Tale of the Ashen Demon

Description: Born amidst ash and smoke under the wyvern moon, the child who bore the blood of the Immaculate One and the goddess Sothis was rescued from a life of subservience to the pale drake and the clutches of those who hide within the shadows. His trade was war and this child of the gods became known as Byleth, the Ashen Demon, and the son of the Blade Breaker Jeralt. But the time of hiding is now coming to an end, those his father sought to escape have found them once more, and now he is thrust on a path not of his choosing. But wielding the strength of dragons, he has vowed to break the chains of those who control Fodlan from the dark recesses of the world.

Prologue: Blood of Dragons

Byleth never understood why these dreams came to him as they did, most nights he saw nothing, heard nothing, remembered nothing as he slept. It had been over two years since the last time he had dreamt, and he had forgotten how much he hated it.

At one moment he was clutched in the strong arms of his father as the smell of smoke and fire filled his newly formed lungs, his wails echoing off of the stone walls as Jeralt escaped the inferno.

The next he was a boy of ten years, plunging a knife into the neck of a bandit over and over, the man's face warped into a look of shock and surprise mere moments before his death. He was overwhelmed by the smell of the blood coating his face and arms, but his rage commanded him to keep plunging his blade into the bloody strips of flesh that were once the throat of the first man who had tried to kill him.

Again the scenery changed, he was fifteen, barely old enough to be called a man, charging into battle for the first time alongside his father and his battalion of mercenaries. That day he slew five men, but he could not even remember their faces.

The next moment he was twenty, a city burning around him as he cut down civilians who were responsible for slaying the king of lions. Even as he struck down more men and women then he had ever killed before in his life, as their blood stained the cobblestones a crimson red that reflected the flames around his men, he felt nothing. This battle would become the birthplace of the Ashen Demon,

The scene changed again, yet now he was standing before a beautiful woman with hair and eyes the color of emeralds, filled with more hatred than he had ever seen as she plunged a blade into the face of an unkempt man over and over again. Staining her white armor and beautiful features red with blood.

Suddenly, it felt like he was being pulled away from this vision just as the woman turned her hate filled gaze upon him. Byleth stumbled backwards, nearly falling onto his rear before finding his footing. As he looked around, Byleth soon noticed that he was surrounded by an unending void of black that seemed almost impenetrable, the only source of light coming from behind him.

He turned around to see what looked like a small throne room made of stone with a set of stairs that led up to an ornate throne made of granite with strange runes and symbols carved into it. Upon it sat a pretty girl who could not have been older than fourteen, wearing lavish and strange clothing, and hair that shined with a bright green light. She slept soundly with her head resting on her hand, the sound of her soft breathing was the only noise that pierced the void.

He was contemplating stepping forward when suddenly her eyes opened ever so slightly, before focusing on him. Her eyes shone with the same green light that emanated from her hair, it was clear she wasn't fully awake, but nonetheless he heard her mumble something. Realizing she was not alone in this strange place, "a visitor? Who are you?" For some reason, he found that he did not hesitate to answer this strange girl, "I am Byleth."

She nodded slowly a few times, her eyes still heavy with sleep, "mhm. When were you born?" He was momentarily confused by the question, not understanding why she would wish to know that. But again, he found that he could not resist telling her, "I was born under the moon of the wyvern on the fourteenth day." The girl seemed to perk up slightly at his answer, a look of mild surprise crossed her eyes before the sleep took it's hold again, "hmm. Strange, that's my birthday as well. It is… Odd, you feel familiar to me but-" The girl covered her mouth as she yawned, "I am just so tired. I can't seem to recall very much right now. Perhaps after another nap, I'll- I'll be able to remember."

Just as her eyes were about to close once more, Byleth opened his mouth to ask her who she was, but before he could voice his question. He felt something forcibly dragging him out of the void of darkness and away from the sleeping girl.

Byleth's eyes snapped open as he felt a hand on his shoulder, shaking him awake, his face betrayed none of his surprise or confusion over what he had just seen. Already, the dream was beginning to fade away, yet the memory of the sleeping girl on her stone throne was stuck in his head. "Get up, lad. The battalion is about to march for Faerghus." He looked up to see his father standing over him, clad in his armor with his spear strapped to his back.

He rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he sat up and began adjusting to the darkness of the room he had been staying in, "father? It's not even dawn yet. Has something happened?" Jeralt shook his head, the man he called father was a giant compared to him; large, imposing, cold brown eyes, the only things that betrayed his age were the few creases that had begun to form beneath his eyes and the few gray strands of hair that were growing amongst his blonde locks. It was almost impossible to tell how old the Blade Breaker truly was, and Byleth could not remember a time where his father didn't look like this, it was almost as if he had stopped aging altogether after a certain point.

"I've got a bad feeling that something major is about to happen, I want to be out of Empire territory before the day ends, besides, Adrestian lands have gotten too peaceful recently. We haven't had a good job in months, the men are starting to get restless and I hear the lions are having a piracy problem. So get off your ass and be on your horse in the next ten minutes or I'm dragging you out in your britches."

Byleth scowled at his father before the giant of a man slapped his shoulder playfully before pulling open the door to the hut that the villagers lent him. Leaving him to fumble about in the darkness for his armor and equipment. The room was mostly barren, having nothing except for a bed of straw and a small oil lamp hooked onto the ceiling that was currently unlit. He strapped on his black leather tunic over his white undershirt, the tunic bore a red insignia that marked him as a member of Jeralt's mercenaries before tying his black cloak around his neck. He pulled on his black iron greaves and gauntlets, before finally pulling on his belt that connected to his sword sheathe. Byleth adjusted the armor until it was fitted comfortably for the ride northwards before stepping out of the accommodations that he had been given by the villagers.

He was lucky compared to most of the men, he was one of fifty other soldiers who were sworn into service by Jeralt for a chance at a good paycheck and a chance to fight alongside the Blade Breaker. But the rest of them had to make due with sleeping in tents out in the cold while he had the comfort of a roof over his head for once. Not that he was complaining.

As he made his way to where the rest of their battalion was packing up and loading their gear onto their horses and the wagons they had brought to this place. He couldn't help but feel like coming to this backwater village in the middle of the Adrestian empire had been a giant waste of time. As far as Jeralt told them, the leader of the village had been having trouble with a group of bandits for the last few months and hired them to clear them out. But the wretches hadn't shown their faces once in the three months they had stayed here. Byleth could only conclude that once the bandits caught wind of the village hiring their company, they turned tail and ran long before they arrived. So they ended up wasting three months in the middle of nowhere for a paltry sum when they could have been out finding real work.

"At least father finally wised up and is letting us leave this shithole" Byleth thought to himself, he still couldn't understand why Jeralt had insisted on taking such a terrible paying job. But it wasn't his place to question his commander.

It didn't take long for him to reach his company and locate his father amongst the chaos of the men getting ready to move out. His father greeted him with a nod as he loaded one of their bags onto a wagon being pulled by two large grey horses. "About time kid, I was just about to come and drag you out here." He simply scowled in response as his father chuckled to himself, "It's just a joke Byleth. Don't take everything so seriously."

He leaned against the cart as his father grabbed another bag and loaded it onto the same wagon, "I still don't understand why you insisted that we take a shitty job like this and waste three months making scraps when we could be out finding real work. Then out of nowhere you decide we need to leave immediately, the hell is going on with you?"

The older man froze for a moment with a blank expression on his face before resuming what he was doing, "I've got my reasons son. I swear we'll be swimming in coin when we cross the border, but for now I need you to-"

Jeralt suddenly froze as his gaze drifted to a nearby hill and spotted something, Byleth followed his father's gaze and saw what had caught his attention, a small company carrying torches and flags of several different colors were riding towards the village at a fast pace, but they were still too far to make out the symbols on them. It seemed like they were fleeing something.

He heard his father mumble under his breath, "goddess damn it all…" Before turning and shouting at the company to form up and grab their weapons. The men began to scramble as more people realized that someone was approaching them.

Byleth wasted no time falling in line beside his father as they formed a blockade between the incoming riders and the village, but he quickly realized these weren't the bandits that they had been hired to protect the village from.

The group came to a halt about thirty feet away from the spear line that was blocking their path, waving a white flag in order to show they meant no harm. There was only about twenty of them in total, a knight in plate armor dismounted and approached with his hands raised in a show of surrender, "mercenaries! My companions and I mean you no harm! But I must speak with your leader immediately, danger is about to descend not only upon us but upon this village as well!"

Jeralt slowly stepped forward with his spear clutched firmly in his right hand, a grim look in his eyes as he addressed the knight, "state your business stranger. We have no quarrel with you but we will not hesitate to cut you and your friends down if you threaten us." The man shook his head furiously, "I bear you no ill will my lord! I have been tasked with transporting students bound to Garreg Mach, but for the last three days we have been chased by a group of bandits who are intent on capturing and ransoming my charges to the church. We were meant to meet up with reinforcements from the Knights of Seiros but I fear they will not reach us in time! Please, I beg of you! We will gladly pay you for your aid, but the bandits are not far behind us!"

Jeralt froze the moment the man mentioned Garreg Mach, his somber look only deepening as he absorbed the information the man was telling him. "The Knights of Seiros hm? Damn it all." Jeralt turned back to his company and began shouting orders, "prepare for battle men! It seems like we'll be finishing this job after all!"

The knight company immediately broke and began preparing for the arrival of the bandits, moving the carts into the center of the village and escorting the village residents who came out to see what the commotion was back into their homes. Byleth began to briskly walk towards his father as they continued to plan out the battle, his hand firmly clasped on his sword hilt.

"How long do you think we have before the bandits arrive, son?" The man shook his head, "not long, milord. Perhaps an hour at most but no more, we had one of the mages set fire to the underbrush as they were chasing us and that managed to scatter them for a moment."

Jeralt nodded as Byleth finally reached the duo, "how many men were chasing you?" He could tell that the knight seemed surprised to see one of the mercenaries so brazenly interject himself into the conversation, "I- well, perhaps about a hundred or so? Maybe a little less? It was a bit hard to tell in the chaos."

Both Jeralt and Byleth scowled before sharing a look of understanding with each other, his father stroked his chin at the news, "so not only do we not have any time to prepare, we're also outnumbered two to one." Byleth cut in, "how many of your men are in fighting condition? We're going to need as many able bodied soldiers on our side if we're going to make it out of this alive."

The knight hesitated, "we have ten men who can fight, we have two mages as well who know a few minor spells, but the rest are in no condition to-"

Another voice cut through the commotion that was going on around them and caught all three men's attention, "we will be joining the battle as well sir Tarthus." Three students walked up to the trio, only a few years younger than Byleth himself, one was a tall and fair skinned man in his late teens with short yellow hair the color of straw and ice blue eyes, he wore a black uniform with a blue cloak. The second was a pretty young woman with platinum blonde hair, purple eyes, and wore a similar black uniform with a red cloak. The last one was a dark skinned teen with tousled brown hair, grey eyes, and wore the same uniform except with a yellow cloak.

"Prince Dimitri, you know that I am under strict orders to-" The woman cut him off with a stern glare, "with all due respect sir Tarthus, our best chance at survival would be for us to join the battle as well. The more hands you have available means that there is less likely of a chance for the bandits to overwhelm our position."

The knight attempted to speak but was cut off by the last student, "c'mon! Think about it logically, we need to buy as much time as possible for the Knights of Seiros to show up and help us, the longer we can draw this fight out, it means that that's more time for the knights to get here! Besides, it's not like we're unprepared to fight, we can do this!"

The knight looked between the three students before his shoulders sagged, "very well… I suppose it would be in all of our best interest for you to aid us in the upcoming battle. But I feel inclined to warn the three of you to be careful. Your lives are far too important to be lost here!"

All three of the students nodded in acceptance, Jeralt placed a hand on Byleth's shoulder before addressing the knight once more. "You have nothing to worry about, sir Tarthus, my son will make sure no harm comes to your students during the coming battle. I have the utmost faith in his abilities."

Byleth looked at his father in surprise, "excuse me?" Jeralt grinned, "weren't you the one complaining that we were wasting our time out here doing nothing for three months? It only seems fair that I give you the most important job of keeping the kids safe, after all. The bandits are going to be trying their hardest to get to them, that means you get to be in the line of fire just like you want."

He took a look at the three students, the woman in red crossed her arms with a suspicious look in her eyes as she looked him up and down, the man in blue gave him a curt nod with a serious look in his eyes, and the man in yellow flashed him a smile that didn't reach his eyes.

Byleth sighed before running a hand through his green hair, his trademark scowl returned to his face, "very well commander. I'll make sure the kids don't get themselves killed." Jeralt slapped him on the back, "that's what I like to hear. Now get in position and take the students with you, I've got a few more details to work out with our friend here. Get moving lad."

Byleth nodded once before motioning for the trio to follow him towards the back of the village where the bandits were least likely to attack. Welp, at least there would be a payoff for this terrible job, even if it wasn't what he expected.

True to the knights word, the bandit horde had been hot on their heels. Byleth and the trio of students had barely gotten into position near the back of the village when the marauders began pouring over the hillside and charging towards the company known as Jeralt's Mercenaries. But with the Blade Breaker at their command, the bandits found their assault quickly broken upon the battalions spears. Two dozen fell before they managed to break through the spear line and begin the real battle.

Unfortunately for himself, he was regulated to babysitting a bunch of teens at the opposite end of the village away from the fighting. When it was clear that no one was getting through anytime soon, he sat himself down beneath an oak tree with his arms crossed over his chest and closed his eyes, ready to catch a few more minutes of sleep. Or so he thought, he was just about to doze off after making sure the students were idling about near the edge of the village and not trying to sneak off to join the battle when he heard the sound of dirt crunching beside him. He opened his eyes in annoyance to find the teen in the yellow uniform crouched down less than a foot away from him.

"The hell do you want?" The dark skinned teen replied, "are you really that guy's son?"

Byleth glared at him, "fuck off. I'm not here to answer your questions, I'm just meant to keep you out of trouble, remember?" The teen flashed him another smile that didn't reach his eyes, "come on, just answer the question. I mean, you don't look anything alike." Byleth gave the younger man a blank stare, "I take after my mother. So what?"

The teen shrugged, "well… I just think it's a little weird is all, I mean you really look nothing like that other guy. I was just curious-" The teen yelped as the boy in blue dragged him to his feet and away from him, "for the love of the goddess Claude! Can you not annoy our bodyguard with your inane questions? It's obvious he isn't interested in answering them to begin with."

The girl in red turned around and approached the trio with her arms crossed, "I have to agree with Dimitri, Claude. You aren't helping by badgering our protector with a bunch of useless questions."

The young man known as Claude shrugged his shoulders, "oh come on Edelgard! I was just curious is all. Besides, you have to admit the two of them don't look anything alike."

Edelgard pinched the bridge of her nose, "that isn't the… Oh for the love of- why the hell must we put up with your stupid games Claude! None of us are interested in humoring you, so can you please just do us all a favor and keep your mouth-" Their argument was interrupted by multiple pairs of footsteps approaching from the edge of the village.

"Well! Well! Well! Looks like the boss was smart in telling us to circle around like this to check and see if those morons left our moneymakers over here! Aint that lucky for us?" About a dozen bandits crept from beyond the shadows, all of them were filthy and wearing ragged old leather armor or tunics, their weapons were covered in rust or chipped off near the edges.

Byleth sighed before standing up and stepping in between the approaching bandits and the trio of students. "Sorry, but I can't let you take them. If you want to live, leave."

The leader of the bandits grinned before raising his axe, "really? A fucking little rat like you is gonna stop all of us?" The lead bandit motioned for his companions to move in and three bandits moved in to make a move on him while the rest attempted to circle around and reach his charges.

Byleth sighed and unsheathed his iron sword before lazily swinging it upwards and resting the blunt edge on his right shoulder. He glanced over his shoulder at Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude. "Give me some space, I'll deal with these assholes. Just don't get in my way."

The trio nodded in confirmation before raising their own weapons just in case, Edelgard bore a heavy two handed axe, Claude slipped an arrow between his bowstring, and Dimitri pulled his spear off his back before all three students backed up several feet in order to give the mercenary more space.

Byleth took two steps towards the nearest bandit who took that as a challenge, with a roar the marauder attempted to take his head off of his shoulders with an old sword. He nimbly sidestepped the clumsy blow and this left the bandit exposed after pouring so much energy into the attack, with a quick cleave upwards that almost seemed lazy in it's delivery, he separated the man's arm that was clasping the damaged sword just above the elbow, from his body. The iron blade tore through muscle, sinew, and bone before the arm went flying a few feet away. The man froze for a brief moment before falling to his knees and screaming his head off as blood began to gush out of the stump that was once his arm. The rest of the bandits froze in shock at the brutal display and suddenly all attention was focused on Byleth.

He stared at the bandit for a moment as the man began to ramble incoherently from the shock of losing his arm before giving his sword a quick flick downwards, splattering the ground with the excess blood, "boring." Byleth muttered to himself before lopping off the man's head in one smooth horizontal motion.

The head tumbled away as the man's body slumped over in a growing pool of red liquid. Byleth looked back up to see the rest of the bandits in front of him still standing in shock at seeing their friend getting executed in such a brutal manner.

Byleth exhaled before taking a deep breath before focusing on the remaining bandits, he took a few casual steps forward and this seemed to snap everyone out of their stupor. The lead bandit took a hesitant step backwards before shouting at the top of his lungs, "what the hell are you idiots waiting for! Kill this bastard!"

After a momentary glance between themselves, the ten remaining bandits charged towards him, but before they reached him, a single bandit fell to the ground with an arrow lodged in his left eye. He felt annoyance at Claude's interference but shrugged it off as the bandits neared him, he backstepped a downward cleave from the nearest marauder and rammed the tip of his blade through the man's throat. Just as the body was beginning to fall over, he grabbed the man's axe out of his hands and gave it a strong toss at one of the other bandits. The axe buried itself into the man's face and he fell backwards, the remaining eight bandits didn't stop charging at him.

Just as the lead three bandits were about to pounce on him, a red figure on his left sunk her axe straight through one of the men's shoulders and tore it down into his chest. Meanwhile a blue shape on his right rammed a spear through the charging bandit's heart. And in the back of the charging group he saw yet another bandit fall over with an arrow in the center of his forehead.

Byleth deflected a strike aimed at his chest before sinking his blade straight into the attacking bandit's stomach. He shouted at the three students over the sound of fighting and clashing metal as he kicked the man's body off of his sword. "I thought I told you three to not get in my way!"

He heard Edelgard on his left shout to him, "we didn't wish to force you to do all of the work yourself! Besides, it's idiotic to let you fight all of them on your own when we are perfectly capable of helping."

Byleth heard Dimitri respond on his right, "I must agree with Lady Edelgard, sir! It would not be honorable to put you in harm's way when we asked you for aid even though we are capable of fighting them ourselves.

And lastly he could hear Claude shout from behind him, "c'mon and loosen up a little! There isn't anything wrong with letting us get a few hits in ourselves right? I mean it's less work for you after all! Isn't it?"

Byleth rolled his eyes as he blocked an incoming downwards sword strike with his gauntlet, the rusty blade snapping in two as it connected with his metal cased arm. He flipped his sword so that it was pointing upwards and rammed it straight through the man's chin and through his skull and into his brain, killing him instantly. He pulled his weapon free with a wet squelching sound, before pulling his knife out of it's sheathe and dodging to the side in order to avoid a spear was coming from his peripheral vision. He used his momentum to spin around behind the bandit and ram his knife through the back of his neck and letting him drop to the ground before slipping it back into it's holster on his hip.

It didn't take long for the bandits to fall, until finally all that remained were three, Edelgard and Dimitri were struggling to put down two of the marauders that had charged them, leaving him with the bandit leader. The man hesitated for a brief moment before steeling himself and charging with a blood curdling war cry, Byleth clasped his sword with both hands and fell into a low stance. Just as his opponent was within arms reach with his axe raised above his head, ready to cleave him clean in two. He swung upwards so quickly and with enough force to slice directly through the handle of the axe, and into the left side of the man's face. A hail of splinters flew around him as the man was knocked clean off of his feet and landed a few feet away. Blood pouring from his skull.

Suddenly the stalemate between the bandits and the two students near him was broken, and Edelgard nearly cleaved her opponent in half while Dimitri knocked his enemy off balance with the butt of his spear before driving it into the man's throat.

Just as the last two bodies hit the ground, Byleth was able to take a deep breath. All three students were a few feet away, having moved away from him during the fighting. He slipped his sword back into its sheathe as he tried to catch his breath. Glancing between all three students and making sure they were unharmed. He breathed a sigh of relief, he couldn't imagine how much shit he would receive from father if any of them ended up dead or injured under his watch.

Just as his adrenaline high was beginning to wear off, the lead bandit jumped to his feet with a war cry, catching Byleth by surprise. With blood pouring from the cut in his face and his broken axe in hand, he charged towards Edelgard with an animalistic shriek.

"Shit." He didn't hesitate to sprint towards the girl to his left, Claude was out of arrows and Dimitri wouldn't make it in time. Without even thinking, he threw himself in front of the girl and pushed her away, turning his back to the bandit in order to shield her from the blow. Just as he was expecting to feel the excruciating pain of the axe tearing through his spinal cord, a strange sensation overcame him and he felt as if he was being dragged away from the battle at an incredible pace.

Byleth caught himself before he fell forwards, catching his footing as he found himself in the middle of a familiar black void. He heard a voice call out behind him, "what the hell were you thinking! You were just about to throw your own life away for a girl you don't know anything about!? What's wrong with you?"

He slowly turned around to find the strangely garbed girl lounging on her stone throne once more, this time very much awake.

"Where am I?" The girl's angry demeanor changed almost instantly to one of confusion, "I- don't actually know. I can't even remember the last time someone came here, much less what this place is. I think I've been here so long that I've forgotten how this place came to be."

Byleth nodded slowly, "okay… And who are you?" The girl rested her chin on her hand as a thoughtful look spread across her delicate features, "my name? My name… It's been so long that I can't quite…" Suddenly her face lit up as recognition struck her, "Sothis! My name is Sothis! And you are Byleth correct? You were here not that long ago if I recall correctly."

Suddenly her expression changed back to anger, as if she suddenly remembered why he was here. "Do you not realize how close you were to death? If I had not intervened you would have died needlessly, don't you know that!?"

He crossed his arms over his chest, "I was given a task and I meant to complete it, even if I did lose my life in the process. I do not need you to lecture me over how I could have died. And what do you mean you intervened?"

Sothis huffed in annoyance as she snapped her fingers and suddenly his mind was filled with the image of himself standing between the bandit and Edelgard, his enemies' axe less than an inch from his flesh. "I managed to stop the flow of time before the blow landed, but you could at least thank someone for saving your life, you jerk!"

Suddenly the image faded away and he was staring at the girl now standing above him on the staircase with her arms folded, he stroked his chin as he contemplated what she had told him. "I see, so what do we do now?" Sothis gave him a perplexed look, "I'm not sure really. I've stopped time but I don't know what else to do now. Do you have any ideas?"

It only took him a brief moment to come up with a suggestion, "why don't you reverse the flow of time for a short period? Could you do that?" Sothis nodded hesitantly, "yes… I suppose I can try that. I'm not exactly used to this ability but it is somewhat familiar. I feel like I've done something like this in the past, but it has been so long that I have forgotten when I last did it. Strange."

An insignia appeared from Sothis' raised hand and Byleth could feel himself being pulled away once more, just as he was being pulled out of the void he heard Sothis' voice in his mind. "I don't know why, but I feel as if our lives are now linked to each other Byleth, be careful. There is only so many times I can use this ability in one sitting, do not rely on it. "

Suddenly he was back on the battlefield, the two dead bandits hit the ground and he risked taking a glance at Edelgard to make sure this was real. Somehow, it had worked. He was back just moments before the lead bandit struck.

His gaze shifted to the bandit lying on the ground, tightening his grasp on his sword instead of relaxing this time. As soon as the bandit jumped to his feet he broke into a sprint towards Edelgard, he had just barely reached her before the bandit did and raised his blade as he slid to a stop in front of her. With one quick thrust, he rammed his sword into his enemies' heart. The man froze with the axe lifted above his head before his arms dropped and his body slumped forwards onto the blade.

Byleth deftly pulled his weapon free and let the body fall onto the cold dirt road, he turned to look at Edelgard who seemed to be frozen in a mix of shock and amazement. "You all right?"

The young woman nodded at him, and after taking one last glance around the battlefield, he returned his blade to it's sheathe once more. Both Dimitri and Claude jogged towards the pair, "that was incredible! How did you know that bandit wasn't dead?"

Dimitri nodded in agreement as the duo came to a stop next to him, "I must agree. Your reflexes almost seemed supernaturally good."

Byleth merely frowned as he placed a hand on his weapon, "just a lucky guess I suppose. It's just a coincidence that I was close enough to reach your friend in time."

He stiffened as he felt a hand on his back as Edelgard circled around him to rejoin her companions, the touch only lasted a moment but it was enough to throw him off, "still. I can't thank you enough for what you did. Your skills are absolutely incredible! I haven't seen someone so young show so much prowess. What is your name?"

He hesitated for a moment before replying, he wasn't fond of just giving out his name to rich noble types, that was a lesson his father had ingrained into him since he was a boy. But he doubted any harm would come from telling them, "Byleth. My name is Byleth."

Dimitri bowed his head in greeting, "it is an honor to fight alongside such a skilled warrior such as yourself. I feel like I must ask you to lend your services to the Kingdom of Faerghus as its-" He was suddenly cut off by Edelgard, "now wait a minute Dimitri! I was just about to ask our new friend to lend his service to the Adrestian Empire, you can't just butt into our conversation and try to steal him out from under me!" Claude grinned as he pushed his way in between the two nobles and flashed him a grin, "oh come on guys! You can't wait two minutes before trying to rope Byleth here into your service. And here I was planning to forge a nice and long lasting friendship before trying to beg him to work for the Alliance!"

Suddenly all three students focused their attention on him, suddenly making him feel uncomfortable as Edelgard asked, "sir Byleth! I must ask that you choose which one of us that you would prefer to work for! If you had to work for the Empire, Kingdom, or Alliance, which would you choose?" Byleth shifted uncomfortably as all three of them looked at him expectantly, his scowl deepened as he shook his head, "it doesn't matter and I really don't care. My services aren't for sale, I'm sworn into the service of my father. You want to hire me? You'll have to talk to him about hiring our mercenary company."

The trio had a looked of disappointment mixed with awkwardness as if they weren't used to being brushed off so brazenly before. But frankly, he didn't care. He doubted he would even see these three again after today. Byleth turned and began walking back towards the front of the village, the sounds of fighting had long since died down and the sun had already risen over the horizon, bathing the undamaged village in the morning light. He didn't even check to make sure the students were following him, "I'm more than ready to leave this fucking place." He muttered to himself, it didn't matter where they went, all he cared about was leaving this rundown village in the middle of nowhere.

He found his father talking to the same damn knight that had begged them for help a few hours ago, the surviving knights and his company were piling bodies up and letting the mages set fire to them with their magic. Reducing them to nothing but ashes that scattered in the early morning breeze. The trio of students were trailing a few feet behind him, whispering to themselves so that he couldn't overhear them, not that he cared what they were saying. He was more than ready to be rid of them.

"So how did your fight go?" Jeralt turned to him with the corners of his mouth slightly upturned at his return, "it went just fine. None of my men were killed, but we lost two of the knights. And none of our guys were badly hurt. When the bandits realized they were losing, most of them turned tail and ran. We cut down as many as we could but a few got away, I doubt they'll come back here after that. What about you?"

Byleth shrugged, "a few bandits tried to sneak around and grab the students. But we cut them all down." Jeralt nodded before turning back to the knight, "now about our fee for bailing you out. I assure you we don't come cheap."

Their conversation was cut off by the sound of a horn before a few dozen knights in shining steel armor and flowing white capes came over the hillside. A white banner with an emblem of a griffon rode down and stopped right in front of the village.

As soon as Jeralt caught sight of the man leading the troupe, he groaned audibly, "oh for the love of… Why of all people did it have to be him?" Byleth took his place next to his father as the knight all but sprinted to meet up with the incoming captain. The approaching man looked to be in his mid thirties and didn't particularly stand out from other soldiers he had seen, short combed light brown hair, soft grey eyes that didn't seem befitting of a knight, and a long mustache that sat atop a plain face that was beaming with joy at the sight of his father.

"Captain Jeralt! I cannot believe it's you! No one's found hide nor hair of you since you up and disappeared over twenty years ago! Do you recognize me! It's your old student Alois!" His father was visibly uncomfortable as the younger man clapped him on both shoulders, Jeralt sighed with his eyes closed before opening them and focusing on Alois, "yes Alois. I remember you, you'll have to forgive me for disappearing. Something important came up in my life and I didn't have the time to lead the Knights of Seiros. Well, it was good seeing you but we really must be on our way."

Jeralt tried to turn away and disengage from the conversation as quick as possible, but he wasn't that lucky. Alois grabbed him by the shoulders and forced him to turn back and face him, "are you kidding captain!? Everyone at Garreg Mach thought you were dead! You can't just run off again after we just reunited! I must insist that you accompany me back to see Lady Rhea! She'll be overjoyed to see you again!" Byleth could visibly see his father pale at the mention of this so called Lady Rhea.

Seeing his father struggle so much with this stranger finally made him cut into the conversation in order to try and help, "father? Do you know this man? Who the hell is Lady Rhea or these knights of Seiros?"

Suddenly this strange energetic man know as Alois let go of Jeralt and focused his attention on him, and Byleth suddenly felt like he had made a massive mistake. Alois' jaw dropped as he stared at him before quickly turning his gaze back to Jeralt and continued to shift back and forth between the two of them before regaining his composure and focusing his attention on him, "a son? The captain has a son! This is incredible!" Alois suddenly turned back to Jeralt, "is this why you left! Why didn't you say so captain!? I'm sure Lady Rhea would've understood if you had to leave in order to take care of your family. Why I had no idea at all that you had a wife to begin with!"

Before Jeralt could even respond, Alois whipped his gaze back to Byleth, suddenly making him feel very self conscious, "are you really the captain's son!?" His self consciousness suddenly turned to annoyance, it didn't take him long to figure out exactly why his father was so keen on trying to escape this conversation, he sarcastically replied, "no. I'm a bandit who's infiltrated Jeralt's mercenary company and convinced him that I am his son and I'm planning to avenge my fallen comrades now that I've gotten close to both of you!"

Suddenly Alois burst out laughing, and more than anything Byleth wished for this conversation to end, "I see your boy has inherited your dry sense of wit captain! He's certainly got your blood in him!" Jeralt was currently pinching the bridge of his nose when Alois wrapped an arm around Jeralt's shoulders with a bright smile on his face, "you absolutely must come with us back to Garreg Mach! No, I'm not asking, I insist you come with us! I'm sure Lady Rhea will be absolutely thrilled to see you again and will want to personally reward you for saving the lives of the heirs to the three nations. It would be absolutely disastrous if their lives would have been lost under our watch!"

Both Byleth and Jeralt shared a surprised look with each other before Byleth slowly turned around to see the three students standing awkwardly behind him watching their conversation. He slowly turned his attention back to Alois, "Come again?" Alois had a shocked look on his face, "didn't you know? Edelgard is the heir to the imperial throne of Adrestia, Dimitri over there is the son of the late king of Faerghus, and the lad Claude is the grandson of the Duke of the Alliance. I thought someone would have told you that-"

Jeralt finally snapped at Alois, "for the love of the goddess Alois! Fine! We'll accompany you back to Garreg Mach and speak with Lady Rhea, now do us all a favor and shut your damn mouth and get a move on soldier!" Jeralt's harsh tone seemed to trigger something ingrained in Alois, the knight quickly stood upright and saluted Byleth's father, "of course captain! I'll make sure we're ready to leave within the hour sir! You have my word!"

Alois suddenly ran off to take care of other matters and both of them breathed a sigh of relief now that he was gone, Byleth glared at his father who shrugged apologetically at him, "sorry about that. Alois has always had a loud mouth on him. Doesn't know when to shut up most of the time. Looks like our plans changed kid, guess we won't be heading to Faerghus anytime soon. Just… Try and prepare yourself to meet Lady Rhea, she isn't an easy woman to deal with."

Jeralt walked off, leaving him alone with the three students once more, he could hear them approaching behind him. It was Claude that addressed him first, "so… Byleth. I hear you'll be escorting us to the monastery. I guess that means-"

"I want all three of you to listen to my words very carefully, we are not friends. I am not working for any of you. I am only doing this because that dipshit is strong-arming father into following you back. So do us both a favor and keep your distance because I fully intend to leave as soon as we receive our payment from this Lady Rhea. Do I make myself clear?"

He turned around to see all three of them with shocked expressions on their faces, it was Edelgard who was able to break the tension first. "Uh… Yes, you've made your point sir, we won't trouble you anymore." All three students bowed to him and he didn't even bother to return the favor before storming off to find his horse. He couldn't believe father allowed himself to get roped into another pointless job when they could have been long gone from this awful place.

He could only hope this visit to this place known as Garreg Mach wouldn't take as long as the last job.