For the first time, Byleth managed to sit with all the Black Eagles in the dining hall. None of them spoke much, which he suspected was as much down to fatigue as it was wariness about the next day. Both Claude and Dimitri came to their table as they ate and shook each of their hands.

'I cannot wait to face you tomorrow, Byleth,' Dimitri said. 'May we have a glorious battle.'

'Just make sure to go easy on us,' Claude said, winking. 'Don't make us look too bad, eh?'

The Black Eagles retired to their rooms soon after finishing their food, leaving Byleth by himself. Flayn skipped over to chat to him, but then fled when Seteth entered the room. Byleth himself tried to leave at that moment but Seteth caught his eye and strode towards him.

'Byleth, feeling ready for the mock battle tomorrow?'

Byleth nodded, knowing that any other answer would land him into trouble. The man's eyes narrowed.

'I heard you chose to fishing with your students, is that true?'

'Yes.'

Seteth frowned at him and then rubbed his face. 'I'm expecting a stellar performance tomorrow. Good luck.'

'My, you are exhausted,' Sothis said.

'Yeah,' Byleth muttered, collapsing into his bed.

'But you did well today, very well.'

'I hope so.'

'You know did. Going fishing turned out to be a wonderful idea, and again, the way you handled the girl, Bernadetta, was special. The Ashen Demon could not have done that, but you did, because you are not him, you are Byleth.'

'I… I still don't know if I can win tomorrow.'

'But you know that does not matter.'

'It is about sincerely trying my best.'

'Exactly!'

Byleth nodded and paused for a moment. 'You… still don't know why you're in my head?'

'What do you think?'

Byleth nodded again and closed his eyes. He was exhausted, partly because he'd stayed up late the night before, planning, but he supposed he was also tired because of…-

Everything.

In the space of a few weeks his life had changed dramatically. He'd went from simple mercenary to teacher of the future rulers of the Adrestian Empire and had had to go through an extraordinary illness. A lot on the outside had tired him, but he supposed it was what'd happened inside that exhausted him the most. He thought about Sothis, sensing (how, he didn't know) that she wasn't listening to him in that moment. He thought about her, once again wondering if he was crazy, if everything around him had simply turned him mad. If it had, he didn't care. All that mattered to him was that he wasn't where he was before. Crazy or not, at the stone steps, when he'd heard the voices of Moira, Flayn, Dudley, Lilia, Arthur and Jeralt, he'd never felt so wonderful, and all that mattered to him was to do the things that would allow him to feel like that more often.

Sincerely try my best.

He drifted into slumber moments later.