Chương 61: Chapter 60: Promise Kept, Promise Given.

Count Vance had wanted to see my father before he left. It was odd that he visited now, considering I would not have barred him from the Manor if he had come for that purpose earlier. I chose not to accompany him, leaving him with Estovan in that section of the Manor. I still didn't know what exactly to make of my 'father'. So many things might have happened, but I still remembered that portrait in Count Indri's Manor. The woman who was supposed to be my mother, yet couldn't possibly be.

Just thinking about it gave me a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Sadness not for myself, but for the Esra that had been. Estovan would show him out. Maybe being a daughter grieving too much to see her father would have its own benefit. It didn't matter. All in all, I thought our meeting had gone quite well. I hadn't exactly won trust, but I had at least won consideration. Considering my reputation, that had to be enough. For now. Maids curtsied, and manservants dipped their heads low as they passed.

That was still not something I was used to. No, maybe it was something I would never get used to. I stepped inside my own room and felt my shoulders slump a little. That lasted all of one second.

"What are you doing here?" I let out a long breath, feeling some of the stiffness melt away. Violet was sitting on my bed, staring at me cross-legged. All around her were…pieces of armor? She was still wearing her training gear, her hair in a single red braid. I saw everything from breastplates to armored grieves to padded leather armor. I even saw a few corsets I immediately suspected were plated.

"Took you long enough," Violet muttered.

"I thought that guy would never leave." I stepped inside, closing the door behind me.

"Hey, he wasn't that bad. A little greedy but nothing compared to Greenward, anyway." Violet nodded, and then she half-smiled, half-snarled.

"So…an expedition, huh? We're going outside the damn wall. Read a bit about it, about time I go and see what all the damn fuss is about." She added the 'we' so casually, I didn't even notice at first. I had thought something like this might come up, though I hadn't expected it to come up this quickly.

"Violet, I…I don't think you should come." I said slowly.

"What?" She stared.

"You…you haven't even been made Duchess yet. Your District is still reeling and…and it'll be dangerous." I stared down at the floor, feeling very, very uncomfortable.

"Besides, it's a House Veyne expedition. I don't know how the Counts under House Indri would feel about you joining us." I finally looked back up at her then, fully expecting her to be furious. Instead, Violet looked…hurt. The expression lasted only a few seconds before being replaced by the anger I had expected.

"No fucking thank you. I am coming with you."

"Violet, I-""You promised." Violet hissed.

"Don't tell me you forgot about that just because you're playing Duchess now. Don't you dare." Her anger hurt, but the barely contained hurt underneath it hurt much more. It was in the tremble of her lower lip, in the way her fingers dug into my bedsheet. It wasn't logical to have Violet come with me. I wasn't even sure if I should take Damian yet. It wasn't logical and yet….

"Okay," I said finally.

"I'm sorry. It's…it's hard to stop thinking like that, I guess." Violet's frown deepened.

"You sure? You're not going to bring this shit up again, are you?"

"I'm not," I said.

"And if I do…I trust you to hit me." Her frown melted into a smile. She nodded, sat a little straighter.

"Good, because it sounds fucking awesome." How could I have ever said no to her?

"Sorry. It's not quite what we promised." I said.

"But…I think it's close enough to being an adventurer?"

"You kidding? It's fucking awesome. Even most adventurers just stay inside the damn city for some small job or another. This is a big one."

"You do know we're probably not going to be slaying monsters ourselves, right? That's what the soldiers are for." I said.

"We'll have a lot of them around, and I am sure Count Vance won't take us anywhere too dangerous. It's mostly just for show." Violet rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, yeah. I thought you'd fucking say that. We'll see when we get out there, won't we?" She paused. Stared at me.

"What?"

"You're gonna need more than some dresses or some training gear." She said, finally, reached for a breastplate at her side, and flung it towards me. I didn't have time to do much of anything. I barely managed to condense a tiny amount of mana in my arms before the breastplate smacked into me. It felt like she had thrown an anvil. I went down hard. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

"Still too slow!" Violet called out.

"How the hell are you gonna survive a monster if you're that bloody slow?" I stared up at her. Rolled my eyes.

"I guess that's why I have the amazing Violet to protect me."

"You're damn right you do," Violet said proudly. I was pretty sure she actually meant it. I rose up again, stared down at the breastplate.

"Where did you even get this anyway? I don't think you've gone-""Stole it all from the armory."

"What?" Violet looked even more proud now.

"It was all just sitting there anyway. Practically begging for someone to come in and nab 'em." I did wonder what the guards assigned to that part of the Manor had to say about this. I suspected they just didn't know what to say to Violet when she barged in.

"So? Try it on already." Violet pointed.

"I wanna see." I was still in my training gear. The brown padded tunic was meant to be functional, rather than heavy. It did occur to me that I didn't know how to wear the thing. I started working on the buckles. Violet rose from the bed and stepped towards me.

"This room isn't going to cut it. There's no place to even move around."

"Maybe you should have thought about that before you ended up bringing all of this he-" I yelped as Violet leaned down, grabbed my legs under one arm, and my back under the other. She didn't seem to struggle at all, even though I was still holding the breastplate.

"What the hell are you-""Zip it." Violet moved fast towards the window and flung it open.

'Can't even bloody move here." Then, she jumped and hauled me right out into the open air. I let out a shriek as the ground fell away. The whole world lurched, and my stomach did a violent flip. I scrambled for the knobs in my mind. Click. Click. I dulled the nausea. just in time for us to slam down onto the flat roof of the Manor. Only then did she gently let me down.

"Sorry. Guess even you're bad at something." She murmured to herself. It took me a few seconds to get my feet under me. I looked around. It was the same Manor I had seen so many times, and yet even this much elevation did make it feel different. I could see farther over the Manor grounds, could see the occasional patrolling guard moving back and forth. I turned, and behind me, some of the maids were busy washing clothes. I spotted Lana among them.

"Well? Hurry up." Violet said, arms folded. Oh. Right. I turned towards her, held the breastplate in my hands.

"Erm…I think I need some help." Violet paused, looked briefly hesitant. Then, she stepped forward. She snatched the heavy breastplate right out of my hands, nearly pulling me forward with it.

"Alright. Here we go." Violet slammed the front half of the breastplate against my chest, wrapping the thick leather straps around my ribs.

"Breathe." She ordered. I did. Violet immediately yanked the straps backward. It felt like I was an orange and she was trying to squeeze all of the juice right out of me.

"I think I'd rather wear one of your corsets." I protested. The armor was damn heavy too, enough that I was slouching, barely on my feet. I tried to take a step, but ended up swaying instead. Weak. Amusement.

"I might wear this too, ya know. Maybe leather instead." She smirked, paused.

"Well? Condense mana. Into your back and your legs. Unless you really think you're going to carry that yourself." I sighed, condensed mana just as she'd said. I stood straighter, the strain from the armor fading away in an instant. Did I have to keep this up the entire time while we were out there? Soldiers really did have it rough.

"Good." Violet nodded proudly. Then, she reached forward and punched me in the chest. I yelped, felt the phantom impact. It made me wobble and almost tip over before I caught myself.

"Hmm. It does work. Now we just need to find you some of the good enchanted stuff. Hard to find that shit here."

"I don't suppose it's too late to call off the expedition and sit at home?" I took a testing step. The armor clanked loudly. How annoying.

"Alright. There has to be something better than this. This is ridiculous." Violet grinned.

"There is. I thought this would be funnier." I growled and lunged at her. She grinned and ran out of the way. I tried to chase her down, kept lunging for her. She evaded me each time, laughing all the while. The armor might not have weighed much with mana, but it was still tiring trying to run after her. Eventually, I sighed and sat down on the edge of the roof, gasping for air.

"I…give up." I sighed and leaned back. The armor wasn't exactly comfortable to lie down in either. Damn it. I unfastened the thick leather straps, which finally gave me enough room to breathe. Not easily, but it was an improvement.

"Awh. That was fun!" Violet protested, looking down at me. She paused briefly, and then she lay down right next to me.

"Armor sucks," I grumbled.

"You wouldn't bloody need it if you practiced more."

"Seriously?"

"Yep. Just keep condensing it all the time, and you get used to it." Violet said absently.

"And…did you do that?" I asked.

"Meh. I was bored. Didn't have much else to do anyway besides practice." Violet said. She said the words casually enough, and I didn't detect anything deeper in them. Why did they make me sad, anyway? We stayed silent for a time, just staring up at the sky. The sun had started to set, the bright sky slowly darkening. There was a faint breeze that rolled over the estate and flowed over us. There was the occasional sound of a manservant or a maid, but otherwise, it was silent.

"I really don't want to become a damn Duchess," Violet said finally. I winced.

"Sorry. It's my fault-""Nah." She cut off.

"You were right. I should for a little while, let things settle down, and then give some other idiot the job." I turned my head to look at her. She seemed to hesitate before speaking again.

"It's just…watching you, I guess I realize I never could have become one anyway, y'know? So what the hell was I even supposed to do? What did my fa- that bastard even think would happen?"

"I don't know," I said honestly.

"I don't think he thought that far. That's something you two have in common." Violet snorted, looked at me, and smacked my shoulder.

"Shut up." She turned to look at the sky again.

"I just wonder what the hell I'm supposed to do now, ya know?" She raised one hand up and slowly balled her fingers into a fist.

"I guess I'll just have fun and see how far that gets me.

"That sounds like you."

"But…it just sucks knowing you don't have…someplace to come back to, ya know? I guess I didn't before, but…." Her voice trailed off. She lowered her hand to her side.

"Who said you didn't?" I asked.

"What?" I looked over at her again and smacked her shoulder.

"Who said you didn't? You can always come back here." She just stared at me.

"Not sure if it's enough to call a home, but…you can always come back here. Well, assuming you don't destroy too many things." I paused.

"But then if you didn't destroy something, you'd probably start acting up. Maybe I should hide everything important in the Family Vault and then let you destroy the-" A giggle cut me off. Violet was laughing.

"You're fucking weird, you know that?" She stared back up at the sky. Maybe it was just the light, but her face did look the faintest shade of red.

"I…do indeed fucking know that," I confirmed. We both stared at the sky again until the sun fully set and we could gaze out at the stars.