Usually, I love it when I'm right.
Today?
I absolutely hate it.
Professor Imalman ran off the moment the horns blared.
I knew that this professor was a piece of shit from the game, but still! There's a limit to how much of a piece of shit you can be! This man didn't even think twice before bolting. Seriously!
Right now, the four of us managed to find a thicket in us to hide in.
"Shit shit shit-" Claude hangs on the last 't' of his sentence for a long time, letting all of the air leave his lungs.
"What are we going to do-"
"I don't think asking me is the best choice of action here…" Dimitri sighs. "Don't you have a plan, mister master tactician?"
"Hey, I don't-"
I can't stand any more of this back and forth, especially when I can practically smell Kostas's smelly, hairy ass from over here.
"Claude, do you have any weapons?" I snap back at him, cutting him off.
"N-No?"
"Does anyone have any weapons?" I sigh. Dimitri pulls out a large knife while Edelgard pulls out a hand axe.
I sigh, pulling out my tome.
"Does anyone need to get their weapon?"
Dimitri and Claude raise their hands.
I sigh again.
"Right then, let's get going. El, stay in front. Other than me, you have the longest reach. Dimitri, make sure Claude doesn't die. Claude, you wanted to see some Burgundy Blossoms? I'll show you some Burgundy Blossoms," I give out my orders. Thankfully, Claude listens and sticks near Dimitri. Good, I don't want him dying.
We start to move forward, cautiously. Our goal is to reach the armoury to arm ourselves. Well, arm everyone except for me. I keep my tome on me at all times. I can fight at full capacity right now.
We keep ourselves lowered as we approach our campsite. Already, the bandits have started to attack the staff. A small picket line has been formed, though ten men cannot hold against a hundred for long.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see a bow with a quiver of arrows on the dead body of a bandit. It seems to be in good condition.
"Claude, there's a bow and some arrows over there," I nod towards the deceased woman. I keep my voice low so as to not draw attention. Claude grimaces.
"Really, Heinrich? You want me to scavenge weapons from our defeated enemies?" Claude sighs at me, though he also keeps his voice down.
"If you want to fight through that line of bandits, be my guest. I certainly am not," I sigh back, gesturing to the armoury, currently on the other side of the line of bandits.
Claude gulps.
We head off there and Claude slings the quill over his back and picks up the bow. Like a professional, the first he checks is the draw strength. Finding it satisfactory, he runs back to us.
He has a face of disgust on his face.
"I feel all icky inside,"
"Good luck on an actual battlefield then, Claude. There's going to be a lot more death and destru-" A loud roar cuts off what I was about to say.
Wheeling around, I realize that the thin line had broken and the entire force of bandits was charging forwards. Right to where we are.
"Claude, you and I will hold the line with range. El and Dima, run to the thicket. Run as fast as you possibly can! We'll hold them off for as long as possible!"
Claude blinks at me while Dimitri and Edelgard stare at me in confusion.
I ignore them and prepare to cast a spell.
For someone who lived in a world of science, magic is, well, magical. The same power that took mankind a hundred thousand years to master, I can control with a couple of words and some fancy glyphs.
It makes the advancements that mankind made in my world seem inconsequential. What cost Immerman twenty-four years and his life can be reproduced by a simple fire spell.
What it does make for though is some impressive fireworks. I feel my magic flowing to the tome in my left hand. It's a hard feeling to describe. I could be cliche and say that you can only truly understand if you have felt it before, but I won't do that. It feels like when you drink warm water and can feel that warmth entering your oesophagus, but instead of the warmth moving down your chest, it moves from somewhere in your throat, I'm not sure where exactly and traverses down your arm and into the tome, at which point we can read the words in the book without ever seeing them. It's like knowing how to move your hands and fingers. You don't think about it, you just do.
A circle of light extends from where my finger is, a second ring springing to life a set distance away from the first. In between the circles, I start to make the glyphs and sigils that would cause the massive spell that is Blossoming Burgundy Flowers. The spell is basically a hyper-efficient Elfire spell, though nobody here seems to know what Elfire is.
I'm not surprised though; the spell wasn't present in-game. What I am surprised about is that Heinrich could recreate the spell from my memories of Awakening, Binding and Blazing Blade. Holy hell was Heinrich good at spell casting.
The magic snaps into place, and the glyphs turns a vibrant shade of burgundy. Fitting, I suppose, considering the name of the spell.
A massive column of flame shoots out from the magic circle, smashing through the shields of the bandits by sheer force. Of course, by Newton's Third Law, the resulting equal and opposite force flung me back onto my ass, ten feet away from where I was earlier.
It was then I noticed that Claude had also decided to run away. Fuck, I forgot that Claude was the first to run in the original canon.
And now, after burning a massive hole in their lines, the bandits were now all targeting me.
Well, shit.
I decided that turning around and running was the best course of action, and I followed it. Thankfully, I am a much better runner in Heinrich's body than I was on my own, and my plan managed to work. To an extent.
I get back to the thicket that we had hidden in earlier with the bandits nipping at my heels. There, I find the other three who take one look at the mass of men that I've brought with me and decide that hiding there was no longer a possible option to stay alive. They join me as I try to remember where the hell Remire is.
"Hello, Heinrich. I thought you were acting as the rearguard?" Dimitri, bless his heart, asks me.
"I would have if Claude hadn't run off!" I snap back, my legs screaming for relief. Suddenly, my body jerks itself to the right as an arrow sails in between me and Dimitri. The resulting horizontal acceleration causes me to slightly lose my balance.
I curse as stumble to my left. Bracing myself for the cold, wet dirt, I feel a tugging on my left arm.
I turn my head around as Claude yanks me back to my feet.
"Where the fuck did you go?" I hiss at him.
He shrugs.
"The bowstring snapped," He gives me an apologetic look. He holds up his bow, the string dangling limply.
"How did it break?" I raise an eyebrow.
"Tugged on it too hard. Looks like the string they used was weaker than paper. It completely fell apart, look," He shows me the string. It's completely buggered, the split fibrous lines extending all the way up the string.
"Well, I guess that's what we get for using the weapons of a bandit…" I sigh. "El! How far are we from Remire?" I ask my sister.
She frowns.
"Another five minutes, I think?"
I curse internally. Five minutes was a long time, especially being chased by a hundred bandits. Thankfully, however, there was a forest right beside us. Even better was the fact that the forest is a shortcut to Remire.
"This way!" I yell, pivoting towards the forest. Another arrow whistles by my head, mere centimetres away from my head.
Edelgard and Dimitri follow my lead, while Claude lags behind. The forest is quite dense, with trees growing in a way that would distract and disorient any large group trying to traverse it. Thankfully, we aren't too large of a group, and the four of us manage to get through the forest quite quickly.
We dash through the woods, the sound of our own breathing chasing us through the dark forest. Somewhere during the run, Edelgard grips my hand with her own. I am vaguely aware of Dimitri and Claude beside us, the former deathly quiet and the latter complaining about his muscles. Edelgard silences him with a very descriptive recounting of his inability to use a bow.
I stay silent the entire time, too busy running to pay attention to much else.
Finally, torchlight can be seen through the woods. I urge my legs to quicken, despite the sweat trickling down my thighs. Summoning reserves of energy from gods know where I manage to burst through the thicket without collapsing.
Right in front of us is the familiar figure of Jeralt and Byleth, the former with an extremely confused expression and the latter with his usual blank stare.
So this version of Byleth is male, huh? That seems…appropriate, I suppose.
"Woah there, fellas. What's the rush?" Jeralt's eyes widen as we nearly stumble into him.
I take a deep breath, readying my body for a response, but Dimitri beats me to the punch. Not surprising. Dimitri had the stamina to match a bear.
"Please forgive our intrusion. We wouldn't bother you were the situation not dire," Dimitri says, formal as always.
Jeralt raises an eyebrow. Is that just a thing with people who have the crest of Seiros? I do it, Edelgard does it, and so does Jeralt apparently. I'm going to cry if Rhea does it as well.
"What exactly do children like you need at this hour? It's barely morning," Jeralt frowns.
"Bandits… behind… attacked us… help?" I try to say something, though my panting makes it hard for me to speak coherent sentences.
"What my brother is trying to say is that we are students of Garreg Mach's officer academy, and we would like your assistance in fighting off some bandits that attacked us," Edelgard fills in the blanks in my admittedly lacking statement.
Jeralt takes one look at me and his face of confusion morphs into a face of concern.
"You got hit by an arrow?"
What?
"I'm sorry Je-Sir, I don't feel anything. I'm sure I'm fine," I manage to regain my breathing. Then I blink, realizing that something felt off about my lower leg.
It felt stiff as if something was inside it. I take a look at the back of my leg and I'm greeted by the wooden shaft of an arrow. This is when I realize that the sweat from earlier wasn't sweat but rather blood. And I've lost a good portion of it.
"Holy shit! Heinrich, how are you not in pain right?" Claude winces. He must have seen it too.
Edelgard turns and grips my shoulder.
"Henry, are you alright?" She asks in a gentle voice. I wince a bit.
It doesn't hurt. At all. I can feel the arrowhead in my muscles, tearing them up, but I honestly can't feel any pain. Though, I can slowly start to feel something as the adrenaline slowly gets broken down out of my system.
"Yeah, I'm good. Just get the arrow out and I can heal myself," I nod. I hiss as Edelgard yanks the arrow out, a small amount of pain shooting up from my leg. I prepare another spell, and the same warmth spreads down my arm once again. The wound gets warm and I can feel the muscles and skill stitching themselves back together.
I sigh.
"I was going to ask where the bandits were, but considering everything, I think I'll believe you. Get some rest, kid," Jeralt puts a hand on my shoulder. "You'll need it."
I shake him off.
"I'm fine. It's not too much blood. Plus, my sister can always carry me off the battlefield if I can't get off of it,"
Jeralt sighs.
"She might have to carry off a body,"
"That's fine with me too. Let me fight, I can help,"
I fold my arms, staring at Jeralt. I refuse to miss out on the first battle of the game, especially since this is the defining moment of the game. If I don't make a good impression here, then Byleth will choose another house, and I don't think I can plan around that.
Jeralt looks at me.
"Look, you've lost a lot of-"
Jeralt is interrupted by Byleth coughing into his fist.
"Bandits," He says simply, pointing out towards the forest and the watchtower in the distance.
Jeralt sighs and shakes his head.
"Fine, son. If you want to fight, then fight. Just…listen to By, alright? Actually, all of you, listen to Byleth here. I'll go get everyone else…" Jeralt runs off.
I blink at the blonde man. Seriously?
"Um… I suppose you're Byleth?" Edelgard stares at the blue-haired man. He nods.
"What weapons can you guys use?" He asks, turning towards us.
"Ax, polearm, bow, magic," I point to Edelgard, Dimitri, Claude, and myself in that order. "Though his bow is broken."
Byleth blinks and runs off.
"Huh…So, what do we do now? Our chaperone just ran off," Claude stares dumbfounded at the blue-haired man's back as he enters a house.
"He's probably trying to find you a weapon," I fold my arms. "You just had to break the bow we gave you, Claude."
"Hey! That bow was utter crap!" Claude responds.
"Heinrich, Claude, I don't think this is the time to argue. We need to have a plan. You two are the best at making them, so do you have any ideas?" Dimitri sighs and claps his hands, getting our attention. Huh, I don't remember Dimitri being this composed back in game.
Still, it's been so long since I've played three houses. My memory probably isn't the best. But, what I do remember is that Byleth is supposed to join the monastery after this battle. It would probably be for the best if we stuck with him.
"I think we should wait for him to get back. Byleth, wasn't it?" I nod to myself. "It would best to find allies here. I doubt the Knights of Seiros will get here in time to help."
Claude nods.
"I agree with Heinrich. He's the only one who can fight with a weapon he's used to, and he just got hit in the leg with an arrow. Trying to fight back the bandits by ourselves would be glorified suicide,"
Dimitri slowly nods as the sound of boots on the ground alerts us to Byleth's appearance. This time, he is holding an iron sword, a lance, and a bow with a quiver of around three dozen arrows. He tosses the latter items to Claude, the lance to Dimitri, and hands me the iron sword.
The sword feels familiar in my hands. Heinrich had trained with swords, and I trained in the art of fencing. Still, this doesn't feel appropriate.
"Sir, I don't use a sword…" I try to give the sword back to Byleth, who frowns and shoves it back at me, hilt first, of course.
"You do," He says this as a statement as if he could see through my two souls and reach for my memories.
"I'm sorry, Sir, but I don't," I shake my head. "Not anymore."
Byleth gives me a look of confusion, before taking the sword for himself. He then turns to Dimitri and Edelgard.
"You guys ready?"
They nod.
"Right. Yellow-cape, cover Red-cape. Blue-cape, stay to their left. Magic man, with me,"
Magic man? Oh, how ironic. Still, why did Byleth want me with him? I won't complain, but it still feels weird.
We run out towards the bandits. There is a small wooden palisade between them and us, and the memories of the game have started to filter through. This is the tutorial battle, isn't it?
"Red-cape move over there and hold position," I was about to shout that that would be suicide when I realize that the bandits were coming at us piecemeal. Did going through the forest split them up that much? Did they not slow down to let their heavier units catch up? Did they really charge us? Seriously? How dumb are they?
"Blue-cape, go to the right. We can pincer them. Yellow cape, how many arrows do you have?" Byleth keeps giving out orders.
"I have around thirty. Why?"
"Hold on that hill. It'll be easier for us to hold them down if you're there,"
Claude nods and moves out. Edelgard and Dimitri have already moved into position while Byleth and I moved up.
By the time the bandits arrive, we've caught them in an ambush.
They come into the clearing and immediately see me. They scream something incoherent at me. Something about being a bastard and getting revenge, or maybe threats against my family-slash-siblings-slash-loved ones? I don't know, I'm not a bandit and I can't hear them.
"Ready?" Byleth asks me.
"To what?" I ask back, confused.
"To cast a spell," The man informs me, staring at me pointedly. If he could, I think Byleth would be rolling his eyes at me.
"What do you need me to cast?"
"Anything. A fire, a thunder, anything to pull their attention away from Red-cape and Blue-cape,"
"They have names, you know…" I mutter under my breath. "One of them is my sister…"
"They do?" Byleth stares at me with confused eyes. "Father always told me that people who don't name themselves usually don't want their names to be known and that you shouldn't pry. You guys haven't introduced yourselves yet, so I assumed you don't want your names to be known. I took the liberty of giving you four names."
I sigh internally and curse Sothis. Seriously, what the hell? I knew Byleth wasn't the best at detecting social cues, but this is just ridiculous. Still, the blank-yet-confused face he's making right now makes me want to tease him a little bit. It can't hurt, right?
"Is that the most thing you've spoken to anyone other than your father?" I can't help but let a little chuckle into my words. I've always liked making teasing jokes, and it's seemed to help smooth my relationships. I'm hoping that it'll help me get closer to Byleth. I need him to choose the Black Eagles.
My words seem to have the intended effect.
Byleth looks at me with what I assume is a look of surprise and just a tiny pout.
"...how'd you know?" Byleth responds, despondant.
…Holy shit? It was supposed to be a joke, but I didn't expect it to actually be true. This…might be a problem, especially with what's coming.
Oh well, I guess I'll just run with it.
"You don't seem to be the talkative type. I'll introduce you to the other three later. I'm Heinrich, by the way. What's your name?" I shrug.
Byleth nods.
"Byleth," Was his single-word answer.
I sigh. Of course, it is.
"What spell are you going to cast?" He asks after a couple of seconds.
I…actually don't know. I don't think that I'll cast Blossom again. I don't want any thorns or branches stuck where I can't see, thank you very much. The backblast is already bad enough on flat ground, I don't need to be casting it in a bush.
I have managed to learn some other spells, thankfully. Unfortunately, the vast majority are not Fodlani spells. I've got Fire, Thunder, Wind, and Thoron from Fodlan, but that's about it. Honestly, spells from older games such as Awakening and Genealogy of the Holy War come easier to me. My fault for playing them more, I suppose.
I've gotten Elfire and Elthunder down pat, though, even without the spellbooks. I'm getting closer and closer to Arcthunder and Arcflame, and those will be fun when put into practice.
Still, I'm kinda bummed out that Thoron doesn't have the same kick that it has in, well, other worlds, I presume? Still, dunno if Fodlan is a part of the wider Fire Emblem universe or not. The jury's still out on that one. Back to the topic of Thoron.
Thoron use to be able to just chunk a massive portion of damage from enemies. Like seriously, Thoron in Awakening had a might of 14 compared to Three houses' lousy 9. Then again, it has a requirement of B in tomes to cast, and I don't think I've gotten there just yet. Fodlan's lousy Thoron will have to do for now. I won't be blowing massive holes in armoured units just yet…
"Probably an Elfire…" I mutter to myself.
Byleth nods.
"Fire would be a good option," Byleth concurs. "We can blow a hole in their lines and disorient them at the same time."
I nod at his explanation that I don't really need.
"You'd make a good teacher, I reckon," I chuckle a little bit.
He scowls. Yikes, that bad?
"Just cast the spell…" He shakes his head. "You're really talkative, you know?"
I shrug.
"As you wish, Sir. One Elfire coming right up,"
I feel my magic linking to my tome and I flip towards the back where the fun spells are kept. A magic circle appears in front of my arms as I connect with the formula that Elfire uses.
A massive surge of flame shoots out from my palm after I brace myself. Thankfully, it doesn't light the bush we're in on fire.
Thank the gods for that.
What it does do, however, is blow a not inconsiderable hole in our enemies and thoroughly diverted their attention over to us.
"Is that what you wanted me to do?" I ask the blue-haired man with a small smirk on my face.
"Yes…" Byleth nods. "Can you fight in melee?"
I deflate. The objective truth? Yes. The subjective one? Not at fucking all.
"No," I decide. There's no point in telling him that I have experience in martial arts, especially since he already knows I can use a sword.
It'll be really funny if Byleth becomes my professor and has me word on brawling. Oh, gods, how will that even work?
"Fine then… Stay here and keep casting," Byleth sighs at me and rushes out.
Shrugging, I connect to the Thunder spell at the front of the book. I see a bandit stumble and lose his footing on a loose rock. Perfect.
I send a bolt of yellow-white lightning leaping at him. He screams and falls down, the electricity shutting off his nervous system and the heat causing at least 2nd-degree burns. He's not going to get up again, is he?
It is at this point that I notice that Claude had started firing away and Edelgard and Dimitri were both rushing from the flanks and attacking.
Huh. Am I going deaf? Seriously, how did I not notice the battle had already happened?
Though, it's going well. I stalled the group with Elfire and the thunders that I've been casting intermittently have not only kept them on their toes but picked off some stragglers that didn't pay enough attention to me.
Really, they were in a bad place. Stay still for too long and they'll get picked off my thunder or Claude's arrows. If you want to move, you have the woods to your rear, Dimitri to your left, Edelgard to your right, and Byleth to your front. Not the best position, to be sure. Doubly bad since grouping up means an Elfire dropped on top of you and your buddies.
I got distracted by the hum of battle and didn't notice that big bad Kostas had showed up. Thankfully, he announced his entrance.
"Which one of you maggots had the gall to burn ten of my men to a crisp?" He roars as he charges us.
Seriously? I only got ten? I must have miscalculated how much heat the ground can soak up. Back to the blackboard, then…
Ugh, I'm talking about killing people as if it's a sport. What's wrong with me?
Hmmm, but if Kostas is showing up, that means that the Knights are almost here, right? Oh, and that is about to happen.
I keep an eye out for my little sister as Kostas takes the field. As expected, Byleth charges Ko-
"Graaah!" Dimitri yells out as a wild swing from a random bandit manages to cut him on the shoulder.
Fuck.
Before I realize what I'm doing, I've already sent a bolt of lightning through the bandit's heart and started to rush towards where Dimitri is.
"Dimitri! You alright?" I start running as hard as my bookworm legs can carry me, but then I feel a small tugging on my soul. Suddenly, I feel my body jerk in place. Something feels wrong in my soul as time seems to slow down and stop. I can see a drop of blood dripping from Dimitri's lance fall still in mid-air.
Oh. That is happening, isn't it?
I can't turn my head or move my eyeballs, but from the corner of my vision, I can see that Kostas is right in front of Byleth and Edelgard, axe inches away from making contact with Byleth.
If I could, I would have chuckled. I'm not sure what made me able to feel when Divine Pulse is used, but whatever it is, it can wait until later. I need to figure out what to do when time resumes. I just hope my thunder is still on target.
Ah, who am I kidding? That's not what I'm thinking about at all. I am imagining the look on Edelgard's face after Byleth succeeds. If I remember correctly, she was already quite impressed with the man in canon, and without the same torture that she endured in canon and more emotional stability, I believe that she'll show much more emotion.
Am I a bad brother if tease her about her crush? Benjamin didn't call me a terrible brother when I teased him about his crush-turned-girlfriend-turned-wife.
It'll be fine, right?
After some time, I can feel my body being forced backwards through time. Thankfully, Sothis didn't rewind as much as I thought she would, and she restarts time at the end of my sentence. Well, let's get a healing spell in my hands in the meantime.
"-alright?" I finish yelling out as I reach Dimitri's side. The heal spell immediately seeks out Dimitri's wound, knitting his shoulder back together. Thankfully, it doesn't seem to be too life-threatening. I manage to stop the bleeding, but the wound is still exposed. Damn, my healing needs to get better.
"Y-yeah…" Dimitri huffs, eyeing the dead man on the ground. "Thanks, Heinrich."
I give him a smile.
"No thanks needed. I know you would do the same for me," I scan the battlefield, just in case someone wanted to try and take us out while we're here, exposed.
Thankfully, I didn't need to keep an eye out for long.
"The Knights of Seiros are here! You'll molest our students no longer!" A voice suddenly called out.
Ah… Alois. Never change.
AN: Hello There, Acardia Here! This is still the same chapter that I posted on AO3, no bells or whistles here. Enjoy, I suppose.
