Chapter 10

As she finished recalling the events to Escanor, Praesia's face were full of tears as Escanor tried his best to wipe her tears away. She continued to cry at Escanor's embrace for about an hour before she finally calmed down and fell asleep in exhaustion.

Seeing this, Escanor heavily sighed. He himself know the pain of loneliness so he clearly understand the pain she's going through right now. She must have been mentally and physically exhausted as he can see her sleep with a tired face.

Escanor shook the gloomy feelings away as he looked up at the sky and set his gaze precisely at the sun and internally said. 'I used to hate this thing back then as I thought it was the one who "cursed" me to become a monster, but thankfully I met that lady'. Arriving at this thought, Escanor smiled gently as he shook his head and finally picked Praesia up. He carried her into a bridal style and walked steadily and carefully as to not disturb her rest.

He walked into the direction of Acalypha town as he planned to give praesia to the people council assigned to become a branch at acalypha town. He doesn't want to bring her as she may be harmed instead, so he chose to leave praesia in their care while he complete his mission.

...

[Council Branch, Acalypha Town]

"Hey, what are you looking at?" Asked a council member at his colleague who keep on staring at the board in the hall of the building.

His colleague turned to him and blinked, then he pointed at the board with his index finger and said. "I'm trying my best to remember this face".

The council member looked at the board where his colleague was pointing at and found a portrait of a person who looked like he was in his early thirties, has a neck length blond hair that was tied into a low ponytail and a perfect jawline coupled with his sharp eyes that seems to pierce anyone's soul that try to look at it.

After he saw the portrait, the council member raised his brows as he was enlightened and asked his colleague. "You want to find this person?"

"Yes, he is basically a ticket for promotion. Just pointing his coordinates can reward you handsomely, imagine when you capture him?" He said to the council member in excitement.

"Yeah-yeah, I know. But aren't he an S-class criminal? How can we capture him? Even the higher ups can't decide to hunt him down easily". The council member reminded. He actually wanted to participate in capturing the wanted criminal, because who doesn't want to be rewarded and promoted at the same time? But he was still a bit hesitant as over the past few years of trying to hunt this person, no one ever come back alive. Ever.

The man they're talking to was the rumored flaming demon. Who's been wanted for years now. Various teams of wizards and council members went to search for him, but none came back alive. Thus he was promoted as an S-class criminal. No one ever saw the flaming demon's face and spread about it as those who saw his identity were all dead.

The council once put a reward for the one who could make a portrait of the flaming demon, and after a year, someone claimed that he has drawn the portrait of the flame demon. That guy has magic related to visions, and claimed that he saw the demon's real face and made a portrait out of it. The council verified the man's magic and confirmed its authenticity, thus, the council now has the portrait of the flaming demon, but for some reason, they can't still find him. They were also quite surprise that the one who they called flaming demon was actually a human as they thought he was one of the demons made by zeref himself. Basically, they put him on the same category with Deliora.

After thinking about it more seriously, the council member decided not to participate. He sighed as he shook his head and looked at his colleague and said. "Well, the reward is really attractive for anyone, but you need to be alive to enjoy that". He said as he patted his colleague's shoulder.

His colleague was quite stubborn as he said. "If we can't capture him, then we can atleast try and search for him around and if we luckily find him, we just need to report his location and recieve the reward! That way, we would be safe and can enjoy the reward right?"

"I feel really uncomfortable on how you make it sound so easy". The council member said with a helpless expression.

"It's confidence, confidence! Don't you know what my magic can do?" His colleague asked the council member with a smug smile on his face.

"<Track> magic". The council member said.

"Yep~, by remembering the face here, I can find him with my magic!" His colleague pump his chest as he was full of confidence in his magic. His magic was quite useful. As long as he willed to remember someone's face, his magic <track> can really find the person in a range of 1 km. By using his memory as some kind of medium, his magic would track someone with the similar face in his mind as long as the said person is in the range of his magic.

(A/N: Did I explain that right? God! I'm bad at explanations.)

"Well, whatever. I would not get myself involve, lest I lost my precious life". The council member said.

His colleague scoffed and said. "You need to take risks to climb up in life you know?"

The council member only shook his head and continued walking to the reception center where he was currently assigned with this colleague of his.

They continue their conversation until they arrived at the reception counter, and there, they saw someone waiting.

The council member raised a brow and turned his head to his colleague as he reprimanded. "Look! Because of you delaying by remembering that face, there is now someone waiting here, forgot about promotion, we could get demoted because of this you know!"

His colleague made a wry smile and said. "Yeah-yeah, let's just move on and do our job before we get caught being late".

They immediately approach the reception area and finally saw the person waiting there.

"A kid?" His colleague asked. Seeing a topless and barefooted kid carrying a much younger kid in his arms.

The council member shook his head at his colleague and asked the kid infront. "How can we help you?"

The kid answered. "Help me take care of this girl, she's one of the survivors on the incident of the sorrounding villages".

Both council members seems to be surprised and looked closely at the kid infront, and when they did, they saw a guild emblem to his right arm and finally realize his identity.

"So you're from fairy tail huh. So you are the one who accepted the mission". The council member nod in understanding and said. "Ok kid, bring that young girl to the medical ward to heal her of any hidden injuries, come with us".

The kid nodded and followed both of the council members. When they were done putting the young girl to the medical ward, the council member then asked his name. "What's you're name, kid?".

The kid answered plainly. "Escanor".

The kid, which is actually Escanor, then reported about his findings in his investigation in the village.

They discussed about how he found the little girl, which is praesia and told her story about a group of people kidnapping the villagers.

The two council members nod and said. "This is helpful, thanks. But, would you want to continue to find more clues or just get the reward partially? The information that you've reported were of a great help".

"I want to continue in investigating and find the culprits". Escanor stated.

The two council members nodded and remided. "Ok, but you need to immediately report if you ever find something about those culprits, you can't handle them all".

Escanor just nodded and stood up to leave. He would continue his search for now to find those culprits as he promised himself to end those vermines pathetic lives. Arriving at this thought, escanor's eyes seems to change into that of a burning sun for a brief moment, before it came back to normal.

Escanor shook his head and continue on walking out of the building. On his way out, escanor accidentally glance at the mission board of the council, there, he saw a portrait. Seeing this made him shook his head and sighed.

It was his portrait, but a very far fetch portrait even if he transformed to his prideful self who has the appearance of someone on his 20's, unlike what showed in the portrait who looks like he was in his thirties and look more grumpy. The council were completely unaware and has no idea that the man who did that portrait, actually only base it completely to his imaginations. His magic that was related to visions was too weak to the point that he can only see visions that are one day ahead.

(A/N: Just like Escanor's old wanted list on nanatsu no taiazai folks.)

The two council members then continued doing their job, letting escanor leave, totally unaware and having no idea that the person they wanted to find was just talking to them a moment ago.