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“I don’t know any way I can truly and fully repay you for all you’ve done for this land. The bravery you showed out there in battle… the leadership you managed to show… I never would’ve expected it from someone like you.”
“I know one way you can pay me back, princess. While I care for all the people of this land, there was one person who always kept my spirits alive and kept me fighting.”
“Oh? I’m sure with my influence I could set up a marriage to anyone you desir-”
“It’s you, princess. Everyone loves to say you’re so snobby and pretentious… but I know the real you, the soft-”
“Blake, you’re reading out loud again.”
“Oh- I… My bad, Ruby.”
Blake seemed to have fallen into this habit lately, the more she got comfortable around her new team, the more she would slip into old habits, which included accidentally reading out loud when she got engrossed in one of her books.
“Blake, you know I don’t care when you do it, I just figured you would wanna know is all. Anyways, that story actually sounds fascinating . What is it?”
“Oh Ruby, you wouldn’t be interested in this. It’s a romance novel. It’s different from the fairy tales and action novels you like to read from time to time.”
While it was true that Ruby loved some classic fairy tales and adventures, she had started to think about her role as the unofficially official leader of her team. She needed to start being more mature for not only her sake but also for the sake of her team and her friends as a whole. And besides, she had started to think about how she felt about people, so learning more about romantic life couldn’t hurt anybody, could it?
“Well you haven’t steered me wrong yet when it comes to book recommendations, Blake, so if you have recommendations for good romance novels, then I would love to hear them all. I’d love to expand my book taste, and you’re the bookworm so lay it on me. One quick question, though. Romance novels… so basically like stories but with romance in them?”
“Sort of, but not exactly. It’s less with romance and more so about romance. Like sure, in most romance novels, there is other conflict within the story, but in romance novels specifically, the main drama is about two people and how they manage to, over time, fall in love with each other. When it gets written well, you can really feel the emotions tug at your heartstrings. You can feel the love, and you start craving that love, and just… ugh, now you have me going. Fine, I’ll give some recommendations. Like this one, Ruby, the one you heard me read. It’s called A Warrior’s Pledge . It’s about this fierce warrior who has to battle this overlord of their world, and while this noble warrior is figuring out how to conquer this beast with their friends, she pledges to protect this one princess’ kingdom. Over time, the warrior falls for that princess and pledges to theirself that they will return one day and make the princess their par-”
“Oh please, Blake.” Weiss snarked from across the room. “You can’t seriously feel the emotions from that. That is utterly ridiculous. An overlord? A warrior just falling in love with a princess? Do you really think that would even happen?”
“Sounds to me like the Ice Queen is mad that she hasn’t been wooed by anyone yet like the princesses in those books.” Yang said with a smirk, beating up her punching bag for Thursday’s Hand to Hand Combat midterm.
“Oh, you’re one to talk with the nicknames, meathead. I’ll have you know that my life in the Schnee family has been anything but perfect.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Did mommy not get you a pony until your 7th birthday when you wanted it for your 6th? Or maybe-”
Ruby and Blake just looked at each other and sighed. It was about that time where Yang and Weiss took playful jabs at each other until it ended up leading to little spurts once they took things too far. One day they’ll get over this.
“You wanna head out and I’ll start giving you some ideas for some works, Ruby?”
“Sounds good to me.”
As Ruby closed the door behind her, Blake immediately began to talk more and more about romance stories.
“So as I was going to say, maybe I should start you out with some of the classics before I begin showing you more modern works like this one. Like maybe I could show you some Shake-”
“Blake?”
“Yeah Ruby, what’s up?”
“Can I ask you for advice on something kinda personal?”
“Anything Ruby, what’s up?”