X.

"You found her!" Jiro-san wept openly. "I did not believe it could be done! The demon. He is truly gone?"

"Yes," Levy said quietly, watching as Riku took his mother inside. "You shouldn't have any more trouble."

"Bless you! Both of you."

"There's still something I don't understand," Gajeel said slowly. Levy looked up at him, eyebrows lifted, unsure of what he was going to say. He was staring at the old man grimly. "You said the demon prayed on women, but before your daughter was taken, it hadn't attacked for years." His gaze shifted momentarily to Levy. He looked pensive. "Fifteen, twenty years, maybe?"

Jiro-san's face grew serious. "How do you know-?"

"And it had been here before. In this house. Lots of times."

"How can you know that?"

"You don't have to answer those questions," Levy said quickly, sensing the old man's distress. "It doesn't matter!"

Jiro-san's tired eyes turned to look at her, and he smiled somewhat weakly.

"No, no, if anyone deserves to hear the truth, after what you have done for my family, it is you. Yes, I will tell you." He nodded his head, as though steeling his mind against the task. "My daughter you have seen is young to have a father as old as me," he laughed unhappily. "We had a son, many years before she was born, he was a good sweet child, but very sickly. He died younger than Riku is now. My wife was never the same afterwards. I brought her here, far away from our homeland, to help her forget. It did not work and often- oh very often I would hear her talking to a child. A boy, I think.

"There were rumours of a demon in these parts, but they seemed to fade away soon after we came here. I am a stupid old farmer, what did I know of anything important? I thought it would stop. I begged her to stop in the end, but no, it never did. She tried to hide it from me. Sometimes I would think he had gone away. You see, I realised, eventually, that it was not the grieving ramblings of an inconsolable mother. But what could I do? It helped her. I am sure it helped her in its own way. But you see, by doing nothing for so long I brought this terrible pain to my daughter."

"You weren't to know," Levy said, shaking her head, tears gathering in her own eyes. "You thought you were doing the right thing!"

"You are very kind, child. Your heart is tender. But your man, I think, knows I am to blame."

Levy's cheeks burned a fiery red, but Gajeel spoke before she could find the voice that had traitorously failed her.

"Blaming yourself won't change anything."

Jiro-san's sad smile returned. "But still, I think this burden is mine to carry." His eyes drifted to the road. "Ah, I see Saburo has returned from Onibus."

Levy looked around and started, her mouth dropped open. "The creepy ox cart man!" she squeaked.

She felt Gajeel's eyes turn to her in question, and blushed under his scrutiny. Meanwhile, the man that she had passed on the road from Onibus drove his ox and cart up to Jiro-san's small hut.

"I took your request to the guild, Jiro, but they said not to hold out much hope of anyone taking it for the piddling amount you're offering."

"How much are we getting paid?" Gajeel mused aloud.

Levy winced.

"Nothing," she informed him, before anyone else had a chance to speak. "We can't take the fee when the job wasn't given to Fairy Tail," she said calmly, ignoring the fact that a muscle was starting to twitch in his clenched jaw. "When we pass through Onibus on our way home we'll inform them that the job no longer exists, Jiro-san."