CHAPTER 3: WARRIOR AND THE LUNATIC
The room is quiet, all attention directed to Jaune sitting on his chair with a smile till Salem breaks the silence.
"Jaune, may I ask what is this about?"
"Apologies, mother, for making you worry." as he stood up and predated around the room explaining his situation.
"I made some plans with the knowledge of Remanent I obtained during my three months of study. However, to ensure my plan to succeed, I need to see if my skills haven't dulled on me while I was asleep or if I need to evolve my skills of today's warriors. In this case, Huntsman and Huntress that I would face in the future." As he stops at the opposite end of the table, facing his mother with a smile with confidence while his mother isn't impressed, giving him a stern stare.
"So, it's training then?" she crooks an eyebrow towards Jaune, confused. She knows her Son is strong enough to beat Hazel and Tyrian and even defeat Ozpin's highly skilled Huntsman. Thanks to his accomplishments and experience from past battles and wars, he shouldn't have a problem. Then again, Jaune has a point; most of his fighting techniques are "old" and easily countered by more skilled and advanced techniques. Perhaps this is necessary for Jaune's survival. She sighs, forcing herself to admit that his right. Hazel and Tyrian could help Jaune evolve his technique further, even perhaps learn something to adapt.
"Very well…Hazel, Tyrian, train my Son well. Ensure that he will survive till the end. Hazel teach him the use of dust during combat and Tyrian…" she pauses, looking at the man cackling, pleasing his Goddess.
"… don't you dare hold back." She leers
"Of Course, my Queen. I would never dare to insult the Prince." Tyrian cackles excitedly while he bows.
"Then it's settled. I'll see you both outside," Jaune announced, leaving the room.
As soon Jaune left, Hazel turned to Salem, a bit concerned about her request to not hold back on her Son.
"My Queen, are you sure it's wise not to hold back?"
"He may look seventeen. But do not underestimate my Son, or it will be your end. Now go." She orders as she gets off her throne to face the window as they leave. She sees her Son in the open field through the window with a sword and shield in hand, black with red accents. Then notice, Jaune isn't using his original sword but using his brother's sword. Unlike the colour of his shield, the blade Crocea Mors is the polar opposite of white with a gold accent.
Unknown to Jaune, Salem notices Emerald spying on her Son peaking over the pillar. She crooks her brow to the young woman, wondering if she's spying under Cinder's orders or her desire.
Jaune waits patiently, carrying his shield and wielding his sword, thrusting and swinging his sword to an imaginary opponent. Another knight, arm too with a shield and sword, charges towards Jaune with his blade attacking him while Jaune quickly raises his shield to deflect the attack. Giving an opening for Jaune to strike for the kill, striking at the arm holding its sword, forcing it to let go of its weapons and hit straight for the kill on its chest. The imaginary knight fall to the ground, fading from Jaune's mind as he sighs in disappointment. Jaune stakes his sword into the dirt while wiping the sweat off his brow and sighs in frustration.
Unknowns to him, both Hazel and Tyrian watch in amazement of their Prince's skill and how he wields his sword and shield. Even though it was a short warm-up, it shows both warriors that their Prince is an experienced fighter and unsure why their Prince needs this training.
"That was amazing, my prince." Tyrian approaches while cackling; he bows impressively towards the Prince, while Jaune doesn't sympathize with Tyrian.
"No, it isn't…the problem with fighting an imaginary opponent. You always win. But with an actual opponent…." As he pulls the sword off the ground and points it towards the two with a stern look.
"It forces you to adapt to the unknown. As I learn that these Huntsman and Huntress uses what call mecha-shift weapons, dust and semblance, which I'm already assured." Hazel gave some thought to the Prince's statement and his right. The weapon he uses isn't a Mecha-shift weapon, making the prince fighting style predictable against his opponent. In comparison, the Prince struggles and adapts against his opponent. There are over thousands of combinations of mecha-shift weapons that turn a melee weapon into a firearm. Then a thought occurred to Hazel that might be beneficial to the Prince as he steps forward, making his presence known.
"My Prince, if I may be so bold. Would it benefit you to forge yourself a new mecha-shift weapon?" he asked.
"I can see where you're coming from, Hazel. But no, I'm in short of time as my plans against Ozmas is coming close, and it would take me a year or so to master my new forge weapon. Which result missing my window of opportunity." He explains, which surprise both Tyrian and Hazel of the Prince to already have a plan against Ozpin.
"Now come! Which among you will be my first opponent!?" he said with determination. Raising his shield, covering his body with his sword raised and resting against his shield. It made Tyrian more excited, and step forward with a cackling laugh and bows towards Jaune.
"It would be my honour, my Prince. To be your opponent and give you a taste of what's to come against Ozpin." Then turns to Hazel with a wide grin.
"Hazel, my Friend. How about you be the referee? In case things get a little too violent for the Prince?" he chuckles sadistically. At the same time, Hazel leers towards the Tyrian, concerned about the Prince's safety against Tyrian, even though he never shows it. As far as Hazel's concerned and knows for a fact, Tyrian is sadistic and enjoys torturing his opponent, regardless of who it is. As long it was in the honours of his "Goddess" of how he sees Salem. Even Salem is fully aware of what Tyrian is capable of. If she gave Tyrian an order, he'd follow it through till the end.
She is permitting him not to hold back against her Son. The only thing that Hazel could think of was why Salem was letting this happen. To discipline him or she's confident of Jaune's skills. However, she did warn them not to underestimate him just because he looks young. But seeing the Prince eyeing his opponent ready for their fight, to begin with, intense focus. His posture is firm, stance steady, and shield held ready, showing his years of experience on the battlefield show. He positions himself at the middle edge of the stage, eyeing both opponents looking prepared. He raised his hand and made an announcement.
"Ready?" as both opponents nod, then he swings his arm down, signalling the start of the fight. In an instance, Jaune charges straight towards Tyrian with great speed, surprising Tyrian off-guard. Jaune rammed his shield towards Tyrian's chest, pushing all the air out of his lungs and falling to the ground.
"don't see me as the Prince of Grimm! See me as an opponent!" he shouts, annoyed, and without a moment pause, he charges again with the intent of killing. With the Prince expression maddening and disappointment towards the scorpion Faunus. He is swinging his sword over his head down directly toward Tyrian with the intent to kill with hesitation gone and the only mindset to kill. But Tyrian quickly pick his legs up, kicking the side of Jaune's sword missing him as he dodges out of the way and quickly jumps back to his feet. His tail unwraps from his waist, and blades deployed out of his gauntlets resembling pinchers of a scorpion. With a crackling smile, he charges towards Jauen with intent speed swinging his arms haphazardly with intense speed and strength. At the same time, Jaune raised his shield force to defend and was unable to attack thanks to Tyrian's hit and run tactic. Of attacking and backing from Jaune, and when Jaune was able to attack, Tyrian acrobatically dodges out of the way with his speed. This fight is getting nowhere for Jaune, and he needed to bait Tyrian closer for an attack.
Hazel watches intensely towards the match and already sees the Prince struggling to keep up with Tyrian's speed and tactics. Hazel wanted to end this, seeing that this was already a one-sided battle. However, the Prince made it clear that he doesn't need to be a deterrent. So he'll let the struggle continues until he notices the Prince's stance change and readjusts his shield with the point of the heater shape shield pointing down to his hand. Widening his arms and legs apart, Hazel paused to take in his new stance, and after a second, his brow furrowed in confusion. Unable to understand why is the Prince leaving himself open, spotting several large, gaping holes in his defence, holes that had not been there before. Jaune's stance took Tyrian's attention and took a pause of the Prince's new stance and stares in confusion and waited for the Prince to make a move. But he didn't and stood in position; his gaze is boring into Tyrian as a taunt. The Look of confusion turns to a cackling smile as he tries to contemplate the Prince's plans. Unable to understand Jaune's plan excites him calling out to him, saying, 'I'm for the kill'. Bending his knees, Tyrian Propell himself towards the Prince, swinging his bladed pincers upwards at the hole of his defence right at the left side of his torso, just below the armpit. The sound of the metal clashed as Jaune's shield deflected the blow at the last moment.
Tyrian's eyes widened, then turned to a curious look then caught sight of the Prince's blade coming in towards him from the corner of his vision. He hurried and brought up both of his bladed pincers to block the Prince's attack, locking their weapons and now pinning Tyrin in place with Jaune's strength, unable to move. Then he sees Jaune raising his shield and cine hurling towards him like a punch. That's when Tyrian deploys his mounted guns and pulls the trigger to use the recoil to push Jaune's weapon out of the way and jump away from the Prince for some distance. Tyrian smiled with a more craze cackling laugh while giving the Prince mild applause.
"Wahaha! That was a dangerous technique! I love it; it's practically saying, 'I'm here! I'm here! Kill me! Kill me!" He laughs and bows towards Jaune.
"My Prince, I beg you, you must teach that technique!" He begs with his cackling smile and crazes eyes towards Jaune.
"Beat me, and I'll consider it." To which Tyrian's smile grew even more with an excited chuckle.
"Oh, believe me, my Prince. I intend to."
Without haste, he quickly aims both of his mounted guns towards the Prince. He fires while running circles around Jaune with a smile, forcing him to raise his shield to block the incoming projectiles. But Tyrian didn't stop, and he ran towards Jaune; unknown to Jaune, the bullets stopped and quickly peeked over his shield and saw Tyrian running towards him. Jaune quickly jumps to gain some distance apart, which Tyrian predicted he would and promptly leapt into the air towards Jaune. In a last-minute decision, he quickly raises his shield, forcing Tyrian to land on it. He was surprised by the Prince's strength to lift his shield along with Tyrian's weight. Jaune swings his sword towards Tyrian as he leaps out of the way. Still, Jaune followed up the momentum of his body to follow the motion to spin, swinging his left arm wielding his shield throwing it toward Tyrian. To Tyrian and Hazel surprise, seeing the Prince use his shield in such a manner works when the shield hits straight to the Tyrian's ribs. Luckily Tyrian's Aura protected him from getting a collapsed lung but not from the pain. At the same time, Jaune's shield ricocheted back to him and caught it back to his arm.
But Jaune didn't stop as he charged and threw his shield again to Tyrian's head, stunning him while the shield ricocheted back to Jaune. Just the shield approaches, Jaune leaps in the air and catches it. While in the air Jaune kick the side of Tyrian's head with a hard kick, dazing him even further. But Tyrian wasn't out of there as he tried to strike Jaune with his bladed gauntlets. While Hazel understood the Prince's strategy, thanks to Aura, it would protect the user, but the pain will be the same. In this case, blunt force trauma stunned his opponent long enough for an opening to take down the most skilled fighter, Tyrian. He is known for his speed and agility; he would be a difficult target to hit, let alone find an opening. At the same time, that suicide technique that the Prince is using is baiting Tyrian to come closer as he knows Tyrian; he couldn't resist going for the kill.
Just as Hazel snapped himself back to reality, he could see Tyrian struggling to defend himself. At the same time, Jaune continues his onslaught of attacks with his sword and throwing shield combo. Even now, Jaune is circling Tyrian around to prevent him from retreating; it seems the tables have turned in the Prince's favour. Hazel will admit; it is refreshing to see the Prince's skill level as a warrior, seeing his mental focus and train to his opponent of intent.
Just as Tyrian thought, he found an opening when he deflected both Jaune's shield and locked his other pincer onto his sword. Pushing them apart, giving a clear opening of Jaune's defence, exposing the Prince's chest, he unwraps his stinger out of his waist. He rises above his back with a clear trajectory of his stinger with the intent to kill. Hazel is shocked beyond expectation; he thought Tyrian would brutally beat the Prince half to death. Not literally to kill him with his stinger! Without haste, Hazel climbed onto the stage, rushing towards the combatants and digging through his pouch to pull two dust crystals. A large dust lightning crystal increases his physical ability and speed, and his hard light dust crystal creates a barrier. Hoping it's enough to protect himself and the Prince. But he was too late; even if he impaled the dust crystals into his arms and pushed the Prince out of the way, the stinger will graze the Prince and inject his poison. But what Hazel didn't expect was when he saw Tyrian's stinger deflected off the Prince's Aura inches away from his chest.
"What!?" Tyrian shouts in shock as well as Hazel of seeing what just happened. It deflected Tyrian's stinger away from the Prince's Aura! Tyrian's stinger can pierce through anything, even when Aura is up, but to see it deflect away from the Prince's Aura, it's impossible.
In that split second, Jaune drops his sword and quickly slams his palm to Tyrian's face and promptly place his leg behind Tyrian's to trip. Then grip his palm on Tyrian's head while he falls, slamming his head to the ground with immense force on the ground, making a crater, shattering Tyrian's Aura. His limbs came limp; Jaune lets go to see Tyrian, now unconscious with his eyes open and rolled back to only to see white in his eyes. Jaune sighs in disappointment as he walks away from Tyrian and past Hazel, picking up his sword along the way and sheathing his sword. Snapping his fingers, a seer Grimm approaches the Prince, a glass orb hovering with tendrils of bone claws at each end.
"Some refreshments, please", he orders as the Seer leaves.
He took a deep breath as he pulled up his shirt, wiping the sweat off his face, then turned to Hazel with a smirk. "Hazel, while Tyrian is unconscienced, how about we spar?" he asks, snapping Hazel to reality, gazing to the Prince and giving a crooked brow.
"My Prince, you just defeated Tyrian. Shouldn't rest first?" he questions in concern, but Jaune blankly replies.
"You and I both know Hazel; there are no rules on the battlefield. And to be perfectly honest, my match with Tyrian is disappointing, not enough of a challenge. Then again, I am up against an assassin. They're not prone for facing their opponents; they mostly use hit and run tactics or quick kills for unsuspecting targets."
"Going beyond your limits…" remembering his Prince's goal of this training
"Exactly," Jaune replies as he places his shield and sword aside and faces Hazel.
"Hazel, you're a master of hand-to-hand combat, correct?" he as Hazel nods towards the Prince. "Then come; I like to see if my skills haven't dulled on me." he motions his hand for Hazel to come at him. Hazel sighs, kick Tyrian off the stage and face the Prince with his arms raised in his stance. While Jaune raised his left hand with his arms stretched out and his right arm placed on his back.
Hazel crooks an unfamiliar brow of Jaune stance but ignores it and waits for the Prince to make the first move like he did with Tyrian. And he's right, Jaune charges in striking Hazel with his elbow, but Hazel caught it in time before it would hit his chest, yet he can feel the pain of his palm, which witnessed the attack. Hazel quickly retaliates as he throws a punch with his other arm, but Jaune promptly jump out of the way, but Hazel gives chase towards him just as Jaune lands and begin throwing a volley of rapid punches towards the young man. Showing no form or technique behind his punches, just Raw punches, yet each of his punches shows that they're tempered with intelligence. But there was one thing clear, his holding his strength. As Jaune notice as he effortlessly dodges and hit away Hazel's fist with only just his left hand, as this is tedious to Jaune, giving Hazel a dull look. Which to Hazel slowly infuriate and amaze of the Prince's skill, as this slowly tires himself.
"How disappointing...Are you a warrior? Or are you a pacifist? Too afraid of your strength?" Jaune sighs while continuing dodging Hazel's attacks while his brow crease.
"You know, Watt's told me everything about you during my studies with him. He told me that you fought against my mother multiple times. But of course, thanks to her curse, you can't kill her. You saw it first hand till you weren't able to move." He continues dodging and blocking Hazel's punches effortlessly while he jabs his fore and middle fingers into different sections into Hazel's arms. Unbeknownst to Hazel, while he kept swinging his arms towards Jaune, he noticed his arms were slowly feeling numb for some reason and at the same time noticed his punches are slowing in both speed and even strength that Jaune and more effortlessly just slapped his punches away. With the weight and the momentum of Hazel's punches carrying him to follow through and fall to the ground, confused about what had just happened and why is his arms paralysis?
He turns to the Prince to see him with a bored and disappointing look towards Hazel, which slowly infuriate the man towards the Prince. Yet somehow, in this scenario, this reminds him of the time he fought with his mother. Given everything he had to fight Salem but only see his effort fruitless, no matter how hard he tries, she still stands looking down on a useless man, yet she smiles at him just like what the Prince is doing to him now.
"Than mother decided for you to join our ranks just after the loss of your sister. And the reason you fight for her is not only out for revenge for your sister; it's through fear, not loyalty to mother. In my opinion, it's cowardice and idiotic; you could've tried to send what you learned to Ozma. But no, instead, you went to the dragon's den to kill yourself, with blind determination believing you would defeat my mother and get revenge. But only to learn Ozma's pathetic strategy, to send his "hunters" to their executioner. No matter how many times Ozma sends his hunters, Mother will always live through it, while you stand "loyalty" to her." as Jaune emphasize the word loyalty to Hazel in a mocking tone, while he gave Jaune a stern look.
"What is your point, my Prince? Isn't that a good enough reason? Join the winning side? Knowing I will get my revenge, while your mother creates a new world." he argues, losing his temper, reminding himself that this boy is also the Son of the man who got his sister killed, as Jaune sighs in boredom and annoyance.
"Let me guess; she said she'll create a utopia of peace to help your conscience, that there will no need for young huntsmans and huntresses to lose their lives in a pointless war." He says sarcastically, giving Hazel a wide-eye of shock, staggering the Prince of how he knows. He knows Salem didn't tell him, and her inner circle didn't know of this. They only know he joined Salem for revenge against Ozma. And the prince notice and grins towards him, knowing his guess is correct.
"Man who desires revenge is the most obvious and the most unwise—a word of advice of an old warrior to another. There are no such things as a utopia. Only temporary peace. When there's always light, darkness will follow." Jaune quotes as Hazel snaps in frustration and hate.
"it doesn't matter! Once I have my revenge against Ozpin, I don't care what happens next! It will at least bring me closure." He shouts, leaping towards the Prince, losing his temper while his arms hang limb trying to grab hold of Jaune and beat him down with every fibre of his being. While Jaune side-steps away, dodging Tyrian with ease of Hazel's many attempts.
"No, it will not." Giving Hazel a sad expression.
"Once you have your revenge, what will you do next? Cry on your sister's grave, telling her you did it; you avenge her. Then you take your life, with nothing to live for?" he taunts as this irritates Hazel even further, wanting to grab hold of the Prince, beating him down to shut him up, regretting trying to save him from Tyrian's stinger.
'shut up.' He says under his breath as feelings of his arms return slowly and his strength in tow, gaining speed catching up with the Prince's movements. To which Jaune noticed, but not that concern. As Jaune can already see, Hazel's mind is filled with hate and anger; he can smell it out of him. His wasting potential energy just to hit his target, in this case, Jaune. He always sees Hazel as the calm, collected type and strategic when fighting his opponent. However, in this situation, he sees neither strategic nor controlled, just blind rage. But Jaune needs to make a point and show what Hazel is childish and needs to see a bigger picture than narrow-minded.
"Revenge will not bring your sister back, nor will give her rest knowing that you wasted your life on a path that she wouldn't want you to go," Jaune states in a firm tone.
'shut up!' he repeats under his breath but more hostility towards the Prince. With a great strike, his arms are back to normal at full strength. When his last punch just grazed the Prince's cheek, it left a thin line red streak from his cheek to his ear when he tilted his head to dodge Hazel's punch, which surprised him. And realize he needs to be careful; what's worse than a mad man is a man that has nothing to live for, in this case, Hazel.
"The path you choose will not bring you closure, and when you get a chance to see your sister, her eyes filled with disgust and hate of seeing what you have become. It will just bring you to the point of regret and shame, second-guessing for what you've done. Making you doubt and question yourself of your path and ideology, that realizing what you have done and you'll be filled with sorrow." As Jaune continues avoiding Hazel's punches while his fury grows and grows, simply beating the Prince wasn't good enough for the Prince. He wanted to strangle him to his last breath for bringing his sister up to this bout and mocking him in her image as the Prince continues.
"With no options for you to choose, you'll be going to the only path that is offered to you. And that path is nothing but betrayal, irony and death. You'll turn against us, betraying my mother, then irony will lead you to join forces with Ozma, the man you carrying in your heart of hate. Then will lead you to your final chapter, whether you succeed or fail against, mother. The blood and the crimes soaking on your hands will not be washed away as justice is blind and fair. Either way, in the end, you will die in shackles for your crimes of betrayal." Just as he finished his point, he caught Hazel's punch by clamping it with his left elbow and raising his knee shut tight that Hazel is struggling to pull away from the clamp vice grip. All in a while, Jaune is standing in one leg without moving by Hazel's attempt to free himself, to which Jaune is confused.
'Did Hazel's arms haven't fully recover?' he thought but shook his head and returned his attention to the current fight at hand.
"Meaning, your dangerous...not to Ozmas, but my mother." As Jaune's voice darkens at the end, and immediately releases Hazel's fist and follow up with a leap of a hard knee high-kick into Hazel's chest. Resulting in a minor fracture on Hazel's Aura and, with all the oxygen of his lungs, escaped, followed by a fractured rib and even felt pain in his back. But Jaune didn't stop there, as it is now his turn to attack, repeatedly and brutally punching straight to Hazel's face with just his left hand, stunning gruff man. Jaune pulls back his punches and charge right back to Hazel, swinging his elbow straight to his nose, shattering both his Aura and his nose that it bleeds. But Jaune wasn't done with Hazel, as he grabbed him by the back of the neck, pulling him forward towards Jaune and at the same time striking him again in the chest with his knee twice at a rapid pace. Not giving Hazel's Aura a chance to heal his wounds and finally, to finish it with a roundhouse kick straight to his chest, sending Hazel falling back to his chest. As he coughs and stares on the ground before seeing a small pool of blood, he wonders where this blood came from till he coughs out blood from his mouth and realizes it was caused by his fracture rib that punctured his lungs.
Hazel quickly struggles to get up but can't, as breathing becomes a struggle to breathe, Like his swimming in thick tar while his mouth is open, filling his lung. But in this case, his lung is now being compressed and filled with blood and close to drowning.
*step
Hearing a step, Hazel can feel dread approaching, creeping ever so slowly and closely with every step slowly fills Hazel in fear. But no, he refuses to die like this not until he has Ozpin in his grasp and see this through. With all his strength and determination, he pushes himself over to his to face the Prince but only to face the Prince's hand engulfing his black Aura, freezing him in place, while he slowly drowns.
"You have strengths, but you lack a vision for your future. You'll be willing to take anything from either side as long you have closure. Which is a wasted opportunity of a worthy knight. You show promise but are easily blinded. But I can offer you something better than what my mother could offer you." As he closes his eyes to focus as his Aura infuse into Hazel's body, feeling the sensation of a soothing cool surge of Aura, like his drifting in a calm river. His breathing came to ease, his ribs reformed back into place, and his Aura filled back to the brim but quickly turned away from the Prince to spew the remaining blood out of her lungs. Coughing the last remaining drops of blood out of his mouth, and sees the Prince offering his hand for Hazel which he gladly took, grabbing from his wrist to pull up.
"And what is it that you offer?" he asks with a neutral expression but with a slight curiosity of the Prince's offer, as he dusts himself off while Jaune simply smiles.
"Unlike my mother, I intend to change the world, Change Remnant, as well freeing her from her curse where Ozma failed to understand my mother's suffering…." As expression scorn of hate towards Ozma, while staring at his clenching fist so tight blood began to trail down his arm, then calm down with a deep breath.
"To heal her for a future see at the end…" he opens his hand and sees his hand healing while he wipes the blood off his arm and turns to Hazel.
"what I'm offering to you besides your vendetta against Ozma is a future beyond vengeance. Once our conflict has ended, you would have a choice to either stay in servitude to help me create a better future of peace for Remnant. Or you live your life of how you want to, and you'll be supported of land, lie and whatever you desire to live your life how you want. This will put you at ease and something to let your sister finally rest in peace knowing that you have a future." Hazel stared neutral expression, thinking of the Prince's word having merit, over his years in service with Salem and sent out to missions, always coming across many people lying to his face from every detail fault down to their expression, movement and behaviour. Yet he didn't see a single fault upon the Prince and his word and gave him a nod to continue his offer.
"What I need you to do in return is simple. Protect my mother while I'm not by her side. Stay by her side and never be swayed or blinded by revenge. Wait patiently; when the time is right, you'll be rewarded, and you will have your pound of flesh." He proposed just as the Seer Grimm returned and approached Jaune while he stared at the Grimm like its talking to him as he nodded.
"And with that, class dismissed. We'll continue our spar next time. And hoping this time is a bit more of a challenge. Farewell." As Jaune leaves following the Seer, stop and turn his attention to a specific pillar and call out to the person hiding behind it.
"Oh, and Emerald, would you please be a dear and take my weapons to my room and wait for me as I have something for you." He smiles, turning towards one of the pillars as Hazel follows. And in surprise, for Hazel to see Emerald revealing herself out of the pillar to face the Prince with an embarrassed flush face across her face. She nods while the Prince smiles towards her just as he walks and stops by Emerald and gives her a compassionate smile towards Emerald, which her face brighten even redder as her ruby eyes.
She quickly rushes past Jaune to avoid being seen of her embarrassed face and quickly fetches his weapon. While Jaune watches Emerald of how adorable she is embarrassed, she follows the Seer Grimm back to Evernight Castle. The walk with the Grimm Seers is always quiet and awkward. Never know if mom is watching through the Seer's glass ball. The Grimm Seers are used as a two-way communication that spans a greater distance than Remanant's long-distance CCT towers as long the two seers are connected. He can still remember using the Seer Grimm as his private communication with mom during the Faunus Right revolution. Sometimes it's was to catch up and request mom for a hoard of Grimm to attack the Human's army settlements. She gladly complied as long as it meant keeping her Son safe and destroying the point of interest to Ozma, and having the occupied territory for the Grimm. Just then, Jaune snaps out of his trance, hearing the sound of doors opening leading to the war room and sees his mother but not smiling and loving mood that she always greets him. But only for him to see his mother scowling towards him of disappointment and unimpressed. While he pretends to be gullible like he doesn't notice his mother's frown.
"Mother, is there something the matter? Your frowning, you know it's not good for you. You'll grow wrinkles." he says with a sarcastic smirk.
"Jaune." She states in a stern tone and leers towards his Son as Jaune a jolt in fear knowing his mather's tone of voice saying his in trouble.
"Are you trying to steal and cripple my subordinates under me?" she questioned unimpressed.
"Spying on me?" as his tone and expression change from fear to arrogance.
"Heh, figures with the assist of the seers." He crosses his arms with a slight smirk looking away.
"But no, mother, I'm not. I'm simply giving Hazel an olive branch for his complete servitude to us and offering him something greater than a false dream. That you offer." He opens his arms open, while Salem brown creases even further towards him while she predates around the room, solely focusing on Jaune, while he follows, still facing across her.
"After all, mom, we both know what your true goal is. And that is something that I cannot allow if I want my plans to turn fruition."
"Oh?" as she crooks her brow toward Jaune with curiosity and decides to humour him to see what is his so-called grand plan will be.
"What is your plan, son?" she asked while he gave his mother a gentle and calm smile and stopped right by her throne.
"How would you say, if I tell you that my true goal is to be become king of Remnant?" pausing Salem on the spot and turn to her Son in a surprise of his answer, as he pulls her throne back away from the table and gestures his hand for his mother to seat on her throne.
"Please, take a seat, mom. And will tell you my plan to destroy Ozmas and Rule Remnant." This pique Salem's curiosity; for all those years he stayed by her side, her Son was always a knight, a hero to step forward to fight for justice for not only against Ozmas but to all people of Remanent. His grand deeds became legends throughout history as a hero of myths and legends of Remnant. He never shows interest in leading, let alone a country, and finally, Gods forbid, he found a lovely girl to have a grandchild to raise. She took her seat on her throne while Jaune gently pushed her throne close to the table. As she rests her elbows on the table and her chin rest on her hands, letting her Son humour her of his plan as she smiles.
"Very well Jaune, Tell me your plan. And I will decide whether or not to support your plan." She amuses, while Jaune smiles excitedly.