The shadow behind me
I've been Hubert's professor for quite awhile now, he's always so dark and calculating. I look into his eyes and all I see are gears turning, secrets flirting back and forth through his irises, while Ferdinand has been an open book Hubert has been more a locked diary. And people say I'm hard to read.
Still he's lightened up on me significantly over the months, what started off as vague threats, slowly turned into statements of content. He used to lurk behind me and Edelgard like a ghost haunts it's killer, I remember how much it irritated him that I was unfazed and unthreatened by it. However now he walks closer, glares less, smiles more, he's gotten more comfortable around me. I like to think they both have. Though I wish I could say the same for myself.
Last month... was a hard one for me. I lost the greatest father that ever existed, a man who I feel I didn't even fully know until just a couple months ago. The blade breaker, Jeralt Eisner. It was Edelgard and Hubert and the rest of my class that helped me put down the bastard that took my father from me. They showed me that they weren't just my students, they were my family as well.
However after my transformation, I'm seeing things... differently. I notice the long pauses now, the whispers when I'm not looking, the mysterious disappearances. My memory feels sharper than it's ever been, so much so that I remember all the times Edelgard was missing during a horrible event, the whispers between "Monica" and Hubert, the imperial design of the flame emperors clothing. But most of all the anticipation in their eyes when they look at me, like they're scared to tell me something. That they're afraid of how my opinion of them will change if they tell, how they're afraid I'm putting the pieces together...
These days... I feel as if the shadow lurking behind me is much more than just Hubert.