The Sin System: My Wife is Envy

Chapter 57: Leaving for Academy

I can hear your thoughts, Ashford said. Since before you were fully conscious.

"Alright."

So I know. More than you have said.

Violet said nothing.

The first thing you thought when you realized what had happened was not where am I or what is this ceiling. It was that he had been standing right beside you.

"He had been. It was relevant."

It was the first thing. Before the ceiling. Before the room. Before the face in the mirror.

Violet looked at Ashford’s hands at her sides.

"People think about the people they are worried about."

Violet.

"What."

I can hear everything. Not just the surface of it.

Violet looked at the mirror for a long moment.

You do not have to confirm it, Ashford said. I am not asking you to. I am telling you that I know, because you are living inside my head and I am living inside yours.

"Six years," Violet said finally.

Six years.

"He doesn’t know. And I haven’t told him and I’m not going to tell him because he has enough to carry without adding that to it. And also because whatever I feel about it is my business and I have gotten very good at keeping it where it belongs."

In a particular part of your head.

"In a particular part of my head," Violet agreed. "Where I keep things I cannot act on."

That must be a very full part of your head, Ashford said.

The corner of Violet’s mouth moved.

"It has its moments."

He sounds like someone worth finding.

Violet looked at Ashford’s face in the mirror for a long moment.

"Yes," she said. "He is."

The next morning Violet woke before the household did.

She lay still for a moment, then sat up and looked at the room.

Ashford’s room. She had learned it over three days. The window that faced east, the morning light that came through it, the wardrobe whose organization was meticulous and followed a logic Ashford had explained once and Violet had memorized.

You are thinking about the examination, Ashford said.

"I am thinking about a lot of things."

The examination specifically.

Violet got up and went to the window. The grounds below were just beginning to show movement, kitchen staff, early, the first of the stable hands.

"The Aurelian intake examination is in three days," she said. "If I am going to be in this body for the foreseeable future, I need to be at the academy. Because whoever you are in this world, Ashford, you are supposed to be there, and if you don’t show up there are going to be questions I cannot answer from here."

I was planning to attend. Before this happened.

"I know. I read your correspondence."

All of it.

"The relevant parts. You have been preparing for eight months. The magical theory portion is going to be straightforward. Combat application is where you were uncertain."

I am not uncertain. I am cautious.

"I know." Violet looked at the grounds. "I am going to need you to help me. I can hold a conversation about imperial governance structures and I can navigate a social function without embarrassing myself. But if someone asks me to cast something, I need you actively involved."

You want to share control.

"I want to not fail the examination of someone who has spent eight months preparing for it. Yes."

Ashford was quiet.

You are very practical.

"I work in games. Worked in games. Practical is the only way I know how to approach a problem."

Games, Ashford repeated. You have mentioned this before.

"Another time. Right now I need you to tell me what the examination is going to require, from the beginning, and I need you to be honest about where you were confident and where you were not."

You want a full briefing.

"I want to pass your examination and get to the academy and find out if Yuta is there. In that order."

He might be there, Ashford said.

"He might be," Violet agreed. "He was building rooms for that academy for two years. If something sent him here the same way it sent me, the academy is where he will go."

She looked at the window. The morning was getting properly underway. Light strengthening, more movement in the grounds, the sound of the household starting its day.

"We need to leave within the hour if we are going to reach the examination city by evening."

The carriage is already arranged. I arranged it before this happened. The staff will have it ready.

"Good."

Violet went to the wardrobe. Opened it.

"Which one," she said.

Third from the left, Ashford said. For travel. Practical without reading as informal.

Violet took it out.

"Ashford."

Yes.

"Whatever happens at the academy. Whatever we figure out about how to fix this. I am not going to let your examination fail. That is a promise."

I know, Ashford said. I can hear your thoughts. I know when you mean something.

Violet nodded and got dressed.

Outside, the carriage was being brought around. Cold morning, grey at the edges, undecided.

She picked up the correspondence folder, the examination details, the letter of recommendation from Ashford’s tutor. She looked at the portrait on the bedside table. Still face-down.

She left it where it was and walked out.

You did not turn it back over, Ashford said.

"When we fix this," Violet said, walking down the corridor toward the stairs. "You can turn it over yourself."

Fine, Ashford said.

The same word as the first time. Different weight.

Violet went down the stairs and out into the morning, and the carriage was there, and three days from now she was going to walk into an examination building in someone else’s body and pass it for both of them, and somewhere ahead of her there was a chance that Yuta was already there.

She got in.

The door closed.

The road began.