Byleth, Making Excuses

Thank you so much for the support as always, @xpegasusuniverse ! This one was super fun to write, so I hope you like it!

Summary: Byleth had been making some… questionable choices with his teaching methods as of late, to the point that managed to make Seteth lose his cool. However, there was nothing Byleth could not see after a Pulse or ten…

Commission info HERE and HERE!

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The Imperial Year was 1180, Garreg Mach Monastery. Classes were in full swing now that the students have gotten used to their teachers and assignments.

Bonds were being formed, friendships were blossoming. New skills were sharpened every single day.

Yes, new skills.

However, one could wonder why some of these skills were being taught to students with no potential nor aptitude to make full use of them at a particular House: the Golden Deer, whose professor was none other than the newbie teacher hired on a seemingly whim by the Archbishop: Byleth.

The sound of heavy steps against the polished marble echoed as someone approached the Archbishop’s study.

“Rhea!” Seteth opened the door, forgetting about decorum or common courtesy, really. He huffed, quickly making his way to Rhea’s desk.

“Seteth?” She widened her eyes, surprised to see him display so much emotion to the point of even forgetting to call her by her title instead of her name. “What’s happened? Is it serious?” She made motion to get up, as Seteth was one of the most put-together people she had by her side.

So, if he looked that shaken, something terrible must have transpired.

He banged both hands on her desk, exasperated. “Rhea, you must- you have to control that little favorite teacher of yours! He’s- he’s- ugh,” he put one hand behind his neck as his blood pressure rose.

That made Rhea fully get up, startled with the mention of Byleth. “What happened to him? Is he alright?” She circled her desk to go to the door right way.

“He’s more than alright; too alright, in fact, that he’s messing around with the students’ schedules!” He pressed his temple with the remaining hand, still with his head hung back as he held his neck.

“That child did? Impossible. He is not the kind to do that.” Rhea tilted her head to the side, her shoulders sagging as the tension left her body.

“You don’t understand,” Seteth snapped his head to Rhea. “We’ve tested all of the students before they enrolled and documented all of their strong and weak points, as you are well aware.” he said and she nodded with a frown, wondering where he was going with all that. “Professor Byleth just- he ignored all of that! And he’s fooling around with the students’ potential for growth. This is unacceptable, Rhea. No, Archbishop. We cannot have this happen right during the year all heirs of the three countries of Fódlan are enrolled!”

Rhea crossed her arms, still finding it hard to believe.”Seteth, I need more than an emotional explosion to cue me into taking action…”

“It’s not- ugh,” Seteth took a deep breath. “Alright, I might have been a little emotional about the situation, but it IS unacceptable, Rhea. Will you come with me? They are in the middle of class right now so I can show you what is happening right away.”

“Very well. Seeing as this seems serious enough for you to lose your composure like that, there was no way I would not accompany you. But I will still need convincing to believe that that child is ‘fooling around’ with the students as you said.”

“Yes, yes,” Seteth bobbed his head to the side with a hint of annoyance. “Byleth is your protegé for a reason you cannot share, but you cannot protect him after this, I assure you.”

Rhea straightened her back as Seteth led the way. “After you.”

At the Golden Deer training ground, one could see many students doing their best with their assigned jobs.

There were some practicing white or black magic, some learning how to ride, others how to mount, some sweating under heavy armor and others hitting a training dummy with martial arts. From a distance, it looked like an ordinary arrangement — after all, if one wanted to cover all bases, there was a need to train a wide range of classes considering their aptitudes.

Yes, considering their aptitudes.

Once one approached more, it was plain to see that there was something… unique about the class arrangement.

“Pr-professor…” Lorenz huffed as his noodle-like, white arms shone under the sun and all the sweat poured out of him. “I s-still fail to see h-how this will, ah, a moment for a breath, please.” He raised one palm and lowered his head to take a breather.

“It’s not break time yet, Lorenz. Keep punching that bag,” Byleth said dryly, not even looking up from his little notebook as the noble of the roses was getting as red as one from all the physical exercise he was forced to do.

“B-but-”

“Professor! This is insanity! I can’t thrust this lance one thousand times! I can’t even do it three times!” Lysithea complained from the other side.

“Well, at least you’re not forced to learn MAGIC,” Leonie complained from a desk under the shade, envying the people doing physical stuff.

“Well, I would RATHER be doing that.” Lysithea shot back under bated breath.

“Now, now, back to the assignments I gave you all.” Byleth snapped his fingers to call for attention, still looking down at his notebook indifferently.

A round of whines sounded from the disgruntled students. Even Marianne groaned loudly under all that heavy armor she was forced to wear.She rather envied how Ignatz was learning how to mount a wyvern even though the boy himself feared the beast would munch down on his head if he fell down on its foot one more time.

Claude and Hilda had their heads in their hands as they tried to figure out how white magic worked, so they didn’t even have the mental capacity to complain.

From afar, it looked like an ordinary class, indeed.

However, if one looked just a smidge closer, the pandemonium would be revealed.

Seteth pointed with a grave expression, then crossed his arms. “See? See?! He’s wasting all of their potential!”

“Hmm… It does look rather odd.” Rhea took one finger to her chin in thought. “Let us approach, shall we? I would rather we do not jump to conclusions.”

“Jump to conclusions?!” Seteth threw his hands in the air. “Look at the students’ morale! We will be lucky if only one of them graduates this year if this keeps up.”

“Still,” Rhea said, looking from Seteth to Byleth. “Ah, our eyes met. He will approach now.” Rhea motioned for Byleth to come over, so the Professor obliged.

He looked at something in the air for a split second before heading to where the Archbishop was, but it was such a natural movement one usually wouldn’t be able to catch it.

“Good afternoon, Archbishop, Seteth.” Byleth nodded to either of them with his usual poker face. He held a small notebook in one hand and the feather pen he was using in the other.

“Hello, child,” Rhea greeted with a warm smile. “It has come to my attention,” she glanced at the fuming Seteth beside her, “ that your students have a… rather particular training regimen as of late.”

“Yes?” Byleth replied with a shrug, bringing his notebook to his chest.

Rhea opened her mouth to reply, but Seteth had lost the last of his patience.

“Please, explain yourself, Professor Byleth! You are wasting all of your students’ potential with this so-called teaching plan!”

Byleth calmly looked from Rhea to Seteth, then down to his notebook.

He snapped it open.

“Do you know the amount of damage and the percentage of success of a magical attack coming from a 45º angle towards an unit with less than fourteen points of resistance, who is hiding behind a pillar and is armed with a pair of steel gauntlets?”

…

“… Professor Byleth, I am not asking for a lecture-” Seteth barely recovered from the sudden question, but Byleth was only getting started.

“Let me tell you: it’s a whole lot. They will die if their bare skin is even grazed by the magical attack. Low resistance is shit — ah, pardon my french, Archbishop.”

“French…?” Rhea tilted her head to the side, her eyes glistening with interest but also a little befuddlement. 

“I need those three to train their magical resistance by opening their mana channel in their brains,” Byleth pointed at Claude, Hilda and Leonie, who had dark clouds over their heads trying to understand the magic books in front of them.

“Also, do you know how dope it is to have a flying archer? Ignatz will be fine with that wyvern, I’m sure it hasn’t eaten a human in the past decade or so, so it’s probably safe. I mean, you wouldn’t offer the students a feral mount, would you?” 

“Of course not.” Rhea replied immediately, already roped into Byleth’s speech.

Seteth remained stunned by the answers Byleth had at the ready, as though he had had this conversation before and prepared them for this.

“But-”

Byleth ignored Seteth’s raised index for an interjection and continued his speech. “Have you any idea how frail mages are? We must prepare the students for any situation, even the ones where they will be forced into hand to hand combat with the enemies should their mana run out in the middle of the battlefield. Lorenz will live. He’s passed out for now, but once he builds a bit more muscle, he’ll get used to the regimen.”

Rhea’s eyes shone more and more with each word Byleth uttered.

“Marianne needs the extra defense she’ll get once she get promoted to Great Knight five years from now…”

“Excuse me? How long did you say?” Rhea took a step closer as Nyleth mumbled the last part.

“Ah, don’t mind me. As I was saying, Lysithea is training with all melee weapons to upgrade her stamina, definitely not to make her into a knight down the line,” he spoke quickly with the straightest face a man could wear. “And I finally found a horse big enough to support Raphael’s muscles, which is good. What if he gets stranded in the middle of battle with an injured ally and the fastest way to get help is through a horse? We must prepare them for everything.”

“Of course.” Rhea ate it all up with a bright smile, nodding as more and more nonsense came out of Byleth’s mouth. “You truly are wise beyond your years, child. I wonder what that could mean…”

Byleth looked over Rhea’s shoulders to nowhere in particular, but somehow it felt like he was looking straight at the eyes of someone who was reading a story about what was happening to them at that very moment.

“Indeed, I wonder what it all means.” He flashed a rare smile without breaking eye contact with the surprised reader.

Seteth groaned beside Rhea, holding back the urge to mess his own hair in agony. 

It was all bulshit! It was clear! There was not a single thought passing inside that man’s head, it was blatant to see!!

Seteth couldn’t voice his thoughts as Rhea was more and more fascinated by the bulshit Byeth said, so he just held his nape as his blood pressure rose.

Of course it’s all bulshit, Byleth thought, reading the passage through Sothis’ eyes as the reader gasped in wonder. I really just wanted to do a meme run, you know. Imagine how hilarious it would be, he grinned as Rhea asked more questions about the reasons he made up after Pulsing that last hour a few times to get it all right.

The usually stoic man managed to hold back his snort as he saw Seteth in agony behind the amused Rhea. But as that was the final Pulse he had used that day, all of the answers had to be perfect for him to be able to have free reins over the students without any interruptions for the next few months. Afterwards, it would be up to them to train on their own so he could have an army oof mismatches later down the line…

Yep, now it was only a matter of time until he could stick Lorenz into that ridiculous Grappler outfit and hide Marianne inside the oversized Fortress Knight armor.

How hilarious would Claude look as a Priest, could you imagine? And how clueless Hilda would be at the Gremory class?

Byleth would hardly wait for them all to do their bests so he could at least have a few laughs in this endlessly repeating life of his.

Claude, Oblivious

Thanks for the support as always, @xpegasusuniverse! This one was so much fun to write, I hope you like it!

Summary: Byleth was someone that was liked by everybody. That was basically a fact at that point in Garreg Mach Monastery. But was there someone whom the Profesor liked more than the rest…? Someone who could do… things to him? After witnessing something best hidden, Claude has to find out, one way or the other.

Commission info HERE and HERE!

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There was a place at Garreg Mach Monastery that was mostly old people’s business.

One would perhaps think ‘the Church at morning mass!’ or ‘the evening choir’, but they would be wrong.

The place where old folks gathered like moths was none other than the sauna.

Yes. The sauna.

Most of the time, it was populated by old nuns and priests who came to relieve the fatigue from their tired bones. 

Occasionally, members of the faculty would pop here and there to alleviate their daily pains of teaching noble teenagers.

Very rarely, some students who took great care of their skin would drop by for their monthly routine. Those were regulars, so sometimes they even got a nun or three as companions for their time in the sauna.

The sauna was proof that cross-generational friendship was possible, at least within the 20 or so minutes one could last in there.

Even rarer still was the kind of student who went in there just for the sake of feeling hot again, something they might miss from their homeland, or such.

Claude, secretly Khalid, went into the sauna once in a while whenever he felt emotional about his home, and the role he wanted to play once he returned.

To his surprise, however, he found a member of the faculty there as well — someone he was very well acquainted with, in fact.

“Ey, Teach! I didn’t think you were the type to bake in the sauna with the grannies,” he greeted with forced cheer, pushing down the disappointment of simply existing in the heat for a bit.

Byleth looked up with his usual poker face, “yo.” Then, he shrugged. “It’s good to work up a sweat now and then.”

Claude loudly sat right beside Byleth. “Yeah, that it is, isn’t it?” He spread both arms at the seats around him and turned to look at his Professor. “But I think it’s the first time I see you… here?” Claude squinted.

Something… at Byleth’s neck, obscured by his sweaty hair caught Claude’s attention.

What could that be? A wound? Byleth was the strongest person Claude knew, and he was observant to a fault; there was no way he didn’t see Byleth getting hurt. What could that be…

“Hm? So you come here often?” Byleth turned to look at Claude, action of which made his hair slide slightly to the side, revealing the shadow that had caught the prince’s attention.

Widening his eyes, Claude looked from the mark to the Professor. “We’re talking about you now, though, Teach? ‘Sides, something else caught my eye…” he pointed with his chin to the mark that was placed in a spot that was usually covered by his hair and coat. “Who gave you that hickey, Teach?”

“Hickey?” Byleth tilted his head to the side in confusion. That made the hair cover the mark again, which only aroused Claude’s curiosity even further.

“Yeah! That one! You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you? I bet you’re faking confusion right now, too.” He pointed, his archer eyes completely focused on the now obscured hickey. “I’m sure of what I saw.”

Following Claude’s finger, Byleth touched the nape of his neck, though a hickey wasn’t usually something you could feel with your hand, so he just massaged the area absentmindedly before an ‘ah,’ escaped his lips.

“So you confess!” Claude got up quickly, a rookie mistake if one’s ever been at a sauna before. “Oh, shit-” his vision blurred and his head spinned.

“Claude!” Byleth pulled the prince before he fell, saving his head from a concussion. Though his mind blanked out anyway, his last words before passing out were ‘oh, shit’. A fitting epitaph, perhaps.

“So you confess!” Claude woke up a few minutes later at the infirmary, his mind rebooting back to the same moment before he had passed out.

“Yikes, is that the first thing you say after waking up?!” Hilda jumped on her seat beside his bed.

Huffing, Claude looked around his surroundings to place himself in reality. “Wait, damn it. Where’s Teach?! He can’t run from me!” He threw the blanket up, ready to start a hunt if necessary.

“Yeah, sure, say nothing to the suuuper thoughtful friend who stayed beside you while you were out before leaving, sureee.” Hilda faked looking at her nails as Claude got up from the bed. “Ah, before you go, the Professor told me to tell you something as soon as you woke up, but now I don’t think I feel like saying it.” She hummed, smirking as she saw him visibly freeze in his tracks.

“Hilda? My gorgeous second-in-command and vice-rep of the Golden Deer—”

“Pass. I don’t want that much responsibility, okay?” She took out a nail file from within her sleeve and blew the dust off of it. “Just waiting for that tiny little word of appreciation here,” she quickly filed her nails, marvelously holding back her laughter.

“Ack, alright. Thank you my dearest Hilda, light of my student life and—-”

“Keep it comiiiing,” she sing-songed.

“Enough is enough, c’mon!” He stomped on the floor like a little kid, momentarily forgetting to keep his cool. He had just woken up from a literal fever dream, after all.

Hilda hid the file back in her sleeve with a slick movement. “Alright, alright. He didn’t say much, honestly,” she snickered. “Only: A training bruise. What was that all about? He just told me to tell you that and left—”

“BULLSHIT! A training bruise my ASS!” Claude cackled, slapping his knee. “He’s practically begging me to find out who gave him that hickey! Hilda, you gotta come with me on this.”

“Wait… a hickey? Gasp.” She said the word as she gasped. “No way. Are you sure? On Professor Byleth?! Where? How did you know? Tell me everything.”

“Okay, so here we go…” he sat back down and covered his mouth with one hand as one does when talking secretly, to which Hilda reciprocated by tilting her ear towards him and frowning to focus on what he was saying.

“No. Way. That’s totally a perfect spot to hide a hickey!” She clapped, laughing loudly. “Oh, la la, young Professor Byleth! Who could’ve known that he’s hiding THAT under his poker face!”

“Right? RIGHT?” Claude scrubbed his hands maliciously. “We gotta find out who gave him that hickey.”

“Orrr even better, what if they also have an EQUAL hickey on them? Do you think our professor would let someone do that to him without doing it too?” Hilda pointed to Claude’s nose, feeling like a famous detective of some sort of novel.

“Huh.”

…

…

“To be honest, I have no idea.” Claude confessed. “He’s a hard one to read.”

“Yeah, I realized that as soon as I said it.”

“That’s why I’m so surprised by this. It didn’t even cross my mind that Teach fucks—”

“Lan-guage!” Hilda booped his nose. “If Professor Manuela had been here, she would’ve taken points out of our House for that, you know.”

“Ack,” Claude scratched the back of his head, then ruffled his own hair in frustration. “This is driving me crazy!” he jumped up to his feet. “C’mon, Second-in-command! We gotta find out about this! Or my name isn’t Claude!”

Well, it wasn’t anyway, but there was no need to tell the world that yet, was there?

“Aye, aye, captain!” Hilda mimicked his enthusiasm, though deep down she was equally as curious as him, so putting in a bit of an effort for this wouldn’t hurt. “I know some girls who are always on top with the gossip, so let me go ask them for some info first.”

“Great! I’ll shadow some of the other teachers and faculty members, maybe it might be one of them…”

“Gasp.” Hilda held Claude’s sleeve before he could take a step. “What if it’s… a student?! Do you think he’d be that bold?!”

“As I said, I have no idea! At this point, I’ll believe he’s capable of anything!” Claude almost shouted in frustration, but now that the list of suspects practically quintupled, he started to get more and more excited about this.

To dig out some hidden truths… Ah, that was the fun he needed!

Infected by Claude’s enthusiasm, Hilda licked her lips to hide a big smile. “Okay, so I’ll go find the girls and meet you back here… no, not here, obviously.” She looked around the empty infirmary.

“Yeah, let’s meet back at the base.” He nodded, exchanging serious glances with her.

Hilda frowned with a serious expression. “Your room. Got it.”

They parted ways, each to investigate in their own fashion.

Hilda went down the stairs and followed the entrance hall towards the marketplace.

“Ah, it’s gonna be a pain to look for them in this crowd,” she sighed, already tired as she overlooked the market from the gates.

“Greetings!” A cheerful background voice that was always there sounded, but she was so used to it at this point that it went in one ear and into the other. Going on her tiptoes, she tried to find the girls by not going down the stairs.

“Oh, there they are! Giiiirls!” She waved. “Come here, come here! I wanna ask you something!” She winked, luring the girls into going up the stairs instead of her being the one to go down.

“Hilda!” A brown-haired girl with a pink bow waved. “Look at this cute accessory! You’ll love it!”

“Oohhh, accessory…”

Well, Hilda ended up being lured downstairs anyway.

There was not much progress on Claude’s side, either. He asked broad questions like ‘what do you think of Teach, I mean, Professor Byleth?” to some of the faculty members, but they all had similar responses.

That he was hardworking, had an eye for detail and worried about his students very much.

If he were Dimitri, Claude would’ve been feeling bad about digging dirt on the man at that point, but thankfully, Claude was Khalid, and Khalid had absolutely no qualms in digging things whatsoever.

None of them had that twink in the eye most people did when talking about their significant other, so Claude couldn’t pinpoint any sort of romantic interest in them towards their youngest coworker.

Hanneman even went on a tangent about wanting to dissect Byleth, which was right within Claude’s expectation of what the old man would say, so he just silently left as Hanneman did a presentation by himself.

There was no need to ask the students what they thought of Byleth as he was without any doubt the most popular of the teachers. Many had crushes on him, and some even publicly confessed their admirations, but all were equally rejected.

Deep down, Claude didn’t think the culprit could be a student. Byleth didn’t seem the type to lay a hand on his students, at least of that Claude was sure.

Sure, the man had only a single expression on his face, but his actions showed that he treasured his pupils in a different way than whoever gave him that stupid hickey!

“Damn it, who could it be?!” He ruffled his hair as he passed by the entrance and heard the usual background greeting. As he was passing to the mess hall, he found Hilda going up the stairs. “Hilda! What did you find?”

Flinching, Hilda hid the little shopping bag she carried behind her back.“So, um, nothing, actually. They didn’t find anything suspicious in the Professor’s behavior lately. And one of them even knows Ashe from the Blue Lions — whose room is close to Byleth’s, by the way — and he commented once that it was always nice to sleep close to his room ‘cause it was always so silent. The kid doesn’t like ghost stories so any little noise would shock him awake, see.”

Claude squinted at the bag behind Hilda’s back, but decided to ignore it seeing as she actually did her job despite being sidetracked. “So, nothing either, huh.”

“Are you really reaaally sure you saw a hickey? He did tell me to tell you it was a…”

“You don’t actually believe that, do you?” Claude cut in, crossing his arms.

Hilda sighed. “… Well, no, but isn’t it easier to just give up? The man is a wall.”

“I can’t give up. My pride won’t let me,” Claude shook his head.” But I have to admit that our findings were inconclusive, so without substantial evidence to pin the hickey on anyone, I’ll declare our mission as failed for today.”

Hilda blinked, surprised that he actually gave up for once.

“But that doesn’t mean I’ll stop gathering info. I’ll just change my strategy. I’ll find them, you’ll see. I’ll tail him if need be!”

“Annd there it is,” Hilda giggled. “Alright, as your second-in-command or whatever, I’ll help you! Within reason.” She waved, patting his back.

“Hah, of course. Within reason.” Claude laughed, shaking his head as they went up the stairs to the mess hall together.

Watching the pair from afar, a man lifted his helmet to be able to see them better.

From the side, one could see a hickey at a spot similar to the one Byleth had in him earlier that day.

“There was something to report today,” the Gatekeeper smiled, bobbing his head to the sides happily. “And there will be more to report later, too,” he looked further up at the top of the stairs, finding Byleth looking straight at him.

They both nodded, hiding equal smiles before turning back to finish up their shifts.

I did FE Three Houses animation! It’s available at my YouTube account RuosteRauta (remember to put on the subtitles if you don’t speak Japanese!) Also beware of spoilers

illustratedBroomballKraken’s Balthus/Byleth fic for ultrararepairb1 !!!! Balthus brings Byleth home to meet his momma PLS go give it a read it melts my heart