Jaune had wondered if he should tell Rufus about his new position when he reached the plaza but thought better of it. He could tell him later, they looked busy with their customers anyway.
He noticed something weird as he walked past them, there only five people here to buy stuff.
They had arrived here early in the day so people might be busy, but there should be more people than this. A trade caravan didn't come often all the way out here. Rufus had said there were only two other caravans that travelled through this region and there would be months until they came.
It would be something to ask about later, he had to focus so he wouldn't end up lost. He took a left turn and was now in full view of the mountain that the village had been built against. Jaune hadn't focused on it much because of the excitement he felt of a new place, but he gave it a brief look as down.
A lot of villages would usually settle near a mountain. A mountain had a good chance to contain valuable resources. It also made it so that they only needed to defend from three sides and a sturdy bunker could be mined out. It was good that the place he was now in charge of had a good chance to survive an attack. The wooden wall worried him a little since his home had a stone wall and he didn't see any machineguns mounted on the wall.
It wasn't long until he reached a building that was as large as Jaune had imagined.
The inn was often considered one of the most important places in a village as small as this. It functioned as a place to sleep, but also as a place where people could wind down and relax. Food and alcohol would be served, it was a great deterrent against the Grimm.
After all, a good inn was one that always made sure their customers left in a good mood.
Jaune walked inn and he could tell that this inn was one that followed that idea. He could hear a catchy tune from a piano mixed with laughter and cheers from the people that were already there. Jaune wondered what the song was, but the smell of delicious food reminded him about why he was here and himself a seat at the counter.
The man who came to serve him was the classic image of an innkeeper. He had a muscular build with a bald head and a powerful beard. There was a glass in his hands that was clearly clean, but he continued to clean it with a cloth.
The apron he wore had the description, 'Please compliment the chef
"What would you like to order?" A wide, friendly smile greeted Jaune, the cheerful tone he used made Jaune smile in response.
"Something filling, I haven't eaten for hours." Jaune almost forgot. "And I was told to tell you to put in on Slate's tab."
"Slate you say." He put the glass down and stretched out his hand. "That must mean you're new here, Slate only does that for newcomers and I'm sure I haven't seen you before. You can call me Innkeeper, people use that name more than my real one these days."
"Yep," Jaune shook his hand, the man had a gentler grip than one would expect. "Arrived here less than an hour ago with the trade caravan."
"They're already here? I will have to make sure to buy what I need before I leave." He rubbed his hands together in anticipation and went into a room in the back, Jaune guessed it was the kitchen. "A vegetable stew should fill you right up and no need to worry about the cost, this one's on me."
Jaune turned around in his stool so he could enjoy the music better, it would take some time before the Innkeeper was done with his meal. A waiter came up to him with a glass of water, one that Jaune thanked for, the cold water felt good as it went down. Jaune leaned against the counter and simply enjoyed the mood.
The Innkeeper came with a bowl after a couple of minutes and filled up his glass with more water.
"Here you go, enjoy your meal." He went straight back to the same glass he had put down before, started to clean it once again.
The innkeeper back home would do the same thing, maybe it's part of the job?
Jaune took his first spoonful of the stew, then instantly took a second, then a third and he didn't slow down until he was halfway through. The soup was so good, and a familiar aftertaste that he couldn't quite place made it even better. It had to be the spice he used and Jaune really wished he remembered when he last ate something similar. The Innkeeper looked satisfied as Jaune drank some water before he would get back to the meal.
"You must have been hungrier than I thought, I'm starting to wonder if you'll need a second bowl at this rate." The Innkeeper looked towards the door and frowned. "I had hoped they wouldn't come in today."
Jaune wondered who 'they' were and looked toward the door as well. What kind of group made a man like the Innkeeper mood worsen so suddenly? At first glance, the group didn't seem too bad.
They were miners and must have come out straight from the mines with how dirty they were. The group had five people in it and they didn't seem violent, they looked more exhausted than ready to cause any trouble. Jaune hoped that the Innkeeper didn't have a problem with their obvious Faunus features.
"Why can't they keep themselves to their own part of the village. Faunus are more trouble than their worth sometimes." Jaune was disappointed that the Innkeeper felt that way about the Faunus.
Jaune had met racists before, but he had hoped it wouldn't be as obvious all the way out here. He would always be surprised when a person with a friendly face would suddenly glare at a Faunus who passed by. It made it impossible to think that only bad people could be racist.
"Hmm." Jaune only hummed as an answer, it was better to act cautiously until he knew how much of a problem it was around here.
He had just arrived so this was hopefully something that rarely happened.
"I would advice you to stay away from the animals." The Innkeeper leaned and spoke in a hushed voice. "I saw that one of them had a White Fang tattoo a couple of months ago, the one with the wolf ears."
Jaune spotted the one he talked about, he had grey hair and one of his wolf ears was maimed. The man looked like he had seen much in his life and had scars with a large one that went diagonally over his face.
"A White Fang tattoo, I didn't know they did that." Jaune didn't know too much since they had never gone to his village, but he knew they were peaceful protestor turned violent terrorists. People who fought for Faunus right with violence and were responsible for a lot of deaths.
A waiter had given them some drinks, the waiter looked afraid as he dealt them out and hurried to another table. They took the drinks and made to leave, Jaune could understand why. The music had stopped ever since they walked in and the other customers didn't help, they weren't subtle with their glances.
"Who knows why terrorists do what they do, I can't bar them from the inn without fearing an attack from the White Fang." He sighed. "But I know what the symbol looks, it had that vicious animal head and a circle around it."
A circle?
Why would someone else have the old symbol of the White Fang as a tattoo? The only one that had something similar was his mom and she never told him why she would have that when he asked. The Innkeeper turned to another customer before he could ask if he was sure.
Jaune decided to ask the person with it directly.
He finished the stew, complimented the chef for the delicious food and ran after the miners. They hadn't gone too far, one of them saw him and alerted the rest of the group. The man Jaune wanted to talk was the one that stopped while the rest went on to wherever they were headed.
"What seems to be the problem." The man looked at him suspiciously. "Actually, I don't think I recognize. Are you new here?"
"Yes, arrived here today." Jaune decided to be as direct as possible. "Is it true that you have a tattoo of the old symbol of the White Fang?"
Was that too direct?
There was only silence after Jaune had asked the question and Jaune wondered what his reaction would be. Would the man laugh at him, threaten him to make sure he stayed quiet or just deny it. The deep sigh combined a facepalm was not a reaction Jaune expected.
"No wonder the guys at the inn had acted so strange." He sounded tired as he spoke. "Are you going to report me to the police or something?"
"No, I was just curious since my mom had the same tattoo. She would never tell me why she had it."
"Your mom had the same tattoo? Did it have any writing under it?"
Yeah, but I don't remember what it said exactly." The tattoo was on her back and it was written in Mistralian, he had to write down what he remembered and ask his teacher what it said. "We fight. To defend the weak and the-" That was how much he remembered
"Oppressed." The man continued. "For if we don't, who will?"
"She never told you what those words meant, did she?" Jaune shook his head, but the words he heard resonated him and made him wonder why his mom never told him. "That was the motto of the White Fang division that fought during the Faunus Rights Revolution, one that consisted of both Humans and Faunus."
"My mom fought in that war?" It would explain why she would sometimes go quiet when people talked about it. "I thought it was a war against humans and Faunus."
"No, plenty of Humans had something against their friends and family being forcibly deported. The White Fang division was a group that accepted humans that were willing to fight against the kingdom. What's your mother's name?"
"Her name is Juniper." The man broke into a smile at the mention of his mother's name. "You know her?"
"Know her?" He chuckled. "A woman like your mother isn't a person one easily forgets. Never thought Juniper 'Freedom' Dandelion would settle down. How is she doing these days?"
"Fin-" Jaune was interrupted by another miner that ran up to them. She, a lion Faunus Jaune guessed with her sharp teeth and incisors that stuck out of her mouth, glared at Jaune. The two miners started a hushed discussion that ended quickly, the wolf-Faunus looked apologetic as he looked towards Jaune.
"Sorry about this kid, but there are some problems at the mines and they need the boss to take charge." He started to sprint towards the mines but called out to him in a voice that could clearly be heard over the distance. "Just come by the mines later for a talk, ask for Bazz when you get there."
Jaune stood there until they were out of view, it was a shame he couldn't hear any talk about his mom's past. He would make sure to remember to visit the mines later. As the new mayor, it would be one of his duties so he wouldn't even need to take a break from the job for the talk.
Slate had waited long enough at this point, it was time to see how much work the job as a mayor would need. It couldn't be too much for a small village like this, could it?
Jaune felt like he shouldn't have jinxed himself when he had made his way back to the office.
Slate stood next to the desk, but that wasn't what took his attention. It was the pile of paper on the desk that was almost as tall as Slate.
"There you are, was it a good meal?" Jaune wordlessly nodded still in shock about the number of papers Slate had gathered for him. "The stack of papers on your desk are the things that are the most urgent, if you have any questions then you have to only ask."
Jaune took a seat at his desk, careful not to jostle it so that the stack wouldn't collapse.
"I know that it might be a bit late to ask, but I never asked you what your name was. It's a bit tiring to refer to you as the mayor every time I think about you."
"Oh, it's Jaune Arc."
"Well then Jaune, if I can call you that." Jaune nodded. "Which task would you like to begin with first?"
"What do you think we should start with first?" Slate knew how out of his depth Jaune was, maybe Slate knew of something easier to start with.
"Well, the most pressing situation would have to be the sickness that's been going around."
"Sickness?" It would explain why there were so few at the plaza, were there that many sick?
"Yes, it been around for months and had led to twelve deaths and forty-three people are currently bedridden. It's not contagious, but we don't have any effective way to deal with it."
"Does the doctor know what it is?" Jaune wished they could start with something easier. The situation sounded too serious for him to ignore now that he knows about it.
"The doctor is one of the people who are bedridden and the former mayor refused to call for a second doctor, said it would cost too much." Slate spoke that sentence with uncharacteristic anger. Did he know one of the people who died?
"I see, then I will need to see this for myself. Could you take me to one of the patients, I have some medical training." Jaune had helped out at the clinic back home, maybe he could find some way to ease their pain.
This would be his first official act as the mayor, he was determined to not mess things up.
The story is divided into arcs and will introduce characters from cannon that will either stay or come back later as visitors. The first two arcs are the Sickness Arc and the Bandit Arc. Jaune will grow into the role as he learns about the village.
I hoped that answered the questions from the reviews.