Chapter 9: Guarran-Tia

‘It changed so much in just ten days,’ Sian thought as he walked with his superiors through the crowded capital city.

‘Count Kerbel will tell you what position you will be in. I will not ask you to acquire fame for the Roman family, but remember you are a Noble and don’t forget noblesse oblige. Don’t create any trouble!’

His father reminded him again and again before he left. He wanted to object, but he couldn’t promise so he didn’t. Count Kerbel’s mansion was located a bit away from the palace, in Tobe-Tian. It took him three hours on a carriage from his home. Count Kerbel greeted him quickly and told him what to do.

After that day, he had been residing in Count Kerbel’s home, doing what he was assigned to.

‘Guard of the Capital’s Public Safety…’

Guarran-Tia, the Guards of the Capital’s Public Safety.

They were assigned to keep the public safe in all parts of the capital, excluding the royal palace. Guarran-Tia was not some simple group formed randomly. The Capital was full of high-ranked Nobles and powerful individuals, so there were a lot of problems that occurred as a result. Therefore, the Guarran-Tia employed strong individuals to tackle and solve such issues. It required strong fighting skills from their guards and they were also given special privileges to arrest high-ranked officials.

The Guarran-Tia had high requirements to join. It had many tests to go through and inspected all of its personnel on a regular basis, kicking them out if they fell short of the standard.

However, the privileges, good pay, and a chance to get promoted to a Royal Knight were enticing rewards for those who managed to stay. Rian had also started from this and went on to be a Royal Knight in just a year.

Sian was fine with using his background to enter, so he didn’t need to go through the test that Rian had insisted on taking. He simply used the recommendation and joined easily.

There were three types of people who kept an eye on him on his first day.

The first were simply curious about the second son of the Roman family.

The second were suspicious if a weak-looking man like him was really a son of the Roman family.

The third were disgusted at the man who used his family name to join without taking the test.

He could feel that those people distanced themselves from him.

‘These people next to me are the same as them.’

New recruits would be trained by two superiors for a week. It was almost over, but these people did not teach him anything other than the simple basics. These two, the son of a baron and the son of a merchant, did not like him.

As they did not cause him any harm and taught him the basic essentials, Sian decided to just keep his distance. The job was very easy. He was nervous after hearing that there were a lot of happenings in the capital, but there had been none until today.

The changed environment suited him nicely, and he loved it.

He also loved talking with the Count’s beautiful daughter, Sharlotte, when he returned home. Calm and collected, Sharlotte reminded him of his mother, Madam Celine. But Sharlotte eyed him with a strange look on his weird lifestyle. As he was thinking about her, a noise was heard in the distance.

The second son of the Laron Merchants, Taron, did not like the new recruit next to him. Everyone was excited at hearing a second son of the Roman family coming to the Guards. The previous one, Rian, had replaced every record that Guarran-Tia had and moved on to become the Royal Knight at the youngest age according to record. Everyone was anticipating that the new recruit would be the same or better.

But a week after he met the man, his expectation now turned to disappointment. He had no signs of being of a warrior or a swordsman and he looked weak. His lifestyle also wasn’t that of a warrior. He was too lazy.

The Guarran-Tia needed to be strong, so most members spent their time training when they were not working. But this Sian was different.

<I only work for what I’ve been paid for.>

Not once did he come earlier than he needed to and he ran off right after the work was done. Even when an incident occurred at the building right next to their post, he went home, saying his shift was over. That incident was with Count Narsas, who was famous for his temper. Taron had to work late into the night to resolve the issue.

After that, he decided to have this Sian do the work when something popped up. He made a promise with Keran, who was standing next to him. They were both expecting something to pop up before their training was over.

Then there it was. A sound of something crashing and getting destroyed was heard. They all began running toward the sound.

Guarran-Tia was made to patrol divided territories, but they had to quickly respond to any problem that occurred nearby. Taron and Keran’s place was peaceful compared to other places. It was an area where middle-class people resided so it was much peaceful than those slums like Trayan Road.

It was why the new recruit was assigned to their area. But after he joined, there were already two incidents in just one week.

‘No, a second one is good.’

He still was mad at what happened a few days ago. He wished the incident will be hard for this new recruit so he could have hard time like he did.

When they arrived, the area was already in a big mess. It looked like a fight was started in the middle of a road. Taron sighed. Most fights like these were between mercenaries or commoners, easy for Guarran-Tia to handle since they could not fight back against the city guard. He closed in, disappointed that it would not give the new recruit hard times, but things were a little different.

Sian quickly followed his superiors who quickly ran toward the commotion. He thought these men running in front of him were into their jobs. They loved to protect the citizens of the capital so much that they worked so hard like this. He was a bit sad to see these men sleeping at dormitory of the Guarran-Tia, thinking they were poor. But he wished for their success after looking at their respectable deeds.

As he approached the area, he narrowed his eyes at the mess that unfolded. People were already gone and there were men littered everywhere from being thrown out.

It was not a fight between two groups. One was a group, but one was just… one.

“It’s like from a fairytale. A group of ruffians cornering one female knight. Isn’t it?” Sian said amusingly. He was sure that he must’ve heard a tale or something like this from a book that his mother read to him. A scene where the son of a noble tried to harass a beautiful female knight and got beaten up. There was a similar story where another man passing by who was hiding his skills showed his true self, rescued the female knight, and began dating her. He remembered that he felt hiding the true skill was a thing now.

Taron however, smiled. Unlike how he speculated, the fight was between nobles. It was obvious that female knight was a Bander. Other group was a group of guards, guarding the young noble in the middle. This was a chance.

Taron fixed his expression and spoke to Sian.

“Hey, go there and control the situation. We can’t be there all the time. You have ‘ENOUGH’ time until your shift ends today, so you will be able to handle it.”

They were right. Sian was getting paid and he needed to do his part. He needed to have experience with the real job when the superior was watching over him.

‘I have them with me. There won’t be much.’

Sian thought to back away if something went bad and push it to his superiors and approached.

‘Let’s see.. first is to identify myself… and ask for their identification?’

Sian could not still memorize the manual as he walked up.