Fairy Tail: Swallow the Fire

32. Totomaru vs. Momonji

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Five months later, in February, year X779...

Momonji.

At a glance, you would assume a meer breeze would kill him. He was a small, skinny elderly man whose ribs were visible through the torn rags he was wearing. He had to use a staff to get around, and his eyebrows were bushy enough to obscure his vision.

But that was a mirage.

What he truly looked like was a large, muscular man with tanned skin, a bald head, and a pot belly. He commonly wore a set of large prayer beads around his neck with a baggy set of orange pants and sandals. The staff he used to walk around with was actually a giant kanabo. It was obvious that he used to be a monk, and apparently, his old monastery practised a dogma that meant no one was supposed to see their real appearance.

Didn't mean much when you were a notorious drunk and forgot to keep the mirage up.

Wouldn't be surprised if that's why he got excommunicated.

Still, his drunkenness aside plenty of people respected his raw strength and sneaky magic style. When you compare him to someone like Totomaru who was half his height and looked to have no muscle on him at all, your immediate thought would be that if the two fought Momonji would win.

It was this ignorance I was taking advantage of.

"Place your bets! Place your bets! Totomaru the Hot-Footed Rookie vs Momonji of the Illusionary Heat Wave!"

We have been here for barely seven months, and while our record of speedily and successfully accomplishing jobs was something that made us notable, it was not something that gave people confidence in our strength.

Being the reasonable person I am, I decided to take advantage of this and steal as much money from the people watching as I could.

Most people were betting high on Momonji, a wizard who has held his position on the Elemental Four for over ten years now. So in retaliation, I bet even higher, 1,000,000 J to be exact. Add in the liquid courage that I may or may not have been selling off to the side with the help of Giles, the bartender, and people opened up their wallets pretty easily thinking they could make some easy money off me.

By this end, Totomaru and I stand to make over 200,000,000 J!

Suckers! The whole lot of them!

This wasn't the only time I've tried to steal a lot of money from these idiots, nor the first time involving liquor. Guilds like this usually don't care who you are or how old you are so long as you pay for whatever you want, and that involves liquor.

I had managed to complete the first retraining seal on my body, allowing me to get some of the health benefits of my demon physiology without looking like one. In short, I successfully removed the need to disguise myself with Transformation Magic.

Demons have incredibly hearty bodies, and our livers were no exception.

A thirteen-year-old challenges a bunch of adults to a drinking contest with a 500,000 J prize. Everyone in the bar ends up passed out drunk while I'm standing on top of a mountain of empty kegs still trying to get drunk.

A lot of my money back in Himura came from poker night, and the ability to weaponise a perfect memory and the ability to count cards makes it easy for me to recognise tells and bluffs. Get them drunk, and taking money from everyone is easy.

But back to the present, Totomaru and Momonji were standing on the edge of a sand pit staring each other down. It looked like they were straight across from each other, but watching Totomaru's foot slowly change position without him looking away from the "elderly man" made it clear that Momonji was already making his move.