Lily asked telepathically.

Bertrand was still standing nearby, keeping his thoughts to himself, pretending to watch the battles between students from her seat within the waiting area while his gaze flicked about, looking for any potential threats. If he thought anything of her current silence, he probably assumed that she was processing everything she'd been told, engrossed with watching the battles or mentally preparing herself for her next match in the tournament. Honestly, that last option was pretty close to being correct.

Rine, wherever he was, replied, *Let's see... Molly de Olivar, child of a baronet. She's a first-year like you, of course, but in a different class so you've never met. I was aware of her, but since my focus was primarily on you and your surroundings, I didn't quite give her the intense scrutiny I did other students. I can tell you that she was bullied incredibly harshly, albeit not the same way you were. Hers, honestly, was much more severe in several ways.*

Lily realized.

*Bribery tends to do that,* the lich interjected. *Word of the incident never left the academy, due to the main instigator of the bullying being the daughter of a wealthy earl. Heather de Edelmire, the daughter of a member of the ultra-conservative fringe, as it happens.*

Lily could barely suppress a shudder at that: The ultra-conservatives were a small but extremely vocal faction within the nobility. They believed that giving commoners any rights at all was not only wrong but unnatural. They believed that commoners should be reduced to peasants, tilling the soil. No, not simply peasants, but serfs or even outright slaves. They believed that the way that commoners were treated during the age of barbarism was the ideal way to run things. To an ultra-conservative, commoners were meant to be livestock, the property of those who were their so-called 'betters'.

The nobility tried to keep this group quiet, as their views were extremely inflammatory and prone to cause riots. Unfortunately, the ultra-conservatives refused to be silenced. If a full-blown uprising or revolution occurred, they'd likely be the ones to cause it. Ironically, they'd also be the first ones with their heads on a pike when it happened, as this group had little actual power either financially, politically, or militarily. While a small number of the ultra-conservatives were wealthy, the majority of them were practically beggar-nobles. About five years ago, one such noble had caused a riot by saying prima nocta should be brought back. He'd then tried to flee the ensuing riot in a carriage. Only, this noble was so impoverished that he could afford no armsmen at all, and even his carriage driver was quick to abandon him to the approaching lynch mob.

Making declarations like that when you're outnumbered by a thousand to one, and not even having a single armsman to protect you, is just begging for someone to kill you.

Some people, Lily knew, lacked much in the way of common sense, but it seemed that the ultra-conservatives lacked even a sense of self-preservation. Then again, their lack of power or wealth may well be the source of the discontent amongst many in the faction: Some of those families were falling into poverty, but there were more than a few commoners who were becoming so wealthy that they were nobility in all but name, and as Lily herself had demonstrated, a title can be bought if one has the desire to do so.

Commoners were starting to rise while nobility was starting to fall. The conservatives wanted to try and slow or stop that change. The ultra-conservatives wanted to push things back to an age that once was, and honestly was never going to come back in their lifetimes. In Lily's mind, both were futile endeavors: Other nations were progressing similarly but at a faster pace. If you 'stopped the clock' here in the kingdom of Rilmgard, you wouldn't stop it everywhere. Time only moves in one direction, and if you don't move forward, you get left behind. Worse, if the difference in power between nations becomes too great, then sooner or later someone will decide that the nation of Rilmgard would make a better conquest than an ally...

Lily shook her head and cleared her thoughts, getting herself back on topic. she asked Rine. Lily couldn't help but see the parallel between the two of them, the only real difference being a matter of social class.

*You've got it in one,* her mentor verified. *The last I noted of her on Friday was that she was seeing the headmaster to tell him she was dropping out. He's offered to send a recommendation to a bardic school, feeling that her gift with song magic was being squandered here, an offer she was quick to accept.*

*Since then, I assumed her personal drama was over and I didn't have my attention on her, but her three primary bullies appear to be missing from the tournament. The trio are delinquents and are often absent even during important events within the academy, but I wonder if something happened during the weekend when I was focused on you instead of the overall goings-on within the academy...*

Lily asked, turning Rine back towards the upcoming fight. There were still five more fights to go before Lily had to go, and any information to help her prepare would be useful. Since most of the competitors lacked Lily's talent for defensive magic, the fights tended to go quickly.

*Yes, yes, that's right, although this academy is hardly the place to refine it,* Rine confirmed. *Mind you, song magic can be incredibly powerful with enough mana to back it up. Well, that's true with any form of magic, but song magic is special due to how it is applied: Instead of making changes to the physical world, it impacts the listener's thoughts and emotions.*

*A sufficiently trained practitioner can inspire an army to be able to fight against overwhelming odds and win effortlessly, strike fear into the hearts of even the bravest men, or drive an opponent to madness or despair. Mind you, without the cursed item in her hands, the boost her song magic gets is modest.*

*However, she defeated Madeline with the combination of a strength-draining curse and a willpower-draining song, and as you can guess, that is a potent combination. Without the strength to fight or the will to persevere, your friend quickly conceded. When I last saw Maddie, she was already well on her way back to her normal self, so it didn't do any long-lasting harm to her psyche.*

*Just be careful out there: You were literally suicidal only a couple of days ago, so that song may well hit you much harder than it would someone as naturally upbeat as your friend.*

Lily replied.

*What is it?* Rine asked, curious.

Lily admitted, guiltily.

Rine, surprisingly, simply laughed and stated, *I was aware. I had put a small charm on your dimensional storage bag to let me know whenever you pulled something out.* He then added, hastily, *Just in case you succumbed to the temptation to overuse the fat-burning ring, or if you needed up pull out the mage armor or other emergency gear. If you were in trouble or were about to do something... ill-advised, I wanted to be aware of it.*

While she was tempted to call her mentor out on that, she decided to let it pass. He was trying to look out for her in his own way, and since he was the one who'd given her access to all of those things, he had a right to know when she was using them.

she conceded, then stated,

*Good,* the lich replied, chuckling knowingly, *it's one thing to look like a genius, but it is quite another to look like you somehow met the gods and were granted cheat-like superpowers. I'll leave things in your hands. Just remember to remove your earrings before you step into the arena again, or you might lose them.* Suddenly, the lich clicked its non-existent tongue and said, *Well, I found the object, and things do not look good. Not at all...*

The final match before Lily's was about to begin, so there was not much time left. She asked,

*This partnership is extremely toxic,* Rine stated, *but for the object and not the wielder. The object is a musical instrument that was granted sapience from grief and sorrow. On the one hand, that has made its personality extremely mellow. However, she's also a bit of a doormat. From what she's telling me, the wielder took advantage of the contract between them to force it into slavery as a tool for vengeance.*

*The contract is defined as 'Please, place your hands upon me, and play me with all your heart. Take me out to where others can hear my song. Do so, and I will grant you whatever you desire.'*

Lily noted.

*Exactly. Sadly, this instrument... let's call her Luna since she's a lyre, shaped like a crescent moon. Luna was extremely naive and not very bright, so she didn't realize how binding this agreement would be. That means that the only one who decides when it is over is the person who is abusing this power for their own ends,* Rine explained.

After a few seconds, he admitted, *I... can't break this contract without killing or destroying either of them. Only Molly can end this peacefully, and only of her own free will.*

Lily stated,

*Agreed,* Rine affirmed, *just be careful: You have no experience with curses or song magic, and there's nowhere near enough time to teach you anything useful. If you get hit with her hex or song, all you'll be able to do is struggle through it as best you can.*

Lily replied,

*Be wary, for overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer, my apprentice,* Rine cautioned. *Do what you can. I'm going to do what I can on my end. I can't break the contract, but I can try to help Luna with the trauma she's experienced. The last thing we need is for her to be freed from the contract, only to become a threat to herself and others.*

Lily considered admonishing Rine for doing so much for a sapient inanimate object, then reconsidered: In a very real way, Rine could be classified in the same fashion. How often would Rine get to converse with someone who had that much in common with him, compared to the barbarian meat-people who made up the modern era? Instead, she said, half-jokingly,

*Please don't joke like that, my apprentice,* Rine chided. *After my last romantic relationship, I've sworn that madness off, forever. It's not worth it, at least to me.*

Lily considered probing into that, given how little she knew about her mentor's past, but the final round of the tournament before her match had just started. There was little time left to talk right now. All she stated was,

*Alright,* Rine replied, *stay safe, Lily.*