Swordmeister of Rome

"Repeat after me! I am a MAGGOT!"

"You all are rotten!"

"You think you can fool around like you've been doing your entire life?"

The training ground was chaotic. Men and women alike were sparring each other and there was a group of people making weird postures as punishment in the corner. And in another corner was Rian and some students who were getting smacked by Rian continuously.

"I see where you learned your stuff, Sian," Stiel smiled.

"…there must be a reason for this."

"Or that's how you want to believe it."

"…we'll see once it's over."

Sian decided to wait in the distance for the class to end. Rian did not know that he had arrived yet. Sian then glanced around to check on all the students. There were various students, but most were having a hard time following the instructions. Oddly enough, there was one who did understand. Stiel and Sian looked at the student weirdly.

"Miss Stiel. Didn't Granines want to live in seclusion?"

"Yeah. They are our allies, but they're not humans."

"So… what's with that?"

"I don't know."

A Granine was working hard to follow Rian's instructions. It looked like he was just about to reach the Master-level.

"Brother should know what to do."

"Yeah yeah. But I thought your brother was like a gentleman… I guess it's all in the blood."

"There must be a reason for that."

Sian couldn't believe what he saw and began waiting for the class to end.

"Haha, you're here. When did you come?"

"About an hour ago?"

"I see. Sorry I made you wait."

Rian greeted Sian apologetically.

"Who's the beautiful lady next to you?"

Sian then turned to Stiel, expecting a scowl as Stiel did not consider anyone below Ra-Bander as a human. Yet she did not act as Sian expected.

"Good day, sir. Call me Stiel."

"Good day, Miss Stiel. So, you are my brother's…?"

Stiel smiled and answered, "Travel-mate."

'For now.'

"My god, Sian did you…?"

"It's probably not what you are thinking about right now."

Sian became suspicious of Stiel for being too nice, but he decided to let it go for now.

"Brother, so what was the…"

"Oh. I guess you saw it all then. It's embarrassing."

Rian smiled embarrassingly as Sian asked about the class.

"Did you… uh, were you stressed? Or you've been hiding a sadistic…"

"Not at all. I'm just following orders from the King."

"Huh? The old man?"

Sian was confused, but Stiel seemed to realize what was going on.

"I see."

"What did you see? Miss Stiel?" Sian turned to Stiel.

"Didn't you see those students fighting with each other?"

"Yeah?"

"Didn't we think it was weird? That the fight was left alone?"

"…I didn't think it was weird."

"…"

"…"

Rian and Stiel looked at Sian, but Sian became irritated and made a face for her to continue.

"It's making a public enemy of the academy."

"You are correct, Miss Stiel."

"It's nothing."

Rian became impressed and complemented her. Sian couldn't understand yet and needed extra explanation from Rian.

"So… you and other instructors are posing as evil instructors?"

"Yeah. We can't make them befriend each other by force."

Sian nodded. "I guess so."

"That's where the enemy comes in. We don't have outside enemies, so we're taking their places."

"And the students will group up together against you?"

"Yeah. They'll fight for now, but it will decrease. It's much more efficient than suppressing them."

"Won't that make the instructors look bad?" Stiel laughed.

"I learned a lot in Dragona. I think it's better that I look bad and make them grow stronger to survive. I can become evil if I need to be."

Sian shook his head, but this was also why he loved his brother.

"If that's the case, okay. I was worried if something had gotten into you."

Sian looked relieved to know what had happened and remembered his purpose for coming here.

"Oh, I have a present for you."

"What is it?"

"Here."

Sian handed him the necklace.

"Use it."

"A necklace?" Rian asked again because Sian wasn't the type to just present a simple accessory.

"It's nothing special. It's going to help you when you are in danger."

Sian didn't go into details as it was too embarrassing to explain everything.

"Haha. I'm happy that you are worried for me, but I don't think there's any need for this here."

Lagran Region was now most heavily protected region throughout the entire Tian Kingdom.

"No, brother. I've seen terrifying things in the world. You should always keep it on you."

"Haha, okay. Thank you, Sian."

Rian smiled and put on the necklace. Sian became relieved.

"Always have that on you. Oh, is there any problem with you being an instructor here?" Sian asked again as he saw that Rian had a hard time as a Dragona.

"Nothing much. I like training here. Why don't you go see Lady Celine? She was quite bored without you."

"Is she here too?"

"Yeah. I'm here as part of the Roman family, and she's here to represent the Kiraine family."

"I should pay her a visit then."

"Yeah. Follow the path and you'll get there soon. She's probably finished with her class by now. We'll talk later in the evening."

"Okay. I'll see you later then."

Sian was planning to stay at Gron-Pilah for a while. He needed time to adjust to his newly-acquired power. The crater he made while fighting before seemed like a good place to do that.

'I should visit Celine.'

"What are you going to do now, Miss Stiel?"

"I have a place to go… I'll see you later."

Stiel then jumped out and Sian shrugged and moved to where Celine was.

'He's here too.'

Sian became curious as he watched the Granine he saw earlier.

'Is he up to something?'

He couldn't understand so he just watched, but he realized a few things about the Granine.

'He must be curious about a lot of things.'

Granine was asking so many questions.

<Why are you using the power like this?>

<Under what circumstances do you use this sword art?>

<Why is the light blue?>

Other students were having a hard time even following the curriculum, but the Granine was so advanced that he had lot of time left to ask questions.

'But he's being hated on. Then why…'

The other students were obviously annoyed with the Granine. The interesting thing was that he wasn't getting picked on. Sian was able to find out the reason soon enough.

"ARGH!"

"Rodeval! Stop! Stop!"

'Wow… he's like a beast,' Sian thought as he looked Rodeval. The Granine was fighting fiercely against the opponent even when it was just a duel. He was too fierce for anyone to pick a fight with him. Besides, Rodeval didn't care about being left alone.

'It's not something I should be bothered with.'

Sian walked up to Celine.

"Lady Celine, long time no see."

"Huh? Sian? Why are you here? I thought you went traveling?"

Celine was surprised to see Sian.

"I came back to visit my brother. Don't look at me like that. I don't have a present for you."

"Brother… and I don't want a present."

Sian couldn't understand why Celine became angry all of a sudden and asked, "But who's he?"

"Who? Oh, Rodeval?"

"Yeah."

"I think he wanted to learn about human society."

"Oh?"

"Granines are powerful, but they can't live without interacting with humans. The academy is a good place to start."

"Then they're going to be sending more people."

"Probably. I'm worried though. He's gentle, but he becomes fierce when he gets into a duel."

Celine looked concerned.

"Can he just not learn about fighting? He's already good enough."

"Yeah, but he's really interested in human sword arts. He loves Sir Rian's lessons especially."

"Hmm…"

As they were talking to each other, someone was watching them from distance. It was Rodeval.

'So, he's Sian von Roman…'

Rodeval watched Sian for a while and then turned away.