Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or it's characters.
-The Enchanter of Fairy Tail-
Chapter 34: A Royal Tour
Year: X756. 28 years till Canon begins.
Cade POV:
After I got dressed into some casual clothes that were in the drawer in the room I was in, I made sure to requip my armour back into my own little spacial dimension for safe keeping. I was surprised to see that the armour had came out relatively unscathed during my fight with Mato. There were a few burn marks on there, but that can easily be cleaned away.
I then made my way outside the room, sliding the shoji door open to see my mother and Fea leaning against a wall, the both of them talking to each other about something, however I was too late in the conversation to learn what.
"There you are Cade." Mother smiled as she saw me. "Shall I show you to our rooms now?" They are quite nice and fancy!" She said happily.
"Oh yes, do lead the way." I responded with interest.
Mother then led me and Fea to our rooms in the monastery. We passed through a few corners and sliding shoji doorways, before we came to a corridor with a staircase at the end of it. There were two sliding doors quite close to each other against the left wall.
"These are our rooms here." Mother said as she gestured her hand to the doorways. "Why don't you go in and take a look?" She suggested, as she slid the door to her room open and walked in.
"Well I am curious to see what it'll be like." I said to myself as I slide open the door and walked in.
The floor of the room was a soft carpet, that felt like I could sink right into it when I rubbed my hand across the floor. The walls were wooden like the room I woke up in, except these walls were a birch sort of colour. I saw a few shoji windows that I could slide open, presumably they led to a ice view down on the village.
There was also a double bed with the same covers that I woke up in today. At a corner of the room there was a table with some chairs for siting and eating on. A few fancy paintings were hanged up in one of the walls to decorate the room. I also spied my suitcase at another corner of the room.
"Aw man, this is the best!" I cried out as I leapt onto the bed with me facing upwards to the ceiling.
I grinned and closed my eyes with glee. 'Master Han really went all out for me and my mother here! I can't to see what else this place has to offer. Oh maybe secret passageways!"
"Secret passageways?" Came a voice from above me.
"Huh?" I opened my eyes.
I saw that Fea was standing right above me, her looking down at me. "You said secret passageways." She said again.
"Wha-? I didn't know you were here Fea!" I said in surprise. "And did I say that last bit out loud?"
"Yes you did." She said still looking down at me. "And I came in here to see what your room was like. Also I was tasked by my father to accommodate you in this village whether you go. I felt it quite necessary to come her in here with you." She explained plainly.
"O-Oh right. Er, thanks for that I might need that later today when we go across the village." I said as I quickly began moving to get off the bed, feeling like the distance between myself and Fea was a bit too close.
As I got off the bed and stood up, I saw a sliding shoji door that I hadn't seen when I came in the room. I curiously approached the door and saw the dark image of a person approaching it from the other side.
'Hmm? Where does this lead? And who is that on the other side?' I wondered as the silhouette got closer the door. The door then suddenly then slid open to reveal my mother!
"Surprise Cade!" She said with a grin. "Our rooms are actually connected to each other via this sliding door! That means we should be able to see each other quite a lot while we're here. We can see each other after dinner before we go to bed, when we wake up…" She listed. "Oh and have you seen these rooms! They are amazing! The carpet is soooo soft." She sighed after saying that.
"We made sure to use the finest wool and tapestries for this craftsmanship." Fea explained. "I believe most materials were traded from the outside world and were then moved into here."
"How… interesting." I said dryly, looking down at the carpet. 'How much does she know about this village? She's like a walking dictionary. It might not be so bad that she's constantly with me around the village. If I have a question at some point then I can just get Fea to answer it for me.'
I chuckled at the idea, before then turning to mother. "Well I'm quite happy with our rooms here. You coming with me on the tour of the village?" I asked.
"Oh, not today I'm afraid. I heard from Han that there is a rather large bathroom here. I'm going to be having a nice long bath right now, I didn't exactly get the chance to have one on the long journey up here." She said a bit embarrassed. "You can go on the tour with Fea. I'll er, just find a pamphlet." She joked.
"Well I can't blame you for that." I nodded my head in agreement. I then turned to Fea. "Well shall we be getting a move on with the tour then?"
"Of course." Fea gave a thin smile at that.
"Great! See ya later then!" I waved to mother as I exited my room, and followed Fea outside the monastery. While we were exiting the building I saw two large sliding shoji doors in the main hall (the door to exit the building being on the left of that.)
"You know what's in there?" I asked Fea with interest.
"I have not been in here very often, but I believe that Master Han's meditation chamber is in there. I think it is where you and him will do some simple training together." She explained to me. "I believe he might be in there now. Best not to disturb him." She suggested, as we moved past the door and exited the monastery.
"Soooo… Do we always need to take these stairs down? Or is there another way to get off the monastery grounds?" I spoke up to Fea with concern as we were now looking down at the huge steps that we cane up to get here (me trying to not look directly down as to not hurl.) A good hundred steps or so.
"There is no other way to get down from up here unfortunately." Fea looked a little sad at the idea. "We have to climb down these steps the entire time, or jump of course." She said with dry sarcasm.
"Jump…? Actually, that might not be a problem for me." I responded with realisation, a sly smirk forming on my face. "Heh, Soft!" I said with eagerness.
I then felt the defensive enchantment course throughout my body. Fea looked a bit confused at what I was doing. I then took a few steps back from the edge of the steps.
"What did you say there? And what are you doing?" She wondered to me, a look of confusion all across her face.
"Check this out! See you at the bottom Fea!" I shouted as I ran forward and then jumped off the edge of the steps.
Fea screamed when I did this, her thinking that I would be killed. She was soon surprised to see me completely fine at the bottom of the steps.
"Heh! What do you think of that trick of mine?!" I called to Fea from the bottom, using my hand to project my voice to her.
"How did you do that just there!?" She yelled down to me.
"Magic!" I replied with sarcasm.
'Oh I've always wanted to say that to someone.' I giggled hysterically after saying it.
"W-Well yes! But how!?" She shouted in confusion.
"I'll explain along the way. It's a really long story!" I called to her.
Fea then made her way down the steps of the monastery. It was admittedly, a bit funny to see how long it took for a single person to get down the stairs, while it only took me a few seconds. She eventually came to my level on the ground.
"There you are. Was wondering what was keeping you." I joked again. "Erm anyway!" I quickly said, seeing her annoyed face at my joke. "Shall we get on with the tour? There is quite a lot I'm sure you want to know about me and my magic."
"Indeed. I shall lead the way. Do try to not leave anything out." She insisted as she then lead me through the village for the Royal tour."
"So you fought a giant Werewolf in a cave? And then he blew himself up, if I'm understanding this correctly?" Fea questioned to me, as we were walking through one of the villages main road.
When we started walking, I told Fea everything important that had happened in my life since I joined Fairy Tail. I did explain what happened a few days before I joined, like my tenth birthday party, learning the horrible fate about my father and receiving Malvel's spell book.
I then told her about details like what sort of spells were in Malvel's book, sure I shouldn't really be giving this information out to everyone I meet, but the book is safe in my requip storage so it's not like someone could try to steal it. I also told her about Gildarts, Master Makarov, Fairy Tail, as well as the many jobs I had been on since joining the guild.
This took over an hour to fully explain to her. In that time we had passed through many of the different houses in the village. I assume we hadn't passed by anywhere important as Fea certainly did not stop me from speaking.
I was now just telling her about the time in which I fought that criminal organisation in the East Forest on Porlyusica's behalf. Fea looked quite shocked to hear that the boss of the place blew himself up when he lost.
"Yeah pretty crazy…" I muttered, after she double checked to see if what she heard was right.
"This is not a tradition in the rest of the world is it?" Fea questioned with concern.
"What!? N-No! Of course not!" I spluttered in shock. "We do not blow ourselves up after we lose every fight. There'd be no wizards left if that was the case."
"Ah I understand now." Fea said, her voice laced with interest about my mentions of the outside world. "What happened after that?"
"Well I got out of the cave, got knocked on the head by Porlyusica, headed back home and that was the job done." I summarised the rest of the job, without giving her the more detailed version.
"Oh my! This Porlyusica sounds quite evil from now she hates humans and knocked you on the head! I can see why she is a hermit now, simply no one wishes to be caught by her." Fea said to herself.
'Thank god Porlyusica wasn't here to hear THAT one. She's bad enough to be around when you aren't agitating her with your existence.' I thought with a shiver going down my spine.
"Anyway. After all of that, I won that fancy armour you saw me wear at a game with a gambler! From that point on nothing that interesting happened to me really. Just kept going on jobs and eventually ended up here trying to improve my magic." I finished explaining my life story to Fea.
We had now came up on the lake that I saw when we were travelling down to the village yesterday. Grass surrounded the outer bank of the lake, with a few cherry blossom trees scattered around; their petals occasionally falling off into the lake. The lake connected to a river in which I could see the water wheel I saw when entering spinning away. Sunlight dripped in and reflected off the lake creating a nice shimmer effect.
"So uh, got any history about this lake here?" I asked Fea, with a bit of sarcasm in there.
To my surprise, she responded.
"This lake is one that was here when the villagers first moved into the caverns in the mountains. The river you see connecting to it was excavated out by the villagers to get a water wheel working."
"Huh." I certainly didn't expect that information. "But wait… if the river was carved out, then how is there still water in the lake and water flowing through the river?" I didn't see the river come back round and connect to the lake from the opposite side which confused me.
Fea gave me a thin smile. "Magic." She replied with a giggle.
"Ha ha, very funny." I spoke dryly. Ok I guess I walked into that one there didn't I?
I then walked over to the lake and looked down into it.
I was a bit surprised to see not see the bottom of the lake. It simply kept going down and down until I saw nothing but darkness at the very bottom. I curiously picked up a stone that was lying at my feet, and dropped it in the lake. The stone sank quite quickly until I lost sight of it. The lake seemed to go down for forever.
"Some lake you got here…" I mentioned to Fea who watched me curiously. I then spotted two people in the far distance going up a pathway that I didn't see before when I was coming down here in the carriage. The pathway led what I see as a stone corridor that lead deep into the mountain.
"Where are they going?" I asked Fea, pointed to the men in the distance.
"Ah, they are leaving the village through the footpath that takes you to the back of the mountains. The carriage you came on was carrying important goods, so it had to come through the wall that had the gateway magic on it." She answered. "They are most likely Seekers."
"Seekers?"
Fea cleared her voice. "You see there are three roles one can take in this village: The first is to live as a simple person here. You have everything you need in this village, you can get a job, good education, get married and so on and so forth. The second is a Seeker. They do essentially what Mato and Reed do. They go into the world outside the village in pairs and trade goods to bring back here."
"Oh! I didn't know any of that." I said in surprise. "I just though pt that the strongest were chosen to to all the errand work outside. Didn't think that you could choose."
"We like to give the people here the option to choose what they want to do growing up." Fea said as she came to stand next to me.
"Say… can anyone leave the village whenever they wish?" I questioned with intrigue.
Fea gave me a look of confusion. "As in leave and never come back?"
"Er, I don't know…" I scratched my head. This was the first time Fea didn't exactly know what the answer was. "Erm, so like can ANYONE who lives in the village leave the village, say… because they want to explore the outside world? Like are non-Seekers aloud to leave." I said finally.
"Oh that's what you mean!" Fea said in realisation. "Hmm…" She seemed to seriously think about that question. "I think so…? I haven't heard of anyone who has left the village via their own choice, and not come back. If they did then it was before my time. I think my father might know more about that." She awkwardly explained.
"Ah ok." I then asked Fea another question. "He said he would be busy these next few months. Do you think I'd get a chance to see him at any point? I've still got some questions I want to ask him about this village."
"I can try to see at some point if he is busy or not. I shall let you know if he is or not." Fea informed me. "Perhaps I can answer any questions you have." She suggested to me.
"Well…"
'I was going to ask stuff like why the village is underground in the first place. And maybe more about that Gate Magic. Would Fea really know about that sort of stuff?' I doubted that while she was indeed knowledgeable, that she wouldn't have the answer to stuff like Gate Magic and why the village was underground.
"Erm, never mind. How about we see more of the village?" I suggested quickly.
Me and Fea then walked through the rest of the village and she pointed out some of the more interesting and exciting places that there were here. I got to see that the village had a bathhouse, a small library with a few books from the outside world in it, a small store with some foods, and a school for the children to learn in. Despite the size of the village being 100-200 people, the people here seems to have everything they needed.
I brought this up to Fea as we were walking. "You guys seem to have everything you could ever want here."
Fea gave a strange smile of sadness when I said that. "Well almost everything…" She said, as she stopped walking with a sigh, her then adjusting her bangles.
"What don't you have here?" I stopped with her, as I was struggling to think of what this village doesn't have.
Fea looked like she almost didn't want to answer that for me.
"Well… So many of us here including myself have never properly seen the outside world before. I've heard stories but I've never seen it with my own two eyes. I… I've never felt the sunlight on my skin before..." She said lowering her voice when she said that to me.
"You what!?" I was gobsmacked to hear that just there, my mouth hanging open. "You've really never left the village before!?"
"No haven't. I'm not a seeker, so I'm not really aloud." She explained to me.
"But you yourself said earlier, that you didn't know whether Non-Seekers were able to leave or not. And you're the Elders daughter, if anyone would have the right, it'd be you and him!"
"It's not that I want to leave!" Fea quickly said back. "Everything I need is here. I have no reason to leave… it's just… I wish I could feel the sunlight on my skin and hear the waves of the ocean." She confessed to me, putting her hands close to her chest.
"Um… can't you just leave and immediately come back in?" I suggested with a raised eyebrow.
"I'm not sure if my father would be ok with that. I mean I am his daughter, so I always have important matters to attend to in the village."
"…"
"No you don't." I said with a smile.
"Huh?" Fea gave a look of bafflement when she heard that.
"True. As the Elders daughter I can't imagine you've ever had much time to do what you wanted freely. Plus your healing magic must make it to where you're always here helping people." I started off. "Buuuuut something has changed now!" I stated with pride.
Fea said nothing, but she gave me a look of pure curiosity.
"It's me! That's what changed!" I declared pointing a finger at myself. "Because I'm here now in the village, your father asked you to accompany me while I'm here and help me with stuff! Well… Let's say first thing I need help with, is seeing some actual daylight and not a well done illusion up there." I pointed the the hole in the roof which casted imaginary daylight into the village.
Fea gave a look of shock in realisation at what I was saying.
"Sooooo… Could you help me with that Fea? I don't know the way to the pathway the Seekers take to get out of here. Think you could accompany me there?"
"Um… Cade?" She tried to say.
"It's a great idea!" I kept going on, not hearing her. "If a Seeker stops us, then I'll just say that I'm here for some daylight and you're accompanying me there."
"Cade." Fea said trying to get my attention.
"Then when he isn't looking, we'll both slip out of the door and we'll both get to feel the lovely daylight!" I said triumphantly.
"Cade!" Fea shouted.
That got my attention. "O-Oh! Sorry I couldn't hear you… Got a bit carried away there… Um, what is it?" I asked a bit abashed.
"Well I may not have been outside before, but I have heard that the door that the Seekers use to get out is in a forest so many travellers don't run into it by accident. The forest is made up of thick trees that cover the sky, so no sunlight will get through." Fea replied grimly.
"Well the-"
"And I've heard the forest is huge." Fea said cutting me off. "It takes half a day on foot to get out, and the path in the forest is easy to miss. Also it gets incredibly dark at night. We'd just get lost if we went out." She finished with a sigh.
"Oh. I… I didn't know… I'm sorry." I apologised. "Hey! Maybe we can take a carriage out of her-"
"I have motion sickness." Fea said bluntly.
"… Oh… I see… So in a weird way you can't leave the village even you wanted to…"
"Well I could leave by carriage. But I heard that the journey coming in and out for the first time is terrible to experience. With my motion sickness, I'd probably get seriously sick, more so than usual. Yes I'd get to see the sun and feel it. But I'm not sure if that's worth it." She said to me.
"You're probably right about that." I muttered with a frown.
Just then, the fake sunlight that was casting light onto the village suddenly began to disappear, and thick dark clouds appeared in its place. Many of the lanterns in the village lit up because of that.
"Ah, that means it's raining." Fea informed me dryly. "You probably figured this out by now, but different things in the sky represent what the weather is outside. If it's sunny, then fake sunlight will pour onto the village. If it's raining, then thick dark clouds like the ones up there will cover the ceiling. If it's snowing then large white clouds will be over the ceiling. If there is high winds, then the occasional sound of wind will be heard. Finally, if a natural disaster is occurring then a siren noise will be heard when it begins, and will sound again when it is over." Fea finished listing to me.
"Huh, that's pretty impressive." I scratched my chin, while nodding my head in approval.
"Do you wish to head back to the monastery now? If so, then would you allow me to be excused? I must see my father about something." Fea requested.
"Hmm? Oh yeah of course! I don't mind at all!" I said happily. "Oh but er… could you please show me how to get there? I'm still trying to figure this place out…" I asked in embarrassment.
Fea giggled and put a hand over her mouth. "Why yes of course! I was assigned to you by my father to help you and your mother while you are both staying here. Speaking of your mother, do you mind if I take her out for a tour similar to the one we had today? It might be best to show her around."
"Again I don't mind. You can tell suggest that to her today when we get back to the monastery. Now shall we get going?"
Fea and I then walked back to the monastery. I was beginning to recognise some of the sights as we were making our way there, so hopefully it wouldn't be long before I get the layout of this place wired into my brain.
While we were walking back, a question came to my mind that I was surprised I hadn't thought of yet.
"Hey Fea? What kind of magic does Master Han use?" I couldn't believe I had forgotten to ask someone in the last few hours.
"Master Han has access to a variety of different magics." Fea informed me. That interested me.
"Huh? He has more than one? Well what one does he use the most?" I questioned with interest.
"Well the main one he is known for using here, is a very advanced Requip Magic. Master Han has mastered his Requip Magic and the storage he has for his spacial dimension to the point where he can hold all sorts of items inside of it. Not just armour and weapons!" Fea said to me, as we turned a corner.
"What kind of things can he hold in there?"
"I've seen him summon swords, tables, chairs, teacups, books… I think I saw him summon a bed once, wheels, garden pots, magical guns, clothes… oh and all sorts of other things!" Fea explained to me.
I was completely taken aback to hear this information. "Tables, chairs, beds and guns?! That's insane!" I cried out.
From what I had read and ultimately learned over the years, was that Requip was a pretty common magic that worked more as a secondary utility magic to many wizards for simply holding stuff when they don't need it. It could only hold small items like books and maybe a single sword.
I was lucky in the fact that my armour was able to fit into my storage and that I could requip into it easily. The issue is with me, is that because my Requip Magic was the third magic I learned, I could barely hold anything else in it.
From what Fea told me just now, Master Han is apparently able to hold all sorts of stuff in his storage like furniture! Just how big is his magic power!? I couldn't even sense it when I first saw him, so either he was suppressing his power, or he's weaker than I'm thinking him to be.
"Well there is a reason why he is the strongest person in our village." Fea said as we passed by a block of houses. "He has been constantly training up many of the people in our village that have magical potential so that they can be ready to fight if we ever get invaded."
"Hard to believe that you guys will ever get invaded due to how well hidden this place is." I spoke up. "Though I suppose it doesn't hurt to be prepared."
I then asked an interesting question. "Say, what would you do if a horrible accident destroyed the village in here, but you all survived unscathed with no lives lost?"
Fea gave me a bizarre look. "Oh… Well… I suppose that we would make for the village that is not so far from here. I'm sure they would take us when we explained out situation to them."
'So in other words they have no backup plan if this place falls apart...' I realised when hearing Fea say that. 'I can't entirely blame them due to how well they've been hidden here I suppose…'
"If you don't mind me asking Cade, what is rest of the outside world like?" Fea piped up.
"The rest? You mean like what else in on Fiore?" Fea nodded. "Oh, I see. Well I come from a town called Magnolia. It's a pretty nice town that's close to the coast, and there's some mountains nearby as well. I've been to some other towns like Oak Town, Hargeon Town, Omnibus Town… and there is more I just can't remember them! But they're all so lovely to visit! Though I mostly go there on jobs, and not get much time to enjoy the activities there."
We had now approached the monastery steps, and we began to climb up them.
"Oh, the outside world sounds like a lovely place from everything you told me today!" Fea said with happiness, her closing her eyes when she said that. I bet she was thinking about what everything looked like in her head.
"Yeah it's great… except from the bad people." I said after that.
"Ah yes… Dark Guilds you said? Hmm yes… they sound like true scum that walk on this earth." Fea spoke with distain. "I forgot to ask earlier, but is that how you got that scar on your face?" She pointed to my birthmark.
"Nope that's a conveniently placed and shaped birthmark." I said, pointing a finger to where my birthmark was. "No need to apologise, you are certainly not the first person to mistake as that. It's certainly happened a lot more since I got older."
"Perhaps it's because you joined a guild? Everyone might think that you got it in a fight?" Fea brought up.
"That's a good point. Could you imagine if I actually got a scar that was marked on the exact same place as my birthmark. And then everyone thinks that's a birthmark instead of a scar!" I said with laughter afterwards.
"Ah… Hey look we made it back!" I said as we had now finished climbing up the steps.
The both us then walked into the monastery closing the wooden door behind us. Fea then turned to me.
"I shall be going to try and find your mother now. I'm sure she's out of her bath by now. Not sure if I will see you tomorrow... If not then I hope to see you the day after!" She gave me a smile, before she walked away from me.
'Some girl…' I thought to myself.
My eyes then spotted the doors that led into Master Han's meditation room. I then found myself walking towards it, quite curious as to see if the Master was in there.
I would have knocked on the door, but I couldn't see anywhere to knock on the sliding shoji doors. As such, I carefully slid open the door peeking my head in there to see what was in there.
It was a rather large room, with a red carpeted floor similar to that of my room that I was staying in. There were smooth stone walls in this room that were painted a light gray colour. There were no windows in this room, but I could see a small room divider standing up against the far end of the room. At the right corner of the room I saw Master Han sitting at a table drinking some tea.
"Ah, young Cade." He greeted me. "How was the tour today? Also you can come in if that's what you were wondering."
"The tour was great Master Han." I said as I came into the room and came up to him. "Got to see lots of things in the village. Quite a lovely community you have here." I then gestured to a seat.
"Ah yes please take a seat." Master Han noticed my gesture and directed his hand to the seat opposite him.
I nodded my head and took the seat opposite him. "Tea?" He asked holding up a teapot.
"Ah, no thank you." I kindly declined.
"Ah no problem then. He said as he put the teapot back on the table with the teacups, before then snapping his finger and causing them all to suddenly disappear.
"Requip Magic?" I asked curiously.
Han raised his eyebrows at me, not of concern, but rather curiosity. "Did Fea tell you that?"
"Yeah, I just asked what magic you used and she answered. You have quite the mastery over your Requip." I complimented the man.
"Many thanks. Funnily enough, despite being known for that the most around here, that is not the magic you are here to learn from." He addressed me.
"Was wondering what magic you had that combines together before it leaves your body. Can… you show me?" I requested, with me awkwardly scratching the back of my head.
"Take a guess." Han said, leaning back in his chair, with a playful manner.
"Ok… How about water and lighting?" Han shook his head.
"No not quite." He then held out a hand before summoning a small metal cube that could easily sit on his hand. He threw it up in the air a little, before sitting it on the table.
I blinked at that. "Iron?" I said looking up at him. "That's… not what I expected."
"Not iron Cade. Steel." Han corrected me.
"I'm sorry I don't know what steel is made out of. How do you do it?" I requested.
"Steel is made primarily out of iron and carbon." Han stated. "I first learned basic Iron Magic at a young age to help become a blacksmith. As for the Carbon, I only discovered that as my awoken magic years later, when I was pushing myself to the limit while practicing my Iron Magic."
"Honestly I was disappointed when I learned that was my awoken magic. "Carbon isn't really that unique or that helpful", I thought when I got it. But then I heard stories of how some wizards were rarely able to combine their magic together to create much stronger magic. And so I sought training to do it. After months of practice, I was able to fuse my carbon and zinc together before it left my body to create steel. Unfortunately things didn't work out for my future as a blacksmith, but that's just how fate goes sometimes." Master Han explained.
"And you can still cast regular Iron and Carbon?" I asked after that.
"I can indeed. Though since steel is much stronger than iron or carbon I never really see the need." Han replied.
"What about the Requip?" I quizzed.
"Now that." Han said as he stood up. "Is a story for another time." He stated, halted my coming questions. He then snapped his finger and the chair he was sitting on, the cube of steel and the table all disappeared into his Requip storage. I quickly understood what was happening and immediately stood up, my chair vanishing as well.
"Tomorrow we shall begin your training. It won't be anything big to start you off, just a few simple exercises." Han said as he made his way out of his meditation room, me choosing to follow him. "Tell me. What will your mother be doing tomorrow?" He questioned.
"I think she's getting a tour of the village as well from Fea. It's for the best that we know where everything is as soon as we can. Don't want to be getting lost around here." I explained to him.
"Thank goodness for that. I wanted to have a bath today, but every time I went to see if the room was empty I almost kept running into your mother while she was in there. After training tomorrow I think I'll have one." Han gave a pleased look at that idea.
We then exited the room, Han sliding the door shut behind him. As he did so, mother came round a corner her happy to see me. Her hair looked like it had just been washed maybe an hour ago.
'How long was she in that bath for?'
"There you are Cade, Master Han. Was looking all over for you! Erm, I was just wondering what do we do for dinner here?" My mother, once again asking the important questions.
"There is a small dining room here. The three of us can eat there." Han said as he began to walk to where the dining room presumably was. "I shall be the one cooking the dinner tonight."
"Oh how exciting. You can tell me about your tour as we walk there Cade!" Mother smiled as we both followed Han to wherever the dining room was. Hopefully this dinner would set a good standard for the rest of the dinners that I would be having here in this village.
Meanwhile Far Across Fiore…
No POV:
"You must be joking if you think this is real!" Laughed a bandit in a campsite.
Three bandits were currently sitting by a campfire just off a road. The three of them had just plundered a wagon from a trader not long ago, and were about to make their way back to their main base where their boss is.
"He's right you know. Hidden village in the mountains? How hard did you hit your head today, hmm?" Remarked a second bandit with a smirk.
"Gah, it's real I'm telling you!" Hissed a third bandit. "I heard overhead a conversation between two men in Aster Village a few weeks back. They were standing behind an inn talking away about the village being safe in the mountains and trade going in there. I listened in as I do best, and found that there are two ways in we just-"
"Wait. Aster Village? That dead town where nothing exciting ever happens?" Laughed the first. "As if a secret village would be there if all places!"
"It does exist I saw them go into it! I stalked them until night and I saw them driving a wagon carrying some goods on the back, and they came up to a small smooth rock wall. Then the driver decided to drive super fast right into the rock wall!"
The other two men were now deciding to listen to this story purely for entertainment.
"Eventually he hit the wall and there was a flash of bright light which blinded me. When my eyesight recovered, the wagon was gone! No wreckage, it was if it simply disappeared into thin air!"
"I think that's when you started dreaming." Piped up the first with a sneer.
"Oh really now?" Taunted the third. "Well you know I don't give up as easily as you two."
The other two bandits now gave their friend a stern gaze.
"U-Uh anyway! I checked round the mountain the next day, but I couldn't find anything. Nothing but a huge forest and a waterfall that came off the mountain. So I went to that new tracker mage that joined us and we-"
"What? That's why you wanted him? I though he owed you money?" Remarked the first.
"What no! Oh just keep listening!" The third yelled. "I asked him to get a layout if the surrounding area to see if he could find an entrance, and guess what? He did!"
The other two bandits were now a bit more interested in this wild goose chase of a village in the mountains.
"Go on." One of them gestured with his hand.
"Well he found an entrance in the forest, but it was in the shape of a door so it's most likely guarded on the other end. But he also found a secret way in. Remember how I said there was that huge waterfall from earlier? Well he found something strange in that area. We went over to have a look and he used his magic again there. The lake that the waterfall runs into has a large chasm that leads into the lake in the village!" The third exclaimed with glee.
The other two criminals looked at each other before turning back to their friend.
"Alright so what then?" The first said lazily. "Hidden village in the mountain. So what? We may as well raid Aster Village. Oh, except there isn't simply anything worth looting there, and Crocus is right nearby.
"You'd be have to be insane to invade a town or village that close to the capital." The second added. "Unless there's anything worthwhile in that village, then I say don't bother."
Instead of hissing in rage, the third began to chuckle to himself. "Oh really? How about a girl that has Healing Magic?"
Now that for the other two bandits attention. "What'd you say there?! Healing Magic?!" The first exclaimed in shock.
The second whistled to himself. "Now that's worth getting ahold of. Imagine how much a Dark Guild would pay for that!" He said in excitement. "How'd you learn this anyway?" He asked to the third.
"I overheard those two buffoons talking about it when I was overhearing them. I didn't believe them until I realised the village actually existed!"
All three bandits were silent now. All of them were in deep thought about the situation. The first spoke out.
"Alright look. Tomorrow three of us will head back to base and then we'll journey out to Aster Village with that tracker wizard just to see if you're telling the truth. If I find out that the village is actually real, then I'll believe you about the girl that can heal people. If this is all real… we'd need to find a way to get in safely."
"I agree." The second said. "As much as I hate to admit it, we're just some lowly bandits, only around twelve of us all together. Assuming this village is hidden and do they have a healer in there, I'm guessing that this village won't be a pushover."
"Infiltration to get in and steal the girl is our best bet. We aren't a dark guild who has around fifty wizards on their side. But assuming push comes to shove, we may actually need a bit of force on our side." Came the third. "Maybe hire a hand to help us here."
"Hold on, we would need the boss's approval about all of this you know? The infiltration and the hiring of a potential hand." The second spoke to his friends.
"I'm sure he'd agree if we proved that there was a hidden village and that they had healing magic. Plus remember. A healing wizard, especially a young girl would go for a few million jewels on the market! We'd easily make back our money." Came the third.
"Well then who we hiring then? Gotta be someone we know won't backstab us and take the whole profit for himself. Not many like that out here in this world." Wondered the first.
There was a minute or so of silence before the second bandit spoke up.
"I know a guy. Effective, efficient, loyal, powerful and committed to his work." He suddenly said. "Let me tell you two about him…"
Elsewhere…
*BANG*
The man dropped dead on the floor a gunshot wound right between his two eyes. The now dead man wore some rich and expensive clothing. He was a loan shark who had been scamming customers for a few months now. One of the customers could not take it anymore, and hired a mercenary to deal with him, and end the torment.
It was the middle of the night and the rain that was forecast had began. Wet water poured onto the dead scammer making him look lower and filthier than he already was.
Across from the dead scammer, stood the man that had been hired to do the job.
He was rather tall and wore a long black coat that was quite durable. Under that, he wore a dark green shirt that was detailed with some small stripes that went vertically. He also wore some rather black trousers. For his feet he wore smooth (almost stylish) black shoes. For his face, he had a slightly longer nose than most other people, but not too long. He had dark green eyes that could easily be mistaken as another colour due to how dark they were. His hair was short and brown, and it had been jelled backwards. His most distinguishable feature was his hat. A flat pointed black trilby hat sat on his head, it bent forwards a little.
This man, was called One Step Ahead Jones. Local mercenary.
"What did I tell you? I'm called One Step Ahead Jones for a reason. You thought you could pull that gun on me when you thought I couldn't see it? Well maybe the mirror behind you ought to tell a different story."
While Jones had killed the scammer, there was also the option to hand him in to the authorities via a forced confession. It was the route Jones originally planned, but when corned in the alleyway the scammer tried to pull a gun in Jones when he wasn't looking.
Jones had prepared for this however, by leading into a man into an alleyway, that he knew had a mirror was so he could see if the scammer tried to pull anything.
"With the name One Step Ahead, you're bound to fall behind me. By the time you figure out what's going on, then it's already game over for you." Jones remarked before then leaving the alleyway.
As he walked under some shade to avoid the rain he suddenly felt like he heard something somewhere.
"Hmm. I think someone out there might be considering requesting my services." Jones then used his magic to summon a pistol out of thin, that he twirled around between his hands.
"No matter the price I'll do it, whatever it is. Murder, kidnapping, infiltration, theft. That's how you'll become number one in Fiore." Jones remarked to himself, before walking off to await his next request.
Would you look at that, another chapter done! Do leave a review of your thoughts if you enjoyed it.
I have seen that this story now has over 90 followers! We are almost there to 100 followers, lets see if we can reach that goal next week!
This chapter may not be as action packed, but I wanted to have this chapter to have a little chemistry between Fea and Cade, as well as get some of the questions you may have been wondering so far out of the way.
Cade has now learned that Master Han uses Steel Magic that is the fusion magic he was wondering about for a while now. Master Han also has a very skilled Requip Magic that lets him hold all sorts of things in his storage. Fea has also been revealed to have never seen the real sun before, as well as many other things.
Seems some sinister forces have learned about Lavender Village. Will they be successful in infiltrating the village? And who is this One Step Ahead Jones?! You shall have to wait and see.
We are now also getting closer to Christmas now. Speaking of which, does Christmas or Easter exist in the Fairy Tail universe? Perhaps it was mentioned in one of the early episodes of the anime or manga, but I can't recall it ever being mentioned…
Anywho enough from me now, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! See you in the next one!
