the defensive way ashe responded made hapi snicker, âalright, alright. if you say so then iâll take your word for it.â
that moment of humour was brief, however, as ashe continued. they had some opinions on his words about abyss.
while true that hapi did stay in abyss all these years later of their own volition, whether that being because they liked it there was⊠debatable at best. back at the academy rhea relented on what was basically an imprisonment, and once war broke out it wasnât like any knights were around the monastery to keep them down there even if they wanted to.
the world outside was truly open to them, and yet here they remained.
leaving was something they certainly considered many times over, to be free of the underground, explore fodlan as originally intended or even take a trip back home to reunite with their parents, but such desires would always remain out of reach as long this stupid âconditionâ of theirs remained. abyss was the only place that could tolerate the inherent danger that they were.
at least staying allowed a reunion with byleth, ashe and⊠whatever happened to dimitri. that was nice. knowing they were all still alive.
âabyss isnât bad, yuri-bird does all he can to keep it a somewhat safe haven at the very least, but you know most people are only here because they have to be. nowhere else for them. also? itâs boring as hell.â that last part sounded like quite a pathetic complaint in retrospect, yet it was true, âand if i did decide to leave, where would i go? no where else would risk housing someone like me.â hapi let out a laugh that lacked any actual humour.
ââŠsorry. donât mean to sound like such a downer all the time.â they patted asheâs shoulder and decided to take the conversation in a different direction, âyou kept eyeing the stalls before, freckles, is there something youâre looking for? we get all sorts down here you canât find on the surface. canât guarantee itâs not stolen stuff though.â
only the hard-won knowledge that people didn't much like being openly pitied kept ashe's face from betraying how terribly sad he found hapi's sentiment. he frowned, but to any outside observer he might as well have been contemplating abyss's wares.
as close as it was to the adrestian border, there was no guarantee that gaspard territory would still be standing after the war. and yet, even in the event that his home was destroyed, ashe had never doubted he'd find another. he had a whole kingdom to roam; his ambitions did not end at a stone staircase beneath garreg mach.
"right," he said, at length. "the market isâyes. i'd heard there might be some unusual weaponry."
ashe hoped hapi would interpret his deflated tone as a response to the revelation (such as it was) that abyss contained illegitimate goods. he was suddenly no longer interested in the topic of venin bows and whether they were heaps cooler than regular bows, anyway.
"say, hapi." it felt as though he was watching himself speak, inwardly chastising himself from circling back to a topic hapi seemed keen to sidestep. "do you remember that i was raised by a lord for a while?"
briefly he let the query settle. then he realised, belatedly, that by its least charitable interpretation it sounded like he was bragging apropos of nothing. he scrambled to clarify.
"see, the thing about gaspard land is, nobody tried to seize it after lord lonato died because there's nothing much there. we have agriculture, but few resources, and there certainly isn't much fauna... i have a point, i promise." he flashed a grin that rose sheepishly higher at one edge. "it sounds like the kind of place where even monsters are few and far between, don't you think? i know i've made it seem worse than abyss, butâi know my town would welcome you. theyâre good people."