The Golden Deer House joins. And a bit of Hilda's antics!

"Oh, Professor!" Manuela chirped as she approached, Linhardt and her own class in tow. "I see you're teaching about caring for mounts today as well?"

"Actually yes," Byleth nodded. "Are we in the way? I would prefer not to step on any toes," he added.

"Oh no, plenty of room for all of us, we can have a joint class!" Manuela winked.

Byleth nodded, appreciative of the helping hand. Even if it meant more students. As they started the lessons about grooming horses first, he noticed that Hilda gravitated towards Marianne. And of course was letting her do all the work. And while Marianne actually seemed to be at peace, clearly an animal lover, he couldn't let that slide. He walked over, and cleared his throat.

Hilda jumped and turned towards Byleth. "Oh, hello Professor!" she said, putting on a cheery smile. "I kind of injured my wrist earlier, so I can't really brush the horses," she lied through her teeth. Byleth raised an eyebrow, seeing right through it easily. He tapped into his newly granted intuition, and grew very interested. Hilda was actually quite a submissive, and while she liked getting out of work and playing people like fiddles, what she had yet to realize was a turn on for her was a firm hand that took charge with her. That was quite intriguing.

"Really? It seemed to work just fine while we were fishing earlier," Byleth noted, and she blushed and spluttered.

"Erm, I mean... I sprained it while pulling a snag near the end! Yeah, that's right!" Hilda nodded. She was quick to get her story straight, he'd give her that.

As Sothis playfully groped her ass unnoticed, Byleth then asked, "So... Why haven't you asked Manuela to heal it up?"

She blushed, realizing she couldn't weasel her way out of that. She cursed the fact that Manuela was the Golden Deer primary teacher. Harder to charm a woman unless she was openly bi or lesbian, and she was a healer, so faking injuries was also harder. "...okay, fine, you got me..." She pouted.

Byleth smirked and handed her a brush. "Get to work," he said.

She grumbled as she started brushing along with Marianne. "Oh, and we have nesting Wyvern mothers in their stables, so we'll be able to show off some hatchlings at the end of class, if you all do well!" Manuela told the class after lecturing about nutritious horse feeds.

"That definitely sounds interesting," Claude remarked, working with Leonie to feed a couple of horses.