I apologize in advance, but I intend to leave that little cliff hanging for a while. Instead, I have decided to skip forward a bit to the time of the start of the Contest, in order to move the story along. Don’t worry, I will address the results of Briar’s experimentation as an explanation later on.

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A month later, the plains surrounding the city had become as Briar had surmised: a suburb of tents and quickly-cobbled loose wooden structures built to house as many people as possible.

Some, like Madam Rothema, had a magical dwelling.

Of course, these would be warded with spells so that only recognized people could enter. After all, wherever there were large crowds of people, there were bound to be thieves. And no magician enjoyed having their research or books about ancient magical spells stolen.

The sounds of metal striking metal, dull thudding sounds, and cheering came from here and there among suburb of tents: a testament to the many small skirmishes between combatants daily taking place. The whole place was humming with excitement, for tonight would be the last night before the Ten Year Student Contest began.

Students challenged each other to duels, checked their gear, or went over their carefully-concocted plans and schemes. Masters gave advice, watched over their students, or went to a local bar and drank generously in silence, watching the moon as it slowly rose in the sky.

The moon was bright and full, shedding soft beams down over the landscape as it rose into the sky. That night, many people watched her path in anticipation: some with hopes, others with confidence, yet more with dread, and some with resignation.

Briar herself did not watch the moon. Instead she was using her time dilation barrier to catch up on all the books that she hadn’t read for the past three months, courtesy of Madam Rothema. Her preparations had been finished since three days ago, and so she had used these past three days to catch up.

As she snapped shut the very last book, the moon reached its zenith, and a clear calm bell tolled out. Although it didn’t seem loud at all, it could clearly be heard through the entire mountain, and far into the lands surrounding it, rippling invisibly into the distance.

After everyone had heard this bell, all duels were halted, regardless of winner or loser. Each returned to their own tent or room to rest up well in final preparation for the coming day. Even though most knew that they would not be able to sleep that night due to their taught nerves, they still kept up the appearance of preparing.

After the bell had struck, the students were not allowed to fight each other outside of the arena. If any were to be found breaking this rule, they would be banned from the ten year student contest for three generations of master and student.

Briar lifted her head as she heard the bell chime out, realizing that it was now late into the night. She had completely forgotten the time in her concentration upon her studies. She stretched her body and rubbed her near bloodshot eyes, thinking about how bothersome it would be to get back to the city now.

But, in the end, her desire for a real bed won her over. So she stretched, before hurrying back to the city, flitting from tree branch to tree branch at a speed which was quite fast to normal folks, but could only be considered a slow walk in the park for experts.

She continued her way until “Arah?” She noticed she was being followed. Briar narrowed her eyes as she contemplated confronting the stalker. But, after half a moment’s consideration, she decided to disregard it. She would lose whoever it was in the city easily.

Briar continued until she came to the plains and paused, surprised at how extensive the tent suburbs had extended. Then she smiled and waved as she glanced back towards the forests before vanishing among the tents.

….

After a few minutes had gone by a dark figure stepped out of the forest, chuckling, since he knew he had been detected.

“So you’ve grown that much, huh?” Master Thales muttered as he gazed in the direction of the city. Not only had she detected Master Thales, but she had also identified him.

“Soon enough, there will not be much else that I can teach you…” Master Thales sighed. At the rate Thera was growing, it wouldn’t even take her five more years before she would reach black class. He also set off towards the city, vanishing into the city surrounded on all sides by tents.

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THUD THUD THUD! “Hey Briar-ni! It’s time to wake up~!” Rien’s voice came through the door.

Briar lay quietly, hoping Rien would think she had already gone out.

“Don’t think I don’t know that you’re back! Grandpa told us you finally returned last night, and he also told us that you haven’t left yet, so GET UP!” She said in her childish 6 year old voice.

Briar groaned and turned over in bed.

Karu’s voice also came in through the door.

“Briar-ni! Uncle Bradley says that if you don’t get up now, then you’ll be late for the starting ceremony! You only have half an hour left!”

Briar sighed and sat up. All right, I guess there’s no more chance of sleeping this morning. Better get breakfast then. Rubbing her tired eyes, she decided she was going to eat as she headed to the dueling stage in order to save on time.

“Briar-ni-!” Rien was starting to yell, when Briar jerked the door open. “Yosh! I’m awake, you two cretins, so go get me something to eat while I get ready, okay?” Briar shooed them away.

“YAY! Briar’s up! Briar’s up!” Rien and Karu cheered as they scrambled downstairs, competing for who would complete their mission first.

Briar looked in the mirror at her unkempt hair and disheveled clothes that she had slept in last night, having fallen asleep as soon as she sat down on the bed. Then sighed and took out a large washbasin.

After locking the door and closing the window shades, she quickly showered using a combination magic of her own making. Using [Hot water] and [Heavy Shower] together, she was able to make the effects of a showerhead from earth. Then dried off with [Warm Wind].

Within ten minutes, she was showered, dressed, and downstairs, ready for breakfast.

Rien and Karu did not disappoint as they presented her with a whole heaping plate of pastries of different kinds. There were egg and sausage pastries, cheese pastries, fruit pastries, and a few veggie pastries that they had gotten from the kitchen-of course, after the Old Man had paid for them.

“Uwaah! They all look so tasty~ You two are life savers! Here’s your reward~” Briar said, relieving them of the heavy platter as she handed each of them some mochi that she had made a while back and kept in her time-freezing magic bag.

“It’s a sweet from my home town. Eat it slowly, or else you’ll choke.” She warned as she quickly sorted the entire platter of pastries into a nested obento box that she had made for herself while training under Madam Rothema.

“Uwah! What is this? This chewy, soft, sweet thing? So yummy!” Rien remarked as she immediately sampled the near fresh mochi.

“It’s called ‘mochi’ because it’s mochimochi.” Briar explained.

“Eh? What’s that?” Rien asked.

“It means that it’s squishy.” Briar replied.

“Oooh!” The two children replied, tucking into their newest favorite sweet.

“While sweets are all very good and all, we need to head towards the dueling stage, or you’ll be late for the beginning ceremony!” Old Man Arthur harrumphed as he approached the trio. “Bradley has already gone ahead, so you need to hurry if you want to make it in time.”

“Relax, I won’t be late—if I go by foot, that is.” Briar replied as she slid her bento into her magic bag. “There! All ready! I’ll see you three at the stage!” She called out as she left, jumping from housetop to housetop in order to head in a straight line towards the edge of the city.

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Already there were almost no people left in the streets, as they had all headed towards the huge double-arena that was visible outside the city. The masters had been busy sweeping the arena from midnight to the ceremony to make sure that no foul plays, like pre-prepared traps, were set up.

Briar arrived by Bradley’s side just moments before the fanfare was blown, to signal the Sponsors and the Sponsored to move to the stage. Briar was surprised to find that Laura had been sponsored by a different sponsor, and stood at the other end of the stage.

She waved at Briar impishly, which caused Briar to roll her eyes. Get serious, you!

“We will soon commence the start of the Ten Year Student Contest, the matches that everyone has been waiting for ten years to see. But before we begin, I will introduce to you the people specially chosen by our proud sponsors.”

Briar yawned as she listened to the announcer introduce each sponsor and sponsored person’s name. Then, in answer to her growling stomach, she pulled out a pastry and began eating it.

Pachi! A vein throbbed on the announcer’s head. Who was this person to disregard the introductions which he was painstakingly making. What nerve! What impudence!

Feeling a bit petty, when it came time to introduce Briar, he decided to change the introduction a little and announced “The next group is sponsored by our very own mayor, Bradley Pendrag! And next to him is the young boy who is so confident that he’ll win the contest with relative ease, that he thinks nothing of his opponents: Briar!”

Heh! How do you like that, you brat! That’ll teach you not to be so rude during my introductions. Heheh! The announcer thought with savage glee as he instantly elicited a reaction from the crowds.

“How impudent!” “Hah! Overconfident, I say! Just look at him! He’s a scrawny little brat!” "You’ll see, they’ll fix him in the first rounds, mark my words.” The crowds had murmurings like that going around the stage.

Bradley’s brow broke out into a sweat as he remembered how easily Briar had trashed his prized guards, who were thought to be many times stronger than him at first glance. Hopefully the buy didn’t take things too hard…right?

He glanced sideways at Briar. But when he saw what happened next, his jaw dropped almost to the floor.