When Byleth was 15, she went to a brothel. She gave the matron who ran the house a large sum of money but when the woman started to ask her about what she wanted, she could not answer.

"Do you want a handsome young man?" she asked.

"Want him for what?"

"Sex!"

"My father explained that to me," she had replied, "It's when a man sticks his dick in me, right? Although I am not sure why I would want someone sticking their dick in me. It sounds gross."

"Umm… perhaps you want a woman?"

Byleth remembered staring at her blankly before a distant memory sparked, "Oh, I remember Mother Juno saying she liked girls the way most girls like boys… father too said some girls like girls while some boys like boys."

"So you want a girl?"

"Want her for what?"

"Sex!"

"But girls don't have dicks."

"They have fingers, tongues and other things."

"You can make babies with tongues?"

"Ahhh… no. Um... do you want a baby?"

"I don't know, I dream about a baby sometimes," she admitted, "A cute little blond boy who looks like his father."

"You have a boy you like?"

Byleth didn't quite understand what the woman was asking. There were lots of boys she thought were good people in her father's company. But she gathered that was not what the woman was referring to. But she didn't understand what kind of "like" the woman meant. The dreams of the baby and the vague glimpses she had of the person who fathered the baby were strange. Like the dreams, she sometimes had of the sleeping green-haired girl or the dreams of battle that felt like memories but in truth, was a battle she never took part in.

Maybe the little boy was a memory too. Some magic was making her dream of a life she never led and probably never would. The little boy was too pretty and perfect. Byleth doubted a mercenary like herself could ever give birth to someone so beautiful and fragile.

"Why don't we start with a show?" the matron suggested.

The "show" ended up being a bunch of people having sex for Byleth's pleasure. Except Byleth didn't feel pleasure, she felt nothing. Mostly she was confused why anyone would want to do the things the prostitutes were doing. At least the men and women involved seem to be enjoying it when they stuck their appendages into each other. But Byleth, she couldn't bring herself to want to stick those things into her body.

"Perhaps you lack the emotions to want sex," the matron finally suggested, "Some people are like that. There is nothing wrong with it. Well, it would be bad for my business if too many people were like that," she added with a laugh.

Byleth didn't get it but thanked her and left. For years after, the thought of sex and relationships did not cross her mind. She did sometimes dream of a little boy with blond hair with a lion for a pet. But she rarely gave the boy much thought in her waking hours. That was until she met Dimitri.

Indeed, Byleth could pinpoint the moment that whole "sticking appendages into other people because sex is fun" made sense to her. She was exploring the monastery, trying to figure out which house to lead. She came to the training grounds, where the Blue Lions were training.

That's when she saw Dimitri, training with Dedue and Felix. They came at him, he dodged, his sweat from training glistened in the light like diamonds. He was smiling and Byleth, for the first time in her life, felt something. She wasn't sure what she was feeling but there was a flutter in her tummy and it tingled between her legs. It wasn't, unpleasant.

The feeling grew from there and eventually, she started to think of the little boy more and as her's and Dimitri's. The beautiful little blond boy with the lion pet, "Loog," Byleth said out loud suddenly, one day, while she was sharing a meal with Dimitri and Felix.

"Ah, yes, that was the name of the first King of Fearghus," Dimitri chimed in, "Did you have a question about him?" he asked.

"That's the name of the lion," Byleth said cryptically.

"He was known as the King of Lions," replied Dimitri, "It's a moniker that all King's of Fearghus carry. Some better than others, I must admit. My father carried it well," he added with a sad smile.

"Hmpf," Felix looked away, he seemed to be struggling to keep his words to himself.

"Oh!" an insight came to Byleth, "That's why you call him a boar," she said to Felix, "It's a pun!"

"Huh! No! I mean, yes but no! I told you already, he acted like a boar during battle. That's his true face," Felix replied, flustered.

"Oh, that must be a magnificent sight. I want to see it," Byleth said longingly, "The merciless boar prince…"

"Are you… turned on?" Felix could not keep the shock from his voice

"Hmmm?" Byleth did not comprehend, "What does that mean?"

"What?"

"I did not realise, professor, that you enjoyed the sight of blood and gore so much," Dimitri's voice was cold. Byleth could feel his opinion of her decrease.

"I was a mercenary," Byleth pointed out, "For years, my life consisted of battles or travel between battles or rest awaiting battle. We would go to villages, recruit young men and women. We would do our best to train them, to teach them how to survive but there was never enough time to train until the next battle was upon us. We did our best, my father and I, to protect the new recruits and the veterans. But all too often, we returned with fewer bodies than we started."

"But if there was," she looked at Dimitri, "A god of battle with us, a true demon who would pile up the bodies of our enemies while protecting our people, that would be a magnificent sight," Byleth would feel herself smiling. It must have been an unnerving sight because unlike that time with Flayn, Dimitri did not ask her to keep smiling.

"Well, he's a noble princely type," Sothis pointed out when they were alone in Byleth's room, "Of course he wouldn't find the thought of your getting wet over his ruthlessness sexy."

"What does that mean? Getting wet?"

"What?"

"I heard that term before but I don't know what it means," she replied, "Is it like water breaking?"

"Please don't ask those questions around that Sylvain child," Sothis told her, "He would either lose too much respect for you or jump at the chance to give you a first-hand demonstration of what it means to get wet."

"Sylvain can show me? How?" wondered Byleth.

"By sticking his appendages in you," replied Sothis, Byleth could feel her amusement.

"But I don't want Sylvain to stick things in me. I only want Dimitri," She could admit it to Sothis, even if she couldn't say it out loud to anyone else, "Besides, I think Sylvain would really like to stick things in Ingrid. He doesn't think he can get her but I think he wants her."

"Why do you say that?"

"Don't you remember the first time we saw them? He was with Ingrid and tried to put his arms around her. She batted him away. Because I think she's gotten used to seeing him as a philanderer. I think she thinks she's just another conquest, someone he would play with and cast aside. But I don't think, no, maybe that's how Sylvain thinks too. I don't think he's ready to be happy. Not with Ingrid, not with anyone."

"Unfortunately for you, I don't think Dimitri is ready to be happy either," Sothis informed her, and that, made Byleth want to cry.

That night, she dreamt of the little boy again. The little boy with blond hair, blue eyes and a lion pet. She wished she could have him. Even if she had to raise him alone, she would do it. Her father raised her alone. She could do at least that much for her little boy.

She would have to leave Fódlan, of course. But she always wanted to see the lands beyond Fódlan. She was sure Almyra needed mercenaries. She could take her little boy there. She would create a great mercenary company for him. Her father's troops could form the core, but she would build the company out with local troops. Maybe if she got good enough, she could win some land for her troops to build a permanent stronghold. A place to train, rest and call home. A place to raise, her beautiful little boy.

Byleth jumped awake from her pleasant dreams of impossible futures as the whole of Garreg Mach shook while a thundering boom rendered her temporarily deaf. Even as her ears rang, she still heard Sothis scream because Sothis's voice was not one she heard with her ears. But she did not have time for the strange being who only she could see and hear right now. Her students needed her!

Life as a mercenary meant that Byleth was dressed and armed and out the door within moments. In case of emergencies, the procedure for the Blue Lion house was to meet at the front of the western storehouse, where they kept their gear. Byleth was not surprised to find that Dimitri and Dedue were already there.

If she had to guess, Dimitri had been up late training and Dedue had stayed up to coarse the prince to bed at a reasonable hour. They were both already armed and ready, "Professor! I, I don't know how to say this but a tower has appeared in the middle of the pond!"

"What?"

"It's true!" Ingrid chimed in as she ran up with Sylvain and Felix, "And the water, it's frozen mid flood! It's like someone realised that it would be bad if displaced water from the pond was allowed to overflow into the greenhouse and dorms. So they froze it into these sheets of ice!"

Byleth felt her eyes wide. Suddenly, she knew, she didn't know how she knew but she knew, "Rodrigue!"

"Huh? My old man isn't here."

"No, not your father, my son!" was all Byleth said before she ran towards the pond, or rather the black tower that now stood in its place!"