45 I promise.

-------------(Liana) "Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere, and my view of you hasn't changed. Well, if it has, it's simply gotten better,"------------

Liana was still confused about something.

(Liana) "What does this have to do with you needing to go away, though?"

Lillian didn't reply for a few moments, and Liana was about to speak again when Lillian herself spoke.

(Lillian) "I need to go back there."

Liana raised an eyebrow, knowing there was more to the story. Lillian avoided Liana's gaze as she said,

(Lillian) "There has to be a reason the Azure Blood Squad's men came here. I want to find out what that is."

Liana frowned.

(Liana) "You already have a guess, don't you?"

Lillian nodded.

(Lillian) "They were probably trying to draw me out, but I don't know for what reason. That's what I want to find out."

(Liana) "And you're intentionally going to walk into that trap… why?"

Lillian froze for a moment before she said,

(Lillian) "I'll be careful. I promise."

Although for some reason Liana knew that Lillian was being deadly serious when she said that, she still wanted to know why. Lillian saw the look on her face and gave in.

(Lillian) "Because if I don't, somebody else could get hurt."

Liana's expression softened.

(Liana) "But if you do this, you could get hurt."

Lillian didn't respond and looked down at her lap.

(Liana) "Okay."

Lillian looked up so fast you'd think she could get whiplash from it.

(Lillian) "…what?"

(Liana) "I said okay."

Liana saw the quizzical, confused expression Lillian was giving her and explained,

(Liana) "Even if I wasn't okay with it, you would still go, wouldn't you? So, I might as well just let you do what you like, and ask that you be careful."

Lillian's eyes shook. She couldn't understand why Liana was so accepting of it. That is, until Liana asked,

(Liana) "Can I go with you?"

Lillian's eyes widened.

(Lillian) "What?"

Liana's eyes got all big and pleading.

(Liana) "Bring me along with you? Please?"

(Lillian's thoughts) 'When did she get so eager to fight? How in the world did this happen?'

Lillian immediately saw through Liana's request.

(Lillian) "No."

(Liana) "Whyyy─"

Liana said, half whining, before Lillian moved forward and placed a hand over her mouth.

(Lillian) "It's too dangerous."

Now that her hand was over Liana's mouth, she had no idea why she did it in the first place. A blush rose over Liana's cheeks that was reflected in her own. They stared into each other's eyes for a few moments before Lillian smiled and leaned back as she said,

(Lillian) "Besides, if you stay back, I'll tell Rose to train you, and Robyn and Elena would probably chip in as well."

Now Liana was conflicted. She remembered Rose mentioned something about her training being worse than Lillian's, and she was curious as to find out what she meant by that. In addition to that, she knew Robyn was a powerful fighter as well, even if she had never seen her in actual action as of yet. As for Elena, she was Lillian's personally trained and groomed protégé, and the feeling she got from her would be pure fear if she wasn't on their side.

(Lillian) "Plus, Ruby might want to spar as well."

(Liana) "…fine."

Liana was officially convinced to stay behind and allow Lillian to go by herself.

(Liana) "On the condition that you won't be away for longer than five days."

Lillian smiled.

(Lillian) "I probably will only need a few days."

(Liana) "Promise?"

Lillian tilted her head slightly to the side. She was still closer to Liana than she was earlier, as she didn't move back. Liana repeated,

(Liana) "Promise me you won't be gone long?"

Lillian finally understood. She smiled and replied,

(Lillian) "I promise."

Liana grinned, having gotten what she wanted.

*

(Liana) "You're going already?"

King Zander nodded slowly.

(King Zander) "I'm afraid so."

(Queen Adelia) "At least we got to see you after we left. This trip is longer than any we have taken before, and we wouldn't have gotten to see you before we returned to the palace."

Liana nodded.

(Liana) "I guess so."

Liana hugged each of her parents, then both of them at the same time. She then stepped back and allowed Lillian to talk to her parents.

(King Zander) "Thank you for your hospitality these two days, Chief Lera. However, we must get going now."

Lillian nodded and bowed slightly.

(Lillian) "It was my pleasure, your highnesses."

(Queen Adelia) "Take care of our daughter for us, will you?"

(Lillian) "Of course."

King Zander merely nodded at Lillian, having had her word from the other day that she would not hurt Liana, and would protect her with her life. Although Lillian did not say those words exactly, King Zander understood them to mean exactly that.

And with that, the King and Queen mounted their horses, galloping off out of the Clan.

Everyone but Lillian and Liana scattered off to do their own things. Lillian turned to Liana and asked,

(Lillian) "Are you alright?"

Liana turned to Lillian and nodded.

(Liana) "I miss them when they're gone for long periods."

Lillian nodded.

(Lillian) "As would anyone."

Liana's face brightened as she said,

(Liana) "But I have you now, so I'm not so lonely anymore."

Lillian merely smiled in response.

*

It was decided that Lillian would leave the next day, and for the rest of the day, Lillian was just doing her usual work, with Liana trying to distract her the whole time. Eventually, sometime close to dinner, Lillian finally gave Liana her full attention.

(Liana) "Finally."

Lillian raised an eyebrow.

(Lillian) "Why didn't you just go train with Liz or something?"

Liana shrugged.

(Liana) "You told me I'll get to train with Rose from tomorrow onwards after you leave, so I figured I'll just wait until tomorrow. Besides…"

Lillian raised an eyebrow. Liana muttered under her breath, but Lillian still caught it.

(Liana) "I wanted to spend time with you."

Both their faces had faint blushes on them now.

(Lillian) "Well, you have me for the rest of the night."

Liana's blush deepened and Lillian seemed to realise what she said could have sounded very suggestive, but she didn't seem to care.

(Lillian) "Wanna go for dinner, then we can go up to my room and talk or something?"

Liana shrugged but stood up. Lillian smiled and stood up as well, and the both of them went for dinner a little bit early.

*

Afterwards, Lillian was sitting on one end of her bed with Liana on the other end again.

(Lillian) "What do you want to do?"

Liana froze, wondering whether she should tell Lillian now or wait for her to return.

(Lillian) "Take your time."

And now it was Liana's turn to look up so fast you'd think she could get whiplash.

(Liana) "What?"

(Lillian) "I said take your time."

Liana raised an eyebrow.

(Lillian) "You want to tell me something, right? Just take your time, however long you need and tell me when you're ready."

Liana lowered her head again.

(Liana) "Thank you. I don't think…"

Lillian simply sat there and waited for her to finish.

(Liana) "I don't think I'm ready to tell you just yet."

Lillian nodded.

(Lillian) "It's alright. Like I said, take as much time as you need. We have longer than you'd think."

Liana smiled gratefully at Lillian.

*

They ended up talking about useless things, but all in all, they had fun, probably laughing more than they actually talked. Despite the topics they talked about being meaningless, they knew more about each other than ever before, and they felt closer than ever.

*

The next morning, Liana went down to find everyone sitting around Lillian and Liz's dining table. Lillian, Liz, Robyn, Ruby, Jasmine, James, Stella, Kristen for some reason, Elena.

(Liana) "Why… are you all here?"

(Kristen) "I just wanted to hang out with Lex."

(Robyn) "The rest of us are just here to keep you company after Lillian leaves."

(Liana) "It's not as if she's going to die!"

Everyone looked sombre and if Liana didn't have the skill to be able to read others' emotions, she would actually have been tricked by it, it was so good.

(Liz) "You're no fun, Liana."

Liana gave them an incredulous look.

(Liana) "Seriously though. Why are all of you here?"

(Robyn) "Jasmine, James and Stella are going down with her, and Elena and everyone else is here to train with you. We'll pick Rose up afterwards."

Liana raised an eyebrow.

(Liana) "I still don't get why you are all here. In the house, in the morning when the sun is barely up."

(Liz) "They wanted to hold a farewell party for her."

(Liana) "You do know she's not going to be gone for more than five days, right?"

Everyone turned to look at her with disbelieving expressions.

(Kristen) "Did you really just say that?"

Liana nodded, unsure of why everyone was staring at her like that.

(Liz) "The shortest Lil has been away was no less than ten days, and you're saying that she'll be back in five days!?"

(Liana) "Or less."

(Kristen) "You know, even though I don't live here, or in this Empire for that matter, even I know that that's unlikely."

Despite all of them all saying it was unlikely and it would never happen, Liana knew and trusted that Lillian would fulfil her promise. Something about the way Lillian says 'I promise' made her think that Lillian making promises was something not to be taken lightly. And she was right. If she had said that Lillian had promised her, they would all immediately stop, accepting that Lillian would return in no more than five days' time. However, Liana decided to keep it a secret, at least for the time being. She merely said,

(Liana) "We'll see."

(Lillian) "You guys do realise I'm still right here, right?"

Liana walked over to the table and sat on the only vacant seat, the one on Lillian's right. She helped herself to the food, keeping an eye on everyone and an ear in the conversation around the table.

(Lillian) "It won't be a long trip. I'll try to return as soon as possible."

Like Liana, she didn't mention her promise.

(Liz) "You'd better. I'm still sore about you leaving so soon after you just came back. Usually you wait longer than two months before leaving again."

Lillian reached over and ruffled Liz's hair.

(Lillian) "I'm sorry. But I really will come back as soon as possible."

She shared a glance with Liana, and the both of them had subtle blushes dotting their cheeks, not escaping the keen eyes of Ruby. Ruby smiled slightly, but kept an eye on Stella, who had noticed the same thing she did. Fortunately, Stella seemed unbothered by all this, wearing the same smile, or even a stronger one after the shared glance between the two.

(Kristen) "Can I hang out here while you're away?"

(Lillian) "Don't you have an Empire you're supposed to be ruling right now?"

Kristen shrugged.

(Kristen) "You dealt with our only current enemy, so everything else is boring."

(Lillian) "And the alliance with the Sunstone Kingdom's newly crowned Queen?"

Kristen blinked.

(Kristen) "Ah. Right."

She thought for another moment before she sighed.

(Kristen) "I should probably get back."

She gave Lillian a hug and Liana and Liz a high-five each, then disappeared.