Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters.
-The Enchanter of Fairy Tail-
Chapter 47: Some Big Preparations
Year: X757. 27 years till Canon begins.
Cade POV:
It had been around two months since the surprise visit from the Magic Council.
Like he promised, Yajima did come round last week to check up on my progress as a wizard and to see whether I was up to any criminal acts with my magic. I get the feeling even Yajima found this as a waste of time but was willing to go through with it so the Council could get off my back.
Apparently, the Council only wanted these visits from Yajima for around a year or two. You see, a new division branch was set up in the Magic Council which was focused on mainly taking down Dark Guilds. Because of that, the Magic Council was working overtime to get funding, staff and everything else sorted for that.
I was pretty convinced that the Council still wanted me watched and monitored, but felt that they would lose interest in me after a while.
Still, Yajima had been keeping a record of me since he started these visits. This record mostly consisted of jobs I had done, activities in the guild and the capabilities of my magic. The names of the spells were not written (thank god Org didn't demand that from me) but I still had to tell Yajima what they did. I figured that the Council would not really care about the diary entires and the photos that were also in the spell book, so they weren't documented by Yajima.
Right now it was fall. To think it was only last year that I was trying to still find a way to fuse my magic together, how time flies.
My 15th birthday had not come just yet, but it was coming up next month.
Seems the guild was getting busy as per usual this time of year. Many jobs were quickly snatched by wizards wanting to impress Master Makaorv for the upcoming S-Class trials. Almost all the A-Class jobs were snatched by the guild. But Gildarts used his position as S-Class to get an A-Class job for the both of us. Well it was mostly for me, as Gildarts was steamrolling through regular S-Class jobs; yet he decided to come along and see how I did.
Long story short, it went well.
Gildarts didn't need to help me out as much, as I was able to handle myself pretty well out there. He went and reported the job a success to Master Makarov, which made the old man happy.
I truly felt like I was beginning to make my way up the rankings in the guild now, with two A-Class jobs under my belt I felt quite confident with myself and my magic.
Still, I knew that there was always room for improvement with my Ice and Enchantment Magic.
Speaking of those two magics, I had been studying away at the Ice Evolution book that Lilly had gotten me for my 14th birthday.
While reading it over the few months since I had it, I had learned that I was able to upgrade some of my weaker spells in a sense.
The book contained some very interesting spells that I had the ability to learn. There was a technique of Ice Magic that was constantly present in the book which is known as Iceflake.
The book described this as a hard to learn form of Ice Magic. It involved creating several shards of ice that would be materialised at the casters back. Then the ice would be fired off at whatever or whoever the caster wished.
The shards of ice were always in the shape of a snowflake, hence the name Iceflake.
It seems like there were different moves that would each a different number of Ice Shards. For example, Six-Layered Iceflake would summon six shards of ice at my back. Then those ice shards would be sent flying towards the enemy.
While it sounded easy to learn, the process of learning it took a while to get done. I was only able to learn Six-Layered Iceflake and Five-Layered Iceflake.
But guess what? The Iceflake spells could also be converted to stone! The limits of my magic seemed endless!
While I had also been practicing hard with my magic, a curious thought occurred to me.
I had been getting quite stronger for a few months now, and I was still young, so my Magical Container was still growing. This was made me consider something.
Would Master select me as a candidate for the S-Class trials in the future?
I mean… he seemed to be paying more attention to what I was up to at the guild. Not only that, but he seemed impressed by my progress at Ice and Enchantment Magic. With the fact that I had been going on A-Class jobs and didn't need any help, would he see me as strong enough?
This was a thought that kept coming back to me, and I always tried to swat it away.
No way I was being considered for an S-Class candidate at my age. Normally Master holds the trials before my birthday, so that meant that if he did select me this year I would be 14 years old.
The age of 14 was far too young for someone to be going out on S-Class Quests. Master would probably just select some older and more powerful candidates for the next few years.
That brings me to where I am right now. I am heading to the mayor's building in Magnolia with my mother alongside me. For some reason, my mother was summoned there for reasons that were not explained beforehand. I simply chose to tag along.
Mother was currently wearing a nice-looking dress that was often used for some parties that she often attended. I tried to dress up and look formal for the occasion, but I realised that I didn't have that much fancy clothing in my wardrobe.
Mother quickly brought me to the nearby clothes shop in Magnolia, and I emerged wearing some nice clothes that made me look like I was going to a party myself.
We had now made it to the mayor's building in the town. We walked into the building and made our way over to the man at the front desk. My mother was the one to greet him.
"Hello. We've come to see the mayor." She stated with a smile.
"Have you got an appointment?" The man questioned.
"Well, he told me to come over here. The name is June Philipe." Mother answered.
"Ah yes, he was expecting you!" The receptionist said. "Just through the doors in the back." He beckoned to the set of double doors behind him.
Mother and I walked to the double doors and opened them carefully.
We opened the doors and saw the mayor of Magnolia sitting at his front desk. He wore a nice black suit and a yellow undershirt with a red tie. The mayor's desk was long and rectangular, not too big but there were a few chairs around it for meetings. I notice that there was a long rectangular thing covered up by some cloth on the table.
I quickly realised that we were not alone here. Sitting at the chairs at the desk were Master Makarov and Mr Gills who was in charge of the Magnolia bank.
"Ah June, there you are!" The mayor proclaimed as he saw us. "Why don't you take a seat?" He gestured to some empty seats.
Me and mother took a seat next to each other, with Mr Gills to my right and Master Makarov to mothers left.
"Excellent, now that we are all here, we can begin." The Mayor said. "I have brought you here to address a certain issue that the people of the town have constantly been bringing up. I'm afraid it involves Fairy Tail Makaorv." The mayor said as he looked towards Master Makarov.
'Fairy Tail?'
Makarov looked like he needed a bit more information on that, so the mayor pressed on.
"As you have probably heard, Gildarts has been destroying several houses when he is coming home from jobs. This is usually at night, hence why he cannot see them clearly." The mayor explained.
"Ah yes. Sorry about that." Master quickly apologised. "I've told that boy to be more careful when he's coming home. His magic has gotten to a point where he can destroy the biggest buildings by simply bashing into them if he's not careful with his magic." Master stated.
"If that is the only issue present, why are we here?" Mr Gills spoke up.
"I will be getting to that." The mayor quickly said. "First I must ask you this Makarov: Does Gildarts plan to leave Fairy Tail any time soon?"
Master simply chucked. "Oh, I doubt he'd be leaving the guild anytime soon." He answered.
"Alright then." The mayor then took a deep breath before continuing. "To deal with Gildarts' constant damage I am suggested that Magnolia be put through a complete reconstruction."
Everyone in the room (including myself) looked shocked to hear that. A complete reconstruction? Of the entire town!?
"By complete reconstruction, to you mean that the entire town will be demolished and then rebuilt?" I questioned, wanting to contribute to this debate.
"Not necessary." The mayor quickly interjected. "Why should we destroy the town, when we can simply put the town on wheels?"
"Excuse me?" My mother said with confusion.
"Makaorv, I am suggesting that we use many of the wizards in your guild to put the town on a series of tracks that will allow the buildings to be shifted around to create a straight pathway for Gildarts to get back to the guild. If all goes well, no houses will need to be destroyed. Whenever Gildarts comes back from a job, the bell man atop Kardia Cathedral will ring the bell and activate the system." The mayor laid out the plan for this insane installation.
Master furrowed his moustache quite ferociously, before answering. "Well, we have plenty of mages that could lift up the buildings and put them on pillars that could hold them up off the ground for a while. Unfortunately, I don't have any wizards that can set out the metal tracks for the buildings to move." Master admitted.
Mr Gills then looked at the mayor. "Ah, is that why you brought us here?" He said with realisation.
"What do you mean Mr Gills?" Mother questioned.
"You need us to pay for the tracks don't you?" Gills asked the mayor, as he gestured his hand to himself, Master and mother. "I'm no railway worker, but I can tell clear as day that if the three of us here out our funds together and bought the supplies for the tracks, that we would be bled dry. We would simply have no money left!" He exclaimed.
The mayor did not seem worried by that. "Thankfully I thought of an alternative way to get the money." He said as he moved his hand over to the thing that was covered with cloth on his table. He whipped the cloth of, and it revealed what looked like Magnolia, but there were several parade floats, small merchant stalls and festive bunting as if there was a celebration going on.
The mayor held out his hands. "I call it the Harvest Festival." He proclaimed.
"The Harvest Festival?" Master wondered.
"I have always wanted a festive occasion to bring the tourists in." The mayor answered for us. "This festival would be the perfect way to bring in hundreds of tourists, which would mean a big way to make some-"
"Money." Mr Gills finished that sentence for him with a nod. "So you are hoping that this festival will bring in enough money to pay for all the expenses for this "Gildarts Shift" you were talking about?"
"Precisely, Mr Gills. Unfortunately, the cost for the floats and the bunting may be a bit expensive." The mayor muttered. He then looked up at us. "Would the three if you be willing to pay for some of the costs for this event?" He requested. "I can assure you that it will be 1/10 of the cost if you had to pay for the tracks."
Mother, Mr Gills and Master seemed to think about that.
"I do not mind chipping in to help. I doubt the floats will be hugely expensive." Mother spoke up.
"We can spare some money to help you out here. Perhaps this can become a yearly thing." Mr Gills agreed to help.
"This sound like it could be quite the occasion for the town. I'm more than willing to help." Master Makarov said cheerfuly.
The mayor breathed a sigh of relief. "I am glad to hear that. And perhaps you are right Mr Gills. This could perhaps become a yearly thing if all goes well." The mayor smiled at the idea.
"So I have to ask. When are we hosting this Harvest Festival?" Master Makarov inquired.
"All things considered we don't really need all that much for this festival to begin. We just need the floats; bunting and we can set up some merchant stalls. Plus, we kind of need that Gildarts shift done sooner rather than later… so I was hoping that we could host the fair say… next month?"
"NEXT MONTH!?" We all shouted in shock.
"If it's next month then we would need to start right away!" I exclaimed.
"I can hire the floats!" Mr Gills volunteered, taking the most expensive things first.
"I can have some of my wizards perform on the floats!" Master suggested. "They could also create stalls for people to sell goods at. I would be willing to pay for any extra expenses for minor things like advertisements."
"I would be willing to handle the decorations for the festival." Mother spoke up. "Things like bunting, paint for the floats and all sorts of other things."
"Excellent! I will begin to make preparations for the festival." The mayor said, as he began to write on a piece of paper.
"Erm, is this meeting adjourned now?" I asked, seeing that no more discussion was going on.
"Hm? Ah yes, it is! Go now and make preparations for it. Return to me when you have finished purchasing the things you said you would handle!" The mayor declared as he bid is to leave his office.
And so, the three of us left the mayor's office to begin preparations.
Mr Gills made off immediately to fulfil his end of the agreement. Me and mother were about to head back to the manor to take some money out of the safe, but Master Makarov stopped me.
"Cade do you think you could help me with something? You can go on ahead June; I wouldn't want to keep you." Master said.
"It'll be fine mother; I doubt Master will want me for that long." I assured her.
"Ok then. I'll be back at the manor getting the money for the decorations and accessories." She said, as she left the mayors building.
When she left, I turned round to Master. "So what is it you need my help with Master?"
"While I plan to have the wizards in the guild take part in the event if they wish to do so, I have another two tasks for them. I'm simply telling you first as you're here right now." I corked my head to the side in interest and Master continued. "The first is this: When going on jobs could you make the festival known to many of the people you encounter? It would help bring in more people."
"Fine by me. We do only have the one month left, but I'll do what I can." I nodded. "So, what was the second thing?"
"Have you ever run into anyone outside of town who is a seller of goods? If so then, we could persuade them to come here for the festival. They'd only be leaving their homes for a few days." Master suggested.
A few people popped up into my mind.
"Hmm… I'll see what I can do. They don't live that far away, so it shouldn't be that hard to convince them to come here." I replied.
"Excellent!" Master gave me pat in the back, him having to use his magic to reach me now. "I'll head off and tell the others. When we get a confirmed date of the festival, we'll make sure to send everyone out to spend the word of it." Master explained. "Just wait a few days for now."
When I finished talking with Master Makarov, I headed back home to help mothers with the purchases.
Altogether we would need a grand total of around 5,750,000 jewels for affording decorations and any other things like fireworks, food and so on and so forth. The crazy thing was that this was probably the least expensive thing out of all the other things that were needed for the festival. I dreaded to think how much money the floats would cost.
Anyway, a few days after we all took care of purchases in the areas that we agreed on, the mayor established that the festival would be held on October 15th, only a few days after my birthday!
When the date was confirmed, Master sent all the wizards in Fairy Tail out to spread the word of the festival. Using a few of the wizards in the guild, Master was able to quickly create some leaflets which advertised the upcoming festival. These were to be taken with us and given to anyone interested.
I of course, had a few people in mind that may be interested in this.
The first person was my very first client for a job – Luko the jewel seller in Hargeon.
His little shop had expanded quite a bit during the time since I last saw him. I suppose helping him out with the theft that he had been struggling with was able to get him a bit of attention from the others in the town.
When I approached him about the possibility of coming to Magnolia for the festival next month, he jumped at the chance. He was quite eager to be invited to this brand new festival, in which he would get to sell many jewels. Also, he would be able to advertise his own shop!
Luko agreed that he would be there on the day, ready for the festival. I said that there would be many different stalls for him to set up shop in, so he simply had to choose where.
With him confirmed as a seller for the festival, I moved onto my next person.
Eroland, the smith who had told me where to go for some good armour in Oak Town.
The man was still working hard at the outside of Oak Town, just as he had when I last saw him. He told me that many of the other smiths got a bigger chance to make more money, as Cass the gambler had seemingly skipped town not long ago.
Upon hearing the idea of the parade he seemed quite eager to head towards Magnolia. As the town had no armour or weapon makers, he assumed he could possible make it big down there, and sell lots of goods.
The man accepted the idea, and said that he would be heading down to Magnolia on the 14th, ready to set up in a stall.
With that I had gotten two people of varying trades to come to the town for the festival. I couldn't really think of anyone else that might want to come down here and join in on the festival.
Porlyusica would most likely flat out refuse the offer and chase me away with her broom. I considered going to ask Christopher if he wanted to come and maybe try to sell some books, but I decided against it. The man was busy enough as it is, and I feel it would be petty for me to ask him to come here for the festival while I said I was still deciding on his offer.
In the end, I decided to stick with Eroland and Luko. I'm sure the other guild members found other people.
In the next few days, members of Fairy Tail came back saying that they were able to persuade many sellers of different trade, whether they be merchants or just average shop owners to come down here for the festival.
Altogether we had been able to convince 67 individuals to come here next month. Master then instructed many of the wizards to get ready to prepare some stalls for them.
Another thing was that Master did want some wizards to perform on the floats for the parade part of the festival. Many volunteered for it, eager to perform and show off their magic.
Gildarts was rather… hesitant to go and perform. He could maybe use his magic to create some small cubes to wow the audience. But there was also the risk that he uses too much magic and destroys everything… In the end, he decided to just watch from the sidelines and cheer everyone on. Ivan also was not interested to perform, he just wanted to spend some time with his girlfriend during the festival.
Then, Master asked me if I would be interested to perform on a float.
I was… hesitant, but I did accept the offer after mulling it over in my head.
I think I could impress the audience by using my ice. Plus, I didn't have to be perfect doing this. As long as I did my best I would be satisfied.
Mother was delighted to hear that I would be performing in the parade. She said that she would be eagerly watching me and taking some photos with my camera – much to my embarrassment.
In the next few days, the materials and equipment for the festival arrived. The fireworks, floats for the parade, decorations and many other things. The mayor had ordered that they all be kept in a storeroom which they could be kept safe and secure until the parade.
It was when we were coming up to October, that Master Makarov said he was delivering a special announcement for those in Fairy Tail.
I had just arrived at the guild ready to hear what he had to say. Perhaps it had something to do with the festival?
All the members were gathered round the guildhall, eager for the announcement.
Master Makarov stood up on the balcony of the second floor, him clearing his throat.
"Everyone! Listen up! We're coming up to the brand new Harvest Festival in just a few days time." He started off. "However, I've thought of a brand new event that will be taking place here at the guild!"
'A brand new event?' I was curious about this. Just what could it be? I could see that many of the other guild members were also wondering what it was.
Master Makarov then cleared his throat. "I call it, The Miss Fairy Tail Competition!" He announced.
"The Miss What now?!" Came the various cries of confusion from the guild members.
"The Miss Fairy Tail Competition will be a competition between the female members of the guild, in which they will be competing against each other in a beauty competition." Master said, him having his eyes shut. It was as if he was imagining this in his head with how serious his expression was.
Many of the female members in the guild were very skeptical about this. On the other hand, many of the male members were talking excitedly with each other about this new event that would happening.
"But Master!" Came the voice of one of the female guild members. "We already have to prepare for the festival. I-I'm not sure if we can do this competition." She said nervously.
"Yeah same here! We've already worked hard enough for this festival!" Came another female guild member.
Master simply smirked at this. "I had a feeling many of you would say that, so I threw in a cash prize of 500,000 jewels for the winner of the competition!" He shouted.
"What!? 500,000!?" Shouted all the women in the guild.
"Well of course we can do it!" "I've got time!" "I'm winning this competition!" "I'll be Miss Fairy Tail this year!" "I'll be able to pay for two weeks of rent with that money!" "Watch me boys, I'll be taking home the money!" "The contest is mine!" "This is crazy!" "Should I do it or not…?"
It seems that the mention of the prize money had suddenly now convinced the many women of the guild to get involved with the competition. Now they were all shouting to Master about the competition and how to sign up for it.
Master Makarov simply waved his hands at them. "Just come to the guild on the 14th October. I'll sign you up, and the only thing left will be to show up and put on a good show!" Master explained to them.
"Now then, when going on jobs make sure to advertise the competition! Plenty of people will want to see this!" Master demanded to the guild members.
"Wait Master! Where will we host the competition?" Shouted the voice of one guild member to Master.
"We can just have it outside the guild facing the ocean. That'll be plenty of room." Master answered for them.
"Anyway, that's not all I had to say to you here today." Master seemed to have more to say. "A good few of you will be performing in the parade that we'll be having during the festival. I just wanted to say that what you choose to do in the parade is up to you. It's your magic, and you'll know it better than me, so it'll be up you kids to decide what to do."
"I'll also need help to set up some stalls for people coming here to sell some good. Anyone who has some good construction magic would be good." Master requested.
"Finally, this is the most important thing I have to say to you all." Master had a serious look. "Make sure you don't destroy anything in the festival! You brats always end up destroying more things in Fiore than you should! If this festival goes badly because you ended up destroying everything, then I'll be ready to kick you all to next year!" Master yelled.
And so, with nothing else for Master to say, I headed off home.
When I got back to the manor, I found mother making her way down the stairs.
I greeted her with a wave, before speaking up to her. "You won't believe what Master has decided to host in the festival!"
"Do tell. Is it a competition of some sort?" Mother inquired.
"Oh it's a competition all right! The Miss Fairy Tail Competition!"
"The what now?" My mother had a bizarre look on her face.
"Everyone had about the same reaction as you." I said, as mother had made it to the bottom of the stairs. "It's a beauty competition between the female members of the guild! The winner gets 500,000 jewels as a prize!" I explained to her.
"A… beauty competition? You said it was Masters idea right?" Mother then sighed and shook her head. "Oh that man…"
"Hmm? What about Master?" I asked curiously.
"Oh you'll understand when you're older." My mother said quickly to me. "Anyway, I was thinking about inviting some of my friends round for the festival. I'm sure they would love to see you perform on one of the floats!" Mother said.
"I'm still a little nervous about the whole thing..." I said as I chuckled awkwardly.
"Oh you'll be fine! I'm sure you can think of some lovely things to do with your Ice Magic!" Mother encouraged me with a smile.
While I appreciated the encouragement, I was still quite nervous that I would mess up. Especially if mother's friends would be watching.
"I'll be heading outside now." My mother said as she brushed past me and headed through into the dining hall, and later out into the garden.
As she left the doorbell rang. I went to get the door, and saw Gildarts with Cornelia.
"Yo Gildarts. Thought you were out on a job this week?" I said with a smile as I saw my friend.
"I actually got back earlier today." Gildarts elaborated. "Anyway, were you at the guild today? Did you hear Master's announcement?"
"Hmm? You were there? I didn't see you. But yes I did see hear the announcement. I bet that'll bring lots more tourists for the festival!" I grinned at the idea.
"Uh yeah… it'll be great…" Gildarts said nervously.
Ah I see, Gildarts is having to be careful what he says as he is with Cornelia right now.
Cornelia then spoke up. "Could the both of us come in Cade?" She requested.
"Yeah of course you can." I smiled as I moved aside to let them into the house. "You guys want something to eat?"
"I'm good thanks." Gildarts answered as he held up a hand in refusal.
"So will you be performing in the parade Cade?" She asked.
"Yeah I decided to perform in it. I'm er, a little bit nervous about the whole thing… but if I do my best I'll be fine!"
"That's the spirit!" Gildarts cheered as he gave me a slap on the back.
"So what will you guys be doing during the festival?" I wondered curiously, as I looked at the both of them.
"Well I was thinking we could head around town and see all the stalls that are set up. Maybe then we could go out for dinner?" Gildarts suggested, as he looked to Cornelia.
Cornelia tapped her finger to her chin. "Hmm… I was thinking that we could see you perform on one of the floats Gildarts." She joked.
Gildarts looked rather annoyed at the idea. "Hey, I told you that I wasn't interested!" He rebutted.
"Oh, I was only joking!" Cornelia said as she pushed Gildarts to the side a little, causing the young man to be a little flustered at that.
"W-Whatever!" Gildarts tried to push the focus away from him. "Say Cade. Do you think you'll be selected for S-Class this year or next year?"
Ah, Gildarts did always like to ask if I would be interested in moving up in the ranks in Fairy Tale.
"I mean I'm not sure… sure I feel that I've gotten a lot stronger recently, but the idea of S-Class kinda scares me honestly." I admitted to Gildarts.
"Ah it's not so bad! There are way more pros than cons! You get to go upstairs, help Master out with stuff that he needs, go on S-Class quests; the list goes on." Gildarts stated.
"Look, I'll think about it after this festival. I'm still worrying about the fact that I'll be performing on one of the floats." I muttered at the end.
"Anyway… Will you guys be staying for dinner? We have plenty." I said as I pointed my thumb at the back, where the kitchen was.
"I'd love to have some of that delicious food that you apparently have now!" Gildarts grinned at the idea of good food.
Gildarts and Cornelia then stated for dinner that night. They also said that Lilly would be around during the fair, so I might see her when I would be on a float in the parade. After the dinner, the both of them bid me farewell and left me for the day.
Not that much happened that was worth of note throughout the next few days. I did I keep going on jobs to try and advertise the upcoming festival and the Miss Fairy Tale Competition. More people seemed interested in the Miss Fairy Competition than the festival, but if it gets them here then I guess that's a success.
Anyways, my 15th birthday came up quite quickly I must say. I suppose being busy with the fair and the preparations for it made it fly in.
Of course due to that, not that many people were able to come and see me, due to how busy they were. My birthday was now quite close to the fair, so many of my friends at Fairy Tail couldn't come to see me.
Of course I had plenty of time to see them after, so I wasn't bothered.
As I got into bed on the 14th October, I felt like I had done as much as I could have for the fair tomorrow. Hopefully the turnout would be good. Because that way, it would be a day to remember.
Here's another chapter done and dusted. Do leave a review of your thoughts.
So in this chapter we got to see the beginning of the Harvest Festival. I felt like tying it into the Gildarts Shift would be a convenient and fun way to explain how on earth Magnolia was able to afford such an expensive overhaul of the town. Plus I had been saving the festival for a while now.
In the next chapter we will see the entire festival kick off, whether it will be a great success or not remains to be seen.
Anyway, I will see you all then. Hope you all enjoyed the chapter!
Ltbutterfly287 - I appreciate the following of this story, and I'll address the comment you made about the pacing of the story and the pacing between years. May as well make this clear to everyone.
The main idea is that I spend roughly a whole year for each arc or important moment in Cade's life. I know this hasn't always been the case, but this WILL be improved upon later on in the story. As for canon, I did say that it would take a long while for us to reach X784, and there is no real way for me to make it faster for the people reading this story. One chapter a week is enough, If I do two chapters a week, I'd feel like I would be uploading too fast.
And I don't mind admitting that I'm trying to build up to a huge grander arc with a slower pace. The idea is that it will hopefully feel worthwhile when it finally comes time. That goes for any of the other main characters by the way.
Canon will begin when canon begins. I cannot share when, as I would class that as a spoiler. Apologies. Though I can say with confidence that I plan to skip some more boring years in the future.