To celebrate the finish of my measurement report, exam week, and my consultancy project, here is chapter 3. Thanks again to all the readers and reviewers, anonymous or otherwise. You all make me happy with your notes of praise. Thanks a lot.

Time, think you I restless or a fool?
How can you be so cruel?

After he got over his sputtering fit, he all but ran to his beloved's room. After such a stressful day in office, he really wanted some affection from his lovely bride, the one that was always so soft to touch and smelled like soap.

The bathing incidents still hadn't taught either of them to knock, and Chrom, forgetting all fourteen lectures on 'addressing women of marriageable interest' the moment they were over, entered her room in a gleeful storm. He looked around, calling out her name.

"Robin, you in here?" He called out, looking around the empty room. A small hint of worry wormed itself into his heart the moment he saw the room. Remembering Robin's tent during their campaign, she was definitely the messiest person he knew; even messier than Lissa. There were books and map scrolls everywhere: stacked on the floor, on a chair, strewn across the table, in crates, on her bed. Food wrappers and plates also stacked neatly in a corner, her laundry in another. It took the combined forces of Cordelia and Frederick to clear out that tent after the war.

The room was immaculate. No books, no random pieces of paper flung everywhere. No signs of Robin, he thought as he exited the room. Perhaps she's in the library. He remembered the first day they came back, she was thrilled to bits when she saw the royal library. Aisles and rows of fiction, shelves and sections of non-fiction; it was any bibliophile's dream. He remembered how she glowed in excitement then; radiant in her own kind of light.

Smiling at the thought of his lady love, he pushed the heavy doors of the library, making a bee-line for the fiction section, since Robin had told him that she was looking forward to reading classical literature the most, quietly sneaking about so that when he saw the lady, he would startle her, and she would smack him and pout adorably.

Like she always did back then.

After a few minutes of walking around the fiction section, it was clear that she wasn't there.

Perhaps the natural sciences area?

Empty as well.

"Robin? You there?" He called out, his voice echoing across the threshold, his question unanswered.

Perhaps the garden then?His heart began to race. For some unknown reason, he was afraid. Something in him was sincerely wishing that she was in the garden. The words of one of the nobles in the council suddenly flashed through his brain, making him break into a run to the gardens.

"She could face countless assassins from the fanatical commoners and nobles who may harbor ill will towards her roots."

What if an assassin came for her? Surely she could handle it…but to his knowledge, she didn't keep many weapons in her room, just a Nosferatu tome that she couldn't even use. She always had her Levin Sword with her, didn't she?

He burst into the garden, hastily clanging the metal gates open, garnering the attentions of three ladies. Empty, save for Sumia, Maribelle and Lissa, who sat under a maple tree having tea. Sumia and the blonde duchess stood, concerned at Chrom's evident distress.

"Ah, big brother!" Lissa ran towards her brother, her boots clomping in the wet ground. "I heard from Maribelle that the council was being pig-headed about your engagement and—"

"Lissa, is Robin here?" Chrom gasped out, searching his sister's teal eyes for the answer.

"No, Chrom…I haven't seen her yet this morning…" Lissa shook her head. "Why? What's up?"

"Captain, she's probably somewhere in the castle, exploring. You know how she gets. She only sits still when she's reading." Sumia smiled darlingly, her eyes crinkling in gentle happiness at the thought of her trouble-making friend.

"You look worried, milord. Might I inquire why?" Maribelle could not get over the harrowing look on the king's face.

"I'm worried for Robin's safety. You heard those nobles. They're so hostile towards her! And she goes missing right after, what if something bad happened to her?"

"Well, have you checked her room?" Lissa offered, an uncertain smile on her face. Chrom nodded fervently.

"Yes, it was the first place I looked! Gods…"

The ladies offered to help him search. They searched the castle, splitting up to cover more ground, and recruiting anyone they met on their way to help search. They found no signs of Robin anywhere in the castle grounds. Chrom's heart ached dully. Wondering where she was, his feet unconsciously led him back into Robin's room, perhaps in the slight hope that she may have returned to the room.

No one. It was empty, as he left it a few hours ago.

Dejected, he slumped onto Robin's bed. He closed his eyes for a bit, until he felt his hand rest on something silky. He swiftly sat up and examined the cloth, only to realise that it was the same cloak that Robin was wearing earlier that morning during breakfast. His eyes furiously scanned the room for her things. Surely, she couldn't…

On the table, next to the large window overviewing the garden, was her war book and an unknown hardcover. He did not notice Maribelle, Lissa and Sumia come in until Lissa gasped beside him.

"Ahh! That's the Eavesdropping Tome that Anna was trying to sell to me earlier! She said someone commissioned her to make one and since she thought that it would sell well, she ended up making five more! Err, don't ask me why I need an Eavesdropping Tome. I wasn't going to eavesdrop on brother's and Robin's wedding night…" Lissa muttered silently, earning gaping mouths and groans of irritation from her companions.

"Freddie thinks you're too afraid to do it, so I kinda bet against him." She shrugged. "Be thankful your little sister still believes in her brother!"

"Lissa darling...that is...er... not ladylike. Really, eavesdropping on people? Especially doing...that? Though, the better question is why Robin would need one of those tomes…" Maribelle pondered, her hands on her chin, parasol resting against the table.

"She was listening in on the meeting earlier." Chrom whispered, pain lacing his voice. Maribelle straightened in shock.

"No..! She couldn't…those words were so..! Chrom! What if…she had run away because she found herself inadequate?"

"She is a hero! How could she not be more than enough for Ylisse and its people? Plegian or not—"

"Not like that, your grace! I meant as a woman! She may be your tactician of war, but she is also a woman, with a heart almost as gentle as dear Lissa's! She must have thought herself inadequate for you, milord. You know how she is, always so hard on herself and never thinking of her own virtues."

He shook his head. She couldn't have left him. She couldn't… She loved him too, right? She reciprocated his affections, right? Chrom refused to believe it.

Maribelle was the first to notice the tiny parcel of paper next to the questionable tome. Quickly calling Chrom's attention to it, she watched in trepidation as the royal carefully unfolded it, gasping in horror when he finally got to the centre where a tiny ring bearing the Ylissean crest lay cold. The blonde noble lady looked at her sovereign with cautious eyes, trying to gauge his reaction. She saw immense hurt in his cerulean eyes, darkened by confusion and a pinch of anger. Gingerly, he picked up the delicate ring, fingers trembling, as if confirming that this wasn't a dream and that the ring was there, and consequently, Robin was truly gone.

Sumia felt her eyes burn in sadness. She felt so sorry for her lord, especially when she saw how sad he was that Robin left. She felt so sorry for Robin, for she was all too familiar with the demons that must have plagued her good friend for her to leave the love of her life. The Pegasus knight also loved Chrom. True, she was once jealous of the Robin's ability to seamlessly interact with the lord, needing nothing more than her charming wit and smile to bewitch the future king, but Sumia found it so hard to stay jealous, for Robin was also a very good friend. And when she was sealed in a cage of depression over her unrequited love, Gaius came into her life and unlocked all the shackles that bound her down. He freed her and made her immeasurably happy with his love, and the understanding that someone else was being hurt by the love that saved her brought bitter tears to her eyes.

She wept for Chrom, whose eyes stayed dry but the emotions that rumbled through them were turbulent, threatening to spill over. She wept for Robin, who succumbed to the demons inside her. She wept for them, even if they refuse to cry for themselves.

"Chrom, I…" Lissa approached her brother, arms open to embrace him only to be pushed away when the lord suddenly stood up and ran out of the room. Maribelle, quickly comprehending what the brash king is to do, gathered her skirts and ran out of the room to follow him, dragging Lissa behind her in tow. Sumia tried to follow, but the tears in her eyes made her much clumsier than usual.

"Frederick! Frederiiiiick!" Maribelle screeched for her husband, her voice echoing through the stone halls of the castle, startling ghosts and chambermaids alike with the urgency in her cry. The knight quickly announced his appearance by jogging next to her, his armour clanking, falling in rhythm to his steps, about to reprimand his wife for performing such strenuous activities under the strain of pregnancy, but the desperation in her voice made him bite his tongue. Quickly, she pointed to Chrom who was already too far away from the two ladies and quickly nodding, he sprinted off. Maribelle slowed down to a trot, unable to hide a small satisfied smile that grew on her face as her darling husband quickly reached the king and brusquely tackled him to the ground. The ring the king was holding fell to the ground, tinkling quietly as it rolled to a stop before Chrom. Frederick looked at the band and frowned in confusion.

"Milord…"

"Frederick! Let me go! I need to go! She's out there, alone! And you remember what those bastard nobles said!" Chrom thrashed under the knight's grip, trying desperately to get loose, or at least reach over to keep the precious jewellery. Frederick leaned over and gave the ring to the lord to pacify him, squeezing Chrom's hand in emotional sympathy.

"My apologies for tackling you down like this, but it would seem that an explanation is necessary."

"Frederick, I've no time for explanations! I need to go! Robin needs me!" Chrom whispered brokenly, gazing at the floor, eyes boring into the concrete, threatening to destroy everything in their sight; Frederick included. Anger was easier for him to handle than sadness, since anger gave him the necessary energy to run off and drag Robin back into his arms.

"What has happened, milord..?" Frederick asked, voice hardening, eyes narrowed. This was the knight's business mode.

"Robin is gone! She's run off to gods-know where!" Lissa supplied to the knight, whose eyes widened in shock. He then looked at the lord beneath him, and he grimly frowned.

"We need to retreive her as soon as possible. A royal without protection is as vulnerable as a plate of turkey dinner to the starved."

"Which is what I'm trying to do! Now get off of me, Frederick!" Chrom all but screamed.

"Your majesty, you seriously aren't thinking of flying off to chase after Robin alone, right? You're king now, for Naga's sake! You have your people to think of!" Maribelle finally managed to catch up, her forehead knitted in an angry knot, eyes that of a mother scolding her child, a look that would have made Frederick swoon with joy were the situation proper.

""You heard those councilmen. The entire country may be in an uproar because of Robin's background, and Plegia just lost its king to her tactics. Frederick, Robin has no friends out there. Every moment I waste here is another moment that bandits or assassins could try and take her away from me! I need to leave right now!"

"At the very least, let us come with you!" Sumia caught up, her entrance punctuated by the sound of her tripping over the floor. Lightning quick, Frederick caught her, but at the cost of letting the lord go. Said lord thus scrambled to his feet and began to run again, fist tight around the delicate ring.

"Oh no you don't!" Lissa exclaimed, about to burst into a run but was beaten to catching her brother by a surprisingly lithe Sumia, who flew to him, tears coming to her eyes again and embraced the king, startling him into stopping again.

"Please, captain…" Sumia sobbed into Chrom's back, tears landing softly on his shirt, tears warm against the chills that run up his back. "Don't go alone…Robin would be so broken i-if…"

"Broken?! Gods, Sumia, She's the one that left me!" Chrom pried her arms around him and faced her. "How could she leave without saying a word? Did she not love me?" He screamed at Sumia, the tears that had been hiding behind his anger, finally fell from his eyes.

"T-that's not it at all!" Sumia cried, voice far from the meek whisper that she was known for. "She loves you! Naga may only know the depths of her affection for you. She did all of this for you! She let you go because she loved you!" She screamed back, eyes soggy with tears, but her voice was more powerful than any of them remember.

"How is this love? How is breaking my heart loving me?!" He clenched his fists to prevent him from breaking anything—Sumia included. In this storm of emotion, the gods only know how much destruction he could cause. Physically, he would never hurt Sumia, but verbally, he could leave scars to last centuries. Words hurt. He knew that. He had to watch his sister Emmeryn suffer the consequences of their father's actions. She never knew, but he heard her cry at night sometimes when they were still small. He wanted so bad for the people hurting her to hurt too, just as his sister was hurting. She, however, always smiled and never faltered in her peaceful crusade for peace. Words can break a person, that much he knew, but he always thought Robin stronger than that. He always thought her as strong as his sister, infallible even when she was hurting inside. His sister never wavered in her beliefs, and in the rush of battle, Robin didn't either. That faithful determination was what made him fall for her in the first place. She never gave up, regardless of how the odds were stacked up against them. She held fast and trusted in the strength of the people around her for the peace they so long sought after. He loved her for her strength, which is why it confounded him to no end why she would leave if she really did love him.

Chrom's head was cloudy. He felt ready to collapse from shock at any moment. So many questions and concerns floated around in his head. None of them had answers, or if they did, they only made him feel worse. The day's events replayed themselves over and over to him. The young king snapped out of his doldrums when he heard a horse whinny. No longer were they in the castle, but in the stables, and he watched confused as Maribelle, Lissa and Frederick saddled up their steeds in preparation for the task they were about to embark on. Sumia was still crying, but was carefully preparing her Pegasus for flight. She slung her saddle across the beautiful beast's back, and gave its mane a pet, soothing the animal with the gentle stroke of her hand. Chrom frowned.

"At what point did the three of you manage to weasel your way into this?" Chrom asked half-heartedly. Part of him still wanted to leave on his own, but it was a small relief seeing others who cared so much about Robin.

"You zoned out, we took advantage. Come on, Chrom, keep up with us." Lissa stuck out her tongue, admonishing her brother.

"Milord, we're wasting daylight. We are coming with you, so please let that petty argument die." Maribelle said smoothly as she mounted her white mare. Frederick looked up at her in quiet objection, and she met his stare with her own.

"Maribelle, my dear, I really would feel better if you stayed here in the castle with milady." Frederick said, brows furrowed with concern for his wife and the unborn bundle that was growing within her. His overprotectiveness with Chrom and his sisters paled in the care he lavished on his wife, doubling only in intensity when the noblesse became pregnant.

"Frederick…" Maribelle sighed, quickly dismounting her horse. She approached her husband with a gloved hand over her flat stomach and a small appreciative smile on her lips. "I…know that you are a very devoted person, and that caring is part of who you are, but I need to go. Robin is a good friend, and I…I vowed to protect her at all cost." The lady whispered, her face lowered as tears began to prick at the sides of her eyes.

Frederick could only pull her into his arms and hold her fiercely, willing all the gods to lend him strength to soothe her pain. He hated it when she cried, and the beautiful sadness that always accompanied her tears made his heart wrench tightly in his chest. She was the most precious when she cried, because in the year they have spent together as husband and wife, and even longer as friends and comrades, she had never cried about anything petty. She had always cried for someone else's sake. He wanted to give in to her, understanding how dear Robin was to the lady, however, the prospect of anyone he loved being put into dangerous situations left him at a crossroads.

"Ah, Frederick, let her come! She'll be alright! You'll protect her, and so will I!" Lissa softly nudged him on the shoulder with her staff, smiling up at the knight, as if consoling him.

"I refuse to put you or Maribelle in danger." Chrom had to interject, for he could see his knight's resolve slowly whittling away. "Frederick can come, but not you ladies. I don't think I can bear your husbands' wraths were anything to happen to you."

"You obviously know nothing about the wrath of women. We are coming and that is it." Lissa's eyes hardened, a sudden shift from her earlier softness; it was almost as if she was angry.

"But Lissa you—"

"If I hear anything about being the princess and the next exalt and blah blah blah, well, newsflash dingleberry, YOU are the current exalt. You're KING now. Like Maribelle said, you have your people to think of. If anything, it's YOU who shouldn't go!"

"I have authori—"

"ALRIGHT! STOP IT!" Maribelle screeched, scaring the nearby horses and pegasi with the loudness and ferocity in her tone. "Ahem. We are not seceding back into the bickering mess that we were in an hour ago. Please, let us just go. If we continue, Robin may well have reached the end of the world."

"Maribelle, you're pregnant." Chrom dead-panned, his eyes boring into hers, eliciting a roll of her own honey eyes.

"Milord, if I may be so direct, I am pregnant, not incapacitated. I am certain I can hurl a couple of Arcfires from the safe height of my horse, with or without a child within me."

Lissa cracked a smile, while Frederick tried with difficulty to restrain the chortle that was rumbling in his throat. Even Chrom couldn't help but laugh a little.

"Fine, but remember, you're protecting six people now. You'd best be very careful."

The Valkyrie smiled serenely as she slowly rubbed her belly, smiling down at the unborn bundle of happiness, looking every bit a doting mother.

Maribelle's pregnancy is relevant. -flais aweh-