Dealing with People

As expected the media circus that I went through succeeded and now I was a household name. I was relatively handsome and with my white knight persona, I was popular with the ladies.

It also did help a lot that the magic council was also pushing me to become famous to divert attention from the bad.

Having a massive tower that could've potentially revived Zeref being built under your nose for yours was not a good vote of confidence.

Honestly, even with me deflecting a lot of the attention the population was still incredibly mad at the Magic Council for letting this happen.

If I were to give an example of how most people feel, it would be how a person would feel on Earth if they heard terrorists managed to make a nuclear bomb silo that person's country.

They would obviously feel incredibly unsafe after learning that such a thing was occurring and lash out at the government for not being able to do anything.

I assume that is why the response this time had been incredibly efficient and brutal, after all in normal times that massive shipping mogul probably could've bribed his way to safety.

Now he was in a prison cell, and possibly being tortured to get as much information he had on the Dark Guilds.

The whole show to force was to reassure the citizens and seeing that we were being so efficient calmed down much of the population though a lot were still scared.

The ones who were most angry however were the freed slaves and their families. After all, they had been slaves for years and nobody had found them.

It was not an insignificant amount as well, 1000 people had been taken, and the Magic Council hadn't found them for years.

Considering that the Tower of Heaven had little to no security you could see how such gross negligence in regards to finding their citizen infuriated the population.

Especially the stories of the young children who were taken as slaves, and tortured struck a chord in everybody's heart.

Although a lot of the slaves and relatives were mad it was mostly blunted by the fact that most of them seem to respect me a lot, not the magic council.

The story of me submitting an application to check the place out and it being denied but me going anyway made me seem like a maverick who would do anything for justice.

So overall while the damage to the Magic Council's reputation and dignity was big it was blunted a lot by the fact that they waved me around to distract everybody. It was fine by me.

So now I was doing meet-ups with the members of the Tower of Heaven that still hadn't found a way to reintegrate into society.

Specifically, I was mostly meeting up with Jellal and his group. Kids with no parents made it hard to reenter society.

---

I walked into a small wooden house near Magnolia. I was accompanied by some Rune Knights and reporters to document my visit. They needed all the good press they could get.

I entered through the wooden door in the front, it wasn't locked. Looking around I saw that the living room was empty. It was odd but then I heard voices coming from the kitchen.

I entered and saw an old woman, I guess their caretaker, trying to wrangle the running kids in the kitchen to calm down and eat breakfast.

They weren't having it however as I saw them throwing food, shooting condiments, and chasing each other, having the time of their lives.

The old woman seem to notice me and said, "Sir Fulbright, I'm so sorry for the mess."

She then turned back to the children, "Children! Focus up Sir Fulbright is here. I know that you wanted to talk to him."

They stopped their playing and looked at me. I smiled, "It's no issue, you haven't had the time to have a childhood. I would be remiss if any more it from you."

Sho said, "It's no issue, Mister Fulbright. We'll quickly get ready."

I replied, "Mister Fulbright now? I guess you did manage to learn some respect."

I saw Sho and Millianna scratch the back of their heads. I guess they realized that they had been incredibly rude to their savior back at the Tower."

I said, "Don't worry, clean up. I'm not in a rush."

They quickly dashed off and I smiled at the old woman, "Are they always this energetic."

She sighed, "It's only been recently that they have gotten this enthusiastic. In the beginning, they were more withdrawn but they seem to have come out of their shells."

I smiled, "That's good. It is great to see them so happy after all they have gone through."

I noted that the cameras were panning around the room, having taken video of the food fight that had happened. That would definitely help ratings, seeing the kids so happy always helped.

So I passed a few minutes, as I saw down on a chair at the massive dinner table, talking to the old woman and letting the cameras hear all the mischief the kids had been up to.

Once they were back cleaned up from the mess they had made we began to talk. I asked, "How are you guys? Seems like you are having fun?"

Millianna nodded, "Yes, it's been great. We no longer have to do anything and I get to cuddle with all of the cats nearby. It's been a blast."

Simon nodded, "It has been an enjoyable experience. I also hope to soon be reunited with my sister?"

I asked, "So you've found your sister?"

He replied, "Yes, Kagura has become quite the rising star in her new guild, Mermaid Heel. Her innate Gravity Magic, in particular, has been developing rapidly."

I said, "Have you a least talked to her over Communication Lacrima?"

He said, "I have, and hearing her voice after so long soothes my heart in ways you cannot even imagine. Hopefully, we will meet up in real life tomorrow morning."

I said, "That's great. How about the rest of you, manage to find your families?"

All of them shook their head but Wally Buchanan spoke up, "I've been looking for my brother but ever since he was taken away by those men I haven't seen him."

Ah, this was the brother of the Hoteye, a future member of the Oración Seis. He and a few others were taken from the tower to be trained to become the new members of Oración Seis.

I said, "Don't worry I'm sure we will find him soon enough."

I then looked at Jellal, "How are you dealing with life now that you are no longer possessed?"

Jellal said, "It's been hard hearing of all the horrible things that I did but not remembering them. I just feel fog whenever I try and reach that part of my memory."

I nodded, "How about the people are they Ok?"

He said, "A lot of them still blame for keeping them slaves but a lot of them have also stood up for me saying it is not my fault. It has been a confusing experience."

I said, "I guess it would be. In the meantime, however, have you had the time to meet with Erza? I mean she is right in this city."

This time they all smiled, Sho said, "Yeah it was great meeting Erza again. It was great that she didn't actually betray us and actually helped save us."

Millianna continued, "It's so annoying though that some of the slaves bother her for not reporting the Tower of Heaven earlier. I mean don't they know she was being threatened."

I smiled, "That's the annoying thing about humans were are never truly rational. Was she happy though meeting all of you?"

Wally said, "Yeah she burst into tears when she saw all of us. I mean I did too but it was great."

It was great listening to their stories of life after the Tower, all the things they were catching up on, and all of their misadventures.

I asked, "Do any of you have a goal you want to pursue?"

Millianna said, "I want to be a professional mage. Maybe in the same guild that Simon's sister is in."

Wally and Sho both said, "We want to travel the world and see all the incredible sights of Earthland."

Simone said, "I just want to live a quiet life, supporting my family and learning to develop my magic to a higher level."

Jellal was the only one that said, "I don't know what I what to be."

I looked at him, "Don't worry you're still young, you have all the time in the world to find a goal worth pursuing."

We started up wrapping the conversation and 2 hours after I entered the house I left. I looked at the cameramen and they all shot me a thumbs up.

So the meeting went well and we can use the footage to get a more positive reputation. That is good.