Count Karim had been tasting the power of the Duke these days.
He was afraid of nothing even when his father was only a Marquis. No one raised any problems on what he had been doing. Unless the opponent was a Marquis, he had no one to fear. But a Duke! Karim was the one who was the happiest when he heard the news.
That was when he heard the interesting news from the twins at a Viscount’s estate near him.
<What… a mutant appeared at the Locke Estate?>
<Yes. They want you to join the fight…>
<Nah. You take care of that. Any other news?>
<I heard that a mysterious Count appeared recently. It’s a female noble with no Akra. That’s all.>
<Wait.>
<Huh?>
<Tell me more about that woman Count.>
Karim ran out of his land at once and headed toward Locke Estate after hearing the news. It was quite a distance, but it wasn’t too far for a Count to go.
‘Stay there until I get to you, my toy.’
There were some nobles without estates. Teasing and harassing them was the most enjoyable hobby Karim had. It was fun to harass the weak, but harassing the strong was even more enjoyable.
He never touched a Count as Counts weren’t good opponents to fight against when he fought by his estate. This new Count seemed to have no estate, and so this was his chance.
After he got there, there were no mutant monsters, but that didn’t matter to him.
“Where are they? The new nobles.”
“We are not sure. We just know that they are here somewhere.”
“Really? It’s a bit a wide to search… will they come out if I break down this tree?” Karim mumbled threateningly. He couldn’t do it as it was a direct order, but this man in front of him didn’t know that.
“I really don’t know!”
“Aren’t you the lord of this estate? How can you not know… wait. I heard their Akra was weak.”
Karim remembered and nodded. This man really didn’t know if that was the case.
“You should go now. Go hunt those monsters down.”
“…Understood.”
Karim then searched every part of the tree. He had heard about the appearance but it was too large. Then after a while, he did find her. She looked just like a standard female noble as he was heard. Nobles came in a variety of sizes and genders. There were small ones, tall ones, cute-looking ones, vicious ones and more. Yet that woman really looked like a standard noble. She had a tall figure with an insolent look on her eyes, and a gait that showed how arrogant and proud she was.
Karim then walked up to her and checked the prowess. And he reached a conclusion: ‘I will win.’
He couldn’t check the Akra Resonance, but the opponent seemed to be a little bit stronger than himself. So if he fought with Akra, he would win. It made him relax as he was sure that he will win. He then quickly walked up to her.
“Good day.”
“Who’re you?”
“…”
Karim thought he was the rudest of the bunch, but she wasn’t any better.
“Hmph. I’m Count Karim. I came here to see you.”
“Ugh… why are there so many…”
“Huh?”
“Nah, it’s nothing. What do you want?”
Karim frowned at such rude words but he decided to let it pass. It was the best feeling to tame a ferocious beast.
“Haha, I just thought it would be good to have some good times.”
At once, a violent wind blew out from Karim. He spoke as he let out his full energy, expecting one of two answers. One was that she would give up in fear of power and literally enjoy the good times or two, that she would feel humiliated and charge at him. Both options were good for him.
Stiel reacted very differently.
“Hmm? Good times, eh? Yeah, sure. I was bored too.”
Then she walked up to him. Karim grinned.
‘She’s the same type.’
It wasn’t expected, but this was also good.
“Hahaha, good. Where should we go then?”
“Me? Here’s fine.”
“Oh, good, good. I like your style. We’ll do it here.”
Karim became excited as he talked and thought it was a good choice to come.
‘I should take her back to my estate.’
But before Karim could do anything, he saw something coming at him and tried to dodge.
‘Dammit! It’s too late!’
Karim raised up a guard to block the attack and he was thrown off into tree trunk hard. The tree had no damage even after being struck so hard. Its durability was also why nobles loved this tree. It withstood all sorts of things that the nobles did.
Karim could barely stand up before he felt another incoming attack and dodged it. As he made a counter-attack, he blurted angrily.
“You crazy b*tch! What are you doing!”
“What? You wanted a good time and you’re okay here, right? You said everything was okay! Haha, I don’t have much time so let’s do it quick. Sian’s going to come back soon.”
“You…!”
Then Karim noticed Stiel jumping at him with black metal gauntlets on her hands and he took out his sword and fought back.
“Huh? What’s going on?”
Sian, who closed all the entrance of Apental and returned to the tree, found some clashing sounds and light coming from the tree. As he focused his eyes, he saw Stiel and a man fighting there. They were using their full power but the Ciculus Tree did not even budge. It was amazing when compared to the Lagran Region.
‘Stiel’s going to lose.’
Sian then sped up and approached them. He didn’t know what was going on, so he decided to separate them to ask and thus pushed them away from each other.
“Ugh!”
“ARGH!”
Karim and Stiel felt powerful energy pressuring them and jumped back. Karim was confused but Stiel knew what had happened.
“Ugh, Sian. You’re back early.”
“Yeah. Are you okay?”
“It’s nothing.”
Stiel spoke casually but she had accumulated many wounds, meaning the fight had been intense.
“What’s going on?”
“It’s nothing. He just came to me and wanted to have a good time.”
“…and?”
“So, we were having a good time.”
Stiel spat blood from her mouth but she really did seem to enjoy the fight. It was good to fight someone as an equal after a long time. However, Sian didn’t feel the same.
“Stiel, give me that glove.”
“Huh? But it won’t fit your hand,” Stiel said. Her hands were bigger than other women’s, but it was still much smaller than Sian’s hand.
“It doesn’t matter. I’m not putting it on.”
“Huh? Then why…”
Stiel couldn’t understand but Sian took the glove from her anyway.
“How am I going to fight without it?”
Stiel was confused but Karim was even more confused.
“Who are you-”
Karim couldn’t act up as he knew this man was the one who pushed him out with his energy and became tense as the man approached him with a gauntlet. His sight was then filled with a black gauntlet that the man was holding and tried to block, but it was too late.
“ARGH!”
Karim screamed as he was struck in the face with the gauntlet. But he couldn’t think as he was then beaten down by the metal gauntlet until he fainted.
