Swordmeister of Rome

<People plotting against you behind your back? Good. It means that they are afraid that you might know what they are up to. When all fear you, that's when you know you have become a God. Of course, you won't become one. I will.>

-Con-Rad the Son of God, Ra-Bander from 700 years ago

...….

Sian had been trying to shrug off the incident by focusing on his ordinary life. What happened back at the mansion had been covered up for unknown reasons. Sian had no reason to speak of the incident, so he kept quiet, but it felt uncomfortable not to know the true intention behind it. However, part of him considered it fortunate that it didn't become an issue.

As the number of signals fires lessened, Sian spent peaceful days at work... until he received a letter.

"Hm… Royal Inspector for Inspection of the Kingdom… what is this?"

From his experience, he realized that a sudden letter like this was never good and carefully read it through, firing questions to the operations officer in front of him.

The officer, who was really annoyed, answered kindly as he was trying to be nice to Sian because he was the brother of Sir Rian.

"It's one of the Guarran-Tia's duties. It is completed once every two months, where two Guarran-Tias are dispatched to the nobles and the other operation departments out in the country to inspect them. It usually takes one to two weeks, and you need to check to make sure everything is going well."

Fortunately, it wasn't a special mission just for Sian like the last time. The mission wasn't unusual, but he needed to clarify one thing.

"I see… so who am I going with? Has it been decided?"

"Of course. You will be going with Sir Cariman. He has plenty of experience on royal inspections."

'Hmm?'

He expected to hear Celine's name, but it wasn't. As Sian received clarification on the two issues he was most concerned about, he felt relieved. It was a general duty for the Guarran-Tia anyway, so he decided to treat it like a camping trip and enjoy it.

"…who chose Sian?"

Count Kerbel sank deep into thought. Sian didn't know, but it was Kerbel who had arranged for Sian to work with Celine. Her job was to keep Sian's true strength hidden. If it were revealed that Sian was the one responsible for stopping all the problems in El-Lua, Marquis Narasha would've cast Sian out to the countryside at once. Count Kerbel had no power to prevent that, so he had to hide that fact. Celine was neutral when it came to politics, but she was worried the Marquis' extreme actions would cause problems on the streets and accepted Count Kerbel's request to help Sian.

She did a great job in hiding Sian from the public eye. Count Kerbel knew this and believed Sian had not been exposed. Even now, most of the Guarran-Tia believed Sian to be a lazy fool. He knew that the Royalists and Nobles were keeping an eye on him, but he was only seventeen and not considered dangerous. (If it weren't for Kirat, the Marquis might have still been wondering about the mystery man.)

But to be chosen as a royal inspector? Under normal circumstances, only Guarran-Tias with over a year's worth of experience were chosen. It could have been a coincidence, but if it was, the timing was terrible. El-Lua had remained in peace because of Sian. If he was to be absent for two to three weeks, it was bound to erupt into chaos.

The Third Knight Guard wasn't enough to resolve all problems. (If Sian had beat them up enough to stay in bed for longer, it would've been great, but most of them recovered after four weeks.)

Nothing could be done as it had already been decided. Count Kerbel could only wish Sian would return soon and he began planning to keep the capital as peaceful as possible.

Marquis Narasha felt both relief and emptiness when he heard that Sian had left the capital with Cariman for the inspection.

'…that easy?'

The problem that killed eleven of his allies had been solved so easily. The plan had been simple.

1. Move Sian out of the capital.

2. Send him to a neutral noble estate where there are no fights between factions.

3. Do not touch the Roman family.

He thought of assigning Sian to the countryside, but he chose not to as he heard that Sian loved his family and he was worried Sian would reject a request to go somewhere so far away.

Thus, he decided to send Sian out on the inspection. It was one of the general duties of the Guarran-Tia, and it would only be for a month or two, which Sian would not object to.

To keep him out of the conflict, the Marquis carefully arranged it so that he would be inspecting areas where no factions were in control.

After they left, Cariman would drag out the trip to last for two months, giving the Marquis enough time to finish everything.

The balance between the two factions was not large. It would be easy for the Marquis to take over the throne once Sian had been removed from the roads of El-Lua, which was the most strategic location.

Sian wasn't interested in politics anyway, so if everything was resolved before he returned, he would not care and he would carry on with his duty as a Guarran-Tia.

If the monster wished to stay a human, the Marquis intended to help him.

The Roman family was traditionally neutral. However, the Marquis ordered his people to stay away from Rian, just in case. As for Count Roman, he was not worried as he was one of three Grand Banders. He had calmed down now, but in his youth, his nickname was 'Mad Bear,' and nobody would mess with him even to this day.

'…'

Viscount Talin looked at the Marquis, who seemed relieved to hear that Sian had left the capital and thought he was worrying too much. It was certain that Sian was pretty strong, but he was predictable. Even then, the Marquis still seemed to be worried.

"Hah… I see."

Narasha looked at Talin's expression and realized what he was thinking. This was why he had been carefully revising his plans. His people did not understand the true terror of superhuman strength as they had never seen or felt it. If it was just a Master, they were correct. But, from Grand Bander level and above, it was an entirely different world. Not to mention, this was a Ra-Bander!

Throughout the history of the world, there had only been twelve Ra-Banders. Even after a thousand years, their names and their actions had been recorded and praised. They were beings above what ordinary humans could do. Their plan was to deal with such a being.

This was why Marquis Narasha was concerned right down to the last detail. He was sure that his people could not fully grasp this.

The first step had been completed. It was time to act.

"Viscount, we must start now. We must finish everything within two months."

"Yes, milord."

"Oh, so we will take two months?"

"Yeah. We are heading toward Logadis Estate, which is quite large. It has a lot of small villages scattered around it."

It had been quite some time since they left the capital, and they were now headed to the Logadis Estate. Sian was chatting with Sir Cariman in the small carriage. Cariman studied Sian, whom he had befriended during their travel, and remembered what the Viscount had instructed.

<NEVER, never, let him think about returning to the capital. You have to keep him out of the capital for two months.>

<And… never, NEVER make him feel bad.>

There had been other precautions, but those two were the most important. It wasn't very detailed, but it was apparent that he considered Sian some kind of plague or disaster and that made Cariman curious.

It seemed weird to remove a seventeen-year-old Guarran-Tia with such precautions. But he lacked the information to make anything out of it and shrugged off his thoughts. Cariman started explaining their duties to Sian.

"The countryside is not the same as the capital. I believe you have only lived in the capital?"

"Yes."

"Tian Kingdom is a peaceful place, but we still lack sufficient manpower. So, as we go further out towards the countryside, we face more problems with bandits and corruption."

"OH!"

"The Logadis Estate is more peaceful than most other places… but I haven't been there in a long time so it might have changed by now. It might feel like a different country, so be prepared. Haha!"

Cariman laughed teasingly, but he was actually worried. He had been on inspection duty countless times and had a lot of instances where new recruits accompanied him. They all had different reactions, but the most annoying ones consisted of the following types:

1. Recruit expects to be treated like a king

2. Recruit forgets about their inspection duty and jumps in to solve bandit or village problems.

3. Recruit starts causing a ruckus to bring down the corruption by themselves.

These things happened because new recruits suddenly thought they had become a noble or hero of justice. Their job was to inspect and report to the upper division where they would resolve the issue. It was important to remember that their job was to inspect and inspect only. There was no need to do any more or any less, but new recruits always seemed to lose sight of that.

'Let's hope nothing serious pops up along the way…'

Cariman was concerned about what he would have to do if Sian became uncontrollable like the other new recruits, as he had been warned by Viscount Talin to be careful.

He had these concerns because he did not know Sian well enough.

At that moment, the sound of swords clashing was heard. It was a distance away from the road.