"Monsters! Deeeemons… Prowlers of the night! Yes, the creatures of Grimm have many names, but I merely refer to them as prey! Ha-ha!" The overweight Professor Port crowed as he addressed the class.
Haruka sighed lightly, already growing bored. She'd expected a bit more from Ritter Ozpin's school, but all the Professor had done so far was ramble at his students. I would much prefer a sparring lesson with Lady Takamachi or Knight Signum to a lecture like this. Then again, I'd always prefer to spar than sit in a classroom.
"Uhhhh… And you shall too, upon graduating from this prestigious academy! Now, as I was saying: Vale, as well as the other three kingdoms, are safe havens in an otherwise treacherous world! Our planet is absolutely teeming with creatures that would love nothing more than to tear you to pieces, and that's where we come in. Huntsmen! Huntresses… Individuals who have sworn to protect those who cannot protect themselves! From what, you ask? Why, the very world!" The Professor continued, and Haruka sighed again.
The Knight rolled her neck and glanced around the classroom, mostly at the other teams. None of what she saw impressed her–though my bar for being impressed is rather high—she admitted to herself.
That noted, one other student did catch her attention. Pyrrha Nikos kept glancing at her out of the corner of her eye, and had been doing so since she had entered the room. Or, rather, since she swept that field of some sort over me.
Haruka couldn't quite identify what, exactly, the field was, and for a moment, she had thought it to be a spell of some sort, before realizing that it wasn't, as it wasn't nearly complex enough. It had, however, been a mana field, and thus magical in nature, most likely something related to the crude usage of mana the inhabitants of Remnant called 'Aura'. Rosenkreuz had guessed it to be an aspect of the Inherent Magic locally referred to as "Semblances', and Haruka was reasonably sure her Device was correct on this.
Haruka shook her thoughts out of her head, they were irrelevant to the current situation.
Port continued droning.
"Despite smelling of cabbages, my grandfather was a wise man. 'Peter', he told me…" Wait, what? She glanced at the professor in confusion. Sense, you are making none.
Haruka leaned back, and crossed her arms over her chest, confident that even if she stopped paying attention, there was nothing of importance she would miss, turning her attention to other things.
"Thoughts on the ongoing attempt to salvage the Archon's wreckage by the Atlas Kingdom?"
"Well, there was very little in the way of important technologies left after the impromptu scuttling and subsequent blast we caused, so General Order One has probably still been upheld. Even if they found something, I would say that there's simply not enough really left to study, Master."
"That is my guess, too. No, I was more concerned about the possibility of… Survivors, if that term can be applied to the corpse-weapons."
"That, I do not know, Master. I can monitor CCT traffic to and from the site, but that'll tell us nothing until too late."
"Better than nothing. And at least Knight Ozpin knows that the Mariage may still be active. Hopefully he'd have passed a warning onto the CO of Atlas's forces there. Still, I must wonder; why is it the Atlas Kingdom attempting to salvage the Archon, and not the Vale Kingdom?"
"I don't know, Master. Maybe that should be a question to ask Knight Ozpin about?"
Haruka mentally nodded. Rosenkreuz was simply reinforcing a decision she'd already come to, on the topics she needed to talk to the older Knight about.
Inwardly, she was also glad that her Device had, in the last few days, finally gone back to her normal calm self, instead of the overly cheery demeanor she'd displayed after the crash.
"Thank you for going back to normal, by the way."
"Oh? Worried I'd turn into another Raising Heart?" The Hybrid-Intelligent Device teased. Haruka mentally shuddered.
"No. Just, no. Everyone calls Lady Takamachi the 'White Devil of the TSAB', but Raising Heart is the true devil of the two!"
"You aren't wrong, Master. You aren't wrong."
Haruka closed her eyes, allowing the discussion with her Device to fade naturally, and beginning to pray, as she often did during lulls in her day. In many cases, she ended up praying more often that the priests and priestesses.
Normally, she simply prayed for luck on the battlefield, but now her prayer was for the Atlas Kingdom salvage team. It was one of protection, against both whatever of the Mariage still 'lived', and against the creatures of Grimm.
After a while, her prayer came to an end, and she opened her eyes, just in time for the professor to loudly clear his throat.
"Ah-hem-hem!" He waited a few seconds, for the class to focus on him, before speaking again, his story apparently finished, or rather, nearly so. "In the end, the Beowolf was no match for my sheer tenacity, and I returned to my village with the beast in captivity and my head held high, celebrated as a hero!" The portly Port took a bow, for no other apparent reason than theater. "The moral of this story? A true Huntsman must be honorable!"
Honor… How do you define honor? What do you consider to be 'honorable'? Is honor, to you, fighting your opponents on equal ground, never using any unfair advantages? Is it keeping your word, even when it may be detrimental? I have done many things most other Knights would consider to be dishonorable in the extreme, in the name of the two honors I possess; that the missions I undertake must succeed, and that I am undyingly loyal to my Ladies Hayate Yagami and Carim Gracia. That, to me, is all that matters on the battlefield.
Haruka shook her thoughts out of her head as the Professor finished his little speech. I should not be thinking of such things now.
"A true Huntsman must be dependable! A true Huntsman must be strategic, well-educated, and wise! So, who among you believes themselves to be the embodiment of these traits?" Port finished his monologue by looking around the classroom, as if looking for volunteers for something.
"I do, sir." Weiss stated, her hand slowly raising. Her voice evidenced none of the frustration from earlier, apparently she'd put it out of her mind. Instead, it was a mixture of confidence and arrogance that colored her tone.
"Well then, let's find out! Step forward, and face your opponent!" The professor told the heiress, gesturing to a now-rattling and growling box next to his desk.
Weiss stood, raising her sword to her side as she did so, before she left the seats to stand in front of the door.
"Go, Weiss!" Yang cheered, apparently getting excited at the prospect of watching a fight in class.
"Fight well." Blake told her.
Haruka stayed silent, simply watching with curiosity.
Port reached up, took ahold of his blunderbuss-axe weapon from where it rested above the digital board, and held it above the lock on the cage.
"Let the match… Begin!" With that, he smashed the lock, and stepped back.
A smaller Grimm burst from the cage the instant the lock fell, out of it's containment before the broken piece of metal hit the floor.
The thing looked a bit like a boar as interpreted by some demented mind. For one, someone had doubled the number of both tusks and eyes, and added the bonelike plates all grimm had, but the differences ran a bit deeper than that. It's proportions were all wrong, and it's front legs barely looked as if they could support the bloated body, while it's hind legs were just as bloated, with all four paws seemingly upside down. Atop that, it did not move smoothly at all, half a limping gait like a badly sick animal, and half jerky twitches as if a puppet with damaged strings.
The overall effect would have been unnerving, if it had not been for two things. One, that Haruka had fought what were quite literally corpses reanimated by magic and machinery. The other… Haruka didn't bother dwelling on, instead focusing on the small fight occuring in front of her.
The boar-Grimm immediately charged at Weiss, who attempted to use the thing's own speed to impale it, but her rapier was deflected by the plate on the thing's head. The heiress seemed to notice this, and rolled to the side right before it would have struck her.
"Ha-ha! Wasn't expecting that, were you?" Port commented from the sidelines. Weiss threw him a look, and charged the boar-Grimm.
This simply resulted in the same effect as last time, her blade deflected off of the thing's armored head, only, this time, the heiress's weapon became trapped at an angle between the thing's tusks, to which it responded by thrashing it's head back and forth as she struggled to maintain her grip on the rapier's hilt.
"Bold, new approach. I like it!" The professor continued his combat commentary. Weiss glared at him, and, as if to take advantage of the distraction, the boar-Grimm twisted it's head to the side, throwing the heiress clear, but also letting the rapier clatter to the floor.
"Oh-ho! Now what will you do without your weapon?" The professor continued commenting.
The boar-Grimm charged at Weiss, who dodged to the side, allowing the thing to crash face first into the armored front of the first row desks. The heiress slided across to floor to grasp her rapier in a single, smooth motion, standing as she did so.
The boar-Grimm immediately charged after her, and she responded with a gesture from her rapier-wielding hand.
Haruka felt mana stir, and a pale blue—Magic Circle!?—formed under the thing, before it was abruptly launched into the air. A similar pale blue—Not a magic circle, it's not nearly complex enough. Semblance, most likely—glyph of some sort formed beneath the heiress, and she, too, was launched into the air, slashing her blade across the boar-Grimm's unarmored belly.
The boar-Grimm squealed, and fell silent, going limp as it landed. Weiss landed in a pirouette, elegantly spinning towards the professor as she sheathed her rapier in the same motion.
"Bravo! Bra-vo! It appears we are indeed in the presence of a true Huntress-in-training! I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today. Be sure to cover the assigned readings, and… Stay vigilant! Class dismissed!"
Weiss glanced back towards her team. Yang applauded, Blake did the same, only quieter, and Haruka inclined her head in acknowledgement.
***
"Ritter Ozpin, a word, please." Haruka's voice rang out within the hallway, and the Headmaster of Beacon and elder Knight turned to regard the girl behind him. Glynda, who had been walking behind the headmaster, also turned. Haruka glanced at her, then returned her attention to Ozpin. "Is there somewhere we may talk… Clandestinely? Related to the matter of my… Attendance here?"
"Of course. Glynda?" The deputy headmaster turned slightly to his second-in-command, who held his gaze for a moment, sighed, nodded, and walked off. "Follow me." Ozpin gestured with his cane, and the two continued down the hallway, coming shortly to a door leading out to a balcony.
"What's on your mind, Knight Haruka?" Ozpin asked in Belkan as the two came to stand near the edge of the balcony, facing the sunset. Haruka glanced to the side, at the third occupant of the rooftop. Ozpin made a small sound of amusement, then called over to Professor Port in Valian.
"Peter, could you do me a favor?" He asked, then switched languages to one Haruka didn't know. "Rosenkreuz, you're going to have to be on translator duty more often."
"Hmm? Oh, Headmaster! Of course, far be it from me to interrupt." The portly Port nodded, and left the rooftop. Haruka turned back to the elder Knight, and he answered the unspoken question.
"It's not uncommon for new students to seek advice privately. I simply instructed him to go do something in the meantime." He had, at least, switched back to Belkan.
"Why didn't you say that in Valian?" She asked.
"It concerns… Local matters, let's put it that way."
"Very well." Haruka inclined her head, and turned to watch the sunset, the cybernetics in her eyes automatically adjusting to the sunlight. She stayed quiet for a few moments, before starting again.
"Why did you make me the leader of my team?" The younger Knight queried the Elder. "You know I plan on leaving as soon as I can. It doesn't make sense, to me."
"I know. I never did expect you'd be here forever." Ozpin turned to look down at Haruka, as she glanced up at him. "But it is not unheard-of for teams to change composition during their time at the academies, and in the time you do spend here, I think you can both teach and learn from my students. And there is no better way to do that then to place you in charge."
Haruka turned back to the sunset, considering his words for a few moments before nodding.
"That… Makes sense." She sighed, a long, drawn out sigh.
"I have… I've something else to ask you. Two things, actually."
"Go ahead."
"That book, at the edge of your desk… That's your Storage Tome, isn't it?" Haruka asked. Ozpin chuffed in amusement.
"Perceptive… Yes, it is. I'm… Not exactly a Wolkenritter, but something close. It was a very strange accident…"
"An accident? Sounds like an interesting story." Haruka grinned as she glanced up at him, and he both cringed and smiled at the same time.
"It is, but is also one I don't wish to share at present."
"Fair enough." She nodded again. "My second question…" She trailed off, then shook her head. "Never… Never mind."
That's not a topic I wish to speak of yet. I shouldn't have even begun to bring it up.
Ozpin have her a curious look, then shrugged.
"Very well."
Neither of them spoke after that, though after a few minutes, Ozpin turned away, and left the roof leaving the younger Knight standing alone, watching the sun slip below the horizon.