Fire Emblem Three Houses: Risings

Chapter 1: Beyond the Ruin

About a couple days later, the requested letter Claude had asked Seteth to make had finally arrived to House Gloucester. A white spotted owl delivered it to the first open window it saw, and luckily, someone was there to retrieve the message. The owl stayed on the windowsill as they opened the note and revealed the contents inside.

To House Gloucester,

As requested by King Claude of Almyra and Fódlan himself, he has asked for aid into investigating a nearby village. A villager will be there to assist in tracking down a possible area/location of where the evil organization before is residing as of now. That villager was responsible for leading an attack against the monastery, but has been pardoned by the king and the archbishop. We have reasons to believe that the group may have fled the area, but you are to report back any findings you may retrieve.

"Oh my. I'll need to let Lorenz know of this," the blue haired girl spoke in a soft voice, turning to exit the room, not before giving the owl some water and a snack. "Thank you for the message, little one." The owl ruffled its feathers before taking off again, flying back to where it had come from.

She finally managed to find her husband sorting out some papers in his office, hard at work as the harvest season was approaching quite soon.

"Lorenz, we've been requested by the-"

"Marianne, not now. These two farmers really have me by the neck here. One of them requires eggs and the other requires pigs. However, even though both of them have what the other wants, they don't want to trade peacefully...Or at least that's what it says in their letters," Lorenz said with a tired sigh.

"I know you're busy...But this is really urgent. The king-"

"On top of that-!...King? Did you say 'king'?" Lorenz asked, cutting off himself as Marianne nodded.

"The king has requested for us to investigate one of the nearby villages in hopes of tracking down the evil group we faced before," She replied as Lorenz stood up.

"Evil group? You mean...No. It's impossible. We destroyed their base, killed their leader. This must be a mistake," Lorenz said as Marianne walked over, handing him the note. As he skimmed it over, he really had no choice but to believe Claude on this one.

"I know you don't like following orders from Claude, but he's the king now."

"I know. If I'm being honest, Marianne...He's too perfect in his new role."

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In less than an hour, both Marianne and Lorenz had collected some supplies and placed saddles on their transportations. Marianne preferred to ride her Pegasus while Lorenz stuck more to the ground, choosing a land Horse instead. Alongside them, four of their soldiers were chosen to aid them in case anything bad were to happen. Even then, she had a brought a small shield for herself while he had put on his old armor from the war.

It took about two hours to reach the village Claude had mentioned in the letter. Marianne and Lorenz frowned sadly as they saw how the village looked. It had been beaten by the abuse of war, and even though they were trying to recover their losses, these villagers were suffering dearly. One of them approached them with curiosity.

"Are you from the king?"

"Oh uh...Yes. We were sent by him," Marianne replied as the villager nodded with a small smile.

"Oh good. My name is Lancer. I'll be the one showing you the way," He said as Lorenz inspected him for a moment. "Is there...Something bothering you?"

"No...But I need to ask. You were the one who lead the attack on the monastery, aren't you?" Lorenz asked.

"Lorenz," Marianne stopped him before he could press more.