[19th of Great Tree Mooon]

Clear

"Bandits?" That is the first thing I heard Robin say today.

"Yes, bandits. Scouts say they're heading towards Remire from the roads in the west; one of our forward scouts met some of theirs. That must've been an awkward staring contest,"

Robin chuckled slightly at this then frowned. I also frown. I do not understand why our scouts intercepting theirs would be considered funny.

"Hold on Jeralt, why wasn't I made aware of this?"

"Because the riders came back six minutes ago? I'm here with their reports," Jeralt raised an eyebrow at Robin's question. He placed a massive stack of papers, around one and a half Imperial feet in height, onto the table.

This caused Robin to shut up. Jeralt then shoved the mass of papers over to him.

I cannot understand why Robin suddenly has his excited face. Isn't paperwork boring?


No, it is not, By.

This is why I'm the one who does it and not you. The last time you did paperwork you wasted sixteen sheets of perfectly usable paper

-Robin

[7th of Verdant Moon, 1080]


Robin then proceeded to devour the reports. Figuratively, of course. Then again, I wouldn't be surprised if he did start to eat the reports we hand him. - ლ(_ლ)

Amazingly, Robin managed to read through the reports within ten minutes. He finished just as lunch was starting to be delivered. That gave us time to go through the reports over a mean. I say we, but I just mean Robin and Jeralt. I can only understand the parts where I get to stab people.

"Then we get van Luiberek's platoon to cover Gergam's flank. That should give us enough wiggle room in case the bandits bring out more men than we predicted," Robin marked out a line and labelled it with a quick '6th', the number of van Luiberek's platoon.

"What about the woods? This plan of yours fails to take into account the woods," Jeralt frowned. I did as well. It isn't like Robin to forget something in his plans.

"Tell me, how many men can they reasonably get through that forest? I'd say a squad or two at most, maybe a platoon if they know the land well enough," Jeralt nodded in response. He then frowns.

"Hmmm… I'd reckon slightly less. What are you getting at?" Robin brushed back his white hair and smiled as Jeralt responded to his question. I've always wondered why his hair is white. Robin isn't old and crinkly, like Jeralt's. So why is his hair white?

"Exactly. There isn't any point in worrying about a platoon or two, not when we have Lt. Voneral's Battalion in the town, as well as you two,"

"Wait, we're the reserve force?" Jeralt's eyes suddenly went wide.

"Yeah? What about it?" Robin raised an eyebrow. I watched this conversation with renewed interest. It is funny to see Father and Robin arguing.

"Why in the goddess's name would you put your best soldiers in the back line?"

"Because I don't know what to expect? I don't know why these bandits are here. I don't anything about the bandits either. What if they have Wyvern Knights?"

Jeralt actually laughed at this.

"Wyvern Knights? Bandits? What are you talking about? This is some rag-tag group of thieves, not the Almyran Army,"

Robin then raised an eyebrow.

"You would be surprised. I've fought bandits who fielded Pegasus Knights before,"

"Then those aren't just bandits,"

"That's what I told Chrom! But no, apparently they were just bandits. Well, some of them were ex-military, but that's about it,"

"I'm- Just how much did you use to fight? I thought you fought in a war! Not cleaning up bandits!"

"I fought in three wars, actually. Plegia twice and Valm the other time. We were fighting bandits and other wrongdoers in our free time," Robin shrugged.

"Do I want to know?"

"Probably not?"

"Yeah, I'd say so too…" Jeralt sighed. Turning his attention back to the map, he pointed at the northern side of the map.

"Then By and I will be near the northern watchtowers?"

"Yes. Bring along Johan and Peter, too. I doubt you'll the reckless enough to need the healing, but By's always a wild card," This got a chuckle out of both Jeralt and Robin. I do not understand.

"Why would I need healing?" I asked Robin. I take good care of myself. Usually.

"Because you always come back with at least sixteen different wounds that you're hiding or didn't notice," Robin's eyes narrowed. I stared at him back. A silent argument commenced, and after nearly a minute, I gave up.

Looking back on this, it was probably a good idea.

"Fine then. But only Johan. Peter's too weird,"

"That's coming from you, By," Robin raised an eyebrow.

"Do I need to tell Jeralt about the incident with Mikal's horse?" This caused Robin to slam his jaw shut, creating a snapping sound that echoed through the room. Jeralt simply stared at the two of us with a confused face.

"Uh- Should I know?"

"Nope! Nope! Nothing happened! Nothing at all!" Robin raised his head and yelled at nearly the top of his lungs. This only caused Jeralt to be more confused.

"I mean- if you say so?"

"Let's get back on topic. I can't predict everything, so I'm going to give you this," Robin takes out a bottle of a white liquid from inside his coat. After reading the label, Jeralt gave him a weird look.

"A bottle of milk?"

"What? No, a flare- Why did I pull out a bottle of milk? Why do I have a bottle of milk in my coat? Oh right! Johnson put it with the non-perishables again. I was going to put it back where it belongs. I'll go do that later," Robin set the bottle on the table and started going through his stuff again. He realizes that he won't be able to find anything without taking some stuff out first, so he started to place items on the table.

A small pile of daggers, bags of candies, books, vials, and papers (both crumpled and not crumpled) started to grow in size as Robin took more and more things out of his coat. It was funny seeing Jeralt's eyes slowly growing wider and wider as the pile grew larger and larger. Finally, after around five minutes of searching, Robin managed to find the small red tube that hummed with magical energy.

"Here it is! Miriel's patented magical flare. Visible for up to a dozen hundred feet in all directions! Guaranteed!" A large smile erupted on Robin's face. "If you ever need to signal me from where you are, just point the black end toward the sky and pull the string. It'll send out a fire spell that's optimized for light and distance. I'll be looking skyward the entire day tomorrow, don't you worry,"

"I see… And how many of these do you have?" Jeralt raised an eyebrow as he took the flare and gingerly placed it in a pouch on his belt.

"Not enough to do any kind of mass signalling, unfortunately. Believe me, if I could, I would have started using these flares for communication long ago. It would have saved so many lives on the throat," Robin sighed, the large smile on his face quickly turning into a frown.

Robin then stopped talking and sat down. He started to get all of the stuff that was currently on the table back into his coat. Jeralt also stopped talking, for whatever reason. I got bored after watching Robin sort his stuff for ten minutes, and went outside to train.

I still don't understand why Robin stops talking whenever he says 'It would have saved so many lives.


AN: Wow... I was not expecting so many people to read it in 24 hours... I am humbled by your support. So, how do you like the first taste of Robin's, well, for a lack of a better word, Robiness.

I've always thought that Robin would be an unadulterated goofball. Morgan has to get it from someone, after all. But unlike Morgan, Robin has seen things that could completely break a lesser man. He isn't weak, and it hasn't changed him too much, but it definitely has hurt him. This is a Robin that has won the battle against Grima but at too high of a cost. I won't say any more because of spoilers, but this Robin is from after the events of Fire Emblem: Awakening. He has gone through all the trauma that the story threw at him. What exactly happened? Well, you'll have to wait and see. Also, there is a reason I didn't tag Robin together with Byleth in the story's tags. I must remind everyone that Edelgard and the rest of the Black Eagles are unreliable narrators, and that misunderstanding will and have occurred! That's all I'm going to say for now... Nyehehehehehe...

As for updates, this is the only one that I have ready at the moment. I don't have a schedule for this Fic, and I am a very busy person, so I'd rather not make promises that I can't keep. Just know that the next chapter is already in the works at around 3 thousand words. 20th of Great Tree Moon is when the story really started, so I have to write a lot more. Expect an update in a week or so.

Also, I got two reviews! Thank you two so very much for taking time out of your day to review my Fic! It means the world to me! it's the least I can do to respond to you!

charleslecrash: Thank you so much! It really means a lot to me! I actually wrote in first person when I started to write fiction, but I was influenced by the writing style of Overlord by Kugane Maruyama and his 3rd person-limited style of writing. In all the original works that I've written (and an Overlord fic that I cringe at every time I try and work on it. I'm never publishing that pile of garbage) I've used that style. I'm trying my best to write in this style. Please tell me if it's unnatural; I'll switch to the style I'm more comfortable with if that's the case.

Anonymous: I don't have any plans on making a "Fire Emblem: What If?" series, not just because I've only ever played Awakening, Fates Conquest, and Three Houses to completion. I want to play the older titles like Shadows of Valentia or Binding Blade, but I've just not got the time. Trying to get through Verdant Wind is already taking a massive chunk of my time. I simply don't have the time or energy. Again, who said Robin was paired with F!Byleth? Morgan's still around, after all. Oops, I probably said too much. Shutting up about spoilers now. Byleth is skilled in nearly all forms of combat. She can handle a tome with some skill, and Robin's taught her enough tactics to match Morgan when she first showed up in the past. In a similar vein, the plot has been derailed so thoroughly by Robin's introduction that any plot point beyond the Goddess's Rite of Rebirth will not be anywhere similar to the Three Houses story. There is a reason that it's called "White Cloud, Lavender Storms". As for inter-character relationships, I don't have any ideas on pairings other than the Awakening characters (ChromxSumia for the win! It's funnier for Olivia to be paired up with Lon'qu, Devs be damned!), as the romantic subplot there is important to characters you actually meet. I don't know how to explore that facet of the story, and I'm not sure if I want to. Also, (I've probably said that word so much in this response that the word doesn't mean anything anymore) I don't really care how the author of Crimson Pages acts. I read their work because I like it, and I find the style interesting. I don't care that they don't respond to criticism well; I'm not giving them any. I am the student here, and this website is my teacher.