Swordmeister of Rome

Kukraxa was curious about what Sian wanted to show them.

True warriors did not show off just anything, and Sian looked confident. He was definitely going to show them something really powerful.

'Is it the <Armor of the Seven Stars> or the <Spear of the War God> from the legends?'

Those were the artifacts that she always wanted to see since she was very young. She was excited to see it with her very own eyes. However, what followed wasn't what she expected.

She then remembered an old story.

The story of a monster who lived thousands of years ago that her ancestors told her about.

<We used to live near Sky Mountain… until a mad monster drove us out, taking the entire mountain range for itself. We weren't sure why, but we couldn't walk into Sky Mountain afterward. The monster seemed to have disappeared, but we still felt the terrifying energy the moment we approached. Humans seem to not notice the power, but we Catfolk or Harijans with heightened senses can never set foot in that place now.>

Kukraxa then decided to walk into Sky Mountain to prove that she was different. She didn't like how the powerful Targan tribe was afraid of such a legend. She wanted to change history and reclaim her people's land.

As soon as she laid foot on the mountain, she immediately realized what her father meant.

Terrifying energy emerged at once that she could not withstand. Her instincts told her that the place was dangerous. She could not go near it.

<AHHH!>

She barely managed to run out of the place and never returned. She thought she would never have to feel such terror again in her lifetime.

Yet there it was. The same terrifying feeling from the mountain.

It was coming from Sian.

No one seemed to notice, but she did. She also realized what made Kora-duum fear him.

"Nngh…"

She thought she was different from her younger days. She even had five stripes on her forehead. Five stripes meant she was worthy of being a true warrior among the Cat Folk.

Thus, she didn't run when she felt the energy creeping out from Sian.

She regretted it later when she realized she should've run as she couldn't even manage to stand. With the terror that ripped her apart, she fainted.

"Nngh…"

"Are you okay?"

"Kukraxa, you okay?"

Kora-duum and Veronica were next to her when she woke up.

"I'm… okay. Thank you. Are you girls okay?"

"Yes, I'm okay."

"Me too."

Kukraxa got up and sat on the bed. They all looked at each other silently, but they couldn't any find words to say to each other. They were all too shocked. Veronica spoke out first.

"So… what happened to you two?"

She was shocked by the news of the possible death of her brother, but it seemed to be different for the other two. Kora-duum fainted at the moment she saw Sian and Kukraxa fainted when Sian was showing something.

Veronica couldn't find anything special about Sian, so she naturally wanted to know too.

To the best of their abilities, Kora-duum and Kukraxa tried to explain what they felt. Veronica asked worriedly, "Are you two going to be okay?"

"Why?"

"If Sian… lives here with us…"

Kora-duum smiled and answered, "I think it should be okay. Kukraxa will be okay as long as he doesn't take out that armor and I'll be okay if I avoid looking into his truth."

"Yeah. It should be fine if he doesn't do that… transmorph."

Veronica was concerned about something else.

"No, I mean… is it okay to live with such a terrifying man?"

"Hm…"

Kora-duum and Kukraxa couldn't answer that question.

They knew that there was no danger. Sian loved his brother and that meant he would never harm his brother's wives. He didn't look violent either, and he even looked like a kid in some way.

However, fear didn't work like that.

Bombs were scary even if they were not triggered yet.

Kora-duum and Kukraxa would never be able to overcome their fear.

"But what can we do? We have no choice but to get used to him."

Kora-duum spoke and Kukraxa sighed.

Time quickly flew by after Sian arrived.

Sian did nothing. He deliberately wasted his time doing absolutely nothing.

What changed was the people's eyes that watched Sian. He was usually considered a fool that was born as a genius, but the people of Lavilan couldn't think like that.

They saw Sian's lazy attitude as a privilege of a powerful being.

Some warriors even looked Sian, who was dozing off on a hammock, in admiration.

Sian took a bite out of a fruit and spoke.

"So, this is why the world is interesting. You know, I'm still the same person and I look like this. Isn't that right?"

"It's always who did it that's important," Veronica answered as she was sitting next to him.

"Why aren't you training with them?" Sian asked, watching Rian, Kukraxa, and Celine training below.

"Well, my power grows when I train, but it's faster when I overcome an obstacle. Rian won't let me do such a thing so I can't increase it any further. I'm just taking it slow now."

"Obstacle… you have one thing in common with me," Sian answered.

"I want to hear more about my brother, but there's nothing yet."

"Hm… So old man Narasha didn't bring any news yet?" Sian asked in disbelief. Limainu didn't seem like a super important figure. There was a record of him moving out of Kerbal by using Ra-Shar-Roa, so he was probably alive.

That meant Limainu would have been spotted by Tian Kingdom Intelligence already. King Narasha always claimed that information was the key to success. Therefore, the intelligence agency received the most funds, and it was successful.

So, Sian assumed they werelooking for Limainu. Unlike his request to find Stiel, the request should've been easy for them. Yet there had been no clues for two weeks already.

"Yes, they are still working on it. And you don't have any word from … Stiel?"

"No, not yet. That's unusual too."

Sian asked the King to spread the rumors of his return, saying that the Roman family was holding a party to celebrate the return of their second son. Superhumans were impossible to find if they went into hiding, so Sian intended to have Stiel return by letting her know that he was back.

But that didn't work either. There were only two possibilities.

Stiel was in a position where she couldn't come, or she had no intention of coming back.

The second possibility seemed more likely since it didn't make sense for Stiel to be in a position where she couldn't do what she wanted.

Yet the second possibility was also unlikely because Sian couldn't think of any other reason. If Stiel did not want to return to Sian, then there was no way she would've done what she did to protect Sian's family.

'Did something really happen to her?'

Sian thought about it for a while and decided it was useless to think about it.

He decided to look for her if she didn't return by the day of the party that was going to be held in Lavilan.

Sian tried activating the necklace Rian was wearing, but it didn't work.

There was only one week left until the party. If Stiel didn't come back within that time frame, Sian was going to search for her by himself. So, he decided to rest some more.

A man smiled with a letter in his hand. It wasn't actually a letter. It was an invitation to a party sent to high-ranking nobles of Tian.

"So, he's finally here after five years! Where has he been?"

The man then left.