Discord: discord .gg /eHuxNeZfyS [Come chat with me]
pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene [Read ahead & support me]
You.tube: @KeanuEugene [Giving away all my writing knowledge]
CHAPTER START---
---January 10th, X770, 2 PM…
"Wow, this is perfect," Oberon says as he walks through the door of his new apartment.
Stepping into the small two-story building on Strawberry Street, Magnolia, just beside the river that winds through the city, he sees a room filled with bookshelves.
As he steps inside his new landlady walks in behind him, her portly figure wrapped in a skin-tight purple dress, wearing pearls around her neck, and holding a fancy purse.
"Normally I wouldn't do this, but you paid an entire year's rent in advance so, I made an exception," she says. "But it was a strange request, removing most of the furniture to add bookshelves."
Oberon looks around what was the living room of the apartment to see bookshelves from floor to ceiling covering the walls, and a few standing shelves in the middle of the room.
"It's perfect, hopefully, this lasts me a year, otherwise I'll have to go back to storing books in Master Makarov's office."
"You say it's perfect but haven't even seen the bedroom yet," the woman says.
"There's a bedroom?"
She gives him a strange look then leads him through the room to a door, then opens it to show the small attached bedroom with its own bathroom.
"You're one strange kid," she says as Oberon walks into the bedroom. "I assumed you didn't want bookshelves in your bedroom but…seems I may have been wrong to assume a Fairy Tail Wizard was sane."
"It's ok, I need space to store other things anyway," Oberons says as he activates one of his storage cards and withdraws the trunk with all of his clothes in it. "I should hurry and become S-Class so I can buy a place to store all my books."
"Kid, you may have a problem," she gives him a genuinely concerned look. "If you need space before you move out of here, there is another apartment opposite yours," she gestures to the front door.
"Oh, is it just like this one?" Oberon asks.
"Same price too," she says. "But I was mostly kidding…"
"Perfect, I'll take it, and the bedroom of that can be book space too, thanks a lot."
The woman's eyes widen, then she just sighs, "Well, your money is good so sure, I'll have it ready before the end of this week."
"Thanks, now I need to get out of here, I'm heading out of town for a job."
"Just don't forget this," she hands him a pair of keys. "And remember, no loud music, no parties, and no disturbing the other tenants. Not that I think a little bookworm like you would do things like that."
"No problem–thanks for everything!" Oberon says as he rushes out the door.
The woman sighs and looks around at all the empty shelves, "Well, at least he's not one of the rowdy Wizards…"
Minutes later Oberon walks into the Magnolia Magic Shop and makes his way over to the counter, where a middle-aged man is reading this week's edition of Sorcerer Weekly.
A magazine published in Fiore, detailing new trends, drama, gossip, events, and Magic Items from across the continent.
The man looks up from his magazine, which has Wizard Saint Jose Porla on the cover, and smiles at Oberon.
"Here for your order?" the man asks, already reaching below the counter for something.
"Yeah, is Gran' busy today?" Oberon asks as the man places a small box on the counter.
"No she's on a trip with my daughter," the man says as he takes out a black and white pen from the bag, followed by a book and a card sleeve much like Oberon and Laxus each have.
"Is this everything?" Oberon asks.
"Nope, this is the Dictation Pen, the Greater Magic Creature Bestiary, and the four new storage cards you ordered," the man says. "The other books aren't here yet, and the Spell Circle Grimoire will take a week or two after those."
"Damn, I was hoping to read those on the train," Oberon says. "Ok, I'll finish paying for there now and I'll come by after my Job, I should be back in a few days."
"Great," the man says as he fishes behind the counter and takes out a small ring. "Also, I got this, figured you'd be interested."
"Magic Ring?"
"Yeah, but it was actually designed to be a toy more than anything else, check it," the man holds the ring and pours a drop of Magic Energy into it, and a small image of a girl around Oberon's age with caucasian skin and green hair is projected above the ring.
"So it…shows you people?"
"It's a smaller form of an Illusion Spell," the man says. "Figured you'd think it's neat. They don't go on sale until next week, but since you've been such a good customer, this one is on the house."
"Wow, thanks!" Oberon says as the man hands over the ring. "I can definitely study how this works and apply it to my Light Constructs, I haven't been able to figure out how to change their color from golden, yet."
"Well I'm always happy to help a loyal customer," the man says.
Oberon then takes out one of his storage cards, showing the Card Sleeve almost filled with Storage Cards.
Aside from the two super high-end Storage Cards Master Makarov got him, the others are still expensive, but offer less storage space and security features.
"Almost a full deck in there," the man says. "Will you be needing any more? Our Enchanter friend who makes those is always happy to sell them to us…fragile things like that don't really sell as much as you'd think, especially to Wizards."
"Hmm, if I need more space I'll let you know," Oberon says as he holds one card out above the counter and withdraws a sack, the size of a backpack.
On the side of the sack is '4M', which the man sees and is quite impressed by.
"This was meant to be for all the items I ordered, but I'm not really in the mood to count money right now so let's just say I'm paying for the others in advance."
"Happy to hear it," the man says as he quickly places the bag down at his feet while Oberon stores away his new items, not even bothering to count the money.
After all, Oberon is their most recent cash cow, and if there was ever a problem Master Makarov is very trusted, and one Lacrima call away.
"Ok, I need to get to the train station, I'll see you when I get back."
"Good luck on your Job, and stay safe!" the man says as Oberon rushes out of the store.
As the boy leaves the man sighs, "Damn, wish I had that kind of cash when I was his age," he mutters while going back to reading his magazine. "But, I suppose that's the reward for fighting monsters and…an assassin?"
He leans forward, double-checking what he is reading.
'Fairy Tail's rookie Wizard, Oberon, is making quite a name for himself!' was the title of the small article a few pages into the magazine.
There was no picture, and the only information was what they gathered from the Rune Knights and Royal Knights about his recent missions, some of which sounded quite dangerous.
The man nods and turns to the next page, "Never mind, being safe in the shop is way better than fighting monsters and psychos…"
---1 Hour Later…
Sitting in an almost empty train car Oberon takes out his Journal and his communication Lacrima.
With a thought the Magic Journal hovers in front of him, and he takes out his new Dictation Pen, and opens the cover.
The tip of the pen has a square Lacrima Crystal, finely carved and glowing white.
He calms his mind and focuses on his Magic Energy, pouring a drop of it into the pen, feeling it connect to him.
'Opening myself up to foreign Magic Energy is always so weird,' Oberon thinks as he feels as if his Magic Energy is leaking out of him.
Thankfully, over the past few weeks, he's learned how to use Magic Items without overwhelming the people around him with Magic Energy.
However, he still dislikes the fact that it leaves him open to being affected by others.
Especially since they tested this by having him open himself up to Invasive Magics, which allowed Master Makarov to speak to him with Telepathy Magic, but the moment Oberon focused on containing his Magic Energy once more the connection was impossible to make or maintain.
As he looks around nervously, only seeing a young couple at the front of the train car laughing and joking with each other, he relaxes.
With much focus he begins thinking, envisioning his thoughts becoming words, becoming writing in his Magic Journal.
And the Dictation Pen moves on its own, passing the square Lacrima Crystal tip across the pages and leaving behind perfectly printed words and diagrams from Oberon's mind.
'I need to learn that Magic,' he thinks, and the pen ruins the passage he'd been focused on by writing those words instead.
He immediately stops and uses the secondary function, the ability to perfectly erase anything written by this specific pen, to undo his mistake.
Then continues practicing.
After a few minutes, his Communication Lacrima begins blinking, exactly when he expected it to.
Oberon gently taps it, accepting the transmission.
"How did it go?" he asks as Laxus's bruised face appears on the Communication Lacrima.
"Well, it could have gone better, but I got all the wild boars to leave so it worked out," Laxus says. "I'm in my hotel room now, I need some sleep before I have to ride a damn train."
Oberon chuckles, "Yeah, just remember to sleep on your left side."
"Very funny," Laxus rolls his eyes while gently touching the bruise on the right side of his face. "I swear that tree wasn't there when I jumped," he mutters.
"Sure it wasn't."
"Whatever, what about you?" Laxus asks. "I thought you were supposed to be in Magnolia right now, didn't you get back this morning?"
"I did, but there was this juicy Job on the board and I just had to take it."
"Oh, show me!"
Oberon takes out the Job poster and shows it to him.
"What the hell!" Laxus screams. "4.5 Million Jewels for taking out a Swamp Wyvern! That's way too much, there must be some kind of trick!"
"Master Makarov says the client wants it dealt with in a particular way, apparently that makes it more difficult," Oberon shrugs. "But honestly, I've got a lot of books I need to buy and they're starting to put a real dent in my wallet, so I couldn't pass this up."
"Seriously? I figured since you're almost always on a Job you'd be loaded by now."
"I am, but if I see a nice Grimoire I want, I'd like to have the money for it, plus Wakaba agreed to take me to an auction in Crocus in a few months so I'm saving up for that."
"Oh, those things can get really expensive, you planning to get a Gate Key?"
"If I can afford it, but nobles will be there so…I might have to meet them after the auction and work out some kind of trade."
"That might actually work," Laxus says. "Do you want me to come help you on your Job?"
"Nah, you need to get back to Magnolia," Oberon says. "Master Makarov says he has a special Job for you when you get back."
"Yes! I bet it's some monster he needs me to beat up!"
"Why would he send you when Gildarts is still there, plus I'm stronger."
"Hey, you're not that much stronger!"
"You've never beaten me, or even come close to it," Oberon says.
"Not everything is about winning, you know."
"That's just what losers say to feel better about being losers," Oberon says. "Life is competition, if you stop competing, you're dead."
"Whatever," Laxus pouts and looks away. "I'm more surprised Gildarts is still there, usually after the New Year's party and picture, he takes one of the longer jobs, he's almost never in Magnolia this time of year."
"Maybe he's taking a little break from S-Class mission."
"Nah, he doesn't do that," Laxus says. "Must be something else, I'll ask him when I get back."
"Yeah, but you should call Master Makarov, maybe what he wants you to do is in that area."
"Good point, I'll do that now, call me if you need any help."
"Sure thing," Oberon says as he ends the call.
Only to look at his Magic Journal and see everything he and Laxus said printed on the pages.
"I'm such an idiot, I forgot about the pen…"
END CHAPTER---
Discord: discord .gg /eHuxNeZfyS [Come chat with me]
pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene [Read ahead & support me]
You.tube: @KeanuEugene [Giving away all my writing knowledge]