Miyazaki sent Marcus charging headfirst into the enemy ranks, cutting down foes left and right. Meanwhile, the rest of the army followed behind, cleaning up the scattered bandits.
"Wolt can attack in all four diagonal directions. Maybe I can make use of that."
After calculating the distances, Miyazaki boldly moved Wolt to the upper-right side of a bandit, completely outside the protection of any allied units.
"MISS."
This time, the usually reliable Wolt failed to land his shot, Miyazaki frowned.
Marcus, Lance, and Alan, the three cavalry units, were all still near the castle dealing with the enemies in the rear. Bors, the armored knight, had far less mobility than Wolt. He also wielded a lance, which was at a disadvantage against axe users, leaving him unable to provide reinforcements.
As for the protagonist, Roy, he was currently hiding in the village at the bottom of the map, recovering HP after being reduced to low health.
In an instant, Wolt found himself completely isolated.
"What a shame. If that arrow had hit, everything would've been fine."
Miyazaki wasn't too bothered by this small tactical mistake. The core members of his army, Marcus and the two cavaliers, were all still perfectly healthy. At worst, he'd just have Bors slowly make his way over and finish off the enemy later.
The only unfortunate thing was that Wolt probably wasn't surviving this map.
[I... did... my best... Lord Roy... I'm... sorry...]
"Oh well. His damage output is good enough anyway. I don't urgently need him for now."
Although the NovaBox was Miyazaki's first game console, he had watched other people play games before.
So, he knew losing a party member was perfectly normal. At most, Wolt would simply miss out on the experience and training opportunities in this chapter. He could just be more careful in the next one. Besides, it would let Marcus monopolize even more experience.
While Miyazaki was thinking about this, the gatekeeper boss voluntarily attacked Marcus, nearly killing himself in the process. With Lance supporting from the side using his Javelin, Miyazaki completely eliminated every enemy in the first chapter.
[Father! Lilina!]
[Go and rendezvous with the mercenary company first.]
[As the heir of House Pherae, fight with all your strength!!]
In the end, he cleared Chapter 1 without any real danger. Looking at the two save slots that appeared on the screen, Miyazaki scratched his head. He had watched others play games before, but he had never seen a save feature like this.
But why were there two save slots?
Always trying to save resources wherever possible, Miyazaki simply overwrote the Chapter 1 autosave.
[Roy's army is preparing to rendezvous with the mercenary company hired by Eliwood in this village...]
"The princess's attendant nun escaped?"
Miyazaki carefully read every line of text on the screen, unwilling to miss even the smallest detail. The moment he saw an enemy soldier report to the boss that the nun had escaped, he immediately realized something.
"Could this nun be joining my party?"
…
Just as he was thinking that a figure dressed in white approached his army, carrying a staff. Her light blue secondary color scheme immediately identified her as an ally.
[There she is! Over there! Capture that woman, dead or alive!]
Roy: [Sister, please take shelter in the nearby village.]
Ellen: [No. Please allow me to accompany you. I cannot fight, but I can heal the wounded.]
Only then did Miyazaki suddenly understand. No wonder the game had included a classic hero saving the damsel in distress scene.
So, the new ally joining in this chapter was a powerful healing unit.
"Nice. If Wolt gets injured again, I can have the sister, ... Wait, where's Wolt?"
Miyazaki carefully examined his party. He had been so focused on the dialogue that he hadn't paid attention to his army. Looking more closely now, although there were still six units besides the newly joined nun, one of them was actually the supply wagon they had brought along for the journey.
Wolt was nowhere to be found, a chill suddenly gripped Miyazaki's heart. He had carefully read every single word of the story, so there was absolutely no way he had missed some scene where Wolt left the party.
Even the old transporter, Merlinus, had been specifically mentioned in the dialogue as continuing to travel with them. There was no way such an important character as Wolt would leave without any explanation.
Then he suddenly remembered Wolt's reluctant farewell when he had fallen in battle. He had died.
Miyazaki's movements became stiff as he silently opened the Units menu, Wolt was gone. Even in the unit roster, his name had completely disappeared. It was as though he had never existed at all.
Meanwhile, both the newly joined nun Ellen and Merlinus's transport unit were clearly listed.
"He... really died..."
For twelve year old Miyazaki, the impact of this realization was enough to shatter his entire worldview.
Wolt hadn't merely died. He had died because of him, because of his reckless strategy that cared only about maximizing damage output.
Although Miyazaki had never seen the protagonist interact very much with this minor character who had only appeared briefly, at this moment, genuine regret welled up from the bottom of his heart.
Every decision he made carried weight, every mistake came with consequences. Miyazaki frowned deeply, his expression becoming much more serious as he looked at the map.
From now on, no more casualties.
Yet only a few turns later, the four-member mercenary group that had just joined up encountered trouble. The one who got into trouble happened to be the most unique among them, the Pegasus Knight, Shanna.
As the only unit capable of ignoring terrain and moving freely across the battlefield, Miyazaki immediately dispatched her toward the main force the moment she joined the party.
His plan was to use her mobility to rescue the struggling Roy and Lance, then work together with Marcus to surround the enemy from both sides. But it was obvious he had made a mistake, as the enemies completely ignored the two weakened units in front of them. Instead, they advanced two spaces and surrounded Shanna.
Shanna wielded a lance and had only 17 HP, one point less than even Wolt. Facing two bandits wielding axes, she lost her life in a single enemy phase.
[My sisters... I'm... sorry... I can't... go home... with you...]
Miyazaki's eyes widened in anguish. Now that he knew characters died permanently, he treasured these precious soldiers more than anything. Right now, he was filled with immense regret, a unit with mobility as incredible as Shanna's had still died because of his own foolish decisions.
Although Marcus was still alive, and they had also gained a powerful new ally named Dieck, allowing the battle to remain under control, his mentality was already beginning to crumble.
Miyazaki's gaze swept across the map, desperately searching for the perfect solution. Then he suddenly noticed a small window in the bottom left corner. The other visual elements had been so eye catching that he hadn't even realized something was displayed there.
[Mountain]
[DEF. (Defense)]: 2
[AVO. (Avoid)]: 40
These were terrain bonuses.
"So, standing on mountains grants a full 40 points of Avoid, does that mean Pegasus Knights are meant to make full use of their mobility and fight by taking advantage of terrain?"
That realization only made Miyazaki feel even worse. If only he had known that sooner, maybe Shanna wouldn't have died.
"Hm? The save files!"
He suddenly understood why the game had given him two save slots.