"G-Greetings my friend, I'm Dudley. What's your name?"

The gatekeeper's voice made Byleth look up. He saw a memory of the knight extending his hand to him outside the audience chamber in the courtyard. The setting of the memory then changed to the pier, where he'd sat with the knight as they'd fished.

"I'll be honest, you kinda scared me when I first met you but behind all that Ashen Demon stuff, you're a pretty normal nice guy."

Byleth looked at the knight's goofy grin and waited for one of the other voices, that of Alain's or the juggler's to return, to but they didn't. It was Flayn's excited and high-pitched voice that came next. He turned to see her staring up at him at the gates of the monastery with wide, excited eyes.

"I must insist that we become friends, we have so much in common!"

The setting changed and he looked up at her from the infirmary bed.

"Please Moira, I must help him!"

"Because he is now my friend and because I am also friends with his father, Jeralt the Blade Breaker. I have learnt so much about Byleth from him already. He is a good person, one who has saved countless people as a mercenary, and he deserves all the help and support possible."

Byleth forced a breath in and then looked down. Another memory appeared at his feet.

"When me and Edelgard were being overrun, you stepped in and saved our lives," Dimitri's voice echoed. "You were already exhausted from your battle the day before and yet you fought with such captivating skill. You are an incredible warrior."

"I didn't get to see as much of you as the others did,' Claude said. 'But I saw enough at the end. You were toe to toe with that giant, and that's enough in my book to be labelled a badass."

The two future rules gazed at him approvingly in the memory from Remire, and then Edelgard spoke to him.

"You're an incredible warrior with battle experience that none of the other teachers possess. There's much we can learn from you."

Moira came next, sitting beside him in the infirmary.

"All I ask is that if you cannot deal with the problem yourself then don't suffer in silence, it will ruin your life, and you deserve so much better than that."

'Tell me that everyone hates you,' Sothis said.

Byleth turned to her. Fresh tears rolled down her face but now she was smiling.

"To think your first fish is the rarest one in all Fódlan. Proud of you, kid, you're incredible."

His eyes widened. He spun and saw Arthur grinning his goofy grin at him. He himself was holding his rod up, the goddess messenger fish dangling from his hook. The memory changed and Arthur, who'd been standing with him in the river in North Airmid, now sat on a bench beside him.

"Got your nose!"

Byleth trembled, but no longer from fear. He blinked, and then remembered exactly when the memory had taken place. He suddenly knew what his old friend was going to say next.

"I think there's a grin hiding under there."

Byleth felt his breath escape him, and then something happened to him that hadn't occurred in years. It only lasted for a few moments, but Sothis saw it and it made her lips tremble.

A feint smile broke out on his face.

Arthur's face beamed. "Knew it! An amazing kid with an amazing smile."

"Thank you."

Byleth looked up and saw himself give a tissue to a small, impoverished girl. He remembered her, he'd went to help her after she'd fallen in in Enbarr and had injured herself. The memory played out, and then Sothis spoke again.

'Tell me that you are soulless, tell me that you cannot care for others.'

"Is everything alright?"

He turned again and saw Lilia's watching him with her big blue eyes. A lump rose in his throat.

"You're braver than you think."

'T-Tell me you are unloved,' Sothis said.

In the memory, Lilia embraced him in a tight hug and he let out a silent cry. He felt his chest flutter. His body, which had felt sluggish for so long, not just in the past week, but for years, now felt light. The air was suddenly sweet and he drank in as much of it as he could. A warmth glowed inside him and it made him unclench his hands and drop his shoulders. He lifted his head and closed his eyes, savouring the feeling. In that moment, his mind wasn't calling him a monster, or telling him he was unloved. His mind was quiet, and the silence felt like the sweetest sound he'd ever heard.

'You are a kind and caring man who goes out of his way to help others,' Sothis said, 'and you are someone who is loved. You are someone who deserves just as much as anyone else in this world.'

A final voice came and Byleth opened his eyes. The voice came from two memories, both much more recent than the ones of Arthur or Lilia, but it came from a man he'd known his whole life. He looked at his father.

"You're actually more qualified for this role than you realise. You've travelled all over Fódlan and have survived its different dangers. You've fought alongside some of the land's best warriors against all kinds of enemies and you've played your part in carrying out all kinds of different battle strategies in different terrains and conditions, all the while saving many lives. You can do well with these brats, you just don't know it yet."

"And you should be proud, you need to remember that your students are some of the most important people in the Adrestian Empire, and they've chosen you as their leader. That wasn't by accident, it's a testament to you. So just remember, you can do this, and know that I'm proud of you."

'You are enough,' Sothis said.

Jeralt put a hand on his shoulder and then vanished. Byleth reached out and grasped into the darkness. He turned to Sothis and she giggled.

'This feeling in you, it is wonderful, exciting. It is how you felt when you were younger, it is how you deserve to feel more often.'

Byleth stared at her, the being he'd feared for most of his life, the being that'd haunted him to the core, and then dropped to one knee and lowered his head.

'H-Help me.'