Part 12: A New Journey, Intro - Part 2

You have chosen...a choice.





: Yes. Kyle, Forde, I'm traveling to Rausten. I ask that you two serve my brother well.

: Actually, there's been a slight change of plans.

: We're going with you, Your Highness.

: What? But...

: Prince Ephraim rides with Frelia's finest at his back.

: And this was a personal order from the prince himself. He said, “I don't need you loafing around here. Go and keep Eirika safe." Since when is battling all of Grado loafing about? Honestly!

: You're right! My brother's mission is far more dangerous than mine. I will go and speak with him...

: Princess Eirika. Prince Ephraim said he's not concerned for his own safety. These are the words our prince gave us, and we believe he means them.

: That's the truth of it. There's no cause for worry, Princess Eirika. We can all attest to the prince's tenacity. No matter how close death comes, the Pale Horse will not catch him.

: ...Kyle, Forde... I understand. Thank you for your service and bravery.



: I would be honored to have you ride at my side.

: The honor is ours. We ride for Renais and for Princess Eirika!

: Let's not work ourselves into a frenzy right now. When the time comes, I will be there to handle things.

: Of course. I'm depending on both of you.

Naturally, had we chosen Ephraim, Seth would have come by to contrive a reason for why the army was going with Ephraim instead.



It sure has. The place was apparently cleaned out so thoroughly that monsters have started living there. If we were so inclined, we could go there as many times as we wanted, fighting monsters for training.



We've also got monsters cropping up on the world map, but we can ignore them if we don't select the space they, specifically, occupy.

But enough about that, we've got to move on to...



Chapter 9! Because when has a boat ride ever been easy in the Fire Emblem series?

The main focus here is on going around the harbor the long way. We've got two houses to save here, and we'll get a bonus for doing so. This map is one of the first ones where we'd notice a huge change in Hard mode, since there'd be three or four more pirates in the water and a few more coming from the top of the map, making it a real race to save the houses before they demolished them.

Notice the shops as well. The game wastes no time in giving us an opportunity to blow the 10000 we got from Hayden on weapons and magic, and I'll be taking full advantage of that.



Forcing her way into the party is Tana who, for reasons only the voices in her head can answer, decided that a Pegasus Knight should go into battle wielding a spear so heavy that it even says so in its title. She's got very good stats for her level, just about as good as Vanessa's, or perhaps even a little better in places, so I'll be tossing her some more sanely-weighted lances and putting her to work.

Anyway, the map gives us 11 slots. Tana and Eirika take two, and I'll be bringing Franz for convenience in recruiting a character who'll be showing up later, as well as Neimi, in hopes that she'll redeem herself, and Moulder for healing. Colm has been underachieving severely, so he's out, and so is Garcia. If Neimi doesn't get anything good in her levels this map, she's also out, no questions asked. Her archery is just getting too weak for me to keep her around much longer if she doesn't get her act together.

Other than the aforementioned five, out of Seth, Gilliam, Vanessa, Ross, Lute, Artur, Joshua, Natasha, Forde, and Kyle, I need Six additional members. Voting will probably take longer than 12 hours, since I sure as heck ain't counting votes at 4 in the morning, but it's around 12 hours in length. Let's get back into the swing of things.