"You wished to see me?" Byleth bowed before Rhea and Seteth.
"Yes. I'd like to discuss your mission for this month," Rhea explained.
"Mission?" Byleth asked.
"At the beginning of the month we assign each house a mission to carry out for the church at the end of the month," Seteth answered.
"Indeed, and for your class is to take care of the bandits hiding out and Zanado, The Red Canyon," Rhea said.
"Bandits?"
"Yes, I think you are familiar with their leader, Kostas."
Byleth's eyes widened, Kostas must have been the bandit leader that attacked them in Remire village.
"It would be wise to get a head start on your class this month, get them ready for their first real fight," Seteth told her.
"So, you're heading to Zanado at the end of the month huh?" Jeralt sighed as he finished polishing his lance.
Byleth nodded.
"Well just be careful, alright? It'd be tough to sleep at night if one of those brats died on your watch, and I just don't know what I'd do with myself if that same thing happened to you or your brother," Jeralt warned with a downtrodden look.
"I will," Byleth said reassuringly.
"By the way, you wouldn't have happened to see a little girl with white hair running around the church have you?" Jeralt asked.
Byleth thought for a moment and nodded, remembering seeing something like that when she chose to lead the Verdant Rabbits.
"I really hope that girl isn't in trouble. She looks like she doesn't want to be seen," Jeralt mused to himself, "Anyway, you go on and enjoy your day. I've got some business with the Knights to attend to."
"Professor? I'm not sure about this," Kyouka blindly yelled.
"It's simple, when you take away one sense, it's almost like the others are heightened. If you can't see, you can hear your enemy coming," Byleth explained, adjusting the blindfold on her student.
She was able to secure the training hall for Kyouka, and all around them wooden cutouts of humans were held against the ground by a rock with a rope tied around it.
"Trust yourself."
Kyouka slowly exhaled and drew her bow. Byleth silently picked up one of the ropes that lead to the rocks and yanked it, causing the dummy to spring up.
Kyouka whirled around and fired off an arrow that hit the dummy on the side of its 'head'. Kyouka pulled another arrow and readied herself to fire again. The second dummy flew up and Kyouka fired another arrow, hitting the dummy in the chest.
Kyouka groaned as she took off her blindfold, they had been at this for half an hour and she had failed to hit even one of the twelve dummies in the head.
"I'm sorry professor, I can't do it," Kyouka sighed.
"No, you can. Listen to me; clear your head, close your eyes, and focus only on the sound around you," Byleth said to her after she set up the dummies once more.
Kyouka pulled the blindfold back on and drew a deep breath, in through the nose, out through the mouth.
Byleth yanked the rope and Kyouka spun around and let loose an arrow, hitting the dummy.
Once she was ready again, Byleth yanked another rope, and another hit was landed.
Kyouka hit the next two dummies and when she lifted her blindfold and let out an ecstatic squeal when she saw all four headshots.
"See?" Byleth smiled.
"Alright alright, you were right. Thank you professor," Kyouka chuckled.
"Good, now, go on and get to studying. I've got more students to teach," Byleth said, ushering the girl out of the training room.
"Forgive me, but how does tackling drills help me?" Mezou asked.
"It doesn't, it helps me. I need to gauge how strong you are," Byleth explained. "I want you to push as many as you can, until the weight gets too much for you. There are twenty of them a d each weighs twenty pounds."
Mezou nodded.
Byleth nodded back.
Mezou then charged forward and slammed into the first tackling dummy, pushing it all the way into the next one, where the stands interlocked. He barreled into the next one and the one after that, now pushing eighty pounds.
The boy eventually had to stop as he reached fifteen, huffing and exhausted, he turned to Byleth and sighed, "I apologize for not meeting your expectations."
"You did, I expected you to stop at seven. Don't worry, we haven't even begun on the hard stuff, by the time I'm done with you, you'll be able to push fourty of these things."
"Hey Mezou, I've been meaning to talk to you—" Kyouka was cut short as Mezou wordlessly clapped a hand over her mouth and dragged her into his dorm room.
It was fairly plain on the inside, but it seemed to match his personality. Mezou positioned Kyouka right behind him and the both peered at a small vase holding a single red flower from inside his dorm.
Suddenly, the door creaked open, and Kyouka saw the top of a head of white hair quickly scoop the vase up and take it inside.
"What was that?" Kyouka whispered.
"I don't know who that girl is. But I've never seen her leave her room, she seems lonely. So for a while I've been giving her a flower every chance I get," Mezou explained simply.
She watched as the vase was returned to the hallway.
Kyouka had always been a little afraid of Mezou, she's willing to admit that, he's tall and broad and intimidating. But this was a shock to her system, a guy who could only be described as brooding was actually just a big softie on the inside.
Maybe getting to know Mezou wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.
Tenya let out a yawn as he stood in the early morning dew, Byleth stood behind him.
"Do you see that trail? Three miles, two hours…" Byleth trailed off for a few seconds and the bell tower in Garreg Mach began to chime.
"Run."
"W-what?" Tenya asked.
"You're losing time. Get to running," Byleth encouraged.
Tenya looked around worriedly but began to run down the trail. He ran for about twenty minutes before a church soldier sprinted out of the bushes, frightening the blue haired boy.
As he ran through the trail, more incidents like that transpired, a member of the church's army popping out, sometimes seemingly just to scare him, but also occasionally following for a few minutes.
He just barely crossed the marker that indicated the end of the three miles by the time the bell chimed, signifying his two hours being up.
Tenya kneeled against the ground and heaved, before staring in confusion as Byleth handed him a rag to wipe his sweat.
"How did you get here before me?" He panted.
"I took a horse and a shortcut," Byleth answered.
Tenya handed her back the rag and got back on his feet, "What was the point of this exercise anyway?"
"You are gonna be our scout. It's your job to go ahead of the rest of us and tell us enemy positions, tell us how much manpower the enemy has, even tell us what the terrain looks like. You're much faster than the rest of your peers and I needed to see if you could do your job without being frightened by enemies threatening you," Byleth explained.
Tenya fell silent for a few minutes, "I didn't expect this today. But I do believe I can do it" he said enthusiastically.
"Great. Now—" Byleth climbed on top of the horse again, "Run back."
"Just how safe is this?" Setsuna nervously asked as she stared at the brown scaled Wyvern, a small patch of dark blue scales on the center of its head.
"I thought you told me that you took care of Wyverns back home?"
"It's not the Wyvern I'm scared of...I'm just really afraid of heights," Setsuna sighed.
Byleth handed Setsuna a sword and helped her on the back of the Wyvern, "You don't have to go high, just perform a few simple hit and runs on that training dummy."
Setsuna let out a shaky breath as the Wyvern began to hover a few feet off the ground. The scaly creature flew around the dummy and kept diving towards it to allow its rider to hit the straw stuff human. But Setsuna never made a real attempt to hit the thing, she was always desperately clinging to the Wyvern.
Eventually, Byleth had to call the Wyvern down so she could talk to her green-haired student.
"I'm sorry, I just can't do it," Setsuna said, trying to climb off of the dragon, but Byleth stopped her.
"You need to trust him. He is not going to let you fall," she firmly stated, "Again."
Setsuna groaned as the Wyvern began to fly again, circling around the dummy from the air. As the dragon dove down, Setsuna sucked in her fear and stuck out her sword, slicing through the dummy.
The Wyvern quickly turned again and Setsuna put another slice through it, straw now spilling out both sides. The Wyverns' powerful wings beat against the air and it flew in a loop before shooting back towards the ground and allowing Setsuna to skewer the dummy with her sword.
Byleth proudly sighed. She hadn't prepared a second dummy.
Tenya burst through Setsuna's door with an angry look upon his face, causing her to drop her makeup brush in surprise.
"Where have you been?" Tenya demanded.
"Getting ready for a date?" Setsuna turned back to her mirror and picked up the brush again.
"You missed an important lecture today, and that is not a good excuse!"
"Every lecture is important to you," Setsuna chuckled.
"Every lecture is important. Period!" Tenya yelled.
"What do you want from me Tenya?"
"I want you to take your studies seriously! It's like you don't even want to be a knight—"
Setsuna cut him off by slamming her hands against her dresser and shooting up.
"You listen to me Tenya. I can put up with a lot; the people that talk behind my back and call me a tease, the thirty something rejections I've gotten from both guy and girl, the rumors that I'm 'loose'. But no one, and I mean fucking no one, says that not committed to being a knight!" Setsuna ranted, shoving him out of the way and slamming the door shut behind her.
Tenya groaned in embarrassment, "Perhaps I took that too far."
"So, what do you got for me? I've heard everybody else's training was pretty rough!" Eijirou slammed his hands together and rubbed them eagerly.
"Simple, you have a pile of throwing axes there, just throw that at the wooden target," Byleth said, placing her hand on the target.
"Easy," Eijirou smiled as he grabbed the hatchet.
He reeled his arm back and waited for a few seconds before chucking the weapon forward, only for Byleth to jerk the target to the right, and the axe to hit a tree.
"Hey that's not fair!" Eijirou complained.
"No, your target simply moved." Byleth put the target back, "Now again."
Eijirou threw another axe and once again, Byleth moved the target away just in time for him to miss.
"Why are you doing this? I can't even hit the target," Eijirou said in annoyance.
"I'm doing this because I have figured out your problem Eijirou. As strong as you are, you are brash, and quick to jump into a fight that you are not always able to finish," Byleth told him.
"But—"
"You need to think about strategy more. Don't just rush in, anticipate your opponent's moves, then strike."
Eijirou sighed as he picked up another throwing axe, he waited for a few seconds, watching Byleth. He threw his axe and she pulled the target to the right, but Eijirou had thrown the axe in a way that allowed it to curve, and the hatchet smashed into the wooden target.
"Good, now do it again."
"Good morning Mina," Byleth greeted as she tossed a wooden sword to the pink haired girl.
"What's this for?"
"You prefer a sword, yes? That means you have the weakest range out of most weapons, this means that you need to be faster. Which is why I have set up these men to fight you, get hit even once and we start over again," Byleth explained.
Mina saw the few church soldiers, also holding wooden training weapons, wave to her. As if they weren't just about to try and beat the shit out of her.
"Are you ready?" Byleth asked.
"Absolutely," Mina smirked, readying her 'blade'.
There were a total of five soldiers, one man wielding an axe, three with a lance, and one with a bow.
"Begin!"
Mina ran forward and ducked under a lance, hitting its owner in the side with her sword. She then grunted in pain as a blunt arrow hit her in the shoulder.
"Restart."
Mina blocked a jab with a lance and she pushed it to the ground, keeping it there with her foot as she hit him with her sword. Mina then blocked another arrow with her sword and backflipped over an axe that tried to sweep her legs, then hitting the man with her sword. Unfortunately it was at this time two lances came down on her shoulder.
"Again!"
Mina tried, she really did, but it was just too hard. She wasn't fast enough. Everytime she got close to winning, she would get caught off guard and slapped around. Eventually, Byleth called off the soldiers and helped Mina to her feet.
"I'm sorry professor. I couldn't do it," She sighed.
"Don't be, I didn't expect you to win. I just wanted to see what you could do," Byleth said simply.
"You didn't?" Mina asked.
"Nope, but we'll keep working at it. For now, let go buy you a shield. If you can't dodge most of the attacks you may as well be able to block the ones you can't," Byleth explained, motioning for the girl to follow.
Eijirou sighed as Mina moved just a little bit closer, pressing herself up against his arm.
"What are you doing?" Eijirou chuckled.
"Just getting comfy," she answered simply.
"Oh, and I'm the comfiest person here?" Eijirou asked.
"Aw, what's the matter; Afraid of the scary girl from Duscar?" Mina teased.
Eijirou got close to her face, almost touching her nose with his, "And why would I be afraid of a girl as pretty as you?"
Mina's eyes grew wide, her cheeks grew red, and she shot a few feet away from him, sputtering out words that didn't even seem to be english.
"Are you really not able to take a little flirting back?" Eijirou chuckled.
"I— I'm— I have to go!" Mina screamed as she ran away, flailing her arms about.
"So what the hell is this thing?" Izuku asked, banging on the big metal training dummy.
"Well, since your classmates kept utterly destroying all my other ones, I had this made to withstand a whole lot more," Byleth answered.
"So you just want me to punch this thing?"
"I recognize your fighting style, Boxing, correct?" Byleth asked as she handed him his iron gauntlets.
"Yeah, it's actually how I met Alois," Izuku chuckled.
"Really?"
"Yep, he was my teacher. I thought he was the coolest guy in the world," Izuku explained as he landed a few quick blows on the metal dummy.
"So he wasn't always a knight," Byleth realized.
"Well, he was always a knight, just not always a knight of Seiros. For a year or two he worked for my family, then he came back here and began working for the church again." Izuku landed a few more hits and abruptly stopped.
"What's wrong?" Byleth asked.
"I don't know, it's just a bit hard for me to beat up a faceless object for some reason," Izuku shrugged.
"Think about the person you hate most, then simply plaster their face onto it," Byleth said.
Izuku roared and punched the dummy's head clean off, sending it flying through the air.
"Not again," his professor muttered.
Izuku burst out laughing and Byleth soon followed, not in the same intensity but a short, quiet giggle.
Byleth looked up and noticed that Izuku was staring at her, "What?" She asked.
"Nothing you're just...really pretty when you laugh," Izuku answered.
"Professor I don't think I'm ready for this," Ochako said hesitantly.
"We've been training you in Anima magic for a week now and this is the best way to truly test your capabilities. This room has no light in it, and a key somewhere inside so you can get out." Byleth opened up the door and showed off the pitch black room.
"Why are you even having me learn Reason magic?" Ochako asked.
"Because, if you get separated from us in battle, you're not exactly the best fighter on your own, and I don't mean that in a rude way. This would give you more of a fighting chance against multiple enemies," Byleth answered.
Ochako sighed, stepping inside the room and hearing it lock shut behind her. She took a deep breath as she made her hands spark with cinders, but no flame, like she had been practicing.
She grunted in effort and anger as her hands continued to spark and glow, but still no flame. Ochako didn't understand why she couldn't do it, she remembered the spell perfectly and practiced it just as well.
"You're too in your own head. It's not about memorizing or practicing, it's about believing in yourself and your own ability," Byleth called from the other side of the door.
"Also there's a black widow in the room so you might want to hurry up!"
Now slightly more motivated by her fear, she focused her mind on what she wanted. She pushed all the training lessons out of her mind, all the practice she had with Hanneman. Ochako focused only on the thought of a ball of fire forming in her hand.
The room was bathed in a warm orange glow, and a ball of orange and red flames swirled over her palms. Small bits of fire rained down on her skin, but none of it hurt her.
Ochako held up the flame higher and examined the now illuminated room, finding the brass key on a desk. She quickly nabbed it and rushed over to the door, breaking out into the daylight.
"What do I do with this?!" Ochako frantically asked as the fire ball grew bigger.
Byleth held up her shielded arm and Ochako chucked the flames forward, pushing the professor back a little.
After a few seconds to calm down, she gave her teacher a worried look, "Did I do ok?"
"You did wonderfully. Oh and by the way, there wasn't a black widow in there—"
Ochako breathed a sigh of relief.
"There were two."
Ochako sat on the roof of the stables, it was midnight but the moon and the stars gave her all the light she needed.
"You know if someone who works here finds you up here after curfew you could get into some serious trouble," Izuku said as he plopped down beside her.
"Yeah I know… I just feel like my head is clearest when I'm looking out at the stars," Ochako shrugged.
Izuku hummed, it was clear he didn't understand what she was talking about but also didn't want to chance provoking her.
"Do you ever wonder if there's anything out there?" She asked.
"Out where?" Izuku asked back.
"Past the stars," Ochako answered.
That one seemed to stump Izuku, he looked honestly confused, "Well I don't know. Even if there is, it's not like we'd get a chance to see it, not even if we lived to be eight hundred."
"Yeah, you're probably right," Ochako muttered.
"Hey, you can always dream, can't you?" Izuku said in an attempt to cheer her up.
"Yeah, I guess we can," Ochako sighed.
Izuku frowned, something happened to her, but he knew she'd never admit what. That's fine, he'd find another way to get Ochako to smile again.
Izuku and Byleth stared out over a deep cassam, they could see a small group of bandits on the other side. To their right was a stone bridge, either party could cross at any moment, but for now they were simply waiting.
"Turn back now brats, or Kostas will murder you one-by-one!" A bandit yelled across the canyon.
Another one joined him and whispered something to him, he then attempted to leave before Byleth snapped her finger and Kyouka and Ochako stepped forward.
Kyouka pulled her bowstring back and sent an arrow into one of their necks and Ochako cast a Nosferatu that sucked the life out of another one. They both fell into the ravine below.
Ochako's hand clasped over her mouth as she watched the bodies fall into the river. Byleth's hand fell on her shoulder and she shook her head, "Now's not the time for that."
Ochako nodded as Tenya approached them, "There are a total of twenty enemies: three archers, one mage, four lance users, seven with swords, and five who wield axes, including their leader."
"Thank you Tenya," Izuku said.
Byleth drew her sword from her hip, her students also drew their weapons and they began to charge the bridge.
Two swordsmen approached and Tenya launched himself using his pole and kicked one of them in the chest, bringing him to the ground before finishing him off by stabbing him.
Eijirou slammed his axe against the bridge, he was aiming for the second swordsman but missed as he jumped backwards. The bandit ran at him but Eijirou simply dodged the sword and slammed the man's face into his axe hilt, before Izuku punched him off the bridge.
Once across the bridge, Kyouka was forced to engage in an intense arrow battle between her and another archer. Their arrows crashed into each other one by one, until Mezou knocked the bow from the other archer's hand and killed him with a neck snap.
"Behind you!"
Kyouka whirled around and hit the woman charging her in the face with her bow, she fell to the ground where Kyouka put an arrow through her skull.
Mina ducked under the swing of an axe, slicing the man's back twice. He spun around and once again she ducked, cutting through the man's leg before finally putting her sword through his chest.
A blade of wind narrowly passed by Setsuna's chest, the mage that sent it grunted in anger as he threw another one. This time though, Setsuna threw her sword as well, cutting through the wind and subsequently, the mage.
Izuku quickly batted away an arrow, stepping a few feet forward. The archer fired another one, but he knocked that away too, with each arrow he swatted away he got that much closer to the archer, until he was able punch him across the face and step aside to allow Byleth to kill him with a stab to the chest.
"Let's keep moving!" Byleth called.
The group crossed another bridge and took out the soldiers on the other side, finally being able to move on to Kostas himself.
"You brats think you can just show up and murder me and my men?! I'll kill you, and then everybody else in that god-damned monetary!" Kostas screamed as he prepared to bring his axe down on Byleth...
Only to be blown back by a fireball, courtesy of Ochako.
Screaming, Kostas stumbled back into a small river that fell off the cliff face just a few feet away. But the damage was already done, most of the bandits hair burned off, his clothes were black as charcoal, and his skin was covered in black, vomit inducing burns, and it was bubbling angrily.
Byleth placed her boot against his chest, causing another scream to leave Kostas mouth before he was shut up by the tip of a sword
"Who do you work for?" She asked quietly, although it sounded more threatening than if she had yelled it.
Kostas gurgled on his own spit, before managing to spit out the word, "Flame."
The bandit leader passed and Byleth took her boot off him, and the water swept him away off the cliff.
Kostas, The Bandit King, was dead.
Look I'm addicted alright, I'm man enough to admit that, but this addiction is cool as hell so it's fine. Discord links:
Epsi's Hoard: https/discord.gg/suPzmFCq
LoM: https/discord.gg/R9BU25t
That's it for now, Peace.