Within the wood-filled, stone-covered environment of the Black Eagles classroom, the house's professor addressed his students from behind a podium. Each of the students was sitting at their elongated desks, armor equipped and weapons ready to go. They knew something was about to happen - their professor told them as such.

But what could possibly happen during the Goddess' Rite of Rebirth? Sure, there was that note found on Lonato's dead body that talked about Lady Rhea being an assassination target, but would the Western Church really attempt something like that? Especially on a location so heavily guarded and protected? These thoughts stirred around the group of students as they sat in the classroom, waiting for their professor to arrive after having summoned them all there.

It took quite some time, but he eventually showed up. Lucas entered the room with his usual light armour and iron sword combination, quickly making his way to the podium before speaking a single word.

Something was off. That much was clear. The expression on Lucas' face as he walked at a faster pace than usual indicated something was amiss. Or, at least, some manner of struggle was to occur. Something that made Lucas feel nervous.

The students awaited their professor's words with bated breath.

"Everyone, thank you for coming on such short notice. Something is about to happen. We need to move now," Lucas began, addressing his learners, who only became confused upon hearing his words. "This is in regards to the note the knights found on Lord Lonato. As we've assumed, the 'attackers' actually aren't targeting Lady Rhea. They want the Holy Mausoleum."

The Black Eagles' mouths all mostly went agape - save for two.

"How are you certain they will attack the mausoleum, Professor? We have only addressed it as a possibility. Why are you so positive that our enemies will target there, of all places?" Hubert asked inquisitively, a smug look on his face.

"Fuck you, Hubie. You already know why," Lucas cursed mentally, thinking up a quick lie. "It only makes sense. They wouldn't go ahead and do precisely what they said, that'd be too stupid of them. Especially since Lady Rhea will be heavily guarded."

"That would be an effective strategy. Direct the knights' attention elsewhere, then go after something that isn't as well protected. It may have worked had we not figured them out. Isn't that right, Professor?" Edelgard commented, a small knowing grin emerging on her face.

Lucas nodded. "Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking. We've got to go now so we can intercept them. We'll stop them from getting what they want."

"Do you know what they might want, Professor?" Edelgard wondered.

"I-uh, no," Lucas lied, shaking his head. "T-there's bound to be something there, though. Otherwise, they wouldn't bother infiltrating the place."

"Will we be receiving any backup?" Ferdinand queried, raising his hand.

"Yes. After we've begun engaging the would-be thieves, some of the knights will come in and close off their exits so there'll be no escape for them. We'll be leading them right into a trap," Lucas answered, a grin of his own forming. "Are you all ready for what's probably gonna be our fiercest battle yet?"

The students nodded their heads, save for Linhardt, who was half-asleep. Caspar manually moved his green-haired friend's head for him.

"So, we are to be like the hunter upon the prey. We shall be capturing them, but I am imagining we will not be feasting on them like prey," Petra remarked.

"Actually, that's a good point. Not the feasting part. What will we be doing with these thieves, Professor? Murdering them like anyone else?" Dorothea wondered, jumping into the conversation.

"Lady Rhea has asked me to keep as many of them alive as possible. I don't think she'll be too upset if some of them die due to complications in battle or anything, but we do need to keep at least a few alive. Hopefully, they surrender once there's only like five of them left," Lucas replied. "Any other questions?"

Nobody spoke.

"Alright. We already have permission to go in there from Lady Rhea herself, so no worries there. Let's get moving, everyone."

The Black Eagles departed from their classroom and followed their professor toward the cathedral. Once there, they were led by a knight to a discreet pathway none of them knew about. Eventually, they ended up at an aged stone door.

"I'll be sure to inform Catherine as soon as you get in," the knight told the professor. "If it really turns out that there are some guys down there, then I'll be impressed."

Lucas said nothing in return, his mind racing and his body shaking ever so slightly. He simply nodded, prompting the knight to open the door then stand aside, allowing the group to enter. With a breath designed to calm his nerves, Lucas led his students through the doorway.

The path was dim, lit only by a sparse amount of torches. Everyone had to go in single-file since all of the winding stairs were in such an incredibly narrow form. These stairs seemed to go on forever - much to Lucas' chagrin. But after some unidentifiable amount of time, the floor was reached. A small beige path pointed towards another stone door.

"This is it. I th-think," Lucas assumed, looking back at the line of students behind him. He pushed his ear up against the door. "I can't hear them. Either they're far from this door or they're not here yet. If they are here, then we'll be in for a fight as soon as we enter. Are you all ready?"

Everyone nodded with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

"Right," Lucas took a deep breath. "Here we go."

He pushed on the door, opening it slightly. Taking a quick peek revealed…a hallway. A hallway with much more space to it than the spiral staircase. Beyond it and to its left was a bright opening, likely where the main mausoleum was. The Black Eagles progressed down the hall. Lucas glanced around the corner.

He cursed.

"Shit! They're already here! Everyone, l-let's stop them from taking the Sw-uh, pilfering Saint Seiros' tomb!"

Everybody was ready. They ran around the corner and readied their respective weapons. None of them were particularly excited for the blood that was to be shed, but each of them knew it had to happen. There was no other way about it.

As the Black Eagles stampeded into the Holy Mausoleum, the sound of their feet rapidly crushing against the ground combined with the clanking of some of their armour had alerted the thieves to their presence. Most of them were either cloaked, wore a mask to conceal their identity, or both.

"What?! Who the hell knew we were here?! Ugh, no matter! Get them away from me while I lift the seal from the tomb!" A mysterious-looking mage that appeared to be the leader demanded of his forces.

He quickly ran deeper into the mausoleum while his associates looked at each other and shrugged, deciding to charge the so-called 'Central Church dastards'. The only one that chose not to perform such a brazen tactic was a certain deathly intimidating man: the Death Knight. He directed his similarly dark horse to a spot in the middle of the mausoleum, remaining completely immobile.

Lucas breathed a sigh of relief. However, that relief was quickly washed away and replaced with fear as twelve or so enemies of varying weapon disciplines approached the Black Eagles.

"Eagles!" Lucas called out. "We'll defend our position here as these guys come to us. Melee fighters up front, ranged and magic users behind! As we fight, we'll move forward. We must do everything in our power to prevent that mage back there from opening the tomb! If that happens, it's game over. Let's do it to it!"

His students looked at him with confusion, but they got the message. They got into the formation Lucas described and waited where they were at the bottom of the Holy Mausoleum, preparing themselves for the onslaught of twelve enemies. Most of them were sword users, though there were some archers as well as mages. No matter who they were though - one thing was positive.

There was no way Lucas was going to let that mage get the Sword of the Creator.

Enemies approached. Two swordsmen came in from the left side, to which Petra and Caspar dealt with right away. Blood splattered onto the two students as their foes fell to the floor, dead. Neither Petra nor Caspar were outwardly affected by their actions. Both were keen to continue fighting.

On the flip side, Ferdinand and Edelgard slashed and sliced clean through the two sword users that came up to them. Ignoring the pools of red that burst onto their clothing, they evaded some arrows from a nearby archer, allowing Hubert to take care of the situation. He struck the archer with a powerful Banshee spell. It tore away at the bow user's very being, shredding their clothing and armour as if they were made of paper. Banshee cut straight through to the person's skin, eroding their meaty exterior, sizzling their vital insides. A guttural noise emerged from the archer before their dead body collapsed to the floor. Ferdinand winced while Edelgard observed, undeterred by the gruesome sight before her.

Meanwhile, Lucas was standing in the middle of the wide group. Bernadetta, Dorothea and Linhardt were right behind him. Linhardt especially was in a good enough position to cover for any injuries anyone else may have received. This had been quite helpful when Lucas was shot in the arm by an archer. The attacker was promptly dealt with via a tag team arrow and spell maneuver by Bernie and Dorothea.

As the group were finishing off the initial twelve, Lucas kept his eye on the Death Knight. He knew about his reluctant behaviour from the game, but that didn't ease his worries in the slightest.

This wasn't a game. It was real life. That was something he had gotten used to by that point, though the idea just wouldn't detach itself from his mind. It remained there, like an ever present parasite. Once Petra slit the throat of the final initial enemy, Lucas addressed his class.

"Alright, let's move ahead! Ignore the guy on the horse, he definitely doesn't look like someone any of us should be fighting," he advised. "Damn, should've asked Lysithea to come along. That Dark Spikes T certainly would keep the Death Knight in check. Now we gotta avoid him. Please don't start attacking us…!"

The Black Eagles moved onward, splitting up into almost equal halves. Lucas led a team of Caspar, Petra and Dorothea up the left side of the Holy Mausoleum while Edelgard took Hubert, Ferdinand, Linhardt and Bernadetta along the right side. Each team intended to deal with the small cluster of foes that rested on their respective sides.

Lucas soon found himself face-to-mask with a dark mage. Readying his iron blade, he dashed ahead, fully determined to cut down this unnamed opponent. His approach was cut short however, as the mage fired a Miasma in defence. With the speed he'd been going at already, Lucas was forced to block the attack. Caspar came in swiftly and distracted the mage by simply being there. This granted the professor an opportunity to rush in and thrust his sword through his foe's chest. The mage was unable to fight back as his lifeforce quickly ebbed away. Lucas pulled the now bloodied blade out of the individual, looking down at the lifeless body with pity. He sighed, then began to continue moving.

But a sudden Miasma to his back caused him to collapse to the ground, headfirst. His vision became blurry. Aches began to form within his head. He could vaguely make out some approaching soldiers and the general brownness of the mausoleum. From somewhere behind him, he could hear a stabbing sound followed by what was very clearly blood spewing across somewhere. A familiar voice reached his ear.

"Professor!" Dorothea exclaimed upon seeing the collapsed state of her teacher. "Are you okay? Here, take this."

Summoning the magical energies within her, Dorothea casted a Heal spell, restoring Lucas' vision and the bruise that formed on his forehead as a result of the fall. Though his headache remained.

"Thanks, Dorothea. I'm glad I asked you to start looking into Faith magic," Lucas thanked the girl, pushing himself back to his feet and powering through the unpleasant feeling in his head.

"Not a problem, Professor. I always wanted to be able to cast those kinds of spells. I'm glad I was able to put it to use!" Dorothea responded with a smile.

Lucas was about to return her smile with one of his own, but the sudden remembrance of where he was and what they were all doing caused stress to return. None of that served to help his headache. He looked over towards the right, past the Death Knight, finding Edelgard's group further up ahead than his. Looking back to the three he commanded, Lucas nodded, motioning for them to keep moving.

They did precisely that before coming across a group of two axe users, a mage, a healer and a lance user. The presence of the Faith magic practitioner made things more difficult for the four than normal, as most of the damage they dealt to the thieves was healed up. Seeing an opening, Lucas decided to charge past the enemy formation to reach the priest. Powering through a Nosferatu, he slashed their face, creating a massively deep scar upon their visage which poured out the iron-filled substance like a waterfall. Lucas finished them off with a stab to the chest - this took out the healer.

However, he failed to take the other enemies into consideration. The lance user had come up behind him and successfully landed a rather forceful jab onto him. Dorothea, Caspar and Petra watched on in horror as the lance was shoved even further into their teacher's back, piercing through what little armour he had on and into his body. The three of them finished off the axe wielders and the dark mage before killing the lance user.

After the lance user was dealt with, Lucas collapsed onto the floor once again. His headache was getting worse. It was as if a thousand nails were being hammered into his skull, all at once. The new pain on his back was much the same way. His blurry vision returned in full force. It even began to spread to his ears, causing him to barely be able to hear his students.

Dorothea immediately began casting Heal after Heal, doing so to the point of exhaustion. Petra began to administer whatever Vulneraries she had while Caspar kept an eye out for any stragglers that may have chosen to approach the four. Whilst on the lookout, Caspar's eyes widened when he noticed the area the Black Eagles came in from.

"Oh no. This isn't good," he mumbled.

"What is being the problem, Caspar?" Petra asked. She followed his gaze, her eyes widening once she saw the issue. "This is not very good, yes."

"What's happening?" Dorothea wondered while watching over the professor.

"Bad news. More of 'em are coming," Caspar revealed to her. "We better get the Professor up and moving QUICK or else we'll be hounded by all those guys down there."

"Reinforcements? Oh, well, I'm doing the best I can, but I only started learning Faith magic about three weeks ago. My healing isn't good enough right now!" Dorothea lamented, frowning. "I don't know much about it either. If Manuela was here, she'd be able to help. But she's not, and…"

"Do not be worrying, Dorothea!" Petra reassured, a fire in her eyes. "If we are to protect the Professor and ourselves, we can do it. I have the, uh, faith in us."

"Yeah! We'll keep these guys away from you while you work your magic on the Professor! Don't you worry about it!" Caspar added, smiling.

Dorothea's worried expression wavered. She smiled in return. "Thanks, you two. I'll do what I can."

Caspar and Petra took formation in front of Dorothea and Lucas, ready to defend the latter pair from any of the reinforcements that just came in. The former songstress continued to employ any means of healing she could muster, but nothing seemed to work. She carefully pulled the lance out from Lucas' back - that had no effect. Lucas remained on the floor, practically immobile.

While his mind was being assaulted with all kinds of mental pains and jabs, he began to reach. Mentally, of course. He began to reach for the deepest corners of his mind, attempting to pull upon a power he'd been very familiar with up to this point. His one saving grace in a world out to get him.

Divine Pulse. Sothis' power to turn back the hands of time. It'd been quite useful in previous battles, allowing him to save the lives of his students and himself on numerous occasions. He never had to overwork the power, yet it did see frequent usage. Lucas reached out mentally and tried to call upon the Divine Pulse once more.

…

Nothing happened. His vision didn't shatter into a purple-blue void of ethereal energy or anything of the sort. In fact, the only thing that happened was a familiar female voice mentally shouting at him to stop. It was followed by a sudden ejection of a torrent of green fluid from his mouth.

Lucas vomited. Dorothea leapt backwards in surprise, eliciting a small yelp.

"What happened?" Caspar wondered, turning around. He covered his mouth once he found the fluid. "Oh! That's not good!"

Petra soon found out as well. She was less disturbed by the occurrence, but was still clearly uneasy. "Yes, Caspar is right. That is not good. Dorothea, did you use Heal too many times?"

"I-I don't know," Dorothea scratched her head. "Healing shouldn't have this averse of an effect on anybody. I'm not sure why-oh!"

Just then, Lucas' eyes closed. His vision turned to complete darkness. His mind was at peace, literally sick and tired. Dorothea knelt down and placed a hand on her teacher's chest, breathing a sigh of relief after doing so.

"He's fallen unconscious," she confirmed. "I'll stand by you two to protect him until help arrives. I just hope Edie's group can stop that dark mage…"

Dorothea stood back up and joined her two allies in defending the unconscious body of their professor. She looked back to where Edelgard as well as the four under her command were located. Reassured, she turned back to stare down the approaching soldiers.

Edelgard, Hubert, Ferdinand, Bernadetta and Linhardt had been making good progress on their side of the Holy Mausoleum. All the soldiers they came across were either ruthlessly crushed under the weight of Edelgard's axe, deftly slashed through by Ferdinand's lance, weakly shot by Bernadetta's bow or fizzled out by Hubert and/or Linhardt's spells. This half was able to combine their efforts to clean out the right side of the mausoleum. They weren't stopped by anyone or anything.

As most of the group dealt with the remaining mobile enemies, Edelgard rushed ahead to intercept the mysterious mage by Seiros' tomb. She stopped once she was only a few short feet in front of him.

"Halt. Step away from the tomb or else your life is forfeit," she threatened, pointing her Steel Axe at the mage. They responded by cackling. "What's so funny? Surely, facing the potential of death can't be humorous for anyone."

"You fool!" The mage yelled in a crazed rush, turning his head for a brief moment. "The seal is already broken! You can't possibly stop me now!"

Quickly, the mysterious mage pushed open the coffin and pulled out what was inside.

"A sword?"

Edelgard watched in absolute shock, her eyes widening slightly upon seeing the blade before returning to their regular size. "That cannot be Saint Seiros' remains...can it? Impossible. Evidently, this is something else. Did Rhea know about this?"

"This isn't what I was expecting, but it'll do!" The mage stated, snapping Edelgard out of her line of thinking. "You Central Church dogs have torn through all my men. Except for the disobedient one. Despite that, I will be the one winning this time! Death Knight, let us-AGH!"

Edelgard had enough of listening to the man. She smashed in his skull with her axe, leaving a sizable gash on the top corner of his head. He dropped the strange sword. She picked it up, inspecting the weapon.

"Edges that point outwards from the center of the blade, a strange hole near the hilt...what manner of weapon is this?" She thought as she looked the sword up and down. She looked back at the mage, who was now on the floor, writhing around in pain. "How pitiful. A thief such as yourself stuck to the ground, much like a worm. You should be thankful that we've been ordered to capture as many of you as we can. Now, to prevent your escape."

Dropping her axe, Edelgard decided to use her new sword to slash at the mage's legs, cutting straight through them as if she were preparing a meal in the kitchen. Something that was soon made apparent to her was the sword's sudden orange glow. As soon as it did that, something deep within Edelgard called out. For what - she did not know.

"One thing is for certain. This sword...is special."

Some time later, Lucas awoke to a world of white. Disorientated, he scanned his immediate environment, quickly discovering that he was on a bed. At least, it looked like it. His vision wasn't back to normal quite yet. What he knew for sure was that he was not alone in this strange place. A blurry figure with a familiar colour scheme stood in the corner of the room, doing something he couldn't make out. Lucas' mind flicked back to the last thing he remembered happening.

"The Holy Mausoleum-!"

He tried to lift himself up, but a massive wave of pain came over him. He groaned, alerting the blurry individual to his waking presence. They came over and placed what was probably a hand on him, urging him to lie back down. He complied, grimacing through the pain as he returned to the comfortable bed sheets.

"Why is it that every time somebody wakes up from being unconscious, they've just got to undo all the work I've done to stabilise them?!" The blurry figure complained. It quickly became obvious to Lucas who this was. "Seriously. It's incredibly annoying. And also rude."

"S-sorry, Manuela," Lucas croaked out between coughs. "W-what happened?"

"And then they ask that. Well, it's either that or 'where am I'. As if it wasn't already obvious to them!" Manuela continued complaining. "Anyway. Lucas, it's been a couple of hours since you fell unconscious, if my assumptions are correct. After that, I believe three of your students stood by your body to protect you while the rest took care of the remaining Western Church soldiers. Good thinking on going to the Holy Mausoleum by the way!"

"R-right," Lucas slowly nodded, coughing again. "Wait, wh-what about the tomb? S-Saint Seiros' remains?"

"Oh, that? Apparently, there was some sort of sword in there. Edelgard got it. As soon as she began swinging it around, it glowed orange, just like a Heroes' Relic. How strange. I wouldn't have expected Seiros' remains to be a Heroes' Relic of all things," Manuela disclosed, rambling slightly.

Lucas' eyes widened upon hearing that. He jerked up. "What?!"

"Relax, now. Calm yourself," Manuela urged him to lay back down. "Yes, Edelgard has the relic. At least for now. I imagine Lady Rhea might want it back. But who knows? I think it would be much safer in her hands rather than a smelly old coffin. If those Western Church guys can sneak into the Holy Mausoleum of all places, then I don't see the point in hiding it anywhere within the monastery. It'd be better if it went to someone that can defend it, like Edelgard. You understand me, Lucas?"

"Y-yes," Lucas heaved.

"You always do. Remember when we went out drinking together? That was a wonderful time. You listened to everything I had to say. Everything I had to complain about. All those men...heh, I think you get the idea. Thanks again for that, Lucas."

"N-not a problem."

Manuela trailed off, jabbering on about whatever. Lucas wasn't sure if she was doing it for the sake of it or if she was trying to entertain him while he was bedridden, but he appreciated it either way. He kept up a strained smile, listening to the aged woman's ramblings and responding wherever he could.

Later, a knock sounded from the door. Manuela left to open it.

"Oh! Lady Rhea! Nice of you to visit," the physicist bowed. "How may I help?"

"I would like to speak with Lucas in private. I understand he is here?" Rhea requested, a tone of finality and absolute authority present in her voice.

"He is, yes. Please come in. I'll stand by the door so nobody interrupts you two," Manuela replied, standing aside, an almost nervous expression on her face.

After Rhea stepped into the infirmary, Manuela departed, closing the door behind her. Rhea then slowly walked over to the bed Lucas was occupying. Her usually calming smile seemed to carry some extra weight to it at that moment. Either way, Lucas could feel the strange scrutinising gaze she placed upon him. He began sweating ever so slightly.

"Lucas. Did you know Edelgard von Hresvelg was to obtain the Sword of the Creator?" She asked, silently demanding the information from him.

"N-no," he denied. "I knew it was in that t-tomb, but I didn't know who'd get it. I was w-worried that the mage would take it and warp away or whatever. I'm g-glad that didn't happen."

"I see. Do you also know of her Crest?" Rhea continued to ask.

"Yes. The C-Crest of Seiros, I believe," Lucas partially lied, coughing.

Rhea frowned. "She showed me as such. But that cannot be possible. There is only one person who possesses the capability of wielding that sword. Sitri Eisner's child…"

Lucas released more sweat, his nerves causing him to cough more often. Rhea bent her head downwards, looking directly into the bedridden one's eyes.

"That is you, is it not?"

Lucas' face turned beet red with sweat. He went to wipe his face with his uniform, but quickly realised he didn't have it on. That only served to amplify his nerves further.

"FUCK. What do I say, what do I say, what do I say…" he thought, retreating to his mind. "Sothis, Byleth? Where have you guys even been all day? I could REALLY use your input right now!"

"Oh, now you wish to listen to us. You failed to do so earlier," Sothis quipped.

"What are you talking about?" Lucas asked, tilting the mental version of his head in confusion.

"Back in the Holy Mausoleum. Sothis attempted to warn you about using a Divine Pulse in conjunction with the mental affliction you were dealing with. You did not heed her warning," Byleth clarified.

"So that's what that was! I'm sorry, you guys. I had a headache. I could barely even hear myself think," Lucas claimed. "I didn't mean to ignore you, Sothis. I apologise."

"Hmph!" Sothis turned away. "As long as you realise your mistake. Now, I believe we have another matter at hand. My daughter is giving you quite the stare."

"I know, right? I think she must've had her discussion with Edelgard already. What the hell happened in there?" Lucas wondered, tilting his mental head to think while already thinking.

"It doesn't matter what happened. We need to figure out a response for Rhea's question. Our time is limited," Byleth stated, cutting into Lucas' line of double layered thinking.

"Well, what do you suggest? Do I just lie to her and tell her I'm Jeralt's kid or do I tell her the truth? I feel like the only reason she's keeping me around is because she's been thinking that I'm his child, kinda like what she did with you in the original timeline, Byleth. But why would she be doubting me now?" Lucas speculated. "Ugh, what the hell do I even say to this?!"

"You should lie. Favouritism from her can never be a bad thing," Sothis suggested.

"No," Byleth shook his head. "If he lies, it will only come back to hurt him later on. Rhea is smart. And stubborn. Even if he does lie, there's no guarantee she will believe it. She will most likely continue to believe...whatever it is she's believing now."

"But if he tells the truth, she'll start trying to find out wherever Jeralt's child really went. That may very well result in him losing his position as Captain," Sothis brought up.

"Didn't Jeralt fake Byleth's death in the fire twenty years ago? Perhaps she'll start believing that actually happened," Lucas suggested.

"And what will happen then? My daughter will begin to fall into a depression. Think about it. Byleth was intended to be a vessel for me, her mother. Without that vessel? She may become insane. Or worse, she'll transform into that form of hers," Sothis proposed. "Who knows what manner of destruction that would cause."

"So if I tell her the truth, it could come back to hurt me later on. If I don't, then she might go crazy. I'm damned if I do and damned if I don't!" Lucas summarised, sighing.

An awkward silence emerged between the three.

"The choice is yours and yours alone, Lucas. We cannot decide for you. I shall support you no matter which decision you make," Sothis eventually said, breaking the silence.

"As will I," Byleth added.

Lucas frowned. "Thanks, but that doesn't really help with the decision. Still, I appreciate it. Here I go."

Rhea continued to stare deep into Lucas' soul throughout the silence that occurred between them. Even if it wasn't very long in reality, it still felt as if he was having some sort of nightmare. He made a mental note to pinch himself later to check if that was the case.

"Lady Rhea. I…" Lucas began.

The Nabatean waited patiently, that smile of hers having distorted its original meaning long ago.

"I am not Jeralt's child."

Rhea's mouth went agape. She was about to speak, but was interrupted by Lucas..

"But! I do have some manner of divinity. You see, the ability that allows me to see the future and know things I wouldn't otherwise…" Lucas continued. "It's all because of the goddess. I can speak to her in my mind. Her presence is what gives me this gift. I-I am thankful to her for it."

Rhea did not respond immediately. It took her some time to formulate a reply. "That would explain certain inconsistencies. The reason why you do not look similar to Jeralt. It is because you are not related to him. To claim you have the goddess with you is perhaps sacrilege. However."

"However?" Lucas repeated.

"I can somehow sense a divine presence coming from within you. Truly, you may be special," Rhea's smile somehow started reverting back to its usual calm self. "I believe your claim."

For a brief moment, the smile became silently scary again.

"If I find out what you are saying is a lie, then I will make you regret ever choosing to go against me."

Lady Rhea leaned away from the bed and began stepping over to the door, flashing Lucas a final calm smile before opening the door and walking away. Manuela waltzed back inside.

"You look completely red. What happened in here?" She asked curiously.

"She can be quite intense," Lucas nervously laughed.

Following Lady Rhea's departure, the bed-bound Lucas was able to cool down. Manuela offered him a small cloth with which he could use to wipe away most of the sweat that covered his face. From then, Lucas followed Manuela's orders to stay in bed until he got better. According to her, he only had about a day's worth of resting to do.

Only a day before the relationship between Rhea and himself fully changed.

Author Notes: Boom! Two chapters this week! I thought this made up for the previous one being late. Fun fact, Edelgard getting the Sword of the Creator wasn't originally planned. I was beginning to write this chapter and then I thought 'hey, this would be cool', so I changed things up. Hope you like it! Do let me know if there are any problems or if you think something's amiss. I'm always up for good criticism!

Don't forget to join the Fanfiction Treehouse Discord server! I'm there along with a whole load of other cool writers! Here's the invite code: 9XG3U7a.

See y'all next time!

EDIT (26/11/2021): Time for another rip-roaring episode of Fun Facts With ModernHog! Last time, we learnt what Lucas' favourite game is. Time to learn what his favourite game console is!

It's the Nintendo Gamecube. He grew up on that shit. SA2B, Mario Sunshine, Super Smash Bros. Melee, Mario Party 4-6, Pokemon Colosseum - he played all these games and then some.