Hello again everyone!!!!
Bet ya weren't expecting to hear from me again so soon, eh? Today was my day off from work, and I was so excited about reaching the main storyline of Three Houses, that I kinda blazed through writing this chapter. Hehe.
Thank you to everyone who added this story to their favorite or/and follow list. I'm happy that you're enjoying my story.
And a very special thank you to last chapter's reviewers. It was a lot of fun reading your theories and ideas. Now, to address them.
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To joshiro99:
Yes, he was altered via experimentation, but I won't say to what extent. For all you know, he could just be a dud. As for the specifics regarding how he was altered, you'll have to find out. It may be a crest stone. It may not be.
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To Grimmsoul1:
First, I just wanna say that it's interesting that you theorized James is part demonic beast since joshiro99 theorized that he became part Nabatean. You'll have to find out, as well.
While James' physical alterations would cause red flags to go off, it's all based on whether or not the Holy Greenies see them. He's doing his best to keep them hidden out of fear of what the world at-large would think. Because he has no prior knowledge regarding the world of Three Houses, he has no way to know to be especially careful around the Holy Greenies.
James has already had it a little rough regarding Fódlan's xenophobia-that's the whole reason why he put so much effort into learning how to speak and sound like a native. That, and not wanting to appear like an idiot. While he may be tanned, he hopes to be able to pass it off as having constantly been exposed to the sun onboard the trading ship. For reference, his skin tone is somewhere between that of Claude's and Alois'.
As for that final bit regarding Marianne's crest, we're still a long ways off from there. While I may have James learn of it before the time jump, the rest of the Golden Deer won't until after. As for James coming out about his meeting with Maurice, that also wouldn't likely happen until post time skip. Depending on when he learns of Marianne's crest, then she may learn about James' connection to her ancestor before the time skip. I plan on something of a double confession when they lay bare their secrets.
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For the sake of not needing to go in-depth describing it, James wears Caspar's variant of the academy uniform. With a few add ons.
Now without further ado, read and enjoy!
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Speech in Adrestian
Thoughts (or speech in English)
Non-human speech
Non-human thoughts
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23rd Day of the Great Tree Moon, Imperial Year 1180
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After having cursed the sun for waking me up with its aggravating rays again, and gone about preparing myself for the day, it's time to head out of my room.
Once again, I've had to alter what I wear. Now, I'm wearing one of the variations of the Officer's Academy's uniforms. It's one of the least flashy in my opinion, though I still feel like it's a bit much. Oh well, at least I don't have to die in one of the stuffy blazers. Additionally, I've switched out the Academy-issued dagger in favor of wearing Maurice's dagger, and my scarf is still wrapped around my neck.
Looking at the clock I keep on my nightstand, I find that it's a bit past seven. That's fine, I've gotten used to waking up with the dawn.
I'll just go get breakfast now, before the dining hall fills up too much.
Stepping out of my room, I shiver a bit as the crisp air hits my skin, and my breath comes out in small, wispy bits.
My room is on the first floor, and the furthest away room the dining hall-though it's a fair trade since I'm the closest to the sauna, baths, and training grounds. Now I'm thinking about it, I just might have the best room. But then again, I'm also the furthest from the greenhouse and the fishing pond. Oh well, I'm still the closest one to the baths and sauna-that's what matters to me.
Walking into the dining hall, I'm thankful that they open an hour before dawn everyday-it means that they'll always be ready for the people who, like myself, wake up early. Today's breakfast specials are meat buns and fruit tarts.
I ask for one of the meat buns, a side of sautéed vegetables, and a glass of apple cider. Now, with my breakfast in hand, I sit at the corner of an empty table.
The food is as delicious as always. Serving the heirs of prominent families, the kitchen staff are held to a high bar by their head cook. The meat buns are fluffy and slightly sweet on the outside, but the meat within is juicy and tender. The vegetables-a mix of onions, mushrooms, and tomatoes-are cooked to perfection, with a slightly smoky flavor to them at the end. And the apple cider is just my childhood-long guilty pleasure.
Finishing my meal, I leave my plate on the table and make my way back to room.
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I'm sitting at the desk in my room as I read through a book on the warp spell, my first attempt at finding a way to cross through space and time. This is probably the spell that my ex-captor used to get us to the forest.
So far, I haven't found much that would point to the spell being capable of getting me home. While it can be used to move people a large distance, the distance that can be traversed is in direct proportion to the magical capabilities of the one casting it.
I write some notes down on the paper next to my book. It's quickly been filling up with different theories, questions, and points for further study.
Considering the fact that warp can kill someone if they lack the capacity for it, I don't really want to test out my range. But maybe, if I were to first build up-
Knock knock knock.
Oh, it would seem that someone wants to talk to me.
"Excuse me. Are you here right now, James?" A voice asks from the other side. If I recall correctly, then that would be Ignatz, my next-door neighbor.
"Yes, I am. Please, wait a moment and I'll be out soon." I tell him in return.
I place the book back inside of my leather mailbag, and tuck my paper into the desk, where I also keep my camera. Having done that, I make sure that my ears are hidden under my hair, and head to the door to properly greet Ignatz.
I check the clock to make sure it's still morning since I've sometimes read for hours on end. Okay, good, it is.
"Good morning, Ignatz. What brings you here?"
"Good morning, James, and sorry if interrupted anything you were doing." He said, looking a little sheepish.
"Don't worry about it. It's nothing that I can't do later on."
"I see, then I'll take your word for it. Claude and the other house leaders have returned. He wants the rest of the Golden Deer to meet in our classroom as soon as possible."
Hm, that's new. I don't think we've all been together since our first day here.
"Alright then, I'll start heading there, Ignatz." I turn to start walking there, but he has something more to say.
"Actually, could you do a favor for me?" He says, looking a little uncomfortable.
"What is it?" I ask Ignatz.
He turns to look around before softly saying, "Could you get Raphael for me? I'm not very comfortable around him."
"He's the big guy, right?" I'm not the best with remembering names, or who they belong to, so I'd prefer to ask while I can.
"Yes, that's right." He replies.
"Sure, but you should get used to being around him since our class isn't too big." I tell him with my best effort to not come off as rude.
"I'm trying my hardest to, but it's complicated." He says, his eyes looking down.
"Alright then, as long as you're trying." And with that, I start heading out. Or I would have, but first, "Say, where would I find him?"
"Knowing him," Ignatz starts off, but then laughs mirthfully, "he'll probably be in the dining hall right now."
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"He was right on the money." I say as I see Raphael sitting at one of the tables-with what I can only call a feast, for breakfast. He seems to already have eaten half of it, but shows no sign of slowing down. It's quite the display.
Stopping a bit behind him, I make myself known. "Excuse me, Raphael, do you have a moment?"
The large boy turns around, and, still chewing on his food, tries to respond. "Wha cam I do fer ya?"
It's muffled by the food he still has in his mouth, and repulsive to see might I add, but I still manage to understand what he's saying.
"Claude's back, it seems. He says he wants the Golden Deer to meet with him in the classroom as soon as we can."
"Oh, okay! Will do, just as soon as I'm done with my breakfast. I'm starving!" He says, taking another bite out of a piece of bread.
"Take your time, there's no rush. I'll be heading out now, so enjoy your meal." I tell Raphael.
"You don't have to tell me twice!" He beams with a wide smile.
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Once all of my classmates have gathered in the room, Claude takes it as his cue to step towards the desk reserved for our teacher. Reaching it, he hops onto it as if it were a seat.
"Claude, what are you doing? Get up at once." Lorenz isn't all too pleased with our house leader's action.
"Well, Lorenz, I just happen to be sitting on a desk, not that our professor would mind too much." Claude mischievously says.
"And why, pray tell, is that?" Lorenz sharply demands.
"As it would happen, our dear old professor had a case of cold feet and fled when we came across some bandits a few days ago. Naturally, the church didn't think too highly of his actions and he's been removed from his position." Claude tells us, cleaning some dirt from between one of his nails.
"But surely they wouldn't do that without assigning a new professor for us." A short, white-haired girl points out. "After all, it would be quite the embarrassing mistake."
"And right you are, Lysithea! You got it in one guess too, good job."
"Don't treat me like a child, Claude. And get to the point-who's going to teach us?!"
"Calm down, princess, I'm just having fun." He says with a grin, before schooling his features to look more serious. It didn't fully work since his eyes were still squinting a bit.
"Truthfully, I don't know who the church will choose to fill in our professor's role. But don't worry about it, I'm sure they'll be up to the task of teaching us."
"Or," a pink-haired girl starts to speak, "they could choose not to do that. Wouldn't it just be great if we didn't have a professor at all. Then, I wouldn't have to do anything."
"Hate to break it to you," an orange-haired girl responds, "but some of us made large sacrifices just to be able to come here and learn. So while you may be happy with doing nothing, I want to learn all I can to be like Captain Jeralt."
"It's funny that you should mention him, Leonie, since it was because of his child that the other house leaders and I made it back here. I was also able to see the Bladebreaker himself." Claude, likely sensing the brewing argument between those two girls, wisely chose to interrupt right now.
"Captain Jeralt was there?!" She jubilantly exclaimed.
"He was, and Sir Aloise was so excited to see his old captain, that he brought Jeralt and his child here."
"Then I have to go see the captain right away!" And with that, Leonie's gone running out the classroom.
"And I never even got to tell her what Byleth looks like in case she runs into them." Claude exclaims with a shake of his head.
After that, Claude regales us with the tale of how he, Dimitri, and Edelgard were protected from a group of thieves under the orders of their unexpected savior.
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When Claude finished his tale, he told us to go do as we wanted and that the news of our professor would arrive before the end of the day.
It's around one o clock now, and I'm feeling hungry again, so I'll go get some lunch, then figure things out from there.
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After having eaten a fruit salad and an egg sandwich, I think I'll head over to the fishing pond and try my luck at reeling something in.
It's free for all to do, though we do need to pay a fee for the bait that we use.
According to what I've learned, Fódlan uses one type of currency across all three major nations that reside in it. This currency uses copper, silver, and gold coins-going in order from least to most valuable. Twenty-seven copper pieces make one silver, and twelve sliver make a gold.
In addition to having a place to live, Dantes was generous enough to offer payment to me in exchange for my duty. As such, I'm earning two silver coins every month. It's enough that I was able to live comfortably enough back in the Margravate, and still have money to save. It's a wonderful thing to be picky with how I spend my money.
Anyway, the price of bait is three copper coins for ten worms. Worms aren't the most effective bait that one can buy, but they're also the easiest to acquire, and thus the cheapest.
I set the bait up on my hook and cast the line out. Now I can just sit back and wait for my line to tug.
Fishing is nice. It isn't something I used to do back home after I turned old enough to need a permit, so all of my experiences fishing are from the days when I really was just a kid. Even then, almost all of my memories of fishing go back to my maternal grandfather.
He's the one who taught me what I know about fishing. He taught me how to bait a hook, how to tie a hook to the line, and how to gut and clean a fish to eat it. Heck, he's even the one who made the rod that I always used.
So now, I'm just able to sit on the deck and watch the light bounce off the water in a flickering display as I go down memory lane.
There's a nice little breeze going through my hair. The sky is nice and cloudy, giving me a shady day. The deck is rocking with the water. There's a small vibration reaching my index finger from the line. Wait a second!
I pull the rod back in an instant, but only see the few remains of the worm that are left on the hook.
I set a fresh worm up on the hook again, and send it out for the second time. With that, it's time to wait once more.
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I hear footsteps coming from behind me and turn my head to see the newcomer. I go over a checklist based on how Claude described Byleth.
Teal-colored hair, check. Grey-blue eyes, check. Black armor with pink details, check. And may I say that I dig that color scheme. A doll-like face devoid of emotion, check.
"You must be Byleth." I tell them.
My only response from her is a nod.
"Well, feel free to take a seat if you want. There's no point standing around all day if you can help it." I know I'd prefer to sit down and enjoy the day, rather than spend it on my feet anytime.
"Are you catching dinner?" She asks me as she sits down.
"No, I'm just passing time. Right now, there's so much of it that I need to find ways to make it go by quicker."
"So you're fishing to do nothing."
"I guess that's one way to put it." I say, rubbing the back of my neck. "Do you fish much?"
"Only when I need to."
"Ah, I see. I'm guessing you've never done it just to do it, then?"
"Never."
I pull my line back up. Bummer, the worm is completely gone this time.
"Let's change that, then." I tell Byleth, pulling three of my remaining six worms out of the jar I was given. I push the jar towards her and keep the worms I pulled out next to me.
"Those are your worms now. We're going to have some fun and see who can catch the most fish with what bait we have." I tell her as I stand up. I might prefer to sit down and take it easy, but since I've just issued a challenge, I can't give it anything but my all.
Byleth seems to be of the same mind as she too rises to her feet, already clasping her rod.
"Shall we?" I ask her, with one hand covering the smile on my face for fear that my canines might be exposed.
I only receive a nod as Byleth casts her line, already having baited it. She's rather impatient it seems. She might not be as emotionless as Claude thinks.
"Then let the game begin." And with that I get to work on baiting my own hook.
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"I don't know how you did that, but that's just not fair." I complain to Byleth as I look at her bucket of fish. It somehow has five inside of it.
Mine only has two.
She raises her dagger to me. It's blade is slightly dirtied with a slimy substance. Wait, she didn't!
"I cut my last two worms in two."
She did.
"I suppose we never did have any rules. I don't like losing, but I'll give you credit for that idea. Good game, Byleth." I hold my hand out to her.
"Good game." She replies, before staring at my hand.
"You do know what a handshake is, right?" I ask her after a minute.
Byleth shakes her head. Okay, this is awkward.
I look up at the sky for a moment.
"Just hold your hand out for me please." I ask her.
She complies with my request.
I take her hand in mine and give it a shake.
"That's a handshake." I tell her with a slightly shaky voice.
"I see."
"You know, I was told that you're emotionless. At first, I believed it. But having just spent the last while with you, I think you're just socially awkward and not very good at expressing yourself." My eyes widened as I finished speaking. She might completely misunderstand me!
"Sorry! I didn't mean fer it ta sound rude! I...meant it only as an obserfation!" I quickly tell her, tripping over several words as I do so.
"It's alright." Byleth tries to reassure me. "I've heard worse things about myself. Besides, your floundering was amusing."
"Are you insulting me? It's a little hard to tell since your voice was even the entire time."
"No. I was only teasing you."
And thus, the conscious mind has shut down. And to think, I thought he was used to these types of things back on Earth. Then again, why would I ever think that he could get used to being teased by women?
By the time I shook myself from my stupor, Byleth was already gone.
Huh, she seems to have left all of the fish here. Guess I'll release them, then.
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It's now the late afternoon, and the sun is beginning to dip towards the horizon.
After my embarrassing moment at the fishing pond, I went back to my room and looked over the warp spell some more. I still haven't found anything useful from it.
I'm currently back in the Golden Deer classroom with the rest of my peers since Claude says that it's time to meet our teacher.
Everyone is speaking in a cacophony about Byleth. They seem to have all met her at various points of the day, and are all too eager to share their opinions.
From what I can tell, they all seemed to have only had brief conversations with her before she went off somewhere else, so I'm feeling rather good that I could keep her occupied for as long as I did.
The doors begin to creak open and kill all conversations as our teacher walks into the room.
"Bummer, I was hoping for someone else." Claude exclaims a little sadly.
"Yes, I'm sure. After all, no one wants an old woman." Manuela replies.
"Professor, please excuse him. He doesn't appear to understand just what an honor it is to be taught by the Divine Songstress and such a well-known medic as yourself." Lorenz tries to console her.
"Not that I'm not happy about having a teacher, but I thought you were going to teach the Black Eagles." Lysithea cuts in.
Manuela only looks more dejected at that. "I thought the same, only for the new professor to choose to teach them and steal them from me."
Ah, I see. Byleth is the new teacher, and more than likely the one Claude was hoping for. So does that mean she got first dibs at a class?
"But regardless, I'm your professor now, so I'll do my best to for all of you." Manuel seems to have been explaining the circumstances to everyone else.
"As you all know, the mock battle for the Eagle and Lion is just six days away. I may not know what all of you are capable of, but I have no intention of letting that old man's class get the better of us!"
"Excuse me, Professor Casagranda, but who are you talking about?" I ask her, missing all of the cues from those who do know.
"That no-good Professor Hanneman, of course!" She passionately yells out. "Telling me how to live my life as if he were my father. And please, call me only by my first name. I feel old when I'm called by my surname." She tells me, sending a hurt look in the end.
"I'll keep that in mind, Professor." Yeah, there's no way I'm calling my teacher by their first name right off the bat. It might be the way things are done here, but I have thirteen years worth of calling teachers by their surnames. It's a drilled habit for me.
"Now, where was I? Oh yes, the mock battle. In order to prepare for it, we're going to be at the training grounds for all of our classes until then. I want all of you to be at your best possible for when the day comes."
"Hey Professor," the pink-haired girl gets her attention, "you don't suppose I can just sit this one out and cheer from the sidelines, right?" She requests, putting on a cute face.
"I'm afraid not, Hilda. Going up against people like Hanneman and Byleth, every one of you will be pivotal in our effort. Now, I suggest you all get a good night's rest, because I intend to put you through the wringer, starting tomorrow morning."
I'm suddenly feeling very uncomfortable from the look on her face as she said that.
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And that's a wrap!
I'm feeling really good about this chapter. James is at the Officer's Academy and reading what he can. While he hasn't interacted very much with others, this was done on purpose since he spent most of his time before this in his dorm reading.
Were you all expecting Byleth to choose the Black Eagles, or were you hoping for something else? How might it affect the missions that the Golden Deer go on?
James has met Byleth, and the dynamic between the two is introduced.
Just to let you all know, I chose Byleth's gender off of a coin toss. I already had most of her scenes for this chapter written out with the exception of her final quip to James. Had I rolled for Byleth to be a dude, then James' reaction to the final quip would have been, "So now you're cracking jokes?" But because Byleth was a gal, James' reaction was to be a stammering mess on the outside, not that he could tell since he was experiencing a system-failure on the inside.
Anyway, that's it for tonight. I'm hoping to have the next chapter out by this Sunday, if not next. If I need to release it next, then I won't feel too guilty since I'm releasing this one now. But I think I'll be able to pull it off.
With the hope that y'all stay safe, healthy, and happy, I'm going to bed now.
Til next time,
-T.I.S.