A/N

Hi everyone! The winner of the Wildcard Story Poll for August was I am Not a Mage, clearly. Here is the next update for your viewing pleasure.

The bad times kept rolling this month. My car was wrecked thanks to a reckless driver who managed to knock a light pole down on my car while I was driving on the freeway. It has stopped me writing for this last week because I have been spending so much time looking for a new car. I still don't have one so I need to keep looking which is holding up my writing even more. I still get some here and there but certainly not as much as I want.

Luckily, this was already on my pat-re-on so I can update it here. If you want to have early access to all my updates, look me up there. Bored Peasant's Written Works. It has early updates, original stories (which were written a long time ago but I am only getting the courage to share them now) and I am hoping to get some artworks there soon. Depends on my artist. But I truly do appreciate everyone who supports me in writing these stories. It motivates me to work harder and keep going. So thanks to everyone that does support me.

Special thanks go to Ranger, FallenMetalGod, BuzzGrave and Ezoz for their support on pat-re-on.

Anyway, on with the story!

…

CHAPTER 4 – GUILD MASTERS

I could hear the revelry of the guild masters partying in the building. While they may have had some serious topics to talk about during the so-called meeting, the truth of it was that unless there was a significant issue to talk about, or event coming up that they needed to plan for, then all they did was party. Not even joking.

Of course, they did talk about vaguely important matters. This included the number of members that each of the guilds had, what ranks the members were, if there were any S class wizards that had been promoted; that sort of thing. They also talked about the dark wizard guilds that they knew of or any independent dark wizards that were not affiliated with a guild that would be causing troubles, and then talks about other crimes being committed in their respective villages. Things that would be actually important to talk about with certain interested parties, including allies. But all of that serious business only went for the first couple of hours on the first day of the meeting.

Which meant, beyond everything else, a guild master's conference was just a three-day party.

I could understand it though. After years of being around Fairy Tail, I could see that Makarov was in desperate need to vent some stress every few months. The absolute chaos that was caused by Natsu, Gray and Elfman alone was enough for him to start ripping his hair out. So, while I wouldn't recommend it, I could definitely understand Makarov being drunk every time he has to go to the guild hall.

A crash from inside the building, followed by raucous laughter and cheers broke me out of my thoughts and I wakled up to the front door. Going by the music inside and he volume of the voices essentially shouting at each other, I decided to raised a closed fist and thumped hard enough on the front door to make it rattle in its frame.

The laughter inside subsided for a moment before I heard someone in the back. "Who's interrupting important guild master work!" the voice slurred out.

"Someone who knows that any work you had to do ended yesterday and all you are doing is acting like the brats that make you look bad!" I shouted back through the door.

There was a long pause before I could hear some shuffling around. Then, finally, someone threw the door open. I was able to enjoy the face of Master Goldmine of Quattro Cerberus as it was from angry glaring to stunned in an instant.

"You're back?" he muttered in shock. It sounded more like he meant, 'you're alive?'.

I gave him a small smirk. "Don't sound so surprised and disappointed, Goldmine," I returned.

His shock gave away to a large grin. "Zac Brown," he exclaimed loudly. "As I live and breathe! I didn't know you were back!"

He was clearly speaking loud enough for the other guild masters to hear what he was saying and I heard a few interested voices in the background yellig for me to come in. Goldmine stepped back with a grin and brought me into the building proper.

The building was like community centre, with an entry area that opened to a large function room on the inside. There were tables scattered about the place and a bar was along the left side of the building. All in all, it was quite homey, which was probably why the guild masters used this building in the first place.

Master Makarov pushed his way through the gathered guild masters, maybe twenty or so, to stand in front of me. He looked exactly the same as when I had seen him two years ago. Only about four feet tall, wearing his jester hat and a large smile with a pint of beer in his hand.

"Zac, my boy!" he cried happily. "It's so good to see you!" he took a swig of the beer. "I thought you'd have been back before now. You made me feel worried."

I smiled down at the man that had helped me so much as an orphan to have a way to survive in this world, despite my own, as far as mages were concerned, lack of abilities. It was truly good to see him. He was everyone's grandpa and had always tried his best to help those in need.

"I just had to get away from everything after I left Iceberg," I said. "I needed some time to get my mind right."

I saw a few of the guild masters nodding, while a few others that I didn't know looked a little confused.

One of them, a woman in her late twenties I didn't recognise but wearing a tank top emblazoned with the Mermaid Heel emblem stepped forward. "I am a little confused, Makky," she said, ignoring me. My eye twitched at that. "Who is this man and what are you talking about?" A few other guild masters murmured their agreement with the question.

I frowned at her. "This man is right here and would appreciate any questions you have for him or about him to the man in question, Little Miss Mermaid," I bit out. I could smell the cheap alcohol on her from where I was standing a few meters away.

She had the decency to look abashed at that and had a light flush of embarrassment that wasn't related to her alcohol consumption. "Sorry, young man," she said apologetically. "It's just that I haven't met you but you are obviously familiar with several of the guild masters enough to interrupt a guild masters meeting. Which guild are you from?"

I gave her a thin, humourless smile. "I am not a member of any guild," I replied, already getting tired of talking with her. "But I did spend a lot of time around Fairy Tail, as well as Quattro Cerberus and Blue Pegasus a few years back."

Master Bob pranced forward, smelling of perfume and baby powder and looking exactly like he had in the anime, complete with his little wings. "That's right!" he cooed enthusiastically. "Young Zac here would come by and do jobs for us when he was a little lad. After he stopped, he still came by for a chat from time to time. And now look at you!" he exclaimed at me. "You've turned into such a handsome man." He leaned right into my personal space and beamed at me.

I gave an amused huff and used a single finger to push him back. Bob was ostly harmless, but like many high-level wizards he had a few eccentricities. While he was a good wizard, he genuinely enjoyed playing around like he did. But the main reason he did it was because he was amused by how people reacted to him. Simply as that.

Bob was a creep because he enjoyed how uncomfortable people could act.

"Easy there Bob," I cautioned in good humour. "Otherwise, I might have to hide your makeup again."

"Oooh, you scoundrel," he mock-gasped. "I like that bad boy attitude." He grinned as he stayed back at a healthy distance.

I shook my head and looked back at the woman. "As for who I am," I continued, "I believe it is good manners to introduce yourself before asking who someone is."

She blushed again. "Of course," she demurred. "My apologies again. I am Janaya, master of the Mermaid Heel guild."

I nodded to her. "I am Zac Brown," I replied. "And what Makarov was talking about is that I was fighting in the war in Iceberg against Bosco, but I only returned to Fiore a few days ago."

Her eye gained an interested edge. "Is that so?" she asked, her glass of alcohol forgotten. "Perhaps later, we could have a discussion about it?"

I shook my head. "Sorry, Master Janaya," I replied instantly. "At this time I have no interest in talking about the war. Maybe after some more time has passed."

She gave an easy nod and stepped back.

"You still writing songs?" Goldmine asked.

I gave him a brief smile. "I may have done a couple more but I am not enjoying it like I used to," I admit. "And the songs that I wrote in the last year are… certainly not happy songs."

"Ooohh," Bob cut in. "I would absolutely looovee to hear you play one of your new songs." He gave a surprisingly graceful twirl. "It would just make me buzz inside!"

I gave an amused huff and looked around the room and saw that all the masters were looking at me expectantly. "I take it that you all are feeling the same way?" I asked the room in general. Predictably, I was greeted by a round of enthusiastic affirmations.

"Alright," I conceded, moving over to a stool. "Then I guess I am going to need…" a guitar was promptly thrust into my hands from one of the masters that I didn't recognise. "…guitar. Right." I sat down on the stool and took a moment to check that the guitar was in tune. It was not quite in key but it was close so only took a few seconds before I was happy.

I took a breath and looked around the group of guild masters, thinking about what to play. At the moment though, only one song was coming to mind, and it certainly wasn't celebration worthy.

"Well, as I said," I cautioned, "what music I have written in the last year wasn't happy. So, this is going to be a little… emotional."

With my warning given, I looked down, cleared my throat and put my left hand on the neck, my right hand at the ready. I took a deep breath and started to pluck at the strings.

"Hello darkness, my old friend,

I've come to talk to you again…"

I sang a soulful version of Sound of Silence. It was like the Disturbed version more than the original Simon and Garfunkel version, though I would never claim to have had the voice of David Draiman. Still, I was able to put a lot of the emotion that I felt that was hard to express in other ways.

"And in the naked light I saw,

"Ten thousand people, maybe more…"

I kept my eyes focussed on the guitar as I sang, ignoring the gathered guild masters as I pushed through the song, slowly building as I went through to the crescendo. I couldn't do the growl quite like I wanted to, but the masters had never heard it so that wouldn't matter.

"And whispered, in the sounds…

"Of silence…"

My fingers plucked the strings to play the outro of the song before finally falling silent. No one spoke for a long moment, which considering the rowdy nature of the guild masters was quite shocking.

Finally, Makarov gave a deep sigh. "I'm sorry, my boy," he murmured, shaking his head. "I'm sorry that you had to go through all of the troubles of war. It's not something anyone should ever wish for."

I gave a slow nod of acknowledgement. "Thanks, Master Makarov," I replied. "It's not your fault though. I volunteered when I heard that people were being taken as slaves. I expected there to be deaths and I knew it wouldn't be easy. I just hadn't expected it to be… so much more."

A round of understanding nods came from the gathered guild masters. I knew that a few of the older ones had been involved in guild wars in the past. A few of them had even killed people, Makarov included. Even those that hadn't still knew enough to know that war was hell on those who fought in it. Some had probably even received reports on the war and heard how bad they were.

Still, while it was something that was going to be on my mind for a while to come, it didn't mean I had to dwell on it.

"Anyway," I said with slightly forced cheer. "I think that I have ruined a party. I'll get out of your hair so that you can get back to partying. Thanks for letting me drop by."

The group as a collective mumbled their goodbyes, turning away and moving back to the bar to get more drinks. I did notice Master Janaya look back at me once before she headed off with the others.

Not unexpectedly, Master Makarov didn't leave. I put the guitar down and stood up.

"Let's go talk outside before I go," I said, gesturing towards the door.

Makarov rumbled an acknowledgement and followed after me, picking up his drink as he did.

Makarov and I left the building, heading into the cool night. It was cloudless now and the stars were twinkling brightly above us. It was one of the things that I did enjoy about this world more than my last one. The lack of light pollution meant that the stars were so much more visible and it was truly beautiful.

"Did you swing past the guild before you came here?" Makarov spoke into the silence, disrupting my observation of the stars.

I looked down at the smaller man and nodded. "I did. I saw you have a few new members, including a very pretty young lady that I met today named Lucy."

"You mean the one with the big bazoongas?" Makarov leered with a perverted giggle, bringing up a hand to mime squeezing a boob.

I couldn't help the chuckle. Makarov had nearly perfected the 'perverted old man' cliché. It didn't really help that he was guild master in a place where the were plenty of beautiful young ladies.

"That's the one," I confirmed. "I don't know how you wizards do it, but I imagine that magic somehow helps to prevent back pains in large breasted women."

He gave his own laugh at that. "The mysteries of magic, my boy!" he chortled. "The most innocent of ways can give the most spectacular results."

I grinned. "I completely agree," I replied.

We let our laughter die down and both of us turned to watch the night sky.

"I notice that Jose wasn't here tonight," I said innocently.

Makarov grunted, amusement left behind. "He's been sour ever since people started saying that we were the number one guild in Fiore," he muttered. "Senile old coot."

I hid a smile at the obvious snarky response to that. "Be that as it may," I said, "as someone who cares about you, I have heard that he is beginning to let his pride take over. You know how people can be when they do that."

Makarov grunted but otherwise didn't respond.

"In fact," I continued, knowing he was listening, "I have heard word that someone has been making enquiries to some of the guilds about a job to get young Lucy back from your guild. You know who her father is, I imagine?"

He gave another grunt of acknowledgement.

"It's only a matter of time before someone breaks the unwritten rule of not taking jobs to directly attack other guilds of not taking jobs to directly attack other guilds and takes the job. If Phantom Lord has been approached, I can see Jose using that as justification to knock Fairy Tail down a notch. Most guilds wouldn't risk attacking Fairy Tail as a whole, not even most of the Dark ones, but one as large as Phantom Lord? I know some of their Wizards. Simply put, Makky, they are more brutal than your own. I can see them trying to inflict major damage on you."

Makarov let that sink in for a moment. "I will keep that in mind," he said softly. "It's hard to think my old friend would descend to that level, but if things are as you say, then I can see that there will be issues. But," he said, his head rising in fierce determination, "I will not be bullied into handing over one of my own unwillingly."

I nodded. "And nor should you," I said. "That would make you trash, and not someone that would head the strongest guild in Fiore."

"Damn right," he growled.

I let him take a moment to compose himself. "What else have you heard?" he asked eventually.

I hummed, thinking which piece of news I should share first. I guess for expediency' sake, the most important one. "There is a Dark guild that is planning an attack on the guild master's meeting," I informed him. "I forget what their name is." It had been some time since I read my notes, after all. "But they have Erigor the Reaper and Kageyama, a Shadow Magic user in their guild. On their own they would pose no challenge, but they managed to steal a Demon of Zeref called Lullaby from wherever the Magic Council were hiding it. It uses Death Magic. They are on their way and should be here by tomorrow. Erza's hunting it down, so I imagine you will run into her tomorrow some time too."

"I see," Makarov growled. "I'll be sure to let the others know. It was a B-ranked Demon, if I remember right."

I nodded. "Yeah, you would have no trouble with it," I said. "But if Erza brings anyone with her, I imagine you will need to watch out for collateral damage."

The old man gave a much put-upon sigh at that. "I'm afraid you are probably right." He shook his head. "Those bunch of clods." Despite his words, it was easy to hear his affection for the wizards in his guild.

"But that's another thing," I warned. "Word from the Magic Council is that there are people on it that are targeting you, looking for an excuse to come down harder on Fairy Tail. You need to rein your wizards in, Makky. Otherwise, I don't know how long it will be before they invent an excuse to come after you."

He growled in annoyance. "Those blowhards on the Council will use whatever excuse they can any, even if we restricted ourselves to D ranked missions." He spat off to the side.

"Maybe," I conceded. "But even you have to admit, Makarov, that your kids are loose cannons. They need to learn to think and to use some restraint. I'm not going to lie, if any of them had acted under my command in Iceberg the way that they do on missions here, every single one of them would have spent time in internment. They commit nearly as many petty crimes as the criminals they get hired to hunt. That sort of thing doesn't look good for a guild." I hesitated. "I'm worried for you, Makky. I don't want to see the guild you have dedicated your whole life to, be targeted because your kids won't learn to act properly."

He gave a heavy sigh, letting out his frustration. "I know, Zac," he murmured. "I don't want to step on their creativity and their desire to push themselves. Because that's how a mage grows. It's how we reach new heights." He turned to look up at the night sky, looking at the stars twinkling above. "But don't worry," he nearly growled. "I will be damned before Council tries to disbar Fairy Tail."

I tilted my head at that. "Maybe," I said. "But I don't think you will have a choice when they start sending agents to infiltrate your guild and find out about Tenrou Island."

He flinched at that, but didn't reply. I turned and started to walk away, having said what I want to say. Then I stopped. Thinking about Tenrou reminded me of something else. "Makarov, you need to get Mest Gryder to get his memories back. He went too deep and is reporting on Fairy Tail to the Council."

The sharp intake of breath told me that he hadn't known about that piece of news. Or that he thought I hadn't known. Probably the latter; Makarov was no fool.

"Not only that, I suspect that he has a memory charm on the guild to forget about his history," I continued. "When I was in the building, I couldn't remember anything about his past. It wasn't until I got here that it came to mind. If you're not careful, he would be the one to get the Council to shut you down."

The sigh he let out made me turn around and my heart went out to the small guild master as he looked deeply depressed. "I don't know how you get your information, lad," he said softly. "But I can't thank you enough for it. Honest counsel is worth far more than gold."

I nodded. "If I hear anything else, I will let you know, as always. See you later, Makarov."

"Goodbye, lad," Makarov rasped. "And good luck."

…

Walking through a mountainous region at night is never truly fun. Between the unknown paths that end in falls down unseen cliffs and Vulcans that like to hide out in the trees and caves that can be found in every mountain range, there were any number of dangers that a person could face if they were traversing them at night. If I had to do it then I would have been in big trouble.

Luckily, I had a shortcut.

Once I was out of range of the guild master's building, I pulled out a piece of paper with a small lacrima attached to it. It was one of my special portkeys that I had written once I had a handle on Runes, after talking about it in depth with Mest and going through whatever books Fairy Tail had on the subject. I could only match them to preset coordinates or to a marker that was matched with that portkey.

That sounded great, as if I could teleport across the world with a single piece of paper. The reality was that it was still limited by the amount of magic that the lacrima could hold. Longer trips required more magic. If Erza or Makarov was to use this, they could probably get from Bosco to Magnolia with one of these little slips if they relied on their own magic. But with the tiny piece of lacrima, I could only go a few kilometres at a time.

Pressing down on the lacrima, I activated the portkey. Instantly, a white magic circle flared to life around me and with a flash, I left the mountains around me and ended up in a cave.

This was a cave that I had been to many times and was like any other mountain cave. High walls, random rock formations, single-seat airplane in the middle of it.

Ok, maybe that last one wasn't so standard.

It was the plane that I had made then hidden just before I had gone to fight in Iceberg. I wasn't going ton risk having it shot down by a wizard and let Bosco get their hands on it and I didn't want to have some random Dark wizard find it if I left it in a normal hiding place, so I decided to drop this in one of my safe houses. I had a few scattered around the country, mostly in out of the way places that no one would randomly stumble into unless they were deliberately looking to go spelunking.

It was designed like a Spitfire from World War 2, purely because I like the design. It was the pinnacle of what I have achieved as an engineer in this technology-deficient world. It ran on lacrima, much like a magic car runs on the magic of the wizard driving it. Seeing as there didn't need to be standard fuel tanks or most of an engine, compared to a petrol plane engine, I had a lot of spare space in the plane, which I filled up with more lacrima that was tied to the magic motor, which is what turned the propellors.

Because it was run on, essentially, stored magic and not petrol, there wasn't nearly any of the sound of a motor running. It almost sounded as though I was flying an electric plane. The loudest noise came from the propellors, a loud whirring sound; like sticking my head too close to a fan. It was a rather weird experience.

The only gauges that the plane needed at the moment were altitude, air speed, magic level (which was basically the fuel gauge of the lacrima), and an attitude indicator, which is what tells me if I am level with the ground or if I am tilted. All three were available in Fiore already so I didn't need to create any of them. The speedometer was used in some magic vehicles, the altitude meter was used by builders who built in mountain regions, the magic level I did sort of creat when I was younger and my parents were alive so I guess I kinda did make that one. But the attitude indicator was used by sailors on large boats; specifically, the ones that would sail back and forth to Alvarez.

I did make a small change to the design from the original Spitfire, which was to move the cockpit forward more on the fuselage, or the body of the plane, than the base design. It was only a metre or two more but still it made a difference when trying to land or even look down.

After I had returned from Iceberg, I had managed to complete all my tests on the plane and had even racked up about thirty hours of flight time so far. It was time to make a trip that I hadn't taken yet but wanted to test.

Heading to Alvarez.

While I had told Aquarius that Brandish was suffering, I had never actually been there and I was relying on my own personal knowledge of the timeline. The girl was supposed to be about Lucy's age and had been stewing over her mother's death for about a decade, give or take a year. She eventually becomes some sort of emotionless being that just wants revenge and cute things, from memory of the anime. Maybe if I can get started on finding her earlier, I can help that change. Beside the girl deserved to know the truth about her mother.

The timing would be tight though. I don't know how long it will be before the Galuna Island events take place, but I need to be there for that. Not because of Erza and Natsu, if that still goes on, but because I had something else in the works that takes place around those events.

I didn't really care about the timeline preservation or anything like that. The issue being that not having magic meant that I was only going to get in the way at the moment. I could do minor things, or hell, maybe even kill some major players to change things. But change begets change and I have events in the short term that I want to take care of before then, just to see if I can improve on a few things.

Seeing as it was night, I decided that any trip in the plane could wait until morning. Luckily, I had a camp cot set up in every safehouse and an emergency stash of long-life food, along with a kitchen and toilet to let me stay for a few days without issue. It was no Doomsday Preppers, but if I had learned anything in this world of magic, having some place to stay while the heat died down was never a bad thing.

That said, I turned to the kitchen, ready to get a proper meal in before I good night sleep. After all, I didn't want to miss my flight in the morning.

…

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

So we caught up with Makarov and the other guild leaders. Some information was shared and the MC is still dealing with the after effects of a war. It reminds me of my grandad who had his demons after fighting in Papua New Guinea during WW2. I am not trying to make it an angst fic though, just an interesting character who is dealing with some issues.

If you want to have access to early updates on any stories I have, read some original stuff, or vote on the next Wildcard story update, head over to my pat-re-on and take a look. Bored Peasant's Written Works.

Until next time!