Their journey to the village was brief and, fortunately, uninterrupted.
"We are on a mission. Can you tell us the direction to our client?" They showed the quest paper to the guard at the village gates.
"You kids are mage? Damn. The world really has changed. Let's see... Lucas? I know that guy. He is a pretty gloomy guy. I feel chills whenever I see him. Though his wife..." The guard started gossiping about their client.
"Mister!" Gray shouted, snapping the man from rambling any further. "We are under a time crunch. I believe his daughter is still missing. Can you tell us the directions?"
"Uh..." The guy became speechless momentarily. "My bad. Indeed. His daughter ran off, which I think is definitely his fault. Let me give you directions."
With that, the man gave them the directions, and they entered the village, following the directions.
"Hey." Cana said in a small tone, attracting Gray's attention.
"What?"
"Did you see how that guy looked at you? He is definitely suspicious. That's why I tell you to wear your clothes." She shook her head in disapproval, handing him his t-shirt, which had somehow escaped Gray's body.
"..."
They quickly walked towards the client's house.
"Ouch." A girl came out of the alley running and collided with Kazu, causing her to stumble.
Kazu looked at her and stretched out his hand. "Are you okay?" He asked the 4-year-old.
Before she could answer, Kazu took a step back and dodged a pebble that passed through where his head was.
He looked at the opposite alley where an 8-year-old boy was.
"Don't touch my sister!"
He appeared in front of his sister and stood protectively.
A genuine smile crept on Kazu's face. "She collided with me and fell, so I was helping her."
The boy was taken aback by that smile. He cautiously looked back at her sister, who just nodded.
"I see." He nodded and held his sister's hand before walking away.
"I am swory!" The girl waved before disappearing into the alley.
Kazu waved back.
"Will those guys be fine?" Cana asked. They were not well-off.
"They will be more than fine." Kazu fondly said. Some of the memories of a few years back surged up.
He shook his head calmly before continuing walking.
Cana didn't look convinced. "Though that boy's attitude was pretty volatile. I can understand him being overprotective of his sister. But he needs to think about cases if we had bad intentions."
Gray snorted. "You don't give off any vibes of being scary. Plus, if you had observed him closely, he had been inspecting us carefully and was ready to run at any moment."
"Hmph. Guess, I was too busy making sure that you weren't walking naked in public."
That effectively silenced Gray as he remembered her previous statement.
Kazu took this moment to insert himself in the conversation. "I think his behaviour was fine. If I were in his position, I would have first broken the legs of before inquiring him."
"What?" Cana gave him a shocked look.
Seeing that he was not joking, she became even more dumbfounded.
"Bu—"
"We are here," Erza announced, silencing Cana.
Kazu went to the door and pressed the bell.
Ding Dong
"Coming."
The door opened, and a green-haired lady in her mid-thirties appeared.
The bright sunlight caused her to squint her eyes.
She looked at the 4 kids and smiled.
"How may I help you?"
Kazu showed her the mission request. "We are from Fairy Tail."
Recognition showed in her eyes, followed by grief, which disappeared as soonas it appeared.
"Please come in."
The kids followed behind her.
'Why is the light dim? Does that lady have some kind of light sensitivity problem?' Kazu looked around the house. It was dimmer than normal. The curtains were shut, preventing any sunlight from entering. The ambient light from the lamps brightened the room only enough for visibility.
To Kazu, it was pretty gloomy and gave off eerie vibes.
'Maybe they had designed this when taking on her problem. There's also a chance that the daughter might have the same.' Kazu thought, however, his instincts warned him that things weren't that simple as they appeared on the surface.
They reached the hall, where sat a black-haired man in his early thirties on the couch.
"Mr Lucas?"
'The couple are quite the lookers, even according to this world's standards. The daughter must have inherited that, too. That complicates things as the daughter might attract some unsavoury attention.' Kazu's mood dipped, but he didn't show it outwardly.
"That will be me. I presume you all are from Fairy Tail. Given the urgency of the situation, I want you to immediately start with the mission." Lucas's expression didn't change as he said that, as if he were talking about someone else's daughter.
It was quite a contrast compared to the worried looks his wife, Anne, had.
'I don't even see any trembling in his body. I would have thought he was resigned, but it doesn't appear so. His poker face is better than fine.' Kazu acknowledged. This served to only fuel his suspicions.
"Can you tell us where she was last sighted and all the information you have?" Gray asked in a professional demeanour. Nobody will believe that it was the same person who was bickering like a child with Cana.
At least, Cana found it hard to believe.
"Indeed. She first left at..." With that, Lucas started narrating the events in a monotone. His tone was neutral throughout.
'Though I would have found his personality suspicious, and coupled with these creepy vibes I was getting from this house, this case is complicated.' Kazu recalled some bits which was spoken by the guard at the village gate.
Lucas was a gambler.
A professional gambler.
From being a nobody on the streets to becoming rich in just a few months was also thanks to his skill in gambling. He had met his wife before he became rich, who supported him, and the rest is history.
'A poker face does make sense given that he is a popular gambler. Even that guard had lost tens of thousands of Yuls to Lucas.'
"In the morning, Tracy was seen going to the forest by one of the passerby's and we found even foot prints. Unfortunately, none of the active hunters were available in the village, and we had to wait for you all."
Cana shot a look at Gray, who ignored her. Fortunately, it was unobserved by the couple.
"That stupid girl. If only..." Tears welled up in Anne's eyes.
Cana stepped forward, "Rest assured, ma'am. We will soon find her." She said in a righteous tone, reassuring the women.
"I am counting on you all."
With that, the quart left the house and dashed towards the forest.
"I told you dummies! Those footprints definitely belonged to that girl." Cana smugly said as she jumped on Gray's back.
"Ugh... That's not what you said. Also, it could be some other girl." Gray didn't protest as the group didn't want to tire out Kazu, who had just carried her for a while.
"It's currently 4 pm. We need to hurry up if we want to find her before daylight disappears. The forest will be dangerous at night." Erza said with a frown.
Kazu nodded. "Though there's always a chance that she might have gone into the town due to the proximity, we need to remember that we are not dealing with somebody rational. So, let's speed up."
The trio increased their pace.
"You are going to have to get back to conditioning if you want to come with us on a future mission," Gray said to Cana.
Though she wasn't particularly heavy, to Gray, whose weight was not that far away from hers, it was a significant load. A load that will burn through his stamina.
"fine..." Cana muttered, pouting.
Two hours passed, blitzing through the forest like that.
"SOMEBODY HELP." A loud voice stopped the four in their tracks, which was followed by another muffled sound.
"I thought Tracy was a girl..." Cana muttered.
"She is, idiot. It's somebody else. Not everything unusual we encounter is related to her." Gray retorted.
They headed towards the direction of the sound.
"Bandits?" Cana muttered.
There were a lot of people who were being put in cages made of iron.
"Was it him?" Erza said, pointing her finger at a boy who was lying in a pool of blood.
"The injury does seem recent." Gray frowned.
The bandits haven't noticed them yet.
Kazu quickly scanned through everyone who was caught. 'Tracy isn't here, luckily. Though...' A disgusting look appeared on his face.
All the captives were either women or children. Some of them were males, but Kazu believed that they were women in disguise.
Bandits capturing women and kids... It didn't take a genius to figure out what's going to happen next.
Kazu clenched his fist as he looked at various kids who would be half his age, and some even lower. Some reminded him of Yui, and Kazu hated that fact.
'I hope nothing goes wrong as we split.' He knew that he wouldn't be able to convince others to ignore this and continue on the mission.
Forget others, convincing just himself to ignore it seems a difficult task.
"Erza and Gray. You two deal with this. I don't care what you do, just make sure that those captives are escorted safely back to the town." Kazu said while pointing in the direction where the town.
It wasn't that far away, at least for their speed, but escorting civilians will take a decent chunk of time.
Cana jumped on his back. "Cana and I will continue our mission."
"Fine."
"Very well."
With that, Kazu, along with Cana, completely disappeared from the scene.
***
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