Lady Rhea placed me in the Blue Lions classroom, since, like Yuri, I was originally from Faerghus lands. I wasn't sure what to expect when I woke up that morning, donned the black and gold uniform, and walked out of Abyss to the academy. Rose had kissed me on the cheek and wished me good luck on my way out.

And I'd need good luck.

I found seven other students already in the classroom. One of them, blond haired, blued-eyed, wearing a blue cape over his shoulder was the Prince of The Holy Kingdom of Faerghus. The Prince! What was I doing in the same room as royalty?

I sat down on the nearest bench, which was also closest to the door. A girl with orange hair tied into braids was sitting beside me, talking to another girl, who was standing. They both turned to me and introduced themselves.

"Hello, I'm Annette!" the orange-haired girl said with a bright smile. "And this is my bestie, Mercie."

"Mercedes," the girl who was standing said. "Nice to meet you." They both had such warm smiles. It was rather… disarming. I was more used to gruff dudes, sharpening their blades and drinking alcohol.

"Byleth," I said. I tried to smile at them with the same kindness they had. I scanned the room. There was a very tall, broad-shouldered guy hovering by the prince, and the prince was talking to a girl with yellow hair in a long braid down her back. She glanced towards our classroom door.

"Is Sylvain still not here? I bet he overslept," she said. She turned to another student, who was sitting nearby, with black hair tied up, and said, "Felix, come with me. Let's go drag Sylvain over."
Felix sighed. "I'm sure you can handle it, Ingrid."

There were footsteps fast approaching. Was that our professor? I thought class was supposed to have started. I glanced at the doorway.

A red head burst into view, gasping for air. He leaned on his knees. "Phew. I made it."

"Sylvain! What took you so long? Good thing our professor isn't here yet, or you'd be late," Ingrid said, placing her hands on her hips. She seemed like the serious, strict type.

Nearby, I heard Mercedes giggle.

Then there was one last student, a gray-haired, freckled boy, who sat near the front, engrossed in a book.

Another pair of footsteps and someone walked in. "All right, students, take your seats," the woman said. It must be the professor then. She had short, light brown hair, and wore an interesting green dress that exposed her cleavage.

Everyone settled down, Mercedes taking the seat on the other side of Annette. The professor wrote her name on the chalkboard. "I'm Professor Manuela."

"Well, how was your first day?" Yuri and I sat at the dining table of Rose's new house. Rose had brewed us a pot of Albinean Berry Blend, a caffeine-less, mildly sweet tea. Rose joined us at the table with a plate of cookies.

"I want to hear all about it too," she said with a smile.

"Well, the prince was there," I said. Yuri raised an eyebrow while lifting the cup of tea to his lips.

"So I've heard," Yuri said.

Rose glanced between the two of us then leaned closer. "You mean, the Prince of Faerghus? Dimitri, wasn't it?"

Yuri and I both nodded, and I said, "Isn't that just crazy? The Prince!" Rose laughed. She had a light, soft laugh.

"Anyway, they all seem to know each other," I said. "It's hard to talk to them. There's the Prince and his retainer, Dedue. Then there's this trio of childhood friends. Then there's another pair of girls who are friends. I suppose there's only one other student who doesn't already know someone."

Yuri shrugged. "You'll be fine, Byleth. I didn't know anyone going in."

The next day, Sylvain approached me. Our whole class was walking to the cafeteria for lunch, but I was trailing a bit behind the others.

"Hey there, Byleth, looking beautiful as usual," he said with a wink. I glanced at him and then back at the group in front of me.

"What do you want?" I asked. I knew his type. The ones who flirted and charmed their way to get whatever they want.

"Hoho," he chuckled. "Quite the straight-forward type, huh?" I didn't know what to say to that, so I just kept walking. We were almost at the cafeteria. Ingrid would probably turn around and chastise Sylvain any moment now.

"I want a date, of course," Sylvain said with another smile.

"Sorry, not interested." I shook my head. We filed one-by-one into the cafeteria. Ingrid glanced back at us, her eyes narrowing when she saw Sylvain. She slowed down until we caught up.

"Sylvain, stop hitting on our classmates," Ingrid said, punching his shoulder.

"Ow!" Sylvain flinched. I snickered. Well deserved. At least, there was someone keeping him in line.

"Sorry about that," Ingrid said to me.

"Hey, at least I got a smile out of you," Sylvain said, stretching his arms over his head. Ingrid hit his side again, and he yelped in pain.

"Don't mind him, really," Ingrid said.

We had our first quiz in the second week about common battle strategies. Annette invited me to study with her, Mercedes, and Ashe, so, after class, we walked to the library. We sat down at a table.

Annette started going over her notes, neat lines of text crawling over the paper. Mercedes picked up the textbook, while Ashe worked on some practice problems in our textbook.

I wasn't sure what to do. I'd never studied before in my life. Yuri gave me his textbooks, since he said he wouldn't be needing them anymore. I'd taken some notes during class, but they were of questionable quality. The notes tapered off halfway through the lecture, when I'd started getting bored and tired.

I stared at the textbooks. I hadn't done all of the reading either. It took forever. I was a slow reader, and all the letters on the page, so tiny and crammed together, made my head hurt.

I was going to fail this quiz, wasn't I? Then I'd get expelled from this academy for being too stupid. I sighed. Yuri would be disappointed. He'd have paid for the tuition for nothing.

"Something wrong?" Mercedes said. She had such an airy, light voice.

I shook my head. "I, uh… I don't really know how to study."

Mercedes's mouth dropped open. "Oh my, is that so?"

Annette raised her head, eyes lighting up. "You don't know how to study, Byleth? Don't worry. I can teach you!"

Mercedes chuckled. "Annie is great at studying."

Ashe smiled and said, "I could use some help too."

Annette pushed her notes to the middle of the table. "First, it helps to take notes. Writing things down helps commit it to your memory. And, you can review your notes later…" So began a lesson on learning…

The next day, when Ingrid discovered that we were studying together, she decided to join us, and dragged Sylvain and Felix in too. Of course, that caught Dimitri's attention, and he wanted to be included.

"I have to study too," Dimitri said. Dedue nodded.

Which meant the entire Blue Lions class ended up in the library that evening, with our heads down in books and papers. Felix kept fidgeting in his seat and grumbling, while Sylvain was staring at another student at a different table, until someone kicked him in the shin. Possibly Ingrid.

The day before our quiz, a Thursday, I found Yuri in his dorm room, sitting on his bed with another book.

"You never stop reading," I said.

He glanced up, slid a bookmark in, and closed the book with one hand. "Reading is learning."

The room was empty. I stepped in and dropped down next to him. "I'm going to fail the quiz tomorrow."

Yuri laughed. "No, you won't."

"Yes, I will." I leaned back until my head bumped into the wall. "I'm going to fail, and they'll expel me for being an idiot."

"You're not an idiot, Byleth," Yuri said. "You'll be fine."

I sat up and then leaned towards Yuri, resting my head on his shoulder. "I hope so."

"You've been so busy studying all week that I've barely seen you. You'll be fine." He wrapped an arm around me and squeezed me in a hug.

I wanted to believe in Yuri. He was usually right.

The next day, I sat down to face a battle of wits with a piece of paper. And, Yuri was right. I was fine. I won.

At the end of the month, we went on our monthly mission. The three classes split amongst themselves, with the three house leaders going on one mission together. It was apparently to build rapport between the three houses.

My group consisted of Hilda and Ignatz from Golden Deer house, Lindhardt and Dorothea from Black Eagles house, and myself and Felix.

We walked through the forest towards a town. Our mission was to fight off some bandits. There were three other Knights of Serios with us and Professor Manuela. I was just glad these bandits couldn't be our own crew.

Our group was rather quiet. Hilda, Dorothea, and Professor Manuela were chatting and laughing together near the front of the group. Lindhardt kept yawning and trailed near the back. Ignatz, Felix, and I walked in silence.

"The weather's nice today, huh?" Ignatz said with a smile. He had really large, round glasses. Felix and I nodded.

Oh man, I wasn't good at small talk. Then again, Yuri was the only person I really talked to who was around my age. My shoulders were tensing up. I tried to take a deep breath to relax.

"Yeah, really cool," I said. "Uh. Sunny."

Ignatz chuckled. "So, what part of the Kingdom are you from, Byleth?"

"I'm from the southern part," I said, "a small village not too far from Gaspard. Um, what about you, Ignatz?" Yes, that was always an easy way. Just deflect the question back!

"I'm from the center area of the Alliance, near Gloucester area."

I didn't actually know where that was, but I smiled and nodded. "Ah, very cool!"

When we arrived at the town, we found three bandits harassing some villagers. When they saw us, they stopped, turned, and bolted away.

"Quick, chase after them!" one of the knights said, and they began to sprint. Ignatz, Felix, Dorothea and I ran with the knights. When I glanced back, I found Hilda jogging after us. Professor Manuela was chastising Lindhardt, who just covered his yawn with his hand.

The knights tackled one of the bandits. Ignatz stopped running to fire a warning arrow at the other bandit. At least, I thought it was a warning arrow, since it only grazed the bandit. Dorothea took Ignatz's idea and blasted a fireball at the bandit. That worked, and the bandit dropped to the ground, clothes burnt to a fine crisp.

Felix kept sprinting after the last bandit. Goddess, they were both fast - Felix and bandit. I followed them, my lungs struggling to keep up. We were dashing through the small village, with villagers dodging out of our way with gasps.

I reached for the small knife on my belt that I always carried with me. Then I threw it at the bandit's leg. The bandit shrieked when the knife made contact and toppled to the floor. Felix was on top of him the next second, holding his sword at the bandit's neck.

The other knights and I caught up, and the knights quickly took the bandit captive.

"Sorry about that," I told the bandit, who was glaring at me. "But could I have my knife back?"

The knights helped the bandit to his feet, and we turned to walk back towards the monastery. Overall, not the most exciting or life-threatening day.

What was exciting was after we were back at the monastery.

"Did you hear?" Annette rushed up to me, when I entered the classroom. All the other groups were back except for the main house leaders. "Apparently, there was a really cool mercenary who helped Prince Dimitri out."

"Oh?" I said. "What happened with their group?"

"Hm, apparently they ran into some difficult bandits, and the professor ran away," Mercedes said.

"What?" My jaw dropped. The professor ran away?

"Sounds like an exciting mission though," Annette said with a smile. I agreed.

"Do you think the mercenary will become a new knight?" Ashe said, joining our group.

Mercedes chuckled. "That would be fun."

"I wonder what will happen to the professor though," Annette said. Prince Dimitri appeared in the classroom doorway with Professor Manuela behind him.

"All right, class, good work today," Professor Manuela said, clapping her hands to get our attention. "Since everyone successfully completed their missions today, class is dismissed."

Phew, finally. I stretched my shoulders out and shuffled out of the classroom with everyone else. While others surrounded Prince Dimitri with questions on his mission and the life-saving mercenary, I headed for Abyss. From the corner of my eye, I could see Dimitri watching me leave, his mouth slightly agape.

Yuri was reading a book in the makeshift classroom. Balthus was sleeping with his head on the desk. Hapi had some books in front of her but was doodling instead. I'd met them both over the past three months during my frequent visits to Abyss.

Yuri glanced up when I entered. "Hey, Byleth, how was your mission?"

I shrugged. "Uneventful. Not sure if I'll get my knife back though."

Yuri smiled, as I took the seat next to him. "Must have been somewhat eventful if you had to pull a knife out," Yuri said. He was reading a book on battle tactics and taking notes. Notes! I squinted at the tiny text.

"That looks like a terrible time," I said.

"If you want to read faster, you just have to read more," Yuri said and picked his book up. He didn't want to chat. He wanted to read. I rested my head on the table, like Balthus, who was snoring softly. Hapi, who sat behind him, kicked his chair, but he didn't even budge.

It was already the end of the first month at the academy, yet I still had a hard time talking to the other students. I couldn't help freezing up, stammering over my words, never knowing what to say. I could talk to Yuri just fine. Why couldn't it be the same for everyone else?

I wanted them to like me. Maybe I just cared too much about what they thought of me. But Yuri… He already knew who I was, what kind of person I was, and he never looked away, never hesitated to stand by my side, and fight. I didn't have to worry… worry about being abandoned and tossed aside.

My eyelids slid shut. I shifted in my seat, bringing my arms onto the desk for a more comfortable position. My body was tired from the sprinting. I could feel myself slipping into sleep.

I woke up in the spare bedroom at Rose's place. When I walked into the living room, Rose was sitting at the stove, sauteeing some meat. Smelled like a bird, maybe pheasant.

"You must have been tired from yesterday," Rose said, glancing at me with a smile. "Yuri carried you back, and you didn't even wake up once."

I rubbed the back of my neck. "He could have woken me up."

There was a clack as the door opened and Yuri stepped in. "Not like you have class today," he said. His eyes were bright, and his typical smirk looked more mischievous than usual. "I heard the mercs from yesterday are still here at the academy. The ones who saved the house leaders."

"So?"

"Sit down and have breakfast first," Rose said, setting a plate of pheasant and eggs down. I grabbed two more plates and passed them to her. We settled down at the dining table to eat.

"I heard one of them is going to join the Knights of Serios," Yuri said.

"Where are you getting all of this information from?" I asked. Rose nodded in agreement. We both knew Yuri was excellent at espionage, but even I had a hard time understanding how he got all his information.

Yuri shrugged. He always tried to shrug things off like that. "I have a few contacts in Abyss. And now that the crew is here, and they can move freely, I have even more people on the ground." He placed a hand on the table and leaned forward. "That's not important. The other merc is around our age and might become a student or professor."

"Around our age and a professor?" I raised my eyebrows. "They must have some incredible credentials."

Yuri smiled. "You should go up and see for yourself."

So, after breakfast and washing the dishes, I left Abyss. I wanted to change out of my battle clothes and back into something more comfortable, like the school uniform. The dorms were oddly quiet. It didn't seem like anyone was in their rooms, except for Bernadetta, but she was always in her room.

After changing, I wandered over to the classrooms, wondering where everyone was. It wasn't like we had a big exam coming up. So where was everyone?

Passing by the Yellow House classroom, I saw most of the students there. It was the same for the Red House. I was nearing the doorway for my classroom when I saw someone walk into view. Someone new. Someone different. Someone with the exact same shade of blue hair as me, the same shade of blue eyes.

We both stopped in front of the doorway, looking at each other. Well, I was probably gaping, mouth hanging open, staring at my doppelganger.

No, not my doppelganger.

My twin.

Thanks for reading! :)