Chapter 3: Playing House
(((Narrator)))
Ryuu Lion, the Blood Gale, was sure that she had died.
She has finally destroyed the final remnant of Rudra Familia and left grievously wounded. Delirious from blood loss, she had fallen unconscious under the snow.
Her revenge is complete, and now its time for her to fade away.
But alas, it was not meant to be. For she was found by a man she was not supposed to meet in the regular flow of fate.
This fate however, had long since warped.
Ryuu had her hand hover over herself through sheer habit. Almost, she had casted Noah Heal, however she forced herself to not to. Why should she bother? She was going to die anyway.
"Unless you're really out of your Mind, I suggest you to just heal yourself."
Ryuu glanced to her side, seeking the source of that voice. She cane into view of man in his 15th, hair as black as raven feathers and eyes gleams like sapphire. He has a good face, however he looked a bit too shabby.
"Shouldn't you be calling the authorities? I have a huge bounty, afterall.", Ryuu stated.
"please", the man scoffed. "No one's really hunting the Blood Gale. You're doing what everyone wants anyway, which is getting rid all those evil bastards. Besides, have you seen my shabby office here? Do you think this H class mining company can protect itself from getting robbed by their fellow street scums?"
"Mining company?"
"we go into a hole to whack monsters and bring out magic rocks. What are we if not Miners?"
"Huh.", that make sense. In a way, they're all Miners actually.
"Anyway, what's your plan now? Since you're all lethargic now I assume you're done with whatever revenge quest you're on before."
Ryuu was silent. She has no plan whatsoever. Honestly she just expects she was either going to die or get arrested by the end of it. She has no clue what to do now now that its all over.
"Really? You're going to play 'revenge has no meaning' cliché now?", the man who saved her shakes her head. "Screw whats-their-name Familia for doing what they did. They had it coming."
"Wouldn't you say that 'all revenge had given you is emptiness'?", Ryuu asked rethorically. The moral lessons of the emptiness of revenge is a tale as old as time. It's always goes the same way.
"Fuck that preachy crap. Easy for them to say what is good and bad from their ivory tower. What do they know of the pain of having your loved ones being ripped apart right in front of you?", the man spoke. "People will say you went too far. They will say you have become an animal. They will say you have shamed yourself. Let them. Maybe everyone will condemn your revenge, but I won't."
Ryuu raise her face. "I don't know what to do now… my revenge is over…."
The man raises his eyebrows. " huh? Who says your revenge is over? Don't you know the final step of all revenges?"
"Final step?"
"The final step of revenge is to live a good and fulfilling life after it's all over. If you went into ruin, Ryuu, its their win, no yours. You have to live on, if not for yourself, then its for those you dedicated your vengeance for. Live, Blood Gale, for that is your final revenge."
The man stood up from his seat and began to leave.
"If you have no idea what to do so much, then how about this? You owe me your life now. You don't get to go die in a ditch without my consent. Now pay me back by cleaning up this pigsty of a building or whatever, I don't care. I just want you to live."
Ryuu was about to rise up her bed, which the man quickly pushed her down.
"After you rested for a few days! Sheesh, are you an idiot? Coz I think you are. Just heal up first, you airhead elf.", the man scold her as he lay her down back to bed.
"What is your name?", Ryuu asked, beginning to feel drowsy as fatigue caught up to her once again.
"Soren Ravencroft. CEO of White Raven Agency. Now rest."
After that, that man… no, Soren left her be.
Ryuu pondered as she drifts off to sleep. She guess she could live on just for a bit.
(((Soren)))
Jaune and I are starting our project of renovating the White Raven Agency HQ.
After a few days of raising as much of starting funds to raise our capital, we got about 50000 in our bank account. Which I guess, worth about 500 burgers. Remember everyone, 100 Vali is 1 burger.
We starts by fixing the walls, man it is so cold with the cold air blowing into the HQ, then we try to make a patchwork of fireplace and chimney for heating from whatever rubbles and mud we could collect around here. Whoever the statue the god of this church was modelled off, rest assured. You will now serve this HQ as a chimney block.
"isn't this blasphemous?", Jaune was wary over the heretic crap we just did. Yea, maybe breaking up a god statue and used it to make chimney is a bit much.
"its not like he's using the dem thing anyway. Not my god anyway, so eh, who cares"
Jaune shrugs. "Whatever you say, boss."
I piled up the wood I gathered the other day and quickly kick-start its burning with Firebending.
"Oooo… it's warm.", we huddled around the new fireplace for warmth. We mostly stayed in the dungeon since winter starts since we're just slowly freezing to death in here, but now with a chimney, we can stay inside relatively comfortably.
Firewood are so fucking expensive though. Its ridiculous.
"How's the rifle's reverse engineering going on now, Jaune?",
"Oh, I think I got most of it on the blueprint now. Having the Development Ability really helps to bridge the lack of real skill.", Jaune nods.
"Hmm. You know the plan right?"
"Yea yea. Once we got a working model, we sell the blueprint and model to Hephaestus or Goibniu guild. I don't see why we should though.", Jaune questions me.
"Yea. I'd like to hoard in the money from monopolizing guns, but we are just a tiny fish in a hardly that big of a pond, sharing it with a lot of big ass fishes. No reason to make ourselves a target. I don't want us to be that much of a big company anyway.", I clarify my reasonings.
"I know. Play it safe. Keep your head down. Only the strong gets to be a hero."
When we started our gig, Jaune, who was still being a doe eyed hero wannabe had went into some cliché saving the damsel in distress tangents. Orario is a lawless city that has no actual police department. They rely on an obnoxious dude yelling out his name every minute for security and since Astraea guild had fallen, no one conduct fair trials anymore. Orario is just a centralized Wild West if you think about it.
Jaune learned the hard lesson that without power, you cannot protect anything.
Now you may think, why am I introducing firearms here? Well first, guns will hardly be better than arrows here. Arrows can be imbued with more magic and is silent. Guns is loud, and in theory cant hold as much magic as arrows due to how much smaller bullets are compared to arrows.
But, if my idea works, by taking advantage of how Magic Swords works in this place, I can use its principal to make special bullets instead. Welf complains about Magic Swords don't last so much right? Welp, what better way to use it if not as rifle bullets with the power of elemental bazookas instead? I'm totally not ripping off that PUBG Lumine animated fanfic. Trust me bro.
After we sell the blueprints, there is no way we could take the firearms market anymore. Which I don't really care. I'm only starting firearms development so that we can sell it for starting dough to build up our company. White Raven Agency is first and foremost, a mining company.
"We're done prepping the ingredients.", Lily chimed in from the 'kitchen'"
"Time to show off your culinary skills, Jaune." I fist pump the air.
"Its not much, boss.", Jaune humbly hype himself down.
Dude, your househusband skill is the true asset of this company. We would all die if we have to eat out every day.
I moved to the dining table Jaune and I picked up from the junkyard and fixed with the carpentry skill of Doctor Frankenstein. What, we picked Blacksmith, not Carpenter. As long as it works, who cares? Ryuu who had just done prepping the ingredients now continue to sew winter clothing for us, with her Doctor Frankenstein's seamstress skills. Not much you can do when all you have are pieces of rags and discarded leather to work with.
"I still think I should sell my equipment to fund this company.", she idly suggest as she sew up a winter coat.
"I told you before, I'm the one who gets to decide for how you'll pay me." I munch on some raw wild cabbage for snacks. "And that will be you guarding this place when we're out. Once we finished the model and sell it, we will use the fund to make a proper workshop for our state of the art technology. You will need your best equipment to do that Ryuu."
Ryuu hums as she thought it over as she sew. "I understand that. But I think if you have more funds, you can focus on developing your project and not tire yourself out working in the dungeon to get us all stay afloat. At least sell my cloak. I don't need it anymore anyway."
I think it over. Yea, right now me and Jaune are literally trying to build a gun with just hammer and chisel like fucking monkeys. It was driving us insane trying to make a gun barrel straight with just pure hands.
"Okay. Just the cloak. But no selling your sword! That is our trump card."
Ryuu smiled faintly.
"Here's dinner!", Jaune happily announce as Lily passed our dishes around. Hmm, stir fried pigeons. With no salt. Truly we have the best food in this company
Company dinner is good.
)))))))))
"This is…" Rose eyed the cloak, at me, then cloak, me, cloak, me cloak, me.
"Yep. Its totally authentic."
"I see why you asked for private room now.", Rose tapped her fingers on the table. "Since when did you house the Blood Gale anyway?"
"Its been a few weeks."
"Look, I know the Guild doesn't actually want to go after her, but she's still a fugitive with a huge bounty on her head. Are you sure you want to harbor her in your home? You're not the kind that gamble your safety for a bleeding hard, Soren Ravencroft."
Yea, Safety First, that is the motto of White Raven Agency. Our business model had actually been studied as rookie strategy guide which the Guild is compiling in their Rookie Manual. Since I am no longer relying on Orario Express for funds anymore, I had sold the Orario Express strat for 100k Vali.
There's a lot less rookie casualties ever since I started helping out the Guild with my manuals and strats. Even Rose had been in a lot of better mood now.
"sure, I am always a Safety First kinda guy, but sometimes, you just had to take a calculated risk. Blood Gale is an investment, and I'm planning to cash it in"
Rose shakes her head. "I'll take you up on it, Soren. You are anything but not resourceful.", her hands jot down some calculations. "The cloak worth 3 million Vali. I will transfer it to your account as usual."
I shake her hand to seal the deal. 3 million? If you think that is a lot of money in this inflation riddled town then you're in for a hard time. This would be barely enough for me to buy all the machines for the workshop.
))))))))))
It's April and the spring has come.
Me and Jaune are staring at the the flood that's just at the tip of our front gate. The church turned HQ were build on top of a small hill in the slum outskirts, so when the spring flood season comes in, it's always safe from the flood.
"Alright, come here for your food!'
Jaune is minding the huge cauldron we got as donation for flood relief, as our HQ had to become an impromptu disaster shelter for flood victims. The slum is situated at the east of the city, which is on a bit of a low ground, making the flood water pool down here especially with the poor sewer system unable to handle the load of the flood water. Every year, the flood will engulfed about 2 floor and a half in depth, strandig most of the slumdogs if not drown them outright.
I made the executive decision to take in only woman and children. Man on the other hand can go die in a ditch. Figure out how to survive yourself.
"Thank you, sir Ravencroft for taking us poor folks in." an elderly woman thanked me. I waved her off. Honestly I only bother let them in because of Jaune. Personally I don't give a rat ass about poor folks. I am poor myself.
The Company estate on top the hill is about an acre and half in size. Barely enough to house a fraction of the slumdogs. Its going to take a week or two for the flood to recede. Maybe more if the spring rains pour in. For now, White Raven Agency operations is halted for the time being.
Ryuu and Lily came by to check on me. I was bored, so just decide to practice Firebending at the backyard. I was so busy working for funds and developing guns that I barely able to fully work out the kinks of Firebending. I barely remembered the Dancing Dragon moves, so the only thing I can do is imitate the principals of Four Elements and just try to work out my own bending style. A style where I used Firebending with kicks in conjunction with my swordplay. I'm still figuring out whether to stick with a shortsword, switch over to broadsword for more power, or take a katana and go full weeb.
"I'm still quite amazed with how your magic works.", Ryuu commented.
"Yeah, Lord Soren's Firebending is so cool!", Lily hype me up.
I nod. Well yeah of course it looks cool. You anime folks keep making your magic to be a contest of cringy poetry and stupid ass geometry art class. Ain't nobody got time for that shit. I want to shoot flames by just punching air.
"Alright, stand behind me, I'm practicing to bend lightning again."
The two of them hastily walked to my back, a bit far for me for safety. I'm still working out how to lightningbending which pretty much goes, stay calm and split yin-yang.
I slowly "cut" through air to begin the split of positive and negative. Electricity began to sparks as I continue to cut the air and the voltage build up. Once I build enough power, I slowly released it to the ground, discharging the power gradually.
Ryuu stares at the process with deep interest. I guess the elf blood runs deep in her afterall. She can't help but to be interested in the intricacies of magic.
"Again.", I told myself and began to split yin-yang once again.
)))))))))))Middle of May))))))))
BANG!!!
We looked at the dummy that we had shot dead center at the forehead.
"We did it… We did it!" Jaune Arc cheered at the success of Mark 68
"My bullets works!", Liliruca jumped in joy. Proud that the gunpowder formula she had been tweaking for months finally yield its results. I'm glad.
"Alright, let's haul our ass to Hephaestus right away. I knew this is going to work, so I already had booked a pitch meeting in advance."
"wow boss, so you have that much faith in us huh?"
I shrugged.
"Here's the blueprint." Ryuu handed me the tube containing the blueprint and gunpowder formula. Some samples too. Today, we're selling it all.
"Alright gang, lets go to Hephy."
Man, little did I know how much I changed the world that day.