like a star, like a firefly

Yeah, unfortunately. D: I eventually learned to get past the shortness of the route by abusing free auxiliary battles and building up certain supports pre-timeskip so they'd be ready to hit A rank afterwards, though.

I expected them to be similar to other noble/loyal retainer ships in FE myself, but I'm glad they're not, it adds some variety.

OH and speaking of Edelbert: Edelbert Analysis. This is actually pretty good, it has some obvious shipper bias and feels but it also busts certain misconceptions and goes deep in a way that doesn't feel overdone and pretentious.