Ruby happily munched on the cookies that Richie bought for her as they walked out of the bakery.
"Enjoy the cookies you two!" a young woman with light blue eyes and hair callout out after them.
Richie responded, "Thank you, Miss Opal! Have a nice day!"
Richard was dressed in the uniform of a Prussian Cuirassier. The light metal breastplate giving him the appearance of a huntsman-in-training. Ruby, of course, was wearing her red cloak, a black and red corset, and a black and red combat skirt.
The couple began walking toward where Kriegsbrand was hitched down the street. The port of Denim was less of a town and more of a district in the adjacent town of Patch, although Denim was more rustic than the busy port of Patch.
"Oh, I can't wait to see Yang's face when she sees us!" Ruby squealed excitedly.
Richie chuckled, "I'm sure that she'll be surprised when we walk up to the door and she thinks it's pizza or something." Ruby giggled at his statement.
They got to Kriegsbrand before they knew it and Richie swiftly mounted the heavily battle-scarred red horse. Ruby reached up and Richie lifted her up to sit behind him.
At that moment Jaune rode up on his own horse, a large white beast with red eyes named Krankheit.
"Are you guys ready to head over to Yang's?" he asked.
"That sounds good to us," Richie replied.
"How long do you think it will take to get there?" Ruby asked curiously.
Richard checked his watch, "Well, it's 2:30 now, we should be there by 3:00."
"Okay," and with that, Ruby snuggled into his back, sighing happily as she deeply inhaled his scent.
Jaune spoke up, "Alright, let's hit the road. Care for a race?"
Ruby's eyes lit up in excitement, "Oh, yes! That's a great idea!"
She hopped off Kriegsbrand and gave a shrill whistle with her fingers in her mouth. Seconds later, a grey horse with red eyes and a black tail and mane galloped up to them.
"Hey, Eroberung!" The little red reaper cooed as she walked up to her steed. "How are you boy?" She patted the horse's neck as she hopped on.
Richard spoke up, "Okay guys, line up!" His fiancee and friend trotted up next to him.
"Get set!" They all readied themselves.
"Go!"
And they were off. Ruby had an early lead, galloping ahead of her companions quickly.
But this lead quickly disappeared as Jaune slowly pulled ahead of her.
"Haha, Ruby! You gotta keep that burst of speed up you know!" He yelled as he passed her.
"No! You can't beat me!" Ruby whined as the Xiao Long household came into view.
Then, quite suddenly, there was the sound of a roaring flame, and Richard, aboard Kriegsbrand whose mane and tail had ignited in fire, sped past both of them leaving behind smoldering hoofprints.
"Hah! I win!" The Crown Prince yelled at them cockily as they cantered to him.
"That's cheating Rich!" Jaune called out to him.
"I never stated any rules! I just said go!"
Suddenly, a woman with luscious black hair and blood red eyes burst out of the front door of the house they had approached.
"What's all the racket out her-5" She froze as she saw them. "Ruby? Richard?" A wide smile appeared on her face and she quickly dashed back indoors.
"Ah, Scheisse."
Bits of splintered wood flew all over the grass and porch as a large yellow blur rocketed out of what was once the front door.
"RRRUUUBBBYYY!"
The adorable red reaper was tackled off of Eroberung by her cousin Yang Xiao Long.
"Hi... Yang...Please stop..." Ruby struggled to get out of the bear hug that her cousin had wrapped her in.
"I missed you so much, Rubes! What are you guys doing here?! I thought I wouldn't see you guys until Beacon starts?"
"Well, His Highness here thought it would be nice to stay at Herbst while waiting for initiation," Jaune said pointing his thumb at Richard.
"Oh Hell yeah! I'll go pack!" and with that, the Yellow vanished back into her house. She popped back out with a few suitcases seconds later.
"...Well, that was quick," was the highly intelligent response to come from the Prince's mouth.
"Yup!" Yang said popping the 'p'.
One hour later...
Once again on board the Kronprinz, the Royal passengers except Richard were chatting in the luxurious common room.
"Oh I'm so happy we'll be together in Beacon Rubes!" Yang said once again slowly squeezing the life out of her younger cousin.
"Yang, I think you should let Ruby go... her face is turning blue I think..."
"Oh, oops."
Ruby gasped and panted heavily as she was once again allowed to breath sweet, sweet air.
"Please stop doing that Yang, I nearly passed out there I think."
Yang sheepishly scratched the back of her head.
"Well, it's not my fault I'm happy to see my favorite cousin!"
Ruby sighed but gave her cousin a smile.
Suddenly, a voice came from down the hall, singing a song.
"Ich bin ein Preuße, kennt ihr meine Farben?
Die Fahne schwebt mir weiß und Schwarz vo- Ah, hello guys, the Captain tells me that we'll be in Vale by 4:30. So don't get terribly comfortable."
Jaune sighed, "Damnit, I was gonna take another nap."
"Don't worry Jaune, you can take a nap when we get to Herbst, unless you wanna Yang around a little longer." Yang laughed. Everyone groaned in response.
"You guys have no taste in humor!"
As the others talked away, Richard sat down on a nearby sofa, wrapped up in his thoughts.
'I hope Die Glocke Projekt is going nicely, God knows what could happen if any mistakes are made in its engineering.' He frowned, 'If Dr. Maxis and Dr. Richtofen can make it work, we could finally find out what's causing The Shift...' He was interrupted by his fiancee's lip suddenly pressing into his. His eyes widened, but he kissed back, enjoying the feeling of her soft lips on his.
"Get a room, guys! Jeez, it's not like you haven't seen each other in a long-ass time or something."
Ruby broke off the kiss, "You're just jealous that I have a hunk of a boyfriend and you don't Yang!" Ruby said back teasingly. Both Richard and Yang blushed, although for different reasons.
The sound of Jaune's snoring broke up whatever conversation they would have had.
"Why is he so tired? Jeez." Yang wondered aloud, her cheeks had lost most of their redness.
"Probably the motion sickness pills he took."
"Oh."
A Butler entered the room, "We will be arriving in Vale in ten minutes Eure Hoheit."
"Very well, get our mounts ready would you? Danke," The Butler bowed and left the room.
"Welp." Richard clapped his hands to wake Jaune up, "Let's get going."
Hello ladies and gents, sorry about the delay, but things happened where I'm staying, and we lost power for a week.
Then I had to do a lot of chores outdoors in the freezing cold because my family and I are staying at our vacation home in northern Canada for the next couple weeks, then we're gonna head back to boring New Jersey. Luckily I thrive in the cold, so it's been enjoyable for me, but the internet is kinda iffy up here so even without the power outage I would've had trouble writing and uploading.
My dad says that we're gonna upgrade our internet luckily, so that problem should be fixed a few days after we leave back to the good old US. But update times will not be weekly as I hoped, hopefully, I can keep it bi-weekly though.
On to the Review Replies!
BetterTitles: That would be funny, and while it won't happen in the story the Third Reich may very well appear.
Guest #1: You are right on those points for sure. But just because they have accents doesn't make them Royalty, if their disguised hold up that is.
leblos1: Thank you. Yang and her immediate family will keep their normal names because they live on Patch, instead of the Prussian Empire. (p.s. For German readers who are upset about the Empire being Prussian instead of German, don't worry, Wilhelm II intends to change that.)
Guest #2: There is no way the Germanic nations of the 1800's would give up traditional names for the names of colors, after all, there are only so many colors and there are enough unique 'normal' names. I also explained in the Prologue that Prussian Faunus usually have two to three traits instead of one.
Next chapter will be longer, I intend to increase chapter length to at least three-thousand wor