James loved his kingdom. He’d sacrificed much for it, and planned to do so going forward for as long as he could.

What he didn’t love was paperwork. Especially when it was for kingdoms that were not even his own.

But it was necessary to cross every “t” and dot every “i”. Especially in matters as important as these. Signing his name on the line at the bottom of the page, he added it to the pile before slumping back in his chair with a sigh.

“Is that finally the last of them?” He tried to keep himself dignified, but that may have come out as more of a whine. Luckily, Winter was the only other person in the room.

Ever the face of the utmost professionalism, so long as Qrow wasn’t involved, anyway, she quickly snatched up the stack of papers, double and then triple checking his work in a time that he was impressed with. “It would seem so, sir. Shall I see that these are delivered to the Mistral Council myself?”

He hated to waste the time of such an important figure on being a delivery girl, but if Leonardo was a rat, there was no telling who else might be waiting in the rafters for the perfect chance to strike and cause even more problems. “That would be appreciated. Thank you, Specialist Schnee.”

The press releases would be someone else’s problem, but as far as he was concerned, this would be the end of Atlas’ involvement in the arrest of previous Haven Headmaster Leonardo Lionheart. The bastards had made him fill out paperwork for conducting his investigation without informing them, despite the fact that their loose lips would have ensured the knowledge of the investigation made it to the target far too early. They made him fill out paperwork for the installation of a new headmaster, despite the fact that it was something that very well could have been handled internally by the school. Should have been handled internally. Really, with how much they had given to him, he was fairly certain that the vast majority of it was just bullshit paperwork they had thrown at him for making their lives harder and making them look like fools. Somebody else points out serious problems with your kingdom like a traitor headmaster? Obviously you should answer by passive aggressively doing everything you can to inconvenience them.

But he had been forced to “play nice” if only to appease them. Let them think that they had gotten one over on him. International relations have always been a tricky and annoying game…

He took small comfort in the knowledge that he likely wasn’t alone in this suffering, but then he remembered that Ozpin was a lazy bastard and had likely forced Glynda to do all the paperwork for him.

At least it was all over now though. He might need to keep a closer eye on Leonardo’s replacement, if only to ensure that a repeat performance wasn’t in the works, but by and large, he was finally free.

It really was too bad that one task ending only opened him up for the next one.

“Of course. Shall we move on to the next item on your agenda?” Winter asked as she placed the pile of papers into a folder.

James bit back a sigh. “Remind me of what came next?” If he recalled correctly, he needed to meet with the staff of the academy, go over some plans for the next council meeting, pay a visit to Pietro…

“The search for the Brawnwen tribe and your plans for it, sir.”

Ah. Right. That mess…

At least he could take solace in the fact that it wouldn’t require a meeting or more paperwork.

“I assume that Qrow will be looking into it as well,” he made sure not to point out how her professionalism dropped for a moment, a frown crossing her face and her left eye twitching at the mere mention of the man’s name, “but I’m not sure when he last tried to contact his sister. It would be best if we could dedicate some resources to the matter…”

“...but because we have just finished unpleasant dealings with the council, they may be averse to us launching yet another operation on Anima.” Winter finished the thought.

Many would think that attitude ridiculous, being that the kingdoms couldn’t exactly lay claim to entire continents, what with Vacuo and Vale sharing Sanus. It’s not like one measly Kingdom and the Huntsmen that inhabit it could wrest control of the wilds outside of the cities from the grimm. If that were true, the many settlements outside of city walls wouldn’t be able to evade taxation and laws the way that they did now.

But at the same time, he could understand the worry. He would get antsy if Vale suddenly, and without informing him or the rest of the Atlas council, were spotted among the snowfields of Solitas. Why were they there? Why hadn’t they said anything about it? Were they planning something nefarious? It wasn’t like they could say the truth, and even the convenient lie of “hunting down bandits” wouldn’t work because they’d either have to pretend to be incompetent when they didn’t take care of the Branwen tribe, or they’d have to actually produce results to back up the lie and thus piss of Raven, the person they were seeking to request aid from.

Even if they claimed the investigative team as rebels acting on their own, that bore far too many similarities to the White Fang hiding among the innocent populace of Menagerie, and that was a rabbit hole he very much wanted to avoid.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“We could send a huntsmen team?” Winter suggested after he spent too much time thinking and not enough time responding.

“Who could we trust to keep quiet about it though?” A typical huntsmen team would have questions about why they were hunting down a tribe of bandits when they could be going after grimm closer to settlements instead. Especially when it wasn’t even to bring them to justice, but rather to locate and report back. Really, if she was suggesting this, there was only one team she could be thinking of…

“I was thinking the Specialists could handle the matter, sir.” She confirmed his suspicions.

“And are you suggesting that you would be personally involved, Specialist?”

“I would be willing to lead the team, sir.”

That wasn’t a horrible idea. He trusted the Specialists with a lot, but they’d yet to be brought into the details of the shadow war. Really, the only reason Winter knew as much as she did was because he planned for her to succeed Fria, but having someone on the mission who was in the know and could adapt to changes without needing to report back would be nice. And if she was already heading that way to deliver the paperwork in person, a legitimate reason like that would help to keep their cover...

“There’s a problem with that plan. Especially after what happened with Leonardo, Ozpin is going to be suspicious if anyone who might have learned of the Maiden’s identity suddenly disappears from where he can see them. The whole point of this is circumnavigating him, so we can’t afford to draw his suspicion.”

That was when his scroll went off, Ozpin’s name prompting him to answer immediately.

“What’s gone wrong now?”

“Why do you assume that something has gone wrong?” Ozpin answered his question with a question.

“Because all of the recent chaos, except Leonardo, has been centered around Vale and your school? Because I know better than to expect good news out of a random call from you? Because if it was you calling to brag about finishing the Mistral paperwork before me, you would have started shouting about it as soon as I picked up? I finished first, by the way.”

Perhaps it was childish, but he had to take what little joy he could out of that slight dig before Ozpin got the chance to rain on his parade.

Ozpin swore under his breath. “Really? It’s just one thing after another today… well I suppose I should just get it over with then. I was rather rudely woken up far too early in the morning by an acquaintance of ours, you see, and I am quite displeased at the moment.”

As Ozpin explained the situation, James found a growing urge within him to break his desk in half so he could vent some frustration.

Allowing Neo to gain the power of the Fall Maiden, even if incomplete, was foolhardy at best, and malicious at worst.

But as Ozpin ranted on and on… his anger cooled, and another thought occurred to him. Quickly grabbing a pen, he wrote a message to the Specialist in the room, and she was out the door with nothing more than a quick salute.

He wouldn’t be able to know Second Thought’s intentions without talking to him, but it would seem that through his very questionable actions, he had become the perfect distraction. He doubted Ozpin would be paying much attention to Winter’s, and perhaps even Qrow’s, whereabouts if he was busy trying to think up a way to fix the mess he was dealing with right now.

And of course, a very important call with the esteemed Headmaster Ozpin was the perfect excuse for putting off some of those awful meetings he had scheduled as well…

Perhaps he should thank Second after punching him in the face with his robotic hand the next time he saw him. That should get his feelings across.

----------------------------------------

Jaune tried to make himself look small as Ms. Goodwitch paced back and forth, giving him the nastiest glare he’d ever been on the receiving end of.

“...and I just can’t believe that you would do something so foolish.” She informed him for what must be the dozenth time. “I’m not sure that the school is capable of inflicting a punishment severe enough for what you’ve done.”

He’d tried explaining himself, but she’d not taken kindly to that. She seemed to accept, even agree that Pyrrha shouldn’t have to be shouldered with the responsibility of becoming a Maiden… but the replacement he had found was apparently so unacceptable that she had half a mind to have the new maiden practice her powers with him as the target until she dropped from exhaustion.

“Expulsion is not enough. That would allow you to escape the consequences of your actions. I’ll not have you doing some cushy office job while we have to deal with the mess you’ve made.”

He’d tried apologizing, but he’d been informed that his apologies meant nothing to her when he’d gone out of his way to directly disobey orders from her and the headmaster.

“No, no that’s definitely not enough… you deserve something cruel and unusual…”

His combat instructor slowly stopped pacing back and forth in her office, and he dared to hope that his first detention of what he assumed would be many with her might be coming to an end.

“Arc.” She suddenly focused back on him, her eyes narrowed into hateful slits.

“...yes?” he hesitantly responded.

“Your father is a huntsman, is he not? I know that family name.”

Jaune didn’t like where this was going.

“...he is, yes.”

A devious smirk slowly started to cross her lips. “Does your father happen to know that you are attending this school based on forged transcripts?”

He heard a wince next to him, and he dared to look to his partner in crime before answering the teacher.

Ms. Goodwitch had been ignoring his semblance, apparently even more infuriated by his actions. To the point that she could barely even stand to look at him, thus opening Jaune up to the brunt of her relentless scolding.

“I will take that as a no.” Ms. Goodwitch continued.

The one solace that Jaune had was Second’s inability to dematerialize on his own. He could at least force his semblance to suffer with him.

And maybe, if he was lucky, his semblance would distract his dad enough that the man might not kill him.