No Longer Alone
Guess who's the proud (if slightly disgruntled) owner of a brand new DSLite and a copy of Super Robot Wars Original Gen-
DASH, TROMBE!
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Then, she felt a sudden shift in his body, and a sad chuckle from him. "Huh. Look at me. Here I am, promising to protect you, when only this afternoon I-"
She paused, sighed. She really didn't want him to continue thinking about that – what was past was past, after all. But if he was still beating himself up over it…
"Franz." The way she said it was enough to get his attention. "What's done is done. This afternoon… it was my fault too, you know. I could have fought better. I should have fought better. If you messed up your attempt to protect me…" She shrugged. "That was because I messed up first."
"Still…"
"Look, we're still alive, we're still in one piece, we'll live to see another day. God or fate decided to give the both of us another try, so let's make the most of it, all right?" She hesitated. "We just promised each other, didn't we? So let's live up to that new promise, even if we muffed the first one."
He closed his eyes, nodded. "Okay." He said softly. "All right, then."
"I still don't get why Prince Ephraim was willing to hire a thief."
Franz glanced up at the sound of conversation. Forde and Kyle were walking towards him, both debating some matter he wasn't quite sure about.
"He probably figured that he could use the skills right now. Especially if what that scholar said was true." Forde shrugged as he settled himself down on a chair. "And there've been reports that Grado troops around Jehenna are on the move, so it looks like we'll be heading out again before too long. Let's just enjoy the downtime while we can, huh?"
Of course. Another battle. This one taking place in Jehenna, if the ongoing discussion was any indication. Franz had heard tales about the place – with it's endless plains of sand, scorching heat so fierce that it burned your throat and nose as you breathed in, about the merciless, pitiless sun, where water was a vital commodity, hoarded and guarded zealously.
He remembered Joshua, the flame-haired mercenary. He'd said he'd been heading to Jehenna due to 'unfinished business' the last time they'd met, hadn't they? Silently, he wondered how he'd been getting on, whether or not he was still with Princess Eirika.
"Hey, Franz." He looked up to see Forde looking down at him. "How're things?"
He could detect the guarded tone in his brother's voice – not that he could particularly blame Forde for it – the story of what had happened must have spread throughout the place by now. Hell, given Forde's tendency to be in the thick of things, he might very well have been there when it happened.
"…Fine." He replied, hoping his brother would get the hint.
With an elaborate sigh and a sidelong look to Kyle (who quickly found that he had somewhere else to be), Forde settled himself down next to Franz.
"You talk to her yet?"
"…Yeah. She doesn't blame me. Or at least she says she doesn't."
"Of course, that doesn't matter half as much as the fact that you blame yourself."
Franz made no reply. He didn't need to.
"…I was there, you know. I saw what happened, and it was a pretty lousy deal all around." Forde paused. "This is kinda late, but… well, did General Seth ever teach you how to deal with Berserk staves when you've no mages of your own?"
"If he did, I must've forgotten."
"Yeah, well, the core principle is to shove the weakest guy in your team in the path of the spell."
"…What?"
"Yeah, well – look, we're not mages. If the spell hits us we don't know how to resist it. Therefore it's most practical to let the weakest person take the hit – you stand the highest chance of being able to disable the guy without harming either of you."
Franz swallowed. "Are you saying I should have let Amelia go berserk?"
"You're the better fighter, aren't you? 'Course, it's a moot point now, but in case we ever run into any more of those jokers-"
"No. No. That's – that's wrong. That's – how could I possibly let her…" He trailed off lamely.
"And what's the alternative, brother?" Forde's easy smile, so often etched across his face, had vanished. "You take the hit, you go crazy, and you kill your weaker opponent? Your friend, who's going to be holding back, while you're in no position to do so? That way everyone just gets hurt."
Franz looked away, unable to find a response. He couldn't think of something to counter what his brother had said, but the very idea was so alien to him that… that… well, he was getting angry just thinking about it.
"I know what you're thinking, Franz. You care about Amelia – that's good. But don't let your feelings cloud your judgment and obscure the truth of the matter." Forde sighed. "Trust me. I learnt it the hard way."
Something about the way his brother was talking made Franz look up. For the first time in… well, a very long while, he could see a look of hurt in his brother's eyes.
"I've been responsible for my friends getting hurt a lot in the past. I didn't fight well enough, I missed an opening, I just wasn't on the ball, I wasn't paying attention when it happened… I know you've gone through the same thing. I've seen it happen."
Franz didn't respond.
"I also wounded one of them myself. No, it wasn't like what happened with you. It was in the middle of a battlefield, and the enemy ducked faster than I thought he would. I damn near took off Gerard's arm off." Forde reached over and grabbed a piece of bread, chewing it thoughtfully. "I felt like a monster for a while. 'Course, my friend told me he didn't blame me, that I shouldn't blame myself, that it could have happened to anyone, that he really should have fought better himself…" The knight gave his younger brother a crooked smile. "Any of this sound familiar?"
Franz nodded and managed a slight smile of his own. "Yeah. Yeah, I guess it does."
"…That won't help with how you feel – you're still going to feel like swamp scum for a while. You're still going to have to deal with what happened. But you can't let it bog you down too much or you'll just keep making worse and worse decisions. Just something to keep in mind." Saying so he stood up and headed after Kyle, leaving Franz to ponder.
"You care for him? That's the best you could come up with?" Neimi raised an eyebrow as she stirred some drink that she was concocting while Amelia ducked her head. "That's all you had to say?"
"It's… I don't see why I should be so forward." The lancer rubbed the back of her head. "I told you before, I'm not even sure it's… well, that kind of relationship."
"We'll it's certainly not going to be if you keep acting like that." Her friend commented.
"Come off it." Amelia chuckled. "It's not like you and Colm have done a whole lot, have you?"
She could see Neimi sigh. "Well, it's different between us. It's… we have an understanding. Neither of us needs to say it."
"…I think it would be better if you said it out loud."
Neimi sighed. "Maybe. Maybe. But!" She said as she lifted the mug to her lips to take an experimental sip. "Back to you. You're really not sure if you feel that way about him?"
Amelia shrugged. "Well, I'm not exactly familiar with this, you know."
"Well, you two spend nearly every waking moment around each other."
"We do not." Amelia folded her arms crossly. "I'm with you right now, aren't I? Anyway, just because we're really close friends doesn't mean we're more than that."
"No, of course it doesn't." Neimi had an absolutely infuriating smile on her face.
"But that's the whole point!" Amelia huffed and crossed her arms. "At what point do you cross the line? Where do you stop being very, very good friends and start becoming, well, lovers? How do you tell?"
The archer shook her head. "There's no easy answer to that, Amelia. But if you're really not sure right now, then I guess you might want to wait. After all, it's not like either of you are going anywhere."
"I guess not. I mean, I thought the war would end here, but everyone's still running around and making preparations to continue, and I heard some rumours that we're planning to move for Jehenna next."
Neimi sighed. "Well, I guess in a way, I don't really mind. Not the killing and fighting, I mean – those are horrible. But I don't mind this wandering around, travelling the continent. After all, Colm and I… we don't really have anywhere to go home to."
"Well, if you like, I'm sure you could find a place in Silva." Amelia smiled encouragingly. "We'd welcome you in without a second thought."
"Silva?" Neimi blinked and looked at her.
"Well, yeah. It's my hometown in Grado. Didn't I tell you about it before? It's not the biggest or most prosperous place, but-"
"No, no, it's just…" Her pink-haired friend looked vaguely uneasy. "It's just… I always… I just assumed that you'd be coming back with us, Amelia. To Renais. After the war."
That brought Amelia up short. She'd already thought about this earlier, but usually in vague, half-formed musings. Back before the assault on the castle had been the deepest she'd went into things, and perhaps not incidentally, the first time she'd given serious thought to the idea of moving to Renais after everything had ended.
"Well…" She finally answered. "Maybe. I'm not sure about making a decision just yet."
"Then let me give you some incentive." Neimi took another sip and apparently found the brew to her liking. "Franz is a knight of Renais. He's going to have to stay in there until he resigns his commission, which, well, isn't happening anytime soon. So if you don't want to have to leave him behind…"
Amelia could feel her face heating up. "You act like the entirety of my decision making is based around Franz or something."
"What?" Neimi affected astonishment. "You mean it's not?" Then her grin faded, although a warm smile still remained on her face. "But really, Amelia, I just wanted you to think about it for a while – what would it be like if you had to leave behind everyone else. We've probably still got some time left until you have to choose one or the other, so just sleep on it, okay?"
"Yeah," The blonde soldier nodded. "Yeah, I guess that would be good idea."
Once in a while, Franz mused on why Ephraim held him in a high enough regard that he got invited to the planning sessions. He rarely gave input unless he was specifically asked for, and almost any relevant information would have reached him sooner or later anyway as they were informed of their next destination.
Maybe he was serving as a sort of ersatz replacement for General Seth? Well, whatever it was it wasn't going to do him much good worrying about it. He stepped into the conference room, noting that it was still relatively empty – the meeting wasn't supposed to take place just yet.
"Ah, Sir Franz." Ephraim looked up from a map with a tiny smile, although Franz could see several telltale signs that the prince was indeed under a lot of stress. "If all goes well, we should be meeting up with Princess Eirika and her retinue."
"You mean – General Seth?"
"Sounds likely, doesn't it. The last recorded communication was when they were near the mountain village of Caer Paelyn."
Franz frowned. "I don't think I've heard of it."
"Yes, well, many people haven't. But your friend Ewan has ties to that place, and I was able to glean a bit of information from him concerning it. Anyway, they were headed towards Jehenna, and they should be within the country limits right now."
"And that's… bad, right?" Franz questioned. He'd seen the frown on the prince's face.
"Well, yes. There's strong evidence of Grad troop movement over here and here-" He indicated several spots on the map one of which was surprisingly close to the Jehennnan Palace. "Jehenna being, well, Jehenna, has large tracts of land where there's practically nothing in the way of civilisation. It is possible that a large army is operating dangerously close to the royal family."
"But that's-" Franz didn't know much about desert living, but what he did know created more than enough problems. "You couldn't possibly hope to move an entire army through the desert regions! The logistics would be a nightmare! The entire reason there're no settlements out there is that there's no water – how could the army last a week before disintegrating?"
"I don't know. And while the mages tell me that it's possible for magic to make the necessary substitutes, it would require magic on a scale greater than any human could hope to achieve." Prince Ephraim, Franz realized, was worried. And that worried Franz, because in all the time the young knight had ever known the prince, he'd never seen the heir to Renais' crown as anything other than calm, self-assured, in control. Now, though…
"Well, nothing for it. Once the others get here we'll have to-"
He was distracted by the appearance of a man bearing the sigil of a messenger on his breast plate. "Milord, I bring urgent news."
Ephraim nodded. "Well, let's hear it."
"Jehenna… the palace has fallen victim to a surprise invasion from Grad forces."
Franz felt, rather than saw, Ephraim straighten in shock. "So quickly?" He sputtered. "Before word even got here? They should have been slowed down long enough for-"
"There's more, milord." The messenger was obviously very worried. "Princess Eirika of Renais… has been reported to be in the vicinity of the Jehennan palace when the assault occurred."
There was dead silence in the room for several long seconds. And then Ephraim was rounding the table, heading for the door, all but breaking into a flat-out sprint. At that moment, the door swung open and Forde walked in, followed by a retinue of advisors.
"So I'm figuring we'll set out in, let's say three days, and we'll head for the Jehennan border-"
"Get your gear ready and alert the men. We're to leave before the hour is out." The prince never even broke stride as he rounded the soldiers and vanished beyond the doorway.
Forde blinked once, looked back to where Ephraim had vanished, and turned back to Franz.
"Anything I should know about?"
"Yeah," Franz sighed and rubbed his head. "Just a bit."
Notwithstanding Ephraim's commands, getting an entire army, especially one that had been operating under the assumption that they'd be getting a bit of much-needed downtime, into full battle order ready for marching at full speed took considerably longer than an hour, to the extent that the sun was at the tip of its arc for the day when they finally set out. Unsurprisingly, this didn't do wonders for morale.
"All right, that should do it." Amelia heard Franz muttering to himself as he tied down a heavy pack. "It should hold, huh, girl?" He rubbed the beast's head affectionately. "It's a bit of extra weight, but I'm sure you'll do fine."
"What's in there, then?" She questioned as she came up to him.
"Hm? Oh, hi, Amelia." She caught a flash of hesitation in his eyes before he smiled at her. Inwardly she winced. He wasn't going to live it down entirely, at least not for a while. "I'm just tying down my armour plates."
She gave a pointed glance towards the pack, which was securely fastened with rope and belts. "Uh, and what happens when you need it quickly for a fight?"
"For a f – Amelia, we're headed for Jehenna. It's practically nothing but desert. If we wore any armour heavier than hip guards we'd be cooked alive in minutes."
"Oh – Oh!" She flushed. "I'm sorry, I'm – I guess I'm not familiar with what a desert is like."
He chuckled. "Me neither, actually. I'm just going by what I've picked up from those who have experienced what it's like." His gaze wandered towards Forde, who was just clambering onto his own steed.
"So at least we know where most of the Grad forces were. Although…" She paused. "Why they're doing this is still up for grabs."
"I heard that they have two of the Grado Generals there." Franz spoke softly as he stared out in the direction of the desert country. "If that's true, and their armies are at full strength… then this could be the biggest fight of our lives."
"And it has to take place in a desert, no less." Franz muttered. "I'm starting to miss-" He was cut off as the ground rumbled softly once more.
"Another one?" The lancer sighed. "They seem to be occurring a lot more frequently nowadays. Or maybe it's just because of where we are in the country itself."
"Yeah, as I was saying," Franz said somewhat grumpily. "I'm really starting to miss Renais."
"Oh? You know, come to think of it, I've never actually seen your homeland."
"Yeah? Well, you'd love it, I'm sure. In the spring, when the flowers bloom, the gardens are a huge blaze of colour – a lot of the flowers in Renais don't grow anywhere else, actually. There's a lake just near my house where Forde and I would always go to cool off during the summer months – the water there is pristine, and it's secluded enough that you can just spend a lazy afternoon there without being disturbed by anyone."
"That does sound nice." She said softly.
"…" Franz was silent for a moment as he mounted Neige. Then he nodded. "Well, after the war's over… would you like me to bring you to see those places?"
Amelia was silent for a while, mouth half open. Then she nodded and smiled. "Yes. Yes, I would."
Chapter End
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