"You parents, I'll go visit them often."
The village chief continued speaking, which made tears well up in Juvia's eyes as she looked at him.
"Go. It's good for everyone."
The village chief went on. He didn't want to see the day when Juvia would be driven out by everyone, but that seemed inevitable.
So instead of that, it was better for Juvia to leave now with Moen and go to Fairy Tail. Other guilds might be fine, but this was Fairy Tail, its reputation spoke for itself.
Moen suddenly understood. No wonder Juvia had hesitated. Her parents' graves were here. The village chief had said earlier that she only became like this after her parents passed away.
It could only be said that there were really quite a lot of children in the guild who had no parents.
"Sir Moen… I'm willing to go with you."
Juvia looked at Moen and finally made her decision.
In truth, Juvia understood it herself. Everyone wanted her to leave the village. Even though the village chief had been doing his best to protect her, as the chief, he couldn't stay guarding her house forever. There would always be times when he couldn't look after her.
The villagers' disgust deepened day by day, their resentment growing day by day. Juvia had already clearly felt it in her daily life.
If she had somewhere else to go, if her parents' graves weren't still here, she wouldn't want to stay in the village and trouble everyone either.
Of course, the most important thing was that with her current condition, wherever she went, she would bring trouble to others. She could only hide alone in deep mountains and forests but she truly didn't have the courage to do that.
Mira's family had dared to leave for two reasons. First, they really couldn't stay in the village anymore—the villagers were already on the verge of openly clashing with them. Second, the three siblings could support each other, and Mira's Demon Arm had some combat capability.
Mira's family and Juvia's situation weren't quite the same. Looking at the girl before him, Moen felt genuine sympathy. If he hadn't come, her future probably wouldn't have been good.
Well… that wasn't necessarily certain. If another guild had accepted the commission, Juvia might have been taken away by a different guild.
"You don't need to call me 'sir.' I'm not much older than you. Just call me Moen."
Moen smiled and nodded at Juvia, correcting her way of addressing him. Being called that made him seem much older, when in reality he was only thirteen this year.
Juvia was the same age as Lisanna and Levy, two years younger than him.
"O-okay… Brother Moen."
Juvia timidly corrected how she addressed him. She lacked confidence and had long been trapped in a state of self-loathing.
After deciding to leave with Moen, fear rose in Juvia's heart, the fear of an unknown future.
"Don't be nervous, Juvia. Everyone in the guild is very kind. Fairy Tail is a warm family. Everyone is like family. You'll definitely adapt quickly."
Seeing Juvia's fear, Moen spoke to comfort her. He introduced the guild's children—some who used ice magic, some fire, some armor, and some who could transform into demons.
"Demons?"
That word immediately caught Juvia's attention. She overcame her fear and asked with a bit of curiosity.
In the common understanding of people in this world, demons were synonymous with disaster—extremely evil and terrifying beings.
So upon hearing that there were actually demons within Fairy Tail, Juvia naturally felt curious and surprised, to the point where the other kinds of magic seemed ordinary in comparison.
"Yes, demons. That girl experienced something similar to you. Her family had it even worse, they were directly driven out by the villagers."
Moen nodded and spoke about Mira's family's experience. This immediately resonated with Juvia. So she wasn't the only one like this. She knew she wasn't far from being driven out herself, her experience was exactly the same as that Sister Mira's.
What people needed most was resonance and recognition. After learning about Mira's experience, Juvia's emotions quickly stabilized, and she began to feel more anticipation toward Fairy Tail. Her fear of the unknown future gradually faded.
The most obvious sign of this emotional change was the rain outside growing lighter. It had gone from a steady drizzle to just the occasional drops. Her emotions were truly easy to read.
"I need to go complete the village chief's commission first. Juvia, wait here for me. Once I'm done, I'll come back and take you away."
Seeing that Juvia's emotions had gradually stabilized, Moen felt reassured and prepared to leave. The task still needed to be done.
By now, he also vaguely understood something. The reason this village had been able to exist peacefully here was absolutely thanks to Juvia, the 'Rain Girl.' Whether it was the bandits in the forest or the magical beasts, they would all think twice upon seeing the village's situation.
This kind of magic directly affected the weather. Anyone who didn't understand what was going on would feel uneasy—especially magical beasts with limited intelligence. They wouldn't dare approach the village at all.
As for the bandits, whenever they came, the rain would fall like blades. If they didn't run, they'd probably be beaten to death by the rain.
If Juvia left without these two hidden dangers being dealt with, then the next time she came back, she'd probably be collecting bodies for the entire village.
"Mm… Brother Moen, I'll wait for you here."
Juvia nodded seriously. She would obediently stay at home and wait.
After arranging everything on this side, Moen left together with the village chief. The old village chief told Moen the general direction of the bandits' camp. Naturally, he didn't know the exact location, and the same went for the magical beast's lair, Moen would have to find those himself.
Although the intelligence was pitifully scarce, Moen could understand. Expecting these villagers to gather much information was indeed asking too much.
Moen headed into the mountains. Although the Kingdom of Fiore had a population of more than twenty million, its land area was not small. Many places were sparsely populated, with vast stretches of undeveloped forests everywhere. With this distorted level of technology, infrastructure was simply like this.
And these large expanses of undeveloped forests provided excellent hiding places for bandits, and even dark guilds. Ordinary people didn't dare wander into such wilderness casually—forget humans, even wild beasts and magical beasts were enough to be fatal to normal people.
However, Moen was already extremely experienced at exploring places like this. He was practically about to evolve into a wilderness survival master.
Ever since he was allowed to take on higher-difficulty missions outside, the tasks Moen accepted were basically all combat-oriented—either suppressing bandits or hunting magical beasts.
To complete these missions, it was only natural that he had to constantly drill through all kinds of forests, and also possess extremely reliable tracking abilities.
Putting it this way, Moen being able to write The Great Detective Folmos was actually quite believable. His daily mission routine involved locking onto bandits and magical beasts in the forest through various subtle clues. That observational ability really did have a bit of a Folmos feel to it.
Detective Moen entered the forest, and in less than two days, he found the mission target.
"As expected, it's another group organized by mages."
Casually destroying a crude warning magic array, Moen shook his head. There were plenty of mages who didn't want to abide by the Magic Council's regulations.
These people believed themselves to be superior, feeling that the current status of mages didn't match their expectations, and thus transformed into vicious bandits who bullied others.
The status of mages was already transcendent enough—so much so that secular law couldn't even govern them. But what those people wanted was to completely stand above ordinary humans, rather than coexist harmoniously as they did now. They wanted ordinary humans to become outright slaves.
Boom!
Moen kicked the wooden gate of the camp flying. Inside, the bandits were already fully assembled, because Moen hadn't concealed his arrival at all, he had directly triggered the warning magic.
"A kid?"
Seeing Moen, the bandits all froze for a moment.
"Looking for death?!"
Seeing Moen's youthful face, the bandits instantly relaxed. They laughed arrogantly, their faces full of thuggish smugness.
"Hah, that's the flavor!"
Seeing this scene, Moen couldn't help but laugh.
He had been praised nonstop recently, as if the whole world already knew his name. Feeling once again the sensation of being looked down upon by a bunch of low-level lackeys gave him a long-lost feeling.
"Come fight! Watch me beat all of you to your knees!"
Moen said with a grin, striking a stance. A move—Pegasus Meteor Fist was unleashed, countless fist shadows pouring out like ten thousand galloping horses.
[Pegasus Meteor Fist · Intermediate, Proficiency: 121/1000]
A system notification popped up. The proficiency increased by one point.
With that punch, countless fist shadows erupted under the surge of magic power. The momentum of ten thousand galloping horses was no joke, it truly was magic power pouring out like a stampede.
The bandits fell all over the ground, not a single one able to move. Several mage leaders collapsed to their knees without any ability to resist, completely wiped out by Moen in a single clean sweep. The entire camp looked as if it had been trampled by ten thousand horses.
Intermediate Pegasus Meteor Fist was indeed much stronger, but the difficulty of leveling it had also increased significantly. That strike only raised proficiency by one point.
In other words, he would need to take down at least eight or nine hundred bandit camps to level it up—no, that wasn't quite right. The further it progressed, the harder it became. It might take thousands upon thousands of bandit camps.
"Looks like I really need stronger opponents."
Moen sighed. Farming experience from bandit camps like this was already becoming inefficient. It wasn't even as good as fighting a decently strong magical beast.
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