Isolte was walking in Silpaharl, in the west of the Asura Kingdom's capital.
As a trainee knight, she had to be ready for battle at any moment.
Therefore, she carried a sword at her waist, and her silver armor made noise with every step.
This kind of armor wasn't very breathable, and it was easy to feel stuffy when wearing it. The weight of the armor itself, combined with the sword at her waist, meant that even a well-trained soldier would feel uncomfortable and unable to keep going for long after wearing such equipment for a long time.
However, Isolte didn't feel like that. In fact, she felt very relaxed.
The reason for this wasn't that Isolte had any strange desires, although she might have some tendency in that direction. The main reason Isolte could wear full armor and move for long periods of time so easily was that, as a follower of the Water God Style, she had experienced more extreme torture than wearing full armor.
The special training she had gone through was far beyond that of ordinary Water God Style students. It was brutal training that had continued almost unbroken since her childhood.
The reason she had to go to such lengths was that, before being a Water God Style student, Isolte had another identity.
That was that she was the granddaughter of the current Water God, Lilia.
Although she wasn't a blood-related granddaughter, because the Water God Lilia had never married and had no children, she basically treated Isolte as her own granddaughter.
So, from a young age, Lilia had trained Isolte in the Water God Style. After discovering Isolte's talent, she decided to nurture her from a young age, wanting to pour all her skills and experience into this granddaughter and student.
Isolte was forced to practice swordsmanship under waterfalls from a very young age.
She needed to accurately hit all the arranged dummy targets, even when her vision was blocked and her body was under pressure. At the same time, she also had to watch out for the various hidden weapons that Water God Lilia had prepared.
After this hellish special training, Water God Lilia prepared even more torturous training methods for her, fully training all of Isolte's qualities in every way.
It was because she had the personal training of the current Water God, and because Isolte had truly overcome all the difficulties Lilia had set, that she was able to become a high-level Water God Style practitioner at such a young age, and even be on the verge of becoming a Water Saint.
And it was because of so much training that Isolte didn't feel much fatigue, or even any fatigue at all, even when wearing such heavy armor and patrolling the streets of the capital with a sword.
However, Isolte wasn't really focused on the patrol right now.
Because although she had been asked by Water God Lilia to become a trainee knight to hone her swordsmanship, the environment in the capital was generally very peaceful, with mostly small thieves and pickpockets.
While Isolte was confident in defeating powerful monsters in a head-on fight, her Water God Style wasn't as effective against nimble thieves.
The Water God probably wanted Isolte to overcome the weaknesses of the Water God Style in this environment and find ways to subdue her opponents, but Isolte couldn't come up with any good ideas. Instead, she felt a little discouraged because she had failed to catch escaping criminals several times.
It was during that time of extreme sadness that Isolte met the red-haired boy.
Although he was the same age as her, Shirou showed an unprecedented sense of justice. He caught all the thieves that Isolte hadn't been able to catch in months in just one morning.
Even though Shirou himself had no intention of becoming famous, he would quietly leave the criminals at the gate of the Knights Order every time he caught them.
Even if the knights wanted to know the identity of this nameless hero, they couldn't find him.
But because Isolte was a high-level Water God Style practitioner, and even on the verge of becoming a Water Saint, her senses allowed her to capture Shirou's actions every time.
When she learned that Shirou was so tirelessly doing good deeds, and that he had truly wiped out the evildoers, accomplishing something that Isolte herself couldn't, Isolte instinctively felt curious and yearned for him. She wanted to communicate with him and build a closer relationship.
And she did find a good opportunity, discovering that Shirou was in trouble and helping him at the right time.
Unfortunately, Shirou seemed to have urgent business to attend to. Although Isolte wanted to talk to him further, she couldn't force it.
As a result, after separating from Shirou, Isolte was still full of thoughts about him.
She couldn't even focus on her daily patrols anymore. When she scanned her surroundings, she no longer paid attention to the crimes that might be hidden in the shadows. Instead, she became more eager to see the red-haired boy.
Isolte realized that something was wrong with herself, and quickly patted her face, wanting to get back to normal. But instead of recovering, the fantasies in her mind became even more serious.
After all, when she met Shirou just now, she was wearing her armor. Although it was indeed a very safe piece of equipment that could handle any emergency situation, it obviously lacked overwhelming womanly charm when it came to highlighting feminine appeal.
The thought that Shirou's impression of her was completely based on how she looked in armor made Isolte feel an unspeakable sense of breakdown.
Isolte even had the idea of never wearing armor on patrols again, but that would undoubtedly be against the rules and not allowed.
While Isolte was experiencing various inner turmoil, and most of her thoughts were related to Shirou, a figure suddenly ran over from a distance in a panic.
"Senior Sister Isolte, the teacher is calling you to the dojo quickly!!"
A Water God Style disciple showed an expression of joy when he saw Isolte in the distance. Without hesitation, he directly and concisely conveyed his thoughts.
Because Isolte was the strongest of the younger generation, even though the other disciples were older, they still called Isolte "Senior Sister."
"The dojo? Has another strong person come to challenge us?"
Hearing these words, Isolte's originally gloomy heart became a little brighter.
For Isolte, the only two important things in the world were her family and friends, and her swordsmanship.
As long as she could improve her swordsmanship, even by a tiny bit, she would be happy for a whole day.
Her love for swordsmanship was the reason she was able to progress so quickly in the Water God Style.
Right now, the thought that another powerful swordsman could fight against her made Isolte feel excited. The loss and gloom that had been caused by Shirou were also somewhat relieved.
Isolte first returned to the Knights Order, took off her heavy armor, and then put on a blue and white dress, as well as gray-black high boots.
As she walked towards the Water God Style dojo, all the men around her instinctively looked over, filled with admiration and longing.
This gave Isolte a little bit of confidence, making her feel that she should have some charm as a woman.
However, whenever she picked up a sword to fight, that charm would often disappear immediately, and even be replaced by another emotion: admiration for strength.
Isolte had lost count of how many times she had felt helpless about the fact that as a woman, the stronger she became, the less popular she was.
…
"Senior Sister Isolte, you've finally arrived."
"As long as Isolte is here, those two guys won't be able to act so arrogant anymore!"
"Senior Sister, do your best!"
The moment Isolte entered the Water God Style dojo, she immediately caused a stir among the Water God Style followers.
Because of their recent setbacks, the Water God Style disciples were now placing all their hopes on Isolte, hoping that she could prove their school's strength and defeat their opponents.
Isolte wasn't surprised by this situation.
In fact, before today, she had encountered it several times already. Strong people had come to challenge them, and because the ordinary disciples couldn't handle them, she had to step in personally.
The opponents she had faced were all talented swordsmen from various places, mostly swordsmen from the North God Style, because the North God Style was the most popular style among adventurers.
Although these people had a lot of practical experience, and even knew various cunning techniques, they were no match for Isolte, who was almost a Water Saint.
Because the Water God Style's perception abilities were enough to see through all their tricks and deal with any potential threats.
The only time that Isolte had struggled was during her duel with a Sword God Style follower. Because the Sword God Style didn't rely on any tricks, its power was purely based on speed.
Even though Isolte had predicted the opponent's actions and captured the movement of their sword, she was almost unable to keep up with their speed, which led to her defeat.
From that moment on, Isolte finally understood why the Water God wanted her to do these challenge matches and fight against various swordsmen.
This was essentially to train her to fight against swordsmanship from various schools, and to find and fix her own weaknesses.
Isolte's swordsmanship had also improved rapidly during these days of challenges. She had even faintly seen the threshold to breaking through to the Saint level.
"Who is my opponent?"
Isolte was now looking forward to her new opponent, so she couldn't wait to walk onto the training ground, ready to fight at any time.
However, when she saw her opponent, her expression became strange, or even chaotic.
Because she discovered that her opponent was actually a girl who was even younger than her, and most importantly, behind the girl stood a familiar figure that she could hardly believe.
The moment she saw him, Isolte couldn't help but blurt out:
"Shirou, how is it you!?"
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