On reflection, it had definitely been a mistake to goad the combat instructor of a premier academy for simply starting slow with a few intentional mistakes instead of treating an exam as a serious fight from the start. Surprising said combat instructor with a weapon that bypassed aura defenses without mentioning anything probably hadn't helped either.
Though to be fair, I wasn't exactly sorry for it either.
Not when I had gotten a front row seat to what a first class Huntress was actually capable of when they didn't hold back much.
For someone who supposedly didn't use magic, Glynda Goodwitch had done a fantastic impression of an elemental sorceress. The inside of the gymnasium was covered in a thick layer of clouds the Professor had summoned with the wave of a hand and what I suspected was a combination of several different Dust types.
Showers of ice shards, guided by her Semblance, rained down around me that I only dodged by multi-casting Haste near continuously. As I flickered around the arena, Glynda would shoot the occasional lightning bolt at me whenever my dodging pattern got a little too predictable. And whenever I got too close to her, a wave of either wind or pure force exploded outward to smack me in the face.
It was kinda funny out of the three universes I ended up in so far, the one 'without' an established magic system was the first time I had struggled against a pure caster type. And while I was confident I could have probably beaten Professor Goodwitch in an actual fight pretty reliably simply by overpowering her, in a simple spar where we didn't want to level the building we were fighting in and all else being equal, I would give her a solid chance of beating me. She was experienced, powerful, and was far more flexible that most others I fought simply weren't.
Unfortunately the examination ended far too soon for my tastes once Professor Goodwitch was satisfied with my level of skill and it was obvious I wasn't going to lose control and do more than surface level damage to our surroundings. She even wrong footed me in the middle of an attack by simply announcing the fight was over and walking back towards where Leona and Ozpin had been watching.
She even had the audacity to smile at me when she asked if I was going to stand around all day or if I was going to accompany them to Leona's second test of the day.
I was going to have to find a way to get her back for that one…
But at the end of the day, both Leona and I had passed our exams and been accepted as junior staff members of Beacon Academy, though Leona had been saddled with several textbooks and procedure manuals that she was going to need to familiarize herself with before she could really assist with anything practical. Something that she was still amazed by considering the rarity of books in general let alone anything like a proper medical textbook being freely shared in her homeland.
More importantly though, Ozpin made some calls and the Thornbell refugees suddenly started finding the Vale authorities to be a lot more helpful and accommodating.
-o-
"Wha' did ye do, girl?"
The sudden change in the authorities' attitude didn't go unnoticed. On one of the last free days we had before we needed to relocate to the Beacon campus, Dann and Sean hunted me down for answers.
"Who says I did anything?" I deflected. "Maybe someone else decided to help you guys out. I'd imagine helping resettle a town's worth of refugees would be a big boost to a savvy politician looking to firm up their platform."
"Cept they'd be crowin' from the rooftops if it were them." Sean countered. "An we ain't' heard a peep from the newsies about it. 'Sides we might be daft at times, but we ain't stupid. We checked wif Leona 'fore comin here."
"She mentioned you met with Headmaster Ozpin and suddenly all the red tape we've been dealing with starts getting untangled. Not hard to make the connection." Dann added. "So what did you do? Nothin too stupid, I hope. If the mechanics hear you sold your ship to some government rat just to get us shelter quicker…"
I waved my hands at them in denial. "No, no, nothing like that, I promise. Officially Leona and I are joining Beacon as junior staff and I asked the Headmaster to help you guys out."
"That explains some things. From what I've heard about Ozpin he would have the pull to do that." Dann grumbled, crossing his arms. "And the real reason?"
"The real reason is that Ozpin heard about what I did to the Goliath on our way here and wants me at Beacon to see if others can replicate it." I half-lied.
"So we were right about tha', it wasn't a Semblance afterall."
I shrugged without confirming. It wasn't that I didn't trust them or anything, but more that the more they knew about magic the bigger the risk they would get dragged into Ozpin and Salem's shadow war. And all of the former Thornbell residents had more than enough to deal with at the moment.
"You lasses will be all righ' in tha' fancy academy then?"
"We'll be fine," I smiled at the two older Huntsmen. "We were always planning on moving on to somewhere we could build a few things without repurposing tractor parts and Beacon's machining tools will go a long way into making a few gadgets I've been meaning to make."
The two of them smiled back at me. "Well, you have our numbers. If either of you ever need help feel free to give us a call."
"I'm sure we will. Oh, and tell Jason he better keep practicing. If I ever stop by wherever you end up getting settled I'm going to want another marksman competition. I won't accept him claiming he's rusty when I beat him again."
"I'm sure he won't. And speaking of practice, Chief'll have yer 'ead if…"
Now that I assured them that I hadn't traded my airship to help them out, Dann and Sean spent almost two hours giving me the other townspeople's farewells and well wishes. I didn't actually know most of them by name or anything, but I was happy to listen.
It felt nice to be recognised for something heroic that wasn't built on the deaths of hundreds of people.
-o-
"So that's Beacon huh…" Leona muttered as the Horizon entered final approach. "It's incredible."
"It is pretty cool." I replied, not taking my eyes off the view.
Beacon Academy was gorgeous to look at even from a distance. The location alone – a massive cliff with several waterfalls pouring over the side – would have been stunning alone. The castle-like architecture was like something out of a picture book. Put together with the massive tower containing the CCTS and Ozpin's office dominating the surrounding buildings, the Academy was breathtaking.
It was every bit the sci-fi fantasy school I had hoped it would be.
And a bit sobering to realise that it was destined to be destroyed in a few months if nothing was done to stop it.
I tried not to dwell too much on that as I went through the landing procedure. Changing the fate of the city and the school could wait until the both of us were settled in and had a bit more of a reputation with the rest of the staff that wasn't Professor Goodwitch's label of troublemakers.
And speaking of the Professor, there she was, standing at the edge of the landing pad with a clipboard while giving off the impression she had a hundred better things to do with her time.
"Good afternoon, Professor. Are you going to be the one escorting us around?" Leona, ever the polite one between the two of us, asked.
"Yes, I'll be giving you both a quick tour of the campus before dropping you off at the rooms we assigned you." Goodwitch confirmed. "Tomorrow we'll introduce you to the rest of the faculty and go over your schedules before the new semester begins. If you have questions at any point let me know and I will make sure they are addressed."
I immediately had questions. "How long out is the new semester? And when can I reserve one of the machining workshops for that personal project I mentioned?"
Goodwitch sighed and consulted her clipboard. "The semester begins in two weeks. As for your request, you can reserve one of the faculty workrooms for the entirety of that time before then and whenever a more senior faculty member doesn't need one afterwards and your duties are complete."
I frowned at the news I could get kicked out of a space if anyone else needed it because as junior staff members nearly everyone was more senior than us because the realization I was actually going to be able to make a proper partner Device was really making me impatient, but the truth of it was I simply wasn't going to find a more accessible workshop anywhere else.
"Alright, then what about classes? I read what you expected me to do in a general sense but there wasn't much about specifics."
Goodwitch nodded as we started walking towards the Academy proper, "Yes because your role will largely change depending on the student or scenario in question. For the first and second years, much of your time will be identifying bad habits or flaws in their chosen style and either informing me or attempting to guide them to a solution on their own. For third and fourth years, you will simply be an opponent meant to push their limits."
"That doesn't mean you will not be required to push the newer students, but we expect them to be still figuring out their fighting styles. Some will have come from feeder schools like Vale's Signal Academy, been privately trained by their family or others, and some will have been recommended by Huntsmen. Your job will be to adjust your skill level to match all of them so they can strive to improve without feeling like they are being crushed by a superior opponent."
"And my role?" Leona asked. "Dr Tsune mentioned I'd be spending a lot of time in your class as well but not exactly what I will be doing…"
"Your job will be to administer first aid in the case of any injuries." Goodwitch said sternly. "While we try to avoid incidents, every now and then someone's Aura breaks in a spar and injuries occur. Hopefully you can stomach the sight of the occasional Dust burn if you want to be a healer."
"As long as it isn't any more gruesome than trying to rebuild a man's pelvis after it was pulped by a horse stepping on him I should be fine. Really, there are so many fiddly things in that area of the body that have to go back together a certain way it always causes a mess." Leona said casually, missing the alarmed look Professor Goodwitch shot her. "I've seen worse than that besides…"
I sighed and rushed to change the topic before my apprentice either accidentally revealed something or traumatized the Professor with her complaints about the inner workings of people's bodies.
"So about that tour," I stated with the subtlety of a brick to the face. "Are we going to the offices first, the classrooms, or the cafeteria? Because I'd really like to get it done quickly so we can get our stuff moved into our rooms…"
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