A Man of Honor.

Chapter 14: The Prince.

"A Prince must imitate the fox and the lion, for the lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves." Niccolò Machiavelli, Italian political philosopher, from his manuscript "The Prince" in the year 1513.

I made breakfast for Melanie after she spent the night with me in my apartment. I was grateful to her and it was honestly the least I could do. I was very glad that I learned Ren's recipe for pancakes before leaving Beacon. Unfortunately it was a rather messy meal since Melanie couldn't help herself but tease me with the maple syrup. Needless to say we needed another shower before I called her a cab so she could leave.

She offered to stay around and keep me company. I knew she wanted to help me feel better about the hit but I couldn't keep her around, so after breakfast and some fun I assured her that I was fine and needed to do a few things before heading out for work. She could tell that I wasn't alright but I eventually got her to reluctantly leave me with a promise to call her that night.

Unable to put things off much longer I pulled the burner scroll out from the broken outlet behind the couch and called Ozpin. Listening to it ring my heart was beating a mile a minute.

"Mr. Arc... I was hoping you would call me today," he greeted with a very serious tone.

"Good morning sir," I greeted him evenly.

"You sent Miss Adel to the Atlesians last night," he accused me, flatly skipping past any further formalities.

I wasn't surprised. If Junior could figure that out then it certainly meant that Ozpin could. And I figured that I knew how he managed to figure it out. "Coco told you about that didn't she?" I asked him, fully accepting my part in what had happened.

"No, you just did Mr. Arc," he said pointedly.

I cursed at myself for being such an idiot.

"Miss Adel was in fact quite tight lipped about the whole affair and swore that she herself had found the smuggling operation and took action. Even when I mentioned your name she stuck to her story." He explained to me.

I was both embarrassed that I had let myself slip to Ozpin but impressed that Coco had done exactly as promised and kept my name out of it. I was going to have to make it up to her in some way.

"Mr. Arc... you put one of my students in danger," he said evenly.

"For the record she wanted to do it," I explained to him. "I just had to mention the guys that tried to take Velvet and it made her trigger happy."

"What she wanted is besides the point Mr. Arc. You used one of my students like a hitman, you put her in the line of fire!" He told me.

"She's a huntress, one of the best in her class. I knew she could handle herself." I defended thinking that calling Coco a hitman was a little dramatic. As far as the news had told me no one had actually gotten killed.

"You took advantage of her desire for justice Mr. Arc," Ozpin accused me.

"And what the hell did you fucking do when Yang busted up Junior's club!?" I shot back at him a little louder than I had intended.

"I didn't send Miss Xiao Long there," he said, defending himself.

"Maybe not... but you took advantage of it. And you sent me to spy on the Clan when I was expelled." I continued on.

"You agreed to do this mission Mr. Arc," he reminded me.

"And Coco agreed to what I asked," told him, feeling that it wasn't really that different.