Chapter-3
Sigurd
"They look excited." Sigurd commented watching the new students coming out of the ship in the courtyard. After days of getting used to Beacon and learning its workings from his co-teacher Glynda Goodwitch, the first day of a new academic year had arrived. Sigurd wasn't really concerned about disappearing like most servants do, since the grail was supporting his existence at the cost of his lack of power. So, there wasn't much need to form a contract.1
The students wore all sorts of colorful clothing whose vibrance contrasted with the dull tone of the tunics Sigurd had seen his entire life in Scandinavia. Many of them carried bizarre weapons which looked very impractical and overcomplicated. But considering he'd learnt that aura boosted one's physical capabilities, those impracticalities were compensated.
Even knowing this fact, one girl had managed to surprise him with the absurdity of her weapon. She was shorter than the others, wearing mostly black and red clothing with a red hood. Her hair was short and black with red tips and she had shining silver eyes that no one else seemed to have and a face that looked younger than the others. She was currently showing a large scythe that was larger than her to a tall blonde who matched the age of the first-year students wearing a quite revealing outfit with shorts that extended barely beyond her posterior, a jacket opened up to reveal a large cleavage wearing yellow gauntlets.
"I love other weapons too! It's like meeting new people but better…" The scythe girl told the blonde.
"Goodness, this girl would make Reginn feel jealous." Sigurd spoke before feeling like someone was watching him. Of course, there were students giving him looks of awe but one of them was giving a judging stare.
He turned his head and spotted the culprit. A black haired girl with a bow and amber eyes that looked suspiciously like a cat's.
Sigurd noticed the bow twitch and his crystallized wisdom fed the information in his mind.
A faunus.
Faunuses, as Sigurd found out, were hybrids of humans and animals who were discriminated by normal humans. Some faunuses have animal features all over their body while others only had a few in specific parts. The girl was most likely a cat faunus.
The girl quickly looked away as someone and something exploded in the courtyard.
"-!" Sigurd rushed to the spot to see the same scythe girl being berated by a white-haired girl carrying a rapier which contained dust, crystallized mysteries that worked like jewel magecraft to cast spells. From the residual mana in the air, Sigurd could make out this was a dust explosion.
"Are you alright?" He asked.
The white girl turned to him. "Yes, I am fine. Thank you for your concern." The girl spoke in a neutral tone.
"May I ask what happened here?"
As soon as he asked, frustration formed in the girl's eyes again. "This…dolt!" She spoke pointing at the scythe girl, "Almost killed us by recklessly knocking down my dust containers."
"I didn't mean to, princess!" The scythe girl snapped.
"It's heiress, actually." A fourth voice pitched in as the same faunus girl now stood with them.
"Weiss Schnee, heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, the largest supplier of dust and energy propellant in the world."
Sigurd raised an eyebrow at the name. So this white girl had abilities similar to his runic magecraft. Interesting.
Weiss, meanwhile, smirked in satisfaction.
"A company infamous for its controversial labour practices and questionable business partners." The girl added as Weiss' smirk was replaced with an offended scowl.
"Wha…the nerve!" She spoke snatching a vial from the faunus girl and walking off. The girl also walked off, leaving Sigurd and the scythe girl alone.
Sigurd offered her a hand. "You are getting late. You should head to the auditorium."
The girl's eyes widened. "The auditorium? Y-Yeah, I'll go…" she spoke as Sigurd helped her up and began walking. Sigurd also noticed a blonde boy in white armor with gold edges walking in the same direction.
"You are walking the wrong way!" He called out to them. Both of them turned around and stared.
Sigurd sighed. "Alright then, I shall show the way."
The two walked back to him and the three started going towards the auditorium.
"So, uh, sir, are you one of the staff?" The blonde boy asked.
"Yes. I am one of Beacon's combat instructors. I joined recently and will be teaching alongside the current one Glynda Goodwitch. That would make you both my future students, so I shall introduce myself. I am Saber."
"O-Oh! I'm Ruby Rose!"
"And I'm Jaune Arc. Is your name really Saber?"
"It isn't. My real name is something I do not wish to reveal."
"So, Jaune!" Ruby spoke turning to Jaune. "What weapon do you use?"
"Huh?"
"Like, this!" Ruby spoke unfolding her Scythe as Sigurd's hand batted its blade from hitting Jaune.
"Ruby, you should be careful brandishing your weapon so close to other people." Sigurd scolded as Ruby turned red.
"I-I'm sorry!"
"Nah, Ruby, it's alright. Did you make that?" Jaune asked.
"Yep! It's a customizable scythe with a high-velocity sniper rifle!"
"…"
"It's also a gun."
Jaune nodded in understanding. "Oh…well, I've got this sword." He spoke showing a double-edged sword with a golden guard and a blue hilt. "And, I got this shield." He spoke showing a white shield with gold designs on it. It was very normal compared to the bizarre shape-shifting weapons Sigurd had seen so far.
"Can they do anything?" Ruby asked.
"Uh, my shield can become a sheath?"
"but wouldn't that way the same?"
"Y-Yeah, it would." Jaune spoke dejected. He tried to put the shield back but fumbled with it a lot. Despite wearing armor and carrying weapons, the boy felt more like a commoner trying to imitate a warrior than a person who knew fighting. Even Ruby, with all of her innocence and social awkwardness, looked like she could hold her own in a fight.
"What about you, Professor Saber?" Ruby asked him. Sigurd thought about it before shrugging and pulling out his shortswords.
"These are the weapons I fight with at first."
Ruby stared in wonder at the glowing runes on the blades of his shortswords. "I thought you'd use a bigger weapon seeing you have armor, professor?"
Sigurd smiled softly. "Well, I fight with them, but they are not my main weapon." He spoke before pulling out Gram clipped to his waist. "This is my main weapon."
"OOOOOHHHHHH!" A high pitched shriek sounded as Ruby bounced in excitement. "THAT LOOKS WICKED!" She screamed.
Jaune had his mouth open. "W-Wow…"
"What it's name?!"
"It's name is Gram."
"Does it have a gun?!"
"No. It's merely a sword. Although it is a very powerful one."
Ruby stopped. "Wha…all that cool design and it doesn't have a gun?" She spoke as Jaune coughed.
"No, it doesn't. Gram was built like this by my foster father who was a blacksmith from my real father's broken sword."
"He sounds like a really amazing smith if he can make a cool weapon like this." Ruby spoke.
"He was a good smith. But he's dead now."
"Oh…I see. I'm sorry for your loss."
"I don't see it as a loss. As good of a smith he was, he was also greedy, manipulative and tried to kill me. I am relieved that he is no longer alive."
Ruby frowned but didn't say anything.
"But anyways, I wanted to ask you something, Ruby."
"Yeah?"
"What is your age?"
"…15, Professor Saber."
Sigurd raised his eyebrows. "That is less than the minimum age to attend."
"Y-Yeah, I was actually invited by Professor Ozpin."
Sigurd nodded. That spoke volumes of Ruby's skill if she'd managed to attract Ozpin's attention. But again, it wasn't good of Ozpin to expose a young child to the dangers of hunting phantasmals so early.
"Here is the auditorium. It was nice speaking with you." Sigurd spoke.
"Same here, Professor! Bye!" Ruby exclaimed as Sigurd walked off to join the teachers.
There, the other professors sat.
"Hello, Mr. Saber!" The grimm studies professor, Peter Port, exclaimed. "I was afraid you would be late to the ceremony but it seems you have arrived in time!"
"Apologies, I was busy guiding some students who lost their way." Sigurd spoke sitting down with them. After meeting them, his impression was solidified that beacon's staff were an eccentric lot. Port spun grandiose tales of his younger days, Oobleck, the history teacher, never seemed to slow down in anything, Peach, the dust studies teacher, acted more like the students than a teacher. Perhaps the most normal one was Glynda, and she was very serious about her job.
"Is your speech ready?" Port asked.
"It is." Sigurd replied. After the initiation that would take place tomorrow, Sigurd would have to give a speech of his appointment of the position.
"Excellent.! Looks like Ozpin is about to give his speech." Oobleck spoke as Ozpin walked into the stage. From their teacher's seats, they could see the crowd of excited students who were here to enter this prestigious institution.
Sigurd only sighed in pity. He had seen what trials Ozpin put for his students to succeed. Frankly, they would put warriors of his clan at unease. The chances of many of these children passing were low.
"I'll keep this brief." Ozpin began. "You have travelled here in search of knowledge. To hone your craft and polish your skills."
"This is Ansuz, boy." Regin instructed. "It symbolizes one's desire to acquire knowledge and become wise. Of course, right now you are very stupid so I doubt you would be able to do it."
A young Sigurd pouted at that. "That was mean, Regin. What's the next one?"
"And when you are finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people."
"I shall defend your serve your kingdom and it's people to my last breath." Sigurd spoke kneeling before King Gjuki."
"But all I see is wasted energy. In need of a purpose and direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will show that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is upto you to take the first step."
Fafnir roared, feeling something is wrong while Sigurd lay in hiding. Even though he knew of the way to kill Fafnir, fear still threatened to grip him but Sigurd kept himself calm. He hadn't come this far just to be scared like a child. As a scion of the Volsung clan, He had a duty to slay Fafnir and prevent him from bringing destruction in his greed.
"This is my destiny. This is my duty." Sigurd spoke quietly as Fafnir crawled over where he was hiding, its draconic core glowing.
Sigurd took a deep breath and thrust Gram at Fafnir's left shoulder.
Sigurd's jaw clenched. The last one resonated the most within him. Even after so long, that fateful day still repeated in his mind, that moment that made him the greatest hero of the Norse. It all happened because he had the courage and the will to do what had to be done, without which his knowledge of Fafnir's weakness was meaningless.
The students would learn the importance of having to act upon what you know, just like he did a lifetime ago.
It was mid night. A lone alpha beowolf walked in front of the deathstalker burrow. There were no humans nearby so it had nothing to do but wander. That was until it felt a presence in the burrow. It was not the deathstalker and felt more like a being that had a soul.
The beowolf's eyes glowed slightly with bloodlust as it entered, motivated by instinct.
As it ran deeper into the cave, sounds of gurgling began echoeing through the walls. Any other creature would be frightened but the grimm, feeling nothing but bloodlust, pressed forward.
It soon stopped at a certain point when it sensed multiple of the same creatures. The beowolf then started moving more quietly, making sure not to alert its prey of its presence.
It kept getting closer and closer, until the sounds of bones breaking sounded under its feet. The grimm took a closer look to see it was grimm bone along with some bones of normal wild beasts.
The gurgling stopped as now sounds of thumping footsteps which were growing louder. The beowolf snarled before frosty wind blew at it, freezing its legs and leaving it unable to move.
Laughter came from the darkness as the thumping grew louder.
The Alpha let out one last howl before a stone club smashed against its head, killing it instantly. Hairy hands with fungus growing on them reached out, ripping the bone mask off the Alpha's dissolving body.
"I. FOUND. ANOTHER!" A deep voice yelled.
"GOOD. BRING. WOLF. MASK!" A deep female voice yelled back.
The first speaker laughed again before running off into the darkness.
Sigurd woke up early in the morning. Today was the initiation and Ozpin had invited him to see it along with him and Ms. Goodwitch. The students were still waking up in the ballroom so he had some time before he was called.
Sigurd spent the early morning hours practicing with Gram in the combat arena in his armor, which he had access to now that he was also the combat instructor. After some time, he decided it was enough and began walking towards the cliff overlooking Emerald Forest.
When he reached the student locker rooms, he noticed Ruby talking to the blonde girl again.
"Ooh! Yang, there's that professor I was talking about!" Ruby exclaimed as she dashed to him in a burst of rose petals.
"Good morning, Ruby." Sigurd spoke as Ruby smiled brightly.
"Good morning, Professor! What are you doing in the student locker room? Oh, wait! You're here to oversee our initiation!" Ruby spoke in very infectious excitement that Sigurd couldn't resist but smile.
"Correct."
"Yes! Knew it!"
"Hey Rubes, you do realize you're talking to a teacher, not another student, right?" The blonde girl spoke as Ruby let out a strangled sound of realization.
"Oh! I shouldn't be talking to you like that! I'm sorry, professor!"
"It's alright. I do not mind. May I ask your name?"
"Yep! I'm Yang Xiao-Long." She spoke wrapping Ruby in a hug.
"A pleasure to meet you, Ms. Xiao-Long. I am Professor Saber. I believe you are Ruby's sibling?"
"That I am. You've got a pretty sharp eye, Professor." Yang spoke grinning as Ruby groaned. Sigurd didn't react to the pun and kept a calm face. "Thank you for the compliment. I wish you both good luck for the initiation."
"Speaking of which, could you share some tips about it, Professor?" Yang asked. "You could do it for poor sweet Ruby…"
"Yang!"
"That will not happen, Ms. Xiao-Long. It is meant to be a secret. The most that I can tell you is do not panic." Sigurd spoke walking off.
Going ahead, He stumbled onto another incident. Namely, Jaune speaking to Weiss and a Red-haired girl with armor resembling a greek hoplite's.
Jaune was trying to woo Weiss in such a pathetic manner that Sigurd doubted he'd be able to woo Brynhildr like that without getting run through with a spear.
Jaune's eyes fell on him. "Professor? You're here?"
"I am currently heading towards the cliff since I am one of the overseers." Sigurd replied while Weiss narrowed her eyes. "You are a professor?"
"Well, technically my appointment is to be made official after your initiation. Not to sound arrogant, but because of my experience, Ozpin offered me to watch over your initiation."
"Now, would you like to introduce yourself, miss?" Sigurd asked the other girl whose eyes widened.
"What?!" Weiss exclaimed. "You don't know her, Professor?"
Sigurd looked at her. "Is she a famous personality? Then forgive me, I have mostly lived outside the kingdoms so I am ignorant about many things that go on in them."
"Oh…well that is understandable. She is…"
"Pyrrha Nikos, Professor." Pyrrha spoke more excited than usual.
"Saber. I keep my real name a secret for…reasons." Sigurd spoke. "Now, I have spent enough time. I must leave. Jaune, you have a lot of tenacity for wooing Weiss, but I suggest you leave it. You are making yourself even more repulsive to women."
With that, he left for the cliff. Ozpin and Glynda stood waiting for him. "Good morning, Saber. Have you slept well?" Ozpin asked.
"I did." Sigurd replied. Servants didn't really need sleep but that didn't mean they couldn't sleep. It felt nice sleeping on a warm bed instead of having to watch over a master in a holy grail war.
"Glynda, call the students." Ozpin spoke as Glynda tapped on her scroll and made the announcement. Soon, the students began pouring in and stood on platforms which looked like they were meant for more than placing the students. He also noticed there were much less students than he saw.
"For years you have trained to become warriors. And today, your abilities will be evaluated in the Emerald Forest." Ozpin began with the instructions.
Glynda continued. "Now, I'm sure many of you have heard about the assignment of the teams. Well, allow us to put an end to your confusion. You will be assigned your teammates…today." She spoke as the students showed surprised reactions.
"These teammates will be with you for the rest of your time at Beacon. So it is in your best interest to be paired with someone you can work well. That said, the first person you make eye contact with on landing will be your partner for the next four years."
And the mild surprise turned into outraged shock. Sigurd could see Ruby have a panic attack and gave Ozpin a confused look. Sigurd may have led armies, but he was mostly a lone warrior in specific quests. The only partner he felt right fighting with was Brynhildr, and she had demonstrated how important it was for teams to consist of people who complement each other. This…this was a chaotic system that left the selection upto chance. What if two people who clashed with each other were put in the same team. The chances of that team functioning would be next to nothing.
"After you've partnered up, you will make your way to the northern end of the forest. You will meet opposition along the way. Do not hesitate to destroy everything on your way…or you will die." Ozpin spoke in a serious tone.
It sounded extreme, but in a world where humanity was cornered by phantasmals who seek to wipe them out, it was essential to survival.
"You will be graded for the duration of your initiation. But our instructors will not intervene. You will find an abandoned temple at the end of the path containing several relics. Each pair much choose one and return to the top of the cliff. You will guard that item and will be graded appropriately. Any questions?"
"Yeah, um sir…"
"Good." Ozpin spoke talking over Jaune's question. "Take your positions."
Sigurd tuned out Jaune's questioning to look at the students. They looked so determined, some knowing what this means for their future and some not knowing.
Another memory came back to him.
"This is also not enough." Sigurd spoke looking at the remains of the second sword. "Can you not make a sword that will be able to cut through Fafnir's armor?"
Regin grunted. "Well, then I'll just have to keep trying."
"No need for that. There is one sword that would be able to pass the test. Gram."
Regin looked at Sigurd. "Gram? Boy, to reforge Gram to be able to slay Fafnir would mean to recreate its curse. Do you want to meet a tragic end like your father?"
Sigurd was silent before staring in determination. "I cannot do nothing while that dragon lives. Right now, his greed is sated with the gold. What if it grows and he starts attacking? He must be killed before that. I am willing to pay the price for it."
Regin looked at Sigurd before nodding. "Go to your mother and bring Gram to me. I shall reforge it into the most powerful cursed blade in existence."
After doing so, Regin presented the blade to Sigurd, glowing blue with power with four daggers.
"Here it is, Gram, the Demonic sword of the Sun. It shall meet your expectations, Son of Sigmund." Regin spoke as Sigurd raised Gram to strike the anvil, this time feeling confident it will not shatter. When he brought it down, the anvil fell into two halves
That was the moment his journey began. Swinging a sword to see if it could cut an Anvil. For the students, it would be surviving the Emerald Forest.
As they were launched, Sigurd muttered a silent prayer to the Allfather that they come out alive.
"AAAAHHHHHHH!"
…Especially Jaune.
A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. Constructive criticism is appreciated.