Briar gazed down upon the fight below her, and sighed. This one wasn’t a display of martial techniques so much as a slugging contest between boys.

Why am I so unfortunate as to have to wait for these muscle-for-brains? There’s nothing for me to learn, and it still hasn’t been confirmed that Laura was found yet. And I can’t leave because I’m up next!

Agitated, she could only glance coldly down at the two below as the moments ticked by, much to her annoyance. This was one thing about her rebirth that had changed in her.

During her previous life, there had been no family or friend that could have moved her to such impatience. She was always able to make quick, collected, and sound decisions. Having been reborn, however, Briar found that whenever it came to her family or her close friends, she could not simply stay still, but was moved by a burning feeling of almost jealous attachment.

While she was unsure over whether it wouldn’t eventually become a weakness for her, Briar didn’t want to return to the colder lone wolf that she had been beforehand. She had discovered the warmth of family, and had no intention of abandoning it for other things.

Power, weath, experience, technique: all of these things she could gain without leaving her family, but if any of these required her to abandon family, then those things would be abandoned faster than the speed of light.

Having decided there was nothing better to do, Briar began stretching, loosening each muscle in preparation for the coming fight. Helen noticed Briar’s strange movements and asked.

“What are you doing?”

Briar continued stretching while answering. “I’m stretching.”

“Why?”

“Because this helps me to get into top shape for when I am going to fight.”

“How?”

“The muscles are stretched and the bones are tested to see if each is in place and functioning correctly. If they’re not, then this set of stretches can subtly move them back in place and get rid of any stiffness from sitting for a long time. That’s why when someone is stretching, you will sometimes hear their bones cracking.” Briar said.

“Oh.” Helen said. “Then why doesn’t everyone use it?” Briar opened one eye and thought about it. “I’m not really sure. Maybe it’s a lost art?” Helen nodded as it did seem to be a good explanation.

Briar was certain that at least one of the Heroes of old had been a Japanese. If so, then wouldn’t they have known the stretching exercises? It was more than likely that people simply disregarded the practice after a while, seeing that it didn’t really show any visible results.

Oh well. It’s their loss. Briar thought to herself as she pleasantly stretched out her fingers and cracked her knuckles. After she was finished, the match still hadn’t ended, though.

Props for holding out so long, I guess. Briar sighed, and boredly began watching the crowd instead of the match. While she had an almost uncanny level of concentration when she was working, but as a child she still grew bored when it seemed like there was nothing she could learn.

The stadium was packed with thousands of people-probably even hundreds of thousands. A huge projection of the battle took place in the sky overhead, probably as a result of a magic spell. The loud chatters and cheers were as exhausting as Briar remembered them to be.

 I never really liked big functions, did I? She mused to herself, as she continued to lazily examine the crowd. Here one could already see a variety of races intermingled-and a few different racial factions on top of that.

The top three racial factions that Briar picked up were the Human faction-made up of several large human groups--each with their own uniform, the Dragon-Kin faction, and a large faction of Dwarves in the front bleachers in a section of the stadium.  Thinking about it, it made sense, since these were the races that most interacted on this continent.

Briar recalled that Elves and Beastmen lived on a separate continent, and liked to keep to themselves in hidden villages, which came about as a result of kidnapping and pirate assaults from human dark guilds and outlaws. Briar didn’t approve of such actions, since they made an enemy out of a race that was long-lived. And, like most long-lived races, they knew how to hold grudges well. 

She was unsure if the Elves and Beastmen in this world were the small and cute sort or the big and tall sort, but she knew that they took great care and pride in their forests and their people. To destroy or violate their pride was the equivalent of starting a war with them.

And so, there had been many such wars in the past. At the current time, they had come to some sort of truce, but still, they did not trust each other well. The dragons tended to keep to themselves, unless provoked. But the Dwarves were happy to take part in the wars against the Elves.

It was not out of any outstanding hatred, though, but out of a delight in being able to have their weapon creations used in war and gain glory through being wielded. They had a list of the dwarven weapons that had shed the most blood in glorious combat. Seldom did the top ten weapons on that list get replaced unless a great war ensued.  And, since Elves excelled in combat, to have a weapon that had defeated countless Elves was a mark of honor for a weapon forged by a dwarf.

A whole race gone to the bats. Briar mused. The warmongering idiots. But, it was true that the best metal equipment were created by dwarves, who had the racial ability to engrave enchantments into their weapons. Elves could too, but their weapons were made from the mana-moldable mithril and living branches of the Elderwood trees. It was different from the Dwarves ability to enchant any metal or even stone material that they came in contact with.

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The Dragon-Kins were not dragons taking the form of humans, but a special kind of half race; it was similar to how beastmen are beast and man at the same time. Briar didn’t understand why Dragon-kin wasa not categorized among Beastmen, but perhaps it was a distinction brought about by their great strength? She could imagine the popular opinion being that the Dragon-kin are so much more powerful than the beastmen that they couldn’t possibly be such a thing.

Oh? It seems like this last attack will finish it. Briar thought to herself as she once more glanced at the fight on the large mana screen.

The two combatants were already swaying, trying to remain standing long enough to gather their remaining strength. Each slowly flexed their bruised muscled arms as they simultaneously shot out with their strongest fist. The fists struck at the same time, and the two men froze there for a second, while everyone waited to know who would fall first.

Both fell to the ground. The announcer cried out in surprise. “WHOAH! It seems that we may have a tie here on our hands! Let’s check that last part over again.” The large mana screen rewound to the part where they struck the ground. “They both struck the ground at the same time! Oh no! We really might have a tie on our hands! Let’s check the strike count, then.”

The referee pointed to the left-hand fighter. “This one struck his opponent three hundred and eighty-seven times.” Then he pointed to the right-hand fighter. “This one struck his opponent three hundred and ninety two times.”

“And there you have it, we have ourselves a winner! But don’t take my word for it. If you’re unconvinced, please look at the record of the entire fight and count it yourself!” The announcer cried enthusiastically, even though everyone could hear him perfectly fine without his yelling. At his words, the mana screen began playing a recording of the fight from the start.

“Too loud!” Briar frowned, sticking her fingers in her ear, which did nothing to lessen their ringing.

“You should have practiced your noise control spells when you had the chance.” Madam Rothema said smugly.

Briar made a face. She had practiced them to the point where she could make her footsteps and everything about her become silent. But, it was difficult to control the volume of someone else’s voice. It was like trying to catch a breath of air when you didn’t know what direction it would come from next.

If she were Briar (female magician) she would have simply called up a selective sound barrier about her. But since she was Briar ((fake male) martial practitioner), she could only persevere and hope she avoided becoming completely deaf.

Madam Rothema smiled. “Oh, and Briar? I heard that the magician’s champion and the martial champion of this year will go up and receive their awards together. If you should happen to win both, you know what that means, right?”

Briar paused. She knew. She would either have to find a convincing enough double to go onstage with her, or she would have to reveal her double occupation. One required revealing herself to a single person. The other required revealing herself to hundreds of thousands of people. Suffice to say, Briar preferred the former to the latter.

“About that. I have an idea, of course, but I’d like some time to see if I can make it happen or not. Would you give me two more days?”

Madame Rothema raised an eyebrow. “And if, in two days, your idea fails to deliver?”

“Then I’ll gladly use your experimental phase magic cloning spell.” Briar said.

“Ah, how did you know? I was sure I didn’t say anything about that.” Madam Rothema smiled slyly as she questioned her intelligent student.

“I would be a poor student if I cannot understand my teacher after all this time.” Briar replied. “Plus your interest was written all over your face when the topic came up for discussion yesterday.”

“Then, I’ll look forward to your loss.” Madam Rothema smiled wider.

“Don’t speak as if I’m going to lose! We all know I’m going to win this thing.” Briar said, adding a touch of fake narcissicm to her conversation.

“Whatever happened to your modesty, I wonder?” Madam Rothema asked, wryly.

“You know us boys and our men’s pride: we can’t stand losing face even if we are going to lose a match-not that I’m going to lose, mind you. It’s just-”

“Ah, it’s time for your match!” Helen said as she saw that the two fallen combatants had been successfully carried off stage in stretchers.

“Very well.” Briar jumped out of the room, landing on the stage with a large BOOM. The stage, being magically enchanted, quickly restored itself as if the destruction it had suffered was only an illusion, nothing more. With her arms clasped lazily behind her head she observed her opponent, who had also landed on the stage-having jumped from the bleachers.

Hmm? Surprisingly, it seems this one has a bit of skill. Briar thought as she noticed the lack of weak points in his stance. Well, it was to be expected, after all. With each victory the next opponent was guaranteed to be stronger than the previous ones.

Briar was still relaxed, but she watched him more closely than the other ones. After all, it didn’t hurt to be careful. Her opponent was also on his guard, choosing to remain silent rather than speak. He was also aware that Briar was a powerful martial practitioner despite her lean, boy-like stature.

Madam Rothema had done a good job with Briar’s male appearance, to the point where people would be surprised if they knew that Briar was any younger than 15 years old. Of course, Briar was still only 12 years old- a fact that would probably have many people shaking in their boots.

While it was believable for there to be a twelve year old magician in Master class, it was considered impossible for Briar’s martial level to be so high at a young age. Since magic practitioners only needed proper understanding and a large enough mana capacity, finding a genius, even at such a young age, was believable.

But martial practitioners tempered their bodies, which required lots of time. Moreover, if they learned that Briar was holding her martial growth back to train the corresponding level as a magic practitioner, then forget about the title of ‘genius of geniuses’; she’d rank straight up to ‘monster’ title.

She wasn’t really ‘playing the pig to eat the tiger’, mind you. It’s just that, as she was aware of how unique her situation was, she realized that revealing it would attract a lot more undesired attention than she’d be able to peacefully handle. Thus her low-key policy was placed simply to avoid more stuff like the crowds of boys trying to ambush her after each fight.

“Kyaa! How cool! Knock him dead, Briar!”

“You can do it, Briar!”

“Show us more cool moves!”

“Marry me!”

Briar almost fell over.

“What the heck!” She retorted. While she had known that her male disguise was what Master Thales had called ‘pretty boy’, she had never truly known its effects up until now. The females of this world appreciated strength more than anything, but having a good face was also a plus. Unknowingly, she had gathered a fan base for her male disguise as well.

That also meant that she had earned the ire of countless members of the male population, which were glowering at her to the point where she could almost hear their heart’s cry: ‘Riajuu’s should just explode!’

Hey, hey! I didn’t do anything to you! I’m not even qualified since I’m not even a man! Briar retorted in her heart.

She felt a chill going down her spine at the amorous gazes coming from the female population and the furious ones from the male population.

…After I know that Laura’s alright….I’m gonna go hide. Briar resolved to herself.