CHAPTER 34

"I read some reports about you defeating a group of dark mages that attacked the caravan that you were guarding," Makarov said to me as the two of us were heading towards the guild.

"You were checking up on me?", I replied. On the few times that the caravan was attacked, one was a group of dark mages. Those guys weren't powerful but they were the only ones to give me a little warm-up. Aside from them, the other attacks were barely worth mentioning.

After interrupting the fight that Gildarts and I were having, both Master Makarov and I decided to head towards the Guild. While Gildarts decided to go back to sleep.

"No, it just came up in a meeting between the Masters of different Guilds. I'm glad you didn't go overboard, though", Makarov stated.

"hmmm... So, me freezing and destroying a limb or two is called 'not going overboard'. Good to know", I replied sarcastically.

"I'll take what I can get", Makarov replied. The rest of the walk was spent in relative silence. To be honest, I thought that Master Makarov would reprimand me for doing that to those illegal mages, so, I was quite surprised that he didn't quite mind my brutality. Something I was trying to keep in check, hopefully, time will help me on this matter.

We eventually arrived in the guild and just like last time the people were quite rowdy and having fun. Well, at least no one was fighting this time. I scanned the surroundings and I saw Kagura in the corner of the guild, accompanying her was a girl wearing a dress, and on top of the dress was a breastplate. She was also wearing shoulder plates and as well as carrying a sword that was sheathed in her waist.

"Is that a new member?", I asked Master Makarov.

"Yes, she joined about a 3 weeks ago. It seems that both Kagura and her grew up in the same town.", Makarov responded but it was clear that he was sad about something.

"Someone else survived that?", I asked. I was pretty sure that there were no other survivors in Rosemary Village. I had used my observation haki to check the surroundings back then.

"She was abducted. She was able to escape due to the help of a retired Fairy Tail mage", Makarov replied weakly.

'So, that's why he sounded dejected, an old friend probably died to save that girl', I thought.

"I'm sorry for your lost", I said to him.

"It's fine."

"Did you ever found who was responsible?", I asked Makarov. After we joined the guild, Gildarts gave Master Makarov a rundown on what I told him about what happened to Kagura. As far as I recall, Master Makarov said that he will try to gather information and see if he can pinpoint the culprit of that heinous act.

"A few leads here and there, nothing totally concrete but all of them have one thing in common. They were cult members worshipping the black mage, Zeref", Makarov said.

"Zeref, huh", I said. I learn a couple of things about the famed black mage of the past but I didn't know that the man had followers even after so long now. You learn something new each day, I guess.

I could see the serious face of Kagura as she was swinging her wooden sword. While the other girl was standing in the side, just like how a teacher would teach a student. Kagura was removed from her seriousness demeanor when she saw me and she immediately runs towards me to hug me.

"ENZO!", Kagura screams.

"Hello Kagura", I said as Kagura hugs my leg. The older girl saw this and she went towards me and bowed her head and said, "I am Erza Scarlet and I would like to thank you for helping Kagura".

"Oh, it's fine, besides her family help me out before that event happened. I consider helping Kagura as repaying my debt to them", I said to her.

Suddenly Kagura began to tear up on the pants that I was wearing. This confused me as I didn't know the reason why.

"You talked about her family. It seems that she has not fully accepted it yet", Erza said with worry on her voice.

"What do you mean?", I said confused.

"Simon was alive...He didn't die during the attack in Rosemary Village...."

"What?", I replied.

"Simon was abducted with me, together we became prisoners and were tasked in building a tower. We planned to escape...together...But I don't know if Simon ever made it out", Erza said weakly.

"Where is this place?", I asked her as I patted Kagura's head.

"...I..dont...know.....", Erza said weakly as she looks on the floor.

".....I see", I replied.

I look carefully at Erza and I know in an instant that she wasn't telling the entire truth. It may be hard to see all the non-verbal cues she was doing cause it could be excused as a sign of trauma or PTSD. But in this brief moment of interaction, I could say that she wasn't being totally honest with Kagura and me.

The real question now is, 'what is she not being honest about'... Perhaps she was the only one that was able to escape and she feels guilty about it...Who knows really. I'll keep this observation in the back of my head and deal with it when the time comes.

I stopped patting Kagura's head and she looks at me. With a smile on my face, I said to her, "You only need to train Kagura, and one day you can find your brother yourself, wherever he maybe".

Kagura looks at me for a while and she eventually wiped the tears in her eyes and she said to me, "I will find my brother for sure". She lets go of my leg and she immediately dragged Erza in the back of the guild to train some more.

"Did you check her story?", I asked Makarov who was in the bar section of the guild, I was indicating about Erza's circumstances.

"I'm still looking into it", Makarov replied.

I nodded and took a look at the mission board to see if there were some good missions that I could do.

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