Today's job was a simple one, but that did not in any way imply that it was a particularly pleasant one. All he had to do was stand inside this shady caravan, which for some reason was parked in a road that just so happened to be vulnerable to attacks from just about every single direction possible. If that wasn't bad enough, Houren's actual job today was to protect the caravan from possible attacks and to stop people from stealing things from it. The Fairy Tail mage was confident that he would be able to stop any villains if they tried to attack the caravan, but at the same time, if some sneaky evildoer happened to chance his win into the caravan and rob something without enticing a fight, then the Fairy Tail mage was practically defenseless to stop that. After all, it wasn't as though the caravan was in a secure place where it could only be attacked from a single side, rather one could argue that it was practically impossible to defend the place from specific theft if two or more competent enemies were to show their faces. He could only suppose that that was the challenging part of the job; the reward for completing this quest was not substantial by any means, but it wasn't as though Houren was expecting a fortune of a reward from a merchant that couldn't even hire enough men to protect his assets and needed to rely on a mage like himself, an independent contractor, as Houren wanted to be called. In the end, he could only pray that the merchant's tip off turned out to be a false alarm and there was actually nobody after his goods. Of course, that was just the ideal. Real life very rarely turned out like this though, and Houren just knew that he would be fighting against a bunch of ruffians today who were hellbent on stealing whatever it is that was in the merchant's caravan. He decided to just accept his life, and all the hardship that came with this job with the horrible reward, and even brought a book so that he would be able to whittle down the time faster than if was just side stepping around, waiting for the threat that would inevitably show up.

The Fairy Tail mage was on the 181st page of his novel, and was just about to change to the 182nd page when he heard a noise, no, noises coming from the caravan that was close to the one that belonged to the merchant who's stuff he was supposed to be guarding. The other caravan was of the same make, probably created by the same person if Houren didn't know better, so in other words, it looked just as shady as the first one. Houren could only eyeball it for a second, as he wondered what to do next. There was a reasonably high chance that inside the other caravan was thieves who were interested in robbing the merchant, but at the same time, it could also just be a trap. If Houren stopped protecting the caravan to check somewhere else, then some sneaky guy could easily rob something while his back was turned. In that respect, it was much better for Houren to stand his ground in the caravan he was supposed to be guarding, not looking around for external threats and only acting and fighting when the threat came to him instead. At the same time, if Houren happened to fall asleep on the job while those guys were in the other caravan, then it would have been an easy job for them to just slit his throat while he snored. When he thought about it like that, he just couldn't be comfortable knowing that the enemy was close to him, and not doing anything about it. With that in mind, Houren stood up, used a piece of paper that he saw lying around that looked to be something from an account book as a bookmark, closed the book on the 182nd page that he had yet to begin reading, left the book in the caravan and went over to the neighboring one to see what was up. He had no weapon on hand, strangely enough, but was still cautious as he opened the curtains of the caravan's bonnet to reveal a couple, a young boy and girl who were perhaps only a few years younger than him inside who were beginning to get all lovey dovey with each other. When Houren had opened up the curtains, the two of them were getting it on with each other in terms of hands, and were flirting, and Houren knew that he had made a grave mistake. The couple were staring at him now, completely in shock and also in embarrassment as they waited for him to say something. He could not even begin to work up an excuse for himself and the only words that he could utter were weak, and spiritless.

"Sorry."

It was weak as stated before, but still genuine and he truly meant it. Catching the couple in this kind of situation embarrassed Houren also, and he could only mutter that kind of small apology before shutting the curtains and huffing back to his caravan. His book, which just so happened to be a romance novel, seemed too cheesy to read now and instead, he decided to take a stock take. After all, it was completely possible that some thieves decided to take advantage of Houren's cautiousness to steal something from the caravan, and using the checklist that the merchant employer had provided, Houren went through pretty much more or less every single item in the caravan, which happened to correspond perfectly to what was written on the checklist down to the silver plated coat hangers. Content with knowing that nothing was stolen and now more lax as it looked like the rumors were unfounded after all, Houren read his book until morning when one of the merchant's mercenaries arrived to relieve him of his duties and also to pay him the money he was owed.

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