Dorothea returned with a shaking, but clearly drained Bernadetta a short while later and sat down with her at the back of the classroom. Edelgard suggested that they spend the morning running through the mock battle and their plans for it that they'd organised with Seteth. Byleth agreed. She rolled out a large map out onto her table and everyone, apart from Bernadetta and Dorothea, gathered around. The map was of a large field that according to Edelgard was on the outskirts of Gareg Mach Monastery and would be where the mock battle would take place. It was dotted with clumps of trees and mounds and mostly inclined north. A valley with a large stream lay on one side and a tall ridge surrounded the field in a near-perfect rectangular shape. There were two main strips of woodland, one in the north-western portion and one near the centre.

Edelgard explained the rules of the mock battle to him again. It was a three-way battle between the Black Eagles, Blue Lions and Golden Deer classes, each of whom would be led by their professors. They would fight with practice weapons and non-lethal magic spells until one class remained standing. Each participant would wear a coloured sash, the Black Eagles would wear red ones (Edelgard ignored Ferdinand when he asked why they didn't get black sashes), the Blue Lions would wear blue, and the Golden Deer class would wear yellow ones. A participant was considered eliminated from the mock battle once their sash had been destroyed or ripped from them. The eliminated participant would then join the spectators (everyone else at the monastery, including students, monks, knights, teachers and people such as Lady Rhea and Seteth, in other words), at the top of the ridge to watch the rest of the battle. The Golden Deer class's starting position on the field, Edelgard continued, would be in the strip of dense woodland in the northwest, whilst the Blue Lions would begin on the northeast side amongst tall, grassy mounds.

'It is likely that from their starting point that the Golden Deer will try to take up a defensive stance in the woods, whilst the Blue Lions will either attempt to draw them out or move towards us in the south instead. We begin here.'

She traced her finger down to the bottom of the map. Byleth eyed the area and blinked. As if reading his mind, Dorothea spoke.

'I didn't want to say to Seteth, but our starting point isn't fair, Edie. (She chewed her fingernail as she spoke.) The other two classes get to start at the top of the hill whilst we need to go up it.'

'I agree,' Edelgard said, 'but I would take positives from it. We won't always have favourable conditions when we fight so this is good practice within a safe environment.'

'Seteth recommended that we move to the centre strip of woodland and take up a defensive position there,' Ferdinand said. 'What do you think, Professor?'

Byleth studied the map, suddenly feeling the eyes of the students on him, Hubert's especially so.

'I agree with Seteth.'

'Of course you do.'

Byleth looked up at Hubert. A feint smile grew on the student's face. 'You were reinstated as our teacher because we believed you would provide a better alternative to Seteth as professor with all your battle experience. Surely you are not here just to copy his ideas?'

'Hubert,' Edelgard said.

'I wholeheartedly support Byleth's argument,' Linhardit said. 'I have absolutely no intention of moving any further uphill then needed.'

Byleth eyed Linhardt and wondered how Alain would've reacted to his comment.

He would've killed him.

For a moment, he forgot what Linhardt did, before remembering that he was a magic healer. That made another question pop into his head.

'How do magic and aerial attacks work in the mock battle?'

'Magic wielders will be allowed to use non-lethal attacks from an approved list,' Edelgard said. 'They will hurt a bit but not too much. A direct hit from one will be enough to remove sashes. Arrows will be enchanted, meaning that they will disintegrate before they hit their target, but their enchantment means that their tips will cause sashes to disintegrate if they get close to them. Healing magic won't affect the condition of a sash but can help as normal with any injuries and provide an energy boost.'

The remainder of the morning was spent listening to the heiress as she covered different strategies related to the battle. Most of them revolved around remaining together in the first strip of woodland. She also discussed some of the opposing students they'd need to watch out for. Supposedly, the small white-haired girl from the Golden Deer class, Lysithea, was a magic prodigy. Dimitri, Dedue, Felix and Sylvain were supposedly the strongest hand-to-hand combatants whilst Claude would be their biggest aerial threat. Edelgard asked Byleth to share what his main combat specialities were and so he told them that he was primarily a swordsman but was also skilled with the bow. She then talked about how Manuela and Hanneman were both mages whom they'd need to be wary of.

Byleth listened but observed his students as he did so. Ferdinand's face was deflated, Petra had stared at the same part of the map the entire morning, Dorothea was still biting her nails and Edelgard kept rubbing her eyes. Bernadetta's gaze was downward, Linhardt kept yawning and Hubert seemed more focused on glaring at him then focusing on their plan.

A gnawing sensation grew in his stomach.