Kept you waiting, huh?
So after a longer than average wait time, I've got good news and bad news.
The bad news is that we're still in filler territory because we've finished the Valm arc and then nothing happens in terms of plot until we get back to Ylisse. So...I guess filler until we get there?
The good news is that we've finished the Valm arc, which means we can focus on personal relationships! People care about those, right?
Took a bit longer than usual to get this one out, but that was because I needed think where to take this and how now that we've basically recruited everyone and reached the end of the Valm arc. Got some pretty important things coming up and I needed to consider how and when to resolve them. Hopefully the results will be satisfactory.
To everyone who's still out there, thank you for your continued patience and presence! I hope that the wait is worth it and you get as much enjoyment reading these as I get in writing them!
Enjoy!
"Brace for impact! Don't give any ground!"
"He just took out ten men in one blow! What kind of man is he?!"
"One that dies like any other! Mages! Concentrate on Walhart! Hit him with your best spells!"
"The enemy is falling back! Follow them!"
"They're breaking through our ranks!"
"Incoming enemy magic!"
"Morgan! MORGAN!"
– One week ago –
Robin had his plans in place for what he thought was the final engagement. It was not ideal since he was working with less time and intel than he had initially expected, but Robin was more or less confident in the plans that he managed to draft. It would take some effort on his part to ensure that conditions were ideal so that things went according to his plans, but he was sure he could pull it off.
Of course, then Robin received some very bad news which rendered all his plans and assumptions useless and necessitated having to quickly draft something workable with even less time and intel than he had previously.
So a workable situation turned into a less than ideal situation, but that was fine. Robin could work through this. After all, he worked with less. It would just be more stressful than usual, that was all.
"All right. We only have token intelligence on Rigel and its surrounding areas and all we know is that the capital is surrounded by mountains and there may be some river there. What we know for sure is that the gate leading up to the city is heavily guarded. We've been pretty obvious in our movements in order to lure Walhart out to battle, so it's safe to assume that the guards know that we're close by. We also have the section of Walhart's army approaching that he used to distract us. And we're still not at full force because some of our idiot allies and their forces are stuck in bad weather or some crap!" Robin glared at the map in front of him. "I guess it was too optimistic to think that Flavia would make it with even less time than under the previous plans…"
"Aye. Flavia's absence with the forces from Chon'sin is unfortunate indeed." Say'ri nodded grimly. "I pray that the arrival of some of our neighboring allies will compensate."
Robin grunted. "They'll have to. Without our main contingent, we'll have to use every soldier that we can. And they better be loyal this time, or I swear to Naga I'll cut them all down myself!"
"Peace, Robin. I'm sure that they will remain loyal to the cause. After all, you and Say'ri did help them break free from Excellus' blackmail, did you not? Their gratitude should ensure their cooperation," Chrom predicted confidently.
"I wish I had even a fraction of your faith," Robin mumbled.
"Come on, Dad, people's gratitude can take you a long way!" Morgan said. "Besides, we are where we are, and where we are is that we need all the help we can get for the upcoming campaign. So we gotta focus on winning the battles ahead instead of doubting our allies."
"It's my job to look at all the variables, Morgan. You'll excuse me if I'm being a bit cautious after our so-called allies betrayed and almost killed us."
"Dad, we know why they did that now, and we've helped them out of their individual predicaments. They have no reason to turn on us now!"
"Oh, Morgan…" Robin smiled, tousling his daughter's hair. "I admire your optimism."
Chrom cleared his throat. "Robin?"
"Right. So Flavia's still making her way toward us, we'll have to rely on our so-called allies to compensate, and leave our positions to assault the gate without a sizable chunk of our army."
"Assault possibly the most fortified area in Valm," Chrom clarified.
"Right. And although I acknowledge that we are at a disadvantage, we have something that I hope will help us win that little encounter."
"The Goddess Staff!" Morgan declared.
"...Okay, two somethings."
Chrom raised a brow.
"See, the Valmese know and we're somewhere in this area and will be expecting us beyond the walls. So they'll all be looking out in this direction, ready to fight as soon as they see us," Robin said, pointing to the map laid out on the table.
"But…?"
"But thanks to the Goddess Staff, we have the secret element of surprise!" Robin smiled deviously. "The Valmese will be expecting a direct assault from us, so all of their attention will be directed over the wall. What they won't expect is us coming at them from behind."
"And we'll do that by gathering all of our forces and using the Goddess Staff to warp us to the other side of the wall," Morgan finished. "Pretty good plan, huh?"
"'Tis creative, I'll admit." Say'ri looked up. "And you are certain that this will work?"
"Laurent here assures me that he is reasonably confident that he and Miriel can make the Goddess Staff work in order to successfully implement our plan. Laurent?"
"Robin is correct," said the mage, approaching the table. "Mother and I have been diligently studying the Goddess Staff in order to have a better understanding of its inner workings. And while our understanding is still incomplete, we believe that we have improved our capabilities to deliver a more accurate warp."
"Which is good, since we'll need all the accuracy we can get." Robin pointed and brought everyone's attention to the map again. "We'll need to warp behind the wall close enough to catch the enemy unawares and begin our assault before they know what's happening, but still far away so that we don't get caught off-guard and have time to prepare our attack. From what information is available, I estimate that we'll need to warp somewhere around…"
Robin pointed to an area not too far away from the enemy's defenses.
"It should be doable," Laurent confirmed.
"Good. Provided everything goes well, we can make use of all the weapons and equipment stored there for the next phase."
"Which will be taking the fight to Walhart directly!" Morgan said enthusiastically.
"Wait, so after hopefully successfully ambushing the Valmese, we're immediately going off to fight Walhart?" Chrom asked. "So quickly?"
"Time is not on our side, Chrom. The only reason we're even doing this is because Walhart and his remaining forces are headed to Rigel as we speak. We have to engage him before that happens, otherwise he'll barricade himself there and we'll have to lay siege to the city, which we're in no position to do," Robin explained. "Ideally, we could've had extra time to gather what we needed from the Valmese stockpiles after our battle and warped ourselves closer to Walhart, but I understand that move isn't feasible…?"
Laurent shook his head. "Inadvisable. The Goddess Staff is a powerful relic, but it is also old and battered by the elements for a prolonged period of time. Mother and I believe that our recent usage of its powers has pushed the staff to its limits. We should have enough power to warp everyone past the gates, but I'm afraid that the amount of power it would take to warp an army of our size would render the staff inoperable afterward. Already we have observed cracks after our current usage."
"So no quick warping to locations after this one, which means that we'll have to rush to Rigel on foot. We may not even be able to use the staff after this…" Robin sighed heavily. "And all this and then engage Walhart while we have to leave another portion of our forces behind—"
"Apologies, but do my ears deceive me?" Say'ri spoke up. "We are to leave yet another portion of our forces behind?"
"Yes." At the confused looks, Robin continued, "...Did I not mention that before?"
Everyone in the room shook their heads.
"Really have to make a checklist for these meetings…" Robin muttered. "But yes. Provided that the battle goes well, we'll only have a brief respite before we have to make our way to intercept Walhart. But we also have to take into account the sizeable diversion force that's still making its way to Rigel as we speak. We'll have to leave a small force behind to ensure that those Valmese are neutralized."
"Why do we have to even think about them?" Severa asked. "They're still far enough away that they won't make it here in time to stop our storming the gate. Why do we have to risk splitting our army to deal with these forces when we can, I don't know, lock the gates? If they manage to break through, we should be far enough away and already have dealt with Walhart."
"Ideally yes, but real life is not ideal, and war twice as much so. War is about planning for things, and then watching as your plans go down the drain. Who wins is determined by the one who's got more mitigation planning for when things inevitably go poorly. In this scenario, we could just take all our forces after the gate and hope for the best, but knowing my luck, we'd be in the middle of engaging Walhart's forces and then suddenly we find our flanks being attacked by those forces that we left alone."
Severa crossed her arms. "You really think they'll manage to break through the gate and make it in time to ambush us?"
"I know that I have to look at every possible scenario and plan for the worst," Robin responded. "And I know I'd feel a lot more comfortable knowing that there's no potential threat coming from behind us."
"Do you think this small force we'll leave behind will be enough to hold off the Valmese forces?" Lucina asked.
"Of course they would!" Morgan predicted confidently. "Our forces will have the element of surprise since the Valmese won't be expecting hostiles at their seemingly friendly location. Our forces will also have the advantage because they'll be well supplied and fortified, which should more than compensate for the whole 'being outnumbered' thing. After all, numbers mean only so much when your enemy is holed up behind giant walls shooting arrows and magic at you."
"Someone has been working on her tactical assessment skills," Robin said, smiling proudly and tousling Morgan's hair.
Severa grit her teeth at the sight.
"But we also have Flavia's forces making their way up to our location. If we're lucky, Flavia's team will make it in time to attack the Valmese from behind while they're busy fighting our forces at the gate. If we're really lucky, they'll make it in time to reinforce us when we're going to take on Walhart."
"Can Flavia make it by the time we reach Rigel? I thought the latest reports indicated she was still some way away," Lucina noted.
"Plan for the worst, hope for the best," Robin said, shrugging. "At least hoping for the best doesn't get anyone killed. Any other questions?"
"Are we ready for the battle and aftermath? The change of plans was a bit sudden," Chrom remarked.
"I'll make sure we're ready," Robin promised. "This may be the second most important battle of the campaign and I'm not going to let us go in unprepared."
"I suppose we'd better prepare, then."
"Yeah. Get everyone ready. We'll go over the plan one more time this evening so everyone knows what they're doing. Also, get some rest. We want to be fresh tomorrow morning before we engage."
"The same goes to both of you," Chrom said, looking meaningfully at the two tacticians as everyone was leaving the tent. "It'll be no good to anyone if you two are exhausted tomorrow due to lack of sleep."
"Chrom, please. Morgan has a strict bedtime that I make her follow so she doesn't burn herself out."
"I'd be able to stay up later and help Dad if he just allowed me to drink coffee…" grumbled the younger tactician. "Or give me lots of sugary goods."
"Nice try, kiddo, but your eyes feeling heavy when they do is your body's way of telling you to go to sleep. And sleep is very important at your age," Robin lectured.
Chrom chuckled. "Right, so we have you being the responsible parent to your daughter, now what's your excuse?"
"Huh?"
"You impose a bedtime for Morgan, but I have it on good authority that you're doing the thing you did before by staying up late reviewing plans."
"Chrom, we're nearing the end of this war. I have to make sure that everything goes according to plan and—"
"And we need our tactician fresh and with a clear mind to command us in the battle ahead," Chrom interrupted. "Which means going to bed at a reasonable hour today. Promise me you'll do that, Robin."
"Chrom—"
"Father is right, Robin," Lucina said. "The last thing we want is for you to overwork yourself."
"I'm not—"
"Besides, haven't you promised me to take better care of yourself?"
"Hey, I have been taking better care of myself!" Robin said defensively. "I don't spend all my time planning and stuff, okay?"
"While that may be true, you should be honest with me. After all, I usually volunteer for the night patrols." Lucina then gave the tactician a meaningful look.
"Should really think about redoing that…" Robin mumbled.
Being chided by Lucina wasn't the greatest feeling, especially since he did tell her he'd try not to overwork himself (even though he really wasn't). What was worse was that Lucina actually listened to him when he raised the point of her overworking herself.
"Guys, I think you made your points."
"Do you promise to at least get some sleep today?" Chrom asked.
"Hey—"
"Promise us, or I'll get Sumia and Cordelia over here."
"Gods. Knowing them, they'll tie me to my bed and stand guard in my tent until they see me fall asleep…" Robin sighed. "Fine. For your sake, I won't stay late planning for everything that can go wrong, and will go to bed instead."
"Thank you, Robin. We only mention it because we care."
"Sometimes I wish you guys would care less…"
"If everyone would care less, does that mean you'd ease up on my bedtime?" Morgan asked hopefully.
"Morgan, I love you and care about your growth and wellbeing. And in loving and caring about your wellbeing, I'll not budge on your bedtime."
"But Daaaaad…!"
"Although I guess your being stuck at your current height would be a worthy tradeoff for a later bedtime…" Robin mused. "If you're not concerned about stunting your growth due to lack of sleep. Your head currently makes such a convenient place to rest my arm when I'm deep in thought…"
Morgan opened her mouth to object before pausing, a conflicted look on her face.
"Man, do I really have to choose between growing taller and sleeping later?"
"Welcome to real life, dear. It's all about hard choices."
Lucina giggled, watching the exchange between father and daughter.
"Right. See you two later," Chrom said, making his way out of the tent. "And Robin?"
"I told you I won't stay up late, didn't I?"
"I'm holding you to it."
"Hmph. Sleep. Wish our bodies didn't need to do it. Can you imagine what we could get done in the time we use to sleep?"
"A lot, although I have to admit that I enjoy sleeping, especially when I get to sleep in," Morgan said. "It's just the 'going to sleep' part that I don't like."
"Well. Now that Chrom has taken several hours out of my evening, I have to wrap things up as fast as I can. Hate it when I lose valuable time…" Robin sighed as he stepped out of the tent. "Now then, first on the list…"
"Robin."
"Cordelia. What news?"
"I have compiled the latest reports, as you requested."
"Anything out of the ordinary?"
"Not since the last batch. I don't think our contacts have had the time to adjust and report, given the rapid changes in our plans and schedules."
"The wonders of rapid and sudden plan shifting never cease." Robin shook his head. "Thanks, Cordelia. How are our supplies?"
"We have gathered everything we have on us and assembled it at the designated location as per your instructions." Cordelia paused. "Are we really warping our equipment with everyone else?"
"We'll need everything we can bring, even if we do it magically. Besides, it's not like we can just leave it out here. Just hope the staff can handle bringing our stuff along with everyone else…" Robin muttered, looking through the reports. "Really wish I had more information on what we're going to be dealing with…"
"This is the best we could gather, sadly. But I'm sure you'll see us through," Cordelia said confidently. "Frederick is busy drilling the soldiers in preparation for the battle ahead. We'll be ready."
Robin nodded absentmindedly.
"Sully, Stahl, and the others are also prepping their units for the battle," Cordelia continued, before adding softly, "Don't worry, Robin. We'll be ready."
"Oh, I'm sure we will be. It's either that or you die. Or I fire you if you somehow survive the battle unprepared."
"Ever the motivational speaker, aren't we?" Cordelia remarked dryly.
"It's my backup career if the whole 'war' thing doesn't work out," Robin quipped. "But it'd be nice if I had some sort of sign to tell me that we'll win."
"Is there any reason we won't?"
"No," Robin said immediately. "But having something to tell me we'll be successful and nothing will go sideways will go a long way to putting my mind at ease."
"Well if it's just to make you feel better, why don't you go ask Sumia to do a flower fortune reading for you? I hear those always make her feel better."
Robin scoffed. "Cordelia, please. I have the utmost love and respect for Sumia, but her flower fortune 'readings' are nothing but feel good superstition. Endearing superstition, but superstition all the same. And as a man of logic and reasoning, I need something more concrete to put my faith into."
"Ah, yes. Of course. Forgive me. Of course a man of logic and reasoning such as yourself needs to put his faith in more concrete signs from the divine to comfort him in his upcoming battle. Flower fortunes clearly don't meet your rigorous and logical criteria."
"Exactly. I'm glad you understand," Robin said, without a hint of irony or self-awareness.
Cordelia smiled wryly and cleared her throat. "If that's the case, I may be able to help you."
"Unless you happen to have a crystal ball on you telling us exactly how to win this war, I think you're going to have a tough time."
"Try me."
Cordelia's confident tone made Robin look up.
"Ta-da!"
"Oh!"
Cordelia watched Robin's face light up with delight at the sight of the Heroes of Legend card packs in her hands.
"Oh."
She then watched Robin's face cool when he thought about what that meant.
"Oh…"
And finally, she watched Robin's face fall when he realized what that meant.
"Come on, Robin, your luck hasn't been that bad lately," Cordelia said, trying to cheer him up.
"Are you kidding? You've been my pulls recently, right? All common trash and not even one Ninian in sight…" Robin grumbled morosely.
"It wasn't that bad. Didn't you just pull a Jul—"
Robin cut Cordelia off with a series of incomprehensible noises.
At her questioning glance, he explained, "I want this to be my secret weapon that I bust out to demolish Morgan when she least expects it. It'll make my victory all the sweeter and somewhat make up for my abysmal win-to-loss ratio against her."
"Just like with Micaiah, huh?"
"Exactly! Man, did you see her face when Micaiah totally destroyed her cavalry teams? That was awesome! Totally worth hiding the fact that I pulled Micaiah until then."
"...Should I be worried that your sole purpose in this game is to destroy your daughter and that you take particular pleasure in it when you do?"
"Hey, that goes both ways, you know. Morgan plays this game and builds her decks pretty much exclusively to destroy mine. And she enjoys rubbing my face in it! The difference is that she must've been born under several lucky stars because she gets handed several rares in every pack she pulls. Meanwhile, I'm stuck with commons!"
"Robin—"
"Also, beating Morgan isn't my sole purpose in playing this card game."
"Is that so?"
"It is. In fact, my other goal is to get a Ninian."
"Ah yes. Ninian. I seem to recall you mentioning her here and there. So how has that been going for you?"
"Terribly," Robin admitted, frowning. "I've actually had more luck beating Morgan with my mediocre units and builds than I had pulling a single Ninian. I just want one, Cordelia! Just one! Is that too much to ask? Morgan managed to pull several copies and I can't even get one! Why does this game hate me so much?"
"Maybe you don't spend enough money on packs?" Cordelia offered playfully.
"Don't go there," Robin warned. "It's taking me all my willpower not to blow more than my allocated budget on these damn cards. I've already told Morgan to control her spending and I can't just turn around and be that hypocritical dad, now can I?"
"Remember, it's only hypocritical if you get caught."
"Were you always such a terrible influence and I just didn't notice, or is this a recent development?"
"Here we are!"
"Bwargh!"
As much as Robin was (or not, really) used to Tharja and/or Henry materializing out of nowhere right behind him, having other people do it was even worse.
"All together!"
"At once!"
Especially when it was more than one.
Recovering from the shock of having several (loud) voices appearing behind him without any warning, Robin turned around to tell the intruders off, only to see the smiling expressions of Morgan, Owain, and Cynthia.
"...Why is it that when something happens, it's always you three?" he sighed. "What are you even doing?"
"What, has something happened?" Morgan asked curiously.
"And to answer your question, we're here for the grand collection ritual!" Cynthia declared.
"The…what? No, I meant—well, yes, but I meant all of…this." Robin gestured with his hand at the trio.
"Oh, this? We're just practicing our heroic posing," Owain explained casually. "What do you think?"
"...You putting your hand in front of your face is supposed to be heroic…how?"
"I'm glad you asked! You see, in chapter fifty of The Book of Owain Dark: Volume Ten, Chapter 178, it's revealed that…"
Robin sighed. "I walked right into that one, huh?"
"Asking Owain why he's doing whatever he's doing? You really should've known better," Cordelia said matter-of-factly.
"Right. Okay!" Robin shouted, interrupting Owain's exposition. "As much fun as it would be listening to your character's very extensive bio, I am a very busy man with a war to win. So let's get this over with. Cordelia?"
"I have the packs right here. Now choose your destiny!" Cordelia announced in her most dramatic voice, presenting several card packs to the assembled individuals.
"Ah yes, the moment of truth! Let fate be kind to me and bless me with the addition of powerful heroes to my army of justice!" Owain closed his eyes and hovered his hand over the card packs. "The hand of fate is hard to read today. Even with all my power, I cannot easily determine which of these packs I should draw. It'll take all my willpower to divine—"
"You get this one."
"Buh?"
Owain opened his eyes to see Cordelia holding one pack.
"What—?"
"I guess others were quicker to see the 'hand of fate' than you were," she said, nodding to the others who had already opened their card packs.
"Aw, there goes my dramatic intro…" Owain mumbled, taking the pack from Cordelia. "Then again, this could be seen as a sign of the divine heavens blessing me with their favor by giving me a pack full of power. Ha ha, yes! Surely that must be it!"
Cordelia laughed sofrtly as Owain took the card pack from her, full of excitement and anticipation. It was really kind of impressive how he managed to spin events in his favor and bounce back from disappointment.
"YES!"
The sudden exclamation made everyone look to the source.
"HA HA, YES! I FINALLY DID IT!" Robin exclaimed, holding a card in the air victoriously. "After Naga knows how much time and money spent, I finally managed to draw a NINIAN!"
"Congrats!" Cynthia said. "I've heard from others how long you've wanted to get yourself one."
"Far, far too long," Robin agreed, nodding seriously. "And watching Morgan get multiple copies of her didn't help."
"So this was totally meant to be!" Owain declared. "It's the hand of fate that brought you and your beloved Ninian together, for I was going to pick the pack that is now in your hand!"
"Owain, Morgan getting Ninians was bad enough. I think I'd lose my mind if you managed to pull one too."
Hearing this, Cynthia quietly slipped her Ninian into her pocket.
"Anyway, me finally pulling a Ninian means this is officially the best day ever. Nothing can ruin this day!" Robin declared.
"Uh, Dad? I think the Ninian you pulled has an attack flaw and a…" Morgan squinted. "HP asset."
"...Like I said. Nothing!" Robin reiterated. "And this Ninian means that our battle with the Valmese is decided."
"How do you figure that?" Cordelia asked.
"Because I just pulled a Ninian after all these years of trying," Robin said seriously.
"I really don't see how—"
"And that is a sign! THE sign! The sign I was talking about! The sign that I have basically used up whatever luck I have for the year. And that means that I have to milk this luck for all its worth, which is good because our upcoming battle falls just within that window. Me pulling Ninian now is Naga's way of telling us that we will surely win our upcoming battle. It's a sign from Naga herself!"
"Robin—"
"All right! A sign from Naga herself!" Cynthia cheered. "We're totally gonna kick those Valmese bad guys in their butts!"
"Guys, isn't this getting a bit—"
"A proclamation of our esteemed tactical mastermind himself!" Owain nodded. "So we need not worry about the results of tomorrow's battle, as it has already been written!"
"Which means that it won't be out of place for us to practice our victory pose," Morgan said. "Guys!"
"Yes!"
"Right!"
"Annnnnd…pose!"
Robin was in such a good mood that he wasn't going to comment on his daughter's and her friends' dramatic poses.
"Cordelia, I see the doubt written on your face, but you have to look at the facts: I pulled a Ninian finally, so that means that everything will turn out okay tomorrow. Our victory's basically guaranteed! It's a sign from the gods themselves. A sign that nothing can ruin this day. Nothing!" Robin declared confidently, waving his new Ninian card.
Cordelia was about to point out what was wrong with Robin's assessment of their chances when she heard new voices.
"Heh, sorry, Noire. It feels like I really let you down," Henry apologized, sniffing.
"It's all right," sighed the archer. "I honestly expected this from the beginning…"
"Hey, hey!" Robin snapped his fingers to get the attention of the two.
"Hiya, Robin!" Henry said in his usual cheery manner.
"H-hello," Noire greeted timidly.
"Yes, hi to both. Now what's all this?" Robin asked, pointing to Henry's running nose. "Are you sick? Since when? Why? And most importantly, why now?!"
"Kinda, today, Tharja, and Noire."
"Explain. The last thing I need before a major military operation is one of my dark mages being sick and infecting the others."
"Don't worry, Robin! This little unnatural sickness will pass. All I have to do is figure out how Tharja made it and then unwind it!"
Robin raised a brow.
"You see, Mother usually uses me as a test subject for new curses," Noire explained.
"She does what?!" Cordelia asked, horrified.
Noire nodded in resignation. "Yep. Nothing serious, mind you, but every time she gets a new idea, she tries it out on me."
"And when I heard what Tharja did to our Noire, I obviously had to step in!" Henry said.
"Which resulted in Mother casting whatever hexes she wanted on Father instead." Noire sighed. "Just like in the future…"
"That's awful…" Cordelia said.
There was much to unpack there, so Robin decided to focus on the first thing that came to his mind. Or rather, the only thing on his mind.
"Are you contagious?"
"Huh?"
"Robin, is that really the first thing that you're going to ask after hearing all of that?" Cordelia questioned.
"Yes, because this directly concerns my military preparations," Robin responded. He then turned to Henry. "So? Tell me whether you're contagious and how, so I can know now what contingency I need to apply while you're out of action."
"Are you kidding me? Tomorrow's probably gonna be the bloodiest day since, well, a while! There's no way I'm missing out on that!" Henry protested. "Besides, there's no reason to stick me to the sidelines. As I said, this is Tharja's runny nose curse that's unique to me, so it's not a natural sickness. Heck, it's not even a sickness!"
"Sickness or no, I'm still not having you on the battlefield with a runny nose," Robin said sternly. "Why don't you just fix this? Isn't your speciality dispelling things exactly like this?"
"Well, yeah, but Tharja and I have this game where we try to outdo each other with our hexes. It keeps our skills sharp and our marriage fresh! So our hexes get increasingly complex and convoluted so the other can't immediately cast it away. Where would the fun be if we could undo our hexes without any real effort?"
"But it's just a simple running nose curse, no?"
"Nya ha ha, that's a good one!" Henry laughed. "If it was a simple curse, do you think I'd still be walking around with a runny nose? Maybe if it ran blood, but definitely not regular snot!"
"You dark mages and your rituals…" Robin shook his head. "I don't have time for this, nor do I have time to wait for you to undo this. We're resolving this right now. Tharja!"
"You called…?"
"Good. You're here," Robin said, not skipping a beat at the sorceress' sudden appearance behind him.
"What the—? Where—? How…?" This time, it was Cordelia who was surprised.
"That's her thing. You get used to it after a while," Morgan advised. "Although it still freaks Dad out most of the time…"
"Wish I knew how to do that…" muttered Cynthia. "It'd make the best heroic entrances to be able to get the drop on the bad guys out of nowhere!"
"Now that's an idea! May need some special effects, but that could be an awesome trick for my character…" Owain nodded thoughtfully.
"Tharja, what is the meaning of this?" Robin demanded, pointing to Henry. "I know you people have your weird dark mage rituals or whatever, but we're going into a very important battle tomorrow that we absolutely can't lose. And I can't afford to have Henry sniffing and with a runny nose when he's supposed to be casting spells at the enemy."
"It's nothing serious." Tharja waved dismissively. "This is how we dark mages strengthen our relationships. I'm sure Henry will manage to undo my hex if he wants to continue calling himself a respectable dark mage."
"I definitely plan on doing so!" Henry laughed, sniffing. "Can't disappoint the missus, now can I?"
"Right. Though I don't usually make a habit of telling people how they should run their relationships, I'm going to make an exception this time because this has the potential to negatively affect our upcoming and very important battle. Tharja, I'm going to have to politely ask you to fix Henry."
Tharja raised a brow, unmoved. "You're going to 'politely ask' me? Really?"
"I was trying to be nice. Now I'm ordering you to fix him," Robin said sternly.
"Mmm, much better. I do so love it when you get authoritative," Tharja purred.
"Boss Robin is best Robin!" Henry agreed.
"Yes I am. Now make with the uncursing," Robin said impatiently. "I have other things to do today."
"Very well. You," Tharja said, turning to Henry. "Close your eyes. I don't want you to see how to solve this little hex I made."
"Trying to figure it out by yourself is half the fun!"
Henry did as he was told.
Tharja mumbled something under her breath and waved her hands.
"There. Good as new."
"No runny nose, no bother!" Henry nodded. "I'm sniffle-free and ready to kill with wild abandon tomorrow!"
"Good. Curse yourselves silly in your spare time, you two," Robin chided. "But make sure that doesn't interfere with the war effort or your abilities to fight, because that's when I have to get involved and tell you what to do and not to do off the battlefield."
"If that's all that it takes to get you to spend some time with us…"
"Tharja." Robin's tone indicated he was not in the mood.
"You heard the boss," Henry said cheerfully. "No hexing before important battles. Guess we gotta pay more attention to the schedule around here."
"Robin, is that really all you have to say?" Cordelia asked.
"What?"
Instead of answering, Cordelia pointedly looked at Noire.
"Oh, right. That includes your daughter, Tharja. We need her archery skills on the battlefield too."
"Robin!"
"Now get out. Get some rest for tomorrow, practice or magic, or do whatever it is you dark mages do in your spare time."
"You betcha!"
"As long as it doesn't affect your performance tomorrow!" Robin shouted at the retreating mages.
"Th-thank you, Robin…" Noire mumbled.
"Think nothing of it. Come to me if they curse you with some weird hex, yeah? I need you at your best tomorrow too."
"I'll train harder and drink more tonics to improve my stamina!" Noire declared, eyes brimming with determination. "I won't let you down!"
"Make sure your arrows fly straight and true, Noire. That's all I ask."
"R-right!"
With that, Noire scurried away to probably practice her archery…or drink strengthening tonics.
"I can't believe you just let them go without saying anything," Cordelia stated, disappointment clear in her voice.
"What didn't I say? I think I said plenty," Robin responded.
"You just heard what Tharja does to Noire and you let her off without as much as a warning!"
"I mean, Dad warned her not to do the cursing and stuff before any major battles…" Morgan pointed out.
"Yes, but that's only before any battles. You could've told her not to hex Noire at all, not just before any major battles."
"Cordelia, let me be clear that I limit myself to telling people what to do on the battlefield, this despite my intense desire to regulate every other aspect of your lives."
"Robin, when have you ever limited yourself to only—"
"And I limit myself to regulating your activities to battlefield matters because that is my area of expertise and directly relates to my job and responsibilities, which consist mostly of keeping you alive and making sure we win whatever battle we participate in," Robin continued. "So outside that, you're pretty much free to live your lives as you wish…with certain exceptions. I don't tell you how to spend your free time, I don't tell you how to spend your money, and I certainly don't tell you how to raise your kids."
"You really…?" Cordelia was stunned. "You just heard Tharja experiments on her child and you won't do anything about it outside asking to not do it because it'll affect the upcoming battle?"
"Exactly. Aside from the fact that I'll greatly resent anyone telling me how they think I should raise my own daughter were I in that situation, I also don't want to be culturally insensitive."
"Wha—? What does that have to do with anything?"
"Because what happens if this is something all parents regularly do in Plegia? Like, a regularly accepted thing? If I come along and tell them to stop, I'll be the bad guy."
"Robin, you can't possibly think experimenting on children is a common occurrence in Plegia."
"Do you know that for sure?"
"Well, no, but—"
"Well then, without knowing, I can't really say anything."
"But this is crazy!" Cordelia insisted. "How can you possibly think that what Tharja does to Noire is a normal thing in any country?"
"Don't the people in Plegia worship an entity that wants to end all life in the world or something?" Morgan asked.
"Well, yes, but—"
"It seems a bit crazy to us, especially from what Lucina told us of her future, but that's the dominant religion in Plegia. I'm sure that they think Ylisse is filled with heathens and stuff for following Naga," Robin said. "And that line of thinking extends to parenting. Like, casting hexes on your kids may seem terrible to us, but maybe it's just accepted practice in Plegia to make your kids stronger. We can't really say, not having any knowledge of the country ourselves. For all we know, the Plegians think we have horrific parenting rituals because we, I don't know, breastfeed our babies or something."
Cordelia looked at Robin dubiously.
"Well, maybe not exactly that, but the thought is the same!"
"Uh…" Cynthia raised her hand. "Not that I'd know anything about Plegian parenting customs, but using your kids as experimental hex subjects isn't really normal for them…right?"
"I have no clue, but it's not really my business to butt into."
"So you're just, what, going to walk away and ignore the whole thing? Not even going to ask them if that's normal or not?" Cordelia asked.
"I mean, I could, but Plegia seems like a place that seems to defy our understanding of what is normal. Take school, for example."
"What about school?"
"School in our understanding means, you know, homework, hanging out with friends, learning things, etc."
"Okay…"
"And from the stories Henry tells us, school in Plegia means experimentation, hexing each other, and having one's face set on fire, among other things."
"I…Henry did say they did that, didn't he?" Cordelia asked reluctantly.
Robin nodded. "He even spoke of it rather fondly, if I recall correctly."
"I refuse to believe that and experimenting on their own kids is considered normal behavior in Plegia!"
"You're more than welcome to ask them about it, then. But let the record show that I am disclaiming any responsibility from what may occur before, during, or after your little talk. If you offend them and they end up turning you into a toad or something, that'll be on you."
"And you're just going to sit back and do nothing?"
"...You're right. That doesn't make any sense."
"Thank you."
"I can't have you turning into a newt right before one of our most important battles. Okay, new plan. Cordelia, I am officially politely asking you not to talk to Henry and Tharja until after the battle tomorrow."
"Are you really?"
"Being polite is usually my first course of action, yes. Don't make me order you to do it, because I will! As your superior, I have the power!"
"Is that stuff about Henry and Plegia all true?" Owain whispered. "I thought those stories were to scare us into being good."
"It certainly seemed that way, didn't it?" Cynthia responded. "Then again, who knows? We usually played with Noire and avoided her parents because they gave us a major case of the heebie-jeebies."
"True, although it's not that Tharja is much better in the past than she was in the future…"
"...I'm just making sure that everything is in order for tomorrow so that nothing can go wrong," Robin said. "Nothing!"
"Yoooo, why all the yelling?"
"Who's yelling? No one is yelling. This is just my commanding voice."
"Sounds a loooot like yelling. And stress. You know what should do? Make like an ice cube an chiiiiiiill."
Robin sighed. "What do you want, Brady? I'm a bit busy here."
"Nothin' much. I just suddenly had a major epiphany and had to share it with eeeeeeveryone. Like, 'unlock the secrets of the universe' epiphany."
"Does it have something to do with winning the war? Because if not, I'm not interested."
"Hey, uh, Brady? Are you okay?" Morgan asked. "You looked a little out of it."
"Pshaw, I'm fine!" Brady responded breezily, swaying slightly.
"No, Morgan's right. You look different," Cynthia remarked. "Like, your eyes are really red. And you don't look like you're steady on your feet."
"What? Naw! Just have a little case of the munchies. Was gonna get myself something to eat when…what was I doing again?"
"You're hungry already? But we ate not too long ago," Cordelia said.
"Psst, Dad!" Morgan lightly elbowed Robin in his ribs. "I think Brady may've gotten himself cursed or something."
"Great. This is the last thing I need."
"Should we have him looked at?"
"I guess, although I'm not sure what kind of curse would—" Robin paused as a thought occurred. "Oh gods, please don't tell me…"
"Dad?"
"Brady, look out!" Robin suddenly shouted. "There's a bandit behind you!"
While everyone immediately looked in Brady's direction, it took the man in question a full three seconds to understand Robin's words and another five to react.
"Wha—? But there ain't no one behind me…"
"Bloodshot eyes, sudden appetite, delayed reactions… Brady, have you been using Spirit Dust?"
"Heeeeey, how'd you know?"
"Because I am the world's greatest detective," Robin said sarcastically. "Also, why? And how? And more importantly, how much?"
"'Cause I wanna be a better mage if I you're to accept me into your gang, and trainin' with Ma and Pa's been slow," Brady said. "So when thinking of how to improve better and faster, I remember Lissa mentioning you recommended her Spirit Dust, and how it worked like magic!"
Robin closed his eyes and inhaled slowly.
There were too many questions here and not enough time in the day, so he had to focus on how to solve this little issue quickly.
"Okay, fine. Whatever. Just tell me you sprinkled some dust into your tea or something and drank it like that, yeah?"
"...Tea?" Brady blinked unevenly. "It's not Spirit Tea, maaaan. Although now that you mention it, Spirit Tea sounds awesome…"
"Hey, hey!" Robin snapped his fingers in front of Brady's face. "Focus!"
"Er, yeah. It's called Spirit Dust, so I just took a handful and just sniffed it."
"You took a handful and just…?" Robin facepalmed. "At least tell me you didn't literally snort a handful of Spirit Dust."
"The dust looked weak and the bag was small, man. How's a guy supposed to get good with magic with that little bit?"
"Oh boy. And how long ago would you say you did this with the dust?"
"Time is just a concept of the mind, man. And what is the mind but an extension of ourselves?"
"That sounds…deep?" Morgan commented. "Dad, do you know what's up with Brady?"
"Nothing serious. Brady just did something really dumb without supervision and did it wrong, so now he's a little bit, uh, confused. And based on what he just said, he may be feeling a lot worse in a few minutes."
"That doesn't sound good."
"No, it does not. We also can't have this so close to the battle. Cordelia? Could you please escort Brady here to the infirmary so they can keep an eye on him until this little issue passes?"
The pegasus knight didn't respond, instead crossing her arms.
"...What?" Robin asked.
"Spirit Dust, Robin?"
"What? Why are you looking at me like that? It's not like he got it from me! And even if he did, there's nothing wrong with it. Not like Spirit Dust is illegal or anything."
"Lissa, though?" Cordelia said, raising a brow.
"Look, it was a while ago and we were desperate, okay? I did the best with the resources that were given to me, or the lack of resources, as was the case back then."
"Uh, guys?" Cynthia raised her hand. "What's Spirit Dust?"
"It's a completely normal and legitimate way to increase your magical skills and power," Robin explained quickly. "You hear that, Cordelia? Normal and legitimate!"
"Hey, then how come you made me train instead of recommending me Spirit Dust?" Morgan asked. "Do you know how much time I could've saved if all I had to do was eat some Spirit Dust or whatever?"
"Because Spirit Dust is what you take when you're really desperate. It tastes a bit funny and has some side effects that can just mess you up if you take it wrong. It's always better to build your magical skills organically."
"Then…is Brady gonna be okay?" Cynthia asked. "He looks a bit out of it…"
"He apparently took Spirit Dust unsupervised and wrong, so it's going to get rough for him soon, which is why we need someone to take him to the medical tent," Robin said, looking pointedly at Cordelia.
"Fine. Although we're going to talk about this once I'm done," she said, walking over to Brady.
"Oh, I'm sure, although I'm not sure why…"
"Come, Brady, let's get you to the medical tent so we can clear your head."
"My head's never been clearer. In fact, I feel like I've unlocked the secrets of the universe!"
"Yes, well, let's get your head full of the universe's secrets over to the medical tent for a checkup," Cordelia said, leading Brady away.
"And maybe a snack and a glass of water," Robin added.
"Now that you mention it, I could use something to eat. Lips are also parched." Brady blinked unevenly. "Do you have a glass of water or somethin'?"
"This way, Brady."
"Of all the stupid…" Robin muttered, shaking his head. "At least that issue's resolved."
"Is it?" asked Cynthia.
"We caught him early. He'll be feeling like he'll want to die for a little bit because he probably took too much Spirit Dust and took it wrong, but he should be fine after that," Robin said dismissively. "But more importantly, he should be fine by tomorrow, which is really all that matters. You know why? Because nothing can go wrong!"
Robin brandished his new Ninian card to emphasize his point.
"Nothing!" Morgan agreed enthusiastically.
"And in that spirit, Morgan!"
"Dad!"
"Come! Let us do the rounds and ensure that nothing can go wrong!"
"Right!"
"What about us!?" Cynthia shouted, mimicking the enthusiasm of father and daughter.
"You can come if you want!" Robin responded, still shouting. "If you really want to and have nothing better to do! Now come on, we have things to sort out so nothing can go wrong!"
"Heeeey, there you are!" Vaike greeted, looking sheepish as he approached.
"Nothing!" Robin reiterated, snapping his fingers, tapping Vaike on the shoulder, and then purposefully walking off.
"Wha—? But I didn't even tell you what I need!"
"Nothing!"
"Hey, wai—" Vaike didn't get to finish his sentence as a crashing sound caught his attention.
"HOLY—!"
Vaike instinctively shot his arms out just in time to catch the chest that was hurtling toward him.
"What in the…?"
Vaike put the chest down and opened it.
"Hey, it's my axe! And every other axe I ever misplaced! Even Ol' Reliable! I thought I lost this years ago!"
Severa had…complicated feelings toward pegasi. On the one hand, she was always curious, given how her mother and her mother's closest friend were the most renowned pegasus knights in her time. At one point Severa thought she wanted to follow in her mother's footsteps and be a cool and talented and gallant pegasus knight herself. But as Severa grew up, she came to realize how unrealistic those dreams were. She realized she would never be as good as her talented and perfect mother, and as a result she would always be in her mother's shadow if she ever did take up the reins.
So Severa distanced herself as much as she could from her mother by taking up the sword on foot, but there was always that thought at the back of her mind. What if she did decide to take to the skies like her mother? Would she be any good? Would she even get along with the pegasus like Cynthia did with hers?
Severa never really got to explore the answers to those questions because of her stubborn pride, and because she was too busy trying to survive in the future. But now that she was in the past…
"There we are…" Severa finished brushing her pegasus' mane.
"Very good! Look how nice and clean she looks!" Sumia clapped her hands. "She was very calm during the process. She must really trust you."
"I'd certainly hope so! With how much time I've spent riding with Cynthia in the future, I'd be pretty miffed if her pegasus gave me any attitude today!"
While Severa was building up the nerve to talk to her mother (or, talk to her mother and not make it a giant, ugly mess), she decided to spend time with Sumia. And given the latter's affinity for pegasi, Severa thought now would be the best time to indulge all her hypothetical questions.
"You certainly seem to know what you're doing," Sumia noted. "I'm guessing you've done pegasus care in the future?"
Sumia was also one of the few people who Severa wasn't her usual self with, and consequently, someone who didn't run for the hills when Severa approached. That was nice.
"I did my fair share," Severa said nonchalantly. "Pegasi and fliers in general became more and more important as the world went to hell. And with limited manpower, we had to make do with the resources we had. For me, that meant familiarizing myself with pegasus care so they'd be in fighting form for when we needed them."
"It definitely shows! I can certainly say you're much better than me when I was in your position."
"Really?"
"No question." Sumia nodded. "Goodness, you wouldn't believe the things I did when I was a rookie. Thinking back on some of the things I did makes me feel so ashamed…"
"That's surprising."
"Is it?"
"Oh yeah. In the future, you were basically the patron saint of pegasus care, according to the stories we heard, at least," Severa said. "People said you had a magic touch when it came to pegasi. I remember stories of miraculous healing, of you taming even the most unruly pegasi, and other stuff like that."
"Wow. And here I thought I was some kind of bloodthirsty maniac in the future."
"Maybe on the battlefield."
"I still can't believe that's the image people had of me…"
"Some people. But at least we knew how you were really like."
"That's reassuring. Guess I have to work extra hard in this time so that I'm not reimagined as some sort of uncontrollable lunatic." Sumia shook her head. "Anyway, getting back to the topic at hand. Have you ever given any thought to becoming a pegasus knight? I know you like to do your fighting on foot, but I think you'd be really good at it!"
"Eh." Severa shrugged. "Maybe here and there, but I don't know how good I'd actually be."
"I'd say very," Sumia reiterated. "And I'm the Knight-Captain, so you know I know what I'm talking about!"
Sumia's enthusiasm actually made Severa smile.
"Anyway, a knight's relationship with her mount is half of what makes a pegasus knight," Sumia continued. "And from what I've seen, I'd say you got that part covered, and this isn't even your pegasus! If you were under my command, I'd pass you with flying colors."
Severa thought that you'd have to be a special case of incompetent if even Sumia had to fail you. In the future, Cordelia usually had to step in and play her role as the serious disciplinarian because Sumia was too nice to say anything.
"I'm not pushing you or anything, but if we found you a pegasus and you got along even half as well as you did with Cynthia's, then you'd still be halfway there! All that'd be left would be the flying and weapons training. Although fighting atop a pegasus can get tricky, you seem like you're more than capable of learning how to do it."
"That's very nice of you to say. Maybe I'll look into it one day," Severa said noncommittally.
"If you do, you know where to find me! Or you can ask Cordelia, although she'll probably be much busier since she's the Knight-Commander and all."
"Hm."
"So this is Cynthia's pegasus, huh? She's a very fine mount," Sumia said, approaching. "She's very strong and loyal, although she's been through so much. Funnily enough, she reminds me of Daisy."
And why wouldn't she? They were the same pegasus, after all. Wait a minute…
That fact snapped Severa out of her thoughts as she watched Sumia admiring the Daisy from the future.
Oh crap.
This couldn't continue. Sumia still had no idea that Cynthia was her daughter, and if she came to realize that Cynthia's pegasus was her pegasus from the future, then…!
"H-hey, Sumia!" Severa said, frantically trying to distract her from examining the pegasus further. "Why don't you, uh, over here!"
"Huh?"
"Yeah, I…need help with something?"
"Help with what, exactly? You sound uncertain."
Well, at least it worked. Sumia was no longer examining Daisy from the future. The bad news was that Sumia was approaching Severa and the latter had no idea what to say.
Fortunately, some voices outside saved Severa from having to come up with a plausible excuse.
"Pretty good haul."
"Oh yeah. My deck's definitely gonna benefit from some of the cards I pulled. It'll also totally take down Morgan this time!"
"Oh look, it's Owain and Cynthia! Hey, guys!" Severa waved them over.
"Hoy there, Severa!"
"Heya, Sev! And Sumia!"
"Uh, what brings you two over to the stables?" Severa asked quickly.
"Just going over our heroic hauls!" Owain declared, brandishing his deck.
"Yeah, we were originally resolving problems before tomorrow's battle with Robin, but there's only so much we can do when he and Morgan get so pumped to solve problems," Cynthia said. "So it's card time for us!"
"Oh shoot. I was so caught up in the stables that I missed the handing out of the new packs." Sumia sighed. "It's always so much fun to see what everyone else pulled…"
"Fear not, for we have brought the blessings of the card gods directly to you!" Owain announced before dramatically taking out a card pack from his pocket and handing it to Sumia.
"That's very kind of you, Owain. Thank you."
"Don't worry, we got one for you too," Cynthia said knowingly, seeing Severa pout.
"Hmph. I'm perfectly capable of getting my own packs, you know," the redhead scoffed.
"I mean, I could just take this pack if you don't want it…"
"Like I'm giving you an extra pack to improve your deck. It could have my rares, for all I know. Give me that!"
Severa snatched the pack from Cynthia's hands.
"Heh, thought you might feel that way."
"Shut up, you!"
"Anyway," Sumia tried to steer the conversation to another direction, "Robin and Morgan are going around solving problems before tomorrow's battle? And from what you said, they're in a good mood?"
"Oh yeah. Robin finally managed to pull a Ninian. She had an attack flaw and an HP asset, but Robin was too excited to care," Cynthia said.
"I'd imagine so. You can't believe how long he's been trying to pull a Ninian." Sumia laughed softly. "Robin probably feels that nothing can go wrong now that he has one."
"Which is exactly why he's in such a good mood and determined to correct even the tiniest things today so that nothing can go wrong tomorrow. Says he needs to squeeze his luck for all it's worth."
"That sounds exactly like something he'd do. And now that he's pulled Ninian, we can be sure of tomorrow's battle because he'll be extra thorough in his checks today."
"Whatever works to keep us alive, I guess…" Severa grunted. "Although I wish it wasn't based on what card he managed to pull on what day…"
"So what're you two doing?" Owain asked.
"We were just taking care of the pegasi," Sumia answered.
"What, the both of you?" Cynthia was visibly surprised.
"Yes!" Sumia nodded enthusiastically. "Did you know how good Severa is with pegasi?"
"Oh yeah, she's great! She gets along with well with Dai—"
"Ah, all right! Okay!" Severa quickly interrupted before Cynthia's big mouth ruined everything, "Let's, uh, discuss…our pulls…? Yes, discuss the cards we got."
"Oh? I didn't know you were into the card game," Sumia said. "Do you play the game too, or just collect?"
"I…can talk about it. Away from the stables. Like, right now. Let's go…somewhere else!" Severa insisted and started pushing Sumia in the opposite direction of the stables.
"What's that all about?" Owain asked.
Cynthia shrugged. "Beats me. Also kinda surprised Severa admitted to liking anything we do. She usually tries to deny that pretty hard."
"Hey, come on, you two! Let's go. Away from the stables. Now!" Severa shouted.
"Wow. Someone's pushy."
"Well, let's see what she wants," Owain suggested. "It'll also be a good chance to see if she pulls anything good and maybe change up our strategy. My heroic deck made of history's greatest is starting to struggle against Morgan."
"I'm surprised you're only struggling against Morgan's deck now. Feel like all she's been pulling is rares."
"Yeah, but she's also totally focused on defeating Robin's deck, which allowed me to build my deck around that, but recently…"
Robin was on a roll.
His pulling a Ninian was a sign that everything was going to be fine, and he had to ensure his good fortune lasted, which he did by going around camp and ensuring that everything was going to be fine. With the extra vigor, he was even more meticulous than usual, visiting everyone and examining everything to ensure that nothing could go wrong for the battle ahead.
His work was also made easier with the help of Morgan (who shared his enthusiasm and zeal despite not pulling a Ninian), and the ever reliable Laurent. With the three of them on the job, Robin sorted out everything that he could possibly think would cause an issue by dinnertime.
And after dinnertime, Robin busied himself with tactical planning for the battle and drafting backup plans for various scenarios.
Which is what he was doing now, but he was at the stage where his eyes were getting tired and the plans were all merging into one big blur as a result of drafting so many of them for so long.
Robin rubbed his eyes and leaned back in his chair.
He promised Sumia and Cordelia that he wouldn't stay up too late and get some sleep to be fresh for the battle ahead. And Robin intended to keep that promise, since him being tired and half-asleep before such an important battle did no one any good.
Looking outside, Robin thought that he still had some time to finalize a few plans. However, he also realized that he had to rest his mind for a bit to clear the haze. That meant thinking about something else that wasn't battle plans or the war.
With the war hopefully in its closing stages, Robin's mind wandered to Morgan, her unknown mother, and the fact that he actually had to go out and find her very soon. And no matter how hard Robin tried not to think about the inevitable, it was going to come eventually. Robin had to at least be prepared to find Morgan's mother, even if he had no idea how to do it or where to start.
Thinking about it, Robin remembered his recent conversation with Sumia. She had advised him to focus less on the "Morgan's mother" part and more on the "Robin's wife" part and what that part entailed.
That was easy enough. Robin could do that.
Taking a deep breath and getting a spare piece of paper, Robin decided to write down what qualities he was looking for in a woman that was to be his future wife.
He stared blankly at the paper for a full minute.
Why was this so hard? Just because he never thought about this ever in his life didn't mean he couldn't have any ideas now! It was just what he wanted for his future wife. Not that hard.
Another minute.
"Okay, forget this. Another approach."
Robin wrote down the first thing that came to his mind and looked at his work.
Pies
Well. That was a start…? But there was something missing.
Robin scribbled again.
Sumia's pies
That made Robin chuckle, but enough joking around. He had to get down to business and think about what was important to him. And to get down to it, Robin cleared his mind and wrote the first things he thought of.
After a minute of writing, Robin looked down at his work.
Morgan
My coat
Sumia's pies
Morgan
My friends
My job
My daughter
Cordelia's pies
NINIAN
Planning and organization
Cookies
Morgan
Lissa's cookies
Pies
Olivia's cookies
Sumia's cookies
Cherche's steak
Cherche's stew
Pockets
That really good gravy Cherche makes with her steaks
Sumia's mashed potatoes combined with Cordelia's gravy
Morgan
Robin looked at his list in disbelief
"Are you kidding me?!"
On the list of things that Robin cared most about, Morgan took several spots, there were things related to his job, there was his friends, but the vast majority of things he cared about was apparently food.
So according to the list, Robin had to find a woman who knew how to cook and had to like Morgan. Apparently, he didn't care whether she was nice or kind of funny or honest, no. What Robin cared about seemed to be her ability to cook.
…Well, her ability to cook as good (or better than) as a combination of (in no particular order) Sumia, Cordelia, Olivia, Lissa (to an extent) and Cherche.
Robin sighed in frustration and stepped out of his tent to get some fresh air.
As he walked outside, Robin brooded.
He was a man of many skills, talents, and abilities. Surely that meant he wanted more from his future wife than just (really delicious and high quality) food, right? …Right?
"Whoa!"
Robin was so deep in thought that he didn't notice the person in front of him and almost ran them both over.
"Ah! Sorry. I was thinking about things."
"Clearly. You okay?"
"I'm—" Robin was about to respond before he noticed who he was talking to. "Chrom?"
"Yes?"
"What're you doing out here?"
"Patrolling the area."
"Alone?"
"I felt the need to get some fresh air and alone time. As much as I love my family and my friends, a man sometimes needs some time alone with his thoughts, you know?"
"Patrolling alone with his thoughts," Robin stated flatly.
"Oh no. I know that tone…"
"You know what I'm going to say, right?"
"That's the 'I'm going to lecture Chrom about something petty and insignificant' tone."
Robin sighed. "Chrom, we discussed this literally the other day. And since when is your personal safety 'petty and insignificant'? Do you secretly want to die? Is that why you've been ignoring my very sensible advice since the incident?"
"Robin, that was just one petty thief," Chrom said patiently. "Nothing that I couldn't handle."
"Nothing you couldn't handle then. It was my oversight that camp security was lax enough to let some petty thief sneak in and try to steal things. We're lucky he didn't snatch anything while he was here."
"Robin, you couldn't possibly—"
"BUT! What if it's a professional assassin next time, huh? You walk alone and hear something and then WACK! Now Olivia's a widow and Lucina and Inigo have no father. Just because he didn't listen to the sagely advice of his best friend. Do you really want that for your family, Chrom? Do you? Do you?!"
"...Do you really have to yell?"
"How else am I supposed to get it through that thick head of yours to take your security seriously?"
"Peace, Robin. Like I said last time, I see the wisdom in your words and will be more careful next time."
"And yet you're still wandering alone at night."
"...Next time."
Robin narrowed his eyes.
"I swear I'll be more careful next time," Chrom said, placing his hand on his heart. "I swear on Emmeryn's name."
"May she haunt you if you're lying."
"The next time you see me at night, I'll have someone walking with me," Chrom said solemnly. "Anyway, what brings you out here? I don't think you're on night patrol today."
"I needed some fresh air to clear my head. Am busy thinking about stuff."
"Tomorrow's battle?"
"A bit, but mostly something personal."
"I see. Copper for your thoughts?"
Robin looked like he was about to demur before reconsidering.
"Sure. Let me ask you a question."
"I'm listening."
"Am I simple?"
The urge to make a witty remark was overwhelming, but seeing Robin's serious expression, Chrom chose instead to say, "What do you mean?"
"See, I've been thinking about Morgan's mother. Again."
"Okay…"
"And Sumia suggested I think less about that aspect and more about the 'Robin's wife' aspect. So in pursuit of that, I made a list of the most important things to me to get an idea of what I want in a woman. And you know what I found?"
"Do tell."
"That the vast majority of the things that are important to me is food!" Robin exclaimed. "Or related to food."
"Sumia's pies being top of the list, I'm guessing?" Chrom quipped.
"Come on, give me some credit. You should know by now that Morgan would top my list of things that are important to me. And take several places, too."
"Ah, of course." Chrom nodded. "But Sumia's pies have to be top three, right?"
"...Right behind my coat."
"Wait a minute. Where do we fall in this list of yours? Behind your daughter, your coat, and Sumia's pies?"
"Hey, aside from Morgan, this list is in no particular order," Robin said, raising his hands defensively. "Besides, that's not the point of this conversation!"
"Of course. Please, proceed."
"Right." Robin paused. "...Actually, that's it. But that can't be it! I like food so much that it takes the majority of the places on my list of things that are important to me? Really? What does that say about me? I'm going to fall for the first woman that bakes me a good pie? Or soup? Or steak?"
"To be fair, Cherche makes the best stakes," Chrom said.
"Gods, don't I know it. And her gravy?"
"Delicious beyond words."
Both men went quiet, mouths watering slightly as they thought about the dish.
"Right. Anyway." Robin shook his head. "That's my problem. Am I really so simple that I'll just fall for a woman who cooks really well? Not someone who is smart, or kind, or funny, or really hot, no. Just someone who cooks well?"
"There are worse qualities to want in your future wife."
"Chrom, this isn't a joke! I'm having a genuine crisis here!"
"Peace, Robin. I'm not making fun of you. You know, for a man who has only very occasionally thought about this whole thing, at least you found something you really want."
"Cooking, though? Really?"
"And this is the first time you've done something like this, right?"
Robin nodded.
"Then it's a good first try. And you'll have plenty of time to think about it in the future and add to the list. It's not like this is the only thing you want in your wife, right?"
"Gods, I hope not."
"Then there you go!" Chrom said definitively. "And to answer your question, no. You are not a simple man, Robin. You just need more time to think about it and figure out what's important to you and what you want in your future wife."
"Right. Right! This was my first try actually thinking about this. Of course it won't be perfect. And I have time to think about this more. Yeah. Yeah!" Robin looked more confident now that he heard Chrom's reasoning.
"Also, you won't be the first man to love food and certainly not the last," Chrom said. "After all, they say that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach for a reason, you know?"
"I hope it won't be the only reason. Or the main one. Otherwise, what, Sumia bakes me several pies and I marry her because of that? Oh yeah, that's a great story to tell the kids if ever I heard one. 'So how did you and Mom get together?' 'Well, you see, Morgan, your mother made the best pies.' 'And?' 'And between the fifth and sixth pie I thought to myself that I must marry this woman and make her happy for the rest of her life!' Amazing story, beaten only by the actual, real-life story of how you met and married Olivia."
"You're never going to let me live that down, are you?"
"Never. It's just too good."
"Just you wait. I'll get the last laugh when you do something even crazier."
"Ha! There isn't anything crazier than your little love story with Olivia."
"I'm so sad you didn't fall for Tharja. That would've given me enough material to counter every time you bring up Olivia."
"Marrying my creepy stalker would definitely come close, although I think you and Olivia still have an edge in overall ridiculousness. But that'd also never happen, for obvious reasons."
"Because Tharja creeps the hell out of you?"
"It definitely doesn't help! Dark mages are weird and creepy enough as it is, but the stalking and hexing and the rest of it…" Robin shivered. "Cannot deal with that. The only one who can deal with the insanity that is being married to a weird dark mage is another weird dark mage. I thank Naga every day for sending us Henry. If not for him, Tharja would still be spending every second of her free time stalking me."
"She doesn't do that anymore?"
"She does it less. It's better than before, fortunately. But the main reason Tharja would never in a million years be my wife is that the main criteria for that is being a good mother to Morgan. And given what we've seen of Noire…"
"Yeah…"
"Yeah. I'd burn the entire world to the ground before I let Morgan suffer through that."
"Well at least you know what you don't want. That's a start. And I'm sure you'll be able to narrow down what you want in your future wife, Robin," Chrom stated confidently. "You probably just need some time to think about it, which this war doesn't really allow. So get some rest and don't you worry about it for now. You can think about it all you want after we win."
"I guess…"
"There you are!"
Both men looked back to see a displeased-looking Cordelia.
"Yep. Here we are, in the flesh," Robin quipped. "What brings you over here to us?"
"Here to you," Cordelia corrected, pointing at the grandmaster. "Do you know what time it is?"
"It's…sometime during the night."
"It's way past your bedtime, is what it is," Cordelia said, frowning. "You promised that you'd got to bed at reasonable time today and get some sleep, Robin. And yet when Sumia and I went to your tent to check up on you, you weren't there!"
"First of all, I'm a fully grown man, Cordelia. And I don't need any bedtime. Second, I didn't forget my promise. It's still early enough, so I'll just stay out and—"
"Oh no you don't. I'm not letting you stay up any second longer."
"Wha—? 'Let me stay up'? What are you, my mother? I'll—Hey! Let me go!"
"I'm doing this for your own good, Robin," Cordelia said, dragging the hapless grandmaster by his ear and back to his tent. "You'll thank me in the morning when you're fresh and well-rested."
"Ow ow ow! I'll be doing no such thing if you keep dragging me! Damn it, Cordelia, let me go! Chrom, help!"
"Thank you for your services, Cordelia," Chrom said, grinning and waving. "And sleep well, Robin."
"I am not a morning person…" Robin yawned and then addressed the assembled soldiers. "Okay, I know it's been a bit hectic round here lately, but we've had enough briefings for everyone to know what we're doing and what they're doing. I'll be counting on all of you. Now, we have a general idea of how the Goddess Staff works, but since our knowledge is incomplete, the final location we find ourselves in will vary. Ideally, we'd get far enough for us to be able to do a quick analysis of the enemy positions before our attack, but if that's not possible…"
"We will be the first to engage the enemy," Nah said.
"A little roar here, a little dragon fire there, and the bad guys will be gone before they knew that hit 'em! Come on, we're ready to go!" Nowi was bouncing in anticipation.
"I've been asleep for so long. It will be good to get a little exercise," Tiki said.
"Good. Just keep in mind that's only if we're closer than what we anticipated. Everyone else, you know what to do. Hopefully, we can catch the enemy by surprise given how early it is…" Robin then turned to Laurent and Miriel. "Let's go."
Castus sighed.
He hated guard duty, and he hated waiting.
Although everyone in the garrison was briefed on the reports of the rebel army approaching their position and prepared accordingly, they didn't know exactly when the rebel army would arrive. So until then, it was days filled with drills, preparating, and waiting.
Castus sighed irritably.
He hoped those damn rebels would get here soon, otherwise Castus thought he'd lose his mind out of sheer boredom. The battle wouldn't be very long or difficult, given the fact that he and his men were prepared and fortified behind their walls and the rebels had no siege equipment, but it would at least break the monotony.
"Hail."
Castus turned around and saluted.
"Hail."
"Any news?"
"What do you think, Antonis? It's still and quiet, as always."
"Patience, friend. The rebels will be here soon enough."
Castus grunted.
"Go. Get some rest now that your shift is over. Maybe you'll feel better after some sleep."
"I'll feel better once I'm doing something that isn't watching the trees sway in the wind," Castus grunted, heading for the stairs. But before he could start down the first step, his eyes were filled with a bright light.
"Argh!"
Castus covered his eyes with his hand.
Once the light faded, Castus lowered his hands and was confronted by an army that was definitely not there a second ago.
"What the hell…?"
Before he understood what was going on, a figure at the front of the unknown army started shouting something, there were a few more bright lights (although less bright than the initial one), and then three dragons appeared out of nowhere.
The dragons then proceeded to attack.
"I ask to have us warped a little behind the wall and instead get thrown right behind it. I don't know why I'm even surprised…" Robin muttered, walking through the destruction.
The bad news was that the Shepherds and their allies were indeed warped right behind the Valmese garrison. The good news was that their surprise attack achieved its intended effect: the shock of having the enemy suddenly appearing in the heart of their defenses combined with the fact that it happened so early meant that the Shepherds caught the Valmese completely unprepared. Robin was almost sure that the Valmese didn't know what was happening beyond the fact that they were somehow being attacked from the wrong direction.
"Cheer up, Dad! At least we won with minimal casualties," Morgan said.
"True. Thank the gods for small miracles."
"And your excellent planning!"
Robin grinned. "Well that goes without saying."
"While I applaud your planning and our victory, I must raise my concerns about the issue of our supplies," Laurent said.
"Yes. Given the fluid nature of the situation and our sudden warping here and there, I realize that we haven't actually managed to coordinate our supply pickups with our allies, nor have we actually made use of the ones we have agreed upon."
"That is correct. While we had enough supplies for our operation today, I am concerned that we may not have enough for the battle for Rigel. Moreover, I do not believe that we have organized any resupply locations in this area."
"Which is why we're going to raid the Valmese armory."
"...Robin?"
"Look around us, Laurent. This fort is basically the only thing standing between an invading army and the Valmese capital. I'm certain that the Valmese have stockpiles of food and equipment here to withstand any sort of siege for a good long time, doubly so since we made sure to let them know that we were coming. Now that we've dispatched the garrison here, we might as well put the equipment to good use."
"That seems like a reasonable course of action. Do we—"
"Hey, you!"
Robin frowned. He knew that shrill voice from a mile away…
"What do you want, Severa? I'm busy here."
"And here I thought you always had time for your teammates," the redhead said sarcastically as she walked up to the group.
"Those who I like, yes," Robin mumbled under his breath. "What do you want?"
"Just to sit in and offer an outsider's perspective on things."
"A…what?"
"You're no doubt planning our next moves, aren't you? Don't try to deny it. And it's always you and your little clique cooking up plans that involve the rest of us risking our lives, and we don't even get a say in any of it! So I thought I'd fix that and sit and offer some commentary on the plans that'll involve me risking my life without any say."
"But you do have a say," Morgan spoke up before Robin could offer a sarcastic remark. "The strategy meetings are open to anyone who comes. Actually, you tend to come to those and listen in, don't you?"
"Well, yeah, but…uh…"
"Whatever. I don't have time for this." Robin waved dismissively. "Just be quiet and don't interrupt the adults are talking, go it?"
"Just who do you think—"
"Anyway, supply lines." Robin turned to Morgan and Laurent. "Do we have a record on the Valmese stockpiles and the status of our weapons and equipment?"
"I have a list of all of our equipment and status prior to today's battle," Laurent reported. "However, it will need updating if we are to know exactly what was damaged and what is left."
"And we should have a list of the Valmese stocks here somewhere. I bet the commander's office has everything we'll need, given how orderly the Valmese are. We just haven't had a chance to search the office yet," Morgan added.
"And even if we did, we'd need to compare the list against what's actually here…" Robin thought aloud. "What's the status on our food supplies?"
Laurent checked his notes. "We were able to warp what food we had on us, but it will need to ration what we have if we are to make it last until we reach Rigel."
"Not ideal. We'll need to raid the garrison's food stocks, too. Morgan?"
"I'll make a note to check where that is and what they have. Given the size of the garrison, I'm sure we can take what we need and still have more than enough left over for the people we're leaving to guard this place."
"Good." Robin nodded and thought for a moment. "Okay, course of action: we'll need to be as fast as possible if we are to intercept Walhart before he fortifies himself in Rigel. Laurent, go through everything we have and give me a report by sundown on the status of all our stores and equipment."
"At once."
"Morgan, I'm afraid I'm going to have to assign you the unenviable task of doing an inventory check on the stuff in the Valmese armory. Do you think you can do that?"
"You can count on me!" Morgan declared.
"I'm coming too."
Robin raised a brow, turning to Severa. "Really? You?"
"Yeah, what of it?" Severa said defiantly. "You're sending one person to take stock of the entire Valmese stockpile. Don't you think that's a bit much?"
"I mean, I was going to assign her help…"
Severa rolled her eyes. "You don't need to assign anyone since I'm right here volunteering."
"Don't you have anything better to do?" Robin asked skeptically.
"Hey, I'm offering my precious time to help do this extremely tedious thing you're asking Morgan to do. You should be grateful!" Severa retorted.
"I'd be grateful if you weren't such a—!" Robin cut himself off and took a deep breath. He then turned to his daughter. "Morgan? Do you want Severa's help?"
"I guess. The more the merrier, right? Ooh, I can even share my system with her!"
"Heh, leave it to you to get excited about things such as inventory check," Robin chuckled. He then turned to Severa. "Fine. Go help Morgan. Be helpful and don't be your usual annoying self, got it? We need this done quickly, but also right. Do as Morgan says and don't get in the way, we clear?"
Severa was about to argue, but she saw from Robin's expression that he was not in the mood, so she went with a grumpy, "Fine."
"Good."
"Great! Come on, Severa. Let's go find the armory and note everything in our notes, down to the last arrow." Morgan took Severa's hand and started dragging her away. "With you and me and my system, we'll be done in a few hours tops!"
"Hey, hey! Not so fast! Do you even know where you're going?!"
"We'll figure it out. Now come on, inventory checking awaits!"
It was so endearing how excited Morgan was about inventory check. Then again, Morgan was very endearing in general.
"Right. Okay." Robin shook his head to get back to the task at hand. "Now, the commander's office…"
"Robin!"
"Hm? Oh, Chrom. What's up?"
"Say'ri and the others want to have a strategy meeting to discuss the next steps now that we're so close to Rigel. You free?"
"Guess that would be the best course of action, sure. Lead the way."
"Whoa, look at the size of this place!" Morgan's eyes widened in awe. "I've never seen such a big room and so many weapons before!"
"I know…" Severa was much less excited. "We're gonna be here forever!"
"Well I guess we'd better get started!" Morgan rolled up her sleeves. "And we'll be done before you know it thanks to my easy thirty-three step plan on quick and easy inventory checking!"
"Your what," Severa said flatly.
"I know, right? Weird page numbering. I could've sworn I drafted this to have a nice multiple of five page number…" Morgan looked at her papers curiously. "But whatever. We're here now, and I guarantee that my plan will get us done before you know it!"
Severa scoffed.
She usually wouldn't volunteer for something as annoyingly tedious as inventory check, but this was her chance to be alone with Morgan and probe more information from her about who she really was. Also keep an eye on her in case the girl decided to sabotage any equipment or something equally nefarious.
So she might as well start the probing now.
"Hey, Morgan."
"What's up?"
"What's your story, anyway?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean you just show up out of the blue claiming to have amnesia, not remembering anything except your dad, and then just up and claiming that Robin is said dad and just incorporating yourself into the Shepherds just like that? The only thing crazier than your story is the fact that everyone took it at face value."
"Oh yeah, it's suuuuper unbelievable," Morgan agreed. "And I see why you'd be skeptical. Heck, I'd be skeptical about a story as unbelievable as that! My defense is twofold: that I am absolutely certain that my memories are genuine and that Dad is my dad, and that how Dad found me is almost the same as how Chrom found Dad, amnesia and all. Actually, even worse, since Dad remembers nothing of his past. I mean, at least I have memories of him to keep me comfort. Dad, on the other hand, has nothing!"
Severa had to not let it show how much it upset her hearing Morgan call Robin "Dad" so casually.
"Yeah, Robin's circumstances are another issue entirely, but this conversation is about you. And how do you remember everything about your alleged father and nothing of your mother? Don't you have memories of them together or something? How does that even work?"
"I…don't know," Morgan said quietly. "I have all my memories of Dad, but just a big, blurry blank when I try to think about Mom. Even with memories where I know they both are, I only see Dad clearly and some kind of vague, blurry figure next to him. I don't know who my mother is or what she looks like. I don't even know why I can't remember anything about her…"
Now, Severa might not have known Morgan for as long as some of the others, but if there was anything she learned in her time doing research on the young tactician (and seeing for herself), it was that Morgan was always happy and upbeat. All day, every day. To a kind of unnatural degree. Morgan was so full of positive energy that Severa saw how she lifted people's spirits just by talking to them, even for a little bit. It was impressive, really. Severa would never have believed that someone could be so mindlessly happy if she hadn't seen it for herself.
And watching Morgan now, head hanging low and clutching the papers (that contained her plan that she was so very excited about only minutes earlier) close to her chest, Severa realized that this was just plain wrong. A sad, subdued Morgan was maybe the saddest thing Severa had seen ever since she came to this era. It was like seeing an injured puppy. With three legs. That was crying.
It also made Severa feel incredibly guilty and an overwhelming urge to try and make Morgan feel better and cheer her up and get back to being her regular, peppy self. Because seeing Morgan so down was making Severa really feel terrible for being the one to bring her down.
"O-okay, okay, look," Severa said, awkwardly approaching Morgan and trying to be comforting. "It's, uh, probably not important why you can't remember your mother. Maybe it's just a result of you bumping your head when you went back in time, yeah? I think I heard they found you in some ruins or something?"
"Yeah."
"So you probably hit your head when you popped out of the time portal and for whatever reason, it wiped out all your memories except the ones of your…father."
"I guess, although it's all speculation at this point…"
Oh thank gods. She was no longer looking sad.
Severa sighed, relieved.
"There's so many theories out there, we might as well go with this one. It makes sense, doesn't it? Besides, it's not like your mother died or something, right?"
"I don't think so…" Morgan paused, eyes widening. "But what if she did?"
"I'm sure that—"
"Didn't you guys say that you came from the future and all our parents are dead?"
"Uh…"
"So what if I can't remember my mother because something so horrible happened to her that I had to mentally block it out because it was too horrible to remember? What if…" Morgan's expression switched from sadness to rising panic. "What if I killed my mom and made myself forget it?!"
Oh gods. Oh gods oh gods oh gods. Morgan was maybe two seconds away from full-blown panic, which meant that she was maybe seven seconds away from crying. And if Morgan started crying, Severa didn't think she would be able to live with the guilt of being the one to make the usually unshakably cheerful Morgan cry.
"Uh…uh…"
Severa cursed internally. She specialized in giving sarcastic, cutting remarks to knock annoying people down a peg or two. Comforting people wasn't something she did since she was a kid and Cynthia ran to her crying every time she found something scary, or someone bullied her, or something.
"Okay, look. Just…calm down for now. I'm pretty sure you didn't do anything terrible like killing your mom or whatever it is you're thinking about."
"You don't know that. How do you—"
"Shh!" Severa put her finger on Morgan's mouth to keep the girl calm and from saying anything else that could make herself more upset. "Because you're you. What you do is train and study and look at tactics and generally go about your life like you have nothing in your mind but sunshine and rainbows. You're always happy and you like to cheer up those around you. Hell, people cheer up even when you don't do anything!"
Morgan kept quiet, but Severa saw she wasn't seeing where Severa was going with this. To be fair, neither did Severa, who was just saying things to keep the younger girl from crying.
"Aaaaand that means you're too happy and nice to do anything that'll hurt the people you love. I'm actually surprised you're able to hurt anyone at all, but I guess all's fair in war."
"I have no problem taking down the bad guys," Morgan said rather proudly. "Think I'm pretty good at it, too."
"No comment. So having said that, I don't see or believe there's any way you could do anything bad to your friends, let alone your mother."
"But—"
"Do you think you could ever hurt your parents?"
"No," Morgan stated emphatically.
"Then there you go," Severa said, her tone indicating that this settled the matter. "It goes totally against your nature and you as I and everyone else around here know you. And the amnesia thing was almost certainly because you hit your head entering the portal or something."
"You sound awfully confident about all this."
"All I know is that you're worrying over this for nothing. So just push those unpleasant thoughts out of your head, yeah? They only make you upset, which no one wants."
"Yeah. Okay. I guess I can't argue when you sound so convincing. Thanks, Severa."
Thank Naga.
Severa almost sagged with relief. She avoided the crisis of Morgan crying and somehow managed to not only prevent the young girl from crying, but actually lift her spirits. And sound convincing while doing so! Which was incredibly lucky since emotional comforting wasn't something people came to Severa for. …Actually people generally didn't come to Severa for anything because of her prickly personality, but especially not emotional comforting.
"Heh, you sure you don't know something about my past and are just keeping it from me?" Morgan asked, grinning and elbowing her slightly.
"Yes, that's exactly what I'm doing. If you want the truth, you're actually adopted."
"Come on, if you're going to joke with me, at least make it believable. Say I'm a direct descendant of Naga with secret divine powers or something. Or even that I'm Lucina's long-lost sister once removed."
"Oh, so that's what you'd believe?"
"Well they're a lot more fun than the adoption thing."
Morgan gave Severa a cheeky smile, and Severa couldn't help but grin.
Gods damn it, this girl had some sort of magic positivity aura that made it impossible to not like her. And Severa was trying really, really hard to not like her!
Maybe that was her secret: she got people's trust by being ridiculously happy and peppy all the time and if that didn't work, she'd turn on the puppy dog eyes and get you to do whatever she wanted. It certainly worked like a charm on Severa, who considered herself above such manipulation.
Yes, that had to be it! …Although if her entire personality was all fake, it was a damn good one. Also took commitment, given how long Morgan kept it up. It was so real that Severa didn't know whether to believe her own words, since Morgan really did seem like a cheerfully airheaded tactical prodigy, saying and doing such nonsensical things that it made Severa question what she saw and what she believed.
Severa supposed that the only way to really get to the truth was to spend more time around Morgan to see what she did.
"Okay. Sorry for bringing down the mood there. I guess I got carried away by some unpleasant thoughts. So!" Morgan looked to be back to her old cheerful self. "Let's get back on track and check all this stuff out!"
Oh. Right. The main task of why they were sent here in the first place.
Severa looked around at the size of the room and the amount of weapons stored in it.
"I can't believe it's up to us two to check everything in this stupidly big room. I mean, look at it! We'll be stuck here for ages!"
"Not if we follow the plan…" Morgan said in a singsong voice, pointing to the papers in her hand.
"You and your plan. Do you honestly think it'll help us categorize everything here?"
"Don't dismiss the plan so easily," came a familiar voice that made Severa freeze on the spot. "That plan over there is the result of research and hard work to optimize inventory checking."
"And Cordelia here would know. After all, she went and peer reviewed it," Morgan informed matter-of-factly.
"More than that, I actually helped amend, optimize, and cut down the length of the plan for maximum efficiency."
"Really?" Morgan looked at the papers in her hand. "Is that why the total page numbers are weird?"
"Morgan, your original plan had fifty pages, with at least a dozen being about 'mental preparation,'" Cordelia stated playfully.
"Getting yourself in the mood is an important part of the task!"
"I agree, but it can also be done in three pages, which is what I did."
"Man, the weird number of pages is gonna bug me so much now…"
"If you want, I can sit down with you later on to edit it down to thirty pages," Cordelia offered.
"Yes please."
Cordelia chuckled at seeing how Morgan was bothered by the smallest things. She really was her father's daughter.
"Why are you here?" Severa asked.
"Robin sent me. He was on his way to a strategy meeting when we crossed paths. We exchanged brief words and then the topic of inventory came up. Robin seemed confident that you two would get the job done when Lucina suggested that checking each and every weapon in what was probably a giant room in this giant fortress was maybe beyond the ability of two people to do in the time that we had. So Robin decided to divert extra resources to assist."
"So here we are!" Cynthia announced, dramatically entering the room.
"He sent you to help us?" Severa asked skeptically.
"Well, he sent Cordelia to help. I volunteered because that's what heroes do!"
"All right! With the four of us, we'll get everything checked in here in no time!" Morgan declared enthusiastically. "Now let's gather 'round so we can check our plan and assign…"
"Since when do you volunteer for inventory check?" Severa whispered. "You can pay attention for a maximum of five seconds before getting bored and moving on to making up heroic battle lines or something."
"Usually yes, but this time is totally different," Cynthia responded.
"Oh yeah? How? Did you suddenly expand your attention span to seven seconds?"
"It's different because Robin assigned Cordelia to help and I'm here to make sure you can talk to your mother."
"Hey, I don't need your help to talk to her! I'm perfectly capable of doing so myself. I just…need the right moment."
"Right. We'll win the war against Valm, send Grima back to whatever evil hole he crawled out of, and you still won't find the 'right moment' to break the ice with your mom."
"That's—!"
"Why I'm here!" Cynthia winked. "I know playing nice isn't really your strong suit, so I'm here to help you along and make sure you don't say or do anything to alienate your mom. Now come on and follow my lead."
"Hey, wait—!"
"Cordelia! You've met my friend Severa, right?"
"Yes, although we haven't had much time to…"
"Okay, so the plan is agreed, the next steps are agreed, everything is agreed," Robin said, stepping out of the meeting room.
"That went better than I expected," Chrom remarked.
"It better have. If any of our so-called allies raised any objections after I just delivered a major victory with minor casualties, there would be a very real possibility of me punching them in the face."
"Self-interested though they may be, they respect results more than anything. And on that front you continue to deliver and impress. Their personal feelings aside, the other leaders cannot deny your abilities and thus have no choice but to respect your counsel," Say'ri said.
"Good. I really don't want to argue about our course of action when we're so close to our goal, although this is the part where it gets tricky…"
"We have agreed on the preliminary numbers on what troops to leave here to meet the Valmese section making their way to Rigel. I understand that more concrete information will depend on Laurent's and Morgan's findings?" Virion asked.
"Yes. I need to understand the state of our inventory and what the Valmese stocks have. Do we have a master list of the Valmese weapons and equipment?"
"I understand Frederick has taken some soldiers to search the commanding officer's room. We haven't heard from them yet, so probably nothing so far," Chrom said.
Robin grunted. "They better find what we need soon. I want to finalize everything and make for Rigel tomorrow."
"Tomorrow? Is that not too soon?" Say'ri asked.
"Every day we spend here is a day Walhart moves ever closer to his capital. If he does that, it will all be over. Not only will we look extremely silly, sitting outside the walls with no siege equipment, but we'll also be at an extreme tactical disadvantage. So we best be on our way sooner rather than later."
"Will our departure date not depend on when the teams complete their tasks of finding what we need in the fortress?" Virion inquired. "It is my opinion that we will need several days to do a proper search and inventory."
"Well we'd better do it in one," Robin said. "Not only do we need to beat Walhart to Rigel, but we'll also need to not get caught up fighting here when the other part of the Valmese army arrives."
"If that is the case, then perhaps it would be wise to send more people to help Morgan's team take stock of the equipment?" Lucina suggested. "Not that I don't have faith in her, Severa, Cynthia, and Cordelia, but I think they would need more help, given the size of the fortress."
"That would be wise if we want to get that done as soon as possible. Just need to find the right people…"
"Please do not hesitate to ask any of my soldiers for assistance," Say'ri said. "This is an important task for the war effort, so they would not dare refuse."
"Thanks, Say'ri."
"If I may? While we all have faith in your tactical abilities, what would happen if we made it to Rigel too late and Walhart already made it inside?" Virion asked.
"Then my job becomes a lot harder. One plan is to goad Walhart and his soldiers to fight us outside the city walls. But I assume he has a relatively competent tactician to talk him out of that course of action, so we'll be forced to make camp outside the range of the city's defenses while we scramble to assemble siege weapons. We'll also have to divert some of our forces to keep the fortress leading to Rigel secure so that we have visibility and so we can be aware if Walhart's allies try something. For that reason we'll also have to secure harbors around here. As you can see, it'll involve a lot more work and be less than ideal, which is why we have to intercept Walhart before he makes it inside Rigel," Robin explained.
"We believe that you will lead us to victory, Robin," Say'ri said.
"Thank you. Your faith gives me strength."
"If that is all, permit me to take my leave to attend to the other tasks at hand."
Robin nodded. "Good idea. Let's split up and get to our chores for the day. Gods know that we have a lot to do if we want to leave tomorrow."
Everyone nodded and went their own ways.
"Say'ri! Allow me to accompany you on your tasks."
"Virion? I have no objections, but pray tell, why would you want to? Surely you have your own tasks to accomplish?"
"That may be so, but as it just so happens…"
"Robin?"
"Hm?"
"I can go help Morgan and the others with the inventory check, if you need," Lucina offered.
"That's very kind of you, Lucina." Robin thought for a moment. "Say, do you know where the commanding officer's room is?"
"I believe so, yes. Would you like me to take you to it?"
"Lead the way. Might as well see what's over there myself and if we can use anything there. Hopefully we'll find the fortress plans and see how big the armory is so I can get an idea of how many more people I need to assign to it."
The good news was that Robin found the master inventory list in the Valmese commander's office. The bad news was that the inventory list was out of date and so Robin still needed to have someone check the armory for what was actually there. And since it was indeed a very big armory, that threatened to take more time than Robin was prepared to concede, so he took Lucina's advice and threw people at the problem—enough people to have that check done in record time.
So after a while and various strategy meetings, everything was planned out for the march ahead.
And there was a lot of marching. Robin pushed the army hard so they could make it to Rigel before Walhart got there, or at the very least, meet him in battle on the outskirts of the city.
Although it was hard, the army cut down the journey to only a few days, with Robin certain that they had one day to spare before engaging Walhart's forces. So it was decided the army would rest for a day to restore some energy after days of heavy marching in order to be fresh for the final push to Rigel.
And a free day before an important battle meant, for some people, doing the rounds to ensure that everything was in order.
"Equipment status?"
"All accounted for and in satisfactory condition," Laurent reported, going over his notes. "We have enough weapons to arm every soldier and all our armor is currently in fighting condition."
"Good. Status of the soldiers?"
"They are somewhat fatigued by the journey and how hard you have been pushing them, but I believe that a rest today will be enough for everyone to be in fighting condition tomorrow."
"From your tone, I'm sensing a 'but' in there."
"Yes. I have made some observations and believe that Kjelle may present some complications."
"Pushing other soldiers to train on their day off and berating them for not keeping up with her training regimen?"
"That is correct, yes."
"Can't have her running our troops ragged before our very important battle." Robin sighed. "Let's stop this right now."
The two men walked until they saw the woman in question by the training grounds, shouting at some soldiers.
"Kjelle!" Robin shouted. "A word?"
The knight yelled something at the soldiers and approached.
"Robin. You need something?"
"I need you to lay off the soldiers," Robin said bluntly, not having the time for niceties.
"You…what?" Kjelle was taken aback.
"Today is supposed to be a day for everyone to rest and recuperate after our long trek to Rigel. I need everyone fresh to fight Walhart tomorrow, and your dragging our troops to partake in exercises to meet your unrealistic expectations gets in the way of that and lowers our chances of victory. So stop it."
"My expectations are not unrealistic!" Kjelle retorted. "I just want to make sure that everyone here is strong enough to deserve to be part of this army. It's not a crime to test their limits, is it?"
"Everyone here definitely deserves to be here," Robin said patiently. "If they didn't, they'd be kicked out, or dead. And no, it's not a crime to keep our army and soldiers in top condition. However, it does not help when you push them past their limits after days of tiring marching and before a big and important battle."
"They wouldn't be tired if they trained enough."
"Lay off the soldiers," Robin said sternly. "That's an order."
Kjelle looked like she was about to argue.
"You can drill them however much you want after tomorrow's battle. And in the meantime, go seek out, I don't know, Frederick, or Chrom, or Gerome if you want someone to spar who can keep up with you. I'd recommend that you also rest, but I have a feeling that advice would fall on deaf ears."
"Actually," Laurent spoke up, "I would agree with Robin's suggestion."
"What, you want me to just sit on my ass and do nothing?" Kjelle looked genuinely insulted.
"Perhaps I am mistaken, but to my eye, your movements lack their customary crispness. Are you quite certain you're feeling well?"
"Fine as ever!" Kjelle insisted."
Laurent looked at her with his usual analytical gaze.
"...Fine. I guess I've had a bit of a twinge in my lower back for the last couple days…" Kjelle admitted reluctantly.
"That would be a likely culprit. Might I suggest you have it treated? A massage, perhaps."
Kjelle scoffed. "Massages are for princesses! I just need to work through it."
Laurent adjusted his glasses. "Inadvisable. You would be far better served seeking legitimate treatment. As the lower back muscles drive the entire body, they are indispensable to combat. They are also slow to heal. If ignored, your condition may worsen."
"All right, fine. I'll get a massage! Maybe paint my nails while I'm at it…"
"I hope it serves you well. Do take care."
Kjelle's response was to grumble as she went off to the medical tent.
"Well handled, Laurent," Robin said approvingly. "I was afraid I was going to have to beat her into submission."
"Thank you, Robin. I believe that was the most efficient way of resolving two issues at the same time."
"Two? What, you mean that stuff about her back was not something you made up on the spot?"
"It was not. I actually made a note concerning this matter several days ago while watching Kjelle train. I was going to speak to her about it, but that talk kept on being postponed due to competing priorities."
"Well. Good work times two, Laurent."
"I aim to please."
Robin dismissed the soldiers Kjelle was shouting at as he and Laurent kept walking.
"Robin."
"Sumia, Cordelia. What news?"
"The animals are ready for tomorrow," Sumia reported. "They are fed, clean, content, and resting. They will all be ready for battle tomorrow."
"Good to hear. What of equipment?"
"Everything has been checked and triple checked," Cordelia confirmed. "There is nothing of concern to report."
"All right. I can tentatively believe that we're in a good position for tomorrow. Hopefully I can stretch my Ninian luck for one more day…"
"You're still on that, huh?" Cordelia asked, amused.
"You act like me finally getting a Ninian after what felt like 3000 years is not a huge deal!"
"Of course. My apologies. It was obviously a sign of our victory from Naga herself!"
"Exactly!" Robin said, even as Sumia giggled. "And I'm going to hope that Naga was nice enough to stretch our luck to tomorrow, minus any more obvious sign that tomorrow will go very well."
"Hello again to my favorite customers!"
Robin could recognize that cheerful voice anywhere.
"Anna. To what do we owe the pleasure?"
"Also, how did you even find us?" Cordelia asked. "It was pretty hectic lately and we didn't tell you of our change of plans."
"A good saleswoman always has ways of keeping tabs on, and getting to, her most valued customers," Anna replied cryptically. "But we're not here to talk about that. We're here because I come bearing gifts!"
"Ooh, goodie! I love it when you come with gifts!" Robin clapped his hands, visibly excited. "See, Cordelia? The Ninian luck is still holding!"
Cordelia grinned wryly but said nothing.
"Hit me, Anna. What do you have for me?"
"Something I think you'll be very happy to see," Anna said, taking out a box out of her bag.
"Oh?" Robin took the box and started opening it, his eyes growing wide as he saw what was inside. "Is this…?"
"It sure is!" Anna nodded. "Clean and pristine, just as ordered!"
"Well don't keep us in suspense! What is it, Robin?" Sumia asked.
"It's…it's…!" Robin suddenly closed the box. "To my tent, now!"
He then ran off without waiting for anyone.
The remaining Shepherds looked at each other in confusion before following.
"Everyone, stay outside!" Robin shouted from inside his tent.
"Robin? What's going on?" Cordelia questioned. "Why did you suddenly have us rush here?"
"Is there an emergency that we are to attend to?" Laurent asked.
"Hey, I think it's more for dramatic effect once he emerges."
Everyone looked at Anna, who had a knowing expression.
"You'll soon see," said the merchant.
"Everyone, prepare yourselves!" came Robin's voice. "I know that in recent months, I have not been myself."
"Robin, what do you me—"
"And while I know that I look really cool in these swordmaster robes and these swords at my side, it's still not the look that you've all come to know and love. However, thanks to our friendly and reliable merchant, all this stops today. Why?"
The tent flaps opened dramatically and Robin stepped out.
"Because I now have my coat back!"
And Robin was indeed dressed in his trademark grandmaster's coat, now clean and looking good as new.
"Oh, Robin! I'm so happy for you!" Sumia clapped excitedly.
"Ah yes, the coat. I had almost forgotten that it was part of your usual attire," Laurent said.
"Don't forget. Never forget. This is how I usually look, should look, and want to look always and forever. Gods, it feels so good to be back in my coat after so long…" Robin sighed, running his hands over his coat.
"Do you want us to give you a moment?" Cordelia asked jokingly.
"I would marry my coat in a heartbeat if I could," Robin said, his tone completely serious.
"So I take it that you're happy with my services?" Anna asked.
"Completely," Robin responded. "I've looked over your work and no strand or string seems out of place and there are no stains on my beloved coat whatsoever."
"And there wouldn't be! We Annas pride ourselves on our service quality." Anna nodded. "Now, if you have no objections, let's talk about payment."
"Here." Robin snapped his fingers and a small chest levitated out of his tent and right into Anna's hands. "Payment for your services upon successful and satisfactory completion of the request, as promised."
Anna opened the chest and drooled at the coins inside.
"A pleasure doing business with you, as usual. Good luck with your war!"
"Thanks!"
Robin waved Anna off and then turned to his friends, grinning happily.
"Guys, I'm back."
"Really? We didn't realize you went anywhere," Cordelia quipped.
"I am in such a good mood that nothing will get me down. Why? Because I have been reunited with by beloved coat, which means that your dashing, handsome and super cool Robin that you know and love is back in action! And all this is yet another sign."
Laurent raised a brow. "A sign, Robin?"
"A sign from above that we are going to win this war!" Robin exclaimed. "Just like we pulled off our operation at the fortress leading to Rigel after I pulled a Ninian, now I get my coat back before we are to march on Rigel and engage Walhart? It's the surest sign yet that our victory is all but guaranteed!"
"Robin, while your optimism is admirable, I do not think that—"
"I am in such a good mood that I feel like sparring and testing my skills to make sure that I didn't forget how to fight. Who wants to be my partner?!"
"Hey, you!"
Robin was in too good of a mood to let anything ruin it, although hearing Severa's voice almost did it.
"Yes, me. Back to my regular, glorious self."
"What the hell are…you…" Severa trailed off as she approached and took in Robin's new (old) attire.
"Yes, that's right! I am now back in my favorite coat, which means that everything is now right in the world. Gaze upon its magnificence!"
Robin struck a pose. To emphasize how amazing his coat was, he conjured up a little breeze so that it would sway in all its glory.
Severa remained silent, a look of shock on her face.
"Well, come on. I know I haven't really been me because of my different getup all this time, but I am now back in my rightful and awesome coat! You may praise me when ready," Robin said.
"No…nonononono…!"
"Uh, Severa?" Sumia noticed the redhead's panicked look.
"This can't be…I can't…I can't…!"
Severa looked like she was on the verge of coming to some sort of devastating conclusion as she suddenly turned and started purposefully walking away, all the while mumbling something to herself.
"Should…should we go after her?" Cordelia asked, not entirely sure what just happened.
"She was probably awed by how incredible I look now that I'm back in my coat. I'm sure the shock will wear off soon enough," Robin said dismissively. "Anyway, back to the topic at hand. I have an overwhelming need to spar and am in need of a partner. Guys, how about—"
"Me! Memememememe!"
Robin raised a brow when Morgan came running.
"I don't know what you guys were talking about, but I heard Dad talking about sparring and—" Morgan paused to catch her breath. She was about to continue when she noticed what Robin was wearing. "Dad! You got your coat back!"
"Yes, Morgan, yes I did. And I feel that a weight has been lifted from my shoulders now that I'm back with my beloved coat. We'll have to do an official handover of my stuff that you're keeping on your person, but first! You up for a match?"
"Always!"
"Morgan!"
Everyone turned to see Lucina running up.
"Hi, Lucina! What's up?"
"I should be asking you. We were in the middle of discussing sword techniques when you suddenly ran off."
"Oh. Right. Heh, sorry," Morgan said sheepishly. "I just got a feeling that Dad was free, and you know you gotta squeeze yourself in for some time when that happens."
"I see. And you have an innate sense of when your father is free, do you?" Lucina said, amused. She then looked over at Robin. "Ah!"
"Yes, back in my coat at last. I'm sure you've missed the sight of me in my full splendor."
"I admit it took a little getting used to at first," admitted the princess. "Although I will say that you managed with the swordmaster robes very well."
"You pull the look off much better than I. Anyway, Lucina. Spar with me. Right now."
"Um…" Lucina was not expecting the sudden offer.
Laurent spoke up. "Robin, do you really think you have time to spare for—"
"Yes, Laurent, yes I do. Besides, it's in everybody's best interest if I brush up on my skills and remember how to fight in my coat. Now—"
Morgan pouted. "Dad, that's not fair!"
"Morgan?"
"How can you ask Lucina to spar with you when I called dibs? You know I'm always ready to go for a round or two with you."
"I mean, I asked Lucina because—you know what? Fine. I'll take both of you on."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Sumia asked.
"Of course! This will help test my skills as well as simulate being attacked by more than one opponent, just like in real life!"
"All right! This is gonna be so cool!" Morgan turned to Lucina. "With our combined skills, we're totally gonna beat Dad!"
"I…"
The princess did not expect this turn of events, but she supposed she didn't have any urgent matters to attend to and thus could afford to indulge Robin. Besides, Lucina was always looking for opportunities to hone her skills.
"Very well. If neither you nor Robin have any objections…" Lucina suddenly had an idea. "Although this may seem somewhat unfair."
"The battlefield is not a fair place, Lucina."
"True, but with myself and Morgan, it may be a bit much for yourself, especially give my propensity to take sparring…more seriously than most."
Robin's confident expression faltered for only a moment.
"And given that you'll be adjusting your fighting style somewhat, I suggest you have a partner for this round." Lucina turned to Sumia and Cordelia. "Perhaps…?"
"Lucina's got a point," Cordelia said. "While I think getting some training is all fine and well, doing it like this is a recipe for getting our dear tactician here to the medical tent. So I'll be his buddy for this round."
"Cordelia, I am perfectly capable of holding my own," Robin retorted. "Besides, you don't usually fight on foot…or with me."
"I think we've trained enough for me to get a feel for ground combat," Cordelia said simply, picking up a practice sword. "And to understand how to fight with you. Do you disagree?"
"I guess…"
"I'm afraid I'm not built for melee ground combat unless I'm casting spells," Sumia said apologetically. "I'll stay on the sidelines and keep score."
"Very well." Lucina nodded. "Is everyone ready?"
"This should be interesting…" Robin muttered, picking up a practice weapon and readying himself next to Cordelia. "It's always weird fighting with you when you're not on your pegasus."
"Just putting your advice to good use. Adapting and thriving, as it were." Cordelia gave Robin a playful smile before they began.
Severa was in a daze as she walked around camp, trying to make sense of everything she saw and believed.
"It can't…I can't…why…!"
"Hel-lo, Severa!" came a jolly voice from behind her. "You're looking darling as ever."
"Go away, Inigo. I'm not in the mood."
"I'm sure you'll be once you unburden all your, uh, burdens on reliable ol' me!"
Severa remained silent.
"Wow. No cutting remark or even an insult? You okay, Sev?"
"Didn't I tell you to get lost?"
"Yes, but you do that every time I talk to you. Besides, looks like you have a lot on your mind right now and could maybe use a friendly ear. Copper for your thoughts?"
"How can talking to you possibly help me?" Severa asked, frustration clear in her voice. "You don't have any weird time-related family problems! Your family is all together and married and living happily ever after!"
"So this is about your family, huh? Morgan?"
"Of course it is! It always is! I come back in time to sort out the past and maybe see my parents like everyone else, only to find out that they aren't even together! Not only that, but we have someone who kinda looks like my dad acting not like my dad! And on top of that, we got some girl who I can only assume is a spy or something just waltzing in here and just claiming to be 'Robin's daughter' and just charming her way to everyone liking her!"
"That sounds rough."
"Yeah! And you know what's the best part of all this? She's absolutely delightful as a person! No matter how much I want to dislike and doubt her, she just smiles and happily goes on with her life being all friendly and upbeat and cheerful and it's sickening and disgusting and she makes my plans very difficult with that personality of hers. She's just so bubbly and smiley and good natured and makes everyone like her because she's always happy and looks at the bright side of things. She's also one of the few people that keeps on talking to me despite my trying to push her away. The girl brushes off my insults and jabs as if she didn't hear them and just keeps on talking and being nice to me. I bet it's all part of her plan to make everyone like her. And the worst part is that it's working! Even on me! I see what she's doing and I still can't stop it!"
"Sounds like a complicated situation."
"Yeah! It is! And this isn't even going into the issues with my father. It was easy to maintain that he may not be exactly who he was because of the weird behavior and the clothes, but I just saw him today and…and…."
"And…?"
"And he was wearing his—I mean, Daddy's signature campaign coat. And seeing him in his coat now just makes it so hard to stick to what I want to believe. And I know the moment I waiver, everything I thought I knew would stop making sense and…and I just won't know how to deal with any of it."
When Severa started her impromptu venting session, she was angry and frustrated and just let her thoughts out all at once. And now that she had, she was suddenly feeling exhausted.
"Why am I even telling you this?" Severa asked wearily. "Not like you'll be able to help me with anything, or even understand."
"I won't pretend I do," Inigo said. "Understand, that is."
"Yeah. Of course. Of all the people around here, you would understand the least, with your perfect little family that's happy and together and your loving parents who love and understand you."
"Maybe not, but that's not to say that we don't have our own problems…" Inigo muttered quietly.
"Oh yeah? Like what?"
"Huh?"
"Come on, then. Spill it. What familial problems do you have in your little paradise?"
"W-what, me? No problems! That was just me trying to relate, ha ha ha…!" Inigo laughed nervously.
"Oh no, you're not getting away that easy. You just made me spill personal and private details about my family troubles. I'm not letting you go until you give me something in return."
"I don't know what to say, Severa, I don't have any—"
"Do I have to beat it out of you? Because I will!" Severa threatened. She then softened her expression. "Come on, Inigo. I'm swimming in my own misery here and I need company to make myself feel better. Besides, whatever issues you have can't possibly be worse than mine."
"Heh, I'll admit that I can't top your issues, that's for sure!"
"Exactly. What're you even complaining about?"
"Although my problems aren't nearly as complicated as yours, I'll just say that at least you're not disappointing your father."
"No, mine just openly hates my guts. But why would Chrom be disappointed in you?"
"Can you blame him? I was the second sibling and grew up in Lucina's shadow. Lucina. I know that we've all been through a lot, but she's got it worse than the rest of us and yet she still managed to achieve the impossible by sheer force of will and found the courage to challenge her fate. She is Falchion's chosen, she is our leader, and she is the exalt in the future. She led us through the hell that was our world and accomplished so much. When compared to that, what am I? From the outside, just the little brother who fights the bad guys with a smile and mindlessly chases anything in a skirt. The airheaded philanderer who smiles all the time despite the fact that I worry every day may be my last. The one who has to play the clown to keep up morale through all the pain and the fear and the misery…"
Severa remained silent while Inigo spoke.
"Oof, I guess I really ruined the mood just now with my petty little problems, huh?" Inigo laughed. "Sorry about that. I'm sure you don't want to hear any more of my whining."
"...Inigo, you're a moron."
"Wha—?"
"Talk to your damn father and tell him how you really feel."
"Sev, I—"
"No. Talk to him!" Severa said sternly. "You're lucky enough to have understanding parents that are actually together. And you're ruining your relationship with your father just because all he sees is the act you put on and not what's underneath. Go talk to him, explain why you fight, why you act the way you do, and everything else you just told me."
"Severa, it's not that—"
"Yes it is. Because if you don't clear the air now, you might never get the chance again because you might end up dead tomorrow. Is that how you want things to end when you die, Inigo? Being remembered by your family as a careless philanderer disappointment?"
"No."
"Then go and clear things up. It's just talking. You're lucky in that you can actually talk to your parents normally, unlike some people here."
Inigo closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
"...Yeah. Okay. I guess that makes sense. I'm not used to letting people see the real me, but I guess I can talk about it with Father, although the thought of letting someone see my vulnerable side is…"
"It'll be a bit weird, but it's your dad. He'll understand. And he'll think better of you after."
"Thanks, Severa. I really appreciate it. Come here!"
"Wha—?"
Severa had no time to react before Inigo trapped her in a hug.
"What the hell are you doing?!"
"Showing my gratitude, of course! I know you don't like me, or talking, or talking to me, but I really appreciate your taking the time to listen to my troubles and give me advice. It…means a lot, you know?"
"It's nothing. Just if anyone's going to have a miserable family situation, it might as well be me and only me."
"Hey…" Inigo held Severa closer. "You know this whole thing with your family will turn out okay, right?"
"Of course it will! It has to! It has to…"
Despite herself, Severa leaned her head against Inigo's shoulder.
She wouldn't cry. Despite how messed up everything was, she wouldn't cry. She wouldn't…
They stayed like that for a few minutes, not saying anything until Severa felt like her emotions were under some semblance of control.
"...Okay, enough of this. Let me go before someone sees us and gets the wrong idea."
"Of course."
They both disengaged from each other.
"Heh."
Severa frowned. "What're you laughing at?"
"Sorry, it's that I just feel a bit nostalgic, you know? This reminded me of when we were kids and you'd console me after I saw something scary or failed to talk to someone."
"Oh yeah. Good times. You were such a crybaby back then."
"Don't tell anyone, but I haven't changed much. The only difference now is that I cry when no one's looking," Inigo said conspiratorially.
"And I still have to play your babysitter." Despite this, Severa was grinning. "But enough reminiscing. Go talk to Chrom before it's too late."
"Will do. And thanks again, Severa! Let me know if you need a friendly ear to keep you company. I'll always be available for you!"
"Get out of here already!"
Inigo laughed as he ran away.
Severa frowned, but had to admit that she did feel better. Even if venting all her problems made her feel very tired, it also felt…liberating, in a way. And that little moment with Inigo did bring back fond memories of a better time.
And despite everything, Inigo was one of the few people who went out of their way to talk to her and didn't seem to mind her prickly personality. That was nice.
When he got serious and wasn't acting like a mindless philanderer, Inigo was actually all right. He could be a good listener and wasn't too bad on the eyes. He also tried his best to cheer up those around him (even if the methods were questionable and the results varied).
Severa just wished that he toned the philanderer bit down so that he would be that decent, tolerable person she knew he could be. Or better yet, drop the philanderer bit altogether. For good.
Robin's day was going okay until he got his coat. Then his day was incredible and nothing could take away from that. Not his aches from the sparring session against his daughter and Lucina (he and Cordelia worked surprisingly well and managed to hold their ground against the assault), not his list of chores that he took to with renewed vigor, and not the various little issues he had to resolve in preparation for the battle tomorrow, nothing!
So Robin went about his day, doing this and that, all the way up to dinner time.
He then joined his friends in the dining tent, made a speech and a spectacle about getting his coat back, and then enjoyed his dinner with undiminished coat-related enthusiasm.
"Life is good…" Robin sighed, leaning back in his chair.
The sun had set and the crickets could be heard outside.
The dining tent was mostly empty, the occupants deciding to take care of any last-minute details before going to bed early in order to be fresh for the battle ahead.
"Still enjoying the euphoria of getting your coat back?"
Cordelia was one of the few left in the tent, sitting beside Robin.
"Still and always. Being separated for so long was a disaster I don't want to repeat." Robin drank from his cup. "What're you still doing here? Thought you'd be calling it a day like everyone else."
"Not before you."
"Me, huh? What, you keeping an eye on me to make sure I go to bed on time or something?" Robin joked.
"Well one of us has to."
"What? One of…? Who? You?" Robin thought for a moment. "Don't tell me you and Sumia…"
"Made a pact to ensure that at least one of us would be with you to get you to go to bed at a reasonable hour, yes," Cordelia explained, sipping her drink. "Using force, if necessary."
"Is this a preview of what married life will be like? Because it doesn't look very appealing."
"Only if you're married to me."
"Hmph. In that case, I might have to insert some stipulations in our pact."
"'Our' pact?"
"Yes, our pact. How do you keep on forgetting about that thing?"
"I don't remember ever consenting to it."
"We agreed verbally, which constitutes a valid contract under Ylissean law."
"Right." Cordelia decided to humor Robin. "So, how are you going to initiate it, then?"
"Huh?"
"This pact that I hear so much about. So we're both in our forties, unmarried, and you're with child. As your backup plan emergency wife, I'd expect you to do something more romantic than wave a piece of paper in my face and declare we're engaged."
"We've known each other for all this time and you expect me to woo you?"
"I expect some effort."
"So demanding…" Robin shook his head. "Okay, picture this: we have been victorious after yet another war and are hosting a grand celebration. You, successful commander of Ylisse's pegasus knights with an impeccable record spanning decades, are sitting at a table, drink in hand. You have a white dress on because it's a formal event."
"Okay…"
"And then suddenly someone pulls up a chair and sits down beside you. You turn around only to see this handsome devil," Robin pointed to himself, "with his own drink. We talk, reminisce, laugh, whatever. After a few drinks, I get straight to the point and ask if you want to get out of here and go somewhere more private."
Cordelia was stunned.
"Wait, that's your plan?"
"Duh. I figured we've known each other for long enough by then to stop beating around the bush and just be direct with each other. That, and our decades-long unresolved sexual tension—"
"Our wha—"
"—will make this only the natural outcome of when one of us decides to commit," Robin plowed on. "So we go back to my office, which is conveniently close to the banquet hall so the journey doesn't kill the mood. And as soon as we close and lock the door, our lips are locked."
Cordelia didn't know what to say. She didn't even know if she could say anything, so unexpected was this turn of events.
"Oh yeah. We're going at it hot and heavy. You can feel the intensity and the passion in the room. I'm running my hands all over your body, admiring your lean figure through your dress, and you moan appreciatively, especially when I move my lips down and plant rough kisses on your neck."
"W-wha…?"
"Not too rough, but enough to leave marks. Anyway, after our little kissing session, we're looking intently at each other, both burning with passion and lust. This was a longtime coming. I say that I could take you against the wall right here, right now. You reply that you have something better in mind and sensually walk to my desk. You throw all my papers and whatever off the desk and lean back against it, with a very naughty expression on your face. At this point, I'm surprised you want to do this, also a bit peeved since you created a mess out of my meticulously clean workspace and want to desecrate said workspace. However, those thoughts get pushed aside when you let your dress slip on the ground, leaving you only in your sexiest underclothes. And with that, I purposefully stride toward you and we have some very long, explicit, and intense relations until the morning," Robin finished, a smug expression on his face. "How's that for setting the scene?"
For her part, Cordelia was staring at him in embarrassed, stunned silence.
"So you just…thought of that in the moment, or…?" Cordelia finally managed to say, while adjusting the collar of her tunic. When did it get so hot?
"I may have borrowed some elements from books I've read here and there, including the 69 Shades series." When Cordelia continued staring, Robin added, "Hey, I've read that it was the best selling series in Valm among women. And I had to skip the fluff found in most romance novels since that sets the scene up between the main characters getting to know each other, which we kind of already do. So I'm stuck with the part that comes after. Pretty good, huh?"
Cordelia didn't know how to reply to that.
"Robin, what're you still doing up?"
"And there is the other half…" muttered the grandmaster. "Sumia! I could ask you the same thing."
"Don't try to pull that on me, mister! Cordelia and I promised each other that we'd make sure that you took care of yourself these past few days, and that includes going to bed at a reasonable hour." Sumia tried her best to look stern and commanding (it was akin to a puppy barking and trying to look intimidating—ultimately futile, but still very adorable).
"Well, you got me. I was just making small talk with Cordelia, but I guess I'd better go before you haul me off by force."
"Don't think we won't do it. We will!"
"All right, I'm going," Robin chuckled as he got up. "See you, Cordelia. We've got a long day tomorrow. You get some rest too, you hear?"
Cordelia sputtered and waved Robin and Sumia off.
Once they were gone, she took a deep breath to steady herself.
Of all the things Robin said, drawing a borderline explicit scenario derived from some very explicit novels was not what she was expecting. It reminded her of that awkward phase when she had lewd dreams inspired by the Ribald Tales series, only they featured her and Robin. That was bad enough, but actually hearing Robin describe something like that himself was…
Despite Robin leaving and his scenario not being too graphic, Cordelia's mind couldn't help but fill the gaps based on all the Ribald Tales novels she read. It was unwanted and graphic and intriguing and Cordelia couldn't dismiss the images no matter how hard she tried.
Questions were also swirling in her mind, chief among them being if Robin painted that little scenario on the spot, or was it something that he thought about before? And for how long? And if he meant what he described and actually wanted to do something like that with…
Cordelia shook her head.
No, probably definitely not. Robin may have been many things, but he wasn't a lecher who had indecent fantasies about his female colleagues and friends. It was…probably due to the fact that he read these books and they happened to linger on his mind. Yes, that had to be it! Just like Cordelia herself wasn't some pervert who had lewd thoughts about her teammates, it was just a momentary lapse of control or something brought about by too much lewd novel reading. Of course! Robin was much too professional to ever consider giving any serious thought to such activities and definitely didn't want to pin Cordelia against his desk and roughly take her from behind!
And Cordelia wasn't one to want Robin to do that to her and definitely wasn't one to imagine his strong hands on her hips and his hot breath as he repeatedly did…did…
She suddenly noticed that her heart was beating rapidly in her chest.
"Goodness, it sure is hot in here," Cordelia said to no one in particular and quickly got up to leave the tent. She needed to pour some cold water over herself to calm her nerves, her thoughts, and cool herself off.
The very earth shook under the sound of hooves as the sea of heavy cavalry approached.
"Steady, men! We stop the famous Valmese cavalry here! Brace for impact! Don't give any ground!"
The air was soon filled with the screams of men and the smell of death as men and horses crashed against a wall of pointed steel.
The fighting was bloody and fierce.
"Look, over there! I think it's the Conqueror!"
Robin turned his head to see a man in blood red armor, atop a horse, swinging an fearsome-looking blade.
"Argh!"
"He just took out ten men in one blow! What kind of man is he?!"
"One that dies like any other!" Robin looked behind him. "Mages! Concentrate on Walhart! Hit him with your best spells!"
The power of various spells hitting him at once was enough to knock Walhart off his horse, although even on foot, he stood head and shoulders above everyone on the battlefield. At least it was enough for Chrom and Say'ri to engage him.
Despite the fact that their cavalry were neutralized, the Valmese infantry still fought off the Ylisseans and their allies.
While they fought, Robin was scanning the battlefield, doing multiple calculations and judging various factors to decide what to do in order to tip the scales in their favor.
"Dad, mages are being pushed really hard between offensive magic and trying to disrupt enemy spells. At this rate, we'll burn through our spells before we even reach Rigel," Morgan reported.
"Fine. We'll have to try our luck and push the Valmese back with force. Give the signal to our cavalry. We'll try to shock the Valmese and get the initiative back to us."
"Right."
The sound of horns in the distance indicated that the reserve forces were coming. What Robin didn't expect was to see an entire other army arriving with them.
"Look, the enemy is disengaging!"
Robin's head snapped to the Valmese forces.
"The enemy is falling back! Follow them!"
The Ylissean forces (now joined by Flavia's section as well as remaining Valmese lords who decided to commit their forces now that they saw the tide turning) followed the retreating Valmese and fought through Rigel all the way to the castle.
The fighting was even more fierce and desperate inside, as the Valmese were fighting to the last man alongside their emperor.
"Keep up the pressure! We put down Walhart and this all ends!"
"Easier said than done! We—Oh gods! Incoming cavalry!"
"Those lunatics have gathered whatever horses they could right here and are actually—LOOK OUT!"
Robin and the others at the front line dived to the side to avoid being trampled and skewered by the charging cavalry.
"They're breaking through our ranks!"
"Regroup! Regroup and close the gaps before the enemy can—!"
"Incoming enemy magic!"
Robin only had enough time to see a tornado headed his way before he was thrown back against a wall.
Despite his vision being blurry and feeling like every bone in his body was broken, Robin was still vaguely aware of what was happening around him, only everything was happening as if time had slowed down.
Robin saw his friends fighting and trying to regroup after the cavalry charge.
Robin saw his daughter fighting alongside her friends and trying to restore some order in her section. And to his horror, Robin saw how a bolt of electricity more powerful than anything he had seen slowly make its way toward her.
"Mor…gan…!"
Breathing was hard and his voice was coarse.
He watched as his daughter looked in his direction and saw the concerned expression on her face.
Robin wanted to warn her. To move. Anything!
"Morg…!"
He watched as his daughter saw the incoming lightning bolt and only had enough time to pull her arms close together to brace for the hit.
And Robin saw how the lightning bolt hit his daughter, in agonizing detail.
"Morgan! MORGAN!"
"Morgan!"
Robin jolted upright and took in his surroundings.
He was in a fancy-looking room, with beds and multiple people in those beds.
Robin looked down and saw his daughter lying on the bed in front of him, bandaged here and there.
Oh. Right. While the grand battle with Walhart was all a blur for him, the only thing Robin remembered was his daughter getting hit with an extremely powerful spell. He didn't know what happened after, but Robin was certain that he tore his way through the Valmese to get to the one who was stupid enough to target his daughter and ended his miserable life. And now it looked like he fell asleep at her beside waiting for her to recover, because of course she would recover.
"Ah, I see you're awake."
"How is she?" Robin asked immediately.
"Peace, Robin," Libra said, raising his arm. "Your daughter will be well. Although she was hit with a very powerful spell, she was fortunate that her coat had so many layers of protective magic around her. The coat absorbed the worst of the impact, so we were able to heal what damage managed to get through to her."
"How bad was it?"
"Enough to still hurt, but not enough to threaten her life with our quick attention, although I would not recommend making this a habit."
"You don't have to tell me twice. Protective spells can only do so much when you're under sustained fire. How long do you think she'll be out?"
"It depends. What Morgan needs now is rest. I take it she isn't used to taking spells full force?"
"Probably not. I try to get her to disrupt and dodge instead of absorbing enemy magic. I'm not sure what her magic resistance is without her coat and associated spells."
"I see. Then perhaps she will be out for a day or so as her body adjusts to the shock of being hit by such powerful magic. What interests me and the other healers, however, is your condition."
"Me?"
"Yes. We were told that after you witnessed Morgan being injured, you charged the Valmese forces head-on, creating an opening for the others to exploit."
"Okay…?"
"You were probably making your way to the enemy mages to neutralize them after what happened to Morgan. By all accounts, they were behind various Valmese infantry lines. You must have suffered heavy injuries taking them all on by yourself. However, when we managed to examine you after the battle, you were in surprisingly good condition, all things considered."
"How so?"
"Although you clearly suffered various injuries, the damage to your body was minimal. It was as if you somehow healed while you were fighting the Valmese soldiers."
"I was probably busy chugging elixirs in the middle of fighting or something," Robin said dismissively. "I got my coat back with all its pockets. See?"
"Yes, I believe you have mentioned that a few times." Libra smiled politely. "Although what we saw was not like any healing potions we were aware of. Do you perhaps…"
"Libra, as much as I would love to discuss the theory behind healing magic and vulneraries, it's been kind of rough lately. Think we can talk about this another time?"
"Ah, of course. Forgive me. I'm sure you have much to do and discuss with the others."
"Yeah." Robin paused as a thought occurred. "Us being here and talking very calmly about things means that we won and took down Walhart, right?"
Libra chuckled. "That is correct. We carried the day thanks to Naga's grace and your planning. There is actually a victory celebration tonight here in the castle. All the important figures of the Valmese conquered territories will be present."
"Oh boy. Nobles and politicians. How I love to deal with them…" Robin said distastefully. "Wait, it's tonight?"
"Yes."
"Why so soon? I bet Walhart's corpse isn't even cold yet."
"It was agreed that this event would generate goodwill among the parties and people, as well as facilitating the next phase."
"Which is…?"
"The post-war negotiations."
"Why are we participating in what seems to be a purely Valmese matter?"
"I believe that Chrom or Say'ri or Virion might be best placed to answer that question. Now, you'll have to excuse me. I need to tend to some of the others here."
"Of course. Sorry for keeping you."
Robin looked down at his daughter again. His mind being put at ease knowing that she would be okay, Robin gently squeezed Morgan's hand before he left to look for Chrom.
As it turned out, Robin was apparently out for a bit longer than he realized. That, or he glued himself to Morgan's bedside and ignored the world outside for a while.
Walking around and asking here and there revealed that this party was hastily arranged in a few days.
After a while of searching (the castle was big!), he finally found Chrom and the others.
A quick greeting, hugs, well wishing, and Robin was only partially more aware of the situation than when he woke up. He was aware that he had to thank Lucina for the fact that Morgan wasn't worse than she was, and that he had to make himself look presentable and get down to the main hall (just how long was Robin lost in the damn castle for?!).
"This is nice, isn't it?" Olivia said.
"Definitely better than fighting for our lives," Chrom agreed. "You look stunning, by the way."
"Chrom, please! N-not in front of strangers!"
"Heh, apologies, my love. I'm just not used to seeing you in your magnificent formalwear."
"It's really nothing. I just cobbled something together. I don't look nearly as good as you."
"You will always be the most radiant woman in my eyes."
"Stop it, Chrom! You're making me blush!"
"Of course. I'll stop now. After all, we are representing Ylisse."
And it was true. Even if they were all here to celebrate the fall of the Conqueror, they were still Ylissean royalty amongst foreign dignitaries and nobles. It was still a formal informal event.
"I think I'll get us something to drink," Olivia said.
"I'll be here, love."
Chrom grinned as he watched his wife make her way through the crowds, graceful and elegant even in her formal dress.
"Greetings, Exalt Chrom."
"Salutations," Chrom said, turning around to see an unfamiliar man approaching. "I don't believe we've met."
"Apologies. I am Prince Olivier, of the Principality of Bergen. Perhaps you have heard of it? It is located in the north of the continent. Wonderful place, if I do say so myself."
"Er, yes. It is a pleasure to meet you, sire."
"The pleasure is all mine! To think that I am speaking to the Exalt of Ylisse, leader of the Ylissean League, they who have brought down the Conqueror!"
"Y-yes, that is I, although our victory in the war was thanks to everyone's efforts."
"Indeed, and I'm sure that the Principality of Bergen contributed more than our erstwhile 'allies' did."
"Is that so?"
"Why of course! My realm is a realm blessed with abundant wealth. It was perhaps because of this wealth that the Conqueror made us one of his first targets. Being the canny ruler who cares for his realm and people, I have managed to negotiate a deal in which my country makes financial contributions to the Conqueror's coffers to aid his war effort in exchange for peace in our land."
"That sounds like a wise move, sire."
"It was, wasn't it? Of course it was not ideal as no one likes to surrender their hard-earned wealth to another only to watch them squander it on some pointless war. That is why we were one of the first to contact Lady Say'ri when she was organizing her rebellion and offered our financial assistance."
"You have funded both Walhart's army as well as Say'ri's forces?"
"That we have! It's amazing what some clever accounting can do. Inflate some figures here, carry some zeroes there, and then you have overpriced goods going to Valm while at the same time having the real sums going to the rebels. It was rather ingenious!" Olivier laughed.
"Very clever," Chrom said politely.
"Yes, quite. But enough about recent history. You are probably wondering why I have accosted you here, in the middle of our celebrations."
"I was expecting you to tell me when you were ready."
"Ah, very diplomatic of you, my lord. I have come here to discuss business."
"Surely this would be best discussed during negotiations after the celebrations?"
"A good Bergen citizen such as myself always seizes opportunities as soon as he is able. But I recognize that everyone wants to enjoy themselves, so I will be brief. I have a proposition concerning your sister."
"Lissa? What about her?" Chrom was immediately alert.
"She is the blonde one, correct? No, I was referring to your other sister."
"My…other sister?"
Why would they be talking about Emmeryn?
"Yes. The one with the blue hair."
"Ah. I see." It took Chrom a few seconds to remember that they all agreed to change their childrens' relations a bit when talking to the other nobles, since "my child from the future" would've gotten them nothing but strange looks. "What about her?"
"Forgive me for my bluntness, but she is unwed, correct?"
"She's…? How is this relevant?"
"I was thinking that in order to improve relations between our realms and establish a long, friendly, and mutually beneficial relationship, we might arrange for a union between our families. I have…"
Chrom tuned out the rest of the sentence as he used every once of his willpower not to just punch this pompous noble in his brazen face.
They were supposed to be celebrating Walhart's downfall when this man comes in and starts talking about arranging a marriage between Lucina and someone she's never even met?!
It was a good thing that Chrom attended all those lessons in nobility and self-restraint, otherwise he would've caused a very undiplomatic incident.
He obviously had to stop this before it got any further. However, he had to do so in a way that wouldn't antagonize anyone. Chrom was here for only a short while and didn't want to offend anyone and thus make the negotiations harder before they even started. What Chrom needed was to find a believable excuse to refuse this ridiculous request that would also not invite more questions.
Stumbling through various excuses, Chrom latched onto the first one that he thought made sense.
"As much as I would love to discuss this plan of yours further, I'm afraid that my sister is...already engaged."
Ha! It was perfect! No one would be asking for Lucina's hand or making crazy propositions if they knew she was already taken. Lucina being engaged also didn't invite further questions. This excuse had no downsides whatsoever!
"Ah, that is such a shame. It would have been a truly blessed union."
"Yes, a shame indeed," Chrom feigned disappointment as he sipped the last of his drink.
"Pray tell, who is the lucky gentleman?"
"Who's the what, now?"
"He who is fortunate enough to have your sister's hand in marriage. It must be someone truly worthy for you to give your blessing."
"A-ah, yes. Worthy indeed. He's…" Chrom looked around the room, frantically trying to prevent this situation from becoming a total disaster.
His eyes first spotted Frederick.
He could ask Frederick to pretend to be Lucina's fake future husband! …But Frederick was already engaged and it would be super weird. He'd carry out his duty with his usual efficiency, but…no. It would be way too weird.
Next, Chrom spotted Inigo.
Oh yeah, say Lucina's brother is her fake fiancé. So much better!
Chrom saw Vaike and immediately rejected that option.
Come on, there had to be someone he knew out there who he could ask to do this without it being weird!
Just then, the doors to the hall opened and someone walked in.
"Him," Chrom said, pointing. "My sister is betrothed to him."
Olivier squinted. "Is that not your army tactician?"
"Yes, yes he is," Chrom said confidently, watching as Robin waved and made his way through the crowd to Lucina. "They're perfect for each other, which is why they are engaged. Look at how casually they talk despite their engagement!"
"Ah, yes. Unfortunate that we did not manage to discuss this matter earlier. Well then, I will leave you to enjoy the festivities and look forward to discussing business during the coming days."
The man bowed and left.
Chrom sighed, relieved.
"Are you sure that was a good idea?"
"O-Olivia?!" Chrom was so focused on his situation that he didn't see his wife approaching. "How long have you been there?"
"Long enough to understand what happened. Lucina is engaged to Robin now?"
"No, but that's the story we're telling everyone." At Olivia's bemused look, Chrom continued, "He wanted to discuss arranging a marriage between probably his kids or whoever and our daughter, Olivia! I couldn't really let that go on!"
"And this is your solution?"
"It's not perfect," Chrom admitted, "But it was the best one I could come up with at the time. At least it solves that problem while we're here. If word gets out that Lucina is engaged, no one else will suggest some opportunistic political marriage."
"Does Lucina know of her newfound relationship status?" Olivia asked skeptically. "Does Robin?"
"They will…"
Olivia crossed her arms.
"They will!" Chrom promised. "I can't really spread this news without the subjects of the news being unaware!"
And he was going to tell them. It would be weird and awkward and Robin probably wouldn't let Chrom live this down for…probably for the foreseeable future, but Chrom could deal with that. If anything, it was weirdly comforting to have Robin involved in this ridiculous plot than anyone else—at least Chrom could handle Robin giving him grief. Hell, that was basically one of the main aspects of their friendship!
