Demons on the Loose
"Village chief, please don't worry. Since we accepted the commission, we'll see it through. Which direction did the beasts from Clover Grand Canyon come from? We'll go take a look right now."
The old village chief, who had broken out in a cold sweat at Hughes's words, raised a hand and pointed ahead and to the right. His voice trembled slightly. "Every year, they come from the direction of the village's rice fields. This time was no different!"
Now that Mira knew the direction, she wasted no time. It had already been evening when they arrived at Xiluo'er Village, and the sun was nearly down now. If they delayed any longer, it would be dark.
Mira pushed Hughes toward the area ahead and to the right of Xiluo'er Village. They needed to scout it out first and see what was going on before making plans.
"Mira, listen to your big brother. There's definitely something wrong here. Let's go back to the guild and get help!"
"No, we can't. If we go straight back, the mission will count as a failure, and this job pays 500,000 J..." Mira wanted to save up to buy a house, and she wasn't about to let the money slip through her fingers for nothing.
The weather in the Fairy Tail world was strange. It was early summer in Magnolia Town, and Mira's village was also in the Kingdom of Fiore, but it was late autumn there. Meanwhile, it was midsummer in Xiluo'er Village, and the heat was enough to make people irritable.
It was a magic world, all right. Even the weather defied common sense.
The sun had already vanished, and patches of its fading light fell across the land. Upon reaching their destination, Hughes and Mira gazed at the golden rice field before them, its stalks flattened every which way, and fell somewhat silent.
Mira crouched down and pushed aside the fallen rice. Beneath it was a four-toed beast's footprint two hands wide.
She lifted more of the fallen rice. Without exception, there were enormous beast tracks underneath.
"Quite a few beasts came through this rice field. Judging by the tracks, they were all large!" Mira concluded.
Hughes nodded and glanced a few more times at the rice ears at the very bottom. His brow furrowed. "Let's keep going!"
Although the entire rice field was flattened every which way, with the rice ears lying on the ground, there were no bite marks on the stalks, and the ears were intact.
That's a little strange!
The beasts didn't seem to have come for food. It looked more like they had come to destroy the field, trampling and charging through the rice until it was in this state.
The rice field was vast. It took the two of them at least ten minutes to cross it.
Having given the whole field a cursory look, Hughes gazed down at the dense, jumbled beast tracks on the ground ahead and sighed.
This mouth of mine might have been kissed by a crow.
Mira, who had grown up in the forests and mountains, knew a great deal about wild beasts. She pointed to the chaotic footprints on the ground. "These tracks are extremely disordered, which means the herd was in a panic at the time."
"They must have been afraid of something, which made them run here blindly!"
As Mira finished speaking, a system notification suddenly sounded in Hughes's mind.
[A large quantity of Devil Factor detected ahead. Please proceed to collect it!]
?? Devil Factor? A backwater like Clover Grand Canyon is worth a demon's visit?
Is it a native demon like the ones on Galuna Island, or one created by Zeref?
After a moment's thought, Hughes ruled out the former. The native demons had performed far too poorly in the original story. With their strength, they wouldn't have been able to frighten the beasts in Clover Grand Canyon into fleeing.
The demons of Tartaros, on the other hand, often appeared in various places. Could it be them?
Although Natsu and the others wiped out all of Tartaros later on, with his current strength, he probably still wasn't a match for them!
Hughes took stock of his current strength. The system had enhanced his physical attributes three times.
[Fruit ability: Flame-Flame Fruit (Awakening: 6%)] [Ultimate technique: Tekkai (perfected)]
Hmm... With this much strength, I'd die a miserable death if I ran into any of Tartaros's Nine Demon Gates.
Just as Hughes was considering whether to turn around and return to the guild for help, the system chimed again...
[Absorbed a small amount of Devil Origin. Flame-Flame Fruit Awakening +0.001%]
Startled, Hughes glanced down at Mira. She hadn't even taken over a demon yet, and he was far away from her, so it probably had nothing to do with her.
Hughes mentally retraced everything he had just done. It seemed he had only breathed in some air before the system notification appeared.
Slightly bewildered, Hughes opened his mouth and nostrils wide and took a powerful breath.
[Absorbed a small amount of Devil Origin. Flame-Flame Fruit Awakening +0.001%]
Hughes: (⊙ˍ⊙?)... What the hell? There's Devil Origin in the air?
A demon's Devil Origin was tied to its vitality and strength. A demon whose Devil Origin had completely dissipated was certain to die. Mira had told Hughes that herself.
After Hughes absorbed a few breaths from the demon inside her, its overall strength had fallen by twenty to thirty percent.
So did the demon in Clover Grand Canyon get dumped or cheated on? Why's it so desperate? It actually released its own Devil Origin!
Mira, standing beside him, looked up at Hughes in confusion. Why did he keep inhaling? Was he having a fit?
Hughes couldn't be bothered with the girl. This was a chance to increase his strength for free, and he didn't dare waste it.
He didn't care whether there was some kind of plot behind it. Once it was in his belly, it was his. Turning himself into an exhaust fan, Hughes sucked in air like mad, only stopping when the system notifications ceased.
Looking at [Flame-Flame Fruit (Awakening: 7%)] on his panel, Hughes grinned like an idiot.
This mission was worth the trip!
Seeing that Hughes had finished his fit and now seemed to be turning into an idiot, Mira worried that something was wrong and poked him with a finger. "What do we do now?"
The commission they had accepted required them to deal with the beasts attacking Xiluo'er Village. Judging by the current situation, the herd that had fled Clover Grand Canyon in a panic had continued running after ravaging the village's rice field. They probably didn't have the nerve to come back.
Their targets had all run off, so naturally, they couldn't continue the mission.
Hughes rubbed his stubble and pondered. In fact, as long as they prevented the beasts in Clover Grand Canyon from continuing to attack Xiluo'er Village, the mission would count as complete.
But this wasn't the sort of task that belonged on a B-Class commission. It should be A-Class at the very least, and considering there was also a demon in Clover Grand Canyon, it could possibly rise to S-Class.
"Let's go find the chief of Xiluo'er Village first and explain the situation."
When guild mages encountered trouble beyond the scope of a commission while carrying out its task, the commission's rank could be raised with the consent of both the guild master and the client.
Generally speaking, the higher the commission's rank, the more the client had to pay, which was why both parties had to confirm it.
In Xiluo'er Village, Hughes and Mira told the chief what their investigation had found. When the old chief learned that the beasts that had attacked their rice field had already fled and wouldn't return, his face lit up with a smile.
Xiluo'er Village is safe, and I don't have to pay the 500,000 J. Wonderful!
Seeing how happy the old chief was, Hughes deliberately coughed a few times. "However, more beasts from Clover Grand Canyon will definitely keep attacking you afterward. There might even be magic beasts!"
The old chief of Xiluo'er Village: ???
Hughes patted him on the shoulder sympathetically and said in a steady voice, "There might be a crazed demon inside Clover Grand Canyon. It's what frightened the beasts into fleeing in all directions!"
Mira and the chief of Xiluo'er Village: ???