Explanations for Menagerie and Prussian muskets at the end.
It was August 1st, 1898, and the sixteen-year-old Crown Prince Richard Wilhelm von Hohenzollern of the Prussian Empire was on board his personal ship, the König Klasse battleship SMS Kronprinz, with his fianceé Rubin Rose von Habsburg, a Prussian Faunus with three traits of a wolf, they were engaged due to an arranged marriage, but were happy in their newborn relationship. His best friend Johann von Arc was also accompanying them for the same purpose they were, his name had been changed to Jaune Arc. Richard had taken the last name of a brilliant navy captain he had met briefly, he was now Richard Raeder, and Rubin had simply translated her first name and done away with the von Habsburg, becoming Ruby Rose in order to obtain obscurity.
Richard had dirty blonde hair combed to his right, he had shining light blue eyes, and he wore the uniform of a Großadmiral. He had inherited his fathers' love of uniforms and the military. He was well built, slightly bulkier than a swimmer and was six feet two inches tall, just one inch taller than his friend Jaune. All in all, he was a very attractive young man worthy of the title Kronprinz des Preussischen Reiches.
Her parents, Summer Rose von Habsburg and Qrow Branwen von Habsburg, had close ties to the headmaster of Beacon Academy and had gotten the trio accepted into the school easily. So they were on their way there on board one of the fiercest battleships made by the expert shipbuilders at Wilhelmshaven, with a small escort of six Flottenwächters to the island of Patch, before heading to the city of Vale.
They would be staying at small castle within Forever Fall that had been built by the King of Vale as a gift to the Prussian royal family for their participation in the Great War, known as Herbst Castle.
All of them were very excited of course.
Ruby Rose, fianceé to the Crown Prince of the Prussian Empire, was latched onto her eventual husband, arms around him and legs wrapped around his waist. She giggled excitedly into his chest as he rubbed her wolf ears with one hand, and had his other arm underneath her tail, supporting her.
"Oh, I'm so excited!" She squealed into his chest.
"We get to go to Beacon and kill Grimm!"
"I know Ruby,"
"And my cousin Yang is going too!"
"I know Ruby,"
Ruby sighed happily as she was calmed by his ministrations to her canine ears.
"I love you,"
The Crown Prince smiled widely,
"I know Ruby," He gently kissed her forehead.
Johann, now Jaune, couldn't help but smile at the two.
"You two are adorable you know?"
The couple chuckled and giggled respectively,
"We know,"
Jaune sighed sadly, and set his hand on the family sword on his hip."I wish I had something like you two," He muttered.
"Don't worry Johann. There is no possible way that you won't find someone at Beacon."
Richard replied.
Ruby looked up, "Yeah! You'll find someone you like there! Maybe even two!"
Jaune smiled at his closest friends. "Thank you guys, and remember it's Jaune now that we're going to Vale."
"Ah yes, the assumed names we have adopted," Richard scowled.
He was very proud of his heritage and family name and was reluctant to adopt another one, even if it meant not having to worry about anyone attempting to harm him due to his name.
"Richie?" Ruby looked up from his chest to ask something.
"Yes, Rubes?"
"Can we please go up to the top deck? I want to get some fresh air,"
"Very well, Jaune you want to come along?"
Jaune shook his head, "No thank you, I think I'm going to take a nap before we arrive," He began to head to the luxurious guest quarters.
Richard walked out of the common room two decks below and called the elevator. There was a small ding as it arrived and the metal and the metal gate was opened by a young bellhop with mouse ears.
The bellhop saluted, "Which deck would you like to go to Eure Hoheit?"
Richard briefly took his hand off of Ruby's ears, earning him a sad whine, and saluted the bellhop back.
"Top deck please."
"Jawohl, Eure Hoheit."
"Danke schön."
So, they went to the wooden top deck, and when they got there Ruby got off of him and put her hands on the railing. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath of the fresh sea air. She sighed happily when Richard came up behind her, planted his chin between her ears and wrapped his arms around her waist.
Smoke belched out of the two smokestacks of the grand steel battleship as it cruised through the water at a smooth twenty knots towards the island of Patch before it was to head to the city of Vale and drop off its invaluable passengers to head to Herbst Castle. The large formidable ship was surrounded by six steel Flottenwächters of the Memel Klasse, each one with a smokestack pumping out black smoke of its own and armed specifically to combat seafaring Grimm. Five other ships of varying classes and armories were part of the escort as well.
It had been about ten years after the end of the Faunus War, when biologists in Atlas created a hybrid between Prussian tobacco and Vacuon tobacco they discovered that cigarettes and cigars made from this hybrid tobacco, named Ersatztabak, were ninety-three percent less addictive and completely harmless compared to all other types of tobacco, however, Ersatztabak failed to gain much popularity due to the significantly smaller effect of smoking this hybrid. Though it did gain popularity with teens in all of the five kingdoms.
While Ruby did not like Ersatztabak, Richard did and smoked it occasionally, his aura preventing what small amount of damage it could do. So, he took a large cigar out of his inner jacket pocket, put it in his mouth and lit it with a silver-plated flip lighter with a small Iron Cross on it. The smoke that puffed out of his mouth was quickly carried away by the strong breeze that they were subject to.
'I wonder what Beacon is like,' He thought. He had seen pictures of it of course. All of which were very grand photos and paintings depicting the massive castle-like majesty of Beacon, and he was very reluctant to admit that it was greater than even Hohenzollern Castle. Perhaps the inside was of similar architecture, after all, both were built around the same time. But the inside was unlikely to be as beautiful as the Stadtschloss, the Prussian Royal Palace and his home. Although he was going to begin living in the Kronprinzenpalais down the street from the Stadtschloss after he turned eighteen and returned from Beacon.
His thoughts were interrupted by Ruby pointing ahead of them, to the port side of the ship.
"Richie look!"
He looked up and saw the jagged fin of a shark-like Grimm called an Akheilos.
"Scheisse. Akheilos Grimmattacke!" He quickly yelled to a nearby crewman, who repeated the statement to others.
The Flottenwächters were quickly radioed and moved to engage the monster, the giant shark attempted to sink its sharp jagged teeth into the steel of one of the ships, but was shot with a large harpoon. The beast quickly dived underneath the water and the ship was forced to detach the harpoon from it.
The massive shark launched out of the water, attempting to land on top of an escorting Leichter Kreuzer in an effort to capsize it, but another harpoon knocked it off course and it landed next to the ship it intended to sink, who fired all of its guns at the demon, blowing much of its unprotected flesh off of it. The beast was dead within three minutes of engagement.
The Grimm looked formidable, but it had little bone armor and was easy to kill in a few good shots, its colossal cousin the Megalodon, however, was much more dangerous and intelligent, having much more armor and providing much more of a threat.
"That could have ended very badly,"
"Yup, but it didn't!"
Richard smiled, "No, it didn't,"
He wrapped his arms around Ruby and pressed his lips against hers. She hummed happily into it.
"Eure Hoheit, we are approaching the island of Patch." An officer had interrupted them. He broke off the simple kiss, "Very well, prepare Kreigsbrand for the trip."
"Jawohl." the officer saluted before walking briskly away. Kreigsbrand was his personal mount, a magnificent, large horse that was dark red with a mane and a tail that turned from black to light gray and had amber eyes that appeared to glow.
When he turned back to Ruby, she had an excited look on her face.
"Ooo! Can we go get some double chocolate chunk cookies at Opal's Bakery in town before we go to Yang's?"
"Sounds like a good idea to me." was the reply.
Ruby latched onto him again.
"Yay!"
She tilted her head up to peck his lips but was once again interrupted, although this time it was the loud horn of the ship announcing its presence to the port city of Patch, which was now in view.
"Matrose! Tell Johann that we will be arriving within the half hour." Richard ordered a nearby officer.
"Jawohl, Eure Hoheit."
He turned to Ruby, "Well, let's get ready to leave,"
As they did so, Jaune joined them, dressed in a black hoodie and jeans.
Richard raised his eyebrows as he saw him, and Ruby giggled.
"Is that a... cartoon rabbit on your chest?" Jaune gave them a glare.
"Hey! I'll have you know that this is very comfortable." He turned his nose up at them in faux poshness. His friends laughed.
"Sure it is Jaune," Ruby smirked.
"It is!" Jaune defended.
Richard chuckled"Well, I for one am not going to wear clothes like that, on Patch at least."
The other two looked at his Großadmiral uniform with blank looks.
"Okay, fine! I'll wear something a little more modest." He grumbled.
"But I am going to wear this while on Patch," he stated firmly.
Ruby sighed, "Alright, not many people outside the country know the faces of Prussian royalty anyway."
"But the uniform is flashy," Jaune stated.
Richard nodded, "It's supposed to be noticeable, but as long as we don't do anything suspicious and keep our assumed names, we should be fine."
The other two sighed but nodded as both the Kaiser and his son were difficult to sway, but he was right, you would have to know what the specific Prussian Großadmiral uniform looked like in order to tell he was anything other than some naval officer on leave from Atlas or Vale.
Finally, Ruby got tired of talking about clothes, "Can we go now, guys? I want my cookies and I wanna see Yang!" she pouted adorably, her ears flattening on top of her head and her tail wagging aggravatedly. Both of her companions blinked and looked over the side of the ship to find that it was anchored in the port already.
Jaune was the first to speak, "Ah, well, let's get down there then."
Sorry for the abrupt end, I feel like so inadequate for doing that, but every time I reread this it doesn't seem quite right and I'm not sure how to fix it.
But anyway, there was a review talking about how Prussian line infantry of the Napoleonic era would not do well against people with aura, along with a review on a similar subject regarding how gunpowder was not as powerful when a shot from a dust round could destroy a huge boulder.
Well, regarding the gunpowder, rifles do not fire gunpowder, as in, gunpowder does not fly out of the barrel towards the enemy, however, bullets do, and I stated earlier that a certain mix of steel from Prussia being made into musket balls could do more damage to aura than the average dust round. Dust rounds are obviously superior if you need their individual elemental abilities.
Regarding the line infantry, remember in the show when they talked about the Faunus War and all of the weapons stuck in the ground were swords and spears? Well, the Great War happened sixty years before that, and assuming that the standard way of attacking an enemy with swords and spears was charging towards them (as was the real-life strategy), then one or two volleys from organized line infantry would be like an absolutely colossal shotgun armed with bullets that do a little more damage to aura than dust ripping into a group of charging soldiers armed with fucking swords, especially if it was at close range. Then they would engage with bayonets and any possible swords or sidearms. There is a reason that America won the Indian wars you know, technological advantage. Besides, I placed heavy emphasis on cavalry for a reason.
Somebody also said that Menagerie didn't exist before the Great War, well I assume the reason that the Faunus were given the island is that there was already an amount of Faunus there already, and that pushing more Faunus to live there wouldn't be any skin off of the backs of humans. Menagerie is a pretty big island after all, one that could be good for colonizing. I also stated several times that the population of Menagerie was small, after the Great War it would probably swell quite a bit with all the Faunus to migrate there.
More on The Shift, the technological difference between Prussia and the other kingdoms, and a special project that started in Prussia due to The Shift.
Anyway, please review, it gives me the motivation to write for those that want it and helps me fix flaws or explain things that apparently weren't clear.
Please tell me if you think the chapter seems weird for you as well, and how I might fix it if it does.
So please, please, review.
Thank you, and God bless. - Bob Ross
Next chapter: 10/21/18 (hopefully)