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Dorothea was sitting on the stairs of the Garreg Mach Museum, mindlessly scrolling through her phone trying not to think too hard about how she should have brought a thicker coat. The winter was definitely harsher here than it was in Embarr, and she still hadn't accustomed to it despite living here for almost 3 years now. She's pondering if she should have gone inside the museum when she arrived and if she should now, when she heard a familiar voice call her name. She immediately got up as she recognized the voice, and soon enough she was greeting her friend.
“Edie! It’s so good to see you! How has the new course been treating you?”
“Dorothea! It’s been quite a long time indeed! You too need to tell me about how you’ve been doing at the opera, but how about we head inside first? I imagine you must be freezing here, if you’re like me.”
“Of, course, Edie, lead the way, I was thinking about going in just when you appeared.”
Dorothea rushed Edelgard to the inside, quickly getting up the staircase to the main hall of the museum. Just the view she had there was breathtaking. At first glance, the entrance already had the aura of a building with centuries behind it, but somehow the newest technologies and furniture matched seamlessly with the rest of the older ones. Dorothea was still dumbfounded, admiring the hall when Edelgard nudged her.
“Impressive, right? I had the same reaction as you the first time I came here too, and almost anyone I know.”
“Yeah, it’s incredible! I’m kinda offended you didn’t take me here before, it’s a marvel to see just the halls.”
Edelgard took a step forward, indicating to her to start the visit. “Now you should see the rest, come on.”
They got their tickets, and soon enough they were immersed in the long galleries of the museum. With each hall they visited, the impression left on Dorothea was growing bigger. She already knew that Garreg Mach was a historical place, but she came from Enbarr, and while she couldn’t visit all the places she might have wanted to, but her imagination paled compared to what she was watching now.
The whole museum was full of gorgeous paintings and statues of historical figures, made by some of the best craftsmen of each era, according to what Edelgard was telling her. The museum was divided in 4 main halls, one for each state of Fódlan and another one dedicated to the Church of Seiros, depicting portraits of each Head of the Church.
They crossed towards the hall dedicated to Adrestia, where two main figures stood out: Wilhelm Paul Hresvelg and Edelgard von Hresvelg. She already knew the story of those leaders, one being the founder of the Adrestian Empire, and the other being the leader who guided Adrestia alongside Faerghus and Leicester to battle against Those Who Slither In The Dark, putting an end to the machinations that caused so much suffering during their time.
Next they decided to tackle the Leicester hall, where they were greeted with a hall dedicated to the famous painter Ignatz Victor, including paintings of Claude von Riegan, leader of the Alliance, alongside other noblemen of the era such as Lorenz Hellman Gloucester or Hilda and Holst Goneril. Accompanying those were various landscapes of places such as Derdriu, the own Enbarr or even Sreng. Crowning them all, however, was a painting of Saint Seiros, which academics now considered his magnum opus, depicting her in a fierce and battling stand. The rest of the exposition was filled with the 5 original members of the roundtable, alongside other notable figures, including some Almyran princes under the first peace treaties were agreed to.
That left only the Faerghus hall left. Its structure followed the same pattern as the others, with the main hall depicting Loog and his sworn friend Pan emerging victorious after The Battle of the Eagle and the Lion, next to the portrait of Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd, the king that led Faerghan tropes to battle after regaining his throne from his uncle, manipulated by Those Who Slither in the Dark. This time, however, Dorothea wasn’t paying as much attention to Edelgard’s explanations, as a redheaded tour guide picked her attention instead. He was fairly handsome, she had to admit, but his eyes were what caught her attention more, their hazel colour could be noticed from afar, and she felt intrigued looking at them. She didn’t hear Edelgard calling her out, and she could swear the stranger turned to look at her before her friend took her out of her trance by “gently” guiding her back to the Church hall, citing that she wanted to check some of the statues of the Saints.
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After a brief visit back to the center hall, Edelgard decided to stop by the cafeteria, and they now were engaged in a conversation about what art piece stood out the most for each one.
“Say, Dorothea, what impression has the museum left on you?”
Dorothea took a sip of her tea before answering, enjoying its warmth on the chilly day. “The whole museum left me speechless, Edie. When you told me to meet here I didn’t expect that it would be so interesting. Every exposition is incredible, so I don’t think I can choose a favourite, to be fair, I guess I need to come back here more often so I can form an opinion”
“I know, right? The collection here is quite impressive.” Edelgard replied, taking a sip of her own tea. “The museum holds the largest amount of artworks on the entire continent, even surpassing Enbarr’s museum, they even have multiple collections they rotate over time, but this is definitely one of my preferred ones, especially regarding the Church and Adrestia’s.”
“Yeah, they were really unique! But Leicester and Faerghus ones were also really interesting. I almost want to see them again right now!”
“For the next time, how about you get a tour guide?”
A newcomer intruded, and as Edelgard and Dorothea turned, the latter discovered the same redhead she saw earlier standing in front of them. This took her completely by surprise, but when she turned to see Edelgard’s reaction, she only seemed mildly irritated.
“Sylvain,” Edelgard spoke. “Shouldn’t you know better than to pry into private conversations?”
“Nope.” He simply stated as he grabbed a chair to sit with them. “That was my last guide of the day, and I saw you earlier, so I wanted to say hi to my chess pal. Is it that strange?”
“I wouldn’t say strange, Sylvain, but certainly rude. You didn’t introduce yourself to Dorothea for once.”
Hearing her name finally outed her out of her sheer astonishment she had been into since that man appeared. Still with no time to fully process what had happened, he turned to her and finally presented himself.
“Sylvain Gautier, museum guide, international relations student, party animal and chess club member when I have the time. A pleasure to meet you.”
He spoke with an easy going confidence, it almost made her think he was selling himself short. It made her interested enough to try and discover what else was hiding, but she knew that would have to be another time, finding herself surprisingly interested by that.
“I’m Dorothea Arnault, music theory student, part time singer and hopefully one day opera songstress.”
“Opera songstress, interesting.” He said with what seemed genuine interest, but still having a playful smirk. “Guess I’ll have to attend one of your concerts then. Do you mind if I have a drink with you?”
As he said that he got himself up, going to the counter as both girls observed him. Dorothea took a napkin to write something, and when she lifted her head, Edelgard was staring at her with an indecipherable face.
“Dorothea…?” Her friend simply stated. She picked up the clue immediately.
“He seems fun! It can’t be that bad to go on a date with him, right?” She questioned, while Edelgard’s face stood the same. “I’m not gonna do anything stupid, Edie, I just want to hang out with him. For all I know, he couldn’t be interested in me.”
“I’m not going to stop you, Dorothea. In fact, I’m thinking this can be quite interesting to see.”
Just in time, Sylvain returned to the table, complaining about how the museum seemingly increased the pricing of the café even for employees.
They kept chatting for a few minutes, but soon, Dorothea had to go. After waving goodbyes, she not so subtly left the paper she wrote before with her number and a “Date?” written on it on Sylvain’s bag. When she returned home, she had a message from an unknown number. Its profile picture was an unmistakable redhead, who simply stated a “Whenever you want to. ;)”. She smiled to herself, simply replying with "Coffee on Friday?".