Chapitre 151: The Plan is Simple... Let's Go Shopping!

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Crocus.

August, x784.

"We're back!" Elicia shouted happily upon entering the hotel room she rented with Marin and Lucy.

"Welcome back." Lucy replied while turning her head towards Elicia's voice as she sat in front of a mirror.

As they walked deeper into the room, Elicia and Marin saw Lucy sitting in front of a mirror with a cloth fastened around her neck and draped over her body. Standing behind her was an orange-skinned man with a pair of scissors in his right hand.

"Please don't move, Baby." The orange-skinned man, Cancer, said while trimming Lucy's hair. "I almost cut off too much."

"oh, sorry, Cancer." Lucy said, turning her head back in the direction of the mirror. Then, without looking at the new arrivals, she spoke once again. "So, how did everything go with the client?"

"*Sigh* The client didn't have much in the way of information about the case." Marin said as she flopped down on her bed.

"Yeah, but we're not giving up." Elicia added. "We still have a chance."

"What do you mean?" Lucy asked with a confused expression. "If he didn't have any information, what are you going to do."

"Well, since we're all beautiful girls." Elicia said with a smile, gaining a smile from Lucy as well. "There's only one thing we can do."

Since Elicia had not explained her plan on the way back to the hotel, Marin and Lucy both focused on Elicia's next words with rapt attention.

"We're going shopping!" Elicia exclaimed excitedly.

Two hours later, Elicia, Marin, and Lucy, after having lunch in the hotel's dining room, were standing outside of a shoe store in the middle of Crocus' business district.

"*Sigh* I always wanted to come here." Elicia said while looking at the shop sign that read: "Valorous Feets" with an excited gaze. "Although I can make shoes, too, I specialize in clothing."

"I've seen your closet… closets before, Lici." Marin said with a smile. "For someone with so many pairs of shoes, I'm surprised you don't have any shoes from this store."

"Closets?" Lucy asked curiously.

"Yeah, there are three walk-in closets in Alfonzo and Lici's bedroom, two and a half of them are filled with Lici's stuff. And one of them is dedicated just to her shoe collection."

"Seriously?" Lucy asked in wonder. "Even I only had two walk-ins back at home. And only half of one of them was filled with shoes."

Though Lucy had been keeping her identity as the daughter of the Heartfilia Kanzen's owner, Jude Heartfilia, a secret, there were three people in the guild who knew it. Namely, Elicia, who had met her before she ran away, Alfonzo, Elicia's fiancé, and Marin, whose father is an employee of her father's company. So, she did not feel the need to hide it when she was around the three of them.

"Actually, I made most of those shoes myself." Elicia replied sheepishly. "I really wanna venture into the shoe industry as well, but it feels like something is missing every time I make a pair of shoes."

"Is that why you don't usually sell matching shoes with your outfits?" Marin asked.

"Yeah…" Elicia replied while scratching her cheek with her right index finger. "If I sell something, I want it to be the best. And not to brag, but my clothes are better than most of what you can find on Ishgar."

Although Elicia was not a particularly proud person, she was proud of her work. And after traveling Fiore and seeing many clothing shops, she realized that her clothing was a cut above the rest in terms of quality.

"Anyway… Let's go inside and take a look." Elicia said, smiling brightly as she pushed the door to the shoes store open.

Three hours later, Elicia, Marin, and Lucy walked out of the store, each with several bags filled with shoe boxes in their hands.

"Ahh… I feel refreshed." Elicia said. "Nothing helps get rid of the feelings an unpleasant meeting brings than a good round of shopping."

"Yeah, and when you make such a big screw up like tying up a Darkness-level pervert during that meeting, you really need a good shopping spree to free your mind." Marin said with a chuckle.

"Ugh… Did you have to bring that up again?" Elicia groaned.

"Call it payback for bringing up that night." Marin countered.

"Fine, you win this round." Elicia replied through gritted teeth.

"Wait, did you tie up Darkness this morning?" Lucy asked, assuming they had run into Darkness on their trip to see the client.

In response, Elicia groaned once again while Marin started giggling in delight. Then, Marin told Lucy what happened on their way back from the client's house while they walked to the next store.

Naturally, Lucy laughed at the story. However, when her laughter died down, she looked at Elicia with pity.

"Lici, what were you thinking?" Lucy asked, still giggling from time to time as she imagined the scene.

"I only wanted to get away from her as fast as possible." Elicia muttered. "I mean, we had a job to do. And wasting time with her wasn't helping."

Before Lucy could respond, both her and Marin snapped their heads in the direction of their next destination's front door.

Standing just outside the clothing store was the same decent looking man who led them to their table the night before at the Feeding Bowl. At the same time, the decent-looking man coughed up a mouthful of blood.

"That's the guy from the restaurant, right?" Lucy asked with hearts in her eyes. "I didn't notice it last night, but he's, like, super handsome."

"I know, right?" Marin added with a blush on her face. "Why didn't I notice it last night."

"We should go and see if he wants to hang out with us." Lucy said excitedly.

"Totally!" Marin replied with a smile.

Meanwhile, after seeing the man and the way he coughed up blood, Elicia knew exactly what was going on so, with a frown, she dropped the bags filled with shoe boxes in her hands.

'That's gotta be the guy responsible for the missing girls.' Elicia thought to herself. 'And he's definitely using [Charm Magic] right now. He even caught Marin and Lucy in his spell.'

*Thud!*

*Smack!* x 2

While Elicia was having that thought, the sound of the shopping bags hitting the ground rang out. Then, with her hands free, Elicia slapped both girls on their butts.

"Of course you didn't notice how handsome he was last night." Elicia said. "He's not really all that handsome to begin with."

Immediately, Marin and Lucy's excited expressions changed as the sound of shattering glass rang out. Then, they exchanged confused glances before realizing that they had been hit with [Charm Magic]. After that, they both glared at the man who was wiping the blood from his lips.

"You [charmed] me?" Lucy asked with wrath burning in her eyes. "I'll make you pay for that."

"Yeah, I've already got my eyes on someone." Marin grumbled. "To think you made me forget about him for even a few seconds… Unforgivable."

Seeing the looks in the three girls' eyes, the man realized instantly that his spell had been broken. Or rather, the spell on two of them had been broken while the third was never affected by the spell in the first place.

"Shit!" The man shouted as he turned and ran away.

Immediately after seeing the man run, Marin and Lucy dropped their own bags and started to run after him. However, before she could get too far, Lucy felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Huh? Elicia?" Lucy asked with a mixture of confusion and anger. "Why are you stopping me?"

"I wanted to keep you from participating in this quest at first." Elicia said with a serious tone. "but now, I think we can write it off as self-defense. And even more importantly, we need someone to watch over our bags. Can you summon Virgo to take care of them?"

Looking back at all the bags on the ground, Lucy sighed in frustration. Then, she reached into the pouch on her waist and pulled out a key.

"[Open, Gate of the Maiden, Virgo]." Lucy chanted.

In the next instant, Virgo, dressed in her usual maid attire appeared while bowing her head respectfully.

"Princess, is it time for punishment?" Virgo asked with anticipation in her tone.

"No, we need you to take care of our bags." Lucy replied while pointing at the shopping bags scattered on the ground..

"Understood, Princess." Virgo replied respectfully as she moved to pick up the bags.

"Good, let's go!" Elicia shouted as she sprinted after Marin.

"Right." Lucy replied as she too ran after Marin. "Take the bags to…"

As she ran, Lucy instructed Virgo to take their bags to the hotel and go back to the Celestial Spirit world when she was done. After that, she tossed her copy of the key backwards, which Virgo easily caught and started picking up the bags with a smile.

Meanwhile, Marin was following the man who used the [Charm Magic] on herself, Elicia, and Lucy. However, instead of running through the streets like before, Marin had [Transformed into a middle-aged woman along the way. And when the man saw that Marin was no longer chasing him, he slowed down significantly. However, he still walked rather quickly towards his destination.

"Damn it!" The man grumbled angrily. "None of them looked that strong. How did my spell backfire on me like that? It was definitely that brown-skinned woman. But how?"

While muttering to himself angrily at his failed attempt to capture more women, the man reached a normal looking two story house in the residential district. Looking around to make sure that he had not been followed, the man breathed a sigh of relief after he didn't see anyone. Then, he knocked on the front door in a certain pattern.

Watching the whole series of events, Marin was trying to figure out a way to notify the others of her location. However, when she saw the person that opened the door, her mouth dropped open in shock.

"Isn't that Mr. Hamilton's daughter?" Marin asked in a whisper as the man walked past the beautiful girl with disinterest. "Isn't he gathering all those women to sell them or something? Why is she in that house? Maybe he's selling them from there?"

While Marin's confusion was growing by the second, the girl, despite being ignored, closed the door with a happy smile on her face.

"Or maybe he gathered them for himself." Marin continued whispering to herself. "I mean, it wouldn't be weird if a man wanted a bunch of pretty girls for himself, right?"

Marin, so lost in her thoughts, did not even notice when Elicia and Lucy approached her. Then, she nearly jumped out of her shoes when she heard a voice from behind.

"Marin, that's you, right?" Elicia asked.

"Yeah, it's me." Marin replied while dropping her [Transformation] and patting herself on the chest. "Geez, you scared the crap outta me."

"Sorry." Elicia replied with a sheepish smile. "But when you use your [Transformation Magic], none of your magic power leaks. So, I was a bit unsure if it was you or not."

"Seriously, I would have walked right past you if Lici didn't stop me." Lucy added.

"Haha… Sorry. I was just surprised by what I saw." Marin replied with a sheepish smile.

"Does that mean you found that guy's hideout?" Elicia asked, her expression turning serious.

"Yeah." Marin nodded in response.

"That's great." Lucy said with a smile. "but why were you so surprised?"

"Well, I saw the client's daughter answer the door." Marin replied. "And she seemed happy."

"That's probably because of the [Charm Magic]." Lucy said with a scowl. "What a scumbag."

"What about the other missing girls?" Elicia asked. "did he already sell them away?"

"Uh… No, I didn't see them." Marin replied with a slight blush. "I was so surprised to see the client's daughter answering the door like the guy wasn't afraid someone would recognize her that I… Uh… Kinda froze up."

"I guess that makes sense." Elicia replied with a nod. "It really is weird that she's allowed to answer the door."

"Yeah, that's a quick way to get reported to the knights if anyone recognizes her." Lucy added.

"Exactly." Marin nodded. "That's what I thought, too."

While Marin and Lucy continued talking, mostly insulting the guy who [Charmed] them, Elicia spread her [Magic Power Detection]. Although she rarely uses it, Alfonzo had taught her how to do it a long time ago. And in a situation like this, where she needed to detect the difference in magic power signatures, it was much more useful than her own spell, [Thread Detection].

"There are twenty-three people inside the house." Elicia muttered while staring at the unassuming house. "Most of them are in the basement. Four of them have magic power reserves comparable to the average B-Class wizard, while one is at the peak of B-Class. The rest seem to be civilians."

"I'm guessing the civilians are the girls." Marin said while also staring at the house.

"So, what's the plan?" Lucy asked.

"We'll do it like this…" Elicia said.

For the next few minutes, Elicia explained her plan while reaching her threads to the Escalade parked at the hotel and retrieve something from its center console.

L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS
SixthSense1029

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Chapitre 152: Raid on the Kidnappers' Hideout

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Crocus.

August, x784.

About twenty minutes later, the girls were ready to raid the kidnappers' hideout. Elicia, standing at the front door, was ready to give the signal to start the operation. Meanwhile, Marin and Lucy had sneaked into the backyard and were peering into the house from a back window that seemed to lead to the kitchen.

"It's too bad Lici only gave you those Gate Keys now." Marin said while watching the two women and one man in the kitchen. "They would have added a lot of diversity to our means of attack."

"I know." Lucy replied. "Making contracts with five new Celestial Spirits would have taken too much time, though. And since we needed to make sure that none of the kidnappers left the house before we started, we had to move quickly."

When the three girls returned home to prepare for the trip to Crocus, Elicia decided to bring the five Golden Celestial Spirit Keys she had collected over the years and give them to Lucy. At first, however, she intended to give them to her on the way back to Magnolia. After seeing how she conducted herself, considering that she was on punishment and was not supposed to be participating in the quest.

But after being placed under [Charm Magic] for a second time, Elicia knew that there was basically no way to keep Lucy out of the upcoming fight.

But considering that Lucy had agreed to leave it all to her and Marin in the beginning, Elicia decided to give the keys to her ahead of time. Though, they would not be of much use when the fighting started this time around.

"It's almost time." Marin said as she pulled a magical dagger out of one of the sheaths on her waste. "Lici should start soon."

After experimenting during training, Marin realized that she could use her [Transformation Magic] on objects. Meaning, she could change the shape of anything, provided she used enough magic power. So, she took up fighting with bladed weapons such as daggers and swords. And making the blades longer, shorter, thinner, or wider could be a good way to catch her opponents off guard.

Agreeing with Marin's idea, Alfonzo took it upon himself to forge a pair of daggers for Marin. And each dagger had the ability to freely change the weight with the wielder's magic power, within reason of course.

In the end, the created daggers complimented Marin's magic perfectly. Although she could [Transform] the outer appearance of the daggers at will, Marin's magic could not change the basic attributes of the daggers. Much like the law of equivalent exchange. Meaning, they did not grow heavier if she made them bigger.

Making the blade of her dagger paper thin, Marin slid its tip under the window, waiting for the signal to make her move. And she did not have to wait too long. Although she could not hear it, Elicia had knocked on the front door which caused all three people in the kitchen to turn their heads toward the sound.

"Now." Marin whispered as she quickly elongated the dagger's blade. Then, she made it bend and used it to unlock the window.

As soon as the window was unlocked, Lucy quickly pushed it up and threw several small pods into the house. Seconds later, as the sound of the window opening drew the people's attention, the pods started releasing a light blue smoke that quickly filled the kitchen and started flowing into other parts of the house.

After inhaling the smoke, all three people started coughing immediately. A few seconds later, while the man was still coughing and trying to disperse the smoke, the two women had already fallen unconscious.

"Where did she even get something like this?" Lucy asked in an impressed tone. "That smoke knocked out everyone who didn't have enough magic power to resist."

"Probably something Alfonzo made." Marin said, opening the window completely as she spoke. "Anyway, we need to move fast. The wizards in the house should still be conscious. The last thing we need is a hostage situation on our hands, right?"

With that, Marin jumped through the open window and quickly lowered her body as she approached the still conscious wizard. Then, before the man could react, she slid between his legs with both daggers now unsheathed and sliced the inside of his calves, just below the knees.

"Argh!" The man shouted as he fell to the floor.

Although he was in pain, the man quickly rolled over onto his back and pointed his right hand at Marin, who was in the process of turning around.

"[Wind Magic: Air Cut---]." The man said, starting to chant his spell.

Unfortunately for him, before the man could finish his chant, a whip with a heart shaped tip wrapped around his neck and constricted his air flow. A moment later, he felt a strong impact on the back of his head, causing him to faint.

"[Lucy Kick]." Lucy said just as her foot landed on the back of the man's head.

"You really need a new name for that." Marin said as she stood up. "I mean, you call every kick, [Lucy Kick]."

"Shut up…" Lucy whined with a blush. "I'm not good at naming things."

"But you gave Plue an uber-cute name." Marin said with a smile.

At the front of the house, just before Marin and Lucy started their attack, Elicia was standing at the front door.

"I hope their ready." Elicia said as she raised her hand.

*Knock!* *Knock!* *Knock!*

"Sorry to bother you, but my little brother's toy fell into your backyard!" Elicia shouted through the closed door. "I just wanted your permission to go back there and get it!"

A moment after Elicia knocked on the door, she heard the sound of a man screaming in pain from somewhere inside the house. So, wasting no more time, she ejected her threads and slammed them into the door.

"[Thread Magic: Battering Hammer]." Elicia chanted as her threads, in the shape of a spiked hammer, slammed into the door.

*Bang!*

With one strike, the hammer made from hardened threads knocked the door off its hinges and sent it flying into the house.

*Bang!*

"Gah!" The sound of a man grunting in pain after being hit by the flying door could be heard a moment later.

Taking advantage of the man's field of view being blocked by the door, Elicia burrowed her threads into the door frame. Then, she contracted them quickly, flinging herself through the doorway.

"[Thread Magic: Catapult]." Elicia chanted as she flew through the air, feet first.

*Bang!* *Bang!*

Not even a second later, Elicia's feet slammed into the door. Then, her momentum pushed the door and the man behind it into the wall behind him, knocking him out on impact.

After landing on the floor, Elicia wasted no time extending her [Detection Threads] throughout the house. At the same time, she also spread her [Magic Power Detection] to make sure that she found the right people.

"Using both detection spells at the same time really puts a burden on my mind." Elicia muttered with a frown on her face. "Found them. The man from before is in the basement with most of the girls, two of the girls and one of the men are in the kitchen, and it feels like the last two guys are upstairs sleeping."

At that moment, Marin and Lucy rushed out of the smoke and met up with Elicia near the front door.

"We took out one of them." Marin said.

"Yeah, he's unconscious on the kitchen floor." Lucy added.

"Good job, you two." Elicia replied with a slight smile as she ended her detection spells. "There are only three left. I want you two to take care of the two upstairs. I'll handle the one in the basement."

"Got it." Marin and Lucy replied simultaneously.

With that, Marin and Lucy quickly fond the stairs and quietly made their way up to the second floor.

"Hey, Marin." Lucy said in a whisper. "How did Lici know where all the people were?"

"She probably used two spells to figure that out." Marin replied.

Marin then quickly explained what she knew about [Magic Power Detection] and [Thread Detection], leaving Lucy quite amazed as they quietly checked each bedroom on the second floor for the sleeping wizards.

"Since we're checking each room, I guess you can't use it." Lucy said with curiosity in her tone. "Is it hard to learn?"

"Actually, I can use it." Marin replied. "But I don't have enough control of my magic power to not be detected by wizards over a certain level."

"Oh, I get it." Lucy said in an understanding tone. "It's one of those things that are easy to learn but hard to master."

"Exactly." Marin replied with a nod. "Now focus, these are the last two rooms. They're either both in one room or they're in one room each."

"Then, how do you want to do this?" Lucy asked, her expression turning serious.

"We'll each check one room." Marin replied after thinking for a second. "Don't go inside until we've checked the state of both rooms, though."

"Okay." Lucy replied with a nod.

With that, Marin and Lucy split up and quietly opened the two remaining bedroom doors. When they looked inside, they were greeted with similar scenes.

"[Earth Magic: Earthen Spear]." Chanted the man in the room Marin checked.

"[Shadow Magic: Shadow Stitching]." Came a chant from the room Lucy checked.

Immediately upon hearing the two chants, Marin and Lucy both slammed the doors shut and jumped away from them. A moment later, the doors were destroyed by a javelin made of rock and a number of spikes converged from shadows.

"Damn, they were expecting us." Marin said as she held her daggers in a reverse grip.

"Looks like we'll have to fight them head on." Lucy replied as she held a Golden Gate Key in her hand.

"Let's go." Marin and Lucy said simultaneously.

"[Open! Gate of the Giant Crab, Cancer]." Lucy chanted.

Meanwhile, Marin dashed past the debris from the destroyed door. As soon as she entered the room, she was once again greeted by an [Earth Magic] attack. However, instead of a single earth spike, this time she was met by a volley of small earth bullets.

"[Transformation Magic: Dance of the Inconsistent]." Marin chanted as she made her knives as heavy as a pair of longswords.

In the next instant, Marin started to move and turn gracefully while deflecting the incoming projectiles with her knives. All the while, her blades would lengthen and shorten as the situation dictated. In the end, she was able to deflect the nearly one hundred earth bullets that would have struck her while a much larger number of bullets sailed past her and destroyed the walls.

"What the hell?" The man shouted in a flamboyant tone. "How do you get out of an attack like that without a scratch?"

"With a lot of training." Marin replied as she crouched and pointed the dagger in her right hand at the floor behind her. "[Transformation Magic: Blade Rush]."

In the next instant, the blade in her right hand elongated, its tip getting stuck in the floor. Then, as the blade continued to extend, Marin was propelled at the shocked wizard. Finally, once she had enough momentum, Marin returned the dagger to its normal size and made an X-shaped slash as she flew past the wizard.

"Damn… it…" The wizard muttered as blood burst from the X-shaped slash on his chest.

A moment later, the man fell to the floor, barely conscious. Then, Marin turned around and slapped a pair of magic suppressing cuffs on his wrists before tending to his wounds. Even though she believed he deserved punishment, she did not want to kill him.

Meanwhile, at the doorway of the other bedroom, Cancer had just appeared after Lucy's summons.

"Twice in one day, Baby?" Cancer asked while snapping his scissors open and closed. "Do you need a new do for a party, or something?"

"No, we're here to catch these scumbags that have been using [Charm Magic] and kidnapping the pretty girls of the capital." Lucy replied.

"[Shadow Magic: Shadow Paralysis]." The man in the bedroom chanted once again.

In the next instant, a shadow on the floor rushed towards Cancer.

"I don't know what that moving shadow can do, but he controls shadows to attack." Lucy replied.

Heeding Lucy's warning, Cancer tried to jump over the incoming shadow. Unfortunately, he had no idea of the principles behind the man's attack. So, when the moving shadow came in contact with Cancer's shadow, Cancer stopped all movement and crashed into the floor.

"Cancer, what's wrong?" Lucy asked in concern.

"I don't know, Baby." Cancer replied with face on the floor. "But I can't move."

"Haha! Once our shadows are connected, I can stop all your movements!" The man exclaimed in a gloating tone. "You really shouldn't have come here. Now, you'll have to join the other girls in the house."

*Smack!*

As soon as the man finished his monologue, the heart-shaped tip of lucy's whip wrapped several times around his neck before slapping him in the face.

"Oww! How rude." The man said in an annoyed tone.

Unfortunately for him, the sudden slap in the face broke the man's concentration enough that Cancer could regain his freedom of movement. Then, without wasting any time, Cancer jumped to his feet and shot towards the man.

*Snip!* *Snip!* *Snip!* *Snip!* *Snip!*

A moment later, the man's chin-length hair was styled into twin tails, his eyebrows were trimmed immaculately, and his mustache was curled delicately. Then, without a drop of blood being shed, the man collapsed with a bewildered, yet excited, expression on his face.

"Wow… I look fabulous." The man said, catching a glimpse of himself in a mirror before passing out.

"Damn right you do, Baby." Cancer said while snapping his scissors open and shut repeatedly.

A short time ago, while Marin and Lucy were climbing the stairs to the second floor, Elicia found the stairs that led down to the basement. Instead of walking down the stairs, however, she used her threads to make her own footholds so that she didn't make any noise.

"The one thing we didn't' want is a hostage situation." Elicia said with a pout. "And of course, that's exactly what we get."

While Elicia was descending to the basement, she activated her [Hiding in Plain Sight] spell. When she finally reached the room with the last of the kidnappers and the remainder of the girls, she was not surprised to see that the wizard who used the [Charm Magic] on her and the other girls was standing in the middle of the group of kidnapped girls with a fire spell floating above his right palm.

What did surprise her, however, was that there were no signs of the slave trade or any kind of debauchery in the room. Instead, it was clear that the man standing in the middle of all the girls had been teaching them how to apply cosmetics. On top of that, there were a number of books that explained how to tell if your partner was being unfaithful.

"Okay… this is just weird." Elicia whispered to herself. "I don't even know what's going on anymore. I'll just capture him and find out during the interrogation."

In the next instant, Elicia shot sticky threads from her hands toward the ceiling. Then, she wrapped the same threads around her hands and feet before pulling herself up. She then approached the man quietly from above. Lastly, without casting a spell, she dropped down and landed behind the wizard and chopped him on the back of his neck, robbing him of his consciousness and breaking the [Charm Magic] in the process.