"Mercie? You there?"

"Oh, hi there Annette, back from your..."

"Yeah, can we talk inside?"

"Of course.

"So, how did it go?"

"Uh, I'm not sure."

"What does that mean? Was it worse than you expected?"

"Actually, yeah, much worse. Professor Byleth... used a cane on me."

"Oh my, that sounds painful. I'm sorry I couldn't prepare you for that last night."

"Honestly, I don't think anything could've prepared me for it."

"Well are you alright? Did anything bad happen?"

"The entire thing was pretty bad, Mercie. First she had me bend over one of the desks to cane me. Then she... she..."

"What, what did she do?"

"She p-pulled my underwear down."

"What?!

"Oh, I'm sorry Annette. That was something I really should've warned you about."

"Wait, that's common?"

"Yes, there were a few times in school when I was spanked on my bare bottom. I didn't want to tell you about that because I was worried it would scare you, and I didn't think Byleth would punish you that way.

"I also didn't want to prepare you for it since I didn't want to embarrass you too badly."

"Well yeah, it was very embarrassing. Being exposed like that, for Byleth.

"But she didn't just cane me. After she got done with that, she took me over her knees and gave me another punishment, like the one you did. And at the end...

"I...I... at the end, I..."

"What happened Annette? Come on, you can tell me."

"I started crying."

"..."

"Yeah, just like you did."

"Goddess, that breaks my heart to hear Annette. I'm so sorry you had to go through that. I was hoping Byleth wouldn't go too hard on you, but clearly I was wrong.

"Oh that was the one thing I was hoping you wouldn't have go through if I helped you. I feel as if I've failed you as a friend."

"Don't beat yourself up over it Mercie. I'm glad what we did yesterday wasn't as bad, because I would've hated to go through that kind of punishment twice."

"Oh? So then I take it Byleth got through to you then? Are you going to try to be a better student now?"

"Yes, I am. But it might be for a different reason than just I'm scared of being punished again.

"After Byleth punished me, we sort of... hugged it out. And I realized I really want to have the same sort of friendship I have with her outside of class inside as well.

"So that's what I'm gonna do. I'm going to be professor Byleth's favorite student!"

"Well that's quite the turnaround Annette. I'm glad you're so eager to improve yourself, even if it took something like that to make you."

"Tease all you want, Mercie. I'm going to make professor Byleth so proud of me she won't ever shut up about her favorite student.

"Bye bye Mercie, I've got a teacher to impress."