Chapter Three
*Time-Skip*Mayor's house*
It took about a half hour to get to the mayor's house from the train station. It was right in the center of the city, raised on a platform for all to see. Once Wendy and I got to the mayor's house, we were immediately taken to a study to wait for him. We decided that I would talk since Wendy is always shy around new people, especially those of importance. We waited in silence for just under ten minutes. The mayor was a short man. Not really handsome, but not unattractive either, dirty blonde hair that was swept back with piercing grey eyes.
"Good evening. I apologize to have kept you waiting. My name is Frederick Wagoner."
"Hello, my name is Lucy, and this is Wendy. We came because of your request about the rogue mage causing trouble." I said, gesturing to both myself and Wendy.
"Yes, thank you for coming." He said with a quick nod.
"We're going to need as much information as you can provide."
"I must say, we don't know very much. Nobody has gotten a good look at him. He is normally in the shadows, and is only ever seen just before dawn. After that he disappears."
"And how many times has this happened?" I took a quick glance at Wendy to notice her getting uneasy, and her nose was twitching as well.
"Four times. That we know of anyways."
"Do you know what type of magic he uses?"
"I'm not sure, but I believe it is either air magic or shadow magic, since nobody can see it."
"I see. Wendy, how many mages did you notice were here in the city?"
"U-um, I believe about one in every 200 people. But I can only tell so far out and I may have been just smelling a few mages that just kept getting within range."
"Wendy, calm yourself. You did great. Mr. Wagoner, I'm going to need pictures of all the mages who are citizens here, along with what their magic is. And a map with all the sightings of the mage marked on it."
"Of course, I will get them to you as soon as they are ready."
"Thank you. I think we should take our leave now." I said, standing up to leave with Wendy taking a few moments to stand as well. "We can find our way out. You should attend to your other guests."
"What makes you think that I have other guests?" He looked quite surprised. I doubt he even knows they're here yet. Wendy, too, looked surprised.
"Not long after you came into the room, Wendy's nose started to twitch, meaning she smelt someone approaching. I don't blame you for not knowing they were here. Nothing beats a dragon's nose." I quickly walked out of the room, something about him bugged me, and I didn't want to stay a second longer than needed. Wendy was right behind me.
Once we were out the front door, I slowed my pace, I heard Wendy let out a sigh of relief.
"Wendy?"
"Yes?"
"Did something about him seem, I don't know... off to you?"
"Not really." I just nodded my response.
"You know, Lucy, you really are quite amazing. It's like your brain is always coming up with new plans, adjusting for every new thing that you learn. Not only that, you are observant."
"Oh, jeez, Wendy, you're flattering me."
"You mentioned the other guests just to see how he would react, didn't you? You wanted to know if there was something he was hiding. You also wanted him to know that you were the one in control, not him."
"You're right about that! Nothing ticks me off more than some guy acting like he's better than us. I mean, just because he hired us doesn't mean he can look at us like we're nothing important. I wanted him to know that, if we wanted to, we could just leave him to deal with the problem. But, there was another reason. If we knew something going on in his own house that he didn't, he would have more confidence in our abilities and get us what we need faster."
"See? New plans because you noticed something as simple as the twitching of my nose. You could be on the level of Erza, in terms of plans."
"Oh, before I forget, you looked nervous once you smelt the other people. Any reason why?"
"Well, it could be nothing, but there were four people going to his house."
"What's so bad about that?"
"Nothing, except they were all mages. And I went over the request board back at the guild while you were talking to Mira. There were no other requests for this city."
"I see. Now I understand why you were nervous. Do you still remember their scents?"
"Ya, they seemed familiar, so they were pretty easy to memorize."
"Good. Then we'll sleep tonight, wake an hour before dawn, look for the rogue mage, then we'll search for those scents tomorrow during the day. We'll also continue looking for the rogue mage at the same time. I know that this mage scent thing is still really new to you, like, today new, but do you think you'll be able to do all that?"
"If we find the rogue mage before dawn, and I can get his scent, then probably, but if we don't then then I'm not so sure."
"If we find him before dawn then I hope we won't need to search for him after that."
"I guess that's true." She said giggling and blushing with her hand behind her head. I swear it was the cutest sight I had ever seen.
"Now, let's go eat. We should also pick up something to go for breakfast tomorrow." I wasn't hungry a few minutes ago. I mean, I ate on the train. I sighed. I think Natsu's starting to rub off on me. And judging by the look on Wendy's face, she's thinking the same thing.
We went to a small restaurant near our hotel. Dinner went by calmly, nothing really exciting, it was much the same as the train, only this time I got to tease Wendy about being the Juliette to a certain Romeo. Though, I guess that isn't exactly right. They aren't from rival families, and Romeo's and Juliette's love only lasted a few days before they both killed themselves. Oh well. It worked at the time.
After dinner we went to a bakery and got some muffins and croissants for breakfast in the morning. After we got what we needed, we went to the hotel, got a room, took a bath and went to bed.