The first to notice someone was approaching was Funikura. It moved its tentacles slightly, making its host Nyx recover consciousness.
"Hyau... L-Lord Funikura..."
Out of the corner of her eye, the magician caught sight of the approaching figure. It was a female warrior holding a spear, her golden hair rocking in the wind.
"Ah..."
Nyx recognized her. For her, it was the one girl she hated the most, someone she'd never forget about.
"Elina..."
"Oh? It appears you know my name."
She was the Captain of the Royal Guard, Elina. There was virtually no one in the Earldom who didn't know the name of the youngest daughter of the Vance house.
"Well, so who are you?"
Noticing the hatred on Nyx' face, she raised her chin and looked down on the woman.
"Did you forget? You... you who caused such grief to my beloved M-Mom!"
"Um..."
She put a finger to her temple and tried to recall, but nothing came to mind.
Someone with such flashy clothes and that stuttering voice should probably have left an impression on her.
"Sorry, I can't remember you *at all*."
"D-Did you forget already?! Ten years ago, t-the cook who baked sweets for you, bitch!"
In contrast with the bellowing Nyx, Elina only maintained her blank expression.
"I'm serious, I can't remember."
"Y-You can't have forgotten! Those words your filthy mouth spewed that day!"
***
For Nyx, her mother had been a great cook.
Even when crops failed to turn out results and wheat wasn't available, she could make a substitute out of tree roots and nuts, and she was able to create a variety of sweets including cake as if they were made from the genuine materials.
Her reputation spread beyond her hometown, and reached the chef of the Earl castle, who used to go to and fro.
And so, the year with the worst crop failure, she got invited to the castle of Earl Vance.
Even now, Nyx couldn't forget how, despite the entire village being on the verge of starvation, the Earl's castle was shining beautifully with an otherworldly light.
The chef told mother and child why he had brought them there.
"I want you to bake sweets for Lady Elina, the youngest daughter of the Earl, without using wheat."
With such a wheat shortage, they only had enough for the actual birthday cake.
Nevertheless, they wanted to celebrate the birthday of the lord's daughter, and have a cake decorated with many sweets.
Responding to their feelings, her mother put in her best efforts, and made a number of sweets.
Nyx, who nibbled on some under the pretense of being helping, could only confirm they were delicious. And this was no mere compliment, they certainly were her mother's masterpieces.
"If you can make them just from that, I want you to stay in the castle and work with us from now on."
They wanted to believe the chef wasn't lying when he said that.
But, Elina didn't even eat one of the sweets.
Nyx could still remember the words Elina said before her mother's masterpiece.
"These cheap imitations aren't worthy for a noble to eat."
After that, her mother was never again invited as a cook...
Elina's casual words killed her mother's future as a cook. Nyx was still convinced of that.
As she remembered the past, tears gradually blurred her eyes.
"Aren't you too emotionally unstable? Besides, I just asked for your name."
Elina asked, confused, seeing that woman who had been shouting at her now moved to tears.
"My name is Nyx... the Mistress of Flames. I-I'm the daughter of the cook whose future you squashed, y-you bitch!"
Nyx pointed her finger at Elina, tears still in her eyes.
"I'm sorry, I really don't remember."
Elina answered immediately without missing a beat.
"I-I knew you would say that! It's because you nobles have poor m-memory, isn't that right!"
The flame that surged from her fingertip became a bullet that grazed Elina's side.
"Ooh... that's an interesting trick you got there."
"If-If you think it's a magic trick, it works for me! Lord Funikura!"
The staff in her hands wriggled strangely, and a small crystal ball appeared from the tentacles' tip.
Inside the crystal ball, shining with Funikura's slimy fluids, the image of a goddess holding a sword flickered.
"I take it you know what this crystal ball means!"
Nyx' eyes, burning with anger, stared daggers at Elina, as she stuck out her crystal ball.
Preliminaries.
The battles between fighters before the Queen's Blade tournament's matches are decided.
Unlike the proper rounds, determined by the magicians presiding over the tournament, in the preliminary period, the involved participants could freely choose their opponents to fight.
This allowed participants to grasp each other's strengths in preparation for the matches, so they were willing to fight frequently to measure their own competence.
It was no exaggeration to say that whenever two participants met, a preliminary fight would commence.
And now, under the blue sky, the fight between them was going to start on the stage of the ruins of the burnt down village.
Looking at Nyx' gaze, full of fighting spirit, Elina smiled instinctively, and took out her own crystal ball.
"That's good. I like those eyes."
The two crystal balls slightly levitated as they projected the images, and stood still at one point in midair.
"Skirmish approved!"
The voice of the court magician managing the fight echoed in the ruins of the fire, and the light from the crystal balls materialized the stone statue of the woman holding the sword.
That was an umpire image acting as the referee for the fight.
"What do you want for the rules? Knockdown, or until one can't move?"
In the preliminaries, the parties involved could choose the conditions of victory and defeat. It was customary for the participants to choose not to engage in a death match.
"It-It'll be settled when one can't move an inch, or when one d-dies."
Nyx broke the customs without a second thought, so much was her hatred towards Elina.
"Umpire, I ask as well for a "until one can't move or dies". "
Elina didn't back down either. Acknowledging her words, the umpire's eyes shone white.
"The preliminary will begin. I expect both of you to devote yourselves to the fight and give it your best effort."
As the image spoke, both grasped their weapons and stared at each other.
***
"Skirmish approved!"
When Irma, waiting inside the carriage, heard the voice of the court magician, she looked up in a hurry.
"How careless..."
Irma clicked her tongue; though the Earl Vance territory was Elina's home ground, she had been trying to avoid preliminaries as much as possible.
[Yet, this is also a chance. The other day I was fighting Tomoe at Sheldan so I missed it, but if it's like when Elina fought Risty, maybe this time I'll be able to catch a glimpse of the Master Swordswoman Maria.]
Watching the situation from the carriage, Irma closely watched the fight between the two.
***
"Lord Funikura, please lend me your power. The power to defeat my enemy!"
Reacting to the request from Nyx, whispered like a spell, Funikura stretched its tentacles towards her body.
"Aah..."
Feeling the power the staff gave her, the magician gave a brief moan. Hot flame coursed through her body. Now, she only needed to bring it all out.
Nyx concentrated on her left arm, and a small fireball appeared in that palm covered with purple long gloves.
"Always with that drunk muttering!"
Elina jumped with enough speed to close the distance between them in one go. With her momentum, it was like she was flying.
"Elinaa! I'll expose your unshapely, d-disgraceful behavior to everyone!"
Nyx shouted as she threw the fireball in her left hand. In an instant, it became a full-fledged flame, and flew up at Elina like a hawk with eyes set on the prey, catching her in midair.
"Kyaah! It's hot! It burns!"
Having received the full brunt of the fire, Elina lost her balance and fell to the ground.
Still, it wasn't enough to knock her down.
"Y-You aren't burning!?"
[Is this the power of a warrior challenging the Queen's Blade?]
Nyx had used her strongest magic from the beginning, "Phoenix Moon Seal", so she couldn't hide her surprise when Elina didn't go down.
Elina had judged she couldn't avoid the "Phoenix Moon Seal" and decided to focus on putting the flame out; to think she had the judgment skills and combat techniques to pull that off, she couldn't compare to those bandits she had fought in the past.
"Impossible... to think I couldn't kill her in one blow..."
Nyx' voice trembled in fear when she saw Elina approaching, weapon in hand, after putting out the fire.
"Guh..."
At the same time, Funikura's tentacles squeezed her body. It was angry at her being unable to do her in with that attack.
"I-I have no excuse..."
Nyx asked Funikura for forgiveness in the only trembling, fainting voice she could muster.
Still, in the meantime, Elina was coming near. Letting her get close would make her chances of victory disappear.
"I-I'll make ya kick the bucket here, n-now that you're medium rare!"
So that her opponent wouldn't notice her fear, Nyx put on her best bluff and kicked her right leg up at Elina.
That was about the only thing she could do after her previous daring attack, since she couldn't cast fire magic in succession.
[Somehow or other, I must buy Lord Funikura enough time to recharge his magic!]
However, Nyx's kick only caught empty air.
"Whaat. Without magic, you're no big deal."
With her guard open after dodging her kick unceremoniously, Elina's lips warped into a grin.
"Hih!"
Nyx couldn't help but let out a small scream, and jumped back.
***
[This gal is a formidable enemy.]
Elina clicked her tongue at her own unexpected injury.
She had no confidence in being able to survive that kind of flame again.
Feeling ashamed of her own carelessness, Elina reevaluated her feelings.
[My opponent is a magician. Her fire magic is powerful, but she's a below-mediocre warrior otherwise. Although she can throw a kick, her skill has no force behind it, and it's also easy to avoid.]
[The soldiers of the Earl territory could release sharper kicks. Only an idiot or a special kind of person would take that kick.]
And unfortunately for Nyx, Elina was neither.
"Whaat, without magic, you're no big deal."
Elina looked up at Nyx, a smile on her lips.
"Hih!"
Nyx' eyes showed a tinge of fear.
[I take it back. She's not a formidable enemy. She's just a small fry.]
Without any wasted movements, Elina thrust her spear from below at Nyx' unprotected chest.
[I got this match!]
But, her arm never felt the familiar response.
"Eh? Why is this?"
Seeing the spear cut the air only made Elina surprised. Nyx had quickly jumped back.
"Surprisingly quick to retreat, aren't you."
After putting enough distance between them for the spear not to connect, Nyx' lips chanted a spell.
[I hear that to use magic you need a medium. In her case, the medium is that staff. It's likely that the cane is the main body, and this very woman is just a marionette…
In any case, it'll probably be an easy victory if I can separate Nyx from her staff.]
"Lord Funikura, your power!"
Bullets of flame came one after another from Nyx' fingertips.
"Even with so many, you won't hit me again!"
Elina's spear went around the flame bullets and hit the magician's arm.
"Eek!"
Reeling due to the scathing pain, her hand involuntarily dropped Funikura.
"According to plan!"
With a triumphant smile now on her lips, it was when she tried to pull her spear back that she realized she wasn't actually holding it.
"What? How come?"
Her confused gaze found the staff she had knocked down herself.
[Its tentacles are wriggling like a worm, and their wrapping themselves around the spear?]
"Keh! It can do that too?"
***
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