Whoah! Whoah! Whoah! it's the big Five Oh~ Halfway to a hundred and here we go~

Have I really written fifty chapters?...I'm surprised that my commitment has lasted this long...onwards and upwards, tallyho~

Enjoy~

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“Right now the river’s flooding, and the bridge is old, so there’s no telling when it might collapse. But, this might be a chance for us! The caravan man, Gypsum, said that we should be able to cross safely if we have a magician amongst us, so this’ll get us way ahead of those martial rogues that have been chasing us!” Briar said, with enthusiasm.

“Really? I don’t like the sound of that, it sounds kind of dangerous…or rather, how do you know you can trust this ‘Gypsy’ man?” Laura asked, pointedly.

Briar smiled mischievously. “Oh, it is most definitely a trap, I tell you.”

“A trap!?” Helen exclaimed. “How do you know that?” She asked, mystified.

Briar inclined her head, raising an eyebrow in a confident expression as she placed her hands together so that her fingerprints matched up, but her palms remained separate.

“No normal caravan would stay in place like that and lie in wait for travelers. By all the normal signs, those wagons haven’t moved for at least two weeks. Their wheels have sunk into the road, they’ve been there so long. At most, any normal person looking for business would turn around and look for another way to cross. Also, the man’s name is Gypsum, and he is most definitely not a Gypsy.”

“Another one of ‘those’ huh?” Laura shrugged.

It might not seem like it, but there were often many people strategically placed on the roadways who acted as informants, that spied on and informed about the travelers they encountered to anyone who was interested.

Briar had noticed them in time to make sure that their travelling group of three was not recorded as well. When someone was looking for a specific number of people, changing that number can work wonders to throwing people off the scent.

“They’ll probably have guards at the bridge as well, to spy and see who makes it across” Laura clicked her tongue.

“That’s definitely a possibility.” Briar nodded. “But there’s one thing that they aren’t expecting.”

“What? What is it?” Helen asked, eyes shining with curiosity. Laura took out a canteen and poured herself a cup of water.

Briar smiled kindly down at the child. “They aren’t expecting us to have a magician in our company.”

“A magician!? A real magician!?” Helen asked, excited. “Ah! I understand! It’s Laura, isn’t it?” Laura choked, spewing out the water that she had been drinking.

“WHAT? Hu-W-where did you -ha-get that idea from?” Laura asked, trying to hold back her laughter.

“Because I haven’t seen Laura fight at all!” Helen said innocently. Her words pierced Laura’s heart with a tinge of guilt.

“Now see here, I may not have fought a lot these past few weeks, but that isn’t because I didn’t want to, it’s because I didn’t have to.” Laura explained, feeling she had to justify herself. “Besides, I’m the one that stays up at night to guard the camp while you two sleep away!”

“Uhuh, I understand now! Laura really is the magician, isn’t she?” Helen turned to Briar to confirm, completely disregarding what Laura had just said.

“OI! DON’T IGNORE ME!” Laura exclaimed.

“She is, huh?” Briar responded uncommitally. “If that’s true, then I guess that would mean our group has two magicians.” She pointed a thumb at herself. “I’m one too.”

“Heeeeeh?” Helen made an unimpressed face.

“What’s with that expression?” Briar asked. “Aren’t magicians cool?”

Helen’s unblinking stare focused on Briar “You know, I may be a kid, but I’m not stupid. You’re too good at fighting to be good at anything else. I bet all your magic amounts to is a bunch of cheap tricks and sleights of hand.”

“PFFFT Hahahaha~!” Laura couldn’t hold it in any more. She was laughing so hard that she fell off the log she had been sitting on.

“Ku!” Briar had not expected such a low evaluation. “For my magic to be belittled to just being cheap tricks and sleights of hand!”

Laura was laughing so hard that she banged her fist on the tree stump that she had been sitting on. “I can’t-I can’t breath! Hahaha!”

Briar scowled at Laura. “What are you laughing at, eh!? It isn’t that funny!”

Laura continued laughing while Briar ignored her. “Forget it. I’m going to scout out the bridge. It should be fine if I’m not seen.” Already she was planning ahead to what she would do.

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That evening:

Three dark figures crept silently through the woods, keeping under the cover of the trees and bushes. Or rather, it was more like two dark figures. Since Helen had not mastered the art of walking without making noise at night time, she was currently being given a piggy-back ride by Laura.

People under blue class did not have the strength of eye-sight to catch the minute subtleties of shade that indicated sticks and dried leaves scattered on the ground.

Since Briar was red class, she could see things as well as if she were wearing night vision goggles; better than, even. Laura could also see, although her visibility was limited to a three-meter radius around her.

The brief sparks of starlight were more than enough to see by for those two. The sound of rushing river slowly grew into a roar as they drew closer to its source, until finally they could see it through a gap in the trees ahead.

As soon as they saw the river, Briar stopped, as did Laura. Then they looked at each other, before looking at the river once more.

WHAT RIVER!?! ISN’T THIS A SEA!? Laura complained in her heart.

Briar remembered only seeing this sort of large river once back in her old world.

It was at the widest part of the Amazon river. But even the Amazon river looked like a slow, sleepy kitten compared to the monstrous completely white, rushing dragon of a river that they faced. There was no comparison.

And in the middle of this white, rushing sea of rapids swayed the only bridge across.

It was made of the threads of a conquered Emperor-class Spider Beast which had been collected from a battle site long ago. The Spider threads were stronger than steel, yet flexible enough to withstand the fierce pull of the river at its very strongest.

Nothing but the raging molten fires of a volcano could ever destroy such a near indestructible material, usually. But, the concern wasn’t over the spider threads breaking.

Rather, it was the foundations of the bridge, eroded by the fierce might of the river over the years, which were the cause of concern. If the ground crumbled away, then the bridge would just be swept away by the current, leaving whichever unlucky fellow was crossing to be subject to the river’s fury.

Can she really help us to make it across this? Even if a martial artist fell into here, the water is so fast that it’s sharper than most knives. They would be hard put to survive in such an environment. Laura observed.

All of a sudden, the forest behind them was lit up from the glow of torches.

“That’s far enough!” Gypsum announced.

“Haaaah. I just knew you would show up.” Briar sighed, with a bored look on her face, while she muttered. “Typical bad guy villain lackey material.”

“Pfft!” Laura held back a laugh. A vein throbbed on Gypsum’s forehead.

“WHAT WAS THAT? HAAH!?” He shouted, glaring fiercely at Briar.

What are you, the Yakuza? Briar resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “I was only commenting on your impeccable sense of timing. We were just about to disembark. All we were missing was a send-off party~.”

“I’ll send you off, all right! Right back to the Boss’s place! Give it up! If you choose to use the bridge, then we’ll destroy the foundation on this side, and you will all perish!” Gypsum announced.

Helen whimpered at the thought of being captured. Briar turned to look at her and smiled with a mischievous twinkle in her eye. She winked at Helen, before turning back to announce her decision.

“Your offer does indeed sound quite tempting. Unfortunately, I have no intentions to either be captured, or to use the bridge.” Briar said, bluntly. "I take care not to fall for false dilemmas."

“What are you talking about! There’s no way you can escape us now!”

“Then, observe the miracle that I shall perform tonight~” Briar said with a bow. “Behold, I have nothing up my sleeves-” She pulled her sleeves up, exposing hundreds of tiny throwing needles strapped to her arms.

“Oops! Wrong sleeves.” She said calmly.

“Get them!” Gypsum yelled to his men, who advanced cautiously towards the trio.

Briar snapped her fingers. “Ah! That’s right!” She pulled a rather ugly-looking rug out of her magic bag, and placed it on the ground.

“If you would please sit down right here?” She indicated to Laura.

“I don’t think sitting on a rug is going to change anything, Briar.” Laura said, but still, she sat down on the rather dingy-looking fabric.

“On the contrary, my dear Watson. This is the only creation of its kind: The magic flying carpet! Even someone without magic, like me, can use it~” Briar announced as she sat down in front and grabbed two corners as if she were holding the reigns.

“Soar, oh companion of royalty!” She exclaimed, and the rug obediently lifted straight up in the air, twenty meters, out of the reach of even the tallest of men.

“Forward!” Briar announced. The carpet effortlessly glided forward, over the raging river.

“Go! Cross the river! We must capture them no matter what!” Gypsum urged his men forward.

The men did indeed begin crossing the river, and about half of them had made their way on the bridge before a terrible noise was heard: the crack of rock breaking, as the bridge foundations finally gave out, and the bridge, with all of its passengers, were swept away, down river.

Gypsum could only stand there, steaming in his rage as his plan fell through. When he could finally speak past his rage, he grabbed the nearest subordinate.

“Get me your swiftest messenger hawk!” He barked at the man.

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On the opposite shore, the carpet gently descended to the ground. When they had landed, Briar finally relaxed, sighing, as she released all of her tension. All of a sudden, Laura hit her on the head.

“Ow! What was that for!?” Briar complained.

“If you had such a magical device, why didn’t you use it earlier!? We could have totally arrived at our destination by now!” Laura scolded.

“Woow! Older brother, to think that you had such a magical device as a flying carpet!” Helen admired.

“Oh, that? That’s just a regular dirty old rug.” Briar said, sticking a finger in her ear as if she were cleaning it out.

“No way! Then how was it able to carry us over the river?” Helen said.

“If you think it’s so special, then why don’t you fly it yourself?” Briar retorted in a mocking tone.

“Then I don’t mind if I do~!” Helen replied, grabbing the corners of the rug as she had seen Briar do. “Soar, oh companion of royalty!” She called out. Nothing happened.

“Why isn’t it working!?!” Helen complained to Briar.

“Like I said, that’s just a regular, dirty old rug.” Briar yawned. “ And to think the credit for all of my hard work goes to a rug-ouch!”

Laura had smacked her over the head with her fan in the same place she had hit her.

“Explain!” She ordered.

“Okay, okay! Geez! The real reason why that rug was able to carry us all across the river isn’t because the rug is magical. It’s because, like I said before, I’m a magician. It’s your own fault for not believing in me, you know.”

“No way…then the reason we could fly is because of your magic?” Helen looked crestfallen.

Briar snapped her fingers and gave her a thumbs up. “Bingo! You got it~ But, don’t get too down about it. Those men we encountered were also fooled by mere appearances. Now they’ll believe that we’re in possession of a magic carpet, instead of the fact that I’m a magician, which will make them vastly underestimate our strength once more.”

Laura was once more surprised by Briar’s innovative plan, and nodded, proudly. As expected of Briar. A perfect plan which reveals misinformation that will cause the opponent to slip up the next time we meet. How lucky I am that my best friend is a genius~

Briar yawned again. “But, still, we should get as far from the river banks as possible at the moment. Gypsum likely has carrier pigeons or messenger hawks, and we don’t want to run into another patrol.”

But, how did Briar actually figure out what the opponent’s actions were? Was it really just simply deductive guesswork? Or was there a more concrete reason why she had been able to avoid the enemy's motions for so long?