If she was being completely honest, Byleth was a bit puzzled by Sylvain's recent behavior. Most days he would hang back to ask her out to dinner, and when she said no, he would go around inviting other girls around the monastery. It was a bit troubling to see him want to go straight to his room. Maybe he was sick?
Byleth had begun to pack up her work to move to her room and to get a headstart on planning tonight when she came across the paper with the mission details. It wasn't the mission itself that grabbed her attention, it was the name of the thief. The man had the last name Gautier. Miklan Gautier. She thought back to the short meeting she had with Lady Rhea about this and remembered something. According to Lady Rhea, Miklan was the disowned son of House Gautier. Which means he must be Sylvain's brother.
'No wonder Sylvain wanted to be alone.' She thought to herself. 'He's being forced to go up against his brother.'
There was still basically a full month until the mission and Byleth really didn't like the idea of letting Sylvain stewing in this for all that time. She figured she should talk to him, but she first needed to know what the situation was.
Time to ask around.
When she attempted to talk to Sylvain's childhood friends, she was surprised to see them eager to explain to her the situation between Sylvain and his brother.
She had gone to them separately in an attempt to get as much unbiased information as possible. She first approached Ingrid.
"To be honest, I was never around Miklan as much as the others." she explained. "I didn't think too much of it when I was younger, but Sylvain always had bruises. He always told me it was from training. But as I got older I started to notice how horrible Miklan really was. He was always degrading Sylvain in front of me and the others."
Ingrid looked down as she remembered what her childhood friend had to endure.
"Professor, with all due respect, I don't think we should bring this up to Sylvain. When it comes to Miklan, he always seems to shut down. I think if he really needs help, he'll come to us."
"Thank you, Ingrid." Byleth said. "I'll take that into consideration. And thank you for being honest with me about this."
With that, Byleth walked off to find Sylvain's other friends.
"I never really trusted Miklan growing up." Dimitri explained as they sat in the classroom for some privacy. "I always had this bad feeling around him when I was younger. But then again, he never quite liked me either."
"What do you mean?" Byleth asked from the other side of the desk they were sitting at.
"Miklan had a deep hatred for Crests. Although, I can't say that I blame him. Everything that was supposed to be his was taken away because he didn't bear a Crest. The moment his parents found out that Sylvain bore a Crest and not him they began to shun him. I believe his anger was justified, but he took it out on Sylvain instead of the people who treated him differently."
"What do you mean he took it out on Sylvain?" she asked.
"I can only assume that to Miklan, it was Sylvain's fault for being born. If Sylvain was never born, then his parents would have still allowed him to become the heir."
Byleth could only bring her folded hands up to her face in thought. Dimitri began to worry he had said something wrong.
"My apologies, Professor. I'm not trying to justify his actions or put the blame on Sylvain. I'm just saying why Miklan is the way he is."
"It's okay, Dimitri." Byleth had said. "You've given me a lot of helpful information about all this. But I need to ask again, what do you mean he took it out on Sylvain. Ingrid mentioned to me that he always had bruises growing up."
"Oh." Dimitri drifted off. Not sure how to explain that part of their relationship. "If I'm being completely honest, Professor. I don't know much of the details myself. The only ones who really know are Sylvain and Miklan. Although, I do believe Felix has a better understanding of what Miklan did to him then Ingrid or I. They were together a lot as children."
Byleth nodded and stood up from her seat.
"Thank you, Dimitri. I just really want to get a grasp on the situation before I decide how to approach Sylvain, and you were a big help."
With that, they bid goodbye and Byleth went on her way to the Training Ground to talk to Felix.
Felix swung down on the training dummy when Byleth had mentioned Miklan.
"He's an idiot who's disgraced his family. What else do you need to know? Didn't Rhea tell you everything about him already?" Felix said as he lifted the sword and got into position to lunge again.
"This isn't really about the mission, Felix. I'm asking about Sylvain and his past with his brother." Byleth said, crossing her arms, leaning on the wall.
Felix stopped lunging at the training dummy and wiped the sweat from his brow. He set the training sword down on its stand and took a seat on the steps. Byleth followed and sat down next to him. Felix had grown uncharacteristically quiet and just stared at the ground.
"I always hated him." Felix finally said after a minute of silence. "He made Sylvain's life a living hell, all because of some dumb Crest."
"What did he do, Felix?" Byleth pressed.
Felix's hands clenched as he sat there in thought. Felix honestly didn't know if this was his place to tell the Professor. Would this make things worse for Sylvain? Sylvain had always kept his home life private from him and the others as kids so maybe he'd prefer it to stay that way here at the academy.
"I don't want to say anything that might make things worse for Sylvain." Felix said, unclenching his fists. "It took forever for Sylvain to even tell me some of the things that that bastard had done to him. I don't want to betray that trust. But I guess I can tell you a little bit."
Byleth put her hand on Felix's shoulder as a way to express gratitude for trusting her with the bits of information he'd disclose to her.
"Sylvain had actually told me once about how Miklan would beat him. Glenn and I would come to visit and Sylvain would be covered in bandages. He always told us it was from training."
"That's what Ingrid told me..." Byleth had said.
"Yeah, that was usually the excuse Sylvain used." said Felix. "But as I got older I realized that those were not wounds you got from training. His bruises looked like hand prints."
Felix began to recount the time that he confronted Sylvain about his odd injuries to the Professor.
"Is that all you got?" snickered a younger Sylvain.
"Please, I'm just getting started." Felix taunted before lunging over to Sylvain, hitting him in the side with the training sword. Sylvain let out a loud grunt before doubling over in pain.
"Come on," Felix complained as he walked over to his fallen friend. "I did not hit you that hard."
"Oh I would beg to differ, buddy. You hit harder than you think."
"Don't confuse me with the boar. Unlike him, I know my own strength. Let me see." Felix said kneeling down next to Sylvain.
"It's really not that big of a deal, I guess I'm just out of shape." Sylvain chuckled.
"Don't be stupid, you know as well as I that it's not a good idea to ignore injuries." said Felix. ""Come on, lift your shirt."
"Why Felix, already trying to-"
"I said lift it, idiot!" Felix snapped. He was running out of patience and Sylvain was hiding something.
"Okay, fine." Sylvain gave in. "But like I said, it's not that big of deal, it's not as bad as it looks."
Sylvain hesitantly untucked his shirt from his pants and slowly raised it over to where Feli had hit him. He didn't miss the small look of shock that flashed over Felix's face before quickly returning to his normal scowl. A fairly large bruise covered his side, about the size of Felix's boot. Maybe slightly larger.
"Okay, first of all, this is old. So I know I didn't do this." Felix said, causing Sylvain to flinch.
"Alright, buddy. You got me. This was from a training accident a few days ago." Sylvain raised his arms in mock surrender.
"Bullshit."
"What? It's true."
"No, it's not. I'm not an idiot, Sylvain." Felix stood, placing his hands on his hips. "Second of all, this looks like a bruise you get from being kicked. Hard."
"Well, yeah. I was sparring, kicking can be a part of sparring."
"Really?" Felix asked. "The way I see it, either the person had to be eight feet tall to kick you that hard, or you were already on the ground when this kick came. And if that's the case, normally a sparring match would end when someone hits the ground."
Felix reached out his hand for Sylvain to grab and helped him up.
"What happened, Sylvain?" Felix pressed. "It was Miklan, wasn't it?"
Sylvain grew silent at the question. Looking down at the ground, fists clenched. He and Felix moved to sit at the bench that was against the wall.
"Y-Yeah, it was..." was all Sylvain could say. "I really didn't want any of you guys to know."
"Why? What has Miklan been doing to you, Sylvain?" Felix questioned surprisingly softly.
"He's just mad, and I don't really blame him. Since he doesn't have a Crest, everything that should have been his is going to be mine. If I were in his shoes, I'd be pretty pissed too."
"So he takes it out on you?" Felix asked, standing up again. "Sylvain, that's no excuse for him to hurt you like this. Yes, he has a right to be mad about his parent's decision, but he should not be doing this to you."
"It's fine, Felix. Just drop it." Sylvain said. "We only have a few more years before we're leaving to study at the Officer's Academy, and then he'll be away from me for good. Just... please don't tell anyone."
"Why?"
"Miklan already hates me as it is, if he knows I ratted him out like this, I'm kind of scared of what he'd do to me. He does all this to me for no real reason, but if I were to give him a reason. I don't even want to think of what he'd do to me."
Felix could tell that his friend was genuinely scared of his older brother. He thought for a minute before deciding to honor Sylvain's wish, at least to make things easier for him in the long run.
"Fine, I won't tell anyone. But if he ever goes too far, tell me. I'll put him in his place."
Sylvain chuckled, picturing someone as short as Felix trying to take on Miklan for him. It was kind of adorable to imagine.
"Okay, you win. If it gets too much then I'll come to you, buddy."
"I'm only telling you this because it won't help anybody if I stay quiet about it." said Felix before standing up and turning to look at the professor. "But you didn't hear any of this from me."
"Of course," Byleth said, standing up as well. "Thank you very much for telling me this Felix, I can tell you really care for Sylvain."
Felix blushed a little before turning away.
"Please. I just can't stand the idiot sulking the way he is right now. It just pisses me off."
"Alright, Felix. Whatever you say." Byleth smiled before leaving the training room.