Swordmeister of Rome

"How was the talk?"

Lagaope asked Limainu and Veronica.

"Ah…"

It seemed like Veronica had more things she wanted to talk about with her brother.

"Please, you can take more time."

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Lagaope's attitude toward Limainu was vastly different from how he treated Veronica. Sian became intrigued.

"What's with your face?"

"You really treat Limainu well."

Sian couldn't point out that Lagaope was treating Limainu like a person, but he seemed to understand.

"Haha, we treat people for their abilities. Limainu's worth much more than any superhuman. Although he's… irritating sometimes."

Lagaope sighed. It looked like he did still consider Limainu as a lesser human.

"We don't we look around the lower floor? I'll show you around."

"Is it okay? I thought you had a lot of classified stuff."

"Haha, it's okay. I believe you won't disclose it anywhere."

'And you won't know what it is even when you see it.'

Lagaope did not speak the last part out loud.

"I see. We should go down then. Veronica, call my name out loud if you need my help."

"Huh?"

Veronica was puzzled and Sian explained.

"I can hear you from anywhere on this island, so I will come when you call me out."

"…Sure."

"You should trust me more."

Sian then walked out with Lagaope.

"Haha, so Lady Veronica doesn't know much about superhumans."

"Yeah well, she probably never saw one in her life."

"You should come this way. I'll show you something you'll find interesting."

They then walked around the lower floor. Sian realized that the people here were afraid of Lagaope.

"Do they know that you are a Ra-Bander?"

"I haven't told them, but they saw me using my power, so they should know. They're all very smart."

'Is that why they're so afraid?"

Sian then shook it away. Lagaope gave him detailed explanations about the place. It seemed like Lagaope was a genius himself since he knew a lot of things in depth. Either way, Sian could not understand most of what he said.

"Is this like an armory?"

"Yes. This place, <Amaran>, focuses on researching weapons."

'This place…?'

It meant there was another place, but that wasn't important.

What was important was that the weapons that Sian recognized as swords, spears, or cannons were something different here. It wasn't like anything he recognized.

"They all look special."

"I guess you imagined something like a sword or a cannon."

"Yeah, but these aren't the same."

A yellow round object with a lot of holes, or a rectangular slate with various magic engraved in it, and star-shaped object with something roaring from within.

Lagaope laughed.

"These are made to serve their purpose well."

"Purpose?"

"To kill. All of these weapons have increased power, accuracy, reliability, and such."

"Hmm."

Sian was confused, so Lagaope walked to one side.

"You'll know once you see it. Shall we try this?"

As Lagaope walked closer, the people divided themselves to open the pathway. There was a small stick.

"This… it's to be used like this."

As Lagaope transferred his energy into it, something soared out of the stick.

"Oh?"

The stick was now a shining sword.

"It's based off Limainu's idea. You can carry this in your pocket and create the blade with your own power. Here, try it."

Sian then took the stick and held the shiny part with his bare hand.

"NO!"

Some of the people around them were shocked and they gasped, but nothing happened. The part Sian was holding was losing its energy.

"It is amazing but…"

Lagaope answered. "It's weak, right? Everything here is a prototype. We shift through the useful ideas here and strengthen them afterward. Shall we go to the next place?"

Lagaope then threw the stick and moved to another place. There was a marble that flew around itself. Marbles were circling around a blue transparent swirl from within. As Lagaope walked closer, researchers moved out of the way for him. Then Lagaope reached out and grabbed the blue thing.

Then, a terrible scream came about.

<KYAYAYAAAAAA!>

"Oh, this isn't fixed yet?"

"Yes… we were having a hard time with the Koderan stat change…. Ugh…"

Researchers explained as they held their hands up to their ears.

"Oh well, it's okay. Mister Sian, come this way please."

He then handed what he held to Sian.

"This…"

"Isn't it amazing? It's an energy force with a will of its own. It's making those marbles float. I heard the researchers here made it accidentally."

The blue energy that Sian held was now much more calm, seeming to have lost all their resistance after being held together. The marbles that circled around it also slowed down as if they were somehow connected to the blue energy.

"This guy is cute."

"Isn't it? I was thinking of keeping it as a pet if it doesn't become strong enough to be used as a weapon. I didn't choose a name for it yet, but I was thinking of giving it a cute one."

Sian thought about giving this to Rian as a pet, but he gave up as Rian would not be able to tame this. Lagaope or Sian could handle it, but Master warriors would be burned alive if they survived the mass marble attack.

"I'll send you one as a pet if we create some more. Say… how long will it take for it to be ready?" Lagaope asked a researcher.

"We will need about six months to create these energy masses in great number."

The researcher was still panting even after the energy stopped screaming.

"I guess you can take one as a pet when you come with the replacement material for the orb."

Sian nodded as he had come to like this cute energy ball.

"Hmm, I'll show you where we store our materials."

Lagaope then began walking toward the corner of the island, outside the buildings.

"Is it located at the corner of the island?"

"Yes. We need a lot of water due to the cooling issue. That place focuses on researching various objects collected from around the world, including precious metals."

The building they entered after a while was quite different from other buildings.

"It feels like a blacksmith workshop."

"Well… Dekons wanted the place to be like this. I'm not sure why they like this better."

They had all the technology and magic, but Dekons still outperformed them in metallurgy. Thus, the place was filled with Dekons.

"We have a lot of metals here. Some are really fascinating… this here is made from a Dekon."

Lagaope picked up a small metal stick and showed it to Sian.

"Is it special?"

"This stick changes the damage by changing how hard it hits, making it weaker."

"Huh?"

Lagaope explained in detail on how the stick worked, but Sian couldn't understand much other than what it actually did.

"So… if you hit someone with this, it will hurt them, but it won't kill them?"

"Yes. If you really intend to kill someone then that's another story… it has no use as a weapon. But I'll give it to you."

Lagaope gave the stick to Sian.

"Why?"

"You should beat someone with this from now on. Not with your fist."

"…"

"It won't even leave a bruise."

"Ugh. I'm sorry."

Sian apologized as he kind of liked Lagaope who was being really kind to him.

"I just showed you the most worthless metal, so I'll show you most precious one now. Come this way."

Lagaope walked outside.

"Why are we going outside?"

"This metal is too hard to store. We couldn't store it inside the building."

They walked to where a great magic rune was drawn on the ground. The rune was being sourced by endless energy to create a dark barrier on top. Sian couldn't see through the barrier so he narrowed his eyes and asked, "Why do you even need such thing?"

"Oh… the metal is just too heavy to store so we need to hold it. But I can't always take it around so we created this dimensional-anti gravity area to keep it in."

Lagaope then told the Magic Priests to stop the rune. As the rune stopped working, Lagaope jumped into the rune and picked up the metal that was revealed. It seemed like it was heavy since Lagaope could barely pick it up with his two hands to bring it out.

"I'm a Ra-Bander but this is really heavy. This… huh? Mister Sian? What is it?"

Lagaope looked at Sian who had a weird expression on his face as he observed the metal.

"…Where did you get this?"

"I picked it up in the Usharan Desert about four years ago. I went there to check on the loud sound that came from the area and this piece was in the spot. Do you know what this is?"

Sian wasn't really listening to him anymore.

'That's a piece of Chrona-Phon…!'

It was Chrona-Phon, which Sian asked Stiel to take care of five years ago.