The aroma of freshly baked bread was a welcome scent as Eshu strolled through the awakening streets of Magnolia.
He'd found a small bakery just opening its doors, the warmth and smell spilling out invitingly.
The bread was crusty on the outside, soft and warm within. Delicious.
He bought a simple black coffee from the same place, strong and unsweetened. It cut through the last vestiges of his short night's rest.
Perfect.
He reached the Fairy Tail guild hall. It was still quiet, the doors firmly shut.
A few early morning birds chirped in the nearby trees.
He leaned against the wall, enjoying the relative peace, finishing his bread and coffee.
Right. Procedure. Can't just run off and find trouble. Or, well, I could, but that's not the 'guild member' way, probably.
He didn't have to wait long.
Mirajane arrived, looking as fresh and cheerful as if she hadn't been managing a chaotic guild party just hours before.
She offered him a bright smile. "Eshu! You're up early. Or did you even sleep?"
"Enough," he replied with a slight smile of his own. "The bread here is excellent."
"Magnolia has some wonderful bakeries," she agreed, unlocking the large guild doors. "Figured I'd get here before the morning rush. Some of them can be quite… fragile after a party."
They stepped inside. The hall bore the expected aftermath of the previous night's festivities. Overturned chairs, stray mugs, a faint stickiness on some of the tables.
Together, with an easy, practiced efficiency from Mirajane and a surprisingly quick adaptability from Eshu (he simply learned the most optimal cleaning patterns by observing her for a few moments), they began to set the place right.
It didn't take long. Soon, the guild hall looked relatively presentable, ready for another day of whatever Fairy Tail would throw at it.
As they finished, Eshu broached the topic on his mind.
"Mirajane," he began, "could you explain the job procedure? How does one officially take on work here?"
Mirajane paused in wiping down the bar, her expression helpful.
"Oh, of course! It's quite straightforward, really."
She gestured towards a large corkboard on one wall, already dotted with various parchments and flyers.
"That's our request board," she explained. "Clients from all over Fiore send in job requests. They range from simple deliveries or finding lost items to dealing with troublesome magical creatures or Dark Guilds."
Eshu nodded, his gaze sweeping over the board. He could already see a wide variety of tasks, each with a listed reward.
Information gathering. Monster subjugation. Escort missions. The usual fare for an adventuring guild, it seems.
"So, first, you choose a job from the board that interests you and that you feel capable of handling," Mirajane continued. "Each request slip will detail the task, the client, the location, and the reward offered – that's in Jewels, our currency."
"Once you've chosen one, you bring the slip to me, or sometimes to Master Makarov if it's a particularly high-ranking or dangerous mission like an S-Class quest. Usually, it's me for the day-to-day ones."
She tapped the bartop lightly. "I'll give it a quick look, make sure it's appropriate for your skill level – though after your spar with Erza, I don't think many will be out of your reach," she added with a wink. "And then I'll approve it and officially log you as taking that job."
"You take a copy of the request slip with you. That's important, as proof for the client and for us when you return."
"Then you go off and complete the job. Travel, investigation, fighting monsters, whatever it entails."
"Once the task is successfully finished, and the client is satisfied – sometimes they'll sign or stamp your slip as confirmation – you return to the guild with that completed slip."
"You bring it back to me," she finished, gesturing to herself with a smile, "and I'll process it and give you your reward. The guild also takes a small percentage of most rewards to cover operating costs, keep the lights on, and pay for the occasional… extensive property damage Natsu causes."
She said the last part with an air of fond resignation.
Eshu absorbed the information. Simple, logical, efficient.
"Choose a job. Get approval. Complete job. Return for payment. Understood."
"Exactly!" Mirajane beamed. "Any questions?"
"What about team missions?" Eshu asked. "I noticed some members operate in teams."
"Oh yes! Many members prefer to team up, especially for more difficult jobs. You can form official teams, or just decide to tackle a job together informally. If it's a team, you just decide amongst yourselves how you'll split the reward. Usually, everyone on the mission comes to get it approved and to report back."
Makes sense. Combine strengths, cover weaknesses. Though my 'weaknesses' are rapidly diminishing.
"And are there restrictions on which jobs I can take?" he inquired, thinking of the S-Class quests mentioned before.
"For now, you'll have access to any of the regular jobs on the board," Mirajane explained. "S-Class quests, which are much more dangerous and have far greater rewards, are restricted to S-Class mages – like Erza, Laxus, Gildarts… and myself, though I don't go on them much these days."
She smiled faintly. "To become S-Class, you have to pass the S-Class Mage Promotion Trial, which the Master holds periodically. It's a big deal."
S-Class. A goal to aim for. Access to greater challenges, greater knowledge, perhaps.
"Thank you, Mirajane. That's very clear."
"You're most welcome, Eshu! If you decide to take a job, just let me know. And if you ever need advice on a particular type of mission, feel free to ask me or one of the more experienced members. We're all here to help each other."
Her sincerity was genuine.
Eshu nodded, his eyes drifting back to the request board.
A new avenue for experience, for testing his skills, for earning a living in this world, and perhaps, for finding new inspirations for his enchantments.
The day was just beginning, and already, opportunities were presenting themselves.
He felt that familiar spark, the desire to learn, to act, to do.
Time to choose his first job.
———
Eshu scanned the request board.
His eyes didn't just browse; they absorbed, analyzed, categorized.
Dozens of slips, varying in urgency and reward.
Many were for locations far across Fiore.
But a significant cluster pertained to Magnolia Town itself.
Minor monster subjugations in the East Forest.
Deliveries within the town.
Finding lost items.
Repairing magically disturbed infrastructure.
Some looked old, gathering dust, the ink faded.
Eshu made a decision.
He began to pluck these local requests from the board.
One after another.
Soon, he held a thick stack of parchment slips.
Every single job located within the boundaries of Magnolia Town.
He approached Mirajane, who was now polishing glasses behind the bar as a few early-riser guild members began to trickle in.
"Mirajane," he said, placing the considerable stack on the polished wood. "I'll take these."
Mirajane blinked at the pile.
Her eyes scanned the top few. "All of them? Eshu, these are all the Magnolia local requests. Some of these have been here for… well, for quite a while."
She recognized a few that had been gathering dust for over a month, jobs too minor or tedious for most of the guild's more adventure-hungry mages.
"Yes," Eshu confirmed. "If that's permissible."
Mirajane looked from the stack to him, a thoughtful expression on her face.
"Permissible? Yes, of course. It's just… ambitious. But," she smiled, "if anyone can clear a backlog efficiently, I suspect it's you."
She quickly went through the approval process, stamping and signing with practiced speed.
"There you go. Good luck, Eshu. Magnolia will certainly appreciate it."
He nodded, gathered the approved slips. "Thank you."
And without another word, he turned and walked out of the guild hall.
He didn't stroll. He moved with purpose.
His first task was familiarizing himself with the town's layout in detail.
The knowledge he'd passively absorbed from maps and ambient information was good, but ground truth was better.
As he headed towards the location of his first job, he was also committing Magnolia to memory.
He passed by Kardia Cathedral, its bells chiming softly in the morning air.
He noted the flow of people near Magnolia Station.
He mentally mapped the paths through South Gate Park.
The winding trails into the East Forest, where his first task apparently lay.
Fairy Hills, the women's dormitory, perched on a rise overlooking the town. He made a mental note of its location, and to treat it with due respect.
The Magnolia Hospital, its white walls gleaming.
The bustling stalls and shops of Strawberry Street.
He even pinpointed the small, slightly ramshackle house Natsu and Happy apparently shared, smoke curling from its chimney.
The Magnolia Public Bath, already emitting steam.
Book Land, its windows filled with tomes. Mag Drug, the apothecary. The Magnolia Cake Shop, its aroma wafting sweetly. The Magnolia Bakery he'd visited earlier. Hotel Latham. Tomas's Coffee.
Each landmark, each street, each alleyway was imprinted, stored, cross-referenced.
His mind constructed a perfect, three-dimensional map of Magnolia, complete with probable travel times and optimal routes.
It took surprisingly little time.
His first job: "Exterminate Giant Horned Rabbits from Farmer Giles's Turnip Patch."
Location: Edge of the East Forest. Reward: 5,000 Jewels.
The slip mentioned they were surprisingly aggressive and had a penchant for uprooting prize-winning turnips.
Eshu arrived at the turnip patch.
It was, indeed, under siege.
Several rabbits, each the size of a small dog, with comically oversized horns, were currently decimating rows of plump turnips.
Farmer Giles, a worried-looking man, wrung his hands nearby.
"Oh, thank the stars! Fairy Tail!"
Eshu drew his "rusted" sword. The illusion of decay was perfect in the morning light.
Giant Horned Rabbits. Minor magical beast. Low aggression, high nuisance value. Horns are for display and digging, not optimized for combat.
He moved.
He didn't charge blindly.
His movements were a blur, weaving between the startled, oversized lagomorphs.
The flat of his ancient-looking blade descended with precise, non-lethal force on the back of each rabbit's neck.
A thwack. A squeak. A stunned rabbit.
Thwack. Squeak. Another.
He moved with the efficiency of a finely tuned machine. No wasted motion. No unnecessary force.
In less than a minute, all seven oversized pests were unconscious, piled neatly near the edge of the field.
Farmer Giles stared, mouth agape.
"But… they… you… that was… fast."
Eshu sheathed his blade. "They will wake in an hour or two, likely with a headache. I'd suggest reinforcing your fences. They seem to have a burrow system starting just beyond that treeline." He pointed.
His Instant Learning had not only identified the problem but also the source and a preventative measure.
"I… I will! Thank you, young man! Thank you!" Farmer Giles fumbled for his pen and eagerly signed Eshu's job slip, adding a small bonus for the advice.
First job done.
Eshu nodded curtly and turned, already consulting his mental list for the next nearest task.
Magnolia was now an open book to him. Every street, every landmark, perfectly memorized.
And its backlog of problems was about to get significantly smaller.
He moved with a swift stride towards his next objective.