Author's Notes:
I don't know how many people noticed or cared, but in the last chapter, I put that Vaike gets promoted into a Berserker. For those that didn't play the game, Fighters (Vaike's previous class) can only promote into Warriors or Heroes. I can kind of see Vaike being a Warrior, but I just can't see him be a Hero. I think Berserker suits his character much more, and I always second seal him in order for him to be able to become one. That's why in my story, he's a Berserker instead of the other two 'standard' choices.
That's about all for now, here's chapter 19:
Shepherd's Garrison:
Robin was preparing to head towards bed. It had been a long day, and after cooking and cleaning for the entire camp, he was ready to call it a night. He slowly made his way to the library, and flopped onto his bed.
He knew that he couldn't go to bed just yet, as he had go clean himself up first. However, it can wait just a few moments, he decided as he blissfully stretched out on top of his mattress.
His relaxation was interrupted by a small vibration from inside his cloak.
"Hmm?" Robin wondered aloud. He pulled out his Hekseer, the item that no doubt was the culprit. "Why's this thing on?"
He quickly checked it. Usually, there's nothing wrong, but since it was acting weird, he may as well. There were a bunch of blue icons clumped together at the center of the displayed map. "Nothing out of the usual..." Robin mused to himself. As the display began to spread out further and further away, Robin blanched. There were two blue icons a few blocks away surrounded by several red ones. He looked closer, and found that the two shepherds were Lissa and Lon'qu. The vibration seemed to be caused by Lon'qu taking taking a hit.
"Not good!" Robin exclaimed. He immediately bolted for the exit, seeming to have forgotten just how exhausted he was.
Moments Earlier…
Lissa decided she wanted to take a walk. Something about the nighttime air was very comforting for her. Lon'qu, being her assigned guard, obviously tagged along. They started walking around the streets of Ylisstol. The moon was out, shining bright overhead, and from the buildings, some light leaked out from the windows, illuminating the streets some more.
"Hey!" Lissa exclaimed. "It's pretty dark outside… I wouldn't want to fall and hurt myself… can we hold hands?"
"No." Lon'qu immediately replied.
"Honestly, I thought you'd be used to me by now." Lissa pouted. "And you're always so serious! Couldn't hurt to see you smile once in a-" She was suddenly interrupted by Lon'qu. "Shh!"
"That is SO rude!" Lissa huffed. "I was only trying to-" But once again, Lon'qu interjected before Lissa could finish her thought. "Get behind me, quickly! There's… Hngh!" he grunted, as an arrow flew out from the shadows and into his arm.
"N-no! Lon'qu, you're hurt!" Lissa exclaimed. "P-please… you can't… don't die!"
Lon'qu grunted as he immediately pulled out the arrow. "It's just one arrow, it can't kill me by itself."
"Well said, dog of the blue blood." A voice called to them. Lon'qu and Lissa looked up to see seven figures approaching them from all directions. An eighth figure stood on a rooftop with a bow, being illuminated only by the light of the moon. "How many do you think it'll take before he dies?" he voice asked.
"I wager we've found your assassins." Lon'qu muttered. "Stay behind me." he drew his killing edge.
"Shut it, dog!" the leader of the assassins yelled. "Move one muscle and the girl dies. You'll surrender immediately and hand her over to us if you want to live."
Lon'qu spat on the ground. "I don't take orders from dalcops."
"Dal what?" came a confused reply.
"My point exactly. Maybe you'd be better off in life if you weren't so stupid." Lon'qu retorted. To be honest, he didn't exactly know what it meant either, he'd just heard Miriel use it as an insult, and Miriel couldn't be wrong about such things.
"Why you-" the same guy yelled as he charged Lon'qu with an axe. Lon'qu immediately slashed his killing edge out, severing the guy's head from his body. Suddenly, another arrow flew through the air, hitting Lon'qu in the thigh. Lon'qu grunted again in pain.
"Control your dog, missy." The first assassin told Lissa. "There's plenty more where that came from. One more twitch, and the next one's going for your head." he nudged one of the guys next to him. "Get that princess bitch over here." The man obliged and began to walk towards Lissa with an axe in his hand.
Lon'qu looked defeated. There's nothing much he can do when these assassins have a sniper aimed at him. He gritted his teeth. Suddenly, he heard a familiar voice in his head. {Pull that arrow out, Lissa, tell them you'll go with them if they let you heal Lon'qu first. Trust me on this one.}
"R-robin?" Lon'qu muttered under his breath, while Lissa's eyes bulged slightly, but she didn't say anything.
"W-wait!" Lissa exclaimed. "I'll go with you guys! Just please, let me heal my friend here first. Then I'll go with you guys, I promise!" "No! You can't do that!" Lon'qu mock protested convincingly. "Please, I don't want them to hurt you anymore!" Lissa wiped away a fake tear from her eyes.
"Alright. Butch, stand over them. Bring your axe down if they try anything. Clarence has her bow trained on them as well." The man sent over to them grunted in agreement.
Lissa immediately began to treat Lon'qu's wounds. {Alright, listen to me. Even if she's not done healing you, Lon'qu, I still need you to be able to fight. On three, turn and kill that axeman standing over you. Don't think, just do.}
Lon'qu silently agreed. Robin counted to three, and Lon'qu immediately flashed his killing edge out, killing the axe man before he could bring his axe down on himself or Lissa. At this point, a cloud had moved slightly in front of the moon, causing parts of the town to suddenly be shrouded in blackness.
"Alright you ungrateful bastard, fire!" the leader roared. Another arrow flew through the air, but this time, it hit one of the assassins straight through the skull, instantly killing him.
"What the-?" the leader voiced out what everyone, including Lissa and Lon'qu had been thinking. Everyone turned around to the silhouette of the archer assassin, only to find not one, but two figures standing upon the roof. The silhouette's heads turned, and they saw four gleaming lights were the pair's eyes should be. It cast a red glow that sent a shiver through everyone's body. The cloud that once blocked the moon moved away, and Lissa pointed up at the roof once again. "Look!" she shrieked.
Lon'qu, as well as the others snuck a peek at what Lissa had been pointing at. They saw a cloaked figure standing besides the archer, Clarence. A long blade was protruding from the girl's stomach. However, the archer didn't seem to be dead. She pulled back her bow and fired another arrow and shot another one of her supposed allies. "What? What did you monsters do to Clarence?" the leader of the assassins exclaimed, with an obvious tremble in his voice.
{Don't just stare at me, Lon'qu. Kill them!} Robin urged. Lon'qu didn't need to be told twice. Without needing to worry about Lissa getting shot, Lon'qu easily slashed apart the remaining assassins. Once he saw that Lon'qu was finished. Robin pulled his weapon out of the corpse of the archer, immediately causing the glow from the archer's eyes to fade. The body fell off the roof and hit the ground with a thud.
Robin jumped off the roof himself and made his way over to them.
"What the hell was that?" Lon'qu asked him.
"Oh that?" Robin shrugged. "It's something new I figured out how to do. Apparently, instead of harvesting a target's quintessence, I can force it to stay in the dead body and follow my commands. As a result, it's as if the person becomes my puppet."
"That's… pretty messed up." Lissa admitted.
"Maybe." Robin smirked. "I AM a necromancer now, after all. However, I've found that it has some pretty annoying restrictions that make it difficult to make use of. For instance, I have to keep my blade lodged inside the target, or I'll lose control of them." he shrugged. "Makes it difficult to make use of in a full blown battle, because I wouldn't be able to use my scythe while the puppet fights for me."
Lon'qu shook his head. "You used to be Plegian? I get the feeling that if you were actually on their side, the war against Gangrel might not have ended in our favor."
"Anyways…" Robin changed the subject. "It's really late, and he DO still have to march north tomorrow. Let's head back to the garrison to rest."
Lissa lowered her head. "Sorry, I shouldn't have come out this late in the first place."
Lon'qu shook his head. "No, you are wrong. Your safety wasn't supposed to be your concern. It is my job, and for my blunders, you almost got killed."
"But-" Lissa protested, but Robin spoke up to. "Look, let's not think about the what ifs, and what could have happened. The bottom line is, you both got out safe. I say we count our blessings, and rest easy for the night. Crying over it won't change a thing. If anything, it will only stress you out. Just be a little more cautious in the future is all."
"Thank you Robin. Thank you Lon'qu." Lissa murmured.
Lon'qu smirked. "You are a very smart man. I can see why you're the one giving instructions in battle."
Robin laughed. "I do try my best."
The three of them made their way back to the garrison, and each went to their respective rooms for some well deserved rest.
The next morning…
Robin woke up, and had breakfast with the rest of the shepherds at the garrison. Everyone's spirits were high, even Lissa and Lon'qu, who had seemingly forgotten about the events that had transpired the night before.
After breakfast, everyone had a small amount of time to prepare for the trip they will be taking today. There's been repeated reports of bandit raids to the North, near the Feroxi border lately. From the looks of it, it seems to have all been caused by the same group of bandits. Because of this, Chrom has decided that he'll be personally leading the shepherds to exterminate this group causing trouble for the locals.
The march there was pretty similar to most of their marches. Sully and Stahl were talking and laughing as they rode alongside the rest of the shepherds. Robin smiled. The two had recently gotten married, and from the looks of it, they never regretted that decision for one moment. And seeing the two of them that happy together made Robin, to a certain degree, happy as well.
Shockingly, Robin noticed that Lon'qu still hovered close to Lissa protectively. Technically speaking, the assassin plot on Lissa that had caused him to be assigned her personal guard had already been foiled, so he didn't have any obligation to keep guarding her. Under Lon'qu's normal personality, he would've tried to stay far away from Lissa, or any other woman for that matter.
'So why hasn't he pushed Lissa away like he does to everyone else?' Robin wondered to himself. He closed his eyes and smiled. He had an inkling of why Lon'qu might do that, but he kept it to himself.
He was jerked back to reality when he heard Chrom tell everyone to stop. A merchant was sitting on the side of the road, murmuring to himself. "Oh… that poor girl…"
"What's wrong?" Chrom asked.
"Oh sire!" the man said, recognizing Chrom immediately. "Please! Help her! A young merchant girl is being set upon by bandits!"
"We're on our way." Chrom nodded with conviction. "Do you know where you last saw her?"
"Y-yes sire! She went off to raid the bandit's camp, over yonder maybe one or two miles." He gestured to the northwest. "Said she was stealing back what they took from th' villagers they killed 'bout three days ago."
"Many thanks." Chrom told the merchant before turning to his troops. "Shepherds! We march!"
Everyone began to make haste for the bandit camp.
By the time they got close, Chrom and the shepherds could hear the sound of metal clashing on metal up ahead. "Robin, what do you make of that?" Chrom asked him.
Robin checked his Hekseer. "There seems to be a lone trickster up ahead. She seems to be surrounded by many opponents, all with bad intentions it seems." He gestured to the plethora of red icons on the map.
"Shepherds! We are to assist the female trickster. She must be the merchant we were told about." Chrom instructed. "What's the plan?" he asked, turning to Robin again.
Robin furrowed his brow. "There is a high probability that these are the bandits we were coming out to eradicate in the first place. If we can save the girl and kill all the bandits at the same time, that would hitting two birds with one stone."
{Shepherds, we are going to separate into three groups, one for each path. Gaius, Frederick, Cordelia, Panne, Lon'qu, Olivia, Lissa, go to the west side and take out the bandits you find on that side. Before you leave, Gaius, come find me for some special instructions. Vaike, Stahl, Sully, Ricken, Donnel, Kellam and Maribelle, you take the eastern side, and eliminate those bandits. That leaves, myself, Chrom, Sumia, Virion, Miriel, Tharja, Libra, Gregor and Nowi for the middle path. It's the one that leads straight to the girl, and we're going to help her. All except Gaius are dismissed!}
The shepherds all went off to complete their assigned tasks. Gaius stayed behind and walked over to Robin. "So, Bubbles, what are these special instructions you have for me?" he asked the tactician as he popped a piece of candy into his mouth. Robin leaned to him and whispered something in his ear. A smile began to slowly form on Gaius's face. "You sure know how to use talent, Bubbles. Consider it done." The thief ran towards the west and tried to catch up with the rest of the shepherds. Robin did the same to the middle path.
By the time Robin caught up with Chrom and the others, they could see the female merchant fighting a group of bandits in a clearing. Robin's eyes locked onto a berserker that seemed to be calling the shots for the bandits. Chrom noticed the same guy as well. "Didn't we fight that guy before?" he asked his tactician. "That's exactly what I was thinking." Robin replied. "I dunno, it could be someone else too. We'll have time to figure that out later. First, the girl!" With that, Robin's group began to close in on the bandits.
As they drew near, they saw the berserker carry away the limp body of the girl.
"Blast! We're too late!" Chrom exclaimed with regret.
"Perhaps not." Robin calmly replied. "First, let's slaughter these bandits. Then we'll find the girl. If she's actually dead, I highly doubt they'd carry her away like that."
"Right." Chrom gritted his teeth. "Shepherds, we fight to kill! With me!"
Together, they charged and engaged the bandits.
With the girl, moments earlier...
"You there!" The berserker called to the girl. "You and I have business, and I'm here to settle the debt! No one can get away with killing Vincent's brother! Victor's death will be avenged!"
"Oh dear," The girl replied. "Have we met before?"
Vincent shook his head. "Playing dumb won't save you, girly! The gold you net from the slavers will build Victor the finest grave in all the land!"
The girl looked offended. "Careful dear," she warned. "Prices aren't the only thing I can cut in half." she raised her killing edge threateningly.
Vincent grunted. "Alright you monkeys! Take her down, but don't you dare put as much as a scratch on her pretty face!"
The bandits began to circle in on the girl.
"Ooh… pretty, huh?" the girl chuckled nervously. "I'm flattered."
Suddenly, a bandit closed in on her, charging with his axe held high.
"Sold!" the girl shouted as she slashed out her killing edge, killing the man in his tracks. Another bandit charged, and was met with the same fate.
"Monkeys! All of you!" Vincent shouted. "Charge her, all at once!"
"Now now," the girl began. "I'm more than OK with challenging one at a time. It's the civil thing to to do." her arms began to tremble in fear.
The bandits chose to listen to their leader as opposed to their opponent. They all dogpiled onto her. The girl swung her sword out in desperation, slashing a couple unlucky brigands to death, but she was knocked to the ground, and her sword pried away from her hands.
"Get off of me!" the girl cried in part anger, part fear.
"Yea boys, show some respect!" Vincent laughed as he sauntered over. The bandits got off of her, and Vincent grabbed the girl by her ponytail, forcibly lifting her onto her feet.
"Ow, ow! Don't touch me!" the girl exclaimed.
"Oh, don't worry, we won't be the ones doin' the touchin' girly." Vincent informed her creepily. "That's up to whoever you get sold to. I'm sure there's plenty o' men who could… make use of such a pretty one like yourself." he laughed at himself.
The girl's eyes went wide, the implications slowly starting to sink in. "N-no… p-please… no… I didn't do… anything…" she whimpered.
Vincent didn't care or take pity. He knocked the girl out with a blow to the back of her head, and threw her limp body over his shoulder. "G'job, boys!" was the last thing he shouted before he carried the girl away.
With the shepherds…
Chrom slashed through an enemy myrmidon. He was furious at not being able to get to the girl in time, and it showed through his fighting. Nearby, Gregor cut down a brigand with his steel axe. Libra was keeping an enemy myrmidon busy, as his attacks were a bit too slow to hit the nimble swordfighter. However, he didn't need to, as Tharja blasted the man to death with her Nosferatu tome. In the air, Sumia was trading magic spells with an enemy mage. Sumia was fairly inexperienced with fighting with magic, and evidently, her opponent was too, so they didn't end up causing much damage to one another. However, it gave Robin enough time to run in and cut down the distracted mage. Robin turned, and saw Nowi carrying Miriel through the air as the bespectacled mage threw Elfire spells at an enemy mage.
Seeing as everything was working for his group, Robin checked his Hekseer. The group on the east side seemed to be having a pretty easy time. Stahl, Sully, Donnel, Kellam and Vaike hit the bandits like a truck, knockin aside anyone that dared challenge them. The ones that managed to survive the initial blow was quickly torn to pieces by the magic spells from Maribelle and Ricken.
On the western side, the story was pretty much the same. The charge was led by Frederick, Panne, Cordelia and Lon'qu. Gaius, Lissa and Olivia just picked off any stragglers. The only hitch in the plan was when Panne had to take an arrow meant for Lon'qu. Lissa, however, immediately went over to heal the resilient rabbit. Robin smiled, when he saw Gaius take a short detour once in a while as they moved further and further into the bandit's stronghold.
"C'mon, they're all dead here." Robin heard Chrom call. "Let's move further in!" Robin nodded, and his group began to advance as well.
As the shepherds moved further into the stronghold, they could tell that there were more and more bandits, and the ones they were fighter were also clearly better trained. They began to inch forwards slower, as they repelled the waves of bodies being thrown at them.
Robin could hear the fighting to his left and right, as the three paths seemed to all be coming together. Robin suddenly heard a cry of pain from Sully and a shout of alarm from Stahl. He quickly killed off the opponent he was fighting in order to check his Hekseer. From the looks of it, Sully had been hit by a magic spell that might have originally been aimed at her partner.
It didn't look like it would kill her, and Maribelle was rushing over to heal her, so Robin breathed a sigh of relief and put away his Hekseer to rejoin the battle with Chrom and the others.
Pretty soon, Chrom's group began to fight some clearly well trained bandits. {This looks like they might be their most elite fighters.} Robin told his group through the Hekseer. {Do you think you can handle them? I think I can sneak by to look for that berserker or the girl. Call if you need anything!}
{Alright, no problem. We got it. Good idea.} he heard Chrom reply. "Huh?" his opponent wondered as they locked swords. To the bandit, it looked like Chrom was randomly talking to himself in the middle of their fight.
Robin maneuvered past the bandits and saw the figure of the berserker move out from one of the secluded buildings up ahead. If Robin didn't know where to look, he wouldn't have thought that there was a shack there in the first place. Robin ran up to meet him.
"Y-you!" the berserker exclaimed when he saw Robin. "You were one of the ones that killed Victor!" he drew a silver axe. "Looks like you're here to save your little friend then. I guess I've no choice but to kill you."
"Good luck with that one!" Robin charged with his scythe. He swung his blade around, but Vincent easily knocked the weapon aside with a swing of his own. Robin backed up, and tried again, only to receive the same results.
"Ha! Is this all you've got? You must've taken Victor by surprise or something if you guys managed to kill him somehow." Vincent taunted. "C'mon flea, daddy Vincent has an axe just for you… or your skull."
Robin snorted. "That's mighty confident of you." he replied. "Especially since I haven't pulled out all of my tricks yet." At this, he reached into the air to his right, and a dagger, gifted to him by Olivia, materialized.
The berserker guffawed when he saw Robin's actions. "You couldn't get close enough with that farm tool, what do you hope to accomplish with that tiny weapon?"
Robin grinned, knowing his opponent doesn't understand what he is capable of doing. "Let me show you." he said. Robin used the dagger and made a small cut across the back of his left hand. The wound turned red as blood began to seep out.
"What the fuck?" Vincent wondered aloud. "You a masochist or somethin'?" he was about to laugh at Robin once again, but froze when he saw terrifying new expression on Robin's face. His eyes were glowing reddish purple, and his grin seemingly turned Vincent's blood to ice.
Robin charged once again at the berserker. However, when Vincent moved to swing his axe and knock aside the scythe like he did before, Robin suddenly changed direction midswing at an unfathomable speed. Not only did he dodge the swing completely, he shifted so that he ended up behind the berserker. Robin swung his scythe upwards, severing the arm holding the axe from Vincent's body.
Vincent cried out in pain. He fell onto his knees as he felt his strength beginning to leave him. He suddenly found himself in even more pain, and when he looked down, he saw the blade of Robin's scythe appearing out of his stomach. Blood spurted out from the wound, forming a puddle in front of him.
"I… see your face… Victor…." Vincent said, as he gazed longingly at the puddle. "N-no wait… that's… me…" with that, Vincent fell over, dead.
"Well, that's that." Robin said as he wiped his weapon off and put it back in the astral plane. "Let me just confirm…" he dug out the Hekseer. "Yup! The girl is being held in that building." Robin immediately shut down his Hekseer, and ran towards the building he saw Vincent appear from.
When he entered the building, he saw the girl in a corner. Her arms were tied behind her back, and her legs were bound together as well. Her mouth was gagged by a towel. She had visible bruises all over her, and a black eye as well.
Robin immediately went over and began to cut the ropes binding the girl. The girl, being disturbed, regained consciousness. Her eyes widened when she saw Robin. "MMMNPH MMMMGH!" she protested through her gag.
"Oh, you're awake, let me get that for you." Robin said as he stopped cutting the ropes and reached to remove the towel from the girl's mouth.
"P-please!" the girl begged as soon as she could talk again. "Help me! I'm not for sale! I don't know what those bandits told you, but they kidnapped me!" the girl began to sob. "Please… help me… Let me go..."
"That's what I'm here for." Robin told her. "Stay still. I don't want to accidentally cut you while trying to remove these ropes."
"R-really?" the girl asked, not willing to believe him.
"Yup." Robin confirmed. "I killed that berserker just now. The one that wouldn't shut up about Victor or something."
That was the confirmation the girl needed to hear. As soon as her hands were free, she leapt at Robin in a hug, and began to cry some more.
"He… he did so many things to me… he knocked me out, and I was later slapped awake by him. He said I was responsible for killing his brother, and beat me until I was unconscious." The girl sobbed. "And he was going to sell me to some slavers, who'd no doubt do even worse to me."
"Well…" Robin began. "Wait. What should I call you?"
The girl sniffled. "Anna. My name is Anna."
Robin smiled. "Well, Anna, you're safe now. Let me take a look at your wounds."
Robin placed his hands over Anna's bruises, and one by one, they began to disappear, along with the pain.
"H-how are you doing that? You're not using a staff…" Anna looked at him in wonder.
Robin chuckled. "Trade secret. You're a merchant, so you should understand. Let's just say our berserker friend is contributing to this."
Anna nodded, and didn't ask anything else.
When he was finished, Robin stood up. He offered Anna a hand. "Shall we? The others should be done by now. You're free as soon as we cleanse this place of bandits." Anna wiped away the rest of her tears and gladly accepted Robin's hand.
The two made their way out of the building, towards the shepherds that were already gathered.
"Chrom!" Robin called as he waved to the rest of the shepherds. When they shepherds saw him, they hollered and waved back at him. Robin thought he saw a couple of them breathe a sigh of relief.
As he drew closer, he saw that Sully, Vaike and Gregor were being looked after by the healers over the wounds they had received. However, it looked like everyone had made it out in one piece.
"We tried to call you, but there was no response. And when we couldn't find you or that berserker, well, we feared the worst." Chrom explained to him.
Robin scratched his head sheepishly. "Yea, after I killed him, I completely shut down my Hekseer, so that's why I didn't hear you." he admitted. "That was actually pretty foolish of me. It's my mistake." he apologized.
"Anyways…" Robin changed the subject. "Here's the merchant girl." he gestured to Anna.
Anna bowed when she saw them. "Thank you all for rescuing me. My name is Anna, some call me the Secret Seller."
"I know." Chrom said. "We've met before. I remember you."
"Oh?" Anna seemed surprised. "I seem to be drawing a blank. I think I would've remembered a group like yours for sure if we had met before…"
"Huh?" it was Chrom's turn to be surprised. "Maybe it's my mistake. I thought you… wait what am I saying? I KNOW we helped you. I'm sure of it!"
Anna giggled. "Oh, you must have met one of my older sisters then!"
"Sisters?" Chrom asked. "Naga, you look identical."
"I'd buy it, Blue." Gaius said as he walked up to the rest of the shepherds. "Look at her. We helped her two years ago, and yet she seems to look younger."
"Just where did you run off to?" Cordelia scolded him, before turning back to the situation at hand. "Although Gaius does make a point. The one we helped did look much older, even if their faces seem extremely similar."
"And you all have the same name?" Chrom pressed.
"Yes, actually," Anna admitted. "That's actually part of the secret."
Chrom shook his head. "Your family gatherings must be chaotic then."
Anna giggled again. "True, but aren't everyone's? 'Sides, it's pretty nice being the family baby. Everyone treats you well." She looked deep in thought. "I can't just walk away from you all after you've helped TWO of us. My life could very well have been forfeited if you haven't showed up after all. Let me come along and aid you all in return. Please? I can look after everyone's weapons, and be useful buying and selling things… I'm also not too shabby in a fight. I'll make sure you'll never make a loss with me in tow."
Chrom smiled. "Sure. Welcome to the shepherds."
"Yes!" Anna did a fist pump, and snuck a look at Robin, who was smiling at her. "I'll make sure it's worth your time. All of your times." she added.
As the shepherds made their way back towards the main trails, Robin approached Gaius. "Did you get it all?"
Gaius pulled the sucker out of his mouth. "Don't worry about it, Bubbles! When you give Gaius such a simple task like that, you can always count on him! I've hidden all the loot at the fork of the roads. We can retrieve it as soon as we get there."
"So THAT'S where you ran off to!" Cordelia huffed, piecing together what the two had been talking about. "I knew there was something wrong about you during that battle. Always leaving for a moment at a time. You were no doubt trying to line your own pockets with their goods!" she then turned to Robin. "And I can't believe you either! You're encouraging him to steal and plunder!"
Robin held up a hand. "Calm down, Cordelia. These are bandits, not civilians. They probably stole these things from the very people we're trying to protect. I just had Gaius retrieve them so we can return them. And the weapons that can't be returned, we can either sell them or use them in a fight in the future."
Cordelia calmed down after thinking about it for a bit. "I guess… you're right." she finally admitted. "Sorry, I kind of snapped there."
"Don't worry about it, mother!" Gaius said. "Truth be told, cracking open chests was my favorite part of my last job! I'm just glad I got another chance to do it. This time for the right reasons."
"Oh?" Robin wondered, severely intrigued. "What about it was so fun?"
Gaius sighed. "Well, the feeling of not knowing what's in a chest… that feeling is so thrilling. You know you are about to get something good, otherwise no one would lock it up in an old chest, but you don't know what it is. The feeling of seeing what's inside… it's addicting!"
At this point, they've reached the place where Gaius had hidden all the goods he'd taken from the bandits. Robin told everyone to stop, which surprised everyone, including Chrom. They were even more surprised as Gaius removed a bunch of dirt that was covering a hole in the ground with many goodies inside. As Gaius pulled everything out, Robin explained that they'd retrieved all of it from the bandits during that fight, and they were going to try and redistribute what they can back to the civilians.
Chrom nodded, and applauded Robin and Gaius's efforts. Everyone helped carry an item or two, and began to march. Eventually, they reached the place in the road where Anna had left her cart to go chasing after the bandits. She was enthusiastically able to take the extra load off everyone's hands, and continued to follow the shepherds.
It was already getting late, so instead of marching back to Ylisstol immediately, the shepherds decided to make camp just outside a nearby village for the evening.
Anna: HP: 70% Str: 40% Mag: 65% Skl: 60% Spd: 60% Lck: 75% Def: 30% Res: 45%
Age: 18
Class: Trickster