Book One The Black Lion Old Version

affections

Byleth was tending to his horse. Marianne was tending to hers as well. It had been only a few days, and it seemed like everything was returning to normal, as normal as it could get anyway. His mother, who had been dead for 20 years, was back in the world of the living. She felt like a stranger. He spent whatever time he could with his mother ever since she came back to life, but he had no idea what to talk about.

To top it all off, he has three new transfer students, two of which were not expected. Sakura Haruno, he will hold his judgment on her until his mind has changed. He is skeptical of the girl's willingness to change, but she wouldn't go through all the trouble that she did if she wasn't at least going to put in an effort. To him, that wasn't enough; she had to do a lot more. His students didn't like her because of how she had been acting since she had first arrived. His first instinct was to reject her outright, but he felt it wasn't fair. He would at least give her a chance to prove that she was genuine with her desire.

Hanabi Hinata's younger sister, though, was a different story. She was someone he couldn't stand dealing with. She was disrespectful, elitist towards everyone in the class, and expected respect without doing anything to earn it. She was everything that he couldn't stand about the nobility. What he was told by his father was that the Hyuga are generally like that in general, that Hinata was an exception. When he first met Hinata, she was nothing but respectful towards everyone, the exact opposite of her sister. Neji, from a few interactions he's had, even treated others with respect. Those two were not the norm.

The one that perplexed him most of all was Hilda, who is now one of his girlfriends. He reluctantly agreed for Marianne's sake. He wanted to make her happy because that's what mattered. Hilda was currently helping Marianne groom Dote. It was his way of getting the both of them a chance to spend time alone that they had not had since Marianne joined his class. He wanted to give those two space at least for now.

"Having some distance from Hilda is a good idea, but you need to make an effort to maintain your relationship with her. She doesn't want anyone to be a third wheel, which includes you. Learn from Naruto and Hinata's mistake; don't repeat their actions. You must attend to both of their needs if you want this to work." Sothis said, and he couldn't help but agree with her, but it was difficult. He saw how happy Marianne was, and he didn't want to intrude.

"Do not forget that you make her happy as well. Byleth, do not be an idiot like Naruto and neglect her because unlike Dorothea and Ingrid, I do not see Hilda being tolerant of you doing such a thing." Sothis said.

"Sora tells me I should go to them in order to be part of something. I don't know what she's just said something to do with connecting with Hilda," Byleth said, confused.

"Hilda, she's telling you to simply have a conversation. This is why I think you're thinking too much. Just talk to them, especially Hilda. It shouldn't be that difficult. Starting a conversation and building a relationship with Hilda is going to take time, likely longer than it did for Marianne, but I do think it will work out if you put in the effort." Sothis said.

Byleth knew she had a point. He was nervous; he wanted to make this work for Marianne's sake. He never imagined having two partners. He didn't know how Hinata managed to make it work. He took a deep breath and headed to where Hilda and Marianne were.

After Marianne was done tending to her horse, she went to the table where he normally sits when they're alone. Instead of the two seats that are normally at the table, there were three. He took a deep breath; as nervous as he was, he wanted to make this work.

"Do you mind if I sit here?" Byleth asked Hilda.

"Don't worry, I don't mind," Hilda said as she sat down. The trio said nothing; he had no idea what to talk about. It wasn't like with Marianne, where they could go hours without saying anything to each other and still enjoy being in each other's company. He didn't know if Hilda was the kind of person that enjoyed this sort of thing. Little did he know, she was thinking the same thing.