Felix walked up to Claude with a serious look. "Do you really think everyone that's from the Empire that's here can really be ruled out? Some of them weren't really in the clear…"
Claude gave a shocked look. "Don't trust all those who you've fought alongside with, huh?"
"Not all of them."
"Huh, wasn't expecting you to answer so harshly about your allies. But in any case, I agree."
Felix gave him an annoyed look. "So why didn't you say any of this to the group?"
Claude shrugged. "Didn't see any need for everyone to worry about it."
"What, you don't think everyone needs to keep an eye on them?"
"Nah. I got others here keeping an eye on them. Plus, I don't care for everyone going at each other for who's innocent and who isn't."
Felix crossed his arms. "Then what the hell was the point of wasting time in the meeting then?"
"Well, it did narrow it down…" It would of course, have helped if anyone had any concerns about the former Black Eagles.
Felix sighed. "What a waste of time…" he walked away.
"What a joy he is…" Claude then smirked.
Caspar sighed, as he spent so much time looking around for Raphael but after searching the whole area, all he saw around where everyone that came with him in the Black Eagles. He gave a worried look. "Could Linhardt been right?" he wondered.
"Hey, Caspar! What's up bud?"
Caspar turned to who spoke to him with a smile, recognizing the voice. "Raphael l! I've been looking everywhere for ya!" He then gave a worried look.
Raphael frowned, noticing Caspar's worry. "Really? Is there something wrong?"
"Well I was just… you don't think we told off the Empire of our plans… Do you?"
"It's just what I came out of discussing with the others…"
"But we didn't do it! You got to…!"
"I know! We know! All of us vouched for everyone that wasn't there. Claude and everyone now agrees that it can't be you guys! You're all in the clear!"
"Oh? That's great! Well, I say we find the real rat working with the Empire!"
Raphael gave a confused look. "It's… a rat that got Byleth captured?"
"What? No! It's a… what I'm saying is, we can find the spy!"
"Oh…." Then Raphael gave an unsure look. "But… how are we supposed to do that?"
"Just trust in my instincts and we'll be sure to find em!"
Raphael gave an impressed look. "Wow, that sounds awesome! How do I get my instincts to be that reliable?"
Caspar gave a stressed look. "Well, uh… I'm not sure? It's just something that I was always able to trust and have it be right."
Raphael sighed. "I see…"
"But don't you worry! Tomorrow, we'll get em!"
Dimitri was convinced to let everyone take a rest from their last battle. Ashe had sustained heavy injuries from an attack led by Hubert, and he wasn't the only one Mercedes has to tend to.
Mercedes narrowed her eyes as she went to heal his wounds. "This battle… even Dimitri himself barley was able to squeak by, and in the end, Hubert escaped. And he still doesn't want to stop?" she thought to herself.
Suddenly, Seteth flew in. "There you are! I have some unfortunate news! And a request…" He had to come in himself, as none of his messengers could be trusted. It was agreed upon, for Claude said he'd help out with looking for spies his ranks. However, he never did tell him how he planned to look into them, but he had no choice but to trust him.
"What is it, Seteth?" Rodrigue asked.
"The Empire…! They… They got Byleth!"
Everyone gave a surprised look.
Dimitri stood there with a stunned look. Memories flooded in of first meeting her and how they slowly started to open up to each other. How she seemed to slowly learn to open her emotions to everyone, and aways led everyone with care. And as they worked together, the more he found to have in common with her and cared for her. He clenched his fist. "Byleth… Byleth's been captured?"
"Yes, and if we can just… work together with Claude to stop them, we might have a chance to save her!"
"Well Dimitri, what's your call?" Gilbert asked.
Mercedes stood up with a serious look. "You'll do it! Right, Dimitri?"
Everyone stared at her with a serious look.
Mercedes clenched her fists. "You go on and on saying how you live for the dead, but what about the living? Rhea? Us? Byleth? You have been having us run straight towards the Empire when each battle we barley escape with our lives!"
"You could've left with her, you know… I'm not forcing you to come with me," Dimitri responded.
"And if we all leave, then what do we do? How could we save Rhea and Byleth?"
"Go and join up with Claude, if you can't keep up with me…"
"You can't keep this up and you know it!"
Dimitri looked away with an angry look.
Mercedes gave a hurt look. "What if you get killed? How can Rhea and Byleth be rescued then?"
Rodrigue gave a serious look. "If I may, working with Claude and the others there could help us get to Edelgard faster. More healers there than just one, with getting our strength back that we lost and more…"
"Plus with our current resource and financial issues, we need some assistance…" Gilbert stated.
Seteth gave a confused look. He was certain that they were well off on both resources and gold for quite some time. At least, a few more long fights than one.
"… If we head straight to Edelgard, then I'll do it."
Fleche glared at them. She joined up with them not too long after the group went their separate ways, and did so to kill him. The one who treated her brother so horribly and like he had no right to any compassion. During the night when they were all asleep, she snuck around their camp and gathered what weapons she could grab and had them sent to the Empire. She couldn't find the heroes relics for some reason, but she had other plans to get those. But of course, they had enough money that they split from the other group to get them all new weapons. And even though she got Ashe to leave, making up some bogus story of some bandit chasing a woman, to put some poisonous plant in the stew he made that gave them diarrhea and got rid of their food supply as well, but they were still able to win the battle and worse, he lives. At least some entertainment came from it. But he needs to die, and even if she had to do it herself. She will kill him.
The next morning, Caspar, Rapheal, and Ignatz went around the area to talk to Serios soldiers.
Ignatz sighed, as Caspar went to the next soldier. "I really doubt this is effective. Plus… doing it this way could be problematic for us all in the long run," he whispered to Raphael.
"But he says his instincts are never wrong! So what could go wrong?" Raphael asked.
Ignatz gave a worried look.
"Hey, I got a question!" Caspar shouted.
The soldier groaned. "What do you want? Can't you see I'm busy?"
"You're a spy for the Empire, aren't you?!"
The man started sweating. "WHAT?!" His voice sounded three octaves higher than when he first spoke. "I mean I… W-W-What gave you that idea?!"
Caspar crossed his arms. "If you aren't than why are you acting so nervous?"
The man suddenly screamed in such a high pitch, that everyone around was concerned about a woman in despair as he ran off as fast as he could.
"Get back here!" Caspar ran after him.
"Oh no!" Ignatz shouted. He ran after them.
"What? He found a spy! That's good!" Raphael stated as he followed them.
It didn't take long though before Alliance soldiers came out and stopped the Serios soldier. "Stop right there!"
The man froze in his tracks and the Alliance soldiers restrained him and took him in.
"Yeah! You're welcome!" Caspar shouted.
"Keep your mouth shut! You caused us more trouble than anything!" an Alliance soldier snapped.
"What? I just helped us find the spy!" Caspar crossed his arms. "So ungrateful…"
"Listen Caspar, I'm… not really sure what Claude is up to, but I think he planned to observe the highly suspected people without causing them any… suspension, as it'd be better for us if they didn't catch on," Ignatz explained.
"… Whoops. Well, why didn't you stop me?"
"I… I tried. Every time I tried to stop you, you tell me to let you handle it and rush in without letting me say a single word!"
"Oh right…"
"… And that's what we found about Caspar," a messenger told Claude.
"Well, he did almost mess things up for us, but he did find us one spy, so I think that gets him out of any suspicion," Judith explained.
Claude nodded. "My thoughts exactly. And despite all his actions, we caught a lot!" He held a bunch of opened letters from those who were pretending to work for the Central Church, that all were addressing what had happened and were addressed to Edelgard.
Judith crossed her arms with a stressed look. "What a mess. Is there any way we can know for certain that we captured them all?"
Claude sighed. "I wish I knew…"