Chapter 4: 7th of Horsebow Moon: Clash
…
"Seir!"
"Luke?"
The Red half of the Marigolds popped up behind the green half, slinging his prosthetic easily over her shoulder and leaning on her. "Yahallo, y'all! Sorry but I'll be stealing away with your combat instructor! hmmm... then I guess- Jeralt you're in charge, have fun!'
An amused dragon responded. "Were you not the one to suggest that at the very least, One of us has to stay in the monastery at all times?" Aha. I realized that must be their response to the uneasy peace with the Kingdom and other noble factions. Including the Empire and Alliance, any sign of weakness and the Church would be gobbled up in a bid to restore the nobility.
"Totes, but… it got boring without you, and Remire is barely a day's ride away. So heyo"
"Hmph, idiot."
"You're the one who decided to marry this idiot, so who's the real idiot here~?"
Nauseating. I visibly felt Hubert rein in his instinctive desire to blast the librarian's antics and existence away with dark spells. My poor friend simply never recovered from being so thoroughly dismantled and mocked in their first meeting. An irony considering how both Hubert and I were assisting in diverting the nobles of my Empire from escalating the current peace. Unfortunately that included in working closely with Duke Aegir who as also interested in keeping said status quo. I swore to myself. One year. One year together my strength and that pathetic waste of blubber and fat will finally be removed. I was distracted from my dark fantasies, when-
"Get a room, you two. Ugh- By Sothis- You two are awful." Lysithea shouted after the two. And then she followed up, with a savage remark. "Don't you have better things to do then make heart eyes at each other? Like I don't know… Here's an idea, actually teaching?!"
Claude von Riegan ruffled the black hair of the Ordelian heir, and before anyone could continue, he did so himself. "Nah, That guy? He couldn't teach anything about archery I don't already know. Let's be honest, he's only in the monastery because he's the only baker who would listen to kids like you." Teasing Lysithea was an enjoyable pastime, but I felt my annoyance spike with the Golden Deer's careless words and actions. That's my thing!
Scratching and hissing like a cat, Lysithea attempted to disembowel the limb that intruded upon her head. "Claude! Don't mess with my hair! And I'm the kid? I'm not the one who goes asking around to play games!"
She must have been referring to the chess matches that Claude first introduced himself to his class with. A particularly interesting move, since Hubert had pointed out, the schemer did not actually enjoy chess. As we discovered when, Claude declined to purchase any recent 'board games' unlike either of us. Fake fan.
"Hey! There's nothing wrong with a game. I think Claude has the right idea, myself. Maybe just not the right game." The relaxed yet booming tone of the gentle giant of Rapheal entered the conversation. I didn't bother to tilt my head to view him. Unnatural. Too damn tall.
His green haired friend joined in, slightly shielded behind the giant. "I-I think what Raphael means, is that chess may not be the best game to play all the time?" Ignat-Ignatius?
Slapping the stuttering man, Ms. Pineil added her own opinion. "C'mon! Ignatz say what you really mean, Claude's games are weird and I'm pretty sure some of the pieces have been eaten. Yeah, I said it. Haven't you been the one replacing them anyway?" Who would eat chess pieces? Fucking animals.
Claude whirled and pointed dramatically at the red-haired suspect. "Aha! So that's how you won!"
"Nope. You're pointing at the wrong suspect. … Seir? What do you mean I would if I could? Please Kh-Claude is sharper than that, he would notice the missing pieces! It's got to be someone else… Also. Claude, by the end of year." More secret messages. Suspicious. Annoying. Motsly annoying.
The heir to the alliance's expression cooled slightly, his grin failing to reach his eyes now.
"I got it. Shoo shoo, don't need another old man butting into Deer business."
"Shut up kid, I'm young at heart. Isn't that right Seir?" 'Young at heart?' Frankly, the very words increased his age.
"I would have said that your mind was underdeveloped actually." Ooh! Burn! Wait. Fuck. Don't agree with the dragon!
"And I would say that your eye is acting up-"
A third voice stopped them from their incessant games. "Shut up you two, I'm not getting the work dumped onto me. So you might as well both lead this mock battle."
The couple communicating with only their eyes, came to a conclusion and nodded in tandem to the annoyed mercenary captain. Three eyes. One mind. Ah. My bad, I meant zero minds.
"Sure, I could flirt with my lovely wife while watching kids fail at murdering each other." I'll fucking murder you.
"And I must ensure those children do not actually somehow manage to commit manslaughter with only wooden weapons."
...
And so now the mock battle was to be conducted by two instead of one. Naturally, the entire conversation I witnessed. Was a complete and utter annoyance and useless distraction.
I decided to ignore said distraction and instead focus on my own classmates.
Dorothea was eagerly chatting to a, surprisingly, awakened Lindhardt. The sleeper's analytical gaze rested on the couple, but his head nodded along to Dorothea at appropriate times. Possibly, he may still have been nodding off.
Caspar and Bernadetta, strangely enough, were engaged in a seemingly 'duel' of rock-paper-scissors.
While that was occurring, Petra was becoming ever more confused by Ferdinand's soliloquy; on how he was a master of all noble arts including chess. And finishing with his disappointment at not being challenged by the Reigan heir. Why don't you challenge him instead of me?! I can get rid of two my fucking annoyances at once? Now that's taking two birds out with one stone.
I decided to join my more sane classmates. Sliding into Caspar's peripheral. I spoke. "I'm curious, what are the stakes you two are partaking in? I hardly ever see the duo of you interact." Truth. Caspar's boisterous attitude often frightened Bernadetta, and caused her to flee to her room, if she did not decide to practice her archery on another living target that day.
"Ah! Jeez, Edelgard don't sneak up on us! And 'partaking in' ? Do you mean what's the bet?"
"I did not do any 'sneaking'. You were simply far too absorbed in your victory." I ignored his interpretation of my words in favor of correcting his mistaken opinion.
"S-She's right! Really, Edelgard was just walking slowly to us."
"Oh man. I need to work on my observation skills then." Hmmm. I was going to lead into that. Another reason I enjoyed Caspar's presence, he was as committed as I was in correcting weaknesses, personal or otherwise. However, his reckless attitude somehow escaped being perceived as a weakness. Despite how much I lectured on him as such. Maybe I should beat it into his thick head.
"Quite. But, truly. I am curious, what was your bet then?"
"The bet was to see who got to try fighting Mr. Marigold!"
Bewildered, I asked. "...Bernadetta?" Wha- I know he's an asshole but Bernie?! How even?!
"D-don't look at me like that! I get pressured easily into these k-kinds of things! …and I've been waiting for a chance to show my skills to. Him…" The rest of her words trailed off into inaudible mutterings.
"Don't worry Bernie! I'll kick his butt for you! And then you can kick his butt after that if you're not satisfied!" Asskicking.
"Normally, I would advise against attempting to beat up a staff member, but considering Hubert's own attempts. I feel my words would only ring hollow." And my own.
"It's o-okay, Edelgard. Hubert doesn't represent you. I m-mean he doesn't completely represent you! He's his own person, I-I mean! And it's not as if we are the only ones... Look at Sylvain over there." Pointing at the ginger haired lancer, the easy-going smile that was usually on Sylvain's face replaced itself with a deep scowl. His eyes were glaring at the Librarian, and his teeth must have been gritted. The butchering at Sreng had affected more than one people that day. I remembered that the red lancer was approaching the man in the start of our enrollment of the academy, but he was stopped by his friends, the blonde and the dark blue one.
We watched as the Gautier Heir put his hand on his dark-blue friend's sword and lowered it. Shaking his head, they exchanged words, before the dark haired man also scowled and sheathed his blade. Strange.
"... that was weird."
"Y-yeah…"
"Indeed."
The Blue Lions were a fractured group of people. I could only hope their cracks would not spread to Dimitri as well. That entire House is fucked up.
…
The Black Eagles had lost the coin flip and thus regulated to the open clearing in the northwest corner of the battlefield. This meant that we were at a major disadvantage in terms of defending, and so forcing us into an attacking position. Which worked well for Hubert and I's strategy.
Before examining the strengths and weaknesses of our strategy, I decided to examine the arrangement of the other houses. Claude had naturally been given the southeast corner, a forest. Fitting for his own style of strategy. Dimitri was setting up his class in the southwest corner, and in the distance he waved to me. Too naive. Waving back, I could see the rest of the Blue Lions begin to line up in a formation.
My own house was… using the pair system instead of a rigorous formation. Hubert and I had gone over many complex stratagems. Some worthy of being called tactical masterpieces. However, I had brought up the damning concern. Tch. I only thought of it because of the shitshow that was the Imperial army.
How would our inexperienced and incohesive class manage to follow orders in the chaos of battle? A rhetorical question. The answer would obviously be, incredibly poorly. That much was made clear to us, when I attempted to perform a quick formation yesterday. The resulting stumble and confusion caused even that dragon to come and hide a chuckle. Bitch. Technically, it was also her error, being that she had helped train most of the current generation. Only for a month, but bad habits could be learnt easily.
So the strategy was simple. Allow Caspar to run off ahead, paired with Lindhardt to keep him 'alive'. yes, I said alive. Healers could be used in this mock battle as their worth in true battle would be incalculable. So for a solution to the lack of true injury, Most mages had been taught a simple paint removing spell. The paint on our natural-made weapons could be cleaned off easily with an application of that spell. Thus, healing the 'damage'.
But back onto the strategy-
Bernadetta and Dorothea would support them further, harrying the foes before Caspar could rush in and put an end to their participation. In our evenly numbered configuration, I decided… Much to my loyal friend's displeasure, to pair him with Ferdinand while I stood with Petra. Suffer, suffer as you made me suffer! That's what you get for teasing me!
The princesses were the bait, so to speak. Also keeping to the rear, was me understanding of my objective importance in the battle. A necessity considering the morale damage. Yet, Petra and I's martial abilities would decimate any attackers. Still, I imagined our position would not prevent us from seeing battle.
In summary.
The Black Eagles shall be the spear, and I shall be their driving force. Or something to that nature… The analogy escaped me. Argh! I should have made Hubert come up with one. It would have been bleak as fuck, but better than my own dumbass.
...
Woosh
The flags that signaled the battle's start, rose with a horn's cry.
"Let's go!" Caspar shouted and charged off, as I knew he would. In my vision, I saw a distant purple haired man ready his lance and similarly charge. Shouts of annoyance rang out from the forest. Unplanned. Losers. This is why you have your loyal friend fucking spy on your future classmates!
The Blue Lions in contrast to either house, moved swiftly in their V-shaped formation. Their force angling towards the Black Eagles. Caspar, seeing this, shifted to meet them in the middle.
Petra by my side spoke to me. "Edelgard, let us also be meeting our foes!" Language.
I responded easily, despite her new approach to Fodlan's language, long experience with her father had translated her words for me. "Yes we will! But be wary, I believe Claude has a trap in mind."
I refocused on the far battle. Capsar had engaged with Lorenz, and with the assistance of Bernadetta and Dorothea, defeated him in short order. Light flashed, and Lorenz was eliminated. Teleported to irrelevance.
"Dammit Lorenz! You could have taken out at least one of them!" The orange haired lancer from the Golden Deer shouted. Apparently uncaring of her revealed position. On which the duo of Mercedes and Ashe pelted with arrows and spell fire. Another flash of light. Ah. Too eager for her idol's attention. Idiot.
Dimitri soon came upon Caspar, and using his devastatingly accurate lance strikes exposed an opening for the prince's friends to attack, mercilessly. 3 flashes of light went off. Caspar, Dedue, and Felix all being taken out. One by Felix, one by Bernadetta, and another from Felix being blinded by the light and falling into Ashe. Improper awareness of his allies. Too used to fighting solo. Hmph. Get yourself a friend… Appreciate your friends more! Like I do with Hubert!
Lindhardt switched to casting offensive spells. Trading magic with Annnete, he allowed himself to be taken out by a stray wind slash. Yawning away into light, he left with a final wind slash directed at Dimitri. The attack was blocked by Sylvain's lance, leaving him open to be shot by Claude, only a graze however. Lindhardt you lazy fuck!
The battle had descended into a frenzy, and only my rear position allowed me to stay clear of the embarrassment. Ugh. Glorious strategies would have been wasted here. I still want to do them!
"I am Ferdinand von Aegir!" Idiot. Moron. Nincompoop.
In the distance I could see the Marigolds erupt into shared laughter. One nearly rolling down the ridge they were on, before being caught by the other.
Ugh. Also being watched by the entire faculty?! And the Blade Breakers?! Ferdinand why.
Despite his shout, Ferdinand coupled with Hubert's efficiency easily broke down Dimitri's defenses.
Suddenly, Hilda appeared in the midst of that confrontation to lazily whack Dimitri, and attempted to repeat her feat on Hubert. Bernadetta quickly fired upon the newest enemy, during a lull in her duel with Ashe. The arrow glancing off Hilda, then being healed in the distance by a blue woman. Marianne? I guess she's their Lindhardt. Dorothea quickly noticed the healer, and began to cover the battlefield from any more white magic interference.
The rest of the Golden Deer decided to show themselves and quickly entered the melee, with Claude leading them. Emerging from the forest in style, they set upon the many individual fights between my Eagles and the Lions.
I found myself challenged by Lysithea again, but Petra parried off her magic first. Allowing me to wield my ax against a fellow wielder. "Sorry about this!"
"You are forgiven, but I will show you your mistake in challenging me!" My axe could not match Rapheal's musculature, so I utilized my shorter height to strike at his legs. Forcing him to dodge backwards clumsily. Ahah! I quickly formulated a tactic. Taking advantage of his movement, I shifted to the side and pressed him further. My tactic was interrupted by an arrow hitting my axe before it could parry Rapheal's. Forcing my abandonment of my weapon in exchange for my continued 'life'. An arrow from Ignatz had hit my axe, judging by the yellow paint and it's lack of Claude's signature feathers...
I glanced over seeing that the leaders of my rival houses engaged in a duel. Hilda being nowhere to be found. Even in my alert glance, I saw no green. I could not see my other foe.
I backpedaled away from another wide swing of Rapheal's axe. Shit! Goddam tall people!
"The defeat is yours!" Petra appeared from a bush, tapping the giant on the nape. Teamwork right there. Also how, bushes don't give you invsibility! Scary.
She handed me a yellow coated blade while I scanned the surroundings. Dimitri had fallen, but Sylvain had not. Damn. Sorry Dimi. The Red Lancer engaged my own, while Hubert was forced to defend himself against Mercedes. Ashe and Bernadetta had taken themselves out then? Or was that, Ignatz's arrows ending the duel?
There! I spotted a pact of strange green. Then pointing it out to my partner, Petra nodded, racing away into the trees.
I decided to engage my last rival leader. Claude. Who was flourishing his bow, after removing Dorothea from the battle. Why do we do those fancy moves? Dumbass it's for morale!
My blade was blocked perilously by his bow, "Whoa there! Princess, Nice to see you too!" Fucker, I told everyone to call me Edelgard! My own rebuttal to his mocking words was lost as we were both distracted by another set of flashes. Ingrid having taken out Marianne, yet having her lance and participation defeated in the process by Ignatz. An incredibly accurate shot throwing said lance into my duel. It embedded itself into the ground, as Claude and I dodged from the spinning projectile. A lucky opportunity presented itself to me. And using Claude' slightly slower reflexes, I kicked the lance into his frame.
"Your wit may be sharper, but your form is lacking!" My blade easily cut through his off-balanced defense and soon light flashed. Fucking thinkers, If you spend all your time thinking, you forget to actually act!
"-For her majesty!" Another light flashed behind me. Hubert! That dramatic asshat! He sacrificed himself to defend against Mercedes? He must have been more exhausted than I realized. I whipped around.
Ferdinand had won against Sylvain, but found his tired body being painted yellow by another arrow by Ignatz. A light shined in the trees as Petra ended the irritating archer's streak.
I deleted another magic blast from Mercedes. The wooden sparring weapon being more than durable enough to take her flames. The last Blue Lion was in my path! You're sweet and all but it's time to lose! Also why do you feel like a damn mom?! You're barely older!
"This is the end!" I threw my blade at her, after another deflection. I watched her eyes widen before she was bopped on the chest. Yellow splashing across her torso.
Flash.
And with that. The frenzy had ended. The first battle the totality of the Three Houses had ended. It was... An entirely embarrassing affair on any side.
But… My Black Eagles had persevered! And that is what I shall remember from this! We're the fucking best!
…
Incorrect. I was wrong and I must face the truth.
I shall also remember the mocking scent of popped maize and butter as the Professors chatted, consoled, and critiqued our participation. Except the Marigold. He was laughing his ass off, still even after the battle was long moped up. Both of them, actually. The other Marigold was just hiding it behind her hand. So unprofessional! Fuckers think they can laugh at the students. Only I'm allowed to laugh at my idiots! And whoever else I guess.
After all of the students had arrived. The House Leaders stood in front of our bedraggled and painted classes.
Professor Hanneman began. "In all my years, I have never seen… Suffice to say cohesion and implementing formations will be thoroughly researched." Ugh. Not more papers!
Professor Manuela elbowed the graying man. "Oh stuff it, the kids were alright. Take it easy on them, it's only their first month. Remember, or is your head too full of all that research? Usually we do this later in the year." Is that outfit even appropriate?! I can see her... assets. So that's where Dorothea got her boob exposure ideas from.
Before they could begin their bickering, Professor Seteth added his own thoughts. "Professor Manuela is correct, instead of taking this as a failure in teaching, we can use this to better our own teaching. And accommodate the needs of the students. I will also share that while most strategies seen today collapsed under their own weight, the Black Eagles' lack of a strategy served them well." Thanks. Fuck you too.
A gruff voice questioned. "Strategy? I could see the Blue kids' ideas, but what about the Deer's?"
A cold voice answered. "Jeralt. A pincer attack. Just a failed one." Goddam, I've been called Ice Princess, but that felt like the fucking ass end of Faerghus.
I could see Claude wince at that. Karma.
Another red-haired lancer entered the conversation. And nonchalantly continued to devastate our egos. "Yeah. Mr. Schemer tried making a trap, but because the two other kiddies were beating the stuffing out of each other, he tried to take advantage of that. Should have waited a little longer."
Claude spoke in his defense. "Hey, I had no choice, I gotta listen to my troops! They weren't going to let me just wait until Prince and Princess painted each other away." Shrugging in a manner of 'what can you do', the heir to the alliance smiled irresponsibly.
Marigold after recovering from his laughing fit shut that down. "C'mon Claude, don't try to trick Hapi. You forgot to tell them of your plan right?" Hapi? The red haired lancer? How many of those do we even have?! It's getting fucking ridiculous.
Professor Marigold followed up on that before Claude derailed the lecture further. "And Ci-Seteth you are incorrect, the Black Eagles did have a strategy, their somewhat organized attack with Caspar at the head, grasped their victory after all."
I preened slightly. Only slightly! I simply recognized honest praise. Hmph. Damn right, we're awesome!
A voice behind the classes spoke. "Pairs. Good idea." Motherfucke-!
Shocking more than half of the totaled houses, some even shrieked upon seeing the blank visage of Byleth Eisner eating more popcorn. Where. How. Why.
"Byleth! Again?!" Again? This is common thing for her to do? A sneaky cat?
Ignoring Marigold's shout, the blue mercenary continued. "Everyone did very well fighting. But they should use the environment more. Ah. And the Green boy, he took out the most. It's important to use cover effectively. The Blue Cats should have secured the hill better instead of attempting to take out the Red Birds. Yellow Does were too disorganized, especially compared to the other animals." Pffft.
"By. You know that's not their names right?" Jeralt rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Oh.... Black Eagles. Congratulations."
Both the Marigolds clapped at that. Clap~ Clap~ Damn right you should clap! Then the red one pointed at Ms. Eisner.
"Oh yeah! That reminds me, the next battle will be against Byleth and co, or Jeralt and co. Or as I like to say, Jeralt's five adopted idiots! So have fun~"
Jeralt growled. "I knew it! I thought it was fine with the red one! She was quiet and sarcastic. I could live with that, but she was an arsonist! And then the whole thing with Shamir and her boytoy…Actually they're fine. Except for Aiax, he needs more sunlight. But then! Then that smooth pretty boy?! You Dastard! I don't want a son-in-law!" Smooth pretty boy? Kind of a redundancy there. Just saying.
The Immaculate one coughed. "Jeralt…. Byleth's outfit? And what of a daughter-in-law?" She then winked at me. At least I assumed it was a wink. My irritation made it hard to tell.
Why does her outfit have stockings? Are they metal engravings? Can you even do that to stockings? That might be ingenious. Also fuck off, I will never marry such a suspicious person!
The concerned father whirled to the lazily stretching lancer. "Hapi?!"
"Don't bring me into this. Hey, Chatterbox. Pass me the popcorn."
I ignored the ensuing comedy to face my house. This was more important. I ignored my house's personality quirks manifesting. Lindhardt was sleeping standing up, Hubert was attempting to secretly strangle Ferdinand, Caspar was being held back by Perta as he tried to storm the staff, Bernadetta was searching for her bow, and Dorothea was failing to wipe away the paint on her.
"Black Eagles! Through our efforts, we have secured a victory! In honor of that, I propose we have a feast to celebrate. And of course, the other houses are welcome! We have to defeat the mercenaries after all."
I allowed myself to smile. The first victory of many.
...
A.N.
So that's all of the Ashen wolves accounted for, except Balthus. He's actually up by Holst partying it up. Once he gets debt ridden though...
