Three Houses - Missing

28th of the Great Tree Moon, 1180

"Did my brother not go over all your duties, Professor?" Flayn asked, sitting across from Byleth in his office.

He shook his head.

"Oh, it must be because of how busy he always is," Flayn assumed. "Then I'll have to–"

A loud knock interrupted her.

"Professor!" sounded a desperate voice from the other side. "Professor?!"

Byleth turned his gaze from Flayn to the door.

"Come in," he invited.

The door creaked open, and in stepped a girl that Flayn didn't recognise. She looked entirely nerve wracked.

"You're… from yesterday," Byleth said. "Shouldn't you be in class?"

"I'll go back afterwards, I swear," the girl said, an edge of steel entering her voice. "My friend. I couldn't find her anywhere yesterday, and she didn't show up for class. The only place I haven't looked is her room."

The surge of confidence wavered and died off near the end.

"Could you please… just check if she's in her room?" the girl asked.

A moment of silence passed.

Then Byleth nodded and rose to his feet.

'The books never mentioned any missing students…' Flayn thought as she followed the girl, Isabella, to her friend's dorm room. A part of Flayn was confident that it was probably just a false alarm, but what if she was wrong?

"Could you tell us your friend's name?" Flayn asked, just in case.

Isabella didn't slow her stride, merely looking over her shoulder to answer, "Reidun."

Flayn stopped up.

'Oh. Oh no,' she realised. 'That's why her disappearance wouldn't have been mentioned… she is not meant to be here!'

She quickened her step to catch up, just in time for a click to sound from the door as Byleth turned the key and opened it.

He stepped in, followed by Isabella and Flayn.

There wasn't anything unusual about the dorm itself, same as all the others. Reidun didn't seem to own any clothes other than the academy uniforms. The iron axe leaning against the wall and the broken gauntlets on the desk were a bit strange, but only a bit. This was a military academy after all. What was really strange though…

'So many books!' Flayn thought, looking at the small library occupying the cabinet and desk. To complicate matters, she didn't recognise any of the titles. Some of them were even all languages she neither knew nor recognised.

Out of curiosity, she grabbed one and opened it up.

'This script-!' she thought in shock. She recognised it. From the books she'd 'borrowed' from Seteth.

It took another moment for her to take in what was actually written.

'Some sort of schoolbook?' she thought.

There was the handwriting she recognised, each line of which seemed to be some sort of writing assignment, mostly followed by a very large and unsteady series of attempts at writing. One such example was the first line:

'My nane is REIDUN. Wy name is REIDUN. Mv name iS REIDUN….'

It was sloppy, half the words were misspelled and half the letters malformed. Rather than faulty, it was somewhat adorable.

For a moment, Flayn let a smile grace her face. Then it fell as she remembered that the little girl who wrote this had grown up and gone missing.

'So the one who wrote those books must have been her parent or mentor,' Flayn realised. 'Does she know? Is that why she came to help me?'

It made too much sense.

Flayn put the book back and looked over at Byleth who had been looking around the room as well.

"Did you notice anything?" she asked.

He nodded.

'Oh?'

He reached down to the bed, running a finger over the surface and inspecting it.

Dust.

Isabella's eyes widened.

"She… she doesn't sleep," the girl realised, drawing the attention of both Byleth and Flayn. The Professor's intense gaze urged Isabella to elaborate. "Ah, um, I was wondering how Reidun was managing to stay up so late and wake up so early… if she wasn't sleeping at all, it would all add up."

"...but how?" Flayn asked.

Isabella's eyes shifted, averting away from Flayn's own before returning.

"I don't know," she lied, which Flayn didn't manage to notice.

"How long has she been missing? Where did you last see her?" Byleth asked, changing the subject.

"Yes sir. The last time I saw her was…"

Isabella explained everything about the last two days.

"...so when she didn't show up to class, I came to you, Professor."

Byleth nodded, while Flayn was left in thought.

'It was Tomas and Jeritza…' she realised. Isabella may not have caught the conversation Reidun had with the hidden villain, but that the conversation happened at all was suspicious enough for Flayn. 'But how can I prove it?'

"Thank you. I'll alert Seteth," Byleth said.

"Okay, let's-"

"You're heading back to class," Byleth interrupted Isabella, before turning and heading out. Flayn gave the conflicted girl an apologetic look, before following after the professor.

"...I see. That is worrisome," Seteth concluded. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I'll notify the knights, but I'm afraid there is little else we can do at this time."

"Brother!" Flayn exclaimed in surprise. She knew the church could do more. They would have if she was taken.

"I'm sorry Flayn, but anymore would be excessive," Seteth answered calmly. "As unfortunate as it may be, it is only one student."

'But- but- if we don't investigate this, how will the church discover that Jeritza is the Death Knight?! What about Solon?!' Flayn thought, panic rising. "-but it isn't just one, brother. Another student went missing last year as well, did she not?"

"The decision is final," Seteth said firmly. "While it is troubling that we had an incident like this two years in a row, there is simply no reason to think they are connected."

Flayn's shoulders sank.

"I'll look into it," Byleth stated, drawing her eyes hopefully.

"As long as it doesn't impede your work," Seteth compromised sternly, before loosening his expression to a smile. "Thank you."

4th of the Harpstring Moon, 1180

Dimitri was not doing anything of importance.

It was not his preference. While it may be healthy to reflect, he was never truly alone with just his thoughts…

Still, it would have been remiss for him to not reflect, when the time was made available for him. Such as this moment, when he was simply wandering the academy grounds with his shadow.

The new professor had, of course, shown themselves to be remarkable once again.

Dimitri had been prepared for a long drawn out battle; Claude had prepared an ambush and hoped to lure someone in; Edelgard had been swift and sought to defeat them one at a time.

Byleth simply beat them all and won.

He broke through the Blue Lion's fortified position, saw through the Golden Deers scheme, and blitzed through the Black Eagles' aggression.

While Dimitri was disappointed, there was no shame in the loss.

Though he would have to make his offer to the professor once again when the time came for him to return to the Kingdom.

Until then, there would be good time to get to know the man. It seemed that he would be accompanying the students on some of their missions. Not the Blue Lions though, not yet. This month he would be accompanying the Golden Deer to finish off the bandits who'd attacked them and holed up in the Red Canyon.

Meanwhile, the Black Eagles would be escorting Archbishop Rhea on a diplomatic visit to the Western Church.

As for the Blue Lions? They were yet to receive an assignment.

It was when that thought occurred to him that he noticed one of the dorms with an open door, occupied by three familiar faces: Sylvain, Ingrid, and Ashe.

He slowed his step and approached the open door, the faint sound of voices reaching him as he knocked lightly on the frame to announce his presence.

"Good afternoon," he said. "I hope I'm not interrupting?"

"It's not like we're making any progress," Sylvain joked from where he stood, putting the book he'd held in his hands back on the shelf as he did so. Ashe and Ingrid were sat further in on the bed and seemed to be in quite the heated discussion. They hadn't even noticed his arrival.

"-don't understand why it's worded that way," Ingrid argued.

"Well, remember the inscription at the start?" Ashe asked rhetorically, "perhaps it's an error in translation."

"I'm not sure I agree. It seems almost intentional," Ingrid continued, pointing out a section of the book she was reading from, "see here? It…"

Dimitri turned his attention back to Sylvain.

"I'm quite sure that this dorm doesn't belong to any of you," he pointed out. "Do I need to warn one of the teachers that there's been a breach of privacy?"

"No, no, no. It's nothing like that," Sylvain quickly assured. "This is Reidun's room…"

Dimitri nodded at that. He'd truly been hoping to speak with her again since that first day, but there never seemed to be time, and now she was missing.

"...and the professor hoped he could get some clues from her book collection. Some of it is foreign, so he asked me to see if any of it was from Sreng," Sylvain clarified, before pointing back at the two Blue Lions arguing further back, "...and I decided it was a good idea to bring the two biggest book nerds I know."

"Written by her foreign mentor, I assume?" Dimitri queried.

The three stopped and stared.

"Did I say something wrong?" he asked again, quite befuddled at the reaction.

"No, but…" Sylvain started.

"She never made any mention of a mentor to either of us," Ingrid finished.

"Really?" Dimitri said, "she was quite open about him the one time we spoke."

"Aha!" Ashe intoned, turning to Ingrid once again, "It seems we were right, then. These stories must be from his homeland."

"If you did not know, then how did you come upon that conclusion?" Dimitri asked.

"Well, my suspicions started with this," Ashe said as he turned his book to the first page, showing the text written within.

"This is not my story, merely my best attempt at an imitation," it said.

"Without fail, every storybook," Ashe continued.

"On top of that, it is all far too fantastical," Ingrid added, picking up a book from the desk and handing it to Dimitri. "I'd thought at first that I had misinterpreted something, but these have illustrations. Have a look."

'Star Wars?' Dimitri thought, confusion flickering across his face as he paged through. Blades of light, stringless crossbows that shot fire, ships that traversed the stars, and weapons that destroyed worlds. He would have to agree, it was certainly quite imaginative.

"Unlike our own literature, most of these are like that–entirely disconnected from the reality we know," Ingrid explained. "The most familiar story I found was the tale of Prince Chrom and his tactician Robin, which is still more removed from reality than any book I'd ever read before this. In particular, the time travel and dragons disguising themselves as humans was quite nonsensical."

"I see…" Dimitri said, turning back to Sylvain again, "So have you discovered anything?"

"As I said, no progress on my end," Sylvain admitted with a shrug. "I don't think our guy's from Sreng."

Sylvain turned his eye to the full collection.

"...not that I think anyone from Sreng would write this much."

Dimitri had a closer look himself.

"I see that you three have left these mostly untouched, why is that?" he pointed out, indicating a certain section.

"Those?" Sylvain confirmed. "They're almost all written in that weird foreign language. We're quite sure they're some sort of educational texts, but we can't make heads or tails out of them."

It was at this point that his eternal shadow, Dedue, made his presence known.

"Your highness," he said, pointing out one book in particular. "This one is written in the language of Duscur."

"Oh, can you discern its contents?"

Dedue hummed thoughtfully as he flipped through the book.

"I am not sure, but it appears to list many words, their meaning, and their translation into the foreign language of which you spoke earlier," he explained. "Though it also appears to be incomplete."

"Truly?" Dimitri asked, before turning his attention back to the gathered students. "Then allow us to assist here, perhaps we can discern something from those foreign tomes…"

10th of the Harpstring Moon, 1180

Reidun was still missing.

The knights weren't really looking for her, and with the academy schedule kicking up after the mock battle, Isabella hadn't had the freedom to look around any more either.

'Maybe I should just skip class…' she pondered. She'd already walked out of Jeritza's class earlier to tell Professor Byleth, so it wouldn't be the first time. She glanced at the sword in her hands. 'What am I even doing here?!'

Her eyes shot to the training hall's exit once more.

It was tempting.

"Urgh, would you stop?" Felix cut in from the side with snark."Your restless moping is bad enough that it's distracting me from my training. Just go, or shut up and do something useful."

'Rude!' she thought, but quickly clamped down. Not only was Felix her cohort leader, but in terms of nobility he was a much higher rank than she was. "I'm not- I can't help it. It's been almost two weeks now… but nothing. What are the knights even doing?!"

"As if you could do better," Felix criticized coldly.

"Excuse me?!" Isabella shot back, the short leash on her patience snapped.

"You're weak," Felix said, the harsh words snuffing out whatever fire Isabella had. "Even if you managed to discover anything yourself, you would just fall victim to the same fate. You'd be wasting your time. If the knights find anything, all you will be able to do as you are is watch, if you don't get in the way."

Each word cut like the boy's own sword, and Isabella could only listen.

"Do something about it, or get out," Felix finished, not bothering to wait for a response before he stepped away and continued his own training.

Isabella hated it.

…but she had to admit that he was right.

'Between those options…' she thought, raising her blade with a clear mind. '...there is only one choice.'

She did hope Reidun was fine, wherever she was.

28th of the Great Tree Moon, 1180

Bored.

That was the word that primarily described the man who stood before the terminal. He could monitor the entire base from where he stood, through the power of a technology that was far beyond most of Fodlan's capabilities, yet was childsplay for the Agarthans.

But, the Agarthans also happened to be excellent at keeping hidden, making such an overwatch a pointless endeavor.

Nevertheless, orders were orders and none of the Agarthan leaders liked being disobeyed. The man knew that Myson was no different, so the watch had to be kept. No matter the banality of it all.

While still far from entertaining, the prison had at least a modicum of interest.

There was little risk of the two prisoners getting out. They'd had no issue over the last year, and the new arrival was still out cold.

The actual 'problem' was reminding the occasional 'enthusiastic' academic that these specific animals were off limits.

At least… that was how it was supposed to be.

On the terminal, the image of the girl shifted. A rolled shoulder, a yawn, and a stretch- or as much of one as she could pull off chained to the wall like she was.

'That's… not right,' he thought. On top of having been knocked out by the death knight, they'd doubled down and applied a combination of magic and drugs to keep her asleep. Without any interference, she should have been out for at least a couple more days.

Yet, awake she was.

'No, no. The others probably just failed to apply the right dosage to the beast,' the man rationalised. It was fine after all. It was one worm of a student in chains. So the man found his sadistic confidence returning. 'Heh, stupid animal. It's probably scared and-'

The girl looked straight into the camera.

"What–?!" he exclaimed, taking a step back in shock, before forcing himself to calm. "Right, no. How silly. There is no way these beasts can even fathom-"

She waved.

That was when he noticed that she was smiling.

The feed in the cell cut out, shortly followed by the feed out in the hallway.

'Impossible! That's impossible!'

In a panic, he stepped up to the terminal again, his fingers dancing over the controls.

He couldn't get a response from either of the two guards who were supposed to be stationed there, and without making any progress he caught sight of movement on one of the still active cameras.

The girl.

'How'd it get out of its cell?!'

She wasn't running or showing any signs of panic. In fact, her gait could almost be called a saunter. In contrast, the man felt a bead of sweat roll down his brow.

'The way it's heading…' the man realised, calling up some of the men in the upcoming area.

"What is it? I was about to-" sounded from the terminal before the man interrupted.

"The new prisoner is loose!" he shouted. "It's already dealt with the guards watching over the prison, you need–"

A sound like fire and a scream interrupted him.

"What?! Where-? Argh!"

The man was silent, letting him clearly hear the intensifying heartbeat pounding in his ear as the second scream came through, followed by the clatter of the communication device hitting the ground.

The man had gotten to see it this time. No attack, no cast. No nuance, no tricks. Anyone who got close enough to the girl simply burned and died.

Incomprehensible. Swift. Death.

He got to see the girl skip into the room, reach down, and then the feed there was shut off as well.

"Hello? Is this thing on?"

The man's eyes shot down to the terminal's speakers as the deceptively sweet voice cut through.

'It- She figured out the device!'

"I'm just going to assume it is," the girl's cheerful voice sounded through. "If you have an alarm, I believe it's about time you sounded it."

The man felt a chill down his spine and could sense predatory gleam in the girl's next words.

"Good luck."

A click.

Then silence.

An: haha, I feel like I'm on a roll! More importantly, I wanna thank Neo-Metal Saiyan for beta reading this chapter!
Also, was having trouble uploading the doc for the chapters, so sorry if some of the formatting messed up. (Heh, I had to export a chapter from one of my stories to get a doc and copy over the chapter manually)

To Ver'dan (Jan 5, 2025): Right on the money considering the efforts to find Reidun, and that is the question, isn't it?

To Royalrain20xx (Jan 5, 2025): Hehe, it wouldn't matter if Reidun was capable of being subtle, it's at the bottom of her toolbox. I hope this didn't come across as anti-climactic on Reidun's front. Hm, I can say, note the dates. As for a certain sword? Hm, who knows...

To Maxxus Herlad (Jan 5, 2025): I've actually seen a few clips of Hopes and a chunk of the supports. (again, not enough that I'm familiar thought) Yeah, Solon fleeing when confronted, I remember that being in the demo of the game. I'll probably check out a few of those again though for some inspiration, but will probably not push it farther than that. This isn't tagged as a Three hopes crossover after all.
Hey, don't forget Joseph, He's there too!

To Niuzu0130 (Jan 5, 2025): Heh, yup.

To eseer (Jan 5, 2025): One of these days I'm going to understand your references without googling. Da hell is Limbus Company? Welp, down the rabbit whole I go.
Also, you weren't entirely wrong, I was setting up for something, even if it wasn't quite a joke.

To Infernal Enby (Jan 7, 2025): I am very surprised that you picked up on that concerning Reidun. I won't say anything specific, but you're a bit closer to the mark than you might think... I'll note on Isabella, a part I hoped to get across is that the idea of someone actually going missing is quite low on the list of expectations.
Also, hey, here's another Isabella PoV scene.

To CereysKerrigan (Jan 8, 2025): Now, I'm not one to submit to threats or demands, but just this once... heh.