"So this is my room, huh?" I whistle slightly as I take in my abode for the next year.

It's…quite large, actually. As someone who's used to living in a medium-sized apartment in the middle of Aachen, even the commoner's room is larger than what I'm used to living in. Sure, my room back in Enbarr is absolutely massive, but I barely used the entire room. Half of it was my laboratory for the gods' sake!

"I know it's a bit small, brother," Edelgard sighs. "There's not anything bigger, unfortunately. The church only makes rooms of this size."

"Hmmm?" Oh, Edelgard interpreted that in the wrong way, didn't she? "I'm fine with it."

"Really? It seems like-"

"Seriously, Edelgard," I half sigh, half chuckle. "It's large enough. I was expecting something much smaller. I didn't pack much in the first place."

I gesture towards the three small boxes behind me.

"That's everything I brought with me,"

Edelgard blinks at me in surprise.

"That's it?" Her face is one of pure shock. "That's everything you brought? Hubert brought more clothes than everything you brought in total!"

I shrug.

"Most of that is clothing. There really isn't anything else that I need to bring that I can't buy here," I explain.

"What about weapons?" Edelgard looks at me with a look that is growing more and more concerned by the second.

"I'm a mage, remember?" I feel a magical link with my tome snap into place as I produce a little flame on my fingertip. "Don't need much bulky armour or weapons."

Edelgard sighs.

"Still… You must be missing so many things! Did you bring toiletries? Towels? Mementoes?"

"Toothbrush and toothpaste, not much else I need to bring there," I grab a small pouch out of my coat pocket. "I make my own toothpaste anyhow. Not much need for an extra stockpile. I have three towels in the second box. I have a small sketch of all our friends from the Kingdom in my journal, that's all I really need."

"R-Really? Brother, nothing's wrong, right? I heard Ferdinand brought an entire set of furniture, and yet you're basically bringing nothing,"

"El," I sigh. "Do you think I'm the type of person to bring over an entire set of furniture for a single year? I'm not moving house, I'm coming here for school."

"That's…true," Edelgard sighs. "It's just that…well, it feels weird that you agreed to this. I do not believe that Hubert or Father didn't have a hand in this. If not them two, then the Slitherers must have pushed you to this."

"El?"

"I-Yes?"

"We're in the middle of the holiest place in Fodlan. Please do not talk about them?"

"Why? Nobody is going to hear?"

"If Hubert managed to escape your detection, I daresay it would be rather simple to sneak into this conversation," I grab a small coin from within my coat as Edelgard's eyes widen in surprise. Not sure where I got it from, but it's being used here and now. Turning towards a suspiciously dark corner of the room, I throw the coin like a dart. "Get out of the shadows, you magnificent bastard."

"Glad to see that you finally followed my suggestions, Lord Heinrich," Hubert materialises from the shadow and catches the coin in mid-air effortlessly while still staring straight at me. Edelgard actually yelps when Hubert appears. Huh, she must not be as used to Hubert doing this as she was in canon.

"It was necessity rather than compulsion, Hubert," I shake my head. I am not letting him win this one. "I can't just stay put in Enbarr when their plans are being put in motion, can I? I'm their loyal thrall, after all."

"Then the plan is a go?" Hubert's face lights up.

"You better have already checked the room," I groan. Does nobody know operation security here?

"Already done, My Lord," Hubert bows. My eye twitches. Seriously, how many times have I told him to stop doing that?

"Hubert, cut it out. We are both students here, there is no point in differentiating our ranks," I shake my head.

"I must insist, My Lord," Hubert shakes his head. "I am required by my station to be beneath you."

"Hubert, there is-"

"Brother, I don't think you can get through to him," Edelgard snorts as she goes to grab one of my boxes. "I've been trying to get him to stop calling me 'Lady Edelgard' for the past four weeks. I swear, he hasn't changed since he was eight."

"I see…" I sigh. I refuse to give up on Hubert though. I hate it when people are stiff to me and- Oh, shit on a stick, that's fragile lab equipment!

"Edelgard, wait!" I rush over to her and put my hand on her shoulder.

"Huh? What do you need, brother?" She turns around and blinks at me, hand inches away from the heavy-yet-delicate box.

"Lemme get this one," I grunt as I reach down and pick up the not-inconsiderably heavy crate. "It's important that nothing in here gets damaged."

I swear, if my beakers break, I'm going to cry. It's taken me so much time to make those things and make sure that the measurements are correct…

"A-Alright then? There's nothing important here, right?" Edelgard grabs the second box and lifts it with ease. Ah, that'll be my clothes.

"I don't think so. Unless I packed my stuff wrong, that'll be my clothes," I respond. I open the box that contains all of the fragile materials that I painstakingly wrapped back home in Enbarr to check on them.

Removing all of the wool and padding I used to absorb impacts reveals a clean get of crystal glass beakers, test tubs, piping, and distillers.

Ironically enough, getting the materials for high-quality crystal glass was harder than making everything. Magic makes the casting and cooling processes amazingly easy while trying to get enough boron trioxide to make borosilicate glass was a mighty pain in the ass. Hubert had to make so many trips to Barony Barnabas to secure enough Boron that I wouldn't be surprised if Hubert was already in a relationship with the Baron's daughter.

I don't know if he resents me for it. If he does, he's doing an amazing job at keeping me in the dark about it, and I'm specifically looking for signs that Hubert is unhappy with me.

Hey, he's the one in charge of keeping me alive! I don't want to make him mad!

"What are those?" Edelgard raises an eyebrow as she peaks over my shoulder to take a look at the 500ml beaks that I'm taking out of the box. She's a full 30 centimetres shorter than I am, though, so it's comical seeing her standing on the tips of her toes trying to look over my shoulders.

"These are beakers. It's for storing things that would burn through normal containers. Plus, they're measured so I know exactly how much liquid is in them," I respond. Under all the glassware is my finely tuned scale.

Trying to weigh things is also a massive pain. Where are NIST's standards when you need them? I need to know the exact composition of the metal weights I'm using so I don't accidentally blow up the entire monastery trying to make nitroglycerin without proper equipment!

That's why I made this scale that uses pure gold as its weights. Why gold? Because it's easy to remove impurities from it by inquarting and it doesn't change in mass easily. Also, it's dense so I can store more. At least, that's for the heavy stuff. The smallest gold weight I have is 10 grams.

For things less than 10 grams, I had to use cork. Could I have chosen something else? Of course, I could. But at this point, I don't use the small measurements much anyhow, and I'd rather save some money and just recalibrate the weights every time I use it.

"Heinrich? How much did that cost?" Edelgard's eyes bulge as she sees the weights that I'm taking out. "If that's pure gold, that cannot have been cheap."

"It wasn't," I agree. "Cost me around sixty thousand Gees to get everything. Well, it would have cost me that much if I didn't buy it with favours rather than hard coin."

"W—Henry, what did you do?" Edelgard is now looking at me with a slightly panicked expression. "We haven't promised to do something we can't, right?"

"It was Baron Ochs repaying the favour he owed me for pushing through a pardon for House Nuevelle! It was a repayment, we don't owe anything!" I hold my hands up in surrender as Edelgard glares at me intensely.

"Is that true, Hubert?" My sister suddenly wheels on our butler-slash-go-to-righthand-man.

"El! You don't trust me?" I put my hand over my heart, feigning being hurt. I know that she's doing this out of concern and that this isn't distrust, but it's fun to mess with her. "I'm hurt, you know? You don't trust your big brother Henry?"

"I—uuugh! You're impossible!" She groans.

Hubert lets out a soft chuckle at our antics. I can't help it either and snicker.

"Wait a moment…" Edelgard's eyes narrow. "Was that a joke? At my expense again?"

"It was indeed, Lady Edelgard," Hubert has a slight smile on his lips, a rarity for the dark and brooding man. "Though your brother is speaking the truth, if that puts your worries to rest. I made sure that Lord Heinrich does not manage to trap himself in the net of a noble."

Edelgard snickers.

"That must be hard work, Hubert," She glares at me mischievously with her brown eyes. "Brother is not good at handling the stresses of noble life. He's more suited to the life of a bureaucrat."

"I resent this…" I mutter as Hubert and Edelgard start to giggle, the latter quickly breaking into full laughter moments after she hears my words.

"Unfortunately, Lord Heinrich, your sister is correct in her assessment. I do believe that you are a bit too truthful in your words," Hubert says with a smile.

"Why are you taking her side, Hubert?" I frown. "Am I not your liege?"

"It is the job of the vassal to assist the liege, is it not? I am simply assisting you in telling the truth," Hubert makes another infuriating bow.

"Ha ha," I roll my eyes. "Get out, I'm going to unpack my stuff."

I did not remember younger siblings being this annoying. Ugh. I'm already regretting my decision to come here.


"…and that's Dorothea Arnault. You remember the Mittlefrank Opera Company that you and Lucas used to watch all the time? Yeah, she was once one of their singers. I don't remember you being too interested in her, but apparently, Lucas had a pretty bad crush on her," Edelgard finishes up introducing (rather, re-introducing me. And in the cases of Linhardt and Petra, re-re-introducing since I've met them again before coming to the Monastery.) the members of the Black Eagles House to me.

I'm barely paying attention as I probably know more about these people than they know about themselves, but I still nod in response to her personalised description of the fearsome swordswoman-mage-actor.

"She's…alright, I suppose. Her belt is a bit loose if you understand what that means," She comments.

"Cough, hack. Excuse me, Edelgard?" A piece of boar meat gets lodged in my throat as I inhale quickly in response to her joke. Edelgard making a dirty joke? Who is this woman and what did she do to my sister? "Could you elaborate more on what you just said?"

She shoots me a sly smile.

"What? You surprised?" She takes another bite of her Saghert and Cream. "I can make dirty jokes too. Wilhelm use to do it all the time. He must have rubbed off on me a bit too much."

"That's not something to be proud of, El," I snort as I recall our elder brother. Heinrich's soul is laughing at me for some reason, for what I'm not sure.

"As I recall," She swirls her spoon in the air. "You were the one who used to follow him around like a duckling follows its mother."

I choke on my Beast Meat Teppanyaki again. That'll be why Heinrich is laughing so godsdamn loudly. Hey! It's your fault, you know? I didn't choose to follow that asshole around when I was a kid!

"If we want to go back that far, you've done far more embarrassing things than take the wrong role model," I retort back. "Remember in Faergus—mmmmph!"

"Shhhh!" Edelgard suddenly clamps her hand over my mouth. "I thought we agreed to never talk about that again."

No, you decided that, I never agreed. Of course, I can't physically say that, but I hope the pointed look I'm giving her is able to transfer my message well enough.

She gives me a resigned shrug and lets my mouth go.

"You could have done me the courtesy of not mentioning that incident ever again," Edelgard sighs. "It was embarrassing five years ago, and it's not something that I want everyone here to know about…"

"What's something that you don't us to know, Edie?" The brown-haired opera singer my sister was discussing moments earlier cuts into our conversation as she slides into the seat in front of me. "And who's this? A friend? Or perhaps…someone more… intimately acquainted with you?"

"You could say that," I shrug as I sip more tea. I must say, I am missing Yorkshire tea.

I've always had a soft spot for black teas in general, especially ones with a good blend of sweetness and the bitterness of tea leaves, so this cup of Chamomile is not hitting the spot as well as I would like. It's a bit too sweet, something that Lysithea would enjoy more than I would. I didn't even put any sugar in it!

"Oho? Edie—"

"Brother! He's my brother, Dorothea! Get your mind out of the gutter!" My sister cries out as a slight flush appears on her cheeks, probably due to anger. "Seriously! Why do you immediately go there? And you!"

She turns her head around to stare at me with an angry expression.

"Stop encouraging her! It's really annoying having to deal with…this!" She gestures at the well-endowed commoner.

"B—Brother? Hold on, then you're—"

"Kronprinz Heinrich von Hresvelg, at your service," I sigh. "Just call me Heinrich, please. I got ambushed by Gloucester before lunch and I am still thoroughly not enjoying that conversation…"

I swear to the gods above, I was a hair's width away from smacking the man. Fucking asshole…

"A—Ah? I see…" Dorothea nods. "He is a bit of a—"

"Arrogant asshat who was never taught what personal boundaries and hobbies are?" I supply.

"Well, I was going to say tough to deal with, but I suppose that is also a good way to put it," Dorothea nods. "I must say, I wasn't expecting you to, and pardon the word choice here, diss the nobility so much. That has taken me by surprise."

"Dorothea, my brother is the least noble-like noble out there," Edelgard snorts. "Don't expect Ferdinand's holier-than-thou spiel from him."

"Is the younger von Aegir really that bad?" I raise an eyebrow. He wasn't like that in canon, at least to the point I can remember.

"Oh please," Dorothea huffs. "Your excellency—"

"Heinrich," I interrupt, causing Dorothea to blink at me. "Please don't call me Your Excellency, Hubert already calls me 'Lord Heinrich' and it's already getting on my nerves. I'll go insane if you call me that."

"Oh. Alright then," Dorothea then giggles. "I hope you don't mind, Heinie."

"You know what?" I take another sip of my Chamomile tea. "I'll take it. It's better than Your Excellency."

"So, Heinie, Ferdie, that is, Ferdinand von Aegir, as he loves to remind us all, seems to take your entire existence a bit hard," Dorothea continues. "He's always comparing himself to the scion of House Hresvelg and proclaiming that he will one day supersede you. It's getting annoying if I'm being honest."

My sister nods vigorously in agreement, her brown ponytail bobbing up and down as she does so.

"The worst part is," Edelgard huffs. "He's decided to take it out on me! Do you think your brother could have done that? I am sure that I can defeat your brother with that! Do not fear, I am better than your brother at this! What do I have to do with any of this!"

She folds her arms across her chest and sighs.

A small smile appears on my face. It's…nice seeing Edelgard act like a normal girl sometimes, able to get annoyed by Ferdinand's antics. Canon Edelgard was too weighed down by her duties that she forgot how to just be a normal person. With Heinrich and I taking up that duty, she is able to let her hair down. Not really, though, since she still likes her ponytails.

That smile is quickly replaced with a frown as I realise that I have just involuntarily volunteered to deal with this version of Ferdinand. Shit.

"Well, at least you have the culprit here now," Dorothea giggles at Edelgard's rant.

"For the record, I do not look forward to dealing with Mister von Aegir in any sense of the word," I reply dryly. "Oh, yeah, El, am I going to become House Leader or are you keeping that role?"

"El…?" Dorothea raises one of her eyebrows in a curious expression.

"A family nickname, just like how I call him Henry," Edelgard snaps back. "You're not allowed to call either of us by those two names. And yeah, you're going to be House Leader. I managed to nab your uniform from Seteth and it has the cape."

I groan. I expected this, but that doesn't mean I have to like it.

"So, Heinie, who else do you know?"

"I know a lot of people," I respond dryly, taking another sip of tea. How is this herbal tea this damn sweet? I don't understand! "Asking me to list every single person I've ever met would take much longer than the lunch break we have; I do not want to miss the first class of the semester."

"Oh, you know what I mean," Dorothea huffs. "You won't be doing any favours with the ladies if you play dumb, you know?"

"I do know that—"

"My brother just likes being difficult for the sake of it," Edelgard nods to herself as if she just realised something profound about the universe.

"Says the one who still sleeps with a teddy bear," I retort back. The effect is immediate and not… entirely beneficial to me.

Edelgard's face lights up with a festival of red as she sputters, trying to think of a response and utterly failing. She does, however, decide that a physical response is also merited, and slaps my cheek. Hard. Really fucking hard.

"Ghaaah! Was that really necessary?" I roar as a tiny pulse of pain announces my sister's vengeance. My brown-haired little sister makes a pouting face and humphs while Dorothea giggles get louder and louder.

"We both know that didn't hurt at all," Edelgard frowns at me.

"Yeah, but what if it did?" I sigh, rubbing my right cheek. Damn, that was a really hard slap.

"That would mean something is wrong with your body, brother, and I haven't seen you get sick a single time thanks to your crest…" Edelgard sighs.

"You two are really cute together, you know?" Dorothea continues to giggle. "Makes the Imperial family seem like a normal family, you know?"

"As if," I roll my eyes. "I've been convinced that my sister here is actually a gremlin who stole my actual sister's body. It would explain a lot of things."

"And you're as horrendously brutish and delicate as always," Edelgard snorts.

"Ignoring my sister's uninformed comments," I give Edelgard a pointed look that she ignores. "To answer your question, Dorothea, I know my sister, Hubert, Linhardt, and Petra from my class."

"Ironically enough, we know more members of the current Blue Lion's class from our time living in Faergus," Edelgard finished my statement with a shrug, inhaling more of that bowl of sweetness that disguises itself as Saghert and Cream with a spoon. Seriously, how can she eat that much? It's so sweet! Actually, a better question is why is she eating a dessert for lunch?

"Yup. Dimitri and I were friends, Ingrid and Felix used to come to our house with the Late Glenn, I managed to prevent Sylvain from hitting on El, you know, the normal stuff," I nod.

"Huh…I didn't know that…" Dorothea frowns. "I always expected the Imperial family to be more…Adrestian?"

"That would be Wulfric and Adalbert," I mention the names of my eldest brothers. "They were actually groomed to be the Emperor. We were just spares that managed to strike it lucky. Or in my case, extremely unlucky."

"You're the heir to the Empire, Heinie," Dorothea tuts. "That's quite lucky."

"For you, maybe, but I never asked for this role, did I?" I sigh bitterly. "Honestly, I wanted nothing more than to laze around working on projects that I love to pursue. However, since all of my half-siblings were brutally murdered or otherwise incapacitated…I have to step up…"

Heinrich nods in my head. He didn't want any part in this whole fiasco either.

"Wow…A Linhardt who manages to not be lazy? I'm not sure if I should be worried or relieved," Dorothea giggles. Even Edelgard had a small smile on her face at the jab.

However, I was not smiling or giggling. I had my mouth open

…Did she just compare me to Linhardt? Linhardt von Herving? The dude who slept 16 hours a day? That Linhardt? This is an outrage!

"I am nothing like Linhardt, though," I sigh. "El can back me up on this."

"Five years ago, perhaps you had a lot in common with him…"

"Hey!"

"…But now, you are nothing like him," Edelgard nods. "You certainly have accomplished much more than he has."

"Thank you," I grin. "Finally, you are seeing the true worth of your brother!"

Edelgard smirks dangerously. I…don't like that, but I ignore it for now. Why?

Because the bell just rang, which means I have to deal with a new set of problems. Firstly, what am I going to do with this Teppanyaki that I haven't finished?


AN: Hello There! Acardia here! It's been a hot minute, hasn't it? Sorry to keep everyone waiting (All 40 of you), but here's the next chapter. I've been focusing on WCLS for now, and with CNY literally next week, I haven't gotten much time to write this fic. Expected limited updates from now on. (Not that you didn't. Probably.)

Acardia out!