Today was strange, Will woke like normal, but instead of simply wearing his white Knight Academy uniform. He decided to also wear his white Mage Academy robe over top. The combination of both gave Will an eerie feeling after examining himself in the mirror. To Will, he looked like a pompous noble or an egotistical general. Yet, his master told him to wear both for today's duel. The robe announced his presence as a first-year mage to others. He was obligated to wear his uniform during weekdays and on weekends only while conducting guild business. However, most cadets and mages would wear their uniform/ robe all the time, because it afforded them certain privileges in Guidon. The best privilege was being left alone by the city guards.

Today, Elder Thaddeus left the house early. Only Will and Archimedes remained. After eating a breakfast of toast, tea, and bacon, Will left the house and walked to Mage Academy Arena to watch his sister duel.

Mage duels were different than knight battles. Knight battles may last for hours, but mage duels last minutes. Mage duels were decided quickly by a range of factors: the size of mana pools, the magic of the opponent, and spell knowledge. In most duels, the mage with the largest mana pool won. If two mages had similar elements, but one knew more spells he/she would usually win. The most compelling mage duels were between counter magic mages. For example, fire and water mages duels lasted longer, but only by minutes. The strangest duels were between light mages, like Rebecca.

Light magic was mainly used for healing or dueling dark wizards or witches. However, the Guidon Mage Academy did not admit dark mages, and light magic did not negatively affect another light mage. Thus, light mages duel typically centered around healing. Who could heal faster, larger groups of people, with the most advanced healing spell? For Will, this was as droll as dueling could become. Yet, for light mages across Fermion, this was considered very entertaining. Every year, the duels between light mages were attended by priests from across the country. However, this year, with the arrival of the king. Priests, bishops, and cardinals also arrived.

Fermion was a country with thousands of deities, but the primordial gods and goddesses had the most followers. Different villages, towns, and cities across various regions worshiped the children of the primordial deities. Even Guidon had a local god they worshiped. Guidon worshiped the goddess of knowledge and commerce Romina. Romina was the oldest daughter of Gaia and Aether. Both commoners and merchants had statues of Romina in their homes. During the summer, Guidon held a three-day festival in Romina's honor. It was also normal for people to have statues of more than one deity in their homes. For example, a family may have a statute of Romina in between the statutes of her parents.

Unlike local deities that rarely had churches, The Church of Aether had the largest number of churches that were scattered across the Terra. Terra was an island continent, and as such churches worshipping Pontus were almost as numerous as Aether. Since Fermion was a land-locked country, Aether worshippers dominated the religious spectrum. However, outside of Fermion, Pontus worshippers were rivaled to be as large or larger than Aether. Gaia and Nyx were said to have the smallest followers. Each kingdom in Terra had a cardinal that was the supreme divine representative for their respective primordial god or goddess.

The Cardinal of Aether held tremendous power in the kingdom of Fermion. For most nobles, the Cardinal of Aether held equivalent power to a duke. Some fervent believers even though the cardinal had as much power or more than the king. The Cardinal of Aether was Matheus vont Clermont. The Clermonts had a long family history within The Church of Aether, and Matheus was no exception. Matheus was an old man, he was a grandmaster mage, with white hair and a crooked back. His face was covered both in freckles and wrinkles. He mostly smiled and greeted commoners and nobles similarly.

As Will walked across the Mage Academy campus, to the light mage duel, he could hear people cheering for the various priests, bishops, and cardinals making their way to the arena. The arena was sparsely field. Again, the light mage duels were attended by clerics, nobles, and commoners who found the competition boring. However, for priests, this competition was exciting to see which students might be recruited. There was a rumor, that in the past, two priests physically fought over a recruit.

As Will walked up the steps to join his family in the stands he saw the various colored priest robes and insignias. Some sat, some stood, but all stood when the cardinals of Aether and Gaia walked into the arena. The Cardinal of Aether wore a sky-blue robe, while the Cardinal of Gaia, Silvia vont Gaius wore a deep green robe. Both sat in the King's Box, with his majesty's permission.

After the cardinals were seated, a line of light mages appeared, with Rebecca in the lead and Elizabeth in the rear. Will was stunned to see Elizabeth. Since they just met, he was unsure of her magic type. As he looked at Elizabeth, she seemed to turn her head and stare back at Will. Will felt a shiver, of all the people in attendance, he felt that Elizabeth was only looking at him.

Light and dark magicians were rare. While they existed, there were not as many light mages, as there were fire, water, earth, or wind mages. Thus, the competition over light mages could be fierce given the number of light mages each year. In Rebecca's year, besides herself, there were two other light mages. There was only one third-year student, two second-year students, and five first-year students. As always, the first-year students brought the most curiosity.

The light students stood in a straight line and faced the King's Box and bowed. After this simple etiquette, the arena staff brought in injured soldiers for each student. Some soldiers had bandaged heads, arms, or legs; some soldiers were missing an arm or leg; some soldiers looked close to death; the variety of injuries made some students visibly nervous, but Rebecca remained resolute.

When the bell rang, the students dropped to their knees and began healing the soldiers, light shone from the soldiers' bodies. Will could see bandages that were covered in blood, falling away showing healthy skin. Soldiers who were brought in on carts would get up and walk away. Will had never seen such a miracle and was amazed his annoying incestuous sister perform such wonders.

Will saw Rebecca regrow missing limbs, cure illness, and remedy disease. For the first time since reincarnating, Will saw something unexpected and his eyes twinkled. He knew how much money hospitals made, he had owned a consortium of hospitals and pharmaceutical companies. He also donated to university hospitals around the world. Back on earth, many faith groups own hospitals, but it was also common to see non-religious hospitals. But on Terra, the whole healthcare industry was run by four dominant churches. How marvelous! Will's eyes twinkled with dollar signs, trying to think how he could gain entry to such a wonderful money-making industry.

Forgetting to pay attention to the duel, Will looked up. Out of his glaze, he saw his sister Rebecca was healing her seventh person. Light mages dueled for a set time or until there was only one mage left with the ability to heal. Slowly over the course of two hours, mage after mage ran out of mana. Only Rebecca, the other fourth years, and a third-year remained. When the closing bell rang, the four students left with mana healed their last soldier, and stood up from the ground. When the third-year girl rose, she fainted and fell unconscious to the floor. Immediately, an instructor was there to help the student recover and resume her position to standing in line. The teachers examined the healed soldiers, writing notes, and in some cases re-healing a soldier or two. After about 20 minutes of taking notes, the instructors discussed and then announced the winner.

After the instructors consulted, Rebecca has announced the winner. The priest clapped, some cheered. This was Rebecca's first win, and she began crying in delight. Seeing Rebecca cry, Will's mother also began crying tears of joy. This was Rebecca's last year at the Mage Academy. This was her midyear exam, which affected her ability to find a high-ranking post in one of the primordial churches. Overall, the vont Ballards were not a religious family. Will's mother Helen kept a statue of Aether, and his father had a Gaus idol, Gaia's oldest son, the god of the harvest. But that was the extent of Will's family piousness.

After the rankings were announced, the cheers slowly died down. After the announcement, bishops would stand and offer first through third-year students' gifts to curry students to one religion or the other. When Will's father told him this was normal, Will smiled widely. He was happy to know in this world, he could bribe a priest or two later on. Will's faith was placed in coin, not in a god or goddess. For Will, religious people were hypocrites, often saying one thing and doing another. Learning churches were as corrupt in this world, like in his past, for some reason reassured Will. He felt comforted knowing, later on, it would be easy to gain access to the church and the health care industry. He just needed to figure out how best to exploit it for his gain.

Once again, the bishops offered prizes to students based on their rankings. Rebecca was awarded several gold coins from the churches of Aether, Gaia, and Pontus. Seeing the gifts given, the Cardinal of Aether stood to speak. As he stood, the entire arena became silent.

"Honorable Cardinal Silva vont Gaius, fellow clerics, instructors, families, and students. We are blessed today to witness the greatness of these future priests. You, students, honor this academy, your instructors, and your families. Both Cardinal vont Gaius and I spoke highly of your spellcraft. Becoming a cleric is both a devotion to your God, Goddess, and spellcraft. It's been too long since I've returned to the academy and enjoyed my days here considerably. I have fond memories. Now fourth-year, speak which church you'd like to join. If you are accepted after graduation, you'll be notified of your next steps. For the winner, Miss Rebecca vont Ballard, if you wish to join The Church of Aether, I'll promote you to Sacred Temple's disciple," he finished.

After his announcement, the entire crowd gasped. Most new recruits trained for a year with the church, before becoming a village priests. From there, priests rose in the ranks from village priest to town priest, to city priest. Afterward, they became a priest in the capital, 'til being promoted to a bishop. The bishops elected the cardinal, and every cardinal had once been a Sacred Temple's disciple. Each church had a sacred temple, where they housed a giant statue of their deity. This was considered an honor, and only the most pious and exceptional talented mages could petition to join. In the entire Kingdom of Fermion, only 10 mages held this position, and this position could only be appointed by the Cardinal. Every year, thousands of priests' petitions would be denied working in the Sacred Temple disciple, visit the Sacred Temple required a bishop's permission. What the cardinal offered Rebecca was so unexpected, some Aether priests began complaining, others were so stunned they sat down because they could no longer stand.

Even worse was Will's mother, Helen vont Ballard fainted from excitement. Rebecca stood there quiet, her mouth had gone dry. She gripped her Aether neckless and finally spoke.

"Your grace, it would be an honor," she said bowing low, her head almost touching the ground of the floor.

"Very well, after graduation Bishop vont Weir will contact you to arrange your travel to the capital," Cardinal vont Clermont finished. He then left the King's Box with Cardinal vont Gaius and exited the arena. After the cardinals left, the Aether clerics rushed the stage and greeted Rebecca trying to gain favor. As a future Sacred Temple disciple, she would certainly be a bishop and possibly a future cardinal. Currying favor with her now was similar to job security and hopefully earning a promotion in the future.

Helen vont Ballard, rush through the crowd of clerics, and hugged Rebecca. The two stood holding hands, as Rebecca and Baroness vont Ballard greeted each priest in turn. Afterward, the priest greeted the other light mages as well.

Will took this as a cue to leave, his father remained seated smiling, wondering what led to his children being so lucky. Jason, Rebecca, and Will each have stood out and had accomplished so much, so young. Then he thought about Marcus and Kathryn and made a note to send each a letter to see how they were doing.

Will walked back to Elder Thaddeus's house to eat and train. Tomorrow would be his turn to a duel.