And now for a spot of plot-thickening. I'm sure you're gonna have questions after reading this.

Chapter 29 – The Imperial Regent (Horsebow Moon)

"Edie, why are you making such a big deal out of this?" Dorothea asked an exasperated Edelgard. The two were having a small argument in the entrance hall.

"Do I really have to explain it to you?" Edelgard said crossly. "You attacked Count Varley rather than letting the Knights arrest him."

"Hey, he had it coming!"

"You broke his arm after he had already been subdued!"

"He tried to kill me!"

The two realized their shouting was drawing attention to them and simmered down.

Sighing, Dorothea said, "Besides, I wanted to do a lot worse to him. He's lucky I only broke his arm."

"Dorothea…" Edelgard nursed her forehead as she said this.

"Perhaps you should have acted upon such an impulse," said a sinister voice, prompting the girls to turn to its source. "He has always been such a nuisance."

The two looked to see a middle-aged man with silver eyes, black hair and a matching beard and mustache. He wore regal white robes with a crimson trim, along with a red coat of arms on his left shoulder. The girls recognized him immediately, and Dorothea felt her skin crawl at the sight of him.

"Uncle, what are you doing here?" asked Edelgard.

"I've come to retrieve you," said the man. "It turns out your friend has left Count Varley mad as a hornet. Your father wishes for you to return to help deal with the count before he does anything that could embarrass the Empire. It shouldn't take more than a few days, but your presence is needed to ensure everything goes smoothly." He then turned to Dorothea and said, "In all honesty, if your friend here had simply killed him in self-defense, it might have been preferable."

Dorothea frowned at this as she said, "I'm sorry to have caused you such an inconvenience, Lord Arundel."

"There is no need for apology, Miss Arnault," said Arundel. "After all, only one as petty as him would attack someone for buying his daughter a gift." Then, turning back to Edelgard, he added, "Now, would you go and fetch that Vestra boy while I have a word with your friend here?"

"Of course, Uncle," Edelgard said with a frown. Then, giving Dorothea a glance, she said, "I'll be back as soon as I can."

With that, Edelgard strode off to look for Hubert. Now alone with Arundel, Dorothea could not ignore the pit that was forming in her stomach as the lord loomed menacingly over her.

"You seem to have a habit of drawing undue attention to yourself," said Arundel. "I trust it has not gotten in the way of what I have asked of you?"

"Hmm? What you asked of me? Remind me, what was it again?"

Dorothea raised a hand to stroke her hair, but then made a gasp of pain as Arundel grabbed her firmly under her left breast, putting pressure on her ribcage. She was still tender in that spot from her altercation with Count Varley's goons, where one of them had kicked her.

Somehow, Arundel knew about it, and it took everything Dorothea had to not show fear at the realization.

"Don't play coy with me, girl," said Arundel. "You know of what I speak. Do not make me reconsider my sponsoring you to attend this place."

The singer was about to come up with something venomous to say to the man when another voice said, "Is there a problem here?"

Dorothea and Arundel turned to see Byleth walking toward them, a look of disapproval on her face. Arundel took this cue to release his hold on Dorothea and stepped back from the singer.

"Ahh, you must be Professor Eisner," said Arundel. "My niece has told me a great deal about you. She holds you in quite high regard."

"And you are?" asked Byleth.

"Where are my manners? I am Volkhard von Arundel, Regent of the Adrestian Empire."

"And why would the Regent of the Empire be harassing one of my students?"

"Is that what it looked like? I was simply reminding Miss Arnault of her debt to me. I do so hate it when a debt goes unpaid. Now if you will excuse me, I believe I wish to have a stroll through these hallowed halls before my return to the Empire."

Without another word, Arundel left their presence.

As soon as he had gone out of earshot, Dorothea let out a loud sigh of relief as she nursed her side and said, "Thanks for that, Professor."

"What was that all about?" asked Byleth.

"It's… it's not something you should get involved in, Professor. I know you just wanna look out for me, but this is something I have to deal with."

"I still want to know what this is about, Dorothea."

Noticing the insistent tone in Byleth's voice, Dorothea asked, "You aren't gonna let this go, are you?"

Byleth shook her head wordlessly.

Sighing again, Dorothea continued, "Fine, fine. I'll tell you, but this stays between us, alright? Us and Edie."

"Of course."

"When I first learned that Edie was going to be coming to the Officer's Academy, I wanted to go along with her. But being an opera star doesn't exactly earn you the kind of money you'd need to get in, and I couldn't just ask Edie to fund me herself. So, when I told her about it, she directed me to her uncle. It took a lot of buttering him up, but I convinced him to sponsor me in the academy. But…"

"But…?" Byleth asked, wanting Dorothea to continue.

"I… I had to do some… favors for him… Things I really didn't like doing." Then, realizing she might have said things in a way that could give Byleth the wrong idea, she added, "And no, before you ask, I didn't sleep with him. But he made me do some… really questionable stuff."

"What stuff?"

"Look, Professor, I know you're worried about me, but please, don't ask. I don't want to talk about it."

"I see. Just know that if you ever want to tell me–"

"I know, Professor. But for now, let's just drop the subject, okay? I need to get going; Bern said she was going to help me with my cooking. I'll talk to you later."

With that, Dorothea turned away from Byleth and left the teacher's presence. Byleth, with some disappointment, sat herself down as she was joined by her invisible green-haired companion.

"Well now, it seems even that girl has her secrets," said Sothis. "I wonder what it is she had to do for this Arundel character. Hmm… There is something about that man that unsettles me."

"What do you mean?" Byleth asked in a whisper so as not to let anyone hear her. She didn't want people thinking she was talking to thin air, after all.

"It is not simply his mannerisms or how he seems to hold some sway over that girl. There is something to him that just feels… familiar somehow. Yet I cannot place it… But why would I find him familiar?"

"I have no idea."

…

Tomas the librarian seated himself in a secluded copse on the eastern side of the monastery, a good few minutes from the cemetery. No one else was around to observe his pondering, nor hear his mutterings concerning a certain Professor being far too nosy for her own good.

It was as he made a hidden scowl that a voice called out, "Can you answer me a riddle?"

The words immediately drew Tomas from his pondering, and he turned to see a familiar man with silver eyes, a black beard, and similar black hair.

"And what, pray tell, would be your riddle?" Tomas asked methodically.

"What color is my heart?"

"It is black as pitch, my lord."

Arundel made a smirk at this, satisfied with the correct answer to his code phrase. Still, it would not pay to be careless.

"I trust everything is going as planned with our dear 'Saint'?"

"Of course, Agastya. She is proving most generous. And how goes your pet project with our dear Entei and her little songbird?"

"The bird is proving more useless than I had thought. Not that I had any real faith in her abilities. Still, she may yet have her purpose in time. As for Entei, we can only wait and see." After a short pause, Arundel then said, "Does something trouble you?"

With a short frown, Tomas said, "It is… that demon. His mind is not on his task, and so he becomes more difficult to influence."

"I see. Powerful as he is, he is still but a beast in the end. Yet perhaps he can be… properly motivated."

"And what would you have to motivate such a beast?"

Arundel's face curled in a sinister grin as he chuckled, and then he whispered his solution to Tomas, bringing a similar grin to the librarian's countenance.

Curious developments, yes?

The fact that we're never told which noble sponsored Dorothea in the game gave me this opportunity to have Arundel be her mysterious benefactor. I'm sure you all know the deal with Arundel, so you're going to be wondering why he'd be the one to sponsor Dorothea and not some original character. Well, that's gonna be a secret for a while.

Also, who here sees the references during the conversation between Arundel and Tomas?