>>5463556>“Given the importance of the next mission, I’d rather only do one of these. And if we’re going to do one, we might as well make it count, right? Tell this noble that we’ll take his job. We’ll send Sebastian, Theo and Boleslav to take care of it.”“Oh my. Breaking up a young, runaway couple in love? I didn’t think you’d be up for dashing their poor little hearts.” Corrine says. “Well, money is money. I’ll see that it’s done.”
The next few days are uneventful. You spend much of it training and fraternizing with your soldiers. Finally, a runner from Derdriu’s castle barges into the barracks with an urgent message for you. Upon spotting him, out of breath and sweating, you’re able to guess what’s going on. Judith has finally arrived in the city, and you’re to head out and meet her. You give the order to your mercenaries to move out. With the exception of the sellswords you’d sent to accompany Sebastian and the others, you have a little over 200 men ready to move out. After selecting a small squad to accompany you, you travel to the city’s castle, where you find a familiar face waiting to greet you.
“Hey Blair!” Hilda calls out excitedly. “It’s been a little while. Judith arrived earlier today and is currently meeting with Claude. Come on, I’ll take you to her.”
>“Thank you, Hilda.” As you begin making your way through the castle, you figure it might be best to ask Hilda what she knows about Judith. Other than her reputation as the “Hero of Daphnel”, there’s not much you know about her.“Well…I’ve hardly ever met her myself. But my big brother has, and he seems to think the world of her. She used to be one of the Five Great Lords of the Alliance, before she stepped down to make room for Margrave Edmund. Supposedly, she’s a really capable military commander too. In her younger days, she won a bunch of battles against the Almyrans over at Fodlan’s Locket. She was a big help too when that Shamir guy tried invading last year. I guess you didn’t get to meet her back then though, huh?”
>“Well, I did spend much of that campaign lying unconscious in a bed.”“Ugh…I’m so jealous.” Hilda whines. “In any case, she’s a fine woman by all accounts. At the heart of it, she’s a lot like Claude. She speaks her mind and doesn’t care who she offends. She’s not at all like those other stuffy nobles in the Alliance. Ahh, here we are!”
The two of you stop in front of Claude’s door, as always. After your presence is announced to the guards, you and Hilda make your way inside, where you find the leader of the Alliance in a spirited discussion with an older looking, but still fit, brunette woman.
