4/30

The mock battle was due to take place any minute. The Black Eagles, led by Forneus Eisner. The Blue Lions, led by Hanneman. The Golden Dear, led by Orpheus Keyair. Hanneman was a great scholar, but not a strategist. The Golden Deer's biggests threats would be the Black Eagles; not only were most of the students ill-equipped to counter magic, but their house leader was a mercenary with years of hand-on experience.

The Black Eagles had to take position in the Southeast, the Blue Lions in the North, and the Golden Deer to the Southwest. A quick cheating glance from Claude and the Phlegethon twins exposed their opponents' positions. Fortunately, it seemed Eisner had underestimated the Golden Deer, all of his most powerful mages positioned Northbound, and Hanneman's team responded in turn. That left the Southern flank wide open. Of course, they couldn't all move as one; but there was a large brush that was counted in-bounds that could mask around 5 of the Golden Deer students.

"Rally round! Here's how we're going to open." Keyair set some stones on the ground to represent the starting positions of each house. He pointed towards the Black Eagles. "The Black Eagles are the more dangerous of our two opponents. Their mages outnumber ours by a decent margin, and they have enough power to take us head-on in a fight. Although more powerful physically overall, the Blue Lions lack mages and archers; and with our own archers and mages, we should be able to outrange them should they become a threat." He pointed in-between the three stones. "But to know for certain what our move should be, we'll need scouts to observe the opening moves of the other two houses. Once you feel as though you've... Pinelli, I'm putting you in charge. If you hear Miss Pinelli giving you orders, be certain to listen. Leonie, stay your weapon until you find out what our opponents' first moves are, and either move to intercept them if they're headed our direction, or ambush them if they're focused on each other. I'll be in the battle myself, and I'll provide further instruction once we gain a foothold."

"Now," Orpheus continued, "I'll need Kirsten, Reigen, Goneriel, Edmund, and Gloucester; you five will have special instructions. The rest of you are dismissed; prepare your trainers and make yourselves ready. If I hear any complaining of a commoner being in charge of nobles in this case, your grade will drop a letter. Good luck."

As his students began to disperse, Orpheus motioned over towards the brush and moved closer to it. He turned around and addressed the remaining students. "As I stated before, the Black Eagles are a huge threat. I want you five to... Wait a minute, where's Kirsten?"

The four students glanced around; Raphael was nowhere to be seen. Not amongst them, and not amongst the rest of the students grabbing their weapons. The goliath simply wasn't on the field. "RAPHAEL, GET OVER HERE!" No response came. "...Where did he go?! Have any of you seen him recently?" "No, I'm pretty sure I'd remember seeing him." "Come to think of it... I don't think I saw him at all today... Not even in the classroom..." "What sort of engagement could he have right now that would outweigh the mock battle?!" Orpheus groaned before looking out to the students grabbing their weapons.

"...Miss Phlegethon, change of plans. Come over here." Both purple-haired teens turned to their teacher, and the sword-wielding young lady quickly ran over. "What's the plan, teach?" "As I was saying, the Black Eagles are our main priority right now. As soon as the battle starts, we're going to break off and use the brush as cover to get closer and ambush them from behind. If we defeat Edelgard and Eisner, it should throw the remaining Eagles into disarray, allowing us to clean up and rejoin our main force to pin the Lions down for the victory."

"...Got it. But I have one request." Seir spoke, her hand on her sword and a crazed motivation in her eyes. "I'd like to have an opportunity to beat Eisner for myself." "We can't stake our gambit on you alone, weathervane." Lorenz huffed. Orpheus paused, before looking at Seir in the eyes. "...If you're absolutely certain you have the ability to hold him off, then I... suppose the rest of us could converge on Edelgard first. But don't break formation until I give the order, understand?"


The sound of the trumpet begot war cries from the students. As all of the students converged on the center point, Orpheus signaled to his five accomplices, and they dove into the brush. The bushes weren't very prickly; they'd likely been pruned recently. It still wasn't entirely comfortable, smacking into branches, and a few insects lay in the thicket none of the students seemed particularly happy to be around, Seir especially. But it was the fastest way to get behind the enemy, and besides maybe Caspar and Petra, Orpheus got the impression none of the Eagles would be crawling through the thicket anytime soon.

Hilda was quick to complain about the branches poking her legs, with Lorenz reminding her she refused to wear armor on them before slamming into Marianne's back, too occupied with Hilda to realize the rest of the group stopping. Losing her balance, Marianne grabbed onto Claude for support, and both of them fell out of the bushes, dropping their weapons, fully exposed to whoever happened to glance in their general direction.

They lifted their heads to the sight of the Silent Blade staring at them from around 20 meters away.

Time froze. The moment he recognized who stood before him, Claude's blood ran cold. He'd seen Forneus in action before; how the bandits who tried to cut him down found themselves dead moments later, no emotion in the Blade's eyes. And now that blade was turned on him. It didn't matter that the blade was wood and blunt; one strike from Ozzy would still probably kill him! Claude closed his eyes, ready for the end...

"...Where's he going?"

Claude opened his eyes. Forneus turned his back to them, advancing towards the Blue Lions. Why would he just ignore them, when he could take out the Golden Deer House Leaders right that very moment? It's not like they could have ran; when you're in them, bushes are terrible evasive terrain. And with Marianne and Claude just laying prone, weapons out of their hands, they would have been easy targets.

"...I don't know what he's doing, but now's our time to strike." "GoddessholdmyhandandprotectmeGoddessholdmyhandandprotectmeGoddessholdmyhandandprotectme..."

Marianne refused to open her eyes and refused to stop praying until Hilda grabbed her and lifted her back onto her feet to allow Claude to get up. "I-I'm so-" "It's not a problem. We have a bigger issue on our hands." "Let's move. Phlegethon, I'll leave you to hold off Eisner. Everyone else, follow me. We're striking at Edelgard!"

With a hearty nod, Seir leapt out of the brush and circled around the southwest as the others motioned Northward. A quick glance showed a large-scale, confused conflict. That likely meant that all three houses were fighting at the same time; the perfect opportunity to isolate the Demon's brother. Using the hills as cover, she snuck behind the small gazebo used as their home base and took a peek. Edelgard and Hubert were fighting the others, isolated from their comrades too busy on the front lines. Only the purple haired girl furthest from the action even seemed to notice, and she seemed entirely too overwhelmed to do anything. And alone, observing the fight from afar, was Forneus.

Time to strike.

Seir threw away her training sword, snapped her fingers, and in an instant, a bony blade materialized in her hands. It had been 6 months too long. Even if the Ashen Demon was out of reach, she could still make the demon feel the same pain she did. Nobody had eyes on them, and Professor Keyair hated Eisner anyways; he'd probably be happy to conjure an alibi. And the Silent Blade had no idea she was mere meters behind him.

Footsteps silent, she tiptoed closer and closer to her quarry, the winds of the plains and hills masking what little noise she made. The Blade's exposed back lay the perfect opportunity for a swift death. Fair enough; it was the Ashen Demon who bore her ire, not him. And before she knew it, she was priming her sword for a quick thrust through his heart. Swift. Painless. He probably wouldn't even be able to react to the pain before waking up in the next life, wherever that would be for him. Lining up her sword and pulling back, she was prepared to end it...

...Before a training axe barely missed her face and he turned around.

The fight with Edelgard resulted in Marianne panicking with her magic, her final blow on Edelgard sending her axe flying in Seir's direction. And while she managed to dodge, the flying axe caught Forneus' attention, and now Seir was being stared at by a ticked-off mercenary who just caught her trying to assassinate him.

She swung, hoping to kill him before he could retaliate. Her blow struck true, but before it could pierce deep enough to kill, his training sword hit her across the face. Both reeled from the strikes, Forneus bleeding from his wound. Without so much as a word, he started a vicious assault, taking his sword and leaping towards her, attempting to strike her in the head. She blocked it, but she was pushed back by the force. She had a real weapon, and he had her on the back foot with a wooden stick!

Every blocked blow staggered Seir further. Although his weapon was inferior, he put so much weight into his blows, and struck so much faster, she simply couldn't see a winning situation. And before she could recognize what was going on, she'd been staggered too much, and her guard was unable to be set back up. Forneus rammed her in the stomach with his blade before swiping upwards with it. With a metal sword, that would have been lethal. Seir dropped to the ground, her sword flying out of reach and disintigrating into the Aether. She looked up to see him lining up one final slash, and everything went black.


The walk off the battlefield was extraordinarily uncomfortable. The Golden Deer had won; Hanneman's forces were too preoccupied with holding off the Black Eagles to spare enough students to deal with the Deer, and Edelgard's loss threw all coordination to the wind. That wasn't to say it wasn't close, though. Only four Golden Deer students remained. Orpheus was tagged out by Ariadne, Lorenz learned the wrath of an angry Hubert, and Hilda got decked in the face by Caspar. (Although in his defense he was likely aiming for Claude.) Claude barely managed to disarm Dimitri, and Marianne got the upper hand against Dedue and Felix. Not physically, mind you. Felix just got aggressive, and Dedue was caught in the blizzard's radius. Shez was a great help against the other students, and Ignatz, who kept his distance and supported his team with potshots, also made it through without sustaining a single blow.

The close victory wasn't the problem.

It was the sight of Forneus carrying an unconscious, black-eyed Seir over his shoulder with her arms and legs bound, blood dripping from his chest, that disconcerted a lot of people. At first, students and faculty alike had questions, Shez especially. He was less than happy to see his sister being carried around like sack of potatoes by him, of all people. But Forneus didn't say a word. Not until they had entered the monastery and went to the masse infirmary. He set Seir down on a cot, sat down on an adjacent one, and finally turned to address the confused onlookers.

"Seir tried to kill me. I turned around to see her pointing a real sword at my back." "...You're not joking, are you?" Orpheus stood looking on, rubbing a wet cloth over his blackened sleeve. "...I am not a joking man, Professor Keyair."

Perfect. Everybody knew Orpheus had problems with Forneus, so one of his students trying to kill him would likely also place suspicion on Keyair, and that as the last thing he needed right now. And it was very likely that the attempt would cost them their victory due to foul play.

When Seir woke up, the verbal lashing she received from three angry professors, a ticked disciplinarian, and 29 students whose efforts might have been thrown away left her ears ringing even days later whilst forced to skip classes and do manual labor all waking hours. She was only spared expulsion, or even death, by Forneus' recommendation, the last person she wanted pity from in that moment.