A.N. (9/2/21) - Here's another chapter. This time, it's a short one.
Chapter 6 - Lucky Merchant
Part 1
Vale frowned, curled his lips downwards, and showed a troubled look.
"Hmm... is there a job I could do myself?"
Staring at the job board in front of him, a voice called out to him from nearby. "Yourself? You're not going with Romeo and Zera?"
"Bisca." Vale turned and faced the older woman. "Good morning, how's the newborn daughter?"
"Energetic," she gave a tired laugh. "Too energetic, in fact. She certainly has quite the set of lungs. Although I noticed you haven't answered my earlier question yet."
"Ah, that's because…"
Earlier...
"Sorry, I'm busy today." Romeo gave a small wave. "Totomaruo-sensei is going to teach me and Zera how to control fire that isn't produced by us. He says that it's good to know in case we ever face off against another fire mage."
"I've been learning how to use fire magic from him as well," Zera said. Holding her palm upward, a small ball of fire floated above it. "It's still weird since I'm channeling my magic power through a body now, but I'm getting a lot better."
"That's great," Vale said. "Don't let me interrupt you guys then."
They nodded at that. "See ya!"
"So yeah, it looks like Team Paid Fairly Child Labor Force is taking a break today."
"You guys really need to find a better team name to call yourselves."
Vale nodded. "I admit, it's still a work in progress."
It's been four months since Vale was requested by Blue Pegasus to investigate Grimoire Heart, and six months since he became a member of Fairy Tail.
During that time, everyone slowly got used to accepting the fact that things were getting better for the guild. The older members were going out on jobs more, the debt was lessening with the increased income, and a total of three new members of Fairy Tail had joined during the past year.
Well, technically he was the only 'new' member since Asuka wasn't a mage or old enough to join yet, and Zera was kind of a founding member of the guild.
Speaking of Zera, everyone was surprised at first when she came back with a physical form of her own. But enough time had passed that everyone had accepted the fact already. Now, it wasn't uncommon to find Zera learning more on how to use fire magic with either Romeo or his father.
Bisca looked at the board. "Looks like you got a lot of options, at least. But I'm guessing you're not gonna take any of the monster extermination requests."
Vale's face grimaced. "Actually, I'm not in the mood for any fighting at all. You know any good jobs that don't see a lot of action?"
"We're Fairy Tail," she said blandly. "Action and our guild practically go hand in hand. If you're asking for a peaceful job, you're in the wrong guild." She took another look at the board again before plucking one of the flyers. "Unless you want something like teaching at a magic school for kids."
"Blegh," Vale made a disgusted face. "I'd rather fight some ghosts."
Considering that his phasmophobia was rather well known amongst the guild, that said a lot about how badly he thought about the idea.
"What about this then?" Bisca held up another flyer. "Says here that there's a job in Acalypha about a construction team being behind on redesigning the local merchant's guild building. With your enchantment magic, can't you make it so that everyone can work faster?"
Vale glanced at the paper and saw the reward, his eyes boggling at the number of digits on it. "Hot damn, sign me up!"
Acalypha Town… that was around a day's trip from here, wasn't it? Taking the flyer in his hand, Vale began to make his way out of the building with a smile on his face.
This was going to be a piece of cake.
}-{
"Enchant Type - Boost Speed Attribute."
Running with magic power pumping through his body, Vale barely paid enough attention to the road to avoid crashing into anything as he began to split his attention to fiddling with his newest magic.
Archive magic was interesting due to the fact that Vale was somewhat familiar with a similar form of technology from his previous life. Similar to a type of programming language, it carried its own vocabulary and rules that were used to instruct magic to perform a specific task.
Since he only learned a couple of basic concepts from Hibiki, Vale wasn't able to do anything complicated. So far, the most he was able to do with it was find a way to convert his specialty magic into data to store in a type of space made to hold information. The idea was to find a way to preload his enchantment spells ahead of time so that he could quickly cast them during battle.
That said, making the 'program' work properly was a little difficult.
"Fizzlesticks," he muttered, then winced as another headache hit him. "Another failure."
Using his mind as the medium seemed to be a bad idea, not that Vale knew of any alternative options. Hopefully, he wasn't making a grave mistake because of his fumbling around. Maybe this was why there weren't a lot of archive mages yet.
"Or maybe I'm just not suited to this kind of magic." Vale sighed. "After all, that's one reason why I can't learn requip magic."
Laughing bitterly to himself, he decided that thinking about his past failures wasn't something he should be doing.
Pausing underneath the shade of a tree, Vale dug into his bag and consulted the map he pulled from inside it. Tilting his head, he looked up at his surroundings before looking back down.
"I should make it before the sun sets… probably." He frowned. "I could have sworn that there was supposed to be a sign around here. Pretty sure I went down this route before."
This was another weakness that not many people knew about Vale. He was hopeless with directions. If it was a place he's been to before, Vale was confident somewhat in traveling there. But going to new places was something that he had a bit of trouble with.
"I should have paid for a carriage."
It was at that moment that Vale realized something. This was the first time in a while that he's been by himself. Ever since joining Fairy Tail, he's been relying on either Romeo or Zera or any of the other members of his guild to help him out. If his team were here, he would have thrown the responsibility of directions Romeo's way. Not Zera, since she also had some trouble with directions herself.
But since he was alone…
Vale quickly glanced around and confirmed that there was nobody else around him. Nodding once he made sure, he muttered under his breath.
"Enchant Type - Infuse Control Element."
"Enchant Type - Infuse Velocity Element."
The target… himself.
His body was covered by the enchantments, and he willed himself to lift off the ground before slowly accelerating forward through the air. Within seconds, he was flying across the landscape at an amazing speed.
Yes, Vale had the ability to utilize his magic to simulate the ability of flight. To be specific, his body was sort of like a guided missile under the enchantments. The velocity element propelled him forward while the control element allowed for small veers in the air. It was horribly inefficient compared to the other kinds of flight spells available, but it was something that Vale had little trouble performing with his specialty skillset.
"WOOHOOOOOO—!"
Of course, this kind of technique was a huge drain on his magic power. That was why at that moment, Vale was relaxing the restrictions on his seal somewhat to increase his output of magic to power the spell. If someone like Jura saw him now, that would be bad since his established cover was that he couldn't use this much magic power.
Already, he could see his destination not too far away in front of him. Landing a small distance away from the town, he made the rest of the journey on foot and entered through the front gates.
"So, I'm supposed to meet with the head of the construction crew first." Vale passed by several buildings and glanced at the names above them. "He's probably going to ask me to demonstrate my enchantments before sending me off. But since I'm not actively involved in the construction, that should mean it will only take a few minutes at most to enchant all of his workers."
Passing by a fenced-off area, he paused as he looked at the sign hanging off the partition. "Huh, so this is where the work is being done?"
Looking up, Vale realized that this was the local merchant guild that Bisca mentioned earlier. Staring at the sign above the entrance, the words 'Love & Lucky' greeted him back.
Recognition flashed across his eyes. "Wait a second, isn't that…"
"Excuse me," a voice called out to him. "Pardon me, but that mark on your hand. Would you happen to be a mage from Fairy Tail…?"
Turning around, Vale found himself looking at a tall middle-aged man with black eyes and slicked-back blond hair. With the trimmed mustache and firm square jaw, Vale pegged him as someone who worked with those who dealt with a lot of money.
"Yes…" Vale replied. "Is there something I can do to help, Sir?"
"Oh, not exactly." The man gave out a bitter laugh. "I guess you don't recognize me, or maybe you're a new member. I'm sure that most of the older members at least know me by name."
"That name would be?"
But somehow, Vale already knew the answer. And sure enough, the next words that came out of the man didn't surprise him.
"Ah, my apologies." He gave out a weary smile. "My name is Jude Heartfilia. It's a pleasure to meet someone from my daughter's guild. Do you happen to have business in town?"
Well, this was certainly the kind of drama as expected of Fairy Tail luck.
Vale groaned into his hand. This definitely got a lot more complicated. But maybe this meeting was an opportunity. After all, he was planning to meet with the elder man at some point later down the line.
Even if it was to just deliver the 'good' news.
Now, how was he supposed to tell the man that his daughter was still alive?
Part 2
Vale sat uncomfortably across the other man, the two sitting at a small table outside a small café. Both of them had cups of a kind of warm drink that Jude had paid in their hands.
"Sorry, but would you please tell me your name?"
"Ah, it's Vale Endoyle. Well, I joined Fairy Tail about half a year ago."
He nodded at Vale's introduction, and his worn-out face relaxed somewhat. "I was always hoping that I would ever get the opportunity to apologize for my past actions. Erm, are you aware of what I am talking about…?"
"Yes, I heard the story from an older member. As far as I know, nobody is holding a grudge against you."
"That's relieving to hear…"
His words trailed off after that, and Vale took that moment to take a sip of his drink. The taste was an unfamiliar one, but it helped soothe his nerves.
"You really shocked me there," Jude continued after a pause. "I never expected to meet someone from Fairy Tail again."
"It was a coincidence. I came here to do a job for the construction team…"
"The one rebuilding the guild building?" Jude blinked. "Well, that's a mighty coincidence. I was tasked with overseeing the progress of construction, and I just finished meeting with the head of their crew."
"Is that so…"
Both of them grew silent again.
Inside his head, Vale was berating himself. Why was it so hard to get to the point? How come it was so difficult to just tell the other man the truth?
"My daughter…"
"Huh?"
"Lucy." He smiled. "My daughter is blessed with a lot of luck, to have such amazing friends in her guild. It's been two years now, but I still have faith that she will return one day."
Well, that was an invitation if anything…
"Ahem."
Vale cleared his throat and waited till he had the other man's attention. "There's something you need to know."
And Vale spent the next hour explaining everything about how the Fairy Tail members on Tenrou Island were not dead. That they had evidence that they were still alive, that the possibility of them returning sometime within the next few years was not an impossibility.
"...how long?"
That was his only question when Vale finally stopped talking.
"About five years?"
It couldn't be helped, Vale didn't know the exact date. That was the best he could come up with to answer the older man's inquiry.
"Then I guess I must wait."
Their drinks were already cold, untouched ever since Vale began telling his story.
"It's late," Jude said. "It looks like the time has passed by without us realizing it…"
Vale hesitated. "Is it alright if I talk with you tomorrow?"
"I would appreciate it."
Both of them got up at the same time. The older man nodded at Vale before they both turned around and left in opposite directions.
}-{
The next day.
Meeting with the construction crew barely took up any time. Vale talked things out with the head and enchanted his workers so that they would be able to work faster. Not only that, but Vale made it so that the enchantments would last for a long time even after Vale would leave the city. It used up a lot of magic power in exchange, but the head decided that Vale had fulfilled the request enough to get his reward.
Heading towards the café from yesterday, Vale sat down and asked the waiter if there was anything to eat. Ordering the recommended special, Vale sat down and dug into his meal as he waited.
Several minutes later, Jude came to his table.
"Oh, you're already eating?"
"Sorry, I wasn't sure how long you would take."
"Well, we only agreed to meet up in the afternoon. I suppose it would have been better to specify a time."
Jude sat down across from him and they talked about the state of the town, with Jude regaling what kind of projects he was currently working on while Vale listened. Vale in exchange told him about a few of his past missions and the current state of Fairy Tail.
Throughout their exchange, the elder man squinted his eyes and seemed to enjoy his stories. Treating Vale to a cup of tea and some snacks, the two sat together for several hours before Vale spoke up.
"I'm afraid that I'll be leaving soon," Vale said. "My teammates might worry if I'm gone for so long."
"Is that so," Jude muttered. "Well, I greatly enjoyed our time."
He stood up and bowed towards Vale. "Once again, I must thank you for your time."
Vale also stood up and reciprocated the bow. "If I ever take another job here, I'll come to visit."
Jude smiled. "I'll be looking forward to that, then."
As Vale began leaving the café, he heard a shout coming from behind him.
"I know I've made mistakes in the past, but please… when the time comes. When you get the news that my daughter is back home…"
"I'll inform you," Vale interrupted, turning around to face him. "You'll be one of the first to know."
The face of a crying Jude Heartfilia greeted his eyes. Even as tears continued to pour down his face, he stared right into Vale's eyes with unwavering determination.
"Promise me!"
"I promise."
Vale nodded to the elderly man once more before turning around. Even as he left town, the memory of a father crying for his daughter couldn't leave his mind.
Faith… even before I told him, he still had faith that his daughter was alive.
The day Tenrou Island disappeared… it wasn't just Fairy Tail that lost something. Countless others also lost their loved ones. Including Jude.
His tears were proof enough of that.
Even though he still had to wait another five years, Vale could see that Lucy's father would wait with hope in his heart for the day to come.
The love for his daughter would not go unrewarded anymore. Because now, he had something to look forward to. He had proven to Vale that he still had faith in the survival of his daughter. And now, that faith was renewed into hope for his daughter's return.
"Five more years, huh." Vale stared at the sky. "Even I think that's too long."
They would continue to wait, to endure until the time for their return came.
Because for those that waited, that was all they could do.
If I keep to my plan, this won't be the last we see of Jude Heartfilia. He'll make another appearance sometime later down the line.
The next chapter is something I've been excited to write about for some time now. Once again, it will focus on the main trio of Vale, Romeo, and Zera. Expect some great stuff when it comes out!
