I was all alone in that dark forest. The surroundings was so dark that it looked like it was night time when it's in the afternoon. That time, I was only 9 years old. Hailberd Dragon, my foster dragon who taught Ice Dragon Slaying Magic left me by myself after I passed his exams. Not knowing what to do, I wandered around aimlessly, trying to find him. I called out to his name, searched around every cave and such, but no scales can be found. How did he vanished so suddenly without leaving any trace? I was lonely and sad. It's been two days since I found water to drink. I can't melt my own ice to make water since I can't consume my own magic. I kept on walking straight, hoping to find a way out or I can see Hailberd again.
Then, light entered my eyes. It's a small streak of light, like the tiny little hope I had left to survive in this lifeless forest. I used up my leftover energy and ran towards it. Finally, I made it out from the forest. The sun was so warm it felt like paradise. I collapsed on the ground as I didn't sleep for the last two days... But, someone walked past and saw me.
When I woke up, I was in a room, lying on a bed. The bed was so soft I don't want to get up. In the end, I got up because of curiosity. I saw a man wearing a black suit standing next to the door. Then I realized I was wearing a white shirt and black long pants.
"Ah, I see you're awake. Good morning." the old man greeted me. I greeted him.
"Where am I?" I asked. He gave me an answer:
"You're now in the Sarashiki's family mansion. The elder princess found you outside of the backyard."
"I see, thank you for taking care of me all this time." I walked out from the room.
As soon as I opened the door of the room, I saw a girl running towards me. She stopped right in front of me.
"Hah, hah, I... see.. your.. awake!" she tried to catch her breath while talking to me,
"Yeah, who are you?" I asked.
"Forgive me for being so rude. I'm Sarashiki Tatenashi, nice to meet you!" she smiled and reached her hand out, gesturing for a handshake. This girl is not a normal girl. How can she smile so casually in front of a stranger she just met? I'm speechless and never knew how to react or respond... I still can't believe what happened. This is the first time I interact with people after living with Hailberd for so long. Are all people like that?
"Nice... to...meet...you! I'm...Zane, Zane Jullian." I shuddered and introduced myself. A man walked towards us. He had a gentle smile while having a tall and broad posture. Based on that and the aura of strong-will and stern he gives out, I'm guessing he is the head of this family.
"Ah, you're awake. I'm Shoichiro Sarashiki, the current head of the Sarashiki family." He greeted me.
"So you met my daughter already, did you met her little sister?" He asked. Wait, so the girl that I just talked to is the daughter of the head? And she has a little sister too?
Anyway, why do I care about this so much? I'm not staying at here anyway.
"No, I haven't met her. Thank you so much for letting me staying in here, now excuse me." I walked past them and tried to find an exit. In front of me was a long hallway that stretches to a human's vision limit. And that hallway has multiple branches to other hallways and a few other doorstop other rooms. It's like the forest where I escaped from! How am I supposed to get out from here?
"Wait! Why can't you stay here?" She asked.
"I need to find Hailberd, an ice dragon who taught me Dragon Slayer Magic." I explained. Tatenashi-san gasped but the father doesn't believe me. I showed him my blue white flames.
"Feel free to touch it, it's not hot at all." I said. Tatenashi-san really went and put her hand in the flames. She believed me? How can she be so open to a stranger?
"Wow! It doesn't feel hot at all, it's cold!" She exclaimed in excitement, fascinated by the flame that she never saw before. I extinguished the flames.
"Anyway, I'm leaving. Once again, thank you for letting me to rest here." I continued walking, hoping no one will stop me now...
'Wait!' The man called out to me this time. Haizz...
He told me that he is the head of the Defense Department from this city and he never heard of a dragon roaming around here.
"Thank you for the information. I'll search for him in some other place then."
"Sorry to burst your bubble, but i think dragons are already extinct. You won't be able to find your dragon anymore."
"You're wrong. I just saw Hailberd two days ago! He disappeared the next day. He might still be around here!" I got emotional.
"Even so, dragons can fly and they could probably cross half of the continent within these two days."
I silenced down and realised his words make sense. Probably Hailberd already left me. Why did he left me? What have I done to deserve this? I still have much more to learn from him and I still want to be with him!
"Then how about this? You can stay with us here while you look for your dragon."
"Yeah yeah! Stay here with us! It'll be great!" Tatenashi-san gleefully smiled.
I want to help out as much as possible. I need to do something to repay for their kindness.
"How about taking care of my children and be friends with them?" Shoichiro suggested.
I disagreed. That's just like doing nothing at all!
"How about taking care of the kids and help out the maids?" He tried again.
Well, it's better so I agreed with it.
Now that I think about it, I was really a kid back then...
After that, I met Tatenashi-san's little sister, Sarashiki Kanzashi. At first, it was really hard for me to open up to them as I kept avoiding them. I was quite unsociable and selfish. I wanted to help out as much as I could around the mansion but I was too reckless and never knew how to do things the right way.
Cleaning the plates? I ended up breaking more plates than the plates I cleaned.
Trimming the garden? I almost sliced the bushes into grass and the tree looked like a shrub after I done my "trimming".
But both of the sisters and everyone else in the mansion were patient enough to be friends with me. I'm glad to met them. Slowly, I began talking to Tatenashi-san and Kanzashi-chan and learned more about them. They were also curious about my magic and who was Hailberd. I don't go to school with them but I always went to pick them up after school. I worked as their butler but they treated me as their friends. In the end, I gave up my role as their butler and opened up to them as their friends. They were my only same age friends. Most of the time when they are at school, I helped out the maids with their work. They were very kind and forgave me when I make mistakes. The rest of the time were used up to sharpen my magic. Most of the time I had a hard time since I don't have a guide to practice. I always ended up bruising myself and made Tatenashi-san and Kanzashi-chan worry.
Usually after picking up them from school, I had lunch with them. After that, they do their homework while teaching me the stuff they learned in school. Both of them were really good teachers. I did learn how to write simple words and letters from Hailberd but whatever they learned in school is a whole new level to me. It's like I'm living in a whole new world, everything I knew previously was just barely the surface of how this world works. The society, lifestyle, economy and much more works differently the way I imagined it. To understand more of this world, soon I picked up the habit of reading. Anyway, I'm really thankful to both of them for helping me. If we had spare time before dinner, we always played together at the backyard.
Tatenashi-san's father worked as a head of the Defense Department in this city. He manages the attacks of pirates, bad organization and dangerous threats in the city. Her uncle worked as a businessman that manufactures weapons for her father. That job inspired Kanzashi-chan to build stuff. Since then, Kanzashi-chan always build weird stuff and we tested it together. Most of them were failures but both Tatenashi-san and I were still happy to help her out. I always be amazed at her creations since I couldn't handle machines at all.
I remembered that when Kanzashi-chan wanted to tried a vacumn cleaner that could clean ceilings by using remote control. There was a little wiring problem so the machine can't fly properly. It went on a berserk and was heading straight towards Tatenashi-san. Tatenashi-san ran towards left, trying to dodge it but it's still chasing after her like a homing device. I quickly pulled her away but I accidentally tripped. We both fell down and Tatenashi-san landed right on me. We were so close to each other... We blushed and she got off me while thanking me for saving her. That was one awkward moment. Luckily the machine ram the wall, nearly passed through our heads and broke down.
At 11, Tatenashi-san wanted to learn magic. She wanted to be like me who's able to use magic and she thinks someone who could use magic is really strong. At first both her parents disagreed with her, but I supported Tatenashi-san and believed she could handle and utilise her magic well. I even told her parents that I will look after her and make sure she never did anything reckless. With them finally agreed on letting Tatenashi-san to learn magic, Shoichiro-sama implanted a Water Dragon Slayer lacrima inside Tatenashi-san. This made her a Mage, a Dragon Slayer in fact. I always wondered how did Shoichiro-sama got his hands on such rare lacrima. Then he hired a old man to train us. It was then I found a way to control my ice powers. I learned Ice Make. Tatenashi-san got Msyteltainn from her father and her Mather gave her an Aqua Crystal as a good luck charm. We trained together for a long time.
Until I'm 12, I took on a mission gave by her father. To capture pirates. Everyone who went on the task were giving bad looks at first since they thought a kid like me can't handle jobs like these. But, I used that aspect to my advantage. I was able to ambush the pirates head on and rounded up the pirates quickly. Since then, I helped her father to carry out important missions. Tatenashi-san also wanted to partake in these tasks, but Shoichiro-sama won't let Tatenashi-san join me since it's dangerous.
I learned about Extort in a mission. They were trying to take over the city. I was sent to prevent their investigation about this city. After they were stopped, they took even bigger actions but every time Sarashiki's got it under control. They later became nemesis. Sometimes I was afraid that they will attack Tatenashi-san and Kanzashi-chan. I was always kept a tight eye on them. Even I had that in my mind, I couldn't prevent it from happening.
One day, Tatenashi-san went out to meet her friends. I was following them secretly. Soon Tatenashi-san spotted me and asked me to join them and I took up the offer. All of them were girls and I'm the only boy there, so it was quite awkward for me. I almost let my guard down. Later on, they went to a busy street. It was so crowded that Tatenashi-san got separated with them. I was with her but suddenly I lost sight of her. I rushed through the crowd and saw Tatenashi-san's crepe on the floor. It was in an small alley. I followed it and it lead me to an abandoned factory. It was empty but I could hear footsteps. I walked into the factory. What I saw was Tatenashi-san tied up while her mouth sealed and a bunch of tough-looking guys with Extort's logo on their uniforms. These guys are totally a different league from those I used to fight. Summer, one of the Seasons who then spotted me made an offer. Bring those guys to the Sarashiki's mansion and they let go Tatenashi-san. They promised that they will only bring 5 people and swore never to attack the place. If not, Tatenashi-san is going to be killed. I wanted to retaliate but there were too many soldiers with them. I decided to take a risky move. I accepted their offer.
Five of them including Summer grabbed Tatenashi-san and I showed them to the mansion. But on the way, I shot a beacon and signaled the guards in the mansion. They came out and tried to help but my idea failed because I was tricked. The Extort brought their assault squad and many more soldiers. I quickly rescued Tatenashi-san and we retreated. A battle was going on in front of the mansion. We were outnumbered. Extort stormed into the mansion. The only thing I can do is save Tatenashi-san and Kanzashi-chan. I forced them to hide in the woods and I left them to fight with the others. However, I lost and without any choice, quickly I ran out for help. After a while I couldn't hold out anymore and I collapsed...
When I woke up, I was in a hospital bed. The nurse told me the news. The Sarashiki's mansion was destroyed and the forest nearby was burned down. There were no survivors except me, the one who ran out from the mansion. I was so disappointed at myself. How can I destroy the family that saved me years ago? Why did I even let them go near the mansion? I don't have the right to do it, isn't it? I'm such a moron, a useless kid that can do nothing but bring disaster. I went out the hospital quickly, tears in my eyes hoping to see a miracle. It was fruitless. There was only a piece of burned land with nothing left but ashes.
I lost everything again. But this time, it all happened because of me. I went out of the city after this, wandered around the continent. I don't want to make any more friends. I rather go solo. To get a living, I joined a guild, Fairy Tail. Their main members were lost in the Tenrohira Island and they were in a big debt from other guilds. I took on their quests while secretly worked for the Coucil to earn extra living and learn more about Extort. Soon, I was promoted to a S-rank Mage after 6 months. We joined the Grand Magic Games but we lost. It was a dark moment for Fairy Tail too.
After a while, I collected enough money to rent a small apartment. This is my new life now
