Swordmeister of Rome

Thousands of years ago, the continent was in chaos.

It was caused by the difference between the nobles, the commoners, and the environment. The continent was a good place for nobles to live in. There were various races throughout the world, but most of them were at Narija level, so nobles had no threats to worry about unless they came across a Rotan level race.

The commoners were a different story. There was a huge number of humans in the world, but they weren't all strong. <Graans> captured humans to suck the Akra out of them and fed the leftover skin to their <Antaines> to feed them. The <Barkhans> of the plains also hunted humans to sate their hunger.

The commoners needed protection and the nobles were only ones who could provide it.

However, they were cold.

<Why do I have to protect you all?>

It was good for the human race for the nobles to protect commoners since all nobles were once commoners. The talent to become a noble could not be inherited by the children of nobles, so they did not automatically become nobles.

But that was only considering the race altogether. Individual nobles were not interested in protecting the commoners. There were no benefits to gain from them.

Nobles only trusted one thing. It was not political power, wealth, or information. Their own physical strength. Anything else was irrelevant.

There were so many powerful people here. There were Barons above the commoners, Viscounts over the Barons, and the Counts over the Marquises. Barons building forces would only allow them to face other Barons. If they gathered to join forces, they might be able to fight someone a level higher, but that wasn't possible as all nobles only believed in themselves.

That was why there was no point in having political power or forces. And that was the same for wealth. Nobles took everything from the weak and the strong took over everything. Nobody protected the commoners. There was no country here, so there were no such rules. These powerful beings did not abide by any laws as they were impossible to enforce.

That was why nobles only sought to become stronger and only focused on that.

They needed talent, effort, time and a lot of other things to become stronger.

Yet the commoners could not provide any of that. That was why the nobles did not care about protecting those commoners.

The power of the human race began to dwindle. The nobles grew stronger, but the commoners became weaker. The nobles then began to grow concerned. Not many races were powerful enough to fight them, but it was not zero. If the other races joined forces, the human race would be wiped out.

That was when the Duke and the others joined together.

<We need to protect the commoners to some extent. We should share our duties to protect our race.>

Everyone agreed.

But 'to some extent' was too vague. They did take up the duties, but they had no rights. Even if the commoners they looked after became nobles, it only meant that they would have one more competitor. The world was too dangerous to look after all the commoners.

Those words became pointless as the nobles did not follow the law, hid themselves, or only protected the commoners under their family's care.

Duke Lorvall became concerned. He did not want to help commoners, but they still needed the human race to survive. Duke Lorvall then thought of an idea.

<If you abandon the duty to protect the commoners because they can't provide anything, I'll give you one. You will try your best to protect them with this.>

Duke Lorvall then gathered his talented people and created magic.

The secret magic that created <Akra>, <Akrata>.

The human race underwent a huge change after this <Akrata> spread among the commoners.

Finally, the commoners had something to contribute to their nobles' strength.

"So, nobles and commoners alike learn <Akrata>. It has two effects."

"Ohh."

Sian and Stiel looked at Parhum intrigued looks.

"First, it strengthens the user. With <Akrata>, one becomes much more powerful with the current power one has. It almost got a lot of commoners to rise up to become nobles, but it did not happen."

"Why is that?"

<Akrata>, or the magic created by Duke Lorvall, was made to strengthen the individual.

"It's because of the second effect. You can transfer the <Akra> stacked by <Akrata> to someone else. The downside is that it can only be transferred to the nobles."

"Huh? Then…"

"Yes. That's why the nobles protect commoners. Commoners supply their <Akra> for protection."

They received <Akra> in return for protecting the nobles within their boundaries. The <Akra> gathered by commoners was very little, but once collected for a long enough time period, that accumulated into sizable amounts.

Stiel then became curious and asked, "That's weird. Then it doesn't make sense that you're walking around like that. No noble will allow you to leave. If strength is that important, then there's no way that the nobles would let the useful commoners leave them."

Parhum nodded with a bitter smile.

"Yes, it did at first."

As <Akrata> spread, the nobles began to collect commoners fiercely. Yet it didn't mean any good for the commoners as the nobles did not care about their well beings and forced them to do their bidding. There was no way for the commoners to resist them.

Duke Lorvall was also prepared for that and made a new rule.

<The choice to transfer <Akra> solely depends on the owner. No one will be forced.>

The nobles did not care about the laws, but it was different when someone more powerful was enforcing them.

Duke Lorvall was a powerful man. He even went as far out as to enforce the law himself, punishing a few nobles for not following the law. He consumed the <Akra> of those nobles who did not follow the rules.

Commoners now were given a choice. They were now able to choose to provide <Akra> for protection or become strong themselves with <Akra> they had.

Stiel realized it then.

"That's why they let those monsters loose."

"You are correct."

There was no need for protection if there was no danger. That was why the nobles let those hostile races loose around the estates they protected. It made the commoners to ask for protection reluctantly as they had no way to fight against them.

The nobles did actively hunt down any Rotan level races with their joint forces. Even Narija levels were hunted down if they became too powerful.

So the lands between the estates were now left with monsters of Narija levels. Duke Lorvall knew that too much restraint on the nobles would make them revolt so he left them alone on this.

This was now fully rooted in human society.

Sian then realized why they were moving.

"So, the noble from the estate you left was a bastard."

"…"

Parhum smiled bitterly without saying anything.