Chapter 73

The Royal City

The dropship flew high into the air using its exhausts to fly at a fast pace. Inside of the ship, the soldiers were waiting for the dropship to reach its destination hoping that it would be soon. As they waited, the soldiers conversed hoping that time would go faster.

"Man... I can't wait till we get to the Royal City," said one. "I was getting a little tired patrolling Sycca."

"Be you're going to the Royal City at all," said another. "The only reason why we're being sent there in the first place is that the king needs more security over there."

"I know, I know," said the first. "I'm just happy is all."

Then the first soldier noticed two soldiers in particular. They seemed to be like the rest of them, but one of them seemed to be a bit like the others and the other was a bit muscular. Feeling a bit curious, the soldier spoke to the two.

"Hey. Are you two new recruits or something?" he asked. "I don't remember seeing you guys before."

"Oh yes. We are," said the first of the two. "We were just recruited by the king a couple days back. He... saw potential in us and he wanted us to come to the Royal City, so we could see how the soldiers work there first hand."

"That's strange... I don't recall the king ever mentioning something like that," spoke the soldier. "Are you sure he said something like that?"

"Of course he did," spoke the muscular soldier gruffly. "You calling us liars?"

He then glared at the soldier flashing his eyes dangerously. The soldier cringed a little feeling a bit intimidated, but then the muscular soldier's partner nudged him with his elbow.

"Hey back off," he spoke to him. Then he turned to the soldier. "Sorry about my friend," he apologized. "He's... not exactly a people person and doesn't like to be insulted much. Just be careful what you say to him."

The first soldier raised a brow. "Alright then. Just watch your attitude. Especially since you're going to the Royal City," he said. "With an attitude like that, there's gonna be some people who aren't gonna like it. Especially the captains. Captain Kuromen or Captain Knightwalker would probably kill ya."

"Knightwalker? Kuromen? Who are those guys?" asked the first soldier of the two. "Besides being captains and stuff."

"You don't know? You two really are rookies," said another. "They're the captains of the Royal Army Magic War Divisions. Five in total. They're in charge of each other their own army which is divided into groups. The first captain is Pantherlily, the second is Erza Knightwalker who we call as Knightwalker, the third is Hughes, the fourth is Sugarboy, and the fifth is known as Kuromen the Black Swordsman."

"Who the hell is Kuromen?" asked the muscular soldier. "Sounds like a weird name."

"The name may sound weird, but it's a name that everyone fears," said a third soldier. "Aside from the other captains, Kuromen is one of the strongest warriors in all of Edolas. He's feared by everybody. Even Erza and Pantherlily are somewhat scared of him."

"Interesting," spoke the muscular soldier grinning from behind his mask. "Tell us more about this Kuromen guy."

"Well, they say that he's so strong, that he was responsible for wiping out most of the magic guilds," explained the first soldier. "Those guilds threw whatever they had at him, magic tools and everything, but Kuromen came out on top almost completely unscathed."

"Not only that, but I heard that once, he took on Knightwalker in a fight," said another. "It was a pretty tough battle and Knightwalker won, but it was a pretty close one."

"Interesting," said the muscular soldier. "This Kuromen guy sounds quite the interesting guy. Maybe I should fight him and see how strong this guy is."

The other soldiers that happened to hear the muscular soldier all stared at him in shock and some slight horror. No doubt they all thought that this man was out of his mind trying to pick a fight with Kuromen. The first soldier of the pair then gave the muscular one soldier a hard nudge on his side.

"Hey! Keep it quiet, you idiot!" he snapped. Then he turned to the others. "Please excuse him. He's... high spirited. He gets so excited about stuff that he has no idea what he's talking about sometimes! Please ignore what he said!"

The soldiers looked at each other feeling a bit unsure of what the two rookies were saying, but they decided to let it slide. Then they all felt the drop shop dipping down towards the ground getting lower and lower until it touched down on the ground with a thud. The doors then opened and all the soldiers departed from the dropship having to have finally landed in the royal city. However unknown to the actual soldiers, the thin and the muscular soldiers that claimed to be rookies, stealthily left the soldiers getting as far from them as possible.

As soon as they were far enough away from them, the two soldiers immediately took off their helmets...

WILLY'S POV

"Whew! Man! Those helmets were stuffy as hell!" complained Gajeel.

"Aside with that, it seems your idea worked Gajeel," I said. "Even though we kinda had to be a bit rough with some of the guards and the fact that you almost gave us away when you said that you wanted to fight this Kuromen guy!"

"Oh quit your whining. The disguises worked didn't they?" shrugged Gajeel. "Those guards didn't suspect a damn thing."

In case you were wondering how this came about, let me explain. Long story short, we needed to get a way to get on the airship without being seen and Gajeel of all people found a way. He came up with the idea of taking two of the soldiers' outfits and then disguising ourselves as part of the army. Course we had to knock out a couple soldiers in the process, but we managed to get to the Royal City without anyone suspecting a thing.

Soon enough, we were back in our normal clothes with our cloaks hiding our faces discarded the soldiers' clothes. Then we came out of the alley and walked around.

The city itself was completely different than Louen and Sycca put together. The streets themselves were lined with holographic lights and the people that walked around had nicer clothes compared to what we've seen in Louen and Sycca. Children were playing with their toys having fun and even the adults were smiling and merrily laughing enjoying their days. To say that this was somewhat strange was an understatement.

"What the heck... Everyone looks so happy," I spoke quietly. "You would think that it'd be run down just like the Louen and Sycca, but it looks just like an amusement park."

"Not to mention that we were able to get into this place so easily," said Gajeel. "I mean there wasn't a single guard that noticed us. And I'm willing to bet that this place is so festive is so that this king or whatever is trying win over the crowd oblivious to the fact that they're stealing magic power from other worlds. And it's working."

We continued to walk around hoping to see anything that could give us a clue, then I took notice of a person running past going towards a large crowd. The people in that crowd were cheering and looking as happy as could be. Feeling a bit curious, I walked on over to see what they were cheering about.

Then I stopped freezing dead in my tracks finally taking notice as to what the crowd was cheering about.

There in front of the crowd was a giant, big as a building lacrima. It was standing right in the middle of the square with a ring of guards standing around it making sure that no one would touch it.

It didn't a fool to know where that giant lacrima came from, but I couldn't believe it. "It... it can't be..." I murmured. "It's... it's..."

"Looks like we hit the jackpot," spoke Gajeel to seemed to be more calm than shocked. "It's a giant lacrima. Which means it's gotta be the one our friends are inside in. And if you look a bit closer, it seems that a part of it has been chunked off. There must more of it around somewhere."

I didn't really pay much attention to what Gajeel said completely transfixed on the lacrima. That was it. This was the lacrima that all of our friends were inside in. Everyone. Our master, Makarov, Macao, Wabaka, Erza, Gray, and most especially to me, Mira and Elfman. I then started walking into the crowd trying to get closer to the lacrima. The crowd continued to cheer loudly ringing in my ears, but that noise seemed to tune out as I continued to stare at the lacrima.

NO POV

As Willy began walking towards the lacrima, Gajeel took notice and went after him.

"Hey, kid! Get back here!" he said. "What the heck are you doing?!"

Willy didn't respond. He just continued to walk towards the crowd. Having no other way to reach him, Gajeel followed.

Then from a balcony just in front of the lacrima, a lone person appeared just on top of it. The person was an old man with long silver hair and a beard to match and wore fine tailored, brown robes of sorts and a hat on his head bearing a symbol. It didn't take a fool to realize based on what he was wearing, he was no doubt the king of Edolas that we've heard about.

The moment the crowd saw this man, they cheered even louder than before elated for seeing him. The king then tapped his staff on the podium he stood on and then the crowd quieted down in a matter of seconds. Then the king spoke, his voice echoing through the crowd.

"My children of Edolas! It brings me great joy to my heart when I say, that our Anima program was a success!" he boomed. "And it has produced enough magic power to last us for another decade! Let us rejoice together! Let us sing and dance! Let laughter roar throughout our sacred kingdom!"

The crowd let out a roar of cheers in response as Gajeel scoffed under his breath.

"Nothing, but a sack of crap," he muttered. "He simply broke into our world and stole from us. Plain and simple."

"The power within this lacrima belongs to all our loyal subjects of our fair homeland as they deserve!" continued the king. "Today we hold our future in our hands to ensure its prosperity into tomorrow and beyond! Therefore we must swear to protect this gift from heaven with our very lives and let is no one else take this magic power from our kingdom!"

The crowd let out a chorus of cheers once again as the king caused dramatically.

"My dear children of Edolas, today I shall take a most solemn vow for you as your benevolent ruler!" he went on. Then using his staff, he pierced it right on the smooth surface of the lacrima behind him causing cracks from the indent. "I will bring you all more power! More power than you could possibly imagine!"

He then pulled out his staff and raised high and proud as the crowd cheered once more, chanting Edolas. The indent where the king had stabbed it, had caused the cracks to grow bigger slightly and some pieces of it also fell from them falling until they hit the ground shattering like glass.

Gajeel couldn't be any more disgusted. "I can't believe this. They fell for it hook, line, and sinker," he said. "How can a bunch of people seriously get excited from a bunch of empty words."

"He'll pay... That monster is gonna pay for this..."

Gajeel heard a low and threatening voice causing him to turn his attention of where the voice came from. The voice came from Willy who had his hands balled up into fists trembling slightly. Then Gajeel noticed something else that made even him a bit surprised. Willy's hands were cloaked with water from his magic, but they were blue with a slight tinge of black. Willy then began to walk forward his face etched with rage.

WILLY'S POV

To say that I was angry was an understatement. I felt so overwhelmed with rage, I wanted to fly up and knock that old man off of his pedestal with an Iron Fist. Before I realized it, I was walking forward making my way into the crowd ready to kill, but then I felt a hand grab my wrist making me stop. I snapped my head around ready to clock whoever was trying to stop me when my eyes met Gajeel's who turned out to be the person who grabbed me.

"Take it easy, kid," he said. "This isn't the time."

"But... all our friends are in there!" I growled. "We've got to get them out of there!"

"I know, but if you really want to make this guy pay, then you need calm down," said Gajeel. "We'll get our chance to get that poser of a king. Just not right now."

I then looked back towards the king who had his lips open with laughter. My blood with was still boiling with anger, but with a deep breath I calmed down and I unclenched my fists which were shaking from the adrenaline. As much as I hated it, Gajeel was right. There was no sense in dealing with the king at least right now.

"OK. I'm alright now, Gajeel," I spoke quietly. "You can let go of me now."

Gajeel did so. "Let's get out of here," he said. "Before you and I both get any more dark ideas."

The two of us eventually managed to find a hotel to crash. It was now evening with the sun setting over the horizon giving the sky a beautiful yellow-orange glow. But I wasn't exactly enthralled by the sunset due to the events that transpired earlier today. The room was completely silent with the only sound being running water which was Gajeel taking a shower.

"Geez. This sucks!" I thought to myself. "All I could do was just stand there and watch while that lousy old man do that to the lacrima! I wish there was something I could do! Damn it..."

Then I heard the sound of the water stop and then the door opened. Gajeel then stepped out of the bathroom looking refreshed.

"Man. Nothing beats a good shower," he said. "Hey, Water Boy. It's your turn in you want to take a shower."

"No thanks. I'm fine," I spoke not really paying attention to him.

"Suit yourself," shrugged Gajeel as he got dressed. "You know that you're not gonna get anywhere by sulking you know."

"Well, can you really blame me?!" I snapped looking back at him glaring. "We just practically saw our friends right in front of us while the king practically paraded them right in front of our faces! And all we could do was do nothing! I say we storm the castle and wipe that smug look off the king's face!"

"Like I said, we'll get our chance. We just can't go around fighting willy-nilly," spoke Gajeel.

"Says the guy who was going around punching people the first chance he gets!" I spoke angrily. "I mean you practically just go and do your own thing without any regard for anyone!"

Gajeel glared back at me scowling. "Look. I did what I had to do to get us this far," he said. "And just because I'm a guy that likes to beat people up, doesn't mean that I'm a mindless idiot. There's a time and a place to bust some heads and those were times that we needed to. But I probably don't expect you to understand considering that you'd probably turn tail and run like you did back at the bar."

This made my eyes widen and I stared hard at Gajeel my hands tightening into fists. "What do you mean by that?" I asked in a threatening tone.

"Don't play dumb. I saw you back there when you just let those guys walk all over you like that," spoke Gajeel. "I would've beat all of their asses for dissing me. Hell, I bet even Salamander would have too."

"Well, I'm not like you or Natsu!" I yelled. "Maybe I want to try to talk things out and ignore the people who keep picking a fight instead of hurting people! "

"That kind of thinking is gonna set you up for people to walk all over you," Gajeel barked. "Being nice or ignoring people isn't gonna stop those who pick on you." He then looked into my eyes with a serious look on his face. "Look, I get it. You were in a dark guild and you were told that you did some bad crap without you knowing and now you don't wanna hurt anyone more than you have to. But you gotta understand that there will be some battles you can't run away from. Especially if it's an enemy or someone who makes fun of your guild or threatens to hurt your loved ones. If you're a real dragon slayer and a Fairy Tail wizard, you should have at least some sense of pride. Fight. Show them who's the boss and who's guild they're dissing. If you don't, then that makes you nothing short of a coward."

I clenched my fists again glaring dangerously at Gajeel not really being able to say another word to counter him. Then I turned around and headed towards the door.

"Where you going?" asked Gajeel gruffly.

"To cool off," I spoke coldly as I slammed the door behind me.

I power walked as far as I could as possible from the hotel. I was once again very angry, but mostly at Gajeel.

"Who does that guy think he is?!" I muttered angrily. "I'm acting like a coward? He doesn't know a damn thing about me! I mean come on! All of a sudden, I want to go off and bash some heads and then he tells me that I can't even though he's been doing it more than me?! Damn it!"

My voice echoed as I cursed angrily. I immediately covered my mouth realizing where I was.

"Man... I need to calm down... All of this is just gonna get me angrier and possibly get caught by the royal army soldiers. Maybe I should leave town for a bit."

I then spread my wings and took off flying into the air staying above the city, so no one would see me. As I flew, I happened to look down on the now silent town. Everyone seemed so peaceful now that they were fast asleep. However, it made me all the angrier. How could they be at peace at this unaware of what the king had done? I felt my anger flare up again, I just kept on flying.

I flew above the city until I was above a forest that was just next to it. I soon touched down on the ground inside the forest. The forest was quiet and the only sound I could hear was some sort of crickets chirping. I then walked around trying to get immersed into nature, but I still felt a little upset. Feeling like taking out my anger on something, I punched a tree as hard as I could. The tree jolted just a little bit and I heard some birds fly away. However, I felt my body shake from the punch and I felt my fist throb with pain. I let out a hiss of pain as I held my fist in agony.

"Ow...! That wasn't a good idea," I complained.

"I'd say it wasn't," said a voice. "That's what you get for punching a tree like that."

I immediately jumped turning around feeling a bit startled. Standing before me was a person. The person was a young boy no older than I was with some toned muscle on his arms, that wore a white sleeveless kimono with blue edges that had black triangles with a black hakama with brown sandals. The stranger also had long black hair that went to the hips with some bands hiding his face.

I immediately stood up instinctively putting up my fists, but the boy smiled kindly at me.

"Please. I mean you no harm," the boy spoke. "If I wanted to attack you, I would have done so already."

I slowly lowered my fists as I observed the boy. He didn't seem to be holding any weapons nor could I feel that he had magic power.

"I apologize about that," I spoke. "You just startled me is all. What... are you doing here?"

"I was just out for a nightly stroll," said the boy. "I felt a little tense, so I figured I'd take a walk by myself. Would you care to join me?"

I raised a brow at the boy. "You want to have a walk with me? A total stranger?"

"But of course," the boy chuckled. "After all, some walking could do you some good. You do look a bit tense. Besides, I don't mind if I walk with a stranger. It makes it that much more enjoyable and it'll help ease any stress. You'll like it."

I still was feeling a bit doubtful, but I figured it would be a good way to ease my anger. So I agreed.

The two of us then walked around the forest into the misty night. As we walked along, the boy let out a soft hum as he gazed around.

"The world just seems so different during the night," he spoke. "It's so beautiful and peaceful. Don't you think?"

"Yeah. I suppose it is," I agreed doubtfully.

"So... tell me. Why were you taking out your anger on that tree?" asked the boy. "Were you feeling upset with something?"

I looked at the boy a bit surprised by his question. I opened my mouth about to say something, but then I hesitated. I didn't really think it was a good idea to tell this boy about what was going on regarding the lacrima, but at this point, I wanted to ease my anger a bit, so I decided to talk but leaving out some details.

"Well... I really can't say much at the moment," I spoke choosing my words carefully. "But it has to do with a certain guy that I've been hanging around with. He said some things that made me feel a bit mad. Mostly me having to be a coward just because I'd prefer to walk away from a fight. I mean... there are some fights not worth for. Especially for no reason right?"

"Well... it would have to depend on the situation," said the boy. "If it was a pointless fight over something trivial, then it would pointless. However, in some other cases, it'd be a different story."

"What do you mean by that?" I asked.

"Well... take me for example," said the boy. "I for one am not too thrilled about fighting, however, there are two things that I fight for with all of my heart. Those things are someone that I care for and most of all, for pride."

"Pride? Isn't that... kind of pointless?" I asked. "I mean I get fighting for someone that I care about, but... why would you need to fight for your pride?"

The boy then stopped walking and looked up towards the night sky deep in thought. After a long pause, he spoke once more.

"Because my pride is something that I care about more than anything else in the world," he said. "I used to be someone who didn't really think much of myself. I would put my self down all the time and I would have very low self-confidence. But someone came up to me and saw potential in me and told me that I should take pride in myself and what I can do. Ever since then, I've strived to be the best I could be and I now have pride in myself as well as my abilities. So what I mean to say is, while you can become strong by protecting someone, it's also important to become strong by having a sense of pride. Especially for yourself. If you don't, then people will probably look down on you and you'll be an easy target."

I stared at the young boy. I felt a bit moved from hearing his story and at the same time, I remembered what Gajeel had told me before I left. Now that I thought about it, he pretty much said the exact same thing, but I was too angry to understand him at the time. This made my previous feelings dissipate and I couldn't help but feel bad for yelling at him a while back.

"I... I think I understand now," I said. "It makes me feel kinda bad for yelling at him."

"There's no need to feel bad," said the boy. "But you should apologize to the man you were arguing with just so that they're no hard feelings."

"I will," I replied nodding. "Thank you very much. I guess you were right. Walking kinda does make you feel better and it was pretty enjoyable and... you're pretty insightful for a boy your age."

"Anytime," smiled the boy. "I'm glad that I was able to help you. Now if you'll excuse me, I must be on my way. There's more of this night I need to enjoy. I hope you make up with your friend."

The boy then turned on his heel and seemed like he was about to walk away, but just before he did, he turned around and looked at me.

"I have feeling that you'll become a strong person," he said. "When a person has a balance of pride and the will to protect someone precious to them, that is when a person can truly become strong."

I was a bit surprised from being blindsided by the compliment, but I smiled. "Thanks."

The boy then turned towards the road in front of him. "I hope we meet again some time," he spoke. "Till then... farewell."

And with that, the boy walked away leaving me staring at his back. Then he halted and I heard him speak again.

"Oh. And one more thing," he said. "I'm not a boy. I'm a girl."

And then the stranger walked away disappearing into the night. After a few seconds of a delayed reaction, I gawked at the place where I saw the stranger disappear to my eyes wide with surprise.

"No way! He was a she?!" I exclaimed in my thoughts. "She looked so boyish though!"

Eventually, I made my way back to the Royal City flying towards the hotel where Gajeel and I were staying at. As I saw the hotel in sight, I saw someone walking around below me. At first, I really couldn't tell who it was and I thought it was a civilian, so I was going to hide, but as flew closer, I saw that it was a certain Iron Dragon Slayer. So I swooped down towards him until I landed in front of him on the ground.

As soon as did, Gajeel jumped a bit in surprise, but upon seeing that it was me, he scowled. "What the hell?! You almost gave me a freaking heart attack!" he whisper-yelled. "The hell is your deal?!"

"Sorry. I didn't mean to startle you," I apologized. "What are you doing out here exactly? Don't tell me you were worried about little old me?"

"So what if I was?" asked Gajeel huffily looking away. "You got a problem with that?"

"No. No, I don't," I chuckled. "Anyway, I wanted to apologize to you Gajeel. You were right and... I may have gotten a bit angry."

"I'll say you did," said Gajeel. "I mean you totally blew up for no reason at all."

Now it was my turn to scowl. "You know, you could say; 'No problem, Willy. I accept your apology' you know."

"I'm not exactly the kind of guy for saying stuff like that," scoffed Gajeel. Then his face softened. "But... I will say that it was kinda my fault too. I mean... I kinda pissed you off back there. So... I guess... I'm... uh... I'm... s... s..."

I could see that Gajeel was trying his best to apologize to me, but he looked kinda silly doing it causing me to chuckle a little. I then held out my hand.

"It's OK. You don't have to say anything more," I said. "What do you say that I accept your apology and call it even? Deal?"

Gajeel looked at my hand and then at me. Then he flashed a toothy smile and grabbed my hand in earnest.

"Deal. Now then... what do you say we head back to our hotel and get some shut-eye?" he spoke. "We got a long day ahead of us, ya know."

"Yeah. Let's." I agreed.

The two of us shook hands and then headed back to the hotel hoping to get as much rest as we can.

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