Sidequests
The Exalt had been captured, and will be executed publicly in Plegia.
This was the news that a distraught Basilio had given the two siblings of Exalted blood.
Of course, Chrom and Lissa had both reacted strongly to this. Lissa had fainted into Robin's arms, and Chrom was so distressed that he immediately tried to rally the Shepherds to march straight into Plegia. It took a lot of convincing from Flavia, Basilio, and Robin to stop him from stupidly charging into Plegia to rescue his sister, ending with Robin's promise to Chrom that he would devise a plan to save the Exalt. He also promised that they would start to march the next day, to appease Chrom.
The next day, as Chrom was suiting up for the march into Plegia in the room given to him by the khans, Robin sauntered into the room. The tactician was fully-dressed and prepared to march as well.
"Hey, Chrom. You ready yet?" Robin asked.
"Ready as I'll ever be. Now let's march to Plegia!" Chrom's face showed great determination.
"Er...yeah... About that..." The tactician sheepishly scratched the back of his head.
"Yes, Robin?"
"Well, I did promise that we would march today, but I didn't say where we would be marching."
"...Wait, does that mean we're not going to Plegia?" The lord's determined face was replaced by one of confusion.
"Yeah," Robin simply replied.
"Well, why in the hells aren't we going there, Robin?! My sister is going to be executed!" Chrom's face changed again, from one of confusion to one full of rage and anger. "Is this an excuse to not plan for rescuing Emm, Robin?"
"No, gods no, Chrom! I am planning!" Robin uneasily took a step away from the angry lord. He had seen what Chrom would do to someone who was on his bad side, and Robin did not want to be on Chrom's bad side. "It's just that...one of the Southeastern Ylissean villages has been constantly harassed by a large bandit group and has asked for the Shepherds to help rid them of these bandits."
"Well, for Naga's sake, why don't you just send a squadron of soldiers or pegasus knights to that village?!" Robin flinched from Chrom's outburst. The lord was practically yelling at this point.
"Y-Ylisse doesn't have enough soldiers to handle a bandit group of that size; the village reports that there are over one hundred skilled brigands. And most of the Ylissean pegasus knights were killed defending the border from the Plegians."
"Then why not ask Flavia for soldiers, then? The Feroxi would be glad to wipe out those bandits, if not excited to!"
"She needs all the Feroxi soldiers she has, Chrom. They'll be dealing with the main Plegian forces."
But my sister is going to die!" Chrom was practically seething with rage now.
"That can wait, Chrom." Robin readied his arm to try to block a punch from Chrom for his blunt response, but seeing as no punch came towards him, Robin relaxed his arm and continued. "I have a feeling that Gangrel won't kill Emmeryn without us being there to watch, so that gives us time to liberate that village and plan for Emmeryn's rescue. So, all-in-all, it will work out for us." The tactician had an almost pleading look in his eyes at this point. He hoped that Chrom would buy his reasoning.
And it worked. The rage dissipated from Chrom's face. He then sighed and wiped his face. "Alright then, Robin. I trust you," he smiled. "So how far is this village?"
"Well..." The tactician pulled out a small notepad from inside his coat and flipped it open. "From here, it would take us about...two weeks to reach the village."
"What?!" Anger quickly came back to Chrom's face.
"Well, it WILL take quite a few days to sail to the village," Robin pointed out.
Chrom let out another massive sigh. "...Fine then. Let's rally the Shepherds and move out," he said calmly.
Most of the Shepherds were confused as to why they were not setting off to save their Exalt, but they followed Chrom's orders without hesitation regardless.
Just as Robin had predicted, the Shepherds would have arrived at the village in two weeks' time, but bad luck, as well as a Risen horde on the outskirts of Southtown, had hit them, causing a delay in their schedule. The Shepherds were easily able to kill the entire horde without much effort, but the Risen's sudden appearance raised questions.
Miriel had apparently found a strange box that could theoretically summon Risen when opened. When confronted by Chrom and Frederick, she claimed to have not opened the box, but had given it to the army's tactician for "research". When Robin was confronted, though, he did claim to have the box, but it was intact, meaning that he did not summon the Risen.
From that box, however.
After Chrom and Frederick had concluded that the Risen appeared coincidentally and left Robin's tent, Robin pulled out a small black chest out from under his bed. Unlocking it, he placed the box he had shown Chrom and Frederick inside the chest with the others, locked it, and returned it back into its place.
He then dug the open box Miriel had given him out of his coat.
"Huh. It really did work," Robin said to himself.
He would have to dispose of the box soon, probably by dropping it in the ocean they'll be traveling on tomorrow. Until then, he would begin devising new ways to train using the mysterious boxes. The Risen summoned by these boxes were weak and ideal for training against. They were great "sparring partners" for having new recruits build up experience using their weapons.
Of course, the rest of the Shepherds could never discover this. If a Risen horde suddenly popped out of nowhere, they can never assume that their tactician purposely summoned them.
They must never find out... Robin thought to himself.
When the Shepherds finally arrived at the village in question a day behind in their schedule, ready for a full-on battle against one hundred deadly bandits, they did not know whether to be relieved or disappointed.
Contrary to the reports the villagers had sent Robin, there were not one hundred bandits harassing them. Rather, there were only about fifteen. And all had little to zero experience fighting soldiers, not helpless and defenseless villagers.
After handling the bandits with no effort whatsoever (with the help of one violet-haired farm boy), the Shepherds were getting ready to head back into the mainland.
"Robin? Did we really need to bring ALL of the Shepherds to fight fifteen measly brigands?" Chrom asked Robin as they led the way back to the boats.
"The villagers must have over-exaggerated a bit in their report, Chrom," he replied absentmindedly, secretly fiddling with a box in his coat pocket. "Besides, it's better if there's too many of us than too few."
"Yes but-"
"W-Wait, m'lord!"
Chrom and Robin turned around and saw the young farm boy sprinting towards them. After the boy had caught up and regained his breath, he started talking.
"Yer Majestyness! Please, lemme come with ya!" the farm boy begged. "I need ta learn how ta defend my village!"
"Er, Donnel, was it? I thought you wanted to remain in your village," Chrom said, a little surprised at how fast the villager could run.
"Well, I did," Donnel wiped a bit of sweat off his face, "but I realized the only way to learn ta fight is by joinin' an army. So please, yer Lordshipness, please lemme come with ya!" the farm boy repeated, now begging on his knees.
"So, you want to learn how to fight, do you?" It wasn't Chrom that answered, it was Robin.
Donnel nodded his head rapidly.
"Well," the tactician continued, "you can start learning by taking down the Risen here."
"Huh? But mister, there ain't-"
A guttural roar was heard just off in the forest near them.
"Wha-?! Risen?! Shepherds, to arms!" Chrom led the troops into the forest.
Robin smiled internally to himself.
(THREE WEEKS LATER)
Amazingly, just as Robin predicted, Emmeryn had not been executed yet, much to Chrom and Lissa's relief. It had been five weeks since Emmeryn's capture, and yet, Gangrel had not made a move to kill Yisse's Exalt.
Now, the Shepherds were back at the arena in Regna Ferox, preparing for the campaign into Plegia.
At least, that's what they should've been doing a week ago.
Robin had received another report that a village in northern Ferox was encountering bandit problems as well. With some convincing, the Shepherds made their way to the village and managed to save it, but not before hearing that a few villagers were being hunted by a Risen horde to the southeast of said village.
Though the Shepherds wiped out the entire horde, one of the villagers had perished at the hands of the Risen. But on the bright side, they received a special robe that would increase endurance. (They also received a log, for some strange reason.)
All-in-all, they spent almost the entire week doing all of this. And with no more sidequests to be done, Robin finally did not have any reason to delay the march into Plegia.
Although, the Risen horde that suddenly appeared in Arena Ferox DID cause a slight delay...
Robin had broken his promise to Chrom. They did not rescue Exalt Emmeryn; she had decided to make the ultimate sacrifice.
Now, as the Shepherds were fleeing Castle Plegia, a messenger had delivered a new report to a bitter Robin. When Robin had read the report, his bitterness had faded and replaced by one of joy.
Robin then sidled up to Chrom to ask him something. "Hey, Chrom?" the tactician asked, a small smile on his face.
"..." The lord was too distressed at the moment to answer.
"Chrom? HEY, CHROM!" Robin practically yelled to get his attention.
Chrom snapped out of his trance. "Huh? ...Oh, hey, Robin. What do you need?" Though Robin could see that Chrom had a small smile as well, he knew that this one was forced.
"Well, I just got another report that a young merchant girl is being held prisoner in a bandit's hideout, so how about we go help her? It'll only take about three weeks' travel to reach there. Then we'll head back here to this marsh to finish our business."
Chrom let out a large sigh before responding. "...Sure, friend. Let's go."
"Great! Now, before we start, though, we need to deal with the Risen here first."
"What Ris-"
Suddenly a Risen horde appeared on the sands the Shepherds have traveled on to reach Castle Plegia.
Robin smiled internally to himself.
I thought of this from two different things that I noticed: Anna's recruitment paralogue popping up on the map after finishing Chapter 9, and fighting Risen skirmishes. Even though the paralogues are side stories that have nothing to do with the main story, I thought that it would be funny if Chrom left to go where Anna's paralogue takes place right after Emmeryn's death.
As for the Risen popping up everywhere, I kind of made Robin the type to go crazy with Reeking Boxes, just like me in my first playthrough. I thought that it would also be funny if they had to fight Risen everywhere they went, even at the worst possible times (i.e. after Chapter 9).
For this story, the idea sounded a lot better in my head, and it was kind of a pain trying to write it down. So, I hope that I did this story justice. Reviews are appreciated.
Also, this is my longest story by far. Whew! I feel accomplished.
Until next time!
-18 More
Disclaimer: I own nothing from Fire Emblem.
