Chapter Text
"First things first," Alois began "you need to set a routine for yourself that will build your stamina. There is no doubt in my mind that a mercenary as seasoned and skilled as yourself has built strength, something integral for wearing heavy armor, but what most people fail to realize is that you'll have to have the endurance needed to wear said heavy armor for long periods of time, not to mention being able to battle in it."
Byleth nodded.
"Before we can begin with your routine, we need to determine your average strength, as well as its current limit. To do that, we will train with some weights. But before we do that, we'll do some stretches and light exercises. I'm sorry if all of this sounds tedious to you, professor, but as you can see, there is a whole procedure to becoming a knight in heavy armor."
"I do not mind" Byleth shook her head "I'm rather glad you're going into detail with the training, if anything. It'll make it easier for me when it's time to explain this to my students, particularly Dedue."
"Ah, so you're the diligent type of student." Alois smiled approvingly "Your patience will make this whole ordeal easier for the both of us. I can tell you from experience that rushing in on anything you've never tried before will end in disaster, more often than not."
"Have you had troubles trying to teach others in the past?"
"Actually, I was the unruly student" Alois admitted, his smile not faltering one bit "I can remember even to this day all the troubles I caused my instructor when I first started. Training on heavy armor is all about bearing the weight, but he most certainly couldn’t bear me!" Alois laughed, jovial and loud as ever.
Byleth’s gaze shifted to the side.
After a beat, the knight cleared his throat "Shall we begin?"
It was a cloudy day in Garreg Mach. Not enough to dim much of the sunlight, but enough to halve the otherwise harsh heat of the summer. A light breeze passed by every so often, cooling down the body and calming the nerves, making it a great day to get some training going. The training grounds were mostly empty, with only Byleth, Alois and a couple of other students practicing on their own accord. Among them, Byleth only recognized Raphael, standing taller than everybody else as usual. She noticed that he was holding the training axe in the appropriate stance, but his form when swinging was off. She pondered for a few seconds if it'd be ok for her to bring this up with Hanneman so he can correct Raphael, or if she should do it herself once her training with Alois was over.
"You said that you wanted to teach what you'll learn here to your students, correct?"
"Yes."
"So, I take it you're not interest in becoming a knight in heavy armor yourself, no?"
Byleth shook her head "My agility and speed were always my strongest suits, which lend themselves pretty well to using a sword. It is true that this training will help improve my strength as well as my stamina, so while I believe that this will still benefit me, I do not intend to go further with the training than what I need to adequately teach my students."
Alois nodded "I see. I won't deny that it's a bit disappointing that we won't be doing this for long. However, that only means with need to do the most with the time we have!" He then made his way to the training weights, Byleth following behind "I believe we're ready to test your strength. We'll start light, but not too light, is that alright with you?" Byleth nodded "Perfect!"
The equipment was worn out, no doubt from the years of usage, yet they looked well-kept and maintained, which is something Byleth appreciated, being mostly unfamiliar with training equipment that wasn’t crafted with junk and that needed to be replaced every so often when they couldn’t hold themselves together. If nothing else, it taught her how to not waste anything, something Leonie seemed to have picked on herself.
Alois gave her a pair of hand weights, not the most robust ones, but not the least so either “Alright professor, how does a set of twenty pull-ups for each arm sound to you?”
“Easily doable.”
“Show me! Just remember to always keep your elbows close to your body.”
Byleth diligently did as told.
“Nice going, professor!” Alois cheered “I wouldn’t have expected anything less from you!”
Byleth shook her head “it wasn’t anything impressive.”
“Oh? So you want a challenge, then?”
“That’s… not what I meant.”
Alois didn’t seem to have heard “Don’t you worry professor; I’ll give you a workout that’ll be up to your caliber!” Alois rose his fist “I promise I’ll make you work till you sweat!”
And boy did Alois deliver on his word, Byleth could already tell her muscles will be all sore tomorrow. Still, Alois’ training was easy to follow and execute, she’d be lying if she said she wasn’t looking forward the next session with him. Byleth decided to wait till it was time to go to bed to wash herself, and before that, she’ll go to the dining hall to get dinner, and there was some time left until then.
Where to go…
Boy there sure seems to be a lot of animals around the monastery.
The fact that Sothis still made Byleth flinch was getting kind of annoying —for the both of them, it’d seem—, and Byleth would be lying if she said it didn’t hurt her pride a bit, spending so much time and energy in honing her senses to never be caught off guard, only for Sothis to undermine it every time she spoke —completely unintentionally, on top of that—. At the very least she was getting better in controlling her reaction.
“I wonder why they’re allowed to roam about inside the monastery…”
You’ll think Rhea would have a problem with these creatures potentially causing trouble, or at the very least Seteth.
“Unless it’s Rhea herself who explicitly allows them in.”
Hmmm… that may be it. Sothis then chuckled I certainly am not complaining, though. These creatures are rather endearing.
Byleth smiled, they were.
Oh! There’s a cat walking by. Go pet it!
The feline has all sorts of spot colors on its mostly white fur. It purred in response to Byleth’s touch, which made the mercenary’s smile grow a little more. She always had a fondness for animals for as long as she could remember, always eager to help her father take care of his horse whenever she could, especially after a mission where she could tell Gale received some injuries, no matter how small. She even offered to help the other cavaliers within the company with their horses, though they often declined. Despite this, Byleth was never truly interested in getting on a horse to battle herself, even though her training with her father revealed that she was competent enough to do so. She always had a feeling as to why… but she never dwelled much on it.
Come to think of it, where is Gale?
“Most likely on the stable with the other horses.”
Let’s go there! I’m in a mood to see more animals!
Honestly, so was Byleth.
She stopped petting the cat, which looked a bit taken a back before looking at her, as in begging for more petting, but it soon decided to walk away, presumably to where it was going before she approached it. On her way to the stables, she quickly spotted Marianne, her light blue hair standing up in the rusty and brown washed stable grounds. She was currently brushing a horse’s mane, a rare smile on her lips. Feeling a vague sense of intrigue, Byleth approached her, making a point of adding a bit more force to her every step.
Marianne turned to her “Oh! Professor… hello.”
“Good evening, Marianne” Byleth nodded, “Are you on stable duty this week?”
“Huh…? Oh, no. Those would be Hilda and Lorenz. However, Hilda asked me to brush the horses’ mane because she forgot to do it, and I agreed…”
“So you’re doing her chores?”
“Oh, I really don’t mind” there was a certain urgency in Marianne’s words “I’m actually quite fond of horses. I tried asking Professor Hanneman to be on stable duty again, but he insisted we all must rotate around duties.”
Byleth nodded, that made sense. It was Marianne’s previous comment that perked her interest “You like horses?”
“I do” Marianne smiled again “They’re such kind and gentle creatures… They make me feel at ease.” even when her voice remained only barely above a whisper, it was warmer than before. Marianne looked back at the horse she was grooming, and the small glim in her eyes made the bags under them smaller. The horse snorted at Marianne, and she chuckled “Yes Dorte, I’ll finish touching up your mane.”
“Have you seen Gale, Marianne?”
“Gale…? I don’t… Oh! Is that the horse they brought in the day you and your father arrived at the monastery?” Byleth nodded “I actually saw your father taking him to one of the terrains for horse training, they’ve been gone for a while now.”
“I see. Marianne, could I ask a favor of you?"
Marianne’s grooming of Dorte came to a halt “A-a favor?! From me…?”
Byleth nodded, not bothered by the panicked stated the blue haired girl was in “I have yet to know my way through the stables, and I figure you’re already familiar with the facilities. I’ll like you to show me around.”
“Oh no… I don’t think I’ll be much help to you, professor…” the… not-quite-high spirit of the girl shrunk back to its usual low “I’m certain the faculty members would be more help to you than I ever could be…”
“I don’t understand. Do you not know how to operate around the stables?”
“…I do but… I just don’t think it’s a good idea for you to spend so much time near me. I would get in your way, for starters…”
“Hardly” Byleth shook her head “While it’s true that the faculty members could give me a thorough explanation of the stables, I’m confident that you’ll do just a fine enough job. Furthermore, I’d rather spend time with someone who appears to be appreciative of the horses themselves as well.”
Marianne perked up at that “Appreciative… as well? Do you like horses too, professor?”
Byleth nodded “I’m rather fond of animals in general. It’s the reason why I came here. I just figure I may as well learn how to take care of them” her gaze then shifted slightly to the side, away from Marianne, as if contemplating something. She looked back at the blue haired girl “That is, if you’ll have me, of course.”
Marianne was looking at the ground “I mean… I guess I could at least help you know your way around the stables” ever so slowly, she rose her gaze to meet Byleth’s “I could even try showing what some of the horses’ preferences so they can grow accustomed to you sooner.”
“I would greatly appreciate that, Marianne, thank you.”
Dorte snorted again “Just let me finish grooming Dorte over here. He can get quite grumpy when his mane is unkept.”
Afterward, Marianne showed Byleth where the grooming equipment was kept, where to gather the water and food for the horses, where the cleaning equipment was as well as to how to dispose of the horses’ waste, and where the training grounds for the horses were (though they didn’t see Jeralt anywhere in the area)
“Do the Pegasus and wyverns have their own training area?”
“As well as their own stables, yes… Would you like me to show you those too?”
“If you agree to, that is. It won’t be today, in any case.”
Marienne seemed to relax a little.
Finally, the blue haired girl decided to let the professor in on the likes and dislikes of horses in general, with a bit more emphasis on Dorte “He really likes it when you groom his mane, but I’m confident it’s mostly because he perceives it as a form of affection. Whenever his mane gets messy, he doesn’t particularly mind, until he sees you coming with a comb, then he gets a little excited.” Marianne was smiling again; it was an oddly pleasant sight.
“I see” Byleth nodded “Thank you again for taking the time to show me around, Marianne.”
“Your thanks are not needed, professor. If anything… it is I who is thankful to you.”
Byleth's eyebrows rose ever so slightly “What for?”
“For listening, and for showing you care about the horses” Marianne looked back at Dorte “They really do deserve our upmost care. It’s the least we can do for them…” Marianne stopped smiling “Especially when they…” she closed her eyes, her head casted downwards, “especially when they get hurt for our sake, every time we take them to battle…”
It was Byleth’s turn to look at the ground “…”
Only Dorte's breathing was preventing silence from taking over the two women.
“…”
“…”
“…The sun is setting…”
Byleth looked at the horizon, it was.
“Well… I guess if there is nothing else for us to do her—.”
“Professor! Marianne! Hey!”
“Eep!” Marianne yelped.
They both turned to see it was Raphael who called for them “Hey girls! How are you doing?”
“We’re doing fine, Raphael” Byleth looked at Marianne, completely startled, then looked back at Raphael “Mostly. Did you need something?”
“Not need so much as want, I wanted to talk to you, professor!”
“About what?”
“About the exercises you were doing with Alois back in the training grounds!” His voice was loud as ever “That was for wearing heavy armor, right?”
“It was” Byleth nodded “How did you figure?”
“When we first started in the academy, they tested us in all the disciplines they were teaching here, and they said I had a knack for heavy armor!” Raphael then looked at Marianne, who was petting Dorte with a bit of a frantic hand “Marianne over there showed potential in a lot of stuff, including riding and flying!” At hearing her name, the blue haired girl tried to hide her face behind the horse’s “As for me…” Raphael put a hand on his forehead, “not such luck. The horses weren’t being too cooperative with me. I didn’t have much trouble with the wyverns, though.”
Now Byleth was curious “Did they ever give their input as to why you were having troubles with riding?”
“Not really… I think they just wanted to see what we were or weren’t good at and then let our future professors handle the information. I think it has something to do with my weight?” Raphael voice was lower than usual “I know that there are horses bred for being able to carry people wearing heavy armor, but since I’m already quite heavy on my own, maybe it was too much?”
“You’ll be surprised with the strength horses have.” Byleth commented “Maybe you had troubles maintaining your balance?”
“Yeah, that makes sense! It totally must have been that!” Raphael smiled brightly “I don’t know if this backwards or whatever, but I didn’t have troubles maintaining my balance when I was up in the air with the wyverns” he laughed, loud as ever “Gotta say, it’s kind reassuring that may be the reason why, I honestly thought I was having troubles with the horses because I might have spooked the poor things!”
“It is a very real possibility that you indeed spooked them…” Marianne said quietly, still hiding behind Dorte. The horse moved its head up and down, twice.
Raphael then blinked “Ah… weren’t we talking about something else?”
Byleth tilted her head “About heavy armor?”
“Yeah! Do you think Alois would be willing to teach me as well? So far Professor Hanneman insisted I only practice with axes for the time being. He wants me to correct my posture when holding and swinging the ax, as well as practice all these different ax stances” Ah, so Hanneman was aware of Raphael’s issues “The thing is, he’s mostly focusing on the theory side of things, when I’m pretty sure that I could use some more practical showing, kind of like how he does with Lysithea, Lorenz, and Marianne and their magic.”
“I cannot make promises on behalf of Alois, so I can only bring up the subject to him” Byleth explained “However, I was learning under him so I could later teach it to Dedue, so I may as well teach you alongside him whenever our schedules align.”
“You really would do that for me, professor?”
“Yes.”
“Thank you so much!”
Then thunder struck.
“W-what was that noise?!” Marianne asked, getting more finicky by the second.
Byleth turned to her “My apologies, Marianne, that was me. I have yet to eat dinner.”
“I thought that my stomach for a second!” Raphael laughed “Are you going to the dining hall now, professor? I could use some meat to regain my energy from training.”
“I was in a mood for some fisherman’s bounty” Byleth replied “I caught the requiring fishes early in the morning.”
“That’s impressive professor, count me in!” Raphael raised his fist.
“Fisherman’s bounty…?” Marianne repeated.
Byleth turned to her again “Do you like the dish?”
Marianne stared at her for a moment “I do… it was one of my father’s favorites…”
“Would you like to accompany us to diner, then?”
The blue haired girl alternated between the pair before her “I… I mean… if none of you mind my company… I suppose I could go…?”
“I don’t mind it at all!” Raphael replied for both of them “It’s settled, then. Lead the way, professor!”
Byleth nodded.