["The gods huh"] Leon thought. He knew a bit about gods. The gods didn't mean someone who reached to the divinity stage, but they were maguses who were in the domain stage and they decided to further strengthen themselves with faith. Understanding laws were difficult and they would choose another way to further improve their domain, faith and fate was one of them. The gods would preach to mortals and from their believes they can make themselves more powerful. Leon didn't know how that work, but he theorized that it might be similar to the placebo effect. If someone believed they were cured, they might actually be cured. That was one person, but if millions of people believed that someone was invincible, it might become the reality. But it also had side effects, if the people were to believe that you were benevolent but you weren't a benevolent person, you might have a personality disorder and went crazy.

The gods' power was connected to how much faith they got, so if the number of believers were to drop, it would also cause their power to drop. And if you didn't choose the way of god, but people believe that you were benevolent, no matter how they tried to believe that, it wouldn't affect you. Leon didn't know the specifics, but it was written in a book about the way of god.

For the reason of their trials, Leon didn't know why they were doing. He didn't have much knowledge to guess so he didn't have any clue.

After Marquis announcement, they commoners were hopeful about the future and the nobles have their designs about the future of these scions, but there was one person who was angry. Casper was gritting his teeth as he looked at Theo, but Theo didn't look at him at all he was explaining the trials to Leon. Seeing that Casper became angrier, but he didn't say anything and left the area. He clearly had his plans for the trials.

Leon was listening Theo's explanation about the trials of gods. Theo also didn't know that much aside from where it was and possible rewards they could get from there. As he listened Leon was shocked that the gods were this generous but he also became suspicious. Maybe the gods wanted bind the one's who entered with their karma. He learned that karma could be used to make sure that the undeads of the academy could reincarnate without any mishap, so maybe the gods were trying to use the karma for other purposes.

Leon didn't know what the gods were trying to achieve, but he didn't think it would be harmful to him, but in any case he would remember that when he got there.

"We should return to the mansion and get ready for departure. Sooner we get there, the better." Theo said, Leon also nodded and They walked through the crowd under their eyes.

When they returned to the mansion, it was afternoon. ["Shouldn't be better if we get on the road tomorrow."] But he shook his head thinking Casper would be already on the road to the trials. He didn't know much about Casper, but Leon was sure that he left someone to kill them from his acts that until they met and Leon could guess that the attack would happen when the night falls if it would happen.

Leon went to see Hermes and saw him eating all kinds of meats in the stables. Leon smiled as he looked at Hermes. He had a dog in his previous life. When she died, he was very sad, but in this life as long as Hermes got stronger, he could live longer and wouldn't leave Leon alone.

Leon noticed that the horses in the stable were nervous because of Hermes. He was a griffon which was a high-grade magical beast. His presence was enough to scare normal horses. Leon went to side of Hermes and patted his head, Hermes purred like a cat and wagged his lion tail like a dog.

"Hermes don't eat too much, we have a road to take." said Leon and took the meat that Hermes didn't eat to his spatial bag. Leon was holding the important stuffs in his inventory and the others in his spatial bag. After he took them, Leon and Hermes left the stable and scared the horses alone in the stable.

Leon waited at the side of the garden gate for Theo and others to come. He didn't wait too much, after about ten minutes or so, they arrived. Then they started their journey to the trials of gods.

They soon left the city, Theo was still explaining the trials of gods to Leon. While Leon was listening, he also spread his senses to find any possible ambush. His guess was the ambush would take when the night fell, so the possibility of an ambush to take place was small at the moment.

Leon actually didn't want to make things complicated. He planned to kill whoever try to kill them and read their memories so he could find Casper then finish this third trial before it even started. He already sensed that Casper had ill-intent towards Theo and he didn't know what will happen in the trials, but he was also apprehensive about marquis discovery, but if someone were to come to kill them, he would have a sound reason to eliminate Casper.

Theo said that the first trial in the trials of gods was about the destiny. Leon didn't know how they were looking someone's destiny, but thinking that they were domain stage old monsters, he wasn't surprised to hear that.

"How the trial will be?" asked Leon he was curious about how the gods would test someone's destiny.

"It is a secret. The system have approved their trials and it is the referee, and the ones who attend the trials have secrecy agreement with the gods under the approval of the system. They could only tell what are the rewards and general idea of the trials, the process unknown to everyone." Theo replied.

..

They continued towards the trials of gods until it was evening. When the sun set, they prepared their camps and lit a fire. Leon also pitched his tent, then he sat down near the fire. He didn't cease to sense their surroundings after an hour or so he sensed a human who was getting near their campsite with high speed.

When Leon sensed that he immediately stood up and looked at that direction. Noticing that Leon was looking at a distance;

"What happened Leon?" asked Theo.

"There is a guest, I'll go to greet him." smilingly said Leon and he grabbed his spear, then he disappeared where he stood in an instant.

Leon was running towards to the incomer with a speed that couldn't be seen with the naked eye. It didn't take too much time for Leon to show up in front of the guy.

"Hey, how are you doing?" Said Leon with a smile. He was pretty sure that he was here to kill them, but he wanted to be sure. If he acted suspicious, Leon was planning to catch him and do a memory search on him.

As Leon expected, he startled at first, then he panicked. So Leon didn't waste any words and attacked him. While he was confused state, Leon could easily overwhelm him. After catching him, Leon summoned his book of knowledge and passed it through him. Soon after, Leon knew about the guy and he was certain that he was here to kill them. But there was a surprise, he didn't take any order to kill them, but he did it on his own accord.

Leon grabbed his spear and pierced the man on his chest. He looked at Leon with confusion, he still didn't know how he noticed and easily killed. Soon he gave his last breath and collapsed to the ground and his blood dyed the ground red.

Leon didn't do anything aside from looking at the corpse. Killing someone didn't impact him, but he was feeling conflicted and confused. As much as he wanted to kill Casper, he didn't send this man to kill them. If he were to be a good guy he wouldn't kill Casper... No, a good guy would kill him to avenge the girl and her family, but at least Casper didn't have any enmity with him and didn't harbor ill-intent towards him.

This was the reason for Leon to feel conflicted and confused. Even when he first killed, he killed ruffians in the slums of the capital and they had at least had ill-intent towards him. Bloody Albert had killing-intent towards him and even this guy was planning to kill him and others thus Leon killed them all.

["What should I do."] Leon thought and sighed. He really didn't know what to do. He wanted to kill and didn't want to kill him simultaneously. Killing him was practical and just but Leon didn't want to kill him and he didn't know why. He didn't afraid the marquis or any nobility, it was just pure feeling.

["If he were to send this guy, that would make easier to kill him."]

Leon sighed and waved his hand towards to corpse and the ground split opened and the corpse fell down. It was looking like the ground was eating the corpse, when the corpse fell down, Leon waved his hands once more and the split closed. There wasn't any blood or any evidence that there was a corpse laying a moment earlier.

Leon looked at the sky and sighed once more and grabbed his spear and returned to the camp. Just like that, Casper was spared.