Valkyrie's Shadow

Empire in Chains: Act 3, Chapter 17

Empire in Chains: Act 3, Chapter 17

Chapter 17

“So what is this ‘Promotional Examination’ occasionally mentioned in the classes?”

Seated on one side of a long table in the academy’s ‘cafeteria’ – which appeared to be a colossal mess hall – Ludmila idly stirred a bowl of steaming fish stew with a chunk of fresh brown bread. The headmaster, who abstained from eating, was more than happy to continue extolling the virtues of the academy as they ate, responding with gusto to Clara’s question.

“The Promotional Examination is a test that all students participate in at the end of their second year,” he said. “It was introduced with the reforms of our current Emperor.”

“You mentioned something about it being something along the lines of a military exercise,” Ludmila said.

“On the surface, that is what it appears to be. As a whole, it is much more. Though the most concise way I can put it is that it is an experience – one where both the capabilities of students are assessed in all fields and where the students learn what is involved in the realm’s security. As most of our students pursue civilian vocations, it is an opportunity that they would not otherwise have.”

“So you send civilians out to fight?” Florine frowned.

At Florine’s slightly incredulous tone, the headmaster smiled through his long beard.

“It is not so simple as telling them to go into a forest and fight monsters,” he said. “Students are instructed to form groups and prepare to participate in an army patrol. These patrols take them along routes that are determined to have a high risk of encountering opposition. Not too severe, mind you – weak Demihuman tribes and lesser Magical Beasts are the usual targets. A representation of a day’s work in the Imperial Army.”

What he proposed was still dangerous. Even a Goblin could severely injure or even kill a Human civilian. Low-level combatants were not much different. When it came to individuals at and below what the Sorcerous Kingdom’s Adventure Guild deemed Silver Rank, mundane realities still very much applied. Bad luck – or good luck, depending on how one saw things – could swiftly cause everything to go awry. A crude arrow or even a thrown rock hitting the wrong place was all it took.

“Groups with magic casters face more difficult trials,” Lady Frianne added.

“Geh…don’t remind me, prez!” Dimoiya shuddered, “My exam sucked. They took us out to the Wyvernmark and we ended up running into a pair of Rust Monsters. The soldiers ran around like crazy and kept shouting at me to kill it. I’m a Divination specialist, dammit!”

“…what happened then?” Liane asked.

“Rust Monster things happened,” Dimoiya answered with a resigned look. “By the time I cast Magic Arrow enough times to kill them, two-thirds of the patrol’s equipment was destroyed and we had to return to the army outpost. I couldn’t stop crying on the way back, thinking they would flunk me.”

“That sounds like a pass to me,” Lady Frianne said.

“It didn’t feel like a pass!”

Dimoiya pouted and sniffed as if reliving the experience.

“What’s a Rust Monster?”

“It’s a giant bug with a tail kinda like a fish,” Dimoiya looked across the table at Liane, projecting her fingers out from her forehead and wiggling them around. “Two metres long and a metre high. They have these loooooong feelers and they corrode any metals that they touch. Swords; arrowheads; plate armour; everything just goes poof into a pile of rust or whatever. The two heavy infantry in the patrol were too slow to run away – half a minute later, they were standing around in their doublets.”

“That’s, uh…how common are they?” Liane pulled out a notepad, “Sounds like bad news for any sort of metal tools or equipment.”

“I don’t know. They live in caves and stuff so they could be anywhere? Just before we were attacked, the soldiers were talking about how the mountains along the Wyvernmark had veins of metals so I guess they asked for it.”

Liane started taking notes on the dire threat to her nascent machining industry. Or was it a way to sell more machinery?

“As I mentioned,” the headmaster stroked the curls of his silver beard, “it is not so simple as fighting monsters. The entire process is analysed and graded by the academy’s proctors. This includes how they form their teams, the means by which they prepare and organise themselves, the tasks they perform during the examination and how they fare in a hostile environment.”

“I take it that those who display exceptional performance in combat are scouted by the army,” Ludmila said.

“That tends to be the case, yes,” the headmaster replied. “They even tried to recruit Lady Frianne here. If I recall correctly, she helped to kill five Trolls during her examination. The patrol was quite impressed.”

“I’m sure they were just being polite,” Lady Frianne said. “I simply prevented their regeneration while the soldiers did most of the work. And it isn’t as if Scorching Ray can be resisted.”

“Yet it is how the examination’s assessments work. Rather than looking out for individual feats, it is the ability to work as a part of the patrol and one’s team that is analysed. Practical skills, martial ability, resourcefulness and social interactions are all graded. Every Ministry uses the information garnered from the examination to identify skilled individuals to work for them in the future. The same might be said for classroom activities, but the Promotional Examination is where everything is put to the test in a more stressful situation.”

If nothing else, the Empire was very thorough when it came to figuring out where people would fit. It felt like a twisted version of what Ludmila was attempting to accomplish in her own demesne. She recognised that the Empire had far from sufficient resources to ensure that over eight million citizens received the same treatment and that focusing on those who maintained order and were most likely to bring change was the logical choice. What they considered important and the attitudes that such an approach carried, however, seemed to sour the otherwise rational process.

As with many systems of governance – including that of the Sorcerous Kingdom – those with martial power, resources and authority broadly defined what was valuable and what was not. In the Imperial Magic Academy, education was essentially employed as a tool to instil the future leadership of the Empire with skillsets and attitudes considered ideal by the Imperial Administration. The Promotional Examination was a ‘checkpoint’ on the road to becoming an ideal elite.

With every graduating class of the Imperial Magic Academy, the government-mandated values and behaviours of the Empire were further entrenched and refined. It was unsettlingly similar to the machining processes that Liane used, where a crude machine could be used to build a more precise machine and that machine was used to create an even more precise one. Eventually, the tools and parts her workshops produced were of astonishingly exacting standards that could be reliably used across any number of machines and vehicles.

Except, while people could be employed as tools and seen as parts of a greater apparatus, they were more than just that.

“What happens to students who fail the Promotional Examination?” Clara asked.

“It is actually quite difficult to completely fail,” the headmaster answered. “One way is the inability to form or join a group. Another way is to display unacceptable conduct during the examination itself. The former rarely happens and the latter includes students committing crimes, abandoning their posts, being found derelict in their duties or similarly reprehensible acts. We obviously wish to expel these sorts before they can become officials.”

“Students who have less severe issues during the Promotional Examination undergo remedial courses and training,” Lady Frianne said. “Most problems aren’t very difficult to address.”

“Is this done during the senior year?”

“Usually between semesters,” Frianne replied. “The Promotional Examinations start at the beginning of autumn and classes resume at the beginning of winter. Most seniors, as mentioned, work in practicums or internships with the government departments that recruit them. Those who remain on the academy campus are usually preparing for advanced academic studies in the universities. Some remain to serve in administrative roles, such as members of the Student Council.”

They finished their meal before classes were dismissed, walking back out over the academy grounds. The way that the headmaster looked at them while not heading anywhere in particular suggested that he had little else that he thought worth sharing. Lady Frianne and Dimoiya, too, appeared as if they expected nothing further of their tour.

“I have one last topic to discuss, headmaster,” Clara said. “The Imperial Magic Academy is an institution that exists to raise the next generation of the Empire’s leadership. That being said, we have heard absolutely no mention of the Sorcerous Kingdom in any of the classes.”

Lady Frianne and Dimoiya visibly froze. The headmaster stopped in the middle of the grounds, but he did not turn around to address them. After several moments, the sound of the school bell seemed to spur him to respond.

“I am afraid to say that we have not received any official guidance on the matter of the Sorcerous Kingdom,” he said. “The Imperial Magic Academy is an institution that serves the needs of our government, so our coursework must of course match the guidelines provided to us.”

“Is that so? Then I must apologise for my inappropriate query.”

With that, they allowed the headmaster to guide them back to the Academy gate. With all of the looks directed at her from the students, Lady Frianne seemed especially eager to be on their way. Clara smiled to herself as the duke’s daughter scurried ahead of them to the carriage.

?At least we came away with something usable.?

?It is utterly unfair how everyone is scared of me when you are by far the more terrifying between us. The way you peel back peoples’ defences is especially disconcerting.?

?Every new bit that Frianne exposes to us is one less thing that she feels that she has to hide. Her pride, wariness, and sense of obligation as a princess of the Imperial Dynasty is a good thing when acting in an official capacity, but it also gets in the way of her making friends. We are the ones that need to bring her to us because she cannot come to us herself. She is worth the effort, yes??

?Of course she is. We do not need to scour every corner of the Empire to realise that we have a priceless gem before us. Frianne is the ideal ally for us in the Empire and I agree that it requires her to be closer to us, but the way you go about it is still ruthless. She has probably felt like a cornered animal from day one.?

?That would be a construct of her own imagination. In the future, the memory of all of her needless worrying will serve as a reminder that it is better to be herself when interacting with us.?

?Do you know how insidiously manipulative that sounds??

“I hope no offence was taken at the headmaster’s conduct and statements.”

Lady Frianne’s tentative voice drew them out of their silent conversation. Her princess’ mask had vanished, replaced by a mixture of weariness and worry. Outside, the grounds of the Imperial Magic Academy disappeared around the bend of the boulevard.

“The headmaster showed us what we wished to see,” Clara replied, “and he honestly conveyed his convictions. There were a few deflections and some evasiveness on some specific details, but it is not conduct that requires forgiveness. As you should know by now, we are here to see the Empire as it truly is, Lady Frianne – not a façade fashioned to appeal to our sensibilities.”

“Then you take no issue with the Imperial Magic Academy?”

“Our duties do not demand that we act in any official capacity and the Sorcerous Kingdom’s policy regarding its relationship with the Empire is as you’ve already witnessed all these months. The Empire is an autonomous state; His Majesty and his court will not impose nonsensical mandates upon you. In our experience thus far, there is always a reason for what His Majesty does.”

“I think what those reasons might be is the cause of our concern here.”

“It was the same for the people of E-Rantel,” Clara told her. “Many fears turned out to be needless while others turned out far differently than we could imagine. Overall, however, things worked out drastically for the better compared to our existence as subjects of Re-Estize.”

The duke’s daughter seemed to study them as if wondering whether Clara’s words were to be believed.

“Many say that the Sorcerous Kingdom’s benign policies only exist to lull the region into a false sense of security,” Lady Frianne said. “That, by the time the world is aware of the danger that a nation ruled by an Undead sovereign represents, it will be too late.”

Ludmila let out an amused noise at the insinuation.

“Those who think to limit the Sorcerous Kingdom to the bounds of their own understanding are deluding themselves,” she told her. “There is already nothing you can do if His Majesty decides to act, thus the notion that the Sorcerer King must play by the rules that you know is laughable. The amendment to Imperial Law that recognizes the absolute nature of His Majesty’s representatives is more a statement of fact than it is a clause designed to allow the imposition of demands. It gives the Imperial Administration an avenue to acquiesce to its integration through any opposition. What keeps the Empire from advancing are chains of its own making.”

“His Imperial Majesty has been doing that more frequently,” Lady Frianne muttered. “After the instructions to reorganise the Imperial Army came in from the Royal Court of the Sorcerous Kingdom, he started telling anyone who voiced their opposition to complain to the Sorcerous Kingdom. I think he’s starting to make a habit of it whenever something is handed down to him.”

“I find it unfortunate that His Imperial Majesty goes about it in the way that he does, but, as a loyal member of the Imperial Dynasty, you should be supporting him to the utmost of your capabilities, yes?”

Lady Frianne smiled wryly, leaning back in her seat.

“I haven’t personally received any missives from the Sorcerer King’s official representatives,” she said. “As a duke’s daughter, I doubt that I will ever be in a position to do so. My elder brother will become Duke Gushmond and I will hopefully be raising a cadet branch.”

“We noblewomen have our way of doing things, yes?” Clara said, “You’ve already acted on our behalf on several occasions. It is a familiar and comfortable way of things that the Nobles of the Empire can get behind. In many ways, our methods are more effective at enacting healthy societal change. I do not doubt that you already understand this.”

“I do,” Lady Frianne nodded. “But I also understand that this way of doing things is gradual. It may not be quick enough for the liking of your Royal Court, based on what our Court Council has seen so far.”

“It doesn’t have to be,” Clara told her. “Every small step forward that we take makes the work of both our Royal Court and your Court Council easier. That is the way it has always been: noblewomen facilitate everything from behind the scenes while our husbands take decisive action if necessary. In our case, the role that our husbands would have occupied is instead filled by the highest courts of our respective nations. Our work is complementary to theirs, making matters more efficient and effective.”

Their carriage slowed as it approached the gate of Gushmond Manor. After the way was opened, their pace picked up again and they wound along the carefully tended avenue. Before they arrived at the Imperial Magic Academy, Lady Frianne had mentioned that there was someone who wanted to meet them.

“Is that the way you do things in the Sorcerous Kingdom?” Lady Frianne asked.

“While we lead our houses now,” Clara answered, “we were still raised to do things in this manner. It’s become the natural way of conducting affairs since women now form the majority of the Sorcerous Kingdom’s nobility. Also, the relationship between the Royal Court and the House of Lords is not too dissimilar from the situation you find yourself in when the Sorcerous Kingdom delivers instructions to the Empire.”

“How favourable have the results been?”

“Ludmila’s role as a Frontier Noble is different from ours,” Clara replied, “but His Majesty has personally voiced his approval for each of our efforts. As far as we can tell, our endeavours are in line with the Sorcerer King’s will and we will continue to support His Majesty in what capacity that we can. This includes helping the Empire realise its place as a proud member of the Sorcerous Kingdom’s hegemony.”