Note: Canonically in Awakening, curses are cast using a sacrifice (as evidenced in Henry's support with Lissa) and by using the true name of the victim intended (as evidenced in Tharja's support with Gregor). This is a subject brought up multiple times in this chapter, and it will be brought up again in the future.
They finally set out. Within the next hour, the party of eight were on the road, dropped off as close to their destination as they could have been by the convoy wagons. The designated navigator was Anna, who had the most worldly experience out of anyone else in the group (except for Gaius, but he was rather thankful that he was saved the trouble of leading the way). Before joining the Shepherds, she was a traveling merchant, after all, who knew the lay of the land like it was the back of her hand. Her knowledge was so strong that she only looked at the map twice before she walked full steam ahead.
"I'll be slashing at more than just prices today. What a bargain!" she nearly sang, almost skipping her way down the forest paths. It had been a while since she scored an opportunity like this, where she could line her pockets with (stolen) gold and other trinkets. As of late, her expertise was needed on the battlefield more than it was in the royal treasuries, especially since the Shepherds were knee-deep in scuffles and battles—far more often than they were in castle hallways or in bank vaults, for that matter. Excited at the thought of something fun, for once, Anna glanced over her shoulder to see how her fellow thief, Gaius, was handling all of this.
Strangely, she found him to be falling unceremoniously on his face. There was a short look of terror in his eyes as he fell, one that morphed into acceptance as not even the Swift-Footed Gaius could avoid tripping over himself in this instance. Apparently, he was stuck in an angry squabble with Maribelle, who shoved him with enough force that he crashed into both Lissa and Henry in front of him. All three of them fell onto the ground as a result.
While Lissa tumbled a little ways off the path, Gaius and Henry were humiliated on sight.
They fell in a way that couldn't have been avoided, saved, or even recovered. There was a split second in time where they simply glanced at each other horrifically before tumbling over. Henry could barely protest as a much stronger, leaner body than his own forced him down to the ground, and Gaius himself could only brace himself for what happened next.
Henry yelped quietly as he crashed onto the dirt pathway below him, small pebbles and stray sticks poking his backside through the thin fabric of his clothes. From above, one of Gaius' elbows struck Henry in the side, and he cried out from the shock of the impact, rather than pain. The rest of him splayed out awkwardly on the ground, and Gaius pinned him down in a most compromising position, with his right leg in between both of Henry's legs, and his arms straddling either sides of his lanky hips. The closeness of their bodies—the lack of a distance between them, so they were only a few breaths and a sweep away from melting into each other—was enough to kill Gaius through sheer embarrassment alone.
It could have been funny, romantic, or some weird mix of the two, but instead it was just awkward and stifling. The other six group members varied in their initial reactions to the display.
Tharja giggled, enjoying the obvious displeasure that the other two went through just now. Lissa looked apologetic, as if her stumble caused them to fall down in the first place. Maribelle seemed displeased, and started blaming the two boys for involving Lissa in such an idiotic mess, while Miriel was (thankfully) disinterested in it all as she hadn't even looked up from her book in the first place. Anna smiled softly, not because she was sympathetic towards them, but because she was amused by it all.
Unsurprisingly, Ricken was the only one who bothered to help. He offered his hand to Gaius, first, although he politely refused him as he sprung up to his feet by himself. Ricken then moved over to Henry, who took his extended hand oh-so-gratefully. When he stood up straight again, Henry smoothed over his ruffled clothing, and Ricken announced to the whole group: "Guys, be more careful! We're not even there yet and we're already getting hurt!"
Henry, at this point, started picking out the stray twigs and pebbles that were embedded in his backside. Then, he broke out into highly amused laughter. "Yeah, I really hate ouchies. Whose fault was that, anyway?"
Gaius mumbled, and turned his indignant gaze towards Maribelle, who went from being hotly angry to coldly apathetic. "Twinkles," he said to her. "Was it really necessary to push me like that? C'mon!"
"Of course it was necessary! You had the gall to put your filthy hands on my person in the first place!"
"I touched your shoulder, Gods above! I was trying to talk to you—"
"And that, you lowlife, is where you are wrong. I can only tolerate your endless persistence up to here! While we are working together in this terrible instance, know this: we are allies in name only. Do not test me!"
Her voice rang out loudly and clearly, the usual shrillness of her tone replaced by a low menace, instead. It was strong enough to silence the loudest of them, and only the sound of footsteps and pages turning could be heard after that. The group pressed onward, awkwardly so, and Henry felt confused by it all. Sure, Maribelle was known to have a rather fierce and short temper, but the way she scorned Gaius was different than usual.
It was too personal.
And if Henry wasn't on such strange terms with Gaius, he would have half the mind to ask him about it all. If Gaius and Henry got along better, Gaius would even answer him and the curiosity that burned him inside would be doused at once. But alas, their relationship wasn't good enough to warrant that sort of gossip, and as such Henry was in no position to ask such questions. So he had no choice but to accept the fact that his curiosity would remain simmering within him, smoldering like an undying fire.
Eyes closed and hesitation gone, Henry continued on in his stride. He fell in the listless rhythm of the others, and as Ricken tried to alleviate the situation with a bad joke, Henry's thoughts became plain and simple. This is going to be a looooong day, he said inwardly. I can just tell.
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The sun was high in the sky. The warmth was comforting, but also overbearing, and sweat accumulated in the back of Henry's neck. As a Plegian, however, he faced much harsher weather than this. The Plegian midsummer became unbearably hot, and the desert landscapes turned into a hell unleashed. So this paltry weather on the Ylissean side of the world wasn't enough to do him in.
Of course, his fellow comrades thought differently. Except for Tharja, everyone had adjusted themselves in ways to accommodate the heat. Miriel and Ricken fanned themselves with weak wind spells, while Maribelle opened her parasol to block her and Lissa from the offending rays of sunlight. Gaius and Anna appeared unbothered, but their quickened paces meant that they wanted to hurry up and get inside of the bandits' lair, rather than continue trekking outside of it.
If they all made the right moves, then they would be in and out of this bandit stronghold by nightfall. The treasure would be reclaimed, and they would be even more richer than before.
But since their group was the most dysfunctional one ever, Henry knew that would not be the case. In fact, ever since Maribelle's previous outburst against Gaius, no one spoke to one another properly, although Ricken did his best to chat with various members. Yet all his conversations grew stale at a quick rate. Only Ricken's exchange with Henry was mildly pleasant, and even then the dark mage made a point of commenting about how much more stifling the atmosphere was when Ricken buzzed around like a fly to check up on everyone. Ricken, of course, blushed madly, and muttered a light insult underneath his breath.
It must have been worse than they imagined, because at some point, Princess Lissa actively sought out Henry's advice in a pathetic attempt to start a conversation, and in an even more desperate attempt to save the dying mood.
"Henry? I need to talk to you about something."
"Okay! What's the matter, Lissa?"
"I just wanted to know your whole thoughts on this. Like, I definitely trust Robin and all, but shouldn't we have brought more people? There's only eight of us and who knows how many enemies we'd be up against. I'm just worried about it all, I guess. I don't know." She sounded doubtful, unusually so, but Henry supposed even the (un)delicate crown she wore on her head had its own heavy burdens, too. He was definitely the wrong person to confide in, though, as his mind naturally went to negative things to begin with.
Or, to things that others perceived as being negative. His mental response to her words was "Well, if we die, at least we'll die together!" but he had a feeling that wasn't what she wanted to hear. He shrugged nonchalantly, letting the folds of his cloak crinkle up against his skin in the process. Despite his rather dismissive attitude, a sedate smile rested on his lips.
"If you're so worried, then we'll do our best not to die~ I mean, you and Maribelle have our backs and like Robin said, these guys are allergic to magic!" A widespread grin appeared on his face, and he jokingly placed his fingers at the end of the corners of his lips for greater emphasis. "It'll be a big joke when we're all done! Cheer up, Lissa!"
"I'm trying to, but I'm just so worried, for some reason. I don't mean to be so negative, though." Her slate colored eyes looked away shamefully, and Henry felt odd about seeing that. There was some hesitation in her, clearly, although he didn't know much more past that. Was she afraid to voice her feelings? How come? And why would she even ask him anything, to begin with, unless she wanted his unhelpful but jovial replies? To these questions, Henry was ignorant of the answers, and so he simply shrugged, and let Lissa simmer in her own curious feelings.
Maribelle soon came over and shot him a strange glance before comforting Lissa, herself. Her pretty pink eyes affixed themselves on the princess' defeated form. "My dear, everything will be fine. That's what Henry means to say, and of course if he was untrue in his sentiments I would have to deal with him, now wouldn't I?" Her hands tightened around the handle of her parasol purposefully, as if to threaten him, somehow.
Henry found her unspoken anger to be rather charming, but thought nothing more of it as he had seen such animosity from her before. As such, he dealt with that situation in the same way that he generally dealt with things. A boisterous laugh escaped him, one laced with intentional energy so not as to seem as empty as it actually was. "Yes ma'am!" He agreed with her, and smiled wider at the tension in the air—that which was dissipating with utter ease under the sudden weight of his words.
It seemed that he did something good for once, and whether his comrades appreciated it or not didn't really matter to him. Finding amusement in the matter was what was important to him, so he sought that from one conversation to the next. He approached each member of the party carefully, speaking on his favorite subjects—crows, curses, and blood, for starters—or on their current worries or ideas. He apologized for calling Ricken an annoying fly earlier, and Ricken swiftly forgave him. The only person he saved himself the trouble of speaking to was Gaius, but that was only so he could bother him even more at a later time.
Gaius, however, seemed preoccupied on his own accord. Something bothered him persistently, something that Robin told said to him whilst in the infirmary the other day. There's two sides to a story, they said. That was all there was to it. Of course its value was plain and self-explanatory, but the meaning in the words themselves weren't what bothered Gaius.
It was the implications of such words. He wondered what Henry had told Robin on the matter of their ugly fights, or if he had told the tactician anything at all, to begin with. And what did that little rascal think of him, anyway? If he was anything like Gaius, then he should have found the whole matter abhorrent to begin with. But Henry was nothing like Gaius so that left him even more curious. Did the boy treat their little debacle like a game? Or was he plotting something larger, using his mischief as a mask for greater schemes to come? Did he like Gaius to the point where obsessed over him as Tharja did to Robin, or did he harbor a nasty grudge against him, instead? Looking back on it all, Gaius supposed that the harm they brought upon each other was enough to make someone want to exact revenge.
Was that what Henry wanted, then? More revenge? Hadn't he gotten it in the forms of humiliation or play? Had he not been satisfied by seeing Gaius at his worst, on the brink of death and exhaustion when he was usually the one with energy (and sugar) to spare? Even when their lives had been on the line, that all seemed insignificant as there was one thing that worried Gaius, above all.
It was the look on Henry's face whenever he killed something—or someone, for that matter. He was always smiling, that damned kid, as if there were no other expressions left to suit him in the world. That unnervingly blank smile was written on his visage no matter what happened around him. Even as Henry confronted death itself in that short moment in time, he smiled.
Crivens, Gaius thought to himself. I must sound like an obsessed madman. But I can't help it. He glanced at Henry, who walked ahead of him at Ricken's side, and found himself confused by the cheery gait that he showed off. He was stupefied by the obvious happiness that he displayed, but Henry's attempt at showing genuine emotion was about as real as a faux fur coat.
These thoughts were so strong that they temporarily distracted Gaius, and made him think of things other than pillaging, plundering, or working behind the scenes. And as much as he hated it, he kept thinking about one person in particular—and he was ever so grateful that one person was oblivious to his onlooking stares. He was grateful that Henry couldn't see him as he was now, lost in thoughts all alone about a singular dark mage and his wicked grin.
This is stupid, Gaius admonished himself. Forget about him. There's more important things to worry about, right now.
The sooner we can end this charade, the better.
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Deep inside a hidden cave, there existed forty, maybe fifty assorted riff raff and lowlife thugs, all those that worked together in order to steal the livelihood from others. Their inner sanctum was home to mounds of treasure, carts of gold and silver, and numerous packages of stolen artifacts. There were several tables and stations set up, and a loud camaraderie resounded throughout. Then, the leader of the bunch stood tall on top of one of the tables, and commanded silence as the rest of the lackeys looked up to him—their makeshift God.
"We all know what's to come," he began to say. "Our scouts—sharp as foxes, they are—noticed the Shepherds' lookouts for the past week, now. I've heard it myself and many of you blokes asked, how come we didn't kill them? Why'd we let those half-wits go free with the location of our treasure? Here's your answer!" He threw down a glass goblet onto the ground, the force of impact shattering the thing into dozens of fractured pieces. The mercenaries roared with approval at the aggressive display.
Their cheers motivated him further. He rode the waves of his speech expertly so.
"We're gonna take those Shepherds down! That self righteous lot ought to be taught a lesson! They'll think we're small fry and will send a small group down to get us, for sure. We'll kill those fools on arrival! We'll take the survivors as hostages and demand twice our money from that Chrom of theirs!" A wide smile appeared on his face, and the man pumped his fist into the air. "We'll show 'em that we mean business! We'll take in names and rack 'em up for the whole world to see!"
"We'll take 'em down! Do you hear me, you sorry lot? We'll take them down!"
The other members of this ragtag band cheered loudly, stomping their feet and screaming into the air. They chanted three words as bravely and loudly as they could, in wholehearted belief of their victory yet-to-come. "Take them down! Take! Them! Down! Take them down!" It was a rally powered by a vengeful outcry—it was a cause as dishonorable as the next.
They laid in wait for the Shepherds to come, wiring the cave with their technological defenses, hoping that the lambs would come to slaughter, soon. They placed traps that would, above all else, destroy the good-willed soldiers in body, mind, and soul. They knew what was ahead and they waited fervently for it. While their major weakness was magic, if they could hit hard enough and fast enough, then those squishy mages sent up against them would become nothing more than potpourri at their bloodthirsty hands.
The resolve set within all of them, and it was then that the speech ended, and the room became awash with excitement and anticipation. They awaited their enemies, who were sure to set upon their domain soon. They awaited the moments of a countdown like a clock, ticking each minute in their head like a death bell rung for the Shepherds' cause.
They awaited the beginning and the end, in one fell swoop.
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The Shepherds arrived at their destination. The afternoon sun was fading into evening twilight by the time they got there, but the sun was still bright enough to guide them. They traversed through dense and heavy forests, and all at once they understood why they never once found this place before. They needed blasts of Arcfire just to get through the thickest brush, and vaguely wondered how the non-magical scouts got there to begin with. The curious thought disappeared, however, as they eventually reached a clearing, and took in the sights before them.
It was grassland for the most part, and there was a section where the cave in front of them cut off into a hill that lead to a natural walkway above. If they took the grassy ramp to the side, they would actually see over the cave's formation, and find the tops of the ceilings of inside chambers before them. But their goal didn't lie in wait for them at the top, and rather it was hidden deep inside the cave.
A natural feeling of anxiety crashed over them, and some hid it better than others. Anna, among the rest, was able to transform her nervousness into excitement, and she grinned from ear to ear, thinking of the endless possibilities in front of them. With that same energy, she gathered the other Shepherds and regrouped their entirety near the entrance, where they thought over any possible strategies before going in. They weren't nearly as strategic or clever as Robin was, and even their combined intellect could never hope to outmatch the tactician's wit. But they still tried to come up with a good plan before proceeding any further.
"Maybe we could use the animals as a decoy, since they love Ricken so much." Henry pointed at the forest's inhabitants that followed the young mage all the way through to the clearing. There were the usual deer, birds, and squirrels, but even a small red fox and a raccoon had gathered before him. Ricken simply chuckled as he reached down to pet some of them with a gentle hand.
"We're not getting them involved," he insisted. "They don't deserve that. Besides, they don't make much of a decoy. They might actually block us with their bodies if they, uh, y'know—"
"—die?" Henry finished the hesitant sentence, and smiled as Ricken flinched in response. "You're right, that would make for a troublesome fight. It would be good for curses, though!"
Tharja perked up at this conversation, and laughed darkly beside Henry. "That's right. We could cast a curse on the enemies to gain the upper hand. We would need a sacrifice for the best of it, though. We would also need to know some names."
"Is that what it takes to curse someone?" Lissa inquired. "You need to know their name?"
"Their real name," Henry added. He seemed positively enthralled in divulging this information. It's not a problem to me if they know, he thought, any dark mage knows exactly the same thing! "That's how I was able to curse you to go to sleep better that one time, Lissa~ It's a good thing you royals are so honest with your names and heritages and whatnot!"
She blushed as red as a rose whilst looking away. "Well, sheesh! I appreciate what you did for me but you don't have to mention my insomnia to everyone! Now you make me wish I had a secret code name, or something. If that's the case, how are you even gonna use curses in battle? Everyone's screaming, yelling, and fighting!"
"You'd be surprised," Henry pointed out, "at how many people like to announce themselves before they attack! It's helpful!"
"We are not—" Ricken cut in quickly, stepping forward into the circle with reddened cheeks—"going to kill these poor creatures just so you can have some sacrifices ready! We can defeat our enemies without using curses, please and thanks."
"We can, it'd just be harder." Henry's smile faltered a bit, but he relented, nonetheless. "Alright, then. No curses during battle, I swear!"
"It's much simpler than all of that." Anna stepped forward, placing a hand on her hip and flashing a smile towards her comrades. "Gaius and I rush in and dodge those clumsy dirt-for-brains. Once we take them by surprise, you guys sling 'em with your spells! Of course, Lissa and Maribelle will need to lay back, but you guys can heal us all from behind, right?" Her words rang true and clear, and seemed to fill some of the others with some much needed confidence. "We'll be fine."
"Red's got a point," Gaius said. "Plus, if they can't hit us, then they can't hurt us. It'll be a quick job, and we'll be in and out before you know it."
The group seemed happy with this development, and after speaking about the battle formation a bit more, they decided to hurry on inside. Lissa was brave to lead the party at first, but a worried Maribelle pulled her back, saying: "Be careful, dear. If these troglodytes have half a brain, they would have set up traps. Let's walk together, okay?" She easily agreed with her, momentary bravery fading away into her easy, natural confidence as they stayed towards the back of the group.
Henry lagged farther behind them with Tharja, however, and he looked at her with his usual grin. "Hey, I've got a good feeling about this."
"Then it must be bad," Tharja reasoned. "Your 'good' feelings are as good as Grima."
"Haha!" he laughed at her words, the noise itself sounding rather calm despite the eager look he wore on his face. "You've got a point there! But I did try my hand in divination the other day, and while I completely failed, I did manage to get a cool side effect."
"Is it one where if I tell you to drop dead, you will do so without hesitation?" Her voice was sedate yet threatening at the same time, and her eyes were cold—bruise-like. He felt like bleeding out whenever she stared at him for too long. "Because if not, then I wouldn't consider it a 'cool' side effect."
"Oh, you slay me sometimes, Tharja! What I mean is that I might not be able to see the future, but my intuition is so much better now. I have a feeling something good will happen." His repeated the statement from before, emphasizing what needed to be said before widening his smile as far as it could go. He even showed his teeth, this time around, and Tharja paused to examine them. They were whiter than she would expect in a time of war, and weirdly straight. They unnerved her, somehow, but she kept this feeling bottled up inside.
"Something good will happen. Something bloody," he said eerily, and picked up the corpse of a small squirrel that happened to be by his feet. "You should keep this~ It could help."
"If there was a time I was ever a naysayer in divination, it's now." She eyed the cadaver, and quickly grabbed it from his hands. "But this comes in useful, anyway. Thanks, I guess."
"You're welcome. And don't lie about the divination part, I've seen you swindle Nowi of her nail clippings~" Henry teased. "You must be way better at the fortune telling stuff than I am!"
Tharja's face grew the slightest shades of pink, and she shoved him with as much might as her thin arms could muster. He laughed at her loudly. "I'll turn you into a toad for saying that."
"And I'll turn myself right back into a human again!" He reassured her, laughing as he always did. "But I'm glad you appreciate it. I mean it when I say it's gonna come in handy."
"Hey!" Gaius yelled at them, and when the two looked over they realized they fell behind the others' pace by a considerate amount. "Hurry it up, you weirdos. Or we're leaving you out here for the wolves!" Needless to say, the dark mages quickly caught up, and wickedly giggled to themselves for no reason at all.
It was a Plegian thing, they decided. No one else needed to know.
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The cave was surprisingly dark, although they noticed several torch holders built into the walls. The torches themselves were snuffed out, and on further investigation it seemed as if they were lit mere hours ago. "They're expecting us," Miriel decided, joining Ricken as the two of them lit bulbs of Elfire into the air to guide them. "They assume we've brought no light of our own, or are too incompetent to spark a flame from flint and the like. How curious."
"They think we don't know their weakness," Gaius agreed. "But we do." He glanced at the mages around him and smirked. "We've got the upper hand on them, safe to say. It'll be like taking candy from a babe. Poor blokes aren't gonna live to see the outside of this damned cave."
"I wouldn't want them to," Anna said. "Hey, look!"
She motioned to the sides of the cave, and Ricken redirected the floating fire light so everyone could see what was there. Protruding from the walls were stones—jewels, no doubt—which varied in size, although many of them were quite large. They were embedded everywhere from the ground to the ceiling, and only half of the natural walkways were navigable as gems decorated the other half. Oddly enough, these minerals bore no color or shade, and remained a boring light gray appearance in both the light and in the darkness.
Miriel examined them further. "Strange. I am not well-versed in geology, but based on my previous experiences, gemstones of this kind would retain some sort of color or hue—even in dark environments. Perhaps these are embedded with a sort of magical camouflage." She reasoned, pushing her spectacles up along her nose. While this inquiry interested some, Anna—the pioneer of this discovery—seemed only concerned with its outer appearance.
She proffered a sharp, small dagger from her person and chipped at one of the jewels affixed to the wall. "Hey, it comes off easy!" The gem quickly broke off in a nearly full piece, with its round and lustrous shape sitting squarely in the palm of her hand. "The lack of color can be fixed with dyes or something. How much would these sell for?"
Henry looked the jewel over, and hummed curiously. "Well, it wouldn't sell for very much, not in Ylisse, anyway. With that huge mark of Plegia on it, it would drive all sorts of customers away!"
With the exception of Tharja, everyone else froze in place. Then they simultaneously looked at Henry—or the jewels, depending on what was closer—in confusion. "What mark of Plegia?" Maribelle asked. "There is none!"
"I see it," Tharja reinforced, pointing a slender finger at what appeared to be an unmarked spot on a jewel in the rock. "It's big and obvious. They all have it."
"You're kidding!" Lissa gawked. "I don't see anything! What the heck?"
"Do you think—" Gaius moved closer with a puzzled look on his face—"that only Plegians can see it? Maybe there's a reason we don't see anything." The non-Plegians of the group stopped to think, and easily agreed with his idea. Tharja, being the person she was, became impatient with all of the conjectures, and shoved past Gaius with plans of her own.
She brought one of her hands out in front of her, and with a delicate motion she placed her palm over one of the jewels inlaid in the wall. Suddenly, the cave began to vibrate with a hum of awakened magic, and all the empty jewels filled up with color and light.
It was as if a rainbow of light had come alive, only it was so much more abundant than that. The cave glowed and illuminated brightly, such that Ricken and Miriel felt it appropriate to dismiss their Elfire flames. All of them watched with wonder and amusement as a plethora of colors—red, orange, yellow, blue, green, indigo, violet, and every variation in between and outside—filled the jewels up, showing their shapes and sizes much more clearly.
Anna stumbled in awe. "Oh Gods," she said. "This is so much better than a gold mine! This is a jewel mine! Minus the mining team, of course! We'll be rich with the discovery of this cave alone!" Her eyes became alight with energy and opportunity, and her smile widened as she stared into the jewel in her had, that which turned out to be a bright magenta color. "Think about it! We invite locals to come in and mine as much as they can! 'Who Can Get The Most Jewels', official trademarked name still pending. It instantly becomes a tourist attraction, and we save the best bits for ourselves. Oh, I can see it now..."
"That's not what we're here for," Maribelle quickly cut in. "We can worry about excavation later. We have, unfortunately, much more pressing matters to attend to." Her dark eyes flitted about, inspecting the colorful wonderment around them. "If we finish as quickly as you say we can, then it shouldn't be a problem, in the end."
"Ooh~ Pretty~" Henry cooed, opening his eyes slightly to soak in the awe. He had his back turned to everyone, so it was alright for him to break his facade for just a little bit. Not that he needed to open his eyes to see, anyway, but it looked better with the real deal in front of him. After a moment of admiration or so, he turned around to face the others, eyes closed once more.
His voice was startlingly bright as he spoke. "You know what would be funny? If we lost this whole fight."
Ricken stood agape, became utterly bamboozled, and tried to smooth things over as he always did. "W-What do you mean? How could we even lose?"
"We're outnumbered, first of all. And being outnumbered hasn't worked for us before." He turned in Gaius' direction and grinned as widely as he could, before poignantly asking: "Has it?"
The room grew icy and quiet. No one expected for Henry to give out such a sudden statement, especially not Gaius. While he knew the incidents between them were unforgettable, he found it to be embarrassing, and detested Henry for being so petty in a moment like this. What's his problem? He thought to himself. Bringing up stuff like this now...what's he thinking?
"Um, let's...let's get a move on." Lissa spoke up, unable to mask the awkwardness in her voice. "Those bandits must realize what's happening by now. If we still want to catch them by surprise, then we'd better hurry." She looked toward Maribelle as if to plead, then looked elsewhere just as quickly. "Right?"
"Right~" Henry agreed, and he skipped ahead of the others, purple cape billowing out like a cloud from behind him.
Gaius wondered if it was considered rude or not to step on the cape while he could. While it might seem cruel or childish, he figured it was an appropriate action to be done to the cruelest and most childish person of them all. Past all the intrigue that Gaius naturally had for the other's erratic mannerisms, he decided he would rather be done with Henry sooner than later. And if he really wanted to, he could catch up to the little dastard right now, and trounce all over his pretty, purple, Plegian cape, and twist the rest of him into the dirt below them.
He wouldn't mind watching Henry plunder face first into the ground, after all.