I Am Not a Mage

by bored peasant

Reborn into a world of magic, and I can't even use it. Doesn't mean that I can't do anything though. The world isn't going to leave me alone just because I can't, so might as well use my knowledge and do what I can to prevent some of the bad stuff happening. SI.

3. Chapter 3

A/N

Hi everyone. It the latest chapter in the wildcard entry division. I hope you enjoy it. To get updates first, or just to support me on my pat-re-on, head over there and look me up. Bored Peasant's Written Works. I will be posting chapters there before I post here.

Special thanks to Ranger, FallenMetalGod, Ezoz and BuzzGrave for their support.

On with the story!

…

CHAPTER 3 – BUSINESS MEETINGS

I looked up at the people standing in front of me and gave a smile. I stood up as I addressed Lucy directly. My mother had raised a gentleman, after all.

"You know, Miss Lucy, when I said that you could bring anyone that you want, I really didn't expect you to bring half the guild with you," I said, giving her a smile to show that there was no bite in my tone.

She gave a small blush out of embarrassment. "Yeah, well, I didn't think that this many people would want to come with me," she said, not looking at my face.

"That's fine," I grinned. "I certainly don't blame you. Though, I do believe that we are going to need some more chairs if they are to join us."

The sound of armour shod feet clattered through the crowd and the gathered people split apart as Erza Scarlet made her way front and centre.

"Zack Brown," she said, her face and voice both stern. "You should have let us all know that you were alive. Master Makarov especially was upset at your disappearance."

I cocked my head at her. If you didn't know Erza as well as I did, you would think that she meant what she said at face value. After hours of getting to know her over sword training and talking about our problems, I did in fact know better. And I could see that there was a little bit of relief in her stern expression, as well as a small amount of shame. I had been unsure on how to deal with her before this, mostly because of how she had cut herself away from me after I killed those dark wizards.

Now, I guess time had passed. Maybe thinking I was dead had made her do some self-reflection, maybe Makarov had finally gotten through to her. Who knows? Still, she was not being actively hostile. But having worked on her communication skills for a few years, I knew the best way to get her to respond.

I tilted my head and raised my eyebrows. "Is that all?" I asked.

Erza blinked at my reply before her face flushed slightly in embarrassment and she looked a little sheepish. "No," she confessed. "I am also glad to see you alive. I had worried that you had perished before I could apologise for my treatment of you after that… incident."

Well, how about that? Two apologies from Fairy Tail's two main ladies in the same day. That was a nice surprise. But I still had a bit of bad blood from this unfriending.

"I needed a friend after that," I said, frowning at her. "Some people had just tried to kill me. Then the so-called wise and powerful Magic Council tried to have me locked up for life for defending myself because of their failed policies. When I needed the support of someone, anyone, you left me. I had thought we were friends, even if I wasn't a wizard. But you turned your back on me, just like the others."

Erza had the decency to look ashamed. She stepped forward and bowed low at the waist, unintentionally giving the guild members standing behind a brief panty flash. "I know," she said firmly, sorrowfully. "I failed at being your friend in a time of need and that is unforgivable. Please, hit me for my penance!"

I blinked. Oh, right, she had that weird little personality trait. I had almost forgotten about that. Still, she seemed legitimate in her remorse, and she hadn't beaten the hell out of me except for training, which put her a step ahead of Mira. I know I could hold a grudge against this if I wanted to, but the truth was, I was tired of being lonely. The war had sapped a lot of my anger by putting things in perspective.

I still wouldn't forgive the majority of Fairy Tail for a while, if ever. But Erza was here, making a proper and genuine attempt at reconciliation. That was something I could accept.

I stepped forward until I was standing right in front of her bowing form. "Stand up, Erza," I said, softly but commandingly. She did so, and I realised that she was a head shorter than me now. I looked down at the red head. "You know that even if I was to hit you with my full strength, it would barely do anything to you. All it would do is break my hand. So, I am not going to hit you. But I will remind you that you have forgotten my rule."

She blinked at me in confusion for a moment, before her face cleared. Then, with a white glow that covered her whole body, outlining her remarkable figure while at the same time not allowing anything explicit to show, Erza Requipped into a normal white blouse to go with her blue skirt. "I am sorry," she said, sheepishly. "I had forgotten not to wear armour when we are around each other."

I nodded. Then I slowly started to bring my hand up from my waist, moving slow enough that it made it seem like I was trying to not startle a horse or something. Erza turned at looked at my hand as it made it to a height with her face. She didn't move as I slowly brought my fingers back into my palm, moving it slowly towards her questioning expression, stopping at only a couple of inches from touching her.

Then I flicked her nose.

The sudden unexpected contact made her jump slightly and she scrunched up her face cutely before rubbing her nose.

"Apology accepted," I said softly, so only she, and maybe Lucy who was close enough, could hear it. "Maybe we can train again another time. But for now, I really do need to do some work."

Erza stopped rubbing her nose and nodded. "Very well," she said. "And thank you." With her piece said, Erza stepped back into the crowd of watching mages.

I looked over to the crowd of wizards that were watching us, a few of them nodding to me in greeting some of the scowling or glaring at me suspiciously. A few of the younger girls I didn't recognise from before I left had blushes, telling me that they had probably been told about my singing or writing career in the time I had been at the guild hall earlier. I gave them all a warm smile, leading to more blushing and a few giggles. My eyes stopped on one particular, pink-haired girl.

"Miss Olietta," I said, my tone pleasant. "Wonderful to see you looking so well. I have a job that only you can perform for me for, shall we say, a hundred thousand jewels?"

Laki Olietta, the blood-loving Wood-Make wizard, looked a little startled at being singled out. "W-what?" she stuttered. We didn't know each other at all, so she was probably surprised that I knew her name. She had joined after my split with Fairy Tail but before I had left Fiore for Iceberg. I had seen her around the guild once or twice but we had never spoken to each other.

"I need you to use your Wood-Make magic to create an extra…," I took a quick headcount of the group, "… eighteen chairs, please. Will you take the job?"

She stared at me in disbelief. "A hundred thousand to make eighteen chairs with my magic?"

I shrug. "Fine. A hundred fifty thousand."

Her eyes bulged. "What?"

"Fine!" I declared, feeling amused by her reaction. "Two hundred thousand and not a jewel more." I shot her a cheeky grin. "You drive a hard bargain, Miss Olietta." I fish the jewels out of my pocket and throw them down on the table.

Laki stared at me, her mouth open wide and her glasses sliding down her nose. I just stare at her expectantly, before giving a wide smile. Her jaw clicked shut audibly and she visibly shook off her shock and straightened. "Wood-Make: Things for sitting down on!" Right, she had her own particular quirks, one being her spell naming choices.

A few glowing magic circles later and everyone now had a chair. One by one everyone took a seat, though I could see several people still staring at me suspiciously. I blatantly ignored them.

I stared at Lucy for a long moment and she stared right back at me, looking like she wanted to say something but couldn't find the courage. I spent a moment letting my eyes wander over her features, recognising everything from the anime. Her blonde hair with the side ponytail, her large, brown eyes, everything looked familiar.

"If you asked her to meet you just to stare at her, then you could have just stayed at the guild to act like a creep," Gray Fullbuster's voice broke the silence.

Lucy immediately flushed in embarrassment, while I just looked at the dark-haired ice user. "Says the guy sitting in his underwear," I countered in a deadpanned tone.

"Wha… oh come on!"

"It's not like that!" Lucy objected loudly. "It's just… are you really Dave Grohl?"

I smiled at the question. It was an homage to the first singer I had ever really been introduced to in my first life. I had loved listening to Nirvana and Foo Fighters, they were both among my favourite bands growing up, and Dave Grohl always seemed like a great guy.

"I did go by that as my stage name for a few years, yes," I said, nodding once.

She squealed in joy then clapped her hands over her mouth. "Sorry! it's just, I loved listening to your music when I was younger. I had such a crush on you when I was fourteen…" She cut herself off my shoving her hands over her mouth as her face went bright red in embarrassment over her little confession. A few of the girls in the group behind her were nodding and giggling to themselves, their own blushes clear to see.

A pretty girl having a crush on me? Not something I was used to before this life but something I had seen a fair bit during my singing career. I gave her an easy smile and waved her off. "Not a problem. Did you have a favourite song?"

She looked thoughtful for a moment and tapped her bottom lip with a finger. "Hmmm, probably 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow', or 'Pure Imagination'. When I was younger, I really wanted to be out there in the world and was stuck at home, so those songs felt like they spoke to me about wishing that I could be somewhere else. But I really liked your work on 'This is Me' too."

The girls behind her nodded again too.

Ah yes, Willy Wonka and Wizard of Oz. Easy songs to remember and recreate on the guitar. I chuckled. "'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' was actually the first song I wrote when I was younger." Well, stole, but no one here would know that. "And 'This is Me' was the largest collaboration that I have ever done. It took weeks of practice with the Crocus Choir to get that right. Then we donated the money from that performance to the Crocus orphanage."

The group of girls behind Lucy sighed dreamily as if it was the most benevolent thing I had ever done. It was getting hard not rolling my eyes at them.

"And do you also write under the name of Mr Tolkein?" Lucy asked, looking a little more confident. It took a moment to remember that she had also been an avid reader, using the knowledge she had gained from books to help out on some of their jobs.

I nodded. "I take it you have read some of my books," I stated, not really asking a question.

She nodded eagerly. "Yes, actually…" she drifted off and bit her lip nervously as she looked at the table shyly. "I really loved the Hobbit. And The Fall of Troy was just so sad!"

I gave her another smile, causing her to blush again. "Yes, well unfortunately life can get like that," I said reasonably. "And far too often the people who suffer most from bad choices are never the ones who made the choice in the first place.

"For my part," I continued, "I must apologise for staring at you as I did. It's just, you look so much like your mother."

She jerked back in shock and her mouth dropped. "You knew my mum?" she asked, her voice hushed.

I shook my head. "Not personally," I corrected myself. "I did see Layla and learned quite a bit about her when I was studying about different types of magic. She was one hell of a Celestial Spirit wizard."

Lucy's eyes gained a slight sheen and she looked down at the table. "Yes, she was," the blonde whispered. Her guild members looked at Lucy with sympathy and Levy reached out to pat her arm.

"It's ok, Luce," she said in a low voice. Erza reached out and gave her a pat on the shoulder with her non-gauntleted hand.

"My apologies," I said. "I didn't mean to make you feel bad. But," I tried to make my voice upbeat to raise the mood a little bit, "it seems like you have started walking the path of a Celestial Spirit wizard too."

Lucy looked up and gave a small smile. "Yeah. I wanted to take after my mom."

"Not just her," I said, turning more conversational. "Many of your female ancestors have been Celestial Spirit wizards. Not all of them have had every key, but I know of at least two of them in the past have had all twelve gold keys. Speaking of, did you get your key back off Happy?"

"Huh? What key?" Lucy asked, looking down at the keys on her belt. "You'd better not have done something you stupid cat!"

"I didn't do anything!" Happy wailed.

I blinked, remembering that Happy didn't give her the key until mid-mission for the Lullaby job. Oh well, nothing wrong with having the Virgo key early. "At the guild hall, Happy had another key on him. A gold one. I thought it was yours because, well, you are a Celestial Spirit wizard."

"Oh," Lucy said, looking back up from her key ring. "Well, I am not missing one. Happy, do you know what he's talking about?"

"Oh yeah!" the flying cat exclaimed. "It turns out that the weird guy Everlue at the last job had the Virgo Celestial key and she wanted to come with me so she could be your Spirit!" Her whole demeanour had changed to upbeat at that little declaration.

"That's awesome!" Lucy shouted excitedly. "Give me the key, please!"

"Here ya go, Loony!" Happy said cheerfully, pulling out the gold key and throwing it to the blonde.

"Oh, I want to yell at you for that but I'm just so happy to have this key!" Lucy cooed, holding up the key almost reverently in both hands.

"Well, that is wonderful," I said smiling at the blonde girl. "I am happy for you."

She nodded cheerfully in acknowledgement as she hooked her new gold key to the keychain on her belt.

"Hey Zack!" Natsu cut in, clearly reaching the maximum length of time he could sit still without shooting his mouth off. "What happened over there during the war? Tell us some stories!"

Immediately, my good mood vanished and I couldn't help turning a stony expression towards the pink-haired idiot. I looked at him for a long time before turning back to Lucy. I had always struggled to get past Natsu's straight up idiocy and his lack of desire to improve his mental faculties. Now, I just couldn't be bothered to waste any more time on the moron.

"It seems like this is about the right time to move on to the business part of our conversation," I said, ignoring the dragon slayer. "But first…"

I reached into my back and pulled out a large book, titled, Lord of the Rings, I had finished it after failing the Century Quest when I had just wanted to get away from people for a while and do something that felt productive and non-combative. It was done to the best I could remember from both the books and the movies. Not quite to the level of the real ones by Mr Tolkein but I think it was an admirable recreation.

"Bluebell," I said, looking at Levy. "I thought you might be interested in this."

She indeed stared at the book in my hands with a hungry look on her face. "What is that?" she asked, inching closer to the book, as if it was an animal she might scare it away if she moved too fast.

I gave her a grin. "An advanced copy of my latest book," I said casually. "It's a sequel to…" I blinked and cut myself off as the book seemingly vanished instantly from my hands and was now sitting open on the petite girl's lap.

"… The Hobbit," I finished, feeling amused at the Levy's enthusiasm. "Let me know what you think when you finish."

She looked up long enough to blush at me and give a bashful smile in gratitude before she turned back to the book with that hungry, intense expression. I couldn't help but notice that her two minions/admirers gave me a filthy glare.

"Uh," Lucy spoke up, fidgeting a little as she looked at the book. "Do you mind… I mean if it's all right…"

I laughed in genuine amusement. "Yes, you can read it when she is done. Or I can just send you a new one."

"Hey Zack, I asked you a question!" Natsu whined out. "What happened over there?"

This time Erza had the sense to smack Natsu in the head. "Don't be a fool!"

"Argh, what did I do?" he moaned rubbing his head as Grey sneered at him.

"Nice going ya moron," he snarked.

"Silence!" Erza barked, glaring at the younger teens.

"Yes ma'am!" they cried out in unison.

I watched all of this with a bemused expression before looking back at Lucy. "Now, Miss Lucy, I know that you currently have several gold Celestial Spirit keys. Do you mind if I ask which ones?"

Her face lit up as I asked about her Spirits. Clearly the girl was very passionate about her Celestial friends.

"Of course!" she beamed. "I have the keys for Taurus, Cancer and Aquarius. And Virgo now, of course."

I gave her a nod. "That's a great start for one of your family. And it is even better that you have the key I was looking for."

She looked confused. "Uh, really? And what do you mean by my family?"

I gave her a smile, while at the same time feeling a little bad for the girl. Clearly her dad had never told her about her mother's family, if he ever knew, and her mum had died before she was able to.

"Well," I replied. "As I said, having Celestial Spirits seems to be a family trait for your mother's family. In fact, the records I have seen suggest that the first person to hold all twelve gold keys was one of your ancestors about four hundred years ago named Anna. I know that your mother was rumoured to also have held all twelve keys."

"Wow," Lucy looked stunned to hear about her family history. "I had no idea… Is it true?"

"I would say it probably is true," Erza's voice cut in. I looked at the red headed wizard. "Zack has always been very good at getting the correct information. It is what has made him so successful in quests, despite his lack of magic."

A few people made surprised noises. I merely nodded my thanks to Erza.

I gave Lucy an encouraging smile. "Yes, it is amazing to learn things about our personal histories. I think it is why some of my books are so enjoyed." I gave her a conspiratorial wink, which led her to blush.

"But it is also for history that I would like to talk with your Spirit, Aquarius," I continued.

Lucy blinked in surprise, the wonder of moments before replaced by confusion. Going by the faces around us, the rest of the guild were equally clueless. I had no idea if they had met the mermaid Spirit before, except Natsu and Happy, but I guess there was at least some rumours of what she was like.

"You need to speak to one of my Spirits?" Lucy asked, dumbfounded.

I gave a small smile. "That's what I said. I will even make a job of it. Ten minutes to talk to your Spirit and you can get two hundred thousand jewels."

Her mouth dropped. "What?"

I couldn't help it. I put on a hurt face. "Well, if you don't want it…"

"DEAL!" she shouted, jumping to her feet, her boobs jiggling at the sudden motion, which I was most certainly not watching. "Um," she continued sheepishly, "I mean, I agree to the… uh… job."

"That's great Luce," Levy's voice came absently from the bookworm, who just turned a page without looking up.

"Indeed," I agreed with a grin at the bibliophile. I turned back to Lucy. "Shall we find some clean water for you to summon her?"

"NO!" Natsu shouted and jumped forward. "Damn it, Zack! Stop ignoring me and tell me about the war!" The Fire Dragon Slayer slammed his fists on the table, smashing the wood to pieces. A little piece cut my check as small shards went everywhere.

"Great work you flame brain!" Grey shouted, flinching away from the debris.

"Natsu!" Erza barked, stepping forward and bonking the pink haired boy with a newly gauntleted fist as she quickly Requipped back into her normal armour. "Stop disrespecting Fairy Tail with your behaviour!"

I raised my right hand to stop everything and the wizards fell silent. I slowly stood and pulled a handkerchief out of my pocket. I slowly wiped the drops of blood that were slowly creeping down my cheek and held the handkerchief there for a moment until the runes sewed on it forced the bleeding to stop. Then I looked at Natsu.

"Very well, Natsu," I said, my voice deceptively calm. "You want to know what happened in the war?" I stepped closer to him right into his personal space, standing nearly a head taller than the dragon slayer. I made sure to look him right in the eye. Even though in a straight fight we both knew that he would demolish me, I could see that my change in behaviour was unsettling him.

"I killed people, Natsu," I said, my pleasant tone completely at odds with the words I was saying. "I killed a looot of people. Hundreds, if not more. I killed them on the battlefield. I killed them off it. I stabbed them in the front. I speared them from behind when they didn't even know I was there. I slit their throats while they were asleep. I tortured them for information, before I cut their heads off.

"Of course, it wasn't just the enemy that died," I continued conversationally, ignoring how the faces of the assembled wizards either paled or went green. "Plenty of my friends died too, in the same way that we killed the enemy. I fought battles that would last days at a time, killing thousands of people on both sides. We would fight until we collapsed from exhaustion, while the battles kept going around us. And when we woke up, we kept fighting, with even less of our friends still alive than when we passed out."

By this time I was looming over the dragon slayer, who was withdrawing into himself. All his enthusiasm was gone. I had to admit, I did feel some sort of savage satisfaction with him pulling away like this. I had always had a hard time dealing with Natsu. Oh sure, he liked to have fun and he was actually very easy to train because he always wanted to get stronger. But the guy was an idiot that had no consideration for collateral damage. He didn't care how many lives were hurt as a result of his fights, as long as he got to fight someone and win.

Case in point. "We left entire villages devasted with the war, Natsu," I said, seeing a few people, including Erza, looking stone faced at that. "I imagine its how quite a few people in Hargeon felt after you destroyed many of the houses there and ran away, ignoring how many people required medical attention, or how many businesses you destroyed, how many livelihoods were lost. Because you didn't care that you were causing damage. You remember? How you fled from the Rune Knights and didn't bother paying those people back for how you negatively affected their lives?"

By now Natsu was wincing and his face was twisted in guilt as he thought, probably for the first time, about what had happened in Hargeon as a result of his fight with Bora. While the fight was just, the lack of care wasn't.

I gave him a bitter smile. "So tell me Natsu," I said cuttingly. "Does that excite you? Does it make you feel 'fired up'? Does it make you want to go and do it too?"

Natsu didn't say anything, but he gave a tiny head shake. Maybe, just maybe, I had gotten through to the idiot.

I stepped back and took a deep breath, letting out the dark emotions that had resurfaced in my discussion. "I fought a war, Natsu. There was nothing glorious about it."

I looked around at the guild in front of me and saw that most of them staring at me terrified, like I was going to start attacking them. Which was ridiculous of course. Most of these people here could probably walk off any beating I could give. I gave a bitter shake of my head and turned back to Lucy.

"I'm sorry, Miss Lucy," I said with a bow. "I have little enough patience for things that I find annoying and since the war, it is easier than I would like to lose it when I get frustrated. I didn't mean to scare you."

"Oh?" Lucy stammered slightly, before she stood up straighter. "No, it's fine," she said more firmly. "Natsu was out of line. You don't have to apologise for that."

"No, I do," I said, straightening up. "We haven't met before, and I would hate it if the only impression you had of me was either a madman or someone that was to be pitied for how the war was. I am better than that and refuse to let any such tragedy turn me into a rabid dog."

"Oh?" Lucy asked, confused. "Well, it's ok. I admit that it was… surprising to see how you talked to Natsu, but he was being a jerk so it is fine."

I gave her a soft smile and nodded. "Thank you," I said. "Now, shall we get on with the job?"

We stood up and walked over to a small pond nearby, another reason why I chose this particular café. The rest of the guild followed along behind us muttering to themselves, though I didn't pay attention to them. I did notice that both Mirajane and Erza were in the crowd trailing us curiously, the redhead at the front and the white-haired girl trying to be inconspicuous at the back. It didn't really work when she was standing next to her giant brother, but good on her for trying, I suppose.

When we arrived at the pond, chosen for its clean water, I gestured to Lucy who stepped forward.

"Open, Gate of the Water Bearer, Aquarius!" she cried, sticking her key into the clear water.

A bright light flashed that morphed in a human sized mermaid floating above the water. A mermaid that looked almost exactly how I remembered her from the show, holding the water pitcher with light blue hair and dark blue tattoo highlighting her collarbones.

"What do you want, girly?" the mermaid asked in a rude tone. "I was busy spending time with my boyfriend."

A cute pout passed over the blond girl's face. "Ugh, you don't have to rub it in," she whined.

"Whatever," came the snarky reply. "At least you used clean water this time. I thought I would have to remind you to never do that again."

"Ah haha," Lucy laughed nervously, her hands creeping to her rounded bubble-like backside. "No need for that! Actually, I summoned you because he wanted to talk with you." She gestured over at me.

"Hmm?" the blue haired woman hummed as she looked at me. "He doesn't seem like much. Is he going to be your new boyfriend?"

I gave the water spirit the best smile I could as I stepped forward. "If only I could be so lucky," I said smoothly. "She is a beautiful young woman, though a year too young for me." I could see Lucy blush and pout at that.

"Greetings, Lady Aquarius," I continued with a bow. "My name is Zack. I apologise for imposing on your time and taking you away from your loved one. I shall be quick, if you could only humour me for a moment."

Aquarius stared at me appraisingly for a moment before she gave a nod the mermaid no doubt thought was regal. "You may proceed," she said. She turned to Lucy. "Too bad he thinks you're too much of a child."

"Oh, come on!" Lucy cried. "I didn't even do anything to you!"

Aquarius ignored her summoner and turned back to me. "What do you want to talk about?"

"Brandish."

Aquarius blinked, then her faux regal expression collapsed and she glared at me. "What about her?" she demanded, sounding legitimately concerned.

I frowned in turn. After all, this was a bit of a gamble. Brandish would become an extremely powerful wizard if left alone. Her whole life was dedicated to seeking out the destruction of the Heartfilia family out of the misbegotten notion that Lucy's mother had killed Brandish's. Her strength was honestly scary, and her shrink or grow ability, whatever it was called, was quite terrible if used wrongly.

I could just leave everything as it was, let canon just go on and have Brandish have her small redemption story. But there was enough suffering in this world already. If Brandish was going to focus on who killed her mother, I believed that she deserved to know who it was that actually killed her and where the goat-man was now.

"She is being manipulated and it is consuming her right now," I replied. "She somehow came to the conclusion that Lucy's mother was the person that killed her own mother and she is seeking revenge. It will lead her down a path that neither of those women would want for her and I could use your help in getting her to know the truth."

A calculating look came over Aquarius' face as she stared at me. "You want to have access to my Star Memories," she said, sounding completely certain. "You want to show her the past."

"Not me," I denied, shaking my head. I had no need for it after all. "But if I could find her and send her here, would you be willing to take her into the Star Memories so that she can see what really happened?"

Aquarius stared at me with narrowed eyes for a long moment, before her face finally softened. "I can do that," she said, her voice turning gentle. "For Layla and Grammi."

I gave a small smile of my own, happy to have the assistance of the ill-tempered Spirit. "Thank you very much, Lady Aquarius."

"Of course," Aquarius said, her voice turning haughty again. Then she whirled around to glare back at Lucy. "Now, I'm done here," she declared to her summoner. "Try not to need me. I'm going to spend more time with my boyfriend."

"You don't have to keep rubbing it in my face!" Lucy shouted as the Celestial Spirit disappeared in a flash.

I grinned at Lucy. "She seems like a character," I chuckled.

"Yeah, from a horror story!" Lucy moaned.

"Well, I will have to bow to your greater experience," I replied. "Still, that concludes our business and now it's time for me to move on." I reached down to pick up my bag, which I had dropped to the floor when we got to the pond.

"Zack!" Erza called out, stepping forward again to the front of the group. "Can I speak to you before you go?"

I looked up from picking up my bag and straightened up. "Sure, if you're quick. What about?"

"You were always good at getting information," she said seriously. "Do you know anything about something called Lullaby magic?"

I thought for a moment, trying to remember what I knew about Lullaby. As good as my memory was, I had been here for twenty years now. It is quite easy to forget if you don't keep reminding yourself. It had been a year or more since I had taken a look at my notes.

"It's a Demon of Zeref," I said eventually. "B-class sound demon. Made of wood. Has holes in its body that it can force wind through that plays sound at a frequency that causes the brain to liquify and the soul to be removed from a body, or some such thing. Fairly simple for an S-class mage. Just cut extra holes in the body or burn it. Though rumour is that the thing could fire energy blasts out of its mouth so watch out for that. It can be hidden in the form of a small flute that looks like a skull with three eyes." I tilted my head at her. "That help?"

Erza gave a relieved smile at that. "Yes, it is a great help," she said, her shoulders dropping slightly in relief. Her body flashed as she Unequipped her armour again. Then she reached up and slammed my face into her breasts. "Thank you."

I was extremely grateful that she wasn't wearing armour for this. And I am not going to lie, being face first in Erza's boobs, despite our awkward history and extremely recent reconciliation, was pretty nice. And soft.

"Erza," Wakaba shouted in horror. "What are you doing?'

"Get your face out of Erza's boobs, you pervert!" Macao cried out.

Given that Erza's hand was still holding my face in her cleavage and I didn't have the strength to force it off, even if I had wanted to, I couldn't raise my head right now. But to be honest, after a long walk without human interaction, I wasn't trying to get out of a hot young woman's cleavage.

Huh, does that make me a pervert? Maybe, but I am definitely in control of it. Totally.

"I'm showing appreciation to my friend who has helped me a great deal with a concern I have," Erza declared sternly, still holding my head down. "Do you have a problem with that?!"

"Uh… no," Wakaba stuttered. "Well… maybe…"

"Just with him," Macao muttered.

Erza let me up and I pulled my face out of her boobs to see her glaring fiercely at the two older perverts. I looked around and saw that several of the other wizards looked a little scandalised, including Lucy. Mira, I was able to note, seemed to be pouting or slightly glaring at Erza.

"It's not up to you to tell me what I can do!" Erza barked at the older guys. "If you want to stop me," her armour and a sword materialised in a flash, which was then pointed at them, "you are welcome to try."

As much as I was enjoying the perverts being taken down a notch, it was time for me to head out. I stepped forward and put a hand on her shoulder. "It's alright, Erza," I said. "As much as I enjoyed it, it's time for me to head off anyway. I want to be in Onibus soon, so I need to leave. Good luck with Lullaby."

She gave me a smile and a nod, Unequipping her sword, to Macao's and Wakaba's obvious relief.

I turned to Lucy and gave her a smile. "Thank you for your time, Miss Lucy," I said. I reached a hand into a pocket and pulled out three hundred thousand jewel. "Here, for the job."

She took the money and looked at it, startled. "Wait, this is too much!"

"Keep it," I grinned at her. "Something tells me that if you stick around the idiots," I gestured to Natsu and Grey, "you are going to need some extra money that doesn't get taken away to pay for mission damage."

"Not cool man," Grey grumbled. Natsu, apparently recovering from his previous telling off, was muttering with a mulish expression on his face.

"If you're sure," Lucy wavered.

"I am," I said firmly. "See you around, everyone."

I started to walk past the group, heading towards the train station, some of the wizards calling out a farewell. That path brought me right past Mira, who was still staring at me mournfully. I gave a long sigh and I stopped. I had held a grudge for the injuries that she inflicted on me, but at the same time, had anyone done the same thing to me, I would have beaten the hell out of them too. I helped her out, but at the same time, I really crossed the line to do it.

Now the model was clearly, genuinely, apologetic for what happened. In the end, what I did to help her get her magic back, really did justify the beating. I could at least be man enough and admit that.

With that in mind, looked right at her, pursed my lips slightly and gave the beautiful girl a nod. She blinked at that, before giving me a watery smile, her relief showing clear in her body language. With that done, I headed off, leaving the gathered wizards behind.

Time to meet the master.

…

A/N Please Review/Follow/Favourite as you please

Trolls are ignored, or fed to my new chicken, because that's all I think of them.

Hope you enjoyed that chapter. I am trying to show that even though the MC has no magic and would be flattened in an actual fight against even average wizards, he is not a weak person and refuses to bow to them. Hope that is coming across to you.

As always, any updates will be released early on pat-re-on for all stories. You will also be able see original stories there and even get some weird and hopefully funny prison stories too. Anyway, shameless plug over. Until next time!