After days of travel, Shirou and the others were getting closer to the Red Dragon's Jaw.
During this time, Eris often had fighting practice with Ruijerd.
She used to train with Shirou, but at some point, she stopped practicing with Shirou and instead started practicing with Ruijerd more often.
At first, Shirou didn't understand Eris's choice.
Later, after asking Eris, he learned what she was thinking.
It turned out that Eris had noticed that Shirou's swordsmanship was very different from ordinary swordsmanship.
Although on the surface Shirou's swordsmanship was just normal Sword God Style, in reality his swordsmanship had already mixed in too many things, including not only Sword God Style skills, but also Servant Emiya's swordsmanship, and even some North God Style techniques, making it very complex.
Eris was now at the upper level of Sword God Style, but she didn't really have any special talent in swordsmanship. She just relied on pure instinct and reckless fighting.
Asking her to learn swordsmanship in a normal way was as difficult as asking a disobedient child to study seriously at a desk for ten hours.
Just as everyone has different personalities, different people also have very different characteristics in swordsmanship. Forcing someone to copy someone else's swordsmanship, especially copying the way other people practice swordsmanship, would not only be useless, but would also have bad effects.
Shirou realized this, so he simply let Eris learn swordsmanship with Ruijerd.
Although Ruijerd didn't know any swordsmanship at all, it was said that if you were good at one thing, you would be good at everything.
Even if he didn't know specific swordsmanship, Ruijerd's fighting skills were definitely good. He only needed to teach Eris how to fight and what details to pay attention to during combat, which would be enough for Eris to gain a lot.
Furthermore, for Eris, who relied more on instinct than formalized swordsmanship, Ruijerd's combat techniques were clearly easier to master than Shirou's swordsmanship.
Because of this, Eris's strength had improved significantly recently.
When Shirou occasionally had fighting practice with Eris, he even had to be a little more serious to deal with Eris's strong attacks.
Although she was still far from Shirou, Eris's speed of improvement was amazing.
Everything was just as Shirou had imagined.
Eris had a better talent for fighting than he did. As long as she put in enough effort and went down the right path, she could reach heights that ordinary people couldn't imagine.
"That's the end."
"Huff... huff... good..."
Another practice match with Ruijerd ended, and Eris wearily finished her fighting training.
Shirou watched the whole time and learned a lot.
At the same time, he also noticed that recently Ruijerd had started to teach Eris fewer specific fighting techniques, and he no longer asked Eris if she understood.
The reason for this was simple: Eris had already learned most of Ruijerd's techniques, and Ruijerd was no longer able to teach her more.
"Eris."
When Eris was covered in sweat and couldn't wait to go back to a private place to take off her clothes and dry them, Ruijerd suddenly stopped her. Ruijerd clearly wasn't joking, but spoke very seriously, "From today on, you can call yourself a warrior."
"Warrior?"
Hearing Ruijerd's words, both Shirou and Eris could sense the special meaning of this word.
Recalling that Ruijerd once called himself the leader of the Superd tribe's warrior group, the word "warrior" must have been an extraordinary title for the Superd tribe.
"Does this mean..."
Eris didn't react as quickly as Shirou and asked belatedly.
"It means you can stand on your own now."
Ruijerd answered calmly.
"..."
Eris fell silent, then quickly entered the tent and disappeared.
Shirou and Ruijerd smiled at each other at Eris's reaction.
They were both used to Eris's personality. They knew that when Eris left without saying a word like this, it was likely that she was excited and shy. Because she was too embarrassed to show too obvious emotions, she hid away from people.
After a while, Eris calmed down her excited mood and ran back.
"But Ruijerd, I still can't beat you at all?"
"You don't need to beat me. Warriors only need to meet the conditions to be called that."
Hearing Ruijerd's words, Shirou explained from the side: "In other words, the so-called warrior should be a concept similar to the upper level of Sword God Style. It's a rank title."
"Almost."
Ruijerd nodded. "This title is an internal title of our Superd tribe, but the Superd tribe no longer exists, so the name has no meaning."
"That's not true, I'm very happy."
Eris replied forcefully.
Her passionate attitude left Ruijerd speechless, and the smile on his face became even brighter.
...
Another half month of travel passed.
Shirou and the others finally arrived at the Red Dragon's Jaw.
This was a valley with only one road extending forward. Although it wasn't as straight as Holy Sword Street, it was still a single path without any forks.
At the same time, this was also considered unclaimed territory, located between countries and not belonging to any country.
This meant that passing through here would enter the Asura Kingdom.
Because the end of the road was right in front of them, Eris's face was full of excitement.
Ruijerd and Shirou's expressions were relatively normal, or even more serious than usual.
Both of them were experienced warriors, so they knew very well that the more casual things seemed, the easier it was to encounter unspeakable trouble.
Things can only be relaxed when they are completely finished. Otherwise, one must never be careless.
After briefly assessing the road, Shirou and the others officially entered the Red Dragon's Jaw.
The road was very quiet, as if entering a silent world.
In the silent world, only the footsteps of Shirou and the others continued to echo.
Just like that, forward, forward...
One step, two steps...
Suddenly, the single road of the Red Dragon's Jaw was filled with double the footsteps.
With a different walking rhythm from Shirou and the others, the sound of two footsteps slowly rang from the other end of the road.
"..."
At this sudden encounter, Shirou and Ruijerd both showed vigilance, but they were not flustered. After all, the Red Dragon's Jaw was a road that most merchant groups would choose, so encountering passing merchants was only natural.
However, they quickly noticed something strange.
At the other end of the road in the distance, there were only two figures. Neither of them was riding a horse or in a carriage. They were only moving forward on foot.
Gradually, as the distance narrowed, Shirou was able to see what the people looked like.
It was a pair of men and women.
The man was extremely tall, with silver hair and golden eyes. He wasn't wearing any special armor, but a rough white coat made of leather of unknown origin. The most distinctive feature was his extremely serious eyes. Without saying a word, he gave off an extremely strange and powerful pressure.
The man was accompanied by a girl with black hair and a white mask on her face. It was a pure white mask without any patterns or decorations. Even in this world, ordinary people wouldn't wear such a mask, making her stand out at a glance.
As Shirou watched this pair of men and women, he suddenly noticed that Ruijerd and Eris beside him were in an extremely unusual state.
Eris's face was pale, as if she had encountered some kind of terrible curse. Her whole body was trembling constantly, and even her legs were a little weak.
Ruijerd was slightly better than Eris, but he was also extremely nervous and had even instinctively drawn the Demon Piercing Spear from his back.
"What's wrong with you?"
Shirou couldn't understand why the two people beside him were behaving so strangely.
They had only encountered a pair of unfamiliar men and women. Why were they showing hostility directly?
Ruijerd and Eris were completely lost in some kind of trance, and they didn't even have the strength to respond to Shirou.
Just then, the silver-haired man suddenly looked at Ruijerd and said, "Hm...? You, are you from the Superd tribe?"
"..."
Faced with the silver-haired man's question, Ruijerd's attitude was extremely tense, even panicked.
He said with a trembling voice, "Shirou, Eris, don't act rashly!"
His voice could be heard trembling.
Shirou couldn't understand why Ruijerd was in this state.
Although he felt that the silver-haired man was unusual, he didn't feel any hostility. However, unlike him, Ruijerd and Eris's hostility towards the silver-haired man was almost overflowing.
Did the two of them know who this man was?
Based on this thought, Shirou also showed hostility towards the silver-haired man.
The silver-haired man said to himself, "Hm? Hearing that voice, you're Ruijerd Superdia? I didn't recognize you for a moment because you don't have hair. Why are you in a place like this? And that red-haired girl over there isn't Eris Boreas Greyrat? I see. Ruijerd, liking kids, you're escorting the child who was forcibly sent to the Demon Continent by that transfer back here, right?"
The silver-haired man spoke calmly.
For some reason, Shirou heard a feeling of meeting an old friend from the other party's words, not only towards Ruijerd, but also towards Eris.
However, Eris said with an almost terrified attitude, "Why... why do you know my name!"
Ruijerd also said vigilantly, "Who are you! Why do you know my name!"
The two people's attitude made Shirou completely confused.
He didn't understand why there was some kind of almost divisive situation in the attitudes of the two sides.
It was like they weren't understanding each other.
Ruijerd, Eris, and the silver-haired man seemed to have some kind of invisible information gap.
"Although we met in a strange place... but you seem to be doing well. That's good."
The silver-haired man didn't care about the two people's hostility and said with gentle words.
His gaze quickly shifted to the third person, Shirou.
The next second, a look of confusion appeared in his fierce eyes for the first time, and he said, "Hm? Red hair, and a white streak? And what's that strange sword on your body? Kid, just who are you?"
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