Chapter XXXIV: Titles and Future Family
"So... explain it to me again, exactly what this is?" Ragna said as he looked over the documents in his hands.
"Just a few forms elevating you from a key member of the Shepherds to a new status; Guardian of the Realm... otherwise now known as the Grim Reaper of Ylisse."
"That just makes it sounds like you're trying really hard to sell a point to me," he admitted. "What exactly does this mean for me? What changes?"
"To be honest, not that much. Unless I call on you for an assignment you'll be able to do as you please. Of course, if a threat arises you'll be expected to drop everything to address it." Chrom smirked at his friend knowingly. "That won't be a problem, will it?"
"Don't be a smart-ass, that's for your wife-to-be," Ragna told him with a groan as the prince laughed at his expense. "Nothing's going to change from this, so why bother doing this in the first place?"
"It's a way of giving you proper thanks," Chrom said as he looked over a few of the documents. "Now you'll be given a regular payment schedule instead of simply coming to us whenever you need spending money."
"I'm not that big of a spender..." Ragna tried to defend.
"Well now you can start spending and supporting our trade instead of keeping all of the gold you've earned to yourself," Chrom continued to explain. "In addition, we also have an open property for you in the nobility district. It doesn't have any servants currently taking care of it except to ready it for you as we speak, so you'll have to hire house cleaning yourself... or take care of the place on your own."
"The hell? Is it my birthday or something?" Ragna asked.
"...That reminds me, we never put your birthday down in any of our records," Chrom admitted as he made a metal note for later.
"I still feel like I'm getting special treatment by getting all of this," the Reaper admitted, apparently being unused to if not slightly uncomfortable with this type of earnings.
"Actually, I'm only giving you the title; the rest just happens to come with it," the prince explained.
"Did Robin put you up to this?" he demanded.
"It was Lissa and she didn't 'put me up' to anything. All she did was suggest that I give you a bit of apparent authority so that the nobility would start to treat you a little more seriously and I wholeheartedly agreed."
"But still, making me a noble is the damned opposite of what I've been going for," Ragna told him. "Even if I'm working with the Shepherds I'm still a Rebel at heart and I doubt that's every going to change.
"Then go ahead and rebel against whatever unspoken norms the title is supposed to give you; make this an exercise and try to lead the convince the rest of the nobility via a good example. You never know, they might listen."
"You don't sound that sure yourself. There's not a dress code is there?"
Chrom laughed. "You'd break it anyways, wouldn't you mister Rebel?"
"Damn straight," Ragna told him. "So what, there going to be a ceremony for this then?"
"I know you well enough to decide that we don't want to have one; you'd just show up and try to make a mockery of the whole thing," Ragna just gave a 'guilty as charged' shrug. "I think we'll just settle for a brief address at the ball. Truth to be told, the people are already discovering the news by our easiest source to spread this information."
"Virion and his gossip?" Ragna guessed, which was rewarded by a smirk from Chrom. "Hell, I ain't surprised... So when am I going to be moving in?"
"Tomorrow morning at the earliest and considering how late it is right now you're free to spend the night in the castle instead of the barracks," Chrom said before thinking to himself. "Actually, I'd like to insist that you do so I can get you to stay a while. Robin and I were about to enjoy some tea with Emmeryn... you haven't seen her since you've gotten back you know?"
"What's your point, are you trying to set me up on a date with your older sis?" Ragna asked with a teasing smirk. For once though, Chrom's complexion didn't seem to turn joking. "Uh oh, looks like your serious about something."
"Just wanted to confirm one thing with you," the prince told him. "Did you really go out with Lissa last night after the four of us held that small meeting?"
"Yeah, I did. Told her she could pick somewhere to have dinner and she chose this place in the nobility district. Food was decent and the atmosphere... well it wasn't too unbearable. Helped that Lissa's always able to make me laugh," he admitted with something of a warm smile before turning serious. "This isn't where you tell me to back off from her, is it?"
"Hardly; she's old enough to make these decisions herself, you've never struck me as the type that will take advantage of anyone, and neither of you ever listen to me." Ragna couldn't help but smile as he knew Chrom was right on that last point. "...In fact, she and Emmeryn are the only people that can ever get you to listen."
"Well... they ain't the only ones," Ragna admitted.
"Let me guess, any other girl in the Shepherds?" Chrom asked with a laugh.
"Shut up..." he groaned as his friend took a well-deserved laugh at him.
"Who likes the idea of being whipped now?" Chrom asked leaving Ragna's face to grow bright red.
"...Looks like you're ready for my next round of 'special sparring,'" he threatened, but Chrom for once Chrom wasn't fazed by this.
"Remember our last match atop the hill? You admitted that I was close to beating you, so you're a little less threatening," Chrom told him with a chuckle... only to notice the aura of pure darkness radiating off of his best friend. "...Ragna?"
"So you're saying I can start fighting you seriously?" Ragna asked as he menacingly stood from his seat, all of Chrom's perception seeming to shake as the black flames were overwhelming. "Oh... I'm going to enjoy this!"
"...Maybe we can save the sparring until after I'm married?" Chrom asked as a small bit of sweat fell from his brow while the raw darkness aura continued to radiate around him. "I don't want to show up to my own wedding beaten and bloody."
"...Point taken," Ragna said as he allowed the aura around his body to fade and Chrom let out a breath of relief. The Prince was safe... for now. "Tea then?"
"That frankly sounds heavenly right now," Chrom said with a groan.
Meanwhile -The Shepherd's Barracks-
"This... this feeling..." a familiar Plegian dark mage said to herself aloud. Tharja had been having a rather usual day (in her terms at least) gathering materials and researching her hexes and curses that she'd soon make use of one way or another. She'd been interrupted in her work as powerful sensation of darkness washed over her. Tharja smiled as she recognized the feeling. "So... that's what your darkness really feels like."
As quickly as it had come the feeling then faded from Tharja, but her creepy smile didn't vanish in the slightest. She'd gotten a (second-hand) taste of what Ragna's darkness felt like and even counting the distance between the castle and the barracks, it didn't seem to have faded much due to the distance. All of this only served for Tharja to become further and further obsessed by Ragna's own dark power. She cackled darkly and continued to prepare for the two's next meeting.
However, she wasn't the only one that had picked up on the burst of dark energy that the Reaper had released. From the women's bathing chambers, Aversa glanced up at the ceiling, slightly unfamiliar with this odd form of energy at first but then recognizing it from the last time she'd felt it... back at the Plegian Execution grounds.
'What in Naga's name is that brash fool doing now?' she thought to herself with minor annoyance instead of concern. True, the memory of Ragna's death had been somewhat... haunting, but the mere fact that he'd survived it was more than enough to assure Validar's former assistant that he wasn't in any danger, especially if he was inside his home territory. Still...
"I'll have to address his choice of actions soon enough," she noted aloud as she slowly sank into the hot water in relaxation. "Our... talk has been long overdue as it is."
Back to the Castle
"Ugh..." Ragna groaned as he involuntary shivered in his walk back through the hallways.
"Something wrong?" Chrom asked, giving his friend a slightly concerned glance.
"Just got a strange feeling... almost like someone had some sort of plan for me." He shivered again. "Make that a couple of someones."
"If you're expecting pity, look elsewhere," Chrom told him with a well-meaning smirk. "That's what you'd do with me, wouldn't you?"
"Eye for an eye, sadly that seems a little too fair when it comes to us," Ragna admitted, scratching the back of his head as Chrom had another chuckle. It wasn't long before the two were just outside Emmeryn's tea champers. "So... still quiet on the whole-?"
"Yeah, but I'm not giving you permission to save us again," Chrom told him as he remembered yesterday's close shaves with Lissa. Ragna just smirked and gave him an unconvincing shrug, so Chrom wasn't exactly sure how to take it. Steeling himself for whatever his best friend was about to throw him into, the prince quickly rapped thrice on the door.
"There's Chrom now," came the former Exalt's voice from inside. Shortly thereafter, the door opened revealing Emmeryn, but her appearance had slightly changed from the last time the Reaper had seen her. Now instead of wearing her white robes with her hair done back to show the mark of the Exalt on her forehead, her clothing bad become light blue turquoise though they still fit loosely on her similar to her robes. Her hair had fallen so now she wore it much more naturally and the piece she'd often kept in her hair was gone. Her focus though was on the surprise guest on the evening. "R-Ragna?"
"Sorry to stop by unannounced," he told her with a smile.
"No, I'm happy to see you again," Emmeryn told him with that same warm smile that he'd never seem to tire of. She then stepped forward and putting her arms around the Reaper in an affectionate hug. Ragna, as you'd might expect, was a little awkward at the warm contact for all but a moment before he (unskillfully) returned the embrace. He tried hard to ignore the whimsical look that Chrom was giving him. "Please come in. I've been looking forward to speaking to you again."
"I can imagine," Ragna said as he entered the chambers, giving a smile and a nod to his surrogate sister before he sat diagonally across from her at the round tea table. Making sure that Emmeryn was busy asking Chrom something about their tea, she then put a single finger to her lips. Ragna got the message to stay quiet and merely winked... making Robin sure not to need his 'saving grace' a second time.
"So... has my brother told you about the position?" Emmeryn asked as she was seated along with Chrom.
"Yeah, just told me about it in fact," Ragna explained before chuckling. "Though... I'm still betting that the Grim Reaper title was more a special case. Something Chrom added on at the last minute so I couldn't refuse."
"...Partially," Robin admitted before quickly turning to her fiancé. "You did get him to agree didn't you?"
"Of course I-" Chrom froze. As much as Ragna had asked him and as much as Chrom had pushed it, Ragna had never officially said yes. Glancing to red coated man, Ragna didn't say anything only glancing over towards the set of teas as they arrived. "Um..."
"This... this is why I'm learning to negotiate for us, Chrom." With how much she stressed his name, Chrom knew the two of them wouldn't be snogging together anytime soon. "So, will you?"
"You mean say yes to the position?" Ragna asked. Robin and Chrom prepared themselves for a snarky if somewhat deserved comeback, but the Reaper just mildly shrugged. "To be fair, you had me at the whole Grim Reaper title, so yeah I'll take the job."
"Told you that was the selling point we needed," Chrom said to Robin cockily. Judging from her smirk and eye roll, he figured he may have earned back his snogging privileges... best not to let her brother know about those though.
"The house didn't hurt either I guess," Ragna admitted. "Most of my life I've been either sleeping in the wilderness or staying the night in some barracks... This is the first house I've ever owned so it's going to be a learning process."
"Like I said, you're free to order housecleaning with the money you earn from the job," Chrom told him before considering. "You're not too messy of a person though, so it'd seem like a waste of money overall... You're not the type of person that would want to be surrounded by countless butlers and maids, are you?" Ragna didn't say anything. "Just the maids then?"
"...Oif." The Reaper rolled his eyes and sipped the tea. "So... how has planning the ball been going?"
"About that..." Robin began to say. The complexion in her tone made it obvious to Ragna that she was going to ask something of him that he'd rather do without. "You can stop glaring at me... it isn't that serious... I hope?"
"You hope?" the Reaper demanded.
"It just depends; have you already found a date for the ball?" Robin asked.
"I haven't, but was I supposed to?" he asked.
"No, it's just a matter of a formality," Chrom assured him as he took a sip of his tea. "In fact most of the Shepherds that were planning on attending the ball without a date, last I checked... Well Virion's trying to find someone, but-"
"He's Virion," Ragna and Robin finished in unison.
"Right," Chrom informed. "But back to the favor I was going to ask... I was..."
"Just spit it out," the red coat told him gruffly.
"...I was hoping you'd be taking Emmeryn to the ball... officially at least."
"...Eh?" Ragna asked looking around the table. Chrom's reaction was nervous and awkward as clearly this was an odd favor to ask of his friend. Robin's reaction was neutral; clearly she'd heard this news before. Emmeryn was the only one along with himself that hadn't been informed and only seemed to be looking at her brother in some mix of confusion and embarrassment. "...So... you were trying to set me up on a date with her."
"This is hard enough to explain without your commentary," Robin scolded him as Emmeryn blushed slightly at his words. "Look, you were the one that wanted to insist that you were wearing your armor to the ball."
"Your fault for not letting me wear my coat..." Ragna muttered under his breath.
"Look, I'm just saying that it would be best for all of us if you two were seen together by the nobility at the event," Robin explained to him. "They might try as hard as they might not to show it, but the nobility is afraid of you; you're just too unpredictable to them. After that show of support that you showed during Emmeryn's speech, it's clear that the people would love to see the two of you together in public."
"...I guess I can get where you're coming from," the Reaper admitted. "I'm fine with the idea, but I think Emm's the one you should be asking."
"I... I have no problems with this idea," Emmeryn told the four, yet Ragna could feel the short hesitation in the voice. "...Hopefully I won't hinder you while we dance."
"I wouldn't worry about that," Chrom assured his sister while smirking back to Ragna. "He could barely dance at the last ball we went to without Olivia's help and he didn't have to worry about his armor then. If anything, Ragna's the one to make a fool out of himself."
"Shut up..." Ragna groaned as while Chrom and the ladies smirked slightly as his expense. With the ball coming up soon, the Reaper felt he had a duty to make sure that he didn't end up the laughing stock of the kingdom.
Later That Night
"Dammit, those beds are just too damn soft," Ragna muttered to himself as he walked the empty halls of the castle. "Seriously, I felt like I was going to sink into the damn thing."
The Reaper was dressed in only his black hakama set which left his unnatural BlazBlue exposed, but he didn't feel like anyone except for the occasional guard would see him. With the castle's beds a bit too comfy for his liking, he thought he'd take a quick walk through the hallways before attempting to fall asleep once more. He figured that everyone within the castle had already turned in for the night, but that was before he noticed the stray light of lantern shining through one of the windows. Upon further inspection, he saw that Emmeryn was standing outside in the balcony and looking up at the starry sky above as crickets chirped in the darkness. Deciding he'd join her, Ragna gently stepped forward, yet he made sure his footsteps would be heard as not to startle her.
"Mind if I join you?" he asked politely. He couldn't see it from the side of her he was standing on, but Emmeryn gave a bit of a melancholy smile.
"I'd love it if you would," she to him, so Ragna made his way forward leaning and the balcony rail. "Did you have trouble sleeping?"
"Just a bit; like I said, I'm used to either sleeping on firmer beds or more often the ground," he told her as he looked up at the stars with her. A moment later, he realized Emmeryn was looking at the wrapping around his arm. She blushed and tried to turn away, but he simply smirked. "Don't worry, I already know this isn't the easiest thing to look at."
"I wasn't trying to bring attention to it," the young woman tried to assure him, her face lit with a slight guilt.
"...Alright, my turn then," Ragna said with a chuckle, confusing her for a moment. "I like what you did with your hair."
"Y-You do?" she asked and he nodded.
"Yeah, no offense but your last style looked like you had it that way because you needed to show off that symbol on your forehead..." he smiled. "Now you look like you're wearing it this way 'cause you want to." Emmeryn didn't respond right away, leaving Ragna to worry that he'd said something wrong.
"...Can you keep a secret?" Emm asked him.
"Depends on how much leverage I can get out of it," Ragna told her jokingly, leading Emm to slap his arm. "Lighten up will ya? Of course I will, you can always trust me."
"I know I can... that's why I'm telling you," she said hesitating for a long moment. "I've been having trouble keeping my thoughts together as of late... I'm... almost relieved that I don't need to retain the title of Exalt any further, but that only means that I'll be pushing the duty upon my brother... and with a war approaching it will be a difficult time for him."
"I wouldn't worry about Chrom that much," Ragna assured her. "Trust me... he isn't as young and inexperienced as he was when I first met the guy. He can hold his own."
"...I just feel as though I'm becoming a larger burden to you, now shoving my responsibilities onto you and the others... Now that I'm no longer the Exalt, what good am I?"
"That's easy; you're a voice of reason, one for peace," Ragna as he glanced up at the stars. "If you can get a stubborn ass like me off all people to listen to you, then I don't think there's anything else you have to worry about. Sure this whole Valm conflict looks like it's going to lead to war, but I we're going to need someone back here to keep everyone's spirits high... Go for a walk around the capital like you used to; you'll see..." Ragna told her before he jokingly chuckled. "Unless you want me to go out in my armor and cheer you on again."
"...I think I'll be fine," Emmeryn told him, but couldn't help but smile. "Ragna, I... Thank you."
"Anytime Emm," he told her warmly. "Also...
"Yes?"
"...If you've still got doubts, just remember something. Never once did I listen to the 'Exalt,'" he told her as seriously as he could. "Exalt, Mad King, Black Knight; those are just pointless names that can be attached to anyone... You're the one I'm listening to."
"...If you don't care for the titles, why did you take the position of Grim Reaper then?" Emmeryn asked him, slightly ruining the message that he'd been trying to tell her.
"...Okay, that one's just on my own ego," Ragna admitted, scratching the back of his head. She couldn't help it; with her old friend looking so dorky she began to giggle getting louder and louder until she actually began to laugh. Ragna just gave a whimsical sigh and let her continue to laugh, happy that she wasn't all serious now.