Setting Out

"Are you... Fairy Tail mages?" The maid standing at the gate of the mansion smiled slightly as they arrived.

Mira nodded, and then the maid gestured for them to come in, saying, "Labi Rabbi is waiting for you two inside. Please come in."

The maid then led Mira Chiba inside.

After walking a long way through the luxurious estate, they stopped in front of a magnificent, snow-white building.

At the entrance of the building stood a young man in a gray coat, and behind him were two men and a woman.

Upon seeing Mira and Chiba approach, the young man walked over with a broad smile, extended his hand, and said with a grin, "You two must be mages from Fairy Tail?"

Mira didn't intend to shake hands with him, so Chiba shook hands with the young man and replied with a smile, "That's right, I'm Chiba from Fairy Tail, and this is Mirajane."

As she spoke, Chiba glanced at the haughty girl beside her and couldn't help but sigh inwardly. She had been promised to communicate with the client, but she hadn't even accepted the hand extended to her.

The two released their grip, and from among the two men and one woman not far away, one of the young men in black sneered, "Is this how 'Fairy Tail' operates? Not only did they arrive at this hour, but also..."

"Koi, shut up!" a handsome young man beside him snapped.

The young man in black seemed to be afraid of him, or rather, in awe, and so he kept silent.

Mira couldn't hold back any longer. She pointed at the young man in black and said, "Hey kid over there, you just bet on a point? What do you mean by that?"

Because they received the assignment relatively late, and with the year-end approaching and large crowds, they almost exceeded the agreed time.

However, they arrived before that.

One can imagine how arrogant and ridiculous it would be for a girl who is only twelve years old to stand on tiptoe, point at a young man in his twenties, and call him "boy."

And... just a tiny bit cute.

"Young lady, Koi didn't mean anything by it; he's just a bit impulsive." The handsome young man walked over at this moment, his face beaming with a smile that was very infectious.

Mira snorted. Since Koi had already shut up, she didn't want to argue with them.

Chiba glanced at Mira, then at the three people, and couldn't help but feel a headache coming on. If he wasn't mistaken, these three were also summoned mages. But... the mission hadn't even begun, and this kind of conflict had already arisen...

This is not good...

He exchanged a glance with the handsome young man, who smiled at him and said, "We are mages from the 'Spirit Realm of Wind' mage guild. My name is Ailong, and these two are my companions, Lixi and Koi."

"Hello, Chiba." The girl Lixi smiled slightly.

Chiba smiled and nodded at her, then extended her hand to Ailong and said with a smile, "It's a pleasure working with you."

"Mm!" Ailong reached out and shook his hand.

The gray-clad youth... who was none other than the wealthy Labi, said with a smile, "Now that we all know each other, let me explain the details of the mission."

"This mission is to successfully transport a shipment of goods belonging to my team to the southern Shanwu Town... or more precisely, to the Shadow Mountain behind Shanwu Town. However, there will be some bandits and monsters along the way, so we'll have to rely on you mages to drive them away."

"Don't worry, Mr. Labi, we will definitely ensure your goods arrive safely in Shanwu Town," Koi said, patting his chest.

Labi smiled slightly, "In that case, let's set off!"

"Have Kelao'er and the others prepare to leave. We'll wait for them at the door," he instructed the maid who had brought Chiba and the others.

"Yes, Mr. Labi," the maid replied, then turned toward a certain direction of the manor.

Chiba was slightly surprised. If they were escorting goods, shouldn't they have gathered together beforehand? Why wait until all the mages arrived before informing the convoy to set off?

Seemingly noticing Chiba's confusion, Labi chuckled, "This cargo is extremely important; we should keep it in a safe place as long as possible."

Chiba remained silent. He didn't know how valuable this item was either. If it was that important, why wasn't it designated as S-Class Mission?

But thinking about it again, there are already few S-Class Mages, and it's the Lunar New Year, so there probably won't be any S-Class Mages taking on missions.

At that moment, the Labi turned around and walked towards the door.

Five people followed closely behind.

Before long, they arrived at the main gate, and as Chiba had expected, the caravan had not yet arrived. After a considerable amount of time, a line of carriages slowly drove in from the manor.

At a glance, there were about a dozen carriages, each with a coachman. Behind the carriages were five fine horses led by servants. The head of the group was a middle-aged man who was driving a rather large and luxurious carriage.

The servants, holding the reins, led the horses directly to the five men.

Ailong and his two companions easily mounted the horses, while Chiba and Mira on the ground looked completely bewildered.

"Um... I can't ride a horse..." Mira said softly, looking confused.

As she spoke, she looked at Chiba beside her and asked, "Can you?"

Chiba's lips twitched slightly. "Knows nothing."

"What should we do then?" Mira blinked and asked.

Chiba was troubled.

Suddenly, a thought struck him, "I've got it!"

As he spoke, he walked up to a horse and stared intently into its eyes. Then his pupils turned blood red.

Sharingan!

The horse's eyes widened suddenly for a moment, then its eyelids drooped slightly.

"Get on the horse, I've already controlled it with Genjutsu," Chiba said with a smile.

Mira's little face showed surprise. "You can use Genjutsu? How come I didn't know that?"

"Because I've never used it before." Chiba mounted his horse, then held out his hand and said, "Get on, don't waste time."

Mira glanced cautiously at the horse, then grabbed Chiba's hand and mounted it, albeit sideways, because she was wearing a skirt.

"I need Erza to teach me how to ride a horse another day. Seriously, won't this thing throw us off?" Mira muttered, sitting sideways behind Chiba.

She wasn't afraid of being thrown off, but rather afraid that if she were thrown off, she wouldn't be able to resist killing the horse.

"Don't worry, my Genjutsu is enough to control it." Chiba didn't even pull on the reins.

The Sharingan's Genjutsu surpasses ordinary Genjutsu. Although Chiba currently only has Two-Tomoe Sharingan, it is clearly more than enough to deal with this kind of horse, which is not much different from an ordinary steed.

When they were on the run, they even used Sharingan Genjutsu to deal with the mages of the Frog in the Pond.

Led by the carriage carrying Labi, the five mages stood around the perimeter of the caravan, and the group headed south in a grand procession.