Ranking World Powers!
Inside the station.
"Goodbye, big brother! We promised we'd meet again!"
Aisha waved from the carriage.
Lilia sat beside her, also looking at Shirou with concern.
Shirou simply watched the mother and daughter leave, then boarded another carriage with Eris and Ruijerd.
"She's such a cute little sister."
Eris sat next to Shirou and suddenly said, sounding annoyed, "Compared to someone with a terrible personality like me, I guess a sister like that is better, huh."
"Uh..."
Shirou was taken aback by Eris's sudden jealousy and looked confused.
"Hehe, haha, hahahaha."
But then, Eris laughed as if she had pulled off a prank, and said, "What's with that face? Don't worry, I won't get jealous just because you have a little sister. To me, Aisha is pretty much my little sister now too."
"Eris..."
Shirou looked at her and shook his head with a slight smile.
He wasn't really that clueless, so he had noticed the impact Aisha's arrival had on Eris.
After all, compared to Norn before, Aisha was clearly more well-behaved and clung to him more, and even looked more like a real sister.
Eris had undoubtedly been a little shaken.
If it were Eris from the Boreas family days, she probably would have really caused trouble like she did before, giving him a headache.
But after this journey, Eris had grown a lot. She had learned how to quickly adjust her mindset, how to control her emotions, and how to get along with children like Aisha.
Shirou was very happy about the changes in Eris, who was like a sister to him.
But he knew he wouldn't be happy for long.
After all, their journey was coming to an end soon.
Once he took Eris back to the Boreas family, he would have to say goodbye and set out again to find his lost family.
That would probably be goodbye.
Although Shirou felt a little sad inside, he controlled his emotions well and didn't show it.
Meanwhile, the coachman outside pulled the reins, and their carriage began to move.
...
The carriage moved quickly.
It didn't take long for Shirou and the others to leave the Shirone Kingdom.
After passing through a war-torn area, they entered a vast plain.
After traveling across the plain for several days, they reached the next obstacle, the Red Dragon Mountains that surrounded the entire Asura Kingdom.
Similar to the King Dragon Mountains, the Red Dragon Mountains were also huge and continuous.
They stretched from the southern plains of the Asura Kingdom all the way to the northern part, enveloping the entire kingdom in the middle.
The Red Dragon Mountains were not only geographically difficult, but also full of Red Dragons roaming around.
The only two safe places to pass through were the Red Dragon Upper Jaw in the northern part of the Asura Kingdom and the Red Dragon Lower Jaw in the southern part.
Shirou and the others were entering the Asura Kingdom from the south, so they had to cross the Red Dragon Lower Jaw.
Once they passed through there, they would officially enter the territory of the Asura Kingdom.
However, to get to the Red Dragon Lower Jaw, they would have to go around a large section of the Red Dragon Mountains, which would add at least one or two months to their journey.
Most people wouldn't risk their lives to cross the Red Dragon Mountains just to shorten the trip.
But Eris had never been a normal person and immediately made the above suggestion.
"Why go all the way around? With Shirou and Ruijerd here, we should be able to get through a little place like the Red Dragon Mountains, right!"
Eris said something boastful.
Shirou and Ruijerd both smiled wryly.
They both knew how terrifying Red Dragons were and naturally wouldn't dare to have such crazy ideas.
Red Dragons were among the most dangerous and fierce dragons in the world, each one being at the level of an S-rank monster, the strongest monster in the Central Continent.
Another major characteristic of Red Dragons was that they moved in groups. If encountered in the Red Dragon Mountains, it was likely not just one, but a group of hundreds.
Red Dragons also had extremely exaggerated detection abilities and would never let any creature invade their territory.
Therefore, from any angle, crossing the Red Dragon Mountains was a foolish act that was no different from seeking death.
"Let's just go around to the Red Dragon Lower Jaw."
Shirou and Ruijerd quickly made a decision.
"Why? Didn't you kill a Red Dragon before, Shirou?"
"Huh? How did you know?"
Shirou was surprised that Eris knew he had killed a Red Dragon.
He had never mentioned that he was the one who killed the Red Dragon. He had kept this secret for a long time, leading Shirou to believe that he hadn't let it slip.
Eris smiled slyly and said, "Of course, it's because I looked into it later. After all, the Dragon Slayer of Buena Village is so famous. It's easy to find out who it was with a little research."
"Then why didn't you expose me back at the Water God Style dojo?"
Shirou remembered that a long time ago, at the Water God Style dojo, when many adventurers questioned whether he was the Dragon Slayer, Eris had denied it and helped him out of trouble.
At the time, he thought that Eris really didn't know he was the Dragon Slayer, but now it seemed that was not the case.
"Well, that's because this lady is kind..."
Eris turned her head away, blushing, seeming quite shy.
Shirou smiled slightly, realizing that Eris had been secretly paying attention to and helping him all along, which made him feel a little warm inside.
"Shirou, you've killed a Red Dragon?"
Ruijerd asked Shirou curiously.
Shirou didn't hide anything and quietly explained how he had killed the stray dragon in Buena Village. Although it was an amazing feat, it wasn't really that exaggerated when he thought about it.
Although Red Dragons were dangerous creatures, they did have a weakness.
Their fighting abilities were strong, but their flying abilities were quite poor, so they couldn't take off from flat ground.
If they wanted to fly, Red Dragons could only jump down from high cliffs or slide along slopes of a certain length before taking off.
Although the mountains in the Central Continent were very high, most of the terrain was flat plains and forests.
Therefore, once a Red Dragon landed on the ground, it couldn't immediately fly into the sky, giving people a chance to kill it.
Of course, even if they couldn't take off, Red Dragons were still not to be underestimated. Shirou had paid a considerable price to kill that Red Dragon, even causing himself to be further eroded by the soul of Servant Emiya.
"I see."
After hearing this, Ruijerd admired Shirou even more and nodded, saying, "If it's a stray dragon, you can indeed kill it after paying a price. But if it's a group of Red Dragons, it's simply impossible for ordinary people to handle. If anyone could do it, it would only be the top-ranking members of the Seven Great World Powers. Otherwise, even the North God or Sword God would probably have to turn back halfway."
"Top-ranking World Powers?"
Upon hearing this unfamiliar term, Shirou and Eris looked confused.
Ruijerd quietly explained, "Most people don't know this, but the World Powers are also divided into top-ranking and low-ranking, and the difference between them is even greater than the difference between the low-ranking World Powers and ordinary people. In the current order, the top-ranking World Powers are the [Technique God], [Dragon God], [Fighting God], and [Demon God]. The low-ranking World Powers are the [Death God], [Sword God], and [North God]. The low-ranking World Powers can certainly fight Red Dragons, but they can't cross the Red Dragon Mountains. Conversely, the top-ranking World Powers can travel freely through the Red Dragon Mountains."
"There's such a difference?"
Shirou and Eris were both surprised.
They had thought that the World Powers were already beings beyond description, but they didn't expect there to be such a clear difference in rank among the Seven Great World Powers.
"I wish I could become a World Power too."
After hearing the explanation, Eris said something that most people in the world had said at some point.
Shirou had thought about it before, but he wasn't really someone who liked to fight.
Rather than defeating the past World Powers and taking the title, he still hoped to simply gain more power to protect the people he wanted to protect.
...
Shirou and the others continued to travel along the foot of the Red Dragon Mountains.
Even though it was the foot of the mountains, the chance of encountering Red Dragons was actually not that high, because Red Dragons mostly lived in groups according to a cycle, and rarely would a Red Dragon leave the group and roam alone.
The Red Dragon that Shirou encountered that time was an extremely rare occurrence.
It was practically impossible under normal circumstances.
Therefore, it was common to see caravans coming and going near the Red Dragon Mountains.
However, most caravans would bring strong guards along the way.
This was of course not to prevent Red Dragons. Even the strongest human adventurers would likely not survive an attack by a Red Dragon.
Instead of dealing with the rare natural disaster of Red Dragons, the guards mostly faced bandits and robbers roaming the Red Dragon Mountains.
They relied on the natural environment of the Red Dragon Mountains for cover, attacking caravans everywhere, stealing property, or simply collecting tolls.
Shirou and the others had encountered them several times, but Shirou and Ruijerd didn't even have to step in. Eris alone drove away all the bandits.
This made Ruijerd lament that the human world wasn't a safe place. Or rather, it was precisely because it was a relatively safer environment compared to the Demon Continent that it gave rise to such evils. If it were like the Demon Continent, where the environment was full of monsters, these bandits would have no chance of survival.
Shirou didn't comment on this.
He had inherited the memories of Servant Emiya and naturally knew that as long as there was an environment where humans existed, such crimes were almost impossible to eliminate.
Even if it were possible to briefly create an ideal paradise in one area, the salvation of all mankind was impossible.
An absolutely perfect paradise did not exist.
Shirou no longer fantasized about that meaningless absolute perfection and preferred to protect the small world that he could touch with his own hands. That was enough.
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