The Saladar family that reigned before the current Craden Kingdom had ruled the kingdom for over a hundred years. It was, after all, one of the three warrior families of the kingdom.
The ‘Flower of Lightning’ was an exceptional Bander-Roa that was created by the first Saladar that helped create many Masters within the family. It helped them keep the monopoly on trade, the iron ores, and reign over many noble families.
After proving themselves worthy, the Saladar family ruled the kingdom for close to a hundred years without any competitors.
The reason for their downfall was simple.
After seventh generation of the Saladar family, there was no Grand Bander. Marquis Craden, however, had acquired a Grand Bander from the subsidiary Kiraine family. This was Swordmeister Kiraine of the present day.
This turned the tides against the Saladars. One Grand Bander wasn’t enough to fight against the entire Saladar family, but they also could not fight against a Grand Bander, an asset to the kingdom.
It helped the Craden family build its power and build the Noble Faction to challenge the Saladar family.
After they were dethroned, the Saladar family returned to being one of the three warrior families of the kingdom.
The Swordmeister Kiraine would’ve been able to put up a fight as the center, but he realized he wasn’t talented in running the kingdom and helped the lord of the Cradens to rise to the throne.
<If the Cradens seized the throne with the power of a Grand Bander, why can’t I? A Grand Bander can’t do the same thing?>
Such was a thought of Marquis Narasha’s after he became a Grand Bander. He was an ambitious man from the start. It had been going well. He was surrounded by talented and powerful individuals and everything surpassed the Royal family now. It just needed to be proven.
The incidents that occurred at the capital represented a simple tactic to start with, but it did not go as planned. He did not worry about being stopped as the fighting warriors were too strong to be stopped.
‘I can’t believe this.’
“…So, Kial was locked up until now and you brought him back?”
“Yes, milord. He just woke up from being unconscious from the blow to his head. He is being treated by one of our Exers.”
Marquis Narasha sighed after listening to the report.
There was more. People from the other areas succeeded in creating a ruckus and moved out, but everyone who was at El-Lua Road was arrested. Kial was one of them.
“Did the 3rd Knight Guard deploy all their forces to the streets?”
There was a possibility. El-Lua was the most wealth-concentrated road of the kingdom after all.
“No, milord. Captain Rian ordered Lieutenant Celine and one of Guarran-Tias to patrol the area and dispersed all the other men to different districts. That’s why we couldn’t drag on in the other districts as the Knight Guards arrived sooner than expected.”
The Marquis began to think about what had happened. He suspected an attack from the Royalists, but that wasn’t likely. It was reported that even the Royalists were arrested at the scene.
“This won’t do. I should talk to Kial myself. Let’s go.”
“So… you were fighting and fell unconscious?”
“…Yes, milord. I am sorry I let you down. I am not sure what happened.”
Marquis frowned as he examined Kial’s wound.
“No, you don’t need to be sorry.”
“Yes?”
“Go and have some rest.”
The Marquis came back to his office and dived into deep thought.
‘What happened…?’
He understood the moment he saw the wound. He already suspected that Kial, a Master-level warrior, had been subdued in an instant.
‘There is a new Grand Bander.’
The wound indicated a very powerful individual’s presence. The Marquis knew this as he too was a Grand Bander. There would be a similar wound if he were to subdue Kial also. It was beyond his control, so there was no need for him to be apologetic.
It couldn’t have been Swordmeister Kiraine or Count Roman. They were talking with other higher-ranking nobles within the palace with the Marquis himself. He had tied them into the Royal Palace to keep them away from the streets as his faction was stronger without any Grand Banders present.
There was no chance that the Grand Bander had come from a foreign country, so it must be from within. But no one knew who it was.
This called for a need to change the plan.
The Grand Bander subdued both factions, so there was a possibility that this new Grand Bander was neutral, but it wasn’t certain. Not much information was available.
The Marquis wanted victory. If this mysterious Grand Bander kept on keeping the peace of the streets or turning his back on him, then all his plans to pressure the Royalists would fail. The Masters who returned from the Wall weren’t enough. Even the Marquis himself could fight all twenty-six Masters from his own faction with a little bit of danger. If he handled them all one-by-one, there was no way for them to fight back.
The Marquis then thought of bringing <Them> in. They were what gave him hope against fighting both the Kharan and Taran Kingdoms at once. They only joined because the Marquis had what they wanted. But he shook away the thoughts. They were too dangerous. They were not to be involved with the internal conflict.
Nothing was certain about the Grand Bander yet anyway. Maybe it wasn’t even a Grand Bander.
He decided to stay back and watch while continuing to shake up the capital more. It would help him watch out for the possible Grand Bander in hiding. Then he moved out of his office, down to where his advisors were to craft up future plans.
“My shift is done. I’m leaving.”
Sian finished beating up the last man and fastened his sword to his belt. There was another blue signal the was fired air at a distance but to Sian, it was for the next shift.
“Ugh…”
Celine sighed. Sian seemed like he felt no responsibility for his job. The blue signal meant the area was being smashed into pieces, but Sian did not care. She understood why Sharlotte hated him so much.
Celine gave up on persuading him as she found it wasn’t possible after ten days of working with him and ran to the area by herself.
Sian felt bad as he saw Celine running off, but he defended himself by thinking he had done a lot of work for the day. He had been doing more work than what he was getting paid for.
For three days straight, blue signals fired up continuously only around the El-Lua roads. He had to work two times more than usual. He thought he ought to be awarded as ‘Guarran-Tia of the Month.’ (Celine wanted to make Sian write a formal apology letter, but he did not know.)
And all these men who were causing the ruckus had eyes watching them from distance. Sian had nothing to hide so these men were definitely bad criminals to have a man to watch out for them.
So he rolled up his sleeves and beat up these men under the name of justice. (It wasn’t because he feared they would come back to cause more problems if he did not beat them up to stay in a bed for two weeks.)
He feared it would cause problems if he were caught doing this, so he also knocked the watchers unconscious before completing his work.
He felt bad for attacking the watchers who were just doing their jobs, but he did their job by putting down these criminals anyway so it was okay.
‘I need a vacation.’
Sian wanted a vacation so bad. Ten hours of work per day was too much for him.
‘I can’t let this go on. Let’s take care of it.’
He could not waste more manpower so he kept it going for three more days. It was decided because this mysterious Grand Bander did not severely harm his men.
He riled up some arrogant warriors (they were bound to get beaten up so he thought it was a good lesson for them) and let them loose on El-Lua to pick fights. They also had a watcher to keep an eye on them to see who this Grand Bander was.
He wanted to take a look himself, but he couldn’t come out of the Royal Palace as Kiraine would follow him out if he did.
Yet it did not go as planned. The warriors and watchers were all beaten up and fell unconscious. None of them knew what had happened.
He learned a few things however.
1. Men only fell unconscious at the district where Lieutenant Celine of the 3rd Knight Guard was patrolling.
2. The Grand Bander did not interfere outside of the hours between 8:00 and 18:00.
3. Watchers who were one thousand feet away were attacked, which meant that there was an accomplice.
4. It seemed the Grand Bander realized he was being tested as the warriors were beaten up more heavily during the past three days. It looked like a warning.
5. He only intervened during certain times and acted like a Guarran-Tia, which meant that he wanted the Marquis to stop pestering him.
Celine couldn’t have done this. She was weak and young. Even if she hid her true power, she was only thirty-five years old. There was no way she was a Grand Bander.
He did hear the Guarran-Tia at the district was Count Roman’s second son, but he was only seventeen so it wasn’t possible.
He had failed to find out who this new Grand Bander was and what he was up to. But he had no time on his hands and he needed to make a decision.
“Shake up all areas outside of El-Lua. I will take care of the inside.”
“Yes, milord.”
There was no time to waste anymore. It was best to keep El-Lua out of focus, but it would make him look weak and make people think he was avoiding Kiraine and the Royalists from the road.
Marquis decided he needed to ask <Them> once and for all. He hated to get rid of a Grand Bander like this, but it seemed like it was going to help him if he was hiding like this anyway.
Losing a Grand Bander, or a great asset, was pitiful, but he needed to become a king to use <Them> which were more powerful.
He then opened up a small teleportation rune at his office. It was to call <Them> who were residing within the Narasha Estate.
They would come immediately and solve the problem.
If only he knew it was Sian who was causing trouble, otherwise he would’ve given Sian a long vacation and that would’ve easily solved the problem.
It was unfortunate for both Sian and Marquis Narasha.
