Author's Note:

Hello and welcome to another chapter. This one features a slight incident between Raphael and the two 'noblest of nobles', plus friends. Thank you for your continued support and I hope you enjoy the chapter.

I own nothing.

The Dangers of Baths and Perfumes

The next couple of days running up to the start of the Academy year went by without incident.

The scrutiny Raphael was under seemed to remain constant, and he'd got into the habit of avoiding Lorenz and Ferdinand every chance he got. Apparently, anything he did seemed to be wrong according to them and he grew tired of their constant looks of disapproval. Fortunately, he now had a good handle on many of his classmate's scents, meaning he could usually smell either one of them coming and evade them easily.

As hoped, Leonie had been more understanding of him, she came from a commoner background (what made someone a 'commoner' anyway?) and had said that her whole village had got together to get her to the academy. Her sense of community was familiar and stabilising for him, since it reminded him of how his pack worked.

Petra had become another friendly face, she'd too had been pulled into Fόdlan culture with little choice, and their unfamiliarity with it became a point of bonding for them. He'd also struck up a friendship with Ignatz, the shy boy being quite interested in werewolf culture, and Raphael liked having someone who was so interested in how his pack worked.

Many of the others remained wary, or flat out suspicious. The purple-haired girl (someone finally told him they were called Bernadetta) actively ran away from him, it was at the point where if he so much as glanced at her, she'd run screaming. Petra told him that they'd tried to convince her that he wasn't dangerous but explained that she was jumpy at the best of times, so it could be a while before the girl stopped freaking out around him. His spar seemed to have impressed Felix, but the boy didn't really seem to be interested in making friends with anyone, and Ingrid, as well as others, looked at him like he was possibly going to rip out their throats any minute. He'd also acquired shadows in the form of different knights, who followed him around while trying to be unobtrusive about it (which didn't work because they wore so much metal, Raphael could smell them a mile off) and knew that Hubert would also dog his steps from time to time.

After a couple of days of this, he finally met his house leader.

Claude spoke to him first, waltzing up to him at dinner just after he and the others had returned with a group of mercenaries in tow.

"So, I finally get to meet the Golden Deer's own werewolf."

The boy sat across from him and gestured at Raphael's just emptied plate, "I saw that you'd finished, so I thought I'd come over an introduce myself now. I'm Claude Von Riegan, the House Leader, despite Lorenz continually saying he is the better pick."

Claude smiled and Raphael nodded, taking a moment to pick out the leader's scent and learn it, before answering.

"Raphael…oh…son of Alpha Fenrir."

He'd started tagging on the 'son of' bit to the end of his introduction, apparently just introducing himself by his name wasn't 'proper' enough for people, so it avoided them looking disapproving and telling him off.

Claude's smile grew a little, "I have to admit, I'm kind of looking forward to learning more about you, I had plans to visit your pack at some point, but actually spending time with a werewolf will be even better."

Raphael smiled a bit himself, "You're one of the few humans I've met so far who actually seems to want to learn about my pack, instead of listening to whatever crazy stories they've been told."

The house leader grinned, "Oh, I've probably heard most of the stories, but I know that the stories don't often match up with reality. Hence why I want to hear things from you."

"My apologies for interrupting."

Seteth had approached during their conversation, and he addressed Claude.

"Master Riegan, I was hoping you could give me more information on your side of the events that led up to you meeting Captain Jeralt's company."

"Sure thing." Claude stood and shrugged apologetically, "I guess we'll have to continue our discussion later."

Raphael grinned, "Okay."

With a light wave of farewell, Claude followed Seteth out, leaving the young werewolf to dispose of his plate and head off himself. Only to find himself accosted by several students.

Hilda was in the lead, smiling in a friendly manner, however, she was accompanied by Lorenz, Ferdinand and Ingrid. Their scents didn't suggest hostility, but something put him on edge anyway.

Hilda spoke first, "So, Raphael, have you…you know…bathed recently?"

He frowned in confusion, "Umm…yes, I washed this morning, as I always do."

She seemed to be hesitant, "Well, its just that…the thing is…"

"You smell." Ingrid stated bluntly.

He was confused even more, "Well, of course I do, everyone has a smell."

Lorenz gave the sigh that indicated his disapproval of Raphael again, "The point is, you smell in a way that is not appropriate."

Ferdinand swiftly backed him up, "It is not proper for someone of your standing to smell so…unwashed."

But he had washed, with water and a bit of soap, as he always did. He quickly sniffed himself, wondering if he'd somehow missed getting dirty or something, but only his natural scent was present.

He looked at the others, "But, its my natural scent, what's wrong with that."

Lorenz took a deep breath and spoke firmly, "Raphael, as the heir of one of the leading houses in the Alliance, it is my duty to ensure that you are properly civilised in Fόdlan's ways. Therefore we, as nobles, cannot allow someone of your position to continue in such a manner."

Suddenly, Raphael had Hilda and Ingrid behind him, firmly shoving him along as Hilda spoke with definite finality.

"In short, we're making sure that you're going to learn how to wash yourself properly."

Afterwards, Raphael sat miserably outside his dorm, continually rubbing his nose in an attempt to rid it of the overpowering scent of perfume.

The four students had been ruthless with their so-called 'help'. The actual washing part had mostly been okay, it was the amount of perfumes, soaps and overly pungent liquids that had been hurled at him during the process that had done the most damage. His nostrils felt like they were on fire, his nose was sensitive, the same as any member of his race, but the students had refused to listen when he'd cried out that the number of scented liquids they were using was actually hurting. They'd just told him he was being childish, and Lorenz even went as far as to say that he should be grateful for the time they were taking to do him this 'favour'.

He whimpered as he sniffed and another wave of pain ran over his senses, the perfume was way too powerful.

"Raphael, are you alright?"

He looked up to see Dorothea staring at him in concern, she crouched down in front of him, "What's wrong, you look like you're in pain."

Raphael quickly explained, occasionally giving a whimper as his nostrils flared up in pain again.

Dorothea's eyebrows raised in apparent horror, and she lightly grabbed his forearm and pulled him up.

"C'mon, let's get you to Professor Manuela, she might be able to do something to help."

"They did WHAT!"

Manuela basically shrieked once Dorothea and Raphael had explained the situation (causing the werewolf to wince as it assaulted his ears). The professor immediately swooped down and began examining him further, muttering to herself the whole time.

"Are they so clueless as to not listen when someone is telling them to stop. These nobles and their stupid superiority complexes, I mean who would know better, them or the actual werewolf?"

Dorothea was still hovering, and she spoke up in concern, "What's the problem?"

The woman left off her rant to explain to both of them, "Basically, a werewolf's nose is very sensitive, it's much better at picking up scents than ours. By dousing him with strong scents, they've overpowered his nose and severely irritated it. It's like a human pouring an entire bottle of perfume directly into their nostrils."

She searched through some of her medicinal bottles and pulled a small one out, "Thankfully, when we knew you were coming, I managed to dig out an old medical book that talked about ways to treat werewolves. It had a recipe for an herbal remedy that could deal with a situation just like this." She handed him the bottle, "One drop in each nostril, followed by a drop of water to wash it out, should clear out the perfume, as well as help reduce the inflammation inside your nose. I'd also suggest a quick dip in clean, cold water. I think the perfume smell sticking to you is overpowering, so it must be much worse to your nose. That should wash off the excess scents and prevent them causing you any more trouble."

Raphael took the little bottle gratefully, "Thanks Professor."

Beside him, Dorothea also smiled, "Thank you Professor Manuela."

"Don't mention it." The woman's eyes narrowed, "Though I think I need to have a word with some of the students."

A shiver of fear ran through Raphael at the way she said, 'word', and he suddenly felt a slight pang pity for the four that had caused the problem. Dorothea guided him out, "Of course Professor, see you later."

As they walked away from the infirmary, the former songstress began conversing, "So, I think you should probably do as Manuela says right away, and I agree with the cold dip idea, they really used a lot of perfume on you." She gave a small cough, "It is pretty overpowering. How much did they throw at you?"

"I kinda lost count after about bottle number three."

Her eyes widened in horror, "Seriously!?" She shook her head, "No wonder it hurt you, I think that much would burn anyone's nose."

Her eyes suddenly narrowed and focused on something ahead. With his nose still out of commission, Raphael had to look to identify it as Ferdinand.

"Raphael, why don't you go on ahead and carry out Manuela's instructions." Dorothea's eyes were fixed on Ferdinand, "There's some people I need to talk to."

She walked on ahead, directly towards the oblivious boy, and Raphael decided that if Manuela's 'word' was scary, then Dorothea's 'talk' was going to be far worse. He swiftly beat a retreat for the stairs, wincing as he heard the girl begin her 'talk'.

"Ferdinand!"

Manuela's remedy and advice worked like a charm.

Not wanting to bother getting water for a third bath that day, he transformed in his room and ran down to the fishing pond instead, happily throwing himself in. Naturally, everyone present looked horrified at this, but considering how painful being 'proper' had been earlier, he didn't care. He even got himself some fish into the bargain and may or may not have 'accidently' shaken the water off himself onto the shocked Lorenz, soaking him in the process.

He deserved it for ruining his nose.

What made the whole thing even funnier, was that his knight-shaped shadows seemed completely taken aback and unable to stop him. Once he'd transformed and started running, they'd hilariously tried to keep up in their armour (failing miserably of course) and once they'd caught up, puffing and wheezing all the while, they'd not known what to make of the young werewolf cavorting about in the fishing pond. Once he exited, he then ran back to his room, forcing them to sprint after him once more, leading to them to nearly collapsing outside his door in exhaustion.

This had possibilities.

By the time the next morning rolled around, Raphael felt a lot better.

His sense of smell was now back to normal, and the previous evening, he'd received a sheepish apology from the four who'd ruined it in the first place. He was certain that Dorothea had been the main force behind said apology, but it was something at least, and hopefully they understood that his sense of smell wasn't something to be ignored. Seteth had spoken to him about his plunge in the pond, but it was no more than a firm reminder that it wasn't for swimming in, and that there was a perfectly good river in the nearby woods if he wanted to do such a thing again. Much of dinner was taken up by the students discussing the sudden loss of a new professor, who'd run away when bandits attacked the house leaders and knights. Everyone was theorising on who the replacement would be, but Raphael noticed that Claude seemed to be in the know, if his smirk was anything to go by.

A young, relatively unknown mercenary was not who people had expected to be chosen, but it seemed that Professor Byleth was now the main Professor of the Golden Deer. When she walked into the classroom, completely unfazed by the gasps of shock and wide-eyed stares, Raphael instantly noticed her scent.

It was very…odd.

It seemed human, but there was something about it that wasn't human, and it smelt like there were…well…two scents? He'd never encountered a scent like it before, and that, combined with her scarily neutral expression, made her rather unnerving. It became less so when she agreed that they could treat her like a friend, not just their professor, and he had to admit that he liked the fact she was the first person to not comment on him being a werewolf immediately. However, she did give him a curious gaze when she spoke to him.

"Raphael, how old are you?"

He shrugged, "I turn eighteen next month."

She merely nodded, as if unsurprised, "I thought as much, you definitely haven't attained your full growth yet."

"Forgive me Professor." Lorenz interrupted, confusion evident on his face, "What do you mean, he hasn't attained his 'full growth' yet?"

Byleth looked to Raphael and gave a small nod, clearly leaving the explanation to him, and he tried to answer.

"Well, werewolves have longer natural lives than humans, and we grow slower too. In our terms, I'm just heading into adolescence, so I'm not close to my full size yet."

Hilda looked shocked, "Wait, are you saying you're going to get even bigger!? But you're one of the biggest in the Academy already!"

"Werewolves are well-known to be much bigger than humans." Byleth stated bluntly, "I thought that was common knowledge." She looked back to Raphael, "Why would your pack send you here if you're so young? You're still considered a cub."

Raphael sighed, and shifted slightly, "I didn't actually get a choice. I think the Alliance requested it."

At his words, he noticed a slight shift in scents in the room, particularly with regards to Claude and Lorenz. For her part, Byleth glanced over the other two boys before responding, "I see." She then addressed the rest of the class.

"The Academy wishes to hold a mock battle on the thirtieth of this month, it is to gauge all of you, as well as me. I will use it to ascertain what routes you will take in your training over the year. For now, I wish to know what training you've already had, and we shall see how that shall be used in the mock battle."

"Professor, how do you know so much about werewolf culture?"

Raphael had to admit his curiosity, while he'd been shocked at how little his classmates knew about his people, Byleth seemed to know more than he'd have expected. Over their first lesson, she'd already known a lot about his transformation and aspects of his pack, including her awareness that he'd never been anywhere near real combat yet.

Her answer was simple, "My father's company had a werewolf member for a while."

"Oh, who was he?" There were so few of them, Raphael was sure he'd know who the werewolf was.

"Asger."

The cub grinned at her answer, "Oh, I know him! He came back to the pack a couple of years ago, he started teaching me and some of the other cubs basic combat techniques."

She nodded, "I thought as much, the way you moved in your beast form during the class sparring session had strong similarities." She looked at him enquiringly, "There were differences though, did your fathers teach you a little as well?"

He sighed a little, still missing his fathers, "Yeah." He brightened, "Mostly it was Da who taught me, Pa's really strong but he much prefers being a nurturer. He can defend himself if needed, but Da's the one that's actually studied and trained more, he kind of had to as the Alpha."

A minute frown graced her face, "Alpha Fenrir, he's one of your fathers?"

"Yeah." Raphael frowned, "Is that something special?"

The professor merely shook her head, "No, I've just met Alpha Fenrir before, you don't really look like him."

"No, they always said that I took after Pa way more." He chuckled, "Especially in size, both body and appetite."

"I'll make note of that for if we ever have to supply an overnight class."

"There you are kid."

A gruff voice interrupted, and a stern man wandered up, addressing Byleth, "They told me that your first class was finished, I was hoping to talk to you." His eyes fell on Raphael and narrowed briefly, before widening as if in recognition, "Wait, are you Raphael, Eric's cub?"

"Uh…yeah." Raphael stared in surprise, "You know my Pa?"

The man smiled, "I do." He introduced himself properly, "My name is Jeralt, my mercenary group did some work alongside your pack many years ago. You were just born at the time and Alpha Fenrir was busy trying to get Count Gloucester to leave the edges of your forest alone. Eric asked us to help your hunters deal with a sudden surge in monsters in the area in his place." He shook his head fondly, "He was very fond of you, I've never seen anyone with his level of strength hold something so gently." His smile grew, "We were there awhile, and Eric was both great to do business with, and know on a personal level. You're practically a spitting image of him."

The young werewolf grinned at that, liking the reminder that he was like his Pa, "Thanks, hopefully I get as big as him too!"

The man raised an eyebrow, "Well, it wouldn't surprise me. You're clearly not fully grown yet, but I think you're already bigger than most werewolves your age."

He looked back to Byleth, "Anyway, there's something I want to talk to you about, if you have time."

She nodded and he smiled in response before glancing back at Raphael, "Sorry for butting in the way I did, but it was good to see you cub. Maybe I'll even see your Pa again at some point."

PS-So, throwing lots of scented oils at werewolves is a bad idea, and Byleth and Jeralt arrive. Please let me know what you thought and I'll hopefully update soon.