The hour came a lot faster than Patience would have wanted. But it was something that she had to deal with eventually. Taking in a sharp breath, she readied herself as she looked up at the ring where her opponent already stood.

There Morrigan Hayes was already playing up to the crowd. She had at some point within the last hour gotten her hands on a loudspeaker and began shouting through it. She began to hype up the crowd.

"Who's ready to rumble!" She declared and the seats around this small arena erupted into cheers.

"Why does it look like everybody is here?" Bryson grumbled.

"I think she did a lot of advertising." Reynard said looking at Morrigan, "She really wants to make this into a show huh?"

"It's not even officially for anything." Bryson complained, "How are people taking bets?" He said as he noticed someone collecting students' bets.

"Is that allowed?" Anna asked.

"No, but it's not going to stop them." Reynard said, "Speaking of which…"

"Seriously?" Bryson said incredulously.

"Well I'm voting for you. Besides it's just a bit of fun." Reynard said with a helpless smile.

"You're hopeless." Bryson grumbled as he searched for the mages, "Where are the other idiots?"

"Oh, I see your friend!" Anna said pointing over to the side of a stand where Frans seemed to be suffering from a migraine. It seemed that he was just as unimpressed with Morrigan's performance.

"He's not my friend." Bryson said quickly before turning to Patience, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, just didn't expect her to be like this." Patience said watching Morrigan pose.

"Man, all the dukes have weird kids." Reynard said.

"Who are you calling weird?" Bryson grumbled.

"Let me, Morrigan Hayes, introduce you to my challenger!" Morrigan said after sufficiently posing enough for herself to feel satisfied, "From the lesser county of Kamura, she is from the Pylet family, it's the demon fashionista, Patience Pylet!"

Her announcement didn't garner many cheers, mostly silence with the occasional jeering. Bryson rolled his eyes as Patience looked around the crowd. Morrigan then proceeded to keep talking.

"Patience is here to fight me. Because ladies and gentlemen, I have never once been able to fight her. So here I am finally challenging her! I am the daughter of Duke Hayes. I am the number one precious jewel in the Hayes' family. I am the lady that stops your heart through charm or through the blade. I am my age's ace of swordsmanship. So some girl from a barely relevant county shall not scare me. The demon doesn't scare me, as I am the demoness that will run this school." Morrigan said as she pulled out her blade and pointed it towards the crowd, "That includes running all of you, those who want to challenge me, please do so."

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Bryson at this point was staring up at the sky, eyes closed, wishing for her to shut up. When he opened them back up again and looked amongst the crowd he saw both Sable at one spot and Mallory at another, conversing with their friends while watching Morrigan's display with minor interest.

"Now, this fight is not going to be a classic one versus one." Morrigan continued, "Patience and I have agreed on a supporter duel, meaning that we will have spellcasters on the sideline helping!" She exclaimed and the crowd reacted with interest.

"So let's give a hand to my teammates! From house Westbrooks and the Atwiks we have J&J!" Morrigan announced and the two perhaps too proudly, waved to the crowd.

"J&J?" Anna said.

"They're John and Jones and are often together, it's honestly more of a mocking nickname than anything." Patience explained, "Though, they don't seem to realize it."

"And of course from up from the northern lands of ice, the ever diligent Frans Snowfield." She yelled out, and Frans gave her a look as if she were the foulest creature on the planet.

Giving him a wink in response, she then turned towards where Bryson and the others were, "Of course now that the match is about to begin, I should introduce to you fine folks our opponents."

"Deciding to aid in Patience's hopes of victory we have only two mages willing to help her. Now, now, it's not because little Pylet is sad and unable to make any friends." She said wagging a finger, "Though that is true, but the main reason is because of our cocky spellcasters."

Bryson rolled his eyes as Morrigan taunted them, "First we have…" Morrigan paused as she thought for a second, "Just some loser, a first-year commoner who thinks she can play magician."

"Says the muscle-headed bully." Anna muttered.

"And of course another one from up north. The Coldwater's youngest boy, big, bad, and mean, Bryson Coldwater. The man who thinks he's the coolest thing in this school. Our edgy little loner who picked himself a commoner to have as a pet. He would be scary if he didn't need a step stool to glare up at you." Morrigan declared.

The insults were unexpected and legitimately caused a few people to laugh. Sable clearly being one of them. Not even trying to hide her joy, she giggled to herself as some of the crowd even began to give half-hearted jeers towards Bryson.

"Come on out you three! Show the crowd your faces." Morrigan invited, "Do any of you three have anything to say?" Morrigan asked pointing the loudspeaker at them as she grinned from ear to ear.

With a furrow, Bryson raised an arm and the loudspeaker flew out of Morrigan's grasp and into Bryson's. Bryson gave a small smirk as Morrigan looked mildly annoyed that she was interrupted.

"Morrigan Hayes." Bryson said slowly and with enough disdain to make everyone listening feel uneasy, "Only child of Duke Hayes, here galivanting around like a jester. You're a daddy's girl who's been too busy trying desperately to get people to tolerate you. You have no friends, people only exist near you because you are useful and provide them a good laugh. You're a talentless hack who couldn't even get someone to fight you without harassment. The only person who ever cared about you isn't here to tell you that it'll be all okay. Because it won't be and no one will help you."

The crowd was taken aback at the speech Bryson just gave, and Patience looked at Bryson wondering if there was something wrong with him. Reynard, at this point placed a fist over his mouth, trying to hide a smile.

"Also you're alone and you're going to die alone." Bryson added. Sable in response broke out into more laughter while Mallory looked very impressed.

Morrigan stared straight at Patience with a smile that did not reach her eyes and simply requested, "Get in the ring."

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