Chapter 216: The Guards' Rules

"Hmm, this doesn't look all too bad." Villin lamented as he looked over the blue suit he was now wearing. If he had to describe it he would have to say it's a slightly fancier version of the suits that flight attendants generally wore.

They seemed like they would restrict movement quite heavily but Villin was glad to see that it was made out of an extremely flexible material that easily stretched. They also had the Goodlaw family crest on the front, it was pretty small and was put underneath a pocket at chest-level.

Other than this, the inner side of the suit was also filled with enchantments. They were more advanced versions of enchantments used to minimize harm from cutting and bludgeoning spells, there were also a few that were supposed to keep the suit from being set aflame.

All-in-all, they were of pretty decent quality, especially when you realized there were a few hundred people in the locker room and there should be several locker rooms full of guards.

The wand was also pretty good, being able to hold three spells of eleven nodes each, Villin put it onto his belt since it was a part of the set but didn't intend to use it since it wasn't too useful for him.

Looking further into the locker, there was also a blue hat with the Goodlaw family crest on the back of it. The cap didn't have a top and didn't have any enchantments either, it was most likely a fashion thing. Villin still decided to wear it though since he didn't want to stand out too much from the other guards.

With all of this taken care of, there were only two items left in the locker. One was a pair of sturdy steel-tipped boots, the last item was a small pill put into a red container.

Villin looked at it and inspected it closely, he recognized it to be a pill called the 'Nuclea Marshine' named after its creator Stephanie Marshine. The pill was generally made by people around the fourth and fifth grade in The Academy, meaning it was quite high in value in general.

It was capable of fooling your body and mind, making it think you still have plenty of stamina and magic power left. You could use this when you're about to run out of magic power and you'd be able to use your magical reserves that are generally inaccessible, the after-effects could be quite serious as well though.

Surprised to see such a high-quality pill in his locker, Villin looked at the people around him, after a bit he realized everyone was given one pill but the pills received could be different. About half the people got a healing pill, some got an immolation pill, a few had poison-resistant pills, and various other kinds. 

Villin wasn't sure if he got a higher quality pill by luck or because his employer picked him to have it, but he was happy nonetheless.

After getting his new clothes on, leaving behind the steel-tipped boots since he still wasn't comfortable wearing shoes or socks, Villin and the other guards had to wait for a little over half an hour. In this period of time, a bunch of new guards came in and the room quickly filled up. The area around Villin that was initially mostly empty since people avoided him after seeing how he took care of Alexi, soon began filling up again since the new people didn't know what had happened. 

At this point, had woken up but he looked quite pale, he and his three friends didn't approach Villin at all, barely even looking in his direction, Villin knew he had effectively terrified them.

Fifteen minutes after the last person entered the dressing room, the main door opened, and in came three people.

To the left was an old man in a black suit that seemed very high-class. Villin couldn't help but find that he looked very much like a butler. On the right was a blue-haired youth that barely paid any attention when looking at the guards. He was wearing fancy clothes but Villin could feel magic energy emanating from him, this boy was identified as an arrogant young master, even though his arrogance hadn't been insulting in any way, Villin decided to classify him as such for the time being and be careful around him.

These two were led by a lady in a red suit that seemed a lot brighter than the blue suits the guards were wearing, making her very easy to spot. On her chest were to emblems, the first was easily recognized as the one from the Goodlaw family. The second was most likely from the family the lady actually came from.

When the three entered, the changing room very quickly became silent, seeing this the lady nodded before speaking, "Hello guard regiment six, I am your current employer Eveline Targentelli. I have been asked to run this year's auction in the name of the Goodlaw family and I hope you all can help in making things go smoothly.

"I see you all found your lockers and the clothes within. Each of your files has been manually gone through and we selected the pills we believed would be most useful to you when looking at the information given. The only exceptions are the students coming from The Academy and Decorus since we are only allowed to specify requirements, not request files, we decided to give you proper pills to help you survive what may very well be your first dangerous mission.

"Guard regiment six will be placed to guard the various VIP lounges and the people within it. Those of you that we plan to put in proper locations will be interviewed first but you shouldn't worry too much about that."

After having explained this section of the information, Eveline looked at her watch, upon seeing the time she knew she had to hurry things up, there were still four regiments she had to greet.

Quickly, she continued, "Now, as you all know the auction will begin in three days, as for how long it will go on for and when the more valuable items will be brought in or sold, this is all classified information but do expect to be here for a month, probably more. In the following three days you will be going through various rounds of examinations and training, the examinations are to decide where exactly you will be placed within the regiment, it will also decide the regiment captain and vice-captains. The areas looked at are physical health, mental fortitude, moral viewpoints, magic skill, leadership abilities, status, and more.

"In return for going through the examinations you will be given training, the training we provide is good and the main reason many of you are here, there is a lot you can learn in three days if you do your best. In the 'break days' the auction has, of which the dates are also classified, you will be given further training.

"Now, I am a bit stressed on time currently so I'll round this off quickly. There are only three individuals and one group of people within the auction you listen to. The three people are the three of us. Myself, the butler, and Aurus Goodlaw."

Hearing Eveline's words, Villin was surprised by two things. Firstly there was the fact that she called the man he thought looked like a butler as 'the butler', secondly it was that the blue-haired youth was Aurus Goodlaw, a member of the Goodlaw family. 

Even though Villin hadn't heard of the boy's name again, he did know the Goodlaw family had three heirs. The first should be a lot older than this boy who seemed about twenty and the second was a girl, which meant that this boy should be the third heir of the Goodlaw name.

"Lastly, if we tell you to follow the instruction of anyone else you do so, but only then. Last year we had a problem where some people got in and pretended to be ranking officers, they commanded the hired troops around to create vulnerabilities and attacked through those. We don't want that to happen again. With that, I thank you all for your patience, I am sure we'll meet each other again in the following days."

After finishing her sentence, Eveline turned around and left, the butler didn't react at all when it came to his expression as he followed close behind the lady while Aurus took a few seconds to follow behind them, Villin noticed that the boy seemed rather nervous. Unsurprising considering he was at a place where people died every year, the boy was most likely pampered his entire life.

Even though Villin thought this, he didn't take it as a fact, he could always be very wrong and the boy could be very hardworking where he just got nervous in certain situations, similar to Max.

Villin thought of these matters casually for a few minutes at which point a large, old man with a dark-red suit on opened the door, he looked like a very well-disciplined general. He looked at the hired help without too much hope.

"Hmm, doesn't seem like a great batch. Oh well, we'll see what you got, move to the training grounds."