"Damn you, humans! The Fang will never stop-"
"Yeah, yeah, we get it. Now shut up!"
The leading officer slammed the door shut on the raving band of White Fang terrorists, causing the entire transport to rattle a little at the force used by the cop.
Captain Sirus headed towards the three exhausted teenagers resting on the ground nearby.
"Thanks for that. You did great. I have already approved the transfer of Lien to your account as per the agreement."
"Yay.."
That sarcastic remark came from the blond 15-year-old boy who was the only one willing to respond to the Captain despite being just as exhausted as his companions. The other boy of the group was lying flat on the ground, face buried in the ground while the girl was already passed out.
But the Captain did not mind this response. He knew just how hard they had it as the main bait and combatants of this operation to arrest the Aura-awakened terrorists of the White Fang. They may be mercenaries, but they were still kids, Aura or no Aura, and just like any teenager their age, they are prone to emotional outbursts, especially when they are so tired.
With an amused shake of his head, Sirus took out a card and passed it to the one-armed boy.
"This is my contact information. We already have yours. If we require your services in the future, I will contact you and you will be paid just as well as this time. And if you ever run into trouble in Mistral, give me a call and I'll help you out as much as I can."
"..Thank you, Captain Sirus."
"No problem, kid. Now, I have to go with the Transport to make sure those White Fang scum don't pull something on the way. I have already contacted a bullhead service for you and paid him to take you wherever you three want to go, see you around kid."
Jaune Arc, a 15-year-old mercenary and aspiring Huntsman shook the Captain's hand and headed toward his friends.
"Ren, Nora, it's time to go."
"Mmm, five more minutes…"
"Nora, this is no place to sleep. If you don't get up, I am eating all of Ren's pancakes."
Twin pools of turquoise snapped open as she jumped onto her feet, only for pain to shoot across her body, forcing her to stop moving.
"….You are a jerk, Jaune-Jaune. At least boost me before you make me jump like that."
"No can do, all out of Aura. Now, get Ren. We have places to be."
"Okie-Dokie"
Showing her incredible physical abilities that far surpassed her two friends, Nora Valkyrie pulled Lie Ren up on his feet with a single motion before dragging him towards the Bullhead that just arrived.
Ren, on the other hand, had a glassy look in his eyes thanks to the combination of exhaustion, pain, and having given up on opposing Nora in any actions.
"Come on, Ren. Cheer up. With this, we have enough Lien to get proper weapons for ourselves."
At those words from his friend and leader, Ren's eyes slowly regained their light as Nora started to walk toward the Bullhead with a bounce in her steps.
In the five years since they met, the three children had spent very frugal lives thanks to their situation as orphans with no place to call home except for a shabby cabin in the woods. They spent most of the money they made from doing labor work, waiting tables, and other such minor work until they turned 13 when they started doing mercenary work. Even then, they saved most of their money to, one day, afford to purchase hunter-grade weapons.
Unlike the civilian-grade steel that is widely used by everyone, Hunter weapons are made from Aura-Steel, a material that was an alloy of various metals that allowed for Aura conductivity, making it extremely tough yet only a fraction of the weight compared to regular metals. Although, it was very confusing why it was called Aura-Steel despite not being any kind of steel at all.
These advantages, however, came with a lot of restrictions. One restriction is the huge amount of Lien required to purchase or design weapons made from this metal. Another restriction was placed by the combined might of the four kingdoms.
No civilian was allowed to possess Aura-Steel in any way, shape, or form. Even if said civilian was the child of a Huntsman, he or she was not allowed to hold onto the weapon of their parent unless they decided to become a Huntsman themselves.
This rule was placed to make sure that enemies of the kingdoms would not get their hands on Aura-Steel and pose a threat to the stability of the kingdoms. Of course, these laws are very easily circumvented by the underworlds of the four kingdoms but that is a different case entirely.
The three teenagers did not have to worry about any of these laws and only concerned themselves with the Lien required for the weapons since the Kingdom of Mistral had already registered them as Huntsmen-in-Training and Mercenaries in their databanks, as was required when they first started their mercenary work.
It was another rule imposed on the populace by the Kingdoms. Everyone who had their Aura unlocked, no matter the circumstances, must have themselves registered with the Kingdom where they awakened their Aura. This was done so that the kingdoms could keep track of these individuals with power far surpassing the civilian population and keep them in check if necessary.
As the bullhead took off and headed towards the town of Shion, Ren looked towards the other boy of the group, asking the question that he had been meaning to ask since some time ago.
"….Maybe we can get a prosthetic for you if we cut back on the overengineering done on our weapons?"
At his words, Nora's smile dimmed a little before she quickly took out her scroll and started to edit the blueprints for her hammer that she had been designing for years. But Jaune immediately pulled the scroll from her hands and held it away from her.
"Hey! Give it back-"
"No changing your weapon designs. You two have been designing StormFlower and Magnhild for years, you don't have to cut back on their designs just to save money for my prosthetic. We still have two years before we enter Beacon or Haven, enough time for me to get myself a Prosthetic. And if you two try to pull a fast one on me, I will not allow any doctor to operate on me to attach a prosthetic."
Left with no choice at Jaune's firm words, Ren and Nora simply nodded. But on the inside, both of them decided to keep a close eye on the Prosthetic market. If they saw any good deals, they would directly spend their combined money without Jaune knowing and get him a prosthetic for his missing left hand.
Soon, the Bullhead arrived at Sion. Once the airship landed, the doors burst open as one Nora Valkyrie rushed out, dragging Ren and Jaune's arms, heading straight towards the blacksmith of the town to have their weapons forged.
"…..300,000 Lien for StormFlower, 100,000 Lien for Justum Mors, and 500,000 Lien for Magnhild. It's official, we are broke."
"Come on, Jaune-Jaune. Stop worrying about money and imagine how cool we would look with those weapons. We can now officially call ourselves Huntsman and Huntress in training!"
Ren simply placed a hand on Jaune's sagged shoulder with an amused smile as he watched his friend despair over the 100,000 Lien left in their joint account. It took the three teenagers five years to accumulate the 1 million Lien in their accounts after working from early morning to near midnight nearly every day. And now, 90% of that money was gone, just like that.
Training to be a Huntsman was turning out to be a very costly affair.
"Fortunately, I decided to forgo any kind of mecha-shifting with Justum Mors and decided on a simple long sword. Imagine the humiliation we would have faced if our transaction was denied because we did not have enough money to afford the weapons."
"..Why did you decide on a simple sword? Jaune."
"My family used to have a sword and shield combo called Crocea Mors. It was our ancestral weapon. It was a classic, no mecha-shifting, no fancy dust chambers, nothing. Just a very durable Sword and Shield that had served our family for many decades. I designed Justum Mors in its memory and the legacy of my family."
Ren and Nora looked at each other and stayed silent, allowing Jaune to reminisce about his family. Unlike a few years ago when he would start crying involuntarily when thinking about his family or wake up in the middle of the night because of nightmares, Jaune was much better now, thanks to the fact that Ren and Nora would hug Jaune to sleep whenever he had a nightmare in those times, easing his fears of being left alone in the world.
Although, the nightmares did come back once in a while, but Jaune was now capable of dealing with those nightmares himself.
"Mr. Wood said it would take two days for the weapons to be ready, which means we will have to book a room in a hotel and stay in the town. What do you two want to do for that time?"
"Ooh! I know! How about going there?"
Nora pointed to the shabby-looking bar that was nestled in between a motel and a shady alley. No matter how one looked, the place looked like it was the gathering point for the scum of the society.
"…Nora, No."
"Nora, Yes! Besides, what could go wrong?"
"For the record, this is exactly what I was afraid of!"
"I agree."
"Come on! Is that all you ladies got? I've seen babies hit harder than this!"
Jaune and Ren were standing, back to back and surrounded on all sides by thugs and gangsters while Nora was rampaging throughout the bar, throwing the thugs around like they were ragdolls.
A typical day for the three orphaned teenagers wandering Anima.
Author Notes:
Follow the link to see the image for Justum Mors: (https) : / / i dot postimg dot cc/Z5wbNXjh/Basic-Sword dot png
replace the 'dot' with '.' remove the brackets of Https and remove the spaces in the link. I really have the way does not allow links to be placed in chapters so for now, this is all we can do.