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Hargeon Port City.
It was a popular trade centre for the country of Fiore with thriving fishing, produce, culinary, and magic artifice markets.
Although many won't say it, one of the main contributions to the bustling commerce was the illegal dealings sponsored by many pirate and navy guilds.
Not all of these dealings occur inside rundown buildings, some take place inside well-furnished hotels and offices, others hidden in plain sight, and a fairly popular one doesn't involve the art of trade in any way.
In fact, it is often used as a front for more illegal operations than it.
Underneath the Silent Sirens tavern, you could find an arena almost always filled with VIPs in booths, the average citizens in the rafters and stage-side stands, and the fighters themselves sprinkled within every corner of the illegal fighting ring.
Within the centre of everything was a crude rectangular stage that turned into an angle on both sides with a flat middle. Blood, dried and fresh, could be seen splattered across the formerly white stage that had been stained with dirt.
On that stage, a young girl with white hair and a black dog mask could be seen sitting on a grown man's back. Pain could be seen evidently in his eyes through the mummy bandages he wore as a mask as she pulled his arms further and further behind him, however, no one was going to help him.
"Come on~! Scream for mercy~!"
"Please just let me go!"
"Ooooh~! That's the stuff~!"
While the man was in pain, the girl and the crowd were all clearly enjoying themselves at his expense. Half of them had bet on the man whose biceps were as big as her head and who stood twice as tall as she did, while the other half bet on the pre-teen girl purely for the sake of a joke but are now expecting a heavy payday.
The referee seeing that the man wasn't going to win decided to end the fight formally, going over to the girl and raising her arm above her head.
"The winner is the newcomer, The Devil Dog!"
Cheers erupted and were equally met with outrage, however, the girl didn't care in the slightest as she enjoyed the feeling of kicking the man while he was still down. The girl with the monicker of Devil Dog had to be forcefully escorted out of the stage as the other fighter was left to limp to safety, his fate unknown, though I don't doubt he might catch a blade in between the ribs later.
This was, after all, a fully-fledged blood sport.
The girl with the dog mask sat down excitedly in the seat across from me in our private booth, which sat in the rafters, giving me a view from over the arena. She hurriedly took off the disguise to reveal an excited smile.
"Oh, Lyssa! You should have shown me this place sooner! Getting grown men to cry so easily is the best Christmas gift ever! And I get paid for it!"
"Ehe~ Well, you only had your second fight. Get some notoriety and people will want to see you eat dirt and pay a heavy price for it. Rig the fight and you can get their money and win as well. And trust me, cheating is encouraged here."
"I can imagine."
"So, tell me how you lost in the promotion trials? Who was the winner?"
"There wasn't one," Mirajane said, "But that doesn't mean I lost. None of us proved adequate in the trial, and so instead of allowing someone like me or Erza or Cana to get ourselves killed, he declared no one the winner.."
"Hmm," I nodded in agreement as I tried to ignore the rising worry of seeing Erza's grave before I met her again. Don't get me wrong, I don't want to see Mira in a grave either, but every time Mira and I met up there was this small weight of anxiety bundled with excitement that I'd meet Erza again.
I've even contemplated going to Fairy Hills, Fairy Tail's all-girl dorm, and meet up with her myself while I could prepare what I would say ahead of time. But like every other time I tried to enter a social interaction, I'd get flustered and walk away before I could commit.
There was a reason I stayed in the library most of the time. When I left the house it was because I had no intention of staying out longer than needed to, went to magic shops where I was fully comfortable, or had someone else with me whose hand I usually held.
I am and will likely stay a social mess…
This place is one of the few locations I don't mind going to on my own, and I stumbled upon it entirely by accident.
"Well, I did say there wasn't any real reason to take such dangerous missions frequently at our age," I replied as I sipped my coffee.
The sound of a bell chimed signalling a broker-agent coming in to give us our cut of the profits. The curtain to our booth parted to reveal a well-dressed man holding a briefcase with our money. My briefcase, specifically, since I don't wholly trust these people.
"Here you go, ladies. Here is your cu-"
His sentence was cut off as his demeanour shifted from calm and cordial to outright terrified, his eyes locked onto the large black cobra with a star pattern on its scales wrapped around my shoulders.
"S-s-s-...S-s-sn…"
"Snake?"
"SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!"
Mira and I cackled with laughter as the man ran out of the booth screaming after throwing the briefcase onto the table.
"Ah, that'll never get old. Good job, girl…" I said as I rubbed the chin of the starry cobra. Taking the black box, I opened it up to begin counting Mira's earnings from the day. It was only hers, as I hadn't opted into fighting at all today.
I could feel her staring at me the entire time I was counting, her eyes roaming over my body in what I could only guess was an attempt to study my body language.
At least that's what I would be doing.
"Where did you get her?"
"Hmm?"
"Your snake, she's not like anything I've seen before."
I smiled as I followed her gaze to the starry snake who was wrapped around my arm, trying to help me count the money. To answer her question, I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small, dark satchel.
The leather pouch was made in a box shape with a folding lid, similar to a cigarette case. It was dark brown but had silver stars patterned around the bottom that got thinner in concentration the further up it got.
Opening up the pouch showed five silver keys each shaped to have a snake head instead of the standard key bit.
"Celestial Spirit keys?"
"Yep."
"So, are you planning to become a celestial wizard now?"
"No. Collecting keys would take up too much of my attention if I did, but snake spirits are among the most useful for the purposes I need."
"And that is?"
"Support. The Serpens spirits, in particular, can help heal those they wrap themselves around, with a particular aptitude for healing poisons, infections, and disease. Since I tend to take the position as the defacto medic when I'm on a team, it is good for me to have more avenues to heal, and I can't heal poison."
"I see, but I would have guessed you would be a frontline fighter. Not a support."
"That's only if I have no other option or am on my own. Having a team built to cover as many different roles as possible is key to success, and my enchanting and healing flames are the best-suited magic to supplying the support role in most situations."
"So you can be a striker if you need to be, but plenty of people can already cover that role."
"Bingo."
"But why'd you get five keys? That just means more contracts, doesn't it?"
"Because snakes are cool," I said earning a happy hiss in agreement.
"Alright, well, what's her name?"
"Iasco. Her sisters are Hygieia, Aceso, Aegle, and Panacea."
"Wait, are they genuinely sisters or…?"
"Maybe. Other than the twelve Zodiacs, most of the eighty-eight heavenly bodies have more than just one individual spirit and are quantified as a separate race. Celestial spirits do have an entirely separate dimension they live in, after all. But since these five beauties got along so well when I first made their contracts, I just sorta viewed them as sisters."
"So… what are contracts all about, exactly?"
"When you summon a celestial spirit you have to make a contract that both parties must uphold. They're usually lenient, however. For instance, my contract with all of them is that I can't summon them on weekends."
"Huh, interesting…"
The three of us just sat there in companionable silence as I finished up counting the money, occasionally rubbing Iasco's little chin much to her delight. Mira had passed the time watching the fights as they had happened, visibly reacting in disgust to the more brutal displays of violence.
There were often deaths in these underground fights, so I hope she learns to take caution if she keeps participating. I told her I'd show her how I earn fast money, not that I'd force her to stay.
"Hey," Mira's voice drew my attention, her tone notably softer than usual.
"Hm? Everything okay?"
"Yeah, just…do you think Iasco would mind if I tried to pet her?"
"No, not at all. Judging by her reactions, she'd most definitely enjoy it."
The celestial spirit squinted in pleasure as Mira rubbed her chin and hissed in encouragement.
"So, other than the promotion trials, has anything noteworthy happened for you? Solve the problem with Satan Soul?"
"Sigh, yes and no. Transforming still drains half of my magic reserves, meaning I can only transform once for any long periods if I plan to use magic in any capacity."
"You could always-"
"No," she said vehemently, "That little "training schedule" of yours would kill someone on the first day."
"I…fine…"
I was a little dejected the first time she denied training with me regularly, but I kind of expected it. Juvia did, too, or more accurately Totomaru denied her training with me on her behalf.
Still, I was looking forward to spending more time with the blue-eyed tomboy, and outings like today have sort of become excuses where I can get those opportunities.
"But we have started to save up to buy a house, and the master said that we can put it under his name for now and that he'd transfer ownership to me when I turn sixteen."
"So you three can have a place to call your own in two years. Not many of us orphans can say otherwise…"
"Yeah, and this will be the first step towards a downpayment. Just can't tell Lisanna and Elf about how I got it…"
I followed her gaze towards the fighting pit where a young boy with iron-like skin and spiky black hair was pummeling someone's face into an unrecognizable mess, both of them long having ditched their masks. The crowd was frenetic over the display, joyously gorging on the gory display without even caring about whether or not the poor sod would survive.
Sickened by my quiet comfort towards the scene, I decided instead to stare into the cup of coffee in my hands. I tried to imagine the various scars that I've healed, the numerous lives I've taken for monetary incentive, but all I could do was sigh and close my eyes before I could let the memories of each and every face flash through my mind.
"We all do things we aren't proud of to take care of those we love…"
—
Deep within the mountains on the border to Bosco and Fiore, a battle between titans had come to a close.
The environment was torn asunder, with the forest being flattened while cracks and giant slash marks made it seem as if the gods themselves sliced the mountains from the heavens.
In the centre of it all one man sat on a boulder, cleaning the blood off of his spear. A few metres in front of him a large green beast attempted to take a step forward, but ultimately fell to to the floor in a bloody mess. It glowed briefly, before shrinking to reveal a small, middle-aged man.
"Ultimate Destruction Incarnate," spoke the gruff man with a spear, whose body was completely unsullied save for a few patches of dirt on his boots. "When I had encouraged you to learn that spell, I had expected you to become a challenge for me. A fun kill. But you continue to disappoint me, Wolfheim."
"Dammit," Wolfheim managed to choke out, "You won't…live…to regret this! Bastard!"
"Tsk."
With a flash of movement, the man appeared next to the wizard bleeding onto the ruined forest floor and bashed his head with the but of his armament. "Silence. Is that any way to speak to your master?"
"You were never…my master!"
"Oh, but that's where you're wrong. That's where you, Brain, and Hades have always been wrong. At our roots, all humans are beasts. And unlike every single one of you, I'm the only one qualified to properly tame the savages of this world. They just have to follow in your footsteps, reveal their inner monster, and eventually, they will all kneel."
"I…would rather…die!"
"Oh, but I can't let you do that." As he spoke he pulled out a knife and began to carve into the nape of the smaller man below him an image that would follow him for the rest of his life. "After all, what sort of master would I be if I didn't take proper care of my pets?"
He stood up, revealing the image of a beast's claw dripping with blood gouged into his neck, a mark similar to the one he wore on his chest. The man looked at the Wizard Saint at his feet and smiled, his raspy voice feeling like a vice grip on the small man's existence.
"Welcome back to Beestenbloed, little brother."
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