“Bruno, Merlot. Good morning.”

Leon greeted the pair as they arrived at the northern gate of Shian Shi, or more accurately what remained of it, both equipped with large backpacks. Merlot noticed that a hard light shield generator had been set up in place of the gate, plugging the gap. It was guarded by several soldiers, some lining the walls and others on the ground below. Nearby, Yuri was overseeing a group of workers as they collected rubble from the other day’s battle.

Brandford stood next to Leon, watching as the two students approached. He looked at them with his usual stern expression.

“Morning Leon, morning Brandford.” Merlot greeted. The captain of the guard simply grunted in response.

“Good morning Merlot, same to you Bruno. Now, you two should already know what your mission is. Any last minute questions?” Leon asked. The pair shook their heads. “Sounds good. Just remember, if you encounter any danger out there, don’t be afraid to turn tail and run. Your survival should be your highest priority. If you have to turn back, so be it.”

“Right.” Merlot nodded.

“And just one final thing.” Brandford interjected, much to Leon’s surprise. “You, Merlot. I heard about how you abandoned your post during the battle. Don’t ever think about doing something like that again, you got it? Stray from your orders and you get yourself and others killed. I lost more men than I needed to during that siege, and I attribute the lack of defence at the northern wall entirely to you students and your thick heads.”

Leon sighed slightly. Merlot remained silent, simply nodding. Bruno prepared to say something only for Merlot’s hand to instantly shoot out, covering his mouth. Brandford nodded back at the girl, before turning towards his men.

“Ok well uh…” Leon said awkwardly, unsure of where to pick up from there. “I wish you two good luck. I know you’ll both do great.”

“Thank you.” Merlot nodded.

“Bring down the shield!” Brandford commanded, turning to a soldier. Said soldier saluted, moving towards a small holographic control panel nearby. Giving the screen a few taps, the barrier separating the safety of the town from the world outside disappeared.

Merlot and Bruno stepped through the destroyed gate, past the border of the barrier and out to the town’s outskirts.

Merlot glanced behind her as she walked, catching the eye of the soldiers manning the wall. A few waved to her, and she cheerfully waved back.

“So. Where do we go now?” Bruno asked, not a minute since the two had exited the town. Merlot’s eyebrow twitched slightly, but she held back any hostility and simply reached for her scroll, bringing up the provided holographic map.

“We keep going north to the base of the mountain. We go north-west from there, up and over the side of the mountain. Vinland is located in a valley a little further north.” The leader explained, tracing the way with her finger.

“North through the mountains… It’s gonna be cold as shit!”

“Yeah, did you pack winter gear?”

“I don’t own winter gear!”

Merlot sighed. “We’ll just have to take more frequent breaks then. As long as you don’t lose any aura, you’ll be fine.”

“I already can’t wait until this trip is over with…” Bruno grumbled.

*

“Ah, Thalia! It’s good to see you again!”

Shin greeted, sitting up in his hospital bed and grinning. Thalia smiled slightly as she entered the room, happy that they could finally move Shin from the makeshift infirmary in the rec centre to the town’s actual hospital.

“It seems like your injuries are healing up well.” The leader continued, moving to sit on the edge of the bed.

“Of course you’re preoccupied with my injuries.” Thalia sighed. “But yes, you’re right. My cuts have all but faded. And you?”

“The doctors want to keep me in for the rest of the day, just in case, but otherwise they say I’m fine” Shin answered cheerfully. “I’m surprised you were able to come to visit me. I heard Brandford and Yuri are working you and the others to the bone.”

“They are, trust me. We’re currently on a lunch break but I’m sure they’d make an exception regarding your situation anyways. Or at least, Yuri would.”

“Right, of course.” Shin paused slightly. “Thalia… I would like to offer you an apology.”

“Hm? What for?”

“I feel as though I did not properly perform my duties as a leader during the night of the battle. I wasn’t able to defend you and had to leave things in the hands of Bruno and… Well… Geralt.”

“Don’t feel guilty about it. You did your best and here we still are. Bruno is a surprisingly reliable ally given the proper motivation, or so I heard.”

“That’s what I heard as well. Leon actually came in yesterday evening and filled me in on everything. I take full blame for being unfit to go on the mission. To have to send first years on an assignment like this… And all because I was too weak.”

“Shin please, if anyone is to blame here it’s Geralt and Scarlett. One’s a stuck-up noble and the other is a coward.”

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

“That’s still my fault. As the leader, I should be keeping Geralt under control. I haven’t been doing a very good job of that for a while now…”

Thalia paused slightly, her smile drooping. “I… can’t really fight you on that one.”

“I really do apologise Thalia. But I promise that going forward, things will be different.”

“Right. I sure hope so. This entire situation is already crazy enough.”

“It is. I don’t know how I feel about our situation, but I have faith in our juniors.”

*

Merlot and Bruno continued on their way. They walked through grasslands, past forests, and up hills, stopping only halfway through the day to rest and eat. The more they traversed the land, the colder it got as they neared the ominous-looking mountains ahead.

After a full day of travel, the distant mountains weren’t so distant anymore. Their white tops and rocky outcroppings were visible, bathed in the light of the setting sun.

“Let’s spend the night here.” Merlot said, turning to a pair of massive pointed stones, rising from the ground to form an arch of sorts. The girl threw her backpack down beneath the stones, with Bruno doing the same. “Tomorrow we’re gonna make our way up into the mountains proper.”

“Great.” Bruno sighed, leaning against one of the rocks.

Merlot dug around in her backpack, extracting a tiny fire dust crystal. She gathered a few sticks, throwing them into a pile and placing the dust crystal at the center. She then picked up a rock, before slamming it into the dust crystal. The volatile substance instantly burst, creating a small but contained explosion of flames and by proxy, a campfire.

“I’m surprised.” Bruno said, causing Merlot to look in his direction. “Your weird obsession with proving yourself to Leon is stronger than your hatred for me.”

“I don’t actually hate you.” Merlot replied, reaching into her backpack and untying a bed roll. “I just think you’re difficult to work with.”

“Same thing.” Bruno said.

“It’s not-”

“Yes it is. If you had the choice you’d probably pick anyone else to do this mission with.”

“Not true.”

“Oh really?”

“I hate Geralt.”

“He doesn’t count.”

“What, why?”

“Because he’s obvious. It’s like the free space on a bingo card.”

“Why are you so much more coordinated with your hate analogies than anything else you do?”

“Hey! What are you talking about?!” Bruno crossed his arms. “I’m also very coordinated when it comes to my pranks.”

“It doesn’t take that much coordination to dump a bucket of juice on some noble’s head.”

“That’s what you think! Me and Ash had to figure out what his usual schedule was to nail him at the perfect moment!”

“Well then why can’t you put this much effort into anything else you do?” Merlot rolled her eyes, laying out her bed roll.

“I am! I’m putting effort into becoming the best and most professional Huntsman ever!” Bruno said.

“I’m sure professional huntsmen don’t forget their winter clothing right before climbing a mountain so maybe you should try a little more.” Merlot finally finished setting up her bed, returning to sit next to the fire.

“Hey, shut up!” Was all Bruno had to say in response to this. He proceeded to turn to his bag and rip out his bedroll, unfurling it with one swift toss.

“Let’s just put this to rest already and get some sleep. We have a long ways to go tomorrow morning.” Merlot said, sliding into her sleeping bag. “I’m sure we’ll have plenty of time to discuss things again on the way…”

“Uh huh. Night.” Bruno climbed into his own sleeping bag.

“Night.” Merlot reached over to her backpack, extracting another dust crystal, this one being the element of water. She raised it over the fire, preparing to crush it in her hands and extinguish the flames.

“Wait wait!” Bruno interrupted her, waving his arms. She paused. “I prefer to… Sleep with a light.” He admitted sheepishly.

“Oh. Right.” She put the crystal away and laid down. Bruno let out a sigh of relief and did the same. The fire began to slowly burn out as they drifted off.

*

“Great work again today, team!” Leon said, giving three of the four members of Team SRGT and the two remaining members of Team MABL a thumbs up from across the tavern table. “Yuri tells me that thanks to all your efforts things are going better than ever! If everything goes as planned, we should be getting help from the city of Mistral in the next two days!”

Silence filled the room following this, as the faces of five exhausted students stared back at Leon. Noticing this, he dropped the over the top positive attitude and sighed.

“Look, I know we’re in a bad situation. Things went wrong in a way we couldn’t control, and there may be forces involved in this way bigger than we are, but we just have to keep pushing through. I apologise greatly to each and every one of you, but the fact of the matter is that we can’t just roll over and give up.”

“Forces? Like what, your fake Grimm woman?” Geralt sneered, finally speaking up.

“We’ve been over this, Geralt. Believe what you want but the truth is the truth.” Leon said sternly.

“I am, and not only that I’m saying that you shouldn’t be sending students out on a suicide mission over this. I couldn’t care less about what happens to the barmaid or her faunus pet, but forcing them out into Grimm infested territory over nothing…? It makes me question your skills as a so called ‘Pro Huntsman’.”

“We can’t risk another attack without support from the kingdom, we can’t just passively wait!” Thalia exclaimed, turning to her teammate.

“How fitting. Of course a faunus like you would believe his crackpot stories.” Geralt shrugged, standing up and staring down at Thalia. “From my perspective, this Huntsman just sent two students to their death on the off chance that a random freak Grimm attack happens again.”

“But it wasn’t random, he and Merlot clearly fought something in that tower!” Thalia said.

“I can tell this is a moot point when it comes to simple minded animals like you. I’ll just stop and keep listening to Leon’s orders unquestioningly, like a dog.” Geralt turned away, before dramatically pausing. “Oh wait a second! That must by why you believe him!”

Thalia stared at Geralt with pure hatred, but didn’t say another word. Ash and Robert looked on, unsure of what to say. Scarlett tugged on Geralt’s jacket slightly, a clear plea for him to stop.

“That’s enough.” Leon said. “You don’t have to believe me, none of you do. Just know I am taking what I think is the best course of action. Sending out two students like this is the last thing I wanted to do, but the situation was severe enough to call for it. Just, please know that I wouldn’t do something like this without a solid reason.”

With that, Leon turned away from the students and made for the door.

“Have a good night. I’ll see you all in the morning.”

Geralt scoffed, as Thalia, Robert and Ash slowly trudged out, making their way to their respective rooms.

“Seems like you could use a drink tonight, Huntsman.” Lilac commented as Leon walked by, drying a glass in her hand.

“No. Now is not the time to be drinking.” He replied, pushing open the tavern doors.

“I agree to host nine huntsmen thinking it’ll bring more business… Turns out eight of them aren’t even old enough to drink…” Lilac sighed.

“Scarlett… I don’t know about you but I think I’ve lost all respect for Leon.” Geralt said as the man exited the tavern. “Stories about a Grimm woman who bleeds ichor… What does he think we are, children?”

“I don’t know… He seems so serious about it…” Scarlett replied.

“Come on, don’t tell me you really believe him!”

“I never said that! Just that I don’t know why he’d be so adamant about it if he was making it up… Besides Merlot said the same thing-!”

“He’s insane. Or, maybe a control freak who wants to pretend he has power over us.” Geralt answered. “As for Merlot, she’s just a pathetic first year who got manipulated by a Huntsman into backing up his lies. I mean, there’s a reason she and her team had to take this mission with us. I told you from the moment we got assigned to it, this team was going to be made of bottom of the barrel Haven rejects…”

“They aren’t that bad, are they? I mean, Ash did a good job against the Grimm, Bruno helped you take down that beringle.” Scarlett said.

“That Ash kid doesn’t seem to care about anything. He just does what he’s told and barely argues against it. I hate people like that. And Bruno… He’s only useful as an attack dog. You aim him at something and tell him to kill it. Otherwise he’s just another worthless faunus, like Thalia.” Geralt replied. “Regardless, I think things need to change around here and soon. I won’t be taking orders from that rat of a guard or lunatic Huntsman anymore.”

Geralt stood up from his seat.

“What do you mean by change…?” Scarlett asked slowly, standing up as well.

“Don’t worry about it. Not yet at least.” Geralt said. “Come on. Let’s get some sleep, Scarlett.”