Morgan bolted out of his bed at the banging coming from his door. “What in the name of the gods?!” Startled, he only just recognized the voice on the other side of the door. Opening the door just enough to peek out he saw the grinning face of Marith dress not in the Academy uniform in the white and blues but the grey shorts and shirt he had worn for sword practise.

“Get dressed we need to start with the homework if we wanna make it in time today.” Marith said this and pushed passed Morgan into the small room before opening the window and letting in the chilly early autumn air.

“Close that!” Morgan pushed past Marith and to the window and shut ot as he shuddered in his underpants. “Why are you wearing that?” Morgan only now wondered why Marith was wearing workout clothing for a writing task.

“What are you talking about?” Marith asked confusedly as Morgan was quickly pulling on his Academy outfit. “We are going running. Of course I’m going to wear something easy to move about in.” Marith gave Morgan a puzzled look.

“Running?” Morgan froze in place shirt halfway on.

“Yes?” Marith gave Morgan a sceptical look. “You know the homework from adept Alina? You can’t have forgotten already?” Morgan wanted to scream that he was the last person he wanted to hear that from but swallowed his words.

“You only told me that I had to be able to run two laps around the Academy for that, you never said anything about how to achieve that. And what about your history assignment?” Morgan would have thought that to protect his manhood this would have the higher priority.

“We will do that later.” Marith’s voice shook slightly and Morgan fixed him with a glare.

“You forgot already?” Morgan asked doubtfully.

“Umm… no, no… I just thought that… umm that it’d be better to do Alina’s homework first so that you could recover before her class.” Marith’s stumbling word grew more confident as he spoke.

“You just thought of that. Didn’t you.” Morgan gave him a flat look.

“N-no…” Marith looked away. Exasperated Morgan wanted to argue but since it wasn’t a bad idea he decided to let it slide.

It wasn’t long after that he wished that he had insisted on finishing the history assignment. Panting and gritting his teeth Morgan slowly jogged after Marith who alternated between encouraging him and insulting him as he ran backwards in front of him. It was infuriating how effortlessly Marith kept ahead of him without even getting short of breath while running backwards, BACKWARDS!

“At this rate we will miss breakfast” Morgan was too out of breath to even respond, he could only grit his teeth and force his aching legs to keep moving. After what felt like an age but was slightly less than an hour Marith told Morgan to stop and Morgan collapsed on the spot. Sitting down next to the panting Morgan, Marith pulled out a sheet of paper from a small leather pack along with an enchanted quill, which would have been impressive to Morgan had he not been too tired to care or even notice.

“So what are the most important parts for my homework?” Morgan just stared at Marith, feeling both a bit impressed and irritated by Marith but he did his best to catch his breath and spoke.

“After… the… Death of.. Lissana the first…” Morgan took a deep breath. “Duke Astero claimed that Lissana’s heir, Mildra… was unfit to rule due to her young age.” Morgan took a few more deep breaths before continuing. “This sparked the conflict… that became the first succession war.” He took another deep breath and swallowed hard. “However unlike what was thought at the time, this was not due to a desire for the throne.” Rolling on to his back he continued. “Instead it was because of a deep mistrust of the first senator who would come to rule in all but name. The duke’s fear was that the first senator would usurp the throne.” Morgan rose to a sitting position rubbing his legs. “This became known as the Loyalist war and it ended when the duke managed to reach the princess and surrender his title and lands in a show of sincerity. He managed to convince the princess of his conviction and loyalty leading to the execution of the first senator.”

By this point Morgan looked over at Marith and noticed that his hand had stopped at some point and his eyes had glazed over. Morgan grabbed his head groaning.

“Let’s go to the library and I can show you the books you need…” Morgan said in a tired voice.

“Can’t do that.” Marith said firmly as he shook his head to clear it.

“What?” Morgan gave Marith a confused look.

“We haven’t finished your homework yet.” Morgan packed away his parchment and quill and smiled. “You still have halfway to go.” Morgan paled and sputtered. But before he managed a coherent objection Marith was already pushing him into a run. By the time Morgan stumbled into the bath he was barely able to stand anymore, yet he still been unable to finish a full lap around the Academy and Marith had been forced to half carry him to the bath.

When Morgan finally got to the cafeteria he was given lunch instead of breakfast. Luckily they were not serving Seacow instead it was omelette with a side of bacon. Morgan’s mouth watered and he was pleasantly surprised when he got an additional slice of bacon and a particularly large piece of omelette. He felt slightly embarrassed but today he smiled back at the serving lady. Unfortunately his face grew incredibly red when he heard Marith’s muffled laughter behind him. Marith did not laugh for very long however, as he got one piece of bacon less than Morgan and one those piece were almost burnt black. When Marith looked up at the plump serving lady he got an angry look and Marith quickly shuffled away sensing that arguing here would cost him dearly. So this time it was Morgan who chuckled and Marith’s turn to grumble.

“I didn’t have time for breakfast either…” Marith spoke in a low sad voice.

“Well…” Morgan laughed. “If you finish your homework I’ll buy you a second plate.” Morgan smiled. He had been given a modest allowance by his father that he thus far barely touched.

“Promise?” Morgan was startled by Marith’s serious voice. “Is he perhaps not stupid, simply not motivated?” Morgan wondered rather rudely and surprisingly Morgan, Marith pulled out paper and quill as he sat down and got ready to write with his right hand as his left hand started shoving food into his mouth. The contrast between Marith’s serious expression with the pen ready and his left arm’s frantic motion of stuffing his face was rather surreal. “At least he is motivated now.”

Morgan took his time eating and explaining the important details of the succession wars as he ate. It had however not taken long before Marith’s food had run out and his motivation dropped and his grumbling started. Morgan heard him say ‘I shouldn’t need to know this.’ and ‘why would anyone care about the Imperial idiosyncrasies.’ over and over again but he kept writing and stopped grumbling temporarily whenever Morgan mentioned the free food. Morgan learned that Marith was indeed not stupid. He might not be the brightest student but neither was Morgan so he did not particularly mind. When Morgan took a break and waited for Marith to catch up he looked over at Marith’s writing and saw a neat and tidy script that was rather unexpected from the rather rough around the edges foreigner.

“Why did you come to the Academy?” Morgan could not help but wonder aloud.

“Well the old man said that since most of our goods are sold to the empire I should go and learn your customs and make connections…” He looked out of the window before frowning back down at the paper. “And since brother is too much like mother he did not dare send him to the Academy much less as an official envoy of the company.” Marith gave a slight shudder at that.

Morgan’s eyes were wide. “What kind of person is his brother if his father doesn't dare send him off to the Academy?” Morgan did not even want to think of Marith’s mother. Mostly because he did not want to think of his own mother. By the time Morgan had finished his food and Marith had somehow managed to finish most of his homework Louie had not only joined them but he had even managed to finish his own lunch.

“You know the succession wars quite well, do you like history Morgan?” Louie had stopped reading his book and just listened to Morgan teaching Marith and had even asked a handful of questions himself.

“Well… not really, I just read a lot when I was young. Since I was a sickly kid I spent most of my time indoors reading fathers books…” He trailed off looking away.

“Oh? Did your father have a lot of books?” Louie asked surprised, books were not cheap and from what Louie had seen Morgan’s family could not be that wealthy.

“Not really, we only had a handful when I was little, but after I turned six Father would always give me a book on my birthday.” Morgan wore a happy smile. “Most of the time, the books were old and sometimes there were even some pages were missing.” A fond smile naturally formed on Morgan’s face. “But it was always a book I had never read.”

“I see.” Louie smiled a little at the happy expression on Morgan’s face. “What kind of books did you read besides history?” Having found a way to talk about something that was not his homework Marith asked eagerly.

“Any subject really, from tactics and logistics of warfare to bestiaries and magic theory.” He thought for a bit. “There was even a book on early Imperial poetry.” Morgan frowned. “That one wasn’t great…” He said scowling at the memory.

“That sounds nice.” Louie wondered if he had ever seen Morgan look so happy before. “By the way I didn't see either of you at Master Udrat’s class this morning.” Louie gave Marith a sharp look as he spoke. Marith simply looked down and focused on his homework pretending to not have heard Louie. Morgan just sighed at the question and spoke in an annoyed voice.

“Master Udrat never teaches anything.” Morgan’s uncharacteristically sharp criticism made the other two watch him with great interest. “He just ends up talking circles about then the most basic Imperial laws.” Morgan gave a dismissive wave of the hand. “Father always said: ‘A noble must know the law’ so I started to read the Imperial book of law when I was little…” Morgan sighed, not noticing the wide eyed stares the two were exchanging. “Thus I can say with certainty that Master Udrat is a terrible teacher. I would even have taken the basic law exam already had it not been for two silver Imperials and the ten extra law lectures that is required to do so early.” Morgan gave a forlorn sigh. “Hu… I will just have to take the regular winter exam in two months.” Morgan added more quietly. It was only when he had finished speaking and looked up that Morgan noted that the other two were silent and that they had stopped what they were doing completely. Looking at the two he saw the wide-eyed stares the two were giving him.

“Why are you looking at me that way?” Morgan asked, confused.

“You read the book of the law? As a child?” Louie was dumbstruck. The Imperial law book was considered difficult for scholars.

“… well I can’t say I was very successful in the beginning.” Morgan got a distant look as he remembered the day it started. He had been eight at the time and during a dinner with his family, Arthur had been whining about how needlessly difficult and how pointless it was to read the Imperial book of law. His whining had made Eretar go into a long anecdote as he often did, about how it was the responsibility of the nobility to uphold the Emperor's law and thus the nobility had to know the law well. As with most things his father said, Morgan had taken it to heart and the next day borrowed his father's old and battered copy of the Imperial law, much to the surprise of Eretar. The book was almost too heavy for the boy to carry and that was only the start of his problems. But by the time he was twelve Morgan had a good enough understanding of the law that his very surprised but pleased father had praised him and brought him to the town the next day to buy him a new book.

Recalling this fond memory which one of his happiest Morgan was so lost in his own little world, that he was utterly oblivious to the discussion that took place between Marith and Louie.

“Louie how well would you say you know the law? I mean you're a noble too right.” Marith lent in and asked Louie in a whisper.

“Not at all. I mean, my family was only ennobled two generations ago and that was a reward for rebuilding the frontier village where we come from. We don’t have a long history of Imperial service…” He glanced over to Morgan as he continued. “If he really knows the law he could probably become an arbiter or even a minister as soon as he graduates from the Academy. But well…” He raised his voice and faced Morgan. “Morgan, what is the result of a villager trampling another villager with his horse leading to the first villager's death?”

“Was it an accident?” Morgan asked and Louie nodded. “Then…” Morgan looked down in thought for a moment. “The villager will be fined and sentenced to do atonement which can be anything from financial compensation to the family, or being flogged, or even enslavement.” He nodded to himself and looked back at Louie.

“And if it is a noble?” Louie had heard from his father that the law supposedly did not change in accordance to the station of the offender.

“A noble as the charged or as the victim?”

“The charged… otherwise the village would just be executed right?”

“Well no. First of all, the villager sentence would be extended to his family as well.” Morgan sighed sadly and the others looked horrified. “So it is actually more common in those cases with enslavement…” Taking a breath before speaking again Morgan shook his head. “In the other case, the ruling would be identical… It’s just that no arbiter would ever sentence a noble to a flogging or slavery unless it happened in territory that is hostile to the charged noble’s family.”

“I-I see…” Louie said faltering as he imagined being enslaved due to his brother’s careless mistake. Reminding himself that he was a noble Louie shook himself to get the rather terrifying idea out of his head. Forcing his thoughts back on track he gave Morgan an appraising look. Since he did not know any better he assumed that Morgan was correct mostly because the rather timid Morgan spoke with a confidence he normally lacked. This was rather shocking to Louie. To think that a boy his age had at the very least partial mastery of the law, he had never heard of a fifteen year old that had done that. “Then again, the Empire is vast.” His internal monolog was interrupted as Marith roared. Louie who was looking at Morgan almost jumped out of his skin and Morgan seemed to freeze in place as if his soul had vacated his body.

“IM DONE!!!!!” Marith stood up fist clenched above his head the entire cafeteria staring at him.

“Uhh well done…” Morgan said with his hand on his chest trying to calm his racing heart after being well and truly startled. At the same time he tried to look small to avoid the annoyed and curious looks his table was getting after the Marith’s outburst.

“Food!” Marith held out his hand to Morgan with a grin.

“Fine but let me check your work.” Morgan took the papers from Marith and handed him 10 copper Imperials. As Marith strode off happily Morgan calmed himself by drinking some lukewarm water and took a look at Marith’s homework with the neat script “Well that’s about what I expected.” He said and shook his head. It was not great, a lot of the time he had just written exactly what Morgan had said and it showed an overall lack of understanding of the subject. “I guess this should be good enough.” He thought with a sigh and looked up at the returning Marith who was whistling happily.

“I forgot to ask before but why is the first war counted as a succession war? The duke did not attempt to usurp the throne and you did not mention any other heirs.” Marith said before inhaling a piece of bacon.

“Umm…” Morgan looked over at Louie who wore a complicated expression. “Well you see…” He took some time to think over what he was about to say. “The rebellion of a duke is sort of a huge thing, yeah?” Marith just blinked at him not understanding so Morgan continued. “So remember the outcome of the event: The duke was stripped of his rank and lands. Also a senator was executed.” He paused a bit. “If what we are told is true, why wasn't the duke’s power and lands not restored to him?” Morgan gave Marith a meaningful look. “In fact… Instead of having his birth right restored to him the duke was named an Imperial advisor and to this day the head of the duke’s family serve as landless advisors to the emperor. Yet as they hold no lands or titles beyond advisor to the Emperor, they are without any power of governance unlike the other advisors who all come from powerful families.” He paused leaning in conspiratorially. “One could even claim that the duke and now his heirs are kept as a hostage to ensure his family's compliance.”

“And as a reminder.” Louie added in a similarly conspiratorial tone as he made sure that he spoke with low enough volume that his voice would not carry. Marith looked shocked at the two before leaning in and speaking in a quiet hiss.

“Is it not bad to speak about this here?” His eyes roamed the cafeteria trying to see if anyone was eavesdropping. To his surprise Morgan snorted in amusement and gestured nonchalantly as he spoke with a smile.

“It is basically an open secret in the empire.” He paused laughing slightly. “Even if people don’t speak of it openly it is obvious that it doesn't bother the Imperial family. And besides…” But before Morgan could continue he was interrupted.

“It is atonement.” The timid voice of the girl almost made Morgan toss the glass of water he was holding.

The three looked startled at the girl that joined them for dinner last night, her timid voice and small stature was in stark contrast to her surprisingly firm words.

“It is public atonement for betraying the Imperial family.” She sat down with her tray and gave them a half-smile as she continued. “Duke Astero was my ancestor you see.” She said making Morgan and Louie gasp.

“I had no idea Mary-Ann!” Marith said shocked, only for Mary-Ann to shrug.

“Mary is fine. Mary-Ann is such a mouthful.” Oh, so she was called Mary-Ann Morgan though idly as he tried to recollect himself. Much to the three’s collective surprise Mary-Ann did not comment any further instead just started to eat her omelette.

“So yeah umm…” Morgan felt it was a bit hard to continue. “Soo umm, if you consider that…” He kept glancing furtively at Mary-Ann but she did not interject. “It is not strange that it is considered a succession war and this is also why it is stressed so much in education…” Morgan trailed off glancing at Mary-Ann.

Before the silence could last very long Marith the boy who ‘could’ read the room spoke.

“So what is it like?” Marith asked Mary-Ann enthusiastically.

“Umm… huh? What is it like?” Mary-Ann looked confused and a bit startled.

“Being an advisor to the emperor? Surely your family must have seen and heard all manner of interesting things while advising the Imperials!” Marith smiled.

Mary-Ann just blinked and then looked at the other two with an expression of utter disbelief. Morgan was mirroring her expression and Louie was burying his head in his hands. As the silence stretched Mary-Ann got a thoughtful expression as she slowly ate her food in tiny bites. The way she ate along with her rather bushy hair made her look almost squire like.

After some more time Mary-Ann stopped eating. Only at this point did Morgan realize that he had been staring at her, as there was something soothing about seeing her eat. Morgan looked away and did his best to will the blush away from his face. Luckily for Morgan Mary-Ann was looking at Marith not him.

“Well, grandfather sometimes speaks about the many dignitaries that visit the emperor.” She said in a thoughtful tone.

“That’s amazing!” Marith’s honest excitement made Mary-Ann laugh shyly.

At this Marith grinned and Morgan looked at Louie as he was unsure why Louie would heave such a heavy sigh but at his questioning gaze Louie just gave a tired wave.

“You all here already?” The exhausted voice of Ross reached the group soon followed by Ross himself and a bedraggled looking Rina.

“Wow you look like hell!” Marith said as he looked over the mud splashed and wet clothing and hair of the twins.

“You should see the others.” Rina said with a slight smirk before gingerly sitting down with a wince.

“You got into a fight or something?” Louie asked, surprised.

“No… it was just another of Mistress Cormora’s insane ‘training’ sessions.” Ross said tiredly before he also gave a smirk strikingly similar to his sisters. “We were among the four whom managed to complete it, one kid even wet himself.” He gave an amused snort. Morgan did not want to think about how poorly the others in Mistress Cormora’s class had fared since the twins looked so dishevelled after succeeding.

Morgan was wondering what they had been up to and was about to ask when he came to the starling realization that the students in the cafeteria were thinning out. Alarmed he looked over at the clock and yelped involuntarily making the group shift their attention to him.

“We are about to be late for noon class!” He almost yelled as he gathered up his stuff and stood. Well that was his intention.

However much to Morgan’s dismay his legs simply would not carry him. He had trained harder than he had in a very long time and then sat still for too long, so now his legs did not work properly. His embarrassing struggle did not go unnoticed for too long as Marith, Louie and Mary-Ann also quickly collected their stuff.

“What are you doing?” Louie asked confused. “Weren’t you the one that was upset about being late for class?” Morgan struggled to rise once more with an increasingly embarrassed and unnerved expression and it was only Marith that understood what was going on.

“You can’t stand can you?” He asked somewhere in between amusement and bewilderment. The expression on Morgan’s bright red face said it all and Marith sighed and collected Morgan’s tray before handing it and his own to a surprised Louie.

“I’ll lend you my shoulder. I'm sorta responsible anyway.” Marith pulled Morgan up and half dragged Morgan whose legs were trembling like those of a new-born lamb. “What class have you got?” Marith asked with a bit of amusement.

Somehow Morgan made it to class in time and by massaging his legs during the rather uninteresting class he was able to leave the room without help when the class was over. He felt incredibly embarrassed as a group of girls had been eyeing him and whispering constantly after he had entered the class with Marith half carrying him. So as soon a class ended Morgan trusted his instincts and left as quickly as he could. He had no idea what they were whispering about but he felt goose bumps as the girls watched him with those predatory eyes. He only breathed out a relieved sigh once he was out of their sight.

At this point Morgan recalled that his last class of the day was Adept Alina’s class and his heart fell. “I can barely walk…” He felt like crying but at least he had a few more hours to recover until then.