The servants went back to the inner ward. They didn't want to leave yet, but they had no other way. They couldn't stay in the library any longer. Rayen looked around. All that surrounded him was death. Here, thousands died. The people who were supposed to help him. All that was left of them was blood on the grass. How different would it all be if the Red Demon didn't attack this place... The silence was interrupted by the sound of the servants' empty stomachs. They didn't notice it before, since they were busy cleaning and learning, but they didn't eat anything since morning.

"Little ones, it's time for dinner. All followers went to sleep. Go to the great hall. Now it's your turn."

"Eat up," Yuhal said, "don't hold yourselves back, you won't get another chance to eat. After you finish, clean up."

The gates to the great hall opened. The place was empty. The followers had long since left. On the table there were the leftovers from the party. There were drinks and all types of different foods and desserts, most of them half eaten. It was barely enough for the over two hundred servants. The servants entered the hall. There was a broken sign on the floor. It read 'Welcome'.

'All that food... it was meant for us. It was meant to receive us as students. Yet, in the end, it went to them. To those who slaved us. To those who killed the people who were meant to teach us. But that doesn't matter anymore, does it?' The servants ran to the table. They pushed each other to get a bit of food. Rayen joined as well, he was starving, like the rest of them.

Rayen ate food he never saw before. 'This is even better than the one I ate in Reius. Reius...' That reminded him of his home, his village, it was still in danger. 'How long will it be before it all ended? Before the village is consumed by the beasts, devoured by them. What can the Elder do? He gave me the dagger, the dagger I now lost. Lost to the Red Demon. The demon who took everything from me. But what can I do? Except gain power.' The symbols constantly appeared in Rayen's mind. He had to get power and this was the only way he had. The symbols. Were he to forget them, he will be powerless and die. It didn't matter if he was eating, it was instinctual at this point.

Stone went to the center of the table. There was a big duck there. The servants were fighting for it. He pushed them aside. "Mine!" He took it and ate it. Everybody watched him. They wanted it as well, but how could they compete against a gruen?

Vesh took out the most delicious-looking dessert on the table, it was a yellow pie with meringue on top. Half of it was already eaten, but there was more than enough for a person. The other servants tried to take it away from him, but they were no match, rather than join up and fight, they preferred to take on easier targets.

"I'm sorrowful my ability to procure a crystal was insufficient." He knelt in front of Yune and presented the dessert to her. "I hope my princess can exonerate me. I offer you a lemon pie in compensation. You don't need to join the uncivilized. If you so desire, I will battle for you and fetch you any delicacy you covet."

Yune didn't care, she didn't even look at Vesh. She was laughing happily while she pushed people away and took their food. Rayen found it strange. It was like all this was a relief for her. People tried to fight back, but Saya teamed up with her, when someone tried to touch Yune, she will elbow them. It was incredibly unfair for the rest. They could get attacked by Yune, but couldn't defend themselves.

Vesh stood there, with the dessert on his hand, waiting. He was annoyed. He did everything for Yune, and what was the result? This? He tried to endure it, but he couldn't. In the end, he ate it himself. A few people tried to take it away from him, but he punched them on the face and then kicked them. He was pissed. After that, no one tried to do anything. He took some more food, he lost too much time waiting for Yune.

On a quiet corner, the rakuyas were eating peacefully. They didn't have much food, but they didn't need it. They could survive from water, sun and earth.

Food flew all over the big table. The floor was filled with tiny bits of food. The weaker servants had no choice but to take the leftovers of the leftovers, to take the food that was on the floor or that other servants left. They could only blame themselves for their lack of power.

Rayen observed it. He saw them, fighting for scraps. 'Those should be yours, you should be sitting on the chair, not fighting like an animal on the ground.'

This was an humiliation. But so what? What could they do? If they dared to attack the captains, they would die. Even if they didn't make the oath, what chance did they have? They were the weakest to begin with. And more so with the oath, just thinking of attacking them was enough to bring pain to them. They couldn't do anything. They were powerless, but they had to endure it if they wanted to stay alive.

'There is always a chance, if one waits for the right moment.' Rayen looked at the captains, they were having fun looking at the servants fight for scraps. 'There should be more food than this. The celebration was prepared for over a thousand people. Even if the followers ate, they couldn't eat that much. They must have hid the food, but what can we do? If anyone goes to search for it, he will starve. It may be barely enough, but it is enough after all. Even if it means that we have to fight for the last bone.'

In ten minutes, all the leftovers disappeared. They were still a bit hungry, but they ate enough. Yune and Stone were particularly full. They were the biggest winners in all of this. Now it was time to clean. Yuhal waved his hand and the cleaning tools from before appeared once more. With two hundred servants, it didn't take long for them to clean up everything.

"Come, little ones," Suei said. "I will take you to your new rooms."

Rayen and the other servants followed him. The corridor was unending, there were hundreds of rooms. Each servant got an individual room. Rayen entered his room, it was small, it was little more than a bed. From how close the other doors were, all the other rooms were the same.

Rayen dropped the bestiary near his bed and sat down. "Time to form the foundation." His body shook, he was hesitant to begin. He exhaled and calmed himself. Wasting his time in doubt wasn't good.

*Knock knock* The door opened, it was Yune and Saya.

"Hi Ray," Yune said. "We came to talk."

"Why in my room?"

"Where else will we go?" Vesh entered the room, followed by Remya and Sonya with their spirits.

Stone tried to enter, but it was too cramped. He couldn't fit inside. "Me guard." He left the room and stood outside.

"We need to escape," Remya said.

"Escape?" Saya said. "How? It's impossible."

"That's why we need to discuss it," Remya said.

"Aren't you afraid they will hear us?"

"They don't care what we do or say. They are confident that we can't escape, no matter what."

"Seeing how Suei is, he will probably let us escape just to capture us back and torture us."

"So long as we are safe and can gain power, I have no problem being here," Rayen said. "We can't leave the castle, and even if we could, we will just die."

"I concur with Remya," Vesh said. "Do you honestly believe this is the first place they conquered? I doubt it, but where are the other slaves? We weren't the first slaves, but we are the only ones now."

"That means..."

"It means that we will die if we stay here. We need to escape."

"We should wait until we are stronger," Rayen said.

"We can't wait," Remya said. "We need to escape now. Rayen saw a holy tree withering, and if what Rayen said is true, the world is in danger. The holy trees protect the world, if they die, the world will be defenseless."

"I will not put Yune in danger." Saya said.

"The world is more important than our lives."

"I'm tired of this!" Yune raised her voice and slapped the wall. "The world will die? The only thing that will die is your holy forest. Aren't there dozens of them? You are just afraid of your people dying. What difference can we make? What difference do we, some poor kids who aren't even mages yet, make? Do you think they don't know it already? They must already know it. Do you think we can change something? We can't. We are stuck here. We can't escape. Escaping will risk our lives pointlessly. We will die there. And for what? So that you can protect your town? You talk about protecting the world. But is it really in danger? How long until it all happens, if it ever happens? Will the planet be destroyed just because your people died? Do the attackers want to destroy the planet, or are they at war with your people? The most likely thing is that they are at war with you, and you just want to drag us in."

"That's why I hate outsiders, so ignorant, so full of themselves. The world is more important than our lives. If the world ends, so do we, and not only we, but also the people we care about, the places we live in. All of them will be dead. All because of your stupidity."

"I also want to save my village," Rayen said. "Even if the world won't end, if the holy tree there dies, the village will die with it."

"If they were honest like you and said it's their town what they want us to protect, I may accept it, but they talk big about the world just to drag us in."

"Tsk." Remya took Sonya with her and went to the door. "I'm leaving, this was a waste of time. I should never have relied on outsiders."

"Calm down." Rayen stopped her. "We don't need to escape anyway. All we need is to inform them of what happened."

"True," Saya said. "Kris may help us."

"Who is Kris?" Sonya asked.

"The girl I mentioned when we met," Yune said. "the one who asked for a cat and got a ten before."

"Oh, her. I wasn't paying attention. But she sure is weird. Do you think she will be able to help us?"

"She can," Rayen said. "She is a follower, unlike us, she can leave and do things we can't."

"That's not what I meant, I meant if she has the mental capacity to help us. I think she will screw it up and leave us in danger."

"Hmm..."

"For now let's focus on improving ourselves," Sonya said. "Concentrate on learning the barrier and getting the foundation so we can survive this week. Then we will see."

"Do you all have a foundation technique?" Yune asked.

"Yes," Everyone except Vesh said.

"No."

"Good," Yune said. "Let's go train. See you tomorrow."

"Bye." Remya left. Sonya waited behind.

"Please, forgive Remya, she may be like that, but she is good inside. Lots of things happened. She is doing what she believes is the best. I'm sorry for all the problems she caused."

"It's okay. We understand."

"Let's go." Remya came back since Sonya wasn't following her.

Sonya bowed and they all left. Rayen was alone once again.

Rayen sat back, he could finally practice. The technique was called Silver Palace. It consisted in using magic symbols to form some sort of palace inside his body. When the mana entered, it will pass through a big gate and be branded his, then he will store it inside the palace. The symbols appeared in his mind once more before he began.

He inhaled and exhaled using the method taught by the professor before he died. He felt a strange energy inside him. Rayen focused on the ownerless mana he absorbed. In his mind, everything else disappeared. He was completely focused on the mana. Now, he could see it. It was a small distorted mass floating and twisting inside his body. He took a small strand of mana and molded it into a symbol. He didn't know nor cared about how much time the process took. It was difficult to change its shape. The strand has hard, so he needed a lot of effort to bend it. And if he left it alone, it would try to return to its previous form.

One by one the symbols appeared inside of him. The more he did it, the more used he got to the process and the faster he went. The symbols joined in a circle and took the shape of a gate. He was now ready to convert his own mana, but he had run out of mana. He inhaled and exhaled again. The mana entered his body and passed through the gate. It stopped there. He felt his soul vibrate. The mana was slowly advancing, once it passed, it became his own.

He used the new mana to create more symbols, he still had to form the palace itself. Now it was a lot easier. He could control it perfectly with a simple thought. Unlike the ownerless mana, molding it was easy and it won't go back to its previous form. The process of creating the symbols accelerated exponentially. The symbols flew to their respective places and formed the palace.

He inhaled and exhaled again. 'Something feels wrong.' The mana wasn't converting as fast as it should, and the palace was somewhat strange, but he couldn't pinpoint what it was.

He extended his hand and sent his mana into it. As soon as it got outside his body, it dissipated. 'Why is this happening? I can't use it like this...' He closed his eyes again and absorbed more mana. The mana stuck at the gate. It wasn't advancing at all. The palace shook and a symbol disappeared, the symbols nearby broke out of the palace. The crack spread all over the palace and broke it into pieces. The mana and the remnants of the technique broke havoc inside his body, damaging it wherever they passed. Rayen fell to the ground and coughed blood. His consciousness started to fade.