Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem Three Houses, all rights to the owners.
It's either this chapter or next chapter that we'll get to the Goddess's Right of Rebirth. Not quite sure. I have a few small scenes that I want in before we get to that, but I have no idea how long that will take.
Hilda yawns. Her mouth stretches wide and her arms stick up in the air. She yawns for a very long time too, giving everyone around a good long while to realize she's tired.
Claude rolls his eyes when Raphael, ever oblivious to Hilda's obvious manipulation, says "boy, you look tired Hilda!"
"I am." Hilda sighs. She yawns again, loudly. "Our special training has been just awful for me. I'm a fragile maiden after all! Sleep just isn't enough to get all my energy back."
"Then you should eat more!" Raphael says predictably. "The dining hall will let you take thirds you know!"
Hilda makes a face. "I have an image to maintain Raphael! I'm not big and muscular like you, if I eat that much I'll look like a glutton!"
Claude nods to himself at Hilda's deft wording. She could have just said that eating a lot would make her look like a pig, but in order to not offend Raphael she showed she understood why he eats so much and also making it sound like a compliment. Clever clever girl.
"Aww, don't be like that Hilda! No one is going to care if you have fourths!" The boy says reassuringly. "Everyone knows you're strong, so they'll understand you need a lot of energy! Don't worry about it!"
Claude smirks as Hilda continues to sigh and complain and try to wiggle around the idea that she should eat more. What Hilda is trying to do is get help with notes so she can justify napping in class or convince people she's too tired to go to class at all. Sadly, she chose exactly the wrong person to try that on.
Hilda isn't lying about being tired though. Her mentor from Jeralt's mercenaries is actually working with her on refining her incredible strength, which means she actually has to use that incredible strength, and the reason she doesn't usually do that is because it takes a lot out of her. That's why Old Bloods were often characterized in the past as being slightly lazy, because actually doing something superhuman is superhumanly exhausting, and to replenish her strength she can either eat a lot (which she doesn't want to because she has an image to maintain) or sleep a lot (which she wants to do but can't find the time to).
"And what do you mean everyone knows I'm strong?" Hilda pouts. "I'm a delicate maiden! I shouldn't even be on the battlefield!"
Claude poorly hides a snort and Hilda narrows her eyes at him. Raphael seems to find Hilda's statement equally amusing. "But you're the strongest of all of us Hilda! I think you're just being modest!" He says cheerfully. He pats her on the back. "Don't be so down on yourself!"
Hilda groans and Claude chuckles. They bid goodbye to Raphael for now. After Teach's class in the morning the Golden Deer don't all stay together. Hilda sulks as the two of them make their way over to a different room for Seteth's lesson on the history of various weapons in warfare.
"It's fine Hilda. You can lean on me." Claude grins. "You've done this for me before so I'll help you out this time."
"But you're all… hard." Hilda grumbles. She pokes him in the shoulder. "See? Just bone. That's not comfortable."
"Sorry I'm not soft." Claude says sarcastically. "I'm not a girl so I'm not naturally soft, and I'm also not fat. Excuse me."
"You better be sorry. Why couldn't you just be a girl Claude?" Hilda huffs, now smiling. "Instead you're male, ugh."
"I'll endeavor to improve." He says with a deep bow. "So sorry, oh person of superior gender."
"You got that right." Hilda says. She yawns again, but not exaggerated. "Ugh… your shoulder might have to do though. I'm pooped."
"Or you could just lie on the desk. It's probably more comfortable than me."
"But then how will I relentlessly distract you in class even while I'm asleep?" Hilda asks with a tired smile.
"I'm sure you'll find a way."
Hilda successfully manages to sleep through class. Claude is fairly sure Seteth notices, so Claude makes a point of rubbing Hilda's back to make it look like maybe something is wrong and Seteth, who is surprisingly soft at heart despite his stern exterior, leaves them alone during class.
Hilda also manages to distract him even while asleep by sleeping partially on his desk because she knows he won't risk waking her up and therefore subtly getting in the way of everything he's trying to do. "Good for you Hilda. Mission accomplished."
When the class has ended Claude gently shakes Hilda awake. He mutters for her to play along when Seteth comes over to ask if she's alright and manages to concoct a nice sob story right on the spot about just receiving news that a friend had perished in an Almyran raid. That's not exactly unusual, so it's an easy story to sell.
As soon as they're out the door and out of Seteth's earshot Hilda whines. "Carry me Claude! I'm soooo tired!" and leans on him. "I've carried you before! It's only fair you return the favor!"
"You've carried me when I haven't asked for it." Claude corrects. "I have no obligation to carry you. Not sure I could carry you unless you piggybacked anyways. I don't have your sheer arm strength."
"Boo…" Hilda pouts. "Come on Claude, this is a golden opportunity for you to feel me up. What sort of guy would pass this opportunity?"
"One who doesn't want his arms to ache later." Claude shoots back, smirking. "Do you offer this to people often to get them to carry you? You'll have to up your game with me."
"Of course I don't. No one else has earned the honor of having me offer this." Hilda huffs.
"Basically you're saying you know I won't take advantage of the situation."
"I dunno, maybe that's what I mean, maybe not." Hilda hums with a coy smirk. "Care to find out?"
Yes, he very much does want to find out, but Claude is pretty sure that's the hormonal side of him talking. Also, he's fairly sure she's just trying to bait him into carrying her. "Nah. I value not having aching arms before training this afternoon. Jarvis is a hard taskmaster. I'm not going to let you bait me."
"You're no fun. Bad friend. Boo." Hilda grumbles. Her coquettish smile fades now that her plan has failed. "Hate you."
"Love you too Hilda." Claude chuckles. He pats her on the back and she scrunches up her nose at him. "Are you going to join me for lunch, or do you want to go sleep?"
"I should eat." She sighs. "Will you at least get food for me?"
"Of course. Almost anything for my dear friend." Claude smirks. He patronizingly pats her head this time, and the withering glare she sends him is well-earned.
"Next time you're tired I'm going pat your head then." Hilda growls, as if that is somehow a threat. "And I'm going to be super smug about it."
"Oh no, how horrible. A pretty girl is going to pat my head." Claude gasps. "Terrible, truly."
"Fuck you Claude."
"Hate you? Bad friend?" Claude recounts. He's wearing a shit-eating grin right now. "Boo?"
"Shut up."
###
Claude never thought watching the mandatory hand-to-hand tournament could be so informative. He's participating too of course, but he's getting his ass kicked. Apparently half the people in the elite classes can mop the floor with him. It's unnerving actually. Claude prides himself on being a dangerous fighter in any situation, he's trained in hand-to-hand, but Petra, Edelgard, Caspar, Dimitri, Dedue, Ingrid, Sylvain, Felix, Raphael, Hilda, and even Mercedes managed to lay him out flat.
Granted some of those fights were brutally unfair due to some peoples' natural advatnages. Hilda has crazy strength, Raphael and Dedue might as well not even feel the hits they take, and Mercedes is probably going to win just because no one can damage her in any way. Claude tried to punch her and his hand sunk into her body up to his wrist. She didn't even really fight back. She calmly tied him up with her stretchy "hair" as he tried to pull his hand free and was pronounced the winner.
Bad enough to let Hilda compete, but letting an Ooze fight in a hand-to-hand tournament is like giving someone a horse in a footrace. There's just no competition.
It is funny to watch all these powerful fighters fall to sweet, polite, gentle Mercedes though. The tournament acts as a showcase of all the things she can do with her body. Even though she could realistically just walk towards any given person until she corners them and then engulf them, Mercedes puts on more of a show than that. Her main way of fighting seems to be to stretch and whip her "hair" around to attack or grab, but she can do the same with her hands if she wants, or she can collapse into a puddle and take up a huge area on the ground and trap anyone who walks into it, or she can change her form entirely so that she's basically just one large whip that lashes out at her opponent.
Oozes are as interesting as they are dangerous. To actually injure one you either need to turn them into small enough pieces that they can't reform (very difficult) or use magic (easier, but not trivial). Their body composition is also weird. Claude speaks of Mercedes having "hair" or "hands", but the truth is that Mercedes looks like whatever she wants to look like and every part of her body, even her clothes, is the exact same substance. She only looks human because she wants to look human, because oozes do not look human by default. A "newborn" ooze would just be a formless blob ("newborn" in quotation marks because oozes aren't born per say. An ooze with sufficient mass can divide itself, and choose if it's copy keeps all their memories or not).
"Wait." Claude frowns. He's mulling this over as he watches Mercedes take on Dedue. "Mercedes has a crest, and parents, and a birth record saying that she was born to those parents. I saw it when I snooped around in Seteth's office before. Oozes would have one parent, and not one human parent much less two, and they certainly shouldn't have a crest. There's something that doesn't line up there."
Oozes can also be acidic. They can adjust the acidity of their body with incredible precision. If Mercedes wanted to make just a fingertip acidic she could. Claude can think of some uses for an ooze in combat...
Mercedes wins to the surprise of absolutely no one. Dedue is flat on his back, struggling to pull his arms free of the peach-colored puddle trapping his limbs while the rest of Mercedes kneels next to him, smiling politely.
Who would have guessed Mercedes would be the best in hand-to-hand? That also solves the question of why she was out so late at night. Oozes don't have to sleep at all.
Claude would also like to think he would have done better if they were just allowed to use daggers or something. Maybe he needs to shore up on his fistfighting.
###
Hilda huffs in annoyance as she darts around the monastery. Claude's birthday is on an inconvenient day. It's only two days before the Rite of Rebirth as well as just being a school day. Blah. Worse than that is that she just can't find Claude. It's past breakfast, class starts in half an hour, and he's not in his room, he's not in her room, and he's not at the classroom or the dining hall.
"Claude, you better not be snooping this early in the morning." Hilda gripes. "I swear to the goddess…"
She peeks into the Blue Lions and Black Eagles classrooms too, but doesn't find Claude. She does find a sleeping Linhardt in the Black Eagles classroom and Ashe and Petra having a conversation in the Blue Lions room. Hilda has no idea what the conversation is about, but she does know that both of them look unreasonably excited.
Those two really need to be less enthusiastic about each other. It's making everyone else feel jealous. Yes, everyone gets it, you're both super happy to have a cute/hot foreign not-quite boyfriend/girlfriend. Stop being so painfully adorable about it.
But Claude isn't there, so what now? Maybe the library? She doesn't want to walk all the way up there… but she will. Claude better appreciate this! She's putting in effort here!
She marches up to the library. Lysithea is there, sleepinging on a desk. The small girl has probably been there all night. Claude isn't there though.
"I swear to the Goddess…" Where is he? She usually doesn't have this much of an issue locating him.
That problem ends up solving itself. Claude ends up finding Hilda. He's walking at a brisk pace and despite his smile is clearly a bit on edge. "Hilda!"
"Claude!" She shouts back. She stomps towards him. "Where have you been?!"
"I've been by the lake." Claude says simply. That's not an explanation, and Hilda is about to complain, but then Claude throws an arm over her shoulder and leans in. "Someone behind me, adult, female, brown hair, but dressed in a student's outfit. I'm going to go left. You turn right and then double back. Try and grab them and drag them aside then call for me. Look out of the corner of your eyes so they don't notice you looking at them." He whispers.
Hilda nods. Realizing she needs to keep up the facade of what she was doing before, she grumbles loudly: "Just meet me by the classroom alright? I have to go back and get it." She makes a point of shoving off the arm he's put over his shoulder and stomping off to the right. As she's turning she watches out of the corner of her eye and spots the person Claude was talking about. The woman is watching her go, so Hilda doesn't risk watching for too long.
Hilda takes another turn as quickly as she can to get out of line of sight of the woman. As this happens she reaches up and undoes her pigtails and uses a wink and purr to borrow a hat from a student who's reading nearby, promising to return it in a few minutes. With her hair changed and a hat pulled down in front of her face she doubles back in a quick walk and glances around to find Claude. He's just reaching the other end of the pathway with the woman still stalking behind him.
The woman glances back and Hilda lets her eyes drift to the wall and trees, making it look like her gaze was just casually going across the woman rather than staring at her. Claude has taught her a bunch of little tricks over the months she's known him and they're coming in handy now. She's also made sure to change how she walks. Her usual walk is a strut with a very obvious swing to her hips and a bit of a bounce in her step, so she's intentionally walking in a more nondescript and normal fashion right now.
She closes in on the woman (hopefully) without arousing suspicion. She turns the corner, sees that there are a lot less people on this path as it's right in front of the student houses… and there's a convenient gap between Professor Byleth's room and the sauna.
Not wasting the opportunity, Hilda dashes forwards and snaps her arms around the woman in a vice grip. She barks "Claude!" and hauls the woman into the convenient gap. She notices the woman is trying to grab something in her pockets, so she forcefully pulls the woman's hands behind her back with one hand and shoves the woman onto the ground with the other.
"Isn't it lovely to have a friend who will assault a random person for you without questioning it?" Claude says cheerily as he strolls into this small gap. "Nicely done Hilda."
"There better be a good reason for this." She huffs. "I had to borrow someone's hat to pull this off, and put my hair down. My hair Claude! That's my entire image!"
Claude laughs heartily. The woman Hilda is pinning sighs deeply, then speaks. "You are by far the most frustrating person I've ever instructed Claude."
"And by frustrating you mean competent." Claude grins.
"That too." The woman admits.
"What's going on exactly?" Hilda asks.
"Ah, right. Introductions are in order! Hilda, this is Acrim, my stealth teacher for the month. Acrim, this is Hilda. She's objectively the best."
"I can see that." Acrim sighs. "Can she let me up now?"
Claude smiles impishly. "Only once I'm sure I win."
"The objective was to avoid getting caught while keeping the public oblivious. It was not to drag me into an alley and pin me to the ground." Acrim scolds.
"Hey, I chose somewhere where not many people were watching and I dealt with the problem." Claude says. He pauses when Hilda raises her eyebrow at him and then amends: "Okay, Hilda dealt with the problem, but that counts too."
Claude and Acrim have a stare-down for a moment, and Acrim finally gives in. "Fine, you dealt with the problem effectively. You win."
"Hilda, release her." Claude says with absolute smugness. Hilda does so, and the woman sits up. "Where did you get a student's outfit anyways?"
"I 'borrowed' one. It wasn't difficult."
"You stole one." Claude laughs. "Of course."
Hilda shakes her head. "I'll be back in a second."
She returns the hat and makes her way to her room to grab a package. Claude better be in the same place or she's going to be furious. She will give him this damn gift before class starts. She spent a lot of time making this! She could have been making jewelry but instead she spent two weeks sewing and stitching this thing.
She makes her way back over to the gap to find that Acrim is gone but Claude he's still there. He still looks supremely proud of himself.
"What's in the box Hilda?" Claude asks. "Actually, why do you have a box?"
"It's for you, duh." She shoves the box at him. "Your birthday, remember?"
"Oh, oh, right!" He says. "I totally forgot."
"Of course you did." Hilda sighs. "Just open the stupid box."
He does so. He pulls out the object inside and studies it with wide eyes.
"It took forever to design this thing." Hilda huffs. "It's a bit thick, and it'll be a bit heavy as a consequence of all the hidden pockets and the padding I put in to conceal whatever's hidden in there, but it should be useful."
"Wow." Claude runs his hands over the coat. The coat is simple but elegant. A plain beige color with a mostly smooth surface interrupted only by large decorative seams that actually act as the entrance to hidden pockets. The pockets are specifically made so that someone running their hands over the garment won't find them. The entrance to any given outer pocket is just under a seam so that someone's hands running downward over the outfit will hit the seam and go over the entrance, and the entrance itself is disguised because it looks like part of the seam. The coat has four large outer pockets with inside dividers in those pockets to make eight small compartments all padded by thick cloth. The inside and outside of the cloak are actually divided, though you can't tell by looking at the garment, allowing Hilda add a number of pockets to the inside as well without it conflicting with the outer pockets.
"The cloak also has a structure to it. The fabric around the shoulders and waist are extra stiff, so it helps keep the cloak a bit away from your body to stop it from looking weird and lumpy." Hilda explains. "The outer fabric is also naturally stiff to a lesser extent so that it won't bulge if you put something into the outer pockets. It's not perfect, but as long as you're prudent it should work fine."
"You're the best Hilda." Claude says in mild awe. He slips his hands into each pocket, taking note of the padding and the size. He finds a compartment on the inside of the chest that is extra stiff, he thinks it actually has wood in there to protect it, that seems designed to hold vials. There's also small pockets inside the sleeves that are clearly designed to hold daggers so he can just pull his hand into the sleeve and grab one nice and simple. This is probably the best gift he's gotten ever.
"I should warn you it's pretty bulky. It has all that extra padding and pockets, not to mention you're going to put stuff in those pockets, so it's not going to be a light coat by any means." Hilda warns. "Take care what you put in it too. It has padding, but something super fragile won't survive if you take a tumble. Any vials should be fine, that particular pocket actually has a wooden box inside the padding to help protect it, but anything else only has padding and nothing else."
Claude honestly doesn't care. This is so useful he can't even describe it. He's not going to need a belt anymore, he can just hide everything in here. "Hilda… how long did this take?"
"Two weeks." She grumbles. "You better be grateful."
"I am." He says without hesitation. In a rare moment of impulse he leans forward and hugs her, if only briefly. "You're the best Hilda."
"That's the second time you've said that." Hilda huffs. She's smiling now though.
"So you know I mean it then." Claude sounds genuine. How rare.
"Yeah." She feels unreasonably proud of herself right now. "Yeah I do."
###
Claude listens closely to the security plan as it's discussed in the morning of the Rite. They've been over this beforehand, but a refresher is always appreciated.
"The Black Eagles are to be responsible for guarding the student areas, including classrooms, dormitories, and the dining hall. The Blue Lions will deal with the Knight's quarters, the stables, and the graveyard. The Golden Deer will be responsible for the cathedral." Shamir begins by saying.
That's convenient for Claude considering the Holy Mausoleum is a likely target and is located in the back of the Cathedral. He's made sure he will be stationed there so anyone trying to get into the mausoleum will have to get by him.
The actual monastery guards are going to be patrolling the outside of the cathedral, so the Deer are responsible for patrolling the insides. The Rite of Rebirth itself is long and elaborate, and while it does partially take place in the cathedral that's only near the end of the rite. The long ceremony starts near the entrance of the monastery, goes through the gardens where there is a smaller ceremony and a banquet that lasts several hours. Only when the sun falls will Rhea and the faithful proceed to the cathedral for one last ceremony.
That's plenty of time for the invaders to try and get into the mausoleum before the procession gets there. Once the procession is here Claude doubts the invaders will try to get in due to all the eyes in the area, so they just have to worry about the time before that.
"The Knights of Seiros will deal with the protection of the Archbishop herself." Shamir continues. "If you spot trouble call for the monastery guards or me, not the knights. You can engage the threats if you feel you can handle them, but do not take risks. If you are unsure, stay back and call for help. Understood?"
"Understood!" The students say in chorus.
"Good. I understand you've divided up the monastery between yourselves already, so I'll trust your plan. Make sure to communicate between yourselves if you notice anything unusual. The Rite starts in half an hour. Be prepared."
With that, Shamir leaves them. The three classes immediately break out into nervous murmurs as the three house leaders converse.
"So you're taking Dedue and Mercedes as planned, correct Claude? Hubert and Petra too?" Dimitri murmurs.
"Yep." Claude nods. "I've already filled in Lorenz and Raphael on what the Lions will be doing and Ignatz and Leonie for the Eagles."
The idea is that since Claude's group is most likely to actually confront the invaders, he should have all the most competent fighters. Himself, Hilda, Lysithea, Marianne, Hubert, Petra, Dedue, and Mercedes.
Marianne is the only questionable keep. Claude is banking on the fact that if things take a huge swing for the worse Marianne will slip off the necklace and do damage control. Succubus charm magic is no joke. Claude hopes (he really does hope because he's counting on this) that she could hold most of the room in her thrall if she needed to. Hopefully it won't come to that, he knows she's reluctant to take off the necklace, but it's the sort of power he can't afford to pass up at the moment.
The teachers are all fine with this. Hanneman and Manuela are less strategically and tactically inclined than their house leaders, so they left most of the details to them. Byleth didn't offer any protest so Claude can only assume the man doesn't mind.
The other classes leave to take their positions. Raphael and Lorenz go with the Lions and Ignatz and Lenoie go with the Eagles.
Claude has his group patrol in order of their speed. That's to say Petra takes the most distant parts of the cathedral, then Mercedes, then Hilda, then Hubert, then Lysithea, then Marianne, then Dedue, then himself right near the entrance to the mausoleum. Byleth wanders the entirety of the cathedral to check in on everyone and investigate noises and answer questions.
There is the small issue that just patrolling all day is mind-numbing. They get breaks of course. When the banquet is going on a servant is sent to give them all food, and they eat one at a time so only one person is ever not patrolling, but just seeing the same things over and over is mind-numbing.
"There has to be a better way to do patrols." Claude thinks to himself. "But how would that be? How do patrols usually work?"
That seems like information he would know, but it's not. He may have observed patrols and knows how to exploit them, but he never gave much thought to how and why they're structured the way they are.
Claude himself is actually hiding in an alcove above the entrance to the mausoleum. He doesn't want the intruders to see him. It's fine if they get in the mausoleum so long as he has time to get backup. He presumes there must be some sort of magic barrier around the mausoleum in the first place or else people could just teleport in at any point, so he should have time to get the others before the intruders can get out with what they need. If they have to fight in the stairway, hey, that's fine. They can just obliterate anything in the stairway with spells, or Mercedes can block it off and turn her body to acid to melt anyone who tries to push past.
And so he waits. Teach drops by every half an hour or so to check on him, but otherwise he sits still and waits. He's probably the best choice for this position because he's very familiar with waiting. He's had to do things like this before; staying motionless in one place for a long period of time. It's a bit mind-numbing but he's used to it.
Claude waits for hours. He doesn't have to keep a particularly close eye on the entrance because he's literally right above it. Anyone walking to the entrance he's going to see, so he spends time making notes in his notebook and glancing down at the entryway after every sentence he writes.
As it turns out, the intruders aren't very subtle at all. Some look like priests, but many of them are openly carrying weapons and a few even have plague masks. Not suspicious at all, huh? Claude is surprised they managed to get into the cathedral without getting noticed. Such a large group with openly carried weapons? The guards really can't do anything huh?
Maybe he's being unfair. There's a good chance this group got teleported or something, as even the monastery guards couldn't miss something this obvious. The masked individuals of their group walk up to the door and quietly start casting something. Something bright around the handles shatters, and the group pushes through the doorway.
As soon as they're out of sight Claude climbs down from his perch. He dashes to find someone else to alert, the closest being Dedue, and barks for him to gather the others. Shouts start to echo through the cathedral as his group alert each other of the danger, and within a dozen seconds Byleth is in the main room. It only takes a minute for everyone to assemble at the entrance (and to send word to the guards, and by extension Shamir, that there are intruders).
"Alright. Dedue, you're up in front. Mercedes, you need to be ready to step in if things get too overwhelming for him. Everyone else, well, I think you know where you need to be." Claude says with authority. "We ready?"
There's a quiet chorus of people saying yes, as well as a silent nod from Marianne. Claude takes a deep breath and gives Dedue a nod.
"Alright, let's kill some thieves."
I could go on, but I think I want to leave the battle for next chapter. This is already a decent length.
Next chapter is going to be interesting. I have certain things planned. Not many things, granted, but things.
