—Thirty minutes before Kai and his group entered the mansion.
A group of over a dozen students stood looking up at the estate.
"So this is the famous 'Seven Horrors of Babel,' huh? Babel's standards sure have gone downhill. Hey, Mime, don't you think?"
A round-faced youth with a shaved blonde head and prominent cheekbones scoffed as he questioned Mime, the red-haired boy beside him.
"Yeah, exactly as Senior Okame says! Places like this are a dime a dozen back home!"
"I mean, you can't deny our homeland's level has dropped too, though. Back in our day, there's no way an absolute piece of trash known as the world's most incompetent would ever make it into the Royal Guard."
As the round-faced Okame spat out those words,
"Yeah, I completely agree! That pathetic prince letting an incompetent like that do whatever he wants, and the King actually recognizing such a loser as a Royal Guard—it's utterly shameful!"
At Mime's outburst, voices of agreement rose one after another from the rest of the group.
"Hey, Kuzuki, you think so too, don't you?"
Okame turned for confirmation to the only boy staring quietly at the ground, his hair cut into a neat bowl. Kuzuki stiffened with a jolt.
"Y-Yes!"
He forced out a response.
"Then I'm giving you the honor of taking the lead! The least you can do is make yourself useful!"
Okame smacked Kuzuki on the back with an open palm, issuing a one-sided order that left no room for refusal.
"Y...es."
As Kuzuki nodded, looking as though his world had come to an end,
"Hey, Kuzu, I can't hear you! Where's your answer?!"
Mime roared, a thick vein bulging on his forehead.
"Y-Yes!"
Kuzuki blurted out in sheer panic.
"That's more like it. A piece of trash like you who could only get into Ouboro gets to work for our sake! You should be grateful."
His face twisting into an ugly sneer, Mime shoved Kuzuki violently toward the entrance. Tucking and tumbling onto the ground, Kuzuki pushed himself up, brushed the dirt from his clothes, and whispered,
"I under...stand."
With a face steeped in misery, he gave a faint nod. Then, walking up to the massive double doors, he pushed them open with both hands.
The heavy doors groaned on their hinges. Kuzuki took a trembling step inside.