Taking advantage of his height, the youth looked down at Noah with eyes that are getting even more vicious by the second making the air heavier and heavier with tension.
“Long time no see…”
“Since I’ve lived in Fairy Tail for a whole year, that’s about how long we haven’t seen each other yes?”
He nodded calmly.
“Brother, you haven’t changed.”
“Don’t joke with me, I am stronger than ever before, much stronger than the me in the past!”
He released his arm cross and leaned down drawing his face close to Noah’s ear as he chuckled with a low tone at him.
“And you on the other hand is the one that has not changed, boasting magic power that can shock the old man, and yet because of his one sentence you didn’t dare to learn magic, your progress is weak, coward!”
“Oh?”
Noah’s not even mad, he just gave him a smirk.
“You want me to learn magic?”
Once his sound fell, Laxus stretched out his hand and grabbed him by the neck while lifting Noah close to him.
Erza can’t help jutting her eyebrows.
Erza may not be a social person not even with the guild members but that didn’t mean she would stand by without doing anything when an internal conflict occurs.
That’s how much she cares though, she doesn’t have any intention to intervene for the time being, she remained silent by the side.
He’s giving off a dangerous vibe, it may feel like he may attack at any time but she couldn’t feel any real animosity from him.
The main point is that Noah who’s getting manhandled isn’t riled up as if he’s not even considering the possibility that he might hit him. Compared to Erza, he’s even more collected.
“The thing I hate the most about you is how level headed you are no matter the situation!”
Laxus nonchalantly continued after wiping that grin off his face.
“I just want to tell you that even if you were adopted from lord knows what place, since you’re my little bro I won’t tolerate weakness in you, you hear?”
Picked from lord knows what place?
Overhearing what Laxus said, Erza set her eyes on Noah once more with complicated feelings.
I see, so he’s an orphan just like me…
Oblivious to the minor changed in attitude towards him in Erza, Noah snickered at him.
“You say it as though you’re a strong one, but compared to Gramps you’re far out!”
Laxus’s face had a bit of hesitation before he obstinately smiled.
“That is temporary, one day, I will trample the gramps!”
“What’s more…”
He manically laughed.
“Even now, I could kill you with just one hand, my little brother…”
Leaving this line, he released Noah like he’s lost interest in him while glancing over at Erza and giving a hmph at her.
“That old geezer, making me the nanny of two kids who still can’t find their way, this kind of weaklings should just be thrown to a side, Fairy Tail is not a nursery!”
This rude and offensive lines were wasted on the two intended audience, one still had a poised complexion and the other didn’t even bat an eyelid. Seeing that the two won’t get baited he lost his motivation and just turned and walked away.
“Let’s finish this boorish job as soon as possible!”
Noah and Erza ignored Laxus and walked behind him as they made their way to Magnolia’s streets.
…..
The destination requires transit by train through at least 4 towns, the whole journey would take roughly a whole day to arrive.
Since meeting Makarov and getting adopted as well as entering Fairy Tail Noah normally only walked around in Magnolia’s town, he had never gone out so far out of town before. Even if he had researched the road leading to their destination even studying a map, a train station attendant wouldn’t easily let an 11 year old kid ride a train.
And so, Noah and Erza are stuck with Laxus, they rode the train under his lead and finally arrived after a whole day on the train.
What’s worth mentioning is that the trio never spoke a word with each other throughout the journey. However, it didn’t matter whether it’s the train fare or lunch money, Laxus paid it all. (Tl:tsundere much?)
Laxus didn’t care about tiny amount of money like this and he certainly won’t nitpick the two with minor matters like this.
When the night came, the trio finally got down from the train.
“Apologies…”
The trio were greeted by a middle aged man in formal attire, he scanned over the insignia on Noah’s right hand and Erza’s armor before asking politely.
“I’m the administrator sent by the council to facilitate the lake of ritual’s magic power infusion job, you three must be from Fairy Tail is that correct?”
“Council?”
Laxus scrutinized the man before stopping his action.
“Lead the way!”
The man frowned when he heard this.
“Don’t we need to wait for the other members?”
“Other members?”
He picked up the meaning behind his word before grinning.
“There’s no other members, there’s only the three of us!”
“Three people?”
The man is quite clearly surprised.
The administrator is not a magician but he is the one that has been sent to assist them he naturally knows the detail behind the mission.
And he also knew that every year the team that comes forward to finish this job would be in a big group.
The youth is saying only 3 came?
He was disbelieving at first but then he remembered something about Fairy Tail.
It’s one of the top guilds in Fiore kingdom but the council doesn’t like them.
The reason for that is simple, Makarov insisted that every member follow their own path, paving their own magical path, and to this end they can ignore the council.
This kind of behaviour may look capricious to outsiders but to the magic council, this is outrageous, hence they don’t really like the guild.
Could it be that the guild this time didn’t really take the job seriously?
He tensed up his brows even more.
“I think it’s better if you ask the guild master to send over more people…”
“Ha?”
Laxus laughed in a haughty way.
“Did the job said to send a lot of people over?”
“It doesn’t…”
“Since it doesn’t then stop the nonsense, as long as we finish the job it’s all good!”
He’s a bit fed up with the man.
“You’re here to lead the way so just obediently lead the way!”
Rendered speechless, the man guided them out of the train station.