CHAPTER 12: THE NOBLE HOUSES

Staring at the crowd, Hermes inched closer and closer; their disdainful and fierce faces became clearer to him with every step he took. He knew what those looks meant; they saw him as a nuisance, someone who had only arrived a week earlier and was already on equal footing with them.

Angelica looked at him and chuckled. Her lips curled up into a playful smile as her eyes shifted to her left.

"He is quite the character, isn't he, Father? I reckon he'll stir things up once he takes on the mantle of a Guardian."

Standing in a dark alley to the side was an old man with a stern face. He leaned his back on the wall as the hilt of his sword displayed its grandeur. His wrinkled skin and trimmed white beard gave him the aura of a person who had seen every kind of horrific sight imaginable.

Anyone who looked at him knew he was a seasoned warrior. After all, it is perfectly reasonable to fear the old in a world where many die young.

Arthur Rimone ignored her remark and turned into the darkness encompassing the alleyway. He quickly disappeared from view. Angelica shook her head in disbelief as she chuckled inwardly.

"He always has to try and hide how he truly feels underneath..."

She quickly ran up to Hermes' side to make sure nothing went wrong as he waited for the announcement.

"Hermes, how much do you know about the ten elder counsel?"

Hearing her question, Hermes' eyebrows lifted up slightly. "Not much, just that there are ten of them that govern this city."

She shook her head and smiled.

"The ten elder counsel is governed by five stage 7 Celestials and five ordinary people. This is to ensure that both Celestials and normal citizens have equal authority in the government. We call these seats the Heavenly and Earthly respectively."

Without letting Hermes interrupt her, she continued:

"However, this does not mean equality exists within, in fact, it's quite the opposite. 3 noble families control about half the seats, both from Heavenly and Earthly."

"These noble houses are called Césaire, Verdier, and Lysange. They each hold a powerful faction within every aspect of Sanctuary City."

'Césaire? Isn't that Leonardo's last name? So he was a noble after all.' Hermes had already guessed that something was special about him. He had always exuded a refined and gentlemanly aura. Angelica continued her lecture without giving him any time to process the information:

"Because of this, many of their members are trained from a young age in Martial Arts, Cosmic Force manipulation, and more. Of course, they aren't allowed to become fully fledged Celestials until they become Guardians."

She looked into Hermes' eyes and said in a serious voice unlike her personality:

"For this enlistment, you best be careful of Charles de Verdier and Elizabeth Lysange. They have already shown talents in swordplay, gunplay as well and mystic arts. Their Cosmic Force seems to have an affinity with the knowledge domain, so they may become your main rivals. Do not underestimate them."

Hermes nodded firmly. He had already decided not to underestimate anyone present at the upcoming examinations. Even with his experience as someone who had fought a super skeleton that could teleport to the death as well as finishing off a mutant, he was still largely inexperienced in combat.

To him, it's only been a week or so since returning from work at a research center, and now he has to compete for some sort of army registration...

Sensing his understanding, Angelica nodded back to him with a smile. She had clearly been worried that he may take his past experiences to heart and completely let his guard down during the enlistment examination.

As Angelica and Hermes continued to converse while they waited for the announcement, the crowd around them became full of murmurs and whispers. Sensing the anomaly, Hermes turned around and found the reason for the commotion.

A large man about 6'7 walked in stride. He had a set of fully luscious blonde hair and blue eyes that couldn't hide the glimmer of arrogance in them in the slightest. His face was chiseled, and his body was hardened; one could tell that the man had trained hard.

He came dressed to the nines in what looked to be a golden chainmail armor that had heavy plating on each shoulder. His trousers were also heavily padded out. Symbols could be seen snaking around the armor as they were engraved with expensive-looking diamonds.

On the left side of his chest plate, an engraved emblem was shown, shaped like a shield. Inside, a large silver sword vertically pierced through an open book.

He walked proudly between the crowd and stood in front of Hermes, who had to lift his head to look up at him. He was like a mighty tower blocking the sun. As the arrogant man gazed down, his lips curled into a smile, and his left hand pressed on the sword pommel sheathed at his waist.

"You. You're that peasant who was found in the middle of a sandstorm, who cowardly stole the credit from Captain Leonardo. What was your name again?"

Hermes could feel the disdain in his arrogant voice. It was like he was being stared down by the stereotypical jock you see in those '80s American high school movies. Hermes had always complained about how unrealistically they portrayed people in those TV shows. To him, there was no way anyone could act that shamelessly in public and not get laughed at, but here was a living example that clichés are not always based on fiction.

The only difference was that his accent was very elegant and classy compared to what he usually heard from Angelica, Arthur, or the rest of the civilians. He had gotten the same feeling when he briefly spoke to Leonardo during his time in the desert. According to Angelica, the language that everyone here speaks is called Luminaric, introduced around 18,000 years ago. At the time, space travel expanded and humanity needed a reliable language that was universal across any star system.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

The Luminaric Standard was introduced, and Sanctuary City had managed to keep its legacy going for this long. Elgacia was also speaking to him in the same language during their brief conversations. Although Hermes did not like how this person was treating him, he knew that as a stranger in this city, offending someone of noble birth could spoil all his future plans.

Until he becomes a Guardian and understands the complete political landscape of Sanctuary City, creating enemies was not a smart decision. He decided to ignore his rude remarks and greet him normally. With a smile on his face, he quickly introduced himself with a gentlemanly bow.

"My name is Hermes Wilson, it's a pleasure to meet you. May I presume you to be Mr. Charles de Verdier?"

The proud man nodded and replied arrogantly,

"It seems even savages who live among the mutants outside the city are aware of my name, very good. Speaking of which, you aren't a mutant yourself, are you?"

Angelica quickly rolled her eyes and replied with a bored expression, "Little Charlie, when will you learn that using your tongue isn't going to be enough when you face actual mutants? Elizabeth doesn't like men who boast about their nonexistent accomplishments."

Charles gritted his teeth and gave her a mean look.

"What do you know about Elizabeth?! Me and her are already destined to become bride and groom. Our parents had already arranged it!"

Angelica scoffed and shook her head in contempt.

"Sigh, you always talk about destiny this, arranged that but never your abilities to woo a woman. How pathetic..."

The crowd, which was originally silent, was on the brink of collapsing into laughter. The only thing stopping them was the knowledge that offending a noble would do them no good. Still, a few chuckles in the back could be heard from those who were not able to completely control themselves; it was unknown where they came from within the crowd, and no one was willing to point fingers.

Charles showed a face of agitation. It was clear that he wanted to do something violent to Angelica but stopped himself for an unknown reason. He was completely humiliated in front of the crowd and could do nothing but give stern looks to the people around him to hush them up completely.

Hermes quickly turned his face towards Angelica in shock. He couldn't believe that this ordinary doctor he had formed a friendship with would be this straightforward with a supposed noble. His understanding of politics was clearly much lower than he had assumed.

'Does Angelica also have a special identity in Sanctuary City that allows her to voice her opinions so directly to even the nobles? It seems I must reevaluate her...'

Sensing his gaze, she smiled and winked at him playfully. This angered Charles even more; if he couldn't defeat Angelica, he would simply point his anger toward Hermes instead. This made Hermes sigh inwardly.

'It seems even without doing anything to this egotistical man, I am still being framed as his enemy. Nothing I do or say can mend the relationship between us unless I get down on all fours and beg him to forgive me.' Hermes began glaring daggers at the woman who made him her partner in crime unintentionally.

Angelica noticed his scornful gaze and began showing an oblivious face as if she were the most innocent person in the crowd. Seeing this, Hermes did not comment much further and turned to look at Charles, who quickly met his gaze.

"I'll remember this later. I will make sure to thoroughly humiliate you in front of everyone today. It's unlucky for you to take the Guardian examination with me."

Hermes decided to shrug and quickly said with a hint of indifference: "Alright, try your best, little Charlie."

"Pfff...", Angelica couldn't hold in her laughter at all. Charles, who wasn't expecting such a disrespectful response, was filled with rage.

"YOU BAS-"

"SILENCE!"

He raced towards his sword in a bid to unsheathe it when a voice suddenly rang across the entire open square.

Not a single voice was heard after that. Even Charles stopped all his actions and faced the gate that led towards the training grounds. Hermes quickly turned around to find the source of the mighty voice. It was none other than Viktor, his tattoos and bronze-tinted head, which reflected the sun, were recognizable for miles. His stern face and titanic body, which made even the arrogant Charles shiver like a dwarf, enveloped everyone's sight.

Unlike how he looked after being blasted out of the sky by the Mutant Devil Wolf, his limbs seemed to be reattached and as new as ever. His cyborg body was completely repaired. As he looked down menacingly at the potential cadets, he spoke in a seriously stern and deep voice.

"I'm the assigned Proctor for this group of examinees. My name is Viktor Medvedev, Vice Captain of the Alpha Company, 2nd Battalion of the Guardian Regiments. You shall address me as Instructor from now on, DO I MAKE MYSELF CLEAR?!"

Everyone replied loudly, "Instructor, Yes Sir!"

"Good, now compile yourselves into two lines, females on the left, males on the right. YOU HAVE 3 MINUTES TO COMPLETE THIS TASK, ANYONE WHO IS NOT IN THE LINE BY THAT TIME CAN GO BACK HOME. BEGIN IMMEDIATELY!"

"Instructor, Yes Sir!", No one hesitated as the line quickly formed. Angelica quickly positioned herself away from the commotion as Hermes raced towards the line that was being created. As he rushed to step behind a person who had already successfully positioned himself, he was quickly shoved to the side by Charles, who had a grin on his face.

'Sigh... What are you, some middle schooler? Your taunts don't work, you know. I already faced much scarier things since my transmigration...'

Hermes ignored him and stepped into the line behind him, giving him no satisfaction for his childish taunts. Charles clicked his tongue in contempt. By the time the three minutes had passed, a bunch of fools who didn't make it in time were quickly shooed away by Viktor.

"Now then, you may follow me into the training grounds. Anyone who steps out of their lines will immediately be disqualified. If you try to kick another examinee out of the line to sabotage them, I'll make sure you go through hell, understood?"

"Instructor, Yes Sir!" It was clear to Viktor, who had already noticed Hermes' presence, that everyone else there hated his guts. There would obviously be a few who may try to play dirty with his rules so a preemptive warning was necessary to ward off any trouble.

As the two human centipede lines followed Viktor's gigantic body from behind, they entered a large space filled with training dummies, swords, and weapons unknown to Hermes. There were even square-shaped stone platforms meant for duels and sparing matches. This was the same field Hermes saw when he first stepped out from the military clinic.

He glanced at Angelica, who was slowly walking away from the group as she waved at Hermes and went towards the clinic's direction. Hermes quickly shifted his gaze onto Viktor's broad back. Viktor stopped in his place and ordered the new enlistees to position themselves side by side. Soon he turned to face them, his bear-like bellowing voice resounding in all of their hearts.

"I welcome you to the quarterly Guardian Regiment Recruitment Examinations. Some of you will succeed and become the next generation of champions of humanity, while others may wallow in despair and head back empty-handed. Whichever one of the two you will be, we will find out soon enough."

END OF CHAPTER