It’s recommended that one takes no more than seven classes each semester, though both Emily and Adrian have revealed they’re taking nine. I suppose I shouldn’t compare. Emily is the genius ice mage after all. Not that genius in magic necessarily translates to the mundane variety, though there is a correlation. But the relevant factor is that negotiating with the Eye doesn’t drain her as much as others, and so she has time to spend on other things.

  Adrian on the other hand… I think they just put too much pressure on themselves. Well, at least they seem smart enough for the load.

  As for me, my classes were nearly all automatically decided. I wasn’t going to miss out on Applied Divination, and will likely take a variant of it and Spell Studies every semester until I graduate. Then there’s my mandatory law supplement. Naturally, I’m taking herbalism as a declared interest, and will likely continue taking similar classes. Finally, Magic Theory seemed an obvious choice as it’s required for all mages and is supposed to be helpful for other classes.

  That’s five, which left two free slots, or rather three as I decided to take an extra under the belief that Law should be easy to catch up in and can be tested out of early too.

  Anatomy and medicine are things I should take to go with Herbalism, but I don’t know if I want to focus on it.

  There’s also magical language, but that’s mostly only good for enchanting and deciphering magic items. I’m already pretty good at the deciphering part, though it would be nice to be more confident in my assessments. Still, how often will I come across magic items that people won’t just explain what they do when I acquire them? Beyond that, the only thing it’s good for is coming up with your own enchantments. Which is nice, but do I want to be a magic crafter? It’ll be useful to have some ability there, but I don’t want to make a career out of it, not least because that wouldn’t aid the mission.

  I also really want to take math and history classes, not just because some are required, but probably not every semester. Alan pressured me to take art or literature, but I can do that after getting requirements out of the way.

  There’s also astronomy and navigation, but I don’t think I’ll pursue those further. I know enough to get by in most situations, and if I need some hard to calculate rare astronomical concurrence for a ritual, I can just hire someone to calculate it for me.

  That leaves the combat classes and combat adjacent. There’s one classroom course on Caethlian tactics that I was tempted to take, but decided it would just be an indulgent curiosity.

  I was tempted to forego practical classes altogether and just focus on the academic, but my admittance was predicated on my combat ability, so completely forsaking it might annoy the already irritated head teacher. Besides, it’ll be a good break from the stuffy classrooms.

  This however left me with a dilemma of which class to take. Sword fighting seems an obvious choice but comes with a problem. There are four choices based on the typical students: Mundanes trying to become pages, pages trying to become squires, squires trying to become knights, and knights trying to become even knighter. All of which seem way too intense, not to mention that I would be comically outclassed in the latter two. Well, latter three, frankly. Conversely, the former two are likely full of those desperate to advance, and might despise me for butting in casually.

  Still, I do have a slight interest in the sword, so I might join a club if I can find one casual enough.

  But that probably won’t suffice to avoid annoyance. Archery was obviously out since I cheat too much for standard training to be of much benefit. Mounted archery might be of some use, but I’ve only been on horses a few times at Alan’s insistence, so I’d have to take regular riding classes first, which seems like a waste of time. I mean, I’m nearly as fast as a horse with all my boons and items, and if I do end up having to ride one, I’ll just negotiate what I need with my communication spell.

  Then there’s the skirmish classes, which seems fun, but purport to have written assignments on tactics and other things. Not something I’m opposed to learning, but would be contrary to my goal of being a break from the academic.

  This really only left irregular weapon fighting – dirty fighting as some call it. A focus on daggers and other concealable weapons for quick quiet killings, grappling and confined spaces. Precisely my interests. Daggers are obviously the weapon I’m most proficient with, but I’ve never received formal training with them beyond a few tricks that Gebal and the older cell members showed me. So, this should shore up any deficiencies, while also advancing the Caethlon type fighting I was admitted on.

  It might also make obtaining sacrifices easier.

  This takes me up to six classes. I decided to also take a math and history class just out of personal interest. Besides, the math might help with the magic classes.

  I’m also taking basic medicine, bringing the total up to nine. Risky, but I figured I could manage an intermediate class with a lighter load, so an extra basic one should be fine. I’ll probably already know most of what’s taught in basic, but there might be some holes in my knowledge that I should fill. So, it should be easy enough to not be a problem, and better to take it now.

  Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

  So, nine classes. Should be doable, at least if Alan’s assessment of me being more focused than his standard pupils is correct. I’m cautiously excited at the prospect of being taught by so many experts. Alan was a good teacher, especially for preparing me for the exam, but there are cutoff points in his knowledge. It’s broad, not deep, though I’m certain I’ll keep falling back on it.

  I get accosted on the way to the next class from the study group by the Favoured of the Sun God who acted as the proctor of the religion test. “Ah, Malichi, good. I wanted to speak with you. I was curious about why you didn’t take a religion class.”

  I glance at a nearby obelisk used as a sundial and determine I should have enough time for a quick conversation. “I’m not pursuing a career in divinity,” I say tersely, trying to convey that I’m in a hurry without being rude.

  “How odd. Everyone else who scored in the top ten are. Most in the top twenty too. Besides, you gave such interesting answers.”

  I give a suspicious look. “I didn’t think the answers were long enough to be interesting.”

  “But that's what makes them marvellous. For instance, that upstart Chaundax normally claims four domains, but you delightfully condensed them all down to the single concept of ‘movement’.”

  I panic, slightly. I thought that was the standard association. Presumably, the cult saw some benefit in reducing it. How many other answers did I give that weren’t wrong, but weren’t standard either? That might link me back to the cult who taught me?

  “Forgive me, I didn’t me to cause offense to Chaundax. I guess the information that was available in my isolated territory is just out of sync with the rest of the empire. That isolation being the reason for my knowledge. We lack dedicated professionals to consult on which contracts might be best, so I had to study them myself. As I have a stable set of contracts at the moment, I see no reason to further my studies in the matter.”

  “Ah yes, your contracts! That is another fascinating thing about you.” His warm smile sends chills down my spine. “I’m having such difficulty figuring them out. Most new students are easy, but you’re a delightful mystery. I can guess at some. Likely a few animal lords. Maybe the god of cats, who has not deigned to reveal their name to humans? From there I would guess you negotiated a truce between their subjects and the bird lord’s? You probably got a small boost from a subscription to the merchant lord during the exam which you’ve since cancelled, but for the rest, I have no idea. To think that after all these years I might encounter a set of contracts that I can’t figure out.”

  Is he… threatening me? Does he know the answer and is just hinting at it for some hidden aim? Probably not, but I can’t help but tense. Regardless, he’s too dangerous to keep conversing with. “Well, good luck with that, but I have a class,” I say, turning away.

  “I’ll pay to find out,” he says after me.

  “It’s not for sale,” I say without pausing.

  “Ten large gold,” he says, causing me to stop.

  That would be a suspicious amount to refuse.

  “That’s far too much for what you want to know,” I say, eyeing him suspiciously.

  “And yet you haven’t said yes.”

  “And you haven’t said why?”

  “Why? Knowing about interactions between mortals and deities is my job. Besides, it’s not that much coin even to spend on a passing interest. The Sun is a bountiful master.”

  “Then I should ask for more, say a hundred. After all, it’s not a passing interest to me.”

  He smiles and I wince, realizing my mistake. Giving a number sounds like an invitation to negotiate.

  “Would you tell me for a hundred then?”

  … I need to get out of this conversation. “I don’t need the coin, at the moment at least. Besides, if I wait until later you might be willing to pay more.”

  He laughs. “Ah, you play a dangerous game. After all, you’ll get nothing if I figure it out before you come to me.”

  “That’s a risk I’m willing to take. I’ll let you know if I change my mind. Until then, don’t pester me about it.” With that, I finally walk away.

  This is bad. Obviously, I can’t just tell him ‘Oh, it’s simple, the rest of my boons are from sacrificing hundreds of people to the forbidden deity Anar’. I might as well just tell him Malichi Monhal is dead and I’m a rebel impersonating him with the aim of undermining the empire for a future rebellion. In fact, the latter might be safer – I hear the empress intends to pardon a group of captured rebels soon. Well, either that or execute them. Rumours vary.

  So, how do I deal with this? Can I kill him? Not likely. He’s a favoured of the sun god, and likely self-empowered too, though I can’t tell if he’s a mage or knight. Moreover, the Sun’s boons are a hard counter to my methods – revealing the hidden and burning away poisons. The heavy crossbow would be the best bet, but even that wouldn’t be certain – not even considering the problem of disposing the evidence if I kill him from far enough away to avoid detection. It would be in keeping with the Ever Radiant to just have a shield active at all times powerful enough to block even the heavy weapon. It might even be a boon from his contract. After all, while a favoured’s contract is seldom known, they are always very powerful as compensation for being exclusive from other deities. The only more powerful contracts being those that kill the mortal upon, or even before, completion.

  So that leaves subverting the contract if I want to kill him, the problem with that being that I don’t know what the terms are. I can probably guess from what I know about the lesser ones, but I only know lesser and intermediate, which aren’t that difficult to keep – just an outpouring of benevolence and not concealing truths. It’d be funny if I managed to trick him into a liar’s type paradox and he got cursed from it. But of course, even if I do manage to stumble on a technical violation, the deity can always just choose not to punish. Not to mention the possibility that the curse might seep out to the local area.

  So, murder not being viable, what does that leave me? I can’t fake a contract with a specific god, as that would be a great way to get cursed for a normal person, let alone an Anar cultist. Besides, from his ridiculously accurate guesses, he’d probably see through it.

  Maybe I can distract him with some other mystery, or catch him in a scandal and get him fired. Not likely, but… ah, I know. The Sun temple performs a lot of charities. All I have to do is cause a natural disaster which will drain the funds he was trying to bribe me with. Simple…

  So, nothing is really viable besides delaying and hoping for the best: which I hate. After all, he could figure the truth out at any moment. Well, at least I managed the first delay, long enough to last till the weekend at least. Maybe Alan will have some idea how to handle this.