Byleth stood at the front gates of the town, where a well-worn wooden sign reading "Welcome to Yongen-Jaya" swung gently in the morning breeze, and let out a deep sigh. While she was used to commanding small battalions of her father's men during missions, something about being left in charge of these three boys made her feel nervous. Whether it was the fact that they appeared to be of noble blood or the fact that they were just so foreign to her, she didn't know.

What she did know, however, was that they had apparently been ambushed by a group of bandits who were now on their way to Yongen-Jaya, and Jeralt had appointed her and the three "noble brats" to be at the front of the line in order to draw the bandits out of the woods. After Jeralt had made his way back into the village to help the rest of the company bolster up its defenses, Byleth led the three young men to the front gates.

The three boys were now all geared up for battle, and Byleth noted the subtle changes in their behavior once they had joined her at the front lines. Blue had been sullen and withdrawn before, but he now had his lance at the ready and a battle-ready expression on his face. Yellow's easy-going smile was still intact, slightly hardened by his heightened vigilance as he scanned the trees ahead of them, both of his hands wrapped around the hilt of a silver katana. Red held a medium-length dagger at his side, spinning it around between his fingers, while nonchalantly pushing his glasses up with his other hand. He smirked slightly, his eyes glinting behind his glasses with the spark of rebellion.

After a moment of tense silence, Yellow spoke up. "I don't see anyone approaching from that clump of trees just up ahead. Could be they're trying to work their way around the forest, but we'd have no way of knowing for sure."

Blue scoffed. "Maybe we'll split up then? Honestly, if you're in charge we'll be strategizing for the next four hours."

"I'm not in charge. The pretty lady is."

"It's all about the girls with you, isn't it!"

"It's not only just girls…"

Byleth could only look on in bewilderment as the two boys began to argue while standing on what would shortly become an active battleground. She wanted to intervene, to call them out on their foolishness, but someone else beat her to the punch.

"Guys, give it a rest. You're clearly stressing her out."

Red walked up alongside her and acknowledged her with a quick nod.

Sorry, he mouthed silently, before striding up to his two comrades.

"What, are you going after her too? You're no better than him!"

"I only said she was pretty."

"Both of you, stop. We need to stay focused on our objective. That means no arguing and no philandering, OK?"

"But– "

"I wasn't- "

Byleth, having recovered from her confusion, cleared her throat and walked over to where the three were standing. Jeez, I need to get better at exerting my authority.

"He's right. Now, as I understand it, there are bandits on the way, correct?"

"Duh," responded Blue.

Ignoring that remark, Byleth nodded to Yellow.

"I believe you said that you think that they may try to approach from around the sides of the forest, trapping us within. While I appreciate your critical thinking, these are bandits we're dealing with. From my experience, standard bandit brigades rarely consist of more than 6 or 7 men in number. The benefit of sneaking around the sides would be almost negligible compared to just approaching through the woods."

Yellow furrowed his eyebrows in deep thought, taking in and considering every word that she said.

"Huh, now that you say it… But I don't see any bandits in the trees up there. Where else could they be?"

"They're probably deeper into the woods than you think. Your eyes can only see so far, so don't rely on them too much. You can't conduct all of your strategizing from a distance; sometimes you need to get a bit closer to get the full picture."

Yellow's eyes brightened as he winked at her. "You're quite the intelligent leader, aren't you?"

Blue glared daggers at him. "Just quit while you're ahead, dummy."

Red glanced back at Byleth, rolling his eyes. Sorry again, he mouthed.

As they approached the tree line, Byleth saw the faint glow of a lantern further in.

"Bandits aren't really as clever as they like to think they are," she whispered. "As long as we stay quiet and out of the line of sight, we should be fine."

Crouching by a cluster of low brush at the outer edge of the woods, she could hear the mutterings of the bandits standing in a clearing further ahead.

"Where are those brats?", a gruff voice demanded.

"I think they went off to that little shithole of a town down south."

"Hmm… Could be trouble, with all the mercs around these parts. Maybe we oughtta torch it from afar, draw them out of there and finish 'em off. We still have those flame arrows, right?"

"What about the mercs? I thought we didn't want no trouble from them!"

"You know how those people are. They'll wanna evacuate the village first, what with their pansy-ass code of honor and all. Probably only spare three or four men to engage us in pursuit. We'll kick 'em to the curb after we finish off the kids."

"What if it's the Bladebreaker's men?"

Byleth heard the leader shudder, and though his voice dropped to a whisper, she could hear a twinge of fear in his tone, masked by false bravado and authority.

"It won't be, OK?! Just trust me, you filthy peasants. I'm the Bandit King, after all. You filthy rats should be grateful to even be in my presence. Now kneel before your rightful ruler!"

"Bandit King? Who could be so vain as to call themselves that?" Byleth whispered, mainly to herself.

She caught a glimpse of the bandits through the dense brush, lying prostrate on the earth before their leader, who stood over them with a gaudy gilded crown on his head and a silver axe in his hand. The man wore a plush velvet robe over a silver breastplate, although the lower half of his body was bare save a garishly patterned set of undergarments. Despite his utter lack of fashion sense, he still seemed to be quite a formidable man, towering above his subjects. If Byleth had to guess, the only person that would be taller than him was Yellow, and even then, only by a few centimeters.

"Oh, ok. Bandit King. Yeah, I can totally see it now," snarked Blue, making sure to keep his voice down.

"If only I could un-see it", remarked Yellow.

Byleth turned to Red, who had stayed silent, and noted a look of utter disgust on his face, presumably directed towards the Bandit King.

As Byleth and the three young nobles stood there, low to the ground and hidden out of sight, the so-called Bandit Kings' men continued groveling at his feet, offering their praises to their almighty ruler.

"All hail our leader."

"All hail the Bandit King."

"All hail His Majesty, King Kamoshida."