Nephele | Fairy Tail

Chapter 5

Rei was stuck being lectured by Mayor Walters for the next hour and as annoyed as she was at first, the information he was giving her turned out to be extremely useful. And Sky would give her dirty looks every time Rei even looked bored, which made her pay attention. Rei learned that she would need to fill out an application when she got to the magic council and that her idea of only being gone for a month could turn into her being gone for multiple months, depending on how long it takes for the magic council to approve her guild.

But by the time she left Walters' office, she had his approval for the guild and was told that, when she came back from her trip, there would be a building waiting to be turned into her guild hall. She was also told to talk to Kaleb before she left the town hall to make sure he knew that she was leaving and when she was leaving.

Rei knocked on the door that was just down the hall from Walters' office. She opened in and stepped inside without waiting for the person inside to tell her to come in. The office was similar to Walters' only with less books and a dart board hanging from the wall. The man sitting at the desk, Kaleb, had brown hair and looked old for his age, so much so that Rei called him 'the old-man wizard', which didn't actually annoy the middle-aged man as much as people would think.

"Here to tell me how you're going to leave me to protect the town without you while you form a guild?" Kaleb questioned, glancing up from whatever paper he was reading. Unlike Mayor Walters' neat, single stack of papers, Kaleb had multiple, messy piles of papers covering nearly ever inch of his desk. Kaleb was a responsible person, but the type of responsible that was unorganized at the same time.

"Yup!" Rei chirped as she stood in front of Kaleb's desk, not bothering to sit down. She knew Kaleb wouldn't attempt to lecture her the same way Walters did; he knew there was no point in bothering with trying to instill knowledge in the dragon slayer that would be forgotten the second he stopped talking.

Beside her, Sky let out an annoyed sigh before saying, "It's nice to see you too, Kaleb

Kaleb and Rei both rolled with eyes at Sky, who let out another sigh before flying to the other side of Rei and hovering there. Then Kaleb set down his pen and let out a sigh, leaning back in his chair, "I'll make sure nothing happens while you're gone. Do me a favor and don't get into trouble. I won't be there to clean up your messes, and neither will Victoria or Lucas or Sky-"

"Actually, Sky's coming with me," Rei interrupted, crossing her arms.

"Oh thank goodness, you'd be doomed otherwise," Kaleb replied.

"Hey!" Rei exclaimed with a huff. "I'd be just fine on my own."

"I think we've been over this," Sky said.

"And you agreed that she'd be hopeless on her own?" Kaleb asked.

"Of course," Sky replied, earning a laugh from Kaleb and an annoyed huff from Rei.

"I would be fine in my own!" Rei exclaimed defensively. Kaleb stared at her and Rei glared at him. Then, after a minute ticked by, she left out a defeated sigh, "Alright fine, I'd have a bit of trouble without Sky, but she's coming with me, so it doesn't matter."

Kaleb rolled his eyes, "Yeah, yeah, whatever. When do you plan on leaving?"

"Probably tomorrow," Rei answered with a shrug. "I wanna leave soon so I can get back sooner. There's usually a decent amount of time in between attacks, so hopefully Vampire will take a break after nearly killing that water girl."

"River," Kaleb and Sky corrected in unison.

"Even her name is related to water," Rei replied, a bit defensively. "Maybe that's why she learned water magic."

"Maybe that should make it easier for you to actually remember her name," Kaleb retorted, earning an eye roll from Rei. Then Kaleb sighed, "Well, I hope you're right. And as long as nothing escalates while you're gone, we'll be fine. Just make sure you come back with a team that can take down these dark wizards."

"Of course," Rei said with a grin. Then she told Kaleb good bye before walking out of his office, leaving the door open and earning an annoyed sigh that Rei only heard because of her enhanced hearing. It also made her turn around and say in a slightly teasing tone, "Sorry, did you want this closed?"

Kaleb let out a sigh, "Yes, Rei, close my door."

Rei rolled her eyes, but did close the door before she walked out of the hall. She waved to Athena before walking out of the town hall with a better plan in mind. Now all she needed to do was pack and map out her route.

"You sometimes I wonder how that man puts up with you," Sky said with criticism in her voice.

"He's an old man," Rei started. Though, she couldn't figure out what else to say.

Sky gave her a confused look, "And that's relevant because?"

"Because he's an old man," Rei replied, crossing her arms and giving Sky a look.

The flying cat just let out a sigh, "Sometimes I just don't understand you."

Rei rolled her eyes and the two started their way back to their home. After just a few seconds on silence, the two were interrupted on their path when Evelyn ran in front of them.

"Rei! I'm coming with you to help you start the guild." Evelyn exclaimed, causing Rei and Sky to share a look.

"Evelyn, I don't feel you fully understand-" Sky started, only to be interrupted by Evelyn.

"No, I do understand. And my parents said I could go. There's no reason to not let me come with you." Evelyn said eagerly.

"There's actually a lot of reasons to not let you come with me," Rei retorted.

"But no good reasons," Evelyn countered. Rei opened her mouth to shoot back a retort, but then closed it, nothing coming to her mind. Evelyn took that as a victory, "See! Come on! Please let me come with you. More people will be interested in joining us if they know there's already two strong wizards in the guild."

"That is a fair point," Sky said, earning a look from Rei. "They'll have more confidence that this is a real thing if there's three of us rather than just an ambitious dragon slayer and her cat."

Rei let out a sigh, then she looked at Evelyn, "Yeah, alright, fine. You can come."

"Yes!"

"But," Rei interrupted, causing the excitement in Evelyn's eyes to waver, "if anyone else tries to come with me because of you, you can't come anymore. Also, we're gonna be gone for a long time and if you forget something, I'm not coming back."

"Got it! You won't be disappointed!" Evelyn exclaimed with a victorious grin.

"That's good," Rei replied with a small sigh, but a smile was on her face. Rei knew Evelyn was strong and, as much as she teased Evelyn, Rei really did enjoy having the teen around. Most of the time. "Well, we're leaving tomorrow, so make sure you're ready."

"Wait, tomorrow?" Evelyn questioned. "Isn't that a little soon?"

Rei shrugged, "We want to get a guild here as fast as possible, right? So we have to leave soon."

"Right..." Evelyn said, a little hesitantly. Then she let out a sigh and smiled, "I'll see you tomorrow then!"

"Yup! See you later, Evelyn." Rei said before Evelyn waved and ran off to her house.

Sky let out a long sigh and Rei gave her a questioning look, "What?"

"Nothing," Sky said, lightly shaking her head, "This trip is just going to be exhausting."