Save the world? Fuck that, I want to make money! (RWBY SI) ch 36

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Mantle had something great that happened with it but it is over. Marble Mistrali-style columns, winding plazas and striking monuments once had color to them but it has all faded into a dull grey or white, the land and city is tired from the oppression of time and the elements. Once green gardens where families visited and took their children under the watchful gaze of Emperors, Kings, and heroes past are empty with the exhaustion of the land. Rows of what used to be green bushes are of thin branches fit only to be cut down and burnt.

Despite this, the Mantlese refuse to give up on their city. Streamers, rainbow colored lights hang from old powerlines or from anwhere they could be hung to provide light to the city. Murals dot the old government halls, against the jaded stone of factories whose songs of industry have long since been silenced. On street-walks, against the bricks of industrial housing. Music plays, not the fine instruments of gilded past but humble strings of homey warmth and comfort.

Compared to the white silica of Atlas, Mantle manages to beat in a way the sleekness of Atlas never can. In Atlas where innovation and ambition drive its children, the inheritors of Carolus's city sing, and dance, and love. They create not priceless inventions that will bring man to the heavens. Their creations will never see the palaces of kings. But it will warm the hearts of people, touch the souls where Atlesian stoicism will only touch the mind.

The descent of Atlas down into the old city is met indifferently by Mantle. Atlas has descended numerous times, mostly for maintenance or as the government says. Even despite returning to the soil from which it had sprung, the walls of Atlas continue to drive a wedge between prosperity and desolation. Mantlese attempting to enter Atlas can only do so after stringent policies. An irony when Atlas and Mantle were supposed to be sharing the same benefits of being citizens of the kingdom. The martial law called by the Atlesian Military does not raise concern for most. It wasn't as if the average Atlesian was going into Mantle nor were they going to let anyone inside.

The following morning, the citizens of Mantle awaken to find Silver Shield recruiters once more setting up shop. They have grown used to the uniformed men and women. So far, the biggest employer of Mantle. There was some fear when it was discovered that Mantlese huntresses had been caught trying to steal from the parent company, Royal and Imperial. Many thought that the Silver Shields would pull out of Mantle in retaliation but....nothing happened. Instead, the days came and the Shields continued to recruit.

And so, as young Mantlese came forward to the recruiters ready to be shipped off to gods know where if only it meant work, they were surprised to find when Royal and Imperial did not look for soldiers but rather for factory workers, for carpenters, for tradesmen. Cooks, and bricklayers. So much opportunities, so much demand!

Lorenz Ban had taken a long time to decide in approaching the Shields. Most of his friends had already signed up and where split off in places he had never even heard of before. He wanted to join too, the Silver Shields had held true to their claims of good pay and already, the remittances they were sending were doing wonders. But...Lorenz hesitated. He had made Journeyman Carpenter when his father had died. His old man had known firms up in Atlas and made good referrals for his boy before he went.

And each one, it was rejected, ghosted, or ignored.

He gave up and with a wife and son needing a father to support them, he went to the recruiter. 

He expected to give his body and soul for some Mistrali elder to yell out. He did not expect to be shuffled with a few more guys before a stage. No scratch that, there was a ton of people in there. He shivered, the cold biting his body, as a Shield marched up on stage, tapping on the microphone. Gone were the peaked cap and vests they would usually wear. Instead, he sported a white hard hat and a bright safety vest was over his uniform. He looked rather young and dashing, with volcano red eyes that would surely bring any girl to mush if he looked at them long.

"Hello! Hello! I'll be frank with who I am and what I do. Firstly, a history lesson!" he declared.

If anything, he was rather enthusiastic. The youth continued. "Steyr was once the factory which supplied Mantle's armies in the old days. A record eighty percent of all arms which was used in the Great War was made here, at Steyr. It was closed down at the wars end when the Color Revolution and Vytal halted the war."

He paused, letting his words sink in. The closing of Steyr also culminated with other great industrial works and plants. The industry of Mantle slowly died and with it, Mantle died too.

"I am pleased to announce however that starting today, Steyr will once again provide for our kingdom the arms it needs to defend itself against threats both within and outside!" the youth declared. He grinned at them. "And you, my friends, are going to be the vanguard of that movement."

Wait...

What?

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The following days had seen to Ironwood gradually rolling back the martial law. Such a gradual relaxation of the military squeeze was first preceded by a announcement from Kali to have the White Fang cease it attacks on Atlesian garrisons both on Atlas and on foreign soil. While many did stop harassing anything with Atlas in it, there was a select group that refused to stop. Sienna Khan refused, openly stating outright that unless the faunus that were apart of Jacques assassination attempt were released then her cell was going to continue being problematic.

Sienna outright stating that she was continuing the attacks had apparently been the argument needed by the Fleur in Vale to convince Councillors in the fence about the necessity of a Valean Army to protect the kingdom. While he did not say it outright, Armand Rouge all but hinted at Atlas's poor security apparatus in the past weeks all the while praising the capacity of Vale to protect itself. Now the motherfucker had been there during the Great War, he had the laurels and the accolades to talk shit.

With a unstable insurgent queen on its eastern borders, the Valean Council voted in a landslide vote of 3-2 to re-establish the Valean Army. The 2 votes against came from one Councillor who I was pretty sure Ozpin's patsy and the old man himself.

I wasn't going to lie, Ozpin was outmanoeuvred in the debate for the army's reinstatement. He had argued for the commonality of mankind and the faunus, reminded everyone of the horrors of armies and war. Rouge retorted that while sure, the ideals Ozpin was expounding on were admirable and what the world should aspire to be, it still would not remove the fact that Southern Mistral was effectively under the control of Sienna Khan and her apparent new branch of the White Fang though calling it the White Fang would be a massive understatement since she led a coalition of both human and faunus towns.

It's rather difficult to make it a racial thing when Mistrali provincials were willingly flying her banner.

As fascinating as all of this was, I wasn't going to involve myself in the politics. Unlike Team RWBY, I wasn't even going to remotely pretend that I had the answers to fix everyone's problems. The interest of the company was to develop our new Mantlese assets and that was what I was going to do.

With the turbo-charged financing of the military industrial complex, trucks bearing everything from construction equipment, tools, and materials left the gates of Atlas and into the heart of Mantle. Steyr's gates were broken as the trucks as well as employees swarmed to refurbish the place. These men, local Mantlese of course, signed up by the dozen. Unlike Jacques however, such employees of the company were going to be treated good with generous pay, benefits, and safety gear. Expensive, yes, but the company was swimming in money and for such benefits, the men and women of the newly established Royal and Imperial Construction Corp were going to give not just their all but also their loyalty too.

With expansion also comes creature comforts that would ensure people's necessities would be addressed. As most of the hires were local, they always really could just go home to their families or dine at local eateries when their breaks would come. I still felt it was prudent however to organize a communal kitchen that would serve hot meals for the duration of the day. Warm soup was a primary focus as Mantle was cold as hell, the ingredients sourced primarily from frontier towns happy to find a customer for their produce. Dried fish and meats tossed into a warm soup made with potatoes, cream, and cheese alongside freshly baked bread was surely a morale booster. I could verify that shit tasted good since I would also drop by and eat at the kitchen as well. There was a little something interesting I had noticed and that the kitchen staff, mostly spouses of the construction workers, would also feed their families too, sometimes even sneaking out a bowl or two to their children.

Frankly, all the sneaking around was ridiculous. A order mandating that anyone could eat from the kitchens provided they pay was cool. And the price of it all didn't even require them to sacrifice an arm and a leg.

Through the following days, it did not really take long for Steyr to be transformed. From a depressing skeleton that wouldn't look out of place in Detroit or Birmingham to a dazzling and shining facility with new shiny red bricks and tiles. The wooden floors and supports had been totally replaced with fresh ones. The wood provided for from the Frontier once more. Everything was sourced locally as much as possible. Not only did it shorten delivery length, it had brought much needed capital back into Solitans both in the city and out of the city.

For example, my new office. I decided on a homey and comfortable look for my own space, making it look like a cabin instead of a clinical and sterile office space. Why? Well, who wouldn't want to have an actual fireplace made with fine red bricks with comfortable leather couches, a desk carved out of Solitan oak that was smooth to the touch and shiny against the light?

I leant back on my chair, again a wooden oak office chair that supported my back wonderfully. The fireplace was already burning good, orange-red light glinting against my skin.

I had with my father's approval Emerald fully adopted into the household, her true bloodline revealed to her. Ecstatic couldn't even begin to describe the emotions on her face when I had broken the news to her that we were actually related. It helped in softening the blow that we were going to have her attend school. Sure, Emerald demanded that I nap with her the night previously but I suppose it was a light punishment considering she was now officially a Wayland. I had to admit curiosity on how our family Semblance did not manifest inside of her and she had her illusions come out instead. Father had suggested that when her aura was awakened, her need to survive had influenced her soul to get her illusions semblance instead of our artificer talent. That theory had merit thinking about it since for some people, their auras would be activated in times of urgent need.

With Emerald's needs taken care of, I really had no other worries other than ensuring our expansion went smoothly and of course, Winter.

She hadn't been talking to me since she went on leave. I figured that she was quietly grieving at the SDC manor. I was fine with that since Willow was keeping her cards close to her chest now.

I fought off the yawn that threatened to leave my lips as I shook my head and stood up to look out of my window. Steyr was just undergoing the first phase of its reopening with the second phase being the installation of the machines for production. Once the assembly line was set up, all Steyr needed was raw materials to process and turn into weapons of war. Anything related to ground forces, Steyr was going to poop it out. Aviation was going to be relegated to appropriate industries with so on and so forth. The first thing that was going to be spat out of Steyr was artillery. The Grimm being overly active required a quick balm to deal with and artillery would provide that. Now the Navy was usually Atlas's go-to for heavy fire support but the Navy was needed for other areas. 

By the end of this and with Steyr finished, Atlas would be drowning in more munitions than it could shoot. Again, Atlas wasn't rich in bodies but Mantle was. Considering that most Mantlese were signing up to join the Shields instead of the Army, I thought that Ironwood would comment on that. Despite us flying the Atlesian banner in our operations, we were still operating a paramilitary army now. To boot, the Shields was a whole division. Four infantry brigades, two heavy support battalions, one artillery battery and one logistics company. With the rate of men we were recruiting, two new infantry brigades would have to be inaugurated with plenty more heavy support battalions. This sounded impressive on paper, yes, but the Shields did not possess a Navy. I suppose that was why. We may have guns but Atlas still held more cards to its chest. 

Despite the chaos happening outside, things were going well for the company. Too well. We did not exactly have any enemies to worry about at the moment. Jacques Schnee was our hater since day one and he fell. Not because of any plots from us mind you but from his own short-sighted policies catching up to him. There was the White Fang that I was pretty sure was going to be splitting. Sienna publicly refusing to follow Kali's directive to lay down arms was the biggest sign of that. I imagine Kali was going to have to make a difficult choice, siding with the imprisoned faunus who would most likely be praised as heroes by most faunus-kind who had undertaken the assassination on Jacques on their behalf or she could not, protecting the wider Fang and Menagerie from Atlas's ire. 

I wasn't pitying her, at all. 

Then finally, there was the queen bitch herself, Salem, who I was quite sure was the cause of everything. She was forever going to be an existential threat that would not and could not be reasoned with. She hates the world, she hates Ozpin, and the idea of human unity makes her sick. There was lots of speculation on what she is actually looking for. If Ozpin united everyone, the Gods would come back and wipe her the fuck down. Since she couldn't exactly die, dealing with her conventionally wouldn't work. As far as I also remembered, the Gods were going to return once Remnant united. 

So if I wanted to enjoy my peace and quiet, I was inevitably going to have to deal with Salem the bitch. 

For fucks sake. 

I took in a breath. Why can't the two divorce like two normal people instead of dragging the world with their domestic issues? 

I glanced outside, watching the Mantlese workers go about their day. 

If it meant that Salem would go away and allow me to retire peacefully, then fine, I was going to drink the unity cold aid. Sure, an eternal war sounds rad since my bottom line was the military industrial complex but there was only so much escalation, so much weapons one can sell before everyone has the means to wipe each other out. Being stuck here in Remnant was frankly, boring. With an upcoming space program I was going to announce soon, we were going to find out why Dust wouldn't work out of atmosphere. Satellites first then I could go get onto bringing in space capable craft and get humanity off Remnant. If dealing with Salem and Ozpin's nasty divorce was going to be so difficult then fine, I will just take our people as far away from Remnant as much as possible. 

I wonder what sort of shit we'd find outside of our solar system. I hadn't seen much of Volume 9 but I had heard that Remnant was some bullshit fairytale or some esoteric nonsense. If we manage to get out of our planet and meet the gods, maybe I should fit every space craft we'd shit out with Cyclonic Torpedoes and blow them all to kingdom come. 

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A/N: Updoot. A little bit slow since I am still quite grieving. I couldn't make do without putting something up so here ya go. More to come, worry not.