Swordmeister of Rome

<The similarity between Beauty and Weakness is that both are good to take. So don't touch them. There's a reason why they still walk unhinged.>

-Kurkan the Bandit King

...….

Black Serpent was one of the three organizations that ruled the Black Market. One of its leaders, Spinn, stared at the man who was reporting to him.

"Void artifact… a beautiful woman and some weakling?"

"Yes. Aren't they good targets?"

"Did you take care of the fool who came to sell the information?"

"Yes, sir."

A void artifact was created from high-grade magic and many Talic Stones, thus making the item valuable no matter its capability. With a beautiful woman by its side… it seemed lucrative.

'That's what this fool is probably thinking.'

It was why the man ranked so low in their organization. A beautiful woman walking around without a guard had to be treated with caution. Fools were all over the place, and they would've already tried to do something to her. If she was able to walk freely through the Black Market, it meant she knew her way around.

The world was large, and there were plenty of powerful men. The weakling might not be a Bander user, but he could be an Exer.

However, that didn't mean he was going to give up on it. There were always people foolish enough to wade in without any thought.

"Hey, do you remember the Kakuraks?"

"Yes. Smugglers in the eastern district, right?"

"Yeah. Wasn't the leader an Expert?"

"That's right."

"Give him this information. Don't let it spread to other places."

"Huh? What are you going to do if he takes it away?"

"You idiot. He's not going to flee and lose all the profit from this place because of one artifact."

The Kakuraks were not big, but the profit was still huge. They would never give up their spot for just one small artifact.

"Oh! Right! I will do it right now!"

Spinn sighed. The man was very loyal but too dumb.

"How long will I need to train him so that he can think better?"

Spinn then started walking to the district to figure out how to distribute the new drugs that had come into their possession.

"I guess there's no more of these things."

Sian looked disappointed. There were some artifacts hidden within the items being sold with unknown values. Sian didn't care much about them as he was too obsessed with what he acquired the other day. He now didn't even bother to take a look and just sensed the energy waves.

"Did you think the market would hide some legendary sword or something?"

"Uh… well. It had Aksarai too, didn't it?"

"Those kinds of things won't be here because it looks valuable even at a slight glance."

"Darn… I guess I won't find a present for my brother here."

"That Rian boy?"

"Yeah."

He wanted to give the stuff he had, but Rian's power would be absorbed the moment he touched any of Sian's items. The items that Ra-Banders used were not something anyone, including Grand Banders, could wield.

"Should I look for it later? Is he a Master?"

"Yeah. Something like… an armor that strikes lightning to anyone who touches him. That sort of thing should work."

"…"

"Or one that summons me when he faces any danger."

Lightning would be much better for the attacker than Sian being summoned. Stiel thought it was good to know that Sian cared a lot for his family and continued following him. Suddenly, someone bumped into Stiel.

"OUCH!"

"HUH? What's going on?"

The man that ran into Stiel was rolling on the ground, and some other men quickly tended to him.

"Miss Stiel?"

"Oh, how can I dodge when he runs up to me so suddenly?"

That was a lie because Stiel would not allow someone to bump into her like that. People began gathering and whispering.

"Hey, stand up now. Don't be a weakling."

"Ugh… no… I'm not… ugh…"

It seemed like that man didn't have good intentions when he bumped into Stiel. She definitely would not let the man go without a beating. This seemed like it was enough for them to realize that they should back off, but the man who looked like the leader of the group shouted from behind.

"Bastards! You should apologize when you bump into someone!"

Sian decided to apologize. The man really was in a state where he needed an apology.

"Sorry about that."

"WHAT! Is that all? You can't just say sorry and be done with it! We need compensation!"

"…"

'Is he dumb?'

He should've realized that Stiel wasn't the one to be messed with when he saw his man not getting up by just a bump. Yet the man didn't seem to be bothered. Sian decided it would be better for him to take up the problem. It seemed better than having Stiel beat up all these men and send them to a hospital or graveyard.

He happened to have another piece of meat that he was chewing on, so he decided to use it again and walked up.

"Hey… what is that! Is that the compensation in your hand? HAH! ...But, come to think of it, that looks like enough."

'Huh?'

Sian became confused as the man suddenly changed his attitude. Sian hadn't done anything yet, and neither did Stiel, who was grinning behind him. But he found out soon enough.

"Hey, baldy! I told you to stop doing that, didn't I?"

A red-haired woman was walking toward the scene.

"No-no. I wasn't doing anything. They bumped into us. I was just going to get an apology."

"Yeah, right. You remember what you did a few days ago?"

"No… I changed my way of doing things after that. Haha…"

'These bastards are here again!'

Kakurak cursed to himself as he saw a group comprised of a man and three women coming toward him. This group of people appeared a week ago. They looked suspicious, so he and his group didn't approach them for the first few days. But when some fool pickpocketed the man, the man didn't realize he was being robbed. No strong warrior would let that happen.

The rumor spread quickly. Everyone began aiming to claim those beautiful women as their prizes.

But they were mistaken.

It was those women who were dangerous.

They looked like angels, but they had the heart of demons.

A man from Reto-Kel touched softest-looking woman's butt and was nearly beaten to death. He was sent to the hospital for bone fractures throughout his body. His group's hideout was ransacked, and the group then began shopping at the Black Market with the money they looted.

Kakurak managed to survive with a few beatings as he was only interested in the man, but if he tried to do something to the women, he would probably end up in the hospital too.

"We're going to stay here for a while. If you pick on weak people again…"

"No-no. It won't happen again. We're just trying to keep the peace of the streets! Boys! Let's get back to work!"

Kakurak quickly called his men and disappeared. Sian considered that it was good that it was solved and thanked the group.

"Thank you. It's been solved."

"Yes. Be careful. This place is filled with bad people. It's dangerous to walk around."

"Ha!"

Stiel burst into laughter from the back. She was disappointed that it didn't turn into a fight and was now dumbfounded when such weaklings were warning them to be careful.

"Huh..?"

The red-haired woman then turned to the woman behind the man.

'Ugh…'

She always was proud of her good looks, but the woman at the back was even more beautiful. Her skin was fair, and she was tall with long arms and legs.

As she turned around and returned to her group, she became more irritated as Kelvin, the guy from her group, was looking at the woman with a mesmerized look.

"UGH."

"Where.are.you.looking.at. Kelvin?"

"No-no-no. NO- please. Rinna, please."

Rinna began dragging Kelvin by grabbing his hair, and the other two women disappeared with them.

"Hehe."

"Miss Stiel, you look proud of yourself. I thought you didn't care about humans?"

"Victory is always a sweet thing."

Sian nodded. Those three women were beautiful, but Stiel was one of a kind.

"Limainu, is it now finished?"

Dekaduin smiled as he watched the magic rune.

"Yes, Master Dekaduin. I just needed the information, but we do need a large amount of energy for it… Was there a change to the formula that I was not aware of?"

Limainu was a genius, but he was still young and untrained compared to a First Grade Magic Priest. He did play a vital role in this project, but he couldn't grasp the whole picture as such.

"Don't worry. We made the change because we found a way to get more energy. We will be installing it near outer Kerbal to solve the disaster with Lagaopora."

Limainu was reminded of the city of Kerbal and the disaster that it faced. It seemed the magic rune was going to be a great help to the city.

"It's a good idea. I think it will show the best result."

Dekaduin then walked out of the room, and Limainu was left alone to review the information on the magic rune.

<Warp-Gate>

He named it because it didn't have a name yet. It was magic on a different level of power than Ra-Shar-Roa. If this were created, Lagaopora would no longer be useful. It was going to bring hope to Kerbal.

Limainu began to focus as he was filled with hope that the Warp-Gate would instill hope in many people.