Earth Land, Ishgar, Undisclosed Location, The Cube.
June 6, x791.
"Has there been any luck finding it?" Mard Geer Tartaros asked from his throne in the floating island known as the Cube where the dark guild, Tartaros resided.
"Unfortunately, we've been able to find nothing." Kyôka replied with little inflection in her tone. "Originally, we had a deal with the former Magic Council Chairman, Crawford Seam. He was supposed to provide us with the information. Unfortunately, thanks to the trial with Fairy Tail, he was sentenced to death."
Instead of speaking, Mard Geer simply stared at Kyôka while she reported. Yet, despite his seemingly impassive expression, anyone who knew him would be able to tell he was furious at the lack of progress.
"I sent Jackal to retrieve him before he could be put to death at that time." Kyôka continued, aware of Mard Geer's raising anger. "But he was killed by Alfonzo Marcus of Fairy Tail despite Jackal's efforts. Even Jackal had to be respawned by the end of that encounter, defeated by Elicia Taylor."
Seeing that Mard Geer remained silent, though his anger was rising, Kyôka opened her mouth to continue.
"We tried to find the information we needed by another avenue, but----" Kyôka began to say.
"Do you only intend to report your failures, Kyôka?" Mard Geer asked, his tone deceptively soft.
Despite his tone, thee anger Mard Geer was exuding was palpable. And the pressure from his magic power was making it hard for Kyôka to breathe. Yet, Kyôka somehow managed to keep her back straight as she continued to look Mard Geer in his eyes.
"For some reason, I don't like the way you're looking at me, Kyôka." Mard Geer said.
However, Kyôka remained silent, knowing that if she answered, she would be the next Etherious needing to be resurrected.
"Hmph!" Mard Geer snorted after not receiving a response. "Continue your report."
"Yes." Kyôka replied with a nod. "After losing Crawford Seam, we entrusted the task of finding the location of Face, as well as its method of activation, to Junko Enoshima and her subordinates."
"Oh, yes, that girl." Mard Geer said, a small smile making its way onto her face. "She was quite interesting. What did you say her name was again?"
"Junko Enoshima." Kyôka replied.
"Yes, that." Mard Geer said, nodding his head in understanding, though it was clear that he still had not committed Junko's name to memory. "So, how is… Uh… What was her name again? Ah! It's not important. How is her progress?"
"She was slain some time ago." Kyôka replied. "And from what we've gathered from the few clues on the scene, it was a powerful pair of wizards."
"*Sigh* Let me guess..." Mard Geer said in an exasperated, yet infuriated, tone. "Those two from Fairy Tail, Alfonzo Marcus and Elicia Taylor, correct?"
Kyôka widened her eyes immediately after Mard Geer immediately identified the biggest suspects in Junko's death. Yet, that was not what surprised her. Instead, it was because Mard Geer, who could not even be bothered to remember the names of most humans other than Zeref, calling them insignificant and lower than insects, actually remembered two of their names.
Even so, Kyôka eventually snapped back to her senses and nodded in Mard Geer's direction.
In response, Mard Geer stood up from his throne and stepped forward, approaching Kyôka at an unhurried pace. Yet, he did not stop in front of her. Instead, he walked past her, just to her left.
"Those wizards from Fairy Tail are becoming an eye sore." Mard Geer said casually. "I want them eliminated."
"Understood." Kyôka replied. "It will be done; I will mobilize all nine of the Demon Gates. Perhaps I will even mobilize Jiemma, as well."
Continuing to walk forward, Mard Geer left his throne room without a word. To him, it was natural that Kyôka would follow his orders. Now, the only thing to do was wait until his orders were fulfilled.
Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.
At the same time, the sun was just starting to shine its light on the town of Magnolia. And with the sun's rays, the town was starting to come alive, shop owners flipping the signs on their shops as the housewives started making their way to buy groceries for the day.
The day not only started for the town's civilians, either. The wizards of Fairy Tail also started to stir from their slumbers and find their way to the guild hall. The residents at the Mansion on the Lake were no exception to the daily grind, either.
'I wonder who it is this time.' Alfonzo, just waking up with his eyes still closed, thought to himself while feeling a soft, pleasant, feeling on his lips. 'Well, it doesn't matter. A good morning kiss is never a bad way to start the day.'
Without thinking much, Alfonzo, feeling energetic first thing in the morning, pushed his tongue past his lips, its tip touching softly against the pair of lips pressing against his own.
*Gasp!*
However, as soon as Alfonzo's tongue touched the lips that were kissing him, he was surprised by the fact that the person in question gasped through their nose and their body stiffened.
Confused by what just happened, Alfonzo slowly opened his eyes, his uncertainty clear to see once his eyelids fluttered open. However, when he saw the pair of blue eyes staring back into his own, and the short black hair falling on either side of his face, his confusion disappeared immediately.
Then, Alfonzo calmly pulled his tongue back into his mouth before raising his hands and gently catching the one kissing him by her shoulders. He then gently pushed her, who was frozen in shock, off of him.
"Honestly, this took longer than I expected, Miyuki." Alfonzo said calmly. "But I'm not gonna lie, I'd rather you confessed and waited until I was awake for our first kiss."
Miyuki, Alfonzo's personal maid, reddened from the base of her neck to the tips of her ears in an instant.
"I've never wished you would have never woken up more than I do at this very moment." Miyuki said calmly from only an arm's length away from Alfonzo.
Despite how cold her words sounded, Miyuki's expression did not change in the slightest. At the same time, she calmly climbed off the bed, patted away a non-existent wrinkle, and bowed politely.
"Yeah, and that's never sounded more like you wishing for me to die in my sleep than it does at this moment." Alfonzo replied as he shook his head.
Alfonzo then pushed himself up to a seated position and stretched his arms over his head. A moment later, he lowered his arms and looked at Miyuki, who still had her head lowered.
"So, now that you got that out of your system..." Alfonzo said, a hint of teasing in his tone. "Is that gonna be a one-off thing? Or do you want more?"
Understanding what Alfonzo meant immediately, Miyuki quickly turned around to hide her expression. Though, as she did so, Alfonzo did not miss the smile that had started to bloom across her fair face tinged with a rosy blush.
"I'm not sure I'm ready to give you an answer at the moment, Master Alfonzo." Miyuki replied, her joy barely contained behind a calm façade. "Please give me some time to mull l over this proposition."
As soon as she finished speaking, Miyuki quickly moved to Alfonzo's closet. Then, with practiced ease, she pulled a set of training clothes out. After that, she pulled out a set of casualwear.
"For now, I will prepare everything for when you finish bathing." Miyuki continued as she turned towards Alfonzo while avoiding eye contact.
Seeing Miyuki's reaction, Alfonzo could not help but smile. He had known this day was coming for quite some time. And to be honest, he had become rather fond of Miyuki over the years. So, asking her to join his harem did not take much thought on his part.
"If that's what you want." Alfonzo replied while watching Miyuki approach the bed and lay out his training clothes across the foot of the bed. "You know where to find me when you make up your mind."
With that, Alfonzo swung his feet over the edge of the bed before standing up, letting Miyuki see his chiseled physique clad in only underwear. Then, he walked to the bathroom unhurriedly.
Meanwhile, Miyuki continued to prepare Alfonzo's attire for the day. Though, she did take frequent peeks at Alfonzo until he disappeared into the bathroom.
After that, Miyuki, faster than she had ever done before, packed Alfonzo's training clothes into a bag so that he could change after training at the guild hall. Then, she, by normal civilian standards, sprinted out of the room, though she only walked, her steps as elegant as ever.
About an hour later, after bathing and having breakfast prepared by Grayfia and Maria, Alfonzo and the ladies living in the Mansion left to train at the guild hall.
"Fonzie, did something good happen?" Cana, having noticed Alfonzo's smile, asked in a curious toen while hugging one of his arms between her breasts.
"You could say that." Alfonzo said without looking in Cana's direction.
"Well, what was it?" Mirajane asked, her curiosity peaked by Alfonzo's non-answer.
"Why don't you take a guess?" Alfonzo replied playfully.
"Don't tell me, Miyuki finally made her move." Lucy said, her tone making it clear she was joking.
In response, Alfonzo stopped walking for a moment, causing Cana to be pulled to a stop as well. He then turned to look at Lucy with an incredulous expression on his face.
Lucy, on the other hand, after not hearing an Answer from Alfonzo, stopped in place before turning around to look at him. Shortly afterwards, all the other ladies stopped and did the same.
"Wait, seriously?" Lucy asked in a dumbfounded tone.
"Yeah." Alfonzo replied.
Immediately, all the ladies slumped their shoulders in defeat.
"Damn…" Cana muttered. "None of us bet that it would happen this early. We all thought it would happen after this year's Grand Magic Games."
"Actually, I bet differently." Elicia said while shaking her head. "Still, even I didn't think it would happen until this year's Grand Magic Games started."
"*Sigh* I guess that means nobody wins." Rika said in a slightly downcast tone. "What a pity. I was looking forward to being the winner."
"I believe we all were." Erza added.
Alfonzo could not help but smile when he saw all the ladies who lived with him discussing how much they were looking forward to being the winner of their little bet.
A moment later, however, Alfonzo realized something.
"By the way…" Alfonzo said with no small amount of curiosity in his tone. "What would the winner of your bet have gotten if they won? I mean, I've known about this bet for a long time, but I never heard what the winner would get."
Hearing Alfonzo's question, all the ladies, Elicia, Cana, Ultear, Erza, Mirajane, Marin, Sun, Lucy, Shizuka, Saeko, and Rika, stopped chattering and exchanged glances. Then, after a short conversation via eye contact, they all turned to look at Alfonzo in unison.
Seeing how in sync all the ladies were, and how intensely they were all looking at him, Alfonzo was slightly taken aback. Even so, he was immensely curious to know the answer to his question. Then, they all opened their mouths in unison to answer.
"A weeklong vacation with you alone." All the ladies said in unison.
"And if you were willing to have more children…" Marin added.
"… All the sex we would inevitably have during that week…" Rika said, picking up where Marin left off with a grin.
"… Would be unprotected." Erza continued, ending the explanation.
Although Alfonzo was not against having more children, lord knows he could afford to raise them, he was certainly dumbfounded. Most of them had not even hinted that they wanted children.
"I see." Alfonzo said, regaining his composure. "Well, you know you don't need to win some kind of bet for that, right? I mean, I can always make some time to take you all on vacations."
"We know." Sun said with her usual sweet and cheerful smile.
"It was just more fun this way." Shizuka said in her usual, somewhat sleepy tone.
"Besides, it would have been the perfect time for me to claim my dominion over you." Ultear said as she stepped forward and raised Alfonzo's chin with the index finger of her right hand. "Just think, you would have the honor of serving me, and me alone, for an entire week. Doesn't that excite you?"
"Seriously, Tear." Cana said in an exasperated tone. "Aren't you getting too old for this?"
"What did you say, Cana?" Ultear asked, snapping her head in Cana's direction with a snarl. "I know you're not calling me old."
"And what if I am?" Cana asked with a challenging smile on her face as she let go of Alfonzo's arm. She then stepped forward, invading Ultear's personal space, and continued while looking down at Ultear, who was nearly half a foot shorter than she was. "Whatcha gonna do about it?"
In response, Ultear, bristling from Cana's earlier question, flared her magic power. And Cana, not to be out done, naturally did the same.
"*Sigh* Here they go again." Mirajane said while raising her right hand and placing it against her cheek.
"Like you and Erza are any different." Lucy said while rolling her eyes before quickly turning away when Mirajane looked at her while smiling with that terrifyingly pleasant smile. "Don't look at me like that, Mira. It still creeps me out ever since that one time I got roped into Natsu's stupid plan to prove Laxus wrong."
"Don't worry about her, Lucy." Elicia said while pulling the shorter girl into her arms. "Mira's just embarrassed because you hit the nail on the head."
In response, Mirajane turned her pleasant, yet menacing, smile onto Elicia. However, like always, Elicia, because she always did things at her own pace and the fact that she was stronger than Mirajane, did not pay it any mind.
"Anyway…" Marin said while smiling awkwardly at the usual group dynamic. "I think we should stop Cana and Tear before they start fighting. I mean, there are no super strong metal walls to stop them from destroying everything around them."
"Yeah, we should definitely stop them." Sun said with a nod.
"Nah, just let them fight." Rika said with a shrug. "I mean, they'll have to deal with Master Mavis if they mess up anything this close to the town. And I wanna see how they react when they get the Ur treatment."
Immediately upon hearing Rika's words, both Cana and Ultear stiffened before starting to shudder as their magic power pressure receded. Then, they both snorted in unison before looking away.
"If you really wanted to see that happen, you probably shouldn't have said anything about it, Rika." Alfonzo said with a smile. "Anyway, let's get going. I plan on taking a quest after training today."
Receiving nods of agreement from all the ladies, Alfonzo led them all towards the guild hall to start their training. Though, Shizuka would be moving to the infirmary to look after anyone who managed to hurt themselves during the morning training session.