Sitting there in one of the rooms cushy chairs is Jacques Schnee.

"Close the door. You and I need to talk."

I close the door and slowly walk to the chair opposite, by the desk, taking in the room as I do so.

New Quest!

"It's just business"
Objective: Survive the encounter with Jacques Schnee
Bonus Objective: ?
Bonus Objective: ?
Reward: 500 XP
Bonus Reward: ?
Bonus Reward: ?

Right, no choice. Makes sense.

"So, to what do I owe the pleasure of your presence?" I ask as I sit down. "Surely such an important man as yourself has better things to do than spend time in Mantle speaking to an orphan."

Jacques sits forward an preens slightly under the compliment. Straitening his white suitcoat.

"You're right, I do. However some things are best seen to in person."

That sounds... Both good and bad. Bad that I have his personal attention somehow, but good in that I'm not likely to be killed while he's here.

"I am here to offer you twenty million Lien to move out of the kingdom and never come into contact with me or my family again." Jacques states plainly then sits back and clasps his hands.

I'm obviously missing something. I know it's not as much as it sounds like, the buying power is only about the same as two hundred thousand dollars, but to offer me that out of nowhere is raising a LOT of red flags.

"Enough to move and buy a modest home, perhaps live for a time if I'm frugal. Very generous for someone you've never met." I lean back, mimicking his posture, but leave my hands free. "I would be a fool if I didn't ask why. So if it's not too much trouble, why is one of the most powerful men in the world offering to pay me to go away?"

A slightly sour look passes over his face before he schools his expression again.

"I suppose it was too much to ask for you to simply accept my offer blindly. I can respect intelligence. It's just much easier when the person across the table isn't." Jacques says with a smirk. "Since you asked so nicely I suppose I can take the time to settle a few of your doubts." Jacques leans forward again, moving his hands to the arms of the chair. "You see, while seeing you isn't pleasant for me, that's not my main concern. Do you happen to know how I came to be one of the most powerful men in the world?"

"You married the Heiress of the Schnee Dust Company and took over it's operations when her father died." I should keep laying it on thick if he's going to keep talking. "You then made a series of business decisions that made the company more profitable."

"Quite." Jacques smooths his suit again. "However as those terrible tabloids keep reporting our marriage hasn't always been, shall we say, stable." Jacques face takes on an unpleasant expression. "My wife has on occasion sought comfort from... outside our marriage." He gestures towards me. "You are the result of one such instance."

"And you can tell me this because no one would ever believe it." I state flatly, earning a grin from Jacques.

I will my inventory window open and look at the representation of myself there. To Jacques it must look like I'm just looking away from him and thinking. Yeah. I can kind of see it, I have the right hair and eye color to be a Schnee. What the hell did the Game drop me in to?

Any possible plan I have for saving the world is going to have me running into Weiss or Winter at some point or another, I need to get out of this. Hang on a minute... Weiss...

"How is that even possible, don't you have a daughter my age?"

"Oh yes," Jacques says dryly, leaning back once more. "Weiss." Jacques looks at me in a manner that can only be described as calculating. "Well, no one should ever doubt your mind, that's for certain. If you must know, you are twins. It simply would have been to unbelievable for both of you to 'die in childbirth'" I can practically hear the quotes. "and in high society a spare daughter has her uses. Whatever you may think of me, I'm not a monster, I wasn't about to kill a pair of newborns, so you got sent to an orphanage where they gave you a name and a chance at life, and she got to be raised as my own until she can prove more useful. I hope that answers all your questions?"

Wow. Okay, any remaining qualms I had about doing whatever I need to to Jacques have been totally erased.

"Just one more before we get to the brass tacks of your offer." Make him think I'm still interested and that the talking is almost done, I need a plan to deal with his pair of toughs. Jacques makes a 'go on' motion with his hand. "Why now? I certainly wouldn't have found any of this out without you telling me. Odds are I never would have even gotten up to Atlas."

Jacques sits up strait looking a little upset, he gives a quick tug to the bottom of his suitcoat as he settles into his new position.

"Several years ago I made a mistake in anger." Oh he really doesn't look happy to have admitted that. "After that my Wife has been hiring private investigators to try and find you. Eventually she found one who wouldn't accept a bribe. Fortunately his assistant doesn't share his scruples." Jacques smirks as he says that last part. "I am here now so that you are gone before that P.I. tells my wife you're here. Shall we get on with it now?"

I nod as I take a quick glace at his guards. Observe tells me they don't have Aura so they're just normal security. That makes things a little easier, but unless I just decide to kill all three of them I'm still limited on what I can do.

"Well, you put an offer on the table so I suppose it's my turn to counter." I need more time to think, keep talking. "You have to understand that discovering a family is the dream of pretty much every orphan. I don't suppose there's any chance I can simply sign some documents forfeiting any claim to inheritance and we can let things go from there?"

"No. Given the efforts she has gone to find you I have no doubt that in the event of my death my wife would give you anything you wanted, legal or not."

"I didn't believe you would accept that, but I needed to know. Family would have been nice, but I suppose money will have to suffice." I say, prevaricating for more time to think. "That just leaves logistical issues with your offer."

"If you need transport out of the kingdom I can always have you accompany one of our shipments." Jacques offers flippantly.

"Not exactly what I meant. Moving to another kingdom is easy, not contacting your family myself is simple as well, but if what you said about your wife is true, what's to stop her from finding me again? Twenty million is enough to move elsewhere and settle down, but not to uproot myself and run anytime some private dick finds me."

"Hmmm... A valid concern." Jacques leans back and strokes his mustache in thought.

The magic that the Game System grants me, is some of the most broken bullshit to ever exist. Unless a spell calls for it explicitly, none of them have any verbal or somatic components. Burning hands is the only spell I have that even demands my hands be free. One thought and a spell is cast. Yes gesturing makes it easier to hit my target, but it's not strictly necessary for most spells. The problem I have is nearly all my spells are flashy. Only a few aren't going to be noticed the moment I cast them.

I feel sorry for the mooks, but when you take a job as a personal security guard, you know you might get killed on the job. I can't think of any better options but to just kill all three of them and ditch the bodies. Jacques isn't bad enough to deserve that, but I have no time and no better options, I'm kind of in a corner.

"I suppose I can take care of my wife, and should that fail I can offer a similar amount for you to relocate again."

Scratch that, Jacques does deserve this.

I glance at each of the bodyguards, casting Deep Thoughts on each of them before I stand up. I put my hand to my chin and start walking back and forth by the door to the room. Doing my best to appear deep in thought myself. A second pass allows me to cast Heat Metal on both of the guards, I'm on the clock now, only about a minute before any metal on them is painful to touch, less than that for them to notice.

I do have one decent attack spell without any visual components. I looks at Jacques. Mind Flame.

Despite the name, Mind Flame doesn't actually set someone's brain on fire. What it does do is use fire magic to inflict damage inside someone's body, bypassing armor. So when Jacques suddenly doubles over in pain, there's no visible sign I've done anything. Unfortunately the damage is low since I never got around to power leveling it.

While they might not have Aura, the guards are at least well trained, as soon as Jacques doubled over, one went to check on him while the other reached for his weapon.

When the guard draws, and then immediately drops his too hot to hold weapon, I'm ready.

Two castings of Ember bolt takes care of the two guards, I target the one who tried to draw on me first, and the second casting hits the other guard as he looks back up from Jacques. Two guards down and Jacques in pain in under fifteen seconds.

Jacques is suddenly less concerned about the brief pain when both of his guards go down.

"Wait! I ca..."

I hit him with an Ember bolt, then one more just to be sure.

You have defeated Security Guard x2 earning 400XP
You have defeated Jacques Schnee earning 10XP

Would you like to loot?
[YES] [NO]

I select yes and suddenly have three naked bodies on my floor.

Hoping that bodies are no longer people and count as items, I walk over and attempt to put them in my inventory. One touch, and a little cartoon body appears in one of my inventory slots. The other two former humans quickly follow, and I rapidly spread around a few Mend spells to get rid of the burn marks the brief fight caused. Since it cleans as well I'm hoping that it gets rid of any other traces, I don't know what kind of CSI Remnant has, but if Jacques Schnee is missing I can bet they'll be bringing their 'A game'.

Quest Complete!

"It's just business"
Objective: Survive the encounter with Jacques Schnee
Bonus Objective: Discover your family ties
Bonus Objective: Avoid losing your inheritance
Reward: 500 XP
Bonus Reward: Perk Crystal
Bonus Reward: 5 Gacha Tokens

I can look at all of that later, right now I need to be seen somewhere else. I use the edge of my demi-cape to wipe both sides of the doorknob as I leave, quickly passing through the lobby and back out into the street, turning back in the direction of the shops.

I walk until I see a decent sized restaurant with a fair number of people inside, I decide that this is as good a place as any to be seen having dinner. The place is surprisingly like a Coney Island, not the real coney islands that only had various types of hotdogs and fries, or even the almost real ones that would add a few items based on one additional item, like the one I used to go to that had tortillas so added tacos and burritos to the menu using the meat and chili from the hotdogs. No this was more like the coney islands that were that in name only, and had a full menu. Yeah they had chilidogs and fries, but you don't go to a coney to get chicken parmesan. All told though it was a fairly normal restaurant that was a step up from a greasy spoon, so not too bad. I made sure to spend extra time there, even ordered some pie for dessert, and made sure to leave a decent tip since I took up the table for so long. The place wasn't super busy or anything, but I was still an extra person for the waitress to look after for longer than normal.

I'm feeling a bit of trepidation as I head back to the hotel. But I have the night paid there, and I need to look like I'm acting normal more than anything else. If I don't show back up at the hotel tonight, it will look like I have a reason to not go back.

As I walk into the lobby I do my best to act casual, making my way to the elevator, and then my room unaccosted.

Okay, I'm here, now what? If I want to appear normal I need to stay in for the rest of the night, it's late enough most folk will be going to sleep, so I need to appear to as well, but I'm a bit too nervous to think about properly sleeping. So I need to occupy myself.

Guess I can do a little skill grinding, I haven't really touched Kindle or Control flame, and those seem like the kind of thing I might need if I end up needing to fight a Maiden.

I activate Kindle and get a little flame like you might see on a candle floating just above my palm. It isn't much but about what I expected from a level one skill, I just hope the amount I conjure will go up as I level it. Using control flame I can make the flame flicker and dance, but not much else, I can feel extra MP being dumped into the spell as I try to make the fire grow, but it doesn't have a noticeable effect, maybe I should wait for a few levels before I try that again. I can shape the flame a little, but not much since I don't have a lot to work with, so I guess I'll just have it float around for now. Setting the flame to circle my head at a few feet distance, I find myself bored again. It takes a tiny amount of concentration to do this, and that leaves most of me ready to do something else.

I think I need a new skill.

With a sigh I do something I have been avoiding since the first time I did it, I open up the Market window.

The Market it's self is kinda cool, it lets me buy and sell just about any item, however once I took the time to think about it, it gives me a bit of existential dread. When I browsed the items the first time I immediately noticed the number for the quantity in stock, normal enough, but then as I watched, the number went down by one.

Someone, somewhere bought one of that item.

I'm not alone.

I doubt there's another Gamer in this world with me, but the fact that we're all connected via the Market is a bit disturbing. I don't like to think about it, so I've been avoiding using it. However right now, I need to buy something. Navigating to the section for skillbooks I start browsing through to see if there's one there that meets my needs. I need something that will help me lie to people, and the only way I can think of gaining a skill like that would be to just go start lying to people, not something I want to be doing in the middle of the night, and I'm not sure how long I have before Jacques is noticed missing.

100,000 Lien is pretty steep for a basic skill, but I can spare it if it saves me trouble later, other skills might do the job better, but I found the cheapest one that can help me: Acting.

I pull my purchase out of my inventory and absorb the book. Basics of acting that I already vaguely recalled from my time in Theater club in highschool are suddenly reinforced, and new minor tricks are engraved into my brain.

I can do this.

I'll need to level this skill as quickly as I can, so I guess it's time to start reciting lines. Assuming I can remember any. Damn.

I only ever took part in one production in highschool, and I was running the lighting panel, not on stage. Yeah, I can't recall any lines from 'The Curious Savage', so I'll need to try and recall something else. Given my situation with law enforcement, the first thing to come to mind is "Les Miserables".

I can only recall the songs, but it's better than nothing. As I start 'Look Down' I get a pop up informing me that I've unlocked the 'Singing' skill. Not what I was going for, but I won't turn free skills down. I sing as much as I can remember, confirming after each song that both Acting and Singing are going up from my practice. I barely need to check on my orbiting flame as I do this, just to make sure those skills are leveling too. I have to say, my performance is getting noticeably better as I go. By the time I reach 'On my own' my performance brings a tear to my own eye, but then again I always had a soft spot for that tale of unrequited love. Eventually I get to 'One Day More' and I stumble a bit over it, since it really needs multiple singers, but the idea of a song sung by a group of French people has me jump track after I finish and I starting singing 'Gaston' from beauty and the beast.

As I finish I decide to skip on the Disney songs, too many people here are based on those characters.

But the fact that my skills still went up means I don't need to stick to stage plays, I can do movies as well. Naturally I start with Tombstone. Wyatt's line 'I don't think I'm going to let you arrest us today' seems fitting. I go through the movie, remembering all the most quotable scenes, man Val Kilmer was robbed of an Oscar for that part. That naturally leads to other quotable movies, Predator, The 1986 Transformers movie (The only real one), just about anything with Eddie Murphy in it.

By the time I run out of material that comes easily to mind, the sun has come up. I snuff my flame and head downstairs, time to head out into the world once more.

As I exit the elevator into the lobby my eyes are immediately drawn to the man standing by the door wearing a dark yellow trenchcoat and fedora. He stands out in a way that only someone with speaking lines can.

"Mr. Frost." He says as I approach the doors. "My name is Richard Tracy. May I have a word with you?"

[AN]: So I was about a season and a half behind on RWBY when I started this. I decided I needed to catch up before finishing this chapter since I needed to make sure Jacques didn't show having an unlocked aura. Then it was two days until I could watch the season finale, then it was Easter... So sorry this one took so long.