Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters.
-The Enchanter of Fairy Tail-
Chapter 2: The Crocus Royal Museum.
Year: X752. 32 years till Canon begins.
Cobalt POV:
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Attention. We have arrived at Crocus City. This is the trains final stop today. Thank you for travelling with us, we hope to see you again.
—
'Finally, that felt much longer than two days but I suppose that's what being stuck in a carriage will do to you I guess.' I thought as I disembarked the train carriage I was on. I spotted some travel brochures from a conductor handing them out. I took one from the man and thanked him, before then trying to find out where exactly the Royal Museum is.
Crocus was one of the few big cities that I had never traveled to while on a job. I had always hopes that I could come here on much more pleasant circumstances. I then looked down to see the map of the town and where the museum was.
Thankfully it wasn't far, around an hours walk from the station. When I got there I'd ask for Mr Yakone for important information about the theft in question. Then I would head for a hotel and rent a room for the night. Tomorrow the hunt for those Dark Guild members will begin.
As I made my way outside of the station I began to take in and marvel the magnificence of just how gigantic Crocus actually was in comparison to Magnolia. The city itself seemed more than three times the size of Magnolia, and Magnolia was not a small town in of itself. As I directed my eyes towards the buildings I took in their great detail.
Possessing bright facades and towers with extremely pointed tiled roof jutting upwards, are lined up the stone street's sides, some of which are pretty basic, while other, more elaborated ones consist of very large, circular mosaics made of wide, flat stones, which bear floral and natural motifs in their centre. Not only were the buildings appealing to look at, but I figured that the buildings themselves were built to last due to the nature of how they were constructed. Assuming an attack came from other kingdoms; these buildings were built to last. I could see why this was Fiore's capital city.
After an hours walk, I finally made it to the Royal Museum. A grand building towering over me, made out of a mixture of marble and concrete, with large pillars at the entrance. What I noticed next, was a very large gaping hole located in the side of the museum.
'I guess this is where they busted in from then huh?' I thought with interest. 'Wonder how they blew that huge hole in the wall?'
My eyes then turned to another important detail. I saw that there was a huge number of Rune Knights just outside the museum doors and the large hole that was caused by the explosion.
I had seen Rune Knights deployed before during S-Class quests and they normally numbered around 20-30 at a time. However, I could see much more Rune Knights than I have ever seen before, scaling in at around 50-60.
In fact, when I took a closer look at the emblem on their cloaks I was surprised to see that it was the emblem from the Royal Knights the most elite law keeping members of Fiore.
'The hell? Why are the Royal Knights here?! This is just a simple S-Class quest with some stolen goods.' I wondered in confusion. I was under the impression that some idiot dark wizards stole these items. Why would the Royal Knights feel the need to show up?
'This may be a bit more serious than I initially thought' I mussed to myself.
As I made my way up towards the front doors of the museum, I was quickly blocked by a Royal Knight.
His attire was a bit more colourful than the mostly greyish colours that the other knights all wear, with a few colours of promotion scaling down his armour. The man was quite large and well built and had a sword holstered on his waste. From the looks of it, this man was the Commander of this task force.
"Hey what do you think you're doing? This area is off limit to civilians." The Commander stated firmly to me.
"Relax, I'm with the Fairy Tail Guild. I'm the S-Class Wizard sent of this job." I replied back dryly, having heard this conversation dozens of times from other Rune Knights in the past. I showed the Commander my guild mark and the job request that I pulled out from my cloak.
"Ah, please forgive me." The man apologised. "We were notified that a wizard had accepted the job, we just didn't know what he looked like. Please follow me inside so you can meet Mr Yakone, he has more details about the break in. The Commander stated, beckoning me to enter the museum.
Me and the Commander entered the museum, in which we were led away from the main exhibits and instead through a series of passageways and up a flight of stairs to (what was presumably) Mr Yakone's office.
As we entered the office I saw a man in his late 40's sitting a desk with a worried expression on his face. The man had brown hair and slithers of grey forming up the side of his hair. He wore a brown suit with a red tie.
"Forgive me for disturbing you Mr Yakone, but this is the Fairy Tale wizard who took the job two days ago." The Commander said to the man at the desk. "This is Alfred Yakone… I'm sorry what is your name Sir?" The Commander asked in realisation as he turned to me.
"Cobalt Philipe." I addressed.
"Commander Hugo." The Commander replied back with a nod.
"Gentleman, could we perhaps get onto the important matter at hand please?" Came Alfred Yakone's voice from the desk, gesturing his hand towards the seat which was positioned just on the opposite side of the desk where he was sitting. I then moved to the chair and sat down in it.
"Sorry it took me so long to get here Sir. Magnolia is just really far away from Crocus." I apologised.
"No, no what matters is that you are here now. I am glad that you were able to make it here. You know, I think you may be the only wizard we have been notified of that actually took this request. We have received no new notifications from other guilds about wizards who wish to take the job. Thank you again for coming." Yakone thanked me with a pleased expression on his face.
'This guy must have been really worried about the break in. It's a good thing I showed up, cause it seems like another wizard wouldn't have if I didn't.' I noted internally.
Yakone then pulled a lacrima out from his desk. "This is a security Lacrima which recorded the night of the crime in question. Would you be interested in seeing it?"
"Of course! Any information you have would be a great help to me." I felt happy that I could maybe get an idea of at least what magic the criminals used.
Mr Yakone stood up from his desk and then moved over to a place the Lacrima on a stand that faced towards the wall. He then held his finger on the lacrima (presumably to unlock it for use), and stepped back. Commander Hugo then flicked a switch to turn out the lights so the three of us could get a better look at our robbers.
The Lacrima then flared to life and showed what looked to be Exhibit A, in which I could see, The Sword of Sealing, the Torch of Xerno, the three ancient books, the three Dragon Scales, the Gauntlets of Greatness and the Aisl Anom.
Clearly this was the history exhibit in which items through Fiore's history are placed here for tourists to look at. I also noticed a large old leather tomb with a buckle strap closing the book and preventing it from being open. The Translator Key, my real prize from doing all of this.
Just as I turned away from the Translator to look back the other items, an explosion came at the side of the left wall causing alarms to go off in the building! Then I saw a two individuals quickly move in and destroy the glass casing protecting the items. Then the thiefs began to grab the items, stuffing them into a huge bag they carried as they came in.
'Wait… something doesn't seem right..' I realised, as I was watching that particular part.
After that, they rushed off into a corridor to the right of the room, (presumably to get the other items.) Then minutes later, they rushed back and fled out through the giant hole in which they had created. Then the lacrima dimmed slightly and paused the footage it was showing.
"Well that's all the information we have on these Dark Guild members I'm afraid. It's not much, but I hope it can help you on your job." Mr Yakone explained, sighing at the end.
"Thank you for that Mr Yakone." I said a little disappointed in the fact that I had learned almost no new information from the footage. I had hoped to find out at least what magic the criminals used. "I do have a few questions about this job, if you wouldn't mind answering."
"Yes, yes, of course. Fire away with the questions, I am here to help if you need it." Yakone replied back, as he fixed his tie.
"Well first of all, were you able to get a better idea of where the two criminals went after fleeing the museum on the night of the crime?"
Hugo was the one to answer that question for me. "I'm afraid not. All the information we have is from witnesses who saw them fleeing towards the east of the Kingdom. My guess is that plan to hide out in the mountains until the heat on them dies down."
"I see…" I muttered quietly. Well no new information there which was a shame. It didn't help that mountains east of the kingdom were huge. I could be up there for days trying to find the criminals.
Hugo seemed to notice my concern "Don't worry, myself and my squad will be heading up there with you, so if we all work together then we should be able to find them." He assured me with confidence.
"Ah that's good. For a moment I thought I'd be up there for all of next month looking for them." I replied chucking to myself. "My next question is this: Was it only the two individuals that broke into the museum that you saw that night or was there any more?" I directed this new question to Hugo instead of Yakone.
"Well now that you mention it, one witness taking a late night stroll did see a rather suspicious figure skulking around at the bombed side of the museums wall minutes before the explosion went off. However from the information we gathered from them when conducting our investigation revealed that the suspicious figure was not wearing any sort of cloak or robe." Hugo started off.
"That of course does not match the two criminals that broke into the museum. We could possibly be dealing with a third criminal. The witness unfortunately lost sight of them in the smoke when the explosion occurred." Hugo added.
"Thank you for that Commander, I have a final question. When I was watching the footage of the break in I noticed something a little strange." I stated with a curious tone. "That being the order in which the items were stolen. I chose to take notice of this to try and determine which items they deemed as higher priority over others, I would believe they would plan on using them first for whatever purposes they have with them."
Hugo and Yakone listened in on what I was saying with interest. "Now I expected them to grab The Sword of Sealing or the Torch of Xerno… So do you have any idea why they immediately rushed over to grab the three ancient books before anything else?" I asked hoping that the two of them would have some sort of answer to my question.
"I can answer that! Well… I can't exactly answer it… But I can show you the information we have on those books in exhibit A where they were kept before the break in." Yakone answered quickly. "If you would both follow me I can take you there."
Me and Hugo both nodded in agreement, and we followed Yakone out of the door and back towards the entrance hall, where we then headed off towards exhibit A.
Exhibit A had Royal Knights positioned all over the room, with even some on the second floor looking down. I then noticed the broken glass and the empty glass containers with a little pedestal which held a sheet of protected paper which revealed some history about the items held in them.
I looked to the left and saw the giant hole in the wall.
'Hmmm… That could have been a lacrima bomb there. A witness did say that they saw someone outside before the explosion went off... If it were magic from the body, we'd have noticed by now.
Looking ahead I noticed a corridor that lead to Exhibit C, and to the right was the corridor that led to Exhibit B, where the other stolen items were kept. Those items of course being the set of twelve Healing Lacrima, the three Dragon Slaying Lacrima, the Zodiac Key and the Summoning Scrolls.
Before I could think anymore on this, Yakone spoke up to me. "Now then Mr Philipe, I believe you wanted information on those books? I myself was quite surprised when the criminals took them first over the other items." Yakone asked, gesturing towards a smashed glass case. Inside what remained of the glass case there was three red cushions in which the books presumably sat on for display.
'So that's where the books were eh?' I thought curiously as I examined the glass case. I then tried to find a pedestal to get some information on the books but was unable to find one nearby.
"Mr Yakone, why isn't there a pedestal here to give people information about the books?" I questioned with curiosity.
"Ah that is because our architecture team discovered the books just last week on their most recent excavation of some old ruins built by a dark wizard, of which we are still trying to find out who it was specifically." Yakone informed me.
"The books were brought here and then we then made sure to advertise them across the city as well as paying Sorcerer Weekly to include them in their "Top ten places you wish you could visit" section. As such we have been unable to create a document providing history on the books for the public to see." Yakone scratched his head awkwardly.
"Do you have an image of the three books that I could look at? It'd be nice to know what I'm going after." I asked.
"As a matter of fact yes I do! I kept images of the items stolen so you and the Knights would know what they look like. They are back up in my office I'll go fetch them now for you, I'll only be a moment!" He said before quickly hurrying back to his office.
As Yakone left, I decided to ask Commander Hugo a question.
"Excuse me, Commander Hugo do you have a moment?" I called out to Hugo
Hugo had just finishing talking to a Royal Knight and began to make his way over to where I was. "Hm? How can I assist you Cobalt?" Hugo wondered.
"Tell me. Do you find it strange that the three books were the first items stolen in the whole museum? It just doesn't make sense that the criminals chose them over items that could heavily benefit their guild." I hoped that the Commander would have an answer to my lingering question.
"Yes… When you brought that question up earlier I too was quite curious about why they went for the books first. Tell me, I was overhearing parts of your conversation with Yakone. Is it true that a dark wizard created them? If so they might have some very dangerous spells that could strengthen their guild."
"That might be the case, in which I believe that would make the books one of highest priority items that we have to recover out of all of the others." I replied back with a concerned tone.
"I have mages that are adept at tracking down runaway criminals as well as stolen goods, so we shouldn't be running around blindly trying to locate them if it is any consolation." Hugo assured.
"With luck and good weather it will only take a few hours if we leave after getting all the information we can hear. We were mostly just waiting for the wizard who signed up to take the job request to arrive, then we would move out later." Hugo said to me.
'Well there goes a nice night at a Crocus hotel, though I suppose it's better to move sooner rather than later.' I thought.
"That's good to know, hopefu-"
"Here they are! Everything that was stolen is in these photos. If the dark wizards who stole the books try to swap them with other books then you can cross-reference them back to these photos to determine if they are the right books or not." Came Yakone, as he re-entered the room and handed the photos to me.
As I examined the photos I took note of a few things:
The first was that the Celestial Zodiac Key had a strange black line coiling around it like a snake, it was certainly unlike any Celestial Key I had seen before.
Next I noted that the dragon scales were much smaller than I thought. Dragons were massive creatures, these scales in question must have belonged to an infant hundreds of years ago.
The final thing I found interesting was when I examined the three ancient books:
First I noticed that they were very dirty, with mud and clay covering most of the front of each book. But the second thing I noticed was the there was a title for these books on the front, but the mud and clay meant that I could only read a few letters on each of the books.
—
T_pe_st_r
_ora_uz_r
E_el
—
'That's weird. What kind of titles are those meant to be?' I mused in my mind. 'Maybe it was the name of a certain dark spell, or it could the name of the dark wizard who wrote the books?' I wasn't an expert on this sort of magic so I was in the dark for now.
"If it's all the same to you Cobalt, I'd like to get moving now. Myself and my team have enough information about these stolen items in question. It is almost sunset and we need to moving as fast as we can to catch up with the criminals." Commander Hugo suggested to me.
"Of course. I believe we shouldn't wasting any more time here. Oh by the way Mr Yakone, I believe that by completing this job I will earn an item from the museum is that right?" I asked Yakone
"Hmm? Oh yes! Tell me what item is it and I'll have it ready for when you return with the other stolen goods." Yakone replied.
"The item in question is that tome right over there if you don't mind." I said pointing to a glass case on his right which held the Translator Key inside of it.
"That?" Yakone seemed a bit curious at my choice, but he did not complain. "Well yes, I shall prepare that for you when you return back here." Yakone said with a nod of his head.
"Excellent then I shall bid you farewell Mr Yakone." I waved as I turned to leave the Royal Crocus Museum with Commander Hugo and his squad of Royal Knights. "How will we be travelling there Commander?" I asked, dreading the idea of walking the whole way there.
"We have vehicles that will take us to the foot of the mountains to the east, the rest of the journey will be on foot." Hugo said as we both made our way back to the entrance of the museum.
"By the way, if you don't mind me asking why exactly did you want the ancient tome you pointed to as your additional reward for completing this job? I would have thought you wanted something much more useful than that." Hugo asked as we made our way towards the rest of the Royal Knights who were preparing to leave the city.
"Oh that is much more valuable than you think Hugo. I've been looking for that tome for some time now, it is the key to unlocking and translating another ancient spell book I have back home. I was planning to give it to my son for his 10th birthday." I explained.
"After that I plan on translating it with him and then he can learn the magic inside of it." I replied back to him, while smiling at the idea.
Hugo turned to look at me.
"This is all… perfectly legal magic right? Nothing the Magic Council should be worried about?" Hugo replied raising his eyebrow.
"Oh there is no need to worry Hugo. The magic is perfectly legal in every way. In fact my Guild Master approved of the idea when I told him about it. He said he was looking forward to finding out what sort of spells was in there."
The idea of finally getting the tome and then being arrested by the Magic Council on suspicion of having an illegal spell book was a somewhat humorous one.
"My Guild Master, Makarov is a Wizard Saint so you can relax. You won't be called to come and arrest me in Magnolia a few days after we get back."
Hugo smiled at me. "Well, if a Wizard Saint approves of the idea then I think I can trust you with that Cobalt." Hugo said as we both entered a vehicle meant to take us to the foot of the mountains.
The sun was beginning to dip on the mountains to the east. By the time we will have arrived at our destination, the moon would be illuminating down upon them. As I looked out the window staring back at the city of Crocus as us and the Royal Knight's began to depart from the city heading east towards the mountainous region I thought to myself, and smiled.
'Yeah. When this is done I'll be bringing June and Cadewell back here for a holiday next summer.'
No POV:
Elsewhere in a forest to the north of Fiore, a certain woman who was rather animalistic in appearance, was growing in frustration at how long it was taking her wormy minions to return to her.
As she gave a snarl of impatience, she heard the bushes rustle behind her. She immediately whipped her head around and saw two men in purple cloaks emerge from them. Each of them held several bags that seemed to hold some rather expensive items.
"Finally you arrive back here. Do you both have any idea how long you have kept me waiting!? You were both assigned this task three days ago and you take your sweet time returning to me!?"
She hated dealing with these horrible humans, assigning them to tasks when it would simply be much faster if she were to do them herself.
She didn't like the idea of sending two lowly creatures to recover their soon-to-be allies, but her Lord's orders were absolute and she would obey them no matter what.
"Gah! We're so sorry! We simply came as fast as we could but it was hard having to traverse the mountains with hardly any supplies! Please forgive us for our delay!" One of the henchmen spluttered, with them both of them bowing their heads in fear.
"Hmph, you have the three of them correct? As well as the magic items I told you to bring as well!?" She snapped back at them, not satisfied until she learned whether they had recovered them or not.
"Yes of course! The items are inside these bags right here!" The other henchmen clarified quickly.
They both handed her two large bags which she quickly dumped on the ground next to her. One of the henchmen reached into their cloak and brought out three old and almost ruined books handing them to the lady, in which she took them from him and carefuly placed them on a stump next to her.
"Excellent." She said. "You two have done well."
"You are pleased with our results?" One of the henchmen asked in a hopeful tone.
"I am. A pity your services are no longer required though." She spoke, with her eyes widening with a sadistic smile on her face.
Before the two henchmen could react she quickly extended her hands into long claws and sliced them right through the two henchmen's necks killing them instantly.
"I always have hated delays, I think I made that apparently clear before you both left." She addressed to their corpses, smiling thinly.
As she finished saying that, a new snarky voice could be heard from behind her.
Ah, so he had returned as well.
"Aw come on now, did you have to do that Kyôka? I was hoping to be the one to blow their heads off. The entire time we heading back they wouldn't shut up about getting a promotion. I was so tempted to just blast them there and then. Except only they knew how to use the tracking device to get back here."
From the shadows a young well built individual with dark blonde hair which covered his left eye, with pointed ears and triangular teeth with a long furry tail that came down to his feet. There were also marks on his arms which came down to completely cover his hands in a dark black colour.
"My only annoyance doing this mission with them, is that I couldn't blow up any townspeople I saw while I was scoping the area!" The man spoke with a cackle after saying that.
"Ah, Jackal. You certainly took your time returning here. I believe we were instructed to do this mission as fast as we can. As you are currently aware, we are few in numbers. But after this we shall have new brethren to join us in our mission." The lady known as Kyôka said with a pleased voice.
The wolf-like man gave a scoff before replying. "I could have done it in a day if I was able to carry everything back without drawing too much attention. Remind we why I couldn't just blow the whole town up after getting what we need?" Jackal questioned, looking very bored now.
"Because the last thing we need is to have the Magic Council on our tracks. Our day will come eventually, and I assure you that you will be able to destroy and entire town's worth of people then."
Jackal smiled wickedly at that notion "I think we're gonna have some company here by the way. We did steal some pretty powerful human junk that they'll want back. You want me to take care of them for us?" Jackal looked keen at the idea of exploding some humans after he lost his chance a minute ago.
"Yes, you will get a chance here to exterminate many of the humans that will be following us. However, I have a plan to lure away the more powerful wizards that will most likey be with them. I will lead them away with a distraction using some of those items. Then you can do what you wish with the soldiers." Kyôka answered, turning away from Jackal and moving towards the stump with the three books.
"My other forces will begin to prepare for the ritual. Once you have dealt with the soldiers make sure nothing interrupts the ritual." She ordered.
"Alright then! Just tell me when to move out and I'll blow em all to pieces!" Jackal smiled wickedly after saying that.
Kyôka then picked up the three books on the stump and smiled. 'It will not be long now. Tempester, Torafuzar and Ezel. Soon you will have the greatest honour, our lord could bestow upon you. To return to Lord Zeref.'
Oh dear… who knew such evil forces were at work this early… Hope you enjoyed reading this chapter!
Seems like Cobalt is in a much more dangerous situation than he first thought when taking the job. Here's hoping he can make it back alive for his sons birthday… In the next chapter we will actually get to see Cobalt fight and use his magic so look forward to that!
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter! I'll see you in the next chapter!
Also thank you Jose Antonio Aguilar for being the first follower of this story!