Chapter 2
Edelgard dropped her axe as she fell to her knees, only supported by her sword in the other hand. She was sweating and breathing heavily after her duel with Byleth who had just knocked her down. Lysithea could see the sweat fall along his face as his eyes kept their focus on Edelgard, ready to act on whatever happened next.
Lysithea along with most of the former students were standing off to the side, watching the scene unfold. The fighting in the throne room had ceased with all other enemy forces cut down. Only Edelgard remained.
Lysithea felt her heart skip a beat as she saw Edelgard drop down, even a smile crept upon her face. Byleth had done it, he had defeated her! She could hear her friends cry out of joy at this but they were soon cut off abruptly by Edelgards voice.
"My teacher… claim your victory! Strike me down, you must!"
Silence settled in the room as all eyes fixated themselves on Edelgard again as the young woman found Byleth's eyes and kept her eyes locked with him as she spoke.
"Even now, across this land, people are killing each other. If you do not act now, this conflict will go on forever."
It was true that the Empire had troops and supporters scattered all around Fódlan, they hadn't all made it back to fight off the resistance when they attacked Enbarr. Byleth and Seteth had said that they wanted to cut off the head by defeating Edelgard in Enbarr. If it didn't stop the war outright it would at the very least disorganize the troops that were left which would make them a lot easier to take care of.
"Your path lies across my grave. It is time for you to find the courage to walk it." As Edelgard's voice rang out, her intentions were made clear to everyone. She would not surrender.
"If I must fall, let it be by your hand." Lysithea could hear Edelgard's commanding voice falter as she said this. It was getting harder for Edelgard to mask her emotions.
While few had expected her to surrender in case of defeat some of her classmates had hoped. Lysithea tore her eyes from Edelgard as she looked at Byleth. He had mentioned on more than one occasion the complicated feelings within him at fighting his former house leader. He in particular had hoped Edelgard would surrender, Byleth had admitted this to Lysithea one time.
She noted the grip on Byleth's sword tighten and his eyes close at Edelgard's words. From the side she couldn't see his face in full, but what she saw when he opened his eyes again had her let out a gasp.
It was the return of the man she had met when he came to the academy. A man she had not seen for a long time and had hoped to never see again. The mercenary Byleth Eisner, on the battlefield nicknamed "The Ashen Demon". A man so devoid of any feelings that he could stare blankly at you and cut you down without blinking an eye.
"Professor, don't…!" Trying to stop him, her arms reached out for him but she was quickly cut short in the process by a hand on her arm. It was Ferdinand who simply looked at her and shook his head.
Deep down she knew what he had just said by stopping her; we must leave this to Byleth. This was his way of doing what needed to be done.
Lysithea's head lowered as her arms wrapped themselves around herself. Her body involuntarily shivered, as if she had gotten cold despite their body temperature being high from all the fighting. Her heart wanted to intercede but the rational side of her knew that this was how it had to be. They needed to trust Byleth. Since they didn't know how Edelgard would react if she was approached by anyone else.
All eyes in the room were on Byleth as the former mercenary started to walk towards Edelgard with a blank stare in his eyes, fixated on the young woman. Edelgard kept a brave face and met the blank stare with her own eyes, tired from the fight but with what seemed to be acceptance of the situation she was in.
As Byleth stood in front of the kneeling Edelgard, he raised his sword. Lysithea didn't know that she was now holding her breath along with everyone else in the room.
"I wanted… to walk with you…" The now faint but emotional voice of Edelgard could be heard and for just a brief second Lysithea could have sworn she saw longing in Edelgard's eyes as she watched Byleth tower in front of her, sword raised high. But maybe it was the trick of the light.
As the young woman in front of Byleth gave him a faint smile they all saw and heard the sound of the sword come down on her, ending her life.
There was no cheering, no cry of joy this time. Just silence after the sword hit its target. With a "thud" Edelgard's body fell to the floor and all of them knew that the war was now over. Edelgard was dead.
For a while no one moved or said anything, it was like they were all waiting for someone, anyone, to do something. Byleth was merely standing still at Edelgard's body, barely having moved a muscle after he had swung his sword down upon her.
The seconds passed and soon enough Lysithea decided that she had to check on him so she slowly went forward. Her footsteps echoed in the otherwise silent throne room.
She saw Edelgard's body as she came closer, but she kept her focus on Byleth. There was nothing anyone could do for Edelgard now. She had made her choice and her road had led to this. Lysithea tried to rationalize it as that. Memories of conversations with Edelgard flashed before her eyes, where they discussed her situation and crests in general. Lysithea remembered how good it felt to be able to talk to someone who understood what she had been through, because she had been the subject of something similar. She also remembered how Edelgard had given her advice on many things during the academy days.
She had felt a certain affinity towards the head of the Black Eagle house, and of course their professor, which is why she had joined their class. While Edelgard's actions had led to the death of many people, Lysithea couldn't help but feel a bit of sadness at seeing the young woman dead on the floor.
Breaking her trail of thoughts she focused back on Byleth as he stood still in front of Edelgard's body. He was staring blankly at it, not moving a muscle. She could see no emotions on his face, it was like an unwritten parchment; blank.
Lysithea put her hand on his arm, she could feel how tense he was. His whole body was rigid, like he had been frozen in place. Byleth was just watching Edelgard's corpse on the ground as the woman's blood slowly dripped from his sword.
"Professor?" Lysithea tentatively asked as she stood to the side of him, watching him with concern.
He didn't respond.
Lysithea didn't know how she could break him out of his frozen state, so she did the only thing she could think of; she enveloped him in her arms. As she put her head against his chest, she hoped it would comfort him and break him free from his state.
For a while they just stood there, Byleth frozen in place with Lysithea's arms around him.
But soon enough she felt his muscles start to loosen up and she heard the sound of a sword falling to the ground. As his muscles had loosened up, Byleth had lost the grip of his sword and she felt his arms move for the first time. Soon she felt him hug her back, his head coming to rest against the top of hers.
As they stood there, arms around each other Lysithea could hear him whispering something. It was faint and she had to focus to hear what he said but soon enough she could make it out.
"I killed her."
She suspected it was the knowledge of what he had just done that had made him freeze. It wasn't that surprising given their close relationship they had developed during the time at the academy. Of course it would hurt to have to do this.
Edelgard had done a lot of bad things, gotten a lot of people killed and caused the destruction of so much in their world. Lysithea knew the rational arguments they had said over and over; Edelgard had to die for what she had done. Anything else would have only risked war breaking out again, just as she said. It was the only way to bring the war to an end and to create a new future for Fodlán.
But someone had to do the actual killing of her and bear the burden of it. Byleth had taken it upon himself to bear it for them all, he had been clear about that to them before the battle. And while he may have been a former mercenary and killed a lot of people before, it was different to kill someone you knew, someone you once trusted, even cared for. A former friend. It would be strange if he didn't react, it was just human.
She suspected he didn't trust himself to be able to kill her so he had brought forward the one thing that wasn't affected by emotions; the Ashen Demon. That way he could do what needed to be done without hesitating. The shock once he realized what had been done had perhaps led to his reaction afterwards, that was Lysithea's theory anyway.
"You did what you had to do professor, you heard her. If you didn't she would have kept going and more people would have been killed. It was the only choice."
Byleth didn't answer.
"You did it for all of us, to protect us and save lives. Please don't forget that." Lysithea whispered into his chest as she tightened her grip on him.
Soon she heard several footsteps coming towards them and she heard the voice of Ferdinand.
"Lysithea is right professor. Edelgard made her choice long ago, she knew the road she walked could end like this. You did what you had to do because it was necessary, because her actions led us here." Ferdinand was now standing beside them and had put his hand on Byleth's shoulder.
Lysithea reluctantly took her head away from Byleth's chest and loosened her arms around him without letting go as she looked at his face. She saw that a mix of emotions had come back to his eyes as he looked into hers. Lysithea saw the guilt but it was also mixed with relief.
"Thank you professor" Lysithea said and gave him a smile that was met with a small one from Byleth as he let go of her. She noted the fact that it had felt so warm and safe to be in his arms and that she wanted to stay there longer. But that was for a different time and place she had to remind herself, this time it had been for comfort.
Byleth cast a last glance at Edelgards body before he closed his eyes briefly, took a breath and then turned away from it and looked at Ferdinand, Lysithea and the others that had now joined them.
"Thank you, everyone. For your support. Is everyone all right?" He quickly looked around him at everyone that had gathered, seemingly to take in everyone's state of health.
Soon Byleth had once again assumed his role as leader and went over their current situation after receiving confirmation that no one had been critically injured in the battle. He quickly gave out new orders for everyone in the group, there were a lot of things to do and still places to secure and search in the palace.
With everyone having been assigned new duties to perform they all turned around to do them, but as Lysithea was about to leave she heard Byleth say her name.
When she turned back she saw him stand there, watching her intently. Matching his gaze with her own she waited patiently for whatever it was he wanted to say.
Before he spoke he took a step forward, getting closer to her so she had to angle her head just a little bit up to continue to look into his eyes.
"Thank you Lysithea, for bringing me back from that dark place. You saved me."
A soft smile played on his lips as he watched her, his gentle gaze telling her just how much he appreciated her actions. She matched his smile with her own.
"I'm glad you came back Professor, you really scared us… me… when you did that."
After she had spoken she felt her smile turn into a frown as she decided that she had to say something that was on her mind.
"I know it must have been hard to do what you had to and I think I understand why you did it. But would you promise me one thing, professor?"
Byleth looked a bit puzzled at this but nodded in acceptance of her request.
"Promise me that you will never go back to that place, that… person… you were before. Once I saw all emotions leave you it scared me so much, and then you just stood there, lost and frozen in place… I thought I had lost you." Lysithea felt physical pain in her body just thinking about it, one hand balled itself into a fist and went to her chest as she continued:
"Every day you spent at the academy and now during the war I've seen how you more and more every day have expressed yourself in ways that were unthinkable at the time you joined the academy. It's like you found a bit of… I guess you could say humanity, ever since you joined the academy."
Byleth took in her words and she saw him turn his face away from her, he seemed deep in thought at her words and soon she worried that he had taken what she said in a wrong way so she quickly followed up her last sentence.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean that you weren't a person before, it's just that…"
Byleth turned back and looked at her with his gentle gaze again.
"I know what you meant Lysithea, don't worry. I'm sorry I worried you. I hesitated when the time came to act and saw only one way to be able to go through with what needed to be done. I failed you by having to do that."
She felt some relief wash over her as she realized she hadn't said something stupid but hearing him say that he had failed them wasn't right. Byleth had never failed them, or her for that matter.
"Don't say that. You have never failed us professor." Seeing him look down upon the ground, with shame on his face, Lysithea stepped forward and embraced him again. Locking herself around him, with her face against his chest like last time she felt him stiffen in surprise but soon enough he wrapped his arms around her as well.
They stood there for a while, together in silence until Lysithea whispered:
"Please promise me professor, I don't want to lose you like that again." As those words left her lips she felt herself freeze and a full blown blush appeared on her face, as she realized what she had just said. Twice in a short time. Her mind went into overdrive as she tried to think of a way to explain it but was quickly interrupted.
"You won't lose me Lysithea. And I don't ever want to go back to that man, I've done a lot to try and bury the past when I should have been focused on the future instead."
She felt him lean back a bit from her embrace and as she looked up at him, there was something in his eyes she just couldn't explain as he watched her.
"I promise I will never go back to that man again."
The joy inside her as she heard his promise soon threatened to give way to feelings hidden inside her, something she had promised herself not to give into, seeing as her future was still looking bleak.
Wrestling them under control she settled for giving him the biggest smile she could and thanked him for the promise. Never again would she have to lose Byleth like that.