I'm sorry, I don't really have a good excuse for this chapter being as late as it is. I could make up an excuse about being busy with work or school, but in reality...I've been trying to complete the hardest level of One Piece Pirate Warriors 4 with every character in the game, and that's why I haven't been working on this chapter. So far, I've beaten it with fourteen of the 65 characters (Nami, Jinbe, Barto, Bege, Sabo, Reiju, Niji, Cracker, Oden, Koby, and the post-timeskip versions of Luffy, Zoro, Usopp, and Sanji), and I have worked out the ideal strategy. I've never gotten a battle rank higher than A, though.


A few days later, the Company managed to arrange another conference call. "Before we get started, has anything of note happened since we last met?" Dimitri asked.

"I have narrowed down my search for a new Minister of Foreign Affairs down to six candidates," Edelgard informed them. "Aside from that, there have been two attempts to assassinate me, but the responsible party has been executed. There may be more attempts in the coming days, but I'm confident in my ability to handle the problem."

Lysithea scowled. "I should be there to help."

"You have affairs to put in order first," Edelgard said. "You can trust me to handle this."

Lysithea nodded, and Claude cut in. "Well, I haven't had any attempts on my life yet, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time. For now, I've been working on building support with the Alliance nobles. I've made some progress, but it'll be a while before I have anything concrete."

"Well, these things do take time," Dimitri noted. "Shall we continue recounting the events of...Second Year?"

"Please do," Rhea said.


When the Company reached the larger Adrestian war camp, they first brought the rescuees from the burned village to the doctors. After that, Mercedes brought them to the command tent. There, they saw four other people, two of which they recognized.

"The Rising Sun Company? You've returned?" Saint Seiros asked.

"I'll be quite honest, I was never expecting to see any of you again," Hubert admitted.

Linkle looked at her compass. "I guess the compass decided you need us more now than back then."

Meanwhile, Edelgard was focused on the other two individuals in the command tent. More specifically, on one of the two individuals. "Is my eyesight going bad, or is that man an Agarthan?"

"Your eyes do not deceive you," said the Agarthan man. He was tall, almost two meters. He wore a tricorn hat, but his sideburns showed that his hair was red underneath, his eyes were yellow, and he had a strong jaw. He wore a long leather duster over reinforced leather armor. His voice was deep, and he spoke slowly and deliberately. "My name is Cato, though my fellow Agarthans refer to me as 'the Turncoat,' as if I owe loyalty to Epimenides." He scoffed. "Epimenides, Thales, Nemesis. They think themselves Jormungandr, destined to poison the heavens. They're nothing more than Oroborous, so driven by hate and greed that they will inevitably consume themselves."

"I imagine there's quite the story behind you joining the army of Adrestia, isn't there?" Claude asked.

"Couldn't see any worth in the serpent banner after a while. Chose to follow the eagle banner until I could decide if it was worthy to fly across Fódlan instead. If nothing else, it is worthier. Imperfect, but all things are. Revealed my true face two years ago."

"Why do that?" Kronya asked. "If you had a human disguise, why abandon it?"

"Wanted to know the why of things," Cato said. "The Agarthan War has defined my people since it happened. Had to know the other side of the story."

Zelda looked thoughtful. "We'll discuss this further later. And this is?"

"Madelyn Varley," said the other stranger, a teenaged, purple-haired girl in a mottled green-and-gray cloak. "So you're the heroes who fought Nemesis at the Red Canyon?"

"That's us," Shez confirmed.


"Wait," Seteth said. "There were a lot of differences between that timeline and ours, but I think we need more details regarding Cato."

"Of course," Hubert said. "In Imperial Year 67, he joined the Adrestian army under the name Cyrus Drake. He served with distinction until revealing his true identity in 70. Try as we might, we couldn't think of any nefarious reasons for him to reveal his identity. Seiros ended up assigning him to her personal unit, in hopes of keeping an eye on him. He wasn't offended, and she admitted she rather liked talking philosophy with him."

Cyrus Drake...Seteth did remember that name. He had been a commander in the Adrestian army for two years before being presumed killed in battle, though his body had never been properly identified. He had been an Agarthan expatriate? Had he seen something in the other timeline's Adrestian Empire that he hadn't seen in theirs, or had he just been killed before he could reveal his identity?


"We can discuss other things later," Zelda said. "First off, we need to establish what year we're in, and the current state of the war."

"It's Imperial Year 72. That's 81 years after you left," Hubert said. "Currently, the Adrestian Empire and the Kingdom of Liberation are in a stalemate. The war has been going on since the Red Canyon, but there have been periods of intense fighting and periods of less-intense fighting. As much as Nemesis would like nothing but intense bloodshed, it would be logistically impossible, and his impatience cost him several times early in the war before the lesson stuck. We're currently in a bit of a lull, but we're anticipating intense fighting soon."

"With Riegan having mentioned Lycaon, we can assume Wilhelm has died?" Edelgard asked.

Madelyn nodded. "He was killed in battle by Minerva Fraldarius and Cecil Dominic sixteen years ago. Even with him having aged slower than most, his age was catching up to him. He was the last of the old generation."

"It seemed like Riegan wasn't with Nemesis," Claude said. "He mentioned something about an 'Order of Iron?' What's that about?"

"That was...an unintended effect of one of our actions," Hubert admitted.


In the early days of the war, the Nabateans had yet to reveal that they weren't human to the public. In fact, few people even suspected they might not be human.

On the other hand, many suspected Hubert of not being human. He wasn't exactly subtle with using abilities that no one else had. There was no shortage of gossip about him.

Eventually, Hubert and Mercedes decided to address their war camp. "I've noticed quite a bit of gossip about me in this camp. I would like to address the rumors about me not being human. They are correct. I was human, once, but that is no longer the case. Similarly, Mercedes also is no longer human, ever since the two of us became connected to sources of magic that irrevocably altered us."

"In many ways, we aren't that different," Mercedes continued. "We still have souls, and we feel the same emotions. But we will never grow any older than we currently are. And with that being such a core part of the human condition, to say we're truly human would be a lie."

"Some of you are probably questioning why you should fight alongside us, as much of a difference as that sets between us and you," Hubert said. "I could give several reasons, but the one that I think is most likely to convince you is that by that same standard, Nemesis is not human either. He also achieved immortality. The only difference is that the power that turned Mercedes and me into immortals was freely given to us, while Nemesis's was stolen. Any desire you might have to be on 'the side of humanity' in this war is futile. You will have to choose based on who you believe is in the right."


"Thankfully, Nemesis didn't exactly keep his immortality secret," Mercedes said. "When it was revealed that the Nabateans were not human, it didn't lead to nearly as much discontent among our forces as it could have. There were those who somewhat resented being used as pawns in a war between immortals, but anyone who did applied that resentment to Nemesis as much as they did them."

"However, there were people who refused to live alongside anyone who wasn't human, and chose to declare themselves the enemies of Adrestia and Nemesis alike," Hubert noted. "While they did cause minor problems for both sides, it was only in the past eight years that they crystallized into any significant force, when a man by the name of Thulsa Ohm unified them into a militia known as the Order of Iron, devoted to wiping out anyone with a trace of Nabatean or Agarthan blood. In the Nabateans' case, that applies to both Nabateans and human Crest-bearers. They're also moral absolutists; almost everyone they catch breaking their strict rules, be it an enemy, a civilian, or one of their own, is punished severely. Often, they use them as human sacrifices to fuel powerful magic. On their own, they wouldn't be a credible threat to us or Nemesis, but we can't crush them without leaving ourselves vulnerable to Nemesis, and neither can he. Of course, the longer we're unable to deal with them, the more troublesome they become."

"Well, you have powerful help now," Edelgard said. "What of Nemesis and the Elites?"

"Well, we did manage to sway some of them," Mercedes said. "We told Michael Blaiddyd the truth about the origin of his Crest and Relic. According to the ones who turned, this is how that turned out..."


Viola Lamine didn't know why Michael Blaiddyd had called for this emergency meeting of the Elites. Everyone else had arrived already, with him being the only one missing.

"Where is Blaiddyd anyway?" Mordred Gautier asked.

At that moment, Blaiddyd dramatically barged through the doors, slamming them behind him. "Nemesis," he snarled, his voice unsettlingly tranquil. "Tell everyone how you got your Crest and your sword. And our relics, and those 'potions' we drank to get out Crests."

Nemesis raised his eyebrow. "They were granted to me by the—"

"Don't try and peddle that lie," Blaiddyd said, cold rage entering his voice. "I know the truth. There was a tribe of people with divine heritage who lived in Fódlan, known as the Nabateans. They were powerful, but were pacifists unless threatened, not the 'evil gods' you supposedly destroyed. You tore out their matriarch's heart and spine, and fashioned them into a sword, and drank her blood to give yourself power. You tried to massacre them all, man, woman, and child. But some of them escaped. They helped Hresvelg form the Adrestian Empire to oppose you. That's why there have been no efforts to make peace. Or do I have it wrong?"

"And why would you believe their story over mine? They have every reason to lie to you," Nemesis said.

"I might not have believed them...were it not for the contrast between how you and they conduct themselves in this war. Civilians die in war, that much is inevitable, but the Adrestians go out of their way to avoid civilian casualties as much as possible, they don't force units who displease them to kill each other, they don't wipe out entire families for the crimes of one member, and they don't poison water sources. I can't say the same for you. From that, I would guess your attack on the Nabateans was unprovoked and unjustified."

Lamine stared at Nemesis in horror, silently praying that he would say Blaiddyd had been lied to, or that there was a reason that justified his actions, anything. But her prayers were in vain.

"So I tried to kill them all before they could become a threat to me," Nemesis said. "Why should you care? They weren't human, they were shapeshifters who could become dragons! Don't you remember why we formed the Kingdom of Liberation? Our goal is to unite the world under one banner! And the Nabateans, as neutral as they might have tried to be, are living weapons of war! If we cannot control them, they must die!"

Viola Lamine stared at Nemesis, and then looked at her fellow Elites. Bartholomew Charon was also staring at Nemesis, his eyes colder than she'd ever seen them. Noa Nuvelle was horrified, Abner Chevalier was snarling at his erstwhile king, Timotheos Athan was looking as if he had been betrayed, and Joachim Aubin was staring at Nemesis from the side of his eyes, murder in his eyes and his hand on his sword. But to her undying horror, Minerva Fraldarius simply looked bored, as if what Nemesis had said had no importance at all, and the other six Elites were nodding along with him!

Blaiddyd's face turned murderous, and he removed his lance from his back. Nemesis raised an eyebrow at him. "So that's how it is? You do realize that even if you bring them my head, they'll never forgive you for accepting my gift. As soon as your usefulness to them expires, they'll kill you."

"I don't care," Blaiddyd spat. "I'd rather die than serve you any longer."

"That's a real shame," Nemesis said, drawing his sword. The Elites all watched each other, hands on their own weapons, to see if the others would interfere. None of them did. Had all of the Elites been in agreement that Nemesis's crimes were unforgivable, Nemesis would have died. As powerful as he was, he couldn't fight all fourteen of them and win. But they were not in agreement.

The battle was over in seconds, with Blaiddyd's body lying on the floor. Nemesis hadn't gone untouched; Areadbhar's head had sunk several centimeters into his stomach, leaving a wound that, according to reports, never fully healed. But it wasn't the fatal wound Blaiddyd had likely hoped for.

Nemesis walked to the door, before turning back to the thirteen remaining Elites. "Don't think I couldn't see that some of you were thinking about taking that fool's side. Put those thoughts of rebellion out of your heads. Replacing you would be more difficult than I would like, but don't think I won't kill you if I must."

A line was drawn that day.


"Lamine, Aubin, Chevalier, Timotheos, and Noa all would defect to us soon after," Mercedes said. "Bartholomew Charon chose to stay in Nemesis's army and act as a spy, sending information to us. But five years ago, he sent us a message that he had been found out. He said they had given him a choice, to allow the Agarthans to perform a procedure on him that would make him unable to disobey any order they give him, or to be executed...and have the procedure performed on his daughter, and let her take his place as an Elite. He chose the former, and his message said to disregard any future information we might receive from him."

Lorenz noticed a discrepancy. "Wait, you said there were seven Elites who willingly took Nemesis's side?"

"Minerva Fraldarius, Cecil Dominic, Mordred Gautier, Ryman Gloucester, Phoebus Daphnel, Edgar Goneril, and Maurice Descole," Seiros said. "And Nemesis did find a replacement for Blaiddyd, a bandit chief named Matthias Lindenhurst. Rumor has it that he acquired his Crest by eating Blaiddyd's corpse, but we can't be certain. We do know that he now wields Areadbhar, and with power that would require him to have the Crest that matches it."

"Epimenides also openly aids him now," Cato added. "And the Agarthan generals Thales and Nicodemus help command his forces as well as those of the Agarthans."

"Well, that seems like a lot of dangerous enemies," Zelda mused. "Where should we begin?"