Swordmeister of Rome

Chapter 143: Encounter

Parhum, the captain of a group of migrating people and leader of this Muvakal, moaned,

“Damn it... we only got halfway.”

They had moved ever so carefully, but they were attacked by <Graans>, or the green gnomes of the forest. It was better than getting caught by the <Barkhans> of the plains, but there was no difference.

They treaded carefully since they knew it was <Graan> territory, but they were soon being chased by the Graans and a fight had erupted. Ravas were good at pulling carriages for long periods of time, but they weren’t the fastest.

It would be their end; they were not even close to Viscount Locke’s estate. Parhum felt sorry for the people who followed him here.

‘I’m sorry...’

As Parhum thought that, something jumped up into the sky.

“?”

Parhum turned toward the sky as he thought it was an ambush by a Graan. Yet, the object that came up on him wasn’t there.

Then, a clashing sound came from behind and Parhum quickly turned back.

“!!”

“Hah, this isn’t even close.”

A strange woman was crushing the <Antaines>, or the pets of those Graans.

Parhum could not let down his guard as he knew what that woman was. She didn’t have the usual energy, but it was very obvious.

‘Dammit... it’s a noble.’

Not all nobles were bad. There were some good nobles who looked after the commonfolk.

That was the problem. He did not know what this noble was like. It could be worse if they met a bad noble than fighting a group of Graans.

Also, this woman seemed to be crushing the Antaines with a bored look on her face, so it didn’t seem like she was going to be very friendly either.

This noble woman was a destructive kind and it seemed she wasn’t satisfied even after crushing all the Antaines around them. Then, Parhum turned to another noble who was a little farther away.

The man knocked out all Graans instantly as he landed. He did not kill Graans, so it seemed like he was on the nicer side.

Parhum felt he was growing more tense after all Graans and Antaines were taken care of.

“Why is he so tense?”

“Hmm. I thought nobles were common here? Why did you let them live?”

“We only have business with these people here. I’m not interested in them.”

“Ugh.”

Stiel still was fascinated by Sian. Maybe his strength made him more generous towards the weak, especially when the weak did not do any harm to Sian.

“What’s important is that we have to talk with them. Let’s go. I think we speak the same language.”

Surprisingly, these people used the same language. The Kingdom language was based on the Empire’s, and it was spread by Lagaope. It seemed to make sense that the languages were similar.

Sian talked to the man in the front.

“Hello.”

“Good day, noble ones.”

“Oh... uh, let me introduce myself. I’m Sian. I need to ask you some questions.”

Sian was awkward with formalities and quickly tried to dive straight into his business. Luckily, they could understand each other.

“I am Parhum... the person in charge of this Muvakal. Please ask me anything.”

Parhum was a bit relieved at Sian’s friendly approach, but he still didn’t let down his guard. There were many weird nobles.

“So... where should I start?”

Sian became hesitant as he couldn’t decide on what to ask first. It didn’t look like Parhum would know about Lagaope anyway. Parhum became confused and Stiel stepped up.

“Sian, we should just ask everything we need to know. Hey, you. Parhum?”

“Yes, ma’am. Please speak.”

Parhum felt the tension coming back. The man didn’t feel like a noble so he had relaxed a bit, but the woman was like a standard of all nobles. She had the prideful approach and arrogance.

“It’s our first time here. We don’t know anything so we got a lot to ask... are you in a hurry?”

“Uh... we are...”

“Well, it doesn’t matter. We can hop on that carriage.”

“Carriage...? Do you mean the Muvakal?”

Parhum became confused but quickly realized she was referring to the Muvakal.

“So, that’s what you call it? Yeah, that. Let us take a ride too. Sian, is it okay?”

“Yeah, I think we can do that.”

It looked like finding Lagaope wasn’t going to be an easy task, so Sian decided to get to know more about this world first and it seemed like a better idea to follow these people for now.

“Is it okay? We’ll take care of any attackers in return. We won’t ask for a free ride.”

“We can’t thank you enough for that.”

Parhum could not refuse the offer. The noble woman didn’t look like she’d accept ‘no’ as an answer, and there was no telling what she might do if he refused.

Besides, the offer to protect the Muvakal was also very tempting. They were not even halfway to their destination yet.

“Okay. But if you are lacking space...”

“No way. We should still have plenty of room. Please come this way.”

They did not have much space, but Parhum did not mention it. Some died from the last battle so he thought he could clear their rooms and arrange it so that he could lend the best room to these nobles.

Sian was surprised when he walked in as the Muvakal was very pleasantly decorated with appliances and furniture inside. As they walked further in, they were escorted into a small room that looked like it was for guests and they started talking there.

“So... you are moving together with your people to another noble estate?”

“Yes, that is correct.”

Sian realized this was really a different world. Superhumans acted as the lords of the state. It was something that was hard to imagine in his world.

“So, why are you traveling around instead of settling down in one place? Aren’t those attacks common? It seems dangerous.”

Sian became curious as he looked inside the Muvakal. As he looked around, he realized that it wasn’t meant for short journeys. It was made to provide a living space, implying that these people were ready to travel around without settling down.

Parhum then turned to look at Sian strangely.

“It’s our first time here, so we don’t know much.”

“...Understood. Well, traveling is dangerous and places beyond any estate protected by nobles are dangerous.”

‘Nobles protect them?’

It was very fascinating to hear that superhumans protected humans.

“And... those nobles don’t hunt down those monsters?” Sian asked. Those Graans and Antaines were powerful enough to put Grand Banders in danger, but it wasn’t much of a threat against superhumans. It wasn’t like Ra-Sian where all superhumans were not interested in protecting humans. Sian could not understand the superhumans who had those monsters roam the land outside their estates if they did protect their land.

“They do that on purpose.”

“Huh?”

“...So, you really did come from very faraway place.”

“Well, yeah.”

There were some cases where humans became nobles after training deep within the forest as those with great talents would allow them to become nobles quickly without any help of Akra. It was weird that these nobles had no Akra coming from them, but it made sense now.

Parhum then decided to explain everything from the very beginning.

“Nobles leave them alone on purpose. They sometimes raise them. It’s all because of Duke Lorvall’s law.”

Duke Lorvall’s Law.

That was the start of the weird situation made by the superhumans of this world.