Professor Arc

Chapter 16

"Our visitors will be here on a confidential basis," the Headmaster spoke as he stood by the window, staring out over the students of Beacon as he often did. Jaune wasn't sure if it could be considered rude, considering both he and Glynda were sat at the man's desk and he just up and wandered off – as though bored with their very existence...

Problem was; Jaune wasn't fully sure the man didn't honestly have some kind of attention disorder, and if it would be cruel of him to mention it.

"If the Atlas Armada were to move in too soon it would cause undue distress to the people of Vale, so the General will be attending in a personal shuttle. Similarly Miss Schnee will be attending privately as an Agent of the SDC – and has specifically asked for her presence to be kept secret from her sister, so as not to interfere with her studies. So I of course hope you know to keep these meetings private?"

"Of course," Glynda sighed, apparently still displeased at having to deal with Winter Schnee.

"Uh..." Jaune stalled, as his mind flashed back ten minutes.

"Hey Blake, I have to meet with some General and the Heiress of the Schnee, you can call it quits early as soon as you've finished with that." Jaune said as he finished pretending to do any work.

"Okay, have fun." Blake waved back as she continued to pretend she wasn't reading some hidden book behind his desk.

"Uh... sure...?"

"Good. Wrangling more dust out of the SDC is going to be complicated enough as it is without us ignoring that simple request," Jaune was glad the man's back was turned so he couldn't see the guilty expression on his face, "either way I've included some figures on your requirements for the dust we need – and how much of a budget you have."

Since Glynda still seemed to be whispering and mumbling to herself, Jaune took the opportunity to flick through the documents, a low whistle coming from him as he saw the huge amount of dust they required.

"So much? This would be enough to power a city for... well, maybe a day – but it's still a lot."

"The Amity Collosseum is the name of the stadium the Vytal Festival will take place in," Ozpin turned and walked back to the desk, sitting down and resting his mug on the mahogany with a soft clink. "The stadium has capacity for almost one-hundred thousand guests and weighs a few thousand tonnes."

"I don't see wh-"

"It also flies."

"Oh." Well... that seemed extravagant, really what was the purpose of something like that in the first place? Beacon already seemed dangerous enough, but since the first test was a free-falling landing strategy, at least you couldn't say the students weren't prepared. But a stadium for civilians?

Didn't they tend to go squish?

"The Amity Collosseum was equally constructed by each of the Kingdoms as a joint peace effort after the last war," Ozpin explained, "Atlas themselves were responsible for constructing the hover mechanisms that requires the dust."

"Isn't the SDC based in Atlas? And isn't dust their biggest export?" Jaune pointed out, right as the Headmaster took a long drink and nodded.

"Yes. The bullshit isn't lost on me Mr Arc, believe me. Atlas' other gift was the CCT – which I might add, requires expensive Atlesian Specialists for maintenance and repair. Not to mention the constant software updates."

"Wow..." he supposed it was clever in a way... a bit cynical, but very clever. No wonder Atlas was considered one of the richest and most technologically advanced Kingdoms.