AN: I don't really have any comments to make here... um... reviews!
To Bustertank (Apr 21, 2024): I'm going to have to refrain from saying too much here. Edelgard and Hubert are certainly having thoughts though.
To ThatOneTrap (Apr 22, 2024): Thanks! and hmm.. I'll try to keep that in mind. The PoV may be relatively limited, but I'll try to keep some insight into what others are thinking.
To Guest (Apr22,2024): Page Turning Intensifies
To Morrowing (Apr 25, 2024): Thanks, I take a lot of pride in trying to respect the mechanics of the game, and I'm happy that whenever anyone notices!
To Sinfel (May 13, 2024), Peer2Peer (May 20, 2024), and Potato-Sama69 (May 26/28, 2024): Well here is the next chapter, and I'm not planning on stopping anytime soon!
Haunting Daybreak - Common Issues
"Hey, boss? I still don't get it," the bandit turned mercenary asked his compatriot.
"What's there not to get?" The man answered, " we do this, we get paid."
The first bandit- mercenary looked over to the girl driving the cart they were now escorting. Said girl paying little mind to their conversation.
"I figured that much out," the man continued, turning back to his boss, "but she's paying us with the money in the cart… we could just take the cart."
The boss man didn't answer that, instead turning to the girl in the cart.
"There's little actual gold in here, and it isn't worth much if you can't find the right people," Reidun explained with a gesture to her cart, despite seemingly not having paid attention up until that point. "Anyway, you can only rob me once, but if you work for me, you'll be taking my coin continuously."
"What she said," the bandit boss- mercenary leader agreed.
The first bandit- mercenary blinked owlishly.
"Ugh, are we sure she's actually 14?"
The boss shrugged.
"As long as I'm paid, I don't really care."
5th of the Great Tree Moon, 1180
It was always queer for Reidun to think about her first foray into leadership. She'd only learned later that it was far from usual. Reviewing the practice battle only seemed to emphasise the point.
A polite cough from the bed brought her out of her deep thoughts.
"Not that I mind being visited by a beautiful maiden like this, but, Reidun, what are you doing here?" Sylvain asked.
"We agreed to spend this evening together," Reidun looked up from her notes, her expression worried. "If you're suffering from memory loss, then your concussion was much worse than Manuela diagnosed. Did Dimitri hit you that hard?"
"No, no, I'm fine." Sylvain dismissed with a chuckle, "but we're not going to be able to have a scenic walk while I'm confined to the infirmary."
"...which is why we're instead working together on professor Hanneman's report," Reidun concluded. Quick to disguise her genuine concern as an attempt at a joke. "I only got to watch, and you were knocked out early, so we can help fill in the gaps for each other. Manuela said it was fine so long as I don't disturb the other patients."
Neither of the two were keen on mentioning how said professor had grumbled about young love and left the room to -most likely- drink away her sorrows afterwards.
'It's not even because of the depressing behaviour, but because they've made a game of who will admit they're dating first,' Joseph thought with an unseen deadpan expression. He honestly had no idea why Reidun seemed so intent on this pursuit… 'I guess it's a good thing she's acting on her own initiative, and it is a productive relationship.'
"...I've brought writing implements and paper, is there anything else you need? I can go fetch it if you do?" Reidun offered as Joseph zoned back in.
"Only other thing I need is your company, but we should get started before I swoon from having such a beautiful study partner," he said with his ever charming smile.
Reidun, of course, simply paid the flirt no mind.
"Excellent, let's go through it once from the beginning. Your plan seemed pretty obvious once it started, the rest went ahead while you tried to flank. What I don't get is why Annete was running around with an Axe to begin with. Could you explain that part?"
"Well, that's simple. She only had three shots of magic in her, and since we needed those to take out Dedue we couldn't have her defending herself with it," he explained, "since we lost, I'm guessing that didn't work out?"
"She missed, and things fell apart too quickly before she managed any more attacks" Reidun confirmed. " Moving on, your team attempted to rush the enemy, who had set up Mercedes as bait. Ingrid tried to warn you, did you not hear that?"
"Urgh, she's totally going to give me an earful later," the boy lamented, before answering the question, "not I didn't hear it,. I thought something was up, but the rest of the guys had tunnel visioned hard and weren't listening to me anymore."
"Ouch, that's a hit to one's pride if I've ever seen one," Joseph sympathised.
"If it's any consolation, that wasn't obvious from where the professor and I were standing," Reidun reassured.
"Thanks, it's good to know Hanneman might only think I'm a fool," he joked.
"Everyone's a fool until they're taught. That's what teachers and professors are for," Reidun argued seriously… before Joseph could point out that he was joking.
'Oh.' She coughed into her fist and tried to change the subject. "Anywho, Dedue managed to hold up the rest of your team while Dimitri went down to ambush you, and then they used their numbers advantage to take the rest of you out one by one."
"That's about what we expected… just not quite that one sided," the boy admitted, before equipping his smile again, "maybe if we'd had you along we'd have evened the scales."
"No point lingering on what if's now," Reidun started, "I don't think it would have made much of a difference anyway."
"Hey, do you mind asking him a question for me?" Joseph requested.
'Sure,' she thought at him, before speaking for him to ask, "from where I was standing, it didn't seem like the cohorts were contributing much, once the honour student went down they just kind of fell apart. Did it seem like that in the field as well?"
"Oh yeah. It would have been another thing if we'd had enough folks to pull off some sort of gambit, but with just them? No offence to the guys, but it'd have been basically the same if they weren't there."
'Does that answer your question?' Reidun thought.
"Yeah… it does." he answered thoughtfully, prompting the girl to continue her conversation.
The two students had mostly finished up their reports by the time Manuela declared Sylvain healthy and chased them off.
6th of the Great Tree Moon
The night was mostly uneventful, discounting the assassin's second attempt on Reidun's life. Much to her chagrin, she didn't even get a look at them before Joseph warped her away, but she didn't make a fuss about it either, since that would mean Joseph would tire himself out and need to sleep again.
Then there was her morning run with Caspar…
"...but it's sunday!" "Yeah, it's supposed to be our day off!" the poor students of Caspar's cohort complained.
"That just means it's up to us to make our own training!" Caspar enthusiastically declared, before turning to Reidun, "ready?"
"Of course," Reidun answered pleasantly, ignoring the tragedy of human resource management happening in front of her as she wrapped up the last of her stretches. "Let's go!"
…
"Victory!"
As was becoming normal, Reidun's enthusiastic shout was joined by Joseph's and Caspar's own, and echoed in relief by the gaggle of students at her back.
This time though, she immediately turned to her running partner with a grin.
"Training hall?" she asked, "you did promise me a spar."
His grin mirrored her own.
…
Training axe collided with training axe, the sharp clang echoing throughout the training hall before Reidun and Caspar had to break apart.
The sweat from their morning run hadn't even dried yet.
Reidun was eager, she felt she was close… to what, she didn't know, but she was close.
Just one more and I think I'll get it!
Being only slightly faster, Reidun recovered first, following the stalemate with a heavy swing which crashed into the short boy's raised axe. She tried to step back to avoid the counter, as her axe slid off, but the boy kept pace and made it impossible to avoid his wide horizontal counter swing.
'Then I'll block!'
It was while catching the attack with the broadside of her weapon and being pushed back that things seemed to just click into place. Her awareness of herself tripled, the exact positions of her feet and toes, the strain on her forearms, the beating of her heart in her chest; the entirety of her fighting experience culminating into a new level of awareness of how her own body worked.
So when Caspar raised his weapon and brought it crashing down, she knew that she could just barely manage to squeeze out the energy to take another hit.
She backhanded the weapon aside with her right hand, ignoring the bruise that was definitely forming there and the way the attack seemed to reverberate through her arm and chest, before bringing her own blunted axe up and right into Caspar's chin.
'That was… exhilarating!' she thought, but keeping her excitement to herself as she reached down and offered her training partner a hand. "Well fought."
"Argh, I was sure I had you!" he complained energetically, taking the hand while Joseph reassured her that it was said in good spirit.
"Haha, well, you didn't make it easy. With the way you move it's practically impossible to avoid your attacks," she complimented as she brought him to his feet. "I thought you had me as well there, but I think I just made a breakthrough."
"Wait…" Caspar looked Reidun over again inscrutable, "did you just master being Classless!?"
"Is that what happened?" she asked, directing the question more to Joseph than to the living.
"Yeah, I hear that if you fight a bunch without a class you end up tougher," Caspar elaborated excitedly.
"Huh, Hp +5…" Joseph commented idly, before turning a question to Reidun, "want me to top you guys up?"
'Yes please,' she thought, as she backed up. "Well, if that's the case, then I'm going to need another go to get used to this."
"Oh, you're on. I'm not losing this time!" Caspar was practically bouncing between his toes as Joseph's Heal washed over him. "I'm all fired up!"
'...he didn't even notice.' she thought to herself mirthfully as she felt the wave of rejuvenating energies restore her strength.
"Call it a character trait," Joseph joked, while Reidun switched to a sword. "You think you can outspeed him?"
'I was close with the axe, with a lighter weapon, I'm sure I could,' she thought back as she took her starting position, wearing her everpolite facade. "Let's go!"
7th of the Great Tree Moon
It was after the morning class, in one of the cohorts self driven study periods, and Ingrid was late.
'Joseph, what do you think?' Reidun asked.
"Hm, given that it's Ingrid we're talking about. She was probably pulled away by some responsibility or other," the ghost speculated.
Reidun visualised a nod, understanding that she probably wasn't going to get any more than that. So while she waited, she picked up an axe and started running through a few drills while the rest of the cohort idled and chattered in the background.
Eventually, the creek of the door announced the latecomers', Ingrid and Caspar(?), arrival.
"Reidun, may we speak for a moment?" Ingrid asked, beckoning said girl outside while Caspar went and joined his cohort elsewhere in the training hall. The tone was polite, but there was a tenseness in the honour student's expression that left Joseph uneased.
"Best not keep her waiting, she seems worried." Joseph warned, so Reidun did so, taking a light jog to meet her outside the training hall before the door slammed closed behind her.
"Greetings Ingrid," Reidun started, her pleasant tone and expression disguising her own worry. "What seems to be the issue?"
The blonde girl crossed her arms, bringing a hand up to her chin to think through her words carefully, before finally settling on something.
"I just came back from a meeting with Seteth and professor Viktor where I had to explain that I had no idea what it is you've been doing in the mornings," she began, with an even tone.
"Viktor?" Joseph queried cautiously.
'You know him?' Reidun asked in her thoughts.
"I don't, and that worries me. Though it does seem familiar…" he explained with a severe tone. "Focus, for now. Let's hear what Ingrid has to say."
"Caspar claimed that these morning runs you two were doing were your idea. Is this true?" Ingrid continued, the question sounding more like an accusation than an inquiry. Which, of course, went right over Reidun's head.
"Yes it was. It's something I've been doing relatively consistently the last ten years or so." She answered.
Ingrid sighed.
"Could you have at least told me?" Ingrid asked tiredly. "I know in terms of ability that you and I are equals, but as your cohort leader I'm supposed to be responsible for the training you do."
"I understand, I will endeavour to do so in the future," Reidun responded and, at Joseph's prompting, continued with a question. "That's not all is it? What's wrong?"
The honour student hesitated a moment.
"It's been noticed that you've been subverting my authority to train on your own, going so far as to involve other honour students and their cohorts. Combined with the noise complaint your morning runs have garnered and the stir your possible ability to see crests has caused, it doesn't look good," Ingrid explained."Professor Viktor seems convinced that you're trying to stir up trouble intentionally and pushed for disciplinary action, or even expulsion."
Joseph was frozen in shock.
Reidun on the other hand…
"I see, I guess it's good I didn't try fighting that assassin yesterday. That would have caused quite a stir-"
"I'm sorry, what?!" Ingrid interrupted.
"Uh, Reidun, I don't think you should-"
"I mean that fighting an assassin in the middle of the night would have definitely woken up my neighbours. Which would make the situation worse."
"I… don't think that's what's important here," Ingrid stuttered, before glaring, "you better not be fooling around. This is serious."
'Joseph, I'm confused,' she thought.
The ghost rubbed the ephemeral bridge between his non-existent eyes.
"One normally doesn't talk about assassins casually," he explained. "She's having a bit of trouble believing you, and has come to the conclusion that you were joking. Which she doesn't appreciate given the seriousness of the matter at hand. I'd like to second that by saying I don't think talking about this is a good idea."
'Oh…' Reidun thought, before continuing without missing a beat, ignoring the ghosts last bit of advice. "I'm quite serious. An armed hooded figure has tried to sneak into my room while I've been sleeping twice now."
Ingrid stared and Reidun shrugged.
"I'm not particularly worried. I've noticed them all three times so far and managed to avoid them," She elaborated unhelpfully. "I reckon that someone has, or doesn't have, some sort of crest, and would like to keep that secret."
Ingrid took a deep breath.
"Then this is serious, and we need to tell one of the knights, let's go." Ingrid commanded and grabbed Reidun's wrist to go, but she held.
"No, no. Ingrid, stop," Reidun disagreed. "You just said that I was on thin ice for causing a disturbance. You might believe me, but will they? Even if they do, they might still pin the blame on me, based on what you've told me so far."
"Reidun, this is your life we're talking about-"
"Exactly," Reidun interrupted, "I need this. I've prepared my whole life to study here, having that taken away isn't something I can deal with."
"I'm sure you'll survive. Your family must have something for you." Ingrid denied, condescendingly, "come on."
'Says the girl from the family that could barely afford to keep you fed until I started making a profit in your lands,' Reidun thought balefully.
"Reidun." Joseph judged.
'Sorry,' she apologised, letting herself calm. "Ingrid…"
Reidun shook her hand out of Ingrid's grasp.
"...I'm a commoner."
The words finally prompted Ingrid to stop and meet her eyes.
"Reidun, are you sure you should be saying this?" Joseph questioned, "if she figures out-"
'Don't worry, I've got this,' Reidun reassured, "I'm not even a graduate from the Royal School of Sorcery. I gambled away everything to be here. So I'll say it again: if this falls through, I have nothing."
There was a moment of silence.
"I… see," she finally responded, "so when we were going to talk to professor Hanneman, this is what you meant, isn't it?"
"That's right."
"Then I guess I understand. If professor Hanneman knows, then you've at least not deceived the church. Though I am disappointed that you think so little of me." She figured out tiredly. Then sounding almost hurt, "do you really think that I'd look down on you for your birth?"
'It's not that part I'm worried about,' Reidun thought, while she said, "I didn't think you'd look down on me for what I am, Ingrid. Rather…"
"Rather?" Ingrid inquired.
'No more dancing around the matter,' she thought resolutely, "I don't think you would respect what I did to earn my acceptance here. My hope is that when you learn that you'll understand who I am when you make your judgement."
Ingrid was silent at the declaration, her brows furrowed.
"That…" she shook her head, "you know this doesn't sound good, right? While I appreciate your honesty, there is nothing good I can conclude from that."
"I could tell you now, if you prefer," Reidun offered.
"You would?"
"My intention was never to deceive. Withhold information? Yes, but not deceive," she explained. "So I leave the decision to you."
"You- Ugh, fine! Keep your secrets, I don't care!" Ingrid exclaimed
"Thank you for your trust-."
"Don't start, I'm still angry," Ingrid snapped. "Just so we're clear: Seteth overruled the professor and decided to let you off with a warning, which I am giving you now. Avoid causing any more trouble, and don't use the academy's stock of weapons without myself or any of the staff present to oversee you."
Reidun nodded.
"Also, just… do some reading or something during the cohort sessions today. I need to think this all over," she commanded, before storming back towards the training hall.
"In case it wasn't clear, she's angry," Joseph helpfully supplied.
'She did say as much," Reidun noted.
"Good job, I don't think I could have handled that as well," he praised, while Reidun made her way to her dorm room to read… or something.
6th of the Great Tree Moon
Flayn had talked to her brother/father. She hadn't said much, just mentioned that she thought that Viktor (the villain) might have a personal grudge against the student called Reidun.
Now, she needed to read the next book, Azure Moon.
7th of the Great Tree Moon
Flayn hadn't realised how long she'd spent reading until the sun started shining through the window again.
'Morning? Already?' she thought, 'just a few more pages…'
The read had been… thrilling. Perhaps she should have felt guilty, since this was a matter of people's lives, but where it read like a classic knights tale. Tragic beginnings, a call to action, a fall from grace, catharsis, and heroic return.
All in all though… It was sad.
She wouldn't have noticed if she hadn't read Crimson Flower first, but for all the personal growth that happened in the end nothing changed. War and tragedy, all for nought.
Was there a world where Dimitri and Edelgard could meet eye to eye? The Agarthian experiments had wiped the memory of their childhood together from the girl's memory… could she be reminded?
The church stood, but what of the Agarthians? What became of them in that world? Thales fell in Derdriu, but the rest of them still lingered.
Speaking of Derdriu… Flayn's eyes drew to Verdant Wind.
Without Byleth, Edelgard grew cold and blind to all else but her ambition.
Without Byleth, Dimitri fell to despair and the voices of the dead.
What was Claude's flaw? How did Byleth save him from himself?
'Mayhaps I am looking too far into it,' she thought as she drifted off to sleep.