Capítulo 3: Turning Point
The next week passed by relatively quickly for the Schnee family. Winter and Willow were busy preparing for Weiss' party, so Jack spent his time split between reading and spending time with the birthday girl. Yesterday, he'd gone and picked up the rapier from the blacksmith. Today was the day of Weiss' actual birthday, and he, Willow, and Winter were all waiting outside her room to go wake her up.
"He didn't come then," Jack stated, noticing the obvious lack of their father.
Winter grimaced slightly, while Willow put on a brave face. "He had a business meeting this morning, but he promised me that he would make it to the party tonight."
Her words may have seemed hopeful, but her emotions looked anything but. Jack could see that Willow was beginning to fray, her emotions a blanket of sadness anytime the thought of her husband came up. He had begun to wonder if there was ever a time when Jacques had been a loving man. Willow was the daughter of the founder of the Schnee Dust Company, and somehow Jacques had managed to marry her and insert himself as the CEO instead of her.
"Enough of that, let's go wake her up," Willow said, slowly pushing the door to Weiss' room open and the three of them quietly made their way inside.
Weiss was sound asleep, snuggled up in her covers.
They made their way over, Winter carrying breakfast on a tray. They got close and Willow reached over gently shaking her.
"Weiss, dear, it's your birthday."
Bleary-eyed, Weiss looked around at the three of us. Slowly, she realized what was going on and a bright smile appeared on her face.
From there, she ate the breakfast that Winter and Willow had made for her, while Willow gave her a present first. It was an ornate hairpin shaped like a snowflake, which Weiss promptly put in. Her hair was put up in a ponytail, with a hair tie to hold it in place before the pin was put at the front of the ponytail.
"I love it," Weiss said, the smile never leaving her face.
Jack then pulled out a long box from behind his back. "This one is from Winter and I."
Winter and Willow both looked curious, as Winter hadn't seen what modifications I'd asked to be made and Willow didn't know what we'd gotten her in the first place. Weiss excitedly unwrapped the box, opening it up to find the rapier she had picked out from the shop. Instead of a normal rapier with a gun built into it though, this rapier had been modified.
It had a chamber much like a revolver, where dust could be slotted in to allow her to use it for varying effects depending on what type of dust she had slotted. The entire thing was a silvery-gray color that complimented Weiss well.
Jack quickly explained that information to the group, and Weiss squealed, throwing her arms around his neck and giving him a tight hug before she did the same to Winter.
"Quite a fitting choice for her Jack, well done," Winter whispered to him. She then turned back to Weiss. "You still have to give it a name."
Weiss furrowed her brow in thought but seemed to be struggling to come up with a name. Jack decided to put forth a suggestion to help her. "How about Myrtenaster?" He saw their confusion and elaborated. "Myrten Aster is a type of flower that is usually white and quite beautiful. Fitting, no?"
Weiss' face lit up and she quickly nodded her head. "Myrtenaster then. I'll cherish it forever."
Willow smiled fondly while she looked at her three children. Just for a moment, she was able to push the worries and stress of her marriage away and just enjoy the moment as their group of four came together to celebrate Weiss' birthday quietly.
----
The rest of the day was a blur of the maids setting up for Weiss' birthday while Winter, Willow, and Jack spent time with the birthday girl in question. They mostly spent their time talking, playing games and just enjoying each other's presence. Winter did spend some time instructing Weiss while helping her get used to her new rapier, and even Jack participated in the sparring a bit.
Jacques had yet to make an appearance so far during the day, but they'd done their best to distract Weiss from that fact. An hour before the party, Willow had made her excuses to Weiss and went off to speak to him. It'd been half an hour and she still had yet to return, so Jack had decided to go find out what happened while Winter remained with Weiss.
While walking through the mansion, Jack considered his relations with his new family. When he'd seen how taken Weiss was with their gift to her, that bubbly emotion returned again in full force. He couldn't help the smile that'd been on his face all day as he spent time with them, content to enjoy the day.
That smile had begun to shift to a frown as he neared the door to Jacques' office and heard yelling from within.
"I cannot believe you. She's your daughter, Jacques, she needs you. She hasn't seen you all day and now you don't even want to attend her party?" Willow's voice said anger and sadness all ebbed out of her voice.
Jacques' own voice was raised, yelling as he seemed to finally reach a breaking point. "I have better things to do than attend some simpering party for a child."
"You weren't like this before. What happened to the man I married?" Willow asked sadly.
Jacques' office was soundproof, so he was surprised to be able to hear them down the hall. When he came upon the door, he found it open, and the light from the room spilled out into the hallway.
Jack stopped outside the door and leaned against the wall as he continued to listen to their conversation. It was a stark contrast to the happy atmosphere that'd been present the whole day, and this feeling couldn't help but send him back to that day when his mother in his past life had found out his father had gotten married. That had been the day he'd found out how she truly felt about him, the love that he always perceived her having for him in actuality had simply been her love for his father.
"I only married you so I could gain control of the Schnee Dust Company. I had no interest in any of this, raising three brats or having to pretend with you," Jacques said angrily, and the room fell silent.
Jack couldn't tell what was happening in the room, but no further words were said and he heard a clattering sound before he saw Willow shakily walk out of the room. Her eyes were red and tears ran down her face as she looked lost. When she walked out of the room, her eyes immediately found their way to Jack. He braced himself, prepared for her to lash out, but instead of anger, he saw fear in her eyes. And yet, that fear was completely different from the one he saw from those he killed. It wasn't a fear he reveled in, instead, it left him with a sinking pit in his stomach.
She opened her mouth to speak, but Jack shook his head. Instinctively, he took her hand and led her away from Jacques' office. They quickly found a side room and the two entered.
"Jack, dear, you shouldn't have had to hear all that," Willow said, trying to stop herself from crying.
"And yet I did."
"Your father loves you, he didn't mean that," Willow tried to protest, but Jack shook his head.
"No, there's no love lost for us from that man. I've been well aware of the way he truly felt for some time."
The stunned look on Willow's face was replaced rather quickly by sadness as she wrapped him tightly in a hug. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry."
Jack was confused, unsure why the woman who seemed so broken by Jacques, the woman who had taken the brunt of his hatred, was trying to comfort him.
"It doesn't matter to me, but how are you doing?"
Willow pulled her face back and looked him in the eye. The worry Jack could seem completely coloring her aura further threw him through a loop. The last time something like this had happened to him, he'd been the outlet. All his past mother's emotions were vented on him, while here it seemed that Willow's biggest worry was how that revelation would affect him.
"I'll be fine Jack. I'm just worried about you, I can't believe that's how he feels about his children, about us."
The thought of her children sent Willow worryingly checking the time and seeing that it was just about time for Weiss' party to start. "We have to go, we need to be there for Weiss."
Jack nodded, still confused as he got up. "Are you going to go looking like that?" he asked, gesturing to her tear-stained face and red eyes.
"I'll go to my room and cover it up. Just, don't tell Weiss or Winter about this, okay?"
When she saw her nod his assent, she hugged him again and they made their way out of the room. Willow walked towards her bedroom, while Jack made his way back to the party, thinking about the emotions he'd felt from Willow.
'I don't like that type of fear. Not one bit.'
----
Weiss' party was quite the event. With how well-connected the SDC was, there were plenty of upper-class people attending the youngest Schnee daughter's 10th birthday. Jack couldn't be bothered to interact with any of them, staying relatively in the background throughout it all. Winter put on the perfect mask, acting the part of the older sister enjoying her sister's birthday while still playing the part of the perfect heiress.
Willow had successfully hidden all signs of her encounter with Jacques and was interacting with the guests well, but Jack noted that a glass of wine had never left her hand and had been refilled several times.
Weiss, for her part, didn't seem to even care about the lack of her father's presence. Instead, she made sure to come over and talk to Jack as much as she could. She wasn't particularly close to any of the girls who had come to her party, but she still talked to them as well.
Eventually, the talking began to slow down as people simply enjoyed dancing on the ballroom floor. That was when Weiss made her way over to Jack in the corner, the nervousness radiating off her.
"Jack, would you dance with me?"
He gave her a bright toothy grin in response. "I would be delighted to, young lady."
"I'm ten now, you can't call me young lady anymore," she protested, pouting.
Winter had made her way over at this point and heard her comment. "Good luck, he still calls me young lady and I'm older than him."
Jack chuckled and took Weiss' hand, leading her over to the dance floor. Winter watched, smiling as the two began to dance. He had taken her hands and led her through a light sway. They'd all been taught how to dance, but that professional dancing was much less enjoyable than simply swaying while Weiss looked at him with a bright smile.
Glancing around the room, he noticed Willow smile briefly to herself as someone pointed out the two of them. Jack could see her emotions though, and noticed that she'd just about drained another glass of wine. Her thoughts were preoccupied, and even though she enjoyed the sight of her two children dancing together, her thoughts were elsewhere.
Eventually, the party began to wind down and Jack asked Weiss a question. "So, did you have a good birthday?"
One of the brightest smiles Jack had ever seen answered him. "The best, I hope this never ends."
Unknown to Weiss, Jack had begun to mull over thoughts that could very well stop something like this from happening for quite some time.
----
The next year passed by and Jack turned thirteen. The Schnee household had undergone a complete change in the last year. Jacques had all but completely stopped interacting with anyone but Winter, and that was only in her capacity as the heir to the SDC. Willow had begun to fall hard into drinking and her children also began to see less and less of her. She was either asleep with a hangover, or awake and drinking herself into a stupor once again.
Winter and Jack did their best to distract Weiss from it, but she quickly began to notice the tension in the house and grew sad as well. It was the sight of Weiss' emotions that galvanized Jack into beginning to plan. Premeditation and planning were his tenants, and if he was going to do something then he would make sure he had it completely prepared beforehand.
It was only a year after the party, a little past Weiss' eleventh birthday that he finally had everything in place. He'd been spending the last several nights with Weiss hugging him to sleep, her emotions drained from the lack of both her father and mother in her life.
Jack looked down at her for a moment, kissing her forehead lightly as he muttered "You deserve better than caring for someone like me."
He slipped out of her bed and made his way back to his room to prepare. He had a large bag placed on his desk, filled with the items he would need for the night. He double-checked that everything was in place and made his way out of his room.
His destination was Jacques' study, and as he walked he hid his presence completely. Nobody saw him, the few maids that were walking down the halls completely ignored his presence in the shadows.
Once he reached Jacques' study, the door slipped open and he made his way inside to find Jacques sitting behind his desk looking over some information on his Scroll. He shut the door behind him tightly, ensuring that no sound could escape.
"I'm busy boy," Jacques said, but Jack simply stared at him. He was about to find out the answer to a question he had been wondering for some time, and yet he couldn't bring himself to feel any real excitement over it.
He took a step forward and became a blur as his aura enhanced his body. Jacques had never had his aura unlocked, so it was child's play to move faster than he could perceive and lift his body into the air with his hand around his neck.
Jacques choked, his face starting to turn red as he looked down at his son in shock. "Just...what do you think you're doing?" He rasped out.
Jack didn't reply to him, instead using the hand that wasn't holding Jack up to manipulate his aura, causing wires to move around the room and string Jacques up in the air. His arms and legs were wrapped with wire and he was completely suspended in the air, spread eagle like the showgirls who would be pinned to a board while a magician threw knives at them.
Jack backed up, releasing his hold on the man before he passed out.
Jacques tried to recover his composure, staring down at his son despite his current position. "And what do you think you'll accomplish with all of this? All of this just because you're bitter I don't waste my time spending it with you."
Jack considered him for a moment, trying to figure out why he felt a total lack of excitement at the moment. Jacques' emotions were laid bare to him. The man was confident that he wouldn't truly harm him, a feeling he would quickly rectify.
With a flick of his wrist, Jack sent a knife sailing through the hair straight through one of Jacuqes' hands, causing the man to cry out in pain.
"Fuck, what is wrong with you," Jacques panted out in pained gasps.
"I spent so much time thinking about this. I was so excited to see how your fear truly looked, and yet this is all so unsatisfying," Jack said, throwing yet another knife through Jacques' other hand.
"You fucking monstrous brat," Jacques said, and yet Jack could see his emotions slowly bleeding into fear. It was the color he always dreamed of, the fear of a man who felt so self-assured. So confident that he was untouchable that when his safety was taken away from him, only an all-encompassing fear remained.
"Just calm down Jack. You don't have to do this, I'm your father," Jacques began to plead.
Disappointment was the only feeling Jack could identify from himself at the moment. Looking at the man who had broken his new mother, who had made Weiss cry, who had forced Winter to act like a perfect heiress around anyone who wasn't them, all he wanted was to end it. There was no desire to drag it out, to hold onto this man's fear as long as possible, he just wanted it to end.
"Disappointing," Jack muttered to himself as he through the final knife directly through Jacques' throat. The man only had a moment to open his eyes wide in shock before he began to choke on his own blood and bleed out.
Jack didn't even watch the man die, instead turning around and walking back out of the door in silence. The only sound that echoed in the room was Jacques' whimpers and choking.
He made his way back to his room, staying in the shadows and avoiding anyone as he made his way inside. He picked up the duffle bag and slung it over his shoulders, making his way out of the room and walking down the hall. As he made his way to the door, he passed by Weiss' room and glanced inside. He saw the girl sound asleep, clutching a pillow like it was him.
It took Jack a moment to realize as he looked at the girl, but he felt his face growing wet. Holding his hand up, he ran his fingers along his cheeks and found that he was crying.
'Why?'
A tight feeling rose up in his chest as he turned away from the sight and continued his way out the door, tears still pouring down his face.
It was a dark night, the broken moon hidden behind the clouds as he made his way out of the mansion and snuck his way into the city. He'd made all the preparations beforehand and had already booked a trip to another kingdom. He'd decided that Vale was the best place to go, Mistral and Vacuo each having their own issues.
He could've stayed. It wouldn't have been hard to get away with Jacques' murder, and even now it wasn't all that likely that he was pinned down as a suspect even with his disappearance. More than likely, they assume whoever killed Jacques also kidnapped him for some reason. It wouldn't have been hard to stay, but this showed him he couldn't function in a normal family setting. Ever since that day he'd killed his original two parents, he wasn't the type of person who any of them should be stuck with.
Once he was a good ways away from the estate, he stopped in an alleyway and opened up his bag. Within, he had a gray hair dye which he rubbed on his fingers before spreading it throughout his hair. It was different than those in his old world, but it was one that was water resistant but could be washed out with persistence. It was quick-acting, bleeding into his white hair and turning it gray.
Alongside that, he removed a monocle from his bag and put it over his Soul Eye, the red color hidden as his distinctive heterochromia would give his identity away.
He exited the alleyway, his duffle bag full of the money he had saved and some other odds and ends he wanted to bring with him the only thing he carried with him as he left Atlas. His family would be fine without him, his presence in exchange for the removal of the plague that man brought to the women in his life was well worth the price.
And yet, Jack couldn't help that tight feeling in his chest as he left Atlas, and his family for what would be a long time.
Status de energia semanal
-- Ranking de
Poder 
-- Pedra de
Poder