Come up with an excuse

Edelgard froze. Here she was… completely naked… in the middle of class… with everyone looking at her. She could feel their gazes on every inch of her bare skin, and she became redder than she knew was possible. She desperately wanted to run or teleport away, but she knew it was too late for that. After all, they had already seen her. Even worse, doing so would likely draw suspicion, and they might even find her Flame Emperor costume. If that happened, she was finished. So, as incredibly embarrassed and humiliated as she was, she felt she had **** but to simply confront them and try to come up with a convincing explanation as to why she was standing completely naked in the middle of class.

“H-hello, my teacher…” said Edelgard, uncharacteristically nervous and bashful.

“Hello, Edelgard. Could you explain, uh… this?” said Byelth, clearly shocked.

“Ah, y-yes! W-well, you see…” began Edelgard, desperately brainstorming for an excuse. “I, uh…”

She was **** to blurt out some explanation that would let her quickly grab her clothes and put them on, but it only took a second to realize that wasn’t an option. After all, her clothes and the Flame Emperor costume were in the same spot. If she went to get the former, it would risk others seeing the latter, thereby exposing her identity. She could not allow that to happen. Instead, she blurted out the only excuse that she could think of.

“I, uh… forgot my clothes!” exclaimed Edelgard. It sounded stupid to her as soon as it came out of her mouth.

“You… forgot your clothes?” said Byleth, wide-eyed.

“Y-yes… I-I, overslept, and was in such a hurry to get to class that it seems they slipped my mind…”

It was an absurd excuse, of course. It’s not unheard of to forget the occasional garment or two, as Mercedes was known for doing. But to forget your entire outfit, and walk from the dorm to class, completely naked? It defied belief. The rest of the students, unsurprisingly, were similarly shocked.

“So you walked here… like that?” said Byleth in amazement.

“I-It would appear so…” said Edelgard sheepishly, barely believing what she herself was saying.

“I… see. Well, I suppose everyone makes mistakes.”

Edelgard was simultaneously shocked and relieved that Byleth actually bought her excuse. Maybe she would get out of this with a fraction of her dignity intact after all.

“Well, it’s time to begin, class. Everyone, be seated.”

Wait a minute… her too? Was Byleth really going to make her sit through the entire lesson, completely naked? Surely not, right?

“M-my teacher…” began Edelgard, barely able to get her words out. “Might you have a spare set of clothes? Or, if not, er… could I be excused from this lesson?”

“I’m afraid we have none at the moment. And this an essential lesson for our next mission. Even if I excused you, where would you go? I can’t have you running around the monastery naked. You’ll simply have to sit for the lesson like this. Please be more careful next time.”

Those words made her heart sink. There it was: she would have to sit through the entire class, completely naked, with the eyes of all of her classmates on her.

The knowledge that this was necessary to protect her identity was the only thing that gave her the resolve to endure her embarrassment. Besides, as bad as this was, surely this was going to be just a simple lecture as usual, right? She could simply sit down and keep a low profile, and it would soon be over… right?