Fairy Tail is a guild of the highest calibre in the entire Fiore kingdom.
Scale and power taken into consideration, the number of guilds that could compete with Fairy Tail is less than one could count with one hand.
Naturally, Fairy Tail would receive a lot of request from all over Fiore Kingdom. The diversity of request is astounding.
Standing in front of the request board, Noah could see there are various request like item finding, bandit repelling and other such simple requests. There are also requests that require magic to deal with like dispelling curses, these requests are harder. There are also request to eliminate illegal guilds/ dark guilds or dispatching harmful magic beats, these are higher leveled in terms of difficulty. There are so many more other kinds of request.
Normally speaking, if a request is harder to complete, the reward would also be higher. Those that harbors life threatening risks are marked up to the heavens in their reward.
And these requests are something not in the consideration of Noah who’s just coming out to work for the first time.
After discussing with Erza, the two decided that their first job should not be too hard, and it should also not be too far away otherwise problems might arise from being so far away by oneself. Whether or not it would be dangerous or efficient are best left for discussion in another time.
Therefore, those requests that has far locations, highly dangerous or require a specific type of magic to complete are all eliminated by Noah.
Erza already tore down one request since some unknown time ago and had already gone to Makarov for sorting out the procedures. She’s making preparations to go out already.
Noah lingered around the request board a bit before setting his eye on one of the requests and then tearing it down.
“Have you decided?”
Makarov stood behind him all this time, he saw what the request was and he nodded.
“This request seems a bit off, but the difficulty shouldn’t be that high. I just want you to keep your guard up, if it’s something you can’t handle or you think you’re in some kind of danger, don’t force yourself. Abandon the mission right away ya hear. You’re still young afterall!”
Noah nodded after listening to Makarov. He grasped the request in his hands as something started burning within him.
…..
A bright blue sky without any observable borders.
A green plain full of life for as far as one could see.
On this great plain, walking on the road is a teenage boy around the age of 11 or 12 with a rectangular clothed object at one side of his back. He held onto the backpack with one hand and the other hand was holding a paper as he walked on.
Whilst on the road, a few herders whispered and gossiped as they threw puzzled gaze onto the teenager. They are probably wondering whether or not the kid is some lost child or something.
Actually, as he made his way over here, quite a few kind souls asked whether or not he is lost or made to run errands for some illegal organization. It was quite troubling for him as he helplessly responded to them.
The bright side is that those encounters stop here.
At one point, Noah stopped and looked in front of him.
It was a village.
A village not that far away from Magnolia.
At the very least, Noah didn’t come here by carriage but the more traditional walking, although it did took a bit of time in doing so.
Looking at the village not so far away, he glanced over the request in his hand and he confirmed that this village is indeed the destination hes ought.
This request was issued by the village chief.
Normally, when a village that is not so big issues a request, it is usually to deal with wild beats or mountain bandits and the like. Sometimes, it is to find some herb to cure diseases, it’s very rare for there to be a highly risky request or anything that is particularly hard to do.
That’s why Noah chose this request issued by this particular village before him.
Of course, Noah has also read through the content of the request.
How should he put it?
It’s not that hard but if one were to put it as simple would be to underestimate it. It’s a bit of a head-scratcher.
With those kinds of feeling, Noah entered a house with the guidance of a villager to meet with the village chief.
The chief is very old, perhaps even older than Makarov. He had a cane and is hunched back with white beard that is practically sweeping the floor with its length.
“….”
The old chief scanned up and down Noah, and finally he opened his mouth.
“Welcome, guest hailing from Fairy Tail….”
Noah raised his evaluation for the old chief by a little bit.
Just now, he saw in the old chief’s eyes, a slight hint of suspicion.
Clearly, the old chief is worried over such a young magician sent to deal with his request.
But even so, the old chief didn’t say anything. The old dude didn’t look like he had any further questions and made his welcome known. Not a slight hint of displeasure over his small age.
Noah isn’t sure whether or not it’s because he’s from Fairy Tail that the old chief trusts he had the ability to finish the mission or because he wanted to give his greetings first before going down to business. Anyway, it’s easier on Noah that the old chief didn’t make a big fuss at first.
The Lake of Rituals activation mission last time had Noah as its linchpin but contact, negotiation, discussion and etc were left to Laxus.
As a result, this would technically be the first time Noah did a job on his own. Inevitably, he’s a bit worried.
The old chief did him quite a service by blowing away his tension, Noah’s heart lightened and he greeted the old chief.
“Greetings, Village Chief, I’m a magician from Fairy Tail, here to help you with your problems!”
“We appreciate your help.”
The village chief nodded slowly.
“Our village isn’t that big but we do have one or two inns prepared for travelling individuals. If you would like we could offer our services for free, would you like to take a rest?”
“The day has grown dark for sure, not very suitable for working. If you could let me rest a night I would be very grateful. But before that I have a question I would like to ask of the village chief.”
Noah showed the request before continuing with uncertain tone.
“The request here said to exorcist spirits, could you please elaborate?”
That’s right!
Exorcism!
That’s what has been on his mind all this time!
Magic might be everywhere, blending into and affecting lives just as other magic beasts could pose a threat to human life, he even heard from Makarov that there’re devils in this world but do spirits really exist?
They might but to be honest Noah has never seen one so he can’t help feeling a bit suspicious.
Not just him, any other person that swapped place with Noah would be asking the same question.
Some old villagers like this one might not have the same perspective as others living in towns or major cities so they might have confused rare phenomenons, weak magic beasts doing their thing or just plain hoax by individuals with bad intentions as the work of spirits. It certainly is a possibility.
If the hypothesis are indeed correct then solving it isn’t really a big issue, he’s afraid that there could be another thing he’s missing, something that he couldn’t deal with.
Because of that, Makarov’s recommendation was for him to take a look and then if anything is out of the ordinary then he can just abandon the request.
No matter what, if it really is the work of spirits then wouldn’t he be at a bind not knowing how to exorcise spirits?
Making the situation as clear as possible is a must.
It isn’t clear whether or not the chief understood this but seeing as Noah started asking about the job, he responded in kind.
“Actually, not long ago, villagers going inside the forest to hunt would report on a very frequent basis that they heard sounds of a spirit crying!”
