Suikoden Fan Fiction ❯ To Be Strong ❯ Teresa Wisemail ( Chapter 1 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

To Be Strong - Teresa

It's like a disease, the love of the people. It's infectious and digs under your skin and makes you itch. It makes you act. But, I'm not a person of action. I'm a thinker, an intellectual. I'd rather ponder over the problem and wait for one of my attendants to take care of it than do it myself. People like Shin take action. I don't.

Shin... He left shortly after the Unification War. To train, or so he said. It's been a while, now, and no one's heard a word about him. If it wasn't for the stress of Jowston politics, I think I'd die from the worry. Worry that something might have happened to him. Sometimes I long to set out for the Grasslands and find him myself, but she won't let me. Emilia. My closest friend and confidant. She's an intellectual, just as I am. Only, she's capable of taking action when she needs to.

Yesterday was the start of something big. I could feel it as soon as that blonde boy meekly entered the sanctity of my office and handed me a note before scurrying away. Probably was overwhelmed by the very notion of being in my presence. I never understood people who got overcome with emotion like that, but anyway. I scanned it briefly, as I had paperwork to attend to, and picked up the few key bits of information before tossing it aside. Apparently, a small group from the south had attacked a border village. Fitcher wanted all the Dunan leaders in Muse the next day for yet another meeting. I truly hate these meetings; they all eventually end in needless bickering and feuding between cities.

So, I pulled out several sheets of paper and commenced writing notes for all my attendants, explaining where and why I needed to go. Emilia, caring soul that she was, would probably insist on coming with me. However, something didn't feel quite right about this meeting. It's one of those things, a premonition I suppose, where you feel something in the back of your mind that insists something is out of place or amiss. Greenhill would always be first on my list of important things, and I wasn't about to let anything or anyone from it, including Emilia, be placed in any sort of danger.

Just as I had suspected, soon after the messenger departed, Emilia poked her head in my door, glasses sliding halfway down her nose and brown eyes full of curiousity. I explained the situation to her and handed her the message so she could peruse it as well. Again, just as I had suspected, she immediately insisted on traveling to Muse by my side, her duty as one of my attendants and friends. I, in turn, informed her that I would be going alone, save for the coach driver. Anything to keep her and the rest of Greenhill safe.

So here I am, the next morning, in a carriage on the road to Muse. I've arranged to stop in Two River City, where Makai will join me and we shall travel together. Some have called him weak-willed or a coward, but I have seen him stand up and fight for Two River in the past, and I consider him a friend. One of the few I have outside Greenhill.

I hope this meeting won't last more than a few days. Greenhill needs me, and I do more harm than good to my citizens by staying away from the city for long periods of time. I have to be strong for them, now more than ever. If these aggressors are as vicious as Fitcher stated in his notice, then we'll need all the strength we have. I can't rely on Shin or Emilia anymore. For the love of the people, festering in the city that I cherish above all things, I will be strong.