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The students approached the monastery in a formation, hurrying to get inside the relative safety of the building. The death of Edelgard shook everyone, regardless of the house that they were in. I lead the group alongside the two other nobles, with Rhea and the other leaders of the Church in front. The Knights of Seiros lined the group, watching for any more threats that would come. However, with the way that Edelgard died, no one was sure how to defend.
"Everyone, back to your quarters. We will have the monastery on high alert, and we will have an academy-wide meeting first thing tomorrow morning in the Audience Hall." Rhea turned to us as we approached the gates of the monastery. Mumbling ensued throughout the students, presumably about the meeting and rumors about Edelgard. "Please, to anyone that may worry, I assure you that everyone will be safe." Rhea turned to walk away, but not before one other sentence. "And, may the goddess bless you all." With that, she walked into the monastery.
I turned to Dimitri and Claude. "With Edelgard no longer being there to lead the Black Eagles, who will?" Dimitri put his hand on his chin.
"You know, I could take lead of the Deer for now, and you could monitor the Eagles." Claude suggested. Dimitri nodded.
"I second that. It is probably the only option that we have that doesn't put one of the houses in danger." I looked to Claude.
"And you're okay with taking care of the Deer?"
He laughed. "Of course. They might be a rowdy bunch, but who's to say I can't handle them?" He put his hand on my back, and smiled. "I'll be fine. Don't you worry!"
I nodded. "Alright." I turned to the students of the Black Eagle house. "Everyone! I will be taking temporary control of the Black Eagle house, until the assembly tomorrow. Then, Rhea will hopefully assign a new house leader." I walked over to the students. "We should get inside." Hubert turned to me.
"With the loss of Edelgard, who will be the new head of the house?" I stared at Hubert, before reiterating my response.
"As I said, Rhea will choose a new representative tomorrow. Most likely, it will be Ferdinand, as he is the next strongest member of the house." Hubert nodded. "Now then, if all is said and done, we should be returning to the barracks now." I began to walk over to the housing area, and the students followed. Each student went into their individual quarters, as I walked over and into mine as well. I laid down on my bed, lost in my own thoughts.
What was that loud noise? Why did Edelgard just seem to die, with no other cause? Are we still in danger here? All of those were thoughts that plagued my mind as I laid in darkness. Time seemed to creep to a halt, as sleeping proved impossible. Eventually, later in the night, I decided to take a midnight walk. "Perhaps this can quell my worries…" I thought to myself.
I exited my room, moving out into the cool midnight air of the monastery. I took a moment to admire the still environment around me, the area just buzzing with activity earlier in the day. "To think that such a momentous occasion turned into a tragedy…" I walked through the darkness, my boots echoing with each step that I took.
As I rounded a corner towards the stables, I saw a figure in the darkness. "Halt!" I shouted, screeching to a stop myself. "Show yourself!" The figure made a quick movement, then seemed to dash through the stables. "Get back here!"
I ran after the figure, trying to move through the horses. The figure broke out into the night, and began to sprint towards the gates of the monastery. I reached for the Creator Sword on my belt, ready to try to find out the identity behind this. Just as I took the sword out, I looked up to see something metal facing me. It seemed to have a hole in the center, and as I began to examine it, a loud sound rang out. The same sound that was heard when Edelgard died!
Just as I heard the sound, I felt a sharp pain pierce my chest. I fell to the ground, choking in pain as the figure ran away. "What… what was that?" I croaked to myself, looking towards my chest. Blood pooled out of a centralized area in my stomach. I reached my hands towards the wound, spotting something glimmering inside the wound. As I went to pull it out, I saw another figure come dashing towards me.
"Teach!" I heard, as I saw the body of Claude come dashing towards me. My vision began to blur, as I silently gestured towards the wound. "Teach!" Claude shouted again, as he came to a kneel next to me. I tried to make a sound, but instead fell to the ground. Claude's voice fell into a spiral, and everything went black.
I awoke in a dimly lit room. The first thing I noticed was the excruciating pain in my stomach. "Gah!" I screamed, alerting the person in the room next door.
"Oh my! You're awake!"
The person who rounded the corner was no other than the woman who ran the infirmary, Manuela. She walked over to me quickly. "Why did you scream?"
"The pain… so bad!" I grunted, trying to stifle a scream. I looked down at my bare chest. There was a plain bandage covering the wound, one that was stained a deep shade of crimson. Manuela bent down over me.
"Hush now, screaming will only make the pain worse. I need you to sit back and take a couple deep breaths, okay dear?" I slowly nodded, the pain burning in my chest. "I can explain everything that happened, if you are willing to listen." I nodded once again. "Very well."
"Claude found you on the floor in the garden at around 2 o'clock in the morning. Blood was pooled around you, and there was no definite cause. He came and alerted Rhea, who brought soldiers as well as myself to check on you." I nodded. I didn't expect Claude to get Rhea for an incident such as that.
"There was a sharp piece of steel embedded inside of you. Not unlike the one that pierced through Edelgard. I do not know what it is, but Rhea seemed to. You are very lucky, Byleth. You survived this; Edelgard did not." My face turned into a frown as the survivor's guilt began to set in.
"I believe that the difference was the spot of impact from the metal. With her, it went straight through the lungs, causing a direct inability to breathe. Yours burst through your ribcage, but did not puncture any essential organs." I tried to understand what she was saying.
"Apparently, the meeting will now be held earlier as a result of this. Rhea thinks… thinks that it was a plot to murder more of the students. She believes that no one is safe anymore, although she would not tell anyone that." Fear widened across my face. Not being safe, at the only place that we called home?
"Rhea would like you to attend the meeting, if you do not mind. It is actually about to start, in the audience hall. I could push your bed into there." Manuela asked me. I nodded.
"I'd love to go." Manuela smiled.
"Then I'll get everything set up." She put my infirmary bed onto a movable platform, and proceeded to wheel me out. The audience chamber was just down the hall, and I could tell by the large amount of students. She stopped and set me down at the front, near Rhea, Claude, and Dimitri.
"Thank you, Manuela, for bringing our Professor. I appreciate everything that you have done to try to keep him in a stable condition, and I am ever so grateful that he is alive to be able to attend this meeting with us here today." Manuela bowed before the archbishop.
"It is my pleasure." Rhea turned to me.
"And, for you, I am ever so grateful to be able to see you again after that tragic accident. I'm sure you know that I have many questions for you, but those will have to wait. We must plan our next course of action, before this person claims another victim." Rhea turned to the crowd.
"May I have everyone's attention please?" The students turned up, and faced Rhea. "Thank you. As you know, two of our attendees have been gravely injured in the past day, with one fatality. I wish I could assure you that we were not in harm's way; but I simply cannot promise anything at the moment." Murmurs broke out through the crowd.
"However, I can assure you that you are trained as some of the best warriors in Fodlan. You will no doubt be able to stand up to this menace, as long as we can plan." Rhea smiled. "Now, I am sure you are wondering exactly what happened to our professor here, as well as Edelgard."
"They were shot with a piece of ancient technology, long thought to be removed when Seiros fought Nemesis. This weapon is called a gun. It fires bullets, small silver pellets, at speeds fast enough to tear through flesh and bone alike." Shock crossed each of the students faces.
"It is nothing like the weapons that you have seen before. These weapons were made with the intent to kill, and nothing less. It is a miracle that your professor stands before you today. Had the bullet landed in him just two more inches to the left… we would not be seeing him right now." A solemn look crossed Rhea's face. "Does anyone have any questions before we proceed?"
Dimitri spoke up first. "Lady Rhea, do you believe that we possess the technology to oppose whoever has this… gun?" Rhea was quiet for a moment, before speaking up.
"I do not know." A cross of fear and anger crossed Dimitri's face.
"As I figured. Thank you." Dimitri turned away. Claude looked up at Rhea.
"Lady Rhea, do we have any suspects for who the murderer might be?" Rhea looked at Claude, then the crowd.
"Well, I do not presume it to be one of us. The guards said they saw no one leave their room. This only means it is an outside force. I do not know what these forces could be, but I do not believe we should underestimate them."
"Well, duh, we shouldn't underestimate them. But, who would want to murder students at the Officer's Academy? And do you think that there is any way for us to be truly safe right now?"
"No. There is no way to be completely safe, not when we do not possess any knowledge of who the cause behind this is. All we can do is ensure that we are on our guard at all times and we expect the unexpected."
Claude looked upset at this, but did not respond with anything. "Now, for our next course of action. I am going to request from now on that students remain armed at all times." Rhea looked upon the crowd. "I also request that you stay in groups of no less than three. This will allow you extra strength." The crowd murmured once again.
"We will assign your groups. As for the three houses… we have made an executive decision to disband the three houses, in hopes of bringing together a union to fight this foe. We will all fight under the banner of the Church." Rhea looked towards the crowd, eyes gleaming.
"I hope that this will allow us to prepare to oppose the oncoming threat." Rhea looked to the crowd. "You are dismissed. Please, return to your barracks. You will be spending a lot of time in there for the time being."
As the crowd left, Rhea looked down upon her hands, as they quivered. "Goddess…" She changed her glance from her hands to the sky. "Please, protect us."
Chapter One is complete! I hope to be updating on a daily, or bidaily schedule with Chapter updates. If something comes up that I cannot, I will post a temporary chapter explaining. If you have any comments or criticism, please, leave a review! See you in the next chapter!