Everyone seems to agree that Byleth's emotionless demeanor is related to the Crest of Flames. Wouldn't it be funny if it was just Asperger's, or even just poor childhood socialization?
Even with the war still going, Byleth insisted the Eagles finish their interrupted school year, and the nine of them, plus Constance and Cyril, were busy studying. While Byleth was supervising them, Alois went to start a conversation with him.
"So, Professor. Now that you're a father, have you been working on your dad jokes?" Alois asked Byleth.
"Dad jokes?" Byleth asked.
"Yes, dad jokes. One of the most important skills for any dad!" Alois said.
Byleth frowned. "My father didn't make dad jokes."
"That explains why you have no sense of humor," Alois said, rolling his eyes. "Dad jokes are an important part of child development."
Byleth was about to reply dismissively, but couldn't help thinking that Alois might be right. "Fine. What do I need to know?"
"The first rule of dad jokes is, know your audience," Alois informed him. "Young children won't appreciate especially complex jokes. But at the same time, you don't want to go lowbrow enough that it feels like you're insulting their intelligence, unless the point of the joke is that it's that lowbrow, like with the, 'Hi hungry I'm Dad' style of dad jokes. Let's give an example. A few years ago, my daughter was just beginning to learn to spell. When she got full marks on her spelling test, my wife cooked a delicious ham to celebrate. I said, 'That's a nice ham you've got there. It would be a shame if someone were to put an S in front of it and an E behind it!' Hahahaha!"
"So, the joke was funny because she was just old enough to get it?" Byleth asked.
"Sort of," Alois told him. "It took her a few seconds to get it, but when she did, she laughed and laughed."
"I think I can understand that," Byleth said. He thought for a moment, then said, "I think I have some time."
"Probably," Alois admitted. "Still, no time like the present." He took his joke notebook from his pocket.
"I should have made sure that notebook remained lost," Byleth thought.
Before Alois could start, Seteth entered the room, along with a man with shoulder-length green hair and green eyes. "Hello, Seteth! And this must be Saint Indech, I presume?" Alois asked. "
"Yes, that's right," Indech confirmed.
"I'm Alois Rangeld," Alois introduced himself. "And I think you already know the Professor."
"Of course," Indech nodded. He then looked around the improvised classroom. "I know some of these youngsters too."
"Youngsters? You're, like, two years older than...wait." Caspar cut himself off as he realized.
Indech laughed uproariously. "Caspar, right?"
"Yeah, that's me," Caspar confirmed.
"And you're...Linhardt," Indech ventured, looking at the green-haired mage.
"That's right," Linhardt said.
"And...Petra," Indech continued.
"Yes, Petra is me. It is good to be meeting you," Petra said.
"It is good to be meeting you too," Indech replied. "And you are...Dorothea."
"Yes, that's me. Good to know you remembered me," Dorothea said with a grin.
"And I think your name is Yuri, right?" Indech asked.
"It may or may not be," Yuri smirked.
"I'll take that as a yes," Indech said, amused. "And...Bernie."
"It's Bernadetta," Bernadetta said. "Usually only my friends call me Bernie. Though I'm not saying you're not my friend, I just don't know you very well, not that I don't want to, I just...I probably offended you, I'm so sorry!"
"Hey, it's all right!" Indech laughed off her concerns. "And you're Ferdinand von Aegir."
"Indeed," Ferdinand nodded.
Indech then looked at the four others. "I don't recognize any of you."
Constance stood up quickly. "I am Constance von Nuvelle, Abyss's foremost magical expert and soon-to-be restorer of House Nuvelle!"
"Cyril. Nice to meet you," Cyril introduced himself.
"Edelgard von Hresvelg," Edelgard said cautiously.
"And I am Hubert," Hubert said, eyeing Indech suspiciously.
Indech didn't give any indication of hostility. "And where's that Leonie girl? Nothing bad happened to her, I hope?"
"No, she's simply dealing with a problem in the east," Seteth told him.
"Good," Indech said, relieved. He then turned back to Edelgard. "When's lunch?"
"Lunch?" Edelgard asked. "Lunch was two hours ago."
"Well, can we have something to eat anyway?" Indech asked. "I'm hungry."
"That would be what's on your mind," Seteth said with a slightly joking smile. "Though I would hardly mind having something to eat myself. We missed lunch
"Well, I'm sure we can get you something," Edelgard agreed.
A short time later, Indech and Seteth were busy eating, and Byleth had brought Leraye out to meet Indech. The others had also joined, in order to make the guest feel welcome. "So this is her?" Indech asked, feeling the point of one of her ears with his left hand. "Hello, little one."
A sad smile overtook his features. "It has been a long time since our family has seen such a blessing as you."
"You should have seen the Professor's face when he found out he had a kid," Alois interjected. "It was infant-astic!"
To Byleth's horror, Indech laughed at the terrible pun. "Oh no, he's going to be unbearable now that he has an audience."
Thankfully for Byleth, he was rescued from the oncoming hurricane of bad puns by the sudden arrival of the Gatekeeper. "Greetings, Professor! A few things to report. We have received a message stating that the Great Bridge of Myrddin was somehow destroyed!"
Indech's face went white. "Oh no."
"How bad were the casualties?" Byleth asked.
"It's not clear at the moment, but casualties appear to be lower than initially estimated," Roger assured. "And another thing. Lady Rhea and Saint Macuil have arrived."
Rhea and Macuil entered the room after their presence was announced, and Rhea immediately went to fuss over her daughter. "I missed you, my sweet."
Macuil gave Byleth a critical look. "This is him?"
"Macuil!" Indech was scandalized. "Be nice!" Macuil just sniffed, unimpressed.
"As much as I would love to have a family reunion at the moment, we need to discuss strategy," Seteth said. "The Great Bridge of Myrddin was the fastest and safest route from Enbarr to Goneril, and by extension Shambhala. With that route unavailable to us, we will have to direct troops through Faerghus and cross into Leicester through Ailell."
"Ironic," Indech smirked.
"Quite," Seteth agreed. "Sadly, it will be a very time-consuming process. By my estimation, it could take several months."
"There has to be a faster way," Edelgard mused.
"Question." Byleth asked. "Why do we need the Imperial forces to attack Shambhala?"
Everyone looked at him, prompting him to explain further. "The Agarthans have one city. That's all. And it's a city they have to keep hidden, while at the same time providing food, water, and other supplies to its inhabitants, so the population can't be high enough to make it noticeable. Plus, not everyone in Shambhala is going to be combat capable. The whole reason for Thales starting a war is because he simply doesn't have the manpower to mount a conventional conquest. We don't need the Imperial Army."
Hubert shook his head. "Maybe, but we'll be fighting on unfamiliar ground, and Thales will doubtless have no shortage of unpleasant surprises for us. Attacking without our full force without a clear idea of what we can expect from Thales's forces would be inadvisable."
Byleth paused. "Maybe we should talk about this somewhere more private."
Once the impromptu war council had moved to one of Hubert's secure rooms, Byleth brought up a question. "Rhea. Edelgard. What is the plan for after we defeat Thales and Nemesis?"
"After?" Edelgard asked. "What do you mean?"
"Once we defeat the Agarthans and their leaders are dead, what are we going to do with the rest of them? They won't fight to the last man, woman, and child. What do we do with the noncombatants, and any who surrender?"
Both Rhea and Edelgard clearly hadn't considered the question; it was quite possible that they both had expected the Agarthans to fight to the last man, woman, and child, or at least hadn't given a thought to the idea of survivors.
Because their faces betrayed confusion rather than guilt or shame, Byleth could tell that they hadn't been planning to leave no survivors, just that they hadn't thought things through. And if either of them considered the idea, they couldn't ring themselves to endorse it.
Macuil was another matter. "Why are we entertaining this question? We leave no survivors. Allowing any trace of Agartha to survive is too much of a danger to allow."
Byleth fixed him with his 'Ashen Demon' glare. "So you want to leave Shambhala another Zanado?"
"It's no less than they deserve," Macuil spat. "Had we wiped them out after they poisoned the world, as we should have, the Red Canyon Massacre would never have taken place"
Byleth stared at him for a few seconds. "Get out."
"What?"
"Leave. Get out of my sight."
"You will regret this," Macuil warned.
"Get out!" Byleth demanded. Hearing her father shout caused Leraye to start crying, and Rhea had to quickly try to calm her down.
"I'm sorry about the outburst," Byleth said. "I just needed to make it very clear that we are not going to resort to genocide before I reveal anything."
"So, you know more than you initially let on?" Hubert asked.
"Yes. Yuri has a fair number of Agarthan expatriates in his employ, and I got information on what we'll be facing. Shambhala is a densely populated city, with a population of around eight thousand. However, only around two thousand are trained soldiers. Maybe another five hundred auxiliaries could be fielded if Thales pushes it, but the rest would be liabilities in battle. They do have artificial Crests, but the artificial Crests are vastly inferior to real Crests. Myson is working on a project to create giant metal soldiers called Titanoi, but it's still in the prototype stage. I do have a list of some other dirty tricks Thales might have up his sleeve as well."
"Can this information be trusted?" Edelgard asked.
"One of the expatriates, Adara, offered to help Constance devise her spell to counter Agarthan disguises as a show of good faith," Byleth said.
"That would be a convincing show of good faith," Edelgard agreed. "Let's assume they're underestimating how much power Thales can field anyway and say three thousand. We can still probably leave the bulk of the Imperial army behind and simply bring troops that can be transported quickly. The Kingdom, Alliance, and the Knights of Seiros can probably provide enough force if we're just dealing with around three thousand. The Titanoi are another matter."
"The three of us can handle the Titanoi," Indech assured.
"And we can deploy the Church golems to counter additional Titanoi and Demonic Beasts," Rhea added.
After the planning was finished, Byleth tracked down Macuil. "You will regret this decision," Macuil warned him.
"If that's the case, then so be it," Byleth said. "I don't like you, Macuil. You're a bitter, hate-filled person, and while I understand why, I don't want that sort of bitterness in my family's life."
"Fine," Macuil spat. "I won't try to kill all of the Agarthans myself, if only because they would probably overcome me my weight of numbers. But once this war is over, you had better not ask me for anything ever again. If you find yourself in another war for your family's survival, I will have no part of it."