Theodora Chapter 5 free time: gift prospective recruits first and return by SaturdayMinor spoilers
Give gifts to unlock meals, then choose dishes and training around your targets. Check rivers and stations outside town and reserve enough turns for a weekend return.
Original video: Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave first playthrough walkthrough: Theodora route, Chapter 5 free time 3 | Bilibili creator JeM_TraDer.
Give each recruitment target a first gift before arranging meals. Plan the return trip before leaving town, and come back Saturday to finish up.
Give first gifts according to your recruitment list
During 
Theodora Chapter 5 (An Ominous Clash), I find prospective recruits, give gifts, then head to the tavern. Their meal portraits appear after the first gift. Without gifting first, I cannot start raising support through meals.
Gifts have weekly limits, so do not distribute whatever you find randomly. Giving a good gift to the wrong person wastes a chance for extra support. List your targets, check their preferences and support and Renown requirements, and avoid finishing a round of visits with four or five people missed.
Nezha is one example. I initially thought he could not be recruited, then checked the character list closely and found negotiation available. Check again while finding people instead of skipping someone based on an earlier impression.
Meal reactions and class experience
Check whether your dining partners like the dish. A meal works best when recruitment targets can attend together and enjoy the food. Focusing only on recruitment can make you overlook their reactions.
Use Auto-earn at the inn during short waits. Character experience, skill experience, and class experience are different. For class mastery, switch to the class you want to train before choosing class experience. For weapon proficiency, choose skill experience.
When checking a new ally’s growths, remember that their current class raises the displayed values. Do not mistake a high Magic growth from class bonuses for the character’s own growth.
Arrange training before Sunday’s refresh
Consider temple contributions, meal discounts, and training dates together. This time I confused favorable days with weekly refreshes and reached the temple only to discover I had already contributed, wasting the trip.
Training opens at noon this time. Pair the two characters you want to develop for cavalry, flying, magic, or sword and bow lessons, spending Motivation in the process. If you want to train axes, handing someone a weak bow just because they are strong in Bow is no solution. Check growth and skills to decide what needs improving now.
Everything refreshes Sunday, making Saturday the final chance to finish this week’s activities. Check them before leaving, and do not think only about next week when returning.
Budget return travel around rivers and roads
Encounters, dungeons, and village shopping all consume travel time. Recheck dungeon branches; dead ends sometimes require retracing your path. After picking up equipment, check whether an unwanted shield was equipped automatically. Unlock stations along the way for easier round trips.
I underestimated this return trip. Two nearby points looked connected, but approaching revealed a river blocking the way. Turning back near Saturday forced me to stop exploring. Nearby points on the map do not guarantee a straight route. Reserve return time according to actual roads.