"I've decided that I'll be going to Atlas first!"
Saphron looked over from where she was bouncing Adrian on one knee and Terra looked up from her breakfast. Neither looked particularly proud of his having made a decision, but Adrian giggled happily and clapped his small hands together.
"Thank you, Adrian. I'm pleased someone is prepared to congratulate me."
"Jaune, you made a choice between two options. That's not a grand accomplishment."
"Okay. Granted. But I also performed live at an event."
"That is worth some praise," Terra admitted. "Not sure I'd be able to do that. Good job little bro-sis-in-law."
"Don't call me that." Jaune settled down next to Saphron and pulled some of her hair out Adrian's mouth. The baby made an aggravated sound and tried to reach for more. "The main reason I'm thinking Atlas is because I met this woman at the event—"
"Uh-oh..."
"A forty-year-old married woman."
"Uh-oh..." Saphron repeated, smiling teasingly.
"Don't you start. It was bad enough mom acting like every woman above the age of eighteen was a direct threat to my chastity back home—"
"Which Terra almost was."
"Babe, no!" cried Terra. "You totally made it look like a three—"
"—but I'm moving on from that!" Jaune interrupted, before they could remind him of that dark, dark moment. "And this is where it begins. She's offered to have me do some personal work for her and her husband at some dinner events. Live music, a little show, and she's said she can even arrange for lodging in the manor."
"They live in a manor. Fancy. What was her name?"
"Willow, I think." Jaune fished out a small and pretty business card. "Willow Schnee."
Terra choked on her breakfast.
"Schnee?" asked Saphron. "Sounds vaguely familiar but I'm not sure where from."
Terra choked a second time.
"Yeah, I figure it's some old name from history or something."
"You must be joking!" Terra cried, having finally managed to swallow her food. "This is some ribbing, right? You're both acting this way to get a rise out of me!"
Saphron and Jaune tilted their heads to the left in an identical fashion. He wasn't alike with his siblings in every way, not even many, but they all shared the same curious head tilt whenever they didn't know what was going on.
"Oh, my lord you're serious," said Terra, eyes widening. "How do neither of you know who the Schnee are!? They're the richest people on the planet!"
Saphron made an understanding sound. "Investment bankers!"
"No! Dust! They make dust! They make all the dust! Or most of it. Like, 95% of dust on Remnant comes from them. How do you not know them?"
"Ansel is a small place," Saphron answered. "How much dust do you think we really use out there? A little, sure, but most people still cut logs to warm their homes and cook in the kitchen. The village is right next to a forest."
"But I know you use some dust!"
"Cheap dust," Jaune said, shrugging. "Literally bargain bin dust rejected by the cities. I'm guessing that's not what the Schnee make."
Ansel was just too small. A business wasn't going to waste time marketing to them when 99% of dust in the world was consumed by the big cities. It'd be too much investment for too little gain. Besides, by the time dust reached Ansel it was no longer in neatly packaged crates stamped with company logos. It had all been taken out and stuffed into big barrels to make it easier to transport on bumpy roads through the wilderness.
"I've married a yokel," said Terra. "Wow. There's so much I'm going to have to teach you. Look, the Schnee are the family in Atlas. They are the richest people by a factor of twenty. There's also a huge amount of drama over them using cheap faunus labour in terrible conditions."
"Is that true?"
"No idea. I worked in Atlas, remember, and they have their fingers in all the pies. No news outlet there is going to dare say anything bad about the SDC. I'm surprised you at least don't know Weiss Schnee," she said, pointing at him. "She's probably the most famous female singer in the world right now." She paused. "Along with you."
Jaune winced. "Ah. I've probably heard her music and seen her but I'm not that great with names. I hardly know any names of actors in movies, even if I love the movies themselves."
It always felt weird to him how people would say "Oh, so-and-so is in that movie. I loved him in this other movie". Jaune could go watch a whole series without ever learning the real name of the person and never once caring. Why bother? They were being paid to be a character, and Captain Zargon was way more interesting than some rich actor doing drugs and having messy public divorces with women half their age. Why ruin a good thing by bothering to learn the assholes behind the fun characters.
"What would they want Jaune for?" asked Saphron.
"Well, probably what they said." Terra replied. "They run all sorts of events for high society. Charity dinners, balls, galas. They probably just want him to play music to entertain guests. Maybe they're doing something for a younger audience like a kid's charity and they figured the usual classical orchestra wouldn't fit."
"So, it's safe then?"
"Yes. Of course. The Schnee are much too high-profile to be the kinds of people to abduct strangers. As long as Jaune is polite and doesn't offend some of the most powerful people on Remnant, I'm sure it'll be fine."
Luckily, he had a ridiculously padded stat to avoid that.
-/-
Jaune Arc
Lvl 6.
Title: Bard
HP: 150/150
MP: 70/70
Str: 7
Con: 7
Dex: 6
Wis: 8
Cha: 124 (125)
Aura: Locked
Semblance: The Game
Perks:
Speak with Animals.
Bardic Skills.
-/-
His Charisma had spiked up again. Mostly from his online videos. He'd gotten one point in Charisma from performing live after the tournament but many, many more from the video Saphron and Terra had released the other day. Numbers mattered. Still, the growth had slowed down a little from the first one. It wasn't as explosive, and the notifications weren't beating his head in every few minutes. He hadn't had one all morning.
I guess it must be scaling requirements. It's sad I won't be farming my way to two-hundred Charisma in a matter of days but kind of a relief I don't have to deal with the headaches.
At the same time, it was still kind of annoying that despite deciding to pool his level-up points around the other attributes, his Charisma was still casually outpacing them. Maybe he should look into joining a gym in Atlas and seeing if paying for some personal training could power-level Strength or Constitution. It had to be worth a shot. It wasn't like he'd be performing all day, every day, and there would be down-time between visiting tourist attractions.
"Sounds like you have a plan, then," said Saphron. "When are you planning to go?"
"I was thinking tomorrow."
"So soon?"
"I have a lot of places to visit over a year and I don't want to get stuck here. Besides, I'll be coming back between each kingdom to catch my breath and plan the next step."
"That's true." Saphron fished her hair back out Adrian's mouth. "But maybe you should go spend some time with your girlfriend before you go. Let her know you'll be coming back and that you'll stay in touch."
"Saph," he groaned. "Pyrrha isn't my girlfriend. We're just friends."
"Hmm. That's what Terra's aunt said about us too."
Terr laughed. "I remember that one. We're just really good friends, wasn't it? I think she's still sticking to that argument. Mom wants to keep our marriage a secret until the next family gathering so we can spring it on her then and catch her reaction. I think she's upset her sister was disparaging our relationship."
"Your mom is nice."
"You're nice," said Terra, leaning over Saphron and Adrian to capture her wife's lips.
"I'll go tell Pyrrha!" Jaune yelped, fleeing out the door.
He didn't want to stick around to see them getting hot and heavy.
/-/
"You're leaving already!?"
Pyrrha couldn't quite stop the whining twang in her voice as she asked that, nor could she stamp down on the urge to ask him to stay longer. But for what? Jaune wanted to travel, he wanted to visit Atlas, and she had no good reason or excuse to ask him to stay.
But she still wanted to.
"It won't be for that long," he said. "I need to visit every kingdom and I still want to at least have a try at Menagerie, so I'm thinking two months in each. Or maybe ten weeks. I've not decided yet. I'll be coming back to Argus between each trip, though. I'll probably spend a week here each time."
One week every ten.
It was pathetic how greedily she was prepared to cling to that. "Then you'll come see me, right?" she asked. Behind her, she could hear her mother sigh in exasperation. It was a reminder. Pyrrha flushed. "C—Can we stay in touch? I want to see pictures of your travels and how well it's going. If that's not too much trouble."
"Sure!" His smile had butterflies waging war in her stomach. "I have your scroll details. You're welcome to call me as well. I'll have it off if I'm doing a performance, though. I don't think Mrs Schnee will like it if I stop mid-song to answer a call."
"Yeah. Yeah, that's fine." As long as she could reach him and talk to him. It was pathetic, she knew, but she didn't want to let go of his friendship. Or whatever it was she felt. A crush, romance, love. It was hard to tell. "And when you come back, you can come watch my tournament progress. And we can hang out. Maybe I can show you around Mistral when it's your turn to visit here. I'm sure I can convince my agents to let me go on a sightseeing trip with you. It'd be great PR for Mistral and all those places. They might even put us up for free just to be able to say I visited."
Another groan from her mother, probably at Pyrrha somehow working herself into the position of "tour guide" rather than "girlfriend", but it wasn't as easy as her mom made it sound! She couldn't just tell him she was interested in more than friendship. What if he said no?
What if he said yes!?
It was easy for mom, just being on a team with dad and him being the one to ask her out. Times had changed, Pyrrha was unapproachable, and Jaune was so handsome and dorky and handsome and great. And cute, too. Cute and handsome and a good singer and humble and nice. Not at all anything like the other boys on the tournament circuit who acted like they were a gift from a god to the women of the world. They were the worst. Some had even started to act like she should want to go out with them just because there were no other guys who could match her.
As if she were only allowed to date people capable of fighting her in an arena. Jaune didn't look like he could hold his own against her at all. She could pin him down, lock his hands behind his back and... and...
"Hehehehehehe."
"Um. Pyrrha?"
"Heh?" Pyrrha blinked the fantasies away. "What?"
"You were giggling and drooling."
"I was not!" She wiped the drool-that-did-not-exist away. "I was just... I was... Anyway, Atlas! What are your plans there?"
Athena Nikos slapped a hand into her face.
"I'm not entirely sure yet. Mrs Schnee told me she could show me some great places in Atlas and said she could point me in the direction of some incredible sights." For some reason that had Pyrrha feeling just a little irritated. "I wasn't sure what she meant by all that at first but my sister-in-law tells me she's actually super rich, so I guess she means she can afford to send me to those places as part of payment for performing for her. Isn't that nice of her?"
"Yes," Pyrrha said through clenched teeth. "How. Very. Nice. H—How old is she again?"
"I didn't ask, but... I mean, she's at least forty, right?"
"And married," she reminded him.
"I don't see how that impacts me playing music for her."
"It doesn't." Pyrrha was all smiles. "I just wanted to say it out loud. Just a reminder she is a married and old woman. An old, old, old woman."
"I'm forty-one," drawled her mother.
"See? Old."
"I'll remember that one, my daughter. Oh, I'll remember that one when you come to me for help later." Athena cleared her throat. "Wasn't there something you wanted to give Jaune before he left on his trip?"
Pyrrha went bright red.
Jaune looked surprised. "There is?"
"Y—Yes. Um." Pyrrha cursed her mother a thousand times in her head and gathered what little nerve she had left. "Here. I know it's not much but..." It felt tacky, even to her, but she handed him a Pyrrha Nikos-branded guitar strap. It was actually ridiculous how much stuff they'd plastered her face on. "Since you mentioned souvenirs, I thought this would be a memory of us meeting and being friends. From your travels here in Argus."
The fact that it was also branding him was unrelated. It wasn't like she was staking her claim or anything, and that people would see this, hear how he was close to her and maybe change their minds on getting on her bad side.
Totally nothing like that!
"Wasn't there something else?" prodded Athena.
"Guh..."
"What? No. This is great." Jaune gave her tacky gift more attention than it really deserved. "Thank you. I'll treasure this as a memory we made."
"Memories are important," agreed her mother. "Which is why making good ones is so key."
Yes, she got the hint. Pyrrha gulped. "Can you... Can you close your eyes?" she asked Jaune. "And I'll give you my other goodbye present."
He did as she asked without thinking.
Pyrrha gulped.
Her mother was nodding for her to do it. A simple kiss. Nothing big, just a peck on the lips – partly to make sure he remembered her, but also to let him know her feelings. Men weren't psychic, or so her mother had been telling her all night. If she let Jaune go thinking all she wanted from him was friendship, then he'd fit himself to that mould because he was a good guy and wouldn't want to lose her. If needs be, he'd trample down any feelings he might have for her so as not to lose her friendship. So, a little kiss. A little hint. A little sign of her liking him as more than just a friend. It was such an easy thing.
In principle.
A bead of sweat ran down her face.
"Do it," her mother mouthed.
Pyrrha hesitated.
Athena gave her a little push.
Their faces closed in, and Pyrrha's heart leapt into her throat. She pursed her lips and closed her eyes, trusting in fate and destiny to carry her through.
Pyrrha engulfed him a hug.
Athena groaned.
"Huh?" Jaune opened his eyes, blinked down at her bright red face, then smiled. "Awww, Pyrrha. You could have just asked for a hug."
His arms came around her back, so big and strong and— okay, they were thin and noodly, but that didn't matter because she felt weak enough in them that he might as well have been the strongest man on Remnant.
"R—Remember me?" she begged.
"Of course I will. Geez. You're acting like this is goodbye forever. I already promised to come cheer you on when you compete in Mistral. And we'll hang out when I come back to Argus. That's a promise."
"Maybe you can go watch a movie together and have dinner," her mother said, rather pointedly in Pyrrha's humble opinion. It made her blush.
"Uh. I guess we can if Pyrrha wants."
"I want!" she squeaked.
"Then yeah, sure. I like movies. It's a shame you didn't bring that up before. I'd have loved to go watch one with you."
As a friend, he meant, but that didn't stop her heart beating away in her chest. Sadly, her pounding heart didn't offer her any solutions to the platonic goodbye she'd just given him. Jaune hugged her again, shook Athena's hand, and then headed on his way, turning once to wave before he left her for what would be at least ten weeks.
Ten weeks.
Two months and a bit.
"Fuuuuuuuuuuckkk!"
"Your sponsors would have a fit if they hard that language out of you," her mother teased. "But really, Pyrrha, I didn't realise I'd raised someone so terrified of expressing their feelings. What was that?"
"I panicked!"
"Well, you have two months to un-panic yourself before he comes back, and you get a second chance. You'd best just hope Willow Schnee hasn't had her way with him by then."
"She wouldn't. He wouldn't. She's an old woman – and married. And Jaune is a perfect gentleman."
"Every man is a perfect gentleman until an attractive woman disrobes in front of them, dear. Even the best men aren't immune to the whims of the second brain between their legs." Athena sighed. "Really, though. A peck on the lips – or the cheek if you really did lose your nerve. How hard would that have been?"
Pyrrha let out a strangled noise.
/-/
Leaving Argus felt like a shame after such a short time there, but he had to start his journey somewhere and he couldn't let an opportunity like this one with Willow slip. Plus, he'd be coming back anyway so it wasn't like he wouldn't have more opportunities to see everyone. Saphron and Terra would continue posting videos for GuitarC as well, keeping his bank balance topped up.
The ferry from Argus to Atlas went by without incident. The waters were free of Grimm and the two huntsmen hired to be on board mostly sat around talking. This time, Jaune was careful not to play his guitar and attract any marine life to the ship. He really didn't want to create another viral video like the last.
A guy playing music to dolphins once was charming, but someone capable of repeating it over and over was going to start looking a little suspicious. Not that his Semblance was bad or anything, but he had to wonder if other musicians would feel he was cheating. Knowing a guitarist had a Semblance helping them surely cheapened the experience in some way, and it just didn't seem worth it to have such drama.
Not to mention having himself and his female self being internet famous at the same time sound like an easy way to have people noticing the similarities between their playing styles, heights, guitar and more. With enough people watching, someone was bound to connect the dots.
As it was, he was just a random guy with a similar guitar. That wasn't even new anymore. One of the nicer stories Terra had found and shown him was a report that a lot more people were picking up guitars and learning, inspired by his music. Well, her music, but it was still a feel-good thing. Aside from a lot of music shops and teachers being very happy with the new custom, the brand and type of guitar he used was selling out wildly. The company behind it must have been very happy with the sudden windfall of her using it for her – his, damn it – performances. They were even selling new models with "as used by Guitar Cutie" on it.
Which wasn't what GuitarC meant but it was damn well what everyone was apparently going to keep assuming. Hah. No one enjoyed a good pun anymore. It was a tragedy.
Coming off the ferry with his luggage he looked around and quickly found a short man with a sign held before him saying, "JAUNE ARC" in big, printed letters. It was honestly kind of a relief to not have to just walk off a boat and not know what to do. His original plan had been to go around bars and clubs asking if any wanted to hire him, but here and now – with no idea where the clubs even were in Atlas – that felt like much more difficult a concept. Not to mention he'd be lugging his stuff around and it was cold out.
Having someone there ready for him made things so much easier.
"Hi. I'm Jaune Arc. Do you need to see some ID?"
"No need." The man set the sign down and offered his hand. "My name is Klein. Lady Willow provided me a photograph of you. I work for the Schnee family and was asked to collect you. How was your journey?"
"Peaceful. That's two times by sea without Grimm. I'm hoping I can keep the record up."
Klein laughed. "You should be able to as long as you keep to shipping lanes. The reason the waters here are safe is because we have vessels patrolling them. Atlas relies on its trade. Most of the dust in the world comes from the SDC and every kingdom has a vested interest in making sure that dust arrives in one piece."
"Would you believe me if I said I didn't even know who the SDC were until yesterday?" It was obvious Klein did not believe him. "I grew up in a small village where the only dust we got was low grade, and even then we mostly used wood fires for heating. That's not going to insult Mr and Mrs Schnee, is it?"
"I shouldn't think so." Klein led him toward a parked limousine, pure white with silver alloys. "Mrs Schnee offered us her own car to pick you up, and she seemed to be very impressed by your music. In fact, she's asked if you would be prepared to give her a private showing tonight for her and her family."
"A private concert?"
"Oh, I think it's really just playing a few songs for the family," said Klein, climbing into the limousine with him. They had their own chauffer to drive, which was kind of crazy. Less crazy than Klein opening up a minifridge and drawing out two bottles of soda and some glasses for them. The armrest in the middle opened up to reveal a bucket of ice that he dipped the glasses into. "The Schnee children obviously didn't get to go to Miss Nikos' tournament and Mrs Schnee wanted them to hear your music. Would you mind if I offered you some advice? Just to make your time at the manor a little easier."
"Honestly, I'd really appreciate it if you did! This is my first time meeting such wealthy people."
Klein looked pleased with him accepting. He must have been used to self-important types who wouldn't listen to a butler. "I'm glad to hear that. I'll start by explaining the family. You have Jacques and Willow Schnee, husband and wife. Jacques is the CEO of the SDC and won't have much time for you or your music. Please do not take that as an insult as he is a very busy man. Be polite with him, but do not try and drag him into conversation. He'll allow it, even being polite back, but he'll appreciate you more if you know your place."
"Know my place?"
"Musician." Klein dipped his head. "I don't mean to imply you're less than a person, but, to Jacques, you're a performer there to do a service for money. He is a man who appreciates strict business."
"Got it."
"Mrs Schnee is... well, she's normally quite distant and aloof but she seems to enjoy your music so I'm going to say ignore any advice you hear about her and just play it by ear. Normally, she doesn't care a thing for Jacques' social events, but she's all but taken over the upcoming one. That's a point in your favour in Jacques' eyes as he's quite pleased with Willow's sudden motivation."
Did his music have that much of an impact?
At least it didn't sound bad...
"Next you have their three children: Winter, Weiss, and Whitley. Winter is military and on quite rough terms with the family right now. You shouldn't have any issues with her but just be prepared that there could be arguments involving her. My advice is to keep playing and ignore them, as it's a family issue and not really any of your business."
"That sounds like good advice to me. Trust me, I don't want to get involved. Are the others easier?"
"Very much so. Weiss is a singer, but she's under quite a bit of pressure currently from fans, the family, and her own ambitions. I spend a lot of time looking after her, so I'll assure you she is a very sweet and intelligent young woman, but right now she is in a bad mood. Please forgive any waspishness. She won't mean it. You're more than welcome to talk music with her as she does enjoy that, but I'd shy away from extoling her virtues or talking about her music in particular. Weiss will feel you're being fake, or she'll have to act differently around you because you're a fan. The manor is a place where she's meant to feel she can relax and not worry about fans bothering her."
"I'll do my best to stay out her way unless she comes to me first, then."
"Thank you. You seem like a good young man. Finally, there is Whitley. I can't see why you wouldn't get along. He's a smart young man a few years younger than you, but as the youngest he does sometimes feel like he has to try harder to be noticed. I don't think he would bother competing with you, but he can get quite competitive with his siblings. He might try and be more friendly to you just to beat his sisters to it. You could just ignore it, but I think the easiest thing to do will be to just accept it. It's hard being the youngest and feeling like you're in the shadows of your sisters, and he's just a young man trying to find his own place. If he does insult you, I guarantee it's a misguided attempt to prove himself different."
"He sounds fine to me. I have seven sisters, so I know what it's like to have issues standing out."
"Seven? Goodness. If Mr and Mrs Schnee had that many children, I daresay I'd have quit years ago. Three is quite enough, thank you very much." They shared a laugh and a drink. "Onto happier topics, then. Mrs Schnee has asked us to have a room made ready for you and we've done just that. I'll take your luggage there when you arrive as I'm sure Mrs Schnee will want to greet you herself. Also, she mentioned you wanted to see tourist spots."
"Yes. I'm basically travelling Remnant and want to visit places."
"Hm. I do believe she's mentioned arranging some trips to facilitate that. You should wait for her to bring them up, but she seems quite determined to make sure you're well looked after while you're here. Your music must be something special."
"Ahah." That damn Bardic Music. "I guess it must be."
"We're coming in now. You might want to see the manor with your own eyes."
Jaune looked out the window and gasped. They had just passed through an open gate between brick walls and were now travelling down a wide paved road between tall green hedges. In the distance, a mansion easily a hundred times the size of their house back in Ansel straddled a great plain of green grass, with a horse racing course and stables toward one side and a whole tennis court on the other.
"Holy crap..."
"Welcome to the Schnee manor," said Klein. "Your home for the foreseeable future."