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“Look at me, I’m Felix Fraldarius!” A young boy shouted in Garreg Mach’s courtyard, swinging his training sword wildly.
“No you’re not, Phinneas, you’ll never be a great swordsman like him!” One of his friends called out, prompting laughter from the children who had gathered in the courtyard to wait for Miss Flayn’s history lecture.
“Hey! Why don’t you come out and fight me then, Isabella?” The first boy pointed his sword into the group of other students, straightening his back to stand at his full height. “If you win, you can be Felix, but if I win, I get to be Felix.”
“What’s all this yelling about?” A young woman with green hair pulled into a ponytail entered at the far end of the courtyard, and all the children quieted down. “Has something happened?”
“No, Miss Flayn. Nothing happened. We were just playing.” Phinneas said, trying without success to hide his training sword.
“Phinneas was pretending to be Felix again.” Isabella said, glaring at her classmate.
“Oh-ho, you want to be like Felix?” Flayn raised an eyebrow and smiled. “What about the rest of you? Do you all want to be like the heroes from a thousand years ago too?”
The class broke into cheers. The students all yelled over one another, trying to claim their favorite heroes before anyone else could.
Flayn laughed and raised a hand, bringing the students’ focus back to herself. “Why don’t you all take a seat and I can tell you some of my favorite stories from when those ancient saviors were still students here?”
The students rushed into the classroom and took their seats, many of them bouncing a leg or tapping their fingers in excitement.
“Now, since you all were already talking about Felix, let me tell you something about him that most of your history books won’t mention.” Flayn looked at Phinneas specifically when she mentioned this.
“Something the history books won’t mention?” Phinneas’s eyes sparkled. “What could that be?”
“Well, You all already know a little bit about Felix’s strained relationship with his father, and that he spent most of his time training. However, I bet you didn’t know that Felix used to carry around the iron spur that his brother was awarded with at his knighting ceremony.” Flayn smiled as she remembered how Felix’s shell had broken for just a moment when Byleth returned that to him.
“I thought he hated knights, though!” Phinneas frowned, clearly puzzled. “But his brother was a knight?”
Flayn nodded. “You see, Felix’s brother, Glenn, was killed during the Duscur Massacre, and Felix never forgave the knights or his father for pushing Glenn so hard to succeed.”
Phinneas leaned back in his chair, letting the words sink in. As he did this, Isabella leaned forward. “Oh, oh, Miss Flayn! Can you tell me about Marianne?”
“Oh, Marianne!” Flayn pondered for a moment, trying to pick something specific to say about her old friend. After a moment, she grinned. “So you all know Marianne was pretty shy. But, once, Hilda dragged Marianne all around town to do some shopping, get dinner, and just spend the day together. She bought Mari a beautiful dress for the occasion.”
“What, really? How come none of the accounts I’ve read ever mentioned that?” Isabella asked.
Flayn laughed. “Well, at the end of the night, Hilda went around to everyone who had seen the girls throughout the day and asked them to keep it secret, since she didn’t want Marianne to be embarrassed!”
One after another, the kids asked about Flayn’s old friends, and by the end of class they held a new respect for their ancestors. Flayn dismissed them, smiling as her students ran off, talking about all the cool things they had learned. When the room was empty, Flayn returned to her office and closed the door.
“I hope you don’t mind, everyone.” Flayn muttered, pulling out an old picture out of her desk drawer. She slowly looked over the faces of all her friends, recalling more moments she had shared with them. She recalled Claude grinning about whatever prank he had just pulled while Lorenz glared at him, Annette and Mercedes laughing while Sylvain pestered Felix, Dorothea singing to all of her classmates.
Flayn put the picture down and leaned against the desk. It’s not the same without you. She sighed and closed her eyes, thinking of all the generations she had seen since then. Someday, I hope we can be reunited. Until then, I’ll make sure no one forgets who you really were.