What was the point of this last chapter? It doesn't seem to have really added much, given that Byleth just rewound time.

Byleth doesn't exactly have the moral high ground here, given that she is playing a deceptive long con. Just hope the fallout won't be too severe when the truth comes to light. If Byleth is smart, she will maintain and take her secret to the grave.

I like the tension between the characters! Also, Leonhardt being Linhardt is funny.

Well, your intuition seems to have been on the spot.
I think it's quite honestly more realistic that the Black Eagle House split up into factions. Or that Byleth could simply make a split second decision to follow Edelgard to the empire and turn her back onto all other students in the academy and the church. The lie that Byleth is Sothis ... I think it's a nice divergence point.

Thank you for the chapter, and stay safe!

Late to the party, covid's there since a while. :p
Kind of surprised that Byleth did not call off Dorothea.

Ouch, Edelgard is feeling pretty insecure, and she tries to hide that by showing hostility towards anyone whom she thinks is pitying her.

It really makes me think that she and Rhea aren't all that different, you know? They're both skilled, charismatic and have a traumatic past that affects their judgement at times. And the fact that both have an obsession with Byleth doesn't help matters :P

As for the Corona Virus, i know what you mean, it feels like things might have to get worse before they get better. Oh well, let's just hope it eventually goes away.

The thing i love about this story, and this part of it specifically, is that you took the Emperor of the most powerful faction in all of Fodlan and probably its surrounding lands along with leaders and war generals alike, people who despise one another, shoved them in a classroom and brought them back to their meek beginnings of students under the tutelage of their teacher. With them being written so well and so in character it feels like this is a form of unused game content. Sorry if this seems like a messy review, but big kudos to you for writing this so well.

Have Petra get angry on Caspar for their fathers drama

Byleth seems committed to her lie of being Sothis while the students are borderline pressured into giving up their true and deep secrets here.

Going to be interesting reactions from both the Black Eagles and Rhea's camp if the truth comes to light later on.

Well, Sothis is actually quite powerful, and actually a Goddess. If anyone played Fire Emblem Heroes, got her and ranked her up then she'll eventually make a comment about the PC's world possibly being one of the many worlds she created.

Also, she says something about the Heroes! version of her being summoned as being nothing more than a phantom, a shadow that only has a drop of the original Sothis's power and do keep in mind that is, a Sothis after she regained her memories, not before.

So, yes, it is quite likely she created Byleth's world, or possibly terraformed it, or just uplifted it - maybe a similar case to Ifrit and the mortals of Solheim from Final Fantasy XV, where the mortals got fat on the generous boons granted by their generous patron God.

With thankless future generations taking things for granted and, drunk on their hubris, they decide to declare war against their benefactor and attempt to commit deicide. Needless to say, being dependent and largely successful only because of said God and waging war against him was not a very good idea, leading to the mortals to quickly figure out just how arrogant they were to begin with, thinking themselves as mighty as the Gods simply because they were granted/uplifted a higher standard of living by a good samaritan.

It is this parallel that makes it so interesting. Who is to say Sothis did not do the same, with Those Who Slither In The Dark being the descendants of those before them who attempted to do the same thing. Snubbing the Goddess and proclaiming to be powerful and wise enough to stand on the same level as her. Her leaving them rather than fight them, but warning them that their hubris will bring about their doom, and, over the course of several more generations, said civilization fall further into decade and corruption, to the point where they would be little better than the Pre-Fall Dark Eldar Empire from Warhammer.

Everything possibly culminating in said civilization destroying itself, be it through war, or attempting to accomplish soul immortality through a massive Black Magic based Ritual that would go, horribly wrong, or just kill the Goddess and somehow usurp her Authority.

From there the rest would be history, with Sothis using her power to unfuck their mess and restore the world.

I love how everyone is being fairly reasonable. No full "I won't say". Everyone's willing to talk.

Oof, gotta feel for Edelgard there. That was a bit more than she was prepared to share.

That being said, when will Byleth explain that the Goddess is not an omnipotent being? That seems relevant.

Good to see that Edelgard isn't condoning the use of Demonic Beasts as well as reigning in possible war crimes here.

Pretty sure Edelgard has also said that she only has a problem with the Church as an institution rather than the entirety of the Goddess religion as well.

Hmmmm, with how secretive Edelgard is being about Rhea I am wondering if something rather different has happened to her in this continuity.

Well done chapter regardless. You gave a good explanation as to why Edelgard would think it was the church's idea to split Fodlan and create resulting chaos, as Rhea would have indeed probably tried to act like it was her idea even if she was merely adapting to situations beyond her control and wanted to mitigate chaos rather than create more.

On the other hand, my impression of Loog was that he didn't know about his "those who slither in the dark" allies wanting to destroy the church, or else he wouldn't have been so willing to give the church special privileges in his country in exchange for their endorsement and ending the fighting. In your flashback to, if I recall right, you have Pan reveal that aim only when the peace talks were attempted and Loog shooting down the idea, but I can see Edelgard somehow rationalizing that destroying the church was what Loog wanted and that he merely lost his conviction. The slithers could well have given her that impression too if they told her their own version of the story.

Good to get an answer on the crest beasts too, though a complete ban on them seems unlikely to be followed by the slithers (even in Crimson Flower we see in Hubert's paralogue that the slithers are still creating/using the beasts on their own when Arundel asks for helping in stopping some that have escaped their control).