Hey guys! Finally another chapter finished. This took me another three weeks. I'm kinda getting a little behind on this updating stuff, but at least I'm keeping my promise on updating on a Monday. Actually, I almost forgot to update since I have sort of a busy schedule for the summer, heh. N E ways, here's the 9th chapter.

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Chapter 9: Let's go!

Florina already left and made her bed once Caden woke up. She also rose up from her bed, put on her traveling robe, and made her bed. "Florina is already up? Wow… that was quick."

She walked out of the room trying to keep an eye out for the thief so he wouldn't surprise her again. She took a step out of the door; so far, so good. Another step, no surprise here. She closed her door and looked left and right.

"M… Matthew?" she asked in a low voice.

He appeared next to Caden and said, "Good morning, Caden. How may I help you?"

"Good Morning, Matthew. You're not working today?"

"I'm a spy. I don't get major missions like spying a lot. I do some simple tasks often, but Lord Hector has asked me to take these days off and accompany you in his place. But since you have brought up that Florina likes Lord Hector, he's probably giving me work and keeping me away from him so I wouldn't interfere."

Caden smiled and looked at Matthew, "I see. Well Matthew, I thank you for spending time with me. You could have easily left me, but you have decided to stay here and talk to me."

"I don't have a choice, though. I don't mean it in a bad way; without you here, I'm bored most of the time. So I should thank you for that."

"What about Serra? Don't you talk to her on occasions to relieve your boredom?"

"I do sometimes, but she usually talks about herself, and she talks about herself to anyone she can find. It doesn't matter if I'm not there."

"Sigh… typical of her, haha. She reminds me of my brother in some cases."

"Would you like to tell me about him?"

"Sure, but can we talk somewhere else?"

"Let's go to the garden. We can talk there, and I remember you saying something like you have another story to tell."

"Oh, that… alright then. Since I'm going to tell you about my brother, I guess it's no harm telling you about my parents as well since I did say that I was. Actually, talking about my family will kind of show you how I became a tactician. Oh, I almost forgot, do you know where Florina is?"

"The last time I saw her was this morning. She was out in the stables taking care of her Pegasus. Are you looking for her?"

"No, not really. I was just wondering where she was. Her bed was already made when I woke up." She was thinking, and then she laughed, "Maybe later she's going to go to Lord Hector's room and start talking to him again."

"That is a possibility."

"Yeah, I think that Lord Hector might be the only man who she's not afraid of."

"True. Well then, shall we make out way to the garden?"

They walked to the back of Ostia's castle where the garden is located. It looked more elegant with an abundance of flowers which, Caden thought, doesn't fit Lord Hector at all since he was all muscular and broad, he's nothing like the flowers in his garden. But knowing that Ostia and Lord Hector is the center of Lycia, it has to be one of the best looking in Lycia. The garden was bigger compared to Caelin's and Pherae's; to see every detail of the whole garden, she would have to take a couple of hours to examine. "My, Ostia's garden is beautiful; everything goes in unison with each other. There's nothing that I see that goes out of place. Note to self: Observe the garden again and study the flowers and flora that are not in the other lands of Lycia... or I can probably do that after I talk to Matthew."

"So then?"

"'So then' what?"

"You said that you would continue your story about how you became a tactician. It's the next day, so that means you have no excuses this time."

"Am I really that interesting to you? I didn't think you would have remembered."

"Oh, just spit it out already."

"Alright, alright! I never knew you were so forceful about learning about some one. …Um… are you sure you won't be bored?"

"If you're telling it, I won't be."

The sat down on a bench and Caden cleared her throat.

"Alright then, here it goes:

"As I said before, I lived in Etruia until I was 15. Before that time, I grew up with a mother, father, and a younger brother, in my house. Those three were very talented people.

"My mother, Teena, is a cleric and she's well known in the temple that she volunteers at. Whenever someone had something wrong with them health wise, they would ask my mother to heal the person. She's nice, friendly, and also a beautiful woman and she put her family before other duties. People loved her, and sometimes people would come from another part of Etruia just to see her. She has mastered learning how to use all the staffs that's known in Elibe.

"Every time I would get hurt, or fall, of course my mother would always heal me. She knew that I wasn't good at magic, but she always encouraged me to try to get better. When I temporarily gave up trying to be a mage, she tried to make me a cleric, but then I was worse at using a healing staff than using a fire tome. She never gave up on me though, until I said that I didn't want to learn magic anymore, haha.

"My father, Allard, is a well known sage as well. He's one of the best magic users in our town. He's usually out on missions he's given by the military he volunteered for. Sometimes he would be out of our town for weeks at a time, but he would always come back alive. On his team, everyone would come back, a lot of other men wanted to be in his army because he was a passionate man, and he wouldn't leave anyone behind.

"It's a little embarrassing to say this but, he was one of the most handsome men in our town as well. I have to admit that, even though he is my father. My father was very strict on me and on my brother. Sometimes he was so strict on us that he made me cry because I couldn't do it. He wasn't really the 'family man' when I was really young. He wanted me and my brother to be the strongest kids in our village. He could get really competitive with the family at times, especially if he's competing against my brother. They both did it for fun, but in a serious manner. He never really competed with the other villagers. So far, the wins are my father 50, my brother 23. It's a big difference in the odds, but my brother has been catching up to him fairly quickly.

"My brother, Gregory, is only one year younger than me. He's outgoing and very talkative, the very opposite personality of me. Greg was only three or four at the time when he learned how to use magic; he first picked up a book and started reading it. People call him a natural because he learned it himself, with only minimal help from our parents and instructors. My parents weren't even considering of hiring a tutor for him. He's more advanced than all of his friends, and he sometimes goes with my father on missions.

"Greg always made fun of me too when I was living there, you know, the regular younger brother stuff. Always saying that I look ugly, and making fun of the way I make a mistake or when I do something. He also made fun of me for him having more friends than me. I don't know if other brothers do that, but I got used to him. He's also taller than me, so sometimes he uses that to his advantage and made fun of me even more for being short. But, you know I still love him. But he was concerned when I was hurt, even if we got into a huge argument or something. Usually when we were arguing, his comeback line was 'well, at least I can use magic!' haha!

"And then there's me, the quiet one, the anti-social, and the one usually inside her room studying and thinking over problems, only going outside once in a while to study something on the outside or talking with one of my friends. I'm the one who has exceptional magic users in my family, but I can only conjure a simple fire, I'm only successful about half the time. There are so many mages who can use Elfire, monks who can use Divine, and clerics who can use Mend, and they are younger than me. Although they were the ones who can use magic, my teacher has told me that I can acquire knowledge more and faster than most people. I was also said that I was a good strategist. I decided by myself that I should travel around, ascertain knowledge, and help others who are in need instead of staying in one place and wasting my abilities.

"I really wanted to stand out from my family. I didn't want to be known as the one from a magic user family who can't even use magic. I felt left out; the one who wasn't well known. So, I talked it out with my family, and they let me go, they were a little worried about it at first, but they said that I had reasonable arguments. They knew how I felt, and they encouraged me to see how far I can get.

"… So then, that's most of my story. It's pretty selfish, isn't it?"

"The reason why you left in the first place was pretty selfish but what you wanted to do is not. Hey, it's a good thing that you were selfish because you achieved your goal, didn't you?"

Caden looked down and smiled. Matthew was right once again, she did achieve what she wanted to do. Now that she has done that, she was wondering if her family knew about it. Do they know about her accomplishments? She said that she wanted to be noticed, but she especially wanted to be noticed by her family.

"You're absolutely right, Matthew. I've made my decision. I'm going to Etruia to visit my family. I haven't been there in a long time. But… Lord Eliwood asked me to stay in Lycia until his inauguration; that's about ten months away. I don't want to wait that long until I go to Etruia."

"Huh? W-Wait… by the way that you were talking about them, I thought your parents were…"

"Were what?"

"Well, you were referring them with a past tense, so I assumed that you're parents were… um… already gone from this world."

Caden smiled and started to laugh. "No, no… they have plenty of years ahead of them before they actually die, trust me. I don't want to sound like I'm bragging, but they're too smart for bandits and other enemies, as I've indirectly mentioned."

"Heh, yeah, I see it now. Anyways, about you going to Etruia, you should ask Lord Eliwood or Lord Hector if you can go now. If you leave tomorrow, you can probably get there in a month."

Caden jumped up and looked at Matthew, "Great idea, I'm going to go and tell Lord Hector!"

She started to walk, but then she looked back at Matthew.

"I've only stayed in Ostia for about two days. It would be a little mean if I leave tomorrow."

"Don't worry. Lord Hector has Florina, and since you're only going to visit your family for a little while, when you come back, you can spend more time in Ostia."

"You're right. Alright, then, I'm going now, and you're coming with me to ask!"

She grabbed his hands and started dragging him so she and him can meet with Hector. Hector was in his room again, going over some paperwork and reading what the people wanted. Caden knocked on his door and Hector allowed her to come in. She asked him about her request once she walked into the room. He agreed about her going to Etruia.

"Sure, I'll relay the message to Eliwood; he'll understand why you're leaving for a while. But in order for someone to protect you… Matthew."

"Yes, Young Master?"

"Accompany Caden outside of Lycia and go with her to Etruia. Stay with her until she comes back here. Make sure she comes back here before ten months also. To make it easier on you, you don't have any missions or jobs if you accept this. That is alright with you, isn't it?"

"Yes milord, it's no problem."

They left the room and closed the door.

"I'm a little sorry, Matthew," Caden muttered.

"About what?"

"That you needed to be dragged into my affair. I know that I dragged you to come with me, but he really didn't have to ask you to come with me. Although it's pretty funny what kind of reasons he came up with."

"You need someone to protect you too. Who's better to accompany you than a thief?"

Caden chuckled, "Thank you, Matthew. I guess it's difficult for me to travel by myself for a long period of time now that I have traveled with a big army. Plus, traveling with a friend would be enjoyable than traveling alone, especially if the one you are traveling with is a thief."

"You got that right. A thief is real handy to have around," he said placing a hand on her shoulder.

She played it friendly and tried placing a hand on Matthew's shoulder too, but her head just reached Matthew's shoulders, so it looked a little weird as she placed her hand on his shoulder.

"Grr… curse tall people. I guess looking at Lord Hector's garden is going to have to wait for a while. I was really thinking of observing the different flowers that he had here." (1)

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End of Chapter 9: Let's go!

Caden's going to meet her family again? What will happen on their way there?

I feel a sense of dread since people might not like the rest of the story. I don't know. Maybe it's just me and my pessimistic side. Anyways, thank you for reading this chapter!

1) I really have no right to say that line, about cursing tall people, because I'm the tallest out of all my friends. And I'm about 5'6… which I think is pretty tall for an Asian, haha. Actually, Filipinos aren't really Asians, but are called "Pacific Islanders" but I know that a lot of Filipinos like to call themselves Asians. Sorry for rambling, I'll try to keep it to a minimum.