maybe its the 2nd person pov or the somber events but man your chapters always hit the feels hard its kind of sad how there's no "golden route" but at the same time it really makes you value all the characters all the more

I certainly wasn't expecting this to expand to three chapters ha. Good solid descriptions of the terror on the battlefield that Crest-havers and Relics should have. The brutally simple contrasts between Dimitri and Edelgard were so well-done.

I guess my long absence between reading chapter 1 and 2 made me completely forget Edelgard never told Byleth about the Crest of Flames. Yowza.

Anyway, still sublime. Twisting the emotions and words in just the right place for the powerful impacts they need.

A beautiful mixture of words and feelings. Some real excellent lines. Anguish without being overwrought. Wonderful. Truly wonderful.

Edelgard is also running on incomplete information though(crucially, her "nemesis did nothing wrong" attitude when Nemesis was a genocidal lunatic who screwed over his allies when he didn't tell them where their fancy new weapons and crests came from. Also she's nearly entirely forgotten her childhood)

That's the core tragedy of 3H though, nobody has the whole story so they make decisions based on the information they have, which is inevitably Not Enough.

This is an interesting story, while CF isn't really my cup of tea Edelgard is just an endlessly fascinating character. She's simultaneously world-weary and naive(she doesn't really understand the human cost of a war and on routes other than CF this kinda breaks her into a sunk-cost fallacy demon, also her draconian "with me or against me" and "if you're not fighting to the death then why bother fighting" attitudes.) and it's fun to delve into that.

Edelgard admitting that she liked Byleth here honestly surprised me quite a bit, but thinking on it like Byleth said it made a lot of sense.

I really did appreciate both how human and young she felt.

Byleth as always is a very interesting character to see and it's interesting to see how being the Archbishop and Emperor has changed him.

It helps a lot that you limited the amount of time he spent in those positions. He was Emperor for a few years, and while no time period was outright stated I assume that he was Archbishop for a few years. As we get to see him ruling a bit before Byleth decided to take everything back.

That means that at this point Byleth is likely just hitting his mid 30's. He's spent two years interacting with the students before this loop and probably around 6 years being a leader. He's matured in a lot of different ways and I think it was best shown when he received Edelgard's confession.

He sounds like he understands himself a lot better now and is actually starting to comprehend the many secrets around him even if he still has his own biases.

His friendship with Claude was great to see and I enjoyed the repeated talks of him becoming increasingly more transparent. It will be interesting to see how that translates over to Crimson Flowers.

*scroll through FE fic list*

Huh, that name seems familiar.

Hmmm, nope, nothing I would have read but then - OH! I remember now! I had a bunch of cool conversations with you on tumblr.

So I -know- this is gonna be a quality piece of work.

And darn if I'm right. (Or you're right.)

That's some deft writing and doing a gosh good job.

well i can already see Byleth contemplating the merits of the Crimson Flower path i love how you 've had Byleth gain some form of growth during each "playthrough" the statement about neither side the church or Edelgard being truly evil just misguided or acting on incomplete information and damn i wasnt expecting Edelgard to do a confession outside of her route but considering she also has the crest of flame maybe time also effects her as well to a lesser degree

Man this is an absolutely amazing story, I very much enjoyed it the entire way through so far and look forward to seeing the rest in the future.

That said I do wonder why he even needs the letter? Wouldn't he have memorized most of it in his first life? He should be able to go after it himself. I'd have expected him to try to go by himself and get killed before reverting everything back to the beginning.

This is wonderfully written and a joy to read. To be honest, I am a bit jealous that you are able to write with such a purposeful and introspective voice. I am looking forward to how you handle Byleth in Verdant Wind.

This is really well done. I quite like how you've constructed a set of overlapping limited views, gradually dragging Byleth into a murky confusion where he can no longer know who or what is right. Here's hoping for more!

Holy shit. This is good.

This chapter felt like a novel condensed, you really captured the overreaching sense of tragedy.

This is really frickin good.

Looking forward to more.

oh poor Byleth he doesn't realize people will die regardless of what he chooses I do like how you still incorporated Edelgard even though this is the azure moon path it kind of reaffirms the idea that regardless of route she still loves Byleth

Damn if those first two chapters don’t make my heart hurt...

This story has a great way with words.

Can’t wait to see more!

It takes creativity to try to write second person, it takes guts to make it work and it takes skill to apply it to a done-to-death concept and actually make me give a damn. Good work, all around.