After Briar entered through the doorway, and could not be seen, she quickly whipped the kerchief off her head, tucking it into her magic bag. Lucky that she did, because not three seconds later a crowd of men burst around the corner and passed her by.

“She shouldn’t have gotten far, right?”

“Such a talented magician, I must bring her into the family.”

“WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!? IT IS I THAT SHALL BRING HER INTO MY FAMILY!”

Then, the crowd began to fight amongst themselves over who would have the honor of capturing ‘Lady’ Briar, not knowing that their ‘lovely lady’ was walking away un-accosted. Idiots. Who would marry the likes of you? Briar stuck out her tongue as if a bitter taste resided there.

As she walked back to the place where Madam Rothema, the Old Man, and the children were, she looked up at the sky.

Marriage, huh? I’d completely forgotten. But since I’m a noble, I’ll have to think about it soon. As much as I do love my parents, I cannot enjoy the idea of having a fiancé or a marriage partner decided behind my back. She smiled. Looks like I’ll have to have a few long talks with my parents about this.

-----

“ACHOO!” Sir Maverick rubbed his nose, suddenly shivering for a moment.

“Have you caught a cold, dear?” Mother Helen asked, concerned.

“No, I don’t think so-” He shivered again. “H-how about we put these marriage proposals to the side for now and wait until Thera gets back, okay?”

“Why, whatever is the matter? I thought we were going to find the perfect husband for our daughter.” Mother Helen asked.

“Ah, no...it’s just that I have a bad feeling about this. We don’t know which of these is right for her…what if we choose the wrong one and make her hate us?” Sir Maverick said seriously.

Helen looked him straight in the eyes and said in a slightly darker manner. “Tell the truth, dear.”

“It’s not fair! I want to spend some more time with my baby girl before she becomes estranged from me!” Sir Maverick placed his head in his arms and sobbed.

“I’m sure that she’ll be fine. She’s out little genius, after all.” Mother Helen said, looking down at the marriage proposals. “All right, fine. We’ll stop looking through these.”

“Really! You’re the best, honey!” Sir Maverick almost leapt out of his chair at her, but was stopped by a raised hand. “Please, dear. You know we can’t do that for now.” Helen said as she put the proposal documents to the side, exposing her rounded stomach.

“Ahaha, that’s right. I wonder if Thera’s little brother will be born before she returns?” Sir Maverick chuckled, and hummed a little tune in high spirits as he took over clearing away the proposal documents.

Helen glared at him. “It’s not going to be a baby brother! It’s definitely going to be a baby sister!”

“But the midwife said that stomachs that are round like a watermelon usually give birth to baby boys-” Sir Maverick placed the proposals up on the highest shelf of the third bookcase. Then he turned around and sweat dropped down the back of his neck when he saw a familiar dark aura begin to radiate from Helen.

“Ah, I get it, I get it! Whether it’s a girl or a boy, though, it’s our child, and I will love it no matter what.” Sir Maverick reassured Helen.

And this time, no king’s order is going to separate me from my children again! He thought to himself, beginning to daydream of what he will do when his child is born.

“Alright, now that you’re done putting those away, you can grab the documents down from the top shelf of the fourth bookcase.” Helen said.

Sir Maverick froze. “Ah, but you said…”

“I said we’ll stop looking through the ones for Thera. I never said that we would stop entirely.” Helen said, taking a sip of herbal tea.

“Instead, we’ll begin searching for a good match for our eldest daughter, Margie. It’s not good for the younger daughter to be married before the older one, after all.” Helen announced.

Sir Maverick almost fell over. “You mean there’s more papers to go through?”

Before Helen could glare at him, though, he took down the indicated box, carefully wiping off the dust so that his wife wouldn’t sneeze. After he set it down upon the desk, Helen immediately opened the box, her eyes beginning to shine like a cat looking for its prey as she began poring over the marriage proposals for Margie.

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Margiiee! Theraaa! Come back soon before Mama gets out of control! Sir Maverick cried out inside his heart.

------------------------------------

Briar sat with everyone in Madam Rothema’s parlor, drinking the tea that she had brewed herself alone with Madam Rothema, Master Thales, the Old Man, Laura, and the children.

“So, The-er I mean ‘Briar’, what happened after you fell down into the abyss?” Laura asked, curious. "After you fell, it kind of crusted back over, as if it had never been there. After Master Thales had taken us somewhere safe, he went back and tore the whole area apart looking for the entrance to the abyss, but he couldn’t find so much as even a fault line!”

“Ah. That.” Briar said, remembering. “Well, if you want the specifics of it, then the Old Man knows more about it than me.” She nodded her head towards Grandpa Arthur.

“But the short of it is that the place I fell was a special layer underground that moves under the earth’s crust. So, even five minutes could change my location to hundreds of miles away. Think of it as the yolk of the egg spinning inside its shell. The shell can remain stationary even while the yolk is spinning.”

“How did you survive?” Helen asked. “I heard it was really deep!”

Briar chuckled. “Well, I’m not too sure about that myself. I fell unconscious for the last part of the fall. For now, let’s just say that it was an unforeseen and welcome miracle.”

“And that’s when we found Briar-ni, sleeping on the fallen rocks!” Rien announced proudly.

“That’s true enough!” Briar nodded. “If it weren’t for those two, I’d have probably been lost for years under there. I woke up when I heard them talking. They lead me to Grandpa Thur…and, well, I helped him finish his portal gate, which ended up getting us pretty close to town when all was said and done.”

“You forget the part where you talked me out of doing something stupid.” Grandpa Thur said.

Briar shrugged. “And I talked the Old Man out of doing something stupid.” She added, “But that’s up to him to tell if he wants.” Briar didn’t enjoy putting herself on a pedestal or revealing the mistakes of people to others without good reason, so she kept the full story to herself.

Then she smacked her forehead. “OH! I plumb forgot about it! With all the stuff I was busy doing, she’d slipped my mind completely!”

“Who?” Rien asked.

Briar opened her magic bag smiling as she winked at Rien. "Let me introduce you to someone."

“Wait, what are you doing!” Laura gasped. “Are you going to bring a corpse out in front of the children!? Everyone knows that magic bags can’t hold living creatures!”

Briar pretended to feel hurt. “How rude! Just for that, I shall perform a magic that utmostly defies logic! I shall bring someone back from the dead!”

Reaching into her bag, she grabbed Yukikage by the neck and brought her out. Yukikage flicked an ear and grumbled in her sleep, but did not wake up.

“It's Yukikage the corpse! Ara? It looks like she’s already alive though…I must be better than I thought!” Briar smirked at Laura, who found herself at a loss for words.

“Enough nonsense, Briar, or else you’ll get in trouble when someone really does die” Madam Rothema warned. “The real treasure is probably that magic bag isn’t it?”

“As expected of Teacher, you saw right through me.” Briar replied calmly, giving her a thumbs up. “It’s a magic bag that can hold living creatures. Based upon what I have observed, I am of the opinion that it holds them in suspended animation until they are taken out again.”

“Briar! How dare you deceive me!” Laura finally understood that Briar had been teasing her.

“It’s a lesson: never be so narrow-minded as to think something is impossible. It may be that you simply don’t yet have the means.” Briar replied just as easily.

“Perhaps we should take this outside then. My younger sibling must be in need of a sparring partner.” Laura implied having a friendly brawl outside.

“I would, except it seems that I am surrounded, so I’d rather not.” Briar replied evenly.

Ignoring the explanation of the priceless treasure in Briar’s possession as well as the resulting exchange of words, Rien, Helen and Karu had gathered around the sleeping cat in Briar’s lap, not daring to lift her up for fear of waking her from sleep. Instead, they compromised with petting her as she lay there asleep. Yukikaze stretched in her sleep and curled up, placing the tip of her tail upon her nose, further impressing the children.

“But, Briar, how did you come across such a thing?” Master Thales asked. “By all appearances, it’s just an ordinary magic bag.”

“Well, to tell the truth, I didn’t come across it. Margie did.” Briar replied.

“Ah…you mean to tell me that your sister knowingly gifted you with a near priceless artifact?” Master Thales asked.

“I didn’t know you had a sister, Briar-ni! What’s she like? Is she pretty?” Rien asked.

“I’m not sure if she was aware of its value when she gave it to me, Master Thales. As for your questions, Rien, yes. She’s my very beautiful older sister, and she’s an even better magician than I am…or at least she was when I left around a year ago?” Briar scratched her head. “I’m really not certain if she’s advanced since then, though.”

Grandpa Arthur’s eyes grew sharp. “That reminds me, you said that you were a first rank Master class? Is that true?”

“Nope it’s a lie.” Briar replied. Everyone nearly fell over, except for Madam Rothema.

“T-then how did you defend against that wind attack!?” Karu asked, mystified.

Briar turned to Madam Rothema and made a ‘V’ for victory with her hand. “I’m actually second rank Master class.”

This time, everyone truly did fall over, aside from Madam Rothema, who was calmly sipping her tea. “Why are you so surprised, everyone? I’d expect nothing less from my pupil, after all.”

“Ehehehe~” Briar chuckled bashfully at the praise.

Madam Rothema placed her teacup down upon it’s platter. “Which reminds me. Did you finish all of the assigned homework I gave you?”

Briar’s relaxed posture stiffened. “Ah, of course, teacher! I would never do such a thing as forget to do my homework. I am your student after all.” A drop of sweat trickled down the back of her neck.

“Hmmm…and how much did you complete?” Madam Rothema asked.

“Every. Last. One.” Briar said each word slowly and with emphasis, beginning to feel equally annoyed and tired as she remembered her cramming session that ended last night. I knew it. I was lucky I finished when I did.If I hadn’t…Briar almost shuddered at the consequences.

“Hmm…it seems I underestimated you. If your reading speed has gotten that fast, then you should be able to advance to the next level easily by the end of the week, isn’t that right?” Madam Rothema noted, once more taking a sip of tea.

“I beg of you, please no.” Briar replied reflexively. She had read enough books to not want to touch one for at least a year.