Having her in court was a mostly ceremonial position. There was no real reason to have her there. Not many people living in the county could do magic. Most of the non magical solutions to problems were cheaper. She was not a non-combatant. Unless she needed to destroy something for some reason, she was not going to be able to do much for people. Count and Countess Swifthunt would sometimes ask her a question or two. It was purely for appearances. Johna had a small salary as a member of court. Actually being helpful was not important. The only thing that mattered was that people saw her in the role. After a year, Holly returned. She was not able to be put in the role. She was a registered adventurer. It meant she could help out with people in Mansfield and Huntston. She was a legal adult. She could move back to Huntston if she wanted. Brody was there to be a good steward. If he was continuing his martial training, he would be near the time of being a knight. I made sure to dub Molly as a knight. The church would not let me do it there. I did not care. I did it in my house.
I was proud to announce Dame Molly to the people of the bailey. Sir Alane and Sir Betan were a bit tepid in their congratulations. Anthony and Jeffery said they would not accept her service. I had been expecting all this. Molly would be a knight-errant of the household. There was nothing wrong with that in my mind. When we had things to do, I had Molly right at my side. If something dangerous was afoot, she backed me up with her bow. Johna also gave us cover with her magic. We got rid of a bandit hideout that way. It made the people in the villages attached to the castle accept her help. It was kind of hard for them not to. I was Real Rhombus. If they were not polite and thankful to her, I was not above confiscating everything for ourselves. We made it a point to do that in front of the villagers when an older man yelled at her. All of the villagers nearly lynched the man. I still did not give their shit back. "When a knight of the realm comes to help you, you do not deserve it at all if you attack them for being women." I informed them. The other village learned from the mistake. Bandits too.
Since the boys were less than a year older than Molly and Holly, it was fine for me to wait a year. Leonardo had been knighted by his mother, but I had not announced it to the others. It was not like anyone in the caste or the town would accept the authority or the legitimacy of the dryads and druids. All 3 of them were ready. I walked over and asked the Brownflanks if their children were ready. Jeran scoffed. "Are you serious, Collin? They've been ready for years. I know that you could see it. Your children have been ready for years too." he said. Petras came over to me. "What are you going to do with your children?" he asked. I shrugged my shoulders. "I guess we can knight them now. Knights have the right to take pages and squires to make them knights. If you 2 say they are ready, we can raise them as knights tonight." I said. They did not have anything against it. We gathered everyone together and did a nice ceremony. Enetes was the main celebrant. He gave us a lot of stories about warriors and what made wise and powerful fighters. I was so proud to dub them all as knights.
