“Lord Maxwell!”
He turned at the sound of his name. “Oh, it’s you.” He had been watching the events of the tournament unfold from the VIP box, and he was entirely unamused.
“Yes, milord. It is I, Goliath.”
Evidently his protégé informant was here to see him. He snorted. “I’m not in the mood for a chat. What do you want?”
“I’m here to make a report. It’s about the Wicked Dragonwhore.”
“...Laplace?”
He hadn’t spoken the name in an eternity, and it soured on his tongue. The woman he’d seen down in the arena, and her magic circle—there was no mistaking it.
Meanwhile...
“Tanya!”
“Laplace!”
Back at the bench, the three women were engaged in a ferocious group hug. Tanya couldn’t stop smiling. Her revenge was now complete.
“Hahaha! I still can’t believe he summoned a Red Dragon! And those poems were something else!”
“I know, right?! Hee hee hee! Scarlet-Black! Fallen Angel! And the little crosses!”
“Oh my god, Nadine, stop! I can’t breathe!”
They were all giggling uncontrollably.
“Hey, Laplace?” asked Tanya.
“Mmm?”
“You gave him a force field, didn’t you?”
Laplace grinned mischievously.
Tanya was, of course, referring to the moment she cast Explosion on Ryan. She’d sensed that there was a force field protecting him, but knew there was no way he could’ve cast it himself. And not just because he was a failure of an adventurer, either. Tanya only knew of one person who could create a force field without the aid of a magic circle or incantation.
“Oho, cat’s out of the bag. I should’ve known you’d catch on.”
“Duh! I mean, otherwise the whole arena would be covered in his viscera by now!”
“Hahaha! Now there’s a mental image I didn’t need! You’re hilarious, you know that?”
“Glad you think so.”
“I’m also pretty sure you weren’t actually planning on killing him.”
“Eek...”
“You’re too much of a softie for that.”
“Oh yeah, total softie... except for the part where she dug up his cringey old poetry and made him read it in front of a live audience,” Nadine snarked under her breath.
“Besides, what sort of Great Sorceress would I be if I didn’t at least enable you to beat him black and blue to your heart’s content?” Laplace continued.
“Hee hee... How very thoughtful of you.”
Laplace must have known how Tanya would react to the presence of a force field—more specifically, that she’d crank up the dial on her mana output in order to hit him with the biggest blast she could manage. And it felt fucking amazing.
“Thanks, Laplace.”
“Heh heh... All in a day’s work for this Great Sorceress!” Throwing up a peace sign, she kissed Tanya on the cheek.
Then a voice came over the loudspeaker:
“We will now begin the awards ceremony. Champions, please report to the arena!”
“Laplace! Nadine! That’s us!” Tanya held out a hand to each of them, and once they had taken hold, she declared: “Let’s get out there!”
“Oui, oui!”
“Right you are!”
And so Lilium walked out to tumultuous applause.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Hello, everyone. We’re your winners for this year’s tournament. Thank you so much for your support! Things got pretty hairy for a minute there, but more than anything, I’m glad to know that no one in the audience was injured. Anyway, uh... I just wanted to say that... this victory belongs to more than just Lilium.
“Take a look around you. Notice just how many adventurers there are in this town. And then ask yourself: why is it that the gender ratio for the average party is so heavily skewed? The smallest parties usually only have one female member, and even the larger ones with 20-plus members still only have about three women on the roster, max. On top of that, it’s almost unheard of for a woman to lead a party herself.
“We work hard to be a part of this society, all while that same society tells us to ‘shut up, show some skin, and don’t complain.’ But if you think about it... how many female adventurers stay in the field into their 30s? Into their 50s? Hardly any of them, right?
“Anyway, uhh, so my point is, um... the way things are right now kinda sucks! And I think we should change it! We need to stop holding ourselves back because we’re female, or because we’re a certain age, or because our skin is a certain color. Your big adventure is still out there! Don’t let anything or anyone keep you down!
“We can be anything we want—Healers, or Mages, or even Knights. And it’s up to us to forge that path for the next generation of little girls who will follow in our footsteps. So I ask you to hold your head high and proudly continue your journey well into your 30s! Or your 50s! And to all the little girls out there who dream of adventure—this victory is for you.”
And so, on that historic day, Tanya’s speech received a standing ovation.