It has been a year since Isolde arrived in Shirone and trained at the dojo of that skinny Water Emperor she met back from the Water God Style headquarters. And throughout that entire year, the Water Saint girl remains undefeated in any sword duel, regardless of the opponent's level, status, or age.
Just like now, Isolde has just sparred with a mid 30s swordsman bearing the title of Water Saint just like her. After ten rounds, she won ten out of ten, an overwhelming result.
However, Isolde shows no sign of arrogance or haughtiness.
"Thank you for the match, I learned a lot." She bowed respectfully, even though her opponent was cursing as he left the training ground.
In every match, regardless of whether the opponent is strong or weak, Beginner or even Saint-rank, Isolde fights with all her might and tries to learn from them, from their mistakes to their strengths. With her past experience facing Atur, she realized that those she thought were weaker sometimes taught her the most valuable lessons in swordsmanship.
Perhaps thanks to such a swordsmanship philosophy, Isolde has improved very quickly since arriving here. She is even close to perfecting her first secret art to advance to the title of Water King.
If the young swordswoman accomplishes that goal before turning 15, she will not only be the youngest Water Saint but also the first Water King to achieve the title before adulthood - an unprecedented achievement that surely no one will easily surpass.
Ah, except for Atur. That guy doesn't count because he used a secret art when he was only 6. Even now, Isolde doesn't know where to rank her fateful rival on the rank list. Because that silver-haired rival can fight on par with her. Using secret arts not only with a sword but sometimes even bare-handed. Yet he is always easily defeated by Advanced or even Intermediate-rank swordsmen at the headquarters. Truly absurd!
If applying what Atur called the 'transitive property in mathematics,' it means Isolde is even weaker than Intermediate-rank. That makes the genius girl a bit annoyed. But knowing full well it was just a trick to provoke her, she tried to stay calm both when she first heard it and now recalling it.
A Water God Style swordsman must always be calm and composed at all times and in all situations. Isolde is very good at that. Yet only that silver-haired guy makes her blood boil.
Ah, recently Veronica was added to the list too. Nothing but weirdos.
Thinking back, she doesn't know how Atur has progressed in Roa now. After all, he is training with Sword King Ghislaine, right? It's THE famous 'Black Wolf Sword King' we are talking about. The Water Saint remembers hearing somewhere that she is the 4th strongest swordsman of the Sword God Style, sparring with such a person would certainly bring many benefits and valuable experience. Even just sitting and talking would probably teach him a thing or two.
She hopes Atur has also overcome his weaknesses and reached at least Saint-rank. Or even perfected a secret art and reached King-rank already.
Because at his age, Isolde had already reached Saint-rank.
She refuses to accept that the person who twice gave her a heart attack and almost beat her in a sword duel would progress slower than her. Unless he has become stupid and started living like a lazy noble.
Maybe he's even betrothed to some young lady already.
That thought suddenly flashed through Isolde's mind but made her a little uncomfortable. Not out of jealousy or anything. To her, Atur is a rival she never had, and she always looks forward to his progress. If things like marriage and romance interfere with his progress, Isolde will definitely be extremely disappointed.
And even, because of that negligence, Atur might neglect the Water God's mission and be punished. If that really happens, Isolde will personally cut off that weak rival's hand as a way to sever their relationship. She promised herself that and will definitely do it!
She looks forward to the next time they meet and have a duel to see who is superior, between two true Water Kings!
However, that doesn't mean Isolde is completely against anyone having romance. She herself occasionally starts thinking about starting a family.
Because she's almost 15 anyway, right? And because sometimes love should be the motivation to become stronger. Isolde thought so. That is exactly the meaning of the story of the first Water God, right? Because of love, he beheaded the Water Dragon King and married the princess. Ah, what a beautiful love story. She wants to be as strong as that Water God but be loved like the princess in the story.
But those are just fairy tales.
Being here in Shirone and occasionally interacting with the nobility, she feels she's gradually losing that interest.
Stories about broken marriages, polygamy, this lady poisoning that lady... appear every now and then. She thought these terrible things only existed in Asura, but it turns out nobles everywhere are the same. Most recently, there was even a case of a certain prince ripping his wife's head off with his own hands. Scary!
Initially, Isolde was invited to teach swordsmanship to that very prince, but he refused and only cared about fiddling with some doll models, bronze statues or whatever, and skipped class. Thinking back, the Water Saint feels lucky to have escaped such a weirdo.
While her new friend doesn't seem so lucky.
Just yesterday she saw another Prince - Pax groping Roxy's chest and fondling it in broad daylight. Sometimes, that very prince would lift Roxy's skirt on his own accord to look at her panties.
The nobility is full of weird perverts.
Isolde has had that assessment since knowing Atur, and now she is even more certain of her judgment.
Oh, and Isolde also started learning a little more about magic.
Not because she wants to be a mage or anything. It's just that she knows Atur has become a mage reaching near-Advanced rank, and she wants to beat him in that aspect too.
Plus, the first Water God could even use Water Magic at God-rank. Maybe to use the Water God Style at a more proficient level, she should learn a little about Water Magic.
Her master said that was nonsense because swordsmanship is swordsmanship, and magic is magic. That story was just a fairy tale, not a historical record, but Isolde was still determined to try learning.
Perhaps she has started to pick up Atur's rebellious and unruly trait. If it were her before, she would never disobey Master Reida.
…
Anyway, the tea-drinking sessions with Roxy are quite interesting.
Now looking from the outside, they look like two normal lovely young girls, drinking tea and eating cake together. Isolde knew Roxy liked sweets, so she intentionally chose this shop. Roxy always tells more interesting stories when she's happy.
"So that friend was possessed by a ghost?" Isolde asked, shivering a little. Even though she's not afraid of ghosts, thinking about it still makes her a bit scared.
"Yeah. In the end, it was exorcised, and everything worked out."
Basically, every day after finishing their work, both go to an afternoon tea shop and chat like that. One day Isolde heard about Roxy's early days as an adventurer, another day about how her first party disbanded. Now it's the story of her journey at the Ranoa Magic Academy.
In return, Isolde tells stories she encountered while training everywhere with the Water God. Most are quite boring stories, but Roxy always listens very attentively.
Honestly, Isolde quite likes Roxy. She seems like a decent person.
Ah no, a decent demon, to be precise. If she had to say, demons might even be less crazy than the Asura nobles the Water Saint often meets.
Thinking back, this scene is quite strange. The Cluel girl was originally a Millis believer, so initially, she was a bit hesitant when thinking about talking to Roxy. Because the Millis religion advocates discrimination against the demon race. Isolde also grew up with stories like 'demons are all evil,' 'demons are born to destroy humanity,' and so on. But in the end, those things weren't quite right.
To the point where Isolde even thought about switching to the 'pro-demon harmony' faction.
Ah, I almost forgot.
"Um Master Roxy. Can I ask you something?" After finishing her cup of tea, Isolde suddenly asked.
"Please just call me Roxy. But yes, what do you need?"
Isolde gracefully takes out a lamp from her bag. "Do you remember the time you told me that magic tools are always expensive? What do you think about this one?"
"Lemme take a look."
Roxy's face suddenly becomes serious and holds the lamp with both of her hands. Her face showed many kinds of emotion in the next three minutes before placing the lamb down on the table again.
"I don't have that much experience in making magic tools but I can recognize some of the material, they are top tier so it won't be cheap. And the craftsmanship is very high too so um…" Roxy frowned pensively before saying her verdict. "I think it should be around 20 to 40 gold coins, just for the material alone."
"I see." Isolde doesn't seem to be surprised. "Thank you for your insight."
She knew Atur was lying when he said that lamp is just a round some silver coins but she can't prove it at the time. And knowing the fact won't change anything right? It's not like she will write a letter and scold Atur because of that.
"You're welcome." Roxy smiles back, she seems to be happy for some reason. "But where did you get it? It's rare to see something custom made like this just to create light."
"I think Atur made it."
"Oh he can also create magic tools? He sure is talented."
"Yes he is." Isolde doesn't know how hard it is to create magic tools but if Roxy said so, it must be extremely hard then. "Sometimes I think he is too mature for someone who's even younger than me."
"Oh you have no idea."
And so they start talking about Rudeus and Atur for 3 hours straight on how they are like some old man in the body of a kid. They talked about this for many times and every time, they still can discuss it like it's the first.
Maybe that's why they can become friends. Isolde is now kind of happy to have another friend.
"Ah right, your 15th birthday is coming right? I already bought some good wine for the occasion!"
And Roxy took out a bottle of Holy Water Saint Wine.
Isolde had a stroke right on the spot. Making her frustrated is a very important trait to have for a friend.