Five Little Sacrifices

Chapter 48

The sun was slowly getting up and the sea was glimmering beautifully. Freed smiled and enjoyed this moment, sitting on a terrace and listening how others were still sleeping. They had such a fun evening, walking around the town and eating all kinds of food. Felix and Chester had really done their best and they fought against sleep until it was midnight. After that Freed decided it was better if he returned with them back to their tavern.

He looked inside and chuckled when seeing Laxus who was snoring. The lightning dragon slayer had followed after them an hour later and Freed wasn't sure in what time others came back. Well it didn't really matter, the important thing was that they all had fun. Freed wasn't even sorry about how he couldn't stay with others in the town, he had been pretty tired as well once they got back.

The green haired mage stood up and he walked around the house, stepping down the stairs to the tavern. A while later he returned with two servants and they were all carrying trays full of breakfast.

"Good morning", Freed said as he opened the door – a little bit more loudly than was necessary. Since the walls were really nothing but paper, Freed chuckled as he heard groans from the next room and how Evergreen was muttering something in the third room.

"Morning, mama", Felix yawned as he sat up and Chester just murmured something.

"Breakfast is here", Freed said opening the huge screen that worked as a wall to separate theirs and Bickslow and Roscoe's room.

They obviously had a hangover and Freed smirked slightly when looking at them trying to wake up.

"It's too early", Bickslow whined and he rolled on his other side, hugging his pillow.

"You will feel a lot better soon after you eat", Freed assured and he stepped beside the next screen, knocking it. "Ever? Are you awake?" he asked as their servants took out a big table and set all the food.

"I'm awake", Evergreen said from the other side.

"Good, the food is ready", Freed said and left the screen on so Ever could dress up.

He sat beside the table and one by one they all did the same. They talked, ate, drank and little by little everyone started to feel better again.

"So are we gonna leave today?" Bickslow asked looking at Laxus.

"Yeah, there's no reason for us to just stay here doing nothing", the lightning dragon slayer said while eating. "We're gonna rent tents and other stuff we need."

"It is possible that we won't find Baluhu, no matter even if we walked all the way around whole Fiore", Freed reminded. "Let's see how far we can travel in one day, spend night there and come back in the next day. If we can't find Baluhu at that time, we just have to find other clues. Like Gildarts said, he might not even be alive anymore since he was an old man already when Gildarts met him."

After the breakfast they left the tavern with their bags. They rented two tents, bought some food and made sure they had everything they needed before walking down huge stairs that lead out of Ginkgo.

They were probably the longest stairs in the whole town and it took a long time before they were finally walking on grass. The Ginkgo town stood high, far away from the forest that was now right in front of them. And it really was dark.

"We better just walk ahead and not go to the forest", Freed said as they started walking. While there was a dark thick forest on their left, the sea opened at their right side and waves kept rushing against the shore.