"I thank you once again for handling those bandits in Zanado," Rhea praised.
Byleth said nothing, simply bowing.
"For your next mission, you are being asked to put down a rebellion that has been started by Lord Lanato," Seteth explained.
"Lord Lanato is a minor lord of the Kingdom," Rhea answered Byleth's questioning look before she even asked.
"Why would a minor Lord start a fight they can't possibly win?" Byleth asked.
"We suspect it is because the church was responsible for the death of his biological son, Christophe," Rhea said.
"Responsible?"
"Christophe was thought to have been involved of the assassination of King Lambert and his wife, which then lead to the tragedy of Duscar. With the kingdom in chaos, it fell to the church to give Christophe a proper punishment," Seteth told her.
"Due to the seriousness of this mission, we have decided to send a knight on this mission with you, just as an extra precaution."
"Which knight?" Byleth questioned.
"Hiii!"
Surprised, Byleth whirled around and saw a woman enthusiastically running into the room, she had long green hair flowing down to her waist that starkly contrasted her yellow eyes, her right eyes had a thin red ring around it and on her cheeks were almost whisker like red lines, she wore a suit of pale yellow armour without sleeves, showing off her porcelain skin, and a pair of white gloved covered her hands.
"Professor, this is Tomoko, one of the four members of the...wild wild pussycats," Rhea seemed to struggle saying that last part.
"Please note that they named themselves," Seteth mumbled.
"This is gonna be so much fun!" Tomoko cheered as she shook Byleth by the shoulder, said girl struggling to not whip out the dagger on her hip.
Byleth heard the doors open a second time and a small boy with spiky black hair ran in, he couldn't have been older than fifteen and he wore simply loose fitting clothes that consisted of a black shirt and brown pants.
"Aunt Tomo' I want to come on this mission!" The boy said with firery resolve.
"Kota we already spoke of this, the answer is no," Tomoko almost scolded.
"But I'm ready! I've been training since—"
"No!" Tomoko cut off the boy and then ushered him out after giving an apologetic bow towards Rhea.
Byleth gazed at the spot where Kota once stood, an idea forming in her brain.
"Putting down a rebellion, huh?" Bereto asked as he poured his sister a cup of tea.
"Yes. You?" Byleth asked back.
"A city in the Alliance was hit by an earthquake recently, there are now bandits hiding in the wreckage and causing problems with reconstruction. We've actually been assigned a knight to help us with getting rid of them, a woman by the name of Catharine," Bereto answered.
"I was also assigned a knight, Tomoko." Byleth quickly downed the tea in her cup.
"Hmm, indeed a strange coincidence," Sothis muttered from inside their heads.
"Well, nevertheless be careful," Bereto warned her.
"The same to you." Byleth stood up and began to leave.
"One more thing, if you were to hypothetically get into a relationship with one of your students, I'd suggest hiding it for the time being," Bereto said in an attempt to tease.
"Oh but I could say the same. Farewell Claude." And with that, Byleth walked out of the room, and as he heard the door close, Claude's head popped out of Bereto's closet, the heir to house Reigan's hair ruffled slightly.
"Oh she's good."
Annette, a small girl of the Blue Lions house with orange hair tied into pigtails, watched with curiosity as her fellow classmate Kyouka sat on the grass alone. A small notebook was in her hand as well as a pencil, a guitar sat on the grass with her, and she was quietly humming a tune Annette hadn't heard before.
Annette walked behind the girl stealthily and peered over her shoulder, eyes widening in excitement when she realized that the words in the small book were song lyrics.
"Kyouka! Are you a songwriter!?" Annette excitedly asked, startling the girl and causing her to lose the book for a second.
"Annette!? How much of that did you see?" Kyouka blushed.
"All of it! oh, we should do a duet together, it'll be so much fun!" Annette cheered.
"Um, I'm good, really."
"Whaaaaat? Come on, it'll be fun!" Annette whined.
"I just really don't feel comfortable singing in front of people," Kyouka stuttered.
"But why? You could be so good at it, come on!" The oranged haired girl pleaded.
"I said no!" Kyouka picked up her guitar and stomped off.
Annette was about to follow her when she noticed that Kyouka had left her book on the ground. Maybe one little look couldn't hurt.
"Yeah? Well fuck you too!"
Mina stomped out of the main hall, intent on going back to her room and hitting something, only to be stopped short as Dedue grabbed her by her left arm.
Dedue was a tall muscular man, also from Duscar, his white hair tied back in a ponytail. Hanging from his left ear was a gold earring, a memento of sorts from Duscar.
"Mina, I could help but overhear your outburst." Dedue let her go and she leaned up against the wall facing him.
"Hey Dedue. Sorry about that it was just some kingdom asshole," Mina grumbled.
"You would be wise to attempt to hold in your anger. When you lash out it only makes them think their hatred for us is justified," Dedue's told her.
"So I'm just supposed to let them hate us?" Mina asked.
"I did not say that. But, it's better to just walk away than to meet them with anger," Dedue said.
"And you're going to teach me how to do that?" Mina chuckled.
"If you would like, yes," Dedue offered.
Mina sighed and shrugged, "Screw it, can't hurt can it?"
Byleth walked into the library slowly, she was looking for Tenya, since it was almost past curfew and he was the only one unaccounted for currently.
She found him sitting in front of one of the tables, frantically going over several books in front of him.
"Tenya, you should get to your room, it's late," Byleth told him.
"Ah, professor! Wonderful timing, tell me, do you know how the name Verdant Rabbits came to be?" Tenya asked, there were a few dark bags under his eyes.
"No, I don't," Byleth answered.
"It's quite fascinating, during our war for independence from Adrestia, it is said that the Imperial soldiers could barely capture any of our own soldiers, let alone kill them. We were often compared to rabbits, quick footed and hard to catch, only killable when we were caught completely off guard," Tenya explained.
"And the Verdant part?"
"Well it was a whole war fought only on three months, it took place entirely in Spring."
Byleth peered over his shoulder at the books, they were also talking about the origin of the Atakani Shogunate, he was on the last few pages and it was a very thick book.
"How long have you been reading this for?" She asked.
"Oh since.. today," Tenya said guiltily.
"Ok, let's go, you need to sleep." Byleth picked Tenya up from his seat and began to drag him away.
"I don't need sleep, I need to study!"
"We're gonna get you some help."
Lysithea cowered in fear behind a tree. She was a small, petite girl from the Golden Deer house, with long white hair that went a little bit down past her shoulders, and pale pink eyes.
Why was she cowering in fear? Currently she was watching her classmate, Shoji, she had been watching him for a while because in truth, she was terrified of him; So Lysithea wanted to find something of a weakness of his that she could exploit to ease her fear.
But right now, she was only more afraid, because she was watching him stalk towards a shivering rabbit, the bunny wouldn't even move, it was too filled with fear.
When she watched Shoji pounce on the rabbit she screamed in fear and then took off running, but if she had stayed just a little bit longer, Lysithea would've seen him stand back up with the rabbit wrapped in a blanket.
Shoji looked around in questioning, eventually shrugging it off and going back to drying the freezing rabbit.
On his way back to his dorm however, he collided with Lysithea, knocking her to the ground. Shoji stared down at her and extended his hand, much to her apparent horror.
After stuttering for a few minutes, Lysithea quickly got to her feet and ran away screaming, "I don't wanna end up like the rabbit!"
Shoji stared in confusion before feeling something softly slam into her right leg. He looked downwards and chuckled as he saw the brown rabbit he had saved looking up at him.
"I thought I told you to go home?"
The bunny only slammed into Shoji's leg again.
"Kota, correct?" Byleth asked as she approached the small boy.
"Yeah?" Kota still seemed surly about what happened a week ago.
"I wanted to talk to you about something. I want you to join my class," Byleth offered.
Kota's eyes widened as he shot off of the wall he was leaning against, "For real?"
"I saw you training with those knights yesterday, your skills in magic are extraordinary. I think you'd do well in my class," Byleth said.
"You don't have to ask me twice!"
"But she does have to ask me," a new voice chimed in.
Said voice belonged to a woman with short reddish-brown hair styled into three bangs going across her face, and eyes of the same color, she wore the same outfit that Tomoko did but instead of yellow it was red, she also had the same red lines on her cheeks.
"Aunt Shino," Kota said, his tone suddenly slightly depressed.
"Relax. As much as I don't like that you were about to go do this behind my back… we can't protect you forever. But I promise you this professor, if anything happens to my nephew, all four of us will each take a limb," Shino threatened.
"Don't worry, I won't let anyone kill him," Byleth said reassuringly.
"Ochako!" Setsuna called as she tried to catch up to the girl. Ochako seemed to have heard her, but was just ignoring her.
Setsuna broke into a sprint for a few seconds in order to get in front of Ochako before she got to the staircase leading to the other part of the first floor dorms.
"Yes?" Ochako asked in a monotone voice.
"I heard from Mina that you've been studying with her, do you mind helping me out to?" Setsuna asked.
"Well I'm actually pretty swamped with Mina so you're gonna have to find someone else," Ochako gave her and apologetic smile but Setsuna could tell that she didn't mean it.
Ochako tried to walk away but Setsuna blocked her again, "Hey, are you ok? Ever since we met again you've been really cold to me."
"I don't know what you mean," Ochako lied.
"We used to be really good friends...what happened?"
"You're a smart girl, you figure it out." and with that, Ochako left, leaving Setsuna concerned and utterly confused.
"Manly!" Eijirou screamed as he threw a right hook at the church soldier.
"Man!" Rapheal continued as he threw a left hook.
"Power!" Caspar finished as he hit the last soldier.
The three were currently in the training hall and surrounded by unconscious soldiers. They were panting wildly and slick with sweat.
Rapheal was a big man of the Golden Deer house, with short but messy blond hair, and eyes of the same color, his muscles were actually so large that his shirt strained to stay closed.
Caspar was a small but muscular boy from the Black Eagles house, he had pale blue hair shaved close to his head, and his eyes were only slightly paler than his hair.
"Woo, that was a hell of a workout." Eijirou began to toss towels to the boys.
"Yeah, but I feel a bit weaker than normal, I've been slacking in training a bit," Caspar admitted.
"Man, me too, I've probably been spending a bit too much time eating," Raphael chuckled.
"Well how about we set a time together?"
"What do you mean?" Caspar asked.
"I mean that everyday we'll set aside a time to train together, that way if one of us doesn't come the others can go grab him," Eijirou explained.
"That actually sounds pretty fun, it's rare that I find anyone willing to train with me. Apparently I'm too energetic," Caspar shrugged.
"Yeah, I like that idea! Just as long as it doesn't cut into meal time," Rapheal said.
Izuku and Byleth stood facing the forest on the edge of Castle Gaspard. Just over half an hour ago a thick blanket of fog had descended over the woods, seemingly out of nowhere.
"I don't like this," Izuku muttered.
"We'll be fine!" Tomoko's cheery voice said.
"So, Lord Lanato is hiding out in there?" Byleth asked.
"Yep, but thankfully we don't have to fight him just yet, if he comes out we engage," Tomoko explained.
"Hmm, good, if we just storm the castle we could end up harming a lot of civilians," Izuku mused.
"Ms. Tomoko!" A knight frantically called as he ran up to her, "Lord Lanato's troops, they slipped past us in the fog, they're heading right for us!"
Tomoko grumbled as she took up her sword and ordered two Myrmidons to follow her.
Izuku sighed as he took up his gauntlets and nodded to Byleth, who nodded back and drew her sword.
A single Armoured Knight stalked through the forest, he was slightly afraid, but Lord Lanato's wish took precidence over his own fright.
He heard a branch snap and whirled around in fear, only to feel himself get punched in the back of the head.
Once back on his feet, he whirled around and saw a boy with green hair in a fighters uniform, the shirt he wore was green and his brown leather spaulders that connected to his belt via two leather straps that made an 'X' across his chest.
Izuku roared as he threw three right hooks consecutively which cause him to drop his shield in an attempt to better guard his face.
Quickly, Izuku snatched up the discarded shield and slammed it into the skull of the armoured knight. Dazed and somewhat confused, the soldier swung his axe wildly, which Izuku blocked with his own shield before swinging it down and killing the knight.
Shoji was also in a fighters uniform, the difference from Izuku being the light blue shirt, and was engaged in a fist fight with a Gaspard soldier.
Shoji grabbed the man by the neck and head butted him, only to be blinded by the spray of blood from the soldier's mouth.
With a shout of disgust, he threw a left hook that missed and caused him to loose balance along with his gauntlets. The soldier kicked Shoji to the ground before grabbing him by the hair and punching him in the face about four times.
Shoji's hand searched around on the ground, eventually finding a large rock and bashing it against the man's head. Shoji screamed as he used the rock to beat a dent into the soldier's face.
Tenya shot out of the woods in his silver Soldier uniform, which was the top half of a suit of armour and some simply black pants, and sliced open one of the soldiers, before disappearing into the woods again.
A few seconds later, he appeared again, using his lance to vault over an axe swing before turning around and stabbing the attacker through the head.
Tenya disappeared once more, the final soldier of the three man squad, paranoid and terrified, he quickly turned at every little noise he heard. Until he was compelled to look up and cried out as Tenya dropped down upon him and stabbed him through the heart.
Kyouka was in a purple version of the fighter uniform, she slowly peered out from behind a fallen tree and shot an arrow out an pierced through a soldier's head.
His friends turned in shock as the soldier slumped to the ground, they investigated where the arrow had seemed to com from but by that time Kyouka was already gone.
Ochako watched as Kyouka gave her the signal to attack, she was wearing a pink version of the mage outfit, which was basically a dress that flowed halfway down her shin, the rest of her leg was covered up by the pair of brown boots she wore, and her hands were covered by a pair of black gloves.
Once given the signal, Ochako fired off a fire ball that slammed into one of the remaining Soldiers and blew him back, after that, she cast a Nosferatu that sucked out what little life remained.
With a low whistle, Ochako told Mina that it was her turn to attack, she was in a mainly purple Myrmidon outfit, a large strip of blue running down the center, upon her shoulders was a thin layer of silver armour, as well as her knees, and she wore a pair of brown boots.
Mina drew her sword and attempted it cut off the final soldiers sword arm, it would've been so cool if she had succeeded.
Instead she only made it halfway through his hand before she lost all momentum.
The soldier screamed as he dropped his weapon, "This is just cruel!"
"I didn't know this would happen!"
His screamed were stopped when Setsuna stabbed him through the heart, she was also in a Myrmidon outfit, although in the places that Mina's was purple, her's was black.
Kota shouted as he clapped his hands and sent forward a wave of gut piercing ice shards. The small boy was dressed in a dark blue monk uniform, but his was more of a body body suit than a dress, one that was tucked into his boots, he also wore a pair of black gloves.
The archer he was attempting to hit simply jumped over the shards and shot an arrow that clipped Kota's right arm and caused him to scream, before sending another wave of ice shards that riddled the archers body until he was dead.
Kota heard a scream from a soldier but just held up his left arm and killed him with a blade of wind.
Eijirou was in a red version of the fighter uniform, he pulled his hand axe from his belt and tossed it around the corner, jumping out with his big axe when he heard a scream of pain.
He hadn't, however, expected the archer he had just hit to have the strength to fire back at him.
Despite the arrow in his shoulder, Eijirou charged forward and brought his axe down on the archers head.
The dark mage that was responsible for the fog looked around in horror at his dead brothers, then scowled as he saw Byleth in her dark blue Myrmidon outfit.
"Lord Lanato deserves to suffer no longer!" The dark mage yelled as he flung forward a Miasma.
Byleth dodge the attack before charging and putting a deep slice in the mages chest, causing him to crumple like a piece of paper.
The mist lifted, revealing a gruff looking man sitting atop a horse, a silver lance gripped in his left hand, he had long blue-ish gray hair and a scowl on his face.
"For Christophe!" Lanato roared as he charged at Byleth, intending to stab her through the chest.
Byleth's eyes widened in fright when she was forced to watch Izuku step in front of her.
Izuku groaned as the lance pierced through the side of his torso. He dropped his left gauntlet and gripped onto the lance, making sure Lanato couldn't pull it out. Then with his still armed hand, he socked Lanato's horse, causing the animal to screech in pain and toss Lanato off of it.
Lanato groaned as he watched Byleth stand over him with her sword, then all he felt was pain.
"Christophe…" Lanato whispered, "I'll be with you soon."
Byleth dropped down next to Izuku, who chuckled as he ripped the lance from his torso, it was a flesh wound at best but that might have been the first moment that Byleth ever felt fear in her life.
"That was a very stupid thing to do," Byleth told her student.
"And I was supposed to let him stab you instead?" Izuku laughed.
"Yes!" Byleth said.
Izuku chuckled, "As corny as it sounds, I'm not gonna let anything happen to you."
It was only at this moment did Byleth realize just how close their faces were.
Izuku stared out at all the carnage, "To think that someone would be willing to sacrifice average citizens like this. Makes me sick."
"This is the reality of war," Byleth said simply as she used what little faith magic she knew to try and patch Izuku up.
"I know. It just never gets any easier," Izuku sighed.
"No, it doesn't. But in my eyes that's a good thing."
"You two, this is serious," Tomoko said, her usual cheeriness was gone, and in her hand she carried a small scroll.
"Let me see?" Izuku asked, thanks to Byleth's efforts the wound was closed and he was at least able to stand.
"An assassination plot? Against Rhea?" Izuku knew that there were people who didn't like the Seiros religion, but to go so far as to murder the Archbishop.
"I don't know how credible it is, considering Lanato was holding it on his person, but we should return at once and report this to Lady Rhea," Tomoko ordered.
Byleth nodded as she called out to her students.
Byleth couldn't sleep, something was keeping her up and she didn't know what, but soon she found herself waking the grounds of Garreg Mach, walking toward the stables.
She stopped however when she saw Izuku standing close to the edge, staring down at a pile of tinder on the ground. Byleth watched Izuku strike a match and flick it downwards, bathing the area in a warm orange glow.
Once the fire had been raging for a few minutes, Izuku picked up a piece of green cloth from the ground and tossed it onto the flames, watching with indifference as it burned.
Byleth slowly walked up behind Izuku and stood next to him with a question look on her face.
"It was my father's cloak," Izuku answered without skipping a beat.
That only served to confuse her further.
"He wasn't the best dad, let's leave it at that," Izuku said. He picked up a bucket of water and tossed it onto the fire, putting it out and leaving the cape nothing more than a pile of ash.
"And what if I want to talk about it?" Byleth asked.
"Then I would ask you kindly to not."
"What did he do to you?"
"Hisashi liked to abuse my mother and me," Izuku told her bitterly, "Not just physically but emotionally as well. To him, she was his trophy wife, someone he could impregnate until he got an heir, and I was his Crest bearer, I had to be perfect at everything and if I wasn't… I paid for it. In truth, sometimes I can't sleep because I'm afraid of waking up with him towering over me."
Byleth stared at the ground and allowed her hand to brush up against his, "Do you think it'd be better if you didn't have to sleep alone?"
Seeing him come so close to dying, it made Byleth realize something. She may be able to rewind time at will, but she didn't want to go another second without Izuku at least knowing.
Izuku blushed slightly and moved his hand a little closer to her, "I'd be lying if I said I haven't thought of it before."
"Me too."
"Are you sure you want this?" Izuku asked.
Byleth finally did what neither of them had dared to, and took his hand into her's, before pulling him closed and intertwining their lips, if only for a few seconds.
"Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you."
This may be turning out to be a problem. Could I possibly be moving too fast with this whole Izuku/Byleth thing? Definitely. Do I care? Not really, fuck that slow burn shit. Anyway, Discord Links:
Epsi's Hoard: https/discord.gg/E3rxK4uA
LoM: https/discord.gg/R9BU25t
That's it for now, Peace.