After his carriage stopped, emperor got out and called over a servant.

Then turned to the former competitors and said, “From now on you will live and train here. The barracks are over there,” he pointed at the smaller building with the high tower, “and training grounds are further in the back. In the castle there are only a couple hundred people in total and after initial assessment after a month or so you will be deployed in other cities in different parts of the empire where you will improve your skills and gain experience by completing important missions or leading my troops. You can freely move around here, but don’t stick your noses in places they don’t belong. I expect you all to train diligently and I myself, after dealing with some matters, will also go in secluded training for approximately twenty days. Don’t think you can slack off during this time as I will be able to see everything you do!” Emperor pointed at the tall tower by his residence.

‘Alright, although these are bad news, at least I know the girls should still be fine tonight.’ Nick tried to encourage himself despite feeling down.

“Your imperial majesty!” Suddenly one of the youths got down on his knee, “May I ask for a short leave? I would like to send a word to my family and gather my things that were left in the inn as well.”

‘Oh?’ Nick got pleasantly surprised since he was preparing to ask something similar.

“Hmm, fine! You were brought here without prior note after all. You there!” Emperor pointed at the servant he previously called over, “Show them where they will stay from now on and then provide with appropriate permits so they can leave and come back not later than tomorrow morning with the sunrise.”

After giving out these orders, emperor went inside without paying attention to anyone and youths started to curiously check out their surroundings.

“Follow me!” Servant haughtily ordered and led the way.

‘May be he is not an actual servant? From what I can see, besides the guards others around here don’t have any strict uniforms.’ Nick tried to figure out as much as he could, ‘Be as it may, my task is to infiltrate the main building tonight and find the girls. If the emperor is having his replenishment in the tower, his victims should be kept somewhere close. Although the main building can’t house thousands of wives, it has to leave impression that at least couple hundred of them exist. Or his subjects don’t dare to think what he is doing with all those girls that are brought in and never step outside later?’

While Nick was thinking, they entered the barracks and found themselves in a large hall where approximately fifteen guards were sitting around, talking and eating until the group showed up.

“Guard captain will show you to your room and after settling in you’ll wait for me here. I’ll prepare your permits and return in an hour.” The servant plainly said and left the confused eight young people behind.

The guards in the hall watched them curiously for a moment and then returned to their previous activities, but before Nick could start to leisurely look around, the guard captain already called them over. The eight youths followed him and, after taking a couple of turns, were brought in to a large room filled with thirty or so beds.

“You’ll stay here for now – just pick an empty bed. Until your respective commanders will take you in, you’ll be treated as common guards here.” He grinned at the faces of disappointed youths, “Don’t worry, I know you are talents and you will be picked up by some big-shots in a few days – I also competed in arena sixteen years ago, only didn’t get to the top eight. Just don’t cause trouble here, train and you’ll be fine. We have two meals per day in the big hall and don’t miss any, otherwise you’ll have to starve till the next one.”

He was about to leave, but then turned back, “Any of you who will leave tonight to the city?”

After seeing most of the youths nodding he nodded as well and walked away.

The former competitors had mixed feelings about all of this. Instead of fame and glory they suddenly landed in simple guard barracks and the previously bright future prospects suddenly became only theoretical, at least for now.

Nick didn’t care much, chose the closest bed to the window, dropped his bag on it and went back to the big hall. It was even a good news that they were staying on the first floor not far from exit. The window of this room was large enough for him to leave or enter, therefore he was satisfied.

But there was no reason to wait here for now, rather he would try to listen to the conversations of other guards and may be gather some useful information.

“Hahaha, disappointed?” When he came back in the large hall, suddenly a laughter sounded right next to him.

To his left Nick saw a well build middle aged guard who currently was having some wine with his two buddies.

“There are real beds and two meals per day. If I can wash myself daily as well, then this is almost a paradise.” Nick shrugged in reply.

The laughter of the three stopped for a second and then resumed, just much louder than before.

“I like you, kid.” One of the three said after calming down, “Come, drink with us! What’s your name?”

Although Nick didn’t intend to drink, this was not a bad start. And these people were drinking straight from the bottle anyway, so it was easy to pretend he was as well.

They introduced themselves and chatted for a while. Turns out the discipline inside barracks after their shifts was quite loose and the guards mostly had to pay attention to not run around while drunk. Officers often joined them as well and it was not a big deal to drink few bottles of booze here. The pay was good and many guards lived in the city nearby and that was the reason why they had so many free beds in the barracks.

When Nick skeptically expressed his opinion about the weakly guarded castle, the trio laughed at him and asked who would be so stupid to try to break into the place where the most powerful person of the empire lived. Besides, each building had a Qi master or two residing in it, so the small fries like them were here just for show anyway. Nick agreed and they had a harmonious laughter together.

On the inside he was really surprised though. Such attitude would be unacceptable in Aurora where each guard or soldier proudly fulfilled their duties. The difference in attitude and tradition in the two countries was shocking.

Nick considered another possibility – what if these three were some kind of a weird test? After having this thought, he chatted for a bit more and then excused himself to take a look around his new home.

What he didn’t know, there was actually a person who was monitoring all eight of them, just that it was not easy to watch their every move and listen to every word at the same time. Since Nick didn’t linger too much and his conversation was very superficial, it didn’t raise any suspicions.

It was already dusk outside and soon the servant came back and brought the promised permits. In fact, they were tokens the youths had to give to the guards at the entrance upon their return. These tokens were in a shape of a coin about seven centimeters in diameter, but the weird part was that they were three centimeters thick.

Five people immediately left after receiving the tokens, while Nick went back to get his bag. He found the newly acquired item weird. Wasn’t it easier to make a token like he got from the king or the Meyer family? Why such a thick one?

And it wasn’t as heavy and seemed to be hollow inside.

‘Why bother so much just to let few youths to go out to grab their things and then let them later back in?’ Nick was confused, ‘Except if there is something inside and the owner of this place is a paranoid freak! The size … is enough to hold … a small beast core!’ Nick suddenly got enlightened.

If inside this token was a rank two or even rank three beast core, that meant this item held a small runic formation and most likely was a kind of weird tracking device!

‘Probably later they will give us a different token that can help track our movements inside the castle. It is unlikely that there is a guy sitting by some LCD monitors looking at red dots moving around. My guess is this thing gives off particular Qi vibrations and the Qi masters inside these buildings could feel them. But why track us? Wait! They are checking our movements and this is a test that might end with demise upon failing as well! The guards I spoke to may be don’t know it, but someone is definitely watching us.’ Nick was certain of it.

He sat on the bed and placed the token in his bag. For now it had to stay here until he finished his night exploration. One more hour and it will be completely dark outside, but people still won’t go to bed this early. He couldn’t figure out how to proceed and sat there thinking.

After few minutes he got up and went back to the big hall.

“Where can I wash myself here? After all those fights in arena I feel like a pig.” Nick asked the half drunken trio.

One of them bought him outside and pointed at large bowls filled with water.

“Just be quick, soon the shifts will change and the lights will be turned off for the night.” Guard told him in a friendly voice.

Although what he heard was almost like a divine music to his ears, Nick pretended to be confused, “Why? Isn’t it easier to guard with the lights on?”

“There are still guards on on the walls, but there is no reason for anyone to be awake in barracks and other places so late.” Then he carefully looked around and whispered, “It has been so for ages. Emperor gave such orders dozens or hundreds years ago, no one remembers when or why. We think that emperor just does the thing with his wives, you know, and the whole big building is full of them and he doesn’t want to get disturbed. Just don’t talk about it or you will be in big trouble.”

The guard was whispering right in Nick’s ear and his breath reeked of alcohol, but Nick just friendly nodded and pondered if this was a part of test or the castle guards while drunk really gossiped like old women.

After a while Nick decided on the last option since it was too unreasonable to change the existing schedule and environment because of few youths who remained in the castle for this one night.