Chapter 21 - Where Loyalties Lay

It wasn't hard to find a ride over to Magnolia. There were plenty of merchants and travelers who would pay top Jewels for a mage to accompany their ride. Locki just had to announce his destination at the gates and the code phrase of "for free" and there was already a line for him to pick and choose from.

The only thing he needed to look out for were the plants or mercantile allies of the other three Magic Guilds in Evermont. Locki knew to expect a couple to simply keep tabs on him due to his actions, and he doubted that everyone knew his recent deal with the False Giant's guild. If his guess about Drumlowe's future plans were correct, the older guildmaster would be more likely to keep Locki and his cohort out of sight or direct the attention of the other guildmasters to a different target. A perfect way to buy time and accomplish Locki's needs without actually tying the two Magic Guilds together.

All this amounted to a few extra minutes where Locki split his worry about Kagura and the small carriages that welcomed his company. He settled things fairly quickly, feeling that both Max and Gyutaro should be able to handle anyone bar an S-rank mage. All of which would need to attend the Magic Item Exchange to just grandstand.

Now all the teen had to worry about was the silent Gyutaro. The demon had been particularly quiet ever since the duo had left the exchange, and Locki wondered just where he went wrong.

The two of them sat across from each other in the back of the carriage where most of the products were stored away. Another guard sat away from them, nearer to the small curtain that separated the driver from the cargo. He seemed to twitch nervously, casting wary glances at them, and Locki mentally nodded his head at the behavior. This is what he expected from those who held healthy respect for the prowess of a mage.

Locki shifted his attention back to his seemingly sullen guild member. Gyutaro sat hunched over a thick cloak that lay along his legs to hide from the sun later. The demon's gaze had been locked on his shadow, and Locki could feel Max stir from the attention, forcing the teen to plant his foot down on the Haunter's head just as it tried to pop out. He didn't need his driver and fellow passenger, who had been placed to watch them, to freak out about the Pokemon's appearance.

Haunter looked too much like a monster for anyone's good. And mage or not, monsters were things that normal people didn't really like in their stuff.

"How is your sword?" Locki asked, trying to figure out how to broach his guildmate's behavior.

"It cuts." Gyutaro said, shrugging. Said [Asauchi] lay across the demon's lap.

"As swords normally do." Locki held himself back from rolling his eyes. Instead, he remembered the effects of the item, and found himself once again with regret over the loss of the [Byakugan]. "Is there anything you notice about it? Changing forms or something?"

Gyutaro shook his head. "No, should there be? I thought this wasn't a magic sword."

"It… might be. Might not be as well. I am not too sure, really."

"I'll tell you if something happens."

Locki nodded, feeling a bit comforted. The conversation had eased the teen's fears. Gyutaro wasn't exactly at odds with him then. The demon seemed to still keep some sense of priority on matters. That meant things had changed recently, and the only thing Locki could remember was the Magic Item Exchange. With nothing better to do for the night, Locki decided to breach the issue quickly.

A demon against him is something he never wanted nor needed.

"We're out of Zeronu's range, by the way. Did you have something to talk to me about?" Locki asked bluntly.

Gyutaro only seemed to frown at the information, tossing a wordless glance to the outline of Evermont on the horizon. "Did we just get out of it?"

"Yeah," Locki sighed, knowing the problem. "He wouldn't be called the Horizon Eyes if he couldn't see the entire city if he wanted to."

"... reasonable." Gyutaro said, but Locki knew the demon was disturbed by the implications.

"Don't worry about him. He might be able to see everything, but that doesn't mean he can pay attention to everything. The thing with him is that he can get bored of a single thing real quick, and then he'll pay attention to something else." Locki assured. He had heard rumors about the weakness of the Horizon Eyes Mage, and it took his information Curse as well as actually meeting the guy to change those rumors into truth.

Not that he'd share them much. He needed that information to be confidential or else his Curse wouldn't be that strong.

Gyutaro seemed to hum appreciatively at the information, offering no other comment. Carefully, almost whispering, the demon asked, "Is our goal Evermont, then? That… city?"

Oh. Like puzzle pieces, Locki finally placed everything together about his guildmate's worries. Gyutaro seemed to be attempting to find out what Locki wanted, and his supposed leader had just promised both him and his sister off to an old, crazy dude with strong subordinates. The only thing that stopped the demon from attacking him had probably been due to the rapport Locki had gained in his fight with the other mages before the Exchange. Even then, the teen didn't put it past Gyutaro to try something.

"It was not, until now, I guess."

"You guess?"

Locki ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah well, I found out that Guildmaster Vistas seemed to be enamored with Evermont. Dunno why he likes the shithole, but really, who cares? We're in his good graces because he thinks that's our goal as well. He'll probably keep a bunch of tabs on us, and have Zeronu cast a glance our way every now and then just to check, so in order to keep his support, we need to be paragons of virtue for the people of Evermont."

"Us? Virtue?" Gyutaro tried not to seem too amused by that sentence, cracking a ghost of a smile. "My sister and I are demons. We eat people."

"Semantics."

"No, that's a fairly big point." Gyutaro pressed.

Locki waved his hand dismissively. "Anyways, We just need to play along for now. Maybe do his dirty work for a bit while we gather strength, resources and connections."

"But he will be expecting that, too." Gyutarao eased back against the side of the carriage. Locki didn't know what he said, but the demon seemed to be more relaxed. Eh? He'll take it.

"Of course he will." Locki agreed with a quick nod. He cast a glance at the other person in the carriage, but the man seemed to be asleep. A quick application of his Curse proved that to be the case. Damn… this really was a truth detector…

"However," Locki continued. "We won't make any overt moves. Or really do anything at all for now. We have basically sold ourselves to him, and I don't think I want to start planning a coup so soon when we just got a bit of breathing room." The teen sneaked a glance at Gyutaro, gauging the demon's reaction to his words. There was a slight tense in Gyutaro's arms, but he held himself back. "Does that bother you?"

"... no, it does not. It makes sense since we don't have anything else to offer." Gyutaro said.

"Do you resent me for it?"

Locki watched as Gyutaro physically turned to look him in the eyes, seemingly staring straight into his soul. "You are someone who would give up everything to get what he wants. I understand that you carry the burden I can't really grasp, and you live calculating the cost of your every action. I just want to know… If there came a time to throw away both my sister and I for your goals, would you do it?"

The demon's words stopped all of Locki's thoughts in their tracks. Locki hadn't really given much thought to how he acted; everything he had done was for the good of his Magic Guild and himself. Even when he had offered up his guild's freedom, the teen hadn't hesitated. Except now, Locki felt like he could not give Gyutaro an answer.

If it were before his night in jail, before he realized he needed his guild to be stronger, Locki wouldn't have paused for so long. He would give up Gyutaro and Daki in a heartbeat. They were too much of a danger to himself and Kagura no matter how much he felt himself bond with the demon.

However, he still hesitated to say he would, unsure of why. No, he was sure. He just didn't think he'd feel this way about anyone other than Kagura.

"The last… master of mine would not have hesitated." Gyutaro said, and Locki saw a ghost of a smile on the demon's face. "I will not resent the person who gave me a second chance. It was the same before, it is the same now, Guildmaster."

"Oh…"

Locki thought over Gyutaro's words throughout the trip to Magnolia.

...

Locki had already noticed the uniqueness of Magnolia from the last time he stopped there. His [Carpentry] skill allowed him a sort of perception that went beyond what normal people would look out for. Not that he believed he was the only one to notice such details; Gyutaro had kept an inquisitive eye on all the buildings around them, assessing their worth.

And according to Locki's skill, their worth wasn't much.

The buildings were still made from some kind of wood and earth magic combo to construct them quickly. He could see how that made their structure easy to take advantage of as well as the clear faults in their make. They wouldn't last longer than a year, but Locki supposed they would be a good way to erect buildings quickly.

"These buildings are weird." Gyutaro commented from within his heavy cloak. The sun had just begun to rise, and the demon already took precautionary measures with sunblock as well.

"They're made with magic." Locki answered the unasked question. "Weaker and faster to build."

"Magic again…" Gyutaro muttered to himself, and Locki saw how the demon's gloved hand traced the handle of his [Asauchi].

"Things are easier because of mages. The problems become bigger, though." Locki said, knowing just how dangerous some things became when mages came into play. He didn't doubt that Evermont would still be a horrible place even without magic, but the inclusion of it only made escalation of conflicts easier.

Gyutaro nodded with the words, seemingly thinking of his own answer. His gaze turned to a group of children that ran by with buzzing toys in their hands, magic items. "Why can they not just make the buildings themselves. Do they coddle children with magic, too?"

"Its not that normal suckers… I mean people use magic for everything. Its Fairy Tail's S-rank mage. I looked into some rumors and apparently the guy walks through buildings when he doesn't pay attention. The property damage that guy has on his head is absurd."

"How does he compare to that Horizon guy?"

Locki scoffed at the simplemindedness of the demon. "Remember what I said about the differences between S-ranks? This guy is that difference. Trust me when I say he's someone you don't want to be against."

"And yet, people still want to fight me." Locki froze at the deep voice behind him, but Gyutaro was already in motion. The demon yanked the teenage guildmaster backwards, ripping out his [Ausachi] fast enough that Locki could on see their arm blur.

Locki could see the thick, white bandages across the demon's arms, bulging against his straining muscles. Gyutaro strangled a scream as steam rose up from the gaps between the bandages where the demon hadn't quite covered.

Yet, the ultimate form of Zanpakuto was stopped by the grizzled man behind them. Caught easily within the mage's palm, like that of a naughty child's toy.

It took a moment for Locki to place where exactly he remembered their face. Slicked back red hair and a messy shadow of a beard where the man trimmed this morning. Their body was built, lean and covered in stains of mud and rain, like a wanderer who just finished trekking through the mountains. They were dressed in a ratty cloak that covered most of their body, but it failed to hide the dull metallic shade of armor underneath.

Gildarts. The name struck Locki like a meteor. Gildarts Clive was in front of them… And Gyutaro just attempted to kill him.

"Not the weirdest way I've been greeted, but I suppose that's what happens when I'm late." Fairy Tail's Crash Mage shrugged, hand still holding Gyutaro's strike at bay despite the demon struggling to move. "You guys wouldn't happen to know the Guildmaster who is supposed to come today? If not, then can you do me a favor and find them for me?"

"Locki… he's strong." Gyutaro said, and Locki knew the demon wanted to make a last stand for him to run away. How he inspired such loyalty, Locki had no idea. He supposed it was ingrained in the demon's nature from that previous "master" he mentioned.

Locki felt a headache build up as he stepped between the two.

"I apologize for our reaction, but you were the one who startled us, Mister Clive." Locki said, trying not to feel intimidated by the sole reason why Fairy Tail was on a "do not fuck with" list. Not to mention the Wizard Saint of a Guildmaster. "If you can understand how on edge we are after we figured out our guildmates were incapacitated, can you [stand down]."

Gildarts, for all his impressive titles and feats of power, blinked oddly as he released Gyutaro's weapon. The older mage stepped back, and Locki could feel the tension slide back a few notches. Internally, he felt like he had just dodged a natural disaster. Similarly, Gyutaro also eased back and slid behind Locki in a familiar show of obedience.

"Huh, that's weird." the man said, clenching the hand that he had used to stop Gyutaro's strike. Gildarts looked over Gyutaro, rubbing his palm on his chin. "How is your sword still okay?"

"Magic." Gyutaro answered quickly, and Locki bit back the need to say that there is no magic associated with his [Asauchi]. Maybe… The teen definitely needed to look into it when they weren't going from one catastrophe to another.

"Cool. Anyways, I found you guys, so just follow me, I guess. The old man just told me to bring you over." Gildarts commented easily, turning his back to the two of them while waving to follow.

Locki tried not to think of the implications of everything. In Evermont, no one, not even your allies, would ever show you their back out of fear a knife might be inserted between their ribs. Gildarts was strong. Beyond anything Locki had ever thought possible. However, the teen couldn't quite grasp how strong the mage was because of it. All he had were various accounts of the man's actions… and a heavy account of his damages.

To send someone like this to greet him… Locki tried to piece together just what went on behind the Fairy Tail Guildmaster's head. A show of power? A way to keep them in check? Or perhaps some way to gauge their reactions and actions?

Locki's thoughts quickly came to a halt. A loud boom echoed out in front of him, distracting him as he stared at the oddly human-shaped hole that appeared on the side of a building. He cast a glance inside to see Gildarts, the man who inspired so much fear in the hearts of ne'er-do-wells everywhere, bowing to a disgruntled housewife who berated the mage with a ladle.

"How is this…" Gyutaro whispered to himself, and Locki could only agree with his befuddlement. Currently, Gildarts had overwritten the demon's growing image of how the public treated mages that he perceived within Evermont.

A new question formed in Locki's mind. How the hell did Fairy Tail pay for all this property damage?