Yep. I don’t think anyone’s going to be surprised by anything that happens in this chapter, with several long-awaited developments finally coming to fruition, but it’s at least a little unexpected the way they’re combined. Still, the most surprising thing about chapter 9 of Fire Emblem: Three Houses (named The Cause of Sorrow so as to tip its hand ahead of time) is how hilariously easy it ends up being. I was operating under the assumption that it’d be another chapter where the goal changes out of nowhere because everything was going too smoothly. Then again, that sudden drop in difficulty is typical of Fire Emblem; once you have a Swordmaster and other characters have upgraded to their third-tier classes, you’re pretty much at the point where everything that gets near you is summarily murdered. Also, we finally get a Dancer during chapter 9.

[Click here to start from the beginning]

This month marks the anniversary of Garreg Mach’s construction, which will be 1,000 years old in 5 years. This month’s mission is to guard a chapel that someone has been seen sneaking into and investigate who the intruders are. Jeralt is going to help us out on this mission, and Rhea seems to imply that she knows what Jeralt is going to tell Byleth and wants to facilitate that conversation by giving the two time together.

Unfortunately, Jeralt has a mission of his own, which means that we can’t pop into his office and ask about whatever revelations he has in store. In the meantime, I launch a charm offensive against the teachers, but not a single one becomes recruitable. Given the practically nonexistent relationship between Byleth and Shamir when she joined up, I’m beginning to suspect that teachers becoming recruitable is completely unrelated to support relationships. Speaking of relationships, this year’s celebration of Garreg Mach’s construction coincides with a rumor that a man and woman can wish for something together and have it come true at the Goddess Tower. If you talk to a specific guard (13:58), a menu pops up that asks you to choose a character who you have feelings for. They’re all students, which is weird, but I eventually decided on Petra for the following reasons: she’s a princess, she’s awesome, and there’s significantly less of a chance of her harboring dark secrets compared to Edelgard.

Byleth’s professor level hit B during exploration, which not only opened up additional cultivation techniques when gardening but also increased the number of adjutants that can be brought into battle to 2. Considering that equipping weaker characters as adjutants is the easiest way of leveling them up, this could be huge for stretching out experience. Especially if I start moving that Experience Gem around to other characters.

There’s a dance competition called the White Heron Cup this month, and Rhea has a mission asking you to participate by selecting a character. Her dialogue mentions that the winner will be trained as a Dancer, which is potentially huge; Dancers in Fire Emblem refresh units, allowing the strongest units to act twice. This has some pretty interesting tactical applications. However, it’s hard to know who to choose without knowing how Fire Emblem: Three Houses handles the class; its traditional weapon is the sword, but Petra’s culture supposedly dances wildly and without technique, and giving one of your hardest-hitting characters the ability to refresh units is probably a mistake. Eventually, I settled on Dorothea under the assumption that her performer background gives her an edge. I just hope Dancers can use magic. If they can’t, she’ll be useless as one.

There’s one paralogue available in chapter 9, but I decide to finish off the last sidequest battle first to give Ingrid more opportunities to level up. In the process, I managed to figure out why she can’t equip battalions; only flying battalions can be used with flying units, and her authority stat is too low to equip any of the flying battalions I have. Class changing her down one step to a Soldier (6:54), however, makes it possible to equip normal low-authority battalions onto her, and it also allows her to make use of this map’s terrain. Flying units don’t get terrain bonuses (at least, not from forest tiles). The goal here is simple: lure as many enemies to Ingrid as possible while occupying the forest tiles with stronger characters that enemies won’t prioritize attacking. That way, they won’t move into a forest tile and make it difficult for Ingrid to land a hit.

I have Dorothea acting as an adjutant for Manuela to build up their support relationship, so getting her some experience is a secondary priority. The same goes for Flayn, who I suspect will become a beastly mage. Using her Rescue spell is a great way of squeezing out extra experience.

Chapter 9’s paralogue revolves around Seteth and Flayn suppressing some members of the Western Church who have taken over some sacred ground with personal significance to the pair. That means lots of magic-users, which means units like Lysithea, Marianne, Annette, and Flayn whose growths prioritize resistance at the cost of defense suddenly don’t have to cower behind physical units. If anything, it’s the other way around during this map. This time around, I used Ingrid as an adjutant to guest character Seteth, which means that I can have him finish off enemies to build up his supports with Flayn and Byleth without having to worry about no one earning experience as a result. Flayn crushes this map with amusing ease, with most enemies being completely unable to do any damage to her. Her potential is already blindingly obvious.

After the map, it’s revealed that Seteth and Flayn aren’t brother and sister, but rather, dad and daughter (with the deception ostensibly being to keep Flayn from people like Solon). Seteth’s wife/Flayn’s mother is buried in the area, hence its significance to the two. The Western Church was also after artifacts, though, so Seteth gives two of them to Byleth. One is a spear called the Spear of Assal that might someday find a home in Ingrid’s inventory, while the other is am equippable staff called the Caduceus Staff that increases the range of magic and has no durability limits. I already know exactly what I’m going to do with the Caduceus Staff—I’ve been frustrated by the limited range of Flayn’s Rescue spell, so giving her something that increases its range will make rescue operations significantly less frustrating. Also, it heals its user every turn. Flayn’s powerful now.

After the map when time is skipping forward, the dance competition occurs and Dorothea wins. Shamir makes for a hilariously awkward judge.

The first thing I did on Byleth’s last day off of the month was class change Bernadetta into a Sniper. I also tried to class change Flayn into a Bishop, but she failed the exam. Something that I notice during this time is that Ingrid doesn’t have a third-tier class to change into; while most classes naturally build up a character’s weapon skills to prepare them for later classes, the only flying class in the third tier is a Wyvern Lord, and Ingrid would have to drop lances in favor of axes to make that work. It’s not an option that I’m willing to entertain since I intend to use her as my main lance-user. Anyway, while Byleth’s last day off of the month would probably be best spent resting or attending a seminar, it dawns on me that I forgot to go around and try the “recruit” option on characters earlier. That means exploring a second time, which goes significantly faster without all of the sidequests and lost item fluff. This turns out to be a good decision, fortunately, as Felix (the guy who came close to beating Petra in a tournament once) joins the Black Eagles. He’s the first one to join based on skills and not support relationships. Byleth also trains with various professors and earns experience in a bunch of different stats that should help him recruit more characters, with Leonie being my current target.

Time moves forward at 26:16, and on the 24th, the Black Eagles assemble and promise to meet back at Garreg Mach in five years for its 1,000-year celebration. This looks to be Fire Emblem: Three Houses laying the groundwork for everyone to separate and then find their way back together against after growing up a bit and becoming entangled in more challenging circumstances. On the 25th, there’s a dance and everyone wants a piece of Byleth. It’s fan service, basically, but the cutscene animation is good even if the background art is terrible. Later, Byleth escapes and heads to the Goddess Tower where he encounters Petra. I suppose that choice earlier had an impact after all. There’s a chance to flirt with her when she claims that people would think the wrong thing if they saw the pair together there, but it’s too weird to pursue. Byleth leaves and follows Rhea afterward, watching her sing a song that Sothis recognizes as something that she wrote. With that cryptic bit of information, the night ends.

Characters can only take one exam per day, which means that I can use the main mission screen to have Flayn attempt the Bishop exam again. She succeeds this time, earning a decent bump to her defense stat and the ability to attack from an additional space away (which means she can avoid counterattacks a lot of the time). I forgot to mention it, but I changed Dorothea into the Dancer class when Bernadetta became a Sniper, and Dancers can indeed use magic. Also, the battalion equipped onto Lysithea can be equipped by Ingrid, so she now has a battalion.

In fact, every character I field for this mission has an offensive battalion equipped. I mentioned offensive battalions being the only ones that matter because you never know when a ton of monsters will show up, and a ton of monsters show up for chapter 9’s main mission, Salvation at the Chapel. Having offensive Gambits available makes dealing with them a breeze. The goal is to keep Jeralt (who we’re babysitting again) and a bunch of NPCs alive, so Dorothea refreshes Flayn so that she can use Rescue on an NPC at the top-left corner of the screen. That frees everyone else to rush up and to the right, beating down monsters before they can finish off the NPCs. Weaker characters use their battalions’ Gambits to deal damage without risking a counterattack, and the monsters go down thanks to the critical hits many units are now frequently pulling off.

The monsters turn out to be students, and Monica shows up in a text bubble during the map, so it’s pretty obvious who’s to blame. Jeralt didn’t get the memo, though, so he talks with her casually after the map and is promptly stabbed to death before he can reveal Byleth’s secret history. Byleth, remembering that he has the power to turn back time thanks to Sothis, rewinds and attacks Monica with the Sword of the Creator, but someone teleports in and deflects the blow before leaving with her. It becomes evident that Jeralt can’t be saved, so Byleth cradles him and cries.

The fact that Byleth cries is apparently significant, as a journal kept by Jeralt and found when searching the room (which he told us to do if he dies suddenly in an earlier chapter) explains that Byleth didn’t even cry when he was born. Between what Rhea says while consoling him and the journal, a couple of things can be gleaned. First, Byleth was born when Jeralt was at Garreg Mach, but his mother—who has a yet-unspecified connection to Rhea—died in childbirth, and this led Jeralt to be suspicious of Rhea’s motives in large part because of her brushing off concerns about the baby. Eventually, Jeralt faked Byleth’s death and left with him when an unrelated fire provided him with the opportunity. As for what makes Byleth so strange, he supposedly doesn’t have a heartbeat and never cried as a child. All of this appears to give Sothis more clarity about how the two ended up joined together, but she doesn’t elaborate yet. If I had to theorize, I’d guess that Byleth is some kind of host body for the goddess that Rhea allowed someone to create/breed/whatever in a fit of religious zealotry, but it could really be anything at this point.

[Click here to go to Fire Emblem: Three Houses #8]

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