The day after Jaune got back from his trip to Haven was a free day for both him and dad. Nicholas Arc took Jaune fishing on the lake behind the house. These excursions were normally conducted in what dad described as companionable silence. Jaune knew what he meant. These outings were enjoyable affairs as both of you kept an eye on the water and your own rod, helped net the fish on each other's lines, contemplated the sky, sipped coffee in the morning from the thermos, ate the sandwiches and snacks prepared by dad or Lavender at lunchtime and sipped beers in the afternoon before returning and dad would cook the fish which had not been thrown back.

Today was one of those rare occasions when dad was using the fishing trip to have a serious conversation without fear of interruption. Both of their scrolls had been turned off. Of course, it being dad, there was a long delay before the opening of discourse.

Eventually dad said, "Your mother told me about your conversation with Prof Pink."

There was then a pause. Jaune said, "He was honest with me. The problem is that I really want to be a huntsman. If I don't do everything in my power to pursue my dream, I will always regret it."

Dad said, "I know I felt the same at your age and so did your uncles. I'm the only one left standing and your mother has probably been responsible for saving more lives than me and your uncles between us."

Jaune stared at him. Dad shrugged, "Ok, certainly more than your four uncles did between them. They were all heroes who died too young." There was a pause and he said wistfully, "There were at least ten times when I nearly joined them."

Dad pulled in his line and replaced the bait. "I've only told your mother about four of those. I did not think I was lying to her at the time, but watching the footage of Amber at Kulsa made me realise how brave and foolish I was when I was her age. At least she doesn't have children."

Jaune wondered if dad had ever told Amber that he thought her brave as well as foolish.

Anyway, he knew what his answer must be. "Dad, how would you have reacted to Grampa and Nana telling you not to be a huntsman?"

His father laughed ruefully. "I can't lie. I told my father that it was what I wanted. Nowadays I understand why he tried to talk me out of it. I'm the only one of the four of us who lived long enough to marry and have children."

"Saffy, Debo, and Lily have already had children."

"But not called Arc. Ok, Adrian is called Cotta-Arc, but it's not the same."

Dad then held up his hand. "Fine, I know what Amber and Deborah would say. I'm happy the three of them are married and Jasper, David, and Terra are good husbands or should I say partners. It's just that I am of the generation were carrying on the family name was an imperative. I still think that it is important. I can see the other point of view, even if those who hold it can't see mine."

Jaune waited. He recognised that this was dad talking himself into being more reasonable and that a challenge would not help his cause.

Eventually dad said, "I will speak to Brown on your behalf. I will have to wait for a suitable time. I'm busy for the next week or so and he is gearing up for the exams."

Jaune said, "Do let him know that I will do my best not to embarrass him. After all you failed as well as him to unlock my aura and Amber said that most of the things people think about aura are only theories."

An odd look crossed his dad's face and there was a delay before he spoke. "Amber said that? I thought she blamed us."

"Amber said nothing against you or the headmaster. She said that the three of you would argue but she did not try and force me to pick a side."

"Is that a fish on the end of your line?"

Jaune checked, but there wasn't.

He turned back to dad who was now reeling in his own line. After a minute it became clear that the fish had escaped.

Dad looked at him and said, "Your mother says that me and Amber are too much alike. She may be right. For some reason that does not prevent us from irritating each other. I hope she knows that I am proud of her despite the nonsense she talks."

Jaune knew that he had no good choices here. He went for, "Perhaps it's like you and Grampa."

Dad laughed ruefully, "Now that would be amusing and therefore is probably true. He threw me out of the house three times. Amber walks out first. Mind you she can afford to."

"Dad?" He knew that he had to avoid the subject been changed.

"Ok son. I promise that I will go and see Brown about admitting you next year as soon as I can. I'll help train both you and Lavender. You can use Crocea Mors for the time being. Actually, you can keep it. She's a bonny weapon although she does not have all the modern updates. Still, at least there's no chance of the shift mechanism malfunctioning so that she is neither a sword nor a gun. My father gave her to me, and his father gave it to him when we were your age."

Jaune was genuinely moved. "Thanks dad. I promise to look after her and keep her in good condition."

"I know you will son. Perhaps let Lavender help you. I know she really works hard at weapon maintenance."

Dad looked at him and said, "I know you have to follow your dream, son. Just don't jettison the LGDF before you absolutely have to."

Just then a fish pulled on dad's line and for the rest of the day father and son fished quietly with occasional bouts of conversation about the weather, scenery, and memories of dad from growing up.

During the next two weeks Jaune was kept busy. He worked with Jesse Earl and Reynard in Kulsa finding the answers to the additional questions raised by Professor Pink and the additional information which mother thought might be relevant in the light of those questions. She had been encouraged by him passing on Professor's Pink's appreciation of her anticipation of what he needed to do his job well.

At the end of the fortnight there was a list of potential new evacuation centres in the event of a Grimm attack on the walls as well as a list of the people in the LGDF who were considering to be the best at minimising negative thoughts. Obviously Happy with his semblance of spreading goodwill and joy was at the top of the list, but others either had a natural talent for inspiring confidence or had semblances which indirectly helped in this regard.

Mother also mused on the best way of placing hunters on the walls so that the strength of their aura did not result in the Grimm targeting the gates but meant that in the case of a breach they could quickly intercept any invading Grimm. She regretfully accepted that underpasses and double gates could not be put in place, both because of expense, practicalities, and the estimated build time. The former would require an unacceptable period of time when the gates where non-functioning and the latter option was not that much better. In the light of Debo's analysis that the crisis was a year to eighteen months away, mother had to resort to other solutions.

In addition, supervising house swaps was still a larger part of the LGDF's workload then anyone felt happy with. Even dad felt that while the segregation of humans and Faunus reduced negative emotions in the short term it was going to be a disaster in the long term. Differential spending on education and infrastructure in Faunus and human areas was inevitable given how Mistral's politics worked and the less contact Faunus and humans had with each other the easier it was to believe the worse stories about human and Faunus behaviour were true.

Together with regular excursions with mother to talk to local leaders and his own visits to the hunter teams to see what was needed he had found distressingly little time for sparring and training. He did work with Lavender and practised against her with Crocea Mors. The problem was that most evening he was not back home until just before dinner and after he and mother had washed up it was too late to go to the gym.

Lavender said that she would lend him her textbooks over the summer with a view to getting him up to speed and with dad was instructing him about aura control. She also talked about her homework over breakfast with him and mother.

Amber had sent him a suggested work out regime which he did before breakfast and at weekends. He was doing more work at the firing range at LGDF headquarters and dad had repurposed part of the gym at home to be a firing range. Jaune was conscious that while he was a decent shot, even with daily practice he was not going to be better than a reliable journeyman marksman. Certainly, he did not appear to have a sniper or sharpshooter semblance.

Amber had sent via Debo some information about a precedent in Vale which might increase the chances of persuading Brown to encourage the governors to exercise their discretion in his favour. Apparently a fourteen-year-old had skipped a year and started in the second year at Signal combat school because they were considered too advanced to be safely left with the first years. Adults were weird. For some reason it was felt that Amber could not bring this precedent to Brown's and dad's attention, but Debo and Jasper could. Jaune thought that it was self-evident that the information could only have come from Amber, but if it made life easier to say that it came through one of Jasper's contacts than fine. As mother pointed out Amber was a contact of Jasper's so strictly no lie had been told.

He knew that dad was closer to headmaster Brown than mother and that if anyone could persuade the headmaster to stretch the rules it would be him. Dad had said things about waiting for the appropriate time, but finally had spoken to the man.

Anyway, he had an interview with Brown tomorrow and mother had allowed him to switch his shifts so that he could meet the headmaster. He was busy rehearsing his spiel while Lavender and dad were starting to cook dinner when to his surprise Lily came round.

Lily was the most self-effacing member of the family. He thought that her husband David was a nice enough bloke but was dominated by his parents. Jaune preferred to avoid David's mother and father. When they came round mother remembered that she had been the family cook for fifteen years and hid in the kitchen and allowed dad to be the host.

Lily was two years older than him and had married early. She had decided early on that she did not want to be a huntress and had not attended ACS. He felt a little guilty towards her. He wondered whether his strops had made things unpleasant at home so that she was prepared to settle for David. Amber had told him that it was nonsense. David and Lily were suited to each other, but it would have been better if they had escaped from both sets of parents when they married. Debo had told him something similar, but he suspected that she had been following a script from Amber.

Lily took him by the arm, and they pushed the pram bearing baby Nicholas Alexander around the garden while she spoke to him.

"Jaune, I know I'm the coward of the family and keep my head well below the parapet."

Jaune patted her arm. "We can't all be like Amber and the twins."

"Thank the gods. I sometimes wish I could be more like Debo, but she always knew she wanted to be more than a mother and wife. I'm happy to live with a kind man who loves me and wants lots of children to bring up with me."

Jaune was wondering where his sister was going with this conversation. He did not disagree with her analysis, but she was not normally so honest.

"We all like David and it's obvious he loves you."

"Sweet of you to say so. He does his best to support me and be on good terms with my family without falling out with his parents."

"I don't blame him for that. Lily, there's no need for you to apologise to me about how they speak to me."

"Again, that's sweet of you. That's not what I wanted to talk to you about."

Lily looked around. "Can we sit in the gazebo?"

"Of course, Lily."

The gazebo looked out on to the lake and half of it had walls which meant that those looking out over the lake were hidden from view. The twins contended that the fact that it had been built three years after Debo was born was the only reason they had been born. According to them baby Debo had insisted on sleeping with mother and dad which the twins said accounted for the interruption in the normal roughly two-year gap between children. They had arrived four years after Debo and that mother had made up for lost time by having them both at the same time. It was true that there were only two-year gaps between them, Lily, Jaune, and Lavender. The twins still found it hilarious to imagine that they had been conceived in the gazebo.

"Jaune, David's parents came round last night."

Jaune thought it would be impolite to say "Oh dear" or "Hard cheese" even though that was clearly the truth. He grunted in a manner designed to encourage Lily to continue.

"Did you know Judge Blanche is a governor of ACS?"

"I didn't. I probably should have checked it out."

"If you repeat what I am about to say to you I will deny it and my parents in law will make me suffer."

Jaune said, "Understood. Family honour, I won't repeat what you say."

"If you need to explain what you do if you follow my advice, blame it on Amber or Saffy."

"Fine."

Jaune was worried by this. By Lily's standards this was her equivalent of Amber jumping out of a bullhead to fight solo with Alpha Grimm.

"Blanche's not happy about your part in making Amber burning down his forest unchallengeable legally. He hates mother and despises headmaster Brown. He also loves feeling he owns people."

Jaune looked at his sister and squeezed her shoulder. "That does not surprise me. I'm afraid I'm not Debo and you're going to have to explain the implications to me."

"No problem. By the way I would have married David even if you had not been going around the home with a personal thunder cloud on top of your head. He is the right man for me." Clearly this was Lily's day for revelations and clearing the air.

He squeezed her shoulder. "I know you love each other. Thank you for telling me."

Lily said, "You are enough like me and Saffron for me to know that you default to feeling guilty or at least to avoiding confrontation. Lavender has a bit of Debo in her. She will fight when it really matters, but otherwise will do a soft shoe shuffle around problems."

"I think I know what you mean. Her and Debo take after mother the most. Well, at least the mother we know."

Lily laughed, "Fine, I know Saffron and Amber say that when they were young mother was more like Amber."

Jaune said "Before you say what you want to say, I do want to apologise for being a pain for two years."

"You were, but if it had happened to either of the twins it would have been far worse. Anyway, it was easy for me to keep out of your way."

"I know. Lavender got the worse of it."

"I'm not certain about that. Dad was actually almost as upset as you were. Mother just bided her time."

"Sorry?"

Lily hid her mouth behind her hand. She then continued.

"I hope that I have learnt patience from mother. Eventually David will decide he needs to rebel against his parents. I just know that when the time is right I will support him in a way which means that he will successfully throw off the chains."

"Can you explain a bit more?"

"I'm learning from Debo and mother. You wait until your husband wants to do something you agree with and then support them to the hilt. Watch that if you ever marry, Jaune."

He laughed. "I am truly warned. Anyway, you had something you wanted to tell me about Judge Blanche."

Lily nodded. "Neither David nor I understand the reasoning, but the judge thinks that he will be owed a huge favour whichever way he comes down on the decision about admitting you to ACS."

"Sorry?"

"Mother gets away with a lot because she is seen as a straight bat. Most heads of the provincial LGDFs drive around in new cars and travel first class. She has not changed the station wagon in ten years and travels cattle class even on official business."

"We all know that."

"It's unusual. I wish it weren't. She has enemies within the kingdom LGDF because she makes her budget go further than anyone else."

"Sorry?" This struck Jaune as illogical.

Lily sighed. "She doesn't live in what David's father calls the real world. There are understood perks of jobs such as mothers which include suppliers treating her to lunches at expensive restaurants, giving her tickets to the Mistral regionals and sporting events and often cash payments in brown envelopes "to donate to your favourite charity." That sort of thing."

Lily did air quotes with her fingers when she referred to donating to charity. Jaune knew what she meant although it seemed more like a Debo or Amber thing.

"People don't like her for not taking bribes?"

"That aren't seen as bribes by most people. Just a cost of doing business. Even though she does not preach, the fact that she does not play the game makes people resent her."

"If you say so. What has this got to do with me?"

"Blanche thinks that he can humiliate mother by demanding a price for the way he casts his vote if you apply to ACS. Father – sorry that David's father- really does not like mother although he does get on with dad. Anyway, father thinks that Blanche will insist on mother agreeing to some favour before allowing you to start at ACS."

"Why say that in front of you?"

"That's my problem, not yours. What he did hint was that it might suit Blanche to agree one thing and then do the opposite and still claim that he had bartered favours with mother. I don't understand it myself, but it made sense to father. Perhaps Debo would understand. David doesn't."

"Have you asked her?" Debo had returned last week from a month in Mistral City with Jasper.

"We don't talk about our husband's families to each other. Don't tell her that I have said anything to you. Just ask her what she thinks Blanche will do that most embarrasses mother."

Lily then changed the subject. She asked about the latest news from Amber and Saffron especially about baby Adrian. She then posed for a picture holding baby Nicholas Alexander and told Jaune to send a copy to Saffron and Amber.

After Lily had left Jaune sat and thought for a bit. He then rang Debo and asked if he could come after dinner and have a word with her on an urgent matter. Debo agreed.

He watched dad and Lavender carefully over dinner. Lavender was excited for him and was doing her best to encourage him. Mother was looking thoughtful.

At the end of the meal, she and Jaune did the washing up. She said, "Jaune, I've been busy at work. I've never really had to understand the obscure details about combat schools and academies and Amber, Nicholas, the twins, and Lavender know more about it than me and I have left it up to them to help you."

Jaune said, "I understand. You've also been busy."

Mother continued, "My time with the LGDF had made me more of an authority than I would like on bureaucracy and how to sidestep problems or how to complicate things so much that you can kick issues into the long grass. Coming home tonight I recalled that you spent a term at ACS before leaving. I don't know what difference that makes under the rules at ACS, but it may be that the rules on late admissions don't strictly apply to your situation. I don't know whether that it is good or bad for you. My instinct is not to mention it until we've thought about it a bit more."

She battled with a saucepan before passing it to him to dry, "I'll ask Lavender to she if she can spot anything obvious in the rules while you are at Debo's."

He got to Debo's at around 8.30. She had read the children their bedtime story and had a glass of wine in her hand when he arrived. After she had poured him a glass and they had exchanged the polite enquiries as to how everyone was, he broached the problem.

"Amber, Blanche is on the board of governors at ACS. Everyone thinks that it will need a decision of the board of governors to readmit me. Me and mother are not among his favourite people."

"Well, mother and Amber anyway."

"I delivered the footage showing that Amber and Darren had no option but to burn down his forest. He knows who I am."

"And you want to know how he could stick the knife in?"

"Yes."

"Obvious one is that he vetoes you being admitted or calls in a favour to have someone else vetoing you. Next he tells mother that he will let you in if she does him a favour."

"How important is mother's reputation for honesty?"

"It helps a lot. She is good enough at her job and sufficiently apolitical not to be a target and enough people remember how much things have improved since she has been in charge."

"Is she hated by people for it?"

"That's going too far. She makes people uncomfortable, and it took them time to get a handle on her. Still, she works within the system and does not preach at people. Favours are the oil which makes Mistral sort of work. Mother's plays the game, but only to benefit the LGDF and not herself. A vote for budget increases in return for more regular patrols in an area which will be funded by part of that budget increase. She may offer a relative or protégée of someone influential a job, but they will be expected to work for it and follow the rules.

"What does that mean for me?"

"She can say to herself and others that it is consistent with her own standards to ask for her or dad to ask people to let you in at ACS through a mechanism which allows discretion to be exercised in unusual cases. By Ansel standards this would be a small favour and normally no one would bat an eyelid. It's hard to imagine what favour she could do for Blanche which would make it worth his while and not be seen as gouging or deliberate humiliation."

"Eh?"

"Ansel's a small province. Everyone important knows each other and having a reputation for overplaying your hand comes back to bite you. Blanche just saying no as revenge for Amber burning down his forests is fine, but…." Amber stopped.

"Amber? What's the matter?"

"You are seeing Brown tomorrow morning?"

"Yes."

"Come back and see me for lunch. I need to think something through and whether he is capable of being that subtle."

Next morning Jaune walked with Lavender to school. They discussed aura control. Jaune was getting the hang of it now. He had to be careful about flaring it too hard as he could hurt people by knocking them over with it.

It was odd wandering through the school at which he had spent one term three and a half years back. He was dressed in his LGDF uniform. It was smart enough to make him look professional and also meant that people did not wonder who he was. There were all sorts of reasons why a member of the LGDF could be spending time on campus or seeing the headmaster. A few graduates a year might join the LGDF, normally as reservists.

He walked past the school hall and spent five minutes with Brown's PA while waiting for Brown to arrive.

Brown was around his father's age and had moved into education after a significant injury in the field. He still had a limp which had meant that he received a disability pension. According to his sisters and father his technique was still excellent.

Brown said, "Jaune, your father tells me that you want to come back to ACS next term and has asked me to discuss the practicalities with you before you make a formal application."

"That's right sir."

"I know that the reason you want to be a student here is that you want to become a huntsman and to go to Haven. No doubt your father and your family has said all the things which I am going to say, but I would be failing in my duty if I didn't say them to you. Only around 20% of the students here who apply will be accepted at Haven. For most that it is acceptable odds at age 14. They get a good general education here while maybe another 40% go on to careers in security and personal protection. Many of the rest conclude that the life is not for them. Your sister Deborah was one of those."

Jaune nodded. "Sir, I am motivated to work hard. My family can be relied upon not to allow me to become complacent. The fact that those of my family who have tried to become hunters have been accepted means that it is reasonable for me to think that the odds are better for me."

"Jaune. It is true that Amber and the twins not only got in to Haven easily, but they were also selected for teams which competed in the Vytal festival. Deborah decided at the end of her second year here that she would not apply, but if she had she would have been a borderline case. I will if she continues working as hard and effectively as she has done recommend to Lavender that she should apply in her final year here. Still the fact that your sisters have done well is no guarantee that you will. Anyway, think about it."

Jaune said, "I have done so and wish to take the opportunity."

"In order for someone to be admitted after the age of sixteen requires not only my consent, but also that of the governing body. I cannot predict with confidence what their decision is likely to be. It is likely that one or more of them will want to interview you before coming to a decision. You should assume that they will want to interview you and you should prepare for it."

"Can you give me any clues as to what questions I am likely to be asked?"

"Have you also thought properly about the fact that if you come to ACS you will be in a class with students four years younger than you and you will be older than the seniors?"

"Is that a problem?"

Brown looked at him. "Even if not for you it is a concern for the school. It is one of the reasons why we have the rule about late entrants. If you go ahead with your application, I expect that you will be expected to have thought through the implications."

Brown looked at him, "In your case, there is an additional problem. You have spent two years working for the LGDF with people who are much older and mature than any of your classmates. You have worked with people who are making life and death decisions and I gather that you have been involved in making them yourself. Will you really be able to take seriously the normal crises of younger students?"

"I get on well with my sister and one of the roles I am used for in the LGDF is dealing with children and teenagers. I'll just work on not being a condescending plonker."

"Harder than you may think. You must know that Lavender is unusually serious and studious for her year. It is one thing to be an approachable and sympathetic person in authority. It is another to do this as a classmate."

"I do not believe that it will be a problem. I will just follow my father's advice and treat my classmates as friends I had not met before."

"Some of our governors are still not happy about ACS being a mixed school. They are particularly obsessed about the problems of having a school where eighteen-year-old boys and fourteen-year-old girls mix. These problems will be in their view exacerbated by the fact that you would be sharing lessons and training sessions."

He turned his back to Jaune and looked out of the window. He seemed embarrassed, "I'm afraid that one of the people who holds this view knew your father as a young man and taught all of your older sisters who went through ACS. Nancy and Jessica especially enjoyed winding this person up, but the number of unrequited admirers who pursued Deborah and Amber despite the lack of encouragement…"

"Sir?"

"I can't believe that I am saying this, but it might help if you got yourself a girlfriend of around your own age or perhaps a little older by the time of your interview."

"I will think about how I can reassure you in this regard."

The headmaster turned round again. "I know from Nicholas that you have been working on aura control. The stories about how you dealt with Richard's attack on you at the Antelope have grown in the telling. You will need to demonstrate that you won't inadvertently hurt your classmates."

"I have been working on that with dad and Lavender."

"Good. I had mentioned it to Nicholas. There are some other problems Jaune."

"There are?"

"First, we are already full for next year and there is a list of standbys. I do not think that it will be practical to add you to next year's intake other than as an additional stand by. In this regard, the precedent which your sister Deborah provided from Vale may mean that it will be easier if you joined the current first year at the start of the second year."

The headmaster looked embarrassed. "As always, some people's auras could not be unlocked while others dropped out. Many of the standbys had either already decided to wait a year or settled in at other schools. There are two place currently unfilled in the second year."

The headmaster smiled to himself, "I doubt that Nicholas has told you, but your story has resulted in a new cottage industry of people trying to unlock the auras of the students whose auras I failed to unlock. I am glad for myself that no one else's aura has been unlocked."

When Jaune reported back to Debo at lunch in a private room at the Antelope she nodded. "I can see Blanche's play now. He can demand an acceptable favour off mother for not objecting himself, but behind the scenes could encourage others to raise objections. It makes it easier that some people may genuinely believe in the points that they are making. There has always been a problem with the seniors hitting on the juniors and sophomores. Ermintrude Scarletta may be a bit sex obsessed, but it is hard to deny that the fact that you are a six-foot blonde who is polite, charming, and kind would make you a potential heartbreaker in your class even without being the brother of the twins and Amber."

She refilled both their glasses. "By Ansel standards he can demand more for swaying other people's votes than his own without outraging opinion. If mother refuses than he spreads the message that she thought her principles were more important than her son and if she accepts he can spread the message that she can be bought. Either way mother loses."

"Is it really that bad?"

"May be worse. Which ever way he votes he can drop hints that mother or father compromised themselves. They were both genuinely relieved when your aura was not unlocked. You reminded mother too much of her brother and dad of one of his brothers. Too brave for their own good. If you don't get in I would expect rumours to be dropped that one or both of them offered a bribe to Blanche to veto you and keep you in the LGDF."

"Debo, do people really think like that?"

"Blanche does and I can if I force myself. There are some senior politicians who I have met will do and say anything for power. Most of the more complicated conspiracy theories are nonsense, but if you make enough people believe that your political opponents are evil rather than decent people who honestly hold different opinions and values they will overlook a lot. I've been at political rallies where a candidate was booed for saying his opponent was a decent family man who held different and wrong views about things."

"Do you really think that me applying to ACS will cause problems for mother whatever the result is?"

"It depends how much Blanche wants revenge. Look I'll talk to Jasper and mother. I'm not going to ask a leading question, but could you show me the picture of young Nicholas and Lily who took yesterday?"

Even Jaune realised that it would be stupid to ask Debo how she knew that Lily had been round to see him. It would be betraying both his sisters.

MaybeLesserEvil. If I were fighting Grimm I would prefer a ranged option. The description of Neptune's weapon and the sniper function for Crescent Rose do make sense. In this story Jaune is using guns because at the time he had no aura and so sniping from the bullhead is more or less the only way he can try and kill Grimm.

I would be interested if anyone has any thoughts on whether the objections about allowing Jaune to restart combat school are valid ones or at least ones which it would be hard to say are just an excuse to punish the Arc family.