Chapter 154: The First Year

Chapter 154: The First Year

"I am responsible for Assessment Groups Fifteen through Eighteen."

Major Rowan allowed his gaze to move across the twenty-four candidates standing in front of him. Several of them were still glancing toward the distant training grounds, where aircraft passed over mock cities and armored formations moved between fortified zones.

"You can stop looking at the battlefields for now," Rowan continued. "Most of you will not be using them anytime soon."

That immediately drew their attention back to him. Daniel frowned slightly, Claire’s expression remained controlled, while Ethan simply stood with his hands behind his back as though he had expected something similar.

Rowan noticed the confusion spreading through the formation and did not make them wait long for an explanation. His posture remained relaxed, but his voice carried enough authority to silence the remaining whispers.

"For the next year, your primary responsibility here will be academic study."

Several candidates exchanged looks as the announcement settled over them. A young man near the front raised his hand, and Rowan pointed toward him.

"Sir, one full year?"

"One full year."

The students began murmuring. Noah remained quiet and watched the major, interested in his explanation.

Rowan folded his arms behind his back and looked across the group again. "Some of you clearly believed you would arrive and begin fighting within the week. That misunderstanding ends now."

Daniel raised his hand and waited until Rowan acknowledged him. His expression suggested genuine confusion rather than an attempt to challenge the major.

"With respect, Major, most of us already attend planetary academies," Daniel said. "We’ve spent years studying basic management. Why bring us to a military program and spend another year teaching academics?"

Rowan did not appear offended by the question. If anything, his expression suggested he had expected someone to ask it.

"Because most academies teach young planetary lords how to begin civilization development," he replied. "We teach you how to manage civilizations long term survival."

Daniel became quiet after that response. Rowan continued before anyone else could interrupt.

"There is a difference between helping a village survive its first winter and managing a world containing hundreds of millions of people," Rowan said. "There is another difference between managing one world and managing several connected worlds supplying armies across foreign territory."

Noah immediately thought of Alaric’s sector, though he kept his attention on Rowan. The scale Rowan described was far beyond anything most academy students would encounter during their early years.

"You will study planetary administration, population management, economics, infrastructure, food security, logistics, diplomacy, resource distribution, Faith Point expenditure, political stability, disaster response, planetary defense, occupation, and postwar reconstruction," Rowan said. "Warfare will appear throughout those subjects."

He stepped away from the center of the formation and pointed toward the distant military zones. The candidates followed the direction of his hand almost automatically.

"Every army you see out there is the final product of a much larger system," Rowan said. "Before a soldier fires a weapon, somebody grew his food, mined the material in his equipment, manufactured his ammunition, built the road beneath his vehicle, trained his replacement, and maintained the government collecting the resources that paid for everything."

Rowan turned back toward them and let the point settle before continuing. "If you understand only the soldiers, then you understand the least complicated part of war."

That silenced the remaining whispers. Rowan raised one hand and began offering them a hypothetical example.

"Consider two planetary lords. The first can field ten million soldiers, but his transportation network is overloaded, his agricultural output is declining, and his factories cannot replace equipment at the rate his army loses it."

He raised another finger while the candidates listened. "The second has three million soldiers. His roads function, his reserves are protected, his food system remains stable, and his industry can sustain continuous replacement."

Rowan looked across the group and waited for someone to jump to a conclusion. Nobody did.

"I am not asking which army wins a single battle," he said. "I am asking which lord has deeper understandingon warfare."

Nobody answered immediately, and Rowan nodded once. "Good. At least some of you understand why the question does not have a useful answer without more information."

Too many factors could change the result, but the point remained obvious.

A female candidate near Claire raised her hand, and Rowan gestured for her to speak. "What happens to our planets while we’re spending a year studying here?"

"You continue managing them."

The candidate blinked, and several others looked toward Rowan more carefully.

"The camp does not freeze your world because you have homework," Rowan said. "Your civilization remains your responsibility from the day you arrive until the day you leave."

Whatever happened inside the camp, his obligations to the goblin world would continue alongside it.

"You will have designated planetary-management periods built into your schedule," Rowan continued. "Outside restricted exercises, your connection to your planet remains available. If a famine begins while you are studying economics, you deal with the famine. If your governments start a war while you are studying diplomacy, you deal with that too."

A few candidates shifted uneasily at the idea. Rowan seemed satisfied by the reaction and continued without softening the point.

"This is intentional. You are not here to learn theory in isolation and then discover years later whether it works."

He pointed toward them one by one as he spoke. "If we teach infrastructure resilience, you should know whether your civilization’s roads collapse when one major bridge is destroyed. If we teach food security, you should know how grain reaches your largest cities. If we teach industrial mobilization, you should know whether your factories can increase military production without starving the civilian economy."

Noah’s thoughts immediately moved toward his goblin world. The timing could hardly have been better.

The long war had damaged cities, roads, workshops, farmland, transportation networks, and entire regional economies. Millions had been displaced, military structures remained swollen far beyond peacetime requirements, and industries that had spent years producing weapons now had to determine what came next.

Noah had deliberately avoided solving those problems for the goblins, preferring to see what their governments and institutions would do on their own. Now he would be studying many of the same problems while they unfolded naturally below him.

Rowan’s voice pulled him back to the formation. "Do not misunderstand what I just said. You are not expected to return to your worlds after every lecture and force whatever you heard onto your civilization."

He looked toward the candidates wearing noble clothing and then toward those from military institutions. "A policy designed for a human industrial world may fail completely on a magical hive civilization. A government structure that stabilizes one species may cause rebellion in another."

Rowan moved slowly along the front of the formation. His pace gave the candidates time to follow every point.

"You are here to learn principles, consequences, and methods of analysis," Rowan said. "You are not here to copy somebody else’s planet."

Noah’s goblins had already developed in directions no academy textbook could have predicted perfectly.

Their four major political entities, technology-centered growth, and unusual intellectual development meant that even useful lessons would have to be interpreted rather than copied.

Noah understood that a good principle could still become a terrible policy if applied without considering the civilization receiving it.

One candidate raised his hand and waited for Rowan to acknowledge him. "Will instructors review our planetary development directly?"

"When necessary."

The candidate hesitated before continuing. "Then will they tell us what changes we should make?"

"No."

The answer came immediately and without qualification. Rowan stopped in front of the candidate before explaining why.

"If you require an instructor to decide how your civilization develops, then we have already discovered your largest weakness," Rowan said. "Our purpose is not to replace your judgment with ours."

A few people smiled at the response, but Rowan continued before anyone became too comfortable. His tone remained firm enough to make clear that the warning applied to everyone.

"Our instructors may tell you that your economic assumptions are wrong," Rowan said. "They may point out that your logistics model is impossible. They may ask why you allowed a political crisis to develop for twenty years without intervention."

He stepped away again and returned toward the center of the formation. "They will not build your civilization for you."

Noah understood the difference immediately. A lord could receive knowledge without surrendering judgment.

Rowan clasped his hands behind his back once more. "Throughout the year, you will be questioned about your own decisions. Sometimes the question will be why you intervened, and sometimes it will be why you did not."

That interested several candidates, especially those who seemed accustomed to direct divine control. Rowan let them consider the implication before continuing.

"Doing nothing is still a decision," Rowan said. "If you allow your civilization to solve a crisis without divine interference, be prepared to explain why you believed it could. If you intervene directly, be prepared to explain why mortal institutions were insufficient."

Noah almost smiled at that. The approach suited him far better than a system that rewarded constant commandments simply because a god had the power to issue them.

"The Empire does not care whether your population grows fastest in this room," Rowan continued. "We do not automatically reward the civilization producing the most Faith, the largest army, or the highest level of technology."

He gestured toward the candidates with one hand. "We care whether you understand what your decisions are doing."

Rowan’s expression hardened slightly as he delivered the next point. "A planetary lord who accidentally creates a powerful civilization is still an incompetent planetary lord."

The statement settled heavily over the group. Several candidates who had been standing casually adjusted their posture without realizing it.

Another candidate raised his hand. "Why does the academic phase need an entire year? Couldn’t the same material be taught more intensively?"

Rowan looked toward him and answered without hesitation. "Because planetary decisions require time to reveal consequences."

The answer was simple, but he expanded on it immediately. "You can memorize an economic model in a week. That does not mean you understand what happens when the policy based on that model operates for six months."

Rowan pointed toward the distant world beyond the training facility. His next example was more concrete.

"You can learn the theory of demobilization in one lecture," he said. "Then you return to your planet and discover that five million soldiers have no civilian employment, military factories are collapsing, local governments depend on wartime spending, and commanders have accumulated more political influence than your civilian institutions."

Noah’s expression sharpened at that example. The subject was uncomfortably close to several problems the goblin empires might soon face.

Rowan continued without noticing his reaction. "We want enough time to watch you apply ideas, make mistakes, experience consequences, and correct them. A lord who never sees the consequences of his own decisions learns very little."

The year was beginning to make sense to Noah. It was not merely an extended series of lectures.

The students’ own worlds would effectively become long-term practical exercises. Every lesson could become relevant depending on what occurred below them.

Rowan looked over the group again. "Do not mistake this for an easy year before the real training begins."

His tone removed any lingering doubt. Several candidates who had relaxed after learning there would be no immediate combat became attentive again.

"You will have examinations, historical case analyses, administrative simulations, planetary-development reports, group planning exercises, and direct reviews of selected decisions you make in your own worlds."

Daniel’s earlier expression of skepticism disappeared completely. Rowan continued before anyone could ask whether those requirements were optional.

"You were invited here. You were not promised graduation."

That sentence caused several candidates to straighten. The camp suddenly felt less like an honor and more like a filter.

"Candidates who repeatedly fail academic requirements can be delayed," Rowan said. "Candidates who demonstrate consistently poor judgment can be removed."

A young noble near the rear looked displeased by that statement. Rowan noticed him almost immediately.

"Yes, that includes people from important families."

A few candidates turned their heads toward the noble student, but Rowan ignored the reaction. His focus remained on the principle rather than the individual.

"When you are responsible for planets containing millions or billions of lives, your family reputation does not make a famine disappear."

He let that sit for a moment before changing subjects. The atmosphere became noticeably more attentive when he introduced what would follow the academic year.

"Those of you who successfully complete the academic year will enter the military phase."

Even candidates who had appeared bored earlier became focused. Rowan began outlining what that second phase would actually involve.

"That is when you begin receiving mission assignments," Rowan said. "Do not expect academy battles where victory means destroying everything standing in front of you."

He began listing examples while moving slowly along the formation. Each one sounded less like a duel and more like an actual military responsibility.

"You may be ordered to protect civilian populations while withdrawing from a world," Rowan said. "You may have to hold several planets with insufficient forces. You may be assigned to support another lord’s army instead of commanding the main offensive."

Rowan continued walking as the candidates listened. "You may need to manage occupied territory, protect portal routes, preserve industrial infrastructure, suppress an uprising without destroying the population producing the resources you need, or evacuate a world before a superior enemy arrives."

The candidates had gone completely silent by then. Nobody looked toward the distant mock battlefields anymore.

"Sometimes fighting is the easiest part of a mission," Rowan said. "Your problem will be accomplishing the objective without destroying everything you were sent there to protect."

Daniel raised his hand again after Rowan finished the examples. His earlier casual confidence had been replaced by genuine interest.

"Will those all be simulations?"

"Initially, many will be controlled exercises."

Rowan’s answer changed the mood slightly, though his next words restored the tension. "Later assignments depend on performance, authorization, and what the Empire requires at the time."

Daniel looked at him carefully. "Meaning real operations."

"Meaning exactly what I said."

Nobody pressed further after that. The implication was clear enough without Rowan confirming more than he intended.

Rowan returned to the center of the formation and looked over them one final time before summarizing the purpose of the program.

His voice remained steady, but the message carried more weight now that the candidates understood what waited after the first year.

"The Empire does not need more young planetary lords who know how to throw armies at problems," Rowan said. "Armies are expensive. Planets are more expensive."

His gaze moved slowly across Group Seventeen. "We need people capable of maintaining civilizations before war, commanding them during war, and keeping them functional after war."

Noah found himself reconsidering what he had expected from the camp. He had imagined advanced military doctrine, stronger civilizations, unfamiliar battlefield methods, and perhaps exposure to planetary lords operating far beyond his current level.

Those things would probably come later. For now, the Empire intended to teach him how the structures beneath those armies actually worked.

Noah thought again about the goblin reconstruction. Factories were being redirected, armies would eventually need to shrink, trade routes had to reopen, and entire regions would spend years repairing damage.

The timing no longer felt inconvenient to him. It felt useful.

Rowan checked the display attached to his wrist before returning his attention to the candidates. "Your formal academic schedule begins tomorrow morning."

Several candidates relaxed slightly, though Rowan continued before they could assume they were finished. He pointed toward a group of personnel waiting beside the nearby buildings.

"Today you will receive quarters, training materials, facility access permissions, and the regulations governing planetary observation," Rowan said. "You will also receive your assigned academic sections. Your current assessment groups are administrative only and may change after the first stage of instruction."

Noah glanced briefly toward Daniel, Claire, and Ethan. Apparently there was no guarantee they would remain together once formal instruction began.

Rowan stepped back and looked over the entire formation one final time. His expression remained as unreadable as when he had first introduced himself.

"The battlefield phase is one year away," he said. "Until then, stop worrying about how impressive your armies are."

He pointed toward the military world surrounding them. "Learn what keeps an army alive long enough to reach a battlefield."

Nobody spoke afterward. Rowan gave the waiting personnel a small signal, and several quartermaster staff stepped forward.

"Group Seventeen, follow the quartermaster staff. Orientation begins in thirty minutes."

The formation broke apart as candidates began moving toward the assigned personnel. Noah joined the flow without rushing and kept thinking about everything Rowan had said.

He had arrived expecting the military world to measure his ability to fight. Instead, the Empire had given him something far more useful.

For the next year, Noah would study how worlds survived the decisions of the gods ruling them.

By the time the military phase began, he intended for his goblin civilization to understand survival far better than it did now.