Her opponent simply stood quietly on the opposite side, as if all of this had nothing to do with him. Briar put what was outside the fighting stage aside for the moment and focused her eyes on him. It could very well be that this would become a serious fight at this point. No wasted movement. Even though he looked open, there were no visible flaws in his stance.

Dressed in black…highly skilled…don’t tell me-an assassin? Briar mused to herself. While normal martial practitioners only started martial training after the full development of diamond bones, assassins skipped the safety measures and jumped straight into training reflexes and killing moves from very young. But, what was an assassin doing here?

Good, it looks like this time that little bugger will lose all his face. The announcer begrudgingly thought in his heart. “For the next fight, it’s everyone’s new favorite fighter, Briar! And his opponent, the mysterious fighter Vex. Who will come out on top this time? Who knows! Match start!”

As soon as the fight began, Vex used a strange foot maneuver to traverse over half the stage in a mere moment’s time. “You’re not going to take out your sword?” He yelled, striking out towards Briar with his daggers.

Briar blocked with the hilt. “I don’t need my sword to deal with you.” She said in return.

Although she couldn’t see his eyes beneath the shadowy cowl covering his face, she saw the corner of his mouth lift up in a sardonic smile. “Suite yourself. It’s your funeral.”

Briar smiled in reply. “What a handy piece of advice~ Make sure it doesn’t come back to poke you one of these days.” With that, his smile disappeared and he jumped backwards, taking some distance.

He hadn’t noticed it until she had mentioned it, but upon examining his sword hand, he discovered three needles conveniently placed to obstruct with the hand movement. Taking them out, he noticed they weren’t poisoned. After a moment, he began laughing. “It seems I have greatly underestimated you. My apologies.”

He cracked his knuckles.

“I’ll get serious right now.” He promised as his speed kicked up a notch. Even with Briar’s dynamic sense of kinetic vision, he was almost too fast for her to follow to the point where the next few exchanges were barely blocked. Oddly enough, even though Briar blocked the daggers with the hilt, the attack still managed to follow through and cut her clothes and skin.

Now several small wounds were dripping blood on her arms and legs. There was even one on her cheek. Briar could hardly see it, but she quickly figured out how his strikes were magically causing injuries out of thin air.

His attacks were so fast, they were creating a vacuum blade in the air. Of course, it was only about the size of a needle, but still it was enough to cause damage to her who was in red class. If she were an ordinary purple class, she would have been dead by this time.

Briar glared at him, finally starting to get a bit angry. But before they could continue, he sighed and said. “I surrender.”

…What? Briar’s eyes became blank dots.

“What!?” Helen exclaimed.

“WHAAAT!?” The feedback from the announcer’s exclamation sent the audience in pain.

“You heard me. I surrender. At the start of the match, he had already pricked me with three needles. If they had been coated in poison, I would have been dead right now, so rightfully, the match goes to that person.” Vex said, logically.

“Um. Well. That doesn’t sound right doesn’t it?” The announcer dithered, but his expression fell when he received a voice transmission. With a disappointed expression, he spoke. “...I have been informed that it’s not against the rules. Therefore, this match goes to Mayor Barley’s contestant, Briar!”

The audience’s voices got louder as they spoke amongst themselves in discontent, but there was nothing to be done if the opponent backed out.

Before Vex turned to leave the stage, he stared at Briar really hard. Then mouthed the words: “We’ll meet again soon.” Before he jumped off the stage and vanished into the shadows.

Briar did not like it. She didn’t like the fact that he hadn’t stayed to fight until the end. She didn’t like how he was so quick to leave. And, most of all, she didn’t like the feeling that his words left behind. As if the next time they met, they’d be fighting a true battle instead.

But, being thirty-somewhat years old in spirit sure helps to see things differently. She could see that he was trying to manipulate her into a loser’s mentality. In the end, everything he did was manipulative to a high degree. Now that he was somewhat on his guard against her, he’d probably be looking for weak points.

Briar grinned sardonically. Two can play at that game, buddy. If, the next time they met wasn’t during the Ten Year Student Contest: she wouldn’t hold back.

Stepping down off the stage, Briar remembered her impending predicament: the many people probably waiting behind that door.

Such an ordinary door now seemed to hold so much trouble behind it. Since there was no need to jump headfirst into trouble, Briar avoided the crowds entirely by jumping back up to Madam Rothema’s room, vanishing behind the curtain.

-------------------------------

Madam Rothema chuckled. “Shy?”

“It’s not like that! I just don’t like dealing with bothersome things!” Briar grumbled, remembering the unexpectedly awkward marriage proposal. “I bet you didn’t have to deal with these things at my age!”

Madam Rothema sipped her tea. “Well, no, of course not. I believe I was halfway through reading out the Grand Library of Aldengur at your age. It’s such a shame that it burned down. Many of my favorites were burned up in that fire.

I’m sure the other magicians feel that way too. If we ever catch the one who was practicing fire magic in that library, I’d bet that he’d be the one person in the world who could claim to being hit by the most spells in an instant’s time.”

---Back in his hotel room, the East Crimson Dragon suddenly sneezed three times in a row. “Someone must be talking about me again.” He sniffed.---

“But, Teacher, didn’t you save most of your favorites in your own library?” Briar asked.

“Puff! Those are only the top ten thousand. My personal favorites list spans millions of books!” Madam Rothema replied. “Or did. It’s hard to say that when half the books on magic went up in smoke that day. I tried salvaging what I could, but there wasn’t much left after that.” She caressed the cover of the book in her lap.

“Since then, the number of high leveled magicians have dwindled. You’re more likely to find ten high-class martial practitioners rather than one high-class magician.”

“Huh? But I’ve seen a lot of magicians around here.” Briar asked.

“That’s because this is probably most of the magicians still left. While the martial practitioners are limited to the students of black-class, the magician’s contest even accepts rogue magicians if they’re proficient enough, and are willing to have a background screening.” Madam Rothema frowned. “It’s also the Mage council’s fault things have become this way.”

“Sounds complicated.” Briar sympathized.

“You have no idea.” She replied.

I think I do though? If the council is anything like Congress or Parliament, then they must be a greedy bunch of crotchety old fogeys. Briar thought to herself.

“I think I prefer it that way. I get the feeling if I knew half the things they were up to, that my liver wouldn’t be able to handle it yet. The upper organs aren’t reinforced until orange class, after all.” Briar replied.

That drew a laugh from Madam Rothema. “That’s a good one! I need to include that in my list of descriptions: enough to kill the liver of anyone below orange class just by hearing about what they’re actually doing.”

“You sound like your reading from a book listing natural poisonous herbs or something.” Briar made a face.

“There’s little to no difference between them.” Madam Rothema replied bitterly.

“Eh? Who’s like poison?” Laura cut in, having just arrived with Master Thales behind her. Behind Master Thales, the figure of a severely beaten and bruised man was being dragged limply.

“Laura! You’re back!” Briar’s face lit up as she gave Laura a huge hug.

“Ahahah, yes, I’m back. But hugging you while you’re in your male disguise is a bit awkward.” Laura said.

Briar hugged even tighter. “As punishment for disappearing on us, I’m not letting go until it’s time for your match.” She shamelessly replied, while feeling relieved that Laura was so quickly found.

Laura was a bit surprised, since Briar wasn’t usually what one could call ‘clingy’, but she let it slide. Briar had often acted far beyond her age since the time she was young. It wasn’t often that you got to see her acting her age. In fact, it made Laura feel a bit relieved. She also saw the rare opportunity to act as the older sister, so she was in a rather good mood.

“Suit yourself. Good day, Madam Rothema, and Helen! Has Briar gone up yet?” Laura greeted the others in the room.

“Yes, and Briar had quite the shocking experience, I daresay.” Madam Rothema replied.

“--Ah, speaking of which,” Briar steered the conversation away from the inevitable tale of that awkward love confession. “The cause of your disappearance: that’s the culprit right there, isn’t it?” She asked, delaying the inevitable conversation.

“It’s a long story…” Laura sighed.

They all talked as they pleased until it was Laura’s match, in which she beat her opponent soundly, of course. Then everyone went to run their own small errands before returning to Madam Rothema’s place.

-----------------------------------------------------

If she thought she could completely give them the slip, then Briar had underestimated the power of a fanbase. They were out there in droves, looking for her. If it weren’t for Briar’s quick reflexes and accelerated thought speed, she would have been caught countless times on the way back from the stadium.

As things were, by the time she arrived at the house, it was already dark outside.

“You’re late.” Madam Rothema pointed out.

Briar sighed and said “I don’t know how you handled it thirteen years ago, but I do know one thing, I don’t care what you call them: fans are scary.”

Madam Rothema chuckled as she replied. “You think? And this is why I moved house. Let me tell you, it’s only going to get a lot worse unless you can find somewhere where your admirers can’t reach.”

“Like some hidden valley in a mountain range somewhere?” Briar quipped back.

“It worked, didn’t it?” Was the reply.

“Yes, but I’m not willing to live a hermit’s life for another thirteen years. I’ve got things to do.” Briar replied, a bit crossly. “And they require me to walk amongst the living.”

“I didn’t see any undead skeletons in the valley?” Madam Rothema winked in jest.

Briar looked around. “Where’s Laura and Master Thales?” For the two people she most wanted to speak with, they were nowhere to be seen.

“Out training again, probably. Master Thales also mentioned something about dealing with his foolish twin brother.” Madam Rothema replied. “But, what’s this I hear about plans? Come, sit down and tell me what these plans of yours are.”

Briar sighed. “Very well. I was going to tell all three of you, but I suppose you have the right to hear it first.”