Some AU elements near the end where I couldn't find info on the wiki to help with some character development and future plot points (if I get that far). Please don't kill me.

Chapter 4: Reach

Reach: n. a continuous length of a stream or river, usually suggesting a level, uninterrupted stretch;
v. seek to establish communication with someone, with the aim of offering or obtaining assistance or cooperation


"I know I said that you could pick any four students for the mock battle," his father began saying. "But are you sure you want these four?"

Byleth really didn't see what the problem was. He knew just how formidable his chosen students were when they worked together. During the war, they would become an elite force of their own, able to carry out their missions without input on his part.

"Yeah. Claude and Lysithea for their ranged capabilities, Hilda and myself up close, Marianne for healing. I'll also be able to fill in for any deficiencies. Is there a problem?"

"It's not so much about their abilities, it's just…" his voice trailed off, before sighing deeply. "Look, kid. I've got nothing against Hilda and Marianne, but I'm not sure if they're ready for this."

Oh. Right.

"Because Hilda's lazy and Marianne won't say a word?" Byleth asked directly.

Jeralt winced. "I wouldn't phrase it so bluntly, but yes."

He shook his head. "Don't worry. They'll be ready." They always were.

"You sound very certain of that. Any reason as to why?"

"Just a feeling," he deflected. His father didn't need to know just how many times Byleth had participated in this mock battle. "You'll see. Anyway, they're coming in soon. No more time for discussion."

He exchanged a nod with Raphael as he entered the classroom. Despite not being his professor in this life, his former student still treated him the exact same way he did before.

"Morning, Professor! Byleth!" he greeted cheerfully as he made his way to his seat. "I didn't train today!"

Byleth looked curiously at his father. He sighed in exasperation, then explained, "I advised Raphael that training early in the morning might make it difficult for him to get to class on time."

Ah. Raphael always took advice to heart, no matter who it came from. He was always so naïve in that way.

"That's right!" Raphael agreed. "You said that knights got to be smart, so I've got to take these classes seriously!"

That really wasn't at all what Byleth had meant back in the training ground, but he suspected that trying to explain his words would be more trouble than it was worth. "Excellent," he said instead.

"So, what are you doing here today, Byleth? You here to watch us in the mock battle too?"

"Actually, I'll be participating."

Raphael's eyes widened. "WOAH! Cool! I'll be sure to pay extra attention, Professor!"

His enthusiasm was contagious. He gave a smile. "I hope I won't disappoint."

"Nah, Byleth, you'll do great! I'm sure –" he turned around as the classroom door opened. "Oh, hey Ignatz! Claude!"

Ignatz stiffened as Raphael called out to him. Right, they still had those lingering issues between each other from their childhood. Byleth used to play mediator in helping Ignatz come to terms with his guilt over the circumstances behind the loss of Raphael's parents, but in more recent lives he'd let the two sort their issues out themselves.

Most times, they were successful. He simply didn't have the time to spare on that matter amongst everything else he had to deal with. Hopefully, this life would be no different.

"Hey Teach!" Claude greeted. "Teach's son! What are you doing here today? Not blowing more training dummies apart?"

Byleth groaned. "How do you even know about that? You weren't even in the training grounds the past few days."

"Maybe I was hiding somewhere?" he suggested.

"You weren't." He'd have known if he was. Claude could be stealthy, but after the many targeted assassinations over the years, Byleth had made it a point to try and be constantly aware of his surroundings under the incessant threat of death.

"You can't be sure about that," Claude said, raising an eyebrow in challenge. Byleth continued staring. Finally, he relented. "Fine, fine. Leonie won't shut up about you. Say, is there something going on between you two? I know it's not quite the same as between Professor and student, but -"

"No."

He'd said it with such finality that even Claude didn't continue his teasing. With the way his lives went, he couldn't afford attachments like those. That way lay only pain and suffering. He'd learnt that well enough in his first life.

"Fine, fine," he backpedalled. "So, Teach! What's the plan for today?"

"We'll wait for everyone before I start the briefing," Jeralt said. "Please just stay quiet?"

"No can do, Teach!" Claude quipped, finally plopping down onto a chair he'd lazily pulled out.

Byleth heard the muted mutter of "damn kids" from his father. It was refreshing, seeing someone else deal with everything he'd faced in his lives as a professor. He didn't feel the least bit guilty at this little harmless schadenfreude.

Claude went on to engage in some mindless chatter with Raphael, and Byleth tuned them out. Soon enough, the rest of his students trickled in, before the bell no less. They hadn't shown such commitment when he was their professor. He'd have to get some tips from his father for future reference.

"Alright, alright. Now that everyone's here, I'll brief you kids on the mock battle today," Jeralt said, regaining control over the classroom. "Each House will send four students and their professor. For our case, Byleth will be participating in my stead."

Byleth noted how Jeralt pointedly ignored the loud whistle that Claude gave at that announcement. He continued without pause. "We've already chosen our four representatives. Claude, Lysithea, Hilda, Marianne, you'll be fighting today."

He watched their reactions carefully. Leonie, Lorenz and Raphael looked disappointed that they weren't selected, while Ignatz seemed mildly relieved. Claude flashed a lazy grin and a thumbs up, Lysithea sat up straighter in her seat, while Hilda and Marianne…

Hilda began to whine. "Huh? Are you sure, Professor? I'm not good in a fight, you know."

Tell that to the Imperial soldiers. There was a reason why they spoke of the future Wyvern Lord or Great Knight of House Goneril in hushed whispers.

If his father had any doubts of his choice, he didn't let them show. "You'll do fine, I'm sure. You're in the Academy for a reason."

"Aww, but I'll be so sticky and dirty!" she tried to argue, but reluctantly agreed after seeing that Jeralt wouldn't budge. "Fine…"

"Um…" Marianne took the chance to speak up. "I…"

How could someone possibly deal with the issues she faced? What would make her realise that her existence and the Crest she bore were in no way a curse?

Ah, who was Byleth kidding. He knew exactly what needed to be done, had known for all the lives since his first. The problem was always in its execution, taking up far too much time and effort. She needed support, not just from him, but from all those in her House. In this life, at least, he might have the time to work on doing things right.

"Marianne." Startled, she looked up, before immediately staring back at the table. He waited patiently until eye contact was re-established. "You're the only one with healing magic here other than myself. Can we count on you when the time comes?"

He hated having to single her out like this in all his lives attached to the Golden Deer. She disliked being the centre of attention, disliked herself, but he really didn't have much of a choice. At the beginning of every new life, contextualising just how unique she was as a person and how people depended on her were the only ways to begin her journey of healing. After that, he would still need to deal with the entire history of her Crest to get her to a state he knew she was capable of achieving.

She didn't reply verbally, but nodded nonetheless, breaking eye contact as soon as that was done. Baby steps, Byleth told himself.

"Alright! Good pep-talk, little Teach!" Claude clapped his hands theatrically. "Team Golden Deer! Woo!"

"Woo," Byleth echoed drily. "Also, I'm not your professor."

He shrugged. "Might as well be. Anyway, got a plan for us, little Teach?"

Byleth guessed that he might as well be resigned to being called that by Claude. Some things just didn't change between his lives. "Come to the front, four of you," he requested. "You'll need a view of the board."

He waited for them to comply, then drew quick sketches once they were ready.

"Claude and Lysithea will provide cover fire, Hilda and I will engage the enemy up close, and Marianne stays in the back line to heal. I'll cover any areas of deficiency as we go."

"How are you going to do that?" Lysithea asked curiously. "Don't misunderstand, it seems like a sound plan; but according to Leonie you're trained with a lance, and you say you're versed in healing magic?"

Claude chuckled. Lysithea turned to look at him in annoyance. "What's so funny?"

"What's funny, dearest Lysithea," he managed to say between choked coughs. "Is that I have it on good authority that our dearest Professor's son just so happens to also be a Mortal Savant."

"I'm not a Mortal Savant," Byleth said tiredly. "I don't understand why you keep saying that."

"You beat Felix Hugo Fraldarius in a swordfight. I know for a fact that you can cast Sagittae. Come on, admit it, Teach."

"Truly?" Lorenz offered his own input, a finger at his chin in a sign of consideration. "That is rather impressive. House Fraldarius is well known for their mastery of swordsmanship, and even I who have studied Reason theory for many years still cannot cast the Sagittae."

"You know Sagittae?" Lysithea asked excitedly. "You've got to teach me! I'm having some trouble with stabilising the spell matrix without collapsing the Roebian core, I've tried compensating with Roman's Fifth Law but it doesn't work –"

She caught herself mid-sentence, ceasing her enthusiasm abruptly as her cheeks reddened. Byleth rather enjoyed the moments where Lysithea acted her age.

As expected, Claude wouldn't let the opportunity pass him by. "Oh boy, you've done it now, little Teach. Now you've got Leonie and Lysithea begging for your help."

Two pairs of eyes glared at him. Byleth decided to intervene, considering her question. Lysithea had always been diligent in the theoretical aspect of magic, and he'd learned well from her. "It's no problem. I'll help you later, but at first glance it's probably easier to use Agnea's Correction Factor as a shortcut than manually applying the fifth law to each variable."

Her eyes lit up, as she quickly wrote down what he'd said on a piece of paper. Well, there was that matter solved. "Can we continue now?"

His students nodded. He began drawing quick annotations on the classroom board.

"We'll be fighting in the plains near the monastery. There'll be some natural terrain; hills, trees and the like. As a rule of thumb, we'll be engaging in skirmishes to try and secure pick-offs. Hilda, you'll be guarding Claude, Lysithea and Marianne and keeping the other students off them. Our strength is range and mobility, since the Lions and the Eagles will more than likely send in people like Dimitri, Dedue and Ferdinand with heavy weapons and armour that will slow them down. Draw them away, and their back lines will be left undefended."

It was a tried and tested strategy, one that had been inspired from Claude's own tactics. Later on, during the war, Claude would use it to great effect, setting up diversions and hit-and-run tactics to harry the larger Imperial forces. They wouldn't be able to adapt quickly by virtue of their sheer size, enabling elite Alliance shock troops to slowly whittle their numbers down through guerrilla warfare as they advanced into Alliance territory; death from a thousand cuts as they suffered from attrition.

"Divide, isolate and conquer?" Claude mused. He must have recognised the sentiment behind that plan. "Not bad. Plays to our strengths, and abuses their weaknesses. And here I was thinking that we could maybe poison their lunch today."

Byleth shrugged, recalling the times when Claude did follow through with his plan. More than once, he'd been on the other side of that battle, beating the archer into submission while fighting for control of his bowels. In fact, there were times where he'd lost said control. "That works too. You can do both, if you want."

Claude whistled. "Damn. You're vicious, Teach."

Hmm. Claude had the most minute of changes in his expression once again. He was re-evaluating Byleth, but he knew that so long as he didn't pose any threat to him and the others, Claude would come to accept it.

"Any questions?" Byleth asked the four students. No time to dwell on that for now.

Hilda raised her hand. He replied out of sheer force of habit, so ingrained in him that it had almost become a reflex. "No, Hilda, you cannot forfeit from the very start."

"That wasn't even my question!" she said indignantly. He looked at her apologetically. In far too many lives, that was the only question that came up both during her time as a student and later in the army of the Leicester Alliance. "I was going to ask about what we'll do if they just group up together."

"If they do that, we win, regardless," Byleth answered. "They can't move quickly if they have to stick with their archers and mages. We hit from maximum range, and they go down. If their front-line attacks us, we hide in the trees or otherwise create some distance, circle around or split up and eliminate their more vulnerable targets. If they send someone mobile like Petra to try and take Claude, Marianne and Lysithea down, we retreat, regroup and take that member down. Don't overcommit, stick to the plan and things should work out."

He listed the scenarios one by one on the board, overlaying them on the sketch of the battleground. It was second nature to him now, after all that time spent on the drawing board with Alliance, Kingdom and Empire tacticians. Working with three groups of five in a free-for-all battle was much easier than planning grand engagements like the many ones that had been fought on the Gronder Fields and Tailtean Plains.

"Understood?" He turned back to look at the class, gauging their reactions. They made no move to reply.

Claude blinked, turning to Jeralt. "No offense, Teach, but can we have little Teach as our new honorary Teach?"

It was a testament to how natural teaching this class felt that Byleth only now remembered that his father was technically their Professor, and that he'd just hijacked the entire lesson and strategy meeting. He would need to apologise later.

"I'm going to be working with Alois. My participation here is only temporary," he said. "Let's get back on topic. Any other questions?"

No hands were raised, so Byleth looked toward his father. It was his lesson.

Jeralt took charge. "Right. If that's all, you kids can take some time to relax before the battle. We'll meet here again in two hours."

With that, they left one by one. Claude held something that looked suspiciously like a small flask of a mild laxative, whistling a jaunty tune as he left. Knowing him, Byleth would give it a twenty-eighty chance that he'd actually use it. Lysithea had secured a promise for a future discussion on practical spellcasting before she left.

Finally, it was just him and his father in the classroom. "Good work," Jeralt said. "You handled it nicely."

"Sorry for interrupting your class like that. I lost track of myself."

"It's fine," he waved his apologies aside. "If anything, I'm relieved. When you become a knight, you'll need a tactical mind and an ability to connect with the men under your command. Not everyone can lead and explain like you just did."

Huh. Byleth wasn't sure whether or not his father truly believed the flimsy excuse he used to build a connection with the monastery without committing to a House, but he wasn't about to comment on it.

"Thanks," he said.

Jeralt changed the topic. "You've got two hours now. Any plans?"

He shook his head. He wasn't foolish enough to start training now when he'd have to take part in the mock battle later.

"In that case, would you want to come with me to the faculty meeting? The other professors and Alois will be there."

"Alright," he agreed. He wouldn't turn down the chance to win some influence over them. After all, he technically hadn't met Manuela and Hanneman yet. It was selfish, but he would do anything if it meant preparing for the war to come. He followed his father as they left to the quarters that housed the professors on the second floor.

-o-o-o-

"Think they'll win, Professor?" Leonie asked him up on the cliffs overlooking the battlefield. The students were separated into their Houses, while Rhea, Seteth and his sister formed a fourth coalition of their own. Alois had chosen to join him and his class, having just recently returned from his mission.

"They've got a good shot," Jeralt considered. "Our strategy is technically sound, but we can't be sure until we see what Hanneman and Manuela have planned with their students."

"The odds do favour us, right?" Ignatz asked as he surveyed the battleground where the participants were getting into position. "I mean, Byleth did make a good point about the differences in mobility."

"Don't forget kid, the other Houses have their own specialities as well," he pointed out.

"Indeed," Lorenz said. "If they make a mistake, the Black Eagle mages can just as easily take out one of ours. If the Blue Lions can weather their assault and close the distance, they won't be able to retreat from the reach of their lances. In that case, victory may regrettably be wrenched out of our hands."

"Sounds complicated," Raphael commented, rubbing at his tummy. Again. "Now I'm glad I'm not down there fighting. All that thinking's going to make me hungry."

Jeralt sighed. That kid seemingly alternated between making observations that cut to the heart of the matter of complex issues, and simple statements that meant nothing whatsoever. There was no middle ground.

"Such enthusiasm!" Alois laughed. "You students never cease to impress!"

"Hey!" Leonie pointed. "It's starting!"

They fell silent, watching observantly as they put their plan into motion. Byleth led the way, pointing out positions where he'd wanted his students to go. As for the other Houses…

Their respective heads took charge without guidance from their professors. It was a fine effort, but Jeralt could immediately see the gaping flaws in their plan. They'd elected to send two members each to probe at the other group, but when considering that each team only had five members?

Splitting forty percent of their manpower away from the rest of their group was far too risky. Only less than half of their strength was being put to use.

They'd probably adapted it from military strategies, given what he knew about noble education in the Kingdom and the Empire. In a true battlefield, it would serve to probe for weak points and allow a continuous cycling of troops on the battlefront to maintain a stream of fresh bodies and keep morale high. It was something a knight or general would do, with battalions of troops under their command. Unfortunately, that sort of tactics didn't translate well to small skirmishes like these.

Sure enough, Byleth had waited for the two groups to engage in battle, then swooped in to take them out once they were distracted. Nearby, he heard the groans coming from the remaining members of the other two Houses watching the battle unfold up on the cliffs.

The other leaders tried to react, mobilising the rest of their respective teams, but Byleth had ordered a retreat, sending them hiding in the trees once more. The pulses of white light radiating out from within the canopy indicated that they were healing up any injuries that had been sustained.

Alois whistled. "Byleth sure learnt well from you, Captain. Keep it up, and there won't be any students of the other Houses By-leth in his way."

Jeralt groaned, as Alois looked expectantly at him. He refused to acknowledge the terrible pun. "Come on, Jeralt! You have to admit it was witty! Byleth, left, don't you see?"

He feigned ignorance, but it only made Alois laugh all the harder. "Don't worry, Captain! Once Byleth joins as my squire, I'll be sure to teach him a sense of humour as well! I'll tell him all the old jokes you used to tell!"

Allowing his son to continue in whatever plan he had in mind with Alois was looking more and more like a mistake. "Please don't," he said.

"I'm just teasing you, Jeralt," his former subordinate said, clapping a hand to his back. "I'll make sure Byleth becomes a good knight, but from what I can see he really doesn't need much help from me."

Alois pointed out into the field, where his son was dividing his own forces up to set up a pincer attack. With the bird's-eye view that they had over the battlefield, his intent was clear to anyone watching, but the victims of his latest scheme would have no such luck. Once they were in position, arrows and magical spells began descending on the pair.

To their credit, the prince and his retainer from Duscur fought hard, recovering well from the surprise attack, but Byleth had chosen to spring their assault in advantageous terrain. With the many possibilities of hiding amongst rock formations and natural foliage, they maintained their advantage in range and brought the pair down as they popped in and out of cover.

"That's another group down," Alois provided commentary. "Hanneman's all that's left of his team."

The professor was still standing up on his platform, sending spells out at targets when the opportunity presented itself. More than likely he'd chosen to give himself a handicap, thinking that Byleth was on the same level as his students. Jeralt wondered how he would react if he told his fellow professor that his son could cast an Agnea's Arrow.

Manuela was joining the remnants of her House. The Empire princess was shouting out orders, trying to catch the Golden Deer before they could return to cover from where they had taken out the Lions. It was a smart plan, but they were already down almost half their forces.

Ultimately, in a quick exchange, they managed to force Lysithea out of the exercise after taking a wound to the shoulder, but a quick Fire from Byleth launched Edelgard backward, allowing Claude to land several shots on Hubert without her protection from the front. His son and Edelgard engaged in a quick duel, but soon enough she was disarmed and forced to surrender.

The four students ganged up on Manuela soon after from where she'd been distracted in dealing with Hilda, forcing her out of the fight. Like Hanneman, she'd probably been holding back as well, although her focus on the study of Faith didn't lend well to a fight like this. A cheer rang out from the four students in front of him, juxtaposed against the expressions of defeat from the nearby Black Eagles.

Seeing that he was the only one left, Hanneman began to put in more effort. He didn't give the remaining students a chance to heal and recover, sending waves of Fire, Thunder and Sagittae among other spells that Jeralt couldn't recognise raining down from up on the platform where he stood.

"Hoho! Hanneman's getting competitive now!" Alois said cheerfully. "Say, Jeralt, think that your remaining students can take him down?"

He studied the battlefield. As it was, the paths available for the students to take to Hanneman weren't to their advantage. It was open ground, lacking cover from which they could avoid his spells. Any carelessness as they advanced would translate into heavy losses on their part.

To that end, it seemed that Byleth ordered a tactical retreat. They hid further out away from Hanneman's platform, and he stopped lobbing down spells onto the students. It was a stalemate.

"Twenty gold says Hanneman's got this," Alois said. "Byleth's good, but his team is at a disadvantage here."

"You're on," Jeralt said immediately. To someone who didn't know what Byleth was capable of, it would have been a good bet, but Jeralt knew better. He suspected that there was still more that Byleth hadn't revealed.

"That much confidence in your son, Captain?" Alois chuckled. "We'll have to see, I guess."

There was a lull in the battle as his students remained hiding in the trees, staying out of sight of both those up on the cliffs and Hanneman down below. Jeralt took the chance to talk to Alois regarding the topic he'd spent the most time dwelling on recently.

"Alois."

"Hmm?" he turned, looking away from the battlefield. "Yes, Captain Jeralt?"

"What do you think about Byleth?"

"Your son? Potential for great puns aside, I'd say that it's obvious that he's skilled. You trained him well, Jeralt."

He shook his head, letting a little vulnerability show. "He's been showing abilities that I hadn't taught him, Alois. To be honest, I'm a little worried."

"You, Captain?" Alois looked at him incredulously. "Don't worry about it. I'll keep a good eye on him when he becomes my squire. You have my word, Jeralt."

Alois was taking him seriously. Jeralt appreciated that greatly, knowing how dependable the man was in his time as his direct superior. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it. It's nothing between friends, right? Besides –" he cut off halfway, pointing out into the field. "Look!"

Jeralt turned. Claude had moved out of the trees. What plan had they concocted?

"OI! PROFESSOR MONOCLE!" Claude shouted, his voice carrying up even to the cliffs where Jeralt was watching from. "OVER HERE!"

"…what?" Alois managed to say. Spells were in motion toward the boy, as he hurriedly ran off to one side.

A distraction.

Byleth and Hilda stepped out of the trees on the other side from where Claude emerged. Hanneman turned to look toward them, a glyph manifesting in the air as he prepared another set of spells.

Then Byleth held Hilda's hands in his own, and she disappeared from existence.

"It's Warp!" Alois shouted, pointing up to Hanneman's platform.

Hilda stood behind him, her axe in motion even as Hanneman turned around after comprehending what had just transpired. Her axe stopped just shy of his neck, as the spell that was forming on his fingertips fizzled out of existence. He exchanged some words with the girl, before she relinquished her weapon from his side.

His students up on the cliff burst into cheers. Alois offered his own words of congratulations.

"Warp as well now? I must say, Byleth has far exceeded my expectations. Why in Fódlan haven't you recommended him as a squire before this?" he asked.

Jeralt frowned. More mysteries. "Watch over him for me, Alois," he beseeched instead.

He snorted. "You don't need to ask, but after seeing something like this? I'd say he could watch my back as well."

He watched as the students made his way back up the cliff, joining the rest of their class. He had some final words to say to Alois before meeting with his students.

"By the way, Alois?" Jeralt waited for him to turn toward himself. He wouldn't want to miss Alois' reaction. "You owe me twenty gold."

He smirked at the spluttered sounds Alois made. It brought back memories of the old days when he'd been a knight and Alois a squire. Still, he wouldn't want to go back to that time.

Back then, he hadn't had Byleth. Seeing the performance that he just showed, Jeralt wouldn't give up what he had in the present for anything in the world.

Of course, Alois just had to ruin his moment of sentiment.

"Surely you meant By-leth the way, Captain?"

Jeralt sighed.

-o-o-o-

It was the weekend at the beginning of the Harpstring Moon, and Byleth was starting to regret the general plan he made for this life.

"Claude," Byleth intoned calmly, betraying none of his inner irritation. "What is this?"

"Reporting for duty, sir!" he snapped a cheeky salute, before slouching over. "Training, honorary Teach! You said you'd help me out."

"I know that," Byleth sighed, rubbing his fingers against his eyes. "What I mean is why you've brought half your class with you."

He swept his hands all around the training ground that was currently more packed with his students than Byleth had ever seen, even after counting the time that Thunder Catherine herself had volunteered to teach them in a life long since passed.

"You and Ignatz use a bow," he said, then pointed to Lysithea. "She uses magic. Raphael punches. Leonie fights with a lance and bow. For that matter, why are all of you here?" He finished with a flourish, gesturing at the few students from the Black Eagle and Gold Lion Houses that were somehow in attendance at a training session initiated by Claude that was meant for, he quoted verbatim, 'some pointers to help with his archery'.

"Well, you see," Caspar said nervously, fidgeting with his hands. "Petra heard Leonie telling Raphael about this, and then Petra told me about it. Then I thought, you know, since you'll be tagging along with us for our mission this month, why not come along and see if you'd help us out as well?"

"I am having great joy in coming here, Byleth!" Petra chipped in, already preparing to string her bow with her usual enthusiasm. "You have performed in the mock battle and demonstrated that you are full of skill!"

"Skilful," he corrected automatically. That was acceptable, he supposed.

Very surprisingly, Alois had informed him that he would be joining the Black Eagles in their mission to Zanado where Kostas was in hiding. He'd have thought that his father's class would be taking on that mission, but in some twist of fate the class that he participated in the mock battle with hadn't been selected to take on that mission.

That never happened in his previous lives. Already, his new life was having some strange changes. Then again, since there wasn't the supposedly inexperienced professor this life around, perhaps they'd randomly assigned a professor to the task rather than allocating the easiest mission to the rookie.

"That accounts for you two," he said to the two Black Eagle students. "What about Ashe and Ingrid?"

"Ingrid and I were in the library when Claude went to find Ignatz!" Ashe informed him excitedly, bobbing his head. "He said you could help with archery, and that you would be willing to train with us as well. On the way here, we bumped into Leonie, and she said you were good with lances, so Ingrid decided to come as well!"

"I hope it's no trouble, Byleth," Ingrid said apologetically. "We don't mean to impose."

"It's fine," he waved them off. "Alright. Look, it's not that I don't want to help you guys out, but I don't see how I can work with all nine of you. That's before even considering that you all use different weapons."

Ashe gave such a look of disappointment at that statement that Byleth considered how he could go about this, drawing on the experiences he had as a professor. This was an excellent opportunity to foster some inter-House relations that he wouldn't willingly pass up. Goddess knows how badly they would need it once the sparks of war began to flare.

"The way I see it, you can either do some independent training and I'll go around to give some pointers, or set up mock battles for you to take part in and observe from the side. It's not the best, but –"

"Let's put it to a vote!" Claude spoke for the group, then followed up immediately. "Mock battles it is!"

"I'm fairly sure the point of a vote is to give people a chance to have their say."

"It is? No one told me."

Byleth sighed, looking around at the others. Ignatz and Ashe were fidgeting just a little uncomfortably, probably not expecting the sudden change in plans, but if they were unhappy with Claude's decision, they made no move to show it.

"Fine, then. We've got an odd number of people, so I'll set it up as a four versus four battle," he informed them, thinking through how to balance between training outcomes and his secret master plan of bringing the three Houses together. "Lysithea, you're the only one who uses magic here. Would you mind sitting this one out? It might be easier to help with spellcasting outside of battle, anyway."

She nodded. "It's what I was hoping for as well. I just need some pointers with the spell, and I can work out the rest."

Ah, Lysithea. She always tried too hard to be independent at the start of his loops. He recalled fond times during the war when they'd stayed for hours on end working on scraps of parchment as they built on each other's expertise to refine their spellwork.

"I'll have you work on the spell and try it out on some practice dummies. The rest of you, I'll be splitting you up into groups. Claude, Raphael, Ingrid and Petra are one group. Caspar, Ashe, Ignatz and Leonie will be the other."

"Mixing us up, eh honorary Teach?" Claude shook his head. "Fine with me. Team Claude, assemble!"

They split off into their newly-formed groups. He tried to keep the teams balanced, with two archers and two front-line fighters in each, but he knew that Petra and Leonie had options for both ranged and close-quarter combat.

"I'll give you five minutes to discuss what sort of weapons or strategy you'll be using. I'm the only healer at hand here, so please don't go overboard. Manuela will have my hide if I have to send any of you to the infirmary."

With that matter temporarily settled, he addressed his remaining student. "Alright, Lysithea. What do you need help with?"

"It's Sagittae," she informed him. "I tried what you suggested, but even after double-checking my calculations with the correction factor the spell doesn't work."

She handed him some sheets of paper filled with lines and labelled diagrams of a familiar handwriting. He looked over them quickly, trying to find any errors in her work. As always, her work was impeccable.

"Seems alright to me," he frowned. "Can you manifest the spell?"

Wordlessly, she raised her hand at a nearby training dummy, her face scrunching into focus. Rotating sigils appeared in the air – completely like his own Sagittae, thus far – before the matrix collapsed with a flash of light. Nearby heads turned to look at them, but seeing no further follow-up, they returned to their planning for the battle ahead.

She looked at him expectantly. "Any ideas?"

"Do it again? I need a closer look." He stepped a little nearer toward her.

She complied, a few drops of sweat streaking down her face from the effort required. He formed his own Sagittae as she did so, eyes darting between the two glyphs.

Again, hers collapsed, while his own spell launched toward its target, blowing it backwards as it tore a gaping hole in its mid-section.

"Sorry. Again?" He thought he saw something. "If you're not too tired, that is."

"I'm fine," she insisted, although it was clear that her spell was taking a toll on her. "Fixing this is more important."

The sigils formed, intersecting lines of the metaphysical substance that defined all Magic linking them together. They moved faster, and just as it was about to collapse –

There! The pattern that appeared!

The spell exploded into light once more. Lysithea panted from the effort, bending over slightly.

"You alright, Lysithea?" Claude asked in concern from one side, none of the playful teasing he normally took with her.

"I'm fine," she snapped, then asked for Byleth's opinion once more. "Well?"

"I might have something," he admitted. "But I'm not too sure."

Meanwhile, he thought of just what he'd seen and the implications it had. The first time he hadn't been sure about what he'd noticed, but after seeing the spell once more he became more certain. Those were definitely the Crests of Charon and Gloucester that appeared just prior to the spell's collapse.

"What is it?" she asked excitedly.

Come to think of it, Lysithea had never used Sagittae in a past life, not even in the lives where she became a Gremory or Dark Knight.

In fact, she hadn't used Black Magic at all, preferring to go with Dark Magic spells. They were related, but slightly different branches of magic that were governed by Reason theory. Was this part of the reason why? Could it be that she couldn't use Black Magic?

In all his previous lives, he never further investigated Lysithea's two Crests that came about from the Agarthans' twisted blood experiments. It was selfish, but with the war always claiming his or her life before her own natural end, it just didn't seem worth it to try and come up with a solution to her impending demise. How in all of Fódlan had he missed this? Lysithea was one of his dearest friends, for the Goddess' sake!

Why hadn't she told him about any of this before? Why hadn't he noticed? They had spent so much time together, damn it!

Fuck, he was selfish. It was an observation so simple, something he could have seen and tried to help her with, and yet…

"Byleth?" she spoke with some concern. "Is everything okay?"

"Huh?" he snapped out of his thoughts. Since when had he clenched his fists? He relaxed slightly.

"Did you figure anything out?" she repeated.

"Lysithea," he said instead. "What other spells do you know?"

"Huh?" she sounded confused, but recited them anyway. "Miasma, Swarm, Luna… I'm working on Dark Spikes… I think I'm close to Heal and Nosferatu..."

"But no Black Magic?" he cut to the heart of the matter.

She started slightly, then looked at him with a slight hint of anger. Damn, he forgot that she hated appearing vulnerable. She was far better at this when she grew older. "No."

"Why?"

Wordlessly, she conjured up a glyph of Fire. The spell took hold, glowing bright –

- then it spat out the most pathetic gush of flame Byleth had seen from a mage with the amount of experience and knowledge of Reason theory that Lysithea had.

"Black Magic doesn't work well for me," she admitted. "I've tried with Fire and Thunder, but I thought Sagittae might be different, since it uses different elemental constituents."

She glared at him challengingly, as though expecting him to belittle or to coddle her for that deficiency.

"That's good," he said. "Work with your strengths. I may have some suspicions about why Black Magic doesn't work, but –"

"You do?" Her anger morphed abruptly into excitement. "Tell me!"

"Just a moment," he told her, then looked over to the other two groups. "Lysithea and I need to discuss something. Carry on with your planning, I'll be back soon."

"USE PROTECTION, TEACH!" Claude shouted from where he was. Byleth pointedly ignored him as he led Lysithea to a corner, away from watchful eyes and ears.

"What's this about?" she asked with some irritation, her cheeks only slightly red, no doubt following the obvious provocation from Claude. "I assume this has a purpose."

How should he put it? Knowing Lysithea, she'd probably prefer the direct approach. She didn't like people to view her as vulnerable.

"Lysithea," he said, taking careful stock of her reactions. This was a sensitive subject. "I think this has to do with your Crests."

She flinched. He continued, regardless. "Right before the Sagittae collapsed, I saw the Crests of Charon and Gloucester appear in the Reinfordian spell-shell. When you used Fire, even though the matrix was entirely different, they still interfered with the magical geometry at another site. It's possible that there's an issue with control, but if you can use Dark Magic…"

He trailed off, thinking deeper into the problem. Edelgard also had two Crests, but he knew for a fact that she'd been capable of using Fire and Bolganone. How could the issue be with Lysithea's multiple Crests in that case?

Then again, Edelgard didn't seem to have the same problem of a greatly reduced lifespan that Lysithea had. He also didn't have any knowledge about just how the Agarthan mages had accomplished such twisted feats. There were far too many assumptions here for him to make any logical conclusion with a good margin of certainty.

Reason theory just didn't have very good explanation for Crests and their interactions. There was good reason for it; Crests came about from the very bodies of the Children of the Goddess, after all. Magic was more of a universal metaphysical constant, or so the scholars believed. Hanneman had tried endlessly to take on the challenge of coming up with an explanation for the unification of Crests and magic as understood by Reason theory, but he hadn't ever done so successfully in Byleth's many lives.

He broke out of his thoughts at just the quietest of sniffles. His head snapped downward, pausing at the sight of Lysithea putting on a brave face, even as her eyes reddened.

Goddess damn it.

"It always comes down to my Crests in the end, doesn't it?" she spoke in a voice that was far too calm. "Thank you, Byleth. I'll just –"

She trailed off, then turned around and began to walk away. He stepped forward quickly, grabbing her hand. Startled, she turned back to face him.

"Hey," he cut in. "Lysithea. I don't know about the circumstances behind your Crests, and I won't pry."

Liar. He already knew. He continued, "But I swear that I will keep helping you with this. I'm no expert on Crests, but I'm pretty good with Reason theory. This isn't the end of it."

Fuck, he'd discuss the issue with Hanneman and Linhardt if it came down to it. He thought that her Crests had only limited her lifespan, but to limit her Magic as well? And to stay silent for the literal hundreds of lives that he'd spent by her side?

A traitorous part of him thought that if that problem were resolved, she would become even more formidable in battle, beyond the Gremory already capable of laying waste to entire battalions on her own. She would be invaluable in the war. He suppressed those selfish thoughts. Friendship comes first.

"It's my problem," she protested. He ignored the way her voice sounded choked. "I need to deal with it."

"Don't be an idiot, Lysithea," he snapped, showing some irritation for the first time in the conversation. He had a say in this too. She was about to retort, but he pressed on. "Anyone who can solve this on their own basically unifies our knowledge of Crests and Reason theory. You're intelligent; you know precisely what that means."

He watched her eyes widen as understanding sank in. "I don't mean to brag, but I'm pretty good with Black Magic," he said, manifesting the glyph of the most complex spell he could think of without actually completing his cast.

"That's Agnea's Arrow –"

"It is, and I've been able to use that for some time," he pressed on, as he forced the spell to wink out of existence. He'd learned it in, what, somewhere around his twentieth life? "And I can't even begin to think of an elegant hypothesis that combines the two fields together, much less test it. This isn't something you can take on alone."

She fell silent for a moment. "Then how?" she whispered. "You're Warlock level, at the very least, if you can cast Agnea's Arrow."

"Simple," he said. "We'll get help. Hanneman and Linhardt, and anyone else who knows anything about this."

Hell, he would even willingly drag Edelgard into this under some false context to study her own Crests. By force, if necessary, if he couldn't prevent her downward spiral into the crazed Emperor that would eventually willingly transform herself into a monster. Lysithea had been a constant in so many lives that it was utterly shameful he hadn't ever helped her with this. To Ailell with the war. His friends came first.

He had many more lives to spare, anyway. Fódlan's wars could take a break.

"Linhardt?" she made a face. "That boy from the Black Eagles? I didn't think you knew him."

He thought he saw the issue. "He doesn't just nap all the time, you know. I saw him researching Crests in the library." He'd been the foremost expert on Crests during the war, Agarthans aside.

"Even so…" she looked downwards. "I don't think it's necessary to involve them…"

"Just keep it in mind," he insisted. She was probably trying to keep just how she came to have two Crests a secret. He hoped that at some point, she would trust him enough to divulge the truth behind her Crests that he'd heard before. "They're experts on Crests. If not Linhardt, at least talk to Hanneman. Please."

She'd talked to both of them in past lives, but that was more to do with her Crests. He didn't think that they investigated how it linked with her magic before. Hopefully, they would have more luck with a new avenue of research.

"Maybe," she deflected, then looked him directly in the eye. It was just a little less reddened now, thank the Goddess. "Why would you help me? You barely know me."

"You're my friend," he said truthfully. Of course, he wasn't about to spill everything to her.

"That can't be all of it," she insisted.

"True," he admitted. "But I'm keeping that a secret, for now. I'm sure you have some of your own. Maybe when you're ready to tell me your own secrets, I'll tell you mine. For now, we'll remain friends."

"…Friends," she agreed, after some consideration.

"Good." He tried his best to give a comforting smile. "Do you want to continue with the training? The rest will be waiting for us."

"I'll do some studying of my own," she said. Right, she probably didn't want to be seen by the others in the state that she was. She nodded at him, posture straightening to what seemed more like her normal self. "Thank you for your help, Byleth."

"Okay," he told her. "Remember, Lysithea. You don't have to take this on alone."

"Yeah," she mumbled, turning to leave the training ground.

Damn. That was intense.

That took a bit longer than expected, he thought as he rejoined the two groups of students.

Claude whistled. "Lysithea isn't with you? I got to say, little Teach, you work fast."

"Enough, Claude." He wasn't in the mood for such nonsense. He must have sensed his dour state, because Claude straightened up and took on a serious look. "Alright. Both teams, get to work."

They executed their planned strategies. They weren't bad, as far as he could tell. He felt a little guilty at being distracted thinking over how he could solve Lysithea's problem as he watched their battle, but he already knew some of the mistakes to point out. Having had to teach all of these students at some point in the past was such a convenience.

He would give Lysithea a few weeks to mull over the issue. If she still didn't approach Hanneman, he could do so himself. It wouldn't earn him any points with her, but he'd taken up bigger burdens for his friends before.

He continued watching them half-heartedly. When the battle finally finished, with Claude's team emerging the victor in a final one versus one fight between a tired Ingrid and Leonie, he offered his own pointers that had been collected from lives long past.

"Alright. Claude, you're good with your draw speed, but your footwork and accuracy on the move needs some improvement. I'll recommend some drills for you. Leonie, you need to…"

His suggestions were met positively by his former students, thank the Goddess. He had enough to deal with for one day after Lysithea's revelation.

Following the training session, his newest problem took up most of his time. The days passed quickly, and before he knew it, Alois and the mission with the Black Eagles came knocking near the middle of the month.

This life may not have been going entirely as he planned, but he wouldn't trade it for anything. Even though Sothis' power would likely bring him back to Remire Village again at the end of this life, seeing as he'd spent more time on his not-students than actively working on the war, it would all be worth it in the end.

Part of him was ashamed that he couldn't help but think of how invaluable she would be to him in the war to come if the problem was resolved. He suppressed those thoughts, thinking hard about just why he still bothered to continue trying to save all of them after all these years. He had to believe in that.

What was one more death, if it meant helping his closest friends once this was all over?