Who is he?" Weiss asked Reno
"That little missy is the reason the boss began to help fix Mantle," Reno said to Weiss before he noticed the looks the guards were giving them, or be precise Weiss.
"Better if we talk about this somewhere else," he said to her as he turned around and began to lead her downstairs where the rest of her team was waiting for her.
"Before anything else, what do you know about the boss and what he's been up to?"Reno asked Weiss, but as he waited for her to answer he noticed the confused expression she had.
"You see that right there is the reason no one here likes you, you claim you're from here but have no idea what's been going on"
"Alright, I don't know all of the details but for me, it all started when Rude offered me a job to me and that job becoming an Adventurer, ah a Huntsmen"
"Reno don't say more than you have to!" Silver said to Reno as she walked down the stairs
Weiss watched as her grandfather's assistant walked up to the man before removing his bandana revealing his red fox ears.
Weiss was immediately taken back as the only Faunus that had ever been given this much freedom in the Schnee house was Silver and that was only because her grandfather had taken a liking to her.
'Silver what's going on?" Weiss asked silver but the fox woman ignored her before letting out a frustrated breath
"This is your home so I'm forced to answer you" Silver answered Weiss
"After you left, your brother and your sister had a fight, this caused your brother to go to Mantle to prove to your sister that she was wrong about him"
'And that caused him to meet a pair of trouble makers, that changed his life" Silver answered Weis, but the tone of the woman's voice was harsh, perhaps it was because of everything that had happened but Weiss felt as the woman didn't want to talk to her.
"Please tell me what's wrong?" Weiss asked Silver, she kept her voice low hoping that the woman would tell her why the man sleeping in the room was so important.
"Winter separated Kazuma from Aqua, that's what's wrong" Silver answered her as she took a seat on the couch
In the past, the woman wouldn't have dared to so much as thinking about sitting on anything in the Schnee household, and seeing her and Reno do so showed Weiss that a lot had happened since she left home.
She watched as Silver placed her hand on her forehead and for a brief moment, the young woman looked considerably older.
Weiss turned to look at her teammates who just waited for Reno or Silver to tell them what was wrong.
"The military is calling Aqua the Blue maiden and they are completely dismissing Kazuma's existence, those fools don't understand that there is no Aqua without Kazuma, and there is no Kazuma without Aqua"
"When that man wakes up, we are going to have another war and I'm not sure we can win," Silver said to her
"Silver" Weiss began to say but the woman began to speak
"Your grandfather is dead, he was Mantles, last knight," Silver said to Wess as tears began to all from her eyes
"His last words to me were to give you this" silver said to Weiss s she handed her a small silver box that had a tape recorder in it
'I already gave Winter hers and your mother has hers as well, the only ones left are your brother and your father" she said to Weiss, before looking up and staring at the ceiling.
"I ran into his room when we realized that all of the militaries- Adventurers and Huntsmen were occupied fighting the first waves of Grimm"
And there was your grandfather drinking the potions Aqua had given him
"I'll die as I was supposed to, in the heat of battle just like those that gave their lives for me when we sought the dust this family built its name on" Silver smiled as she remembered the old man wearing his spare set of armor and holding his spare sword, he had them both repaired.
Yet her smile lost its joy and filed itself with pain as she remembered how he drank one potion after another regaining his youth and walking past her and willow, who had stood behind her the entire time.
'silver remembered how the man hugged Willow and her before saying.
"Goodbye my daughters," he said to them before walking out of the mansion and heading towards the incoming Grimm horde.
"Kazuma and Aqua were, no are fresh the fresh breaths that Mantle and maybe even the surrounding towns needed"
[Sometime in the past]
Whitley Rude and Silver knocked on the door, unfortunately, the lights were off and the door was locked meaning that both Kazuma and Aqua could be anywhere.
Unfortunately, they hadn't found them when they drove around Mantle, and considering the door was locked that just meant they were either fixing someone's house or they had left the city.
Silver wore a long white coat that covered her from her head and nearly reached the bottom of her feet, when she had her hood off, the fur that lined the hood acted as a makeshift scarf, underneath it she wore a long black dress, that was made for the cold climate, while her feet were protected by a pair of while long boots.
Witley turned to look at Rude hoping that he might have some ideas and Rude not thinking about the consequences said.
"I guess we can just head to the bar and get a job from there,"
Silver didn't say anything, she didn't like leaving Nicholas alone but the man had ordered her to help Rude search for anyone that could prove useful for his grandson and to trust her gut instinct.
As they walked down the old streets of Mantle Silver began to notice certain changes to the city.
There were old street lamps that kind that had long since been discontinued working again, only that instead of having a fire dust crystal in them there was a sign that had was handwritten by someone that said please refill the oil if the fire goes out and please start the fire again.
Old houses had new coats of paint, while others looked as if they had recently been repaired, and some looked as if they had both things done to them
there were even old discontinued guard golems patrolling the city looking for Grimm and judging by how the golems were acting they had already found a few.
yet these weren't the only differences she noticed.
Small children wore some sort of defensive or offensive weapon, but they weren't the only ones, several adults were walking around wearing the same things.
The city was changing and Silver didn't know if it was for the better.
Strangely enough, there were men and women were cleaning the streets removing as much snow as they could, yet as the snow started to fall again she began to see the old heating systems working once again.
Mantle was a city being reborn, it was becoming a city where the past met the present while the future which was Atlas flew above it.
Yet there was an odd tension in the air as their group walked deeper into the city.
No, that wasn't right Silver noticed, the tension wasn't because of Whitley or Rudeat her companions, it was because of her.
It was no mystery that both Mantle and Atlas didn't like the Faunus and she began to worry for her own safety, there was no reason for Rude and Whitley to help her if someone decided that they didn't like the fact that she was even walking around in this part of the city.
She continued to walk until they arrived at a bar.
"We're looking for Kazuma and Aqua," Rude said to the bartender who just glared at Silver
'She's with us" Whitley said to the man
'Hey we're trying to make a team:" He said to the bartender
'You know the rules, no mission no team" the bartender said to Whitley
"So why don't you just tell us where they went and we can" Rude said to the bartender who raided his hand and stopped him from talking.
"Don't ask questions about other adventurers" the bartender said to Rude before looking at Silver
'Especially if you have someone that isn't one of us" he said to Rude
'What do you mean?" Whitley asked the bartender
The man exhaled and poured the two a drink, then he paused for a moment before pouring one for her.
"Believe it or not, but Mantle is starting to separate itself from Atlas, you Adventurer are raised in here and are trained by each other"
"The way I hear it, is we take care of each other, we don't need any special school, because our school is the real world or something like that," the man said to them as he poured them another drink.
"I'm only going to do this once so don't bother asking another time"
"Those two left the city for a while and no I don't know when they'll be back," the bartender said to them as the door to the bar opened and several huntsmen walked in, each one carrying different weapons on them
'Hey old man is there anything to eat yet!" reno said to the bartender as he put a sheet of paper on the table.
The bartender looked at the paper and began to read the names on it.
"What's that?" Whitley asked Reno who turned and smiled at him before noticing Silver and leaning on the counter while trying to make himself look good for her.
Silver for her part ignored the red fox Faunus and kept her a lookout for any real danger.
"That kid is proof that I did my job, every name written on that paper is the head or representative of a village or town," Reno said to Whitley
"Unlike the Huntsmen, we don't rely on technology to keep track f everything so we have to do things the old fashion way," the bartender said to them before pointing at a small antenna.
"However that won't last long either" headed before picking up a telephone and dialing a number
"What's that?".Silver asked and Reno just laughed
"You guys really don't know anything do you," he said to them
"That's a telephone, it's not as advanced as a scroll, but you can use it to call people, unfortunately, you cant use it to see people," he said to them.
"So what brings you three to a place like this"Reno asked them
"I want to make a team" Whitley immediately answered him and Reo began to laugh
"Hey the kid says he wants to make a team!' reno announced to the entire bar and immediately the entire bar began to laugh
"You don't make a team you idiot, teams make themselves," Reno said to Whitley, with a wide smile on his face
"Look I'll explain it to you so no one takes advantage of you"
"Look, we're out here risking our lives, and let's be honest no one wants to work with anyone they don't like because the guy could get you killed."
"So once you like working with someone you stick to them, we know it, this guy knows it," he said as he pointed to the bartender
"And Kazuma and Aqua know it, that's why you can't find them without each other Reno said to them as the bartender handed him a small stack of money.
"I already took the guilds fee," the bartender said to Reno, as Reno took his pay and walked back to his team
The bartender turned to look t Whitley and then he looked at Silver.
"There's only one job left, if she is going to be one of us, she needs to pass her initiation first," he said to them as he placed a set of paper on the table
"There's a town not too far away from here, all that you have to do is take some medicine to them," the bartender said to them.
"We're going to need a copy of the paper," Whitley said to the bartender as he remembered Kazuma's lesson.
The man nodded and handed Whitley the paper he had placed on the counter.
"The name and address is written on it, just have then written their name down as proof that they received the medicine," the bartender said to them
Looking back now, Silver was sure that the bartender had been given that job because Kazuma and Aqua were headed to that same town
"Oh, and girl a word of advice," the bartender said to Silver, before locking eyes with her.
"Hide your ears, us Adventurers don't care if you are a Faunus, that doesn't mean other people feel the same way," he said to her as he signaled to her to look around
Silver looked around the bar and noticed that the people inside it were a mixture of Faunus and Humans.
As they left the bar silver heard the bartender say to everyone.
Spread the word, there's a silver-haired Faunus girl from Atlas amongst us, she's one of us now" the bartender said to the adventurers who didn't answer, they just slammed their cups on the tables.
She finally understood the adventurers had their own way of doing things and she would need to learn what they were