Disclaimers: I do not own Fairy Tail, Dungeons and Dragons, or Pathfinder.
A/N: So personal life has been a bitch but I'm getting things done. I have about three more chapters to release after this one but they will come later on within a reasonable time frame.
I would like to thank Tenryu no hoko for helping me with this chapter. Go check out their stories when you have the chance.
Also that a look at "Wild Master" and "Elemental Spirit Mage" when you have the chance.
Please leave a Fav, Follow, or Review if you want.
Mayor Tupode
Romeo has a creed.
It was a dishonorable one by the standards of modern Fiore's society but a creed nonetheless. He believed that anyone who was willing to fight him on even grounds was an idiot and deserve what they got. They were an even bigger one if they thought he was going to find them like that.
In other words, he did not believe in a fair fight.
The very concept of it did not exist for the hellsoul. It never has throughout the years he spent growing up in the southside. The boy has never had a problem using his enhanced abilities against the not so gifted average brawlers he would face in the streets. The way he saw it, you would be a fool to not use whatever advantage you had over your opponent. This also included being creative in finding an opening that could make the fight all the easier for you. That meant striking wounds, using the environment, even going as far as gouging eyes, and those were just the basics in his book.
So when the two identical men with orange hair and black eyes came running out of the forest at him, each with a pair of sai in their hands, Romeo was already reaching for the ground and pulling up a handful of dirt. As soon as the twins were close enough he threw it directly in their eyes, bringing their attack to a halt.
"Ah! What the hell?!", they both said simultaneously as they go to rub their eyes.
This left them wide open to Romeo who seized the opportunity with a dropkick to the guy on the left's gut which sent him backward into a tree and right to the ground right next to Rayule.
Romeo then turns around and leaped in the air to perform a spin kick directly to the other twin's face and soon he too found himself flying into a tree and landing on the ground.
"Wow, I have faced bottom-of-the-barrel street thugs and rookie city guards who put up more of a fight", Romeo says, "Seriously, you guys can't do better?"
That was when a thought occurred to the hellsoul.
"Wait a minute, I heard three different sets of footsteps approaching. Where's the other-"
"Sand Explosion!", as a magic seal appeared underneath the two teenagers and both of them find themselves being lifted off the ground and thrown into the air by a large amount of pressure. Romeo crashes into a few branches before hitting the ground, though the impact does little to him other than annoy him. Instead, he was mainly focused on what exactly he was suddenly covered in and as he spits it out of his mouth he is surprised at exactly what it is.
"Sand?", he says as he notices that the entire area of the forest was blanketed in it, "Where the hell did all this come from?"
"It must have been a Sand Mage that surprised us", Wendy says from her position up in a tree, "Though I don't see them anymore so they must have escaped."
"Oh, that's just wonderful", Romeo grumbles as he got up, "On top of everything else that has been going on today, now I got sand stuck in my shoes."
"Eisenwald? I swear I heard that name somewhere before", Wendy spoke as she jumps out of the tree and landed in front of Romeo, "I think Erza was talking about them one time."
"Who's Erza again?", Romeo questions as he gets the last of the sand out of his shoes
"She is the red-hair girl at the guild."
"The one who walks around with only the upper half of her armor like an idiot?", Romeo says only to received a look from Wendy, "What?"
"That is not a very nice thing to say about her."
"It's not a very smart thing to walk around with half a set of armor either", Romeo counters, "If you're going to wear armor, you either wear the whole thing or not at all, it's not something you half-ass."
"She can summon more when she is fighting if it is necessary", Wendy points out.
"If she can do that then what's the point of casually wearing the upper half of the armor all the time then? I've heard of fashion statements before but that's taking it a little too far ", Romeo counters, "If anything, it's her showing off a high level of cockiness. She is basically saying that she's so fast and powerful that no one can touch her exposed body even if they go after it. That sort of attitude gets you killed in the southside."
Wendy stares at Romeo for a moment before speaking, "Anyway, let's catch up with Eria and Ferris", and with that, the two of them continue on the path that we're on, though this time they were more aware of their surroundings.
Meanwhile, Rayule was fleeing through the forest as fast as he can with twins, one being supported by the other, and a small dark gray skin being hot on his tail.
"What the hell happen back there?", the creature said, "All three of you were getting beaten by a bunch of kids?"
"Shut it, Snarl! Those kids just caught us off-guard with how powerful they were, especially the boy!", Rayule snaps back, "It will be different next time I run into him!"
"You better hope the boss is willing to give you a next time!", Snarl replies, "You know how he feels about failure! Plus we weren't even supposed to be here in the first place!"
"Let me handle that!", Rayule growls as the group race deeper and deeper into the forest, constantly looking behind them to make sure they weren't being followed.
Back in Magnolia.
"This is a joke, right? You can't be serious about this", Macao tells Makarov. The man just got back from the city hall and he was not in the mood for jokes after having to deal with the mayor and the captain of the guard.
"I am completely serious about this. Your son is going to be here for quite some time, possibly years. I think you should extend the invitation for him to join the guild while he is here. Might do him so good in the long run. A place where he can let out on that pent-up frustration he has", the elderly Wizard Saint replies as the two men walked from the guild hall to a more private location out near the forest line.
"But...he's a hellsoul", Macao says, unable to believe what he was hearing.
"And your son", Makarov thinks, "Yes, I am fully aware of that. What seems to be the problem?"
"But...there's no law that says that a hellsoul can join a magic guild", Macao argues.
"I have yet to see a law in Fiore that says they can't either", Makarov counters, "Besides, all hellsouls can perform fire magic if I recall correctly so he meets the requirements to join."
Macao starts to rub the back of his neck, "I'm not sure everyone in the guild is going to take too kindly to this."
"Oh?", Makarov says, "I thought it was only the guild master's call who can and cannot join. I didn't know it was a guild's decision. Did that change while I was gone?"
The fourth guild master lets out a sigh, "No, no it didn't. But it will no doubt cause some problems."
"I knew that there would be problems when I let Gajeel and Juvia join the guild, but everyone quickly got over it. I'm sure, in time, everyone will learn to get along. Besides, Wendy seems to have taken a liking to your son almost immediately."
"That seems to be a source of conflict in and of itself", Macao mumbles, "But how will the Magic Council respond?"
"You let me deal with them. Besides, I'm not asking you to ask Romeo to join the minute he comes back. Give it a little awhile and see how things play out", Makarov says, "Besides, the guild could use some new blood to shake things up."
"If you say so", Macao says though in the back of his mind, "This will not end well for the guild. Luckily, I happen to know the one person who can probably talk him out of this idea."
Deep in the forest near Mulay Village
It was an exceptional large cave entrance that was connected to a system that circumvented all through the local mountain, hidden deep in the woods east of Mulay Village.
Standing at the entrance of it were two gruff looking men, one on each side with swords at their hips ready to be used at a moment's notice.
"What do you think the boss is going to do to those Eisenwald fellows?", the one on the left asks.
"You know how he gets when people don't follow orders. No one was supposed to go near the village unless the boss says so, but those idiots went anyway and look where it got them", the one on the right said, "But to be honest, if it wasn't for the boss sending one of those mercenaries to keep an eye on them, they probably would have gotten away with it."
"Yeah, too bad that didn't happen. Oh well, you never know. He might be in a good mood and maybe he'll let them off easy", right before they heard the sound of a punch connecting with flesh echo from the cave, "Or maybe not."
Rayule falls to his knees, clutching his gut. The twins and Snarl rush from behind to help him, gathering around him and making sure he was okay.
"Argh!", Rayule screams out as he warily looks up at two men who were staring down at him.
The shorter of the two was dress in a light tunic of Far Eastern design with a high collar while wearing loose dark pants. The only hair he had on his head was in the back tie-up in braids that reach all the way down to the middle of his back. In his left hand was an oversize frying pan which Rayule had seen him used with great efficiency and deadly effect.
"Hmph, it seems I was right, dear brother", the man said as he stares in disgust at Rayule and his comrades through his black eyes, "Sending you to keep an eye on these rats was indeed a good idea".
Rayule turns his attention to the much taller, and yet surprisingly the younger, man on his left who was dress in a more cultural dark blue sweatshirt with light blue pants and had his hair arrange in a way that gave him four distinctive puffs protruding outward in opposite on top of his head while being held in place with a bandanna and he too stares down at the mages, his blue eyes filled with contempt.
"It was easy enough to follow them undetected, brother", the man said, "These vermin never once suspect that I was nearby watching them get defeated by mere children."
"Come now, Jun, Daisuke", a voice says from the shadow, "Surely the Vanish Brothers did not expect lowly men of their caliber to follow orders, now did you?"
Rayule grits his teeth and directs his head to the source of the voice, coming from the space between the so-called Vanish Brothers.
"Why, if it was not for the fact that the four of them aided me in my escape from that appalling prison, I never would have brought them into my employment, but I did make a promise to them", the man continue to speaks as he steps out into the light of the torches which circulated the central cavern, "So let it be known that I am nothing if not a man of my word, boyoyo."
Short and plump with an ugly curled mustache would best describe the man dressed in a formal black suit, complete with a white collared shirt, a blue necktie, and dark blue boots. In the back of his mind, Rayule sometimes wondered how a man with such skinny arms and legs was able to move so quickly, especially with his unique style of Earth Magic which allow him to borrow through the ground but such matters were best left alone, especially now.
"Boyoyo!", the man laughed, a nauseating noise that reverberated throughout the cave, "Even from such a lowly dark guild like Eisenwald, I expected more from you mages. Perhaps I was mistaken to include you in my plans."
"Hey!", the older twin shouted, "We have been most of the legwork of this operation! More than the thugs you hired from Haregon Town and definitely more than the Vanish Brothers!"
"You tell them, Josh!", Snarl agrees, "We have been pulling all the weight around here while everyone else just sits on their asses!"
"The only reason we even went to the village was that we figure we could speed the process up by going to the direct source!", Michael, the other twin, bellows out.
"Hmph", Jun chuckles as he brings his frying pan over the top of his head, "It would seem the pups would try to bite the very hand that feeds them."
"Then maybe we should show them what happens when one goes beyond their station", Daisuke suggests.
"Hmm, as much as I would enjoy seeing that we might have bigger problems on our hands", Everlue stops them. He then looked over his shoulder behind and spoke "Tell us what you know."
Another figure emerges from the shadow behind Everlue and it was none other than the man known as Jeb who was at the train station.
"Well, you see, boss,", the man began, "I think the same kids that beat up the mages were the same ones that arrived this morning while I was at the train station. I also happen to notice that the girl had a magic guild symbol on her shoulder."
"Do you know which guild it was?", Everlue questions.
"Ahhh, it has been a while since I had to deal with magic guilds, but it did look familiar. If I didn't know any better I believed it belongs to that one guild from Magnolia. Merry Bail, Hairy Sail,..."
"Fairy Tail", Rayule voices aloud as he now recalls the symbol he briefly saw on the girl.
Jeb snaps, "Yeah, that's it! Fairy Tail!" before he shrunk back as he looks over at the Vanish Brothers and saw the expression of rage on their faces.
"That fire bastard!", Jun hiss.
"He made us look like fools!", Daisuke seethe.
Even the Eisenweld's mages got in on the collective rage-fest.
"They ruined our plans to kill the guild masters!", Rayule screams, the pain his gut now replace with raw anger, "Everything that has happen to our guild since is all their fault!"
"Woah, what's with all of them?", Jeb whispers down at Everlue but when he didn't receive an answer he looks down and was surprised to see that he too have a face of blistering anger
"They ruin everything for me! Took what was rightfully mine!", Everlue growls, "I do not know where they have been in these past few years but I swear that I will have my revenge!", he said before looking at Jeb, "Was anyone else with them?!"
"N-N-No", Jeb stutters since all the anger, "It was just the two kids. They said they were just here to show magic to the kids at the schoolhouse. I don't think they knew anything about us. I would have stayed longer to find out more information about them but I thought it best to come back and report to you!"
"Hmm, that may be so but something doesn't sound right and I am not taking any chances with this guild.", he said before he looks at the Eisenwald guild members, the Vanish Brothers, and the almost two dozen normal bandits in the cave, "Pack everything up and be ready to leave! We are moving to another location! But first, once the sun goes down we are going to pay the village a little visit! One that they will never forget! Boyoyo!"
Back at the forest located around Mulay Village, Romeo and Wendy finally found themselves in front of the house Eria told them. It took them a while to get there due to both moving slower and constantly search the forest lest they find themselves under attack again by more bandits. Anyway, on the outside, it seems that the two-story cabin has seen better days and was in dire need of repair as there were a number of holes in the roof that were hastily patched over with whatever wood was available and they still weren't completely covered. Half the windows were busted out and there was even some half-scrub graffiti on the door.
"Wow, and I thought your guild hall was pretty shitty", Romeo whispers to Wendy as Eria and Ferris both came out to greet them.
"Wondering what was taking you two so long", Eria says as she put her heads on her hips, "If you two wanted to be alone together, you could have said something beforehand."
Wendy's face lit up and she started murmuring in incoherent sentences while Romeo started to rub the back of his neck.
"We're not together like that", he said.
"Oh?", Eria says, actually surprised by what she heard, "Could have fooled me with how close you two are standing together."
Both the hellsoul and dragon-slayer instinctively took a step away from each other.
"Anyway, come on in and make yourself at home", Eria tells them as she turns around and heads inside, leaving Ferris alone with Romeo and Wendy.
"Hey Wendy, you mind leaving us alone for a second?", Romeo asks the girl, "I want to talk to Ferris about something."
Wendy looks back and forth between the two hellsouls, but merely nods as she leaves them alone and heads toward the house.
The two sets of blood-red eyes stare at each for a couple of moments, neither one speaking a word to each other.
"Do you hear a voice in your head too?", Ferris suddenly asks.
"Telling you to do bad things?", Romeo finished, prompting Ferris to shake his head rapidly.
"Uh huh, it told me that I should have hurt Miss Cindy after she hit me! I started hearing it awhile ago!", Ferris tells Romeo, "Sometimes whenever Eria tells me I'm being bad, I hear the voice and it tells me that I should-!"
"I'm going to stop you right there", Romeo says, "Let me see your hand"
Ferris seems confused by this but nevertheless complies as extends his arm out and Romeo begins intensively inspecting the back of the little boy's hand, even going as far as taking his shades off for a better look.
"Let me see your other one now", the older hellsoul said and the younger one obliges him. Just like with the other one, Romeo looked over the hand but after a while just shook his head.
"You don't seem to have it yet, but if you're already hearing the voice...", he began before trailing off, "Anyway, have you told anyone about the voice yet?"
"I told Eria but she thought I was making it up", Ferris confess.
"Lovely", Romeo tells himself, "Anyway, let's go ins-".
Both hellsouls turn their attention to the forest to their left and watch as a tall shirtless, muscular man appears out of it. He looked to be in his late fifty at best but had brown eyes and black hair, the latter of which was just now starting to lose its color. He also had a magnificent beard that went all the way down to the middle of his chest and his muscles looked tone enough that you could cut a diamond on that, along with the fact that they were glistening in sweat by the sunlight, as if he just got done working in the field.
"Why does this guy not have a shirt on?", Romeo thought before noticing the pitchfork in the man's hand.
Nevermind that. He came out of nowhere with a weapon. Destroy him.
Romeo has had his share of people come at him with weapons in their hands as soon as they found out what he was and instantly moves in front of Ferris as orange flames engulf his fists. He even took his shades off in the process as an extra measure of imitation. The man seems surprised for a moment but nevertheless readies the pitchfork to stab Romeo if need be. What caught the older hellsoul's attention was the fact that the man took a stance one would not think an ordinary farmer would take. His feet were firmly planted and the pitchfork was reeled back in his arms, ready to thrust forward with speed and power.
It was a stance he has seen veteran city guardsman take in the past when dealing with violent criminals.
"Hey, Mr. Tupode, how are you doing?", Ferris suddenly says, oblivious to the tension in the air.
"I say I'm mighty fine, Ferris", the man says, his eyes never leaving Romeo's, "I'm assuming your friend here is the one Miss Cindy was telling me about. What's your name, boy?"
"None of your business" came the reply.
"His name is Romeo Conbolt, Mayor Tupode", a new voice chime in and everyone turns to see Eria and Wendy staying at the door watching them, "At least that's what the girl tells me", Eria says.
"Conbolt?", the man known as Mr. Tupode questions, "You Macao's boy?"
"Seriously?", Romeo sneers, "There are millions of people in this country but you hear the name Conbolt and the first person that comes to mind is my trash of a father? Is it rare or something?"
"Yep, you're definitely his son. Act just like him", Mr. Tupode laughs as he relaxes his guard.
"I will burn you to a crisp and not give a damn about the consequences if you ever say that again", Romeo threatens.
"Sure you will, boy, sure you will", Mr. Tupode said as he walks up to Eria who was standing at the door with her arms cross and a scowl on her face, "I heard what happen at the schoolhouse."
"You need to fire that woman if she is going to keep treating Ferris like that!", Eria snaps
"Now now, you know I can't do that. Miss Cindy is one of the few people for miles who is qualified to be a teacher for the children", Mr. Tupode tries to tell her.
"That right there is why she keeps harassing Ferris! Because she knows you can't fire her!", Eria argues.
"Well, it seems like I may not have to fire her seeing how she looks like she was ready to quit", Mr. Tupode said before turning his head back toward Romeo, "Something about a second hellsoul nearly taking her arm off. You wouldn't happen to know anything about that now, would you boy?"
"Is this one of those "you know I did it but you just want me to admit it" sort of deals?", Romeo responds.
Mr. Tupode shakes his head a little, "It kind of is. I appreciate people who are willing to take responsibility for their actions."
Romeo shrugs while putting out his fire, "Hey, the bitch got what was coming to her."
"I would appreciate it if you didn't curse in front of the young'un", Mr. Tupode says as he points to Ferris.
"Well she is one", Romeo hears Eria murmur under her breath.
Apparently, Mr. Tupode did too as he rolls his eyes and looks at Wendy, "I reckon you're the girl who came for the job for showing the kids magic."
Wendy nods, "I was."
"Well as you have no doubt probably figured out, your services are no longer required", the mayor of Mulay Village said.
Wendy's face takes on a sad expression upon hearing this, something that made Romeo feel worse than he already did.
"But seeing how the actions that led to this decision weren't entirely your fault, you will be paid at the very least half of the reward", the mayor then stated, catching everyone by surprise especially Wendy.
"R-really?", the girl asks.
"You came all this way, so it's the least I can do. Plus I can't exactly blame your friend here for defending his younger kin", Mr. Tupode says.
"I'm not related to him", Romeo growls, "What is with you people and jumping to conclusions?"
"Kin or not, you still did the right thing. Maybe now Miss Cindy will learn to treat Ferris a little better in the future", the mayor said, "For now let's go inside and discuss what to do next. You got anything to drink in there, Eria? I recall I brought you some lemons last week, hopefully, you put them to good use."
"Sure, come on in", Eria tells him and everyone goes to move inside except Romeo and Wendy who share a look.
"Are you guys seriously not going to address the elephant in the room?", Romeo says, catching the townsfolks' attention, "We were just attacked by some dark mages on our way here! You guys wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you now?", he said, mimicking the very words that Mayor Tupode said to him only a little while ago.
Silence descent on the group as both Mr. Tupode and Eria exchange glances for a moment before the mayor finally spoke.
"As I said, let's go inside."
The inside of the house was no better than the outside as multiple areas were in poor condition such as doors, floorboards, and even support beams all of which had holes in them and were showing signs of deterioration. There were signs that efforts to keep the house tidy were attempted but that only did show much.
"Damn, the people out in the east make my home seem like a mansion", Romeo mumbles under his breath, going quiet when Wendy fix him with a glare.
"Anyway", the dragon-slayer said as she turns her attention to Mayor Tupode who was sitting down at the dinner table in the middle of the kitchen, "What is this about the bandits?"
Eria hands Mayor Tupode a glass of ice-lemonade and the man downs it in a couple of gulps, slamming it on the table once he was done, cracking it in the process.
"You break it, you'll getting us a new one", Eria tells him.
"This whole situation has spiraled out of control and it all started a couple of months ago, a week or two after the harvest season started", Mr. Tupode began, ignoring Eria for now, "It was the Knox family that first encounter them. They were on the road heading to the farmer's market in Magnolia with their wagons full of crops and such when the bandits first appear out of the forest. There were only a couple of them; a pair of twins, a man wearing a black and gold jacket, and some little guy with green skin."
"That describes all the men who attacked us. That little guy must have been the one to use Sand Magic on us", Romeo thought.
"They told the family to hand over their crops or else. But the two oldest boys, James and Paul, have a reputation for never backing down from a fight and challenge them. James ended up with a broken arm and Paul got himself a broken leg, and the bandits didn't even have to use magic to inflict those. It was only afterward, I guess as a show of force, did the little guy summon a sandstorm to cover their tracks as they escape with the goods, nearly a quarter of their harvest", Mr. Tupode finishes.
"For you city folks, that's a lot for us country folks", Eria explain to the two mages.
"Um", Wendy held up a hand, "I have spent most of my life growing up in the middle of forests so I'm not really a city folk."
"Moving on", Mayor Tupode interrupted, "At first, we thought it was just a one-time thing. Wasn't like this was the first time this has ever happen to us. But one week later, the Porter family experience the same thing. Their wagons full of crops were stolen and the head of the household, Dean Porter, got a broken arm for his troubles."
"Starting to see a pattern here", Romeo says to himself.
"Anyway, once that happens, I hop on the first train to Magnolia to see the mayor about sending us some city guardsmen", Mayor Tupode says.
"Wait, wait, wait", Romeo steps in, "Aren't you suppose to have guards from the district capital patrolling this place, to begin with? I'm from Crocus and even there the guards routinely send out detachments to temporarily patrols the outlining villages and hamlets."
Mayor Tupode shook his head, "It used to be like that until a couple of years ago. After the province was rocked by the plague, famine, and drought a few years back, Magnolia's economy took a major hit and its budget couldn't afford to have patrols stay out here for one or two weeks at a time. Hell, if we wanted a detachment to come out here at all, the village would have to pay for it. As you can probably guess, most of the villages couldn't afford that on top of taxes as well."
"Didn't realize how bad it was out here during all that mess", Romeo thought, remembering how he heard the news of Fiore's eastern province getting hit with disaster after disaster just a few years back. He even recalls King Toma ordering a quarantine around the entire area once the plague hit, enforced by the army and navy. No one was allowed through, including nobility. This hit a number of settlements pretty hard as food had to be ration out and the price of even a single tomato was four times the average if not more.
Of course, there were those who blamed such misfortunes on the hellsouls, saying that this was a punishment from the heavens for King Toma tolerating their presence in Fiore. They were quickly silence and such notions soon melted away.
"So the wise Mayor Huber decided on the plan that if the bandits and monsters really became such a problem, all the villages and hamlets surrounding Magnolia had to do was request guardsman and he would send them", Mayor Tupode continues, snapping Romeo out of his thoughts.
"Well if you went to the mayor and he sent guards, why are the bandits still here?", Wendy ask.
"That's just it", the mayor said, "No guards were ever sent here."
A/N: You can probably already tell that Romeo and Erza are not going to get along in this story. But from a point of view, I believe he has a point. I get that Fairy Tail is an anime/manga, a fantasy one at that with magic and dragons but it always bugged me a little that during the times that Erza fought someone in her standard armor no one ever went for her legs even though they weren't protected by armor. From a certain standpoint, it just seems like Erza was overconfident in her abilities in a way.
Jun- the older smaller Vanish Brother
Daisuke- younger taller Vanish Brother
The names come from their voice actors.