Chapter Two: Mistral
Mistral was well within sight of the Beacon Students. It was a magnificent city built vertically on twin peaks and at the very top sat Haven Academy. Like how Beacon's spires made it look like a fortress of the western fashion, Haven was a spectacular oriental bastion of safety and security for the people of the Kingdom. The city really made the term "Mistral wasn't built in a day" hit home, it truly did look the part of the capital of a once vast continent-spanning empire. In spite of conflict both ancient and recent, the city has persisted, it truly was eternal.
Ebony looked out the window and down upon the city, "Mistral… home sweet home."
After looking out over the city, she pulled out her scroll and swiped through her contacts till she came upon one with the name "Kim," and she hit the 'message' button.
"We'll be landing soon, you think you can make it up to Haven?" Ebony wrote in her message and then sent it.
Almost immediately a reply came, "I have some work to get done right now, but I'll be there as soon as I can babe."
Professor Haze stood at the front of the airship's cabin where the students were going about killing the last bit of time it would take to get to Haven Academy.
"Ahem, everyone listen up please," she said, gaining the near immediate attention of all the students. "There are a few things you need to know about our trip and how the tournament is going to work. Firstly, while on campus grounds you will be required to wear your uniform at most times, the exceptions being the obvious; sleeping, training, and so on… it's the same rules as Beacon. Also, if you venture into the city, try to stay in the upper and mid-levels, the lower down in the city you go, the less safe it gets. Next, this is for the Faunus students here…"
The first part of the statement caught Alyssa's attention, as she had only been halfway listening to her professor like she normally did. She knew the campus rules and she felt if she ventured into the lower areas of Mistral she could handle herself if she got into trouble.
"In recent years Mistral hasn't been kind to your people, so I urge you to remain with your teams or at the very least your partners at all times, and watch your surroundings extra carefully." she continued.
Alyssa shrugged off her professor's warning. While she had heard about the war between Humanity and the Faunus within Mistral she didn't think much of it as she felt it wouldn't really be a problem for her. However, her friend Yin nodded in acknowledgment of Professor Haze's warning, after all the Civil War was the very reason his family had fled the kingdom nearly eighteen years ago. Several of the other faunus students had worrisome looks on their faces, but they were consoled and reassured by their teammates.
"Finally, you should know that not all of you will be participating in the main Vytal Tournament," Professor Haze stated.
This statement caused an outcry among the students, many were surprised, and others felt deceived or even angry. It was clear that most of the students had never competed in the tournament before and weren't aware of how it worked.
Bianca turned to her teammates, they all looked upset and confused like the rest of the students. When she looked to Team AYST, she saw they were the same. However, when she looked to Team SSGE as well as the other fourth-year teams and some third-years as well, they didn't seem fazed by the news.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean!?" A voice shouted from the back of the airship cabin.
"Apollo please!" Nikolas scolded.
"Before you all decide to skin me alive, here me out," Professor Haze said with a bit of a nervous chuckle.
The commotion kicked up by the students died down for now, although some still didn't look happy. Many of them thought what was the point of selecting sixteen teams worth of students if not all of them would get the chance to participate in the Vytal Tournament?
"The sixteen teams that were selected by myself and the other combat professors were so because we believed you to be 'the best of the best.' However, in order to have the best chance of winning the Vytal Tournament you need to be 'the best of the best of the best.'" Professor Haze paused and looked around the cabin at the students, those who had been making a commotion then grew to understand why they were selected if they may not participate in the main tournament. They would need to prove themselves once more if they were to participate.
"With that being said, qualifying matches will be held over the next two weeks among the teams here. From there, the top eight will earn spots in the Vytal Tournament. Just know that the students from Atlas and Shade will be doing the same," Professor Haze continued.
Professor Haze noticed a raised hand in the back of the cabin as she finished informing the students of the impending qualifying rounds of the tournament.
"Yes, Tawney, you have a question?" Professor Haze inquired.
"Yea, you said Atlas and Shade will also be conducting qualifiers at the same time as us. I was wondering, what about Haven?" Tawney Brown asked as she stood from her seat.
"Since Haven is hosting the event, I'm sure they've already conducted their qualifiers and selected their eight teams," Professor Haze replied.
With her inquiry answered, Tawney sat back down in her seat accepting the answer she had been given. It made sense to her and most everyone else that Mistral would have already conducted their qualifiers for the tournament in order to get a leg up on the competition.
"Well that's certainly an interesting development," Cyrus remarked to his teammates.
"Mhmm," Lucas replied in his characteristic nonchalant tone. The rest of his team chuckled lightly at his blasé response.
The airship made its landing approach towards Haven's docks. After the ship landed the door was opened and the students gathered their things and headed out. With suitcases in hand, backpacks strapped, and weapons holstered, the students entered Haven Academy with their professor following closely behind. The academy had magnificent pagoda style buildings and towers, even its CCT Tower was built in the style.
Waiting for the Beacon students at the docks were four individuals dressed in the Haven Academy uniform; a black jacket with a light gray outline around the edges, a white undershirt and a white band around the student's left arm. While the male uniform has black trousers, the female uniform has a black and gray checkered skirt. The first was a tiger faunus girl with red hair and what appeared to be tiger-stripe tattoos on her neck and hands, that seemed to continue further under her uniform. However, the most notable thing about her was that she possessed the rare trait of silver eyes.
"Welcome to Haven Academy, my name is Sierra Nahla, the leader of Team SLVR (Silver)," she and her teammates bowed with a fist-palm salute. "As fourth-year students, Professor Vasilias requested that my team and I show you to where you'll be staying during your time here."
One by one each of her teammates stepped forward to introduce themselves. First it was a large dark-skinned man with a frohawk, he was slightly taller than Cyrus and a bit bigger build wise as well. "Russell Zeffre-Aero, it's a pleasure to meet you all," he said.
The next was a jerboa faunus girl with medium length blue hair, matching jerboa ears, and a fanny pack on the front of her waist. "My name's Violet Blu, welcome to our academy."
The final member of Sierra's team to introduce themselves was a boy who looked like Lucas' Mistralese doppelganger. Height and build wise they were nearly identical, and they also possessed the same messy haircut, albeit this boy's hair was black, not gray. "Name's Luke Taiji, I am pleased to meet all of you," he bowed.
Professor Haze was back at the exit of the airship making sure all the students got off. As the last of them exited the ship, she walked to the front of her group of students, taking a quick drink from her calabash as she did so.
"Ember?" Someone called out her name.
Professor Haze looked in the direction of the voice and her eyes landed on Sierra and the rest of Team SLVR. She chuckled while capping her calabash and affixing it to her belt.
"It is you, what'd you get held back two years?" Sierra asked sarcastically.
"Nah, I'm a professor now," she replied.
"You, a professor? I never could've pictured it," Sierra replied.
"The check was fat," Ember joked.
The two women walked up to one another and greeted each other with a forearm handshake and a smile.
"It's been too long," Sierra said.
"Two years, right? 51st Vytal Festival if I'm not mistaken?" Ember inquired.
"Yup, that final match was a tough one. You up for a rematch sometime?" Sierra asked.
"Maybe," Ember smiled.
"Anyway, lets catch up later, my team and I have to train, and we still haven't shown you to your rooms," Sierra said.
Ember nodded with a small smile and motioned for her students to follow Team SLVR and herself.
Haven Academy was smaller than Beacon area wise, considering it was built on the top of a mountain, but it seemed like there were just as many people and buildings stuffed into this small space. At Beacon it would take about ten to fifteen minutes to walk from the docks to the dorms and vice versa, but it only took the students and their escorts around eight or so minutes to reach the dorms they were staying in at Haven.
"Alright, this is where you'll be staying," Sierra turned to face the Beacon students. "Your rooms will be labeled with your team names, as for you Ember, you'll have a room to yourself. It'll be labeled as well," she continued.
"What are we supposed to do with our weapons and gear?" A student asked.
"You may keep them in your rooms for the duration of your stay, you may not however carry them while on campus unless you are headed to Combat Class or a Tournament Match," Russell said.
"Well, that answers that, let's get settled," Alyssa threw her gold and black duffle bag over her shoulder and strode into the dormitory.
The dormitory the students would be staying in wasn't as new as most others, but it was well maintained. The interior matched the exterior in its oriental stylings with its rounded entranceways and beautiful carved statues. Through a rice paper doorway was a rec room equipped in much the same manner as the one the students from Beacon had in their dormitories; arcades and game consoles, couches and lounge chairs around holo-TVs, and various table games like billiards and foosball.
"Please make yourselves at home, someone will deliver your class schedules later today," Sierra said.
"Remember, we're guests representing our academy so don't tear the place up," Ember stated.
The various teams made their way through the building looking for their rooms. Team SSGE's dorm was located on the first floor while Teams BLAC and AYST eventually found their rooms on the top floor of the dormitory.
Their rooms were located next to one another rather than across the hall from each other. However, just across the hall from Team AYST's dorm was Team STON's. Back at Beacon Team STON was housed in a completely different dormitory all the way on the other side of campus. While Teams BLAC and AYST didn't mind Tawney or Nikolas, in fact they actually liked them and considered them friends, neither team could stand Apollo or Oliver. Being situated across the hall from Team STON was bittersweet to say the least.
Alyssa opened the sliding rice paper door and her team entered the room they would be staying in for the next month and a half. The room was slightly larger than their old one back at Beacon. However, it lacked a few things of their old dorm; they no longer had their own bathroom and there was slightly less storage space, but the beds had drawers built into the bottom like their bunks back at Beacon. Also, unlike their dorm back at Beacon, it only had small wall mounted shelves for the storage of books, as opposed to the long multiple level bookshelf between their normal bunks.
"Hmm, no bunk beds," Lucas said as he looked upon the four single beds arrayed along the back wall of the room.
"You think we can jerry-rig some?" Cyrus asked.
"With what, books and rope?" Lucas asked condescendingly.
Cyrus just stared at his brother with an annoyed look that said, "don't patronize me."
"Well, let's get unpacked," Bianca said.
Getting unpacked here wouldn't take as long as it did when Team BLAC did so at Beacon. Since they were only going to be here for a little over a month they didn't bring all that many items, only the essentials and a handful of other things like a few books, games, and such.
After getting unpacked, Bianca grabbed the book she had been reading. However, as she was about to pick up where she left off she felt her stomach growl.
"Is anyone else hungry?" Bianca placed her hand on her stomach.
"I could go for something to eat," Lucas replied.
"Same," Alyssa stated.
"Alright, well, let's head out," Bianca stood from her bed.
As most of Team BLAC was making their way to the door, Lucas noticed that his brother was not with them.
"Hey bro, you coming? Cyrus?" Lucas looked to his brother.
In the few minutes between getting unpacked and the rest of the team deciding to go get something to eat, Cyrus had dozed off on his bed.
"Huh? What? What's going on?" Cyrus jumped.
Lucas snickered, "come on, we're going out to eat."
"Food? Hold up, I'm coming," Cyrus pulled himself out of bed.
"If there's one thing that can wake you're brother up, it's food," Alyssa giggled.
"You guys wanna hit the cafeteria or go into town?" Bianca asked.
"Town," her teammates replied in unison.
"We should see if Eb knows any good places," Alyssa said.
"Sounds like a plan," Cyrus replied.
Team BLAC left their dorm and walked over to Team AYSTs to see if they wanted to come along and if Ebony knew any good places to eat. But, when Lucas knocked on the door there was no answer from their friends.
"Huh, they must've left," Lucas said.
"We'll manage," Alyssa shrugged.
Team BLAC left the dormitory and began to walk through Haven's campus. There were many students from all the academies checking out the campus. The highly regimented students from Atlas already had their gray and white uniforms on and looked very serious, while the students from Beacon and Vacuo were hanging around and having a good time.
The way Haven was built, someone could quickly and easily reach the city by walking, whereas at Beacon, it required a Bullhead to reach the city from the academy.
As Team BLAC continued to make their way through the academy and towards town, they passed by the students that had escorted them to their dormitory, Team SLVR.
All four were standing next to one another under a cherry blossom tree, and were dressed in martial arts Gis. They were moving around in circular fluid motions, like leaves in the wind, not once coming into contact with one another. After a few of these fluid motions they would all stomp the ground and punch the air in perfect unison.
"I wish we had that kind of coordination," Bianca said.
"We'll get there eventually B, they're fourth-years so they've had more than enough time to get comfortable fighting around one another," Alyssa stated.
"Yea, we've definitely got room to grow. As long as we keep working together we'll be fine and especially if we stand behind our fearless leader," Cyrus patted Bianca on the back.
"Heh heh, yeah…" Bianca hesitated.
"Oh, that reminds me!" Cyrus exclaimed, "we should come up with team attacks."
"Team attacks?" His teammates questioned.
"You know, like double teams," he stated.
"Oh, so you mean where two of us attack an opponent then?" Alyssa inquired.
"Exactly," Cyrus pointed his hands.
"Okay… what did you have in mind then?" Bianca asked.
"Alright. So, I got the idea back during our combat midterm after Lucas hit Bianca with his speed glyph, I haven't quite figured out most of them other than Lucas and Bianca's though," Cyrus said.
"So, what's ours then?" Lucas asked.
"It's basically what you guys did in the combat midterm, you hit Bianca with your speed glyph, then while she's slashing her opponent to ribbons, you shoot them with your bow," Cyrus stated.
"It sounds like it could work," Bianca stated.
"I mean the speed glyph part worked against Roy, it completely negated his semblance," Lucas said.
"I'm in on the idea," Alyssa jumped in.
"Agreed," Lucas added.
"We should come up with names for them, so we know what to do quickly," Bianca said.
"Time is always of the essence in a fight," Lucas stated.
Team BLAC continued on their journey to fill their bellies while they discussed more about their new potential team attacks. While they talked they eventually found their way into town. The area of Mistral just outside the Academy was ritzy, and in the Grey Brother's experiences, and opinions, the best food was mostly found in less affluent areas.
The people of the upper districts seemed a bit snobby and not concerned with the lives of the common people, albeit not as much as those in Atlas. As Team BLAC headed down the districts of Mistral the people appeared less and less affluent as was expected. They eventually reached the middle districts. This area reminded them of downtown Vale; the bustling streets and markets, the street performers, and above all else, the smell of the local cuisine.
"So, let's say we hit up one of the street vendors," Cyrus said.
"Eh, I kinda wanna sit down and eat some place," Lucas objected.
"Same," Alyssa replied.
Bianca scanned the surrounding area for a sit-down restaurant of which surprisingly there weren't many. However, after a few moments her eyes landed on one.
"Hey, what about that place? Hong's House of Ramen and Sushi." Bianca pointed to the restaurant.
"Sushi? Heck yes!" Alyssa exclaimed.
After a moment of looking over the building, Bianca noticed a sign on the wall. However, before she could say something, her cousin took off in a fast jog towards the restaurant. Lucas and Cyrus noticed it as well, but there was little either of the brothers could do.
"Alyssa wait!" Bianca called out, but to no avail.
Alyssa ceased her jog and opened the door to the restaurant and a bell dinged as it opened, she next sensed a young woman kneeling behind a podium, most likely the hostess of the establishment.
"Sorry, just one moment, I dropped something," she stood, "welcome to Hong's House of Ramen and Su…shi," her voice trailed off as she saw Alyssa.
"Hello, I'd like a table for four please," Alyssa smiled.
"Um… I'm sorry ma'am, b…but we're full at the m…moment," the girl stuttered.
Alyssa's cat ears twitched as she sensed several open tables, most with plenty of room to accommodate her team and herself.
"What about that one?" she pointed to an open booth.
The hostess was taken by surprise by Alyssa's action. She had noticed Alyssa's eyes and she figured she was blind, an assumption she was right about, but she hadn't figured this girl could sense things.
"Uh… I'm sorry, I'll be right back," the girl hurried off.
"Huh, weird," Alyssa said.
The rest of Team BLAC entered the restaurant and quickly rushed up to their faunus teammate.
"Alyssa, we should go, now," Lucas grabbed her arm.
"What's the big deal? Is there something on my face or something?" Alyssa asked.
Alyssa's cat ears twitched as she overheard a conversation between the hostess and someone else, possibly the manager or owner.
"Um, Mr. Hong, sir…" the hostess said.
"Yes, what is it?" The man inquired.
"There's this person, at the front, I… I need some help with it," the hostess said timidly.
"Oh god, it's not the Yakuza is it?" The man asked frantically.
"No, it's a girl… a faunus girl," she said.
"Ugh, filthy animals, can she not read or something?" The man inquired.
"That's just it, I think she may be blind," the girl stated.
"Alright… since it's only your second day, I won't make you do this," the man said.
The hostess came back out to the front of the restaurant where Team BLAC was standing, she was escorted by an older Mistralese gentleman. He was short, even more so than Bianca. He had a stern look about his face when he arrived to see Alyssa and her teammates.
"I'm going to have to ask the four of you to leave please," he said sternly.
"Of course, right away," Bianca tugged on Alyssa's coat and attempted to leave.
"Wait, what? What did we do, we just walked in here?" Alyssa questioned.
"Alyssa, shush and come on, you're making a scene," Cyrus said.
"Don't shush me," Alyssa turned to her teammate and then back to the man, "excuse me sir, there has obviously been some misunderstanding here, you see my friends and I aren't from here, all we want to do is get something to eat."
The man chuckled, "there's your problem. You see, my establishment doesn't serve cat food."
Alyssa looked a bit confused by this statement, of course she didn't expect them to serve cat food, she wasn't sure what he meant by that.
People both inside and outside the restaurant had begun to stare by this point. Some with general concern about what was going on, but most had their attention focused on Team BLAC and possessed looks of absolute malice on their faces.
"Seriously Alyssa, let's go," Bianca said.
"Um, sir, forgive me, but I'm a bit confused, could you…" Alyssa was cut off.
"I said get out of my establishment you filthy disgusting animal!" The man shouted.
"Hey! You don't talk to my cousin like that!" Bianca got in the man's face.
"I don't serve faunus or faunus loving humans in my restaurant, so, Get. Out. Now." The man said.
Alyssa's eyes reddened and she balled her fists. She shook herself free of the grips of her friends and walked up to the man, who didn't seem scared whatsoever. As she stepped into the man's face she heard a clicking sound and then felt something cold and metal press against her exposed midriff. She sensed it, a snub-nosed revolver, cocked and ready to fire was pressed against her stomach.
"Come any closer and your guts will be splattered all over your friends," the man threatened.
Alyssa smirked, "do it then."
"Mr. Hong sir, please put it away," the hostess whispered.
The man tightened his grip on the handle and trigger of his pistol, all the while staring down Alyssa stoically. Alyssa too didn't seem fazed, she knew her aura would disintegrate the bullet upon impact.
Alyssa then felt herself be yanked very hard away from the man and drug out of the restaurant. She noticed it was Cyrus who had grabbed her by the bicep and pulled her out of the building.
"What the hell man!?" Alyssa freed herself from her teammate's grip, "I could've taken him."
"I know you could've, but how would it look if a student from Beacon assaulted an elderly man?" Cyrus retorted.
"That racist piece of shit pulled a gun on me!" Alyssa exclaimed.
"Look! We tried to get your attention, there's a sign right next to the front door that says 'no faunus', if you would've stopped and listened we could've avoided this whole thing!" Cyrus shouted.
Before Alyssa could get a word in Cyrus continued, "and even if he had shot you, he could claim self-defense, because who knows who else in there were racist pigs. Who do you really think the authorities would believe? A bunch of kids from Vale or Mistralese Citizens?"
Alyssa looked speechless as she stared at her angry teammate. She could tell his anger wasn't from hate, but from concern for her wellbeing. She didn't try to say anything and just turned and headed back in the direction she and her team had come from.
"Hey, where are you going?" Bianca called out.
"Guys, make sure she gets back to Haven ok, I'll get us some take-out and meet you back at the dorm," Cyrus said.
The two of them nodded in agreement and headed off after their teammate, all the while Cyrus watched them go. As he turned to head into the market to look for something to eat, he noticed the racist elderly man staring at him smugly. Cyrus flipped the guy the bird before heading on his way.
"I fuckin hate racists," Cyrus mumbled.
As Cyrus headed off to get food, Rouge was watching him and had seen the whole incident go down. She had a look of intrigue on her face as she watched Cyrus get lost in a crowd of people.
"Hmm, he may yet be redeemable," she said.
Her scroll rang, "yes?"
"My lady, Albus Wolfe has arrived and is waiting for you," the voice on the other side of the call said.
"Inform Mr. Wolfe I'll be with him soon," Rouge said.
"Yes, my lady," the voice replied, and the call was ended.
Back at Haven, Professor Haze was making her way to the headmaster's office. There were a few students and professors in the hall she walked through, but for the most part it was empty. As she walked through the hall she was speaking to Jamie on her scroll.
"Sorry I didn't call sooner, I had to unpack and now I'm on my way to meet with Professor Vasilias," she said.
"No need to apologize, you're a huntress and a professor, I understand you'll be busy at times," Jaime replied.
"Thanks honey," Ember said.
"No problem," Jamie stated, "so, tell me about Mistral, has it changed much since you've last been there?"
"Well, it's no longer a warzone, if that's what you're asking," Ember said.
"I mean, other than that," Jamie replied.
"Well, I haven't gotten a chance to take a look around town yet, so I can't really say," Ember said.
"Fair enough," Jamie said.
"Anyway, how's your day been?" Ember asked.
"It's been ok, although I had a bit of a panic attack this morning," Jamie replied.
"Are you ok?" Ember inquired.
"Yeah, I'm fine now, it's just I looked at the calendar when I woke up and I saw it was the first of the month and I had a bit of a flashback is all," Jamie stated.
"About Reed?" Ember asked.
"Yeah, but then I remembered that got dealt with two years ago," Jamie nervously chuckled.
"Honey, you'll be fine," Ember said calmly, "we went through a traumatic experience, you more so. Memories like that don't just go away overnight."
"Yeah, I guess you're right," Jamie replied, "anyway, you're probably really busy right now so I'll let you go."
"Ok, I'll talk to you later. I love you, bye," Ember said.
"I love you too," Jamie replied.
Ember closed her scroll as she turned the corner that led to Professor Vasilias' office. There was a rather large Atlesian Soldier guarding the door to the office. The soldier was bigger than any Ember had ever seen, standing nearly eight feet tall and covered head to toe in armor. The armor the soldier wore wasn't the standard Atlesian military armor though, it was far more high-tech and solid looking. The helmet fully enclosed the soldier's head and possessed a pair of blue tinted polycarbonate eye slits.
As Ember approached the door, the large soldier stepped in her way. The soldier didn't say a thing, he just stood there and stared at the shorter woman. Meanwhile, Ember was getting a strange feeling about the soldier, a feeling of dread, something she hadn't felt since the aftermath of the battle at the Vale Docks.
"I need to pass by buddy, I'm late for a meeting," Ember said.
The soldier said nothing in return and continued to block Ember's way. After a moment he pressed his fingers to the side of his helmet and then nodded his head. He stepped aside and let her pass.
The door creaked slightly as Ember entered the rustic office. It hadn't changed much in design and layout since the time of Professor Lionheart; walls lined with bookshelves, a central desk flanked to its left by a couch, chair, and coffee table complete with a tea set, and a large window at the rear of the room overlooking Mistral. Three individuals populated the room, two in Atlesian military garb to the right of the desk and one sitting behind it. The sitting man was Professor Neptune Vasilias, he wore a red suit over a white dress shirt and black tie, and with polished black dress shoes. His light-blue hair was combed back into a neat undercut.
One of the individuals in Atlesian dress turned towards the door as Ember entered the room, she was a woman in at least her mid-fifties, "Ah, Professor Haze, nice of you to join us."
Her presence was ever imposing, her slate-blue eyes seemed to stare right through Ember as she walked into the room. Her uniform was finely pressed and worn without a piece out of place. Some say she is the most powerful person on Remnant, being in charge of both a Huntsman Academy and the Atlesian Military, but she knew otherwise.
Professor Haze strode up to the desk, "it's nice to see you too Winter."
"I'd prefer it if you called me by my official title," Winter replied sternly.
"I don't ever remember James being formal with the members of Ozpin's circle," Neptune cut in.
"Well, I'm not General Ironwood," Winter stated.
"Ahem, sorry to intrude, but shouldn't we be discussing the matter at hand," the man next to Winter said.
This man in question was Major Marcus Stallion, Winter's right hand and commander of the Atlas Specialists. While he didn't possess the imposing presence of his superior, the way he presented and carried himself demanded upmost respect.
"Right," Neptune interjected, "Ember, please join us, Winter err… General Schnee was just about to inform me of the measures she will be taking to keep this event safe."
Ember sat on the couch next to Neptune's desk and kicked her feet up on the coffee table, "well, lay it on us."
Winter shot Ember a scornful look before then pulling out her scroll and placing it on Neptune's desk. A three-dimensional hologram of Mistral, Haven, and Amity Colosseum appeared from the scroll, "after discussions with the MSDF and Mistral Council, I've decided that a single airship and a contingent of five hundred soldiers, one hundred fifty knights, and ten specialists would be adequate to cover all event sites within the city and academy, plus security in the colosseum."
"Don't you think that's a little much?" Ember asked, "I mean, Mistral's been at peace for what… three years now."
"Two," Neptune stated.
"It's not enough," Marcus added.
"That's correct Major," Winter said, "due to recent developments, particularly surrounding this 'Church of the Holy Maidens' and their rapid growth from a minor sect to massive cult, I will take no chances with this, I do not want a repeat of the 40th Vytal Festival."
"Do you have the rest of the Atlesian Army lying in wait or something?" Ember inquired.
"In a matter of speaking," Winter smirked, "I have an additional five airships stationed an hour east of the city, each with an equivalent number of forces to what is within the city, plus one hundred paladins."
"That does seem a bit excessive," Neptune stated.
"Look," Winter smacked her hand on Neptune's desk, "Professor Pine wanted me as head of security for the festival and I'd appreciate it if you all would have some faith in me, if anything were to happen… if anyone decides to attack the festival, they'll be in for a surprise."
The forces Winter stationed outside the city were finishing setting up their base of operations, soldiers unloaded the equipment while the knights and specialists set up a perimeter. Unbeknownst to them however, they were being watched from the nearby tree tops.
Jet Dusk held up a pair of high-tech binoculars with a small dish protruding from it. The boy in black peered through the lenses as he watched the Atlesian Forces get set up, "are you receiving this Field Marshal?"
Back at Rouge's base, Rommel Berg sat at a terminal in the main command center and observed what Jet was sending him, "Affirmative Herr Jet, everything is coming through nicely."
"Do you think these forces will be a problem for our lady's plans?" Jet asked blankly.
"No, it vill be of no issue, as a matter of fact it may help," Field Marshal Berg replied.
"Very well, I'll continue to gather intel and report back once I'm done," Jet said.
"Good hunting, und stay safe," Field Marshal Berg closed out of the terminal and leaned back in his chair and chuckled, "oh Vinter, you sink you have zee upper hand, don't you? You are sorely mistaken mein Frau."
.