1. Part
-Harijan>Five years ago, when he broke through the wall that hindered him and stepped onto a new stage, Sian felt a strange sensation filling a corner of his heart. Of course, he didn't hate that feeling. After all, he had little interest in anything besides swinging a sword.
Moreover, having ascended to a new realm, there was so much more he could do and so much more he could see that he focused all the more on trying and observing them.
He was interested in nothing. Apart from climbing higher, everything had become trivial.
He couldn't understand why his brother struggled in the Royal Knights Order, nor could he understand his mother's insistence that he should look after those around him. His father, floundering for the sake of the family, looked so pitiful it was almost pathetic.
All frames created by humans. Frames tailored for humans. Formalities for humans who couldn't live alone...
All matters that didn't apply to him; thus, there was no need for him to be bound by them.
The sight of his family looking at him with sadness and pity held him back.
The moment he strongly felt that he was becoming something else, along with a sense of rejection, Sian hurriedly bound the new power that was making him strange and pushed it into the center of his chest.
And after returning to his senses, he decided to use this newly obtained power as little as possible.
After that, Sian tried even harder to bind himself among humans.
He put effort into following the rules made by humans, strove not to harm others, and endeavored to observe the etiquette of mutual consideration.
Others might call him lazy if they saw him, but that was the best he could do. The more he bound himself with principles, the longer he could remain human.
There was no major problem in growing stronger even without using the power of the new realm.
Raising one's realm and manifesting the power after reaching that realm were entirely separate matters.
Even if he manifested his power, it didn't mean he would rise faster, and binding his power didn't slow the speed at which his realm ascended either.
Though unintentional, from the moment he bound his power and stuffed it into a corner of his body, he could deceive others, including his father, about his realm as well.
Since the ideal situation he desired had aligned in many ways, Sian thought that he would like this state to continue.
And hoping not to draw that power out, he had avoided troublesome matters as much as possible.
"Hah... ha."
Sian trembled all over at the refreshing feeling he hadn't felt in a long time.
His self from five seconds ago seemed to have planned to scold them moderately and lock his power away again once this situation was resolved... Why? 'Why must I do that?' It was so refreshing. He could feel everything around him down to the finest detail.
His senses, already wide, had expanded much further, and power capable of splitting even the sea gathered and dispersed repeatedly in his grip.
Humanity? Why would he need such a thing?
Such a thing was only necessary for humans.
That he had deliberately bound himself with useless courtesy, formalities, and principles until now seemed foolish. 'Do other Ra
-Banders feel this way too?'
He didn't know. They were not him, and he was not them. But one thing would be similar.
That is why they must have turned their backs on society. And they search for something that they themselves consider worthy of a challenge.
Whether it was a Ra
-Bander fighting a six-horned Harijan while guarding the Great Northern Wall, or Kuradan who had destroyed a mountain range, they would all feel the same.
'Hmm, what should I try?'
Lost in admiration, wondering what he should rip apart in this refreshing feeling he hadn't felt in so long, he soon realized there was something he needed to sort out.
'How should I deal with these things.'
Seeing the eleven figures before him frozen—frozen as they sensed the energy wave generated by him unlocking his power—Sian grinned widely.
And he soon made a decision.
'I'll kill them and go.'
It wasn't a decision made for any particular reason.
And it was also out of consideration for his self from ten seconds ago. The him from ten seconds ago surely would have wanted his current self to resolve this troublesome situation.
As Sian thought so, space began to distort around his hand.
Since this was the first time using this power since obtaining it, there would be some waste of strength... but so what?
Leisure and waste were the symbols of the strong. Desperation was the way of the weak.
Since he had plenty of time, Sian decided to slowly toy with them, partly as practice for using his strength for the first time, and walked slowly toward the frozen figures.
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Fortunately, they had experienced this kind of aura once before, so they could endure it safely.
Back then, the vicious murderous intent, the determination to kill and tear them apart, had been enough to cloud their minds. If the Great Elder, the 2nd Elder, and Kirat hadn't been there, they would have all died.
This feeling was worse than that time.
Moreover, though he was walking toward them smiling, those eyes were the eyes of someone set on killing him.
The 5th Elder looked at the approaching figure and spoke to the children beside him in their village's language.
Everyone who heard those words gritted their teeth and nodded.
Compared to the value Kirat possessed, they were all nothing but expendables. Even the 5th Elder.
Their martial strength was common enough when compared to the entire village, but Kirat's abilities as a rare Exer who guided them and illuminated their path were absolutely irreplaceable.
For the sake of their comrades in the village, Rasha had to take Kirat and escape, while they scattered in all directions to buy time.
Anyway, if they confronted him alongside the 5th Elder at their level, they would be annihilated in a single blow.
The moment the decision was made, the 5th Elder drew the cherished weapon he kept on him.
He had to strike when that bastard was off guard.
The 5th Elder shouted in the village's language and blocked Sian, while the remaining ten scattered in all directions and began to flee.
At the same time, the 5th Elder pulled from his bosom an item made by the 2nd Elder.
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Their village had fought countless Harijans as they moved south.
Naturally, all byproducts were theirs.
They ate the meat, harvested the blood to make elixirs that made them stronger, and used the Talic Stones to create weapons.
They had to grow stronger without cease to survive.
What the village usually encountered were those with four horns, but those with five horns also appeared frequently.
The 2nd Elder had collected the Talic Stones of such creatures and, after investing a great deal of time, created artifacts of immense power.
Even for them, to survive in the harsh Great Northern Forest they had to consume Talic Stones constantly in battle, so there weren't many high-grade Talic Stones remaining; thus, the number of artifacts the 2nd Elder made had been distributed only to the Elders and a few elites.
But its power alone was undoubtedly true to its name. It had even cut off the wrist of a six-horned Harijan during battle, carrying its weight splendidly.
The name of his cherished weapon, made for him by the 2nd Elder.
This blade, forged by interweaving and refining Talic Stones from seven five-horned Harijans, contained the essence of the laws and magic the 2nd Elder had discovered and researched from the legacy of an ancient empire.
It was so powerful that he feared he would become dependent on it if he used it normally; ever since leaving the Great Northern Forest, he had never drawn it.
Since obtaining this weapon, he had thought there were few who could match him besides the Elders, but...
The 5th Elder spoke through gritted teeth.
The one before his eyes was clearly of the same level as the Great Elder, or perhaps a realm above.
He couldn't believe it. To be a Grand Bander at seventeen was already absurd... but to surpass even that!
"The world sure is vast. That's why you shouldn't go around picking fights with just anyone. You reap what you sow."
Whether or not he cared about those fleeing around him, the figure approaching while grinning toward the 5th Elder seemed like an entirely different person, no longer even using honorifics.
Watching the space around him ripple every time Sian clenched and unclenched his hand, the 5th Elder began to pour Bander into his cherished weapon, Karmata.
'I have to buy time....'
As the Bander and the Exar contained within Karmata began to clash violently in the minor formation engraved on Karmata, a brilliant golden light soon leaked out from Karmata.
The miracle engraved in Karmata,
This golden power looked beautiful, but the moment it touched anything—whether Bander, Exar, or even the thick armor of a Harijan—it would all decompose into dust.
"Oh? That's fascinating."
But Sian didn't look tense at all.
And the 5th Elder hadn't expected such a thing either.
The 5th Elder was rather considering it fortunate that Sian was showing curiosity toward him now.
Because the longer he dragged time out, the higher the chances that the other children would survive.
As if he had noticed the 5th Elder's inner thoughts, Sian smirked and said,
"I think I've waited long enough by now? Now, hurry up and come at me. I think I've given them plenty of time to run away......"
Before those words even finished, the 5th Elder explosively ignited the Bander he had secretly been circulating and accumulating throughout every corner of his body and swung Karmata.
...!
Even the characteristic sound of air splitting didn't occur.
Because everything in Karmata's trajectory was being decomposed.
All that could be seen was the golden, beautiful yet ferocious trajectory connecting the 5th Elder and Sian.
Screech!
'...Did it hit...?'
Hearing the friction sound in his ears, the 5th Elder doubted his own ears for a moment.
Because he had swung without expecting to hit, and had been preparing his next attack.
But feeling as if the blade were pinned beneath a mountain beyond his grip, he immediately realized what was happening.
He had caught the attack aimed at him with one hand.
Sian finished what he had been saying with a smile.
"...cause. This old man is rude to the very end. Interrupting someone while they're speaking."
Realizing immediately through the sensation in his grip that pulling out the blade was impossible, the 5th Elder let go at once, exploded the Bander throughout his entire body, and struck the hilt of Karmata. His intention was to drive Karmata into the opponent like a nail.
Boom!
A grand bell-like sound rang out as Karmata wobbled.
But that wasn't because Sian's stance was shaken.
It was simply that Karmata's blade, having received an excessive shock in an instant, was shaking this way and that to absorb the impact.
Sian was still holding the blade, turning Karmata this way and that in his grip.
"Hmm... I'm not exactly an expert at appraising these things, but... it's quite well made."
Even after leaving its master's grip, Karmata was still thrashing wildly, activating
The 5th Elder, pushed back by the recoil of striking Karmata, was blankly staring at the scene, forgetting even to prepare his next attack as he dispersed the shock.
Looking at the 5th Elder, who clearly felt his own limits in the current situation and was wrapped in helplessness, Sian threw out a word.
"Ah... and, you know what?"
As the 5th Elder stared blankly at the sight of him spinning the blade round and round, Sian smiled and answered.
"Time's up."
Then Sian gripped the handle of Karmata, which had already stopped operating, and lightly swung it in a circle around himself.
It looked like a playful swing, but the result was anything but light.
Tzzaaaap!
Along the path of the swing, the air seemed to split open in a horizontal plane.
No, it had definitely split. The space above and below was misaligned around the line drawn through the void.
And caught in that split horizontal plane were the half-destroyed mansion, and the waists of ten people who had already been fleeing hundreds of meters away.
Watching the scene unfold, the Fifth Elder imagined what would happen next and his face filled with despair.
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Kal-Rasha was running madly toward her younger sibling. Even when she had been chased by Harijan, she did not think she had ever been this desperate.
She did not know how much time the Elder would buy them, but before it ran out, she had to take her sibling and escape from this place.
‘Where did it all go wrong?’
When she accepted Marquis Narasha’s request, she had not thought it serious at all.
In fact, as she observed the target, she had laughed at how careless he was.
It was beyond careless. A suspicious person invited him, and yet he was lured by food without a second thought and followed them all the way to the mansion.
Even if he died a hundred times over, he would have nothing to say for himself. In the Great Forest, even the lowest creatures in the food chain did not get baited so easily.
Because the moment they did, they would become prey.
He had even been grinning at her during the meal, his guard completely lowered.
She had been a little tense because he was said to be a Gran-Bander, but what he did was befitting his age—he was a greenhorn.
When they attacked, she had been a little surprised. He had endured better than she had expected.
But that was all. When she heard he had never killed a single person before, her own unease seemed pathetic.
And then there was the way he said he did not want to kill those who had swung blades at him.
Of course, reaching the same realm as the Fifth Elder at seventeen was remarkable. But it was clearly too early for him to fall into arrogance and already grow lax with ease.
A Gran-Bander was certainly a formidable expert, but not to the extent that he could shut his eyes and ears and ignore the way the world worked. The world was not kind to those who gave up adaptation and evolution.
That was why she had been reassured, and that was why she had dismissed him. He was strong, but his attitude was rotten.
Yet in a single moment, everything was overturned.
He had only peeled away one layer of the stupid-looking sheep’s skin, and yet “that thing” had been hiding inside!
At the same time, only then did everything begin to make sense.
What his careless responses to everything around him had meant.
He must have known already. That no matter what situation came, it could not threaten him.
Even if it was a calamity that threatened an ant’s life, to a human it was nothing more than a drizzle.
Suddenly, she recalled the words of her village’s language that referred to the realm called La-Bander here.
Whoever had coined it, Rasha now felt the meaning of those words pierce deep into her bones.
‘Please, please, please……!’
Rasha muttered endlessly as she ran toward her younger sibling, who was running toward her from far away.
The Elder had held out far better than she had expected. Seeing that her sibling was close, she felt some room to breathe and looked around, finding that all of her comrades were still alive and scattering.
Looking at her sibling, Rasha shouted loudly.
“Kirat! Hurry and use your ability……!”
With that ability that had brought them here, they should be able to return to the main camp in an instant. Using it once consumed a considerable amount of Talik Stones, but this was no time to worry about such things.
She was worried about her comrades, but first she had to save Kirat.
If she did not go and stayed with her comrades, Kirat would not go either.
She looked at Kirat with relief, but Kirat’s reaction as she ran toward her was strange.
Kirat had stopped running and was staring at her with a face full of despair.
Tzgeok!
“…
Huh?”
In that instant, the sky flipped over and the ground rose up.
Within that overturned scene, the sight of all her comrades tumbling to the ground with their waists cut through was sucked into her eyes.
‘Ah… the sky hadn’t flipped over…….’
Rasha watched Kirat run toward her, wailing, and as she felt her vision gradually narrow, she closed her eyes.
☆ ☆ ☆
[Quest Failed: Rescue the blood sisters Kal-Rasha and their companions.]
-All rescue targets have died.
-As a failure penalty, 2,000 experience points will be deducted.
[As the user has been judged to be exposed to danger, automatic return will be carried out according to existing settings.]
“No!”
Kirat stared at the information window floating in the air, her expression filled with despair. This time, she hoped more than anything that the information window was wrong.
In reality, her older sister was still running perfectly fine before her eyes, and the enemy was still facing off against the Fifth Elder.
But shortly after, Kirat was only able to confirm once again that the information window did not give wrong information.
As she saw her older sister split in two before her eyes, and her comrades sharing the same fate.
“Aah… aaueh… ugh…….”
Kirat, who had been crying while embracing her sister’s upper body with a despairing expression, felt the forced return being attempted.
“No… no!”
Even if there was nothing she could do by remaining here, she could not simply return while leaving her enemy behind. It would be better if she died here together with them.
But unfortunately, the automatic return she had set to activate when it judged her life to be in danger was triggering without the slightest error.
Never before had the return that had saved her life so many times felt so hateful.
‘Fine… if it’s come to this…….’
Burning with vengeance, Kirat glared at the distant figure of Sian and activated a skill.
[Skill
-Because the level gap with the target is severe, you will suffer damage from the backlash.
Back then, she had been running several skills at once, so she had fainted from the backlash, but if she operated only one skill, she would not faint.
Enduring the sensation of her insides being wrecked, Kirat observed Sian, and soon stared at the status window floating in the air.
[…Partial analysis successful!]
[Due to the severe level difference, many parts could not be read.]
Perhaps forcing herself to operate the skill had been worth it, for more information came in than last time.
Now she would return with this. First, she had to survive and learn about her opponent. Revenge would come after.
‘Just you wait…….’
Even as she vanished, wrapped in blue light, Kirat glared at Sian, bloody tears streaming down her face as though she would not miss a single thing about him.
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“Really strange, isn’t it? Why is it that after you people attacked first, you still grit your teeth like that, swearing revenge?
Was I supposed to just die? So that everyone except me could be happy?”
Watching Kirat depart in the distance, Sian turned his head and looked at the Fifth Elder, now a corpse before him, and spoke with a sneer.
He could feel from here that a skill had activated and she was fleeing. He also knew she had been glaring at him.
Since she had been running in from outside, he had wondered whether to kill her or not, but because she did not seem to be directly intervening, he had let her go. Seeing how things turned out, however, it had been a poor choice.
He felt he could have canceled it, but the Fifth Elder had charged at him while risking his life, and in that brief instant of inattention, she had escaped. He would not be able to catch her now.
‘Mm… was that a bit too much…….’
As Sian thought that inwardly, he immediately flinched.
What did he mean, too much? He had merely killed the people who had tried to kill him. It was not too much at all. There was no way such human sentiments still remained in him…….
The moment he thought that, Sian’s expression, which had been twisted into a warped smile, began to change in an instant.
A moment later, Sian looked around with an exceedingly sorrowful expression.
“I told you… we should take it easy…….”
He had no intention of dying. Especially not for people who were trying to kill him.
But that did not mean killing others could possibly be enjoyable.
Sealing away his power, Sian walked with a gloomy expression, trudging toward the capital.
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‘As expected… they decided not to take revenge…….’
Having returned to the remaining villagers staying in the marquisate, Kirat responded as if she had expected it to some degree.
The villagers’ response was, in a way, only natural.
The law the village prioritized above all else.
According to this principle, those who had died this time had simply been weak. They had merely been weeded out… the strong were not at fault.
After hearing Kirat’s story, the Grand Elder concluded that the one called Sian might even be above him. To seek revenge against such a person was much the same as saying they would cut the village in half. Even if they won, they would suffer tremendous losses.
Therefore, they decided not to think of revenge and instead chose to obtain compensation from Marquis Narasha.
Even Kirat herself would normally have made that same judgment, so she could understand this decision.
Her reason understood, but her heart continued to cry out in anguish.
She still remembered her sister, who had looked at her in her dreams while cut to pieces.
This was not a matter that reason could solve.
They had attacked first? Of course they had.
But so what? Her family, who had cared for her all her life, was dead.
It was not simply because her sister had died.
She instinctively knew that if she could not get rid of this emotion boiling in her heart, she would become a ruined person.
That was why she would take revenge.
She had resolved herself to revenge, but the information about him she had observed at the end with
‘Haha… hahahahaha… ha…….’
She had not been able to confirm much. The information added by Arangarde’s Eye amounted to only a single line.
Level.
[Status Window: Sian von Roman]
-Traits: Second Young Master of the Roman Family, Security Patrol of Garan-Tia, ?
-Level: 399
-Bander: ?
-Exar: ?
-Possessed Skills: ?
At first, she thought she had seen it wrong. 399…….
The Fifth Elder’s level was 183, and Keratan’s was 97. The six-horned Harijan they had encountered had been 217 and 331. Since Harijan often did not resist unless directly threatened, applying Arangarde’s Eye to them was much easier than to armed humans.
She had never measured the Grand Elder and Second Elder, but since the two of them together had been roughly equal against the male Harijan, she guessed they were around 320.
Even though the female was comparatively much weaker, while the Grand Elder and Second Elder fought a single male, nearly half of her village’s fighting strength had been wiped out.
The level she herself had gained after ranging across the Northern Great Forest for twenty-five years was only 37.
Even if she invested every ability into combat from now on, she could not catch up. And it was not as if only she would grow stronger.
She had heard he was seventeen. By the time she became that strong, that bastard would likely split the continent with a single swing of his blade.
She wanted to avenge her sister, but her opponent was far too strong.
Sinking into despair, Kirat pondered what she should do from now on. Then she decided.
The continent was vast. There would surely be someone equal to him, and there would surely be a way to kill him.
And she possessed an ability that no one else had. It would be of great help in achieving her goal.
Thinking that, Kirat fell into deep contemplation about what lay ahead.
Side Story. The Qualification of a Transcendent
—Grouin, Guardian of the Great Northern Wall
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After returning to the capital, Sian tried to compose his melancholy heart. At the same time, he sank into deep thought.
The power that had once awakened gave him insight.
That his ego was clashing with the changes brought by the power of the realm called La-Bander. And that it would continue to do so from now on.
Until now, he had desperately tried to forcibly abide by society’s rules and etiquette, but such things did not suit one who possessed power like his.
Human rules were for humans to follow.
Ordinary humans had no choice but to obey such things, because if they did not, they would be cast out of society.
In that respect, a Gran-Bander was still nothing more than an ordinary human. Because they could not go against the overall flow of society, which was made up of ordinary people…….
But La
Those who had reached the realm of Grand-Bander—superhumans like himself—were not like that. There existed nothing that could bind them.
The other superhumans likely had not feared leaving society in the slightest. On the contrary, they would have welcomed it—the fact that they had finally reached a realm where nothing could shackle them.
And so they left human society in search of a new goal.
The existing human world, which could no longer interfere with them, offered them no stimulation at all.
The only things that could stir them were matters worth their personal involvement, challenges worthy of being faced.
And for them to leave like that was beneficial to both sides.
Just as chaos would erupt if humans tried to live among ants, trouble arose because a superhuman like himself was making a fuss about trying to live together with the human world.
But he still did not want to abandon his family and give up on being human.
To do that, he had to clearly recognize that he was not the same as an ordinary human and learn how to blend into society.
It was not something that could be managed simply by suppressing his power, or by keeping his personality unchanged.
He needed some new method.
A new method to keep his balance between superhuman and human.
Otherwise, the next time he had to release his power, things would unfold exactly as they had this time.
☆ ☆ ☆
Marquis Narasha, who had been waiting for the Fifth Elder and his companions, sensed the faint yet vicious aura flowing into his mansion and looked out the window.
The place from which that aura was leaking matched exactly with the mansion he had prepared for the Fifth Elder.
Had he not been a Grand-Bander himself, he would have missed it. It was an astonishing aura, but the distance was simply too great.
Though his mansion and the Fifth Elder’s hideout were considered close, they were still more than ten kilometers apart. For such ominous energy to flow all the way here...
Marquis Narasha spent the night in unease, and as soon as dawn broke, he sent people to confirm the situation.
And when he heard that only corpses remained there, he immediately ordered them to retrieve all the bodies and the weapons scattered away from them.
After examining the retrieved corpses, Marquis Narasha fell into deep thought.
‘I cannot even guess what he did.’
He had heard that Sian had gone to work perfectly fine, so he knew the attempt had failed. But seeing it in person, the situation was far more serious than he had imagined.
They said corpses had been found in every direction for hundreds of meters, centered around one body. Split cleanly in two...
But when he examined the cut surfaces, this had been a sword strike delivered all at once.
After examining them with Exar and investigating through various methods, the result was that every waist had been cut simultaneously, across time and empty space.
No—truthfully, he was not even sure if it had been a sword strike. This was a trace left behind by something beyond his understanding.
In addition, the mansion and even the nearby hill had been split in two. They had been cut so cleanly that they simply had not collapsed yet... but with time, they would likely slide apart and crumble.
One could not do something like this simply because one’s realm was slightly higher than his own. It was true that differences in ability existed even among Grand-Banders, but those differences were still within a comprehensible range.
Even Kel-Duin, the Armed Hunter said to be the strongest Grand-Bander, would not be capable of this.
Because he could not guess it, he could guess the realm. There was only one realm that existed above his own, one he could neither see nor feel.
After weighing one thing against another, Marquis Narasha reached an unbelievable conclusion.
“Ha... Seventeen years old... and a Ra-Bander...”
To explain an absurd situation, one needed an absurd reason. This was precisely such a case.
If he was not a Ra-Bander, he could not have done such a thing. Only beings known as human calamities could do something like this.
There were two things he had to do immediately regarding this incident.
First, reach an amicable settlement with those who had suffered damage because of this affair.
Second, decide what to do about Sian.
The first was already underway. Fortunately, the Third Elder in charge of contact with him seemed, after hearing the circumstances, unwilling to endure any further damage, so they would likely come to a smooth agreement.
Their power was immense as well, but they would not want such a clash.
Since they had suffered a great loss because of his request, he would have to compensate them to some extent, but it was fortunate enough that they were not rushing in to take revenge on a Ra-Bander.
They must not be harmed. For Tian’s future as well.
For “that time,” they were absolutely necessary.
As for the second, he needed to observe Sian a little longer before deciding.
To receive the transfer of royal authority, he had to shake the capital somehow and prove his own power and position.
It would be extremely troublesome if Sian continued to bind everything up in this manner so that nothing could be done. The royalist faction and the noble faction both collapsing evenly and becoming unable to move was not what the marquis wanted.
But now there was no way to deal with him through force.
When Sian had been a Grand-Bander, he had been confident he could easily eliminate him by borrowing their strength, so he had acted in haste. But now, he had no choice but to take a detour.
The fortunate thing was that Sian still did not know he was the one behind it. As long as Sian did not harbor hostility toward him, there would be some method.
The marquis ordered his subordinates to investigate everything about Sian, and in addition, to bring him records concerning the dispositions of past Ra-Banders.
How to respond would come after that.
The subordinate staff officers and investigators who received Marquis Narasha’s order were thrown into an uproar.
“Hurry up and finish the investigation! This is urgent!”
“Parein, Robanoteun, Karakal...”
“Hey, what is this! Is this all the information we have on Sarakuin?”
“Well... he was a figure from 850 years ago... We barely managed to bring back what was practically fossilizing in the library.”
“Gather more materials! What do you expect us to do with this?”
“There are almost no records on Ra-Banders! These are all the materials held by the Law Order and the royal library!”
“Damn it... Why do these gentlemen have to act so precious... Why is there so little known about them...”
The investigation was not as easy as they had expected.
The beings known as Ra-Banders were incredibly famous, yet there was almost nothing known about them.
Because they were so overwhelmingly powerful, everyone knew of their existence. Even now, a thousand years later...
But because they were so overwhelmingly powerful, no one truly knew them. They did not mingle, so they could not be seen; and even if they were seen, they could not be understood.
Even so, Marquis Narasha’s influence was truly formidable, and within only a few days, they were able to gather every piece of material in the capital that could be called a record.
And while there were few records on Ra-Banders, the Law practitioners who had reached similar realms had, perhaps due to occupational habit, kept their materials better organized than expected, which was a great help in making judgments.
After reading records not only of past Ra-Banders but also of transcendents such as Great Law Practitioners, and after thoroughly investigating Sian, Marquis Narasha’s staff officers soon found the point of difference.
It was a conclusion reached by Viscount Talin with the help of historians, staff officers, and the Law Order, so it had considerable credibility.
To some extent, it made sense.
According to the memoirs of Ra-Banders, the moment one reached that realm, everything began to feel trivial.
Generally, the average age at which one entered the realm of Ra-Bander was around one hundred.
It was a realm that Grand-Banders could obtain only after forgetting everything, spending half a century in seclusion and grueling training, and possessing extreme talent as well as innate luck.
Why exclude effort?
Because everyone made an effort. It was a meaningless qualifier. Only the result spoke for itself.
Naturally, in most cases, all human relationships had already been severed. On top of that, they had already tasted every sweetness and bitterness society had to offer.
And if someone possessed the skill of a Grand-Bander and the talent to ascend to Ra-Bander, then they were truly a genius among geniuses. They were not merely an awl hidden in a pouch.
They were not people who had lived in a position where they had to plead for favors.
Put another way, only those who possessed such a disposition from the start became Ra-Banders. Ra-Bander was not a realm one could reach while remaining tied down by power or blood relations, like himself or Count Roman.
Humans who had lived to the point of disgust, who had nothing to regret from others, and who pursued only strength must have already seen other humans like ants.
So even if their sense of self changed upon ascending to Ra-Bander, there would be no great transformation. They had been made that way from the beginning.
On the other hand, Sian had never even experienced society, and the family who loved him was still alive and well.
Moreover, though his military power itself was astonishing—more precisely, absurd beyond reason—Sian was nothing more than a seventeen-year-old boy.
Unable to forget his relationships with humans, he was forcibly holding out in order to reject the transformation of self brought by the realm of Ra-Bander.
Only after seeing this did the marquis finally realize what he had to do.
The reason Ra-Banders were frightening was that, along with their overwhelming martial power, they were not bound by human rules. They were utterly impossible to predict.
If they were bound by human rules... then one could at least think of a way to avoid them and go around.
If that happened, he would be able to achieve what he wanted.
At the same time, he had to approach carefully.
Recalling the traces of the bodies split in two that he had seen last time, the marquis trembled as he imagined what might happen if anything went wrong.
If things went awry... the monster trying to pretend to be human might cast off that mask.
Volume 2