CHAPTER 39

RUBY ROSE POV

"Jaune. Are you okay?" she asked as she sat beside her friend who was looking in the distance with blank eyes.

He had been doing so for the past few days and she didn't like it.

She knew that something bad had happened to her friend but Jaune wasn't telling them what happened.

She hoped that he would tell her.

He was one of her few friends and she didn't want to lose him.

Jaune let out a tired sigh but didn't say anything.

He turned to look at her with a morose smile and ruffled her hair.

"Ruby, did you know that up until 80 years ago, the Faunus population was treated as slaves in Vacuo and Mistral?"

She frowned. She did remember reading something like that in the History book but it wasn't the main topic of the chapter and she had skimmed through most of it.

"I do." She lied convincingly "Why do you ask Jaune."

"Just curious." Jaune said as he looks toward where Pyrrha was sparring against Yang and Weiss, making it look like an adult was fighting two angry children. The sight was both hilarious and mind-blowing as it showed just how far above Pyrrha was when compared to them.

She stayed silent and Jaune continued to stare at the fight for a long moment before he spoke "If… Vacuo and Mistral still held Faunas as slaves to this day, then would you fight against them?"

There was an edge to his question and she knew that this question meant a lot to him for some reason even if she couldn't tell why.

So she gave an answer from her heart.

"Yes." She said with conviction "If they're abusing their slaves then I'll do my best to help free those Faunas."

Jaune nodded absentmindedly.

"But… what if the slaves loved their owner. And what if their owner treated them with love and care."

She frowned "If a person treats his Faunus slaves with love and care, then are they still his slave?"

Jaune shrugged "I don't know. Why don't you tell me Ruby"

She thought about it for a moment before she spoke "I… don't know either. But if the slaves love their master and the master also loves and cares for them in return, then I wouldn't want to take them away from him. Or her. That would just be pointless and cruel."

Jaune nodded, a small tug at the corner of his lips as he turned to her and mushed her hair once again.

"Hey!" she protested.

"You're so cute." Jaune said as he pulled her cheeks.

She gave him a mock scowl but that didn't stop the blush on her cheeks at his compliment.

She was not cute. She was a strong charismatic hero.

"Are you feeling better now Jaune?" she asked once he stopped pulling her cheeks.

He shrugged and gave her a smile "I've felt better but I'll make do. Thanks for looking after me Ruby."

She nodded back, feeling a bit embarrassed.

"I'll go join the spar." She said and quickly left using her semblance to move toward Pyrrha.

By the end of the spar, Pyrrha had once again defeated all three of them. But she believed that they at least managed to give her a challenge this time.

And she was happy that her talk with Jaune managed to bring him out of his funk. Whatever that had been about.

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AN: For people that believe that MC is angsting over useless stuff. I personally believe that enslaving someone against their desires is not something that can be done lightly.

Especially when you're not enslaving their body but their mind as well.

Most of the Waifu Catalog fanfics I've read gloss over this fact so that the MC could quickly get more waifus and so that the writer could get some smut scenes with them.

I'm not complaining. Not when I'm a big fan of those fanfics myself and love to read those smut scenes. But I do believe that I want to make this fanfic slightly more realistic than those fanfics.

So… this is what you have.

Please tell me what you feel about this chapter.

PS: While Writing this chapter, I forgot that Jaune has already bought the 'All Roads Lead to Home'. Don't worry, I'll correct this later on.