Korrina and the Black Eagles

Chapter 8: Battle of the Eagle and Lion + Deer

Once Korrina got out of the infirmary, the rest of the month went by without a hitch. An APB was sent out for Jeritza after everyone found out he was the Death Knight, but he never returned. Perhaps he started over in another town, or perhaps he was just waiting to strike again. Either way, Korrina was relieved to not have to deal with him again for a while. Manuela also recovered, but she also became obsessed with bringing down the Death Knight and doubled down on her drinking habits. This caused Korrina to have to look after her and take over for her lectures for the Golden Deer since a hungover teacher is not always effective. Flayn made a full recovery and quickly adjusted to her new life as a student, but the way she emphasized how long it's been since she was allowed to interact with other people lead many to speculate her true age (sometimes even out in the open). The girl with the uniform was revealed to be a former student named Monica. She recovered quickly and transferred over to the Black Eagles to finish her final year, but she was never good with participation and only ever spoke to Edelgard. Hilda viewed this quick recovery as a sign of suspicion, but at the time, Korrina dismissed Monica's behavior as a different way of coping with trauma. In time, Korrina would come to regret this carelessness.

As the month came to an end, the Battle of the Eagle and Lion was announced. Korrina felt quite embarrassed at the news, as she admittedly forgot all about it in the chaos of the past few months. However, Korrina was confident that the Black Eagles had been through enough harrowing experiences to be ready for anything the other 2 houses would have to throw at her. Unfortunately, Hanneman and Manuela both believed that the same about their own house. Although Manuela had to sit out the battle due to her grievous injuries and Hanneman did the same out of respect for his lifelong rival, they both believed that their students were trained to utter perfection and guaranteed to win decisively. This caused Korrina to rant: "Pushed your students to the limit, you say? You don't even know the half of it, Manuela. MY students have experienced things I'm not even allowed to talk about, things that forced them to adapt or die. Those hellish experiences have forged them into peak warriors physically and mentally equipped to handle ANYTHING you have to throw at them. Rest assured a mere mock battle will be absolutely nothing to them." Hanneman merely responded by saying "Don't worry. We'll see if that bluster holds any weight to it soon enough." Manuela then chimed in and said, "And Korrina? You'd best keep that temper in check when the actual day comes. It would be embarrassing if the only professor participating lost because she got flustered." With that, the other 2 professors took their leave. Although this slight outburst gave Hanneman an idea about Korrina's potential weakness, the Black Eagles were listening and mostly just honored that their own professor had that much faith in them.

Although the spirit of competition was beginning to heat up among the 3 houses, Seteth tried to alleviate this tension with a lower stakes fishing tournament in honor of his newly rescued sister. Although some balked at the silliness of the idea, participation was much higher than expected. Not only did many from the Black Eagles participate (save for Edelgard, Hubert, Monica and Linhardt), but Korrina was also able to meet back up with her first crush Catherine and Alois. She even met 2 eventual friends from the Golden Deer: a hulking but pure hearted strongman named Raphael and a meek art enthusiast with a bowl cut and glasses named Ignatz. It ultimately came down to Korrina, Catherine, and Raphael. All 3 of them took up most of the fish that day, but in the end, Korrina won the competition. Unfortunately, Korrina wasn't able to eat any of it since her heart responded especially poorly to fish. At least she was able to attract a majority of the competitors in that tournament, so it wasn't all for naught.

Later on, Silvain got a letter from his father. Apparently, his brother's pack of thieves came back together to cause trouble, and it was up to Silvain to handle them. His father wanted him to come alone, but even one as skilled with a horse as Silvain couldn't hope to take a bunch of thieves by himself. Thus, he turned to Korrina for help. Korrina obliged, as the extra experience could be beneficial to the Black Eagles. Korrina's strategy was to split up into each corner of the town and box in the thieves. Once they were found out, the thieves tried to make a hasty retreat. However, they were routed before most of them could even see the exit. The fact that they were on horseback made Silvain and Bernadetta vital assets to this operation. With no true leader anymore, the thieves were borderline helpless against the more organized Black Eagles. At the end of it, Silvain's father gave back the Lance of Ruin and admitted he was using the situation as a test to see if Silvain had become competent enough to use it yet. Although Silvain coming with reinforcements kinda defeated the purpose, it at least proved that he had strong allies he could rely on if the going ever got tough.

Although most of the focus in this month was the Battle of the Eagle and Lion, the revelation that a trafficking gang had set up base inside Garreg Mach left everyone on edge. The encampments of similar gangs around the place didn't help matters, either. Caspar especially became more paranoid about his surroundings as he began to lash out at anyone he deemed suspicious. One night, he even charged a stranger who got too close to a group of children in hopes of preventing another kidnapping. Thankfully, his suspicions were justified on that occasion. However, Korrina had to hold Caspar back and lecture him about exercising caution multiple times throughout the month.

As the Battle of the Eagle and Lion began to approach, Korrina approached Jeralt about coming to watch her in the upcoming fight. Unfortunately, Jeralt and his men were tasked with weeding out suspicious individuals in the area to make sure the event goes as planned. Although the event itself was low stakes in comparison to the last several missions, Jeralt still felt concerned. Not only were more suspicious individuals beginning to show up around Garreg Mach, but the investigation team never came back. This prompted Jeralt to begin setting up his final requests. If he died, Korrina was to search his room thoroughly for something and read his diary. The diary would tell Korrina everything she wanted and needed to know, and the thing Jeralt hid for her was of more personal importance. This talk of death naturally caused Korrina to be concerned for her father's life. "Stop talking like that!", Korrina interjected, "You're the only family I have! If you died, life here just wouldn't be the same!" Jeralt thought for a moment, then put his arm on his daughter's shoulder and said, "Don't cry. This old man has no plans of dying just yet. If I did, though, you would be more than able to fight for yourself. I can't believe I'm saying this, but this monastery has brought out the best in you. I was hesitant at first, but this is the perfect place for you. Perhaps you were meant to be here all along. Whatever happens, I couldn't think of a better place for you anymore. Things will turn out okay. I know it." With this, Jeralt embraced Korrina and they went their separate ways.

When the fated day arrived, the 3 Houses converged at a place called Gronder Field. Apparently, this place belongs to Caspar's family and sustains the Adestrian Empire with the crops grown here. Thankfully, this event was specifically planned after the harvesting season ended so the battle wouldn't interfere with anything. On the way, Hubert slipped back into his passive aggressive demeanor and told Korrina that failure would be on her. Ferdinand was also feeling overconfident and offered to lead in Korrina's place. This then lead to a clash of egos and soon enough, Caspar got excited and tried to make this a free for all. Korrina got intensely frustrated and said, "Enough! How can we expect to win anything if you insist on fighting amongst yourselves!? If we are to attain victory today, we must be a united front." These words brought the Black Eagles back to their senses, pleasing Korrina. She then said, "I'm relieved you understand. Soon we will reach the field of engagement. Today, we will remind those fools who the real power in this continent is! The Eagle will soar and the Lion will sleep! LONG LIVE THE ADESTRIAN EMPIRE!" Most of the other Black Eagles responded with a unified "LONG LIVE THE ADESTRIAN EMPIRE!" and charged forward with renewed vigor. Silvain was not as enthused as he was originally one of the Blue Lions, but he appreciated Korrina's effort to raise people's spirits and accompanied his new comrades into battle.

The 3 houses arranged into a triangular formation, with each taking a different angle. The Golden Deer took the right angle, the Blue Lions took the left, and the Black Eagles took the top. Because neither of the other houses believed that the Black Eagles were fully prepared for this grand mock battle, they each sent a team led by a single person (Ingrid and Ignatz respectively) while the rest concentrated on one another. Ignatz was easy to deal with as he was never a big fighter. Ingrid, however, was a much different story. The Black Eagles had never had to face Pegasus knights before, and before long, Ingrid was beginning to pick off Korrina's men one by one. Korrina was left with no choice but to use Divine Pulse and rethink her strategy. Thankfully, there was no rule against using Divine Pulse. This time, Korrina had Edelgard and Caspar wait in the nearby forest and wait for Ingrid. Caspar tried to shoot Ingrid off her Pegasus with arrows while Edelgard would emerge from the forest and smash Ingrid off the Pegasus with an axe if she got too close. This plan succeeded and now the Black Eagles were free to go on the offensive. The Black Eagles split into 3. Most of them went southeast to engage the Golden Deer as they were now considered the biggest threat after the previous mock battle. Edelgard, Hubert and Caspar took men southwest to catch the Blue Lions from the rear. Korrina took Ferdinand and Petra and headed straight south to capture the fort in the middle. Thanks to Ferdinand's high defense, the Black Eagles were easily able to take the fort and knock Ashe off the ballista on the top. Seeing the plan succeed, the main force then swerved around to the fort in hopes of leading the Golden Deer to the fort and giving the Black Eagles the advantage. Unfortunately, the Golden Deer had enough cavalry to cut off the main force and route them. Thus, Korrina used Divine Pulse again and encouraged the main force to hide in the forest instead and wait for her to come for them. The main force was annoyed at this change of tactics, but it worked. The extra cover prevented the Golden Deer from landing any decisive blows while Bernadetta shot anyone who came for them with her trusty bow. Before long, Korrina and Ferdinand came to wipe out the remaining Golden Deer. Now that the Black Eagles had the advantage, they then closed in on the battle between the Golden Deer and Blue Lions and started to pick off the exhausted armies. Because the Blue Lions focused nearly all their resources on facing the Golden Deer, they still had plenty of men left to face the Black Eagles with. A mighty but mighty rude swordsman with black hair named Felix kept Edelgard, Hubert and Caspar at bay, but getting repeatedly hit by the ballista eventually took its toll on him and he fell. Edelgard, Hubert and Caspar were now free to engage the Blue Lions from their rear and sandwich them. Eventually, Dimitri was all that remained. Dimitri was clearly trying to suppress his inner bloodlust in an effort to keep the integrity of the sport intact, but this ironically proved his undoing as he only used a fraction of his true skill and strength against the Black Eagles. Korrina thought she had won, but Claude still remained. He was also trying to snipe enemies from inside the forest, but the only advantage this gave was the fact that everyone but the people officiating the event forgot about him. The Black Eagles then had to go all the way back to the Golden Deer corner and drag Claude out of there kicking and screaming. Claude was an expert marksman but he couldn't stop all of the Black Eagles. With his defeat, the Black Eagles had decisively won the Battle of the Eagle and Lion.

A feast was proposed to break down the walls set up by this competition, but Korrina couldn't eat any of the food provided since none of it agreed with her heart, so she had to leave the monastery and find food elsewhere. As Korrina was leaving, she bumped into Edelgard. Edelgard wanted a more quiet place to reflect on her destiny. Edelgard originally thought she would have to face her future alone, but the events of that day had finally convinced her that she could share the burden and rely on others sometimes. Edelgard finally trusted Korrina enough to tell the truth about her past. House Hresvelg (her house) often relied on the Crest of Seiros to maintain its legitimacy. Edelgard was the only one born with that crest, and it was a minor one too. Thus, Edelgard and her siblings were taken underground to have the power of a crest forced upon them. Edelgard's siblings weren't killed by a disease, they were killed by medical malpractice. Their flesh was cut open and incompatible blood was forced into their bodies. When there weren't experiments, the most Edelgard could look forward to was a dark, smelly chamber full of rats. Edelgard was the only survivor, and she was determined to tear the system responsible for this crime against humanity limb from limb. With this, Edelgard finally revealed her key to changing the world, her second crest: the Crest of Flames. Korrina was astounded and said, "Do you know what this means?" Edelgard responded with a "Yes. It is both a symbol of the past and the source of my powers. I will use it to build a new world where such cruelty can never happen again." Korrina responded with "No, silly. We're sisters. REAL sisters. Neither of us ever have to be alone again." Korrina then embraced Edelgard in a tackling hug and wept tears of joy at the fact that this whole time, she had more family than just Jeralt out there. Edelgard didn't have the heart to tell Korrina that that was the crest given to her by those experiments. However, Edelgard did share her natural crest (The Crest of Seiros) with Jeralt, so the chances of them being related were still extremely high. From then on, Korrina and Edelgard stuck together, sharing their burdens, secrets, hopes and dreams.