I stared at the stage as the girl proudly stood in front of the crowd. “So… You want me to stand on stage… wearing that? And just like pose and stuff? Uhm…”

“Prove to me that you really could take down my sister alone. And I will help you do it.”

“With a bodybuilding competition?”

“What would be better? The ultimate test of mental strength and physical durability.”

“Bodybuilding?” ‘It just occurred to me that the terminology here is probably—’ I turned my eyes to the stage to watch a girl take a bartering ram head-on just by lowering her shoulder against the ram's weight as it swung into her. ‘They want me to do that? In a way… I think I’m actually more worried…’

“This is stupid, why should I waste time when I can just start working towards taking her down?”

“If you win you get a ton of marks.”

“I’m in.”

Everyone froze as if somehow surprised by my sudden change of mind. ‘What… Marks are important, right? And there’s no downside to trying…’ “Can you explain what I’m looking at right now?” The crowd cheered as the ram eventually split in two and the event ended with the girl leaving the stage.

“Sure, see that girl? She is the referee and the test administrator. She is going to be the one testing their body's strength.”

“How is she going to do that?”

“This next event is called the heavy hand. She wears an iron gauntlet and strikes each contestant 4 times. Although strikes to the head won’t happen in these events since we are all under 18”

‘Oh… Well thank goodness for safety precautions…’ “What are the other events…” I hesitated to ask, but like I always said it’s better to know than to not.

“Well, the events for each competition are different, generally speaking though, they will test your resistance to blunt attacks, and slashing attacks, your heat and cold resistance, your reflex time, and finally your will.”

“Ok… I can win at least four of those. Winning four out of six should put me in first right?”

Another pause fell over the conversation as he awkwardly smiled. “Just competing would be enough, but you can’t drop out of your own will. If you do that I won’t help.”

“Seems easy enough.” ‘I’m starting to get excited… This makes me a bit concerned about my mental health… Maybe I just miss competing on stage.

“I look forward to watching you.”

“That reminds me, Kai” Gild interrupted. “You're here to watch Lilly compete right? Where is she?”

“She’s up next I think… She… Really makes me nervous sometimes you know?”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

I looked up onto the stage to see a girl taking hits from the iron gauntlet, hardly even moving at all.

“Ahh, there she is…” The girl they were referring to had long wavy green hair and was small-statured, although still closer to my sister than me.

“Any bets this time Airsidh?”

“Three,” He replied.

“Then I'll bet two”

‘What are they betting?’ “Kai… What do they mean.”

“They're placing bets on how many hits they think she can take before the referee calls the event for her.”

“They don't believe in her? I thought she was your friend.”

“She is… But while I hope she makes it through, not even I think she will. Look at her. She isn't weak, don't get me wrong. But she is hardly taller than you, and she is quite a bit older as well which means-”

‘Right… It was a stupid thing to say. There’s a huge difference between what you want and reality…’

Before he could finish his sentence a dead silence fell over the crowd. I looked up to see her on her knees clutching her stomach. She vomited all over the stage, but stood up once more, ready to take another hit, she put her hands behind her back and stared the judge dead in the eyes.

The judge just pointed and she walked off the stage.

“Just one?”

“This… is how it always ends, I'm afraid. Siya, I don't expect you to be able to win. But show me that you can do the same thing that she just did, and I’ll help you, whenever you need it.”

‘Whenever I need it now? Instead of just this once? He really knows how to give motivation, but…’ “Can’t you just punch me in the stomach now… Do I really have to compete? It seems a bit dramatic…”

He chuckled nervously. “Well, for starters your brother would kill me… Honestly, I don’t think I need another reason to not do that… We should be able to go and see Lilly now if you want. She might be able to give you some advice.”

“Right…” ‘Wait… So was Airsidh joking earlier or not?’

We walked through the crowd and behind the stage where several tents were set up. Eventually, we came upon a small Green and red tent with golden trimming and the words. “Hanging shield” written on the top

As soon as we walked in the tent Lilly was already laughing. “Kai, good to see you! What's this, you made a friend, oh good for you I'm so proud!”

Kai’s eyebrow twitched, “Lilly, meet Siyasavede, She's the little sis that Airsidh was always talking about.”

‘What about Lu?’ I looked back at him and he simply turned away as if trying to act inconspicuous.

“Wait, you mean the one that beat him in a swordfight and was totally going to be number one in her class?”

“No, the other one.”

“Oh…”

My face fell flat as I continued to stare at him and he completely turned away. ‘I see how it is… But what did he say about me then?’

An awkward silence filled the room as I came to grips with the fact that I was as of that moment ‘the other one.’ She almost seemed disappointed. It became pretty clear what Airsidh thought of Lu… But I still couldn't tell what he had said about me. “So… the mystery girl?” Lilly finally continued, looking over at me.

“Right, that one.”

“Well, what do you want with me runt?” her tone was insulting, even her words were not very nice. To add fuel to the flame, she was a commoner, at least if she was in my brother's guild that was the case. It almost felt like she was trying to make me mad. But the smile she was giving off was real, and despite it all, she wasn’t appearing half as hostile as Kai did, so it was easy to let go.

‘I’m getting sick of explaining this already…’ “Long story short, I'm entering the next contest here, Kai thought you would help me out.”

“A little girl like you?”

“A little girl like you…” I repeated her statement, reminding her she was hardly any larger.

She laughed it off, “You make a fair point, alright then, I'll help you out. The judge disqualified me from this one anyway.”

“She what! No way… Why would he ever do that to you?” Kai said sarcastically, probably rubbing in how common it was.

She just sighed, brushing it off as her eyebrow started to twitch in the same way he had earlier. “Yeah, this one was going to get pretty ugly in the later rounds apparently. No surprise, the reward for first place is 1000 marks.”

“1,000” I muttered. I felt a smile creep across my face. ‘So that’s what he meant by a ton.’ “Is it the same for mine?” I asked excitedly.

“You're next so you're in the youngest age group right?” I think that for you kids they actually have a reward for how many contestants you did better than, instead of for winning. It doesn't really make much sense but this school kinda rolls like that, you get used to it. Are you sure you want to enter though? Not trying to be rude just want to make sure you thought this through and all…”

I sighed, “Kai said I had to, so I might as well just get it over with… Sorry, you probably wanted a more direct answer… Yeah, I’m sure… We made a deal, so I have to hold up my end.”

She shot an angry glance at him before calming down again, rubbing a particularly nasty bruise that was already showing on her shoulder. “Kai, you should go wait in the crowd again, pipsqueak needs to focus and we don't have a whole lot of time.”