Silvana and the rest of the high-rankers watched Lia exit the elevator with a young girl in tow. She was cutely hiding behind Lia.
Lacey was the first to approach, and Hysteria jumped in front of her and took a defensive position. She seemed ready to kill Lacey.
Lia pat the girl's head and spoke softly. "She's a...friend." Lia herself wasn't entirely sure what her and Lacey were just yet, but she defaulted to a friend.
Hysteria relaxed and once again began hiding behind Lia. Lacey watched it all with a weird expression. It matched the rest of the group's.
Lacey was the one to break the silence. "Who's that?"
Lia responded with a soft tone. "Her name is Hysteria." Lia inwardly raised an eyebrow. Did she detect some jealousy in Lacey's voice?
Lacey harumphed before speaking. "Where did she come from?"
Lia sighed. "I'll tell you later. It's not the time. Let's go."
Silvana was an extremely curious witch, and the three dolls around her looked even more curious. She mentally sent a message to Lia. 'Who is it? I need to know so we can get her past security.'
Saro was awake and looking through her system screen when she heard it. Lia made no move to answer, and Saro wasn't sure she could hear it at all.
Saro spoke back to Silvana. 'She's the sentient weapon I acquired yesterday.'
Silvana was inwardly surprised to hear a separate voice answer while Lia was speaking. She raised an eyebrow and continued on her way, sending nothing more than a mental nod in response to Saro.
.....
Normally, Saro wasn't inclined to reveal herself, but Silvana felt trustworthy. It might also be telling if there was no answer. It was a split-second decision, but Saro was pretty sure she made the right choice. She glanced at the system screen. Only one thing was new.
**Contracted Weapon(s):
Hysteria, The Obsidian: (No information available)**
.....
The group approached the arena, and Lia wasn't sure if there would be trouble because of the sudden appearance of an 11th person. Luckily, nothing was said and Lia's worries were for naught.
Secretly, Silvana had mentally messaged the guards, telling them some bullshit about how it wasn't their business. She said it was fine, and, frankly, the guards didn't care. They were just there to get a paycheck, and the meager pay they did make certainly didn't cover the medical expenses involved in arguing with the Elven Witch.
The group was led to a large room where they were supposed to wait until further instruction. Silvana parted with them there, and Lia sat down in a corner once again.
Both Lacey and Hysteria were seemingly attached to her hips. Once Lia had sat down, Hysteria placed herself in her lap, eating a box of chocolates that Lia had bought her on the way over. Lacey sat down and rested her head on Lia's shoulder.
Lia was kind of overwhelmed. All of this had happened so suddenly. Very very fast, in fact. She took it all in stride, as any good royal would, but it was surprising nonetheless. She looked around the room, making sure no one could hear her. Luckily, no one seemed to be giving them any attention. She wanted to somewhat explain the situation to Lacey.
She spoke softly to her. "Lacey, this is Hysteria. She's a sentient weapon, and I'm not sure how she came to be. I bought the weapon last night on a whim. Don't be jealous, she's basically a child."
Lacey's face turned bright red when she heard the final words. She barely managed to stammer out: "I-I'm not."
Lia scoffed. "You are. She's fine, and you shouldn't be jealous of a child."
Lacey solemnly nodded. She wasn't sure why, but she felt just the slightest hint of jealousy toward Hysteria. It wasn't like she was jealous because the girl was doing it. It was more like she was jealous because she wanted to do more affectionate things with Lia.
Lia nodded as she looked at Lacey's complicated look. She could tell she was experiencing a complex range of emotions; it was a good sign. Having the girl realize what she wanted was an important step in upping her self-confidence. Lia smiled softly as Lacey snuggled closer to her.
.....
It took close to an hour before there were any announcements. Hysteria was extremely silent the whole time. She ate chocolate and watched the entire room with wary eyes. The weapon's instincts were to protect, and Lia smiled at her reaction.
**ATTENTION ALL CONTESTANTS. THE NEXT PORTION WILL BE A SERIES OF COMPLEX CHALLENGES. THE FIRST CHALLENGE WILL INVOLVE INDIVIDUALLY SOLVING A MANA PUZZLE, FOLLOWED BY A RANDOMLY PUT TOGETHER TEAM PAIRING EXERCISE. YOU WILL BE TRANSPORTED SHORTLY.**
Lia closed her eyes as she spoke to Hysteria. "You should return to sword form." Hysteria nodded and immediately turned back into a sword.
Lia facepalmed. That one was her fault, she should have told Hysteria to wait until things started to glow. She looked around the room. All of the high-rankers were looking at her now, and she mentally cursed before resigning herself to her fate. 'Oh well, Hiding my strength isn't a necessity anyways I guess. Might have to deal with flies later, but it's a minor annoyance.'
The room began to glow, and everyone's eyes instinctively closed. When Lia opened them, she was standing before a glowing blue sigil. It looked as though it was missing parts of its structure. She looked at her surroundings and noted that she was somewhere in a forest. 'Probably another pocket dimension', she surmised.
Lia soon began to examine the sigil. It was made of illusion magic, and its purpose was entirely unclear to her. She wasn't well-versed in casting illusion magic. Her options were limited when it came to solving this puzzle.
Illusion magic was a branch that was the easiest to understand, the school had likely chosen it for this portion of the tournament to test the prospective student's problem-solving capabilities. Lia began to ponder a few ideas before settling on a rather grand one.
"Ah, I see. Let's do something completely out of the box."
As she was about to begin, Hysteria spoke. "Do you wish for me to cut this sigil down?"
Lia was baffled for a moment. "Err...no?" She soon felt a cute mental head nod in response.
Lia began summoning a mass amount of mana. Looking at the sigil, she asked Saro to examine it.
Saro spoke after a few moments of contemplation. 'There are a lot of cracks in it...it should be easy to infiltrate.'
Lia smirked. 'Alright then, let's baffle the judges.'