We returned to Rose's house, which was quiet and empty. There was half a loaf of bread on the dining table. I followed Yuri into what was once Rose's bedroom. We sat down on the bed, and I watched him pensively. Yuri reached over and placed his hand over my fist. "It's nothing bad, Byleth, relax, and it's not because of you. It's… difficult for me to share the more unsavory parts of my life," he said. I held Yuri's hand and waited. "You've got a lot on your mind already, and I don't want to make you worry."

"I don't mind worrying," I said.

Yuri stared at his feet. "I know. Still, it's hard to bring things up. When you're in a good mood, I don't want to ruin that with my problems, and when you're not feeling as well, like now, I don't want to trouble you further."

"You won't ruin my good mood," I said, squeezing his hand. "I share my worries with you all the time, and does that ruin your good mood?"

Yuri chuckled. "No. I like hearing about what's going on."

"Exactly."

"I know." Yuri scratched the back of his head. "I'm just not used to it. When I moved to Count Rowe's house, I was eating well and sleeping well, so I couldn't bring myself to complain to you or my mother. We had limited time together, and I didn't want to spend that time dragging you two down with my burdens."

I nodded. "Then, is there anything troubling you right now?"
Yuri pressed his lips together. "There is. Around when Edelgard returned to the monastery, a strange person started roaming around Abyss. From what I can tell, he doesn't stay the night at Abyss. He's not living here. He doesn't talk to people here, either. He walks around the tunnels, like he's in search of something, but I can't figure out who he is or what he wants."

"And you're sure he's not an Empire spy?" If it was an Empire spy, Yuri wouldn't be this troubled.

He shook his head. "No, there are a few Empire merchants who are spies, but not this person. He's not an ordinary Empire soldier either."

"Is he a part of the Empire party that's here though?"

"Hmm… Most likely."

Not an Empire soldier but part of the group. In Byleth's notebook, he'd written about how Edelgard was working with TWSITD to achieve her goals. Could that person be a TWSITD member? If he was… I shuddered. Someone in the same group as Solon.

"Are you cold?" Yuri asked. He wrapped an arm around me.

I shook my head. "I have some ideas. Do you have a picture of this person? Or a description of them?"

Yuri chuckled and rested his head against mine. "Yeah. I'll give you all the details later." His eyes were closed. I stared up at the long purple lashes.

I hugged Yuri back. "Okay. Anything else bothering you?"

Yuri hummed, pulling us down onto the bed. "Sometimes, I regret inviting the other Ashen Wolves to join me here."

"Because?" I snuggled closer and shut my eyes to listen to Yuri's low voice.

"Sometimes it's too crowded and noisy for me. When I need to be alone, I like to go to that place I showed you with the fish."

I nodded.

"I missed you," Yuri said. He rested the back of his hand on my forehead. "Are you still feeling sick?"

"No, keep talking," I said, smiling. "You have years of complaining to make up for."

"It doesn't frighten you?"

"What?"

"That I don't let my worries show," Yuri said, wrapping his arms around me again. His voice was low in my ear. "That I'm good at lying and acting. You aren't scared that what I say or do might be insincere?"

I could see where that concern might come from. "It's true that I wish I could read you the way you can read me, but… " I squirmed out of Yuri's grip to look him in the eye and cupped his face with my hands. "I've known you for most of my life. I know who you are. And I know you care about me, and I care about you. I have no reason to doubt your sincerity. And if you don't want to share your problems with me, that's okay. I'm sure you have your own reasons."

Yuri placed one warm hand over mine and smiled. "Thank you. That's all I needed to hear." I smiled back and cuddled up to Yuri again, scooting closer. "Can we just stay like this for a bit longer?" I nodded. "This is nice." He closed his eyes, a trace of a smile on his lips.

I tightened my hold around him. "Agreed."

By the end of the week, we'd finally settled the details down for the law that all three parties supported. We couldn't agree on when to pass the law, though. Edelgard wanted it to be now, but Dimitri and Claude wanted to wait until we'd agreed upon the rest of our actions. We decided to break for a month, to return to the monastery at the start of Wyvern Moon (10).

When we arrived at Fhirdiad, the first thing I noticed was a commoner standing on a wooden crate giving a speech, near the market, surrounded by a large crowd.

Lord Rufus filled us in on what we'd missed. My essays had been published, one after the other in the two weeks we were gone. As the other publishers had suspected, it was controversial. The nobles had flooded the palace with letters, demanding action be taken, and the publishing company had received anonymous threats. But the commoners were rallying behind the message. Those who were literate were reading the essays out loud in public spaces for all to hear. There were fights breaking out over the topic.

"What do you want to do, Your Majesty?" Lord Rufus asked Dimitri.

"Let's try to quell the situation the best we can," Dimitri said. He looked at me. "Are you planning on writing any more?"

"I… would like to," I said, resting my chin in my hand. "But that might make things worse."

Dimitri nodded. "It'd be best to wait. I imagine we'll see nobles publishing responses soon."

"Wouldn't addressing the essays add credibility to them, though?" Ingrid said.

"That's true too," Lord Rodrigue said.

"Let's wait to see," Dimitri said. "We've just returned, so let's rest up."

Back in Fhirdiad, I resumed my daily meetings with Lady Rhea, Seteth, and Flayn in an effort to convince them. Yuri had given me a copy of the information he had on the mysterious person roaming Abyss, and in my downtime, I did my best to investigate this person. He looked like a standard mage, but no one in the Kingdom could help me identify the person.

The Crest system debate began appearing in the daily status reports that Lord Rufus prepared for Dimitri. From the intel we could gather, nobles were paying commoners to lecture about the benefits of the Crest system. Scholars were working to define what exactly the "Crest system" was.

About two weeks later, the first article was published in favor of the Crest system. People surmised that a noble had paid the author off. I drafted up my third essay in response, but Dimitri told me to hold off publishing it.

"It's good to see that most people support your message," Dimitri said. "But tensions are still high."

When we returned to the monastery, on the first of Wyvern Moon, the debate hadn't slowed. Instead, the conversation had spread to the Empire and the Alliance. One of the major publishers of the Empire had republished the essays, and copies of the original publication had reached the Alliance.

"I'm glad there seems to be widespread approval," Edelgard said.

"Who wrote it, though?" Claude asked, looking at Dimitri. Dimitri was staring at me, and Claude followed his gaze to my face. "Oh, was it you, Byleth?"

I smiled. "That's a secret."

"Not a bad move," Edelgard said. "Now if only we could use the people's support to convince the Church."

"You mean writing something about the Church's authority?" I asked, shifting in my seat. Edelgard nodded. Would that work? Wouldn't it anger Lady Rhea? Seteth was hesitant to voice his own opinions to me. He kept deferring to Rhea's judgement, but surely he'd had private conversations with Rhea about the matter. It'd be harder to write about the Church though, since most Fhaergus subjects were faithful followers.

"Let's discuss that later," Dimitri said to me. I nodded. The Kingdom was still unstable. Releasing even more controversial topics wouldn't help. And if Edelgard did want to strike, with the current political climate, it'd give her the upper hand.

This time, Dimitri had set aside a month's time. We worked on the next bill - one that'd limit the Church's judicial authority to within Garreg Mach lands. There was much debate over how the Church could punish people. Dimitri brought up Lord Lonato as an example.

"Should the Church just wait in the defensive for a rebellion to attack them?" Dimitri said.

"Yes. After all, there's a reason why there are people who wish to attack the Church," Edelgard said. "The Church has blood on their hands. Is it so wrong for people to want to retaliate?"

"If Lord Lonato had led his men into Garreg Mach, innocent lives could have been lost," Dimitri said.

"The Church has taken innocent lives too," Edelgard said, eyes narrowing.

"Wait, wait, let's not debate the morality of the Church itself," I said, holding my hands up. "Let's focus on what the nations should do if the Church suspects enemies among our subjects."

"They should present us with a list of names. We'll capture and interrogate the suspects ourselves," Edelgard said.

"That sounds like a lot of work," Claude said. "The Church could keep us running with never ending lists then."

"A list of names along with suspected crimes and evidence," Edelgard said.

"And we'll determine whether they are guilty or not?" Dimitri said. Edelgard nodded. "I agree with Claude. It could become an extra burden for us to handle these cases."

"Are you expecting the Church to have that many enemies?" Edelgard asked.

"What if we created a central task force that handled this?" Claude said. "Consisting of people from all three nations."

"Oh, I like that idea," I said, nodding. A chance for teamwork.

"Like an international delegation?" Dimitri said. "Perhaps."

"Would they capture the suspects too?" Edelgard asked.

"I was thinking that they'd do everything: capture, investigate, and judge," Claude said. "Three separate groups and each would have an equal number of people from each country."

"Hmm… and how many were you thinking?" Dimitri asked. Ferdinand was scribbling down everything they were saying.

"That'd depend on how much work we're expecting it to be, right?" Claude said. This launched into a discussion on the logistics. Where would these employees stay? An office in each of the countries? How much would each nation contribute to fund such a group? What if there was no work for them to do?

By the end of two weeks, we hadn't decided anything, and Dimitri wanted to include Lady Rhea in our discussion. This spiraled into an argument over how much say Lady Rhea and the other Church leaders should have. Dimitri wanted them present and active participants, but Edelgard preferred deciding for them.

"Your war is against the Church, isn't it?" Claude said. "If that's the case, the real peace treaty should be between the Empire and the Church."

"The Church isn't a nation," Dimitri said.

"They haven't been responsive to my letters, though," Edelgard said. "Because they feel safe and protected." She looked at Dimitri. "If their lives were in danger, they'd be more willing to sacrifice their authority."

"They're not governed by anyone, so I think we can treat them as a nation," Claude said.

"Like a city state," Edelgard said.

"Exactly!" Claude nodded.

"How about His Majesty and I try to talk to them again?" I said.

"Yes, I haven't had a serious conversation with Lady Rhea about peace," Dimitri said. "But I'll make sure to do so this time."

"For now, can we at least agree on this idea so far?" I asked. The leaders nodded. "Great."

On our second to last day left, a messenger from the capital arrived in the morning with a message from Lord Rufus. "Your Majesty, there was a protest in the capital yesterday!"

Thanks for reading!