Keeping Promise

V

"Been so long since I've seen the Golden Castle,"Natsu sighed sadly, looking around at the abandoned city the ruined castle sat upon. It was a massive pile of stone and wood, then decaying houses of the same material, the stone eroding and falling apart. the wood frame of the homes had not been maintained; breaking and taking stone with it.
"I remember coming to the Golden city once, it was so lively,"Gray stated, looking around,"Who knew just a group of attackers, weapons, and a fire could do so much."
"Did you come during a festival?"Happy asked.
"Yeah, with my deceased mentor Ur and partner Lyon,"he nodded,"During the Golden festival, I remember it vividly. But I do recall it being a happy event and everyone was happy and not a soul was frowning, including myself."
"The Golden Festival, huh..."Natsu kicked some of the ruble,"That was the festival held at the end of the year to adorn the new year and would last for three days. The day before the last day of the year, the last day, then the day after. They titled the three days 'Golden Days'."
"This place has a lot of 'Golden' in it, but I see no gold anywhere,"Happy scanned the area,"Was it stolen?"
"No, the metal had nothing to do with the city and castle. The Golden city was entitled to be the City of Smiles, other words 'The Golden City'. Since everyone was so happy almost everyday even through hard ships, but the true name of the city was Konzern and the castle's original name was Heartfillia Konzern,"Erza explained,"Though people foreign to the land would name it the Golden City people who were residence would know it as Konzern."

(A/N: Konzern is Jude Heartfillia's business such as the Heartfillia railways)

"When the Golden Days came, the castle would have the townspeople coming inside to join a feast. Everyone would be dressed in Golden colored clothing and would dance and laugh. I would be helping prepare desserts with Luce,"Natsu spoke, continuing to walk,"It's been so long."
"I've heard that the second day of the Golden Days was iconic by the feast. And the traditional dishes and desserts,"Erza admitted.
"There was only one traditional dessert, but It's changed every ten years,"Natsu stated.
"The Growing Tower cake,"Gray stated.
"Bingo,"Natsu nodded.
"What's that?"Happy asked.
"The Growing Tower cake with multiple layers. Every ten years a new layer is added, but each of the layers are special. Each layer is the flavor from that celebration of that year, the new layer will be different from the decades prior. It's also known at the Decade Cake,"Gray explained,"When I had been there, I heard the cake was going to have sixty layers."
"That's a lot of layers... and decades,"Happy stated, astonished by the history.
"They wouldn't be stacked upon each other though, instead they put out separate cakes upon tables lined up next to each other then labeled them,"Gray stated.
"Sixty layers is a lot of cake though," Natsu added then he looked over to Erza,"You see something?"
"No,"she stated,"The request says to go here, but there's no one around."
"Maybe they haven't gotten here yet,"Happy stated.
"I suppose that is a possibility,"Gray shrugged, looking around some more.
Natsu looked down to an annoying sound he had been hearing. Paper blowing now in then in the soft wind that would run by now and then, picking it up to stop the torture to his sensitive ears.
"What is that you picked up, Natsu?"Happy questioned, flying over and plopping himself atop his cherry blossom spikes. 
"It looks to be a flyer,"Erza took the paper, looking at it up and down,"It says it's suppose to be hosted... at the Golden castle's ruins."
"What is to be hosted here?"Gray asked.

"An illegal selling of human slaves,"Erza handed the paper back to Natsu,"It must mean the person who sent the job request wanted us to stop it."
"That's the most likely reason, it's dated to today,"Happy pointed out.
"We're here, so where is it?"Gray questioned.
Natsu turned around,"If they wanted a place secluded, it'd be the middle of the hedges. It's probably the only thing that has survived during the attack, it is the most closed off area in the place,"he pointed in the direction he turned where a brown leaved hedge maze lied.