The rest of the day was relatively uneventful. After breakfast, Lucina was unsure what she should be doing, mostly because she never thought she would see the day when Grima was no longer a threat. During her future, she would usually just wake up, scourge for food and water, fight Risen if needed, and try to find a good place to shelter themselves from the Fell Dragon's horrors. Even after she time traveled, there was no time for any happiness. Between Plegia, Valm and Validar, her experiences in this timeline also demanded she be ready to fight at a moments notice. Even during the two years of peace between the Plegia and Valm Wars, there was no time to rest, as attempting to find the gemstones was more important. In fact, she had grown so accustomed to war that she did not even know how to act like a normal princess. Nobody taught her. Even her secret meetings with Robin seemed out of place.
Thus, for most of the day, Lucina would just take a walk around the castle and talk to the other children because she did not know how princesses normally acted. However, the other children wanted to spend more time with their parents and explore the castle, so Lucina and the other children parted ways after a while. Lucina wanted to see if she could help her father, but she was not well versed enough in kingdom politics and country management to know how to help the Exalt. Her mother spent her day talking, comforting, and grooming the Pegasus in the stables. Her younger sister Cynthia was also there helping her mother. Lucina, having no experience in dealing with flying horses, also found herself unable to help.
After that, Lucina did not know what to do, so she started doing what she usually did in her free time: training her sword skills. She unsheathed her Falchion and practiced her sword skills on dummies, but even that came to an end when Sumia saw what she was doing in the sky when she took a pegasus out for a test flight. Sumia immediately forbid her to train out of safety concerns for her unborn child. Lucina tried to argue with her mother saying there could be bigger threats that threaten Ylisse in the future, but her mother was having none of it. She told Lucina that Chrom forbid her to train when she was carrying her, how Lucina should be grateful she did not have a miscarriage during the later parts of the war from risking herself in the battlefield, and how she should just rest and take care of herself. Lucina told her mother she didn't know what else to do. Sumia told her daughter to go to her room to relax or do something that didn't risk herself getting injured, such as watching the sunset on the balcony or reading a book from the Ylissian castle archives. Lucina wasn't about to disobey her mother after the conversation they had in the morning, so she stopped fighting with dummies, sheathed her Falchion and walked towards the castle.
Her mother told her to relax in her room, and Lucina realized she hasn't seen her personal bedroom yet because she slept on her mother's bed yesterday. Chrom ordered guest bedrooms in the castle be allocated to the children, and Lucina had no doubt the other children were happy to have their own room and sleep in their own bed for once. Lucina was also looking forward to her own personal room, now that such luxuries could be used. She found her room and walked inside. Looking at the room, it was nothing too impressive. There was the standard furniture: bed, nightstand, table and chair, closet, and bookshelf. There was also window at the end of the room with a view towards the castle town, but because her bedroom was on one of the bottom floors, there was really not a good view. She spent about 5 minutes in her room before realizing there was nothing to do in her room besides to sleep, so she followed her mother's advice and decided to look at the sunset.
Lucina grabbed the chair and exited her room. She walked towards the castle balcony and put the chair down near the railings, the exact same place Chrom stood years ago after their victory against Plegia to make the announcement of his wedding. She sat down and admired the view as the sun went down. Looking down at herself, she touched her stomach and smiled softly. The bump was not visible yet, but she could definitely feel her stomach being larger than before. She whispered to her unborn child, "You are so, so lucky to not witness horrors like I have. Even though I never expected to have you, just know I will always be there to care for you. Your father might not be here now, but I know he will come back one day and be so proud to see you. We will do all we can to make sure there is peace in the kingdom so you don't have to relive our childhoods. Just look at the sunset. It's so beautiful. I never saw anything like this when I was young, and I hope you never have to learn why. It is just too depressing."
Lucina continued to idolize the beautiful scenery from the balcony when she suddenly heard her father's voice. "Lucina, dinner is ready. Would you like to join us?" Her father was suddenly standing behind her, stroking her long, blue hair. She didn't know how Chrom found her here, but she wasn't going to question it. Her parents could always find where she was. It was almost like they had magic tomes that lead them to her.
Her father saw what she was looking at and said, "It's beautiful, isn't it. The sunset, and all these people, walking home after a long day of work. Sometimes, I envy these people and think about how nice it would feel to be an ordinary civilian. But whenever I think that, I always change my mind because I wouldn't want to see any of my friends die. I would probably feel powerless if I was one of them. At least as Exalt, I actually have the chance to help them. After all, those people probably wouldn't exist right now if it wasn't for us. You made them see a happy future without them knowing it."
"Yes, Father, it is very beautiful. However back in my time sunsets were not something to look forward to. Risen were more active during nighttime, and if they ambushed us at night, it was really hard to fight them due to the lack of visibility. I was actually just looking at all these people walking near the town center, talking to each other. Just to think, they would have probably all been dead were it not for us. Heck, they probably didn't even know that the dragon flying above us the past month could have killed them all had he had the power to do so."
"Yes." Chrom felt a little sad hearing his daughter's words, but put his emotions aside and continued. "I was sorry to have failed you in your time and wasn't able to stop Grima. That would probably be one of my biggest failures as the ruler of Ylisse if what you said was true. As the Exalt, I had the job of protecting you and my people. I failed you. I failed them. However, because of you, we were able to set things right and actually help them this time. For that, we will always be grateful for you."
"You don't have to apologize, Father. Grima was way too powerful, and I know you will always be grateful for me. But I have to ask Father, would you ever stop being grateful for me if I ever angered you? For whatever reason?"
"I have already told you, I am proud of my little girl for all she has done. I would never get mad at you. But why would you ask that Lucina? Did you do something wrong?"
"No. I… was talking theoretically."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes father. What could I have done? After all, we just got back to the castle yesterday, and I am still adjusting to my new life. I didn't burn the castle down. I was pretty much just talking with my friends and admiring the sunset the entire day. How could I have done something bad in those 24 hours?"
"Sounds reasonable. Well, to answer your question, as long as you don't do something extreme such as massacring innocent civilians or starting another war with other countries, I would never get mad at you. We have had enough wars in the past decade, and I don't want the civilians of Ylisse have to suffer through the horrors of war again."
"Father, you know as well as I do I would never want another war again."
"Of course sweetie. This war talk is making me have bad flashbacks. Let's just go eat dinner all right?"
"This might be easier than I thought." Lucina realized. She has yet to tell her father or the other Shepherds about her pregnancy, and was especially not looking forward to talking to her father about it. Hearing her father's previous statement was definitely a welcoming change. "But I probably should not tell him about this today. He probably had a stressful day catching up on things he missed during our one year absence fighting Valm and Validar. That should be for another day."
As Chrom and Lucina walked down the hallway to the dining hall, she suddenly realized her mother was correct. Her father was bad at reading people's reactions and thoughts. Her mother was insistent that something was wrong after reading her facial expression last night. Of course, she sort of spilled the beans something was wrong, but she couldn't convince her mother otherwise no matter what she said. Her father did not even blink an eye after telling him there was no way she could have done something bad. Chrom would have probably not asked any further questions, unlike Sumia.
Lucina picked up a plate and filled it with her guilty pleasure food: bear meat. It was one of the few things both Robin and Lucina loved but everybody else hated, especially Frederick and Lissa. Lucina would say it helped them bond, but Robin said they were destined for each other no matter what. She also picked some vegetables like corn, peas, and bread fresh from the oven along with bear meat. Even though food was never in short supply on their marches despite rations, she still could not fathom the amount of food on the table. It seemed endless. If something like this existed in the future, there would have been enough food to feed a town for a month.
Lucina saw her friends sitting in the back of the room at a round table. She sat down next to Inigo and her sister Cynthia.
Immediately after sitting down, Cynthia began telling her older sister about her day helping her mother in the stables. "It was so fun. Seeing my mother feed and care for all these animals made me so happy. Also, Mother also let me fly on one of her most prized pegasus, and she could go so fast. It felt like I could get to Valm in just a day!"
"Sounds like you had a great time today, Cynthia." Lucina said, taking a bite out of the bear meat.
"I think I talked enough about my day. So what's been on your mind lately?" Cynthia asked her elder sister.
"Robin. I just wish he would come back now. I miss him." Lucina said without thinking. Lucina quickly realized what her statement implied and immediately closed her mouth, but the damage was already done. The children all immediately stopped talking to look at Lucina.
Cynthia was the first to break the silence. "Aww. Looks like my big sis here has a crush on the grand tactician of Ylisse."
Lucina's face turned red and immediate blurted out. "I do not. That wasn't what I meant! I just want him to come back because he was so pivotal in helping us defeat Walhart and Grima. He promised us he would be back, and if he comes back, we can celebrate and say that no Shepherds died in the war."
"Yeah right Lucina." Cynthia continued. "You totally have a crush on Robin. Look at your face, it's getting red. You're embarrassed just thinking about it!"
"No, I am not Cynthia." But her words contradicted her actions. Her face grew even redder after saying that statement.
"Yeah, I don't believe you sis. What was the reason why you two always fought together in battle? If you fought at his side once, I would not have blinked an eye. But fighting with him every time in the battlefield, now that's what I call evidence. You are totally in love with him. Admit it."
"No, that was because of his strategy! We figured out that we worked along better in pairs, so we simply fought alongside each other to maximize the effectiveness of our attacks while…"
"Yeah, excuses, excuses." Inigo spoke up. "I have enough experience with girls to know that is not the case."
"Inigo, what would you know about me? You spend so much of your time trying to impress every girl in the world like Virion that you make a fool of yourself and they all end up rejecting you."
"Whoa, that was not a nice thing to say, Lucina. You hurt my feelings."
"I totally agree with Inigo. Even my sword hand can totally see your crush on Robin." Owain blurted out.
The other children all agreed and began teaming up against Lucina. All the children began to tease the princess about her 'crush'.
Lucina, finally unable to take it any longer, lost her temper. It was so unlike her, but for some reason all the children repeating the same "lie" to her face finally made her snap. "NO, I do NOT have a crush on Robin! Leave me along and stop talking about this!" Lucina yelled out, standing up in her chair, unaware of how loud she was. It was almost like she possessed Noire's split personality for a second. The room turned quiet. All chatter in the dining room stopped. Lucina turned around to see all the Shepherds looking at her. Some were shocked, some were trying hard not to laugh, and some showed no emotion. She immediately scanned the room for her mother, and found her sitting with Chrom. She locked eyes with her mother. Sumia had her hand over her face, trying hard not to laugh at what just happened. Sumia immediately tried to look away when she saw her daughter looking at her, but Lucina caught it. Lucina then turned back to face the children to see their reaction. All of them were trying their best not to laugh also.
"No, I did not just do that." Lucina silently cursed herself. She could no longer hide her embarrassment and shame. Lucina immediately began walking away from the dinner table. Even though she barely touched her food and was still hungry, she lost all her appetite after what just happened.
"Wait, Lucina. Don't go. I didn't mean it. I was only teasing you."
"Come back, Lucina!"
"We were just kidding!"
"Sorry if I offended you."
"Lucina.. we're.. we're still friends, right? Please don't get mad at me."
"It wasn't really that funny, Lucina. I wasn't laughing."
Lucina, ignoring the other children's statements, continued walking and exited the dining hall. The Shepherds and the children looked on in shock as Lucina left the dining hall, slamming the door on her way out.