A fire brigade lined formed, as people brought buckets from the well to toss onto the fire. The two-story building was blazed and began to char the adjacent buildings. More than 200 people worked together to ferry water buckets, until water mages arrived, who easily doused the fire. The bakery was ruined, the inside was a charred husk. The shop and house were gone, the second floor was gone. In a moment, Anne and her family were homeless. After the end-of-term exam, cadets and mages who didn't accept quests would return home.

Where could Anne's family stay? With other commoner families, no? What commoner had the money to feed extra mouths? Anne and her mom cried; her father was stood slacked jawed. Who would loan him money for the repairs? They were homeless, the realization slowly set in. They had no place to go, except to the streets.

Will approached Anne and offered her a hug. Her face didn't flush, she just needed a shoulder to cry on. When Anne hugged Will, she felt comforted by his embrace and strength. For this moment, all her worries flew away, and she found peace. Will gave her peace. This is what she yearned for, but this was not the appropriate moment. Her peace transitioned to determination. Will's determination always inspired her. Today, she would be determined. Her father may not know who to ask for money, but she did. She hoped Will would loan them the money to fix their bakery, and pay for their housing and clothes.

Then she realized the loan would be enormous, several hundred golds, maybe a thousand. How could her family pay that back in a lifetime? To pay that debt she may have to become Will's war, debt, or sex slave. Now she was blushing in Will's shoulder. But she resolved herself, if Will asked her to be his sex slave she would do it for her family.

Anne's mother saw Will hugging her, she knew her daughter and her love for Will. She knew her daughter would say something foolish, like ask for an impossible loan. She had to stop her before she threw away her life in a hopeless dream. He loved a noble in the past as well, but she realized too late that nobles don't marry commoners, but they will sleep with commoners. Although Will was nice, she knew he would be constricted by the rules of the nobility.

"Sir., vont Ballard, may I ask you a favor," said Anne's mother before his daughter could make a request.

"Let us speak at my café," Will said slyly before withdrawing from the company of the City Lord. Who was disgusted at Will hugging a commoner, even if she was his Deputy Quartermaster and classmate?

As the foursome walked the streets, they entered the café from the rear entrance. Pamela was in the kitchen cooking. Two new young women taking the dishes to the customers. When Will entered the back Mei greeted them.

"Hello Boss Will!" she said bowing. In Will's absence, his staff has begun calling him "Boss Will" which was slightly better than what they used to call him "Sir. vont Ballard."

"Mei, Pamela, please greet Anne and her parents." The four people greeted each other respectfully.

Speaking to Anne's family he asked, "what do you think about his kitchen?"

Confused, the father answered, "Sir. Willam vont Ballard, this kitchen is very nice. It is much better than our old kitchen."

Will responded, "Would you like to work for me? If you agree, you can work here, and sleep in the servants' rooms in my inn."

Pamela became very sad; she finally found a job she enjoyed and what she thought was a nice boss. Once again, she was being let go by a noble. She knew she was silly for trusting this young noble. Earlier, she saw him speaking with the City Lord this morning and now he is back with a new chef. The City Lord must have forced him to fire her, the City Lord is too powerful she thought.

"Yes! Thank you, sir, you save us! We are so fortunate that our daughter is classmates with such a nice young man," said Anne's father enthusiastically.

"Wonderful," said Will clapping his hands. "Pamela please explain to them the menu. Tomorrow Pamela I want you to head to the inn, and hire kitchen and wait staff," he said.

"Wait, you're not letting me go?" Pamela said in confusion.

"Quite the contrary, I'm promoting you to the inn," said Will. Sad for Anne's family, but he was fortunate to find an easy solution to his inn problems.

"Congratulations Pamela!" said Mei. "Congratulations Boss Will, you have found two excellent new chefs."

"Mei, please let the staff know about the café, theatre, and in that, they may live in the servants' room. I think there should be more than enough room for everyone," Will said.

"Yes, boss!" said Mei before quickly leaving.

Will left with Mei, explaining to her about the upcoming auction and his plans. After speaking with Mei, Will and Anne left for the Knight Academy. Today was their last day, they had to attend the closing promotional ceremony at the 14th bell.

The coliseum was decorated with flowers, wreaths, and streamers. All four years stood in line, on the coliseum floor. The knights were standing in line based on rank. Will stood in front looking at the cramped noisy coliseum. The instructors, guild masters, and Headmaster Abe commanded respect and reverence. Will saw Commander Cameron the Valkyrie Guild Master, Commander Raymond the Golden Knight Guild Master, Guild Master Rolf, and Commander General Stewart of Fermion's Guardian Guild. Will remembered meeting these people after his third battle.

The promotional ceremony resembled a university graduation ceremony. The Headmaster greeted dignitaries, instructions, guild masters, and then cadets. He spoke about the academy's history, challenging coursework, military preparedness, and techniques. Will fought to stay awake, he had been invited every year to give a commencement speech to college graduates. All the speeches were the same, you lift some inspirational quotes, tell an inspiring story, talk about the famous people who inspired you and the doe-eyed students would eat it up because I was a multimillionaire entrepreneur.

After addressing the crowd the headmaster, spoke about what happened in Death Valley. He eloquently spoke about the beast wave, the heroic first-years who fought it off, waiting for the second and third reinforcements that never made it. He spoke about the fight with the grandmaster dire beast. Will realized Headmaster Abe was probably the best storyteller he ever heard. He lived through it, but the headmaster was a wordsmith and had a way with words.

Each cadet sounds like a Grecian mythic hero, but Will felt very uncomfortable when the Headmaster spoke about him. Then the headmaster said, "William vont Ballard, step on stage." That was Will's queue to march on stage, leading the other first-years.

"You had 3,700 points after the midyear exams. Today you earn 300 points for your library fine suggestion, this includes your reoccurring quests points. You earn 500 points for your impeccable duty as final exam Quartermaster Commander. You earn 1000 points for leading the first-year students into battle during the beast wave. You earn 500 for your assistance in killing the dire beast. You are awarded 250 points for reinforcing the Death Valley fort wall. You are awarded 250 points for your second-place duel standing. Due to your effort rallying the first-year students, impressing the instructor and marshals; I hereby award you a medal of valor and announce you as the first rank of your promotional class. Congratulations," Headmaster Abe yelled to the who coliseum.

Thunderous applause was heard outside the coliseum. Headmaster Abe unpinned Will's stag pin and replaced it with a wolf pin, a new mages' pin, and his medal of valor. He shook Will's hand, and then passed him off the dignitaries on stage.

He repeated the process with the first, second-, and third-year classes. After the headmaster finished with those classes, he called the fourth-year students by name. Each cadet would walk across the stage, have their fourth-year lion pin removed, and receive a second lieutenant army pin and uniform. After the last student, Headmaster Abe said congratulated them on becoming knights and wished them well during their mandatory two years in the army.

After the ceremony, cadets and dignitaries alike came to admire Will's medal of valor and congratulate him on his brave life-saving actions. However, Will did not feel valiant, he just did what was logical. He felt his award should be for a medal for being rational under pressure. However, that's what he did as C.E.O. every day, make tough choices under pressure.

After Will left the coliseum, he was thankful he did have to walk to the Mage Academy arena. He didn't have to attend the Mage Academy's promotional ceremony. Even better Will's spellsword performance was considered enough to keep his second-place ranking. This was because the end of term final for mages were more dueling tournaments, and very few first-year mages could be spellsword who faced a beast tide and lived.

Now, Will was officially a second-year knight and mage. Even better he had two months off during the summer. Will's summer plans were ambitious. As an entrepreneur, he had to capitalize on his company's success. Will knew he had a short window, probably two months to expand his business and secure his sector of the market. Step one for Will was to monopolize the entertainment industry in Fermion. After that, he would move to conquer a second sector of the economy.

Will planned to auction off the beast core. It was no secret that Will did fancy himself a fighter, even though by all accounts he was strong. Rather Will wanted to sell the beast core and use the profits to expand his business. Will spoke to Elder Thaddeus and Mei about his expansion plan, and both provided edits and revisions.

Depending on how high the price went, Will would first purchase the general store for sale by the retiring Albanian couple. With the leftover funds, he would send Mei to the capital to purchase and construct the same buildings he built in Guidon. Vanessa would become the senior manager, Will already had Mei purchase a new junior manager contract from Mr. Murphy.

Mei would be responsible for finding a suitable carpenter, entertainer, and employee to staff the café, theatre, and inn. If she had any remaining money, Will asked her to purchase another prominent general store, purchase him a small home, and then donate the rest to The Church of Gaia, minus her room and board. Mei would stay in the capital and manage Will's interest until he arrived.

In the meantime, Will headed to the beast tribal lands with Lawrence and Holo. Since his parents' barony was on the way, he would spend a week at home with his parents, before crossing the river into tribal lands. Where he planned to register with Beast Merchant Guild. Once familiar with the Rajbir, the Beast Tribal Capital, he would open a business. However, cadets are not allowed to into tribal land unless on a high-level quest and must be escorted by an academy elder. It just so happened that Elder Thaddeus could offer high-level, and Elder Li planned to visit her family this summer.

However, everything rested on the auction. Elder Thaddeus and Will sent out letters to every noble, academy, merchant, and high-ranking military person, inviting them to the auction. The City Lord promised to guard the auction (for a high fee), Elder Thaddeus would manage the auction, and Vanessa would be the auctioneer. With both the City Lord and Elder Thaddeus' guarantees, they received several RSVPs from dignitaries planning to attend. Will even told the Merchant Guild he would be happy to auction off other items, for a small fee of course, before the beast core.

As they walked back to the cottage Will realized how all his plans rested this purple beast core. Right now, he had slightly more than 30,000 gold coins. But, Elder Thaddeus told him property in the capital is two to three times higher than in Guidon. Interestingly, Lawrence said property in Beast Tribal Capital is more inexpensive than in Guidon. That is the reason Mei would take most of the money with her. Will hoped the beast core earned about 250,000 gold. Based on his math, would be the minimum about needed to get a foothold in the capital.

Will and Elder Thaddeus walked to the cottage smiling, tonight they would celebrate with cake! They laughed and closed the cottage door behind them.