"Uh, Lisanna, may I?"

Mathias was a little nervous as he asked, but he sighed and handed the jagged-spear towards Lisanna.

"What's this about?"

"Uh, I want you to try to burn it... please?"

"Just melt it if it's that annoying."

"Ah, just try."

Mathias had been toying around with the spear during the interludes of the fights themselves. There was always some time spent settling the bets, preparing the contestants, and the like; however, he failed to melt the ice he used to reinforce the spear from Jennifer's attack.

And it would look ridiculous walking around with such a weapon that bordered between monster pike and demon halberd.

"I can try, but... ah! C-cold!"

"... Is it? Just use that Flaming Weapon or whatever spell then."

"... F-f-f-fire S-s-sword-!"

While stammering, she completed the spell. It was not a sword, but it was a basic weapon enchantment spell. However, even as her discomfort eased with the fire the rolled off the shimmering ice, there was no sign of sudden collapse - or even a crack.

The frosted exterior, too, seemed impervious, despite it originally being made of the weak, extra ice he hastily formed.

She threw it down. "It's still too cold! Fire Pillar! Burn already!"

... There was no effect even as the spear bathed in flames for a full minute.

"... Hah, I figured," he sighed. "Something happened. I might have trapped some of her mana or something, so I don't have control over it. Except it should disperse anyways..."

"I guess you'll have to wait and see?" Lisanna offered, turning her head to look at Jenna giving advice to the last contestant on the other side. She even received some gold in return for her bets.

"Since some of you got injured today, I'll call off the training early. Just so you're aware, we'll be doing the same exercise in the morning tomorrow. So be prepared. You're dismissed."

"... I'm more nervous seeing her call things off early than just find something else... doesn't it seem like she is planning something?"

Lisanna asked only when she verified Jenna was far, far away from ear-shot.

"Maybe? I don't know, but-"

"Stop worrying about your spear. Let's hurry up and get one of those room dividers anyways!"

"... Then you hold it." Mathias muttered, dissatisfied.

"I can't - it's too cold!"

Mathias was tempted to talk to Jennifer, but she was avoiding his gaze for a while. Furthermore, she left quickly when the class was dismissed, leaving only a few stragglers like Mathias, Lisanna, Erik, Ayla, and a few of the girls that stayed to talk to her and Erik chatting occasionally with them.

"I wonder... today's... Tuesday, right? The parlour should be closed...?"

"Hey! You two! Mathias, we were talking about getting new boots, right? Me, Ayla, and some of her friends wanted to replace some of the things that got broken because of those stupid mountains. Did you want to come? Also, put away that spear already. I already told you it looks a little creepy like that."

"I can't melt the ice - and Lisanna can't even burn it. But I'll go with you guys if you can let me put this thing away."

"Please, I like weapons more than most, but it's creepy," Erik said flatly, turning to Lisanna. "What about you? You wanna come?"

"Hmm, I don't really care..."

"Huh? Is that a yes or a no?"

"... I'll come, but first I need to change. Is it okay if I take a bath too? I don't want to walk around like this."

"Obviously we're not going out like this!" Ayla said, jumping into the conversation. "Hurry up! The shop I want to go to closes in two hours! I'm not going to waste my time standing around here if I can be eating cakes!"

"C-c-cakes?"

"Yes! Cakes! Plural! Many cakes! So I don't have I have to the taste of anything except sugar and fruit in my mouth!"

Mathias nodded, "it's probably bad if you had to ask me to do that."

"Y-yeah - shut up!" Ayla shouted irritably. "I'll ask again if I ever have sand on every square inch of my body! I hate it! And now I need cake or else the taste of sand will come back to my mouth! Ahhh! I feel it coming - I need cake, stat!"

"Well, whatever. I need to put this thing away. I'm heading out first."

"Ah, I'm coming!" Lisanna followed after Mathias as he started down the path.

"Do what?" Erik asked loud enough to get the two girls at Ayla's side interested. It was a simple tactic; yet, oh-so-effective.

"Yeah, what exactly?"

"Mhmm...?"

"I asked him to wash the sand from my body, obviously," Ayla said, seeing no escape. "I'm not walking around like that anymore than I have to."

"That's not fair," Erik started, waiting and gauging their reactions.

"Yeah, why did we have to deal with that?! I even saw he was giving you all water, but when we came out, no one was there!"

"Mhmm...!"

"Well, he just had to jump into the giant ring of fire! God, that was terrifying," she shook violently before turning to the path, looking at the two who still expected a response and hopped behind them. As she began to push, "if you don't hurry, I'm not going to treat you two with the money I earned from beating Erik!"

"Hey! Considering how you won - by fighting dirty, I'll add -, shouldn't you be treating me too?!"

"Nah! Don't wanna! I wanna bath, and cake, and a nap, and more cake, and then another bath, and then a good, long sleep!"

Erik grumbled, but he was passively involved with the girls around Ayla so taking some of her pointed comments was a fair price to pay.

All the while, Mathias was struggling with what to do with the spear. In essence, it meant he had to get another one.

However, there wasn't much he could do with something so gaudy. It is one thing if it was useful and he could eject the spikes as weapons, but it was just a rather vicious-looking, static weapon.

After reaching their room, with Mathias still lost in thought, Lisanna asked, "so... what are you going to do with it?"

"Leave it in a corner somewhere and see if it melts?"

"... I guess there isn't much else, huh?"

"Yeah. Anyways, I'm guessing we're good to wear our normal clothes then, right?"

"Yeah, I guess so?"

"... That's not very reassuring. Hey, when do we got those cards, anyways?"

"... The ID cards?"

"Yeah, those." He did not want to take the ruined letter of acceptance around with him anymore.

Lisanna stared at him incredulously as she stood in front of the closet and struggled to pick her clothes. "Have you even opened your textbook to study once?"

"Well, to read through it, but yeah."

"... And you didn't see a metal card on your desk at all? Natalie brought them yesterday morning, and I left yours in your desk drawer."

"Oh."

He never used the desk. He never really used desks at all. However, he found the metallic ID that he had apparently neglected for a short while. It had his full-name, class, year, age, and picture. Aside from that, it really had nothing else aside from a simple black Majin Academy script on the top left corner.

He tucked it away in his pocket, grabbed some clean clothes, and went downstairs.

"Wait up!"

"You're going to a different bath than me anyways."

"Even so," Lisanna said, hurriedly grabbing her own casual clothes before running back and getting new ones. She looked content this time, but blushed and scowled at him as she hid lace underneath a neatly folded skirt.

"I don't see how that's a big deal but okay," he said easily, "are you coming or not?"

"Yes!"

"...?"

He didn't voice his question. It seemed she was very happy for some reason. He doubted it had anything to do with his actions, but perhaps it involved the promise of meeting for cake? At least, that is what he thought.

Lisanna was more glad that she's not alone. "Hmph, let's see Jasmine try to ruin this city, too. There are enough nice people here so maybe... maybe it'll be good like this," she whispered to herself.

Mathias, naturally, had no such idea; in fact, he did not even say anything as he split off with Lisanna when they reached the divides between the baths on either side of the hall.

He loaded two cubbies; one was for the dirty training clothes that he still wore there, and the other was for the clean clothes he brought with him.

It was his second of three outfits he brought. Even that seemed like a lot to him, but he figured his mother would complain if she discovered he brought less if it slipped out in conversation.

Since the place where he bought his last pair of boots was close to home, he figured he'd stop in to say hi. With a different outfit than the one he left in. He planned that much in advance.

His fatigue washed away from him quickly. He noticed several guys in bath, but there was only one who approached him. Erik, a few feet apart, lowered his head into the water as he flatly asked, "what did you do to Ayla?"

"She asked me to wash the sand off of her. I did?"

"... And as a water mage - one who is especially attuned to water - you probably felt every curve, right?"

"... Right?"

"And?!"

"... It's normal?"

Aside from her overly-cheerful demeanour, she did not stand out in any respect physically to him. However, that brought a new issue: Erik wore a far-off expression as he gazed towards the wall. "So you're saying this isn't the first time?"

"No?"

"And if another girl asked?"

"If I had no reason to refuse, I'd do it?"

"And a guy?"

"I'd refuse."

"Ah, okay. I respect that." Erik conceded without any resistance. "But seriously, gah! I wish I was born a water mage!"

"It's hard work?"

"I know but your rewards are so much better! It isn't fair! Ugh, well, whatever. It seems like Ayla was mentioning something about a parlour after the cake. I doubt they'd let us in, being guys, but it would be cool to check one out."

"...?"

"More importantly, I feel like we're going to be - literally - burning through our boots. Well, you moreso than me, but still. Do you know any place that sells decent boots on the cheap?"

"... Didn't you just make over a hundred gold?"

"Yeah, but I have plans for it! I'm not going to be spending it recklessly. For example, I'll need at least five gold to bribe an innkeeper to let me use a 'good' inn, act like a regular, and another ten, twenty for proper clothes. I've already bought some nice swords, so I can wear those, but that means I'll need something like thirty gold to bring a girl from one of the parties to another place, if you count food and drinks since I refuse to cheap out on that. And-"

"I get it - actually, I don't. But I don't care?"

"Ugh! Whatever, more importantly, let's not waste too much time. If they're not out yet, we can just deal with those clothes in the mean-time."

It had only been about fifteen minutes in the bath, so the four girls were not out yet. Mathias and Erik washed the clothes; or, rather, Mathias washed both sets of clothes thoroughly after being requested by Erik who threatened to induct him as part of his 'Brotherhood' if he refused.

Subtly. They were in public.

It involved quite a lot of covert behaviour, an acceptance of failure, and applying individual lessons to promote group benefit (if only in the significance it represented).

It was both sleazy and tiresome. They even arranged regular meetings in the morning. Just the latter point alone would have barred him from considering it if the first two didn't already deny it for him first. Granted, he did think Erik was underestimating feminine intuition. It could be fearsome. No matter how good one's reactions to amend their behaviour on the spot.

However, more important to all that was that he reaffirmed that he wore a different casual shirt and sighed with relief.

"What?"

"Nothing," he turned to see a familiar, near-white braid. "Hey, Lisanna. Are they out yet?"

Lisanna turned and shrugged. "Ayla started talking to another girl on the way out, so I just told them I was going ahead."

"Ah, okay," Mathias dried his clothes, appraising it with his eye before finally deciding it was enough.

"... That's the third time, you know?" Erik said.

"... You underestimate sand."

"Maybe, but should I not have trusted you washing my clothes?"

"Normally, not a big deal. With sand... I don't trust me?"

"Whatever. I'll wash it again after. Lisanna, are... are you okay?"

"Uh, yes!"

Mathias walked forward. He didn't notice Erik tried to pull him back, but the other boy's grip missed. He looked over his shoulder to see her struggling. She was just dunking the sweat-stained training shirt in the water back and forth, back and forth.

"... Hah... no wonder you didn't bother to wash the sheets or pillows by yourself. Move aside."

"Uh, okay...?"

He finished washing both the shirt and pants to his standards before expectantly raising his hands. "Give it."

"N-now?!"

"... It is white after all," Erik said, thankfully not attracting any attention as he stared like a concerned bystander to her reaction and nothing else. She was hiding it behind her back, but it served to block just one pair of eyes.

"... You do want sand if your clothes for a month? If not, give it. Or wash it properly?"

"A-a month?!" Lisanna looked around to see a second-year student who gave a solemn nod. As a fellow girl, she rose her hands up defeatedly, which prompted to Lisanna to mutter, "I swear if you-"

"Shush. I need to buy new boots. I have maybe two-thirds of the sole left on these and I'd prefer not to waste time."

"F-fine, b-"

He snatched the cotton undergarments, washed them, once, twice, and then a third time before passing it off to her. Normally, he'd do a visual inspection, but he wisely opted to avoid that avenue of attack for her.

'... Even if I have the money now, I won't endanger the fur,' he thought seriously.

He still did not trust Lisanna's agreement to not sleep in his bed. Chancing exposing sand to his fur was not within any respectable fur owner's intent. On must make sacrifices.

"Okay, I'm done. I'm putting my things away if you two are done?"

"Yeah, man. I was just waiting for you," Erik said easily.

"Lisanna?"

"Y-yes?" Lisanna was burying her underwear underneath her training pants and shirt, attracting no small amount of attention.

"... Well, whatever. Are you coming?"

"Yes!"

Again, she seemed oddly happy despite the previous exchange - if highly, highly conflicted.