I do not own any Type-Moon and Fairy Tail characters. All rights reserved to their own respective owners and creators.
PROLOGUE
Year X764
"Hey, are you gonna stare at my products or are you going to buy something?"
The bald and aged shopkeeper complained, boredom evident on his face. A man that was nearing the later years of his life, the vendor flipped another page from a book that he was reading while his aging eyes adorned with aiding bifocals stared at the young brunette in front of him.
The brown-haired man wore a dark-brown haori with mint green accents that ran from his upper back, his neck and down to his midriff, a plain long-sleeved white shirt under the haori, a blue choker around his neck, white long pants on his legs, and white unlaced shoes for his feet.
"I was hoping to find something that I can use for my tinkering hobby." The man replied, his hands browsing among the accessories on the display shelves.
The old retailer's brow raised a bit when he saw a familiar red stamp on the stranger's right hand.
"So you're a wizard from Fairy Tail?" asked the shopkeeper.
The brunette in question only responded with a nod as he reached for the hidden pocket underneath his haori. The old merchant for his part stared at the man claiming to be a Fairy Tail wizard. If he had to be honest, the brunette, with his overall appearance screams "plain" for his taste. He was sure that this wasn't the infamous Gildarts Clive, he had already seen that so-called womanizing bastard in person once and he was a handsome fellow.
Not to mention that man radiated a presence of power and masculinity as far as his memory served him right. Of course, most of the mages that he had seen in his lifetime give off the same presence and feeling.
This guy on the other hand... was the opposite of that. He doesn't have that same presence as the mages he had encountered in the past. If he could put it into words, the brunette was just your "Average Joe" trope that is disseminated in every fiction works and novels scattered around the literary scene.
He was just like that.
Plain and mediocre.
"How much are these?"
"One thousand Jewels each."
The brunette couldn't help but be slightly baffled by the price of such items. After all, a price worth of 1,000 Jewels is equal to one big meal that most restaurants in Magnolia have in their respective menu.
"Eh... Is there any discount?" The brunette tried to barter for the price though seeing how stubborn the old man was, he just sighed in defeat before handing the corresponding payment.
With the cash in hand, the shopkeeper chirped with glee as he placed his profit of the day inside his cash register.
"I wonder," started the old merchant as he eyed the brunette for the second time. "Why does a mage from an infamous guild such as yourself is here in some backwater settlement like Rosemary Village?"
Rosemary Village is a simple, tiny rural village located somewhere on the southwest of Margaret Town, one of Fiore's largest settlement within the country. While the clustered district pales in comparison to most villages scattered within Margaret Town, its ambiance of simplicity and peacefulness made it a lovely place where one could settle for retirement.
"Just sight-seeing before going to my mission."
As the man said those words, his brown orbs then looked towards the distance. Seeing the mage's gaze at a distant mountain ranges, the old merchant couldn't help but let out a sigh while scratching the side of his temple.
"Are you people still on that?"
"You know about it, Mr. Shopkeeper?"
The man in question just only huffed as he walked near the window of his shop, eyes staring at the visible mountains.
"Of course I know." The old man began. "Stories of an elusive dragon that resides and slumbers deep within those mountains. A tale that was passed down from generations among the populace of Rosemary. You better turn back now, young mage. Just like the ones before you who tried to take such task, you won't be able to find it. It's just a myth."
The mage in question was about to reason out when the dissonance of ringing bells surfaced the entire village. This sudden abrupt of peaceful ambiance caught his and the merchant's attention.
"Tch." The shopkeeper cursed between his teeth as he grabbed a broomstick before exiting from his store. "Bandits."
"Bandits?"
The brown-haired mage asked as he followed the aged retailer outside. He then saw the villagers - parents grabbing their children - hastily running for their homes and locking the doors and windows shut. Now that he witness all of the commotion happening around him, he noticed that the numbers of men within the settlement were quite insufficient for a community like Rosemary.
In addition to that, ever since arriving at the simple village he never saw even a single male and female teenager roaming the streets of Rosemary, unlike most villages he had visited in the past. He already had an inkling of what caused such lack of teenage presence in such tiny community.
"You noticed it right?"
"Yes. This is quite alarming." The brunette replied. "Is this a recurring scene in Rosemary?"
The old man nodded his head.
"As for our youth... the females were sold as sex slaves while the males were sold as labor slaves. Because mages from Margaret Town rarely visit this village let alone the Kingdom's knights, thugs like them gained the attitude to do whatever they want to us. "
The old man spat with distaste as he pointed his fingers forward. The mage then traced the elder's extremity to where it was nib at and saw a group of ten men wearing shady outfits a few meters away. All of them were brandishing weapons ranging from knives, cleavers, to swords out in the open as if they own the entire place. Some of them began to dismantle wooden wagons with kicks while others were shouting like drunk people wanting to mess someone that strikes their ire.
The brown-haired man could discern that the weapons that these goons have were infused with Lacrimas, he could tell just from a glance. He then reached a piece of cloth from within his haori and wrapped it around his right hand, concealing the Fairy Tail mark on purpose.
One of the goons, a guy with a rainbow-colored mohawk hair and a piercing on his nostrils, walked forward and slam his bat weapon on the ground. Sparks of electricity can be seen spewing from the blunt metal as it pulverizes the earth underneath it.
"Yo, old man! We're here to collect the new batch of products and also to gain some new bed-warmers. Ain't that right, guys?"
Snickers and mocking sneers were the response of men standing beside him.
The old merchant's grip on his broom tightened as he gritted his teeth in anger. He was about to step forward when a hand on his left shoulder stopped him.
"You..."
"I got this covered Mr. Shopkeeper." The mage spoke as he stepped forward in front of the old retailer. "I alone, am enough."
Hearing his words, the bandits gazed at the man then at each other for a moment before one of them spoke up.
"Eh? That puny guy will fight us? BWAHAHAHA!"
"What a joke!"
Laughter erupted along the ruined streets of Rosemary as the gangster tapped their stomachs with glee, finding his declaration a sort of amusement that can only be found in circus or entertainment circles.
"You don't have to do this…." The old shopkeeper wanted to add some more in his words but couldn't continue as he saw "Plain Guy" with a determined look. In an instant, he felt a sudden change of demeanor from the man.
"Hehe..." The guy with the mohawk sneered as he slammed his club against the ground, making a loud thud. "Beat that puny guy to a pulp, boys!"
At the same time, as the roars of battlecry echoed, the once ridiculed as a puny guy walked forward.
His lips moved as he whispered a word under his breath.
Liuhu Quan
"Chinese Martial Arts"
The first guy glanced at his chin with a wide swing. The goon raised a brow in surprise when his flaming metal bat landed on the mage's right forearm, noticing that the guy didn't budge or grunted in pain, though, when a sudden punch doubled him over and expelled the last bit of choked air from his beer-weighted belly.
He fell to the ground with his face first. Unconscious. The metal bat bent at a 90-degree angle.
The second attack came, this time coming from a skinny person with tattoos all over his body and knuckles coated with pure brass. "Plain Guy" stepped one foot back while leaning to the right side in a slight backward motion just in time to avoid an uppercut aiming for his lower jaw. The goon cocked his offhand hand, a right hook in the making, but it fell to manifest when he finds himself spinning in the air sideways before an aching push invaded his abdomen.
CRASH!
The guy slammed against one of the house's brick wall with his back facing it, horizontally.
The third goon engaged him with his dagger. He countered the guy's thrust with his left hand, deflecting it before giving him a quick snap from a right elbow strike on his left jaw. The sound of cracked bones came prevalent before the person prostrated himself on the ground, eyes almost went backside on his eyeballs.
The fourth and fifth assaults conjured, both with knives raised in a high manner: a double cleaver. "Plain Guy" smoothly blocked the fifth's attack with a left elbow strike to the goon's back arm while kicking the knee of the fourth at the same time, allowing him to dodge the fourth guy's offensive dramatically. Pulling the arm of the fifth, he pushed him down to the floor with a sideward tug before knocking the sense out of the guy with a single downward elbow thrust directly on his back.
He then sent a quick, crisp kick to the now kneeling fourth goon. The force caused the poor fellow to be blown away before skidding to the pavement.
"You bitch!"
"Plain Guy" evaded the attack coming from his blindside with a perfectly timed no hands front flip, his right hindfoot delivering a power jab on the sixth attacker's temple causing said man to drop on the floor in the process. When both of his feet landed on the ground, he saw himself being pincered between the seventh and eighth's timed attack, their magic steel rods almost bent with extreme force.
Then the powerful strike came. Only he dodged it perfectly with a duck, resulting both offenders to smash their skulls with one another's blow. The two goons staggered for a bit before falling to the ground. As "Plain Guy" rose up from his kneeling position, he glanced at the ninth individual who was shaking. He gave him a look at the guy who let out a girly shriek and scooted away from the scene.
Only for him to stumble forward when an overspeeding piece of rock hit the back of his head which was sent by "Plain Guy" himself with a kick from the dusty ground.
Seeing his comrade fell down, rage began to seethe in the leader's teeth at the sudden turn of events. His eyes then glanced at the "Puny Guy" who, for adding more salt to his injured ego, fixed his dark-brown haori with a calm look.
"You…little…" The leader with a mohawk took a lurching step forward with each word. On the third, he swung, "Punk!"
The blow felt too sluggish. "Plain Guy" knew the second the guy launched it. With his left hand, he caught the blurring metal and then delivered a powerful yet quick right elbow uppercut.
CLICK!
The sound of his upper and lower rows of teeth making unplanned contact sickened the leader. Still, the leader kept his feet. He had to. The drawback, his mind went black.
"Plain Guy" could only dusted his haori, unperturbed as the unconscious man flopped to the ground. The goons were still lucky though, he wasn't even using half of his strength and if he did, he was very sure of himself that none of them will breathe after this.
His brown orbs then noticed several people from their respective houses, all of them were peeking directly from the gaps of their doors and windows. Slowly the villagers went out from their hiding place one by one, their eyes fixated on him. Even the old merchant was staring at him with his mouth slightly agape and his eyes somewhat amazed at what he just witnessed moments ago.
Moments later, the whole village of Rosemary erupted in celebration.