The Task

"Master, I'll take this job!"

Ul tore a job request off the board, walked up to Makarov, and said.

Makarov glanced at the request in Ul's hand, hesitated, then said, "Are you sure you want to take this job? If you do, I recommend finding a partner. It'll be pretty difficult to complete it alone."

"No need. I can handle it by myself!"

"All right, then!"

Seeing the determination in Ul's eyes, Makarov said no more and agreed to his request.

D- and C-rank jobs were basically never dangerous. The job Ul had taken was only a little difficult; it wasn't impossible to complete. Since Ul wanted to take it, Makarov had no reason to stop him.

"Thanks. Then... I'm off!"

"Take care!"

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The city where the Fairy Tail guild was located was called Magnolia. It was a historic magical trading city, and Fairy Tail was the only Mage Guild in town.

The people of the city trusted Fairy Tail deeply. Whenever they had a problem, they would usually turn to the guild for help. In fact, the residents had even seen the entire city undergo an astonishing renovation because of one red-haired man's "whim."

Ul had always felt that the real reason this happened was simply that Fairy Tail was the only guild in the city.

After walking for over three hours, with his feet nearly blistered, Ul finally reached the job site.

What?

Why not take some kind of transport?

Sorry!

In the world of the dirt-poor, there was no such thing as "transport."

"Anyone home? Could you open the door, please? I'm a Mage from Fairy Tail, here to bring you some warmth..." Ul walked up to the gate of a small, detached courtyard and knocked as he called out.

A moment later!

An elderly woman with white hair slowly opened the door. She looked at Ul with a kind smile and asked, "Are you the Mage from the guild who took the job?"

"That's right!"

"Then please come in!"

"Young man, have you eaten yet?" Ul followed the old woman inside when she suddenly asked him.

"No!" Ul answered honestly and without hesitation.

"Hehe... In that case, why don't you have something to eat before you get to work?" The white-haired woman seemed taken aback for a moment, but soon her smile returned. She spoke kindly, her face full of warmth.

"Sure!"

It might sound embarrassing to admit, but one of the reasons Ul had taken this job was to get a free meal.

After all, ever since he'd left the orphanage, he'd had no more free food to eat.

It was only after entering the house that Ul realized the building, though it looked spacious, was eerily quiet inside. It seemed that apart from the old woman, there was no one else there.

"I don't have anything special here, young man, so just make do with these!" After Ul entered the house, the old woman brought out several plates from the kitchen and spoke to him kindly.

"Uh..."

Ul stared at the heaps of meat and the whole roasted fish on the plates, dumbfounded. He felt as if his entire sense of what counted as "ordinary" had been shattered.

He still didn't know what things cost in this world, but one thing was certain: what he was looking at was not what anyone would call "nothing special"!

And while Ul stood there stunned, the old woman brought out several more plates from the kitchen. Before long, the food on the table in front of him had piled up into a small mountain...

"Go ahead and eat, young man! If it isn't enough, I'll cook some more..." the old woman said with a chuckle.

Hearing her, Ul glanced again at the "mountain of meat," which had barely any vegetables in sight, and the corners of his mouth twitched.

Ul suddenly felt like he was back in his previous life, spending New Year's at his grandma's house as a child!

It went something like this:

Grandma: "Are you full?"

Ul: "I'm full..."

Grandma: "No, you're not. Have some more."

Ul: "..."

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To be honest!

When the old woman brought out all that food, the first thought that crossed Ul's mind was, "Could it be poisoned?"

After all, the body was only a teenager's, but the soul inside it belonged to an adult. He couldn't simply think about things like a child.

Never harm others, but always be wary of them!

But before long, he put that suspicion out of his mind.

He simply couldn't think of any reason anyone would want to hurt him...

For money?

That was impossible. Anyone could tell how poor Ul was just by looking at him. The only difference between him and a beggar was probably that he didn't consider himself one...

For his looks?

That was impossible too. With how scrawny Ul was, whether he was even good for anything was another matter entirely.

After thinking it over for a few seconds,

he finally decided to eat first and worry about it later.

If the food hadn't been right there in front of him, Ul could have held out...

But once its aroma drifted into his nose, he wanted to keep resisting, but his stomach had already started rumbling like thunder in protest. It was completely beyond his brain's control.

One of the passive abilities Void Stomach had given Ul was that he could "eat a lot"!

Determined not to waste a single bite, Ul spent several hours eating that meal...

Using Void Stomach's ability, he ate and digested at the same time, until he'd finally cleared every last bit of the "mountain of meat" from the table.

Throughout it all, the old woman never once urged Ul to hurry. She simply sat beside him, smiling as she watched. At most, she chatted with him now and then. By the end, even Ul, thick-skinned as he was, felt a little embarrassed!

So the moment he finished eating, Ul said, "Granny Is, I'm full now. Let's get to work right away!"