Artoria waited for an entire weekend to see Edelgard and her friends once more, and while she was happy when they returned, she became confused when they arrived with a strange man she'd never seen before.
Today's the day, they're returning to the Monastery after being away. I'm so excited!
It would've been better if I could have gone with them, but at least now I learned my lesson, no practice where the Church might find me.
I rushed to meet with them after I heard they arrived, running outside of my room as fast as I could and getting to the entrance in no time. I saw them entering the Academy, Edelgard, Dimitri and the leader of the Golden Deers, Claude were together, but with them someone new was there...
A man with dark green hair was walking alongside them and talking with the three. Weird, is he a soldier of the Church? I haven't seen him in the Academy in the week I've been here, I guess I'll go ask them.
"Hey, Edel" -
"Oh, Arty, good morning, how are you?" -
"Fine, a bit boring but that's something else. How did everything went?" -
"Not good, we were attacked by bandits and us three got separated from the rest, but thanks to him, we managed to survive" - she said while the unknown man took a step forward.
"My name is Byleth, I'm a mercenary, nice to meet you" -
"A mercenary?" -
"He helped us a lot during the fight. His ability is not to be understimated" - Dimitri said.
"He's impressive for sure, and it gets better, his father is none other than Jeralt, the Blade Breaker" -
"The Blade Breaker has a son? That's... Strange" -
I remember my father asking for the help of the Blade Breaker and his mercenary in order to clean a problem of bandits in our lands, but they never mentioned that he had a kid. Even weirder, he looks suprisingly young.
"Hey kid, remember, we have to meet with Lady Rhea, you can talk with the others later" - Jeralt approached Byleth and both left for the inside of the Monastery, joined by the rest of the Knights of Seiros.
Edelgard and I quickly went to her room, where I intented to ask her everything about what had happened in that trip, especially what they saud about being attacked and saved by the mercenaries.
"There's not much to tell Arty. When they atacked, Claude started to run away and Dimitri and myself, foolishly thinking he might be going to a safe area, decided to follow him, which got the atention of the bandits and they focused solely on us" -
"That's horrible, and the Knights couldn't react in time? Bunch of useless soldiers" -
"They tried to catch up, but more bandits kept them busy while we escaped, Everything came out fine at the end, at least, thanks to Byleth and Jeralt" -
"That man, Byleth... There's something weird about him" -
"I don't know much about it, but when it comes to fighting, he's a very good swordsman. During the battle, he kept his cool no matter how many surrounded them, and he killed many of them with little to no effort" -
When she was talking about him, I noticed something weird, her eyes... They shone for a few seconds, why?
"Anyways, thanks to them, we managed to return safe and sound to the Knights and Alois asked them to come to the Monastery. Apparently, he and Jeralt have history together" -
"Why did they came exactly?" -
"I still don't know, but it seems like Rhea wants something with them. In all case, I'm going to ask Byleth to lend his efforts to the Empire, a man with his skills leading our armies would be very useful" -
"I'd like to talk with him for a bit, thank him for saving my best friend" -
"You can join me later if you so desire, I believe that..." -
Before she could finish speaking, someone knocked on the door to her room. After she opened, the person was revealed to be Seteth and, behind him, Dimitri and Claude were standing.
"Edelgard, the Archbishop requieres your presence to discus important matters, please join us" -
"Understood. Sorry Arty, we'll keep talking after I get back" -
They left and I remained alone. With no one else to talk, I returned to my room and started to read one of my old books again.
After an hour of laying down and reading, I wanted to go out for a walk, but before I could leave the second floor, I was intercepted by that man, Byleth.
"Oh, hello there" - he said with a serious look on his face.
"Good afternoon, I think we haven't been introduced properly. My name is Artoria von Pendragon, I come from the Adrestian Empire, and who are you?" -
"My name is Byleth Eisner, a pleasure to meet you" -
"Well mister Byleth, what are you doing here?" -
"I'm simply exploring the Monastery as Lady Rhea told me to. She wants me to get to know the place better since I'll be living here for a while" -
"So they gave you a position here? Interesting, a soldier perhaps?" -
"I'm not allowed to tell you for the moment, but you'll be seeing me a lot over the next couple of months, so I expect we can work together" - and with that, the man was off.
Working together? What does that mean? Could it be that he'll be... No, that's not possible, he's a mercenary, they wouldn't hire him for a position like that.
Leaving the talk aside, I finally went out for my walk and in the way, I met with Edel resting in the main hall while drinking a glass of water.
"Edel, over here!" -
"Oh, Arty, hello" -
"What happened at the end? Tell me what the Archbishop said to you?" -
"Unfortunately, I was asked not to tell anyone else what we heard. Only the three house leaders can know" -
"Oh come on! I'm sure you can tell me at least something!" -
"Not for the moment, but we'll find out very soon" -
I was confused as to what she ment by those words, but my confusion was cut short when she got up from her seat and told me with a smile:
"Come on, we're going to the classroom, the new professor will arrive shortly" -
So I went with her, finding the rest of the members of the house talking to each other, waiting for the arrival of our new teacher and a few minutes later, there he was...
"Good afternoon everyone, my name is Byleth Eisner, I will be the professor for the Black Eagle house" -
Alright, now what he said makes a lot of sense.