Chapter 2

Jaune suddenly woke up to a loud bang in his cabin, followed by a loud, metallic clatter on the wooden floor. He jumped out of bed and reached for his sword which had been leaning against the wall last night but was now lying on the ground. A moment later, he raised the sword beside him and placed his legs in a classic wide position and lowered himself closer to the ground. Thanks to the adrenaline he received from the unexpected situation, his senses were dialled up to 11 and his mind was hyper-focused. His heart pounded like a steam engine. Through the small round window that was on the door of his cabin, the light of a corridor lamp filtered in, projecting onto the floor a few meters from his feet. This little light was enough to illuminate the entire room dimly. Jaune slowly and attentively scanned the room with his eyes, concentrating on any sudden movement or human shape. He also tried to listen to the sounds, but his heart pounded loudly in his ears, making listening difficult.

After a minute nothing happened. The adrenaline began to disappear from his system and his heart was no longer beating with great intensity. Jaune waited patiently for another half a minute for any attack from an intruder, but nothing happened. He lowered his broken sword, his previously tense muscles relaxed, and he breathed more easily. He was trying to find what might have made the sound that woke him up. Since there were not many objects in the room, he found the source of the sound almost immediately.

Pieces of his armor were spread out on the floor. 'But what knocked them down?' he asked himself.

The answer was almost immediate and obvious because the whole room suddenly swayed. Jaune realized that the ship had probably been hit by a stronger wave and his armor had slipped off from the edge of the table.

'Why didn't I put it in the closet last night?' he asked himself annoyed. He dropped his sword on the bed and went to pick up the armor pieces that had fallen to the floor.

He put the picked-up pieces back on the table and looked out the door's window. In the illuminated corridor, he didn't see anyone. Jaune's gaze wandered to the horizon, the bottom of the sky was brighter than the part a few degrees higher. Jaune pulled his scroll out of his bag to check the time. The screen showed it was 5 a.m. Going back to sleep for a few hours wasn't worth it and otherwise, he wasn't tired, he had long gotten used to short nights of sleep.

"What should I do?" he asked himself. He turned his back to the door and his gaze caught his sword.

'A little practice can't hurt. At least I'll pass the time until breakfast.' he thought to himself. He took fresh clothes out of his bag and quickly changed his clothes. He placed his sword in its scabbard, which he attached to his hip, put his dirty clothes on the chair next to the door and left the cabin.

The first thing Jaune felt was the chilly morning air, which was made crispier by a soft breeze. The air mixed with the salty smell of the sea and the smell of some kind of cleaning agent. Jaune looked to the right and saw that at the end of the corridor, a crew member had just begun mopping the ship's floor. Jaune stepped to the railing, which was a few meters away and looked at the increasingly bright horizon. The first rays of dawn illuminated the bottom of the sky in beautiful shades that reflected to the waves of the sea. Several shades of lavender and gold appeared, creating colour combinations with the dark blue sea that was fitting for paintings in a museum of fine arts or the opening scene of a documentary film. Jaune marvelled at the play of colours for a bit more, then turned left and headed for the back of the ship.

The cabins were on the left side of the corridor, no sound was heard from them when Jaune walked past them, to the right he could only hear the subtle, steady sound of waves hitting the ship. The only man-made sound was the slight creaking of the ship's wooden floor, caused by Jaune's steady steps.

The ''young'' knight arrived at the stern deck. There was enough free space here so that he didn't have to make sure he wouldn't hit anything with his sword or people suddenly popped up in his immediate vicinity. Jaune unbuckled the sword from his belt and held it in his right hand while he put the shield on his left arm. Since there were no showers in the cabins, Jaune did not plan to practice at high intensity, only practice kata moves.

These movements burned into his muscle memory. While many people focus on attack and defense during combat, he can easily come up with a plan to win the battle. Of course, over the years, Jaune had realized that the best way to win a battle was before battle. You have to know what kind of opponent you are facing and set a trap for him so that the combat doesn't even start, or you just need to know the opponent's weak points to keep the fight short. But if you have to fight an unknown enemy, then you can always use some dirty tricks, since in combat honor worthed nothing, the only important thing was to stay alive. Of course, this was only effective against human opponents.

If Jaune's younger self could hear himself now, he would surely be horrified at what kind of person he had become. When he arrived at Beacon, his head was full of childish dreams, a young boy who imagined that all he had to do was kill grimms and become the hero of the day. It never occurred to him that grimms weren't the only kind of monsters in the world. Humans can be as bad as the grimms, sometimes even worse. He heard more than one story as a child about raiders and bandits roaming the roads. Patiently waiting for the victims to wander by. If they were lucky, they only lost their values, if not, much more. Who stops them, if not a huntsman? And yet how would he stop the bandits who's harmed gods know how many people, if not by force? His young self was extremely naïve, maybe most of his friends as well. They all wanted to help people, but did they even think about what they might have to do to help?

While he was thinking about these, Jaune slowly went through several sword katas. He learned some of them in Atlas from various sources, but he created most of them in the Ever After. Some were for attack, some were for defense and counterattack, some for deflection and dodging, and some were focused on footwork.

In the meantime, the first orange rays of the sun illuminated the white railings of the ship. Jaune stopped and turned around to take a look in the direction of the sun. He waited a moment, then attached his sword and shield back to his belt and walked to the railing. The edge of the light disc began to appear on the horizon. It was as if it had fought its way up from the depths of the sea to slowly drive away the cold and darkness.

In the Ever After, Jaune was never able to enjoy sunrises. At first, because he usually got up after sunrise, when the sun was already well above the horizon. Then he began to explore the acres where something was always in the way of the rising sun, and when he got to the village of the Paper Pleaser, sunrises always meant that the villagers were in danger and rushed to rescue them. In Vacuo, he did not see a single sunrise. The windows of their rooms faced north, and he was trying to get his duties started after he had woken up everyone. This sunrise also fills Jaune with anxiety, he's still expecting some kind of explosion or fire.

"Beautiful, right?"

Jaune suddenly looked to the right in the direction of the voice. A man stood a few meters away and he too was looking at the rising sun. The man must have been in his late sixties. Deep wrinkles were visible on his face, his beard was greyish and well-groomed, he wore a blue hat on his head. He wore a fabric jacket of the same colour as his hat. If stereotypes were to be believed, then next to Jaune stood the captain of the ship.

"I've been sailing Remnant's oceans for over 40 years, but the sunrises still leave me speechless." said the man, whose gaze was still to the east.

"What about sunsets? They're almost the same as sunrises, but everything happens in the opposite direction." Jaune inquired. At this, the captain gave a good-natured chuckle.

"True, but when you've sailed as much as I did, you'll realize that sunrise is the most comforting thing in the world. Sunsets always mean that the light is about to disappear and who likes to sail in the dark? And who knows what the dark depths hold." said the old captain. The man stepped closer to Jaune and stretched out his right arm.

"I'm Edmund Weaver, the captain of the ship."

"Jaune Arc. Huntsman." Jaune introduced himself and shook Captain Weaver's hand.

"I know, I've seen your practice. Nowadays, hunters rarely travel on my boat. I hear that each of them is protecting the cities from the grimms. It's strange that you're not going to Vacuo, rumors have it that all help is needed there." the captain inquired. Jaune wasn't sure how to respond.

''I'm going to Vale, I think I can be more useful there than in Vacuo,'" Jaune replied. Captain Weaver acknowledged this with a hum. Both men's attention went back to the sun, which was already half up in the sky.

"I don't want to get involved in anything that I have nothing to do with, but I've met people like you. People whose faces are similar to yours. Tired, haunted, worried, but determined. Each of you is running from something: friends, family, love, mistakes, and your goals are very similar: to hide, to fix, to save, or just run away from it. But everyone thinks they know the right solution to the problem, and they have to do it on their own. It doesn't even occur to them that they might fail alone." said the captain, looking at the sun. Jaune didn't know what to say at all, instead, he remained silent and pondered the captain's words. The old captain stood back from the railing and looked towards Jaune.

"I hope I haven't said anything intrusive, and maybe you can find some wisdom in an old man's nonsense. I won't hold you up any longer, in half an hour we will start serving breakfast in the dining room, I hope to see you there. Have a good day!" said Captain Weaver cheerfully and walked away. Jaune was alone again on the stern deck. Alone with his concerns. Jaune wasn't exactly happy with the captain's words, the fears of the previous days had returned, and breathing was a little harder again.

'Thank you, Captain, I really missed this early in the morning.' thought an annoyed Jaune and headed back to his cabin.

Jaune went to the dining room an hour and a half later, hoping to not run into the captain, he didn't really want to hear any more ''helpful'' things. The dining room was at the front of the ship, a spacious space with many windows from which there was a 180-degree view of the sea. The dining room had ten rectangular wooden tables, each with four chairs, and next to the entrance was the table where the staff put their breakfast. Pre-packaged sandwiches were placed on the table. The room was half full, as he could see all the passengers who were watching the city lights from the deck yesterday were here. Jaune picked up two ham sandwiches and sat down to eat at an empty table in the corner.

The other passengers were talking to each other about different topics, the weather, what their profession was, whether they had been to Vale, and the like. But one conversation caught his attention.

"Did you hear what's going on in Vacuo?"

"No, why?"

"Rumor has it that girl who spoke in that message, that Rose girl or who, she is still alive. Isn't that great?"

Jaune looked to his left with his eyes and saw two old women talking over their morning coffees.

"I don't see why it would be great that the person who announced that the Grimm has an immortal leader who destroyed the most powerful kingdom in the world, had suddenly reappeared. The girl who told the world that magic exists and there are relics with extraordinary powers, tied to fairytale characters, doesn't care who hears it. The huntress who asked us not to panic despite all this. You're right Minerva, that's really great. After all, things are not about to happen again in the capital like it did in Atlas."

"Lucy, you don't need t-"

Jaune stopped paying attention to the rest. What that old woman said made him think and somewhat agree with her. 'Perhaps telling everything we knew about Salem; the maidens and the relics were not strategically wise. Then expecting people not to panic was downright naïve, if they had told a smaller group first, maybe things would have been better because a crowd is as smart as its dumbest member. If one starts to panic, suddenly the others also lose their heads. And what's going on in Vacuo doesn't help either.' he thought to himself grimly.

Jaune quickly finished his sandwiches and made his way back to his cabin, not wanting to risk catching another conversation that would remind him of the past or tell him how bleak the present truly was.

Jaune had spent the rest of the day in his cabin. He was busy cleaning his armor, sword, and shield, and after he was done, he spent his time sorting out his gear and writing a short list that he couldn't acquire in the academy and would come in handy for the journey ahead. It was almost evening when he finished his chores. He decided to go to bed early, but he couldn't sleep.

The conversation with Captain Weaver and the conversation between the two old ladies was on his mind. 'What if Weaver is right and I'm just running away from my problems? If I really going to fail alone? Do I need help? Did Ruby's message do more harm than help? Will my plan help us at all, or will I just bring us closer to the end? What am I even doing?' These questions didn't let him for the rest of the night, he tried to find reassuring answers desperately, but he couldn't find one for all of them. He lay awake in his bed all night until the light of the morning sun shone into his eyes.

He didn't go out for breakfast, but rather took a pack of biscuits out of his bag and ate it. He didn't want to go out and get more concerned about his mission. The end of the cruise was close anyway, they should arrive in Searock early this afternoon. A few more hours in the cabin alone didn't even bother him, it was nothing for him. He gathered his things, put on his armor and backpack, and attached Crocea Mors to his belt for the last. He quickly turned off his scroll, he didn't want to deal with all those missed calls and unread messages today when they got close to the town. These are all the problems for the future Jaune, the present one had enough on his plate. Jaune spent the rest of the voyage in the bow of the ship, watching the sea.

After a couple of hours, land appeared on the horizon which grew larger as time passed. After an hour and a half, the ship arrived at Searock's harbour. The town was nothing special. It was small but it had a large enough harbour, probably producing something valuable that needed the harbour. The city was surrounded on all sides by thick stone walls, it was only open from the sea. A clock tower made of red bricks towered above the buildings in the distance. The clock would soon ring its bell, announcing that it was four o'clock.

After the ship docked, the passengers began to leave the ship. At the exit, Captain Weaver said goodbye to the passengers, thanking them for choosing his ship. The captain shook Jaune's hand and wished him success on his journey. Jaune thanked him and headed for town.

Opposite the port on the other side of the street were the warehouses. They were about three stories high and had their walls made from sheet metal. This was probably where incoming goods arrived, and products made in the city were taken from here. Jaune turned right and headed towards what seemed to be the shortest path out of the industrial district.

After walking for five minutes, he reached an intersection with a bar on the opposite corner. Its guests were probably the port workers and sailors who had returned back from the sea because it was typically decorated that way. The sign which was advertising the name of the bar was hung on the wooden wall in a steering wheel, a fishing net wrapped around the lights above the door, flowers in wooden barrels under the windows. As far as Jaune could see through the large windows, he could only see dockworkers and local fishermen. Soft music, loud laughter and buzzing conversations filtered through the shabby door of the building.

The knight decided this place would be good to collect information about where he could find a relatively good inn or hotel. As he approached the door, the sounds coming out became louder. When he went inside, he saw that the bar was almost full of customers, the only free chairs were at the counter. After taking a seat, a balding bartender in his 50s asked what he could bring. Jaune, being in a funny mood, asked for rum to suit the place.

"Can you recommend a good hotel to a passerby?" Jaune asked the bartender as he returned with the glass of rum.

"There's a good place two streets away from here, you step out of the bar and go to the right, after two streets turn left and after about 200 meters you are there. You can't miss it, it's almost next to the vet's office." the bartender said helpfully.

Jaune thanked him for his help and the bartender returned to serve the locals. Jaune looked around the bar while drinking, there were all kinds of people here, old and young, tired and fresh, sad and happy. You could hear the conversations if you listened:

"It was the biggest fish I've ever seen!" boasted a fisherman.

"I don't think tomorrow will be bet-"said another.

"They'll take it away on Friday." said someone who looked like a storekeeper.

"Wilson has a day off then." said the man next to him.

Jaune turned back to the counter and looked at his half-empty glass and listened to the people sitting beside him talking.

"And do you have a suspect, Bill?" one man asked the other.

"Not yet, for now, we're reviewing surveillance camera footages. If we see more of the thief, it will be easier to track down the culprit." Bill said.

"Were they alone?" asked the previous man.

"As far as we know, yes. They didn't take too many valuable things according to the owner. He must have been in a hurry, the alarm went off soon enough, he even left a piece of a pair of that fancy leather gloves there. You know which's in the window." Bill said.

Jaune didn't listen to the end of the conversation. The size of a settlement doesn't matter, thieves have always been and always will be. In villages, farm animals would disappear or a thing or two from the barn, in the cities they break into shops and take what they can. Jaune drank the rest of his drink and left the bar.

It was already late afternoon. The temperature had cooled down to a pleasant level, not cold but not hot either. The light of the setting sun illuminated only the roofs of the buildings, the painted orange facades reflected the light back in a similar colour, painting the whole street in pale orange light. Jaune walked past the fire station, which was next to the warehouses, probably to get the fire under control quickly if it was needed. If a city's food warehouse would be destroyed, it can be bad news for residents, especially at times like this, on the edge of the desert.

After a few minutes of walking, Jaune found himself in the main square of the city. There was a small police station, a hospital, the clock tower that he saw earlier was built on the city hall and a park with benches and fountains. There were a lot of people in the park. After work, parents probably would bring their children down here to play, where they would chase each other on the grass while the parents talked to each other.

It was strange for Jaune; to think that despite his appearance, he was the same age as them or maybe older than them. Jaune briefly thought about what it would be like to be a parent but quickly dismissed the idea. 'That ship is long gone, I'm a mess anyway. Who needs that?'

He headed left and soon found himself outside the hotel. It was no different from the buildings next to it, only the sign reminded the people that it was a hotel. The lobby belonged to a typical hotel with a couple of red sofas and a small café table in front of them, the floor was made of white marble. Jaune walked down the red carpet that led him to the reception, where a young man with red hair greeted him at the Margareta Hotel. Jaune asked for a single bedroom just for this night. The receptionist quickly gave him the room's key after Jaune paid.

The room was on the first floor. When Jaune entered he quickly looked around. Opposite the door was a narrow window facing the street, a few meters in front of it was a pale pink couch facing a wall-mounted television. In the left part of the room was a single bed with a bedside table. Next to the bed was the door leading to the bathroom.

Jaune quickly removed his bag and armor, which he dropped on the couch. Feeling the gravitational field of the bed in the room due to lack of sleep, he put Crocea Mors on the bedside table with its grip towards him and collapsed into bed. Sweet nothingness embraced him almost immediately.

Jaune was able to sleep through the whole night. That fact put a little smile on his face. If others heard this, they would surely look at him strangely, but if they knew why it was a good thing, they would be happy for him.

After a quick shower, jaune walked over to the grocery store across the street that he saw yesterday, to buy himself breakfast. An hour later, he was standing in the middle of the room, ready to leave. Jaune reached into his pocket for his scroll to see what time it was. When the screen didn't light up, he remembered turning it off. He looked at his reflection on the dark screen for half a minute, it became harder to breathe again. He tried to gather the courage to face the consequences of his decision, to face the anger and sorrow he had caused. 'When did they realize I was gone?' Jaune asked himself. He didn't have the willpower to turn on his scroll, he didn't want to listen to the sound of constant notifications. He had to keep going, he couldn't waver so close to the start. Jaune quickly put the device back in his pocket and left the room.

The gates of Searock were relatively close to the hotel. On the sides of the gate were two towers that rose higher than the walls, with sentinels on top of them who had binoculars and rifles. Before Jaune reached the gate, he noticed a supply store on his way, where he could get some missing items.

The shop was packed with all kinds of equipment a traveller would need beyond the walls. The wall behind the counter was full of weapons, at the other end of the store were various tents and sleeping bags. The shelves which were dominating the centre of the store were lined up with knives, shoes, flashlights, thermal clothes, and MREs. Jaune quickly looked around, picked up what he needed and took them to the cash register. A tent, some MREs, a compass, a detailed map of the surrounding area, and a flint stone for starting a fire.

"Is there anything I need to know about local roads?" Jaune asked the salesman after he paid.

"I haven't heard much worth mentioning lately. The number of grimms has decreased in recent months, in the past the guards saw more than one per week, but now there are weeks when none wander here." the salesman replied.

"Huh, thanks. Goodbye"

"Have a nice trip, kid."

Jaune walked out of the store and pondered on the salesman's words. 'Salem would have called the Grimms to Vacuo, or did she just direct them towards the bigger cities here? But if there aren't many grimms on the roads, it doesn't mean they're safe, it's ideal for bandits.' he thought darkly to himself.

The guards greeted him when he got close and opened the gates for him. They wished him luck and closed the gates behind him.

Jaune looked across the landscape, he only saw rocky hills that seemed to never end. Between the reddish and earthy brown hills, he saw a path which according to the map would lead him to the Valean border.

Jaune felt that this was where his journey really began. The point of no return. Oddly enough, he felt no worry but rather excitement, almost eager to take his first steps. The fears of the previous days had vanished, he was sure that he was doing the right thing. They will win, there was no other way, and after that, he can finally rest. But before that, he had to go through one last challenge, perhaps the most difficult one, but he was ready.

Jaune started to walk down the path with confident steps which led him to the realm of rocky hills.

And that would be for this year. I hope you had a merry Christmas.

I don't know why but the dialogues feel a bit strange for me. I'll try improving on them next year.

I wish you all a happy new year!

See you guys in January.