Chapter 17: Rules and Added Caveats

Running into that no good, paint spilling child of a girl again had not been how she had wanted the morning to go. No, Weiss had planned everything out perfectly in her head. She had already done the easy part of providing transportation for Blake and her girlfriend's sister, as well as a ticket to the very event that she was hosting. Then, it would have been a simple manner of introductions between the two of them, maybe some accepting of her thanks or even some awe if that was the sort of person that sister was. Then, Weiss would have ingratiated herself with the sister enough so that her kind words would reach Blake's girlfriend and the two could become unlikely friends.

A little bit on the more complex side, she had to admit, but it was a rushed plan. Made only in the time between Blake left to pick up the girl and then returning to the estate. And she did have other things on her mind after all. Such as what the sister was like. Blake had said how beautiful her girlfriend was; was her sister the same? More so, what was the reason that she had entered into this competition in the first place?

Oh, she knew so many rich kids with some knack for weapon-smithing who only wished to compete in this event to get closer to her. Her or her father. Or even her mother in some rare, foolish occurrences. There were some who believed it would be worthwhile to use this as a means to join the Schnee family. Some wished for prize money, even though the reward was quite small, the date with Weiss could theoretically be exchanged for an additional sum. Those were the most foolhardy of the lot of them.

What was this sister like? Was she there for Weiss? Or purely for the money? Weiss knew how much they needed it. How poor could these people be, not being able to afford a measly ticket to this event? The cost was not that expensive, was it? It was true that most of the competitors were among the upper class and moved in similar circles to herself, but they had been the first to know about the competition, so it made sense for them to hold the greatest portion of tickets.

Either way, Weiss was confident in her ability to ingratiate herself with this sister and end up with some new friends. But mostly, it would show Blake that she could be friendly with others and so the two of them could remain best friends.

But like always, plans fail at first contact. In this case, that contact was quite literal though it had happened some weeks before. It was the paint girl. That complete and utter fool of a dolt whom had not looked where she was going and had the audacity to yell at her for missing out on a little toy. Completely unapologetic for spilling red paint all over her dress. Had she any idea how much it had been worth? More than her entire house, most likely. But no, it wasn't truly the cost of the dress which had bothered her, but the lack of red paint which had come from their tussle. It was hard enough to purchase paint supplies without her parents knowledge. And she was so close to coming out of that incredible fair with a perfect can of colour that she had wanted to add to her painting for a long time.

That girl. Weiss had left their second argument in a huff. "What right did she have to say such things? 'And maybe you will learn to not run with an open jar of paint' my butt!" She was too angry to care about her lack of propriety as she stomped away from that girl and her best friend.

A best friend who was trying to hold back her silent laughter. And why were they friends in the first place? Too embroiled in annoyance to truly answer that, she went on her way, moving past silly attempts at introductions or conversation by the young rich male competitors of her contest.

Weiss could not believe the gall of that girl. Weiss had not only allowed her to ride in a limo to the competition but had also paid for her ticket to the thing. Where was the respect? Where was the gratitude?

"Ms. Schnee," the voice of a wandering attendant interrupted her deluge of thoughts.

Pausing, she shook her head to remove said girl from her head and put a well-practiced smile on her face. "Yes? Is there something you need?"

The attendant spoke quickly, "Lord Schnee wishes to speak with you in the tertiary library at your earliest convenience."

Weiss sighed. 'Earliest convenience' often meant 'right now and don't be late' to her parents. It was always at their convenience. Anything less than immediately was tantamount to disrespect in their eyes. For their employees and business partners, but also for her and her sister.

"Thank you, I shall be on my way. Please return to whatever you had been doing prior."

"As you wish, miss." The attendant nodded and scurried off in the opposite direction.

Weiss sighed. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately. Sighing to her mother and her constant remarks about marriage. Sighing to her father and his continuous stream of critiques and criticisms, all to get her ready to be 'the perfect wife to whomever he chose and the perfect heiress'. And of course, sighing to her staff whom she was fairly certain saw her as a younger version of both her parents. There was only Blake -And Winter- who didn't treat her like someone who needed to be perfect in everything, while simultaneously coddled. And even with Winter, there was still the Schnee need to be perfect.

But, as Schnee has no time to wallow in self-pity. Weiss went straight to the tertiary library, pausing only to speak quick words to her passing guests, and truly, only the important ones. Important to her father and mother and their ever-growing business empire of course. Not to her. All of these people could rot for all she cared. As long as one of them kept her from dating and marrying Cardin Winchester.

She knocked twice on the door and waited for her father's signal to enter. It came and she did, closing to quietly behind her, curtsying politely to him.

"Please, have a seat." He gestured to the chair across from him with eyes of firm resolve.

It was an order. Everything he said, regardless of the pleasantries accompanying it often were. She sat slowly, fixing the wrinkles in her dress.

"Is there anything I can do for you, father?"

"Yes, I would like to discuss with you the means by which you are to be deciding on a winner for your… sword competition." The condescension in his voice was clear. As much as he was in favour of promoting the Schnee name with silly events like this one, the two of them knew it was all just a ruse to delay the marriage.

Weiss cleared her throat, shifting in her seat under his careful gaze.

"There will be three rounds of voting. First the judges will look at all the weapons and discard the clearly poorly made ones, then we will look at the remaining ones all together, wherein the judges will discard some until there is only the top five, and then I will pick the winner from those five. Everything is done without knowing who the contestants are and who made which weapon. To keep things fair."

"Right… fair," Mocking and disdain. Always mocking and disdain. "And how will you know the winner, once a weapon has been selected?"

"Each weapon will have a number on it, linking them to the contestant. After a winner is picked, we will all be able to see the winner's number and therefore the winner themselves."

"And if you were to look at or were told the contestant numbers beforehand?"

"It… it would not be right, father. Not fair to all involved."

"I am told the Winchester's number will be 32."

"Why would you tell me that! That goes against the rules-"

"Quiet you insolent girl. How dare you speak to your father that way." Jacque rose, clenching a fist. He was angry.

Weiss's eyes widened. That was bad, to maker her father angry. But, she could possibly use it to her advantage. A Schnee does always find her opponents' weaknesses to use against them.

"I had not meant to speak so harshly, but I will not be breaking the rules of my own event just to ensure victory for the man of your choosing. It was agreed by you, mother and I that it will be a blind vote. The judges and I can watch the contestants build their weapons, but none of them will be labelled with any of their own names, nor will we be allowed to see their final assembly."

"You will find out which one was created by that Winchester boy and he will be named victor." Her father pointed a rude finger at her.

Instead of backing down, Weiss stood up as well. Still very much shorter than her father, it did little to sway him, but it did keep him from completely looking down on her.

"Even mother has yet to bring up Cardin. Why are you so insistent on me breaking the rules for his sake? Isn't he supposed to be a gifted weapon-smith?"

"This has less to do with that boy you will marry and more with your lack of accepting your role and duty as my daughter."

"I apologize, but I still believe it would be best to maintain course." With that, Weiss turned to leave the room. There was little she could say that had not already been said. She knew Cardin's number now, but she also knew her father, and most likely mother, knew she knew. That meant it would probably be changed, to keep her from deliberately not choosing him.

Details within details with them. Even though her father had been the one to have this conversation with her, she knew it would have been at the behest of her mother. She was the intelligent one among the two of them.

When she opened the door, she was surprised to see someone standing in her way. Someone she recognized but really wished she didn't. It was paint girl once again. Of all the people, it had to be her standing in front of the door. As the girl began to speak, Weiss quickly silence her, responding to her father's question and closing the door abruptly.

Once it was safe from the gaze of Jacques, her attention was once again on paint girl. "And what do you think you're doing here?"


Well, this was a fun one to write.

Read and Stayed - Not so sure about a cliffhanger in chapter 15, but there definitely is one in chapter 16 and 17! I am curious to know, what cliffhanger was there in chapter 15

Iamking - Don't worry, our precious Rubles will overcome Weiss's exterior by sheer adorkableness! Or will she?

Thank you for the reviews and I will see you all next chapter!