1. Training> Sian had arrived and was enjoying a cozy conversation with his family. After his sisters-in-law embraced their husbands tightly and shared an emotional reunion, they finally turned their attention to him and began asking all sorts of questions about where he had been.
“Just like before… and this time too… I thought you young master had a wandering spirit.”
“Haha…”
Sian gave a bitter smile. He had been forced to wander, but he had still gone away twice for five years each time, so there was not much he could say.‘How wonderful. A wanderer of hell, no less…’
The inside of the Red Shell and Apental were both more than deserving of being called hell, Sian grumbled inwardly.
Sian was not the only one who had changed over the past five years. He had sensed it the moment he saw his brother, but there had been no opportunity to mention it until now.
“Congratulations, hyung. On reaching Grand-Vander.”
Sian congratulated his brother sincerely. He did not know what his brother had done during the five years he was gone, but he had reached the realm of Grand-Vander. Sian was twenty-seven, which made his brother thirty-four. That was an extraordinarily rapid pace. Considering that Miss Steel had become a Grand-Vander at the age of thirty, it was a remarkable achievement.
Rian smiled awkwardly as he accepted the congratulations.
“Well, I made sure to eat plenty of things that were good for the body… and after training hard, I somehow ended up like this. When I reached that realm, I thought of you more than anyone else. That was last year.”
Sian smiled as he looked at his brother.‘At least I can feel a little relieved now.’
Aside from that strange superhuman, he could no longer think of anyone who posed a particular threat to his family, and the thought put his mind at ease.
As they continued chatting about this and that, Rian suddenly clapped his hands as if he had just remembered something.
“Ah, Sian. Have you met your nieces and nephews? You haven’t greeted them yet, have you?”
“…Nieces and nephews?”
Sian stared blankly at Rian’s words, then soon broke into a bright smile.
“Wow! Hyung! That’s incredible!”
Rian looked bashful at Sian’s praise, but it was not empty flattery. The Roman family was famous for having few children throughout the generations. Moreover, Rian had clearly said “nieces and nephews,” in the plural. That meant there was more than one.
“Introduce me quickly! I’m really curious.”
“Yes, yes. Just a moment…”
Rian told his wives to bring the children, and his wives, including Cora-Doom, scattered in different directions.
“I’m really looking forward to this…”
“Little brother, do you like children?”
Steel asked with a curious expression. Sian thought for a moment before answering.
“They’re cute, aren’t they?”
“Hehe. How unexpected. Perhaps you’ll make a good father someday.”
At Steel’s words, Sian replied firmly.
“Ah, I only like looking at them. I have absolutely no confidence in raising them…”
“……”
They continued talking, but the sisters-in-law who had gone to fetch the children did not return for quite some time. Growing curious, Sian looked at his brother and asked,
“…Why aren’t they coming?”
He had expected one or two children at most, but none of the three missing sisters-in-law had returned. Sian looked puzzled, and Rian answered with an awkward expression.
“Uh… there are rather a lot of them.”
“…Hm?”
Sian looked even more shocked than when he had heard that Rian had reached Grand-Vander. Their family was famous for having so few descendants. They had always had only one child, and cases where two descendants were born were so rare they could be counted on one hand. Even when two were born, one of them usually grew sickly and died soon afterward.
The number of wives was not what mattered. If taking more wives had resulted in more descendants for the Roman family, they would have taken nine wives and ten concubines to expand their influence. Their family had possessed enough power to do so. They had simply given up after trying everything and finding that nothing worked.
Even having two children grow up healthy, as had happened with Sian and his brother, was unprecedented for the Roman family. Yet from Rian’s words, it seemed the number of his children was far from small.
“Uh… how many are there?”
“Let’s see… Cora-Doom gave birth to two.”
“……”
“Veronica was frail, so she could only have one.”
“……”
“And… Kukraksha has quite a lot.”
“…How many nieces and nephews do I have?”
“Five.”
“…In total?”
“No, just Kukraksha’s.”
“Uh… huhuhuhuh…”
Faced with this unprecedented situation, Sian was left speechless. Watching his expression, Steel spoke with a look of wonder.
“Could the Roman family really have so many children? In any case, little brother, you’ll have to work harder. Hahaha. At this rate, you’ll be able to use miracles as well as a sword.”
“…Damn it.”
Of course, he had never intended any of this, but after all the hardships he had endured to protect the continent, his reward was apparently a career change into an archmage.
Sian could not believe how unfair this reality was. To make matters worse, the mission requiring him to play the role of the Hero of Justice was not even over yet.
Before long, the door opened, and the children filed in. As Sian greeted them one by one, Steel looked them over from head to toe and then spoke.
“They all look cute.”
“Look at hyung’s face. They say daughters resemble their fathers, don’t they? Those children should be grateful to you when they grow up.”
“I suppose so…”
All three wives were beautiful, and Rian was an exceptionally handsome man. It would have been difficult for ugly children to be born from such parents.
They were all adorable children. The only notable difference was that Kukraksha’s children were much larger than the others.
“They must have inherited a great deal of Targan blood. Beastmen grow extremely quickly. As I understand it, they usually take on an adult appearance by the age of ten.”
“Oh…”
“That’s right.”
Sian had been wondering whether it made sense for children not even five years old to be so large. Hearing Steel’s explanation, he slapped his palm, and Rian answered with a smile.
“They’ll make fine warriors when they grow up. They all have good talent.”
‘But there doesn’t seem to be another child like Sian…’
This was what Steel had actually been hoping for. The Roman family had produced a monster named Sian, a beast like the divine beasts of legend. If eight descendants had been born, she had hoped that perhaps another such monster might emerge. But after looking at them, there seemed to be no possibility of that at all. Nor did all eight of them appear to be destined to follow the path of the warrior.
“Well… I intend to respect each of their chosen paths. Not everyone needs to become a warrior.”
Hearing Rian’s words, Sian nodded.‘That’s right, children. Don’t learn this sort of swordplay. Grow up to be fine people. Your uncle will protect this continent.’
Thinking of the alphas surrounding them, Sian steeled his resolve as he planned to begin training the next day.
☆ ☆ ☆
A certain training ground stood within Crotia Castle. Since it was the Roman family’s private training ground, no one else was allowed to enter. Rian and Count Roman had gone outside to attend to some business, leaving only Steel and Sian standing in the training ground.
Sian looked at Steel and spoke.
“Will you be training with me as well, Miss Steel?”
“Yes. I’m personally curious about what kind of training you do. If I follow it too, will I become like you? Hehe.”
“You know that would be meaningless.”
At the level Steel and Sian had reached, copying another person’s training was meaningless. What mattered was refining the path they themselves had walked until then.
Still, Steel was genuinely curious about what sort of training Sian practiced.‘Just what kind of training does someone have to do to become that strong…?’
Steel had currently reached the realm Sian had attained in the past. Thus, she knew just how powerful he was. She had realized that he had gone extremely easy on her when they fought in the Ragrand region. If her current self fought the Sian of that time, she could turn him into minced meat within a minute.
That was why she was curious about the method of training that had brought Sian to the same realm she had reached now at the age of seventeen. Understanding that he possessed talent and had awakened Lukra’s blood did not explain everything.
“Well… in my case, I could simply see what I had to do to become stronger. Now that I’ve reached a new realm, the number of things I can do has increased as well. I’ve been wondering whether I could incorporate them into this training.”
“The number of things you can do has increased? Like what?”
Steel asked with a curious expression. Sian answered as though it were nothing important.
“Well… it’s nothing special. I can now control the internal coefficient within my body completely as I please. There are limits, of course.”
“Huh… You mean an alpha can do something like that?”
Sian spoke as though it were nothing remarkable, but Steel was genuinely astonished. Sian, however, was sincere when he said it was nothing special. It was not particularly useful in combat.
“But it doesn’t help much in a fight. It should be somewhat useful against various kinds of enemies, but there’s a limit to it. It probably won’t be of much help against an enemy stronger than me.”
“True…”
If they could expand it indefinitely at will, there would be no reason for the alphas to be ranked above or below one another. They could simply keep increasing it and rampage around like thugs.
Seeing that Steel understood, Sian continued.
“Still, it seems I can use it for training. I got the idea after hearing about that race called the Lukra that lives on the Extreme Mountain.”
The Lukra grew stronger by overcoming the threat of death. The Extreme Mountain, where the internal coefficient was applied in reverse and threatened their lives, was the perfect training ground for them, if for no one else.
Sian could not travel to the Extreme Mountain now, not while Dragona and Krona stood in his way. But if he could squeeze his internal coefficient himself, there was no need to go all the way to the Extreme Mountain.
Sian was planning to introduce that process into his training.
Steel, however, looked as though she did not understand.
“Is that something only you can do? Can’t the other alphas do it?”
Sian answered with an unconcerned expression.
“They probably can.”
“Then I don’t understand…”
“What don’t you understand?”
“You said that the Lukra used to roam around hunting alphas because the Extreme Mountain was no longer effective for them.”
Sian nodded.
“That’s right.”
“Then couldn’t they simply squeeze their internal coefficients and create a situation where they were on the verge of death?”
Sian shook his head.
“They can’t do that. It’s impossible to deliberately drive yourself to the brink of death through your own will. If you squeeze your internal coefficient to the point where you might die, instinct takes over first. Before you unconsciously reach that threshold, you release it.”
“……”
“And they know it in their heads. They can adjust the coefficient to the point of death, but they know they won’t actually die. That isn’t a threat of death.”
“Then why can you do it?”
Sian smiled.
“I don’t have only Lukra blood in me, do I?”
“Huh…”
“Although I can’t reach the point of actually risking death, the efficiency will be somewhat lower. Still, it should be far more effective than training without taking any risks. I tried it briefly before coming here… and it worked well.”
Steel remembered what Sian had been doing on the road before they arrived. She had found it strange that he occasionally lost his balance while traveling. Apparently, this was what he had been doing.
“So that’s what you were doing then.”
“Yes. I kept it light because we were on the move, but now I intend to do it properly. I’m not used to it yet… so it may take some time.”
When he finished speaking, Sian began adjusting the coefficient within his body.
In the direction of killing himself.
☆ ☆ ☆
“Hmm… I ought to deliver this delightful news to Mr. Sian.”
Ragaophe called it delightful news, but he wore a grave expression.
Kon-Rad, who was working beside him, casually muttered,
“If you go deliver that news, you’ll genuinely be murdered.”
Ragaophe nodded as though he agreed.
“Indeed… What should I do about this? Well, I’ll think it over slowly. Mr. Sian needs to rest for a while too, doesn’t he?”
Even if they wanted to move on now, they could not. They would only have enough energy to move across the continent once the Kiculus core they were rebuilding and Akra began operating properly.
The communication transfer required little energy, but the distance was far too great, and for some strange reason the message would not go through, so it had to be delivered in person.
Ragaophe began to wonder what to do from here on.☆ ☆ ☆
*Crack!*
Although he could hear no sound at all, Sian felt as if he could hear something tightening around his entire body.
Every element of his body that had once been so dependable was changing in order to kill him.
The blood flowing through his veins turned poisonous.
His muscles began to move not in ways that would help him control his body, but in ways that would squeeze his entire body tight.
His bones grew frail, while his nerves ran wild.
Feeling the world spin before his eyes, Sian clutched at his heart. He had not even reached the limit yet, and his body was already suffering an enormous overload.
At the same time, the path before his eyes kept changing.
The path along which his body and energy moved, allowing him to grow stronger with ease, continued to change over and over again.
As his body’s condition changed, so too did the path to becoming stronger. He had worried that the path might not function properly while he was weakened, but fortunately, even in this situation, his talent was working faithfully.
‘So there was a reason the Lukras were so strong…’
If they experienced something like this every day, it would be stranger if they did not grow stronger. Moreover, he had heard that several of them actually died while undergoing this training.
Fortunately, he did not have to go that far. His blood contained not only the characteristics of the Lukras, but those of the human race as well.
‘Just a little more… just a little more…’
He would not die. His instinctive nature, buried deep within his unconsciousness, would reject changing the coefficient all the way to the boundary of death, after all. Thus, Sian continued to transform the internal coefficient within his body into something even more vicious, without hesitation. He only had to avoid dying.
If he failed to become stronger while he had the chance, he would truly be in danger. The reason he had stopped training in the past was partly because he did not want to die, but also because he had not known what sort of monsters existed outside. He—
- had thought that there would be no danger at all as long as he remained within the Sian Continent.
But the situation then and the situation now were entirely different. He knew perfectly well what kinds of beings existed outside. To simply sit around doing nothing despite that would be no different from stupidity… Besides, this training would not kill him. It was merely difficult enough to make him wish he were dead.
“Grrgh… ngh…”
“Little brother, are you all right?”
Seeing Sian groan while clutching his entire body, Steel put on a worried expression. Sian seemed to lack even the strength to answer. He waved his hand dismissively, braced one hand against the ground, and rose to his feet.
‘…
I can still move…?’
Just as Steel feared, Sian had truly been driven to the brink of death. His body had been pushed to the very verge of becoming a wreck; if the nephews he had seen yesterday had rushed at him intending to beat him up, he would have been reduced to pieces with a single strike. His condition was even worse than when he had barely escaped Kerval after breaking through Apental.
In that state, Sian slowly began to move his body and circulate his energy, following the path clearly visible before his eyes.
As he moved, the attack within his body grew even fiercer. The energy that usually made him so powerful mercilessly squeezed his body.
But Sian could not stop. He could feel himself growing stronger. His prediction had been correct.
‘Thank goodness this isn’t just pointless effort…’
Ignoring the searing pain throughout his body, Sian continued to squeeze every part of himself and thought how fortunate it was. What he was doing was not futile in the slightest.
Amid the fierce pressure he felt throughout his body, the characteristics of the Lukras and the human race bestowed upon him were faithfully performing their roles.
Every part of his body—even the smallest fragments that made up his being—struggled to survive as they were squeezed tight, gradually expanding their limits further and further.
His internal coefficient grew by leaps and bounds. Of course, the coefficient that had grown was once again converted into something that attacked him, but the fact that its limits were expanding rapidly remained unchanged. If he restored his body to normal afterward, he would probably be far stronger than he had been before training.
‘This takes me back…’
Seeing himself grow stronger by leaps and bounds brought back memories of his old training, filling his chest with pride.
‘Dad? Why do I have to do this?’
‘You have to do this to become stronger… Sian, what are you doing?’
‘That’s too slow. Moving like this is much faster. And now I can even make light come out of my sword.’
‘Good heavens…!’
‘What a beautiful memory.’
Recalling a memory from when he was seven, Sian wore a pleased expression despite the pain. But at the same time, another thought came to him—annoyance.
‘Come to think of it… how long am I supposed to keep doing this…? I need to know how strong the Lukras and Drakoon are before I can stop training… Should I use Crona as the standard for now…?’
The only Alpha he had seen with his own eyes was Crona. He had seen the Drakoon flying in, but they had come from too far away for him to accurately gauge their fighting strength.
Not dying did not mean it was painless. In fact, Sian currently felt as though he had been thrown into a grinder. It felt as if every smallest fragment of his body were being sliced apart.
Thinking that he had to become stronger quickly, Sian gritted his teeth and focused on his training.
“Whoa… I can’t even keep up with that.”
From the side, it must have looked as though a patient on the verge of death were staggering about in a dance. But Steel watched Sian’s internal coefficient rapidly changing within his body and wore an exhausted expression. The changes were invisible to other people, but Steel, standing right beside Sian, could make out their general nature.
If the changes in that internal coefficient had been aligned for destruction, and if that power had been released outward, there would have been at least one abyss in the Krotia region by now.
‘Well… Sian is Sian, and I am me.’
Steel left Sian to his training and entered meditation himself. Since the power he possessed had not been acquired through his own efforts, he needed some time to bring it under control. He had been too busy to train during that period, but this training method was one he had always used when he lived in the Lagrang region.
Before long, the enormous training hall was filled with silence—so much so that it was difficult to believe powerful beings were training inside.
The training that had begun during the day continued until nightfall. As he prepared to enter, Sian let out a sigh.
“Phew…”
“Little brother, is it really all right for you to keep doing that for so long?”
Steel spoke to Sian, who was loosening his body with a worried look. Having trained to his limit, Sian stood up, saying that he could no longer see the path. He had probably squeezed his body as far as he possibly could.
Even after returning his internal coefficient to normal, Sian looked utterly exhausted. Steam rose from his entire body, and the surrounding dimension rippled, making it clear that his condition was far from good. Supporting Sian as he staggered as though he might collapse at any moment, Steel looked at him with concern.
Sian opened his mouth when he saw Steel’s expression.
“When there’s an opportunity to become stronger, shouldn’t I take it? And I’m not an idiot… If those monsters are fighting it out on the continent, how could I possibly feel at ease? You know what my life goal is.”
“True…”
Sian’s life goal: to live happily for a long, long time without ever dying.
In a way, it was an incredibly simple goal. Indeed, nobles who attained a certain status probably lived that way. But the circumstances around him would not allow Sian to rest.
“Haah… I really thought I was the strongest person in the world, but the world is truly vast.”
“So… how long do you plan to keep training?”
When Steel asked, Sian gave a simple answer.
“Well… it would be best if I became strong enough to beat down all of them, whether they were Drakoon or Harijan, even if they attacked me all at once… But my first goal is to defeat Crona one-on-one.”
“Huh…”
Seeing Sian speak of such an enormous goal as though it were a New Year’s resolution, Steel suddenly grew curious.
“How long will that take?”
Sian answered simply.
“I don’t know.”
“Huh?”
“Well… I don’t know how far this path will lead me. It might go faster… or it might go more slowly… There might even be another wall along the way… The world ahead is completely unknown, so how could I know? I’m becoming stronger easily for now, but another problem could arise at any moment.”
“Huh…”
“Still, if this peace lasts, then someday I’ll reach the level where I can beat them down. They say they’ve been locked in this standoff for three thousand years. Surely it won’t collapse just because a single Alpha like me has appeared. And I’m not the only Alpha.”
“True…”
Steel nodded at that. From what he had heard from Ragaophe, a newly born Alpha like Sian was not enough to disrupt the balance of power. To do that, he would need to reach the level of the old God of War, Grang—
-La, or Axarai.
“Come to think of it… I’m thirsty. I wonder if I can drink some of that stuff in the corner…”
Sian looked at the golden drinks piled up in the corner and hesitated. Since he did not know what they were for, he decided to ask later and passed them by. They might be expensive, after all.
Steel and Sian entered Krotia Castle, where the family was staying, chatting about this and that.
“Are you finished training? It’s surprisingly quiet.”
Lian, who had returned after finishing his work, spoke to Sian. Even training between Grand Vanders could destroy a training hall, yet it had been far too quiet for superhumans to have been training there.
Sian smiled at his older brother and answered.
“Well… we weren’t sparring, so there was no need to make a racket. By the way, aren’t the children training?”
“Father is personally instructing them. I’m training with them as well. He absolutely adores his grandchildren. Still, he says these children are becoming strong in a more human way.”
“…”
“It seems he had been holding on to the fact that you were so exceptional that you took away his chance to teach you. Haha!”
“Oh, dear…”
Sian clutched his forehead.
“You should join us sometime. You can watch your nephews and nieces train, too.”
At that, Sian nodded. He found his nephews and nieces incredibly cute, after all.
“By the way… what was that drink in the corner of the training hall? It looked rather strange.”
Sian remembered the golden drinks piled in the corner of the training hall and asked his brother.
Lian smiled when he heard that and explained.
“Ah, right. You wouldn’t know since you were gone for five years. You’ve heard that organizations with strange abilities have appeared in the world, haven’t you?”
“Yes.”
Sian had already known about the existence of those organizations—a group similar to Amaran.
Amaran, Baroka, and Makana.
They were undoubtedly the places Ragaophe had once used as subcontractors. Since all the superhumans had left them behind, they had likely come out into the world now that there was no one left to bind them.
But Sian did not know specifically what they did, and therefore had no idea what technologies they had released upon the world.
Since his brother had suddenly brought up those organizations, the drink seemed to be one of their products. As expected, his brother began speaking about one of them.
“That… is called Sirain… It was supplied to the warriors of the Great Northern Wall during the war against the Harijan.”
Sirain.
This potion, whose name meant “Holy Spring,” made a tremendous contribution to defending the Great Northern Wall during the early days of the Great Invasion. After a certain incident that occurred later, it spread rapidly among the armed forces like a fad.
☆ ☆ ☆
The proud creation of Baroka, a research organization devoted to studying the human body and uncovering its secrets.
This medicine was created from the idea of someone who had once worked at Baroka.
Sirain was created from this astonishingly macho idea.
This remarkable drug had only one advantage. From the outset, the medicine had focused on a single purpose in order to maximize its efficacy.
That advantage was this: when taken, it significantly enhanced the user’s combat power for roughly one to two hours. Since it stimulated the body’s potential, it had the side effect of leaving the user physically weakened for about a day, but considering the increase in combat power, such a cost was more than worth bearing.
Regardless of how one looked at it, the new drug developed and brought out by Baroka was like sweet rain during a drought for the Great Northern Wall, where warriors were dropping one after another because of the Harijans’ Great Invasion. Even if it only increased their combat power for two hours, its effects could not be ignored. In fact, on the battlefields where Shirain was distributed on a trial basis, the mortality rate among the warriors dropped dramatically. Seeing this, the various kingdoms competed to supply the drug to their warriors stationed at the Great Northern Wall.
However, the drug did not become famous solely because of its effects. Many of the warriors still felt resistance toward enhancing their combat power through the effects of a drug.
-Vanders who had been taking it fanatically and fighting on the front lines day after day—Kukutaran—reached the realm of the superhuman.
Kukutaran, who had been a Grand
-Vander of Broshan, took the drug almost as if it were food and chased the creatures deep into the Great Forest, fighting them all the while. As a result, he reached the realm of the superhuman two years after the war began.
After that, demand for the drug exploded. Shirain also had the supplementary effect of wringing out the entire body, so it did help with training, but it was unsuitable for that purpose. Training for two hours and then resting for a day simply was not a profitable trade.
However, after Kukutaran reached the realm of the superhuman, the number of people using the drug for training increased sharply. Of course, no one else ever became a superhuman like Kukutaran, and once it became known that the drug was not particularly suitable for training, its popularity waned.
“Those drugs were used during the Great Invasion. Now that the Harijans’ attacks have decreased and the warriors’ demand for them has fallen, we piled them up in the training hall so people could take them and train. There were many warriors who used them for training back then. No one looks for them anymore, so they’ve just been sitting there… We should set aside a day to clear them out.”
“Huh… That’s interesting. I wonder if it would work on me too……”
If it worked, it would be a great help later when he fought the Alphas. At that, Rian shook his head vigorously.
“In the first place, the fact that you have to forcibly activate the body in order to grow stronger means that relatively little of it is under your control. Those who have developed greater control over their bodies hardly see any effect from things like this. They can draw out all of their potential even under normal circumstances. It works up to the level of a Grand
-Vander, but do you really think something like that would work on someone as strong as you, Sian?”
“Aw, come on.”
Sian had expected as much, so he was not particularly shocked, but he still clicked his tongue.
“I have always been grateful to Baroka. Thanks to this drug, countless warriors were able to save their lives. Myself included.”
“Huh……” ‘So Ragaofe does do something useful sometimes.’
Come to think of it, there had not been many occasions when Ragaofe had done something useless. The important thing was that most of those things had worked in directions that were extremely useless and troublesome for Sian.
After learning that one of the legacies Ragaofe had left behind had helped protect his older brother, Sian slightly revised his opinion of Ragaofe upward. ‘Well… I still have no intention of letting him off the hook.’
Ragaofe had tried to win Sian’s sympathy by saying that he had only five years left to live and asking to be spared, but as far as Sian was concerned, Ragaofe was not someone who would simply die like that. He would certainly find some way to survive. ‘Huh… Come to think of it… he also has the Soul Jade. That old man really…….’
Sian left to train outside, looking forward to the day he would meet Ragaofe again.
☆ ☆ ☆
“Hmm… About a month left, is it, until the teleportation grand array is completed?”
Ragaofe asked while looking at Con
-rad, who answered as he busily worked on the core.
“Something like that? The core should be repaired by then… Once that’s done, we’ll be able to cross over. By the way, are you planning to go yourself?”
Ragaofe looked at Con
-rad as if he were asking something absurd.
“I still have a long and promising life ahead of me. By now, Sian must have remembered the Soul Jade. What will we do if I use this teleportation array and get caught by Mr. Sian waiting there?”
“True……”
Considering what Ragaofe had done, Sian was quite capable of that. And if he heard this latest news, he would be even angrier.
“Then who are you going to send?”
At Con
-rad’s question, Ragaofe grinned.
“Mr. Rivias.”
“Huh? Why?”
When Con
-rad looked puzzled at the unexpected name, Ragaofe dismissed the question simply and succinctly.
“Because he does the least work and is the most useless. Shouldn’t he at least do something like that? And since Mr. Rivias has witnessed Mr. Sian’s power, he won’t go there and act cocky only to get beaten.”
“Hmm……”
Con
-rad nodded at that. The rest of their companions, including Robanotun and Karakal, had still never seen Sian even once. Of course, that friend called Sian was not ill-tempered or anything, but the major problem was that the companions, including Robanotun and Karakal, had extremely foul tempers.
In particular, if anyone harmed even the people around him, all hell would break loose. Rather than sending someone who might pick a fight there only to get beaten for no reason, it was better to send Rivias, who would know to be careful on his own.
“Well… What great trouble could arise? He’s only going there to deliver a message and return. We can tell him to go while taking a walk. He seems a little dispirited these days, anyway.”
In his own world, Rivias had been nearly the strongest, but it seemed to sadden him that here he was merely at the level of a count. These days, Rivias would sometimes wear a sorrowful expression. It might not be a bad idea to let him go and get a change of scenery.
“But… why did you leave all the amaran and things like that behind? There were quite a few useful things.”
Ragaofe opened his mouth and answered simply.
“What use would I have for them? They’re only good enough for monkeys.”
“True.”
Con
-rad nodded. The miracles of the human era that Ragaofe had told him about were on an entirely different level from the miracles of the present day. In the first place, Talic Stones had not even been necessary back then. Since most of them had been nobles, their miracles manifested immediately when they poured their energy into their treasures. The method of inserting energy vessels such as Talic Stones and using them was something only monkeys used.
“Still, it’s fortunate that spatial transfer remains. Well… I suppose we can tell him to bring back anything useful he finds. Though I don’t know whether we’ll be able to operate it here……”
There might be resistance, but there was no one on that continent who could stop Rivias, a count, so he should be able to bring back whatever they wanted without difficulty.
“A month… I hope Mr. Sian becomes much stronger during that time.”
Ragaofe spoke casually, but his impatience showed through in his slightly worried tone. Hearing that, Con
-rad merely shrugged and returned his attention to his work.
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“When will those fellows arrive? It seems the promised time is almost here.”
Kukutaran spoke irritably while receiving a massage from one of the slaves in his harem. Dekaduin, standing before him, nearly frowned at the sight of the naked slave but desperately maintained his composure before answering.
“Exactly thirty-two days remain.”
“It will be very different from last time.”
Crack!
Kukutaran frowned and ground his teeth as he recalled the humiliation he had suffered then.
The fellows he had encountered while slaughtering his way through the Great Forest, after becoming a superhuman and losing his fear of nothing.
At the time, Kukutaran had realized it. Even after becoming a superhuman, there was still a realm above it. The realm of the superhuman was only the beginning, and a much longer road lay ahead.
The same went for Sian and the man called Steel, whom he had seen this time. Their martial power was at a level he could not dare to reach. ‘Come to think of it… the male was stronger than the female, was he…….’
It had been wise not to challenge them. According to his investigation, Stantal the First had once been beaten by that boy Sian.
This was no time to let his guard down. To climb ever higher, he had to do one of two things.
Become stronger himself.
Or kill someone stronger than him.
Since these were not mutually exclusive choices, Kukutaran had decided to resolve both problems at the same time.
“But will it be all right?”
Kukutaran smiled and answered.
“Don’t worry. This time, we have allies.” ‘It would be best if we all died together…….’
Thinking of the dependable allies who had arrived this time, Kukutaran raised the corners of his mouth.
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“It’s already been a month since I arrived here……”
Sian finished training in the training hall, steam pouring from his entire body, and collapsed onto the floor. The internal coefficients that had been wringing out his entire body instantly returned to normal and began restoring Sian’s body. This was the natural progression. His recovered body would be far more powerful than before training, and during his next session, it would wring itself out even more intensely.
Training was unbearably painful. By now, he should have grown accustomed to it, but since all of his increased strength attacked him at once, it was just as difficult as ever. No, as he gradually became more skilled at handling his power, his ability to adjust the internal coefficients right up to the threshold of death had increased, and the degree of pain he suffered had only grown worse.
But it was not in vain. His training had accelerated accordingly, and he had become far stronger than he had been a month ago—so much so that there was no comparison. Even Sian himself found the speed truly abnormal.
To give an idea of how much he had improved, he could probably escape if Krona chased him now. Of course, if they fought, he would die in an instant. Sian had even prepared a place to flee to in case creatures like Krona or Dragona came after him. ‘Good grief… What a miserable lot in life…….’
He felt wretched that he was already thinking about where to run, but when one lacked strength, that was the proper thing to do. Rather than charge in and die like a dog, he could simply grow stronger and trample them into the dirt later.
As a result, Sian’s anger toward Dragona and Raiona—whom he had never even crossed paths with—was growing vigorously as well. That was how painful the training he was undergoing was.
A letter was waiting for Sian when he returned.
“Sian, it came addressed to you.” ‘No… In an age with communication miracles, what is this letter supposed to be…….’
Sian accepted the letter with a puzzled expression and read it.
“But what is this… an invitation?”
Looking at the mysterious letter, Sian wore a puzzled expression.
Volume 10