Emerald Rain

The Aftermath of War:

Claude:

Byleth frowned at something in the distance, "Claude, you all should retreat and find the others" she said, "Dimitri and Edelgard are fighting, the battle is over" Byleth choked out before she took off running in the direction of them.

Claude wanted to follow, but if he did that meant leaving behind everyone.

No, Byleth can do this on her own Claude is sure of it.

"Alright everyone" Claude calls out, "Lets draw back, and find our allies" he added. They follow Claude's lead.

Everyone is silent, no one know quite what to say after everything they've seen on the battlefield today.

It was gruesome.

Claude is honestly surprised that they made it out of their relatively unscathed.

They pass by the central hill the fire is still raging from it, if Byleth hadn't stopped them from going on it they would have met a fire death there for sure. Claude gets goose bumps thinking about it.

In the distance Claude could see the remainder of their elite army, Caspar, Hilda, and Yuri are alive and fine.

Not that Claude had any doubts that they would be.

But still he is relieved to see them.

"The Kingdom army has begun retreating" Yuri says as they meet them, "Lord Rodrigue came running through a few minutes ago telling everyone to retreat" he added.

Claude nodded, "I see, it's not going to be long before the Imperial army closes in then" he sighed, "All of you head back to the other side of the ravine" he said "I'm going to get Byleth, I'll meet you there" Claude declared then took off running back in the way that he'd just come from.

Eventually after a couple of minutes of running Claude made it to the platform where Edelgard and Dimitri had been fighting, no one was there.

A few feet away from the platform Dimitri was kneeling in the grass.

He was holding someone who had fallen.

For a brief moment Claude was worried that it might be Byleth since he didn't see here, but on closer inspection Claude realized it was none other than Rodrigue Fraldarius.

Oh crap.

Claude walks closer to Dimitri; his mind is racing. Where did Byleth go, but in this moment, it doesn't really matter "Dimitri" Claude says softly and extends his hand out to him "Come back with us to the monastery" he adds.

Dimitri doesn't look up to him, "I killed him" Dimitri says in a chocked sob.

Claude looks around it isn't hard to piece together what happened here by the dead little girl standing a few feet away, "Dimitri, they need you right now" he says gesturing to the area that the Kingdom soldiers retreated to.

Dimitri sits there in silence for a moment then stands up holding the body of Lord Rodrigue in his arms.

The two of them walk silently besides one another until they reach the area that the Kingdom soldiers had been retreating to.

"Your Highness" a voice calls out, it's Sylvain his eyes immediately fall to Lord Rodrigue, "Is he..." Sylvain begins to say but trails off.

"Dead" Dimitri said bluntly.

Sylvain's mouth is hanging wide in shock, "I- I'll carry his body" he finally says.

Dimitri doesn't refuse and Sylvain carefully takes Rodrigue's body.