Learning they were going to the Holy Land of Swords, both Shirou and Eris felt a rush of excitement.
After all, as the peak of sword skills in this world, the altar craved by countless Swordsmen, anyone who studies the sword would naturally long for the Holy Land of Swords.
But Ghislaine wasn't in a hurry to send them to the Holy Land of Swords. Instead, she had them stay in the slums of the Fitoa territory for a while.
The reason was that James had found out about Shirou and Eris entering the country. If they rushed to the Holy Land of Swords now, they might be ambushed by James' men on the way.
Eris didn't really care about this. She felt that with Shirou and Ghislaine, a Sword Saint and a Sword King, they didn't need to fear any enemies. But Ghislaine couldn't be so optimistic. She said that James had used this opportunity to get in good with a high-ranking minister of Darius, and might even send people at the level of the North God and Water God.
If someone of that level actually showed up, even Shirou and Ghislaine together might not be a match.
After hearing this, Eris couldn't stay optimistic either.
The Dragon God they had encountered on the road before had completely shattered her confidence, making her realize that there were always people stronger than her.
Before they knew the strength of their opponents, it was best to act with caution.
So Shirou and Eris settled down temporarily in the slums.
On the surface, they pretended to be ordinary refugees, while secretly gathering information about the current Asura Kingdom.
From this, Shirou learned about the many changes that had taken place in the kingdom in the past two years.
The biggest change was that the Second Princess Ariel had fled the Asura Kingdom. She had originally been competing for the throne with the First Prince Gravel, but after an assassination attempt, she realized that she couldn't survive inside the Asura Kingdom, so she had to leave the country and seek support from the Magic University.
But they heard that the Prince had sent powerful assassins to kill Ariel, so Ariel was attacked as soon as she left the country.
Currently, the rumor going around is that Princess Ariel is dead.
Shirou believed this was a false rumor, because from what he had seen with his Clairvoyance, Ariel had successfully left the Asura Kingdom.
She was likely still alive.
As for Ariel's current situation, Shirou couldn't help her. He couldn't even handle his own problems right now.
He hadn't found all of his Greyrat family members yet, and he had to find Zenith and Rudeus as soon as possible.
Therefore, Shirou quickly made a plan. He decided to take Eris to the Holy Land of Swords first.
After officially obtaining the title of Sword Saint at the Holy Land of Swords and learning the later skills of the Longsword of Light, he would set off to find his family.
This process was bound to be difficult, so he naturally wouldn't take Eris with him. He planned to leave Eris at the Holy Land of Swords first.
With the protection of the current Sword God, the Holy Land of Swords wasn't very dangerous, making it a great place to leave Eris.
As for the Boreas family and the Asura Kingdom's royal family's struggles, he really didn't want to get involved for now. He planned to wait until he found his family before making any plans.
...
After staying in the Fitoa territory for several days, Shirou inquired about his family's whereabouts while helping with some basic reconstruction work in the territory.
As always, when he saw others in trouble, Shirou couldn't help but want to help.
The reconstruction of the Fitoa territory was very slow due to James' lack of action, so Shirou tried to help as much as he could, using Reinforcement Magic and Projection Magic to provide assistance to the ordinary people in the territory, repairing tools and replenishing supplies.
During this process, he met some people who used to live in Buena Village, but they were mostly scattered individuals. He couldn't find even one complete family.
At the same time, he completely confirmed the news of Laws' death.
Faced with this cruel news, Shirou didn't know what to say. He could only sigh silently in his heart.
As for Laws' daughter Sylphy, Shirou really hoped she was okay, but given the situation of the Displacement Incident, her chances of survival were almost zero.
Most importantly, when his Clairvoyance went out of control, he saw almost everyone he knew, but Sylphy wasn't among them.
There was only one possibility: Sylphy was dead...
Shirou felt very sad because of this, but he couldn't change reality. He could only quietly return to Buena Village, collect any possible belongings, and build a memorial for the father and daughter.
After doing everything, he returned to the refugee camp and happened to meet Ghislaine.
Ghislaine still served the Boreas family. Even though she knew that the people above were no longer Sauros and Philip, whom she had sworn loyalty to, but James, she still had to obey James' orders and do her duty as a guard for the safety of Sauros and Philip.
"Eris, Shirou, I've gotten approval to go to the Holy Land of Swords."
Ghislaine looked nervous. "James seems to believe me, but who knows if he has other ideas. Be careful on this trip and protect Eris."
"I understand."
"Then let's go."
Ghislaine took Shirou and Eris on the road to the Holy Land of Swords immediately, obviously not wanting to stay for even a second longer.
The three quickly boarded a carriage leaving the Asura Kingdom and headed for the Holy Land of Swords.
The journey to the Holy Land of Swords was quite long.
But compared to crossing most of the world from the Demon Continent back to the Asura Kingdom after the Displacement Incident, it wasn't really that difficult.
The only problem was the potential attackers on the road.
However, it was possible that Ghislaine's disguise was good enough, or that James didn't think Eris was worth attacking.
In any case, the three left the Asura Kingdom very smoothly, quickly crossing the Red Dragon's Upper Jaw and arriving in the northern lands of the Asura Kingdom.
...
Traveling in the Central Continent is always very safe.
In this land inhabited by humans, only the eastern part has some areas of conflict that haven't yet restored order. Otherwise, there are powerful enough governments to maintain peace in each area.
However, all the kingdoms deliberately left out the northernmost part of the Central Continent when dividing their territories.
Because there, in that place, is the land called Holy Land of Swords.
The Holy Land of Swords is the training center of the Sword God Style, and it is also the place where each generation's Sword Saint is chosen.
Even without mentioning the Sword God himself, the Holy Land of Swords has a large number of Sword God Style disciples, including Sword Kings and Sword Emperors.
No country with any sense would ever think of attacking the Holy Land of Swords.
The only style among humans capable of competing with the Sword God Style is the Water God Style, but the current Water God doesn't have the strength to challenge the Sword God, so the Sword God Style has become the undisputed master of the Holy Land of Swords.
Shirou arrived at the Holy Land of Swords and found it to be a place covered in snow, with a very harsh environment. There were rugged mountain roads and hostile conditions everywhere, and you could even see monsters from time to time.
Such a difficult environment would be impossible for ordinary people to survive in, but for Swordsmen, it was the perfect place to hone themselves.
Shirou and Eris followed Ghislaine, continuously moving forward through the rugged mountains for an unknown distance, and came to a huge canyon.
The canyon had winding paths and mountain roads that spiraled upwards.
At the end of those mountain roads was the true territory of the Holy Land of Swords.
Ghislaine seemed a little stiff, as if she hadn't been back in years, but she quickly regained her composure and strode into the holy land.
When she, a Sword King, appeared, the Sword God Style disciples who recognized Ghislaine showed nervous expressions and ran to notify higher-level Swordsmen without hesitation.
Soon, a high-ranking Swordsman appeared on the scene, and after talking with Ghislaine, he led the group into the interior of the Holy Land of Swords.
"Yo, you're finally back after all this time, Ghislaine."
After arriving in a large and spacious environment, the meeting hall of the Holy Land of Swords, an old man with gray hair appeared in front of them.
Even though he didn't introduce himself, both his position and his seemingly simple but flawless movements instantly made everyone realize his identity: the current Sword God, Gal Farion.
He didn't look at Shirou and Eris, as if intentionally ignoring them, and just stared at Ghislaine, sneering, "Now that you're back, that means you've seen through the bottleneck between Sword King and Sword Emperor, and you're here to take the advancement test, right?"
"This..."
Ghislaine seemed quite uneasy at the Sword God's words, and quickly replied, "I'm sorry, disciple is foolish and has not yet seen any hope of breaking through to Sword Emperor, nor am I capable of taking the advancement test."
"Oh? So you just came back here with your tail between your legs? Are you planning to give up your travels and complete the test I gave you?"
"No, that's not it either..."
When facing the Sword God, Ghislaine seemed to show unprecedented reverence and fear. She lowered her head and said nervously, "Master, I came back this time to recommend two Swordsmen to you, hoping they can take the Sword Saint promotion test."
"Two? Are they your disciples?"
The Sword God had obviously noticed Shirou and Eris long ago, but he had deliberately treated them coldly, showing an indifferent attitude.
Now, he looked at Shirou and Eris directly.
The two immediately felt an unprecedented pressure.
Not to mention Eris, who couldn't handle the Sword God's aura at all, Shirou also felt a presence from him that surpassed the Water God Reida.
However, possibly because he had just fought the Dragon God, Shirou wasn't overwhelmed by the Sword God's aura and remained calm in place.
This reaction undoubtedly caught the Sword God's attention.
---
Read 55+ advanced chapters on patreon.com/yeyeqiu