Why Should I Stop Being a Villain

***

A day later,

Standing in front of a two-story building that was painted in white were a group of 20 or more children who looked 12-14 years old and a guy who was standing in front of them.

"Listen, you all have to complete a full round of the whole path around this mountain. The one who stopped will not be given any medicine this month," A guy wearing a loose red shirt and pants shouted.

Despite his loud voice, the children in front of him responded with only nods with their diluted eyes.

One looked at them, and anyone could see that something was wrong with them.

But the guy didn't look concerned at all, as if he was used to this behavior.

Whistle!

Hearing the sound of the whistle, the children turned and started running towards the path that was created by several people walking on it.

"Oye bastard, are you not going to accompany them?" Another man who was sitting a bit far away shouted.

"Who cares? I will just punish the ones that came last," The guy who was shouting at the kids said with a grin.

"Don't train them lousily. These lots are going with the Black Squad," The man said as he lit a cigarette in his hands.

"Don't teach me how to train these junkies. I just need to make sure they are under control. Their real training will start when the Black Squad takes them anyway," He replied.

The children were running through the path without any shoes as they were forced to use mana to shield their bodies.

Some of them already had multiple wounds on the soles of their feet, but it didn't seem like they were bothered by the pain.

With the clouded eyes and heavy breathing, all of them kept running while desperately trying not to stop.

Thud!

All of them were running, but suddenly, one of them fell down and tripped over a vine that was present on the ground.

"Urgh," He groaned as he felt the pain in his legs as the path had several small stones.

Some of the kids looked behind him, but they didn't stop to help him and kept running.

"No, no, the medicine," The kid started muttering words as his hands started shaking.

His heartbeat became faster, and a feeling of anxiety took over him.

He tried to stand up, but his leg hurt a lot. A small injury like this shouldn't have resulted in such a situation, but his leg had several marks and bruises.

He was fine running, but tripping made him lose his strength in his right leg.

But instead of being worried about himself, his eyes were moving around as he didn't want to be spotted by someone.

"Do you need your medicine?" A voice that sounded muffled was heard by the Boy as he turned to see a masked man standing.

"Hah? Yeah, yeah," The Boy started nodding.

In his head, he immediately associated the masked man with being involved with the people in his orphanage, as he had seen people with masks enter and inspect every kid there before leaving.

The masked man came closer as he gave the vial of a clear fluid-like thing, and the Boy immediately grabbed it and drank.

"Urgh!!" A second later, the Boy started groaning in pain as his senses returned slightly.

But the pain subsided very quickly as his heartbeat got slower and his breathing became relaxed.

"T-thanks, I will run, sorry, I fell," The Boy started apologizing.

He didn't even think for a second before bowing towards the masked man, as if he was accustomed to doing this.

"I can give you something much better than this medicine," The masked man said,

"What?" The Boy became confused.

Suddenly, the man took the card with a jewel in the middle and touched the card on the confused Boy's leg, where it was bleeding.

"I will give you something much better than this," He said.

Suddenly, a weird feeling of anger and restlessness started growing inside the Boy. Unsure himself, the Boy wasn't aware, but he still replied.

"I will do it, I-I," The Boy started stuttering.

Knowing he could get something better than the drug, the Boy's slightly dilated eyes started looking at the masked man.

He was unaware of the crimson-red eyes that were hidden behind the mask that were looking at him.

"You just need to do a favor for me," Asher said as he crouched down.

"I will give you more of this medicine, as much as you need, but you need to do something for me as well," Asher said as the Boy stood up on his feet.

"Take this," Asher handed over a bracelet.

It was similar to the one that Boy was already wearing, which was used to track these kids if they ever ran away.

"You will communicate with my people over this," Asher said,

"You just need to...."

After 10 minutes, the Boy was running at full speed while repeating the same thing.

"Pour it into the golden pond, Pour it into the golden pond," The Boy kept repeating it so he didn't forget.

After 3 hours of running, the Boy reached the spot where all the children were breathing heavily on the ground.

"The last one has arrived," A man said while stretching his arms.

"The last five would not get any medicines this month. If you want to get it, run the same path three times every day for this week," The man with a cigarette in his mouth announced.

The man used his mana to suppress any of the kids from rebelling as all of them went down on the ground.

"Go back and start your training," He spoke as all of them stood up and started walking towards the Building.

"Garren," A man shouted when the one smoking the cigarette turned.

"What?" Garren asked.

"The Black Squad will be coming next week, so make sure they stay in their best condition," He said.

"So early, I mean, this batch is pretty good, but I didn't think they would take them to the Royal Capital so soon," Garren said as they looked at the Building.

"It seems there is a problem with the supply routes and many other things; don't think too much about it, just focus on managing them," He said.

Garren nodded and went back into the Building.

There were multiple A Rank and B Rank Hunters present here, but none of them were aware of the fact that Asher interacted with one of the kids.

***

In World Academy,

Two kids could be seen wearing white uniforms emblazoned with the insignia of World Academy.

"What do you think they will teach us?" Livia asked, her face alight with excitement.

"Our teachers told us it was better to learn here," she added, recalling the time she was taught at Greville Estate.

Since both were young and unaccustomed to mana, they had only been taught the basics and martial arts to aid their growth.

Presently, their mana cores were still developing, and it would take almost a year for them to stabilize.

Soon, both of them reached the classroom, located in the New Building constructed for the Greville and Grandus twins.

Upon entering, the first thing Lucas and Livia noticed were two kids about their age.

They had silver-colored hair and yellow amber eyes, closely resembling those of Silvus Grandus, the Mage Association Chairman.

They already knew about the twins, but today was their first meeting.

They resided in the same dorm, but their floors were separated, preventing access to each other's levels.

Unlike the Ranker's Dorm, there was no difference in mana density on each floor, creating a similar environment for growth.

Jacob and Jennifer turned to look at Lucas and Livia.

Jennifer, who was sitting atop a desk swinging her legs, stopped and jumped down, moving towards Lucas and Livia.

Lucas became alert, but Livia was happy to see someone their age with whom she could interact.

Apart from Nate, this was the second time they had encountered peers.

Livia was excited, while Lucas remained cautious.

"Hey, you!" Jennifer exclaimed, pointing at Lucas.

Jacob quickly moved to intervene, but it was too late.