They spent a night at House Boreas.
In truth, Luo Ge barely slept all night, remaining in a light doze throughout.
In unfamiliar surroundings, it was truly difficult to let his guard down.
At the slightest disturbance outside the window, he could wake up immediately and draw his sword to fight.
After all, he had beaten up their young lady as soon as he arrived that day. Luo Ge was still somewhat worried that these nobles would retaliate.
Yet after spending an entire night matching wits and courage with thin air, no one came to trouble him.
Uh... I was overthinking it.
Early the next morning, as Luo Ge and Ghislaine prepared to leave, Eris came chasing after them again, just as expected.
"Ghislaine, take me with you."
"I want to travel with you."
She planted her hands on her hips, her tone sounding like an order.
"No!"
"Without Lord Philip and Lord Sauros's approval, this sort of thing... isn't something I can decide on my own," Ghislaine refused.
"Huh? What are you looking at? Keep staring and I'll gouge your eyes out!"
Noticing another gaze on her, Eris immediately turned on Luo Ge to vent her displeasure.
Her vicious glare looked as though she wanted to devour him alive.
Luo Ge was rather speechless.
It seemed this mad dog of a noble young lady had latched onto him for good.
This time, however, Eris seemed to have gotten smarter.
Instead of charging straight at him with fists and feet as she had yesterday, she pulled a wooden sword she had prepared from behind her, gripped it with both hands, and assumed a fairly convincing stance.
"Duel me!"
"If I win, give Ghislaine back to me."
Luo Ge narrowed his eyes slightly. "Are you sure, Lady Eris?"
"Hmph! Don't tell me you're scared?"
"I've studied swordsmanship with Ghislaine, and I'm really strong now! Before long, I'll develop Touki and become a real Beginner Rank Swordsman!"
"A Beginner Rank Swordsman..."
Luo Ge tilted his head and thought back. If he remembered correctly, wasn't that the lowest level for a swordsman?
"Um, is a Beginner Rank Swordsman really that strong?"
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"
"Stop looking down on me! I, Eris Boreas Greyrat, hereby challenge you to a duel! Hmph! Small fry, do you dare accept?"
Eris stood with both hands on her hips, her little face flushed red. She certainly had plenty of spirit.
Thud!
Without further ado, a blur flashed past. In an instant, Eris went flying backward, her wooden sword flying out of her hands.
She had just tried to run over and pick it up to fight again when Luo Ge kicked her to the ground once more.
"Uwah?!!"
She slammed heavily into the ground, her whole body twitching, her eyes wide as she stared fixedly at the boy opposite her.
He clearly looked even younger than she was.
Yet he had knocked her flat with one effortless move.
She, the prodigy of House Boreas, had actually... been casually defeated by some small fry off the street?
While Eris sank into self-doubt.
Luo Ge was already walking toward her step by step with his sword raised, his face filled with icy killing intent.
"I-I'm going to die, aren't I?"
Eris curled up, trembling nonstop, and began pleading for help from beside her. "W-w-w-wah, Ghi... Ghislaine, hurry and save me."
"All right, that's enough!"
Ghislaine shook her head at Luo Ge.
Luo Ge could only put away the wooden sword and stop frightening Eris, though he still cast the noble young lady a teasing glance.
Eris was trembling all over...
Only after Luo Ge and Ghislaine had boarded the carriage and left did Eris suddenly notice that, at some point, a chilly feeling had spread through her lower half.
Her little face flushed.
She finally realized what had happened to her.
"You've got to be kidding!"
How could I lose control of myself?
Overcome with shame, her little face instantly turned so red it almost seemed ready to bleed. She wished she could find a crack in the ground and crawl into it right then.
That guy must have been laughing at her mercilessly inside before he left!
One day.
She, Eris, would definitely take revenge on the guy who had humiliated her.
Yet whenever the image of him narrowing his eyes and wearing that smile surfaced in her mind.
"Urgh-"
Eris reflexively clutched her chest and could not help dry-heaving again, trembling all over. Clearly, the beating had left her with a psychological scar.
"Ah... what a savage young lady."
Inside the carriage, Luo Ge leaned by the window, his expression full of deep helplessness.
"Lady Eris may be a little hot-tempered, but she isn't bad at heart. You should be a little more tolerant of her."
Ghislaine offered her assessment from beside him, holding her sword. When she spoke of Eris, the Black Wolf Sword King's gaze softened a little, a rare sight, as though she were reminiscing.
"Actually... she's exactly like I used to be. Just as misunderstood, just as unwelcome."
"Huh, you were like that too, Ghislaine?" Luo Ge was somewhat surprised.
"Yes."
Ghislaine.
With Luo Ge actively asking questions, the guileless Ghislaine, who had no craftiness whatsoever, soon told him many things.
For instance, her childhood experiences...
And then all of Paul's messy affairs back when she was in the S-rank adventuring party, Black Wolf's Fang.
In short, after hearing it all, Luo Ge's opinion of Paul dropped another few notches. He was practically a walking horny poodle.
He had no idea how Paul could even go for this beast-eared woman covered in muscles.
At any rate, Luo Ge was speechless over Paul... utterly speechless.
He thought of Zenith.
He had no idea how a woman as good as Zenith could have fallen for such a...
Uh.
How should he put it? Stripping away the halo and filter of being his father, scum was probably the word.
Beside him, Ghislaine showed little change in emotion. She said thoughtfully, "Still, you're nothing like Paul when he was young. You don't seem like his child at all."
"Then who do I take after more?"
"You take after Zenith more."
"Thanks for the compliment. If you'd said I was like Paul, I'd probably be too depressed to eat. That guy... really is scum," Luo Ge said with narrowed eyes and absolute certainty.
"Hm?!"
"Oh, right."
"Ghislaine, I heard Paul mention that you have ties to the Sword Sanctum?"
"Ah, that... yes."
Ghislaine nodded. "My master is the Sword God, Gal Farion, ranked sixth among the Seven Great Powers-and the master of the Sword Sanctum."
"He's a very powerful swordsman."
"Wait, speaking of which... what are the Seven Great Powers?"
"Oh, you're asking about that."
"The Seven Great Powers are the seven strongest people in the world, divided into four upper powers and three lower powers. Every one of them possesses at least God Rank combat strength."
"The current Seven Great Powers are the Technique God, Dragon God, Battle God, Demon God, Death God, Sword God, and North God."
"They've hardly changed in decades."
Luo Ge grew interested and stared at Ghislaine. "Interesting... then how are the seven of them ranked?"
"Don't tell me all seven get together every year to fight and hold some sword debate at a place called Mount Hua?"
"A sword debate at Mount Hua? What's that?"
"Uh... that's not important. Anyway, just keep going, Ghislaine. I'm listening..."
After a few seconds of silence, Ghislaine continued, "If you pay a little attention in the future, you'll notice that every country has a stone monument about the Seven Great Powers. They're placed around the world in locations rich in mana: valleys, highways, ruins, major routes through forests..."
"Um."
"Then what was that about the upper powers and lower powers you mentioned earlier?"
"There's a huge gap between the upper and lower powers. I haven't seen them myself, but anyway, they're definitely a bunch of very powerful people."
"Oh, right."
"My master, the Sword God, is also one of the Seven Great Powers. But he's the sixth-ranked Sword God. Anyone who defeats him can inherit the title of Sword God."
"The Sword God?"
"Is he really strong?"
Ghislaine's eyes filled with reverence. "He's my teacher. He's very strong... at least, he's the strongest person I've ever met."
"Someone even you can't beat, Ghislaine? That's interesting..."
Luo Ge narrowed his eyes slightly and murmured, "In that case, if I get the chance someday, I'll grab myself a Seven Great Powers title to play around with."
Ghislaine fell silent for a moment, then said seriously, "If anyone else said that, I'd just take it as a joke, an unrealistic fantasy. But... if it's you..."
"One day in the future, perhaps you really can do it-do something Paul and I could never achieve in our lifetimes."
"Huh! You actually think that highly of me, Ghislaine?"
"Yes. With that kind of strength at five years old, you're stronger than an ordinary Sword Saint. Talent like that is probably one of a kind in the entire world."
"It actually wouldn't be difficult for you to become a Sword Saint. In your case, you just need to grasp the Sword of Light."
"I see."
"But Rudeus had already become a water saint-tier magician at five. I'm still a long way behind."
"A magician?"
Ghislaine's tone was unconcerned. "They're certainly rare, and water saint-tier ones are very uncommon, but rarity doesn't mean strength. When a magician and a swordsman of the same rank fight, the swordsman can practically kill the magician in an instant without breaking a sweat."
Hearing her say that made Luo Ge even more certain.
In terms of combat strength in this world, magicians were probably just roadside small fry.
No wonder... I beat Teacher Roxy so badly she ran off.
At the time, he had wondered whether Roxy was going easy on him. He had already attacked, yet she still hadn't cast any magic.
All this time, he had thought Roxy had held back and deliberately lost to him.
Thinking back now, he had not known how to control his strength then... That must have hurt Roxy a great deal, right? After all, her own disciple had beaten Voiceless Water Magic out of her.
He had himself to blame, too. If he had known magicians could take so little punishment, he should not have gone all out back then and committed the grave offense of riding roughshod over his teacher and dishonoring his forebears.
Thinking of it that way, everything made sense.
No wonder Roxy had left without saying goodbye. She was probably... still angry with him even now.
In short, if he had the chance to see her again, all Luo Ge wanted was to apologize to his teacher in person.