Three Houses Saga: White Clouds

Road to Remire

Ai's POV

"Bullseye." I thought to myself after my second attempt at hitting the target with my bow was successful. Directly in the center of the target, right next to my first shot, which was a little off the mark. Ready to fire another arrow, I draw back my training bow, take aim and—

"RAH!"

"Gah!" I respond with as the arrow hits the tree behind the target instead. Turning around and sighing, I reluctantly choose not to fire my fourth shot into the sunglasses-wearing idiot's gut for now.

"Ha ha ha ha, nice shot Mizuno, just like hawk-guy!" he says while mocking my attempt.

"It's Hawkeye, and shut up. Where are you off to anyway Tatsumi?" I ask him, "Everyone else is here with Jeralt and Byleth, are you afraid of tearing that nice suit of yours?"

Turning around and walking away he only says that "I'm going to study again. Keep practicing HawkAi." sticking his tongue out at me before disappearing from my sight. Studying, eh? We do need more information on how this new world works, so maybe it could be useful. Although I don't see eye-to-eye with him most of the time, actually all the time, I do admit he's smart enough to plan ahead. I hope whatever he's looking for will help us in the long run, for now I must keep practicing.

"HawkAi, huh?" I thought to myself while drawing another arrow and firing. Not as good as my second, but way better than my misfire. It's been two weeks since we've met the two mercenaries helping us. Jeralt, The Blade Breaker, he doesn't look too friendly, but he sometimes grins when he's having a drink with Kotaro, sparring with Saki, who I think is his favorite out of us, and just seeing Lily happy. Though, I'm more interested in his son, The Ashen Demon I've heard people call him, Byleth.

His swordsmanship is remarkable, and he's not too bad at strategy either, giving us good advice when it comes to using our weapons. His face has been getting better at emoting, though he's still very far from not acting like a robot. Also I'm the only one that had actually seen him kill those bandits, so I'm curious on how his mind works. But despite his help, not all of us have been doing well.

Sakura and Junko haven't been doing that great with lance training, and I have been quite fearful whenever I see Tae holding an axe. Lily has been reading up on books on sorcery, which is not surprising because of what we've seen, though she has yet to actually use any spells. Only myself, Saki, and Yugiri have been successful so far with our training. While I do enjoy archery, disarming our manager and swinging that baguette pushed me into trying out blades, and as I suspected, our Legendary Courtesan has some experience in that area. Saki ended up breaking the practice dummies when using those training gauntlets, though she needs to learn where to strike certain opponents. That's what I told her yesterday, but she ended up ignoring me.

While we were still together, we also discussed how our secret could possibly be revealed in Fódlan. We have plenty of makeup, but eventually it will run out, so we have to be careful not to use it excessively. As for our body parts falling apart we have to try our best not to get hurt too badly, or we would have to be inspected and tested by doctors. We may have to reveal our secret in this world, but in order to avoid angry mobs or religious individuals, there needs to be secrecy. Not everyone will trust the undead to not harm anyone, especially with Tae running around.

"Enough worrying about that, the battlefield is just like a stage..." I thought before getting another perfect hit on the target, with Sakura and Lily cheering me on, "... you need to try your best, no matter the fight or the performance.".

Third-Person POV

Tatsumi returned from the library at night, carrying stacks of books and immediately went up to his room in the inn, only nodding at Lily when she was walking in after watching the stars. Looking through the pages of each book carefully, he gained a lot of important information by the before he decided to sleep. He read up about The Adrestian Empire, The Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, The Leicester Alliance, The Church of Seiros, and even The Officers Academy. That was a place that he was most intrigued about, a place where young nobles and commoners could train and learn together to be greater individuals. As he went to bed that night he formulated a plan in his head, not doubting that when they arrive, he needs to enroll Franchouchou. For what reason? Like Tatsumi himself, for now it's a mystery.

As more weeks pass and it is now the Great Tree Moon in Fódlan. Jeralt receives a new job in Kingdom territory and Kotaro demands that he brings him and the girls along in order to gain more experience, which he reluctantly agrees to in order to stop hearing him yell. Most of the girls seem ready enough to have their first mission anyways so it would be beneficial to be in a real battle. All of them depart at dawn, walking cautiously towards their location until they decide to take a break for a few days at Remire Village. As all of them start taking refuge in the area, the girls hope that they won't get into much of skirmish there...

END OF CHAPTER 3