In the middle of a quiet garden, where there were songs of birds and sweet scent of flowers, ‘sa sa’ noises were created from the wind brushing against the trees. The sun shining on the trees created patches of shadows on the ground. In the middle of this garden, there was a single black-haired girl dressed in tight martial arts clothes and holding a longsword. She looked like a famous swords master.

The girl was startlingly beautiful. Her fame had already been spread through the entire [Xavier Duchy] and several nearby kingdoms in a short period of half a month. Many rich and powerful people had expressed their interest in her, but all were rejected by the duke.

With her eyes closed, the girl slowly opened them. The already sharp sword aura rose to another level. At a distance, a young man watching felt fear and retreated a few steps. He felt as if he could be instantly beheaded even from such a distance.

“Heaven-Sword Ensemble,  First Technique, Slash”

At the same time as the girl’s shout, the sword shot out a column of bright white light. A sonic boom like an eagle’s howl was released. The boy watching in the distance knew he would never be able to block such a strike.

“Stop” the bright white light travelling towards the wall suddenly vanished. The girl sighed while speaking to herself:

“Finally I am capable of using Heaven-Sword Ensemble’s first technique. I never thought that by being in this peaceful environment, training would take so much longer than it did in Forest of Funerals .”

“Madam Lunaria, congratulation on learning a martial arts technique! Now you can use both magic and martial arts.”

“Eek!” Lunaria let out a small shriek. She turned her head to see the young man slowly walking toward her.

“Noah!? Since when were you here? And I told you not to call me madam!”

“The entire time, Luna… Madam Lunaria!”

“HAH! You purposely added madam! You’re obviously trying to mess with me. Is that something a follower should be doing?”

“If Madam Lunaria really thinks that I am her follower, then I will gladly accept such accusation.”

“…” Lunaria was once again angered by Noah’s response. Lunaria wondered what Noah was up to.

“I will not!” Lunaria shouted. She returned her sword to its sheath, quickly turning with her hair flung around, and stormed away from the garden.

Of course Noah was like a sticky glue and followed Lunaria like a shadow without delay.

“Lunaria-chan! I finally found you.”  The voice belonged to the self-proclaimed big sister, Leah.  Although Lunaria had started to call her Leah onee-san, but Lunaria felt a tiny bit awkward when saying it.

“Leah onee-san? Did you need me for something?” Lunaria asked while walking up to Leah

Leah looked straight at Noah while praising: “Hmm, not bad, this follower of yours is like a sticky glue.”

The two were shocked from hearing Leah’s words and were unable to respond. After all, why must a follower be like a sticky glue?

“Thank you Madam Leah for the encouragement”

“Yup. Oh right, Lunaria, did you know that a Magician Girl Tournament will be held within the duchy soon?” said Leah while looking at Lunaria with her eyes shining excitedly as if she was looking at her favourite pet. This caused Lunaria to involuntarily take a few steps back. Slightly trembling, Lunaria asked:

“Ma… Magi.. Magishian Girl? ” Lunaria felt Leah’s word had an abnormal tone.

Leah couldn’t keep her act up anymore. She stretched her jade green hands out, grabbed Lunaria’s arms intimately and exclaimed:

“Magician Girl! It’s stated that partic.i.p.ants can’t be over 18 and must be a girl! Isn’t this made just for Lunaria-chan!”

Haha she must be teasing me, Lunaria thought, the corner of her mouth twitching a little.

“Leah onee-san, you know I only just started learning magic, not to mention that I am already 17. Wouldn’t I be a bit too old to be joining this kind of tournament?”

“No, not at all. This time’s tournament is being conducted by our duke house’s own strongest [Pheonix] rank, Master Ray Lindauer. The top 10 prizes that is being given is more than enough to lure any 18 year-old magicians.”

“Ray Lindauer … Could he be that one…?” The name sounded very familiar to Lunaria, there seemed to be some bad rumors about him within the duke house.

“That’s right, he is our duke house’s legendary [Emperor of Lolicon]”

Oh, wasn’t he that extraordinary strong guy? Lunaria smacked her forehead realizing who it was. Rumors said this guy was an old man who’s a fanatic about immature girls. If not for other [Phoenix] ranks stopping him, those young ‘flowers’ would all have withered.

“Leah onee-san, are you not trying to feed me to the wolf?! While Ray Lindauer is only conducting on the surface, he probably has other plans!”

“Master Ray Lindauer is only interested in girls under 15, so Lunaria-chan need not worry.” While Leah’s explanation did calm Lunaria down a little, it made it obvious that the old master’s eccentric behavior was beyond helping. Rumor has it that Ray Lindauer used to be called  [Thunder Emperor], but as time pa.s.sed, only the nickname of [Emperor of Lolicon] remained for that old man.