"Go to the Water God Style's training hall to challenge them? What crazy idea is this?"
Shirou looked at Eris, who was full of excitement, even extremely excited, and couldn't figure out what was going on.
Eris, though excited, knew she had to explain, so she quickly told Shirou what had happened.
Simply put, Eris had just been walking around the capital when she heard about the Water God Style training hall.
The reason was that the current Water God of the Water God Style was trying to train his students, so he challenged all Swordsman styles. Anyone who could challenge the Water God Style's training hall and defeat the strongest of the younger generation of Water God Style could get a reward from the current Water God.
Although the Water God didn't say what the reward was, he was, after all, the Water God, one of the strongest of the three major swordsmanship styles. Anything he gave, even the simplest sword skill, would be incredibly helpful to ordinary Swordsmen.
Because of this, the Water God Style's training hall had been full of challengers lately, with young Swordsmen from all over the kingdom coming to challenge.
However, the Water God also made it clear that challengers couldn't be over twenty years old.
Because if they were over twenty, it would be like crossing a generation. In that case, even a saint-level fighter might appear, which would be like bullying someone younger and weaker.
Of course, the Water God also said that if someone was under twenty and had already reached the saint level, they could still join the challenge.
Even though everyone knew how unlikely that was.
After all, someone under twenty who's at the saint level is very likely to reach the god level.
When Eris heard about this, she immediately got excited. She wanted to go and challenge the Water God Style's training hall, but before she could even leave, she heard some Water God Style disciples putting down other swordsmanship styles, even Sword God Style.
The reason was that of all the Swordsmen who had come to challenge, including those from the Sword God Style from the holy land of swords, almost no one had managed to beat the younger generation.
No matter how confident a Swordsman was when they came to the Water God Style's training hall, they might get past a few opponents at first, but when they met the strongest Water God Style Swordsman, they couldn't beat them, or even break their defense.
Some people even suspected that the strongest young Water God Style Swordsman had already reached the saint level and become the new Water Saint.
But that was clearly just a guess.
Anyway, because the Water God Style had such a strong young fighter, the Water God Style disciples were very confident now. They thought the Water God Style would definitely rise to power in this generation, and no other swordsmanship style, not even the current strongest Sword God Style, could beat them.
Most people wouldn't pay much attention to such words, they'd just listen and move on.
But Eris wouldn't.
As someone who takes things seriously, Eris got angry as soon as she heard someone putting down Sword God Style, like a dog whose tail had been stepped on.
Because both Ghislaine and Shirou were users of Sword God Style, and they were both people Eris respected a lot.
Eris couldn't accept it when someone put down Sword God Style, which meant putting down Ghislaine and Shirou. She immediately argued back and got into a shouting match with some of the Water God Style disciples.
After arguing for a while, the Water God Style disciples seemed to realize something. They realized that Eris was probably also there to challenge them, so they said they should settle it with strength. If she had the skill, she could go directly to the Water God Style's training hall to challenge them. If she won, she could say anything, but if she lost, she should go away with her tail between her legs.
Eris thought that made sense, so she agreed to challenge the Water God Style's training hall.
That's what led to everything Shirou was seeing when he arrived.
"Shirou, let's go challenge the Water God Style! Let's prove to them that Sword God Style is the strongest swordsmanship!"
Eris said excitedly.
She was clearly very interested in this now. More than proving which was stronger, Sword God Style or Water God Style, she wanted to do the challenge itself.
This was undoubtedly because Ghislaine had said before that when she was young, she had been taken by the Sword God to challenge the Water God Style training hall, and she had defeated all the Water God Style disciples at the time. Even the Water God had had to step in personally.
Eris always looked up to Ghislaine.
Having the chance to do the same thing as Ghislaine was the best thing for Eris.
"Challenge them, huh..."
After hearing Eris's words, Shirou finally understood what was going on.
Normally, he would definitely stop Eris. After all, challenging another swordsmanship training hall was full of too much uncertainty.
Philip had entrusted Eris to him, so he had to think about her safety. It was best not to do anything so risky.
However, Shirou himself wasn't completely uninterested in challenging them.
His swordsmanship had reached a limit, and Ghislaine had kept telling him that she would only teach him the Light Blade after he understood the true meaning of the sword.
Shirou still hadn't understood what the true meaning of the sword was.
So he really wanted to fight Swordsmen of the same level, to understand the essence of the sword through sword fights.
For a while, Shirou was struggling with what to do.
He finally nodded silently, "Okay, I'll go with you to challenge them."
"Really?!"
Eris didn't expect Shirou to agree so easily. She was stunned for a moment, then smiled and hugged him, "I love you, Shirou!!"
"..."
Shirou was a bit helpless with Eris's reactions, which were so extreme and straightforward, like a pet dog.
He had agreed not only because he wanted to fight opponents of the same level, but also because he thought that since they were at the Water God Style's training hall, there would definitely be strong Swordsmen guarding it.
And those people wouldn't attack young people like them. If they were in danger, they might even get protection from the Water God Style, which would actually be a safe choice.
So Shirou agreed to Eris's request and, along with the red-haired girl, followed some Water God Style Swordsmen to the Water God Style's training hall.
The Water God Style's training hall was located high up in the capital, almost next to the nobles' homes.
This was because the current Water God was very respected and recognized by the nobles, and also because the Water God Style had so many strong fighters. If there was any danger, they could go and help right away, making them a more comforting presence for the royal family and nobles than the knights.
The training hall covered a very large area, big enough to be several soccer fields.
And today, the Water God Style's training hall was very lively. "Lively" might not be the right word. The atmosphere here was full of anger and killing intent.
"Another challenger?"
When he saw Shirou and Eris arrive, a Water God Style teacher seemed used to it and calmly welcomed them in.
At the same time, Shirou and Eris realized that they weren't the only ones who had come to challenge. There were also many Swordsmen who looked like adventurers, all gathered there.
The Water God Style's training hall was very crowded, with all sorts of noise and commotion making the place as busy as the most crowded street in the capital.
"When can we challenge them?"
Eris was given a seat on the edge, and the Water God Style people told her to line up first before she could challenge them.
A Water God Style disciple said absentmindedly, "There are probably fifty people ahead of you. At half an hour per person, it'll probably be the third day."
"What?!"
Eris was unhappy when she heard she had to wait three days to challenge them.
She shouted, "Why do we have to wait until the third day?"
"We can't help it. The Water God's reputation is too great. All the Swordsmen who think they're good enough have come to challenge us, and we don't even have time to train properly."
The Water God Style disciple seemed helpless, "We don't have many strong fighters in the Water God Style, we can't give everyone an opponent, so we had to come up with the idea of a waiting line."
"…Ugh…"
After hearing what the Water God Style disciple said, Eris finally understood…no, she didn't!
Although Eris had been taught by Shirou to be more patient than she used to be, that was only compared to the old Eris. In reality, her patience was still very limited.
When she heard she had to wait three days to challenge, Eris couldn't accept it at all and started causing a scene.
"I don't care! I want to challenge them now!!"
Faced with Eris's loud outburst, many Water God Style Swordsmen frowned, not to mention the adventurers who had come specifically to challenge them.
Seeing that Eris was about to get into a fight with so many Swordsmen, Shirou couldn't stand it any longer and stepped in to calm things down.
"Eris, calm down. It's reasonable for them to ask us to wait in line."
Shirou tried to get Eris to understand the situation, although he wasn't sure if he could. But he had to try.
However, his appearance didn't make Eris accept reality, but it did have an unexpected effect.
Since most of the people there were adventurers and Swordsmen from all over the kingdom, naturally many of them were from the Fittoa territory.
They had vaguely recognized Shirou when they first saw him, and now that Shirou had stepped in, many of the adventurers were completely shocked.
"Red hair and a strand of white hair in front of your forehead, could you be the dragon killer from Buena Village?!"
"Huh?"
Shirou was surprised to be called by such a strange name and made a weird expression.
As soon as someone mentioned the title of dragon killer from Buena Village, more and more adventurers reacted and looked over in shock.
The moment they saw Shirou, they immediately thought of the widely spread rumor.
The rumor about the young dragon killer!
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