Valentine and I sat across from each other in a comfortable private room. I poured her some ginger tea. Personally, I found the sharpness of ginger to be stabilizing when I was feeling down. Hopefully, it would help the Tower Master as well.
I didn't think she was so stupid and immature as to want to narrow down her life partner to a single person she'd never met due to a fetish or something. She was the leader of a hugely powerful organization, not an inexperienced teenager.
She probably made the oath when she was a lot younger. I put that thought on the back burner.
Whatever the reason, it resulted in something so messed up. There were too many things wrong with it to count. But I had to understand her better if I wanted to know what would convince her to give it up.
It was time to ask a few questions.
"Just so that we're on the same page, if some man took the same oath you did, challenged you, and then lost, you wouldn't marry him, right? That would be absurd."
Valentine frowned.
"No, I wouldn't."
"Then, all other matters aside, based on principle alone, I shouldn't be obligated to marry you."
"But, we can't put all other matters aside," replied Valentine.
Was it because of ego?
"Then, if I'm not attracted to women and not interested in social status, would you still insist?"
"That would be regrettable, but yes."
From her tone, she sounded genuinely apologetic. There were no traces of denial. Probably not ego, then.
"What if I already have a wife who I truly love? Would you want her to be betrayed by her husband? And if I did that, you'd still marry the sort of coward who gives up something so important out of fear?"
At the mention of a wife, something in her eyes shook. She hesitated for a second before replying.
"I'd be sorry towards your wife, but it would still be necessary for us to get married. I know it wouldn't be enough, but I'd do what I could to make it up to her. As for your personality, it doesn't matter."
Ah. So that was what was going on. How amusing.
"Tower Master Valentine, you are the first female Tower Master, the idol and role model for countless women in the country. Everything you do has a huge impact on how female mages are treated. You must really not want to mess it up, right? Even if they can't kick you out of your position, they can still make it harder for other girls. It'd be a shame if people pointed towards you and said this was why women couldn't be expected to have honor."
"And what would you know about that?" Valentine glared at me.
I ignored her and kept going.
"But you know what's far worse than seeing people badmouth the person you admire? It's watching them ruin themselves. Imagine, all those women looking up to you, and you give yourself away like a piece of meat that belongs to the strongest.
"Instead of showing them that they can work hard and decide their own fates, you're teaching them that even if they become the strongest, most amazing person in the country, they'll never be more than a slightly-exclusive offering for men. Master Valentine, is that really what you want?"
Valentine slammed her fist down on the table.
"Of course that's not what I want! Do you think I haven't ever thought of that? Do you think I wanted to be in a situation like this? But I don't have a choice!"
I noted with some interest that angry tears were starting to well up in the corners of her eyes.
"When I was young and politically powerless, I didn't want to get married off to whomever my family chose. This was the only way I could think of! Men are supposed to be stronger than women, so it would be too shameful for someone weaker than me to insist on marrying me.
"I never expected anyone to actually be able to defeat me. When I said it, I thought it was an empty vow. I didn't want to resort to such a dishonest tactic either, however, I thought it was better than being used.
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"But honor is so important to us. I can't just pretend nothing happened now, or my reputation will be ruined. I would rather be a bad role model than a failure."
Quite frankly, I didn't give a shit about her troubles, but right now, my future in the city depended on my ability to get through to her.
Looking at her with an expression of deep compassion, I nodded.
"Keeping your word is important, but so is doing the right thing. People tend to understand that.
"Being a good person is more important than keeping a promise you made as a child while under duress. Let's draft a speech together. I'll support everything you say."
Several hours later, I stood with Valentine in front of a large crowd.
I talked about freedom and my desire to marry someone I loved, not someone I had just met, no matter how amazing that person was.
To add more credibility, I even stood inside a truth circle and swore that I wasn't being coerced.
Valentine talked about how wrong it would be to force someone without consent and how she would no longer let people's fates be bound by the rash, thoughtless words she said as a child.
With both parties who were involved publicly denouncing the vow, the pushback was relatively minor.
There were still a significant number of people who said she was just making excuses and the like, but the majority of the reception was neutral or positive.
After we were finished, Professor Delaney nervously walked up to Valentine and said something. She broke out into one of the most radiant smiles I had ever seen and kissed him in response.
It was such a sugary scene that I felt the urge to vomit, but at least he no longer looked mad at me.
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High Priestess Lenore sat in the conference room with her head in her hands.
"How many agents is it he's killed by now?"
"Including the ones who approached when he was on the road, several dozen," responded the head of the secret service, "And I don't think we're any closer to bringing him in. He always knows which areas are hardest for us to operate in. Whenever we try to ambush him, he'll pick a few agents off and then head to a crowded location while we're left scrambling to clean up the bodies before the city guard finds them."
"Is there anyone else we can send in? Someone stronger?"
"Too much more than this will risk crossing the Temple of Iron's bottom line. With the invasion coming up, we can't afford to start an all-out war with our neighbour."
Lenore sighed.
"There might still be a chance he would cooperate with us. Despite his body count, we never tried to kill him or anything. Even the Temple of Iron will probably ally with us for the upcoming invasion, too. Maybe we should just leave it?"
The pope shook his head.
"We have no guarantee he won't run, or turn against us if we survive the invasion. After all, he's currently doing quite well in a hostile country. We can't leave our fate up to a coin toss."
"Then what do you propose we do?"
"Surely, in all the universe, there has to be more than one person capable of warding off the invasion, right?"
Realization spread across Lenore's face. "Oh! You mean..."
"Yes. It'll be tight, but we have enough resources. This time, make sure you don't mess it up."
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After the events of that day, my life proceeded relatively smoothly for a while.
I applied to join Delaney's anti-magic department as a part-time assistant and was accepted. Being able to work directly with him on research was spectacular.
Also, I ended up taking one of Valentine's magical combat courses and a somewhat niche practical course on making armor from monster corpses and other materials with special properties.
For the armor course, we would often leave the city and go to monster-infested areas to collect fresh materials. A lot of the treatments needed to be immediately applied on-site, so it wasn't a job for people who wanted to avoid danger.
We were exploring an abandoned burial complex to harvest the skins of a monster that somewhat resembled a giant frog. If treated properly, their mucus covered surface made for excellent protection against acid-based magic.
The frog monsters were relatively benign, but for safety purposes, we were split into pairs. My partner was this excessively arrogant lady who, for some reason, kept looking at me like I was a piece of garbage.
She also responded to anything I said by lifting her chin up and turning away. It was quite stupid and irritating, so I quickly started ignoring her.
It was a several day long field trip, and on the first evening, a group of guys approached me as I was setting up my sleeping spot.
The one in the front, probably the leader, stopped in front of me, smirking.
One of his underlings opined, "How dare you spend the whole day with Lady Amarine! Scum like you doesn't deserve to talk with her!"
"Yeah! You should know your place! Don't think you can get cosy with her because she deigned to sign up for a course with commoners like you. The difference between you is like clouds and mud! Only Fredrick is good enough to remain in her presence!" Another of his underlings apparently also felt the need to contribute to this riveting discussion.
With this Amarine's awful personality, I didn't really want to be in a group with her either.
I turned to the apparent leader, who was probably named Fredrick.
"So, what I'm hearing is that you want to switch partners with me?" I asked, somewhat lazily.
Fredrick scoffed. "That would be a good start. And after, you should never talk to Lady Amarine ever again!"
Casually, I nodded.
"Then let's go to the professor right now and see if we can swap groups."
Fredrick took me up on my offer.
"It's good that you know your place," he said.
If I had to say, my place was probably with my foot on his face, but unlike him, I did not feel the need to share this sort of opinion.
I was enjoying the peaceful campsite and did not particularly want to fight. That would be an unnecessary bother.
Unfortunately for us both, the professor did not let us swap groups. Apparently, since we were hunting monsters, it was technically classified as high risk and there were a lot of liability issues.
That was how, the next day, I ended up being followed into the burial complex not only by my annoying partner, but also by the even more annoying Fredrick and his partner.