Swordmeister of Rome

<The right and the privilege of a superhuman: freedom from everything>

-Groyn, the protector of Great North Wall

…….

Sian tried hard to calm himself from the despair after he returned to the capital. He was also deep in thought. The power gave him many insights. His ego was fighting against the change that the Ra-Bander power had brought upon him, and it would continue to do so. He tried hard to fit into society and follow its rules, but it wasn’t for a person like him.

The rules were for humans. They had to abide by the rules to stay in society.

In that sense, Grand Banders were also ordinary humans. They could not alter society and people’s will.

However, superhumans like Sian, who was at the Ra-Bander level, was free from it. There was no one that could force them. Other superhumans must have enjoyed being free from the boundaries of human society.

They left society to find a new goal. A new challenge.

Yet Sian did not want to give up being human, and he didn’t want to leave his family. That’s why he insisted he was different from ordinary people and learned to fit in with society.

Suppressing his power and changing his personality wasn’t enough. He would have to find a new way to do this.

Marquis Narasha felt the evil energy that seeped into his mansion while he waited for the return of the Fifth Elder and his people as he looked out the window. He looked toward the shelter he’d provided for the Elder to hide in while staying at the capital. If he wasn’t a Grand Bander, he would’ve missed it as there was a great distance. It wasn’t far, but it still was about six miles away.

The Marquis spent the entire night with uncomfortable thoughts and he sent a man at dawn. When the man returned and said that there were only bodies and ruins, the Marquis ordered the collection of all the bodies and arms.

He looked at the bodies and began thinking.

‘I can’t even imagine what happened.’

He already heard that Sian had reported back to work, so he knew the operation was a failure. But once he saw the bodies, it seemed that the situation was worse than what he had expected. With one body at the center, more bodies were found hundreds of yards away, cut in half. The cut was also very clean.

After examining the wounds with Exar and other methods, he learned that they were all killed instantly at the same time. The attack that killed them even sliced the mansion and the nearby hill. The cut was so precise that the whole mansion hadn’t been destroyed yet.

This was beyond his level. It was not something a Grand Bander, or Kel-Duin, the strongest Grand Bander, could do. There was only one level above him.

“Ra-Bander at the age of seventeen…”

This was the only plausible explanation. Ra-Bander, or human disaster, was the only way to explain such power.

The Marquis was left with two things to do:

First, he had to contact the people and resolve it peacefully.

Second, he had to decide what to do with Sian.

The first was already in progress. The Third Elder who was in contact with the Marquis did not want to risk the danger of facing a Ra-Bander. They were powerful, but they did not want to take the chance.

They received a heavy blow due to his request, but it was fortunate that they did not try to exact revenge against the Ra-Bander. They needed to stay safe for Tian Kingdom.

As for the second, he needed time to gather information about Sian.

He needed to prove himself to rise as a king by shaking up the capital. If Sian kept stopping him from doing anything, he wouldn’t be able to prove himself. But there was no possible way to fight a Ra-Bander. However, Sian did not seem to be hostile against him, so there had to be a way.

He ordered his men to investigate everything about Sian and research all the Ra-Banders from history.

That was what they had to do next.

The men who were ordered by Marquis Narasha were in a frenzy.

“Hurry! Finish the report!”

“Farayne, Robernutton, Karakal…”

“Hey! What’s this! Is this everything about Saraquin?”

“He’s… a man from 850 years ago… I barely found out from the library.”

“Gather more! This won’t do!”

“There’s nothing much about Ra-Banders! This is everything about them from the libraries of the Magical Council and the Royal Library!”

“Dammit, what were they doing back then?”

The research did not go well. Ra-Banders were famous figures, but not much was written about them. They were too strong. So even though everyone knew of them after thousands of years, nobody knew what they really were.

The people working under Marquis Narasha did manage to dig up all existing information about them. Ra-Bander information was scarce, but the Magical Priests who held similar power had lots of information as they left many writings and research papers that helped a lot.

After going through all the findings of the superhuman beings from history, they began identifying the differences.

<Sian von Roman wants to stay in society.>

It seemed very likely.

According to the writings and journals, all Ra-Banders felt that everything was pointless and boring. These people were usually around the age of 100. It was after the Grand Banders trained for half a century that they became Ra-Banders with great luck and talent. Why put in the effort? Everyone else put in effort, including those that failed.

It destroyed all human relationships, and they usually experienced all possible human experiences throughout their lives. Those Ra-Banders usually lived very prosperous lives as talented Grand Banders anyway. They had already lived without being chained by customs or rules and they only pursued strength.

This allowed them to stay about the same even after they became Ra-Banders. They were already like that.

But Sian was different. His family was alive and he had never experienced living in society. Even though he was strong, he was still only a seventeen-year-old boy. He was trying hard to resist the alter ego that came with being a Ra-Bander.

The Marquis realized what he needed to do.

<If the monster wants to act like a human, I will help him.>

The reason why Ra-Banders were feared was because they were not bounded by humans. Their moves weren’t predictable. But if Sian wanted to live as a human and follow the rules of society, there was a way to avoid conflict.

That would allow the Marquis to achieve his goals, but he needed to be careful.

The Marquis remembered the bodies. If something went wrong, the monster will give up on being human.