Ch.26 First S-class job

For the next few days, Jax shopped in Magnolia. He hoped to make his vast house a little more homely. At this point, Jax had stopped renting the apartment and had started to live in his home.

While there were enough rooms for many people, he didn't mind living alone for the moment. However, the longer he stayed alone in the house, the more he understood his unconscious need to live with someone. Living alone in his home made him remember his captivity when he was younger. While he had thought he had managed to get over those memories of suffering and torture, Jax now understood that he was simply repressing them, and he never overcame them.

Due to this, he had tried to fill his house with things he liked. In the end, after shopping excessively for a few days, he had bought dozen of books, new attires, weapons, armours and even a few silver celestial gate keys. He enjoyed storing new things in his house, mostly filling the void in the place by storing books in the library, storing weapons and armours in the magical testing field in the first basement and the celestial gate keys he had in double in his bedroom. As for the keys he didn't have in double? He kept them with him at all times. It was a way to cope with the feeling of being alone. He believed this was why he loved to keep those keys with him at all times, as they represented a celestial spirit.

After a few days, he had managed to change the house from being almost empty to being homely and clean. In those days, he often played some piano as he had learned of his talent and had decided to spend some time practising. Surprisingly, he had seen that his sound groove had slightly increased when he played the piano. He had no idea why that was, but he guessed that by developing the magic, he could also increase the groove's filling. And indeed, a few days later, he had seen his sound magic increase by a few percent by only playing the piano.

With this new way of increasing his magical powers, he raised the time he played the instrument. After all, it was not only helping him grow stronger but also helping him in accepting his past.

In this way, a month passed.

In this month, Jax took four requests, which were to his name. Two were to take down a group of dark mages attacking towns while the two others were monster subjugation requests. The rest of the time, he spent it at the guild talking with the other members or spending it at home to play some music or read. In other words, he relaxed.

Finally, after a month of doing nothing but a few jobs, Laxus and Gildarts came back to the guild at about the same time and stayed for a few days. Laxus simply because he finished his holiday and was about to start working again, while Gildarts simply stayed a few days before taking another job as he did every time.

Laxus did not waste too much time, and after two days, he left again working. Jax was ready doing to do the same, so he planned on going the next day. However, the morning Jax was about ready to start doing jobs actively again, Gildarts stopped him.

With a questioning look, Jax asked the older man: "What's up, Gildarts?" To which the crush magician simply answered by: "I've got an S rank job here to escort a star in two days. She has to meet with her fans, and it is believed that some dark mages may want her life. This time, the threats are excessive, and there is a price of 10 million on her head. Another guild is taking care of another request, which is to find the one who set a bounty of her head and cancel the bounty. The S rank job I have is to assure her safety while she is travelling for a week. However, it's conspicuous to have someone as big as me staying with her, and I wouldn't be able to assure her safety up close. I want you to do the job with me. Your identity will be of a lucky kid who got to spend a week with your idol while you're protecting her, and I'll be close by to take care of the enemies once they reveal themselves. So what do you say? Interested in doing your first S-class job?" He finished while giving him a grin. "Oh right, the pay is of 5 million, we'll do half-half. So what do you say?"

"When are we leaving?" Jax asked while giving his grin. It would be his first S-class job, and there were no better partners than Gildarts if it was about S-class jobs.

"Half an hour. Pack your things, and we'll leave." Answered back the mage as he went to the bar to register the job.

Jax didn't need to prepare anything. He always kept his necessary items such as a sword and armour, some of the explosive lacrimas he had collected in his second job and the various items he could need during the job. There were even some preserved food in there if he ever needed it.

Half an hour later, Jax and Gildarts had left the guildhall and were on their way to the capital of Fiore, Crocus. They would meet their client in the royal palace. According to Gildarts, the client had a good relationship with the royal family and stayed there until the mages escorting her arrived.

They arrived at Crocus a little bit after midday and went directly to the royal castle, Mercurius, to meet their client. By giving the job request to the guard and Gildarts proving that they were from Fairy Tail by showing his tattoo, they were instantly welcomed into the castle.

Walking in the castle along with Gildarts, Jax looked around carefully. It was the first time he had ever entered a castle, and everything he saw made him wonder whether he would prefer living in a castle or his large house. His answer? He liked his home better. The castle wasn't homely enough and was way too big.

As they walked into the castle, they followed a guard who led them to the meeting room. It didn't take long as five minutes later they entered the room. A table was in the middle of the room with dozens of chairs on each side. A blue carpet was spread on the floor, and decorative paintings were on the wall. Fruits were laid on a few plates across the table, and three people were sitting at the table.

The first one was sitting at the head of the table. He was relatively small, wore striped overalls and was wearing a red cape. On his white hair, he wore a golden and red crown. His black eyes were starring directly at the silver-haired boy and the orange-haired man. As the small man who would later be known to Jax as the king of Fiore, Toma E. Fiore, stared at them, the two girls by the side also stared at them.

The first one seemed to be about seven years old, just like Jax. She had green eyes and hair and had a small necklace on her neck. Not only that, but she also wore two green earrings. As for her, she was simply staring at the boy not older than her as he looked over her with his pale blue eyes and the scar on his left eye seemed to give him an attractive power.

Finally, another woman who seemed to be in her late twenties had blue hair and eyes. Her fair skin brought out her eyes as she wore a blue dress with purplish ends. She wore a blue necklace on her neck, which went directly into her cleavage, slightly revealed by her dress. Finally, under the chain, on her neck, she wore a purple choker, which went very well with her dress. She was currently looking at the two men, or more like the men and the boy who came to escort and protect her safety for the next week. While the boy seemed taller than the others of her age, it was still only slightly taller than a seven-year-old boy. He barely reached the elbow of the older man.

As Jax was looking over them, he merely chose to follow whatever Gildarts did since he planned to learn how to act during S-class jobs. He knew that either important people often gave S-class jobs or whenever something dangerous happened. In this case, the client seemed to be someone significant since they met in the royal palace, and he had no idea how to act.

"Hi, we are the mages of Fairy Tail who took the job to escort miss Rekea Robin for a week," Gildarts said as he sat down on an empty chair. Jax followed suit as he kept a straight face.

"I guess that if you took the job, you are an S-class mage?" Asked the small man at the head of the table.

"Indeed, I am an S-class mage, and he's an A-class mage. Normally I would take such a job alone but considering that miss Rekea is going to meet her fans and that she takes some children from time to time on her tours, I figured I would bring Jax here to travel with her." Gildarts said with a grin as he tapped on Jax's back.

"So, he's a fan of sister Rekea?" Asked the little girl at the side of the table, trying to get into the conversation.

"No, I don't believe he even knows her. However, it is a good reason to have him stick to her side for the next week to protect her." Gildarts answered while chuckling at her question.

"But I understand that he is an A-class mage, but can he protect me from other mages? After all, he is still young." Asked the lady as she didn't want to put her safety of someone unreliable.

"You don't worry about this. Jax can stop and take down any A-rank mages, and he can block for a small amount of time the S-class dark mages that may go after you. Under normal circumstances, his job is simply to protect you while I do the fighting. If you're hurt, he can heal you. He can help you escape as fast as possible if necessary. He can detect poisons and can fight without a problem. Not to mention that this isn't his first escort mission. He knows what to do and has the skill to support him." Gildarts said while Jax gave a simple, reassuring smile to the older lady.

"Can we see his magic in action?" Asked the younger girl as she looked at Jax.

At her question, the man and the older lady had their eyes brighten up as they also wanted to test his magic, but they knew that they couldn't ask for something like this since it is private. However, since it was a child who asked, there wouldn't be any problems even if he refused.

"Sure, what magic do you want me to use?" Asked Jax as he answered the green-eyed girl.

"Can you make me fly in the sky?" Asked the girl with her eyes wide open, hoping that he could do so.

"Sure." Jax chuckled as he lifted his finger and made her fly in the room before any of the three adults could say anything. However, when they wanted to tell him to put her back on the ground because she wore a dress, they discovered that her dress seemed to be stuck to her legs, stopping her from flashing everyone in the room.

After a few more demonstrations of his magic, mostly defensive magic such as earth and water magic to create shields, they cast aside their uneasy feelings and accepted to give them the job. As for the young lady, Jax learned was named Hisui E. Fiore, she was happy and accepted him from the moment he made her to fly in the sky.