AN: Greetings, dear readers. This opening note is here to respond to an inquisitive guest reviewer who has brought up a good point about Rhea and the Nabateans.

You are, of course, correct that Rhea is very powerful, as were all the Children of the Goddess, especially the First Children. There's actually a lot I'd like to explain here, but I want to include much of it in future chapters. For now, have the short version. You will remember chapter one, where I mentioned that the Sword of the Creator could cleave through mountains. There's not much even a Nabatean could do to withstand that, especially when caught by surprise in their human form. You will also recall that it takes time to charge that kind of attack, which is why Seiros could get close enough to Nemesis to finish him off. Not to mention that he wasn't a spry youngster anymore. Plus, he might have devastated his own forces with it.

As for Rhea being overwhelmed by demonic beasts, I'd say part of it is narrative need and part of it is leverage. Even a child can restrain a grown man if it gets him on the floor with his arms on his back. Furthermore, Seiros/Rhea has, like all Children of the Goddess, lost much of her power in the absence of Sothis. The Nabateans get a large part of their divine powers directly from their connection to Sothis, seeing as they are angel analogues. With her being absent, they grow weaker and weaker over time, and only with her awakening do they slowly regain their powers. This is my headcanon as for why Flayn and Seteth can level up despite having grown weaker over the years. This is also why Rhea is stronger at the end of the game than at the mid-point. She's had 5 years to regain her power. I might explain more in future chapters.

Finally, the topic of Nabateans and their descendants is something I will touch upon in later chapters. You are correct, though, that there is quite a bit of human in Flayn's ancestry.

Chapter 19: Rest, Relax, Prepare

2nd day of the Verdant Rain Moon 1180. Courtyard of the Officers Academy.

The gathering taking place in the courtyard was of a most unusual sort. All the kinds of people Byleth had told his students of had shown up. There were mercenaries, knights, even some monks, the Professors and, of course, the students themselves. Among the latter's number, however, there were irregularities. For one, the Ashen Wolves stood out like sore thumbs. Their uniform was quite unique and also a bit strange, what with the white clothes and the black chains. Their features were also very distinct. Constance's double-coloured hair, Balthus disregard for modesty, Hapi's particular combination of red hair and dark skin as well as Yuri's semi-flamboyant appearance drew the eyes of many an attendant of this event. Monica, who was a (late) graduate of the previous year's class, was also an unusual sight.

All in all, it was a curious thing for the Golden Deer students as they stepped into the courtyard. They had little time to observe the crowd before them before they got pulled in one by one, beginning with the daughter of House Goneril.

"Hilda? Is that you? It's been ages!" came the loud voice of Balthus, a close friend to Hilda's brother Holst.

The pink-haired girl turned her head and looked at him, trying to place him in her memory before her eyes shone in recognition. "Baltie! I nearly didn't recognise you. You look so old!"

"Old! You wound me," he replied.

With that, they began their own conversation, leaving the other Golden Deer students by the wayside. It did not stop there. Lorenz basically catapulted himself at Ferdinand when he overheard the boy talk about the virtues and duties of the nobility. Claude inserted himself into a round of knights who were playing dice games. Ignatz got dragged off by a bunch of students who had heard about his proficiency in the art of painting and wanted him to paint them. The thing that got Raphael to wander off was an inventive group of monks who had managed to make a portable grill with magic and were testing it with meat slices of various thickness. Marianne found herself beset by a bunch of nervous stable servants and the stable master as they (somewhat shily, considering the difference in their social standing) badgered her with questions about her proficiency with horse care. Lysithea found herself enraptured in a discussion about magic which a few monks were having with Hanneman. This left Leonie pretty much alone, not that she minded much. She had her own destination in mind.

The girl quickly made her way to the first bunch of mercenaries she could spot. Jeralt was nowhere in sight, sadly, but the group was made up of members of his company. Among them were two figures she'd gotten to know somewhat over the last couple of months. One of them was Jana, second-in-command of Jeralt's mercenaries. The other was Lars, a young man her age, who often stuck to Byleth like a shadow whenever they made camp outside the walls of Garreg Mach.

When Leonie reached the mercenaries, she greeted them, "Hey there."

One of them, a man in what appeared to be his late 40s, returned the greeting as the first, "Hello there, lass. What brings one of the Demon's kids here?"

"His kids? He can barely be older than I am. If I'm a kid, then he is one as well, for sure!" exclaimed Leonie, feeling insulted.

"Don't get worked up over it," responded the man, "No one's got the guts to call the Demon kid, except for the boss and good old Jana here. You didn't answer the question though. What brings you here?"

Leonie ignored the hard look Jana was giving the man for calling her old. Instead, she grumpily replied, "I came to see if you've got a few stories about Captain Jeralt to share."

The majority of the mercenaries just groaned. At Leonie's confused look, Jana inserted herself into the conversation. "Don't mind them. It's just that everyone always asks about Jeralt and no one else. Add to that that there's not much to tell beyond personal stories, and you get a bunch of annoyed mercs."

"I guess so," acknowledged Leonie, "But there has to be a tale or two you can tell me about."

"He your crush or something? If so, I gotta tell you that there ain't much to get, missy," another of the mercenaries, a woman this time, said. "The Captain hasn't touched a woman for as long as I've known him. Not a man either. I don't know a merc who's let so many opportunities got to waste."

Jana shot her a glare. "Shut your mouth! Think about what you're saying" she said heatedly, "Besides, she's the kid from Sauin village, you idiot!"

The other woman blinked. "You know I was on the other assignment with the Demon back then. I wasn't there at Sauin," she responded. "What're you so angry about anyway? You don't have the hots for the Captain anymore."

"You know exactly why I'm angry!" snapped Jana. The glare she was giving the other woman was enough to make her recoil.

"Uhm, I don't," said Leonie somewhat meekly. Jana was scary when angry, she'd realised.

Jana sighed. "Cassandra should know better than to talk about that. Captain Jeralt gets mopey and withdrawn when he overhears people talk about his love life. The man's only ever loved one woman and he refuses to take his heart back from her."

"Who is she?" asked Leonie.

Jeralt's oldest companion snorted as she answered, "Can't you guess? It was the kid's, sorry, Byleth's mother."

"Oh," was Leonie's reply. "Was?"

Jana's face lost its amused expression. "She died giving birth to the kid. I didn't know her well. Sitri and Jeralt liked their privacy, though people knew they were married. But I do know that he loved her and that her death tore him up like nothing else. His drinking habit got even worse than before and he became gruffer. He still loves her to this day, not to mention the son she birthed. I think Byleth was the one thing that helped him piece himself back together."

"What about you?" asked Leonie, "I've heard you've been with him since before he founded the company."

The answer she got was carried in a slightly bitter tone. "I wasn't much use there. At best, I kept him from becoming worse. Without the kid, Jeralt would've probably died from alcohol poisoning along the way."

"It's strange, really," commented the middle-aged man from before, "The Demon got the Captain wrapped around his finger without even realising."

That gave Leonie something else to ask. "Why do almost all of you call the Professor Demon?"

The man blinked at her. "Are you serious? You don't know about his title?" he asked incredulously. When the girl shook her head, he just grumbled, "That's what we get for Jeralt's fame." He drew a deep breath. "Listen, lass, I was there the night he earned that moniker. The lad was a bit green. It was maybe his fourth or fifth actual fight. I thought we'd have to babysit him, but when we fought our way into that camp and he saw all those people the cages, he fucking lost it. I'd never seen anything like it, nor have I since then. Saw him rip a man's head off with his bare hands and clobber another one to death with it after his sword broke. He went on a mad killing spree and set the whole camp on fire while he did it. Mad, I tell you! When the whole thing was over, he stepped out of the place covered in blood and ashes with that blank look in his eyes. Since then, we've been calling him the Ashen Demon. He's earned the title and we use it with respect."

Leonie's face had gone pale partway through the tale once she'd connected the dots. Her Professor had apparently a history of flying off the handle when it came to slavers, and their next big mission would lead them to a slaver stronghold. Dear Goddess, she thought.

"What you need to understand," said Jana, "Is that Byleth holds great respect for life. That also means he holds a strong hatred for those who disrespect it. Slavery is one of the worst ways to disrespect life, and the kid made his displeasure known."

"Wow," muttered Lars. He'd been listening to the story with rapt attention. "I've never heard the details before. I didn't know Sir Byleth was this committed to his cause."

The Golden Deer student raised an eyebrow. "Sir? I didn't know the Professor was a knight."

"He isn't. Lars just likes showing 'proper deference' to him. The lad's been like that almost from the beginning," answered Jana. She then turned to the young man in question and said, "You can bet your arse that he'd take you as his squire if he were a knight, though. He's already made you his apprentice."

Lars looked as though somebody had struck him up the head with a brick. "He has?"

Jana laughed. "Of course, you fool. Why else do you think does he train with you even more than with the fresh recruits? He's been showing you his style and techniques for months now. He even lets you help instruct the little spitfire and the shy lass from his class in swordsmanship. Hell, he debates philosophy with you for the Goddess' sake! I've never seen him do that with anyone who isn't me or his father."

"Wait, the Professor does philosophy?" asked Leonie, ignoring the remark about Lysithea and Marianne's training. "He doesn't seem the type."

"He's not a philosopher and will never be, sure, but he knows where he stands, where he wants to be and where he wants others to be," answered Jana.

"That does sound more like him," agreed the student.

"But back to the topic at hand," the woman continued, "For all intents and purposes, you really are Byleth's apprentice, Lars. When he isn't busy with any of his duties, he almost always sets some time aside for you. I think he's trying to make you either his or my right hand."

Lars just looked at her in stupor. "Your right hand? Why?"

"I can only guess," said Jana, "But he might think that there will be a time when he and the company get separated."

"What about Captain Jeralt?" asked Leonie.

Jana snorted. "He was roped into joining the Knights of Seiros again. We haven't been Jeralt's mercenaries for months now. The point is that the kid might get pulled away too and probably wants to make sure that the company prospers in his absence and maintains both its quality and its values. Lars here is better suited to do that than almost anyone we've got."

That answer left the Golden Deer student pensive. She could see the point and, after some thinking, agreed that it was the smart thing to do. Staying organised was important. Staying true to the principles Captain Jeralt had instilled in his people even more so, in her mind. Her thoughts didn't go much further than that before they were interrupted.

"That said, how about we got down to today's business and I show you how we wind down," Jana said while grabbing a deck of cards. When she saw one or two of her fellow mercenaries reach for their hip flasks, she reprimanded them, "No boozing around the students!"

There was grumbling, but it quickly subsided as the mercenaries began to teach Leonie several different card games. Eventually, she even got some of the stories she had come to hear. By the end of it, she concluded that it had been a good thing to head for this group of people.

Later that day, after most of the knights and monks had departed, the lead students of all Houses of the Academy were assembled in the Blue Lions classroom. This included the Ashen Wolves, for whom this session would serve as an introduction. There was another purpose to this, however. This meeting doubled as a briefing about the coming month's missions. For this reason, Rhea and Seteth were also present.

"As you well know by now," began the Archbishop, "The Black Eagles and Golden Deer Houses will conduct a joint mission with Imperial troops to eliminate bandit and slaver presence in the port city of Nuvelle. Accompanying them on this mission will be the students of the Ashen Wolves House and Monica von Ochs, the daughter of Baron Ochs, who leads the campaign in Nuvelle territory.

The Blue Lions will be busy with their own mission in Gautier territory. A band of thieves has entrenched themselves in Conand Tower. They are led by a man named Miklan, a disinherited son of House Gautier. He has stolen his former House's Hero's Relic, the Lance of Ruin. I have elected to send Seteth and with the students for this reason. A Hero's Relic is no joking matter and must be faced with extreme caution."

Seteth added his own speech to Rhea's. "Naturally, this means that all of you will need to be cautious on your missions. Both target locations are fortified and will be hard to breach without massive casualties. You would do well to prepare medical supplies and good armour for the occasion. By its very nature, combat carries many surprises with it and surprises in combat are often lethal. You know this intimately. It is only through a miracle that none of you have died to the last one you encountered, after all."

Faces turned grim at that remark. The students hadn't forgotten the magical explosion during the assault on the Western Church's headquarters. They rightly doubted whether armour or medical supplies would have saved them if not for Byleth's invocation of divine interference, but not all traps were bound to be that severe. Precautions against smaller surprises would definitely be taken.

"With that said," Rhea picked up again, "Many of you will be wondering who the Ashen Wolves are. To put it simply, they are an unofficial fourth House of the Officers Academy. Its students are all residents of Abyss. To those not yet in the known, Abyss is a complex of old structures and tunnels beneath the Monastery. It is a refuge for those who do not belong. Some are there by choice, others by necessity. As a result, they may not be quick to trust those who have, in their eyes, abandoned them. In light of this, I must insist that you treat the Ashen Wolves with courtesy and understanding."

She waved her hand and the four Ashen Wolves stepped forward. They turned around to face the other students. At this point, Rhea spoke up again, "These here are the Ashen Wolves. Some of you may have spoken with them today, but I shall introduce them to the rest of you. First, this is Yuri Leclerc. He came to Garreg Mach as the adopted son of Count Rowe, but was expelled after a scandal. An investigation has since concluded that he was framed for the crimes that occurred during that event. Nevertheless, he has made Abyss his home. You will find that he is an excellent leader on top of being a skilled swordsman.

Next, we have Constance von Nuvelle, Countess of the recently reinstated House Nuvelle. She entered Abyss for personal reasons, but she has thrived there. She is a graduate of the Fhirdiad School of Sorcery and is very gifted in the field of magic, particularly in research.

Third amongst the Ashen Wolves is Hapi. She was brought to Garreg Mach after escaping wrongful captivity and has until now been confined to Abyss for her own safety and that of others. However, it has rightly been pointed out that this treatment was perhaps unethical, and she is henceforth afforded all the freedoms regular students at the Officers Academy enjoy. Like Constance, she is also supremely gifted in the field of magic, though she excels more at practical application than study.

And finally, this is Balthus von Albrecht. He has, by his own admission, entered Abyss to flee debt collectors as well as his extended family. Despite having relinquished his position as heir of his House, there are those who see him as a threat to the new heir. Be mindful of this if you ever enter Alliance territory in his company. His specialty is in close combat with gauntlets."

It was this point that Seteth spoke up again, "At this point, we would have liked to introduce you to Gilbert, a Knight of Seiros who will accompany the Blue Lions and myself on their mission to Conand Tower, but he was delayed on the way to Garreg Mach and will only arrive in a few days. I realise that this makes this briefing a bit stale for the Blue Lions, but we will instead dedicate the rest of our time to the other assignment. "

In truth, to those in the known, Gilbert or Gustave as he was better known throughout the Kingdom, had asked to not be introduced yet. If those who knew him and his history were to be told of this, they would know why, though he would be hard-pressed to find many who agreed with his reasoning.

Unperturbed by this, Seteth went on, "As the last addition to the number of officers on the Nuvelle mission, Monica has requested to introduce herself and share some more information on the objective. We will now cease the floor to her."

He and Rhea stepped aside as soon as he'd finished speaking. From the crowd of assembled students, a young woman with red hair stepped forward to take their place. Her air was not the only red thing on her, though, as she wore the distinctive red uniform of Adrestian military officers. The lack of decorations on it hinted at her inexperience and low rank, but she was still somewhat imposing. To those who had seen her after her faked abduction, her current appearance and bearing made quite the contrast. It appeared that her father's personal tutorship had been quite beneficial.

"I'm Monica von Ochs. I was part of last year's class and have since my graduation worked to become an officer in my father's forces," she began, "Like the Archbishop and Seteth have told you, I will accompany the Black Eagles, Golden Deer and Ashen Wolves during the attack on the port city of Nuvelle. I do so according to the direct orders of His Majesty and under the instruction of Duke Gerth and my father. This means that I will likely not join the students of any House on any future missions unless they take place in the north-western part of the Empire, but I considered it best to still introduce myself to everyone.

Now, I will explain some of the details of our mission. As I'm still new to commanding forces of battalion size, I will instead lead a company, just like you. Overall command of the operation lies with my father, but we will take our orders from Duke Gerth. That is because we will be attacking from the sea while my father's ground forces assault the walls. For this reason, the port will be our first target. It is likely still damaged from the Dagdan invasion several years ago, but the bandits and slavers that hold the city have probably fortified it in some way. Once we've taken the port, we will push into the city itself. Prepare for lots of fighting in the streets and within the buildings."

That was another grim reminder for the students who had been present for the suppression of the Western Church. The fight in the hallway had been a nightmare even before the big explosion. Fortunately, they had performed many drills and exercises for similar situations ever since.

"That is all I have for now. We will get more instructions once we're with the fleet," concluded Monica. Her piece said, she stepped away from the teacher's desk and back into the crowd.

When Rhea stepped forward again, it was only to give a short closing statement: "This concludes our short meeting. We will meet again once it is time to move out. I urge you to get to know your new comrades in the meantime. Dismissed."

11th day of the Verdant Rain Moon 1180. Infirmary of Garreg Mach.

Not a lot of things of note had happened since the great get-together, or so it appeared. The students had been applying the knowledge they had gained that day in their free time and were visibly less stressed. The Professors were, at least in appearance, more relaxed as well. The monks, nuns and knights carried on as usual and the only sign of unusual activity were the extensive renovations of the outer walls.

In the shadows, however, a lot more was going on. Among the merchants bringing new building materials and supplies to the monastery were the families of Ignatz and Raphael as well as servants from the Ordelia household. Plans for the evacuation of the residents of Sauin village were not yet implemented, but they were being drawn up. Bit by bit, people of interest who lived in what would be hostile territory in the coming conflict were subtly being relocated. The disguise for these moves was more of the same from other places. Trustworthy and endangered individuals all over Fodlan joined the stream of people headed towards Garreg Mach. To anyone not in the known, it just looked like the typical flow of merchants and builders that usually followed massive construction projects.

Of course, they could not all be housed at the Monastery, but that was not the goal of their journey at any rate. No, they were heading for Zanado, where the restoration of the old Holy City was well underway. Some outside contact would do the builders and their escorts good.

It was with thoughts like these that Byleth kept himself busy as he waited in the infirmary. He did so not as a patient but as a practitioner. That was not quite accurate either. While he did train his healing spells often, he was here right now as the medium of the practitioner. It was Hyperion who performed the treatment, but unless a patient was praying to him, the man could only really help if Byleth donned the helmet and had skin contact with said patient. As such, Byleth was forced to wait as Hyperion did his thing.

The most recent recipient of the literally soul soothing treatment was a reluctant looking Dimitri. The young man probably would not have been here if he hadn't been forced to. Fortunately, Rhea had made a complete check-up mandatory after being badgered about it by Sothis. It was a good thing she had done so, and that Byleth and Hyperion had snuck in psychotherapy, because the array of mental issues plaguing the student body was vast. Case in point, Hyperion did not like what he was finding on the blond Prince's soul.

There's a lot of screwed up stuff here, he said. I'm amazed he hasn't lost his marbles yet. All that anger, resentment and the obsession with Justice have been doing a number on him, not to mention the hallucinations. This'll take a few sessions, but I think I've taken the edge off for now.

Byleth nodded internally and retracted his hands from Dimitri's forehead and chest while dispelling the helmet. Technically speaking, it didn't quite matter where he put his hands so long as there was skin contact, but the gesture made it resemble traditional diagnostic magic.

"I think we are done for now," said Byleth.

Manuela nodded beside him. "We are. You are in top form, Dimitri. Still, should something feel out of the ordinary, come by as soon as you can. Some of the magic we used is new and could have side effects."

Dimitri replied, "I will. Thank you, Professors. I had best get back to practice." He bowed and headed out.

After he had left, Manuela turned to Byleth. "How bad is it?" she asked.

"Bad," responded the younger Professor. "Apparently, he's holding onto sanity by his fingertips."

Manuela sighed sadly as she sat down on a chair. "What is the world coming to? These young men and women are all so-… I don't even know how to put it into words. There are fewer with small problems than those with big ones," she said.

Byleth agreed with that assessment. A slight majority of the students were confronted with problems they could not deal with by themselves. From what Hyperion had said, less than half of the students had no festering problems. Ingrid, Mercedes, Annette, Petra, Caspar, Hubert, Leonie, Raphael, Lorenz, Yuri and Balthus were the ones who had been able to deal with their own demons. The others… hadn't. The biggest surprise there had been Claude, though it made some sense in retrospective. His upbringing had messed him up more than he let on.

Some, like Hapi, Ferdinand, Ignatz, Dorothea and Dedue, had minor problems. Minor self-esteem issues, some odd fixations and trust issues. Those were little to worry about so long as attention was paid to them. They were also not soul-deep problems, according to Hyperion, which was both good and bad. Good because the issues were minor, and bad because this meant that Hyperion's powers couldn't treat them very well. Still, a good social network would be able to help those who were affected overcome their difficulties.

And then, there were the cases that made Byleth's blood boil. Even Hyperion, who possessed a measure of foreknowledge, had been surprised just how severely some of them had been hurt. While Marianne was well on the path of recovery, the same could not be said for Bernadetta, Sylvain and Constance. Byleth somewhat knew where Bernadetta's problems had their root, and Count Varley would most certainly not enjoy a meeting with him. He also had a rough idea what had caused Sylvain's problems. Constance was a mystery, though. Hyperion suspected that suppressed memories were involved. However, considering just what had happened in Nuvelle territory when she had been orphaned and just who had taken over the place, he was not eager to go digging around unprepared. His early disastrous mistakes with Sothis had cured him of that particular impulse.

Edelgard was somewhat of an exception in this group. The things that had been done to her enraged Byleth for sure, but she wasn't in as bad a state as she had been before the man in his head had started to use his powers on her. Sadly, her fears and issues ran deep according to Hyperion and it would take time for her to be rid of them. In that regard, she was behind Marianne when it came to recovery.

"The world is not kind, but we will make it better," declared Byleth, half to himself and half to Manuela.

"I certainly hope so," replied the woman. She sighed again. "I'm worried, you know?"

"About what?" asked Byleth.

Manuela answered, "We'll see a lot more of that in the near future, much more than we can handle, even with your… unique gifts."

Byleth nodded. "That is true. We can only hope that it will not last too long," he said. He knew that it was a vain hope, but there was not much that could be done to prevent it.

The woman grimaced. "I don't like it," she breathed out, "But it's how the world is." After a pause, she spoke up again, changing the topic slightly, "How are the other patients?"

Byleth answered, "They're mostly alright. Only very few cases require special treatment."

"Like our resident stab-happy prisoner?" she asked.

The younger Professor grunted lightly. "Yes," he replied. "Her case has raised some uncomfortable questions."

Manuela added, "And even worse answers, I bet."

Byleth simply nodded again, ending the conversation.

20th day of the Verdant Rain Moon 1180. Audience Chamber of the Archbishop.

It was the day of departure for the troops allocated to the Imperial task force. Things were hectic as the last provisions were packed, all the supplies checked and all people accounted for. Byleth would have liked to personally oversee this process, but he had to leave it in Jana's capable hands. The reason for this was simple. Rhea had called him for a last-minute talk.

"Are you sure you do not wish to wield the Sword of the Creator?" she asked worriedly.

Byleth responded swiftly, "I am. I will not disrespect Sothis this way."

Rhea's brows furrowed. "But you let your students wield my siblings' bones without issue," she said with a little heat, referring to the Vajra-Mushti Baron Ochs had acquired and the Fetters of Dromi Duke Gerth had sent them.

"That is because they are dead. Sothis is not," he countered.

She looked at once both angry and sad. Byleth was confused for a moment before he realised what he had said and how that had sounded. He stepped forward and awkwardly put his arms around Rhea. He was still getting used to hugging people on his own accord, even with the ever hug-happy Hyperion. Therefore, he and his grandmother made for a rather strange sight as he embraced her.

"I'm sorry," he said.

She returned his gesture and hugged him back as well. It was quite awkward for her as well. It had been over twenty years since she had last done this, though she acknowledged that it did feel good to receive physical affection again.

"I just want you to be safe," she pointed out.

Byleth understood the feeling. He wanted his students and the mercenaries he had trained to be safe as well. That made him blink. He understood the feeling? Food for thought. For now, he contented himself with responding.

"Seteth has arranged a contingency," he said.

Rhea sighed. "You know that he won't be able to help you one you've passed the harbour."

Her grandson countered, "True, but that is the most difficult part of the attack."

"Very well," conceded Rhea, "But the power of the Sword of the Creator would have protected you more."

"Hyperion has promised to compensate for its absence," retorted Byleth.

She made a face as she drew back, separating from her grandson. "I do not know what to think of him. He makes promises of what will happen, of what he does and what will help, but I have yet to see more than a trick to play against disguises of all things and a dangerous emergency measure that nearly killed you. And then I have to pretend I'm fine with this! I don't know why Mother allows him so much leeway," she said with distaste.

Byleth was silent for a moment. It seemed some resentment had built up and she was saying things she probably only meant halfway. It was likely because Hyperion was seemingly undoing her life's work within a year. After some time, he asked, "Have you spoken to him about this?"

The woman grimaced again. "… No," she admitted.

"You should," he replied. "You also know that what you've said is not true."

Rhea looked away. She knew, of course. The new defences and preparations, the restoration of Zanado, the new advancements in magic and Sothis' rapid recovery could be laid at his feet, but therein lay the problem. He was reckless in his actions, too trustworthy of strangers and showed little of the wisdom he supposedly embodied. Not to mention that he seemed to disapprove of her.

"I am not going to let him insult me to my face!" she said vehemently.

Byleth shook his head. "He wouldn't. He doesn't dislike you and you're important to Sothis."

"Enough about him," deflected Rhea. "Let us return to the matter at hand."

The young Professor sighed internally and nodded. "I think I'm prepared for the battle. The students should be as well."

"I do not like it, but I will trust your judgement. Do not let your guard down, however," she said.

It was kind of sweet, Byleth thought. She worried about him, and not just because of Sothis. Alas, he wished she would show that concern in a less overbearing manner. Then again, with how she had lost her family and her people, it was maybe warranted.

"I won't," he said in reply. Then, he asked, "What about the other fronts? How are things going?"

Rhea answered, "Jeralt and Captain Wolfgang report steady progress, though It is slower than preferrable. The bandits and criminals have caused much devastation, so the Knights of Seiros often have to stabilise things before continuing. On the upside, there are many eager, though malnourished, recruits for both the order and the Future Nuvelle household troops."

"That is good," commented Byleth.

His grandmother nodded. "It is," she said, "And things are working similarly on Baron Ochs' front. The 'Church sanctioned knightly orders' have formally been folded into his household forces, which have been authorised to be expanded without limits. After all, the task force has permission to use 'any means necessary' for the accomplishment of its goals. As a result, Baron Ochs has advanced rapidly and liberated many villages and towns as well as a city. Supply and troop transport via Duke Gerth's fleet have also allowed him to form a corridor to Nuvelle to which his host now lays siege."

"That's also good. That means there must be a big problem somewhere else," said Byleth with some cynicism. No big operation ever went flawlessly.

"You are correct," responded Rhea, "Count Hevring has publicly refused to fund the task force out of the Imperial treasury. Not only does this mean that Emperor Ionius is forced to pay the operation out of his own coffers but also that discontent is spreading among the minor nobles and the commoners. The people are losing faith in the high nobles who control the Empire. Protests and small riots have broken out. Naturally, Duke Aegir has ordered these riots to be put down and all involved arrested. There are those who disobey these orders, most of which are minor nobles, but Baron Rusalka and Viscount Boramas have done so as well."

"It is as we feared, then," remarked Byleth with disappointment.

Rhea agreed. "Yes. Civil war within Adrestia will likely break out in less than a year."

Byleth took a deep breath. "That's ahead of the time table. We had best take care of the current problem quickly so we can respond."

She nodded. "Indeed," she said and looked out the window. The tinted glass made it difficult, but one could still judge the time of day. Her assessment of it done, she continued, "It appears you have to leave now. The troops will depart within the hour."

"Yes," he responded. "We'll talk again when I'm back. Take care in the meantime."

"You too, Byleth," said Rhea.

26th day of the Verdant Rain Moon 1180. Harbour town of Tir, Ochs territory.

It was, once more, a hectic day for small army from Garreg Mach. Tomorrow, they would all embark on the ships of the Imperial Fleet and sail towards battle. This meant that today would be the last day to do maintenance on weapons and equipment, to stock up on provisions or to visit establishments of entertainment, for which Byleth had ordered his mercenaries to provide security. Not all the soldiers here were his and he didn't trust an entire army to not have bad apples who thought they had the right to be cruel to a hired bedwarmer just because they paid them.

Byleth himself, however, was busy practicing the spell Hyperion had finally finished in his mindscape before moving on to testing it in the outside world. At this time, the man was lambasting him with the harrowing tale of how it had come together. Alas, he was only half listening.

"… It turned out that the problem for my research was that I had looked for the wrong thing. I was going through my data looking for railguns when the thing I wanted to make was actually a coilgun. That was one of the most embarrassing wastes of time of my life, I tell you. It was almost as embarrassing as that one time when I learned about my wings."

Now that awakened a fond memory. It had been some time ago when Sothis had asked Hyperion why he'd kept his wings out constantly, to which he had only dumbly replied that he'd had no clue that they could be retracted nor had he known how to do it. The Goddess had laughed herself sick and even Byleth had let out a laugh. After that, she'd let out her own wings – and wasn't that a surprise – and taught Hyperion how to retract them. Considering that she was a dragon Goddess, though wings weren't all that weird in hindsight.

"… aaaaand I'm rambling again, aren't I?" finished Hyperion.

"Yes," commented Byleth drily.

"Anyway," replied Hyperion just as drily, "I've decided to name the spell Gauss after the guy who discovered the scientific principle behind the coilgun. This is the formula."

The former human turned one of his screens so Byleth could see it better and have a look on the thing. "This is complicated."

Hyperion raised an eyebrow. "You weren't the one who had to calculate this. I absolutely suck at maths. I suspect the only reason I could even do it is because I inherited the original Hyperion's and Prometheus' domains."

Byleth acknowledged this silently and had another look. "Why is this not a fixed value?" he asked as he pointed at the screen.

His friend answered, "Because the spell's intensity is modifiable. It will be more or less powerful, depending on how much power you put into it. By the way, I recommend you don't use full power all the time."

"Why?" asked Byleth warily.

"Because I don't want you blasting metal rings all over the place at 100 kilometres per second," said Hyperion in a serious tone.

Byleth stared at him. "Are you serious?"

"Of course I'm serious. I don't joke around with weapons," responded Hyperion.

The Professor nodded and refocussed on the formula. "You said this operates on that IBF-thing you mentioned when you started on this. What exactly does that mean?"

Hyperion explained, "I stands for electric current. B is the magnetic field generated by the current and F is the force exerted by said field. In other words, the more electricity you put into the current the stronger the magnetic field and its force. The trouble with the spell is to get the current flowing in the right direction and with sufficient charge."

Byleth asked, "Electricity?"

"Have I seriously never explained this to you?" asked Hyperion. At the nod he received, he elaborated, "Electricity is the type of energy in lightning."

The green-haired young man nodded again in comprehension. "I see. So, we use lightning magic to propel projectiles?"

"Exactly," confirmed Hyperion. "The way I've designed the spell makes it function like an inductive coilgun. I won't bore you with the details, but that means you're going to have to use copper or aluminium rings. Considering how difficult aluminium is to get with current methods, it's going to be copper."

So that was why Byleth had had to procure a good kilogramme's worth of copper to smith into little, flat rings. They were the ammunition for the spell.

"I also had to include a section into the spell formula that keeps the projectile from burning up due to friction, plus another section to keep it steady without a tube. Boy, was that a chore and a half," continued Hyperion.

Concluding this little talk was a study session during which Byleth did his best to memorise the formula. After that, they came to the theoretical testing within the mindscape. Spells worked like normal in it, though they were unable to harm its occupants, as Byleth found out after he had accidentally made the electric current go in the wrong direction, blasting the copper ring through his entire body in the fraction of a second.

"And that is why testing in a safe environment is of vital importance," Hyperion had remarked after both had gotten over the shock.

After that particular incident, Byleth made sure to review the formula in between every test. Those soon moved into varying levels of power. Thankfully, they were finished rather quickly, as an irate Sothis had marched over to complain about the noise. To be fair, an object moving at a speed of over Mach 291.5 was quite loud.

Soon, the only thing left to do were the practical tests outside the mindscape. For those, Byleth had exited the town, informing the gate guards that he was intending to practice volatile magic where it wouldn't hurt people. Fortunately, no unforeseen complications came up during this last round of tests, though they had had to keep it to subsonic speeds. All in all, both Byleth and Hyperion concluded that the spell was a success.

The latter of the two asked, "So, do you feel ready to smash some barricades with this?"

Byleth shook his hand slightly to get the tingles left by the lightning out of it. "Yes," he answered, "The slaver scum won't know what hit them."

AN:

Well, hello there, dear readers. I hope you've enjoyed this chapter. I'd like to, once again, thank everyone who has followed, favourited and reviewed this story, even those who did not have many kind words to say.

This brings me to my next topic. I would like to respond to some of the criticism I have received. The response might not satisfy those who have voiced it, but it's an explanation regardless. That point is that Hyperion is given too many powers. I can see the point, I really do, but this is a result of me deciding early on that Byleth was not going to use the Sword of the Creator. With that came the eventual decision that to compensate for the mountain-destroying sword, something would have to happen. That something was the pseudo-Sacred Gear. Hyperion's power-ups exist mostly to empower Byleth at this point. I know that dropping a literal God on the opposition would end the story too quickly, so don't worry about that.

There have also been "complaints" that Hyperion is too much of a self-indulgent Self-Insert. My answer to this is… kind of? As with any SI story, a certain degree of self-indulgence is a given. The impetus behind any such fic is the thought of "man, I'd do things differently if I were in that world." That means literally changing the "predetermined" fate of the world. I'm very much trying to net let this escalate into the boring levels of Gary Stu territory and hope I will succeed with it.

Now, on the point that the Hyperion-Sothis romance supposedly exists solely for me to have my waifu. I will say that I struggled until almost the current halfway point of the story if I should include a pairing for SI-Hyperion at all, precisely because I wanted to avoid this. Then, I decided to do it for three reasons. One, practically every self-insert story I know does this, so it's not out of the ordinary. Two, I received generally positive responses to the interactions between the two. Three, as someone who is unlikely to ever experience romance at all, I would kindly ask you to at least let me write one involving a character based on myself.

The last topic I wish to address is the blend of mythology I'm using and what some feel may be disrespect towards these religions. I intentionally went for a syncretic approach here for several reasons, mostly for narrative consistency. Religion is a big plot point in the game, even if religions other than the Church of Seiros take the background. Not to mention the different real-world religions already present within that world (Egyptian, Greek, Irish, etc.). What was my reason for involving Judeo-Christian mythology in this mesh? Partly because I didn't want to bring in an insufficiently explained ROB, and because the architecture of the Church of Seiros is reminiscent of the style used in Christian cathedrals, but mostly because the entire magic system of Fire Emblem: Three Houses is based on Judeo-Christian theology and mysticism. Disrespect or disregard have nothing to do with this.

As for this chapter's recommended story, I present to you Harry Is A Dragon, And That's Okay by Saphroneth. It is a Harry Potter story in which Harry, for some reason, turns into a dragon when he is just a child. Shenanigans ensue. The story manages over the course of its over 600'000 words to balance humour and seriousness as the characters grow up. Definitely worth a read.

Now then, I hope none of you were bothered too much by this wall of text. I hope to see you again next time when I have an update for Headmates. Until then, have a good time.