Foreigner's Journey

For Izumo, ronin are very rare.

It is almost impossible to enter Izumo without leaving fingerprints and strict inspections.

Of course, this is only for ordinary people, and Heather is not within the restricted range.As long as he wants to, he can use his flying ability to cross the sea and reach the heaven on the other side of the sea.

That is to say, Heather is not restricted and bound by the will of the world.

It is entirely out of his own interest that he is wandering around the world so freely now.

The fierce battles in the Holy Grail War made him feel tired, especially the tragic life-and-death fight with the little prince Hugo who is also an 'outsider' at the end.

This "foreign war" in the true sense also let Heather understand how cruel the fighting between foreigners is.

Not to mention the dead little prince Hugo, even Heather, the winner, paid a heavy price.

[Knights of the Round Table] was sealed, and Heather couldn't find a way to unblock it.In the "Mythical Weapons Catalog", King Arthur and the twelve knights of the round table seem to be in a state of sleep and cannot be awakened at all.

That is the causal damage caused by the 'magic spindle' summoned by the little prince at the cost of his 'left eye'.

At the same time, the light egg was also seriously polluted and was in an unusable state.

When the world in which there is a correction of myths and legends, the Light Egg is one of the top three powerful existences among the mythical weapons owned by Heather.In the last battle of the Holy Grail War, in order to win a chance for Heather, Light Egg tried his best to destroy Aladdin's magic lamp with "forced demotion", and was also polluted by the powerful flesh and blood curse of the opponent's dying counterattack, almost completely damaged.

Even though Heather is nurturing these four stone balls cursed by flesh and blood with his own conception, trying to help them expel this difficult curse, but he knows very well that unless he also finds a life tool to restrain it, the light eggs will be destroyed. Restoration works will be very slow.

Tsk... [Life Tool] Ah, where do I go to find a life tool that perfectly fits my weapon concept?

Without the recovery ability of the light egg, Heather's right arm, which was torn off by the little prince in the wolf state, would naturally be unable to be reborn.

Of course, even if Heather is not in a good state at this time, she can still run amok in this world, because the level of power in this world is indeed much worse than that of Heather who has awakened concepts.

And because of [The Favor of the Distant Star], Heather will not be oppressed and assimilated by the will of the world, that is to say, the most troublesome external force is missing.

It has been three years since she came to this world, and Heather has become a famous knight.

Maybe other outsiders will find it difficult to understand Heather's behavior. They don't enjoy the pleasure brought by the opposite sex, food, power, and bullying, but wander the world willingly and mediocrely. Isn't this a waste of their talents and concepts? Can he be considered a foreigner?

But Heather was happy with it.

He likes to travel, and without the assimilation of the will of the world, he can finally return to his heart and enjoy the journey.Anyway, outsiders are independent from the sea of ​​time and space, and no matter how much time they spend in a single world, it will not affect the competition between themselves and other outsiders. Didn't you see that the little prince stayed in the Holy Grail World for 60 years?

Although she didn't know what kind of world she had entered, Heather only spent a little time to confirm that there was no threat beyond her own power in this world.To put it bluntly, it is a world of low force and low magic.

Everything is similar to normal Japanese Edo period, although the current ruling class is a guy who has never heard of it.It's easy to understand, an overhead world.

Until two months ago, Heather, who was traveling in Mutsu, was approached by a white-haired woman who claimed to be a clever strategist of the shogunate, and her name was Jiu Er.

At that time, Heather happened to meet a group of bandits who planned to rob the village where he was staying. Heather, who did not intend to show his true strength, hit it off with Jiuer. The level of force is still the strongest in the world, and the bandit group of 60 people was wiped out by Heather single-handedly.

After this battle, the relationship between the two became much more harmonious, and it can be said that they talked happily.When Jiuer invited Heather to travel together, Heather was really considering whether to take her along.But then the [Shikizaki Ji noki Sword] that Jiuer mentioned made Heather suddenly wake up——

I seem to have seen this time?It's called... "Sword Language"?

Because Heather was busy brushing up the Icecrown Throne dungeon of World of Warcraft at the time, this time he just pulled the progress bar to read the whole thing, and he couldn't say he understood all the details.

But there are twelve so-called 'complete' variant knives, and Heather still has an impression.

So, this woman seems to be the heroine of the plot?Compared with the "sticky strokes" painting style in the animation, the real person is obviously much more beautiful, and the long white hair is also very conspicuous.

Generally speaking, Heather doesn't like to break up the original hero and heroine CP.So, he drove away Jiu Er with the lame excuse of 'you're not my type', trying to get the plot back on track.

What?If you don't like tearing down CP, what's going on with Tifa and Alice? ... You talk a lot, don't you!

In short, after sending Jiu Er away, Heather pondered for a long time, and finally made a decision—to go on a solo sword hunting journey.

Shikizaki Jiji's twelve completed variant knives are still attractive to a weapon collector like himself.Although the power may not be as outrageous as other mythical weapons, at least bring some souvenirs, right?

Therefore, Heather followed the little information about Shikizaki Jizhizhidao in his memory, and began to head towards Izumo.

After all, what impressed him the most in the original work was the Santu Shrine with the black witch.

Standing at the foot of Mount Izumo, surrounded by mist, the village man in charge of leading the way was trembling, for fear that this weird-looking giant wanderer would be dissatisfied and draw his sword and chop himself off.

With one hand on her hip, Heather looked up at the stone steps extending infinitely into the depths of the mist. Every hundred steps there was a torii gate painted vermilion.It's just that after the second torii, no other torii and stairs can be seen anymore, because they are all covered by fog.

"Master, give up, Santu Shrine does not welcome outsiders, especially men!" The village man was still persuading, for fear that Heather would die.

In case the giant master has other companions or relatives and friends, knowing that he is leading the way but not dissuading him, it is very likely that he will be angry with himself because the giant master was beheaded by the Santu Shrine.

In fact, the villagers didn't think that Heather would be able to climb the Santu Shrine smoothly.

Because this is a real armed shrine, independent of the control of the shogunate, and has extraterritorial power.

Heather waved her hand impatiently: "Okay, okay, you can go back, thank you for leading the way...here."

With a flick of the thumb, ten copper plates danced in the air and landed in the hands of the village man with a clear sound. They were stacked firmly and stood in the center of the open palm.

"Master... this, this, you..." The village man was terrified. He didn't expect that instead of being scolded and beaten, he would be rewarded instead.The first thing that surged up in my heart was not gratitude, but fear and bewilderment.

Seeing that Heather just looked at the stairs and ignored him, the village man had no choice but to bow and move backwards gratefully, until he moved more than ten meters away before turning around, hunched over, and putting the hand holding the copper coin in the clothes on his chest , trot to the field.

Heather looked left and right, put her fingers on the front of the bamboo hat and pressed slightly: "It's a pleasure to meet you, black witches."

At some point, women in twos and threes wearing uniform black priestess costumes vaguely appeared in the forest.They all have the same shoulder-length black short hair. Although they are slightly different in height, they have exactly the same temperament. Their faces are covered with big charms that look like those in Lin Zhengying's zombie movies.

It is worth noting that they all wear identical knives around their waists.

Facing Heather's greetings, they didn't respond at all. They stood quietly in the fog in the forest like dolls, and then their figures gradually disappeared.

Black witch?Forget it, they are not the ones I am looking for, or in other words, they are not the right ones.

Heather smiled, stepped on the stone steps, and walked step by step into the cloud-shrouded Izumo Mountain.

【Thousands of swords · 铩】, according to the legend, if you want to capture this sword, you have to face a thousand sword holders. It is a complete variant sword with the characteristics of "overwhelming number".

I want this knife.

###Chapter 5 Black Witch###

The stairs are long and steep.

The more you climb up, the more you can feel the moisture of the clouds and mist. Coupled with the looming black witches in the surrounding forest, Heather really has a feeling of being in the "place where the gods gather".

Climbing up the steps, although Heather could climb to the top of the mountain in an instant with his foot strength, he slowed down his steps to the rhythm of ordinary people, fully enjoying the joy brought by the 'journey'.

Approaching the top of the mountain, the frequency of appearance of the surrounding black witches also began to slow down.

After climbing about thousands of steps, I could finally see the dawn above my head, and the mist also faded.

You can already see the end of the stairs, where there stands a huge stone torii gate that is two circles larger than the torii gate on the way up the stairs, which is very magnificent.

"Good morning."

Suddenly, an unusually indifferent voice came from the front. A tall woman was holding a broom and wearing a black priestess costume. She was standing directly under the huge torii gate at the end of the stairs, overlooking Heather.

I can't tell the exact age, but she is a little young, with a majestic bearing.The thick black long hair almost reached the hips, and was divided into two strands. The corners of the eyes on both sides were painted with red eye shadow. His appearance was not stunning but very attractive.One can tell that it is the leader here, because the design of the miko's costume is slightly different from other black witches, and it is more majestic.

"Good morning."

Heather put her hands on the front of the hat and pressed down slightly.

"On the way here, your Excellency should already know about Santu Shrine's exclusiveness towards 'men' and 'samurai'? Out of courtesy, I still want to ask—are you going the wrong way?"

The woman didn't turn her body sideways to let Heather go on. Although she didn't have a samurai sword on her waist, the way she held a broom showed that she was a rare swordsman.

The attitude of rejecting people thousands of miles away.

"Tsuruga camouflage, it's you I'm looking for."

Heather didn't intend to turn around and leave at all, she raised her head and said with a smile.Um?Unexpectedly good figure ah.

The leader of the black witch named Tsuruga Camouflage glanced at the tattered knife on Heather's right waist, and stopped at the empty right arm for a second before looking back at Heather's dew-stained coat. Bamboo hat:

"I'm sorry, it's Your Excellency [Sekiro]."

She bowed slightly, then turned sideways and stretched out her hand towards the shrine: "Please follow me."

Saying that, she took the lead in walking towards the shrine inside the torii gate.

Heather rubbed her chin, her name is quite loud and useful?It seems that no matter which world people are, they like the idea of ​​"a righteous knight with high martial arts skills".

Walking into the shrine with the Tsuruga camouflage, what you see is a magnificent shrine that is no less than a thousand steps and a huge torii gate. It is a beautifully maintained building.

Along the way, you can see many black witches. They are either cleaning the courtyard of the temple with tools, or they are carrying light and heavy sundries.

Seeing Heather walking behind the Tsuruga camouflage, they all stopped and stared at Heather motionlessly.

If separated by such a large piece of talisman paper, it can be regarded as "staring".

"So, the famous 'Sekiro', what's the use of coming to my little Santu Shrine?"

In the main hall, the two sat on the polished dark brown floor, their demeanor was similarly lazy, and neither of them maintained the 'sit upright' in Japanese etiquette.There was a large bottle of sake and a bowl in front of the Tsuruga camouflage, and he poured the wine for himself and asked without raising his head:

"We still have a little bit of self-preservation power. For the time being, there are no bandits or robbers who don't have eyesight to come here to make troubles. I think we don't need Mr. Sekiro to show his heroic appearance."

Heather looked at the empty floor in front of her, and couldn't help curling her lips: "...You guys can be regarded as a 'little bit' of self-protection? I'm curious, how about you [former bandit]?" She will come to be the head priestess of the Sanzu Shrine."

"...Do you understand clearly?" Tsuruga Camouflage's hand holding the wine bowl froze for a moment: "I thought that I and this Santu Shrine were not even 'famous' in Izumo."

Heather laughed, leaned forward and took the whole bottle of wine from the camouflage, bit the cork and spit it out on the floor carefully wiped by the black witches, then picked up the bottle and drank it After taking a few gulps, he took a sigh of relief and put down the wine bottle and wiped the corners of his mouth casually with the old mended cuff:

"The alcohol content is a bit low, but it's still a good wine... [Tsuga Camouflage] is indeed not very well-known, but [Thousand Swords · Shovel] is not necessarily so."

Tsuruga camouflage was still sipping wine with a wine bowl, but his eyes on Heather became sharper.

"Oh, don't look at me with that look, it's scary."

Heather waved her hand:

"When I went up the mountain, I noticed that the black witches were wearing the same style of swords around their waists. Is that [Thousand Swords]? I think you have a thousand witches here, but I can't tell."

Although the shrine is big, it doesn't look like it can accommodate a thousand shrine maidens.

"There are only fifty witches left on the mountain. After all, it is an armed shrine, so the security of the lower realm is also one of the tasks. If they are all placed in the shrine on the top of the mountain, it will overwhelm the place."

Tsuruga Camouflage put down the wine bowl, and the bottom of the bowl collided with the floor to make a crisp sound:

"There are no priests here. Although it is a shrine, it is only in form."

I don't know when, more than a dozen black witches quietly appeared in the hall. They still maintained a quiet posture, but the appearance of wearing a thousand knives around their waists did not seem to be 'no hostility'.

The Tsuruga camouflage did not order the witches to attack, nor did they retreat, but stared at Heather's big hat with sharp eyes:

"Your Excellency Sekiro, I have heard about your deeds. You are a rare hero, a knight, and a top swordsman. Because of this, I can also understand the deadly sword produced by Shikizaki Jizhizhidao against swordsmen Poison. I want to ask, are you here to grab the knife?"

As expected of the leader of the Armed Shrine, he was straightforward, and he had the aura to kill Heather on the spot if he disagreed with him.