章 125: Dear Kaby

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Shirotsume.

June, x784.

"I thought I asked you to destroy this book." Kaby Melon said with confusion in his tone. "Then, why are you handing it to me?"

Currently, Alfonzo, Elicia, and Lucy were sitting across from Kaby Melon in the same room where they first met him. And the reason for Kaby's confusion is the fact that Lucy is handing Daybreak to him, something he tasked them to destroy.

"I know you want to keep your father's reputation safe, Mr. Melon." Lucy said in a serious tone. "But have you ever read Daybreak?"

In response, Kaby gently shook his head. Then, he breathed out a sigh and accepted the book from Lucy.

"No, I never intended to, either." Kaby admitted. "My father said it was trash."

"Probably to keep you from storming Everlue's place and demanding to have it." Alfonzo said off-handedly.

"Yeah, if he said it was worth something, you would have wanted to get it away from Everlue." Elicia chimed in.

"But even Duke Everlue.---" Kaby said, the confusion in his expression growing.

"Oh, he won't be a duke for much longer." Elicia said with a scary smile on her face.

"Oh… Okay…" Kaby replied while recoiling a little. "Anyway, even Everlue said the book was worthless. So, once again, why should I read it?"

"Because Everlue didn't know the secret it held." Lucy explained.

After that, Lucy touched the book and injected her magic power in a certain pattern. Then, the book in Kaby's hands started to glow before it floated out of his hands.

In the next instant, the book disassembled itself into a cover and its pages. And in real time, all of the room's four occupants could see the letters making up all the words and sentences rearranging themselves. It was a surreal sight, to say the least.

When all the rearrangements were done, the book reassembled itself before falling back into Kaby's hands. However, when he looked at the front cover, it was no longer called "Daybreak." Instead, the title had changed to "Dear Kaby."

"It's an anagram." Alfonzo said, feigning an impressed expression. "It's just like Kemu Zaleon is an anagram of Zekua Melon."

"So, instead of a trashy novel about a trashier, narcissistic, self-centered, short, ugly, mostly bald, long nose haired duke, it was a letter to his son." Elicia said with a smile.

"Why don't you tell us how you really feel?" Lucy asked in a dry tone.

"Oh, there's much more." Elicia said in a cheerful tone. "But I don't use those kinds of words."

"Sure." Lucy said, not sure of what to say.

Meanwhile, Kaby had pulled out a pair of Gale Force Reading Glasses and started flipping through the book. Although his had a much lower amplification than even Lucy's, at 4x, he still got threw a decent amount of the book while the Fairy Tail wizards were talking.

Eventually, after getting about a quarter of the way through the book, Kaby closed it and set it down on the table between the two couches.

"Thank you for showing this to me." Kaby said while bowing his head with tears in his eyes. "Had this been destroyed before I got the chance to read it, I would have regretted it for the rest of my life."

"You probably wouldn't have." Alfonzo replied with a shrug. "I mean, until Lucy explained it to you, you didn't even know about it."

While Kaby and Lucy reacted the same way and stared at Alfonzo with their mouth and eyes wide open, Elicia could not help but giggle.

"He's right, you know." Elicia said. "You had no idea it was anything more than a bad action/adventure novel before Lucy explained it to you."

"Did you two really have to ruin the moment?" Lucy asked in a shocked tone. "He was about to pour his heart out to us."

With that, Alfonzo and Lucy started bickering while Elicia just giggled at their interaction. Meanwhile, it took Kaby a few moments to get himself back together.

"*Cough* Anyway, thanks for showing me the truth." Kaby said, trying to brush over the previous conversation. "Here, this is for you. 2,000,000 Jewels and a letter of completion."

Excitedly, Lucy stopped arguing with Alfonzo when she heard about the money. Then, she reached out to take the money and the letter from Kaby.

*Smack!*

Before she could, however, her hand was slapped away by Alfonzo.

"What's the big idea?" Lucy asked angrily.

"Lucy, sweetie, did you forget?" Elicia asked. "We didn't complete the quest."

"Huh?" Lucy exclaimed in confusion.

"We were supposed to destroy the book." Alfonzo continued. "And you decided to give it to Mr. Melon instead."

"But…" Lucy protested. "What we did was better than destroying the book."

"I agree." Alfonzo said with a nod. "But that doesn't change the fact that we did not complete the quest."

With that, Lucy slumped down onto the couch with a defeated expression on her face.

"My rent money…" Lucy said in a depressed tone.

"But since I, the client, am alright with the outcome, then surely it is alright to accept the letter of completion and the reward, right?" Kaby asked, feeling bad for Lucy on top of wanting to reward the team for their efforts.

"*Sigh* Normally I would agree with you." Alfonzo said. "But this case is different. We did not fulfill the quest objective. And that doesn't sit right with me."

"Besides, if it's about Lucy's rent, we can cover for her." Elicia added. Then she turned to Lucy with a smile. "You wouldn't even need to pay us back, Lucy."

"But that would defeat the whole purpose of us taking this quest." Lucy said with a pout. "And I wouldn't have earned the money."

Smiling at Lucy's response, Alfonzo and Elicia exchanged glances and conversed with their eyes for a few moments. Then, they both nodded.

"It's true that we didn't complete the quest to destroy Daybreak." Alfonzo said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a folded sheet of paper. "But we did complete the original quest objective."

With that, Alfonzo unfolded the paper which turned out to be the original quest sheet that asked wizards to steal the book.

"So, all you have to do is write another request to have the quest changed." Alfonzo said with a smile. "Then, once it is changed back to the original quest, we can complete the quest and everyone winds."

Once again, Kaby and Lucy could only stare at Alfonzo in disbelief. Neither one had ever considered doing something like that. But now that Alfonzo mentioned it, it made a lot more sense than lying about the outcome. After all, though unlikely for most, if anyone investigated, it could come to bite them in the ass.

On top of that, with how much of a hate boner the Magic Council had for Fairy Tail, Alfonzo and Elicia were certain that all their quest completions were investigated. There's nothing that would make the Magic Council happier than being able to discredit Fairy Tail, after all.

"That's a wonderful Idea!" Kaby exclaimed after Alfonzo's suggestion sunk in. "It shouldn't take too long to complete. If you don't mind waiting in town for the next few days."

"Not a problem." Alfonzo replied.

"I don't mind." Elicia replied as well.

"Of course, I don't mind." Lucy said happily. "I completed my first quest."

"Very good." Kaby said with a smile. Then, he bowed once again as he continued. "Once again, thank you so much."

"Don't mention it." Alfonzo said as he stood up to leave. "Now that you have all that extra money, you can go back home. Pretending to live in someone else's house is a weird hobby."

"Huh?" Lucy and Kaby let out sounds of confusion simultaneously.

"How could you tell that I didn't live here?" Kaby asked.

"He was right?" Lucy asked, even more confused and surprised.

"Actually, Lici figured it out." Alfonzo replied with a shrug.

"Yup." Elicia said, nodding happily. "Although that suit is nice, it's easy to see just how old it is. I mean, look at all the frayed seems."

"And anyone who can afford to live in a house like this would not be wearing such an old suit." Alfonzo added to the explanation. "If I had to guess, you probably pawned off most of what you own to pull together that 2,000,000 Jewel reward."

"*Sigh* You two have very keen perceptions." Kaby said with a wry smile on his face.

"Anyway, let's go." Alfonzo said as he turned toward the exit. "Just contact us when everything is taken care of. You know what hotel we'll be staying in."

With that, the trio of Fairy Tail wizards left the mansion. A few days later, they were on their way back to Magnolia with the completion letter for the objective of stealing Daybreak and 200,000 Jewels.

"So, you guys did all that so that he wouldn't be in poverty after we finished with the quest, right?" Lucy asked from the back seat of the Escalade.

"Yes and no." Elicia replied.

"What do you mean?" Lucy asked.

"Well, part of the reason we did it like that was to keep him from going broke like you said." Elicia said with a smile. "But there's more to it."

"Like what?" Lucy asked with curiosity in her tone.

"From a young age, there was one thing that Fonzie's mom and my dad never let us forget." Elicia said, looking a bit sadder at the mention of their parents.

"what's that?" Lucy asked once again.

"Wizards do not work for free." Alfonzo replied. "That's why Elicia replied with 'yes and no' to your question. We could have just failed the quest and let him keep the money. But we had to be compensated for our efforts."

"I see." Lucy replied with a contemplative expression on her face. "Then, how are we gonna split the reward? By contribution?"

"Oh, you can have it all." Alfonzo replied.

"Huh?" Lucy exclaimed in confusion. "But didn't you just say you needed to be compensated for your efforts?"

"He meant the team needed to be compensated." Elicia corrected with a smile. "But as far as splitting the reward goes, that's a different story."

"Yeah, besides, the whole reason we took this quest was to get you your rent money, remember?" Alfonzo said with a smile.

Hearing that, a warm feeling washed over Lucy's chest. The feeling of friendship and comradery was overwhelming.

"Thanks guys, you're the best." Lucy said with a happy smile on her face.

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.

A few days later, while on their way back from a quest, Natsu and Happy ran into Gray in the forest outside of Magnolia. During one of their usual arguments, they were attacked by a group of four wizards, who kidnapped Happy in the confusion.

It did not take long for Gray and Natsu to find them, however. And when they did, they defeated the four wizards easily in frontal combat. However, just as the leader of this little group was about to say something that seemed important, a shadow extended from the tree line and enveloped the four wizards.

"What is that?" Gray asked.

A moment later, the four wizards dropped into the shadow before it retracted back into the tree line.

"Hey, stop right there!" Natsu shouted, chasing after the shadow.

Unfortunately, the shadow retracted much faster than Natsu could run. Even Happy was not fast enough to follow it.

"What was that guy trying to say at the end?" Gray asked after Natsu and Happy returned.

"It sounded like 'Lullaby'." Natsu replied. "But what did he mean by that? Did he want us to sing to him?"

"No, of course not, you moron!" Gray said. "It had to be something else."

"Well, if you're so smart why don't you tell me what he meant." Natsu replied angrily. "But you should put your clothes on first."

"Huh? Where are my clothes?" Gray asked while frantically searching for his clothes.

A few minutes later, after Gray got himself dressed again, he turned toward the direction of Magnolia.

"We'd better get going." Gray said. "She should be back today. And if she finds out we were fighting again…"

"Erza's coming back today?" Natsu asked excitedly. "Then let's go. I'm gonna finally beat her when she gets back. Then, I'll beat Elicia, Laxus, and Alfonzo after that."

A few hours later, Erza, with a huge beast fang slung over her shoulders entered through Magnolia's southern gate. And on her face was a solemn expression that could only be matched by the expression she wore when she first escaped from the Tower of Heaven.