novelODS Chapter 104 Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade
Chapter 104 Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade
Chapter 104 Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade
Neon lights, Shizuoka City, Shizuoka Prefecture.
Twelve-year-old Miyazaki squatted in a corner of the bookstore, engrossed in reading an obscure English fantasy novel.
"Miyazaki! Are you going to buy it or not?"
The store manager, carrying a stack of books, walked past him and shook his head helplessly.
This little kid, who didn't come from a wealthy family, would come to his shop almost every weekend to read books.
"Other kids this age are still catching rhinoceros beetles in the woods."
He glanced at the title of the book in Miyazaki's hand; in his memory, it seemed to be a rather serious fantasy epic.
Sometimes he really couldn't understand what was wrong with this guy.
"Hey, I'm talking to you!"
Seeing that Miyazaki was completely mesmerized and hadn't even heard what he was saying, the shopkeeper's brow twitched.
Seeing that Miyazaki was still in a daze, he sighed, rummaged in his pocket, and pulled out a ticket stub.
"Hey, here's the raffle ticket I got in the shopping street today, it's for you."
He waved the ticket stub between Miyazaki and the book, and the other person suddenly came to his senses, looking somewhat shy.
"Here you go, go out and explore the streets more. Are you really going to let your young age get moldy in a bookstore?"
Ignoring Miyazaki's attitude, the store manager stuffed the bookmark back into Miyazaki's hands and put it back on the bookshelf. Then, he forced a raffle ticket into Miyazaki's hand and dragged him out of the store.
For some reason, the commercial street was unusually noisy today, even more so than usual.
Miyazaki wanted to avoid it; he instinctively resisted noisy things.
The last time he mustered up the courage to stroll down the street, three dogs suddenly appeared from some corner and chased him the entire way.
He looked at the raffle ticket in his hand; it seemed to be from a game store on the street.
Video games —
He blinked.
Their family wasn't wealthy, and even a cheap machine like the FC was beyond their means.
Even if this lottery ticket actually wins you a game cartridge, it doesn't really matter.
However, if it can be resold or simply converted into cash, it can still supplement household income.
"This should be it—this must be it—"
Miyazaki looked up and froze on the spot.
The long queue outside the store circled around several times and still almost blocked the entire street.
"NovaBo Neon Edition Launch Commemoration! Get a raffle ticket with any purchase at our store!"
"First Prize: A GAMENOVA flagship console, bundled with the popular Pokémon game, and a mystery blockbuster title!"
The loudspeaker's sound made Miyazaki's eardrums ache.
But he heard clearly what was happening here.
"Dude, if you have a raffle ticket, you don't need to queue. Just go through that door and enter the raffle directly."
The passersby in front of him turned around and glanced at him a few times, their eyes landing on the raffle ticket in Miyazaki's hand.
"Thanks----"
Miyazaki thanked them in a very quiet voice, then lowered his head and hurriedly ran in the direction the other person pointed.
咚」
With a dull thud, Miyazaki's head hit the door.
"Sorry, sir, the door can't be opened from this side. Please come in."
Only after the people inside saw the raffle ticket did they push the door open and let Miyazaki in.
Clang—
Miyazaki spun the lottery box hard, the beads clanging together with a crisp sound.
"Gurgle—"
A small ball rolled out of the opening.
"White, okay, a commemorative pencil—"
The other person stopped talking abruptly and moved the small bead into the sunlight to take a closer look.
This isn't a white ball at all; it's a pale gold, semi-transparent bead with a star pattern embedded inside.
"The grand prize has been awarded!!!"
Even when Hidetaka Miyazaki returned home carrying the large cardboard box printed with "NovaBo" and two floppy disks, he was still in a daze.
-
My head is buzzing.
He originally intended to sell the valuable machine and its cassettes directly.
But inexplicably, when he saw the floppy disk labeled "Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade," a voice in his head told him to keep the machine.
He really likes these fantasy-themed things.
"Mom, can I use the TV?"
The Kingdom of Beren has decided to launch an invasion of its surrounding regions.
They first invaded the regions of "Saka" and "Ilya", advancing with unstoppable momentum.
After that, they set their sights on Libya.
The beginning of the story is always so predictable.
It's not a grand epic like the one Miyazaki Hidetaka envisioned; it's just a simple story of kingdom warfare.
"The protagonist is this lord's heir named Roy, right?"
Like any other story, the plot is always made up of a series of coincidences.
-
On Roy's way back to the city, a group of bandits launched a raid on the city.
[Isn't that Lance? What happened? Why are you so flustered!]
[Your Highness Roy, the bandits have surrounded the castle and are attacking!!]
"Alright, in short, my mission is to wipe out all the bandits."
Miyazaki scratched his head, looking at the actual game screen.
Several houses were scattered haphazardly on the map, along with a few enemies wielding axes.
The game cleverly utilizes the limited color depth to distinguish friendly forces from enemies using red and blue, making it easy to identify allies at a glance.
"I can control a total of six characters —"
Miyazaki selected several characters one by one to check their attributes.
"Three knights, one heavily armored soldier, one archer, and the other is the protagonist."
Having figured this out, Miyazaki directly selected Lance, one of the cavalrymen at the front, who was also the one who had just run out of the castle to deliver the message.
As soon as he selected Lance, a large number of squares immediately appeared on the map with Lance as the center.
These squares are also divided by red and blue.
This design seems to directly target the part of humanity that governs intuition.
The psychology of color in games comes into play here.
Miyazaki didn't even need to think much to guess that the blue squares were reachable, while the red ones were unreachable.
There was no need to hesitate any longer. Miyazaki moved Lance directly in front of the bandits at the front and selected the "attack" command.
"We have to choose weapons too? Is there any reason for that?"
Miyazaki looked at the two options that popped up, "Short Throwing Spear" and "Iron Sword," and for a moment he didn't know what the purpose of this function was.
"The iron sword has lower attack power, but higher accuracy and evasion. The javelin has high attack power, but only 68 accuracy — I see."
"Try using javelins; after all, he's a cavalryman."
However, as he selected the javelin, a downward red arrow appeared on the lance icon in the secondary menu.
In contrast, the bandit's axe icon now features a green upward arrow.
"Hmm? What if we switched to a sword?"
Sure enough, when he switched to an iron sword, the two arrowheads were reversed.
The Lance's power level now includes an additional "2".
"Axe beats spear, spear beats sword, sword beats axe —"
Hidetaka Miyazaki silently memorized this information.
This kind of gameplay, which requires calming down and carefully thinking about countermeasures, is very appealing to him.