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Day 20 of the Horsebow moon.
It is a dawn of a new day, with the bright rays encompassing the land around it. As these shining rays make their way towards a castle in the land of Fodlan, they lead into a room with an open curtain and window. Once it entered the room, it filled the room with brimming sunlight until one man, awoken from his slumber. It was Byleth. He wasn't used to waking up by the sunlight of the day, so he wished to go back to sleep until he was comfortable waking up. However, the sunlight persisted on and forced Byleth to wake up. Reluctantly, Byleth got up from his and squinted, trying to get used to the sunlight. His body was lit up from the sun almost as if he glowed gold. Byleth wore no shirt, so the sunlight revealed all of his war scars and the scar across his chest from when Rhea has experimented on him during his birth. No matter how much time has passed, that wound would not leave his body. Byleth, now fully awake, turn over to the bedside only to see that something, or someone was missing.
"Huh... That's weird. Where's Lysithea?" Byleth said to himself.
Lysithea, his amazing wife, was not on his bedside. Byleth would've thought that Lysithea would wake up as well with him, or at least still be sleeping and Byleth would have to wake her up. Byleth began to feel the side of his cheek and realized that somehow, its a little wet. He connected the dots with his wet cheek and opened curtain, and assuming that her clothes where still in the same usual place, Lysithea must have gotten up early and gave him a kiss on the cheek. But what could she be doing right now if she was up so early? He was soon answered when a delicious smell came from outside of the room. He then deducted that she was making breakfast as it came from the kitchen. Byleth got up from his bed and walked over to his closest to put his enlightened one clothes on.
In the kitchen, Lysithea was preparing a full cooked breakfast meal containing scrambled eggs, sausage links, waffles with a buttered spread, and glasses of milk for her children. Isaiah, who is now sixteen, was finishing off the last sausage link on his plate while Lilith who is now fourteen was eating a waffle. But right across from Isaiah, there was another child. She was a small child with a white dress and skirt and a hat on top of her head. Her name was Daisy, Byleth and Lysithea's third child who was two years old. She was drinking a glass of milk and had a huge smile on her face. She was a pretty happy child in the eyes of the rest of her family. At the next moment, Byleth has entered the room with the family.
"Good morning my love," Lysithea said "Have you had a good sleep?" She gave Byleth another kiss on the cheek.
"Yes. I slept pretty good." Byleth said still getting adjusted to waking up.
"That's good. I made you breakfast." She says as she hands him a meal.
Byleth then nodded and proceeded to take a seat right by Daisy. She then looked at her father with a nice smile on her face.
"Good mowning Daddy." Daisy said happily as she got down from her chair and hug her father. This put a smile on his face as well.
"Good morning Daisy. Have you been a good girl for mommy while she is cooking?" Byleth asked her as she nodded and giggled.
"Uh-huh. Mommy worked really hard to make you very happy." She giggled causing Lysithea to blush.
"Sweetie, why don't you let daddy eat his breakfast? Then he had can all the fun with you today." Lysithea said. Daisy nodded and went over to Lilith, who happens to be full, to sit on her lap. Meanwhile, Byleth took a fork and a knife and ate a salted sausage link. Later, as everyone has finished their meal, Daisy walked to Byleth again and handed Byleth a parchment.
"Daddy. Can we go tweasure hunting?" Daisy asked with glittering eyes. Byleth looked at the parchment and saw a dotted line tracing all over the paper until it finally leads to an X. It was revealed that this parchment was a treasure map. Byleth was always willing to spend time with his children, but something about this made him unsure.
"I'd love to Daisy, but I might have to-"
"Hold on Dad, don't you have off on Sundays?" Isaiah interrupted.
"Yes father. You always spend time with the family on Sunday." Lilith added on.
Byleth paused for a moment and realized that they were right. Byleth does in fact have off Sundays. He maybe that he is working so much that he forgot about the times where he spends time with Lysithea or his children.
"Yeah you guys are right. Alright Daisy. If you can give me some time to get ready, we will go look for buried treasure." Byleth said with a smile.
"Yay!" Daisy said with happiness. She then ran to her room to go and get ready. Meanwhile, Byleth gets up from his seat and to do the same.
"Well, if you will excuse me." Byleth said with politeness.
"Have fun love. We will be at Garreg Mach while you guys look for treasure." She said as she gave a kiss to Byleth.
"Yeah Have fun Dad." Isaiah added on.
"Be careful you two." Lilith said with care and concern.
"Don't worry. We will. I'll always make sure of it." Byleth confirmed as he patted the Sword of the Creator on his hilt. No matter what, Byleth always carried the Sword of the Creator with him to protect his family from any danger that appeared.
"Let's go everyone. We need to hurry before His majesty arrives." Lysithea exclaimed.
At Garreg Mach, there were many citizens of Fodlan decorating the entire place with streamers and balloons, with stray confetti on the pavement of the street. Today was a special, because it was actually Byleth's birthday, and Lysithea wanted to plan a big surprise party for him. She made plans with many of the staff and nobles to keep it a secret from him and enlisted all the help from a lot of the citizens of the area. She was even able to get the former Golden deer and Ashen Wolves to help as well. Lorenz and Leonie were setting up tables and torches for tonight and for everyone to enjoy. Rapheal and Balthus are participating with heavy lifting. Marianne, Hapi, and Constance were help arranging decorations and flowers for the surprise party.
Meanwhile, Ignatz is painting a picture for the royal family. It was Lysithea's idea as a present for him, since he loved nothing more than his family. Normally, artist need a reference for a portrait or picture. However, since Ignatz was such a skilled artist, he didn't need a reference.
"How is thet portrait coming?" Lysithea asked overlooking it.
"It's coming along smoothly. I have been adding different colors for the background to get the right colors for the castle." Ignatz explained as he painted.
"Ok. But how long will it take for it to finish? We don't have much time before Byleth gets here." Lysithea explained.
"Don't worry. This will be done before he even sees Garreg Mach Monastery." Ignatz said as he still continued to paint.
Lysithea then nodded and proceeded to check around to see if everything is going smoothly. It's the afternoon, and Lysithea had to make sure that nothing goes wrong. This is important to her, because she really wanted to show how much she cared about Byleth. He was everything to her and her children. The good times where they spent smiling together and making each other happy. The bad times where they fought for they believed in together. The sad times where they supported each other in both their arms. And they wonderful times of their most memorable moments together like when they got married or when they had Isaiah. It needed to be perfect. It had to be.
A moment later, Isaiah and Lilith come back to where Lysithea was to discuss important matters.
"Kids. What do you have for me? We do not have any complications I hope?" Lysithea asked with her arms crossed.
"No. Security has been very alert with all the guards being completely alert and with Yuri at the abyss taking care of any underground secret tunnels." Isaiah explained.
"We also got word back from Uncle Claude. He'll be here short with his family." Lilith said.
"Good. Now you also have your presents ready for your father right?" Lysithea asked.
"Yep. Mine is wrapped and ready to go." Isaiah said with a thumbs-up.
"Same here. I have made sure it was ready for when father arrives." Lilith added.
"Good. You're both free to go or help the others with the party." Lysithea finalized.
But before they walked away, Isaiah turned around and to ask something to her.
"Hey Mom. What about you? You do have a present ready for Dad right?" Isaiah asked which caught Lysithea off guard. She's been preparing everything. Even the painting was her idea to give to Byleth. Why would she not have a present?
"Of course I do. The painting is almost finished and there will be a dance right after. Why do you ask?" Lysithea questioned.
"Well... you act like that won't be his best present. I mean, you are his wife plus our mother, if those were going to be the biggest presents you have for him, you would be sure of it." Isaiah explained.
"Well,... it doesn't matter what is the biggest present or what is the best present. Byleth is not a selfish man or picks favorites. I'm sure he will love each present equally." Lysithea scoffed.
"Alright. If you say so." Isaiah said.
"Besides its not like you ruin a cake for him before." Isaiah said with a chuckle.
"Or burned cookies before." Lilith added on to the laughter.
Both of them laughed together, but Lysithea was more so annoyed by it. She knew those two moments being brought up are used to annoy her and she is not going to tolerate that now.
"Hey. I don't want to hear sass from the both of you. Otherwise, I'm grounding both of you." Lysithea said with a sharp tongue.
Both of their laughs ceased as they heard her with that tone. When she is like this with them, she is serious and she will not repeat herself usually.
"Sorry Mom." Isaiah apologized.
"Yes. Sorry Mother." Lilith added.
Both of them walked away so they wouldn't get in trouble and Lysithea nodded with authority. However, there was thing true in Isaiah's words. Lysithea felt there was something missing. She knows that he like all the gifts and dancing. But there has never been a lot of times where those birthdays completely mattered. No present has completely touched his heart when he needed it. It wasn't that he didn't like the presents, in fact he loved the presents given to him from his family, but he kinda felt... empty for some reason and Lysithea didn't know why.
All of the sudden, Lysithea turned around and saw Byleth's old room where he slept as a teacher at Garreg Mach. While it does fill her with nostalgia, something else was drawing her near. Without hesitation, she goes in and checks it out. Byleth's room pretty much looks the same as it was. Books where the shelf, bed was made, except the whole place was dusty. While she was looking around, she notices the desk that byleth worked on. They were quite a few things around the desk that he would keep around, such a used ink pen, a stack of papers and parchments, and a couple of other books as well. Then Lysithea decides to open the first drawer, and what she sees is a small but not too small brown book. She opened it and saw pages with dates on it talking about romance with a lovely woman with green hair. Lysithea immediately knew what book this was as she read it.
”This is... Jeralts diary.” Lysithea said.
Jeralts diary. A book of major significance to Byleth. The book that showed the truth in Byleth’s past. And the book that made Byleth realize that his father really cared about him.
However, in the next moment, Lysithea realized that there are two pages stuck together. As Lysithea tore them apart and separated them, an envelope fell out of the book. Lysithea picked it up and sees a red seal and writing on it saying “For my son on the 20th Day of the Horsebow Moon”. As soon as she read that, Lysithea hatched a plan for the perfect gift and left the room with a smile on her face, hoping it will work.
Later...
”Ok. We are supposed to take 20 steps towards the big tree here in the East.” Byleth said reading the map.
”Come on daddy, we got to find the tweasure.” Daisy said holding Byleth’s hand trying to lead the way.
”Ok ok. I’m coming sweetie.” Byleth said with a little chuckle.
However, byleth took another look at the map then he began to realize something. How can Daisy create a map that takes him this far outside the castle? I mean, he was doing this for his daughter. And it’s not like he had to fear danger at the moment. He had his sword of the creator, years and years of experience fighting, a good knowledge of magic, and the divine time pulse. Plus he was always remained vigilant when it comes to being alone, almost as if it was a sixth scent. But then again, being this far from the castle and with just him and his daughter does concern him to a degree.
”Hey, sweetie. Where did you find this map?” Byleth asked.
”Huh?” Daisy said as she tilted her head with confusion and a little bit of innocence.
”Where did you find the map? You weren’t given this from a stranger?” Byleth asked. He had to admit, he doesn’t remember any suspecting stranger do to have interacted with Daisy like that. And even if she did, lysithea would check on it and if there was anything suspicious he would have back up with a good amount of battalions and known fighters who serve him. But lysithea did say it was okay for them to do this. Plus, crime is at its lowest to near nonexistent, beasts are hibernating or migrating, and somehow the soldiers are nowhere to be found. He does find that honestly troubling.
But before Byleth continue to think about the situation, Daisy answered his question.
”I found it in a book.” Daisy said.
Byleth paused for a second by that answer before speaking.
”A book?” Byleth questioned.
”Yep. A big wed book.” Daisy said.
Byleth ran through his memory of all the big red books in the library that he and lysithea use. Not once has he seen the map in there. But before he began to ask a question...
”Daddy... I have a suwpwise for you.” Daisy said excitedly.
”A surprise?” Byleth questioned.
”Pwease cwose your eyes.” Daisy said again excitedly.
“Okay. Eyes closed.” Byleth said as he knelt down and closed his eyes. Then at the next moment...
”Open them!” Daisy said.
He opens his eyes to see a piece of paper with all sorts of colors on it. The paper have five stick figures with a bunch shapes drawn with crayons and some finger painting of all sorts of colors. And on top of the picture was “I luv you daddy” with a big heart around it.
”Happy bwirthday daddy!” Daisy said with the biggest smile he has ever seen.
The drawing was made by her, representing all of his family together happy. And with the words “I love you daddy” really made him happy as a father. Byleth was beginning to tear up.
“Wow... this is beautiful... Thank you Daisy. I love it.” Byleth said with a smile in his face.
”Yay!” Daisy said as she ran up and hugged Byleth at which in turn hugged her back.
”Daddy. I luv you.” Daisy said.
”I love you too Daisy.” Byleth said.
He then decided to give Daisy a piggyback ride all the way through the forest. Until the made it out, Byleth sees an all too familiar sight.
”Wait... that’s Garreg Mach.” He said.
“Hello?” Byleth said as he looked around the gates.
The plaza of Garreg Mach is empty. No shopkeepers. No salesmen. No knights. Not even Anna or the dark merchant are here... or the gatekeeper. This was beginning to be very suspicious. But whatever it is, he was going to be prepared. Still carrying Daisy piggy back style, he opens the door to the hall, only to see it dark in here. He took one step inside to check the place out. Until all of the sudden...
”SURPRISE!!!” A large crowd shouted. Byleth was immediately taken back and shocked by the surprise coming his way.
”HAPPY BIRTHDAY YOUR MAJESTY!” The crowd said.
Byleth takes a look around to see all the knights and citizens around and the Golden deer under a banner that says “HAPPY BIRTHDAY KING BYLETH!”.
”Wha... What’s all this?” Byleth said in confusion.
”It’s a surprise party.” Lysithea said stepping out of the crowd with Isaiah and Lilith right next to her. “We have plan been planning this for your birthday for quite awhile to give you a special way to celebrate it. I created the map and insured security for your travel her to keep you guys safe.” Lysithea said as she walked next to him.
”I... I don’t know what to say.” Byleth said astounded by all of the surprise.
”Swupwise!” Daisy said with cheer. Byleth couldn’t help but smile and chuckle at her daughter.
“Happy birthday my love.” Lysithea said as she kissed him on the cheek.
”Now let’s celebrate!” Lysithea announcing to everyone beginning the celebration.
Later that night...
Everyone was partying in celebration of Byleth’s birthday. Some people were talking and laughing while others were dancing to some nice music. Meanwhile, Byleth is with lysithea, his children, and all the former Golden deer and ashen wolves.
”Wow. This is some party. I’m really happy for you professor!” Hilda said.
”I got to admit teach. You’re wife sure does know how to throw a celebration. You’re lucky and blessed to have her.” Claude said with his arm around Hilda.
”And I will never replace her in any timeline. I love her too much.” Byleth said as he kissed Lysithea, in which in return she blushes.
“Happy birthday professor. May the Goddess watch over you for the rest of your life with your family.” Marianne said smiling.
”Thanks Marianne. I’m sure the Goddess will.” Byleth said happily.
”Oh yeah! There’s a who lot of food here, but I can’t think of a better to celebrate it than with our dear professor!” Raphael cheered.
”I agree with Raphael here. It’s nice to see us all come together to celebrate the one person who brought us all together.” Balthus said in agreement.
”I gotta say Chatterbox. Your birthday’s are exciting. I hope the rest of them are exciting as this.” Hapi said.
”Quite so. Here’s to more life in our dear professor!” Constance cheered.
“I’m sure his majesty will live long and prosper to rule Fodlan with goodness and patience.” Lorenz said.
”You got that right. There is no better king and queen that our professor and lysithea.” Leonie added on.
”You’re right. I will live long, but I won’t live long alone. I will live long full lives with all of my family.” Byleth said happily as he hugged lysithea and his children.
All of the sudden a curtain is pulled down to reveal a painting. The painting showed byleth, lysithea, and his children all together happily with each other. Byleth was amazed at sight.
”Happy birthday professor! Lysithea asked me to paint you a picture for your birthday with your entire family as a present. I hope you like it.” Ignatz said.
”You did that for me? I... thank you lysithea. I love it.” Byleth said gratefully.
”Good. I’m glad.” Lysithea said as she kissed on the cheek.
Speaking if presents, byleth did remember receiving a card as a birthday present. At the end of that card, lied a black sword symbol instead of a name of who it’s from.
“Here’s my present Dad. I got it just for you.” Isaiah said as he handed him a present.
Byleth unwrapped the wrapping paper to reveal a gold and black sword with a sapphire crystal in the hilt. Byleth swung the sword at a safe distance to see it emit water at the edge of the sword.
”Woah...” Byleth said in amazing.
”I got the blacksmiths to make where it can control water to its will. It can only be used by you, so you can use it to it’s full potential. I call it Shar.” Isaiah explained.
”Wow... Thank you Isaiah. I will wield Shar to protect all of you.” Byleth said as he gave Isaiah a hug.
”Here’s my present Father. I made it myself.” Lilith said. She was holding a flashy, but very stylish black cape. She gave to Byleth and he wrapped it around his neck.
”The maids taught me how to sow. I wanted to make something for your style so you can wear it whenever you like. What do you think?” Lilith asked.
”You’re right. This is my style. And it flows very nicely. Thank you Lilith for the wonderful gift.” Byleth said as he hugged her.
Everyone then began chatting talking about all the good times they had together. However, lysithea grabbed byleth by the hand and began to take her outside.
”Come on. There’s one more surprise for you.” Lysithea said with a smile.
Lysithea took him around to the graveyard and showed him to his fathers grave. It was covered with all manner of flowers and roses, and in front of the gravestone is an envelope. Byleth takes the envelope and opens revealing a letter... from his father Jeralt.
”Dear Byleth.
You might be reading this letter with or without me, but I’m here to say I’m also celebrating with you. You see, when sitri died, you were all the family I had left. We may have done mostly mercenary business, but the times that we spent together I will always cherish. The days where made you a cake for your birthday and to see you blow out your candles were moments I held deeply. The times where you may not smiled, led me to write this letter for you not to show hurt, but happiness. Because somewhere in my heart, I knew you would find happiness and one day have a family of your own with a wife you love no matter what and that she loves you. I believed in it. And maybe right now, that dream is fulfilled. Both me and your mother are both very proud of you. And we love you.
Happy birthday my son,
Your Father Jeralt.”
In that moment, Byleth began to swell up with tears. To hear those words from his father had him crying tears of Joy. To know that his parents were watching over him his whole life, with his family and is proud of him. This is what he wanted. The assurance that his parents where always with him and love him made him overjoyed.
”Byleth?” Lysithea asked to see if he was okay. In that moment, byleth turned around and smiled with a tear in his eye.
”Lysithea... know this. I love you no matter what. And I will stay by your side for as long as I live.” He said with all his heart.
”Oh byleth... I love you too. And I have one more present for you.” Lysithea said with a smile.
She then kissed him on the lips with joy. It wasn’t a passionate or weak kiss, but a soft, gentle loving kiss. Showing that lysithea loves byleth with all her heart that she will never leave him.
”Now, let’s go dance. The others are waiting for us.” Lysithea said as they finished the kiss.
It was at this moment that Byleth knew that he was blessed with an amazing wife, wonderful children, excellent friends, and incredible parents. He will now always remember this as the best birthday he ever had.
The end.