Swordmeister of Rome

Chapter 147: Protected Estate

Rupika scowled at the man and woman who were walking along the road on the roots.

‘They are lowlies...’

But it wasn’t only Rupika who was making such a face. Everyone else was too. The weak were to be despised.

Nobles did not care how strong the commoners were so they only divided their power amongst themselves, but the commoners also made divisions between themselves. It was a simple measurement tool.

<One’s strength.>

It was a simple but clear standard. It applied to the nobles, but it also applied to the commoners. The weaker ones were looked down upon and ignored. It was even worse when compared to nobles.

The commoners were afraid of the nobles, but they did not hate them. They envied them and dreamed of becoming nobles themselves. If one became a noble, one didn’t need to be good at anything else. They only needed to be good at ruling, and the only way to rule was to become stronger.

The path was open for commoners to aim to become stronger. Providing Akra did not hinder their chances of becoming nobles in any way, so commoners also valued power. They were fed by the Ciculus Tree and the nobles provided them protection.

These people living within the protected estates were provided with an environment to aim to become stronger. To compete with each other. That was why the weak ones were despised.

The commoners also had the power to sniff out the weak via their Akra.

<Akra resonates with other Akras. With its resonance, one can find out the amount of Akra the target contains. This amount of Akra is directly connected to the power of its holder.>

It was the same for the nobles. It was good for commoners because it allowed them to see who the nobles were and prevented them from attacking the nobles without knowing. Nobles had very powerful Akra Resonance that was strong enough make commoners faint. They did have the ability to hide their powers, but they couldn’t mask their Akra Resonances.

It meant disaster to those without talent. Their strengths were revealed fully and it made commoners divide themselves based on their power.

Those with weak Akra either lacked talent, or were fools trying to seek out alternative ways to become strong.

The latter was more probable for those two, but it didn’t matter. They were both weak. They also did not provide enough Akra to the nobles so the nobles did not like them either. The nobles even encouraged commoners to discriminate against the weaker ones.

That was why these people were labeled as lowlies and were cast out to the outer area of the protected estate. Lowlies were afraid that they might get lynched if they walked to the inner town, so none of them approached the middle of the town.

Yet these two lowlies were walking proudly in the middle of the Locke Estate.

The evidence was apparent. There was no Akra Resonance coming from these people. The woman seemed to have a very slight resonance, as if it had been only a few days after she had received Akrata. The man, however, had nothing.

Rupika wasn’t nice enough to let these fools dirty their place. It was the same for the others.

It was time for someone to step up and do the job. Rupika walked out and others followed.

“Hey, lowlies. Stop right there.”

Sian and Stiel turned to each other as they found four men approaching them. It was very refreshing. No one dared to approach them in their own world. It was Sian’s first time being approached by someone trying to intimidate and taunt them without any hesitation.

“Lowlies? What is that?”

“I don’t know.”

“Hmm... do they not feel the power because we’re from a different world?”

Sian knew how to hide his power, but he let out some of it just to scare others to save them from Stiel’s wrath, so it was very interesting.

“No... I don’t think it’s that. They are too sure of it... there must be something else. We can ask about that. I remember Zagron... hehe.”

Stiel grinned as she put on her gauntlet. It seemed like these men were about Grand Bander level. Zagron, the boy that Stantahl the Fourth brought to show her. It seemed they were strong enough to pound them with the gauntlet.

Sian quickly held Stiel back and replaced her gauntlets with the steel stick that Lagaope had given him.

Stiel rambled, “What?! I haven’t tried this, but I don’t think it will feel as good as the gauntlets.”

“Yes, but if you use that gauntlet to make you feel good, it will kill them. We’re here to ask a favor so use that instead.”

“Oh, I wasn’t trying to kill them.”

“...”

“Hah, okay. I guess you don’t appreciate me for trying to put your present to its best use.”

“I gave those gauntlets to protect you from getting hurt.”

Stiel then began swinging the stick and approached those men.

Rupika became dumbfounded and scoffed with his other friends. It was ridiculous to see a lowlie trying to put up a fight.

“Hey, that gauntlet is gonna be mine.”

“Oh, then, can I take her first?”

“Hey! I’m first!”

“I like the man. Hehe... you guys can fight each other.”

The four of them began to quarrel as Stiel came up to them and asked, “Hey boys. I have a question.”

“??”

She asked so casually that Rupika was at a loss for words. He turned back to his friends, trying to see if anyone recognized her as a daughter of any nobles here. They shook their heads. Information about nobles were vital to the commoners. They needed to know families of nobles and who they cared for, but they could not remember this woman. Unlike other big estates, their estate only had four Barons and one Viscount.

Rupika then approached the woman.

“Haha... you mad girl. You know that you don’t even have any resonance? Didn’t your parents teach you that it’s dangerous outside?”

“Hmm... my parents were killed by their brothers and sisters. My place was more dangerous inside than outside. By the way, the resonance you said? So, is that how you measure things?”

She wasn’t sure what resonance was, but she could ask slowly. She thought about taking out her gauntlets in appreciation of reminding her of her disgusting past, but it didn’t need to end up messy as Sian said.

“But my parents did teach me one thing.”

“Huh?”

“Why use your mouth when you have a sword? It’s my life motto.”

Stiel then smacked the man’s forehead with the stick.

“AAAAARGGH!”

“Huh?”

Stiel became confused at the unexpected outcome. She smacked hard enough to crack open the skull as she was going to knock this one out, beat other three while he took time to wake up, and then ask what resonance was.

But the guy was rolling on the ground with a painful scream instead of getting knocking out.

That was the reason why Sian gave the stick to her.

“Oh... so this is special. I’ll see what it can do then.”

Stiel then began hacking away at the other three who seemed to be in shock from behind.