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Of Aura and Ethernano (Fairy Tail/ Jaune Arc SI): Chapter 14
🕑 Added 2025-06-16 09:14:05 +0000 UTCAs we flew through the air on top of Juniper, the siblings slept soundly with their bodies tied to the saddle with a belt that I bought during our last stop in Oshibana.
Unfortunately, since Mirajane had yet to master her magic, despite her best efforts to control it and my best efforts to find a solution on my own, she still had to wear a hood and gloves that I bought for her to hide her demonic features. Something that she refused to take off even when in the safety of her siblings and me, since she felt ashamed of her features, believing that they made her look like a monster.
Truthfully speaking, I understood where she was coming from, but I still felt it was a stupid way of looking at things. Then again, it is my own opinion, and it might not go well if I try to forcefully make her change her mind.
Emotions, Trauma in particular, is a very delicate thing to cure, and brute forcing things like those might make the issue even worse (I would know, I’ve tried it once during my stay in the Ever After.)
Fortunately, the three days that this detour added to our journey were well spent and gave her and her siblings a bit of reprieve from their dark times.
For Mirajane and her siblings, it was three days of looking at what a major town like Oshibana looked like. It felt good, watching as the siblings took in the sights and acted their age for once, although Mirajane refrained from doing much because of her condition and her fear of being exposed.
For me, it was three days of secret investigation into Cait Shelter and its members. After the siblings would go to sleep in our inn, I would travel to the local taverns or bars and subtly investigate the guild, trying to see if I could pick up on anything unusual.
What I found out painted a rather pleasant picture. A picture-perfect guild with friendly mages who took up even the most minor of requests and always completed them in time.
However, this picture was way too clean, something that rubbed me the wrong way. A feeling that was further amplified when I saw one of the guild’s members in one of the taverns.
A man named Magna. A man who had no soul.
My Aura sonar pulsed right past him, as if he did not exist in reality. The only time something like this happened was during my time in the Ever After when I fought against the Cat who was controlling Neo’s body and evolved Semblance.
Of course, this being a world of magic, I cannot dismiss the possibility that this man uses some kind of magic that protects his soul from being detected by my sonar. And yet, I could not put aside the bad feeling I got.
Putting aside that anomaly, what I saw did prove that the rumors were true and that this Magna person, at least, was a very friendly and humble mage. Someone who completed the quest of killing a Vulcan pack for their hide and returned to claim their reward.
Despite the fact that I could feel no magic energy from him.
Granted, he was sitting a few tables over at that time, so maybe the distance stopped me from sensing his power (which is ridiculous since someone powerful enough to take on a Vulcan pack in a straight fight would be emitting significant Magical Pressure even if their control over their power is monstrous).
Anomalous. That is the only word I can use to describe the man called Magna. This led me to shift my investigations from the guild itself to its members and their interaction with other mages.
I need multiple interactions with different people to paint a clearer picture of what I am dealing with.
Unfortunately, the documents would take time to arrive from the Knights Order, given the distance, so I gave up on that avenue of investigation.
Since we are so close to the guild proper, I might as well investigate things on my own.
Suddenly, I felt a burst of magic energy from below us, making me peer down to take a look with my boosted eyes.
It was fortunate that I did because what I saw made me panic quite a bit.
A little girl (seriously! She couldn’t be older than 6 years old!) and a strange white cat were wandering through the dark forest below us.
But that was not what made me panic. No, it was the rather large group of Hodras heading straight for the girl and the cat.
Given their movement, it might have been a migratory movement on the monsters' part, and this girl happened to be just unlucky enough to fall within their path while doing whatever she was doing out here (What the hell is up with this world? Why are there so many unattended children wandering the world alone like this?)
“Juniper! Dive!”
My baby girl caught onto what I was trying to do as she too saw the Hodras, her naturally superior eyesight allowing her to see what I needed boosted eyes to see.
Instantly, she nosedived, jolting the siblings awake and making them scream in panic.
Fuck! I forgot about that! Should have warned them. Thankfully, they are still secured to Juniper’s saddle with magical ropes, so they won’t be in any danger of falling over.
Just when we were a mere few feet above the tree tops, Juniper straightened out and glided towards the girl below.
My enhanced ears picked up a frightened scream from below, probably the little girl, as I jumped out of my saddle, allowing Juniper to continue gliding toward the herd of Hodras. Since I did not give her any particular order, I think she intends to snack on the leader of the pack to make a point and force the beasts towards another part.
The moment I landed in front of the girl, I instantly realized that I may have been a bit too hasty.
Standing a few feet behind the girl was an old man who was looking at me with a grim expression.
…..Actually, why did I not see the man from above?
Shaking my head to get rid of those thoughts, I turned back to the girl, the old man, and the cat.
Given that I felt very small quantities of magic from the girl and even smaller quantities of magic energy from the cat (the old man had next to no magical energy so he doesn’t count) there is a high chance that even with an adult accompanying her, they might not have stood a chance against a single fully grown Hodra, much less a hoard of them.
I turned towards the old man with a light glare, ignoring the frightened girl and hissing, deformed cat (seriously, why is it standing on two legs? And wearing a dress at that? Magic be weird, I swear).
“Excuse me, Mister. But I would like to advise you three return home quickly. I don’t know if you are aware or not, but there is a horde of Hodras headed right this way, and you are standing right in their path.”
I wanted to say a lot more, specifically, a lot of choice words about child responsibility and making sure to check for danger before taking your children into the fucking forest in the middle of the fucking night!
But I held my tongue since it was not my place to do that. Not to mention the child was still there, and it would not do to insult her parental figure in front of her.
The tight expression on the old man’s face significantly warmed at my words before his posture relaxed a little.
A valid response given that bandits, both mundane and magical, are known to roam the woods and target weak-looking people (one more reason why you should not go for a stroll in the middle of the night in the depths of a forest! Old man!)
“….I see. I thank you for your advice and intent. Although it might not have been necessary.”
“Yeah! We don’t need a rude man like you to suddenly drop out of the sky and tell us what to do in our own forest!”
For a few seconds, I couldn’t help but feel dumbfounded.
This is not the first time I’ve run into a talking cat, but the last time it happened was an expected encounter (Ever After and its strangeness guaranteed such an encounter, not to mention that the story of Alice was my childhood favorite, with the Cat playing a significant role in the story, so I knew about their existence beforehand). But I did not expect to run into another one in this world.
In hindsight, I should have expected something like this. This is a world of magic after all. But still, it is quite a shock to the system.
Not to mention how arrogant the little kitten is when she opens her mouth.
“C-Carla! D-don’t be so rude-“
“Wendy! Don’t stop me from teaching this rude boy some manners-”
The old man smiled fondly as he watched the child called Wendy and the cat called Carla bicker, an expression that I was very familiar with.
It was something that I used to see on my face whenever I caught my reflection while travelling with Lewis and Alex in the Ever After.
Before I could say anything, Juniper flew back to me with a Hodra carcass in her mouth, which looked quite comical since the beast in question was larger than my girl, showing how strong she was to not only kill the beast but also carry it effortlessly to me as a kind of offering.
I smiled as she landed and cooed as I ran my hands over her scales.
“Good work, Juniper-“
“WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT??”
“A LITTLE WARNING WOULD BE NICE NEXT TIME!!”
I looked over to see Mirajane and Lisanna glare furiously at me while Elfman nodded frantically at his siblings’ words while clutching the saddle in a death grip. Not a fan of high-speed hunts, I take it?
I chuckled at those words before apologizing for the oversight on my part.
“Sorry. I just saw these three were in the path of that horde and panicked a little.”
At my words, the siblings finally stopped glaring at me and turned to look at the trio behind me.
True to her nature, it only took a second before Lisanna was on the little girl and the cat, catching them in a bear hug, much to the protest of said cat.
“Hey! Let go of me, you gorilla-“
“HOW CUTE!!”
“Lisanna! Stop that-“
“But Mira-nee! They are so cute!”
I just watched the chaos unfold with exasperation.
Suddenly, a hearty laughter resounded in the clearing as the old man smiled at us.
“It would seem that you really did not have any ulterior motives with what you did. In which case, I shall give you our gratitude for your help.”
At his words, I could not help but nod wordlessly since I could not do anything else.
Because the moment the old man started speaking and truly stopped being wary of us, I felt his magical energy spike and reveal a monstrous depth that I had never felt before.
Not even Dawn has that kind of magical energy reserves, and he is considered equivalent to an S-rank mage at least.
The old man bowed.
“I am Roubaul. The guild master of Cait Shelter, and these are the newest members of our guild, Wendy Marvell and Carla.”
“H-Hello!”
“Hmph!”
Wendy shyly bowed before hiding behind Roubaul, while Carla simply turned her head into the air haughtily.
……Well, I guess that is one way to meet my target of investigation.
“…Greetings. I am Jaune Arc. These are Mirajane Strauss, Elfman Strauss, and Lisanna Strauss.”
The old man raised an eyebrow at my name.
“Jaune Arc? Your reputation precedes you, young man. Come, let us express our gratitude for your help properly.”
…..Fuck! What kind of reputation is this man talking about?
With trepidation and shock still within my heart, I slowly led the siblings and Juniper towards Caith Shelter.
Looks like my previous plan is a complete bust. Time to wing it! As usual.
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Roubaul:
Wendy Marvell (6-year-old):
Carla (Kitten):
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bone lord
Jaune arc collecting strays left and right
