Dungeons and Devils (Chapter 62) (Patreon)

Damn it. They should have never given someone with such a personality a king piece.

He just had to annoy the Decarabia lord.

The Decarabia lord who is now aware of king pieces.

An older man glares down at his desk. He has flecks of gray throughout his black hair, a perturbed frown on his face. His piercing purple eyes stare humorlessly at the stack of papers upon the desk.

Bedeze Abaddon was... necessary... and also the best that they had at the time. A fairly powerful pure-blooded devil with a clan trait, one with ambition... and one who wasn't above cheating in the rating game scene and one who wasn't above putting Reincarnated devils down so they didn't get any wise ideas.

Alas, he began to piss off people he shouldn't... and that resulted in this situation. An underworld that knew Bedeze Abaddon used something to increase his strength, just not exactly what.

Now he and the rest of the great king faction need to think of an excuse to feed the public. Create some form of supernatural drug to improve strength, then they need to toss aside a few disposable pawns because they were 'using the drug'. It would certainly ruin the few devils they select, even potentially the Abaddon house, yet at the end of the day, one or two devils going down is far better than a massive scandal that targets the Great King faction's public relations.

There's also the issue of Gaius Decarabia...

He manhandled one of the strongest fighters they have. It wasn't even a fight. He could have won in a single move, yet he kept the Abaddon lord in while wasting a Phoenix tear, just to cause the devil more suffering. A Wrathful devil is probably a correct assumption.

They have no idea how much he will reveal... and that is a problem.

He needs to die, yet it is impossible to kill him. And any attempt at his peerage would cause him to lash out. Considering how he played with Bedeze, that would be more akin to pissing off Diehauser or Sirzechs... and considering the strength of his peerage, some of whom he seems to be holding back. That would be absolutely disastrous.

The only option is to target him. The only thing is that nothing they have can respond to that force. Nor do they really need to end his bloodline in the first place. Malthus sword smithing and the Decarabia voice are incredible abilities, and, if he heard correct five hundred years ago, the boy's clan trait mutated into something greater.

It would be an incredible shame to have those abilities disappear, but it doesn't appear that they can convince him to join the great king faction. That damned Serafall already sunk her claws into him. He can tell. She will do anything it takes to keep him on their side.

Hn... he may be a lost cause, but his offspring won't.

They still have a few fertility potions. All of the ones they had claimed had been sent to labs to try and determine how to duplicate them... however they are no closer to figuring it out than when they started.

Yes. It appears that they may also need to use him. Lord Decarabia poses a problem, thus perhaps he needs to fall victim to the Devil's Sleeping Disease... after leaving a child in one of his harem members, of course.

He will get a maid to slip a drugged drink into the young lord's fridge perhaps.

**Linebreak**

Pov: returned.

"'Oh no, Gaius. I won't let you cum in me. I don't want a child'." I quietly mock with an eyeroll as I look to Mittelt with a half lidded stare. "Jeez. Your hypocrisy knows no bound, right? What did you say not even ten minutes ago? 'Cum in me. It doesn't fucking matter! Paint my insides white!' Was it?"

"Alright, shush you." The girl scoffs as she crosses her arms in front of her chest. "I don't want to hear you complain about something you clearly like doing."

"Hn?" I hum with an amused smirk. "I'm sorry, I didn't hear you, Miss Degenerate?"

"Miss Degenerate is my mother." The fallen deadpans with a serious expression as she leans over the side of the couch and opens a mini fridge. She pulls out a canned drink without breaking eye contact.

She glances to the drink that found itself into her hand, she is sat in her bra and panties, the front of her panties looks slightly damp.

She lets out a low whistle. "Woah, this brands super expensive. I thought you only drank your white apple cider, though?"

"Oh, nah, I like to change it up every now and then. That's one of my favorite beers that's not my own."

"I never took you for a connoisseur of alcoholic beverages." The blonde states as she takes a seat beside me again, leaning against my side as my eyes are drawn to the movie we are watching after I fucked her brains out.

"I honestly could say the same thing to you." I point out.

"Pfft. Are you fucking kidding? Of course, I drank. I had a shitty mom, a deadbeat dad, my bosses were uptight bastards. Everything fell into place when I was drunk, though." The girl smirks as she cracks it open.

She tilts it slightly towards me. "Want some?"

"You know what, sure." I shrug as I lean down to take a-

I pause abruptly, lips inches from the open tab.

"Don’t drink that." I deadpan immediately.

"Hn?" She hums.

"It was drugged." I announce.

Her eyes widen as she shakily looks to the beverage in her hand.

"Huh? W-what by?"

"Fertility potion." I announce. "And just what form of white and sticky substance do you have bubbling away inside of you right now?"

"…"

"So... it's not lethal?" She questions as she tilts her head.

"Mittelt." I deadpan.

"But it's a good brand!" She whines.

"A child." I deadpan. "A child for a beer."

"Is a child worth this drink?" She questions slowly. "Hmmmmm."

"Pfft-" she snorts abruptly. "Nah, I'm just messing with you."

She gets up, slowly walking across the room, and drops the drink in the trash. "Maybe one day. But that day is not today."

She walks back over and snags two drinks from the fridge, offering me one. "Thanks for the save, all powerful king. You're not a father for another day... I wonder how long that'll last, am I right?"

I take the drink slowly and open it, taking a sip after a while.

She opens her own and tilts it to me. "Is this one good?"

"Yeah, that one's fine." I answer.

"Cool." She hums as she takes a drink.

We fall into silence.

"So are we going to just... ignore the fact that you had a drugged drink?" She asks slowly.

"Oh, of course not. I've already figured it out. How it got there. Who put the potion in the drink, and why." I state with a small head shake.

"…" the fallen stares at the side of my head for a long moment before breaking the silence. "Care to elaborate or..."

"The great king faction wasn't pleased with me revealing the king piece inside Bedeze, so they seem to be plotting for me to impregnate one of my harem, so they don't lose my clan trait, and to then kill me so I don't blab about the power booster in question."

"The what piece?"

"The king piece. A type of evil piece which multiplies the strength of whoever uses it anywhere from ten to one hundred fold. There's a small problem that if the user is too strong, or they have a sacred gear of some form, or are reincarnated from another race in general, they die violently and painfully. The great king faction has been rigging rating games through these pieces for a long time. They are also ones to kill anyone who finds out about them... congratulations. You're on a hit-list now." I explain dully.

"Oh great. Nice to know that you care for me sooo much that you're planning on getting me assassinated alongside you."

"Pfft. If they try, I'll wipe the Bael house from the face of the earth to prove a point." I scoff. "I mean, really. I'm biding my time until I get a single thing that pushes me to use the nuclear option... and man, that big red button sure is looking appealing."

She lets out a low click then continues silently drinking.

**Linebreak**

"So, you bought a car." Ravel deadpans.

"it's not JUST a car, Ravel. It's a Corvette! Every dude's dream car!" I exclaim.

"It's a human car... made with human created car parts." The girl points out. "Devils make numerous magical sports cars."

"I mean, sure, you say that. Buuuut I want to enchant this bad boy myself. Besides. It looks cool!" I wave off as I turn back to the engine which is in the BACK of the car! Woah!

"Do you even know how to drive?!" My fiancee questions.

"…"

"Yeeeees?"

"Do you?" She repeats with a half-lidded stare.

"I mean, I don't have a license, but that can easily be forged." I state slowly. "I mean, how hard could driving really be?"

**Linebreak**

I tap my fingers on the steering wheel a small smile on my face.

Fixing up my car took far less time that I expected... and repairing the dent it got after smashing it into a tree took about the same amount of time.

Barely even a day in fact.

Yeah. I purchased some ranks in 'Profession Driver' after that.

I glance to my passenger who meets my gaze from behind her sunglasses. "Why are we here?"

I take a second to look over her striking white hair and pale skin, she wears a white undershirt and an open black shirt top. She also wears jeans and has a brownish belt with a snowflake on the buckle.

She pulls down her sunglasses slightly, giving me a look with her piercing blue eyes.

She has a scar over her left eye, but it didn't damage the eye itself. You could say it even adds to her attractiveness.

"Gaius?" She questions, noticing me not saying anything.

"I've noticed that you were looking sad recently, so, I thought to myself, 'hey, I've got a cool car. I've got a sad girl, why don't I combine the two and drive the girl who seems to be home-sick around her town and try to make her feel better?'. So, since we are dating- that's our relationship, right?"

She nods once slowly, a dusting of pink on her face.

"Well, since we are dating, I thought it would be nice to let you pick out some places, we go, and... well... maybe visit your family? I can see that look in your eyes. You miss them, don't you?"

She flinches and looks away, pulling her sunglasses back up. "That is... extremely thoughtful, Gaius. T-thank you. Perhaps I'll take you up on your offer to visit home? I'll certainly be visiting my sister at the academy, but I'm unsure if I want to see my father."

"Not even to rub it into his face that you have a boyfriend which you chose that is mentally and physically your age instead of some old huntsman dude?"

She lets out a low hum as she considers the option. "That doesn't sound unpleasant. It'd be cathartic in a way."

I reach over and push a button on the console to cause the monitor to light up revealing a talk show of some sort.

My eyes stray over to it as we slowly pull out of the parking garage.

"Saturday's rating game has been on everyone's mind recently! Gaius Decarabia has been placed within the top three and shown off the incredible ease with which he is capable of dispatching some of our race's greatest warriors!"

"Hey!" Weiss exclaims. "Eyes on the road!"

"Fiine." I sigh as I turn the screen away from me.

"And it's not merely on the common devil's mind, either, by everyone I meant EVERYONE." The devil talk-show host exclaims. "Today, we've even managed to get some statements from the four new Satans on the young lords outrage! Perhaps we should get the least informative of the way first."

A new voice comes from the monitor.

"Hn? Lord Decarabia's little wrath moment? What he does in his free time doesn't really matter to me. But you shouldn't antagonize a devil who can kill you in a setting where accidents can happen. That's just not a good idea in general. Now, can you get out of my office? I've got some more sleep to catch up on." The bored sounding voice of Falbium echoes out.

"You know, I didn't think my wrath would be that large of the thing." I idly note

"You almost tore a guy limb from limb, Gaius." Weiss points out.

"I mean, he totally deserved it." I scoff. "I would have gone nuclear regardless of who in my peerage he tried to molest."

"I never said he didn't deserve it." The white-haired girl states as she slowly looks at the buildings slowly pass us by. "Just that forcing your enemy to stay in with a phoenix tear, an item worth millions of lillum, is a little unusual."

"Fair, Fair." I nod as I check the rear-view mirror.

"Next is a statement from the creator of the evil pieces system, Ajuka Beelzebub."

Said man's voice begins playing from the screen.

"I don’t see why it really matters that he got angry." The man states. "The great king faction are truly blowing things out of proportion. It is in bad taste to force yourself onto a girl within a rating game. Any lord would be angered by this. Just not many have the ability to readily and easily dismantle the target of their ire. If they are going to be so unsubtle in their methods of PR. I suppose I shall be as well. My statement here is 'they wouldn't be making a fuss if it wasn't someone from their political faction'. If it had been an extra devil, nothing would be said, and if it was a member of the new satan faction, they would be on the side of lord Decarabia. I genuinely do not have time for these pesky politics and I would like to ask for the great king faction to refrain from annoying me as of right now."

Oooh. There Ajuka goes, pulling a 'I know you used a king piece but I won't say it on national television. You better watch yourselves before I take the kiddy gloves off.' Very nice.

Sirzech's statement comes up next.

"Are you truly asking me if it is wrong that a lord gets angry when someone attempts to molest one of his loved ones? To tell you the truth, I would have reacted in a similar way if someone attempted to do that to my wife or little sister. I see no reason why this should be a massive scandal. It's honestly a little pathetic."

And finally Serafall's.

"Ugh! Why is everyone always annoying Gai-Tan! Bedeze is lucky! If he had actually molested the cute Neo-chan I would have killed him myself! Politics be damned! The only reason I haven't covered his estate in ice is because he is in intensive care! Nobody can taint the cutest member of Gaius' peerage! No-one I say!"

"Wait- you are... this protective of his low-class pawn?" The questioner asks.

"Of course! Every waking moment I try and get Gai-Tan to trade her to my peerage but that big meanie won't do it!" The magical girl chirps.

Weiss lets out a quiet sigh of relief.

"Hm?" I hum, prodding her to voice her thoughts.

"Oh, I'm just thinking about the bullet I dodged by joining you instead of her." The Schnee huffs as she readjusts her shirt.

"She isn't that bad." I frown.

"Oh, I'm fully aware, but I would die of embarrassment after she coerces me to join her magical girl show." The white-haired girl states, reaching up and turning off the screen as it devolves into the commentator going over the potential political fallout of my actions. About how 'The Great King faction and the New Satan faction are more divided than they even have been in years'.

Utter bullshit.

"Her show is actually quite good from what I've seen." I shrug as we roll to a halt at a stoplight.

"Hn." She hums. "I'll take your word for it. But I still don't want to be a part of it."

"Oh, I get you. Serafall actually asked me if I wanted to be the main villain of season twenty-eight called 'Lyric' which would be a primarily singing roll. I of course turned it down because I don't exactly have a lot of time as it is, but she said there'd be tons of sexual tension between our characters and I'd eventually become a good guy over the course of three or so seasons."

"You sing?" The girl in the passenger side seat questions, eyebrows raising slightly.

"Of course! Sing, compose, and play instruments, my mother's clan trait makes it extremely easy." I smirk at the girl. "I'm always in tune, no voice cracks, my vocal range is actually fairly incredible."

"Hm. Well, I remember telling you that I spent a majority of my early life as a singer. Perhaps we could sing a duet sometime."

"If you want, I'd be down for it." I smile as the light turns green; the car slowly drifts forwards as I drum my fingers on the steering wheel.

"Oh! Gaius!" The white haired girl beams as she gestures to something out the tinted passenger side window. "May we stop at that café? I adore their coffee and pastries!"

"You're in charge today, Weiss." I shrug as I slow down the car and slowly parallel park.

The doors open on their own as I step out, I walk over to a nearby parking meter and slip a few lien cards into it.

I look back to the car as Weiss steps out.

The two butterfly doors slowly drift closed.

The car itself is a black Corvette Stingray with lightly tinted windows, the tire rims are a deep purple color, nearly black, there's also a number of wispy near-black purple decals running across the side and down the hood.

Quite a few people stare at the car as the lights flash, its doors audibly locking.

Weiss gives me an amused look as her high heeled shoes on the sidewalk, I step over to the door and open it for her. "After you."

"What a gentleman." She complements with a slight amused eyeroll.

"I try." I state with a kind smile.

**Linebreak**

Pov: Elsewhere.

A mute girl kicks her feet up on her desk as she lets out a long sigh of relief.

A week-long break from devil bullshit.

Blissful.

There's an ice cream cone in one hand, and her scroll in the other.

She finally caught up with her show!

Apparently having Gaius here doesn't exactly give her a lot of time to watch things. When he's here, most of her time is spent face down, on her back, or straddling him.

"Mistress." The girl's slave questions slowly, gaining the attention of the mismatched girl.

"I have cleaned the kitchen. Is there anything else I can do for you?" The minty-green haired, red eyed girl questions.

Neo tilts her head and scratches her chin.

"Oh... and Cinder is back with groceries as well."

She quietly signs for Emerald to begin preparation for dinner and goes back to looking through her scroll.

She watches the chocolate skinned girl slowly walk away, she is wearing a maid-esque version of a tube top and a short miniskirt.

It's better than Cinder's... who is in fact just wearing a frilly bikini, she observes the long legs of the girl and her shapely curves.

A small part of her wants to see Gaius fill them with his seed like the sluts they are, but another part wants to keep tormenting them by keeping him all to herself! Despite their will being dominated, it's clear that they still appear to want some form of affection, it is only increased by the fact that the multicolored girl casually lays his boyfriend with them in close proximity.

The girl freezes, the last part of the ice cream cone remaining static in her mouth as she realizes something

Hold on... a second... she's... late?

**Linebreak**

A pink, brown, and white haired ice-cream themed girl stares down at a device with a blank face.

Oh.

She looks up slowly.

Oh boy.

That is not optimal.

In fact, that scares her quite a bit.

Neo takes a deep shaky breath as her eyes snap back to the item in her hand.

It hasn't changed. It wasn't an illusion.

Alright. That's not good.

Fuck.

Fuck fuck fuck.

She's kind of freaking out now, a small bead of dread forming in the pit of her stomach.

This is bad.

How does she explain this to Gaius?!

**Linebreak**

Pov: returned.

"Can we get a meeting with Specialist Schnee, please?" I question the uniformed woman at the desk.

The woman gives me a half-lidded and extremely tired stare. "Sorry sir, you cannot just waltz into the Atlesian Embassy and expect to meet with one of the higher ups."

"Alright. We'll wait outside. Please tell her that Weiss Schnee is here to see her." I look to the girl in question, quietly sipping on a latte slightly behind me.

"Sir, you cannot park near the building for an extended period of time." The woman states. "If you do not leave within ten minutes, I will be forced to call security."

"Sure sure." I huff with a slight eyeroll and Weiss takes my arm and we step outside.

We return outside swiftly approaching my car and taking a seat on the hood.

"Do you think she'll tell my sister?" Weiss asks.

"If she doesn't and calls security, she'll certainly be yelled at." I hum as I look to the sky.

It's pretty cold up here. Being in not only the northern part of Remnant, but several thousand feet up where ice cold winds batter the city.

It's quite nippy.

Not really an issue for me, however, due to my high body temperature, but it would certainly be unpleasant for almost anyone else.

"In fact." I continue. "I bet your sister will be here in about... five seconds."

We both look to the door as a moment of silence passes between us.

"Three. Two. One."

The glass doors are flung open, utterly shattering as they make contact with the outside walls of the embassy, a white-haired woman in a long open coat stands there, eyes straying the parking lot, eventually locking onto Weiss.

She has snow white hair, light blue eyes, her hair is tied up into a tight bun atop the back left side of her head, allowing bangs to hang down over one of her eyes and a small curl to fall from the side of her head.

The white haired girl beside me slowly stands, walking forwards, to the Atleasian Specialist.

A range of emotions cross her elder sibling's face, confusion, happiness, annoyance, relief.

"It has been a while, Sister." Weiss smiles as she gives the older girl a slow nod.

"Weiss." The older woman whispers. "You... are alright..."

"I am better than alright." The girl smiles. "I'm free... and I'm not married to some huntsman."

"Father said you were kidnapped! Is he the one who- no... father is one to exaggerate. If he did kidnap you, there would be no reason for him to be parading you around in an expensive looking car."

"Father exaggerates a lot of things. The amount of freedom I would have gotten in my life, that I could go to Beacon, that I could actually choose who I would marry." The girl wearing a thin, black, open shirt replies with a slightly annoyed frown, it quickly disappears as she smiles at the woman. "But no. I was not kidnapped. It was more akin to running away from home."

"Did it truly get bad enough for you to run away?" The Atlesian specialist questions with a concerned expression.

"He was marrying me off as the seventh wife of a fat, washed up huntsman twice my age for a mere twenty percent off the protection for our shipments."

"Twenty percent?!" The specialist frowns. "A mere twenty percent... for you. The Heiress?!"

"Oh, Father removed my Heiress status as well despite the fact I haven't done anything. The excuse that he gave me about 'strengthening the Schnee bloodline' and 'Creating more powerful warriors to fight the grimm' was all hot air as well."

The white-haired girl with a small scar over her eye pauses as she seemingly realizes something. "Oh! Allow me to introduce you to the person who- according to my father at least- has apparently kidnapped me."

I hop off the hood of my car and slowly approach the two Schnee women.

"Winter, this is Gaius Decarabia." Weiss introduces as she gestures to me, she then gestures to Winter. "Gaius, this is my elder sibling, the one out of my entire family that I have the closest relationship to, Winter Schnee."

"Hello." I smile kindly as I take her hand and shake it. "it is a pleasure to meet you. I am the CEO of the Decarabia catering company."

"I... haven't heard of it." She frowns

"Oh, you wouldn't it's mainly a thing in Vale, but we have opened a branch here in Atlas as of recently. The company itself is also not exactly that old. Merely being open for a year or two."

"I see." The woman notes with a slight smile. "It pleases me to find out that Weiss has found a dependable friend."

"Gaius is also my boyfriend." Weiss adds in.

"…" I feel Winter's grip tighten.

"Boyfriend?" She questions, sounding far more alert and with a slightly dangerous undertone to her voice.

"Correct." I smile, increasing the force of my grip slightly, she also meets me head on, a small battle for dominance in the handshake occurring.

As her aura crackles slightly, I let go with a smug look.

The white-haired woman's gaze strays to Weiss. "Are you... sure that he is worthy of you?"

"Oh. I am positive." The white-haired girl nods slowly. "I picked him purely to counter my father's 'for the good of Remnant' argument. We have come to an agreement and he isn't pushy in the slightest about progressing our relationship!"

"I am truly happy with Gaius." The girl nods slowly.

"And I am happy with Weiss." I announce slowly. "She has proven to be incredibly dependable, smart, and strong. Someone I can truly rely on."

The woman frowns slightly scrutinizing my every feature. "I see."

"I assume Father does not know about this?" Winter questions.

"Father will label him as the 'criminal' who 'kidnapped' me more than likely." Weiss sighs.

"I'm not too worried. I'm practically unkillable by anyone on Atlas." I shrug with an arrogant smirk.

"That... is quite an arrogant outlook." The white haired woman frowns.

"He's... not exactly lying. I've seen him fight before. It's quite horrifying." Weiss slowly nods.

"Are you sure you are one to talk about horrifying, one woman army?" I question.

"Oh. I would have never reached that level if it wasn't for you." Weiss denies with a small head shake.

"Wait... Weiss, you have learned how to summon grimm you have previously defeated?!" Winter asks with a surprised expression.

"I have." The heiress slowly nods.

The white-haired woman is silent for a moment as she observes her younger sister, eventually she nods slowly. "I see... I would like to check to see your progress."

A small part of Weiss seems surprised, the other part seems excited, she is finally going to get some praise from her big sibling. Familial praise being something she severely lacked growing up.

"Please... follow me." The woman declares. "I'll take us to the sparring arena."

The two women quickly walk back towards the building, I follow along behind them with a slight smile on my face.

We make our way through the facility, past numerous soldiers who salute Winter as she passes by.

Eventually we make our way to a fairly high-tech room.

Neon blue lights line the walls, a raised platform with a blue glow coming from in between the tiles.

The two step up onto the platform as a shield surrounds them.

"Seeing as how you do not have your weapon on you, we will not be sparring-" Winter begins only for me to cut her off.

"Oi! Weiss!" I call out.

The two girls glance over as I raise a hand.

A silvery rapier appears in the arena, floating before Weiss as I give the ponytailed girl a bright smile. "Now you can spar. Don't worry about snapping it. I made it extra durable."

"A creation semblance?" Winter mutters.

"Yep." I smirk as I step aside and lean on a nearby wall, crossing my arms as I watch the two girl's standoff.

"First and foremost, I wish to see your summoning, Weiss." Winter commands as she kneels, stabbing her saber into the floor.

A large glyph appears, a massive snowflake slowly turning within its snowy-white form.

Several white beowolves appear, growling quietly.

Weiss blinks slowly, eyes straying to me.

It appears she can sense the mana they have... and it's not impressive.

She raises a hand, calling a much smaller summoning circle, a single white beowolf appears, but instead of the normal light blue, it has orange burning eyes, a mask with orange markings, and numerous jagged fiery crystals poking out of its body, it lets out a low growl, causing puffs of smoke to spew from the sides of its maw.

Winter stares completely frozen for a moment.

"W-" the woman falls silent.

"What?" She eventually squeaks.

Weiss begins to explain "I combined my summons with elemental energy taken from dust."

'Or magic.' I mentally add.

"This results in a summon that far surpasses the standard of the type of Grimm in question." Weiss brightly smiles as she flicks her rapier forwards, commanding the Grimm to attack. "Allow me to show you."

The floor tiles crack as the grimm lunges forwards, in one swift movement it had cleaved the head off the frontmost beowolf and stabbed its claws into the chest of a second, leaving an orange arc in the wake of its claws.

It turns suddenly, slashing wildly at the beowolves.

Limbs fly through the air, the severed ends rapidly transforming into snowflakes, eventually, that sole grimm is stood before Winter, pointing its orange claws at her.

"I-I see." Winter gulps quietly. "That is... impressive. I was unaware you could do anything like that. You have surpassed me in every way."

"It's not often you see Winter being backed into a corner like that." The man beside me announces.

I glance to the side to see a man with short, upward facing brown hair, he wears a white, red, and blue, coat, he has a brown belt with a rabbit foot on it and a horseshoe on his lower back, there is a pin on his shirt that looks like a four-leaf clover.

I nod slowly. "Yeah... Weiss has seriously improved these past few months. I'm really impressed."

Winter suddenly lunges forwards as Weiss causes the beowolf to disintegrate into orange snowflakes.

Her saber arcs towards Weiss' neck.

It is deflected with a single gentle upwards slash from Weiss rapier, at the same moment, Winter's aura crackles as Weiss changes direction abruptly and lands a swooping slash to Winter's torso.

Winter staggers back two steps then leaps away as three icicles crash into the floor where she was standing moments before, creating a large mound of spikey ice. Three blue glyphs in the air slowly fade as Weiss points the Rapier at Winter, turning her body and placing an arm behind her back, entering a classic fencing stance.

In the next moment Weiss moves, blurring across the arena, with a flick of her wrist, Winter's saber is torn from her grasp and sent flying through the air, Weiss rests the tip of the blade just under Winter's chin, causing the woman to blink owlishly and slowly raise her hands.

"How did you grow this much in such a short time, Weiss?!" The woman asks as Weiss lower the rapier.

"Gaius helped me quite a bit. I would have never reached this level without him." Weiss smiles.

The woman frowns slightly, eyes straying over to me. "I see."

She looks back to the white haired girl and slowly brings her into a hug. "It was good to see you again Weiss. I am happy you found someone that you truly care for... I will be sure to talk to father about his desire to trade you away."

"There's no need for that." Weiss states, a slightly mischievous glint appearing in her eye. "After all, where do you think Gaius and myself are going after this?"

The older woman brings a hand up to her mouth, a greatly amused expression on her face. "Oh, how I wish I could see his face as you reveal the fact that you are dating someone who he hasn't approved of. But I do sadly have paperwork."

"Don't worry, Winter, I fully understand the responsibilities you hold." Wiess bows her head slightly. "I hope to see you again shortly but Gaius and myself should take our leave."

"I will miss you, Weiss." The older woman sighs as she nods slowly.

The two women break away from each other, Weiss slowly making her way over to me.  "Shall we go?"

I nod once reaching into my coat pocket and pulling out a small device, eyes straying to the guy beside me. "Oh, by the way, if Ironwood wants to talk or get information on me... just please ask. none of this spy bugging bullshit."

I crush it in between my fingertips and turn away. "Good day."