Disclaimers: I do not own Fairy Tail
A/N: Second chapter of the update. This chapter will include some functions of the magic guild system.
Check out my other stories if you have the chance as well as the stories of Tenryu no hoko who help me with this chapter.
Something's Not Right
"I beg your pardon?", Wendy says, making sure she heard right for even with super enhance ears she more often than not misheard things from time to time.
"I have gone to Magnolia four times and each time I have been told that issues have come up and the guards that were promised to me were needed elsewhere", Mayor Tupode states.
"What are the odds that every time you go to Magnolia something always seems to be going down to prevent them from sending help?", Romeo questions while having a feeling that something was going on behind the scenes.
"I don't know but I got so desperate for aid that I even went to Hargeon Town to ask them for help but their mayor told me that dealing with bandits in my town was Magnolia's responsibility. The local army garrison told me the same thing along with adding that dealing with bandits was beneath them and officially designated a city guard's problem", the mayor finished, "And so the bandits just kept right on doing their thing with no one around to stop them. Going on for months now."
"That's terrible! They should have helped you regardless of whether it's their job or not!", Wendy says, unable to believe what she was hearing. She strongly believes that one should always help those who are in need of it.
"The whole "not my job" seems to the normal way of doing stuff for you city folks", Eria says, her eyes now looking out a nearby window, "If it doesn't do you any good, what's the point of helping someone who isn't kin?"
Wendy looks over at Eria, worried and confusion evident in her face for a moment before returning back to the mayor.
"Did you put in a job request for a guild to handle it?", she asks.
The elected leader of Mulay Village slumps in his chair, "We have tried that. All of our magic requests went to the two local guilds, you folks from Fairy Tail and the other one since y'all were the cheapest. Three times we have put in a request to clear out the bandits and all three times neither of your guilds has picked it up. We even add more money easy time to get your attention."
"Huh?", was all Wendy said as she looked over at Romeo who merely shrugs.
"Don't look at me. My old man may be in charge but if he does a crappy job at dealing with requests, that's not my fault", Romeo says.
"It's not that", Wendy said before returning her attention back to Mayor Tupode, "I have never seen a bandit request come through our job boards. Your request for the schoolhouse was the first job from this town."
Now it was Mayor Tupode's turn to be confused, "Um, young lady, I made sure each time I put in the request that I did it right. Dotted my "i" and everything."
"I'm sure you did but let me assure you, Mayor Tupode, that we at Fairy Tail have yet to see a bandit clearing request come through", Wendy began, "Due to my money situation right now, I was given the first pick of any jobs on our board and your schoolhouse was the only one from your village."
The man rubs his chin in thought, "Then it must have gone to those light folks, that other guild in your town."
"Twilight Ogre?", Romeo speaks up, remembering the name from the letter his dad left him this morning.
Mayor Tupode snaps his finger, "Yes, them! Maybe they got the job then! But why have they been ignoring it? I got the sense that they were all about the money."
"How much did you offer for the bandits?", Romeo asks.
"Around sixty thousand jewels the last time and let me tell you, it was not easy for us to gather that much up", the mayor answered, "Hell, we actually starting to think you guys were just like everyone else and consider the bandit problem a waste of your time."
A lightbulb goes off in Romeo's head as he started to put all of the pieces of the puzzle together, "So when that thought came along in your heads you decided to change your tactics up and offer a cushier job at the same price in hopes that it would be more appealing to any mages looking for some easy cash. That explains why that Martha lady we met looked so surprised to only see Wendy and me, you guys were expecting more mages to show up, and then you were going to negotiate with them after the school job was done to go and take down the bandits."
Mayor Tupode turns his attention to the older hellsoul, "You're smarter than you look, you know that? You remind me of your father."
The runes on Romeo's gloves began to light up as orange flames began to encase his hands, "What did I just tell you outside?!", the boy growls as his eyes glowed.
"Hey! Whatever problem you two have, take it outside!", Eria shouts, "I don't need fire magic going off in a wooden house!"
"Oh calm down, boy!", Mayor Tupode said, "It's not like I meant it as an insult."
This does nothing to deter Romeo in the slightest from about to start the acts of violence, that were running through his head, on the mayor. But quick as a flash, Wendy moves in front of Romeo, placing herself between him and the mayor.
"Mayor Tupode, Romeo and I will depart now and go catch the next train back to Magnolia and bring back all the mages that are available from Fairy Tail including our guild masters", Wendy explains, "We should be back by nightfall."
Mayor Tupode stares at Wendy for a moment, his expression showing that he was mulling over the idea in his head.
"Why do we need the rest of those guys?", Romeo spoke up from behind, "I just beat three of them on my own like they were nothing. If the rest of them are this weak, then between the two of us we can take care of the whole gang. Just point us in the right direction and we'll handle it ourselves."
"I don't think so. I am not about to send two children to fight dangerous people, no matter if they are a hellsoul or not", Mayor Tupode spoke directly at Romeo before turning his attention back to Wendy, "Sorry to tell you this, young lady, but the last train headed for Magnolia has already left for the day, so you'll have to catch the next one first thing in the morning to go get your guild."
"We could walk", Romeo states.
"Forest is too dangerous at night for two kids", the mayor counters, "I am not going to be explaining to your friends and family if something bad happens to you."
Romeo goes to argue but a hand from Wendy stops him.
"If that is what you want, we'll stay the night and leave first thing in the morning", the dragon-slayer says.
"The boy alone is probably one of the most dangerous things in the forest," Eria thinks before speaking, "Y'all can stay here tonight if you want. Least I can do after you helped Ferris, and don't worry, there's plenty of beds for y'all to sleep in."
Wendy couldn't help but notice the somber tone Eria's voice took on when she said that last part but the dragon-slayer thought that now wasn't the right time to question it.
"Okay, now that that is all settled, you two make yourself comfortable and I will meet you at the train station first thing in the morning to go to Magnolia", Mayor Tupode said as he got up out of his chair and made his way toward the door, "Y'all have a good night."
"I'll go get your rooms ready. Come give me a hand, Ferris", Eria said as she headed toward the stairs, the little hellsoul following behind her.
Once Romeo was sure she was out of hearing range, he turns to Wendy.
"Look, I couldn't care less what happens to this village, but you know as well as I do that we could handle those bandits. I mean come on, we could mop the floor with those guys", Romeo says, "So why did you say all that?"
"Because I don't want to worry them and besides, what if those bandits fought were just the weaker members of the gang?", Wendy asks.
"Okay, let's say that they were the bottom of the barrel of bandits; why did you agree to stay the night instead of heading back toward town to get your little friends. Between you and I, we could have made the walk and been back before the next morning", Romeo then says.
Wendy raises an eyebrow. This seems, to Romeo despite only knowing her for a little while, something out of character for her.
"Did you forget the reason why you were on the train here in the first place?", she asks.
"Okay, so a couple of guards were chasing me, so what? Ain't like it's something new for me", Romeo answers.
"I'm pretty sure it was at least half of the guard. Anyway, we need to give it some time for things to cool down and your dad and Master Makarov to resolve the misunderstanding on why the guards were chasing you in the first place", Wendy explain.
"There was no misunderstanding", Romeo corrects her, "The captain of the guard's son and his lackeys try to attack me and I gave them an ass-kicking in return. Pretty cut and dry."
Wendy had to resist the urge to roll her eyes for it was a bad habit to have from Carla has told her, "Disregarding your comment, we should still give it time for things to blow over. We don't want to get arrested as soon as we get back."
"I wouldn't make it easy. There's a saying in the capital", Romeo began, "When you try to arrest a Shadow Serpent, you best be ready to work for your paycheck that day."
Wendy merely lets out a sigh before heading up the stairs after Eria and Ferris, "I'm going to go give them a hand."
"Suit yourself, I'm going outside to get some fresh air", Romeo answers as he heads out the door toward the forest. Once he was far enough that he sure Wendy couldn't hear it, he grabs the nearest tree with both his hands…
And began slamming his head violently into it.
"You! Are! A! Fucking! Idiot!", he screams, every word he said was empathized by a hard headbutt to the tree, "Stop! Making! A! Ass! Of! Yourself! In! Front! Of! Her!"
He only ceases his self-inflicting behavior once that was a crater in the middle of the tree and a stream of black liquid was coming out of the single wound that was smack dab in the middle of his forehead. Almost instantaneously, an ominous red glows emits from the cut and within seconds the wound seals itself up and the black liquid stops pouring out. Romeo brings up a hand and wipes his forehead and if one was able to take a closer look at his now clear forehead, one would see that not only was the wound gone, there was no evidence that it was there, to begin with.
Romeo takes a look down at the tiny droplets of black liquid on his fingertips for a moment before flinging it at the tree. Instantly, dark and decaying energy springs forth from the droplets quickly spreading throughout the tree, turning it's entire being into a soulless black. It encompasses not only the trunk but went all the way up to the branches and leaves as well as down to the very roots. Within seconds the entire tree was a husk of its former self, a contrasting black standing out in a sea of brown and green.
The hellsoul eyes the tree for another moment before taking a breath and gently blows on it. A heartbeat later cracks began to appear all along the tree and without warning the tree in its entirety came apart and crumble into a large pile of black dust.
Romeo then shook his head, "By the Nine Hells, I really need to learn how to talk to girls. Unfortunately the one person I should speak to this about this matter is the last person I want to talk to", he told himself, as he headed back toward the house.
As he came up to the second floor he stops at the top of the stairs. There were a number of rooms up here but that wasn't the reason why he stops. Letting out a breath, Romeo inhales deeply, getting a whiff of the entire hallway. It took only a second but he was able to detect at least a dozen different scents in the air that belong to various people. Most of them have fainted and that usually indicated that whoever has given off the smell no longer came around the area, though the fact that he picks them up at all also meant that whoever or whatever they were used to hang out in this place a lot in the past.
In other words, a lot of people used to live in this house and it took the hellsoul no time at all to piece to together why they didn't anymore.
He picks up Wendy's scent coming from the third door on the left and makes his way over there. He spots her putting blankets on the bed in the room and straighten them out.
"I have a question", he says, causing her to snap her head up in surprise.
"You startled me, I didn't even hear you!", she gasps.
Romeo shrugs, "You wouldn't be the first, hellsouls are light on their feet, or at least that is what I have been told. Anyway, about my question."
Wendy shakes her head, "Yeah, what is it?"
"I don't pay much attention to the magic guilds seeing how I never cared about them but couldn't the village have gone to another guild to deal with the bandits if you guys and those Twilight folks weren't coming to do it?", Romeo asks.
Wendy muses over Romeo's question for a moment before speaking, "While yes they could have, it was probably the cheapest option to go with us and Twilight Ogre."
"Sixty thousand jewels is not cheap", Romeo points out.
"True, which is why I find it odd that a job worth that much would go ignore for so long.", Wendy says.
Romeo raises an eyebrow, "How come?"
"Because usually the closer a job is to your guild the lower the reward. Reward money only goes up the further away from your guild", Wendy says as she sits up on the bed and looks out the window in front of her, "Mira explain it to me one day..."
"Who's that?", Romeo asks.
'The girl with the long white hair who works the tavern at the guild hall."
"Oh, that chick", Romeo says.
"Anyway, she said that for the longest time, Fairy Tail was the only guild in the Magnolia District and it covers Haregon Town and all the surrounding villages and hamlets within a fifty mile radius of Magnolia. Also, because it's the capital of the district, Magnolia has a Magic Council Liaison office in the town hall which gives people a direct line to the Magic Council's Fiore Headquarters. Their main job is to read over the job request from the client, verifies that the reward matches up with the task, approve it, and then distributed it among the magic guilds", Wendy went on.
"Doesn't sound that different from Crocus, though I can't remember the last time I heard about anyone in the southside putting in a magic guild job request then again I doubt anyone has the money to" Romeo muses, "Also, that sure is a lot of authority out here boondocks. Rune Knights, Royal Army outpost, and a Magic Council Liaison office. I guess dad wasn't lying when he said that I need to watch my step out here."
"Now while there are other districts nearby they either don't have a magic guild or the guild isn't up for the job at hand. Believe or not, a majority of Fiore's magic guilds only have about a dozen people so they can only take on so many job request. I mean, Carla and I were the only mages in Cait Shelter, therefore we could only act in a local job capacity unless someone specifically wanted us for one, which happens a lot considering I'm a dragon-slayer", Wendy explains, deciding not to tell Romeo the other details regarding her old guild.
"Huh", Romeo says as he leans on the door, "So I'm guessing that the number of members a guild has dictated the operating range of their jobs."
Wendy nods her head, "That's right, Fairy Tail back in the day operated at a national level due to the numbers of members it had which was around one hundred if I recall correctly. That meant that a majority of their job requests came from all over Fiore and even beyond sometimes", Wendy explain, "Unfortunately, due to what happened Tenrou Island-"
"The Dragon of the Apocalypse showing up and basically one-shotting you guys while all you did was tickle him at best", Romeo points out.
...
"Yes...that", Wendy says after a moment, "Anyway, the guild has been reduced to only operating at a regional level, which means most if not all of our jobs come from our district and those immediately bordering it."
"So if a guild wants to have more money flowing in, it has to make it a priority to increase and maintain its members?", Romeo says.
"That's right, Master Makarov that one of the most important duties of a guild master is to make sure that membership either grows or at least stays at a reasonable level in order to cover the bills. That usually involves putting the guild's name out there for everyone to see in order to attract potential members.", Wendy tells him, "But he also stated that such a task is getting harder and harder to do due to a good number of mages nowadays making their living as freelancers; the main reason being that they don't have to pay as many fees?"
"Fees?", Romeo repeated, "What fees?"
"Hmm? You didn't know? A guild member is required to pay a fee to their guild which in turn goes to the Magic Council and the country they are in", Wendy said before looking up at the room ceiling in thought, "I don't know much of the details, Mira can tell you more, but I believe that you have to give the guild fifteen percent of your job's reward and from there a part of it goes to the Magic Council and the kingdom while the guild retains the rest. Plus there's a monthly fee you have to pay to the guild in order to use the services they provide."
Romeo gawks at Wendy in disbelief, "Fuck that, if I have to do all the work, why should people who don't put their lives at risk get some of my hard-earned money?", he questions, "That's just stupid!"
"As I said, that's why a good number of mages become freelancers", Wendy states, "Anyway, back to the original topic. It's not uncommon for people to request jobs from magic guild outside of that guilds operating range, especially if have a specific mage who can handle the job. But by doing so you have to put up a higher reward because that mage has to travel farther. If Mayor Tupode had gone to anyone else then the price range of the reward would have to go up. Believe it or not, the Magic Council has a system in place for this as well, mostly for clients though."
"You sure do know a lot about this despite being around my age", Romeo points out.
"Well, one day I got curious just like you are right now and they explain it to me. From what I heard, Lucy asks something along the same lines when she first got to the guild", Wendy said.
"Who is Lucy again?"
"The blonde-haired girl."
"Oh, you mean the one with the huge-", Romeo started to say before he stops himself, realizing that he probably shouldn't say something like that. Granted that Lucy chick didn't exactly try to hide her... assets. Actually to be fair, from what he has seen most of those girls didn't, "Ego problem?"
"Huh? I have never known Lucy to have an ego", Wendy says, "I do remember hearing Master Makarov saying she has self-esteem and daddy issues though."
"Oh thank goodness, she didn't see through my lie", Romeo thought while letting out a sigh of relief.
"Anyway, what a quite a few people fail to realize is that guild mages have to find their own means of transportation to the location of the job they selected because it's usually not provided by the client", the dragon-slayer began, "So that means that they have to pay out of pocket for the means to get to the job, along with the food and drinks along the way, inns to stay in, toll fees, and even medical treatment should it be needed, and that's not even including the round-trip back home. Sometimes, depending on the reward, you might actually spend more money just getting to the job than doing the job itself. So the system was put in place to make it that mages make somewhat of a profit when they do jobs. But it is also up to the mage to think about all of this before deciding on whether or not to take a job."
"Sound over complicated", Romeo states as he rolls his eyes.
"Not really, you just have to make sure that a job is worth it. There's also loophole so one can operate outside their guild's range but I don't know the details about it", Wendy says.
"I assume that there is someone at the guild who calculates all of this ahead of time ", Romeo asks.
Wendy nods her head, "That's mostly Mira and Kinana who handle all that."
Romeo is quiet for a moment, simply staring at Wendy, "Not going to lie this all sounds like one big scam to me, mostly because of all the fees you have to pay. Plus, I'm putting my life on the line but I don't even get to keep all of the money I make", he finally says.
Wendy nods her head, "Yeah, that's true. But I think that the fact that you get to make friends with everyone in the guild outweighs all that."
"Maybe to you, but where I come from your friends are the ones who have proven that they have your back no matter what. It takes a lot more than just sharing the same symbol to call somebody your friend", Romeo explains.
"I was under the impression that street gangs had symbols too", Wendy says, "At least that is what the other girls told me."
"I can only imagine what other things they have told you", Romeo thought as he turns around and lifted the back of his shirt up, "No, we do. We put it on our backs. It is supposed to symbolize how the gang always has yours."
Wendy founds herself staring at a serpent as black as the moonless night. It's long slender body coiled around his back into a circle as its scales seem to almost shine in the sunlight. Coming off these scales were billows of wavy darkness that see to float off his body. At the head, the snake's tongue hisses at the dragon-slayer but it was the two distinct features above the mouth that really caught her attention. For the eyes of the snake were the same as Romeo's, blood-red with slits going down the middle of them, and just like his eyes, they entice her. Before she knew what she was doing she was off the bed and heading toward the hellsoul her hand stretch out as it headed straight for the serpent's face.
"Yeah, the gang decided that I needed something special for myself so they put red eyes on my tattoo. Mom wasn't too happy when she found out about it. Almost went down to the- Argh!", Romeo suddenly screamed as he fell on the ground in pain. He turns around only to see Wendy behind him with her hand out, a look of surprise and horror on her face along with a blush that was growing in intensity with every passing second.
"I-I-I am so sorry!", she screams out as she kneels down and her hands go straight for Romeo. Quickly, the boy scurries away on the floor into the wall away from her.
"No, it's fine! I'm fine! I got to go!", he shouts as he got up and left the room, leaving a bewildered Wendy in his wake. After a few passing moments, she slowly looked down at her hands and realize that she was trembling. She brought her hands to her face and press them on her cheeks which were still glowing red.
"What is wrong with me? I touch him without even asking him if it was okay! He probably thinks I'm weird now! Why did I do that?"
Though in the back of her mind she briefly wonders why Romeo collapse from just a mere touch of her hand.
A/N: So that's out of the way. Next chapter we check in with Team Natsu. Also, I created this "District" thing in regards to job request and it will play a part in the future.
Don't forget to check out my other stories.