Disclaimer: I don't own Fire Emblem Three Houses, all rights to the owners.

Now featuring Monica. Yes, I know she technically has a C in bows. Shush. My story. Here we go.

"Monica."

"Professor, hello!" The girl smiles. "To what do I owe the pleasure? Or maybe you were just trying to scare me? I've heard you tend to do that. I'll have you know I'm a bit of a sneak myself. I was going through training to be an assassin before I got taken."

"I need to talk with you."

"Is it going to take long? I need to meet Edel soon."

"This is more important." Byleth responds flatly. "Your grades suck. So does your archery."

Monica huffs. "Hey! I just got back from being kidnapped, cut me some slack."

"Perhaps you'd like to go home for the rest of the year then." The teacher suggests calmly. "If you can't adequately focus on your work, some time off might help."

"Uhh… no, no!" The redhead laughs nervously. "I don't need that!"

"Then you need to start putting in an effort to keep up." Byleth says bluntly. "I can give you some extra help myself, but I am busy. I'll help you with tactics, but you'll need to improve your math, science, and so on your own time. I can help you find tutors for those things, but that is all."

"Fiiine." Monica huffs, hiding her annoyance. "Can we discuss the details later though? I really need to get going."

The professor stares intensely at the girl. For a moment, Monica thinks she's actually going to answer no, but instead the professor nods silently and walks off. Monica lets out a breath, scowls for a moment, then turns around to go find Edelgard.

###

"Ignatz."

"Wuah!" The boy yelps. He fumbles his paintbrush for a moment, but manages to grab it before it hits the ground. "P-Professor, what is it?"

"How often do you have free time?"

"P-Pardon?"

"How often are you free?"

"I- um- often enough? Why?"

"I need you to tutor someone." Byleth responds calmly. "If you have time."

"O-Okay?" Ignatz replies hesitantly. "Who? And in what?"

"Monica. In archery."

That's not quite who Ignatz was expecting. "Monica… she's the one who was rescued alongside Flayn, correct?"

"Yes. She's training to be an assassin, but she's bad at archery." Byleth responds bluntly. "You're an archer. You can teach her to shoot."

"I-I suppose so, yes." Ignatz says nervously. "I've never taught anyone before though…"

"Simply parrot what I have told you in the past." Byleth instructs. "You need not be a perfect instructor. Much of her learning will happen on her own, and if she is stuck on something then she can come to myself, or perhaps Hanneman. You need only lay the groundwork. Perhaps you can even work together, should you both be at a loss for something."

"A-Alright…" Ignatz agrees reluctantly. He's never talked to Monica before! He can't deny this situation makes him somewhat nervous.

"Good. I will inform Monica of the arrangement." The teacher nods. She turns to leave. "Expect her to contact you soon."

"O-Okay."

###

"Should I feel bad for him…?" Dimitri asks slowly.

"No, I think he's enjoying himself." Ingrid replies with a sigh.

"Ow, ow, ow!" Sylvain whines. He tries, and fails, to pull his head out of the leglock Byleth has him in. There's some debate if this hand-to-hand training lesson has any practical use, or if Byleth is just messing with Sylvain.

Really, both are valid reasons as far as Dimitri is concerned, though as house leader he should probably put a stop to this… but he won't. Because Sylvain totally deserves this.

"Ack, I give!" Sylvain coughs, and slaps her leg. "I give, I give!"

Byleth stares for a moment, then releases him. She sits cross-legged as Sylvain coughs and massages his neck.

"Geeze Professor…" He says after he's caught his breath. "You're not supposed to kill your students."

"You're alive, aren't you?" Byleth responds.

"Yes, thankfully." He grumbles. "Geeze Professor, you play hard. All I did was say that girl had nice legs… to her face. Okay, so maybe I was a little too upfront, but this is overkill."

"I have no idea what you're talking about. I simply realized, as a front line fighter, you should have some level of skill in hand-to-hand in case you are fully disarmed." Byleth says with her usual fixed smile. "Now, if you have recovered, let's go again."

"Oh Goddess no…" Sylvain groans.

Ingrid smirks from the sidelines, and Felix just sighs. Dimitri doesn't know what to do, so he just stays quiet and watches in morbid fascination.

###

Byleth already had trouble flirting with people. She accidentally terrifies most people she tries to flirt with, and that's just by virtue of a really creepy smile and overly-aggressive tendencies.

It's only gotten worse now that whispers of her interactions with Ferdinand and Sylvain, as well as her usual warning about using seduction as a weapon, have gotten out. Now most of the targets of her affection aren't wary just because of her smile, half of them suspect they're being manipulated, or that she's planning to kill them.

It's horribly unfortunate… but Claude can honestly say he's never seen anything more hilarious in his life than his teacher just saying "hello" with her creepy genuine smile and the priest she was addressing running away in a dead sprint without even responding.

Don't get him wrong, Claude feels bad for Teach… but it's just so fucking funny. He'll clear up the misunderstanding at some point if someone else doesn't, but for now it's better entertainment than any theater.

Her expressions might not say much, but Teach's body language says that she's disheartened. Claude decides he should at least comfort her if he's not solving the problem. He steps out from the corner he was watching behind and walks up to her. "Hey Teach… no luck?"

"No." The woman replies dully. "He ran, before I could say more than one word."

"Ah, that sucks."

"Is that… normal?"

"Not really." Claude shrugs.

"Then why do they run?"

"Dunno." Claude lies. "I mean, aside from the fact you're sorta scary, I dunno."

Byleth tilts her head. "But I don't try to be scary… not to them at least."

"So you try to be scary to some people?"

"Yes. To students." She replies bluntly. "I need to maintain a certain air of power to keep their respect. If I am soft, they will not listen."

"That explains so much." Claude chuckles. "I mean, you're mostly wrong, but it explains a lot."

"I am not wrong." Byleth refutes. "You do not pay nearly as much attention to Hanneman and Manuela as you do myself, or Rhea. It is only those with an air of power that you focus on."

"I mean…" Well, she's not wrong. Also, he needs to start being more subtle apparently. "Fair enough, but you don't need to scare everyone to achieve that."

"But that is the only way I can achieve it." Byleth responds flatly. "I am not eloquent, nor am I a grand ruler, nor do I have many connections… well, not an exorbitant amount, so intimidation is my best choice."

Claude shakes his head. "If you say so Teach. Erm, incidentally, do you talk to Manuela?"

"Pardon?"

"Manuela. She also has… romantic difficulties. If you need someone to empathize with you, she's a good bet."

Yes, Claude is aware he basically just called Manela hopeless in love but… well it's true. Besides, Byleth probably needs someone she can chat with about such things, because she seems hopeless as well (albeit for an entirely different reason).

"No, I have not." Byleth responds. She's quiet for a second, then adds. "I don't know if I should thank you, or punch you for insinuating I'm hopeless."

Claude chuckles. "I'll take a thank you."

"I'm sure you will." Byleth says flatly. She turns around and walks off.

"Rude!" Claude calls after her, smirking.

"I know you are." She snarks in return. "Thanks… I guess."

Claude chuckles as he watches her leave. Teach is so much fun.

###

Edelgard blinks slowly. She's never seen the professor's personal training… and it's quite something to behold. She's seen the training the professor gives to Petra before, which involves a lot of jumping from rooftops and learning to scale walls. The professor's self-training is something else though.

Leaping across rooftops is the bare minimum for her. She practices various landings, usually various types of roles, and various ways of jumping across gaps involving no shortage of flips, midair twists and midair dagger throws, long jumps, high jumps, the occasional jump into wall scaling if the building she's going for is higher than the one she's jumping from, and so on.

Her parkour practice is similarly intense. That involves wall scaling of course, but also minor optimizations to movement like small leaps over obstacles rather than moving to the side, or somersaulting under obstacles rather than ducking to maintain momentum. She also does various attacks at the air while keeping up her movement. Sword slashes, dagger trusts, flying kicks, and what looks like a number of ariel body slams and takedowns that looks strange only because she isn't actually hitting anything.

She never seems to stop moving, not even when transitioning from one type of practice to another. Nothing is off-limits either. She clambers on the cathedral, the school buildings, and the surrounding mountain with impunity, performing several maneuvers that Edelgard worries would get anyone else killed.

While she doubts most of the professor's techniques could be used in warfare, considering most of them would be impractical against foes with any sort of metal armor or when multiple foes are present, against anyone else she has hundreds of ways of subduing or killing them, and all at extremely high speed in either hit-and-run or run-by attacks. Combine that with an ability to climb nearly anything, and her seduction and stealth skills, and you have a terrifying assassin.

More worrisome still is when the professor leaps over Edelgard as she's walking around and simply calls down "Hi Edelgard" without looking away from her training.

The professor must have known she was watching. That's incredible... and worrying.

She needs to make sure she and the professor never end up on opposite sides, through getting the professor on her side, or just eliminating her.

###

"There's your target." Byleth whispers, pointing at the figure nervously walking the streets below. "Don't be detected. If she hears you, you lose, if she sees you, you lose. You need to put a hand on her shoulder without her seeing you first to succeed."

"Understood Professor." Petra nods. "If this intended to be a simple test?"

"Far from it." Byleth murmurs. "Bernadetta is far more alert than your average student. While she seldom pinpoints me before I can get close, she frequently notices me despite my best efforts. She's sharp. I'm not expecting you to succeed, I simply want to see how close you can get."

"Sharp? Are you speaking of her nails on the fingers?"

"No, sharp as in… aware. Alert. Quick of eye and acute of hearing."

"I understand. Thank you Professor." Petra nods again. "I shall begin."

"Good luck."

Petra leaps from the roof they're standing on over to the next, getting as close to directly behind Bernadetta as she can. She surveys the area, noting the lack of direct cover behind the smaller girl, but also the number of alleyways she could duck into.

No, no, that won't work. The Professor said she has good ears. A better idea would be to find out where she's going to go, and wait there. A trap.

So, rather than directly go after Bernadetta, Petra watches her. The girl is heading away from her room, which is unusual. There aren't any classes soon, and dinner isn't for another two hours. She's heading down past the mess hall…

Aha! The greenhouse! Bernadetta is having fondness for meat-eating plants!

Petra takes off as quickly as she can. She drops into the alleyway that runs behind the dormitories and sprints towards the greenhouse, knowing that she'll easily outpace the other girl. She comes in through the back entrance, notes that there's no gardener inside which is convenient, and sequesters herself behind some of the taller plants at the back.

The front door creaks open, and there's soft footsteps as Bernadetta moves inside. Petra tenses, preparing to move as soon as she sees an opportunity.

She doesn't get the chance though. Bernadetta spies a small bit of Petra's hair though the foliage and stammers out "wh-who's there?" which means Petra has failed her mission.

"Hmm… not bad." Byleth murmurs, causing both girls to turn in surprise. The teacher is leaning against the doorway, having gotten in behind Bernadetta when she opened the door. Bernadetta yelps and backpedals, then yelps again when Petra steps out from behind the plants. "You got closer than I expected."

"Thank you Professor." Petra says, and gives her a small bow. "However, I shall try to do better next time."

"Wh-Wh-What's going on?!" Bernadetta shrieks.

"Practice." Byleth says calmly. "Incidentally, well done Bernadetta. Your eyes are as sharp as always. Petra, let us move elsewhere to discuss."

"Yes Professor."

"Well done? Sharp eyes? What are you talking about!?" Bernadetta whines as the two other women leave the room. "I'm being tested? Oh goddess, I wasn't told! What do I do!? Oh no, oh no…"

Yeah, sure, this works. More of the same for the most part.