Why not teach the impudent ex witch a lesson?

“Honestly? Me?” Beatrice complained as we took the elevator down. “What madness possessed you to select me of all people!”

“You where the one who suggested it”, I replied.

“What utterly, inane logic!” Beatrice shook her head in exasperation. “All you achieve by this is that nobody is willing to say what needs to be said!”

“I'm still fairly happy with my choice”, I grinned.

Maria informed me that the elevator would now stop above level at the towers base, so that combatants had an easy way of exiting the tower.

However, there was nothing easy about it.

“There he is! It’s the Amber Assassin!”

“Have my baby!”

As the elevator door opened I donned my hoodie, but to think that this was enough was foolish. Right away we where surrounded by a gaggle of over enthusiastic fans that apparently have nothing better then to do but camping the elevator all day.

“I would sooo blow these cretins away with a Black Destruction Beam, if I still had my magic”, Beatrice pouted.

Well, she didn't. Which was good, because genocide is generally frowned upon. “Don't worry I got this.”

“What are you...eep!” I scooped Beatrice up over my shoulder and dashed out the elevator.

Don’t underestimate me, foolish fans! They may have the elevator surrounded but that didn’t mean there weren’t any gaps in their defenses and these gaps where easy enough to slip through. I weaved and dashed my way to freedom. This would make for pretty good training actually.

Beatrice wasn't having a good time though. “Let me down this is instant!” She screamed and flailed her legs uselessly “You unrefined barbarian!”

But then again that wasn't my problem

…

..

.

It took a while for us to flee the hustle and bustle of the city. But eventually I escaped into a back alley and we where safe from the hordes of rabid fans.

Beatrice seemed to be pretty flushed. If from anger, fear or embarrassment I couldn't tell. “Absolutely never do that again.”

“We see”, I said, still grinning, before finally letting her back down.

Beatrice wasted no time looking around. “Where even are we...this looks like a dump. Honestly, couldn’t you have brought me to a more high class location for our date? How uncouth.”

Well, she wasn't wrong. This certainly was one of the less glamorous places of the city.

“Unbelievable.” Beatrice let out a sigh. “Oh well, this dreary pace might at the very least prove amusing. Let us proceed!”

The ex-witch would clearly not take no for an answer and so our date would start in a seedy back alley dump.

...

Well, I was not sure what I was expecting. A back alley dump was a back alley dump, even if it was located in one of the greatest cities on the continent.

For some, utterly incomprehensible reason though, Beatrice appeared to have fun. I was expecting her to wrinkle her nose in disgust but instead she took a weird interest to every heap of garbage and every nook and cranny of the poorly constructed buildings.

“From the way you gape, one could mistake you for a sheltered noble”, I joked. “Did you never set foot in a big city?

“I AM noble, thank you very much”, Bea clarified. “And of course I did. But between Femto's void and my teleportation spell there never was any reason to actually travel. If we wanted to be at some place we where there a few seconds later.”

“Teleportation doesn’t work long range”, I pointed out.

“Who said anything about teleportation?” Beatrice rolled her eyes. “I used Femto as a **** multiplier for long range travel. I suppose the closest approximation would be traveling via portals although that isn’t quite accurate either. Ah...how do I explain this in laymen terms? Simply put, I create a wardslong gateway to a quadruple parallel universe and then use QPU misalignment to jump to the desired coordinates.”

“I see.”

The witch smirked her smug smirk. “You have no idea what I am talking about, do you? I suppose you could start with reading Ho Raga’s “The danger of getting stuck in portals” to get a rudimentary understanding on the subject. I might even teach you, if I feel like it.”

“It sounds convenient.” Not that I understood even half of what the crazy witch was saying.

“Oh, it was”, she smiled. “Certainly saved a lot of time. Honestly, it was Femto really, the lazy devil is incapable of traveling anywhere on foot. It's pitiful...Oh look! A stand with dreadful commoner food!”

And there she went. Sheesh. She actually acts her age for once.

The food stall that piqued Beatrice’s interest was selling curry and rice, which was just about the worst thing you could want to eat as takeaway which of course meant that Beatrice absolutely wanted it.

Oh well, at least it was cheap.

And so we ended up eating curry out of a paper tray in a back alley.

“So, how do you like it?”, I asked.

“It is not terrible”, Beatrice admitted as she delicately munched on a piece of curry. “Although I can’t help but be reminded of that horrible nickname Punchy has inflicted upon me. That country bumpkin has no tact.”

“Rice, huh? You know, maybe she would stop if you called her by her actual name”, I chuckled.

The ex-witch shrugged, as that was clearly not a compromise she was willing to make. “So this is what you usually eat?”, Beatrice asked with a mischievous smirk.

“Actually...I would say this food tastes better then the stuff back in Helman.”

“Really now?”, Beatrice seemed skeptical. “Ah yes...now I remember, Helmanians are known for eating rocks.”

“Of course we don’t eat rocks!”, I sighed. “Although the bread we have certainly is hard as rock.”

The ex-witch chuckled. “Then I’m looking forward to bringing you to Zeth one day. I provide you with a meal so exquisite, it will make your pitiful palate explode!”

I’m not sure I want that.

“And in exchange, I will taste that rock bread of yours”, she said with a cute giggle.

It’s rare to see her in that high spirits. This might actually not be a bad time to talk about her past and Femto.

“Zeth, huh?” I casually stated. “That where you met Femto?

“Yup”, Beatrice nodded.

“You know each other for a long time, right?”

“Yup”, Beatrice replied. “For about...twelve years give or take.”

Twelve years...It suddenly hit me. Beatrice was really young when she encountered Femto, wasn't she? “That means you where only six? When you met her?”

“Indeed. I was only a small girl back then. I bet you are pretty impressed by how I developed huh?”

Yeah, maybe try saying that again without having your mouth smeared with curry sauce.

She even had some rice stuck there, sheesh.

...

Now that I have seen it, I can’t unseen it so I grabbed it.

The moment I did, Bea’s face flushed and she almost fell from the bench. “W-w-what are you doing?”

“You had some rice stuck on your face”, I explained, showing her the evidence.

“D-DON’T YOU DARE EATING THAT!”

Ok.

“Honestly!”, Beatrice huffed. “You don’t just grab a Lady in the face! Do you have no manners?”

Says the Lady with rice stuck to her face

…

Rice, huh?

Beatrice fussed some more, but my silence clearly put her off. “Something the matter?”

“Oh nothing, its just...”, I stared at the piece of rice as a sudden wave of nostalgia hit me.“I had a sister once. She disappeared when she was six. She had the same black hair as you. And I imagine if she would still be alive…”

“Mari.” Beatrice’s expression turned somber. “Let me make this clear right now. I am not your sister.”

“O-Of course not!”, I hastily stated “My sister didn't have a single magical bone in her body! Same as me.”

Beatrice nodded. “And I have memories. A childhood in Zeth. Even if I rather forgot them.”

Well, the atmosphere got rather awkward. “Beatrice...”, I started.

“What?”, Beatrice responded, equally awkward.

“If it’s ok with you...would you tell me about it? Your childhood in Zeth and how you met Femto?”

The response to that was a sigh. “It’s not that I particularly mind. But...this won’t get weird? You aren’t going to suddenly develop some creepy older sister complex on me, will you?”

What kind of pervert do you take me for!

...

And what do you mean “older”!?

“Absolutely not”, I stated clearly. “I just want..closure. It’s the whole reason I am in the tournament. So...please.”

Beatrice nodded. “Very well, but let’s go somewhere else for this, alright?”