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"Welcome to the union meeting," Weiss said solemnly as she took her seat. Ren and Nora followed her lead.
Soon, cookie wrappers crinkled, tea was brewed, and spoons began to clink quietly against mugs. The main course today was a small chocolate cake decorated with cream flowers, standing proudly in the center of the table.
"As you have noticed, one of us is absent today. I regret to inform you that Egrer Peleni—" Suddenly, there was a knock at the door, and the General Secretary rolled her eyes. "Did you intentionally stand out there and wait for me to say those words just so you could make another 'flamboyant' entrance?"
"You see right through me," Egrer chuckled, stepping into the empty classroom.
Weiss definitely didn't understand why he had come here right now, since she believed the union was created solely to facilitate the Order's work. She had no idea that this organization had completely different goals—goals Egrer had no intention of abandoning...
He sat down at the table and immediately put a piece of cake on his plate. Compared to the stuff he usually brought to the Order of the Backstabbers meetings, this was simply food of the gods. And although the treats sometimes had an overly exotic taste, overall, most of them were beyond praise.
It was cool being the daughter of the richest man on the planet, who could give out several million Lien in pocket money. Although Weiss herself claimed they didn't give her as much as people thought, what was "not much" by her standards was a "holy shit, that's a lot of cash" for Egrer.
Once everyone was holding a cup of tea and had picked out treats to their liking, Weiss opened the meeting.
"Nora, Ren, how is your mission progressing?"
"Excellent, we just finished today!" Nora shouted immediately, as if she had been waiting her whole life to say those words.
She reached into her bag and dumped a thick stack of papers in front of them, which immediately scattered across the entire table. At a glance, there were about a hundred sheets, clumsily drawn with hammers, stars, and sickles in various proportions and colors. Some drawings were so incomprehensible that even Nora realized it and left written explanations of what was what and where.
Ren sat next to her, absolutely calm and detached, staring indifferently ahead. If he had a hand in this business, it was only as a regulator, stopping his friend at this number.
Weiss, still not recovered from the shock, carefully hooked one sheet with her fingernails, held it up to her eyes, and turned it over. The paper was drawn on both sides, and each side held five or six drawings.
Egrer began counting on his fingers in a futile attempt to figure out how many union crests were depicted here. Meanwhile, the General Secretary finally managed to overcome her surprise and even start speaking coherently.
"Nora, I believe I told you not to get carried away..."
"I was just so captured by the idea that I couldn't even sleep the whole time."
Weiss nodded. In principle, there was nothing to be surprised about; this was to be expected from Nora. She was like a hyperactive child, only taller and wielding a huge pink hammer with hearts. It would have been surprising if such an obsessive personality hadn't given it her all.
"A hundred to a hundred and thirty sheets," Egrer whispered to himself, performing complex algebraic calculations in his head, "multiplied by five or six drawings on each side... that makes..."
Ren decided to take pity on him and stated the exact number himself:
"There are one thousand five hundred images here."
"Holy shit..."
"Egrer, I would ask you to maintain the boundaries of decency during the meeting," the General Secretary demanded sternly, though she clearly understood his feelings.
"Sorry... I'm just speechless." He propped his cheek on his fist and gave the cheerful private a hollow look. "Nora, why?"
"Weiss said to make plenty of copies. So I did."
"And I recall saying not to get carried away. But regardless, I will choose our future crest later..." she scanned the table littered with drawings, "...but for now, I have an important announcement. As you know, we have a field trip to the Forever Fall forest soon, and I consider it an excellent chance to earn praise from Miss Goodwitch. If we show ourselves to be professional in the highest degree, we will surely earn her approval."
"I doubt that collecting tree sap is going to impress anyone," Ren noted.
Goodwitch had told them about this field trip several times, as well as the fact that they shouldn't hope for any heroics. They wouldn't be mowing down Grimm or evacuating civilians; it wasn't even a scouting mission. All the freshmen would simply be dropped off somewhere in the Forever Fall forest, where they would drill a few trees and collect their sap. It was supposedly needed for Mrs. Peach's research; Egrer had seen that teacher a couple of times—she would be teaching them Dust alchemy in their third and fourth years.
"It's worth remembering," Weiss smiled slyly, "that this forest is full of Grimm, and if we—"
"No-no-no-no!" Egrer already realized where she was heading. "I'm not going to risk my health and life for the party, you'll have to excuse me."
"And what else is left for us? To mindlessly do as we're told and stay quiet? When else will we have such a chance to prove ourselves?"
"I knew you were quite the rebel at heart, but don't overstep the mark, please. Miss Goodwitch repeatedly emphasized that we are not allowed to do anything except collect sap. I'm sure we'll have safer options in the future."
"Safe doesn't always mean effective."
"Neither does dangerous."
"Did someone say danger?!" Nora leaned over the desk and almost lay down between Weiss and Egrer. "I'm ready to break the knees of any danger."
The General Secretary smiled, and her deputy already understood what was going to happen. He would have been offended by such a dirty trick if he didn't know that he would gladly go for it too.
"I suggest we hold a vote." Weiss leaned back in her chair, relaxed. She already knew she had won, and only formalities remained. "Raise your hand, those who want to find some strong Grimm during the trip and give them a good thrashing." She deliberately phrased her call in a way that would make the excited Nora surrender herself completely to her will.
"Me! I want to! We'll blow them up and rip them apart! And then backwards and repeat!"
"I'll abstain," Ren said.
"I believe the majority of votes are on my side." The General Secretary folded her hands in a steeple and barely held back a smirk.
"I get it, I get it."
"In that case, listen to me—now I'll tell you what to do..."
***
The students tumbled out of the Bullhead and, while Miss Goodwitch said something to the pilot, they hurried to take a couple of selfies against the backdrop of the local beauty. This land seemed to have soaked up all the blood ever spilled on Remnant, so deep was the red color of the foliage and even the grass. There is a legend that the Twin Gods once quarreled in this very place, and it was their blood that stained this forest these colors.
"It's so beautifu-u-ul here!" Magenta sang out, spreading her arms wide as if she had decided to embrace the whole world. She spun in place and laughed brightly.
"Tell me about it," Egrer agreed, catching a maple leaf. "Though, there's a bit too much red here; it hurts the eyes. A pinch of yellow or orange wouldn't have hurt."
"I thought you were our fashionista, not a landscape designer," Yort grumbled, stretching his shoulders which had cramped during the flight.
"Good taste develops for everything at once, not just specific things. Color palettes are a vital part of more than just clothing," Egrer explained, patting his jacket. "Ill, look away from your Scroll and look around!"
"Wow. It's a forest. Cool," he said emotionlessly and continued drawing his filth. "I've never seen a forest. Like, at all. Didn't see it during Initiation and didn't see it before either."
He had a black eye, which he carefully masked with his bangs, and a hematoma graced his cheek. He looked okay now; right after his raid on the girls' shower, he had been walking on crutches. If not for Goodwitch, he definitely would have been lynched. Though, Egrer was inclined to believe she had also hit him a couple of times... with her riding crop...
Illmond himself was still walking around with a happy expression and a lewd half-smile. A new wave of creativity had swallowed him whole, and his bodily injuries didn't bother him one bit.
And that tattoo-covered meathead had actually made a tier list of the girls, just as he had been asked. But his preferences didn't quite fit the surrounding standards: he put Ruby in first place and the main beauty of the first year, Yang, in last.
Yang, by the way, beat him up. Whether for the low rating of her beauty or for the audacity to look in the direction of her fifteen-year-old sister, who was still walking around red as a beet.
Basically, that meathead was branded a lolicon and was now universally condemned and driven away; they even kicked him out of the weightlifting club. Only Illmond stood up for his choice.
Miss Goodwitch finished her business and stepped out of the Bullhead, and the students immediately rushed to line up. The professor had strictly drilled them back at Beacon and repeatedly said that if anyone did anything wrong, there would be corpses. Figuratively speaking, of course; the Grimm weren't likely to eat them here, but she certainly might.
So, following her instructions, the crowd of teenagers lined up in a row before the Bullhead, waiting for the final briefing.
The teacher walked along the line, bending and unbending her crop, while looking everyone in the eye. That look made you feel sick; Miss Goodwitch clearly treated this trip as something where incompetent students could seriously screw up.
It was understandable, after all, they were practically in the dark lands. It was about a hundred kilometers to the nearest railroad, and several times further to settlements. Therefore, it was best not to make mistakes, and to convey this truth to everyone, it had to be repeated for a long time and several times.
"We are here to collect tree sap," she said for the tenth time today. "Not for photos, not for picnics, not for anything else unrelated to our goal. Is that understood?"
"Yes, ma'am!" the line replied in unison.
"You may encounter Grimm here. If that happens—deal with the threat. If you believe you cannot handle it with your existing forces, send a signal from your Scroll; nearby students will come to your aid. Under no circumstances should you neglect this opportunity, nor should you ignore an 'SOS' signal if it comes to you. Is that understood?"
The students again shouted "Yes, ma'am!" and continued pretending to listen carefully. Goodwitch had conducted this same briefing with the same words back at Beacon, but repetition, as the ancient wisdom goes, is the mother of learning. It's better to reinforce such things, even if listening to the same thing over and over gets tedious.
"Avoid using Fire Dust; if a fire should start because of you—extinguish it immediately. We have no need for another burnt forest. Miss Toti, this applies especially to you; I would ask you to refrain from using your flamethrower. Do you understand me?"
"Yes, ma'am!" Magenta moved her weapon behind her back, but it was too big for her body to cover it.
"Miss Valkyrie?" she turned to another fire-hazardous student.
"Yes, ma'am!" Nora performed the same trick with her hammer and failed for the same reasons.
"Miss Xiao Long?"
"Yes, ma'am!" Yang simply put her hands with her gauntlets behind her back, maintaining a stoic look.
"Splendid. In that case, get to work; we will gather back here in one hour." Miss Goodwitch returned to the Bullhead, leaving them to their own devices.
The students grabbed empty jars and began to split into small groups, mostly by teams, and slowly dispersed in different directions. Not every tree had sap, otherwise they could have just sucked the surrounding area at the drop zone dry, so they needed to cover as much of the forest as possible.
Despite the repeated calls not to get distracted, some students pulled out their Scrolls and started taking photos, and several sweet couples had already fluttered off somewhere deep into the forest. After all, what could be more romantic than a walk in an eternally red forest full of Grimm?
But most were just looking for a spot to spread a blanket and have a picnic: far enough from the Bullhead with the scary Iron Lady, but not too far from each other. Even in such a relaxed state, no one forgot to observe minimum safety standards.
Egrer would also like to have a picnic in this beautiful place and only then collect the sap, but Weiss's plan forced him to keep moving.
She assumed that there were no Grimm near the drop zone, since the professors had likely cleared everything before their arrival. It sounded logical, so the "wonderful" thought of going as far as possible and looking for trouble there came to her head. He was still against this idea; Weiss might not be afraid of Grimm, but Egrer certainly was. Not that he suffered from some kind of Grimm-phobia, he just never liked taking unnecessary risks. After all, no one's life was on the line, just a chance, a mere chance, to show off in front of Miss Goodwitch.
Meeting Weiss's gaze, she simply nodded and followed her leader, who was enthusiastically leading them deeper into the forest. Team Juniper, however, wasn't so lucky in that regard, as they were immediately decapitated.
"Let's go, Jauney, I have a special task for you." Cardin familiarly put an arm around Jaune's shoulder and brazenly dragged him away right from under his own team's nose. His friends watched him go helplessly, having already resigned themselves to such things.
Egrer could only sigh, watching this disgrace. Jaune was doing everything for that prick except giving him foot massages, and even that was probably temporary. Someday Cardin would push him so far that he'd just snap.
I wish Cardin would just disappear in this forest. Get lost and never come back.
"Alright." Egrer scanned his pack. "Yort, you keep an eye on Madge, and you, Ill, give me your Scroll."
"What for?" he grew suspicious, as always when it came to his precious.
"I know that as soon as the opportunity arises, you'll hide somewhere and start drawing." The pack leader held out his hand. "I'm not going to hack it and dig through your files; it's already clear I won't find anything good there."
"Now that you've said that, I'm definitely suspicious."
"Just don't let me out of your sight, that's all." Egrer chuckled. He said that phrase on purpose because Illmond was liable to fall asleep somewhere even without a Scroll. This way, he simply wouldn't dare move more than three steps away, and he'd be forced to work.
"Then we'll split into pairs and—" the unofficial leader began to command, but was interrupted by the official one.
"Let me command! I'm the leader here, actually."
"Ahem, sorry." Illmond and Yort looked at him in bewilderment. They thought he'd start arguing with her, like he always did before. Such an unexpected turn caught them off guard.
"Let's collect as much sap as possible!" Magenta squeaked in an excited voice. "Let's try our best, guys!"
Egrer took a deep breath and looked at her with that look parents give to failed children. Just what was expected from such an infantile personality: no precise instructions, no plans in case of a Grimm attack, just pure confidence. To trust her blindly meant dooming them all to death in this forest.
Magenta was not yet ready to be a full-fledged leader. She needed constant supervision and control from someone more sane. She was like an unintelligent child; you turn away, and she's already sticking knitting needles into a socket. Not to mention that the huge weight of responsibility for their team lay on her shoulders. Theoretically. Not that it particularly bothered her...
To ensure their pack didn't accidentally vanish in this forest, Egrer decided to ask a couple of clarifying questions:
"And where are we going? Are we splitting into pairs or walking individually? Where do we put the filled jars? What do we do if someone gets lost or, God forbid, a Grimm attacks?"
"We'll all walk together. And Yort will carry the jars."
"In what? His hands aren't shovels; he can't carry that many."
"Uhh..." Magenta began a heavy brainstorming session. Egrer didn't interfere, but he didn't help either. Let her realize how hard it is to think for others. "Doesn't anyone happen to have a bag or something?" The pack shook their heads, and the reflections continued. "Maybe someone will run and stack them by the Bullhead?"
"Are you asking us? You're the leader, you decide."
"Then that's what we'll do." Magenta confidently crossed her arms and was about to head off to work when Egrer suddenly shut her down.
"And have you thought it through? Those jars will be left unattended; who knows what crafty little student might snatch our stuff. Or are you suggesting leaving someone as a guard and losing a pair of working hands?"
"Oh, Eg! You said I had to decide, so I decided!"
"It's not enough to decide; you also have to think about where your decision leads." Now he confidently crossed his arms. In any case, if something terrible happened, the pack would immediately run to him anyway. "I suggest splitting into pairs to cover as much of the forest as possible simultaneously while being under each other's cover. And we'll put the jars in a string bag that Ill will weave from... where's Ill?"
"Bailed while you guys were flapping your gums," Yort explained, driving a peg into a tree trunk. "Do the job, save the bickering for Beacon."
"Dammit! Once I set eyes on him, I'll show him. Madge, if you're a good leader, you should severely punish Ill! Such behavior shouldn't go unpunished." Egrer was upset not so much by his escape and the extra work that fell on them, but by the loss of the strongest fighter in the group. When they encountered Grimm, the fight would be much harder.
In the end, Magenta led them into the forest, ordering them to stay close. She decided to deal with the jars later; according to her, it would be good to fill them first, and then think. Egrer condemned this approach, calling it irresponsible, and didn't miss the chance to say that for a good leader, it's very important to think ahead. Despite his best intentions, Magenta dared to object, but couldn't find any worthy arguments in his opinion.
Yort listened to the arguers with half an ear and was amazed by the stubbornness of one and the childish naivety of the other. No one but himself was his boss, and he did only what he wanted. And right now he wanted to drink a jar of freshly collected tree sap.
"Sweet, damn," he smiled. "Gotta smuggle a couple of jars back to Beacon, I'll hustle them to the seniors for a hundred or two."
Egrer explained to Magenta that while Yort could predict a lot of things, using his Semblance for trifles was offensive. She replied that Egrer himself did it constantly and that asking about the chance of encountering Grimm was very important. He replied that it was different and that she didn't understand anything.
Yort drank another jar of sap.
"Screw the money, I'll drink it all myself. Delicious."
Magenta informed the unofficial leader that if he dared to argue with her further, she would punish him. Egrer was indignant, haughtily crossed his arms, and inquired why he should obey at all. Old habits died hard, what could you do...
She responded with decisive measures and decreed that as punishment, she forbade Egrer from eating for six years. He called this decision discrimination on national grounds and a famine of Mistralians, declaring impeachment. Yort was called in as a witness.
"Both of you go to hell."
Magenta was outraged by his foul speech, and Egrer by his lack of political stance and indifference to the future of their team. So Magenta used her authority as the official leader and forbade Yort from watching TV for five minutes. Egrer was indignant as to why so little, and she explained that the punishment must be proportionate to the offense. In response, he used his authority as the unofficial leader and forbade Yort from watching TV for six years.
"Both of you go to hell," he repeated. "I've already managed to drink three jars. You guys should work as much as you argue."
Egrer declared that he couldn't work in such a stifling atmosphere and that he would go collect sap with Team Juniper. Magenta said the same thing, but a second later. Egrer stated that he was friends with two members of their team, Jaune and Ren, which meant his decision had more legitimacy. Magenta replied that she was friends with as many as three members of their team: Jaune and Nora, who counted for two.
"Fucking hell, can you guys just shut up and collect this damn sap?! Stop messing with my head, I can't listen to you anymore."
"And whose side are you on?" Egrer asked irritably.
"Certainly not yours. And what are you grinning for?" He addressed the cheered-up Magenta. "You're no better than this pretzel. On the leader's post, both of you look equally crappy."
"What do you know!" both the official and unofficial leaders shouted in unison.
"Unlike you, I know that if the Bullhead's departure is delayed because of us, Miss Goodwitch will shove a jar up everyone's ass."
That remark forced them to set the argument aside for better times. For a while, Magenta and Egrer did their job, just trying to stay far apart or having Yort between them. He was big enough to block them from each other.
Routine and monotonous work caused only boredom. Soon the actions became automatic: approach a tree, screw in the corkscrew, unscrew it, put a jar under the hole. If there's no sap within ten seconds or it flows with indecently rare drops—move on. And so in a circle.
Sap came from only every fifth tree, and not even that much; only about a quarter of a jar was collected. Yort, however, collected so much that he didn't hesitate to drink every last drop, to surgically discover the next "juicy" tree and suck it dry.
He also refused to say what his Semblance was telling him. Out of spite.
Egrer had already decided that he would ignore the General Secretary's order. If she wanted to kill herself against some random Death Stalker, then let her, and he had already lost two-thirds of his team's combat power. Illmond was hiding somewhere, and Magenta was forbidden from using her flamethrower, so now it was just a not-very-convenient spiked club.
But about half an hour into the monotonous tree-boring, cruel fate found him anyway. Every member of Team Majesty's Scroll buzzed aggressively, indicating that one of the students was calling for help.
It was Cardin.
On one hand—fine, let them chew him up, such a scumbag isn't to be pitied. But on the other—it was wrong and cruel. Even if he were a bully, a racist, and just a nasty type, death certainly shouldn't be the atonement for his sins. If every jerk were killed for being a jerk, at least a third of Remnant's population would have been put under the knife long ago.
Magenta and Yort also disliked Cardin, but were already gathering to run to his aid.
In any case, the deep reflections on karma and the meaning of human life were ended by a message from Weiss: «Get over here right now!»
"Cra-a-ap..." She wrote "here," as if already there and fighting Grimm. That meant there was definitely no way to bail. In a second, he caught up and overtook his pack. "Catch up!"
It wasn't too far to run; after half a minute, he heard a roar and the sound of ground being torn up.
Running through the red bushes, Egrer leaped into a clearing with a warlike battle cry, which, thanks to his Faunus heritage, turned out way too warlike. Before he even had time to properly look around, he took a bullet to the forehead, and a second later, his fallen body was frozen into the ground.
"What the fuck are you doing!?" he shouted, no longer quite so warlike. A lump swelled on his forehead.
"Oh, Eg, sorry!" shouted Pyrrha as she ran up, she who had shot him. "You growled so much I thought it was another Ursa."
Curse my shitty voice.
The giant carcass of an Ursa behind the champion was already dissolving in the air, and Weiss stood next to it, pointing her rapier directly at Egrer.
"And what was that supposed to be?" she asked, lowering her weapon. Her voice was dripping with a rather low opinion of her interlocutor's intelligence. "You wanted to scare the Grimm? Congratulations, you scared us."
"Yeah, yeah, I get it, sorry. Unfreeze me."
"I think lying like that will be good for you."
"Hey, what, are you offended or something? This isn't funny, I'm freezing! You're the one who called me here, and now you're just gonna leave me?!"
"Oh, stop yelling..." Weiss finally deigned to wave her rapier and conjure a red rune right under Egrer's body. It got hot; the Fire Dust quickly thawed the ice. "I'm waiting for a thank you."
"Actually, you're the one who should apologize; you're the one who froze me. So what's the deal?" he asked quickly before this spat turned into a full-blown fight. He'd had enough of Magenta for today.
"An Ursa attacked us. A big one," explained a crumpled Jaune, getting up from the ground. Behind him followed an even more battered Cardin; several dents and some goo were visible on his armor.
"I killed it!" Weiss declared smugly. "But I still haven't heard so much as a basic 'thank you'."
"Thank you, Weiss, without you we probably would have died," Jaune thanked her from the bottom of his heart.
Cardin, however, only grumbled something incoherent irritably and just walked away. His favorite victim followed him with a doomed look, as if preparing for death.
"Jaune could have handled it himself," Pyrrha suddenly noted, returning to the conversation interrupted by the unexpected guest. "His sword was aimed exactly at the neck, and if you hadn't pushed him, he would have decapitated the Ursa."
"Do you really believe that? He treats a sword like a poker, and the Ursa had already raised its paw. I saved his life, you should be thanking me!"
"Thank you." There wasn't a gram of gratitude in Pyrrha's voice. For the first time, Egrer saw her angry at someone besides Cardin, and it scared him. Both for himself and for Weiss. "But Jaune really would have hit it; I saw where his sword was aimed. Good strike, Jaune."
The blond standing nearby awkwardly scratched the back of his head.
"Weiss is right, I probably would have missed. I was just swinging at what I saw."
"No offense to Jaune," Egrer immediately noted, "but he's not exactly great with a sword, so..." after these words, he suddenly met a strange, suggestive look from the champion.
And then it became clear—polarity. Her Semblance. She wanted to help Jaune and set everything up so it looked like he defeated the Ursa on his own. Но Weiss spoiled everything, which is why they were bickering now.
Sometimes Egrer forgot that he wasn't the only one trying to help Jaune boost his self-esteem. Pyrrha just acted much more subtly and slyly.
"He's much better with a sword than before," Pyrrha said with emphasis.
"I'm afraid that zero is useless to multiply," Weiss retorted.
"Don't say that, Jaune isn't a zero!"
At that time, Magenta and Yort ran out of the bushes.
"Where's the fight!?" the heated Vacuan gangster yelled. Noticing the dissolving Ursa carcass, he disappointedly kicked a stone that came under his foot. "Fuck, we missed it by a minute!"
"Hey, watch your language!"
Their appearance forced Weiss and Pyrrha to stop their quarrel. They didn't want anyone else to see it.
Jaune cast another long look in the direction of the departed Cardin, as if he wanted to run after him. Но a second later, he sighed heavily and said with a weak smile:
"Pyrrha, let's get back to our team."
"Yes." She smiled back.
Egrer couldn't shake the feeling that he had arrived at an exam without having attended a single lesson beforehand. He didn't understand anything and just watched them go.
Fifteen minutes ago
Perhaps Jaune was now facing the most important choice of his life.
He realized something was brewing back when Cardin asked him to catch a whole box of Rapier Wasps. Or rather, didn't ask—that's too friendly a word—Cardin ordered him to catch a box of huge, vicious flying insects with stingers several centimeters long because he was expendable. After all, they aren't called "Rapier Wasps" for nothing.
Jaune knew they would soon be going to the Forever Fall forest for tree sap. He also read middle school biology textbooks and knew that Rapier Wasps loved sweets. Putting two and two together was easy. Cardin was planning something nasty, and one could only guess who would be his victim.
He didn't have to guess for long.
"What are you waiting for, Jauney boy?" his tormentor put a hand on his shoulder. "Go on, do it. You don't want Goodwitch to find out about your little secret, do you?"
This threat had already lost its former edge, and it would have worked better if Cardin didn't use it at every opportunity. However, it didn't get any easier; on the contrary, Jaune hated himself for the fact that for several days now he had been obediently doing everything as soon as he heard those words. Like a code phrase that wakes a sleeper agent from a spy movie. Like a cheat that takes complete control of an NPC.
He looked at Weiss, who hadn't noticed him. She was always contemplating something, never leaving her brain idle for a second, and rarely paid attention to the world around her. Jaune really liked this trait of hers, especially when Weiss thoughtfully chewed her lip or paced from side to side. When she acted so detached, wings and a halo seemed to paint themselves behind her back.
Even in the Forever Fall, an undeniably dangerous place, she preferred to stay away from her team. Yang and Ruby were visible somewhere in the distance, still keeping each other in sight. Blake was even further.
"What the fuck are you afraid of, you're ruining all the fun." Dove took him by the head and pushed him closer to the bushes that separated them from Weiss.
This guy was always impatient when it came to "pranks," as if he had a maniacal addiction to mocking others. It was he who thought of catching Rapier Wasps and unleashing them on someone using sweets, and Cardin immediately pointed out who the target would be.
But in Dove's defense, the jokes he came up with were usually not so cruel, and even charming in some way. It was only near his leader that his imagination became so diseased.
Maybe in another team, he would have been the life of the party. A joker with whom it was never boring, though at times he went too far. But it was what it was.
"Do you pity this know-it-all?" The role of the villain in their play brought Cardin a perverted pleasure. "This nerd has nothing but lessons and grades in her head. She doesn't even have friends."
But Jaune liked this trait of hers. Weiss was like a fairy-tale princess in a tower, but just without the tower. By the way, she was also pretty good at the dragon's job...
"Yeah, he's already shitting himself," Lark chuckled. He was probably even scarier than Cardin; the latter at least played at being a friend, while this one didn't even try. His vindictiveness was unmatched; he still brought up that shove at the weapon lockers when Jaune was still trying to resist.
It's only in books that the main character can pathetically overcome, but Jaune was just a normal person. Yes—he had his Aura unlocked now; yes—he was studying at the most prestigious Huntsman academy; and yes—he was the team leader. Но he didn't know how to handle his new abilities, he had entered Beacon undeservedly, and his team consisted of such strong people that any of them could have defeated him without trying.
In his soul, Jaune was still the same kid who watched TV and admired the beautiful image of a Huntsman. The ideal. Brave, strong, steadfast, selfless. A hero capable of breaking the chains of fate or whatever the scriptwriter had prepared for him.
Reality was disappointing. He was lower than he had ever been in his life; anyone here could easily humiliate him. Jaune had no skills, no strength, not even a Semblance.
He was a stranger at Beacon.
And only now, facing the most difficult choice of his life, did this thought become obvious. He didn't belong here. He wasn't welcome here. He wasn't needed at Beacon; everyone here was much better than him. Even Cardin and his team stood a much better chance of becoming worthy Huntsmen and earning fame.
When Jaune still lived back in Ansel, he often read superhero comics, imagining himself among them. In one of those stories, there was a hero whose hammer no one could lift but himself. To everyone else, it weighed as much as a whole mountain.
Well, this jar was even heavier than that unliftable hammer.
But Jaune was holding it with only one hand. He swung it.
Do as you're told, and for a while longer, you'll still be studying at Beacon, one step closer to your dream. But don't, and your life will be ruined.
If he threw this jar at Weiss, no one would have time to help her, because a box of Rapier Wasps would follow. Before anyone could even run to the screams, she would be severely stung.
The swellings on his hands began to itch. Jaune knew how painfully these flying death machines stung—they weren't Grimm only by some unfortunate mistake of the Creators.
Being a hero was hard. Somewhere in the back of his mind, Jaune understood this, but even then, not completely. All the difficulties he thought a hero experienced were strong opponents. Villains. Cardins, Larks, Doves, Russels—every hero encountered resistance. Without it, a hero isn't a hero.
But a true hero isn't the one who defeats Grimm, mad scientists, or dictators, but the one who defeats the evil within themselves. Cowardice, anger, despair, weaknesses, temptations. This is also a popular plot in modern culture: the battle with one's dark self.
The jar of tree sap weighed heavy in his hand.
Watching the difficult moral choices of heroes on the other side of the screen is fascinating. They decide the fates of people, cities, entire worlds. And Jaune couldn't even decide his own.
But in reality, there is always a choice. And now it was this: give in to his cowardice or resist.
And if Jaune already realized that he didn't belong at Beacon, he could at least go out in style...
His soul immediately felt light. He turned around and looked Cardin in the eye. The latter smirked, thinking he had everything under control.
"Well? Are we waiting long?"
"How about you fuck off, you prick?!" the jar of sap flew at his tormentor and smashed against his chest plate.
Jaune was willing to endure humiliation, but he had absolutely no intention of participating in the humiliation of others. Maybe he didn't have as deep feelings for Weiss as a novel hero, but he could never do this to her. Certainly not at Cardin's behest.
It was the right choice, one that would ruin his life. But at least Jaune would live it with dignity. He would never become a Huntsman, but he would be a hero. A small one, but a hero.
"Oh, you shouldn't have done that." Cardin approached threateningly, while his cronies surrounded their victim like a pack of jackals.
Jaune drew his sword. He intended to fight seriously.
"Oh, look!" Dove pointed a finger at Jaune and began his clowning. "He's got a weapon, what are we going to do?! He'll easily slice and dice us, run for your lives!"
The others laughed, except for the guy with the mohawk, who rolled his eyes.
And none of them realized that a real predator was already creeping up on them.