Kapitel 33: Reida Reia

The sacred land of the sword, at the far west of the Northern Territories, was

in a land that had seen many battles. Currently, it was the home of the Sword God Style,

but there was once a time when the Water God Style held sway here.

Just a century ago, the leaders of the two styles had dueled here, and the Water God had won the Shrine from its owner. That Water God was later defeated

by another Sword God, and lost the Shrine in turn; but since then, it had

belonged to the strongest swordsman of each successive generation, who earned the right to teach those of his school here. Students who secured a place at the shrine were tutored by the best teacher possible and had the opportunity to dethrone him as the strongest. This fact attracted many ambitious young swordsmen to this cold, isolated place if only to see it with their own eyes. However, at this moment, two visitors of a more unusual sort were approaching her main hall. One of them was an older woman, perhaps in her sixties. The expression on her face

suggested that she was something of a curmudgeon; otherwise, she was the picture of a kindly, harmless old woman. She was dressed for the road at the moment, but it was easy to imagine her in more casual clothes, reclining in an armchair while knitting some thread.

Only one detail seemed incongruous: the old woman wore a slightly shortened sword at her hip. Furthermore, a particularly skilled swordsman might have seen that her relaxed demeanor was just a facade and that even his quickest attacks would fail to touch her.

But enough of that, The woman's name was Reida Reia, and she was the reigning.

Water Goddess. She had perfected the ultimate technique of her style, the Blade of Deprivation, and was among the strongest warriors of this generation.

Accompanying Reida was a young woman about twenty years old whose face bore some resemblance to hers her name was Isolte Cruel and she was dressed for the road and carried a sword on her hip.

"This is the aforementioned sword shrine, Master Reida?" Isolte asked Reida.

"That's right, my dear, take a good, long look, this is the beast lair you've been so eager to visit all these years," Reida replied with a smile.

"Okay... now I'm getting nervous." She replied with a shrug.

"Have a little confidence in your abilities, unless you're up against the Sword God, you'll manage just fine," Reida replied.

"Thank you, Master Reida," Isolte replied, regaining her spirits.

Speaking quietly to each other, the two set foot in the sword shrine.

At a glance, this "sacred" place looked like an ordinary town, there was an inn, a weapons shop, and an adventurer's guild, and on the streets were the usual adventurers and merchants, who went about their business doing their own errands.

However, there was something unusual about this town, practically everyone who resided here was a trained member of the Sword God style, in this place, a slender villager was sometimes stronger than the most corpulent of adventurers.

"Should we take a room at the inn first?" Isolte asked.

"That won't be necessary, we'll stay at Gull's house," Reida said.

Reida walked forward with a firm step, heading to the edge of the town.

After a certain point, adventurers and merchants became less common, and they began to come across more people wearing martial arts uniforms and carrying wooden swords, at the same time, shops gave way to training rooms.

Isolte looked at all of this with obvious curiosity, in particular, she seemed intrigued by the fine uniforms that everyone wore, despite the biting cold.

"Master Reida... everyone is going very fast here, considering how cold it is" Isolte muttered while rubbing her arms.

"Well, people of the Sword God style have to go with a zipper in combat or they are easy targets, they don't like to wear anything that slows them down, no matter how cold it is" Reida explained.

"That's exactly the opposite of us! We bundle up even when it's hot, right?! How curious!" Isolte said visibly dismayed.

"There's nothing curious about it, if you ask me," Reida replied boredly.

Without sparing even a glance at the various training rooms, Reida continued forward.

In no time, the houses, training rooms, and uniformed rookies disappeared completely.

The only thing ahead of them was a vast plain of snow with the only road running through it like a valley, at the end of that road was a sizable building surrounded by a wall.

That was the central dojo, the core of the sacred land of the sword.

Just as Reida and Isolte reached the entrance of the dojo, a young woman with dark blue hair happened to come out from inside.

The woman had a strong and dignified face, large breasts, and wore her long blue hair in a ponytail, judging by the bucket of water she was carrying in her hand, she was heading to draw water from a well.

However, upon seeing Reida, she puts aside the bucket and puts her hand on the hilt of her sword.

"What business do you have in our hall, Madam?!" Nina asked suspiciously.

Reida studied the young woman's face carefully, and after a moment, the sullen expression on her face softened significantly.

"Oh, wow, is that you Nina? Look how big you've gotten!" Reida said with a smile.

Nina looked at her doubtfully, keeping her hand on the hilt of her sword.

"Ah, you don't remember me, do you? Well, I guess that makes sense, I was just a baby the last time I was here." Reida said in a nostalgic tone, but for Nina, she had no memory of this woman, the only thing she was sure of was that the old lady was a fearsome threat.

The girl beside her was not far behind either, Nina felt that she was at least on her level.

"Well, I'm here because your boss called me, dear, would you mind taking me to him?" Reida said with a smile.

"My boss?..." Nina asked without understanding.

"Yes, Gull Farion" Reida answered without flinching.

Nina hesitated at these words.

Many came to this place looking to meet Gull Farion, but most of them were complete fools who had convinced themselves that they could strip him of his title, driving such people away was one of the assigned responsibilities of Nina and her boyfriend Gino.

"First, would you be so kind as to tell me your name?" Nina asked cautiously.

"I'm Reida Reia, no need to explain myself right?" she said with an old lady smile.

"M-my apologies, please come this way" Nina replied.

The instant Nina heard the old lady's name, Nina bowed to her respectfully and invited her into the dojo.

Only one person in the world could introduce herself as Reida Reia, it was a name reserved for the leader of the Water God style, no one else was allowed to claim it.

Reida and her companion followed Nina into the dojo, Nina led them straight to the main hall, which they had to climb to enter, something common as in most buildings in this snowy region.

At the entrance, they stopped to brush the snow off their clothes and then continued down the creaking wooden hallway.

Watching Nina from behind as she walked, Reida spoke in a thoughtful voice.

"I must say, my dear, that you are very smart for your age, and well-educated at that, have you already reached the Sword King level?..."

"No... I'm afraid I still have a long way to go" Nina said with a smile.

"Now yes, I'm sure you are the strongest of the young people at least, there's no need to be too modest" Reida asked raising an eyebrow.

"W-well... actually not... not yet..." she murmured

"Oh! That's a good attitude you have, my dear, it's a shame that other young people of your style aren't like you" Reida praised her and Nina could only sigh.

As they spoke, the three of them had arrived at the central hall of the dojo.

A single man sat in it, his eyes closed, as if he were meditating, yet the mere sight of him made Reida feel as if a sword was at her throat.

Reida Reia, despite her advanced age, did not feel any less powerful than in her prime, she could stop any sword effortlessly.

But Gull was the only exception to that rule.

"Father, I brought Reida Reia to see you," she said with a bow.

"Ah, you're here," Gull said, opening his eyes slightly.

"Thank you for coming here, Reida, it must not have been easy with those old and tired bones of yours, I'm sure," Gull said with a smile.

"It certainly wasn't, still, it's not every day you come to ask me for a favor, right? I guess you've piqued my curiosity uuuuf..." Reida replied with a snort.

Reida sat in front of Gull and Isolte and NIna behind her in a sign of humility.

"So, who am I going to teach what? Do you want me to teach NIna the secret techniques of the Water God or something?" Reida said raising her chin.

"She seems like a girl who knows how to listen, she may be a Sword God type by nature, but I'm sure I could get a few of the Water God's skills into her head as well" Reida said as she looked at NIna.

The letter that brought Reida to this land had been short.

In essence, it only said: "I want you to come train one of my students."

Reida was about to tear it to pieces as soon as she read those words, and yet, she found it intriguing that Gull Farion had bothered to write her a letter of any kind, the man hated asking anyone for anything.

However, that was not the only reason she had come, mere curiosity would not have been enough to make her walk here from the capital of the Asura Kingdom.

"In any case, I have a condition" Reida said firmly

"What is it?" Gull Farion said in a bored tone.

"You want me to teach some things to one of your students, right? Well, I want you to teach one of mine the Sword God Style, although you don't need to actually teach him" Reida declared.

"Oh?...Is that all? Of course it is" Gull said surprised.

"Hehe, you know, we could even pit my star pupil against yours if you want" Reida said with a smile.

"Hmm, my star pupil is almost as fast as me, that girl won't stand a chance" Gull declared.

Reida was shocked at this but before she could speak Gull interrupted her.

"Although I also want you to teach him, I didn't call you mainly for him, Nina, go find Eris for me" Gull replied.

"Yes, father" she replied getting up from the floor

However, upon hearing these words, Reida tilted his head in curiosity. Ever since he

met the girl at the entrance of the compound, he had assumed that Nina was the student he had come to teach.

"Um, father..." Nina said.

"What is it? Hurry up, child." Gull responded by raising an eyebrow.

"I was... hoping you would give me a chance to spar with our visitor as well" Nina murmured.

I'm very interested in seeing what the Water God Style can do." she continued.

"Eh? That was always part of the plan." Gull said boredly

"O-oh! Thank you. I'll go find Eris right away." A look of happiness and relief briefly crossed Nina's face before she

hurriedly left the room.

As soon as Nina left the room Reida looked back at Gull with curiosity.

"Who do you mean your star student? I thought it would be Nina?" Reida asked.

"My son-in-law Gino, he is barely thirteen years old and he is already a Sword Emperor" Gull said with a smile.

Reida could only look at him in shock, she had already heard the rumor of a child who had reached the rank of a holy sword, she ignored it due to the unbelievable nature of the matter, but now she heard it from Gull's words.

If that was so, Reida had no doubt that she could witness the next Sword God.

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