Caelan’s eyes narrowed as Gildarts laid out his deduction.
Before he could even open his mouth to deny it, Finn suddenly popped out of the rubble.
“What do we do, Boss?!
He figured out our secret!” The clearing instantly fell dead silent.
A thick vein throbbed on Caelan’s forehead.
He couldn’t believe his own subordinate had just outed their master plan that easily.
“Finn!
Would it kill you to keep your mouth shut?!” Caelan roared, whirling around.
“Rook!
Rook!” Nearby, Rook was currently stuck waist-deep in the dirt, his legs kicking wildly as he tried to yank his head free from the collapsed rock.
Hearing Caelan holler his name gave him a sudden burst of adrenaline, and he popped his head out of the ground with a loud gasp.
“I’m right here, Boss!” “Drag Finn into the woods and beat his ass!” “You got it, Boss!” Finn quickly clamped both hands over his mouth, suddenly realizing the gravity of his mistake.
He looked at Rook with sheer, unadulterated terror.
“Stay back!
Don’t come any closer!” Rook gave Finn a look of profound pity.
“Just bear with it, man.
Boss’s orders.” He lunged forward, and the beating commenced.
“Wait—Rook, bro, at least hit softer!” “Ow, damn it!” Night had fallen over the Blackrock Stronghold.
A heavily bruised Finn and a very talkative Rook sat on either side of Caelan.
Across the crackling campfire sat Gildarts, casually taking swigs from a bottle of booze.
A massive chunk of meat from some unknown monster roasted over the flames in the center, sizzling and popping with a mouthwatering aroma.
Gildarts had been fully expecting a decent fight, but Caelan had completely thrown him for a loop by dropping the act and surrendering on the spot.
Which led directly to their current little campfire party.
After listening to Rook enthusiastically explain their whole operation, Gildarts finally understood the hustle.
He looked at Caelan with a newfound sliver of respect.
“I gotta say, kid, you’ve got some brains.
How did you even come up with a scam like that?
Posting a subjugation quest for your own bandit camp just so you could ambush the mages who took the job.” He flashed Caelan a wicked grin.
“You must’ve made an absolute killing.” Caelan scoffed, immediately irritated.
“Don’t even get me started.
I’ve robbed a bunch of mages so far, and all of them combined barely coughed up a hundred thousand Jewel!
Are all you guild wizards totally broke?
I even listed it as an A-Class request!
The guys showing up were weak as hell, and their wallets were even lighter.
It’s not even enough to feed these two idiots.
I stole this entire mountain fort, and business has been getting worse by the day!” Gildarts burst out laughing.
“Hahaha!
Well, you can’t really blame us.
Being a mage is expensive!
We’re always breaking stuff and paying for property damage, so no one ever carries much cash on them.” Caelan gave Gildarts’s rugged, travel-worn outfit a slow up-and-down glance before sighing heavily.
“Yeah, I can tell.
Just looking at your clothes screams ‘I have zero money.'” Gildarts rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish chuckle.
“Pretty much all my money goes toward paying off damages.
That’s actually exactly why I took this job.
Bandit subjugation quests usually have a lot of confiscated loot you can skim off the top.
But looking at the state of this place…” He trailed off, laughing awkwardly as he raised his bottle.
“Hahaha, anyway, let’s drink!” Caelan knew exactly what Gildarts meant.
“Honestly, I thought about joining a guild at first.
But I figured robbing people would be way faster than doing actual quests.
Turns out, this line of work sucks too.
Especially when I have to feed my two ‘tactical geniuses’ over here.” Finn and Rook immediately puffed out their chests and raised their chins, completely missing the sarcasm.
Gildarts took another swig of booze.
“So, kid…
you wanna join our guild?” Caelan looked at Gildarts, then glanced over at Finn and Rook, who were currently stuffing their faces with roasted meat.
He mulled it over for a second.
“Would your guild even take these two?
Neither of them has awakened any Magic.
They’re just ordinary guys.” “Hahaha, then you’re looking at the right place!
Fairy Tail doesn’t care about stuff like that,” Gildarts assured him.
“As for Magic, our old man can teach them the basics.” He paused, his sharp gaze drifting over Caelan as if trying to piece together a puzzle.
“Besides…
you…” “I know what you’re thinking,” Caelan cut in gently.
“It’s a different kind of power.” Seeing Caelan’s guarded expression, Gildarts didn’t push the issue.
Everyone had their secrets.
“Well, if that’s the case, why not come back to the guild with me?
It’s a great place, you know.
Plus, we’ve got plenty of cute girls running around.
Heh.” The moment Finn heard the phrase “cute girls,” he dropped his meat, shimmied over, and loudly whispered into Caelan’s ear.
“Boss, we’ve been stuck on this mountain for months, and we’re barely scraping by.
We operate at a loss every single month!
I think this old guy is making a lot of sense.
Joining a legit guild has gotta be better than freezing our asses off out here.
And I am absolutely not just saying that because of the cute girls.” He held up three greasy fingers in a solemn vow.
“I swear it!
I absolutely swear!” Caelan stared at Finn like he was looking at an absolute moron.
He glanced over at Rook.
The guy hadn’t said a word, but the desperate, pleading look in his eyes made it painfully obvious that Gildarts had completely won him over too.
“Alright, fine,” Caelan sighed, waving them off.
“If you two are this set on it, what else can I say?
This whole bandit gig is a bust anyway.
We might as well see if guild work actually pays.” After finishing off the roast, the group settled in to sleep by the fire.
Caelan lay on his back in the grass, staring up at the sprawling canopy of stars, his mind drifting back to the past.
‘Time really flies.
It’s already been two years since I crossed over into this world,’ he thought.
‘If those two idiots hadn’t fished me out and saved me back then, I probably would’ve died before my System even awakened.’ He let out a quiet breath.
‘I really didn’t want to drag them into the main plot.
Sure, Fairy Tail is famous for having no one actually die in the anime, but living it as reality is a completely different story.
Still…
looks like there’s no avoiding it now.
Ever since I inherited Kizaru’s template, I’ve just been getting lazier and lazier.’ ‘Open System Panel.’ [Ding!
System Panel opened successfully.] [Host: Caelan] [Age: 13] [Template: Borsalino (20%)] [Abilities: Observation Haki (Beginner), Armament Haki (Beginner), Glint-Glint Fruit (Intermediate), Marine Rokushiki (Beginner).] [Wealth: 0 J] [Cost to unlock next Borsalino Template stage: 1,000,000 J] [Inventory: Evolution Fruit x1 (Automatically consumed when Template reaches 100%)] ‘Ugh, why couldn’t I have gotten a better System?
This thing is completely bare-bones,’ he grumbled inwardly.
He glanced over at the two sleeping bandits.
‘Since there’s no hiding from the main plot anymore, I need to make sure these two have a way to protect themselves.
I’ve spent the last two years building up their physical foundations.
Once we get to the guild and the old man awakens their Magic, I’ll teach them the Rokushiki techniques.
That should give them a fighting chance.’ He closed the interface, pulling his jacket tighter against the night chill.
‘But first things first…
I need to make some serious cash.
I’ve got to boost my strength as fast as possible.’