Chapter 3
Six months later.
The name 'Grand Order' has spread throughout Remnant. It is an association made up of freelancers ranging from cooks and clerks to mercenaries and huntsmen.
It currently has hundreds of thousands of members, with branches all over the world.
They act as the middleman for people looking for the right employees that can complete their requests.
The Grand Order itself has some sort hierarchy, ranging from E, D, C, B, A, and EX, with E being a newcomer and having the lowest authority, and EX being the highest and having the most privileged and authority.
Being part of Grand Order means you can have certain privileges if you use their services such as restaurants, hotels, blacksmiths, pubs, and many more.
The best part of being in Grand Order is that; you aren't restricted. You can go anywhere you want, whenever you want, and do whatever you want, as long as you don't violate the rules of the guild.
1-Do not harm or kill innocents.
2-Do not use the name of the guild to commit crimes.
3-The guild is not responsible for deaths and injuries sustained while doing a mission.
4-The guild will not pay for property damage caused by its members.
5-Any disagreements or infighting between members shall be settled in a duel in arena.
6-If any are confirmed to have violated the above mentioned rules, they shall be stripped off their rank and kicked off the guild, and be blacklisted for a decade. Serious violators shall be imprisoned.
Simple rules anyone can follow. And for some reason, the guild knows whenever someone breaks a rule, and in just within a few minutes, Enforcers will be dispatched to apprehend the violator.
Enforcers are the lapdog of the guild, with everyone having a near identical features; white hair and red eyes. With everyone wearing a skintight black full body suits.
Each of them are strong enough to take down any Huntsmen-in-Training, and there's an army of them.
After a few times, no one dared to break the rules in fear of being captured by the Enforcers.
Not much is known about the higher echelons of the guild, but everyone knows that is led by two females; Tohsaka Rin, and Luviagelita Edelfelt. With the guild's headquarters being located in the forests outside of Kingdom of Mistral.
It is a magnificent Clocktower with various buildings around it. A town was even built there, where most citizens were rich, influential and higher ranking members of the guild and their family.
Some tried to imitate the Grand Order, but all failed due to the fact that they started late and Grand Order already took most of the cake, and also due to their lack of strong huntsmen and reputation.
Before Grand Order become popular, several members from it have already established their place as a strong and trustworthy association.
They took down the Branwen Tribe, the strongest and most infamous bandit tribe in Mistral, captured a lot of criminals, and saved countless frontier villages from Grimm and bandit attacks.
That reputation helped the public from accepting their existence much easier, and it didn't take long for them to grow to an association with strong influence on a global scale.
Perhaps only the newly founded Holy Church could match their influence.
...
Currently, in a snow covered forest near the city of Argus—a port city in the northern region of the Kingdom of Mistral, and acts as the major trading center between the continents of Anima(the northern continent) and Solitas(the eastern continent).
"Please! Teach me!" A young man with blonde hair, wearing an iron chest-plate over a black hoodie, with blue jeans and sneakers begged at the man in front of him.
Said man is none other than Shirou Emiya, who was looking troubled at the sudden request of the young man in front of him.
This young man was being chased by Grimms in the forest when Shirou found and saved him, killing the Grimms in the process.
Witnessing his skills, this young man suddenly begged him to train him.
"Look here—" Shirou began, only to be cut off.
"I want to be a hero! Be a huntsman! A great figure like my ancestors who accomplished great deeds and left his name on history books! But my parents don't allow it, they just taught me etiquette, dancing, politics, economics, and various forms of arts! But they never wanted to be a huntsman! I really, really, wanted to be a hero!"
Goddammit. Shirou stared at the young man in front of him and couldn't help but curse. Those eyes…oh how familiar they are.
Why do does this boy has to have those pair of determined eyes that just resonates with him.
Not to mention, within the depths of his soul, a flag of a hero stirred.
"You…" Shirou sighed, "Why do you want to be a hero? Look at you, though you are physically fit for a normal person, your strength is far cry from that of a trainee. With how you handle your weapon, I can guess you haven't even touched a sword before."
"I know!" The young man nodded, "I'm weak and pathetic, but, but, saving people and bringing them smile…is such a beautiful scene. I, I always wanted to be hero, to save people, and bring them joy, no matter how small. So please, I will endure any hardships, please train me to be a hero I always dreamed to be! I'm begging you, mister!"
Fuck. Why does this guy have to remind him of his past self?! Shirou Emiya is man who always dreamed of being a hero like his father, unfortunately he gave up that dream and his ideals due to his love for the girls that he's willing to risk the destruction of Fuyuki City during the Fifth Holy Grail War just for them.
It was then that he realized that he couldn't be as selfless as a hero, so he gave up his ideals and dreams of becoming an ally of justice.
He thought that it was all behind him, but now, this person just have to remind him of that dreams he abandoned.
"To be a hero, huh," Shirou stared at his pleading look, "trust me kid, that's hell you're walking to."
The young man looked at him, confused, before he shook his head and gave a determined look. "There's nothing wrong in helping others."
"Good god, is this how Rin and the others used to feel with me? No wonder they're always so stressed." Shirou cringed, yeah, he can now understand how stubborn he was back in the day.
"You know kid, being a hero is a one time thing. Once you grow up, you'll realize that the road to being a hero is full of pain, suffering and injustice. It won't lead to a happily ever after like in fairytales."
The young man smiled, "I'll just leave it to my older self to worry about, then. No used worrying about what hasn't happened yet."
Shirou felt his cheek twitched in annoyance, "Kid, haven't you heard a thing about what I said?"
The young man nodded with a smile, "I heard, of course I heard. But, saving people and creating a peaceful world where people no longer needs to fear Grimms…isn't such a world beautiful? I am willing to sacrifice my life to achieve that."
Shirou's expression softened, before he sighed and looked up at the sky. 'Surely, I wasn't this stubborn and stupid when I was young right? That can't be …that's impossible.'
Damn it. He stared at the young man once again, and asked, "What's your name?"
The young man smiled brightly, "Arc. Jaune Arc."
Shirou froze, a certain banner in his soul seems to resonate with this Jaune Arc and wanted to come out.
Jaune Arc? Arc …Jeanne D'Arc. I see. Shirou stared at Jaune, could this lad be a counterpart of Jeanne from his world?
He smiled, if that is so, then it's no wonder the banner seems to be calling out to him.
However, Shirou suppressed it for now, once he is satisfied with Jaune's growth, both physically and mentally, it wouldn't be too late to give it to him then.
"Shirou Emiya," he introduced himself, "EX-rank Servant of Grand Order, from now on, you'll be my student."
Jaune's eyes widened in surprised, before it was overcome by excitement.
Shirou wasn't stranger to teaching. There was time where that vampire sent him to the past where he was forced to train a young Gilgamesh and even a young Scáthach, along with other heroes.
So he's pretty confident with his teaching skills.
"Well now, how to tell this to Rin and the others."
He can already feel headache coming in.