Heather Walker had been begging me to go questing with her for the past few months. Yesterday, I finally gave in.

It took place on a random world in the Parradin sector, where Heather's avatar had, admittedly, grown into quite the leader, now the commander of a fleet of airships. The aim was basically to settle a territorial dispute on one of the islands in the planet's polar region. It was an easy win for us, but I think the whole point of all this was for Heather Walker to impress me. She has been showing inspiration toward me since we first met.

Regardless, I told Heather that I was proud of her and encouraged her to keep questing on future endeavors. After all, I feel that I may need her support in the future.

It's not that I think Heather has been an increasing burden, however. It's that I've been contending with the effects of Headmaster Stamp, which have suddenly taken a turn for the worse.

On September 12, the University Council passed, and Headmaster Stamp signed, a policy termed the Educational Quality Improvement Program, which, effective this coming January, will require all University classrooms to lease themselves out to private charter school businesses. Basically, that means all textbooks, resources, and faculty will remain the same...for the most part; however, instead of all being under the jurisdiction of University Administration since its founding in 1231, all will instead be under the control of various private charter school businesses, which is radical. And book requirements, as well as faculty staffing, will be subject to any decisions made by these businesses, who will also determine tuition. The popular appeal there was that overall tuition would be lower; however, I know better than to believe that.

Since the founding of the Retunian Commonwealth, all schools and universities have always been public infrastructure, except for those private institutions, which have always been owned by the descendants of their founders and have been subject to the laws governing protected public institutions such as education. Cabotton University, however, since 1231, was exempt from any external government regulation with a little piece of paper called the University Deed: a paper contract initiated by George Cabot in 1231, signed by University Council in that same year, and enforced by the Remikran Union, the governing body over all member-nations of the continent of Remikra.

This University Deed was originally designed as a check against the oppressive government of the Chartered State of Combria, which fell in 1239, I believe. That government had been imposing on schools and universities, at that time, to implement rigid education curricula against students, many of which were unfair to those students who performed better through neurodivergent approaches.

The facility that would ultimately become the Main Campus of Cabotton University was initially established in 1230 as the Westerhill Institute for Academic Rehabilitation, which the old Combrian State government created to serve as an academic "second-chance" for university students who were deemed underperforming. But the curriculum imposed here was the total opposite of supportive; in fact, the students here were subject to exceptionally brutal forms of psychological conditioning....

Until Jon Fleming came along. A student sent here himself, Jon saw through the system and pretty much said "enough is enough," leading the rest of the students in an uprising that overthrew the oppressive school administration and re-established a new institution run by the students and for the students. Having deep respect for this movement, businessman George Cabot purchased the institute and formally gave it to the student body, thus legitimizing the transaction. The students then formed a democratically elected Council, which voted to rename the school Cabotton University. In honor of that, Cabot had them sign the University Deed, which was designed to be enforced by the Remikran Union, shield the University from intervention by the old Combrian State or any other government, future or present.

The University Deed was a clever and practical solution in its time. But now, with the Retunian government having enacted standards designed to foster and protect student learning on an individual level nationwide, Arnold Stamp is now using the very same University Deed (which, again, bars any form of government intervention) to gain financial leverage that would have otherwise been prohibited in other Retunian universities via standards governing protected public institutions.

I realize more and more, now, that Stamp is not incompetent; he is clever...and cruel.

And I also realize how much danger the Third Level Society is in. None of these private charter school businesses are housed in the Retunian Commonwealth, owing to laws, again governing protected public institutions; so all of these businesses are headquartered abroad. Meanwhile, the Third Level Society was formed very much in the same grassroots democratic fashion as Cabotton University was in its time. And I cannot imagine what a disastrous situation would emerge from a Third Level Society in the future being managed by a business figure from half a world away calling the shots.

So I established a trust fund this week, as well as a special committee to search for venues outside Cabotton University to house the Society. I have consolidated Otto and the others into this.

It's radical, unprecedented. No other Dungeonmaster has ever faced a decision like this. No other Society Member in the past, up to this point, has ever had to contend with a University Headmaster willing to force the Society to lease itself to Gyrosakian businessmen (and they are all men, I bet).

But alas, extreme problems require extreme solutions.