17 New Home and School

The wind blows softly as the leaves, grasses, and trees dance with it. The sun high above the sky shone upon the world giving warmth.

"Haa...so tired, but I can feel the effects of my training now," Leo muttered as he rested under a tree with the cold wind touching his face.

He has escaped from Ruby and Yang again after they dragged him to play. After which he did some physical training again. And now he was currently resting as he was tired.

"Hm?" Leo noticed the sun is high up now meaning, lunchtime is near. Standing up from his position, he started to walk back to Tai's house where he was currently staying temporarily.

"I should go back now."

.....

Soon he arrived and was immediately confronted by the sisters. They asked questions about where he ran off to, etc. He just answered them all with some excuses he made up. And now they are currently sitting around the table for lunch. Qrow was also with them.

"Leo, you don't have a home right?" Tai suddenly asked surprising the others.

While being confused as to why he was being asked Leo nodded, "Yes"

Tai suddenly smiled, "Then you can stay here with us as long as you want. I can also see that Ruby and Yang we're happy to play with you."

"Yey! Leo will stay with us now"

It seems that Ruby and Yang were happy too. While Qrow beside Leo patted his shoulders and smiled.

"Good for you kid!"

Leo was dazed for a bit before tears suddenly came out of his eyes. It was tears of joy, previously he was an orphan and he struggled his way up before he became rich.

This was his first time feeling this way. Although he was an old man inside, he couldn't help it. The others were surprised upon seeing him cry all of a sudden. They quickly asked him what happened. Leo told them he was alright and soon they continued their lunch.

.....

Grrrr!

Located inside a forest, a boy with silver-white hair and icy blue eyes was surrounded by beowolves. He was holding a blade in his hands.

"I can finally test some of my powers." The boy smiled as he dashed towards the beowolves.

Swoosh! Bang!

He slashed his blades and started the massacre. He moved swiftly as he cut away the beowolves. When the corpses were about to disappear, the boy muttered something.

"ARISE!"

Soon shadows came out of the corpses. The shadows were identical to the beowolves previously, the only difference being they have grey flaming parts of their bodies.

"Success, just like what the creator said. Go into my shadows." Leo ordered his newly formed shadow soldiers.

It's been four years since he lived with Tai and others, he already unlocked his aura during the years but most of the time, he was focusing his attention on increasing his physical strength to fully utilize Ashborn's experience.

"I should head back now, Yang and Ruby are probably looking for me again" And so he ran in a direction.

.....

Meanwhile, Yang and Ruby were walking together.

"Hey, Ruby do you know where's Leo?" Yang asked while looking around. "He was with us earlier right?"

"Yes, but when did he leave? I didn't notice"

"Let's search for him!" Yang grinned

"Yeah! Let's go!" Ruby agreed and became active again.

They searched for him around the vicinity but couldn't find him. They didn't search inside the deeper parts of the forest though since there are Grimms there and they had quite the experience with them which they don't want to repeat.

.....

"Yo! Looking for me?" Leo casually asked the two sisters as he appeared behind them, startling the two.

"Hyaa!...Leo, don't just appear like that!" Yang complained, followed by Ruby "Yeah, can't you appear more normally?!"

"Well..." He scratched his head awkwardly, "...enough about that, it's nearing lunchtime" Leo quickly changed the subject.

"Ah, that's right you and Yang will be attending signal right?" Ruby asked Leo.

He nodded, "Hm, that's right"

"Yeah, I'm totally excited!" Yang exclaimed as she raised her hands.

"Haha, well you need to wait for a few days more before we can attend" Leo laughed and started to walk.

"Hey, wait for us," Ruby shouted and started following Leo along with Yang.

.....

"Oh! You three are finally here!" Tai smiled upon seeing the three. Qrow was also there sitting on a sofa.

"Yo! Good to see you three. Leo and Yang, are you ready to attend signal?" Qrow said as he waved at them.

"Heh, of course!"

"You bet, we are!"

"Hahaha, I guess you two are excited huh"

Tai quickly interrupted them before they can continue, "Anyway it's lunchtime, I already finished cooking, come on!"

They had a wonderful lunch as they laughed and talked to each other.

.....

The next day~

Today was a special day, Yang and Leo will be attending Signal Academy to learn as huntsmen or huntresses.

Well, in Leo's case he just wants to enjoy a bit of school life. He doesn't need further training since he got Ashborn's experience be it in war, battle, or weapon handling.

"Are you two ready?" Tai asked

Leo just nodded in agreement. While Yang seemed super excited, "Yes of course!"

Soon the three arrived at Signal and there were already many students. After they arrived, Tai quickly excused himself.

"Well, you two wait here. I'll go now since I need to prepare too."

Leo remembered that Tai was also a teacher at Signal so he nodded. While Yang was busy looking around in excitement.

"Yang, calm down will you?" Leo said while looking bored. He doesn't really need to go to school with his current strength so it was just like a past-time activity for him.

"How can you be so calm? After we start attending here, we will learn to be huntsman and huntress you know?!" Yang gave him a weird look.

Leo just ignored her and looked around. They were in a circular plaza with a stage ahead of them. Students of the same age were scattered around the place.

All of them were either chatting with each other or looking around in excitement like Yang. While looking around, Leo also noticed many girls looking at him.

He just sighed as the creator probably made it so his looks were like this. His face was otherworldly handsome, that's the only way to describe it. It's not like he wished for his appearance to be this way. The creator probably did it to tease him or something.

"Why are you sighing like an old man?" Yang asked Leo as she was just beside him. Yang wasn't affected much by his appearance as they grew up together for four years, she and Ruby probably got some kind of immunity against it.

Otherwise, just like those girls looking at him with blushes on their faces, Yang and Ruby would be like them. Luckily though he doesn't have to worry about that.

Shaking his head Leo replied, "Nothing"

Tak! Clak!

Footsteps were heard suddenly. Leo along with the other students looked towards the wooden stage set up in front of them.

A man was there along with the teachers at Signal. For example, Qrow and Tai were among them. Tai waved at Yang who also waved back.

"Ahem! Today we welcome you to Signal, in here you will learn to be huntsmen and huntresses..." The man who seemed to be the principal of the Academy started his long-ass speech about huntsmen and huntresses. Things like, they are the protectors of the world or shit. Well, it is not wrong as huntsmen and huntresses do protect people.

Leo didn't listen to it halfway through as he got bored. He just stealthily brought out a book he hid in his shadow when no one is looking and read it until the end of the speech. One of the new powers he got, he can now store things inside his shadow.

"Finally, that was a super long speech. It's so boring..." Leo muttered as he brought back the book he took, back to the library. The speech was now finished and they were assigned to their classes.

.....

Coincidentally, Leo and Yang were in the same class. And their teacher is Qrow Branwen, Yang and Ruby's uncle. Well, he can also

be considered as Leo's uncle since he treated Leo as one of his nephews.

"Alright, let me introduce myself. I'm Qrow Branwen your new teacher here." Qrow said while looking around. There he saw Yang waving at him excitedly. He smiled, "So today the first thing we will do is sparring matches. I don't expect you to perform well, I just need to know if some of you had training before entering Signal so I know who I need to focus more on to teach" Qrow looked at Yang when he said that.

Yang was trained by Tai at home, while they didn't know Leo also know how to fight as most of the time he didn't join in along with Yang to learn from Tai.

Qrow quickly looked away after a second. He didn't notice the small smile of Leo when he heard what he said. While the other students were talking with each other when they heard of sparring. After all most of them are probably from normal households while others were from huntsmen households.

The students from normal households didn't get training before this while the latter ones received some kind of basic training.

"Okay enough chattering, follow me outside. We will conduct sparring matches there." Qrow said before he signaled for the students to follow him. While he also left the classroom with students following him.

.....

Now located in a large open space, the students were gathered and lined up by Qrow. He then explained some things about the sparring.

"Okay, I will draw lots randomly. So I need you to write your name on a piece of paper I will give you later. I will draw two papers and the names on the paper I draw will be sparring partners. The sparring match will stop if either one of the combatants can't fight anymore or I say stop, understand?!"

"Yes!"

"Good, now then you all wait here for a bit and I will get some papers." After saying so Qrow soon left.

A few minutes later, Qrow went back carrying a box. After that, he distributed some papers where they wrote their names. And then the students all put the paper in the box.

"Alright, then I'll pick some random names now then those who will be called are sparring partners."

After that, the students sparred with each other, of course, all of the fights were boring as the fighters were newbies.

"...And Leo Einhart vs Yang Xiao Long!" Qrow announced which surprised Leo a bit before going back to his previous calm expression.

"Hey! So we're fighting each other huh!" Yang tapped Leo's shoulder and grinned at him.

"Come on you two, get ready!" Qrow shouted as Leo and Yang went and positioned themselves a few meters apart from each other.

Yang was already in a combat stance as she grinned while Leo was there standing calmly, staring at Yang.

"Alright in 3...2...1...fight!" After hearing Qrow's signal to start, Yang swiftly dashed towards Leo aiming to punch him in the face.

Leo just tilted his head sideways to avoid the attack and grabbed his outstretched arm of Yang. He then tripped her foot which made Yang fall and put her arms on her back to subdue her.

With two of her arms at her back, and with her down on the ground, Yang couldn't move out of place. Leo tightly held her in place as she struggled to get out.

That all happened in seconds as the other students didn't notice what happen but Qrow did. He was quite surprised upon seeing Leo subdue Yang easily.

"Alright! The winner is Leo Einhart!" Qrow announced the end of the match. Leo let Yang free now as he walked back to where he was previously standing.

Meanwhile, Yang also stood up. And ran toward Leo, and she quickly asks many questions to him. Leo smiled wryly as he tried to BS his way through her questions.