It was the month of the rite of rebirth. With the assassination plot found on Lord Lanato's body, the Knights of Serios were panicked and scattered, focusing all their energy of protecting the Arch-Bishop.
Even the Officers Academy had been giving the task of protection, having had there old missions redacted, instead all of them being in charge of safeguarding Lady Rhea.
But in the dead of night, several figures began to filter into the reception hall, one by one.
"So, I'm sure you can all gather why I've asked you here," Izuku said as he finished searching the room, he had to make sure no one else was around to listen in on their conversation.
Currently, Byleth, Bereto, the four house lords, their retainers, and Ashe, were gathered around a table in the reception hall.
"I imagine it's to talk about that assassination plan you found in Lord Lanato?" Dimitri guessed.
"Yeah, we don't buy it," Ochako answered.
"Let's just say for a moment that this letter is true, that would mean that the insurrection he pulled was just a farce…" Izuku paused, seemingly for dramatic affect, "And the assassination was the true plan all along."
Hilda scratched her chin in thought, before saying, "And if you were mounting a rebellion against a foe that you couldn't win again, why would you carry the actual plan on you?" she asked.
"Perhaps because Lord Lanato was a pitiful fool?" Hubert suggested snidely.
Ashe's hand gripped the table tightly, threatening to break a chunk off before Dedue awkwardly put a hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him. Edelgard slapped Hubert's forearm with the back of her hand and gave him a pointed look, her eyes telling him to apologize.
"You shouldn't bad mouth the dead, especially not when one of their loved ones is sitting two feet to your left," Bereto said while glaring at the Vestra boy.
"My apologies Ashe, I shouldn't have been so crass," Hubert smiled apologetically, Ashe however, wasn't even paying attention.
"What are you trying to say?" Ashe asked, hints of anger and sorrow in his voice.
"We think someone set up your father. They're planning something bigger and used him as a distraction, appealing to his grief to convince him into rebelling against the Church," Byleth answered.
"In other words Lanato takes the fall, and they reap the rewards," Claude scowled.
Ashe's face fell, and the group could see the tears prickling at his eyes.
"Ashe, I know this feeling, but now is not the time to let emotions get the better of you," Dedue told him.
"Yes, we must focus all of our attention on finding what exactly they want," Edelgard agreed.
"That's why we're gonna split up to search the Monastery: Me and Byleth are gonna search together; Bereto you're gonna team up with Dimitri; Claude, you're gonna be with Edelgard," Izuku ordered.
"Oh, isn't this gonna be fun, Princess?" Claude smiled.
"If I must," Edelgard sighed.
"Understood, we will leave no stone unturned," Dimitri nodded.
"Good, we start tomorrow, it's a free day so we'll have plenty of time."
One by one they began to filter out to go to bed, until it was just Byleth and Bereto left.
"An assassination plot, how suspicious," Sothis mumbled to herself.
"Brother, I fear we may have bitten off more than we can chew," Byleth said after a few minutes of silence.
"Back when we were mercenaries, as long as we were together there was no foe we couldn't handle, this remains true, no matter what," Bereto said confidently.
"I do hope you are right."
"So, where do you want to start?" Izuku asked his partner. He and Byleth were gathered outside the Verdant Rabbit house, where they had agreed to meet yesterday for their investigation.
"We could start at the church, there's a very large possibility that they'd strike there," Byleth suggested.
"Good idea, we should go at once then," Izuku said, leading her to the church.
The two were crossing the large stone bridge when he decided to speak again, "You know, we never really talked about what happened the other day."
Byleth felt nerves take her, in all honesty she regretted that kiss. Not because she didn't think Izuku was one of the hottest people in the world, but mainly because she felt she might have advanced their relationship too far too quickly.
"Sorry about that. It was a spur of the moment thing," Byleth apologized.
"Good, not that I didn't like it or anything, but I feel like we should just be friends first," Izuku told her.
Friends, that was good, Byleth could do friends.
Maybe.
She had only really had Bereto and Jeralt as friends but she was pretty confident that they counted.
Izuku and Byleth finally arrived at the church, walking over to the back of the building and going into the small hallway to the left. Where they saw Alois guarding a large wooden door.
"Ah, Izuku, lovely to see you, and you as well Miss Eisner! Unfortunately I can't let you pass, behind these doors is the Holy Mausoleum, it's a very sacred place, only open to the public on the day of the millennium festival," Alois explained, gesturing to the door behind him.
"That's quite all right, Alois," Byleth said, however both of them then noticed Izuku staring at a monk.
He looked nervous, like he wasn't supposed to be there, his shift eyes never stood still, not even for a second. Slowly, Izuku began to creep over to him, putting on an intimidating look that made the monk begin to move to the exit.
"Uh, Miss Eisner, what's happening?" Alois asked.
"I'll explain later, perhaps over tea?" Byleth suggested as she began to follow the monk with Izuku.
Once she joined, the monk broke out into a full blown sprint, rushing past several worshipers and students. The two of them began to give chase, running past Claude and Edelgard who shrugged and went on their way.
They chased the monk all the way into the small market at the edge of the Monastery, where he plowed through a merchant's stall to slow them down.
Byleth drew her sword and sliced through the boxes and crates that blocked their path, Izuku then rammed into them to clear the way.
As the two followed the monk into town, Izuku simply told her to: "Keep following him." before veering to the left.
The monk was almost to the edge of town when Izuku appeared from an alleyway and tackled him to the ground.
"Why did you run?" He yelled.
"Cause you're scary!" the monk yelled back.
"Talk!" Izuku commanded.
"Fine, I'll ta—" the monk was cut off when an arrow pierced through his eye, jutting out of the adjacent side of his head.
"Goddess!"
Byleth helped him to his feet, "Are you ok?" She asked.
"I'm fine. Can't say the same for this guy though," Izuku lamented.
Byleth walked up and bent down, yanking the arrow out of the dead monk's bifurcated eye. The arrow was like something neither of them had ever seen, the arrowhead was jagged and sawtoothed, made of an unfamiliar black metal.
"We should tell the others about this."
"Well that was peculiar," Edelgard mumbled after watching Izuku and Byleth chase after a monk.
"Well regardless, where do you want to start our investigation, Princess?" Claude asked.
"Why do you insist on calling me that?" Edelgard asked back, wisps of anger in her voice.
"Calling you what?"
"'Princess.' I don't like how you say it," Edelgard answered as they walked into the open hallway that led to the knights hall.
"Oh, that's simple really, I just don't like you," Claude shrugged.
Edelgard's mouth fell open in surprise and her head whipped around to stare at him, "W-what?! Why?"
"Well, out of all the spoiled rich kids here, you're probably the most spoiled out of all of them," Claude replied simply while giving a passing Lysithea a small wave, which she returned with a middle finger.
"That's your reason for disliking me? That I'm well off?" Edelgard asked in shock.
"Oh that's not all: You ignore the suffering of your people, cause it doesn't affect you; and you also imposed your rule on a free country and took it's next ruler as a political prisoner," Claude explained further, the smile on his face was sarcastic and smug.
"First of all, Brigid is a proper and legal vassal for the empire, and Petra is not a political prisoner, she's here willingly. Second of all it's not the job of the Emperor to lift every single person from poverty. Third of all I did none of these things, they are all the doing of my father," Edelgard said in an attempt to defend herself.
"Ah, but you stand by his decisions do you not, in my eyes, that makes you just as terrible of a person. When you're the Empress, fix some of the many problems in Adrestia, then we'll talk." Claude swiftly shut down the conversation, moving over to the locked room behind the knight's hall.
"Excuse me?" Claude called to the knight guarding the door, catching his attention, "Could you possibly tell us what the significance of this room is?"
"Of course, this is the treasure room, under lock and key at all times, only Lady Rhea and a few other high ranking church officials are allowed entry," the knight answered.
"And, hypothetically if someone were to plot to break into the Monastery, would they be smart to target this place?" Claude asked, his tone was so innocent that it took away all the suspiciousness of the question itself.
"No, not really, there's a bit of gold stashed away, a few sacred relics, and some ancient tomes, but nothing too valuable. Lady Rhea would never stash anything important in such an open place," the knight explained.
"Thank you for your time, sir," Claude smiled.
Once they were far enough away, Edelgard huffed, "Well, if we are done here, I can't stand to be in your presence a moment longer." She then walked away, soon joined by Dorothea.
"Oh we're not done princess, not by a long shot," Claude whispered to himself.
It was a week later, only another week until the festival, so Byleth and Bereto called the four lord's down to the reception hall once more.
"Did you find anything of use?" Dimitri sighed.
"Nah, not only is that treasure room not really worth plundering, it'd take a ballista to knock down that door. So that's off the list. You?" Claude asked, his back against the table.
"Nothing of note, like you said: we found a lot of valuable stuff but nothing worth this much trouble," Bereto shrugged.
"The Holy Mausoleum," Izuku said suddenly.
"What?" Edelgard asked.
"There's not a doubt in our minds, that is where they're going to strike," Byleth nodded.
Claude turned around to sit at the table properly, "What makes you so sure?"
"While we were investigating, I saw a Monk spying on us and the Holy Mausoleum, we chased him down, caught him even," Izuku started.
"So that's who you were chasing," Edelgard surmised.
Izuku pulled the arrow out and showed it to the group, the blood now dry and giving off a foul odor, "And then he was murdered, not only in front of our eyes but in broad fucking daylight."
"Well if you're so sure then we must tell Lady Rhea at once," Edelgard insisted.
"...No, no we must not." Dimitri reached over and grabbed the arrow from Izuku gently, "We know nothing of this group. For all we know this could be a trap, for all we know they could've been planning to lure Lady Rhea into the Holy Mausoleum from the start. This arrow is but proof of how far they are willing to go."
"He's right, hell, this might not even be true, they could be actually planning to assassinate Rhea and they were just stupid enough to leave the plan on Lanato," Claude shrugged.
"Which is why I want Dimitri, Edelgard, and your classes to patrol the goddess tower like we've been told to do, while the rest of us go scope out the Holy Mausoleum," Bereto ordered.
"Understood, come Edelgard, we should inform our classes at once," Dimitri said, motioning for Edelgard to follow.
"We should do the same," Claude told Izuku, once again leaving Byleth and Bereto on their own.
"Sothis?" Bereto called.
"Yes?"
"What do you think of all this?" Byleth asked.
"Hmm, it is indeed strange, but I can't help but feel that going to this Holy Mausoleum will help me regain my memory," Sothis' voice answered.
"Well then we should prepare." Bereto stood up and helped Byleth to her feet.
"Where are we going?"
"The market, we need intermediary seals."
Izuku grunted as he and Raphael kicked the door to the Holy Mausoleum open, before both classes stormed the entrance.
"Well, looks like our hunch was right," Claude smirked upon seeing the dozens of soldiers pilfering the mausoleum.
"They're wearing uniforms of the western church," Tenya realized.
"The western church?" Bereto asked.
"It's exactly what it sounds like," Lorenz answered.
"Damn, we've been spotted!" A mage at the back of the room yelled, turning to look at them from the coffin he was working over, "I just need a little more time, Death Knight, protect me!"
Standing atop a horse in the middle of the room, was a knight dressed all in back, and straight out of hell, his helmet resembled a skull, with two long twisty horns on top, his horse wore a black face guard that gave him a pair of deadly tusks, and in the Knight's hands was a long scythe.
"I don't take orders from you," the Death Knight growled, his deep voice sounded warped and mangled.
"We should probably avoid that guy," Hilda muttered.
"For now," Izuku said back.
Byleth pulled her sword from her belt, before yelling, "Take no prisoners!" and charging into the fray.
Leonie snapped the reighns on the horse she rode, she was dressed in a simple suit of Cavalier armour with a few hints of yellow here and there. Leonie stabbed downwards with her iron lance, skewering a soldier from the western church.
Another Cavalier began to charge at her, forcing the orange-haired girl into a murderous jousting match, she was but a few feet from the other rider when she felt someone grab onto her spear and lift her into the air.
Leonie looked up and saw Setsuna waving down at her from the Pegasus she was riding. Setsuna wore a dark green body suit with light armour covering her chest, shoulders, forearms, and hands.
Acting quickly, she tightened her grip on the lance and the flying girl lifted her up, allowing Leonie to stretch out her legs and kick the enemy off his horse. Once he was laying against the ground Setsuna dived down and put him down with a slice to the neck.
Claude smiled to himself as he pulled back his bow string, he was dressed in an Archer outfit, a simple yellow tunic, lined with fur on the inside, and a single leather spaulder that rested over his left pectoral.
He let the arrow go and it stabbed through a soldier's hand, making him drop his axe, Bereto then ran forward and killed the soldier with a swipe of his sword.
Bereto wore a dark blue mercenary outfit, and his arms and legs were covered in shiny silver armour. Claude shot another arrow and forced another to drop her weapon, where Bereto was able to kill the soldier.
The stone faced professor unhooked a knife from his belt and tossed it at Claude, who turned just in time it see it embed itself into the face of a soldier attempting a sneak attack
"Quit making me work!" Hilda yelled as she swung her axe down, splintering the floor and ruffling her pink brigand outfit.
The now broken floor threw off the soldier's balance, allowing Mina to come up and slice his chest open. The Duscar girl wore a purple thief outfit, accented by the few patches of fur around the neck and shoulders.
Hilda swung her axe into the back of his legs, not only flaying his calves open, but also flipping him off the ground, where Mina could kill him with a decapitation.
Raphael, dressed in a yellow brawler uniform, grunted as he punched a soldier on the left side of his face, causing him to spin on his heel, which allowed Raphael to slam his fist into his back.
Wearing a red brigand outfit, Eijirou swung his axe forward, the blade pointing towards the ground, and impaled the soldier Raphael had punched. Using his own body weight as a fulcrum, Eijirou lifted the soldier up over his head and slammed him into the ground.
Shoji and Cyril pressed their oval-shaped shields together, forming a wall of sorts. They both wore large stocky armour that was dark blue and dark green, respectively, in the shoulder area, their shields were also the same color as their shoulder armour.
With their shields deflecting every arrow that was fired at them, allowing the two to slowly progress towards the two archers.
As one archer was trying to fire another arrow, Shoji bashed her with his shield, making the soldier fall to the ground. Shoji then lifted his fist and punctured her skull with his gauntlet's small blades.
Cyril yelled as he charged forward, putting his entire body weight behind the swing of his axe, nearly cutting the archer in half.
Ochako pulled Marianne behind a pillar, narrowly avoiding a Miasma that was sent at her head. The both of them were wearing white priest outfits, pink and blue accents running down their robes.
"Give me your sword!" Ochako commanded, the blue haired girl nodded and handed her the iron blade, allowing Ochako to lightly run her hand over the blade, muttering some sort of incantation.
"Stay behind me!" The brunette yelled over the hail of magic attack as she gave the sword back to Marianne.
Ochako raised her iron shield and Marianne huddled behind her. As the four mages they were up against hurled spell after spell, Ochako deflected them all to the ground, once they were in range Marianne slashed their chests.
The slashes weren't enough on their own, but Ochako had enchanted the sword, so with each slash, the mage's life was drained from him. With only one mage remaining, Ochako cast a Nosferatu and swiftly killed the last enemy.
Izuku, in a green brawler outfit, kicked a soldier square in the chest sending him over to Byleth, wearing the exact same mercenary outfit that her brother wore, who backhanded him with her iron shield back over to Izuku.
The green-haired lord flipped and twisted in the air, bashing his shin against the soldier's head and making him tumble back over to Byleth, who stabbed him in the gut with her sword, killing him.
"We have to get over to that dark mage!" Izuku shouted over the sounds of fighting.
"We should meet up with Bereto, then we'll take him out," Byleth told him.
Izuku nodded and quickly grabbed an approaching soldier by the head, before snapping her neck and running off to find Bereto.
Kyouka and Ignatz were both dressed in arger outfits, purple for her and green for him, the both of them were far in the back, picking off threats from a long distance.
Kyouka saw a brigand pull out a hand axe, his gaze following Setsuna and her pegasus. The girl drew back the string and sent an arrow into the brigand's neck. The hand that held the hand axe swung down and pierced his thigh, Kyouka was pretty sure that he would've screamed if he didn't have a wooden stick in his neck.
Ignatz looked to the left and watched an Archer aiming for the back of Marianne's head, he grabbed two arrows from his quiver and drew them both back. He fired the moment she fired, not only hitting her arrow off course and into a pillar, but also sending the second arrow out one temple and through the other.
Kota and Lysithea stood back to back, the two of them wore matching mage outfits, Lysithea's was primarily white with a bit of red splashed on the design at the end, while Kota's was dark blue with much lighter blue inflections.
The mercenary chuckled as he pointed his sword at them, "A couple of brats for the slaughter. I could kill a couple of kids with my hand tied behind my ba- ACK!"
Kota quickly dropped down to his knees and slammed his fist into the mercenary's crotch, "Do not—"
Lysithea appeared behind him with a Swarm, causing the man to panickedly swipe at his face, "—Call me—" she continued.
Kota sent a blade of wind that de-armed the mercenary, and as Lysithea charged up a Miasma, they shouted; "—A child!" in unison as she launched the Miasma and killed the mercenary.
Lorenz raised his lance high, he was dressed in smokey grey cavalier armour, he held up his lance high, preparing to speak, when—
"I am Tenya Iida, from the long line of heroes known as the Ingenium family. I'd you have any sense you shall back down now!" Tenya yelled to the four or five soldiers they were facing. He wore polished silver armour that glimmered against the candles in the room.
"Can you not? I was just about to do the 'turn back now' speech," Lorenz huffed.
"Let's just take them out, shall we?" Tenya asked.
Lorenz huffed once more as they put their lances together in a cross form, before cracking the reins and dashing forward on their horses, clotheslining all the soldiers in their path, before turning back around and stabbing the fallen soldiers to death.
"Nowhere left to run," Byleth said to the dark mage in front of the casket.
"If you surrender quickly, Lady Rhea might give you a more lenient sentence," Bereto tried to persuade him.
"Fools, you are too late," he yelled as he finally broke through the seal on the casket and pushed off its lid, stopping in shock.
"Swords?" The dark mage asked.
Byleth and Bereto swiftly knocked the two swords from his hands and into the air, catching them when they landed.
The twin swords were like nothing they had ever seen before, the material felt weird, and the sword was a strange pale tan color, one side of the blade was straight but the other side was toothed, and in the center of the hilt was a large hole.
The Eisner twins tossed their iron swords to the side, the dark mage began to conjure an almost invisible shield in front of himself, and the swords began to glow a ghoulish red.
With one swift strike from each of them, the magical barrier was broken, and the dark mage was sliced open.
"Those swords…" Death Knight muttered, "Time to go."
"No you don't!" Byleth shouted. Almost instinctively, she whipped the sword in his direction, even though she was several feet from the knight.
Like magic, the sword began to break off into segments, all held together by a black cable. The sword-whip...thing just barely missed the Death Knight, but she managed to cut off a pouch from his belt that clattered to the floor.
The Death Knight was caught in a beam of pink light and vanished from the room, just seconds before Izuku's fist landed against the ground where he once stood.
The Mausoleum was breached by Catherine and a few other church soldiers, a large angry vein was popping out of her forehead as she hilted Thunderbrand.
"All of you, fan out and round up any stragglers. And the rest of you!" Catherine yelled, gesturing to the students, "Lady Rhea's chamber, now!"
Setsuna landed on the ground and sucked in air between her teeth, before uttering a simple:
"Busted."
Hey guys, finally back with some more Four Houses, sorry this chapter took so long this whole fight scene took me about three days to write. Anyway, discord links:
Epsi's Hoard: https/discord.gg/enz3cHPFJ8
LoM: https/discord.gg/wtUrpj2
That's it for now, Peace.