Silence put down her phone and deeply sighed, 'She yells at me when I'm late, now the one week I'm ontime, she isnt? This is getting ridiculous...'

She shook her head, looking back at her game. Joining the lobby, she was about to start another game before a knock on her door rudely distracted her.

After lightly slapping herself for not muting the door, again, she asked, "Who's there"

Even though she tried her best not to sound condescending, the voice behind the door was clearly not pleased, bitterly replying, "It's me, Blaze. You missed out on something after ditching practice as quickly as possible."

Opening the door, Silence could finally see Blaze's face. There was a smile on her lips, though her eyes told a different story with a piercing glare aimed at making Silence feel uncomfortable.

Brilliantly ignoring it, Silence left the game lobby, put down her game and asked, "What did I miss?" in her most enthusiastic tone.

A deep groan of the other girl's tongue was the initial response, before she actually answered, "Well, with how 'enthused' you seem, mind thinking back to the whole practice session with other schools thing?"

"Ah..." escaped Silence's lips.

"Basically, with the whole 'hidden nickname' thing and your clearly... 'skilled and powerful' ability... and style. All of us were wondering whether or not it would be even worth it to go, or if we should cancel," Blaze explained.

Tilting her head, Silence repeating the phrase that caused her confusion, "Hidden nickname?"

"Huh, have you not checked the list or something?"

"I did... But both my full name and nickname were clearly visible on it."

Blaze softened her tone - though not by much - and explained, "Oh, then let me explain. The school chose you, out of all the students representing the school, to hide the nickname of. Though it's surprising for some, it's probably a mixture of your disdain towards your name and your ludicrous ability in this event that The Headmaster doesn't want to spoil."

Finally grasping the underlying tone, Silence changed the topic by letting a rather insulting comment slip out, "You seem bitter towards my ability or something..."

Raising her tone, Blaze started an aggressive rant, "Well if that wasn't obvious... You make Root and me seem like fools, let alone all the other mages actually bothering to try with your nonchalant cheat that isn't even a cheat! How the hell would I not be bitter!?"

Getting the picture, Silence listed off questions before reaching a conclusion ripe with sarcasm, "Well... What do you want me to do about it? Lose on purpose? Repeat the same stuff over and over again to make it seem like I'm training in vain since I'll definitely win without it? Just quit from the competition? My ability is clearly too perfect for this event for you lot, as you clearly mentioned, so please, give me something work on so I may make you feelings perfectly soothed..."

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With no comeback, a flushed blaze, who's forehead was creased with her eyebrows making an arrow to her nose, swiftly turned to leave. But before she made the first step, blaze appeared to have had a light-bulb moment, which removed her previous rage completely.

"How about we make a little bet?" she pondered, the faintest hint of a smile creeping onto her face.

Silence tilted her head once again, allowing Blaze to explain, "It's a simple bet, with you going last every round, let's bet on how many times we actually have to rely on your OP ability to save the day. Though, we'll have to make it worth our time with a good prize, what do you think?" Her expression may have seemed innocent as she patted her hands, but her eyes, once again, told a different story.

However, Silence didn't notice this as she accepted the deal, "Seems like fun. The less work I have to do the better, though, I do bet that I'll make at least one appearance."

Attempting to keep her innocent exterior, Blaze happily replied, "I'll talk it over with Root to make the full details of the bet and make an unofficial contract, but this should be fun." Unable to fully control her alternate ambitions, she mumbled, 'For us that is...'

In a stark contrast to how she came here, she was practically humming by the time she frolicked away. With an ironic timing, by the time Silence had shut the door and returned to her game, the phone rang.

Grabbing said phone right away, she accepted the call and listened to Helen's reason for being late, which was slightly more convincing than any that she had previously used.

"Sorry Mel, you know how I was at another school for practice? I got back on Thursday and was bombarded with work. Well, my work only took me a few hours to do, though, my roommate demanded me to help her out... It wasn't even on a course I was doing, so I only just finally got freed," she explained.

"Don't worry about it, I was busy getting yelled at anyway," Silence replied.

Now panting, Helen rose her tone when asking, "Huh, yelled at? What did you do?"

"Nothing much, just annoying people whilst breaking the contest with my ability," She explained, brushing over the details.

Her sister spat out a sigh, probably of relief, then commented, "As expected of my sister... Wait, you're doing the beam toppling, right? How do you break that?"

"I trust you not to tell the other teams, but you know I can mute others so they can't chant. Well, I just learned how to topple the beams with a click of my fingers. So now speed isn't an issue either. One of my teammates just yelled at me for making them seem redundant, so we settled on a little deal."

There was a pause from the other side of the phone which lasted a moment or two. The ice eventually cracked as Helen burst into laughter, "Wow... That would break the contest I guess. Well, I doubt there are rules against it since you're on the team anyway. Welp, our beam toppling team is screwed then."

"Wait, why are they screwed? They could get a couple points here and there you know..."

"The pools for the events done by tournaments are listed already. In OC, BT and CC, you're in the same pool as us with the winners from the lower-rated schools making the rest of it, and the match between our two schools in BT will be the first. Teams have to get to the round of 32 to actually score, hence we're screwed," her sister explained.

"Huh, well, sorry for defeating your school then."

"It's a bit early to be saying that but I'll decimate your school's team in CTF as payback."

"Ha ha ha... Anyway, what happened with that duel you were talking about last time?"

"Aw, are you concerned about your sister? That guy didn't actually want to duel, so due to the tradition for nicknames, he conceded it to me before we started."

"Well, I was more concerned with you getting blood on your hands, but it's nice to hear that they avoided the pointless violence altogether."

"Killjoy..." Helen mumbled, but another voice appeared on the other side of the call. She started mumbling, talking to the other person. And a rushed fair well, the call was over.

Finally free from other people, Silence dropped the phone and picked up her game once more. This time playing it undisturbed.