The wheelchair blasted through the hallways at high speed with its occupants in tow. Tallow's wind mana helped to keep them on course, as well as maneuver without crashing, Jon kept using his gun in order to add more acceleration whenever they lost speed, and Mallory even used his tentacles to grab onto the corners and help make the extremely tight turns of the castle hallways.

The hallways weren’t as full as usual, so they got to the barracks in record time.

They burst through the barracks doors to see a crowd of people. Judging by the clothes, Jon could tell that these were mostly people from the ball last night.

“What the hell?” Mallory asked as they slowed behind the crowd.

“She made it a show…” Tallow remarked as she climbed off. “That bitch…”

“Hold on,” Mallory said, sending his mana away so that he stood behind Jon’s chair properly. He grabbed Jon’s chair and they walked casually around the crowd towards the sparring rings.

Jon saw that most of the crowd were younger faces, around his age. He spotted Lysenthia and her brother among them, even though Jon thought it was weird to know a person’s look or face without ever communicating with them directly.

He also didn't see Liz or Lester around. He wondered what they were up to.

Eventually, they made it further enough to see Macy and Mercy standing on opposite sides of one of the rings.

“Took you long enough!” Macy said as she saw the three of them approach. “We need you to start the match!”

“I’m officiating?” Mallory asked.

“We don’t trust anyone else to be fair!” she said.

“I mean…” Mallory didn’t say much more. For the first time, Jon saw that Mallory was a bit embarrassed.

“I can still be biased,” Mallory said.

“Aw please,” Macy waved her hand. “You don’t wanna see me get hurt either, no matter how much of a bitch I am.”

Mallory groaned a sound of sadness. “Macy, it’s not like-”

“And you’re a real bitch, aren’t ya?” Tallow asked, stepping up to the ring but not stepping inside. “So much so you had to bring an entire audience to be in awe of it.”

“It wasn’t me,” Macy said sweetly. “Really. I was all for this being a one on one fight. I don’t need proof to know I’m the baddest.”

“It wasn’t her,” Mercy remarked. “Some of the other nobles saw us and called their friends.”

“Ah…” Mallory looked at the curious crowd. “Do you want to reschedule?”

“No,” Macy answered. “I want them to see the ass whooping.”

“Me too,” Mercy replied.

“...But, we still got a few minutes until noon, so…” Macy shrugged. “Unless you want to start now, you can figure things out.”

“No, no, no!” Mallory shook his head. “We need some time. Come on, Mercy!”

Mercy turned away from Macy and walked out of the ring towards the group.

“Are you sure you’ll be okay with this crowd?” Mallory asked her. “It’s not distracting or anything.”

“It’s fine,” Mercy said. “I’ve been in large crowds before. This is nothing.”

“Starting a fight in public is different,” Mallory said. “This is a private area, so there's a stronger sense of intimacy with what’s physically going on. I mean, it might actually be good practice for tomorrow. There's not that many people tonight, but tomorrow-”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it,” Mercy said. “Mallory, we need you to help officiate.”

Everyone waited some time for Mallory to speak.

“...Mercy, I don’t know if you understand why Macy’s doing this,” Mallory said.

“Of course I do,” Mercy said. “She wants to injure me before the tournament.”

“Not that,” Mallory replied. “It’s that… it’s affecting Hector.”

“...What?” Mercy seemed confused. “Why… why would it-”

“In Hector’s head,” Mallory explained. “We’re still on the mission. His job is to protect you. And now, you’re his friend, but he still feels responsible for protecting you. Just like with all of us.”

“I…” Mercy nodded. “I never thought of it that way, but I’ll be fine. Tell him when you see him.”

“There’s more Mercy,” Mallory said. “She’s trying to pressure Hector to give up. You could win this thing and Hector could have self-doubt the size of this castle.”

“...He needs to learn that everyone has to fight their own battles.” Mercy shook her head. “That’s what it is about.”

“I think Mallory’s on to something,” Tallow said. “Really. He might have to fight his own battles tomorrow as well, right?”

“Ehh…” Mallory made a weird face. “I don’t think many people want to marry-”

“Then what do you suggest I do?” Mercy asked Mallory.

“Well... if you stick to the rules of the battle…” Mallory bobbed his head side to side. “You could forfeit early.”

“What?” Even Jon was frightened by Mercy’s reaction.

“I know you hate it,” Mallory said. “I know it’s against the Ninja way… and probably the Highlanders as well… but there’s a bigger battle to be won. And besides, technically, you’d be fighting with the same injuries you got today.”

“I…” Mercy was lost for words.

“Remember what you’re fighting for,” Mallory added. “It’s more than pride.”

Mercy looked to Jon.

“What do you think?” she asked.

“...Maybe forfeit,” Jon said. He felt bad since he had gathered everyone to support Mercy for winning, but Mallory came up with a good point he didn’t think of.

“...If that’s what everyone thinks…” Mercy looked at Tallow.

She shrugged. “I mean you could ask Hector-”

“I’m not asking Hector’s opinion,” Mercy said quickly, “although… I can assume what he wants.”

“Come on, then,” Mallory turned away. “Let’s do this.”

They both walked over to Macy, who was sitting at one of the long tables. She looked extremely comfortable and not under any stress.

“Macy, we have something to talk to you about,” Mallory said.

“...I think I’m gonna forfeit,” Mercy said.

Macy gave a face of disappointment that even Jon didn’t think was genuine. “Aw. You got scared?”

“You’re not worth it,” Mercy said. “I’m not messing up all of my life plans to prove something to you. We can fight after the tournament.”

“...Okay…” Macy shrugged. “That’s fair. I think that we could put things off… right Jon?”

She looked at him as she said his name.

Jon nodded.

“You know what?” Macy sat up. “Maybe, since nobody has any plans… we could all go for a picnic or something.”

She reached forward slowly and grabbed Jon’s hand.

“Right, hun?”

Jon nodded to that too. He returned Macy’s light grip. They could have a picnic instead of a fight.

“Why are you so close to Jon?” Mercy asked suddenly. Jon felt his skin prickle at the question.

“We’re always close,” Macy responded. “Right? Like that night, where you helped me talk to my sister?”

“Yeah.” Jon nodded as he remembered. It was an enriching experience for him. He decided that maybe he wanted to speak to his own siblings more. Maybe he would write Ben a letter when he returned.

Macy continued her list of things Jon did for her.

“And then he watched me take my armor off…”

“What?” This reaction was from both Tallow and Mercy.

“Wait.” Mercy turned to Tallow. “Why do you care?”

“Cause, I…” Tallow began to turn red. “No reason.”

Macy seemed to ignore them, pressing forward.

“And then he kissed me ‘Good Night-’”

“Did you?” The question shook Jon in his chair. He looked at Mercy.

“Not on the lips,” Macy said.

“Oh, well…” Mercy’s face seemed to soften. “That’s not a big-”

“That happened under the moonlight,” Macy cupped her own face with her hands. “I was so tired and sweaty after sparring-”

Macy’s entire table shook after Mercy kicked it.

“He can… be with whoever he wants…” she gritted through her teeth.

“Mercy, let’s go,” Tallow said while giving Macy a dirty look.

“Yeah… let’s gooooo!” Mallory said. “We gotta go now….”

“...Nice try…” Jon was proud of Mercy for not being goaded into a fight. He didn’t know that being nice to Macy really did make her mad. He wondered if maybe he should have told her earlier.

Mercy turned away. “Let’s go, guys.”

“I even taught him how to play with fire!”

“What?” Jon couldn’t see Mercy’s face as she turned away, but he was scared.

“Show her Jon. I think she’ll like it!”

Jon saw Mercy’s curious gaze.

Maybe she’ll be happy…

He clapped his hands making a spark of fire in the air.

“Like you,” Jon said with a smile.

He expected one of Mercy’s usually small smiles that she gave him.

Instead, he saw the most intense form of pure rage he’d seen from anyone, and he had fought Raglace.

“You… taught…” Mercy’s breathing became incredibly shallow. “You… took… that… from… me?”

Oh. that’s right. Mercy had shown him what she was learning. Jon hadn’t thought about that. There was no time to go over things, and he didn’t know he was taking that experience away from her. He thought he could share it all.

“Mercy…” Jon started.

“Mercy… chill…” Mallory said. “We-”

“Mallory, in the ring, now.” Mercy said, pointing to it. ‘Or I’ll get someone else to officiate it.”

“I… fine…” Mallory huffed. “Not with any of these amateurs. Come on.”

With a sad droop to his shoulders, he led both Mercy and Macy into the ring. They stood apart from each other.

The mumbling from the crowd stopped.

“...Fight ‘til submission,” Mallory said. “Or unconsciousness… whatever comes first.”

“No weapons,” Macy added. “But we’ll have mana, just to keep it interesting.”

“No weapons,” Mercy repeated. “I agree to her terms.”

Mallory looked at her with concern. “Are you sure? That wasn’t negotiated-”

“I wanna beat her at her own game,” Mercy said. “And I wanna make sure it’s my hands that make her bleed.”

“Uh… no weapons…” Mallory added reluctantly. Jon wondered why Mallory was so hesitant. Mercy had excellent hand-to-hand skills.

“...Adding to that…” he continued, “no eye-gouging or any of that dirty stuff… nothing we can’t fix with magic… and try to keep the broken bones to a minimum. We don’t wanna start a war.”

“I’ll just break a little of all her bones…” Macy said, lowering her position and raising her fists. “One at a time.

“I’ll just break you…” Mercy replied. “Like a twig.”

“Uh, I have the right to call the end of the match if there’s more than a few broken bones… yeah?” Mallory nodded quickly. “We agree?”

“Yeah,” Macy said.

“Yeah,” Mercy responded.

“Oh yeah, and the ring-”

“No ring,” Macy said. “At least after 3 minutes. I wanna see if she can stay in.”

After waiting for a response from Mercy, Mallory sighed. “Fine. No ring. Ready... set…”

Mallory turned and ran to the outside of the circle before turning back.

“Start!” he called, casting his arms to the side.

Neither of the two women had moved from their spots.

“...I did call it, right?” Mallory asked.

Jon didn’t think it mattered. He could tell that Macy's and Mercy’s attentions were completely on each other. They were right when they said the crowd didn’t matter.

Their names are so similar, Jon thought. Wouldn’t they get along?

Jon also couldn’t help but feel guilty for helping this. He didn’t think that being friends with Macy would hurt Mercy. He never had any friends before, let alone this many.

He started thinking about how Luther had told him he had to be responsible for his comrades, that they would listen to him. Well, Jon knew that it wasn’t just that they listened to him, but that they paid attention to what he did apart from them as well. That was stressful.

Tallow had told him about this on the mission. Not to be nice to everyone. Heck, even Sabez was trying to tell him that his friends would look up to him. And now, Jon could literally do nothing but sit and watch as his two friends would start to treat each other apart.

He still wanted to call Macy a friend.

“Jon…” Jon looked up and saw Tallow.

“You’re not responsible for any of this... “ she said as if she was reading his thoughts. “I know what I said earlier… but…”

She shook her head. “It’s not your responsibility. These guys are gonna rip each other apart over you.,. And it’s just stupid.”

“It’s not just me,” Jon said. “It’s Hector too.”

Tallow sighed. “That’s all just to say… have your gun ready.”

Huh?

“Listen to her, Jon,” Mallory said. “Have it ready… just in case.”

Jon understood. He grabbed his gun.

The two girls still hadn't moved.

“They haven’t moved,” someone from the crowd said.

Jon looked over. Now, he could notice Shelly and Cecillia watching as well.

“I’m gonna come for you if you’re just gonna wait there,” Macy said. “Or, are you scared that people are gonna find out how you fight in preparation for tomorrow?”

“I’m not worried about them,” Mercy said. “I just know you’re hiding something.”

“I got nothing in my sleeves!” Macy held up her arms.

“I know,” Mercy said. “But a dirty snake outside the ring is definitely a dirty snake in the ring.”

“You’re the snake,” Macy said. “I’m the mongoose.”

She suddenly punched forward a fireball.

Mercy lowered her position to the right, the fireball just narrowly passing over her shoulder.

Macy suddenly started switching between hands, shooting fireballs from each fist while the other came back to her hip.

Mercy rhythmically moved forward between each fireball, jumping and lowering her head so that she could dodge the blast.

Macy suddenly fired two more fireballs in quick succession, both of them traveling closer together than the others.

Mercy ran around them and beamed straight for Macy.

But Jon saw that Macy already had this planned. Her heel was raised in the sky ready to come down.

Jon recognized it as one of the moves Hector had shown Mercy the day before.

Mercy recognized it as well and stopped right where Macy’s foot would have come down.

It was only a split second until the heel of Macy’s foot came swinging down, tracing a line of fire in front of it.

Jon thought that Mercy had dodged it, but instead, Macy’s foot had never hit the ground, simply curling in as she made way for her fist on the opposite side.

Oh.

“Aw shit,” Mallory said quickly.

There was a flash of fire from Macy’s fist as well as a large snapping noise when it connected with Mercy. Jon didn’t even get to see the blow, as Mercy’s body flew out of the ring.

Mercy… Jon turned, thinking she would land. Instead, Mercy crashed into the wall above the entrance to the courtyard.

Her arms were still crossed in front of her face, but as Mercy landed on the ground, he saw that the side of her face was red as she lowered her arms, and she seemed out of breath.

“I thought she blocked…” Tallow said.

“She did,” Mallory replied.

From there, Jon began to see a slicer of blood on Mercy’s lips.

It made Jon shiver. He had never seen her injured so much before.

“I knew she was holding back, the bastard,” Tallow cursed. “What the hell is up with her?”

Jon was still amazed anyone could throw a punch like that, let alone Macy. Raglace didn’t have anything on that.

“How do you like my Macy special?” Macy called from inside the ring.

“Tastes like a rat’s ass!” Mercy spit out whatever blood she had. “Plus, I bet you can’t do too many of those, can you?”

“I can do ‘em all damn day!” Macy said. She began to hop side to side.

“I suppose three minutes had passed,” Mallory said. “But maybe-”

Jon saw in the spit-second he had of Macy's clear face what might have been a smile.

Is she happy?