The Dustbin
Day 21: Social Studies Part 2
12th of Garland Moon, Dawn
"So you really do work for the Archbishop," Lord Lonato glowered at the hooded Professor, "for what? What did she do to a person like you to get you on her side?"
"She's paying me," Karna answered in a half-truth, "my whole group barely gets by, so we're always selling our services to the highest bidder."
"So if I paid you to turncoat, you'd do so in a heartbeat?" asked the Lord.
"The Archbishop paid me a hefty sum of gold to deliver something to someone," Karna replied with another vague statement, knowing well to keep their intents hidden while giving enough away to make his claims plausible enough to be genuine, "also, it was kind of rude for you and your men to suddenly ambush and detain most of us," egged the Professor, with the intent to make his chief source of intel to give away more than he has to for his benefit, "so with that said, why do I explain that two of our group fleeing for their dear lives at the expense of couple of your men is indeed, self-defense? Let alone, try to hire us on the spot after inflicting this much grief onto us? The Archbishop just sent us on our way for a scouting mission and yet here you are, making a mountain out of this insignificant molehill."
"... Security measures," Lonato rationalized, "what? Can't the Lord of Gaspard attend to his own responsibilities of his domain's safety?"
"You threw and most likely beat the five of us for a faulty passport," pointed out Karna, "honestly, I expected that sort egregious act from the Empire, not the Kingdom."
"Well, it was your fault for not knowing better," Lord Lonato shot back.
"Then can we all go home now?" Karna requested, using this statement to drive the final nail to make him crack, "apparently, putting all of us behind bars without any reason makes us just as involved in your affairs as you intent to estrange it from us," he pointed out, "how ironic imprisonment works fundamentally. That is, why are you keeping us here if you have nothing to hide?"
"You assume there is something to look for around here?" Lonato questioned.
"Initially, no," Karna remarked, "but I'm getting a little curiouser and curiouser by the minute."
"This has nothing to do with you," Lord Lonato pointed out adamantly, "this fight has nothing to do with you!"
"Oh and who's knocking on the door? Some feared, cabal of bandits like Death God Bandits? Nasty lot, I'd tell ya," asked Karna as he knew that he finally found his watershed moment when the Lord slipped the word "fight." Got em. He's either gonna spill it or lop my head off.
"... I don't have to tell you what you already know," Lord Lonato relented, "I don't have to tell you anything!" he accused the Professor, "you're nothing! You're nothing more than another ignorant sheep that has been beguiled by that false prophet's words!"
He's talking about Rhea, isn't he? thought Karna, unimpressed by the revelation for all the reasons possible, mainly its predictability and how he himself in the similar camp, I hate her as much as you do but she's the one signing my paycheck in the first place.
"Were you fooled by this witch you talk about?" Karna asked, now playing the dumb, uninformed fool, "if so, what she do to hurt you?"
"... 'Hurt me' implies that she had physically wounded me," Lonato declared, his eyes now pulsating, "... what she'd done was inflict me a wound deeper than any blade can bestow unto me."
He's letting his emotions get the better of him, Karna thought, now to keep my earholes open for the juicy details in-between the Faeghusian melodrama.
"My son Christophe was a good lad," the Lord began with his story, "as a proud father, I have raised him under the values of the Trinity: the Goddess, the Glory and the Good," he went on, slowly spiraling into a emotional turmoil as he delved in further into his source of grief, "but one day as my son went out to assist the aid of those who'd wrongfully perished at Duscur, I soon find him placed at an executioner's board for supposedly conspiring with those who've caused the tragedy in the first place!" the Lord continued, his emotions slowly overwhelming him, "LIES! LIES I TELL YOU! CHRISTOPHE DID NOTHING OF SORT! HE WASN'T EVEN THERE AT THE TIME WHEN THE TRAGEDY FIRST OCCURRED! MY OWN FLESH AND BLOOD DIED OVER A LIE!"
... Holy horse dung, that's... Karna thought before cutting it off and recuperating himself, ... yeah, I wouldn't put it past her to have disposable scapegoats. Hell, I might as well be one right now. Doesn't count as the pot calling the kettle black, because I at least take advantage of my position.
"... I will never, forget that day," the Lord's voice trembled as he struggled to hold back his tears, "... I will never, ever forget those two faces..." he declared as his breaths shortened and his arms and hands trembled violently, "... the one standing over my son with sword in hand... and the one who'd let it all happen..." Lonato declared as his eyes were peeked through the gaps between his fingers for whose hands were laid over his face in unfathomable sorrow,"... may the Goddess forgive their blackened souls, for I shall not."
"You know, I get where you're coming from," Karna remarked, "but isn't a whole region's worth of forces not enough for the entire Church's own arm of military?" he pointed out, "I mean, don't get me wrong, I heard rumors about my employers. The way you contextualize it... almost sounds like you plan to march you and your men to their deaths."
"They're only rumors. They're no Leister Alliance or the Adrestrian Empire," Lord Lonato declared, "I've found more people who were wronged by the Church and those who share my plight against them," he pointed out, "I have a boon of arms, the latest of sorcery and the ones who provide me the latter has the power to bring my son back from his wrongful death!" he ranted, "they have promised me such, so as a Knight of Faerghus, I will make good of my word! The crone dies by the end of this month! I swear it!"
"... Hm, something seems off," pointed out Karna, picking up the word "they" in the context of a "third party", "in many, many different ways."
Lord Lonato glowers at the Professor. "Are you doubting my credibility?"
"Be honest, how far did you really think this through?" Karna asked, "how sure are you that your own allies are... you know, exploiting you and your emotional vulnerabilities?"
"What do you mean?" asked Lord Lonato.
"Be honest, of all the people do you think has the right to well, kill the Archbishop and burn her monastery to the ground, do you honestly belive that you're the one fitting to lead the charge?" asked Karna, "you, an old man with a broken heart running a small territory right next to the clerical seat of power with a domestic force barely scraping up to a 1000..." he pointed out the statistics, "... just what makes you think that this little revolution of yours can succeed, even with help?"
"The Goddess sides with those who are just," the Lord explained, "the crone is marked for death for her deceit and tyranny!"
"And how come do you think that?" the Professor replied, "if she can kill your son at the slightest of pretense, what's stopping her from poisoning your local watering hole and covering it up as an epidemic?"
"Just what are you on about?" Lonato snarled out, "she's-"
"What? A crone? A witch? A false prophet?" Karna shot back, "you call her that, yet you honestly believe that they'd be as just as fair and chivalrous in actual combat?" he pointed out Lonato's narrative inconsistency, "that's the problem with you Faerghus folk. You lot invest in way too much in chivalric honor and righteous that your victory is set in stone as long as you 'believe' that the Goddess is on your side," the Professor explained, "you don't see double standard and the reality of warfare; anything goes."
"I'd sooner die than stoop low to her methods!" Lonato barked out, "I am a Knight of Faerghus and a man of honor!"
"No, you're a sad, delusional old fart that honestly thinks that the Goddess will bring your dead son back if you pray hard enough," barbed Karna, "that is, if your allies aren't a lot of opportunistic charlatans."
"What do you mean?!" barked out Lord Lonato.
"Do really think that sticking it to her will bring your son back let alone help you find solace?" asked Karna, holding in his laughter as much as he can, "when people die more than once, you know that they're no longer considered human, correct?" he pointed out the ethical continuity between of the act of raising the dead and its reintegration back into the world of the living, "just what is stopping them from say, bringing Christophe back as a mindless shell?"
"They can and they will bring him back whole!" barked Lonato as he slammed both of his hands onto the table between them, rattling the lantern on the wooden surface. "They show promise and can guarantee me more than what that 'Archbishop' of yours can!"
"And you think that your benefactors will make good on their promises?" Karna pointed out at the Lord's absurd claims, "let alone, actually accomplish of what they've advertised?"
"You have no idea what they're capable of," Lonato rebuked the professor's remark, "their prowess are worlds beyond of what that old crone can do!"
"Oh sure, show a monkey that you can make fire with a pair of twigs and a hair of twine and suddenly, you're a god," scoffed the professor, unimpressed at the Lord's bold claims. "Honestly, what a joke," he scoffed, unfazed by the reddening face of the angered Lord, "pot calling the kettle black here, because you're a monkey to my sheep."
A gauntleted knuckle raps across the professor's jawline, violently torquing his head to the side.
"... Do you really think, that my words are all but mere sophistry?!" Lonato growled out.
Karna giggles to himself before bursting out into an uproarious howl of laughter as he laid on the stone floor.
"No, of course not!" Karna cackled out, "I just find the notion of man worshipping another one playing god humorous."
"GUARDS!"
The door behind the Lord bursts open, a pair of Knights came in bearing wooden clubs and more iron chains.
"Discipline this devil of a man!" the Lord ordered as the Knights suspended Karna off of the ground with the additional chains, "DO WHAT YOU MUST TO MAKE HIM PAY FOR INSULTING MY HONOR AND MY DEAD SON!"
Blows of clubs rained upon Karna as Lonato slammed the door shut behind him.
At Magdred Way...
"Okay," Catherine remarked as she peeked over the bushes and spotted a disproportionate amount of guards stations around all paths leading towards the Gaspard Region, "the old fool is not even being subtle about this, isn't he?"
"If I were in his boots, I would at least keep the guards out of sight, or at least, blend them with the crowd," criticized Topaz, "there's a difference between keeping things under wraps and preparing for war," she pointed out at the admittedly-ridiculous sight of Soldiers erecting pointed anti-calvary barricades made of logs, "time and a place for everything."
"Still though," Cyrus remarked as he also peered out, "forest paths around the Magdred Way aren't any less protected. Saw a bunch sword-swinging Mercenaries prowling about along with a few folks with pointed hats and masks."
"... Oh Goddess, you've got to be kidding me," Catherine grumbled as she laid her face against her hand, "Dark Mages?"
"Something the matter?" Topaz pointed out.
"No, no, it's just that..." the Knight of Seiros stammered to herself, "... magic-users are one of the few people on the battlefield that can actually hurt me if I'm not careful," she explained, "I took an [Elfire] to back when I was still green. I'm quicker than I was before but those dastards are sneakier than any Thief or Assassin I've ever fought," Catherine shared her personal experiences with those lot, "not to mention, their spells don't miss as much as arrows and swords and they can tread sand easily while my boots are packed in with em."
"Ah, so that's why you dislike Professor Karna," Topaz pointed out, "he's one of the few that may pose a threat to you."
"Don't worry, Miss Catherine," Cyrus empathically stated, "I know your pain of magic users. Lightning is supposed to belong to the skies and not at the hands of man, after all."
"... You I like," Catherine stated before she focused onto her other plan, "so, those are our options. Either charge through the front door and get ambushed from the sides or get mired by trees in hopes of not having to fight as many as we have to."
"Who says we have to take one path or the other?" pointed out Topaz, "why not just have them not rally together in the first place?"
"... You're suggesting we split up?" Catherine pointed out.
"Lend me a third of your squad to deal with the Mercenaries while you and Cyrus along with the three-fourths of the squadron deal with the boots on the ground," she stated, "the Dark Mages will be dealt by my hand."
"Whoa, someone's got real personal, ain't it?" Catherine remarked.
"You claimed that the Dark Mages are a stealthy lot, aren't they?" Topaz pointed out as she drew her stolen [Steel Sword], "then they are a problem. And I deal with problems."
In truth, Topaz hearing that anyone could be more stealthy than her was an insult to her as a Hassan. She took it to herself as a way to dispel such amateurish notions herself. Not that she's telling outright, including herself.
Denial was occasionally a useful tool to keep one's own emotions in check during work. Professionalism was a two-faced affair.
"Alright, sounds like a plan," Catherine stated as she drew her [Thunderbrand], "let's finish this before the sun comes up!"
"Acknowledged," replied Topaz as she and a detachment of Swordmasters with [Killing Edges] dispersed throughout the forest.
"Race you to the bottom!" said Cyrus as he and Darius stampeded downhill, killing one with the [Steel Lance] impaled through his neck and the other Soldier having his head caved in with his helmet underneath the giant horse's hooves. "UUKHAI!" he bellowed out in tandem with Darius's menacing neigh thundered across the air.
"... 'Uukhai'?" Catherine pointed out confusingly as she cut off a Soldier's head with her [Thunderbrand] without batting an eye.
"It means 'kill' in Battu!" Cyrus roared out as he caught and arrow shot from an enemy Archer between his teeth before spitting it out as the Swordmasters mowed their way across the enemy forces. "WE OF BATTU OFFER OUR PRAYERS TO FATHER SKY BY RAISING OUR VOICES SO HE MAY HEAR OUR DEEDS FROM THE HEAVENS ABOVE!" the Battu warrior boy boldly declared as he skewered an enemy Myrmidon's neck with his weapon before hoisting his limp body off of the ground and raising it towards the sky, "TO OFFER UP ANYTHING LESS IS THE GREATEST INSULT TO EVERYONE PRESENT ON THE BATTLEFIELD, THE ULTIMATE PROVING GROUNDS OF COLLIDING SOULS!"
"... Yeah... good for you," said Catherine, unsettled by the display of bloodlust coming from a minor. Are all Almyrans this eager to fight this young? I thought the rumors of 12-year old crossbow children spotted at Fodlan's Throat were just rumors!
"ONWARDS!" bellowed out Cyrus before he sent the other Soldier flying across the air from the weight of his charge. The flying Soldier then hits the Archer that was the one responsible for the potshot earlier before the two were then summarily executed by the Swordmaster's [Killing Edges].
"Hey hey hey, save some for me!" Catherine cried out as she advanced further into the thick of battle.
Back at the Holding Cells...
"DAMN IT ALL!" an irate Thief roared out as he threw down the thumbscrews before Vidar's feet, the latter chained to the walls behind him, "WE ALREADY SNAPPED ALL TEN OF HIS FINGERS IN HALF! HOW THE HELL IS NOT BREAKING?!"
"Should we try his toes?" asked the Fighter with a [Hammer], "I mean, at least leave him unable to walk just in case."
"AND DRAG HIM BACK TO HIS CELL INSTEAD?!" the Thief barked back before he snapped his subordinate across his face in a fit of rage, "MAKE SENSE, MAN! I DON'T NEED MORE WORK!"
"We're already working overtime just trying to get him to spill anything!" the Fighter pointed out, "at least the other brats were fun to talk to! This guy is practically a corpse when he already came here!" he cried out before looking back at Vidar's bandaged body, "... or is it a she?"
"If Lord Lonato catches like this, we're going to have hell to pay," the Thief captain remarked, "just find something that'll make him squirm or something!"
"Rats?" the Fighter suggested.
"I ain't touching those vermin with my bare hands," the Thief spat in disgust, "think of something else! Something that'll keep the creep alive but not kill him on the spot."
The two looked towards the sconce lighting the room that they're in before exchanging grins with each other.
"... We can say that we had to get a little too rough with him out of necessity," the Thief remarked as he reached for the torch cradled in the sconce, "it's not like we're from Gaspard anyway."
"We can just say that he bit back," the Fighter stated as he blocked the door with a spare chair, "or that he really didn't talk after the thumbscrews, because people usually start being more talkative after their fingers are broken."
"Right..." grinned the Thief as he brought the torch closer towards Vidar, the latter's eyes widening in fear and his breaths quickening at the sight of the blaze, "... feel like talking now?"
Vidar than begins thrashing and screaming like a rabid animal, desperately trying to breaking from his bonds bound to the walls behind him.
"Hey!" the Thief captain ordered as Vidar continued to thrash about in increasing panic, "bring more things on fire! I think we're making him crack!"
"Yes sir!" the Fighter answered by wrapping his [Hammer] with layers of rags and dousing it with the contents of his flask before lighting it on fire from the captain's torch, "I've always wanted to try this!"
Vidar's screams got louder as the flames approached him ever closer. The heat and the illumination slowly replacing the two men with torches with an actual inferno.
... HOT.
The walls and floor caught on fire.
... HOT.
The menacing men turned into living fire.
... HOT... HOT.
The skies above and the world below in became fire.
IT'S HOOOOTTTTT!
The back and forth of the bandaged boy's desperate thrashing inadvertently catches his bandages on fire, burning away the ghoulish facade to reveal the even more-nightmarish face where skin and flesh looked like melted and charred cheese.
"WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOUR FACE?!" the Thief cried out in horror upon seeing the screaming visage without skin and humanity.
The facade of weakness and restraint were now burned away to reveal a DEMON.
If sanity was a building on fire, then the bandages that revealed his scorched and melted visage was the burning curtain singed away to reveal a painting depicting the most depraved and deviant orgy of all of mankind's sins in one frame of a chaotic carnival as the world around it slowly engulfed in the hellish blaze.
"SOMEONE GET A BUCKET OF WATER!" cried out the Thief in a moment of conscience.
"WAITAMINUTE WHAT IS THAT SOUND?!" the Fighter remarked in panic as he heard the sounds of metal bolts being uprooted from stones, the horrible scraping sounds leading to the chains bolted to the walls being slowly ripped out, "OH CRAP-"
The horrible sounds of stone and steel grinding against each other led to the ripped chains lashed out towards the torturers' faces, ripping off their eyes and noses for each of them from the violent torque before it was followed up by them dropping their sources of flames onto flammable objects. That being the same chair that the two used to block the door.
Initially finding no way to escape, Vidar's feral rage intensifies into homicidal wrath against the by grabbing the two by their heads before bashing both of them against the door in the boy's desperate attempt to escape the burning room.
Upon caving their heads through the wooden doors, Vidar bursts out of the room set ablaze before the guards stationed around the cells took notice and sprung into action to detain him.
All of them had their faces caved in by the boy's wild flailing of both his shackles and his fists. Vidar's vision no longer saw the world what it really was.
All he saw were flames. All he heard were pained cries of the damned. All Vidar comprehended was DUSCUR.
His cries and screams echoed across the cold stone of the holding cells as those who came towards the source were met with a swift and a brutal end.
"... Wha... What the hell is that noise coming from?!" the panicked Knight stammered before he notices the air around him getting denser and blacker, "AND WHY DO I SMELL SOMETHING BURNING?!"
Uh oh, thought Byron as he rolled his eyes and clicked his tongue, someone brought fire to a Vidar party.
Upon noticing the keys dangling from the Knight's hips, Byron immediately kicks the guard's unarmored back of his knee, causing him to involuntarily take a knee before putting him into a chokehold from behind through the bars.
With one, hard jerk from both of his arms, Byron snaps the Knight's neck with an audible crunch. After confirming the Knight's death, he then rips the ring of keys off of his belt before unlocking his own cell door before the others.
"Bloody 'ell, dat was wicked," Sorcha complimented as she unlocked Selene's cell door.
"It was a spur of a moment thing," Byron admitted, "although we might want to get out of here."
"Me and Sorcha will look for the Professor," Selene remarked as she picked the dead Knight's [Iron Lance], "Byron, do your think you can handle Vidar-"
"HEY!" a Myrmidon barked out from behind, "WE GOT A JAILBREAK!"
"RUN!" barked out Byron as he froze the ground behind them as the three made a break for it.
The holding cells were now in full panic of escaped prisoners and the building itself was now smoking. Those who tried to put out the fire were either killed by the rampaging Vidar or the three Dustbin students running around blindly.
Meanwhile, Karna himself finds the door open as the Knights fled out into the panic outside, facing down the maddened Vidar before him, the shackles and its chains still dangling from his wrists and ankles.
"Hey kiddo," Karna casually remarked, grinning despite having his head battered ten different ways evidenced by the blood pooled below where he was suspended from, "longshot but... do have the keys for my shackles?"
Back at Around Magdred Way...
Topaz runs her [Steel Sword] through a Dark Mage's back as he was preparing a [Miasma Δ] before pulling it out.
"Proceeding," remarked Topaz as she confirmed her target being slain as it fell to the ground before she tried to slip away, only for her to find that the Dark Mage was still alive and used his last breath to finish its casting towards the Hassan herself.
The blast of noxious fumes sent her tumbling back until her back hits the tree, quickly recovering her footing and keeping herself on the move.
Damn it, people are supposed to die after having a whole sword run through their backs and out their chests! thought Topaz as she jumped over a [Miasma Δ] shot from another Dark Mage before climbing onto the enigmatic figure before slashing open his throat from the front, either I'm getting sloppy or finally Fodlan is bringing out their more resilient.
After another Dark Mage was killed, Topaz briefly goes into hiding in the trees above to reassess the situation.
Okay, so far, two Dark Mages are down... Topaz thought as she looked down from above to try and count how many are still around in the chaos of the cluttered forest battlegrounds, ... five, six, seven, eight... hopefully, they don't notice me. Makes me wish that I had my [Bolo] right now but I can't afford to be picky.
She then tiptoes across one of the branches where the Dark Mage was below at, alright, let's make this quick. Longer this drags on, the more likely of failure.
Topaz jumps down from above and plunges her sword into Dark Mage's shoulder before violently jerking it out and pinning the [Steel Sword] through his neck to the tree behind him.
"THERE SHE IS!" a Dark Mage cried out from behind Topaz as both of his gloved hands illuminated in an intimidating hue of deep purple, "WASTE THE B-"
Thinking fast, Topaz snatches up a stone and chucks it into the Dark Mage's mask, disorienting him for a brief moment after shattering one of the lenses into his eyes, making good use of her bought time to slip back into obscurity.
Great, now they've bunched up, Topaz thought as she saw the remaining six Dark Mages gather around their recently-fallen brethren, one of whom taking off his mask to reveal a bald, placid man nursing his bleeding eye, can't take on all six of them at the same time, nor taking out one at a time is ideal.
So how can she accomplish both? Can she make them each other with what she has on her?
... Wait, I just remembered something about them, Topaz thought as her plans slowly come to fruition, that Catherine woman said... something about their attacks being less likely to miss compared to swords and arrows?
She then looks at her [Steel Sword], still gripped in her hand.
... If I fail, I deserve to die.
Topaz then throws her weapon towards the Dark Mages, her [Steel Sword]'s tip striking at the bald Dark Mage's other eye, rendering him completely blind.
"SOMEONE TURN ON THE LIGHTS!" the bald Dark Mage cried out in fear as he flailed about blindly, "I CAN'T SEE S-"
"Hey!" the other Dark Mage cried out upon seeing Topaz's diminutive form clinging onto his back, "she's on him! Waste them!"
The five surrounding Dark Mages all then fired their [Miasma Δ] spells at the bald and blinded sixth in hopes taking the little girl out. In between volleys, Topaz tugged and jerked around the blind Dark Mage in the directions where which blast is coming first before the next.
Realizing that the body won't last long, Topaz then instead opted for a different stratagem. Instead of redirecting the body towards the direction of the blast, she instead moved away from the blast with the intent to dodge. However, instead of dodging blindly...
"WHAT THE SH-" a Dark Mage cried out before he was blasted by another Dark Mage from straight ahead. Before they all realized it, they were so invested in firing towards their own kin being held hostage by this diminutive girl that they've completely disregarded on which direction they were aiming at.
Simply put, with every single Dark Mage were inadvertently firing their spells at each other, they were all taking each other out all at once without Topaz having to lay a single finger on them, the ensuing explosion from all of the exploited misfires and the colliding Dark Magic catching outside attention.
"THE HELL WAS THAT?!" Catherine cried out as she heard the explosion coming from the forest next to the Magdred Way.
"Casualties," Cyrus replied before he offered a small prayer, "all of whom returning to Mother Earth's embrace for a life well lived."
"Hope its not ours," said the Knight of Seiros before she pulled out her [Thunderbrand] from a Knight's segmented visor.
At the epicenter of the blast of misused Dark Magic, only Topaz stood above the fallen practitioners of the heretical arts.
"... You... you insect..." cursed the bald Dark Mage, both of his eyes damaged beyond function.
Topaz picks up her [Steel Sword] from the ground before raising it above the dying Dark Mage's throat.
"Even the smallest of insect's venom can fell a giant," boasted the Hassan, "I judge you as guilty."
The blade's tips buries itself into the bald Dark Mage's throat, the blade's edge chipping off at the impact.
"... Have to go now..." panted Topaz as she trudged back to the open Magdred Way, her body thrashed in all directions from the shots of [Miasma Δ] that grazed her, "... my job is done... must return... to confirm..."
From behind the bushes, a wounded Mercenary with a [Levin Sword] appears.
"... D... DIE!" the Mercenary cried out as he made one last desperate charge to kill Topaz.
But also from behind, a white-clothed Swordmaster appears and cuts him down with her [Killing Edge] before Topaz can be claimed.
"You alright?" the Swordmaster remarked before she looked at the dead Dark Mages that were left behind her wake, "... good work. Thought something might've happened when me and the girls felt like there were less enemies."
Topaz collapses into her arms before she was carried off towards Catherine.
"Enemy forces has been routed," the Swordmaster confirmed while the other that brought the little Hassan with her treated her with a bottle of a [Concoction], "those remaining alive are all retreating."
"Well, everything is clear now," Catherine remarked as she looked out towards the ruined Magdred Way, "Gaspard Region is now compromised," she addressed as she looked to the Swordmaster, "anyone want to a runner and send the word back just in case?"
Before anyone can volunteer, everyone at the cleared battlefield saw a rising plume of smoke in tandem with the sun's own ascent.
"... I think I now know why the enemy suddenly retreated given their circumstances," pointed out Cyrus.
"FORGET THAT AND THE RUNNER!" Catherine cried out as she tossed the unconscious Topaz onto Darius's back and Cyrus's lap, "THE SITUATION HAS GOTTEN WORSE! THEY'RE TRYING TO DESTROY ALL THE EVIDENCE!"
"... Um, isn't that counterproductive considering that..." Cyrus remarked as he pointed out the dead bodies around them, "... they're already implicated-"
Cyrus was then cut off at the moment when Catherine hopped aboard behind Cyrus on top of Darius's back.
"DOUBLE-TIME LADIES!" barked Catherine with the utmost of urgency, "RIDE LIKE THE WIND!"
... Ah, thought Cyrus as he and the others sped towards the smoking fort, ... she's just as eager to fight as me.
To Be Continued...
Author's Notes: Out the frying pan and into the fire. Literally. And again.
Why are holidays both uneventful yet exhausting? I mean, my brain was running on fumes after the 25th when writing this chapter but the fact that I managed to get this out the way I wanted to is a slight miracle of itself.
Real life and fanfiction are starting to feel familiar to each other again, got surprisingly good pulls for my set 3 of my Vanguard overDress (SP-rarity Greedon included), learned how to play Digimon TCG and checked my grades to see if everything is in.
Also, regarding Lonato, in canon, his fatal flaw is that he's going way too far in grieving for his son Christophe. Here, I just expanded that little pet peeve into Lord Lonato being a slightly-overemotional personal in general. He's not reckless or doesn't think things through, rather, he just feels more than the other people and at worst, his feelings can run out of control and make him run on autopilot. He wears his heart on his sleeve, both making him an earnest man who is loved by his people and his parasites.
Anywho, hope you all are enjoying the Dustbin playing their part to cause [Mutiny in the Mist] canon chapter to happen!
References:
- Catherine's squadron of Swordmasters are based off that one Swordmaster (super-resilient; as in stole some kills outside during Player's Phases) green unit from Three Houses's chapter, "To War" but as a dedicated squadron of diet-Catherines that are sent as the Church's personal anti-insurgency specialists and shock troopers.
- Catherine's mention of "Almyran crossbow children" is a reference to the 12-year old boy who shot King Richard I that ultimately resulted in his syphilis. Considering Almyra's general warrior culture (compared to Fodlan), it can make some sense that they employ child soldiers to (quote Remnant Inferis: DOOM) "pop your blood cherry."
- "Someone brought fire to a Vidar party" is a play on words for the phrase "Someone brought gasoline to a match party," which means making an already volatile situation way worse than it has any right to be.