Marianne and the Forbidden Codex: A Fire Emblem Three Houses story

Past and Present

Leonard was orphaned when he was between nine and ten years old. Those who found him on Edmund's land didn't know who his parents were or how he ended up there. He said he had been wandering for a long time without remembering when or where he had lost his family.

Little did it matter since that used to happen with commoners. Charitably, Margrave Edmund made the boy one of his servants. Despite how small and puny he was, the boy had an unimaginable talent for calculating figures, remembering lists of products, and some contracts that used to be helpful in businesses that this man could do.

In this way, Leonard could live for a long time in his master's house, using a small and humble room near the employer's house. He read a lot from some of the books his lord offered him, or he used to walk around the patio and other neighboring places. Three to four years passed like this when Leonard suddenly saw a new face in the home: Marianne.

She had been newly adopted under unclear circumstances. From what he understood, she came from a noble family with a distant affiliation with the Edmunds. Those things were not of much interest to Leonard. What caught his attention was that that girl didn't interact with anyone. She maintained a downcast and gloomy attitude. She was always obedient to her adoptive father, who treated her kindly but was sometimes rigid and distant.

When he went to the yard, Leonard would see Marianne, always guarding her loneliness. At times she saw the plants and the foliage; at other times, she looked at the sky, immersed. What surprised him the most was that Marianne only enjoyed talking to the birds, the dogs, and the horses in the stables.

Leonard used to look at insects and animals, pick them up and even dissect them out of a purely knowledge-oriented interest. The latter was because he thought that the vitality of animals resided in their stomach. Then they clarified that it should be in his heart, although he was not very convinced.

On the other hand, that young woman approached the animals to share. When he did, that gloomy expression he showed with others would change completely: She would offer a spontaneous smile, and her eyes seemed to shine. That boy had never seen a smile as beautiful as Marianne's when she shared it with the animals. Or maybe he had seen another beautiful smile but couldn't remember whose it could be.

Leonard tried in any way he could to get closer to her. First, he sought to trap birds in cages he made out of twigs, though these often broke before he could deliver them to Marianne. When he achieved his goal, she would take the bird out of the cage and, without even looking at the boy, she would comfort them and set them free. At other times, Leonard would arrive riding the horse that Marianne had approached; the only thing that caused this was a marked anxiety in the girl, who dedicated herself to comforting the animal until Leonard got bored and got off.

When he gave up trying so hard, only one last thing occurred: accompanying Marianne while she looked at the sky with her hands held together. Leonard approached slowly, and before she knew it, he got into the same position as the girl. She fidgeted a little but kept on with it. After a while, he got tired and asked:

"What are you doing?" Leonard said.

"I am praying to the Goddess."

"This is the first time you've spoken directly to me."

"I just... I didn't know what to say before."

"The Goddess is in heaven," Leonard commented, scratching his head. "I thought it was on earth."

"Yes... there it is," Marianne answered timidly.

"And how do you know it's the Goddess you're talking to? As will be? How do you know if it's in the shape of a person or the shape of a monster or a considerable dragon high up in the sky?" an anxious Leonard bombarded the poor girl with questions.