The Lady and the Thief
by Cyberchao X
Chapter 3: Blue Lions
Ingrid could have done without being a part of the Blue Lions' mission to Duscur. The natives were rebelling against the Kingdom, and Dimitri and Dedue wished to try to minimize casualties by intervening. On the one hand, it meant she got to fight with the Duscur people. On the other, it meant having to restrain herself from killing them. She managed, however, and due to the hilly terrain, the only unit in their class with a winged mount outright thrived, earning her the professor's praise as a result. Still, being there couldn't help but bring up memories. She talked about it with Dimitri after one of their training sessions, where the prince instantly recognized that her technique was taught to her by Glenn. Regardless of whether the people of Duscur were at fault for the Tragedy, it still happened, and Dimitri lost his parents and many knights, one of them Glenn—Dimitri's friend, Felix's brother, and Ingrid's fiancé. Ingrid sincerely hoped to help Dimitri usher in a new era where such tragedies would never occur again.
Professor Manuela was discovered near the end of the month in Jeritza's quarters, pointing to a secret passage. Professor Byleth proposed investigating immediately. Annette was less than enthusiastic, leading Mercedes to tease her about being afraid of dark places and saying that she and the professor would protect her. Byleth reassured her, however, that she didn't have to come along if it made her uncomfortable, as they had enough other magic users that they could suffice if a battle broke out. Annette said she'd be okay, but Byleth still felt it was best to hold her out of the battle. He was dismayed, however, when the Death Knight escaped (CCX: Real talk here, I completely forgot that killing all other enemies made him retreat. Ah, well, my refusal to use renown on support levels means I didn't have Lysithea yet here, anyway.) Mercedes mentioned the Death Knight feeling familiar somehow, which seemed strange as she was the gentlest soul in his class. Flayn then asked to join his class, and he had to concede that she would be safest there. Then there was the other girl…Monica. A member of the previous year's class who had gone missing before her graduation. She seemed to be recovering far too quickly, a point brought up to Byleth by one of the students from outside his house. Byleth agreed, it seemed suspicious. She'd disappeared a year ago, so to appear here…it seemed like yet another trap, like the letter Lonato was holding. Hm, a person who had disappeared…wasn't that reminiscent of Lord Arundel? And then there was Tomas. Byleth himself didn't find him suspicious, but for some reason, Sothis seemed to. Perhaps some fishing would clear his head. Though it seemed to be noisier at the fishing pond than usual…apparently, Flayn had been craving a certain fish, so Seteth organized a tournament on the fly. He really did spoil her.
The month leading up to the Battle of the Eagle and Lion was a busy one. Alois and Shamir recruited the students to help drive off pirates in Deidriu, Sylvain was called back to Gautier territory to drive out the remnants of Miklan's bandits, and Count Gloucester called upon his son Lorenz to resolve a territorial dispute back in the Alliance. Then there was the latest arranged marriage candidate for Ingrid. Dorothea was the first to show concern, and as usual, she was spot on. Ingrid was lucky to call her a friend. She wished she didn't have to fight her during the upcoming battle, but despite all the defections to the Blue Lions, Dorothea remained a Black Eagle.
Bernadetta, on the other hand, seemed to be thriving as a Blue Lion. The last time Byleth had sent someone else to fetch her, it ended with Ingrid smashing her door in, but the professor himself somehow had a way of getting her to function with some semblance of normalcy. The best guess anyone had as to how he did it involved bribery with sweets, something that the professor seemed to have a nearly endless supply of. He'd made a habit of having tea with his students on their birthdays, and occasionally other times too. There were some rumors floating around due to the frequency with which one certain student was invited to tea.
Ashe had found his birthday tea party rather awkward. He'd enjoyed his birthday nevertheless; he felt he'd been making an impact on Prince Dimitri, who'd gifted him a new bow, and also received a rather large gift of meat from Raphael, a painting from Ignatz, and a brand new book of legends from Ingrid. That last one he treasured most of all; he read it cover to cover within the first two days he'd had it and then put it on his shelf, wanting to keep the binding in good condition.
Dimitri was confident in the strength of the Blue Lions. He'd had his doubts about the professor when he'd first arrived, thinking him to be someone with no strong feelings about killing his enemies, but he now knew this not to be the case. Byleth was a natural leader—and more importantly, a natural advisor. This was something that had Dimitri both optimistic and concerned. He hoped that Byleth would join the Kingdom of Faerghus—the title "Minister of Defense" had a nice ring to it; it properly conveyed the idea of the highest-ranking military official, answering only to King Dimitri himself, while also suggesting that his role was not merely that of a general but also as an advisor. And yet, it was quite likely that he'd instead elect to remain a teacher at Garreg Mach. (Or so Dimitri thought; he had no idea that Byleth distrusted the Archbishop.)
CCX: I'm hoping this picks up once I get to the War Phase. I'm thinking maybe I'll try to do more original stuff for the five years interim; I'm kind of blocked up right now.
Also, in case it wasn't clear last chapter, I haven't actually decided who to pair Byleth with. There's certainly a direction I'm leaning, but I'm trying to tease multiple options and see what the readers want.