Sebastian walked around the city while holding the map in his hand.

“Where the hell am I?” asked Sebastian to himself as he concentrated on the map.

He had a rough idea at first when he had started but now after reaching the civilian district, he was lost.

The civilian district of Abros has cramped up homes all stacked up together like a stack of cards. Although, the citizens didn’t mind that at all. They received a fat income and also got a high-class status. Each of the citizens here has a family member working for the military here.

Although people who had permanent shops at the peasant district like Beatrice and her family who had a lower status compared to the civilian district. Hence, there was a threat if Beatrice’s bakery didn’t perform well or the civilians were unhappy with their service would likely be removed from the city along with their citizenship to be revoked. Some other people would likely be replaced with a new bakery.

Hence there was pressure on the shopkeepers to perform well and satisfy the customers, especially the civilians of this district.

Thankfully, the Magpie family had well bonded with the civilians on their good side.

“Didn’t I just past by here?” questioned Sebastian to himself.

He once again made roundabout-turn and returned to the same place as before.

Anyone can linger in the civilian districts but the only problem was that it was like a maze. The houses had buildings with three-four storey houses stacked and closed to each other. People who weren’t familiar with this area would likely get lost.

Sebastian then saw some group of young boys playing at the side of the road. They looked about the same age as Martha.

He approached the kids,

“Hey boys, could you help me out for a second? I need to know the directions to the Knight examination office.”

The boys stopped playing and glanced at the stranger.

One of the boys stepped up,

“Get lost!”

Sebastian was baffled to hear the response,

“Excuse me? What did you just say?” he asked.

“I said go away, slave! Or I’ll report to your master.” responded the kid.

Sebastian was surprised,

“My master is Sir Knight Darius Pollard Brigande whose currently posted in the northern border but I am not a slave but his pupil-”

“Your master’s name is weird. Hahaha” mocked the bratty kid.

His friends also started laughing.

Although, Sebastian didn’t take this joke well.

“You don’t know what you’re talking kid.” Sebastian closed in and looked him in the eye, “He has cool name than any of the other knights I ever heard. So stop laughing this instant.”

Sebastian was a bit annoyed and his infamous smile resurfaced.

The kids all froze in terror, seeing his evil smile as he glared at them. The boys shivered in fear.

The youngest among the boys was the first to start balling his eyes out as he cried.

Sebastian was startled,

“Huh? What?”

The other boys started running,

“Help! Help me!”

“There’s a monster here.” screamed the kids as they made their escape.

“Monster? What? Where?” asked puzzled Sebastian as he looked around him.

One of the boys threw their ball on Sebastian’s face, but Sebastian managed to grab it with one hand.

“Wait, me?!” Sebastian squealed in surprise.

People started to gather around the place hearing the commotion.

‘Not this again!’ Sebastian quickly ran into an alleyway.

The people who came to kids rescue followed Sebastian into the alleyway armed with Broom and sticks.

Although, Sebastian was nowhere to be found. The alleyway had a dead end. People once again scattered to look for him.

Meanwhile, Sebastian was watching the commotion from a rooftop. He escaped while quickly climbing one of the buildings nearby.

Sebastian was born and brought up in Kald village located near the foothills of the northern mountains. He used to work as a chore boy at the northern military outpost since he was very young. The outpost was located in the harsh cold mountainous region with rough terrain and he used to come back and forth from that outpost every day.

Hence scaling the cramped tall houses in the civilian district was a no biggie.

Sebastian than escaped the area via jumping from one roof to another until he reached a safer place.

“Well then that’s over, let’s see where we are.” saying so Sebastian once again checked his map.

The rooftops gave a better view of the city. Hence it made Sebastian’s job a bit easier.

The wall that dividing the civilian district with the noble district was clearly visible from the rooftop. According to the map, the military audit office was located along the wall somewhere.

Sebastian quickly tried to figure out his location while searching for the landmarks marked on the map.

He ran errands like delivering letters from the northern border outpost to secluded military camps at the edge of the border. This city’s map was more detailed and easy to read compared to the maps made by the northern outpost. Their map was terrible as more than half of northern outpost soldiers were illiterate and ruffians. Sir Darius was purposely given the most troublesome soldiers to command. Although, Knight Darius never once complained back.

Sebastian leaped from one rooftop to another circling the wall in search of the office. The rooftop varied, some had tiled roof while some had an open space like veranda rooftop where they had their laundry up to dry.

Sebastian was quite quick and strong enough to leap from one roof to another despite having a 10-meter gap. He surely seemed to be enjoying this new terrain.

Just when leaping around for some time, he finally reached the office building.

Finally, Sebastian got down from the roof without letting anyone spot him. He dropped in a nearby alleyway and got out on the main street.

There stood a solid concrete wall about 6-7 meters tall, stood in front of him. The wall stretched across from both sides until it disappeared on the horizon. This wall was to keep the citizens and any other foreigners out of the noble district. The noble district is beautifully constructed with lots of mansions and gardens one eye can see. They even have man-made ponds and birds there for the amusement of the nobles.

The noble district was nothing like a civilian or any city in the Rublor city. Every civilian here dreams to at least visit that area for once. Although there are no noble’s residences near the district wall, they are located away from the public eye.

Sebastian approached the office which stood between the intersection of the wall.

This Exam registration office was quite a big building. Calling it a mansion would be not wrong. The large building was quite elegantly designed with glass decor windows. The building completely stood out and looked like a part of the noble district. The only exception was that it was standing in between the noble district and the civilian district at the same time.

There were a lot of city guards posted around the building.

Sebastian stood in the middle of the street glaring at the beautiful architecture.

‘Is this really a registration office, right? Am I allowed to enter?’ thought Sebastian to himself.

He was a bit nervous as he tried to think about it.

One of the guards noticed Sebastian who thought he was acting suspiciously.

“You there! Come here for a second.” shrieked out the office guard.

Sebastian quickly realized he was being called,

“You mean me?”

“Yes, what are you doing here?” asked the guard as he kept one of his hands at the handle of his sword.

Sebastian’s nervous grin resurfaced,

“I-I uh… I'm just here looking for the office,” he replied.

The office guard raised their guards and started to surround him. Sebastian’s grinning habit made him more suspicious.

Sebastian realized that guards were surrounding him,

“Wait! Please trust me, I am no one suspicious,” he said while he reached out for his pocket.

The guards in retaliation quickly sheathed their swords,

“Stop moving or else-”

“Wait, I am unarmed! I just wanted to show you this-” saying so he unveiled the scroll letter from his master.

The guards were surprised and backed away immediately and lowered their swords.

The guard that was first to question Sebastian bowed his head,

“I apologize for my and my men’s behavior.”

Sebastian was quite surprised himself,

“What!... uh… That’s alright. You don’t need to bow your head. It’s not like the first time it happened.”

Sebastian didn’t expect such a reaction from the guards.

The guards opened the gate to let Sebastian enter,

“Please enter. Your fellow candidates have already waiting inside, godspeed.”

“Eh.. thank you.” thanked Sebastian as he scratched his head while he smiled nervously.

Nevertheless, he accepted the guard’s invitation and entered the building premises.

As soon as Sebastian entered the gate shut closed.

The guards returned back to their position.

“Are you sure, he was a knight candidate?” asked one of the guards.

“He possessed the scroll of kinship from a high ranking knight. So of course, we have to let him enter.” replied the guard’s leader.

“But the way he was dressed in that plain clothes and that evil smile. Should we still have allowed him to enter?”

The office guard leader smiled,

“It’s our duty to let anyone with the scroll enter the premises. We don’t have the authority to validate if the owner possessing the scroll is genuine or not. Besides, if he wasn’t a real candidate, then surely he’s going to be deadman. Hahaha.”