Fire Emblem Three Houses: Five Years War
I don't own Fire Emblem Three Houses, or any of its characters. This will be a series of one-shots concerning the five years timeskip that occurs right as the war starts. It will contain spoilers for the Azure Moon storyline, and the supports of some characters.
I will treat everyone from the Black Eagles as being recruited by either the Golden Deer or the Blue Lion house, except Hubert who's impossible to recruit. I will attempt to put the shipping to the side as much as possible, but here's what you can expect: Dimitri/F!Byleth, Claude/Hilda, Ferdinand/Dorothea, Petra/Linhardt, Caspar/Bernadetta, Felix/Annette, Dedue/Flayn, Lorenz/Leonie, Sylvain/Ingrid, Lysithea/Cyril, Catherine/Seteth. It will also contain the Ashen Wolves, who will get a dedicated chapter.
I might operate some minor design changes for some of the characters who don't have any post timeskip designs (Catherine, Shamir, Seteth and Flayn for example). This chapter will spoil Cindered Shadows.
That said, I hope you enjoy your read.
Chapter 5: Yuri "The monastery's last rats" Around the Blue Sea Moon (July) of year 1182
The monastery of Garreg Mach was left in a lifeless state after emperor Edelgard's assault on it, with nearly every of its treasures stolen, the holy mausoleum had gotten all of its crest stones stolen as well as the market being raided and confiscated all its goods and materials. It effectively scared off anyone who wasn't stupid enough to hang in what was now a thieves' lair.
But there were some people who couldn't go anywhere else, for very good reasons. And those people were kindly accepted by one of the last remaining secret cardinal of the Church of Seiros, in a secret place, an abyss of some sort, protected by an unofficial militia, or an unofficial house as the cardinal kindly referred them as.
But imperial soldiers would investigate the monastery from time to time, and the cover of the abyss was blown. The soldiers had all disappeared inside a hole in a wall near the students' dorms, and were never heard of again. The only noise that came out of it was when four mysterious figures came out of it a few days after the imperial troop went in.
"Hey, Yuri, I know I am the Tireless King of Grappling, but couldn't you help me keep that coffin steady?" said a rough looking man, both much taller and muscular than the three others.
The man who he was talking to held two shovels to his shoulder. "That would resolve in nothing but a catastrophe, Balthus. How are you doing in there, Constance?" He asked to the sad looking blonde haired following behind them, as they went into the sunlight.
"I let this happen, I can not fathom why you would request the pathetic little presence of an insect like me." She said as she was dragging her feet. The dark skinned red haired woman by her side tried to reassure her "Hey, don't worry, Coco. It's not your fault Elfie died."
Yuri replied in front of her. "As soft as always, Hapi." They all entered the main hall, and Constance took a swing in her mood, as she replied "But she needs not to be soft with I, Constance Von Nuvelle, for I will restore my noble name through willpower alone!" Hapi replied with the same monotonous voice she always had "Sure, Coco."
They continued walking towards the monastery's graveyard, and as Constance became depressed again, they went down the stairs, and Balthus finally put down the coffin. Yuri gave him one of the shovels and they both started digging the ground in a free space, with a blank gravestone. They dig beside captain Jeralt's and his wife's gravestone, as the Ashen Wolves had heard from Aelfric that he had been a deep friend of both.
As Yuri and Balthus were both digging, Yuri could hear the depressed Constance sobbing a little even though Hapi remained emotionless as always. It took them two hours to dig a hole big enough to fit the coffin in, and the sun started to set. They filled the hole after Yuri and Balthus slid the coffin in, and a few minutes later, Aelfric Dahlman was entombed with his dearest friend and the figure he looked up to.
Yuri and Balthus went with the other two, as Constance started a little speech "I will never be able to understand why you were so eager to help a useless insect such as me, but, for little worth it has, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, and hope you rest in peace." Balthus was next to speak "You pulled me out of the bounties I had on my head, and that's worth all of the Owing King of Grappling's gratitude. I hope you are with the goddess now, as I know you have deserved it."
Hapi looked at the gravestone "I suppose we're all saying something here, aren't we? Well, you've proven to me that there was at least some people I could trust, and that is priceless. I will forever be grateful for it." She spoke with the same inexpressive tone. Yuri looked at the others. "Would you let me alone with him?" Balthus respectfully nodded "'Course, you were the first he recruited after all."
Constance, Balthus and Hapi all went upstairs and Yuri waited for them to enter the monastery before sighing "I guess it's better if they never know, do they? Well, I hope you're happy now, having yourself being entombed along with her, symbolic isn't it?" He spat on the gravestone, while looking at it with scorn "I hope you rot in hell, you sick fuck." With that out of the way, he went to rejoin with the others.
They were waiting on the main hall, with all its tables destroyed "Well, it changed from since the Eternal King of Grappling was last here. But now it begs the question, what should we do?" Balthus turned to Yuri.
He seems to be in his thoughts, before he cleared his voice "With Aelfric dead, and without any support from the church, I don't think Abyss will last very long before it falls into shambles. But, if the empire is defeated, then Rhea comes back to power, or at worst, Seteth takes Rhea's place, but he seems like a reasonable fellow who we could discuss with. Maybe we could even sway that new professor of the Blue Lions, who seemed to have some special interest from Rhea herself."
Hapi raised her inexpressive voice "I dunno. I still don't trust anyone in the church besides Elfie, but I guess joining the empire isn't gonna solve any problems either. But I have to wonder, who should we help between the alliance and the kingdom? Shouldn't we all wait for the end of the war to see what's gonna happen and see then what we'll do? What do you think about that, B?"
Balthus answered "Hell nah. If we save Rhea, no one will dare claim the bounties on the Almighty King of Grappling's head, while I also would prove my loyalty to the faith. I don't see what I have to lose here. If I die, well, it won't matter, but if I survive, I will live in wealth till the day I die. I see this as an absolute win."
Constance laughed "Hohoho! If I end up saving lady Rhea, then the name of house Nuvelle shall resonate with brilliance all over Fodlàn, as it will be restored in its ancient glory!"
Yuri sighed "Don't make any plans right now, nothing is certain, we don't even know when the conflict will end-" He cut off his sentence as he heard some noise coming from behind the door leading to the bridge. Balthus took a fighting stance as magical energy sparked between Constance's hands. Hapi opened a book she was carrying around and Yuri unsheathed his sword, as he announced to the intruder "If you want to stay alive, I'd recommend you to gently come inside the hall. Be our guest."
The intruder stepped inside the main hall, and Hapi scoffed "Well, if it isn't Cereal, Rhea's number one fan." Cyril only frowned, as he recognized some of the students from some times he went to battle with Byleth. "If it isn't Hapi, the most trusting person in all Fodlàn." The other three Ashen Wolves exploded in laughter as Hapi seemed flustered.
Balthus caught his breath first and said to Cyril "Ah, you're taking no shit, kiddo. You got the Laughing King of Grappling's respect." He looked just confused now "Uh, thanks?" Yuri caught his breath next "Well, Cyril is it? Would you mind telling us how Garreg Mach turned into the hellhole it is now?"
"The professor and lady Rhea disappeared. I see no other explanations." Yuri sighed "Yes, but what happened since? Do you have any news about the outside world, or are you that much of a recluse?"
"There's a thing though, I don't know if I can trust any of you. You seem to be willing to save lady Rhea, but that could be a ruse for getting me to tell you the current situation, and-" but he was cut off by actual intruders from the other end of the hall. They were in imperial armour, and their captain raised his voice "That was the opportunity we were looking for! If we cut those down, we'll have a free access to the underground and-" he was cut off in his monologue when his head flew off by a spell sent by Constance.
"Hohoho, but that would mean defeating us first!" She said in an overly joyous tone that unnerved the imperial soldiers. Balthus equipped himself with steel gauntlets and jumped towards the enemy. Cyril took his bow and sent an arrow in the joint of an armoured unit that was steadying his shield to protect himself from Balthus' assault. Yuri thrust himself, blade unsheathed, towards the soldiers as Hapi sent dark energy flying towards the armoured units in front, effectively consuming them in a dark flame.
Yuri elegantly decapitated a terrified soldier, as Balthus punched a few limbs off from some enemies. Cyril threw his bow to the ground as he charged, taking the steel axe from his back, and cut down an enemy that was about to pierce Yuri's side with a spear. Three soldiers were about to slice Cyril down, but were frozen in place by Constance, as both her and Hapi were slowly walking up to the slaughter. Balthus smashed the frozen statues which exploded in red frost.
Yuri cut the arm off from another soldier, while the remaining started to panic at such slaughter. But before they could run away to call in reinforcements, the remaining seven of them were either cut down by Yuri and Cyril, punched through the thoracic cage by Balthus, or burned by dark energy by Constance, and Hapi.
The hall was even messier now, to Cyril's despair, as Constance was annoyed as she had spilled blood on her silver uniform. "Well, that was a small troop, good thing though." Yuri commented as he looked at the debris of their enemies "We got some luck they weren't a big strike force."
Constance looked back at Cyril "Well, little boy, why did you help us defeat those soldiers, if we are much too suspect for you to reveal any information?" She said behind her fan. Cyril frowned "Those were imperial soldiers. You would've fought alongside them if you were with Edelgard." He picked up his bow from where he left it, and put it on his back, along with his axe.
"Do we have your trust now?" Yuri asked the young man. "Well, as far as I know, the professor and Dimitri are dead, the Alliance is falling apart, and Edelgard is kinda winning at that point?"
"And why are you staying here, pal?" Balthus asked Cyril. "Well, it might seem ridiculous, but the professor and the Blue Lions house made a vow, for coming back at the festival of the millennium. I'm trying to keep it clean up until that time." He answered.
"I'm sorry to hurt your illusions, but didn't you just say that Chatterbox and Didi were dead?" Hapi asked in her usual monotonous voice. "I did, but even then, gotta clean this mess up for the others who will come."
"Well, your stubbornness is commendable, young man." Constance said as joyously as one could be. "As for us, what should we do?"
Yuri seemed to be lost in his thoughts "Well, if we stay here and do nothing, Abyss will crumble, but if we attack the Empire, then they will be focused on us, and Abyss will be invaded, we can't get ourselves a new invasion, we barely held on last time..."
Hapi came up with an idea "Why don't we bring our aid for conflicts with already have two predominant sides? For example, if the Alliance fights the Empire, we'll make sure the Alliance has the upper hand on the fight, and then ask for funds from whoever we helped, thus keeping Abyss up and kicking?"
Yuri nodded "Yeah, I could see that work. Honest people won't refuse to give us the food we would need to feed the orphans down in Abyss as a thank you gift. We must keep our base in Abyss though, so we can quickly deploy to wherever the battlefield may be on the borders."
"So we're nothing more than mercenaries, now? Except we won't be paid in money, but only in the resources we need to hold Abyss intact? Fine by the Absolute King of Grappling!" Constance agreed with the Balthus' optimism "I, Constance Von Nuvelle, believe that we can make it through this war, no matter the odds!"
Hapi snorted "I would be you, I would calm myself down, Coco. For all we know, this war could last over ten years. But, I think that with your leadership, Yuri-bird, we will see this through. I'm sure Elfie would be happy right now, to see you lead us towards a brighter future." Yuri's eyes went darker "Yeah, I'm sure he would."
"Now, let's go back down in Abyss to anticipate our next move." Yuri said. "As for you, Cyril, can we call you for help sometime? I mean, you've got to want to get some fresh air, and look for your girlfriend if you have one." Cyril became red as a tomato "Oh, well, sure, I'll be up there most of the time, if I'm not busy cleaning stuff here, you'll find me at the library."
Maybe their future wasn't as bleak as Yuri expected. Maybe there was hope for the underground rats they were.
Yuri killed Aelfric. I don't know if I made it clear enough here, but Yuri took advantage of an imperial attack on Abyss to kill Aelfric, whose guard was down due to the attack. I won't spoil the reasons as to why, you'll have to play/watch through Cindered Shadows to know, but I'll give an explanation as to how for those who know. Every armed forces, including mercenaries, were needed in the war for Fodlàn, and bandits start fighting for their own lives rather being paid to do stuff.
I like Cyril, as the absolute savage he is with everyone, and find rather amusing that he is only reduced to "But lady Rhea...". I also love his support conversations with Lysithea, which is the reason I ship them together. They make me bappy.
I loved writing the Ashen Wolves, especially Balthus, as the UNDEFEATED KING OF GRAPPLING he is. He's completely over-the-top and I love it.
Golden Zero16: With time, people will learn to fear the Deer
Romeoraiden: From what we see about the almyrans, they seem like the 'muscular barbarians' type of people, which Claude really doesn't fit the description. So I think the king was harsh with him to make him stronger, which clearly isn't the best way to raise your child.
Next chapter: Knights