Akashic

Chapter 124 - The Offer

"Do you mind?" Arthur chuckled as he felt one of the sprays of the willow poking his back, the willow shaking as if it were laughing, "You're having fun aren't you?"he asked, getting another shake of leaves, "…"

"I'm talking to a tree… I am losing it" he sighed, hearing another rustle from the leaves as he saw Willow enter, her eyes soon locking on him as a smile rose on her face, "Hello Arthur" she said walking up to him.

"Hello ma'am"

"Please, call me Willow" she chuckled, "No need for the formalities"

"Okay, hello Willow" he smiled, feeling something enter his ear causing him to jerk away, "I made you! I can just as easily end you!" He shouted at the tree, who he could swear was sticking it's tongue… Bark? Out at him.

Willow giggling as she watched, "Shall we sit?" she asked, seating herself next to the trunk of the tree, followed by Arthur, who was trying to fend himself from the intrusive sprays.

"I must thank you, I don't think I've ever spoken with my daughters for so long before" she commented, "It was nice to hold them both once again" her gaze turned sad as she thought of her impending death.

"They both taking it well?" Arthur asked.

"Well, they are sad, no doubt, much more so than Whitley, he and I never really connected like we should have, he followed more after his father" she sighed, "But, there's nothing I can do for that now, I do not have the time to mend our relationship"

She went quiet as he closed her eyes and let the gentle, warm breeze that always seemed to be flowing under the willow no matter how frigid the night air outside was, flow over her, "Thank you Arthur, even just meeting earlier today you've already changed my life, in such a short amount of time you made me realize just how selfish I was"

"I don't need thanks, Willow, I don't like seeing people in trouble, I just sort of end up helping" he chuckled.

"No, you do, and that is what the ball is for, to properly thank a man who risked his life to save a single child and one hundred people from captivity. But personally I must thank you, the way you saved me won't earn you a medal but it will forever earn my appreciation, so thank you" Willow turned to him and lightly bowed her head.

Arthur scratched his cheek awkwardly, unsure as to how he should react at having a noble bow their head to him in thanks, "Thank, you?" Arthur really was unsure as to how he should respond, his awkwardness causing Willow to laugh.

"You're really unused to this, aren't you?"

"Well, it's not everyday the mistress of the ric.h.e.s.t family in Remnant lowers their head to thank someone" he said.

"No, I guess not"

"So, what was it you wanted to ask me?" he asked

"Ah yes" she seemed to perk up, "When you said I didn't need Jacques or this company but to build something myself and with Weiss and Winter, and it got me to thinking about my father's will, I read through it a few years ago, I had found it in a little archive my father made and hid in my mother's brooch, this very one I'm wearing now" her hand went to her c.h.e.s.t right next to the bright red brooch.

Slowly she unfastened it from her blouse and held it in her hand, turning it over to show the back of it, pressing a small button on it and sliding it down and to the side, causing the back of it to flip open, showing a small, what looked to be SD card hidden within the brooch.

Shutting it she continued with her story, "After what you said it got me to thinking of a few things, I remembered something within fathers will, a land deed for an area in mistral, in the village Hokori, it was destroyed by the grimm many years ago"

"Jacques has been on a quest for years now searching for whoever owned this deed, because of one reason, this area is a converging point for many, many different dust types, to the point they begun to sprout from the ground as they grew"

"And yet, Jacques cannot touch it or he will face, severe consequences and pay the owner millions if not billions in damage, and he cannot afford that" she smiled, "And I own that land, an area so rich in dust that it would not run out for a hundred years"

Arthur was intrigued, "That is great, but what is it you want from me? And Jacques doesn't know of this?"

"No, he doesn't in my fathers will he also stated to not say anything to Jacques as he didn't fully trust him, he knew he had some alternate scheme going on, so he wanted this land to be kept away from him until either I or my children take over it in my own will" She explained. "But what I want to ask of you is this, can you truly make dust that can teleport people and items?" Her eyes sparkled.

Arthur turned cautious, this wasn't another Jacques in the making was it? Seeing his how uncomfortable he was Willow said, "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be so forthcoming, "It's just I heard that a boy had somehow created a dust that could teleport his body and that he had white and black hair"

He began to calm down as she said that, "It's just, if that is true, I have an idea as to how I could create a new business that can't be touched by Jacques, if I were to set up these crystals around the four kingdoms, then I could create a way of instantaneously transporting people and cargo without the risk of grimm or bandit attacks"

Realization dawned upon him as to what she wished to ask of him, "And you would like to use my dust to create those crystals"

"Exactly" she clicked her tongue, "Of course you would get a decent portion of the earnings as you will be the reason as to how this would be possible"

Arthur began to think, "I can help you, but you won't be able to mass produce the dust without me, you see, it's my semblance, I can influence dust and change it's properties, and this warp dust is one of the things I can make, but I need gravity dust in particular, and I've done some tests with the powdered form of it, I can only move like ten metres my self, but I can reach one hundred if its just moving something small to me" he began to explain.

"And even if I move something just a few centimetres away from me it uses up all the dust, no matter how small it is, so it will cost a lot of money and gravity dust just to move someone from one city to the next" Willow began to think.

"How large were you're portions for the powder?"

About fifty milligrams" he quickly answered

"Does the effect dissipate if it's not used?"

"I don't think so, normally whenever I empower dust I do it on the spot when I need it, and I haven't really had the money to afford large amounts of crystals, I've still got about a dozen gravity dust capsules with fifty milligram in them and a single water dust crystal, but I don't know what effect that will have"

"Can other's even activate it?" She asked.

"N… actually I don't know" he muttered, having automatically assumed that due to it being his semblance only he could activate it.

"Would you be willing to let me test that for you then? Do you have the dust on you?"

Arthur blinked for a moment in consideration as he nodded and pulled his tome out, flipping it to the storage page and pulling out one of the gravity dust capsules, quickly filling it with his aura converting it to warp dust, "Here, just I would say bring something to yourself, don't try teleportation, I don't want to risk having you merge with the tree and become REALLY connected with it"

Willow shivered, "Can that actually happen?"

"Didn't happen to me, but I was being very careful, only starting teleportation after testing and getting used to it for awhile" he commented

"That makes sense" she replied, whilst beginning to think of what she could try to summon, and as if by fate, the curtain of willow sprays opened, showing her a wine bottle standing on the table where she and Arthur had drunk together earlier in the day.

Focusing on the wine bottle Willow opened her other hand, whilst pouring her aura into the warp dust, willing it bring the bottle to her, placing it in her hand, feeling her aura leave her body Willow blinked and heard a 'thunk' as something hit the ground next to her, blinking a few time her eyes wandered to the bottle of wine that she hadn't been able to catch in time, having not expected it to be so fast.

"It, it actually works" She muttered, the part of her that doubted the dust coming out in full force as it evaporated away, opening her hand she looked to the capsule, indeed seeing it was now empty, "Ha… hahaha!" She began to laugh in excitement.

"This is amazing! Perfect, if we can just figure out how to replicate this or maybe even grow it this, this could put even Jacques to shame!" she excitedly said, whilst Arthur lifted up the bottle of Atlesian red.9, the same that was in the glass he had torn away from Willow's hands, chuckling as he read it.

As Willow began to calm down, she turned back to Arthur, a spark in her eyes, "I will provide you as much dust as you need, just ask me and I will make sure to send it to you, it doesn't matter what type, just ask, I'll even give you the technique to combining dust together to make larger crystals" she smiled at him and took the bottle of wine from his hands.

"You don't have to" he tried to refuse.

"No I do, if we are going to be business partners I need to make sure that you get what you need, especially when you are the only one who can make this dust" she looked to him, "So, what do you say? Deal?" she was excited, beyond belief, feeling much more motivated after Arthur gave her a second chance.

He began to ponder for a few moments, dust was his largest problem in fighting, he no longer had dust to make disintegration or even bedrock dust, only the still unused water dust, looking to Willow, Arthur held out his hand and said, "Deal"

Yet Willow didn't raise her hand to solidify the deal, instead she popped the cork from the wine bottle, and placed it against her lips, tipping it up as she drank a bit before lowering it, Arthur thinking she was going for the shared drink form of deal, yet he was wrong again as Willow pushed the cork back into the bottle and began to stand up.

Arthur confused and unsure if she had accepted the deal was about to say something, but as he opened his mouth Willow took the opportunity and dived on top of his l.a.p, forcing her lips onto his, quickly opening them, Arthur soon feeling her tongue invading his mouth along with the burning sensation of the alcohol in the wine she was mouth feeding him at the back of his throat as he unconsciously began to drink it.

His hands travelling to her back, one on her hip while his other travelled behind her, gripping into her soft rear, Willow feeling his touch on her pulled her head away, her head moving next to his ear, "That's how I seal a deal, my door will be open to you whenever you want to collect you're 'thanks'" she chuckled and stood up, Arthur still sitting in the field of white tulips, wine dripping down his chin as he stared up at her in surprise.

"Don't look at me like that, I'm dying, and Jacques is abysmal when it comes to the more intimate parts of a relationship, plus, I haven't touched his bed in years, and, he isn't the most faithful of husbands, the maids can attest to that, remember, my doors are always open for you" She winked and walked away, quickly exiting the curtain of willow sprays, leaving Arthur dumbfounded.

"Did that… did I just? with a married woman?" Arthur began to question as he wiped his chin of wine, and seeing a slight blue tinge of lipstick on the back of his hand, "I wasn't imagining that" he mumbled

"Oh, you're shocked, like this is the first time, you should be happy, you just got fed wine mouth to mouth by a hot mom, the second one, give it another month and you'll have the other two" Ashe said, sounding frustrated with Arthur's constantly activate chick magnet.

"You're kidding right?" Arthur really hoped she was kidding, he knew he somehow caused this, but he was really not meaning to do it, it just happens, and no one apart from Ashe seemed to care, as Arthur just seemed to go with the flow and let things happen at their own pace.

Ashe just gave him a blank stare, "Arthur, you filled a tree that is literally connected to her with YOUR OWN AURA, and let it absorb it and transfer that to her, and this tree that seems connected to her emotionally has been awfully affectionate to you, haven't you noticed that?"

"So, why stop now, I'm honestly getting to be impressed at just how easily women come to you, so why stop now, might as well just take her for you're collection" Ashe shrugged.

"They are not a collection" Arthur tried his best to retort, "And she's Weiss's mother!"

"Ahem" Ashe cleared her throat, "Currently, you are in a relationship with every female of the Rose household as well as Yang, you obviously do not care about 'collecting' entire families apart from the men" She quickly shut him up.

"Might as well take another one" She sighed, "It's just a matter of time before Winter joins in"

"Why can't cant I retort to any of this…" Arthur w.h.i.n.ed

"Because, you know I'm right, and what is Ashe?" she asked

Arthur sighed, remembering the many movies and series they watched together where she would guess the plot the moment the main characters were introduced, even with brand new movies she was, "Always right" he mumbled.

"Exactly"

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Alternate Chapter names: [Feeding 'Medicine'] [Ashe is always right, and really damn annoying to watch things with] [The collection] [Double Entendre Title]

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Words: 2,790

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Polls

Next World (Runs until the end of the RWBY storyline)

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New Harem Poll as of chapter 121, the previous one is finished.

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If you do not see the character you would like please check out Akashic: the Tome chapter 2, it is linked in the synapsis on both and Royalroad.

If the character you would like is not on this list, and the poll, please comment it.

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