Prologue: The Outset of War

Mananan was shoved to the ground to preparing himself for his current fate, he couldn't help but reflect on the events that led up to his eventual demise…

He had wanted to come up with a form of truce with Grannvale after the dukedom of Rivough hunted and killed Grannvale civilians that lived within the city of Darna.

Mananan planned on giving Rivough to Grannvale, to mend any damages one of his own houses had caused.

But as luck would turn out, the minute he arrived in Darna to talk of peace with Prince Kurth, he was immediately subdued by Grannvale soldiers, and is now about to be put to death by Duke Reptor of Freege, an act clearly being done behind the back of Grannvale itself.

Mananan was immediately taken out of his thought as he heard a laugh all throughout the castle, it seemed that the few minutes approaching would be his last.

"It's such an honor for the King of Isaach to come and visit us on a day like this! Such a shame that you'll be leaving right when you came in, but war, sadly, doesn't start itself."

"Hmph, so this is all just some ploy to start a grand war between Grannvale and my people is it, and I assume the scourge in Darna was your doing as well then, Reptor?"

Reptor began to walk towards Mananan, "Our plan wasn't conceived until after Darna, so that was all your own people's doing, we just decided to capitalize on the dilemma."

Mananan took a note to the "our" and "we" Reptor had spoke of, but he found it useless to pry any further than that.

Reptor saw Mananan's apathy in their conversation and decided to get on with the execution.

"Seeing as you don't seem to care for our discussion, would you like to say your last words, Mananan?"

With that Mananan couldn't help but laugh when he saw the irony of it all.

Reptor smirked, "And what might I ask I so funny?" doubting that Mananan could have anything up his sleeve at this point.

"It's just funny, even though you're a complete disgrace to your holy lineage, you still have some shred of honor in you." Reptor only scoffed at the comment, insults were only petty for him now. "But I'll indulge you with this Reptor, this power you're trying to obtain is covered with greed. What good will that power do when it will only lead to more corruption? This power won't last forever, and once it begins to wither, it will only cause a flood of evil that can only be seen in biblical standards. I hope you're ready for what is to come Reptor."

Mananan couldn't help but smile, "Because I'm going to be watching every second of it from above."

Reptor's smirk never died during the speech and still kept the same gaze on Mananan, "Well said Mananan, King of Isaach, but your time on this earth has sadly come to end."

With that Reptor opened his tome and Mananan felt the power that was about to come, and he could only think about his children and grand-child before he was enveloped by a bright blue light…

…And then there was darkness.

Sigurd suddenly awoke from his dream, and began processing it as he slowly rose from his bed to get prepared for the day.

It was a dream that he'd been having for the past couple of days. The dream would always involve Sigurd surrounded by complete darkness with a shallow light that seemed to call out for him, and when he tried to reach for it, he would always wake up abruptly before he could do so. And whether he woke naturally or because of one of Alec's many loud disruptions, he would always wake up right before he could reach the light.

This time it was a natural occurrence, however most of the time, Alec had been waking Sigurd up from the dream.

The first time Sigurd didn't necessarily mind, as that was the first time he had the dream and didn't think anything of it, and also because Alec causing a stir in the castle was usually common.

But after the second and third time, Sigurd had become more and more impatient as this dream was pointing him to something, but he could never figure what.

Which then led to Sigurd losing his temper at Alec, something that almost no one at Chalphy thought the usual level-headed Lord was capable of doing to his subordinates.

While Sigurd was thinking more about his dream while finishing changing his clothes, he heard a soft knock on the door.

"Come in."

The door opened and Oifey nervously stuck his head into the room hoping he would not anger his lord.

"Ah, L-lord Sigurd, I'm glad I didn't wake you."

The blue haired lord looked over at Oifey, who was clearly nervous about angering Sigurd like Alec had been doing.

"Hey Oifey, no need to worry, no one here woke me up from my dream today, but it still ended like all the rest…"

"Ah, I'm disappointed to hear about that my Lord."

Sigurd had also been telling Oifey about his dream, as although Oifey had only just turned 14 a few months beforehand, he was still a complete genius. Being that he could probably understand what his dreams meant, Sigurd opened up to Oifey about it hoping to get an answer to his questions.

"Well I've been in searching through the library, and most of the books that explain dreams just talk about how they usually reflect one's personality or hidden fears."

"Hmmm, that could definitely be a cause…" Sigurd had been much more stressed the past couple of months with rumors spreading that his father, Duke Vylon, may abdicate the entire dukedom of Chalphy to his son. But there was still something that made Sigurd question if that was really the true reason.

"But-uh, that was not the only matter that I came here to discuss with you my Lord."

"What else is going on?"

"Well it seems that the Kingdom of Isaach have decided to decline any talk of peace with Grannvale and have now decided to spark a full out war with them."

"What!? So does that mean…"

"Yes. Lord Vylon will probably stick with Prince Kurth as his adviser during the war, so he may not return to Chalphy for quite some time."

"Damn! A war won't be any good for that old man's health. He's the father of our family, yet he's the one that makes Ethlyn and I nervous that he's going to get himself killed."

Oifey chuckled at the comment and then spoke again, "Speaking of which, I thought it would be for the best if you had some support as Lord Vylon's absence will be much longer than normal, so I called for Lady Ethlyn to come and aide you during that time."

"Well that is some good news for a change." Sigurd smiled as he knew that Ethlyn would never decline such a proposal, but he also knew that her husband and one of Sigurd's best friends, Quan, would never let her go alone and would probably come with her.

"That is all I needed to discuss with you my Lord, I will be studying in the library if you need me for anything else."

As Oifey went to leave, Sigurd decided to tell him one last thing that he'd wanted to say for some time.

"Hey Oifey."

"Yes, my Lord?"

Sigurd smirked. "You don't need to address me like that, we are cousins you know?"

Oifey became a flustered by the statement, "Y-yes well, I believe that you should receive some form of respect for all the things you've done for me, my Lo-uh, sir."

Sigurd laughed, "I'm just saying that we're equals in my mind. So you don't have lower your standing for me, besides formalities here are pointless when my entire guard barely use them."

"A-alright, I'll remember that from now on, sir."

Oifey left before Sigurd could tell him that "sir" was another formality that he did not need to use.

As Oifey was the grandchild to the late Lord Sesar, Duke Vylon's brother, who passed away shortly before his daughter died while giving birth to a baby Oifey. Leaving Vylon and his two children to raise the child, as Oifey's father abandoned his mother shortly after courting her.

To Sigurd and Ethlyn, Oifey was like a younger sibling. However Oifey refused to look at them in a similar manner, as he believed it would be better if he was inferior to his Lords, seeing it as better for their standing.

Sigurd then followed and left for the training grounds, as training was usually Sigurd's best tactic to clear his mind.

When he arrived to the grounds he a certain green haired cavalier running circles around his fellow knight.

Alec was what some would call a "prick", however the people in Chalphy had grown accustomed to his actions after some time. Because of that, Alec was always be the first to volunteer to go on patrol outside of Chalphy, as most, if not all, the women in the city had learned to ignore his attempts at flirting. However, Alec would usually miss out on patrols as he would normally oversleep past the time, or just forget about them altogether. In battle he was a naturally fast warrior, which causes him to take advantage of the much slower fighter, Arden, on many occasions.

Arden, contrary to Alec, was a very sweet man. He was usually looked as a gentle giant by the city, and was well loved by the children. Arden speaks in a heavy country accent which leads many to believe that he is also slow intellectually, along with being slow physically. But when fighting, what Arden is lacking in his speed, he makes up for fully with his overwhelming defense.

And gone from his usual place on the training grounds was Noish, who was currently out patrolling in on a nearby town. The blonde knight was seen as a very mysterious figure by every citizen in Chalphy, he rarely ever spoke, and the only people who we was known to start a conversation with were Alec, Arden, Sigurd, or Vylon. Noish was the best fighter among him, Alec, and Arden, which usually encouraged Sigurd to practice against him rather than the other two.

The three of them were handpicked as Sigurd's personal guards by Vylon himself, and were more than likely chosen in order to become royal knights once Sigurd took control of the duchy.

Alec took notice of Sigurd, and stopped sparring with Arden to call out to his Lord.

"Yo Sigurd, hoping you haven't come by to scream at me again."

Sigurd smiled, "Alec I thought I already apologized for that, besides I told you I've been under a lot of stress recently, and your little antics aren't doing any help to relax me."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. I'm just giving you a hard time, you should know that by now too." Alec muttered while rearranging his turban.

Sigurd raised an eyebrow, "That's weird because giving your lord 'a hard time' could definitely brandish your name as a knight, now wouldn't it?"

Alec simply scoffed, "Oh please, like you'll ever capitalize on your nobility like that."

With that Sigurd just laughed, even though he could be a handful, Alec was always one that could cheer up Sigurd even during a bad situation.

"No need ta'worry Sigurd. Alec won' be causin any mo problems rile me an Noish are 'round."

"Ah, thank you Arden, but I'm pretty sure you two already try to keep him on a leash now."

"Ha! Ya prolly right there." Arden announced with a grin.

Alec decided to interrupt their conversation, "Oh please, Arden quit fooling yourself. How could you hold me back when I'm the one in complete control of our sparring matches?"

Arden just blankly starred back at him, "Alec, I've had mosquitos bites tat stung mor than your attacks…"

With that Sigurd began to laugh out loudly, much to Alec's embarrassment. As even though he was very quick and agile, Alec's hits were nothing compared to Sigurd, Noish, and even Arden's.

Alec began to turn red at the comment, "Sh-shut up, you no good country bumpkin! I think it's about we end this duel!"

"Couldn't agree wit ya'mor Alec!"

While Sigurd decided to continue watching the two knights duel, Noish ran onto the grounds with an unsettled look on his face.

"Sigurd! We got trouble coming up."

Sigurd didn't like where this was going, as Alec and Arden stopped their fight to see what was going on.

"Noish, what's the problem?"

"Warriors from Verdane had been seen crossing over the border. It appears they are planning to attack Grannvale from behind, and they're expected to attack the duchy of Jungby in a matter of days."

Sigurd was shocked as he believed the kingdom of Verdane had fixed their uncivil side some time ago, but now they are igniting war right behind Grannvale's back.

But another thing that came to Sigurd's mind was his childhood friend Aideen.

"Noish, please don't tell me that Aideen is the only person in charge over there…"

"Sorry Sigurd, but Duke Ring and his son left to help Grannvale with any complications it had with Isaach, by now they're probably at the frontlines for the war to come."

"Damn! If that's the case then prepare yourselves in the next couple days, because if those barbarians even lay a finger on Aideen then we're going after them!"

With that both Alec and Arden shouted in excitement while Noish nodded, as all four of them knew that a battle was only imminent within the next couple of days.

Jugdral Calendar 757

…It was this turn of events that cracked open the door of fate…

…and nothing could have recognized the forewarning to the disastrous events to come…

AN: And that is the start of my very first fanfic. I'm not entirely sure how well I wrote it, but feel free to leave any reviews (good or bad, criticism is always needed in my book). If there are any mistakes I would be happy for you to point them out.

Also I just wanted to put it out there that this is a loose adaptation of Fire Emblem 4 as whole. There will just be a lot more backstory with some characters, while also exploring some events that occurred during the game's time.

Also another thing I just want to put out there, I absolutely hating Arden's speech. And I'm pretty sure he talks worse in the game too, oh well, that being said hope you all enjoyed the story, for there's definitely more to come!