Disclaimer: me no own me just fan.
"23... 24...25...26...27..."
Siegfried grunted out as he did his morning workout, which was light due to his muscles being shredded, as well as suited to someone his age.
It consisted of him doing, as many push ups, crunches, pull ups, leg lifts, mountain climbers, and bicycle crunches, then sprinting from wall to wall, then some stretches to cool down.
He had only just started, having woken up early and had decided to get his routine over with.
It has only been about two weeks since Cheri joined the Staff and became Willow's apprentice... and two weeks since he had met Whitley and Illya.
He was happy to have met Whitley... but he was surprised that Illya was here, and showing signs of having past memories as well, but it was too soon to say for certain if Illya was really Illya.
"28... 29... 30... 31...32...33...34...35...36- Gah! Cramp!"
Siegfried collapsed to the ground and clutched his right arm as it in it's entirety cramped up, a side effect of his torn muscles being overused.
After a few seconds of pain, it eventually faded and Siegfried then started to stretch it out to prevent it from happening again.
"Alright I guess I should take a break for now." Siegfried muttered as he looked around the room for a place to comfortably sit and rest.
He idly noticed the Basement, was more cluttered than he realized. There were boxes piled up in random areas, old toys from families past were strewn about. There was even old weapon racks filled to the brim with old weapons, spears, swords, bows, daggers, hatchets, battle axes, you name it. There was even piles of old clothes that looked like they were from the Victorian era, which wasn't really that uncommon to see in atlas, seeing as most of the high class liked the fancy look. There was Armor as well but not much of it, and they were very old, probably pre-Atlas/beginning of Mantle times.
"Maybe I should clean this up? Then maybe I can do laps around it instead of sprints?" Siegfried thought aloud.
The basement was definitely large enough to, seeing as it was the length of an entire football field, which was actually smaller than the mansion above.
Siegfried decided to put his routine on hold until the basement was a bit more to his liking, then he stood up and made his way to the nearest pile of old clothes.
"Hmm... Where am I gonna put these? Hmm wonder if there are anymore boxes that are empty?" Siegfried asked himself.
Siegfried then turned to a nearby box, in truth the box was more like a large crate that a box, and it's top was slightly open.
Siegfried approached the box and stood on a smaller box to peek inside the crate.
There wasn't much inside, just some packaging foam strange compressions in the foam, shaped like... and humanoid torso?
"Weird... what could have been in here?" Siegfried wondered, slightly creeped out.
Siegfried then emptied the foam put of the crate, which he threw into a pile, to throw out later. Then he began to load up the piled of clothes into the box, taking care to fold them to prevent damage by the box.
While he was doing so Siegfried paused as he grabbed a black piece of clothing.
Siegfried inspected it like he had the others.
It was a literal butt cape made of what seemed like thin cloth-like leather, with red trim, it was the same type of cape that Archer, and himself, had used. The coat itself wasn't what caught his attention though... What had was the glowing white glyph on the back, which had circuit-like markings extending to the the rest of the cape. Upon closer examination the runes on the glyph are ones that provide slower fall, and also strengthen the material and any other article of clothing it's attached to, to be able to take on bullets, and not be even slightly damaged, there's also a few other rune like markings but they weren't of the Elder Futhark, or any other ancient language that used some sort of magical letters, so Siegfried couldn't quite make them out, to be honest they looked similar to language of the Fae, but more... scratchy like they were drawn from something with claws.
"...This might be useful. Geez can't believe someone would leave a mystic code just in a pile of old clothes." Siegfried deadpanned.
"Although maybe they didn't even realize what the runes meant and decided to leave it. That definitely confirms my theory that the guy who wrote our semblance book had no idea what runes were." Siegfried muttered, in disbelief.
Siegfried then noticed the cap was able to attach to his waist via belt loops, so he took off his belt, which he didn't really need he just wore it out of habit, then he slowly looped the belt and cape and his pant together as if he was sewing the pants and cape together.
After a minute Siegfried now wore the cape, which was actually too big for him and ended up making him look like he was wearing a long skirt.
Siegfried sweatdropped.
"...Yeah I'm gonna have to wait until I'm older to wear this, or I could ask for it to be adjusted to my size." As if on cue the glyph glowed and the cape shrunk to a more comfortable fit.
"Holy shit it's self adjusting! I didn't know that was possible! Is that what the glowing wire marks are for? No matter I'll figure it out later. But now at least I have something to use as armor for the future, I might even make a chestplate with the same runic patterns, maybe." Siegfried said as he removed the cape from his waist, which caused it to revert to it's old size.
"Cool... But I wonder... who could have made this? Why is the glyph glowing? Shouldn't it have stopped glowing when the creator died?" Siegfried mused.
"Wait-"
Siegfried had a minor flashback to his grandfather's funeral where he briefly saw the glyph on the sword glowing, along with a aura ghost of Nicholas.
"Wait... does this mean that the aura used to engrave glyphs into a material is... permanent even after death? There's nothing about that in the book... Maybe I should try to use my aura on it, and see what happens?" Siegfried guessed.
Siegfried shrugged before he laid the cap flat on the ground with the glyph skyward.
He then gently placed his hand on the glyph and activated his aura the glyph and circuits glowed a steel color then the aura began to form something, only for Siegfried to interrupt it when he noticed a slight change in his aura.
Before whenever he activated it, a sort of translucent barrier appeared of steel colored energy would form, but now... there was pattern in the aura, so faint that Siegfried had to strain his eyes to see it, around the arms, and looked to be slowly spreading. The pattern looked like Scales... or layers of blades.
"What in Chaos!?" Siegfried shouted as he leapt back, switched off his aura and inspected his hands.
Nothing...
"Maybe that happened because I touched the cape with my aura?" Siegfried said before he turned on his aura again.
"Nope... still there." Siegfried deadpanned seeing the scale patterns.
"What could have caused this?" Siegfried paused as he thought about the possibilities.
"Hmmm..."
Suddenly the memory of his beating the man who abused Cheri surfaced, along with his odd dream afterwards with the dragon with the scales made of blades.
"Oh!" Siegfried said as he lightly bumped his fist into his palm.
"So that's it!" Siegfried said as he returned his attention to his aura, scales and all.
Siegfried narrowed his eyes at said scales.
"How do I do that again..." Siegfried muttered.
Before he could investigate further the elevator dinged and Winter exited the elevator. Siegfried quickly grabbed the cape off the floor, all thoughts about the scales were pushed aside to the back of his mind for now.
Siegfried quickly put the cap on and it shrunk to fit him again.
Siegfried then approached Winter.
"Hey Winter? What are you doing down here?" Siegfried asked.
"Mother sent me to find you so we can leave." Winter said.
"Huh? Leave? Where are we going?" Siegfried asked confused.
"To the beach in Mistral." Winter sighed, she really didn't want to go to the beach.
"Huh? Oh! The beach! I forgot I asked if we could go... ya know with everything that happened after." Siegfried said sheepishly.
Winter nodded.
"But uh... will mom be alright? She did just give birth after all." Siegfried said unsure.
"Yes. The Doctor cleared her for travel, her aura seemed to take care of it." Winter said, with a shake of her head.
"Oh... Aura's pretty amazing isn't it..." Siegfried said mystified.
Winter nodded.
"Yeah and the fact that her aura has gotten so used to healing that it gave her a healing factor, that is only surpassed by healing semblances." Winter sighed with a shrug of her shoulders and a wry smile on her face.
Siegfried laughed at her subtle joke.
He was glad Winter had actually started talking to him since he started school, it was nice to talk with her, beside even she gets tired of having to be the serious one of the bunch all the time, same with Siegfried, so they both both can unwind and relax a bit, seeing as they are so similar.
"We should get going then. We're bringing Illya and Whitley right, I better help get those two ready." Siegfried said with a grin.
Winter smiled lightly.
"Maybe this trip won't be so bad... at least Jacque's not coming." Winter thought.
Speaking of which.
"Oh I forgot to mention, Jacque isn't coming. According to mother, he's trying to seal a deal with the Vale council to allow us to start our own shops in vale instead of just provide the dust." Winter said.
"Good riddance... maybe we'll actually have a good time." Siegfried said with a grin.
"Anyways, we'll be leaving in a few hours, you should grab what ever you want to take with you, while you can, I'll take care of the little ones." Winter said.
"Oh? Ok I'll finish up here then pack. See you then I guess?" Siegfried said.
" Yeah see you." Winter said as she silently went to the elevator.
But not before she said.
"Oh by the way... nice butt cape." Winter said, with a thumbs up and a smug grin.
Siegfried returned her thumbs up and smug grin with one of his own, before the two laughed and Winter left.
Siegfried then turned to the pile of clothes on the floor, before he decided to say "Fuck it."
He just summoned glyphs under each pile of clothes in the room and just lifted the glyphs which cause the piles to lift with them, before he just dropped each pile on by one into the crate before he forced it closed.
Siegfried sighed in relief.
"Now that that's done time for the boxes and weapons." Siegfried said before a glyph lit up underneath the multiple crates. He then directed the glyph to barely lift the boxes then slide to a nearby corner of the room, where they were then directed to gently set down the boxes.
Doing so was actually quite taxing on his aura reserves, but he luckily had more than enough to continue, plus it was actually good practice.
Lastly was weapon racks, and their payload of course.
Siegfried did as he did with the boxes but added two more directly above the bottom ones that would hold the weapons in their places on the racks, and directed them to move to directly in front of the boxes so as to lean against them.
Once that was finished Siegfried dispelled his glyphs and let the weapons settle into their places, but once he did so, one lone spear settled against the corner wall and with a click something was pressed inwards, and a hiss with a click notified Siegfried to what had happened, as something popped out of the wall next to the button.
Siegfried then approached the hidden button and the unknown thing that came out of the wall.
When he saw the thing it he recognized it, a plugin, like the kind speakers had to connect a phone to, to play music.
Siegfried summoned his scroll from his storage and plugged it in.
The holographic screen of the scroll expanded, into a 12x12 ft. terminal screen.
On the screen were the words.
《Updating systems.》
"Huh? Updating?" Siegfried wondered.
《Downloading...》
"Well I guess I'll have to wait a bit to see what it does." Siegfried said.
(*Ding*)
No sooner he had said that had the sound resounded through the terminal.
《System Updates complete》
《Welcome Mr. Schnee》
"... or not..." Siegfried deadpanned.
The terminal then lit up with multiple App Icons.
There were several there, some Siegfried had never seen before, like the one dead center of the screen, labeled 《AR Combat Simulator》.
"An AR Combat Simulator? Like the kind used in at Amity Coliseum?" Siegfried asked, as he pressed the Icon out of curiosity.
A notification popped up on the screen.
《Searching for available simulation data... Complete... Beginning Simulation.》
《Before we proceed please chose a weapon compatible with the simulation.》
"Eh?" Siegfried asks confused.
Suddenly another hidden object pops out of the wall, a weapon rack of sort, with more advanced looking items.
The ones that caught his attention was a blue short sword like object, but there was no edge and it was too thick (about 1.5 inches) for the blade more like a (12in x 2in x 1.5in) rectangular prism than a blade, but Siegfried noticed there were long slots in the blade area and on the hilt was dial with images of different swords on it.
"An Aura projector weapon but I heard there were only a few dozen of these were ever made for the Atlas Military... by the SDC... gramps you sneaky bastard, you kept a few of them." Siegfried grinned.
An Aura projector is a type of weapon that used hardlight dust to create a blade or other objects to use for fighting, but since hardlight dust was so unstable the blades got destroyed too quickly. So they couldn't be used by the military for actual combat, so were instead used for training in a simulation where that problem became irrelevant.
To be frank it was basically the black keys, but had a longsword hilt and crossguard, with a rectangular prism where a blood groove would be, the prism would then convert aura into a blade form, and would have a preset form. There was also a dust cartridge in the pommel, in a similar make as the kind pistols would have.
It was actually this weapon that Siegfried had started to build his own ideas off of, along with Velvet's weapon, and the SLVR trailers by Mark Zhang, along with his former magecraft, Tracing.
Of course the problem was he didn't want them to be a physical object that he have to remove once he made it to Beacon, he needed to be armed at all times, so he wanted a way to fuse his aura blades with Dust as he makes them, but to do that he would have to permanently fuse his Semblance with dust in some way.
Idly he thought about the book from the other day.
"Maybe using a glyph tattoo? With the dust mixed into the Ink? Maybe? But then I wouldn't be able to add new dust into my glyph... so what about fusing the dust with... my... soul?" Siegfried's eyes widened as he came to a realization of what he had to do... before he grimaces as he realised the only way to get what he needed.
(*Ding!*)
Siegfried jumped at the sound, and turned to the terminal.
《Please Choose one or more simulation compatible weapons》
"Oops got so caught up in my thoughts that I forgot about the simulation." Siegfried muttered sheepish.
Siegfried went to grab the Aura Projector sword, when he noticed a black rectangle with a round grip on it. He grabbed it and the sword, before he fully inspected the rectangle.
He noticed it also had a switch instead of a dial on it, and clicked it.
Suddenly in a blur of mechashifting parts the rectangle became sort of fusion of a long, a recurve and a compound bow. The limbs were long and straight like a longbow, but near the grip there was a slight recurve to them like the recurve bow, and at the end of each limb were two discs for the string, like the compound bow.
Siegfried gazed in awe at the bow, it was huge nearly as long as Archer's, the string was made of steel wire with a .5in orb of glowing hardlight dust attached to the center of the string.
(*Ding*)
Siegfried turned to the terminal again.
《You have Selected Bow and Sword... processing class...》
"Class... what is this a video game?" Siegfried muttered annoyed.
《Complete Class assigned... Ranger. Beginning simulation.》
"What... no Tutorial?" Siegfried sarcastically asked.
Suddenly the wall around the spat out robotic arms with holographic/dust projectors at the end of each arm.
In an instant they began to project a wirefeed image that slowly gained color as the projectors continued to work.
Before long what once was a large cluttered basement became a large snowy field of trees with clearings and there. There was even a skyline!
The simulation took into account of the clutter and created trees and other natural objects over them so as not to get injured by mistake.
Siegfried stared in awe.
"Gramps... not gonna lie... this is pretty cool..." Siegfried said to the deceased man.
《Generating enemy lifeforms》
A screen popped up infront of Siegfried.
"Like a video game system huh?"
Suddenly the field came to life with a pack of 30 Beowolves came out of the treeline near a clearing, each had their name above their heads labeled as《Beowolf》
《Defeat all hostiles》
Siegfried read the message before he looked at the Beowolves before he then placed his sword at his waist via his cape.
"They haven't aggroed to me yet might as take out as many as I can from a distance." Siegfried reasoned as he readied his bow in his left hand, dispite being ambidextrous.
His left arm was more rigid than his right, which was more flexible. He would need the left for stability while his right loaded and drew back the bow string.
He gazed at the bow before he used his right index and middle finger to grab the string where dust crystal was. Slowly he drew the string back to get used to the resistance of the string before he slowly brought the string to rest in it's original position, to prevent dry firing.
Then he drew back the bow string again this time channeling his aura into the crystal, creating a simple arrow of solidified steel colored aura. He of course had to tilt the bow at a bit of an angle because of the sheer length of the bow, especially for his current size.
He aimed at the closest Beowolf, before he inhaled, exhaled, then released the arrow.
It flew with extreme speed impaling the virtual grimm in the head. The grimm shattered into data like glass.
This alerted the Beowolves, they charged at the boy, but not before Siegfried fired two more arrows at them taking out two more in an instant.
They descended upon the boy with a programmed feral intelligence.
Siegfried leapt back and loosed one more arrow killing one more, before he quickly stored the bow into a storage glyph, and drew the sword.
The blade upon being activated blazed to life as a blade of steel colored energy formed a razor thin edge that extended from dagger-like size to a longsword.
Siegfried swung the energy blade at the closest grimm, which had been about to eviscerate him with its claws, only to not have them anymore.
Siegfried then lashed out with his left leg and kicked the projected program into the others of it's kind.
Siegfried then threw the longsword at the grimm, impaling the armless grimm.
Siegfried was instantly there to grab his sword and quickly spun as he swung his blade out, decapitating three of the grimm.
The rest of the Grimm backed off and started to circle the boy, the simulation having programmed in tactics commonly used by these particular grimm.
But Siegfried also knew these tactics... and he wasn't willing to let them use them.
Siegfried extended his sword arm, his right, to the side and crouched low with his other hand on the ground, and legs bent, a speed glyph directly below him.
Then he charged at them. Crossing the distance between the nearest grimm in an instant.
He slashed down at the grimm gutting it, making it shatter like the rest.
Siegfried then straightened up.
"9 down... 21 to go." he mused before he charged at another grimm.
For the next twenty minutes Siegfried fought against the grimm killing them one by one. Eventually he killed the last one.
After doing so the system screen popped up.
《You have defeated all enemies. Generating boss fight》
"There's even a boss fight, let me guess it's an alpha Beowolf..." Siegfried snarked
Suddenly a shrill wail ripped itself from the forest, and it most definitely wasn't a Beowolf.
"... that didn't sound like a Beowolf." Siegfried said really pale from the sound.
Suddenly the wail came again but more ravenous and a black blur launched itself from the treeline directly at Siegfried.
Said boy immediately dodged to the left.
The blur skid to a stop on the opposite side of the clearing.
Siegfried paled upon seeing the icon above it's head.
《Wendigo》
It looked like a Beowolf that had been starved since it was born only it was twice the size of an Alpha Beowolf. Was so skinny that Siegfried could literally see it's ribs. And instead of a wolf head it had a deer head made entire of bone armor with large antlers on it's head. Which by the way was what it just tried to skewer him with.
"No fucking WAY!" Siegfried shouted only to dodge another charge from the Wendigo.
"I've never heard of the Wendigo being on remnant! I mean... there was concept art passed around but nothing ever came of them... shit... does that mean the concept art makes them actually here or is it the otherway around... fuck me!" Siegfried mentally shouted as he dodged again.
This game of cat and mouse continued until the Wendigo seemed to get sick of Siegfried dodging and lashed out with it's left arm and grabbed him.
Due to the simulation using wire feed as the base of the projection it was able to actually touch him.
Siegfried lashed out with his sword at the hand holding him leaving large gash.
The grimm didn't flinch.
Siegfried got desperate at that and wildly searched his memory for a way to kill a Wendigo.
Instantly his mind stopped at one single element... fire.
Siegfried summoned a glyph as the Grimm went to shove him in it's mouth. Siegfried reached into his glyph and pulled out a red crystal.
Fire dust.
He quickly loaded the dust into a cartridge at the pommel.
The effect was instant, the energy blade of the sword went from steel gray to a molten color.
Just as the Wendigo chomped down on him he lashed out with his sword, cutting its lower jaw off.
While in truth the simulation didn't feel pain neither did the actual program. But the system had programmed not only tactics used but also weaknesses of the very Grimm the simulation based them on.
As such when the blade of fire sliced through the Wendigo it's programing stated that fire hurts it and it cried out in artificial pain.
Siegfried was released from the grasp of the faux-beast, but he wasn't done.
As soon as he hit the ground he rolled up and leapt back at the monster, stabbing it in the chest, before ripping it out the left side of the beast.
The beast wailed but didn't shatter.
Siegfried then noticed that the gash he had given the beasts arm was gone and the jaw was regenerating, albeit slowly due to the fire blade. Same with the newest gash.
"Shit! It regenerates. Do I have to take it out instantly all at once!?" Siegfried shouted against the wails.
Siegfried thought for a second before he had an Idea.
"Can I do it though... will the blade be able to handle it?"
Siegfried shook his head.
"No time to question it I'll have to do this while it's distracted by the pain."
Siegfried then summoned his bow from his glyph with his left arm and took aim but instead of creating an arrow he notched up his sword, which was glowing brighter and brighter by the second as he pumped as much aura as he could into it.
Siegfried aimed at the Wendigo's head, three speed glyphs appeared in the path of the sword/arrow.
The Wendigo, once the pain stopped lifted it's head to glare at the boy only to see Siegfried's savage grin as he released the arrow, then... nothing.
It was too fast for it to react, and the arrow sped at the beast's head impaling then incinerating it completely, the sword then fell to the ground, the aura dissipated and the hilt and base clattered to the ground.
Siegfried sighed as he tossed his bow into a glyph.
He raised his hands and noticed they were shaking. From Adrenaline as well as fear, and lastly... excitement, dispite how much he would deny it.
"Fuck... I hope I never fight one of those in real life... That was the most terrified I've been since I was reincarnated here." Siegfried shakily laughed.
(*ding!*)
A screen then appear in front of Siegfried.
《Congratulations you have completed stage one of The Wendigo Forest. Would you like to continue to the next stage.》
《 [Yes] [No] ?》
"Hell fucking no!" Siegfried shouted as he rapidly pressed no many times.
(*ding!*)
《Would you like to save your progress?》
《 [Yes] [No] ?》
Siegfried thought about it for a second before he pressed no. His reason being it was that he only beat the Wendigo because of luck. If he was going to continue with this simulation, he was going to do so fully prepared.
《Understood. Ending simulation in 3... 2... 1.》
When the count down ended it was like Siegfried had stood up too quickly. So sudden that it was dizzying. One second he was in a forest the next he was back in the basement.
"Fuck, that gave me a headache." Siegfried groaned.
Siegfried then returned to the terminal, making sure to grab the sword from the floor with a glyph
It wasn't damaged luckily but it was insanely hot, judging by the steam rising from the floor.
He decided to just let his glyph absorb the item into itself before truly returning to the terminal.
He immediately looked at the time and panicked.
He only had an hour until they were to leave and he still hadn't packed yet.
He snatched his scroll from the terminal plugin and race to the elevator and selected his room floor.
Upon the opening of the doors he raced to his room at near blinding speeds, zooming past a trio of familiar staff, causing one to trip and end up kissing one, which prompted the other to get jealous and slap the poor boy.
Siegfried winced at that but was in too much of a hurry to care.
He entered his room and grabbed his school backpack and placed a weeks worth of clothes into it. He didn't own a swimsuit as it was Atlas, where there's only snow and ice, so he'd have to buy one in Mistral.
Truly he didn't need the bag seeing as he could use his glyphs to store them. But it was mostly for appearance sake.
He then grabbed a change of clothes a pair of black jeans, black shirt and black hoodie, and raced to the bathroom to shower and change.
Ten minutes later Siegfried was seen leaping from the stairs of the main hall, backpack hung from one shoulder, before skidding to a halt in front of an amused looking Winter.
"... Sorry... I'm... late...!" Siegfried panted between words.
"You lost track of time didn't you? Geez the others are already in the transport." Winter said with an amused smile.
"Yeah! Sorry I just found something really amazing in the Basement, and ended up losing track of time." Siegfried said.
"Oh? What did you find that made you late?" Winter asked.
"A AR Simulation projector! For combat simulations. I tried it out and ended up in a virtual forest! I ended up fighting a pack of Program Beowolves and a freaking Wendigo!" Siegfried rapidly explained.
Winter blinked at his explanation.
"There's a combat Simulator in the basement...?" Winter blinked.
"Yeah Gramps was a sneaky old man that's for sure!" Siegfried grinned, excited, as he thought about future simulation experiences.
"Hmm? Oh my did you have fun?" Winter asked.
"Well... I was more terrified out of my mind when the Wendigo showed up, but yeah... I guess I did have fun." Siegfried said with sheepish scratch of his head.
"Alright then... but next time... let me join in." Winter said as she turned her head to the side.
"Huh? Does she want to try the simulation out too? Hmm... If I'm gonna fight against more of the Wendigo might be best to have support." Siegfried thought, before he answered.
"Yeah sure! It'll be great to have someone to watch my back." Siegfried said.
Winter sighed with an slightly exasperated expression, the fact she wanted to do some sibling bonding with him went completely over his head.
"Well we should be going now. Everyone's waiting." Winter huffed.
"Huh? Oh Ok." Siegfried said confused at the sudden change in the subject.
Winter turned and briskly walked away.
Siegfried turned to a neaby maid who was watching the encounter.
"Was it something I said?" Siegfried asked, which caused the maid to facepalm and walk away as well.
Siegfried blinked.
"Ok? Good talk then?" Siegfried asked/said confused before he walked out the main door and entered the transport.
For the next 8 or so hours the Schnee family sat in their seats, Winter sat next to Weiss, while Siegfried sat next to Willow, Whitley in her lap, and Illya on his own, both fast asleep. Cheri sat in the seat across from Siegfried.
Nothing much was said between the family, and maid, as they flew to Mistral, that was until Siegfried felt a his scroll, silently, vibrate in his pocket.
"Crap... better go to the bathroom, seeing as Willow doesn't know about my scroll." Siegfried thought to himself.
"Hey mom, I need to use the bathroom. I'll be back, can you hold Illya for me Cheri?" Siegfried asked the girl after telling his mother.
"Yes Young master." Cheri said.
"Thanks, and how many times have I told you to call me Siegfried or Sieg?" Siegfried said sternly.
"But I cannot young master it is improper for a maid to call their master by their first name." Cheri said, in a Kuudere tone.
"Cheri... you're my friend first and my maid second." Siegfried said with a annoyed sigh.
"b-but-"
"No buts! Fine... if it makes it easier then I'll make it an order. Call me either Sieg or Siegfried, your choice on the name, but it is an order." Siegfried said sternly.
"...Yes Sieg...-sama" Cheri said
Siegfried facepalmed at the added honorific.
"I guess that's as good as I'm gonna get it..." Siegfried thought.
With that he exused himself to the private airship's bathroom.
Upon entering he immediately pulled out his scroll and answered.
"Hello?" Siegfried said.
"Heya Sieg! It's Jaune!" The caller, revealed to be Jaune, said.
"Oh? Jaune What's up?" Siegfried said, putting the scroll in face-call mode To see his friend.
"Nothing just wanted to call to tell you that my family is going to the beach for a few weeks." Jaune said with a grin.
"Oh really? Same here." Siegfried said.
"Oh Atlas has a beach? I didn't know that... but wouldn't it be frozen?" Jaune asked with a tilt of his head.
"They are. That's why we're going to Mistral for the beach." Siegfried said.
"Oh Cool!" Jaune said with a grin.
.
.
.
"Wait! What!? You're going to be at the beach with us!? That's awesome! Now we can play together." Jaune said with excitement.
Siegfried chuckled at his friend's obliviousness, then his realization.
"Yeah sure we can hang out." Siegfried said with a slight grin.
"Cool, shame most of my sisters are at the huntsman Academies, then you could meet them!" Jaune said.
"Yeah that's a shame. But hey now I get to introduce my new brother and Sister." Siegfried said to his friend.
"New brother and sister? Really?! I get to meet them? Cool!" Jaune cheered, only to stop and look off the screen when a shout was heard.
"Sorry Sieg gotta go Mom's calling me." Jaune said with a disappointed sigh.
"Yeah ok, see ya at the beach, dude." Siegfried said, which Jaune gave a grin at before the screen switched off.
Siegfried then decided that might as well actually do his business before exiting the bathroom and returning to his seat, where he was promptly handed a fussy Illya, who only wanted to be held by Siegfried, for obvious reason.
Illya stopped fussing as soon as Siegfried took her from Cheri, who bore scratches and a twitching eyebrow on her face.
Cheri and Illya share a look, and lighting sparked between the two.
Siegfried sweatdropped at that.
Illya then turned away from Cheri and reached up to grab Siegfried's hair, lightly, this was a common occurrence with the two.
Siegfried assumed it was because now the two matched in their color scheme, red eyes and white hair, a trait that only she had out of the two in their previous lives.
But Siegfried couldn't be sure if the Illya he held now was the Illya from his life the Nasuverse was confusing like that.
Most like Illya was from a timeline similar to Heaven's feel, where she used the Dress of Heaven to save that version of Shirou Emiya, and bypass Angra Mainyu to fully destroy the grail, preventing the evil god from being born.
The residual energy from the dress' use probably allowed her soul to enter the reincarnation process, with a psuedo shield that prevented Akasha from shrubbing her memories clean, completely anyways, and the process decided to send her to the world that Akasha had already opened a recent connection to, aka Siegfried's current version of Remnant.
This was entirely stipulation on Siegfried's part, but it was the only thing he could think of for the time being, he'd be sure to ask Illya went she could actually speak.
"For now... I'll just focus on having a good time. Maybe get some materials for the ritual to get into contact with Chaos. And maybe a souvenir while I'm there, what should I get?... hmm... maybe a sword?... Yeah that'll do, I can display it in my room, wonder what kind of swords Mistral has. Katana? Maybe a Gladius or even a Xiphos? Or what about a Jian or a Dao? An Odachi? Or maybe even a..."
Siegfried continued to mentally ramble on an on about different swords that he might find in the Kindom that's culture was a mixture of Greco-Roman and Oriental cutures.
This would continue until the Aircraft eventually landed in the Mistral skyport, where they immediately boarded the Mistral transport train, with a private car for them, to Mistral.
As they exited the train and Siegfried had to catch his breath for a second. He had seen the city of Mistal in one of his previous lives, as a Cartoon/Anime, but seeing it in person was an entire different experience.
The floating mountains that made up the boundary walls of the Kingdom had shrines of Oriental design built upon them in a manner that they looked fit for the God to live in them. The houses were also a Oriental design, with a few being more of a Roman Domus, a type of large house.
Siegfried continued to gaze in wonder until he saw it there, nestled atop the peaks of two large floating mountains, Haven Academy.
He narrowed his eyes at the building, while placing the building atop the highest floating mountains was a great idea as it would keep the academy, and the relic out of reach, with the relic chamber being built into one of the mountains. It was also a bad idea because if Salem had gained someone with a earth manipulation based semblance then they could easily get into the chamber with just taking a small aircraft to the mountain, of course it would take a while, and it would be easier to just go through the office, but it was a possibility. Then there's a certain cowardly lion to think about-
"Alright kids let get going to our hotel shall we?" Willow said with a small smile.
The group nodded and Willow then led the way to their hotel, along the way Siegfried looked around the area they were in, which seemed like a marketplace. He noticed a smithy, complete with Armor and Weapons, both Mechashifting and classic, in the window.
Siegfried also noticed a sign above the door, the name on it made him pause.
Muramasa Blade Works.
Siegfried couldn't help but chuckle at that, what were the odds of a blacksmith from Mistral, a primarily Oriental city, being named Muramasa, a man who was the distant ancestor of his previous self, Emiya Shirou, a man who had also Possessed his body during his time with Chaldea. And the fact it's name was a homage to Unlimited Blade Works, if Siegfried had ever seen one.
Although for some reason Siegfried felt something around the shop, a haze, or distortion, that felt familiar, but he wasn't completely sure if it was what he thought it was.
He resolved to visit the shop once they've settled into their hotel, and turned to catch up with his family.
He never noticed the shadowed figure in the window of the shop.
"So... you're finally here eh boya?" The figure spoke in a young voice that belied the aged mannerisms is held.
The Schnee family stopped at a large building. Its outer appearance was that of a large Japanese castle, yet it had western style doors, and from the brief sight of what was inside, from the doors that were repeatedly opened by entering and exiting costumers, it was more western on the inside, which in itself was a weird prospect.
"Seriously... just pick a theme and stick with it." Siegfried muttered in annoyance.
Beside him Winter smirked at his words, clearly thinking the same as him.
Meanwhile Weiss was enraptured by all the sights she saw, and her childish mind didn't care about the two different themes, seeing as she didn't know what it would look like otherwise.
Willow coughed.
"Well opposing design choices aside, this hotel is one I've been to numerous time during my time as Huntress. It's the most popular in Mistral, and very popular amongst the Huntsman and Huntresses." Willow said with a grin.
Winter just sighed and said "Whatever... the place doesn't matter anyways, let's just check in and get to sleep, it's late."
Weiss gave a yawn in agreement, which Siegfried chuckled at.
Willow giggled a bit before she led them into the building, and to the reception desk.
While Siegfried and the rest waited for Willow to check them in Siegfried took a moment to inspect the room.
There were round dining tables everywhere in a cordinated fashion, with red carpet on the floor. Everywhere he looked he could see Huntsman, sitting and chatting with old friends. There was a large crystal chandelier in the center of the room.
"This place feels familiar... like I've seen it before... but where?" Siegfried thought as a sense of familiarity enters him.
He was brought out of his thoughts when Willow turned to them with a smile.
"Alrighty everyone, we can head to our room now, and I ordered room service it will be there eventually so let's get settled in shall we?" Willow said with a grin.
The group nodded, with Weiss being more enthusiastic than Winter and Siegfried, who each held Whitley and Illya, respectively.
They made their way to the elevator, and up to their floor, and eventually found their room.
And upon opening the door did they find that it was a Japanese style, with sliding walls, and futons for beds.
"Again... pick a theme already! Are we in a Western style hotel, or and Oriental one!" Siegfried shouted, having had enough of this stupidity.
His outburst did draw a weird look from Willow and Winter, but Illya, who knew what he meant, giggled.
"What do you mean by western or oriental Sieg?" Willow asked.
"Um... well western culture is like... Vale and Atlas, and Oriental is Mistral, and the surrounding settlements, not including Argus, it refers to the more... Orient features on the inhabitants of the Anima continent, their cultures are very different in various ways, you can see that by just looking outside." Siegfried said, trying to not blow his cover, by saying terms Like Asian, as Asia wasn't a continent in this world.
Winter having heard something similar in the past, nodded at his explanation, while Willow also understood but didn't know the terms before now, which made her wonder how Siegfried knew that.
"Sieg? How did you know that?" Willow asked.
"Ah shit... she just had to ask." Siegfried thought.
"Well... I read it in a book I found in the library at home." Siegfried half truthed, there was a book about it in their library, but he never really needed to read it.
"Oh! I see." Willow bumped her fist into her palm, which Weiss mimicked cutely.
Whitley giggled, while Illya seemed to give him a thumbs up at his cover story, which made him sweatdrop.
"She has rather impressive control over her body for someone who was reborn only a month ago..." Siegfried thought.
"So... how is this gonna work, mom?" Siegfried asked to change the subject.
"Hmm?"
"For sleeping I mean." Siegfried clarified.
"Oh! Yes. so each side only has enough space for three people, and while these two are only babies the stuff I brought for them takes up a lot of room, so Winter you will have to stay on the other side with Weiss and Sieg. And Cheri will need to be on this side to help with the babies when I sleep." Willow said.
Siegfried, who had been drinking a complementary bottle of water, did a spittake at the fact he'd be sleeping in the same room as the girls, or more accurately his teenage sister, Weiss he could handle, but Winter! There's no way!
The last time he slept in the same room as Winter was when his room had to be fumigated because one of the staff had accidentally brought in a queen ant from outside, it had apparently gotten stuck on her clothes, and a male followed the scent and one thing led to another and there was an Ant infestation a week later.
Anyways the reason why he was horrified to sleep in the same room as her was because she was a cuddler, now normally this wouldn't be so bad, however she also sleeps in the nude! It was too much for his poor mind to take!
It probably wouldn't have been so bad if he had the mind of a child, but instead he had the mind of two different adults, both of whom had their own... experiences. And as such he knew when to appreciate the beauty of the opposite sex, making it really awkward for him seeing as she's his sister.
Anyways after that horrible night of no sleep, right before a school test no less, he vowed to never sleep in the same room as Winterever again.
"M-mom! I d-don't think that's a good idea." Siegfried tried to protest.
Winter turned to her brother with a raised brow.
"Oh and why not? Sieg are you by chance afraid to sleep near me?" Winter said in a joking tone.
Siegfried turned to her and said, with a look of complete seriousness.
"Yes." Siegfried said.
Winter recoiled, an arrow with the words 'Afraid to sleep near you' pierced her chest.
Suddenly she was in a corner, a rain cloud over her head.
Willow was a bit confused but ignored Siegfried's concerns.
"Oh nonsense. There's nothing to be afraid of. Now why don't you three go and get settled in. I'm gonna go and soak in the hotel's hotspring. Later!" Willow waved at them as she left.
Siegfried sweatdropped as she left, before a chilling presence made itself known behind him.
Slowly, almost mechanically, Siegfried turned to face the source, only to pale as he saw Winter, surrounded by a blizzard made of icy aura, with an equally icy glare on her face, she held a white sheet, from her bed back in atlas, in her hand.
"O-oh h-hey Winter... w-what's up?" Siegfried said nervously.
"So... you're too scared to sleep in the same room as me huh!?" Winter said coldly, with a sweet smile on her face.
(*GAAOOO!*)
Siegfried paled even more when he saw a large Snow Tiger appear in her aura (not as a summon).
"...Uh oh..." Siegfried said, only to be suddenly wrapped up in the sheet, the sound of a whip cracking as it did so.
"eh? Um... Winter can we talk about this please?" Siegfried said.
"No..." Winter said coldly as she slowly walked towards him.
"Ok... Uh... Cheri escape plan Alpha!" Siegfried shouted.
"Hai!" Cheri said before she suddenly appeared next to Siegfried and lifted him up, she was suprisingly strong.
"Must be from Willow's training." Siegfried idly thought.
Cheri then proceeded to sprint to the door, which she swung open and, with a heave, she threw the wrapped up Siegfried, while holding onto the end of the sheet, this caused Siegfried to spin as the sheet unwrapped itself around him.
Siegfried, once she stopped spinning noticed that he was now falling from the the room floor down to the first floor.
"Oh Shit!" Siegfried said before he thrust his hand out and a glyph appeared, which he landed on safely.
"Few! Safe!" Siegfried said with a raised fist.
"SIEGFRIED GET BACK HERE!"
(*GAAOOO!*)
Siegfried paled, before he turned to see Winter jump off their room floor, and charge at him using glyph platforms.
"Oh shit!" Siegfried then let himself drop to the first floor, using the occasional glyph to slow his descent.
Once his feet hit the floor, prompting several residents to stare at him in shock.
He briefly looked up to see Winter still on his tail, which caused him to panic.
"Nigerundaiyo!!" Siegfried shouted as he took off in a full aura enhanced sprint, a cloud of dust trailed behind him.
Winter landed on the floor with mighty thud, before she took off after her brother, subconsciously summoning multiple tiny tiger Grimm, which pounced on Siegfried, who dodged whenever they got to close.
This continued until Siegfried slid under a nearby tablecloth, then under another one, swiping a piece of bread as he went, which he then attached a glyph to and sent it flying on a far part of the room, before making it rised rapidly, to make it look like he was escaping to another floor.
(*GAAoo...*)
The sounds of the roaring tiger's faded away as Winter took the bait and chased the bread up to a random floor.
Siegfried sighed in relief.
"U-um...?"
The sound notified Siegfried that he wasn't alone under the table.
He turned to look at the other person.
Only for his eyes to widen as he gazed upon eyes on the short, but wavey, black hair, and the burning yellow eyes of Cinder Fall.
[A/N: So what do you think? Wasn't too bad right?
Truth be told my favorite part about this chapter was the simulation with the Wendigo. There's gonna be more of them later on and it was basically immense foreshadowing for a future arc, one that is actually really close to happening. And yes the bow will be Siegfried's permanent bow, and will not change in the future, there might be some upgrades but it will stay the same.
Originally I first came up with the idea for Siegfried to just project a bow to use, but eventually I realized that future plans, (which I'm sure most of you have guessed by reading this chapter already) would get in the way of that, so an actual bow was needed to replace that.
Also no, the sword he just got isn't here to stay, I have plans for it yes, but being used by Siegfried isn't part of it. He's going to get a far better sword eventually, an actually physical one, not a projection one.
Speaking of Projection weapons, the time is nigh here!
Ahem that is all I'm going to say...
so... bye?
Oh! Almost forgot, the Aria that Siegfried said during his dream last chapter, for some reason it was bugging me, it didn't seem to fit, so I reread that dream part, while I was writing this chapter actually, and decided to tweak it around some, you know experiment a bit to see what fit the scene and Siegfried's own abilities the most. It is now changed, and it's going to stick with what it is now. I already have the full Aria written out. So there's no point in changing anything else seeing as that was the only part I didn't like about the aria I had written. For those who only read the new version... well good on you, you don't have to worry about it.
Anyways you can go now.