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CHAPTER START---
---June 23rd, X770, 9 AM…
Walking up the steps to the plateau where the Fairy Tail Guild Hall is located, Oberon is wearing a blue jacket with a matching shirt and a pair of long black pants.
Along with some new boots since he's already outgrown his most recent pair.
His small pouch is at the back of his belt, carefully concealed under his jacket, all of his Storage Cards are safely inside.
And in his right hand is a thick, golden coin, currently hovering just above his palm, spinning and flipping as it weaves between his fingers while trapped in his orbit.
More of the citizens call out to him, kindly greeting him as they've grown accustomed to doing when he's in town, and he politely waves and nods in response while making his way to the Guild.
As he reaches the Guild, with a thought the doors open for him to step inside.
He sees barely a dozen Wizards scattered about, with Wakaba sitting alone at the bar while a woman he doesn't recognize works the bar.
Everyone glances toward the opened door, seeing him, then return to their quiet conversations as he walks over to the bar.
Wakaba says something to the woman and she pours him a glass of fruit juice and sets it at the seat beside Wakaba.
"Thank you," Oberon says as he hops up onto the barstool beside Wakaba.
"Just let me know if you need anything else," she says before moving farther down the bar.
"Where's Enno?" Oberon asks.
Wakaba takes another sip of his drink before he speaks, "She finally got into one of those dance troupes, she'll be on tour with them for a few months."
"Well, that explains why Macao isn't here."
"Yeah, he's not taking it well, and just when he'd gotten the courage to finally ask her out, and maybe my brain is playing tricks on me, but I could have sworn she was into him too…"
Oberon shrugs, "She mentioned that working here was temporary until she gets a permanent spot in one of those shows, does this mean she's quitting the Guild?"
Wakaba sighs, "Maybe, it is her dream after all, so we really have no right to hold her back just because we'll miss her. I just hope Macao understands that."
"Yeah, me too," Oberon says as he quietly drinks his juice, and after a few moments he slides the golden coin over to Wakaba.
The man sees it and casually picks it up, carefully inspecting it, "So, I take it that recovering a wrecked ship from the bottom of a cover went well?"
"Yeah, but I stayed for a few days to train, walking a few hundred feet below the water while keeping it away from me is good training for Gravity Magic."
"Remind me never to train with you, if you think that kind of thing is fun," Wakaba says as he takes out a coin from his wallet and compares them.
Jewels are traded as credit notes, paper bills, or coins, yet the Jewel coin he held side by side with the large gold coin was less than half the size and weight.
"Damn, so I take you dredged up some treasure from the other shipwrecks and things at the bottom of the cove?"
"And did some treasure hunting," Obeorn says. "I've got a lot more than that one coin, but the problem is….I don't know what to do with it now."
Wakaba tosses the gold coin back to Oberon, who has it float to rest in front of him.
"Well," Wakaba turns to face the boy. "The best Treasure Appraisal House is in Crocus, way over in the capital. They can take the treasure–gold, gems, precious metals, artifacts, anything that rich people might want to buy and hang in their mansions really.
They pay you in Jewels, which you can use anywhere in Fiore, but that may not be the best route to take."
"What do you mean?" Oberon asks.
"Well, you can't go walking into a bakery and pay with gold, well, you could, but it wouldn't be very smart. But see, banks can exchange currency, but when they do they have to keep a record of it, to make it all official or whatever.
But if you're travelling and want to stay quiet, or if you ever want to just disappear, it's better to have a chest of gold and gems you can take with you, and when you get to another country you trade it at a Treasure House, if you don't mind losing out on some cash they'll gladly ignore the paperwork for you. After all, countries control the banks, but Treasure Houses are usually just privately owned businesses."
"I see, so if I need the cash I should trade it, but if I don't it'd be better to keep it as treasure just in case I need to travel somewhere that doesn't accept Jewels."
"Yeah, most of Ishgar is happy to take Jewels though, since it is worth more than whatever the hell they call money in their countries."
"I see, then, maybe it's best if I don't go trade in my treasure just yet, but then again, what if there is something really cool that I want to buy–like a Grimoire filled with ancient Magics?"
"All the money in the world and you only think about books huh," Wakaba mutters. "You know, I happen to have an acquaintance pretty high up in the Crocus Treasure House. We could go pay him a visit, and maybe even get a peek at the items in the next auction."
"Really? You aren't busy?"
"Nah, besides, I need to find a birthday gift for my girlfriend anyway, maybe I'll look around Crocus and get something for her," Wakaba says. "But you are paying for the train tickets."
"Deal!"
---6 Hours Later…
"Mmm," Wakaba groans as Oberon gently shakes him awake. Opening his eyes to see Oberon storing his books into a card as everyone leaves the train.
"We're in, let's get off the train before we end up on the west coast," Oberon says as he quickly walks toward the exit.
Behind him Wakaba runs his eyes, trying to wake up and adjust to the bright sunlight. "Did you read those books the entire train ride?"
"What else would I do?" Oberon asks.
"Take a nap, or do what Laxus does when we take him on missions, just listen to music and sleep."
"I'd rather spend the time learning Magic, honestly if I could sleep less to give myself more time for Magic I would, but I tried that and it really wasn't fun…"
"Yeah, that's no way to live, a man needs his sleep," Wakaba says as they exit the train and are greeted by the wide cobblestone streets and five story buildings of this part of Crocus.
Befitting its title as the Flower Basket of Fiore, there were flowers growing all throughout the city on every street, carefully placed for the different colors to stand out against the pastel stonework and buildings
Oberon looked ahead, toward the middle of the city, at Royal Castle Mercurius, which towers high above the surrounding city as if trying to touch the sky itself.
Reaching over a thousand meters into the air and surrounded by a wall to defend itself, the castle was in the exact center of Crocus.
With 13km -8mi- of people and buildings sprawling outward in every direction around it, this was the most heavily, traditionally defended building in Fiore, and perhaps, on the continent.
"Yeah, the king lives in a totally different world from us," Wakaba says as he lites his pipe and taps Oberon's shoulder, snapping the boy out of his daze, pulling his attention away from the castle.
"I bet the library is huge," Oberon mutters as they continue walking through the streets.
"I'm more interested in getting in the cute servants they're sure to have," Wakaba says. "But visitors are only allowed into the gardens–when they're in a good mood, that is."
"Is there a Wizard Guild in Crocus?" Oberon asks.
"Nope, there isn't really any point in it since the Royal Army is crawling all over this place," Wakaba nods to the soldiers in blue and gold uniforms patrolling the streets.
"So definitely no chance of getting into the library huh."
"Sorry, but you'd have to be a serious big shot, and be trusted a lot, just to step foot in the palace," Wakaba says. "The second best library in Fiore is probably…Over in Gazania. That's a pretty nice city on the other side of Fiore from us, but the Great Library of Sabertooth is there, it's part of the Sabertooth Wizard Guild building."
"Do they allow other Wizards to enter the library?"
Wakaba thinks about it, "Well, their Guild has a lot of members but they don't seem that impressive, and their Master is…huh, I honestly don't even know. Guess he doesn't get much attention."
"I'll ask Master Makarov when he gets back from his trip," Oberon says. "Where did he and Laxus go anyway?"
Wakaba shrugs, "Some festival up north, I honestly wasn't paying much attention when they were talking about it."
They talk for a while longer before arriving at a five story ornate, white and gold colored building.
There were three fully armored guards at the front of the building wearing the same emblem that was on the building, and even without being able to sense Magic Energy, Oberon could tell their armor and weapons were enchanted.
"This is the place," Wakaba says as he approaches the men, who eye him wearily before stopping him.
"Business?"
"Appraisal and trading," Wakaba says, lifting his shirt to show the Fairy Tail emblem on the left side of his chest. "Him too," he gestures to Obeorn, who shows the Guild Emblem on his inner forearm.
The men open the door and usher them inside, before closing the door behind them.
"Wow, it's like a palace," Oberon mutters as he sees the pristine main entryway of the building.
There was a counter with partitions and employees talking to people, as well as an area with a few chairs, which Wakaba directed him toward.
Sitting there he sees some people going to the counter, then being directed toward the stairs or other rooms on this floor, while others simply presented small bags or chests to be traded directly over the counter.
After a few moments the man Wakaba is talking to leaves his post, and after a few minutes he returns and speaks to Wakaba.
Oberon sees Wakaba walking over to him, signalling him toward the stairs.
"Seems that my friend got a promotion since the last time I was here," Wakaba says as they begin ascending the stairs, going all the way to the third floor to a private office.
Wakaba gently knocks, and a gentle, feminine voice answers, "Come in."
Wakaba enters and immediately turns toward the woman who was leaning back against her desk.
As Oberon steps inside and closes the door behind him, he locks eyes with a beautiful young woman, slightly older than Wakaba, wearing a skirt-suit with a blue button-up shirt.
The top three buttons were completely undone to expose her white lace bra beneath, barely containing her massive breasts.
The woman immediately turns around and slowly walks to the chair behind her desk as she deftly buttons up her shirt, taking her seat as if none of that just happened.
"Sorry, I should have told you I had company," Wakaba says as he and Oberon approach the seats in front of her desk.
"Take a seat," she says, and they comply. "So, I assume this is actually about business this time?"
"Well, mostly," Wakaba says with a charming smile, to which she responds by relaxing slightly in her seat. "This is Oberon, I assume your sources have been listening out for him."
"What?" Oberon asks.
"Oberon Alkwan," she says. "The new rising star in Fairy Tail. Yes, we've been keeping up with his more… public exploits."
She sees the boy genuinely confused and elaborates further.
"We deal in more than just treasure, artifacts, and cash, we also deal in information, the type of information that tells people who to invest in," the woman says. "Most notably, ourselves. We need to know who is capable and trustworthy to deal with jobs such as transporting materials for us, thus far, you appear to be quickly approaching what we'd consider 'capable,' which is quite the compliment."
"Uh, thank you," Oberon nods stiffly.
"It is simply what we do," She says. "Now, how can I help you two?"
Oberon looks to Wakaba, who gladly takes the lead, "The kid found some treasure. Gold, gems, that kind of thing."
"So a standard appraisal and trade, alright, and did you bring it with you?" she asks.
"Yeah, in a Storage Card," Oberon says.
"Storage Card? Our sources say you use Light Magic, not Card Magic."
"I do use Light Magic, and Gravity Magic, the cards are just the regular items versions."
"Well you must be quite confident in yourself then," she says while moving to get a small bag and placing it on her desk. "Most Wizards don't believe those things are worth the investment because of how easily they can be stolen, and since using them screams 'please rob me I'm carrying precious cargo' to the world."
"And they break easily," Wakaba grumbles.
"Alright, withdraw your treasure," she says while taking out appraisal tools from the bag. Everything from special lenses to inspect the quality of gems, to scales for the precious metals, and some enchanted magnifying glasses and gloves he didn't know the purpose of.
"Ok," Oberon complies and takes out the card, and from it, he withdraws a large bag of treasure that the three of them could fit into.
Wakaba's eyes widen, and the woman smiles so intensely it looks like her face is trying to split in two…
END CHAPTER---
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pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene [Read ahead & support me]
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