Fairy Tail

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(And there will be an extra chapter today. No explanation!)

Early in the morning, the air still carried a faint chill. A breeze swept down from the sky, brushing past building after building before blowing toward the center of Magnolia Town. It made the curtains of a window in a rather luxurious building facing the street sway back and forth. Though slightly cold, it brought the refreshing feeling unique to mornings.

"Click..."

With an extremely soft sound, the half-open window was pushed wide open. A boy around eleven or twelve years old stood by the window. He had neat black short hair and a pair of dark eyes as deep as stars. Looking out at the bustling street, he lazily stretched, but soon gave a slight shiver.

"Ugh... It's a little cold..."

Feeling the faint chill carried by the morning breeze against his body, Noah forcibly suppressed the urge to turn around, crawl back into bed, and sleep a little longer. He drew the curtains shut.

This was the Fairy Tail guild!

In the Kingdom of Fiore, where magic had seeped into every aspect of people's lives and could be said to be the cradle of mages who possessed magic and made a living through it, there were countless mages affiliated with different guilds, accepting commissions from others and using magic to complete the requested work. Mage guilds were just as numerous.

Fairy Tail was merely one among those guilds scattered as densely as a forest, yet it was also one of the foremost and most renowned.

And now, the place where Noah lived was this Fairy Tail guild.

As the place where guild members usually gathered and the headquarters where they accepted jobs and commissions, almost no one actually lived in the Fairy Tail guild. Even Fairy Tail's Guild Master—Makarov Dreyar—lived elsewhere.

However, as Makarov's adopted grandson, Noah had lived here for an entire year ever since Makarov adopted him and brought him back from some unknown wilderness.

Of course, it was not that Noah disliked living with Makarov. The reasons he lived in the Fairy Tail guild were rather complicated. Overall, though, Noah was quite satisfied with his current residence.

After fixing the curtains, Noah looked out the window.

Noah's room was on the top floor of the guild. Thus, standing before the window, he could take in nearly half of Magnolia Town, where the Fairy Tail guild was located.

So early in the morning, quite a few townspeople were already preparing for the day's work. Some were busy opening their shops, while others moved goods around, making the town exceptionally lively.

Watching this scene, Noah felt unexpectedly peaceful. As if recalling something, he softly muttered.

"Gray should be here soon too...?"

The moment his words fell, the door to Noah's room began shaking repeatedly under a series of huge, utterly impolite knocks.

"Hey! Noah! Wake up!"

Hearing the impatient and rude pounding on the door, Noah could not help but smile. He turned around, grabbed a coat lying by the bed, and draped it over himself. His gaze then inadvertently fell on the back of his right hand, where it stopped.

On closer inspection, there was a bird-like tattoo on the back of Noah's right hand.

That was the emblem of the Fairy Tail guild.

Anyone bearing the emblem representing a guild on their body was proven to be a mage of that guild.

Fairy Tail was one of the foremost mage guilds in the Kingdom of Fiore. As members of this guild, no one would feel anything but proud.

Yet as Noah looked at the guild emblem on the back of his hand, an extremely complicated expression appeared on his face. In the end, he sighed, calmed the emotions in his heart, walked to the door, and opened it.

What entered Noah's sight was a young boy about his age.

He had the same black short hair, but unlike Noah's neat and smooth hair, his stuck up in many unruly tufts. Wearing nothing but a pair of shorts, the naked boy stood outside the door with a somewhat impatient expression.

"If you hadn't opened the door, I really would've wanted to kick it down!"

Rather than darkening his expression at those displeased words, Noah smiled helplessly.

Gray Fullbuster—this was the name of the boy before him. Though roughly the same age as Noah, he had joined Fairy Tail nearly two years earlier, making him Noah's senior.

Though he was called a senior, at his age, he naturally could not be a mature mage. He was still studying magic and striving to become one. So, like Noah, although he had joined Fairy Tail, he had not yet reached the point where he could accept commissions and go out to work.

It was because of this that Noah and Gray often spent time together. Their relationship was among the best in all of Fairy Tail. This could be seen from the fact that although Gray always looked so impatient, he still came to Noah's room first thing every day upon arriving at the guild to wake him up.

"You're pretty energetic for so early in the morning, Gray."

Noah spoke with a slight hint of irritation, while Gray strode into his room without a care.

"You're the one who's too lazy. I already trained for about an hour before coming to the guild, yet you, someone who hasn't even learned magic, are only getting up now!"

Noah did not deny Gray's somewhat harsh words. He merely shrugged indifferently.

After all, Gray was right.

Although Gray was still not qualified to accept commissions or go out to work and could not yet be considered a mature mage, he could already use magic. Even if his mastery of it was still very immature, the moment he could use magic and had joined a guild, he could be called a mage.

Noah, who was the same age as Gray and equally immature, still could not use magic at all. He did not even qualify to be called a mage!

This was also why Noah had worn such a complicated expression when looking at his guild emblem earlier.

Only mages could join mage guilds. That was common sense among common sense.

Yet Noah had joined Fairy Tail and received the Fairy Tail guild emblem despite not yet being able to use magic...

Even though no one in Fairy Tail was the sort to gossip about others, Noah himself still cared about it somewhat.

"I've always found it strange." Gray, who had entered Noah's room, turned back to look at him.

"Grandpa clearly said that your magic power was so strong that even he was shocked. Why can't you use magic?"

"If I remember correctly, this is already the eleventh time you've asked that question, right?" Noah sighed slightly.

"Grandpa said that the magic power in my body is too strong. If I can't control it freely and use magic recklessly, it will only bring about unimaginable disaster. So until I can fully control the magic power inside me, I'm temporarily forbidden from learning magic. Haven't I told you that already?"

"But are you really that strong?" Gray scrutinized Noah with a face full of suspicion.

"I can't see it at all!"

"Is that so?" Noah rolled his eyes.

"Then why don't you go ask Grandpa yourself?"

Gray immediately shut his mouth.

Though he said that and genuinely had his doubts, Gray still trusted Makarov's judgment very much. Since Makarov had said so, then it had to be true.

"Alright, alright, enough of that. Let's go down. It should be getting lively downstairs too!"

Noah smiled and nodded. Together with Gray, he headed downstairs.