After the incident in the pub, Morgan and Inigo returned to the castle. None of them looked well, so they received a lot of questions. The two guys limited to say that they had been mugged, and that they could not identify their attackers.
The very next day, Morgan woke up early. The young tactician took all his money and went to the pub that was previously burnt by him. Also, Morgan was planning on finding Inigo's attacker to notify him where his family was taken.
Meanwhile, Inigo summoned Severa to the Shepherd's barracks. There, Inigo told Severa his plan.
"Are you insane!? You can't go to Plegia right now. There is so much tension between the nations" Severa complained with her arms crossed.
"That's why our expedition will be a secret" Inigo remarked.
"This is a bad idea, you know it" Severa objected.
"Yes, but I'm doing it anyway" Inigo said, like if he was proud of his actions.
Severa groaned at the blindness of her master, then in an angry mood, she accepted. "Fine, what do you want me to do?"
"Notify all the Shepherds. Prepare the provisions. We will depart tomorrow morning. And keep everything lowkey" Inigo ordered.
"Yeah, whatever" said Severa before leaving.
Inigo smiled while Severa exited the room. He was glad to have such loyal retainer.
Inigo proceeded to go for his second objective. He walked in the castle until he arrived to his uncle's room. He was about to knock the door, but he noticed that it was already opened. Inigo pushed a bit the door and saw two figures in the balcony of the room, it was his uncle and his cousin.
Inigo entered the room and approached the balcony without making any sound. Then, he listened what his family were doing.
"This little girl is Becky, right, father?" Owain asked.
"Yes, she is. You remembered her!" Henry answered.
"Yeah. Sheesh, she almost tears my finger!" Owain exclaimed.
"Oh, no. Your finger it's too big for her throat, she would choke if she eats it. Nya ha ha" Henry commented.
"They are feeding crows" Inigo whispered. And he was right, in the balcony with Owain and Henry, were a murder of crows standing on the fence or in tree branches that were close to them. On the floor was a can with fresh meat, that Owain and Henry were using to feed the crows.
"We should stop for a moment. I think your cousin wants to talk with you" Henry mentioned. Immediately, Owain turned at the room and saw Inigo, who was smiling with nervous.
"Inigo? You were spying us? Ha! Your surprise attack was ruined by the lord of the darkness" Owain mocked Inigo.
"It is nothing like that. I was hoping to talk to your father" Inigo said. He stepped out into the balcony.
"With me?" asked Henry while turning to face Inigo. Henry had a crow standing on his arm.
Inigo got lost in the eyes of the crow. There was something on those type of birds that made Inigo feel uneasy.
"How can I help you?" Henry asked to catch Inigo's attention.
"Oh, yes" Inigo muttered while fixing his eyes on Henry's face. "I was wondering if you could tell me something. Hypothetically speaking, if I wanted to go to Plegia to know more about that Grimleal mark, where should I go?"
"Oh, well. If it is hypothetically speaking, you should go to the capital, near the castle there is a library with all kind of books. But the books won't help you, what is going to help you is the librarian. The librarian is an old man named Sebastian. He used to be part of the elite of Plegia, he knows everything about the Grimleals" Henry explained.
"Thank you very much! That's very useful, hypothetically speaking. And if I were hypothetically going to do it. Would you hypothetically tell my parents?" Inigo said excited at first, and then asked a little worried.
"I don't know. Are you going to hypothetically take Owain with you?" Henry asked back.
"Well, yes. He is always considered for all our hypothetical adventures" Inigo answered.
"What is going on?" Owain asked really confused.
"Then, hypothetically take care of him and I won't hypothetically tell anybody about your trip" Henry answered.
"Excellent! That was a nice hypothetical talk! Thank you very much, uncle!" Inigo celebrated.
"Owain, I'll see you in the barracks when you finish" Inigo told his cousin and then left in a hurry.
"What happened here?" Owain asked again, still not knowing what the previous conversation was about.
Inigo went back to the barracks. There, he took a map of Ylisse. He extended the map in the wooden table and analyzed what would be their route.
"If we depart tomorrow morning, we should arrive to the Border Pass by the afternoon. We probably will sleep in the desert. I'm sure that the next day we will arrive to the Capital. So, we should pack provisions for two days, and then buy things in Plegia's capital. Yes, that's it. I hope everyone can come" Inigo talked to himself.
The rest of the day, Inigo spent it arranging everything for the trip. It resulted that all the Shepherds were available. They prepared a carriage with all the provisions and left it outside the castle in a hidden spot where no one could find it.
In the afternoon, all the Shepherds were in the barracks discussing tomorrow's trip, when suddenly Morgan arrived. The tactician looked exhausted and his clothes were dirty.
"There you are, buddy. Where have you been?" Inigo questioned. He was standing in front of the table, analyzing the map again.
"I was helping with the restoration of a pub. It was burnt yesterday because some idiots had a fight in there" Morgan answered while sitting in a bench with Noire.
"That's a shame" commented Inigo, pretending not to have anything with it.
"You look so tired, Morgan. Will you be okay for tomorrow's trip?" Noire asked the tactician.
"Yes, I think" Morgan answered.
"What kind of tactician spends his day doing charity instead of helping his brigade?" was Gerome's harsh comment. The guy was sitting in another bench with Cynthia.
"Oh, don't bother him. I think he is cute" Cynthia said.
"Well, then, why don't you break up with me and date him?" Gerome questioned Cynthia. The second just laugh.
"I can't believe you are jealous of Morgan" Cynthia told Gerome.
"She is right, Gerome. Morgan did a good action today and I recognized it" Inigo said.
"Yes, but It would have been better if he had been here helping us" Severa commented. She was beside Inigo.
Inigo stared at Severa. "Please, don't start you too" he asked her.
"Okay, okay" Morgan muttered while getting up. "I apologize for my absence. I just thought Inigo could have this under control" he defended himself.
"And I did! Everything is okay. All is prepared for tomorrow's trip" Inigo reassured.
"Well, if everything is already prepared. Can we go and rest?" an irritated Kjelle asked.
"Yes. But before you go, don't forget to wear discrete clothes tomorrow. We don't want to draw attention in Plegia" Inigo suggested.
After that, all the Shepherds left the barracks one by one, until Morgan and Noire were alone.
"Morgan, I'm nervous for tomorrow's trip, do you think it is going to be dangerous?" Noire expressed.
"No, I don't see why it should be dangerous. I mean, we just are going to ask some questions. I think we will be fine. Don't worry" Morgan tried to relieve his friend.
"If you say so. But everything has been difficult since I lost my talisman" Noire mentioned.
"Oh! Your talisman… You didn't lose it, I have it" Morgan said.
"Really?" Noire asked.
"Yeah, but not right here. I'll give it to you tomorrow" Morgan assured.
"Okay. But just give it to me if it is necessary" Noire asked.
"Okay, but you should go to rest now" Morgan suggested.
"Okay. Good night, Morgan" said Noire, and then she left.
Moments later, Morgan went to his room. Once there, he took a shower and prepared his belongs for tomorrow. Finally, he laid on bed, but he couldn't sleep. He was as nervous as Noire was before. He had hope for the trip, he was really expecting to find an answer in Plegia.
Morgan slept for few hours. When the sun rose, the tactician was already prepared. He was the first person to leave the castle and to arrive to the hidden spot where the carriage was.
It took one hour and a half for all the Shepherds to be there. Some of them were excited for the trip, like Morgan himself, Owain, Cynthia, and Inigo. Some of them didn't care, like Kjelle, Laurent, and Gerome. Some were still sleepy, like Severa and Brady. And then it was Noire, who just prayed for not being killed in the adventure.
All of them were in normal clothes, they actually did their best to look like simple travelers. Also, all of them were using robes, some were black, and some brown.
The teenagers finally departed. Inside the carriage, Morgan, Kjelle, Noire, and Severa were sitting between all the provisions. Brady was driving the carriage, and Laurent was his co-driver. Inigo and Owain were escorting the carriage, each one in a horse. And Cynthia and Gerome were flying near the others, Cynthia was on her pegasus, and Gerome on his wyvern.
In the first hours everything was fine. Everyone was enjoying the fresh air of the morning as they traveled. Morgan was talking with the girls of nothing in particular, until one of them asked him something relevant.
"Hey, Morgan. It is really true that you and Inigo were mugged the other day? It doesn't make sense to me" Kjelle asked.
"I though the same. How is possible that they mugged you but didn't take anything valuable from you?" Severa insisted.
Morgan thought that the worst already happened, and that wouldn't hurt anyone to say the truth now.
"Well, we weren't actually mugged" Morgan confessed. "We just happened to have an altercate with some guys in a pub. All started when I found Inigo flirting with a girl in that pub."
"Is he into that again?" Kjelle asked in surprise.
"Into what?" Morgan asked.
"Yes, what do you mean?" Severa was also curious.
"Into flirting with girls. Well, you probably don't know, Morgan. But Inigo used to chase girls all the time. That would always get him into trouble" Kjelle said.
"Really? What kinds of problems?" Morgan was intrigued by that information.
"He promised to marry many girls. They usually would come to the castle and claim that they were the new princesses. The guards had to kick them out" Kjelle told.
"I can't believe it!" Morgan gasped.
"He also used to date many girls at the same time. And when they found out, they would fight outside the castle for Inigo's love. The guards also had to stop those battles" Kjelle continued telling. Noire emitted a tiny laugh because she remembered those times.
"All of these scandals were damaging the image of the royal family. So, I think it was king Chrom who spoke to Inigo. I don't know what he did, if it was a hearth to hearth talk, or maybe he hit him. But whatever he did, it changed Inigo. Because I hadn't heard about him flirting with other girls in three years, well, until now" Kjelle finished the gossip.
"Wow, I could never have guessed that. Did he try to flirt with you?" Morgan asked the girls.
"Yes, he tried" Noire just answered that.
"Of course he tried. But I actually beat his ass, and he never tried to do it again. What did you do to avoid him, Severa?" Kjelle asked her friend.
Severa, who had been shocked since Kjelle started her story, looked at them with a confuse gaze. "He… he never tried that with me" Severa confessed.
"That's weird, he would flirt with any pretty girl that crosses paths with him. Unless… he may think that you are not pretty" Kjelle mentioned.
Severa's expression was a hurt one, and that was immediately noted by Morgan and Noire.
"But I think you are really pretty, Severa" Noire said.
"Yes, I think the same!" Morgan continued.
"Yes, you are not that bad looking" Kjelle commented, completely oblivious of the situation.
"Ah, thanks" was Severa's empty answer.
That made the trip uncomfortable. Nobody wanted to keep talking because of Severa's depressed mood. Morgan even got to take various naps during the day.
As they advanced, Morgan noticed that they were leaving behind the beautiful and green forest, and now they were entering a mountainous zone. They stopped, before they got deeper into the mountains.
"This is the Border Pass, I think we may encounter Ylisse's army in here" Inigo spoke.
"And what you gonna do?" Brady asked.
Inigo dismounted his horse. "I think Owain and I should hide in the carriage. Severa, Kjelle, do you mind changing place with us?" he asked.
"No problem" Kjelle answered while exiting the carriage, Severa did the same after her.
Owain also dismounted his horse. Kjelle took Owain's horse and Severa took Inigo's horse. Severa didn't even dare to look at Inigo, but the second didn't give it importance.
After that, they continued their path. As Inigo mentioned, they ran into a camp of Ylissean soldiers, who stopped them.
"Who are you and where are you going?" a soldier asked to Severa.
"We are a group of merchants. We will visit Plegia's capital and then we will take a ship to Valm" Severa answered.
"You all look so young for a group of merchants" the same soldier told her.
"I don't know, Josh. But they all look so familiar to me. Like if I had seen them on the castle" another soldier spoke to the first soldier.
"Okay. Everyone! Get out of the carriage. We are going to inspect you" the soldier named Josh ordered. All the Shepherd's hearts stopped in that moment.
"Wow, hey, Josh, calm down" a woman spoke.
The woman was using green and brown clothes. Her hair was red and in a ponytail. She was accompanied by a horse and had a big back with her.
"Anna, do you happen to know these kids?" Josh asked her.
"Yes, they are with me" Anna answered.
"I thought yours was a familiar business" Josh objected.
"Well, we are changing things" Anna said. "Could you please let us go? We are in a hurry" she asked.
"Of course. You can continue" Josh said, and he and all the soldiers left alone the Shepherds.
Anna started to advance, and the Shepherds did the same behind her.
"That was a close call. Thank you very much, may I call you Anna?" Severa told her.
"Of course. And you can thank me by buying me things" Anna said.
"Hey, didn't I buy you a lance the other day in Ylisstol market?" Kjelle asked Anna.
"No, I think that was my sister" Anna answered.
"Well, you can tell us what you have in store. I'm sure something can serve us" Severa said.
"Of course, you see…"
Anna started to present her products to Kjelle and Severa.
Meanwhile, in the carriage. Inigo was observing the army's camp. He noticed that there were some commoners in cages. And they weren't any commoners, they were the Plegians who had been living in Ylisse. All of them looked in a deplorable state.
"If my father could see this, he would immediately regret his decision. I wish I could get out of this carriage and stop them" Inigo told Morgan.
"I don't think that would really help. What is going to help them is what we are doing, finding a cure" Morgan said.
"I know you are right, but I can help but feel anger and impotence for this situation. I'm suppose to be the prince of Ylisse, I should have more authority, but look at me, I'm hiding myself" Inigo complained.
"Well, I think this is pretty brave. Not all princes do this sort of things. I imagine them just posing for a portrait and eating cake" Morgan commented.
"Then again, how many princes do you know?" Inigo asked him.
"Just you… But my point is that you are doing something extraordinary, don't rest value to your good actions. You are an awesome prince" Morgan told him.
"Okay… I'll try to believe that" Inigo said while he drew off his gaze from the commoners.
Morgan looked at the path in front of him. He got amazed by the view… it was the desert.
Thanks for reading!
Special thanks:
Thanks to Ken Wise and Arcana Devil for subscribing.
YellowHello1: Thanks for your comment! In this case Morgan is the younger, but there is not much age difference between he and Inigo.
Mysterious guest #1: I love your comments! Of course I'll add a sand joke, but It will be in the next chapter, because in this they are not still in the desert.
Vic: The only one who knows that Morgan is also Chrom's son is Lucina. Inigo still doesn't know the secret. Thanks for commenting!