"Now? Of all times?"

The man, Array Denkuts, was on his knees. "I beg of you milady! We need your help!" He most certainly did.

According to him, his village was now infected with something that turned the men into undead. And if that wasn't terrifying, then Heitor didn't know what was. At the same time though, he wasn't exactly surprised.

Zombies weren't as common as bandits, but they appeared in plenty of Fire Emblem entries.

Al sighed. "Should I drag him out of the room, princess?" He scratched his neck. "Sorry for bringing him here, by the way."

The gladiator had returned with the princess' personal army... and with the man who was so desperate for help. Apparently Array had made his way to the Barielle estate, and upon not finding Priscilla, followed the army.

Priscilla shook her head. "Do not blame yourself Al. You did the right thing by guessing I would want to hear this man out?"

Al's voice had an echo of shock. "I did?" It's like he couldn't believe she hadn't immediately insulted his whole lineage right there and then.

She glared at him. "Do not fish for compliments Al, it's unseemly." It would take a very brave man to fish for compliments from Priscilla Barielle of all people. "And as for the undead problem..."

She sighed. "What awful timing for it."

Emilia raised a hand. "The timing doesn't matter! We have to help! E-especially because something like this could spread..." A undead plague... That was way too scary!

It would also mean the end of Priscilla's political career. A undead plague spreading from her territory? She would be seen as more of a demon than even Emilia.

Priscilla's eye twitched. "Of course the timing matters you fool. Have you forgot the matter of the Fire Emblem? To leave now would be too abandon the alliance."

That's right. Priscilla had the duty of occupying the capital with her army to show she and the other candidates weren't fucking around. She couldn't just leave.

Emilia looked down. "Even so..."

The man once again cried out. "Please Lady Priscilla...! Such evil cannot be allowed to spread any further!" You know the guy was desperate when he wasn't even looking at the half-elf with disgust.

"I know you fool!" She snapped at him. "I will... I will have to consult the Fire Emblem on this." It was very troublesome situation.

But nonetheless she smiled. "But I'm sure things will work out. The world works in my favor after all!"

And she was back to her old fucking tricks. As expected.

The meeting had went a lot better than Heitor had ever expected. And now... now he actually had a Fire Emblem team!

"So, where do you come from Heitor?" The greatest healer in the entire world, Felix Argyle, asked him. Was he just trying to make conversation? Probably.

There wasn't much else to do in a carriage. "Why do you ask? Anyways, from beyond the Great Waterfall." No reason to lie when Crusch was here.

And to prove his point, Felix pouted. "I'm just trying to find more about the guy my master went out of her way to hire, nyah. No need to tease me."

While Crusch sputtered. "What!?" That's right. She was on the carriage too, along with Priscilla and Emilia.

Currently his team consisted of himself, Priscilla, Emilia and therefore Puck, Crusch, Felix, and the Finest Knight Julius Juukulius. Basically, it felt like a team that could take on a dragon boss!

Al had stayed behind to lead the army in the capital. He looked as if he wanted to cry. Being a Priscilla simp was hard...

Felix gasped. "What's with that reaction Lady Crusch...?"

The candidate was still trying to recompose herself. "He... he isn't lying when he says he is from beyond the Great Waterfall."

Priscilla chuckled. "Of course he isn't. I don't pick up strays unless they are top of the line—."

Felix pointed at him. "Ferris thinks he's crazy, nyah!" Oh boy.

Heitor tilted his head. "Didn't your master just confirm that I'm not? She said I wasn't lying, right?" Besides, self-inserts were super common! He had met two others already!

Felix shook his head. "While Lady Crusch's Divine Protection is amazing, it will consider something to be true, if the person who spoke thinks it is. So you're crazy and we don't want you in our army, nyah!"

Heitor knew that of course, but still...! Did they really think he was crazy!?

Crusch quickly interjected. "Even should you hold... strange beliefs, we would like your cooperation in the future. Please do not listen to my knight." So she was also gonna call him crazy!?

Ugh... why did she even want him anyways?

The reason why her and Felix were coming, was as a show of loyalty to the Fire Emblem. Because if Priscilla and Emilia left the capital, then Crusch would only have Anastasia and Felt to contend with... Nobody would blame her if she didn't go, but it would have lost her some points.

But there was another reason. It was agreed that just as they were helping now, Heitor would help them in a military operation in the future. His ability being useful for that...

Julius spoke up. "I also find hard to believe Heitor is from beyond the Great Waterfall." Although he was the one driving the carriage, there was a window for him to speak. "Although it would be exciting if he was..."

The Finest Knight had been handed to them temporarily as a gift from Anastasia. Essentially, it was a show of faith from her, even if she hadn't come along like Crusch did.

Heitor looked down. "Well, it's not like I'm trying to convince you guys..." But he couldn't keep the defeat out of his voice.

This was the first time someone had just refused to believe in him!

Priscilla jumped to his defense. "My dog is many things, but insane he is not." She squinted her eyes. "Though then again..." Screw coming to his defense! She was attacking him too!

This denial of his origins was just cruel!

Emilia giggled. "Cheer up Heitor! I'm sure you will prove to them eventually... somehow." Ah, at least the half-elf believed in him.

Felix giggled. "Hey, I doubt it... By the way, before we get to the village I would like to establish some rules, nyah." He raised a finger. "We are going to wear masks at all times, and we will not ear or drink anything from the village, got it, nyah?"

Priscilla nodded. "I will default to your medical expertise in this matter. Any other things we should be aware of?"

The knight continued. "Yeah. I want you all to try and capture one of the undead alive, nyah... well as alive as they can be. Just so I can discover what makes them tick."

He hummed. "Also... only the men have become undead according to the fella who brought this matter up right, nyah? Even so, let's all act like women are just as susceptible. It may be a case where it's just taking them longer to show symptoms, nyah."

Priscilla looked towards Heitor. "I will leave the planning to you. Follow the cat's orders if you wish."

"Right..." He could smell a bonus objective from a mile away! And he would pull it off!

They arrived at the village fairly quickly. As usual, travel by carriage in this world was far faster than anything horses could provide.

As soon as they stepped foot outside of the carriage... a battle begun.

Heitor grasped his head in pain. "Ugh..." Information about the zombies of the village were filling his head.

There were good news, and bad news about this whole situation...

Priscilla raised an eyebrow. "Are you alright, piggy?" She sounded genuinely concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine." At this point he was used to this. "It's just that a battle has started. I can see the entire village right now." It was decently big, definitely bigger than the one where he had fought the bandits.

Crusch's eyes widened. "The entire village? Did you simply see it all once, or are you constantly seeing it in your head?" It was clear that she was poking his head for information on his ability.

But that was fine, they were supposed to work together after all. "I'm constantly seeing the entirety of it. Even inside of the houses... And I can tell this situation is troublesome."

He cleared his throat. "First of all, there are three types of... classification my ability gives to people. Red are enemies, and I can't communicate with them with my ability. Blue are allies, and I can communicate with them. Green are... allies, or at least neutrals, but I can't communicate with them."

He continued. "Right now we are all blue, but the village has both green and red."

Felix raised an eyebrow. "So there are people who didn't get infected? Maybe women..."

Julius put a hand to his sword. "Then we must save them post-haste. We will cut through the swarm of undead and—."

Heitor cut him off. "Wow, calm down there... It's not that they aren't infected... everybody in this village is infected." He put a hand to his chin. "It's some sort of parasitic creature... It takes full control of the men, kills them, but while it can live in women... and children, it can't actually do anything with them."

Felix squinted his eyes. "And your ability tells you all that?"

Ah, maybe he shouldn't have said anything. "It does. Right now I can even say the men aren't aggressive. They may count as red, but they aren't actively hurting the women or the children."

The Blue looked down, lost in thought. "What a strange parasite... Well, I think I can save the... green people, but no promises about the men. Sorry."

Priscilla interjecteded. "I believe I have mine own method of saving the ones who did not perish." She was probably talking about the Yang Sword Vollachia.

It could perfectly control what it burned, so burning the parasite, but not the host was perfectly doable.

Heitor summoned his Rapier. "Okay then, let's go with a pincer attack from north and south. I'll take north with Emilia, Crusch. Priscilla takes the south with Julius and Felix."

The truth is that there wasn't much thought behind these teams. All he had done was make sure each team had at least one consistent healer and that was it... Also, the boss was in the North and he wanted that EXP.

But the truth is that he didn't want to partner up with Priscilla. Raising Support with her currently, sounded dangerous... He was too young to get married!

Naturally, such a shoddy team composition had its faults. "You want me to leave Lady Crusch's side? I don't know about that..." Her knight was understandably not very happy.

Heitor shrugged. "I'm fine with switching her out, so don't worry." For Julius of course! No more Priscilla Support points!

Though he was a bit saddened to drop her. Learning more about the candidates was a priority of his.

Crusch raised a hand. "Actually, I'm fine with this team... I already know what your ability is capable of, but I would like to see your individual skills in the battlefield with my own two eyes."

Heitor scratched his cheek. "Just be ready to be disappointed." She was way stronger than him. And so was Julius. And so was Emilia. And so was Priscilla...

Ah! The only person he could beat up was Felix! And that wasn't a certainty either!

Crusch chuckled. "Don't worry, that's not my primary reason for wanting to borrow you. So I won't judge you too harshly." Even as she said that, she was wearing a teasing smile.

Felix weakly protested. "But Lady Crusch..."

"Like I said, it will be fine." This time she sounded a lot more authoritative, leaving no room to argue.

And so their team was made.

It took their team a decent amount of time to circle the village from outside, but that was fine. The only thing they needed to make sure off, was to not attack during the night.

The Yang Sword Vollachia was way too useful to be ignored.

Before they invaded, he took a deep breath. "Okay, you two ready?"

Emilia nodded. "Yes! And I'll try my best to capture a undead like you asked me to." She was his best bet at that. Knocking out a undead would be difficult, but trapping one with ice sounded possible.

Puck came out of his crystal. "I'm ready too! By the way, if my daughter gets a weird parasite inside of her, I'm gonna kill you." That was... fair enough.

Emilia blushed. "Puck, you shouldn't be saying things like that!"

Puck chuckled. "Actually daughter of mine, honesty is a virtue."

There was an awkward smile on Crusch's face. "I must say, I wish I could act so humorously in the beginning of a battle." Well, it's not like she looked stressed.

Puck raised an eyebrow. "Humorously? But I'm not joking."

"T-truth..." Could he count Puck as a red unit? "Anyways... I'm ready Heitor. Please give the other team the signal."

He nodded. "Got it."

And then with his power, began talking with Priscilla. "We are ready on my side. If you're on position too, please raise a hand." She did as asked. "Okay then... Begin moving!"

And like that, the chapter had started. "Let's go everyone." They finally entered the village.

The village didn't look strange at all. Even though it was supposedly filled with walking corpses, the men were going through the day normally, acting as if they weren't parasites. But the rest knew, and they were very clearly terrified to have their brothers, fathers, and husbands replaced by... whatever this was.

And as soon as they were spotted...

They did nothing, in fact one of the men smiled at their group. "Travelers... No, knights?" Crusch was wearing armor, so he must have jumped to assumptions. "What do yer all need from this little village, sirs?"

Crusch squinted her eyes. "We... are simple travelers." It was clear that she was very confused.

Something that Heitor had to put an end to it immediately. "Everyone, do not be fooled by their appearance or their supposed friendliness. These are without a doubt our enemies."

"If you are still hesitant, then please look around and see that there are only men outside! Isn't that strange?" At this point he was more trying to convince Crusch than anything else.

Priscilla was already turning her enemies into ash in the south. Which was as scary as it was amazing.

Crusch clicked her tongue. "Give me a moment, sir."

She then moved closer to Heitor, and started whispering on his ear. "These undead do not resemble the ones faced during the civil war at all, are you absolutely sure that they are our enemy?"

He wanted to just tell her to trust him, but... why would she—.

"El Huma!" Emilia cut through their discussion, impaling the smiling man on several crystals.

"Lady Emilia!?" Understandably, Crusch was shocked.

Puck rolled his eyes. "Just keep your eye on the creature, lady."

Slowly, as the man groaned in pain, something... slimy started to come out from his body. It was the fully grown parasite. It's host may have been destroyed, but the creature itself actually managed to survive the attack.

Naturally, their agression alerted all the zombies that surrounded. The men that were previously smiling and chuckling to themselves, suddenly rushed to their position, while being completely silent.

Heitor took a deep breath. "Everyone, let's progress nice and slow! Stay together to not get overwhelmed!"

Thankfully, even after their attack had started, the monsters hadn't done the classic move of rushing to the green units and killing them in masse. The women and children were still inside of the house, safe and protected.

Crusch nodded. "Of course! My... apologies." She swung her sword, sending wind and cutting through a man and his parasite. "I'm surprised Lady Emilia acted so bravely however! You have my praise!"

Emilia was barely paying attention to her, instead she was imprisoning the parasite who survived in ice, while Puck defended her.

She did answer however. "Well, Heitor's power hasn't failed thus far, and... those men didn't have a single shred of disgust while they looked at me, that's not natural, something had to be wrong."

Crusch's smile immediately disappeared. "I-I see..."

Glass bones... "I think there's something wrong with them! You're a beauty, Lady Emilia!" This was definitely not the place to flirt, but he couldn't help it when she said stuff like that!

Still, he wasn't just flirting. This monsters were definitely unholy, so boosted by his skill, he cut one of the villager's head in half. Hoping to hit the parasite.

Emilia finally finished trapping the monster, still with a frown of her face. "That's a ni~ce thing to say, but..." She shook her head. "Let's focus on the fight!"

"Right!" He scanned the battlefield. "Let's focus on that man, he's the strongest one here!" He pointed the tip of his blade at one zombie that was a bit further from then.

He was without a doubt the boss. While he didn't have any particularly special skills, he knew how to use a blade, probably because it's host had been a competent fighter.

He would be a nice source of EXP!

Crusch raised her blade. "Understood!" And with far more wind gathering on it than before, she slashed at his directon. "One hundred men felled!"

The boss... was cut in half.

"Worst girl..." He couldn't help but let that escape.

Crusch, still with a heart above her head, looked at him. "Did you say something, Heitor?"

He gave her the shakiest smile the world had ever seen. "I said great work! That was amazing!" An amazing way of fucking him over!

Argh...! Now all that was left was getting rid of the stupid mobs!

AN: There's no real reason to show them dealing with all the fodder zombies of the village so... Much like the novel, I won't do it.

Also, Crusch is here (And Felix, and Julius)! The only thing she ever accomplished in my past fics was being pretty much dead weight. Ah... I remember those days of her constantly being called a fraud with so much fondness~.

Hopefully she will do more in this fic, lol.