An: There may have been a few errors while uploading this chapter. My apologies if I missed any.
Prologue - A (K)night Out of the Monastery
20th of the Great Tree Moon, 1180
The academy's student body was vast, but seeing them all assembled in a single, travelling column brought the sheer magnitude into sharp focus. Adding the Knights of Seiros to the march only made the impressive sight greater, but it was all what Joseph expected, save one difference: the lime-green haired Flayn, who'd woven herself into the marching column.
"Did Seteth send her? Maybe he's trying to influence Byleth ahead of time, but to risk Flayn like this…" the ghost pondered in surprise, which did not go unnoticed by Reidun.
Reidun herself was positioned near the front of this relatively disorderly procession. With no need to coordinate with her cohort, she had managed to be ready much faster than most, though she could have been even further ahead had it not been for some last-minute preparations. Chief among these was retrieving the stone talisman-like object she fidgeted with in her hand.
"So… want to tell me what's going to happen?" Reidun asked her ghostly companion with deceptive nonchalance.
Unlike before though, Joseph hesitated.
"Wait, are you actually going to tell me?!" She thought, the mental image of herself jumping in surprise.
"Well…urgh," Joseph grunted, tensing up, before relenting with a sigh. "I can say a little at least."
Reidun listened attentively, enoughthat she didn't notice the spring in her step.
Joseph did though, which prompted another exasperated sigh, before he continued his exposition. "If things go the way I remember, we're going to be attacked by bandits."
The girl's shoulders sagged and she found herself slowing to a walk again in disappointment.
"Bandits? Really?" she thought.
Joseph bristled.
"They're a legitimate threat," he defended.
The girl visualised rolling her eyes, before sarcastically thinking, "sure they are."
"I'm serious," Joseph reaffirmed. "Anyone at any level of skill can become a bandit. In the game you could fight bandits right up to the end, and there was a risk of them actually killing important fact, I recall that one of those battles in particular saw many give up the game entirely!"
Reidun's interest sparked again.
"So are these, like, super bandits or something?" she asked.
"Well…no," Joseph admitted. "In terms of the game, they're probably the weakest enemies in the world, but we don't-"
"Then I don't see the issue," Reidun dismissed. "We managed fine on our own with subpar gear. This time, we're not, I feel stronger than then already! On top of that, you had me bring all of this…"
Her eyes glanced through the menagerie of iron grade weapons she was armed with. The sword and axe on her hips, the lance on her back, the bow on her shoulder, and the gauntlets she wore.
It may have been a bit much by standards of Joseph's world, but she didn't feel particularly impeded, and it was far from the most ridiculous loadout they'd ever seen.
"Does anyone actually get hurt in the story you remember?" she asked.
Joseph bristled once more. "No, but-"
"Then it's fine," Reidun interrupted, filing that information to the back of her mind so Joseph wouldn't notice her little attempt at fishing, before shifting her attention to the stone in her palm to further enforce the deception. "You used the last seal we had to unlock Monk, right? How do I go about qualifying as a Fighter?"
Joseph brightened up, falling into the distraction ignorantly. "Right, to start with…"
They didn't march the whole day, because, quite frankly, a notable portion of the students weren't trained to keep that kind of tempo. Admittedly, Reidun wasn't either, but she had Joseph's healing to make up for it.
So during the 10 minute stops, she took the time to find a space for herself and trained.
She wasn't anymore concerned about the possible bandit attack than she'd been earlier. She just needed to get a feel for what being a Fighter was like, because the seal had worked.
It was definitely an experience.
Her combat posture had shifted. The entire way she moved while fighting now appeared foreign to her, yet was as familiar as breathing. Her current situation showed that off perfectly, since she had just finished running through the last motion of an Axe drill, doing so to the standard she expected of herself with the weapon. Which wouldn't be unusual, if that hadn't been her first time attempting that drill.
That had been far from the only difference. Bows, gauntlets, and axes all felt far more comfortable in her hands now.
"Hm… but it's not like you gained any particular proficiency with them," Joseph observed, as Reidun returned the axe to her hip and started shadow boxing.
"Mhm," She agreed, "but this is going to make improving much easier."
Joseph recognised it as another point of similarity to the game he was familiar with. Though this piece of information wasn't new.
"Definitely. For me, this…" Joseph cast a Heal to alleviate some of Reidun's fatigue, "...came to me a lot easier after I became a Monk.
"I will admit though, I'm surprised that you managed it," he started, his unseen face scrunched up in a frown. "In the game you needed to be at least level 5 to Class into the Beginner Classes, and you needed skills as well. So either you're way ahead of your compatriots, or…"
"...the seals don't have experience requirements," Reidun finished for him, before thinking, "we should probably try to get our hands on an intermediate seal then. Even if I can't get it to work, then you can at least finally get out of that beginner Class, and we'll have learned something important."
"I concur-" Joseph stopped suddenly as he noticed something. "Heads up, you've got company."
"Ah, there you are, beautiful," Sylvain announced himself as he approached.
But suddenly, he stopped, his face marred with a confused expression.
He stood there, eying Reidun critically for just a moment, before a spark of realisation entered his eyes. A spark he squashed underneath a playful mask.
Joseph, as with many other things involving the boy, refrained from mentioning any that to Reidun.
"Word is that we're going to have a longer stop next time, and well I was thinking…" Sylvain proceeded to describe some sort of obscure romantic landmark he'd heard about.
Reidun didn't stop listening, but she did humorously note to herself that "he's not even acknowledging the harassment I've been receiving."
Joseph cringed a bit, "yeah…"
"...so how about we take the chance to explore it together?" Sylvain offered, finishing his pitch.
Reidun, with a simple smile, answered "I would love to."
Joseph sighed.
"Why am I not surprised…"
"You're the one that likes him," Reidun teased.
"I'm starting to reevaluate that position," Joseph returned, pulling his attention back to the situation before him.
"...you harlot!" the other girl Sylvain had invited out finished venting at Reidun.
Joseph turned his unseen lidded eyes to his charge.
"You're not even bothered by this, are you?" he accused flatly.
"Why would I be?" she thought back, before answering the girl. "I don't recall Sylvain ever making any promises to me about exclusivity. Why don't we just go together?"
Joseph palmed his face as Reidun redirected the sincere question to the boy with her eyes.
"Two beautiful ladies at once? Why, I'd have to be the luckiest man in Fodlan," Sylvain said with an easy smile.
The crack of a slap against his cheek told the two of them what the other girl thought about that idea.
The setting sun coloured the sky with red hues that reflected in the lake which served as the backdrop for the two's moment together.
With the other girl storming off, Sylvain and Reidun had continued together on their own. A pleasant walk, talking, the whole song and dance. Which left them where they were now, standing by the lakeside taking in the view, at the tailend of a much longer conversation.
"...and that's why they say-" Sylvain suddenly cut his explanation off, his mood dropping entirely with a tired sigh.
"Why they say..?" Reidun questioned before Joseph could point out the mood shift.
Sylvain stayed silent for a moment, facing away from the girl, out towards the lake.
"You really are just the worst," he accused monotonously.
Reidun blinked, failing to process the words she just heard. "Umm… Joseph?"
"He's angry."
"Why?!" she thought.
Rather than answer, Joseph gestured over to the boy.
"Take it up with him, huh? Fine," Reidun accepted, fully aware that Joseph knew exactly what was going on. "Is there something wrong with my conduct? If this is about my ties to Duscur, then…"
She made a vague gesture, not having quite planned out where she was going with the sentence.
"Your conduct is fine, it's you I have a problem with," he said, glancing at her out of the corner of his eye disdainfully. "You just don't care do you? It doesn't matter how low I go, how despicable, you just let it slide."
He turned to face Reidun head on, crossing his arms.
"I don't think I've met anyone so blatantly heartless and thick skinned as you, so I'll make this clear: you're not getting my crest, you're not getting my family name. We're done. Our relationship is over."
Reidun, honestly, didn't really get what the boy was going on about, but it didn't matter to her, because there was one thing she'd noticed.
Satisfaction oozed through her, like the cat who caught the canary. Her posture slouched comfortably, accompanied by an easy smirk that tugged at the corner of her lips as she planted a hand on her hip.
"I win."
To Joseph, the girl might as well have been dancing with joy as the words on the tip of her tongue left her lips.
"Who said we were in a relationship?" She flicked her hair back to emphasise her dismissal. "I don't recall agreeing to date you."
"Huh?"
Sylvain has stopped responding, would you like to end the process or wait for it to respond?
"Anywho, message received. See ya," she bid farewell, before skipping away and leaving the boy on his own.
Joseph, meanwhile, lamented his inability to actually massage his temple.
"I really need to reevaluate my rule on respecting the other students' privacy…"
…even as he acknowledged that the very oblivious ignorance that put Reidun in this situation had probably stopped it from being much, much, worse.
"Everyone, settle down and listen…" the professor, Viktor, began. His voice carried well, whether by merit of magic or training, neither Reidun nor Joseph could tell.
He explained that they were going to be emulating the process of setting up a war camp. The knights would be available to provide instructions or advice, but it would be up to the students themselves to actually set up the camp itself.
"...please gather together in your cohorts. Your cohort leaders will be passing on my instructions shortly. As such: Honour students, to me."
Joseph could feel Reidun tense up.
"It looks like we're going to have to find the rest of your cohort then," he nudged.
Tension made way for a reluctant acceptance.
"I suppose…"
…
"Pardon me, have you seen-"
The blue lion glared and walked away.
"Rude."
…
"Excuse me have you-"
"Nope."
…
"Hi, sorry to interrupt, but-"
"Piss off."
…
"Do you have a moment? I'm looking for the rest of my cohort."
"Sorry, I'm not familiar with the members of your house."
…
Eventually, Reidun did find her way to the rest of the cohort, in part thanks to a wary golden deer who had pointed the way for her, but mostly because the majority of the other students had already found each other by this point.
She'd still only memorised two of her fellows' names, Seraphina and Isabella. Joseph had been helpful in identifying their attitudes after the cafeteria incident. Attitudes that had remained mostly unchanged since.
Seraphina was standoffish, immediately glaring at the approaching girl before opting to ignore her instead. One of the nameless nobles did the same, but kept up the glare. Two other nobles just chose to ignore her, joined by the sorcerer graduate. Whether they did so because they disliked her, or wanted to avoid her for other reasons, Joseph couldn't tell.
That left Isabella, who appeared to act friendly, seemingly sheepish about the whole situation. Joseph put a great deal of emphasis on the word 'act', and the mockingly low effort with which she did so.
"Oh, Reidun, you're here," Isabella greeted with false surprise.
"Of course, we're supposed to work together after all," Reidun answered with her everpleasant mask.
They didn't get much further than that before Ingrid herself arrived, accompanied by Viktor.
The blonde honour student seemed to double take at spotting Reidun, but overcame her hesitation and approached, awkwardly.
"Awkward? Not resentful?" Reidun thought, surprised, which Joseph answered with a simple wave of projected affirmation.
"Reidun, I'm sorry, but we'll have to work together now. I understand that-" Ingrid began, but was cut off by Viktor.
"If I may interrupt. I was looking to borrow a couple of students for another task," he said, "given that you have one of the more cohesive cohorts-"
A blatant lie.
"-I feel you are in less need of the practice than others. So…" Viktor made a show of looking over the cohort members before settling on Isabella. "You, and…"
His eyes drifted over to Reidun. "...you. With me."
Out of Reidun's line of sight, a look of irritation flashed across Isabella's face, and Joseph frowned.
Reidun followed after the teacher, not bothering to look at Ingrid who avoided her gaze.
…
"I noticed signs that there might be berries in the area outside the camp here," Viktor explained as they walked, gesturing towards where he meant. "Not enough that a whole cohort could be assigned to pick them, but an opportunity nonetheless. So I would like you two to go gather some."
"Yes, sir," Reidun answered alongside Isabella's "alright."
"Good, good," Viktor accepted, before turning to Reidun specifically. "You really won't be needing any weapons. The knights have done a sweep around the campsite and this is just an exercise, the area should be perfectly safe."
Reidun could feel Joseph's eyes narrow in suspicion, and while she may have been illiterate when it came to reading a room, even she agreed that it suspicious, given the circumstances.
"Exactly sir, where else can I establish good habits safely?" Reidun excused. "I'll be sure that it won't hinder my task."
"Hm… very well," Viktor reluctantly accepted. "Though you will be penalised if you underperform. Is that understood?"
"Yes, sir."
"Good, then be on your way," he said, before leaving the two of them alone.
Once he was gone, Isabella turned to Reidun with mockingly insincere worry.
"Oh my. The professor is rather strict. Let's split up. That way we'll cover more ground!"
Joseph scoffed at the feeble excuse, but Reidun accepted it and walked off on her own.
"If the attitude wasn't suspicious enough, there aren't any berries here," Reidun thought to herself with some small degree of amusement.
"Actually… that's on you. I saw some picked bushes earlier," Joseph noted smugly, before dropping his mood seriously. "He was definitely trying to send you into a trap though. Arm yourself, and-"
"-spring the trap!" Reidun finished, flourishing her weapon and dashing forward.
"Reidun, that's not-!" Joseph panicked, before smacking his hand to his face with a resigned "Urgh, fine!"
It didn't take long before the girl burst forth from the tree line into a clearing right in front of three ruffian looking fellows armed with iron grade swords and axes.
Reidun didn't stop to examine them, but a glance was enough to disappoint her.
"Classless."
Having finally gotten a class herself, the signs were obvious.
She slid to a stop right in front of the central swordsman, her iron lance already in full swing with the excessive power of a Combat Art behind it.
It passed through him like a hot knife through butter, much to Reidun's own surprise.
"How weak are these guys?!"
"A month ago you might have lost that fight. Focus Reidun!" Joseph chastised, before he flashed a Fire spell above Reidun's head.
The sudden brightness threw off the attackers enough that Reidun managed to keep a hold of the initiative, twirling her long weapon in a wide circle around herself, deflecting both of the incoming attacks and leaving a shallow crimson streak on each of their chests.
"Yeah, yeah, I know…" Reidun accepted, but then dropped her lance to the ground and pounced right with her fist raised. "...but if there's this much of a difference, then it's perfect for putting these gauntlets to work!"
A flinch from the man lost him the opportunity to defend himself from the lethal uppercut that cracked upon his chin. Then Reidun caught the surprise attack coming for her back with her other hand, without turning to look.
With a grip on the axe's blade, she tugged, pulling the man in front of her. Then brought her now free elbow down on his back with an audible snap.
"That makes three," the girl confirmed playfully between heavy breaths. "See, nothing to worry about."
"They may not have hit you, but still…" Joseph cast Heal, letting Reidun's heavy breaths subside. Not feeling the need to elaborate further, he continued. "At least trying to learn a new weapon in the field is at least on the lower end of recklessness by your standards. Just don't forget the lance."
"Of course, we paid good gold for this thing," she agreed, putting the weapon on her back. "If they were this close, then the rest of them should be attacking any second now-"
A chorus of battlecries rang out from the direction of the camp, quickly followed by the sight of infernally lit black clouds rising into the air.
The both of them were quick to agree on their next goal, and that would have been were they would have headed next but-
"Argh! Help!"'
A scream.
Close. Very close.
A moment to think.
"Isabella!" Reidun realised with a panic, bursting off in a run.
She realised that she had been so focused on the story Joseph knew and Viktor pulling her into it that she hadn't even considered that someone else could be pulled in as well!
"She may have been mean but that doesn't mean she deserves to be hurt like this."
"Over there!" Joseph pointed out, before warning. "With another student there, I won't be able to help."
"That's fine," Reidun thought.
Then her subconscious caught up to her, and an unseen switch flipped on.
Her whole posture shifted to accommodate a fantasy that hung in the back of her mind. With a bright smile and an unbecoming amount of confidence, she burst forth from the treeline once more.
With a glance, Reidun took in the scene. Isabella had stumbled and one of three bandits was standing over her while the other two egged him on.
"Never fear!" The missile that was Reidun shouted as she impacted the lead figure with a superman punch. Then while the man was still reeling her voice continued to boom with the confidence of the character she was quoting "Why?!"
The bandit swung wide, but Reidun dipped below it and stepped closer. One, two, three quick punches! With the final strike, the man was launched up into the air, landing a few metres away. She turned to look down on her fellow student reassuringly, finishing the quote, "...because I am here."
Isabella stared back, her mouth agape and her eyes wide in an expression that Reidun couldn't decipher, not that she was actually paying attention.
"Joseph, Joseph, Joseph! Did you see? Did you!" She whooped and cheered internally, her inner self dancing in joy. " I did it, I swept in like a hero and saved the day!"
"Not yet you haven't, behind you!" Joseph snapped.
"Oh, right."
Reidun casually backhanded the first axe coming her way, turning with the motion to face her attacker, before striking back with two swift jabs. He tried to back away, but she stepped with him and repeated her performance.
The gauntlets may not have had the same punch as her usual arsenal of weapons, but they were practically weightless. In comparison to wielding a lance or an axe, it was like running for the first time.
It was such that even though the last remaining thug had started their swing before Reidun had started her beatdown of his ally, by the time it connected, her prime gauntlet was free and in position to meet it.
That may have been when the thug realised that he was a bit out of his league.
Four strikes later and Reidun stood alone, with Isabella still on the ground.
"Joseph, can you get her back to camp?" Reidun thought.
The ghost looked down at the noble disdainfully, before answering "she's got two legs, she can use them."
"You taught me not to be petty Joseph," Reidun pushed, but the ghost just scoffed.
"I'm not revealing myself for a stranger when it's not even needed, especially not one complicit in bullying you."
Reidun pictured herself rolling her eyes, then, taking off one of her bloody gauntlets, turned to the downed student covered in mud and offered her hand. "Lady Isabella, are you all right?"
"Wh-why?" the girl stuttered.
Reidun may not have been able to parse the girl's shocked expression, but she'd read enough of Joseph's earth stories to recognise the situation.
"Why not?"
She crouched down to meet the girl at eye level as a tinge of warmth entered her smile.
"What sort of I knight would I be if I didn't come when someone cried out for help?"
Once again, she offered her hand.
"Here, let's get you back to camp."
Isabella's expression evened out, and her eyes traced the arm down to the hand offered to her.
"I…"
The voice that came forth was quiet.
"I-"
She was cut off by a hic as her shoulders began to tremble. Her fingers in the mud clenched, as if to rip out the earth itself while she began to sniffle.
"I'm sorry."
She finally said, still quiet. Then, like a breaking dam, her feelings flooded out. Droplets of water fell from her face to the mud.
"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" she cried. "I was rude to you. I helped everyone else be mean to you. I encouraged it! I kept sending you away. I lied. Ingrid wanted to make things right, and I lied! I told her you hated her. I'm sorry! I'm sorry!"
Her cries tempered out to a whimper.
"I was so scared, but you still…"
At the display Joseph's disdain cracked, and with a reluctant sigh, he addressed Reidun. "She's being genuine, pouring her heart out even."
"I guess even if I was fine, that this was a big deal for her… thanks for explaining, Joseph, despite not liking her," Reidun thought before placing a hand on the crying girl's shoulders. "Apology accepted. We need to get you to safety, there are plenty of these ruffians still about."
The girl nodded, and then suddenly her eyes shot wide in panic.
"Oh no, I just remembered," she finally managed to look up. "They took someone, I saw them!"
Reidun narrowed her eyes seriously.
"Who?"
"I- I don't know, but she had green hair and wasn't that tall. I don't think she was a student-"
Reidun felt shock echo across her spiritual connection.
"You know who she's talking about?" Reidun asked.
"Yes, that has to be Flayn. She wasn't even supposed to be here…" Joseph answered. "There's no way Seteth planned for this, he'd never put Flayn in danger like that. I hate to, but Reidun might need to-"
"Can you make it back to the camp on your own?" Reidun suddenly asked Isabella.
"I… I should be able to," she said, finally taking Reidun's hand and being brought up to her feet.
A cheeky flower of smugness bloomed within Reidun.
"It's not safe to go alone. Here…" she unsheathed the Iron sword. "...take this."
"I… thank you," Isabella managed to say with confidence. "But where are you going?"
Reidun stepped back and re equipped her gauntlet.
"To save another damsel in distress, obviously."
With a smirk and a confident wave, she turned her back to her fellow student and burst off into a sprint.
"Reidun-"
"Don't worry, Joseph. I know you hate asking me to do anything, but I'm not doing this because you need me to," Reidun lied. " Like I told Isabella… I'm trying to become a knight, and that means saving people."
20th of the Great Tree Moon, 1180
Flayn thought herself rather clever.
As it turned out, as long as she said that her brother had allowed it, most of the knights simply went along with what she claimed without even a hint of scepticism. The very thought of her lying seemed unthinkable.
It was quite guilt inducing, yet also, admittedly, quite exciting.
It was perhaps then in poor taste then to become engrossed in the activities and social engagement.
In hindsight, it was also quite foolish. Seeings as she somehow ended up alone… and surrounded by ruffians.
"Oh dear… I may have made a mistake."
An: A bit short on Flayn's end this chapter, but there'll be a lot more of her next time.
To Grimmideals (Aug 5, 2024): I will admit that it doesn't make much sense yet, but this is intended as just the intro... even if it turned out a bit longer than intended.
To Royalrain20xx (Aug 5, 2024): Are you suggesting that I would take one of the characters major flaws an abuse it for negative consequences? Pft, why would I do that. Also, hurray for chaos.
To Incognito74 (Aug 5, 2024): Mhm! Ferdinand is great- scratch that. All the students are great! it's what makes fe3h so great in my mind. Everyone is someone's favourite. bonus points to Ferdinand though, he's definitely one of the cast who you don't even need to be friends with for him to be a bro.
To Bustertank (Aug 6, 2024): Behold, my masterful deception! Grats on the clairvoyance, it looks like Reidun and Flayn are going to meet each other.
To Ver'dan (Aug 6, 2024): Believe it or not, the parallels between Reidun's situation and Byleth were not at all intentional... and it took me far longer than I'm proud of to realise the similarities, and just how deep those go.
To Louie Yang (Aug 6, 2024): Well, she has reasons... not going to argue whether or not they are good reasons. I will say though that I wasn't dead set on keeping her in the blue lions when I started writing out my plans. The risk of her switching houses is a plot point though.
To Khandrol (Aug 23, 2024): Thank you, I'm stoked you're enjoying this! I'm glad Reidun comes across that way, because that's definitely within the angle I'm aiming for. Blue Lions are my favourite too! ...it's just unfortunately far too tempting as a writer to poke the bear and cause drama.