"Uh... um...?" Ashen mumbled under her breath as she peeled her eyes off her half-finished essay and turned around to look at Reza - only to be just as surprised as everyone else at the sight beyond the opened doors. "Uh... Yche, are you seeing this- Yche?"
Yche was sitting beside her, but unlike everyone else in the hall, she had not turned her attention to where Reza had gone. She already suspected that something was off, and now that the screech of the Nevermore reached her, she glanced from side to side, focusing on any faint sound that her eyes could pick up. What she could hear was not reassuring.
"There's a lot more than just one bird out there. I'm guessing... an entire pack of Grimm, approaching our position," she suddenly announced, getting not just Ashen's attention, but also the attention of the students sitting around her. One of the other girls rose from her seat and yelled:
"So-so we all got transported to a Grimm-infested forest a-a-and our professor just decided to vanish on us?!"
A handful of panicked screams and mutters followed, whipping up a frenzy of fear throughout the class. While a few of the students were eyeing the compartments in which they had left their weapons as they entered the hall, others were not even considering leaving their seats yet. They were still baffled by what was going on in the first place.
Then, a loud thud suddenly struck the side wall, instantly getting everyone inside of the chapel to tense up. Chairs and tables vibrated from the impact's shockwave, and a few students had to hold on to avoid falling off their seats. A Grimm's claw pierced through the wood of the wall, sticking out from the black and white, and was immediately followed by two, three, then four screams among the students.
Loud sniffs and growls seeping through the walls made it clear that the building was surrounded. Reza could see it with her own eyes - Nevermores were circling above them, and several Beowolves and Ursas jumped out of the thick foliage, slowly approaching her.
"What do we do...?"
"Why? Why on the exam of all days?! I'm already stressed!"
"I... We should fight, right? But-but we don't even know how many we're dealing with, or even what to do..."
There was no order, no plan being bounced around - everyone was only worrying about themselves. Fear was building up - and the fear was simply attracting more Grimm.
Yche clenched onto the edge of her table. This is really getting old. A few more thuds struck the building from both sides. She rose from her seat and yelled:
"Enough!"
Her voice, loud and booming, easily overpowered the chatter and occasional screams of her classmates - so, even in the middle of a siege, several dozen sets of eyes turned directly to her.
"What are you afraid of?! This is just another Grimm hunt! Grab your weapons and fight!" Yche continued. One of the students cried out:
"But this isn't like the Grimm hunts! We always had a professor tagging along with us, and now..."
"Well, now we'll all get to learn! Reza!" Yche then turned towards the doors, where Reza was shutting them close, just in time before a Grimm tackled them and struck them with a loud thud and a shake. "Throw me my Dømmesmo!"
Did she really have to name it...? Seriously, who does that? You couldn't say Yche did not obsess over weapons, but it was a bit too much to treat your weapon as more than just a tool. Nonetheless, Reza ran to the compartments, pulled out the Dømmesmo and then kicked the hammer forward - Yche raised her hand and caught it with ease. Following her, Ashen rose up from her seat and then crawled up onto her table - unlike her teammate, she wasn't going to get noticed by just standing up - and yelled:
"Alright, everyone! We ain't got much time," as if to picture her words, two more thuds by attacking Grimm struck the door, drawing the attention of a few students for a second and getting Ashen to briefly pause. "-Grab your weapons and get into groups of two, we're gonna be organisin' a defense!"
Reza pulled out Ashen's fire lance and tossed it towards the black-haired girl, then rummaged through her bag in the compartments to find her repeating crossbow. The other students were following through with the orders, too - leaving their seats, running to the "armory" and searching where they had left their weapons.
Time was scarce. A powerful blow suddenly struck the back of the building, sending wood and concrete flying across the room. An Ursa Major lowered its fist and approached the wide, gaping entrance it had just opened with the strike. Even more Grimm were circling the entrance from behind its back.
"I need a team at the back!" Ashen yelled and leapt to the air, activating her Aura wings and flying forward. Yche ran after her, leaping over the tables and taking to the air. Here, Ashen swept down upon the bear-like Grimm like a hawk - her lance pierced into the monster's head and allowed her to throw it into the air, where her partner smashed her hammer into it and slammed it down into the ground. The sheer force of the strike sent a thunderous shockwave through the building and disintegrated the Grimm.
"We-we're here!" two slightly younger students, both women, yelled out as they ran to the hole in the wall. Unlike their peers, who each had their own weapons, they had one weapon together instead - a multi-barrel machine gun they unfolded from a giant bag. One of the girls aimed and the other pulled up a long line of paper Dust cartridges, attaching it to the top of the weapon.
"Open fire!" Ashen yelled, descending back to the ground. A wolf-like Grimm leapt out of the hole and was about to thrash both girls and their machine gun, but it was ripped apart by a barrage of fire projectiles flying at the speed of sound. Its brothers, approaching the hole, suffered the same fate as soon as they entered the machine's range.
Alright, they're holding that front...
Right as that thought popped into Reza's mind, the door behind her was suddenly torn down and a Beowolf's claw went for her. She leapt to the ground and rolled away, took a few more steps back while dodging the creature's wild swings and slams, then yelled:
"I need a partner! And back-up!"
"Cons!" Martel yelled to Considine as he tossed his classmate's weapon, a long fishing gaff with a sharp edge that allowed it to double as a narrow sword, and then picked up his own, a much simpler arming sword with a sheath. "We can work as a team, right?"
Martel hadn't gotten a chance to see Considine in action, but his confidence made it seem like he'd be valuable on the battlefield. Cons, however, had another idea on his mind.
"Are you kidding? I need to get the hell out of here!"
Before Martel could even respond, the other student tipped his straw hat and ran past him, towards the now open doors. Still, he took off after him. "Wait!"
Reza was trying to load an arrow into her crossbow in the middle of the attack, but a shoulder strike clocked her in the chest and sent her to the ground with a pained yelp. The towering Grimm was distracted by Considine's run before it could strike down at the fallen student, however, and swung its arm at him as he brushed past. Another direct hit - Cons was thrown to the air and slammed into a nearby wall, then collapsed into the ground.
Even more Grimm were pouring in through the open doors. A few students opened fire with Dust rifles and hand cannons, but they could only slow down the bipedal wolves slashing about and demonic horses leaving behind a trail of fire in their trot. Getting closer and closer to the scene, Martel grit his teeth.
No, no, no...
He pulled his sword out his sheath, throwing the latter straight at the eyes of the Beowolf that stood above Reza. The hit forced the creature back with a growl, the sheath bounced back - so, he leapt up. In the middle of his jump, his hand caught the flying sheath and he descended downwards with a spin.
Right as the Grimm finished shaking its head and turned its eyes back to the fight, a powerful sword swing tore through it, from head to the floor. The bisected halves plopped down and disintegrated into particles.
Reza lowered her arm. Martel...? The same one who got knocked to the ground by Firre with a single blow a week ago? Sure, Firre was more talented than any one of them, thus he was their tutor, but it still tempered her expectations of him.
An Ursa ran at him, yet its slam was stopped by Martel's shield unfolded from the sheath. Once the Grimm tried to step back for another hit, however, it found itself pinned to the shield and thrashed about, struggling to pull itself off. His Semblance activated just in time - and the student stabbed the creature right in the neck, past its defenses. Once his blade ripped through the pitch-black flesh and ooze, the Grimm disintegrated much like its brother.
"Phew..." he sighed. His eyes briefly turned to Considine, who was slowly pulling himself back to his feet, then, after shooting his friend a dismissive look, he turned to Reza. "You said you need a partner? I-well, I can't say I'm good, but I've been trying to get better ever since..."
Still on one knee and loading arrows into her crossbow, Reza looked up at Martel. Her answer was blunt.
"Watch out, it's a Diomedes."
"Huh?-"
A fire-breathing Grimm horse tackled Martel from behind, throwing him into the air and then running after him. Reza pushed herself back, sliding across the floor, and fired an arrow on the Grimm's path - it unleashed a trail of ice that froze its legs and forced it to a halt. Martel landed back on his feet after a spin and thrust his sword forward, piercing through the head and neck.
Again, disintegration.
"Sure, we can work as a team," Reza said. "Get to the front and cover me. There's more of them coming."
And not just through the door and the entrance in the back. The wooden planks did not withstand the constant beating from the outside, and so Grimm broke through from one side, then another, running into the hall, tipping over tables, sending unfinished exams flying and knocking students aside. After bouncing off a Grimm's shoulders and letting Yche finish it off with a powerful slam, Ashen took off to the air above the hall and began laying out orders:
"We need two teams to the left! Someone who can pin down those Diomedes! And someone keep check on the right! Someone with bulk! That's a lot of-"
A loud, tremendous tearing sound rolled across the entire building. Someone, or something, was ripping off the entire roof of the hall.
"What the hell...?" Yche muttered under her breath, stopping in her tracks and raising her eyes up. One after another, the other students turned there as well. Wood cracked, ripped apart and flew to bits, a giant black palm lifted the roof up and pushed it aside. A glowing red eye looked down upon the students, some merely concerned, others outright panicking.
It was a giant Grimm, at least ten meters tall, fortified with bone protrusions that formed the shape of muscles on its humanoid body. Its skull was of a slightly different shape than a usual Grimm, only giving the creature a single, large eye. While its left arm ended with a human-like hand that curled into a fist, the other instead had a wrinkly, thick outgrowth that somewhat resembled a burned wooden club.
After Martel slashed through another Grimm, Yche turned towards the giant looming over them. A Cyclops...? Where the hell are we? Even miles away from the Kingdoms, you'd be impressively unlucky to ever see one. For now, it didn't seem like it was making any sudden moves, but-
"Ashen, look out!" she screamed. Too late. As she descended towards the ground, a massive fist suddenly struck Ashen in the air, instantly shattering her Aura wings and tossing her to the floor with a painful slam. Reza didn't hesitate - immediately, she ran forward, hopping past and knocking aside a few Grimm in her path, and stopped by her fallen teammate.
Panic was once again setting in among the students, only a handful were brave enough to fire a few shots, to no effect. The Cyclops continued its attack, this time raising its left arm and readying for a swing. Yche kicked off a Beowolf with a muscle-boosted leg, sending it back into the forest it came from, then leapt back to the centre of the hall. Damn it... They were in a pickle, for sure.
Once the giant sent its arm forth, trying to sweep off the students with the "club" appendage, Yche let all her muscles engorge - instantly, she grew two feet taller and the uniform on both her arms and legs was ripped off by the sudden bulge. Digging her heels to the ground, she caught the speeding mace with her arms - it pushed forward for a few more meters, easily pushing past wood, tables and chairs in its path, but then came to a stop, a meter before it reached the first of the grouped students.
The Grimm let out a grunt. Yche growled under her breath, over and over. Neither of them was able to push the other - the student and the giant were evenly matched in strength.
Or... were they? Briefly, Yche buckled under the pressure, pushed a step back by the Grimm before planting her feet down again. After all, it was far more difficult to retain your balance when you are human-sized and pushing against a giant club.
Reza briefly glanced at the struggle, then turned her attention back to Ashen, now slumped against a wall. "Are you alright?" The blow had been powerful enough to shatter through her Aura - so, a patch of her uniform on the left side of her body was now torn and a bit of blood was seeping through it. After a gasp, Ashen answered:
"I could be better..." She placed her hand on her chest. "Dear Reza Betula... As my last words before I am reunited with the brothers, I must tell you - this all could have been avoided if you had just helped us study for the exam... you will now be sent back in time to-"
The concern on Reza's face evaporated.
"...shut up."
"Sorry... just wanted to keep up a lighter mood," Ashen said with a sheepish smile. "We should... probably get that eye, somehow."
"Probably..."
But how was she going to reach it? Yche was holding on against one of the Cyclops' eyes, but the other could still swat her away - and it was slowly reaching into the building, aiming to pick up the muscular student, toss her aside or crush her.
A smaller Grimm approaching Reza was suddenly cleaved in twain by a fishing gaff. Considine ran past them, straight at the clash between Yche and the Grimm. Huh? He's still here? Wasn't he planning to run away?
Perhaps he was not as much of a coward as she thought. Considine only had his weapon at hand, it couldn't shoot, but he had another idea in mind.
One after another, he grabbed pens off the tables, bundling them together in his grasp. As soon as he came close, he squeezed, partially crushing the bundle, and then tossed them all at the Grimm. Professor Poucet was right - with enough pressure, they detonated. Dozens of sparks and small baps saturated the air, all against the Grimm's skin and forcing it to withdraw its hand.
Exactly the distraction that Yche needed to win her struggle. With a spirited yell and even more bulk poured into her muscles, she tossed the giant club back into the air. For the first time since its appearance, the Cyclops Grimm was pushed back. The students had an opportunity, a narrow one, but one they couldn't waste.
Sorry, Ashen, I'll fix you up later.
"Martel!" Reza yelled to her teammate as she ran to the fight and swiftly switched around the arrows loaded in her crossbow. A plan was brewing in her mind, it will require the most precise shots she's done in her life, but... I can do it. I can do it. I can do it. Reassuring herself in her mind was barely helping. "Bounce me up there, now!"
"I-uh, got it!"
Reza hopped to the air and Martel raised his shield. Right as she was about to bounce off, he pushed it forward - the additional momentum propelled her far into the sky, above the battlefield. Now then...
The giant Grimm was reaching forward again - this time with its right, squeezing the hand to a fist and aiming to smash it down on Yche. After a spin in the air, Reza landed on the knuckle and then began running up, jumping from one bone outgrowth to another. Her crossbow, meanwhile, aimed at the club-shaped left arm. She didn't have much time - as soon as the Grimm noticed that someone was running on its body, it lifted the arm and began shaking it.
Yet even though the ground beneath her feet was anything but steady and she was constantly on the move herself, Reza landed a shot on the left arm. Then a second, and a third. The Rock Dust crystals embedded in each of the arrow bolts activated, summoning a massive growth of stone from the ground that imprisoned the arm almost entirely. It was as if an entire cliffside grew out of nowhere and engulfed a good third of the ravaged study hall.
Reza flashed a confident smirk. Her hands instantly switched her ammo to an Explosive Dust bolt. She leapt off the shaking arm, flying in front of the Grimm's head, and aimed.
Luck didn't smile a fourth time.
The Cyclops' arm followed her and pushed against her right as she pulled the trigger - instead of hitting the Grimm right in its singular red eye, the arrow flew past it and into the forest, where it detonated in a powerful, brilliant explosion consuming several trees at once.
No!
The Grimm's arm knocked her aside, sending her crashing into a wall. Pieces and shards of her golden Aura dissipated as she fell.
"Reza!" Martel yelled, but stopped before he could reach her and turned to the giant. It was reaching towards him with its hand, while the stone pinning down its other arm was starting to crumble from the pressure. He braced for impact, shield raised, sword pointed.
A lance flew past, striking the Grimm straight in its eye. The sheer force behind the blow was enough to push the monster backwards a bit, its hand retracted, so Martel immediately turned to the direction of the attack. It was Ashen - even though she was bleeding, she stood on her feet, still in a lance throwing pose. While the Grimm was reeling back, she yelled:
"Yche! Hammer that! Everyone, open fire on that thing's head!"
"Right, got it!"
Yche swept up the Dømmesmo and leapt up - she jumped off a table, then ran across the side of the Cyclops' arm and threw herself straight at the Grimm's head. Hundreds of Dust blasts were flying past her - not only were the students who were not in immediate danger of the smaller Grimm opening fire, but so was their "heavy artillery", the machine gun, one guy who brought a hand-mounted siege cannon...
Her hammer struck the protruding lance. It went in even deeper, and the Dust stored within its storage detonated. It let forth a brilliant explosion that tore through the Grimm's skull. What remained was blasted apart by a destructive trail of machine gun shots, scattering disintegrating pieces of its body across the air.
"Woo..." Yche mumbled under her breath as she fell, exhausted. All around her, the giant Grimm's body was dissipating into a stream of particles, picked up by the wind. Martel caught her before she could crash into the ground, quickly placing her back on her feet.
Ashen was bleeding, Reza got her Aura broken... meanwhile, the fight was far from over. Dozens of Grimm were still scattered throughout the destroyed hall, and each of the students had to constantly fend them off. The loud screech of a Nevermore flying overhead reached them once more.
Or... was it over?
One after another, the Grimm stopped in their tracks. A light surrounded each of them, growing more and more intense before turning into individual bursts of raw energy that vaporized them. Complete silence set in.
"H-Huh?" Reza was the first to call out, with a confused yelp.
Their study hall's arrival here was already unexpected, but how could they have possibly anticipated all the remaining Grimm just... vanishing? Was it a Semblance? If so, then it was a Semblance none of them had ever seen before - nor did it resemble one at all.
The partially broken-down doors of the hall opened with a loud creak, immediately getting the entire class to turn in its direction, ready for battle - however, as soon as they saw who was standing there, they lowered their guns and tensed up.
"K-King Ozymandias?!" one of the students yelled.
Indeed, it was the King himself, in his royal uniform and with his hands gently resting on his cane. Besides him was Professor Poucet, bearing a smug smile.
While the rest of the class was almost agape, Reza pulled herself up from the wall with a groan. The King's presence was awe inspiring, most of the students here had never even seen their ruler face to face... but the fact that both him and the Professor were so at ease raised a suspicion in the blonde-haired girl's head which he immediately confirmed.
"I came here to congratulate you all with finishing your exam for the esteemed position of Ranger in the Vale Ranger Corps. Your faces seem rather... weary after the testing," Ozymandias flashed a brief smile. "So, I will keep this speech brief to you all."
One after another, the students looked at each other, confused. They had... been interrupted in the midst of the first part of the exam, were they not? Not only did they still have to finish their essays, and all the other tasks, but they also still had to do-
"Wait, wait, wait- uh, Your Majesty, Professor, so... was this the exam?" Ashen asked.
The King answered with a slow nod.
"You have just finished the second part of your final Ranger exam, yes." He tapped his staff against the ground. "While theoretical knowledge is necessary for any aspiring Ranger, I am sure you all understand that there are times when it is not enough. There are times when the right leader can appear among the ranks of the troops even when they would not be able to pass an exam on what they preach - and that is no weakness. That too is an expression of your real self, what we welcome among the ranks of the Rangers. The test that you went through today was to pierce into exactly that. To see - which of you would be the first to step up in time of need and lead others?"
Slowly, Reza crawled up to Ashen and placed her hand on her friend's wound - immediately, the Aura transfer and acceleration of natural healing began patching it up and the bleeding stopped.
"But... they destroyed our written exams!" another student yelled as she shuffled through what remained of her exam - no more than shredded pieces of paper - after a Grimm ravaged through it. This time, Professor Poucet was the one offering answers - she giggled and stepped forward, past their king, then began:
"We knew this would happen in advance. Remember your pens?" she raised her finger. "There was... one more quality to them that I withheld from you two hours ago. The fact that their ink is a Dust infusion means that what is written with it can be transferred... a relatively short distance, on another piece of paper. So, while you were writing your answers on your sheets, I received all of them right here!"
The professor raised a stack of papers in her hand, each one inscribed with writing identical to each of the students', and grinned in victory. "Don't worry. If you did not do some of your written tasks in time, we will not count them for your final score." That got a few of the students to draw a breath in relief.
Of course, a faint bitterness also hung in the air. After all, up until now, they all thought that they could die - yet, this whole time, it was apparently no more than a test, one that wasn't even as dangerous as they were led to believe, it seems.
After healing Ashen, Reza stood up and said:
"Uh... Professor, I have to ask one more thing."
"Yes?"
"How... how did you bring us to this forest in the first place? We entered this hall, in Lantern Academy, then, when I finished my exam, I stepped out, and..." Lacking the words to convey her bafflement, she ended up just waving her hands and pointing at the forest outside, to the diminutive professor's amusement. Poucet placed her hands on her hips and approached the student - then, she put her hand forward.
"Sure, I'll show you - take my hand."
After a moment of hesitation, Reza did, and the professor then dragged her feet against the ground - from the point of view of everyone around her, they both suddenly vanished, getting Ashen to jolt back with a shocked yelp.
Everything around them turned to a blur, and before she knew it, Reza found herself standing in the middle of Lantern Academy - in front of a barren rectangle-shaped field where the study hall stood a few hours ago.
"I-uh-"
"Hehe, Semblances can be quite a funny lottery, can they?" Professor Poucet said, then raised her foot and tapped on her boot. "Mine was quite annoying to figure out the full workings of. By making a specific step on the ground, I can travel exactly seven miles - or bring something else with me. You all just didn't notice, because you were travelling the leap with me, ehehe!"
"-oh, uh... I see..."
Still with a bright smile, Poucet folded her hands behind her back. "You and your friends made quite a splash today. Even the King took notice. That's quite a promising start for you - we... will definitely this kind of talent in the next few months."
It was impossible to not notice the brief tinge of gloom that set into the professor's speech at the last sentence.
Velinn Flare placed his thumb on the button of the receiver on his desk, still a little unsure whether he was operating the device right. A few months ago, one of his associates in Mantle shipped this device past the kingdom's export controls - apparently, it could receive transmissions from an enormous relay tower outside of Mantle and thus allow the user to communicate with receivers in Mantle from thousands of kilometres away. When the best method of receiving information outside of the range of the radio towers of each kingdom was manual couriers, this was quite a revolution, and Velinn was forced to listen to a lot of overly optimistic visions of a worldwide relay network that could connect all of Remnant and thus somehow prevent wars from ever breaking out again.
That was a lot of hokey, if you asked him. Still, it certainly did not hurt to be able to communicate with his business partners in Mantle without being forced to send his interns on treacherous journeys across the sea.
"Velinn Flare, House of Trade, speaking."
From within his black jacket, behind his reddish tucked scarf, he pulled out a cigar, just to calm his nerves. It took a few seconds for the large plastic box to produce a voice filtered by its speaker.
"Ah, Velinn, it has been a while. News about what is happening on the other side of the sea is getting scarce, it seems. How are our operations going on the streets? Are you providing all the help they need?"
Velinn frowned and briefly tapped on his thin moustache.
"Not so good, Patrimpus. We're facing some... unexpected difficulties."
"What do you mean?"
The chairman of the House of Trade paused. How do I say this... "Every time you deploy another team of those hunters, they get quickly rounded up and arrested. There's a counter-group that seems to have formed ever since we started recapturing your property, made up of wannabe Rangers and led by the Prince of Vale himself. So, escaping slaves keep... slipping through their fingers."
For a few seconds, the receiver went silent.
"That's no good, Velinn."
"How am I supposed to fight against the Prince himself? I've brought his gods damned annoying vigilantism to the Council numerous times, and every single time, my petition has had no effect. The King himself is covering for his son, and I-"
"I don't care what excuses you have - we had a deal. We'll keep up the trade route to Vale if you recover our escaped animals from within your kingdom, and once the men deployed by our King are on Valean soil, it's you who is supposed to cover for them and help them. If you're so powerless that you can't even do that, we might have to rethink this partnership."
This really was not going well. Velinn leaned closer to the receiver and yelled:
"I'm doing everything I can! Look... we both need to keep up trade across the ocean. Sixty percent of my group's exports go to Mantle. That's a lot of mining and Dust manufacturing jobs at risk. If this trade route gets shut down, both of us are going to feel the hurt."
"You will. Everyone in Mantle is reorienting towards Mistral, because they see your kingdom as too much of a risk - and I'm still weighing my options there, too. You know Mistral's a far bigger market than your dinky green town, and I might even double my profits if I reorient there at the right time. You're in no position to be giving me threats, Velinn. They're rather pathetic, anyway, even for a Valean."
Velinn rubbed the base of his nose, between the eyes, with a deep, pained sigh. This was supposed to be so simple - he makes a deal with Mantle's trading corporations to keep up trade between the House of Trade and Mantle even under restrictions, as long as he helps the Mantleans recover some of those escaped animals. It seemed like such a low price for such a good deal - he couldn't care less what happens to those damn beasts, and as far as he was concerned, they deserved to be kept in their leash. Lesser intelligence, unable to even operate without a human giving them orders... it's almost a favour to their kind.
Yet, here he was, forced to listen to reports that another group of Mantlean slave hunters were stopped by the Prince and his little vigilante posse, and be yelled at by his business partner for not holding up his end of the deal. Gods damned crazy kids... Did they want to start a war with Mantle? Sometimes, it felt as if he was the only person with a rational head on his shoulders in this entire Kingdom.
Velinn was about to speak back to the receiver, only to be interrupted by the door of the office opening. One of the House's clerks, dressed in the usual dark business suit, announced with a voice exhausted by a frantic run:
"Mister Flare, there's someone who wants to see you!"
"Chaurirari, I am busy, can't you tell? Tell this person that I will-"
"It's Prince Firre, sir. He showed up unannounced, and he claims he's sent here by the King himself. Right, so, should I tell him..."
This immediately got Velinn to change his tune. "No, no, ignore what I said. I'll talk to him." Briefly leaning closer to the receiver, he said: "I'll call you later, Tellavel. Important matters." and removed his finger off the device's button.
If it weren't for the consequences, I'd smash that kid's teeth in right now, but...
Without saying anything else, Velinn fixed his coat and departed through the door. Making his way through the snaking corridors of the enormous House, following the clerk, he snapped the end of the cigar open and allowed the Combustion Dust to faintly light up, then drew a smoke. Soothing on the nerves, as always. Thank the gods that Vacuo hasn't cut off any trade with Vale - he wasn't sure how he'd survive the next few months without these.
They descended to the ground floor - whereas the upper floors of the complex of the House of Trade was full of offices, below them was one giant, open hall, generally used for expositions and trade fairs. Today, however, it was not very busy - people were moving through, plenty of carts and trucks were moving along, but most of the hall was wide and open. Prince Firre, in his royal uniform, was talking to two of the trading conglomerate's junior staffers in the centre, but all three of them turned to the approaching businessman as soon as he was in their sights.
"Mr. Chairman," one of the staffers confirmed with a nod as soon as Velinn approached, then stepped aside. Even for someone talented at reading faces, it'd be difficult to notice that he was completely livid - decades of experience wheeling and dealing with everyone from bright and enthusiastic defenders of the workers to elderly experienced councillors had hardened him.
"Ah, Your Highness, the rising star of your generation himself, it is good to meet you," he said, reaching forward for a handshake. After a second of hesitation, Firre accepted it, though Velinn immediately noticed that his grip was considerably firmer than he'd expect of a twenty-year-old. "How are your father and mother? I've noticed both of them have reduced the number of their public appearances, especially Queen Nehrung."
"They're fine," Firre dismissed his faux concern. "There's something specific I want to talk to you about, face to face. Basically..."
"Oh, perhaps I should bring us to our lounge, first? Offer you some tea and biscuits?"
"Thank you, but I'm not planning to stay here for a while, so I think I'll pass."
Velinn flashed a brief frown. If it weren't for who this royal was, he'd almost appreciate the lack of decor and straightforward attitude - he's wasted too much time during his life engaged in meaningless, yet necessary small talk and coffee. The two men began slowly strolling through the hall, leaving the businessman's employees behind. Everyone around them was busy. Carts of imported goods pulled and pushed to every direction, supervisors yelling orders to move boxes here or there, workers and clerks standing around and chatting on their break...
"So, then, may I help you? If the Royal Family sent you here without informing beforehand, it must be an emergency."
"Not an immediate one, but more or less so. See, I have been investigating a series of incidents in Vale, Mr. Flare - apparently, Mantle has been sending armed gangs that are trying to kidnap our own citizens and take them to slavery in their-"
"Oh, that's terrible."
"...Right," Firre stated after a brief pause. "We've been trying to stop them wherever we can, but if we want to put a stop to this, we need to figure out how they slip into our kingdom and how they operate."
Expected. Velinn flipped the cigar in between his fingers around a few times. "That is despicable - Mantle keeps violating every treaty they have with us, and now they've become a direct threat to our people, too. I wish you the best of luck."
"Good. That means you can help me."
This blunt statement by Firre immediately got the businessman to pause. "I... beg your pardon?" Where is he going with this, now?
"We've discovered a few things while investigating the operation of the slave hunters. Thanks to a friend, we found a trail through the weapons we captured off them - apparently, they once belonged to your company."
Immediately, Velinn stopped, getting Firre to stop and turn to the businessman as well.
"This is ridiculous, Prince," he declared. "We are not involved with this slave catching ring, I can assure you - your friend most likely made a mistake."
"I am not trying to accuse you of anything, Mr. Flare," Firre answered. "The matter of fact is, though, that the weapons we captured were custom-made designs that were built by a specific weapons designer in the Mountain Glenn underworld. He confirmed that those weapons were originally bought by your company."
That... that rat... Of course, what more could he expect of the criminals and mafia in Mountain Glenn? They would sell any information as long as money was involved somehow - in retrospect, he could not have expected his company's purchase of black-market weapons to stay secret forever. Sadly, it was the only option he had to arm the Mantlean hunters, any guns he could get off legal channels ending up in criminal hands would be even easier to track down to them...
Firre could tell that Velinn was being pushed to the corner - so, he continued the pressure:
"Why did you buy weapons off the black market, when Vale has plenty of legal weapon manufacturers? Are you trying to hide something?"
"Please, there's no need for such insinuations," Velinn replied with a pushing back hand gesture, to get the conversation to settle back down. "I am not directly responsible for procuring weapons. This is a large corporation, a union of several trading companies, and each of them has their own practices. I will ask for a full audit - if our weapons were stolen from us and then used in crime, then we will figure out who, when and how."
This was too close, way too close. The Prince and his kindergarten were much closer to figuring out the full extent of his deals with Mantle than he anticipated - it would only take a few more pieces of information for him to get the rough picture. He had to find a way to salvage this.
And then an idea popped into Velinn's mind. An unlikely one, but one that might just work.
"In fact, Your Highness, I would like to schedule another meeting in a week's time, after our audit. At my Dust mine in the town of Sumire, if possible."
This got Firre to raise his eyebrow. "Sumire? In the Frontier? Why not here?"
"I will be there from next week onwards. Now that the train line from Vale to Sumire is online, I need to attend to planned expansion there. We'll be able to discuss everything in full, and I'll be able to present any information from our audit that might help you in this investigation."
Velinn then put on a confident smile and crossed his arms.
If I need to get rid of you for the Mantleans, then I'll just have Mantle and Mistral get rid of you themselves.
Firre merely glared at the businessman at first, his eyes narrowed and his expression suspicious, but, suddenly, he changed his tone - he flashed a smile himself and nodded.
"Of course. I'll be there."