The cat girl's pale green eyes lit up at my entry into the meditation room. It had been a while since she last saw me. Kalistra started walking in a circle around me, sniffling with her nostrils at the funny odors emanating from my body. She also poked, prodded, and even scratched at my studded leather armor.

Despite her provocations, I stood still like one of those stone guardians in front of the dojo. I knew that if I moved and disrupted Kalistra's inspection, she would poke at my shoulder again. Thus, I pretended that the heir was a military officer doing an inspection.

Abruptly, the fickle cat girl backed away from me. Kalistra turned her head toward Maisen, whose eyes were dancing with amusement at the cat girl's reaction to my new appearance.

"Is the armor a loaner from the Watch?" Kalistra asked.

"Yes," the Watch captain nodded.

"The armor is surprisingly well-maintained for a loaner," the heir remarked.

"Our blacksmith, Bis, takes great pride in his work. He took Lawrence's physical measurements and personally chose this chest piece for your pupil to wear. Considering how much trouble this nobleman attracts as a player character, he has to wear at least some decent armor in order to survive. But the loaner piece he is wearing is more than decent. It's rated 'A-,' and reserved solely for VIPs to wear," Maisen explained. Her mind returned to the moment when Lawrence received this loaner, and Giudot and Sankryn reacted with extreme displeasure and jealousy at the new recruit's new armor until their own armors were upgraded, too.

Maisen refocused her attention to an important matter. Her face turned serious as she offered a slight bow to the heir of the dojo and then a much deeper bow to the grandmaster. "Thank you for seeing me on such short notice. I bring a letter from Bishop Canterbury with an unofficial request." The warrior pulled free of the letter that she had slipped into her waist pouch, and gave the small white envelope to Kalistro.

The cat man looked at the back of the envelope and confirmed that the holy seal of a red cross was still intact across the flap. With a claw, he broke the seal and pulled out the handwritten letter to read it. His expression remained calm as his lime-green eyes darted back and forth over the writing. When he was finished, Kalistro passed the letter to his daughter.

As Kalistra read the letter, her ears flickered and her whiskers twitched.

The father watched silently as his daughter read the letter and sighed inwardly at her inability to hide her emotions. It was the one thing that Kalistra was unable to do. He will have to remind her to focus on her inner peace and serenity later tonight.

When the heir finished reading the bishop's letter, she handed it back to her father and gave him a look. "We have a problem," she said quietly.

Kalistro smiled, baring his sharp teeth. "Not necessarily," he disagreed.

"What's going on?" I asked. I hated being kept the dark, especially when the subject matter was ME!

"His Grace has notified us of your divine mission for Lady Musa and the need for you to take a leave of absence from the dojo. It was thoughtful of him to ask for permission," the cat man commented. Kalistro was cognizant of the fact that Maisen was an indirect member of the Church now, and she was duty-bound to report his reaction to the Bishop's request. Thus, it would cast the school in a better light if the grandmaster appeared amenable to the Bishop's request.

"Yeah, right," Kalistra hissed and waved her hand dismissively. "The Church is the governing body in this town and therefore, Bishop Canterbury is the de facto mayor of Tregome. We can't deny his request for leave on Lawrence's behalf even if we wanted to. The dojo supplements its income by renting out its pupils as part-time, auxiliary members of the Watch. If that source of income dries up, then we will be forced to offer our senior pupils for hire as guards for merchants running their trade routes. That, in turn, would delay their progress and advancement in swordsmanship because their part-time jobs will pull them away from Tregome and their classes at the school. The bishop knows that we can't turn down his request to borrow Lawrence for a Church mission. He is purposely backing us into a corner," she speculated.

"You are right to be cautious of the bishop, my daughter. The Church will act in its own interests rather than the school. Furthermore, it is proper for Bishop Canterbury to prioritize the needs of the Church given his position as head of the local church in Tregome. I would act similarly if I was in his position. However, in this particular instance, we were already planning to send Lawrence away. Thus, it would be no trouble for him to perform Church tasks during this journey. Lawerence can do both. What's that old human saying? Kill two birds with one stone?" Kalistro asked.

My ears perked up at his stated intention to send me away. How come nobody told me anything? I fumed silently at the way everyone was making decisions for me without my own personal input! This father and daughter duo was almost as bad as Musa and Bane!

"I would rather eat the birds," she huffed and ignored Maisen's guffaw at this remark.

"So where am I going?" I interrupted. I was in no mood to ask politely, not when the people inside this gaming world cared not a whit for what I wanted to do. Honestly, I hated traveling; I would prefer spending more time learning swordsmanship at the dojo during the day, and then take a nice, relaxing bath with Amelica at the bath house after dinner. Alas, it was not to be.

Father and daughter eyed each other for a long, pregnant moment before Kalistra finally broke off eye contact.

Kalistra wanted her dad to talk to Lawrence because she was fully aware of my rising anger. She felt that the grandmaster would do a better job to calm me down. However, his return look told her that it was her responsibility as both Lawrence's liegeman and his instructor to deliver the bad news to the nobleman. "It's a tradition for dojos to send at least one student to enter the annual tournament," she began meekly. "It is a way for the schools to show off through the accomplishments of their pupils."

"And the commoners love these tournaments because they generate many betting opportunities when onlookers try to predict which fighters will win each division in the tournament," Maisen added.

"The Church, as the official sponsor of these tournaments, also generate income from charging admission to watch the matches," Kalistra pointed out.

"Originally, we planned to send Maisen as our representative," the grandmaster said, desperately seeking to regain control over the direction of the conversation.

"But since she was appointed to the position of Watch captain and had to withdraw from our school, Maisen no longer qualified to enter the tournament on our behalf," Kalistra continued.

Uh-oh! I quickly realized where the two were going with this. "You want ME to enter the fighting tournament?" I blurted out incredulously.

"I'm so glad you agree to enter," Kalistra grinned as her eyes light up.

Damn, the evil cat girl had reappeared! "What makes you think I'm qualified to represent our school?" I protested. "I only joined like three days ago!"

"That's very true, young one, but there is an important reason why we decided to send you," Kalistro replied.

"You're expendable," Kalistra spat out.

The father glared at his wayward daughter and she wilted under his scrutiny. "What my daughter meant to say was that you are the best choice to represent us this year," he explained more artfully.

"Go on." I folded my arms. I noticed Maisen covering her mouth to stifle a laugh and I shot daggers at her. Then I returned my attention to the grandmaster.

"The Melee Tournament has four divisions: Initiate, Adept, Journeyman, and Master. The Initiate division is open to any swordsman of level five through nine; Adept from ten through fourteen; Journeyman from fifteen through nineteen; and finally Master at level twenty and above," Kalistro said. "Originally, we planned to enter Maisen in the Journeyman division because we felt that she was a very strong fighter with an excellent chance to win her division."

Maisen blushed at the high praise from the grandmaster.

"After her disqualification so close to the event, we searched hard for alternate candidates. As you probably heard already, Kalistra won the Master division two years ago and skipped out last year as a judge for the event. If she skips out again this year, then the Butterfly School will be subject to ridicule from its rivals within the kingdom and we will lose face. Thus, my daughter has to attend this year as a judge."

"I can't send our other master, Gurgne, to the tournament because he has to stay in town in case one of our pupils is kidnapped by an enemy of the school. Consequently, the Butterfly School has no viable candidate for the Master division. At the Journeyman level, aside from Maisen, we have someone serving as an instructor to our apprentices and he can't leave town either. While the majority of our pupils are at the Adept level, all of them work part-time for the Watch and none of them could afford to leave to join the tournament. And frankly, just between you and me, I don't think any of them has mastered enough of our school's techniques to advance very far even if one of our pupils agrees to enter the Adept division."

"And now, we turn our attention to the Initiate division. You are the first candidate that we considered sending because you stand out so much compared to everyone else. You were engaged in a life-and-death match against a wererat leader, a much stronger opponent than anyone you will face at the tournament and won. We also heard about your trial by combat earlier this afternoon with a Watchman, and again you won against a stronger opponent as well. With your high intelligence and the divine blessing from Lady Luck still active, you can learn more sword techniques from us to use at the tournament. These skills, when used at the right moments, will give you the winning edge against any opponent in your tournament matches. Thus, we think you have the best chance of any Initiate-level student at our dojo to succeed at the Melee Tournament. And it would be dishonorable for us to send a less able student to enter the competition in your place," the grandmaster concluded.

"BUT," Kalistra quickly raised her paw, "we're not expecting you to win the entire division. You're good for an Initiate swordsman, but you have a long way to go to take your division."

"Yes," the father nodded, "we only ask that you win the first match. Even if you end up losing your second match, you would have shown the onlookers enough of our Butterfly School's techniques to entice the commoners to consider sending their children to become our apprentices. This is your primary goal in entering the tournament. That being said, we will give you additional training. By the time you leave in two days, you'll be ready," he assured me.

"WHAT!" I blurted out in surprise. "You want me to leave town in two days?" I shook my head vigorously to object. This changed everything!

"Actually, it's more like one day," the cat girl corrected me. Her tail dangled happily at my discomfort. "You will spend the majority of tomorrow in training. We will leave town the day after that. Thankfully, this year's Melee Tournament is being held at Bristol, which is only one day's travel time away from Tregome. If the tournament is held further out in the east, then we will be on the road by now."

Suddenly, the church bell tolled ten times. It was now ten hours after noon.

"Oh, boy!" Maisen said in response to the bell. "It's curfew. I need to head back out and start patrolling the streets."

"I need to go home," I noted.

"You can't," the trio replied in unison.

"In Tregome, the Church has declared a ten o'clock curfew for the safety of the residents. Only members of the Watch are permitted to be on the streets after curfew. Anyone else found walking the street at this time will be arrested and jailed. You need to stay at the dojo for the night," the captain explained. She slid the wall panel over to create an exit. "I bid you all a fair evening," she said and left the room.

"Oh, great! Am I stuck here tonight? I haven't had dinner yet!" I complained.

"What a crybaby," Kalistra muttered as she dug into her waist pocket and pulled out something. "Here!" she tossed it at me.

Somehow, I managed to catch it. It was a dried piece of meat. "What's this?" I asked as I squeezed it; it was extremely hard.

The cat girl rolled her eyes at my stupid question. "It's a beef jerky. This is your dinner. You're our pupil and we're responsible for your overnight stay at the dojo. Besides, if your stomach starts growling you'll keep us all awake at night."

I pulled my arm back and prepared to throw the obviously inedible food back at the little minx when my stomach suddenly rumbled. Loudly. I saw Kalistra smirk as she watched me slowly eat the hard-as-a-rock beef jerky.

"Please have some tea." The grandmaster passed me a large cup of tea.

"Thank you, grandmaster," I replied gratefully as I started dipping the remaining piece of dried meat into the liquid to soften it up. Kalistra's whiskers twitched but she kept silent as I struggled mightily to finish my small and inadequate meal for dinner. No wonder she went to The Noble Lady for breakfast and lunch! For a moment, I pitied Kalistra for living in the dojo because apparently, the place either lacked a kitchen to properly prepare meals or a chef to cook for them.

"When you're finished with your meal, you can stay in this room for the night," Kalistro said as he patted me gently on the back. "We'll wake you in the morning. Until then, I bid you a fair evening." The grandmaster left the room through a different sliding panel.

Kalistra followed her dad without saying a word to me.

However, I noticed the way her tail dangled in the air behind her. Oh-no! I felt a sense of dread as I recalled her previous lessons. Will I be able to survive a full day of lessons from Kalistra?