36 Armed and ready

So after hearing a lengthy and old story about my family and deciding to just stop focusing on the sudden engagement my parents brought up in order to focus on what's important right now, I went straight to Master Ferrus's house in order to inform him of my plans.

He's one of my teachers after all and he deserves to know when I'm suddenly vanishing for several months. And aside from that, I also left a few things with him that I'll need to pick-up before I can go on this trip.

Meanwhile, I had Neo change out of her maid outfit for obvious reasons, I really don't want us to receive so many so many stares while walking in public and such an outfit tends to do just that.

After arriving at his home/forge, I knocked on the door and patiently awaited him to answer. After a few seconds, a response came from inside.

"Is it you brat? The door is unlocked, so you can come in. I'm currently down at the forge." Comes a gruff voice from inside that Jaune is very familiar with.

Without further ado, I pushed open the door and made my way through the reception until I reached the stairs that led to the forge down bellow. From there he could already hear the sounds of steel striking against steel that came from the forge.

After a quick descent, what I immediately see are various weapons being displayed across the many shelves that littered the room. Beyond that, there was the source of the sound I had been hearing and my teacher's current location: the forge.

There Ferrus could be seen hammering a piece of iron with steady and meticulously calculated swings that gradually gave shape to the incandescent lump of metal that was above the anvil.

Noticing my presence, Master Ferrus didn't stop his actions for even a second and continued hammering away while completely ignoring my presence. It was clear to me that I was the one that will need to start this conversation.

"Good morning master Ferrus, your apprentice has come today bearing some news that I would like to deliver to you myself." After mustering up some courage, I started talking in my usual formal speech.

"What is it? It should be very important if you can't just wait until our usual time in the afternoon to tell me." Ferrus says in a very disinterested tone, but still much better than the unfriendly tone that he had years ago.

"I won't lie to you, I'll be absent for a few months due to a trip, so I came to inform you of this arrangement." I go directly to the point without wasting much of his time.

"A trip? Where is your family going?"

"My family isn't going on this one, it's just me and Neo."

"You kids have now decided to go on a honeymoon together? Haha! Just kidding, what is the purpose of this trip? And when are you leaving?" Master tells a small joke but quickly goes back to business.

"To expand my horizons and see new sights, I'm already tired of the monotony of only being allowed to travel between Mistral and Ansel. And I'll be leaving this afternoon." What I tell him is technically the truth as that is one of the reasons, just not the only one.

"This afternoon?! And you just remembered to tell this now? You Brat! I've never had an aprentice more uncaring than you. Now, away with you!" Master becomes very angry at the idea of being kept out of the loop and directly tells me to leave.

"That's because I'm the only apprentice you've ever had." Despite this, I don't miss the opportunity to rebuke him.

"..." Hearing that, Master remains silent and continues working while ignoring my presence. A common tactic of his for when he's very angry with me.

"Look, I'm sorry for not informing you earlier. This trip is something I came up with a few weeks ago and I only really confirmed the time of my departure yesterday, so I didn't have time to inform you earlier and I didn't think it was worth mentioning it before getting confirmation from my parents, which I did a few minutes ago." I hurriedly explain myself and justify my lateness at informing everybody of my plans.

"*Sigh* Just... keep yourself out of trouble out there, I don't want years of teachings to go to waste." Releasing a sigh, Ferrus finally calms down and says his goodbye in his own manner.

"Don't worry, I will. And by the way, is the request that I gave you ready yet?"

"Hm? Oh! The request you gave a week ago? Already finished it, the items are waiting to be picked up in one of the shelves, you just need to search for it. Now that I think about it, that request makes much more sense now that I know that you were planning on leaving, I should have at least been suspicious."

After saying that, Ferrus points towards a specific part of the room and leaves me to search while he continued on his work unperturbed.

Excusing myself out of there, I move towards that area and start searching for my request up and down along the shelves. In the end, it doesn't take very long and I'm easily able to find what I was looking for thanks to it standing out among the other items.

There was a sword that was currently inside its sheath, it was fixed to a wall being held up by hooks underneath it but what really distinguished it from the rest was its unique appearance and the air that it had around it.

There stood my family's relic and the blade I've been acquainted myself after wielding it in Grimm hunting expeditions with my teacher for the last year. Crocea Mors.

The sheath of the blade was colored white and the decorations were golden, but just at a glance some differences could be seen as the golden parts were much more prominent and it gave a much more regal feeling just by staring at it.

But the real changes on the weapon are not just the visual ones, as I made Master make a few others to make this sword/shield combination much more effective and comfortable for my own use.

Taking Crocea Mors into my hands, I pull the sword out of its sheath to reveal some of the changes that were made.

The overall lenght and shape of the blade remained unchanged, making it longer than the typical one-handed 'arming sword' but shorter than the 'longsword' which can be wielded with one or both hands. The classification for such a sword is a 'bastard sword', and the blade remained unchanged, not due to my own preference but due to its metal being impossible to be melted with the temperatures the forge could reach, making the metal and method that it was forged with become even more mysterious due to the lack of any records of it in the family library.

But moving on from the blade itself, the cross guard of the sword had some changes as it became thinner and longer to offer better protection to the wielder's hands without compromising the balance, the handle was slightly enlarged to be wielded with both hands more comfortably and the pommel remained unchanged.

But compared to the sword's small changes, the sheath/shield had much more modifications due to it being easier to modify and my father being much less resistant to the idea as it had already been modified many times over the decades including its mecha-shift functions.

Pressing a hidden button and transforming it into its shield form shows the first change made, as the shape of the shield itself had completely changed.

Instead of being a typical 'heater shield', this shield was instead closer to being a 'kite shield' with a sharp triangular shape that narrows as it goes downwards. This change was made due to despite the heater shield being all well and good for close quarters combat, it offers no protection at all to the lower body, so your enemy could just easily bypass its protection and shoot your legs. The increased height of the shield helps mitigate that while being significantly less bulky than a 'tower shield' that could offer even greater protection.

The second modification is also a very simple one, it's handle has a spinning feature that allows the shield to be quickly changed from a perpendicular to a parallel position relative to the wrist, which allows for greater flexibility as he can enjoy the stability of having the shield upright and quickly turn it sideways to more easily parry incoming attacks and deliver quick shield jabs that are even more deadly since the edge near the point has been sharpened.

And lastly he added a magnetic grip system along with a metal wrist band that allows me to more easily get the sheath from my waist to his wrist and also less awkwardly, prevents the shield from falling from my wrist under force strong enough to snap the straps and allows him to retrieve it from a short distance directly to his hand. The distance of retrieval is only 2 meters since if I made the magnets any stronger then I would also end up attracting other metallic objects to myself as well. So I can't make any tricks like captain America with his shield, not that the shield's shape facilitates it being thrown in the first place.

Those changes were all that was made, I held on making bigger changes to it since I didn't plan to use Crocea Mors as my main weapon after I forge my own one so I wouldn't get to use it too much later and it would be a waste, also Ferrus is a master smith and knows a lot about metals but he isn't really experienced when dealing with dust and circuits, so more complicated modifications would require a dedicated mechanic.

But these simple modifications are more than enough for now, Crocea Mors is already a very effective weapon in the first place, it doesn't need too much 'fluf' added to it to show a good performance.

After sheathing the blade and strapping it to my waist, I return to Ferrus to show him my gratitude and give my goodbye.

"Thank you Master, the weapon became even better than I expected, it should serve me well for now." I express my appreciation for his work while showing the weapon in question.

"It was nothing, and by the way, when are you going to forge your own weapon? You've been in my apprenticeship for almost 4 years and your skills are already not much worse than mine, I see no reason why you would delay it much longer."

"Very soon, I'm just waiting for the materials that I need to become available so it should be done by the time I return. I'm in no hurry, I want this weapon to be a masterpiece so that's why I've waited till now to do it."

"It's your call, if you need my help you can just ask, I don't mind lending you a hand."

"Thanks master, but it won't be necessary, I'm confident I can do it myself. So thank you for all you've taught me over the years, and wish me luck."

"Considering how bold you are, I would be surprised if you didn't get into any trouble out there. So remember to always keep your calm and don't lose your head."

For some reason this advice seems ironic coming from him, maybe he's talking from his own experience?

Anyways, I then made my way to the landing zone alongside Neo to take the airship that's heading towards Mistral.

...

But little did I know, that the flight wouldn't be as peaceful as I'd wish.

"Neo, could you please give me some space!"

We are both currently sitting on board the airship heading to Mistral, the trip is only about 2 hours to reach the destination, but I quickly realized that this 2 hours wouldn't be so smooth.

{No!, I won't let you run away to stay with that girl!} She conveys her response in sign language, showing no intention of stopping what she's currently doing.

And what is it, you may ask? Clinging to me incessantly and constantly pestering me about this sudden engagement of course.

Ever since we boarded the airship, Neo has been basically glued to my side and has been doing everything in her power to convince me to give up going to meet my fiance in person. I thought that she had already gotten over her insecurity issues over the time she spent at our home but apparently, she's feeling that her position at my side is threatened.

Not that going to meet my fiance or not would make much of a difference in regards to my plans to end this arrangement, this engagement is simply too much trouble when my schedule is so tight and my own growth is my first priority.

And besides, why would I want to be in a relationship with a little girl? Despite our body's ages matching, I have absolutely no interest in a 10 year old girl thanks to my mental age and moral values. Staying together would only make me feel weird.

"I already told you that I'm not going through with this engagement! I'm just planning to meet them to politely request them to end this arrangement without affecting the relationship of the two families." I say as I finally manage to shove her back into her own seat. 'I also want to take this opportunity to check for any possible changes in the timeline that I might have to take into account for the future.' I say the other reason only in my mind.

{Are you serious? Can you promisse me that you won't have any relationship to that girl?} She expresses now a bit calmer but still very anxious on the inside.

She has clearly been rattled by the sudden news and perhaps because she has already experienced being abandoned by those close her, she has become very defensive when she thinks that she might be replaced.

Knowing this, I can't help but feel resentful at my parents for bringing up this topic despite knowing how dependant she still is of me. Apparently, they must be oblivious, since almost everyone can see her feelings for me.

Yes, I noticed long ago that her feelings started to change from just reverence and worship towards her savior to a strong affection that is different from the one she shows to the rest of the family.

But unfortunately, pursuing such relationship is not within my plans. This world won't remain peaceful for much longer and I'm bound to make many powerful enemies, such a relationship are a weakness that those enemies will certainly try to exploit, so the only way to prevent that is to avoid romantic relationships at least until I'm strong enough or all those enemies have been dealt with.

"Yes, I can give you my word as an Arc that I'll not go through with this engagement." I confidently say to her.

Seeing no hesitation in my words, Neo finally settles down and stops pestering me for the rest of the flight, though she continues to take a few glances at me from time to time.

'I'm sorry Neo, if I was someone more decisive then I'd set boundaries or keep my distance from you, but instead I'm just letting it happen without doing anything to stop it, despite knowing that you'll be hurt in the future.'

Despite knowing that a romantic relationship could bring me disaster and that I shouldn't have any until all the dangers are dealt with, I can't help but wish to have someone that I can share my burdens with and rely on in the future, I'm only human afterall. Despite knowing that this is a selfish wish and that I'm putting myself and someone else in danger, I still can't completely discard such feelings.

After catching myself thinking that, I'm filled with guilt and self deprecating thoughts, while in my head I can only say one thing to myself:

'Jaune Arc, you're such a coward.'