As the time quickly crept to night, Tibaut was in his room inspecting his armour. He couldn't help but smile at it each time he looked at it. He was like a child who had gotten a flagship smartphone for Christmas when they were expecting nothing.
("God, I wanna go on an adventure right to test it out, hell I'll even settle for some training with Elizabeth to test it out.")
Shockingly enough he did ask Elizabeth to help test it out but she waved him away and told him she'd do it tomorrow (coincidentally she was training when she told him to wait until tomorrow).
He put on the armour again and looked at himself in the mirror. He couldn't stop smiling and made various poses with it.
"Who am I? Pft, you don't even know that much? I am the eternal silver all blades will cross eventually, I am the flame that will consume all, I am the mighty Ignis." He said as he produced a flame behind himself during his monologue in the mirror.
While his total age was over 40, there were just some things age wouldn't change for him. And acting like a big shot in some battle manga was one of them.
As he took off the armour and was preparing to go to sleep, a comment of Vanessa's suddenly came back to him.
"Oh yeah, this didn't have a codpiece."
While this wasn't that big of a deal, he decided having some armour down there would be better than not having any.
"I know she was probably saying that as a joke but I gotta at least see if she has any. It shouldn't make too much of a difference to me, right?" he said as he decided to pay her a late-night visit.
As soon as he approached the basement he could hear laughter coming from it.
"I guess she and Elizabeth are shooting the shit."
He continued on until he entered and saw who was making such a ruckus.
It was Vanessa and that girl in the hoodie who had spoken to him one time. Her name was Lily…wasn't it? Now that he thought about it, she was also the girl he saw who gave a letter to Vanessa with Ezekiel's message that one time.
In her hand was a metal cup and in Vanessa's hand was a large bottle.
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Upon meeting eyes with Vanessa she immediately put the bottle behind her while shifting her gaze.
Tibaut wasn't sure what that was about and asked her what he intended to.
He turned to Lily and said "Excuse me." before turning to Vanessa.
"Hey, Vanessa I thought you said you were gonna make a codpiece for my armour, where is it?"
The girl with the hoodie laughed at this before Vanessa responded.
"You idiot, did you really come down here for that?" she said while keeping her hands behind her.
"(I know a codpiece covers my dick and all but is saying it really that funny?) I mean I'd prefer to have it than not but if you don't have one I'll just leave."
Lily continued laughing and Vanessa responded.
"By the way, I was just pouring her a drink."
Tibaut raised an eyebrow when she said this and responded "Okay?"
Lily was the one who decided to open her mouth this time.
"Hehe, don't act like you don't finish bottles every now and again hag."
Vanessa punched her shoulder but Lily didn't seem to mind, in fact she was rolling around the ground with a smile on her blushed face.
"Oh, you drink? I guess that's not that surprising."
"What do you mean by that?" she quickly responded but soon changed her tone of voice, "Wait you don't mind?"
"Huh? Why would I?"
Tibaut was genuinely confused.
Lily decided to chime in.
"What do you mean why would you? She's drunk, seems like a pervert and likes smithing in her forge. She's basically a useless old man who likes to complain about the old days in a woman's body. Though she's not all that bad." She said with a blushed face while hugging Vanessa. Vanessa pushed her off and then started wringing her neck.
"So?" He asked. "If her being a pervert wasn't enough for me to dislike her, why would adding drinking be the breaking point?"
"You don't think I'm a loser who's wasted most of my life?" Vanessa asked.
"Why would I?" he asked confused.
Vanessa always had a hard time making new friends who weren't involved in a certain industry ever since her 25th birthday. Being seen as a pervert who drinks more than some sailors while being past that age always made people (whether knowingly or unknowingly) judge her. Most would see her and think "What good is keeping her company gonna be for me" and slowly distance themselves after a while. Even Elizabeth took a while to warm up to her. And she honestly didn't blame them. If she met someone like her, she'd probably call them a bum behind their back as well. Although the attempt was somewhat undermined by trying to mess with him, she really did try to present herself differently to Tibaut. Instead of being the sad drunk who hung out at brothels and sometimes made okay metal works, to him she tried to be a playful beauty who was secretly a serious blacksmith. It was a small change but she believed it worked. But now she saw the truth. He didn't care. He only saw her as his friend Vanessa. Not some drunk that you'd keep arm's length away from.
She soon dug through some stuff and found something. It was a codpiece. She walked over and handed it to him.
"Thanks." He stated.
"Don't worry about it." she said as she avoided eye contact.
He soon left.
Lily, still on the ground, began laughing.
"Hehehe, aren't I a great wingwoman? You better make me your kid's godmother hag."
Vanessa turned to her and gave her the meanest look she could muster. Immediately after she began kicking her while she was still on the ground.