Part 1: White Clouds, Chapter 6
Byleth was sitting at her desk in the Blue Lions classroom grading papers from the recent test from the last week. She was alone since her students were at the Dinning Hall for lunch. Byleth has been working non-stop for the past few moons being the new professor at the Officers Academy for the Blue Lion house. It really has taken a toll on her. Having to constantly teach students on not only academic subjects, but also fighting subjects, really messes with your mental health and stability. Byleth also stood up almost all night the previous night working on lesson plans that she scrapped.
Meanwhile, back in the Dinning Hall, the students of the Blue Lion house were all sitting together at the same table. They were patently waiting for the arrival of their professor who usually sits with them. Byleth was close with her students. "Has something become of the Professor?" Ashe asked his fellow classmates. "She's usually here by now."
Sylvain laughed. "She probably got lost while wandering around the Monastery." Sylvain commented. Ingrid mildly punched Sylvain on the arm.
"She probably is just catching up on professor things."
"I just hope she's ok, she really has been overworking herself." Annette said worriedly.
"Don't worry Annie, I'm sure she's fine." Mercedes said to Annette. Felix stayed quiet, he didn't have anything to contribute to the conversation. Dimitri, the house leader and also the prince of the Holy Kingdom of Faerghus, quickly got up from where he was sitting.
"Your Highness, where are you going?" Dedue questioned.
"I'm going to check on the professor and ask her if everything's ok." Dimitri answered before quickly leaving the Dinning Hall.
Byleth was going in and out of focus due to sleep deprivation. She could barely focus on her current endeavor. It took her almost 20 minutes to grade Sylvain's test, and not because he put down the stupidly genius answers that took a while for Byleth to process. She put her head on her desk to rest for a moment but was interrupted by someone knocking on the bricks outside the classroom since the door was open. Byleth shot back up. "Who's there, what do you want?" She instinctively said, obviously sounding very tired. She saw Dimitri at the doorway. "Oh, it's you Dimitri." Byleth said. She put her hands under her chin. "What brings you here right now?" She asked her student.
Dimitri walked into the classroom and walked up to the professor's desk. "The rest of the Blue Lions and I have been worried about you. You seem to be overworking yourself." Dimitri said.
Byleth sighed. "Well, it just comes with the job. Like how I was forced to swing a sword and kill people for being a mercenary." Byleth said. She slightly laughed. She's definitely sleep deprived.
Back at the Dinning Hall, the other Blue Lion house students where formulating a plan. Well, more like just the girls. Annette clapped her hands together. "Guys, I have an idea!" She announced.
Dedue looked intrigued. "Do tell." He said. Annette looked so excited she could burst.
"So, my plan is to have Mercie, Ingrid, and I along with the professor to have a girls day this weekend!" Annette announced.
Mercedes was happy. "Oh Annie that's a great idea." Mercedes commented. Ingrid was surprised.
"Ok, I'm in, just let's not do all girly things. Especially activities that involve makeup." Ingrid said.
Sylvain rolled his eyes. "Um, you know Dedue, Felix, Ashe, Dimitri, and I are also apart of this house? We're just as concerned as you guys." Sylvain argued. "Can we just all do something that involves all of us and doesn't involve battle or just girl things."
Felix scoffed. "Oh please Sylvain, you're just wanting to look for your next girlfriend you'll end up dumping in three days." Felix said.
Sylvain turned to Felix. "Hey, that's not totally why I want to go" Sylvain said angrily to Felix. "Though the idea of flirting with some more girls does sound appealing."
"Sylvain, this was my idea. You guys can do something with the professor the next week." Annette argued.
"Nope, our plan to sneak into Professor Jeritza's quarters to see if that's where any leads on Flayn's disappearance is next weekend." Sylvain countered. Annette was mad.
"Then come up with your own idea and see which one the professor would like to do more!" Annette challenged.
"You're on!" Sylvain accepted. Ashe and Ingrid where just watching the whole scene unfold.
"Now now everyone, can we just solve this like normal human beings?" Ashe asked. Annette and Sylvain ignored Ashe and continued arguing.
Byleth was having difficultly focusing on Dimitri. She wanted to listen, but she was so tired that no matter how hard she tried, her focus was still going in and out. It didn't take long for Dimitri to notice. "Uh, professor?" Dimitri said, he waved his hand in front of Byleth to make sure she's awake. "Are you awake?"
Byleth slowly nodded. "Yea yea, I'm listening, totally not sleeping." Byleth tiredly said. She yawned.
Dimitri shook his head. "Professor, I beg of you to take a break. All of us do, you need to look after yourself." Dimitri said. He walked behind the desk and grabbed Byleth's arm and guided her to the Dinning Hall. "It won't hurt to stop working for a while. Come on, we are all expecting you." Dimitri said as he guided the confused and tired professor out of her classroom.
When Dimitri returned with Byleth, Annette and Sylvain where still arguing with Ashe, Ingrid, and Dedue trying to break it up. Felix was doing nothing, for he thought it was funny seeing Sylvain getting burned by a girl. Ashe noticed the two walk in and let out a sigh of relief. "Thank Serios the professor is here to end this argument." Ashe said to himself. Byleth saw the argument that was unfolding in front of her.
Byleth sighed. "Alright, whatever you guys are arguing about, stop it or I'll make you do stable duty for an entire moon." Byleth threatened. Annette and Sylvain turned to their professor and instantly sat back down.
"Yes professor." The mumbled in unison.
Annette cleared her throat. "Professor, we have noticed that you are seem to be going downhill when it comes to, uh, self care. You clearly need some time to yourself and some time not to worry about school or battles." Annette said.
Byleth yawned. "Everyone, I'm fine, I can handle it. Besides, every Sunday I have the day off so I can just rest then." Byleth said. She turned around to head back to her classroom but was stopped by Dimitri.
"Professor, please listen to them, we all care for you." Dimitri said.
Byleth sighed. "Fine, what are you planning?" She asked.
"Well, what you need is a day to relax and not focus on school. So I propose that you, Ingrid, Mercie, and I take this Saturday to do a girls day!" Annette proposed. Byleth was a little confused.
"Uh, I don't mean to rain on your parade, but what's that?" Byleth asked.
"It's a day where the four of us go out and do relaxing activities like relaxing in the sauna, have a nice afternoon while drinking tea in the courtyard, or go out to the market and do some shopping." Mercedes finished.
"Come on professor, it'll be fun." Ingrid said. Byleth didn't like the idea of having to take a break from such a demanding job. She didn't really know a nice way to decline their offer. Unless....
Byleth had an idea. On Saturdays, Byleth assigns group tasks to two students and they have to work on it for half the day. Even though she could only send two students at a time, she remembered overhearing Professor Hamamen that the Golden Deer class was going to get some off-campus battle practice this coming Saturday, which leaves one group task open. Byleth thought that if she could volunteer her students to the extra task, she could put the girls (along with Sylvain just for laughs.) on the tasks to prevent the day. "Let me think about it." Byleth answered.
Annette pouted. "Nope, you have to come, no exceptions." Annette said. Byleth didn't reply, she just needed a way to get out of the situation. But first, she was hungry and decided to eat a little bit before returning to the classroom.
It was now Friday. Annette, Mercedes, and Ingrid where a little anxious while Byleth had a plan. She was still very tired and overworked herself, but she was going to sleep all day on Sunday, so she didn't mind. It was the end of the school day and Byleth was about to assign the group task for the week. "Alright students, since the Golden Deer house is going to be unavailable tomorrow, I have taken up the task of filling in for their group task." Byleth said. The whole class moaned. Now each student had twice the chance of having to spend half their Saturday on doing chores.
"So, this week, our usual task is stable duty. Ingrid, Mercedes, you guys report to the stable at nine am." Byleth said. Mercedes and Ingrid where surprised. Byleth usually makes the group tasks co-ed, with one girl and one boy from the class doing it. Was something up? "And we are filling in for Golden Deer's weeding duty and I have decided to have Annette and Sylvain fill in this week."
Annette was shocked. "But professor, we had that girls day planned, remember?" Annette protested.
Byleth crossed her arms. "Listen, I'm ok. I'll just sleep in on Sunday to recover. I don't need a day filled with girly activities to help." Byleth said. "Class dismissed."
The class slowly filed out of the classroom. Annette was furious. "We're trying to be nice and this is what we get for our kindness?!" Annette ranted.
"The professor is definitely not herself. Someone needs to talk to her." Ashe said.
"I can stab some sense into her by sparring with her in the training grounds. That'll definitely show her she's too exhausted to even fight." Felix suggested. Ingrid glared at Felix.
"We are not going to go stabbing people." She scolded.
Sylvain put his hands behind his back and over his head. "Well, we have to do something before she just collapses under the strain of it all." Sylvain said.
"Both Ashe and Sylvain are right, we need to actually talk to her and do something." Dedue said.
Dimitri was thinking. "I could go talk to her and we could have the rest of us fill in for the girls so they can still go out tomorrow." Dimitri said.
"That idea isn't so bad. We could totally take the girls place." Ashe said.
"I'll take over weeding duty Annette." Dedue offered.
Annette nodded. "Thank you Dedue!"
"Ashe and I will do stable duty. You girls go on a plan your day while I talk to the professor." Dimitri said.
Byleth was half asleep in her chambers working on the next weeks lesson plans when she heard a familiar voice. "You know what, I think those kids are right." The voice said. Oh joy, she's going to chastise me again. Byleth thought. She knew exactly who the mysterious voice was. It was Sothis, a mysterious girl that somehow is connected with Byleth. Sothis constantly hammers Byleth and scolds her for her sarcasm and humor when talking to her.
"Sothis, I'm not in the mood right- *yawn*- now" Byleth said.
"Listen up, think about what would happen to me if you where to get sick and die from over exhaustion?" Sothis said. "Remember since we are somehow one, I am connected to you. I'm starting to feel the effects of your self neglect!"
"So you're more concerned about how you'll be affected by myself? Then I guess you should've picked someone else to be your vassal." Byleth said.
"How many time do I have to tell you I had no choice and I have no clue why we are connected. If I would've know you would've been the one, I certainly would've chosen someone else." Sothis shouted angrily.
Byleth rolled her eyes and ignored Sothis. Sothis, noticing Byleth wasn't answering to her shouting, decided to shut up. As Byleth was slowly continuing her work, a knock came to her chamber door. Byleth reluctantly got up from her desk and trudged over to the door and opened it to find Dimitri in the doorway. "Can I come in professor?" He asked.
Byleth tiredly nodded. "Sure, what do you need?" She asked. Byleth was so tired that she didn't even care about what Dimitri would ask her to do, even if it's begging her to take a break or reconsider her decision about the girls day.
Byleth sat on her bed and gestured Dimitri to sit at her desk chair. "Also, since we are in a more casual setting, just call me Byleth. I haven't got used to everyone calling me professor yet and prefer that people call me by my name." Byleth started.
"Sure thing profess- I mean Byleth." Dimitri said. "I came here to ask you to please try what the girls are planning. They have been looking forward to this all week and Annette's been planning it non-stop since she proposed the idea."
Byleth sighed. "Well, I guess I can't make up any more excuses now, can I?" Byleth admitted.
"What do you mean Byleth?"
"You see, I am somewhat scared, for lack of a better term. Being raised as a mercenary almost my whole life, I never had the time to do what most girls did. I guess this would be my first time and I'm uneasy and uncertain if something will happen or if I won't enjoy it and feel bad about the girls dragging me around." Byleth admitted.
Dimitri was surprised by this revelation. He never would've expected his professor to be scared of something like this. "I would have never known..." Dimitri said. The room was silent for a moment. "How about a little wager?" Dimitri said suddenly. Byleth was intrigued a little.
"What's you offer?" She asked.
"Do this trip with Annette, Mercedes, and Ingrid. If you don't like it, we won't pester you anymore about taking care of yourself." Dimitri said. Byleth was interested. "But if you do, you have to promise us that you'll take better care of yourself and not over work yourself. I mean look at yourself, you have bags under your eyes, you look like you haven't slept in days. I can tell you are miserable like this."
Without thinking, Dimitri took Byleth's hands into his own. "Please Byleth, just give it a chance." Dimitri said.
Byleth sighed. "All right, fine." Byleth said. But then, Byleth remembered something: The group tasks. "Wait, what about the group tasks?" She asked.
"Don't worry, Dedue, Ashe, and I already have that covered." Dimitri said. Byleth smiled slightly.
"Thank you. Dimitri."
"You're welcome, Byleth."
Dimitri got up from the chair. "Come on, we have to tell the others the good news, right?" He said. Byleth also got up and nodded.
"I suppose we should." The two exited the room and headed into monastery grounds to round up the Blue Lions to tell them the news.
The next morning, Annette got up earlier than she normally does on Saturdays. She could hardly contain her excitement. She had the perfect itinerary planned for the day, from starting out the day relaxing in the monastery's sauna, to having a nice afternoon tea time around the gazebo, Annette was confident that nothing would go wrong. She gathered all the things she needed like money for when they head to the market in a small satchel and headed out to get Ingrid and Mercedes along with her professor. She rushed to her friends rooms to wake them up. Once she awoken Ingrid and then Mercedes, the three walked outside to Byleth's chambers.
Byleth was sleeping soundly when a knock came to her door. She was too asleep to be awoken by it. "Professor! Wake up! It's time to head out on our adventure!" Annette said excitedly.
No reply.
"Professor, we made an agreement, don't back out now." Ingrid said.
Again, no reply.
Mercedes knocked but didn't say anything. Like the past two attempts, Byleth didn't reply. "Alright professor, you leave me no choice but to break down the door." Ingrid said. She ran up to the door, getting ready to slam into it to force it open. However, right before she ran into the door, the door opened and a slightly annoyed Byleth stood at the front of it. Ingrid didn't have time to stop once she saw the door open and ran into Byleth's room. She tried to stop but slammed into the desk that had scattered papers and scrapped lesson plans. The impact caused the papers to scatter about the room.
"S-sorry professor." Ingrid said. Ingrid quickly got back up and offered to help pick up the papers.
"You don't have to. Besides, this isn't the first time I scattered papers everywhere." Byleth said.
"Are you ready professor?" Annette asked excitedly.
Byleth nodded. "Just give me a moment to get dressed and I'll be ready." She replied.
A few moments later, Byleth stepped out of her room in her usual attire. "Alright, first thing on our list is to relax in the sauna." Annette said. "Then, we can go to the gazebo and drink some tea for a while. After that, some shopping in the town, and finally some dinner at this new restaurant that opened in the town."
"Wow, you have this whole day planned out." Byleth said, clearly impressed.
Mercedes nodded. "The three of us planned this out yesterday afternoon." Mercedes said.
"Alright, shall we head out?" Byleth said. The three girls nodded and off they went. "Oh, and by the way, you guys can just call me Byleth since it's a more private and casual setting." Byleth continued.
They approached the sauna, which wasn't far from Byleth's room. The attendant greeted them and briefed them on safety rules and directed them to the changing room to get dresses in the sauna attire. The attire was simple, being a loose beige shirt and shorts. Mercedes put her hair up in a medium high bun and Ingrid put hers up in a high ponytail. The four girls entered the sauna and got situated before the warm steam started to surround them.
Byleth was the first to initiate conversation. "Annette, this is rather odd of you to plan this out. Usually I'm the one to tell you to take a break, not the other way around." Byleth said. Annette was silent for a moment. Byleth was right. Byleth was constantly telling her to take a break. It wasn't until recently where Annette wasn't working her tail off when she realized that the professor was almost like a reflection herself.
"Well, if I'm being honest, the whole reason why I planned this out was because of what you said to me. Since I stopped working so much, I started to notice how much you've been overworking yourself. I wanted to return the favor. You helped me, and now it's my turn to help you." Annette answered.
Byleth smiled softly. "Thank you." Was all she could say.
Ingrid stretched backwards so her back touched the wall behind her. "Now this is the definition of relaxing." She said while exhaling. "We definitely dissevered this."
The four girls spent the rest of the morning in the sauna, talking about random topics and making jokes with each other. After a quick lunch in the Dinning Hall, they drank some tea for an hour. Byleth was able to get Ingrid to admit that she likes some of the knights, but can't act on those feelings due to her family trying to marry her to a rich noble to save their family. Annette also tried to show off her high pouring skills, but ended up spilling tea everywhere. Mercedes also baked the most delightful cookies the previous night and the girls couldn't get enough of them.
Even after the relaxing morning and afternoon, Byleth still felt really tired. She understood that her problems wouldn't be magically solved during this girls day, but she still felt exhausted. Yes, she was enjoying herself, but by after their little tea party, Byleth just couldn't go on. But, she didn't know how to tell her students that. She reluctantly allowed her students to drag her to the town to do some shopping.
Byleth decided to spend most of the shopping trip in the armory. She bought some more powerful weapons for her students and brought some of her weapons along with broken weapons from the students to get repaired. As her weapons where getting repaired, Byleth wandered around the small store. Her eyes scanned the numerous weapons available for sale.
Byleth was tiredly walking around that she didn't notice a dagger whose blade was pointing towards the walkway that was on a table. She bumped into the table and the dagger fell and cut her leg. Byleth collapsed on the ground and gripped her slightly cut leg. Ingrid just so happened to be outside the store and witnessed everything through the window. She ran into the room. "Profe— Byleth! Are you ok?!" Ingrid shouted. The attendant behind the counter also ran to Byleth's aid. He scanned the area for the dagger that cut Byleth. He found the dagger and put it on the counter to prevent any further harm.
"Byleth, are you ok? Is the cut bad?" Ingrid asked Byleth. Byleth slowly lifted her hand, which was now covered in blood. The cut wasn't that deep, but it was long and went from her knee to almost to her ankle. Ingrid was assessing the damage. "We need to find Mercedes so she can heal it. After that, we need to take you back to Gareg Mach to go to the infirmary to get proper care." Ingrid said. She peaked outside. She couldn't see Mercedes or Annette anywhere. She needed to find them pronto, but she didn't want to leave Byleth unattended either.
Ingrid did the one thing that came to mind. She yelled for her friends names. "MERCEDES! ANNETTE! SOMETHING HAS HAPPENED AT THE ARMORY! WE NEED YOU NOW!" Ingrid yelled. She wasn't sure if her calls reached them but at least she tried. The store attendant offered to help find Mercedes and Annette and Ingrid accepted the help. She gave the attendant a brief description of Annette and Mercedes and he was on his way to find the two girls.
Byleth attempted multiple times to get back up, only to be stopped by Ingrid. She insisted that Byleth wasn't to move to prevent her injury from getting worse. Byleth tried to convince her otherwise by claiming that she's been through worse in battle. However, Ingrid was as stubborn as a horse and didn't listen to her professors claims.
"By the way professor, what happened to cause this?" Ingrid asked. Byleth took a deep breath in and answered.
"I was just walking and I guess I was too tired to notice that the dagger was hanging from the table. I bumped into the table and next thing I knew, there was a gash on my leg." Byleth said, clearly in so much pain, yet she didn't appear to cry.
Ingrid sighed. "See professor. This is what happens when you overwork yourself. You're lucky that you didn't slip up in battle and get killed." Ingrid was right. Byleth thought for a second. The more she dwelled on Ingrid's comment, the more she realized how much she really did overwork herself. What Dimitri said the previous day also rung in her mind. I mean look at yourself, you have bags under your eyes, you look like you haven't slept in days. I can tell you are miserable like this.
"You're right Ingrid. I'm sorry. I didn't realize it would lead to this." Byleth admitted. "But, this was a wake up call, I guess. Imagine what would've happened if I was like this next week for our mission and slipped up, that would've been disastrous."
Ingrid nodded in agreement.
Annette and Mercedes came running into the armory. Annette gasped when she saw Byleth on the floor, clutching her bloody leg in pain. "Oh my gods what happened!" Annette gasped.
Mercedes ran over and kneeled down to examine the damage. "Ok, I can slightly heal your wound, but you'll need some professional help." Mercedes said. She hovered her hands above the wound and a magic glow was emitted. The wound magically stopped severely bleeding. There was still a little bleeding happening, but it wasn't much.
Mercedes got up. "Ok, we need to go back to Garreg Mach. Ingrid, you and Annie help Byleth up and help her walk." Mercedes said. The two went on each side of Byleth and helped her up. Byleth's injured leg was bent so she didn't put pressure on it. The three headed out back to the Monastery as quick as they could. (Though it wasn't that quick due to Byleth being injured.)
A few hours later, in the dead of night, Byleth was resting in the infirmary. Her leg was mostly healed up, but Professor Manuela insisted that she rested for the night in the infirmary just in case. As tired as she was, Byleth couldn't exactly fall asleep. Maybe it was from the adrenaline that was pulsing through her body from the injury. As Byleth was lost in thought, someone slowly opened the door. Byleth was slightly startled, but was relived to find out that it was only Dimitri. He poked his head in. "Professor, are you awake?" He whispered. Byleth nodded. Dimitri walked further into the room.
"How are you professor? Once I heard from the girls about your injury, I've been worried sick. All of us have, in fact." Dimitri said. Byleth looked down. She felt awful about her students worrying so much about her. It should be the other way around, where she should be the one looking out for her students. (Not saying that she doesn't.)
"I'm sorry I worried you guys so much recently." Byleth admitted. "I should have listened to you guys. I thought that if I pushed through it all, it would make me stronger, but I was clearly wrong."
"It's true that going through all of that does take a lot of strength, but it takes just as much to stop and look after yourself." Dimitri said. "You don't have to go through this alone, we are all here for you."
Byleth slightly smiled. "Thank you Dimitri, I promise from here on out, I'll take better care of myself and have more of these days where I spend time with the students." Byleth said. Dimitri's face had a sly smile.
"Look who's speaking now, I thought you where the one insisting not to do those." He joked.
Byleth playfully nudged Dimitri. "I guess my sarcasm is rubbing off on you." She playfully said.
Byleth kept true to her word. She didn't overwork herself anymore and even allowed her students to help her plan her lessons. And every other Saturday, Byleth also took that day to hang out with some of the students. In the end, everything worked out. Well, until the next attack or mission that takes a dramatic turn.
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A/n: Sorry if this sucked, I wrote this back in JANUARY (holy crap it's been that long?!) Yes, my long chapter has been in the works since February, I'm a slow writer. Anyways, the next few characters are focused on Dimileth week! Stay tuned throughout the week for them!
~ The Artist Sylveon 🌸