Chapter 27
“Actually, not long ago, villagers going inside the forest to hunt would report on a very frequent basis that they heard sounds of a spirit crying!”
With something along those line, the chief began talking.
Somewhere not far from the village is a piece of forest where humans don’t frequent.
This forest is nothing special unlike the forest next to Magnolia city where many different type of magic beasts live. It’s a pretty plain forest, at the very most there would be some wild beasts or weak magic beast migrated there from somewhere else.
Due to this, the village made this piece of forest their hunting grounds. Villagers would enter it everyday to hunt. It’s a primary source of food for the village.
It started quite recently, when some villagers went in to hunt, they could hear a little girl crying.
The villagers thought it was just some kid who got lost in the forest, they wanted to locate the kid and bring her out.
But before they could locate the girl, an odd phenomenon appeared.
Noah didn’t know what the event is but according to the village chief, the sky broke and a hole appeared!
After seeing the weird phenomenon, villagers didn’t continue their search for the litte girl. Since then, cries of a kid could still be heard in the jungle from time to time and the sky would break open from time to time as well. Shit was hair raising.
And so, the cries of an unseen kid would bring about curses and break open the sky became a wide spread rumor within the village.
The villagers are still more simple minded so they believe in this rumor.
Soon, villagers didn’t dare to hunt in the forest anymore. The villages thus lost a major source of food for the village and food became scarce resulting in a big issue.
Without much choice left, the village chief could only request help from magician guilds to get rid of the spirit.
More specifically, the job is to find out the truth behind the cries and the broken sky phenomenon so that the village can return to its normal state.
“The rewards are put together by the collective contribution of all the villagers, it’s not much, only 200’000J but I hope you could lend us a helping hand.”
The village chief lowered his head and bowed, for a guy his age this is the utmost he could muster.
“Could you please accept our request?”
Noah frowned and then went silent.
It’s not that Noah wants to turn this request down but this request has too many uncertainties behind it. He isn’t sure whether or not he could solve this job by himself.
The reward is just right for such an uncertain job, if there isn’t too much issue then this job is still worth it.
Moreover, he’s not so focused on the reward part. If it’s money, he still has some leftover reward from the Lake of Ritual mission last time so he’s not really wanting for money. There wasn’t a need to consider the reward much.
After deliberating for a bit, Noah spoke.
“Honestly speaking, village chief this job has too many risks, whether or not the spirit caused the sky to break is uncertain. I cannot guarantee that I will be of much help. Therefore, I will rest one night in this village and then proceed to the forest to have a look before deciding, is that alright?”
“Yes! We’re very grateful!”
The village chief sounded more relaxed, Noah grinned and tightened his grip on the clothed sack behind him, thinking about what to look out for on the job tomorrow.
.....
By normal standards, this village isn’t that big, however it is surprisingly modern.
The buildings might be a bit old compared to those in Magnolia but it’s architecture isn’t that different, unlike some villages where the buildings are pieced together by stones. The room given to Noah might be a bit on the small side but it’s functionality isn’t lacking so there’s nothing to complain about.
Under the village chief’s recommendation, the boss of the hotel knows that Noah is a magician from Fairy Tail who came here to help the village with its problem so he didn’t charge Noah any lodging fee.
One thing he noted was that unlike the case with the village chief. When the innkeeper found out that the magician from Fairy Tail is a small kid, he looked disappointed even though he didn’t specifically say anything. This made Noah a bit depressed.
Let’s hope the job tomorrow will be completed swiftly...
Thinking like that, Noah went to sleep for a bit. After that, he came out of his room and arrived at a table in the inn’s lobby to sit down. He then ordered some food to replenish his energy.
Just as Noah is preparing to have his meal, 3 person appeared at the door of the inn.
Those 3 are around 11 to 12 year old, about the same age range as Noah but they are attracting the everyone’s eyes.
If one were to put a finger on the reason why then it would be because the 3 teenagers around 11 and 12 had intriguing white hair.
The girl standing at the center wore a skimpy sleeveless shirt that looked like a swimming suit and had her hair tied into a ponytail. She looked really hostile and her eyes are really vicious.
Standing to the aforementioned girl’s left is a tall and sturdy guy relative to peer of same age donning a suit. His skin is tanned but his face looked weak willed. contrasted with the ponytail girl, it would make one think whether or not someone fucked up with the character setting for this dude.
To the right of the ponytail girl is the shortest member of the group. It’s a little girl with bob cut and a cute dress.
The bob cut little girl had a very worried expression as she told the ponytail girl about something, the ponytail girl however didn’t listen.
Sturdy kid weakly advised the ponytail girl but in return he got a nasty stare from her. He shrunk his head and hid aside like a pansy. The dude looked like he was about to cry, one cannot restrain his smile when looking at their interaction.
The 3 weird combo group naturally attracted Noah’s attention. He quickly finished up his meal and observed the situation with much interest.
While still observing the 3 white haired teenagers, the ponytail girl noticed his stare and turned around, meeting his eyes.
Noah could see she’s not a happy camper and especially didn’t liked Noah’s attention. She wanted to stare holes into Noah before seeing the Fairy Tail insignia on the back of his right hand.
Ponytail girl flinched and a bewildered expression floated onto her face.
She looked like someone who searched high and low for someone and then found out that the person she was looking for didn’t match the person in her mind.
However, the ponytail girl quickly threw all her considerations aside and walked on over despite the weak willed boy and worried girl’s advise.
At this point, even if Noah is a fool he could guess what’s going on.
The other party is here for him!
“Hey you!”
It turned out as expected, ponytail girl arrived in front of his table and asked without any reserve.
“You are the magician from Fairy Tail? The one who came here for the spirit in the forest problem?”
Ponytail girl said like she’s picking a fight with him with the tone to match. He frowned and put down the fork and spoon in his hand.
“Mira-nee!” (Tl: who watched the anime, is this how her little sister called Mira?)
The bob cut little girl wearing a cute dress came and pulled ponytail girl’s arm like she’s trying to stop a fight. She bowed deeply to express her apologies.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, Mira-nee doesn’t mean any harm!”
“We are deeply sorry!”
Sturdy kid said when he came over, he deeply bowed as well.
“My sister doesn’t mean any evil please don’t blame her!”
Noah nodded to the three before he continued without any hint of anger in his words.
“May I have ask what business do you have with me?”
“I am Mirajane Strauss!”
The girl named Mirajane smugly grinned before continuing.
“I’m sorry but your job is ours now!”