Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or its characters.


-The Enchanter of Fairy Tail-

Chapter 65: The First S-Class Quest

Year: X759. 25 years till Canon begins.

Cade POV:

Well, today was the day.

I had just walked into the guild on a cold sunny morning for one reason only.

It was time to take an S-Class quest.

It had only been around a week since I had seen Uncle Jack, and since then I had been looking through the S-Class quests to find one that suited me the best.

I had spent some time looking through them to find one that I felt suited me the best. When I had found one that I liked, I decided to come back and take it the next day.

Everyone that I knew was rooting for me to take this job and complete it. Mother had been happy for me to take the job and she wished for me safety before I left today to go and get the job. Lilly had also been happy for me to take the job as long as I didn't come back with an extra scar on my face.

As for Gildarts? Well, he was pumped to see me go out and complete the job. He had said that the both of us should take another S-Class job after I had done this one. Of course, I may be waiting a few weeks until that, but I accepted his offer with enthusiasm.

As I entered the guild and approached the set of stairs I wasted no time in going up to the second floor to get the S-Class job board.

After I take the job sheet, I need to inform Master so he can approve the job and see me off. While Master did usually stamp the job requests to mark them as done, when it came to S-Class quests however, he NEEDED to know if a wizard would be going off on one of those quests.

Upon making it to the second floor, I headed for the S-Class job board and spotted the job I was planning to take. Wasting no time, I moved over and swiped the job.

S-Class

Reward: 1,200,000 jewels

I have an item of extreme importance to me. I am asking for the assistance of a wizard that would be willing to help me recover it. Please come to the H.M.C and go to C34, where I will be waiting for you.

When I thought about it, this seemed like the best job for me to take out of the three that were on here.

There was no way that I was defeating the huge leviathan that was lurking around the ocean. As for the Dark Guild job? Well, I felt like defeating an entire guild was maybe a bit much for me right now.

Perhaps I can take these jobs in the future, but right now I felt like the recovery quest would be best for me right now.

As I took the job request and put it in my Requip storage I prepared to head downstairs to try and find Master Makarov for the notice of me taking the job.

Seems like that wasn't need however.

"That's a good job to take for your first S-Class quest. A small part of me was nervous that you would take the other jobs on there."

I turned and saw Master Makarov standing on the railing of the second floor. He had a rather contemplative look on his face.

"Oh Master! Was just about to come and find you." I said with surprise. I then pulled the job out of my Requip storage. "Here's the job. It's ok for me to take it right?"

Master took the job and carefully read it, making sure that he knew what I was getting into.

"You DO know what the H.M.C is right?" He asked, as his eyes moved up off the paper to meet mine.

"Yeah, I did some research before taking this job. Don't worry I know what I'm getting myself into. Besides, they'll all be locked up right?"

Master gave a nod as he then pulled out a stamp from his pocket and stamped the job, before he then handed it back to me.

"You be careful out there." He warned me.

"Like I said, I know what I'm getting myself into. With the position the man who requested this will be in, he can't do anything to me." I assured Master.

"This may take me a few days to complete. The H.M.C is a few days away after all." I said as I moved past Master and headed towards the stairs.

"I'm aware that it may take you a few days. You just come back in one piece you hear me?" Master stated, with both annoyance and assurance.

"I'll be careful." I said with a nod. "I better move out if I'm to take the next train. See ya Master!" I gave a wave to the man as I moved down the stairs back to the first floor.

As I prepared to move out of the guild, I spotted Macao and Wakaba sitting at the nearby benches. They saw me and called me over.

"Hey Cade!" Macao waved. "Where are you going?"

I smiled as I moved over to the two boys. "Hey you two. I was just taking this job here." I explained as I pulled out the S-Class job and showed it to them.

Both boys gave a look of surprise when they saw the job.

"Whoa an S-Class job!" Wakaba said. "We can't come can we?"

I smirked. "No can do I'm afraid. These types of jobs are too dangerous for you guys. Though I'm sure that if you work hard in the next few years, maybe you'll get to go on some S-Class jobs together."

Both of the boys seemed quite happy with that idea, with big smiles on their faces. Wakaba then asked me a question as he looked at the job again.

"Hey what's the H.M.C?" He asked as he scratched his head.

Ah right. That was the thing that did have me debate about taking this job or not. In the end I did decide to go for it however.

"Well… It stands for His Majesty's Compound. It's a jail that houses some of the worst criminals out there." I narrowed my eyes before continuing.

"And someone in there has just put out a job request."


The H.M.C. is one of the highest security prisons in Fiore. Many of the worst criminals are sent there to live out their years in jail.

There have been zero cases of escapees since the construction of the prison decades ago. It was approved by the King and renamed to suit that praise.

Unlike many of the important buildings in the county, the prison was not located in a nearby town or village. It instead was constructed next a huge mountain with nothing but a barren landscape around it. This was to ensure that if anyone DID escape, then they would be barely able to make it out.

I had to take the train at Magnolia and go far northeast, and then take another train that takes me further east. This trip took around a full day to complete.

While there wasn't a town or village nearby the jail, there was a small inn that was willing to house any traveler's coming this way. I chose to stop there for the night and rest, so that I can head to the nearby checkpoint where some of the prison guards are.

If you wanted to visit someone in this jail, you had to first make a notice to the warden of the prison that you wished to do so. If he approved of this request, then you would have to travel to a checkpoint that resided just outside of the bare wasteland that was around the jail.

As I had accepted the job request, the warden knew I was coming, so I just needed to head to the checkpoint and register myself.

When I exited the inn the next morning, I followed the path that led me to the checkpoint.

As I walked there, I began to see traces of the barren and dead wasteland that was around the jail in the distance.

Honestly, barren doesn't even begin to describe how dead and sickly the nearby area was.

Almost all life had seemed to be dead in the area. The grass was all dead, and had been overtaken by dark brown weeds. The ground had been eroded and turned into a sickly yellow colour. I could see some trees that looked like they had been shrivelled and bare for serval years now. Small rock faces were scattered across the dead wasteland. While there was a cool breeze in the air right now, I could feel nearby none of the wind blowing across into the wasteland. That meant that if you chose to walk the dead landscape, there would be nothing but silence in the air.

Even with my good sight, I could see nearly no end to the wasteland that was a good distance away from me. It clearly spanned several miles – yet there was people that were able to navigate this and travel to the prison that lay there.

As I turned my gaze away from the wasteland, I saw that I was coming up on the checkpoint that I had to register at.

It was a rather large and decently secure building. I could see a large, wired fence that surrounded the building. I also that there was a very long and wide area of the building that led out into the wasteland. One point of interest about the building was that there was a huge tower that rose up into the air. I swore I could see a person at the top of it.

I could see a few guards walking around out on patrol around the building. As I got closer to the building and the front entrance, they saw me and moved to approach me.

As they came up to me, they gave me a hardened and also a small look of confusion as to my presence here.

"Who are you? What business do you have here civilian?" One of them asked.

"Relax. I'm the one that accepted the job here." I pulled out the job request flyer from my Requip storage and showed it to the two men.

Both of them seemed surprised to see it. "Oh it's you? I thought you would be a bit older that's all." One of them said as he relaxed a little.

"Yeah we knew you were coming, but we thought you would be a bit older." The other guard said.

"Right…" I said with an embarrassed smile. "So I believe I'm supposed to meet the warden for this right?"

"Ah that's right! If you follow us, we'll take you to the inside of the checkpoint and you'll meet him there." One of the guards said as he and the other guard began to make their way to the front entrance of the building.

I followed them, and they led me to the front entrance of the building. We crossed through the wire fence that surrounded the building and we all entered the front entrance.

I found that the inside of the building was a small area with what looked like a small reception desk that was across from the door I entered from. It seemed like there was no security features of any kind in this room.

One of the guards moved and spoke to the man behind the desk. A few minutes later he returned with a decently sized lacrima in his hand. "The warden will speak to you now." He said as he handed me the hexagonal object.

I was a bit confused by this, but the lacrima quickly sprung to life and I then saw the face of a middle aged man with grey hair appear in the lacrima!

"Oh! Hello there! Are you the Warden?" I greeted the man.

"I am. I take it you are the S-Class wizard that accepted the job request?" He asked, his voice coming through the lacrima.

"Yeah I am. Sorry for the surprise, I just thought that I would meet you in person." I apologised.

"I am the one that has to apologise young man. As I am currently here in the prison, it would have been quite hard for me to travel all the way back to see you, as I still have work to do here." The warden informed me.

"Ah, I see. So will I be heading up to see you at the prison?" I asked into the lacrima.

"You will. I shall give you more details regarding the job as you make the journey here."

"Ok then – Hey wait. I'm not going to have to walk it up there am I?" I said at a bit of fear of travelling the wasteland on foot.

"Of course not! We have a method of transporting prisoners, goods and visitors up here and across the wasteland." The warden said to me. "Currently we are about to have one of our transports depart to the jail from the building that you are in."

The warden then cleared his throat. "The guards that will be with you can lead you to it. From there you will be seated in the passenger compartment as you make the journey up here. I'll still be here to discuss matters about the job as you travel there." He said as the lacrima dimmed a little and his face disappeared.

The guards that led me in here then spoke up to me. "If you follow me, I'll lead you to the train that's departing."

"Train?"

The guards wasted no time in moving forward towards a doorway that one of them opened and walked through. I was just able to keep up with him and follow him through.

We walked through a small corner before we came to a much larger door. Both guards opened the door and walked through, with me following.

It was this next room that really surprised me.

We had came into a huge and wide room that held several train-like carriages. They were of decent size and were heavily fortified and secure. I saw that they all had different numbers on them that must allow people to know what they are carrying.

Several guards moved around the carriages and were carrying wooden crates that they were placing into them. It seemed like different crates were being placed into different carriages, with some being different sizes – some bigger while some were smaller. I spotted that all the carriages were lined up in front of one another and were beginning to move backwards to connect to each other.

Far ahead of me, I saw that the room led out into the wasteland that covered the prison. This was how the prison received all their supplies. The trains here delivered everything from food to clothes to prisoners.

As I was seeing all this happen, one of the guards that brought me here broke me out of my trance. "See that carriage there that's at the back of the train? That's the one that you'll be getting on." He pointed to the carriage in question.

I saw that carriage he was referring to and it had the symbol V-1 marked on the side of it, quite large and bold. "I can just get on? There won't be any issues?" I questioned with surprise.

"Yes you'll be allowed on. Just let the guards know who you are and they'll allow you access." The guard said as he and his colleague exited the door behind me and shut it behind them.

Not wanting to waste any more time, I quickly moved to the back carriage. As I came up to it, I spotted a guard exiting it. He was about to close the door behind him before he saw me.

"You the visitor that we were expecting?" He asked me. I nodded and he continued. "Well everything's set up for you in there. The journey will take about an hour or so, so get comfy." He suggested as he stepped aside to let me enter.

I then entered the carriage and the guard shut the door behind me.

My accommodation for the next hour was a decently sized area with long seats that had some comfy cushions on them. There was nothing else in here apart from the seats. Here's hoping that I don't have to go to the bathroom. I did spot a window that was to my right.

As I took a seat, the lacrima that I was holding reactivated, and I heard the voice of the warden. "The train is about to take off. I assume that you are in the visitor carriage?"

"Yeah I'm just waiting for us to set off now. How long do – WHOA!"

As I was saying that, the train suddenly began to move forward causing me to be forward a little. I readjusted myself on my seat and saw that train was leaving the checkpoint via the window.

"Seems like the train has began to set off now." The warden figured. "It will take about an hour for you to arrive here, it would be best if I answer your questions about the job. When you arrive here, you'll be led straight to the Cell 34."

"Sounds like a plan." I saw that we had now left the checkpoint and were now travelling across the wasteland.

I sat the lacrima next to me on the seat so I didn't need to hold it all the time.

There were questions I wanted to ask, but I felt I should ask the two most important ones first.

"So who is the person that put out the job request?" I questioned first.

"The man's name is Trillo Woods. He is a non-mage that has been sentenced to our prison for a total of 20 years. He was first arrested and sentenced ten years ago for the killing another man." The warden answered as his face scrunched up a little.

Murder… I would be meeting an actual convicted murderer in the next hour.

Admittedly, the thought made me a bit uncomfortable, but I pushed on and asked my next question.

"The job request said that he had an item of extreme importance that he wanted. Do you know what it is?"

"No." The warden grunted in annoyance. "We have interrogated him about that ever since he requested the job be sent out, but he has not elaborated on that detail."

"That leads into my next question. How does a man like him have the right to send out a job request?"

"You see we tend to favour punishment over rehabilitation in this prison. However, we do allow some of the more well- behaved prisoners here to have one request that we will do our best to fulfil. Most of the prisoners ask for a good meal, or better conditions. Yet Trillo Woods had not used his favour until two months ago."

"And that was the job?"

"It was. I could hardly believe my surprise when he requested the job to be published. There is no law saying that criminals are forbidden from posting jobs, which made this a tricky situation to handle." The warden said.

"After a few days of contemplating this, I did decide to accept his favour. I listed the job request as S-Class due to the background of the man who was sending it out. I was confused to see that it was a simple item that he was asking to be handed to him."

I gave a hum after I heard that. "This item. If it in any way would allow him to escape the jail, what would become of the job?"

The warden took a deep breath before he replied to me.

"If the item would grant him an escape, then it would be confiscated immediately, and the job would be cancelled. Other things like an extended sentence and harsher cell conditions would be enforced upon Trillo Woods due to his attempted escape."

Then I thought of something quite peculiar. How had I not thought of this beforehand?

"There is one thing that I have just realised. How does Trillo Woods plan to pay me for this job? 1,200,000 jewels is a lot more money than a prisoner should have access to." I asked with confusion.

"Well I don't think it will be Trillo Woods who is paying you for this job." The warden replied.

"Come again?"

"You see Trillo Woods was a rather wealthy man before he was arrested. He was the head of a large mining organisation that focused on mining rare jewels from mountains and shipping them off to other cities and countries. The Woodfield Foundation they were called."

"I've never heard that name before." I muttered with attempted recollection.

"I thought not. You see the reason why Trillo Woods killed another man was because he was caught in a scandal where he was trying to siphon the jewels from the mining company for himself. He killed the man that caught him to try and save himself, but to his dismay he was caught red handed for the murder and the scandal. Since the murder, the Woodfield Foundation has been hit with all sorts of backlash and accusations. They are certainly no longer the rich company they once were." The warden explained.

"As for how Trillo Woods plans to pay you for the job, I can only assume that he plans to use one of his remaining higher ups to pay you for the completion of the job." The warden finished explaining.

"How would he get the message out for them to pay me for the job?" I asked with interest.

"In certain cases, we often allow the prisoners here that are more well behaved to write and deliver some mail to anyone in the outside world. That will most likely be his only way of doing that." Buzzed the wardens voice from the lacrima.

I nodded my head, understanding the idea of how those in the prison communicated with each other outside. There was a few minutes of silence before I spoke up to the warden again.

"Forgive me for saying this in such a brash manner, but I can only presume that this item that I'm going to be collecting will be outside of the prison and the wasteland here. If that the case, then I will be getting a ride back to the checkpoint, right?"

"There is no need to worry. We have a few trains that constantly come and go from the prison to the checkpoint. You can simply board one of them for heading back to the checkpoint." The warden assured me.

I breathed a small sigh of relief. At least I wouldn't be staying at the prison for very long then. A part of me thought that I would be staying for the night.

A few more minutes had passed and I occasionally took a glance out of the window to see the wasteland that was outside of me.

I saw a few dead cliffs and and some ravines that split open the ground. Yet another thing that many of the people trying to escape here would have to cross.

"Taking a look at the wasteland outside of here hm?" Came the voice of the warden.

I turned back to the lacrima to answer the warden. "How big is this wasteland? It seems to go on and on." I said, looking back out at the dead landscape.

"The wasteland goes on for several hundred meters in all directions. The prison is just at the centre of the wasteland. I am not sure how life hasn't regrown yet, I have heard that there used to be all sorts of life before everything died off. Anyway, it at the very least does its job in helping to deter prisoners from escaping." The warden stated.

"Surprised that the dead edges of the wasteland haven't been spreading outwards to the rest of Fiore. Still I am grateful for that not happening." I muttered with relief.

"I hear that the only reason why there hasn't been a huge movement to restore the dead land is because of the fact that it would take a huge number of wizards with the right magic to bring back all the plantation and nature." Came the warden. "Then again if it were brought back it might end up causing some prisoners in the prison to try and escape."

"Was there any form of civilisation out here before it all died?" I inquired as I turned to look out the window.

"I've heard countless stories, all of different reasons. The most discussed one is that there was some colossal war hundreds of years ago. Apparently that caused everything to die out mysteriously. I've heard that there was a few villages and houses out there before they all died." The warden answered, himself seeming fixated on the mystery. "I suppose the bigger question is why hasn't the nature grown back over time…"

As the warden finished saying that, I swore I could spot something out in the wasteland. There was a bit of a dust storm right now, so it was hard to make out.

"I think I see something in the distance… What is that?" I narrowed my eyes to try and see better.

"I think that's the prison you can see." Came the warden. "You are quite close to it now. In fact, I think I can see the train from the window in my office." He said.

As that was said, the dust storm began to die down and I now had a clearer view of what was in front of me.

There's no way… was that really the prison?

What I saw was a huge spiralling and twisting mountain that was gigantic in size. It stood out like a sore thumb in the middle of the wasteland we were travelling through. I could see that there several jagged proportions that stuck out from the mountain and came down just below it where it began.

Of course the mountain was not the main thing that caught my eye.

There it was, built on the mountain, almost going as high and thick as it; was the H.M.C. It seemed to cover the entire mountain side that we were travelling towards. It seemed to be in the shape of a castle of sorts, as there were some towers that connected and reached up high. Perhaps lookout points if things went horribly wrong?

The prison seemed to be split into different parts.

The main body of the prison seemed to be located towards the bottom half of the mountain. I assumed that was where the cells were due to the fact that the prison seemed to get smaller as it went further up the mountain. While the bottom middle area of the prison was the largest part of it, there were other parts to the left and right of it that were also of decent size. I spotted some corridors that connected these parts of the building together.

I narrowed my eyes as I saw one odd looking tower, the tallest tower there was. Was it… spinning?

As we got closer to the prison, I saw that it was coloured dark green and was made out of some thick stone bricks. I also noticed that we were heading for what looked to be a stoping point for the train. I could see some large and think steps that seemed to lead up and into the main jail.

As we were coming closer to the mountain and the jail, I heard the warden speak up to me again.

"Once you exit the train, simply make yourself known to the guards and they will take you to see Trillo Woods. I must ask this of you though: When he has finished speaking with you come and see me in my office. I must know the details about this job that he is hiding from me." The warden insisted.

"I can do that. I don't think my meeting with him will take that long. I'm hoping to be in there and out ASAP." I said as I felt the train begin to turn and slow down.

"There is one more thing I have to ask you." Came the warden. "If the item is beneficial to him in the fact that he may escape this jail, then I must confiscate it from you. If that happens, then I doubt that Trillo Woods will pay you."

My eyes widened in realisation when the warden said that. I had never thought of that while travelling here on the train.

"There is a small chance that you may be doing this for nothing. Are you still sure that you want to keep going with the job?" The warden asked with seriousness.

"…"

"While I would normally hate the idea of not being able to complete a job for a client, this Trillo Woods seems like one of the worst people I've heard of. If he plans to use the item to escape from jail, then I'd rather not get the money from this job if it meant that he would stay behind bars – plus there's always more jobs available." I answered.

"You really don't mind?" Came the warden with surprise.

"Like I said, there is always more jobs available." I repeated with a shrug.

I could now feel the train beginning to slow down a lot more now. I could also hear the voices of some guards outside of the train.

"Well if you say so." Came the warden with what was probably a shrug. "I'll be deactivating this lacrima when the train fully stops. Remember what I said earlier. The guards will take you to Trillo Woods at C34, and after you have finished your discussion with him come straight to my office. After that I'll see about you getting you back to the checkpoint you came from."

"Got it. I'll see you later warden." I nodded as the train had now came to a halt. The lacrima then deactivated and I picked it back up and put it into my Requip storage to not lose it.

I heard the door to the carriage I was in open up, allowing me to exit.

I took a deep breath as I exited the carriage and prepared for my eventual meeting with a fully-fledged murderer.


And that's another chapter finished and uploaded! Feel free to leave a review of your thoughts if you so desire.

Had to delay this chapter, as I'm trying to get prepared for university. Wouldn't want to go in unprepared. Can't exactly guarantee weekly updates when I start, but I'll do my best.

Cade has now accepted a most dangerous job request. With the meeting with the criminal Trillo Woods coming up, will he be able to keep this cool around this murderer? And what is it that Trillo is wanting Cade to get for him?

Stay tuned to find out, I do hope that you enjoyed this chapter, and I hope to see you in the next one!