Becoming a Water God Disciple

Grandfather Darius probably did not care much about me either. In his eyes, my arrival was merely an insignificant move on the board. Since I did not see him, I ate breakfast as usual and went to the Water God Style Dojo to study.

Contrary to what I had expected, I was still attending the noble beginners' class today. They had not placed me in the intermediate knight class or assigned me to some formidable teacher. I had even been a little excited last night. But there were no longer eight students in class today. Only six remained.

It seemed that the harsh training environment had caused three students to withdraw after just one day. Why three? Because a new girl had joined the class today, with blue hair, big eyes, and a gentle-looking face.

She was a rare sight too. A noble was actually willing to send his daughter to study at the Water God Style Dojo. Unlike commoner knights, daughters born to noble families could be used for marriage alliances.

In theory, daughters were even more useful than illegitimate sons. Illegitimate sons could only be assigned to manage the family's properties, just like my father's two older brothers, who had been sent to manage other cities.

Daughters, however, could marry into other noble families. A good marriage alliance could bring tremendous benefits to the family without affecting its stability. That was why noble daughters were rarely given the chance to study Water God Style swordsmanship.

At most, they learned etiquette, dancing, reading and writing, and perhaps financial management or other skills suited to the mistress of a household. No wonder Eris had been called the Red Lion in the original story and was disliked by most nobles.

This girl had beautiful blue hair. Would she be called a Blue Sprite? No, elves existed in this world, so Blue Monkey would probably fit better. Teacher Uriel did not have us introduce ourselves. After the usual exercises, we moved on to the daily sparring sessions.

Today, I was assigned to the same group as the new girl. During training, I noticed that she had excellent stamina. While running, none of the other students could keep up with my pace except her. She looked only four or five years old, not much older than me, which meant she had a real talent for athletics.

She was quite pretty too. Maybe we could become good friends. Every little girl was a potential beauty before growing up. Maybe we could even become childhood sweethearts or something. Haha, my thoughts had wandered a little. But the actual result was that I underestimated her. I had indeed held back a bit.

When we sparred again, she attacked first. Just like yesterday, I assumed the Reverse Scale Lure, a commonly used beginner Water God Style technique.

I lured her into attacking from my left, but she saw through the opening I had deliberately exposed. As she attacked, her horizontal slash from the left turned into a downward chop. My originally easy block failed because of the different angle, and her blade slid down along my guard and struck my leg.

Ah, her bamboo sword hit my leg. It felt like it had nearly broken. This woman had not held back at all. Though I wore armor, it did not protect my legs. I had taken that chop with bare flesh.

When I sparred with my other classmates yesterday, I had deliberately struck only their armored areas. At worst, I knocked them down. They would not suffer any injuries. Today was different. My leg still throbbed faintly, and even a light touch hurt.

Seeing me clutch my leg, the girl showed no intention of coming over to comfort me. She merely looked at me with disdain, as if she were saying, That's it? You can't even take a hit like that?

After seeing that I was injured, Teacher Uriel shook his head regretfully and came over. "How about we call it a day? Go home and get some rest."

I looked at the girl's expression and immediately felt irritated. With a pleasant expression and gritted teeth, I told Teacher Uriel, "I'm fine. I can continue. This lady is truly impressive. I've learned a lot from her, and I'll definitely learn from her."

Then I casually cast an intermediate healing spell on my leg: "O sacred power, nourishment of rich fragrance, grant those who have lost their strength the power to stand again—Healing."

For some reason, of all the magic I had learned, Healing was the only spell I could not cast with Silent Casting. It was exactly the same as Rudeus's situation. I had tried practicing Silent Casting by imagining flesh healing in my mind, but I simply could not learn it.

Was this some common problem among transmigrators? Or perhaps our souls had entered these bodies, meaning they were not originally ours, so our compatibility with them was insufficient. Maybe Silent Casting for healing magic required a high level of bodily compatibility. Whatever. I still had plenty to research, so I would not force myself to understand things I did not yet understand.

Seeing me stand back up without injury, Teacher Uriel did not force me to rest on the sidelines. The spar continued. Just now, I had defended while the girl attacked. Now, I would attack while she defended.

After seeing me use healing magic, the girl no longer looked down on me quite as much. Of course, she did not respect me either. This was the Water God Style Dojo, not a contest of whose magic was stronger. It was about whose sword was faster and whose weapon could strike the other first.

The girl assumed a middle guard without any tricks. The little finger and ring finger of her left hand tightly gripped the pommel, while the same two fingers of her right hand held the upper portion of the grip beneath the guard. The web of her hand aligned straight with the blade. Both hands pressed down from above on the hilt, palms facing each other and creating a twisting force. Her right foot was forward and her left foot behind, about fifteen centimeters apart, toes parallel in a parallelogram stance.

Her right foot was firmly planted, her left heel slightly raised, and her center of gravity rested between her feet. The tip of her sword pointed at my eyes, while the end of the hilt rested at the center of her abdomen, no higher than her waist. It was an extremely standard stance, strong in both offense and defense. If I stepped forward and chopped down from above, she would catch my sword with a horizontal guard, then thrust straight at my throat after knocking it aside.

Of course, I had not spent all these years doing nothing. I also assumed a middle guard. Though it was similarly balanced between offense and defense, I would be the one initiating the attack. It was disadvantageous for me, but that did not matter. I had my own method.

Though we were indoors, a gust of wind suddenly blew through. Taking advantage of it, I stepped forward and slashed directly at her left shoulder. When she raised her sword horizontally to block, I quickly withdrew my blade and thrust straight at her face. In one blow, I sent her flying.

The entire sequence flowed like water. Two strikes ended the fight. Her head was protected by a helmet, but the back of her head was not. When she fell, the back of her skull hit the ground hard. It looked absolutely miserable. Even I felt pain for her head. If this were modern times, it would probably count as at least a level-nine concussion.

I had invented that move myself. By accelerating the airflow in the direction of the blade's swing, I created lower pressure, allowing the wind to pull the sword forward. Then, when the sword tip struck her face, I created a wind burst at the blade—like the sonic boom created when a fighter jet suddenly accelerated—and used the impact to blast my opponent away.

If I used a real sword and the weapon pierced an opponent's body, the explosion inside their body would probably be extremely bloody.

This was my first time using the move in actual combat. I called it Void Flash. The name was a little cringe, but it was genuinely useful.

The girl seemed to have been knocked senseless by my attack and lay motionless on the floor. I felt a little guilty. After she had chopped my leg with the bamboo sword, I had not held back this time. She had protective gear on, but the back of her head had definitely hit the ground. Had I knocked her stupid?

I walked over, approached the girl, and cast an intermediate healing spell on the back of her head: "O sacred power, nourishment of rich fragrance, grant those who have lost their strength the power to stand again—Healing."

I hoped there would be no aftereffects.

Teacher Uriel finally snapped out of it. He seemed even more nervous about the girl's injury than he had been when I got hurt, immediately rushing over to check her condition.

"What school of swordsmanship was that? Why was your slash so fast? And what was that explosion when you stabbed her?"

The voice belonged to an old woman. The instant I heard it, my body tensed. Instinctively, I knew whoever spoke was not someone to be trifled with. She seemed to possess an aura of her own. It felt as though she could cut me down from any direction at any moment. It sounded strange, but it was true. From the moment she spoke, every hair on my body stood on end.

I answered respectfully. "It's a sword technique I created myself. I call it Void Flash, meaning to cut through the air. The explosion at the tip is a small wind spell. It isn't very powerful and only causes harm when cast close to a person's body."

"Hmph, brat, don't be modest. Do you think I can't see it? If you used a real sword and pierced someone's body, that explosion would blow their body apart. Stab an arm, and the arm would be gone. Stab a leg, and the leg would be gone. Stab the chest, and even king-class healing magic might not save them."

"Hehe, you flatter me, Senior. This junior is slow-witted and not nearly that capable."

"I am Reida Reia, head of the current Water God Style Main Dojo and the current Water God. Boy, are you willing to take me as your master?"

I immediately bowed in panic. "This disciple is willing to take you as my master. Master, please accept your disciple's bow."

"Don't bother with that empty ceremony. I don't care for it. As long as you study hard in the future and inherit the sword intent of the Water God Style, I'll be satisfied. The one lying on the ground is your senior sister, Isolte Cruel. From now on, you two will train together, improve together, and work hard to develop our Water God Style."

"Yes."

The girl immediately climbed to her feet as well and said before the old woman, "Yes."

"Good. Go home for today. Formal instruction begins tomorrow."

"Yes," I answered sincerely. I glanced at the blue-haired girl beside me and saw that her forehead had been reddened through by my wind burst, with tears still in her eyes. As a disciple of the Water God, she had been defeated by a boy younger than herself.

She was probably unwilling to accept it. But that had nothing to do with me. Since she was Isolte, Nina would beat her senseless at the Holy Land of Swords someday anyway. There was nothing wrong with getting a taste of defeat in advance.

After returning home, I saw Grandfather and told him about what had happened today.

"Oh, you were accepted as a disciple by the Water God. That's wonderful news. If we can win the Water God over to our side, our family's power in Asura will rise to an even higher level."

Shouldn't he have been happy for my growth? Sigh, he really was a scumbag. All he cared about was power.

Then he encouraged me for a while longer. Seeing the way his gaze toward me had grown even kinder made my skin crawl. No, for now I still had to play along with him. And perhaps the Water God had only accepted me because I was Darius's grandson. After all, her secret crush was my grandfather.