章節 30: 28. Bargaining With Megalomaniacs

A/N: The fight will be in the next chapter.

Sizzling could be heard from the kitchen as Totomaru cooked breakfast. As the smell of sausage and bacon drafted around the apartment, I sat on the bed with my legs crossed in a meditating position. Two palms were pressed together in front of me with one hand pointing downwards and another pointing to the sky, while another set of hands rested under my diaphragm with the fingers pressed together with the palms raised upwards. A third pair of arms were raised above my head with the fingers pointing skywards in a prayer-like position.

Diamond-like black markings were etched across all six appendages and could even be seen on my bare feet, with the pigment of my skin around those tattoos becoming just a few shades darker than the patterns themselves. Dark-coloured horns rose from my forehead and turned backwards, forming an infernal crown.

Assuming my demonic form, my "natural" form, was something I had become accustomed to doing when I had some privacy. It was the only time I could safely try to focus on taming the little voice in my head that told me to let loose and burn anything that got in my way. And that voice prevented me from using the strength I get while like this, as the adrenaline boosts it exponentially. Losing myself to the thrill of violence gets too tempting while fighting.

It makes me wonder if born demons naturally learn how to suppress their nature at a young age, or if they even have to worry about wanting to destroy something as much as I do. Aetna was the Overlord of war and wrath, two things that are naturally inclined to violence, so if he was the progenitor of fire demons then it would make sense if they were more naturally destructive.

So trying to gain control of my instincts was one thing, but something I also realised was that in this state I could "see" magic better.

The feeling of the flow of ethernano was more profound. If before it seemed like a gentle breeze across my skin, now it was like I was in the middle of a storm. From the faint memories I had while battling Tatsuo, my Overlord form made it feel like I was submerged in water.

The only saving grace I had from my understanding being overloaded was that my comprehension appeared to be selective.

Fire magic, obviously, was as easy for me to understand as breathing. And raw magic even seemed to be easier to comprehend on a deeper level, boosting my strength as an Enchanter to the point I could comfortably call myself a High Enchanter even without my demonic state.

But when I tried to look deeper into the light magic I felt on my skin coming through the window of my room, I couldn't get any further insights into its flow. The same situation occurred when I tried to study the water when I stepped into the shower. On the opposite end, darkness magic or shadow magic felt easier to conceptualize even without a previous understanding of it.

This gave me a pretty decent understanding of my limits and strengths. Demons are creatures of the night, and I myself have become a fire demon. So things like fire and night or darkness-based magic will be easier to learn, and it would be safe to say that unholy magic or black magic would be in the same boat.

So if this pattern continued further, I wouldn't have as much an easier time understanding other elements or light and day magic, with holy and white magic being as difficult for me to learn as it would be for everyone else. Assuming I can even learn it in the first place…

But still, that raised ability to feel the underlying ethernano, the raw magic, would give me some advantage at the very least.

My meditation was cut short when I heard Totomaru entering the living room, stopping briefly before muttering a quiet "I worry for the day I get used to that…" and setting my plate and bowl on the bedside table.

A bowl of rice and eggs with a side of sausage, buttered toast, and bacon, a smell yet filling breakfast. It was a shame I only had extra arms and didn't have extra mouths, because as goofy as he can be sometimes Totomaru's a decent cook when it comes to simple things. Can't fry anything to save his life though.

While we were eating we looked through the decent handful of guild requests we took before setting off to complete them. I was holding a set of papers with a subjugation mission and investigation mission, while Totomaru was looking at a map of the nearby mountains.

"So, we can get some meraveru berries on the east side of these mountains, earning a 3,000 reward."

"And investigate the vulcan sightings and the disappearance of the local goblins. 74,000 and 98,000. Any idea why they put so much money into finding these goblins?"

"Yeah. Goblins are intelligent, fuzzy creatures that tend to socialise with merchants and hunters that pass through mountains. Think of them like what would happen if squirrels evolved to have the intelligence of monkeys, even capable of making crude tools and weapons they use to hunt. Travellers usually give them offerings as thanks because they keep things like coyotes and wolves away from the roads, with hunters sometimes relying on the markings they leave in the trees to know which areas are dangerous and which are ripe with game."

"And you think it's possible that the vulcan might be the reason they disappeared, don't you?"

"It's possible," he said as he crossed his arms and looked up from the map towards me, "Those giant apes have been known to use magic, and are even capable of speech. A vulcan probably realized that the tree markings can lead them to food and approached the goblins' territory."

"I see…"

"Alright, we'll set out sometime in the afternoon. The berries should glow in the dark, and they'll be easier to find."

"And then see if we can find any campfires made by either the vulcans or the goblins."

"Yep! I'd say we're getting pretty good at this sort of thing."

As Totomaru got up and took the empty dishes to the kitchen, I decided to bring up a topic that had been on my mind for a while. "You turn eighteen next week, right? Should probably buy a house sometime soon while you have the money."

"I'm waiting on it. One of our clients said that there should be a drop in housing prices near the end of the year."

"The master of the Old Gold trader's guild. She was a real estate expert, right?"

"And a reputable one at that. Heard she helped a large portion of the slaves and refugees rescued from the Bosco civil war settle down here in Fiore before starting the guild."

"What type of home were you thinking of getting?"

"I was going to buy a couple of townhouses right next to each other, see if I could knock down a couple of the walls and combine them into one larger house. Think you could enchant the foundation? Make it sturdy and fireproof?"

"You'd have to buy the lacrima if you want it permanent, but yeah I could. Why fireproof, though?"

"I was thinking of turning the top floors into a training room or a dojo. My old woman used to be a pyromancy teacher, so I might take up after her after a while."

"Are you going to teach the conventional style the captain taught us, or are you going to teach a more utilitarian style?"

He took a moment to think as he fell back onto his bed. "Well, plenty of people who learn fire magic can learn how to increase the output, but it'll be more useful for some wizards to learn how to change the constitution of the flames."

To emphasise his point, he raised his hand towards the sword that was leaning against the wall. A controlled whip of flame reached out and grabbed it by the handle, unsheathing the katana and pulling the blade toward him through the air. The handle was unburned, and he inspected it with practised familiarity without even touching it with his hands.

"True, you yourself don't use it offensively all that much. You just coat yourself in flames and use your Pyrokinesis to strengthen your movements, all the while using your Rainbow Fire to mess with your opponent."

"Exactly. If there's one thing the captain and my mother drilled into my mind, it's that control is just as powerful as strength."

I nodded my head before leaning backwards onto my own bed, shoving the guild request posters back into my backpack. One thing I noticed after my own fire magic got augmented was that the destructive power of my abilities rose but at the cost of control. The effort I needed to reign in the spell's effects increased significantly.

Doing something as simple as lifting something without burning it became a decent challenge.

When we heard someone knock on the door I instinctively used transformation magic, my form changing to that of a human as a plume of magic smoke puffed around me.

"Did you order room service?" I asked the boy as he stood up.

"No. Wonder who it could be…"

When the door opened we were met with a face we had only seen once before. Phantom Lord's guild master, Jose Porla. His hair was tied back and he was wearing a blue jacket, his lips were painted black with some sort of makeup and twisted into a pretty fucking creepy smile.

"Totomaru, right? Is Lyssa Wisteria here?"

His voice was hushed, but not quiet enough to be a whisper. Totomaru was hesitant to answer but nodded in answer before letting the guild master through. My travelling companion shot me a look that screamed "What the fuck did you do!?" while I gave him one that screamed "I don't know!"

The man who appeared to be in his mid-thirties sat down in a chair in the small living room, prompting me to sit on the couch opposite of him. Doing so, I watched as he steepled his fingers and took up a business-like facial expression. This somewhat eased my concerns, as business is a field I feel comfortable in.

"Had I known two of my guild's wizards were staying in Clover Town at the same time as I, I would have let the two of you stay inside my own apartment. Such small accommodations are unfit for my Phantoms."

"It's not like we required something fancy anyway, Master Jose. Our current set of jobs are taking us into the mountains for at least a day and night, and then we were going to immediately set off to our next job upon completing them. But something tells me those plans are going to have to change, aren't they?"

Smiling, the guild master nodded. "That they may. Word has gotten around about how hard-working the two of you are, so much so that they've reached me. Apparently, the two of you have even taken down not just one but two dark guilds by yourselves in the past month alone. I'm impressed, so much so that I want to see for myself just how accurate these rumours and the score you received at entry were."

His phrasing solidified the fact that he was here for just me and that his question earlier wasn't him making sure that both of us were present. I'm young and have sizeable magic power to boot, so it was inevitable for me to draw attention. I just didn't expect a Wizard Saint of all people to become curious.

"Alright then, so is it a spar or something you want? Or do you want me to take on a job request?"

"Both, actually. You see, recently a guild called Fairy Tail has slowly been growing in power, and their guild master and I got into an argument last night. To both remind these Fairies that Phantom Lord is the strongest guild for a reason and prevent a guild war the two of us agreed to have wizards of matching age and potential fight each other."

"I see, so, who is my opponent and more importantly what is the reward?"

"500,000 J."

"Oh don't bullshit me, Jose," I said instantly, causing the man to raise an eyebrow. "The reward should equal how much you care about your reputation. After all, that's what is on the line. I couldn't care less about Phantom Lord's rep so I most certainly am not doing this out of the kindness of my heart. 2,000,000 J minimum."

The look of reluctance on Jose's face proved to me I had made the right choice. A man like him is easy to read once you know the signs.

When considering the average, he became a Wizard Saint at a fairly young age, his late twenties to be exact. And unlike most of the Saints that you see in the papers pretty frequently, he didn't become one based on merit with the populace, meaning he earned the position through power alone.

Then there's the fact that he's the master of the largest guilds in the country and the disdain he seemed to hold towards the idea of Fairy Tail becoming powerful as well, meaning he cares about his position and name as being a man of power and doesn't want someone to try and take that from him.

My personal respect for Fairy Tail and its master was also high due to Grandpa Rob's stories, so if there was a chance I was going to sully their reputation I wasn't going to do it for cheap. And while Jewel is a good reward, it's limited in use for a wizard. I planned to milk the extremely powerful wizard in front of me for the thing I wanted most, and this was too perfect of a chance to pass up.

"1,000,000 J."

"Don't insult me. You want your precious status quo maintained and you want me to be your vessel for it."

"And yet you, a mere child, are trying to steal more money than what this task is worth."

"But what about the long-term profits this could bring in depending on how public the event ends up becoming? Totomaru and I already have made more than 2,000,000 J in the short time we've been here in your guild so that much money isn't worth much in my eyes. I could probably buy one of the twelve Zodiac keys and feel no dents in my wallet."

The guild master didn't seem to be willing to budge, prompting me to give in a little as I started to announce what my actual want was.

"Fine then, 1,000,000 J and unrestricted access to Phantom Lord's entire spell library."

"500,000 J and unrestricted access to the entire spell library."

"No money, and unrestricted access to both the entire spell library and your own personal library."

Jose raised an eyebrow at that, before releasing a small chuckle that I matched with a smile.

"Clever girl. Sure, you can take a look at my collection whenever you want but don't come crying to me whenever you struggle to understand a damn thing in them."

"Oh, I wouldn't be willing to read such complicated material if I didn't have the desire to understand every book in there. You aren't the only one who wants power, after all. I just don't care about the fame it brings."

The Wizard Saint looked at me in scrutiny before standing up.

"The fight is at 9 o'clock tonight behind the Guild Masters' Hall. You'll be fighting a Satan Soul wizard, so prepare accordingly. I expect you to win, or at the very least get a draw so long as the girl ends up more injured than you in the end."

The door to our room clicked into place as he left, leaving me with a concerned Totomaru.

"What have you gotten into, Lyssa?"

"Hopefully something fun," I answered with a smile. 'Satan Soul, huh? This…could get dangerous.'