Chapter 7: Familiar Faces

While the journey towards Remire was going on, I spent my time reviewing things to see if I'd missed something in either my plans, in my studies or in personal matters. It was good that I'd started doing that. It took me a day or two to figure out, but I had actually missed something very important about the Tower Arcana: There were two traits that weren't bad at all. Amidst all the negativity, ruin and upheaval, there were also indigence and higher learning. The latter was fairly obvious in retrospect. Lysithea's obsession with knowledge was kind of a big hint there. As for indigence, well, that one actually came in handy with a spell modification to Nosferatu I had Byleth try out. As it turned out, if you channelled the indigence aspect of the Tower Arcana, the spell transferred vitality from an enemy to an ally instead of to the caster. The only one willing to actually serve as guinea pig had been Lars, incidentally. The others had been kind of hesitant in the face of Byleth's last adventure with the Crest of Charon.

In other news, I had been positively appalled to find out that Byleth didn't associate enthusiasm with me. Heresy! There were many things I was enthusiastic about. He had just never actually seen me be enthusiastic about anything. I simply preferred being a bit more… professional while teaching Byleth any new findings about magic, but I had taken it upon myself to rectify this slanderous assumption. The rather lively lecture on my favourite topics I'd given him had made his head spin for hours. There had been many instances of me geeking out over the topics of magic, mythology and astronomy here in his mindscape before, as would be in the future, but Sothis was usually the one who had to bear with it, though.

Speaking of Sothis, there was steady progress going on. Compared to when we'd started her treatments with Psyche's powers, she was now about ten centimetres taller than before and was generally undergoing a change in body structure. To my estimation, she now looked like a girl in her early-mid teens. Her memories were steadily returning to her as well, I'd noticed. They seemed to weigh heavily on her, but I didn't pry too much, considering my dislike for it when others did it to me. I did, however, make sure that she knew that I was there to listen, and gave her the occasional hug. Thankfully, going by the way she returned them, they were more appreciated than the botched first attempt on the night of my arrival.

This gave me more motivation delve into the depths of Thaumaturgy, both so we could deal with our enemies in a shorter amount of time than otherwise and to modify the Rite of Rising. While the latter was still in its early stages of planning, I had an outline for it. The former, however, was proceeding somewhat well. The spell I had been putting together was technically finished. We'd only have to test it.

The thing was easy to put together in principle. It was designed to dispel disguises. Since Dark Magic was based on the Qliphoth, as I had extrapolated from Hyperion's statement about Sothis being the bearer of this world's Ein Sof Aur, I had surmised that the Qliphoth Tagimron and Satoriel were the basis for the spell that let the Agarthans take on the appearance of the deceased. Tagimron was the Qlipha responsible for disguising and hiding the beauty of creation. In this case, that meant the natural appearance of a person. Satoriel was the Qlipha of concealment, making that which should be understandable hard or even impossible to understand. To counter this, I had based my spell on the Sephiroth Tiphareth and Binah. The Sephira Tiphareth encapsulated the concept of beauty within creation. By accessing this conceptual aspect of the world, the spell would dismantle the fabric of any kind of cosmetic substance or effect. Binah was the Sephira of understanding, making it possible to see through deception and gaze at the truth. For these reasons, I had decided to name that spell Reveal.

Generally, magic which used the ten spheres, also called Sephiroth, of the Tree of Life and the ten husks, or Qliphoth, of the Tree of Death was incredibly fascinating. Enriching creation and wearing it down were their metiers. These were the primordial powers that could make or break anything. To be able to grasp them was awe-inspiring. The fly in the ointment was of course that the vast majority of people in Fodlan who utilised Dark Magic were basically supernatural Nazis whose leaders were LARPing as Greek philosophers. The silver lining to that was that Lysithea, Hapi and Hubert, possibly even Edelgard and Jeritza would present a great opportunity to learn more about this field of magic in the near future.

Another branch of magic I was delving into right now was Alchemy. I had started to look into it because a fragment from the Elder had told me to look it up if I wanted to understand deification, apotheosis and Thaumaturgy properly. My first cursory overview had actually told me the secret behind the immortality of the Gods, which had only ever been overcome by the first Darkness of Zahras. In short, deification and apotheosis were the undergoing of the four basic processes of the Magnum Opus, the Great Work of Alchemy. The only real difference between deification and apotheosis, by the way, was that deification was initiated by an outside influence whereas apotheosis was initiated by oneself.

The first step was Nigredo, the stage of putrefaction, which I was currently undergoing. It was all about the decomposition of physical and spiritual matter. Seeing as my spiritual body was breaking down and becoming a glowing mass of blue, it was a rather straight-forward thing.

The second step was Albedo, the stage of purification during which the soul shed itself of impurities. That was not to say that it would result in a soul incapable of evil, considering that many Gods were, to put it politely, total assholes. No, impurities merely were what made a soul that of a mortal, one that had to shed its body after it had grown too old or had been severely damaged. By contrast, a purified soul could sustain its body indefinitely, provided it had enough power to do so.

The third step was Citrinitas, the stage of "transmutation of silver into gold" or of "exchange of moonlight for the sunlight within". This roughly meant that the soul stopped merely reflecting divine power and instead awakened to that spark it carried within itself. Right now, the powers I was using were not yet truly my own, but after this process, they most definitely would be. I'd also be producing divine power of my very own flavour, so to speak. It was this self-empowerment that fuelled a God's immortality.

The fourth and last step was Rubedo, the stage of reassembly of the self, which incorporated insights and knowledge into the new and improved being. That one could take years, but I was hoping it would be much faster in my case in light of how my deification was started and why. By the end of it, there would be a new form for the soul to manifest in. Whether that would come with an actual physical body for me was not quite clear, though.

The result of the whole thing was the Magnum Opus, otherwise known as the Philosopher's Stone or the Elixir of Life, the source of immortality. In other words, whoever underwent these processes successfully would be a God or Goddess. Of course, it was nearly impossible to do so without outside help, as evidenced by the absence of new Gods since the time the old ones had died.

What all of this meant in the end, was that Thaumaturgy was the applied art of Alchemy using the Sephiroth of the Tree of Life. Or rather, it ended up showing that the alchemical Magnum Opus was the inferior cousin of the Tree of Life, and Thaumaturgy reflected this, for Alchemy worked by de-instantiating and re-instantiating what was already there, while Thaumaturgy instantiated things directly from beyond the material realm for a limited time. In that sense, it was something like temporary creation, though that was not all it was, and the time limit was only really there because of the utterly absurd power requirements to create something permanently.

With this piece of information came the realisation that the universe itself was a Philosopher's Stone that was assembled in a somewhat different way to a regular one. Just like any such thing, it was immortal and, barring extremely unfortunate circumstances, indestructible. Every other Philosopher's Stone was nothing but an abbreviated and inferior imitation of the process of the universe's creation. Therefore, someone cognisant of that fact could use the pieces of the puzzle that made up creation itself and use them to bring new things into existence for a short amount of time. For example, it was impossible to reattach a severed hand. The thaumaturgic solution to that was simple. One only had to temporarily create the possibility for it to happen and then enforce that possibility, and boom: miracle.

Understanding these things was of paramount importance for my self-given task in this world. If I wanted to resurrect Sothis fully, I would have to make her go through the Tree of Life instead of the watered-down alchemical thing I was currently undergoing. I also knew that the Major Arcana had a role to play in the Sephirothic process since the Lesser Arcana already had a role in Alchemy and Thaumaturgy, as I had found out. Further exploration of this topic was going to be my primary focus during my free time, but right now, there were other things to do.

More specifically, there was a long overdue talk I would be having with Byleth in just a few moments. It was finally time to talk about the students of the Officers Academy for the year 1180, students Byleth would be teaching.

During the time I was waiting, a stray thought passed through my mind, though. "Wait a moment," I murmured to myself, "Arcana is a plural. The singular would be Arcanum." Well damn. That meant I'd get a death glare from Byleth because he'd have to go over all the notes that he'd written for Hanneman and correct them by hand. I wasn't looking forward to that conversation. How a man who could barely shift his facial expression was able to make such a threatening face was beyond me.

Speaking of the green-haired man, I could feel him entering his mindscape. As he approached me, he took a moment to stare. I didn't really blame him because I had turned far more nebulous since his last visit to his mindscape a few days ago, literally. Right now, I looked like a mass of blue fog shaped like a human.

"Are you going to fade away completely?" he asked.

It had taken me some time to understand Byleth's inflections, but by now I understood enough to know that he was joking.

"In a sense," I answered nevertheless. "I won't be visible or tangible for some time from a point onwards, but my grasp on my abilities will become more instinctual at the same time. It won't affect our performance in battle. Never mind that though. It's time to talk about the people at Garreg Mach."

I offered a seat to Byleth, who had at once become more attentive. Once he looked comfortable enough, I began talking again.

"As you know, we'll soon be in Remire village. I've told you and your father that it's imperative we get there before the 20th of the Great Tree Moon because it will be then and there that we get to start interfering with the greater matters of Fodlan.

Things will be set in motion once the 20th hits. I don't know if it's the night to the 20th or the night of the 20th, but during that time, a bandit attack will occur. It's part of a plan hatched by the Flame Emperor, an unwilling pawn of the Agarthans."

Byleth was paying rapt attention to my words. That was good. He needed to know these things and I was glad he understood that.

"The game was limited in some ways," I continued. "No medium of storytelling can ever capture everything, which means that what I'm telling you is incomplete information. This is important for what we're discussing right now because we'll encounter the House Leaders of this year's students of the Officers Academy and they show up in the first chapter of the game, but it is unclear whether other students are present as well. This part of the game didn't feature them, but I'm pretty sure they were there. After all, in a dialogue not much after the encounter, the leader of the bandits mentions that he was there to 'kill as many noble brats as possible.'"

The mercenary still had trouble believing this thing about the game, I noticed. However, it could be said that he understood the concept of video games. It wasn't far removed from a film, after all.

"Just treat me talking about the game as me having some sort of prophetic dream or something. It has only slightly more accuracy," I finally said. To myself, I noted that I sure as Hell wouldn't limit Byleth or any of the students to their canon spell lists.

He blinked. "If you put it like that…"

"Anyway," I continued, "Whatever the outcome of this, Kostas, who leads the bandits, is targeting the students of the Officers Academy. That means he's going to aim for as many high-profile ones as he can. Specifically, that means Prince Dimitri, next King of Faerghus, Claude, the next Sovereign Duke of Leicester, and Princess Edelgard, next Emperor of the Adrestian Empire."

On that note, the titles in Fodlan were a bit weird at times. A Duke leading a sovereign nation was ordinarily called an Archduke, Arch- being a syllable people in Fodlan understood, considering that the Church of Seiros, an independent political entity, was led by the Archbishop, yet Riegan carried the title of Sovereign Duke. Another weird thing was that the Adrestian Empire's ruler was called Emperor, regardless of sex. That was strange inasmuch as the naming convention I was familiar with called such an individual Empress. In contrast, a woman married to the Emperor would be Empress-Consort and, by extension, a man married to the Empress would be a Prince-Consort. Alas, this world had changed a lot since the 21st century and its naming conventions were partially lost.

Before my ruminations could take me even further, I refocussed on the conversation with Byleth. "What this means is that you need to prepare yourself for a few Divine Pulses. I also don't know the exact number of the attacking forces, but I'd wager it's less than fifty. They will be running from the small contingent of Knights of Seiros accompanying the students."

"There is more," remarked Byleth. Ah, his mind was sharp as ever.

"Yes, there is. However, it is something that is not sure, and if it happens, it needs to be experienced. If you know about it beforehand, the significance of the moment is lost," I elaborated.

"I do not quite understand," he said.

"You will if and when it happens," was my answer. "Now then, back to what I wanted to talk to you about before: the people at Garreg Mach. I'm going to give you general overview of the most important ones, but keep in mind what I told you: What I'm giving you is incomplete information. You will have to find out more about these people yourself. I urge you to do so since you'll most likely be a Professor at the Officers Academy. Our plans kind of depend on it."

I waited for his nod and then continued. "Alright then, first we have the staff. Most prominent amongst them is, of course, Rhea. She is the Archbishop, the current cover identity for Saint Seiros, and your grandmother. Kind of baffling with how young she looks. In terms of personality, I'd say she's outwardly calm, but it's easier to set her off than one would assume. From what I can gather, she's a rather melancholic person. She tries to be benevolent where she can, but her own issues often get in the way of rational problem solving. While she personally doesn't care whether people worship Sothis or not, she founded and maintains the Church to promote social stability and preserve peace as much as she can. Her hampering of technological development in Fodlan has its origins in these reasons as well. Her highest goal is to facilitate Sothis' return. She views her mother as the saviour of the Nabateans, who are her people, of Fodlan in general and, most importantly, herself. The trauma and grief that she has been carrying have been plaguing her for about twelve centuries now. If we are careful, she will be a great ally.

Then there are Seteth and Flayn, the cover identities for Saint Cichol and Saint Cethleann. Seteth is Rhea's chief advisor, who has only recently returned to her side after his comatose daughter Flayn finally woke up from her sleep. Because of the loss of her mother and because of that coma, Seteth is obsessed with Flayn's safety. In things where she is not involved, he is a calm, rational and balanced man. He is stern and will likely regard you with mistrust initially, but he is a man of good character and great wisdom. While he is not a professor, I think some of the students will be in need of his care."

I specifically thought of Bernadetta here. If one thing was universal in the fanbase of the game, then it was disgust for the poor girl's father. I would have to make a note to myself to get something going there. That man could never be allowed to have her in his clutches again.

Composing myself, I continued. "Professor Manuela is a learned woman in terms of medicine and used to be a songstress for the Mittelfrank Opera Company. She is a rather disorderly person and has relationship problems because of it despite her flirtatiousness. Her ability in a fight is perhaps not the best, but she's a good teacher from what I could gather, and her heart's in the right place.

Lastly, there's Professor Hanneman. He's a scholar at heart and a capable teacher of magic. He gave up his nobility for his passion of Crestology, the study of Crests. He sometimes gets a caught-up in his research and forgets things such as social norms because of it. A strong dislike for the inequality caused by how Crests are viewed was the initial reason for his fascination with the topic. He carries this dislike to this very day. I think he'll be a tremendous asset in the future. His knowledge and intelligence will be a great boon going forward.

I could talk about Gilbert, Shamir and Catherine, but there will be time for them later. The only other notable member of staff is Jeritza. He is the Death Knight and a subordinate of the Flame Emperor, but he is not greatly involved in any schemes beyond being the muscle."

I gave Byleth a few moments to process that information. After some time, he gestured for me to continue. "Alright, next on the list are the students. I'll leave most of them until you choose a house to teach, but I think you'll need to know about a few of them.

First, there's Dimitri, Crown Prince of Faerghus. He's very strong, but is sometimes not in control of his strength. Justice is his highest value, but lingering trauma from the Tragedy of Duscur, when many of his friends and family were slaughtered, have left him with a twisted streak in his personality. Valour and honour also rate highly on his list of priorities, but he is very much against people throwing their lives away in a hollow pursuit of both. Beside that, he is childhood friends with Ingrid, Sylvain and Felix, who are some of his classmates.

Then there's Edelgard, Crown Princess of the Adrestian Empire. She, too, values justice greatly. For reasons seated in the horrific trauma she has endured, she utterly loathes the inequal system of nobility of Fodlan for whom she blames the Crests, and the Church of Seiros. She operates on heavily falsified information, though. If you're wondering why, it's because she has been a pawn for the Agarthans, the source of her trauma, for almost half her life. She hates them with all her heart, but she is trapped, has been fed lies and half-truths by them and cannot act against them at this point. Instead, she has to act as their unwilling pawn, the Flame Emperor."

Byleth blinked. "What?"

I stared at him. "Byleth, Yuri is only 19 years old and he has been the premier crime lord of Fodlan for years now. He did that by himself. It is not out of the realm of possibility for a 17-year-old girl manipulated and 'sponsored' by an ancient organisation of genocidal maniacs to be a force to be reckoned with. That is especially true when you consider the calibre of those who are actually loyal to her more than to her manipulators. Jeritza is a very powerful foe on the battlefield and Hubert von Vestra, Edelgard's closest confidant, is an absolute nightmare to have as your enemy. However, all of them can also be excellent allies."

"That is disturbing," said Byleth.

"It is, yes, but it is the truth," I went on. "Anyway, back to Edelgard, her greatest flaw, if you want to call it that, is a combination of her misinformation and her nature as a hard-line consequentialist. You might have heard of the saying 'the ends justify the means', yes? She is fully cognisant of the fact that her plans will have her do a lot of very bad things, and she knows she'll hate herself for them, but she will not deviate from the path she has chosen unless she is convinced that there is a better alternative. It is our job to do just that.

Now then, next on the list of prominent people is Claude, grandson and heir of Duke Riegan. Unknown to all but very few, he is also Prince Khalid of Almyra, though he is rather low in the line of succession from what little I know. The only reason he is in Fodlan is because he wanted to see how people here are so he can make progress towards his ultimate goal. That is incredibly fortunate for Duke Riegan because all his other heirs died under suspicious circumstances. It was his luck, then, that the son of his exiled daughter came to Fodlan and could be made heir. Personality wise, Claude is very approachable, but maintains emotional distance out of caution. He's a schemer at heart and skilled in both diplomacy and strategy and tactics. His goal in life is to erase the divides between the peoples of the world, but he knows that being a goody-two-shoes doesn't always work. As a consequence, he has learned how to be very skilled at manipulation. Malice, however, is not something you could ascribe to him."

I took a moment to pause and collect my thoughts. Then, I spoke again. "Alright, since I've already covered Aelfric, Yuri and the Ashen Wolves a few days ago, it's time I told you about three or four students I'd like you to look out for.

One of them is Bernadetta von Varley, a student of the Black Eagle House. Her father has been abusing her physically and emotionally for most of her life and her mother is indifferent to it. As a result, she is extremely frightful and shy. I think it's best you interacted with her calmly and with patience. It would also help if you could get Seteth on her case. In the game, he seems like he could be a father figure she desperately needs.

Second on the list is Sylvain Gautier of the Blue Lions. That boy is seriously messed-up in the head, and I suspect it's because of a lack of male role models in his formative years. His father is a cold-hearted man and his disinherited brother is a prick and a bandit to boot. If you have the opportunity, you might be able to show him how to be better than the compulsive philanderer he is now.

Then we have Lysithea von Ordelia of the Golden Deer House. Her case is, just like Bernadetta's, of urgency. She is a victim of human experimentation by the Agarthans and if nothing is done, the two Crests she carries as a result of that experimentation will tear her body apart. She's barely got a decade left to live at this point. She's one of the reasons why we need Hanneman. His expertise in Crestology might help us solve that problem before it's too late. Oh, and more disturbingly, her fate and that of her family was a trial run for what happened to Edelgard and her siblings."

The downright terrifying scowl on Byleth's face as an indicator of how angry he was. I'd seen the first hints of a frown appear when I'd talked about Bernadetta. For a man who had extreme difficulty expressing any kind of emotion, that kind of frown probably meant copious amounts of anger. This scowl that had wormed its way on his face while I had talked about Lysithea? That was probably the equivalent of apoplectic rage. The impression was further reinforced by the echoes of his feelings permeating the mindscape.

"Human experimentation?" he asked in a low voice.

"Yes," I simply answered gravely. "Conducted by the Agarthans and performed on the children of Houses Hresvelg and Ordelia. It is likely that Solon oversaw the operations in Ordelia territory. The subsequent experiments in Enbarr were overseen by either Myson, a high-ranking Agarthan, or Thales, their leader. Lysithea and Edelgard were the only survivors. Edelgard alone had ten siblings."

"I'll kill them!" declared Byleth with a growl. "If what you say is true, I'll kill them all! I'll hunt them until none of them are left!"

"I agree fully with that sentiment," I added. "They cannot be permitted to continue their atrocities, but blindly storming at the problem is what has allowed them to escape before and manipulate Fodlan for so long. So please, calm down, my friend. There is still one other student I wish to tell you about.

Her name is Marianne von Edmund. She's the adopted daughter of Margrave Edmund and a student of the Golden Deer House. She is insecure and very much afraid of herself. She views herself as cursed, doomed to become a monster because of the blood she carries. The Crest of the Beast is indeed dangerous, but I believe that it can be channelled, if not controlled, so that the bearer remains unharmed. However, she is convinced that it is not so and I fear this has awakened suicidal tendencies in her. In the game, she says that at this point in time, she's praying to the Goddess to let her die. I don't want this to happen. She is a gentle, kind and overall precious girl and the world would be lesser for her death."

Byleth had indeed calmed down in the meantime. His face had gone back to its usual blank position, but there was steel in his voice still. "I'll look out for her," he said.

I smiled at him. "Thanks."

After that, there was a moment of silence.

Seeing as our previous topic of conversation was exhausted for now, I decided to switch to a new one. "All that aside, I'm finished with the anti-disguise spell, which I have chosen to call Reveal. I assume you remember the magic circle I designed, yes?"

Byleth nodded and then summoned it for me to inspect. The basis of it was a circle within a square within a triangle within another circle. This was the sign of the Philosopher's Stone. The modification came with a new outer layer for the bigger circle. Between the outer and inner layer, at the points where the triangle touched the circle, stood the words Neshama, Jechida and Chiah. These were the names of the three Pillars of the Tree of Life, meaning Severity, Harmony and Mercy, though Chiah was different from the Sephira Chesed, which also translated to mercy. The second modification to the standard symbol of the Philosopher's Stone was the word Nephesh, which was placed right in the middle of it. The literal translation was soul, but it referred to a sentient life, a living soul. It appeared Byleth hadn't missed anything.

"Everything seems to be in order. Excellent," I said. After that, I gave Byleth the instructions to cast the spell. While I had invented the process and more or less guessed at it, it was Faith-based magic. As long as Byleth had enough faith and the construct was roughly correct, he would succeed. And so, I spoke "Now then, the spell channels the forces of Binah and Tiphareth. They are part of Neshama and Jechida respectively. Focus your faith into Understanding and Beauty. Force the disturbances to those to back into Harmony. Peel back the distortion of Beauty and the concealment of truth to reveal what lays beneath."

His face remained mostly impassive, but I could see the intense concentration in his eyes. It took a second or two, but finally, a wave of magic was discharged from the , I felt the spell probing me for methods of concealment as it swept over me.

A broad smile spread across my face and I laughed. "We did it, my friend! Our first thaumaturgic spell and the first ace up our sleeve!" Yes, this would get things moving.

Now if only I hadn't had to ruin the moment.

"So… there's actually something else we needed to talk about. How do you feel about a revision of the notes for Hanneman?"

I did not like the piercing stare Byleth was giving me.

In the morning, Byleth woke in a more rested state than he had expected. After he had had some very pointed words with Hyperion about his notes, the both of them had calmed down eventually. This had led to another "bonding session" upon Sothis arrival. While the entertainment had been very enjoyable, Byleth had feared he would not be rested enough in the morning.

As he did his usual morning routine, he contemplated the information he'd received about the students and faculty at Garreg Mach. It was now more important than ever to become a Professor there, not just for Fodlan but also for the people there who needed help. As Hyperion had pointed out to him once, never should one forget that the big picture was made of many small ones, and all were important. Therefore, he would look out for all those small pictures and make them part of the big one. He wouldn't forget about the needs of those who were weak, like Bernadetta or Hapi, merely because they held limited political and military capital. He would help them become strong in their own right.

With this thought in his mind, he went ahead to the temporary training yard within the camp. There were more people to make strong before they reached the monastery, after all. He saw Lars and the fresh recruits in the yard, as well as quite a few of the old hands of the company.

A thing that had initially surprised him was the presence of Baron Ochs, his retainers and Monica during regular training time every day. Nevertheless, their presence was appreciated and served as a minor opportunity to build up some form of trust.

The retainers, Adrianne and Beatrice, were true godsends. Since the Baron had allowed them to teach those of the mercenaries who whished to study magic, many of the company had learned one or two basic spells. As a gesture of goodwill, Byleth had in turn taught them his and Hyperion's modified spells. It had come as a complete revelation to them that one could channel the power of a Crest they did not possess through a spell. Of course, the effect was different from the Crest itself, but the knowledge of such modifications was stupendous.

The topic of spells was fitting, considering part of his nightly activities. As he approached the Ochs party, he spoke up. "My Lord, young Lady, Madams, I would like to meet you after training is done. The special spell is finished."

"Very well," answered the Baron. "It will be an interesting study, whatever the outcome of our arrangement may be."

Byleth nodded and then, abruptly, turned towards the rest of the assembled men and women. "Form up!" he shouted. "Team formation! Nobody faster than the slowest and everyone faster than yesterday! March in 10 seconds!"

Startled but not overly surprised, everyone scrambled hurriedly into their assigned teams. Three in front, two at the back. The ten seconds were up before the teams could arrange themselves in the same way on a bigger scale, which was what Byleth had planned. Maintaining formation during a march was important on the battlefield. Being able to enter formation out of a disorganised mess while advancing towards the enemy was absolutely priceless by comparison. Hyperion had agreed there as well. According to him, systems such as this were the evolution of a tried-and-true method. Advanced manipular tactics was what he called it.

During the exercise, Byleth had the whole formation stop and do various tasks, such as push-ups, sit-ups or even full spars. When he noticed the first few recruits starting to flag, he observed the others to see what they would do. Unsurprisingly, the last few weeks had instilled sufficient comradery for them to help each other out. As a result, the whole formation started to slow down gradually, much to Byleth's satisfaction.

One might question that feeling since many inexperienced commanders would frown at a slowing troop complement during a forced march. The crucial points for any moving army, however, were battle readiness and teamwork. A fast army was worthless if its soldiers were too exhausted to fight upon arrival. Similarly, an army was just as worthless if its formation was collapsing because the slower elements couldn't keep up with the faster ones. Such movements were only permissible in his book if the fast-moving force served as reinforcements for a stationary defence.

Naturally, the obvious downside was lower top speed. As Byleth recalled from a conversation with Jana years ago, it had been this methodology that had led to her disastrous first command mission. Jeralt had later pointed out to her that her decisions had been tactically and strategically sound and that a full-on forced march might as well have led to the annihilation of her force at the hands of the raiders.

Ruminations aside, the young mercenary was pleased to see that the formation didn't completely disintegrate as soon as a halt was called. Very good, he thought. His warnings that an army was most vulnerable when setting up camp had stuck, apparently, and they stayed alert in case a complement of older mercenaries ambushed them again, as they had done during some of the previous exercises. Incidentally, nobody carried anything other than practice weapons during exercises for this reason.

After some cooldown stretching, the training group headed back into the camp to eat, drink, relax and then prepare to break camp in an hour or two. A bit of subdued cheer was spreading throughout the tired mercenaries. Their training was mostly done for today, aside from the spars, and they could watch gleefully while Byleth trained the other half of the company into the ground during the evening.

As the last part of the morning's training routine, Byleth now went to Jeralt to give his progress report. He spotted his father near the camp entrance and walked over quickly.

"So, how's the new blood doing, kid?" asked Jeralt.

Byleth was pleased to give a positive answer. "Good. They got further than yesterday before the slowest couldn't keep up anymore. I'm confident they'll perform well during the next training battle."

The training battles were a type of exercise that Baron Ochs had actually suggested. Both Jeralt and Byleth had seen sense in that and the already superb teamwork of the mercenaries had improved as a result.

"The Ochs group also performed well, though the retainers were among the ones who started to lag behind a bit earlier," added Byleth.

Jeralt nodded. "Good to hear. Off you go, then, if that's all."

With that done, the green-haired man set out to look for Baron Ochs and his party, only diverting to Natalie's camp in order to pick her and her team up. Her question for the reason was only answered with "The spell's finished." Seeing as Yuri had picked her, among other things, because she was smart, she was quick to understand what he meant.

The procession of six arrived at the Ochs tent only a minute or so later. It appeared that its occupants had already cleaned up a bit in the few minutes they had had since returning to the camp. At least the droplets of water on their faces seemed to indicate as much. The Baron gave Byleth and the others a polite nod and waited for him to speak.

Accepting the unspoken request, Byleth began his explanation. "It would probably be best if I demonstrated the spell before I start going into detail. Please pay attention, as I will not be using the standard magic circle."

Recalling the circle and the feeling from last night, he made sure to slow down the casting as much as he could without letting the spell destabilise. As he pumped his magic into the circle, he made sure to check if everyone was paying attention. About two seconds later, he finished the process and cast the spell. The probing wave of magic swept through the camp, accidentally destroying any applied cosmetic products in the vicinity (though strangely leaving unapplied ones intact). A bit surprised, he would later realise that the part of the spell that was about revealing that which was beneath concealment extended a bit further than he had thought.

"Extraordinary," the Baron said in a low voice. A bit louder, he carried on. "How was this accomplished and what was that magic circle?"

Byleth thought a moment on his response. "The process of creation is mostly under the purview of the informant. The circle is standard for thaumaturgic spells."

"Thaumaturgic spells?", asked Beatrice.

"Yes," responded Byleth. "Thaumaturgy is to White Magic what Dark Magic is to Black Magic. The field has been a very recent discovery."

"Fascinating. Is there any way to learn more about this?" the woman spoke again.

"I would have to fetch my notes. You and Madam Adrianne might actually be helpful by correcting errors in them if it would please you," he replied. "But first, let me teach you Reveal."

Early Morning of the 20th of the Great Tree Moon 1180. Remire village.

Byleth woke up early on this day. It was not even dawn yet, but he knew that he would have to be ready for a fight. The fateful day which Hyperion kept referring to as the "start of the game" had finally arrived.

He dressed hurriedly, more grateful than ever that his armour was a brigandine instead of plate mail, and strapped his weapons on his belt. His boots, overcoat and gauntlet were next. All in all, it took him barely ten minutes to get fully ready for combat. Then, the waiting began.

A few minutes later, while he was gazing through the window of his room, he saw one of the sentries run towards the inn while movement on the walls became hurried in the darkness. He checked his weapons and equipment over again to verify that everything was how it should be and braced himself for the inevitable noise.

Soon enough, the alarm bell of the villages chapel was ringing, a sound almost as frantic and just as shrill as the fire bell. As a result, the inn was in a state of disarray for a minute while he was running through its hallways towards the exit.

"Get ready for combat! Move it!" he shouted.

Seeing Byleth and, barely half a minute later, Jeralt running through the hallway in full battle regalia lit a fire under the remaining mercenaries in the inn. The scurrying and hurrying mass of people became at once more organised as their training kicked in.

Leaving behind the quickly mobilising force of mercenaries, Byleth and Jeralt hurried towards the gate of the village. A small troupe consisting of five teams was already deployed as part of the nightshift, leaving the other two as lookouts. They seemed to be ready to move out at a moment's notice. Excellent.

"Hyperion, get ready," he called inwards.

"Already in position. Ready to activate systems on your call," the spectral man replied.

Upon reaching the gate, both Byleth and Jeralt noticed the three young people standing next to the sentry. They were a blond and rather muscular young man wearing a blue shoulder cape, another youth, tanned this time, with brown hair and a yellow shoulder cape, and a young woman with startling white hair and a red shoulder cape.

So these are Dimitri, Claude and Edelgard, thought Byleth.

The blond one perked up as the two of them arrived. He bowed before saying, "Please forgive our intrusion. We wouldn't bother you were the situation not dire."

"Guess it's bandits," responded Jeralt.

Dimitri looked startled. "How did you guess? Bandits are rather rare in these parts."

"One of our patrols probably spotted your approach and caught a glimpse of what you were running from. The bell's been ringing like crazy for quite some time now," the older mercenary retorted drily.

The Prince blushed in embarrassment. "Ah, yes… I guess that would have been a clue. My apologies."

There was a light grin on Jeralt's face. "Think nothing of it, kid."

Suddenly, one of the mercenaries ran towards them and shouted, "Bandits approaching!"

"How many?" Byleth shouted back.

"Around fifty, but their formation is in disarray," answered the scout.

Jeralt was quick on the uptake and gave out orders. "Get everyone who isn't already awake here on the double. Inform the villagers and get them to barricade their houses from the inside." He then turned to Byleth. "Alright kid, you take the lead. I'll hold the village until the second wave is ready. Break the enemy before they can organise themselves."

Byleth nodded, but before he could give his own orders, he was interrupted by Dimitri. "Please let us fight at your side. It would not be right of us to simply stand and watch."

The green-haired man was none too pleased. Integrating three unknowns in an attack formation on the fly was not something he wanted to do. However, these were students of Garreg Mach, which meant that they at least knew how to use a weapon.

"Very well," said Byleth. He then summoned his helmet and raised his voice. "Everyone, form up! Standard 3-2 formation, VIPs at the back! March in 10 seconds!"

While the three students were left wondering what VIP meant, they realised rather quickly that the term specified them, due to the formation taking form before them. Then, the last part of the order sank in. They scrambled to advance together with the mercenaries.

As they drew closer to the foremost bandits, the mercenary formation became a bit looser. Once enough hostiles were within reach, Byleth shouted his order with the help of the recently installed sound amplifier of his helmet, "Target selection! Fireballs in 2!"

Following their commander's orders, the mercenaries prepared and launched fireballs at different bandits, causing mayhem among the already disorganised attackers. Aiming to take advantage of this situation, Byleth changed his orders.

"Attack formation 4-1! Back team with VIPs as reserve!"

The mercenaries pushed forward aggressively in order to overwhelm the bandits while they were still reeling. Byleth himself advanced towards the most organised group of enemies in order to shut down the potential rally point for the enemy. A second fireball left his hand and crashed into the bandits in a small but fiery explosion, burning one of them to a crisp and scattering the others.

He was upon them in a flash, slashing at one of them with his sword while drawing his dagger with his off-hand. The dagger found itself embedded in the neck of a bandit trying to attack him from behind while his sword hooked under an axe head and deflected the blade portion of it away from him. With some quick footwork, he brought the axeman to fall, giving him the precious second of time he needed to backstep a swing from a swordsman and retaliate with his dagger once more. This time, he only managed a slash instead of a stab, but it was enough to debilitate his enemy, whom he knocked down with a kick. He then turned back to the axeman in time to parry another blow and slashed open his opponent's throat before doubling up and decapitating the bandit.

Around him, the bandits were similarly pushed back by the other mercenaries. However, a group of them had managed to sneak through a gap in the formation. Hyperion warned him of it, even as the reserve team responded immediately and called for backup with a whistle.

"Maintain the attack!" ordered Byleth. He himself quickly turned and ran towards the reserve team.

The situation he came upon was not quite dire, as the reserve team was doing a good job holding off the bandits. One of the fallen ones even had an axe sticking out of his back, the angle indicating that it had been thrown. The thrower, however, was the reason why things weren't really optimal either. The white-haired girl, Edelgard, was now without her primary weapon and was quickly being approached by a muscular bandit with rather distinct sideburns.

"I'll kill you!" he shouted, unnecessarily in Byleth's opinion.

The mercenary's vision was filled with predictions based on current speeds of both himself and the bandit. He could get there in time to shield the girl, but he would have to take the hit. He could try to throw a stone, but his target was not as stationary as the one where the trick had last worked. As it was, he would likely have to use Divine Pulse.

"Tackle her out of the attack's range!" Hyperion shouted his suggestion at him.

That was actually a good idea, it occurred to Byleth. Acting on it, he threw himself at Edelgard, throwing them both on the ground. At the same time, he threw his dagger at the bandit's mid-section. While the dagger bounced off the chain mail beneath the bandit's leather overcoat, the surprise caused his over-committed downward swing to go off-course and partially hit the side of his unprotected leg. When an arrow, courtesy of Claude, embedded itself into said bandit's shoulder as well, he screamed out in pain.

"We're done here! Retreat!" he yelled while running off as fast as he could.

Meanwhile, on the ground, Edelgard's face was adorned with a massive blush. Nobody except for Hubert had ever risked their life for her and in a moment of weakness, she was honestly elated that someone had done so. The blush intensified as she realised that the green-haired young man was lying on top of her, even though he'd started climbing off her to get back up on his feet the moment their fall had stopped. He had some sort of, dare she say, aura about him that made her want to trust him, follow him even. It confused her, but she suppressed the feeling as well as her blush to get back up herself.

Byleth, who was already up again, took stock of the situation with the help of his helmet's sensors and cursed when he noticed a full company of unknown people approaching. Thinking quickly, he activated the sound amplifier of the helmet again.

"All teams abandon pursuit and form up around VIPs! Unidentified group of at least sixty approaching!" he ordered.

The second wave of mercenaries, headed by Jeralt, had also heard Byleth's orders and were quick to synergise with them. They reinforced the defensive ring around the three students from Garreg Mach and set up a flanking force of three teams and Jeralt himself in case the newcomers were hostile.

The preparations turned out to be unnecessary, as the approaching force flew the banner of the Knights of Seiros and was equipped accordingly. As they stepped on the field, the man in the lead of their ranks shouted.

"The Knights of Seiros are here! We'll cut you down for terrorizing our students." He then looked around and gave new orders. "Hey, the thieves are running away! Go after them!" When the knights were off in pursuit, he took a look at the mercenary formation and the people at it's centre. "The students seem to be unharmed. And... who's this?"

Jeralt, who had recognised who the man leading the knights was, could only palm his face and mutter, "Ugh, why him?"

AN:

So, we've hit canon. Not that canon's going to survive that hit, mind you.

The first part was a bit heavy on the magic, but you wouldn't believe what kind of rabbit hole the research into the standard magic circle was. It's plastered full of alchemical and astrological symbols, Kabbalistic words and Sothis' awful handwriting. Like, seriously, the B in Binah looks like a crippled lower-case delta and the second to last word in the part that is written in English is illegible.

As for this time's story recommendation, I actually have two for you since I forgot to give one last chapter:

First, we have Harry Potter: Geth by mjimeyg. As the title implies, it is a crossover between Mass Effect and Harry Potter. It's a very fun and comfortable read at roughly 270'000 words.

Second, there's Robb Returns by The Dark Scribbler. It's a Game of Thrones fix-it fanfic that turns the dark fantasy of the original into a more high fantasy-esque theme.

Alright then, until next time, dear readers.

Edit of the 1th of January 2021: Minor corrections, not a full revision.