Chapter 6

The next day, Corrin and the others continued their travels to Notre Sagesse. The route they were taking had brought the group to Fort Dragonfall, a large Hoshidan fort that was rumoured to actually be made of the remains of a once living dragon. Before engaging the Hoshidans, the group had stopped for a brief rest and also to plan out their strategy for attacking the fortress.

Elise was sitting on the grass as Corrin discussed his plans with the others for the upcoming battle. She was far more busy being lost in thought, and also, as per usual, staring at Odin. The Dark Mage seemed to be taking in all of Corrin's strategies and silently judging them. Elise noticed Odin, at various times, would very slightly shake his head in disapproval, or nod in agreement, when Corrin suggested a battle tactic. She scratched her head, trying to figure out what the Dark Mage was thinking about.

Odin raised an eyebrow slightly at Corrin's latest suggestion. It was becoming easier and easier to tell that the young Prince had been thrust into a leadership position almost on accident, and that he was still acclimatizing to the role. While his ability to encourage the others was unrivaled, his tactics could certainly use some work.

"Erm, may I suggest something?" The man finally asked, breaking his silence. Corrin and the others looked at Odin. The young Prince raised an eyebrow and gave Odin a skeptic look.

"…Sure, Odin. What did you have in mind?"

"Well, your suggestion of storming the front gates of Fort Dragonfall seems unrealistic, given our current numbers," Odin commented, getting strange looks and slight glares even from the others. "We're all quite strong, but I think we'd be better served looking for another entrance to the fort instead of trying to smash our way through the front door? After all, the element of surprise couldn't hurt…"

Corrin was still eyeing Odin quite skeptically, giving the man a soft glare. "That would be true, but there aren't any other entrances to the fort." He explained. "Our only option is to storm the entrance. And yes I have accounted for the numbers issue-"

"Yes, there are no other visible entrances," Odin quickly replied, cutting the man off, "However, from what we know of this place, it is quite old, yes? That means there will more than likely be a few areas of the fort with much less fortified walls. We can…make our own entrance, from an area like that."

"…But there's no guarantee we can find something like that." Silas mused, scratching his short silver hair. "I like your thinking, Odin, but we can't go in with a plan that we don't even know is possible."

"Yeah, but isn't that a better idea than risking needless casualties?" Elise finally piped up, causing everyone to suddenly swivel their heads and direct their attention to her. Corrin was not quite surprised that Elise would side with Odin, but still somewhat irritated by it.

"The point is, there is no way to know that we can even find an entrance like that, Lady Elise," Effie replied. "It's bad strategy to run in without a proper plan-"

"But the proper plan is to try and make sure no one gets killed, right?" Odin suddenly snapped back, beginning to lose his cool. He was flabbergasted that no one, save for Elise, was agreeing with his plan. Calling it bad strategy was the final straw for the man. His father had taught him everything he knew about battle tactics, and while he paled in comparison to his father or Morgan, he knew enough to be able to tell good and bad strategy when presented with it.

"Look, just trust me on this, all right? I know what I'm talking about, I swear. I…learned quite a bit, about tactics, long ago. I promise we'll find another way in."

There was a brief, nervous silence before Corrin finally let out a defeated sigh.

"Okay. We look for another way in. If we can't find one, we storm the front entrance. It can't hurt, after all."

As the others dispersed to prepare for battle, Odin let out a quick sigh of relief. He never enjoyed verbal confrontation, much less with allies, but he preferred it to watching needless deaths.

The situation he was in had most certainly not been helped by him feeling Elise's watchful gaze on him for the entire meeting. He had spotted her out of the corner of his eye, and avoided eye contact once he noticed she was watching him.

"No doubt planning another prank, I'd presume…" He muttered to himself. The little Princess seemed quite scheming, and he had to ensure he would be prepared for whatever she tried to pull. That being said, he was still quite appreciative of her willingness to side with him. The Dark mage figured it would be a good idea to go thank her, so long as she wasn't going to…dump a frog down his shirt, or something of the like.

As Corrin walked off, he was beginning to feel quite frustrated with Odin. While he could not deny that the man's suggestion had made sense, a sudden intelligent remark from the man just appeared to be…very…out of character, so to speak. It seemed very much like he was hiding something from them, and now the Nohrian Prince was determined to find out what.

He looked nearby to see Odin approaching Elise. Seeing the two interact reminded him of how much Elise cared seemed to care for the young man. While he didn't quite approve of her interest in Odin, Corrin knew that his little sister's love life was none of his business. But he couldn't hate a man that seemed to make his foster sister so happy. He was, however, going to find out more about Odin, because Elise asked him to, but also to keep an extra eye on the man.

Not far from the man, Odin and Elise were walking around together, having a quick discussion. Elise was asking far too many questions about where Odin knew his tactics from, and the man was less than comfortable with answering them.

"So who taught you? Were they a tactician, like that Yukimura guy in Hoshido?" She prodded.

"Er…I can't say. It's…private." Odin slowly replied.

"Oh, come on!" Elise whined. "Where's the fun in that? Don't worry, I won't tell anyone your secret origin story, Odin Dark!"

The Dark mage got a good chuckle out of Elise's remark, much to the Princess's delight. "Alright, fine. But I'm not telling you very much," He conceded. "After all, as a master of the darkness, I must remain clouded in the shadows…"

Elise nodded, her pigtails quickly bobbing up and down as she grinned widely at the man. She was very excited at the possibility of learning more about her crush.

"So, I learned about tactics…from my Father."

"Ooh, wow! What's his name? Where does he live?"

Odin rubbed his head sheepishly. "Very, very far from here," He replied. "It's hard to explain. And I can't tell you his name, but he was a great tactician where I'm from. The best, and strongest, in my opinion. He saved the world from an evil dragon, too!"

"Whoaaa!" Elise marveled, her eyes seeming to sparkle as she imagined what she thought Odin's father looked like. "So can you tell me the story of how he killed the evil dragon guy sometime?"

"Hey, come on, you guys! We've got to get moving!" Silas called from nearby, before Odin could reply to Elise.

"Er…another time, maybe." He declared, winking at her with a bit of a grin before walking off to grab his tomes for battle.

As he did, Odin shook his head slightly. Why was he so…relaxed, around Elise? There was something about her that seemed to make her value the girl much more than the others he had met in this world, but he couldn't quite put a finger on it.

The Dark Mage dismissed the problem for now, banishing it from his thoughts. After all, they had a battle to win, and he had some tactics to prove. There would be plenty of time to deal with his 'strange new feelings' afterwards.