For all of the next day, Richard didn't see Yang, Blake, Weiss, or Rachel as he was allowed to walk around the castle. He figures that they must be trying to keep them separated for some reason or another. The next day when he awakes, he is escorted to what seemed like a medical wing of the castle where Yang, Weiss, Blake, and Rachel already were in and confused themselves. They get an explanation that they are going to be given a magical examination to see how they are doing, but it was quite clear there was another reason as, one by one, they are led into another room where there is a device with a few magical looking orbs linked to it. The machine is doing something as Richard could feel his hairs stand on end as something seems to wash over him. The ones operating the machine soon start to whisper, and one even leaves before they begin to do the standard doctor check-up of listening to his breathing and counting his heartbeat per minute.
After a bit, he is taken to a bath where he can wash up. When he bathes and shaves off the little hair he had grown on his face, he dresses in some clothes that were laid out for him and exits to find Rachel, Blake, Weiss, and Yang all wearing dresses most likely picked out by the staff.
Richard had wanted to comment on this but chose not to. After that, Yang and Blake are taken to another room to talk while Herleva escorts Richard to another place where Richard meets an old looking elf with greying hair and a well kept short beard. He is wearing a nice green robe with a slightly tattered red cape. The elf introduces himself as Kymil, one of the heads of magical research of the castle and teacher of magic. He seems very interested in Richard as he looks at him and starts to explain some things to Richard. Most flew over Richard's head, but he eventually understood he was saying that Richard indeed gained the power of the artifact and became a Warlock. Richard starts to get nervous at this as he casts a sideways glance at Herleva to thankfully see she did not look angry or had drawn a weapon on him. So the class name does not bother them that much in the slightest.
Kymil goes on to explain that Warlock is thought to be a mythical class of legendary proportions, and finding that Richard has the class had already started rumors and conjecture to circulate amongst the castle's researchers and magic users. Kymil then goes on a bit of a rant about many of what Richard assumed to be magic-related levels of power lecture that he doesn't understand, and from her expression and sweatdrop, Herleva isn't getting it either.
What Richard did understand is Kymil informing him that he is going to teach him magic and how to read and write their language as Herleva had told them that they couldn't read their writing.
Blake and Yang to each other as they sat down to talk to this nurse. "Ladies, I have been informed that you do not know what curses are, yes?" she asks.
The two girls look to each other, slightly confused. "Why?" Yang slowly asks.
"We believe you both have a curse as you have the cursed class enticer," the nurse informs.
Blake tries to form words, but her ears flick behind her loose bow in response. "Enticer?"
"Search your memories, and you will find the answer to that," the nurse informs.
The girls still are confused by what the nurse is saying before they freeze and slowly look at each other.
"The goblins."
"The werewolf."
"Right. I see it now. So, in our world, there are two types of curses: magical curses and corruption kinds. Magical are weaker but have a lot of variety, for example, forcing you to equip specific armor or gear and not being able to remove them or make you unable to speak or move. The curse you have is the corruption type of curse. This is gained by being fucked by a monster, and it cumming inside of you. So you don't need to say what did it to you, but that is the cause most likely," the nurse informs.
"But enticer…we don't…" Yang starts, and the nurse writes something down.
"The enticer class is a common thing we see in the adventurers as they face many monsters and traps set by those that don't want to harm but to corrupt others. The class allows you to tease and lead the monster into a lustful state. Not even monsters, but also other Aderians. As such, you would feel more attracted to the beast as we can guess from speaking with the adventurers that have them," the nurse explains and notes down the girls' differences. "Also, those ears of yours, you don't have to hide them if they are uncomfortable. I would imagine it's harder to hear for you based on word of mouth by the citizens in the city," the nurse adds on and makes Blake pay particular attention to the wording.
"The citizens?" Blake questions, which makes the nurse look at her weirdly.
"Yes…we have others with cat ears. They complain a lot when their ears are pressed down for extended periods or covered with something," the nurse explains as if to a child.
"The world is not as tolerable," Blake explains, removing the bow.
The nurse raises an eyebrow. "Who says? Most love your type. They consider the most fun actually," she mutters to the side, and Blake catches it.
Blake was about to explain, but decided against it, getting that the nurse was taking notes on them and trying to get details on them as well.
"Is there anything else?" Yang asks.
"No, nothing else. You should probably share this with the rest of your group," the nurse suggests before allowing them to leave.
The next morning, Richard is awakened early by Herleva entering his room. Richard woke up with a fearful expression when he sees her standing over his bed in full armor before frowning. "Do you mind!" is Richard's response to her before she drags him out of the room. Herleva explains that if he were going to continue pursuing his goal of aiding his heroes, he would need to train to at least slow them down less. This statement hit Richard hard. He knew this, and yet having someone say it to his face stung him.
"That is why I am going to help with that. You will be training with the recruits and learning from our trainers," Herleva informs.
"Great. Knight training. Hope it won't be too bad," Richard mutters while being forced to stand and follow alongside her.
Herleva raises an eyebrow while looking ahead of the hall they are in. "Ever had bruises?"
"I trained with Yang a bit, and you know how strong she is from personal experience," Richard informs.
Herleva gains a smirk on her face now from the sound of that. "Then, get ready for more to appear everywhere. Now you should get changed into the gear in the barracks. Tell them I sent you to train with them," Herleva instructs, pointing to a building close to a training ground where people were already at work training away in different weapons, and there was a training field for horses a bit away as well.
Richard sighs and hangs his head before going into the armory and his new clothing. As Richard looks at it, he sees it consists of a basic blue tunic and a leather chest armor. Not much in terms of protection but decent enough. After he changes into the clothing, he steps out and walks by the archery range before stopping. Richard then slowly steps backward and looks to one particular archer. "Rachel?" he asks, seeing the cop handling a bow and trying to hit the target in the distance.
"Oh, come here to train as well?" Rachel asks, putting the bow down as the instructor standing nearby watches the two.
"More like Herleva making me work with sword and knight training. You? I thought you would be training with a gun still," Richard guesses.
"I realized how little ammo I have, and they won't let me have it back yet. So I decided to dust off my archery skills. I used to hunt with the bow," Rachel explains.
Richard smiles. "I didn't peg you for a hunter."
"I am from the country city slicker," Rachel teases.
Richard chuckles before sighing. "Better get to knight training. I will see you later?"
Ricard walks off to join the rest training where he meets an older elven looking male wearing some training armor as well. The man gives Richard a wooden sword before starting his practice, which involves being hit several times, trying to block strikes. At that point, he only grasped enough to be considered as a kid who barely trained with his father on a farm. Later that night, Yang is helping him tend to the bruises.
"Ow…" Richard hisses and breathes out when Yang rubs ice on his small wounds.
"Bare with it," Yang instructs as she wraps the packs around him.
Richard moans and closes his eyes while lying on the bed and Yang sitting beside him. "At least I get the benefit of training with a sword."
"You could train with Blake or Weiss. They use swords," Yang offers, smiling at him.
Richard lets out a small chuckle. "But I do need to get stronger. And you are the best fighter."
"Yeah, but I just punch," Yang jokes, patting his head.
Richard gives another chuckle as she smiles at his reaction. "But if I can't move you, I need to work on it, and you are the best in terms of that," he points out.
"Find your way of fighting Richard. Trying to match my style, it won't work for you. We are built differently," Yang says, trying to give him proper guidance.
Richard as gently as he could now. "And once we find Ruby, I bet she will ask for a lot of cookies as possible."
"Yeah, I don't know where that came from. I mean, she likes cookies, but I think the fandom blew how much out of the water," Yang says.
Richard keeps smiling along. "First episode. She chowed down a lot. And then there is the first chibi episode where she is baking them."
"Yeah, that show. I am not a fan. Doesn't capture my awesomeness well enough," Yang teases.
Richard laughs before groaning and shutting up. "Okay, too much laughter hurts. Maybe I should have taken fencing classes," he jokes and gets a grin on his face.
"And what good would learning to build a fence help with your swordsmanship," Yang jokes.
Richard keeps smiling before sighing and rolling around to face her. "Can you do me a favor, Yang?"
"Depends. What is it?" Yang asks.
Richard sighs and picks his head up while she applies another towel filled with ice. "Make sure the others stay safe. And Ruby as well. In this kind of world, they are going to need all the help they can get out of it."
"You are not coming with us?" Yang inquires.
Richard slowly smiles before chuckling. "I'll be sticking with you girls till you are sick of me," he jokes off.
Yang sighs before flicking his head, which felt like smack. "Blake told me how you felt. Stop that. I don't consider you a burden," Yang says, pushing him back down before pulling out her scroll, hoping for a new signal.
Richard groans and rubs his head. "Man, that hurts."
"That is for thinking badly of yourself. I don't like that you do that," Yang informs.
"Ah, you care…I'm sorry. I can't resist. Will your wife, Blake, be mad at that?" Richard jokes.
Yang snarks and smirks at him. "Keep it up, and she might be on the hunt for a husband."
"I thought that was your role. I mean, you do wear the pants," Richard jokes back.
Yang sticks her tongue out at him before laughing along with him. "You do realize there will be more days of you being bruised like this?" she asks with a happy smile.
"Better bruised than dead," Richard affirms.
Yang smiles at him before sighing. "And I don't want you to worry. We can kick ass. Take names. And make sure ours is known."
"According to what I overheard from the…not sure if they were nurses, mages, or a mixture, but we have little in the way of natural magic defense," Richard adds.
Yang shrugs. "I'm sure we can find some armor to work for us. Who knows? Maybe some for you," she thinks out loud and points to his armor sitting on the ground near the bed.
"Maybe we can get some enchanted or some charms that offer that, but another question comes to mind. How long before you request pants as you are still wearing that dress? Not that I am complaining," Richard inquires.
Yang gives a happy little pat on the head. "It's fine. I am going to ask tomorrow so I can get to training and keep myself fit."
"Last time I saw you had a six-pack. I think you are in shape," Richard compliments.
Yang holds up a finger. "There is a difference between staying comfortable and keeping in shape."
"It's hard to tell with you. You are just that beau…" Richard stops himself mid-sentence, realizing he was going too far from what he had planned.
Yang smirks and giggles. "Okay, Casanova. Take it easy," she says, pushing him to lay on his back.
"…how do you know about Casanova?" Richard asks, genuinely curious.
Yang shrugs. "Maybe a book I read one time. Or a flirt from a guy."
"Speaking of books, are you and Blake, going to be joining Weiss and me in trying to learn their written language?" Richard asks.
Yang nods before sighing. "Feels like we are back in Beacon again."
"At least no tests…or professor Port making a pass on you," Richard reminds.
Days passed as Richard's days started to follow into a routine. In the morning is physical training and sword lessons, and in the evening, it is trying to learn how to read the local language with Yang, Blake, and Weiss. Then after that, Richard joined Weiss for lessons in magic. Though Weiss wasn't being taught the same things he is. She is learning how to summon, which is a bit of a surprise as Richard thinks about how she can do that with her semblance. For Richard himself, he is being taught basics like introductory spell structure of spells, a lecture on the characteristics of various magical incantations, and taking very detailed notes on how to invoke magic. Then the lessons start to shift. The lessons started to become about studying the unique properties of fire-based spells and how to avoid burning oneself, analyzing the composition of basic fire incantations, and developing an understanding of how to determine what enemies are most susceptible to fire magic.
It started to remind Richard a lot when he was in college. Richard, for the most part, did ask Weiss if she can help him figure it out when he studied his notes as she probably has experience similar to handling dust from her world, and being smart would understand it well enough, having sat through the lectures with him.
During the current study session, Richard finds himself just staring at Weiss, unable to look away. "Yes…Richard?" Weiss asks, staring intensely into her book.
Richard gulped before answering, "It's just sinking into me how you have the full package of beauty and brains, I think," Richard informs.
Weiss blinks and looks to him questionably. "What brought that on?"
"You are already able to read their language a bit while helping me to understand these notes," Richard says.
Weiss shrugs. "This doesn't seem so bad compared to Beacon. It is no problem."
"Well, we don't have schools like this in my world. The closest is probably military academies," Richard says, reminding Weiss that Richard's world had no dust, magic, or anything of the kind except in stories.
Weiss hums before looking him over more carefully. "Richard…how did your people get to the top of the food chain besides having no grimm?"
"Corruption, being born into power and influence, and at times murder," Richard says, making Weiss sweatdrop.
"I meant your species as a whole over the planet's food chain," Weiss clarifies.
"Oh…yeah. The answer is time, energy, thinking, and not having any major natural predators. We had big cats, sharks, and stuff like that, but for the most part, there were no other intelligent species that could keep up with us. So we had the run of the planet. Heck, we even landed on other planets," Richard says, getting a stunning look on Weiss's face.
"Other…planets? What is it like? The other planets?" Weiss asks, very quickly and having a hint of excitement.
"Well, Mars, the next planet over is, for the most part, a lifeless red planet, but we have found evidence of water and other things. So it may have thrived at one point, but something happened to make it go extinct," Richard informs.
"But can you live there? Make an area your home or a city, at least?" Weiss asks, now very interested as she drops her books to turn her whole body towards him.
"Well, last I heard, they are trying to terraform it and make themselves self-sufficient, but we are still at the unsure what will happen stage and…oh. That is right. Remnant also had a space division," Richard says.
"Yeah…we are still trying to get off-planet," Weiss says in disappointment.
"…I'm sorry to say, but the dust engine method will not ever work most likely," Richard says sadly and sees her face become more hurt at the news.
"How…how do you know that?" Weiss asks curiously but dreads the answer.
"Because what I figured out from the subtle hints. Yang informed you about what I told her about Ozpin, right?" Richard asks, getting a nod. "Well, Dust is just crystallized magic. The planet is basically the power source of said magic. So if you get far enough away from it, what would happen?" Richard asks.
Weiss tries to think of an answer and scrunches her face in thought. "Lose it…like our ships."
"Exactly. So if the people of Remnant want to leave the planet behind, they must also leave dust technology with it," Richard says, nodding.
Weiss stares at him in total shock that he suggests working without dust since they have their entire lives built around it. When Richard sees her expression, he quickly panics. "But I'm sure your people can find a way to make things work and…"
"It's not that," Weiss interrupts before smiling. "It means my father doesn't stand a chance when the space age comes around," she chuckles before laughing and quickly calming down.
"If it does, Ozpin probably crushed any such thoughts for the sake of unity," Richard says grimly.
Weiss becomes a little confused. "How is being united a bad thing, though? I mean, he had good intentions."
"It is when it's forced, and those who don't agree are left to the grimm. In my opinion, Ozpin has strayed so far from the path he is a different kind of bad, but probably just as bad as Salem. He has become a tyrant basically," Richard says.
Weiss sighs and looks away slightly, trying to keep some level of silence between them. "How about…your moon? Is it destroyed?" she asks, now putting a smile on her face.
"Oh, no. It's intact, and many have put forth the idea of making it a relay base for the rest of the system or even a colony of its own," Richard says.
Weiss smiles at him fully now. "Then maybe they can now work on their own if they have to if it's that established."
"Ah, the keyword is thought. You technically have five nations. We have like around two hundred each with their egos and prejudices," Richard informs.
"Lucky. I guess ours needs to survive through unity," Weiss guesses and laments about it.
"And even that is in jeopardy. Because of Ozpin once again. In a past life, he was the one who insisted all four towers needed to work for your communication system to function," Richard informs.
"Well…that's terrible when you think about it. At least it works in a way for the short-range area around each," Weiss points out, merely trying to find a bright side.
"Ironwood did have the right idea…oh, wait. You don't know about his plan yet, do you?" Richard asks.
Weiss raises an eyebrow at the man. "Plan?"
"He has taken the Amity Colosseum and is planning to make it a master relay and launch it into the atmosphere beyond Salem's strike capability. Or at least what he thinks is the limitation. He then plans to go public with the information about Salem to the world and unite them against their common enemy. That is why he has brought all Atlas's forces home to defend the plan. There is a problem though," Richard informs.
"Don't tell me. Someone attacked the tower while it is still being built," Weiss guesses.
"No, Ironwood didn't know that Salem was cursed by the two gods never to be able to die. Because Ozpin kept that a secret too," Richard informs. Weiss freezes dead cold and stares at him, almost boring a hole into his side with the sound of it. "Yang didn't tell you that part," Richard can summarize from how she reacted.
"What happened after he learned that?" Weiss inquires.
"…he was so overcome with fear, he betrays you girls and plans to save as many as he can and move Atlas into the upper atmosphere to escape Salem and abandon Mantle. He then sics his elite huntsman team on you and the rest of team RWBY. You manage to beat them and escape, but then a massive flying whale grimm appears, and I think it was acting like an airbase or had the ability of the wyvern grimm from the fall of beacon to spawn grimm from itself as all around it were more grimm than I think had ever been seen in one place. What was worse, Salem was on that grimm. From there, the season ended on a cliffhanger," Richard informs sadly.
"What? But…" Weiss tries to start.
"The studio is most likely empty right now with all that is going on. I'm sure they have made backups, but with how the world is at the moment, I doubt it will be soon," Richard quickly explains.
"So Atlas might be doomed," Weiss says.
"…I am not going to lie. It most likely is. You want to know why Salem came personally?" Richard asks.
Now Weiss fears the answer of what could be worse than all of it and thinks that maybe Beacon is the start of it all. "…what?"
"She is there because of Ozpin. She came for his ass. At least that is what it has been hinted at since volume six, that is," Richard says.
"…was there more planned? The volumes?" Weiss asks, taking a big leap in logic.
"Oh yeah, there was. Even team CFVY got a novel. They were in Vacuo after the fall," Richard informs.
Weiss smiles before sighing and leaning back in her seat. "Maybe that team RWBY made it out and got past Salem and saved Atlas," she giggles at the thought of watching herself fight in the supposedly Battle of Atlas.
"Weiss, what I am about to tell you next is also going to be hard to hear," Richard confesses, holding her hand.
Weiss slowly looks at him concerned and grips his hand. "What else happened?"
"Cinder isn't dead. She is now possibly working for herself against Salem and teams up with Neo to get revenge on Ruby. Basically, she goes after the winter maiden, now a very older woman with dementia. Winter fights Cinder, trying to stop her from taking the powers…she nearly dies, and this was before Salem showed up," Richard says.
Weiss slowly tears up at the thought of her sister dying. "But…"
"She was still alive and even gave you and your team a head start on running," Richard assures, not realizing he had brought her into a hug.
Weiss slowly reaches up and hugs him back before smiling. "Thanks for telling me everything."
"Well…there is one piece of news that I haven't told you yet, but not sure if you will like it or not," Richard says.
Weiss keeps smiling despite that face. "Just tell it already. You already told everything else."
"Your father was sent to jail for giving access to the grid to one of Salem's people, and they used it to turn off the heating for Mantle," Richard informs.
"…good. Maybe now he finally learns," Weiss mentioned over his shoulder.
"You were the one who personally arrested him, and using evidence your mom provided proved beyond a shadow of a doubt he did it to get on the council, who he was elected to for a day. Your father planned to destroy Ironwood with the meeting, but you destroyed him and brought his corrupt schemes down on his head. You are an incredible woman that I was fortunate even to get to meet," Richard says, speaking his mind.
Weiss freezes up, and Richard wonders what happened before pulling back from the hug and stares at Weiss as she is red in the face but also most of her upper body. "Um…thank you…" she says rather stiffly.
"I went too far. I am sorry," Richard apologizes and then turns back to his work. While he looks away, Weiss just smiles and thinks it is nice to study with someone who is a hard worker and appreciates her so much.
Weeks pass like this, where Richard would train hard in the morning and be studying harder in the afternoon and at night with Weiss. Weiss now seems quite comfortable around Richard and even gave him some pointers on his fighting with a sword. Which means he can fight decently to hold up against a one on one.
