Swordmeister of Rome

"What is it?"

"We found him running toward our estate on our way. We heard about the Alpha from him."

"I see. Baron Raul, explain."

Raul calmed down and began to explain.

"It was a few days ago…"

Baron Raul scoffed at the thought of commoners who left his estate a while ago.

"Insolent commoners… you should pay your price for being protected. Nothing is worth more than your life."

Baron Raul became a noble when he was about eighty years old. He was excited at such power and felt like he could do anything. But he quickly realized he wasn't as powerful as he thought he was. When he was a commoner, he was the stronger of the bunch that allowed him to be arrogant, but he was now weakest of all nobles.

He didn't like having someone on top of him so he left the populated area to a remote land where a group of commoners lived. There wasn't much Akra to be taken from them, but he didn't care. He knew there will be always someone stronger than him even if he tried hard, so he decided to live with his desires and lust in the small town. The town was so small that no noble wanted to take a share, which was even better for him.

But it was funny to see those commoners who had fled. He didn't care about Akra so it didn't matter if some of them died out there. He felt good at the thought of them dying out and the survivors running back to his town, begging to be forgiven.

"Haha… but they are holding out longer than I expected."

Raul thought it would be nice Parhum's daughter returned. She was quite attractive and it would be a good chance to kill Parhum if he dared to attack him. Parhum had better talent than Raul himself during his commoner days. It was best to kill that kind of potential, given the opportunity.

Then Raul felt something ominous from the west of the forest. Raul knew what that place had and became worried.

"Did something happen to Apental? Hmm…"

Apental was safe as long as no one entered it, but he didn't like having such a terrible thing near his land. He got up from his bed and left behind the girl he slept with and jumped out to check what was going on.

He scoffed at the figures from the forest. Familiar gnomes and insects.

It was the Graans and Antaines.

They were very far away, but its army was advancing toward his estate.

"Haha… mad dogs. You're just some Narija trash…"

Raul came back to his room and took up his sword. He thought it was a good chance to have some fun in a while. But something made him stop. As they got closer, he managed to look at them in detail. It wasn't the same Graans he was used to. They were now bright red instead of green, and the Antaines in front of them had very durable looking armor on them. But the last thing was more obvious. They were letting out an ominous aura.

Raul felt a shiver running through his spines. He realized what was going on.

"Dammit… there's an Alpha!"

Evolution of the race, the biggest concern of all nobles. It was the birth of the Alpha. It wasn't something Raul could handle by himself so he headed for Locke's estate. It was largest estate within the area and the closest. He ignored those Antaines charging toward his estate and fled to Viscount Locke's estate at full speed.

"This was what happened a few days ago. I met Baron Gerahim along the way and got here."

Sian looked at Baron Raul who seemed to be proud of what he just informed them about. It looked like he just left his people to die as bait and fled, but he seemed to be thinking he was successful as a scout to share this message.

'I guess Parhum had every reason to run.'

Sian thought as he knew what kind of Raul would have been.

'Alpha…?'

Sian didn't know what it was so he decided to ask them when they were done with their meeting.

"Alpha of Graan… we didn't notice any signs during our scouting."

"No, but even if it did… it will take long time for the entire race of Graan to undergo the change, given their traits."

If Raul was not lying, it seemed like most of Graans had changed. That was what Locke was most concerned about.

As Sian could not join in on the discussion, he could not resist the urge to ask.

"Uh… what is an <Alpha>?"

"…?"

"Don't look at me like that. You can ask, right?"

"Ha… what are you…?"

Raul became irritated as some fool cut in to ask stupid question. He didn't have any Akra Resonance so he must be a lowlie, which angered him more. He was already irritated as he lost his estate so he thought about unleashing his anger on the man, but other Barons and Viscounts were present so he decided to hold back.

'Huh? How dare…'

Stiel knew what that squid-looking man was thinking as he looked at the lovely Sian so she began thinking about what kind of punishment she would give him, but Raul did not know that and glared at Sian.

Locke saw all that but he ignored it as he opened his mouth to answer the question.

'It's better if he makes trouble. I'll get to know more about that man.'

"I'll tell you about Alphas."

There was a clear limit on how powerful a race could be.

Everyone on the continent knew about this.

Some races had no way they will be able to achieve the power of a <Noble> rank. It didn't matter how long it passed and how powerful it got. Theses race were called <Narija>.

It was a race with no <Nobles>. As such, it didn't pose any threats to the nobles. It could prove dangerous against the commoners, but not the nobles.

Above them were the <Rotans>.

These were races that allowed to attain <Noble> level power. Humans were in this rank. As such, races that labeled as Rotan were very dangerous for nobles. Thus, the nobles worked together to wipe out all Rotan races and left the Narijas. The Narijas were left to keep on threatening the commoners so that the commoners would ask for protection. If it wasn't for Duke Lorvall who protected the rights of the common people, nobles would have enslaved all commoners already. But with Duke Lorvall's law intact, this was the best outcome.

However, there was one question: why did the nobles want to kill the Narija race?

This was because of <Alphas>.

It was a rare mutant among the Narija races. There was no telling when it occurred, but these <Alphas> broke their limits and became stronger. They were dangerous enough to be a threat to the nobles.

One Alpha did not mean much. Even if one became a noble, it only meant that it was as strong as a Baron. However, nobles always were wary of an Alpha's appearance. If an Alpha were to born, they needed to be killed when it was weak and nobles constantly scouted the areas near their estates. As such, there were tens of Alphas that Viscount Locke killed himself.

It was not known to the commoners, but for the nobles who had lived long lives and knew what happened thousands of years ago, and what kind of disaster could occur when an Alpha and the traits of dangerous races were combined.

The birth of the two dangerous races, <Murakan> and <Swarm>, represented such disaster.