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CHAPTER START---
"—Home of the Blue Pegasus Guild!"
The tail end of the train announcement along with the loud whistle startles Oberon awake. He slowly stretches and sits up on the luxurious cushioned seat of his private cabin, rubbing his eyes in an attempt to wake up before pulling the curtains aside.
Through the window he sees a bustling town, nearly twice the size of Magnolia with colorful lights on all the buildings. The full moon hangs in the sky above as people walk through the streets, partaking in what appears to be an ongoing festival.
"This place looks…loud," Oberon mutters, eyes wide and drinking in every detail before he gathers his things and exits the train.
He wastes no time in flying above the crowd, garnering some attention and ignoring the snapping and flashing of Kameras below while he climbs higher. Stopping at a height far above the town, he notices that the buildings don't go above three stories, but are much wider and longer than in Magnolia.
And behind many of them, with the help of his Telescopic Lens, he can see occupied hot springs.
"Sorry," he mutters, immediately deactivating his Spell after realizing he invaded the occupants privacy. "I should just head to Blue Pegasus. Master Makarov said it'd be impossible to—"
He spots a colorful castle like building at the edge of town, with what appears to be a large block party in front of it. There are draped wired lights hanging between the buildings and spotlights aiming at the sky, shining in a kaleidoscope of colors, along with music so loud he could hear it from the sky above.
"This must be their Phantasia Parade!" Oberon descends to the Blue Pegasus Guildhall, seeing the Guild Emblem on the front of the building as he gets closer. "They sure are flashy."
As he's flying toward the building, he notices that the walled off property of the guildhall doesn't have any partying on the grass, nor are the gates open. The party is entirely contained beyond the property, but there are people walking in and out, ferrying supplies to the nearby booths and stalls to keep the food and drinks flowing.
Oberon ignores the tantalizing scent of delicious food and descends to the crowd, hovering above one of the tables organzing supplies moving out of the guildhall.
"Wow, flying kid!" Says a beautiful young woman with the Blue Pegasus Guildmark on her shoulder, wearing a rather revealing but elegant pink dress while tracking their inventory on her clipboard. She looks up at Oberon with amazement for a moment before snapping back to her professional self. "Oberon Alkwan, Master Bob is expecting you, but I need to verify your Guildmark."
"Sure thing," he pulls up the sleeve of his right arm, revealing the black Guildmark on his inner right forearm. "Are you guys having a festival or something?"
"Something like that. It's just a little thing our town has once a year, it'll last for a few more days after this one."
"That's..a lot."
The woman laughs while directing some of her guildmates with hand signals. "We're the only guild that parties harder than Fairy Tail, and that's for a pretty good reason. Although unlike you, we don't actually do the partying ourselves. You can head in now."
"Thank you. And yeah, I always wondered what being a hostess guild meant, pretty cool…"
Two well-dressed and handsome men open the main doors for Oberon to enter the building, and he immediately floats to the side, avoiding a group of people carrying kegs of beer and full coolers to the front lines.
The main hall of the building reminds Oberon of the high-class lounges and restaurants he'd meet clients at, but today it was filled with cases and bottles, ready for deployment outside. At the far end of the hall is a glamorous bar with a short, portly, bald man behind the counter.
"Master Bob?" Oberon asks while floating over to the bar.
The man looks up from his paperwork and takes a moment to process what he's seeing. But recognizes not only Oberon from his many pictures in Sorcerer Weekly Magazine, but the coat he's wearing.
'Just like Maki's from when he became S-Class. I wonder if he's making that a tradition now. Don't think Gildarts got one, but that's probably for the best anyway.'
"Hi, it's nice to meet you," Oberon says.
"It always is, Oberon. Have a seat, want a drink?"
Oberon sits in one of the bar cushioned barstools and leans against the counter. "I'm ten."
Master Bob gives him a bored look. "I meant juice. Maybe tea, well?"
"Soda?"
"Fresh apple juice, coming right up," Master Bob prepares the drink. "So, what did Maki tell you about me?"
"He said you're a good leader, and that even though you like wearing dresses I should remember that you're a man."
"All true. So, you're S-Class now. I never made it that far. Did he ever tell you why I left?" Master Bob places the glass of apple juice in front of Oberon and hands the boy a straw. "I was the last member of Team Makarov to leave Fairy Tail after all."
"Yeah. He mentioned that after one of your friends, Rob, disappeared, the team fell apart. One of you joined the Magic Council."
"Yajima."
"Goldmine went off to found the Quatro Cerberus Wizard Guild down south. Lady Porlyusica still lives in the woods."
"She still cranky?"
"She was always like this?"
"She's gotten soft in her old age I hear."
"Wow. It must have been really hard being on a team with her."
"Not at all. She may have always been a bitter old maid even when we were kids, but its mostly because she cares too much. But the other left Fairy Tail when Rob disappeared, but I stayed until just a few years ago. Did he mention why?"
"He said you just wanted to try something new."
Master Bob nods. 'So the boy is S-Class but Makarov didn't tell him we had that little falling out because Gildarts and I wanted to simply kill Ivan for what he did, I suppose that's for the best…'
"Was it something else?" Oberon asks.
"Nope," Master Bob uses his Phasing Magic to walk through the bar beside Oberon and steps onto the open floor. Oberon's eyes go wide at the display, before a concerned look forms on his face at the full sight of the short, portly, bald man wearing a light blue strapless dress. Master Bob does a spin and then gestures to the large guildhall. "Don't you think I shine much brighter in my own guild?!"
"...."
A tense silence falls between them as Oberon sips his apple juice.
Master Bob gives Oberon a slightly annoyed look. "Don't you know that's the signal to compliant someone?"
"Oh, uh, you look—"
"Save it, the moment is gone," Master Bob walks over to the bar and sits beside Oberon, turning to face him. "So, will you be going to join the party outside, or would you rather rest and start training in the morning."
"Can we start right now?"
"Now? Why the rush. He said you were obsessed with Ma—" Master Bob's words fail as Oberon holds out the sealed letter. "Damn, an emergency letter from Maki of all people."
He takes the letter and quickly scans the contents, then with a snap of his fingers summons Purple Flare Magic to incinerate it.
"Macao's Magic," Oberon mutters, causing Master Bob to chuckle.
"Who do you think taught him that?"
Oberon smiles and forms a small purple flame in his hand before snuffing it out.
"Ohhh. Seems like I've already been teaching you before we even met. But we should head into the library to discuss what I just read."
"Library?!"
Within moments they're sitting in a luxurious but small library. Much to Oberon's disappointment, at a glance the shelves only host books about food, drinks, and trade-goods. Not a single Grimoire in sight.
"Disappointed?" Master Bob asks as Oberon stops flying about the shelves and takes a seat opposite him. "Hardly anyone is ever in here. Blue Pegasus is a Wizard Guild, but we're also a hostess guild. We specialize in hosting and coordinating, along with managing tasks and businesses.
Unlike Fairy Tail we make a lot of money without even having to take a single Job, and any Jobs we do take are mostly for fun. This is why we don't have a Ace, but a Top Coordinator."
"I've read about him. Ichiya Vandalay Kotobuki. He's considering your general, right?"
"Oh yes, and right now he's on the front lines coordinating our members across the entire town. He's not as strong as you, but in regards to gathering and organizing people, he's second to none. That's why Blue Pegasus climbs the ranks so quickly, and why I'm head of the East Fiore Wizard Guils Alliance. Even with Wizard Saints Jose and Makarov in the mix. Ichiya and I are trusted above all to organize people and remain fair. And part of that is with the help of the Magic I'll be teaching you."
"Archive Magic."
"Exactly. Now, what do you know about it?"
"It lets me remember things better," Oberon says excitedly.
"That's quite the understatement," Master Bob waves his hand, and a solid light screen appears between them, showing the letter from earlier as if he took a picture of it in his hands, fingers and all in the frame.
"Wow, is that—"
"Perfect recall, assuming you spend the Magic Energy to save the information, and have the time to process it. This Magic has a few requirements. Your mind needs to be naturally sharp, you must have enough Magic Energy to store and maintain the information within your Archive Magic, and you must be able to process complex thoughts in order to learn the Magic itself."
"That's super easy, well, the Magic Energy part at least."
"Good. After learning this Magic you will be able to store anything you sense in any way, along with scanning information and converting it into Magic Energy for storage and use later on. You'll also instinctively be able to find exactly what you're looking for within the Archive at any time.
This Magic can also function to link people over a decent range depending on the user and telepathically communicate or transfer raw information into their minds. That way you can easily coordinate large groups with a thought. And at the highest levels, you can even share vision and senses with others."
Oberon frowns. "My Magic may get in the way of some of those features. But I'll be able to remember and store information, so that's already super great by itself."
"What do you mean by that?"
After a few minutes of explaining to Master Bob how his Magic Energy properties hinder him, the man sighs and leans against the table.
"I see, Makarov couldn't learn this Magic because he simply wasn't good at it, but for you, even if you do learn it, connecting with others would be impossible."
"Sorry," he mutters.
"It's nothing to be sorry about, and as you teacher I'll keep this between us."
"Can you just transfer the Magic into my brain so I instantly learn it?"
"No. At most I could transfer a Light Magic Spell into your brain, but you'd lose it just as quickly, not to mention the pain you'd endure. Each person's body and mind interpret Magic differently. If I copied how mine uses Archive it wouldn't hurt you, but the feedback would fry my brain.
However, since you do already know Light Magic, I could transfer the knowledge of a Light Magic Spell to you, but that would hurt you and only be temporary. So no, I can't instantly teach you new Magic."
"Awe, that would have been really useful."
"Mhm, but I can quickly check your affinity," Master Bob says. "Archive depends more on Magic Energy volume and the natural processing power of the brain than anything else, so we could quickly get past that right now. Lower your Cosmic Barrier so we can connect."
"Alright," Oberon opens himself up as Master Bob places a hand on his head, activating his Archive Magic. "Ready?"
"Ready."
Oberon takes a calming breath and allows some of his Magic Energy to seep out, just enough for Master Bob to use the opening and let their Magics perform a handshake, gleaming Oberon's mind and Magic Energy.
It lasts for less than three seconds, during which the entire room shakes as if a storm erupted in the midst of it. Books fall off the shelves and the glass windows shatter as Master Bob suddenly finds himself standing amidst a cosmic space.
In front of him is Oberon, and the man still has his hand on the boy's head. But around them is the boundless cosmic, a void of darkness littered with shining white stars in the distance, along with a cloud of similar stars shrouding Oberon.
Master Bob immediately retracts his hand, and Oberon seals himself off from the world once more.
"Wow, sorry about the mess," Oberon says as he looks around.
"Oh don't worry about that. I simply didn't expect you to have that much Magic Energy, you're quite impressive."
Oberon giggles shyly. "So what do you think. Can I learn Archive Magic?"
"Even better. I think you can learn the advanced Super Archive Magic. Even I can't handle that one. But it's effectively a more efficient and comprehensive version of mine, along with a interface that's a lot easier to modify to your preferences."
Oberon's eyes widen in excitement as Master Bob Requips a large Grimoire onto his hand, placing it on the table. "Yes!" He immediately reaches for the Grimoire and starts reading.
"Well now, I'll have someone bring you refreshments so you don't have to stop your studying. If you're anything like Makarov I doubt you'll be getting any sleep."
"I slept on the train," Oberon says without looking away from the book.
Master Bob gives a nostalgic smile, reminiscing about the days studying at Fairy Tail with his friends. "I'll leave you to it then…" he gets up and calmly leaves the library, but the moment the door clicks shut behind the man he leans against the hallway wall.
'Ichiya, to me!' Master Bob barely gets his Telepathic message out before collapsing to his knees, bleeding from his eyes, nose, and ears as he weakly crumples to the ground.
'That boy…his Magic Energy tore mine away in some sort of tug-of-war. What a little monster…' he thinks before blacking out in the hallway.
CHAPTER END---
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pat.reon: Keanu_Eugene [Read ahead & support me]
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