(Heartfelt thanks to Bing Yue Ying, Xiong Mao A!, Qinxun Luopo, Er Ci Yuan Wo Men De Meng, Xiao h Zhai, Long Tiani, and Sing Zai for the tips!)
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Night quietly fell...
In a world completely shrouded in darkness, all signs of life seemed to have been erased. Even the vast forest, brimming with vitality, could not escape being swallowed by the darkness.
Once night had fully descended, Noah arrived at the entrance to the forest engulfed by darkness. Looking at the endless woodland before him, he sighed inwardly.
If possible, Noah really did not want to carry out a ghost-dispelling job at night.
It was not that Noah feared ghosts, but that did not mean he liked them.
So, when it came to beings like ghosts—whether they could even be considered living creatures, or whether they truly existed at all—Noah would rather handle this job during the day. At least then, he would feel much more at ease.
Unfortunately, the arrival of the Strauss siblings had disrupted Noah's plans.
Honestly, although the Strauss siblings' request had been somewhat unreasonable, Mira was right. For a mage of Fairy Tail like Noah, giving up this commission was no big deal. At most, he would just return to the guild and pick another one.
Hadn't Makarov said that if a mission could not be completed, there was no need to force it? They could simply give up.
The Strauss siblings seemed to have some reason for needing this commission. Under different circumstances, setting aside the arrogant Mira and the timid Elfman, Noah would not have minded giving the commission to them for the sake of Lisanna, the adorable and sensible little girl.
However, this was Noah's first real job.
If his very first job met with setbacks and he had no choice but to abandon it, Noah would inevitably feel disappointed. He might even lose confidence in himself. Besides, he had not encountered any setback that truly forced him to give up the mission. A few people had merely come out and said they wanted to steal his work.
And with that kind of attitude, too.
Turning around, Noah glanced behind him. After confirming that Mira, Elfman, and Lisanna had not caught up yet, he carried his long cloth bag and headed into the forest.
The forest at night was dangerous.
During the year and more that he had spent in Magnolia, Noah had gone into the forest almost every day to train his magic control and swordsmanship.
Therefore, he knew perfectly well just how dangerous the forest could be at night.
To say nothing else, many truly dangerous Magical Beasts only became active at night, emerging to search for prey.
Combined with the limitations of terrain and visibility, the forest at night was often highly advantageous for Magical Beasts accustomed to such conditions, while being extremely unfavorable for humans.
Fortunately, this forest was not like Magnolia's, where Magical Beasts roamed everywhere. At most, there were only some wild beasts here.
It was not impossible for Magical Beasts to appear.
But the Magical Beasts in this sort of forest were usually outsiders. Their numbers were pitifully small, and their strength varied wildly.
After all, powerful Magical Beasts could generally secure a place for themselves wherever they lived. Some could even claim an entire territory.
Only weak Magical Beasts would be driven out of their habitats or flee from them, seeking somewhere else to stay.
Under such circumstances, this forest could not be considered particularly dangerous. Even the villagers from a small village often came here to hunt. Noah believed he was capable of handling a night in a forest like this.
It was currently summer in the Kingdom of Fiore.
However, the temperature in the forest was rather cool, making it hard to believe that it was the height of summer.
At night, the atmosphere in the forest was also different from the daytime, as though an icy chill had appeared out of nowhere, enough to make one's hair stand on end.
As Noah walked deeper into the forest and breathed in its cold air, an inexplicable sense of nostalgia rose within him.
No, it was not inexplicable at all.
Because Noah had often visited Magnolia's forest at night in the past as well.
The scenery of the forest before him seemed to overlap with the scenes in his memories, which was why Noah felt nostalgic.
Still, compared to Magnolia's forest, which was crawling with Magical Beasts, this forest was undoubtedly much more reassuring.
For example, there was no pungent stench from Magical Beasts here.
For example, no insects larger than humans would fall out of the trees here.
For example, there were no strange bird calls here.
For example, there were no fist-sized spiders scurrying around everywhere here.
At most, he might run into snakes crawling along the road, or owls hidden in trees with glowing eyes.
Thinking such random thoughts and comparing Magnolia's forest with this one, Noah unconsciously began wandering around without any particular destination.
It could not be helped. They said there was a ghost in this forest that would occasionally cry, but the village chief had not said where exactly the sound could be heard.
That was not strange either. After all, Noah had told the village chief that he would carry out the mission tomorrow. In that case, the village chief had probably intended to explain the details before Noah set off the next day.
The moment he thought of that, Noah began to regret it. He should have gone to the village chief's house first.
"Wuu wuu wuu..."
Just as Noah was immersed in his regret and about to sigh, a sound like sobbing and crying rang out from nearby, causing him to freeze on the spot.
"Wuu wuu wuu..."
Before Noah could fully react, the crying grew clearer and clearer, jolting him out of his daze.
Only then did Noah notice two details.
First, the voice was extremely young. From his initial judgment, its owner could not possibly be older than ten, and it was a girl's voice.
Second, aside from the crying sound gradually approaching Noah's direction, there was also a faint sound of footsteps coming closer from the depths of the forest ahead. They were probably the owner of the voice's footsteps. It was not hard to imagine that she was walking while crying.
"Footsteps?" Noah tilted his head in confusion.
"Isn't it supposed to be a ghost? Do ghosts need to walk too? Can they even make walking sounds?"
With those doubts in mind, Noah carried his long cloth bag, leapt up, and silently concealed himself among the trees nearby. His gaze remained fixed ahead, toward the direction the crying and footsteps were coming from.
No one knew how much time passed before a tiny figure slowly emerged from the depths of the forest ahead and entered Noah's sight.
It was a little girl.
She looked to be only seven or eight years old, four or five years younger than Noah.
The little girl had short dark-blue hair that stood out even in the night. She wore an extremely thin shirt, and she should have been freezing in the nighttime forest.
Yet the little girl seemed completely unaware of it. Noah did not see her shivering from the cold at all. Instead, she kept her head lowered, rubbed her eyes with her hands, and continued crying as she walked in this direction.
"Wuu wuu wuu... Grandine... where are you... It's so dark here... I'm so scared..."
Hearing that heartbreaking cry and watching the tiny child walk this way while weeping, Noah was truly puzzled.
Was this the ghost?
She did not look like one at all, did she?
Could it be that the truth behind the crying in the forest was this child, not some ghost?
Did that mean this child had been crying in this forest all this time?
Noah fell silent. After a while, he stepped out.
The little girl seemed to notice the sudden unusual sound around her. Her crying abruptly stopped, and after wiping the tears from her face, she anxiously looked around before hurriedly hiding in the grass nearby.
Seeing this, Noah was basically certain.
Whether this little girl was the so-called ghost or not, she had definitely spent quite a while in this forest.
Otherwise, how could an ordinary child possibly hide the moment she heard an unusual sound?
This child clearly knew that the forest contained all kinds of wild beasts, knew how dangerous it would be to encounter them, and therefore immediately looked for a place to hide as soon as she heard an unfamiliar noise.
Before you continue