RD Chapter 3-4 Preparations: No Retreat

Thanks to Soren, we've made a thunderous victory!

Hey, Duke Seliora! I'm sleeping on your couches!

Just a few more to go. I wonder if we can sneak through Grann, come to think of it, rather than go through Gaddos.

So the Central Army needs to come up with a new plan.

Zelgius should be just the man for the job!

And hopefully not these guys. Well, hopefully for them.

There are an interesting number of choices for this to apply to.

Welcome to Lekain's castle!

This guy wonders why the hell Zelgius hasn't delivered him the complete extermination of the laguz already.

Zelgius tells him that this isn't a good time.

Seliora thinks he knows better than a man who's trained for this.

...Well, that's... that's...

Yeah, I'm with the kid! (Levail has no listed age in the artbook, apparent or otherwise).

Zelgius gives him a very Diplomatic answer.

Levail doesn't really understand capital D Diplomacy.

Zelgius can't say no to Seliora, no matter how stupid the man is.

Just imagine how crushing this will be to him if Zelgius doesn't win this next battle.

Meanwhile, we get a nice little scene with Soren here.

Skrimir, as mentioned earlier, really likes Soren.

Soren isn't of the same mind, and runs right next to Ike. I can almost imagine him grabbing Ike's arm like a scared child.

Titania tries to smooth this over.

Skrimir is hurt, but not in a very personal way.

He is the one to initiate friendly conversation with Soren. He's not entirely clear on how to make Soren like him, but he wants to change that fact.

Soren is perplexed, but gives the right reply all the same. Perhaps Soren will get along with laguz after all.

So... now what?

...That's an odd suggestion.

Skrimir is just as confused. When you remember the cause of this war, this is... not particuarly viable.

"For once." Well done, Soren.

That's... a pretty good point. The Central Army is just as much of a threat to us now as it was on the other side of the river. And we still don't have a lot of options.

Soren:

リバン河の戦いで、
帝国軍は十分な装備を整えて
こちらを待ち受けていました。
敵はラグズ連合軍の奇襲を
ある程度は予測していたのでしょう。

Skrimir:

だ、だが…！
あいつらは我らの強襲に恐れ戸惑い、
這う這うの体で逃げ出したではないか！？

Soren:

敵の予測を上回ることはできました。
ですが、快勝と呼べるほどの損害を
相手に与えられなかったことも事実です。
おそらく、ベグニオン軍本隊は
ほとんど無傷のまま
ガドゥス城に陣をかまえているはずです。
そこへラグズ軍が攻撃を仕掛けるならば、
相当の犠牲と損害を
覚悟しなくてはならないでしょう。

There's a little bit more to this whole "the Central Army is OK" here. Soren noticed that the enemy seemed a little... too prepared for the Laguz Alliance using a surprise strategy. Zelgius noticed there was a beorc strategist in the party in 3-2, and he acted on it. That's why the Central Army is still relatively intact after meeting us.

The laguz are still very upset with Begnion for very good reasons.

We can't take peace.

Ike asks for Ranulf's help.

Ranulf:

…ん？
あ、あぁ…　あれ？
どうしたんだ、みんな
こっちを見て……

Skrimir:

貴様、軍議中に
居眠りでもしていたのか！？
緊張感のない奴め。

Ranulf:

…おまえにだけは
言われたくないって。

Titania:

ライ、あなた…
体が辛いならはっきり言わないと。
いくら回復の杖で癒したといっても
失った体力まで、
すぐに戻るわけじゃないんだから。

Ranulf:

あ、いや…
オレは別に体のほうは…

Ike:

だったら、
何を考えこんでいたんだ？

Ranulf:

え！？
……いや、その……
………………
あ　痛てててて…
やっぱりちょっとあれだ。
体がおかしいみたいだな、うん。

There's an extended section (even longer than what I've included!) where Ranulf reveals he's been sleeping through this staff meeting. Titania thinks it's because of the beating he got from Zelgius, but it definitely feels like something else, as much as Ranulf denies it.

It's a racial thing.

The laguz aren't just incensed, the way us real people imagine them to be. They're consumed by Chaos, in an adjacent state to Berserk. There's literally no reasoning with them.

This is the scale of the fury we're dealing with.

Ranulf:

平時なら、「化身」を解けば
少しは冷静に戻れるんだけどな。
こう戦い続きだと、気分の高揚を
静めることは難しい。

Ike:

……そうか。
だったら鷹王、
あんたのところもそうなんだな？

Tibarn:

ああ。
ここで戦いを止めさせるなら…
１人ずつぶちのめして
気でも失わせねえ限りは無理だろうぜ。
本来、鳥翼は獣牙ほどじゃねえんだが、
今回はこっちもかなりきてるからな。

This is one I'm less sure on. I think Ranulf is talking about how laguz handle their bouts of Chaos in peacetime and Tibarn how the bird tribes compare to the beasts in such matters.

So we can't attack, and we can't retreat.

Ranulf wonders if even the great Soren has his limits.

As long as Ike needs his help, Soren has no limits.

He figured something out.

And we are left in the dark again.

Ah well, we can pick this up.

One Base conversation today.

And we have another conversation that starts off submerged waist-deep in innuendo.

It's almost hard to imagine what the innocent explanation for this conversation is.

Especially when you say this crap.

Ike is alarmed on a number of levels.

Aimee immediately catches on to the innuendo and goes on "I'm not cheating on you!" mode.

Shinon hits the eject button.

Aimee wants to know what to do with the money she needs to give Shinon.

That is a worringly vague statement.

Selfish?

So what's all this, then?

That was the last thing on Ike's mind.

This continues to be one gender-swap away from being textbook domestic abuse.

Aimee gets her professional standards back up.

Aimee gives Ike the money Shinon made.

Aw, that's very innocent of you, Ike. No one tell this man what he should have confused this conversation for.

Need-to-know basis.

Ike pulls out his secret weapon.

Shinon sold Aimee a Very Special Bow.

And yes, you the player can find it in the Bargains!

Apparently Rolf's picked up the habit. Hopefully they're better than the ones he was making in PoR.

Rolf's learning from the master of bow crafting. Well, other than the guy who made the Double Bow.

Ike was apparently not yet informed about this little nugget. I wonder who actually knows this information in-universe.

Aimee certainly didn't realise it was a secret. I don't think she bought "I'm a pwodigy" for a second.

Ike's like "Shinon keeping secrets from me? Classic Shinon."

No idea why. None whatsoever. Remembers his drunk ramblings in Chapter 23.

So why is he here, then?

Well, he's got some attachment, deep down inside.

Not that he'll ever admit it.

Ike decides he'd rather not pry and lose Shinon over something like this.

It's a secret to everybody!

And we get some more gold.

Here is the awesome bow Shinon crafted for Aimee. In JP, this is outright called "Shinon's Bow".

For comparison's sake, a Silver Bow is 15 Might, 75 Hit, 0 Crit, 9 Weight, and 25 uses. The only Bows stronger than this one are the Silver Longbow and the Double Bow.

Good thing we got that White Gem, then!

It'd be a shame to miss out on this spare Florete for Mist.

All joking aside, I have good reason for not buying this Silencer. Other than needing to stretch this money out for another four chapters, the only people we have that can use Bows are Astrid and Fiona. Astrid's not going to see this bow for a long time, and for certain reasons, it's a bit of a waste to save it for her.

I debated for a while on whether to use this Master Crown now and get started on Ilyana's healing, or go for an extra point in Luck. Ultimately, I chose the point in Luck, although perhaps early promoting was the correct call.

Heather gets her level 20 BEXP binge.

She used it to get some more... Defence? Hey, can I go back and nick that Bolting tome-

Heather also gets the Shade skill. Because of course a Thief should have it.

Ilyana again?

I show this screenshot because this gets ridiculous later.

All according to plan.

Cunning gambit, there, a three-pronged attack.

...Not great.

So what happened to Skrimir?

...Hey, no fair, only we can exploit our opponent's weaknesses!

赤い鎧を着た、黒髪のベオクだそうです。
スクリミル将軍は、
『鷹王の獲物を横取りするつもりはないが、
　相手から姿を現したのだから仕方ない』
そう仰られていたとか。

Apparently, Skrimir's like "I know Tibarn said he wants to kill you, but if you're going to walk right up to me..."

And crap, yeah, we're about to lose Skrimir!

We have to save him!

Not only do we have "North of Soze Pass", but we also have "South of Soze Pass". With different CG backdrops.

Well, at least we spotted this too.

We can't do what we were trying to do anymore. We have to salvage the situation.

Did we need to mention the whole 12 character limit in-universe?

南方隊ごと向かわせるのではなく、
精鋭を選んでください。
残りは、フェニキス王の
別働隊に合流させ、
作戦の変更を伝えさせます。
フェニキス王たちには、
その場にとどまってもらい…
敵軍を食い止めてほしいと。

The people we don't bring will go to Tibarn, inform him of the situation, and set up a way for the rest of the army to not crush us while we go deal with this little issue.

Tibarn: "I heard you the first time!"

The actual map will be in West Soze.

Ike comes up with characters chosen from the roster of units we brought to 3-3. So we actually get to see Mia, Nephenee and Ilyana pop up.

Translation: We have to get both Ike and Ranulf to the top.

Yeah... no. Kysha is not a good unit. He's a tiger, though, and I have actually managed to get something out of him in a past run.

This map does not have a hard time limit.

Hey, who let you into the army?

These two, though, have joined us for real this time.

Lyre gets Blossom and 99 BEXP. She needs stats and she needs stats badly.

Ooh, this is cool. Speed% chance of dealing Strength damage is nothing to sneeze at, although I've only ever seen it happen a handful of times. The laguz skills just aren't that great.

Lethe picks this up in hopes.

Mordecai has Smite, and I pass that over to someone else, too. Nephenee is the heaviest woman with Shove other than the laguz, but the cats kinda need all the TP they can get.

Lethe and Lyre also buy that Olivi Grass from Aimee. She stocks a lot of it in Bargains, more than we really need overall, but some of it is important. I might wind up buying another pair of bags later, depends on how quickly I use up these ones.

...Skrimir can wait for the next update, right?