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Once upon a time, there were three young ladies that lived with their mother. They spent their time studying and training, whether it was with weapons, magic, or even both at the same time. Their mother, Rhea, was a tall and beautiful woman, with mint green hair, and an eye color that matched it. She was a kind and benevolent mother that loved her three children very much.
The oldest one, Bernadetta, had bushy purple hair, colorless gray eyes, and an extremely shy demeanor. She was like the living definition of a shrinking violet. She spent most of her days either isolated in her own room, or training in using a bow and arrow.
The middle child, Annette, had orange hair with two ringed pigtails towards the bottom, pale teal eyes, and a bright personality. She was pretty clumsy at times, and even once accidentally set the entire kitchen on fire while cooking. She was usually found either practicing her magic, or training to use an axe.
The youngest girl, Lysithea, had hair that was white as snow, rose-colored eyes, and a serious mindset. She was the most responsible out of the three, and by far the smartest. She seemed to only ever be found studying diligently, or practicing her magic.
One day, the three girls were called together by their mother. They found her in bed, looking very unwell. She had been sick for a while, but she seemed to look much worse than before. The three of them looked at her with worried faces, hoping she’d be alright. “My children,” Rhea said weakly, “my time is growing short, and it won’t be very long until I have to leave this world.”
“Don’t worry mother!” Annette cried, “We’ll get the best doctor we can find and you’ll be better in no time!”
“No. I’m afraid that there is nothing that can keep me alive for much longer. Soon, you three will have to learn to take care of yourselves.”
“You can’t say that!” Bernadetta bawled, “What’ll we do without you?!”
“My sweet child, you and your sisters are old and wise enough to live without me.”
“No! I’m not brave enough!”
“Bernadetta,” Lysithea said, “We have to let her go. There’s nothing else we can do for her.”
“Dear Lysithea, you’ve become a mature young lady.” Rhea said, “I’m proud of each and one of you. I hope you three will be able to continue to live by yourselves after I’ve passed. However, you must be wary of the Death Knight; He is an evil man that enjoys hunting people.”
Rhea smiled sadly and proceeded to touch each of their hands. “My children, you’ve all grown up to be smart and beautiful. I love you three so much.” Rhea's eyes then closed as the strength in her hand faded. The three little girls stood there, mourning the loss of their mother.
A few days later, the three girls got together and discussed what they should do now. “Now that mother’s gone, we are gonna have to move out and live by ourselves.” Lysithea said, with determination on her face.
“What?!” Bernadetta exclaimed, “Can’t we just stay here?! I don’t want to move out!”
“We can’t stay here Bernadetta. This house isn’t strong enough to withstand an attack from the Death Knight!”
“Lysithea’s right Bernie,” Annette followed, “We were only able to stay here because we had our mother to protect us.”
“...alright, fine.” Bernadetta finally gave in.
The three girls proceeded to leave their former home, and they set off to build their own houses. They all went their separate ways in order to lower the chances of all of them being killed. Bernadetta came to a grassy hill and made a small, cute, but well-structured house out of the strongest wood she could find. She even painted it to look even cuter. Annette went to a place near a lake and tried something crazy by making her house out of steel. It took her awhile to figure out how to make a house out of steel, but she managed to make it work, albeit a tad bit sloppy. Finally, Lysithea settled by the base of a mountain and took the simple route by making her house out of stone bricks. It wasn’t as well structured as Bernadetta’s house, but since it was large and made of tough material, Lysithea was confident in her house.
Elsewhere, a dark figure was walking through the woods. The figure was wearing jet black armor with spikes all around his shoulders and arms. His helmet was designed to look like a skull with sharp teeth and two giant horns pointing upwards. In his hand, he carried a dark silver-colored scythe that he used to slay others. “Now,” the dark knight said with a deep and haunting voice, “who shall I hunt today?”
He looked up and saw a little house on a hill. He headed towards it, hoping to find prey to hunt. Once he made it up to the house, he knocked on the door.
Bernadetta was still in the middle of settling down in her new home when she heard a violent knock from her door. “Wh-Who’s there?!” she asked.
“Little girl, little girl, let me in!” a dark voice answered.
Bernadetta gave a high-pitched shriek; she knew who it was.
“AAAAHHHH!! IT’S THE DEATH KNIGHT!!”
“Little girl, little girl, let me in!” the Death Knight repeated.
“NOBODY’S HOME!! LEAVE ME ALONE!!”
“Very well. I shall destroy your home.” As he finished talking, the Death Knight swung his scythe, breaking the wooden walls. He kept swinging his scythe until nothing of the house was left. Bernadetta was left defenseless. She screamed and ran away, escaping the Death Knight.
“Run all you like,” the Death Knight said, “but you can’t hide from me.”
Bernadetta continuously ran, hoping to find somewhere safe and protective enough from the Death Knight. She did not want to die an early death, especially in such a horrible way. She eventually came across a house near a lake. Bernadetta knocked on the door frantically, hoping someone would answer.
“Hello?!” Bernadetta yelled, “Please let me in! The Death Knight is after me!!”
The door opened and Annette popped her head out. “Bernie?!” she exclaimed, “What are you doing here?”
“The Death Knight destroyed my house!” Bernadetta cried, “and now he’s after me!”
“Well don’t just stand there, get in!”
Bernadetta quickly rushed into Annette’s house, and Annette closed the door.
“Are you sure this house will keep us safe? It looks a tiny bit...sloppily made?”
“Don’t worry Bernadetta,” Annette said reassuringly, “You’ll be safe in here. There’s no way the Death Knight will be able to take down my steel house!”
“Yeah, about that: how DID you get this much steel to make a house?”
Before Annette could answer Bernadetta’s question, they heard a knock on the door.
“Little girls, little girls, let me in!” the Death Knight demanded.
Wait, Bernadetta thought in her head, GirlS ?! Does he know I’m here?!?!
“Go away Death Knight!” Annette taunted, “No one likes you and you smell!”
“Very well. I shall destroy your home.” The Death Knight then proceeded to swing his scythe, but he was met with recoil as his scythe bounced off the house. He tried a couple more swings to no avail. The Death Knight grunted in frustration, amusing the two little girls. He then noticed a small crack on the house wall, and inserted the tip of his scythe in it. He pulled his scythe towards himself, bending and ripping part of the wall completely off. The exposed girls were in absolute shock at the sight of the dark figure completely tearing off one of the walls. Coming to their senses, they ran away screaming.
“Run all you like,” the Death Knight said, “but you can’t hide from me.”
Bernadetta and Annette continued to run away, hoping to find Lysithea’s house...or at least somewhere safe. After what seemed like hours of running (it really wasn’t that long), they found a large house made of stone bricks at the base of a mountain.
“That’s gotta be Lysithea’s house,” Annette remarked as she proceeded to knock on the door. As the door opened, Lysithea came out and saw two familiar faces.
“Bernadetta? Annette?” Lysithea said with surprise, “What are you two doing here?”
“The Death Knight destroyed our houses and is after us!” Bernadetta said in a panicky matter.
“Oh. Well, get in you two!” Lysithea said as Bernadetta and Annette came inside. “I’m confident that my stone bricks will do a better job at protecting us than whatever you two used to build your houses...no offense.”
“It’s fine,” Bernadetta replied gloomily, “I guess it’s not very surprising that my wooden house stood no chance.”
“I still can’t believe he destroyed my steel house!” Annette said in frustration.
“You made your entire house out of steel?” Lysithea asked.
“Yeah, I figured that if steel is strong enough to be used for weapons and shields, why not make an entire house out of steel?”
“How exactly thick were the walls?”
“...Not very.”
“There’s your problem,” Lysithea frowned. “A metal house doesn’t sound bad in theory, but if it’s thin, it’s possible to bend parts of it.”
Their conversation was cut short by the sound of knocking on the door.
“Little girls, little girls, let me in!” the Death Knight demanded once again.
“Don’t even bother,” Lysithea replied, “My house is strong enough to take on any attack you dish out!”
“We shall see about that.”
The Death Knight began slashing at the house. However, just like with Annette’s house, the Death Knight’s attacks bounced off the wall. Lysithea, hearing the angry growling of the Death Knight, wore a triumphant look on her face. However, her victorious moment didn’t last for long, as a shrieking high-pitched sound was heard as the Death Knight slashed at the wall with a critical hit, damaging it enough to remove a few of the bricks.
“I—imposible!” Lysithea exclaimed.
“WE’RE DOOMED!!” Bernadetta screamed.
“Someone help us!” Annette cried.
The Death Knight continued to chip away the wall until he made a big enough gap for him to fit through. He eerily approached the three girls. Bernadetta was bawling her eyes out, Annette was hugging her sisters tightly in fear, and Lysithea was unable to remove the absolute shock that was on her face from her house failing to keep them safe. The Death Knight raised his scythe in the air, and began to swing. The girls closed their eyes and braced themselves for the sharp blade that was about to slash them. However, before the scythe hit any of them, a bright light flashed in front of them.
When they opened their eyes, they found themselves in a large void of darkness. They could make out a few structures here and there, as well as a stone floor. Other than that, there seemed to be nothing around them.
“Where...are we?” Annette asked.
“Are we...dead?” Lysithea wondered.
Bernadetta tried to say something, but all that came out was unintelligible gibberish.
“Dear me,” a voice echoed throughout the room, “It seems that this one is too in shock to say anything properly.” The girls turned around to see what appeared to be a throne high above them on top of a gigantic staircase. Sitting on the throne was a little girl shorter than all of them that had long green hair and pointed ears.
“Who are you?” Lysithea questioned.
“I am the goddess of this world. Some call me the Progenitor God, some call me the Beginning. You three, however, may refer to me as Sothis.”
“You’re the goddess?” Annette asked in surprise.
“Indeed.” She floated her way down to them and waved her hand. A portal of some kind manifested out of nowhere. Within it, the three saw themselves and the Death Knight, completely frozen still. “I wield the power of time. As you can see, I have stopped time at the moment and saved you three from death.”
“Incredible,” Lysithea remarked, “But why save us?”
“An excellent question. I saved you three because there is something I want to say” Sothis took a large and deep breath, “ARE THE THREE OF YOU COMPLETE FOOLS?!” The three girls winced at Sothis’ scolding, with Bernadetta finally snapping out of her dazed state. “You all decided that instead of staying together, you three would build separate houses?!”
“W—well,” Annette started, “we figured that if we all went separate ways, the Death Knight would have a harder time getting us all.”
“Yeah,” Lysithea followed up, “If we stuck together, he would be able to take us all out in one go.”
“And you?” Sothis looked to Bernadetta, who was scared out of her mind, but still listening, “You agree with this?”
“...I mean,” Bernadetta finally said with her head looking at the floor, “I was probably gonna die first anyways, even if we stuck together...” As Bernadetta finished her sentence, Sothis shook her head.
“You three have the wrong mindset. You should not be thinking ‘at least one of us must survive’; you should be thinking ‘all of us must survive’. Bernadetta, your house was very well-made in terms of structure, but wood is far too weak to protect you. Annette, your idea for a steel house was clever, and could have easily worked if done correctly, but the execution you pulled was lacking. And Lysithea, you are clearly smart, and you knew that stone would be the most effective material, but your overconfidence in it almost led to your demise. Instead of separating and creating your own homes in hopes of at least one of you surviving, you three should work together and create one strong and resilient house.” The trio looked at eachother, each of them agreeing with what Sothis advised.
“...Also, YOU THREE KNOW HOW TO FIGHT!!! ”
“Oh yeah,” Annette said, “That’s true. We probably should’ve at least tried to attack him.”
“Yes, indeed you should have!” Sothis said grumply, slamming her hand on the arm of her throne continuously, “Now, I shall turn back time to before you three departed your old home. This time, I hope you three will build a house that is strong enough.” With a wave of her hand, a bright light flashed again, engulfing the girls.
The three opened their eyes again, and, true to the goddess’ word, they found themselves back in their old house, just a few minutes before they originally decided to go their separate ways.
“Guys,” Bernadetta started, “I just had the weirdest dream…”
“It wasn’t a dream,” Lysithea said, “At least, I don’t think it was.”
“We couldn’t have all had the same dream,” Annette thought out loud, “so it must have been real.”
“So, what now?” Bernadetta asked.
“I guess we do what Sothis told us to do,” Lysithea replied, “Build a house together, and defend against the Death Knight!” Lysithea put her hand out, with the other two putting their hands on top of hers. The three of them nodded simultaneously, all of them resolved to not get slain by the Death Knight. They left their old home once again, and set out to find a location to make their new home. Bernadetta made instructions on a good structure for their house, with Annette and Lysithea giving their input for which material should be used where. After finalizing their plans, they proceeded in building their house.
“Come to think of it,” Bernadetta said around halfway into the build, “We never got to thank Sothis for saving us.” Lysithea and Annette looked at eachother, then smiled at Bernadetta.
“We can do that after we survive against the Death Knight.” Lysithea said.
“Yeah,” Annette agreed, “Let’s make her proud!”
After what seemed like hours of work, the three of them finally finished their house. The three of them looked at their new house with pride. The house was surrounded by a tall outer defensive wall made of the same stone Lysithea used for her first house, with a door made of steel that was much thicker than the steel house Annette had made previously. The house itself also had stone walls, but were covered with a layer of steel. The inside of the house was held together with wooden beams and had thin wooden walls and wooden flooring. It even had a tower that Bernadetta could use as a sniping position. The house looked more like a small fortress than a normal house. Bernadetta initially thought they might have overdone it, but quickly dismissed that thought after remembering what the Death Knight had done to their previous homes. The three girls went inside and started waiting for the Death Knight’s arrival.
Sure enough the Death Knight soon came to their “house” the next day. He was a bit surprised to see the architecture of the building, as he did not expect such a thing from three little girls, let alone in such a short time. Shrugging, he came to the giant steel door and knocked on it.
“Little girls, little girls, let me in!” he demanded.
“Go away Death Knight,” Bernadetta shouted nervously.
“Yeah,” Annette followed up, “You’re not welcome here!”
“And if you even think of trying to force your way in,” Lysithea said, “we’ll be ready for you!”
“Is that so?” the Death Knight asked, “We’ll see about that! I shall now destroy your home!” The Death Knight began slashing at the stone brick walls with his scythe, but nothing happened. He kept slashing for several minutes, but the wall remained unscathed. Even as more time went by, he was struggling to get any critical hits that could damage the stone bricks. After about a few more minutes went by, the Death Knight angrily gave up, and decided to try climbing the wall. He tied a rope to his scythe, making a make-shift grappling hook, and tossed it upwards to the top of the wall. He tugged on the rope to make sure it was secure and started climbing upwards.
Bernadetta climbed up to the top of the tower and pulled out her trusty bow. Carefully, she aimed at the Death Knight’s scythe, and made her shot. The arrow hit the knot of the rope holding the scythe, and the rope snapped, causing the Death Knight to plummet to the ground. Bernadetta did a short victory dance before heading back downstairs. The Death Knight got up from the ground, and started raging. Not only did those girls make a fool out of him, but now his scythe was stuck at the top of the wall where he couldn’t reach. He then conjured a ball of lightning and launched a giant Thoron beam at the defensive wall, creating a giant hole big enough for him to fit through. He started to walk through hole in the wall, only for his foot to step on a small metal spike that managed to penetrate through his boot. He yelped in pain and started hopping on one foot, making Annette giggle. Although she originally planned for the Death Knight to climb down to the other side and have Bernadetta shoot him while he was still climbing down and make him fall on her spikes, she found the sight of the Death Knight grabbing his foot and hopping like a silly little bunny hilarious.
The Death Knight had enough. He started limping towards the house, furious at the girls. He charged up another Thoron and fired it at the house, but the steel walls managed to (somehow) reflect the Thoron straight back at the Death Knight, shocking him...literally. The Death Knight fell on the ground, paralyzed from his own thunder magic. The paralysis didn’t last very long, however, as he got back up almost immediately, and started punching the walls of the house furiously. As he continued punching, the door of the house opened, and out came Lysithea, who was charging up her magic. The Death Knight stopped punching and stood there, realizing he was about to feel the wrath of an angry little albino.
“...Oh—”
—Before the Death Knight could even finish his sentence, Lysithea shot a Hades Ω spell at the Death Knight, knocking off his feet. The Death Knight layed on the ground in absolute pain, groaning from the injuries that he received from these unexpectedly prepared little girls. He tried to get up, but as he was rising, Annette charged at him, holding her Hero’s Relic, Crusher.
“HYAAAAH!!!” Annette yelled as she slammed her weapon right on the Death Knight’s groin.
The Death Knight yelled in agony as the hammer hit the one place on his body that didn’t have armor. Lysithea and Berndetta exited the house and were about to join their sister in the fun, but the Death Knight started frantically crawling away, not wanting to experience any more pain.
“Aaaagggghhhh!!” the Death Knight screamed, “Get away from me you freaks!!! Mooooommmmyyyyyyy!!!”
The three girls watched as the big bad Death Knight retreated forever, and they happily cheered. They successfully changed their fate.
“We did it!!” Annette yelled excitedly.
“We defeated the Death Knight!” Lysithea shouted happily.
“He’s gone and he’ll never come back!” Bernadetta exclaimed cheerfully.
Bernadetta hugged her sisters as they giggled and cried with happiness. By working together and combining their strengths, they were not only able to survive, but they also defeated the villain that was out to get them. They no longer had to worry about dying to the Death Knight or any evil person, and could finally live happy lives. As they finished their cheering, they clapped their hands together and closed their eyes.
“Thank you Sothis,” the three said in unison, “Thank you for saving us!”
“And the three little ladies lived happily ever after,” Byleth said as he closed the book, “The End. Now girls, how did you like that story?”
Bernadetta, Annette, and Lysithea, who were sitting on the floor listening to their professor reading them a story, sat in silence with blank looks on their faces. The teal-haired professor had asked them earlier if he could write a story about the three of them, which they had all consented to. However, when they asked what kind of story it would be, he simply said it would be a surprise. After he finished it, he asked the girls if he could read it to them, which they agreed to.
“...What was that supposed to be?!” Lysithea yelled, breaking the five seconds of silence, “When you asked us if you could write a story about us, I thought you were going to write some sort of wondrous tale, not some children’s book!”
“My apologies about that,” Byleth chuckled, “but I wanted to try writing something that children would enjoy, and since you three are the shortest students here, I figured you three would be the easiest for children to enjoy and maybe relate to.”
“How DARE you!”
“Calm down Lysithea,” Annette said, “I personally enjoyed the story, and think it’s great for children! It’s kind of lengthy, but still great!”
“Annette, how can you be so relaxed about this! The professor made a mockery out of us!”
“I personally don’t mind that the professor used us as characters for this,” Bernadetta whispered shyly.
“Thank you Bernadetta,” Byleth said, managing to hear Bernadetta’s soft voice.
“But I do have some problems with this story.”
“Oh, and what would those be?”
“First off, why is Rhea our mother?”
Byleth froze at the question. Bernadetta often wrote her own stories, and now she had suddenly entered a critiquing mode of some sort.
“...uhhhhh…I couldn’t think of anyone else?” was Byleth’s only reply.
“Secondly,” Bernadetta continued, “why did you make us sisters?”
“I mean, why not?”
“Third of all, don’t you think it’s a little too dark for children by making Lady Rhea die at the beginning? In fact, aren’t you insulting Lady Rhea by making her die in the first place?”
“Er, I wasn’t trying to be—”
“—Also, why would you use the Death Knight as an antagonist? If this is supposed to be a children’s book, you should’ve used someone at least less intimidating than him, like Hubert, or Felix, or Ingrid!”
“Wait, why Ingri—”
“—Lastly, I think it’s really disrespectful to the goddess by inserting her into the story. I don’t think she would ever do what she did in your story, and waste her time on someone like me!”
“Yeah, I actually agree with that last point Professor,” Annette chimed in, “...well, the disrespectful to the goddess part, not the last bit. The goddess is supposed to be a benevolent lady, not a nagging child.”
Oh, you have NO idea, Byleth thought to himself. In fact, she was the one who kept begging me to put her in the story in the first place...
“Overall, I don’t think this is a good book for children,” Bernadetta said. She was gonna leave it at that, until she saw the look of slight sadness on the professor’s face. “Err, but I did enjoy listening to this, and I think you’re a pretty good writer Professor! I’d like to listen to another one when you make it! JustpleasedontbemadatmepleaseImsorryImsorryImsorry”
“I would love to hear another story too!” Annette happily said.
“Well, it’s funny you say that,” Byleth said, “because I had another book written. Would you three like to hear it?”
“Sure!” Bernadetta and Annette replied happily.
“Ugh, fine.” Lysithea grumbled.
“Alright,” Byleth said, “My next book is called ‘Lorenz the Dummy Wets His Bed’.”
“EXCUSE ME?!?!” Lorenz yelled as he bursted into the room.
The End, lol.