Swordmeister of Rome

'How did <Nobles> get here…'

Rosharan felt like she would faint at the power these people had, but she concentrated on keeping her dignity as a Queen.

<What brings you here?>

She could feel her children looking at her in shock, but she ignored them. She needed to make the right decision. A wrong decision here would mean death for all of them.

"Huh?"

Sian was confused by the Queen's question. She probably had not felt his armor's power yet.

"Did you hear about me from the other one?"

Sian was worried as Rolakura barely managed to fly away, but it seemed she returned safely.

'So you were attacked by these people…'

The Queen felt sorry to her daughter for her hasty judgment. She would have had no way to resist if she was attacked by <Nobles>.

<No, but why do I not recognize you? How did <Nobles> get here? This is the land of monkeys…>

"...?"

Sian and Stiel looked at each other as they could not understand what this fairy-looking creature was talking about.

"Miss Stiel, does it matter if we're nobles to them?"

"I don't know. However, they wouldn't make nobles into slaves if that was the case."

Stiel then pointed to a slave next to the fairy.

"He's…"

Sian had seen the man before in a book. He was bad at recognizing people, but he remembered the man because he reminded himself never to do the same thing as the man countless times when he was young.

It was the warrior that went over the Wall a hundred years ago, Grand Bander Eclipse.

'So, he was enslaved by them,' Sian thought, but Stiel nudged him.

"Is that important right now?"

"Oh, right."

The term 'noble' could mean something different, so Sian didn't need to understand what it meant. He just needed to do what he came here for.

"Well, I think it's not important to know who we are. I'm just here for personal business."

<?>

'Are they not nobles?'

Rosharan became confused. The power coming from their blood surely meant that they were nobles. She wasn't sure about the man, but she was certain about the woman.

However, what was more important was what they wanted from her.

"It's nothing much, but you should help us save lives."

Sian then took out the bottles from his void storage. Stiel curiously asked,

"I thought you just needed three bottles?"

"Oh…"

Sian explained what Lagaope requested.

<You only need three, but see if you can get more. It'll be hard to find them if they run back into the Great Forest. I think it's better if we can get a stockpile while we can.>

Stiel clapped as she heard that.

"Oh, then we should get much as we can."

"Right."

Rosharan slowly began to realize what they were trying to do.

<Are you…?>

"It's nothing much. I just want you to fill this bottle with your blood."

Sian felt a bit bad, but he decided to ignore it. He could do much worse if he could ensure his family's safety. Rosharan was frustrated as she looked at the stacks of bottles. That many bottles meant that she would have to draw blood from all of her children until they were half dead.

Besides, taking out that much blood might even weaken their power. Rolakura, who was at the brink of having five wings, had been powered down to just four after the incident.

'Should I fight them?'

She thought about it but decided against it. Her current armies were no match for nobles. It was fortunate that they didn't just get stuffed into those bottles.

Rosharan sighed and decided to do as they wanted. They could always regain their strength after these disasters left.

<Rium and Raum. You should start first.>

<Mother! But->

Rium and Raum shouted. These were just two monkeys. However, Rosharan did not want to talk about the dark history that she had been keeping a secret. Her children should only know about the Dragona invasion. Rosharan's expression turned grim, and the twins became silent.

Their mother was definitely uneasy about what was happening but she wasn't showing it. The twins knew what happened to those who made their mother angry, so they understood what was happening.

The two monkeys were powerful beings and their mother had no way to resist them.

<Hmm…>

Rium used the knife on her arm and began drawing blood.

Stiel spoke from the side, "That's a shame."

"Didn't you have enough fun a while ago?"

"No. I wanted to try your present out for longer."

Stiel smashed the gauntlets together and Rosharan felt a chill run down her spine. After looking carefully at her blood, she was sure that Stiel was a <Noble>.

She wasn't sure why Stiel came all the way here, but the woman looked like she could destroy their entire army.

'Go away with the blood…'

Rosharan gritted her teeth in fury as she watched her children spilling their blood. Their control would not be hindered if they drew blood carefully from each one.

"Hmph."

Sian smiled as he watched the bottles filled with golden liquid. He figured it would be hard to get, but he was lucky. He even didn't have to use any violence this time.

"Should we go now?"

Sian got ready to leave, but Stiel stopped him.

"Why?"

"Aren't we done here?"

"Didn't you say you didn't want them going back into the forest?"

"Uh… yeah. Sort of," Sian answered as he thought about Chrona.

"And, wouldn't it be better if we had more blood?"

"Yeah, but the bottles are all full."

Lagaope said it would be better if they had more blood; however, all the bottles were full. Stiel flicked her fingers sideways.

"Haha, you lack creativity. Why do you need a bottle?"

Rosharan felt goosebumps all over her. She knew what this crazy woman was trying to say.

"What do you mean?"

"We can just bring them all back. We'll keep them somewhere and draw their blood when we need to. They're small, so it won't be hard to keep them."

<!!!>

This would mean that their race would be dragged somewhere and kept imprisoned, only to be used to harvest their blood. Rosharan quickly yelled,

<Don't do that!>

"Huh? Are you going to stay here? Then that will be better for us. I'll leave you here then."

<…>

They couldn't do that either as those evil monsters would keep coming to collect their blood. Her children's wings were already dried and twisted after losing so much blood. If they kept getting their blood drawn, they would lose their power.

What was worse was that the man next to the crazy woman was considering her words very carefully.

'Dammit… this gives me no choice…'

Rosharan was thinking about using her last resort, but Sian spoke out,

"No, isn't that too much? We have enough blood."

"Ugh. You're too nice."

"Besides, you said that because you wanted to use the gloves, right?"

"Hmph."

Rosharan suddenly realized Stiel's true intention and felt a chill running down her spine. That woman was trying to provoke them so she could kill them.

'Crazy noble bastards…'

Sian turned to the now-pale Rosharan.

"Well, you should go back to your business. Try not to overdo it though, I'll see you again."

'…again?'

Rosharan watched the two figures jumping away and called out to her children.

<We're going back. We must hide.>

<Mother? What are you…>

<Did you not hear him? They will come back again if we stay here.>

Rosharan gritted her teeth.

<But…>

Rosharan sighed as her children seemed reluctant to go back with all the future slaves awaiting ahead for them.

<Didn't you see her face? They will come back! We have gathered enough armies this time. We'll hide in the forest… and train these armies as much as we can. Besides, you all lack the power to fight.>

<…Yes, Mother.>

It looked like the man didn't want to go into the Great Forest, so she needed to hide in the deeper parts of the forest to increase their strength.

<I will get revenge then…>

Rosharan ordered her children to begin pulling back their armies into the forest.

"You are too nice."

"Yeah, but I couldn't help it. Thank you for helping me out there."

"Haha, aren't I good at acting?"

Sian sighed as he watched the Rosharans returning back to the forest. He felt bad after he destroyed the mountain so he wanted to at least help with something. He glanced at King Narasha in the distance and ran back to Lavilan with Stiel.