Kaden entered the room.
For a moment, all eyes turned towards him.
The young woman in a purple dress looked at him from head to toe. Despite wearing padded clothes, he still appeared quite scrawny.
Her impression of him was not good.
That sentiment was shared by the vast majority of the group.
They had not forgotten the immense suffering he had caused them back in the funeral. His odor was probably the most horrendous thing they had ever smelled in their lives.
At that moment, another Awakened, a young man in a dark red tunic broke the silence as he spoke, addressing the black sheep of their ragtag group.
"You don't smell now. That's good." The young man commented. "My name's Vincent. Sir Vincent now, I guess. What's your name?"
The young man, Vincent, had been trying to strike up a conversation with the others before during the public funeral. Unfortunately, that venture had been quite unsuccessful. He had been too busy holding his own breath to realize that desire.
Now, in relative privacy and without Kaden's exotic stench to get in the way, the young man finally found the chance to speak his mind.
"Kaden." Kaden said plainly.
The young man's eyes widened slightly, somewhat surprised.
In fact, the others also appeared quite stunned as they listened from the sidelines.
The young woman in a purple dress scoffed but did not comment.
"Huh." Vincent uttered after a brief pause. "That's daring." He added.
"What is?" Kaden asked with furrowed brows.
'What's with their reaction?'
He could tell that something was wrong.
"Your name. You're named after a god. The God of Light, one of the Three Great Gods." Vincent replied. "It's not exactly a taboo to use their names, but still…"
The young man left those words hanging and decisively changed the topic.
"Anyway, we—Sofia and I—are planning on joining the Awakened Institute. You don't appear like someone with any prior commitment to a guild or a noble family, so how about it? Wanna join us?" Vincent declared as he gestured to the young woman in a white chemise sitting beside him.
'Awakened Institute?' Kaden thought.
The name sounded familiar, somewhat, but that was as far as his knowledge of the topic went.
He knew basically nothing.
Feeling a bit lost, Kaden looked at the duo and asked: "What made you think I have no prior commitment to any guild?"
Kaden was not even sure what a guild is, so he took the chance to learn more about that unfamiliar concept.
"Well, you looked very… poor." Vincent carefully said.
That was a huge understatement.
Even the poor would feel insulted to be compared to Kaden at his lowest.
"And?" Kaden urged.
Vincent scratched his head.
He thought it was enough of an explanation, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
"If you have already pledged yourself to a guild or a noble clan, you wouldn't be so poor. Material support is one of the benefits of joining an organization." The young man explained.
Kaden's eyes widened.
'So that's it!'
'My money!'
Kaden cheered in his mind. Finally, he had discovered the path to riches, something that had once been veiled by his own ignorance.
"So? What do you think?" Vincent asked, reminding him of the pending offer.
Kaden did not reply immediately.
'Should I try joining a guild or should I just go with them into that institute?'
Kaden thought about it for a while and eventually came to a conclusion that wasn't really much of a conclusion.
'I can't decide.'
He simply did not know enough about the topic to make a proper judgement.
He needed more time to think and even more information to work with.
It isn't a decision he could make on a whim.
Just then, the half-closed door behind him slowly opened.
Thereafter, all eyes immediately turned towards the shadow in the doorway.
There, they saw an aged man clad in plate armor made of dull steel standing at the entrance, a folded red cloak hanging on his arms.
A pair of blurry blue eyes scanned the room.
The old Knight has returned.
Looking at the elder, Kaden narrowed his eyes.
He had not noticed it before during their walk to the barracks, as he had been too preoccupied with various thoughts. This time, however, the discrepancy between the old Knight and his group was quite apparent.
At least to him, it was.
'Is he really an Awakened?' Kaden wondered.
Because strangely…
…He did not sense the same heat radiating from the eight of them from the old Knight.
The elder did not have an inner fire. His soul seemed empty and desolate, if he even had one to begin with.
Kaden shivered.
It was extremely unnerving.
Shifting slightly, he turned to the others, seeking answers. Seeing no one saying anything about that peculiarity, Kaden simply decided to let it slide.
He didn't know if that was normal or if no one had simply noticed that phenomenon. But in any case, he didn't want to have anything to do with it.
Ignorance is bliss.
For once, he didn't feel like the ignorant one in the room.
Not that he was happy about it.
Meanwhile, the old Knight checked on the wall clock.
It was already past ten minutes.
It was time to leave.
Once again, the old Knight ordered them to follow, and the group obliged.
The old Knight quickly led them outside the barracks. Before long, their small group arrived at the plaza, with the old Knight at the forefront, cutting through the crowd.
In the distance looms the gargantuan silhouette of the Sanctum, its towering frame casting a vast shadow upon the elevated stone platform below.
The old Knight dropped them behind the stage, then wordlessly left the area.
Kaden stared at the old Knight's back, which slowly grew distant, then shifted his gaze towards the stage.
The stone platform had changed a lot.
The Noble in ceremonial attire still stood there, now joined by two other Nobles. Furthermore, the wooden caskets and the tall pyres were no more. The stage was also cleared of the debris from the fire, and the scorched marks on the stone floor had been covered up by a broad carpet the hue of obsidian.
After a while, the Noble's speech eventually came to an end. The crowd cheered an instant later, either inspired by the long litany of words or were simply happy that it had finally come to an end.
Listening to the shouts of the merry crowd, Kaden frowned.