Chapter Seven

The midday bell struck, interrupting Byleth mid speech. She looked away from the blackboard, chalk still in hand, taking in the fact that time had passed very quickly.

"I suppose we'll have to stop there," she quickly finished her sentence on the board before tossing the chalk onto her desk exasperatedly. "That about wraps up everything. Feel free to study ahead if you want, though I don't want any of you applying any magical theories without a professor nearby."

Byleth looked directly at Lysithea who purposely did not return the gaze. The girl pouted but otherwise didn't object to the fallout. Byleth turned back to the rest of the class. "As for homework–"

Hilda groaned loudly, interrupting the swordswoman. The pink-haired girl buried her face into her arms. "Please no. Please have mercy on us oh kind and merciful professor."

"Hilda! You can't just beg the professor for favours," Lorenz exclaimed in horror at the pink-haired girl. "Ignore her ramblings professor. How the Goneril house produced someone like her is beyond me."

Claude just snickered, leaning back in his seat with his arms behind his head.

Hilda looked offended, fake tears in the corner of her eye. "How uncouth, Lorenz! How awful, to attack my poor maidenly heart," Hilda sniffed, flicking away a few crocodile tears in her eyes as she turned away.

"W-What? I wasn't attacking you, dear Hilda. You're a noble! You have a responsibility to represent your house as long as you hold your name!"

Hilda exaggerating swooned, hand over her chest as if she had been pierced by an arrow. "Argh, my fair heart cannot take it any longer."

This earned a few snickers around the classroom. Even Marianne couldn't help the small but brief smile on her face. Byleth shook her head at the girl's antics.

"Hilda, stop teasing Lorenz."

"Can't do that professor," the bubbly girl stated proudly, sitting up straight. "It's a job I take with utmost seriousness."

"Then do so where I can't see it," Byleth began to pack her things. "Seeing how this is only the first week, I'm sure we can skip–"

Raphael, Hilda, and Claude all cheered and hollered loudly.

Byleth shook her head exasperatedly. "However, I ask that you at least think about what you want to achieve during your time studying at Garreg Mach. I'll see you all after the lunch break at…"

Byleth peered at her timetable sheet. "Training ground C. You're all dismissed."

The newly made professor watched as her students slowly trickled out one by one. She moved to pack her things but noticed Claude still in his seat. He was still watching her with a teasing smile on his face.

"Something you want to talk about Claude?" she frowned, crossing her arms.

"Nah. Just curious is all," he laughed, shaking his head. "Sooo… it's been a week… how do you think you're doing so far? Any tiny regrets picking the Golden Deers?"

Byleth looked at the tanned boy curiously. She sifted through her papers, forming them into a neat pile. "The classroom is still intact, and my students haven't set fire to anything yet. All in all, a good start."

"Should I be worried that you assumed your students would set our classroom on fire?"

"I'm speaking from personal experience," the corner of Byleth's mouth raised slightly, a nostalgic look in her eye. She shook her head, eyes gazing into the Alliance heir. "You should run along. If you show up late again because the lunch queue was too long…"

"Alright alright," Claude raised his hands in surrender. He made his way to the doors, turning once more to give a cheeky grin. "I'll be on time. I promise Teach."

Byleth smirked, shaking her head. "Don't make promises you can't keep Claude."

The mess hall was filled with the sounds of students chatting and laughing loudly. Morgan trotted alongside her mother, grinning from ear to ear and with wide swinging arms. A few students waved at the young girl, to which she returned much to their amusement.

Byleth directed them towards the farthest tables where Hannerman and Manuela were eating lunch. The air around the two professors was standoffish, a tension that caused a few students to immediately turn away from them.

"You're an open book Hannerman," the former songstress teased, dipping some garlic bread into her sweet corn soup. "Might want to switch your strategies around this year, no?"

"I recall winning the previous class battle Manuela," Hannerman replied bluntly, before moving back to his salad.

"Hmmph. You and I both know it was a stroke of luck that…" Her words trailed off as she looked up to see Byleth making her way to their table. Manuela smiled, waving a warm greeting. "Byleth dear! You're looking as radiant as ever! Come, sit down!"

Byleth nodded, sliding into the seat across from Manuela, and placing down her tray of food. "Manuela. Hannerman."

"Professor Eisner," Hannerman greeted respectfully.

"And who's this little cute?" Manuela cooed as Byleth lifted her daughter into her lap.

"I'm Morgan," the girl chirped.

"It's a pleasure to finally meet you, Morgan! I'm Manuela. I work with your mother. And that boring old geezer over there is Hannerman."

"I am capable of introducing myself thank you very much, Manuela," Hannerman glared at the woman. "Nor is it appropriate to teach such disrespect to a child... Much less to a child of your colleague."

He cleared his throat, before facing the younger Eisner. "Professor Hannerman. A pleasure to meet your acquaintance young Morgan. Your mother tells me you are quite the magical prodigy."

"She takes after her father in that aspect," Byleth stated as she started cutting the meat on her tray into smaller chunks. "It's getting her to put away her tome that is the tricky part."

Morgan beamed. "Yup. Still got a long way to go until I reach Dad's level."

"Hoho," Hannerman smiled warmly. "And humble too. I can already see you going far, my dear girl."

This statement made Manuela roll her eyes. "Oh come of it you old coot. She's a young girl, not one of your research projects."

"Good heavens woman. I'm not dissecting the girl."

"It's alright," Byleth interrupted the argument before it could get out of hand. Despite only knowing her fellow professors for less than a week, she already knew how their arguments usually ended. The swordswoman started to side a smaller portion of her meal for Morgan. The younger Eisner gleefully began wolfing down her meal.

Manuela sent one last glare at Hannerman, before digging back into her meal. She could be the better person in this situation. Hannerman on the other hand scoffed, fiddling with his meal. After a brief silence, he spoke again.

"So Professor Eisner…" he began. "Do you know about Crests?"

Manuela immediately snorted in an unladylike manner, before covering her mouth as she broke into a fit of uncontrollable giggles. Both Hannerman and Byleth stared strangely at their colleague who was red in the face, trying her hardest to not burst out into a fit of laughter.

The woman snorted once more before mumbling a sarcastic "Very subtle" under her breath.

Hannerman felt his face flush, while Byleth stared back and forth between them in confusion.

"Whatever it is you're thinking, get it out of your thick skull!" Hannerman growled, red in the face.

"Hannie," Manuela giggled. "You're as subtle as a demonic beast in a cabinet."

"I most certainly am not!"

Byleth looked extremely lost and confused. "Sorry, am I missing something?"

Manuela only giggled. "Don't you worry Byleth. I'm… protecting your integrity."

Hannerman growled, completely red in the face to the point steam could start pouring out of his ears. "Don't listen to Manuela, she finds amusement in insulting my research. It is not whatever dirty-minded thoughts are processing through her mind right now. I was merely trying to find a way to ask if you had a Crest of your own. It isn't as uncommon as one might expect in this day and age. The number of bastard children sired over the years would most definitely have had a vast population growth of Minor Crests appearing as a hidden bloodline for quite a few families outside of nobility–"

Manuela cleared her throat, interrupting Hannerman's ramble.

He paused, looking towards the woman with an annoyed glare. He watched as the woman silently indicated her head towards the direction of Morgan who was stuffing her face while staring at the both of them with wide curious eyes.

"What?" the girl demanded.

Byleth cleared her throat, grabbing a napkin and quickly wiping her daughter's mouth. "Don't worry about it, Morgan."

She looked back towards Hannerman."Sorry for the disappointment Professor Hannerman, but I don't have any hidden Crests."

The elderly man waved the apology away. "No apology necessary Professor, it was just a passing fancy of mine."

Byleth nodded. The rest of the meal was eaten quickly and in relative silence. Byleth and Morgan finished first, to which the swordswoman excused herself from the table. With a cheerful goodbye from the duo, they left Hannerman and Manuela to poke away at their respective meals in silence.

Or that was until Manuela interrupted Hannerman's train of thought when she started giggling once more. To his credit, he did not roll his eyes in exasperation or annoyance. Instead, he turned his gaze towards his fellow coworker and glared harshly. "And what is so hilarious now Manuela?"

The woman snorted. "Just a… passing fancy of mine…"

Manuela couldn't hold back anymore and burst into laughter.

They were on the upper corridors of the Monastery, a path which Rhea liked to walk to bask in the scenery. Their walk was interrupted upon seeing Byleth and Morgan making their way back from the mess hall.

Immediately, Rhea's face lit up in excitement as she stepped up to the stone railing.

"Professor," she called out across the courtyard, her gentle voice reaching across the large gap.

Byleth paused, both her and Morgan's head turning towards the Archbishop. Rhea beamed and waved politely.

Seteth was not expecting Byleth to eye Rhea like she was a dangerous predator trying to hunt her prey. The newly made professor seemed to position herself so she was between Morgan and Rhea's gaze. Seteth noticed this as his eyes narrowed suspiciously at Byleth's behaviour, though seeing the lack of issue on the Archbishop's face, he held his tongue.

"Have you just finished lunch?" Rhea called out once more.

Byleth once more paused. She then looked towards Morgan, who in turn shook her head. Byleth then moved closer to her railing, using her hand to cup around her ear…

Oh, she couldn't hear Rhea.

"I asked," Rhea tried again, louder this time. "If you have just finished your lunch!"

Seteth sighed. "Rhea, perhaps you shouldn't shout across the courtyard and make your way towards the girl."

"Oh, of course. You are quite right Seteth."

The Archbishop began making her way towards the end of the corridor, but a burst of movement from Byleth stopped her in her tracks. Rhea frowned in confusion.

Byleth had put down Morgan, and was now… was she mimeing?

The professor held up both her palms towards her. Then silently clapped, followed by a shake of her head, then pointed at Morgan, whose head could barely be seen above the railing.

"Oh. I see. She must be busy spending time with dear Morgan," Rhea sighed sadly. "How unfortunate."

Rhea gave a warm smile, nodding politely before sending a happy clap of her hand. She then followed it with a happy wide swing of her arm, then mimed a knocking of a bell. The Archbishop then pointed at the sun, before motioning tea drinking with her arms.

"Will you be available to have tea at another time?"

Byleth frowned.

The professor had just warned Rhea away from coming close to Morgan, but she seemed… happy upon hearing that? She watched on in confusion as Rhea motioned the same motions once more.

"Happy clap, windmill, crack eggs, sky, poison."

Byleth hummed, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. Then the odd message finally clicked for her.

"I'll happily poison your eggs at night under the windmill," Byleth murmured.

But what did it mean? Was it some sort of church double-speak? An ancient saying found in the holy texts of the church?

Byleth tilted her head, pointing at her eye, then at Rhea. She followed this by putting her finger across her neck, miming a beheading.

"Is that a threat?"

Rhea watched as the Professor mimed her response. "Oh, she's saying that death won't stop her from attending. Truly, you have a curious sense of humour professor."

The archbishop smiled warmly, nodding her head. Byleth's eyes narrowed into pinpricks. Picking Morgan up, the professor stormed off without as much of a goodbye.

"The professor must be in such a rush," Rhea muttered under her breath, laying her head across her hand. "Perhaps I should retract the invitation?"

"I think…" Seteth sighed heavily. "I need to correct a potential misunderstanding."

One Hubert von Vestra watched on from the shadows at the interaction taking place between the Archbishop and the newest professor.

'Curious. Lady Rhea and the Professor are close enough to have a secret form of language. This is not looking good for Lady Edelgard's plan on recruiting the Professor.'

The lanky boy stalked down the shadowy corridor, passing by a few church members whom he greeted politely. He rubbed his chin in thought, wondering how to proceed.

A/N: I am so sorry for the late update. I have been really busy, and it doesn't help that this chapter was just really boring for me to write. I'll be skipping to the mock battle in the next chapter because I feel like all the interesting character stuff planned is around that area, so hopefully future chapters will come out faster.

I'll probably come back to this chapter at a later date to update it because I'm still not happy with it. But I just wanted to post this and move on with the story rather than rewriting it over and over again.

Review Responses:

yarry06: Thank you for the kind words. I don't want to spoil what I have planned so far. But I think it's safe to tell you that Byleth won't be telling Morgan any time soon if she decides to do so ;)

PossessedHunter: Well Ashe is going to have a bigger role with the Lonato Rebellion incoming, so I'm planning that. As for other students, yes. I won't say who, but there are some characters that I have come to like their characters far more than I originally did when doing research for this fic.

Shade The Devil Hunter: Yeah life has been busy. The good news is that it's my last semester if I pass all my classes. As fort the snippets, thank god. I was worried they might be a bit forced lmao. I don't want every single flashback to be a dream sequence.

MoonMccloud: thank you for your kind words! The omakes were portions of the original story that I wasn't sure if I wanted to make fully canon. They feel too silly for me, that's why I made a separate chapter for them. Glad that you liked them though!

RegulusCetus: I'm still on the fence on whether I wanted to make those omakes canon though. They were originally meant to be, but they felt way to goofy and I didn't like them. I'll leave it to the readers I think.

PossessedHunter: not every single ship no. I have some in mind that I can't wait to get too eventually, but I'm open to ideas as the story progresses, or if I accidentally write chemistry between some characters.