Shirou is about to leave the Holy Land of Swords.
Before leaving, he said goodbye to Eris and Ghislaine. The goodbyes were quiet. Eris didn't even say much, just said goodbye.
Shirou could understand Eris's attitude. After all, that's her personality. She wouldn't show much sadness at this time.
She probably puts all her feelings into her sword and lets them out through daily sword practice.
It's worth mentioning that Nina and Jino ran to say goodbye to Shirou before he left.
Their attitudes were different.
Jino seemed very sad and reluctant to see Shirou leave. He said he hoped Shirou would return to the Holy Land of Swords soon.
Nina was as proud as ever, but she was hinting, trying to find out where Shirou was going.
Shirou didn't want to say at first, but he couldn't stand her bothering him, so he told her he was going to Ranoa Magic Academy.
The reason he's going there is that Shirou thinks his younger brother Rudeus is likely there, but he doesn't know why he hasn't heard from him.
After hearing that Shirou was going to Ranoa Magic Academy, Nina finally nodded in agreement and left without saying anything.
Shirou and Jino were confused, but they didn't pay too much attention.
After taking one last look at the scenery of the Holy Land of Swords, Shirou officially left this place and went to his next destination.
…
The northern part of the central continent is divided by the Red Dragon Mountains, so the weather is cold all year round, and it's easy to pile up thick snow.
This environment can't support a huge and powerful country, so there are mostly small, scattered countries with divided power.
Only in the northernmost area is there a relatively strong alliance - the Magic Three Kingdoms.
The Magic Three Kingdoms are the Duchy of Niris, the Duchy of Basherant, and the Kingdom of Ranoa.
These three countries, led by the Kingdom of Ranoa, strongly develop magic and use magical inventions as the source of national development. Because of this, they have created stable and prosperous production in the snowy far north. They attract magicians from all over the world with the high-quality Ranoa Magic Academy, and are thus famous.
At the same time, by constantly training many excellent magicians, the adventurer profession in the Magic Three Kingdoms is also one of the best developed in the world.
Compared to other countries where adventurers are mainly warriors, adventurers in the Magic Three Kingdoms are usually magicians, and good magicians are considered the main force of the team.
Powerful magicians mean stable firepower and many turret attacks. As long as the warriors hold the front line, even if they encounter many monsters, they can all be destroyed.
So, even if the environment in the north is bad, people's lives are safe enough because adventurers can clear out all the monsters.
Besides destroying monsters, another common task for adventurers is to guard trade groups.
In this world, forests are always where monsters gather. The magic power easily created makes the number of monsters in the forest far greater than normal.
Any trade group that wants to pass through the forest needs to be escorted by a professional team of adventurers.
A merchant named Bruno hired adventurers to escort him for this reason.
He's a rising merchant who grew quickly this year and just joined a trade group in the Asura Kingdom.
Bruno is transporting two carriages of goods from the Asura Kingdom to the north. If anything goes wrong with these goods, the loss would probably force him to hang himself.
To make sure everything is safe, Bruno spent a lot of money to hire guards and adventurers.
Because adventurers usually need a whole team to fight, Bruno chose to hire the B-level team [Counter Arrow], which had been active in the Asura Kingdom.
The team has five people, led by an experienced leader. All members are mid-level warriors and mages, enough to deal with A-level monsters. Bruno trusts this team very much.
In addition to them, for safety, Bruno also hired some Swordsmen and mages who wanted to go to the north to travel with them.
This way, these Swordsmen and mages can get plenty of supplies while traveling, and it also makes Bruno's trade group safer. It's a win-win situation.
To make sure everything was safe, Bruno carefully checked every passenger who traveled with him.
There was a wandering Sword God Style Swordsman, a Water God Style Swordsman who had been a knight guard in the Asura capital, a mage returning to Ranoa Magic Academy to graduate, and a red-haired boy who looked like he was North God Style, with a bow and arrows on his back and a sword at his waist.
Even though they aren't guards, if the trade group is in danger and affects them, they'll probably join the fight.
Bruno was optimistic about his careful plan and didn't think there would be any problems on the trip, but he didn't expect that there would be conflict within the group.
The conflict started between the North God Style boy and a girl from the [Counter Arrow] team.
Most of the trade group didn't care about the North God Style boy.
They could see that he was young, and he was one of the youngest people in the whole trade group.
The girl who was also young was Sara, a member of the [Counter Arrow] team.
There wasn't really any conflict between the two, or any interaction. But one day, the boy stood up to help the adventurer team in a fight against monsters and helped them defeat the monsters.
This was a good thing, and it was why Bruno hired strong people to travel with him, but he never expected that it would cause trouble.
It seemed like it was just a simple argument.
When the North God Style boy helped out, he chose to use a sword. Most people didn't care, but they didn't expect that he would use many weapons in the fight, from swords to guns to bows, and even magic.
The adventurers looked strange at this all-rounder.
They didn't admire him, but looked at him with pity.
Because people could see that the boy had chosen the wrong path.
He's so young, but he's not focusing on one skill or path. Instead, he's spreading his energy on so many different skills. This means he won't achieve much in the future.
Paul was the best example.
Even when he was middle-aged, he didn't get any skill to the Saint level.
A member of the [Counter Arrow] team, a woman with light brown skin with all her dreadlocks pulled back, couldn't stand it and warned the boy.
Her name is Suzanne. She's the fighter in the adventurer team and a high-level Water God Style Swordsman. As one of the few high-level fighters among adventurers, she was worried about the boy's future, so she hinted to him not to spread his energy learning so many useless skills and to focus on one path.
She even said that if the boy wanted to learn Water God Style, she could introduce him to a professional Water God Style school. It wasn't as good as the school run by Water God Reida in the capital, but it was run by a Water Saint. Suzanne herself was taught by that Water Saint.
The North God Style boy looked very strange at Suzanne's kindness. In the end, he didn't know how to explain his situation, so he just refused.
He thought that would end the conversation, but Suzanne cares a lot about others, maybe too much.
She would come talk to the boy often, hoping to get him to change his path.
But the North God Style boy wouldn't change his mind easily. He refused as much as possible, but it was no use.
The two of them started to have conflict, but because they were both nice and straightforward people, it didn't cause too much trouble.
If left alone, Suzanne would give up trying to convince the North God Style boy as time passed.
At least, after this trip, when they arrived in the town, they'd separate completely.
However, it seemed that Sara, a blonde girl about the same age as the boy and a member of the same team, couldn't stand Suzanne's kindness being wasted. She yelled at the boy, "Suzanne's being so nice to warn you, how can you not understand what she means!"
"This..."
The boy and Suzanne looked surprised that Sara would yell so emotionally.
The reason for this is that Sara is the youngest member of the adventurer team, and Suzanne often takes care of her. Also, because of her family, she sees Suzanne as a mother and can't accept that Suzanne's kindness is being ignored.
So she chose to do something different from Suzanne's subtle warnings. She pointed out the truth directly and yelled at the boy, "Someone like you who learns a little of everything and isn't good at anything will never be high-level!"
"..."
The North God Style boy looked complicated that someone would say this about him. He didn't say anything for a while.
Sara thought she had won and was happy, but then the boy said helplessly, "Whether I can be high-level or not doesn't have anything to do with you."
"What did you say?!"
The boy's simple reply seemed to break Sara down completely, and they became enemies.
The main person in this event, the North God Style boy, was Shirou. He really didn't expect that the first day he gave up using a sword, he would run into this strange trouble and be told that he would never be high-level. He really couldn't take it.
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