Now we get to see the Golden Deer side of things.

Chapter 20 – The Master Tactician (Guardian Moon)

Balthus had to catch himself so that his eyes wouldn't wander too much in Hilda's direction. The pinkette was dressed in a garb that was practical enough for battle, but she made a point to highlight her incredible cleavage. It was hard for him not to ogle her; the self-proclaimed King of Grappling had to keep reminding himself of what Holst would do to him if he thought his best friend was lusting after his sister. Hilda had insisted that the show of her ample breasts provided an excellent distraction in battle, but Balthus knew the pinkette just loved to show off her body.

He knew this because Claude had been keeping them away from battle for a while now. The young leader of the Leicester Alliance didn't want to provoke House Gloucester or House Ordelia into attacking. If either of them did, the Empire would likely send forces to back them up, and Claude wanted to avoid a confrontation for the moment.

This didn't stop him from training, though. And just as he remembered he was still in a sparring match with Raphael, the so-called Beast of Leicester landed a hard punch to Balthus's right arm. The King of Grappling let out a loud "OOF!" as he stumbled back.

"Ow, I deserved that one," said Balthus as he nursed his arm. "Got distracted for a second."

"Yeah, well, keep your eyes on me, Balthus," said Raphael. "Stop letting Hilda distract you."

"Pretty hard thing to do, you know? I mean, she's looking so fine today, a stud like me just can't help himself."

Hilda had to chuckle at this. It was too easy for her to manipulate her brother's best friend when she wanted to. Granted, she didn't want to right now, but she knew Balthus couldn't resist the sight of a beautiful woman, especially a buxom one like herself.

"Just keep your mind on the fight," said Raphael. "If we're gonna do our part for Claude, we both gotta keep getting stronger."

"Fair enough, Raph," said Balthus. "But you haven't dethroned me yet!"

Balthus took this chance to swing his right fist at Raphael, who raised his arm to block the incoming strike. But Balthus's blow never connected, having been a feint. Instead, he quickly pivoted to the side and swung his left fist under Raphael's guard, punching him in the stomach. Raphael let out a loud grunt of pain as he stumbled back and then fell to the floor on his behind.

"Yeah! Still the King!" Balthus said triumphantly as he raised his arms.

"Ugh, should've seen that coming," said Raphael.

Balthus extended a hand to Raphael and pulled him to his feet.

"Okay, boys, I think that's enough," said Hilda. "We should be getting to the meeting soon."

"Already? Wow, time sure flies, doesn't it?" said Balthus. "Come on, let's go see what Claude's up to this time."

With that, the three former students made their way through the House Riegan estate in Derdriu, the Floating Capital.

Reaching the main office of the manor, Balthus stopped as he heard a familiar voice inside.

"It would be a huge boon to our forces if we could get your help, Judy."

Recognizing it immediately, Balthus pushed open the door to Claude's office without knocking.

"Balthus!" Hilda hissed admonishingly.

"Hey, hey! Cassandra Rubens Charon!" Balthus said jovially. "I thought I heard your voice!"

"Balthus!" Catherine said as she turned to face the new arrivals. "As loud as ever, I see."

"Yeah, and stronger than ever. It's been a while, Cass. How've you been doing?"

"Just fine, Balthus." Catherine then turned to Hilda and Raphael and said, "And I see you two have been doing well also."

"Well, you know," said Hilda coyly.

"Glad to see you here, Catherine," said Raphael.

"Just to ask, what are you doing here?" asked Hilda.

"That's what we were discussing when you decided to barge in unannounced," said Judith, prompting the others to turn back to her.

The Hero of Daphnel stood next to Claude as he sat at his desk. The leader of the Leicester Alliance and head of House Riegan had grown a thin beard and was dressed in an extravagant yet pragmatic yellow ensemble. Hanging on a wall behind him was a large longbow made from what appeared to be ancient bones, the Hero's Relic Failnaught. Standing opposite to Judith was Ignatz, the young merchant looking far sharper than he had during his academy days in his green-and-yellow garb.

"The Church of Seiros has retaken Garreg Mach Monastery," said Catherine, "And we recently had to fend off an attack led by General Randolph."

"I'm guessing you won, by the sound of it," said Balthus.

"Yeah, but… it wasn't pretty. We're desperately short of manpower at the monastery. Even if all our forces from across Fódlan were to reach Garreg Mach, we estimate that we'd only have a little over a thousand troops."

"So, you came to us for help," said Claude. "I really wish I could give you some of my own troops, Catherine, but Count Gloucester's been watching me like a hawk these days. That said, it's good you came here with Judith."

"I could definitely lend the Knights of Seiros a portion of my army," said Judith. "Say, 3,000 men. Would that be enough, Catherine?"

"Any help would be appreciated, Judy," said Catherine.

"Of course, I wouldn't be able to just hand you my army out in the open. Count Gloucester might not think I'm much of a threat, but he believes I'm not as neutral as my territory claims to be. Which I'm not. I can't simply march my troops out without him or one of his allies moving against me."

"That's where I'd come in," said Claude. "I can keep the Count focused on me, but you'll need to take a route that he won't notice in the meantime."

"Hmm… what about through here?" said Ignatz, pointing to an area on a large map of Fódlan.

The others gathered around to look at the map as Judith said, "Ailell… that'll do nicely."

"Wait, are you serious?" said Hilda. "That place is an oven!"

"It's also an ideal place to marshal my forces without the other members of the Alliance noticing, or any forces from the Dukedom."

"Yeah, we can't have them catching wind of this either," said Claude.

"What about the Loyalists? Should we worry about them?" asked Raphael.

"Good question, Raphael," said Ignatz. "Who knows what Dimitri might do if he finds out?"

"We already sent a messenger to the Loyalists," said Catherine. "Felix doesn't think it'll work out, but Lady Eisner wanted to–"

"Lady Eisner?" Claude interrupted. "Wait, Teach is alive?!"

"Yep, and in Lady Rhea's absence, she's the one leading the Church right now."

"Well, I'll be damned," said Balthus. "Guess I owe you fifty gold, Claude."

"Wait a second, you made a bet on whether the Professor was alive?!" Hilda said in shock. "Balthus!"

"Who else is at the monastery?" asked Ignatz.

"Well, besides the Knights, we have all the Black Eagles, except of course for Edelgard and Hubert," said Catherine. "Then there's Felix, Annette, Leonie, Lysithea, Yuri, Constance, Anna, and we were recently joined by Brigitte and her opera group. They were the ones who warned us Randolph was coming. No sign of Hanneman or Manuela, though…"

"I was wondering where Leonie went," said Raphael. "I haven't seen her for a while."

"Yeah, I might've had something to do with that…" Claude said with slight guilt.

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"When I told her we weren't going to go for the class reunion, she didn't take it well. She said she'd go with or without us. I couldn't stop her."

"Oh, right," said Hilda. "I remember hearing her yelling at you. But Claude, we could've gone too."

"Actually, it was probably better that you didn't," said Catherine. "Everyone who showed up for the reunion was ambushed by a gang of thieves working for the Empire. They fought them off, but–"

"Just as I thought," said Claude. "I knew the Empire would set a trap."

"Yeah, but the Professor and the others beat them, didn't they?" said Hilda. "We still could've been there. We could've helped."

"Yeah, maybe… but it's too late for that. Don't get me wrong, guys, I wanted to go too. But I just couldn't risk it."

"Did anyone from the Loyalists show up for the reunion?" asked Hilda. "Or anyone who may have heard from Mary?"

"Sorry, Hilda," said Catherine. "Just Felix and Annette. And I'm afraid I don't know anything about where Marianne might be."

"Oh… I hope she's alright…"

"Hey, Cass, any word about Hapi?" asked Balthus.

Catherine hesitated for a moment and then said, "No, I'm afraid not."

Sighing, Balthus said softly, "Dammit…"

"I'm sure she's okay, Baltie," said Hilda. "She always struck me as the type who wouldn't go down so easily."

"Yeah…"

"Let's stick to the subject at hand, shall we?" said Judith. "It's going to take me some time to get my forces mustered in Ailell, but you can tell your new Archbishop that I'll give her the help she needs. Have her meet us there on the 28th of the Pegasus Moon. Four weeks should be enough time to rally my army to Ailell without being noticed."

"In the meantime, we'll have to do what we can to keep the Imperialist faction's attention away from House Daphnel," said Ignatz.

"So, do we finally get to stir up some trouble for them?" said Balthus. "Just say the word, Claude, and we'll be all over it."

"Thanks, guys," said Claude.

"I appreciate all the help," said Catherine. "We really need it in these times."

"Hey, if it's all the same to you, I'm not just doing this for Teach's sake. If we can get Judith's army into position at Garreg Mach, that could help me with my big scheme."

"What scheme, Claude?" said Hilda.

"Can't tell you right now. Best that we don't get ahead of ourselves. But Catherine, let me know when Judith's army reaches the monastery, alright?"

"Sure, we can do that," said Catherine.

"And please, give Teach my regards, would you? Tell her… tell her I'm sorry I couldn't make it to the reunion. I know we all promised her and Dorothea on that day, but…"

"Alright, Claude. I'll tell her."

"There's one more thing you should tell her, Cathy," said Judith. "It's about Lady Rhea's whereabouts."

Catherine's eyes shot wide as she said, "You know where she is?! Judy, why didn't you tell me?!"

"Because I figured the second you found out, you'd rush headlong after her and get yourself impaled on a lance." Judith waited for a second for Catherine to calm down before she added, "During the battle at the monastery five years ago, I had some of my spies in the area. They told me that they saw Lady Rhea being dragged away by a group of mages in black robes who were with the Imperials. Beyond that, though, I haven't been able to get my spies deep into Imperial territory. The young Marquis Vestra knows a lot about counterespionage."

"You don't know if she's still alive?"

"Nothing confirmed, I'm afraid. But I imagine the Empire would've made it public if they were going to execute her."

"Judith's right, Cass," said Balthus. "But hey, at least you now know where to look."

"I wish I could help you in your search for Lady Rhea, Catherine," said Claude. "But I have to focus my efforts on defeating Edelgard first. Finding Lady Rhea will have to be up to you and the Knights."

"For now, though," said Judith, "we should focus on getting my people to Ailell so I can pass them over to your current Archbishop. I doubt you'll make it too far into the Empire without them."

"I owe you big for this, Judy," said Catherine.

"I'll be sure to remember that. Just keep that information to yourself for now. If the Empire finds out you're aware of Lady Rhea's whereabouts, they could turn that against you."

Catherine nodded slowly at this as she bit her lower lip. She realized Judith was right to keep that information so confidential.

But she still had to wonder if she and the Knights of Seiros could really trust Claude. Did he genuinely want to help them, or were they going to be pawns in his schemes? She hadn't seen him in such a long time that it was hard for her to tell.

For the next hour, Catherine continued her discussion with the Master Tactician and his friends, and by the time she left the estate, the sun was beginning to set on the horizon.

Feeling renewed with purpose, Catherine mounted onto her horse and sped away from Derdriu as the Guardian Moon came to a close.

This chapter's on the shorter side, but I feel it covers enough for the moment.

I do wonder if I had Judith's reveal on Rhea's whereabouts too early. Hopefully it'll still be okay.

And yeah, Balthus still can't help himself from staring at Hilda's boobs. Hard to blame him, really.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got some Kirby and the Forgotten Land to play. :)