Soooo. I'm back. with another behemoth of a chapter. 3days of tedious work and many google translates later I present you nearly 7k words. I hope that i improved the quality of my writing. And with that: have fun with this chapter!
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As Jaune woke up, his family was delighted as he jumped around the room. The cure worked. All the stress of the past years seemed to fall off of them.
After five minutes of continued jumping and dancing around the room, Jaune came down from his happy-high situation. He turned to his father and said:" You know dad, the stories of the two brothers are true."
His father gave him a quizzed look and implied the question of what he meant.
"The two brothers are real, I spoke with the older one. He gave me his approvance to use transmutation against the Grimm. To think of, he spoke of something else. But I can't remember what it was. I think it was important. Ah, damn it! Maybe I will remember it later."
Robert couldn't help but look shaken.
"You spoke with the brother of light? Are you serious? Are you sure you were not hallucinating while your body healed?"
"I'm sure. I can't put my finger on it, but the whole situation felt divine. And now, we have to talk about something else. I can take the title of heir to the Arc name officialy now. And our name will not only be remembered for our battle power, not if I can't help."
The rest of the family just stood in silence at the look of determination on Jaune's face. They knew how he could focus on his objectives, but they were surprised how quick he found a new goal after he just got healed from his sickness.
Robert was the first to shake off his surprise and asked:"And what are your plans, son? You can't just talk about goals and leave out how you want to achieve them. With your search for a cure, nobody could help you. But whatever you propose to do, it is now a matter for the entire family. So you need my approval for any of your plans. You are only heir, not the head of the family."
His tone was half joking, but there was a silent threat hidden. It didn't matter how much he loved his son, he couldn't just skip the line of authority in matters which affected the whole Arc-Clan.
"No need to worry. I didn't plan on skipping over your head. Thats what I wanted to talk about with all of you. The matter of how I want to achieve this goals is business with Jaques."
Robert looked like he bit in a lemon and opened his mouth to stop Jaune right at this moment. But Jaune continued with his explanation, before his father could stop him:
"I know, I know. Jaques is a bad person with bad intentions. But I took the oath of our family, so I am sworn to protect every Human and Faunus on Remnant. And how can I influence the Schnee Business course? Through trade and means of manipulation. It will be hard to manipulate this old fox, but I am sure, we can influence his heiress into the right direction. Weiss doesn't seem like a bad person, but she listens to every order of her father. If we can break the hold he has over her mind, it will be a start. Maybe with some luck we can influence him with the help of Weiss. Has anybody any questions so far?"
Nobody moved. His youngest siblings because they didn't understand the whole meaning behind his words and everyone else because they seriously thought about it. After a short time, Robert told him to go on.
"The other part of my plan is to get this castle in the next four years to be the center of a town again. A town focused on heavy industry and a huntsman supporting PMC. The latter under the code of honor of our house. While I focused on the cure for the last years, I studied alchemical alloys and how to produce them. I think I found a method to produce the simpler ones without our families semblance. And to produce the more complex ones, we need one of us for the alchemic transmutaion. The only problem we will have in the beginning is money."
Everyone laughed at this. 'Only money', how simple he made it sound.
"Oh I know how silly this sounds. Dad, are there any distant family branches we could recruit, or did the branches die out in the great war?"
Robert thought about it and answered: "I don't know if there are any left, but I can contact some people who owe me, to look into this. What else?"
"For the obviously high chance that there are no rich branches of our family, we ask the council of Vale for funds. If they don't want, we ask Jaques. Stop looking at me like that dad, if I play my cards right and give him the impression I'm courting Weiss this should be possible. But let's hope it doesn't come to this. I would need to ask Weiss first if she wanted to do this. Now you know the full extension of my plans for our house. Any questions?"
Robert again needed some minutes to think about it. Finally he spoke:
"Your plans are truly ambitious. Who would train your PMC? Who could hire them? Who could buy weapons and armor made from alchemical steel? Any restrictions or none? How would you test recruits for the PMC? Many questions, and if I know my son, you already have answers."
"You are right, I have your answers. So, to answer your questions in order: The training of the PMC would be your task, bescause your one of the huntsman who's got the most experience in the field. To the question, who can hire our force...Every Kingdom, every huntsman academy and companies. But companies can only hire them to guard shipments of their goods while outside the kingdoms. So no big mercenary business. The only ones who can buy weapons and armor made from alchemical alloys are huntsman and huntsman trainees. If someone wants to make their custom weapon or armor we will provide a workshop where the can have a hand in creating their weapons. The only other people who are allowed to carry our armarments, are our soldiers. So that hopefully nothing of it get's inside the wrong hands. As for your last question, I want to talk about that with you in private. Are the answers until now sufficient?"
To that, the family answered with nodding their heads and Robert dismissed the rest of the family out of the room.
"There are two answers for the last question. The first one is a brutal training regime with a couple of test's for the mind. They will face despair, anger and will get the opportunity to betray us in many occasions. After six months of training will be their final task. A complete group of trainees has to hold their post against a horde of Grimm while one of us will act as bait with negative emotions. Everyone who doesn't run until the end, will get hired and get his Aura unlocked, if it isn't already. The ones who will get hired are far over the standards of any military. And loyal to our cause. The second part of that answer will not be to your liking. Since the semblance of a person is the manifestation of his wishes and his personality overall,we can assume that Fabienne's semblance will be somewhat sneaky and cover her to some extend."
Not sure what Jaune wanted to say about his fourth daughter, Robert just sat in silence and waiting for his son to continue.
"Most likely Fabienne's semblance will be perfect for covert operations, I planned for her to be the center of the secret service i want to build parrallel to the PMC. Their tasks will include all sorts of covert operations to obtain informations about the world and for the most part to hunt down deserters to our cause. So that we can assure that nothing of our knowledge and precious materials get into the wrong hands. And since its about my sister, mom wouldn't be to delighted to know at this point, that one of her daughters will most likely be active in shadier actions."
Jaune stopped explaining and waited for his fathers reply. And after about five minutes Robert exhaled deeply and looked him deep in the eye.
"You know that this last part of your plans is just in the bottom spectrum of what our code allows? The only possibility for this to happen without clashing with the oath is if she doesn't take it. You ask me to expell my daughter from the main family and order her to found a side branch?"
"I know. And you know too well, that you already have to expell Jane and Joanne for this very reason?"
His father looked like he took a hit in the gut from a Ursa Major.
"Yes, I know that. As soon as they enroll into a academy or reach legal adulthood, I have to expell them because of the oath. But that doesn't mean I like doing it. So what makes you think I could do this willingly to your other sister?"
"See it like this, with how her semblance gonna be, our code will only hold her back from reaching her true potencial. If you want her to be happy, you have to let her go at some point. Search for the best teacher she could have in her field and let her roam. She will be thankfull for this opportunity. And since we are already at the point to talk about branches. Let Joanne and Jane found the branch, which will lead the PMC. They may not be bound by the code, but we can be sure that they will live by it. They will follow the interest of our family and it will bind them to the main branch."
"Why must everything you say make so much sense? There is no question about Jane and Joanne, but about Fabienne, I will have to think. I can't choose a course in a matter of minutes."
"So I take it, that you are on board with my plans in general?" Jaune couldn't suppress his joy.
"Yes, if we can take the Arc name and ideals back to glory, it will be much easier to keep the darkness, of this world at bay. So we will see that this region takes back its importance in the world. There are just two problems, which need to be solved. About the money. Your ideas have potential and it is possible that this works. But then, how do we get the materials for the alchemic alloys? Do you want to bind us more to the Schnee's? I don't want our family to be puppets in Jaques plans."
Jaune chuckled:"Nothing of this sort. This region is rich in dust and ores. How do you think the Arcs where so independent over the period of wars? We just have to hire experts in geology and miners to get us started. I think, there are some underworked Schnee-specialists. Try to find old branches first and we should be good. Okay?"
Robert shook his head at the bossy behaviour of his son but agreed with him:"Yes, thats how we will do it."
-Two weeks later-
"So you found an old branch of our family? And they don't posses any wealth? Damn it, that would have been to easy. Oh well, as long as they still are true to the family. When will they arrive?" Jaune asked curiously.
Smiling at his son's rambling, Robert just said:" The Cresent family will arrive in about two hours. And no fear, they are hard workers and skilled farmers. When our family went down the rough path after the war, they went away to find their own luck."
"Let's hope, we can convince them to support our goal."
-A few hours Later-
The bullhead Robert had rented to get the Cresent family to the Arc stronghold touched down on the field outside of the castle walls. As the hatch opened and the inside came into view, Jaune nearly laughed at the similarities between the main and the branch family. The man in the center of the arrivals had slightly different facial features than Robert, but the same blue eyes and the same blond hair. The man proceeded to jump down and shook hands with Robert. Even their bodies where nearly identical. Same height, same muscles. Seriously funny.
Robert then turned around and introduced:"This is Henry Cresent, his wife Charlotte and his children: Coraline and Pascal."
After everyone was greeted, the reunited families made their way into the castle. Inside the great hall, everyone took a seat and Robert spoke.
"I know it must be weird to be contacted by the main branch after so many years, but like I said Henry, we didn't even knew there were still existing branches. So, how was your flight and what do you think of your ancestral home?"
"It is more rundown than I thought. I heard that the main branch declined in power, but I didn't think it would be that bad. I guess with only one working member of the family it's not something to maintain. Oh, and the flight here was good. No Grimm and no bandits."
"True, since there is no money, we can't keep the castle from going to waste. That's one of the reasons why I contacted you. We had hope to find a wealthy branch. But I invited you nontheless. We are still family and I think it's a shame we grew apart so much."
"So you wanted to milk a branch for their money? Do you know no shame. You kept the name and still fell in meaning and power. Sad for you." The son, Pascal, threw himself into the conversation. "What do you want now. Use our labour force to restore your name?"
Henry seemed uncomfortable by his sons intrusion. "Keep quiet, I don't think thats what he meant. But I must know. What is your true intention behind inviting us here? You don't have the money to host a heartwarming family reunion."
"You are right. To get you here would have fed my family for two months. It's true that we need money, but not to elevate us from you. In the long run we plan to restore our place along the big players of this world. The Grimm started to get more agressive over the last two years, mainly because of increasing bandit attacks. The kingdoms, except for Atlas, reduced their military drasticly and can't secure small towns and villages anymore. So we plan to build a town at this place where we produce Huntsman level armarments and offer services as a PMC for the kingdoms, academies and companies. So we need the money for the first steps."
"And to feed this town you need people with experience in farming and handling livestock?"
"Exactly but we are currently stuck with the missing money. I tried to convince the council to lend us the needed money, but they don't want a PMC in the territory of Vale. The banks think it is to risky to invest so far out of the kingdom walls. That reminds me Jaune, get in contact with the Schnees. It seems we have no other choice than to get the money out of Jaques. Do you have any other ideas than to pretend to court the Schnee girl?"
"Nothing valuable enough to trade for a fortune. I thought about giving him the monopole to trade our unique products outside of Vale's territory. But since I want to keep that stuff affordable there will be not muchprofit for him. Just a cherry on top. The only way to ensure his investment is if I act like I court Weiss. So later, I will contact her to convince her to play along."
"Good, since it's your plan, you have to sacrifice yourself to some extend. Oh, that reminds me, Jaune is the brain behind this plan. He takes his position as heir more serious than you could believe. And now we have two questions. The first is, runs the Arc-Blood thick enough in your veins, that you posses the heredatory semblance?"
Henry just shook his head and answered:"Since our split from the family, nobody of us got their Aura unlocked. We can't tell. Your second question will most likely be if we are aboard with your plan. Am I right?"
Robert nodded.
"Get the money and guarantee the safety of my family and the workers I have under my wing. If we can, we should get our house back to it's place in the world!"
The two patriarchs then stood and shook hands over their deal. Robert then invited them to stay until they had an answer for the question about the money. Since there was not much to do on the fields of the Crescent family at this point, they accepted.
-Later that day-
Jaune played with the scroll in his hands and searched for the right words for his talk with Weiss. One wrong phrase and his entire plan could fall apart. With a heavy sigh, he dialed the number of the heiress and waited. After about 20 seconds, Weiss picked up and asked:
"Hello, Jaune is that you?"
"Yes, it's me. How are you doing?"
"Fine, mostly. My father wants me to sing on some ball he organized for his greatest stockholders. No pressure there." She laughed.
Jaune chuckled:"It's understandable, you have quite the charming voice."
"Thank you, how about you?"
"Good, we found a family branch and invited them over, so our family is currently four people richer. Oh and I am cured from my sickness. Don't ask me how, I currently can't answer that."
"Good for you, now enough with the pleasantries, I attended enough business meetings with my father to know the way you talk. What is your real intention behind calling me?"
Jaune cursed under his breath, she saw right through his forced smalltalk.
"You see, my father and I plan to revive our families impact on the world. But since we have no rich family branches and neither the council, nor banks want to fund us, our plans came to a halt. We somehow need to get money and your father is our last, but best shot. You know his ruthless business practics and we dont want to end up taking orders from him. So I have a plan, but I don't think your gonna like it."
"How do you want to do it? Capture me and demand a huge ransom?" It sounded like a joke, but he noticed a hint of fear in her voice.
"Not so drastic measures, but kind of related to this. You know our agreement about the whole thing where I fall for your charms?"
"Yeeees?" Her reply sounded like she was not sure about what he was implying.
"I plan to fall for your charms and build the business to show him how capable I am to court you. We have to tread carefully or he will force us into marriage in a few years."
"So you plan to use me and my name for your selfish goals? Forget it!"
Before she could hang up, he quickly asked:"What do you want the most in your life? Be a singer? Be the Heiress? Be a mercenary? Be simply free?"
For half a minute there was nothing but silence. But then finally with a meek voice the heiress answered:"I want to be a huntress. And free from my fathers reign."
"And that, I can give you. What do you know about the Arc-Family?"
"Your family stood at the frontline of every major war for the last 1000 years, held impossible influence on every kingdoms court and took honor and servitude over their own lives."
"Everything correct, but most importantly for you, there were almost no women to marry into the Arc-House, which weren't warriors. We simply don't want our strong blood to thin out over the ages. We don't give a damn about noble status or any of that crap. Power and honor are the things that matter to be accepted as a member of my family."
"Where are you going with this?"
"When we act like I am courting you, your father will make haste to make it official. But since my family can't accept any weak women as my future wife, you have to prove your strength and honor. Whats better than the work of a huntress to prove it? You see where I'm going with this? You would use me to the same extend as I would use you. Quid pro quo."
"You know, that if your plan doesn't work out, I will be the most unpleasant wife you could possibly imagine? But yes, I accept your offer. And if only to show my father that he isn't the only one, who can play others. So, how do you want to start your plan?"
"Simple, I will call him next and ask for a business meeting with him. My father, my sisters and I will then come to Atlas. Next I will announce my intention to court you and prove myself worthy with building the companies. He will jump at that chance and my father will then tell that he can only accept you in the family, if you served time as a huntress. He will most likely accept, since the Arc name has still some meaning in this world and could expand his influence in Vale and Vacuo. Are you okay with that?"
"Yes. And I will tell him, that I want to be trained by your family. So I would learn from the best and spend time with my future 'fiance'. Maybe a month here in Atlas with business training from my father and one month combat training with your family and so on. Would that be good?"
"No problems with that, and I think my sisters would like to have a friend here at the stronghold. So with that wrapped up, I will call your father now and throw out the bait. I call you again if it works out. Bye"
"Bye."
-In Atlas-
Jaques Schnee had a good day. Rising profits and the possible takeover of a competing mining company did nothing but lighten his mood. When his private scroll rang he looked at the callers ID and was surprised to see the young Arc's name on the display. He let it ring for about 30 seconds to make it seem like he was busy and then picked up.
"Jaune, I didn't think I would hear from you again after such a short amount of time. How can I help you?"
"Jaques, pleasant to hear you. I cut to the chase. I think I have a proposal for you, which will delight you."
He was pleasantly surprised to hear that, had the boy not told him that he had no interest in business?
"Oh, what about?"
"Nothing I want to talk to you about while using a scroll. Anything about money is best spoken about in private. But I assume you will get a fine profit in the long run. And something more. Is it possible that you send a bullhead for my father and me to take us to Atlas? We are currently slightly short on funds."
"Hmm, I don't like anything so cryptik. But with the last deal you came to me being so good, how can I deny your wish? I will send a bullhead in two days to pick you up."
"Thank you. Would it be a problem if my sisters came again? I think they would be happy to see Weiss."
"That would be no problem. Weiss will also be delighted to see them. She doesn't have a lot of friends here."
"Good, thank you. That would be all I wanted to talk with you about. I see you in a few days."
After he ended the call, he was puzzled. He knew that the Arc boy planned something. His voice had not yet reached the perfection of a vocal pokerface. He was nervous troughout the conversation. But nothing to worry. If the boy tried something stupid, he would destroy his family. Good deal or not. Nobody messes with the Schnee Dust Corporation, or with him.
-Back to Jaune-
This went good. Not perfect, but good enough. He had called Weiss immediatly after he finished talking with Jaques and told her that the plan was a go. Now he had to instruct his father and his sisters. He maid his way into the great hall, only to hear from his mother, that the men went into the study for the discussion at hand. So he took his sisters and followed them.
"Jaune, where you successfull?""Is Weiss aboard?""Do you want to marry her and is the rest scheme?"
"Woah, stop it! I will tell you and dad at the same time."
"Okay!"
After they reached the study they knocked and entered. The two grown men sat at a small table and were in a conversation about the agricultural possibilities of the region.
"Dad, great news. Weiss is in on the plan. We have planned our course of action."
"Great, tell me, what do you have in mind?"
Henry looked slightly uncomfortable and asked:"Should I leave?"
Robert and Jaune answered simultaniously:"No, you can stay. If this works you will be aboard in the long run."
Jaune explained:"You are to focused on the divide between the main family and your branch. You are Arc's by blood. And when we work together to bring our houses back to greatness, we will do this together. The traditional view on branches is not how we should do things nowadays. We will do this as partners."
After Henry nodded in acceptance Jaune started explaining.
"Weiss agreed to play the part of the courted woman. In the future she wants to be a huntress. So when I tell Jaques that I want to court her, you will tell that she must prover her power and servitude for the people before you accept her in the family. This will give her the opportunity to follow her dream and us all the time we need to let this courting thing run out."
Jaune paused and looked if anyone had a question. Nobody had, so he continued.
"I will tell Jaques that I want to prove myself capable of building a company and need his initial funding for it. That way, he thinks I want to prove myself to him to get his blessing to court Weiss. After your argument about Weiss proving to be a good addition to the Arc name, she will tell Jaques that she wants to train under you and mom. One month combat training under you and one month business training under her father in alteration. With that, she can be friends with you Jane and Joanne and give her father the impression that she will be by my side to charm me further. Sound good?"
"No problems with us!" The twins seemed delighted to finally have a friend in the stronghold.
"This sounds like it could work, what do you think Henry?"
"Since I am not familiar with this whole scheming, I see no problems."
Robert then asked:"When will we be heading to Atlas?"
"Jaques told me, that he will send a bullhead to pick us up in two days. Jane, Joanne, you will come with us. Then you can spend some time with Weiss, before this show is going to start."
-Three days later in Atlas-
The ride was much more comfortable this time, since Jaques send a luxurious variation of the bullhead. While slightly slower, there was no noticable rumbling from the engines and a much more comfortable interior. So when they arrived, they were well rested. Jaques already awaited them outside of the Schnee mansion, Weiss standing behind him. Jaune shook hands with Jaques and kissed the back of Weiss hand, like it was expected.
"Jaques, it's good to see you. And you too Weiss, as beautifull as the last time."
"Good to see you too, Jaune. You seem much better than the last time. What happened to your illness?"
"How I got rid of my illness is part of why I am here."
"Then let's go inside. You want to freshen up, or do you want to get to business right now?"
"Jaques, the old saying about money and time. I would like to get right into it."
"Then follow me, the servants will take care of your luggage."
As they went trough the mansion, Jaune was again shocked at the wastefull display of wealth. He swore to never let this happen to his family home, at least not to this extend. They finally reached Jaques office and went inside.
Jaques turned and said:"Girls, maybe you want to spend some time together while we deal with the business Jaune has?"
"That is sadly not possible Jaques, they are needed as members of our families. What I want to suggest will affect all of us." Jaune interrupted.
"Okay then, get comfortable and lets cut to the chase."
"As you already mentioned, I am healed from my deadly illness. A feat, which modern medicine couldn't achieve. The crystals I traded from you were a key factor. And as my health is now perfect in every possible way, I ask for your perission to court your daughter Mr. Schnee." Jaune choose to speak formally to Jaques to stroke the mans ego.
Jaques looked surprised, he hadn't thought his plan would work this fast. But before he could give his answer, Jaune spoke again.
"But that is not the only thing why I am here. Before I officialy court her, I want to prove you that I am worthy of her hand. For this I want to build two companies and a city in direct proximity to the Arc ancestral home. But I have a problem, money. You see, there are no investors willing to spend money on a projekt so far out of Vale's walls. And don't get me started at the council. They are afraid that we Arc's gain influence again. So they refused."
Jaques seemed lost in his thoughts. Thats not what he had expected. What companies did Jaune want to build?
"That is not enough information for me to decide if I give you the funds. So keep going and then I will decide."
"I didn't expect anything else. One company will be a PMC. Trained soldier to keep bandits and grimm at bay. Every kingdom, settlement, academy and company can hire them. But only for wall duties, extermination missions and cargo security in the wilderness. The second business I want to build is more complex to describe. It is linked to how I was healed from my sickness. I spent the last few years to search the vast archives of my home for any clue. And I found it. The Arc family is capable of performing alchemic transmutation."
Jaques could only laugh at that statement. This boy was mad. There was no way he could be serious. What would come next? Magic or clearvoyance?
"Jaune, I find it highly amusing, that you think this would help you to get my support. So don't lie to me."
Luckily, Jaune had prepared a weak healing potion in the days when he waited for the bullhead. He took the potion out of his pocket and showed the blood-red liquid to Jaques.
"I have proof. This potion I prepared will cure any non-lethal injury, without even leaving a scar. I know that Klyne knows his way around a laboratory. Give it to him to analyze it. Then you can test it."
"Nothing to loose here. Klyne, come in!"
Like ordered, the butler came into the office.
"Analyze this liquid and tell me what is inside."
"As you wish, I will be back in ten minutes."
Thanks to Atlas technology, the analyzer in the Schnee mansion could discover any ingredients inside of any material fed to it in a matter in minutes.
-Ten Minutes later-
When Klyne returned, he showed the list of ingredients to Jaques and put the potion on the desk.
"So Jaune, you want to tell me, that this mix of aloe vera, mercury and...blood...can heal injuries?"
"Yes and it fills a certain amount of Aura. If you dont believe me, you can test it."
"Oh, I want to. But on who shall we test it?"
Jaune called out to his sisters. He had already planned for this situation.
"Jane, this will hurt. Are you sure it's okay?"
"Yes it's okay. Give me the Aurameter."
After connecting the Aurameter to Jane and Jaques scroll, he turned to his father. "Do it."
Robert then proceeded to punch his daughter lightly, without doing any harm until her Aura broke. He then took a knife from his belt and gave it to Klyne.
"To prove that this is no fraud, your butler will cut my sister deeply on her arm."
Klyne looked shocked to Jaques, who just nodded.
Robert then hold his daughters arm in place.
Jane then looked Klyne in the eyes and told him:"Slice my arm open to the bone. I took a light anesthetic while you were gone. It will not hurt to much."
After one final breath, Klyne cut Jane's arm open. She started crying and after Robert released her arm she hold it with her other hand.
"Sorry Jane. As you can see Jaques the cut is deep and to bad for Aura to heal. Jane, drink the potion."
She took the potion of the desk under the watchful eyes of Jaques and drank it. She then started to glow in the golden color of her Aura and the cut closed with unimaginable speed.
"You see Jaques, there is a reason why we Arc's were such a feared force on the battlefield. Not only this, but the alchemic alloys we can produce will be perfect for hunter-level weapons. We will revolutionize the battlefield once more."
Jaques was at a loss for words. He just sat there in shock. Weiss didn't fare much better. It needed about five minutes until they shook it off and Jaques told them:"Trade me the secret to it's production."
"Sorry Jaques, but there is a reason why this stuff was never widespread. Only Arc's can transmutate. Our heredatory semblance is the key. But I am willing to give you the trade monopoly for every kingdom except Vale. But it must be affordable for hospitals to cure people. No big profits, but still a monopoly."
"You request funds for your projects and know how unprofitable this will be for me. I like you Jaune, you are cunning and you have the right instincts for a businessman. How do you propose to make this profitable?" Jaques already wanted to give Jaune the neccessary funds, but he wanted to know how far he was willing to go.
"Simple, you will profit from this investment in two stages. The first stage will be after about a year after your investement. By then, the first group of recruits will be completely trained and ready to secure your shipments. You can then, step by step, reduce your expenses for your private security force and buy less androids from the Atlas military. We will provide our service to you for little more than our expenses. This will reduce your costs in the long run. The second stage will start most likely after two to three years. By then our mining operations will most likely start to pay off. The mined ressources will mostly be used to expand and maintain the town. The not needed ressources will be processed and exported. Those will most likely be rare earth metals and minerals for electrical circuits. The mined Dust which is not needed will be sold to you and used to build a stock for bad times. Until the investemend is paid back, ten percent of every profit will go to the Schnee Dust Company. With this, we have enough funds to expand the city. I know it sounds like a long shot, but alchemical alloys will sell like warm bread. Huntsmen and huntresses will buy them for weapons and armor."
Jaques sat behind his desk and thought about it. Alchemical alloys were a knew market and this monopoly could be profitable. But there was a slight problem.
"Why is it, that you want to limit the possible profit by selling the alloys only to hunters? You could maximize the profits without the limitations."
"Simple, we are at war. No honorless bandits and terrorists should be able to get their hands on them. Do you want to face the white fang, when they are equipped with armor and weapons made from high quality materials? This will get yourself killed."
"I see your points and they seem logical. This matter stays on hold for now. Tell me, how much Lien do you need for your projects?"
Jaune pulled out a piece of paper and started to read:"One and a half billion Lien for weapons and heavy machinery, one billion Lien to build infrastructure, one billion Lien to recruit experts in geology, research, building, management and military matters and finally half a billion Lien for research and development of new technologies. In this numbers are enough funds included to keep this operations for three years going. The funds can be cut by lessen the time by two years. This will lessen the expenses by one billion lien. But if we run into complications we need the full four billion Lien."
"These numbers seem reasonable for a operation this big. I think, that I can convince the board members to approve the funding of your project. Now to something different but still important. You want my permission to court Weiss. If you can make this profitable in the next two years, I will approve of your intentions."
At this moment, the trap Jaune had laid, sprung. His father, just like he had planned, intervened.
"I must bring myself into this discussion now. Jaques, you know of our families tradition and our code of honor. I can only approve of Weiss, if she proves her power and honor. I want to hear her opinion about that."
After looking to her father, only to get no reaction, she spoke:"I think, the best course of action would be if I became a huntress. At least for a few years. This would prove my worth and would boost the reputation of the SDC. Would this be to your liking father?"
Jaques thaught about it. While the thought of Weiss becoming a huntress didn't please him, it would definitly be good publicity. While he thought, Weiss spoke again.
"I think it would be the best course of action if I were to be trained by the Arc's. I suggest, that I train one month with them and then one month with you for my business career and so on. With this, I will become familiar with their work and still be ready to work for the SDC."
There was a offer, she didn't told him directly. If she knew about what the Arc's were doing, she could tell it her father. Like that he didn't need to let the Arc's be observed otherwise. A nice, monthly status report of the success from their projects.
"This sound reasonable, even if it hurts me to send my daughter away every second month. she will start her training at the time, you renovated your castle to the extend that it will not be penetrated by a lost Deathstalker."
Jaune stepped in front of Jaques and hold out his hand. "So this deal stands. We will sign it as soon as you have the approval of the board and your lawyers have worked out the contract."
As they shook hands, Jaques hoped thet Jaunes project would pay of the way he thought they would. If not, he would not only loose his invested money, but would also loose Weiss as a heiress for the four years her hunter training would last.
-Three Month later-
Jaune stood at the top of his family home and supervised the progress the workers made building the newly named town of Orleans. The mining operation in the mountainside got into production the last month and started to give them many materials, ranging from iron ore to rare earth metals. Just like he had thought. The Cresent branch of the family started to operate fields with the newest genetically modified seeds from Atlas and were ready to harvest the first load of grain. Atlases gene engineers had designed crops, which riped in half the time normal crops would do. This would give them two harvest's in the coming years and help them to feed the growing town. Speaking of which, the first homes for the workers were already finished, the streets build and the work on the barracks for the future recruits already started. Just like the first smeltery was in the early stages of beeing build. Weiss would start to train next month and then his official training would start too. Thanks to his potions and solutions there were no fatal accidents so far.
But it was only the beginning. His plans were much bigger than that.