"Hey, what are you doing there?" Nero turned around to see an old man standing behind him. He was probably one of the residents of this village.
"Dammit, I let my guard down." he thought as the old man sized up the boy in front of him.
"Say kid, what are you doing here? Are lost or something?"
"Uhh..umm.yeah. I'm kinda lost, I guess."
"Hoo. Is that so." The old man hummed. Looking at Nero who was fidgeting like crazy, he could tell that it was a lie.
"That was definitely a lie. But he's just a kid. Why would a kid lie about being lost? Don't tell me he ran away from home!" The old man thought.
"Hey, kid. Tell me, did you run away from home.?"
"What! No obviously not. Well.." Nero paused and thought a little bit.
" Do this count as running away from home though. There is no home left and mom is also not there."
"So I was right." The old man stretched his hand and caught the boy's hand. If he really ran away from home, then his parents must be worried. So he decided to take the boy to the village and send him back with an adult.
"W..wait Just hear me out." Nero shook the old man's arm off.
[One long explanation later]
"So you can't find your mother. So you're headed to her homeland."
"Yeah." He nodded.
"Are you crazy boy? How can a kid like you travel that far away alone? You should have asked for help from one of your mother's friends."
"Oh. That might have been a good move too, I guess."
"That's the first thing anyone would have done." The old man grumbled.
"Hah, It can't be helped anyway. I already took off now. Either way, you don't have to worry about me being safe sir. I can fend myself." Nero flexed his nonexistent muscles.
"Hmm. I doubt it." The man looked at the kid in front of him worriedly.
"Really, I mean it. By the way are the people from this village going to the sea today."
"Going to the sea? Of course, they are. Do you want to go with them perhaps.?"
"Can I? I can pay you money if you want."
"Money! Hah, if I take money from a kid like you what good of an adult would be I" The old man responded turning around. And motioned Nero to follow him.
While they were walking towards the village the mean was thinking about the kid following.
His mother went missing a few months ago possibly dead. Without anyone other than her to depend on, he left home on his own to find her. He didn't look like lying to him. Which was the weirdest part.
Were all the kids this strong nowadays. He wondered.
After reaching the village, the old man who turned out to be the village elder introduced Nero to the people and explained the situation.
"Well, we can surely drop you at Caelum."
"Yeah, we have to go there to sell our fish either way." Another man also responded.
"Really. Thank you so much." Nero bowed towards them
"But will you be really okay with that? I mean you don't know anyone there do you?"
"No. I will have to figure out something about that. There are ships sailing to Fiore from there, right?"
"Mmm. There are, but they should cost quite the sum." An older fisherman replied. Since none of them had used the service the cost was a mystery.
"Aah, I do have some money with me. It should be enough." Nero once again checked his bag if the money is still there.
"OOyyy, you lot hurry up. it's time to go." A man shouted from the boats. The beach became busy after the signal as all the people were moving around, getting ready to set sail.
"Once again. Thank you for your help, elder." Nero thanked the elder one last.
"As I said. Don't worry about it. Now go, they waiting for you."
As Nero board the ship everything was in order to set off. The engines in the back of the boats revved up the boats slowly left the shore.
"Wow..this thing runs on magic!" Nero exclaimed inspecting the engines.
There was one each on every boat. A large lacrima crystal was embedded in it, which acted as a power source.
"Yeah, and it's hella expensive too." A young fisherman called Nick started explaining.
"For starters magic items are rare in Minstrel, on top of that we have to get this thing recharged every week or two."
"Aah, now that I think of it even magic items are not much used around here. huh"
"If you ask me, it's a very stupid thing." An older man replied.
"Just because some nutjob wreaked havoc with his magic hundreds of years ago, it doesn't mean all mages are evil."
"Oh..could you be talking about the legendary dark wizard" Nero remembered about a story his mother used to tell.
"Ya, Zeff or Zeref something. it was something like that. People believe all mages today are his descendants." Another man explained.
"I see, it is Zeref."
Zeref is said to have been the darkest, most evil Mage in the history of the Magic World, mastering the Black Arts and creating many Demons, some of which still wreak havoc in the present.
Several dark guilds worship him as their god even today. And tries to bring him back to life, so that he may reign in this world once more.
Time progressed as they finished the fishing and headed towards their destination. Caelum is a country surrounded by the sea. Therefore it was quite often used as a hub for travelers and merchants.
"Today must be our lucky day. What a haul." One of the fishermen exclaimed in glee.
"You guys don't get this much fish every time.?" A clueless Nero asked pointing at the heap of fish in the storage.
Fish were overflowing from the storage.
"You must be kidding me. If we got catch like this every day, we would filthy rich by no time." Nick replied trying to stuff the fish escaping from storage back inside.
"Still it's weird how all these fish went this way. It's not the season yet." The Boss of the fisherman seemed to be in thought looking into the sea.
As all seemed well, a giant shadow appeared in the water chasing the boat.
"Oye, boss. Something big seems to be following us." One of the men on the lookout shouted out catching everyone's attention.
Something was indeed following their ship. Swimming fast just behind their boat. But before they could do anything, the boat shook as if something hit it.
"Everyone grab onto something." The boss instructed everyone. Soon after a head sprouted out of water revealing the creature behind the attack.
"Shit..it's a water serpent."
A long body covered in slightly overlapping scales. Which are famous for their sturdiness. Its body was mostly blue with a yellow underbelly, and a row of yellow spots down each side.
After looking around, the serpent opened its gaping mouth, bearing four pointed teeth and yellow lips.
"Moove, it's charging an attack." Somebody screamed as panic spread in the ship. Water particles gathered around the serpent's mouth getting ready to obliterate the boat in front of it.
They tried to move the boat by increasing the engine power, but the serpent was obstructing it.
"Why would a water serpent appear here. Its territory is nowhere near here."
"Those fishes, they were being chased by it. We, unfortunately, caught it." Boss banged his hand on the floor regretting everything.
Water serpents are omnivorous creatures. They rarely attack humans, unless they invade their territory or in this case steal their prey.
Water finished gathering and spiraled around its mouth indicating the attack would land anytime now.
Just as it seemed all hope was lost, a harpoon landed on one of its eyes.
Followed by the remaining ones that embedded themselves onto its body. Everybody turned around shocked, to see Nero with all harpoons on the ship with him.
[Nero POV]
"Why, why does something like this happens every time." Nero thought as the water serpent started charging its attack.
"This is bad. There's no ground anywhere near. The seafloor is too deep to be even sensed. What can I do." As he looked around there was nothing to be found that can be used for his magic.
Finally looking around, he found the harpoons fishermen used to catch big fish.
"This could work. But metal is really hard to control. As soon as it leaves my hand, I'll lose control over it."
Nero's magic could be used to control all earthen elements. Although something like metal was processed, it also had earthen elements in it that could be manipulated. But as the purity increases the less control he has.
Currently, Nero could only barely control them while in contact. Which is already a big feat itself.
"My only option is to use magic to boost the throwing power of harpoons so they hit hard enough to pierce." he thought picking up the iron spear harpoons and aimed at the angry sea serpent.
But as he looked at it his hands hesitated.
"I'm about to take the life of another creature.."
"But if I don't all of these people.." He looked around to see the fishermen running around, screaming in panic.
Gripping the harpoon hard, Nero readied his stance. The water attack of the serpent was about to be fired. If he wasted any more time, all would be lost.
"They were kind enough to take a stranger like me with them, if I don't do this now I'm no better than trash..." His body almost automatically moved, throwing the harpoon with all the might, and boosted their force with magic before they left his hand.
The harpoon pierced through the wind with a shrill and embedded itself right into the serpent's right eye.
"Haa...I did it. No stopping now." Nero took in a breath as blood sprouted from the serpent's eyes.
Without wasting any more time, he took the next one and launched them one by one.
"N...Nero.? How did you.."
"No time to explain. Let's get out of here first." The boy shouted to gain everyone's attention.
"H..he's right. Let's escape quickly before it recovers." Everybody was once again in their right mind now, as a chance had appeared.
"Full speed ahead." The boss commanded as the worker pulled the trigger revving the engines to the maximum. the boat sped forward with great speed, leaving a bleeding and injured sea serpent behind.
After reaching a considerable distance they returned it back to normal speed. All the fishermen gathered around Nero, thanking him and complimenting his strength.
"Man..you're strong. So this is why you said, you can handle yourself." The young fishermen Nick pointed out.
"Still I can't believe you had the strength to pierce a sea serpent's scales with a normal harpoon."
"Are they really that hard," Nero scratched his head with embarrassment.
"Of course. Their scales are coveted around the world. They can be used to make really strong shields and armor."
"Hmm...I must thank you, Nero. Without you, we'd been history by now." The boss also came forward.
"Really, you don't have to thank me, boss. You guys are helping me too after all."
Soon after everyone dismissed and went back to doing their own things. Nero was alone once again. Feeling the sea breeze past him. He leaned onto the deck of the boat.
His hands were still shaking from all that had just transpired.
"Huff. I made it work somehow. I can't even imagine what would have happened if I had hesitated one more second." He tried to imagine that situation once more and shuddered.
"That was magic wasn't it." The boss of the ship asked walking towards him.
"Hmm, what did you say?"
"Those idiots might not have noticed it amongst the panic and everything. But a young kid like you can't have such strength to pierce a sea serpent's scales."
"..."
"I understand, Minstral is not quite the best place for a mage to stay in. You were right in concealing that."
"I...I see. So you.."
"What! you think I'll sell you out after you saved my life. I'm not that petty kid." He said smacking Nero's back.
"Ouch...Thanks...I guess."
"You seriously need to stop thanking people every time they do something."
By the time they reached the Harbor town Moonmere, the sun was almost setting.
"Woah. Finally reached. Say Nero what are you gonna do now.?"
"Mmm...I need to go check if a ship is available now or not." Nero replied taking his luggage out of the boat.
"Shall I send someone with you? Will you be okay?"
"I'll manage somehow. Thanks for the consideration Boss."
"Haha...then till we meet again." He said shaking the boy's hands.
"Don't forget to visit us when you return Okay." One of the other fishermen told him.
"Of course. Goodbye guys." Nero said one final goodbye after jumping onto the harbor and waved his hand at the departing ship.
"Now...Let's get a ride.."'
