33 Chapter 33 - Too Charming for Me

"I don't like this plan. Change it."

Locki frowned at the spikey blonde who leaned against the wall across from him. Laxus was probably some posterboy for Fairy Tail's up-and-coming S-ranks. It fit with the "Bad boy" image the teen seemed to employ. He wore a sleeveless shirt with fur trim that showed his muscular arms, and a pair of spiked earmuffs covered his ears in a way that Locki wondered just how he actually heard anything. Even the lightning bolt scar across his right eye only stood out more as a clear way to show Laxus' character than anything else.

He had only heard a small snippet of Laxus when Drumlowe asked if the teen had come to Evermont on his orders. Locki knew there was a random lightning storm that occurred in one part of the city shortly before the random call, so all the young guildmaster had on him was that Laxus had some form of lightning magic and a penchant for arrogance. And, among other things, the ability to start shit in Evermont and get away.

Locki knew he was only a year or two older than the other blonde, but Laxus was the S-rank between the two of them. He had the strength and background to back up his arrogance and attitude.

However, Locki wasn't going to let someone –Gildarts aside– walk over him easily.

"Does anyone else share your thoughts?" Locki asked, looking around the room. He made a point to look at Gildarts, getting a shrug and a frown from the redheaded man.

"Thought so," Locki said with finality. He regarded Laxus again, wondering when it was that he got used to staring down S-ranks. "If you have any suggestions, I am willing to hear you out. However, if you don't, then don't speak up."

Laxus frowned and Locki felt the air crackle with some unseen force. Gyutaro and Daki turned to look at the mage, but a small black-haired girl had already materialized in front of Laxus.

"No fighting!" The girl, Cana, reprimanded. Laxus' face pinched as he stared down the girl before he scoffed and turned his head away.

"Fine. However, I don't want to be associated with a jailbreak…" Laxus explained.

Gildarts nodded visibly. "I second that. We can't do anything. You shouldn't have given the Pirate Queen and her doctor to the Rune Knights if you planned to use them to find the Tower of Heaven in the first place. Can we not just get their information through the Rune Knights?"

"No, that would not be the best choice." Locki shook his head as he gathered his thoughts. He looked over the group, eyeing each of them carefully.

From the moment Ghost had said for him to not "join the siege on the Tower," Locki had originally thought that that was because of Kagura's situation. Well… that probably was part of the case, but Locki felt things didn't quite add up. His acquisition of the [Dimension Formation: Shambhala] had proved that he didn't really need to be physically present to be a threat.

If it was anything else, Locki would have assumed that Ghost meant to give him the ability to intervene from Evermont to the Tower at a distance. It was why he first suspected that there would be important things to do back in Evermont as Ghost was as invested as he was. However, if that was the case, Ghost would have probably informed him in Rebecca's message.

Yet, Ghost never forbade him from not participating in the mission to destroy the Tower of Heaven; just that he couldn't be part of the siege. Which meant that there was another facet he couldn't see. A way for the Tower of Heaven to simply hide from probing eyes. At the back of his mind, Locki remembered where he attracted quite a bit of heat to its existence when he was brought into the Magic Council's branch for questioning. The results from their investigations, according to Lon, were always suspiciously inconclusive.

From Ghost's declaration, Locki had enough context clues to understand one simple fact he didn't believe at first.

"I have reason to believe that the Tower of Heaven is sponsored partly by one or multiple parties in the Balam Alliance. And that they have a reasonable influence in the Magic Council Branches or ability to influence those branches of the countries that border the Calm Sea." Locki revealed to those present.

Gyutaro, Daki, and Cana didn't really have the context to understand his words, but Cana at least understood the severity of what he revealed. Her tiny fist curled into fists as she frowned at the floor after she saw Gildarts' reaction. Laxus' face immediately twisted into something between shock and a grimace. Gildarts' face was perhaps the most interesting of them all; the redhead looked almost resigned to information he had suspected.

"You already had an idea, huh?" Locki asked the mage, gathering all eyes onto Gildarts.

Gildarts sighed as he tried not to meet Cana's wide, innocent eyes. "When all our contacts in Fiore's Magic Council branch said they couldn't help us further, I had already suspected something was wrong. I just… Well, I had hoped that they were just cautious when dealing with Dark Guilds."

"So you knew this all along and didn't say anything?" Laxus seemed to take issue with Gildarts' inaction as he glared at the redhead.

"Don't make fun of him!" Cana glared right back at the spikey blonde.

Locki looked at the dysfunctional group, trying hard to not run a tired hand across his face. "Like I was saying, you both do not need to help Rebecca and Stein escape from prison, they will be able to escape on their own."

Locki cheered inside as he saw the group stop their arguing and turn to him. He stood in front of a large empty, food crate that he repurposed into their meeting table. They had commandeered a fairly empty food storage room on one of the lower sections of the boat, telling the Rune Knights that they needed some rest with a liberal use of [Enchanting Speak].

The young guildmaster spread a map of the Calm Sea across the crate. It had been mapped out with the help of Rebbeca's group and Locki had kept it as reference. He placed an apple near the coast of Hargeon Port.

"This is us," he said, pointing at the apple. Locki brought out two wrinkly grapes and moved them to a point a little ways away from the coast. "This is where you will be meeting up with Rebecca and Stein, and you three," he pointed at Gildarts, Laxus, and Cana. "Will team up with Gyutaro and Daki as well as whatever Rune Knights decide to join your cause when they find out what is actually happening."

Gildarts hummed, scratching his chin. "I still don't like that you want to include the knights… They will not help against strong enough mages."

"But they will be able to handle captives or weaker mages so that you can just fight against any more credible threat."

"What other threats are there going to be?" Laxus asked from the side.

Locki sighed, running a hand down his face. He knew it was a reasonable question when one of their members was Gildarts, but Locki erred on the side of caution. "Rebecca had information that the two Dark Guilds who ran the seedier elements of Hargeon might have ties to the Tower of Heaven. In addition, Ultear was monitoring our movements for the past couple weeks we were in Hargeon. I'd be surprised if the Balam Alliance didn't send any S-rank mages to confront us. Especially when they know Gildarts is coming."

"You told them that d– Gildarts would be here?" Cana chirped angrily as if he committed the most vile of sins. Locki took offense to that; he only commits a moderate amount of evil.

"Gildarts isn't the most stealthy of individuals." Locki explained with a wry smile. "There's probably plenty of people who are tasked with just keeping track of him. Right?"

Gildarts nodded solemnly. "Yeah… I can see that."

"N– no way…" Cana mumbled, staring at the floor before her gaze turned sharper. Locki could hear the girl whisper that she "needed to be stronger" to herself.

"So, expect the mission to be harder. What about you? What are you doing in all of this?" Laxus asked as he took the apple off the makeshift planning table and took a bite.

Locki put another apple –from his [Subspace Ring]– on the table and brought out a needle that he poked into the apple. "Kagura and I will focus on the other side of things. We have an unknown amount of enemies in the Council, so I will need to infiltrate the place and somehow uncover them without drawing too much ire."

Gildarts nodded, humming to himself. "That's fine and all, but how is the girl able to help you?"

"I am… unsure." Locki revealed, shaking his head. "I do not know how long she'll be out, but I am expecting her to be able to get up when I need help."

"So, you're gonna be the only one who is going after the whole Magic Council?" Laxus asked, clearly amused.

Locki nodded, trying to ignore the teen's jab at his abilities. "Yeah, I am the best option to not cause too much trouble. Gildarts or you would send the moles or members who seek to hide the Tower of Heaven into their little holes, and both of you need to be present to take on any enemies who are a part of the Tower of Heaven."

"So long as I am there, I don't think there would be anyone who can stop me nearby. This Balam Alliance might not even be there." Gildarts said, shrugging as if it was a humble response. "On your side, you don't know how much of Fiore's Magic Council is corrupt. All of them might be against you when you get there."

Locki wanted to deny again, but Gildarts did have a fairly strong point. The young guildmaster had already been proven wrong when Drumlowe spoke against his idea that the Magic Council would protect him. Logically, there was no way for all of the higher ups in Fiore's Magic Branch to be associated with the Balam Alliance. However, Locki knew that if he went in there and accused everyone and threatened their profits, then there was a good chance that, allies of the Alliance or not, they would team up to suppress him.

The blonde chewed his lip as he looked around the room. Gyutaro and Daki were good choices, but he needed them to actively get rid of the more dangerous elements of the Tower of Heaven. There was no chance that the Fairy Tail mages would ever decide to put some down for good, and Locki trusted the twins to follow his desire to eliminate the key personnel inside the Tower. At the same time, removing one of them would weaken his guild's presence in the operation, making it possible for the Fairy Tail mages to more readily call the shots.

In the end, it all came down to Locki's own ability to trust people he didn't know to not screw him over. He was paranoid, distrustful, and definitely not well liked by most people. Despite all that, Gildarts, Laxus, and Cana had put their trust into his hands, giving him reign of the plans.

Locki sighed, relenting. He could not get everything he wanted all the time.

"Daki, Gyutaro," Locki said, getting the attention of the demons. "Between you two, decide who will go with me."

"I can go. I'd rather not deal with those girls again." Daki said, shrugging.

Locki nodded as he looked over at Gildarts, trying not to regret what he was about to ask. "Can I… trust you to take over the command when you meet up with everyone?"

"Huh? What?" Gildarts blinked, annoyingly seeming confused at the change. He pointed to himself as if Locki addressed someone else. "Me?"

Locki pinched his brow. "No, I meant Cana."

"Really?" Cana popped up excitedly.

"It was sarcasm, runt." Laxus said snidely, but Locki found that the teen's body language seemed more at ease and less tense.

"Is there something wrong with what I asked?" Locki tried to bring the conversation back on track.

Gildarts waved awkwardly, scratching his head. "It is just a bit surprising. I expected you to fight the issue more."

Locki sighed. "Fair. I understand what you mean, but you all are –well, probably not Gildarts, but Cana and Laxus are risking your lives over the information that only I had gained. I would be cautious if someone came to me and asked me to fight on their orders. So," Locki pulled out a sub-orb from his [Limitless Communications Unit] and tossed it towards Gildarts. "Just keep me updated, and I will try to get you out of there if something goes wrong."

Gildarts seemed like he had something to say, but chose to just nod carefully as he took the sub-orb and tucked it into his pant's pocket. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it." Locki ignored Cana's sparkling eyes as she stared between the two of them. She reminded him too much of Kagura.

He wondered if that made Kagura his surrogate sibling as he carefully noted the resemblance between Cana and Gildarts. Hopefully, the man didn't treat this mission like a family outing.

...

Locki hadn't had the chance to study how Rune Knights captured criminals. He had, after all, given himself into custody when in Evermont, and he didn't really have further inclination to actually give himself up.

Standing outside an empty cell, Locki was given a full view on the possible mechanisms. Rune Knights scoured every point of the room as others milled about to stop water from flowing in through the large hole at the back of the cell. Two chains with broken manacles lay on the floor as water soaked into the dark wood.

Looking a little closer, Locki could see some type of inscription on the chain made in an odd purple font. Dark Ecriture was something he had set his eyes on long ago; its usefulness was something he couldn't quite ignore. However, beyond the fact that his affinity and mutability limited him, the actual language of runes also stumped him.

Dark Ecriture was a standardized magic in the sense that it was conceptualized by a singular kingdom that fell to ruins long ago. The original scripts that were gathered from its fall were then translated and later spread across Ishtar as research groups that were funded by various kingdoms decided that the magic should reach as many hands as possible. Of course, this led to the conclusion that the magic only really was used by Casters who had a propensity for Letter Magic or some other informational magic as Dark Ecriture needed the mage to calculate, analyze, and have the money to buy all the books related to it.

Though, the sheer number of books tended to stump people in the first place. Seven thousand page long tomes were only the primer of the runes themselves, and only once you had a grasp of them could you consider yourself a beginner in said magic.

To put it simply, Locki didn't have the time nor money to dabble in such a subject, so he took the learning opportunity with relish.

"Do you see anything, Sir Wyn?"

Locki turned to the Rune Knight who had helped them capture Ultear spoke up as he looked over the runes on the chains. The blonde guildmaster didn't really understand them, but there was a sort of flow to them as they moved to a white sphere embedded within the broken manacles.

"They're not mages, or at least, their magic is subtle enough that these inscriptions can't stop it." Locki spitballed. He had no idea if you could spoof the Rune Knight's runes –it was in their name– but Locki just needed to waste their time.

"Such a thing…"

Which seemed to work. Locki watched the knights who listened in sag in defeat as they stared at the hole in the ship. They were too far from Hargeon to dismiss the damage to the ship and pursue the escaped Rebecca and Stein, so they were stuck in indecision.

"What's done is done," Locki said, getting their attention. "The fact remains that the other captive is still on board, so we should split up into different groups to pursue them while another regroups in Hargeon. I say that Gildarts and his team from Fairy Tail are the best options, and I can sponsor Gyutaro from my own guild to go with them."

The Rune Knight seemed almost stunned with Locki's offer as he nodded fast enough that Locki thought he might get whiplash. "Thank you, sir! I can assemble a team of a few of my trusted knights to support them. I take it you will be traveling with your incapacitated daughter?"

Locki coughed into his hand. Did he look that old? "Kagura is my guild member. And yes, Daki and I will make sure she is okay. However, this situation doesn't sit that well with me. I was the one to bring you guys here and capture the Pirate Queen, so it should be my fault that she escaped. If your superiors need someone to put the blame on, I can offer myself for questioning."

"S– sir… you don't need to do this." The Rune Knight's voice trembled as if he were about to break into tears. Nearby, Locki could hear the knights around them sniffle as they worked hurriedly.

Locki smiled as best as he could fake it. "I am doing it for your guys' sake."

"I– I'll make sure nothing happens to you, sir!"

"I'll trust you with my life." Locki lied as he wondered just how innocent these Rune Knights were. Was this really the face of the Magic Council's soldiers?

Just as Locki was wondering who gullible the Rune Knights were, a panicked knight entered the room in a huff. He looked between Locki and the knight next to him before he grew silent and solemn.

"S– sir Wyn. I… We chanced on a rare spot in the Calm Sea that could receive signals. There's a uhm," he floundered as he spoke, shifting on the balls of his feet as he took out a small Communications Lacrima. Drumlowe's face was firmly staring back at him. Locki almost felt his heart jump into his throat as the man's genial smile no longer reached his eyes.

"I take it your search came up empty." He said simply as if it weren't a Rune Knight who held the Lacrima.

Locki swallowed silently, feeling pins and needles at the sudden intrusion to his plans. "There have been some complications, but they're being dealt with."

"Understandable, I will get to the point then." The old mage smiled at him. They had been in talks before, and Drumlowe had smiled many times in those. However, this one was dark. Evil. It sent a wave of chills down his spine. "I need you to go to Fiore's Magic Council branch in the capital. There have been talks about the Magic Council going to crack down on all forms of Charm or Social-type Magics. I will give you further mission details later."

Locki nodded silently. Mission details. Drumlowe never said anything illegal, and he never said anything that would arouse confusion in the Rune Knights around him. They didn't really see anything wrong with the call beyond a smiling, grandfatherly mage. Locki could only lock eyes with the trembling Rune Knight in front of him as the man no doubt knew that he knew he was a mole.

And for Drumlowe to actively reveal a mole, give him an irrefusable mission, and… that smile. Locki knew that the man was serious. Whatever he asked, Locki needed to accomplish. To Drumlowe, it didn't matter if they revealed they were working together or if the man had further plans for his Magic Guild, this sudden mission seemed to supersede everything.

On top of all that, he still needed to uncover a mole from the Balam Alliance within the Council…

Once again, Locki felt a headache.

[Guild Quest]

Urgent!

Rank: Unknown

Stop the Magic Council from banning Charms Magic!

Rewards: Three Tier 3 Blue Prisms, Two Tier 2 Gold Prisms

Failure Penalties: Forever lose [Dimensional Guild System], Labeled as a Dark Mage, possible death and dismemberment

Ah, that made it more succinct. Locki nodded to himself as he read over the mission he hadn't seen in awhile. He realized this was an issue that he also needed to address immediately, and from the rewards, Locki felt that it wouldn't be as simple as just asking it to stop.

"Noh, you shouldn't accept random calls even if they are going to someone on the ship." The Rune Knight beside Locki berated Noh as the man took back the Lacrima. Locki gave Noh a glance as the man shuddered under his gaze.

"Sorry about Drumlowe." Locki smiled sheepishly to the knights around them. He played up the part of embarrassment as he blushed and rubbed the back of his head. "The man always looks out for me where I'm from, so he sometimes sends me on missions to get to know different policies guildmasters need to take into account. I swear he's a slave driver."

All factual statements, really.

A couple of chuckles and head shakes and Locki felt like he had successfully duped them. Another knight began to open up about his grandfather's expectations of him, and this brought along the floodgates of people who vied to tell the nuggets of wisdom their fathers or grandfathers had told them.

Locki just smiled and nodded as he listened. Inwardly, he panicked about how complicated his mission had become. Why couldn't things just be simple!