Five

Jaune sat in his room, on the edge of his bed, while Bard laid out his test results on his desk and sighed, "You failed practically every test, save the knowledge of rank and insignia. Even that, you only passed in regards to our own order."

"A few Knights explained the plates and shields to me at breakfast."

"Ah." Bard chuckled, "I see."

"I'm sorry."

"Do not be sorry, young Arc." Bard assured him, turning and beaming a wide, open, friendly sort of smile at the understandably shamed blonde. Quietly, he paced over to stand in front of him and laid a hand on his shoulder. When Jaune looked up, he explained, "Your past excluded most educational opportunities - that you can read and write at least passably enough to get by is astounding."

"I guess…"

"These tests were never to see how far you'd come." Bard tried again,leaning back and resting one hand behind his waist while he raised the other, one hand pointed towards heaven like Port had done in his own lectures years ago, "Only to see where you needed to go. Were you to test me in a smithy, I venture to say that you would outshine me in spades. No?"

"I suppose…" Jaune nodded, then took a breath and pushed the shame aside - for Nicholas' memory, if nothing else. "Alright, then. What's the plan?"

"Well," Bard smiled, "we will need to get you up to snuff, more or less, as fast as possible. Ideally, within the month."

"Within the-"

"That is how long we have until the forces gathered here, myself included, will be needed to march." Bard explained quietly, waving a hand at the fortress around them and going on, "We are in reserve, training, resting, and in some cases, healing while other Knight companies and Orders defend our people. Soon, the companies here will be called by the crown and sent to relieve them."

"Oh…"

"So, we will have to abbreviate your training." The man sighed, backing away and leaning against the wall while he tapped a finger at his chin, "And heavily so. Disgustingly so, in fact… You'll need to continue your studies on your own, in the field. You understand?"

"I do." He nodded and rested his arms on his knees, fingers pressing together firmly. "I'll do my best to learn everything I need to, as fast as I can. I will bring honor to my name, and my Order, Bard. I promise you that."

"Good." The man smiled, then leaned his head back and whistled. A moment later, the door opened and a woman stepped through it, dressed in a simple blue dress, leather boots-

And the shining silver collar of a Chastened.

"This is Deery." Bard said as she came to stand beside him, eyes cast low and hands folded in front of her. She was slim, with dark green eyes and ginger hair that curled around her neck. But his eyes were drawn up, to a pair of little nubs just barely visible right below the surface of her hair. Bard stepped between them and turned to the woman, "Deery, you're to serve Lord Arc for now. Understood?"

"I understand." She nodded and turned to look at the stack of papers on Jaune's desk. Then she smiled, just the tiniest bit, and said, "You're… Going to let me, right?"

"I know you were a teacher back on Menagerie." Bard nodded and turned, pacing over to the stack of papers and setting to work sorting them. As he did he said, "The young Lord Arc's circumstances have been explained to you thoroughly. You're to serve him as you would any other, but you must also see to his tutoring - if need be, I will assign a second Chastened as his servant."

"A-Another one?" He stammered quietly and blinked - did he really need that much all for himself?

"Understood, Sir." Bard nodded and turned to leave, and she bowed at the waist.

"Where are you-"

"I'm going to secure training partners for you." Bard paused with his hand on the door and paid him a small smile as Jaune rose - to see him off or protest, he couldn't be sure. "Enjoy your tutoring. And if you choose to exercise your privileges with her, do me a favor and be gentle? A Faunus that can teach is a rarity, and I can't afford to pay a human to come tutor you and serve you."

"M-My privileges?" Jaune stammered as the man slipped through the door and shut it behind him. Sighing, he fell back onto his bed and shook his head, "What on Remnant does that even mean?"

"It means you can order me to clean, fetch food, or warm your bed." He stiffened and turned to stare at the woman's back as she skimmed the papers Bard had left behind. Quietly, she went on, "I am yours, now. Such tasks are within your right to demand."

"I-Is that so…"

"It is, yes." She turned and met his gaze, face completely flat, "My body belongs to you - for labors and for comfort, if you will it."

"I would never!"

"Regardless, such is your right." She shrugged and leaned back against his desk, "If you wished it, you could throw me to the floor, beat me, have your way, and then demand I clean up after us and fetch you food."

"That's… Descriptive."

"You failed the exam on law and custom, so Sir Bard has instructed me to start there." She explained, turning and gesturing at the chair at his desk, "May I sit? I find teaching easier when I am sitting, as I used to."

"Of course." He thought for a moment and added, "A-And, uh, when you're with me and a seat is open, you don't have to ask. Even out there, if we have time for lessons. Just sit down and get to work. O-Okay?"

"Others will dislike that…"

"That's their problem." He shrugged - if he was in charge of her, he was in charge. Their opinions didn't matter. Then he smiled and scratched at his head, "Besides, you probably have a lot to do. The least I can do is let you steal some rest now and again, right?"

"You are a kind man." She smiled again, just the smallest curve to her lips, and then turned and sat. "Very well, where shall we start? Perhaps the laws and customs regarding Chastened, since you have one in your service now? And will doubtless only encounter more - personal servants and those of the Order alike."

"That sounds good, yeah."

"Very well then." She flicked him a look and then added, almost timidly, as if afraid he'd get angry, "Sir Bard also instructed that you should continue your conditioning under my guide while I teach you. You missed today's conditioning, so please begin while I lecture."

"Uh, alright…" It wasn't a terrible idea - and Port had done kind of the same, once upon a time, when he lectured Jaune about heating and cooling patterns for smithing while he forced Jaune to lift hammers to build up his strength.

"Chastened, in brief, are Faunus. Taken from the so-called primal continent of Menagerie, and its wayward ally, Mistral, they are brought to the Gods' own continent and 'cleansed'." He paused in his sit-ups to turn and look at her in confusion and, with a sigh, she reached up to part her hair and bent over so he could better see the barely quarter-inch of bone sticking up from her skull. As she straightened, she explained, "A 'chastened' is considered 'cleansed' of their sin of birth, and allowed to live within the Kingdom. And to serve its people."

"Sin of birth…?"

"The Church of the True Gods teaches that the Faunus are aberrations unto Remnant." She explained quietly, "Beasts. And that the first great king of this land was charged by the gods themselves to to protect mankind against 'the beasts of the lands'."

"Ah…" He laid on the floor and froze, staring up at the ceiling. After a moment, he asked, "Did it hurt…?"

"Hm?"

"Your name is 'Deery', so those are antlers, yeah."

"They were."

"Did having them removed… Hurt?"

"..."

"Deery?"

"Do you want the truth, or something to make you comfortable?" She asked and, when he turned to her, she was staring at him with a firm, dark face. Brows knit low, eyes narrow, lips pursed - it was like she was about to scold him. When he didn't answer, she laid a hand at the bottom of her skirt and added, "If you are uncomfortable with it, I can also simply… Distract you, so you might forget."

"No." He didn't stammer, for once - for which he was proud. "I want to know."

"It was…. Excruciating." She admitted quietly, finally, as she turned away from him, "They held me down and carved through my antles with saws. Then held me while they sanded them down to base nubs, before pressing red-hot irons to them to sear them. To keep them from coming back. This was done… A dozen times, before my horns were trained down and stopped regrowing."

"I'm sorry…" He sighed, turning to stare back up at the ceiling. "That sounds awful."

"What you say borders on heresy, Lord Arc…"

"Does it?" He frowned and sighed, "I'm not- I mean, it was awful, right? But it must have been…"

"Necessary, yes. For me to live, it is necessary.." Was all she said before she took a breath and went on, "Once here, a Chastened is under the protection of the Church. Their care can be taken on by others, in return for goods and services, but most serve the Church all their lives. Be that as labor, comforters, or even as soldiers serving some of the Orders or as guards to those who minister to the Kingdom."

"Chastened are allowed to fight…?"

"There are restrictions and nuance, but yes. Which we will cover later, if we have time. They are largely unimportant as of now." She nodded, "Regardless, that is the basic gist of what a Chastened is. Do you have any other questions?"

"No."

"Good." She nodded, "Then if you are not hungry, or of another desire, we will move on to arithmetic."

Jaune only groaned as he rolled over and started his push-ups - he hated math. At least, he hated math beyond what he could do on his hands… And he had a feeling a big name like 'arithmetic' didn't mean it would be easy math.

XxX----XxX----XxX

The next day, he was woken up by another knock at his door - this time, it was Deery waiting for him once he was dressed and ready to go. It was still early outside, and most hadn't come to breakfast, so she joined him as he'd instructed and pulled out a book. While he ate with one hand she wrote out math problems that he solved with the other, listening as she explained his mistakes and smiling when she praised his successes.

"Now try this." She said, turning the book towards him, "This is a two-step equation, meaning that it has two figures that must be solved separately and then reconciled. Remember-"

"Do the part in parentheses first." He nodded, "Yeah, I got it."

"...Very good." It took him a moment to work it out - his multiplication was terrible, he had to write it out on the side of the page - but he did and turned it back to her. She leaned over to inspect it and hummed, tapping a finger on it, "This is wrong. You failed to carry your- Ah!"

Jaune flinched as she screamed and was dragged back, hands clutching at her head as an armored man dragged her off the bench by the hair and hurled her into the mud. She rolled over and his boot slammed into her back.

"Fuck are you doin' at our bench, bitch?!" Cardin bellowed, booting her onto her back and laying a hand on the hammer at his waist. "Bad enough you take our air - now you want our seats?"

"Cardin!" Jaune was between them before he thought about it, hands on the armored, armed, dirty man's chest to keep him at bay - or try to, at least, the knight had half a foot on him and a hammer besides. Still, he pressed him back, "She was teaching me!"

"She better learn to fuckin' stend then-"

"I told her to sit down!" He shouted, shoving the man away and snarling, "She's been teaching me all morning!"

"Better to learn from a Human, Arc. Fuck, I'll teach you before that filth gets her hands near you again." He heaved, shoulders rising and falling rapidly as he flicked a look from Jaune to the crumpled woman behind him. He pointed a finger at her and snarled, "I see you do it a-fucking-gain an I'll crack your skull, bitch!"

"Over my dead body!" He snarled, hands curling into a fist at his side. He shoved a finger in the man's face and snapped, "Next time, you hit me! Not her! You got it?"

"But you're-"

"I don't care." He snapped, turning his back on the man and adding, as he knelt to tend to the injured woman, "Grimm take you, Winchester."

He didn't see the man move but definitely felt the hand that fisted in his hair and yanked him up. Cardin turned and hurled him into the side of the table. His back hit it and he felt pain flare up his sides as he collapsed on the bench. The man was on him before he could react, plated fist crashing down into the side of his face with enough force to make the young smith see stars. Then he yanked him up and turned to throw him into the mud.

Still, seeing stars and winded and tasting blood in his mouth, he tried to stand and turned to face the coming man.

"Cardin, Cardin!" Suddenly, the slighter knight Dove was between them, both his armored hands pressing against the man's chest to push him back. Snarling, Cardin cracked a fist across the man's head as well, but he was wearing a helmet and the blow glanced off.

And Dove took it much better besides.

"Breathe, Brother, breathe." The man hissed, stepping in and pressing their faces close together so that Cardin could only really see him. From the ground, Jaune couldn't see his face or hear what Dove said, but after a moment, Cardin spat and turned to stalk away.

"Arc." He turned as another knight who he didn't recognize knelt and helped him up, then pressed him into a spot on the bench and pulled out a rag to wipe the side of his head - which stung, so Jaune was pretty sure Winchester's gauntlets had cut him. "Not too bad, shouldn't scar, just skinned it a bit."

"Yeah…"

"Brother Cardin is… Sensitive about Faunus." The knight murmured, "Forgive him."

At the mention of Faunus he stiffened and pushed off the bench, rushing over to the woman on the ground and kneeling over her worriedly. She didn't say anything when he touched her, but she did groan, and Jaune rolled her over as a few other knights came over to him. Hefting her, he turned and laid her out on the bench and snatched the rag from the other knight to tend to a cut on the side of her head.

"But your head-"

"You said it was just some skin." He shrugged it off, "She took a worse beating than I did."

"Just a Faunus…"

"She's a good person." He snapped at the armored woman that had said it, turning a glare on her as well and then sighing tiredly. "And besides, she's my responsibility… And she was only there to get beaten because I put her there. So will someone please help her? I would appreciate it."

"Move, please." One of them sighed, pushing him aside and turning to pick the woman up. She turned to him and paid him a curt, respectful nod, "I'll take her to a bed, get her out of these clothes and check her for injuries. Arc, let Brother Silver tend to your head, would you?"

"Uh, yeah." He nodded, "Sure."

"On the bench." The knight grunted, pressing him down and pulling out a roll of bandages he pressed to the side of his face. While he wrapped a cloth around his head to keep it there, he grunted, "Maybe next time, when someone twice your damn size starts swinging, you dodge. Eh, boy?"

"Or at least block with something other than your face." A knight nearby joked brightly, sliding some mead in front of him along with some ham and bread.

Jaune just rolled his eyes, spat the blood out of his mouth, and took a drink of the mead. The alcohol stuck the cuts on the inside of his mouth, but it washed the coppery taste out at least. And after a second, his head was wrapped up and he could eat, too - and nothing solved one's pains quite like delicious ham and fresh bread.

He just hoped Deery was okay...