"Critical hit!" the host declared, waving his torch. "You died!"

There were cheers and good-natured groans as another sparring partner fell in the face of Katarina's parrying and riposte skills. She'd already racked up over a three dozen victories, and the other fight club rings had put their duels on hold as the participants grew curious as to what was going on, then all but dissolved as they learned. Decorum was taking a beating, and while no one was making any bets, people certainly seemed like they wanted to.

While many people seemed to want to challenge Katarina, an unspoken agreement seemed to have arisen as people with different weapons were allowed to challenge her. No more longsword-wielders stepped forward after the first two as the gathered knights tried to figure out what weapon she wouldn't be able to parry, though it seemed like the fascination was shifting to how she would parry.

Those who attempted a frontal attack quickly found themselves being parried and riposted, and because it was Katarina, it was all aimed for the head instead of the abdomen as was usual. The wielder of a curved greatsword found himself being parried as easily as a knight wielding a claymore. A knight from Xiarmah hand come at Katarina with a pair of metal gauntlets, and attempted to try and catch her sword in his hands—people had noticed very quickly her sword was blunt and had a rounded tip—but Katarina had retaliated immediately with a kick, a very skilled moved that even those who could reliably parry found difficult to pull off. A riposte had immediately followed.

A more straightforward attempt at fisticuffs—and kicking as well, nearly dance-like spins that made spectators feel very inadequate and wincing as they envisioned their legs splitting that wide—had come at Katarina with determination, only to have their kick parried. Thankfully, she hadn't stomped on the parried leg, but with another splitting headache riposte, another challenger was declared dead.

Maria had kept careful watch of the time through the angle of the sun as more challengers tried their skill against her squire. Wielders of spears, polearms and lances found themselves promptly riposted, no matter if they attacked with swings or stabs. A rare whip-wielder found their weapon being parried aside with almost bemused ease, and after several repetitions that grew increasingly awkward to watch, the redheaded knight had sighed and stepped out of the ring of his own accord.

The one who seemed closest to laying a hand on Katarina—metaphorically, of course—was a wielder of powerstanced daggers who'd rolled around, trying to get behind Katarina, and had found herself getting kicked like a ball mid-roll, sending her out of bounds. If nothing else, Katarina hadn't even tried to parry her, and the kick had clearly been done in a panic.

As another challenger—one wielding what seemed to be the preserved arm of an ogre as a weapon, of all things—Maria managed to catch Katarina's attention and point significantly towards one of the windows. Her squire glanced towards it, and Maria was thankfully spared the awkwardness of having to try to use gestures to remind Katarina of dinner as the duke's daughter immediately sheathed her sword.

"Ah, sorry, but I have to go now," she said to her opponent, whose jaw dropped at the declaration. The crowd around the ring groaned in disappointment. "Sorry, sorry, but I need to get dressed for dinner! This has been fun, though. Why don't we all spar again some time?"

There were more groans, but fortunately no one was so crass as to try and keep Katarina in the ring. A path was reluctantly opened for her, and thankfully someone was willing to step into the ring and take her place against the man with the ogre arm. Still, many people tried to walk with Katarina, trying to engage her in conversation and no doubt try to learn how she managed to git gud to such a degree.

Still, as Maria watched her squire moving—slowly—towards her, she was gladdened to see that Katarina was smiling again.

A Rafael Interlude

Rafael Walt kept his face mild as he lingered to one side, staying silent as he watched Director Nathan Hart speaking to one of the officials from Tasmeria. While the man could be all but invisible and had the sense of direction of a crystal lizard, seemingly able to get lost in a dead end hallway, he was still a noble. When he made the effort to not be unnoticed, he… well, he was capable of polite conversation. Not particularly interesting conversation—Lady Schleiden had the patient of a woman reminding herself to not cause an international incident

And polite conversation eventually led to…

"Ah, forgive my lax manners," Nathan said as if he hadn't been saying the exact same thing in the exact same way ever since the International Assembly had begun. "This is my Vice-Director, Rafael Walt."

Rafael smiled and extended a hand. "A pleasure to meet you, Lady Shleiden. I hope you've been enjoying your time in Sorcier."

Her smile was weak and insincere, her eyes simply sliding towards him as she extended her hand in turn. "It's had its charms, I suppose," she said, exchanging grips with him.

The sun-like radiance of Light Magic erupted from Rafael's hand, visible only to him and any other Light Magic Wielder in the vicinity. The smoke-like black streamers rising from Lady Schleiden were blasted away in his eyes, as if someone had decided to be thorough in blowing out a candle. Rafael gave no indication of anything, maintaining the polite handshake with the Tasmerian woman, and when the exchange of grips faltered, it wasn't because of him. He'd had a lot of practice in this over the last few days, after all.

Lady Schleiden's grip slackened, but her almost languid movement's vanished, her shoulders tensing as her expression became stiff and frozen, and her eyes sharpened like blades.

"Lady Schleiden?" Rafael said, maintaining the same smiling mask that he'd worn for years because of that woman. It still came easily to him, which was good because he'd hexing earned it over the years. He knew it was almost perfect. Once upon a time, only Katarina Claes had managed to see behind this mask, and even then she'd had help from how he was crying. "Is something the matter?"

The woman shook her head just once, and her grip firmed, those sharp eyes stabbing into his own. He liked to think they were parried as well as Katarina would have. "Ah, forgive me, Vice-Director Walt," she said, and her own mask finally began to fall into place. A polite smile on a lively face, as befitting a noble with no enmity and known for her honor and diligence. But those eyes… "I recalled something, nothing more."

"Oh?" Rafael said, both their hands falling away from each other. "I hope we're not keeping you from anything?"

She grasped the excuse, even as those eyes sharpened on him even further. "As I happens, I need to follow up on a report I'm expecting. Forgive me, but I need to find someone."

"No forgiveness needed," Rafael said easily. "We understand completely, don't we Director?"

"Oh yes," Nathan said. "We won't keep you, then, especially if it means you'll be able to have dinner at a reasonable hour. It was a pleasure speaking with you, Lady Schleiden."

"And you, Director Hart… Vice-Director Walt." Rafael's title was said with irony now as the woman no doubt finally placed his name.

The two parties walked away from each other, Rafael and Nathan walking side by side as Sienna Nelson, posing as Nathan Secretary, fell into step with them. The length of chain connecting Nathan's shackle to hers rang as it dragged across the floor, which people passing them politely ignored.

"That should be the last member of the Tasmerian party you wished to speak with Director, Shadow Director," Sienna said, checking over the list that had been compiled from the reports of Sora, Rafael, and the various other Light Magic wielders present for the International Assembly. It was the latest list, discretely slipped to them over lunch.

Rafael nodded. "Thank you, Sienna. I think it's time we got changed for dinner, see what developments have occurred and if there are anyone we need to speak with." All bland, almost banal words that could have been about anything, especially given the discussions ongoing among the various nations of the assembly, which were the best kind of cover.

For a moment, Rafael wondered what other plots the other attendants were hiding under similarly boring language.

Countering the work of the Dark Magic wielder that had gotten inside the castle was simple enough, once they'd been able to reasonably ascertain that it wasn't the work of the Dark Magic wielder known to them as Sarah. The residue being left behind wasn't as intense as what he remembered, and there also weren't as many victims as there could be. During his time possessed by the dark spirit of Dark Magic wielder, he'd been limited by a need for subtlety and, quite possibly, the need to always hold his Dark Magic in check, since theoretically if the dark spirit had run out it might be destroyed or unable to possess Rafael anymore. He'd been perfectly capable of using Dark Magic on five people in a single day, however, and in such a way that it had taken cross-examination by the Third Prince himself for them to realize there were any discrepancies in their behavior.

Whoever was doing this, they weren't as good as Rafael had been. The way the victims had acted before and after Rafael had purged them of the Dark Magic's influence had been markedly different. A few acted like they'd been drugged, such that some of their companions—who hadn't been affected by Dark Magic—had grown concerned for their well-being. A couple of times, this concern had even resulted in them trying to block Rafael and Nathan from speaking to the affected, and only some quick thinking on his part of offering to use his Light Magic to help them with whatever malady it was had allowed him to purge the victim. The ploy had quickly been added to their resources.

Most of the victims had shown signs of being forgetful, distracted and pliable, though a few they had encountered had acted stubborn and condescending until they had been purged. Sora had equated it to the results he got from Dark Magic, and very little like the almost complete erasure of memories and functioning tools that Rafael had turned some of his classmates into. While the newbie couldn't exactly undo the Dark Magic on his own—apparently just commanding someone to 'act like they're not under the influence of Dark Magic' didn't really work—his disguise as a servant made him both practically invisible and highly mobile, and so he was prioritizing gaining intelligence and identifying victims than actually trying to undo anything.

It made Rafael want to sigh. While he knew this was the sort of thing he and other Light Magic wielders of the Ministry had been called to attend the International Assembly… none of them had actually expected they'd need to do it! The discovery that there actually was Dark Magic being used on the members of delegations had led to a late-night emergency meeting on the day it had been discovered, and more personally had cut into the time he'd thought he'd have to be with Maria!

Still, a part of him was counting the hours before whoever was doing this somehow managed to catch Katarina Claes in their board-covered pit trap with spikes and giant ant at the bottom. It was a perverse, not very serious part, but he couldn't help but observe that Katarina Claes had found herself somehow the victim of nearly every Dark Magic wielder they knew to be running around Sorcier—his beloved Maria included if the stories he'd heard about Katarina's squire training held any actual truth to them. Just because his beloved Maria would never use Dark Magic on the squire she doted on—Rafael knew Maria's doting when he saw it!—didn't mean Katrina technically wasn't Maria's victim.

So when this Dark Magic wielder causing trouble finally felt tempted to use his Dark Magic on Katarina…

Well, Maria would probably leave enough of them to be identified.

Maybe.

Possibly.

She did dote on Katarina so, after all.

Sighing to himself, Rafael unconsciously led the way back to the building they were being housed. "Come on. It's been a long day and Lasciel was supposed to come by and drop of some cookies delivered from home."

The two with him brightened at the mention of cookies. "Finally, something good to look forward to," Nathan said cheerfully.

"Uh hmm," Sienna hummed in agreement.

Now with more of a spring in their steps, the three members of Magic Tool Laboratory temporarily assigned to Dark Magic removal headed back to their rooms to eat cookies and get dressed for dinner.

They were adults after all, they knew having cookies wouldn't ruin their appetites!