'Am-am I doing it right?'

Byleth had never heard a tremble in the Edelgard's voice before. The normally sleek heiress for once looked clumsy. She was hunched over and her knees were squint.

'Stand straight,' he called. 'And'-

'I know!' Edelgard said, frowning. Although her posture suggested she didn't.

Byleth watched them from the top of the steps where Bernadetta had been. Initially he'd opted to stand at the end of the bank, but that had still been too close for Bernadetta's liking and so he'd moved. He watched the students, all of them now standing (or sitting in Linhardt's case) in a line at the edge of the pond, fishing. Hubert stood inches from Edelgard's side and Dorothea, Petra and Ferdinand all stood near Bernadetta, trying and failing to direct her disjointed and trembling jabs of her fishing rod. Byleth watched her, wondering what Jeralt and Alain's thoughts of the girl would've been. The idea that a girl, one terrified of her own shadow and unable to even stand within ten feet of her leader out of fear, was supposed to fight would have bamboozled both men. Jeralt would have called her a "poor soul" whilst Alain would have labelled her as "pathetic", he was sure, but then he remembered her prowess with the bow and arrow. He remembered watching her the previous evening, execute each shot of her bow with a level of precision and skill that outmatched him and at very least, put her on par with Alain. In terms of skill, she would have got into Jeralt's mercenaries easily.

But her anxiety….

He didn't know what to do about it and supposed that it was already a miracle that she was fishing. To get her to do anything more felt impossible.

All I can do is sincerely try my bes-

'Agh, it's pulling!' Bernadetta cried, her voice rapidly rising. 'What do I do?! Help!'

'Pull Bern!' Dorothea cheered. 'Pull!'

Bernadetta pulled with jerking motions. 'Gah! I-i-it's too... too s-strong!' Her voice rose with a trembling cry.

Dorothea took the pole and began reeling in. Bernadetta stood shaking at one side.

'Gosh... Bern...' Dorothea grunted. 'I think you've caught a big one.'

Bernadetta shrieked again, louder this time. Dorothea gave a final yank of the rod and up came the biggest fish Byleth had seen all day… in a long time. It could fit across a table… a queen loach? No, bigger. Dorothea pulled the line in the way Byleth had shown her to, but in that moment, it was the worst thing she could've done.

'Eek! That's not a fish that's a monster! Get that away from me!' Bernadetta jerked sideways, seeming to forget that she standing inches from her classmates and the pond.

'Woah,' Ferdinand said. 'Watch out Berna'-

'Bern it's o'-

Bernadetta jerked into Ferdinand and caught Petra's shoulder. Her heel hit the edge of the bank and she slipped. Byleth watched as she fell in the water with a thundering splash.