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four-loose-screws · 2 years ago

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FE7 Novelization Translation - Chapter 11 Section 9

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Chapter 11: Four-Fanged Offense (Section 9)

The stage for this extraordinarily violent battle was the main base of the assassin's guild known as the Black Fang…

The assassins all knew their base inside and out, and unleashed surprise attacks from the shadows, preventing Eliwood's army from fighting in their standard style of everyone fighting in pairs. To avoid being attacked from behind, they all had to fight individually.

They needed to claim swift victory, and get to the royal manse to stop the prince's assassination. However, if they acted hastily here, then the injuries they suffered would be immense. They endured their mounting impatience, and fought as hard as they could.

Among them was one person darting around quickly. It was Lucius, monk of Elimine.

With pity in the look in his eyes, he ran around looking for Kenneth.

His behavior was so unusual that Raven followed after him, looking worried, and staying, "Hey, Lucius! Don't run off too far. If you're alone and find yourself surrounded, you won't last a second!"

"I-I know. But…"

"Are you really that concerned about the priest?"

Lucius nodded in response to the question.

Kenneth loved to spill blood despite being a holy man, and delighted in making people suffer even though he was a disciple of the gods.

As a loyal servant to the gods, it was difficult for him to allow Kenneth's behavior, and he also pitied him. He wanted to meet the man face-to-face, preach of both the joy that serving the gods brings, and of his heart that wished to serve, convincing him to once again become a devout disciple of the gods.

Lucius was always reserved, and was never proactive when making decisions. Knowing that well, Raven wanted to do whatever he could to help him.

As if the gods could sense his sincere feelings, Lucius, with Raven following close behind, was able to find the room Kenneth was in.

"Oh-ho, you are quite a lucky person to have made it this far." Kenneth said with a smile mocking them on his face.

By contrast, Lucius' expression was one of compassion as he preached with all his might. "Do you kill people for your own pleasure? The gods cannot forgive that kind of behavior. If you previously served Saint Elimine even once before, then you should know that…"

"I meant what I said. The only god I will follow is Lord Nergal… If you must know why, it is because he granted me these magnificent powers!" Kenneth shouted, before blasting a ray of blinding light out of his hands.

The spell he cast was the high-level light magic Aura. The light traveled in a spiral pattern through the air, headed for Lucius.

But at the very last second, Raven rushed in from the side, and managed to save him. "Are you uninjured, Lucius?"

"Lord Raymond… I-I'm sorry."

"When you get excited, you don't pay attention to your surroundings. And we don't know when you will have another attack. Don't get yourself too worked up."

Lucius had a chronic mental illness. At most types of emotional distress, he would suffer a range of symptoms from heart palpitations, to shortness of breath, to dizziness. And he did not have a physique suited for mercenary work, either.

Raven distanced himself from his troublesome servant, stood before Kenneth, and held his iron blade right in front of his enemy's eyes.

"I will be your opponent!"

"Heh heh heh… You think that you, a lowly mercenary, can defeat me and Lord Nergal's powers?!" Kenneth cast another Aura spell.

But it would cost him his life.

Raven dodged the powerful light spell and rushed straight at Kenneth without a hint of hesitation. When Kenneth shot the same spell just moments ago at Lucius, Raven had watched carefully and studied how he moved.

Raven's blade, glimmering with a dark gray light, stabbed through Kenneth’s large body without resistance.

"Impossible… Does this mean… I… lose…?"

Unable to believe what was happening to him, Kenneth stood completely still for a long moment in his utter shock. But when Raven pulled out his blade, he fell down as if a wall had been propping up and it now crumbled around him.

The moment he collapsed, a small orb, glittering in the light, fell out from his breast pocket.

Raven picked up Bern’s greatest treasure and looked down at it. "So this is the Fire Emblem…” He muttered. "Shall I exchange it for Hector’s life?"

"Lord Raymond! You can’t…!!"

"I'm joking, Lucius. Don’t worry. I… have no intention of exacting my revenge any longer. Meeting Eliwood and everyone else opened my eyes. I do not think that Marquess Ostia is the mastermind behind what happened to my family. Once I am sure of everything I was not certain of, I will tell him everything, and ask for his forgiveness.”

When House Cornwall was first dissolved, Raven was so full of despair that he believed a baseless rumor in his attempts to run from his grief. He even considered the moment he first became one of Eliwood’s allies that after he confirmed what was true and what was false, if Ostia was guilty, then he might kill Hector as his revenge.

But things were different now.

“I would have no objections if you left the battlefield after this…"

"Huh?! B-But…" Lucius looked confused, not understanding what Raven's words meant.

“I want you to quit the mercenary life for good. You are the only person I can call family now. I don’t know… if I can think of Priscilla as my family any more…”

“Lord Ray… No, Lord Raven.”

Raven had been deliberately telling Lucius of plans to exact revenge against Ostia for the purpose of making Lucius fall into despair and stay off the battlefield, as his body was too frail to fight.

Lucius finally felt that he understood Raven's heart.

'Thank goodness… He really hasn't changed a bit. He is still the same kind Raymond as before…' Lucius wiped the tears out of the corners of his eyes and smiled.

☆

Darkness settled in for the night.

Three figures had arrived at Bern’s royal Manse - Sonia, Nino, and Jaffar; and already completed their first investigation of the location where the assassination would take place. All that was left to do was carry out the plan.

"...You both know what you need to do, yes? You will act tonight!” Sonia said in a tone so powerful it made Nino start shivering even harder.

This job was too much to ask of her. Nino was still just a girl who had not even turned fifteen yet. For her to kill someone… and for her to face her own death if she failed, was so cruel a condition that others would consider her honorable even if all she did was not run away.

She did wish to run away this very second.

But her admirable feelings to help her mother she loved so much stopped her from doing so.

"Mother… Um… may I hold your hand… just for a little bit…?"

She didn't even have to hear the answer to know what it would be. It was a request she'd made many times before, and been rejected coldly every time. But she still could not help but ask.

Sonia raised one of her beautiful eyebrows. "...You know I hate that kind of thing."

"I-I do. …B-But it might be our last chance, so…"

"...Alright."

"Huh…?" The sound of the words she'd wished for but never heard made her wonder if she was dreaming.

"When you come home after successfully completing this job, I will hold your hand for as long as you like. …I will even hold you, and pat your head."

"Really?! Then I'll do my best! I really, really will succeed!! Just wait for me, Mother!"

"I will. Now go, and be careful."

Sonia's kind words made Nino shake with joy. She had no memory of ever hearing her mother speak even a single kind word to her. Today was truly the first day this had ever happened.

Her heart fluttered with her sudden surge of emotions, and her eyes sparkled as she looked at her mother, then said with all her might, "Yeah! I'll be back!!"

It was a childish request. But just by Sonia simply agreeing to it, Nino overcame her fears and ran off bursting with energy.

Jaffar started to follow after her, but Sonia called out to him. "About this job…"

"...What?"

"Your target is the prince… and Nino."

Though it was only for a moment, the expressionless face of the Angel of Death did flicker with surprise.

But he quickly wiped his face of that expression and stared speechless at Sonia.

"The prince's assassination… the king's request also included that we clean up after it. Once they know for certain that the prince is gone, the country will erupt into an outroar. …They will not rest until the assassin is caught and hanged… Making it necessary to have a scapegoat. You understand, don't you?"

"...Isn't Nino your daughter?"

Sonia laughed mockingly at Jaffar's obvious question. "Ha ha, I care not what happens to such trash!" There was not even a shred of compassion in her voice, mercilessly trampling the feelings Nino had just expressed.

Sonia laughed another cruel laugh before continuing, "...I suppose even such refuse was of some use to me after all. It was her greatest joy to help me, was it not?"

Jaffar stared at her.

His gaze was as emotionless and cold as ever, or so Jaffar himself thought. But Sonia, looking back at him, did not think the same way.

"...What? Do you have something you want to say?"

"...This… has nothing to do with me."

"...Lord Nergal picked you up when you were orphaned because of your callous heart and skill with the blade… He will not overlook a second mistake. You would do well to remember that." Sonia spat, then was enveloped in the light of a teleportation circle before vanishing.

Even after Sonia was gone, he stared at the spot where she stood for a long while before finally starting to move.

☆

Having taken the Fire Emblem into their possession, Eliwood's army had no time to waste, and headed straight back towards Bern's royal manse.

After their fight to the death with the Black Fang, everyone was tired. But they couldn’t stop moving.

As they were marching silently across the countryside, Hector turned back to Oswin walking behind him and said, "...Oswin."

"Yes, Lord Hector?"

"You haven't heard anything at all from Brother, have you?"

"Anything… what exactly?" Oswin answered, his expression not changing, even at Hector’s question.

"..Like, um… about his health, or something…" Hector sounded nothing like himself at all, his words were vague and inarticulate.

They made Oswin feel as if he had seen past Hector's tough exterior and at his love for brother. "...No, nothing in particular."

At Oswin's curt response, Hector's face brightened. "Oh, really? Then that's all I wanted to know!"

"Why do you ask?"

"No real reason, I just randomly started worrying about him recently. …When we met him at the fort in Ostia a little while ago, his face looked a bit pale… and thought it was the same color as Father's face when he died of his illness…"

Hector had lost his Father to an illness that took him quickly. The marquess was still middle aged, and it was nowhere near his time yet.

The sudden loss made Hector want to hold his father’s body close, bawling like a small child. But he hated showing his weaknesses to others more than anything else in the world, and would never do so, unable to cry as he needed to even when alone.

He didn't want to suffer through the same experience twice.

Everyone will die someday. But at the very least, Hector wanted his brother to live a long life.

To dispel the worry in his heart, he said, "...Nah, I'm just overthinking it. There's no way we wouldn't hear anything if something was wrong with him."

"I agree. …Though now that you mention it, there is something I'd just forgotten. A messenger came to deliver a message from Lord Uther to you."

"Oh! What did Brother say?!"

"He said… not to force everyone to do things your way, and not cause trouble for Lord Eliwood."

"Jeez, he's always like that. I told him not to treat people like little kids…"

But Hector could feel the exhaustion hidden in those words.

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