11/17 Red wolf moon

The wind was howling outside the walls of the monastery, but his students were completely silent, doing their certifications exams. Seteth had ordered to do most certification exams before the ending of the month, since he suspected that most students would neglect their studies in the coming month. The main hall of the monastery had turned into an examination room just for this event, the students of the three houses taking the same exam.

Taking a look to the questions of the exam he was sure that his students wouldn´t have any problems. Since he didn´t have too much to do he checked every student to make sure that they weren´t cheating.

It was interesting to see how different the students reacted to the exam in front of them. Edelgard and Dimitri were focused on the paper in front of them while Claude was yawning and lazily writing the answers of his exam. When he realized he was watching him he faintly smiled to him. Linhardt appeared to be half sleeping and Lysithea had finished writing for a while, yet she hasn´t handed over her exam yet. The ones that appeared to have more problems were Caspar and Raphael. Caspar was furiously scratching his head as if doing that could help him and Raphael was touching his stomach as if the exam had made him hungry.

"This is so boring" Sothis said inside his head.

"It´s an exam. It isn´t supposed to be funny"

"Well, it is getting chilly out there so I guess that it is better to stay here"

After a few minutes had passed the bells of the cathedral rang, marking the end of the exam.

"Time is over, come here and hand over the exams"

One by one the students approached him. The first one to hand him the exam was Edelgard, closely followed by Lysithea.

"How was it?"

"I didn´t have any problems thanks to your guiding" Edelgard smiled.

"It was easy, but that´s because I study very hard" Lysithea said. "Do you want to eat some sweets with me, Edelgard?"

"Of course Lysithea"

Seeing the two of them getting along made him smile.

"Professor, please don´t get mad at me" Caspar said as he handed his exam. "Theory exams aren´t my thing"

"You have to train for that too. Consider it another fight"

"A fight? That is something I can really understand. Thank you Professor! I will keep that in mind"

With the exams of all of his students he returned to the Professor´s room. Hanneman and Manuela were already there, doing the paperwork that Seteth had ordered them to make.

"Thank you for taking care of all of the students, Byleth" Manuela greeted him with a smile. "I hope that the students behaved properly with you during the exam"

"I didn´t have any problem. Here are the exams of the Golden Deer students and here the Blue Lions"

"Thank you Byleth. Seteth had been merciless with us, sending us this amount of paperwork" she sighed. "But I can understand him. Most students aren´t going to be focused on their studies with the White Heron Cup and the ball."

"Is it that important?"

"Of course it is, Byleth! As snow falls the students share a night together dancing and exchanging promises. Some couples will definitely form next month. I may be one of the lucky ones. You shoul…"

She was interrupted by the sound of a small laughter.

"Hanneman, do you think I´m saying something funny?" Manuela said with a cold smile.

"Nothing too strange. It´s just the same talk every single year"

"I´ve just been unlucky, but I don´t expect understanding from someone who uses such a ridicule monocle"

"Ridiculous monocle? I use it for investigation purposes, not because it looks good on me, not like others with their outfits"

"You can say whatever you want; it still looks ridiculous on you"

"Keep calm, both of you"

"Don´t worry Byleth, even if we usually argue like this it doesn´t mean that we are on bad terms" Manuela said with a smile. "As I was saying next month will be an important date for most students and some love stories may be born out of it. Aren´t you interested in experiencing something like that?"

Byleth remained silent for a moment. He knew that he had feelings for Edelgard, but he wasn´t sure what to do about them. When he talked with his father he had made the decision to do nothing, yet a part of him was in disagreement with it, but even if he wanted to do something he was clueless about it.

"How do you feel when you are in love with someone?" he asked.

The moment the question left his lips Hanneman and Manuela suddenly froze.

"Are you ill?" asked Manuela checking his temperature.

"It may be a side-effect of his crest. I´ve never heard something like that in the books I´ve consulted, but since the Crest of flames is surrounded by endless mysteries it may be one of its unknown effects" Hanneman said as he approached him.

"I´m fine, I was just curious about it"

"I´ve never expected to hear those words coming from you, Byleth. In my case I can´t stop thinking about that person and I make all kind of plans to spend time with them, although until now my plans had been a failure" she sighed. "Your heart beats faster whatever they come nearby. Some people blush and they have problem to concentrate when the person that stole their heart is around them. Are you feeling like that for someone?"

Byleth thought about Manuela´s response. Apart from the aching of his heart he didn´t have any physical symptoms that showed he was infatuated by her.

"If you want to make sure you could think about that person right now"

He closed his eyes and thought about her. Evoking her face he felt a slight aching in his heart, but he didn´t feel an increased heartbeat.

"I don´t feel nothing that you said Manuela"

"I expected that" Hanneman laughed. "You would have really surprised me if you…"

"Keep silent Hanneman. Even if you are already hopeless I still have hope that our handsome Byleth can be in love with someone. Let´s try a different approach, how can you describe the feelings you have for that person?"

"I guess that I don´t want her to suffer and I wish she could be happy"

"That´s pretty vague Byleth" Manuela sighed. "In that case you could say that you love all the students and that it´s not wrong, but it´s not the kind of love I was referring to"

"I want them to be happy too, but it is a bit different with her. That´s the only thing I can say. I´m sorry Manuela"

"No need to be sorry about it Byleth. I didn´t expect to have such conversation with you. Could you tell me the name of the person of your affection?"

"I´m sorry, but I can´t tell you" he said, feeling a bit embarrassed.

"Too shy to answer? How cute! The fact that you can feel embarrassed about something like this gives me hope. I will keep it a secret between us. Hanneman, be silent about it too"

"Of course I will. I wouldn´t want to make Byleth feel uncomfortable. Besides, I have the feeling that this could be related to your legendary crest. How interesting" he said looking at him with a renewed interest.

"I would like to continue the chattering, but we don´t know when Seteth is going to appear so we should continue working"

"You are right"

Seteth appeared after half an hour accompanied by Flayn. His usual serious gaze was usually more relaxed when he was accompanied by her.

"I see that everyone is doing their job. Keep it going. With the coming of next month I wanted to be prepared in advance to avoid experiencing the problems we had to face years ago"

"Since I´m a student now, will you let me dance, dear brother?" Flayn asked with a charming smile.

"I thought you were happy dancing just with me the previous years"

"But this year is so different. Besides, since I´m a student I don´t find it that strange, dear brother. Don´t you think the same Professor?" she said looking at him.

Seteth was also looking at him, although his expression was the opposite of Flayn´s.

"I will make sure she is safe, but I think she could give it a try it too"

"Be true to your word Professor. Return to your job. I won´t be disturbing any of you any longer. Come with me Flayn"

They remained silent until they couldn´t hear Seteth´s footsteps anymore.

"Seteth is really protective about her sister. Apart from the color of the hair they are completely different."

"Both of you are completely different too"

"I guess that you are right Byleth. Forgive me Manuela, sometimes I´m too harsh on you"

"Don´t worry Hanneman I was just in a bad mood. We should finish this before the day ends. I don´t want to disappoint our dear Seteth"

….

The sun was starting to set as Byleth left the Professor´s room behind him. Since Hanneman and Manuela were still busy with the paperwork from Seteth he had offered to correct the exams of their students but he was already regretting that decision looking at the amount of exams he had to correct.

"I guess I will have to sacrifice some time of sleep" he thought as he walked through the courtyard, heading to his room.

"What are you doing my Teacher?" asked a voice he had grown fond of. When he looked behind him, he saw Edelgard, wearing her usual uniform and a book in one hand.

"Good evening Edelgard. Since Manuela and Hanneman are both busy I offered myself to help them correcting the exams of their houses. I was heading to my room to correct them, and you?"

"I´ve just finished dinner. If you want to I could accompany you since I have nothing more to do."

"I don´t mind, but I don´t think it´s going to be very interesting"

"Don´t worry, I can use this book to keep myself entertained" she said with a gentle smile.

With no reason to oppose her they headed together to his room. Opening the door he let her enter first.

"Your room is really tidy. You really take care of your surroundings. I´ve had that feeling since I saw your tent in Gronder"

"If I don´t keep things tidy it is difficult to find things when I need them. Your room appeared to be tidy too. I´m sorry I don´t have a free chair for you. Feel free to sit on my bed"

"Oh, thank you. I hope I don´t disturb you" Edelgard said, a bit blushed.

Sitting on his chair Byleth started to correct the exams of the students from the different houses while Edelgard read in silence behind him. He started correcting the exams from the Golden Deer students. He was impressed by the depth of analysis of Lysithea´s answers. "She has done a great job" he thought. Claude´s exam was also perfect, although his justifications were more innovative. "He thinks like a real strategist". The student that made him sigh was Raphael.

"Question 9: You are the commander. You have to face your enemies, which have the control of a hill. You have forests to your right and a river to your left and in front of you a bridge, but it is exposed to the attacks from the hill. What do you do to achieve victory?

Answer: Use my muscles"

"Technically he isn´t wrong, since you have to fight to win, right?" said Sothis inside his head.

"In a broad sense yes, but I think I shouldn´t consider this as a correct answer"

"You gave half a point to that blue haired student of your House when he answered "the Professor will think about something" though. Isn´t that favoritism?"

"You are right about that" he thought. In the end he decided to let them pass, but he planned to have a serious conversation with both of them. They had proofed him that they were capable fighters, but there was no use about it if they didn´t have a minimum of strategy preparation since most of them would have to handle positions of responsibility. It took him a couple of hours to correct all the exams. When he finished everything he felt his eyes were exhausted.

"I´m sorry Edelgard. I hope it wasn´t too boring for you" he said as he looked behind him. Edelgard was sleeping, her hair hiding her face.

"She must be really tired if she is sleeping like this. It must be because of Monica" he thought. Even though more than a month had already passed since Monica joined them she was glued to her almost every day, although sometimes he could see her accompanied by Hubert.

Looking at her he wondered what he should do with her. He could hear the wind furiously blowing outside and he thought it was unadvisable to carry her outside. He didn´t want to disturb her sleep either.

Gently taking hold of her body he prepared his bed for her. Placing her body in her bed, he carefully put the bed sheets on her.

"Where are you going to sleep?"

"On the floor"

"Why? You shared your own cloak back in that cave."

"That was different. We were on an expedition towards Conand´s Tower and there was a raging storm outside the cave. I feel it would be inappropriate doing something like that now." He said as he imagined Seteth´s reaction.

"Ok, but if you don´t rest enough because of this don´t complain. I will go to sleep too. Good night Byleth"

"Good night Sothis, rest well" he said as he lay down on the floor. It didn´t take too much time until he fell asleep.

…

"Please stop! Let them live!"

He opened his eyes to the sound of Edelgard´s scream. Everything was completely dark yet. "She is having those nightmares again" he thought, as he approached her.

Edelgard was mumbling things in dreams. Looking at her face he knew she was suffering the same nightmares that had tormented her for most of her life. Taking off one of her gloves he started caressing the area, trying to comfort her the best he could. After a short while the mumbling stopped and the suffering on her face started to disappear until she started to breath normally. He remained for a while holding her hand until he made sure she didn´t have any more nightmares.

"Even when she sleeps she can´t rest" he thought, feeling sadness about it. "I can´t do nothing about your past, but I promise that I will do my best to protect you from now on. I won´t let you suffer anymore" he silently promised as he saw her sleeping face. Lying on the ground again he tried to sleep again, although it took more time than expected since he was thinking about her.

….

11/18

It was still dark when she opened her eyes. "I´ve had that dream again, although it felt different from other occasions. I wonder why" she thought as she searched for her armored bear stuffy, but she didn´t find it. "It may have fallen next to the bed" she thought as she leaned over the bed to pick it up, but what she touched was completely different. It was strangely silky and warm. When she approached her face to the left side of the bed she suddenly froze as she saw him.

"M-My Teacher. Am I still dreaming?" she thought until she recalled the events of last night. "I fell asleep reading that book". She had been especially busy last days due to Monica, but she never expected that she could have fallen asleep so easily.

"He had been sleeping on the floor for me" she thought as she saw him sleeping. If when she opened her eyes she had seen him next to her… The mere thought made her heart beat faster than ever before. Embarrassed by the thoughts she was having she burrowed her face into the pillow. "It smells like him" she thought. No matter what she did her inner feelings were menacing to overwhelm her. She tried to close her eyes and think nothing, but every time she tried his face keep appearing inside her mind. "I understand now why Dorothea saw through me. Regarding him I´ve turned into a person easy to read". A part of her was urging her to leave the place, but another wanted to stay a bit longer. "Only for this time" she thought as she decided to stay there for the remaining time.

….

Byleth opened his eyes the moment the first rays of sun pierced through the darkness of the room. Slowly getting up he looked to the bed to his side. Edelgard was completely covered by his bed sheets, her hair the only thing he could see.

"She may be sleeping yet" he thought. "I hope she can rest without nightmares for a while" he said to himself as he cherished the bed sheets that covered her. The moment he did it she suddenly moved and looked at him, her face extremely red.

"Good morning Edelgard" he said with a faint smile. "I hope that my bed was comfortable enough to you"

"It was" she said avoiding his eyes. "I´m sorry to abuse your confidence like that"

"I have no problem. I know that you have been pushing yourself too hard. You should have chosen to rest since our arrival from the last expeditions, but I suppose that Monica´s attention can be quite demanding. If you don´t mind I will take care of her for the rest of the month"

"Don´t worry, my Teacher. I´m sure you have your own responsibilities. It´s my wish to not disturb you with unnecessary problems"

"If you say so. Do you want to come with me to have some breakfast?"

"If my presence doesn´t disturb you I will gladly accompany you" she said toying with her hair.

Byleth opened the door as Edelgard started putting her boots. The moment he opened the door he saw Hubert standing a few meters away from it.

"Good morning Professor, have you seen Lady Edelgard?"

Byleth looked behind him, by the look in Edelgard´s eyes he knew she didn´t want him to tell the truth.

"No. I´ve just woken up. I was about to go to the canteen" he said as he closed the door behind him, approaching him.

"The fact that you haven´t seen her is relieving at least"

"What do you mean?"

"You are a difficult person to read Professor. As you know my duty is to protect Lady Edelgard at all costs and that also means protecting her from interactions that could be considered problematic. Lady Edelgard has certainly taken interest in a difficult one this time"

"Why do you distrust me Hubert?"

"The answer requires me to explain you the complex internal politics of the Empire. Are you familiar with Volkhard von Arundel? He is Lady Edelgard´s uncle, current Empire´s regent. He took Lady Edelgard into exile to the Kingdom of Faerghus when the nobles started organizing against the Emperor Ionius IX, Lady Edelgard´s father. However, after a time he returned and seized power from him, rendering him completely impotent. Words cannot possibly explain the depth of her sadness at his betrayal." He said as he looked at him into the eyes. "You remember me of Lord Arundel. When I look at you I have the feeling that there is something completely different inside you. Something with desires very different from your own."

"This boy is sharp" commented Sothis inside his head. "I´m impressed seeing someone with such deductive powers.

"You are wrong, Hubert. I don´t plan to betray her. I wish her no harm"

"Words have no value in the world we live in, only the things we do matter. I will continue my search for Lady Edelgard and I will keep an eye on you" he said as he left him behind.

"She was betrayed even by his own uncle" he thought, saddened by the mere thought of it as he opened the door of his room again. Looking at her, he knew she had overheard their conversation.

"I apologize for Hubert´s behavior. He is right about the betrayals that I had to endure, but that doesn´t mean it is right to compare him to you"

"Don´t worry Edelgard. I´m not offended by his words. I know he worries about you greatly. Let´s go and have breakfast; you can talk with him later"

As they ate their breakfast Byleth kept thinking about Hubert´s words. "She has suffered enough, I hope she doesn´t have to suffer anymore"

…..

11/19

Edelgard opened her eyes as the first rays of the sun appeared.

"Today is the day" she thought "I hope he likes it" she said to herself as she took a pendant with an eagle in the center of it and carefully put it in her pocket. As she opened the door she saw a small paper, picking it she realized it was a letter.

"Lady Edelgard, I wish to speak with you about an important matter. Can you please go to the abandoned class close to the stables?"

"An important matter? I guess he wants to tell me something about the imperial succession"

After what had happened yesterday she didn´t want to make him wait so she decided she would first talk with him. As she left, she didn´t realize that a girl wearing a particular hat was smiling as she headed to the aforementioned classroom.

…

"My Teacher, I wish to speak you alone. Could you please meet with me in the abandoned classroom next to the stables?" he read as he picked a note that was left in front of his door.

"I guess she wants to talk about yesterday" he thought. After talking with Hubert they have remained mostly silent, but he didn´t want to pressure her to tell him the matters that were worrying her. Without hesitation he headed to the stables.

…

She opened the door. The place was strangely dark.

"Where are you?" she asked

"I´m here" said a voice behind her.

She was surprised by his proximity, but she was even more surprised to see her Professor there.

"My Teacher, what are you doing here?"

"You said you wanted to talk with me about something" he said as he showed him a note.

When she read the content of the note she realized that she had been tricked by a particular someone.

"My Teacher, I´m afraid this is a misunderstanding we should…" she couldn´t end what she was saying as the door closed behind them.

"Edie, take care of the Professor for a few hours. I still need to make some things for today!"

"Dorothea! What is the meaning of this?!" she said as she tried to open the door, but it was tightly closed. Feeling an electrifying sensation crossing her body she realized that she had enchanted the door.

"Don´t you want to spend time with me Edelgard?"

"It´s not that my Teacher, it´s just…" her words were lost again when she saw him sitting behind a table with a tea set that appeared prepared for the occasion.

"I told her to do nothing" she thought as she realized that Dorothea had prepared a date with the two of them.

"Is something disturbing you Edelgard?"

"No, sorry. I was just lost in thought" she said as she sat in front of him. The darkness of the room made it look as if night was already upon them.

"This place is too dark" her Teacher said as he casted a small fire enchantment to light the couple of candles in the middle of the table, making the ambient even more intimate.

"Edelgard, you are too silent"

"S-Sorry my Teacher" she said a bit flustered.

"I want you to rest for a bit, at least for today"

"You are right" she then deeply breathed before continuing. "Happy birthday, my Teacher. I hope that this day is full of happiness."

"It already is, since I´m with you" he said as he smiled to her with the widest smile she had seen from him.

"I´ve brought this for you" she said, avoiding his gaze. "I hope that it´s of your liking" she said as she handed him the pendant she had been hiding until now.

"Edelgard, thank you" he said, gently rubbing her hair. "I will treasure this present for the rest of my life. Could you put it on me?"

Her heart jumped of happiness the moment she heard his words. Approaching him from behind, she carefully placed the pendant around his neck, their faces almost touching.

"Does it look good on me?"

"Too close!" she thought as she realized the close they were, his breath mixing with hers, yet she couldn´t move, as if she was enchanted by his eyes, her lips unwittingly slightly open.

"It looks good on you" she finally said, her voice a mere whisper.

"I´m glad to hear that. You are the first one to congratulate me for my birthday today. I´m happy you were the one to do it" he said, lightly embracing her, the moment he did she could feel how the beatings of her heart grew faster.

"Why?" the sound of her heartbeats inside her head.

"Because you are special to me" he said with a fond smile.

The moment she heard his honest words a storm of emotions exploded inside her.

"You are special to me too, Byleth."

"I like it when you say my name. We should drink the tea before it gets too cold"

"You are right"

As she sipped her cup of tea she realized Dorothea had chosen her favorite one; Bergamot tea.

"I guess that I should thank her, after all" she thought as she talked with him. "I will treasure this moment for the rest of my life"

They spent their time chatting, a time that was just for the two of them.

…

"Sorry for making you wait Professor!" Dorothea apologized opening the door. "I was busy preparing something for you. Happy birthday!"

"No problem Dorothea. I was good accompanied" he said looking at Edelgard, who blushed a bit the moment she heard his words.

"Please accompany me to the canteen. I assure you, you will never forget this day"

They followed her to the canteen, the moment she opened the doors he could heard the voices of all his students.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY BYLETH!"

The students of the three houses had gathered just for him. He could also see members of the Church like Shamir, Catherine and Alois. His father was sitting among his students with a broad smile on his face.

"Happy birthday son. I didn´t expect you to have such an amount of admirers" he laughed.

"Thank you everyone. Sincerely" he said, as happiness took hold of his body.

"What are we waiting for? Let´s celebrate!" shouted Caspar.

Sitting among his students he talked with all of them.

"Teach you are really smiling today" Claude said patting his back. "Seeing you like this makes me happy too"

"I wish you a day full of happiness. Seeing everyone together speaks volumes of the respect we have for you Professor" Dimitri said with a broad smile.

"Just respect? He is already our friend, right Teach?"

"Of course"

"I consider you a friend too Professor. I will never forget the many times you have aided us"

Their conversation was interrupted when Seteth entered the canteen accompanied by Flayn.

"Professor, my dear sister has asked me to do this for you" he said an unusual embarrassed Seteth handing him a handmade cake. "I hope it is of your liking"

"I told you Professor that you should taste my brother´s cuisine and I can´t find a better day than today"

"Thank you Seteth. I really appreciate it. Thank you Flayn"

"Professor, Seteth isn´t the only one that has prepared something for you" Annette said approaching him accompanied by Mercedes. "I told you that we will be preparing something for you"

"I made something too" Lysithea said as he handed him some handmade sweets.

"Thank you everyone, I really appreciate it. I will treasure this memory for the rest of my life"

"Byleth!" shouted Alois as he rushed to embrace him.

"You are growing sentimental son" Jeralt said rubbing his hair. "I´m sure she would be happy to see that side of you"

Seeing the smiling faces of his students, he couldn´t avoid feeling at ease. "I will protect all of them, not only because they are my students, but because they are my friends" he thought. The time he had spent with them would never abandon him for the rest of his life.

….

"Thank you Dorothea for planning this"

"Don´t worry Professor. I wanted to thank you for everything you have done to us until now. I´m sure that everyone had a good time. Specially a particular someone" she said as she looked at someone behind him.

It was already dark and most of the students had already returned, except the Black Eagles, although Monica was nowhere to be seen.

"It was a splendid plan Dorothea." Ferdinand said.

"No need to compliment me Ferdie, I did it for our dear Professor"

"My stomach is full. I need to punch someone to spend my energy"

"You are always looking for a fight Caspar" Linhardt yawned. "Since we had a big celebration we should rest tomorrow."

"You are free to rest, Linhardt"

"Really? You should have your birthdays more often"

"I didn´t feel stressed at all. It must be because it was your birthday. Thank you Professor"

"Oh Bernie, I´m glad that you felt like that" Dorothea said with a smile that made Bernadetta blush.

"In Brigid we believe that with each year you grow wiser. I hope you live long enough to turn into a sage"

"It surely was an eventful day" Hubert commented looking at him.

"I appreciate you were here too, Hubert"

"Tsk"

"Well I guess that with these the celebrations had ended"

"No Edie, we have to sing a final Happy birthday to our dear Professor"

"I guess it cannot be helped" Edelgard said a bit embarrassed.

Their voices weren´t coordinated at all, but he didn´t mind. Having them as students was an honor he didn´t regret to have.

…..

"The day has finally ended" he thought as he entered his bed. "Happy birthday Sothis"

"You did remember. I appreciate it. It seems that you had a good day"

"It certainly was. I will never forget this day"

"I´m happy to hear that, but now is time to rest." She said with a smile from her stone throne.

"Good night Sothis"

"Good night Byleth"

As he closed his eyes he recalled the events of that day. The smiles of everyone, the songs and conversations they had and the time he had spent with her. With these pleasant memories he entered the realm of dreams.

I know that the birthday is in another date, but since at the beginning of the game you can freely choose it and I wanted their bonds to be deeper I decided to make it happen later.