Hello again
Before the chapter begins, I felt the need to clarify a few things.
1) This version of Jaune is an extension of canon Jaune. I decided to lean into the more laid-back "tired of this bullshit" vibe from his time in Ever After while still keeping the casual goofiness of pre-Volume 9 Jaune.
2.) Since this Jaune has his extra years of experience from Ever After I plan to make him strong but not overwhelmingly OP. Not having aura is a direct nerf that he will have to get used to over time.
3.) It goes without saying that I'll be taking some liberties with the lore, since obviously we have little to no information to work off of.
3.5) I plan to let the readers make an important decision. Personally, I don't like using OCs, but in stories like this it's almost required. So, I give you this choice. Would you prefer OCs based off of the main cast as their distant ancestors or would you prefer OCs straight from my imagination? Leave a review and give me your thoughts.
4.) A list of specific changes I have already made to the lore will be at the end of this chapter.
With all that said, enjoy the chapter!
Rays of sunlight slowly began to bleed through the small window of Salem's Tower.
Jaune's eyes shot open when he heard a loud crash to his right.
Crocea Mors sang as he tore it from its sheath and pointed it towards the source of the sound.
Salem quickly raised her hands. She held a book in one hand and a necklace in the other. "I surrender!" she yelped.
Jaune blinked a few times before sheathing his sword and relaxing. "What are you doing?" Ever After might have made him an early riser, but that didn't mean he liked it.
"Packing," Salem said with a smile. How she had gone from terrified at sword point to excitedly buzzing around the room collecting various assorted items he would never know. "Since we're leaving I decided I don't want to leave anything in this bland tower."
Jaune could only stare blankly at the growing pile of junk behind her.
"How exactly do you plan on carrying all of that?" The thought of seeing Salem carry a comically large bag around everywhere she went was incredibly funny, but it wasn't practical.
Salem puffed out her chest with pride. "Well, you see my dear pupil," she dramatically stretched her hand out in front of her. "I did not waste all these years in captivity." A black orb appeared in her hand and began to expand. "I created a new subtype of magic."
The black orb grew to the size of two clenched fists before gradually shifting into a gray color. Jaune watched in shock as it absorbed the entire pile on the floor and disappeared into nothing.
"Tada!" Salem wiped her hands as if she had just finished some intense physical labor. "I call it Space Magic! It's like having an infinite storage room at your beck and call." She turned back to gauge his expression.
Jaune was sitting off to the side with his knees to his chest, swatting away specks of dust on the floor. "Who needs magic anyway? It's not like it's super cool or anything."
When Salem first saw Jaune get like this, she had no idea what to do. But now? It was routine.
She drenched him with water.
No matter what anyone said, she definitely did not enjoy watching him jump. Definitely.
Jaune gave her a blank stare through his soaking wet bangs.
Salem had to quickly cover her mouth to stifle her laughter. She couldn't help it! He looked like a depressed golden retriever.
Much like a dog, Jaune aggressively shook his head to clear his hair of water.
"Well, I'm tired of sitting here," he said as he stretched his arms above his head. "Ready to go?"
"Yep!" Salem smiled. After all these years, her dreams were finally about to come true. She was so excited.
Jaune pushed the newly empty bookshelf towards the hole in the roof. Truth be told, Jaune was nearly as excited as Salem was. Ever since he was a young boy, he had imagined what a fantasy world would be like. Time to find out.
He climbed to the top of the bookshelf and jumped to the roof.
If nothing else, Salem's Tower had a wonderful view.
The tower was built on the very edge of a dense forest, overlooking a vast expanse of grassy highlands.
The beautiful view was interrupted when a cube of ice hit the back of his head.
His brow twitched as he turned around to see Salem, with her arms crossed, standing next to the bookshelf.
"I've been calling your name for a few minutes now," she huffed. "Is the view really that breathtaking?"
Jaune ignored her question and knelt down to look into the hole. "What are you waiting for? We've got a world to conquer." He was only half-joking.
Salem refused to make eye contact and mumbled an incoherent response.
Jaune sighed. The only time Salem acted like this was when she was embarrassed. "What? Don't tell me the great Princess of Everday is too good to climb a bookshelf."
He swatted away an incoming icecube.
Salem took a deep breath before responding in the most forced calm voice he had ever heard, "I can't climb in heels."
...
Jaune snickered.
Jaune also had to dodge an ice lance.
"Silence, you fool!" she exclaimed, her entire face burning bright red. "Help me!"
Jaune shook his head in amusement before droping down ontop of the bookshelf. He knelt down and offered a hand.
Once she grabbed his hand, he unceremoniously tossed her onto the roof.
Salem was not amused.
She yelled at him for a solid five minutes before he grabbed her by the shoulders and forced her to turn around.
When she saw the full view of her surroundings, she fell silent.
To say Salem was interested in the view would be the understatement of the century. She was enamored by it.
Her tiny window didn't do the sight any justice.
Jaune watched her as she took in the horizon, her eyes scanning from the still-rising sun.
It was odd.
The woman who would go on to destroy over 60% of Remnant and bring misery to countless innocent people stood on top of her tower, eyeing the landscape from high to low with the biggest smile he had ever seen.
It was infectious.
It was in that moment Jaune made a decision.
Judging Salem by the monster she could become did nothing for him.
Right here, right now, she was just a young woman experiencing freedom for the first time.
The gods had given him a second chance at life. Living in the past was no way to spend this life. He made the decision that the only thing that mattered was the present.
He would not waste this life.
Several hours passed since the pair left Salem's tower.
Salem chose a random direction and practically dragged him forward.
She would stop nearly every five steps to inspect a particular interesting rock or a blade of grass.
Jaune found it more hilarious than annoying.
By the time noon came, Salem decided it was time for his first proper magic lesson.
Until now, all she had taught him was the basics of channeling mana. It came naturally to him, though; that was likely due to his experience with aura.
Much like his aura, he had a large reserve of mana. Mana felt much more free-flowing and malleable.
"Alright!" Salem clapped her hands together and sat on a large rock. "You've gotten a lot better at controlling your mana, so let's move on to magical application."
Salem raised her hand and formed a small flame. "The key to all magic is mana conversion," she willed the flame away. "You draw mana from your own reserves and mold it into the spell you desire."
Jaune absorbed her words like a sponge. The concept was somewhat familiar; he often used an Aura technique to reinforce key points on his body. As Jaune understood it, Magic Conversion was similar, with the added step of expelling Mana from your body.
"Since you have such a strong affinity for healing, we'll start there," Salem said as his hand began to glow a vibrant green. "For healing magic, you need to focus mana into your hands and then slowly release it over time."
Healing magic worked like a lesser version of his semblance, so he caught on quickly.
His hand began glowing a radiant yellow as he mimicked Salem.
The shock on her face was evident. "Not even I grasped mana conversion this quickly," she said. A sudden look of pride brushed over her, and she puffed out her chest. "As expected of my star pupil."
"I'm your only pupil," he snickered, but accepted the praise. "Truthfully, it just feels natural to me."
"That would be because of your affinity for it," Salem explained quickly. "It's as the name implies; you have an affinity for healing. The Brother Gods blessed you with it upon birth."
Blessed was certainly one interpretation. Jaune remembered what the God of Darkness had said, "I care little for what you think." Blessed indeed.
"Since you have such a strong affinity for your healing magic, it will be leagues more potent than mine." Salem dismissed her magic. "I look forward to seeing how far you can go."
That caught his eye. Salem had told him that she was considered a prodigy in magic, so to hear that he could outclass her was certainly interesting.
He'd never let her live it down.
"Well, I guess the only thing to do now is test it out." Jaune removed his left bracer and glove. He pulled Crocea Mors from its sheath and angled it to stab his hand.
Salem near tackled him to the ground.
"What are you doing, you fool?" she yelled as she aggressively shook him. Salem was quite the tall woman and it showed; it felt like he'd just been hit by a freight train.
Jaune, now flat on his back, looked up at the woman in confusion. "How else am I supposed to practice?" He didn't have time to slack off. Jaune was determined to take his magic to the limit of its usage.
Salem looked down at him extremely unimpressed.
"Don't practice on yourself, you fool," she said, crossing her arms as she scolded him. "There's more than enough wildlife around to experiment on."
Jaune doubted she realized that made her sound like a psychopath.
Jaune sighed in exasperation. "Fine, but first," he gestured to her, who was currently sitting on top of him. "Get off."
It took Salem a moment to realize the position they were in. She jumped off of him as if she were a cat that had just been sprayed with water.
"I apologize," she said quickly, her face burning with embarrassment. "I wasn't thinking."
Oh gods. Seeing an embarrassed Salem was like looking at Ruby when she gave you those accursed puppy dog eyes; you couldn't look away.
Jaune patted her shoulder. "It's fine," he said, crouching to pick up his armor. He fiddled with his bracer for a moment before speaking again. "So, how much longer do you think it'll be before we find a village or something?"
Salem quickly recovered and considered his question. "A day or two, I would think," she replied.
She pointed off in the distance. "I can feel a large group of magic users in that direction."
That caught his attention. "You can feel magic?" His mind began to whirl with possibilities; there were so many battle applications that he got a small headache.
"You mean you can't?" Salem looked at him confused. She knew Jaune was uneducated in the art of magic, but to be oblivious to the most basic of mana techniques was unacceptable.
Salem sighed. She had a long road ahead of her, but it didn't matter. She would become the best magic instructor in the world if it meant helping her friend.
"Ignore everything around you. Focus only on your mana." Those words were ripped straight from her own instructor's mouth. "In the future, you'll be able to use this technique as easily as breathing."
Ignore everything around you. Easier said than done. Instincts that had been ingrained in him throughout his huntsman career refused to simply turn off.
Salem noticed his struggle and stepped in to help. She brought her hands up to both sides of his face and gently closed his eyes. "Focus."
His shoulders lost their tension, and he relaxed into the moment. In that instant, something shifted within him; it was as if his senses had been dialed up to eleven.
He flinched from the overwhelming stimuli, but Salem held him in place. "Relax," she said, "focus on that feeling." Her voice was like the soothing singing of a distant bird. "Imagine coating yourself in mana. Everything will stabilize."
True to her word, everything became clear; he could feel everything. It was indescribable.
He opened his eyes to see Salem smugly smiling at him. "I do accept praise, my dear pupil," she said. There wasn't even an ounce of humility in those words.
Jaune rolled his eyes and flicked her nose. "You ruined the moment," he laughed, as she flinched back.
Naturally, he was met with more water to the face.
Jaune shook his head like a dog to dry his hair, much to Salem's horror.
Salem moved to scold him, but was stopped in her tracks by the ultimate betrayal. Her stomach growled.
The pair had skipped lunch, and clearly, her stomach didn't appreciate it.
Jaune let out a hearty laugh. "I guess that means it's time to stop," Jaune said, pointing to a large tree on a nearby hill. "Set up camp there. I'll go hunting."
He was gone before Salem got the chance to object.
Salem was a very proud woman. She was an intellectual and one of the most gifted magic users alive, but she wasn't an outdoorsy type.
Salem sat at the base of the large tree, with her arms and legs crossed and a fierce pout on her face. "Set up camp he says. I'm a princess not a savage." It wasn't as if she didn't want to, but she simply didn't know how to.
When she was a young girl, her father told her stories about when he was a young man traveling out in the wilds and being a general pain in the rear to his grandfather. He spoke of large tents and groups of men sitting around a fire swapping stories.
That was a lot of information to work with, but there was one fatal flaw - she had never seen a tent before.
Hey, she was raised as royalty; cut her some slack.
Salem sat still for a long moment, pondering her options. Finally, she jumped to her feet with a smile that could petrify even the most heinous of monsters. "I've got it!" she exclaimed. "I'll just have to get creative."
Jaune suddenly felt a chill wash over him. It was as if the universe itself was telling him to run for his life.
It was probably nothing.
With his newfound ability, hunting became significantly easier.
For the record, Salem never told him the technique's actual name, so he settled for Mana Sense.
She hadn't lied to him when she said Mana Sense got easier to use. If he stood still and focused, he could trigger it in ten seconds. Jaune's goal was to get that down to five or less by the end of the week.
His train of thought was interrupted when the rabbit he was tracking jumped infront of him.
The poor thing died before it could react.
Jaune considered his hunt successful; he had killed four rabbits, just to be safe. That should hold them over until they found a town.
He sheathed his sword and looked to the sky. Dusk was rapidly approaching, and he was starving.
Jaune got about halfway back to the agreed-upon campsite when he saw it.
Surrounding the large tree were collapsed stone walls that resembled ancient ruins from a video game.
As he got closer to the... structure, he noticed Salem curled up into a ball on the floor, looking miserable.
Uh oh
Jaune crouched down next to her. "Hey... I'm back." No one ever claimed he was good at small talk.
Salem gave him the most evil side-eye he'd ever seen. She didn't say anything.
Gods, this was awkward. Who knew years of isolation could murder his already lackluster people skills?
Jaune sighed. "I'm going to cook these," he said, pointing to two of the dead rabbits. "I'll let you know when it's done."
Seven sisters and he was still no closer to understanding women.
As he moved to stand, Salem grabbed his arm.
He looked down and met her downtrodden eyes. "Can you teach me?" Her voice was eerily quiet.
In the week and a half since he'd met Salem, he had never heard her sound so vulnerable. He offered her a free hand. "Come on, let's get started."
Her face visably brightened.
As promised, he taught her. He showed her how to skin a rabbit and drain its blood, as well as all the separate parts.
She listened to him as if he were terminally ill and uttering his last words.
It was kind of creepy.
He set the second skewered rabbit on his improvised rack to cook.
The pair sat in silence before Salem spoke.
"You must think me odd," she stared straight into the small fire. "A princess who wants nothing more than adventure, but has no idea of the basics of adventuring."
Jaune had seen many outlandish things in his life, ranging anywhere from Ren with fully pink hair to a literal meeting with the Brother Gods. None of those things had come even remotely close to an insecure Salem.
In his previous life, he had always thought of Salem as a heartless monster who had abandoned her humanity. But now that woman sat across from him, confiding in him.
All the more reason to forget the past Salem and move on.
"No," Jaune said, taking a deep breath. "Salem, listen. You can't be great at everything, no matter how hard you try."
It might come back to bite him in the ass, but right now, he didn't care. He told her his story, albeit a little edited.
Jaune Unclasped Crocea Mors from his back and set it across his lap. "When I was seventeen, I ran away from a loving home to pursue the life of a knight." He tossed another stick into the fire. "I was completely unprepared. I left home with my sword, my armor, and my dreams." Reflecting back on his time at Beacon never failed to sting. "I faked my way into a school for aspiring knights."
Salem looked at him, stunned. He didn't blame her; it was a horrible idea with even worse execution, yet somehow he had still managed survive.
"I was failing my way through my combat exams." Those were very embarrassing memories. "But then one day a fellow student approached me. Her name was Pyrrha."
To this day, he owed Pyrrha a debt of gratitude that could never be repaid.
"She was the strongest of our group. She was very skilled and was incredibly intelligent; yet for some reason, she chose to speak to me, the weakest of our group." He rotated the cooking rabbit on the spit before continuing. "She took me under her wing. She taught me everything she knew and never asked for anything in return. She's the only reason I've survived this long."
Salem looked like she wanted to protest, but he didn't give her the opportunity.
"The moral of the story is that no matter how well-intentioned you are, everyone could use a helping hand sometimes." He learned this lesson much later than he should have.
Salem absorbed those words and looked deep in thought before speaking again. "That woman, Pyrrha...she died, didn't she?"
She really was perceptive. "Yeah, she died in battle."
"Why tell me this?" Her voice returned to that eerie quiet. "Are you saying I should abandon my dream?"
Jaune let out a long sigh. "No, all I'm saying is you should take your journey one step at a time." He looked her dead in the eyes. "No one in this world is strong enough to survive without any help. Lean on me if you have to, but don't brashly run to your death."
With that, the conversation was over.
They ate in a comfortable silence.
After she finished eating, Salem stood. "Thank you for your wisdom, Jaune," she said. "You've given me much to think about." She tossed the bones of her eaten rabbit into the fire. "I think I'll retire for the night."
Jaune finished his rabbit in silence.
Several hours earlier, a mysterious young man was seen traveling through a dense forest.
The man was of fair skin. He had dark brown hair and brown eyes.
This man was quite well-known; his name? Ozma of the Emerald Knights.
Ozma had been assigned a mission to locate the second daughter of the former King of Everday. The woman in question was rumored to have gone mad with grief after the death of her father and had been imprisoned for fear that she might harm others.
The current king felt as though his sister could be trusted to retain her sanity, and he personally entrusted Ozma with the mission to find her.
The king made it very clear that he did not want him to speak about his mission with anyone else.
Ozma was a man of his word.
He was very much regretting that fact at the moment.
It was incredibly difficult to conduct an investigation without being able to disclose any information.
If his current lead turned out to be a dead end, people might start thinking that the great warrior Ozma was an eccentric man with a love for old architecture.
He vowed to never let that happen.
After nearly an hour of walking, he finally found his big break.
Anyone who claimed to have seen Ozma running at inhuman speeds toward the tower was a liar who could not be trusted.
"Hello!" Ozma greeted excitedly. "Princess Salem of Everday, are you there?"
Ozma stood there for five minutes, waiting for a reply.
"Princess, are you there?" he called once more. "My name is Ozma. Your brother sent me."
More silence.
Ozma sighed in exasperation.
Today was not his day.
Ozma pointed his staff at the ground and used Earth Magic to create a staircase leading up to the only visible window.
"Princess Salem, I have come to...," he trailed off mid-sentence. Before him sat an empty room with no princess in sight.
Ozma thought that he could be forgiven for screaming at the top of his lungs in frustration.
And thats the chapter folks!
This chapter was a bit heavier than usual, but I decided that the earlier chapters needed some extra spice.
also here comes an Unidentified Flying Ozma!
I decided to throw him in a bit earlier than I originally planned to give the chapter some extra length.
Now, as promised at the start of the chapter, here's a quick list of things I've changed.
1.) I've aged up the characters. Jaune is now 23, Ozma is 21, and Salem is 21. I felt the need to do this for two reasons; the first being that I wanted to use a post Volume 9 Jaune, but I also wanted him to be more experienced. The second reason is that Salem was supposedly 16 at this time in canon, and that just doesn't make sense to me.
2.) I invented a magic system, since we know next to nothing about magic in canon. I will expand upon it further in future chapters.
3.) For Jaune, I haven't gotten a good opportunity to explain his appearance yet. I decided to try and fuse the look of Rust Knight Jaune with Volume 8 Jaune. He keeps the armor he had as the Rust Knight, but it's kept in good condition. For his hair, I'm keeping the white streaks in it, but his hair isn't the absolute tragedy that is the banana cut. Think of his Rust Knight look, but without the tail and slightly shorter bangs. There was only one real casualty in these changes, Jaune's glorious beard. it will not be appearing in this fic for some time.
Those 3 changes are the only noticeable things at the moment.
Anyway, leave a review and tell me what you think!
Until next time!