It was several long minutes before the audience could bring their noise level back down to under deafening. Some were still roaring with laughter. Many of those who had exclaimed were of the older generation of magicians. With the general momentum of the crowds, it was unknown if the noise would calm down to respectful levels by the time the ceremony began.

Briar ignored the occasional cries of “I love you” and “Marry me!” from the front rows. If it hadn’t been for the safety barrier in front of the audience stands, many would have jumped out of their seats and tried to leap down onto the stage. As things were, those who had been brave enough to yell out such words were quickly given the smackdown by the young men around them.

To be perfectly honest, Briar had already set up a noise filter barrier on her person prior to her and Yukikage’s small prank. It filtered out unnecessary background noise, and also protected her ears from being blasted by regulating the volume. She also paid no attention to the brawling in the stands. Therefore, no matter how loudly it was shouted or screamed, the amorous cries fell upon deaf ears.

Briar also didn’t need to worry about some old magician taking a fancy to Yukikage, and snatching her away. As familiars can only contract one person at any given time, if you kill off the one they are linked to, then most familiars also will not last long-barring some few stronger ones, like dragons and mythical beasts.

Moreover, due to the damage to their soul from the loss of their partner, there is little to no chance of entering into another contract with a different person. Such a thing as murdering the owner would breed resentment and grief within the familiar, creating a near impregnable barrier between the newly ex-familiar and the one who would wish to contract with it. And so, although a familiar was rare, it was practically useless to others, so no one would want to steal it.

The other contestants stared at Briar with scrutinizing gazes. As Briar’s noise barrier was invisible, they had no idea that she couldn’t hear the cries in the audience. Briar turned to look at the girl on her left.

“Hmm? What is it?”

The girl shook her head, nervously, and looked away. For someone to be so unmoved after such a display, she was beginning to develop admiration for Briar. Ah, but she shouldn’t be admiring her opponent! The girl mentally scolded herself for being easily distracted from her goal.

Briar had no idea what was running through the girl’s head at the moment. If it was important, then she would have said something, right? She thought to herself. Then looked forward as the ceremony began.

The semi-finals for the magician’s contest were also done by drawn lottery. But, instead of slips of papers, the box was filled with translucent crystal balls the size of an egg. Each ball was connected to one other ball. And when the restrictive spell on them was released, the contestants would channel their mana inside and light up the magic number that was hidden in the center of the crystal. Before that moment, no one would have any idea who their opponent was. This was a measure put in place to prevent cheating.

Since Briar didn’t know anyone, she had no qualms about whom she would fight with. But, since Madam Rothema had placed the burden of monster-dom upon Briar’s shoulders, if Briar was going to compete, then she very well had better win! Her teacher’s reputation depended on it!

This time, it was Briar’s turn to pick first. Since they all looked the same, it didn’t matter which she picked. She could only leave her opponent up to luck.

Reaching her hand in, she grabbed the first one that came to hand, and retreated backwards to her place on the stage, making sure the crystal ball was in sight the whole time. If you did a covert action like placing it in your sleeve, or your pocket, or even moving it out of sight of the administrator, then it was the same as forfeiting your place, which was somewhat tiring, but necessary, to promote fairness.

After everyone had picked a ball, a countdown showed on the screen, and the audience chanted aloud the numbers. Once it reached zero, the magic barriers around the glass balls were released, and all the contestants channeled a small bit of mana into the small crystal marbles. Briar’s number was ‘2’.

Briar inwardly moaned. Of all the times to have bad luck, why now? The 2nd match of the Magicians semi-finals overlapped with her match in the Martial semi-final. Would she really have to pick just one of them?

Briar narrowed her eyes. No, wait. It might still be possible. The semi-final rules were somewhat different for the first round in both arenas.

In the Magician’s semi-finals, you were disqualified if you weren’t on stage before the announcer finished speaking.

But in the Martial semi-finals, there was a five minute grace period between matches where they displayed all the best parts of the previous fight on the magic display.

So, while it was impossible to be late for the magician’s match, it was indeed possible to be late for the martial match.

But still…

“A five minute window, huh?” Briar muttered to herself. “I’m afraid there’s no time for dawdling during the match, this time. Hmmm.”

She looked at Yuki, who tilted her head, cutely. “Are we gonya (gonna) play a game?” Yuki asked, her tail whipping excitedly.

Briar smiled, speaking softly so that only Yuki could hear. “Yep! We’re going to play a game.”

“Goody! What kinda game is it?” Yuki’s eyes had stars in them. “Is there fish?”

“The reward is fish.” Briar said, with a straight face. “Do you want to know the rules?”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

While Briar was talking to Yuki, Laura was facing off against Dempsey. Truth to be told, he was a very tough opponent. It wasn’t so much his strength, so much as his bewildering footwork that was frustrating Laura. It seemed to have no rhythm or rhyme to speak of, sometimes quick, sometimes slow. But no matter what the pace, Laura couldn’t seem to hit him at all! He wasn’t necessarily speedy, but he always managed to elude her fists.

Laura realized that this couldn’t continue. To keep going like this was just wasting her stamina. While she could probably keep going for half a day, She needed to find something more effective against this elusive youth…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“I wannya play! Can I start nyow?” the pupils of Yuki’s eyes had turned fish-shaped.

“Hold on, Yuki. We’re slated for the match after this one. Save your energy for when it’s our turn.” Briar said, while petting Yuki’s head absentmindedly. Yukikage shook her head, and her pupils returned to normal shape.

Then the first match began. Magical light blossomed in the arena, as the two magicians faced off against each other with magical bombardments. This fight was much more impressive than the last one. The winning magician even managed to come out with an [Earth Spike] in the end, which-aimed at the opponent’s throat, swiftly prompted the other one to give up.

While magicians had great magical power, in order to concentrate upon their spells, they usually neglected the strength and speed of their own body. Therefore, a maneuver which required high speed and reflexes simply was not a magician’s area of expertise. Briar didn’t have much of a problem, though.

If one were to quantify the ability in numbers, a magician’s speed falls about 50-60% while casting spells. But, Briar’s dual-class occupation helped to rid her of part of the repercussions. Rather, quick speed and reflexes were almost intuitive for her at this point, so she didn’t need to split her concentration between speeding up and casting a spell. While she did experience a 10% decrease in speed, her normal speed compared to a regular magicians was at a cheat level. At least 10 times faster, if not more.

But, Briar had put a limit upon her physical abilities while in ‘Dorothy form’ as she had now dubbed it. The outfit for today was also a different one from yesterday’s.

Today’s highlights were a cream-colored shirt, coupled with a multi-colored gypsy skirt that reached down to the ankles, attached by a large brown belt in the middle. A red scarf covered her head, with long dark brown braids peeking out from underneath it.

The theme was starting to runaway from ‘Dorothy’ and become slightly more inclined to little red riding hood? Briar decided not to even bother asking Rothema what the original theme was. It was safer to pretend you didn’t notice it at all…Otherwise…you would become Rothema’s dress up doll.

To voluntarily step into an exhausting display of themed fashions, where you couldn’t train your Mana or your martial arts was, quite honestly, both uncomfortable and rather pointless. Briar only went so far to learn how to dress for every occasion so that she could use it to enhance her disguising technique.

…But she would never tell Rothema that.

Otherwise, she would probably get an earful, and a complete re-education on the wonders of clothing: an entire year’s course all packed into a single day due to overworking Briar’s time perception barrier…It had happened once before.

Briar stood upon the stage as soon as the previous combatants had left, watching the highlights from the previous fight being played over again on the Magic Screen. She kept one eye on the time displayed on the Magic Image Display, comparing it to her guestimations for how long the Martial matches would take to finish. It would be best if she could win within the first minute.

After going over her calculations one more time, she looked at her opponent, the haughty rococo miss, and smiled, apologetically.

“W-what is that look you’re giving me! Don’t tell me you still hold a grudge against me for what happened earlier, do you?” The rococo miss blustered out, feeling slightly resentful towards Briar for embarrassing her in from of the entire audience.

“What is a grudge, that I should hold it?” Briar said dismissively. “You think I care what others think of me? That anything you could say can reduce even one iota of my strength and experience to fit your presumptions?...You…think very highly of yourself, it seems.”

Rococo miss blushed in embarrassment. “T-then, why are you smiling?”

“I’m smiling because it’s a pity.” Briar sighed.

“What is?”

“BEGIN!” The announcer motioned with his hand, starting the match.

“It’s a pity that I have to do this…” Briar said as she snapped her fingers and a light appeared above Briar’s finger. But, this was no ordinary light. It grew brighter and brighter, sucking in the mana from the surroundings, until it seemed that a small sun was about to form on stage.

The rococo miss had created a mana shield, but it couldn’t block visual attacks. And so, she couldn’t help but shield her eyes from the display, as she felt a soft impact of wind, which lifted her up, barrier and all for but a brief moment. She returned to earth, and crouched down to prevent it from happening again.

Then the light suddenly went out. “Second match! Briar wins!”

The rococo miss tried to blink the spots from her eyes, as she felt confused. “Huh?” Then her eyes cleared up a bit more, and she realized that she was standing on the ground surrounding the magic stage.

“But, how?” She asked, not understanding why or how she ended up falling off the stage.

“That was such a speedy round! Let’s play it over again, and observe what happened once more. In order to counteract the light display, we have placed an obsidian plate over the magic device, so please pay close attention!” The announcer said cheerfully.

The match was once more displayed over the big screen. Briar snapped her finger, and the light began to shine.

“Oh! Here’s where things begin to take shape!” the announcer pointed out, and the perspective of the display switched to an overhead view of the stage.

A tiny patterned figure darted around the edge of the stage, circling around the rococo miss after her eyes had been blinded shut by the light. The small figure suddenly grew large, and swiftly lifting the rococo miss, barrier and all, off the stage, carefully deposited her on the ground outside. This whole occurence took but a moment's time.

“And the real hero of this round is Briar’s stupendous familiar! Thank you for showing us one of the speediest victories in history!”

Finally, the rococo miss seemed to understand. A vein popped out on her head. “So…. this is what you meant by pity!? BRIAR-” She snapped her head towards the stage, ready to give Briar an earful for using such a cheap trick, but her eyes did not find the figure they sought. She grabbed a nearby combatant and glared at him with red eyes.

“WHERE IS THAT HATEFUL PERSON!?” She roared.

“You mean Briar? She left during the playbacks.” A different boy from the one she was shaking answered her.

“What! WHY WOULD SHE DO THAT?!”

“She was rushing in the direction of the restrooms. Perhaps it was an urgent call of nature?” The youth answered honestly, offering a possible reason.

“…Fine! I’ll go find her myself!” Rococo miss tossed aside the poor shaken up boy, and stomped off in the direction of the restrooms.

“What do you suppose that was about?” The youth asked the girl to his right.

“I don’t know. Revenge? Or maybe she needed to go to the restroom herself?” The girl replied half-jokingly, half-sarcastically. “It’s a typical tournament trope, so don’t go poking your nose into things until after your match.”

“But I’m dead last!” the youth mumbled.