Ashen Demon's Servant | Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Act III

"Yes. Its name is Leicester Cortania tea, and is among the highest quality tea found in the Leicester Alliance." Beleth filled the teapot with some of the tea leaves from the elaborate tin box, pouring hot water over it.

Byleth closed her eyes as the steam carried its scent into the air. "...Yes, that's the tea Father brought back for us years ago." She lowered her gaze, and Beleth knew she was reminiscing.

"It was his last present for us before we left the palace," Beleth said.

"Yes."

He poured the tea into her teacup, and she took a sip. "Did you enjoy your time at Derdriu?"

"I did." He paused. "But I'd much prefer to stay here by your side, my lady."

The slightest trace of a smile appeared on Byleth's lips. "...Good," she said softly, and took another sip of tea.

On the way back from an outing, they passed the sea.

Byleth was peering out the window of the carriage, her eyes fixed on the large body of water.

"Would you like to stop?" he asked her.

"...No," she responded. "We should hurry back if we want to return in time for tea." She said this, but she did not tear her eyes away from the window.

"I heard a legend," Beleth started. "If you have a wish you want to come true, you write it down, put it in a glass bottle, and then throw it into the sea. They say the sea carries it to the goddess."

"Do you believe it?" Byleth asked, clearly skeptical.

Beleth paused. "It's a nice legend," he said finally.

They were silent the rest of the ride home.

The bells rang, signalling three o'clock for the day.

Beleth had just finished setting up for afternoon tea. For today, she requested the Leicester Cortania again. Recently, it seemed to be her favourite flavour.

He waited. Sometimes, if she was in a meeting, she would be a few minutes late, and recently, there have been quite a few war meetings. If they took too long, Beleth would go search for her, giving her an excuse to leave the meeting.

Just when he was about to leave, she appeared. To any other servant in the palace, she looked calm, but Beleth could tell something was wrong. Her eyes were lowered and slightly red, the corners of her lips turned down into a small frown. Her shoulders were tense; she was dragging her feet as she walked.

"Princess Byleth?" he said as she stopped in front of him. She did not look at him, instead staring down at her dress. "What's wrong?"

Without a word, she brought something out from behind her back and held it out to him.

A clear glass bottle with a rolled-up piece of parchment in it.

Puzzled, Beleth looked at his sister, waiting for some sort of explanation, but she did not even look at him, let alone explain. He took the bottle, and she stood there, waiting for him to open it.

He pulled out the cork and unfurled the parchment. In neat cursive writing, Beleth read the words:

Burn and destroy the Leicester Alliance.

Kill the one who stole Prince Dimitri from me.

Beleth froze. The flimsy paper suddenly became a hundred times heavier in his hands, and a thousand times more dangerous. He looked at his sister for an explanation, but she would not look him in the eye.

"...Why?" he asked.

Byleth's voice was so quiet, he had to lean closer to hear her. "Prince Dimitri of Faerghus rejected my marriage proposal," she whispered. "He sent a letter that said he couldn't marry me because he was in love with a person from the Leicester Alliance."

She raised her head, and Beleth felt his skin prickle as she looked at him defiantly.

"But if you kill that person...he will have no more reason to reject me. I don't know who that person is, but if you destroy the Leicester Alliance, surely that person will die as well."

Cold sweat dripped down Beleth's back as he made two realizations. The first realization was the cruelty of this. Suddenly, for perhaps the first time, he saw Byleth as the people saw her. Not his sister, but the Empress of the Adrestian Empire, and as the people nicknamed her, the Ashen Demon. She had just sentenced an entire nation to its death, and the only tears she had shed were for herself.

The second realization was that the one she wanted to die was the lover of Prince Dimitri.

She wanted him to kill Claude.