By sweat and blood

Three years have passed quicker than I could ever have imagined and now I stand in a turning point that could drastically influence my plans for the future depending on the outcome of a single conversation.

Currently I'm outside the house and have a clear task ahead of me, as such, I can't let my nervousness show and instead put a determined expression.

I take a deep breath and stride towards my objective with unshakable determination as I quickly go over all possible results and how my reaction to each one should be. Reaching it I open my mouth and let out the following words.

"Grandpa, can you please train me?"

I've been waiting for months for grandfather Julius to visit our home just so that I could ask him this question and now that I've done it, the only thing I can do is wait for his reply and hope for the best.

Hearing this, Julius who was currently in the yard doing a few practice swings with a training sword stops for a moment and turns towards me.

"Aren't you a bit too young to start training? You have just turned four a few months ago, there is no reason for you to be in such a hurry, after all it would be detrimental to your development on the long run."

I already expected this kind of response from him so I go on ahead to present my arguments to him without having been affected in the slightest by his initial rejection.

"I may be young but my body has developed much quicker than other kids making me aways have to play with kids that are older than me and I don't need you to train me how to fight right now, I just want for you to make a training regimen to increase my physical abilities for me to follow."

The first statement was completely true, at the begining it wasn't very apparent but as he grew it became very obvious that his development was coming unaturally fast and he was many times confused with a 5 or 6 year old child. He has theorized that this phenomenon was happening due to his body trying to catch up to his soul which is much older compared to it, but he isn't completely sure of that as of yet.

"Hmmm, tell me then, Why are you so adamant in being trained? And why haven't you asked your parents to train you if you want it so badly?." Honestly, Julius is quite surprised to hear this coming from Jaune, he always took him as a quiet bookworm that rarely left his house just like his sister Aquamarine, considering how much time he spends either reading books or reading things on his Scroll he would have guessed that he wishes to pursue an academic career.

Hearing those questions Jaune put on a indignant expression before responding him and with a litle bit of bitterness being able to be heard from his voice.

"I want to train in order to become strong, my family is always sheltering me and treating me as someone that needs to be protected from the world, I want to become strong and independent in order to prove them what I'm capable of, to be able to protect them from anyone who seeks to harm them and show that I don't need to always rely on them and that they can eventually also come to rely on me. And I'm asking you this instead of my parents because every time I tried to ask them they would either refuse, dismiss the question or not put their heart to it when they would train me, so I need someone who would train me seriously."

Hearing this Julius becomes very surprised before adopting a thoughtful expression. 'I would never have guessed that Jaune, a very quiet and mature child would be harboring such thoughts this whole time, that such a tranquil demeanor was hiding a strong desire to protect and to become someone that can be relied upon but I guess I can't blame him for wanting to prove his worth. Just thinking about it has given me the urge to smack that useless progeny of mine in the head for being so stubborn in not wanting his children to continue the family legacy.'

Nicholas Arc was the youngest of his children, all his brothers chose to follow the family tradition and become heroes to make their ancestors proud whilst he never had any desire to do so. Julius had to admit that he made a grave mistake when at the time he pushed him to become a huntsman despite his son's wishes, that had led to them having a heated argument and Nicholas running away, later he would find out that his son had become a huntsman anyways.

But it wasn't due to the family legacy or a desire to become a hero that helps people, Nicholas had decided to become a huntsman due to love. Alexandra, the girl he was infatuated with at the time was going to enter a huntsman Academy so he followed after her and entered it using the training he had already received from his father. That is one of the reasons for his lack of any fondness towards the profession.

Julius never had any problems with training his grandchildren and letting them become huntsman, it's just that the rest of his grandchildren have shown no desire to train and become huntsman before so he never brought it up, but since Jaune has directly come to him to make a request, then he would gladly comply.

"OK, if it is just physical conditioning then I see no harm in that, I will build a diet and a training routine for you to follow but you will have to follow it to the letter, if I see that you lack the necessary resolve to stick with it, then the training will stop then and there"

Hearing this Jaune becomes visibly excited sporting a big smile and immediately replies "Understood grandpa!".

"From now onwards, whenever we are training you are to refer to me as 'sir', do you understand?" Julius says with a more strict tone that Jaune has never heard before, momentarily making him perplexed but he quickly recovers and energetically replies.

"Yes sir!"

"Good! Now we should start with a few stretches, pay close attention to what I'm about to demonstrate, I will teach you the correct way to do it."

For the rest of the afternoon, grandfather and grandson would go over the training plans and would start Jaune's physical conditioning, this was his first step on his journey towards becoming a huntsman.

...

After an grueling day of training Julius sent Jaune inside so he could clean all the sweat and dirt that was sticking on him, proof of his resolve and the effectiveness of the training while he made his way inside the house a bit later, today he was capable of gauging Jaune's current physical limits and is already got the perfect training regimen and diet to ensure his growth while not affecting him negatively in any way. There was only one thing that he had to solve before he could implement it in earnest.

"We need to talk father" Comes a chilling voice from inside the living room that reveals to be Nicholas's, he was sporting a very big scowl as he stared at Julius.

"Indeed we have" Julius reciprocated in the same cold voice before making his way inside the living room and sitting opposite to his son.

For a while the two continued this silent stalemate before Nicholas finally breaks the ice between the two.

"Why was Jaune training with you on the yard?" From him came out a question that sounded more like an accusation.

"Because he begged me to do it after telling me that his parents refused him." Came a reply that made obvious that Julius wasn't the least guilty about what he's done.

"You know why I have chosen to not train any of my children."

"Yes, I know, but I just can't bring myself to agree with it."

"I just want to keep him safe, this is what's best for him."

"He should be the one to decide that, he has shown his determination to prove himself and resolve to become stronger, I just wished you were also able to see it."

"My brothers and uncles also had resolve and potential, all of them became renowned huntsman in the kingdoms they went to study in and look what following family tradition has brought them." Nicholas says with every word becoming gradually louder and more aggressive. Showing how much this matter still affects him.

After that the tension between the two had reached an all time high as the two became silent after a very touchy subject was brought out.

All of Julius brothers and older son's had died in the line of duty while Nicholas was the only one that remained. They didn't lack determination, talent or the heart to become great huntsman but they all fell in battle all the same.

Seeing members of his family die one by one as a result of becoming huntsman along with some bad personal experiences while he was working as one were another big reason that lead Nicholas to have such an aversion towards his children becoming huntsman and following his steps.

Which in Julius opinion, is very hypocritical of him considering that he himself became a huntsman to woo a girl despite of that, but everytime he points that out his son argues that he only remained a huntsman in order to keep his family and the village they're currently on safe from grimm and that he did it so that none of his children would have to do it.

Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, Julius than starts to confess to his son the true feelings that he never shown him before.

"To me, losing all of them were my greatest regret and a constant source of guilt that I carry to this day, but you know what? I never regretted helping my sons to achieve their dreams, to later look to them after they had grasped onto their dreams and followed them with pride. I made many mistakes on my life and being so stubborn with you was one of them, I guess we now know where you have taken it from. Please I only ask you this as your father and someone that was in your situation once: Give your son a chance, do not wrong him as I have wronged you in the past. That mistake was what made our current relationship strained as it is, it was only a few years ago that we have gone back into talking terms, do you want the same to happen to your and Jaune's relationship?"

After hearing the parallel between his and his son's situation Nicholas is visibly shook and enters into deep thinking, his father meanwhile does not interrupt and gives him all the time he needs to come to a decision himself.

Afterward he weakly replies after completely losing the edge and aggression he had previously "4 years old is too young, most children only start their training once they are 6, we could delays it a bit." He is very clearly trying to avoid the problem for as long as he can, his opinion wouldn't be completely changed in just one conversation.

"We both know that Jaune isn't a normal 4 year old, I have used today to test him to see if he's ready and he has easily shown to possess the requirements and besides, I'm not teaching him how to fight or anything, it's just physical training."

"*Sigh* How I'm going to explain this to Alexandra" He mumbles while already dreading what she is going to do to him when she hears of this. "Fine! But you have to promise me to only help him exercise and nothing more." After much struggling the two finally come to an agreement.

"I give my word as an Arc, and you shouldn't be so worried since he has never explicitly told me that he wanted to become a huntsman, only that he didn't want to be babied by his family anymore and that training could perhaps make him to be more dependable. Perhaps he will choose another career altogether when it is said and done."

"I can only hope that you are right" Nicholas says finally getting some closure on the matter.

But Jaune's choices have unknowingly to him caused a small divergence to happen in the world's progression as his father's and grandfather's relationship is now a bit closer to being mended after they exposed their true feelings to each other and his father's opinion is now being slowly changed towards a more flexible direction,