Old Friends

Raigh... was not in good mood...

Although acknowledging the detail he habitually was either stressed or tired, this was not something to be surprised about.

"Certainly, sending her back does not sound like a good idea..."

Alfonse had his arms folded as he clenched his teeth. The prince could only wonder what kind of luck the order had that summoning battered girls seemed to be their usual luck when the summoned people were civilians.

Although seeing the situation from another perspective, it was better this way rather than summoning a civilian who would not prefer to stay in Askr.

Bernadetta, by the way, was hiding behind Raigh while the dark mage and the prince talked.

Raigh rubbed his eyes as he tilted his head slightly. "So what do we do with her?"

"She is partly our responsibility for invoking her." Alfonse sighed. "Get her a room in the section of the order, we'll decide what to do later." the prince nodded slightly.

Raigh, however, was more concerned regarding the fact that the anxiety levels of this girl didn't make her seem capable of surviving by her own in the outside world.

Bernadetta, although feeling still quite anxious, was at least partially happy to know that she would have a place to lock herself inside.

"I understand." He then took a look at the Breidablik. "The truth is I don't want to continue summoning for the rest of the day."

Alfonse nodded, agreeing. "It's fine. I was going to visit the library anyway. I need to investigate if we have even a small document with information about this continent called Fodlan."

That was one of the most curious details about the girl. Apparently, she came from a continent entirely unknown to the royal family of Askr despite they were able to explore different continents with their gates.

It seemed the planet was still incredibly big. Even if, according to what they had learned, outside of Earth the universe was colossal.

"That is an excellent idea. Anyway, see you later then. " Raigh turned to see Bernadetta and placed his hands on her shoulders. "Now, follow me and stay close. Do you understand?" If she started screaming and running again because of the presence of another person, his head would definitely explode.

Bernadetta agreed, even though she didn't look at him directly. Instead, her eyes were lightly moved to the left.

Raigh waved the prince a goodbye as Alfonse proceeded to leave in the direction of the library.

What the prince did not know was that he would find a guard that would make him decide to leave that investigation for later.

Raigh at least had to admit that Bernadetta was keeping quiet during the walking. That allowed him to gain some mental peace.

Of course, the reality was a bastard and it could not let him be happy.

The moment they passed a guard she clung tightly to him.

"Bernadeta... do me a favor... please... let go and keep walking... okay?!" Raigh had to contain the urge he was feeling to grunt and facepalm.

"I... I'm sorry!" and she then knelt before him. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"

Raigh's hands tensed as his hands transformed into fists... and he tilted his head up.

"(Gods give me patience because if you give me strength I swear that I'm going to be...)" He stopped the thought before completing it .. and reflected on it.

He was a black magician, that was true, but that never meant that his heart was as dark as the magic he practiced... "(no...)" He really couldn't.

He forced a smile after he sighed and looked at the guard.

"Could you go guard another hallway for a moment? She is not exactly the bravest person at seeing new people."

The guard needed a couple of seconds before understanding what Raigh meant, he simply nodded, followed the order, and walked away.

Raigh turned to see the girl. "Now, could you calm down?"

Bernadetta started looking to left, then to right, then to left again… and then to right again… and so on at the same time as she said. "Eh… I… I… I'm sorry!"

Raigh forced himself to do not to growl in stress.

How bad had she had it?... this was worse than Azurita's case... at least regarding the aspect of how the victim reacted after the constant abuse on her.

Raigh tried to think.

What should he do in this situation?

Then... some words and a certain voice resonated as a memory got processed in his mind.

"(¡Aprovecha el bug! (Take advantage of the unusual situation!)"

Raigh closed his eyes and shook his head with a bastard smile.

So he did the most logical thing to do in order to follow that advice... he hugged her.

"Eh?!"

Raigh proceeded to gently stroke her hair. "Easy... I'm going to take you to your room... and then you can relax all you want... I'll even bring you all the food you want and need... just... stop apologizing every two seconds for things that are not your fault... do you understand?"

Bernadetta gulped before simply nodding... and get surprised when she felt she was being elevated...

Raigh was carrying her... and he continued caressing her hair...

"Eh... eh..." she then remembered something.

As he had said before, had he wanted to hurt her... he would have already done it...

Bernadetta, blushing and looking away, placed her arms around Raigh's neck so she wouldn't fall.

Normally she would go crazy at this type of physical contact.

But he was the only person she could... had to trust if she didn't want to end up wandering the streets of this unknown nation alone.

She had no choice but to cooperate.


Seliph was certainly not surprised to see his cousin sitting on the grass, with his hands wrapped around his head, and his eyes still wide open.

It was quite an expected reaction to having received such disturbing news.

"My sister is alive..."

Seliph knelt down, placing his left hand on Leif's shoulder. "I guess I can say that I understand a bit what you feel... I also just discovered that I have a half-sister who, in theory, I must save."

It took Leif a few seconds to speak. "How?"

Seliph raised his left eyebrow. "how what?"

"How did I manage to rescue my sister?" Leif's face denoted a feeling of urgency at getting the information.

"Apparently, when we try to continue our advancing through Thracia, the armies of Travant attack us. In the middle of the combat, you meet your sister and, as I was told, you were already aware of who she was. You try to explain to her the situation and her true origins… and this is the weird part because she decides to believe you. " Seliph had a little trouble believing that part of the story.

Obviously, Leif didn't find it coherent either. "That easy?... eh, are you telling me that seriously?"

Seliph shrugged. "Honestly, I don't understand how that works either, but I imagine historians aren't sure either. I only received the version explained by Prince Alfonse which is recorded history… and surely, the books do not have all the details."

"So you also have no idea how I found out that she is my sister?" Leif supposed that, reasonably, that would be another detail that would have been lost in time.

"Yeah, I'm really not sure how that happened... if it weren't for the existence of infinite timelines I would think you knew because... well, I just told you." Seliph closed his eyes and smiled slightly.

"That... sounds very confusing." Leif giggled. At least, he also smiled slightly at the same time that he started to get up. After having had that face of extreme concern, it was nice seeing his cousin a little more relaxed.

"Anyway." Seliph crossed his arms. "Do you want me to tell you everything I know so far?"

Leif considered the option… before shaking his head. "I think after a revelation like that... I-I prefer to train my muscles before discovering more... I need time to process this..." Leif sighed.

Seliph smiled sympathetically. "I guess it makes sense."

Leif transformed his left hand into a fist as his teeth clenched. "The only certain thing now... is that I have a new reason for wanting to smash Travant's face... until the bastard can breathe again!."

Understanding his desire for justice, Seliph made a confirmation noise. "You will need a lot of training to be able to do it though." Seliph then began searching for a training weapon. "What kind of weapon is the one which you have trained with before?"

"A sword." Leif commented.

"It shouldn't surprise me." Seliph shrugged. Once they both had training weapons in their hands, they both prepared their stances for combat.

The future of their worlds depended on them… they couldn't waste time.


Clara held up a teacup which she carefully brought near to the mouth of her most recent patient.

Unfortunately, the átient herself did not appear to show any signs of improvement and her condition prevented her from properly holding almost any object with her hands. It was not so much because of her lack of strength but because the woman could not concentrate well and her motion responses were slow.

"Please drink this."

There wasn't much that Clara could do, just take care of this Florina while she was still unable to take care of herself.

Florina did not react immediately as Clara expected... the good thing was that she cooperated easily as long as it was not a man who spoke to her.

She finished drinking completely.

Florina kept looking in front of her with no indication that she would decide to start moving or doing something at all after that... this kind of behavior perhaps normal to see in some very very old people... not in a young woman.

The cleric couldn't be more horrified by the kinds of things that black magic could do to people. She simply prayed to Askr that this woman and the other victims of Embla's curse could be healed.


Robin was enjoying some food after reviewing some documents and a hard day of training.

Still, she had to admit that she wished she could jump into action soon. Not so much because she enjoyed fighting, but because of the obvious detail that Veronica and her empire had caused great harm to Askr and just waiting for their turn to attack didn't feel entirely right in this situation. Not to mention the other important detail for which the Shepherds had joined forces with the Order Of Heroes.

In front of her, the Exalt rubbed his forehead without bothering much to try to start eating what was on his plate so it could be consumed by the stomach.

Beside him, Sumia didn't seem at all better. Sure, she was eating, but it was a rather slow process.

Although the Shepherds tried not to denote it, it was obvious that they were concerned about what might happen to the kidnapped children the more time it took to save them.

Even if she wasn't a mother, she understood very well that her words would be of little to no use... there really wasn't much she could do for them right now ...

Which was quite frustrating… her friends had been counting on her since always… and now she had failed them.

She knew that sooner or later it would happen one more time... she had already failed to save Emmeryn... she had prepared herself, studying more tactics a lot so something like that would not happen again... but it seems that being prepared for everything was just impossible.

Saving Basilio was probably just luck because of the circumstances...

And at that moment she did not even want to start thinking about the fact that she was receiving support from the strategist of the Order Of Heroes to be able to definitively kill Grima and correct her mistake of not sacrificing herself ...

Now, she couldn't say anything to cheer them up… but maybe distracting them and making them think of something else might work.

"Ahem," Robin braced herself for this. "Cordelia told me that you started to train that girl Cordelia gives cooking classes to in the art of the spear."

Ylisse's king and queen then lost their depressed facial expressions for a moment to pay attention to Robin.

"Oh yeah." Sumia nodded. "She has also been training to ride a pegasus with one of her friends, Florina if I remember correctly." Sumia placed her index finger near her chin and looked up as she said that sentence. "I told her that while she seemed to be very talented with magic, every Pegasus knight must have experience in combat with at least one type of weapon."

"Yes, it makes sense." Robin nodded. The tactician supposed it must feel very nice to have someone to teach them something. Sure, she had taught Kiran more tactics, but he already had some experience and knowledge by the time she helped him. "How about you, Chrom?"

The Exalt shrugged. "I have had multiple duels against the King of Renais." Chrom seemed certainly satisfied. "Ten wins for me, eleven for him."

"That is excellent." Robin rubbed her chin.

"And how does it feel to be in command of the entire army again?" Chrom asked.

"Pretty good, even if it will only be temporary." Robin drank some water before continuing. "We should be back in action soon as the main armies almost reached another portal. If it's the last one or not… I'm not sure about that. It must be the last one in the territory that originally belonged to Askr though. "

"Then they will soon begin to walk in Emblian soil." Sumia commented

"And then we can join the main army and go give Veronica a piece of our mind." Chrom nodded slowly.

"I'm afraid it won't be easy. The Emblian citadel was built in such a way that it is very difficult to invade. " Robin began to explain to them everything she knew, that the capital was inside a large lake on an island, that Embla probably had a sizeable fleet...

"Life is never easy." Chrom sighed.

"We have overcome multiple adverse situations before, we will do it again." Sumia palmed her husband's back.

"The Order's usual strategist is competent enough now that you've taught him your tricks, I suppose." Chrom rubbed his chin.

Robin scratched the back part of her head. "I just had to reinforce the knowledge fundaments he already had. The rest are factors that one simply has no control over."

"I guess it's good to hear that." Chrom shrugged and continued eating.

"Regarding him... there is something I would like to discuss with you about later, Robin."

Ylisse's strategist was not stupid, she understood very well what her friend was referring to ... even so, she looked away.

The strange thing was the uncomfortable look Sumia had when she said those words.


"Commander Anna! Commander Anna! " Anna was pulled out from her thoughts when she heard a voice yelling her name.

Before that interruption, Anna was doing some accounts regarding the cost of maintaining the order.

Not that she had much to worry about, the income she had made selling whatever invention was replicated from what has become to be known as The World Of Steel/Metal basically guaranteed that there would be no problem in the near future, but not paying attention to expenses would still be irresponsible.

The woman, after getting up from her chair and opening the door, did not take long to see a soldier approaching by running.

Anna raised her hand to stop the soldier.

"Keep calm and report the situation, soldier."

It took a moment for the man to catch his breath. "An army is approaching the city!"

...

...

...

Anna had to narrow her eyes at her. "That... that's impossible." She knew it just didn't make sense. The Emblian army could not simply teleport, nor could it have defeated the Grandmaster's army and reached the capital of Askr in such a short period of time. And while Roy had stated that he might be coming back with an army... not enough time had passed for it to be credible that he had made the journey and the full preparations.

"Ma'am, I swear I'm not lying! A message came from our spies! " the soldier handed her a letter that, frighteningly, bore the secret symbol of Askr's ninjas. Even the handwriting was one that she slightly recognized from some earlier letters.

Indeed, there was an army that had managed to enter Askr's land.

And the strangest thing of all this… it wasn't Embla's army.

The letter simply described them as an unidentified army.

But how…

...

...

...

The portals…

They were still open...

Anna's face was filled with concern. "Find the heroes and spread the word, tell everyone to prepare for battle!"

"Understood, I'll do it right away!"

Anna returned to her office to take her gun and prepare for the worst.


"So we have no idea who they are?" Robin asked, her electric sword in hand and ready.

"Unfortunately, not yet." Anna sighed.

Sharena and Alfonse were also there… and the princess noticed that… there was something strange about her brother.

She wasn't sure what, but Alfonse seemed to have a much more… serious expression… even more than usual… but it wasn't just that.

His face looked somewhat pale... as if she was feeling fear... or something like that ...

"Alfonse? ..." Her brother didn't seem to hear her, as if he was too lost in his thoughts to pay attention to the world around him.

"Alfonse!" She yelled his name.

Still, the prince didn't react much… he just inclined his head. "It's my fault."

"What?!"

Alfonse sighed. "I opened the portals... I'm little less than... trash."

Alfonse had to place his left hand on his cheek due to the sudden apparition of the feeling of pain.

"Don't ever say that again, did you hear me?!" Sharena was clearly not happy.

However, Alfonse still didn't react much at all. "Not saying it does not remove the fact that it is true." He then shook his head. "Our entire kingdom thinks the same... and that's the reality." He then walked away in the direction of Robin, Anna, Miriel… and a certain Pegasus knight who was there too.

Sharena recognized that kind of words... that way of thinking...

And she didn't like hearing that coming from Alfonse's lips at all.

"Alfonse... What happened to you?..."


Florina returned to the ground slowly and once she got off from her pegasus, she returned the telescope to Miriel, who proceeded to leave to store it in a safe place.

"Report what you saw." Robin ordered.

"The most interesting detail is that... I thought I saw Lady Caeda in their army."

...

...

...

"Me?" Caeda herself almost took a step back in surprise. Robin raised an eyebrow, Anna made a noise of recognition after having her mouth opened for some seconds, and Alfonse began rubbing his chin and looking in direction to where the "unidentified army" was supposed to be.

"Yes." Florina nodded. "She is accompanied by a man with blue hair and clothes who seems to be the leader. There are also two knights, one red and one green."

Anna then smiled and sighed as well as shaking her head. The prince, on the other hand, seemed to be still concerned as he rubbed his face and asked. "They are not under Veronica's control again, are they?" Alfonse crossed his arms.

"No, you know very well that portal is too much within our controlled territory for that to be possible." Anna patted him on the back.

Caeda, being a version of herself that had not yet traveled around the world, did not recognize the description of the two knights... and by extension just hearing: a man with blue hair and blue clothes was not enough for her to make the connection.

However, when another Caeda landed near them… bringing a certain person behind her, it was easy to understand.

"It is an honor to cross paths with you again, Order Of Heroes." A familiar man wielding a Falchion stood in front of them.

The Hero King approached prince Alfonse and extended his hand. "I'm sorry it took so long, but now we are ready to help now."

The second Caeda, on the other hand, was more interested in the fact that she seemed to be looking at a mirror.


Man, I've been suffering one of my worst writer's block cases as far as I can remember...

So, I apologize for taking so long... but I'm afraid I'm gonna have to tell you now that the next chapter is also gonna take some months until it gets released.

I've been studying Fates story just like I did with Genealogy Of The Holy War...

And you know, I had always heard that Fates is the worst game of the series if we talk about its story... I hadn't had much contact with Fates so I always kept myself far from the fandoms' wars regarding that aspect of the game... the few things I knew made me understand why some people called Corrin a retarded but I thought it was possible that perhaps there was a detail or something people was forgetting that may explain the whole "invading a country to save the country" thing... I mean, the concept is not intrinsically stupid... I honestly cannot imagine another way to save Venezuela... but now that I'm watching a Youtube video with all the cinematics and cutscenes... I have a natural reaction:

HOLY SHIT WHO WROTE THIS CRAP?!

AND THIS IS JUST FUCKING CONQUEST!

I think people are kinda wrong about something: Corrin is stupid, yes, but the real mentally retarded ones here are the fucking siblings! besides, what the fuck is wrong with them?! their entire lives seem to orbit around Corrin's existence! urgh!

But I think the detail that infuriates me the most is that stupid Valla curse! URRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH!

Okay okay... calm down...

So... considering what I just said... I guess you understand that, unlike Genealogy Of The Holy War, for the sake of my mental health I cannot watch the entire thing without taking some breaks... and there are three long videos (Please, somebody kill me!) no to mention the fact I had to pay attention to my classes and homework again (just right now I'm ignoring one so I can give you the chapter already and don't delay it more)... and add that, once I finish watching those videos, I must analyze the story to determine how many plotholes and asspulls there are (although I must thank TVTropes for giving me a list of the latter ones) and determine how to fix them so Fates story can fit appropriately into what I've created here... so... yeah... it's gonna take a while...

Anyway, let's talk about the stuff of the chapter itself.

Nino learning to wield a lance is just something natural if she becomes a Pegasus knight, I mean, the only reason she does not use one in the FEH is because of the game's mechanics.

As SousChefSean once said, it's kinda stupid the heroes don't join forces with you after you free them... but honestly, I can imagine that they just couldn't do it immediately because they need to make sure everything is in order in their worlds before lending assistance. As a result, Marth finally has come back to help Askr!

In Ylisse's case, they had already left many times so I guess Chrom has someone who he can trust to rule the kingdom while he's out.

I really wanted to write many scenes without Kiran (whose name is technically Kiran Mark now) having to be even mentioned... but I guess that's something almost impossible since he's still the protagonist and the way Kiran is designed in canon makes him steal the spotlight one way or another even if it's just for a few seconds. I just can't ignore his influence in the plot as it seems. Or perhaps I'm an idiot and somebody could do it better, that's possible too.

Honestly, it makes me wonder how a story of FEH without a Kiran would be like...

As you may have guessed, Alfonse was in bad mood at the end because he had that conversation with his mother regarding the people of Askr thinking he's an incompetent leader. I did not include the whole scene because it would be kinda redundant.

And I know he seems to be behaving not like himself but more like... again, Kiran Mark... but remember that Kiran has been influencing the prince's mind with his ideas, and the loss of the childhood memories has affected Alfonse too.

Talking about the FEH game itself, I gotta admit it feels nice to be able to play with our Kiran, although I don't like the canon designs they gave us for my personal use or for this Kiran... the female summoners gave me the idea that... perhaps I could use those designs and say they are Luis's sisters. After all, he said he has three sisters!

You may also have noticed the new cover image for this Kiran's design. You should google: Three Summoners A Commission Made By Skipi, if you wanna see the complete thing.

It's basically a drawing I bought (because yes, I saved up money to pay for this one).

Anyway... I think that's all. I'll try to get the new chapter done as soon as possible, but you having to wait two months for its release is probably the most realistic scenario.