The sun had already set as the mere light of the candles served to illuminate Edelgard's chambers, the Emperor having settled down upon the edge of her bed as she watched the sleeping form of Byleth, his chest gently rising and falling. She traced her hand along his cheek, a serene smile on her lips as she leaned close to him, trailing small circles.

"You have scared me to death…", her whisper was left unheard, Byleth's sleeping form showing no sign of reaction.

"... if I were to lose you, I wouldn't go on…", her hand trembled slightly upon his skin, her smile slowly beginning to vanish. Dreadful images coursed through her mind, causing her to gaze upon him once more, utter fear reflecting from her eyes.

No, she wouldn't lose him. Never.

Her future was bound to his own, and he wouldn't ever leave. No matter what happened, they belonged to none other than each other.

She glanced at her gloved hand, memories coursing through her mind of everything they had been through, up until the very end. She carefully removed her crimson glove, staring down upon her bare hand and the small scars that adorned her skin. Whatever destiny had thrown at her, she had overcome it. Whatever obstacle it had placed in front of her, she had surpassed it. She had forged her very own fate, and now he was on her side.

Her eyes wandered to the golden and shimmering object upon her nightstand, hesitantly reaching out for it before she grasped the golden ring, the light glimmering upon its crimson ruby. She felt its cool surface upon her finger before she gazed back at Byleth's sleeping face once more. Reigning side by side… knowing that he would never betray her, abandon her…

She could picture it all clearly in her mind. Their bright future… and their very own legacy. She glanced at the stack of torn and shredded parchments, her eyes narrowing at the sight of each of the proposals. The times of that old and withered system were over, and along with it, everything the cursed nobility had built to abuse their status. The Empire would never witness another consort at her side other than him… her first, and her last…

But for now, she would wait. For nothing would take that future away from her anymore. She leaned down near Byleth's head, tenderly caressing his face once more as she gazed upon his peaceful and innocent expression.

"We will never be separated, Byleth…"

…

A strong warmth surrounded Byleth's entire form, a sense of comfort coursing through him as he slowly blinked his eyes open, taking in his surroundings carefully. His mind was blurry, his body feeling weak as fragments of previous events and memories seemingly melted together in front of his mental eye. The battle was finally over…?

However, his mind froze once he noticed a hand brushing the side of his face, a finger trailing along his cheek before he shifted his eyes towards the figure sitting at his side, a gasp escaping him.

"You're awake…", Byleth watched as Edelgard halted in her motions for a brief moment, a serene smile forming on her face. All of this felt… so very familiar…

His thoughts were merely brushed aside once she placed her hand upon his cheek again, causing him to lean into her touch. But soon enough her expression turned more and more concerned, nothing but worry and fear crossing her eyes.

"I could have never forgiven myself if something happened to you, Byleth… how do you feel? Do you remember anything?", Byleth slowly lifted his hand slightly, regarding it carefully as he watched for any sign of injury, but there was nothing that explained the foreign sensation that he could feel within himself.

"I feel… different, somehow…", Edelgard regarded him for a long moment, glancing at his hair almost unnoticeably before she shifted her gaze upon his eyes once more, her smile slowly returning.

"You haven't changed, Byleth. In fact… you are as you have always been.", the slight confusion was obvious within his expression as he searched her eyes for any kind of explanation, but she merely hummed in return, closing her eyes in content. Taking a moment to properly survey his surroundings, he remembered the crimson and golden interior around him, and it was only then that he realized where he was.

Edelgard could feel his body suddenly stiffening, causing her to look back at him as he seemingly shifted uncomfortably beneath the bed sheets, avoiding her gaze.

"There is no need for you to worry about being here.", a trace of amusement was evident in her voice as she watched him with a smile, keeping the rest of her words to herself.

'... in fact, you should get accustomed to it…'

However, her expression turned thoughtful soon afterwards, pondering deeply about the one thing that was plaguing her mind. Her eyes glanced at her right hand that she purposefully kept hidden from his view, clasping the object within tightly as she considered her next words carefully. How much she wished that she could have proposed it to him before…

She thought of everything that he might say, cursing her mind for overthinking it once again. She was hesitating again…

… before she suddenly clenched her hand and shifted her gaze back upon Byleth, having made up her mind. She knew what she wanted, and it was this that had allowed her to forge her own fate in the first place.

Byleth was slightly taken aback as Edelgard wrapped her arms around him, holding him close to herself for a long moment while burying her head beneath his chin, mindful of her horned crown. His shock only lasted for a brief moment before he allowed her to do as she wished, weakly managing to hold her side to return the embrace.

"... do you remember what I wanted to propose to you…?"

She lifted her head slightly to meet his eyes, separating herself only mere inches from him. He remembered the day before, and the moment she held the golden ring in front of him…

Taking his hand into her own, she lifted their intertwined hands between them before revealing the glimmering ring once more, holding it close to him.

"I have wanted to share this for a long time…", her voice was but a mere whisper, and there was no mask to cover her deepest desire.

"Byleth, will you marry me?"

Her eyes were both pleading and longing, her hot breath mingling upon his skin as she held the ring close to his finger. As the silence stretched and her anxiety grew with each second that passed, his hand suddenly squeezed her own before he nudged her lightly, moving as much as his weakened state allowed him to with a small but joyful smile upon his face.

"... by now, I thought… that it was obvious… you said so yourself, didn't you?"

Her eyes widened for the briefest of seconds in pure joy before she claimed his lips with her own, slipping the ring upon his finger while never letting go of him.

And her dream had finally come true.

Steps echoed through the dark ruins as different lights of several torches illuminated the shadowy corridors, the group of knights advancing further down into the tunnels.

"Sir, is there anything we have to look for? We have been travelling these tunnels for hours.", the group stopped for a moment as their leader halted in his motions, turning around to face the knight in question who was glancing around the ruins with uncertainty.

"Patience, my friends. These ruins are older than you may anticipate, and we have to be mindful down here.", the knight gave in, not questioning it any further as they approached a giant hall. Still, it didn't help much in quelling their uneasiness as the knights slowly spread out, searching for any kind of doorway to advance further down into the depth.

One of them carefully held his torch in front of him as he suddenly found a foreign kind of statue at the center of the hall, trying to get a closer look upon it with what little light he had at disposal.

"Aelfric, we have found another small corridor, it seems to lead further down."

"Excellent, well done. Now then, come together again, it can't be far anymore."

Suddenly, one of the knights cried out in shock as a pillar of light struck the ground in front of him, and what he believed to be a statue turned to life. The knights held their lances in front of them in fright as they directed their attention towards the giant construction, failing to notice several more movements in the dark corners of the hall as several more of the monotone constructions awakened.

In a desperate attempt to strike the magical construction, a handful of the knights moved together to try and pierce it with their lances.

But they merely bounced off of its hull like playthings.

"Don't fight them, we must leave, now!", heading Aelfric's words, the knights disengaged and retreated towards the entrance of the hall, but the trap had already been set, and the other constructions summoned several pillars of light within their hands, piercing any knight that was unlucky enough to be caught without effort.

"Don't look behind, retreat!", Aelfric gritted his teeth as he witnessed a part of his knights getting slaughtered, and those who tried to help only shared the same fate.

He only knew that they had no other choice than to flee for now.

A giant eruption shook the very foundation of the underground beneath the monastery, causing its inhabitants to glance around in obvious nervousness and confusion. However, one particular figure merely directed his sight upon the dark corridor in front of him, the long tunnel separating their living place from the deeper parts of the ruins. Not many knew or ventured into these parts of the tunnels, but lately…

"Boss, you think we should stand ready? Maybe those blasted mercenaries have found another way!"

"Just be wary and send another scout party, it can never hurt to be prepared.", the bandit nodded before heading off, the inhabitants slowly calming down again after several more moments of silence.

Truthfully, he was not entirely certain if that eruption went onto account of the mercenaries who were after them. In fact, he doubted that they could have found another way apart from the entries they were already guarding, but showing his uncertainty was something that he would rather avoid.

And by now, it had become harder and harder to predict their movements anyway… they continuesly grew in numbers, and they were aware of passages that they couldn't possibly have known about by themselves. Whoever was sending them knew them better than he would have liked, and he hated it when somebody could read his cards.

"Yuri, has something transpired?", being snapped out of his thoughts, he shifted his focus away from the dark corridors ahead and towards the source of the voice.

"Aelfric? The eruption must have attracted more attention than I thought if even you could witness it.", the slight surprise was evident in Yuri's tone as he regarded their former caretaker, trying to make sense of the situation.

"It is hard to miss a pillar of light that is visible above the monastery from entire miles away."

Now that captured his interest in full.

"A what…?", he would have imagined anything that ranged from a mere explosion towards the use of magic, but now he was certain that this was not the work of the mercenaries. There were too many things going on that only managed to raise more questions than he could find a solution for, and he needed to form some kind of plan.

First, the monastery was destroyed by the Empire years ago, bandits and thugs began to swarm the surface, and now, in recent times, even mercenaries began to purposefully track them down beneath the surface to wipe them out. Day in and out, their very existence was threatened, the people down here could never sleep without keeping one of their eyes open and their ears peeled, how long was it going to continue to be like that?

They could count themselves lucky for every day that the mercenaries decided not to endanger them, but he could only hope that nothing or nobody else would find their way down into their home. But, as if it hadn't been enough already, something like this occurred…

"Are your people alright? I will try to provide as much as I can offer should someone come to harm, but I'm afraid that there is not much else I can do anymore other than to pray for your protection."

"There is nothing that you owe us, you have done more for us all than we could ever hope to repay. After all, it was you who allowed us to start a new life here in the first place.", true enough, if he owed his life to someone, then it was Aelfric. There wasn't anyone whom the former cardinal didn't seek to help when he sought to bring order into this place, these ruined underground halls that they were now calling home.

A former place of famine and crime, it was him who had organized the forgotten ruins beneath the monastery to become a safe haven for those who were once betrayed and left alone by the people of the surface. And he himself was a part of those individuals.

If life had taught Yuri one thing, then it was to defend it with every dirty trick or scheme that he could come up with, no matter if it meant to leave someone else behind for his own survival. Such was the world that he had come to know over the course of his life.

"But perhaps this should be a cue for us to venture deeper into the ruins to see for ourselves what may be lurking down there, those mercenaries wouldn't come down here for nothing."

"I'm afraid some of the passages to advance further into the depth have been blocked by the eruption, aside from the fact that I wouldn't want you to descend any further into these ruins. I cannot stress it enough that they are more dangerous than we may anticipate.", Yuri didn't even try to suppress the sigh that escaped him, not sure if it was the disappointment or growing irritation that was starting to bother him.

There was a reason why these underground tunnels had been left and abondoned by the Church many years ago before they simply left the ruins to be forgotten, but aside from that, Aelfric had never mentioned a lot of its history. He was smart enough to take his own guesses upon the matter, but given his nature, his curiousity would never match his instinct to survive, which meant to avoid anything that could potentially prove to be fatal for them all.

But now that seemingly endless amounts of mercenaries sought to wipe them out? For no apparent reason? Maybe five years ago, when the Church was still as present as always upon the surface, maybe then he could have imagined certain individuals seeking nothing but to wipe them all out. After all, it was not exactly a hidden fact among the higher ranking members of the Church that they were living beneath them and on their whim. There was an unspoken agreement between them that neither would ever cross the path of the other, but that didn't stop certain people to try and get rid of them.

However, never before had anyone actively sought to outright try and kill them, and since the Church had been relieved from its seat of power by the Empire, none of them would have ever bothered to concern themselves with them anymore, not with the threat of the Imperials standing directly upon their doorstep. He had foolishly hoped that, perhaps, this could have been a chance for them to finally recover…

… until now.

"How do you like it?", Edelgard hummed in content, heaving a small but joyful sigh as she simply leaned against Byleth's shoulder, the latter resting his head against her own with a smile.

"You do enjoy sneaking out of the palace, don't you?", a grin formed upon her lips as she glanced at him out of the corner of her eyes, the warm rays of sunlight shining upon them atop of the small hill as they simply laid against a giant tree, a small bowl of sweets cornered between their bodies. True enough, she couldn't help herself… after all, she wanted to see the world they had created for herself, and how else would she do it other than with him at her side?

Often times, they would leave the capital for even longer periods of time, and it wasn't always as subtle as she would have liked it to be. But in the end, here they were, and she couldn't have been any happier. Even though some may witness their disappearance from the palace, how they chose to spend these precious moments together, none but the two of them would ever know…

And not only that, she had taken it upon herself to announce their true bond publicly, making sure that everyone knew just what Byleth was for her.

There was no ball, no parades or festivities in honor of their union, since all that she wanted to remind her of the most joyful day in her life was the ring upon his finger. And she felt a sense of pride swelling in her chest.

But it didn't stop the public from celebrating, and due to all of their efforts, the people who had merely been labeled as commoners before were cheering for Byleth. They were delighted that her consort turned out to be one of their own, and it only served to increase the goodwill of the people, a benefit that she gladly accepted. For the nobility, whose titles had been stripped away, would have loved nothing more than to see her head on a plate, and she knew that they were lurking in the shadows.

And she would stop at nothing to make sure that anyone who threatened Byleth would be eradicated.

However, even though their marriage was subtle and she knew that Byleth, as well as herself, preferred it that way, there was that small voice in her head that simply wasn't content enough with the mere announcement… that part of her wanted everyone to know, as well as…

Edelgard shook her head slightly, shoving these thoughts into the back of her mind before she pulled Byleth ever so slightly closer to herself, nudging her head against his chin, albeit mindful of her crown. He glanced at her in slight curiosity, wondering what she was pondering about within these small moments of comfortable silence.

"Sometimes I still can't believe that I may now truly call you my partner and equal, that feeling… it's…", memories of their days within the academy coursed through her mind, reminding her of the times they had spent together, in peaceful days. She couldn't discern any longer when she had started to count the days that she could spend with him, even though she never truly realized it herself. All that she knew was that she wanted more than that. More than the days at the academy… reaching beyond the innocent times. How many times had she tried to sway him…? How many times had she tried to make him see, but never dared to cross a line?

She had lost count.

But what did it matter, when these joyful memories remained, and their future turned out to be just as bright as the past…

Suddenly, she could feel him moving his hand to place it beneath her own, her gifted ring glimmering brightly upon his finger as the sunlight warmed the both of them. And her smile grew all the wider.

"Now your burdens are mine to bear.", glancing at him out of the corner of her eyes, she witnessed the small smile he was wearing, and knowing his nature, she was sure that he actually meant his words if she didn't interfere.

"Absolutely not! Whatever may happen, we will share our burdens together…", gently nudging him once more, she placed their intertwined hands closer to herself, tracing a finger along the palm of his hand as a thought occurred within her mind, one that she had thought about for a long while.

"... you know, now that we have each other… our engagement is nothing that has existed before, for you are not merely my consort. As I said, normally the Empire would expect many heirs, and it wasn't uncommon for my predecessors to take more than one consort, either due to political reasons or their own gain. But these old values hold no place within our reign…", Edelgard lifted her head from his shoulder to look him in the eyes, a strong emotion reflecting from her own.

"I want to separate myself from my predecessors completely. I want to create our very own legacy… with no one but you at my side.", holding his hands within her own, she nudged her nose against the side of his face, a tender smile growing upon her face.

"... how would you feel about it… Byleth von Hresvelg..."

His eyes widened immediately, much to her dismay, as he stared at her in a mixture of surprise and disbelief.

"You don't approve?", she couldn't stop the disappointment from showing in her tone and expression, causing Byleth to ponder about his words carefully, however, after just a small moment of silence, a mischievous glint appeared within her eyes.

"... or do you prefer Edelgard Eisner?", witnessing the smile on his face, she nudged him playfully before she pulled back slightly, her expression becoming more serious. Thus, Byleth realized that she actually meant her words.

Imagining the public outcry at such an event, even though it should not even prove to be a problem anymore, he merely shook his head in response.

"I doubt that would be fitting for you…", Edelgard merely smiled in return with a shake of her head.

"Anything would suit me as long as you choose it for me. However, as I said… I would be honored if you approved to accept my name for yourself...", the mere thought of sharing it with him made her feel happy, for in her eyes, it would connect them even further. Their very own legacy, after everything they had been through…

Suddenly, a bright pillar of light erupted upon the horizon, tearing the pair out of their thoughts before they directed their eyes into the distance. It remained for several long moments before it slowly but surely dissipated again, leaving no indication that it had ever been there in the first place.

But the eruption was hard to miss.