11 Chapter 11

-[Wynne]-

Sitting in his lab, he let out a frustrated sigh. He had made great progress with the creation of androids but that wasn't what bothered him.

From the time he first used his semblance, he'd been trying to recreate a glyph that he remembered seeing in a spin off of the original show.

Concentrating, a glyph appeared on the floor in front of him and below a box. He frowned in concentration as the glyph spun wildly.

Slowly, the box began sinking into the glyph. A victorious look appeared on his face for a moment before the glyph then began shimmering as the box was spat out, causing his expression to return to one of frustration.

Teleportation glyphs, an ability that he had seen Weiss perform in the spin-off. Technically, it was Negative Weiss who was much stronger but the point still stood.

He had almost gotten it but there was just something missing for him to get it to work. The feeling of being so close yet so far was a feeling that was frankly irritating.

'Raven has it easy. She doesn't even need to know where her target is. Her semblance takes care of it.' He thought in irritation as he turned to leave the lab before freezing.

"Wait a minute." He muttered under his breath.

It was like finding the key to a puzzle. The answer was so simple that it made him feel so stupid.

The process he had been attempting to use was to create a glyph that stored whatever he wanted to teleport and brought it back out at another glyph.

This time, he tried something different. Concentrating, another glyph appeared under the box. Thinking of a place in the manor, he chose his room as he tried to picture another glyph forming there.

Not just that, he tried to picture the glyph being connected to the glyph in front of him. Surprisingly, he felt something click inside him as the box quickly vanished into the glyph.

His eyes widened as he pulled out his scroll, accessing the camera he knew was in his room. To his surprise and amazement, the box was sitting on the floor, still in the same condition it left.

He couldn't stop the grin that surfaced on his face.

The feeling of success after months of trial and error was expectedly sweet. His celebration was cut short as his scroll rang.

Looking at the caller id, he frowned upon seeing that it was General Ironwood. Without too much thought, he declined the call, going back to using his new teleportation glyphs.

-[Later]-

As expected, more than a few of the staff in the manor were less than happy with the way Jacques treated them and no amount of kindness from him would change that.

Predictably, a good number of them wanted to leave and he didn't stop them. Those who stayed had their salaries raised by a decent amount.

Petty? Absolutely so.

Fortunately he expected it and was prepared accordingly.

With the Schnee funds at his disposal, it wasn't hard to buy the equipment he needed to make androids and with the dilation glyphs they barely took time to put together.

As he sat in his office, one of the androids held a vacuum cleaner, tidying up a particular dusty spot in the office.

Was it wasteful to use them as butlers? Partially yes but he needed to test their efficiency with mundane tasks if he wanted to achieve his goals. So far, they were doing very well.

They were also equipped with weapons so they could double as bodyguards. 'I'll need to work on making them appear more human. They'd be more effective if they could blend in.' He thought as he turned his attention to a demand for a supply of dust from the Atlas military.

He knew how Ironwood behaved. The man's pestering calls since he became CEO couldn't be any more annoying.

A knock on the door drew his attention as Klein's entered. "Master Wynne, your guest has arrived."

"Let her in." Wynne said as Klein opened the door for a short white haired woman to walk in.

The most glaring thing about her appearance was the pair of sheep ears that replaced her regular ears.

"Fiona Thyme, I've been expecting you. Please, have a seat." Wynne said in a polite manner, gesturing for her to take the seat opposite him.

"I'm sorry. I'm still surprised you wanted to see me, considering..." She said meekly, trailing off.

"You're free to speak your mind. I am aware of the situation between the SDC, Mantle and the faunus. That is one of the reasons I asked for you specifically." Wynne said as he relaxed in the seat.

Fiona was part of the Robyn Hill's Happy Huntresses group. Though Robin was the leader, she was too confrontational for him to discuss what he wanted without it turning into a one sided screaming match.

Fiona was the more level headed of the group. "I…I just didn't think I'd ever get to see what the inside of this place looked like. It's so…different from the places in Mantle."

"Well depending on how this meeting goes, it might not be your last time seeing it." He said, confusing her.

"So, what did you want to discuss?" She asked.

"Being a faunus yourself, I believe that you'd be able to connect more with the people of Mantle, specifically in the Crater." He said, causing her eyes to somewhat narrow.

"I'm not following." She said honestly.

He didn't doubt that Robyn would frown at her for that honesty.

"To get to the point, I want you to move the people living in the crater elsewhere." He summarized, causing her eyes to widen.

"What? Why?" She questioned, her tone getting a bit defensive, a change from her meek self.

Instead of answering, he pushed a stack of papers to her which she took, looking over them. As her eyes scanned the papers, they slowly widened as her attention shot back to him.

"What is this? Are you…serious?" She asked, shocked and in disbelief.

"It is exactly what it looks like. I have plans to renovate the Crater and make it more habitable for those who have nowhere to go, namely, its current inhabitants." He explained.

The crater was the location directly beneath Atlas, the slums of mantle where many poor Faunus lived at the edge of the borders.

Taking over a kingdom didn't need to be hostile. If you control the public and its opinion, you control the city. Money needed to be spent to make more money.

"And where will the people currently living there stay until then?" She asked, showing some back bone. "Even if you wanted to do this, it's impossible to find enough workers to do that in a short amount of time. Not to mention that the atlas council won't approve of so many resources being diverted to Mantle."

"While your concerns are valid, the Atlas council doesn't need to approve. The SDC will personally take care of the construction, meaning they can't oppose it without backlash." He said, not mentioning the unspoken fact that the SDC was almost untouchable due to its importance to the kingdom.

"As for where they'll stay until construction is complete…" he pushed another set of papers towards her. "I bought a few buildings and apartments in Mantle where they can settle in for the time being. All I need from your group is to handle the masses and supervise the construction."

Fiona was silent for a while as she digested everything he said. "Why are you doing this? What do you benefit from it?"

"I like to think I'm more sensible than my father and Ironwood. Floating in the sky or not, Mantle was once a part of Atlas. I can't simply turn away from their plight." He answered, watching the slightest changes in her expression.

"Robyn's more of a leader than I am. Why discuss this with me and not her?" She questioned once again.

"Because, as I'm sure you're aware, Robyn doesn't exactly have a good view of the SDC. You're the same but you're not screaming in my office or demanding anything by force." He explained simply, causing her to nod in understanding.

Even she knew that the conversation wouldn't have even gone halfway before Robyn did exactly that.

Getting to his feet, Wynne stretched out his hand to her. "So, do we have an agreement?" He asked.

Fiona took a moment to consider it before nodding her head and shaking his outstretched hand. "Deal."

Who needed human workers approved by the council when he could make worker androids who would work without needing sleep or food.

He only needed to make some changes to their programming as well as make a few more androids and they'd be ready to begin.

If he could turn the crater into something habitable, it would be a spot for more revenue. He had plans to make it even better than the other sectors of Mantle.

Depending on the success, it would be possible to expand the walls and in turn, the settlement. He'd probably have to think of a new name to call the place at that time but there was still a way till then.

He could only imagine Ironwood's face when he found out about this operation.