Chapter Text
One by one, the students of the Three Houses of the Officer’s Academy filtered into the hall, dividing into their respectives groups. Due to the early start, and the date for the assembly falling on their free day, the students of the Academy were, to put it lightly, more than a little miffed. Some were yawning, some were throwing scowls at teachers, and in the case of one green-haired young man, was already asleep in their feet, forcing Hubert and Caspar to alternate elbowing him to wake him back up. At the heads of each house, Byleth, Manuela, and Hanneman exchanged tired and nervous glances. They knew what Seteth was about to announce, and they knew the students weren’t going to like it - and the fact that it was somewhat their fault wasn’t going to help the situation.
Before long, the students of the monastery had all gathered in the hall, and we now listlessly waiting for the assembly to begin. As far as the students assumed, this was about to be the general lack of unity between the three houses recently, but what an assembly about that would entail, none of them could really guess. Byleth scratched their head and did thier best to not look any of the students in the eye, lest they look into their very soul and realise they were probably about to get very, very upset. Thankfully, they didn’t need to wait long - Seteth quietly entered the hall and took his place at the front of the crowd. He raised his hand for attention, and within a few moments (and a few hisses from the more studious and responsible students) the room grew quiet, and the three professors all gulped.
“Dear students, thank you all for coming to this assembly, at such an early morning on your day off.” There was some definite grumbling resounding throughout the hall, but hisses from the more studious of the student body quickly silenced those. Giving the ruckus a few moments, Seteth continued his addresses. “I shall get to the point hastily, for your sakes. In the recent weeks, in our lead up to the Battle of Eagle and Lion, that there has been an…” He stopped to consider his words, briefly. “...Uptick, in patriotism for each house.” Now students were looking at one another, and Byleth could see Hanneman putting his hand against his face in anguish. Seteth continued. “Now, under normal circumstances, I’d be doing nothing short of applauding our houses for celebrating themselves and their allies, but I feel that things may have gone too far.
Byleth cringed thinking about the past few weeks. Ferninand and Caspar had been parading around the school, cheering about ‘Black Eagle Pride’ and declaring their intent for victory in the upcoming battle. In response, Dimitri had raised the banner of the Blue Lions to declare their intent, and this had led to an altercation between Felix and Caspar - which furthermore led to Raphael and Lorenz from the Golden Deer attempting to stop this brawl from occurring - and before they knew it, more and more students were coming in to cheer on the fight and declare their support for their own house. After this event, which was being now referred to as ‘the incident’, there were even more frequent interactions between the three houses, with even high ranking members like Edelgard and Dedue becoming involved - class relations were at an all time low, and people like Claude were just having fun and fanning the flames. After the ninth complaint that week, Seteth decided it was time for things to change.
Seteth seemed to have also had a similar reaction to thinking about the past few weeks, rubbing the bridge of his nose in frustration.“In the past few weeks since, myself, Lady Rhea, and your professors have all conferred on what to do with this historic low dip in inter-house relations, and we went over as many outcomes as possible. In the end, only one received a majority vote, and it was that which we decided to go with.” Seteth sighed, bracing himself for what was about to happen. “So, the faculty’s joint decision, to foster a greater level of inter-house friendship, is to employ a policy of having members of different houses, at least for the near future, sharing their room space.” It was kind of amazing, actually - in all his years of advising at the monastery, he’d never seen such a universal reaction of sheer outrage and disbelief from the students, though he did note the reaction differed from house to house. Blue Lions seemed the most frustrated with the decision, displaying their frustration with shouts at Professor Manuela. In particular, Felix looked as if he was ready to strangle half the room, and Ashe looked like he was about to keel over. Golden Deer seemed not as frustrated with the situation, but it’s students seemed more personally annoyed about sharing their living space than anything else. Hilda was just yammering on and on about being worried about getting ‘someone unfortunate’ as a roommate, whilst Claude seemed actually deviously excited about the prospect. Professor Hanneman whispered a silent thanks that they weren’t targeting him about Seteth’s decision. Finally, The Black Eagles had the most mixed reaction - several members went immediately into discussion, trying to decide how this policy would affect personal plans. Several of the house immediately rushed Byleth, demanding to know why this decision was made.
“A few of you just went… a bit too far with getting hyped up regarding the battle.” They sighed, shaking their head. “Personally, I was against this decision, as some people in the school-” They glanced over their shoulder, eyeing a few key people like Marrianne and Linhardt. “Aren’t going to adjust as well as Seteth hopes.” More arguments were thrown their way, but Byleth shook their head. “No, I’m sorry, my hands are tied. I can talk to Seteth about this, but since this was a decision between us, him, and the Archbishop, I don’t think this will change any time soon.” They sighed against as more yells were hurled their way. “I just wanted to fish on my day off… ”
As the din grew louder Seteth raised his voice to draw attention back to his announcement.
“Additionally, we have taken the opportunity to move the contents of your room and personal belongings to your new designated room, for those who are moving. Fear not - everything shall be as you left it, and we have worked hard to make these rooms as comfortable and useful for two people as they were for one.” Some further complaints raised up, though the professors assured their students that none of their belongings will be touched or damaged in any way. A hand rose up out of the crowd, drawing Seteth’s attention - it was from a member of the Blue Lions, Sylvain. Noting his respect in the situation, Seteth nodded towards him. “Yes, Sylvain? Do you have a question?
“Indeed, Seteth. Since I’m assuming the choice of who will be rooming with who will be random, does that mean there will be…” He grinned. “Members of the opposite sex sharing rooms?” Felix and Ingrid audibly swore on either side of him, which just served to make Sylvain chuckle. Seteth groaned, feeling as if he should’ve seen that coming.
“Don’t make this even worse for everyone then it already is, you woman-crazed dumbass.” Felix hissed at Sylvain.
“Are you trying to make Blue Lion’s look like a bunch of perverts?” Ingrid added.
“In actuality, Sylvain, you were one of the people specifically cited by your teachers as a reason against such an idea.” Seteth sighed. Thus, we will not be having students of different genders sharing a room.” This was met with both sighs of relief, and several disgruntled reactions, mostly from the aforementioned Sylvain, but also from other members of the student body like Dorothea. Edelgard threw a confused look at her classmate, but Dorothea just winked.
“Can’t fault a girl for trying to find someone out of this situation.” Hubert coughed to get her attention back on Seteth. Reaching into his pocket, Seteth withdrew a long sheet of paper, brandishing it towards the frustrated crowd. “I have given copies of this document to each of your professors, detailing exactly which students will be moving, and who they shall be living alongside for the next few months.” Even as he said this, the three lead professors withdrew similar documents, and the members of the houses were already rushing to see what their new living situation would be like. Seteth yelled out over the din. “Do not accost your professors! Please form orderly lines so as to not place further stress on your already hard-working teachers.” His announcement was somewhat helpful - a few of the more dutious students, such as Ignatz, Edelgard, and Ingrid, actually listened to the adjutant’s command, but many others ignored that and rushed forward to know what was about to happen.
“Okay, STOP!” Byleth put a hand up in the air, stopping the rushing students in their tracks. “Seteth told the three of us Professors to not be here when you learn your new roommates. So, I am going to put the list on this table.” They gestured towards a table behind them. “You will all look at the list. You will yell and complain and all that, but I am going to leave the hall right now, and you can come complain to me later. ” The eyebags beneath their professor’s face told them that the prospect of dealing with this situation had kept Byleth up all night. Byleth looked down the hall and saw Manuela and Hanneman giving similar instructions to their own students. Eventually, they caught one another’s eye, and as one, strode away from the three houses and out the front door, followed quickly by Seteth, leaving the students to see what roomates fate (also known as Seteth) had dealt them.
Outside the hall, Seteth, Byleth, Manuela and Hanneman broke into a run as the greatest joint yell burst out of the room, trying to get away from the torrent of complaints and pleas that were certain to be only moments outside them.
Sometime later, in the faculty room, Byleth, Hanneman, and Manuela were all gathered around the table, not saying much as they drank mug after mug of coffee. None of them really wanted to discuss what was about to happen - Seteth had told them the project was going to run for at least a month and depending on how it panned out, may be extended further. In addition, each of them had ended up having to put students together that flat out might just not work, but it was a necessity, and a request by both Seteth and Lady Rhea.
“Well, at least I drew the metaphorical lottery this time.” Hanneman finally said, eliciting glares from his fellow professors.
“Exactly, and it pisses me off to know end.” Manuela groaned, rubbing her temples. “I actually thought Felix was going to run me through was the nearest object. And I just know Ashe and Sylvain are going to request room switches for very different reasons. And then there's worries about Dedue…” Byleth couldn’t help but chuckle.
“I feel like I’m going to have to sleep with one eye open now - the idea of Edelgard rooming with someone seems to have put me on Hubert’s personal kill list. And I’m going to have to keep tabs on Bernadeta to make sure she’s actually sleeping in her room, and not hiding in the facilities to avoid being in the same room as another girl.And Ferdinand…” Even the thought of people complaining about Ferdinand gave them a migraine.
“Professor Byleth, I do believe you are cursed.” Hanneman said flatly, Manuela agreeing.
“Every since you’ve came, as much as we love your company… things just can’t be normal around you, can they?” Byleth opened their mouth to argue, but closed it again, realising they don’t have an argument.
“Well, let’s just try and enjoy the chaos, shall we?” Byleth laughed, eliciting smiles from their fellow personnel. “At the very least, perhaps we might get some semblance of-” They furrowed their brow and did their best impression of Seteth. “Inter-house friendship and all that.” This was enough to make Hanneman and Manuela fully burst out laughing. Though, that laughter began to die off when there was a quick knock at the door.
“Professor, I’d like to discuss something with you.” Felix’s voice rang out behind the door, though this was followed by a much more timid voice.
“Ah, actually, Professors, I was here first…” Ignatz’s voice muffled past the door. A third voice joined the growing din outside the office.
“Professor Byleth, this new policy is going to play havoc with my sleep-schedule…” Lindhardt’s sleep voice added. The three professors exchanged looks, but they couldn’t help but sigh and smile. If they had to put their students through this situation, at the very least, they had to put their best foot forward and do what was best to guide them through this trying time.
“Drinks are on me tonight.” Byleth sighed, eliciting laughs and agreement from their fellow teachers.