The Bright Star [Fire Emblem: Three Houses AU]

A Bow Turned Sword (Claude)

A/N: fixed a mistake where I said in the first chapter where only Dimitri would show up to the seminar of the three house leaders, though Claude showed up as well.

Claude had an aptitude for bows since his youth, so him attending a sword seminar was quite odd-sounding. He was quite comical of a person; during class he would occasionally make jokes related to the subject being taught. Hilda was there to laugh at his jokes, while people like Lorenz weren't always the hugest fans because they thought he should take his position of the heir to House Riegan more seriously.

But Byleth was a fan of his jokes. The first day he met Byleth was the day before the school year started, where the students unloaded their things into their dorms and met the professors.

"Why are fish so smart?" Claude remembered asking Byleth the day he met him.

"Why?" Byleth replied.

"Because they live in schools!" Byleth was amused and laughed along with Claude.

Claude was going to practice his swording with Byleth, so he knew he could pass the time with more jokes. But he wanted to get a sword lesson in, because why else would he attend a sword lesson?

Claude held the sword firmly in his hands, pointing its tip towards Byleth. "I'm ready, Teach."

Byleth held his sword out in front of Claude, barely touching his. "Let's go." Byleth raised the sword and rained it down on Claude at a moderate pace. Claude used his sword like a shield to block the attack. "Good." He retreated his blade to its little pocket on his side.

Claude held the blade towards him. "You still up for a fight?"

"If you'd wish to."

Claude laughed. "I'm only kidding. Unless if you'd actually like to fight."

"Claude, I wouldn't kill you over a sword lesson." He looked around, observing the other students who were doing their lessons.

Leonie and Petra were overall on task and doing what they were supposed to be doing, Caspar and Ferdinand were on task, but extremely competitive, and Felix and Dimitri were having a full on fight.

"You boar!" Felix shouted aggressively as his sword stormed down above Dimitri. Dimitri, only having a steel sword against a steel sword, used what Byleth taught the class about protecting yourself with a sword and used it as a shield.

Byleth ran to the two fighting students and took out his sword to break the peace, placing the blade in the middle of the two conflicting students. "Knock it off," he said sternly. "I want you two to learn, not kill each other."

Felix scoffed. "Feh."

Byleth sighed. "I want you all to have some extra time doing things for your other classes, so I'll dismiss everyone early. We're on the basics after all, so I'll come back to the lesson tomorrow after school. You all are dismissed, please return the blades to me."

The students returned their blades to Byleth, with Felix being the last to return his. He scoffed at Byleth as he handed him the blade, giving him a glare as he went away. Byleth decided not to say anything, as he didn't want to provoke an argument. Frankly, he was beginning to get terrified of Felix.

As the other students were leaving, a monk came up to Claude. "Are you going to see Professor Byleth?" he asked.

"Oh, Aelfric," Claude said to the monk. "I just left the training area where Byleth was. Do you need something from him?"

"Lady Rhea has a note for Byleth," Aelfric said to Claude. "She told me to just give it to Byleth, and I was only wondering if you were going to see him so you could deliver it for me."

"I don't have much to do, I'm sure I could go see him."

"Do you think you could?" Aelfric held out the note to Claude.

"Of course." Claude took the note. It just said TO BYLETH, FROM RHEA OF THE CHURCH OF SEIROS on the front and the white envelope was sealed with a wax stamp. Claude left to go back to the training grounds.

Byleth was still at the training grounds, putting all the swords back in place and making sure the arena was tidy. He heard footsteps coming from behind and turned around to see Claude. "Claude, do you need something?" he asked, not noticing the letter Claude had in hand.

"Aelfric asked me to deliver this to you." Claude handed the note to Byleth. "It's from Lady Rhea. I don't know the contents and neither did Aelfric, but it looks top secret if you ask me."

Byleth read the address on the back aloud. "TO BYLETH, FROM RHEA OF THE CHURCH OF SEIROS." He gave a slight nod. "Thanks for delivering, Claude."

"No problem," Claude departed from the exit once again and went to the courtyard of the three houses' classrooms. The other three house leaders were there, arguing as usual.

"Preposterous!" Claude heard Edelgard shout to Dimitri.

"Oh really?" Dimitri intimidated Edelgard. "Would it be funny if I—"

Dimitri was cut off Claude's intervention. "Hey guys! What word starts with E and has one letter in it?"

"Not now, Claude," Edelgard sighed.

"An envelope!"

Edelgard stared at Dimitri as he laughed hysterically. "Are you kidding? That's not even funny!"

"Do you have a sense of humor, Edelgard?" Dimitri asked. "That's one of the many problems you have!"

Edelgard glared at him but didn't say a word.

"So, are all three of you going to Byleth's second sword seminar tomorrow?" Claude asked.

Edelgard and Dimitri nodded.

"Well, this'll be the duel of a lifetime!" he said enthusiastically. "Imagine! All the three house leaders are having a duel in Professor Byleth's sword class!"

The two laughed along, though Dimitri wasn't faking it all the way like Edelgard was.

"Reminds me, I saw Aelfric come in and speak to you when you just left the training arena," Dimitri said. "What was he doing?"

"He asked me to give something to Byleth," Claude told the prince. "It was a letter from Lady Rhea, but I wasn't sure what it said. Perhaps it's top secret."

"As he's a professor and knight-in-training, it probably is," Edelgard inputted. "But perhaps there's a good outcome from the note Rhea gave Byleth. Like we're allowed to all have a duel tomorrow!"

It was the most enthusiastic the other two house leaders heard Edelgard act, so they played along with it. "That would be great!" Dimitri said. "I'm looking forward to it!"

A moment of peace between the three at once was rare, but establishing peace for a longer period of time was even rarer. But with what the Rhea's letter contained would either shatter their friendliness towards each other or turn it in to a desire to kill.