Irreplaceable Love / Fire Emblem / Byleth x Dimitri shortstories

The Ashen Demon

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Post timeskip, takes place after chapter sixteen and takes place before chapter seventeen. Takes place after the "Reasons..." part, "A Promised Trip" part, "Peculiar" part, "The Dagger" part, "Tension" part, "Raid" part & "Tea Party" part. Takes place on the 22nd of Great Tree Moon. References "The Argument In The Lions' Den" part.

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It was a bit late at night so Dimitri decided to leave the Cathedral to train

He chooses to leave by going from the Cathedral to the Reception Hall then the direction that leads to the quarters, sauna and training grounds.

When he walked in, he didn't realise there were some people there already.

Dimitri didn't really know who they were. It seemed like they were just some Kingdom soldiers from Rodrigue.

Well three of them to be exact.

They were talking a lot but they didn't see him since they had their backs turned to where Dimitri was walking from.

All three of the soldiers seemed very irritated. One of them spoke and brought it up. "Grrr..Lord Rodrigue is insane! Why should we help Prince Dimitri? He knows that we'll all be dead at this rate."

"You know how he's like, he treats that Prince like he's his son."

"But this is so stupid! The prince is insane!"

Dimitri sighed. He knew they were correct about it.

He shrugged it off and started walking back to the Cathedral to use the longer way. He thought to himself. "How annoying..."

He then turned around and took a few steps

"Eh I am more concerned about that foolish commander than about the prince."

Dimitri stopped walking and slightly turned his head.

He was confused and he thought to himself. "What?"

"You mean Professor Byleth?" One of them asked.

"Obviously! Well, I prefer to refer to her as that old name she used to have. It fits her incompetence..."

Dimitri then walked a bit towards them and hid. He tried to understand what they were saying.

The soldiers kept talking. "Oh yeah, she was the Ashen Demon wasn't she?"

One of them nodded. "Yes. I don't trust her one bit. She's a pretty awful commander too."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Rodrigue is kind of an idiot for putting his trust into the Ashen Demon. All she does is fish."

"Haha yeah that is true."

They all laughed. It made Dimitri feel sick.

He couldn't believe that they were saying this about Byleth.

And calling her that name...Dimitri's never once heard it before.

Suddenly, Hilda walks in the reception hall from a different direction but the soldiers don't see her. She walked past them and then she saw Dimitri eavesdropping on the soldiers' conversation.

She really wasn't expecting that.

She goes to where Dimitri is and quietly confronts him. "Hey Dimitri! Why are you eavesdropping?"

"Shhhh."

"Huh? ...?" Hilda decided to hide and listen too.

She didn't know why she did it but she did.

One of the soldiers realised something and pointed it out. "Seriously though, when you think about it more seriously, Lord Rodrigue is seriously relying on an ashen demon to prevent us from dying?!"

All three stopped laughing and frowned. ".....Well what can we do now? We can't just let Lord Rodrigue allow that...that monster of a commander get us killed in battle."

Hilda realised who they were referring to and was horrified.

The soldiers continued to badmouth her. "Well what can we do at this rate? Tell him that the commander is a monster?"

"Well it isn't hard to believe. Pretty sure everyone knows that she is a monster except him. She probably forced them against their will to be around her at all."

Hilda poked her tongue out in disgust. "What the heck? Why in the world are they saying such ridiculous things about the Professor? Not only is it untrue and rude but also incredibly out of place?"

Dimitri agreed with Hilda. This was rather random. He couldn't even tell what they're trying to say. All they seemed to be doing was badmouthing Byleth for no reason other than the fact that she was known as the "Ashen Demon" one time.

"She seems to have always hated being called the Ashen Demon, I overheard her say something to someone else that the name makes her feel 'less than human' or some dumb crap like that. What a joke." One soldier snorted in a way to mock Byleth.

"That's probably because she actually is a demon. Wouldn't surprise anyone unless they're naive. She really is the scum of Fodlan, I hope people realise how ridiculous it is to trust someone who is so...despicable." Another one said.

Dimitri and Hilda felt even more angry by this interaction.

Another soldier bit his lip and seemed more concerned. He finally spoke up his concerns. "Do you think the Ashen Demon is actually...plotting something? Maybe she worked with the people of Duscur to cause the tragedy nine years ago and then somehow tricked the prince into thinking that Edelgard did it instead..."

Dimitri flinched at the accusation.

"Woah...That's a really good point! No wonder the prince is-"

Dimitri walked out from where he was hiding, surprising Hilda and he stomped pretty loud.

One of the soldiers noticed, turned around and cut off their sentence. When he realised that Dimitri heard that, he looked absolutely horrified.

The other two are confused.

The scared soldier bowed. "Y-y-your Hi-highness!"

The other two turned around and then seemed just as scared.

"You fools actually think that way and you call yourselves soldiers? How pathetic. Quit making wild accusations and saying revolting things about her."

"R-right we ap..apologise...t-tremendously... S-s-sorry!" They all ran away cowardly right after they apologised.

Dimitri crossed his arms, still completely disgusted from what he just heard. "Hmph how disgusting. Only an imbecile would think and say such repulsive things."

.....

"Wow Dimitri! Way to go!" Hilda came out of the hiding spot and clapped her hands.

Dimitri turned around quickly. It seemed like he completely forgot that Hilda was here.

"I knew that you cared about the Professor! There was no way what you said about her last moon was true and that just confirmed it." Hilda smirked.

Dimitri looked away and then walked away, leaving Hilda there.

Hilda thought to herself. "I knew it...He didn't deny it either..."

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