I left the venue heading back to our room.

The show was still going on but there was nothing useful information to obtain anyway.

I could still wait and try to learn more about the heavenly virtues but they were still quite vague information that hardly any use.

The 12 heavenly virtues have been around for a long time.

Even if one of the heavenly virtues dies, another hero is chosen to be the next hero in line, taking the duty of the former hero; Thus continue to guard the realm like a bunch of royal dogs.

Back then as the demon Overlord, I never confronted these heroes.

If only I had gone toe to toe with them, I could at least know how powerful these guys are.

The only thing I know is that getting hit by their divine weapons is no joke.

But what shocks me is that it’s been almost 500 years since that incident occurred. And I here assumed that the incident occurred not long while ago after my birth. Hence I was under the impression it’s only been like about 12-13 years.

But if I count the amount of time lingering in the dark void when I was a mere soul, 500 years is still too short. It felt like an eternity in that dark damp void, never did I want to visit that place ever.

But if it has already been 500 years since this incident occurred, then why wasn’t the world still not aware of this event yet?

Normally when even the heavenly virtues even let out a fart, the church of the virtues spread that tale like wildfire.

Yet this heroic event has yet not been revealed to the local people until now.

It seems like only recently they started spreading this tale.

Something is a bit fishy.

As I walked down the hallway pondering the reasons why.

“Hey, Benjamin!” Suddenly a familiar voice called out to me from behind.

As soon as I recognized the voice an overwhelming feeling of annoyance came over me.

I should just pretend I didn’t hear the voice.

I continued walking towards the hallway as if I didn’t hear anything.

“Hey! Stop pretending you didn’t hear me the first time,” he added with an arrogant tone.

I should just ignore this person and go back to my room.

I don’t have the ounce of energy to spare dealing with this guy.

Just when I kept walking another arrogant twat’s voice appeared,

“Hey, you there! How dare a peasant disobey my orders and turn his back on me like that.”

I never heard this voice but hearing the arrogant tone with his words I could at least presume who these words might belong to.

I finally stopped delaying the inevitable and turned around.

Not to my surprise, there he was fat and plump like a grape, it was Moses. Beside him were four new guys that I haven’t seen before. In that group, there was another boy with blonde hair and green mean eyes looking at me with scorn. He stood right in the center of this group with his arms folded like he was the leader of this group.

Meanwhile, Moses who always had the other village kids, around him and acting like the leader was now standing beside this kid with his head lowered while glaring at me fiercely.

“Did you call for me?” I asked.

“Are you deaf? Did you hit your head too bad in the 2nd trial that led to hearing loss?” asked Moses sarcastically.

I glared back at Moses fiercely.

This blabbermouth has been acting quite cocky for some time.

“A mere peasant acting quite arrogant just because he managed to pass the trials. It seems you have forgotten your place, huh?” said the blonde boy in the middle.

“Huh?” I asked while taking another look at this arrogant boy.

From the manner and the tone, he seemed to be quite an important guy.

That’s when I happened to notice the bracelet in the boy’s arm.

It was a golden color, unlike us who wore a purple one.

The rest of the boys standing beside this kid also wore purple bracelets.

I am pretty sure that gold bracelet meant that he came from the rich class.

Oh, so it seems the candidates have been merged since the end of trials. This could get bothersome for me to handle.

It’s not been so long and the peasant candidates are already sucking up to the rich class candidates.

“Make it quick. What do you want?” I asked.

“Oh, you should be honored that I went out of the way to talk to a mere commoner and that’s how you talk to me?~Hey~ I am not done talking, where are you going!” replied the agitated blonde boy.

If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

“I am going to my room, of course,” I replied.

“Stop him!”

At his command the other four boys and even Moses rushed in front of me, blocking my way.

“Where do you think you’re going?!”

“How dare you disrespect young lord James Malice like that!"

“Bow your head, apologize to Master James.”

“Then we might let you go after a mild thrashing~ hehe”

“...”

Meanwhile, Moses was the only one who kept his trap shut.

The rest of the lackeys had already proclaimed this blonde hair brat to be their master.

How could they let such people complete the trial?

Are these kinds of people what the mana love, these days?

No wonder the mage era is declining rapidly.

These candidates got no pride or shame, pathetic.

Meanwhile, our little drama was attracting attention.

The nearby candidates and even the rail guards were watching us closely.

Even the arrogant brat James noticed this,

“Let’s talk, somewhere in private will you?”

“Sure but are you going to bring your lackeys with you.”

As soon I said that word the lackeys gave me the stare.

Like I just spat on their face or something. What’s with that look?

They suck up to him, and they definitely are lackeys.

“Hmph. These folks are under my command so they will accompany me, of course,” replied James with an arrogant tone as always.

“What? Are you scared to talk alone?” said one of the lackeys giving me scorn.

Dogs in packs do love to bark, don’t they?

I shall just play along then, maybe a little exercise might help me get rid of the stiffness in my joints.

“I don’t mind. Let’s go.” I replied.

Some secluded places work fine for me.

If I beat them in everyone’s view, it will surely just get more unwanted attention.

Better take care of it a bit discreetly. I was looking for an opportunity to beat some sense in Moses anyway.

After saying so we took an elevator to the topmost dorm floor.

The candidates on this floor had mostly failed the trial, who later had to move out with their family to a different wagon.

So this was the perfect place to have a talk.

After reaching the designated place I just stood there nonchalantly while stretching my neck and my arms.

My body has been stiff even after getting the healing but taking down these chumps will be a nice workout. I don’t even have to rely on mana for this.

So what if this arrogant brat comes from a rich class family?

Now that I’ve also completed the trial, my family will also rise to a higher class soon enough. So I won’t even mind whooping his ass down the ground even for one second.

Seeing that I was quite relaxed in my situation, surely made the other brats a bit nervous as well.

The first one to break the silence was the blonde brat,

“Well, I am not such a bad person to resort to violence, so I will overlook your ill manners this once,” replied James while giving me a friendly smile.

“Huh? What the hell-” I said while staring back at James.

So why did they even bring me here in the first place?

I stared at James expecting an answer but he just stood there with a smile.

“Well if there’s nothing you want, then I’ll get going-” saying so I started heading back to the elevator.

But before I could take another step I was stopped by the lackeys who blocked my path and started giggling for no reason.

They really are asking for it, aren't they?

I turned around again just to see James looking at me with scorn,

“I will let you go, only after you tell me how a commoner like you could use mana so early. What trick did you use? I expect a sufficient answer. Is it even true that you can already use mana or are all the candidates in your wagon have something wrong with their brains?”

Oh, so that’s what this is all about, not like that I didn't expect it.

Well rumors do spread easily, don’t they?

Especially if you have a bastard loose mouth like Moses.

I stared at Moses,

“I wonder what you’re talking about. Most of the candidates in my wagon do have something wrong with their head though.”

“Is that so?” said James as he stared back at Moses.

Moses immediately became nervous,

“No! I saw it with my own eyes! He created a barrier purely condensed from mana. Although it was just a weak barrier that was shattered by a hit by the golem statue. I thought for sure he would die but somehow he is still alive and even the ceremony organizers passed him without letting him go through the third trial.”

I just scorned the pathetic sight. The pitiful jealousy was quite visible in the eyes of the lackeys, hence what caused them to hate me.

I managed to activate my mana skills because of my previous memories and the close to death situation was yet another trigger.

If they wanted to learn the secret to early usage of mana, maybe getting nearly killed by that golem would surely help them.

James nodded,

“I see." he then looked at me, "So you will just pretend to be a fool. In that case, I will have to beat you up to get the truth.”

As soon as he said this, the 4 lackeys stepped forward while cracking their knuckles.

With a teasing snicker as they approached me.

Meanwhile, I tried to hide my smile as my hands were itching to let go of all my anxiety from the last trial and relieve all my stress.

The lackey in the front smiling like an idiot,

“You brought this on yourself. Now just-”

Out of nowhere, we heard the sound of water gushing from the next room.

What we heard next was a flushing sound of water from the public toilet.

Each floor consists of a public restroom.

The public restroom on this floor was close by so the person who was inside might have also heard everything that went on here.

We all stood in silence as we waited for the person inside the toilet to show himself.

Moses and the lackeys were also frozen midway, so was James who stood behind them.

After waiting for a few seconds the mysterious person in the toilet revealed himself.

To our surprise, a young man wiping his hand with a handkerchief walked out of the restroom nonchalantly.

He had surprisingly neat orangish-yellow hair and piercings in one of his ears. He looked like he was in his 20s.

“Look what we have here,” he said as he walked in front of us with a childish smile.

“This must be the famous thing called bullying that I heard so much of,” he said as he glanced around.

Cold sweat started forming on each and everyone’s brows.

Even James who had been arrogant for a while now had trouble looking in his face.

“Oh did I interrupt something?” asked the young man as he glanced at us with a friendly smile.

Despite his friendly smile, his eyes seemed cold as if he was looking at garbage. He had the same gaze as the rest of them.

He was dressed in a black coat with a sword hanging at his hip.

Did a rail guard just have to take a dump on the topmost secluded floor, right now when I was about to whoop some brat’s ass to let out some steam?