The group had gathered, and Alessa's luggage was stored in George's backpack, so they didn't have to ask the staff to store it separately. The four of them and two cats boarded the train together.
Gray and Natsu sat in a row, with Habu in the middle, while Lucy and Alessa sat in a row with George in the middle.
However, as soon as the train started moving, Natsu's whole body felt off balance. He looked pale and sickly, like he was feeling motion sickness.
"What's wrong with him?"
George asked in a somewhat surprised manner.
George expressed his surprise. "I can understand getting car sick or sea sick, but train sick? I've never heard of that before."
Especially considering Natsu's exceptional physical condition, it was impossible for him to be experiencing this kind of sickness.
Even normal people don't usually get motion sickness on a train.
"Natsu gets motion sickness on all forms of transportation, as long as it's a vehicle, he'll be fine! Just get used to it!"
Habi drew a little piece of dried fish from his bag, munching on it while explaining.
As a partner to Natsu, he had already gotten used to it.
"Oh, George, do you want some too?"
He also pulled out another one and offered it to George, but George declined.
His body is that of a cat, but his soul is human; he's not as fond of the dried fish as Habi is.
"Getting motion sickness on all forms of transportation, that doesn't make sense."
Not understanding the situation, but still reaching for his wand and casting a levitation spell on Natsu.
"Leviosa!"
With the Leviosa spell in effect, Natsu slowly rose off the seat without touching either the seat or the floor, floating in mid-air.
In this state, Natsu instantly perked up, opening his mouth and spewing a stream of fire.
"Haha, I'm back! Thank you, George!"
"As long as it works, it's good."
George nodded, his magic was endless, with the super wand's amplification, it was not a problem to maintain a levitation spell for half an hour. Using it a few more times could get Natsu to his destination.
Natsu is one of the main combatants on this mission, and naturally, he needs to ensure that he stays in good condition.
Otherwise, what if they encountered enemy ambushes? It wouldn't be fair for him to take the brunt of it.
"Alessa, we're already on our way. You still haven't told us what's going on?"
At this moment, Gray opened his mouth and asked Alessa.
At this point, they still have no idea what kind of trouble Alessa is referring to or who the enemies they are supposed to face are.
Alessa nodded and began to recount the origin of the trouble.
It turned out that just a few days ago, she had completed a mission and was on her way back to the guild when, by chance, she overheard some of the blacksmith's forest's magic users talking in a tavern they passed by.
The content of the conversation was that the blacksmith's forest has found the legendary Curse Flute and wants to lift the curse on it in order to use its powerful curse-killing power for a grand plan.
"Is that the Curse Flute!"
After hearing Alessa's story, George's eyes lit up immediately.
He had read about the "Curse Flute" in a book on magic items in the library.
It was said that the Curse Flute was originally a magical item used to cast curse-killing magic, and it had evolved into a magical flute after being improved by the most evil black wizard in legends, Jelph.
Any sound produced by the Curse Flute would immediately inflict death magic curses, which had a wide attack range.
He wasn't worried about the curse-killing power of the Curse Flute. That thing was powerful, but it was unlikely that he could possess it with his current strength, and using it would kill a lot of people. Unless he wanted to be pursued by all the mages in the kingdom.
What intrigued him was that the book not only introduced the Curse Flute but also had its picture. It was a thick, wooden flute with a skeletal headpiece.
That means all it would take is a bit of whittling, and it would make for an excellent staff shaft.
He had always felt that his super wand shaft didn't match the core. If he used a piece of the Curse Flute as the wand shaft, he believed that the resulting wand would still be several times more effective.
Especially for dark magic like the God's Thundering Fist that carries a curse.
"George, do you know about the Curse Flute?"
Alessa noticed George's expression change and asked.
George nodded and did not hide it.
"I've seen it in a book about magical items in the library. The lullaby of the Curse Flute is..."
"It's such a dangerous thing, we can't just let it be."
After hearing George's introduction, Alessa's face took on a grave expression.
The Blacksmith's Forest is a guild of dark mages, and the mages there take all kinds of illegal assassination missions. There aren't many benevolent ones. What they are planning to do with the Curse Flute can only be something bad, and it might kill a lot of people.
"If I had realized it earlier, I would have sacrificed those dark magic users on the spot and forced them to reveal what they were planning to do with the Curse Flute!"
"What should we do now?"
Lucy asked in a scared tone.
She felt that this mission seemed very dangerous and regretted coming here.
"We'll go directly to the headquarters of the Blacksmith's Forest guild, barge in and knock out all their mages, and take away the Curse Flute."
Alessa proposed a simple and rough plan.
Previously, she had planned to directly go to the Blacksmith's Forest, but she felt that taking on an entire guild alone was too risky.
The main concern was that someone might take advantage of her battle to secretly relocate the Curse Flute, which is why she decided to go back and gather Natsu and Gray first.
"It seems like it will be fun!"
Gray's face showed no fear, and Natsu was so excited that flames were literally shooting out of every orifice in his body:
"Knocking them all out would be awesome!"
"I want to go home."
Sweat was rolling down Lucy's face.
Walking into someone's entire guild, especially a dark mage guild known for assassination, is terrifying.
George felt okay about this. He believed that Alessa, as an S-class mage, wouldn't just do something reckless. If she dared to go there, it meant she had some confidence in her abilities.
Moreover, in Alessa's plan, she, Natsu and Gray were enough to take on the Blacksmith's Forest. With the addition of Lucy and him, their chances of success should be even greater.
As for Lucy, he didn't comment on that. At least, he himself was not just an auxiliary; in a real crunch, his magic and superpowers were no pushovers.
While the train was heading towards Onias, the place where the Blacksmith's Forest was located, Mactavish, who was attending the regular meeting of the President's Alliance in Crobar City, received a magical letter from Mila Jin.
"President Mactavish, President Mactavish, Miss Mila Jin has written to you!"
The blue magical messenger bird delivered the letter into the hands of Mactavish, who was boasting about his guild's mages to other presidents.
Mactavish reached out with his hand and input magic to the letter, causing a small magical array to slowly materialize on the envelope.
