CHAPTER 21

Elincia's crew reached Castle Felirae, the only notable location in Crimea's Felirae Dukedom. Ruled by Ludveck, a Crimean Duke himself, he was eager to see what exactly was in store for war. When Elincia and her faithful soldiers showed up to Ludveck himself, he immediately laid his eyes on Geoffrey's older sister Lucia.

"Well, well, Lady Lucia…" Ludveck said as he walked towards Lucia. "You are….quite away from home, aren't you?" asked Ludveck.

"Please do forgive my sudden appearance, Your Grace." Lucia responded. She introduced Lethe and Princess Leanne to Duke Ludveck, saying that she thought that the fruits that Crimea's Felirae region was known for would do fine for the laguz guests.

"Oh don't be ridiculous, Lady Lucia!" yelled Ludveck. "I, myself, am delighted with a delightful visit from you yourself!"

"Duke Ludveck, I…" Lucia muttered.

"Although…I must admit to you…" Ludveck spoke, "I would be all out surprised if you came all this way just to see me."

"...Lord Ludveck, you are too kind for yourself, aren't you?" asked Lucia as she blushed to Ludveck.

"Take your ease, Lady Lucia." said Ludveck. "You are welcome to stay in Felirae for as long as you wish to desire it!"

Lucia took a bow to Ludveck.

Later on in the night, Lucia was looking for some sort of document belonging to Felirae's dukedom. When Lucia found it, she proclaimed that it was a document written by Ludveck himself, signed with his signature on the paper. "If I show this to the royal assembly, we'll have the backing to indict him!" Lucia thought to herself. She later thanked Mordecai and Lethe for assistance, as they were involved in searching for Ludveck's document.

"You are much welcome." said Lethe.

"No war means happiness. But if war shall come, we're here to help the needy in need." said Mordecai.

"You know, Lady Lucia, Ludveck is poor beorc prey." said Lethe. "It;s like you can see his words right through his dirty, disgusting, disrespectful mouth."

"That's really charmed for us." said Lucia. "Fortunate, that is. But we still have to get out of here before we get detected by Crimean Rebels. Come on." Lucia later said.

But as the group was leaving the cave, they were detected by the soldiers of the Crimean Rebelry.

"Lady Lucia, doesn't this cave have only one exit?" asked Lethe.

"Then we will have to do this the hard way." Lucia said. "We'll have to fight our way through the rebels of Crimea. To arms!" Lucia shouted.

The fighting began. Lucia unsheathed her sword, the laguz transformed, and Nephenee pointed her lance strong.

As the fighting continued on, a Crimean Rebel wanted to go after Asha and Heather. As Heather wasn't going to allow it, she defended Asha. Luckily for Lethe, she was able to claw down the Crimean Rebel wanting to hurt the young child Asha. Asha knew she could trust Lehte, and praised her for her prowess in battle. Lethe purred, showing her gratitude to the young Asha.

Nephenee was busy dealing with soldiers of her own class. Soldiers who wielded the same exact weapons as her, and soldiers who fought exactly like her. As she was getting more wounded, she needed an elixir. Knowing that one sword-wielding soldier was carrying one on him, Nephenee took the soldier down and stole his elixir.

Heather knew that the crew needed vulneraries and elixirs, while the laguz themselves needed items known as Olivi Grass, items that would keep them energized in battle while fighting in their animal forms. When Heather was busy stealing all of the items, and knowing that she could get harmed, she immediately dug out a strong dagger to slash the throats of the soldiers. Thanks to a little help from Brom and Mordecai, who was in his beast form, the soldiers were taken down, bleeding from the necks.

But the battle wasn't over yet. A Wind Sage who was in charge of the rebels wanted to take down all of the queen's soldiers. After saying that all the soldiers will have a shortened life span, and offending Asha after seeing her with Lethe and calling her a "sub-human tamer", Nephenee took down the racist Wind Sage. Heather took all of his belongings after he was pronounced dead on the spot thanks to Nephenee slashing his throat with her Steel Greatlance.

"Well, that was something, wasn't it?" asked Brom.

"Yeah." said Nephenee. "Definitely somethin'."

"Come on!" yelled Heather. "I stole the man's stuff; let's get the hell out of here!"

Everybody left for the cave's only exit, returning to Castle Crimea in the process to report back to Queen Elincia about Ludveck's document found in that cave by Lucia. Would Ludveck confess to his crimes, or would worse things happen? The question remained unanswered.