I don't know why I never appreciate the sunset until now. It's beautiful.
Maybe it's because I never took the time to appreciate it before, maybe it's because I can finally open my heart to fill in the sights of the world now that I had my revenge. Just like with the many other things in this life, I don't know the reason why, but I don't think I need a reason.
It's best to just live in the present for now. Not everything needs to be answered.
It's been three years since I've left Meredy in Fairy Tail. From what I've last heard, she's doing well. That's all the comfort I need. At the very least, she's the one thing that I had done right. She's the one person that I managed to muster the courage to save during my time in Grimoire Heart.
She's proof that I had done some good for the world, she's proof that I'm not a heartless monster that I feared I will become in my obsessive quest for revenge.
Defeating Hades was an uphill, nearly impossible task. He's more than a century old and he had forgotten more magic than I had learnt. I have no delusions that I can defeat him in a head-on fight. There's no way someone as powerful and experienced like him will lose to a guy who only had slightly more than a decade worth of experience in using magic. The only way for me to even have a chance to fight him on an even ground is to catch him unaware and destroy the Devil's Heart before confronting him. There are no better alternatives. Even then, it will be hard to bring him down. I know he will have countermeasures in the case the Devil's Heart was compromised and I was proven right when he is still able to use magic on the level of an upper tier S Class mage despite the handicap. I wasn't planning to die when I faced him, but I wasn't expecting to come out of it alive and unscathed either. I know better than anyone how strong Hades truly is, he's someone on the level of a Wizard Saint, a level of power that I'm nowhere near in achieving yet. I even prepared several suicide moves in case things went horribly wrong although by some stroke of luck, I didn't even come close to using it. The only dangerous spell I have to use is Odin's Gungnir, a spell that is only good for one use, and I managed to pull it off without any drawbacks. I'm lucky as hell.
On hindsight, it felt good to come out of the entire incident alive even if the price for it is by sacrificing the functionality of my left arm. In my original plans, if I survived Hades I will do my best to get Meredy out of Tenrou Island asap. I had originally planned to hop onto Fairy Tail's ship together with their entire group since according to my calculations, we were supposed to have an abundance of time before Acnologia arrived, but his untimely arrival forced me to invoke Apollo's Chariot, a spell which I'm still not ready to use without repercussions. I didn't want to use Apollo Chariot due to the cost of invoking it, but Acnologia appeared sooner than expected and I was left without a choice. I could just teleport with Meredy out with my own powers, but I was drained of magic after my fight with Hades and I'm not confident that I can successfully bring Meredy to safety in that condition. Hence, I made use of Meredy's magic to borrow the magic powers of the entire Fairy Tail group to bail us out of there knowing full well that I might die as a result. The cost of using Apollo's Chariot on such a big group is steep, and that's not factoring in the amount of magic required to cast it. I need something else on top of it, something costly enough to temporarily tap into the powers of a god to get everyone out of there. The only thing I can pay for its successful use is my life.
Somehow, that didn't happen, and I'm not going to question the outcome.
I still don't understand why Acnologia appeared so soon. When I was first planning for revenge against Hades, I knew that Tenrou Island would be a possible battleground and a good location to have my revenge due to my foreknowledge of what goes on in that particular arc. I had searched through the guild's archives on information of both Zeref's and Acnologia's historical sightings. For whatever reasons that remained unknown, Aconologia tend to appear after Zeref was sighted, and using the historical differences in timings of their appearance throughout the centuries, I calculated and narrowed down the possible amount of time Meredy and I have to get out of Tenrou Island before that dragon arrived. Even then, Acnologia still appeared earlier than expected.
I went on an endless journey after leaving Meredy in Fairy Tail's capable hands. Without revenge driving me on and without having a need to keep a constant lookout for Meredy's well-being, I simply wandered around the country with no clear goal in mind. Initially, it was just simple travelling as I try to find a new purpose in life and I helped whoever I came across as long as it is within my power to do so, but another problem soon surfaced.
I needed money. Travelling is something that consumes money, I cannot continue travelling without any source of income.
It was just some simple bandits at first, I didn't really care who I apprehended as long as they are guilty of evil deeds and they fetch me enough money so that I don't starve. For obvious reasons, I cannot show my face in public, and so I bought a mask from a random stand in a dingy marketplace with a visage of a skull painted on it.
No particular reason why I chose that particular mask, I picked it because it just felt right.
And partly because the other masks on sale were too ugly looking.
The staffs stationed at the bounty stations had taken to referring me as 'Skull' since I declined to give my real name and I'm too lazy to think of another alias to go by. It was from there that I spotted the numerous bounty posters hanging in the lobby of the bounty station.
There are so many dark mages and criminals out there still roaming the lands and getting away scot-free with their crimes. Some of their crimes are horrendous, with the annihilation of remote towns and villages being the most commonly committed crimes. That's not including torture, inhumane cultists rituals, illegal experiments, rape, and a whole plethora of hideous deeds that was written on their bounty posters. These dark mages aren't even that strong if I have to compare them to the capabilities of an average mage in Fiore, so why are these scums still out there and unapprehended?! Some of the posters are even a few years old!
I know most of these criminals from my time as a spymaster but I never really bothered to check on them since revenge was all I cared about previously. It's different now. Now that I had my revenge, it's like a veil has been lifted from my eyes. I can see clearer.
These scums need to be put down. If no one else is taking the initiative to cull them, I will. I have nothing else to do and nothing else to lose. I might as well use my remaining time in this world to do some good for the innocents who are only trying their best to live their lives like a proper human being.
Most of the settlements that these dark mages like to target are often remotely located in some rural area of the country where mages from the nearby towns rarely visit, let alone the Rune Knights. It's because of this that thugs and ruffians gained the cocky attitude to do whatever they want to the defenseless people.
Like how Hades did to my hometown, Azalea.
I'm determined to not let anymore settlements like Azalea fall prey to the viciousness of rampant dark mages. I don't want another version of me running around trying to get revenge on their families' killer and ruin their whole lives as a result. For that end, I dedicated all my time into this self-imposed mission and it brought about results, results that the Magic Council and the Kingdom should have been performing if they did their job in the first place. It's not even that hard to achieve. If a wanted criminal like me can take out numerous dark mages and dark guilds by my lonesome while being on the run, what excuse do they have?
My quest in apprehending dangerous dark mages soon became my new purpose in life as I journeyed around the country using my previous skills as a spymaster to track and ultimately bring them down. I didn't kill any of them, death is too kind a mercy. I will just beat them half to death and then send them to the warm embrace of the cold prison cell where they will be locked up when I turned them in to the bounty stations. My actions had caused me to gain quite a reputation among the populace which was quite unexpected, but I managed to lose any curious individuals that tried to follow me around. There are times where the Magic Council had asked for my help in bringing down certain dark guilds or individual dark mages and I took on every single request since I had nothing better to do.
Tracking these dark mages down often bring me to the rural settlements that had little to no protection against external threats. Sure, the people there can deal with a group of bandit or two on their own, but a dark mage with no qualms on killing? These innocent folks are unable to use magic, they are lucky if they leave with their lives intact and their limbs still attached.
After passing through several of those settlements, I noticed how rundown and behind they are in their economic development and their overall security. I can help take care of a few dark mages for them, but will I be there to help out if another one turns up? I can only be in one place at any one time, I cannot protect them forever. Me helping to deal with the ruffians that made their lives miserable for them is only a temporary solution, I need a more permanent solution so that no one will mess with them again. I need to make them to be able to stand on their own and fight back. I need to teach them how to protect themselves.
Like the saying goes, give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.
If no one else is willing to attempt this arduous task, then I will do it. I don't want anymore places to suffer the same fate as Azalea simply because they don't know how to defend themselves.
The most immediate problem is once again, money. To solve this issue, I chased after the more dangerous criminals with bounties that fetched a higher reward and I rarely rested as I continued my hunt that brought me across the country. The end result is that I accumulated a huge sum of money that is good enough to serve as capital to help me in my new project.
Teaching the locals of the settlements I'd been to on how to protect themselves is not the only thing I have to worry about. I need money for everything. Money makes the world go round. As long as the people don't have the required economic strength to support themselves, then they will never be truly safe no matter how much I teach them. Poverty can bring out the worst in people and I don't want them to turn on themselves for the sake of survival even before the dark mages got their clutches on them.
And so, I have to find ways to bring the economic strength of the settlements I'd been to up to par with the more developed ones in the country. I'm not expecting them to transform into another Crocus, but at least they can live their lives respectably without fearing for their lives every single waking day and earn a little more money to make their lives a little more comfortable. Somehow, I succeeded. I also managed to set up schools and for some of the places I'd been to, I even managed to set up hospitals, which is a rarity given how primitive this world is in their technology without the presence of magic.
I still cannot believe that I managed to achieve all of that.
The moment my job in one settlement is done, I always leave immediately to travel to the next place I know that needs help. I will ask the locals to help me keep my movements a secret from anyone else that isn't part of their little community, which they happily complied. If anyone else asked, their towns and villages prospered because they worked hard for it with minimal help of my own, which isn't a lie, since none of the accomplishments we achieved together would not be possible if it wasn't for their hard work. If anyone else asked where I had disappeared to, they will reply by saying that I disappear in the dead of the night and nobody had a clue. Most of them don't understand why I wanted any traces of my stay to be erased and I didn't bother explaining. The lesser they know about the real me, the better. I don't care about the recognition of the good deeds I had done. I'm just happy that for once, I'm finally doing something meaningful with my life, something that does not have anything to do with revenge.
Another bonus for me is that I can now truly get to go out and see the world, a dream that Ria once had. We promised that we will go out to see the world together. She's gone now, but that is no excuse for me to not go through on our promise now that I have the time for it.
I will let her see the world through her own eye I implanted into my head. This world is imperfect with many evils lurking in unseen corners, but I won't deny that it is beautiful as well. We will see the world together.
Ria would have loved it.
Ultear had approached me sometime back with the offer to join the independent guild she founded with Jellal, Crime Sorciere. I turned them down. While I am glad that Ultear had decided to become a better person, I still don't fully trust her. I don't have a specific reason for my distrust other than having a bad gut feeling about her due to seeing her vicious side back at Grimoire Heart for so many years. Our goals don't exactly align with each other as well. The only similarity Crime Sorciere and I shared is that we both take down dark guilds and mages to better the world and to redeem ourselves for the sins we committed, but ultimately, Crime Sorciere's objectives is focused on destroying anything related to Zeref while mine is to help as many defenseless settlements as I can.
Seeing that both parties cannot come to a common ground, we parted amicably. I still won't call Ultear a friend, but at least she's now an acquaintance that I know I can call for help if I really need it. She's a reliable ally that I can work with if the going gets tough. I'm cool with Jellal as well. He's a little antisocial but is still a nice guy to spend time with.
I pulled my cape closer around my body as I walked through the town that I'm currently helping. There's someone, or a group of someones, that is persistently on my trail for nearly two months now. That person(s) is good, I will admit that much. No matter how much I purposely changed course or throw them off my trail they will still be onto my tracks whenever I traveled around the country apprehending criminals and cashing in their bounties to raise funds for the town I'm currently helping. That's saying something about their skills since I was the spymaster of a dark guild that used to be part of the Balam Alliance. I'm good at what I do.
Maybe I should meet them, just to satisfy my curiosity of just who is capable enough to be able to follow me for so long.
Zancrow really didn't change much.
Ok, maybe that's not the best description of Zancrow Meredy can think of. Appearance wise, Zancrow did change. From what little she can see from her vantage point, he had cut his hair short with a slope haircut and a shorter top as well, making him a lot more neater as compared to his previously disheveled look with his messy long hair he sported three years ago. His entire left arm is covered in bandages and hanged limply by his side. Like the rumours said, Zancrow is wearing a hooded cape and had a mask with a skull design painted on it covering his face but even from afar, Meredy can recognise that it is Zancrow at first glance.
Tracking Zancrow down hadn't been easy even with the help Master Makarov had provided for Meredy. By the time Meredy had reached the stated coordinates, Zancrow had already moved on to his next destination and Meredy had to follow whatever little traces that was left. There are times she have to decide the most likely places Zancrow might go based on her knowledge about his habits and preferences. She was lucky that she managed to track him down like that with sheer guesswork and luck.
Meredy looked from afar behind a tree at the lone figure sitting by the riverbank located in an isolated rural town in the north of Fiore. Zancrow's back is facing Meredy as he watched the sunset from where he is. Meredy had found Zancrow walking through the town by chance and followed him discreetly, leading them to their current location.
She has been watching him from afar secretly for close to half an hour now.
"Come out, Meredy. I know it's you."
Meredy blinked in surprise, but then again it shouldn't be a surprise. Zancrow's senses are accurately sharp. She had never managed to sneak up to Zancrow undetected before, which was her favourite game when she was still a kid. To encourage Meredy to learn how to conceal her presence at an early age, Zancrow had turned their stealth lessons into some sort of game where she will try to sneak up to him and she can try whenever she wants to as long she gave a minimum of five tries a week. Needless to say, she never succeeded once, but Zancrow did reward her with her favourite sweets for every improvement she showed.
Some things still remained the same after all these years.
Meredy appeared from behind the cedar tree where she was hiding and made her way to Zancrow. She had a ton of things to say to him, but found herself not knowing what to say upon meeting him.
Zancrow took down his hood and mask as Meredy sat down by his side and for the first time in three long years, Meredy took a good look at the person that she had been pining for.
Zancrow's haircut was the most obvious change given that his hair is a lot more shorter and neater. Thanks to Hades, there is now a scar running down vertically from his eyebrow to the cheek level across his right eye -his sister's eye- which he now used in replacement of the eye he lost in his battle against Hades. If Meredy were to attempt an educated guess, he probably wanted to fulfill his sister's wish to travel the world by letting her see the vast lands of Fiore with her own eye. Zancrow is sentimental and sweet like that. His left arm remained eerily still and covered in bandages, Meredy didn't even see the fingers on his left arm twitch.
The damage to his left arm must have been very extensive. It looked as if the entire burnt portion of Zancrow's left arm had lost its functionality.
"Huh, you grew prettier."
Meredy blushed briefly at that statement although she felt quite pleased with herself. Puberty had been kind to her. She had grown taller and her body had grew out curves. Unlike Zancrow, she had let her hair grew out down to the middle of the back with a wavy ponytail. She still wear her earmuffs, although she had switched the original wing-like yellow ones with a set of dark brown normal looking ones. The women in Fairy Tail had also very gleefully gave her a very detailed course on fashion sense and educated her on how to dress, how to apply makeup, and basically anything to make her prettier and more beautiful, saying that she will be turning heads after their lessons.
Personally, Meredy felt that they just want a victim to dress up to their heart's content. She shivered slightly at the memory, that had not been a pleasant experience for her. The only bright side was that Wendy was dragged into the mess with her as well so she did not suffer alone.
Meredy fiddled the end of her dress a little. Other than the hooded cape that she wore out of habit whenever she went out for missions (Zancrow did not want her to be identified by anyone as a member of a dark guild so he was very adamant on keeping her face covered from everyone else on her missions back at their time in Grimoire Heart, and the practice had became an ingrained habit after awhile.), her usual outfit now is a red dress with golden trims with a golden belt around her waist. She also now wear black colour stockings with brown boots. The dress has a deep neckline, showing off her ample cleavage. She still remembered how embarrassed she was when the females of the guild paraded her around in this revealing outfit after they had finished dressing her in it at the end of five painful hours with them. Regardless, she admitted that she felt pleased with herself when she saw how the males in the guild were unable to take their eyes off her, some of them even have massive nosebleeds.
Meredy have to acknowledge that the ladies in the guild do have pretty good fashion sense despite the horror they had put her through.
Meredy decided to give her new appearance a try and found herself enjoying the confidence her makeover brought her. Many people had complimented on how beautiful she looked but to her, only the compliment of one person matters.
Smiling cheekily, Meredy stood up and twirled on the spot before resting her hands on her hips.
"How about it? Do you like my new look?"
Zancrow gave a soft laugh as he replied. "You are certainly more confident now. Fairy Tail has been good for you, I'm glad that I decided to send you there. There's only a small problem." Zancrow walked up to her and pulled her cape over her chest, covering her body. "I don't know what the ladies in your guild taught you, but I don't want you to go and expose so much skin on your chest area for the whole damn world to see."
What is with that comment?! Is that a compliment or not? All she wanted to hear him say are something along the lines of "Yes, you look nice, Meredy." or "I like your new look." Was that so hard?!
Meredy blushed a little at how close they currently are and felt a little hot. Strange, it's not the first time that they are in close contact with each other, but she didn't feel so hot and bothered previously. Zancrow seemed to notice that as well.
"Why is your face so flushed? Are you sick?" He placed the back of his right hand on her forehead to check her body temperature. "Hmm... you seem to be alright. At least I don't think you are suffering from a fever. Maybe it's because of the hot and dry weather here? Remember to hydrate yourself, you aren't a kid anymore."
Meredy nodded timidly at Zancrow's words as he lectured her, another action that she did out of habit. It is how he expressed his concern for her, even if he was a lot stricter and stern when he was taking care of her when she was younger. Meredy felt a little warm fuzzy feeling at the depths of her heart. She is glad. Zancrow and her might have been separated for three years and some things had changed. Even then, their care and concern for each other didn't diminish.
Or maybe it did change. Meredy isn't very sure herself, but she felt that they had grown closer to each other even if they did not have any contact with each other during these three long years. Maybe Zancrow's solidarity journey had done him some good as well. He is a lot more relaxed and the guilt on his shoulders had visibly lessen. There is noticeably less anger in his heart. He is smiling, albeit it is a very small smile that is near unnoticeable unless you know him very well, but it is a smile nonetheless. The Zancrow from before rarely smiled.
Unless he gave in to his bloodlust from his God Slayer magic and entered a berserker state during battle. The psychotic smile he gave during these times is a clear warning for those around him to back off and run away as far as possible if you want to live to see the next day.
"Come on, let's go. I have no idea how you tracked me down, I was very thorough in covering my tracks. You are obviously tired. We will get you something to eat, then you will go and sleep. You can bombard me with whatever questions you have the next day. I won't disappear without warning this time, I promise. So just go and get some rest."
Zancrow put his mask and hood back on and Meredy followed suit by pulling her own hood over her head. Without warning, Zancrow grabbed onto Meredy's wrist and dragged her along with him. Meredy can't help but blush involuntarily at the close contact. Why is she blushing? Why is her heart beating so fast?!
"...redy. Meredy. You ok?"
Meredy was brought back to reality at Zancrow's words as she sputtered to reply.
"Y-Yes! Um... Where are we going?"
Zancrow gave a very unimpressed look through his mask as he sighed and proceeded to continue dragging her along.
"You are obviously not listening. Never mind. You haven't found a place to stay for the night, right? Then you are coming to my place. You might be sick if you are this unresponsive and I don't want to leave you alone like this. You are usually very alert to your surroundings."
Meredy wanted to retort, but stopped short when Zancrow lifted her up with a single arm to carry her in a piggy-back style before walking off to wherever he is bringing her to. Meredy rested her head on Zancrow's back, reminiscing on the times when Zancrow will carry her in this exact way back to her room when she collapsed from exhaustion after training when she was a lot younger.
It's not like I'm not alert to my surroundings. I'm only like this when you are around. Meredy rebuked in the confines of her mind.
I'm only so relaxed around you because I know you will always protect me whenever we are together. Dummy.
In the end Meredy didn't have the heart to ask Zancrow why he left her in Fairy Tail all alone. Was there a point in asking that when they both knew the answer to it? Being in Fairy Tail had been good for Meredy, the both of them knew it. Zancrow always made the correct choice when it comes to her.
The both of them had a silent breakfast similar to how they enjoyed each other's company back at Grimoire Heart. Despite not being a part of that guild anymore, there are still so many habits that both of that retained when it comes to spending time together. Meredy did get curious as to what Zancrow did duing these three years and so she asked him. Zancrow merely smirked and brought her around the small town they were at for some sightseeing. Meredy was surprised and awestruck upon learning at what Zancrow had accomplished as she walked around the town with him.
The rumours she heard didn't have the entire truth about Zancrow's deeds. He did way more than just destroying dark guilds around the country.
Zancrow helped the townsfolk to churn out ideas on how to grow their economy. He imparted them knowledge, knowledge on how to defend themselves and how to create medicines from the wild herbs found in the area among other things. He also helped to build schools, hospitals, and the necessary infrastructures to keep the town running and help develop the town so that the people living in it can improve their standard of living and quality of life. Most of the change is possible thanks to the funding from the huge sum of reward money Zancrow donated to the town he got from the completion of the numerous job requests from the council to exterminate dark guilds or apprehend dark mages. He took the bare minimum to allow him to get by and donated the rest. Due to his actions, the people in this town loved Zancrow, worshiped him even. The men felt a sense of honour working alongside him, the ladies sang praises of him, and the children idolised him. Zancrow not only get rid of their dark guild problem thereby allowing them to live a life not cowering in fear, he had voluntarily stayed behind to help them rebuild their wrecked town.
To them, he is a hero.
This is the ninth town that Zancrow had helped. It had become a routine of sorts for him. He will get rid of dark guilds by request of the Magic Council or hunt for the bounties of dangerous dark mages under the alias of Skull. If he happens to see any towns that are in need of help, he will stay behind to help them. The entire rebuilding efforts usually lasts for somewhere between one to three months, although there are some which needed an even longer period of time, and when Zancrow is sure that the town can operate without him around, he disappears and search for the next town that is in need of help.
Meredy thinks that it is a noble thing to do. Many mages from legal guilds have no problems lending a helping hand to get rid of a dark guild problem that plague a town or city, some even do it for free if the problem is serious enough, like Fairy Tail and their allied guilds, for instance. But Meredy had not seen a single mage who will voluntarily stay back and invest a large amount of time to help with the rebuilding process like what Zancrow had done.
Meredy finally had a glimpse of what Zancrow had been doing on his journey of redemption.
"Skull-nii! Skull-nii!"
A bunch of children ran up to them with wooden masks over their faces. The masks have black and white paint messily painted on it in an attempt to recreate the skull design that Zancrow had on his mask. What the children had painted is nowhere alike the mask that Zancrow wore, but Meredy found it cute that these children are emulating Zancrow.
"Hey kiddos." Zancrow replied as he ruffled the hair on the top of their heads fondly with his working arm. "Is it your recess break?"
"Yeah!" One of the boys exclaimed. "We were telling the rest of the kids in school how we saw you fighting off those bad guys!" The excited boy began to take a stance that Meredy knew all too well while another two boys began to act as the 'bad guys'. "The bad guys were fighting like this..." The two boys posing as bad guys began to act menacingly but it made them so much cuter, in Meredy's opinion, and she struggled not to laugh at their cute little performance. "And then you went on to fight them!" The boy narrating the story began to mimic the stance Zancrow took to use one of his spell, Fire God's Kagutsuchi, before rushing in to punch and kick at the air towards the direction of the 'bad guys'. "Then it was like KAPOW! BOOM! BANG! And so much fire! Then the bad guys were defeated!" On cue, the two 'bad guys' fall dramatically onto the ground and lay motionless there. The rest of the kids who had gathered around gave a round of applause, which Meredy did as well while laughing out. They are too cute!
Scratch that, they are absolutely adorable.
"A very descriptive narration and a stunning performance." Zancrow replied dryly from behind his mask. Meredy is sure that he had mixed in some sarcasm in there but the kids are too young to pick it out.
"Skull-nii! Skull-nii! Show us your magic! It's pretty!" One of the girls shouted in excitement as she bounced on her feet.
"Fire isn't pretty, Juliet. Never play with fire, do you understand?" Zancrow suddenly got into his 'lecture mode' and looked at the little girl sternly.
"But your fire doesn't burn us!" Another little girl argued back as the entire group of children began to riot.
"Well, if you want pretty, this onee-chan here-" Zancrow suddenly put a hand on Meredy's shoulder and placed her in between him and the kids. "-have a way prettier magic. Anyone want to see pretty magical swords?"
"YEAH!"
With that simple move, Zancrow effectively transferred the kids' attention onto Meredy. Meredy fixed a glare on him, but Zancrow pretended not to notice as he looked elsewhere.
Zancrow is not going to be of any help here, is he?
Resigning herself to her fate to being the kids' entertainer for the day, Meredy created teal magic blades with Maguilty Sodom and made the swords danced in the air for the kids to see. The kids' excited yelps and shouts soon attracted the nearby townsfolk and they all went to spectate the performance, forming a small crowd around her. To conclude the performance, Meredy sent a few rays of Maguilty Rays into the air that exploded in a fantastic show of light and curtsied to the crowd.
"So pretty!"
"More! More!"
The kids were nigh uncontrollable now as they were excited to see another form of magic that they didn't know of. From what Zancrow told her, this town don't have any mages nor are they under the protection of a mage guild. The town's location is also too far away for the Rune Knights to protect them effectively. While magic is a common occurrence for the townsfolk thanks to lacrimas, seeing magic being performed by mages is a rare sight for them. It was the lack of presence of legal mages or the Rune Knights that this town was often plagued by dark guilds until Zancrow came.
To the kids' dismay, the large bell hanging at the top of their clock tower rung out, signaling the end of the recess break for the kids.
"Alright kids, your break's over. Get back to your lessons now. Shoo, shoo." Zancrow said as he playfully wave a dismissive gesture at the group of kids.
"Skull-nii!" The group of kids chorused out.
"Skull-sama is right." A middle-aged man with round glasses appeared with a stern look on his face. He is obviously the teacher of the bunch of rambunctious kids. "Get back to class now, all of you. You can bother Skull-sama and his lady friend another day."
With a collective groan, the group of kids dragged themselves towards the huge hut at the far end of town which Meredy assumed is the school building with the teacher trailing after them at the back. The little boy who acted as Zancrow in their earlier performance sneaked back to Zancrow and Meredy without the knowledge of his teacher, much to their concealed amusement.
"Yes, Tommy?"
"Just checking, is this onee-chan your..." Tommy let his sentence hang there as he stuck out his pinky finger on his right hand and curled the rest of his other fingers inwards towards his palm. "...this?"
Meredy visibly blushed but there were no visible reactions from Zancrow. If there is, the mask did a good job to prevent it from showing on his face.
"Tommy. You have five seconds."
"Aww! Come on! Skull-nii!"
"Four."
"Pleaseeee. Just a hint! Yes or No?!"
"Two."
"You skipped three! Is it a Yes or a No?!"
"One."
"I'm going! I'm going!"
With speed Meredy will never expect the boy to possess, Tommy ran back to catch up with his friends who were on their way back to school.
"Ignore them." Zancrow spoke out as he walked towards the town hall with Meredy falling in step with him. "The kids obviously don't know what they were saying. Don't let it bother you too much. The townsfolk have been very eager to pair me up with someone for some unknown reason when they knew that I'm still single."
"I-I know." Meredy squeaked out a reply as she tried to regain her composure. For some reason, that innocent question from the boy sparked out a massive reaction from her, much to her confusion. She can't help but keep thinking on a particular thought that had crept up in her mind.
Why was she hoping that Zancrow said 'Yes'?
AN: The act of raising only your pinky finger in Japanese culture is the meaning of a man's wife, girlfriend, mistress, or even possibly all three. Fairy Tail is written by a Japanese with obvious references to their culture in the manga so I guess it is plausible that the act of raising only your pinky finger in the Fairy Tail world holds the same meaning as well.
I really hoped that I had managed to capture the transition of both Zancrow's and Meredy's characters properly and that I had written enough to explain the reasons for the changes without sounding like I'm being long-winded. Meredy also now have a crush on Zancrow as well, even if she doesn't realise it yet. Many will argue that the age gap between the both of them is too big but hey, Meredy is now 16 and Zancrow is only seven years older than her at 23. I know that there is a sizable number of NaWen fans out there in the FF community and NaWen has the same age gap of seven years. If people can ship these two without feeling anything wrong about it, I suppose having a possible Zancrow and Meredy pairing isn't too farfetched as well. Of course, right now it is a one-sided crush on Meredy's part. Zancrow had been, and is still a big part of her life and they only had each other for more than half their lives, I don't think it is a ridiculous notion that she will develop feelings of romantic affections for him. Whether they will ultimately come together remains to be seen.
I hope that you enjoy the story thus far.
