A/N: I interrupt your short chapters to bring you, your normal, length schedule chapters. Enjoy!
Blue Sea Moon 1180:
Twelfth of the Blue Sea Moon:
Even though, Byleth had almost died because she was drunk, the hangover was by far the worse thing that happened to her. The throbbing headache and the upset stomach were already unbearable but the fact that she had forgotten that she had to teach the next day made everything so much worse. She had to run to Garreg Mach in an attempt to make it on time and had nearly lost her breakfast several times along the way. She swore several times on her run that she would never drink again.
She did not make in time (she really had no hope of making it on time) and ended up being a half an hour late. She was pleasantly surprised to see all her students (except for Ashe) waiting for her but she also wished that they had just left so she could spend the day recovering. No one said anything as she walked in all disheveled and with a large bandage stuck to her cheek; she did not know if that was a good thing or not. Despite her appearance or lateness, all her students had been acting the same as they were for the past few weeks, besides Sylvain, who was clearly trying to figure out what she had done the night before.
Byleth really wanted to know how Professor Manuela could teach with a hangover because she was sure this could be classified as some kind of torture. Besides the brief hiccup in the morning and the throbbing headache throughout everything, teaching had gone as about fine as it could given her situation and she hated that. Her first day of teaching had been a chaotic day, apart from the interruption from her reunited friends, there had been several interruptions from the other students with curious questions, but none of that curiosity could be found in today with the exception of a certain ginger. They all needed help, but she was no closer to figuring out how. She didn't even know how to help herself.
When it was time for lunch everyone left quietly, well mostly everyone, Sylvain was trying to whisper something to his friends, but Felix was the only one who reacted with a snarl. She sat alone at her desk during the break staring down at her notes. She knew she should go see if Professor Manuela had any medicine but that would require Byleth getting up and she didn't want to do that, let alone be seen by anyone else in her current state. With a groan she remained rooted to her seat as she believed that this would not only be a fitting punishment for neglecting her students but as well as to drill into her to never drink again. …Or at least not drink as much as she had done.
The doors to her classroom was slammed open and she winced. Reluctantly, she glanced up expecting it to be Seteth with a lecture, but she scowled when she discovered it was Claude and Hilda and both had dumb grins on their faces. She didn't even bother saying a greeting when they arrived at her desk because their grins grew upon arrival. No one said anything as they just simply looked at each other. Never had she wanted to smack a grin off someone's face so much before. She watched as they both opened their mouths wide and took loud, deep breaths and she braced herself.
"Good afternoon By!" Claude practically shouted.
"We did not see you this morning!" Hilda did shout.
Byleth groaned as loudly as she could as she buried her face into her arms. The two continued to shout other dumb things a bit more before breaking out into equally loud laughing fits. Uncovering her face, she shot them both the fiercest glare she could muster with her pounding head.
"What is it?" Claude asked with his dumb grin, but he at least spoke in an appropriate volume.
"I'm trying to figure out how I can get away with your murders," she said in a quite mumble, and he burst out laughing in an annoyingly, loud volume.
"Good luck with that!" Hilda spoke with a still unnecessarily, loud volume. "My brother will chase you until the end of time!"
Groaning again, Byleth went back to burring her face again. "What do you want?" she mumbled into her arms.
"I just wanted to see if you really looked like the mess Sylvain described you as." Another groan but not because of the volume that time. "I cannot believe you By! What happened to our good, little professor?" Another glare was met with another dumb grin.
"So, what did you do?" Claude asked and she appreciated the normal volume level.
She sat up properly and tried to look somewhat professional but her terrible bedhead betrayed her. A blush dusted her cheeks as she realized at how embarrassing her actions were. Unable to look at them she stared at the wall, instead, and Hilda gasped loudly.
"I went out-" Byleth started to say incredibly quietly that it was lost when Hilda started to speak over her.
"By! I did not think you were like that!" Hilda proclaimed loudly and Byleth winced, but it did bring her attention back to them. Claude had a scowl on his face, and she couldn't understand why. She was a mercenary shouldn't such actions be expected of her? "But it is alright, I guess. You are an adult." Byleth stared at Hilda trying to understand why the younger woman felt the need to point that out. One didn't need to be an adult to drink in Fodlan.
"Did he hit you?" Claude asked and there was a tautness to his voice that she couldn't figure out why it existed. She just stared at him for a moment until he pointed to his cheek, reminding her of the cut that she needed healed before it could leave a very visible scar.
"No…?" she said after she thought she understood his question but was clueless as to how he came to such a conclusion. "Wil would never do such a thing."
"So, you at least know his name," Hilda randomly chimed in, "that is good at least."
"Of course, I know his name." Byleth titled her head as she stared at Hilda. Was knowing a drinking buddy's name important in the Alliance? She couldn't remember it being so, but she was less informed of the Alliance's nobilities' customs. "Wil is a good friend of mine."
"Friends with benefits?!" Byleth just stared at the pink haired girl.
She had never heard of such a phrase before and based on Hilda's reaction she wasn't sure if it was a good thing. It was clear to her that she was missing something vital, but she was too hungover to bother with trying to figure out what. Messaging her temples, she sighed, she was so ready for that day to be over with.
"So, how did you get the injury then?" Claude asked again and there was still the tightness to his voice.
She touched her cheek and it was slightly tender to her touch, so she took it as a sign that it wasn't that bad. Alois didn't really say anything about it, so she didn't think anything of it. Her nausea could easily be explained from her hangover so she highly doubted that poison was used. The cut couldn't compare to all the other injuries she had received in her life. Her attacker, more than likely, wasn't ready to kill her and was just acting upon a prime opportunity.
Her memory of last night's events was still hazy, but she tried her best to relate them. Hilda's expression morphed from a more playful shock to one of horror. Byleth had found the younger woman's expression odd at first, until she recalled that people are not normally attacked as much as she was. She, most likely, had more assassination attempts on her life than any of the high nobility in all of Fodlan, but it wasn't a fact that she was proud of.
Claude slammed his hands on her desk, and she winched as well as jumped at the same time. Both Hilda and Byleth stared at Claude as his scowl intensified. She was left speechless, she had never seen him so worked up before.
"What the hell were you thinking?!" he yelled. While the volume bothered her, she was too stunned to really notice. "You have people attacking you, you know that!" Her shock gave away to a scowl of her own. "How could you be so stupid to let yourself be vulnerable like that?! You should know better than this!"
It was her turn to slam her hands down. Her chair fell as she rose to her feet. She matched Claude's intensive glare with one of her own.
"I just wanted a moment of reprieve!" she shouted back and ignored the pounding of her head. "To have one night free of nightmares!" Claude dropped his glare. "I wanted just one night of peace!" He started to back down.
"I know how incredibly selfish that was! But I just wanted…one night…" Her voice began to trail off as she started to shake. She dropped her gaze to her desk and balled up her fists. "I'm horrible but…but…"
She couldn't finish that thought but she didn't have too as Hilda had wrapped her arms around the older woman. With wide eyes Byleth looked at Hilda, who had her eyes closed with tears at the corner of them. Before she could react to Hilda, she had felt another pair of arms wrap around her and discovered that Claude was hugging her as well and was looking right at her. She found herself lost in his green eyes, she was about to reach out to him, when she felt Hilda place her head on the professor's shoulder.
"Oh By," it is perfectly okay to want that," Hilda said so quietly but it resonated strongly within Byleth. The older woman felt a lump form in the back of her throat.
"By, you can lean on us," Claude said, and she blinked a few times as her eyes welled up with tears that would never fall. "We will help you no matter what. We are your friends, right?"
She had nothing to say, not that she would have been able to say anything. All she could do was nod and squeezed them. All the guilt she had been suffering from, finally gave away to the relief that she had been so desperately seeking. The friends stayed like that for a few more minutes, until they could hear the other students returning from their break.
After finally voicing her desires to someone, other than Sothis, and having them agree that it was okay, was exactly what Byleth needed. It felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders and she could finally step forward. Despite still being hungover, she felt great and the headache was nothing more than a little bother that her good mood could ignore.
Teaching for the rest of the day had become a lot easier. She didn't know if it was just her or what, but it seemed like her students were more relaxed, well at least three of them: Sylvain, Felix, and Ingrid. Though Sylvain was still clearly trying to figure out his professor's mess.
It was during the last period of the day that Sylvain finally snapped. He slammed his hands against his table as he grabbed everyone's attention. He stared long and hard at Byleth for a moment.
"I need to know!" he nearly shouted and unsure of what to do she simply gestured for him to speak. "Did you have a one-night stand?"
"Sylvain!" Ingrid shouted as she smacked him.
"What?! We all are wondering the same thing!"
That was another expression she didn't recognize for that day and she frowned at that. She glanced at the rest of her students, seeking answers but none gave her any. Both Annette and Mercedes were blushing and looking away, Felix just put his face in his hands and shook his head slightly, Ingrid was still smacking Sylvain, who was trying to defend himself, Dedue was Dedue, and Dimitri had a much more intense reaction.
He sat stiff as a board, jaw clenched, and his fists were just as clenched with the remains of a broke quill lost in one of them. He glared at his table as if it had greatly offended him. She walked over to him and lightly rested the tips of her fingers on the table and his reaction was strange. He curled away from her as if he were a puppy she had just kicked. For his sake she walked away from him to stand next to Sylvain, but he seemed to still have that reaction since she didn't walk very far from him.
She desperately tried to put Dimitri's strange reaction out of her mind by focusing on Sylvain, instead. "What's a one-night stand?" she asked, and Sylvain's jaw dropped. After saying it out loud she felt like she had heard it somewhere before, but she couldn't remember where and Sothis didn't seem to be familiar with the term either.
"How do you not know what that is?!" Sylvain yelled and ignored Ingrid's beatings. "Knocking boots? Pants-off dance-off? Attacking the pink fortress? Thumping thighs?" Every time he said one of those lines Ingrid would get redder and would hit him, but he didn't stop. None of those sounded familiar at all but given Ingrid's reaction, Byleth got the feeling that she should be offended and so she gave him a small glare.
"How can you not know any of these?" Sylvain was now wailing. "What did Jeralt teach you?!"
"Practical stuff!" Ingrid shouted as she now resorted to using her books as added support for her attacks.
Byleth watched as Sylvain failed to defend himself from Ingrid's assault. Suddenly, everything clicked, and she was beat red. Stumbling back, her eyes went wide when she realized that must have been what Claude and Hilda were implying earlier.
"I didn't have sex!" she nearly shrieked and only became redder because of her volume. She prayed that the other classes didn't hear her. "I just went drinking that is all!" Sylvain gave her a look that told her he didn't believe her, and she was tempted to smack him.
"See!" Ingrid yelled. "She has a cut on her check, how could you reach such a conclusion!?"
"We do not know what By likes! For all we know she can like it rough!" Which cheeks ablaze Byleth finally smacked Sylvain and he yelped. She tried to glare at him, but she was sure it had no ferocity to it.
"I just went out dirking with a friend and on our way back to Garreg Mach I was attacked and-"
"You were attacked!?" Dimitri shouted as he got onto his feet. The mood quickly soured.
"Yes," she was able to say calmly, thanks to the heavy mood helping to calm her down. "Everything is okay. Alois helped me, which is one of the reasons why I was late today." She gave Sylvain a sideways glance, but he didn't acknowledge the look.
Her explanation didn't help the atmosphere and she wished to go back to the embarrassing mood of just a few minutes ago. With a sigh, she placed a hand on Dimitri's shoulder, and she was grateful that he didn't try to break away from her touch. She gave him a smile, but it didn't help, so she sighed again.
"I am fine. The attacks are nothing new." He scowled so she gave his shoulder a squeeze. It was clear that that was not going to be enough for him, but she didn't know how else to comfort him in a room full of people, so she decided to leave it for now.
She turned to Sylvain because if anyone were going to help salvage the mood it would be him; and she had a bone to pick with him as well. "Sylvain," she said slowly and with an eerie, little smile. He flinched but gave her a shaky smile in return. "Did you start another rumor about me that might possibly damage my reputation?" He flinched before begging for forgiveness. With a bit of help from Ingrid punishing Sylvain the mood began to return to a lighter one and that seemed to help Dimitri calm down, especially when she gave him another smile and he looked away.
Thirteenth of the Blue Sea Moon:
That day had been going well. Her students were more alive, well mainly Sylvain, Felix, and Ingrid. But Annette had been doing better and Byleth believed that would have a positive impact on Mercedes. For the first time in weeks she felt like they were on the right track. She wished Ashe were there as well, but she understood that the boy was going to need more time.
The morning before class Claude had requested that she free up her last period, which was no problem as it was always free, as well as moving training to the second to the last period so that her classroom would be empty before the final period. He was clearly up to something, but he had her complete trust, so she didn't really think too much about it. Of course, she had wished he had told her the day before, so she didn't have to spend the last few minutes before class trying to rearrange her entire schedule for that day.
It was a struggle, but she managed to pull it off without a hitch. Her students that were born in the frigid north, will possibly object to having any more of their future physical activities during the blazing afternoon in summer and she would try to accommodate them. Lucky for her only Sylvain voiced his complaints; unlucky for her Sylvain didn't stop complaining even after Annette cooled the training ground with her magic but Byleth couldn't blame him when he had to practice with flame magic.
Byleth stood in front of her classroom with all her students behind her, waiting for her to open the doors. She had no idea if Claude was done with whatever he needed to do. A small frown formed on her lips as she didn't know if she should knock or not.
An impatient Felix loudly proclaimed his annoyance at her hesitancy. He was about to open the doors for her when the doors opened with both Raphael and Ignatz each holding their own respective door and gesturing for everyone to come in. The entire Blue Lions class just stood there in stunned silence.
"Why are you all standing there? Come on in!" Claude shouted from the back of the classroom and that broke the lions out their shock.
Slowly the Blue Lions walked into their classroom. It was decorated with little party decorations, with streamers dangling from the roof and other little arts and crafts decorated the walls and tables. Near the head of the classroom was the rest of the Golden Deer surrounding the two front tables, that were pushed together and were equally decorated. A wide variety of snacks and drinks were spread out over the table. The Blue Lions came to a stop right in front of the tables.
Smiling widely Claude jerked his head towards the right and Leonie stepped aside to reveal Ashe. He stayed close to Marianne, but he was looking a bit better as his bags didn't look so deep. Gasps ran out among the lions and Annette and Mercedes ran over to him and he gave them a small smile. It was far from his true smile, but it wasn't a forced one at least.
Byleth looked at everything again before her gaze settled on Claude and Hilda, who gave her wide smiles and knowing looks. A large smile grew on the professor's face as she rushed over to them and threw her arms around them. She gave them a strong squeeze and they returned the hug.
"It was not just us," Claude said as he broke away from her hug to gesture towards the rest of the Golden Deer. "They all helped."
"Thank you!" Byleth rushed over to Lorenz, the next closest deer.
He held up a hand to stop her. "A hug is not necessary," he said. She glanced at the to her students, who gave her a shake of their heads as well. Her smile slowly dropped to her more neutral expression.
"Well shucks," Raphael said as he made his way over to the front. "If no one will hug the Professor, then I'll do it!"
Before Byleth could register what he said, she was lifted off of her feet in a massive hug. She felt so tiny in his arms that she started to laugh. In return he laughed, and it was a strong, reverberating laugh that traveled through him and into her and caused her to laugh some more and returned the hug.
"I am sorry for the interruption," Dimitri said as she stepped forward, "but may I inquire as to what this is all about?"
"The Golden Deer have seen the Blue Lions struggling and wanted to do something to help," Claude explained. "We are all in this together."
The Blue Lions stared at Claude for a moment. Dimitri was the first to come back to his sense and gave the Golden Deer a grand bow. Chuckling softly, the Alliance heir walked over to the prince and smacked him across the back with an enough force to cause Dimitri to stumble forward a little and Claude had to rub his hand a little from it. With that the tension left the Blue Lions and they started to mingle with the other students.
Sylvain and Lorenz instantly fell into a flirting competition that both Leonie and Lysithea were getting fed up with. Sylvain never flirted with Marianne but that was most likely because she was taking care of Ashe. Ingrid and Raphael were having an interesting discussion about meat, while Felix looked both lost as well as not surprised about the topic. Dedue and Ignatz were having a conversation, well it was mostly Ignatz, as he discussed the next possible subject of his painting and Dedue had mentioned some flowers that might help. Lysithea eventually broke away from Sylvain and Lorenz to go and talk with Annette and Mercedes, at first, they were talking about magic, but the conversation quickly shifted over to sweets. Claude and Dimitri were discussing something that didn't stop even when Hilda came up and wrapped an arm around one of Claude's arms.
Byleth watched all the students interact with a smile on her face. On her own she wasn't able to help her students, but she was sure that this would help them. She wished she had sought out Claude's help sooner. She realized it was silly how she was trying to help her friends and yet failed to seek out the same support that she needed as well. She knew that Claude and Sothis were not going to allow her to forget that fact any time soon.
"Professor?" Marianne called out to her. "May I speak to you for a moment?"
With a nod, she led Marianne to a quieter part of the classroom. The girl was clearly grateful for that but was still hesitant to start the conversation. Byleth decided to patiently wait for Marianne to work up the courage to speak.
"Professor?" Marianne called again and the other woman gave her a nod to continue. "It is about Ashe. He is really worried about his younger siblings."
Byleth pressed her lips together. She knew that had been a big issue for Ashe, but she had been so lost in all the problems that had been surrounding her that she didn't really spend much time focusing on it. That was unfair to Ashe and with a clear head she knew that solving that problem would greatly help the boy.
"Is there anything we can do to help?"
Byleth gave Marianne a small smile. "I will speak to Seteth," she said. She was going to solve the sibling problem one way or another; the church wouldn't be able to hold her back on this. "I will find someway for Ashe to check on his siblings." Marianne gave Byleth a small smile and for a moment the professor was speechless. She had asked Marianne to comfort Ashe, in hopes of helping the boy but she never imagined that it would have a positive impact on Marianne as well. She gave Marianne a large, warm smile.
The little party was slowly coming to an end and everyone began to separate. It was a good time for Byleth to leave and go talk with Seteth but before that she wanted more information. She watched as everyone slowly left. It was a surprise that Dimitri was one of the last to leave but that was probably because the conversation he was having with Claude was too distracting for him to notice.
"Aster," she called out as he and Claude neared the exit. "I need to speak with you." He flinched and turned slightly away from her. Claude's eyes darted between the two. She said the prince's name more sternly and he turned back towards her. Claude gave an awkward goodbye and then it was just those two.
Dimitri did not walk over to her; he didn't even look at her and instead choose to stare at the floor. She bit her bottom lip as she watched him. Her fingers dug into her arms for a moment before she dropped them to her sides. With a heavy sigh, she closed the distance that the prince refused to cross.
"Relax, I only need a moment of your time," she said once she stood before him, but he continued to look away. "I'll let you go back to avoiding me soon enough."
"I am not av-" he started to say and even looked at her while doing so but she silenced him by raising a hand.
Even if she had been in a much better state of mind, she didn't want to hear his lies or excuses. His eyes glossed over, and he hung his head. She balled her fists as she looked at him. How could he act like that? All hurt and stuff when he was the one clearly avoiding her? As far as she knew she didn't do anything to deserve such treatment. She clenched her jaw for a moment as she let the silence linger between them.
"Are you kept up to date with what is happening in the Kingdom right now?"
He raised his head so that he could stare at her. He said nothing for a moment and just stared at her. It wasn't until she started to tap her foot that he broke out of his daze.
"I am not up to date on everything, but I have a general idea of what is going on."
She gave him a firm nod. "Then by chance do you know what is currently going on with Gaspard territory?" He pressed his lips together.
"I will be honest; I know very little of what is currently happening as the negotiations for that territory are still being discussed." She nodded as she had been expecting as much. "From what I know the church is currently handling Gaspard's lands, while they conduct an investigation and many of the Kingdom's nobles have expressed their grievance to this to both the church and my uncle."
"From what I have been told the church has promised to hand over Gaspard territory to Count Rowe after the Goddess' Rite of Rebirth. From there Count Row will govern it, until Ashe is ready to take over." Byleth gaze slowly drifted away, as she folded one arm across her chest and rested the other on it so that she may rest her head on her hand. She had remembered hearing about House Rowe, when she had attended studies with Dimitri, but she never met the lord and can only recall very little of what she had heard about him.
"Is Count Rowe a good man?" she asked after a moment.
"Yes…?" He tilted his head to the side a little as he watched her. "I am not too familiar with him. He much prefers to stay in his lands, so I have only met him a few times, but he did seem like a good man, if not a bit stubborn."
"Do you believe it would be wise to leave Gaspard in the Count's hands?" She was not sure why she asked that. No matter his answer there was nothing she could do about it, and it would most likely become too much of a hassle for Dimitri to change when he would become king.
He furrowed his brows as he stared at her. "Yes, compared to the other domains in the region, House Rowe is the best at governing theirs. Gaspard territory is too far from House Blaiddyd for the capital to properly govern while handling all other Kingdom's affairs, especially with Faerghus' current state." He briefly looked away and balled his fists tightly. After taking a deep breath, he looked back at her. "From what I heard Count Rowe was good friends with Lord Lonato so I believe he will be the best at taking care of Gaspard territory."
She nodded. Despite having little control over the whole situation, it was nice to hear that Ashe's home would be taken care of. Since Lord Lonato was good friends with the Count she hoped that would give some comfort to Ashe.
"Thank you. You are free to go." She turned her back to him so that she could walk towards her desk.
"Wait!" Dimitri shouted. He reached out to grab her but stopped himself. His hand hung awkwardly in the air, almost as if it were frozen in place. She glanced at him and discovered that he was staring intently at his hand.
She looked at his hand for a few seconds before slipping one of hers into his outstretched hand. His eyes widen at first before settling into a soft smile. He held her hand so delicately as if he were afraid that he would break it. His eyes never left their hands as he ran his thumb over her knuckles. She almost fell under the same enchantment as him because she didn't realize how much she just missed him holding her hand.
Right when a smile formed on her face a dark shadow overcame his and he dropped her hand. Without saying anything he gave her a grand bow and left the classroom. Unable to move she just continued to stand there staring at the door. Her hand felt so incredibly cold and her heart felt empty.
Shoving all the emotions that Dimitri had brought up deep within her, Byleth walked towards Seteth's office with a strong determination. She decided to focus on helping Ashe, then allowing herself to wallow in her own self-pity. She had done enough of that already. She had been trying to be strong but Sothis had nearly destroyed her by telling her that it was alright for her to be hurt and focus on that for a while.
Desperate to run away from Sothis' advice, Byleth knocked on Seteth's office door. She had just gotten over her sorrow, she didn't want to fall into another one. Or at least she didn't want to acknowledge the problems she was running away from.
When she heard the go ahead from Seteth she entered the office and froze when she laid eyes upon him. She stood in the doorway staring at him until he gestured for her to have a seat. She realized that this would be the first time in weeks that she spoke to him of her own accord, and not being forced to, like in faculty meetings. Now that she realized her actions, it felt like she had been cruel to him, when he had been so kind to her before but at the same time she didn't know if she could trust him.
He gestured to a tea set on the edge of his desk, but she declined. He stopped working to sit up properly and folded his hands over his desk as he looked at her. There was a new look to his eyes, like he was assessing her in a different light than what he normally did; it was almost like the way the archbishop looked at her. She just hoped that it was her poor impression of the archbishop that was clouding her judgement as she didn't want to deal with another church official having unknown expectations of her.
"What can I do for you Miss Eisner?" Seteth asked and she jumped slightly in her seat.
"As I'm sure you are well aware that Ashe hasn't been doing so well since the Blue Lions' last mission," she said. You better be! Her thoughts rang out because she couldn't. Speaking of Ashe in front of Seteth only reignited her anger and it was at Sothis' reminders that kept the younger woman from glaring at him.
"I am."
"To help him recover during this difficult time" The time you put him through! "I would like to take him to Castle Gaspard so that he may see his siblings."
"No."
He clearly had more to say but she wasn't going to allow it. She slammed her hands down on his desk and her chair screeched loudly as it was forced back so that she could get onto her feet. His expression didn't change, despite her glaring down at him. Sothis tried to calm her down but she wasn't having any of it.
"Are you telling me that the church suspects a ten-year-old boy and a seven-year-old girl as suspects in the rebellion?!" She glared long and hard at him but when he had no reaction, she felt her fire starting to go out. Slowly and silently, she sat back down. She couldn't bring herself to look at him.
"Are you done?" She didn't say anything, but she did give him a nod. "The reason why I objected was Castle Gaspard is off limits to all but a select few." She gripped her legs. "At the request of Count Rowe, we did send over Ashe's siblings to live with him." Her head shot up to look at him. "If you can get either Professor Manuel or Professor Hanneman to take over your duties I can assign you a brief leave of absence so that you can take Ashe to visit them."
"Really?" She jumped out of her seat. "Thank you so much!" He gave her a firm nod. She sat back down smiling widely, until she remembered her outburst. A light blush colored her cheeks and she wasn't able to look at him anymore. "I apologize for my outburst."
"It is quite alright." She looked at back at him, trying to figure out how he could work for the archbishop, when he was so calm at such an action. "I understand that this must be a very difficult time for you."
She wanted to bite back with asking "whose fault that was" but when its not towards the archbishop she didn't have much motivation to do so. Or maybe it was just because it was Seteth and no one else. He was so calm and understanding that it was refreshing. Though he might belong to the church she wasn't sure if she could ever truly hate him.
"Still I apologize for my outburst. I shouldn't have taken my out my frustrations on you."
"Apology accepted."
He looked down at the work on his desk that was now slightly a mess thanks to her, while she looked off to the side. With the issue of Ashe taken care of she had nothing else to speak with Seteth about and yet she didn't' think it was okay to leave after that outburst. She fidgeted in her seat for a bit before he glanced at her.
"Was there something else you needed from me?" She started to fidget some more, while she explained that she didn't have anything else. "I do beg your pardon, but I am busy." With that que, she got up to leave. "Have a nice day Miss Eisner." She mumbled out her own farewell as she left.
Once the door to his office shut behind her, she released a large sigh. That had gone better than she was suspecting but she still wasn't sure how to feel about the advisor. It would be so much easier if Seteth just gave her one reason to feel over the other. It was just another annoying issue from having emotions.
"That man," Sothis said. "He is certainly a calm, collected man, but he has always been like that…" Sothis stopped speaking and Byleth could feel the girl's long stare into nothing.
"Curious," the mysterious girl said after a moment, "why do I feel that way? We barely know that man…right?" Byleth could feel Sothis frown as she drifted to the back of Byleth's mind.
She was about to leave when she heard someone call out to her and she turned around to discover Professor Hanneman. As she walked over to him, she remembered that she needed his help, in order to leave with Ashe. Since it was such a perfect timing a smile danced on her lips.
"I hope my students were of some help today," he said standing outside of his office.
"They were a great help. Thank you so much for allowing them to take time off to do that."
"It was my pleasure. I am sorry, I did not help earlier. I was unsure of how to help, even though you were struggling."
She shook her head. "It is alright. It was a difficult situation, so I understand."
He gave her a little nod. "I am sorry to have disturbed you if you were busy." She shook her head. "Then may I have a moment of your time? There is something I wish to discuss with you."
With a nod from her, he began to lead her inside. It wasn't the first time she was in his office; but it was still quite impressive. Books lined the walls, and the one section that wasn't covered in books had all kinds of interesting tools for his experiments. On the floor in the center of the room was a strange device that could blow up the image of a person's crest and project it in the air. The first time she had entered she had been weary of the device but now she felt differently about it.
He offered her the seat, right in front of his desk, which she happily took given his propensity to get lost in certain topics. He did not sit and choose to stand, while shuffling around a little. At a few different points he stopped to clean his monocle, and after the fourth time a sigh escaped him. This was so unlike Professor Hanneman that she silently watched him with a great curiosity.
With another sigh, he dropped his hands to his side and very obviously forced himself to stand still. "I am just going to come right out and ask this, if you do not mind?" With a slight tilt of her head she gestured for him to speak. "You have a crest, do you not?" Pressing her lips together she looked at the wall behind him. "Am I right to presume that you have had a terrible experience with it?" She stiffened but after a moment she nodded. "I am sorry for asking."
There was a silence between them for a moment. He walked over to his experiment tools and absently looked at them, while she just continued to sit. The silence was suffocating.
The silence was broken with a sigh from her. He glanced at her from over his shoulder, while she stared at him. Her crest was supposed to be a secret, a terribly kept one, but a secret, nonetheless. But now that the archbishop knew, what was the point of keeping it a secret anymore? She wanted answers. She needed to know more about the thing that had plagued her for so many years.
"I-I don't know what kind of crest I possess." He turned to face her, and she could see the question in his eyes without ever asking it. "It is not the Crest of Seiros, like my father's." He arched an eyebrow. "Not even the lead mage in the Kingdom knows what my crest is." His eyes sparked with an intense curiosity, but he was still clearly holding himself back. "My crest has two different abilities." With that he was now in front of her, holding a glass beaker that she was sure was going to break under his strong grip.
She looked into his eyes. Thanks to the archbishop, Byleth had grown to hate having looks of expectancy directed at her but she didn't hate the way Professor Hanneman was looking at her. Was it because his look was directed more for her crest or was simply because he wasn't the archbishop? She decided it didn't really matter.
"I hate my crest." He flinched slightly and she felt a bit bad for ruining his excitement. "But I want to know what it is. I'm tried of being in the dark about it."
He gave her a firm nod before grabbing a chair so that he may sit in front of her. He also pulled out some parchment and ink. Once he was ready, he looked at her and now she was unnerved by the look in his eyes. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, and when he opened them again the look was gone, or at least subdued greatly.
"Before we begin, I wish for it to be known that I did not bring you here because I wished to learn about your crest." She tilted her head a little as he looked out his window. "I had a sister, who suffered greatly because of crest and I feared that you might have suffered the same way as she did." He balled his fists tightly and continued to stare out the window.
She gave him a few seconds of silence before speaking. "Thank you for your concern. My crest has given me a wide variety of problems…" She let the thought die as she was unsure of how to finish it. He turned his gaze back onto her and the two stared at each other for a moment before sharing a nod.
"I will do all that I can to uncover the secrets of your crest!" All at once his excitement returned and she chuckled a little. Thanks to her own experiences and Sylvain's, she had grown to loath crests, but she couldn't bring herself to hate Professor's Hanneman's excitement over them.
He was practically giddy by the way he just couldn't sit still. She would have found it cute if she wasn't the center of his attention. "Now tell me all about your crest!"
Even though, she was the one, who piqued his interest and yet she found herself unwilling to share. She had tried so hard to keep it a secret for so long that it didn't feel right about talking about it. When she looked at him, she couldn't help but remember the noble that tried to goad her into marring him so she could bare him children with crest. She knew Professor Hanneman was different, he had his own crest, so he didn't need her to bare him children with one to regain some prestige, but it still felt uncomfortable.
"Are you afraid of having answers?" Sothis asked. "With answers you will finally know why you are so special and why you are targeted." Byleth pressed her lips together. "You will not be able to remain ignorant but is that truly so terrible? If I were you, I would want answers. I would want to know why."
Byleth's fingers dug into her knees as she stared at the window for a long moment. She was sure those masked people were attacking her because of her crest, and she was so close to finally knowing why and yet… Would the answers really change anything? Or would it just bring more questions and expectations? Was it so wrong to remain ignorant? But then again, she was still going to be attacked even if she knew anything or not. It would be best to at least know, right?
Her eyes snapped forward to look at Professor Hanneman, who was giving her a small smile. Taking a deep breathe she finally spoke, "my crest is massive. Far bigger than even a major crest." His eyes widen. "It is also bright red." He vigorously wrote everything down. "It has two different abilities." His head shot up at that and he gave her his full attention. "The first ability it awoke with was the ability to momentarily halt an opponent's movements like the Crest of Cichol. The second ability only activated recently during my dual with Catherine. On top of the first ability my crest is also able to power up my blows like the Crest of Seiros."
"Fascinating! Absolutely fascinating!" he mumbled as he furiously scribbled down in his notes. She might have been hesitant to share but seeing him so excited had her glad that she did.
All of a sudden, his head snapped up and he stared at her with such an intensity. "I must see your crest!" She was taken a back by his forwardness. Slowly he realized his overexcitement and coughed into his hands. "I do apologize for my excitement. May I please see your crest."
She gave him a small smile and nodded. Without saying anything she began to unbutton the top two buttons to her blouse. She was glad to be wearing the white top to the summer uniform instead of her normal mercenary outfit as that would have been a hassle to undress in.
"What are you doing?!" Professor Hanneman yelled and she stopped.
"I am going to show you my crest."
"Yes, but why are you undressing?!" His face was now bright red.
"To show you my crest," she said more slowly. He looked at her for a moment before his blush deepened. "You need to see it, right?" She let her annoyance slip into her voice.
He turned away from her, mumbling an apology of some sorts. A frown was now planted on her face as she unbuttoned the next few buttons. With no need to unbutton everything she only opened her blouse enough to show off the crest as well as give a nice view of her cleavage, that she didn't notice.
With a loud clearing of her throat, she managed to get him to turn around and look at her. At the sight of her crest, all his embarrassment and uncomfortableness left him as he threw his entire focus onto her crest. She felt uncomfortable to be stared at so intensely, but she figured that he had all but forgotten that she was there by the way he stared at her crest. She remained quiet so that he could hurry up and get this over with.
There was a knock on Professor's Hanneman's door but he didn't notice. Another knock and her eyes flew to the door, but he still didn't notice, and he was too busy muttering things. After the third knock she wondered if she should alert him to it and turned to look at him, but the door opened before she could speak.
"What in the goddess name is going on here?!" roared a powerful voice and both Professor Hanneman and Byleth jumped. The person at the door was her father and he looked about ready to kill.
"Dad!" She shouted as she ran over to hug him. He grabbed one of her outstretched arms and yanked her behind him. She tried to break free of his grip, but it was too strong.
"Sir Jeralt, it-it is not what you think!" Professor Hanneman said as he dashed behind his desk. "I-I was just examining Professor Byleth's crest. That is all, nothing else!"
The grip on her arm tighten and her father growled out. She pulled at his arm until he looked at her, but she didn't want to be on the receiving end of such a glare. She instantly understood why Professor Hanneman was so afraid.
"I have a lot to update you on," she said, and his scowl deepened.
With one final glare to the scholar, Jeralt dragged her out of the room and into his office. He slammed the door to his office so hard that the wall shook, and several books fell off the bookshelf in the room. Without sparing her the slightest glance he walked over to his desk and leaned over it, while keeping his back to her. Not daring to move, she stayed close to the door. Her hand struggled with buttoning up her blouse. A heavy, suffocating silence descended upon them.
"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't go kill Hanneman right now," her father spoke calmly but it did nothing to break the tension, it only enhanced it. He continued to keep his back to her.
"Because he's a good person…?" she tried to say that strongly, but her voice nearly gave out by the end of it.
"Byleth!" he yelled as he slammed his hands on his desk and a stack of papers fell off. Claude had told her the best way to ease tension was by telling a joke and she wished she hadn't listening to him.
She watched as he took a deep breath and even that little action was frightening to watch. She always had an inkling that her father was intimidating but this was the first time she was the one to experience it. "Why was he examining your crest?" again he said it so calmly that it was greatly unnerving.
"It activated a few weeks ago in front of everyone." She pressed her lips together. It had only been a few weeks since that dual and yet it felt like nearly a lifetime ago, and despite that, that wasn't the most upsetting thing about those facts. She had realized that it had been so long since she had seen her father; in fact, she had hardly seen him since they came to Garreg Mach.
"Everyone?" His voice broke her out of her thoughts.
"Yes," she answered in a near whisper.
He swore loudly before turning to address her. "How could you let this happen?!"
Her throat burned at his accusatory question. She balled her fists tightly and matched his glare. "It's not like I wanted the damn thing to activate!" she barked back. "But now that it's out in the open I want answers!"
"It's not safe!"
"What's the point? Everyone knows! I'm never going to be safe at this point!"
He greatly recoiled and she cursed herself. She wanted to turn back time but Sothis wouldn't have it. "It was a conversation" they need to have or so the mysterious girl claimed. Byleth had agreed she need to have that talk with her father but she would have liked for it to been under better circumstances, but she knew that there would more than likely never be better circumstance, especially with how little they have seen each other as of late.
With a sigh, she walked over to her father, who looked away. "As hard as we try, I am always attacked." He glared at the wall, but the glare was quickly dropped. "I just want to know why. Why me? And what is this stupid crest is. I'm sorry for doing this behind your back."
A silence settled over them again, but it wasn't so suffocating that time. Her father looked at the wall, while she stared at the part of the desk, he wasn't blocking. Neither of them dared to move for the longest time.
He was the first to break the stillness with a sigh and he ran his hand through his hair. No words were still said but they were at least looking at each other. With a huff he collapsed against his desk, and it slide back a little from his weight.
Again, he was able to break through the silence with another sigh. Momentarily his gaze dropped but returned after another sigh. He stared at her for a moment before shaking his head. Byleth just silent watched him work through his thoughts, wishing to know what he was thinking.
"Did…did the archbishop say anything about your crest?" he asked after a few more seconds of working through his thoughts.
"Not really." Her gaze drifted away. "She was just curious as to why I kept it a secret, so I just explained that I was attacked because of it."
He gave her a brief nod and slumped more against his desk. There was so much more she needed to discuss with him about the archbishop, but she didn't even know where to start. At Sothis' suggestion she decided to not say anything at that moment. It was best to not have that conversation there, across the hall from the advisor's office, especially when their yelling surely drew everyone's attention.
There was a lot of things she wanted to talk about with her father, but she decided to save them for another time, and instead, just focused on insuring, her father that she was okay. She gave him a hug and she felt the tension leave his body as he returned it. He gave her a quiet apology for his anger, and she dismissed it with a little shake of her head. Despite their horrible reunion, she was grateful to have her father back and she prayed that the archbishop wouldn't send him away on another mission so soon.
A/N: For the first part of the chapter I looked up euphemisms for sex and there are so many dumb ones. So, I present you my favorite one, "Bringing an al dente noodle to the spaghetti house".
There are so many things I need to talk about in the Blue Sea Moon that I'm wondering if I'll have enough days to discuss them. I guess we will just have to wait and see if I can.