Sanctity of Life
Chapter 2 – The train ride.
"So, you must be a strong wizard to take an S class job all by yourself huh?" Rei asked him, as usual she was overly enthusiastic, which only served to annoy the man more. 'why is she talking to me so casually' he wondered. "I'm not a wizard, as for strong, no idea, never bothered to compare myself to others" he responded, annoyance visible on his face.
"Oh! You're not in a guild? Why not?! Being part of a guild is amazing! You get to meet all sorts of wonderful wizards, make great friends and..."
"Can you go 5 minutes without talking?!" he snapped at her, the man never was very good with social skills, but Rei just seemed to get on his nerves more than anyone he had the misfortune to encounter.
"I can, but I won't, not until you start treating me with a bit of respect, I think that's fair, don't you?" she shrugged with her arms out, her annoying smirk and carefree attitude persisting on her person.
"I don't have the patience to humour your childlike demeanour, the more you talk, the more I want to kill you." A dark aura surrounded the man, Rei quickly realised that he was serious. 'I'll need to be careful around him, he might actually kill me, I suppose there are worse ways to die…' "Okay, I'll stop bothering you, but we should discuss where we're staying for the night and how we're going to split the reward."
"Thank you, there's plenty of hotels at Boat Port, trouble is they're rather pricey, even for just 1 night, it'll be best to get one room and share, unless you're loaded. As for the reward, I'm fine with 30% of the cut."
"I guess that's okay, but I'm taking the bed, and are you sure you're okay with just 30%? You could just do half a dozen D class jobs and make double the money" Rei was surprised, she was happy that she was going to make a vast majority of the money, but it seemed a little unfair.
"30% is more than enough, I don't look it but I'm very rich, I just need some extra for…" He paused, thinking of how to end his sentence, after a few seconds he finally answered; "Personal expenses." He didn't want to reveal that he spent so much on alcohol and drugs, Rei didn't need to know that, once this job was done, he wouldn't have to see or speak to her ever again. 'Good riddance.' For some reason, his relief seemed forced.
"Personal expenses? What do you spend so much money on?"
"You're being annoying again"
"Beginning to see why you haven't joined a guild, oh hey one last question, it's import-"
"We're here."
Rei and the man stopped, in front of them was a train station, the trains all had an enormous brand printed on the front and back, it read "Fiore Railway". Fiore was the name of the continent they were in, another name for Fiore was Ishgar. Without warning, the man got on a train and Rei casually followed.
"So how much is the fare from here to boat town?"
"It's free for us"
"Huh?" Rei blankly stared at the man in confusion, she blinked a few times, maybe she heard him wrong, so she asked again.
"So how much is the fare from here to boat town?" She asked again, this time she could actually see how much he got annoyed, and Rei was enjoying this, getting on his nerves was surprisingly fun, his reactions were so cute and funny, he came more edgy then angry.
The man started growling, a vein popping on the left side of his forehead as he closed his eyes in further annoyance and rage. "I said it's free for us", his tone was harsher than it had ever been. 'Either she's got a talent for pissing me off or I need to take anger management'
"How can it be free? The journey from here to Boat Port is just over a hundred miles, that's at least 4 hours in this train!" Rei was in utter disbelief, no way was it free, did he plan on sneaking out of the train without paying? That scumbag, a mage should never betray anyone like that! She was going to give him a piece of his mind, he wasn't the only one capable to making death threats.
"I own Fiore Railway." He answered a lot calmer.
"You… YOU WHAT?!" Rei shouted at the top of her lungs, causing every passenger to suddenly turn around and stare at the pair, she realised how loud she was being, so she apologised to everyone and turned her attention back to the man.
"I told you I'm rich, now sit down and shut up. We have a long journey, don't push my buttons more then you already have" the dark aura that had previously engulfed him was back, although this time it was a lot more pressurising, the man hadn't given a threat, instead it was a clear promise. 'Has he killed before?' she couldn't help wondering as she sat down, his warning wasn't at all threatening to her, she was a proud member of Fairy Tail after all.
As the train started moving, Rei realised she hadn't got to ask her last question, "So, we should discuss what magic we use, so we know how compatible we are as a team, according to the job… wait where is the memo?!" She frantically searched herself and her bag, worry started showing all over her face.
"Calm down, I took it remember."
"Oh right" she sighed, panic leaving her body.
"Anyway, according to the memo, we are to take out a plethora of Dark Guilds currently occupying the island, so we should know what magic we use. I'll start, I use both active and static lightning make magic, I can create inanimate objects such as swords out of lightning with static version, and with active version I can create movable animals and other creatures that I'm able to imagine out of lightning and crush my opponents with them. How about you?"
"All." He simply replied.
"Huh? What do you mean all? Elaborate."
"I'm a mystic type, I can use every magic that I see."
"Wow, I've heard stories about mystic types, but I thought that was just a legend."
"It's as real as Dragon Slayers."
"Speaking of that, can you use Dragon Slayer magic if you see it?"
"I can, I'm actually a 2nd generation Dragon Slayer, due to me being a mystic type, I was born with too much magic energy, so my parents planted a dragon lacrima inside me to stabilise my body."
"Oh, that's amazing, what's your element?"
"Arcane. I can consume and use every element, long story short, Magic attacks don't work on me, except Holder Type magic."
'Wait, why does that sound familiar, hang on, no way!' Rei had suddenly realised something, she had heard of this man many times before! "YOU'RE THE CRIMSON PRINCE!" She shouted at the top of her lungs, she was so excited to meet an emperor of Ishgar, a status shared amongst the 4 highest ranked Wizard Saints. The man glared at her and then she realised she'd gotten too hysterical again, she apologised to the other passengers again and turned back to face the man.
"You've heard of me?"
"Of course, I have! You've been given the title of a Wizard Saint, an honour shared amongst the 10 strongest Wizards on our continent, how could I have not heard of you?!"
"It's not that big of a deal."
"It totally is! Actually, my Guild Master is a wizard saint, He's Makarov Dreyar."
"Makarov? Wait, don't tell me you're in Fairy Tail?
"I am!" She replied immediately, you could tell how much her guild meant to her, she had the biggest smile the man had ever seen on anyone.
"Fairy Tail is the best guild in all of Fiore, so why the hell are you at a magic council agency looking for a job? Surely your guild receives many S class jobs.
"Here's a better question, the wizard saints are in charge of the council, they're the ones who make the jobs and sanction guilds to be formed, why are you, one of the emperors of Ishgar taking one?
"I was given the rank of saint and emperor of Ishgar by Iron-Rock Jura, I never wanted it. The bold cunt has been trying to get me to work as a council senior for 3 years, he thought if he made a saint and emperor then I'd finally cave. Jokes on him."
"Wow, has anyone ever told you how petty you are?"
"People don't survive this long when they're talking to me"
"So…" She smiled with a shit eating grin, "What's different about me?"
The question stunned the man, for the first time in his life, he didn't have a response. What was different about her? He cleared his throat and reluctantly answered her.
"You're not as bad."
"Are you giving me a compliment?"
"You're still the most annoying person I've met."
"Hmph." Rei pouted and looked away. "Well with the Crimson Prince on my side, there's no way we're gonna fail the job!" A quick yawn escaped her lips, she lied across the desk and started to sleep.
"Wake me up when we're at Boat Port" She was snoring before the man had the chance to reply. Realising this was his chance, he got up and rushed to the toilets. He pulled out a knife from his pocket, rolled his left arm's sleeve up and rapidly gave his arm several deep cuts, he held his arms on the sink to ensure the blood didn't spill on the floor. On any other human, the amount of blood lost would have killed them, on this man however, he simply lost consciousness.
Obnoxious pounding against the door woke him up, he looked around confused. How long was he out for? What was he even doing here? And why is there someone knocking on the door so frantically?
"Sir! Are you in there? Is everything okay? You've been in there for 2 hours."
"I'm fine, I'll be out shortly." The man remembered what he was doing in the toilet and looked down on his arm, the wounds had closed, leaving visible fresh scars. 'Why can't I just fucking die like a normal person?!' He pulled his sleeve down, washed his hands, and exited the toilet. The guard outside looked concerned, he asked if the man was okay and received a light nod as the man walked past him and back to where his 'partner' was.
Rei was still sleeping; however, her position had changed, she was sitting up and her head was lying against her shoulder. 'She's going to have a sore neck when she wakes up, this idiot.' He decided to change her position, if he left her like that then he'd have to put up with her complaining when she woke up. His hands started to tremble as they got closer to her head, when all of a sudden without warning, Rei grabbed onto his arm causing the man to flinch. His entire body trembled, and he felt a panic attack coming as she made him sit down and leaned her head against his shoulder and continued sleeping, his arms still being clutched by her. He breathed heavily for a moment and then was surprised as he calmed down, he was actually touching someone, and it was okay. Why was it okay? He felt tired, the panic and anxiety draining out of him must have exhausted him despite his earlier 'nap'. He was about to fall asleep when he slapped himself as hard as he could with his free hand. 'Don't sleep, can't sleep'. He forced himself to stay awake, he couldn't remember the last time he properly slept, caffeine and alcohol could work wonders, but he couldn't get any now. So, he settled for the next best thing, he bit his tongue as hard as he could until it started bleeding, the pain was successful in keeping him awake. He stayed perfectly still for the remaining 2 hours of the journey, staring at the ceiling the entire time as Rei continued sleeping. For the first time, in a long time, he felt at peace.