The way that Nyx responded to the revelation, hesitant and occasionally flushing when she stopped to think about it, was terribly amusing. For Astolfo, at least. And the hint at how Shin's powers were built on a foundation of slavery hadn't sent her running for the hills just yet. That was convenient.
Ideally, she would be open to further discussion of the matter later on. But for now... there were more immediate concerns.
The border defenses of Hoshido were poor, Shin discovered easily. They did not have to be good, however. Setting aside the geography... a range of tall mountains and the Bottomless Chasm itself sitting squarely at the borders of the kingdoms and representing a difficult passage indeed... there were more arcane defenses at play.
Queen Mikoto had erected a barrier over all of Hoshido, one that sapped away at the violent intentions of invaders. It was honestly quite impressive, and was most likely the reason that the two kingdoms had upheld an uneasy peace for so long. Nohr, the usual aggressor, could not easily send attacking parties into Hoshido while the barrier was functional. While possible, it wasn't for no reason that the pre-decision stages of combat would only feature the Faceless, tormented creatures that could only obey their commands, rather than actual Nohrian soldiers acting within Hoshido.
It was good enough at its job that even bandit groups couldn't easily jump over the border, to the best of Shin's knowledge. And if Shin's in-name-at-least mercenary company had intended to attack anyone after passing beyond the border, it would most likely have detected that and begun sapping at them as well. But...
... Setting that aside, while it was somewhat difficult to track down a village on the basis of a specific person living in it, there were only so many places that Mozu's doomed home town could possibly be. It was in the southwestern stretch of Hoshido. It had to be near to the border... close enough that Faceless could quickly move in and kill almost everyone, shortly after the barrier came down. Fast enough that the hero party wouldn't be able to arrive in time to save anyone except that last survivor.
Not many places that could be. And Nyx's side hustle as a fortune teller proved useful in narrowing it down further: there was only one village where, without realizing it and probably without understanding why, she immediately grimaced at the sight of the place.
Mozu didn't show up right away to make it clear. That would have been too coincidentally convenient. All the same, there were a number of villagers about. Lots of people that were set up to die soon, as bystanders and collateral damage.
Shin didn't like it. And, while it wasn't certain that doing so would change anything... that the response to the village being saved would not be a cosmic shrug and another group of Faceless sent to take a second swing? He was in the position to do something about it.
If he was willing to sacrifice alternative options in order to do so.
... The villagers were uneasy about their presence at first, but that settled fairly quickly with Shin's open willingness to pay in gold for wyvern feed as they inquired as to where would be best to make a temporary camp as they passed through the area. The Hoshidan diet found its proteins more often in beans than in meats, which the palate of wyverns disagreed with, but that didn't mean that they didn't raise livestock or hunt at all.
An agreement was made for a wild boar carcass, at which point Shin directed the group to withdraw outside of the village walls. The locals could breathe a little easier, that way, and it would make it easier for them to speak privately.
"So... Did you notice it?" Shin asked.
"The village?" Nyx responded, with her grimace returning.
"No. With luck, that can be changed. The barrier over Hoshido is what I was referring to." Shin corrected.
"It's an impressive working." Nyx acknowledged easily. "I certainly wouldn't want to try to cast a spell over an entire kingdom all at once, to be sure."
"Yes... Queen Mikoto is quite the lover of peace, befitting a ruler of Hoshido. And enough magical power to make a spell like that stick. Though, did it seem to you as though..?" Shin led in, hesitating to put it into words.
"As though the barrier were failing, you mean?" Nyx asked in turn. "Yes. I don't know how long it will last, but it is clearly straining to continue its work."
Shin heaved a sigh at the confirmation. The barrier had seemed as though it would struggle to do its job, even with their small numbers. Weakened, itself, by something else pulling and pressing at it, setting invisible hooks and claws into place and waiting for just the right moment to tear it all apart.
Why wait? ... Why else. The dramatic moment, where it would have the most impact. And, of course, it was always possible that the same effect could be had for less effort.
Just like how this village fell in every route, Queen Mikoto's death triggered the immediate collapse of the barrier. Once that happened, the war could begin in earnest, with the Nohrian armies marching in at the command of their corpse-puppeted king and the Hoshidan royal family leading forces to meet them, fueled by outrage at the loss of their beloved mother... well, in-law technically, though the kingdoms didn't seem to have that distinction for the Queens.
And neither side of things aware that a dragon was pulling the strings from the heart of an invisible third kingdom in its own secret realm, pushing towards the goal of seeing them both exterminated.
"Well, that's not surprising. It'll fail soon regardless, huh?" Shin said.
"Do you know something?" Nyx asked, glancing in his direction.
"Of course I do. Didn't I say before? I've born witness to three different ways the future could play out." Shin pointed out. "But up to a certain point, before they branch apart, every route is more or less the same. Setting aside minor details... who strikes who in combat might differ, who precisely lands the hardest blows or strikes down the most foes... but the battles and the events themselves remain the same."
Nyx seemed as dubious at the statement as ever. Not quite disbelieving, but at the same time not taking Shin's words on faith.
"The plot is to deliver the dragon's son to Hoshido, bearing Ganglari, a sword bearing the power of a different world. Bait that his mother, Queen Mikoto, cannot help but snap up, paired with a trap." Shin outlined succinctly. "Ganglari does not truly belong to the prince, and it will not remain in his hands when the time comes. During a parade in his honor, celebrating his safe return to Hoshido... It won't be very long, now."
"Boom." Astolfo cut in cheerfully, flicking a little oil off his fingers and into the campfire for emphasis, sending it crackling further upward for just a moment. "And there goes the barrier."
"It will go down regardless. He's spent too much time and energy preparing for this war to just shrug and await the next opportunity." Shin pointed out. "Mikoto dies and the barrier falls immediately, though, and that means that he doesn't have to put in the effort to tear it down himself."
"... I see. So what next, then?" Nyx asked.
That... That was the question, wasn't it.
In far too many fanfiction novels that Shin had read, an inserted character would keep to the plot as much as possible, preserving the stations of canon for many reasons. In context, because the ability to predict exactly what the enemy was going to do, as though you had read it all in a book or watched it in a film, was often too tempting to easily resist. Even if it meant people died in the process, well, that was justifiable. It was for the greater good, when such a person could be sure that everything would eventually turn out well as long as they kept to the boundaries of a single predetermined path to the Good Ending.
Out of context, of course, it was just much easier for amateur authors testing out what they could do to stick with a plot that someone else had already written for them. And there wasn't really anything wrong with that, either.
Here and now, though? There were real peoples' lives at stake.
Mikoto's death was a critical plot element. The village before them was set to die, a tragedy that could result in one survivor to be recruited by Corrin's intrepid band. Having spoken with these people, traded for food with them, conversed and cracked jokes... Could Shin just sit back and allow them to die, because that was what the plot had dictated?
"Why am I here, with the knowledge that I have, if I only amount to an observer as events come to pass? No. He should have to work at his invasion." Shin concluded, before raising a hand to his chest.
That was where the marks rested, seemingly tattooed or branded just off to one side of the sternum, directly over the heart. A position where nobody would be able to strip them away from him by dismemberment.
"Astolfo. Be sure to keep an avenue to disengage and escape, and find your way back to me once the job is done. Return as fast as you feasibly can. But... By all three of my Command Seals..." Shin said, solemnly. "Arrive in time to save the Queen."
Astolfo laughed merrily, springing to his feet.
"Oho... I'm filled with energy and purpose, my Master!" he said, a little magic seeming to ripple off of his skin. "Holding tight and awaiting for fate to run its course never did sit well with me. Zaffiro! Come, my noble steed, we must away!"
Shin smiled faintly as Astolfo took to the skies, trying not to dwell too much on the possibilities to come.
One step and one day at a time. That was how wars were won.