Briar smiled. She already knew what the announcer was up to since he began to announce her name. But what he didn’t know is that he had actually saved her some trouble.

“Heeh? I was found out, huh? You’re pretty good, Mister Announcer…” She replied in a lazy voice. Then she announced loudly so that everyone could hear. “That’s right. Today, I’ll beat everyone here, and take the top place.” She glanced at the other candidates. “That is, if no one here is strong enough to take it away from me.”

After all, it’s boring to win against people who aren’t doing their best. This ought to rouse them a bit. She thought to herself.

She didn’t say it in a boasting manner, but as a matter of fact. There were not many students who could counter her red class level two strength, regardless of her many other techniques. As such, winning the contest was actually quite reasonable to assume.

Moreover, from what she had seen, many of those on stage wouldn’t even count as a warmup. But those who did not know her mistook her logical conclusion for arrogance. And, by those who did not know her, what others could it be other than the other combatants, the martial masters, and the people in the audience. The audience began chatting even more loudly amongst themselves.

“Who does he think he is?”

“I said, just wait! He’ll definitely be the first person out!”

“My Little Ralph will knock him right out of the stage, hmmph!”

Bradley wiped the sweat off his forehead with a handkerchief and laughed gracefully. “Well, well! Everyone here has an equal chance of winning the contest, right? It’s that confident attitude of his that makes me intrigued, after all. Because if he did, then wouldn’t that be really interesting?”

Most people didn’t take the mayor’s words seriously, but a few old masters (cough cough Old Man Arthur’s gambling buddies cough cough) narrowed their eyes and began paying close attention to Briar, who appeared to be a skinny little kid.

The audience jeered. The Announcer followed up the mayor’s words. “You heard the man. Everyone has a fair chance to win at the ten year student contest. But…” He glanced at Briar, mockingly. “Only the strong shall win.”

The audience cheered in agreement, mocking the over confident fool on the stage.

In the stands, Rien, hearing all the surrounding people booing at Briar, turned to Grandpa Arthur with a worried expression on her face.

“Grandpa Thur, Briar-ni is going to win, right?”

The Old Man lowered his eyes to look at his cute grandchild and harrumphed. “Of course he’s going to win! Any candidate that I, your grandfather, puts forward has 100 percent chance of winning!”

Then he winked a bit and said, “But don’t tell the others, okay? It’ll lower the betting odds, after all.”

Rien nodded seriously, and returned to watching the stage.

On the stage, Briar shrugged and proceeded to ignore the announcer even more by sitting on the ground and unpacking her bento. “You won’t mind if I eat, right? I didn’t have any breakfast today, after all. And I’m sure you wouldn’t want me to lose too badly due to lack of energy~”

Everyone who heard this nearly fell over. The boldness of this youngster! To eat nonchalantly on stage during the commencement ceremony! Many were shaking their heads, believing that this person was just a huge idiot.

The announcer’s whole forehead was now throbbing with multiple veins, but he bore it through, ignoring the ignorant bumpkin, and continued introducing the other candidates. Haha, we’ll see who has the last laugh. I know I’ll be laughing my ass off when you lose! He thought, which made him feel a little bit better.

When the introductions were finished, the sponsors returned to their seats, while the sponsored contestants went to wait in their assigned rooms. Each room was equipped with a thin sheet of illusion crystal, which was shaped like a roughly-cut oval. This way, the contestants could be able to watch the battles from within their rooms.

For the first few hours, though, the contests between the non-seeded contestants would finish up in a grand battle royal, where the last fifty people standing would be able to participate in the actual contest. This way the possibility of garnering a black horse or two would be seen as fair opportunity for all.

Bored, Briar realized that this final preliminary battle would take at least an hour to finish. She had just decided upon taking a nap, when Madam Rothema burst through her door.

“There you are! Just look at you! I get you all signed up for the magic contest, and here you are wasting time at the dueling stage! Ah, with your appearance like that, everyone will laugh at me!”

“Then-” Briar began.

“No time to waste! Here, just put this on over your old disguise!” Madam Rothema handed her a scarf that went on top of her head, transforming her from a young man into herself with long braids, a blue gingham dress, and a white apron.

Briar was about to complain about the design, but madam Rothema would not hear anything as she dragged her to the other loop of the figure eight stadium. But, why a blue dress with a white apron?! Now I look like Kansas’s mascot book character, Dorothy!

She wanted to complain, but Madam Rothema wouldn’t understand. After all, it’s not like this world had ever heard of the W*zard of *z.

I’ll work on illusions next, to the point where I’ll be able to change even Madam Rothema’s illusions to something that suits me more. She decided.

The magicians’ side was about beginning to start their own commencement ceremony.

Due to the fact that many parties had interest in both the magic contest and the martial contest, the events were staggered so that once one event ended on one side, another event would begin on the other side.

Of course, battles themselves couldn’t really be timed that well, but for the most part, they would not start until the other side had ended. Briar learned about this on the way to the magician’s stage.

That’s right, I didn’t even think of that! She realized. It’s a good thing I still have a good opportunity then!

Slowly, an anticipatory gleam shone from her eyes.

Shall I go all out this time?

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

Having eaten her breakfast on the dueling stage, she was able to make it through the magic commencement ceremony without yawning or seeming disrespectful.

After the commencement ceremony, all the students had to draw a number. Briar’s number was 145, which meant that her magic duel would occur right before dinner. Perfect. Her martial duel was right after lunch, so she could take a nap before then.

After nodding her head respectfully, she went back to her room and took the head-scarf off. Then she glanced at the projection of the battle taking place. But, then she realized something seemed odd.

The two people up on stage should be the ones who battled right before her duel. She needed to start heading towards the dueling stage so that she wouldn’t be late. On her way there, she wondered: what had happened while she was gone?

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Rien and Grandpa (Ar)Thur had seen it all. The Battle Royale hadn’t even lasted for half an hour. In less than ten minutes, only fifty people were left standing on the stage.

Of the fifty, the five strongest were all wearing the same uniform, black clothes with silver braid. If it weren’t for the fact that these had all been confirmed to be students under the age of twenty, then people would have mistaken them for experts the way they handled themselves.

Many of the audience had witnessed their exquisite teamwork on the stage as they knocked more than sixty members off the stage. For these few to be so strong together, surely they would be much weaker when it came to the one on one duels, right? At least, that’s what the audience was hoping for. Many of the audience favorites had been blown off the stage by these five. If they also took up the top five spots then that would be too domineering!

But, unfortunately, after the Battle Royale was over, These very five were the first to come out for the main contests’ first five duels. Their contestants were beaten into bloody pulps with broken arms and legs, and concussions from being thrown off the stage with great force. Not only were they strong together, it seemed that they were even more strong apart.

And, due to that, the times for the subsequent duels was moved up, hence the reason why Briar’s duel was up so soon.

Already people within the audience were starting to warm up to these five, and cheers for them erupted here and there.

*Whistles* “Briar might actually have a run for his money, this time.” Grandpa Arthur said, after seeing the five subsequent wins from the five contestants. “From what I know of that uniform, those should be The Dragon Clan’s five young masters. I’ve heard about them at the betting pools. Apparently they’re quintuplets.”

“What does that mean? Kwi-qui kwentupalets?” Rien asked.

“It means they were all born at the same time, from the same mother, like twins, except there’s five of them.” He explained. “From what I’ve heard, they’re projected to be the undefeated champions for this year.”

Rien looked worried. “Does that mean Briar won’t win?”

“No, the young masters themselves are nowhere near Briar, but don’t tell them that. The Dragon Clan is a very proud one. Anyone who lays a hand on their young masters would be given quite the bit of trouble afterwards. I hope Briar has a good place to hide after everything is done.” The Old man replied with a worried tone.

“You mean they’re gonna hurt Briar if they don’t win!?” Rien asked.

“Well, they’ll probably try, no doubt. But don’t you worry, little one. Me and Madame Rothema will go and scare them away so bad that they won’t touch a hair on his head.” Grandpa Thur patted Rien’s head reassuringly.

“Good! Make sure you blow them away farther than the mountains are high!” Rien replied, fuming over the thought of people trying to hurt someone who was like an older brother to her.

“Of course! After all the help he’s given us, it’s the least I could do in retur-.” “–Ah, there’s Briar now!” Karu interrupted, pointing out at the edge of the stage towards the figure waiting for his turn to duel.

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While waiting, Briar fished out another pastry to nibble on as she watched.

“Somehow, I really miss hot dogs and popcorn right now…” She muttered under her breath.

The match soon ended, and the announcer called each person to the dueling stage. Whether by sheer bad luck, or by behind-the-scenes manipulation, the person Briar was to fight against was a big brawny man of 19.

In fact, His birthday happened to fall upon the following week, so he was more like 20 years old, by his physique. But the fact was, he was still under 20, and therefore still qualified. His weapon was an ironwood staff capped at both ends with metal. From the cries of the audience, it appeared his name was Will.

Briar was still nibbling on half a pastry when she was called up.

“Don’t hate me for this, young boy. It’s just the luck of the draw. Too bad you ran out of luck. Don’t worry, I’ll win the contest for you.” He smirked from the other side of the stage, as he waited for the signal.

Briar shook her head, good-naturedly. “Nope, I don’t hate you. Luck is really like that, after all. But as for who will win…” She smiled mysteriously. “We’ll just have to wait and see about that.” She tossed the rest of the pastry into her mouth, finishing it in one bite.

“Still thinking you’re gonna win, huh kid? That kinda unnecessary thing-”

“START!” The referee called.

Will launched himself across the distance using his staff. “-you should just leave that up to this older-brother here!”