Chapter 2 Weiss: The Costs of a Good Life

When she was twenty-five, she reached the peak of her career as a huntress. She knew dragging it out further wouldn't suit her needs. She had to admit, it was a gamble. Setting down her sword and returning to Atlas as she had came with a fair amount of risks. At the time, her team had told her that it just wasn't a good idea. Her heart agreed wholeheartedly, but her mind begged to differ. It was with great reluctance that she returned home to the Schnee family manor.

Carefully, she plastered a smile on her face, offering a faux willingness to marry almost any man that her father tossed at her.

It turned out that luck was on her side. Nolan was a fellow huntsman she'd crossed paths with many times. In her Academy days, it was a yearly occurrence. As an adult their meetings were always pleasant. Nolan was a member of team BRNZ from Shade Academy. He was also the only son of the Porfirio family. They were just as wealthy as any Schnee, and equally renown in Vacuo.

His noble family came from a long line of huntsmen. He followed in the prestigious footsteps of his forbearers. In Vacuo, huntsmen were held to high esteem. Honored the same way that Atlas valued its military. Nolan was certainly nice enough, and plenty handsome. He was a rough a tumble sort of man. His dark red hair constantly long and messy, always hanging in his face. His pink eyes a rarity among his people.

All in all, he had a charming disposition and the bloodline to silence naysayers instantly. Weiss didn't completely hate him, either.

There was only one problem. Nolan simply wasn't born for the stiff demands Weiss expected of him. If he had been a little less wild, slightly more self-aware, it might have worked out. As it stood, his particular failings made them incompatible.

He hated Atlas. He couldn't stand the constant preening required of the upper class. He didn't want to look the part of a noble. He missed his old life, and all of the adventure it offered. He certainly had no interest running in the company that was handed to him on his wedding day. He wasn't ready to figure out the meticulous inner-workings of the dust trade. Nolan might not have cared at all for the legacy he married into, but he was a good man at his core.

Weiss had even been forced to admit that she had found deeper truths within herself because of him. Their sex life had scratched an itch Weiss hadn't even known she had. She had never assumed her experience would go beyond the requirement of procreation. Oh, how wrong she had been. Finding the taste of heady desire hard to silence now that it had been woken from deep within.

After the divorce, Nolan wasn't a horrible father, either. He was a better man for it, often bringing by trinkets and stories from his travels. If anything, their divorce had only strengthened relations between the families and the kingdoms. The argument to allow Atlas a foothold within Vacuo became something that the councils could no longer ignore. The two powerful families were joined by blood, and that was not something to take lightly.

All in all, Weiss was not unhappy with her lot in life…

In fact, not that she was pushing thirty, she thought herself mostly fortunate.

"Hey, Weiss, I brought that new outfit from Coco's place." Yang called out from someplace within the house. "Where do you want me to stick it?"

"Thanks, you can just set it on the table." She called back, hoping her voice would carry down the hallway.

"Where are you, anyway?" The blonde asked, her voice becoming clearer as she got closer.

"I'm in my bedroom." Weiss called out again, before turning her attention back to her daughter, trying to decide between the powder blue undershirt and the white one. She finally chose the blue, hoping it would be less likely to stain. "Here, let's put this on." She said to her petulant daughter. "Arms up."

"Nu-uh."

"Are you a baby?"

"No."

"Okay. Put your arms up like a big girl." Weiss instructed again, meeting the same resistance as before. Reaching the end of her sanity on this long morning she finally forced the shirt over her daughter's head, the small child flailing around as her head popped out of the fabric with a pout. "Ada, sit still."

"No!" She had her Father's eyes. An impossibly perfect shade of pink.

"Yes."

"I don't want it!" The Schnee blood ran strong too. Stubbornness to a fault to go along with the family's noteworthy white hair and pale complexion.

"Stop fussing. I'm almost done." She ordered through her teeth, finally managing to wrangle both of her daughter's arms into the sleeves and fasten together the entire ensemble.

Yang could only sigh at the mother daughter feud taking place right before her eyes. "This isn't going to work, Weiss."

"Hush, Yang, you're not helping."

"She doesn't want to be crammed in that stupid thing."

"It's the Atlas Academy's daycare uniform. Like it or not, it's the dress code."

"Why in the hell would a day care have a set uniform like that anyway?" Yang muttered under her breath before she clued in on something particular. "Better question, why did you even enroll her in daycare anyway? Wait, don't tell me, your family shipped you off on day one."

"With my bloodline? Not very likely." Weiss scoffed. "Klein's getting on in his years, Yang. He can't be expected to keep up with her. She'll be going to daycare for a few hours every day so that he has less to worry about." Weiss replied, smiling down at her daughter who was now dressed in the white, lacy Atlas Academy jumper. All of the girls in the daycare wore them. "There all done. See? You're very pretty, Ada."

"Yuck." The little girl complained, grabbing at the frills of the jumper. "Get it off."

"It has to stay on." Weiss just sighed.

"Ugh." She grunted, crossing her arms. "Gross."

"Smart kid." Yang said under her breath.

Weiss elbowed her friend in the ribs with more force than she needed. "You're very pretty, Ada." Weiss said again, trying to instill the positive self-image. Instead of listening, her daughter tried to get up and escape. "No. Stay there."

Ada looked up at her mother expectantly with a frown. As if she was about to be subjected to more torture. "Play now?"

No."

"Oh." Ada said, looking around the room for a moment. "Why?"

"I need to brush your hair first."

"Why?"

"Because it's messy." Weiss said, indulging inquisitive nature. "You need to sit still."

As soon as Weiss had her daughter's hair in a satisfactory place the girl messed it up again. The short tendrils were sticking out everywhere, not that her child seemed to mind. "Play now?" She asked pleadingly.

After a long suffering sigh, Weiss finally relented. "Yes, you can go play now."

The blonde could hardly contain her mirth. "I really don't get why you want to send her off to the academy daycare." Yang said as she leaned on the wall to her friend's room. Ada making a quick escape passed her legs. "She's not a hard kid to watch. It's not like I haven't done it before."

"I want her to get accustomed to spending the day away from the household." Weiss said, sitting at her vanity and pulling out her make-up bag.

"If you're just looking for a few hours every day, I can swing that easy. I can always take her with me if I've got any running around to do." Yang shrugged. "Yatsuhashi and I hit up the gym every morning, my afternoon's always free."

"I appreciate the offer, but I must decline. Ada needs to learn to socialize with other children." Weiss replied slowly, as if regretting the words instantly. "

"There's parks for that." Yang said once again, not to be deterred. "Plenty of kids to socialize with around there. Hell, there's one right down the street."

It was with the snap of the foundation bottle that Weiss eyed Yang with no small amount of annoyance. "Why are you so against Ada going to daycare?" She asked, using a sponge to delicately apply the creamy substance. "In another year it'll be off to preschool before she knows it."

"I'm not against it, I'm just not sure you're doing it because you want to…"

"What monster would want to send a little girl with her fame and fortune out into the public eye? That preschool is like a baby piranha tank, brimming with blue blooded children waiting to be turned into little militant racists." Weiss bit out. "Trust me." She said with a sharp scowl. "This is the last thing I wanted for her…"

Yang sighed. "Why not someplace else? There's probably a million daycare centers around here…"

"It's the only one with tight enough security that I trust. No one would even dare harm a hair on her head in Atlas Academy." It was then she set down the small sponge, glaring at it as if it had somehow failed her. "Winter's there most of the time, which is another layer of protection."

"Yeah, well her ticket to freedom is standing right here…" Yang said, waving her hand. "Unless you think I can't protect her."

"Don't be ridiculous." Weiss said with a soft laugh. Even out of the corner of her eye, she saw the tall blonde frame packed with tightly coiled muscle. Yang had always been the physical powerhouse of team RWBY, but with her newfound free time, her hours at the gym had built up. Arguably, she was physically stronger now than she had ever been as a huntress. "Anybody moronic enough to pick a fight with you would end up in a body cast." It wasn't an understatement, either.

"So, what gives?"

"The problem is that I work at least five days a week." Weiss said dryly. "My hours are long and unpredictable. I arranged this so that Klein could drop her off whenever he needed the break. I can't ask you to undertake that kind of commitment."

"Nolan's going to be pissed if he comes back from his mission and finds out that you stuck her in that stuffy old academy." It wasn't a lie, either. He wouldn't be happy. He was almost due to return, and it would be the last thing he'd want to hear about. "I know he's pretty chill about a lot of things, but that won't be one of them. He hates that place." Well, he hated the entirety of Atlesian pride as it stood, but, he was more than willing to keep that to himself.

"Yang please, don't make this harder for me than it is."

"Then don't make it hard. You're the one about to shit a diamond."

Weiss sighed, placing her forehead down onto the vanity and closing her eyes. Somehow, she just knew she was going to regret this. "Okay… Alright, fine. Have it your way. We'll run a trial and see how well this goes. Do whatever Klein tells you to do. However, the moment it becomes an inconveniences for you, you're to tell me immediately. I won't have my daughter placing any burden on your shoulders, Yang. Do you understand?"

"Deal." Yang said. "Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a jumper to torch."

"Of course you do…" Weiss hissed under her breath, not completely sure if Yang had been joking or not.

The Schnee Dust Company had many offices all over Remnant. The main headquarters obviously located within the heart of Atlas, the building standing as a monument to the foundation of the kingdom itself. While the main headquarters attracted the tourists and onlookers, the real bulk of the work couldn't be done without all of the dust mines and the military's might against the Grimm. Therefore, research and development wasn't located in the corporate offices. That section of the company lay buried within the fortifications of Atlas Academy.

The Schnee family had always been strictly rooted in business. They'd always had money, their bloodline hailing back to royal ancestors across the globe. Shrewd practices ensured that they had never been in service to the military. In times of crisis, they had been above the draft. Nearly untouchable, so long as they continued to supply dust from deep within the mines. Many wealthy families benefited that way. The populous concluding that it was more important for noteworthy families to prepare supplies and treaties than it was for them to die on the frontlines.

Winter, ever the trendsetter, thoroughly obliterated that notion the day she set out on her own. She became the first Schnee to properly serve her kingdom with honor and dignity. As such, she was also the first Schnee to have a proper understanding of what it took to survive the harsh world that they lived in. Without her guidance, the company would have lost the monopoly long ago. The competition would be all too willing to claw their way up from the bottom.

Winter also paved the way for her siblings without hesitation.

Weiss was the first to benefit. During her time as a huntress she had only further shattered the concept that a Schnee shouldn't, or wouldn't, dirty her own hands for the sake of her beliefs.

A long day with company proceedings would exhaust her beyond belief. She would go home tired, sometimes not even completely satisfied with the work she'd managed to accomplish. There were times she would take stacks of paperwork home with her. Idly sorting through them in the hours after her daughter settled down for bedtime. The cycle was a vicious one, insipid and uncaring. The nature of the company was a devilish sort of evil.

On the one hand, in Atlas dust was a requirement to survive. Acquiring it wasn't an option, it had to happen. On the other hand, the cost of dust remained incredibly high. Hundreds of people died yearly in the dangerous trade. Some were poisoned slowly over the years. Others took their last breaths in catastrophic accidents. Machinery failings, Grimm attacks, the volatile dust combusting underground for no explicable reason… The list of dangers grew endless. Then there were those who died at the hands of others. Terrorist groups wanting nothing more than to acquire dust for themselves.

Weiss felt the weight of it all, choosing to bear the burden with a heavy heart, unlike her predecessors. She considered it her sworn duty, perhaps more important than being a huntress could ever be. To uphold her status with the same sort of gravitas was something she demanded of herself.

She ran a company able to spend people's lives against fate. She hated treating every soul as if it were currency to be spent at her whim. It was no wonder why Nolan couldn't bear it. Weiss seriously doubted anyone she held in high esteem could do what she did. It was obvious Winter certainly couldn't, or the company would have fallen into her grasp the moment she reached maturity.

There were some days Weiss even doubted herself. Days like that were often among the worst. Justification harder to come by after seeing the damage dust could do. But, then she would return home, and step through her front door.

"Welcome home, Weiss."

"Good evening, Klein." She said softly as he took her coat and hung it up in the nearby closet. "I take it Ada has already been put to bed."

And just like that, she knew the gift that dust could give. Countless people benefited, kept safe and warm. The masses nestled safely within the kingdoms, because dust made large settlements possible. It gave the academies the firepower. They were able to train the hunters and huntresses needed to subdue the Grimm. Most in the heart of the kingdoms had never come face to face with a Grimm because of it. Dust made such blissful naivety possible. countless people would never need to vow their lives to battle. Thousands more would vow, but never truly see combat. Those thousands would never know the agony of building a mass grave, or watching a village turn to ash in a single night.

If that wasn't worth the price of acquiring dust, absolutely nothing was.

"Eight-o-clock, on the dot." He nodded competently. The bedtime itself the very same one that Weiss had abided by when she was so young. "Her dinner tonight consisted of a bowl of sliced fruit, and a small plate of spaghetti. Both of which I regretfully report ended up everywhere besides where it was meant to go."

"Sounds about right." Weiss deadpanned as she slipped off her shoes and left them on the small rack by the door. "Please tell me Yang followed your instructions…"

"If by follow, you mean pointedly ignore…" Klein trailed off. "Ada's breakfast somehow found its way to being a syrupy covered nightmare, and her lunch was the equivalent of filth."

"Pancakes and fast food." Weiss easily translated, hardly surprised. Making her way into her kitchen. "Was that the worst of it?"

"Hardly. If that were the extent of the ruckus, I'd hardly be surprised. Miss Xiao Long has always been known to invite havoc with her wherever she goes." It was then he smiled, even if only slightly. "Her ability to be an effective tutor concerns me. Miss Xiao Long turned everything into a game. Studying colors somehow equated to finger painting, and counting turned into a glorified mess of toys all over the living room. When I asked what could possibly be wrong with paper and flashcards, she poked me in the nose with a dollop of red paint."

"And you thoroughly enjoyed it." She said, watching as Klein bustled around at the stove, preparing warm water for the cup of tea Weiss usually expected once arriving home.

"As uncivilized as it might make me sound, yes. I most certainly did." Klein agreed. "I quite enjoyed the entire afternoon. My knees haven't ached all day. Though, I didn't find myself with much to do." He looked properly dismayed at that. "This home doesn't exactly require the same sort of proceedings that your father's mansion does. The cleaning isn't a formidable task, either."

"A large single family home wouldn't be as troublesome as the estate. I explicitly intended it that way when I had it built." Weiss said with a careless shrug. "I wasn't about to claim the mansion as my home. No one needs that much space. Not in this day and age. Frankly, even when I lived there, I found it much too overwhelming."

She'd had this house built from the ground up to her particular demands. It was on the larger side, the upstairs containing two small wings with four bedrooms on each side. However, it was nothing like the massive mansion that her father lived in. The place was too large for its own good. Containing sprawling wings, and that didn't even take into consideration all of the facilities one expected from such finery.

"Be that as it may, I feel a little guilty remaining under your employ when I have very little to do." He'd brought the mug of tea just as he knew she liked it. He took his time settling it delicately in front of her. Then he prepared his own tea and pulled himself a chair. "When you inherited my contract, I thought for sure you'd have another use for this old man. Something other than setting the coffee in the morning and tea in the evening. Ada was perhaps my one and only task, and today I came to the conclusion that I'm not longer suited to even that."

"I demanded your contract because I needed someone in my household that I could trust." Weiss said, sipping at her tea and gazing at the aging man in front of her. "You know the sort of documents I keep in my home office. I rarely use it the same way father does his, but, the documents are there either way. As for Ada, you are invaluable. Klein, I don't think I would have survived her first year without you."

"You would have done just fine."

"I highly doubt that."

"Preposterous." Klein said softly, mostly to himself. "Snowflake, you give yourself entirely too little credit when it's due."

"Perhaps. Or, it could simply be that I know strictly who to hire to make my life easier." She said, watching the way his mustache ruffled with the downturn of his upper lip. "I know you don't see me as a tyrant, but, I'm a Schnee. I'm prone to all of the same trappings of those before me." She said, looking down into her mug. The dark tea reflecting her image murkily. "I won't pretend otherwise."

"You don't have to pretend at all."

Although she was positive that he truly believe that, she could not. There were so few people she could speak with so candidly. Fewer still, who knew the depths of her history. "It terrifies me to think that I might one day lose sight of who Ada is to me. That, like my parents before me, I might forget my foremost responsibility to my own child."

Klein let a soft sound slip passed his lips. "Well, I suppose it depends on how you view that foremost responsibility."

"Nolan and I fully plan to raise her well." Weiss said, as though that were obvious. "Still, if our vision of what that might be… If that's irreparably wrong somehow… I'd never forgive myself." Leaning her elbow on the table she tucked her chin into her palm, regarding him with the deepest sincerity she often closed away. "I know that if I were to become horrendously negligent, you would never let Ada falter. You would do your utmost to protect her, just as you did for me. Never feel guilty for being my butler, Klein. If it gives my daughter a good life, then, that's all that matters."

Weiss finished her tea before bidding Klein a good night.

She stopped by her daughter's room, looking in to see the girl asleep in her small bed. It was made for little ones, low to the floor in case they managed to tumble out of it at night. Satisfied that Ada wouldn't soon wake up from her slumber, Weiss made her way to her own room.

With a flip of the light, she took notice of the small calendar near the door. Two more weeks until Nolan returned from his next mission. Two more weeks until she could scratch an itch that had been building. She could just see it now. He would come walking into the household like he own the place, send her one of his charming little smirks. She'd be on her back pinned beneath him before she knew it.

A shaky breath left her lips. She forced herself to steady herself against the anticipation.

Several long held grievances bubbled in her mind. It was improper to sleep with her ex-husband the way she did. So willing to accept him into her bed even after divorcing him. If her friends knew the sordid details, they'd likely be confused. Yang would probably shrug it off as no big deal. Ruby wouldn't understand it, crinkling her nose and calling the entire situation weird. Blake would likely be the one to take the most issue with it, questioning the moral compass that guided the action.

Weiss wished she had a good excuse, but it was hard to come by. She had to admit, sex itself had eventually become extremely satisfying. It was the aftermath that left a gaping void.

It was a discovery made in the weeks following her wedding night. Weeks that had changed her perceptions of relationships forever. She had absolutely no experience. No possible way to comprehend the nature of carnal pleasure. She recalled the silent horror of seeing his arousal for the first time, knowing exactly where his manhood was going to end up. Expectations of what she was supposed to do weighing heavily on her mind. She didn't think herself capable of enjoying it. Even if she could, a small part of her struggled with wanting to.

As if it somehow made her a lesser person to enjoy something so baser in nature.

Nolan had been unbelievably kind and gentle, but the first time had been hell. There wasn't a question about that. The ache between her legs had been a mix of disgust and pain. She forced herself to grit her teeth and bear it, because that's what a wife did. Virginity itself a harsh adversary to overcome with a man so well endowed. That her mind was focused on anything else she could think of didn't help mitigate the discomfort. Feeling him release the first time, his seed throbbing into her had done nothing bit inspire a sick feeling in her gut.

The second night had been easier. The third, routine.

It was the fourth night when the shock value of seeing the aftermath on the sheets subsided. She was used to his size. It no longer hurt. When she gazed at the trickles of lube and mixed arousal she was able to do so with a clinical eye. No longer seeing it as bodily filth that had expelled from their bodies. She realized there wasn't anything inherently wrong with it.

The fifth night, she finally relaxed. Knowing exactly where Nolan's hands tended to wander, knowing now what those small cues of his meant. She was able to better accept the sensations and reciprocate in kind. It was then, that a pang of something else sparked within her. Trickles of arousal dampening her in ways she had never once thought humanly possible. It didn't just feel good. It felt great. Wonderful enough to keep doing it until her thighs were glistening with the mess she made.

She'd ridden those lusty waves to their foreseeable conclusion ever since. Once the orgasm ended, the voiceless sadness she had no words for began.

Weiss needed someone who would match her life's ambitions and feed her intellectual desire. She wanted passion. She craved love.

Those were things Nolan just couldn't provide.

"So, I was thinking, it might be time to settle down someplace…"

There were so few things that could make Weiss choke on her coffee. The statement had floored her. Of all of the lunch breaks Weiss had chosen to take, this one had been well worth the havoc to her schedule. Blake had explained her personal situation so offhandedly that Weiss could have sworn she was hallucinating. A glance to the side earned her an eyeful of Yang's expression, equally shocked. The tiny paper ball the blonde had been rolling dropped from her fingertips.

"Blake, you know that Ruby's going to go back out there eventually." Yang said, finding her voice first. "You don't have to stop being a huntress just because she's taking a little break. There are plenty of solo missions out there."

"It's not just the missions." Blake murmured shyly. "I mean, part of it is the missions, but that's not the only thing going on. If it was, I'd just suck it up and count the days until Ruby and I are out there taking out Grimm again." No, what plagued the Faunus was something more delicate. She had no words for that problem, and refused to dump that particular edge of loneliness onto her friends. "The thing is, I don't know if Ruby will want to go back to the bounties that we were always so well known for. They're dangerous, and with the baby…"

"You don't think she'll risk it." Yang said knowingly.

"Well, would you?" Weiss gawked at the blonde.

"As a huntress, she might not have a choice." Yang shot back. "Currier missions don't pay much."

"There are safer jobs that do." Weiss said with a roll of her eyes.

"Money isn't a concern.." Blake cut in.

Weiss and Yang looked at her quizzically, but the Faunus could only offer a slight smile. "It's not my place to discuss Ruby's finical situation, so I'll speak of mine. When the high ranking missions were out of reach, we'd pull low ranking missions two or three at a time. Then we would split our bounties in half after you two retired. We might have been two huntresses down, but we didn't lessen our workload."

Weiss and Yang let that sink in. The two of them silent as they worked through the implications. Finally, Weiss found her voice. "I presume you planned it that way…"

"It wasn't a bad idea." Blake shrugged. "So, we kicked our mission running into high gear. Blasted our way through anything that we knew we'd be able to take down. It was exhausting, but it really paid off. Sun did the same with his team. So long as they're careful with spending it, they could supplement their earnings. Ruby would never need to hunt Grimm again."

"I don't know about this, Blake. If you did retire from missions, what would you do?" Yang asked then. "You might be on the nearing older end for a mission running huntress, but you're still young in life. Trust me, you'll need a hobby or something. Even if you never have to work another day in your life, it'll get boring with nothing to do."

"I'd have to find a job eventually." Blake said with a laugh. "I'm not that rich. As long as I say in the dorms though, I'm good for a good few years. I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet. I'm just thinking it might be time to change paths..."

"The relief programs always need experienced hunters. Each kingdom has one, you have plenty of options." Weiss said conversationally as their food finally arrived. She eagerly reached for the dressing for her chicken salad, pulling off the small plastic lid. "Or, given your expertise, you could be a recruiter."

"Don't forget teaching." Yang added. "Though you'd either have to take classes for that, or teach out of a huntsmen's academy."

"I hate teaching." Blake said, lemon in hand as she squeezed it over her beer battered cod. "And most of the relief programs would take me outside of the kingdoms. I don't know if I'd want to go that far on my own. Being stationed in a strange village for years without one of you going with me? I don't think I'd handle that very well."

"That depends on the program, Blake." Weiss said, slowly. She poked at a piece of chicken thoughtfully before eyeing her friend. "It's true that many of the programs reach far beyond the kingdom borders, but, not all of them. There are programs surfacing from within kingdom walls…but…well, they're new. Experimental, really. You should look into those."

"I thought we weren't supposed to talk about that." Yang teased from between a bite of her hamburger.

Weiss shot back. "I never said we couldn't discuss the matter among friends."

"Just what on Remnant have you gotten up to while I've been gone?" Blake asked with a smirk.

"A whole lot more than she lets on." Yang laughed, taking another large bite of her meal. "I can't even keep up with it all anymore."

"Long story short, the dust mines are dangerous." Weiss told her. "Every year, children are left orphaned due to unforeseen circumstances beyond our control. Company policy has always been to send these children to SDC shelters to be raised until they come of age. Some are adopted, most aren't. Older children are raised to learn the dust trade. As adults, they're instantly offered jobs at the SDC. I'm positive my father did this in order to continually feed families back into the mines."

It was then Weiss paused, pulling out her scroll and rummaging through its many files. She finally stopped on one of them, setting her scroll down in the center of the table. The photograph was of a new building, but what caught Blake's eye were the many people standing in front of it.

"Our primary goal is still to find them homes. There's a lot of screening involved, especially when it comes to Faunus children. It's not uncommon for families to adopt them and raise them into servants. It's hard to find true Faunus advocates in Atlas, which is why I don't advertise these positions openly. Frankly, I don't trust the integrity of the company, either. Who knows what sort of seedy places those children might end up?" Weiss shrugged then, closing her scroll and returning to her meal. "It's a work in progress."

Blake felt her thoughts tumble around inside of her head. A conflict striking her. On the one hand, those were the sorts of businesses practices she used to argue against. On the other, Weiss wouldn't continue the program if it proved to be insidious. "That sounds difficult." She managed, unable to pinpoint why she felt so uncomfortable thinking about it. Her youth in the White Fang had carved her assumptions of the SDC deeper than she would have liked. Even while she trusted Weiss implicitly, it was clear that Weiss did not trust the company.

That alone was plenty of endorsement to be cautious of it.

"It can be very hard. I've considered closing down the program, but, there's reward in all of it too." Weiss said slowly, as if considering the thought for the umpteenth time. "You know, Blake, my contacts spread far beyond business. I try to work alongside the kingdoms as avidly as possible. There are plenty of other programs geared to help mitigate the loss of life and limb. No matter what program you take interest in, hunters are an integral part of them. If you're truly looking to retire from missions, you really should stop by at the headquarters. I'd be able to go over all of your options with you there…"

Blake only took a breath, nodding. "I'll think about it."