Fate's Wild Card Ch.28 (Released) (Patreon)

Pryce sighs, rubbing the back of his neck in frustration. It's probably better to let this misunderstanding slide for now. It's not like it would cause any real problems compared to the other misunderstandings he's already dealing with, and having another sparring partner should be beneficial. Besides, the training would still be useful to him regardless of Jeanne being a complete klutz. 

And he really doesn't want to explain to Pyrrha that he's just using Jeanne to laugh as she learns terrible techniques for how to seduce Weiss. That would completely ruin the good impression he's already managed to build with his partner.

So they end up training together, running through basic sparring exercises that quickly reveal a massive problem with the blonde girl

Jeanne is absolutely terrible.

The first time, Pryce thinks maybe she's just nervous.

The second time, he realizes she seriously doesn't know what she's doing.

Not just inexperienced or rusty or whatever, she knows practically nothing about actual combat. Every exchange ends the same way: Pryce barely has to put in effort before Jeanne ends up on her butt, looking shocked and confused about how she got there. It’s like she never got into a fight, and he could tell because of the amount of people he had to fight and beat up, many of them talked big and tough but never threw a punch in their life.

"Okay, let's try that again," Pyrrha says encouragingly, helping Jeanne to her feet. "Remember, you want to keep your weight distributed evenly—"

Jeanne nods enthusiastically, adjusting her stance in a way that somehow makes it worse. "Right! Evenly! I got it!"

She doesn't get it.

Three seconds later, she's on the ground again, this time having somehow tripped over her own shield.

"Jeanne," Pyrrha says gently, her voice carefully controlled as she moves closer to the struggling blonde, "have you... have you had any combat training before coming to Beacon? Any formal instruction at all?"

Jeanne scrambles to her feet, forcing a laugh as she tries to puff out her chest with obviously fake confidence. "I-I've practiced! With my sword! All the time, actually! Haven't I mentioned how I was able to fight Grimm before? Yeah, totally fought Grimm. Multiple times. Lots of Grimm-fighting experience here."

"Practiced what, exactly?" Pryce asks bluntly, letting his stance relax completely because there's clearly no point in maintaining a guard against someone who can't even stand.

"Swinging it! And... and blocking!" Jeanne demonstrates with an awkward overhead swing that has no power behind it. The move makes Pyrrha visibly wince.

Pryce just looks at Pyrrha, raising an eyebrow.  'Are you seeing this shit?'

Pyrrha returns the look with obvious worry, and he just shrugs helplessly, making her sigh as she turns her attention fully to the struggling blonde. "Okay, I think we need to take a completely different approach here. Jeanne, let's start with some very basic fundamentals. Here, watch how I move my feet when I shift my weight..."

Wait…

And just like that, Pryce's training session transforms into 'Pyrrha desperately tries to teach Jeanne how to not fall over.' His partner is too polite and kind-hearted for her own good, it seems. And that's a problem because now Jeanne is getting all the attention and training, not him. Which is the complete opposite of what he wanted from this arrangement.

And he can't just chase Jeanne away or Pyrrha will be disappointed in him, which would damage the good impression she has on him.

So Pryce sits down cross-legged against the wall and watches as Pyrrha patiently corrects Jeanne's grip for what must be the fourth time in as many minutes.

Great. Just fucking great.

What is he going to do now?

He takes another look at the duo, who are completely absorbed in teaching and learning—well, Pyrrha is teaching, anyway. Jeanne is mostly just nodding enthusiastically while making the same mistakes over and over.

He sighs and decides to at least do some basic conditioning work on his own. Push-ups, handstand push-ups, planks, and other simple exercises that don't require the input from his experienced partner.

After about twenty minutes of Jeanne still struggling with the same basic stance work, Pryce has had enough.

"Alright," he announces, getting back to his feet and brushing off his hands. "I think that's enough for today."

Pyrrha looks up in surprise, a slight flush of embarrassment coloring her cheeks. "Oh! Are you sure? We haven't really gotten to work on your... Oh... OH! I'm so sorry, Pryce. I've gotten completely absorbed in helping Jeanne and completely neglected our training together."

"It's fine," Pryce cuts her off, forcing a casual tone even though he's annoyed. "I got some good exercises in. We can continue another time. Besides, we have classes later today."

"If you're certain..." Pyrrha says, though she looks genuinely apologetic. "I really am sorry we didn't get to focus more on you. It's just that Jeanne needs some extra help right now, and I couldn't just leave her—"

"Yeah, I noticed," he says dryly, his ears flicking with barely concealed irritation.

Jeanne gulps, staring at the floor with obvious guilt written all over her face. "I-I'm so sorry for taking up all the time! I didn't mean to ruin everything, I just—I'm trying really hard, I promise! I know I'm not very good yet, but—"

"Whatever. Come on," Pryce says shortly, jerking his head toward the exit.

Jeanne blinks in confusion, her blue eyes wide. "What? Come where?"

"You're coming with me. Now."

"But I—I should probably practice more, right? Maybe if I just work on that stance a little longer—"

"Now, Jeanne."

The blonde gulps at his tone and quickly gathers her weapons with fumbling hands, stammering out apologies to Pyrrha as Pryce practically drags her out of the training arena by the arm.

"S-sorry Pyrrha! Thank you so much for your help! You're really amazing and patient and I promise I'll practice everything you showed me and—"

"It was no trouble at all," Pyrrha calls after them, though she looks concerned about Pryce's sudden urgency. "We can continue tomorrow if you'd like!"

Once they're in the hallway and well out of earshot, Pryce releases Jeanne's arm and rounds on her with crossed arms.

"Alright, first question: why the hell did you butt in and hijack my training session?"

Jeanne blinks, confused. "What? I didn't hijack anything—"

"We had separate training sessions planned, even a different time." Pryce interrupts, his voice sharp. "You were supposed to train how to impress Weiss. I was supposed to train with Pyrrha first. You could have just told Pyrrha you needed to study a book or exchange notes or literally any other excuse. Instead, you crashed my session and turned it into babysitting hour."

"I... I didn't think of that?" Jeanne says weakly, her voice getting smaller. "I just got nervous and panicked when she started asking questions and I thought training together would be easier and—"

Pryce drags his hand slowly down his face, taking several deep breaths while counting to ten in his head. "Fine. Fine. Whatever. What's done is done."

"I'm really sorry—"

"Second question," Pryce continues, cutting off her apology. "What was that back there? And I mean really. You have zero experience in combat. None. You can barely hold your sword properly, and I'm pretty sure you've never actually fought anything in your life."

Jeanne fidgets with her sword's pommel, looking anywhere but at him—the ceiling, the floor, a particularly interesting scuff mark on the wall. "I-I don't know what you mean—"

"Don't play dumb with me."

"I'm not! I just—I've practiced with my sword plenty! Like I said, I fought Grimm before and—"

"Bullshit," Pryce says flatly.

"It's not bullshit! I really did fight a few—"

"What kind?"

"What?"

"What kind of Grimm did you fight?" Pryce presses, his eyes narrowing. "Beowolves? Ursai? Creeps? What were they? How did you handle them?"

Perhaps, his first fight against Grimm and kill was back at initiation but again he fought them and could handle himself. This girl only saw her being dragged around by the bubble ginger girl with a hammer.

Also even if hates the lectures he did learn about the other type of Grimm.

Jeanne's mouth opens and closes like a fish. "Uh... the... the black ones? With the... bone parts?"

"So literally every Grimm ever. Great description."

"I-I mean the small ones! The really small ones that aren't very dangerous!" Jeanne tries desperately.

"Uh-huh. And what about your stance? Your footwork? Your guard? Those are basics that anyone who's actually fought would know."

Even just in a fistfight you would know how to stand and guard.

"I... okay, look, maybe I'm a little rusty—"

"You're not rusty. You're empty." Pryce's ears flatten. "You've got nothing. So stop feeding me bullshit and just tell me the truth."

Jeanne's shoulders slump in defeat, and for a moment she looks like she might cry. 

"I-may-have-sort-of-used-fake-transcripts-to-get-into-Beacon?" She suddenly blurts out.

Pryce just stares at her, his rabbit ears standing straight up.

A long, heavy silence soon follows.

"You... what?" he finally says, more surprised by the admission "You just... you're just telling me that? Just like that?"

"I..." Jeanne looks confused by his reaction. "Was I not supposed to tell you?"

"Why the hell would you admit to fraud to someone you barely know?!" Pryce hisses, looking around to make sure no one else is in the hallway. "Are you stupid? What if I went straight to Ozpin right now?"

Not like he would do that, fuck that old man.

"Oh gods, are you going to?!" Jeanne's eyes go wide with panic. "Please don't! I know it was wrong but I just wanted to be a hero like my grandparents and I couldn't let them down and—"

"I'm not going to rat you out!" Pryce interrupts, exasperated. "That's not the point! The point is why the fuck did you just confess that to me?"

"Because you asked?" Jeanne says weakly. "And you looked really mad and I didn't want to lie to you because lying is wrong and my mom always says honesty is the best policy and—"

Pryce drags both hands down his face this time, taking several more deep breaths. This girl. This absolute disaster of a girl.

"Okay," he says slowly, raising one finger as he is trying to process this. "Okay. Let me get this straight. You faked your way into the Beacon, you have literally zero combat experience, somehow lucked out to not die at initiation because. mind you, we fought Grimm, and your first instinct when confronted is to just... confess everything to a guy you met like over a week ago."

"When you put it like that it sounds really bad—"

"It is really bad!" Pryce's voice rises slightly before he catches himself and lowers it again. "But I don't actually give a shit about the fake transcripts part. Not the craziest thing that occurred to me."

Jeanne blinks. "You... don't?"

"No. I don't." Pryce crosses his arms. "Look, it's not my problem how you got here. That's between you and whoever eventually figures it out. You might end up dead and that would be on your team especially if you are their leader."

"Oh." Jeanne seems uncertain whether to be relieved or offended. "So you're... okay with it?"

"I'm saying it's not my business," Pryce clarifies. "Your teammates though? They might feel differently if they find out. So maybe work on not dying before that becomes an issue."

"Right. Yes. Absolutely." Jeanne nods vigorously, then gives him an awkward smile and double thumb ups. "Thank you for not turning me in. And for, um, caring? Sort of? In your own way?"

"I don't care," Pryce corrects flatly. "I just don't want the headache."

"Right, of course, the headache." Jeanne's smile doesn't fade though. "Still, thank you. I really appreciate—"

"Just don't try to hog all of Pyrrha's attention during training anymore, since you will be around now." Pryce interrupts. "I still need actual practice, and I can't get that if she's spending the whole session teaching you which end of the sword to hold."

"Oh! Right! Yes, I'm so sorry about that!" Jeanne says quickly, her cheeks flushing. "I totally didn't mean to monopolize your partner's attention. I'll make sure to give you guys space next time. Maybe I can practice on my own or find a training dummy or—"

"Yeah, whatever. Just figure it out." Pryce turns to leave, already mentally checking out of this conversation.

"Wait!"

Pryce stops, his ears flicking back in annoyance. "What now?"

"We still need to train! Together!" Jeanne hurries to catch up with him. "Remember? You said you'd help me with... with the thing. The Weiss thing."

Pryce stares at her blankly for a moment before remembering the absolutely ridiculous plan to teach Jeanne how to "seduce" Weiss. Despite everything he feels the corner of his mouth twitch.

Yeah. He could use a laugh right about now.

---------------------------------

Pryce feels a deep, profound regret about accepting Ozpin's offer as he stares at the tower of papers placed in front of him. He probably should have used that pen to try stabbing his way out after all.

Weiss is sitting across from him with a thick book in hand, rattling off more incomprehensible jargon about the history of Atlas that makes his ears want to fold back against his skull in protest.

He would have left if it wasn't for the fact that he's trapped in one of those private library study rooms, the kind with soundproof walls and a door that locks from the inside for the entire duration of the study session.

Which really just means there's no escape from Weiss's mandatory lectures.

He'd been completely lost during Doctor Oobleck's rapid-fire lecture about Atlas earlier today. Just like before the man spoke so fast that Pryce could barely process one sentence before three more had already been delivered.

And of course, Weiss had taken notice of that.

She'd taken it upon herself—without asking, naturally—to "remedy his appalling lack of basic historical knowledge" and "bring him up to acceptable academic standards" because apparently he knew even less than Ruby about Atlas history, which Weiss seemed to find personally offensive.

"How can you possibly expect to function as a proper Huntsman if you don't even understand the geopolitical factors that shape the kingdoms?" she'd demanded while practically dragging him to the library after classes ended.

It didn't help that Jeanne had decided earlier to put her 'seduction training' into practice during lunch, attempting some kind of awkward compliment about Weiss's hair that had somehow devolved into Jeanne accidentally insulting the Schnee name. 

That had put Weiss in a particularly foul mood for the rest of the day, and Pryce had been trying not to laugh the entire time.

At least now she's less bitchy than usual and not throwing constant jabs at him compared to when they first met. Progress, he supposes. 

But that doesn't change the fact that he's bored out of his mind and considering whether faking a seizure would be worth the effort.

Weiss continues reading aloud from her book, something about pre-war economic tensions and the formation of the SDC under her grandfather's leadership.

Out of sheer boredom and desperate for something—anything—to break the monotony, Pryce grabs one of the papers from the stack and actually reads it. 

The header says "Color Revolutions: Causes and Consequences."

"What even is a Color Revolution?" he mutters, scanning the questions below.

Weiss stops mid-sentence, her book lowering slightly as she stares at him with an expression caught between disbelief. "You don't know what Color Revolutions are? They were literally the central focus of today's entire lecture!"

"If I knew, would I be asking?"

Not like the streets teach you anything besides the big four families from Mistral.

She lets out an exasperated sigh. "You know that we have an exam next week covering all of this, correct? This isn't optional supplementary knowledge, Pryce. This will be on the test."

"We do?" Pryce's ears perk up in surprise.

"Yes! We marked it on our room calendar!" Weiss sets her book down and pinches the bridge of her nose. "Have you been paying attention to anything team-related? Ruby mentioned it at least twice, and I specifically wrote it on the schedule I posted by the door!"

"Ah, that explains why that paper was on the door."

"That much is painfully obvious," Weiss mutters. She stands abruptly, her chair scraping against the floor with a sharp sound, and moves around the table to his side with purposeful strides. "Give me that paper."

Before he can protest, she's standing right next to him, leaning over his shoulder to look at the worksheet. Her white hair falls forward slightly, and he can smell whatever expensive perfume or shampoo she uses.

"This question is asking about the fundamental causes of Color Revolutions in pre-war Mantle," she explains, her finger tapping the paper. "You need to understand the historical context first. The socioeconomic divide between the upper city and lower mining districts created systemic tensions that had been building for decades—"

"Yeah, yeah, rich people on top, poor people on bottom digging rocks. Tale as old as time. Got it." Pryce tries to lean back slightly to create some space between them, but the chair prevents any meaningful escape.

"It's more complex than that simplistic summary!" Weiss leans in closer, practically hovering over him now as she flips to a different section of the paper, her ponytail swinging dangerously close to his face. "Look at question three. It's asking about the specific economic triggers and political catalysts that led to the actual uprising. You can't just write 'rich versus poor' and expect to pass!"

"Why not? That's basically what it was."

"Because—" Weiss huffs in frustration. "Because if you answer like that, Professor Oobleck will mark you down for lacking analytical depth and failing to demonstrate understanding of complex historical causation! Do you want to fail?"

"Not particularly."

Kinda true, mostly because Ozpin would be breathing down his neck or something.

"Then pay attention!" She points to a paragraph in her textbook, now holding the book in one hand while her other hand remains planted on his desk for support, effectively boxing him in. "The Color Revolution occurred because people couldn’t stand the tyranny of the kingdom Mantle anymore who went as far as to suppress any sort of emotion and expression from the population. So people started their opposition by naming their children after a fundamental aspect of art, a tradition that is held to this very day.”

Pryce blinked once.

Huh, she was practically breathing on his face now.

He should push her away.

Although…