Chapter 67

After exiting the bubble, Shin and Saphira quietly made their way out of the forest.

They encountered no problems given their magical power and the aura of life that Shin gave off, S-rank monsters are smart and know how to respect the strong, at least some of them and for the rebels, Saphira only subdued them.

"Finally" said Shin as they reached the exit.

Ahead of them was a large, vast plain with no end in sight.

Shin closed his eyes and used his life energy to sense any life at all.

"Over there I can sense life, a small village," Shin said, pointing to the left.

"I can also feel a life energy similar to the elf queen over there, I guess it's the elf kingdom" said Shin looking to the right.

"Let's go to the village first" said Shin having made his decision.

"What are you going to do?" asked Saphira telepathically, curious.

"Explore. I want to explore this world, gather books and knowledge. Know everything and see everything" said Shin with eyes shining with excitement and a playful smile.

"I didn't know you liked it so much. Are you a wise man or a Hermit?" said Saphira with a gentle scoff.

"Pfft," Shin huffed as he walked off in the direction of the village.

"What about you?" asked Shin to Saphira.

"I'll look for opponents and get stronger, but I'll always be watching you, wherever you are," Saphira said in an overprotective voice.

"Okay."

And just like that, Saphira flew away while Shin walked towards the village and took his time to look at everything curiously.

1 hour later, Shin had finally arrived. The village was quite far from the forest so 1 hour might seem normal but Shin could have done it in a few minutes.

"Aaaah!"

As he approached the village, he could hear a scream of terror from a woman so he hurried to the village.

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\ ¶ In the village /

In the middle of the village, all the inhabitants were grouped together while in the middle were several men.

There was a very large, muscular man with a huge machete with several other men next to him.

And in front of this big man was an old man on his knees with an ugly wound on his chest.

"That'll teach you, old man," said the big muscular man.

"Ahah, he really thought he could do something against the boss?" laughed one of the men next to him.

"But still, that big guy is a former C-rank, that's pretty impressive" said another.

"Maybe, but he's just a pile of old bones now" laughed another.

This group was a group of raiders, thieves, in short, people who killed others for their pleasure or for goods.

And the old man in front was the village chief.

This village was in pretty good shape so the raiding party had decided to steal and make a base out of it.

This kind of people didn't really have any principles or goals.

The village chief was opposed and being a former C-rank, he was able to resist but his body was not young anymore.

The wound that he received was very deadly for him in his condition.

The leader of the group was a B rank so he was already at a huge disadvantage.

"Leave him!"

A girl's scream was heard as a sword collided with the mercenary's machete.

The mercenary easily repelled the attack as a young girl of about fourteen appeared in front of the village chief.

"Ohoh, a young girl wants to oppose me," said the robber chief with interest.

"Surely she will become a beauty later on. Try not to damage her too much, Ozard" said one of the men.

"Hmph" gasped the girl in disgust.

The girl had long silver hair and grey eyes.

She was very pretty but her eyes didn't show much emotion except anger and disgust, which gave her a rather cold temperament.

She had a beautiful black sword.

"Olivia, stop," the village leader said with difficulty as he spat out blood.

"Shut up old man, girl, I'll let you attack first" Ozard said with a mocking smile.

Olivia squinted her eyes as she ran towards the man.

Quick!" thought the thief leader.

*SLASH*

*CLANG*

Ozard was able to react quickly enough and parried the attack with his sword as he pushed Olivia away.

Ozard rushed towards Olivia without delay to Olivia's surprise but she did not lose her composure.

He pelted her with high-speed blows but Olivia managed to dodge them and deflect them with her sword.

But each blow she blocked was strong and numbed her arms and entire body.

"That girl... She's at least a C-rank" said one of the shocked men.

Olivia was C-rank but she had incredible speed and agility not to mention good swordplay.

Only, that only allowed her to compete with a B rank like Ozard in just those two areas.

The rest, she was completely inferior.

Olivia continued to deflect his blows, but she would soon be unable to do so.

So on a sudden impulse, she dodged a sword strike and moved in immediately after putting all her strength into her legs.

Her speed surpassed even Ozard's and she passed behind him without him being able to see anything.

*SLASH*

She swung her sword, but when she did, she suddenly felt heat at her side.

*BOOM*

One of Ozard's men was a mage and he threw a fireball at Olivia and she took it head on.

But to everyone's surprise, when Olivia swung her sword, it changed its trajectory towards the fireball and cut it in half.

Everyone was shocked, even the villagers and the chief, but that moment gave Ozard time to turn around and swing his arm behind him to punch Olivia in the face.

*BOOM*

Olivia was able to put her sword in front of her but she had no strength left in her arm, so she was thrown against the wall of a house.

"Ahah..." Olivia breathed hard and spat out blood.

"You... I have to admit, you're good and you have a very interesting sword" Ozard said in a husky voice as he walked towards Olivia.

"Don't hurt her" said the village leader with great difficulty as he tried to stand up.

"Stay down grandpa!" shouted Ozard angrily as he gave the chief a nasty kick.

"Anyway, your sword, it's the one that helped you slice the fireball, right?" asked Ozard looking at Olivia with a sadistic smile.

Olivia couldn't say anything but look at Ozard with a cold, venomous stare.

Ozard walked over to Olivia on the floor and picked up the sword stuck in the ground with his other hand.

"It's a shame but I don't like you," Ozard said with a cold, murderous face.

"Thanks for the gift," Ozard said, pointing his machete skyward and swinging it at Olivia.

'This is how it ends...' thought Olivia as she closed her eyes.

"..." But nothing happened to her so she opened her eyes to see the reason.

She was surprised to see a person in front of her wearing a hooded coat that completely hid her identity.

But the most shocking thing was that the man had stopped Ozard's attack with his hand without difficulty or injury.

"You... Who are you?!" shouted Ozard angrily, but one could see the terror.

"You don't have to know" said Shin with a cold voice.

Shin had seen his soul and he felt it, this man was evil and had done atrocious things.

"Die!" yelled Ozard as he was about to use his other hand with Olivia's sword to attack Shin because he couldn't get his machete out of the grip of Shin's hand.

Except that the attack never came to Ozard's surprise as he looked at his hand to see that it was gone and that blood was flowing profusely.

"Aaaaaaaaah" Ozard screamed in pain as he dropped his machete, stepped back and held his arm or his hand had been cut off.

Whether it was Ozard, his subordinates, the villagers or Olivia, they were all shocked because they hadn't even seen the attack and it looked like Shin had cut off his hand with his hand.

"This sword is not yours" said Shin as he threw Ozard's hand and the machete he was holding away and took Olivia's sword.

"I'll borrow it for five seconds" Shin said quietly to Olivia who couldn't even respond as she looked at Shin with admiration and a desire for strength.

"Go ahead and kill him!" said Ozard to his mage subordinates as they all rushed to send in their attacks.

A fireball, a gust of wind, a water bubble, and spikes of earth from the ground rushed towards Shin.

"Careful," Olivia said with difficulty.

She didn't want to involve any innocents and receiving four simultaneous attacks from C-rank mages was too much.

Shin smiled as she saw how worried Olivia was and had a good heartbeat.

He clutched Olivia's sword in his hands and as the attacks came at him, he gently swung the sword horizontally in front of him.

*SLASH*

".." After that, a small silence was established.

Then out of nowhere, the magical attacks were cut off and destroyed while Ozard and his subordinates were all sliced up before they could notice.

Shin's attack created no explosion or damage but only a sound of the sword cutting through the wind.

The swing was clean and fluid, without hesitation.

Seeing this, the villagers were all wide-eyed, especially Olivia who looked at Shin with persistence and determination.

*CRACK*

A small crack escaped Olivia's sword as the blade broke, leaving only the hilt.

Shin's attack seemed slow and weak but the sword didn't resist.

This shocked Olivia and her esteem for the person in front of her increased even more.

'His strength and mastery of the sword is incredible and so beautiful' Olivia thought with admiration as her cold eyes turned bright colours.

"I'm sorry" Olivia was pulled from her thoughts as she saw the man right in front of her.

Shin sincerely apologized for breaking his sword, he didn't think this would happen.

Besides, it seemed to be a good sword.

To apologize and return the favor, Shin had an idea.

"As an apology, I'll reforge this sword for you, only better, how about that?" asked Shin.

Olivia was still watching Shin intently.

"Train me," Olivia said suddenly.

"What?" asked Shin a little confused.

"If you really want to apologize, train me and then reforge my sword" said Olivia hopefully.

Being trained by such a strong person was more interesting to her and if he could make her an even better sword, she would win everything.

Shin looked at Olivia for several seconds which put a lot of pressure on her and even the villagers.

"Okay," Shin said as Olivia smiled, which shocked the villagers because she had never smiled before.

Shin smiled when he saw her. He had analyzed her emotions, motivations and soul to see that she had a very pure soul and a huge desire to become stronger to protect everyone.

His goal was to explore the world, to collect books but also to experiment and he thought that taking such an interesting girl under his wing was a good experience.

"You can live in my house. There's a spare room," Olivia said, returning to her cooler state but you could see the excitement in her eyes.

"Alright but just before, let me take care of the leader" said Shin as he turned back to the villagers.

"Ah, Chief!" shouted Olivia as she rushed towards the dying village chief on the ground.

"Don't worry," Shin said as he saw the concern on Olivia's face as she sat next to the chief.

Shin was surrounded by life energy that went to the chief and healed him of all his wounds or even illness.

After that, the chief woke up healthier than ever to everyone's relief.

All the villagers thanked Shin and welcomed him and Olivia took Shin home.

She lived in a small wooden house with two floors, a little out of the village.

"Do you live alone?" asked Shin as she entered the house and saw no one.

"Yes, but my parents abandoned me when I was a baby in the village," Olivia said without a hint of sadness.

"Sorry," Shin apologized for his clumsiness.

"It's okay," Olivia said.

Then Shin walked around the house to the floor where her room would be.

"Fine, thank you."

"To thank you, I'm making dinner tonight," said Shin.

Shin sat down in her room and finally took off her coat to go down to the kitchen.

Olivia had been very surprised to see what Shin looked like and thought he was very handsome.

But nothing romantic or anything. Just respect.

Shin made dinner, Olivia devoured everything on the table and they went to bed.

The next day, Olivia was up very early as usual to train.

Shin got up much later and started training her.

\ 2 years later /

"Ah!" Outside in front of the house, Olivia attacked Shin and he managed to resist her as well as put a hit on her.

"Well done," Shin said, looking at Olivia with pride.

In those two years he had learned a lot about her and she had become his little protégé.

He had watched her train and grow for two years.

Olivia was now sixteen years old and had grown to be more mature.

She still had cold expressionless eyes except in front of Shin to whom she gave smiles and emotions in her eyes.

In those two years she saw him as her guardian that she never had, her family.

"You have grown up and become strong in the last two years" Shin said patting her on the head for her greatest appreciation.

"And today is the end of your training"

When Shin said this, the joy in Olivia suddenly disappeared and was replaced by a great sadness.

Shin was also sad but it had already been two years, he didn't think he would train her for so long but he had grown attached to this girl.

After that they went home and ate until noon, the time when Shin left.

"Listen, you have a big heart and an incredible talent for the sword" said Shin in front of the house.

He wasn't lying, she had a great talent for the sword and had a good affinity with the element of wind which boosted her already monstrous speed and agility even more.

That's why in addition to the sword, he trained her a lot on strength as well to compensate.

"You have the possibility to help a lot of people and I know that you will accomplish great things and that I will be proud of you.

"Remember, don't let your judgement be based on someone's race or status but trust your heartbeat and instincts and listen to them"

He says this because in those two years he was able to learn more about this world.

This world was a huge continent where there were many different types of monsters and species.

Monsters, elves, spirits, demons, beast men, dragons or even phoenixes, although more rare.

In the south of the continent there was a huge forest which was the home and country of the elves.

To the north of the continent was the habitat and land of the beastmen.

To the west of the continent was the habitat and land of the demons.

And to the east of the continent was the habitat and land of the humans.

The continent was at peace without any war, although there was friction between some races.

In the middle of the continent there was a big city where the biggest academy of the continent was located, where different races went.

And racism and discrimination existed in this world, that's why Shin told Olivia that.

"I'm going to miss you," Olivia said with a lot of emotion in her voice.

Shin was also sad and hugged her.

"I'm going to go to the demons to fix your sword and I'll bring it back to you, like I promised" Shin said as he separated from Olivia.

The village was not far from the land of demons, between the land of demons and elves.

And Olivia's sword turned out to be made of a rare metal found in the demon realm.

So for the adventure and the sword, Shin planned to go to the demon land to repair the sword with that metal and strengthen it with materials because they would be better than Fairy Tail's.

"Goodbye" said Shin as he put on his hood and left.

He went to say goodbye to the villagers as he had been part of the village for the past two years helping them.

In fact, since he had been in the village, the village had never been so prosperous and the crops were plentiful.

\ A few hours later /

Shin was now far from the village on a cliff and was coming to the border of the demon land as Saphira came behind him from the sky.

"You'll see him again," Saphira said in a soft, comforting voice.

Saphira had been surprised when she returned to Shin when she saw that he had taken a disciple under his wing.

And she had seen how over time he had begun to grow attached to this girl.

Even Saphira had taken a liking to her.

"I know," Shin said as he looked straight ahead into demon land.