Fairy Tail: Dragon Prince

3. Homecoming

Standing on the deck of the Grimoire Heart airship Rades found himself staring down at what was supposed to be his landing destination. His brown eyes aglow with a crimson aura, casted with enchantment, enabled him to see even further beneath the clouds, that obscured the view of the naked eye.

"This will be enough." He spoke, cancelling the spell in his eyes, their color returning to normal. He spared a glance behind him to meet the gaze of the dark guild master and his protege, Ultear. "Here to see me off?"

"No. Just here to give you a reminder of our deal." Hades answered before tossing an object towards the teen. The latter caught it before inspecting it. It was a communication lacrima. "One favor, whatever I ask you for."

After regaining consciousness, Rades was given a briefing about the current state of affairs in the world since he seemed to have lost quite the lot of time being frozen in there and was in dire need of catching up to the present. Despite his best attempts to hide it, both Hades and Ultear could sense that he was lost on purpose, uncertain about the path he should be taking from here on. 

Personally, Hades wanted him to join his guild, having gauged his powers and potential, and was well aware of the fact that he would be a force to be reckoned with, proving to be a great asset to his guild.

Unfortunately for him, Rades declined his offer, expressing his desire to go to his hometown where he was born and brought up. In the end, the teen agreed to grant Hades one favor in exchange for saving his life by unfreezing him. From what the guild master observed, the teen wasn't a big fan of being in someone's debt. 

"I told you, I don't break promises." Rades answered, putting the lacrima in the pocket of his reddish-brown jacket that he wore above a faint green t-shirt with string tassels in the collar. Brown trousers along with a pair of trekking shoes of dusty-brown color complimented his attire. "You can turn around your ship from here."

"We just arrived at the borders. At least wait for us to get at to a better landing spot." Ultear spoke up, curious as to why he wanted them to turn their ship around.

"Who said about landing this ship? I am going to jump." Rades answered, making it sound as if jumping down from a moving airship was the most normal thing to do.

"...Are you sure that you didn't lose your intelligence when your brain was frozen?" The purple-haired girl skeptically eyed him as though he had sprouted a second head. 

"I noticed armies mobilized in several parts of the kingdom, all armed and ready for any kind of fight which may break out if a ship belonging to a dark guild makes a landing out of nowhere." The brunette pointed out before adding to his statement with a casual shrug. "I don't mind making a good landing if you all prefer to have some needless fights."

The option of turning their airship back seemed more favorable for Grimoire Heart. After all, they had no real reason to engage in a needless conflict with a kingdom with which they had no involvement with, nor having any plans to get involved with it further down the line. 

"Fine, we will turn the airship around from here." Hades spoke up, having made his mind. "This is farewell then, Rades Bernhart."

"Don't you accidently die while jumping back to your home." Ultear added, crossing her arms.

She wouldn't admit it out loud but she did harbor a bitter feeling on him leaving. Despite the short time they had spent after he was brought to the airship, with her literally tutoring him regarding everything in the present he was unknown about, she had come to accept him as her friend, something she had never done before. She always had believed that friends were unnecessary, especially to a member of a dark guild.