Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem Three Houses, all rights to the owners.
I find myself really looking forward to writing this story. Claude, Hilda, and Marianne are so much fun.
Claude notices a lot of random things. It's just in his nature. He looks at and analyzes anything and everything. Usually he has a measure of tact when commenting on his observations, knowing when to keep quiet or how to subtly get the answers he needs.
Key word: usually. This is not one of those times.
"Why is your skirt so short?"
Hilda, who was walking alongside him as part of the daily marching Byleth makes them do, slowly turns her head. Her expression is flat, and she raises an eyebrow at him. "I'm guessing that's either the start of the worst pickup line in history, or you really didn't think through your opening question."
Unfortunately it's Claude's learned instinct to grin when confronted on anything. You never want to look guilty by flinching or being nervous, so he trained himself to grin on instinct. It's very much not helpful right now. "Uh, that's not-"
"For the record." Hilda interrupts. "It's generally a bad idea to let a girl know you've been staring at their…"
Claude tilts his head and keeps the grin on his face. He hopes it doesn't look as forced as it feels.
"...hips." Hilda finishes with an innocent smile, clearly implying that hips is not the term she was going to say. She runs her fingers down her sides and over her own hips. "Though I guess mine are pretty nice."
"No comment." Claude says, taking the safe route.
"You don't agree?" Hilda pouts. "And you're smiling about it? Rude."
"That's not what I meant and you know it."
"So you do like my hips."
Claude can honestly say he's never had a conversation like this before. This is quite unusual. "Sure Hilda."
"Sure? Not yes?"
If he were talking to someone else, Claude wouldn't hesitate to say yes and just play along. This is Hilda though, and admitting something so blatantly sexual (even if it's not true and all in good fun) feels… wrong. Maybe that's just Claude's paranoia and fear of blackmail talking though, so he forces aside the worry and keeps up his false confidence. "Yes."
"So you do like my ass."
"Yes, I like your…" Claude pauses, then gives her a flat look. "Hilda."
"I see how it is."
"Hilda-"
"So, what was your actual line of thought?" Hilda cuts him off, smirking. "I presume you weren't just staring at my ass."
Claude ignores the tease as best he can. She's messing with him. He'll just ignore it and get to his original question. "You know how Marianne and Lysitha have combat dresses?"
"Yeah?"
"Why don't you?"
"Because I don't need one…?"
"But you don't have anything else."
"Claude, in case you haven't noticed, I do have something else. I don't exactly walk around naked." She says flatly.
"No, I mean armor." Claude clarifies. "Like… okay, Marianne and Lysithea each have a combat dress, right? They're made of tougher material than student uniforms, have extra padding, only go to mid-calf height so they don't drag on the floor, and have those two slits on the front so you can actually run in them, right?"
"Right…?"
"They provide a bit of protection over the usual student uniform, right?"
"Yeah."
"So why do you just have a normal student uniform? Everyone else has a dedicated combat outfit, but you're just wearing a student uniform." Claude says. "I noticed because of the skirt, hence why I asked about that at first."
"Well…" Hilda shrugs. "I did get a combat outfit, but when I tried it on at home before coming here it was too restrictive. Whenever I swung my hammer it would chaff my shoulders and arms. The skirt portion was the same. It was nasty on my legs."
"You know you could just wear an undershirt then. And pants too." Claude says cheekily.
"I have an image to maintain Claude!" Hilda huffs. "Besides, those get in the way too. That's why I wear my student uniform. It's the only thing comfortable enough to fight in."
Claude supposes that makes a certain amount of sense. Unlike Raphael, Hilda's skin is not actually all that tough, so the rubbing of fabric against it could give some annoying friction burns. She also uses the most exaggerated movements of anyone which logically necessitates clothing which doesn't hinder those movements.
"I don't think your student uniform is optimal for that then." Claude notes. "Your current dress is kinda tight around the waist. You'd probably need to separate it into two, or just have an exposed waist…"
Hilda raises an eyebrow and smirks. "You'd like that, wouldn't you?"
"That is not the reason."
"Yeah I know. Honestly though, this uniform works. If it tears, whatever, I have spares. At least it's comfortable."
"I'd still rather you have a proper fighting uniform." Claude mutters.
"Glad to see you're just as protective as my brother and father." Hilda says with a roll of her eyes.
"They just want you to wear a bit of armor?"
"Well, they don't want me fighting at all… so nevermind, you're nowhere near as bad."
"Well thank the gods for that."
"Though my family doesn't stare at my ass either." Hilda teases.
Claude is fairly sure she's joking, but the paranoid part of him wants to be sure. "Hilda-"
"Yes Claude, I'm joking."
Apparently she can read him like a book now. When did he become so bad at faking calm?
"You can't handle flirting, can you?"
"I'll have you know I'm quite good at playing the suave noble!" Claude huffs. It's true, he's dealt with noblewomen and such many times before.
"Except with me, right?"
"No." Yes, because I'm overly concerned about how you see me. "You just took it in an unusual direction and I was surprised. That's all."
"Sure that's the reason…" She chuckles.
###
Claude isn't sure if it's coincidence or not that Rhea makes her announcement about the assassinattion only a day after the Deer return, but Claude would bet money that Rhea specifically chose a date that every house was present so as to really drive home her message.
The announcement is quite a bit longer than Claude expected, mostly because Rhea goes on for a solid five minutes about the 'grave error' the assassins made in attacking the church, and how the Goddess's judgement will rain down on them, and how the church is invincible, and-
"Bla, bla, bla…" Sylvain mutters. He's standing beside Claude and Hilda. "Yeah, we get it, the church thinks really highly of themselves and likes to use vague unsubstantiated threats about deities that haven't done anything in a dragon's age. Woo."
"Sylvain!" Ingrid hisses. "Not now!"
"What? She can't hear me over all that hot air she's blowing." Sylvain sneers. "And I bet she wants us to handle this. You know, the thing that should be the church's problem?"
Sylvain's words are prophetic. The next words out of Rhea's mouth are to deliver the month's mission to the houses: that they are to prepare to search and guard the monastery during the Goddess's right of rebirth.
"Called it."
"Shhh!"
"So not all the Lions are blindly faithful. Good to know." Claude notes silently. "Or maybe Sylvain expected this beforehand because Dimitri spread the word."
…
"Oh right, I was supposed to do that with the Deer. Oops." Not that it matters too much. Claude will just have to the explain the situation to them soon so they understand that the assassination threat is probably misdirection. "I also need to meet with Edelgard and Dimitri now that the announcement has been made to discuss the plan moving forwards."
Edelgard puts Claude on edge, especially when her attention is on him. She's smart and sharp and therefore dangerous. Hubert is much the same. The fact that both of them are so cagey and clearly have their own agenda don't help matters either.
Still, it's that same intelligence that intrigues Claude. It's not often he gets to talk to someone so intelligent.
Rhea dismisses everyone and strides into the cathedral, head held high and her back straight. The formerly quiet crowd breaks out into murmurs, and Claude takes the opportunity to listen in to the chatter.
"The church wants us to do their dirty work again, huh?" Felix mutters.
"Oh dear, this is quite frightening, isn't it?" Mercedes whispers to Annette. "Assassins at Garreg Mach…"
"I hope the archbishop will be okay." Annette frets. "We've gotta do something. Maybe I can make a stoneskin potion for her."
"Is this being normal for Fodlan?" Petra asks. "In Brigid, this is not happening very often. It is considered unsatisfying to settle disputes indirectly."
"I'm really not the one to ask." Ashe murmurs. "But from what I've heard, nobles here are no stranger to shady stuff like this, both as targets and as employers."
"They should have me go with the Archbishop when the rite is happening!" Raphael booms with a confident grin. "Nothing can get through these muscles!"
"I dunno Raph, something seems fishy about this." Ignatz says. "A sensitive message shouldn't be stored on someone's person; that's common knowledge for merchants, much less nobles. This doesn't feel right."
Very acute observation from Ignatz, Claude notes. He's the only one Claude has listened to that seems to suspect something else is afoot.
"I don't see what all the fuss is about. We're going to be assigned to guard Rhea and that will be that." Catherine muses from the edge of the crowd. "No assassins are going to get past us."
"With that attitude they certainly will." Shamir retorts. "Overconfidence is the quickest route to failure. We need to be on our guard. Besides, this seems way too obvious. I don't think Rhea is even the target."
"No one is going to get close to Lady Rhea…" Cyril seethes.
"Sure, but you're not going to be anywhere close to the action." Shamir huffs, and drops a hand on his head. "Too young kid." She then ignores the glare Cyril shoots her way.
"Claude."
The boy tries not to flinch. It's been a long time since someone has managed to sneak up on him. He refuses to show that he's surprised, so he turns around as calmly as he can. "Heya Hube. What's up?"
"Lady Edelgard wishes to speak with yourself and Dimitri at the earliest possible convenience." The man says quietly. His expression is a small smirk. Claude suspects Hubert knows he managed to surprise him. "Bring only Hilda, if you wish."
"Of course." Only the heirs and their bodyguards, huh? Well, Hilda isn't a bodyguard, but Claude doesn't want to go into an important meeting alone, not when the other parties are so shifty. If this was at the start of the year, he probably wouldn't bring Hilda due to a simple lack of trust. "After dinner?"
"If you wish." Hubert nods. "Meet us in the gardens, as before."
"Gotcha."
Hubert quickly fades into the crowd, probably to go seek out Dimitri. It's weird how someone so distinct can fade into a crowd so well. Claude suspects Hubert has training.
"Well I guess I better tell Hilda." Claude sighs.
###
"Ooh, who made the muffins?" Hilda hums as she stuffs her face. "These are good!"
"I'll be sure to pass your compliments on to Mercedes." Dimitri smiles. "She was gracious enough to make these on short notice when I requested them."
"This is all well and good." Edelgard says impatiently. "But we have more important matters."
"C'mon Princess, we're not pressed for time. The assassination isn't for two weeks." Claude chuckles. "Cheer up, have a muffin."
He grabs a muffin and offers it to her. Edelgard gives him a flat, unimpressed look. Claude keeps waving the muffin in front of her face, and she eventually snatches it with an irritated look, probably just to get him to stop rather than any intent to eat it, but when Dimitri gives her a pointed look she sighs and takes a nibble.
Claude tries not to smirk at the surprised expression that steals over Edelgard's face for a moment, though she hides it as quickly as she can. "Even her haughty Highness can't resist Mercedes' treats, huh?"
"So." Edelgard coughs, and puts down her muffin. "The announcement."
"The Archbishop did not give any obvious indication that she has considered this is not intended to be an assassination." Dimitri notes.
"She can exploit an assassination attempt to rouse everyone's fury much easier than an elaborate burglary." Claude says. "People won't care as much about thieves. Better to just tell them it's assassins."
"Indeed." Edelgard nods. "The public is easy to manipulate and fool when you have the Goddess on your side."
Edelgard's sarcasm isn't lost on Claude. It goes over Dimitri's head though. "Indeed. Who would doubt a messenger of the Goddess?"
Hubert hides a sneer behind his sleeve, and Claude resists the urge to roll his eyes. Hilda hums and her eyes wander over the prince.
"Hey, Princey?" Claude smirks. "Literally everyone at this table is doing that. That's the whole reason we're here."
"I know that." Dimitri protests. "I was speaking the common logic."
"Ah, well good." Maybe he isn't as dense as he seems. "By the way Prince… did the message Lonato was holding have a name on it other than his? A mail-back location? Some identifying mark?"
Dimitri is already shaking his head before Claude finishes speaking. "It was the first thing I looked for, but unfortunately not."
"Unfortunate." Edelgard frowns. "But manageable. We will simply need to assume the worst and act accordingly."
"Prepare for the worst and you'll never be surprised?" Claude asks.
"Exactly."
"Great minds think alike apparently." Claude grins. "So, how many people are we assuming we're working with? Just the elites? Can we get more?"
"Are there others we can trust?" Edelgard stresses. "That is the issue."
"Yeah…" Claude muses. "I wonder if Teach's father's company is technically in the employ of the church or not. Maybe Teach could get them to help us..."
"You assume Professor Eisner is not going to be assigned a separate duty." Edelgard says. "There is a chance we may be deferred to work underneath a knight."
"In that case no preparations on our part will mean anything." Dimitri notes. "And we may as well not plan at all. A knight will be much less receptive to our ideas than our Professors."
"Depends on the knight…" Claude muses. "If we're under Jeralt we might still be able to do our thing."
"I would presume all the senior knights will be guarding Rhea as they are the most competent." Edelgard reminds him.
"Probab-" Claude stops abruptly, and turns his eyes to one of the entrances to this particular section of the gardens. Hubert has done the same. "Someone is coming. I can hear them."
Hilda looks doubtful, probably thinking it's his paranoia acting up, but Catherine walks into the gardens five seconds later proving him right and he shoots her a smug look.
"There you all are." The knight sighs. "Lady Rhea wants to speak with you three." She makes a vague gesture to the table, but everyone knows she means the heirs. "It's about the details of this month's mission."
Edelgard, Claude, and Dimitri share a quick glance. They get up and silently follow Catherine, leaving their retainers (and Hilda) behind.
The three of them silently file into the cathedral and stand before Rhea along with Hanneman, Manuela, and Byleth. Rhea's expression is probably supposed to seem serene, but Claude can see her clasped fingers are clenched, and her shoulders are slightly hunched from being so tense.
Edelgard picks up on it, but Claude is fairly sure Dimitri doesn't. Hopefully it won't matter.
"You all heard the announcement." Rhea says. It's not a question. "This is your formal mission. You are to patrol the monastery during the rite of rebirth. While there may indeed be a threat of assassins, it is more likely to be a distraction. The Knights will handle my protection. Your respective classes and professors, under the direction of Shamir, will be responsible for guarding the rest of Garreg Mach and reporting any suspicious behavior."
Well that's interesting. Rhea is indeed giving them the run of the place. How unusually trusting of her. Maybe she assumes they've been sufficiently impressed on the subject of the "divine importance and necessity of the church's power" from her speech earlier.
Yeah, sure. Maybe Marianne bought it because she's basically brainwashed by church doctrine, but even the general student populus probably doesn't care so much about the details of the church so much as they just have a vague idea it's important and Rhea sounded very impressive.
"We won't let you down Archbishop." Edelgard says in sufficiently pious fashion. "Such a brazen affront to the Goddess won't be allowed to stand in any form. We will catch the intruders when they come. You have our word."
"Indeed!" Dimitri seconds. "You will have only our best!"
"You can count on us Lady Rhea." Claude adds with a grin. "Assassins or thieves, by the time you ever have to see 'em they'll be dead or in chains."
"Good." Rhea smiles. It looks surprisingly sinister. Also, were Rhea's pupils always so… sharp? They're oval shaped, vertically, with pointed ends. A moment later they're back to normal. A trick of the light maybe? Or did he actually see that?
That is definitely going in his notebook. Dirt on the archbishop… ooh that would be useful.
Focus Claude.
The rest of the conversation is uninteresting. Mostly logistics. Claude's mind is already off planning…
###
"For this month's mission, my father has lent us the assistance of his mercenary company." Byleth says in a flat voice. "They will assist us with the mission proper, as well as training leading up to it."
"How so Teach?" Claude asks. He's fairly sure he knows already, but he may as well ask.
"They will function as personal trainers for those of you with similar skills." Byleth says. "While I may have a broad knowledge of all weapon types, it is no substitute for the knowledge of an experienced user, not to mention that they can teach other fighting styles much more effectively."
This is all well and good, but what Claude is excited about is the fact that this simplifies the plan to help Marianne. Acrim won't have to sneak around to find Marianne now because she's supposed to be around the monastery, or at least has a good excuse to be.
Claude does wonder who he's going to work with, but he doubts it will matter. As confident as Claude is in his abilities, he has no doubt there are others better than him. Learning from someone else would be fantastic. The better Claude becomes in combat, the longer he'll survive when people inevitably discover he's Almyran and his former friends run him out of Fodlan.
You know, probably.
"The one-on-one training time any of you had with me will be transferred to someone who can help you more. Anyone who did not already have a consistent one-on-one training schedule is expected to make time. While ostensibly this special help is for the mission, this is in fact valuable for your continued training."
The announcement gets varied reactions. Some people like Raphael seem excited, whereas some like Leonie seem annoyed. Then again, Claude is fairly sure Leonie's one-on-one training was mostly an excuse to try and beat Byelth in a fight so maybe that doesn't count.
"Ugh, this is going to be such a hassle…" Hilda mutters. "I don't want to train."
"Maybe you can scare them away with your freakish strength." Claude teases.
"I have an image Claude! I need to look dainty and weak!" She protests.
"Bit late for that. Literally everyone in the class has seen you hold down a demonic beast, remember?"
"I try not to." Hilda sighs. "How am I supposed to avoid responsibility if everyone knows I'm capable?"
"Don't be too subtle there Hilda." Claude responds sarcastically. "We might figure out your plan."
"Shut up Claude."
"Professor!" Lorenz's voice cuts through Claude and Hilda's whispered conversation. "I must protest to bringing in mercenaries to teach us! Do they have qualifications, certifications? Have they ever taught anyone before? How do we know they can be trusted around nobles? Putting such important people in the care of mercenaries can only end poorly."
Byleth stares silently at Lorenz for a solid minute. The boy doesn't back down, standing tall with arms crossed.
"Lorenz."
"Professor."
"You're an idiot." Byleth says flatly. He then turns towards the board. "Everyone get out your notes. We're going over anti-cavalry tactics today."
###
Claude idly flips through his notebook, staring at his pages of notes. It's very incomplete. He doesn't have a solid idea of Fodlan's history, or even the histories of the four main powers. He doesn't know the motives of all, or even most, major players, he doesn't have relevant information on army sizes, economic situations, political ideologies, and so on. He hasn't even managed to figure out basic information like what species most of them are. He hasn't managed that for his classmates at Garreg Mach either.
Sometimes Claude looks at his notebook and feels pride. He's managed to find out so much in a small amount of time. He's looking into history the church has covered up, he's figuring out politics in the Alliance with plans to start nosing into the other major powers, and he's learning all about different issues in the world through his classmates.
Other times, the information in the notebook feels pitiful. Insufficient. He might be figuring out politics in the Alliance, but that's just the base, surface level. He needs to know detailed motivations, economic situations, immediate goals, how he can persuade and manipulate them. He needs all that and more, and he needs to know that for Faerghus and Adrestia too. Those are just the high level issues. He still needs to consider smaller problems like the plethora of dangerous wild creatures that roam Fodlan, how to handle the issue of special cases like Succubi and Vampires and how to make sure they can live comfortably without them or others, or even things like proper tax rates and tax policies, and… and…
There's too much. Far, far too much. Sometimes Claude looks at his notebook and sees failure, a waste of effort, dreams too lofty to ever see realization even as leader of the Alliance, because the fact of the matter is that he won't, and probably shouldn't, have absolute power to change everything as he sees fit. The corrupt will stay corrupt, and he'll only be able to make inches of progress over the decades before dying a failure.
Claude shakes his head and closes his notebook. He's forgetting, he never really planned on success. Not complete success anyhow. It's a rare person that can change the world for the better in a mere century. He has to settle for something he can do.
But he still doesn't know what that thing is. He has all this information but nothing he can really do with it. The information is too incomplete to be useful at the moment as well. He has a vague idea of the politics of the Alliance, but not enough that he feels comfortable acting on it. He has a vague idea of a more accurate timeline of history, but not enough that he can make use of it to make deductions or figure out any deeper secrets the church might be hiding.
"Besides, I haven't made no progress at all. I've helped Marianne… by deferring the problem to someone else." Claude sighs. That doesn't seem like much of a success at all when he puts it that way. "So what? Do I just have to try something and cross my fingers? Wait until I'm an adult?"
Yeah, he probably has to wait until he's an adult. Having (some) control of the Alliance will make his goals a lot more achievable.
"Can't get lazy though. There's some research I can only do here, and this is a unique opportunity to talk with the upcoming generation of influential figures." Claude reminds himself. He takes out a quill, flips to the back of the notebook, and scribbles down a note. "This is your best chance to poke into personal business and learn other worldviews, take advantage of it. You have more access to church scripture here than anywhere else. Learn it, if only so you can poke holes in it later. Lastly… make allies. You won't get constant chances to talk to Adrestian and Faerghus nobles after you leave Garreg Mach. This is your best opportunity to get to know them, endear them, and get information out of them."
Claude nods to himself and closes the notebook again. He had lost perspective. This was a good exercise and a good reminder. After all, he can't expect to change things later if he doesn't put in the groundwork now. Garreg Mach was always supposed to be for learning… just not exactly what the Church expects him to learn.
Weird intermediate chapter here. Just need to bridge between the next two story points. Also, I realized I didn't really have clear and realistic goals for Claude besides "snoop on people", so the last segment hopefully rectifies that.
