Ludwig,
I know how you feel about coming to live with me and my girlfriend but I personally believe that Magnolia no longer holds anything for us anymore. Mother and Father aren't coming back, they're gone. Have been since the day Loke save us from the house fire. I also know that since you found Mother's keys that you've been on a witch hunt to find out which dark guild sent the attack on our family home… if you really want to move on from this then it's time to officially let go of our parents, there's a perfectly good school here in Clover Town that you can go to in order to continue your studies instead of that guild. Loke warned us to remain hidden and that we needed to be on our guard, that's why he left you Mother's summoning keys. Please, little brother, come home.
Lucas D.
Ludwig read the letter five times while he hid in the guild's library. He had been down here multiple times since he received it last month. The seventeen-year-old didn't know how his brother managed to find him but thankfully he sent some jewels with the parchment, most likely for a train ticket. He ran his right hand through his star spiked bangs while his left hand held onto the paper. Ludwig's eyes looked over books that he must of red over a thousand times now and not one of them could explain to him who could've attacked his parents the night of the fight when the sound of a woman clearing her throat caused the blonde to jump in his skin. He looked up to find the one and only Erza Scarlet firmly in place in front of him with her arms crossed over her chest. Her brown eyes spoke to his own brown ones,
"Luke, so this is where you ran off to," is what she said before holding an arm out to him not noticing the water that had begun to form in his orbs, "Decided to skip training today, huh?"
Ludwig felt a slight tinge of guilt to Erza's use of his false name he gave everyone when he returned to Magnolia. He took her armored hand and rose to his feet. Ludwig blinked away the water in his eyes before he shoved the money and letter his brother had sent into the front pocket of his blue jeans. Letting go of Erza's hand the seventeen-year-old quickly apologized before he saluted her,
"Of course not, I just got distracted by… an old friend, nothing serious just more of his complaining about me leaving Bosco," was all he could say and he knew better than to lie to his parents' old guild but what choice did he have?
Coming clean about who he really was would only slow down his search about what happened that night of the fire. The two of them quickly left the guild's library with the promise that Ludwig would train extra hard today. Once they were in the guild hall the blonde quickly had to duck in order to avoid a table to the face. Esmeralda stood by the door frame leading to the training room, she wore a black fitting tee shirt and a pair of black pants that were tucked into her white knee armored boots. She nodded to her mother before she disappeared into the room to prepare. Ludwig adjusted small white band that held up his mini ponytail. His brother always hated how Ludwig would trim his bangs and the back of his head yet would cut the top short along with the sides but the blonde didn't care, he was tired of following his brother's rules. Part of the reason why he left Clover Town.
Once all three of the mages where in the room Erza made sure to shut the door before she turned around to face the two young ones. This wasn't their first spar together, in fact, Erza remembers when young Luke requested to spar with Esmeralda. At first Erza laughed-on, the inside-and told him, no, then he asked if he could train him to fight. She agreed the third time he asked, it was something in his eyes the third time. The way they burned. It was like something struck her. The scarlet-haired mage watched as Luke stripped off his black jacket with white fur around the cuffs and hood to reveal a white shirt with a thick blue cross on the front and back. Even the boy's appeal seemed familiar to her. Esmeralda gave a friendly nod to her spar partner as they both took up their stances. Today was hand to hand combat, Luke appeared to do fairly well in that category. Erza raised her hand after she walked to the sidelines. With an open hand, she sliced it downward,
"Go!" she yelled to signal the beginning of the match.
Two hours. That's how long the first match lasted in which case Esmeralda didn't even break a sweat, Ludwig was panting softly as he held his arms up to block a high kick from the scarlet hair woman in front of him. His white sneakers dug into the hard packed dirt underneath him. He was proud of himself, he managed to get one good strike in before he got his ass handed to him. Ludwig was going to sport a good few bruises tomorrow but at least he was able to forget about his brother for a few hours. The blonde ducked under a punch before he threw his own, Esmeralda caught his fist-twisted it-before she pulled him forward and kneed him in the chest with enough power to force him to swirl in the air and land on his side. He scoffed as his body connected to the dirt.
He turned his head over to find Esmeralda with her right hand held out towards him. Ludwig gladly, even if painfully, took her hand. She pulled him onto her feet with a smirk on her face. Esmeralda said something about how he was getting braver for trying a direct attack. He was about to reply when a knock came onto the training room door. Erza made her way over to it as the two made small talk. When she returned she placed a handed a piece of paper over to her daughter,
"A job came up in a mountain range not far from here, take Nashi and Gideon with you. Seems there's a problem with people suddenly disappearing as they travel along a certain path," is all she said before she walked away to file the paperwork for the job request.
That's when it suddenly clicked in Ludwig's brain. Rent was going to be due next week and his brother only sent enough for a train ticket. He was going to need to find a job for himself. Maybe Mirajane could hook him like again or else he was going to have to find some other way of earning jewels for his rent… unless
"The mountains huh, sounds like it could be fun!" Ludwig said in his friendliest voice he could muster up.
Esmeralda looked up from the job request with a raised eyebrow. She smirked before she shook her head 'no' and walked out. Ludwig's smile faltered into a sigh while his shoulders fell. There went that idea. The blonde made his way out of the room, through the guild hall and then right through the front doors. Fairy Tail. The only lead he had to anything connected to his parents anymore. He thought about what would happen if he came clean to his fellow guildmates or at least he hoped that Erza would accept him as a guild member. Ludwig stopped in his tracks when he remembered that he forgot to grab a job from Mirajane. She was kind enough to at least allow him to take small jobs in order to get by.
Turning on his heels the boy wandered back into the guild just as a young woman with pink hair and blue eyes ran by following along with a young man with dark blue hair. They seemed to be in a hurry. When he turned around he found that a light blue cat with a green tee shirt was waiting next to Esmeralda who was now in a slim-fitting outfit of a black sleeveless shirt padded with metal along with a matching pair of pants and boots. The pink haired girl wore a pair of fitting blue jeans, sandals and a purple tank top that hugged her chest while showing her stomach. The boy wore a dark blue tee shirt with a pair of black pants and black boots. He was the only one to turn around to lock his light blue eyes with Ludwig's. The two boys held eyes for a second before the blonde scoffed and went inside the guild for his job.
A big sigh came from his mouth at the flyer that the white-haired mage handed to him. It was a job that paid just enough to maybe bring him halfway to his rent. He knew that being the type of mage that he was that the larger jobs would need a partner. Ludwig now understood how his mother felt when she talked about her jobs in the past. Mirajane smiled at the boy who finished his strawberry shake and filled her in on that problem he was currently facing. She felt bad for the kid but he did remind her of a certain Celestial Wizard who was no longer with them. The woman sighed before she pulled out another flyer… could he do this job though? The thought entered her mind as she looked it over. There was no name written down, just a reward, a town, and a small description of the job. There wasn't even a power level ranked with it. Surely he had to have some type of power in order to be in a guild yet he has displayed no magic, maybe he was just shy about it. It was that thought that pushed her toward her next decision.
Ludwig felt a tug on his jacket that forced him to look up at the mage before him. She handed him a flyer with a finger up to her mouth. The blonde looked down at the flyer that read, "Unknown Artifact that's affecting the water supply and killing those who drink from it, 50,000 Jewels,". Ludwig felt his smile return as he quickly gave Mirajane a hug before he rushed out of the guild hall. This job would be enough to cover his rent for the next month! That would buy him some more time to allow him to search for those responsible for his parents.
With a new fire in his step, Ludwig busted into his small apartment. It was one bedroom with a small bathroom, the kitchen and bedroom was practically one room with only a half wall to separate the two. He quickly threw open his closet. The flyer said that the area was a village in the mountains but that the water supply came from a cave system located in the mountains. Ludwig grabbed his heavier white pea coat to throw into his white mini bag along with his black mid-thigh winter boots with white fur around the top in a thick layer. He was about to leave when he stopped in front of his desk for on top of the worn gray wood sat a keyring with all fifteen of his mother's Celestial Spirits. Something deep inside him screamed to grab his mother's keys, just in case. He walked over to the chair that held a brown leather belt with a brown leather box to carry the keys in. Ludwig swallowed his pride before he snatched both the keys and belt.
Once outside, the belt looped around his waist the box full of keys located on his right hip, the blonde looked at the flyer in his hands his bag packed and firmly on its place between his shoulder blades. His body whined a little bit as he began his journey to the train station. A whine that he fully ignored for it would most likely just slow him down if he paid too much attention to it and he didn't have the time to rest up. The job was one of the biggest he's taken since he came to Magnolia in search of answers.