Yesterday's incident put Egrer in a very awkward position. It wasn't about having to keep the promise he made to Weiss, that was no problem. It was that he simply didn't know what to do now.
Who was to blame? What actually happened up there? Was it even worth helping Ruby anymore, or was this whole idea doomed to fail?
Right after Blake bailed, the girls' night was over. Egrer didn't see Weiss herself, but the look on Magenta's face when she returned spoke for itself—the argument was clearly much worse than any before it. All their mutual malice, whatever the cause, had finally poured out. And even team bonds were no longer strong enough to hold them together.
Blake never returned to Beacon.
That evening, Magenta clearly wasn't in the mood to talk. She immediately wrapped herself in a blanket and fell asleep almost instantly, and this morning she headed off to the library.
Egrer, however, couldn't catch a wink of sleep. The details of his plan kept spinning in his head, and only now, with the benefit of hindsight, did he realize—the idea had been doomed to fail from the very start. Then again, what was he even hoping for? It couldn't have gone any other way. Putting Weiss in the same room as her team, swiping some cola for them, and genuinely believing she could hit it off with them? Peak idiocy. Believing Blake would just sit on the sidelines and not try to say something snarky? It would be even dumber to think she'd actually support the idea.
Those two fools were way too alike to peacefully coexist in Remnant.
If Egrer wanted to sort out this mess, he needed an honest, impartial, and reasonable person to talk to, someone who could tell him exactly how everything went down. No sugarcoating, no smoothing over the rough edges, no lies, and no hiding even the smallest details.
A shiver ran down his spine. Never before had Magenta been described with such words, even in thought.
But she fit all the criteria perfectly. Right now, her usual smile was gone, and she was only a couple of steps away from her gloomy, serious state. Just the right mood for a gloomy, serious conversation.
Magenta was still sitting in the library, thoughtfully twirling her multicolored hair. Motes of pollen kept falling from it, covering the table in a thin carpet of glitter. There was no one around her; this place had never been popular with the students.
"Blake and Weiss had a fight," she said the moment Egrer approached.
"You don't say?" he asked sarcastically, taking a seat next to her. However, he immediately tried to calm down; Magenta didn't deserve his anger at all. "I noticed. Tell me the details."
"It all started over a board game," she began hollowly, as if not believing her own words. "You know Remnant? You play as one of the four kingdoms and try to conquer the world. Blake just pointed out that Menagerie has its own version where they added themselves as a fifth kingdom."
So, the reason for the failure of the plan to reconcile Team RWBY turned out to be a board game. Egrer couldn't have thought of a more moronic reason for anything to go wrong. A fucking board game...
"And Weiss didn't like that, huh?"
"No, she just joked that they don't quite cut it as a kingdom. Without any malice. Blake then said that in that case, Vacuo should be removed from the game too. Also as a joke. I don't remember exactly, but at some point they started talking about the status of Faunus in society and the White Fang. Then it turned out Blake is a Faunus. She let it slip herself. That's what they fought over." Magenta flinched. "I'm sorry, I tried to stop them and make peace, but I couldn't. Everything happened so fast, there were no warning signs..."
"That's just idiotic." Egrer pressed his palm to his forehead, feeling a migraine coming on. "What's wrong with the White Fang? I mean, I get that Blake has a hypertrophied sense of justice, but how can you fight over... that? Everyone knows they're just a bunch of killers hiding behind the fight for equality. What difference of opinion could there possibly be?"
"I'm not entirely sure, it's just a guess... promise you won't tell anyone." Magenta moved closer to him. "I think Blake is~"
"Eg!" Yang was fast approaching with the remnants of her team. Ruby. "Answer a couple of questions."
She sat down next to him, with such force that the chair beneath her creaked. Egrer got scared when he saw her eyes, but quickly calmed down—they were red not from her Semblance, but from sleep deprivation and irritation.
Ruby quietly stood next to her sister. Her eyes were red too, but from tears. She had been crying all night.
"Eg, explain this to me. You're a Faunus, how does Weiss even talk to you?"
"Does race matter that much to her?"
"Just answer my fucking question!" Yang barked, slamming her fist on the table.
"I..." Something clicked in his head, and now he didn't know what to say. Egrer awkwardly smoothed down his slicked-back hair. "It's a bit awkward, actually... everyone knows about my race except her. And Blake, I guess."
"So you hid it from her?"
"Not really hid it, more like there was just no reason to bring it up. And we kind of steered clear of the racial issue. I didn't know it was such a big deal for Weiss," he repeated. "She's not a racist, is she?"
"She's a racist, and a massive one at that," Yang grumbled, standing up. "Let's go, Ruby."
Her sister obediently trudged after her. For a second, she turned around.
"I'm sorry," she sniffled, "but it seems Weiss really does hate Faunus. Thanks for the help."
Egrer didn't believe it. He perfectly understood that racism was the domain of fools, and he also knew perfectly well that Weiss wasn't stupid. Which meant she absolutely couldn't hate millions of living beings just for the mere fact of their existence. Only idiots who needed to take their anger out on someone who was almost never protected by the law could afford to do that. Someone like Cardin.
Therefore, Yang and Ruby must have misunderstood something. And Egrer was to blame for that. He had known that the failure of this plan would backfire primarily on Weiss, since she was supposedly the one organizing the girls' night. But he took the risk anyway. Took it and lost. And now she was taking the heat for him, bearing the stigma of a racist.
He couldn't untangle this knot on his own. Right now, Egrer needed someone who was much better at reading people than him, someone who could judge impartially, someone he trusted.
"Madge, please tell me that's not true."
"Weiss, she... she's more afraid of Faunus. It seems the White Fang took someone important from her."
"That's still kind of idiotic. I mean, she's not so stupid as to write off all Faunus as her personal enemies after that. That's just dumb!"
"You can't always live by logic, no one is capable of that," Magenta replied quietly, looking him in the eyes. "Even now, you're discussing the stupidity of other people's actions, but you fail to notice the stupidity of your own."
"What do you mean?"
"You refuse to admit that Weiss is racist, even though everyone is saying exactly that. She's your friend, no matter what you say about it, and so you're ready to cover for her in every possible way. And that's good, Eg, it's foolish, but definitely good. You always stand up to defend me, too. Remember when we got caught stealing the Bullhead, it would have been much better to just shut up and not agitate Miss Goodwitch, but you didn't do that. If you had just left me alone with her, that would have been the logical decision; it would have been more beneficial." She suddenly gave a warm smile. "But you can't abandon your friends, right?"
Magenta looked away and Egrer thoughtfully chewed his lip. He had always been ready to jump in the way of any danger to help those he considered friends. Their problems were his problems, their grief was his grief, their happiness was his happiness. He adopted this credo when he met his first real friend—Illmond. And Egrer didn't know how to live any other way.
"You see, logic is hollow. You can logically justify absolutely anything, like murdering old people, for instance," she continued, twirling her hair around her finger as if nothing was wrong. "Why pay them pensions, why spend time and resources on them if they've already worked their share?"
"But they've earned their rest. That's just harsh," Egrer weakly objected, still unable to believe these words were coming out of Magenta's mouth. It felt like he was caught in a bad dream...
"What you just said was dictated not by this." She touched his forehead. Her warm palm slid down and stopped on his chest. "But by this. Weiss is afraid of Faunus because they killed someone important. Her heart is broken, she can't comprehend that not all of them want her dead. She's terrified it will happen again. It's much easier to avoid all Faunus entirely than to take the risk and personally vet every single one."
"Not Faunus," Egrer gritted through his teeth. "Whoever died on Weiss's watch, it wasn't the Faunus who did it. It was the White Fang."
"You're not listening to me." Magenta shook her head, speaking just as quietly as before. Almost in a whisper. "What difference does it make who? Will she feel better from the clarification? Will it make her feel better if she sees the killer's face? Or even if she takes revenge on him personally? As if that would bring back her loss."
Egrer sighed heavily and buried his face in his hands.
"You're right, it won't help. Whatever happened to her, it was a long time ago, and Weiss has clearly been thinking about it longer than we have. What should I do, Madge?"
"And what do you want to achieve?" the unexpected question threw him off balance.
"I... I guess I want to explain to her that not all Faunus want to hurt her."
"No, you want to explain that you specifically don't want to hurt her. Focus on that."
"But you don't wish her harm either! If there are two of us, there will be a third, and then a fourth, a fifth..."
"Eg, she doesn't give a damn about me or other Faunus, we're nobodies to her," Magenta replied, raising her voice. It annoyed her that Egrer couldn't understand. "In Beacon, the only one friends with Weiss is you."
"So I just need to say that I specifically don't want her and her family dead?"
"Yes. A very simple plan, isn't it? No need to overcomplicate things for nothing, just say it." Egrer would never have thought he'd be following her advice. You could never rely on Magenta, but right now, he believed her words made sense.
She was never wrong about what was eating away at the people around her. She unerringly identified their fears and skillfully got rid of them. People's anxieties were always like an open book to her; it was always calmer and easier around her, even if she was just fooling around or acting irresponsibly.
Sometimes it felt like that was her Semblance...
But right now she was powerless. Magenta was right, in Beacon, Weiss was only friends with Egrer, and his opinion was the only one she would at least somewhat consider. He was the only one who could explain everything to her.
Her fight with Blake didn't matter anymore, to hell with Ruby and the integrity of Team RWBY, a much more personal and burning issue had taken the forefront. And if he didn't solve it now, as soon as possible, this very day, the consequences would be catastrophic. The truth will always out, and when Weiss found out about his race, the resentment would stay with her for the rest of her life.
"Alright. Then I won't dawdle."
"Eg, wait." Magenta took his hand. "I... think I wanted to tell you something. Before Yang interrupted us."
"That did happen, yeah. What exactly?"
"I forgot... When I remember, I'll text you on your Scroll, it's really important."
***
Egrer spotted her. Usually, Weiss sat in the front rows to show the teachers her diligence and readiness to learn, but even so, she always kept a certain distance from her team. It used to be funny to watch—Ruby would sit closer to Weiss, Weiss would sit further away from Ruby. Now it was no laughing matter.
Weiss had retreated to the farthest corner of Port's classroom, as far away from her team as possible. And they responded in kind.
Ruby looked at Egrer with an almost faded hope. She took out a battered textbook on Grimm studies, which she had never taken care of, and a notebook that contained nothing but caricatures and doodles. A chewed-up pen and a worn-down pencil took their place next to it. For the first time in her entire education at Beacon, Ruby was going to use these things in this class. Either to impress and win back Weiss, or to distract herself from the encroaching thoughts that she had failed.
Her team had fallen apart.
Whenever this thought flashed through her tired head, it reflected on her face with barely restrained heartache. You couldn't help but feel sorry for her. Very sorry.
Egrer walked past and gave her an encouraging nod, after which he headed to the farthest corner of the auditorium.
"Hey, Weiss." She shot him a sidelong glance. Slightly surprised, but mostly indifferent, as if she had seen an unusual house facade on the street. They had never sat together in class; Egrer preferred the company of his pack, and she preferred solitude. That had always worked for them.
"Hello." Weiss slid her notebook a little closer to herself so he'd have more room.
"Thanks." He sat down next to her, and the bell immediately rang.
Peter Port coughed loudly, calling the class to order. He took a long step forward, then another, and another. Like an actor on stage, he surveyed everyone with an air of importance, his gray mustache twitching.
"We are missing someone here. My Huntsman instincts and common sense tell me that nothing good awaits a truant. Miss Rose!" he suddenly exclaimed. Ruby raised her head, her hood pulled up. "Where is Miss Belladonna?"
"She's not feeling well," she answered, as if she had been memorizing that phrase for hours. "She'll get better soon."
"Well then, I expect a doctor's note. Wish her a speedy recovery from me."
Weiss snorted next to him, drawing Egrer's attention. He looked at her and raised an eyebrow, silently inviting her to share what was on her mind. But she just turned away and stared out the window.
"So!" Port spread his arms and wiggled his fingers menacingly. Another one of his stories began. "As you remember from yesterday's lesson, I found myself one on one with a Goliath. In a massive cave, from the bottom of which rose streams of scorching air and flowed rivers of lava..."
"You look kinda tired today," Egrer noted quietly. He couldn't muster the courage to ask outright, "Do you hate Faunus?"
It was a very weird thing to bring up out of nowhere anyway. More likely than not, she wasn't a racist, so the question might even insult her. And then Egrer would feel incredibly stupid.
Plus, it was unlikely to be that simple. Even a hardcore racist like Cardin wouldn't specifically call himself a "racist." The word has too negative a connotation. He'd say he's a "guardian of blood purity," a "traditionalist," or something along those lines.
"Just didn't get enough sleep."
"Did something happen?"
"I know that you know, so cut the small talk," Weiss said sharply. "You've always been cautious, Egrer. Before coming over to me, you definitely discussed it with everyone. Stop annoying me even more."
"What happened during the girls' night?" It took way too much effort for Egrer to ask that question. He couldn't not ask for her perspective. "Did you even like it?"
"Yes... I liked it. It was a good idea." She might have even smiled if what happened hadn't happened. "Blake, she... she hid the fact that she's a Faunus from me. Can you imagine?"
"Well, I doubt she was trying that hard to hide it. Maybe she just didn't have a reason to bring it up?" Egrer tugged at the collar of his jacket; it was unbearably hard to listen to her cold voice, full of restrained anger.
It was terrifying to even imagine the scale of Weiss's resentment if she had found out about Egrer's race earlier... And the scariest part—right now she wanted his support and expected him to condemn Blake. But he couldn't hate her just for hiding her race. A lot of Faunus did that, and there was nothing wrong with it. Except for the fact that the revelation of such secrets leads to exactly these kinds of results.
"Whose side are you even on?"
"I'm not on anybody's side," Egrer replied, doing his best to maintain a neutral expression. Weiss was too biased, and the biggest mistake would be to start arguing with her or mindlessly nodding along. "I try to be impartial, I don't really know Blake at all. You're the one on a team with her."
"As it turns out, I don't know her either. Sure, we rarely talked, but living in the same room with someone, it's very hard not to get to know them at least a little."
"You're so... ahem." Egrer didn't know how to start this conversation and decided to test the waters first. "Are you this offended because she hid her race? Or was there something else?"
"There was. We started fighting over the White Fang, and she had the idiocy to doubt that they're just a bunch of sick degenerates, crooks, and killers." This confession was a bit too loud, which drew the teacher's attention. He just looked at them for a couple of seconds and went back to his story. Much quieter now, Weiss continued. "You agree with me, right?"
"Yeah."
"And that they are pure evil and know nothing but robbery, lies, and murder?"
"Yeah."
"And that they aren't some confused Faunus, like Blake thinks, but fully trained terrorists who know exactly what they're getting into?"
"Yeah. There's nothing confused about their actions, quite the opposite, they perfectly understand what they're doing."
"Seriously? You agree with all of it?"
"Yeah," Egrer nodded once again. "The White Fang are complete assholes, they do more harm than good. Honestly, it's a mystery to me how anyone could support them."
"I'm so glad I have sane people in my circle!"
People... The word echoed in his head.
"Miss Schnee, I'm trying to give a lecture here!" Port exclaimed. "If you are not interested in how I, with nothing but a toothpick and burning optimism, defeated a Massive Ancient Cave Goliath from the Time of the First Humans, then do not disturb others from listening!"
"I'm sorry, Professor, it won't happen again," Weiss assured him.
Egrer didn't usually care much about such a minor detail as being called human. But right now, that word "people" grated painfully on his ears. Perhaps it was because Weiss pitted humans and Faunus against each other, and in this specific case, clarification would have been more... appropriate. In any case, he didn't show it, sitting with the same stone face.
Meanwhile, Weiss continued speaking in a cold, venomous voice.
"You see, Blake didn't like that I called a monster a monster, and she started defending them." She whispered so quietly he had to lean in. "Confirmed criminals and scumbags."
He understood that Weiss was just exaggerating to make her misery seem more significant; she always did that. Egrer readily listened to her complaints and, it seemed, had prepared the ground for his main question, which he had been harboring since the very beginning.
"Does race matter that much to you?"
"I know my point of view is unpopular and condemned by many." she started nervously tapping her finger on the desk. This was the first time Weiss was sharing something so personal. "But yes, race matters to me. It just so happens that it's Faunus who hate my family. Of course, I understand that not all of them are vicious terrorists..."
Does she really understand that? Egrer thought hopefully.
No, he answered himself. She's just trying to seem politically correct, not even to me, but to herself. Like she knows she's being bad and regrets it. The height of hypocrisy is pretending to regret something you'd never actually regret.
"...but it's the Faunus who declared war on me. No wonder Blake supports the White Fang. All Faunus support them."
And then their conversation suddenly got even more personal. Egrer frowned and turned his head toward the teacher, not wanting Weiss to see his face.
But instead, Magenta saw him. She had been looking in their direction since the start of the lesson and seemed to be reading their lips. A bit further away, in the front row, sat Ruby, who was also stealing glances at them every now and then. They were both waiting for Egrer to sort out this problem, but he didn't even know what he should say right now. His worried look made them both nervous.
"I wouldn't speak for everyone," Egrer started carefully, "it's just that the radicals yell the loudest. There are plenty of Faunus who can't stand the White Fang."
Sorry, Madge, for breaking your advice, but I can't stay quiet.
A massive number of ordinary Faunus despised the White Fang, but when one of them kidnaps a bigwig from the government and screams on TV that their fight is the fight of all Faunus against all humans, the voices of dissenters simply drown in the roar of explosions and automatic gunfire.
Nobody cares that far from everyone supports the terrorists' methods. But the growing tension between the races forces more and more Faunus to pick a side. And humans, of course, won't welcome a non-human. Then only one place remains—hotly hated by them, but the only one ready to give them protection, shelter, and food. And over time, they too become imbued with the idea of a large-scale war with humanity.
Egrer had faced this himself once. He had a choice and he made it, telling the recruiters to fuck right off.
"Plenty? Ha! And who might that be?" Weiss asked rhetorically. "If there ever were any, they were crushed by their own brethren."
"Well, actually, I know one personally..." Egrer cut himself off. It felt like if he confessed his race right now, everything would come crashing down. A perfect answer popped into his head, one that also happened to be completely honest. Magenta's words floated into his head: A very simple plan, isn't it?
Only it had seemed easy back then, but now—it was like jumping into the sea off a cliff. If you're lucky, you won't smash against the rocks, but only if you're lucky.
It'd be better to wait out the storm and tell her everything later. But for some reason, this decision felt even more wrong. And not just because it went against Magenta's advice even more than his previous lapse... After all, nobody asked Egrer before he was born whether he wanted to be human or Faunus. So why should he be ashamed of his origins, as if there was something bad about it?
But for Weiss, that was exactly the case.
To her, a Faunus was the brand of a criminal and an enemy of her family, her personal enemy. So the idea of waiting it out seemed right. Even if Egrer's entire nature rebelled against this decision.
"That Faunus is Magenta."
"I didn't know... is she hiding too?" Weiss raised an eyebrow in surprise and looked her way.
"She never hid it. You might not believe me, but you guys actually have something in common. And don't argue with the fact that she's a sweetheart who wouldn't hurt a fly."
"She blew up a lake and roasted the fish in it alive," Weiss recalled, and Egrer rolled his eyes.
"Of course I was speaking metaphorically. Madge wouldn't hurt a Faunus or a human, does that phrasing work for you?"
"Wouldn't hurt them, unless it's a combat training class," Weiss continued sarcastically, nodding her head importantly. Egrer let out an involuntary growl.
"Stop nitpicking, you get what I mean."
"I got something else. That even the person you thought you knew might actually turn out to be someone else entirely."
"Are you saying that every Faunus here is just waiting to stab you in the back? Doesn't that sound like paranoia to you?"
"Less sarcasm in your voice, Egrer." Weiss crossed her arms over her chest. "If someone is trying to kill you, you're not paranoid. And I'll give you three guesses as to which family name became the target of the White Fang's holy war? Hint—it starts with 'Sch' and ends with 'nee'."
"Are you saying even Madge wants you dead? That even Madge supports the White Fang?" he almost said even me?
"She... most likely not," a hint of uncertainty slipped into her voice for a moment, "but I can't trust her just because she looks innocent. Remember what I said about Blake—I thought I knew her. Just like you think you know your Magenta."
Egrer clenched his fists in anger. Right now, Weiss was seriously considering the possibility that the most innocent creature in all of Remnant could somehow harm her. It offended him. Not as a Faunus, but as a friend.
"I still don't understand whose side you're on, Eg." Weiss used the shortened version of his name for the first time. Perhaps he would have been glad about it, if not for the murderous coldness in her voice. "You're pushing way too hard for Blake's innocence."
"I'm just trying to understand your thought process."
"Miss Schnee, Mr. Peleni! Stop whispering back there, you're missing the best part! Move away from each other, you can do your lovey-dovey cooing during your break."
"We'll talk later," Egrer said, gathering his things into his bag. Weiss didn't reply and simply turned away to the window.
Perhaps this breather would be for the best. They both needed to think.
And Egrer, on top of that, needed to cool down a bit. His worst fears were confirmed—Weiss was a racist, whether she wanted to admit it or not. She didn't care about the individual; even Magenta had become a potential enemy to her just because she was a Faunus. Just because she had multicolored hair and butterfly pollen.
He couldn't understand it. To him personally, such trivial details had never mattered, and this was the first time he'd seen someone take the racial issue so close to heart. Well, not exactly the first time, he'd seen plenty, but she was the only one he knew well. It just didn't compute.
All his life, Egrer considered racists a sort of third race. There are humans, there are Faunus, and there are idiots who consider one of them inferior. They are ready to justify themselves in any way possible, resorting to pseudoscience or religion, but their attempts to prove they were right always elicited nothing but laughter. And Egrer found it hard to believe that Weiss would end up in the ranks of these idiots. She was the smartest person he knew, second in intellect only to his adoptive father, and even then, only due to her age.
But Weiss didn't resort to pseudoscientific research or holy scriptures. She had personal experience. Maybe she had spent her entire childhood in fear that she would be the White Fang's next victim. And that had left an indelible mark on her.
Even Magenta would probably be unable to say for sure.
The moment the bell rang, Weiss was among the first at the door. Egrer hurried after her, abandoning his school supplies on the desk and nearly tripping over the leg of his own chair.
She turned around at the sound of his approaching footsteps while already standing in the hallway. After which she kept walking.
"Do you need something else?"
"I don't need anything from you. I just want to talk."
"Then talk." Weiss stepped outside and walked along the canal toward one of Beacon's gardens.
She was deep in thought. Her gaze wandered slowly over the water's surface, as if trying to find at least a little peace in her surroundings. And she found it; eventually, even her pace slowed down. Egrer, meanwhile, tried to find the right words, looking in the same direction. As luck would have it, nothing came to mind.
And then Weiss spoke up herself. No matter how resilient she tried to appear, no matter how much she built herself up as an unshakable fortress, she wanted to vent.
"Blake bolted the moment she let it slip she's a Faunus. Why do you think she did that?"
"Maybe she got scared of your reaction. Either way—she enrolled in Beacon, which means she can't be plotting anything bad."
"Innocent people don't run away; she was definitely here for a reason," Weiss replied with the same thoughtful expression. "But when she realized her cover was blown, she retreated. Espionage, sabotage, theft, contract killing, possibly even of me. In one second, I managed to come up with four reasons to infiltrate Beacon."
"That... sounds way too much like paranoia." Egrer didn't know how to respond; Weiss was speaking logically and coldly. She had already reached certain conclusions and wouldn't agree with a different opinion now unless it was backed by something completely unbreakable. "Maybe it's better to hear what Blake herself has to say? If she wanted to hurt you, she would have done it a long time ago."
"And what do you think she'll say? 'Yes, I'm a cruel killer and I want to slit your throat in your sleep' or 'You misunderstood everything, my life is so hard, I'm poor and miserable'?" Weiss smirked, clearly pleased with her quip. "Obviously, she'll start making excuses. She doesn't want to go to jail."
"You really shouldn't joke about having a hard life." He was starting to lose his patience again. "It's exactly because of a hard life that Faunus join the White Fang or become criminals. Not out of boredom, but because there's nothing to eat."
"Faunus are poor exactly because they sympathize with the White Fang's ideas. It is much safer for a business owner to hire a human worker than to risk the company's property or even the lives of its employees by hiring a Faunus," she replied with cold logic, and she was right. But she was even more wrong.
Egrer had to take a minute to think over his response. He needed to reply in her language so she'd grasp the core of his words, and that wasn't easy. During this time, they had reached an old gazebo drowning in greenery. Despite the autumn, the leaves were in no hurry to fall; Vale was warm almost year-round.
Judging by Weiss's confident stride, she knew exactly where she was going. This was her personal spot where she spent hours in solitude, away from everyone. In this place, they were surrounded only by tall bushes and trees; even the sunlight barely managed to creep in. An ideal place to think.
"And what are Faunus supposed to do in that case when they aren't hired?" Egrer gathered his thoughts, standing carefully at the entrance to the gazebo. He felt it would be impolite to step inside, as if he were invading her personal space. "You said yourself it's much better to hire a human, but how are the rest supposed to survive? Faunus have families too that they need to provide for somehow. And so, this vicious circle will just keep spinning forever."
Weiss didn't reply, but not because she had suddenly run out of arguments. She stared continuously into Egrer's eyes. He returned her gaze.
"You remind me of Blake," Weiss finally said, half-sitting on the table. "She spoke in a similar vein, too."
So we're not so different after all.
"Do you want me to tell you why I don't trust Faunus? Why I can't trust Faunus?" Weiss continued without waiting for his answer. "Because they want death not just for my family, but for everyone we are connected with. Partners, board members, friends... And they don't just hiss curses at us; they actually kill. Do you know what it's like to watch the people dear to you decrease in number with each passing year? That's not a rhetorical question. Answer me, do you know?"
"No," Egrer answered hollowly. His anger had subsided, but hadn't disappeared completely. "I'll say it again—a loud minority doesn't speak for everyone else. The White Fang are moral monsters, no argument there, but you shouldn't shift the blame onto ordinary Faunus."
"And how can I not shift it, when any 'ordinary Faunus' could suddenly turn out to be a killer? Or do you think White Fang members kill my acquaintances in fair one-on-one duels? Or openly declare their intentions before another terrorist attack?" Weiss stood up and began pacing the gazebo with unhurried steps. "No... they pretend to be servants and slip poison into the food. Or workers, staging 'accidents'. A taxi driver will take you into an alley and shoot you; a nanny will smother a baby in the night..."
"Weiss—"
"You think I'm making all this up or exaggerating?!" She threw her hand up. The coldness in her voice was gone completely, leaving only bitterness. "You think nothing like that actually happened?! No. My uncle was poisoned. My father's friend was crushed at a construction site. A politician who genuinely advocated for better working conditions for Faunus was taken away and shot. My one-year-old niece was smothered. A baby. She hadn't done anything to them. Do you understand? They don't give a damn who they kill."
She was terrified. Terrified that something like that might happen to her next.
"That's horrible, Weiss," Egrer said, crossing the threshold and stepping closer to her. "Now I understand better why Faunus aren't hired for high positions. But for the lower ones, you could give them normal wages, right? At least the same as humans. Think about it, the White Fang would lose their recruits; they simply wouldn't have anyone to fight with. Why doesn't your father do that?"
"Because we are not without sin either. I know that this cycle of hatred cannot be broken just like that. Father is angry and wants to crush the White Fang; he is completely uninterested in a peaceful solution. The White Fang thirsts for blood too. This war will last until one of the sides dies out."
"And there's absolutely nothing that can be done?"
"When I take my father's place, there will be nothing left of the old SDC," Weiss promised with grim determination. "I will change everything there. Down to the roots. The Faunus will have no reason left to hate my family, and then this war will stop."
"Sounds like a plan." Egrer placed an encouraging hand on her shoulder, but she brushed it off. "I'm obviously not particularly smart or strong, and all my schemes constantly fall apart... but if I can help with anything, just say the word."
"Then leave. I need to be alone right now."
Those weren't the words he had hoped for. But Weiss had already said too much; she wouldn't share anything else. She was emotionally drained; this conversation had completely exhausted her. Right now, it really was best to leave her alone with herself.
Slumping his shoulders, Egrer turned around and walked out of the gazebo. But suddenly he stopped, clenching his fists. Now or never, later might be too late. Come what may.
"I'm a Faunus. And I have never wished you any harm."
After which he immediately walked away.
He didn't see Weiss's eyes slowly widen as she continued to stare at the spot where he had been moments ago. How her face contorted, how she shook her head in disbelief at what she had just heard. How her trembling hands clutched at her hair.
"Nobody..." she whispered, "I don't know anybody here."