Chapter 3

"Miss Rose? Miss ROSE!"

Ruby looked up from doodling in her notebook, only to see a very irate Mister Simmons, her teacher and tutor group instructor glaring at her. Was she supposed to be paying attention in class? Yes, and she had been chewed out by her father by it, well, he attempted to anyways. She was keenly aware of her reputation in Signal as a delinquent, the only difference being that she had actually good or very good grades, so every attempt to chew her out during parent-teacher conferences was only a comment on her attitude and behaviour. Qrow always found it funny, her father did not, and yes, Qrow subbed in for Summer ever since she disappeared.

"It seems that you prefer to be scribbling on your notebook over paying attention in class, so then can you explain to me what happened to the Emperor of Mantle after the Great War?"

Part of the reason for her disinterest in the first place was because he was going over a topic she knew already. If he wanted to make an example out of her, then she may as well respond in kind. In the same monotone and disinterested voice, she gave her answer.

"The Kaiser of Mantle." She made sure to use the actual name in Mantellian to emphasize her point. "Captured by the King of Vale, was ousted by the Landesvertretung by a vote. He spent his remaining days in exile, near a small, isolated community on Anima. The Imperial system was dissolved, and the council system was adopted, as per the King of Vale's own demands."

If Mister Simmons had any reaction to that, he didn't show it. Instead, the school bell rang soon after Ruby's answer, causing everyone to begin packing up.

"We'll continue this another time! Miss Rose, please stay behind."

As her fellow classmates cleared out one by one, Ruby slowly made her way up to his desk, clearly thinking that she was to be reprimanded for her attitude, as it had happened so many times before. Instead, however, this time he had a slight grin on his face.

"So I was right after all… You do know your history."

Ruby raised an eyebrow at him, despite his old age, he was sharp in certain matters whenever she talked to him outside of teaching. With her father and uncle both being teachers, she personally interacted with a lot of them during social events at her house and whatnot. Mister Simmons was probably the oldest teacher at Signal, and he supposedly knew her parents for a long time now.

"Come now, I know you feign ignorance during classes, but you don't usually get distracted unless I'm teaching something you already know."

So he knew all this time? Ruby was a bit dismayed at being found out, but he didn't call her out on it in class, so why did he want to talk with her about it?

"How did I know? Miss Rose, I met your mother back when she still went by Summer Rosen. A very Mantellian last name I believe, or is it Atlesian now? I can't keep up with all these name changes at my age…"

Ruby knew this, her mother's family was from Mantle, but at some point Summer herself travelled to Vale, alone. Which was why she only knew of her grandparents from Tai's side, but from her own mother's side. According to Qrow when she asked him about it, Summer didn't speak much of it either, only that she left on bad terms. Regardless, that didn't matter now, Ruby knew her mother as Summer Rose, and her past didn't really interest her.

"Anyways, the point I was trying to make was that you have a knack for things that you are clearly passionate about. The cooking club's instructor told me of a wonderful dish you made last week, so that tells me that you have the ability to do great things in your own right."

"Is this about my career quiz?"

"Of course, unlike your father, I don't lie to my students."

Ruby blinked at him, clearly not expecting him to come clean to quickly.

"As your tutor and instructor, I see it as my duty to help any wayward students figure out a path that they should work towards. And right now, you are lost, am I wrong?"

Thinning her lips, she didn't want to respond to him, but unfortunately, the silence was also very easily taken as an affirmation.

"Oh don't be like that Miss Rose, society expects you to know your entire life goals when you're only in your teens. I personally disagree, and I believe that experimenting now and thinking more about it is what you should do instead. Don't put too much stock on the career quiz, it's only something that the school mandated us teachers to do. Tell me, have you ever heard of the saying, who are you, who do not know your history?"

Ruby shook her head, it wasn't something she encountered before. Mister Simmons just nodded his head, expecting that response as well.

"Well, then I recommend you ask your father about where your mother truly came from. It may give you a much-needed perspective on things."

Where she truly came from?

As Ruby was dismissed and walked down the halls of Signal, all she thought about was what Mister Simmons said. She knew her mother came from Mantle, but that was all she really knew, and until now, she was content with not knowing. Looking at the clock, her father should still be overseeing the combat classes for Yang's year. Clicking her boots, she turned around in one swift motion and began heading for the combat gyms across campus.

If you asked a student from the regular programme and contrasted it against one from the preparatory programme, they will say that those in the latter had an…elitist mindset most of the time. Signal was created very early on after the Great War as an institution to help prepare students going into Beacon, while the regular school component was made only during the Faunus Wars. Despite the regular school component outnumbering the preparatory component most of the time, there were still points of contention between the two student bodies.

For Ruby to walk into the preparatory part of campus, and especially the combat gym, needless to say, there were raised eyebrows at her.

"Victor, Yang Xiao Long! Alright, that's the last spar of the day, remember to take in what I said. Your opponent will usually not wait for you to recover before going in to take you out, dismissed!"

From what she missed, her sister had just won against an opponent in a spar. An opportune moment to turn up she supposed, as her father had also wrapped up with teaching and was now free. Unfortunately, her sister managed to spot her first.

"Ruby! Ain't it good to see ya-"

Shooting out of the arena like an artillery shell, Yang made a beeline right for her. Thankfully, Ruby was used to this and managed to sidestep away at the last second, causing her to instead skid onto the floor.

"Why do you do this all the time?"

Patting the dust off of her body, she didn't respond to her before wrapping her sweaty arms around Ruby herself.

"You reek of sweat, get off me."

"Aw, but I never see you here in this part of Signal! You always keep to the boring part even when dad and Qrow say you can-"

"Ruby? What are you doing here?" The voice of their father cut Yang off from saying any more, releasing her from the 'hug' in the process. As the other students began clearing out, her father walked over with a surprised expression. As her sister had said, she never thought of checking out what the other amenities Signal had to offer were like.

"Dad…I need to talk to you."

"Sure…? What's it about?"

"Ooooh, something serious? Can your big sis be a part of this as well?"

"This is about mom."

'Mom' of course, referring to Summer, and not the other person Yang has been chasing after for a while now. Tai and Yang both shared a look, as they clearly remembered the last time Ruby had asked anything regarding her was years ago now, so the sudden raising of that topic caused the two of them some concern.

"I want to know her past, who she really is."

Her father raised his eyebrows at Ruby before it quickly died down in apparent understanding. Ruby had dubbed the nodding he did whenever something he expected to occur the 'sage nod', and indeed, he was doing it again.

"Mister Simmons told you about it huh? Well, I guess it's time anyways, you two are old enough…"

"Old enough for what?" Yang asked suddenly, clearly out of the loop of whatever just happened.

"Okay fine, I'll tell the both of you after we get back home. There is something about Summer you two should know. Qrow and I have been holding off on telling it for a long time…"

"So, what do the two of you know about Mantle's history?"

Now in the comfort of their own home, her father had brought out the Xiao Long family tea set for this special occasion. Normally it was too expensive and fragile to be anywhere out in the open, so her father taking it out meant that it was important. Yang simply took a sip from her teacup, while Ruby answered dismissively.

"Enough."

Not that her knowledge was lacking, but there was simply a lot to cover with a question as vague as that. What part of it Mantle's history could he even be talking about? Pre-history? Modern history? History of its near non-existant cuisine?

"Good, so when I mention the Empire of Mantle you know what I'm talking about, right?"

It was an old name to describe the ancien regime, as the current Atlesian government called it. Though they of course, tried their hardest to make people forget about it and 'move on'. Ruby had mixed feelings on the matter, but she wasn't Atlesian so what they did mattered little to her personally.

"To put it simply…uh…oh Oum this is hard to put it into words."

"Oh come on, what's so earth-shattering about it?" Yang took the inopportune moment to take another sip, as her father's next answer caused her to choke heavily on the warm tea, spilling it all over the couch she sat on.

"I'm just going to say it. Your mother, Summer Rose, used to go by Summer Von Rosen, from a Mantellian Ducal family."

"Pfffttttttttttt-ACK!" Yang spilled her drink completely over her body, but she didn't react to it whatsoever, as her faze remained frozen at that revelation.

Ruby remained still, a lifetime of memories in a distant Navy gave her the fortitude to weather any shock or unexpected news without reacting in a manner unbefitting one of her presence. Though she outwardly looked calm, her mind inward could only be described as a veritable sea of white noise. Thoughts clashed against each other as they failed to form into coherent ideas.

Though indignant of her, she only had one thing to say in response. "Was?"

"It's true. She…never really talked about it, even back when team STRQ was still a thing! I still don't know the full story, your mom only ever gave out snippets at a time, but all me and Qrow really know was that she left her family in her teens and hitched a ride to Vale."

Tai's expression morphed into something resembling nostalgia mixed in with melancholy. He slapped his arm onto his thigh before speaking again. "I mean, there was this one time she got into an argument with a history professor at Beacon about her own family's history-but that's a story for another time. We talked about this for a while, and she said that we would let you know when you got older, but then…y'know."

"She was actually very similar to you, Ruby. Not the…style, but more like the personality."

"Wait, wait, wait. Mom, super-mom who baked us cookies and read bedtime stories to us was like Ruby right now?!"

The tone of Yang's voice made Ruby feel like she was insulting her somehow, but she let it go for now.

"Yeah, I know right?! The amount of stories I could tell… But back on topic, she didn't say much about her family in Mantle, only that she was an only child. Everytime we had a mission near Mantle, she went out of her way to avoid the district where the old nobility lived, guess she didn't want to run into anyone accidentally. Oh! Speaking of, there is something for you, Ruby."

Seemingly out of nowhere, he took out a box from behind his back. A wooden box, aged and probably seen much better days, decades prior that is.

"Summer really wanted to give this to you personally when you were old enough. Though she didn't say how old, I believe now is as good a time as any."

Sliding it across their living room coffee table, Ruby gingerly held it in her arms and inspected it. "What is…"

"I don't know, she never told me either, only that you should have it."

Unbuckling the flimsy latch that held it together, Ruby gently opened it, as if any amount of force exerted on it will have broken it completely. A few seconds later, the top part was completely flipped open, only to reveal…

"Is that a medal?" Yang, who had leaned in very close to Ruby commented out loud.

The ornately decorated cross-shaped medal was carefully maintained and preserved, and if Ruby read the years on it correctly, it was given during the Great War era. Taking it out, she noticed that it bore a resemblance to old Imperial medals from Mantle, and indeed, once she flipped it around, the seal of the old empire was on full display.

"Woah, for a place that banned art and all that during the Great War, they sure did make their medals real nice looking."

"So it was a medal after all…I thought I saw her fiddling with that every once in a while, never could confirm it. Well, what do you think? Anything special about it calling out to you?"

In Mistral, there was a concept of objects that held importance gaining an almost spiritual role for those who possessed them. It was the belief that the spirits could be channelled through them, as such that was the reason why her home had an altar to worship their ancestors. She didn't feel anything like that for the medal, instead, those same memories that surfaced within her yesterday came to the forefront once more.

"...Hail Ironblood…"

"Hm? What was that?" Yang asked with some confusion, evidently having heard her speak.

"Nothing. What…other stories were there about her?"

Ruby quickly changed the subject, lest Yang get any more ideas and ask her further. She had to remember that those were just memories, of a nation that she was not part of anymore, let alone exist in this world, it was best to let it remain so, as simple memories.

AN:

Review responses:

I'm assuming that she's an H39 variant, the same as Friedrich. See the WOWS model for a visual reference to her actual vessel.

Be civil in the reviews.