Chapter 1

“I’m just saying maybe a more secure and permanent solution would’ve been a better call. Check.”

Whitley moved his bishop to F3, almost like an afterthought. This move caused a hum to escape my lips at his antics. I wasn’t stupid. I knew this was a ploy for him to get me distracted and make a fatal mistake. Yet the path Whitley made was two-fold. By opening the conversation, he subconsciously chose a topic that interested him. It was a double-edged sword.

“Please. It may have been forced, but there is simply no way he’s going to complain about it to father. He gets to live the rest of his life in the lap of luxury with no further work needed. It’s the best possible scenario for a retirement.”

Hmm. Not bad. He was trying to bait me into moving my king in range of his queen instead of seeing I could take his bishop. A slight frown on Whitley’s face revealed a lot. Whitley was simply better at obscuring his emotions than me. Thus, when even a slight frown poked out, it revealed his mind was wandering. Perhaps I should start to push more aggressively.

“Even so, don’t you feel unsatisfied? Don’t you want to see him punished for what he did?”

Ah, there was the bloodthirsty heart of gold. I knew my brother had his cold, vengeful side. Just another similarity to bond over through the years. Shame that Weiss didn’t share that aspect. If anything, her anger was more tempered than Winter’s, which was saying something.

“Oh? Do you really think I’ve gotten that soft? On an unrelated note, I believe you’ll find his reputation of some note. Apparently, there’s talk around the staff that he was caught in a compromising position with Cherry, the intern. Which resulted in his sudden retirement.”

Whitley moved a piece on a board that seemed to have no little strategic purpose. His lips quirked up at the last remark. It was a well-known fact that no one gets fired from the Schnee Dust Company. Only ‘retirements’ and ‘resignations’. Unless they were Faunus, of course.

“I can’t say that his wife or kids would appreciate such rumors. Still, it would be cleaned up rather quickly if Cherry denied all allegations.”

“Indeed, by the way, did you know that Cherry showed such promise that she’s been hired as a manager?”

Whitley’s smile grew larger, wrinkles appeared below his eyes indicating he was taking actual amusement and not that this was some elaborate ploy to catch me off guard. I circled my queen to his right side of the board. When I glanced back he wore a scowl.

“I still can’t believe he did that. Even if he was ordered to by father, it was simply too dangerous. What if she was killed?”

“Then a more drastic action would’ve been taken.” I monotoned.

It was infuriating to see her come back with a now permanent scar on her left eye. It took nearly all the self-restraint I had to not strangle father’s personal secretary where he stood. She was immediately patched up but that didn’t mean she should’ve dismissed all the physicians I sent her way…

Thankfully, she was now out of fathers clutches and in Vale, where he couldn’t exactly send the Schnee’s Private Forces that totally didn’t exist on paper. Another positive was that father put me in charge of his secretarial work until he found a suitable candidate for the position. It was like homework compared to what I usually do at the company, but it did offer me more insight and valuable information into father’s affairs. Information was power, and the more of it I had, the stronger I’d be.

It was a cause me and Whitley had united over after his ninth birthday. He caught on quicker than all of us that Jacques Schnee wasn’t worthy of the title father. Yet unlike me, that wasn’t enough to get him to be furious against him. Angry sure, but nothing to act on. No, it was only when father outright confirmed to mother that he didn’t actually love her, and she started to take to drinking that he turned his anger towards him.

If you’ve never tried to wrest a knife from your brothers’ hands outside of your fathers well-guarded and heavily secured room…well, let’s just say I wouldn’t recommend the experience. Thankfully he has been the most comforting figure in mother’s life, helping to give her a reason to not relapse. It wasn’t that I was lacking in comparison, it was simply that she favored him over me. It wasn’t something to be upset or angry about, because at least she loved her children.

The most challenging part of getting my revenge on father was to earn not only his trust, but his acknowledgment in my skills. While Winter studied aura and how to fight, I delved into books to study about the company. When she left I took advantage of fathers anger and gained a position in the company. It was relatively easy to simply rise through the ranks, not that father would verbally credit me besides saying it was ‘what he expected’.

I did as much as I simply could in an effort to gain power over him as quickly as possible. It was about a year of handling the financials of the entire company that I stopped the constant stream of embezzlement. Oh, one may think it was difficult to stop the embezzlement but in reality, they lined up one after another with offers to keep my mouth shut about it. Of course, you couldn’t put a price on revenge.

I was rewarded afterwards with also having to handle public relations. I went to fathers’ little parties; of which I was surprised to learn he knew how to attend one. Building connections was simple, the hard part was doing it without using fathers name. If I was going to usurp father, I needed them to connect to me, not him.

After establishing my presence in the upper class of Atlas, I turned to the White Fang. It was incredibly easy to get in touch. Almost as easy as father’s decision to not to reimburse any of the faunus worker’s families after their death in the mines. Of course, now that I had handling of the financials and records, it was simple to establish myself as a trusted source and official for the White Fang. Not that they would’ve believed me if I told them I was a Schnee. Much easier to go under a pen name and fake position.

Even if he knew about some of the compensations and money transfers, it was easy to write it off as a PR move. ‘What, did you think I was going to start giving all of those animals full reimbursement? Do you know how much that would cost? We just need to satisfy a few to create a conflict to throw them off our backs.’ Would not be an out of place answer to his questioning of my choices. Although it galled me to play to his greed and racism, it was an easy go-to solution. Not that his greed or racism disgusted me, rather, he didn’t need anymore help on that front.

A knock on the door to the room interrupted both mine and Whitley’s silent concentration on the game. Turning out attention to the door revealed Klein coming in with a tray of baked goods. He truly was the best servant of the Schnee household.

“I thought you boys might be up for a little snack before dinner.” He gave a conspiratorial wink towards us. Truly, was he not a saint disguised as a butler? Strangely enough Whitley pulled out of concentrating on the game to give a couple of questions about nothing. It only made sense when Klein finished putting a plate in front of Whitley and started towards me. It was then Whitley tried to engage me in conversation.

“What did you think about Weiss’s fight in the Vytal tournament?”

“Foolhardy and heroic. You tried to convince Klein to switch the chess pieces while I was distracted, didn’t you?”

Whitley pretended to lose control of his facial emotions in sheer shock and his stared at me in awe. Klein simply sighed as he layered the strange looking but probably tasty pastry in front of me. Whitley’s gaze then swiveled to Klein in a look of mock outrage.

“Klein! How could you betray me like this!?”

“Actually, you just confirmed it for me.” Of course, he never usually allows anyone to draw him out of the game while he’s playing. Which usually results in him winning more often than not. Still, it was fun to see how many underhanded tactics we could get away with against each other. Klein simply rolled his eyes at our antics. With a slight huff, which was probably out of amusement, he excused himself and went back to do…Klein things probably. Come to think of it, what did he do for fun? Surely, he doesn’t work all day…

“Checkmate.” It was with a start I realized Whitley had beaten me. It seemed like only yesterday I taught him the game, and now he was so much better than me. My eyes glistened in his general direction.

“You’ve surpassed me when I wasn’t looking.”

Whitley merely scoffed with a smirk across his face as he started to slouch back into the chair. He whipped out his scroll and started to perform movements which seemed indicative of texting. Probably friends from school.

“Hardly. You’re more skilled than me, but you’re too clever by half. You keep overthinking every little move as something more elaborate than it actually is.”

Hmm. Perhaps I should take note of that…or not? It’s a rather convenient excuse that would have me second guessing my-oh. I’m starting to see what he’s talking about.

I waved him goodbye and started to walk out towards my office. What awaited me were stacks of paperwork that was honestly less scary than they seemed. Simply a stack that required me to cursory read through them and stamp them with either approval or denial.

It was rather droll, nothing of any interest. Father just loved micromanaging the entire company and having them fill out paper work for every menial task. While it did make sure to keep upper management working and keep funds from being embezzled, it also made the entire operation slower. Which was already in a bit of a tough spot because of the Vale string of dust thefts. Of course, most of the stores paid up front for the majority of dust we sent their way to sell, but there were tons of other contracts that lowered said initial amount in exchange for a slice of the profits every time they sold dust.

It was with great reluctance that I took a look at how many more stores were hit this month. The report was…surprising. It was a clean straight line of success. No matter how many times I read it, it didn’t change. The police and shop owners believed that with the arrest of the alleged mastermind of the thefts that they’ve been stopped.

This was worrying. I knew the Vale cops were simply incompetent, but this was a new level. Did they really think that well organized thieves worked like that? There should already be a new boss planning more and more heists. They had already exploited and made a mockery of the police force. Any two-bit thief organization should be plying their hand and continuing the constant robberies. They didn’t simply ‘stop’ when the head gets cut off. They replace just as quickly as it was lost.

Speaking of dust, did the Vale council have the numbers on just how many shipments are gone? Just how many pounds of dust they have in stock? Because I do and oh boy does it look bad. Like enough to assault the kingdom ba-

…No. I’m jumping to conclusions. That’s a completely stupid idea. Thieves would gain little from killing off an entire country, and the White Fang wouldn’t kill civilians. Not their style. …But, you know what does fit into all of this? An attack on General Ironwood during the tournament.

The White Fang had something to gain from killing someone so well known for being buddy-buddy with father. For good reason, of course. A lot of ‘donated funds’ go into the Atlas military in exchange for a few perks and gifts. Such as first hands on new Atlas weapons and models. The Schnee Private Forces was no joke after all. Not that anyone really knew the extent of it, of course. Father had seen to that.

Also, if everyone was fixated on the assassination, or even attempted assassination of Ironwood that leaves everyone distracted to whatever the thieves’ side of things are planning. Naturally, it would be to steal. What could possibly be so well guarded in Vale that it would take the assassination of a general from Atlas to take?

It was probably for the same reason Ironwood was even there in the first place with a show of force. Come now, did anyone really buy the whole ‘to make you feel secure’ shtick? Honestly, I wouldn’t mind a peek at what had a good portion of Atlas military stationed in Vale. What could possibly be worth that much protection? Well besides my family, but I highly doubt Ironwood had suddenly gained that much affection for my older sister. From what I gathered from his proclivities he seemed to be more interested in the more mature no nonsense types anyway.

I didn’t like this. I didn’t like this one bit. I could see all the threads, but I didn’t have enough pieces to solve the puzzle. There was also the fact that two Schnee’s were there and the White Fang fancied themselves some dead Schnee’s.

…Well, that was enough to get me into action. If I was right and they were planning to distract everyone with attacking Ironwood with easily enough ammunition to rival his gunships if he happens to fall back to them, then the perfect time to start would be after the finals of the Vytal tournament in a couple of days.

It would be easy enough to quickly gather the Schnee Private Forces. They don’t really do anything anyway besides stand on guard and await orders. A money sink, but one of the better one’s father had. The hard part would be convincing father. He wouldn’t give Vale the time of day if it just cost him money after all.

…Or, I could not. There was still the very real possibility that I was overreacting. If we simply stay around the edge of where they can sense us, and nothing happens, we can pretend this excursion never happened. I wouldn’t have to owe one to father, and I can easily cover up the extra funding that would need to be paid to the mobilization of the Private Force. Schnee’s didn’t exactly cheap out when it came to protection. I consulted the only person who could possibly change my mind. My fingers flickered over the scroll.

“Hello? Who is this?”

“Your older brother. You’d remember my voice if you actually called home occasionally.”

“…You know why I can’t do that.”

“Yes, but you could write occasionally! Think about everyone who cares about you. Think about Whit-think about Klein.”

“…I do miss Klein. So, what’s the call for? Can’t get in touch with Winter?”

Oof. She wasn’t even doing that on purpose and I feel bad. The fact that it was genuine question probably hurt even more. With a slight wince, I turned my attention back to the scroll.

“No, actually. I was thinking of taking a break and visiting Vale with Whitley. So as the person who probably knows most about Vale, I thought I’d ask you about it.”

“About what? The locale? Where the good places to go are? Where to avoid?”

“And if it’s safe or not, of course. I’ve heard of some White Fang members down there and was wondering if it was safe or not.”

A slight pause on the other end. I suppose I could’ve chosen my words better.

“I can take care of myself. Especially with Winter over here.”

Ah. Makes sense. She feels like her pride is wounded with me asking about her safety. Which means I should play to that.

“Oh, don’t misunderstand. I’m well aware of how strong you and Winter are. It’s just that…well…you know, that I never trained for combat in my life. Only did enough to get my aura unlocked for emergencies. So, I’d feel a little awkward if I get kidnapped.”

Playing the ‘you’re so much stronger than me’ card. Honestly it always works wonders on hunters and soldiers alike. Funnily enough, I don’t recall ever using it on Weiss.

“Oh. Uh, you don’t have to worry about that! I’m sure I’ll be able to look after you!”

Damn. rest in peace Whitley. Well, they were the only siblings that didn’t get along, so it was expected. Although I knew when it comes down to it they did care about each other. Also, I’d be worried as an older brother if she didn’t have the time after her match in the Vytal tournament. The next round only one person could be selected from each team to fight and it was customary for team leaders to be chosen. Huh, I might be able to meet Weiss’s team leader. I wonder what kind of person was deemed more fit for such a position than Weiss.

“Ah well then, I guess I’ll be counting on you and your team if we’re able to come down and see your team win the finals.”

“Of course. Victory is all but assured!”

“See you soon then.”

Well I had gotten my answer. It was obvious from her remarks that she was wary of Vale and that it was dangerous. If she believed Vale wasn’t, then her answer to my question of my personal safety would be worded differently. For example, if she believed Vale was safe she would say something like ‘don’t be so worried, everything’s fine’, or ‘everything’s being handled, there’s nothing to worry about’. But that wasn’t her answer. Her answer was that she or Winter would personally deal with any threats that they come across. That meant that she suspected threats that wasn’t properly covered by Vale.

It wasn’t exactly shocking news. The whole fiasco of the train from Mount Glenn wrecking a personal express highway for Grimm to crawl out of made the papers in Atlas. What the White Fang were attempting to gain from such a transgression was dubious at best. The most reasonable theory I could think of was that it went off ahead of schedule and was supposed to be in line with the possible assassination attempt of General Ironwood. This distraction would either split his forces or distract the hunters from helping Ironwood and focusing on plugging the hole. Perhaps it was to pull out even more forces out of Beacon? Leaving them with a few guards to be easy pickings for whatever it was they were hiding.

Whatever Ironwood came to Vale to protect it was obviously at Beacon. He barely moved his forces away from the nearby CCT after all. Well, regardless of all the dust the criminals had gathered they weren’t exactly a match for the trained forces and robots of Atlas. …But if trouble does happen to break out, I’m sure they’ll be happy with an extra hand to quell the fight.

My gaze fell on the call button on my scroll. If I pressed it, it would mobilize most of the Private Force in the base below the mansion. They weren’t exactly equal in size to Ironwoods current setup at Vale, what with the Altesian Dreadnoughts, but they were still a force to be reckoned with. No one would think twice if father ordered this or not. I was his son after all, how could he not know? But the penalty if I’m caught red handed could be steep. Well, those were things to think about later.

Afterall, family always comes first.

I pressed the button.