Chapter 297

Junior grumbled and huffed as he ushered me into the back room. I remembered this place, been here a lot when we were discussing less-than-legal things. I plopped down on the familiar couch, waiting for him to speak.

Junior took off his sunglasses, rubbing his eyes before falling into a seat opposite me.

“You and Roman. You both are going to give me a heart attack.”

“Not Neo?”

“Neo would sooner just stab me.” He snorted.

“That’s probably true.” She was a very stabby girl.

“Atleast you had the damn common sense to disguise yourself before waltzing in. Fucking Roman just strode right in in broad daylight, sat at my bar and asked me how it was going. I had Vale Authorities riding my ass for days.” Roman breathed out in annoyance.

“Let me guess, he did it just to piss you off?”

“Probably.” Junior sighed. “He did ask me a few things though, so it was probably just a pleasant bonus for that idiot.”

Fucking Roman.

He would do something like that just to mess with Junior if he knew Junior wouldn’t suffer meaningful because of it.

“Shit, kid. Where did you disappear to? You got any idea how many people were scouring the Kingdoms for you? I even tried my hand to see where you’d gone, and I couldn’t find a single trail. It’s like you disappeared off the face of Remnant.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle at his wording. “If I don’t want to be found, it’s going to be damn hard to find me.”

Junior shook his head, knowing he wouldn’t get anymore out of me. “Pretty good disguise too, didn’t recognize you until you opened your mouth. Dead giveaway after that.”

“It’s hard to hide this kind of charm, even with my skill.” I sighed dramatically.

“Sure, let’s go with that. Cause it’s definitely not that urge to slug you right in the mouth.” Junior snorted.

“I missed your bluntness, Junior.” I chuckled again.

“Yeah, yeah, don’t get sappy on me, kid. I’m ready to hand over this Lien I’ve been holding onto. Been burning a hole in my pocket, and I’ve had half a mind to just snatch it for myself.” He went to the side, tapping on the wall, a compartment popped open, revealing a safe. After a few buttons pressed, and some turning of the mechanism, it popped up. He pulled out a briefcase, setting it on the table. With a click, it opened it up, facing me. “230,000 Lien.”

“Damn.”

“Damn right.” He didn’t take his eyes off the money. “It was Atlas that ended up buying back the stolen blueprints. I guess they realized it was quicker and easier than the alternative.’

“That must have been a fun conversation. ‘Here’s your stolen stuff back, please don’t arrest us. And by the way, you owe us a lot of money.’”

Junior let out a chuckle. “Been in the business this long, I do have contact on that side of the line. They just wanted it out of the public and it was worth the cost.”

Yeah, I could imagine all the bad press they were getting. Making them look incompetent and everything, keeping the bad PR down was probably worth the cost.

Well, while not the reason I came over, the greedy part of me was always happy to have more money.

“How you been, Junior? Not have any trouble because of what happened?”

“I’ve had my fair share, but I had enough cards reserved to get out mostly unscathed. Had to burn a lot of favors and turn over a bunch of blackmail on some politicians, but it was worth it for the payday we got.”

I leaned back in the comfy seat. “And what’s the word on the street? I’ve been hold up in my little hidey hole for awhile, what’s going on right now?”

“You want a run down since you went underground?”

“I’d appreciate it.” I nodde.d

“Hmm” Junior tapped his chin. “Don’t know if you know the name or note. Merlot, or something or another. Apparently some mad scientist type, been experimenting with Grimm, had a lot of secret labs scattered around the kingdoms. They got stumbled upon when our illustrious Atlas elites went looking for you. Complete accident mind you, and they uncover a conspiracy that could have gone very bad.”

“Did I get credit for the discovery?” I smiled humoredly.

“I’m sure they’ll give you a trophy if you turn yourself in.” Junior snorted with a chuckle himself. “Besides that…..apparently there’s been word out looking for a women that appeared over by Mistral. Some big player that people wanted to recruit and find out the origins of. They said she killed a few of Merlot’s big nasties all by herself with nothing but a basic spear. Lots of sights of her too, randomly wandering around, helping people.”

I blinked, because that sounded rather familiar. “Does her description align with something like – a red spear, purpleish red hair, red eyes, purple skin-tight clothing. Utterly stunning?”

“Yeah, you heard about her?”

“Hard to not know the woman who shares my bed.” That would be awkward. Should I just randomly ask her who she is after sex next time? She’d totally kick my ass for doing it, but it would be hilarious.

Junior opened his mouth and closed it again. “Of course you know her, because why not.” He finished with a shake of his head. “Well, Atlas going to piss themselves if they ever find out. From the talk I heard, she’s one hell of a Huntress. Made Atlas’s special ops teams look like trainees.”

“That’s my Scáthach.” I smiled in response.

“Yeah, I heard that’s her name. Weird sounding, but whatever.” Junior shrugged. “Guess I don’t gotta care about that now since you’re involved. Probably just disappeared to whatever rock you were hiding under. But if she pops back up, I’ll keep an eye open for trouble.”

“Thanks, Junior.”

“Yeah, whatever.” He rolled his eyes, but I appreciated the sentiment. “Other than that, not anything major. Mistral is settling down, that old bitch Malachite bribed the right people and she’s not even being talked about. The tournament kind of went out with a whimper after everything that happened. Uh…..” He scratched his head. “Really, the only noteworthy thing happening right now is Beacon’s new semester is starting soon, which gets things really busy.”

Oh, is that coming already? “You got a list of potential attendees?”

“Who do you think I am?” Junior looked down at me with an offended expression. “And what do you want that for?”

“Just wanted to check to see if a friend is on it. Kinda befriended Pyrrha Nikos during the tournament, we’ve stayed in touch and she said she’s attending Beacon.” I explained simply.

“Yeah, she’s going to be there.” Junior confirmed. “Along with some other names that were in the tournament.”

“Oh?” I perked up. “That’s interesting, might need to drop in and see how those kids are doing.”

“And I guess there’s one last thing.” Junior hummed to himself. “I said Roman dropped by, and he did ask me for some things. He didn’t really tell me what it was for, but I think he’s going to solve our – your – little problem with the authorities soon. Don’t know what magic he’s going to pull out of his ass, but Roman does get some ridiculous things done when he wants to.”

“I will be hesitantly optimistic.” I shrugged, not really caring either way. Would be nice to walk around without a warrant for my arrest so I could bring others here. But it otherwise wasn’t that huge of a deal in the first place.

“so…” I closed the briefcase full of Lien. “Where’s the girls? I was hoping to see Miltia.” She was my friend, I did miss her.

“They bailed after Roman did his little walk through. Said they needed a vacation after being raided by the police for the eleventh time in the past month.” Junior let out another sigh. “Can’t really blame them there, if I could, I’d have jumped ship – literally – to that resort over in Vacuo.”

“oof, rough.”

“Brothers, you don’t know the half of it. Even if I’m technically in the clear, I’m being pressed by several sides to try and get me to roll over. You know how many times I’ve been in the back of a squad car since you’ve left? Several times, and it’s always for bullshit reasons, but the higher ups that I got no leverage over want to keep making me miserable.” Junior glowered, tossing his Sun Glass on the coffee table infront of us.

“I know the feeling.”

“Really?” He looked surprised.

“Well, kinda. Instead of police cars, it’s beautiful women.”

“Oh, fuck you.”

“Sorry, there’s only one Xiong that I’ll –“

“Don’t make me get my bat, brat.” Junior groaned. “Damn Roman, what was this bullshit about ‘adopting’ you. Aint no way you aren’t his bastard.”

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“It wasn’t.”

“I know, but it makes me feel better when you compare me to him.”

Junior chuckled again. “How long you staying around? Gonna jump back into your hole right away?”

“Eh, probably. Might go see Pyrrha, bully her a little bit. But I did need something else, which is why I stopped by.” I replied.

“hmm, What do you need? Keep in mind, I’m under heavy surveillance right now.”

“I need dust. As much as you can get me. Crystals are best, and the higher quality the better.” I didn’t hold back.

I was thinking that the siege weapon designs I gave to Medea might be more optimal when using Dust as a source of power.

“Shit kid, you’re not with the White Fang are you?” Junior looked almost concerned.

“….no? Why would I be? The Faunus Terrorist Organization is completely irrelevant to me?” I said in confusion.

“Huh, I guess that’s something I forgot to mention then. Yeah, the White Fang had been active here recently. Heard they’ve been hitting the Schnee Dust shipments that’ve been coming in. Stealing what they can, blowing up what they ciouldn’t steal in time.” Junior explained briefly.

I let out a breath of annoyance. “So it’s undoable?”

“It’d normally be something easy, relatively speaking. Large quantities of dust are watched by the Kingdoms, but not being an illegal merchandise makes it much easier to move around. However, Atlas and Vale both are heavily cracking down on it right now with the Vital Festival coming up and to be hosted at Beacon this year.” Junior responded.

Vital Festival?

Doesn’t ring a bell, but it’s probably something I shouldknow, so I’m not going to ask about it.

“So just shitty luck then, great.” I slumped back in my seat. This is an annoying set back.

Junior let out a sigh. “I….can maybe scrounge up what I can in Vale right now? Have my buys hit up most of the shops around town and gather it all for you. Otherwise, you’re better off taking a page out of the White Fang’s book, rob the Schnee if you want some. Or even the terrorist bastards themselves. But, good lucky, even I don’t know where they are.”

Yeah, If I could rob them, that I would feel absolutely no guilt. But it’d be never impossible to even divine their position with so broad of information.

“Honestly, any bit would help, and I’ll happily compensate. But you also gave me an interesting idea. Schnee Dust company, they have some questionablepractices, don’t they?” I inquired.

“A polite way to say that they use Faunus as basically slavery.”

“How bad is it?”

“In some places, pretty damn bad. Like, you see them and don’t wonder why groups like the White Fang exist.”

I winced a little, imagining it and what I was considering. “Think there are some places where they’re literally used as slaves, not allowed to leave, that kind of thing?”

“…..I might know a couple places. The really bad ones where you get rumors about some horrendous shit.”

“Well, I’m already a criminal, may as well put that title to good use.”

If there’s one thing I abhor, it’s slavery.

***

I let out a breath, stepping out of a portal. The heavy deathly air hung all around me as I began walking through the Grimm Lands.

I was in a mood.

I had several crates – tons – more dust in my storage ring right now. But for some reason, I couldn’t feel happy about it.

Maybe it was the children I had to literally break the chains around their necks.

God, what a fucked up thing. Killed all of those bastard is what I did. Sent the Faunus slaves to their home island – Menagerie or whatever. Had to sort of eyeball the coordinates, but it should have put them out right in the middle of their main city.

Actually had one of the Faunus that I freed ask me why I was helping since I was a human.

That really hit me right in the gut.

Just wanted to forget it right now.

I think that was perceivable, because even the Grimm that roamed the area were stay very far away from me right now.

Would probably welcome the stress relief if they offered themselves up. However, I’m in Salem’s territory, so I wanted to be polite and not kill what could be her potential minions.

It’s kinda weird that I’m getting little butterflies in my stomach, happily approaching the spooky castle.

I think it’s suppose to be fear or trepidation. But I can’t help but remember her cute smile, and that scary ambience seems to fade into he background.

The large gates opened up for me. It made me wonder if there were spells in place, the amount of ambient magic around the area made it hard to separate anything specific and miniscule like that. Not to mention the actual defenses that warded the castle.

I was greeted, not by Salem, but her underling.

…Cinder? I think her name was?

She paused upon seeing me, even bowing her head awkwardly. “My mistress beckons you inside. She told me to relay a message that she is otherwise preoccupied for a moment and will appear shortly.”

Huh.

“……so did she run away to her room really quick to do her hair and such?”

Cinder twitched, but didn’t confirm. However I think the embarrassed expression she had said it all. “I could not comment on what my Mistress does away from prying eyes.” She drawled.

I was going to tease her later, that’s for sure.

But more importantly, this woman here was surprising. “Since when did you get Magic.”

Cinder almost tripped over herself as she took a step forward, clearly not expecting my question.

“H-how did you know?”

“How could I not?” I blinked. “Felt Magical Energy bleeding off of you since I first walked in. It’s like you’re trying to show off or something.”

“I-I acquired it recently with the help of Mistress.” Cinder stammered out before regaining her composure. “She never said anything about my…..Magical Energy doing such a thing.” She said it like it was foreign words to her.

“Hmm.” I tapped my chin, wondering what Salem was thinking. “It’s not impossible to give someone their own innate Magic, however, most processes are extremely difficult. Salem must treasure you a lot to go through the effort to do such a thing. I’m guess it was within he past few days? Which would make sense that she hadn’t bothered to say anything, she’s probably eyeing it to see if it’ll start falling off by itself or other action is required.”

Cause leaking Magical Energy like that was not a good thing, even if it appeared as though her reserves were rather large.

“Though I’m curious how you acquired it?”

Cinder looked hesitant. “Through combat. I was the victor and staked my claim on the powers of the Fall Maiden. However, I was only able to take half before interference arrived.”

Don’t know what this ‘Fall Maiden’ is, but it sounds like something impressive by her tone. Perhaps some type of Phantasmal Species that you can gain power through defeating? Questions I’ll have to find out for later since it seems like Magic is hidden from most of the world.

“Oh?” I quirked an eyebrow. “For being half, that’s rather impressive. Has Salem taught you anything yet?”

“Mistress has only showed me how to control the flow of my Magic.” There was a sight annoyance to her tone. “I have yet to learn how to control it fully.”

“Well damn, if I had known, I would have brought a proper gift. It’s tradition when visiting another Magic-user to bring a gift for new students.” I quickly thought about what I could give her. “You don’t seem to have a proper Focus yet, I suppose I have some decent training ones.” I mentally looked into my ring and took out one of the various Staffs I had from Skyrim. It wasn’t anywhere near even Rin’s, but it was…..above average for what an Apprentice would use.

I casually tossed it to her and she caught it with confusion.

“W-what do I do with this?” Cinder looked at it, completely bewildered.

“You give your thanks.” Salem pushed open the doors, strutting into her throne room.

“Mistress.” Cinder stiffened.

“Do you not know proper etiquette, Cinder?” Salem stared at her. “When presented a gift, you give your thanks.” There was a little bite to her words.

“T-thank you.” Cinder quickly bowed in my direction.

“Think nothing of it.” I honestly didn’t care much, my attention was almost entirely taken by the breathtaking figure that just walked right in.

“Hmph.” Salem walked up, practically snatching the staff out of Cinder’s hands. She gave it a once over, inspecting it intently. “It is adequate.” She pushed it back into Cinder’s hands without any fuss. “You are dismissed, Cinder.”

“Y-yes, Mistress.” Cinder bowed her head, scurrying towards the doors that Salem walked in from.

Salem, glancing at her leaving, walked to her throne, taking her seat as she loomed above. “So, you have returned once more. Foolishly you seem to be begotten of all fear as you stand in my presence. Tell me what brings you here, do you have more trite fanciful words to try and whisper into my ear? Do you attempt to woo this Queen?”

It’s funny, with how standoffish she appeared, I sorta felt like that was some expectance in her words.

“I missed you.” I said with all sincerity.

And that whole visage she built up came tumbling down with that slight bit of red that appeared on her cheeks. Even with the scowl as she turned her head away, it was honestly too cute.

****

Author's Note.

Not entirely happy with the chappter, still feel pretty shitty, so I didn't go as far as I wanted to, mainly just wanted to write something for the day and it's over 3k words. So, still have a Pyrrha part with Salem next chapter. And don't worry, Roman will make an appearance.

On a side note, I left out the scene of him going to one of the dust mines and doing that whole expected thing. Should I add it in? I kinda feel like I should to round out the chapter. But I also had the thought to talk about it more in detail next chapter or something. 

Also, next chapter might be delayed, have some editing I want to do and might dedicate tomorrow for that.