Road to the Asura Kingdom

he was going to leave soon, and he would be bored, so he decided to do something really stupid.

"Hey, Eris wanna come with?" he asked, and she raised an eyebrow looking up to him, yes up, he was taller than her.

"I came here to train, you know?" she pointed out as if he was an idiot.

"Remind me who's the new number five on the world powers?" Alex questioned with a smirk, Making Eris pause and grumble.

"you" she answered, although begrudgingly

"and who did I have to beat to achieve that title?" he continued, the smirk turning to a grin.

"the sword god" she answered only with a sigh this time.

"fine, but you have to teach me everything you know" she gave a condition like she was offering him 'her' services.

he let out a little laugh, shaking his head at her antics, be ultimately agreed.

they met Ghislaine leaning on the doorframe looking at them and raised an eyebrow.

"I'm taking Eris, I will train her, you going to come?" asked Alex looking over to his master, waiting for a response.

"...No I will stay here, I think I still have some potential in me to bring out. Take care of her" she answered and finished it with a smirk, Ignoring the indignant huff beside him he walked outside the dojo, looking at the road of snow, there were some footprints of horses, Gal sent out some of his students to "spread the word" of the new sword king, new worldly power and a new magic sword and it's holder.

turning right he starts walking to the stables, not before Asking Eris.

"do you know how to ride a horse?"

Eris looked embarrassed, turning a little red.

"...No" he guessed as much, you don't have much time to learn how to ride a horse when on the demon continent.

as they reached the stands there was only one horse left anyway, so they had to ride together whether she knew how to ride it or not.

"hey Eris, remember the dragons on the Red dragon's upper and lower jaws?" he asked as he was getting on the horse's back.

"Yeah, I do, what of it?" she questioned with a tilted head, not understanding where he was getting at.

"well, when I'm done training you, well go hunt one of them, just giving you a warning" she didn't look disheartened at all, on the contrary, she was excited.

"Alright!" Alex shook his head at her enthusiasm.

___

"your posture is too stiff, you need to relax if you want to pull it off" Alex instructed, they had been riding all day and they decided to stop and get some practice in.

Eris did as told, she was already Saint rank when she went to the dojo, so she should at least know the longsword of silence. and that's what he was teaching her right now.

she swings, but fails yet again, of course, he knew what she was doing wrong, but if he told her everything she would never make it to the king rank.

"it's enough for today, it was the first time you tried after all, now sit and tell me about your adventures on the demon continent."

he used earth magic and raised two blocks to use as chairs, near the fire that he started and motioned her to sit.

she did so and started replaying everything that happened from the beginning, about how they met a superd, met the parents of Roxy, and how she got her sword.

"so wait, you're telling me that he came up with the idea to act though... at and adventurers guild? that's stupid" Alex remarked, and Eris just shrugged.

"It seemed like a good idea at the time" was her response to him, and he remained silent continuing to listen about their first quest.

"so you decided to cut your hair after this quest huh?" questioned Alex, And the situation had been close, she was in the air dodging a giant red snake when a smaller one jumped out of the shadows, he remembers this quest from the novel but there was nothing said about a smaller snake.

"Yeah, it was pretty close, if Rudeus disnt use his wind magic to make me faster it could have gotten me" Alex just stared at her shrugging of a close call like that.

she told him about how Ruijerd revealed himself to save them some trouble and ran away from the town.

they talked for most of the night before Eris started dozing off and Alex decided that it was time to sleep as well, he raised an earth Dome around them, and the horse, and put out the fire.

laying down he drifted off to sleep fairly quickly himself as well.

___

"so he got a demon eye?" asked Alex as he and Eris were on the road again, they were heading to the Asura kingdom, Alex wanted to see his two little sisters, Lilia and Paul.

"Yeah, he could see the future and it only took him three days to master it as well" she answered with a nod before continuing. "at first I didn't think it was fair, but then Ruijerd showed me that it could help in my training, but it was frustrating, getting your every move predicted like that" she huffed in displeasure, remembering how it was at first to fight Rudeus after he got his eye.

then she got a look on her face as if she remembered something.

"by the way, why didn't you take the rank of sword emperor or god?" she questioned, he couldn't see her face, but he knew those red orbs filled with curiosity were staring at him.

"well, for the sword emperor I had to fight Ghislaine, and for the sword god I had to kill Gal, I didn't want to fight Ghislaine because she's my master, and I didn't what to kill Gal because I would have to stay at the sanctum and teach the others, also emperor and god don't go well with "Holy sword" so I decided to pass" Alex explained with a shrug, he could practically feel the blank stare she was giving him.

"... that's stupid and you know it," she said with a sigh.

the rest of the day was spent talking about what they experienced in the two years that they haven't seen each other.

___

"so he just sat there and annoyed you?" asked Eris while holding place of meat on a stick over the fire.

"yes, I remember the first time I felt like I would get the longsword of light, he laughed and I lost my focus when I asked him what he was laughing about he told me that he remembered a funny joke that his friend told him a few years ago" Alex explained with a sigh taking a bite out of his portion of the food.

"What did you do then, knowing you you had some kind of retort," she said with a smirk, either enjoying hearing how Alex suffered or in anticipation of his response.

Alex grinned before saying " I asked him "You have friends?" with a surprised look because I was genuinely surprised, he just slumped and left me alone for about a week after that" He chuckled remembering his look before he walked out of the room.

"Alright, go train, we don't have time to lose, we will be in Asura kingdom in about two months, and I want the Longsword of silence mastered by the end of the week," he said sternly, getting an eye roll from Eris at how serious his tone sounded before she jumped up from the rock and went to the rock dummy Alex made for her to practice.

he watched her get into a stance, and perform a perfect seeing, cleaving the stone in half.

he smirked to himself.

(looks like she figured it out)

___

"your speed is excellent, your power as well, your reaction time is good but you are used to only sparring and fighting beasts, so you will fight me, go for the kill," she didn't even hesitate, and dashed forward, swinging her sword at Alex, who sidestepped.

using the momentum she spun on the heel and tried to kick him in the head, her opponent dodged it by stepping back.

when she tried to sweep his legs he jumped, when she tried to slash him with a sword he either blocked or dodged.

Alex kept dosing her attempts to deal damage, and it went on until He said to stop.

"we will work on you're timing and speed, but for now get some rest, I have to feed the horse anyway" she nodded and sat down, they remained quiet until Alex decided to ask.

"where did you get the scar?" he looked over to see her frowning at the fire, visibly displeased.

"Orsted" was her short reply, Alex could see that she didn't want to talk about it so he left it alone, for now at least.