"I can't believe we're walking the entire way."

"I can't believe you're still complaining about it."

"I'm just saying we could have taken a bullhead, or even rented a car."

"First, no commercial bullheads are traveling to Bury since, you know, nobody's been able to contact them for months! Second, no one would let us take a rental anything outside Vale's wall. Third, even if those options were possible, we don't have any money, and fourth is…well…I just don't do great on moving vehicles."

"Afraid you'll fall off?"

"Let's just say you wouldn't appreciate being in the splash zone."

Emerald and Jaune had been bickering pretty much the entire trip which really slowed them down since they would attract grimm every ten minutes. Emerald dealt with most of them, always using an unnecessary flashy move to taunt Jaune. That wasn't to say Jaune was just standing back and watching. He had managed to slay some minor grimm although it was always under Emerald's carful watch. She would never admit it, but Jaune was better than she thought he'd be. He was nowhere near the level of even an early Signal student, but she didn't need to tell him how to hold his sword and he had a basic stance. If it wasn't for the fact that he still didn't know how to properly use his aura, which would make even a single mistake deadly, she might have let him fight on his own.

"We should take a break and have lunch," Emerald suggested.

"Fine," Jaune said, looking at the sky to see the sun had just reached its peak and led them off to the side of the road. They kicked away some sticks and shrubbery to make a little spot for themselves under the forest canopy. It wasn't prefect but it wasn't awful, at least until, Jaune pulled out a blanket for them to lie on.

"Wow, are we having a picnic? Do you have a little basket, too?" Emerald said with the sarcastic cheer Jaune was getting used to.

"You're free to set in the grass and dirt if you would like," he said getting two plastic wrapped sandwiches from his backpack.

Emerald did not take him up on that offer as she sat on one side of the blanket taking the food Jaune gave her. "You certainly came well equipped. What other tricks do you have stored in your backpack?"

"All the stuff I need to make my etches and basic survive supplies: first-aid kit, map, compass, flashlight, sleeping bag, matches, cooking pot."

"That seems like a lot more than just the basics. Is this where all our money went?"

"All our money was spent on game tokens and outfits if you remember," Jaune said, thinking back on the incident with slight regret. "I got this stuff at an outdoors store for pretty cheap. It not the quality of huntsmen's gear but it will work for us."

"Still seems a little excessive for only a half-day's walk."

"A half-day's walk through the grimmlands, where we've already been attack half a dozen times. It's better to be prepared."

"You learn that from being a caretaker?"

"No, I learned to be this detailed while I was still very young. When you have seven sisters you'd better be prepared to deal with anything and everything especially when you take them anywhere outside the house."

"You talk about your sisters a lot."

"Well, up until a few weeks ago, I didn't have a life outside of them, so you'll have to forgive me."

"What are they like?"

"Nightmares, every single one of them." Jaune replied, viciously biting into his sandwich. "There was always something they needed from Jaune Arc and apparently, no one else would suffice. I don't think I ever left the house without at least one of them coming along. The other kids used to make fun of me for always giving into them. Said I was the real bitch of the Arc family." Jaune took another anger filled bite, but his expression quickly softened. "I love them, though. Even with everything they put me through, especially the older three, I would die before I let anything happen to them. It's one of the reason I wanted to be a huntsman."

"How did they react to you coming to Vale?"

Jaune silence was telling. "You didn't tell them, did you?"

"Listen, this isn't story time with Jaune! My personal matters aren't your concern."

"I'm just worried that a pissed sibling might come busting through our apartment door."

"Again, with this our apartment, and that's not going to happened…probably."

"Sorry, I didn't catch that last part."

"Just eat your sandwich!"

The two on them relaxed for about ten minutes, letting the shade of the trees protect them from the beating sun while Jaune thought about their mission. They were heading to Bury, a smallish frontier town. From the research Jaune had done before hand, the town was settled by a bunch of famers looking to find more land outside of Vale's walls. It was always dangerous to build outside the walls, especially with no backing from the government, but they had been willing to risk it. Sadly, the risk hadn't paid off. Apparently, the ground wasn't fertile enough to mass produce crops. The citizens of Bury were able to grow enough for themselves but not enough to export back to Vale, and if there was ever a bad harvest many of them would go to bed hungry. Bury's economy was pretty much dead because of that and for the first few years it didn't look like it was going to survive. It ended up being a stroke of luck that had saved the town. In Mistral, a certain type of oak wood had become popular to make furniture out of, and it just so happen that Bury was sat right next to a whole forest filled with them, so the town went into the lumber business and grew from there. Since the town couldn't export to Mistral directly it became a popular merchant point and spawned a lively market because of it. The demanded for the oak wood has decreased over the years, but Bury was still a healthy town that just wasn't well known by anyone who didn't have business there.

At least that had been the case up until recently. Bury had gone completely quiet and no merchants have come back after going there. A grimm attack was the obvious answer, but when a huntress had gone to investigate, she didn't return. After a while, a second huntress was sent, but only to scout the situation and report back, she never came back either. By that time, the media had gone into a frenzy bringing the little know frontier town to the front page, or at least they tried to. The government censored most of it to avoid a panic, which was way Jaune wasn't aware of it before, but it was impossible to kept the story completely under wraps. Markets don't lie so when the price of that oak wood suddenly spiked, it didn't take long for the people who watch such things to realize there was a problem. Some of the Mistral elite were particularly furious at the increased price and the Mistral government offered to send their own, specially trained, huntsman to deal with it. Vale accepted, but that huntsman disappeared as well, and while the Vale press were still muzzled, the Mistral press was under no such restriction. They made headlines with what they thought to be Vale's incompetence by letting a Mistral huntsman die trying to fix their problem. It was actually a Mistral newspaper and not a Vale one that had landed in Jaune's lap. Emerald seemed to think that Mistral had brought them over to hurt Vale politically, but that was all just speculation. What wasn't was the fact that the disappearance of Bury was now global news with everyone too busy pointing finger at each other to try and solve the problem. Everyone expect Jaune and his green-haired partner.

It was a dangerous job, one that three fully fledged huntsmen couldn't do, but to Jaune it was clear that this wasn't a job for a huntsman. This needed a caretaker's touch…Emerald could come too. Just in case it really was grimm.

The pair finished their meal and packed up their stuff ready to complete their trek to Bury. "How much longer until we get there?" Emerald asked.

"Let's see, the last time you asked me that I said we were three hours away, and that was an hour ago, so what do you think?"

"I think you should be nicer to me since I'm the only thing that can stop that pack of grimm from making you beowolf kibble."

"What pack of gr—oh crap!"

"I can't believe you left me to fend for myself against all those beowolfs."

"I can't believe your still complaining about it. You did fine."

"I could have died!"

"No, you couldn't have."

"And why is that!"

"Because they were just my illusions." Emerald smirked.

Jaune stopped in his tracks and Emerald could almost see the smoke coming from his ears. "I hate you so much."

"You're going to make me cry."

Jaune turned away in a huff and refused to speck the rest of the way, but when they made it to Bury, he was silent for a different reason. Both of them could only stare dumbfounded at the sight before them. "Jaune, are you sure you read the map right?"

"I'm positive," he replied. "This is definitely Bury."

The town looked completely normal. No black smoke, no corpse littering the ground, no cries for help. "Maybe it's just looks okay from afar?" Jaune suggested.

That assumption was quickly discredited as Emerald and Jaune walked into the town proper to see a bustling outdoor market. A woman in a bright yellow dress was buying some food from a vendor. Kids were drawing pictures of grimm with sticks, in the dirt street. An apple fell from a food cart and was quickly snatched up by a teenage boy with curly orange hair. "Boy you better get back here, or I'll spank you so hard you wouldn't be able to sit for a week!" The boy's father yelled from a nearby house. It was all stuff you could find in any frontier town. Jaune's own hometown had been exactly like this although Axel was quite a bit bigger.

"This can't be right. A perfectly fine village doesn't just lose contract with the world." Jaune said. "Let's go talk with someone surely they'll have some answers."

Jaune walked over to a relatively empty stall that looked like it sold precious metals "Excuse me sir, but is this Bury?"

"I would hope so," the man replied, his long bread dripping with every word, "or I wouldn't know where I was."

"Have any huntsmen or huntresses passed through recently?"

"Son, we haven't needed to request a huntsman in decades. The boys out here are made of hardier stuff."

"Are you sure?" Jaune asked again.

"Yes, I'm sure. You think I would have missed someone like that walking through. Speaking of which, I don't recognize either one of you. Are you two tourists?"

"More like travelers," Jaune said. "We just wanted to stop by Bury."

"Ah, I remember my youth when I wandered around looking for adventure. Got into a few scruffs with some grimm." The man pulled up his left sleeve to revival a scar that looked like a claw mark. "There isn't much to see here and that was doubly true back when I was a kid. No wonder I decided to throw myself at the grimm for excitement. Anyways, if you're new in town you should check into the Wood Mill Inn. It's a little small, but it's cozy."

"Thanks."

"Also, make sure you buy something from the number one salesman in town!" The vendor announced spreading his arms over his wares.

"Thanks, but I don't really need anything right now."

"What about that sword that's on your hip. I'm sure you could use some backup material in case it gets nicked or something."

"I'm good," Jaune said, leaving the stall with Emerald in a way that wouldn't look rude.

It didn't seem to work as the vendor watched them, mildly irritated that they wasted his time. "Suite yourself. I'll just look after my paying customers."

"Like you have any of those," Emerald shot back before Jaune was able to pull her onto a side path, away from the main market and any anger the vendor might have thrown their way.

"Why would you say?" Jaune hissed.

"He was being an asshole. Just because we didn't buy any of his stupid rocks doesn't give him the right to look down on us."

"That doesn't mean—you know what, never mind," Jaune said quickly giving up on trying to explain. "We have a job to do."

"Do we?" Emerald questioned. "From the looks of things, this town doesn't have any problems that we can solve."

"No, something strange is definitely going on. Three huntsmen disappeared investigating this place, and that is about as far from normal as you can get."

"Is it possible that it's not the town itself but something along the way that caused them to go missing? He did say that no huntsmen have been her recently."

"It's possible, but if that was the case than shouldn't we have hit the same thing?" Jaune pondered. "I'm also not going to take the word of some random street merchant that no huntsmen have come through. It's not like they have a title above their heads. Let's check that inn he mentioned. The innkeeper would know if any huntsmen checked in."

Jaune and Emerald made their way farther into town until they spotted the Wood Mill Inn. It was a wooden two-story structure that gave off a log cabin vibe. All the windows were old fashion six panes that made the building seems more residential than commercial. Bright green bushes ran along the front porch, and there were rocking chairs seated outside. The front steps creaked as Jaune steep on them, but it wasn't the kind of creaking that made you think it was unstable. It was the kind that came with long use and good care. The front door was made from dark wood and Jaune could feel the warmth from the handle as he opened it.

Inside was not your typical hotel lobby. The entire first floor was almost completely opened with a stairway in the back probably leading up to the actual rooms. It was like Jaune had steeped into a medieval guild hall with a solid hardwood floor and a huge stone fireplace, brightening up the first floor with its soft glow. The only sign of modern life was a TV above the fireplace and a table housing equipment for a breakfast buffet off to the side.

"This place certainly feels cozy," Emerald commented.

"I know what you mean. You'd never find something like this in Vale."

"Hello there," A young girl said, walking out from behind a counter. "I'm sorry that I didn't hear you come in. I hope you weren't waiting long."

"You're absolutely fine," Jaune said. If there was one thing Jaune could say about the girl in front of him, it would be that she was insanely cute. She was shorter than both him and Emerald, but not by much. Her long light-blur hair reached to just above the hem of her white and violet dress. Her eyes were a shade darker than her dress and she greeted them with a heart melting smile.

"Is there something I can do for you?" she said.

"Ah, yes!" Jaune said, overenthusiastic. "We were just wondering if any huntsmen have checked in here lately."

"I'm sorry, but we haven't had anyone like that check-in. The Wood Mill Inn usually only hosts traveling merchants." She looked so apologetic that Jaune just wanted to run up and hug her.

"Please don't worry about it. We were just curious."

"Are they friends of yours? Are you a huntsman?" she said, moving a little closer as she noticed the sword strapped to his side. The awe in her eyes was just too much. It was the exact expression he had imagined his sisters giving him once he a returned a hero.

Jaune rested a hand on the hilt of his sword, stood a little straighter and puffed out his chest. "As a matter of fact…"

"He's a Beacon dropout," Emerald intervened.

"That's not true!" Jaune said, trying to get her to read the mood.

"Oh, I guess you right," She said, snapping her finger like she had reached some new understanding. "You can't really dropout of a place you were never able to attend in the first place."

"Emerald!"

A soft giggling form their hostess stopped him from pushing any further. "I'm sorry," she said trying and failing to contain her laugher. "You two are just so funny."

"Thanks?" Jaune replied, not seeing the humor in the situation, but happy to have made her laugh nonetheless.

"So, are you two here to book a room?" she asked.

"Sorry, but no. We were just here looking for some information."

"What!" Emerald shouted, looking mortified. "Why not?"

"What part of 'we don't have any money' didn't you understand?"

"Th-then where are we going to sleep?"

"We'll have to make do on the streets. It's not like you haven't done it before."

"No," Emerald wined as she procced to shake Jaune's arm like a child. "You don't know what it's like. I can't go back. It's miserable out there."

"Would you stop?" Jaune said trying to push the thief off him. "It's still summer and it's only for a night. We'll be fine. It can't be that much worse than my apartment."

"You don't understand," Emerald cried, her lip quivering.

"Oh, I understand! I understand that you've gotten spoiled after riding the Jaune welfare train, but you've put it out of service and it times for you to get off."

"You meanie."

Jaune made a strangling motion with his hands. "You're the one who put us in this boat."

Before Jaune could evolve from museum robber to attempted murderer, their hostess interrupted. "Actually, if you really can't pay, I don't mind letting you stay for free."

"Huh?" Jaune said, dumbfounded.

Emerald on the other hand, completely recover in an instant and went over to the blue-haired girl. "Thank you so much," she said shaking the girls hand with a bright smile. "I don't know what we would have done without your kindness."

The girl blushed from the praise. "You're welcome. I could never turn my back on people in need."

"But are you sure that it's really okay? You don't look old enough to be the owner, so won't they be mad if they found out that you let us in for free. We—" Jaune caught the glare in Emerald's eye, "I mean, I wouldn't want to take advantage of your good heart."

"That's very kind of you, and you're right, my mother owns the place, but she's in Vale on a business trip right now. She thought I was old enough to run the place while she was gone since we don't get many visitors this time of year. In fact, we're actually completely vacant right now, so it doesn't matter if I give you room. I would also like the company if I'm being honest. It gets pretty lonely."

"Well if you're sure, we'd be glad to stay here."

"Thank you so much."

"I'm pretty sure we should be saying that to you," Jaune said, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly.

"Oh, I haven't even introduced myself. My name's Lily," she said holding out her hand with a slight bow.

"Jaune," he said reaching out his own, "and this is Emerald."

"It's nice to meet you. Would the two of you perhaps like to join me for lunch. There's plenty of food and I'd just have to throw it out anyways."

"We had lunch a few hours ago, so I'm not really hunger right now, but thanks for the offer."

"Really that's kind of early, but I guess you were traveling," Lily said. "Then if you'll excuses me, I'll be eating in the back. Mom would kill me if she found out I ate with the patrons."

Lili quickly moved to the room behind the counter before Jaune could say anything. Sadden by his lost chance, he and Emerald took a seat at one of the many small rounded tables. "What should we do?" Emerald asked. "It looks like that merchant was right. No huntsmen have been here. Could their communication network just be down and the disappearances just all be coincidence?"

"My scroll's not getting a signal, so it's possible, but I refuse to believe we came out here for nothing. Do you know how hard it was for me to convince Junior to give me off work right after we reopened? He made me make so many prepackaged meals that my wrists still hurt."

"Poor baby."

"Shut up. If we want to compare patheticness, let's talk about how you used your semblance to guilt Lily into giving us a free room. I'd pay money to see Emerald Sustrai actually break down and cry."

"Then you better pay up because that was my amazing acting, no semblance involved."

"Wow, that might make it even more pathetic," Jaune said, smugly. "We need to focus, though. There is definitely something going on here, no way three fully train huntsmen just forgot to show up. We need to look around, maybe they stumbled upon something they weren't supposed to."

"You think the villagers might be trying to cover something up."

"I'm not sure, but I'm not ruling anything out. A lot of shady business can take place in frontier towns since they're far away from any real police force. I should know, my dad assists with the village patrol back in my hometown and they had to deal with more than a few troublemakers." Jaune stopped for a moment to think. "Alright, you go investigate the town and look for anything suspicious. I'll stay here I try to get more information from Lily."

"You mean you're going to hit on her," Emerald said, her arms crossed.

"It's not like that."

"Sure, it's not."

"Just go, you have more street experience than me so you'll find your way around better."

"I don't think being homeless and combing a village for its secrets are connected skills."

"Just do it. You're the one who wanted to come along. It's time for you to put some work in."

"Fine," Emerald said getting up and heading for the door, "just try to get something more than her three sizes and the color of her underwear."

She didn't get to see what Jaune threw at her as the front door swung close.

The layout of the town was a complete mess with no central planning whatsoever. In a very rough sense the village was divide into four sections: the open-air market, the local shops, the residential sector and the lumber yard. Since the lumber yard was the only place of any significance in the whole village, Emerald started her investigation there. She didn't know what she was looking for, but she did know that it was too damn hot to be looking for anything. Seriously, it was like the temperature had jumped ten degrees when they got here. She didn't know how Jaune wasn't passing out from wearing his stupid sweatshirt. Did he seriously not realize how dumb he looked with that ginormous bunny plastered on the front? She wouldn't have touch that affront to style even when she had been living in rags.

Emerald took a deep breath. No point in getting worked up over her partner. The heat was just getting to her.

Emerald didn't know the policy on visiting the lumber yard, so she opted to lay low and sneak in. The place was exactly like she expected with logs stacked up everywhere, a number of small buildings, sheds and more than he few burly men walking around, both human and faunus. Even if it was board daylight, with the sun still high in the sky, there was plenty of cover for Emerald to hide behind, so she wasn't too worried about being caught.

She poked around and eavesdropped on people's conversations, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. As far as Emerald could tell, this was a perfectly normal place. There was the constant roar of machinery and workers complaining about the heat and the long hours. Still, she didn't want to leave empty handed. Even if it only had the barest hit of strangeness, she wanted to bring something back just to prove she had done something.

Emerald ducked behind a pile of logs as a group of men walked by.

"I'm telling you something shady is going on with the boss.

"Would you put a sock in it. I'm tired of hearing your stupid theories."

"It's not stupid. The boss has been acting really strange lately."

"What he means to say is that the foreman is acting like he has a life outside the job, but I guess you wouldn't know anything about that. When was the last time you went out with us, junior year?" There was a roar of laughter.

"Fine, where do you think he disappears to so often?"

"I don't know. Just because you don't know his whereabouts every second of everyday doesn't mean he's disappeared."

"Then what do you make of his nightly outings. I've seen him sneaking around in the dark likes he's got a secret to hide, and I bet a million lien that his wife doesn't know about it."

"If I was married to that women, I wouldn't tell her where I was going either. The poor guy probably just wants to go to a bar without being nagged by her."

"I think he's selling drugs."

"Are you serious? You think Mr. Palm will be able to hit you up. Why would he even need to do that. He's the best paid person in Bury. He doesn't need an illegal side business. "

"Then where do you supposed all those kids are getting their weed from?"

"From one of the merchants, obviously. My money is on the spice trader. No way that smell is naturally that strong. She must be using it to hide the smell of something else."

The group slowly walked out of earshot. Their passing conversation could hardly be considered a lead, but it was all Emerald had. It was probably a good idea to investigate the foreman anyways.

It only took a few minutes for Emerald to find and break into the foreman's office. It wasn't like this place had any real security so it wasn't exactly hard. The entire office was just a single building about the size of Jaune's apartment. There weren't any amenities which Emerald guessed was fair since it wasn't like anyone actually lived here. It was mostly just a storage locker with a desk and a fan, and Oum was the foreman using every inch. The place was cluttered with stacks of paper, binders and books. Emerald had to be careful not to trip over anything and cause an avalanche as she walked to the desk.

More papers littered the desk with most being request of export and pay calculators for employees. Just a bunch of daily management stuff. Then there were two drawers on the side of the desk. The top one was locked, but it only took Emerald a few second to pick it. Surprisingly, the top drawer held a handgun and an entire box of ammo. Even stranger was how shinny and clean it was, telling Emerald it hadn't been bought too long ago. It didn't look like it had even been fired. What could have spooked the foreman enough to get him to purchase a gun? Also, keeping it in his office instead of his house or carrying it with him? Did he expect to need the defense here? Could he really be drug dealer?

Emerald shut the drawer without touching anything. It wouldn't help to increase his paranoia, and ultimately, his reasons for buying a weapon had nothing to do with them, unless he had bought it to deal with some unnatural creature, but Emerald doubted it.

The bottom drawer was unlocked although it obviously wasn't intended to be. Looks like Emerald wasn't the only person interested in the foreman. Someone had smashed the bottom drawer lock instead of subtly picking it. This drawer contained papers too important to risk being lost to the endless piles outside. It was stuff like insurance and contracts. There was also one large book, that Emerald pulled out.

It turned out to be the company leger. Some of the pages had tears on the side like someone had squeezed too hard and ripped a part of the page out. Even with her lack of knowledge on accounting or financial statements, there were a few things that jumped out. Once or twice every week the foreman recorded an expense of exactly 83.79 lien. The fact it was label addition expense while everything else was given a specific reason made it pretty obvious that the foreman was buying something personal.

So, the foreman was stealing money from the lumber yard. Interesting but once aging not what she was looking for. Emerald hoped Jaune was having better luck than her.

"So, you really run this place all by yourself?" Jaune asked Lily while they sat by the warmth of the fireplace.

"I've told you that my mom's the one who really runs the place," Lili giggled. "I just help her out. This place isn't that big and it never gets really busy so the two of us are enough to keep it running."

"Still that's amazing. You're only a little older than me and already carry so much responsibly."

"I'm not that great. I was just born into this role. I didn't do anything to deserve it unlike you who carved their own path and became a huntsman. I'm jealous."

"Didn't my partner already spill the beans? I'm not actually a huntsman. Apparently, I wasn't cut out for it." That's what Beacon and his dad had told him, hadn't they? No place for dreamers or hard work. You were either born with the skills of a huntsmen or you weren't. "Do you want to be a huntress?"

"No, not that," Lily replied leaning her elbow on the table, "but I want something more than this. Here, you only have two choices. You either work at the lumber yard or become a shopkeeper. There's nothing else. I'm going to be stuck running this inn until I die and pass it onto my child just like my mother's going to do to me and just like her mother did to her."

Jaune could relate. He had left his hometown for similar reasons. What he was looking for just wasn't there. It must have been even worse for Lily since her village was a lot smaller than his and she didn't have a huge number of siblings to make sure that your life never got stagnate. "You want to go to Vale?"

"I do," Lily said quietly like it was a taboo, "but there's no way my mom would allow it, and we don't have enough money for me to live in Vale even if she did."

"I probably shouldn't be the one to say this since it's still not quite working out for me, but sometimes you've just got to listen to yourself instead of everyone else. If you really want to go see Vale, you should despite what the consequences may be. The worst that can happen is that you'll have to come back. Opposed to me where the worst-case scenario was getting devoured by a grimm on the first day of Beacon, or getting arrested for trying to get in by not too legitimate means, or getting my new friends killed because I was too weak to fight properly. Now that I think about it, there was really only one situation where I got in and my life didn't end in disaster. Maybe I dodged a bullet by getting rejected."

Lily mood lit up after hearing that and they both shared a laugh. "When you put it like that, it does sound like I have it way easier, but even so, I just don't have the courage you do. I don't think I could just dropped everything and go especially since my mom would be on her own."

"I'm not saying you should," Jaune reassured her, not wanting to make it seem like he was trying to convince her to abandon this life. "What you call courage is what everyone else in my family calls idiotic and they're probably right. I left with only the barest of plans. I had thought about it for a long time, of course, but that didn't include the actual execution or backup in case anything went wrong, which it certainly did."

"Do you regret it?"

"I'll put it this way, every day I thought about leaving and didn't I regret more."

Lily took a moment to think about that, her eyes closing and a dream like expression appearing on her face. "You know despite everything I say, I love this town. It's quiet and peaceful and all my friends are here. I could easily imagine myself happily spending the rest of my life here but…"

"But something's drawing you elsewhere," Jaune finished. "I know the feeling."

"More like something's pushing me away." Lily hesitated to say any more, but seeing that Jaune wasn't going to say anything, she continued. "The truth is the inn isn't doing that well. Even with the small scale and no real employees, Bury just isn't popular enough to have it. Most people just camp outside the walls instead of spending money on a room."

"I guess, Emerald and I aren't really helping with that."

"No, don't worry about that it's not like I'll lose any money by housing you. The cost would be the same either way and this way I have someone to talk to. It just disheartening to put your all into something and see it wasting away because of things you can't control. I want to work hard. I want to help as many people as possible, but Bury just isn't big enough for it."

Jaune felt for Lily. It was exactly what he had gone through. How many times did his dad tell him to drop his dream of becoming a hero? How many times had he nearly listen only to come back the next day vowing to achieve his dream until the day finally came were he made good on that promise. Jaune Arc was stubborn, and possibly a little screwed up in the head, for leaving everything behind to chase a career that would likely get him killed, and then take up a, arguably, more dangerous path when he hit a roadblock that couldn't be overcome with sheer will. "Well, maybe one day you can make it big enough. The nice thing about dreams is they never go away as long as you chase them."

"So, that's what I figured out. What did you discover on your end?"

Emerald and Jaune were in there two bed room, graciously given to them by, discussing the progress of the day.

"Well I discover more about myself," Jaune replied, not able to look at Emerald. "Bury also apparently has a killer ice cream shop."

"You just talked to Lily all day, didn't you?" Emerald said not at all surprised. Seriously Jaune was just too childish sometimes.

"Don't get all high and mighty with me! You talked a lot, but in the end, you didn't find anything either."

"At least I was looking."

"Doesn't matter this is about results not effort."

Emerald gave a blank look. "Alright then oh wise one. What do you suggest we do?"

"We spend the night here and, in the morning, we go back to Vale because unbelievably this really dose just seem like a normal town."

"Because you're such a good judge from all your time coped up in this inn."

"I'm open to any counter evidence," Jaune suggested. Emerald kept her mouth shut. "As I thought. Tomorrow we go back home and report that the town is absolutely fine and something else must have caused the huntsmen to disappear. Now if you'll excuses me, it's been a long day and I get to sleep in an actual bed tonight."

"You're telling me. It feels like this day has gone on forever," Emerald said lazily getting in her own bed.

Jaune felt like his head only just hit the pillow, but he must have been asleep for a while because it was completely dark out when he woke up. He must have slept with his mouth opened because his throat felt like a desert, and now he desperately needed a glass of water.

Reluctantly throwing the sheets off, Jaune got out of bed and opened the door to the hallway. There was a sink in their room but no cups, so Jaune would have to go all the way downstairs to get one. He was already dreading the journey.

One step at a time he made his way to the lower level. Instead of the roaring fireplace, the room was lit up with the rays of the moon. There was a water cooler by the breakfast buffet table and Jaune half tripped over himself to get there. His tired mind tried to work through the process of getting a glass of water. Alright, hand holds cup like this. Water goes in the cup by pressing down on this. Now don't miss your mouth.

Jaune, maneuvering through the mental gymnastics, managed to get the cold liquid down his throat. It was a relief and help to wake him up a little. Now his vision was a little more than blurry colors. He could actually make out general shapes enabling him to pinpoint the stairs back to his room.

Walking like a normal human, he had just passed the counter when he stepped in something wet. Damn, did I just spill my water? Jaune looked down at the floor to see how much of a mess he made only to see a pool much larger than his cup could have made. The color also wasn't right, and it felt stickier than it should have. Jaune forced his sleep deprived mind to bring focus back to his vision, and what he saw jolted him awake.

Behind the reception counter, face up in a pool of her own blood, neck sliced open, was Lily's corpse.

Jaune screamed.

Excerpt from the book

Magic exists in two basic forms; internal and external. Humans, with the expectation of some very special people known as wizards (in my opinion they shouldn't be considered human), can't use internal magic. Humans simply don't have the capability to do so. We must relay solely on the external word for our tricks and traps. While there is no explicit practical differences between the two forms there is a big applicational difference. External magic must always be cast through a filter or lens. Internal magic can be cast by the user themselves without any need for outside tools. Both types have their advantages and disadvantages. Internal magic is far easier to use, which is why creatures who can use it are more dangerous than those who can't. The downside is that unlike external magic, which can be used indefinitely as long as the environment can support it, internal magic will eventually run out. The three wizards, once a dominate force on Remnant, are now mere shells of their former glory. Sadly, trying to run an internal magic user dry is unfeasible. The wizards' reserves lasted thousands of years, and they could very much be on the lower end. Also, an internal magic user always has the ability to use external magic as well, although it must be quite hard for them since only one of the wizards was able to make an effective switch. The other simply banished himself to solitude (possibly dead) after his final curse, and the other integrated himself into regular society determined to destroy his foe not matter the cost.

An: I'm curious to see what kind of predictions I'll get from this chapter as to what is actually going on in Bury? I left a couple hints so we'll see what people think.

Fun fact, in the original draft for this chapter, back when I was doing fourth wall breaks, there was going to be a moment where Janae demanded to know why Emerald was so nice to Cinder in Cannon and so mean to him, leading Emerald to be very confused. I thought it was going to be a really funny scene and you don't know how much restraint it took me to not put it in, but I'm mentioning here so we'll call it even.