A group of four women wearing casual clothes arrived at the Crossbell City Sports Area. Three of them were carrying large boxes on their backs, and only one of them was wearing casual clothes.
"Masta, it seems this is it." The chestnut-haired girl said to the blond woman next to her.
The blond woman who took the lead in the group nodded. She had brilliant blond hair, half braided and half braided, half braided in a traditional braid, and the other half hung casually behind her shoulders.
"Haha, it looks very impressive. But it's a bit small compared to the big arena over there?" said the blue-haired woman.
"Well, although it's almost six stories high, it's not that eye-catching compared to other buildings." A tall woman with reddish-brown hair also answered.
Led by the Saint of Steel Arian Herd, the three members of the Iron Fleet, Speedy Dubali, Magic Bow Enaya, and Resolute Anais, appeared in the southwest corner of Crossbell City. Of course, they did not
Wearing his usual combat attire, he just came here like an ordinary foreign tourist.
When a few people arrived in front of the building, the "security guard" wearing a black trench coat with a blue windbird emblem embroidered on the chest stepped forward and spoke to the group of four people.
"Sorry, ladies. The martial arts hall is temporarily closed to the public."
"Don't be rude, we are..." The chestnut-haired girl was halfway through her words, but when she saw the blond woman raising her hand to signal, she immediately stopped talking.
"Du Barry. Take out the invitation."
"Well, yes."
I handed the gilded invitation with a purple back cover to the security guard. After looking at it, the security guard immediately nodded and let me go.
"It turns out that I am Lord Ling's distinguished guest. Please come in."
Entering the interior of the martial arts hall, you will see an extremely spacious indoor space. It covers an area of 40 square meters and is 20 square meters tall. Almost all of the five floors are open. Only the surrounding stands can distinguish the original structure.
number of layers.
In the center of the field, a young man with pale blond hair and a young man with blond brown hair were sparring. To be precise, it was a scene where the young man was giving moves to the young man.
"... Telling you to use instinct to draw a sword does not mean that you should stop thinking during the battle and start over."
"Yes, Brother Levi!"
…………
Reinhardt nodded to them after seeing the arrival of several people, and then continued to teach sword skills. The young man's concentration was quite high, and he didn't notice anyone coming at all.
"Hey? Who is this kid? The majestic Sword Emperor would actually serve him as a sparring partner." Du Barry said to himself with a surprised look on his face.
"His name is Ash, he is Levi's disciple."
Du Barry was startled by the sudden sound coming from beside her. Following the sound, she looked over and saw a purple-haired girl standing next to them.
"What! When did you get here!"
"Ling has been here since the beginning," the purple-haired girl replied.
"Tsk!" Anais immediately put his guard up.
"Haha, Master Cyanosis is here okay." Enaya was not as vigilant as her two companions. She already knew something about the situation here before coming here.
"Sister Enaya, the last time I saw you was five years ago, right? Four and a half years ago to be precise? You have changed so much, you are completely different from before."
"Well, I'm twenty centimeters taller than I was then, right? It's not surprising that you would think there's a big difference. But you haven't changed at all, you're still the same." Enaya replied with a smile.
"I'm not the only one who hasn't changed. Isn't your Du Barry the same as four years ago?"
Seeing Ling and Enaya chatting happily, Du Barry had a disgusted expression on his face.
"Hey, let me tell you, I've only met you once, right? Why do you look inexplicably familiar!"
"Sorry, sorry, because I have some fate with Sister Enaya. After all, we are both from the religious sect, so don't mind Du Barry. My lord, long-lost greetings. Sister Enes should
This is the first time you meet me, my name is Ling, Ling Astre. By the way, please think of me as seventeen years old."
Regarding Ling's true age, the Saint must know it, but Ling began to forge her identity before Du Barry joined the association. If the Saint did not tell the three members of the Iron Machine Team, then they should not know about it.
"Ling, you and I don't have to be so polite." Arian Hurd replied.
"Well, I'm Anais, please give me some advice." The tall red-brown-haired woman replied.
"Huh? Why did you call them sister by my first name? It seems that I am the only one being treated differently!" Du Barry asked strangely.
"Because I can't tell that you are much older than me." Ling answered her.
"Well! I will be twenty years old this year!"
"Haha, Du Barry, just accept Ling's kindness. It seems that Ling likes you very much."
"Since Masta said so..." After Arianhead spoke, Du Barry accepted it.
"It's still the New Year's Day in the Erebonian Empire. As Levi's disciple, Ash usually celebrates the New Year with us, both the year before and the year before. But last year was an exception because Levi had something to do. In short, although we didn't
He mentioned the association. He doesn’t know anything about our Body-Eating Snakes, but he is not an unrelated outsider either. He is the orphan of Hamel, so you should be able to understand it, right?"
"Hamel...I see." Anais nodded. Because he had paid attention to Reinhardt's relationship, he also knew about the place where he was born.
"It's that place." After Du Barry heard about it, her eyes towards the boy Ash were no longer as hostile as before.
The martial arts hall usually only has the hunters from the West Wind Brigade at nine o'clock in the morning to watch the battle. The competition between Ling and Reinhardt is an important event that they cannot miss every day. The rest of the time, the hunters generally do not appear in the martial arts hall.
Here, they also have their own things to do. So at this moment, there is no one else watching the battle in the main arena of the Budokan.
Over there, Reinhardt and Ash's training came to an end for the time being. Only then did Ash notice that there was a new visitor to the martial arts gym.
"Senior sister, who are these big sisters?" Ya Xiu asked Ling who was opposite.
"They are our master and uncles."
"Eh? Brother Levi, is what senior sister said true?"
"Haha, you can insist on calculating it this way. Although my swordsmanship is my own, I have also received help and guidance from others. Long time no see, Mr. Gang. There are also Dubali, Enaya, and Anais.
"
"The same goes for Lord Sword Emperor."
Du Barry greeted Reinhardt slightly nervously, while Enaya and Anais followed closely behind.
"Ling, you don't have to call me master. Strictly speaking, we don't have a master-student relationship. You haven't learned my Sandrot style. We should just keep going on our own terms." Arian Hed said.
"Brother Levi, it turns out that you have three junior sisters. They all respect you. They have never said this before. By the way, is the one with chestnut hair interested in you? She has been staring at you."
"You kid, go out and play."
"Hey, I'm leaving now. I'll see you later, sisters."
Although Crossbell's New Year's celebration is not as grand as the Erebonia New Year Festival, there will be at least a week's holiday, so there will be no shortage of entertainment activities during this period. Crossbell once said a hundred years ago
Belonging to the Erebonian Empire, some traditions have been preserved.
After Ash left, Ling prepared tea and snacks for several people in the lounge. Two cute dolls, Suzune and Tieou, also attracted the attention of the girls when they served tea and water to everyone.
"Master Yin, do you need to do anything else?" Lingyin asked in a sweet and delicious voice.
"No, you can continue to practice in the sword room." After Ling ordered the two puppets, the two evil spirit puppets gave everyone a skirt-raising ceremony and left.
"They're so cute. Are they the Rozenbelk dolls? Seeing them is better than hearing them. If they weren't only eighty miles tall, I would even suspect that they are real children."
"Thank you for the compliment. They are my proud masterpieces."
"Haha, Du Barry, don't underestimate them. By the way, when I talked about practice just now, can it be said that dolls can also practice martial arts? They are not living creatures, so they shouldn't be able to inspire fighting spirit, right?" Arian Hed looked at it at a glance.
The two dolls that came out are not as completely harmless as they appear.
"Well, I'm just doing some experiments on them. Different from the martial arts we humans use, I call the techniques used by the dolls to fight mecha."
After everyone chatted for a while, Arian Hurd finally got to the point.
"Ling should know the purpose of my visit this time, but you three, Du Barry, haven't heard what I said yet, right?"
"Masta's actions do not need to be explained to us," Anais replied.
"Well, since it is the master's action, we naturally have to follow him." Enaya said.
Du Barry did not speak, but looked at Arian Hed with curiosity.
"Ling's strength should have made new breakthroughs in the previous gospel plan. I'm a little itchy, so I want to find Ling to fight."
"It's my pleasure." Ling replied.
"Hey!? Is the little girl with a number actually so powerful?"
"Haha, don't underestimate her. Although Ling's swordsmanship was taught by me, she has already mastered it. Even for me, it is not easy to defeat her."
After Reinhardt spoke, the three members of the Iron Machine Team looked at Ling with completely different eyes.
"If you don't believe it, how about we give it a try?"
"Okay, okay, let me personally verify how strong you are as recognized by your master!"
Du Barry and Ling agreed and immediately came to the main venue.
Ling pulled out a long steel sword from the weapon rack, while Du Barry took out his usual sword and shield from the box.
The battle between the two was about to break out. Du Barry used the phantom sword formation as soon as he came up, divided into three and launched an attack on Ling. Ling, on the other hand, just like strolling in the garden, dodged dozens of slashes.
"Ugh! How is that possible!"
The three figures merged into one, and Du Barry's hands slashed out ranged attacks of fire, lightning, and ice, but Ling slashed across the area with a single blow, cutting the fan-shaped attribute attack from the center.
Ling walked towards Du Barry step by step. Her steps seemed slow but fast. When Du Barry reacted, she felt her shoulders sink. She used all her strength to pour into her feet to keep herself from being directly
Kneel down.
"Huh? I actually withstood it."
Du Barry noticed the ridge of the sword pressing on his shoulder, and the sword's edge was only a few miles away from his neck.
"Well, I lost."
"Didn't you defeat Levi once? Shouldn't you only have this strength?"
In Ling's opinion, when she met Du Barry in Lohengrin City a few months ago, she was much stronger than she is now.
"That's...a fluke!" Du Barry replied with a blushing face.
After Dubari, Enaya and Anais also competed with Ling one after another. After trying their best, they were easily defeated by Ling. In this way, they had to admit that Ling was indeed superior to others.
The battle with the three members of the Iron Machine Team was considered a warm-up match, and the real drama came next.