Byleth and her group marched onwards to the Alliance territory. Her thoughts focused on what the best course of action after joining forces with Claude.
Petra gave a serious look. "Up ahead… There be many people."
Dorothea gave a confused look. "Did Claude come to meet us?"
As the army came closer, it was clear who it was. Seteth's face dropped, seeing their banner. "Oh no… not them. Why? How?"
Byleth looked up hearing everyone's commotion is, then gave a surprised look. A large army from the Empire, with Edelgard in command was standing right in front of them.
"Oh no! Why are they here?! What do we do?" Bernadetta shouted.
Byleth gave a stressed look. There was no way they could take on an army this size with being shortened on troops.
"Surrender now! Or we'd be forced to strike you down!" Edelgard shouted.
Everyone panicked and turned to Seteth and Byleth.
"… Run," Byleth ordered.
"What?!" Seteth shouted.
"Everyone get out of here!"
"Don't have to tell me twice!" Bernadetta turned her horse around and had it rush off.
"Oh come on! We shouldn't let these guys scare us off! I'll show y…" Casper paused and gave a horrid look. "T-That's… my father! Everyone run!" Casper then ran away as fast as he could.
"You can't be serious!" Lysithea shouted. She stayed to fight alongside Leoine, Raphael, and Ferdinand.
Suddenly Lorenz came riding in and knocked Raphael down with a blast of magic.
Lysithea was behind him, readying to take him out with Death Spikes. But then memories of his stupid goofy laugh flowed through her mind, how he went out of his way for everyone, and how he looked out for her when she needed it (even when she was annoyed about him doing that at the time). "I… can't," she muttered.
Byleth jumped in between Lorenz and Rapheal and pulled out her sword. "Everyone, please just get out of here!"
Ferdinand slowly nodded as he helped Raphael up as Leonie kept enemies busy. Then the three ran.
Everyone was running as fast as they could, but Byleth knew not everyone here is capable of outrunning horses, pegasi, and wyverns. And Edelgard had ordered her troops to capture them. If she wanted to protect them, she knew what she needed to do, despite something in her heart arguing against it. Byleth gave a serious look as more troops drew near.
Edelgard gave a surprise look. "She can't honestly think that fighting us off would do anything…" she muttered to herself.
Byleth put her sword in front of her, then dropped it far from her reach.
Seteth gave a distressed look. "What are… What are you doing!?"
"… I surrender!" Byleth looked at her with a serious look. "Please, just leave the others alone! They… they should be no concern to you, especially without me! So please… let them go!"
"Byleth, no!" Seteth shouted.
Edelgard gave a thoughtful look. The group themselves are a non-issue as they are now, but anyone could be problematic if left be and she can't afford that. But she does have a way to keep an eye on them. Plus, she did have a favor to owe to Byleth, as well as make it up to her for everything she had to allow them to have the power to hurt her. "Fine. For now, we shall let them escape."
Byleth gave a surprised look, as she was starting to doubt that she'd listen to her request.
"If they do cross our paths again however… I will refuse to be so merciful a second time."
"… Thank you."
Soldiers came and surrounded her, as one took checked for any other weapons, then took the Sword of Creator that she tossed on the ground and handed it to Edelgard.
"Byleth! Please, do something!" Seteth pleaded.
Byleth looked at up at Seteth who was on his wyvern, with a sympathetic look. "I'm sorry, I… I can't save her. But please, look after Flyan… and everyone."
Seteth gave a look of despair.
A soldier pushed Byleth along to get moving, and they slowly marched away.
Everyone, who all didn't get very far, came over to Seteth with a lost look.
"Now what should we do?" Hilda asked.
Claude got word that the group coming in was spotted and rushed out to greet them. "Hey everyone! Welcome!" He noticed everyone's gloom mood and gave a serious face. "Is everything okay?"
There was silence in the group.
Claude looked around and noticed someone was missing. "Hey, where's Byleth?" While Hilda was here, they talked about what has all happened with Dimitri and who all is coming with them, and he was certain that Hilda said she was coming with them.
Raphael come running to him with tears and snot running down his face. "Claude! You got to think of something! The Empire! They… they…" He started crying, as the guilt of being unable to save her ate him up.
Claude gave a puzzled look. "… The Empire did what?" It didn't take long for someone like Claude to figure it out though. His face dropped. "No…" Then he gave a serious look. "Just… why were they there in the first place?"
"We aren't sure… As we made our way here, they were suddenly in our path," Ferdinand explained.
Juidith and Claude looked at each other with a serious look, both worried about the same thing.
"Alright, we'll think of something to get her back. Let's try and stay calm and I figure things out from here," Claude told everyone.
Everyone got settled in, but there was still a lot of unease of what happened.
"Hey Linhardt, have you seen Raphael? I been thinking that if we train real hard, me and him could bust through to the Empire and save Byleth together!" Caspar said.
Linhardt gave a stressed look. "I… doubt it would be that simple to save her, no offense to you or Ralphael... But to answer your question, no."
"Bah! We'll show you!"
"Alright. I wish you luck against Edelgard… and you father."
Casper froze in his tracks with a mortified look.
"In any case… I don't think we are in good standing with the others here…"
"What do you mean?"
"Think about it… How did the Empire know that our forces, that was originally apart of Dimitri's group, know that we were heading this way and at the exact moment that we did?"
Casper gave a thoughtful look. "… Ugh, I got no clue."
Linhardt sighed. "Really Casper… it's quite obvious as to what happened, that I'm sure you could figure it out."
"Well… you could just save us the trouble and just explain it!"
Linhardt yawned. "I already feel exhausted enough. With all happened today with all that traveling, then running into the Empire… I need a nap."
"What? Ugh. Fine!" Casper ran off. "What would make us not on good terms with the others and what does that have to do with what happened…" He thought a bit. "The only thing I could think of… is someone here told the Empire but, who could that…" It dawned on him. Then he laughed. "Aww man, Linhardt worries too much. There's no way our allies would think we did it!"
Claude got everyone that originally came from his house, Seteth, Catherine, Cyril, Shamir, Felix and Annette.
Raphael looked around with a confused look. "Uh… this seems smaller than our group meetings with Byleth. Where's Casper? Ferdinand? And…!"
Felix gave him an annoyed look. "Isn't it obvious? There's a spy in our ranks! And the ones living in the Empire are huge suspects!"
Raphael gave a hurt look. "But… I can't see Casper double crossing us! We are great pals!"
"It's definitely not Linhardt. It'd be too much work to even try to work as a spy for the Empire," Leonie stated.
Annette gave a sad look. "I can't really think of any one of them that'll put us in danger like that! I mean, sure they are from the Empire, but…"
Claude sighed. "I hate thinking that one of them is a part of the enemy, especially since the spy could also be none of them…"
"None of them?" Seteth questioned.
Claude gave him a serious look. "Yes. I think you really need a thorough look at your ranks, given 'Tomas' and Jeritza…"
Seteth gave an annoyed look. "W-Well i… Just…" Though Seteth sighed knowing Claude had a point. The problem was, how is he going to go about doing it? Tomas didn't seem untrustworthy at all, and they thoroughly checked through Jeritza as well. It's quite clear to him that maybe they don't know how to find trustworthy people and any of them could be spies.
"I really don't think Petra is a spy, given her situation. Plus, she went out of her way to make sure Brigid doesn't support the Empire…" Ignatz stated.
Marianne looked away with a unsure look. "I… can't imagine my friend, Bernadetta being a spy…"
"Yeah, no way! She constantly kept herself shut in her room unless told to come out by Byleth or one of us. It's highly unlikely it's her!" Hilda shouted.
Lysithea gave a serious look. "Ferdinand doesn't like Edelgard in the slightest, especially given what she's done to his father. I can't see him being the spy for her."
"That leaves Dorothea…" Shamir stated.
"How much use would it be for one commoner to be a spy?" Catherine asked.
Shamir shrugged.
"I'm going to be honest… This war seems to have really dragged on her emotionally. I doubt she'd have the heart or will to work as a spy."
Claude crossed his arms with a serious look. "So, it's not likely one of those who live in the Empire. Which means we are going to keep a close eye on the Central Church soldiers."
"I… understand," Seteth said.
Annette sighed. "I'm glad none of our close allies are under suspicion anymore…"
Felix crossed his arms. "So now what? We get we can trust those in our ranks that lives in the Empire, but what are we supposed to do now?"
"I'm sure Claude has a plan to get to the Empire! Right Claude?" Hilda asked.
Claude gave a serious look as he closed his eyes.