i don't want to live in a world without you

Chapter 6

A familiar voice wakes Byleth up, but by the time she starts to remember that voice, it is already gone. She opens her eyes slowly to a strange man who tells her strange things, and she is so dazed right now that she can barely process any of it. It does not feel like she was out for very long, but the battle must already be over.

What happened to her again...?

As she stands up, she feels something brushing her back, startling her, but when she reaches to dust it off, she finds that it is just her hair. Her hair that was short, the last time she remembered it, but now it goes all the way down her back, and the man is telling her that the Millenium Festival would have been tomorrow, and Byleth's head is so cloudy that it is a miracle she can even understand what that means.

She's been out for more than an hour or so. If what this man says is to be believed, she has been out for nearly five years. She doesn't even know how she's able to walk right now.

Her body feels so weak, but she can see the monastery just ahead, and she does not know what to do but to keep forcing herself forward. Where is her father? Where are her students? It's been five years, and she left all of them alone, and anything could have happened in that time, but...but they all promised to meet again on that day. If any of them are still alive, then maybe they will be there, and maybe, just like when Leonie found her father before they left with the imperial forces, maybe somebody told him that she would come back that day.

They must all think she is dead.

Truth be told, Byleth feels like she should be dead right now, but she just keeps walking, willing her legs not to give out on her as she goes. Her father...Edelgard...Hubert...one by one, she runs through her students, the knights who sat in on her classes, the faculty that would help her, everyone who stayed with her when she chose to fight for Edelgard, because they trusted her. Did she really abandon them for five years? Do any of them still hold any hope for her return?

The monastery is just up ahead, and even if nobody is there, she might at least find somewhere to rest until she feels able to walk again. Something is heavy at her side, and she realizes that she is still carrying her sword, and hopes that, if it came down to it, she would be able to defend herself. How did she remain asleep for five years, without anyone finding her, and without anyone stealing the relic off of her body? Was it some final protection from Sothis, who she thought to be gone?

Was that who woke her up?

There are signs of life here, and she does not dare to get her hopes up as she continues searching for a person, any person. If she has to fight someone, then so be it, but she can't help but think that it will not come to that. They won the battle five years ago, didn't they? Would Edelgard have lost control of the monastery in that time? If not, then the troops should still be here, and they might at least know who Byleth is.

But Edelgard is the one that she sees first. She jumps when she hears steps behind her, and gawks at Byleth as if she doesn't believe it, and she grows angry and she cries and she smiles and she hugs her former professor tight, furious with her for abandoning her, and overjoyed that she has come back at last.

Byleth has no way to explain her absence other than saying that she was asleep, something that Edelgard finds a little hard to believe. She accepts it, however, and wants to get straight down to business, to help Byleth understand what she has missed while she was gone.

"And what of my father?" Byleth asks, her voice still so weak even though she has been up for a while now.

"He...did not take your loss well," Edelgard says, a bit sadly. "But he is still with us. All of our old classmates, the entirety of the Black Eagles Strike Force, still remains, and they're all here with us. I'm sure everyone, your father included, will be elated to see you."