This one was tricky. But we're finally ending the Lone Moon.
Chapter 71 – Reconciliation (Lone Moon)
As Dorothea expected, Constance was still mad as a hornet upon seeing the brunette's return. The blonde stood from where she had been trying to offer comfort to a barely conscious Ferdinand and stormed toward Dorothea as she approached.
"You!" Constance hissed. "Do not think that we have concluded our prior dispute!"
Before Constance could berate her any further, Dorothea said with conviction, "Incinerate me, vaporize me, or whatever you want, Constance, but not before I've finished helping Ferdie."
Constance stopped with an expression of utter surprise, especially after Dorothea passed by the sorceress, knelt next to Ferdinand, and began channeling a healing spell on him.
"W-What do you think you are… What is the meaning of this, Dorothea Arnault?!"
"You were right, Constance. You were absolutely right. I let this happen to him. It's my fault he was wounded. But that doesn't mean I can't try and help him now."
"You think you can redeem your callous negligence for his safety so readily? If so, your belief is fallacious and erroneous!"
Before Dorothea could reply, both spellcasters heard Ferdinand let out a painful moan and said, "Constance, please."
Constance's eyes widened as she knelt beside Ferdinand and said, "Oh, my poor Ferdinand! Save your strength. I will ensure Arnault is–"
"Please," Ferdinand interrupted painfully. "Do not… admonish her… so harshly. It was not… her fault that I was… urgh, wounded so."
"But–"
"It was, Ferdie," Dorothea interrupted. "I heard you when you asked for my help, and I did nothing. I left you without support and let this happen to you. I… I'm sorry. I'm so, so sorry."
Ferdinand tried to say something, but it was clear to both women that he was at a loss for words.
Dorothea then said, "I let my hate for nobility get the better of me. I let myself think you were like all the other nobles who took advantage of me. I know that's not who you are. I know that, and I still… I treated you like trash… just like so many nobles who thought I was scum."
Dorothea sobbed as she tried to maintain her healing spell. It was having minimal effect on Ferdinand's wounds, though not for lack of trying. Dorothea could see he had already been treated, but still she continued trying to heal him.
"Ever since I saw you in that fountain," Ferdinand said amid gasps of pain, "I have never thought of you as anything less than beautiful, Dorothea. I apologize if I made you believe otherwise."
Dorothea nodded with a faint smile at this as she continued to treat Ferdinand's wounds.
Nearby, Byleth watched the exchange. Seeing Dorothea take her first steps toward reconciliation brought a smile to the Archbishop's face.
Knowing she had other matters to attend to, she made her way across the great bridge to find Seteth and Judith. They still had to prepare themselves for whatever the Empire threw at them in the days ahead.
Moving through the camp, she saw Caspar kneeling near the side of the bridge where the Manticore had fallen. Linhardt stood next to him as the scholar offered a prayer for Fleche's soul. Nearby, Shamir was giving orders to the Church's scouts, while Brigitte was doing her best to lighten the mood for the others, though with limited success. Felix was standing near Annette as she tried to heal another wounded soldier, despite that looked like she would collapse at any second.
Soon, Byleth found Lorenz still in conversation with Judith and Leonie. Seteth, meanwhile, had gone off to speak with Alois about the deployment of their remaining troops.
"There you are," said Judith. "Everything alright with Dorothea?"
"For now," said Byleth.
"What was that all about anyway?" asked Leonie.
"Dorothea…" Byleth paused for a moment, then sighed and said, "You know how she's had a hard time with nobles for almost her whole life. I had to get her to realize she couldn't answer their hate with her own."
"Were you successful?" asked Lorenz.
"Only time will tell."
"I see. I cannot blame her for distrusting me. My actions today were less than admirable."
"You've got that right, Lorenz," said Raphael as he and Ignatz walked over to the conversation. Showing his left hand with some minor burn marks, he said, "You burned my hand back there."
With an expression of palpable regret, Lorenz said, "That I did… I suppose a simple apology will not suffice, will it?"
"No, it won't."
Lorenz was silent as Raphael towered over him, frowning at the heir of House Gloucester as others watched with worry.
Then, Raphael delivered a short, gentle backhanded blow to Lorenz's wounded shoulder. Lorenz gasped loudly as pain ran through him, despite that Raphael had only brushed him lightly. The wound had not fully healed and was still tender.
As Lorenz clutched his shoulder, Raphael smiled and said, "Now we're even."
The others were flabbergasted at this for a moment. After a few seconds, Ignatz couldn't stop himself from chuckling at his giant friend, followed by Judith and Leonie. Soon, even Lorenz could not stop himself from giving a relieved laugh, prompting Raphael to chuckle in reply.
Smiling at how he had been forgiven so easily, Lorenz said, "Raphael Kirsten, I am glad I can still call you a friend."
"Hey, don't worry about it," said Raphael. "We all make mistakes."
"It's not as though we haven't gotten our own hands bloody," said Ignatz.
"Too true," said Lorenz. "But I will do whatever it takes to make things right."
"I'm glad to hear that, Lorenz," said Byleth.
"I'll guess the first thing on that list is to convince your father to help us, right?" said Leonie.
"Not quite," said Lorenz. Leonie looked at him in brief confusion before he said, "The first item on that list would be to speak with Dorothea. I have not done well to earn her trust."
"I'm sure she'll understand, Lorenz. Come on, let's go find her."
Leonie and Lorenz left the group as Judith said to Byleth, "Well, now that we've got the bridge, we can expect an Imperial counterattack sometime soon. They're not just gonna sit back while Claude tries to wipe out their two armies."
"Agreed," said Byleth. "We'll need to have multiple patrols to the north and south of the bridge to spot any Imperial forces before they arrive."
"The only question is how many men Edelgard is going to send at us."
Byleth said nothing to this. She knew the Empire had them badly outnumbered, but it would take at least a day for them to realize something was wrong. She hoped that would delay their response long enough for Claude to finish off the 5th and 11th armies.
…
Constance fumed as she stepped away from Dorothea and Ferdinand. Though Ferdinand had forgiven Dorothea for her mistake, the blonde was not about to let it go so easily.
"That insufferable harlot," Constance hissed. "She is a fool if she believes her transgression can be so easily absolved. She had no justification to treat him so pitilessly. The very sight of her aggravates me to no end!"
"I could say the same thing about you harping on about her, Constance," said Cia as she strutted toward the blonde.
"Mind your own affairs, Lacrimosa! This is of no concern to you!"
"Actually, since Dorry's my good friend, it is. She's trying to make up for what she did and you're still treating her like crap."
"She had no justifiable cause for ignoring Ferdinand to begin with! She refused to aid him simply out of some unjust and unwarranted hate! And now she expects to be believed when she abruptly begins to apologize?! I am no fool! She merely acts the part! I would expect no less from a whore of the Mittelfrank Opera–"
At that moment, Cia slapped Constance across the cheek, drawing numerous surprised glances at the exchange.
"Y-You… how dare you!" Constance fumed loudly.
"I've heard just about enough of your bullshit, Nuvelle," said Cia. "You think her problem with nobles is unwarranted? Take it from me, it's definitely warranted. She's been treated like dirt by them since the day she was born. But I don't expect you to understand it. You weren't thrown out by your father as a baby!"
"The circumstances of her birth do not excuse her from–"
"It's a lot more than that, Constance! She had to survive on the streets as a child for years before we brought her into the Opera! Have you ever had to eat trash and leftovers that even a starving dog wouldn't touch?"
"Don't go believing you can patronize me, Lacrimosa! I too had to fend for myself when my house was destroyed!"
"Oh, is that so? Then answer me this, Constance: Have you ever had to let some noble prick fuck you just to survive?!"
Constance stopped as her eyes went wide. "That's…"
"No, of course you haven't. You, a highborn noble, wouldn't dare let someone sully your chastity until you got married, would you? Well, a lot of guys who'd come to the Opera House wouldn't give a damn either way! They'd only see girls like us as something to sleep with and give them kids with Crests, whether we wanted it or not!"
Cia, realizing she was shouting and that it was drawing loads of attention, exhaled as she tried to calm down.
She then said, "That's the kind of scum Dorothea's had to deal with her whole life. Can you blame her for not trusting your boyfriend?"
"But Ferdinand, he… he would never do something so heinous…!"
"I'm not saying he would. But Dorry's dealt with so many nobles who've hurt her and used her. Her father, her half-brother, all those guys who'd only act nice to her because they wanted to bed her. Take it from me, she's had it rough."
Constance, aghast at what Cia had told her, said, "I… I had no idea…"
"Of course you didn't. But now that you do, how's about giving Dorry some space?"
Cia turned and left Constance as the blonde, struggling with what she had been told, had to sit down on a nearby stool.
…
Dorothea looked at Ferdinand as she moved away from him, having been shooed away by one of the clerics who insisted that she could not do any more to help him. At least, she thought, she had done what she could.
It felt strange. Just days before, she had considered Ferdinand to be an annoyance at best and hated him at worst. But now, looking back at him, she could only pray that he would survive.
Most of all, she was ashamed of herself for thinking so poorly of him that she ended up endangering his life.
"Dorothea, there you are," said Lorenz as he and Leonie approached the diva. He then asked, "How is Ferdinand?"
Turning to face him, Dorothea said, "Lorenz… The others say he'll make it. I've done all I can to help him."
"I can attest to your skill as a healer, Dorothea. I am certain he will recover."
"I'm not that good, Lorenz."
"Nonsense. I recall you healing my injuries in the Chasm of the Bound. I remain grateful to you for that."
"Really?" Unable to stop herself from smiling, Dorothea said, "You're still the flatterer I remember, Lorenz."
"I'd hardly call it flattery when it is the truth."
"Mmm…" Dorothea paused for a moment, then took a deep breath and said, "Lorenz, I… I'm really, really sorry for all the horrible things I said about you. I was being totally unfair to you, and I…"
"I understand, Dorothea," said Lorenz. "I did end up harming a friend of yours. How is Lana?"
"She'll be okay. You only stunned her."
"I know a simple apology will not excuse my actions. Yet I intend to make it up to everyone."
Dorothea nodded and took a pause. She then said, "Lorenz, you said you were fighting against us to protect the people in your family's territory. Is that true?"
"Yes, it is. When the war started, I was captured and ransomed back to my father. The Empire then tore through our land, destroying homes and terrorizing our people. It was meant to serve as an example what would happen if we did not take their side. When I entered this battle, it was to ensure my people would not suffer as they had before."
"I see. Ashe fought us for the same reason." Dorothea paused again, and then said, "If I were in your shoes, I don't think I'd have done any differently."
"Me neither," said Leonie. "I mean, I've said before that I'd never fight on the Empire's side, but if I were in your spot, Lorenz… I dunno…"
"It was not a decision I came to easily. To turn my lance against my friends… War truly is horrible if it forces us to make such choices."
"But Lorenz," said Dorothea, "if you help us now, won't the Empire make your people suffer again?"
"Perhaps. But I cannot bring myself to side with them any longer. My conscience would not abide it. I can only hope my father will agree."
"Do you need any help? With speaking to your father, that is."
"I thank you for the offer, Dorothea. However, I believe you are more needed here with the others."
"But–"
"Don't worry about it, Dorothea," said Leonie. "I'll make sure Lorenz doesn't run off on us."
"We shall return within a day," said Lorenz. "You have my word."
Dorothea hesitated to accept. So often, she had heard those words from nobles who quickly broke that pledge.
But if she was ever going to let go of her past hatred, she knew she had to believe in him.
"I trust you, Lorenz," said Dorothea. "Good luck."
Lorenz smiled before he and Leonie went to find some mounts for the ride to Castle Gloucester.
Heavy-handed again? Probably.
The bit between Cia and Constance was hard. Constance has had to live on the streets and fend for herself, but I highly doubt someone as proud as her (at least when she's not in the sun) would let a man have his way with her. Meanwhile, Dorothea clearly had to sleep with a lot of men to get where she is, and even had to deal with men who wanted her against her will. This might sound a bit ironic coming from Cia (since I've made it fairly clear that she's a bit of a slut), but I'm going to be touching on that bit of Cia's backstory and personality later.
That said, the part with Raphael is one I definitely think would be in character for him. I know he's not everybody's favorite, but he's such a nice guy and he's very mature when it comes to the subject of his parents' deaths. He could hold a grudge against House Gloucester, but he doesn't because he has bigger fish to fry. That's honestly admirable of him. Not to mention when you build him up, he can be an absolute beast. He's actually good in Maddening difficulty because his low Speed isn't a big issue (it's next to impossible to outrun those damn Swordmasters and Assassins) and his tankiness and damage output are good. Give him Quick Riposte and he can readily punish the enemy again and again.
For now, we'll be waiting to see what the Empire has in store for our heroes. I'll see you all in the next chapter.
