"All right. Here's what's going to happen. You're going to be the one in front of the cash. I know what's going to happen in some of these because some of them were changed but some of them weren't. But they're not going to announce them until they happen. However, what you need to do is provide me with an opportunity to test the waters in advance. If I can test the waters in advance then people will understand what I'm going with. They understand how deep the pockets are already."

  "You look possessed."

  He had never felt so aligned. This was literally taking his classmates for their parents money.

  "I checked in the rulebook and there's nothing specifically against this provided that you do not bet on yourself. I don't wonder why that put that in there."

  Cire groaned. "Did you mean to say I wonder why they put that in there?"

  Mila crossed her arms. "No, he most definitely did not. I read it too and it seems like they add new rules on the end because people do dumb shit all the time."

  Cire blinked and then recentered her glare on him. "How much are we talking?"

  "I need at least two hundred dinarii to back us up. I don't think that we'll need to actually use it."

  Cire whistled. Mila looked like she was about to throw up.

  "Two hundred?" Mila said. "Tell me you don't have that much just available. You do? Vek. Prefereti."

  "Okay. Cire is the house. Mila you'll spread the word, I think I can get Marcel on board as well. I think he would be on board with a counter incursion if we could do that."

  The idea that a man would follow him to the place where the demons lived had been ludicrous up until he met Marcel. The man wanted nothing more than to follow him into a battle to the death for just a shred of glory. He wouldn't even hesitate which was why Ludere hesitated to call upon him.

  "Do you think that he's got a bad home life or something or is he just desperate to... Lose himself into some sort of terrible place where he's not going to come back from it? Because I could see it either way."

  Cire shrugged. "Does any of us have a good family life? I mean maybe not the two of you. But my father is always gone and grammarian. Tyler is not the most kind man. You get used to him for sure, but it's not exactly a substitute."

  "My parents did everything they could once they found out that I qualified for this. I owe my life to them. I would not throw that away for nothing," Mila said. The two women turned to look at him.

  "What?"

  Mila rolled her eyes. "Typical boy. Nothing good to say about your parents?"

  "They did what they had to do. I'm alive because of them." He began to sweat a bit. Not because of their brisk walk but because neither one seemed to want to let up.

  "Ludo. If you don't go back home and connect with your parents and talk to them about what's been going on, you're going to regret this when you're older. Trust me when I say this. Family might not be everything but it's very important. Even Cire puts her studies aside to connect with her family. This look you gave us when you explained how you're going to set up the betting ring? I've never seen you so alive."

  Mila actually slowed the group down. They were very close to the end but they had time. He had felt like he was doing something he knew really well. He felt a sense of purpose and he felt like he could actually move forward with something and not have to worry about translating it from ancient celusian. He knew money and he knew counting.

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  He hadn't realized how much he'd missed it. But it wasn't every day he got to set up bets for people with more dinarii than sense. He would make a profit here no matter what. If he had fun doing it, oh well.

  "I picked that job for a reason. I know that it's going to seem weird to you, but I did pick that for a reason and I liked it. I was good at it even if it was a bit soul-crushing."

  "And you think that you're going to do something similar for the Empire when you're done?" Mila began stretching.

  Ludere found himself following along with her stretches. She knew what was up. He could trust her to not make him feel like a broken rope at the end.

  He placed one arm in front of the other, pressing the arm in like a hug. "I have no idea what Senator Celisar wants from me. You should ask his daughter."

  "He wants one of the two of us to become the valedictorian and get a higher position where he can use that to his advantage." Cire held a half split, folding in a way that would make him die a thousand deaths. Then, as if it was nothing she switched sides. It was as if she had gotten all the benefits of athletics he had never even considered.

  "Your family has interests that might be at odds with there not being further conquests?" Mila said bluntly.

  Cire fully split her legs and folded her chest to the ground, then looked up. "Look. No one understands what's going to happen next. Maybe we'll send people beyond the seas. Maybe we'll, I don't know look for land in the demon's world? Was that a different world?"

  Ludere was a hot mess on the ground at this point. He was convinced that both women had some stretching skill he had missed out on."It felt like such a different place for the limited time I was there. Like time had passed it over or something."

  "Can you think a bit more about it?"

  He did. He took his time to formulate his thoughts and put them together. He'd only been there briefly and only that one time and still the red sand-the desert everything echoed back to him. He didn't know how he could connect that world to this one. There just wasn't enough information at his level. Someone inside government or military had to know.

  "Someone has to know. They're not telling. I don't know why this is how things are but I don't like it."

  Cire got up, holding out a hand for him. "It makes sense that they're holding things back. We're all holding things back. But... it's time. I'm going to join my class. I'll see you both at the end of the day?"

  They waved as she left.

  "She's getting very serious about these duels. I suppose that's how she was last time. Walking around got me warmed enough to be destroyed by that stretching."

  "That's good because we're going to break your brain if this goes the way you're thinking."

  "I'm counting on it."

  Every single bet that was placed was more money for his potential coffers. They just traded in slips but there was something iron clad in the social contract. It was like none of them wanted to mess with the Senator's daughter and that wasn't even the only Senators child that was part of the betting. Half of the students there had a parent roughly the same equivalent rank in the other disciplines.

  Some of them had two parents with greater rank which really made this whole exercise feel like it was just changing the stones on the coliseum wall. It was pretty, but not going to help a single Ludo-just busy work for the common man.

  Instead of worrying about who he was going to fight next he just got into the moment and did his battles. With only roughly Hunter students in the dueling brackets he easily passed his first two bouts. Cire made a killing on him when his opponent in the first round immediately withdrew.

  She was the house after all, so she only made money.

  His second match would have been a challenge before I'd gotten into the loops. Now, he definitely dodged and moved around the girl in front of him. She couldn't even land a hit no matter how hard she tried. He placed well, winning all four of his matches. After that they couldn't ask for more. He didn't want to come up against Cire or Mila. When the last eight were called out and recognized, he was proud to be in that number. They didn't need to take it any farther that day.

  Grammarian Luka addressed the mass of tired students. "Thank you all for participating today. Understanding that there were a lot of changes recently, we are going to be going ahead to move into the team events sooner than we thought. You've seen how you stack up against classmates. Now you're going to pick out teams of three or four to work together to achieve an objective. Tomorrow morning at first light, the teams you pick now will gather together and they will each get a a distinct objective. Each team will have their own objective to complete and you will get the supplies you need from your instructor."

  He looked around, surveying the students. It felt like he locked eyes with every single one of them.

  "You will be out in the elements. This is only the first of several challenges. Expect to be outside for no less than three days."

  A hand shot up. Ludere had to stifle a groan. Of course it was Marcel.

  "Headmaster, what about the demons recently shown to attack? Are we going to talk about those as a risk?"

  "You decided to return to the academy. You all decided to return. Rest assured that we will keep you all safe to the utmost of our ability."