Well, Rin just dropped that little bombshell and now they were all staring at me. Not that I was at all ashamed, but I generally didn't just blurt it out for some kind of clout.
"When you say Harem…"
"Yes, it is exactly what you are thinking." Artoria was the one who answered Roman. She didn't seem to mind answering the question or it being brought up, so I supposed it didn't matter.
"I kinda wanna call bullshit, and I definitely would if it was him, but you're here confirming it so I'm conflicted." Melanie commented, rather slowly.
"Holy crap, are you for real, kid?" Junior exclaimed. "I don't think I've ever offered this before, but that deserves a drink on the house."
"Wait, wait, how does this even work? Like I heard things like this back in the day or some secret Atlasian gossip or whatever with the really old families, but seriously." Miltia leaned forward, looking at us. "You can't just say something like that without giving any juicy details."
"I don't know what to tell you, it isn't some complicated or exciting story." I shrugged. "I told her beforehand and we had a talk about the future and here we are."
"That's bullshit." Miltia countered.
"He speaks the truth." Artoria smiled beautifully. "He was honest with his intentions and the state of his relationships before we decided to move further. I was hesitant at first, but I do not regret my decision."
"Ugh, that's so boring but at the same time, kinda fucking cute." Melanie scowled. "What about the others? How many you got, how old are they?"
"It…depends." I cleared my throat. "And, well…" I glanced at Artoria. "I'm actually the youngest out of everyone."
"Wait, what?" Miltia blinked. "You're the youngest." She looked at Artoria. "But I thought…"
"I am flattered, but I am older than Wilhelm by a fair amount." Artoria said with clear amusement.
That made them just stare, wide-eyed.
"What's your secret?" Melanie narrowed her eyes. "Virgin blood? How many do I need to kill?"
"Alright, that's enough." Junior stepped in. "Leave the poor girl – woman alone."
"Wait, does that mean he's into older women?" Miltia held her finger up.
"Well –"
"Oh yeah." Rin answered for me. "Schweinorg here prefers older women. You should see his others, they're not nearly as innocent as Saber here is. Most of them are bonafide MILFs."
"Thank you, Rin." I grumbled.
"Didn't he mention a daughter last time? With everything that happened, I kind of forgot. But it really makes sense now." Melanie muttered.
"That's hilarious." Miltia snorted, then looked at Rin. "I like you, we should hang out."
"Bwah?" Rin blurted out. "Um, sure?"
"Roman, you've been quiet." Junior glanced at the 'famous' Thief. "It's not like you to miss out on something like this."
"I'm confused, Junior." Roman sighed. "I'm feeling something and I don't know what it is."
"Did you finally realize how stupid your hat looks?" I offered.
"My hat is stylish, and I look immaculate in it." He shot back without a second thought. "But I have this feeling like….when I do something amazing, like a big heist that I pull off or a big score, you know? Something to be happy about, excited and feel good about."
"Yeah?" Junior ushered him on.
"But…I'm feeling it for someone else." Roman let out a dramatic sigh.
"Dammit Roman." I rubbed the bridge of my nose.
"For the first time in my life, I think I genuinely feel pride in someone else." He wiped a fake tear from his eye. "Is this what fatherhood feels like?"
"I am contemplating murder right now."
"And that's our cue to leave." Miltia slid off her stool and looked back towards Artoria and Rin. "Hey, wanna go shopping with us? You both are new to Vale, we can show you the good places and not the tourist traps."
Artoria and Rin shared a look.
"That sounds fun, actually." Rin cracked a smile. "I've been meaning to update my wardrobe. Spent way too long in the wilderness and I need some new stuff."
"A better use of my time." Melanie shrugged. "We're taking the day off, Junior." She said flippantly.
"Didn't even ask my permission." He said dryly.
"Stop crying, Junior." Miltia joined in. "Come on, let's beat the crowds."
"I'm in." Rin hopped off her seat. "Come on Saber, you need a bigger wardrobe too."
"I am content with what I have." Artoria said politely.
"She did not just say that." Miltia looked at Artoria in surprise.
"Right, we have some work to do then." Melanie and her sister glanced at once another.
"Tell me about it. It's like pulling teeth to get her to buy some more stuff." Rin joined in. "Well, you're not getting out of it this time, Saber." Rin grabbed her arm, practically pulling her out of her seat.
"I admit defeat." Saber sighed, perhaps a smidge of happiness contained within it before quickly giving me a kiss on the cheek. "Behave." She softly spoke.
"Whipped." Melanie and Miltia chuckled again.
"Have fun." I waved them off as they left the club.
"Well, that was interesting." Roman slid a couple seats closer. "Didn't expect you to go for the prim and proper sort. You sure she's going to be okay with the Twins?"
"It's good for her to go out and do more things like this." I smiled happily. "She hasn't had many chances before and still doesn't actively think about it."
"She did strike me as the 'high society' type that's basically forced into a gilded cage throughout their childhood." Roman hummed.
"Something like that." I wasn't going to just reveal all her secrets. "Anyways, did you ever do that I think I asked you about?"
"That old man who made your sheath? Yeah, I dropped off a chunk of money at his place a while ago." Roman lit a new cigar. "Think he closed shop and retired or something."
"That's good." I nodded in thanks.
Didn't want to make myself a liar. I lost a bet so I paid up, simple as that.
"And what do you wanna talk about, it's obvious you're tiptoeing around something."
Roman and Junior shared a look and Roman then tapped his cigar on the nearby ashtray. "So you remember the whole Grimm thing I asked you about last time?"
"Clearing up some mutated Grimm, yeah? Need me to do that? I have some time."
"Well…..it seems like it's a bit more than what any of us assumed."
"Alright? What's the big deal?" I asked.
"What Roman is trying to say is that he promised you for a job and the job turned out to be significantly more difficult than what he had assumed. You see, he didn't actually look into the details and just made a lot of guesses." Junior clarified.
"….okay, go on."
"Right, anyways. Good old Council Member withheld a little bit of information from me when we made the deal. And to be honest, with everything I had to pull to grab our asses out of the fire, it was a very close thing. To the point where if we bail out, he'll welch too and right back onto Vale's most wanted we go."
"Just, stop avoiding it and tell me bluntly." I let out a tired groan.
"Alright, so they sent some drones inside the facility to scout, and it's not just your run of the mill Mutated Grimm – for how weird it is to say that. Even some of the Ancient variety aren't an issue in comparison. I'm talking about a whole horde of Apathies down there, along with an unknown amount of Chills and probably hundreds of Nightmares. We also think the big boss of the group is an Ancient Mutated Sphinx."
"My Grimm biology is a little rusty, other than the Sphinx, can you remind me of the others?"
"Yeah, I guess you said you never did go to a Huntsman academy, so you probably don't know the rarer and scarier types of Grimm. Governments tend to keep those out of the public eye to avoid any panic and fear….for obvious reasons." Roman bit down on his cigar, rolling it to the other end of his mouth. Apathy Grimm are kind of humanoid shaped and probably the scariest mother fuckers you'll see outside of the big fuck-off Grim that can stomp on buildings. If that was all, they'd still be something I never want to run into, but they have a Willpower draining….aura about them. And they have a scream that can somewhat penetrate Aura to induce fear and discombobulate those who hear it."
"Huh, That's news to me."
"Never heard of Apathy Grimm, eh?"
"Well, no. But I'm more talking about you knowing a big word like 'discombobulate' and using it correctly. I'm genuinely surprised you could do that."
He held his finger up and wagged it. "Alright, I'll let you have that one for earlier."
"Roman wants to make a show about everything." Junior grunted in annoyance. "You got Chills which are kinda like Ghosts in their base 'form'. They don't have any combat power by themselves but they can possess people and are very intelligent. They're extremely hard to detect, but you know they're around because the temperature drops in their vicinity, hence the name."
"Do they hang out in cold places?" I asked, a little curious.
"Funny enough, they can't survive in cold environments. So if you suddenly feel a strange chill, and I mean it when I say 'strange', you'll know exactly what I'm talking about, then light up a fire, throw out some fire dust or make the area around you as bright as possible. They're like an ink cloud and they hate light. Fire generally is your best bet to deal with them, but Dust in general seems to work pretty well."
"Noted." That's kinda scary, I wondered how Dawnbreaker would react?
"Lastly you got Nightmares, sort of a combination of the last two." Junior stated.
"Joy." I snorted.
"They're kind of like floating tentacle spines, hard to not notice, but they're slippery bastards. Got a scar where one almost possessed me some years back."
"Shit, I never heard about that." Roman looked surprised.
"Yeah, not my proudest moment. Was still a kid back then learning the ropes. It grabbed onto my arm and I used some Fire Dust to burn myself in panic. Did the trick, but I still got the spot marked." Junior shrugged. "They can drain Aura on Touch, and as I said they can possess people, but not like a Chill can. It's more like a dream possession where it gives someone nightmares, hence the name. It's also more of a parasitic thing than an ethereal thing like a Chill. If you got a teammate, they'll notice the possession, unlike a Chill that can hide it."
"Alright, do you have a time that this Council Member wants me to handle it?"
"You sure, kid?" Junior looked at me skeptically. "This isn't a job even for a team of experienced Huntsmans. They're probably assuming that we'll all go with you and worst case, they get rid of us and their next team will have more information."
"It's fine, I've dealt with worse." I waved him off.
"See Junior, I told you my boy could handle it!" Roman grinned. "And I'd rather go back to being a criminal than step foot in there. Even if I had my Cudgel, I'm not ashamed to say I wouldn't go within a mile of that place. Speaking of, that friend of yours took it and I forgot to ask how long it'd take."
"Eh, give her a few days. I'll check up on her later in case she gets sidetracked."
"Sounds good."
"Just tell that guy that if he wants it done, it has to be in the next couple days otherwise I'm not going to be able to do it for awhile."
"If you're sure, then I'll pass it on. Most likely, he'll be fine with you doing it as soon as you can." Roman replied.
"Well, I don't mind taking care of it tomorrow, I have some things I wanted to test out and having some targets would help." I rubbed my chin thinking about the Hogyoku.
Kill two birds with one stone, a good opportunity to test out what this Hogyoku was capable of.
"Now, I heard something about a free drink." I eyed Junior.
He let out a bark of laughter. "Don't get used to it, but you get one on the house."
[***]
Ozpin POV
"Oh Glynda, wonderful." I looked up from my paperwork to see Glynda entering my office. "How fare our potential new students?"
There was a faint smile that appeared. "They have mostly retired for the night. I warned them that it would be an early morning and that they would need a good night's rest. Unfortunately, not all of them heeded my warning."
"Kids will be kids." I hummed.
"Yes, but they're kids who will be facing Grimm." She adjusted her glasses. "I don't like that you told me not to interfere."
"Yes, I know. If you had it your way, you would have forced them into their sleeping bags for their own benefit. However, we cannot hold their hands their entire lives. Actions will have consequences, and if they wish to learn this lesson around Grimm, it's best under our watch. Bart and Peter are around for emergencies. And we even hired a new teacher to help out."
"Yes, I admit as an educator that some students must learn lessons the hard way. And I am very happy that we finally hired a new staff member, Ozpin. But you know this still isn't enough, Miss Greene isn't a teacher but handles Security. While that does help us with needing to patrol at night, it still leaves us with large class sizes and an almost overwhelming schedule."
"Did Professor Peach decide yet?" I asked.
"She did; she agreed to take over some of the wilderness survival training. The things involving how to identify plants, dangerous and beneficial, etc."
I smiled, pleased, and took a sip of my coffee. "We can look into more hires for next year."
"I will continue to look for potential teachers then." She sounded pleased.
"Well, if there was one good thing that came out from the whole issue that happened recently, it's our increased budget. We can afford to hire some more staff."
"Did you ever figure out how Roman was able to remove the warrants for himself and the others?" She sounded annoyed.
"I assume the routes as we would expect. Bribes, threats, etc. The other Council Members who went along with it were being very tight lipped and they adamantly suggested that I drop the subject. Enough that they went as far as to increase our budget to get me to stop asking questions." Not that I asked for such a 'bribe', but they made their stance clear in doing so by their own hand.
'Take this and drop it'.
I wouldn't turn down a windfall like this, I was pragmatic enough to recognize a boon when I saw it, even if it came from an unsavory situation. I doubted I could have changed anything regardless.
"It's going to be hard to approach him now that we can't leverage his legal status. As long as he is in Vale, that is."
"I know." I reluctantly sighed knowing that we lost some of our cards to play. And I didn't want James to be the one to get ahold of the young man we were after. And I was still not sure about James' little theory, so I wouldn't hold my breath for that. "Atlas and Mistral are both angry as well, so it's been difficult to sooth over those tensions, even if most of the fault does not lay with the 'criminals' themselves."
"Where's Crow, wasn't he supposed to call by now or send an update?" Glynda asked.
"He's been quiet, but I haven't wanted to disturb him. If he's in the middle of a fight, then it'd be best not to interrupt." I leaned back, pushing some papers away.
"He usually sends an update in situations like this."
"Qrow can take care of himself, Glynda. And in the absolute worst case, he can escape better than nearly anyone on Remnant." I offered it as a consolation. Despite how much they got on each other's nerves, they do care about one another in a platonic way. "It isn't Qrow's first Grimm tide and I –" My scroll started ringing and I recognized the name. "Speaking of." I held it up for her to see the name and she smiled lightly. I pressed the button to answer and set it on my desk. "I am glad to hear from you Qrow. Glynda was just voicing her concern at your silence."
"Oh, was that the name of your pawn, Ozma?"
I felt a chill run down my spine. A voice I recognized in my nightmares answered me and I nearly fell out of my chair to scramble back to my scroll I had set down. "Salem!?" I exclaimed, picking it up to see.
On the other end, I saw her, the same face of my former wife from all those years ago. Clearly an illusion she was using to mask her cursed nature.
"Ozpin?" Glynda spoke, but I silently tried to shush her, perhaps a bit impolite, but this situation was nothing but volatile.
"Hmm, who was that Ozma? I see now, yes these devices are quite something." She looked at me, and Glynda who made her way behind me. "How surprising, another blonde to keep at your side? You always did have a certain type."
"Excuse me!?" Glynda raised her voice.
"You are excused, child." Salem was…teasing her? "You're not the first to be swayed by any false words he might have. What was the name of the last one, Ozma? And I remember that blonde 'assistant' of yours when you paraded yourself around as the King of Vale."
"Let me see." Another voice shuffled over and a woman with reddish purple hair peeked over as well. A face I recognized from a while ago due to reports from James. "I can see the resemblance. You're right, he does seem to replace you."
"It doesn't matter, I don't care what harlot he pulls off the street to keep him company." Salem dismissed the statement and I found myself unable to understand what was going on.
"You say he often bothers you, yes? Perhaps he has not moved on?"
"How amusing, is that it, Ozma? Do you still miss me? Tell me, child, does he call my name out when you tend to his needs?"
Glynda's squawk of indignation brought me back to my senses. "Salem!"
"Yes, just like that."
"No, I – "
"The inability to let go is a very unattractive trait. I can see why you are no longer together." The woman next to Salem commented.
"One of his many flaws that I overlooked in the past."
"Does that only include his looks?"
"What does the way I look have to do with anything!" I found myself shouting. "Wait, that doesn't matter. Where's Qrow, how did you get his scroll!?" Why was she still able to get this kind of reaction out of me after all these years?
"No, he looked different before. However, he retains certain characteristics due to his magic once he subsumes the original host. But he's always been unkempt unless I forced him to tidy himself up. One of the many issues, as I said. Though there was one particular thing that most made me displeased."
"Was it a small pecker?"
Salem uncharacteristically laughed. "No, I was speaking of his tendency to believe himself 'holier than thou' but that is also something to consider. He was very adamant that he was 'average' and I never wished to hurt his feelings."
"Do you think it's still the same even now? Is that why he's ever so clingy?"
"Oh my, is that it, Ozma?" Salem held up her bent pinky. "I've heard things about men and self esteem issues….it does seem to make sense in hindsight."
I was having trouble even formulating a response. I didn't know what was going on, but I noticed something off about her. "A-are you drunk?"
"I've only had one drink in the past hour!"
"That was a barrel, not a glass."
"It was still one." Salem giggled.
"ufufu, let's order another."
"Salem!" I slammed my fists on the table. "Is Qrow alive?"
"Who's Qrow again?' Salem looked to her…companion.
"He was the one that gave us this device, I believe." The other woman clarified.
"Oh yes, him. Who knows?" Salem grinned. "Why don't we trade? I'll tell you if you tell me where the Relics are."
"I will never hand over the Relics to you!"
"You can ask Jinn." The other woman stated, making me stiffen.
"I refuse." Salem huffed. "That Spirit is too smug already, if I ask her she will never let me forget it!"
"How do you know that name?" I demanded. She shouldn't know Jinn's name! She should only know about the Relic of Knowledge having a spirit.
"Wouldn't you like to know." Salem laughed.
"Tell him where the Relic currently is."
"I-I refuse to mention that shameful Spirit's fetishes."
"It's in her ass." The woman stated. "She keeps the lamp up her ass."
"Don't just blurt it out."
"She would happily tell him on her own."
"That's not the point!"
"I believe that someone is jealous. Do you hope to also have the same treatment?"
"Absolutely not! Don't you dare insinuate otherwise." Salem looked…embarrassed. "How do I turn this device off!?"
"Press the button in the middle."
"I don't see it."
"Right there!"
"It's not working!"
There was a strange scream and the scroll's images became distorted as everything spun around and with an obvious collision of some kind, the call was turned off.
….she threw the scroll.
"….Ozpin, what was that?"
"I….don't know, Glynda." I answered honestly. "I genuinely have no clue as to what just happened."
Glynda and I would probably have sat there, silent for a while longer if something didn't slam into the window.
"Qrow is fine it seems." Glynda said quietly. "I'll open it for him."
I didn't respond as she opened the window, letting him fly in.
"Oz, big news! I ran into your ex-wife, who you didn't tell us was your ex-wife. But she was out there, and –"
"We know, Qrow." I cut him off, holding up my scroll, letting him fill in the blanks.
"Oh." He blinked.
"Qrow, do you happen to have your flask on you?"
"….yeah?"
"Can I please borrow it?"
"uh…..sure?" He casually handed it to me.
I flipped it open, holding it up to my nose to smell how strong the alcohol was. With a nod, I poured all of it into my coffee.
[***]
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