The Fairy Tail mage inspected the map that he had been given by Gaud as he tried to manoeuvre his way around Era Town this late at night. Apparently, his employer for this job was a guy who was incredibly scared about getting hurt or kidnapped by his customers, and because of that, he tended to hire mages to complete transactions for him. Sure, by doing things this way he was actually cutting the amount of profit he could make by a bit, but at the very least, it eliminated the risk of him being kidnapped, hurt or killed by an angry customer or someone who was looking to rob his collection. Generally, Aniz didn't have such worries when making his own transactions so he could only wonder what kind of people this Gaud person tended to deal with. In any case, it wasn't like the Fairy Tail mage to reject a job, no matter how ridiculous which is how he found himself here on the streets of Era so late at night, searching for some dark alleyway that most people would actively try to avoid. He supposed, in that case and if you looked at it from that perspective, there was no better place in the town for this kind of deal to be done. After all, there would be nobody around, and if you were afraid of shady types that was fine since you would be the shadiest guy around.

The part of town that Aniz was in was actually pretty messed up in the way that most of it, and its accompanying alleyways were identical. That meant that the map that Gaud handed him was practically useless in some respects, and most of his searching was done without the map; he simply had to chance his way around hoping to find the seller. He managed to interrupt some illegal gatherings organized by gangs, but once those gangsters realized that Aniz was not a part of law enforcement, they decided to leave him alone and were even somewhat friendly with him. They must have thought he was a fellow gangster, not in the same gang but not in an opposing one either, so they must have given him some form of respect in a way, considering his imposing size. It was his childhood dream to join the Fairy Tail, the primary law enforcers in the country of Fiore, but alas, right now, he was nothing more than a guild mage on a mission, and that mission did not involve putting some petty gangsters behind bars. He exchanged greetings with the gangsters, but would have easily defeated them all if his hand was forced.

In a moment of absolute rage, Aniz even actually ripped up the map that he was given since he deemed it to be practically useless. At this point, he had made friends with a lot of the petty gangsters hanging around the area, and he asked one of them if they had seen someone around who wasn't a part of a gang but actually looked like a backdoor merchant. Strangely enough, and much to the Fairy Tail mage's pleasure, one of them actually had seen someone like that and directed Aniz to the appropriate alleyway. Giving the man his props, Aniz headed over to where the seller was supposedly waiting and eventually came face to face with him in the alleyway. The seller wore a cloak that covered his entire body, and even his face, so it was impossible for him to be identified; not that Aniz was interested in seeing the man's face. Oh yeah, judging by voice alone, Aniz knew that it was a man, one with a husky and deep voice which fit in with the description that Gaud had given him. At first, the cloaked seller seemed somewhat stunned and even took a step back, although because his face was shrouded in a cloak and covered by the shadows of the night, Aniz could not make out the facial expressions that would have been on the man's face.

"Hey, you're not Gaud, are you?" the seller said in his deep and husky voice, and suddenly Aniz knew what was wrong. The man had probably expected Gaud to be here for the transaction and while he knew who Gaud was and what he looked like, he did not know that Gaud was not the kind of merchant to handle his own transactions and that Aniz would be sent here today in his stead. The Fairy Tail mage told him all the facts and said that he was here in place of Gaud today, but that he had the money needed to pay for the merchandise. "And that's that. I have the money, and I'm representing Gaud. But do you have the merchandise?" Aniz asked, keeping a poker face that could rival the man's cloaked features, which actually made him look a bit like Death itself. He gave a light, hearty laugh and took out a pouch before opening up the pouch and taking out the contents which just so happened to be a massive tooth that he claimed came from a large beast. Apparently, this tooth had a lot of health properties and was actually valued by a lot of people for its supposedly magical abilities; that is why Gaud had wanted to buy it so much, probably so that he could sell it for a profit. Aniz shrugged, this is exactly what Gaud had requested so he simply handed over the money and took the pouch with the tooth inside. With that, Aniz thanked the cloaked man, but he did not seem to reply anything, simply murmuring something under his breath about how he had waited for two hours for Aniz to arrive, before taking one step back into the shadows and pretty much disappearing from sight. The Fairy Tail mage shrugged again as he headed back to where Gaud was, handed him the back and collected the reward that he was owed for completing the job.


1016 WC