Tuesday 22nd Great Tree Moon - Evening

'E-excuse me Mr. von Vestra, my name is Oliver.'

Oliver, an Officers Academy student from Rysalka, Adrestia, repeated the phrase to himself multiple times but still wasn't sure if he'd remember it. Walking past him in the courtyard was his hero. A man whom his father had urged him to "show the utmost respect to" when he arrived at the academy.

And now finally, thanks to the events that'd transpired earlier that day, he now had an excuse to speak to him, to ask him a question.

And in doing so, he might just be able to get the man to remember his name.

Oliver shuffled towards Hubert.

'E-excuse me Mr… V-Vestra, um, Von Vestra.'

Hubert stopped and peered down at him.

Oliver met his gaze and for a moment, he couldn't breathe.

'W-What h-happened to the new p-professor earlier?'

Hubert glared at him and his eyes seemed to glow in the darkening day. Oliver was glad he used the restroom a short while ago.

'The professor was bested in a sparring match by the weakest member of the main Black Eagle class. He demonstrated that he is incapable of leading us. You may tell your classmates that we wish for his dismissal. Ignore any rumours you hear that he wasn't well, those are just excuses made to try and hide his incompetence.'

Oliver jerked down into a ridiculous bow.

'I-I will!'.

The boy turned and scampered away. When he'd finally calmed down later, he realised that he hadn't even told Hubert his name.

'Did you hear about what happened in the training ground earlier?' the knight asked.

'Yeah, that new professor got beaten up by one of the students,' the other said.

'What student was it?'

'I think the small feisty one from the Empire. In the main class.'

'What? The small one with the weird blue hair?'

'Yup.'

There was a long pause.

Two knights on the other side of the gate broke into loud fits of laughter, causing Dudley to jump.

'Did you hear what happened?' Agnes, the dining hall cook muttered.

Irene, who was cutting carrots on the counter beside her, shook her head.

'A student fought the new professor.'

Irene's head shot up. 'What?!'

'I heard from one of cleaners earlier, rumours being going around. The professor upset the student and the child beat him up in front of everyone, landing him in the infirmary.'

'Good on him,' Irene said, 'I told you from the beginning that something was odd about that guy. What do they call him, the Ashen Demon? You can't trust people like that. He will be fired, right?'

'Hopefully,' Agnes said.

'Wait till I tell the others,' Irene said.

Raphael normally had at least three plates of food at dinner time in the dining hall, but that evening he only had one.

'Gosh, I hope the professor is alright,' he said, twirling his fork in his pasta but not raising it to his mouth.

'I don't think he'll still be a professor after that showing,' Lysithea said. 'To get bested by your own student like that in front of everyone is too damaging.'

'The way Caspar acted was wrong though,' Hilda said. 'He was so angry.'

'I do agree that Caspar's actions were unfitting of someone of his position,' Lorenz said, 'but he did show us just how wrong Claude was to want Byleth as our professor. He's clearly not good enough, and if he'd been our professor then he could have led us to an early demise on the battlefield.'

'I do agree it's good we didn't vote Byleth in as our professor,' Ignatz said. 'Though I do feel sorry for him. That beating wasn't nice to see.'

'What happened to Caspar anyway?' Hilda asked.

'He's in detention I believe,' Lorenz said. 'Supposedly he will not be allowed to participate in the mock battle.'

Leonie continued to eat quietly beside them at the table, not lifting her head once.

The Knights of Seiros, the ones who hadn't joined Lady Rhea on her trip, were having a similar discussion at a nearby table.

'Caspar beat him? Caspar?' a knight asked, her mouth gaping. 'It's hard to believe that Jeralt's son could lose to someone like that, how is it possible?'

'He lost because he isn't all that Alois cracked him up to be,' Shamir murmured.

'He must have done something bad to upset the student,' a second knight said.

The first knight turned to Catherine. 'What do you think? You've been quiet all evening.'

Catherine sighed. 'My head agrees with Shamir, but my gut tells me that Lady Rhea appointed him for a reason. I won't pass a judgement on him until I speak to her when she returns next week. What I will say though is that he will need the Goddess herself on his side if he's going to get through this mess without losing his position.'

'Absolutely unacceptable. Lady Rhea is gone for a few hours and all chaos breaks out.'

'Seteth, please calm yourself,' Flayn said. 'Is Byleth alright?'

'Still out last I heard,' Seteth said, pacing up and down the room. 'He took a nasty knock to the head when Caspar kicked him over.'

He pinched his forehead and sighed. 'This is all a big mess, Byleth never should have been appointed professor. How could Lady Rhea be so misguided in her judgement?'

'Allow me to speak to him when he awakens,' Flayn said. 'There must be more to this that we do not know about.'

Seteth spun and glared at her. 'Stay away from him, Flayn, I mean it. We still do not know why Caspar was upset. Was he upset because he beat Byleth so easily, or had the professor done something to upset him beforehand? I am going to speak to the Black Eagle students and get to the bottom of it.'

Flayn had initially found Seteth to ask him for sweets, but she decided it would be best to hold off for now.

Byleth jerked upward and immediately regretted it.

Every muscle in his body started to burn. Then, the tingling sensations appeared, and rippled across his body in waves of what felt like needles being jabbed into his body repeatedly. He lay back down, wincing, his stomach aching. His head spun, the side of it throbbing, and bright sparks began panging in his vision. His breathing quickened and he gripped the bedsheets. The pain lasted longer than any time before and he squirmed in his own sweat until mercifully the sensations faded.

When they finally passed, he exhaled and opened his eyes. Candlelight lit the small room. The floor and walls were wooden, as was the restroom in the corner. He was in a bed beside the room's single, yet large window, which showed the night-time sky outside. Another bed lay near the door to his right. There was a small tea table with wooden chairs in the middle of the room and a large bookshelf crammed with dusty books on the opposing wall. At first glance, it looked to him like a noble person's living room, but he knew it wasn't.

Because he'd been in it before.

Why am I in the infirmary?

He suddenly heard chants in his head.

"Go Blue Lions!"

"No king, no emperor, no surrender!"

"For his highness!"

In his mind he heard the roar of the crowd and he saw the surrounding stone pillars that held up the outer walls of the training ground. He then saw the stone-tiled ground and the black line marking the "sparring arena" and finally he saw Caspar move towards him with a training axe.

He shivered.