Three Houses - Reorient and Readjust
22nd of the Great Tree Moon, 1180
Reidun let herself crash into the bed of her dorm with a tired sigh.
'That was too much,' she thought, thinking back on the last two days.
"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were talking about the attempt on your life," Joseph commented dryly. "It's hardly that bad."
Reidun glared at the ghost.
"She won't leave me alone!" she whined, conscious of the fact that no one else was around to hear her. "She's there when I eat, she's there in class, she's there when I train, and even when nothing's going on! The only peace I have is in the morning before she's woken up and when she's serving her detention for… something!"
Joseph stared blankly as the rant continued.
"While everyone was introducing themselves to Felix, she went and dragged me around the whole class to get to know everyone!" Reidun continued to complain. "I don't want to get to know people or make friends! I have you and that's enough."
"Well, I think she's trying to help and be friendly," Joseph commented.
"Why?!" Reidun exclaimed, "She hated me just last week!"
Joseph raised an unseen eyebrow at her, and Reidun deflated.
"...right, saved her life," Reidun grumbled, then she glared at the ghost again. "Why are you taking her side? You hated her."
"I did, but she changed for the better… even if she is being a bit obsessive," Joseph admitted, before elaborating. "Anywho, in the face of much bigger issues, it seemed like a childish thing to worry about."
At that, Reidun sat up again. Meeting the ghost's unseen gaze with a calm demeanour.
"Are you finally ready to explain what's gotten you so worked up?" Reidun asked. "You've been practically panicking ever since we met Byleth, and you're not even doing a good job of hiding it this time."
"Yeah… I think I should," Joseph relented reluctantly. "So, first things first. You've probably already figured this out, but Byleth was the main character in the game I was familiar with."
Reidun nodded her confirmation.
"Is he like me?" Reidun asked. "I can't see you, but I can feel that you're there, and when I met him it felt…similar."
'More than you know…' he thought ominously. "In a sense, yes."
"Is that why you were hiding underground when we met him?" she asked. "You thought he might be able to see you?
"That's right," Joseph confirmed, "and… I'm not sure that he'll be a friend."
Reidun blinked, then raised a finger to point at herself.
"I… might be the bad guy?"
"No… that's not quite right. It's…" Joseph's words drew out to silence as he struggled to find the best way to say what he meant, eventually settling on. "...it's complicated."
"Hmm… is that why you've been worried?" she asked, confused. "You haven't told me anything, but I get the impression that you knew that already."
The ghost dragged a hand along his face tiredly.
"Yeah, I did, but…" he said, again, failing to find the words to describe exactly why the situation was so wrong.
Reidun maintained her stare expectantly, and Joseph took a deep breath.
"Alright, firstly, a smaller thing: Byleth can turn back time," Joseph said gravely. "Now, I knew that part already, but the problem is that he's already done it at least once… and we didn't notice."
Joseph floated to sit on the desk.
"No sense of deja vu… no ominous feeling… nothing," he emphasised.
"That is a problem if I might end up fighting him," she commented evenly, but Joseph could already hear her thoughts trying to think of how she would do it. Some of that thinking was vocalised in her next question, "Any particular weaknesses or limits?"
"In the rules of the game? Yes," Joseph acknowledged, before quickly correcting, "but those limits were circumvented several times in the story, so I wouldn't put stock in those. All I know for certain is that trying to do the same thing again leads to the same result, and certain events can become immutable to his time travel."
"Hm, simple enough," Reidun acknowledged. "...then what's the point of hiding? He can just rewind when he finds out about you, right?"
"If he finds out about me," Joseph corrected. "As long as he doesn't know I'm a factor, he won't be able to work around me, and that might let me work events in our favour."
"So how do we know if he's going to fight us?" Reidun asked, prompting another groan from the ghost.
"That… is one of the other issues," Joseph explained, folding his arms. "The first clue is supposed to be if he takes over the position of professor of the black eagles."
"So… we're fine?" Reidun questioned.
"Supposed to," Joseph emphasised. "I don't know what Seteth ws thinking, but Byleth isn't the professor of any house this time around, so we've gone completely off the rails. Basically everything I know is now in question."
A mischievous gleam entered Reidun's eye at that.
"Which means you can tell me without consequence?" she hinted, rather unsubtly.
Joseph stared for a moment.
"No."
"Come on!"
"Not happening," Joseph repeated. "I still trust Seteth, and- no, we're not having this conversation again."
He sighed and just opted to move on, earning a disgruntled huff from the girl.
"Problem number 3: Byleth is on New Game Plus, " he explained. "In the game, that meant you could carry over your progress from a previous story."
"Hm, right, right-" Reidun froze, "oh…"
"Yup, there's a real chance that at a moment's notice any or all of the students or staff here at the academy could just suddenly become unparalleled masters of any skill or class, or alternatively come to understand each other in ways only life long friends can. Everyone, except us," Joseph pointed out, emphasising the point with a snap of his fingers, "just like that."
"I'm…" Reidun started, "...starting to see the problem."
"Yup, and that's not the worst of it," Joseph enunciated in mock glee. "There's a decent chance that this means that Byleth also knows what the future is supposed to hold, and since the character I'm familiar with is just a player avatar, there is no knowing what their goals or motivations really are."
"Chance?" Reidun queried, "how would he not know?"
"Well, yeah… I mean… even in New Game plus he follows the plot, but…" Joseph trailed off as he organised his thoughts once more, and continued with confidence. "As far as I remember, the game never took the effort to incorporate or explain the mechanic. The idea of him knowing is based on the assumption that he simply rewound time back to the beginning, but if 'New Game plus' is caused by some other mechanism that might not be a factor. The key word there is assumption… I just don't know."
At that, Reidun jumped up to her feet.
"Well, then, there's only one thing to be done," she concluded as she evened out the creases of her trousers. "Double down and train twice as hard."
Joseph stared for a moment. Once again baffled by his charge's ability to just ignore problems.
"Not sleeping isn't healthy," he argued futilely. A token resistance.
Reidun made her way to the door, only stopping to smugly ask, "You coming?"
23rd of the Great Tree Moon, 1180
Shadows slinked away as the sun's eye fell upon the world again, shining through the windows of the training hall.
"Hyaa!"
The early risers of the monastery had already begun to trickle in over the course of the last hour. None of them saw anything strange about the figure running drills with an iron lance. who'd already been there when they arrived.
"Let me go over the plan, one more time," Joseph said, audible only to Reidun. "So far, everything I've seen indicates that classes and abilities typically work the way I remember. Specifically, Viktor proved that Vantage exists."
Reidun visualised a nod, then reset to go through another round.
"With that in mind, you should be pretty well off in general if you can manage to master Archer, Mercenary, and Warrior, but are probably looking to stay in either Pegasus or Falcon Knight more regularly."
'Okay…' Reidun thought, stabbing at the air again. '...why?'
Joseph coughed.
"Oh, um, right, I didn't explain that part," he stuttered with minor embarrassment, considering he'd gone through this a couple of times already. "Mastering Mercenary should grant you Vantage, which lets you strike first when attacked. It's the ability that Viktor displayed as a Hero. Combine that with Wrath from Warrior, and under the same conditions, you should strike much harder. Finally, mastering Archer should improve your accuracy and let you actually hit the target, when you strike them first and very hard."
'...and pegasi are just awesome,' Reidun surmised. 'Doesn't this fall apart if I can't hit them back?'
Joseph cringed a bit.
"Yeah, it's not perfect…There are workarounds… I mean we could steal the Chalice of Beg-" Joseph shook his head to interrupt himself. "Nope, forget I said anything."
'I won't,' Reidun joked… or at least pretended to.
"Anywho!" Joseph stated loudly, "To qualify for those classes, you need to work on your Lancemanship, Swordsmanship, Archery, and Flying. We'll have to check in with an expert to find out exactly how much you need to master those skills, and we still need to check the pegasus stables to see if-"
"Reidun!" interrupted a figure running up to said girl. Stopping by her with laboured breath. "Argh, I missed it again."
Reidun internalised a groan.
"Good morning Isabella," she greeted with deceptive grace.
"Morning Reidun," Isabella greeted back enthusiastically. "Seems I'll have to get up even earlier to match your tempo."
"There's really no need for-" Reidun began.
"Nonsense," Isabella interrupted again, resting a hand over her heart. "If you're training to be a knight, then I'm training to be a better friend. I may not have that same spark that you and the honour students have, but my father used to tell me that training together is always more effective!"
Reidun imagined herself glaring at the girl -without actually doing so- as Isabella got into position nearby and started running through sword forms.
'She's not even doing them right,' Reidun criticised unfairly.
"Well, if it's bothering you, why don't you correct her?" Joseph suggested, with some small degree of amusement.
Reidun pictured herself narrowing her eyes suspiciously at her companion.
'...you're just trying to make me play nice,' she accused.
"...and you're doubling down on not wanting friends out of stubbornness," Joseph countered. "You didn't mind befriending Caspar, Ingrid, or Sylvain."
Reidun froze, mid swing while she internally sputtered and tripped over herself.
'That-that's different!' she stuttered out.
The ghost raised an unseen eyebrow at the girl, waiting for her to elaborate.
Indignant -and unable to actually come up with a proper answer-, Reidun focused back on her own training.
…
"Oh, are you done?" Isabella asked. "I'll just finish up as well then."
Reidun was thankful for the brief moment of peace as she went to get herself cleaned up and ready for the day.
…
"Reidun, there you are!" Isabella intruded again, sidling up next to her in the breakfast queue. "I think I saw someone from Ferdinand's cohort sitting over there. Why don't we sit with them?"
Reidun reluctantly agreed with a nod.
…
"Excuse us, could we sit with you?" Isabella asked, already sitting down.
"Isabella, I believe it was? That would be no issue," one of them accepted, before turning to Reidun. "Hello again, I take it your lancework has improved since we last met?"
Reidun shook her head as she also took a seat.
"Unfortunately, my focus has been on other skills," she answered.
Isabella glanced between her new 'friend' and the strangers.
"You… know each other?" she asked, curious.
"She spent a lot of time training with us last week when she was having troubles with Ingrid's cohort," someone else clarified in a bored tone.
Isabella looked like the words had physically attacked her, and was far more subdued for the rest of the breakfast.
Joseph helpfully pointed out that she looked guilty and ashamed, and Reidun's petty irritation was not enough for her to take pleasure in the fact.
The Black Eagles lecture hall was arranged differently from the day before.
Rather than being forward facing, the table and chairs had been arranged in a more circular manner, with a map placed on a larger table in the centre.
The class hadn't started yet, and while students filtered in, Edelgard conspired at the front of the class with Jeritza, the class's professor.
Reidun, for her part, had stepped aside upon entering the classroom. Looking over the space and taking in the differences from the Blue Lions as she and Isabella waited for Felix to join them.
"Yo," a sudden arrival greeted enthusiastically. Short, blue haired. Reidun recognised Caspar immediately. "I didn't get to say hi yesterday."
"Caspar," she greeted pleasantly, her smile actually mirroring her thoughts. "How's your training been?"
"Great!" Caspar exclaimed, flexing one of his arms to support the boast. "Those bandits better be thankful they didn't run into me, because I'm geared up and ready to go!"
"I take it you're hoping to participate in the practice battle then?" Reidun asked.
"The what now?" he answered, the gumption gone and replaced by confusion.
"The mock battle between the three houses happening at the end of the month, next week." Reidun clarified, helpfully.
"Huh, I didn't know, but totally!" Caspar responded, enthusiastic again.
"Well, you may get your chance," Edelgard suddenly interjected, having moved more towards the centre of the room. "We're going to be discussing it right now, in fact. So if everyone would take their seats."
The last sentence was directed towards everyone in the room.
"Despite the wording, that's a command," Joseph clarified for Reidun's benefit. So she separated from Caspar with a wave, spotted Felix, and took a seat on the row behind him, like the other cohorts did for their own honour students. Felix didn't offer any greeting, or even acknowledge their arrival beyond glancing back at them for a moment.
Once everyone was settled, Edelgard took up a position near the large table, where she could be easily seen by the whole class.
"Good morning everyone," she greeted. "I will be brief. As many of you are aware, next week we will be engaging in a mock battle against the other houses of the academy."
She waited a moment, looking around to make sure everyone was following along.
"While the professors will all be participating themselves, they will be holding back and have chosen to defer command over the battle to us, the students.
"As such, it falls to us to plan for the coming battle and to select who shall be participating," she declared with proud determination, swinging an arm wide to flare out her house leader's cloak in a suitably dramatic fashion. "Let us show our fellows what the Black Eagles are capable of!"
…
"...so that's how it's going to-" a cheer from a nearby classroom interrupted Claude's seemingly carefree briefing.
"Ah shucks," he joked. "Sounds like the Black Eagles forgot that we're still a week away."
"Such meagre intimidations will not work on us," Lorenz decided.
"Yeah, let's show them what a real battle cry sounds like!" Raphael cheered, up on his feet. "Come one everyone!"
…
"...let's remember to respect our opposition and-"
Another cheer from the classroom on their other side interrupted Dimitri again.
He coughed into his fist.
"I see the eager looks on your faces, and I remind you all that this is only a mock battle. The real thing will be happening much later in the year," he commented seriously, before allowing a smile to grace his expression. "But I suppose it would be only fair for us to engage in the competitive spirit. For Faerghus, for the Blue Lions!"
…
Joseph was laughing.
Reidun, of course, didn't quite get it. Most of her classmates seemed to be carrying what she thought might be smiles as well. She wasn't sure, so she bottled up her confusion and waited.
Amongst other things, she didn't notice Felix lounging back with an anticipating smirk, similar to the one worn by Hubert to go with the scheming look in his eyes. She didn't notice Petra's tame excitement, or how Dorothea muffled a giggle behind her hands. Nor did she take note of the bright grins worn by Ferdinand and Caspar.
She also couldn't tell that poor Bernadetta really didn't look like she wanted to be there.
'Hold up… where is Linhardt?' she suddenly realised. 'With who he was I thought he might have just overslept yesterday, but he's not here today either.'
"Haha, right… sorry," Joseph let himself calm down enough to answer. "I heard someone mention yesterday that he transferred to Hanneman's class, so he could focus more on researching crests."
'Fair enough,' she acknowledged, scanning over the classroom once more in confusion. 'What was so funny?'
"Just a bit of competitive spirit," Joseph explained. Pausing a moment. "Alright… an excessive amount of competitive spirit. An impromptu speech, dramatics, and cheers is a bit excessive for a little exercise and everyone knows it."
'Heh, that is a bit funny,' Reidun agreed.
Once the mood had died down a bit…
"With all that said, we're only permitted to deploy four cohorts to accompany the professor," Edelgard continued. "Furthermore, in addition to the three houses, Professor Byleth will also be taking the field, along with 4 cohorts of his choice from what remains."
A round of murmurs spread throughout the class at the added information.
"I believe this goes without saying, but I kindly ask that if you are selected by the professor, that you do not share any of our battle plans," She added. "Now, let us discuss our strategy…"
What followed… was a bit of a mess.
"What's there to discuss, I shall-" "You know, maybe you should let someone else go, I don't think-" "Let's crack their heads-!" "That is being foolish-" "If you'd all let her majesty speak-" "What if we-" "You're all forgetting-"
…and many, many more shouts spilled forth over the course of an hour.
"This… has gotten quite disorderly," Joseph commented.
'Has it? I'm following along alright,' Reidun thought back. '...even if it isn't going anywhere.'
"That's because it's a mess," Joseph clarified, before adding in a disapproving tone, "Jeritza should have stepped in by now. The students clearly aren't handling this well."
'Should I…?' Reidun asked.
"No, that'd just add another voice to the mess," Joseph denied, witha a gesture to Felix, who'd initially stayed out of the conversation, but was now as much a part of the shouting match as everyone else.
"Perhaps!" Edelgard shouted over the crowd, managing to get everyone's attention. Then she lowered her voice to continue. "...we should take 5 minutes to clear our heads and discuss amongst our cohorts before we continue."
A set of murmured agreements saw the class split into many smaller simmering pieces.
"Goddess, what a farce," Isabella muttered, quiet enough that only Felix and Reidun could hear.
"Hmpf, indeed," Felix agreed, but didn't really say any more.
So the cohort sat in silence.
At least… until Edelgard approached them.
"Heads up," Joseph warned.
"Can I help you?" Reidun offered, calmly.
"Ah! Your majesty," Isabella panicked, suddenly noticing the arrival herself.
The princess raised a dismissive hand, which was paired with an expression Joseph identified as exasperated.
"No need for that, we are all fellow students after all," she explained, likely having done so many times by now. Then she continued with a bit more energy in her voice, "I noticed that you were all strangely silent and wished to inquire about your thoughts."
Felix scoffed.
"Everyone is overthinking things, and overlooking the actual issues," he criticised.
"Hm, I see," she acknowledged with a nod, before turning to face Reidun and Isabella. "Are you two of the same mind?"
"I'm sorry, I wasn't quite able to follow along," Isabella admitted sheepishly, prompting Edelgard to nod again and turn her gaze on Reidun.
Reidun, of course, didn't notice the intensity in those eyes.
"In part," Reidun conceded. "Jeritza should have stepped in long before it got to this point."
"Oh?" Edelgard noted curiously. "Do you not think us capable of leading ourselves?"
"We're students. Most of us here don't have any real experience with meetings like this, and those of us who do likely have very different expectations," Reidun defended, speaking some of Joseph's thoughts. "If I were to be optimistic, I would assume that Jeritza is using this as a learning opportunity to show us how not to handle a meeting."
A short breath later and Reidun continued, taking more words from Joseph.
"I wouldn't be surprised if the other professors are helping guide their classes along… at least enough that they can have an actual discussion," Reidun said, before gesturing to Felix. "For example, like you said Felix, we weren't even all discussing the same problem."
Felix accepted the subtle praise with a scoff, while Edlegard crossed her arms and nodded thoughtfully.
"You may have worded it differently, but I was thinking the same," she said. "How do you propose we should deal with this?"
"I don't think it's my place to answer-"
"Yet I am asking," Edelgard interrupted insistently.
"Well…" Reidun trailed off, supposedly calm.
'Joseph, help!' she panicked. 'Your observation got me into this mess, get me out!'
The ghost sighed.
"Well, if you insist," he began. "Repeat after me…"
"Firstly, set some basic ground rules," Reidun started. "No raising your voice. no speaking over each other or interrupting. That kind of thing.
"Secondly, control the flow of the conversation. Make use of explicit discussion points. If someone wants to change the subject, either mark it down for later or make sure everyone is ready to switch topics.
"Thirdly, keep everyone on the same page concerning the facts. Whether they are established from beforehand, or agreed upon later during the conversation."
Reidun paused a bit as Joseph's main points came to an end, and decided to add a comment of her own.
"Back when I ran the Blind Scale company, I would start meetings by establishing an agenda and seeing if anyone had any comments on that before we even began in earnest. Preferably, I would have talked about it with everyone before we met up to begin with..."
Reidun shook her head.
"Pardon me, I seem to have started rambling."
"There's hardly anything to apologise for," Edelgard denied. "...but I do see now what you meant with the different expectations. Within the nobility, most discussions are led by and centred on the noble in charge. Rather than trying to reach a consensus, it is usually a matter of the noble in question trying to garner wisdom from their advisors and puzzle together the most opportune course of action."
"Well, if everyone is used to holding the reins, then I can see why it turned out this way," Reidun idly commented, causing Edelgard to freeze up for a moment.
"It seems…" she remarked afterwards. "...I am not quite as immune to bias as I thought."
Edelgard smiled, loosening up as she did so.
"Thank you for an enlightening conversation."
Then she left.
'Huh?' Reidun wondered.
"Sorry, I'm as lost as you are this time," Joseph joked.
…
The conversation with the potential spy had been fruitful in Edelgard's mind. Though she was sure that the advice she'd just received had been secondhand. The way the girl's tone and cadence had entirely shifted made it clear that she had no intention of covering up that fact.
'From one of the knights? Or perhaps even Rhea herself?' Edelgard wondered. She doubted it could be Rhea, whoever it was had clearly been on hand to assist Reidun more directly with the trading company.
A shame, really. Such a tale about making one's own fortune would have fit well with Edelgards ideals if the girl had truly built her fortune from the ground up by herself.
For now though, Edelgard put the thought behind her and took the stage once more.
'I am not the Adrestian Heir addressing her people…' she reminded herself, '...I am a student trying to work together with my compatriots.'
The fact that the advice and reminder came from a potential church spy did not change the validity of it.
"Before we begin again…"
Edelgard was not too proud to accept a lesson from the enemy. She would take every advantage she could in order to fulfil her ambition.
"...let's determine the agenda."
…
"...what can we expect from the other houses?"
"...what do we know about the other professor's abilities?"
"...how can we take advantage of the field?"
"...will professor Byleth be holding back like the rest?"
"...what are our own strengths? What are their weaknesses?"
"...who shall we be fielding?"
"...what is our battle plan?"
…
In the end, the Black Eagles settled on a roster composed of: Edelgard, Hubert, Dorothea, and Bernadetta.
Unlike the other houses, Jeritza provided them with a strong frontline asset, especially when combined with Edelgard's own ability.
Once they established that, Ferdinand gave up on his insistence that he take part. Instead, he eagerly recommended Petra and Bernadetta take part for their archery prowess. Then much to Bernadetta's dismay, Petra managed to speak up first and add her vote for Bernadetta.
Hubert and Dorothea naturally filled in the two remaining spots, given their access to magic and Dorothea's limited ability to support her allies.
They had a plan and, at least on paper, it seemed like a good one.
23rd of the Great Tree Moon, 1180
Due to the unfortunate nature of bureaucracy, Flayn couldn't join any of the home room classes until next month.
That had, on the other hand, fortunately given her a private session with Byleth, in order to arrange her other classes.
"I see…" he said. "You are looking to fight on the front."
"That is correct," Flayn confirmed.
"Very well," he accepted without any fuss. "You'll need to toughen up first to be able to take a hit, so I'll be signing you up for Heavy Armour and Axe classes. Once you can manage to put on a real set of armour, we can focus on getting you experienced as a Cavalier."
The words were concise, the voice monotonous and without humour. The man's entirely blank expression didn't help the impression he put forth, but despite that, Flayn trusted the man.
'It will get better,' she reassured herself. 'Hopefully with Jeralt around to see it this time.'
"Thank you professor," she said.
Byleth nodded.
Then there was silence.
Byleth broke his gaze from Flayn and started working again, without actively dismissing her.
Which at least gave her a moment to think.
Given the way things had gone already, they were already off script… so she had admittedly considered just ignoring the script entirely and doing what she could.
'Well this one small thing cannot hurt too much,' she thought to herself.
"Professor," she called, prompting him to look up again. "Since you were unfamiliar with the four saints, I take it you do not know the goddess' name either?"
He shook his head.
"Very understandable, the name is considered sacred and is not spoken often," Flayn defended. "She is known as Sothis."
Byleth blinked, but before he could say anything more, Flayn let out a very hurried "Goodbye!" and rushed out of the room.
'So directly defying fate like that…?' She pondered with mischievous glee. 'What more can I do?'
AN: So, we're back to the academy. As much as I liked the last chapter, I realised that trying to transition from that back to the main PoV was a bit of a messy affair. oops. I should probably set myself up better moving forward, heh.
To Loyd (Oct 10, 2024): I've read this comment like, 4 times and it was only just now that I realised that you're probably referring to Joseph. Imma hold his stats secret for now. Other than healing Reidun and finishing off guys with like 6 hp, he hasn't really done anything in the story yet that would hint to his abilities.
To Royalrain20xx (Oct 10, 2024): Fall into place, all over the place! If Edelgard is anything, it's bold and ambitious. But realistically, what could possibly go wrong? It's just one commoner...
To Uemei (Oct 11, 2024): Hmm, how to answer that first question without throwing out too much of a spoiler... Firstly, I had the first scene of this fic written and stored in an 'ideas for later' folder since before Engage was announced, so I can assure you it's not a stealth crossover. I have a very specific idea over the mechanics of Joseph, Reidun, and how it ties together with the overall plot. I think I can safely mention that, without Joseph, Reidun would have just been a regular person.
Ah, to be clear. I'm not referencing any rpg's or anything. If I'm doing things correctly, then it should be identical to if I'd modded Reidun into the game on the switch. (ie. Fe3H determines hit/miss by taking the average between two random numbers between 0 and 99 and comparing it to the HIT value of the attack, or in other words (2d100)/2) Resources like Triangle Attack have basically all the calculations and stats available. (though I've had to improvise exp... with pretty unreliable results)
Fun thing about games like fire emblem, what 0 hp means is entirely arbitrary! Sometimes it means the character dies, sometimes they retreat, sometimes they're knocked out. What 0hp represents is a defeat, and it is still up to me to determine what that means. There shouldn't be any danger of accidentally knocking out the knees on the story... but I do like the idea of a short 'what if' if I get a very funny or interesting roll at some point. (...like the whopping 112 damage Dimitri did to Reidun in the first chapter)
It's fun letting Flayn be a bit cheeky!
To Trevaacin (Oct 12, 2024) & somerandomread (Oct14, 2024): Yup, hit the nail on the head. It's New Game plus! (No worries somerandomread I'm just happy to see your comments!)
To coolguy21jz2015 (Oct 21, 2024): It is fun the rules and the writing, but to address your concern: I'm using it as a tool to advise my writing, not dictate it, so no worries! Worse yet, with 2/3 agents, they're creating feedback loops of changes, muahaha.