MEMO 1:
6:30AM
Your Majesty,
I arrived back at the monastery this morning at 5AM sharp with General Fraldarius and a detachment of his penal battalion carrying the Gloucester Repeaters. What remains of his force is currently setting up a perimeter around our side of the bridge. Owl relays and pickets have been established in case Holst decides to retire back to Leicester before the first frost arrives.
The ballistas are now stored in the training grounds in crates, ready for future deployment. My suggestion would be to return them to Enbarr and use them for riot policing – the rate of fire will be useful for crowd control. At the very least, they would be a nice variation on our usual containment tactics.
I should note that I did take a page out of the Professor's strategems and have been deploying fertilizer bombs to demolish houses that are holding illicit, non-state-sanctioned church services. It is essential that we prove to the populace that we can continually escalate the level of terror if morale fails to improve. Given recent reports from my agents – morale has failed to improve considerably since the loss of your "wings" – as the Enbarr commonfolk are wont to call the Professor. I had no idea he made such an impression on the locals during his time there.
If you are intent on minting farthings with his face on it as you suggested earlier, I'd suggest engraving an image of the razing of Arundel on the reverse to remind them of his penchant for brutality – there's still folk legend spreading around the camps that he's in fact alive and working towards peace from behind the scenes. What a laugh.
We could roll out the new debased coinage after declaring martial law to further fan that sense of duality.
Tangentially, Duke Hevring has also arrived at the monastery with Dr. Casagranda. We encountered their caravan on the road at sunrise and provided what escort we could with the pack of petty criminals and fallen sellswords that Felix is commanding at the moment.
It appears that Manuela escaped the initial mages' draft by secretly seeking work with the Hevring Household – all this in lieu of fleeing with the Church to Fhirdiad. The Doctor had nothing but kind words to say about her captivity with us – hardly surprising given the fact that she was exchanged shortly after the Church kicked our gift horse of provisions in the mouth. I can scarcely imagine that the Knights were eager to share their dwindling rations with her upon her return to the monastery.
I am less and less convinced that freeing Marianne von Edmund was worth it, however. She has failed to sign onto Ferdinand's little diplomatic play as of yet, and I suspect that she may be dragging her feet intentionally. I am willing to put hot coals under them if necessary – I merely await your orders. Since ascending to the Margraviate, she's taken to putting together an animal refuge. We could harm those pets of hers if you wanted, and apply some threats later.
Naturally, we were going to present a formal debriefing on all these matters until Ladislava confirmed that you were locking yourself in your washroom. General Fraldarius waited for twenty minutes, and then stormed off in another one of his hissy fits that have become increasingly commonplace since the Professor shoved him and Lysithea together.
This current state of affairs – namely, those two screaming at each other constantly, is bad for unit cohesion. Recently, our two defectors have taken up the practice of intimidating our soldiers out in public. A meteor was dropped on the remains of the bakery last week in full view of parading cadets in full dressage, for example. Apparently this was the result of a failed dinner date between the two. Any attempts at reconstruction have been halted as all of the pulleys are being used in your attempts to clear the valley of debris, I should add. Your supply of sweets may be impacted until the structure is rebuilt.
All that said, this sort of thing causes the troops to see me as the lesser of two evils, and certain non-household units are beginning to approach me with the basest of trivialities. I intend to put an end to that swiftly, and can present a few options when you arrive.
Your Humble Servant,
Hubert
MEMO 2:
11:30AM
Your Majesty,
Since you have yet to arrive at the drawing room, I will include another memo in case you check-in while I am taking brunch.
Compliments of Ladislava, the personal effects from Professor Eisner's desk in the Imperial Bedroom have finally arrived and are included herein. Your bodyguard informs me that you've already had her do a dramatic reading of the third item from the other side of the bathroom, but please allow me to introduce the rest of them – In order of placement:
1. Memoirs of Jeritza Bartels von Hrym
It would seem that your errant knight submitted this to the Professor for some sort of twisted peer review shortly after your coronation – as the text concludes after the bloodbath in the throne room. I've obviously taken the liberty of skimming this text, given how often your name is mentioned – but it actually appears to be a rather morbid look into Jeritza's obsessions regarding the Professor and his own "hunting trips" on the monastery grounds. Surprisingly, any mention of you varies between utter derision and total nonchalance.
Rest assured he will be punished for this.
All that said, there is one tidbit of interest to the war effort – it would appear that the current consort of Faerghus happens to be the Death Knight's half-sister. Curious that the Slitherers never thought to share that bit of information with us… but there's no point in asking their corpses now, I suppose.
I would suggest you take a look in your spare time, although Jeritza's constant fantasies about murdering the Professor may be worth skipping in your current state of mind. I've marked the tip of each page in red ink for the ones I suspect you would wish to avoid.
2. Congratulatory Graduation Letters to the Black Eagles, Felix, Lysithea, & Ashen Wolves
After cross-referencing the date of composition with the third item, it would appear that these were forgotten because the two of you were up all night "packing" for the Morgaine holiday. I've taken the liberty of sending carbon copies to the quarters of those addressed who stayed on with us. Those copies were composed by the Imperial Scribe – the ones included in these envelopes are the originals written by the Professor's hand. As far as Balthus von Aadalbrecht and Hapi of Timotheos are concerned – I will leave that decision to you.
My suggestion would be to burn them.
3. Professor Eisner's Journal from 2/9/1181 – 7/30/1181
My Lady… there are exactly one-hundred entries that Professor Eisner composed here – excluding the reports attached from the six battles that we fought against Arundel, Cornelia, and Rufus. The two of you… consummated in ninety-eight of those entries. Naturally, as your spymaster and humble servant – I was aware of the contours of this, but not the gory details. The Professor wrote about these in his usual, excruciating detail – and your directives at the climax of many of these trysts has left me quite concerned. I had merely thought Dorothea and Linhardt were ribbing a bit with the "paint her womb" rejoinder that they were constantly leveling at the two of you.
I also note a point of confusion here – namely that Professor Eisner claims that his first sexual experience with you was on your coronation night, and that you claimed to be sexually active with him at the academy in a previous memo that you sent to me. The timetable on all of this is of extreme importance to me, so please do illuminate that at some point – by letter if you're so inclined.
With that in mind as well – while I would not presume to have domain or particular knowledge over your new morning schedule or various bodily functions… I will ask you straight out:
…Are you with child…?
Please respond.
Your Humble Servant,
Hubert
MEMO 3:
11:47AM
Shortly after finishing my most recent memo, the Gatekeeper presented a report from the westward pickets: Holst Goneril's forces are currently engaged with the Brigidian column led by my wife in what appears to be a surprise attack. General Fraldarius, General von Ordelia, and myself are the only field-officers not otherwise employed at the monastery. We are riding with our household troops to their relief.
Additionally, there are reports of another force appearing in Bergliez territory. Given the circumstances, we should assume Judith Daphnel may have followed the Field Marshal across the bridge. We have been caught flat-footed, I suspect.
Should I redirect my wife's column towards Fort Merceus as an intermediate measure? What of Caspar, as well?
If we are otherwise incapicated and the enemy follows-up with a strike towards the monastery, please do consider returning with the main army to Enbarr. Ladislava has prepared the carriage and a mounted escort to clear a path.
If I might be so bold, it is what the Professor would've wanted.
-H.
DISPATCH
12:10PM
Hubert:
That is likely not Holst's entire force.
When fighting in Almyra, he had a habit of splitting off two diversionary wings in order to deceive the enemy about his true intentions.
So far, he has engaged us in Varley and along the Arundel Highway – our West and North.
Only irregulars can strike with such speed, which means the main host must be elsewhere.
His true objective must be due South – I am quite sure that the letter identifying Merceus as a target of his was yet another misdirection. If it was his true objective, he would not have bypassed it with light troops in order to harass our Brigidian expeditionaries.
If the main body of his division turns towards Hrym – Caspar's expedition will be the one surrounded and cut off from the rest of Adrestia. The ruse is clear.
Secure Petra's line of advance, join her at Merceus, and then ride with her to Gronder.
Ladislava and I will meet you there – Holst must either attempt to repel us there or retreat across Myrddin Bridge to avoid encirclement himself.
Retaking Hrym is our goal – defeating the Alliance before we finish the New Model Army remains a secondary objective at this stage. The truce with the Kingdom will hold another four months before we have to return our other hostage to Fhirdiad.
If we secure our borders, we can maintain the frontline until we locate My Byleth, and then strike with our newly trained conscripts. Before long, we can afford to lose more in a single day than that fool Claude can muster in a lifetime.
Send no dispatches to Caspar. Any communication to him will most likely be intercepted.
-Edelgard
DISPATCH:
2:55PM
Your Majesty,
I need not guess where you gleaned that data and insight from.
While I never spent much time dwelling on the spiritual, in another life I might claim that he's watching over us from beyond the grave.
Your orders will be followed to the letter – we will clear the path forward with all haste. That happens to be my specialty. We can discuss other topics when we rendezvous at Gronder.
Your Humble Servant,
Hubert
DISPATCH
5:30PM
My Byleth is not dead, Hubert.
-Your Emperor
