What are those: wallow decided to go to beacon academy with winter to go see how wiess is doing but instead meet with jaune
The Dragon’s Diamond
A small bullhead flew through the air towards, Beacon Academy. It was a privately owned airship that belonged to the, Schnee Dust Company, and right now it was carrying an assortment of precious cargo: The daughter of the founder of the, SDC, Willow Schnee. Her eldest child, Winter Schnee. And a locked cased filled with diamonds of various sizes, and quality. At least what they assumed were diamonds. For they had come here to see if they were in fact real diamonds.
Winter: I’m sorry mother, but I must protest; Why did you have to come along to handle this simple endeavour; you could have simply handed over your, and my diamonds to, Klein, and let him handle it. Why did you have to come along?
Willow: I needed a vacation. This seemed like a reasonable excuse why to do so. Besides, it also gives me an excuse to be around my daughters. Is there something wrong with me desiring to be with my family my dear?
Winter: …
Winter: No, no there isn’t anything wrong with that, it’s just unexpected is all.
Willow: I understand, but being away from home also keeps me away from drinking. I’ve managed to at least reduce the amount I’ve been drinking substantially, but being around your father long enough will lead me back to drowning myself in the bottle again. I cannot allow that to happen.
Winter: I… I’m sorry, I thought you chose to leave for different reasons.
Willow: Like trying fine, Valian wines?
Winter: Ahh! Yes… Yes I thought so.
Willow: Well, depending on what, and where we’re having dinner I wouldn’t mind a suitable wine to go along with it, but I have to stop drinking. Not so much for myself, but for you, your sister, and your brother. I… I want to stay a part of your lives, to see you grow old, and start families of your own in the future. It would be a shame if I am to deny myself these opportunities because I drank myself to death…
Winter: Thank you, Mother. Hearing you say that means a lot to me. But, if you want to give up drinking, why are you looking forward to having wine with your meal?
Willow: I’m slowly weaning myself off drinking. Not everyone can just go cold turkey now can they?
Winter: I would prefer it if you did.
Willow: Well, it would probably be for the best if I did, but… Oh, we’re here, let’s continue this discussion later, and find your sister.
Winter: Very well then, Mother.
As the ship landed the mother, and daughter duo grabbed their luggage, and made their way towards the academy. As they neared closer to the tower, Willow couldn’t help, but take in the sights around her.
Willow: Oh my… Beacon Academy is such a lovely place.
Winter: Yes, the warm breeze, and vibrant greenery give this place such a relaxing air to it.
Willow: I know, Weiss went to, Beacon to escape father in, Atlas. But, do you suppose this rich atmosphere contributed to it?
Winter: I believe it was more so her desire to escape, Father. But, this is a nice benefit.
Willow: I hope she is feeling happy here.
Winter: Me too.
Willow: But, where do you believe she is?
Winter: I have no idea, there should be an information desk up front we can ask.
Willow: Or, I suppose we could ask him if he knows where, Weiss is.
Winter: Who?
As they drew closer to the, Academy they saw the statue out front, and a student sitting on the base of the statue. They noticed that he was seemingly mumbling to himself as he ran his hands through his golden hair as he evaded the white horns poking out.
Winter: A faunas?
Willow: Excuse me, young man?
: Hmm, what? Oh, hello.
Willow: Hello. I was wondering if you could help us.
: With what?
Winter: We’re looking for my sister, Weiss Schnee, do you perchance know her?
: Weiss Schnee? Yeah, I know her, we’re friends after all.
Willow: Excellent, can you please lead us to her?
: Sure I can… I can…?! Hurk?!
His hand quickly came up to cover his mouth, seemingly trying to repress a gag. His luck failed him as he continued to dry heave until a he opened his mouth, and a belch of fire erupted from his mouth before he fell into a small coughing fit as small jets of flame escaping his mouth with each cough. As soon as his coughing fit ended he popped a small white marble into his mouth, before turning to address the duo.
: Jacques you cheap bastard! (Cough!) Ahem, sorry about that, upset stomach. Hehe…
The duo looked at him in stunned shock, taking a moment for themselves to collect themselves. Willow seemingly able to keep her wits about her.
Willow: A-Are you okay?
: Yeah, I’m fine.
Winter: But, you just belched fire?
: That’s a semi-common occurrence.
Willow: But…?!
Winter: Wait, Mother… Male, blue eyes, blond hair, horns, and can breath fire… You’re the, Dragon King, Jaune Arc, aren’t you?
Jaune: That’s me, well mostly. I’m not a king of any sorts, but I am a dragon faunas. Anyway, my name is, Jaune Arc, nice to meet you.
Jaune offered his hand for the pair to shake as they introduced themselves in kind.
Willow: Willow, Willow Schnee, it’s a pleasure to meet you.
Winter: Specialist Winter Schnee.
Jaune: So you’re, Weiss’s family? That explained the smells.
Winter: Smells?
Jaune: I have a highly, highly acute sense of smell. I can smell familiarity’s between people, to the point I can tell if someone is related to another.
Winter: That sounds like an impressive ability.
Jaune: It has its downsides… Like my little sister trying to use me as a bloodhound…
Willow: You said you are friends with my daughter, Mr. Arc, can you lead us to her?
Jaune: Uhhh… No, no I can’t. She went into, Vale with the rest of her team just a little while ago.
Winter: She did, why?
Jaune: I don’t know; I left to ‘throw up,’ and when I came back she, and her teammates had disappeared. My sister said that they had made an emergency trip to, Vale, and that was all there was to it. Do you want me to call her, and let her know you’re here?
Winter: No… Well, maybe we should.
Willow: Oh dear… I was hoping to surprise her with our sudden visit.
Jaune: You can still do that if you want.
Willow: We can, how?
Jaune: Weiss, and her teams room is just down the hall from my teams room. You can wait there until she arrives.
Winter: What do you think mother?
Willow: We might as well, this young man has graciously offered us his place to us while we wait for your sister to return. We won’t be in there for a few hours at most.
Winter: Very well, we graciously accept your kind offer, Mr. Arc.
Jaune: My pleasure, and please, just call me, Jaune.
Winter: Very well then, Jaune.
Jaune: Even if you rejected my offer you’d no doubt be taken to my room anyway so I could inspect those diamonds, and any other gemstones of yours. If there are any that is…
Winter: What are you talking about?
Jaune: Two things: Those are, Fortress grade safe-boxes, made by the, Gem Refinery. To which I own, I know my merchandise. Especially the safe-boxes…
Willow: Wait, you’re the owner of the, Gem Refinery?
Jaune: Yes, I am. Second I over heard, Weiss… screaming to her father on how she wanted her entire families precious jewels so they can be appraised. And, who is that appraiser, me: Jaune Arc, the Lapidary Master!
Willow: You’re the, Lapidary Master?!
Jaune: Yep!
Willow: I don’t believe you. You’re just a teenager, and you’re supposedly the worlds most renowned fine cut gem grader?
Jaune: Oh, just you wait, and see darling! Now then, lets go look at some pretty stones!
~~~
Jaune: Hmmmm…?
Jaune hummed in speculation as he examined a rather large diamond on a gold ring with a jewellers magnifier. Willow looked on in a chair besides him, while, Winter look on from his bed as, Jaune worked.
Willow: That was the engagement ring my husband gave me, he said it is one caret diamond ring.
Willow: …
Willow: It is a diamond ring… Right?
Jaune looked at, Willow, back to the ring, and then back to her. Their eyes stayed locked for a moment before he threw it into his mouth, and a hard crunching sound soon followed this action.
Willow’s face fell into her hands as she groaned in disbelief at what she had just witnessed, again.
Willow didn’t believe, Jaune when he started sorting her diamonds into two piles, one labeled real, and labeled fake. The ‘fake’ pile had grown considerably larger then the ‘real’ pile to the point she doubted he was actually genuinely grading her diamonds, and was trying to steal them. To prove his innocence, he grabbed a sizeable real diamond, and bit it. The sound it made was akin to bitting a jaw breaker: hard, and solid, as if one smacked their head against a wall.
Jaune, then grabbed one he deemed a ‘fake’ and bit into it. The sound was like someone bit into a hard candy, and wanted to chew it up, instead of sucking on it; Loud, and crunchy.
He made this a habit whenever she doubted his expertise, as a master gemologist. A habit she had come to dread because of the details that followed with it.
Luckily that was the second to last diamonf he needed to inspect, and she knew for certain that the last one wasn’t fake.
Willow: At least tell me the ring was made of gold?
Jaune spat out the piece of metal next to the pile of fakes, she grimaced as she looked at him as he regretfully smiled at her.
Jaune: Well… Pyrite, isn’t called ‘fools gold’ for nothing… hehe…
Willow: Gods dammit… My husband bought me a fake engagement ring?! How cheap of a man is he?!
Winter: More so then we could possibly believe…
Jaune: I doubt he was in this case.
Winter: What do you mean?
Jaune: Well… From what I’ve been told your father is a greedy whore. Uhh?! N-No offence.
Winter: None taken.
Willow: Please, feel free to continue badmouthing my husband at your leisure.
Jaune: Okay? Anyway, your husband is a greedy whore, from what I’ve seen. And, from what, Weiss has said about him is that he doesn’t commit to anything that doesn’t have a shiny price tag attached to it. I think he acquired these gemstones as a future investment. Liquid assets as you would put it.
Winter: That sounds like something father would do, but why would he buy fakes? My father is a greedy bastard, and will do everything to save a chip. He wouldn’t buy fake diamonds, there’s no value in that.
Jaune: Maybe he didn’t know he was buying fakes?
Winter: You believe someone swindled him?
Willow: It is a logically sound idea when you think about it.
Jaune: I’m well aware of several infamous gem pedlars. Give me a list of your sellers, and I could identify who is a legit seller, and who is not. Because there are some real ones here, so maybe he bought the fakes from one person, and the real ones from another.
Willow: I believe they were all acquired from one person, at least the vast majority were.
Jaune: And, that person’s name is?
Willow: Cartiff… Cartiff… Oh, I forget his first name.
Jaune: …
Jaune: It wouldn’t happen to be, Quintin now would it…?
Willow: Quintin… Yes, Quintin Cartiff, that was his name. How did you know?
Jaune: Quintin… Quintin Cartiff…
Willow: J-Jaune? Is everything okay…
Jaune: Quintin CARTIFF!!!
Winter immediately jumped in front of her mother pulling her mother back. Her hand stayed on her blade as she saw a truly terrifying sight. Within the space of a blink the calm, and happy boy revealed a monster of fire, and ash. His head realed upwards as he scream his name in a bloody rage. Winter got to see first hand the hidden fang he hide behind that warm, and inviting smile of his. The way his mouth shut, terrified her knowing full well he could bite down into someone in mere seconds, and could easily pierce through aura, and flesh like it was tissue paper. She marvelled at the sight of blue flames erupting from clenched fangs. The reports she had seen about the dragon faunas were fragmented, and vague, but even those brief insights paled in reality at the sight before her.
The flames, erupting from, Jaune’s teeth slowly fettered out as a finally deep exhale escaped his lips, he shook his head as if trying to shake off some sort of ill feeling upon him. He leaned back in his chair to look at the mother, daughter duo as he gave them a nervous, and embarrassed smile as he awkwardly scratched the back of his head.
Jaune: Ah haha… Sorry about that… I didn’t expect hearing his name to set me off like that… Hehehe… Sorry…
Willow: It seems you are well acquainted with this individual?
Jaune: As well as I would like to be. The bastard is an infamous counterfeiter, specializing in fake jewels. Particularly diamonds. I met him years ago after I just started out my… passion for collecting precious gemstones. He sold me some nice diamonds the first few times, but then he came back again, and the ‘diamonds’ he brought were all fakes. He denied it of course. Then I ate his ‘diamonds’ to prove to him that they were all fakes.
Willow: Oh, so eating fake diamonds is not a recent habit you’ve developed. I thought it was just for show.
Jaune: Well, yeah it kinda is. I mean what better way to prove if a diamond is a fake?
Winter: Do you often eat precious stones?
Jaune: No, I tend to eat, Dust more so then cubic zirconia, and the like. That’s why I was belching fire earlier, Weiss fead me some, SDC Dust that made me sick to my stomach. Jacques is such a cheap bastard…
Winter: Wait, you eat, Dust?!
Willow: And, what does my husband have to do with that?
Jaune: Okay, one box left to examine!
Jaune simply ignored the ladies questions as he took out the last box. It was a seven inch cube box covered in various locking mechanisms that, Jaune was quite intrigued on opening it himself. But, in the pursuit of time he just handed it over to, Willow who opened it herself. And, upon it’s opening, Jaune beheld a beautiful sight. The one diamond he had been hoping to see for ages.
The famous, Schnee Diamond.
The diamond was cut into an orb with a with a three diameter, roughly making it the same size as your average baseball. It shimmered, and sparkled like a star under the light of his desk lamp. He extended the talons on his hand as he picked it up, and inspected this prized jewel. Turning it over as he marvelled in its beauty.
Willow: …?
Willow: Do you like it, Mr. Arc?
Jaune: …
Willow: Do you like it, Jaune?
Jaune: …
Willow: Jaune!
Jaune: Huw? Oh yeah, It is such a marvellous diamond… I’ve been dreaming of seeing it, holding it within my hands to marvel in its splendour since I first saw photos of it, and I must say those photos do it no justice in its magnificent.
Winter: Are you sure it’s real?
Winter cheekily remarked as, Jaune was lost in the beauty of the diamond in his taloned fingers. Her smile fell as she heard the most beautiful ringing sound she had ever heard as he tapped the diamond with his talon before turning to face her.
Jaune: Hear that? Humans can’t here this sound, most faunas can’t hear it either, but I can. Most diamonds are too small to make this an audible sound for most people to hear it. But, this diamond is big enough for anyone to hear it singing. Only a real diamond can make such beautiful sounds.
Willow: It is such a beautiful sound, I had no idea such sounds can come from a diamond.
Jaune: Only a few bare such elegance… Oh I wish I could have this diamond for myself… But alas, I doubt your open to selling it. Are you…?
Willow: If I was… Hypothetically speaking, how much would it be…?!
Jaune: Three billion Lien.
The duo looked at him astonished at the thought that, that diamond was worth, Three Billion Lein. The sense of unquestionable authority as he stated this didn’t make them question the possibility that he was gaslighting them so he could get it for a fraction of the price.
Willow: Oh my… I… I did not expect that…
Jaune: Didn’t you have it graded before?
Willow: Decades ago, and back then it was nearly a billion lien. But, to imagine the price has gone up that much… it’s unbelievable…
Jaune: It would be the worlds most valuable diamond, but that title was taken away from it a few years back.
Winter: Oh really? What took it’s place?
Jaune: This…
As if appearing from thin air, Jaune held out before the duo a diamond; A diamond cut into a sphere with a diameter of five inches across. Winter’s breath was stolen away as, Willow at the beauty presented before her. She carefully took it from him, fearing the validity of the rumours that he would gut her if she touched it. But, it appeared as if he was offering it to her to hold, so she took it.
She was amazed by its hefty weight, as she saw the light sparkle across it surface. She was amazed when her father showed her the, Schnee diamond, but the splendour of this diamond put it to shame so thoroughly she couldn’t find it in herself to complain about it in the slightest.
Willow: The Translucent Apple… Oh she is absolutely gorgeous~!
Winter: You’re the owner of the world’s largest diamond…?! That makes sense because you’re such a gemstone lover… But wait, where did you pull that out from? Do you just keep it hidden on your person at all times.
Jaune: Not in the shower.
Winter: What?!
Willow: It is truly a marvellous diamond. It was an honour to hold it. Winter, do you perhaps?
Winter: Nnnno, no I wouldn’t. If our family’s diamond is worth three billion, it terrifies me to hold something worth…
Jaune: Five billion Lien.
Winter: Five billion Lien… Wait, what really?!
Jaune: I am not considered one of the richest men in the world for nothing.
Winter: Five billion… And, he just has that up his coats sleeves?!
Willow: Well, it was a pleasure, despite the sheer disappointment of it all, no fault upon you, Jaune. I thank you for grading our families diamonds, and other precious stones.
Jaune: My pleasure… If you want, I can set you up with a jeweller from my company. I can confirm whole heartedly their validity as the genuine article.
Willow: I would appreciate that very much. But, there is something I would like to ask you…
Jaune: That being?
Willow: I heard you were offered gemstones as a dowery of sorts… Does that offer still stand?
Jaune’s burning focus of ingraining the beauty of the, Schnee Diamond upon his mind had finally been broken. Not even offering up the, Translucent Apple for, Willow to marvel at had broken his singular concentration of the diamond within his talon fingers. But, that one question broke him from his stupor like a gunshot to the heart. For he knew all to well what the dowery for this proposal would be.
Jaune: A-Are you offering me this diamond for your daughters hand…?
Willow: Indeed I am.
Winter: Mother no!
Winter exclaimed in shock as she looked at her mother as if she had lost her sanity. And, worry as, Jaune eyed the diamond with a new burning intensity trapped deep within the very depths of his soul.
Jaune: This… This is a priceless family heirloom, you wouldn’t simply give it away for me to accept, Weiss’s hand in marriage would you?
Willow: The diamond would still be in the hands of a, Schnee if you married my daughter, so it wouldn’t be lost. And, I never said anything about you marrying, Weiss now did I?
Willow looked to her eldest child with a smile as, Winter’s voice failed her. She was dumbfounded that this conversation had taken such a drastic turn. Was her mother seriously offering up the family’s prized heirloom for her hand in marriage?!
It was unthinkable. That her mother would do this to her on seemingly a whim. It scared her. But, what truly terrified her was the deafening silence that followed as, Jaune looked between her, and the diamond.
At her, and the diamond.
At her, and the diamond.
At her, and the diamond.
And, then at her, and only her.
Winter gulped in fear at the sudden turn her life was about to make.
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