The Duke’s Reborn Daughter Sometimes Chooses Violence.

”My Lady, will he truly come? On such short notice?”

I looked up from my book and turned to Anias. Books lined every wall. Magical Implements glared down, casting shadows. I sat on a cushioned seat that was clearly intended for someone a bit taller than I was. As far as hastily arranged rooms go, this was comfortable enough. Though I would have preferred my library back home.

“He will. Or rather, he must. He would come if I called him to a gutter. This place is a mercy.”

It had been mere hours since the attack on Indri Manor. Hours since a Duke was found dead in his own home, his own daughter unconscious, the heir to another Ducal House injured in that very same home. It was surreal to be back here, in a setting I was much more comfortable in, though it was hard to find quite the same comfort. The world still turned, and I had to turn with it or be left behind.

Every time I closed my eyes, I was back there, in that damned tunnel. In that small room. I took a deep breath, forced myself to focus.

House Wardell had been hounding me for a few hours now. My excuse of needing rest after a difficult ordeal would not last much longer. The news reporters were another matter. I had to come here in a dark wig, use a secret passageway, and had to travel on foot just to avoid being seen. They had been crowding outside the manor for some time now. I suspect only Anias could have brought me here in secret.

Apparently, my exact image had been circulating in the city for a few days. I didn’t even remember seeing a Scrylens, so I could only guess how that happened.

I heard footsteps just outside the door. My hands tensed, I forced my face to stillness. There was a knock on the door. Anias moved over and opened it.

A short, balding man poked his head inside -the owner of this fancy bookshop. I didn’t remember his name, though he had given it.

“Pardon my intrusion. There is a man here who says he was expecting-”

“Move, or be moved.” A voice drawled out behind the bookkeeper. He let out a startled yelp as he looked behind him.

”Please, do let him in.” I smiled.

The store owner was only too quick to obey, vanishing into the hallway outside. Another figure appeared in his place, a taller, more noble figure, one hidden by the large green cloak he wore. Duke Greenward. He cast one look around the room, looked at Anias, and then at me.

“Do leave us. I will call if I need anything,” I said, gesturing lightly toward the door. Anias looked briefly uncertain, glancing at me before bowing and leaving the room. No wonder. I still felt plenty of phantom aches and pains, though that Miranda woman had certainly healed some of my injuries rather easily. S-rank healers really were different.

I had been strongly advised not to use mana. Each time I did, an aching pain would shoot through me. I have been trying to avoid it as much as possible, for now. This was the second time I had Gift Burnout. Lovely.

We were alone in that room then. I gestured to the seat in front of me, firmly closing the book I was reading and setting it aside. Duke Greenward stared at me before taking the seat I offered. “You look more pale than the last time I saw you.” He said. “As if you have been attacked by a beast.” He didn’t look nor sound concerned. More curious and amused, I think.

“Something to that effect.” I nodded.

“What happened? The whole city is abuzz, and now you demand I come here. You are lucky I bothered.”

“I asked you here because you need help, do you not?”

Julian Greenward froze. Then, his face reddened. “Did you ask me here to taunt me? To gloat?” Duke Greenward’s eyes were hard, his voice harder.

No idle conversation before at all then, huh? He must have been quite upset. Nobles did love their roundabout conversations, most of the time.

”You couldn’t prove the Quartermaster’s seals were fake. On the ledger we found in your facility.” I kept my tone idle. ”You went and looked for the man in question, and he was mysteriously missing, was he not?”

“I knew you were behind it. You and that decrepit Indri-”

“I was not,” I said coldly. “Neither was he. And Duke Indri is dead.”

Duke Greenward stared at me for a time, implications twisting on his face for all to see. The news must have truly shocked him if he wasn’t controlling himself at all. I even thought I saw a grim relief flash across his eyes.

Duke Wardell had cordoned off the manor, preventing the flow of information until he could question the people who had been there. Mine was the only testimony that really mattered.

Information would still have leaked, but there was a difference between hearing hearsay from an informant and getting the truth directly from me.

“Explain.” Duke Greenward said, finally, some semblance of control was back over his face.

”We were attacked at his Manor. I chose to stay there for a time in case of any…unfortunate accidents.”

Duke Greenward’s face didn’t even twitch. I did wonder if he was actually considering something like an assassination. I would never know now.

”The Hero who attacked us at the Auction House and his cronies. They tore through Duke Indri’s defenses as if they were made out of paper. They killed the Duke. Almost killed me.” I paused deliberately, let my hand tremble as I stared down at the table. ”I am sure you’ve heard some rumors by now.”

There was silence for a long moment. Duke Greenward was chewing on something. He doubtless had quite a few questions and was wondering which to ask first. Perhaps wondering which I’d bother to answer. Especially wondering why I was even telling him any of this to begin with.

“I am glad that you are safe, Lady Veyne,” He said cautiously. “And my heart goes out to Duke Indri. We might have had our differences, but a member of Nobility does deserve better.” His preamble out of the way, he asked what he actually wanted to. “Why? Why would they attack again?”

I shrugged. ”I do not know. The Hero said something about wanting to repay me for my father’s sins. I would have, at that. Had Duke Indri not heroically given his life to protect me.”

Saying the words tasted like ash. Calling that monster a hero made my stomach heave, and my blood boil. The rage threatened to spike my heart rate, to tighten my jaw -tells that a snake like Julian Greenward would instantly spot.

Click. Click.

I used the little mana I had to tamp down on my anger. Enough of it had recovered in the hours since that I could do this much, at least.

I used my Gift to dial the disgust and anger down to a dull, manageable throb. My face smoothed out. I must have looked impassive, in this moment.

Liar.

The sword whispered, the whisper accompanied by a pain that made me twitch. I ignored it. There was no use in explaining politics to a sword.

“Your father did have many enemies.” Duke Greenward murmured to himself. “Though a Hero failing at a task is…rare. I don’t see how Duke Indri would manage such a thing, even at the cost of his own life.” There was suspicion in his voice now.

“He didn’t defeat a Hero,” I said solemnly. “He bought time. Time enough for the barrier to break. For whatever reason, they didn’t want to contend with anyone outside.”

“I did hear about that.” Duke Greenward said slowly. “Curious, that. S-rank adventurers on site soon after a barrier surrounds the manor. What lucky timing. Hard to get them to do much of anything.”

I smiled and reached for my necklace, letting my fingers close around the pendant. ”This necklace mirrors another one.” I focused, channeling mana deliberately, until the gemstone glowed. ”Its matching pair is glowing somewhere far away. I trust you’ve seen its like before?”

Duke Greenward looked perplexed.

”It is not difficult to use such a device to send messages. To call on forces already arranged, especially when one already thinks their life is in danger.”

Duke Greenward watched me, recognition appearing slowly. ”There are such systems. Merchants use them frequently, though the codes are complicated. Slow.”

I didn’t know that. I’d thought I’d done something clever. Unique. Oh well. “Then it should be no surprise at all that things happened the way they did.”

Duke Greenward nodded, his curiosity apparently satisfied. It was good that this story worked for him, seeing as I would be giving the same story to Duke Wardell soon. It did need to pass a decent level of scrutiny at the very least.

“Why are you telling me this?” He asked finally.

Finally. “That Hero revealed that he was the one behind what happened at your facility. I had simply thought you should know.”

Duke Greenward’s eyes widened. He leaned forward. “Did he?” His voice was low, but it carried earnestness all the same. “A Hero wanted to frame me? Why?”

”He did.” I nodded. Sighed, staring bitterly over the floorboard to the right of the table. ”Though, as to why, I don’t have the faintest idea. They were not working alone. I believed one of them mentioned Alestia.”

Well, this would probably be fine. Give the man a foreign boogeyman to worry about.

Duke Greenward looked skeptical and horrified at the same time. “A-Alestia? Truly?” He murmured. His face had suddenly paled. His whole body trembled before he could think to control himself.

“Yes. That’s what he said.”

Julian Greenward’s skepticism and horror slowly died, replaced by the dawning realization of what I was offering him. The horror faded under the weight of overwhelming relief. His shoulders relaxed, an invisible weight lifting off of them. He wasn’t going to hang for the facility. I was handing him a scapegoat.

He frowned. “You could have kept this to yourself. It would have brought my House much pain.” He stared daggers at me. “What do you want?”

“I want to avoid the Inquisition,” I said. “An Inquisition is only called because of a disagreement between two prestigious Houses. This one is called because of the incident at your facility. You couldn’t have known -the man was a Hero after all, and he had other allies besides.” I shrugged. “There is no dispute, and hence there is no need for the Inquisitors any longer.”

I raised a finger. “I am sure you know this, but the value of our Houses is far less than that of other Ducal Houses. They won’t spare an Inquisitor if they don’t have to. Especially not when Alestia is potentially involved. I dare say that Hero could kill every single one of us, and the Crown still wouldn’t risk it. The twentieth Alestian Prince could cripple the Kingdom if he were so inclined.”

Duke Julian’s face twisted at my comment. It is said that the only reason this continent isn’t simply called Alestia is because of its constant infighting. Even now, just one small faction from there could crush Arian in a few months. It was a land where Gods and Heroes walked freely, while Arian was a land where that kind of power hadn’t been seen for decades. Save perhaps the first Sword of the Kingdom, and Scarlet Indri.

This was all knowledge that Anias had given me when I had been conceiving of this gambit in that tunnel. Mathias had been rather knowledgeable as well.

Duke Greenward’s momentary anger faded into relief. He might have been framed, but there was little doubt the man still had plenty to hide, which would have been much harder with an Inquisitor in the city. All of the great Houses likely had things to hide, even mine.

The story wasn’t perfect. I knew that much. It didn’t have to be. It simply had to be perfectly convenient. Convenient enough that Duke Greenward wanted to believe the lie. The rest would follow on its own.

“What favor do you want for this?” Duke Greenward finally asked, seeming to come to a decision.

“Pardon?”

He rolled his eyes. “You clearly want something. I do not accept kindness when I know there’s something behind it. Well? What do you want?”

Huh. Honestly, I didn’t really want anything, nor had I even expected him to offer anything. Maybe I should have been more prepared, but it had been a very long few hours.

“At the Auction House, I believe my maid Anias saved your life,” I said. “Did you wonder why? In all this time, has that thought occurred to you?”

Duke Greenward didn’t hesitate. “Because I am a Duke.”

Anger flared inside me then. Not a lot of it, my nerves were still too frayed. My Gift was too strong. “Because your daughter was there, Lord Julian,” I said. “If you wish to repay me, then do thank Anias on your way out. And perhaps cherish your daughter more. I will consider that enough recompense. Oh and, naturally, the blockade to my District has to end.”

He would do that last part anyway, but best to remind him.

Duke Greenward looked suspicious once more. Doubtless, he thought he would be paying a far steeper price. Honestly, I didn’t think he’d even accept this tiny demand. His face hardened.

Finally, Julian Greenward nodded. “…Of course,” he said at last, voice smooth. “How generous of you, Lady Veyne. I shall remember this… kindness.”

I rose. “Then, My Lord, I believe I must get going. Lord Wardell has sent someone to speak with me, and I have kept him waiting long enough.”

Julian smiled and stood as well. He paused at the door, one hand resting on the frame.

“One last thing,” he said without turning around. “That Hero you spoke of… the one who ‘framed’ me. If he ever surfaces again, do let me know. I would very much like to… thank him personally.”

It was hard not to show my surprise. Damn. Here I’d thought he’d bought every one of my lies. Perhaps he still mostly did, but was just naturally suspicious? Or perhaps he didn’t buy it at all, and the lie itself didn’t matter. It was simply too convenient.

“It is nice to interact with somebody reasonable. Your father was very… set in his ways. I’d thought you would be the same. I am pleased to see you can look at the bigger picture.”

Somehow, both an insult and a compliment at the same time. Just lovely.

Violet would certainly be angry when she woke up. The healing had taken to her, but that woman Miranda had still said it would take her a day or two to wake up.

I had made her bastard of a father a martyr who died to save his daughter. I hoped she would understand, though I expected her not to.

I couldn’t let my friend hang for the crime of patricide. My heart might break if she didn’t understand, but I’d rather that than her end up dead.

Not after everything.