Another chapter for you all, and a little treat this week as well. Kegi Springfield made a fanart of the last chapter, which I've included as the story image for this week. It won't stay forever, of course, but you can always check it out on his DA – or just search kegi springfield on Google images, and you'll likely come across links.

Changes to images can take up to 24 hours to work, so if you don't see anything, you might need to wait or just visit his DA. There's not much I can do about that, I'm afraid.

Beta: College Fool

Cover Art: (This week) Kegi Springfield

Chapter 21

The cold winds were less than they had been the day before, but still whipped against my cheeks and forced my breath to come out as cold smoke. It was unpredictable and bitter, picking up without warning and then dying just as suddenly. The entire party stood arranged in a clearing, while Kaedin Sand – our recent Mage addition – knelt roughly in the middle, staff driven into the snow. He'd been like that for the last hour now, and I had no idea how his legs hadn't frozen solid. Magic, probably, in which case I wished he'd share it with the rest of us.

A small distance away, Blake sneezed and shuffled her feet. She had her hood up, for all the good it seemed to do her. A good night's rest by the fire had been enough to keep her healthy, but the occasional sneeze still made my hand clench.

"How long is this supposed to take?" Yang called. She rubbed her bare arms and danced from one foot to the other in an attempt to keep warm.

"It will take as long as it takes," Viktor groused back. He, at least, was clearly more prepared for the weather, with a thick jerkin beneath his armour and a furred animal-skin cloak over all of that. It was easy for them… they were used to this frigid nightmare. "You should count yourself lucky we haven't been attacked by Grimm," he went on, voice still loud in order to be heard over the wind. "The storm must have driven them away, or killed those nearby."

I could well believe that, especially with how vicious the storm had been. Grimm were evil and resilient, but still made of flesh and bone. I doubted anything could have survived being caught out in that.

A sigh broke into such thoughts, the elderly Mage pushing himself up, only to be caught and lifted the rest of the way by his Sentinel. He adjusted his sleeves and drew his staff in a shower of snow and ice.

"Well?" I asked. "Did you find anything?"

"The magical signature is weak, but noticeable. Since I didn't notice it in the cave, I'm led to assume we will get better results the higher up the mountain we climb." Even he seemed distressed with the notion, since it would only get colder the further up we went. "I suppose there's no point in delaying matters. This isn't going to get any easier."

"Indeed," Viktor agreed. "The sooner we get this done with, the better. Is everyone prepared to travel?"

"It's not exactly like we set up camp," I pointed out. Perhaps it was antagonistic, for the look he shot me certainly suggested he found it so, but I couldn't bring myself to care. Our animosity was already cemented in stone and nothing was going to change that.

The Knight didn't argue, though he did roll his eyes and turn away. As the duo picked their way across the snowy plain, we followed in a huddled group. There was no conversation between us, each person being far too cold to bother with it. Instead, the only noise was the constant crunch of snow underfoot and the muffled curses of those who tripped or struggled when their feet got stuck.

At least the Mage seemed to have an idea of where they were going. If he hadn't, I had the feeling we'd have wandered in the wasteland for days. I shook my head and trudged on.

Weiss gasped and halted before me, so suddenly that I almost collided with her. "Weiss?" I asked.

She was shaking.

"Hold!" Kaedin yelled and flung one arm to the side. "I felt it too," he added in a softer voice. "There is… something in the air."

"Felt what?" Pyrrha sighed, apparently as clueless as I. "I didn't feel a thin-" She cut off with a startled cry as a grinding noise filled the air. It lasted for but a second, followed by an ominous crack, as though a boulder had been split in two.

The ground began to shake a moment later. With a gasp, the snow beneath me roiled and I was thrown from my feet to crash back into it.

"Stay in the open." Viktor roared. "Stay together!"

The entire mountain shook before my eyes, and it was with horror that I realised it wasn't the mountain, but the ground beneath me which caused me to vibrate. It cracked and groaned, the noise horrifying, as though the solid rock below was alive and twisting in agony. A loud noise further up the mountain reached our ears.

I looked up in time to feel my stomach fall to my feet, as a great wall of white raged down the mountain towards us. It kicked up great explosions of rock, tree and white foam – like a great wave on the ocean. I pointed at it dumbly, lost for words.

Not everyone was.

"Avalanche!" Ruby screamed.

"Stay still!" Kaedin howled. "All of you, behind me now – huddle close!"

Behind him, what would that achieve? My eyes shot left and right in unadulterated panic, but there wasn't any cover in sight. The others looked just as terrified, but they moved behind the Mage as he ordered. Pyrrha grabbed my shoulder en route and hauled me bodily along. There was no time to stand and she dragged me like some kind of sled through the snow.

Kaedin took one step forward, staff held behind him as he extended a hand towards the raging torrent of snow and rock. At what felt like the last second, he clenched his hand into a fist and slammed it down into the snow in front of him.

Nothing happened.

My heart froze. Terror pooled within me as I opened my mouth to scream. My voice was drowned out entirely, but not – as I expected – by death.

The ground before us erupted upwards. Dark, grey rock burst forth in a jagged spike that reached a good fifteen feet in height and ten wide. The avalanche struck a moment later, and snow ran like water on either side of us.

I wasn't sure if we sat in silence or not. My eyes remained glued to the fast-paced flow, the rocks, trees and branches that flashed by, and the sound of it roared through my ears, drowning out what anyone might have said at all. At one point, there was even a Grimm – though I had no chance to see what type, for it was buried under the snow and dragged away the moment I saw it. The force became so much that some snow pushed over the rock pillar and rained down on us. With both hands, I dragged myself closer to the rock face. The others huddled against and beside me, shaking as bad as I.

There was no telling how long it lasted. Time ceased to mean anything as we pressed against one another, Kaedin stood above us, one arm held before him. Viktor stood behind him, hands pressed onto his back as though to keep him standing, but both looked calm. It was probably the only thing that kept us from panicking. Eventually, however, with the dulling of the roar and slowing of the snow, the avalanche came to a reluctant halt.

"Well," Kaedin sighed, "that was inconvenient."

Not the words I would have used…

"Is it over?" Ruby whispered. "Is everyone okay?"

Panic flashed through my mind, but a quick count of those nearby calmed me down. "We're all alive," I reported. "Everyone is here."

"That was…" Ren took a moment to take a quick breath, "rather intense."

"Another disaster," Pyrrha murmured. "Is this what the Archmage referred to?"

"It was indeed," Kaedin said. "I was able to detect a magical surge just before it, as did Miss Schnee, I believe?"

"I felt it," the white-haired Mage nodded. "It felt chaotic and sudden and came from further up the mountain. It definitely caused this."

"I would agree, my dear." Kaedin took a wary step out onto the snow around us. It was a bit of a climb, but it seemed to hold under his weight. He motioned for the rest of us to follow and then waved his hand to the side.

With a loud crack, the rock we'd hidden behind crumbled down. Like a river, the snow it had stopped flowed down after it; the very snow that would have killed us.

"We should move on," Viktor growled. "There's no reason to stay here and risk another disaster. We always knew we might face another Mage. This changes nothing."

We nodded and trudged after him. What else was there to do?

/-/

No more earthquakes struck in the hour it took to climb the nearest ridge. It felt like a small blessing, but Kaedin explained it was more than that. It meant whatever or whoever caused it, hadn't done so in an attempt to get rid of them. Their presence was still unknown, which given the other party's ability to cause avalanches, was definitely a good thing. It was also a bad thing, he explained, because it meant these were being done by accident – and anyone who couldn't control the consequences of their spells was probably dangerous indeed.

So, really, nothing had changed. We were in over our heads and we knew it. Kaedin and Viktor knew it too, based on how they – the people we were meant to escort – took the lead in most cases.

"There's smoke ahead," Nora called. "Is there a village nearby?"

"There are several small faunus communities on the Fang," Kaedin said. "I would not go so far as to call them villages, but they exist. It might provide a chance for us to resupply or find information. If the locals are willing to deal with us, that is. Sentiment towards Mages it at an all-time low, especially with these disasters."

I didn't miss how they neglected to mention beds or sleep. The thought of skipping out on such was painful, but they'd already mentioned before that the people here weren't exactly friendly with Atlas Mages. Plus, we had a Quest to complete and it was still only midday.

The smoke provided a destination, however, and the party pushed towards it with a sense of renewed vigour.

We crested the next rise to come across the village itself, and my stomach dropped.

"Shit…" Yang whispered.

The single word really summed it up. The village was, as Kaedin said, really little more than fifteen or twenty dwellings. It might have been more, but several were destroyed and half-buried under a swathe of snow that seemed to cut the community in two. Figures scrambled throughout it, and the smoke that we'd seen billowed from several large bonfires that people huddled close to.

The faunus didn't even see us as we approached. They were too busy rushing back and forth, some with blankets for shaking and shivering individuals, others with shovels and tools to help dig the snow away. Children cried, adults did too, and the noise washed over us as we moved between the wood and stone buildings.

"Asking for supplies is out of the question," Viktor whispered. "The faunus won't have anything to spare and we would just push them further. Even the kindest could spare little after something like this."

I nodded immediately. There was no way I wanted to take anything from these people; not when they were already suffering so badly. A figure bumped into me, took one look and then ignored me entirely. He rushed away with an axe in his hand. They probably wanted to cut their way into some buildings.

"We should move on," Pyrrha whispered. "There's nothing we can do here."

Blake bumped into me from behind. I'd stopped moving and could only stare ahead. "Move on?" I echoed. My hands shook, my eyes were wide and I wasn't sure if I could draw breath. "You want us to just… move on?"

"Hm?" Pyrrha looked confused. "Our Quest is to stop the one doing this," she said. "Shouldn't we focus on that?"

"What of the people here?" I asked. I held one arm out towards the people who were at that very moment trying to dig their way into a crushed building. "We need to help them!"

"What can we do?" Yang asked. She sighed and looked about at the devastation, an agonised expression on her face. "I mean, this is terrible, I agree, but it's not like we have any skills that could help. We're Heroes, not miners. What can we do?"

"You have hands, don't you?" I growled and pushed past her, knocking the blonde aside as I strode towards the nearest building. "If you have hands, you can dig." My straps clicked open and I shucked off the armour, which fell in an ungainly heap behind me. An elderly villager there, tired and wary, didn't offer so much as a protest as I took the spade from his hand and dug it into the snow. With a great heave, I dragged back and pulled some away, before digging it in again.

"You fool," Viktor scowled. "We don't have time for this. It is our responsibility to track this individual, not to play in the snow like children."

I ignored him. My eyes remained locked on the snow as I grunted and drove the shovel back down into it. The wooden handle creaked but held, disgorging snow onto the ground and away from what once had been a front door. There was noise inside. I could hear the people trapped in there. Doubtless, the villagers had too.

"Are you going to help or what?" I shouted back. Frustrated tears stung at my eyes but I refused to let them fall. "Or are you just going to stand there and watch? Is this what kind of Heroes you are?"

"We move on," Viktor said. "The rest of you; leave the fool here and prepare to travel."

My heart fell. I would stay… nothing would change my mind. Even if they refused to, even if it was meaningless to them, I wasn't going to leave while people right in front of our eyes needed help. This could have been my village. It could have been my family trapped inside.

I sent back a pleading look towards them. I was weak… I was just a Blacksmith. They were Heroes and they could do so much. There was a crack above me. The wooden frame of the house gave way, too bruised and battered to hold, and I watched in horror as part of the roof tumbled down towards us. Even if I moved, the other civilians would be crushed beneath it.

A flash of silver and red cut it in two, pushing the logs to either side. They crashed into the snow. Ruby scowled as she clutched Crescent Rose in her small hands.

"We stay," she said.

"You are to follow our orders," Viktor returned.

"Actually, you are to follow ours." The Reaper's face was calm, but her voice was filled with ice. "The Archmage asked for us because he wanted this to be an international group. He didn't want the people to think Atlas were doing it. Therefore, this Quest is done under our form of Government – not Atlas'." Crescent Rose cut into the snow as the small girl smiled grimly. "Atlas is a Mageocracy, but since we're doing this in the Valean way, we don't have to follow the orders of you two, even if you're a higher Caste normally. We decide based on what the group wants to do. Jaune wants to stay… so do I. Yang? Are you going to go on without me?"

The blonde balked at the idea. "Of course not, I promised to look after you."

"Blake?" Ruby asked with an eye toward the Assassin. The hooded girl took one look towards Kaedin and Viktor, and then looked towards me. Her position was clear, even before she moved over and stood beside me. "That's already half of us," Ruby said. "If you guys want to go off, you can do… but I don't think the Guild will survive."

"I suppose we stay," Pyrrha sighed. "I'm not sure what use we'll be, however. Like Yang says, we're not exactly built for this."

"You have hands," Ruby pointed out, with a small smile towards me. "Nora and Yang, you two help Jaune shovel snow away – you're the strongest. Weiss, I want you to do what you can to keep the people warm, fire spells on the bonfires."

Weiss nodded and left without argument, while Nora and Yang seemed almost startled as they moved over to accept shovels from the exhausted – but also shocked – townsfolk.

"Pyrrha, you help me with cutting down through wood and rubble. Ren, can you help move the rubble away so it doesn't cause any problems?" The two nodded and moved to obey. Ruby turned to the Assassin beside her. "Blake, I know you're not feeling well… is there anything you can do?"

I wondered if Blake would respond. She didn't really talk to anyone but myself, but to my surprise she nodded immediately.

"I have better senses than most. I can help to identify which houses have survivors within them. It won't be perfect, but it will stop us digging into ones where there is no one alive."

"That's great!" Ruby cheered. "Everyone, get to it! We're going to make this work even if we are all just useless Heroes and don't have any special abilities to help. The people need more hands, not super-special spells and stuff."

Her words said, the Reaper moved over towards me and pulled her scythe back behind her. With a grunt, she lashed forward – cutting a huge log that some villagers had been trying to saw in two. The people mumbled in awe, making space for them as they moved to take over the house.

Someone else shouted for aid, however, and even those spectators were assigned elsewhere. There was too much work to do… too many people at risk.

"Thank you, Ruby," I whispered, voice choked with emotion and my throat even more so.

"For what?" she asked innocently. "I'm just doing what I feel is right."

"Right..." I nodded. The relief I felt was palpable, but it was pushed away when Yang dug her shovel in beside mine. I followed soon after, and a rhythm was soon reached as we put our strength to the task.

/-/

The work continued for hours. Ruby took control, directing people about as she set to using her scythe to tear open walls and cut apart rubble that lay across downed buildings. Blake danced between them all, pressing her face close to the wood and marking certain areas. Even the Mage and his Sentinel joined in eventually, perhaps understanding that we wouldn't move without doing something here.

They worked silently, the Knight far stronger than I, but angry as he shovelled whole heaps of snow aside.

It was two children inside the first house. Nora's face shone with wonderment as she helped the crying children out, but that enthusiasm died an ugly death when they revealed the remains of the mother and father, crippled and distorted beyond recognition. Weiss and Pyrrha spirited the children away before they could see any more, but it felt pointless. They'd been trapped with their dead parents for hours.

The villagers worked too, in large groups, they tugged and pulled – clearing out wreckage at the same pace as ourselves, but with strength of numbers rather than raw power. Those who were dragged from beneath shivered and shook, and even though the fire Weiss kept burning was hot, I had the sinking feeling some would still succumb to the cold before the night was over.

The most painful part was walking past the ruined buildings that Blake hadn't marked. The Assassin wasn't infallible and she used no sure-fire Skill to detect whether life hid within. Leaving those that we didn't think contained life was hard, for there was a chance they did – and that those within would perish.

At the same time, however, I understood that we didn't have the time to waste on ones that might only yield bodies.

"Here," Ruby whispered some time later. She pulled the shovel out of my shaking fingers and pushed a warm bowl in instead. Steam rose from it, and from my hands – as ice melted from them. "You need to take a break," she urged. "You're going to wear yourself out."

Her words distracted me, and that proved fatal. The exhaustion I'd been able to ignore through dogged determination crashed into me, and if it wasn't for her arms catching me, I'd have fallen face-first into the snow.

"He's finally run out of steam?" Yang panted from beside her, catching the bowl before it could spill onto the snow. The blonde's face was red, her breath coming out in sharp blasts of frozen air. "Damn it, about time… I thought I could keep going but that's ridiculous."

"No," I growled. "There are still people in this one…" I struggled to reach for the shovel, but Ruby firmly grabbed my hands and pulled them away.

"No," she rebuked, "You're going to rest now before something happens. The villagers can handle this."

"We've got this," a gruff man said, picking up the shovel. "Yer've done more than enough, lad."

"Take a break, sweetie," an elderly lady patted my cheek and moved beside the man, moving away the rubble. They were followed by ten or twenty more, fresher-looking than I and ready to work. I recognised some of them as people we'd pulled out earlier. They were already trying to help?

It made sense… this was their home.

"You've done enough," Ruby whispered into my ear. "Almost all the marked houses have been excavated and people are working on the unmarked ones now. We managed to rescue enough people that they can take over and save the rest."

"We did?" I asked, dizzy and tired.

Arms settled beneath me, and I felt a strange weightlessness as Ruby picked me up. How did-? Blonde hair brushed against my face and it took me a second to realise it was Yang that carried me, and Ruby that stood beside her. Damn… how tired am I?

"There's not much room in the village, but we've been offered some space and pillows to use and a barn we can stay in." Ruby explained. "It's not great, but it's all they have left. We'll share it with other villagers too. Everyone is doing their part but… well, two-thirds of the village was destroyed."

Yang let me down by the entrance, though she kept an arm around my shoulder to support me. Ruby took the other, and together we stepped into the barn and out of the cold.

The heat from the various fires struck me first, and it was enough to make my legs shake and nearly give way.

"We tried to stop you before," Yang said. "You wouldn't listen, though. Didn't matter who tried, you just kept going on like some kind of golem. It was incredible."

Had I? The hours had merged into one in my mind. All that mattered was digging and revealing, drawing snow away so that people could escape. Come to think of it, when had Nora and Yang left in the first place? Had they grown too tired to continue?

How had I, a Blacksmith, outlasted them?

"You got him?" Ren smiled when we approached. "I'm surprised. Don't tell me you ambushed him and broke his legs? Nora was only joking."

"Nah, he just worked himself to collapse," Yang grinned. She lowered me down into a position by the fire, and Ruby quickly sat on my right, propping me up against her.

I tried to push her away. I wasn't that weak, but to my horror, I was too weak to do even that.

"You need to pace yourself," Ruby said, in a voice much firmer than I'd ever heard her use before. "I know you want to help the people here… I do too, but you can't kill yourself in the process."

"I'm sorry."

"Sorry doesn't mean you won't do it again." She sighed and shook her head, then said in a softer voice, "Just… be careful in future, okay?"

I smiled and reached out to rub her hair, but she caught my hand and lowered it back down with a serious expression. I swallowed and nodded. "I won't," I promised. "I was lost in the moment. I didn't pay attention."

The answer didn't seem to convince her, but she hummed and picked up the bowl of stew Yang had taken from me earlier. It was clumsily made, more meat-bits, water and hope than anything else. It was hot, though, and that made all the difference. She watched me to make sure I drank it and smiled when I was done.

Was I being babied by Ruby of all people? It sounded silly, but then again, she'd taken control of the situation in a far better way than I had. I'd been fully prepared to leave the party, to assume that no one would help and that I needed to do this on my own. If it wasn't for her… well, I wasn't sure what would have happened. Maybe I was the one who deserved to be babied.

My eyes trailed to the side, over the rest of the group, cramped inside the barn along with barrels, sacks and other families. I was surprised to see Kaedin on one side, down on his knees and moving his fingers in intricate patterns. Fancy lights and sparks appeared, and a circle of small children sat before him, watching in awe. His Sentinel sat nearby atop a barrel, sharpening his sword. There was a young boy by him, however, and he didn't seem bothered by his presence.

"They helped too," Ruby said. "They did a lot more than us… I guess they must be really strong, though."

"They only did it because of you," I said. "If you hadn't taken control, they would have led us out of here."

"I didn't do anything. I just told people what they'd be best at doing. They chose to do it themselves. I didn't even tell those two to do anything." Ruby shrugged one shoulder. "I didn't think they would listen."

And yet they had, as has the entire Guild - and Blake too. They'd all followed Ruby's orders without a shred of hesitation. If I'd done the same, they might have followed me too, but I didn't. I was too focused on me. My feelings, my sentiments and my belief they wouldn't help. Maybe I'd sparked it, but I hadn't done much in the way of leadership.

"Hey Ruby… did you ever think of putting yourself down as Guild Master?"

"What?" Ruby looked surprised, but quickly laughed. "I don't think I'd make a good leader. Besides, you're the one who brought everyone together for the Guild in the first place."

"I made friends with people, but it was Pyrrha who led us in the Dungeon, and you here." I sighed. "Maybe you'd make a better leader for us all. I haven't really done anything."

"I-I can't," she said. "You're the Knight, Jaune. You're meant to be the leader."

"What does my Class matter? Ruby, you took control and did great. I think you'd be awesome as lead-"

She shook her head violently and cut me off. "I don't want it," she said. "I don't want to be the leader. You've done great, Jaune. I like you being in charge."

"But I'm not as good as you. You should, or maybe someone else."

"Nope!"

"What? Why not? It makes sense for someone better to-"

Ruby shook her head. "Nope."

"I… don't understand."

"Yep," Ruby giggled. "You don't get it, Jaune, but that's okay. I don't want to be the leader and I don't think everyone would accept me as it anyway. So what if you've made one or two mistakes, it's not like anyone expects you to be perfect." She paused to look at me, silver eyes amused. "The only one who seems to think that is you. Maybe that's why we're all happy to listen to you."

"What," I sighed, "because I'm an idiot?"

Ruby poked my side. "Because you try hard," she corrected. "Everyone else is happy to put effort in, but no one does it as much as you do. We worked until we were exhausted to try and save those people but you went further, even if it was dangerous."

I didn't understand. Ruby had rebuked me for that very thing earlier, and yet now she said it as though it were a good thing?

"We trust you because you'd do the same for us," she whispered. "If we were in trouble and something was going wrong, you'd do something that isn't even humanly possible to try and save us. That's why we follow you."

"That's…" I couldn't find the words.

"Crazy?" Ruby offered.

"Yeah… that's crazy. I'm not strong, I'm almost certainly the lowest level person here and I was raised among the Labour Caste. I don't know anything about being a Hero or leading a Guild."

"That's because you're a Peasant's Knight." Ruby said.

"A… peasant's knight?"

"Viktor said that earlier," she said. "Weiss told him and Kaedin about how you were raised among a non-hero family. When she'd finished, he called you a Peasant's Knight, or maybe a Peasant Knight."

"Ruby," I chuckled. "I think that was meant as an insult."

"Maybe, but I don't think so." Her eyes were serious as she looked into mine. "You know more about what it means to not be a Hero than anyone else does. My mom and dad were always Heroes, my sister is a Hero and I was raised among Heroes too. We're supposed to protect everyone, but sometimes it feels like I can't even understand people who aren't Heroes. Jaune… look at Blake."

I blinked but did so, over in the direction Ruby pointed. Blake was sat cross-legged by a small fire. For a moment I felt worried, for I saw the panicked expression on her face. It faded a second later, however. There was a tiny girl in her lap, one hand on Blake's shoulder as she reached up to touch the Assassin's hair and blabber something to her. Beside the Assassin, the child's mother laughed and said something.

Blake looked confused, but did answer back. Her hands hovered behind the child, ready to catch it if it fell, but reluctant to actually touch it.

"That's pretty funny," I laughed. "I guess it's one of the people she saved?"

"She pulled them out herself," Ruby agreed. "Blake… well, I don't think she expected them to actually thank her."

An exhausted sigh slipped past my lips. "It's her Class," I explained. "I know most people give her grief because she's an Assassin, but I can't believe she'd think someone whose life she just saved would. Of course the kid's happy to see her – and of course the mom is fine with it. Honestly, I doubt anyone here really cares. Heroes are all above us when it comes to fighting. It doesn't matter if you're an Assassin or a Paladin, both could kill someone with ease."

"I didn't know that," Ruby said with a wide grin. "I thought it would be the same here. I just assumed everyone thought the same way, and I bet Blake did too. Jaune, you're probably the only person who knew no one would care." Ruby sighed and looked away. "Yang wanted to help these people, you know? She said she didn't know what she could do, but she didn't mean she wanted to leave them. She just… I think she didn't know how to help."

"I know, Ruby. I'm not going to hold it against her. She did help in the end, after all."

"The thing is… I wasn't sure what to do, either. I thought about how horrible this was, but our job is to fight and kill things that threaten them. I thought we couldn't kill the avalanche, so there was nothing we could do." Ruby poked her fingers together and looked distraught. It cleared up a second later, however, no doubt as she remembered that they had saved people. "You knew how to help, though. I think we were all stuck on how a Hero has to fight and can't do anything else. Like you said, even if we're useless at it, we still have hands. We can still do stuff. Maybe not as good as people better at it, but we can still do it."

"Is that… is that such a big deal?"

Ruby sighed and looked down at her feet. "It kind of is," she said. "Sometimes I forget you grew up among the Labour Caste, but things are different in the Hero Caste. An Archer uses a bow and barely anyone else does. It's kind of silly, though, because I could use a bow and I might hit something with it. That's better than standing there waiting for a Grimm to get near, right?"

"I guess."

"But I don't," Ruby shrugged. "We're always taught to do what our Class dictates, that we are what our Class is. Yang's a Brawler, so she has to use her fists and get into melee. I bet Weiss was the same, especially with what Atlas sounds like. She had to use Spells and try to be the best Mage she could be."

Ruby's words reminded me of Weiss' Passive. Her skill with the sword was fairly good, but I could well imagine that being self-taught, or maybe from her sister. There was no way a Mage Academy was going to teach her to swing a sword.

They probably found the idea insulting.

"It didn't even cross my mind that we could dig the people out," Ruby sighed despondently. "Some Hero…" She looked so upset that I couldn't help but wrap an arm around her shoulder. Ruby accepted it. She snuggled a little closer into my side.

To be honest, the action surprised me. I felt awkward for a moment, but the way she shivered reminded me of just how cold the area was. My hand picked up a blanket from nearby and wrapped it around both our shoulders. She was small, younger than me too… but I was acutely aware of just how close the young woman was to me.

"That's why I think calling you a Peasant Knight is a good thing," Ruby said. "It means you're more in tune with the people we're meant to protect." She looked up at me, eyes sparkling. "That's why I want you to continue being our leader. I'll still help… we all will, but without your empathy, we'd have just wandered off and left them to struggle on their own." Her voice became very low. "I'd have hated myself for that…"

Was it that simple? A Peasant Knight, huh… Viktor meant it as an insult, I was sure, but Ruby's words… they caught me off-guard. I always thought of Heroes as paragons of virtue and order, but I've seen plenty of examples that isn't true. Come to think of it, I always thought Heroes had it easy too, yet if they fail a test at school, they're kicked out of the Caste altogether. Even if they pass, they're locked into a life of fighting forever…

Had I, in my naivety, made the exact same mistake Ruby spoke of?

Heroes couldn't understand the problems faced by the Labour Caste, those they called NPC's, just like how I – back before Beacon – hadn't understood anything of what it meant to be a Hero.

It could explain things… Pyrrha's constant referral to my Caste as NPC's, no matter how much I cringed every time she did. Was it really some hidden Classism like I'd first thought, or was it just that she thought that was the correct way to say it?

"A Peasant Knight," I whispered, testing and tasting the word. My eyes strayed about the room, to where Blake now held the child, a slightly wondrous look in her eyes. Kaedin continued to entertain, but now Weiss had taken to as well, forming a small ice flower for a young girl. Ren and Nora were deep in conversation with a Herbalist, perhaps exchanging knowledge. Pyrrha looked flustered as a little boy offered her a white flower, especially when he pointed to his cheek as though to ask for a kiss. Yang laughed and egged him on, getting a furious look from the red-faced Champion.

All the while, the Knight, Viktor, shook his head. He did, however, point out a flaw the young man beside him made while polishing his hoe.

"Heh…" I chuckled. "Maybe being a Peasant Knight isn't so bad after all."

Ruby murmured a response, and when I looked down, it was to see her asleep against my side, head balanced against my chest. Her breathing was even; her face, exhausted. It made sense… Ruby's Constitution was the lowest; that much was obvious when she'd nearly been killed in a single strike in the Dungeon. For her to last so long, with all the work she'd done… she must have felt more tired than I.

Yet she'd pushed on, and even drawn me back before I collapsed. With a smile, I gently leaned back, nudging her head off of mine and resting it on a pillow. The blanket was tucked about her, and she coiled into it unconsciously.

"Thank you, Ruby," I whispered. "Thank you for standing up for me and for helping get everyone involved too. I'll continue to try and lead for now, but you'll need to help me out, okay?"

Ruby mumbled something in her sleep, and curled into a ball beside me. I quickly laid a spare blanket over her, before crawling beneath my own and looking up towards the ceiling.

The people here would be okay, now. We'd done enough, at a time where they needed it most. The relief effort was almost complete, and although rebuilding would take time, we'd saved lives. That was what mattered, and from the faces of my companions, it seemed they agreed too. The barn, in the middle of a disaster zone, was filled with conversation, laughter and loud snores.

It was filled with life.

That was all that mattered.

I had an interesting review last chapter, which I will reference here. Obviously, the introduction of Weiss' Passive was a bit of a surprise, and some seemed to wonder just why that led her to being bullied. There were some who likened it to Red Mages, which isn't a bad analogy – they are versatile at first, but ultimately weaker in the long run. It's not perfect, however, as Red Mages didn't learn the best spells, where Weiss would learn everything a Mage does – but someone pointed out in the way I was trying to put words to it.

She can't min-max.

It seems like a small thing, but in a society that prides itself on magical prowess, Weiss' Passive means she will always be weaker when it comes to min-maxing, and thus she is laughed at for it. I thought the very simple review explained it better than I'd been able to in my author's notes.

Of course, Ruby's speech here is filled with more wisdom and lore-building beyond just the few characters she mentioned.

P.s. Jaune's first real side-quest, even if he doesn't realise it. Aren't we all proud?

Next Chapter: 20th March

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