Everyone in Kulan Province was busy. After the collapse of the cliff, the Logadis forces disbanded on their own.
Viscount Teron, the leader of the group, was found dead, and Phareon was suspected to be the killer, which terrified the noble forces. All of them surrendered, and Phareon gave them some property so they would move off their land.
Under Phareon’s command, Logadis quickly stabilized. However, Phareon still needed more time.
“How are you faring? Has the swelling gone down?”
“Yeah… I’m okay. At least his anger has sated.”
Ra-Kadum asked Phareon about his condition as he had bruises all over his body. It had been two weeks since he got the bruises, but they still hadn’t gone away.
Phareon was glad that it ended with just him though. He was worried that Riana or Roina would try to interfere, but Ra-Kadum managed to keep everyone out of it so that only he got beaten up.
After that was done, Sian explained everything that happened at the cliff.
He said that the cliff collapsed in the middle of a fight and he barely managed to escape, preventing him from retrieving the weapons that the thief had stolen. However, they did not need to worry about the <Arankals> as they had all been buried with the collapse of the cliff.
Phareon accepted the fact that he had lost those weapons. He wasn’t powerful enough to protect them anyway. If it weren’t for Sian, everything would have been stolen, and he would have been killed in the end.
It was fortunate that the items from the First Stage had already been moved to other places.
“He’s probably on the way back to the capital.”
“Yes. The world really is large… I never imagined such a man to exist.”
Phareon smiled bitterly at the thought of Sian.
He believed everything would be his once he unlocked the <Arankal>, but the world wasn’t that easy. There were too many powerful people. All that he believed in was destroyed by just one man.
“Boy, are you scared?”
Ra-Kadum smirked at Phareon, but Phareon turned toward him and smiled.
“No, not at all. I’m a bit shocked but…”
“But?”
“It was a good lesson. I have my friends, my loved ones, and you too. I think I have been rushing things.”
Ra-Kadum laughed and answered, “Good, that’s good. Boy-Lord, you got a bright future ahead of you. You still have more stuff to help you out.”
“Yeah. We should get busy.”
They laughed and started talking about future plans when Roina came and cut in.
“Milord, a messenger just came from the capital.”
“Huh? Why?”
“The succession is over. It’s the King Narasha Qun Tian the First.”
The capital was in a festive mood. Narasha had been successfully crowned as the new king, replacing Craden. The new king proved to be worthy of the throne, and the people believed the new king would guide them to prosperity.
Sian was worried that Count Kerbel would be shocked, but when Sian returned, he did not seem to be too bothered.
“It’s okay. I wasn’t worried that the former king would lose his place. I’m a citizen of Tian. I welcome a strong king. I was just worried that Marquis Narasha would spill too much blood.”
Kerbel answered Sian when he told him of his worries.
Marquis Narasha had been quite peaceful during the succession, and all the noble factions obeyed Sir Rian and the Third Knight Guard’s orders, thus not causing too much trouble.
But the balance of power had tilted too far, and the former king decided to give up the throne before it became ugly.
And Sian… was not interested in the succession one bit.
His interest shifted to something else that happened during his two-month absence.
“Lady Celine, what’s going on?” Sian asked Celine who looked extremely fatigued.
Sian was not good at sensing other people’s problems, but Celine looked so tired that even Sian could recognize that she was having problems.
“Oh… you’re here…”
Celine sighed as she glanced at Sian who had returned to duty and began explaining what had happened to her while he was gone. After she was finished, Sian exclaimed in disbelief, “So… there’s a man who’s been following you around? And he’s in love with you?”
“Yeah… what should I do?”
‘…is she showing off?’
Sian first thought that Celine was joking, but she seemed really concerned, so he decided to continue listening. Celine was a beautiful woman who had a good background, so it didn’t seem impossible.
“What’s the problem then? Is he ugly?”
“No. He’s handsome. Almost like Sir Rian.”
Which meant the man was really handsome.
“Then… is he weak? You always wanted a strong man, right?”
“Why would I tell you all this if he was weak?”
Sian nodded. If the man was weaker than Celine, there was no way that she would allow herself to be stalked. After asking more questions, Sian decided that she was just showing off.
“So… he’s handsome, powerful, rich, and a perfect man. He’s a mercenary and a fallen noble, but I’m pretty sure you don’t mind that.”
Sian commented bitterly, but Celine sighed.
“Hey, you didn’t ask me the most important thing. His personality.”
“Huh?”
Sian realized that he hadn’t asked about that.
“Oh… then…”
“Yeah. I’ve never met such a man in my life.”
Celine began explaining what happened in detail.
Marquis Narasha began his plan the moment Sian left the capital. It needed to be done quickly, so he hired various powerful mercenaries from all parts of the Kingdom to come the capital and help.
The man, Kuntarian, came to Roa-Tian because of that.
It had only been half a year that his name had been known. He first appeared in the battle between Viscount Nebel of the Royalist Faction and Viscount Qunon of the Noble Faction. Kuntarian singlehandedly led the weaker Noble Faction to victory with his prowess. After that, he led the Noble Faction to victory with his powers many times.
He only helped the nobles because they were rich and offered him more money.
His name instantly became famous right before he came to the capital when he defeated the top-class Master-level warrior, Viscount Krasan.
After a deeper investigation of the man, it was revealed that he was only seventeen years old.
Everyone believed that he would become the fourth Grand Bander of Tian Kingdom.
Marquis Narasha quickly called him in, and he proved himself worthy.
Kuntarian worked as requested. He taunted and destroyed everything in his path. There was nothing that could stop him as his main focus was to cause problems on the roads of El-Lua, and he was bound to meet Celine.
The moment Kuntarian met Celine, he claimed that he had fallen in love and demanded that Celine become his woman. But Celine did not like the boy at all.
This boy was out of line: stealing and assaulting people was the norm for him. He drank and flirted with the women on the streets, taunted nobles, and ridiculed commoners. He learned all sorts of dirty acts.
He didn’t create a problem huge enough to have the Grand Banders step in, but once he realized no one could stop him, he became worse.
After finding out that Celine was the granddaughter of the Swordmeister Kiraine, he kept within the boundary where the Swordmeister would not step in and stalked Celine.
In addition, he assaulted the people around Celine and gave her a massive headache.
That was when Sian returned.
“Wow, he definitely needs a beating.”
“Yeah… you’ll understand once you meet him.”
Kuntarian made Celine change her view about Sian. She always thought that if she had the same strength as Sian, she would put it to better use. However, after meeting Kuntarian, she felt it was better for a man of such strength to be lazy. She realized how terrible a powerful man without any restraint could be after meeting him.
“Aren’t you the lieutenant-captain of the Third Knight Guard? I’m pretty sure our Guarran-Tia work is done, so can’t you just go into the palace? He can’t follow you in there, right?”
“He can… He became a noble. And I can’t run away forever.”
Sian looked at Celine sympathetically. He wanted to help, but there was no reason to interfere. The boy seemed smart enough not to create any serious trouble. If Sian just beat him up because he didn’t like him, that would mean Sian was on the same level as a ruffian.
“Erm… well, good luck. I want to see his face though.”
“Don’t worry. It’s about time he came.”
At that moment, a loud voice boomed from the entrance.
“HAHAHA! Where’s Celine? You can’t run away today!”
“Ugh…”
Celine sighed loudly and grabbed her head while Sian turned toward the voice. A handsome man was walking towards them, wearing a lavishly decorated sword and armor that shone brightly.
