Without delay, Apolo quickly found the room assigned to him. At this point, the young man had grasped that the first letter of the room always indicated the floor in alphabetical order, and the room numbers were in ascending numerical order. So, it was quite straightforward to find the rooms within the ministry's castles.

Upon entering the room, Apolo noticed it was quite compact but had everything needed for a night's stay and a few extras, like a desk and a chair. However, for Apolo's taste, the room lacked distinctive elements; there wasn't a single decoration. Everything in the room seemed to have a utilitarian purpose, and it lacked personality entirely. Despite this and the discomfort of sleeping in a different bed than usual, the young man managed to fall asleep, eagerly awaiting to see what he would experience in his dreams tonight.

Time passed, and when Apolo opened his eyes, it was already daytime. Apolo, with annoyance, looked at the stones on the ceiling of his room. The dream had been just as bizarre as the last time, but this time, the young man never realized he was dreaming until he woke up.

Without allowing laziness to set in, Apolo leaped out of bed and looked out of the castle window, seeing that the sun had already risen. He cursed upon realizing it was nearly midday.

—I was hoping for another lucid dream; I still don't understand what my ancestors meant, and I wasted so much time sleeping...

Without further delay, Apolo left the room and encountered a large number of wizards in black robes moving through the hallways. During the night, the castle was silent, but during the day, it was bustling with activity. In reality, there were no more than ten people in the hallway at the moment, but they appeared to be more due to the narrowness of the third castle's corridors compared to the one where Apolo had enrolled.

—Eh? A new face. Nice to meet you. What's your name?—One of the wizards in the hallway asked, causing the others to stop and look curiously at the towering stranger.

—...—Apolo completely ignored the wizard who had greeted him and hurriedly continued walking toward the castle's exit, bumping shoulders with the wizard who was blocking his path, causing the poor wizard to fall to the ground.

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—Hey, you jerk, don't push in the hallways!—The fallen wizard shouted.

Apolo turned around and stared intensely at the wizard on the floor and the other nine wizards in the hallway, as if contemplating throwing them all out the window.

—I mean... these corridors are very cramped, so be careful...—The wizard on the floor commented, eyeing Apolo's height with some fear.

—...—Apolo ignored what the wizard said and continued walking. The wizards in front of him stepped aside as if they were afraid of angering a person who could be more important than they initially thought, or worse, someone who was less sane than they initially thought. All the wizards living in this castle knew that some ministry wizards were so lost in their research that they often ignored real-life problems. Such wizards could be incredibly dangerous when they got angry because they didn't process the consequences of causing trouble for others. A person who didn't know limits was generally someone who ended up crashing headlong into a wall. The problem wasn't that the person would split their head open in the process; the problem was getting caught in the middle and getting hurt by such an idiot.

—Who the hell was that?—The wizard who had just picked himself up from the floor asked, noting that Apolo was already descending the stairs.

—Apolo, a great guy, but he seemed to be in a hurry...—One of the wizards in the hallway commented while helping the fallen wizard to his feet.

—A great guy?!—The incredulous wizard exclaimed.

—He may not have the best manners, but alongside the fat one and the dwarf, they saved the hides of half the people living in this castle—The wizard with a smile recalled their enrollment.

—So he's a friend of the fat one. I'm surprised he's so careless...—The wizard said. He had been a wizard for a few years, so he had only heard rumors about what happened the day they sent almost all the applicants to be killed. The majority of survivors didn't talk much about it, making it difficult to find out what had really happened.

—Well, as far as I know, the fat one was the only commoner in that group, so he's probably the most friendly. You know the dwarf, he screams to the heavens that he's from White Town on every occasion he finds—The other wizard replied, watching the staircase where Apolo had disappeared with some consternation—But now that we're wizards, nobility titles matter less and less. After the recent changes, everything depends on your contacts and, more importantly, your own determination.