At some point, I struggle to consciousness again. I groggily glance to the Time window that still sits in the corner of my vision, even with my eyes closed, and it reads about sixty five at night, almost the next day. The hell was I doing before this?

Squinting my eyes open, the first bit of light sends a flaming lance of pain through my brain. Gahh, fuck that hurts!

Groaning and holding my head, I'm becoming more aware of of my pounding headache. Even as I wake up, it isn't getting any easier to think through it. Damn it, why don't they have headache pills in this world? Does healing magic work?

I slowly stagger upward, trying to get my bearings, but it's hard to stand up straight. I go to lean on something, but my hand half slides off of it and I barely catch myself with my other hand. Squinting at it, it's metal, small, vertical...

After like five full seconds with my face practically pressed against it, I realize that it's a metal bar. Slowly shuffling a few wobbly steps away from it, I realize that there are a bunch of them.

Before I can manage anything else, I sit down on the floor, so I don't fall over.

It takes about five minutes to figure out that the bunch of metal bars in front of me are the bars of a cage. Why am I in a cage?

A few minutes later, someone walks by. “Uuh?” I try to call out, but that's the best I can do.

He turns to look anyway and makes a surprised face. “Well look at that,” and he whistles. “You've been out like a light for a long time.

Holding my head, I fumble through some words. “I'm... uhh- W-where?”

He sounds amused, answering, “Jail.”

“Jail?” I repeat stupidly. “Why... Ugh...” Trying to understand makes my head pound. I can't even begin to try thinking through why I'm in this place. Grumbling painfully, I curl into a ball and roll onto my side.

That's all I have in me before falling asleep again in hopes of getting rid of this horrible migraine.

When I wake up again, I'm glad to find that it mostly worked. I'm less glad to find I actually understand where I am now.

Why the hell am I in jail?! Did I do something? I squint through the remaining pain and think back, but... no, I didn't do anything wrong. I lost!

Which means... Master Liina... She didn't do something, did she? Is that why I'm here? What do I do now? Will I get to see her again? Are the guards going to sell me off to the slave market?

No no no no...

Anything but that...

I just wanted to save her from that man...

But I couldn't.

I'm just too weak.

I could have done more.

I should have done more.

Even if I had to put all of my free points into Magic, I should have tried harder.

I lost and now Master Liina did something terrible and we're going to be split up and I'll be sold into horrible torture all because I failed. Because I wanted to keep fighting when she told me to stop.

All because I didn't listen to her when it really mattered.

I didn't follow my master's orders and this is how it turned out.

I'm the worst, I never deserved a master as wonderful as her...

I'm practically catatonic, drowning in anxiety and fear, by the time a man walks past. He glances over at me, rocking back and forth in a ball on the floor, and laughs.

“What are you so scared about?” he asks.

“I- I- It's all my fault. I should have listened. I should have been better. It's all my fault...”

“What are you mumbling about?”

I gulp, then look up at him. When he meets my eyes, he cringes backward a little. “W-what... what happened to Master? M-master.” I close my eyes, shuddering. “Master's name is...” I swallow hard again and force myself to say it. “Liina.” Just saying her name aloud makes me shake and curl up tighter.

“Ohh, I get it,” the man says for some reason. “She said there was some ass with a master crest trying to steal her slave away, so she left you here for your safety while she went and dealt with him.”

Oh, she's not in trouble. The crushing weight on my heart eases. We aren't going to be split up. I don't feel like I'm choking anymore.

She left me here, intentionally. Because I'll be safe with the guards. That man can't come after me here.

But then, what about Master Liina? She didn't go with that man, did she? To protect me...

I stay curled up as the man walks away. What do I do? She left to protect me. And right now she's being...

My eyes slide over to the party window. Switching over to the number view, it's about halfway full, slowly ticking up, before dropping again. What is he...

I close my hands on my head. It's all my fault. If only I did something different. Just... I don't know. What could I possibly have done? Run away? I was trapped completely from the moment that man appeared in front of me.

Because I'm weak.

I have to get stronger, so this never happens again.

For Master Liina, and for myself.

I sit, and sit, I don't know what to do. How can I get stronger? I need to fight and level up. What else? What else can I do to gain power?

Then I remember what I told her: Information is power.

I need more information. I was able to hold out against someone ten times my level for as long as I did by taking advantage of the information gap between us. It wasn't until she brute forced her way through all of my attacks that I lost.

So I need to come up with a way to gain more information.

The first thing that comes to mind is what that bastard did. The way he Scanned me, but... more. He was able to get more information on me than a normal Scan. I stare at the metal bars of the cage I'm in and Scan them. I get a window with the obvious information, that they're metal bars.

I squint, focusing harder, despite the stab of my leftover headache. I try again, harder. When that doesn't work, I just keep pushing harder and harder, but I'm just not getting anywhere.

I need to mess with the magic more. I keep Scanning, twisting the magic this way and that as I do, making it reach out differently each time. Trying to get it to dig deeper. Get me something better. Something more.

I try, and try, and try. I stare at the bars and Scan thousands, tens of thousands of times, over and over while continuously modifying it on the fly.

But I'm not getting anywhere.

I know it's possible.

That fuck did it.

There must be some way.

Then, while my vision is completely overwhelmed with information windows, I hear a voice.

“Yumi?” Blinking through the mass of windows, she's there.

“M-Master?!” I shoot to my feet, stumbling forward, into the metal bars. “Master, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!” I cry, lowering my head.

“It's fine, Yumi,” she comforts me with a hand patting my head through the bars. “You were incredible, it just wasn't a match you could win.”

“B-but, because I lost... You... you had to...”

“Don't worry about that. That was a deal between us masters. If that's all I had to do to keep you out of his filthy paws, I'd gladly do it a hundred times over. You're my slave and I won't give you up to some asshole.”

Then she steps back and nods off to the side, drawing my attention to a guard standing nearby. He unlocks he cage, swinging the door open so I can step out. It's only then that I realize... I was sitting in a cage that entire time. I was so wrapped up in everything else I didn't have the presence of mind to be as terrified of it as I always imagined...

I shake my head. I don't care. As long as Master Liina is here.

I want to hug her. I'm so happy and relieved and sorry, I just want to hug her so much...

She would probably get mad. I'm probably not supposed to hug her.

But I still want to...

I follow Master Liina out of the guard headquarters. I see it immediately, she's walking awkwardly, with a slight limp. That man...

We make it outside before I can't help myself anymore.

“M-Master...” I stare at the ground as she turns around, then ask, “C-can I hug you?” going bright red.

“Heh,” she chuckles. “Needy needy.” Her words make me blush worse. “Come here.” Squeezing my eyes shut, I throw my arms around her. She just keeps chuckling, a deep, comforting sound as she pets me gently. “You did great, Yumi, you really did. You're already a better mage than that Rank twenty you fought. You completely had her until she used her level advantage to ignore your attacks. So don't worry, the match wasn't fair from the beginning.”

She just keeps assuring me of how well I did, but... but it doesn't matter how well I did. It wasn't enough. I wasn't strong enough.

“Master, I want to get stronger...”

“You will.” She ruffles my hair, then pushes me back gently so I'll stop hugging her. “One more thing.”

Without warning, she swats me on the ass.

“Ow!” I yelp, fighting to bite back the curse that almost comes out on reflex.

“I told you I don't like to see you like that. There's your punishment so you remember not to do that to yourself.”

“Y-yes, Master...” I mumble, but even as I start to sulk, she rubs my head to cheer me up.

“Come on, let's go.”

“Yes, Master,” I reply again.

We start walking through town, the sun just beginning to come up at the beginning of the new day. Eventually, I ask, “Umm, Master, where are we going?”

Turning half back with one of her big toothy grins, she answers, “To make you stronger.”

What does she mean?

And then we arrive at... the arena again?! Why would we ever come back here?!

I'm completely flabbergasted while I follow her inside.

“You totally forgot, didn't you?” she asks while shaking her head, somewhere between amused and pitying. “It's time for the magic competition.

Oh shit that was today.

“O-oh. Oh. Ok. Umm... Y-yes, Master.” I'm not even sure what I'm responding to at this point. Still amused, Master Liina heads over to the front counter. I... think those are the same men from yesterday. When they look down at me, they visibly cringe.

“G-good day,” one greets Master Liina, some kind of tiger-altra. “Here for the magic competition?”

“Yes.”

“She... is in good enough condition to compete?” the man asks nervously, glancing to me as he speaks.

“Yes,” Master Liina repeats.

“Alright. Please sign here.” He slides a paper across the counter and she signs it. “Head into the arena, you'll be required to grant temporary command of your slave to the event coordinator,” he says pointedly, looking down at me. He was the one who mentioned my rating yesterday, wasn't he? It must be on the paperwork she signed...

“I understand. Thanks.”

Before we go into the arena, we stop in a changing room, where Master Liina has me strip off what's left of the town clothes I wore yesterday, not much more than shredded, burned up rags after that match.

“I'm sorry I destroyed my clothes, Master,” I apologize, bowing my head low.

“The blame for that falls on that ass, not you,” she grunts. “Don't worry about it. I'll buy you more later.”

“Thank you, Master.” After getting me dressed in some plain clothes, Master Liina leans in close and touches my ear all of a sudden. I jolt from the unexpectedly intimate contact, before I realize she's inspecting the earring she got me yesterday.

Thinking that, I touch it a little myself. I think it still feels fine, even after the match. I guess little things like that are good at avoiding damage.

“Ok, Yumi. Remember, it doesn't really matter how you do in the competition. You're here to learn everything you can by watching other mages. Watch closely and learn everything you can.”

“Yes, Master.” I bow.

Then we head out into the arena. The rings from yesterday are gone, replaced with all sorts of different things scattered around, while the stands are still mostly empty, but starting to fill up.

Then there are the mages, standing scattered in this small area near the entrance, and one nicely dressed man who must be the event coordinator. I guess he's basically the judge? Glancing across the other contestants as I follow Master Liina toward him, I spot two other slaves mixed in with the twenty five or so people.

“Good day.” He's an enormously tall man, towering over everyone else present. Gray fur, and he reminds me of the one healer we had one time. I still can't identify what sort of animal his traits are from, maybe some animal from Verilz that doesn't exist on Earth? “Are you participating, or your slave?” He asks. Once more, I'm reminded that every other mage here is wearing some sort of magical robes, while I'm in plain street clothes.

“My slave. You're the event coordinator?”

“Yes, Miss. If you would?” he asks politely, gesturing to me.

“Alright. Grant Limited Slave Command, One Day.” I'm nervous for a moment as she recites the command, but I tell myself she'll be right there in the stands, so there's nothing to worry about.

As soon as he finishes rolling through the usual punishment commands, they exchange small bows and she heads back toward the stands. I wonder if those commands get reset whenever ownership changes? Or do they apply to person with command of me?

I shake my head a little. I really don't want to know... More important things now.

After waiting a little while for more contestants to show up, we top out at thirty five people, four other slaves besides me, and the stands are pretty packed. I make sure to keep an eye on Master Liina, right up front.