I finally was able to enter the Ceremony Hall building premises.

These premises are one of the most important places in the city. It had significant value in the kingdom. The people of the kingdom almost revered this place like a temple even going so far as to worship it.

According to my knowledge, this is not only the place of the ascension ceremony but also where the phoenix familiar first places his blessing. It does the blessing in order to heal the potential mage candidates, giving each of them a fair start in the ascension ceremony.

Hence why the blessing ritual is a big deal. Getting the blessing of the phoenix familiar in person was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and it would be a shame if you miss it.

I just hope this phoenix familiar won’t go bonkers and roast everyone alive in the city. After seeing how the second trial went, I have very little trust concerning the safety issues of these mages nowadays.

At this moment, we candidates, orderly entered the oval building.

As we enter we noticed that the interior was a lot bigger and more spacious inside like we were in a palace. There were illustrious paintings of some renowned mages on the wall. Vintage weapons and magical gears are placed like antiques on the display. A Mint chandelier and old rustic hanging candle lamps light up the interior hallway and corridors.

But then our eyes fell on the weirdly dressed people standing in dominating demeanor in the building.

They were adult men and women wearing bright red clothes over a black cape and matching boots like some bizarre uniforms. Each of them was armed with rather unique weapons and watched us carefully under their hawkeye gaze as we walked in.

They were mages who were overseeing the ascension ceremony. From the first look, I could tell they were hard to deal with. These mages had this serious atmosphere around them, almost making them unapproachable. We, candidates, were very quiet so as to not piss off them in any way.

The mages then instructed us to form yet another queue that led upstairs to the upper floor. Our seats would be allotted on the upper floor for the blessing ritual.

So once again the queue was formed.

The candidates in the queue had mixed emotions, some were excited as their eyes lit up in anticipation. Meanwhile, some were nervous wrecks as they sweat and trembled.

Whereas I was really itching to get this whole thing to be over quickly.

After my identity as a gold pass holder was revealed, my fellow candidates were giving me the cold shoulder. The adventurer class candidates looked at me with wariness, meanwhile, the noble ones looked at me with disgust and scorn.

I was already an outcast even before this thing even happened.
I was feeling an ominous feeling just staying in this group.

The queue was moving at a turtle pace. But after a painful wait, the stairs leading to the upper floor finally got closer.

As I was about to just to reach the stairs-

“You there.” suddenly one of the mages called out.

It turned out a grumpy-looking old mage holding a staff looked distressed.
He was looking in my direction for some reason.

“Come here,” he commanded once again.

I pointed at myself,

“Me?”

“Yes, I am talking to you. Come here,”

What the heck does he want now?
Is there going to be yet another cross-examination?

I walked out of the queue and stood before him.

“Yes, what is it?” I asked.

“It’s sir, to you”

Annoying geezer.

“Yes, what is it, SIR?” I asked again, almost in a polite tone.

The next thing he did was examine me from top to bottom, examining my physique.
Is this man some weird pervert that has a thing for a young boy's body?

I felt disgusted for a second, I wouldn’t bat an eyelid if he tries any funny business.

“So you are the purple candidate who got the golden pass from Sir Bervice. It's quite rare for such a lower-class candidate like yourself to ever receive such an honor. I am quite amazed.” praised the old man.

I smiled,
“Thank you, sir.”

Oh so he just wanted to praise me, now that’s something.
And here I thought he was just butthurt.

The old man continued,
“Well, it's good that you have some talent but you should still know your place. Go join your fellow purple candidates over there. Letting you inside the inner district is more than enough privilege you enjoyed so far.”

Darn, I guess I was judging him too early.

Yep, another sack of scumbag judging by the hierarchy. I am not even surprised at this point.

The place where the old fart pointed was the group of other fellow candidates heading within the building through another passage. From the bracelets they were wearing, I could tell they were fellow ceremony train candidates from the looks of it.

It seems they have entered through the other side of the ceremony hall premises. They did tell me this hall was located between the two districts.

“Stop gawking and go join your own kind. The blessing ritual is about to begin, stop dilly-dallying here.” retorted the mage in a grumpy tone.

I wouldn’t be dilly-dallying, if only you had not called me out here, you old fart!

Well, whatever it's not like I like to be here-

“Mr. Pollocks!” suddenly another man interfered, “What do you think you are doing? You can’t treat the candidate picked by Sir Bervice in such a manner. He has every right to stand in this queue with the rest of the candidates present in this group.”

Oh, what’s this?

A young man dressed neatly, with combed oily hair armed with a sword. At this moment he was taking a stand for me against this grumpy mage. From his outfit, I could tell he was a mage as well.

Not to mention, one with a sense of justice which is quite the rarity.

“Huh?! Now you’ll teach me what I can or cannot do?” asked the grumpy mage, “I am your senior and my words are the law.”

“But Mr. Pollocks-”

“Hush! My granddaughter will be participating in this ceremony.” the old fart then points at me,

“I don’t want his shabby outfit and his uncivilized behavior to scare my dear daughter, it would later even hamper her performance in the ascension ceremony. It's just not for my own granddaughter but also for the other girls and boys who might get disgu- *cough* I mean displeased by him during the ceremony.”

Was he just about to say I was disgusting?

Soon the grumpy old fart coughed with a smile,
“Why even take such a risk. My granddaughter is entering this ceremony, so you can’t blame a worried grandpa, now can you~ haha.”

This fart is trying to hide blatant discrimination while playing off being a doting grandpa. What’s so scary about me? It's not like I will transform into some vile beast and attack these good-for-nothing brats.

Also, there’s nothing shabby about this outfit other than the embroidery of the funny-looking red-green scorpion that my mom stitched on the shirt sleeves. According to my mom, the red-green scorpion brings good health and fortune. The rest of my outfit was just a normal shirt and pair of pants with neatly polished shoes. Nothing fancy but just normalcy.

I should be the one dressed normally, the adventure class candidates who were literally armed with slain beast skins and armors. Meanwhile, the noble candidates were just wearing eye-blinding flashy outfits and wearing the whole darn jewels from the jewelry bazaar.

To Mr. Pollock's response, the young mage looked upset as if he wasn’t buying any of it.

The young mage frowned,
“Mr. Pollocks, you are overstepping your bounds! You must remember that all the candidates on this holy premises are equal and their lineage does not bind them in any way.”

“If that's true. What's the harm in letting him join his fellow plebeian candidates over there.” added the grumpy mage with a smirk.

“You can’t misuse your position and seniority like this. What is wrong, is wrong.”

“Stop making a big deal. You are starting to annoy me.”

“Mr. Pollocks, If you don’t stop this now. I will~ I will”

“Huh? You will do what?”

“ I’ll~ I’ll report to the authorities-”

“You brat! You dare to threaten me?”

“Hey,” I suddenly interrupted the two of them.

 

The two mages looked at me with a puzzled expression.

“I am more than happy to join that other group,” I replied.

“What?” asked the two puzzled mages.

But before they could change their mind

I just quickly walked away and joined the so-called ‘plebian’ group of mine, where I ‘truly’ belong. Not like I did care about that inner district group anyway.

The two bickering mages finally fell silent and let me join the other group without any more problems. I casually joined my old group containing fellow purple bracelet candidates from the ceremony train.

If I stayed any longer and let those two mages settle their differences, I would have long lost my chance in the ascension ceremony.

The kingdom really wants to uphold equality but still differentiate between people with bracelets. And they have the gall to say that everyone on these premises is treated equally.

This golden pass was barely any help, so much for being the golden pass holder. That just goes to show that the system of hierarchy needs a rework.

As I joined the plebian queue, the other candidates noticed that I was rather a new arrival in their group. They were puzzled about where did I come from and why the mages let me cut in the queue.

I remained silent as if I didn’t care.

Unlike the inner district candidates, our plebian queue was instructed to head straight inside.

As our queue moved forward,
“Beanjam!” suddenly a nostalgic name called out to me.

Not this brat again.

I disappointedly turned my head to see a short runt walking behind me.

The pointy spiky hair and the trademark red headband on his head were his defining identity. Although this time he was wearing a leather sleeveless jacket and a pair of matching shorts. He looked like an outlaw ruffian.

“Hello there, Cracker,” I greeted him.

“The name’s Tracker! How can’t you even remember such a cool name,” said Tracker in an annoyed tone.

He’s the one to speak.
But I had no spare energy to waste on him.

“What is it? What do you want?”

“Hey! You suddenly disappeared and the next thing you popped out of nowhere. Where were you all this time? How did you enter from the other side?” asked curious Tracker.

“Well, I was in someplace that is called mind your own damn business.”

Telling him would only cause me even more trouble. I should just focus on the ascension ceremony and bag one of the seats in the prestigious mage academy.

“Huh? What’s that supposed to mean? Aren’t we comrades from the same wagon? Why the secrecy?~Stop ignoring me!~Hello?” nagged Tracker.

I continued ignoring him until he gave up.

The group of us plebeian candidates was instructed to head into the interior of the building. They told us we would be seated down here unlike those of the inner district candidates on the upper floor.

As our group went ahead in the interior another peculiar group of candidates joined our little group.

As soon as we saw this unique group of candidates we were a bit surprised.

Even I was taken aback.

The new group of candidates that joined our little plebian queue had this dull expression, almost lifeless. Also, these candidates were still wearing the white jumpsuit from the ceremony train that the organizers had handed us down back on the train.

They were like any other ordinary candidates that you might see on the ceremony train EXCEPT these guys were wearing black bracelets. The more horrifying thing was that their bracelets were tied around their neck like a collar.

“Those poor guys,” muttered Tracker as he looked at him sorrowfully.

“Who are they?” I asked.

“They are the kids of the slaves, serfs, servants, prisoners, traitors, and as such outcasts in the kingdom. Their poor life was over on the day they were even born.”

“And here I thought we had it worse,”

I had almost forgotten about the candidates and the group of families dressed in rags and chained like criminals boarding the ceremony train.

Despite these lowly treated candidates managing to clear the trials, they were still made to wear their bracelets like some slaves. I don’t even wanna imagine what happened to the candidates and their families who didn’t manage to make the cut.

Our queue moved forward together in silence, only the noises our steps echoed.

Soon we reached a big oval amphitheater with a circle-shaped empty area in the middle. The area was quite big to fit about 100k candidates with ease.

Surrounding the center stage, there were concentric circular concrete steps. These must be the seating arrangements meant for the audience of the amphitheater except they were huge. It felt like these seats were meant for tall giants about 8ft and not for us.

There were about 12 such circular steps, and each step was wider, the further away it was from the center. Among these wide steps, I spotted those red-dressed mages scattered across the seats like the scarecrow in the wheat fields. Each of them was looking at us with stern eyes.

Soon one of the mages walked up to us and then segregated the purple bracelets and the black bracelets. We, purple candidates, head to the left, and the black went the other way.

The mages scattered across the seats and then assigned us our seats.
I was given the position on the 3rd seat closer to the center. They say it's a seat but we were instructed to stand.

We, candidates, stood side by side by maintaining an arm's length.
Beside me stood Tracker who somehow ended up standing beside me as well. At this moment he was quite perplexed by the new environment and looked curiously like a tourist.

I also was a bit curious about this amphitheater.
At the center, there was the elevated stage with white marble tiles that shone under the sun. Above the stage, there was a big wide hole on the roof which mostly lit this big amphitheater.

“Hey! Look at those candidates!” shouted Tracker all of a sudden.

I looked up and saw on the first-floor balcony, I spotted some of the candidates present as well. They were dressed in quite a different attire unlike the rest of us ‘plebian candidates’. You guessed it right, they were the inner district candidates.

At this moment I could see the candidates peeking at us curiously while gossiping.
Unlike us who were instructed to stand still, they were roaming around on the balcony like it was a garden. I could see some of the candidates snickering at us and looking at us with mocking eyes as if we were some zoo animals down here.

“Wow!” said Tracker keeping one of his hands on the forehead, “Hey Beanjam! Check out those beautiful girls up on that balcony.”

“Stand straight, Tracker,” I replied.

“It's your loss.”

“Tch” suddenly a female candidate behind us frowned, “Boys are disgusting.”

Tracker turned around and just snickered,
“Disgusting you say. The only disgusting thing is that jealousy of yours,” replied Tracker smugly,
“Isn’t that right, Benjamin?”

“Don’t involve me in this.”

“Die!” muttered the girl.

It's been sometime now and after half an hour of waiting all the candidates were assigned their position. We were still standing upright like dumbasses.

The only thing going on was some of the red coat mages were nagging the other candidates to stand upright. It was like as if we were waiting for something to happen.

“Hey, Benjamin! Seem to be nervous,” Tracker said all of a sudden.

I glanced at the short squirt,
“I am not nervous but you are. You sure are sweating like a pig”

“Look at yourself! You are sweating as well.”

At this moment our clothes were drenched with sweat. From head to toe, there was sweat everywhere on our bodies. Even our clothes were sticking to our bodies ruining our appearance.

“Is it me or it's really hot in here,” said Tracker with a weak smile.

Talking about heat, the temperature has been rising quite a bit in this room.

*Screech*

There was a loud screeching sound that echoed in the amphitheater.
It was a loud and powerful screech sound of a bird coming from a distance. As soon as the sound reverberated, everyone in the amphitheater fell silent.

The mages suddenly became active.
“Activate the lamps, raise the barrier.” shouted one of the leaders of the mages.

The squad of red-coated mages then suddenly stopped schooling the candidates and ran towards the center of the stage. Then suddenly the mages started chanting and small pole-like pillars rise from the ground and surrounded the central stage.

Then all the mages then placed their hand on those pillars and then again started chanting some mystic enchantments. The pillars started glowing and then the next second a translucent curtain erupted from the pillar from all sides. The translucent curtain was a barrier that surrounded the center stage.

We, candidates, were all wondering what the heck was going on.

I glanced at Tracker.
He circled his index finger on his forehead signifying the mages had a screw loose.

“Children”

Suddenly one of the mages on concentric steps knocked the end of his wooden staff on the ground. There was loud clank noise echoing in the amphitheater grabbing every candidate's attention.

This mage was an old hunchback man standing on the support of his staff.
“Now that I have your attention. Heed my words carefully.”

All the candidates turned their heads towards this old mage.

“I’ll keep my introduction brief. I am Sigurd. The head mage overseeing the ascension ceremony. Right now the blessing ritual is about to begin and be on your best behavior or else you might even end up losing your life. This is no exaggeration.” said the old mage sternly.

There was pin-drop silence, everyone was in disbelief.

The old mage looked around,
“The one who shall now descend on this very stage will be none other than the divine protector of this realm. The divine protector gives the blessing of life and if offended will also take it back. So I remind you to be on your best behavior. Is that understood?”

“Yes sir!” shouted all the candidates in sync.

“Good. Now on your knees. Everyone!” commanded the old mage suddenly.

The candidates flinched for a second but all of them got on their knees. Even the proud inner district candidates on the upper floor balcony were seen kneeling.

I also slowly got on my knee to not stand out.
I had long lost my brilliance of the demon lord. I have been constantly kneeling, mocked, and ordering around for the past month. But I swear the day will come when I will return everything in full. But for now, I shall kneel down.

*Screech*

The screeching sound became louder and louder with each passing second. It was almost as if the bird was close by.

The room's temperature was rising steadily like we were in an oven.

The blessing ritual is about to begin, and I sure hope it gets over quickly before we are cooked alive in this oval building.