Earlier that morning

'You will not convince me Claude. The Lions are far more of a concern than the Eagles,' Lorenz said. 'That does not change simply because they have a new professor. On the contrary, it only strengthens our argument for what we've already planned.'

Hilda rolled her eyes. 'You guys have been going back and forth for ages now... can't you both just wait until class actually starts?'

She was sat beside Leonie who was thumbing some wooden thing in her hand (why she was being so quiet, Hilda didn't know). She glared at Claude who was still leaning off the same pillar with his arms crossed. He wasn't smiling.

'You're not getting me Lorenz. I'm not saying that we should discredit the Lions. All I'm saying is that we would be naive to think that the Eagles can't win. We have a strategy to deal with them, I know, but that was before we knew about Byleth's return. All I'm saying is that we should place a bit more of an emphasis on the threat coming from them. I really wish you guys could've seen him in Remire. It's fair to say that Adrestia and Faerghus would be without heirs now if not for him.'

'I personally think our current strategy is fine,' Lysithea said at her table amongst a pile of books. 'It's not like we've ignored the Eagles. We just have our main focus on who we believe to be the biggest threat. No matter how good the new professor is, one man shouldn't be enough to divert our attention away from nine good opponents.'

There was a pause between them. Outside the shouts of students walking by echoed into the classroom.

'Well Claude,' Ignatz said, who sat beside Marianne. 'If you had things your way, what would you propose to deal with the Eagles?'

Claude turned to him and smiled.

'I'd take them out the game immediately.'

'Woah,' Hilda cooed. Leonie raised her head.

'You are not serious,' Lorenz said.

'Is that not rather risky, Claude?' Ignatz asked.

Claude winked at him.

'Exactly.'

The cathedral bells soon rang and Byleth's time with the students that morning was up. The bells signalled that it was time to go to the dining hall. The previous week, Byleth had tried his best to avoid being with the Black Eagles for lunch, and now it seemed the roles had reversed. Dorothea and Bernadetta vanished into outside into the stampede of people the moment the bells went and Linhardt followed suite. Ferdinand and Petra also rose but remained still. Their expressions suggested they wanted to go as well but felt guilty about doing so. Edelgard called for Bernadetta, Dorothea and Linhardt to no avail.

'I apologise,' she said. 'I don't know why they all scampered off like that. Let's join them and we can all sit together in the dining hall.'

Hubert, who stood close to Edelgard as if warning Byleth away, shook his head.

'Apologies my lady, but do you not remember the arrangement?' He asked.

Edelgard blinked for a moment and then turned to Hubert. Byleth watched her face. It remained expressionless but her eyes became ablaze.

'Can that not wait until later today?'

Hubert shook his head, not taking his eyes from hers once. Edelgard glared at him and then sighed. She turned to Byleth.

'I apologise, there is something important I must attend to related to the Empire which cannot wait. Please, join the others in the dining hall and I shall see you later today in the training ground.'

She left with Hubert, leaving Byleth with Petra and Ferdinand who still stood awkwardly. Ferdinand's stomach growled.

'I am famished. Shall we go, Professor? It is probably best that we try and get there before Raphael does.'

Byleth nodded and the three of them moved to the exit. Just as they reached the classroom door, an older woman with short brown hair and a long blue dress entered and blocked their path.

'There you are, Professor Byleth,' Manuela said.

He hadn't seen the former songstress and Golden Deer teacher in almost a week and he couldn't say that he'd missed her. She smiled at him as if he were dressed like a clown and she'd sounded like she'd been struggling to hold back a laugh when she'd said "professor".

'Run along you two,' she said, eyeing Ferdinand and Petra. They didn't need much encouragement. They both gave Byleth a meek nod and then slipped into the crowd outside. Manuela shut the classroom doors, the two sides coming together in an echoing click. She turned to him and smiled again, but Byleth saw that the smile didn't reach her eyes.

'How are you, dear? I'm sorry that you have had such a rough start to your time here at the Officers Academy.'

'I'm better, thank you.'

Maneula lowered herself onto one of the classroom tables, her arms folded. 'Moira and Seteth told me you suffered from quite the issue recently.'

Byleth felt his chest tighten, and he knew why, he knew exactly where the conversation was headed.

'I'm sure you're aware that not everyone will find the story entirely believable. It sounds fabricated, like an excuse to justify what happened in the training ground with Caspar.'

Byleth supposed she was right. Seteth had informed him that he'd told the students he'd suffered from an illness but hadn't gone into any detail on what the illness was. Although Byleth understood why he hadn't, he now realised that it made the whole thing sound off, made him look off.

'I was ill.'

Manuela shook her head. 'I'm not here to argue over that, dear, just to make sure you are aware of how this all looks to everyone else, your students and I included. You fought your own student, Caspar, in the training ground and were bested by him easily, making everyone, me included, doubt your fighting credentials. If you cannot defeat your own student then who are you to lead a whole group of them into battle? And the fact that Caspar goaded you into fighting him suggests that he was already unhappy with you, which makes me, and I presume many others, wonder whether you are also incompetent in the classroom.'

She held his gaze and leaned forward. 'You might have been ill, but it's a stretch for me to believe that it justifies everything that happened and lets you off the hook.'

'I'-

'Let me be clear, you and your class better put on an excellent showing at the mock battle. If I see anything less than an excellent performance from you, as a leader and as a warrior, then I will push for you to be removed from your position. It's nothing personal dear, but you have the future rulers of Adrestia in your class and I will not allow them to have a mediocre professor overseeing them.'

She stared at him with daggers in her eyes and then rose to her feet. 'Prove me wrong, Professor.'

She strolled to the doors and opened them again. She then spoke without turning.

'Good luck, you'll need it.'