There was an awkward silence following my concealed gossip between the candidates. The candidates were staring at Sebastian followed with mixed reaction. Some were surprised, some were agitated while some of them were disgusted.

“Pardon my intrusion” saying so Sebastian lowered his head and quietly walked in the room. He kept his gaze on the ground and didn’t dare to look the other candidates in the eye.

‘Calm down Sebastian. The plan to make an impression while making friends was a bust. So if I get any more nervous, then I won’t be able to stop my smile from resurfacing.’ thinking so Sebastian quietly tiptoed his way to the corner.

‘If I heard correct the candidates here are nobles. No wonder they got the luxurious couches all around the room. Although, I should just sit on a floor in the corner. Either way, the floor tiles are also so pretty that I am even afraid that if sitting on it won’t sully it anyway.’ muttered Sebastian to himself in the head.

Just when a candidate stood up,

“Hey, you! Peasant. Stop right there.” he shouted with an agitated tone.

Although, Sebastian kept walking towards the corner while busy in his own thoughts.

The angry candidate gritted his teeth,

“I told you to stop, you filthy peasant!”

Sebastian finally snapped out of it and turned around looking for the owner of that voice. He saw a boy with grey hair wearing a silver armor set from neck to bottom. He also had a long blue fabric cape hanging behind on his back of the armor. Although, he’s stature was quite short.

There were more candidates standing behind at his side, glaring at Sebastian with pure animosity.

“Peasant?! Uh… yes, sir?” mumbled Sebastian quickly, ‘It almost slipped my mind that I was a peasant. It’s been a long time since anyone called me that. I guess I must get used to it from now on.’

The grey hair dude glared at Sebastian with a furious expression,

“What the hell are you doing here?! This place on this floor is meant to be only used for candidates those of noble heritage. Lowly filthy like you are meant to go to the upper level. Now hurry up and get away from my sight, this instant.”

Sebastian but was a bit puzzled,

“But sir, the receptionist lady told me to go the third-”

“Didn’t I just told you to go upstairs? Get out of here now, the last thing I want his to spread your filth around us. Go mingle with your scholarship maggots over there. Hehe.” said the grey hair dude with a chuckle.

Sebastian lowers his head,

“Ok, sir. I’ll get moving right away.” saying so Sebastian quickly dashed towards the doorway.

‘So this was the wrong waiting room. Gotta find the waiting room for the peasant. I must hurry, I can’t hold my facial expression any longer.’ mumbled Sebastian to himself as he lowered his eye while walking toward the door. Sebastian was forcefully trying to suppress his smile from resurfacing while concentrating on the muscle on his face. Although, this exercise was risky as it would sometimes give him facial muscle spasm which results in him smiling for about an hour or so without stopping.

It’s a double-edged sword, hence Sebastian tends to do this only as a last resort option.

Sebastian quickly evaded eye contact and almost reached halfway to the doorway, just when-

“Where do you think you’re going?” asked the grey hair dude once again.

Sebastian stopped in his track and looked back,

“Um.... you said to go to the upper floor. So that’s what I am trying to-”

“You moron. Go upstairs from that staircase over there, to the upper balcony.” replied the grey hair dude as he pointed towards a staircase at the corner of the room.

Sebastian glanced at the staircase which led him to the upper balcony. The hall was quite big to house even a big balcony just above. Sebastian didn’t notice, but there were more candidates standing at the balcony’s railing watching the entire drama from above.

‘Wow. What is this building? They have different floors even in a room. How big is this mansion anyway?’ thought Sebastian.

Sebastian once again genuinely bowed his head,

“Thank you and sorry for interrupting your precious time.” and left on to climb the stairs.

“Tch. Scram.” replied the annoyed grey hair dude.

Sebastian finally climbed upstairs to the upper balcony.

Here there were more candidates than on the floor below. Although, the equipment worn by the candidates on this floor was not as quirky and elegant as the noble candidates below.

These were candidates who came from rich families and had a higher status in society. Although the furniture on this floor consisted of wooden tables followed with wooden chairs. There were various kinds of fruits and drinks placed on the table.

The luxury was a little less compared to the one provided to the nobles below.

Sebastian reached on the floor admiring the people around him as he thought,

‘So this must be the people who are fellow rivals who I am going to befriend. I am surely able to make at least one or two friends for sure.’

Sebastian took a deep breath,

“Hello, I am-”

“Get out of here.” said one of the candidates with a big muscular physique with a mohawk.

Sebastian, however, was caught off guard,

“Pardon?”

“Go to the corner and join your fellow peasant maggots at that corner. Don’t even dare to even think to sit here along with us higher status candidates.” said the mohawk dude with threatening aura.

Sebastian while nodded his head,

“Oh sorry to interrupt you guys. My bad” saying so Sebastian dashed toward where the mohawk dude pointed.

‘What is going on here? I managed to suppress my smiling habit but still, people are just outright hating me for some reason. Is it because of my attire? Does my clothes stink or what?’ reflected Sebastian as he dashed towards the corner.

Just when a girl at the corner waving at him,

“Hey! Over here.”

Sebastian glanced over the voice owner to see a girl dressed in moderate armor around the corner. She looked like an average girl with pigtails waving her hands at Sebastian.

He spotted a group of 6 candidates in a secluded place, away from the rest of the candidates sitting on the floor. They looked like any normal candidate judging from the equipment they were wearing a light set of armor of cheap quality.

Everyone looked quite serious and just sitting and waiting patiently.

The girl was the only one who seemed to be excited seeing Sebastian.

“Come here quickly, have a seat.” said the girl as she patted the floor beside her suggesting Sebastian to sit.

“Thank you, I’ll take up your offer then.” saying so Sebastian sat beside her.

“Hello. I am Jericho,” introduced the girl as she stretched her hand to handshake.

“I am Sebastian, nice to meet,” answered Sebastian as he shook her hand.

“Sebastian, you had it pretty rough down there. Glad you made it up here somehow. Hahaha.” said Jericho while giggling delightfully.

“Uh… Yeah, I am somehow in one piece luckily,” replied Sebastian as he scratched his head. ‘She seemed to be a kind person, being a peasant like me. I hope that everyone in this group is as friendly as her.’

Just when one of the candidates who was sitting beside Jericho was a boy with long ponytail hair,

“Jericho, could you stop being chummy with the new guy. We all are rivals here after all.”

Jericho glanced back,

“Oh, what’s this? Do I smell something burning? Are you perhaps jealous?” asked Jericho as she playfully looked at him.

Although, that guy wasn’t amused one bit,

“Stop kidding around. I am being serious here.”

“We all come from a lower status family background so it’s just right to stick together. You know we will be the first ones to be targeted in exams, right? So this must be the time to get some bonding done and get to know our allies from the start.”

Suddenly one of the boys with a headband and spiky hair joined in,

“I agree with Jericho here. The best thing for us scholarship candidates would be to stick together and watch each other’s back. The other candidates are likely to target us just because we have lower-class relics and poor equipment.”

“See, even Moses agrees with me,” said Jericho as she gawked at that grumpy ponytailed guy candidate.

“Tch. Do whatever you want then.” said the uptight ponytail boy with an annoyed look.

“Let’s have an introduction session once again. Starting with me.” Jericho suddenly stood up cheerfully.

She continued,

“Hello, I am a scholarship candidate number F9021, Jericho Leto. I represent the Arial Monetary foundation. I have been trying for years to become a candidate but this year I got lucky and finally, I am here to participate in this year’s exam. Also…”

Jericho points at the uptight grumpy guy with the ponytail, “This grumpy boy here is Azael, scholarship candidate number C4231. He’s my old friend coming from the same organization as me. He’s kinda uptight most of the time but he’s really nice guy once you come to know. Please get along with him.”

The grumpy guy Azael became more annoyed,

“What are you doing? Don’t give my information without asking.”

“Wow! Arial monetary foundation isn’t it that new bank?” asked one of the candidates.

Suddenly Jericho’s eyes lit up,

“Yes! We are a new bank and need new accounts. Deposit your precious money at our bank at 7.25% interest. In a few year’s time, your money will be doubled, probably. Apply now and you will get an extra 0.05% interest rate if you mention my name along with my candidate number. Arial bank is the best bank.”

The spiky kid haired kid interrupts,

“Calm down. Is this really the time to promote your bank account sales?”

“Why not? We are just waiting around, so what’s wrong with promoting my organization’s sales? I will also get some tipsy bonuses for getting customers for our organization as well. Teehee.” replied Jericho with a smug smile, “Moving on to the next candidate, clockwise...”

She pointed to the guy next to Azael, “Your chance to introduce yourself.”

The next to the introduction was a tall and plump boy who stood up,

“Hello everyone. I am Dylan Bason, scholarship candidate no. D0189. I am here on behalf of representing the Chestnut merchant guild. Please drop by our merchant branch shops to purchase various antiques and also refer to my name to get a little discount. It’s nice meeting everyone.”

“Oh, Chestnut merchants are a pretty well-known guild. I will surely drop by to buy a few things. Of course, I will refer to your name there.” replied Jericho with a cheerful smile.

A bright smile appeared on Dylan’s face,

“Thank you! I will write down my candidate number-”

“But you have to make a few accounts in our bank first. It’s just a fair deal, right?” demanded Jericho as she had a wide smug smile.

Dylan had a weary smile,

“Oh ok. We have a deal.”

“Great!” exclaimed Jericho.

Soon one by one, all the candidates introduced themselves in a similar manner. Each scholarship was sponsored by some famous commercial or non-commercial organizations. And every one of them along with the introduction promoted their organization. It looked more like an ad campaign rather than an actual introduction.

So first of all, the scholarship candidate is a special bunch then unlike the other candidates. The normal way of recruiting was for a higher ranking magic knight to select one candidate as their godchild. But here, they are instead chosen by certain organizations that chose their candidate while providing everything necessary from the candidate.

These organizations have low-class mages affiliated within these organizations who are able to create low tier relics. In that manner, the candidate finally manages to be eligible to participate in this exam.

This new system was relatively started just a few years ago to increase the number of recruits. Many of the nobles were against this idea at first, but after Cecelia Nevarthalises came to power, she approved of this new system.

This way, even the common citizen had an equal opportunity to become a magic knight. Also, this system allowed low tier magician craftsman to promote their handcrafted relic via these candidates. The organization played the main role while providing funding to getting approval from the military. The final decision lies with the organization. Also, the organization’s whose candidates passed and became knights received political benefits.

In this manner, it was a win-win for everyone.

Although, scholarship candidates constantly target of bullying from other candidates because of their status. They are the first to be targeted and taken out by the other candidates.

Hence the scholarship candidates had started forming groups to pass this exam.

Once again returning back to the scholarship candidates in the waiting room.

Everyone had done their introduction except for Sebastian.

“Introduce yourself once again,” said Jericho.

Sebastian stood up,

“Hello...uh, I am Sebastian Heller. I am from Kald village situated at the foothills of Northern mountain at the border. Nice to meet you all.”

Saying so Sebastian once again sat down.

“That’s it?” asked one of the spiky hair candidate.

“Tell us your organization at least?” asked Jericho.

“Uhm… Sorry but no I was actually sent by my master, Sir Knight Darian.”

Suddenly a silence fell in the group.

Sebastian was a bit confused with the sudden change of atmosphere.

“Uhm... what’s the matter?”

“So you are not a scholarship candidate?” asked Jericho.

Sebastian scratched his head,

“About that? What’s a scholarship candidate anyway?”