Lying on the seats, I glanced at Macao and Wakaba, both sitting opposite me while dealing with their hangovers from drinking too much last night. "S-So, you dragged us onto the train, t-to go where?" Looking at Macao, who rubbed his head while Wakaba constantly groaned, I nodded in agreement. "To Cedar… We're doing a job to fight a group of Illegal Dark Mages. They're hiding out near there." Yawning, I rolled onto my side while resting my head on my arms, gazing at Macao, who looked surprised. "WHAT!?"
He stood up quickly with a shocked expression, though he quickly sat back down, rubbing his head, while I dismissively waved my hand. "Makarov approved, and Wakaba said I needed supervision… You two are my supervision." Pointing at Wakaba, who raised his head in confusion, I glanced at Macao, who looked both irritated and confused. "You can't just force us to do a mission with you; that's not cool!" Rubbing my ears in annoyance at his loud voice, I promptly closed my eyes.
"You two can split the reward; I don't care about the money." It seemed the mention of money significantly eased his irritation as he scoffed while folding his arms. "Hmph, fine, we'll act as a supervisor; so what's the details of the mission?" Macao begrudgingly agreed to join me on my mission, which was not like he had much of a choice right now, given we were already on a train and had long since left Magnolia.
"I already told you. Illegal Dark mages, camping near Cedar." "What? That's it?" Macao widened his eyes while skeptically gazing at me, causing me to shake my head. "No, but that's all the information I needed to know; if you want to know more, read the paper… Oh, they also said to capture; they didn't specify alive, though." My words greatly irritated him once more, though he managed to calm down by taking a few breaths.
"Okay, can I have the paper?" "I don't have it; I left it at the guild." Macao's eyes nearly popped out of his head while he pulled his hair, causing me to tilt my head in confusion, though I eventually shrugged my shoulders. It took a few minutes, but he eventually managed to calm down, though by then, he looked nearly defeated. "Haa, how long until we arrive at Cedar?" "I don't know, I figured you would know… Actually, I don't even know if we're going to Cedar; I just got on a train going in the same direction as Cedar. The railway map was confusing." The railway map wasn't that confusing; I just didn't feel like using my brain all that much; that's why I have two adults with me. They think, and I do the fighting. "Haa, I-I don't want a child anymore." "M-Macao, C-Cooper, w-what are we doing?" Glancing at Wakaba, who glanced between Macao and I, prompting me to roll onto my side as I closed my eyes.
___
___
So, the train didn't take us directly to Cedar, but it was close enough to the city that we just walked the rest of the way, which took the rest of the day, and by the time we arrived at Cedar, it was the middle of the night. Cedar was a port city and, from Wakaba's words, one of the few cities with its own army of knights; apparently, most cities either rely on their guild, if they have one, or the Magic Council.
"Alright, we'll stay at an Inn for the night and then start questioning the knights of Cedar if they've seen or heard anything suspicious that could be related to mages." Glancing at Macao, I groaned in annoyance, already regretting my decision to bring them; clearly, they were the slow and cautious type, which wasn't me. "Haa, still can't believe he dragged us into all this shit." Ignoring Wakaba, I followed behind the two as we entered an Inn, renting two rooms, one for me and one for them. I would say they were being nice, but I was more inclined to believe they just didn't want to deal with me, which was good for me, as I planned to search for the dark mages.
"Good night." Grunting at their words, I watched them close the door to their room, causing me to grin as I closed my door while turning around. Exiting the Inn, I dashed through the city, following the same path we had initially taken until I left the city; standing just outside it, I looked around for a few moments until deciding to head right, figuring I'd do a wide circle around Cedar, and because it was a port city, I only had to do a half-circle.
Entering the forest, feeling oddly at home, I climbed up a tree and traversed through the canopy by leaping from branch to branch; using Indestructible Magic, I enhanced my body, causing my senses to significantly increase as I continued to traverse through the forest, using my senses to search for clues of human activity. Unfortunately for me, I ended up entirely empty-handed, wasting a whole hour's worth of searching; cruising under my breath, I speedily made my way back to the front of Cedar before taking the left path, and although it took a long time, I eventually found a clue.
Coming to a halt atop a tree, I glanced at a cliff where I could see a small destroyed fortress, which would be a great place to hide, but what really caught my attention was that I could see faint smoke coming from beyond the fortress walls. "Heh, bingo!" Smirking, I dropped to the ground and began dashing toward the fortress; I had to take a long path unless I wanted to scale the cliff, but once I arrived, I came to a halt on a branch while observing the fortress from afar.
I would've rushed in, but I could sense things littered throughout the forest between me and the fortress, which caused me to frown. 'Traps? Magical traps? Tsk, annoying.' While it was annoying, this whole thing was a learning experience; I've fought against stupid beasts and know how to deal with them, but intelligent enemies were entirely different.
My main problem with these traps is that they'd probably alert whoever set them up, which would give them enough time to react and possibly escape, which I didn't want; however, as this was my first time dealing with magic traps, I had no idea what they were capable, so while tempting, I didn't blindly rush in. Instead, I took my time, cautiously moving toward the fortress while uncovering every trap I came across; this cautious behavior of mine reminded me of my first few months in the forest; since I was still weak then, I would cautiously pick and choose my battles.
Now, I was much stronger, but I'd also entered a whole different world, a world of mages, and once again, I was weak, so while I wasn't a fan of it, I'd act cautiously, using these first few months to learn the world of mages. 'However, once I've learned enough, back to my old, reckless ways.' I thought with a grin as I licked my lips.
Leaping from a different tree, which had a hidden magic trap that would've exploded if I had jumped into it, I landed on the ground, stealthily crawling past an illusion trap that hid a pile of wooden spikes. Passing a few more traps, I arrived near the fortress, where I could hear talking.
"Did you manage to persuade one of the Captains?" "Yes, but he wanted 100,00 jewels per person… He was a greedy bastard and the only person who seemed willing." "Tch, 100,000 jewels per person!? That's highway robbery! That's half a million jewels!"
As I listened to them speak about seemingly stowing away on a ship to get out of Fiore, the Kingdom we're in, I took note of the man's words, gauging that there were five people in the fortress. I continued to eavesdrop for a few more minutes before deciding to make my presence known, and why not do so with a bang?
As I used my magic to my limit, I landed on the ground before sprinting forward, covering tens of meters in a second as I smashed right through the destroyed stone wall; coming to a halt inside the fortress, my eyes locked onto three figures sitting around a campfire that looked at me. "Hehe, found you!" Without hesitating, I dashed towards them, prompting them to react quickly. "We've been found!" "Attack!"
One of them raised his palm before thrusting forward, creating a powerful blade of wind that headed right for me, yet, with a smirk, I slammed my head against it, breaking right through the blade of wind while it left behind a shallow cut. The second guy was stronger, launching several large pointy rocks at me, though I met his attack with my fists, causing each pointy rock to crumble into pieces. As for the third person, who was a woman, she created chains from her hands and swung them at me, causing them to wrap around my arm. "Heh, got you!" Seeing her grin in victory, I slammed my foot on the ground, bringing myself to an immediate halt while the ground where the three stood cracked and shook, causing them to lose balance.
Firmly gripping the chain, I yanked the woman towards me before violently punching her face into the ground; a crunch was heard, and blood stained my fists, but I merely grinned as I broke the chain while it dissipated into nothingness. "Hehe, at least give me a challenge; I'm here to learn."