Been keeping this on the backburner for a while as I decided to play Three Houses to refresh myself. I noticed Dimitri sounded different from what he currently does in Part 1 in Three Houses than the rest of the spin-off appearances in other games. For the record, I'm playing Blue Lions with Male Byleth, sorry to all F!Byleth X Dimitri fans. Even I like the pairing but I wanted to do something different. Oh, and a small spoiler alert for the next chapter-Byleth is already a dad.

The three students watched with wide eyes, mouths agape while Jeralt had that knowing smile. It had always been the reaction whenever his kid had used that form in combat. Manipulation of shadows as a secondary skin that served as an extra layer of armor gave the kid a demonic appearance, which made the 'Demon' in his name all the more fitting. Jeralt's senses the familiar presence of her walking towards them. His vice-captain, an Outworlder that helped him leave Fódlan into the other Realms of Emblems and other worlds beyond them.

"What is he doing in that form so soon?" she demanded in her usual calm, aloof tone in that genuinely pleasant voice. The woman was in her twenties, long wavy dark brown hair, brown eyes, adorned in a black dress and a black veil on her head was currently having her arms folded and a frown of disapproval on her usually stoic face. "You know that he'll be worn out faster since he's not in peak condition anymore, Jeralt. Why are you having him fight like that?" she asked as the night chill was getting worse after she asked that.

"I'm afraid we are to blame, miss." the blond young man replied in an apologetic tone. She turned to finally notice the three kids and blinked as she noticed their uniform.

"Ah nobility…promoting the mercenary forces again, Jeralt?" she accused with a side glance as Jeralt scratched the back of his head.

"Well it wouldn't hurt to advertise what we can do to these young nobles can't we? We might be able to find a good job from them." he reasoned.

She shook her head, "Not when Byleth's strength is this low; you know how the rituals work Jeralt, yet you want him to die even with Shez's help?" she asked with a faint look of disapproval as she held a hand out and through black magic, she gripped something. Was the object a scepter or a spear? It had the tip of the spear, yet it was ornate and looked like a staff or scepter a royal would wield in court, and it looked like organic silver.

The three students felt the primal power within it and cautiously were on guard as the woman took a step forward. "I'm going to step in to help, and they are about to pop in. Send the signal Jeralt." she told the Captain before walking towards the battlefield. Jeralt wasted no time as he pulled a tubelike contraption from his belt, aimed it at the sky and fired a flare into the night sky. Suddenly, every mercenary in Jeralt's group was out, armed and alert with caution as they surrounded the village protectively. From the looks of it, they were well trained and experienced with what they were doing.

"Wh-what's going on sir?" Dimitri asked, alarmed and impressed by how serious they all were and how well equipped these mercenaries were.

"Rift Beasts." Jeralt answered with a growl as he gestured to a wagon with weapons on them. "Get something to protect yourselves, they're coming in any second." he told the three students before looking at another mercenary. "Has that blasted-"

A roar in the sky interrupted as several people looked up to see a massive wyvern, twice the size of any ordinary wyvern with pitch black scales and menacing green eyes flying in the night, circling around as Jeralt looked relieved. "Good, now we have aerial advantage." he noted before getting on his horse. "Get ready, the monsters are coming."

The three students drew a deep breath as they prepared for the worst, as something did. A hole in the world, a tear in the fabric of reality as something clawed its way out from the other side of the forest. It was grotesque in nature, big, potbellied, green skinned with a piglike face and long large tusks, the humanoid being let loose a battle cry.

"What in the Goddess's name is that?!" one of the bandits cried out in alarm before being impaled by a spear by the vice captain. She took notice of the creature and felt its strength and noticed something off about it.

"Strange, this one is weaker than the ones we've fought back in Archanea, Valentia and Valla. A scout, perhaps?" the vice captain thought with some concern as she snapped her fingers and three more bandits were literally reduced to ash. Byleth and Shez had already cleared out most of them with Byleth reverting to his normal visage to conserve his energy but she can tell he's partially winded. Shez was showing genuine concern for him as she had the leader of the bandits pinned to a tree via sword in the arm. That man was going to be feeling that for life.

The rift began to expand, and more of those creatures

Orcs, Lesser Orcs. Byproducts of space-time instability and pulling other creatures from their native worlds into other worlds as an invasive species. Corrupted by a dark will to destroy the balance of worlds and to build armies for conquest. Her spear resonated with the rift as she began to make her way towards the orcs and the rift. "Hakuno." the voice of Byleth spoke up from behind, as Hakuno Kishinami turned to her disciple with a calm look. "We're with you." he said as Shez walked to them and nodded her head.

"This is a new experience for me, and since I'm most likely going to be doing this often with you guys, I might as well get some practice in." Shez reasoned with a smile. Footsteps from behind them made all turns to see the three student clients armed with weapons of their preferences with a focused look on their faces.

"We are going to join in on this, for the situation has escalated and you will need all the help you need." the white haired girl, Edelgard started with a will to see it through.

"Given how you knew these things were coming, it'd be fair enough to say you guys were here to stop them. A helping hand from afar wouldn't be a problem now, right?" Claude reasoned with a playful wink as Dimitri took a step with a serious look on his face.

"As future rulers of our lands, it is imperative that we stop these beasts before innocents suffer." he motioned with a tone of duty and righteousness in his reasoning. Hakuno could see a few certain knights she's acquainted with nodding their heads in approval of him already. The three won't budge from this and she might as well make it worth it.

"These things are small fry, the dregs of their society that serve as scouts. Kill them fast and keep them occupied until I seal that rift. Byleth, lead them. Show them what it means to lead warriors into battle. Shez, support and do not use that unless a big one shows up."

"Understood./Yes ma'am!" Both Byleth and Shez respectfully responded.

"Oh and Byleth," she tossed her student a Silver Sword as he swung it experimentally. "Since your blade is still being reforged, use that instead." He swung it once to get a feel of it before nodding his head and stepped forward to lead the four as Hakuno stood back, her weapon in scepter mode as she held it overhead and began working her magic.

"This is your first time dealing with Orcs, their lesser kin still but nonetheless…" Byleth began as the four before a single orc was before them and in a flash, Byleth cut one of its legs, making it kneel and swiftly beheaded it once its neck was in range. "Let the lesson begin." he told them, unaware that the line spoken would be used quite often in the future. "Lesser Orcs are slow and foolish, but very strong." Byleth began explaining before gesturing to follow him. "Nobles, you must focus on aiming for either the head, neck, spine or the heart. The belly fat of theirs makes it impossible to damage their organs from the front with how thick it is." The three nobles nodded in understanding as they all hid behind trees as several orcs were looking around for food.

"Their weight is also a weakness due to their legs being short and stumpy. Cripple one of them and they fall like rocks and struggle to get back up thanks to that fat belly of theirs. The main tactic is to cripple a leg and make sure they fall on their backs or kneel so a killing blow is absolute."

He gestured at the watchtower in the middle of the forest. "Archer," Claude blinked at the nickname since the boy realized he hadn't introduced himself to the mercenaries yet. "-go up there and aim swift and true. But be careful, while they may be foolish, they aren't stupid. If you make too many killing shots they'll realize you as the actual threat and focus on taking you out. Make sure that you focus solely on lone individuals without any of their allies nearby to alert your existence."

Ah, a tactical sneak attack? Now he was liking this man already. "Whatever you say, Teach!" Claude jokingly called him that, feeling like the nickname would fit him in a way. If only he knew….

"Lancer," now Dimitri blinked since he was the one wielding a lance. "If you're going for a frontal assault, then make sure to aim for the legs first. Given how slow they are, you'll be able to make quick work of toppling them for a final blow." Byleth instructed them before turning to Edelgard.

Said girl narrowed her eyes and spoke up before he did. "I am Edelgard." she stated. The hidden message of not wanting a nickname like the ones he gave Claude and Dimitri were apparent in her tone.

"Miss Edelgard, you focus on weapon breaking with that ax of yours. They wield simple clubs and these orcs have poor gripping. Work in tandem with Lancer to give them a swift death." Edelgard shared a look with Dimitri and they both nodded their heads in agreement. "Shez, you and I will draw the orcs back to the rift, make them focus on us. We have to make them think we're going to destroy the rift while Hakuno closes it from afar." Shez smiled and nodded in understanding as she held her spare blade in hand. With that, the six made their assault on the invading orcs.

Jeralt watched from afar on his horse, knowing his kid was capable of handling it with the others before looking over at Hakuno who was channeling power into the staff as the jewel in the head of it glowed softly. He was no fool, there was always a priority of keeping her safe when she's trying to close rifts. One-time failure was a haunting enough experience when it happened last time. He did not want to endure those smells ever again.

Soon enough with Byleth leading the charge and his guidance on how to handle these orcs, they successfully slayed them all and Hakuno managed to close the rift. Then an all too familiar voice rang out in the night that made Jeralt facepalm.

"The Knights of Seiros are here! Have at you, you fiends for attacking our students!" the leader of the upcoming group of knights screamed out.

"Ugh, why did it have to be him?" Jeralt groaned out in dismay as Hakuno raised a brow.

"Old acquaintance?" she guessed.

"Old acquaintance." He confirmed before looking at the leader of the bandits, Kostas, who was still pinned to the tree thanks to Shez and began walking towards him in a slow and menacing way that scared the living daylights out of the man.

For Kostas, he knew his life was over the minute the Ashen Demon appeared as his opponent; now, Jeralt the Bladebreaker was here and if he were to make a lucky guess who that lady in black was...then the Ashen Witch was a few feet away and it would have made his bladder break if he hadn't emptied it before attacking the noble brats. Jeralt's spear was at his neck and he looked irritated. "Squeal like a pig, who hired you to target the brats?" he demanded. And thus, Kostas squealed of how a mysterious armored figure paid him and his group to take out the head students of the Officer's Academy and the exact locations and time when to strike. That was all he knew before Jeralt stabbed him in the heart and made his death swift.

"Captain Jeralt, is that you?" That familiar voice was now close and the man sighed as Byleth and his group returned. Jeralt turned to the voice and there he was, his old squire who had grown quite a bit since he last saw the man years ago.

The river known as time had caught up to him after all these years, and the old mercenary was going to face the music.

A/N: These are Byleth's current stats and the reason why Byleth is Level 1 will be explained in the next chapter, although there was a faint hint why in dialogue in this chapter.

Byleth Eisner

Level 1

Class: Commoner (Mastered)

Abilities:

Professor's Guidance

Sword Prowess Lv 5

Brawling Prowess Lv 1

Authority Lv 1

Lance Prowess Lv 1

Reason Lv 1

HP+5 (Mastered Commoner/Noble Class bonus Ability)

Spellcaster Magus Lv 1 (Reduces Cost of Reason and Faith by a small margin)

Reaver of Souls (Soul Reaver) Lv 1-Enemy kills restore health or magic cost

Ashen Demon Lv 1 (Doubles all stats for a set amount of time.)

Weapon Levels (Currently using)

Sword: A+

Lance: E+ (Beginning learning this with Jeralt, thus the +)

Reason: D+ (Has learned the basic Fire spell.)

Authority: E

Magecraft* (Unknown Art in Fódlan, cannot be analyzed at the moment)

Combat Arts: (Sword)

Wrath Strike

Grounder

Bane of Monsters

Axebreaker

Windsweep

A/N: Next chapter will have Hakuno's stats and quotes at the end.