The Draft

Once Tim and I got out of the dancing lessons, we were escorted back to the main area of the second floor. Sean was waiting for us there.

"That was hell," I said to the manager; Tim nodded in agreement beside me. Sean gave us a mischievous smile.

"I'm sure it was. But the day isn't over yet. You have etiquette lessons up next." I looked at him with disbelief.

"You can't be serious!" The manager dropped his smile and got a stern look on his face that I'd never seen him use before.

"Yes, I am serious. You will do these classes every day for the next week, plus, you have to get tailored for your uniform as well. You're the one that decided to show off and get the top score." He said this last part bringing the smile back to his face so that he knew that he was joking. "You also need to write a speech."

"A what!" I didn't know the first thing about public speaking, and now he wanted me to write a speech! "Why?"

"Because Todd, there will be a lot of really important people at the ceremony and the ball. Including this countries top brass and the royal family. You want to make a good impression so that you can have a good position when the military drafts you." 'What does that mean?'

"What do you mean by the military drafting him?" Tim asked the young manager. This shocked Sean. There was no way that we didn't know yet.

"You didn't know? How is that possible someone should have told you! Any adventurers that reach at least a silver tag are drafted into the military for at least two years!" We met this revelation with stunned silence. "Oh, man. Did I not tell you when I explained the test? That's the whole reason why people are able to get into political office; they make a silver tag and prove themselves competent in the military. That's why you, of all people, have to take these classes seriously and do your best! Otherwise, they may just put you on the front lines."

I finally understood the whole picture. Why I was taking these classes, why there were tag advancement tests, to begin with, it was all to prepare us for taking the next step in our careers in this world. Suddenly I was picturing my friends all on the battlefield fighting for their lives. It would be different than fighting monsters; we would be fighting people who were just as strong as us if not stronger.

I just imagined all of them, Tim, Sarah, Grace, Derek, and Laura, all laying cold and dead on the frontlines of a war.

"If you make a good name for yourself during the ceremony and the ball, you can request that your party be under your command. You can work on keeping them safe yourself." Sean explained. That settled it I would do everything in these classes that I could. I had to make a good impression and save my friends from whatever horrible things they would face during war.

"Are we at war right now?" I asked Sean, who shook his head.

"No, but tensions have been rising with the country to the east. They have been invading some of the kingdoms around them, and it looks like they might have their sight set on us next." I didn't know what to say, but that was ok because the manager was already leading us to the next class. I turned to Tim as we were walking.

"You know you don't have to take this class with me. I only needed a dancing partner." He shot me a dirty look before speaking.

"The more of this stuff, I know, the better chance I will have at making a good name for myself too, you know. We should both learn all of this stuff and teach it to the others." I agreed with him understanding his position.

"Fine, I guess that means you're my date to the ball." I shrugged nonchalantly, and Tim's serious face deflated and looked like he had stopped breathing for a second. He gathered himself back up quickly, though, and gave me an answer.

"Fine. I guess I am." The rest of the day, we learned everything we could out of the etiquette classes, from mealtimes, to how to greet someone above your station. It was evening by the time we went to our first fitting. I had to tell the tailor that Tim would be accompanying me to the ball in order to get him to make a second uniform. The uniform was a black suit with silver buttons running down its front as well as black slacks and thigh-high boots with silver buttons as well.

We were also given a chord mine was green to signify that I was an alchemist, and Tims was white for Cleric. We were told that they would be ready in just a couple of days, so we finished up and went on our way. The first day of lessons was done.

We met the others by the front door, and Sean saw us off as we walked out. The others could tell that something was wrong with us just because we weren't talking to any of them. Grace stopped us in our tracks and looked us up and down.

"What is it?" She asked us with a tone that could almost be described as a stern mother. We told them all about what we had learned that day. All about the military, and that we would need to teach them everything that we had learned for their sakes.

"Wow!" Derek exclaimed. "That's a lot to process!" Everyone was in agreement on that fact.

"I know, so we all have a lot to learn tonight before we go to bed," I said to them. Grace understood the situation too well.

"Ok, then everybody, let's get going so these two can teach us what we need to know." We all semi walked, and semi jogged back to the house so that we could begin telling all of them what we had learned that day. It was going pretty well. They all seemed to have a better grasp on etiquette than we did. The problems really started when we got to the dancing portion.

I had only learned the following part, so Tim had to teach me the lead before I was able to pair up with Laura and teach her the part that I would be performing at the ball. It seemed that almost no one in our group had even the slightest amount of grace when it came to dancing. The exception being Sarah, who simply explained.

"I used to do pageants." We worked on it for a few more hours using the Moon Lilies as light to practice by when it got dark outside. We had to go to bed shortly after that, though, because we had to be up early for the lessons the following day. Things went on like that for the next few days. Tim and I would get up and go to classes to learn more, while the others would stay home and practice until we got back and taught them the new information that we had learned that day.

There were only two days left until the ceremony; it was later in the evening, after all of our lessons had ended for the day, we received a knock on the door. Laura went to answer it, and to our surprise, it was Jake, his party, and my Master.

"What are you doing here, master?" I asked her. "You should be resting for the rest of the test!" She rolled her eyes at me and pushed her way through the door.

"Ah didn't make it passed today's round. But we figured ye would need a little help preparing for the ceremony." I was surprised to hear that she hadn't made it through the whole thing, but I guess it is much harder than any of the other tests. Everyone that had come to help us was at least a gold tag adventurer, so they had all been through these lessons before and had already come out the other side of their drafts as well. The only person who wasn't a gold tagged adventurer was Jake, which surprised me.

"You mean you're a silver tag like us?" I asked.

"Not exactly..." It suddenly hit me.

"There's no way. You're platinum!" He looked embarrassed and rubbed the back of his head. That must have been why we didn't have to pay the Guilds entrance fee. Jake had written us a letter of introduction, and being a platinum tagged adventurer came with perks. Master just rolled her eyes at the situation, clearly more than a little jealous of the fact that she still hadn't been able to pass that exam, but Jake had been able to.

They were tests for completely different jobs, but still, it was impressive, to say the least, to be able to pass any jobs exam for platinum. The group came over every day up until the day of the ceremony to help us prepare for what was to come. I even finished writing my speech.

'I just hope that it's good enough to impress people.' Each job representative was given a topic that they had to speak on. Mine was "Overcome."