Fairy Tail: Broken Hearts

Chapter 5

Time Skip: A month

I walked around a large town, staring down at that map that I had of the continent, and was zoomed in on a town named Hargeon. I was walking down the street trying to find a shop that was somewhere around here.

I turned the corner and looked up past the side of my hood to see the sign that I was looking for. I put my map away and pulled my hood farther over my head to make sure that it wouldn't fall off before walking in and seeing an old man behind the counter, he was wearing a hat and had squinting eyes, with a long skinny neck.

"Hello, how can I help you today?" He asked me as I approached the counter.

"I'm looking for magic shops." I told him. "And this seems to be the only one that's listed on my map."

"Oh, well that would be because this is the only magic shop." He smiled at me happily.

"The only magic shop in town?" I asked him, not believing that such a large town would only have one magic shop.

"That's right" He said. "And don't be mistaken for its size, not many people here in Hargeon actually use magic often."

"How could that be if this is a magic-based game?" I asked him.

"Well not everyone is put out to be a wizard." The old man said. "I mean look at me, I'm old and frail anymore these days. The game's system could see that and didn't assign me to a magical roll because I'm not strong enough to be able to defend myself."

"You're real?" I asked, and he nodded. "So far I've only met AI shop keepers." I told him, and I couldn't help but ask. "Why are you here?"

"My grandchildren were the ones that got me interested in games. Especially since I'm old and can't travel very easily anymore. So they got me the nerve gear system so I could still go places." He told me smiling at me.

"And are your grandkids in the game as well?" I asked him.

"Thankfully no." He told me. "They don't have a nerve gear system yet, they're too young to be using it. And after this, I don't think my son will let them even touch it." He looked down at the counter and laughed to himself for a moment. "Now." He looked up to look at me and put on his working smile. "How can I help you?"

"I'm looking for some Celestial Spirit keys." I told him straight out. "I heard that this shop might have some."

"Well let me check." He waved his hand down and started searching through the store's inventory. After about a minute he hit an item on the list and a small display box showed up on the counter. "Is this what you're looking for?" He slid it towards me and there was a silver key, with what looked like a blue dog on it.

"Yes, that is a celestial key!" I said, trying not to get too excited about it in case he was going to up the price on me. "How much?"

"Twenty-thousand jewel."

"I'm sorry?" I said and felt like I just had an aneurysm. "I thought I heard you say twenty-thousand?"

"That's right." He told me with a nod. "Even though this key isn't the most powerful, it is still a powerful magic. And therefore gives you expensive magic."

"But twenty-thousand jewels?" I questioned. How was this key so expensive when I bought probably stronger silver keys just a few weeks ago, nowhere near even half of that. And that's including golden keys.

"If you don't want it, then I'll sell it to someone else who does." He told me and went to put it back into the inventory.

"No!" I yelled and grabbed the box before it went back into the inventory. He looked at me, and I huffed out a sigh. "I'll take it."