Chapter 9: Revelations and Mockery

AN: I did another minor correction to last chapter. The anti-Royal faction of Faerghus is, of course, in the West.

The conference was still ongoing and the situation was not quite what I had hoped for, but about what I had envisioned. One could argue that I should not have revealed my future knowledge or the existence/presence of Sothis, but these were the people we'd be relying on to get the job done. Withholding vital information from high-ranking allies was a pretty stupid thing to do.

As angry and disbelieving as Baron Ochs appeared to be, he knew that when it came to discoveries in magic, we had legitimately discovered things thought to be impossible. He couldn't doubt everything I was saying.

No, the ones most likely to actually believe what I was saying were Rhea and Seteth. Yuri would maybe as well once I got to the point that was relevant to him. Speaking of relevance, there was one more thing that fed into that.

"Before we can act against outside threats, however, we need to deal with internal matters," I said. "Those matters being Bishop Aelfric and his convoluted plan to use the Rite of Rising."

While looks of confusion spread, Rhea was quick to ask for clarification. "How? If he found records of it, he should know that it failed the first time."

Yuri had perked up at the mention of Aelfric and so, it was he who asked a question the others wanted to know the answer to. "What is this Rite of Rising you speak of?"

If I had had a mouth at that moment, I would have grinned. "Two excellent questions. I'll answer Yuri's first. The Rite of Rising was a ritual conducted near or after the end of the War of Heroes. The ones participating in it were the Four Apostles Noa, Timotheos, Chevalier and Aubin. Sound familiar?"

Yuri had of course suspected that something fishy was going on and Aelfric had probably approached him before about something along the lines of a covert operation, likely with the future intention of blackmail. Though, going by the look on his face, he had not quite known about the involvement of his own Crest.

"Anyway," I went on, "The Rite of Rising was devised with the purpose of resurrecting the Goddess Sothis. It was built around the properties of the Crests of the Four Apostles. Obviously, it failed and instead caused the birth of an Umbral Beast. Consequently, the Four Apostles were consigned to obscurity and vanished. Their Crest-bearing descendants are alive, however, and here at the Monastery. More specifically, they are in Abyss, the place Aelfric oversees.

Now, to answer Lady Rhea's question, it's actually kind of mundane. Aelfric has always had an obsession with Sitri. After he found both her corpse and records of the Rite of Rising down in Abyss, he made it his goal to use it on her and bring her back to life. Love makes one blind, as they say, and obsession makes you deaf too."

The mix of a grimace and a look of anger on Jeralt's face was kind of comical, but Rhea's scowl was far less humorous.

"Excuse me," said Monica, "But who is Sitri?"

"She was Byleth's mother. She was also Rhea's daughter," I answered.

"Oh…"

Previous statements about my friend's mother and Rhea were probably recontextualising themselves in many heads around the table.

"Wait a moment," interjected Baron Ochs. "If this Rite of Rising failed, there must have been other attempts since then. Is this the body switch scheme of which you spoke before?"

"Heh, perceptive," I said. "Yes, it was. The details are a private matter between those involved, but there will be no body switching or possessing others' bodies on my watch. It won't even be necessary since I plan on actually completing the Rite of Rising."

Seteth, who had been silent for some time, voiced his opinion with fitting eloquence, "You what?"

Hanneman, on the other hand, asked the relevant question here. "Completing the Rite? What do you mean by that?"

I was quick to answer. "By that I mean that the Rite of Rising failed because it wasn't even remotely complete. It wasn't even halfway through step one of fifteen. For your information, step one consists of gathering Crest-bearing blood. The original Rite used those of the Four Apostles because of their unique properties, but it failed to account for the fact that the Goddess is the origin of all Crests. Therefore, all Crests are necessary to complete this step. Fortunately, we have bearers of all Crests right here at Garreg Mach, with the exception of the Crest of Macuil."

"Lady Rhea," the Baron asked, "Is this true?"

The Archbishop reluctantly answered, "I cannot say concerning the reasons for the failure of the original Rite of Rising, but I was there when it happened." She swallowed hard. My guess was that recalling that was not her fondest memory.

"Hmm…"

That was Hanneman. It seemed there was something on his mind. "You mentioned that we have the bearers of nearly every Crest right here at the Monastery. Would you mind telling me who they are and what Crest they bear?"

"That I can do," I responded. "Though we shall do that later. I will discuss their properties with you and Byleth at a later date as well, by the way, as I require your help in revising the Rite of Rising."

Hanneman nodded in satisfaction and the flow of conversation stilled. It appeared everyone at the table was in deep thought. Fortunately or unfortunately, I had just the topic to break the silence.

"Alright, folks, before we start with actual strategizing, we should talk about what our enemies have already done to people here," I said. "It is another reason for the presence of Professors Hanneman and Manuela here, as both knowledge of Crests and medical expertise will be needed."

Manuela sat a bit straighter at that and I noticed some people, notably Seteth and Rhea stiffen. Yuri was as attentive as ever, and the Baron narrowed his eyes.

I took that as my cue to continue. "The three individuals I know of who were experimented on by the Agarthans are Hapi of the Ashen Wolves, Lysithea von Ordelia and Edelgard von Hresvelg. I do have to mention, though the Hapi underwent a different line of experimentation."

Unperturbed by neither the sharp intake of air the Baron took nor the steel in Yuri's gaze, I said, "The least complicated of these three cases is Hapi's. The experiments she was subjected to dealt with her Crest, the Crest of Timotheos. As a side effect, its latent beast tamer abilities have gone haywire and now attract monsters with nothing more than a sigh."

At the disbelieving looks I was getting, I went on a bit of a tangent. "Are you seriously questioning that Crests are a bit whacky? It rains more often around people who bear the Crest of Charon, especially when they're in close proximity to each other. People with the Crest of Cethleann have a hard time paying attention to things, people bearing the Crest of Indech are often socially awkward, and so on and so forth."

The looks shifted to Hanneman, who blinked. "Why yes, I have noticed some of these traits before, but I have never looked so deeply into it. I will have to look back on my research notes."

Then, people's attention was back on myself. "Now, let's get to the meat of the matter. After the Hrym revolt of 1167, Ordelia territory was occupied by the Empire. During that time, key officials were killed and replaced by imperial ones. Among the replacements were eerie, pale skinned mages. In other words, they were Agarthans.

They began experiments on the children of House Ordelia. One after another, they died horrific and painful deaths on the operating table. The only survivor of these experiments was Lysithea, in whom they were successful. The goal of these experiments, you might ask? Simple, it was to infuse a Major Crest, Gloucester in this case, into somebody who already bore a Minor Crest, which was Charon in Lysithea. The price for this 'gift' were the loss of colour pigments in her hair, years of torture and a massively reduced life span. She's got ten years left to live at most."

Expressions around the room ranged from anger to disgust, but I wasn't finished yet.

"Do you know what's the kicker? All this was just a test run."

Monica, whose face was still kind of green, rapidly paled as she put two and two together. "Oh Goddess…," she said.

"You've picked up on it, haven't you?" I asked rhetorically. "After their success, the Agarthans packed up and left, headed straight for Enbarr.

On a side note, Tomas went to Ordelia territory eight years ago. So, ask yourselves, why has he never notified you of any of this? I told you before that the one currently here isn't the Tomas you know, but I think this should back up my claims. I also don't know what kind of horseshit has been fed to everyone to make them believe that the deaths of so many children were accidental when an occupying force just so happened to be there, but people bought it.

Speaking of people buying stupid explanations, how did nobody of importance question the deaths of ten of Emperor Ionius' eleven children, especially right after the same happened to the children of House Ordelia? It boggles the mind.

And the same was indeed what happened to them. They were all subjects to further experiments by the Agarthans. Driven to insanity and later killed by these experiments, they left their last living sister, Edelgard, to bear the brunt of them. She still bears the scars of that time as well, all across her body.

And for the Coup de Grâce, the Crest they implanted was the Crest of Flames.

So, Lady Rhea, the Agarthans have once again somebody in their grasp who bears the Crest of Flames, they have infiltrated the Monastery and there is a war on the horizon. Guess what they're after."

Realisation dawned on her face as she breathed out, "The Sword of the Creator."

"Exactly," I responded. "The stage is set for their war. It will happen, one way or the other, and what we must do now is to prepare for it. They've already disrupted relations between the three nations of Fodlan as well as between the Central and Western Churches. The latter is utterly compromised, by the way."

"Disrupted? How?"

With how silent she'd been all this time, Jana nearly scared me to death when she finally spoke up.

"Bloody Hell, woman, don't scare me like that!" I exclaimed. "You bring up a good point, though. I'm talking about the Tragedy of Duscur, organised and partially conducted by the Agarthans. Of course, they placed the blame in such a way to implicate the late King Lambert's second wife, Lady Patricia. Even cursory investigation will reveal that her actual name was Anselma von Arundel, also known as one of Emperor Ionius' consorts as well as Edelgard's mother."

Of everyone in the room, Monica managed to summarise the collective feelings of the attendees in but one word.

"Shit."

The conference had gone on for quite a bit longer. I had had to explain the web of lies that surrounded the Tragedy of Duscur before anything else had been discussed. Fortunately, we had eventually come to the topic of our immediate plans moving forward and some of the more long-term decisions as well.

As it stood now, Baron Ochs would continue tutoring Edelgard and fill the gaps in her education while Byleth would focus on teaching the Golden Deer House. Of course, all the teachers would from now on try to create an environment of co-operation between the three Houses. Meanwhile, Jeralt and his mercenaries would help Yuri… handle Aelfric and retrieve the Chalice of Beginnings.

In the medium range of things to do, Byleth and I would talk with Hanneman, both to find ways to undo the damage that had been done to Lysithea, and potentially Edelgard as well, and to modify the Rite of Rising. The older man was extremely giddy to start on that despite how serious the situation was.

Concurrently, Seteth would see about fixing the atrocity that was Garreg Mach's fortifications while Rhea was to set about subtly preparing both the Central and Eastern Churches for war, which would mean recruiting troops. As luck would have it, Ochs territory was full of trained fighters that their Lord couldn't raise for a respectable army. Nothing prevented those people from joining Church-sanctioned knightly orders, though.

Ah, politics and legal bullshit. What a beautiful thing that was when it worked for the good guys for once.

With all that dealt with, there was now time for me to talk with the one person in the conference who hadn't been able to voice her opinion, apart from that pinch. I couldn't figure out how she'd done that, by the way. I was quite literally just blue mist at this point.

"Sothis, what do you think of all of this?" I asked.

She looked at me for a few seconds before saying, "I think what you've discussed has its merits. I'm unsure whether revealing all this information was smart, however. It was quite reckless on your part."

"It's war," I countered, "And war is based on these seven things: Manpower, supplies, logistics, tactics, mobility, intelligence and initiative; strategy in other words. By revealing the information, I have given our allies access to intelligence and have seized the initiative. While they will continue to doubt my knowledge of possible futures and the truth of your existence within Byleth, they will find little cause to doubt anything else. Their own investigations will tell them that I didn't lie, even if I guessed wrong about a thing or two."

"But are you sure all of them are allies?" the Goddess asked.

Now that was a very good question. "Baron Ochs is probably the most reluctant about this, but he's checking things as well and he's smart. He'll find that joining forces with us will be the optimal solution."

Sothis looked at me for a few seconds before sighing. "I hope you're right," she said.

"So do I."

We stayed silent for a moment before I spoke up again. "Alright then, I think it's time to prepare tonight's entertainment and then we can continue with memory retrieval while we wait for Byleth to get here."

The two of us went to my lounge area and looked through the media collection. After some minutes, I picked out something I had been meaning to watch for a very long time. I basically already knew the entire plot, but I hadn't ever watched the actual series despite knowing so much about it. I took out the box containing the DVD-ish thing and put it on top of the player.

"Alright then," I said while grinning at Sothis, "Let's dig around some more in your head."

"Hmph, as if you could understand any of it anyway," she bit back. Of course, we both knew that I didn't actually see any of her memories during the process, but the banter was still a lot of fun.

That settled, Sothis sat down on the couch and closed her eyes as she relaxed. I drew nearer to her and my form shifted. Since I could no longer touch her for long due to it being damn hard to make my gaseous form solid enough for extended periods of time, we'd had to experiment to figure out how to continue our treatment sessions. Luckily, the solution had been pretty easy to find. As had become normal over the last few days, my human-like shape dissipated and turned into a ball of blue fog that now surrounded her.

Once I activated the powers I had inherited from Psyche, Sothis shivered and let out a pleased sigh while they did their thing. It had actually shocked me when I'd found out how much she enjoyed the feeling of the soul-based powers working.

That had been an extremely unpleasant surprise for me. The disappointment I had felt at myself back then had been immense. I'd actually thought I had somehow used the powers wrong, turning Sothis into an addict of some kind. She'd shoved my shoulder, which I'd still had at that point, had called me a fool and then given me a hug.

As it turned out, it just felt like a particularly good massage when those powers were active. All that worry for nothing. Still, that was far better than the alternative.

We spent about three quarters of an hour in silence before Byleth entered his mindscape and made his way over to us, at which point I slowly toned down the power and drew back from Sothis to reassemble in my human-like shape.

"Ah, good to see you, Byleth," I said in greeting.

He raised his hand to give a small wave. "Hello," he said, "What have you picked out for tonight?"

Oho, it seemed that he was quite looking forward to relaxing here. I couldn't blame him. He'd spent the first half the conference sitting stiffly while I'd spoken.

"I thought I'd attach some pleasure to our business by selecting something we can learn from while being entertained," I answered. "We'll start watching a serialised animated show called Neon Genesis Evangelion. I thought it fitting, given our current circumstances, because it is a perfect display of what happens when mental instability goes untreated in a world where an old conspiracy decides to fiddle around with divine artefacts and Qliphothic sorcery."

Predictably, I had to spend a lot of extra time explaining the technological mumbo-jumbo that was going on in this series, seeing as it was kind of sci-fi, but we had a good time, which was kind of ironic with how depressing NGE really was.

We decided to call it quits after one episode since it took us a whole hour to get through it. Explaining the technology, geography and politics of a series took time.

Consequently, Byleth and I decided to accompany Sothis to her throne before parting ways and going to sleep, or deeper sleep in Byleth's case.

It appeared, however, that our night was not quite over, as said throne began glowing like crazy once the Goddess had sat down on it. The look of genuine shock on her face was both adorable and a little bit concerning, but the smile that replaced it was a good sign.

"I can feel people nearby praying to me," she said, smile still firmly in place. "It's been so long since I could hear them speak to me."

"Congratulations," commented Byleth.

If I had still had a mouth, I would have smiled as much as Sothis. "Nice. Seems like you're on your best way to pick up the work of a Goddess again. Though, I have to say, there's bound to be quite a few prayers who aren't very happy. People with worries tend to pray more often."

"That's true, yes," she conceded, "But knowing their troubles is the first step to helping people, and I've always liked helping people after I…" She looked downcast now. Damn. "Let's say I wasn't very kind in my youth and I have come to regret it very much."

"Sorry for bringing up the topic," I said.

"Don't be. You didn't mean to pry," she countered. "More importantly, the prayers I'm hearing right now are mostly positive, so-"

She looked surprised now, and then, her smile returned as the glow's intensity reached new heights. "Seiros is praying to me," she said and raised her head. Then, she closed her eyes and spoke, "Can you hear me, Seiros? Mother is coming back, my sweet little light! It will take a while, but I'll be back."

A second passed and her upturned lips now made her smile radiant. "She heard me!" Sothis yelled in joy.

She shot up and wrapped her arms around both Byleth and myself, laughing and dancing all the while. Her grip tightened as she spoke full of emotion, "Thank you for helping me get back my abilities, Hyperion. I can finally talk with my daughter again. And my thanks to you too, Byleth, for making it all possible in the first place by hosting my heart."

I positively melted into her hug while those words washed over me. I was very happy for her and the smile on my face would have showed as much if I'd had one right now. While smiling invisibly, I idly noted that there was a green sheen of light around the arm that "touched" me. The mystery of the pinch was revealed, huh?

I was broken out of my reverie when Sothis talked again. "Now go, you two. I'd like to have a chat with my dear Seiros."

The two of us complied and walked down the stairs while she sat back down on her throne and began talking animatedly.

When I looked over at Byleth, I noticed that he, too, had a very small smile gracing his lips.

It seemed that this stressful day had found a very positive note to end on.

The following days were somewhat of a trial for Byleth. First on the list of things to do was getting to know the students a bit better. The short introduction after his confirmation as Professor of the Golden Deer had not been enough to get a good grip of their characters. At least there was the pleasant surprise that the students of all classes had proposed to drop the formalities, which relieved him of the burden of having to use their proper titles all the time.

He was, however, mostly just busy keeping up his training, roping his students into it and then actually making a lesson plan. He was very grateful that the other Professors and Seteth were helping him with that.

Speaking of which, the severe air the officious man had had at their first few meetings had given way to a warmer countenance when interacting with Byleth. Apparently Sothis had spoken with him through prayer as well. As a result, he had now the one whom Hyperion called the most competent person of authority in the Church on his side.

Now that most administrative things had been handled, there was only a little time left until the mock battle between the three Houses, much to Byleth's chagrin. He remembered Hyperion's words about not forgetting what he called the little picture. The impending crisis in Fodlan was no reason to not conduct the regular activities of the Officers Academy, especially when they would need to know how to fight and lead.

Consequently, there was no time left to go through too many drills together, but he could assess his students' skills in a small practice skirmish with his fellow mercenaries and see where they would fit best. Alas, the task was quite a bit harder than he had imagined.

Quite frankly, the Golden Deer were the most atrocious group of fighters he had ever seen in action. That was to be expected, given that they hadn't ever trained together before. Nevertheless, it appeared that he had much to teach them.

"Lorenz, please restrain yourself. Unless the order is unlawful or will obviously cause a catastrophe, it doesn't matter how much you don't like it. You will follow it regardless of your own thoughts. Politics are prohibited on the battlefield."

That was only the beginning, sadly. There was much Byleth found himself correcting in the group's performance. So, he continued, disregarding the purple-haired noble's sour expression.

"Claude, you are a very smart young man, but people don't always catch on to your thought processes from what I have seen. If you just do your own thing, your allies are bound to misinterpret your actions, potentially turning a faked retreat into a full-blown rout or a feigned attack into a disastrous assault."

He turned his gaze to the next student in line. She was one of the people Hyperion had asked him to look out for. He could see the issues the man in his head had mentioned and tempered his words accordingly.

"Marianne, you are clearly gifted with your White Magic, despite how little confidence you seem to have in yourself. Your hesitation was part of what caused this defeat for you. Abandon your fears and be confident in your strengths. After all, White Magic depends on faith, and the more you believe in yourself, the better the results will be. It's clear to me that you can do this."

The next target of his lecture was a somewhat short and lanky boy.

"Ignatz, it appears to me that your style of fighting isn't taking advantage of your strengths. You are fast and nimble. That doesn't mean you're supposed to weave around your opponents, though. That takes unnecessary amounts of stamina. You also don't have the strength to dish out decisive blow after decisive blow. Deflect, redirect and wear the enemy down by making them waste their own strength."

Next on the proverbial chopping block was again one of the girls.

"Leonie, you are a very strong fighter, but it's clear that you haven't had instruction for quite some time. That is not your fault, of course, but you need to be more aware that your great physical strength can be trumped by superior technique. The man who took you down in this exercise was weaker than you, after all. I can also see that you're trying to emulate my father's style, but I would advise you to wait on that until you have mastered your weapons some more."

Byleth's focus now landed on a big bear of a youth.

"Raphael, you mostly did very well. You are extremely strong and you know your limits. You didn't press ahead without orders and you kept mostly around Ignatz. However, you need to pay attention to how the battlefield develops. Don't hold your position if its untenable."

Almost last in line was the short white-haired girl of the group.

"Lysithea, I can see that your magic is very powerful. You are smart and hit hard, but you need to acknowledge your limits. Running around does you no good if you prioritise speed over endurance. Pace yourself more and leave the physically strenuous tasks to those with stronger bodies."

The last target of Byleth's attention, of course, was none other than the young daughter of House Goneril.

"Hilda, why do you insist on not doing anything? You pack a mean punch when you're forced to apply yourself and you're clearly skilled. If you don't give it your all on a real battlefield, your comrades can and will die. Don't make a habit of half-baking your performance in practice or you'll do it when it counts, and then you have dead bodies and a heavy conscience on your hands."

The reactions the newly minted teacher received for his assessment were mixed, to say the least. Lorenz wore a grimace, as did Leonie and Lysithea. Claude looked pensive and Marianne found her shoes to be very interesting all of a sudden. Ignatz bore the chiding well, while Raphael looked pleased. The look on Hilda's face was a mixture of discomfort and shame.

"Overall," continued Byleth, "The other Houses will wipe to floor with us during the mock battle if we don't rectify these problems. Fortunately, there are ways to mitigate them in time for the event. The first of these ways is information.

The Black Eagles are a somewhat disorganised bunch, but Edelgard and Hubert must not be underestimated. The Princess can fold grown men in half and Hubert's ability with magic rivals that of Lysithea. He is also a very smart and cunning guy. Be wary of him. Ferdinand, while also competent, is probably the greatest weakness in their formation. In his drive to prove himself, he will likely push ahead of his classmates, making him susceptible to an ambush.

The Blue Lions will probably be the harder challenge. Dimitri, Dedue and Felix have actual combat experience. Do not expect to win any fight with them where you don't enter with a strong advantage. The Blue Lions are also the most organised House. The students follow their leader's orders and they at least somewhat know what they're doing."

That had been the longest string of words Byleth had spoken in years. It appeared that teaching would require more of that in the future. It was unusual for him, but both Sothis and Hyperion had insisted he socialise a bit more so he could get a better grasp of himself.

Claude, meanwhile, was thinking hard. While his new teacher interested him immensely, for he loved solving mysteries, he was right now a bit busier with reflecting on what the man had said. He was so used to hiding his plans and schemes thanks to his childhood that he had apparently acquired the habit of doing so at inopportune times.

Speaking of plans and schemes. "I think I have an idea," said Claude.

Byleth nodded and gave him the go-ahead.

"We can't win in a direct confrontation," began Claude, "Which means we have to pick them apart one by one. I suggest we bait them out and retreat. Either we can ambush one or two of them or the two other Houses crash into each other."

The idea was received well for the most part, with the exception of Lorenz, though his protests were at least by half inspired by the fact that it had been Claude's plan.

"To act so dishonourably in battle will do more harm than good. As a noble, it behooves you face the enemy head-on," he said.

Byleth took this opportunity to interject. "Honour has no place on the battlefield. Bashing your head against the enemy will cause you to lose more soldiers than ambushing them. So long as basic decency is observed, anything else goes."

The purple-haired youth was unconvinced, but he chose to not voice any further objections in public. Byleth was pretty sure, however, that they would talk more about this in private. Fortunately for him, Hyperion knew a tiny bit more about statecraft than he did and would help him navigate the discussion.

"Now then," Byleth said after a few seconds of silence, "It is late already and we all need to be rested for tomorrow's mock battle. Take the rest of the day off."

After that, the class quickly dissolved and everyone went their own ways.

The next day, shortly after lunch, preparations for the mock battle began in earnest. Last-minute plans were being made. Claude had even jokingly offered to slip something into the other students' provisions.

"Ordinarily, that would be a valid idea, but it would defeat the purpose of the exercise. Your performance on the battlefield is the thing to be tested, not your strategic ability," was all Byleth had said on the topic.

An hour or so later, the three Houses and their escort of knights had made it to the designated area, where they had been allocated to a starting position by drawing lots.

As a result, Byleth now found himself standing in a small field, roughly 50 metres away from a small forested area to the front-right. There was more forest further up ahead, concealing the Black Eagles from their sight, just as the other one obscured sight on the Blue Lions.

The mock battle would start in but a few moments and now that the terrain was known, it was time for a few hasty instructions.

"Ignatz, Raphael, I want you to rush into that forest up ahead," Byleth began while pointing at the small forested area, "if the Blue Lions move in before you can, I want you to stop advancing. If they attack you, I want you, Raphael, to shout as loud as you can and then back out. Lysithea, move up behind them and pelt the enemy if they need to retreat. Hilda, you and Lorenz will move to the front, Lorenz ahead. I want the enemy baited into attacking you. Once they have committed, I want you to retreat towards Claude, who will advance at a slower pace and cover their retreat. Marianne, you and I will hide in the trees to the left. On my signal, we, Ignatz, Lysithea and Raphael will move in on whoever took the bait, dispatch them quickly and then pull back to the trees where Marianne and I will have been hiding. Leonie, you'll come along with us two, but you will not participate in the ambush. I want you hidden so you can cover our retreat to the fallback position."

Marianne looked shocked. "Professor, I don't think I'm up to the task. I'll only be a liability."

Hilda was also rather put out. "I'm far too fragile to be right at the front," she cried.

Byleth almost snorted. Fragile was not a term anyone in their right minds could use for Hilda. While she certainly looked fragile, believing it would see a careless opponent lose their head to her axe in a heartbeat.

Still, both of the girls needed a response. "Marianne, I know you can cast Nosferatu. I've seen you cast it and believe me when I say that your magic is strong. You'll do fine once you stop worrying. As for you, Hilda, your job isn't to defeat anyone. You're supposed to be there and look like an easy target, not defeat the enemy, even though I'm convinced you could do it if you tried."

The others needed less prodding and began taking up ready positions in a hurry. It was not a moment too soon, as less than a minute later, the sound of Jeralt's horn could be heard across the battlefield. At once, the Golden Deer dispersed, hurrying to follow their Professor's instructions.

As Lorenz moved forward, Hilda went after him, seeming reluctant, and shouted, "Lorenz, not so fast! We'll get separated from the others at this rate!"

The purple-haired youth was a bit confused at first, since being separated from their allies was the plan, but he caught on after a second. While he found such unglamorous deception to be distasteful, it was a sound strategy.

"Claude's shallow tactics will get us nowhere. It is I, Lorenz Hellmann Gloucester, who will lead the Golden Deer to victory!" he shouted in response.

"Wait up, you two!" came a shout from behind them. Apparently, Claude had caught on as well and was playing along

Soon enough, one of the Black Eagles came out of the foliage, yelling, "I am Ferdinand von Aegir, and I will defeat you!"

Lorenz idly wondered if that was how he sounded to others while he moved to deflect Ferdinand's lance with his own. He made a show of seeming to lose. Well, he tried to make a show of it, but the scion of House Aegir was very good with his lance and Lorenz had to give it his all not to lose.

Hilda was very close now, but before she could reach the two, she had to swiftly jump out of the way to avoid a Dark Magic spell aimed at her. Hubert had shown up as Ferdinand's back-up, it seemed. It was fortunate that spells cast with the intention to be non-lethal were actually non-lethal or this would have been very dicey.

The youth with the ominous appearance made to launch more spells, but his aim went off thanks to an arrow that had been shot at his position. Claude had caught up as well.

"We're being boxed in!" he shouted, "Fall back!"

Another arrow forced Ferdinand to disengage, which gave Lorenz the time he needed to begin his hurried retreat with Hilda and Claude.

The Black Eagles were hot on their heels, however, though not entirely willingly in Hubert's case. "Ferdinand, stop pursuing them!" His words were ignored, however. "It appears I have no choice. I will have to cover him."

Meanwhile, Ignatz and Raphael had entered the small forested area. As instructed, Lysithea followed them at a distance. Unfortunately, it soon became apparent that their best-case scenario had not happened. The Blue Lions had sent Dedue into the forest at well, and the dour-faced man was quick to move towards them.

It was clear that he was very strong when he engaged with Raphael. The musclebound blond was on the backfoot, despite his superior strength. However, Dedue could not make light of the fight either, as Ignatz kept peppering arrows at him.

Soon, Ignatz had to dodge arrows as well. Mercedes had entered the field and was contributing with more skill than one would assume. Consequently, Dedue was gaining the upper hand against Raphael again, but just as he was about to capitalise on the opportunity, he was hit by a spell cast by Lysithea.

This forced Mercedes to stop shooting arrows and instead cast healing spells on her Housemate. The Golden Deer students took this opportunity to scramble together. Ignatz and Lysithea took more shots at the Blue Lions while slowly moving backwards.

"We cannot advance," said Dedue. "We'll wait here for reinforcements and then we'll pursue."

Both he and Mercedes took cover and made no further moves while their opponents slowly retreated to the edge of the small forest.

Not long after they had reached their new position, they could hear Byleth's voice across the battlefield as it proclaimed, "Golden Deer, attack!"

At once, everyone with the exception of Leonie fell upon Hubert and Ferdinand, who had followed Lorenz, Hilda and Claude. Ferdinand was quickly overwhelmed by a combination of arrows from Ignatz and Claude and a spell from Lysithea. Hubert dodged Lorenz's lance and Raphael's fists rather nimbly at first until he was hit in the back by a Nosferatu spell from Marianne. He was quickly put on the floor and taken out of the battle by Hilda afterwards.

"I never could've done that without you guys, especially you, Marianne. Thank you so much for your help," she said.

The shy girl was beginning to bluster, but had to stop when Byleth made himself heard again. "Good job, but we don't have time. Retreat to the fallback position."

And fall back they did, just in time too. As they made to retreat, The Blue Lions made another push. Dedue and Mercedes had been reinforced by Sylvain and Ashe and were now advancing towards them. Mercedes and Ashe peppered them with arrows, slowing down their retreat, while the other two ran at them.

That slowed their retreat down to a crawl, but the Golden Deer were still able to move back. Of course, for the purposes of the exercise, Byleth held back a lot, not making any offensive moves against any of the students. That didn't mean he wouldn't pull his students out of harm's way, which was why Raphael was still not down for the count, as arrows had been flying at him quite consistently.

After a minute or two, the fight had come closer to the small collection of trees where Byleth and Marianne had been hiding initially. At that point, Sylvain had managed to disarm Lorenz, causing him to fall on the ground. Aiming to capitalise on the opportunity, the redhead moved in for the finishing blow, only to be surprised by an arrow to the sternum shot from the trees. Before Mercedes could cast a healing spell, as the rules of the mock battle dictated for "lethal" wounds, he was taken down by another arrow, this time coming from Ignatz instead.

With that, the momentum shifted and the Golden Deer pushed forward. There was a setback when Ashe and Dedue managed to take down Raphael, but it left the dark-skinned man from Duscur exposed to Hilda, who got him between the shoulder blades. This also left Ashe without cover and he was quickly overtaken and put down by Lysithea.

Mercedes was the last of the Blue Lions to go down, being eliminated by a precision shot from Claude, which impacted her belly, and the follow up from Ignatz, which hit her in the left shoulder. With that, the engagement was successfully completed.

Byleth took the opportunity to speak up at this point. "Good work, everyone. Marianne, check everyone over. I know we only use practice arrows, but accidents can happen and these bows are still dangerous. The rest of you, take a minute to catch your breaths, then we move forward through the forested area from which the Blue Lions attacked."

And so, the seven remaining students of the Golden Deer and their Professor advanced swiftly through the small forest, all the while looking for the other two Houses. That particular job didn't prove too hard, for once.

The Black Eagles and the Blue Lions were engaged in combat with each other. Dimitri and Edelgard were locked in combat, the former of which looking somewhat worse for wear. It seemed he had already taken out Caspar, however, so that was probably the explanation for his state. Annette and Felix struggled somewhat against Dorothea and Petra, while Bernadetta was frantically running away from Ingrid. The Professors were trading spells with each other as one of them, Manuela tried to get Hanneman into sword range.

The Golden Deer students hunkered down, out of sight of the fighting students. "Here's the plan," whispered Byleth, "On my signal, I want Lysithea and Leonie to hit Dimitri and Edelgard hard. Prioritise Dimitri. Even exhausted, he's very dangerous, but don't think Edelgard will be weak. Hilda, you and Ignatz will focus on Ingrid. Don't move on Bernadetta until she's dealt with. Claude, I need you to aim for Linhardt, then for Dorothea. Marianne, your target is Felix, then distract Petra. Don't try to take her out if you don't have to. Lorenz, keep an eye on Annette. Her magic might overpower you if you try to defeat her alone, but you only need to keep her busy until the others can reinforce you. As for myself, I will have my bout with the other Professors. Get ready and move on my signal… Go!"

Like a flight of vultures, the Golden Deer students descended on the other two Houses, taking them by surprise. Dimitri and, surprisingly, Felix were out before anyone realised what was going on.

Ingrid went out when her shock made her lose balance, which caused her to fall in Bernadetta's direction, making the recluse panic even more than before. Subsequently, she used her bow to bash the blonde over the head, knocking her out.

Bernadetta herself didn't last much longer when an arrow from Ignatz and an Axe to the belly from Hilda made her pass out. Said girl cringed when she saw the pain-stricken expression on Bernadetta's face.

"I'm really sorry about that," she said, and she meant it.

Linhardt was quite an elusive target, Claude surmised. The green-haired boy might look sleepy and inattentive, but he was very smart and knew how his body could and couldn't move. It took three arrows to take him out and by that point, Dorothea had moved in, nearly hitting him with her Thunder spell.

She clearly didn't expect him to kick her in her midsection while he composed himself, but she was also sturdier than she looked. She recovered quickly and tried to cast another Thunder spell at him, but Claude had already drawn a wooden dagger and held it to her throat, taking her out of the battle.

Meanwhile Marianne's fight with Petra was going worse than she had hoped for. The quick ambush on Felix had succeeded marvellously, but the Princess of Brigid was both very nimble and very fast. The Golden Deer student was on the backfoot from the beginning and could hold out only for a few short seconds before a practice sword to the chest took her out of commission.

The victorious girl did not have much time to enjoy her victory, however, as Hilda and Ignatz moved in. An arrow hit Petra in between the shoulder blades and the axe nearly got her in the back. The follow-up swing was nearly avoided, but it still hit her in the side, ending her participation in the mock battle.

Lysithea and Leonie's fight was much harder than they had thought initially. With Dimitri taken out mere seconds into their ambush, they had thought it would be relatively easy. However, the strength and speed with which Edelgard swung her axe seemed almost unnatural, keeping both of them on heir toes. Still, her exhaustion was rapidly building up and she wouldn't be able to sustain her pace for long.

Lorenz was having similar trouble with Annette. Her spells came hard and fast, forcing him to be vey careful when attacking. The initial surprise attack had netted him a hit to her right arm, though, so she wasn't allowed to use it until she was healed. Unfortunately for the last Blue Lion on the field, there was no one to heal her and no time to take one of the vulneraries they all carried. Ultimately, her stamina gave out and he was able to score a victory by jabbing he in the stomach and then the chest in rapid succession.

As for the Professors' fight, it was a somewhat embarrassing affair, at least for the senior teachers. Byleth was upon them quickly and, unlike with the students, did not feel compelled to hold back much. A quickly cast Ward spell was enough to hold the Sagittae shot at him by Hanneman while he moved towards the older man. Manuela sought to take advantage and moved in to swing at the newest Professor, but Byleth's hand shot out and dragged Hanneman into her sword's path, surprising both of them. The former mercenary performed a quick and deep leg sweep, which brought both of the other Professors down on the floor.

Since Hanneman was already technically out, Byleth quickly rolled to the side in Manuela's direction and swung himself onto his feet. Noticing the Nosferatu spell she was trying to cast at him from her position on the ground, he kicked her arm out of the way and moved the tip of his sword to her throat.

With that out of the way, Byleth quickly moved to re-join his students, all of whom were converging on Edelgard by now. Surrounded and unable to defend in every direction, she was quickly hit by arrows and spells from every direction.

No sooner was she out of the battle, did Jeralt's horn sound again. The mock battle was over. The Golden Deer had won.

After the conclusion of the exercise, the whole procession of students, professors and knights proceeded to patch up those who needed it before heading back up to the Monastery. The mood was good overall, at least with the Golden Deer, but the other Houses seemed to not be downcast either.

When they were back in their classroom at the Officers Academy, Byleth addressed his students, "Good job, everyone. All of you did well, even those who were eliminated. Battle is unpredictable and none of you fell easily. That doesn't mean there is nothing to improve, but for your first real combat exercise, you all performed admirably. Take the rest of the day off. You've earned it."

As the students filtered out, Byleth felt a warm feeling in his chest. Past experience with mercenary trainees told him that it was probably pride. That was good. He liked seeing those under his tutelage grow. There was a certain satisfaction in bringing about a positive change in the world.

Leaving those thoughts behind, he made his way out of the Officers Academy into the Monastery's main building to report to the Archbishop… who was also his grandmother… and the one who had planned to have him be possessed. They still hadn't had that talk.

He did not have to wait long in front of the audience chamber before Manuela and Hanneman arrived. They were called in soon after and walked up to Rhea and Seteth.

"From what the knights have told me, all of your classes have performed well in the mock battle," the Archbishop said, "It seems we have a very promising crop of students this year. My congratulations to the Golden Deer House for winning."

There was polite clapping from everyone present, even if it took Byleth a moment to get it. When the little round of applause had calmed down, Rhea spoke up again.

"Professors, I hope you have gained an understanding of your students and that you have bonded with them."

She smiled at the three nods she received.

"Wonderful," she said, "I look forward to the students growing under your guidance. Do you best to prepare them for their missions next month. You are dismissed."

Byleth thought that now would be a good time to speak up. "Rhea, I would like to speak with you about a certain matter, in private." Then, after thinking for a bit, he added, "Seteth might also want to join. It relates to him somewhat."

Somewhat surprised and slightly apprehensive, she agreed. "Very well. Come to my chambers after dinner, please. I fear this will be neither a pleasant nor a brief discussion."

The young man nodded and said, "I will see you after dinner in this case. Farewell." He then turned around and left.

I am not looking forward to this, thought Rhea with a sigh.

AN:

Hello there, my dear readers. It seems I am a few days early with this update for once. I hope you've enjoyed my newest chapter and that there haven't been too many errors in there. They have a nasty habit of eluding me on my read-throughs.

Now then, I wish to thank everyone who has favourited, followed and reviewed this story so far. It feels good to know that people enjoy my writing. If any of you have questions regarding this story, feel free to ask in the reviews or over PMs.

Today's story recommendation is the Lone Traveler series by dunuelos. While not truly "finished", it is a collection of many loosely connected stories in which the Lone Traveler, a version of Harry Potter who has become a fix-it man for the universe, helps people help themselves.

Until next time!