Korrina and the Black Eagles

Chapter 2: Welcome to Garreg Mach

The ride to the monastery lasted the full night. If Jeralt had not remembered to bring some heart medication for his daughter, it would have been dangerous as well. Most of the people were tired by the end of the ride, but somehow Claude was able to keep talking the whole way through. When he wasn't flirting with Korrina or trying to make her change her mind about serving Edelgard, he was talking about the monastery and all the people that Korrina would meet. Sometimes Korrina just wanted to spend some time without Claude talking in her ear. Other times she enjoyed his musings and wondered if all he said was true. When the journey ended and everyone reached the monastery, Korrina was mesmerized. It was by far the most spectacular work of architecture that she had ever seen, with towers, chapels, and facilities as far as the eye could see. As they got closer to the monastery, Korrina also began to feel an overwhelmingly powerful aura unlike anything she ever seen before. As she entered, Korrina looked up to see a beautiful woman with green hair and eyes looking specifically at her. There was no doubt: this woman was the source of that aura, and she had plans for Korrina.

After a long rest in what would eventually become their new home, Jeralt and Korrina were summoned before the headmaster of this monastery. As they waited, Jeralt finally let his daughter know of the main religion of their continent. Said religion was called the religion of Seiros, the institution they stood in was the center of power in that religion called Garreg Mach, and its leader was that woman from earlier: Archbishop Rhea. Rhea and a stern man with even greener hair named Seteth then entered the room and started conversing with Jeralt. From the sound of things, Jeralt used to work for them as a knight but left for reasons neither side felt like disclosing (a fact that somewhat annoyed Korrina). Eventually, Rhea and Seteth turned to Korrina to thank her for saving their students. Jeralt scoffed at Rhea's comments, and this mildly angered Korrina. Yes, it was a little soon to know if Rhea could be trusted, but she had also been nothing but kind to them so far, and Jeralt's behavior seemed hypocritically inappropriate for the situation. "Really, dad?" Korrina said to her father, "after telling me to respect our superiors for so long, you're gonna spit on this woman's gratitude?" Korrina then turned to Rhea and said, "forgive my father's rudeness, archbishop. I don't know what happened between you two, but that's in the past." Rhea was pleased with Korrina's words and prayed that the three of them could work together for a brighter future.

As the day passed, Jeralt remained a bit embarrassed that he had to be called out by his own child but was able to retain his composure enough to inform his daughter that Rhea had given her a teaching position. Korrina was unsure why they would give the position to her since she had no experience in that position (Jeralt even made sure to voice his suspicions to Korrina), but Korrina decided that it might be a good opportunity to learn things that she would never have learned as a mercenary (she wasn't formally educated after all). Before long, 2 older people joined Korrina and Jeralt. One was a scholarly researcher named Hanneman and the other was a seductive nurse named Manuela. Introductions went fine until Manuela told Korrina she was "available". Hanneman groaned and facepalmed at his cohort's lack of restraint while Korrina got intensely flustered and said, "you do realize I'm 20 years younger than you right". This response caused Manuela to shift attitude on a dime and say, "Did you suggest I'm old? I'll have you know that I was once the star of a renowned opera company-" thankfully for Korrina, Hanneman cut off his old colleague and informed Korrina that she would be given control over one of 3 houses: The Black Eagles (Edelgard's class), The Blue Lions (Dimitri's class), or the Golden Deer (Claude's class). Of course, Rhea would allow Korrina to actually get to know everyone first before making her decision, and the 2 she didn't pick would go to Hanneman and Manuela. The next morning, Korrina would no longer be a mercenary: she would be a professor, and eventually much more.

The next morning, Korrina went to explore her new home a little. Rhea was quite accommodating of Korrina's bad heart, sending a month's worth of medication to her room first thing in the morning. Since Korrina had unofficially pledged allegiance to Edelgard before arriving at Garreg Mach, she had already made up her mind about joining the Black Eagles. However, she still felt a need to get to know all the people she would be working with. The first person Korrina saw was Edelgard, who seemed concerned and disappointed that Korrina's new position would somehow bar her from working with the empire. However, Korrina reassured Edelgard that this would only be a temporary occupation and that she would eventually leave once Edelgard ascended the throne to better assist her in the long run. This seemed to comfort Edelgard, and with this, Korrina went on to meet the other students in The Black Eagles: a vampiric individual with pale skin and dark hair named Hubert, a pompous yet caring noble with orange hair named Ferdinand, a lazy and apathetic man with long green hair named Linhardt, an excitable youth with cyan hair named Caspar, a skittish recluse with messy purple hair named Bernadetta, a talented songstress named Dorothea, and a determined "guest" named Petra. Korrina was also able to hit it off with several other students and even the local gatekeeper. The only sources of concern were a redheaded womanizer named Silvain who was determined to get with Korrina and an extraordinarily rude man called Jeritza who wanted almost nothing to do with anyone he didn't have business with. When the time came for Korrina to make her choice, she made almost no hesitation to say the Black Eagles. Korrina promised to serve the Adestrian Empire after all. After a brief interruption by Seteth's baby sister Flayn, Seteth informed Korrina of a future mock battle between the 3 houses next month and warned her that he would be using this battle to evaluate her skills. Just one day in and the pressure was already on.

As the first day of classes rolled around, Korrina finally revealed to her new students that she would be leading the Black Eagles from now on. A few of the students were shocked at this turn of events, but quickly came to accept her as their new professor. Unfortunately, Linhardt and Bernadetta were feeling less than cooperative that day, and Ferdinand's indignation at their insubordination led to a small riot. Korrina, however, wasn't in the mood to have this be how her first day would go and quickly slammed her sword on a floor to get everyone's attention. Although Korrina's heart began to flare after her little display of newfound authority, she was still able to push through and inform her new students of the upcoming mock battle. For Linhardt and Bernadetta's attitude that day, their participation in that battle was made mandatory and Korrina would be making sure they pulled their weight. Korrina wondered if she went a bit far that day, but her decisive response to that situation combined with the fact that she was soldiering through an obviously severe health problem all the while actually earned her the respect of her students. Since Korrina was not a true teacher yet, the first month was a largely uneventful series of training sessions while Korrina learned how to actually be a teacher from Manuela and occasionally snuck off to help with Hanneman's crest research. As the mock battle drew closer, Korrina began to exude more confidence in her ability to win this mock battle and told nearly everyone she would prevail. Admittedly, this was just a mask to prevent anyone close to Seteth from interpreting Korrina as weak. It may just have been another mock battle for Hanneman and Manuela, but Korrina's job was on the line here. If she didn't do well here, her entire future could go up in smoke (or at least that is how she perceived it). After a brief strategy meeting, the 3 houses converged on the field outside Garreg Mach for the much-awaited mock battle.

Korrina's main plan for this battle was to assign the Black Eagles into a formation and never break from it no matter what. Korrina's initial plan was to charge the Blue Lions since she saw Dimitri as the biggest threat, but halfway through, the Golden Deer jumped out of the forest and attacked both sides. This caused Korrina to make a slight detour and take out Claude first. The task was mildly difficult since the Blue Lions were beginning to close the distance, but once Claude revealed his position, it became easy to rush and overwhelm the lad. Once Claude was defeated, the rest of the Golden Deer lost confidence and followed suit. Korrina then had her class take the forest Claude was using and ambush the Blue Lions from inside of it. For all their complaining at the start, Bernadetta was able to snipe most of the enemies from a distance and Linhardt proved an effective healer. Once everyone was gone, Edelgard challenged Dimitri to single combat and won. Korrina had fulfilled her promise and won the mock battle, and everyone was impressed with her efficiency in doing so. Unfortunately, things would not be so rosy going forward.