Chapter 8

"Wow, you returned from that job fast," Mavis noted as I took a seat at the bar. "Welcome back! Don't leave me in suspense, how did it go?"

"Can I ask for some pasta first?" I asked her.

"Tell me while I cook," she suggested before she immediately began to cook. "Now talk, mister!"

I huffed in amusement. "Well, it was a pretty simple job. Basically, while transferring their goods from the port to the town, they were attacked by bears because of the wood they were carrying."

"The wood?" Mavis tilted her head.

"Bromin wood," I told Mavis. "Inferno Bees- a C-Class monster that attacks in packs- usually create their honey in Bromin trees from Guiltina. The smell of the honey infuses into the wood so, when they were travelling through the forest, the wood's scent attracted bears which attacked them. They tried to retreat with the wood first, but then they had to drop it when they noticed the bears were chasing them."

"Oh, I see," she nodded. "Yes, they'd have to abandon their supplies entirely, and that would lead to them sending out a request for help…"

I gave a nod. "Luckily, only a couple of days had passed. And the bears left an easy trail for me to follow back to their hideout after I recovered the initial supplies. I used a broken piece of wood as the origin point to cast my rewind spell, causing the wood in the cave to fly out to re-form. This, in turn, drew out the bears. I used the chance to create an opposite of my Haste Spell, called 'Slow.'"

"I'm going to assume, unlike Haste, it slows down the opponent?" Mavis asked.

"Yes," I nodded. "I figured using it on an animal as a test was safer than using it on a human. I need to work out some kinks so that it just affects the enemy directly just like Haste does, but otherwise the spell worked as planned. Then, I wanted to see how much my Dragon Magic enhanced my body. After that, I dealt with them painlessly and retrieved the wood. Restored it with Rewind and took it back. The guy was so pleased that I got back everything, he paid me extra, and then I came back here."

She smiled. "Congratulations on finishing your first D-Class Mission! If you're able to handle them this easily, you'll have no problem being promoted to C-Class soon enough!"

"That is the ideal," I nodded at her words. "Right now, I'm planning to save up money to buy a house. You know, have my own private place."

"Why not rent a house like many others?"

"Because then I have to pay rent," I told her. "It may not seem important, but it's just another piece of stress that is added to your life. If I own my house outright, then the only things I'll have to worry about are keeping it clean and making sure to fill it with the proper appliances and replace Lacrima as needed."

I had read a lot of books in the small library in Fairy Tail… Rather unsurprisingly, they had quite a few books on the law. I'd learned that there was no such thing as property tax for a house. For stores and restaurants, yes, but not for houses and apartments. Hell, there was no such thing as 'buying' land. For a store or restaurant, you just had to register it with the Kingdom- and with the Magic Council if it was primarily magic based like a magic store or a Lacrima Factory. You only had to register your house with the mayor of your town, who would then forward it to the Kingdom.

Oh, of course, Guilds also had to pay taxes… It was why Fairy Tail had needed to relocate to a smaller guild during the seven year time skip; they just couldn't pay the tax for their guild building which was in such a prime location anymore.

"I see, that's very clever of you," she smiled. "It will be nice to see you stop living in the guild," she teased.

I just blushed and rubbed the back of my head sheepishly.

[Aww, do you have a crush? ~] BB cooed out into my ear, making the blood rush to my face.

'Shut. Up.'

[But you're so cute! ~]

I shook my head quickly, trying to ignore BB's words as I focused on Mavis. "Yeah… I'm not sure if I want to just buy a building, or if I'll use the money and buy the raw materials and then see about building it myself…"

It would take me awhile to do so, but I was confident I could do so. With little to do during the night, all I tended to do was read books in the library. I'd even visited the bigger library in town a few times, so I did have the knowledge for carpentry and how to build a house in my mind.

"Hm…" She tapped her chin. "I guess it would depend on where you were building it… But if you asked some of the guild for help, and used that Haste Spell… You could probably get it done in under a week."

Huh… I had not considered that… I was very much used to doing things on my own and only asking for help if I needed to… I'd only asked Erza and Bisca for help because it had felt like a logical conclusion. Both were experienced enough with Re-Quip to use it as their combative magic, so asking them for help seemed like the smart choice.

"I'll remember that," I smiled at Mavis. "By the way, I don't think you ever mentioned if you use any magic?"

She blushed and cleared her throat. "I do, but it's nothing impressive. Just some Illusion Magic."

"I wouldn't say that's not impressive," I told her. "Illusion Magic is probably one of the strongest magics out there, if you ask me."

She blinked and looked at me, tilting her head. "Really? Why would you say that?"

"Well, how does your magic work?" I asked her. "And by that, I mean, do your illusions make noises? Can you see them? And so on."

"Oh," she hummed, before placing the food I'd asked for in front of me. "I mean, people can hear them, and they can see them, but they can't do much else?"

"Why?" I asked her with a smile, stabbing my fork into the pasta and twirling it. "Do you know about the five basic human senses?"

She looked at me in confusion.

"Just humour me."

"Well… There's vision, hearing, taste, scent, and touch."

I nodded. "Your Illusions cover two of those five senses. Vision, and Hearing. However, who is to say you can't improve your illusions? For example, you know the scent of honey… Make an illusion of honey. Envision how it looks, the sound it makes when you touch it, the sticky constitution it has your fingers, its sweet, gooey taste, its sweet, gentle scent. Add details, like is the jar cool or warm, same with the honey. The hardness of a glass jar, the 'thud' that it makes when you hit it."

She opened her mouth… And then closed it, looking considerate… She hesitated before she gently held her hand out, a look of focus coming onto her face, before a small jar of honey appeared on the table in front of me.

I hummed and gave her a look, silently asking, 'May I?'

She nodded hesitantly.

I slowly reached out and curled my fingers around the cool glass jar, lifting it up. I gently lifted it to my nose and sniffed it, recognising the sweetness filling my nostrils. I gently stuck in my pinkie finger and scooped out a small amount of honey, feeling its stickiness, before I lifted it to my lips and licked it slowly.

I smiled at her warmly and set the jar down. "Perfect," I told her.

She blushed but looked at the honey in shock before it vanished, the taste and scent fading away along with the residual honey on my pinkie finger.

"I don't…" She was stunned. "How did I never think of this…" She murmured. "Why didn't I make the connection sooner… If I could do this, then it's also very viable for combat… I can mimic the sensation of pain, what it's like to be attacked and so on…"

I smiled at her gently. "Illusion Magic is perhaps some of the most powerful and most terrifying magic. It's because when you look at something you know isn't real… And yet you can feel it, hear it, smell it, see it… You start to question your sanity, wondering if what you're staring at is actually fake or not."

Aizen-sama taught me well.

"… That's…" She seemed stunned. "That's genius. I'd written off Illusion Magic ages ago as only good for intimidation… I'd never realised I could do so much with it…"

"I mean, I guess it is easy to write it off," I told her. "After all, if it isn't useful in combat, most mages tend to write it off as a magic not worth learning. I think, however, that it's a powerful magic before it allows you control of something in combat that few other magics allow- information."

"Information…" Mavis's eyes widened. "Oh, of course… You control the information, you control how your opponent reacts… Replace yourself with an illusion, you can attack from behind… Make illusionary clones, they have to guess which one is the real one if they can't take them all out. Few other magics are capable of that level of deception!"

I gave her a small smile before I focused on the food in front of me and began to eat it.

I don't think I'd ever get tired of Mavis's pasta; it tasted great…

[She'll make a great wife someday, right? ~]

'She sure will- Hey!' I barely stopped myself from choking on my food and downed some water quickly as I felt my cheeks burn red. 'You almost made me choke!'

[Silly Senpai, you're supposed to make me choke~]

'Woah!' I felt my eyes widen. Was this girl in full pervert mode today?

I turned my gaze towards her as she floated beside me with a teasing look in her eyes however… I noticed a slight pout on her lips.

'… Are… Are you jealous that Mavis and I are getting along?' I asked her incredulously.

[Who would be jealous over a virgin NEET Senpai like you?] She said with a sickly sweet smile.

I turned my gaze away from her slowly… My brain was starting to draw some conclusions, but I didn't dare think them when I knew BB could hear every word I was thinking. Instead, I focused on my pasta and enjoyed my meal while BB huffed and grumbled, and Mavis was focused on writing in a notebook.

Now that I'd opened her mind to the true potential of Illusion Magic- thank you Aizen, Itachi- her mind was no doubt bursting with more ideas than ever on how to utilise it. I could tell she was eager to do so, and it wasn't hard for me to figure out why.

Unlike the magic Zeref had taught her- if he taught her at all in this timeline- Illusion Magic was her own magic. However, due to its perceived uselessness outside of intimidation, she had abandoned it for the more powerful magic in 'Law' and later the Three Great Fairy Spells that she developed.

Hm… That did lead to a question, did I have my own magic? I knew Erza's magic power seemed to be something like Telekinesis, even though she herself only seemed to use it with her Heaven's Wheel Armour. Mirajane obviously had Take-Over Magic given she had managed to take over a demon without even realising she had done so.

Everyone should have some kind of inherent magic, just not everybody seemed to learn it and opted for something else. Like Dragon Slayers with their parents teaching them magic, or Loke using Ring Magic. As a Celestial Spirit, Loke's innate magic was Regulus. However, he had learnt Ring Magic in order to enhance his own magical power and survive for longer.

So then… What was mine?

Hm… That was definitely something to look into later on…

I finished off my meal and stood up. "Thanks for the meal, Mavis," I told her with a smile. "Do you know a place I can sleep? While I don't need it, I would like to for once."

She snapped out of what she was doing and turned to me, giving me a kind smile. "I'll lead you to the back," she told me. "We have a few beds for when we need to give immediate medical treatment, and we can't risk taking them to Porlyuscia. I'm sure the Master won't mind if you use one to sleep for the night."

"Thank you again," I told her. "I really appreciate how you do so much for me."

"Oh please," she smiled. "Fairy Tail is a family, it's only normal to help family."

I felt a warmth spread through my chest as I followed her to the room with a smile… I really did love this place…

'Thank you for bringing me to this world, BB.'

[Hmph…] She looked away, but I could tell she was smiling. [You're welcome, Senpai.]