Sumia and Robin reached the castle before nightfall, although to them it seemed to pass in no time at all. Looking back, they would tell their children that they had been distracted by each other, spellbound by the love between them.

Technically, they weren't lying. At least, with the first half. There was hardly any love between them, given how much time they'd spent on the way back bickering with each other.

Robin might have gotten tired of it, but it wasn't his fault Sumia refused to let go of their conversation.

"You're just not ready for the front lines," Robin said,

"And you're not my father," Sumia replied. "I want to see some action too!"

"You just want to see Chrom."

Sumia's face lit up in a deep red hue, just like she did whenever the Exalt was mentioned. Still, she tried to feign ignorance. "I–What? No I don't."

"Come on," Robin said, jabbing her stomach with his elbow. "If you're going to deny it, the least you can do is keep the blood out of your face every time you hear the word, 'Chrom'."

They turned another corner, and who else would they come across other than Chrom himself.

"What was that about my blood?"

"Oh, it's not your blood we were talking about," Robin said.

"That's a relief. I wouldn't want to find out that my trusted tactician and... Sumia were planning to have me killed."

"That's ridiculous. Imagine all the paperwork I'd have to do if you died."

"Don't worry, I'm not planning on dying anytime soon," Chrom said with a chuckle. Then his tone became serious. "How has the investigation gone, by the way? Have you found anything yet?"

"We're making a bit of progress. Nothing concrete, though," Robin said, and he turned to Sumia. "Isn't that right?"

But Sumia had gone completely still. Her eyes were glued to her feet, and, when Robin looked really close, it looked like she was shaking just a tiny bit.

Chrom frowned. "Sumia? Are you alright?"

Sumia nodded, but otherwise, she remained silent. Chrom stared at her for a little longer, before he shrugged. There was probably something he could have caught on to there, but, as usual, it flew miles over his head.

"Well," he said, turning back to Robin, "I'd best be going. Maribelle won't be happy if I'm late for tea again."

As he walked past them and down the hall, Robin glanced at Sumia.

"What was that?" he asked.

She mumbled something he didn't quite catch, aside from "Chrom" and "pies".

"I didn't quite catch that."

"I had another pie I was going to give to Chrom, and I forgot to give it to him!" The words burst out of Sumia so suddenly, Robin took a step back.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

"I can't talk to Chrom if I don't have a pie with me! I clam up when he's around, so the pies help me distract myself!" Sumia growled in frustration. "How do you do that?"

"Do what?"

"How did you get so close to Chrom?"

"Ah." Robin tugged the edges of his lips up in a smirk. "Well, you see, I actually talk to him. No Grimleal mind-magic involved. If you tried it, you could get results."

"What do you mean?"

Robin's grin grew wider. Before she could realize what he was doing, he turned to Chrom's shrinking form.

"Hey Chrom!" he yelled. "Sumia has something she wants to tell you!"

In the distance, Chrom stopped and spun back around to face them. "What is it?"

Robin glanced back at Sumia just to see her face morph into a horrified expression. She shot him a betrayed look, before she looked back at Chrom. He could see a few beads of sweat on her forehead.

"I-It's nothing!" she said back, hissing through her teeth.

"What?"

"I said it's nothing!"

Chrom stood still for a few more minutes, deciding how to respond. "Alright," was all he said after some time before he continued to walk down the hall, disappearing behind a corner.

The moment Chrom was out of sight, Sumia turned to Robin and shoved him back. It wasn't very hard, considering how slippery her palms had become.

"Why did you need to do that?" she said.

"Well, why not?" he replied. "Come on, if you were me, you would have done it too."

Sumia threw her hands into the air. "Can't we just go?"

"Alright, alright," Robin said with a laugh. "Let's get this over with."

"What's up with her?"

"Her? We had a run-in with Chrom, and she panicked."

"Makes sense."

It irritated her to no end, how they talked about her like she wasn't even in the room. Her scowl just went deeper, and she shoveled another handful of chocolates into her mouth. It wasn't like she could hit either of them since even she knew she was about as strong as a kitten.

"Hey, where are you getting those? And could you hand me some?" Gaius asked. Of course, he'd notice the chocolate.

Sumia handed him a fistful of chocolates, but she didn't respond, too busy stewing in her own embarrassment. Gaius took them without question, and they crunched loudly as he popped them into his mouth. Robin watched with a raised eyebrow. He didn't comment, though, and he waited for Gaius to finish chewing before he spoke.

"So, Gaius, Vaike says that you know the Red Herrings, right?"

"Yep," Gaius said, his attention focused fiddling with the coin in his hand.

"Is there anything you can tell us about them?"

"Not really. I was never the seafood kind of guy. The taste just didn't ring with me, you know?"

"What? No, not the fish. The criminal gang."

"Oh. Those Red Herrings. Nah, I got nothing."

"Are you sure?"

"Yep."

Well, wasn't that suspicious? Sumia swallowed, and she leaned forward.

"Gaius, these people are your friends, right?"

Robin gave her a confused look. Gaius, though, gave her a sideways look. "Something like that, yeah."

"Well, these people kidnapped three women, and we just want to get them back. Can't you just help us out here?"

Gauis's lips pulled down. "Three kidnappings? That's a lot even for..." He shook his head, and his face shifted back into an indifferent expression. "Yeah, I'm not selling them out."

Sumia opened her mouth to speak again, but Robin pushed her back to her irritation. "That's not going to work," he said, looking at her from the corner of his eye. His gaze went to Gaius. "Gaius, if you tell us what they're up to, I'll talk to the castle's baker about baking you a batch of cookies."

"Sold."

Robin gave Sumia a smug look, and Sumia scowled harder. She fell back against her chair, and another fistful of chocolates went into her mouth. Her mouth might have been smeared with chocolate, for all she cared. Gauis's fault for leaving them within her reach. It wasn't like Robin was giving her anything else to do.

"If it's kidnappings you want to talk about, I can tell you about one," Gaius said. "I don't know much about the other two women, but I know that they kidnapped some noble-brat named Elsbeth Desmondelle."

"Do you know where she's being held?"

"Nope. I didn't hear a lick about it from them. Haven't seen them for a while, in fact."

"Did anything happen to them?" Sumia said.

"Probably. Maybe they pissed off a bigger gang, I don't know."

"That's not important," Robin said, silencing Sumia with an irritated look. Sumia slumped back, but she returned his gaze with a glare of her own.

It's not my fault I can't think of the right questions to ask, she thought as another couple of chocolates disappeared into her mouth.

"Well, that means that they couldn't have kidnapped Anna's cousin. Do you know anyone else we can talk to about this?"

"Nope."

"Then I'll have to see who else I can talk to in the area."

"The guards? Uh... I'd avoid talking to them if I were you."

As they talked, something came to Sumia, a distant memory from three years back. Turning to Robin, she said, "Hey, I remember meeting someone named Elsbeth in the castle years ago. She said she was friends with Lissa. Do you think she's the same person?"

Robin regarded her with a weird look, something akin to surprise. Was it that strange that she could remember something like that?

"Well, it's something, at least," he said finally. He rose to his feet, but before he moved to the door, he looked at Gaius. "Thank you for your time, Gaius."

"Yeah, thanks," Sumia cut in.

"Hey, I did my end of the bargain. You do yours."

Sumia followed Robin as he slipped out the door. The moment the door clicked shut, Robin turned to her. His eyes fell on her lips, and for a second, she was confused as to why. Her hands touched the corner of her mouth, and when she felt something wet beneath her fingers, she realized that she still had chocolate smeared around her lips.

"Where did you get all that chocolate?" he said.

"There was a jar of it hidden in a drawer behind me." She paused, then she said, "How long do you think it's going to take for him to find out?"

"Hopefully long enough for us to get to Lissa's room. Come on."

"Were you close?"

Lissa sniffed. "Kind of. I hadn't seen her in a while, so I invited her over. I didn't know she was going to be kidnapped!"

"It's okay," Sumia said, patting her on the back. "We'll find her."

Robin watched Sumia comfort Lissa, feeling a little useless. As much as it pained him to admit, Robin had never lost anyone, or, at the very least, remembered having to deal with it, so he let Sumia take care of it instead. All he could do was watch. That frustrated him to no end.

"Her father, he already tried to find her. They searched the gang's hideout, but they couldn't find her anywhere."

"They found the gang's hideout?"

Lissa nodded. She took a moment to dry her tears with her handkerchief. "It was empty when they got there, so the Red Herrings must have caught wind of the search and moved out."

Robin stepped in, which earned him a glare from Sumia. He ignored it, and he asked, "Don't they usually ask for a ransom, though? Couldn't they have tried to catch the Red Herrings there?"

"There was a ransom, but they didn't even show up to collect it."

"I see." Robin put a hand to his chin. Very strange indeed.

What kind of criminals set up a ransom with no intention of collecting it? To waste our time?

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Sumia said. "What do you think happened?"

"Nevermind that," Robin said before she could continue, getting another glare from Sumia. "What sort of connection did she have with these two?" He pulled out the journal, and he pointed to the sketches of Luna and Jane.

Lissa's face betrayed no reaction. Sumia, on the other hand, widened her eyes the moment she realized that he had stolen the journal out from under her nose.

"Hey!"

"You were never going to get to it, so someone had to bring it up."

"I-I was going to!"

She reached over him to grab, but Robin lifted it higher. Sumia tried jumping. Robin kept it out of reach, though, even as her fingers scrabbled over him.

"Wait. Can I see them again?" Lissa said.

Robin froze. Sumia was quick to take advantage, snatching the journal out of his fingers before he had a chance to react. Then she brought the journal to Lissa, and Lissa peered closely at the two sketches at the top of the pages.

"Have you seen either of these women?" Sumia said. "It would be a great help if you could tell us anything at all."

"I have no idea who Luna is," Lissa said, "but Jane looks a lot like someone Gaius was talking about just three weeks ago."

"Three weeks ago? That's when Jane went missing," Robin said. Suddenly this talk seemed a lot more promising. "Do you think he might have witnessed the crime?"

"You'll have to ask him yourself. I just heard him mumble something about a skinny girl with short hair, which is what Jane looks like."

"I guess we'd better get going, then." Robin turned to the door, but a tug on his sleeve stopped him.

"Let's do it tomorrow," Sumia said, her fingers grasping the edge of his coat. "I don't want to bother him again."

"Sumia, we can't afford to wait. We need to go see Gaius now."

Just then, the thief in mention burst through the door, nearly smacking Robin in the cheek, looking absolutely livid.

"Where is that chocolate-stealing son of a–"

"Gaius, just the man we were looking for," Robin said with a smile. "We've got a few more questions we need to ask you."

"Huh?" Gaius looked confused. Robin didn't let him dwell on it, lunging in while he was trying to figure out what to say.

"Have you seen this woman?" he said, pointing to the picture of Jane on the journal still in Sumia's hands.

"That girl? Oh yeah, I saw her get taken off the streets a while back somewhere near Guillotine Gutter."

"And you didn't think about mentioning it?"

"You didn't ask. Besides, you said you were after the Red Herrings."

"Why does that matter?"

"I think it's because people like the Red Herrings only kidnap rich people," Sumia said. "You know, for ransom money."

"Yeah. Not much point in pulling someone off the streets when all they've got to steal are scraps. Besides, whoever dragged her off the streets used dark magic to do it, and the Red Herrings are about as good with magic as they are as good with money."

"Which spell did they use?" Robin said.

"How should I know? I'm no Sunshine. All I can say is that he chucked a sphere of dark energy around her and dragged her off."

"Like Nosferatu?"

"Yeah, that. Now, if you could just take a step to the side, there's a certain chocolate-stealing thief I need to deal with."

"Why didn't you report this?"

Gaius clammed up. "Well, that's a really funny story, you see I–"

"Gaius goes out to rob people whenever he gets bored of hanging around the castle," Lissa chirped.

"I see."

Robin looked at Gaius, who shrank under his gaze. Robin then looked over his shoulder to Sumia, blinking up at him with innocent eyes, somehow managing to make herself appear as innocent as a puppy. Must've been all the time she spent around animals.

"I think your chocolates are a good enough reparation for your crimes," he said.

Gaius opened his mouth to protest. Robin pushed through him before he could say a word, and he motioned Sumia to follow him.

"We'll continue our investigation in my room, see if we can't make sense of everything we've learned."

As he stepped back into the hall, he heard Sumia's soft footsteps take off behind him, and he smiled. It was nice to know she could be counted on to follow him around.

I was going to name this chapter the Princess and the Fiend, which would have made more sense, but Fraud made for a better pun. You don't have to follow such silly things as "rules" if it's for the sake of comedy!

That piece of advice only applies to writing, by the way. It's not going to hold up in court, so don't try to use that as an excuse if you end up in jail because you didn't understand that heavy rocks always followed the laws of physics.