Having finished with my favorite activities of both Severus Snape, namely looking ominous while fussing over cauldrons, and a plain old masochist, I headed to a café to have a proper meal before the journey and enjoy the city while I still could.
When would I see it again?
Leaving Onibas was strangely difficult.
I’d already established a decent place to live here, and it was surprisingly cheap.
I’d built up a certain reputation too.
A somewhat frightening one, perhaps, but generally positive.
I’d simply gotten used to the place.
But it was time to move on.
You don’t stumble into adventures by sitting still, and I desperately needed adventures.
There was only one issue left: the khaki-colored lynx.
Over the past few months, I’d grown attached to the animal.
But taking it to a large city didn’t seem like a good idea.
The cat was still a wild predator, after all.
What would happen if my control suddenly failed?
It shouldn’t, but you never knew.
And I didn’t want to practice Absorption on it either.
That left only one option.
I had to set it free.
I took the animal to the forest and released my control.
The mutant lynx looked at me, gave a little purr in farewell, and disappeared into the place where it belonged, the depths of the forest.
It vanished from sight behind the second tree.
That was definitely everything.
I returned to the rented house one last time and gathered the things that hadn’t fit into my Spatial Pocket: the knives, several vials of tincture, and, of course, the magical guitar.
How could I possibly leave that behind?
I locked the house and returned the key to the magistrate’s office.
I’d rented the place through them.
The familiar official was there to greet me.
“Leaving?”
“Yeah.
I decided to do a little traveling.
And now that I’m C-rank, I can finally join a guild.
That’s something.”
“That’s sensible.
Mages develop fastest in guilds,” the clerk nodded.
“Have you already decided where you’d like to join?
If you’d like, we can suggest several Light Guilds that would undoubtedly be happy to have you.”
“Oh?
Which ones?”
The offer interested me.
I was joining Fairy Tail regardless, of course, but I was curious which Light Guilds would actually accept me, considering the nature of my work and, more importantly, my methods.
“I think the Four Cerberus would suit you.
If you were B-rank, you could try Titan Nose or Phantom Lord.”
“What about Fairy Tail?”
Oh, the reaction that name produced.
“Er…
That’s a very respectable guild.
Yes, undoubtedly,” he said, apparently trying to convince himself more than me.
“But they’re rather…
enthusiastic mages.
Yes.
And nobody really knows what criteria they use when selecting candidates.
I believe you have to be interviewed by their Master…”
He paused.
“Or be a completely brain-damaged lunatic,” the official muttered quietly, but I still heard him.
“In any case, I’d recommend the Cerberus.”
“I see.
Thanks for the advice, but I should be going.
The train won’t wait.”
“Good luck,” said the assistant to the local head of administration, whose name I had somehow never bothered to learn during our several months of acquaintance.
Oh well.
Of all the missed opportunities, I regretted never making it to the local theater.
I hadn’t exactly been a dedicated theatergoer in my previous life, but seeing art from another world would have been interesting.
Nothing I could do about it now.
Maybe I’d visit the local attraction someday, preferably with a companion.
Or better yet, more than one.
For now, the platform.
The local train station was impressive, especially for such a small town.
No, it couldn’t compare to Kursky or Yaroslavsky stations from my old world, but the square in front of the building was still enormous, roughly three times larger than the city actually needed.
At least there were no endless crowds or frantic commotion, which was refreshing.
I bought a ticket to Magnolia and headed to the platform.
What could I say about Fiore’s trains?
Not much.
They differed very little from the ones back home, except that they ran on magic instead of electricity.
Otherwise, everything was familiar, including vendors walking through the carriages and offering passengers their simple goods.
Even the selection was similar: cold drinks, and not-so-cold ones, various magazines for killing time, and flashlights-lighters of unknown origin advertised as indestructible.
In practice, they lasted no more than a week.
In short, I felt a wave of nostalgia.
Magnolia greeted me with bright sunlight, crowds of people on the platform, and the noise of a large city.
Boys with newspapers were enthusiastically advertising their merchandise and reading out some of the articles.
That was how I learned that some Salamander from Fairy Tail had caused a small tsunami in a coastal city, destroyed four districts, and simultaneously neutralized a gang of slave traders before disappearing in an unknown direction.
The “grateful” residents had failed to catch him.
I checked the schedule and map.
All right.
If I wasn’t mistaken, the pair I was looking for could arrive either in a couple of hours on the next train or later in the evening.
If not, I’d have to ask to join the guild through the normal channels.
I could wait at the café near the station.
Thankfully, train arrivals were announced over loudspeakers.
I was lucky.
My calculations were correct.
The pair I was looking for really did arrive on the evening train.
I sat on a bench nearby, studying my possible future guildmates.
Lucy…
Mmm.
The anime hadn’t lied.
Slender legs, a generous chest without being excessive, an appetizing figure, wheat-colored hair, and brown eyes set in a pretty, aristocratic face completed the picture.
Distracted by the girl, I didn’t immediately pay attention to her companion.
Which wasn’t surprising.
A pink-haired something with a green face.
A combination capable of assaulting the eyes.
He wore a vest over his bare torso and trousers made of some unknown material, while around his neck hung a very interesting scaly scarf.
I nearly started drooling.
Natsu, because that was obviously who he was, looked like a man who had become a vegetable.
He was lying face-down, apparently unconscious, and showed no desire to move.
Playing the role of the black raven circling above the fallen hero was a deep-blue winged cat.
Damn.
I’d hoped that this dream of a stoner was purely a manga gag and that flying, talking cats with strange coloring and magic didn’t exist in reality.
Apparently, they did.
The girl was clearly in a difficult situation.
Carrying even a relatively lightweight man as far as a bench was obviously beyond her strength, but leaving him lying on the platform wasn’t exactly ideal either.
Why the cat didn’t help, despite apparently being capable of carrying Natsu with its magic, I had no idea.
Most likely, it simply couldn’t be bothered.
Then the girl noticed my interested stare and decisively walked toward me.
“Excuse me for interrupting your thoughts, but could I ask you a favor?”
Her brown eyes were fixed somewhere on the floor.
Her hands were folded in front of her subtly emphasized chest, and her voice had that sweet, well-behaved-girl quality.
Stanislavsky would have said, “I believe you.”
I remembered that when Lucy really wanted something, she could charm almost anyone.
So the girl knew she was beautiful and knew how to use it without crossing certain boundaries.
That suggested she had a decent head on her shoulders.
Or at least a good teacher.
“Sure.
How can I help you, beautiful?”
There it was.
Blushing.
Go on, Lucy.
Maybe tap your foot against the floor too.
“You see, my companion doesn’t handle transportation very well and can’t seem to recover.
Could you help me get him to a bench?
I’m afraid I can’t manage it by myself.”
I looked over the still completely unresponsive “companion.”
“Maybe he should see a doctor?
Or go home?”
The girl’s face brightened.
“You’ll help?
Then of course, taking him home would be best.
He’ll definitely recover there.”
Lucy immediately started putting me to work.
Efficient.
“By the way, my name is Lucy Heartfilia.
This is Natsu Dragneel…”
“And I’m Happy,” the cat interrupted.
“Hmm.
I think the heat has gotten to my head.”
“Are you feeling unwell?” the girl asked anxiously.
She clearly didn’t want to end up on the station platform with two bodies.
“Yes.
I’m seeing strangely colored talking flying cats.
Probably hallucinations.”
“I’m not a hallucination!
I’m Happy!
And I’m a cat, not a female cat!” the flying creature protested.
Lucy, meanwhile, visibly relaxed.
“No, no, everything’s fine.
He really is a flying cat.”
“Ah.
Well, that’s wonderful.
So we’re having a collective hallucination.
Fascinating…”
I stared thoughtfully at the offended cat, examining it with detached interest.
“I’m not a hallucination!” the cat protested again.
“Whatever you say.”
I nodded with the same expression and turned back to Lucy.
“By the way, my name is Sephiroth.
Just Sephiroth.
And let’s use first names.
It feels a little depressing to be formal with a beautiful girl.”
I hoisted the barely conscious Dragon Slayer onto my shoulders and gave a little hop to settle my load more comfortably.
My burden groaned indignantly.
“So, where am I taking the victim?”
“Er…
Come on.
It shouldn’t be far.”
The girl gave me a slightly shy smile and walked ahead, showing me the way.
And showing me her backside.
Focus on the road.
The road, I said.