Hey! It's a Monday! That means that it's time for me to update... or feeling like updating, haha. N E ways, I hope you all don't mind that I reply to your reviews. I think that this reply function is really helpful. Alright then. Here's chapter 7.

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Chapter 7: Travel Part II

It was only a matter of time before they see who they wanted to see. But it was still going to take them a couple of more days before they reached the castle. Before that time came, they took shelter in an abandoned fort when the sky turned black. As they were eating their rations, Caden was thinking to herself, "Just two more days."

After they ate and had a light conversation, they put out the fire and went to sleep. Bandits were standing a few decameters away.

"Look there, two pawns that we can ambush."

"Are you mad? They're both women! It would be very disgraceful if we attacked them!"

"But they can fight back; there must be a reason why those two women are alone."

"You have a point there…"

"Hey, Pinole, your brother says he needs help!"

"What? What did he do this time?"

"He said that he spotted a village that he wants to raid, but his problem is that he only has a small amount of people in his group that he's asking for more; he doesn't want this raid to be a failure."

"Alright then, let's move out everybody. We have nothing better to do."

The bandits left Caden and Florina to be and traveled to where that bandit's brother was at.

The two traveled closer to Ostia's castle a while after they woke up.

"Florina, stop. Look there," Caden said.

Florina turned around and saw a village that was being attacked by bandits.

"We should help them. Ostia's castle is not that far away."

"Sure."

Huey turned to fly towards the village. "Florina would have a very difficult time if she fought by herself. I should participate since this bandit group is not that big from what we see right now. I haven't fought a real battle in years. I hope I'm not going to slow Florina down." Huey started descending as they closed in towards the bandit-infested village.

"Hey, Boss, aren't those the women we saw last night in the fort?"

"Yep, it looks like them. Are they coming here?"

"They have their weapons ready; they probably want to fight us."

"Since you put it that way, there's no reason holding back to these women since they've come to defend the village."

Caden jumped off Huey once they reached the ground, "Florina, how does your sword look?"

"It can only withstand a couple more hits."

"Do you have a spare?"

"Yes, I do."

"Alright. When your sword breaks, quickly discard it and use the spare sword. Using your lance in this situation will put you at a disadvantage."

"Understood."

"Alright, now your first move is to fly into the village. I'll go and get the ones in the front."

"Caden, you're helping too?"

"'Course, this is too much for you to handle by yourself. Since you can fly, don't worry about the bandits in the front and try not to make the bandits group onto you. Avoid big spaces. Try to fight in between the houses so they come at you one by one."

"Alright, I understand."

"Okay, let's move out."

Florina flew over the village houses making her way in between them to take care of the people in the inside. Before Caden reached the entrance, she attacked the bandits stationed on the outside. She cut through those bandits easily with her sword and she rushed into the village. "Two bandits down… err… unconscious. Now the rest are in this big box." When Florina saw that Caden entered the village, she made her way near her.

"Caden, where is their leader?"

"By the looks of it, it seems that there are two leaders. One there, and another there," Caden answered pointing, "It will be hard getting to them with all these other bandits in the way. We need to take care or them first."

"Got it."

They advanced forward to get to the two leaders. It's very tough with only two people in your party, being sort of outnumbered by the bandits. Swing after swing, evade, hit, block, not a second of rest. Bandits were coming towards her and Florina in everyway that weren't blocked. She was really not used to this. Caden knelt to the ground, exhausted trying to attack.

"No good," she panted, "There are too many of them."

Florina was staying near Caden, defending her, making sure that Caden doesn't die. Caden didn't have any time to use an elixir.

"We seriously… need help," Caden thought.

Caden couldn't concentrate, but she went on. Her vision was distorted and in front of her she saw a blur. When she looked to the entrance, she saw three figures: one a brownish-red, another blue, and the last one white and pink. They… they weren't going after Caden and Florina, plus… those blobs look strangely familiar. Caden took care of the enemy in front of her and the she rubbed her eyes and shook her head so her vision could become clear once again. The three figures were helping Caden and Florina. They were attacking the bandits. As her vision restored, she saw the brownish-red blob run up to her.

"M-Matthew!" Caden yelled surprised, "Lord Hector! …Serra."

"Caden, are you alright?" Matthew asked running up to her and grabbing her shoulders."

"I'm… I'm alright. Florina and I have been trying to get all the bandits out of here."

"Hey, you don't look so good. Here, let me mend your wounds," Serra said as she used her mend staff on Caden.

"Only you two were going after a bunch of guys? That's very unlike you."

"When we were looking, we thought that there were only a few bandits here. We were very wrong."

"Very wrong indeed. Well then, it was a good thing that we came then, right?" Serra asked.

Caden nodded and used her sword as her support. "Thank you. We're very lucky to have you three to come."

"What's the situation, Caden?" Hector asked.

"Two leaders… there. If we take them out, their lackeys might leave."

Hector first went over the check up on Florina before anything else. Caden and Matthew went to take on the two leaders. The fight went on for a little while until they took care of the bandit leaders. The rest of the bandits didn't leave, so the five had to clear out the rest of them.

"Phew… and that's the last of them. You won't have to worry about those bandits again, we've taken care of them for you," Caden said to the village magistrate.

Caden walked to the front of the village to see those two bandits that she left unconscious. They were gone. Did they run away? That's a little dishonorable for a bandit, is it not? It's no use thinking about them now; they're only two people so they're not much of a threat.

"Caden, I never knew you knew how to use a sword," Hector said walking up to her followed by Matthew and Florina.

"I get that a lot. Only a few people before three years ago knew I knew how to use one. But now, the secret's out, and there's no use hiding it anymore I guess," Caden said clenching her left hand. It was sore because of all the fighting she did right now. (1)

"Something wrong with your arm?"

"I'm not used to all the fighting. So, Matthew, Lord Hector, Serra, what were you doing out of the castle? Lord Hector, aren't you supposed to be ruling over Ostia?"

"It's fine for now. The people don't know about Uther's death yet. I'm free for only a little while more."

"Don't you think your procrastinating your duties?"

"I'm not use to the office, and my brother didn't leave me a lot of work to do. I want to spend this time not working because I know that when I start working for a long time, that is going to take up the majority of my day."

"Ostia's castle is about a couple of hours away from here, right? How could you travel all the way down here?"

"Well, we just heard that you and Florina were coming. We didn't know that you were coming this early, the three of us were checking on the nearby villages. And so, when we came to this one, we just miraculously saw you two fighting."

"Hm… this is coincidence. Florina, are you hurt?"

"It's… nothing bad. I just have some cuts here and there."

"… I'm sorry… you getting hurt is my fault, Florina. I told Lady Lyn that I would look over you."

"My injuries are nothing serious. There's nothing to worry about."

Caden slightly smiled, "I'm glad."

Her legs gave out and she knelt down.

"Caden… are you alright?" Matthew asked.

"… No… I don't think I can walk for a while. I'm kind of tired."

"Serra, can you do anything to help her condition."

"I can only heal wounds, not fatigue. An elixir might help her."

"I'm fine… I'm not that tired. I don't want to waste an elixir on that."

"Alright, that's fine. Matthew, carry Caden back to the Ostian castle," Hector commanded.

"Yes, sir." He looked to Caden, "Are you too weak to hop on my back?"

"I think I'll manage."

She started standing up and she went on Matthew's back. Matthew was walking a slight distance away from Hector, Florina, and Serra, so him and Caden could have sometime to chat privately… well, sort of.

"I-I'm not heavy, am I?"

"You're fine. The castle's not that far away, so there's no need for you to worry.

"… So, how's everything going for you? How's Ostia?"

"It's been going alright."

"It looks like everyone is starting to settle down. Lady Lyn and Lord Eliwood are busy with their own regions. They both wanted to come to bring me to the next castle, but they couldn't. The only thing that they did was see me off."

"Yeah, Lord Hector is the same way. He's been in his room for a small time working on the things that his brother has left him. He's probably working harder than the other two."

"Oh really? Why's that?"

"Well, so far, we've succeeded in keeping Lord Uther's death from the people. You know him. He didn't want people to panic and think that it's the end of the world because Lord Hector is going to be the one in power now, haha, don't tell him about the last part."

Serra looked at Caden and then Matthew. Her wit told her that Caden liked Matthew, and because Caden usually keeps things to herself, she tried not to show it. Serra didn't get it; her instincts told her that Caden wasn't compatible for anyone. Well, she really didn't know what month Caden was born, but she thought that she has a dark affinity, which Serra just most likely guessed due to the fact that she hardly spoke to Caden. Serra's instincts told her that Caden was too mediocre for any man's taste. She didn't stand out as much as moi. (2, 3)

Caden laughed, "Ha, sure, alright. Yes, I think he would be a little upset if he heard that."

"Maybe a little more than upset, he would probably kill me if he heard that."

"I think 'kill' is a little too much, haha. I would probably say that he would um…"

"Chase me around until he got to hit me with his axe a couple of times, trying to knock some sense into me to not bad mouth him about him being marquess."

"Heh… err… that sounds rather violent," Caden said with a slight look of concern on her face, fearing that it might be true.

"Aw, don't worry, Caden. Lord Hector isn't that violent unless he's really mad, trust me," Matthew answered with a smile as he turned back and looked at the tactician's concerned face. Caden smiled back, hearing Matthew's reply warmed her heart a little. She knew that he was joking about Hector doing such a thing, but listening to him answer back because she was worried made her happy.

"Thank you, for the reassurance, Matthew."

"No problem."

"Hey, didn't Lord Hector say that he wasn't working hard?"

"That's true, but he always gives himself breaks so he could rest for a time. His work is piling up, so the free-time Lord Hector you see now will not be appearing again for a long, long time.

There was a silence, and then Caden asked, "Hey Matthew, did you like someone before Leila?"

"…? Hm… I don't think I have. Why do you ask?"

"Out of curiosity, that's all. Well… it's also because I had someone I lo-…iked once. It was five years ago, though." Caden sighed, and then continued, "Sorry for bringing up that question. It was pretty pointless."

"I don't mind. We hardly got to talk before. It's kind of nice doing this now."

"Yeah, you're right. Although I don't like talking about myself, if I think it's alright to talk about it, I'll say it freely."

Matthew looked over his shoulder at Caden for a while as she was looking up at the sky.

"You know, you're very stubborn and you show that you keep your feelings to yourself, you know that?" Matthew blurted out saying matter-of-factly.

"Eh… He hit the target right on the mark. What makes you say that?"

"It's sort of a good way since it's you. With you, it's like you won't give information to somebody until they give you information in exchange. The more valuable the information, the more you need in return. Although you use that for combat and gaining information, you use it in your regular life. You don't use it for information that you want to tell people, you use it when you have a story to tell, but you don't want to tell it."

"… What are you, some kind of psychologist?"

"Nope, just speaking my thoughts."

"You're very reasonable, and you always say things at the right time."

"All in a thief's work."

"But you're not on a thief duty right now, aren't you?"

"That's classified information," he said joking.

Caden gave a friendly glare to him, wondering if he was joking or not.

Caden let out a big sigh and rested her head on Matthew's shoulder and wrapped her arms around him. If you didn't know any better, it looked like Caden was hugging Matthew from behind. The only difference was that Matthew was carrying her.

"I'm tired, you don't mind if I sleep, do you?"

"Not at all. I can bring you to a room in the castle if we reach there before you wake up."

"That'd be nice," she responded half-consciously.

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End of Chapter 7: Travel Part II

Many thanks to Riyu 21 for helping me think of the first part of this chapter!

Author's Note:

If you haven't figured it out yet, I made Florina a Falcoknight

1) Just for the sake of her sort of being like me, I'm making her left handed because I'm ambidextrous and I use my left hand when I hold a weapon (Well… when I pretend to hold a weapon.). Yay for left handed people! Warning: My thoughts. I will go on a tangent: I think I'm making this story a minority story… when I look at it from different perspectives. The tactician is female, this is a tactician x Matthew pairing, and the tactician is left handed. It might be confusing for you if you read this, but these are just my thoughts if you slightly understand. If you do… it's a miracle, haha. Thoughts have ended.

2) Err… Well, there was this one chat that I read between Kent and Farina. I wish I knew what the other months were. Hey, I can always make up the months, but it wouldn't be the same. tearN E ways, actually, I was born in February, that means that my actual affinity… or my tactician's affinity is Ice/Water… what ever it is, haha.

3) It's a support conversation between Sain and Serra. I think it's their A conversation. N E ways, I think Serra is one of those people who like guessing who will end up with whom.