Another chapter where I'm sure I messed something up. It's got some difficult subjects to talk about.

Chapter 11 – Undesirable Measures (Guardian Moon)

Three days had passed since the Mittelfrank Opera divas had warned the Church of Seiros of the Empire's advance toward Garreg Mach Monastery. Having just spoken to her scouts, Shamir marched her way up to the war room, knowing the news wasn't going to be well-received. She opened the door to find Seteth, Alois, Byleth, Dorothea and the others already discussing plans for the monastery's defense.

Not waiting for someone to address her, Shamir said, "Our scouts have returned from their mission."

"Have they determined the enemy's strength?" asked Ferdinand.

"The army approaching us is approximately two-thousand men strong."

As Shamir anticipated, the others were dismayed to hear this.

"That is less than I had expected," said Seteth. "But we are still outnumbered."

"Why would the Empire only give Randolph that many troops?" asked Caspar.

"Word is that the Empire's massing up for some big push into the Leicester Alliance later in the year," said Anna. "I guess they don't want to spare more than they think is necessary."

"Regardless, we will be hard-pressed to defeat such a sizeable force," said Alois. "We've only got around six-hundred soldiers here at present. More are on their way from other parts of Fódlan, but…"

"How long will it be until the Empire arrives?" asked Felix.

"About four days at their pace," answered Shamir.

"Damn… too soon," muttered Alois.

As the others mulled over the situation, Dorothea said, "Shouldn't we be getting everyone ready to evacuate?" The others turned to her as she continued, "There are hundreds of civilians here. If we fight the Empire, we'll be putting all their lives at risk."

"Easier said than done, Songbird," said Yuri. "The passages in Abyss that we used last time have all collapsed, either due to the Imperials or due to my own people covering the escape."

"What about that gate that Flayn opened before?" asked Annette. "The civilians could flee through the woods."

"Bad idea," said Leonie. "I checked there a few days ago and that forest is crawling with wolves and wild beasts. They wouldn't last a night."

"Nearly all other routes away from the monastery would be far too perilous," said Lysithea. "Whether due to beasts or bandits, the only reasonable route out would be right in the path of the approaching Imperial army."

Dorothea was dismayed to hear this, realizing the civilians had no escape route.

"We will need to bolster our numbers," said Seteth. "Alois, Catherine, round up every able-bodied worker and merchant you can find and prepare them for battle."

"WHAT?!" Dorothea's sudden outburst caused everyone to turn in surprise toward her. "You can't be serious, Seteth! You're going to force the people you're supposed to be protecting into fighting your war?!"

"Miss Arnault, unless we strengthen ourselves with more troops, we will not be able to weather the Empire's assault on the monastery."

"Hey, you can count me in," said Brigitte. "They'll take this place over my dead body."

"Brigitte, no!" shouted Dorothea. "You're going to do no such thing!"

"Dorothea, calm down, would you?" said Caspar.

"I am not pleased with the idea of conscription either, but you must think rationally about this, Dorothea," added Ferdinand.

Before anyone else could say anything, Dorothea noticed Catherine moving to exit the war room. To everyone's surprise, the brunette began readying a Thunder spell.

"Dorothea, what are you doing?!" Bernadetta said in fright.

"You're not going anywhere, Catherine!" Dorothea seethed at the Crusader.

Turning to the singer's threat, Catherine moved her hand to Thunderbrand and said firmly, "Stand down, Dorothea."

"No! I'm not gonna let you put innocent people in harm's way! Even if I have to hurt you to do it!"

"Dorothea, please stop this!" said Petra.

"You all just want to throw your lives away fighting a hopeless battle, and now you're going to make innocent people do the same! Well, I won't let you! I won't let you fight! I can't! I can't let any of you–"

Everyone was stunned silent as Brigitte strode up to Dorothea and slapped her.

"That's enough, Dorothea," Brigitte said crossly as Dorothea touched her cheek, her spell dispersing. "It's not your call to make, you hear?"

Dorothea couldn't find anything to say.

"Brigitte is right, Dorothea," said Byleth. "And so is Seteth. We need more people."

Dorothea's eyes went wide as she turned toward Byleth with an expression of betrayal on her face.

"But you're not wrong either," Byleth continued. "We can't force people to fight for us if they don't want to get involved, but it's no better to force others not to fight if they want to."

Dorothea made a choking gasp at this, realizing just what she had been trying to do. Her eyes began to water.

"I know you're worried for everyone's safety, but it's important to us that we fight to protect what's dear to us. And that's our choice. Not yours, and not anyone else's to decide."

"She's right, Songbird," said Yuri. "Don't go making our decisions for us, you hear?"

"I… I just…" Dorothea fell to her knees, burying her face in her hands as she said, "I don't want you all to die…! I don't want you to throw your lives away…! I…"

At a loss for words, Dorothea sobbed loudly into her hands.

"Hey, hey, Dorothea, it's okay," said Brigitte as she knelt and put her hands on Dorothea's shoulders. "We're not gonna die on you, you hear? We've got this."

"We're not gonna lose to the Empire!" said Alicia.

"Agreed!" said Alois. "But there's still the matter of additional troops we'll need."

"I will not have us resort to conscription," said Byleth. "Alois, Catherine, Cyril, spread the word that we're looking only for willing volunteers. Let them know the odds we're up against. Let them decide if they want to fight."

"You've got it, Lady Byleth!" said Cyril.

Indignantly, Seteth then said, "Lady Eisner, we cannot afford to–"

"This is not up for discussion, Seteth!" Byleth snapped. "Is that clear?"

Seeing the resolve in Byleth's green eyes, Seteth sighed and said, "Very well… But you must realize we will not get nearly enough additional troops if we only ask for volunteers. Holding off the Imperial Army with so few soldiers will be virtually impossible."

"Don't be so sure of that, Seteth," said Anna. "I just got a big shipment in today. It should help us even the odds."

Knowing something was being kept from him, Seteth asked, "What is in this shipment?"

…

To say Seteth was angry with the contents Anna's shipment was an understatement. The cart was filled with weapons and barrels, none of which the advisor was pleased to see.

"Annabelle Sharene Ernest, have you absolutely no respect for the Church's traditions or doctrine?!" Seteth said furiously. "All of this is forbidden!"

"Yeah? Tell it to someone who gives a damn," said Anna as she took a crossbow out of a wagon and showed it to the others. "Besides, if we don't use this stuff, I don't think the Empire's gonna have much trouble wiping us out."

"But to resort to this vile substance?!" Seteth gestured to an open barrel filled with a crude black liquid.

"Umm, what is this stuff?" asked Alicia.

"It's called tar," answered Felix. "It's found in great quantities in Northern Faerghus and the Sreng region, but the Church forbids its use due to how hazardous it is."

"How exactly?" asked Cia.

"It's really flammable, for one," said Annette. "And the fumes are… ugh…"

Annette did not need to explain the nausea the others were feeling from the poisonous stench. Covering his mouth, Felix promptly placed the lid back on top of the barrel of tar.

"Tar's a deadly weapon when employed correctly," said Anna. "It's just what we need to turn the tide against the Imperials."

Still angry, Seteth then said, "Even if it does give us victory, have you given any thought to the consequences? If you unleash this on our enemies, you will be giving them an excuse to unleash something far worse!"

"I'd say we already crossed that line long ago," said Yuri, "given the Empire's use of Demonic Beasts in its army."

"You don't have to like it, Seteth," said Anna.

Seteth was about to retort to this when Byleth interjected, "Seteth, did you not once tell us that sometimes we need to bend or otherwise break? This is one of those times."

Seteth tried to find something to say but scowled as he realized Byleth was right.

"I suppose you'll want us to start raising the dead next," Seteth muttered, much to Byleth's chagrin.

"Necromancy is one line I'm not gonna cross, Seteth," Anna said irately. "But we have to be willing to do what it takes to win."

"How do you intend to use all of this, Anna?" asked Byleth.

"The crossbows should help arm any volunteers so they can provide some ranged support. They don't have the range of a longbow, and I don't have enough to arm everyone, but they can punch through heavy armor at close range."

"And the tar?"

"That's the important stuff for my plan." Anna gestured to a map depicting the monastery grounds on a nearby table, pointing to the hill leading to town. "The Empire will be coming from here, just like before. We need to get them to commit their army to a full-scale assault on the hill and funnel their troops through the center of the outer wall. Once they do, we'll roll fire carts filled with tar down at them and… well, you can guess what'll happen next. The tar will help spread more flames on the enemy and make it so they can't put the fires out."

Dorothea had to cringe at the thought of Anna's plan. Burning to death was something she had seen on several occasions, and it was one of the most horrible ways to die. Now they were planning to use fire against a whole army.

"The tricky part," Anna continued, "is going to be getting them to commit their forces to an all-out attack."

"Wait, won't they just attack us all at once anyway?" asked Lana.

"Why would they do that if they outnumber us?" said Leonie. "If they think they can win without needing to send everyone they've got, they'll do that. Or they'll just wait outside and try to starve us out. Basic tactics."

"Oh. I don't really know anything about that stuff, so, umm…"

"What about the passage to Abyss from town?" asked Lysithea.

"That's been sealed off," said Yuri. "They'd need a month to clear away all that rubble."

"This plan of yours does not exactly inspire confidence, Anna," said Seteth. "There is a great deal that could go wrong. Have you given any thought to what we should do if your plan fails?"

Anna was about to reply when Byleth said, "We'll make it work, Seteth."

Yuri then took a crossbow and said, "In the meantime, we should get these distributed. Our volunteers are gonna need to know how to use them."

"If only we had time to educate them with proper weaponry," said Constance as she stood in the shade. "I, for one, am not pleased at how we must resort to such distasteful armaments."

"As uncouth as they may be," said Ferdinand, "the Empire's use of them has had great success, Constance. It was weapons such as this that helped defeat our army when we tried to retake my family's territory. One cannot deny their effectiveness."

Constance wanted to object but hissed as she realized Ferdinand was right.

…

Later in the afternoon, Byleth watched as the few volunteers who had signed up to fight for the Church started learning how to use the crossbows that Anna provided. Only around a hundred workers and merchants had volunteered, while Seteth had wanted at least four hundred.

She wondered if she should have let Seteth conscript them. But thinking back on Dorothea's horror, she realized she could not resort to it. She had no right to force people, who wanted nothing to do with violence, into a seemingly hopeless battle.

"By, you have a moment?" asked Anna as she walked up to Byleth's side.

"What is it, Anna?" Byleth replied.

"It's just… This whole situation has got me thinking. I kept telling Seteth that I was willing to do whatever it takes to win against the Empire, but… am I really? I'm turning to these terrible weapons of war, knowing why the Church forbids them, and yet I don't know if they'll be enough. What if we still fail? Will we say we didn't go far enough? That we didn't cross a line we should've crossed to ensure victory?"

"Anna…"

"Or what if we win, but we have to cross one line too many to do it? Where would it stop? Will we end up sacrificing too much to achieve victory?"

Byleth was stunned at Anna's insight. It was very unlike the redhead to be so worrisome.

As she stood in silence, Byleth could not find any answers for Anna's questions. They weren't such a simple thing, after all. How far would they have to go to defeat the Empire? Would they have to view the ends as justification for the means? Would they have to do whatever it took, no matter how grisly or unthinkable, to win? Or would they draw a line in the sand and refuse to cross it?

After several seconds of silence, Anna said, "Hey, sorry if I'm sounding too grim for you. It's just that I keep thinking back to the battle five years ago and how we could've turned that one around. Maybe if the Church wasn't so mired by tradition, they could've won that day. But maybe I'm wrong. Maybe we were doomed from the start."

Again, Byleth had no answer to Anna's insight. But as she pondered the redhead's point, a memory of the battle came to her.

Byleth then said, "We have to limit ourselves." As Anna looked at the greenette, Byleth continued, "If we don't draw a line in the sand that we refuse to cross, we'll be just the same as Edelgard. She said it to me five years ago: that there was nothing she wouldn't do to achieve victory. If we do the same, will we be any better than her?"

After a brief pause, Anna said, "Heh, I guess we wouldn't. Well, let's just hope it doesn't come to that."

Conscription and other controversial means of achieving victory. Dicey topics, to say the least.

Conscription has ever been the means for a nation to raise its army and ensure everyone is doing their part in a war. But is it inherently wrong to make participation in an army mandatory? In my mind, I'd say it is. People have the right to object to fighting in a war, whether due to their conscience or some other reason, and joining an army should be one's own choice, not a choice someone else makes for them.

Then we get to the part on how far one side is willing to go to achieve victory. Shooting medics? Chemical weaponry? Fire? Bombing residential areas? All reprehensible things done in wars of the past, but measures deemed necessary for victory. And the worst thing about it is that there are no "right" or "wrong" answers. Some of those things might not be allowed anymore (i.e. chemical warfare), but back when they were allowed and utilized, they were the "best" options available.

For example, when U.S. President Harry Truman dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of WW2, he did it to avoid needing to invade Japan, a campaign that analysts said would have cost a million U.S. casualties and several million Japanese lives. Yes, the bombs killed thousands in the blink of an eye and hundreds of thousands more died afterwards from radiation or burns, but they brought about the Japanese surrender, sparing millions overall. Abhorrent? Absolutely. But in the end it achieved victory and ended the bloodshed. You can't really say Truman was "right" or "wrong" about dropping the bomb. It's far too multifaceted for one to give a simple answer.

Now, Byleth and friends aren't about to use nuclear weapons, but they've gotta be willing to cross some lines. But how far is too far?

I'll leave you to think about that.