Most of the arena was silent. No one spoke. The only sound came from Heracles' loud screaming, and even that was steadily decreasing into mostly quiet whimpers.

Down below, several medics came out carrying stretchers. Lady Akane and Ladies Akarshaka and Akarshana were with them. Two people went over to the still twitching leg and carried it on its own stretcher, while four more lifted Heracles and placed him on the stretcher. While Lady Akane went to Heracles and began to use Spiritual Evocation to summon a spirit, Ladies Akarshaka and Akarshana went over to Caspian and summoned their own healing spirits.

Elincia's heart felt like it was going to burst with relief. Caspian had won. She should have known that he would, but even though she wanted to be confident in his skills, a part of her had still been worried.

Does that mean I don't deserve Caspian because I worry for him?

"Stop that."

A hand whacked her in the back of the head.

"Owch!"

Elincia held a hand to her head, which stung from the blow. She looked over at Lady Erica, who retracted her hand with graceful nonchalance.

"W-what was that for?"

"Because you were thinking something stupid again. Let me guess..." raising a hand to her chest, Lady Erica adopted an overly exaggerated expression of guilt. "'I don't deserve to be with Caspian because I don't have enough confidence in him.' That's what you were thinking, right?"

"H-how did you—"

"Because whenever you feel guilty, your face scrunches up like a warg pup," Lady Erica said. "You're not very good at masking your feelings. In either case, you need to stop being feeling so guilty over everything. There's nothing wrong with worrying about someone you love. It's when you have so little confidence in someone that you don't believe they can win that causes problems to arise. Now stop being a stick in the mud and cheer for your man."

"Yes!"

Elincia couldn't keep from smiling. She felt better after hearing Lady Erica's talk. It was natural to worry about the people she loved, but so long as she remained confident in their victory, she wasn't betraying them.

Clapping with the rest of the arena, Elincia basked in her best friend's victory.

***

Caspian wandered out of the arena.

Akarshaka and Akarshana had healed him and left. They'd said something about needing to go back up to the viewing box.

Traveling down the steps, Caspian entered the waiting room. While not very large, the waiting room was spacious enough to give people ample room to avoid others, if that was their desire. As he walked in, he was greeted by gray stone worn with age, two smiling faces, and one worried maid.

"Caspian!" Cassidy and Christo cried out at the same time.

"My stylish friend!" Adesh said, also at the same time.

"How are you feeling, Master Caspian? Are you injured?" Cassidy asked, worry clear in her voice.

"Did you win? Huh? Did you? Did you?" Christo's excitable squeaking made him twitch.

"I see that you have returned from your stylish duel." Adesh said. "How was it? I am told that Heracles is a most stylish foe."

"All right. All right. That's enough crowding around me," Caspian muttered, pushing the three back. "I'm feeling fine. No, I'm not injured. Yes, I did win."

Two gusts of breath were released, accompanied by one exclamation of, "how stylish!" Caspian sighed. He wanted to facepalm, but that would have been redundant. Fortunately, before anything else could be said, the Instructor Murdock shouted, "Chrisopheles and Gusav! Your fight is next! Go up to the arena!"

"Heh, I guess that's my cue," Christo grinned. "Wish me luck!"

Caspian watched as Christo disappeared up the stairwell, and then turned to Adesh. "What do you think his chances of winning are?"

"I am not sure," Adesh admitted, his eyes calmly following Gustav as the cloaked man bearing a staff calmly walked up the stairs. "I've not seen Gustav fight, though I've heard from the students who watched his last match that he has a stylish fighting ability. According to them, that staff he wields is imbued with stylish MagiTech and spirit crystals."

"What? Really?"

"Indeed."

"I hadn't realized that was possible." Caspian winced as he realized something. "If that is the case, then Christo may have a hard time defeating him."

"Stylishly."

Resigning himself to a long wait, Caspian found a wall to lean against. Cassidy remained by his side while Adesh did some stretches away from everyone else. While he didn't show it, Caspian was certain that Adesh was nervous about his approaching match.

"Um, Master Caspian?"

Caspian sighed at the added title, but he didn't tell her not to call him "Master" anymore. It wasn't like she'd listen to him. "Yes?"

"I wanted to congratulate you on your victory," Cassidy said, her cheeks turning a light pink.

Caspian's lips twitched into a grin. For some reason, hearing someone congratulate him made him insanely happy. "Thanks."

"Y-you're welcome."

Silence ensued. Caspian looked across the room at the other people present. Darin was leaning against the wall, much like him, and the large fedora that he wore was covering his upper face from view. He was going to be Adesh's opponent. Having never seen either of them in action, Caspian wondered who the victor would be.

"Um..."

Caspian looked at Cassidy as she spoke. The young woman was wiggling in place. She seemed anxious about something.

"What is it? Something wrong?"

"N-no." Cassidy shook her head. "I just wanted to—w-well, it seems like you worked up a sweat, so I... broughthistowelforyou!" she shouted, finishing her sentence so quickly that Caspian couldn't make heads or tails of it. Her head was bowed, so she couldn't see him anymore. In her hands, which she'd extended to him, was a towel.

"Oh..." Caspian murmured, slowly taking the towel from her. "Thank you."

Cassidy raised her head, but only a little. Her face appeared quite red. He wondered if she had a fever. "You're welcome."

As another round of silence permeated the room, broken only by Adesh's grunting as he stretched, Caspian wiped the sweat from his body. Yet as he did so, he felt a pair of eyes on him.

He turned to Cassidy. "Is there a reason you're staring at me?"

"Ah!" Cassidy squeaked like mouse trapped by a cat. "N-no! No reason. I was just, um, making sure you didn't need anything else."

Caspian didn't think she was telling him the truth, but honestly, he didn't feel like bothering with it either. Whatever her reasons were for staring, he was sure that he didn't want to know.

"Okay," he said, and then went back to wiping the sweat off his abdomen.

***

Christo was in trouble.

As a dirk user, his entire fighting style centered around getting close to his opponents and stabbing them where they were weak: Joints, vital points, chinks in their armor. It was a fast style that required great speed. Not even Caspian, whose ability to adapt to almost any situation, could keep up with his speed.

Unfortunately, wielding dirks also meant he couldn't attack from afar. This normally wasn't a problem, but his opponent was not an ordinary fighter.

Gustav raised his staff above his head, and from the purple spirit crystal affixed to the end, purple energy arced out. The energy gathered. The crystal grew brighter. Lightning like tendrils skittered along the surface. Then Gustav thrust out his staff.

Christo, being well over four meters away, did not have enough time to close the distance before a massive burst of purple lightning lanced from the crystal.

As he dodged by leaping to the left, Christo felt the hairs on his arms stick up. Even as far away from the lightning as he was, his proximity was still such that he could feel it washing over him, like the way one's skin tingled after rubbing it against a balloon.

Human males could not wield magic. This was a fact. They didn't have any mana. However, if given a weapon imbued with magical technology and spirit crystals, then launching magical attacks was perfectly possible.

Christo had already discovered that this lightning was not normal lightning. Metal attracted lightning, and his dirks were composed of a combination of copper and mythril. While mythrill did not conduct electricity, copper did. The lightning should have veered off for his dirks, but when he'd thrown one of them at the lightning, nothing happened.

That lightning isn't natural. I'm not even sure if it is lightning.

Still, despite being forced to do nothing but dodge, Christo had uncovered a weakness with the staff's magical abilities. It had a delay. Gustav could only shoot lightning once every ten seconds. He didn't know if this was because the spirit crystal needed energy to recharge, or if there was another reason. It didn't matter anyway. He only cared because it was a weakness that he could exploit.

Lightning gathered around Gustav's staff once again. The blond warrior thrust the staff at Christo, purple lightning leaping from the spirit crystal like a lion pouncing on its prey.

Now!

Rolling along the ground, Christo ignored the numbing sensation on his back as the lightning washed over him. He kipped back up, and then he rushed forward to close the distance before Gustav could fire another lightning bolt.

He might've been able to reach his foe.

If lightning was the only magic that Gustav wielded.

The crystal changed. No longer purple, it was now a deep red. Gustav slammed his staff against the ground. A wave of fire burst forth, washing over Christo who threw his arms up to protect his face.

Blistering heat caused his flesh to burn. The acrid scent of hair follicles being fried made his nose wrinkle. He would have screamed, but that would have implied that he had the oxygen available to scream. He did not. All he could do was open his mouth in silent agony.

When the flames dissipated, Christo opened his eyes and stumbled forward. His vision was blurry. There appeared to be two Gustav's.

It must be the pain. I'm seeing double.

He tried to fight through the pain and attack Gustav, but his movements were sloppy. Even he could tell that. Gustav twirled the staff like an expert, knocking Christo's dirks out of his hand, and then slamming the butt end into his gut.

As he fell to the ground, his arms curling around his stomach, a glowing spirit crystal was shoved into Christo's face. It was purple again.

"Surrender," Gustav said in a thickly accented voice.

Christo considered his options, but he soon determined that there was nothing he could do. With disappointment tinging his voice, he said, "I surrender."

Instructor Murdok raised a hand as the crowd broke out into cheers. "The winner of the second match is Gustav von Wolfe!"

***

Two people entered the waiting room. Gustav quietly moved back to where he'd been standing before, while a depressed Christo wandered listlessly into the room. Caspian immediately knew what had happened.

"You lost," he said.

Christo smiled, but it lacked the cheer that it normally possessed. "You're harsh as always."

"Sorry," Caspian said, chagrined.

"It seems not even your stylish ability to wield dirks was enough to defeat the magical technology of Helheim," Adesh said. He appeared contemplative. "That is troubling."

Weapons imbued with magic had been unheard of until yesterday's battle. Caspian didn't know the details, but he assumed they'd been created by Karen Hildegarde. As the foremost expert in magical technology, she was the only person who possessed the know-how to create a weapon that utilized magic technology.

"I'm not sure I get it," Cassidy added to the conversation. "Is a magic weapon really so troubling?"

Caspian glanced at Adesh, and then addressed Cassidy. "It's extremely troubling if you think about it from a political standpoint. A nation's power is based on several factors: Its economy, its sorceresses, and its magical technology. Helheim has always had an advantage in magical technology, which has allowed it to stand among the other four nations despite only having one sorceress. However, with the creation of magic weapons, Helheim can now give anyone they want the ability to use magic. Sure, it's not powerful enough to compete with a sorceress, but that hardly matters. If Helheim equips all of their Peacekeepers with magical technology, then they'll have the strongest force of all five nations. This will allow them to increase their power and standing among the other four nations without increasing the number of sorceresses they have."

"It will also affect their economy," Adesh added. "If they make magical weapons available to their citizens, people will buy it, thereby stabilizing and increasing their economic base. That's not even getting into how much the other nations will pay for that sort of technology. It's a stylishly troubling situation."

"Oh..." Cassidy blinked several times. She seemed overwhelmed. "I didn't know that."

"It's not something that most people think about," Caspian admitted with a shrug.

"Adesh and Darin!" the instructor called. "You two are up next."

"Ah, it appears to be my turn," Adesh said. "It is now time to show my stylishness to the world. I'll see you both after my stylish victory."

"Uh huh..."

As Adesh and Darin left for the arena, Caspian addressed Christo. "Are you disappointed in yourself?"

"A little," Chriso admitted as he sunk to the ground. With his back against the wall, he looked up at the ceiling. "I never expected to win the whole tournament, and given how important Elincia is to you, I don't think I'd want to. Still, I was hoping to do better. At the very least, I wanted to meet you in the semi-finals."

"I think I understand," Caspian said. "I was kind of hoping to cross blades with you as well."

"Really?"

Caspian turned his head when Christo, his eyes large and dewy, stared at him.

"Really," he muttered.

Christo's smile, while still somewhat disheartened, gained a level of vibrancy it didn't have a second ago.

"That makes me feel a little better," he said. "Thanks."

"W-whatever," Caspian murmured.

Just then, a pair of side doors slammed open and Erica, Derek hot on her heels, rushed into the room.

"Caspian!" she shouted.

"Did you just use my name?" Caspian asked. "Does that mean you're done calling me Caspie? Finally, I thought you would—"

"Now isn't the time for inane banter," Erica cut in.

Her hair was in disarray, like she'd been running so fast her locks had become a mess. Only one eye was still visible, but it was wide with worry. She seemed frantic.

Caspian felt something unsettling work its way into his stomach. "What's wrong?"

"I need your help," Erica stated with haste. "Tiffa has gone missing."