"The Black Eagles? Are you certain, Byleth?" Rhea asked. Byleth nodded her head, hoping that would serve to hide exactly how uncertain she actually was. "Excellent. It's a fine decision to make, and I am certain that you will lead that class to greatness."
"That makes one of us, I suppose," Seteth said while rolling his eyes.
"Is that math accurate?" Byleth asked. Seteth let out a groan, and Byleth was left with no answer to her question.
"In that case, I will take the Blue Lions this year, and Manuela will be in charge of the Golden Deer," Hanneman said, although Manuela appeared to only be barely listening.
"Excellent. If there's nothing else to be discussed, then we should all return to our quarters for the evening," Rhea said. No one else in the room seemed to have anything to say, but as Byleth thought about it, there was something that probably made sense for her to get out.
"Draugr are made from Shadows," Byleth said. The single sentence drew everyone's attention toward her; she didn't like having so many eyes on her, but she would deal with it. "The Shadows, the things we fight, they go inside people, and that turns them into Draugr. We learned that today."
"You mean to tell us that those monstrosities are born from the things you fight in that other world?" Seteth asked. Byleth nodded, as there was nothing else to do. "This is highly concerning. Lady Rhea, what should we do about this?"
"Nothing. Absolutely nothing," Rhea said. "We know the cause of this disease, but we know nothing of how to cure it. If we tell the public about this, we will only further incite their fears to an unnecessary degree. This stays between us, the staff members, and the members of our dear Professor's team, understood?" Seteth nodded his head with a bit of a scowl, and Hanneman and Manuela did the same.
"Is there something else to your words besides the words?" Byleth asked.
"Of course, there is," the little girl said inside her head.
"Of course, there isn't," Rhea said. Now Byleth didn't know who to believe. It was late, though, and she was tired, so she just nodded along with them and was excused after Seteth gave her some forms to fill out by the end of the week and the news that the three houses would engage in a mock battle at the end of the week to gauge their skills. Seteth told her to at least make an attempt to get her students in shape, but if the idea was just that Byleth had to win a fight, she wasn't too concerned.
After finishing up a bit of work that she needed to get done, Byleth fell asleep rather quickly, her dreams ending up being ones of little consequence to her.
Day 22 of the Great Tree Moon, 1180
Byleth's day began as well as she had expected it to begin. After waking up and putting on her best clothes for teaching, which were just the same clothes she always wore, she made her way to the cafeteria for breakfast, and to her surprise, the door to the Velvet Room was sitting right by the entrance to the cafeteria. It was nice to know that she could access the Velvet Room outside of Yggdrasil, but not nice enough to distract her from a breakfast of waffles, pancakes, and sausage links. Once that was over and done with, it was time to get to class, and after the little girl reminded her of the layout of the campus, she was able to make her way to the classroom of the Black Eagles; the flag with an eagle on it hanging outside certainly helped to identify it.
"Good morning, Professor. Looking fine, I see." What was less useful for identifying it was the red-haired student standing outside the classroom who had the blazer of his uniform completely unbuttoned.
"Yes, I am aware that my outward appearance is not repugnant," Byleth said.
"No, that's not what I—"
"Are you one of my students?" Byleth had no way of knowing if he was. "You should be in class right now."
"Oh, I'm working on it, and that's actually why I'm here. My name is Sylvain Jose Gautier—"
"House Gautier is in the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus. You are not my student."
"Yeah, but that could change right now if you're up for it," Sylvain said.
"I do not wish to help your house secede from the Kingdom." The little girl was laughing in her head for some reason, even though secession was nothing to joke about.
"That's not—I just want to join your class, okay?"
"I haven't even started teaching yet."
"True, true, but the word around the monastery is that you're a pretty great fighter, so I'm pretty sure it'd be easy to get something out of it. Besides, if it's a choice between spending a year staring at you or staring at Professor Hanneman, then it's a no-brainer which one I'd want to go with! What do you say?"
"Is this about sexual intercourse?" Sylvain, who had been smiling the entire time Byleth had been speaking with him, suddenly stopped smiling and looked panicked, like a Draugr has suddenly spawned up and launched an assault.
"Why are you—I mean, I wasn't not thinking about that, but—"
"I have never gone to school before, but I think that it isn't smart of you to base your education around sexual impulses, no matter how gratifying you might believe them to be." The little girl was laughing in her head, even though nothing funny was being said.
"I'd really like to think that it's more layered than that."
"Like an onion?"
"Uh, yes?" Byleth didn't understand the confusion, but before she could comment on it, the blonde girl with her hair done up in a braid Byleth saw the other day appeared in front of them and pulled down hard on Sylvain's ear.
"School's in session for two minutes and you're already making a pass at the new professor? Have at least a semblance of self-control!" the blonde girl shouted into his ear.
"Ow! Ow! Stop it, Ingrid! This isn't even going how I wanted it to go!" Sylvain said.
"And I am so sorry to hear that!"
"Is that something to be sorry about?" Byleth asked. Ingrid gave Byleth a weird look, for whatever reason.
"Okay, I think I have a general idea of how this went, but that doesn't change a thing!" Ingrid said. "Goddess, what I wouldn't give for more friends who gave their top head priority over their bottom one."
"My ears are burning, and I don't like it!" As Byleth was trying to figure out the meaning behind Ingrid's odd statement, another girl appeared on the scene, this one stepping out of Byleth's own classroom. Byleth remembered her as the girl Ingrid was in the cafeteria with the other day, recognizing her brown hair, short skirt, and charming hat. The little girl appeared next to Byleth to get a look at her, but Byleth could feel that aside from the skirt and what was below it, it was other parts of her that had caught her eye.
"Dorothea, hey! I didn't mean for you to be in earshot for all of that. I probably shouldn't have said it five feet away from you, then, and actually, it's not like I don't completely mean what I said, but still, you know," Ingrid said rather rapidly.
"Do I, Ingrid? Do I?" Dorothea asked with a smile. "Well, whatever. Say what you feel you need to say, doesn't bother me."
"I, um, I should be getting to class now. Talk to you soon, I suppose."
"Rather than later, I hope!" With that, Ingrid ran off to the Blue Lions' classroom while dragging Sylvain by the ear; a rather inefficient way of dragging someone, but whatever worked for her, Byleth supposed.
"You seem like good friends," Byleth said.
"Some days are better, some days are worse. We've had a few good days after a string of bad ones, so that's been nice," Dorothea said. Dorothea then moved her head up and down while facing Byleth and said, "This is definitely a good day, however. See you inside, Professor." With a wink and a giggle, Dorothea headed inside the classroom as Byleth tried and failed to figure out what she was talking about.
"You know what, Byleth? I'm thinking you definitely made the right call with this whole teaching thing, especially when it came to choosing your class," the little girl said. "Seriously, did you see that girl? How lucky am I, right? And how lucky are you to get up close and personal to someone like that?"
"I don't want her in my personal space."
"But think of what could happen! All of the great and electrifying things that could happen!"
"Would she tell me where she got her hat?" The little girl tried pounding her fists against Byleth's head, but they just phased through her body.
"You're doing it on purpose, right? I just—I'm going now before I really lose it." The little girl retreated back into Byleth's head, and she took that as a sign to head inside, her head filled with thoughts of what she would have for lunch and who she could ask about finding a good millinery.
Making her way into the classroom treated Byleth to pretty much what she had expected to see. There was a large assortment of people staring at her as she walked into the room, Edelgard being front and center and smiling for a second before she turned ever so slightly away, and the sight of so many eyes on her made her want to run away as fast as she could. She had already filled out the paperwork for her job, however, so it was already out of her hands, and she just had to make it as palatable as possible.
"Hello. My name is Byleth Eisner, and I am your teacher," she said after taking a seat at her desk. Many of the students sent a greeting back her way, some stayed silent, which Byleth greatly appreciated, but after a moment, everyone fell silent and began to stare at her expectantly.
"Well? Say something!" the little girl said inside her head.
That's all I got. I didn't think I'd get this far, Byleth thought.
"Why am I not surprised?" The little girl manifested herself and floated out between Byleth and the class. "Hey, Edelgard. Byleth's floundering, do something about that."
Edelgard nodded, stood up from her desk, and said, "Professor, you've only been at the monastery for a couple of days, but I'm sure you're aware of how much the student body has been talking about your rather unique abilities. Perhaps you could give the class a demonstration?"
"Okay," Byleth said. She stood up, drew her Crest, and said, "Napaea." Out from a pillar of green flame came a pink-haired woman with bulbous wings and a wide assortment of colors draping her body. Napaea let out a giggle before flapping her wings and sending out a beam of light that tore a hole in a nearby wall; the girl with messy purple hair the laser barely missed let out a yelp from that and fell out of her chair.
"Oops," was all Byleth said. Whatever was going on with the girl went unaddressed as the class started voicing their excitement over Byleth's display in a way that just barely avoided being bothersome.
"That's so cool! Are you gonna teach us how to do that?" one student asked.
"What's that place you and Edelgard go to like? Can we go there?" another student asked.
"Can we get a half day because it's the first day of class?" a third student asked.
I don't like this, Byleth thought. I like that last question, but I don't like this, in general.
"Well, deal with it and think of something!" the little girl said. "You can fight bandits and Draugr without breaking a sweat, you can figure out how to work with kids!" Byleth didn't exactly believe that, but the little girl's words did give her an idea for something to do.
"I want to fight all of you," Byleth said. That made everyone stop talking, so it was already a good idea. "You're here to learn how to fight, I know how to fight, I want to see where you're all at."
"You want to start a training exercise to gauge our abilities, then?" Edelgard asked.
"Yes. I already know you can fight, so you can just watch. Everyone else," Byleth drew her sword and pointed it at the class, "get ready." The girl with the messy purple hair looked ready to faint, for whatever reason.
"Professor, perhaps a wooden sword would be more practical," Edelgard said.
"That makes sense."
The classroom was very large, so once all of the desks and tables were moved aside, there was more than enough room to run through the exercise indoors. Byleth stood firm in the center of the room, not moving a muscle as her first challenger approached.
"Not who I expected out of my first fight in the year, but I'm not gonna complain about it!" Said challenger was a young man with blue hair smiling wide as he swung a wooden ax around.
"Okay," was all Byleth had to say to that as she recalled the files she read during the setup to remember his. Caspar von Bergliez, second son of House Bergliez, one of the noble houses of the Adrestian Empire. Caspar's file described him as a hothead who liked to rush into fights without thinking of a plan, and given how he charged at her while screaming at the top of his lungs the second Byleth closed her folder, she had to believe that.
"Bad," was all Byleth said as she jammed her wooden sword into his throat before he could swing at her. Caspar fell to the ground gasping for her, likely on account of the damage to his throat. "If you're going to rush in against an enemy, make sure you're good enough to hit them."
I see we're going for the direct approach here, the little girl said inside her head.
"Yeah, I'll remember that," Caspar said, ending his statement with a cough before he walked off.
"Next." The one to meet Byleth's call was an orange-haired man with a spear and a smile.
"To think that you could best Caspar so easily," the man said. "I should have expected that from someone who could so easily win Edelgard's favor, especially compared to Ferdinand von Aegir."
"There is nothing to be won here," Edelgard said from the sidelines.
"Sure, you're saying that now, but it'll be a different story when I, Ferdinand von Aegir, prove myself here and now!" The man got himself into a fighting stance and said, "Whenever you're ready, Professor!"
"Wait, are you Ferdinand von Aegir?" Byleth's innocent question invoked a series of glances from everyone, including the man who may or may not have been Ferdinand von Aegir. "Is that a yes?"
"Um, y-yes. You are correct," Ferdinand said. Byleth recalled his file and remembered things she generally already knew: heir to the Dukedom of Aegir, the house whose power is closest to that of House Hresvelg's, and someone with a great deal of pride in his abilities; Byleth saw the latter in both his speech patterns and how his stance had very few openings for her to capitalize on.
"You put it on me to start, right?" Byleth asked. Ferdinand nodded, and Byleth charged at him with a swing. Ferdinand countered, but was still put off balance from the force, something Byleth took advantage of with a kick to his stomach.
"Impressive; that almost hurt," Ferdinand said, looking ready to vomit. "Now it's my turn!" Ferdinand let out a quick jab that Byleth had little difficulty blocking, but trouble surprisingly arose when she tried to go back on the offensive and found herself unable to move. Her body was bathed in a pale light, as was Ferdinand's, and his plan became clear to her.
"I'll end it thus!" Ferdinand said as he came at her with a large swing. He did not, however, end it thus. The light faded half a second before the strike could connect, and in that half-second, Byleth ducked down to evade the attack and followed it up by tripping him with a low sweep. The moment he hit the floor, Byleth kicked his weapon away, stomped on his chest, and put the wooden sword to his throat.
Don't look now, but I think my Dorothea is mouthing, "Goddess, I wish that were me", the little girl said in her head. Byleth didn't understand why anyone would want a sword to their throat; it might have been an Adrestian custom she was unfamiliar with.
"You're confident in your abilities, which is good, but you let it bleed into both overconfidence and self-deprecation," Byleth said. "Just now, you used your Crest of Cichol, which has the power to momentarily freeze people in time. Because it's only for a moment, you wanted to take advantage of my confusion to attack me because you didn't think you could do it before your Crest wore off."
You're surprisingly articulate when it comes to fighting.
"You've read me like a book, Professor," Ferdinand said.
"Manage your self-confidence better. Put more faith in your personal skills and less into your Crest, and be better, overall." Byleth stepped off of Ferdinand and stepped back as he stood up.
"Understood. I, Ferdinan von Aegir, shall take this advice in stride as I accept this temporary loss. Don't expect things to go so easily for you next time." If anything, Byleth assumed she would win faster.
"Okay, you lost, you can go now," Edelgard said. Ferdinand gave a fanciful bow before stepping out of the makeshift arena.
"Next," Byleth stated. The next person to step in front of Byleth was a girl whose purple hair was done up in a long braid and had a mark of a similar color underneath her right eye. Her uniform was missing the jacket that most of the other students wore, and the wooden sword she brandished appeared to be a longsword, the only one being used in the class. "I can still get close to you."
"I am being aware of that, Professor," the girl said in broken Fodlanese. "My choice in weapon is not an attempting at easiness, but because it best closest matches the style of my native people."
"Ah." Now Byleth remembered who she was supposed to be: Petra Macneary. Heir apparent to the throne of the neighboring country of Brigid, she was attending Garreg Mach as a sign of goodwill between their nations, at least that's what her father said when it made the news a month ago. Brigidites were known to use a sword style centered around longswords with bone hilts. Byleth didn't often fight foreigners, so it would be interesting to see what she could do.
"Should be beginning at this moment?" Petra asked.
"Okay." The second the word left her mouth, Petra had already more than closed the gap between them and swung at her head. Byleth narrowly avoided the attack with a duck and jabbed at her stomach, only for Petra to immediately evade it with a backflip. "You're fast."
"It is a vitality for hunting prey. I shall be continuing this now." Petra charged again with a flurry of quick strikes at Byleth. Byleth was able to block them, but Petra was strong in her own right, so each hit forced her back half a step. It was impressive; out of the three people she had fought so far, she was the least likely to die a horrible death to a bandit or Draugr.
However, it still wasn't good enough. Byleth moved onto the offensive and parried one of Petra's strikes, and in the second it took for her to try and restart her assault, Byleth was able to jam her sword into Petra's stomach. Petra gasped for air and nearly dropped her weapon, but she retained her grip and swung at her again. It was fast, but not as fast or strong as before, so Byleth could block it with ease, and from there, she could knock Petra's sword clean out of her hands.
"You're fast, but your strength and stamina need work. I could tell by how little you pushed me back with each strike," Byleth said.
"That is being accurate," Petra said with haggard breaths. "Brigid's style of sword is emphasizing speed and ending of enemy before they can fight in reverse."
"Do you mean fight back?"
"That as well, yes. I apologize for my fight being a weak one."
"Don't. You did well. If you work out to build your stamina, you can do better."
"I shall steal that into consideration, Professor." With that, Petra made her way back to the sidelines.
You know, it's kind of neat to see that these kids can be at least halfway competent, the little girl said inside her head. Guess it goes to show that you don't need a Persona or to be, well, you, to know how to hold your own in a—Byleth, look! Look! It's her!
The little girl's excited yammering was more than enough for Byleth to know that Dorothea had stepped in to fight; it also helped that she was looking right at her.
"I know I'm not of the same social standing as Petra and Ferdie and the like, but I hope you don't mind getting in the ring with little ol' me," Dorothea said.
"I'm poor, too, so I don't care," Byleth said. Dorothea, who had been smiling up until then, started scowling at her.
"Well, I guess I'll try to enjoy this, now." Odd that she wouldn't already do that, Byleth mused. From what Byleth remembered of her file, Dorothea Arnault was one of the few members of the Black Eagles to not hail from a noble house, although she still possessed a degree of fame for staring in the Mittelfrank Opera Company, not that Byleth cared much for things like that.
Byleth, if you put so much as a hair out of place on her, I'm gonna kill you! the little girl said inside her head.
You would die, too, Byleth thought.
No, I—Wait, what would happen to me if you died? Is that something I should be thinking about? As the little girl pondered the good question, Byleth rushed forward to strike Dorothea. Dorothea just stood there and snapped her fingers in Byleth's direction, causing a bolt of lightning to shoot out from her hand towards her. Byleth managed to sidestep the magic attack, but that didn't stop it from tearing a hole in a wall and eliciting a yelp from the girl with messy purple hair and several other students.
"We probably should have done this outside," Byleth said.
"It's fine. Those stupidly huge tuition fees have to go towards something, after all," Dorothea said. That logic added up, so Byleth did nothing when Dorothea fired another lightning bolt. Nothing except launch a fireball as a counter that created a smokescreen upon collision with the lightning. With the cover of smoke, Byleth broke off a piece of her sword and tossed it to the left. Predictably, Dorothea fired a lightning bolt to the left, so Byleth exited the smokescreen from the right and fired a fireball the moment she started circling around her. For her part, Dorothea was quick to block it with more lightning, but the timing didn't allow for her spell to fully materialize, so she could only summon a small amount to intercept that still left her getting slightly burned. Dorothea recoiled at that, allowing Byleth to get in close and lock her tight in a hold from behind.
"If you're going to be a spellcaster, you need to be fast with your magic," Byleth said. "You also can't neglect your physical training. If you're restrained in a way that makes it hard to cast a spell, you need to be strong enough to get away from the enemy."
"Funny you should mention that!" Byleth could feel Dorothea moving her hands around her stomach, arms and shoulders, though she couldn't figure out why.
"I don't get it. Is this comedy?"
"No, no, I just—See, I've actually taken self-defense classes before coming here," Dorothea said.
"Is that right?"
"Yes, well, when you're the young starlet of a famous opera company, it's easy to draw the wrong kind of attention your way. I also didn't grow in the best neighborhood, so I've always tried to learn some martial arts to defend myself."
"Makes sense."
"I don't get to use them all that often, but you gave me a perfect setup for it with all that talk about needing to know how to defend myself, so I was gonna flip you over and have a big smirk about showing you what for and all that. It was gonna be so cool, and I know Ingrid would have gotten a kick out of it."
"Sure sounds cool."
"Right? But you are surprisingly sturdy and well-built. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy how it all feels, but it does not help me the way I need to be helped right now. Seriously, what do you lift?"
"Weapons. Hunks of meat. Corpses, sometimes."
"Interesting routine. So, are we just standing here, or—" Byleth proceeded to lift Dorothea above her head and slam her onto the ground. She then dug a foot into her stomach and readied a fireball in front of her face. "Okay, okay, I give, just get off of me. My stomach can't take the kind of pressure yours can, you know."
"How would I know that? I've known you for seventeen minutes." Nevertheless, Byleth did get off of Dorothea.
"Well, this was fun. Not the way I imagined getting up close and personal with you, but a girl will take what she can get. You know what I mean, don't you?" Dorothea asked.
"I'd like to get that hat. Do you know where I can get one?" Byleth asked. Dorothea blinked at her before giggling and walking off while healing her hands with magic.
Was that code for her millinery? Byleth thought.
Forget that! You've got to tell me everything about what it felt like to grapple Dorothea right! Now! the little girl said inside her head.
Fleshy. Her clothes dug into me a little bit. She might need to change her detergent.
You are just incredibly useless, I hope you know that!
I can do things.
"If it's all right with you, Professor, I'd like to get started now." Byleth whipped her around and suddenly found herself facing a man with a sunken face. His smooth black hair covered one of his eyes, and the one eye that was visible seemed like it was judging her, somehow.
"Personal space," Byleth stated. Without a word, he backed up a respectable distance.
"I've been paying close attention to you, today. So far, I can see why Lady Edelgard would lower her guard enough to trust you, but I have no reason to do anything of the sort."
"Hubert, at least try to show some respect," Edelgard said.
"Apologies, Lady Edelgard, but that depends on her." Now Byleth remembered who he was supposed to be: Hubert von Vestra, heir to House Vestra and vassal to Edelgard since childhood. It probably made sense for him to be judgemental. "So, are we ready?"
"Probably," Byleth said. With that, Hubert immediately fired a blast of dark energy her way. Byleth was able to move out of the way, but Hubert immediately fired off another one the second she tried to go on the offensive. It happened again the next time she tried to make a move, and again the time after that, and the time after that, and so on and so forth.
Hubert's spell wasn't as fast as Dorothea's, but his sense for combat far trumped hers, so he had a good sense of predicting where Byleth would go and planning his attacks accordingly. The solution to that problem was obvious: Byleth needed to go faster. As such, that's what she did. She increased her speed so that Hubert wouldn't be launching an attack the second she got somewhere, and with that, she could counter with a fireball that quickly overtook his dark magic. Byleth was now free to charge in and strike him down.
"Well, looks like I managed to make you take things even a little bit seriously. I suppose it's only right to return the favor." Before Byleth could question him, Hubert launched another spell her way. Byleth launched another fireball, but Hubert's spell absorbed her own and kept flying at her. Byleth ducked out of the way of the attack, but when she looked up, she saw Hubert firing off more dark magic at his previous attack to make it explode, resulting in a large, goopy mass hitting her; the damage was negligible, but her feet were now glued to the ground.
"Mire. Slime magic. Very sticky." Byleth made the last point with as much revulsion as she could muster.
"I think you'll find that I have no problem taking advantage of slime to get what I want," Hubert said. "I don't want you to tell me that this is enough to stop you, but I wouldn't be all that upset about it."
"You're doing bad, you know." Hubert raised an eyebrow for some reason, even though Byleth was simply making an obvious statement. She summoned fire into her hand, but kept it small and its power focused into a single area, allowing her to keep the fire concentrated in a single area without it getting dispersed throughout the slime. The area in question was right around her legs, and once a large enough hole was burned out, she was able to break free.
"Well, aren't we clever?" Byleth ignored that as she launched a fireball at Hubert. He dodged at the last second, but Byleth was already rushing ahead to his new location. His face unwavering, Hubert launched more slime at her, but she was ready for it that time and thrust her sword forward so the slime got jammed onto the tip like a marshmallow.
"Now I'm hungry," Byleth said.
"Pardon?" The question was met with Byleth hitting smacking Hubert with the slime, knocking him to the ground with the slime binding him by his torso.
"Don't monologue," Byleth said, stepping over Hubert. "Monologuing isn't good for fighting. You always take the chance to finish off your opponent if you have it."
"Like right now, then?" Hubert fired a blast of dark magic at Byleth, but Byleth just moved her head aside and let it harmlessly crash into the ceiling.
"Work on your aim, too." Hubert gave a small chuckle as Byleth pried him out of the slime and helped him back on his feet. The second he was up, Hubert came at her with a wooden knife, stopping right before the tip could hit her neck.
"Not even going to flinch a little? If this were a real knife, you could be dead right now."
"No, I could have stopped it if I wanted to."
"I hate that I believe you," Hubert said, putting away his weapon. "I also hate that I couldn't force you to use your Persona, but I suppose it's a good thing Lady Edelgard's allied herself with someone who possesses your level of restraint. For now, anyway." Edelgard either shouted for Hubert or at Hubert and he made his exit.
Geez, and I thought that guy just looked creepy, the little girl said inside her head.
He never tried to touch me, so I'm fine with it, Byleth thought.
Whatever floats your boat, I guess. Byleth did not own a boat. Still, he did a little too well against you, I think. You gotta crush the next guy real good so these kids don't forget that you're calling the shots around here. Try that guy next to the blue kid you almost made vomit.
Byleth turned to Caspar and saw a green-haired boy lying down on the ground next to him with an open book on his face.
"You. Book person. Are you sleeping?" Byleth asked.
"Yes," said the book person.
"Ah." The conversation died there.
Don't do that! the little girl said inside her head. Be assertive! Tell him he gets an F if he doesn't fight you!
"You get an F if you don't fight me."
"I'm okay with that," said the book person.
"Yeah, Professor, that's not a good way to try and motivate Linhardt. I mean, there isn't actually a good way, but you're not doing yourself any favors," Caspar said. Now Byleth knew who she was dealing with: Linhardt von Hevring. Son of Count Hevring, purportedly one of the brightest youths in the Adrestian Empire, but his intelligence is unfavorably countered by his laziness, as the men and women who have dated him in the past could attest to.
"Okay, then," Byleth said.
Wow. These kids are just going to love you, the little girl said in her head. Well, hurry up and pick someone else, then! And don't take no for an answer!
"You. Get over here." Byleth pointed into the crowd at random and ended up pointing at the girl with messy purple hair who kept having loud reactions to things. Byleth now recognized her as Bernadetta von Varley, heir to House Varley and rumored to be such a recluse that she had to be dragged to Garreg Mach against her will; similarly, Bernadetta only came out to face her because of Dorothea and several other students pushing her in.
"U-Um, i-is it okay if I just stay here, Professor?" Bernadetta asked, holding a bow and corked arrows up with shaking hands.
"You're an archer, so that's fine. I'm going to get close to you, though."
"W-Why?"
"To kill you." Bernadetta screamed. "Metaphorically." Bernadetta screamed louder. "Am I using that right?" Bernadetta screamed even louder. Byleth shrugged and ran towards Bernadetta. Bernadetta drew her bow and appeared to calm down. At the very least, she wasn't shaking like a leaf as she aimed at Byleth, although her face was still a mess as she let an arrow fly.
Bernadetta did start screaming again when Byleth effortlessly batted her arrow aside, though.
"That's not a good strategy, it's just annoying." Byleth closed the gap between her and Bernadetta and smacked her bow out of her hands. "That's not good, either."
"I'm not doing it on purpose, you know!" Bernadetta shouted.
"Either way, you're going to die. Metaphorically." Byleth did her best to ignore Bernadetta's frantic screaming as she readied her wooden blade, but it was hardly an easy task, considering how loud it was. Nevertheless, fighting took precedence, and winning a fight took precedence over simply fighting, so she swung down to deliver the finishing blow.
Suddenly, there was a flash of movement from Bernadetta's side, and the next thing Byleth knew, her sword had flown out of her hand and hit the ground behind her in a thud.
"What?" Byleth asked.
What? the little girl asked in her head.
"W-What?" Bernadetta stammered out. The other students erupted in celebration and all crowded around Bernadetta, shaking and congratulating her until she eventually lost consciousness while foaming at the mouth.
How much of these things were supposed to happen? the little girl asked in her head. Byleth just shrugged, not knowing how to respond to any of that.
The session continued onward from there, though none of the other fights Byleth had were as noteworthy as the first six—technically seven—she had gone through. Soon enough, the class came to an end, and as everyone was filing out, Edelgard approached her and said that the Nibelungs should meet in the cafeteria to discuss their next strategy; Byleth was all for it as soon as she said strategy. Edelgard decided to go ahead of Byleth, saying that she would have gone with her to get Dimitri and Claude, but she didn't feel close enough to the other students in their classes aside from Lysithea to not feel awkward around them, a feeling Byleth understood all too well. With that in mind, Byleth headed one classroom over to the Blue Lions to grab Dimitri.
"Oh, Byleth. Good afternoon." Fortunately, Dimitri was still in the classroom when she arrived as other students were filing out.
"We're having a meeting in the cafeteria. Let's go," Byleth said.
"Oh, okay, just let me grab my things," Dimitri said. Dimitri was about to turn around, but before he could, a dark-skinned, muscular man with short white hair was already behind him with a stack of books in his hands.
"Your notes and textbooks, Your Majesty," said the muscular man.
"Ah, thank you, Dedue. Byleth, this is Dedue Molinaro, my—"
"I am His Highness' trusted vassal," Dedue said.
"I was going to say friend, but whatever works for you." Dedue handed everything to Dimitri and stepped in front of Byleth, but not too close, fortunately.
"You are the new professor, correct?" Dedue asked after not saying anything for several seconds.
"Yes," Byleth said.
"I hear you have saved His Highness several times in the past few days. Thank you."
"You're welcome." Many more seconds of silence went by before Dedue bid them farewell and left. "I like him."
"I'm glad to hear that," Dimitri said.
"Because he's Duscur?" Dimitri's face fell at that.
"That's part of it, I suppose. I made Dedue my vassal to protect him in the aftermath of the Tragedy of Duscur when Faerghus' hatred for his people was at its peak, but even that's done little to change how people feel about them."
"So you don't hate them for what happened."
"Of course, I don't! The idea that they used some sort of dark magic to command the Draugr to kill my father was always ridiculous, and even more so, now that we know the true culprits behind it all! It's all just—" Dimitri stopped himself, took a breath, and continued with, "I'm sorry, I've just been feeling a lot since all of this started."
"I know. I've been there."
"I've never been one to stand for injustice, Byleth, and this is the worst kind of it. I finally see the path to correct it, but I don't know if I can do it on my own. Can I get your help for it?"
"Probably." It was as definitive an answer as Byleth could muster, and it wasn't much to speak of in that regard.
"Yess, well, I suppose I can work with that." Fortunately, Dimitri seemed to be fine with it, so Byleth could be okay with it.
I am thou, thou art I. Thou hast acquired a new vow. It shall use the turmoils of the past to gather strength in the present for moving forward into the future. Such is the gift the Adjustment Arcana bestows upon thee.
Byleth Eisner has established the Adjustment Confidant with Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd. Byleth will receive an Arcana Burst when fusing Personas of the Adjustment Arcana.
Huh. Byleth thought. She hadn't expected another one of those to start up right then, especially when she had just done it with Edelgard the night before.
"Well, enough standing around here. We should go find Claude," Dimitri said.
"Taken care of, buddy." Byleth turned around to find Claude standing behind her holding a pair of hotdogs.
"Claude? Have you been here this whole time?"
"Kind of," Claude said. "Went to the cafeteria to get some lunch, saw Edelgard hogging a table, figured we were gonna talk about stuff, so I came here looking for you guys. I even brought some food for you, 'cause I'm just that nice."
"I'm good, thanks." Byleth, meanwhile, happily took the hotdogs and started eating.
"One of those was supposed to be for me, but okay." Byleth ignored Claude as she asked if she could get any relish to go with them.
The three of them made their way to the cafeteria together, and after Byleth got relish for her hotdogs, in addition to three more hotdogs, they joined Edelgard at her table.
"Okay, now that we're all here, let's try and come up with a plan for how to move forward," Edelgard said. "Actually, before that, did you and the Archbishop talk about anything important?" Byleth just shrugged.
"Don't listen to her, she's not good for that," the little girl said, appearing in the air before them. "Then again, the only real thing that happened was us telling Rhea and her pals the stuff we learned about Draugr and her saying to keep it to ourselves."
"Are you serious?" Dimitri asked; he looked as if he was straining himself to not be shouting.
"As much as I would want to be on your side here, Dimitri, it's actually not a bad decision on her part," Edelgard said. "Telling people right now would only serve to cause a panic, especially when we don't know the full details of it all, nor how we can stop it. Still, I wouldn't be surprised if there's some hidden agenda to be had here."
"There it is. Knew that'd come up from someone," Claude said as he tilted back in his chair.
"Anyway, the main thing we need to discuss is how to get past those Shadows."
"Yeah, they were really kicking your butts back there," the little girl said. Edelgard threw her a look, but Byleth was too engrossed with her hotdogs to pay it much mind.
"They're the strongest Shadows we've faced yet. Even taking my Crest into account, our attacks are useless against them," Dimitri said.
"I'd say that we should find a way to just sneak past them and be on our way, but I don't think that would work," Claude said.
"We could try magic," Byleth said between bites of her hotdogs; some relish spilled onto her chest, and she scooped it back into her mouth when she was convinced that no one was looking.
"Come to think of it, the Shadows seemed to go out of their way to avoid your attack when that skeleton Persona tried using dark magic," Edelgard said.
"That must be their weakness!" the little girl said. "All we gotta do is have Byleth blast them with it a few times and we're golden! But, I mean, if that was something we were able to do, we would have already done it."
"Jack Ripper also isn't very strong," Byleth said.
"So just trade him in for someone stronger."
"Not easy."
"What's the plan, then?"
"Magic."
"But you just said—" Byleth conjured a fireball for half a second. "Oh, right, that kind of magic works on Shadows, too."
"I don't know that magic, though."
"And if any of us could use magic worth a damn, we would have," Claude said. "We probably don't have time for Byleth to get that little skeleton guy up to snuff or for any of us to start learning dark magic, so we need to think of something else."
"We could have someone join us," Edelgard said. Byleth took a break from her food to look at her. "Well, if using a skill that none of us possess is the easiest way to move forward, then it makes sense to get someone who actually has said skill to help us, right?"
"That's true," the little girl said. "Plus, anyone who tags along will probably end up getting a Persona of their own, so that could be pretty helpful. What do you think, Byleth?"
"Whatever helps," Byleth said between bites of hotdogs.
"Good enough!"
"Who would we get to help, though?" Dimitri asked. "There are spellcasters in my class, but none of them specialize in dark magic, unfortunately."
"I've only got Lysithea in my class," Claude said.
"And Hubert's the only one in mine who's good at it," Edelgard said.
"Guess that puts you between a rock and a hard place, huh, Byleth?" the little girl asked.
"This is a dining hall," Byleth said.
"Yep. That it is," the little girl said, matter-of-factly.
"Anyway, if those are our two options, then I think we'd get the best results if we ask Hubert to help us," Edelgard said.
"You sure? Lysithea's way better at magic than Hubert," Claude said.
"Yes, I'm not arguing with that, but the problem is that, well, Lysithea doesn't like the Professor," Edelgard said.
"She doesn't? Why?" Byleth asked.
"I don't think I want to spend all day on this."
"Okay." Byleth finished one of her hotdogs and asked, "So Hubert likes me?"
"He's got a funny way of showing it," the little girl said.
"No, Hubert doesn't like you, either," Edelgard said. "However, you're his teacher, so he'll have an easier time putting personal feelings aside to listen to you."
"Why doesn't Hubert like me?" Byleth asked.
"Again, I don't want to spend all day on this."
"Is it for the usual reasons people don't like me?" Everyone gave Byleth odd looks without saying anything, and the little girl retreated back into her mind while shaking her head, so Byleth went back to eating her hotdogs.
"Well, I think that's a sad-enough note to end things on, everyone," Claude said. No one was crying, so Byleth couldn't agree with that.
"I'll be sure to talk to Hubert about this. Tomorrow, let's all meet behind the dining hall like last time to head back to Alfheim," Edelgard said.
"Yes, the sooner we get back to fighting these bastards, the better," Dimitri said.
"Goodbye," Byleth said between bites of food. Everyone stared at her for nearly an uncomfortable amount of time before getting up from the table and leaving the dining hall. Byleth was quick to finish her hotdogs once she no longer had to spend time paying attention to a conversation, and she was even quicker to go to the counter and get some more.
"Hey. How's it hangin'?" She was even quicker to back away from Claude when he suddenly approached her.
"You left."
"And then I came back. Funny how people can do that, right?" Claude asked. Byleth didn't get the joke. "Seriously, though, there was a private little thing I wanted to talk to you about one-on-one if that's okay."
"No," Byleth said.
"You can eat while we talk."
"Yes."
With that, Byleth followed Claude out of the dining hall, taking bites of her hotdogs every step of the way. Soon enough, Claude had brought her to the stables near the end of the monastery grounds, the clopping of hooves now filling the air.
"There's a table in here," Byleth said as she caught sight of the aforementioned table.
"It's for business," Claude said while dusting some hay off of it.
"Horses shouldn't do business. They'd be bad at it."
"Oh, I know, but there aren't even any horses here. I like my steeds to be more on the scaly side, anyway."
"Wyverns would also be bad at business." Claude said nothing in response to that, and Byleth took another bite of a hotdog.
"So! You know that smoke bomb I used yesterday to save our lives? This is where I made it, and it's where I want to make a lot of other cool stuff just like it," Claude said.
"Good luck with that."
"No, Byleth, that's why you're here. Between being House Leader and all of this otherworld stuff, I just know I'm not gonna have any time to spend on the little things that make little ol' me happy, and making all of my little toys is one of them. If I had a partner, though, I just might be able to make enough time for it."
"Good luck with that."
"Again, that's why you're here. All of the tinkering and tampering I need to do to get my stuff made just right would go a lot faster with an extra set of hands, so here's hoping you'll step up to the task, Teach!" Byleth just kept eating her hotdogs. "Well, what do you think?"
"I should have tried the spicy mustard." The ketchup was good the first time around, but now it was starting to lose the zest that initially drew Byleth to it. The spicy mustard, however, came from Morfis, so there was probably a magical property to it that gave it the kind of zest the ketchup was lacking.
"Come on, at least try to work with me! The stuff I want to make is mostly stuff we can use for fighting Shadows! Wouldn't it be a good idea to have as much of that as we can?"
"Probably." Still thinking about the spicy mustard, Byleth sat down at the table, brushed away the bits of hay Claude missed, and said, "Is building stuff hard?"
"Not as hard as you'd think! Then again, I nearly blew off my hand the first time I worked with explosives, so maybe we start with something easier." Byleth didn't have a problem with that, and once she was done eating, Claude put some blueprints and assorted parts down in front of her. Byleth got to work with tools and parts as Claude guided her through the building process; a lot of the technical details he was spouting flew over her head, but she settled into a rhythm of her own that allowed for her to understand the gist of what needed to be done.
After an hour or so, Byleth had something built. It was a metal thing that looked like it could be jammed into something, but Byleth would be hard-pressed to know what it was specifically for. She did, however, feel more proficient at the end of it all.
"And there we go! One lockpick, ready for picking!" Claude, however, was better at knowing what things were supposed to be.
"Neat." There wasn't much else to say about it. "You really like doing this stuff?"
"You bet, I do. I had some of the best times of my life messing around with this stuff when I was a kid. Well, whenever I had time for it when my mom wasn't knocking some sense into me, anyway." Claude let out a laugh, but Byleth didn't know what was funny about that. "Yeah, it really takes me back. Never had a partner for it, though, so that's a change of pace."
"So we're partners now?"
"Why not? You help me build stuff whenever I come up with them, and that'll motivate me to keep coming up with even better stuff for us to use. I might even regale you with a wondrous tale of my checkered past every now and then."
"No thanks."
"Your loss!" Claude laughed, and once again, Byleth didn't know what was funny. She didn't mind it that much, though.
I am thou, thou art I. Thou hast acquired a new vow. It shall use the turmoils of the past to gather strength in the present for moving forward into the future. Such is the gift the Magus Arcana bestows upon thee.
Byleth Eisner has established the Magus Confidant with Claude von Riegan. Byleth will receive an Arcana Burst when fusing Personas of the Magus Arcana.
Oh. Byleth had no other way of summing up her feelings on what just happened, but she still found herself dumbfounded as Claude bid her farewell and left her alone in the stable. First she formed a Confidant with Dimitri, now she was forming one with Claude. Confidants were supposed to be about building bonds with certain people, and since Dimitri and Claude were two people she now had to be in close proximity with, it made sense that she would form Confidants with them. But it was so soon. So sudden. It was weird that she formed one with Edelgard so soon, and now she was doing it with Dimitri and Claude back-to-back.
Edelgard. That was another thing about it all. If it was so easy for her to form Confidants with Dimitri and Claude, then it could mean that there wasn't anything particularly special about her Confidant with Edelgard starting so early. She joined the Black Eagles because she wanted to pursue whatever it was that had been started between the two of them, but now it seemed as if there might not be anything worth pursuing. At least not anymore compared to anyone else.
I'd talk to Dad about this, but considering what time it is, he's probably drinking. Not a fan of dealing with that, Byleth thought.
Byleth didn't know what else, if anything, to do about it, so she took six plates of food from the dining hall back to her room and devoured them all before going to sleep. Some of the food she got was turkey, either in sandwiches or various body parts, so it was easy for her to fall into a tender slumber and forget about her problems for the time being.
Day 23 of the Great Tree Moon, 1180
Byleth woke up uneventfully, much to her liking. Her second day of teaching wasn't much to write home about, although there was a bit of a struggle when she had to instruct them on anything that didn't explicitly relate to fighting. The little girl in her head was surprisingly helpful with that, with her apparently possessing a bevy of knowledge about things like math, literature, history, and the fundamentals of interpretive dance, and she was somehow able to make it through the day.
With the school day over, Edelgard followed Byleth out of the class to the courtyard, with Hubert, who had been informed of what they wanted him to do, right behind them. The little girl in her head wouldn't stop going on about how creepy Hubert felt, and while Byleth wasn't of the same mindset, she did find it odd that he was so good at walking without making footsteps.
"Sorry if we kept you waiting," was what Edelgard said when they arrived at the courtyard and joined up with Dimitri and Claude.
"It's fine, we only just got here, ourselves," Dimitri said. "Hubert, it's good to see you. I trust Edelgard told you everything about what we're doing."
"That and more," Hubert said. "I still don't have a full understanding of what all of this is, but if I am truly meant to devote my life to Lady Edelgard, then I will follow her anywhere, even into the depths of hell." Byleth assumed that was what people meant by being poetic.
"Heh. Just what I'd expect from working with Mr. Tall, Dark and—Well, it's good to have you, either way," Claude said.
"Yes, and now that I'm here, I guess it would be rude of me to leave, after coming all this way."
"Hubert, please at least make an attempt," Edelgard said. Hubert rolled his one visible eye and Edelgard pouted.
"Asbru." Byleth, not wanting to keep any of that going, summoned the Bifrost to envelop them in rainbow light. Soon enough, the five of them were back on the plains of Alfheim, and the little girl floated down from a tree into the center of their group.
"You must be the little forest nymph Lady Edelgard told me about," Hubert said.
"Is that what she's calling me? I don't know if I like that, mostly because I don't really know what that is," the little girl said.
"Regardless, a pleasure to make your acquaintance. Please do what you can to guide us through this world."
"Well, if you're gonna be so surprisingly nice about it, I suppose I have no choice!" the little girl said with a satisfied tone and expression. "Okay, if we take the pillar of light, it shouldn't take too long for us to get back to those Shadows, but first things first, what's that thing?"
"He's a person and his name is Dimitri," Claude said.
"She was talking about—Actually, I don't know what she's talking about," Dimitri said. Byleth didn't know what was going on, either; it was a rare moment where she didn't have to wonder if other people were as lost as her.
The little girl pointed out and directed everyone to an odd sort of thing by the river. At first glance, it looked like a trash can, which wasn't anything special, but there was the obvious question of what a trash can, of all things, was doing in a world like Alfheim. And why there appeared to be a pair of skinny, wriggling things sticking out of the top of it.
"Stay here," Byleth said. She drew her sword and walked over to the mysterious object. With every step, Byleth raised her sword a little higher as she prepared herself to figure out what it was by way of indiscriminate stabbing. She entered what she knew to be the optimal range for that, but before she could get to any of that, she heard a small groan come out of it.
There's a person in there, Byleth thought. She sheathed her sword which, in retrospect, shouldn't have been drawn, and grabbed one of the wriggling things that was probably a leg, ideally an unsevered one.
Byleth soon found herself hoisting up one Bernadetta von Varley from the garbage, the girl shaking like a leaf with bits of food and paper stuck in her hair.
"Sorry to bother you," Byleth said. She placed Bernadetta back in the garbage can and walked back to the group.
"Don't just leave her in there!" the little girl said. She didn't want to touch her again when she was so dirty, but it appeared that she just had to deal with it.
Confidants:
Fool: The Nibelungs 1/10
Jester: Edelgard von Hresvelg ⅕
Magus: Claudevon Riegan 1/10
Adjustment: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd 1/10
Persona Compendium
Name: Gunnar
Arcana: Adjustment
Bio: The king of Burgundy who ruled with his sister, Kriemhild. Gunnar allowed the warrior Siegfried to marry Kriemhild in exchange for help with seducing Brynhildr, and years later, Kriemhild had him decapitated as revenge for stealing her treasure. The historical version of Gunnar was killed by Roman general Flavius Aetius with help from the Huns.
Name: Orvar-Oddr
Arcana: Magus
Bio: A legendary hero of 13th. century Iceland with magic arrows. Orvar-Oddr was prophesied to be killed in his hometown by his own horse, Faxi, so he had him killed and buried deep in the ground. After going on an adventure, Orvar-Oddr returned to his home, tripped over the skull of a horse, and was bitten and killed by a poisonous snake.
Name: Napaea
Arcana: Augmentation
Bio: Nymphs of Greek lore said to live in wooded valleys. They are beautiful young maidens wearing graceful garments, long hair, and a gold ring on their heads as they sing and dance. They are worshipped as providers who make flowers bloom, watch over livestock, assist with hunts, and heal illnesses, among other things. They can also attack the wicked at times. Those who drink from the springs of Napaea are given the gift of prophecy.
