjutant would give him a great opportunity to learn on this campaign.