I was hoping for a double release, but I couldn't quite finish the second chapter, so I decided to post this one first. The second should follow within one to two days-barring any unforeseen obstrictions.

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“What? Can’t I bring someone I find interesting?” Grandpa Thur asked with a slight huff.

Bradley grit his teeth. “Not if he’s hell bent on wrecking every able-bodied guard I own, no!”

Grandpa Thur smirked. “And that doesn’t tell you anything? A mere brat able to waste so many people so effortlessly should give you a clue.”

Bradley paused, a thought flashing through his mind. “Perhaps….maybe…your saying this boy may have a chance?”

Clap clap clap. “Well done, my little Brad, now it looks like your brain has begun to work again. I was afraid this time, that the damage from your temerity had caused your brain to turn dull.” Grandpa Thur applauded. Karu and Rien were busy watching Briar as she singlehandedly defeated every squad of guards that had the misfortune of encountering her.

“Humph! Why didn’t you just say so!? You didn’t have to make him go berserk just to prove your point! I think it’s about time you call him off.” Bradley said, slightly miffed.

“Well…I don’t think he’ll listen to me right now. I kind of tricked him a little bit earlier, so he’s probably really mad at me right now.” Grandpa Thur scratched his cheek.

“What! Then what about my guards!?”

“Don’t worry, they won’t suffer……much.” Grandpa Thur replied nonchalantly. He had already noticed that Briar was inevitably pulling his punches so as to not injure them seriously.

For someone with so much power to be able to accurately judge how much they should limit their strength at such a young age was like finding a gem halfway polished already. There were already too many young people who over-extended themselves due to rushing into things 100% only to find they lacked the stamina to act later on, resulting in their inevitable defeat or death.

Of course, since Briar was a red class, if she went all out, expending her energy, she could make one large attack of a semi-nuclear scale. But, if she were to try and test her stamina, she could go for two weeks without sleep or rest.

Briar brushed off a few specks of dust after defeating the latest guard troop. What she was doing now could only be considered playing. But her patience was nearing its end. She had already noticed the image crystals earlier, but she had been too occupied with the guards to do anything.

Now she sighed and looked up at the nearest one with a clearly unimpressed face. “Oy! Is this how you treat your benefactors, old geezer!? I’ve already finished your little test, so get out here and explain yourself!”

In the hidden room, three chills went up and down Bradley’s spine. The first chill was when Briar had looked straight at the crystal. This wasn’t easy at all, because the crystals were hidden behind pieces of magic mirror to make them impossible to spot.

However, he couldn’t have known that Briar was used to circumventing security cameras in her past life. This gave her explicit knowledge of vantage points where cameras would most likely be. Also, there were too many mirrors in this mansion. Unless the owner was a complete narcissist, there wouldn’t be so many mirrors in strange places.

The second chill happened when she said ‘old geezer’. Although he might not appear to be much, Grandpa Thur was actually really powerful to the point where no one had dared to offend him in the past, not even kings and emperors.

Saying such a thing to Grandpa Thur was the equivalent to signing a death warrant. Bradley glanced over at the old man, dreading to see his expression.

The third chill happened when Grandpa Thur laughed out loud. “That child is more and more interesting every day! Karu, Rien, why don’t you go let Briar in?”

““Okay!”” They replied, going to a new door that conveniently appeared in the wall.

For Grandpa Thur to completely forgive the two words that would usually drive him into a battle-frenzied maniac, what sort of person could this Briar child be?!!

Too late! In almost no time at all, Karu and Rien had opened the door.

“Briar-ni! Briar-ni! Over here!” Rien called.

“Briar-ni, that was awesome! Especially the part where you avoided the swords of the two guards with the helmets and made them hit each other on their heads! And the part where you tied the ceremonial cloaks together while avoiding blows until the group couldn’t move-I can’t even say how amazing that was!” Karu babbled, obviously freaking out with boyish delight over what amounted to child’s play for Briar.

Briar smiled and ruffled Karu’s hair. “ Just you wait until the Ten Year Student’s Contest begins. You’ll see a lot more awesome techniques than the ones that I just used. Ah, but remember to stick to your Grandpa, okay? I wouldn’t want to see you get hurt.”

“Yes, Briar-ni!” Karu’s face shone as he imagined himself one day being able to do the things that Briar had done today.

Rien tugged on Briar’s hand. “Briar-ni, come and look-it! There’s a big shiny crystal in here! And it shows us pictures!” Briar allowed her to drag Briar into the room, where Grandpa Thur and Uncle Bradley were.

Sly…Grandpa Thur was sly, using the children to lead Briar there. Now, even if she wanted to, she couldn’t be violent. Briar stared at Grandpa Thur, eyes narrowed slightly.

“Well, geezer? I suppose you have a perfectly good reason for wasting my time and creating this huge misunderstanding?” She asked, her voice, although sounding as sharp and cold as ice, somehow seemed laced with fire as well, as though a volcano lay underneath a thick glacier.

“Calm down, lad. It was just a little test to show a bit of what you can do.” Grandpa Thur waved his hand dismissively. “Anyway, you passed with flying colors, no harm done.”

“Except the carpet and wall tapestries that were shredded due to the spear attacks, broken priceless antique furniture due to people being thrown about, and various, numerous broken mirrors, spears, and shredded guards uniforms that all need to be replaced now. I have lost hundreds of gold coins in a matter of a mere fifteen minutes!” Bradley muttered tearfully as he thought of the loss he had sustained.

“It’s nothing you can’t gain back in the betting pools.” Grandpa Thur replied. “Stop being a dried up Scrooge* and act like a man, you big baby.”

Bradley sputtered and huffed at this sneak word attack from Grandpa Thur, but he couldn’t reply, knowing full well that the other party was stronger. He could only grit his teeth and hope that a flying kangaroo landed in the old man’s soup.

Briar raised a quizzical eyebrow. “Enough stalling. I really am not in the mood right now.”

“Ahem, very well then. This man here is Bradley Pendrag, my Great-nephew. He’s also the mayor of Plateau Peak City, and the owner of all the fruit trees in the area.”

Briar examined Bradley. Slightly pudgy, with a nervous twinge in his eye, clothes in the gaudy style of the high nobles, and a ridiculous salt and pepper walrus moustache to finish up: he was quite the clown in her eyes.

“I don’t particularly see what’s so great about him, but if you insist…”She shrugged, playing off the words ‘great-nephew’ that Grandpa Thur had uttered earlier.

Bradley clutched a hand to his heart. “I beg you, stop and desist, before I am punned to death~!”

Rien giggled, knowing that none of the people here were truly angry at each other. Briar chose to bury her grudge until such time as she had ample opportunity to reciprocate her recent treatment.

“I see…we are in the presence of a venerable joker. My apologies, I did not realize that a closet-profession of yours happened to be a clown.” Briar said wittily, bowing.

“Good, see that you don’t forget it-er-wha-I-I mean, WAIT! That’s completely unfair, young lad! Do your words have to be so sharp and pointed?” Bradley blustered.

“My name is Briar.” Briar pointed out, tapping a finger to her temple. “Being sharp and pointed is my specialty.”

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FOOTNOTES:

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*For future reference, the word ‘scrooge’ here means something slightly different.

Suffice to say that it still describes an old withered man counting money; but, his story, instead of being the popular Christmas Carol that Thera grew up on in her previous world, bears more of a resemblance to the Azukiarai demon found in Japanese folklore.

It was told to little children who were too stingy and didn’t want to share their sweets or toys that they would be met by a withered old man counting out his clinking gold coins, and murmuring to himself.

“The price of bread is too high, too high!

The price of a grain of rice is higher still!

I am loath to part with my gold,

but gold cannot a stomach fill.

Let’s put these down and have a look

To see what tasties we can find:

More delicious by far than others

is the selfish ones of children-kind~”

And those children would never be seen or heard from again.

On a side note, there was a case in a certain kingdom where the actions of a certain covert kidnapping ring were attributed to the Scrooge, but they were discovered after being raided and cleaned out by a certain individual…but I am getting ahead of myself, again.