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5.66% Fairy Tail: Metal and Threads / Chapter 38: That's Just What I Needed

章節 38: That's Just What I Needed

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Lupinus.

May 10, x776.

After their stomachs were sufficiently emptied, Alfonzo and Elicia quickly entered the castle ruins. Though they wanted nothing more than to return to the town, take a shower, and take a long nap, they decided to explore the ruins, just in case they were able to find anything of use.

Initially, when they searched the castle, they were unable to find anything. With Elicia's [Thread Detection] spell, the only thing she could find was debris and broken furniture. Even Alfonzo's Magic power sense turned up more of the same. However, Alfonzo continued to have a nagging suspicion that they were missing something.,

"Come on, Fonzie." Elicia whined in a tired tone. "I'm so tired. I wanna take a nap."

Elicia's tired tone did not surprise Alfonzo in the slightest. Like her, he was running low on magic power. And although they usually performed more high intensity workouts than their fight with the lycan, the mental exhaustion the fight brought with it was more than he expected.

"Just a few more minutes, Lici." Alfonzo said as he and Elicia walked down a corridor in the castle. "I can feel something down this way."

Though she pouted, Elicia did not object. Instead, she just held Alfonzo's hand and walked alongside him. Eventually, the duo reached a room with a pair of large, tattered doors. After pushing them open carefully, Alfonzo and Elicia arrived in a room that they could only guess used to be this castle's throne room.

As soon as they entered the room, the feeling Alfonzo was getting strengthened. And he immediately began walking toward the broken throne sitting at the back of the room. Climbing the stairs in front of the throne, he and Elicia stopped. While Elicia did not see anything out of the ordinary, Alfonzo could feel the presence of metal in and beneath the throne.

"I think there is a vault under the throne, Lici." Alfonzo said with a smile. "And from what I can sense, it has never been opened."

Hearing that, Elicia's tired eyes lit up with excitement.

"Can you open it?" Elicia asked. "I wonder what kind of treasures there are inside. I bet there will be some nice necklaces and rings in there. Ooh, Fonzie, do you think I'll be able to find some pretty earrings in there?"

While Elicia began daydreaming about the jewelry she might find, Alfonzo could only smile wryly.

'Just a second ago, she was dead tired and ready to leave.' Alfonzo thought as he examined the throne. 'But as soon as I mentioned a vault and she connected that with jewelry, she was instantly energized again. I swear, women are descended from dragons. They all love treasure and shiny stuff.'

A few moments later, Alfonzo placed his hands on the throne and ran some magic power through it. And to his surprise, it seemed to be made of an extremely dense, non-magic metal.

"Is this… adamantite?" Alfonzo asked in an amazed tone.

"Adamantite? You mean the strongest defensive metal in the world?" Elicia asked, equally as shocked.

"I think so." Alfonzo replied. "but until I can show it to Master Goldstein, I can't be completely sure."

Storing the information of the metal with his magic, Alfonzo discarded any thoughts about identifying the metal, for now. Instead, he focused on moving the throne, which seemed to be attached to the vault door. Although he was running low on magic power, simply moving metals with his magic did not require much. Even so, he almost experienced total magic power exhaustion by the time the throne was turned over on its side and the vault door was open.

*Sigh* Damn, I'm fucking exhausted." Alfonzo said while wiping beads of sweat from his forehead.

"Are you okay, Fonzie?" Elicia asked in a worried tone while rummaging through her back pack for a towel. "Do you want to go back? We can come here again tomorrow. We still have the hotel booked for tonight, after all."

Once Elicia found what she was looking for, she started wiping the sweat on Alfonzo's face.

"No, I'm fine." Alfonzo replied when Elicia was done wiping his face. "If we did that, we'd have to take a late train. It's better to look around while we're here."

Nodding in agreement, Elicia put the towel away and looked down to see into the vault. When she did, she was quite surprised. Instead of a staircase leading down into the ground, there was only a small hole with several, nine to be exact, clear orbs inside.

"*Sigh* What a waste." Elicia said with a pout. "There's no jewelry inside. There are only a few crystal balls. Did the ruler of this castle like fortune telling or something?"

"Crystal balls?" Alfonzo asked with obvious curiosity in his tone.

A moment later, Alfonzo looked down into the vault as well. And when he did, his eyes lit up like Elicia's had, when she thought she would find some jewelry. Though he was not a hundred percent sure, those "crystal balls" as Elicia put it might be exactly what he was hoping for.

Reaching down into the hole in the floor, Alfonzo carefully lifted one of the clear orbs, that fit comfortably in his two, eleven-year-old, hands, out of the vault. When he did, he examined it closely. Then, when he was satisfied with his examination, he pushed it toward Elicia.

"Lici, you still have some magic power left, right?" Alfonzo asked with a note of anticipation in his tone.

"Yeah, I do." Elicia replied, tilting her head cutely. "But why?"

"You don't have to use too much, please, but push a little of your magic power into this." Alfonzo said, pushing the clear orb even closer to Elicia.

Though she was thoroughly confused by what was going on, Elicia did as Alfonzo asked.

'I really need to start spending some time in the library.' Elicia thought as she placed her right palm on the orb in Alfonzo's hands. 'I'm getting tired of not knowing what Fonzie is talking about.'

Naturally, Elicia would never bring that thought into fruition, as she is easily distracted by anything to do with making clothing.

As Elicia's magic power entered the orb, it began to glow slightly. Meanwhile, Alfonzo' face lit up to a much greater degree.

"Okay, Lici, that's enough.

After that, Alfonzo pulled the orb back and carefully set it down on the floor next to him. A moment later, he took his backpack off his back and began pulling out the rations he had packed for the day and throwing them on the floor. Since their investigation only lasted the time it took to walk from the town to the castle, plus the time it took to fight the lycan, most of the rations they packed for the day were no longer necessary.

"Fonzie, what are you doing?" Elicia asked in shock.

"Lici, you do it, too." Alfonzo said, not even looking up at Elicia. "Keep something to eat on the way back to the town. But other than that, get rid of the rest of your rations. I need to take those lacrima back home with us."

"Lacrima?" Elicia asked, while tilting her head.

"Yeah, those crystal balls are rechargeable lacrima." Alfonzo said excitedly as he stuffed the lacrima he set down next to him into his backpack. "Those are the last part I needed to complete my project."

Following Alfonzo's instructions, Elicia began discarding the rations that were not necessary anymore. However, she was still curious what Alfonzo needed them for. She knew that he had been working on a project with Master Goldstein for the last few years, but he refused to tell her what it was. So, she could only speculate. Either way, she was happy for him, who had found what he was looking for.

After a few more minutes, all nine rechargeable lacrima were stored in their backpacks and they were ready to leave. So, they quickly made their way out of the castle and climbed the walls again to return to the road they used to get to the castle. However when they arrived, they found a pack of regular wolves feasting on the lycan's corpse.

"It's a good thing we packed that things head before we went inside." Alfonzo said after dry heaving at the sight of the lycan's corpse.

"Yeah, but we still have to fight off a pack of wolves. Elicia added with a pale face. "If we weren't running so low on magic power, we could probably scare them away with the pressure from flaring our magic power."

If it were not for the fact that they had already emptied their stomachs a while ago, they both would have probably thrown up at the sight of the chopped up lycan again.

"That's a good idea. We should wait here to recharge our magic power." Alfonzo said. "I really don't want to fight a pack of wolves right now."

"No, that's not necessary." Elicia said excitedly after having an epiphany. "I have enough magic power to get us out of here."

A moment later, Elicia took off her backpack and handed it to Alfonzo. Then, she pressed her back against his chest and tied them together with her threads.

"Okay, hold on tight." Elicia said with a smile.

"Hold on, I don't mind waiting for my magic to refill." Alfonzo said, clearly not liking Elicia's idea.

"Now, let's go!" Elicia shouted as she shot her threads at a tree in the distance while ignoring Alfonzo's objections.

"Lici, wait!" Alfonzo shouted just before Elicia retracted the threads.

A moment later, Alfonzo and Elicia were flying through the air, towards a tree on the side of the road they used to travel from the town.

Meanwhile, the wolves glanced up at the two flying children. A second later, however, they returned to feasting on the remains of the lycan, not bothered to chase down such small prey.

After a few more seconds, Alfonzo and Elicia were nearing the tree that Elicia had wrapped her threads around. Then, before they could collide with it, she cut the threads, causing them to fall toward the ground.

While Alfonzo was panicking, Elicia had a broad smile on her face as she created a large amount of thread and weaved it together at high-speed. When she was done, a large cushion was on the ground right where they would land.

*Boof!*

Sinking into the cushion, neither Alfonzo nor Elicia were hurt. Instead, Elicia hopped up immediately and exclaimed happily.

"Fonzie, let's go back to the castle and do it again!"

"Nope!" Alfonzo replied with a vigorous shake of his head. "I still feel nauseated from seeing the lycan. I'm in no mood to go thrill seeking right now."

As soon as Alfonzo mentioned the lycan, Elicia's enthusiastic expression disappeared, replaced by a pale face that looked as if it would vomit at any time.

"Fine, I get your point." Elicia said, the wind clearly taken out of her sails. "Plus, now that I think about it, I don't have enough magic power left to do that again."

"*Sigh* Come on, let's go back." Alfonzo said, extending his left hand for Elicia to hold.

Smiling at the gesture, Elicia happily grabbed Alfonzo's hand as they began walking toward the town. Eventually, the nausea they were feeling even went away. So, they ate the rations they left for the trip back. Plus, they even remembered to pick the herbs that they saw along the way. Then, after walking for about an hour and a half, Alfonzo and Elicia finally returned to the north gate of Lupinus.

"We're back." Alfonzo said in a fatigued tone.

"Yeah, today was crazy." Elicia said. "Never had so much happen on a mission before."

"Well, other than exploring that castle, this was no different than a monster subjugation quest." Alfonzo said with a smile.

"Yeah, I guess that's true." Elicia said while tilting her head. "But we did get to do some investigation, too. We were like Aria and Kinji!"

"Aria the Scarlet Ammo, huh?" Alfonzo mused.

"Hidan no Aria!" Elicia corrected.

"Same difference." Alfonzo replied with a shrug. "Anyway, let's go report to the mayor. After that I wanna go back to the hotel and take a shower."

"Yeah, I feel all sticky from the sweat." Elicia said with a mildly disgusted expression on her face. "It feels so gross."

"Do you wanna go back to the hotel first, instead?" Alfonzo asked.

Taking a few seconds to seriously consider Alfonzo's offer, Elicia eventually shook her head.

"No, we have to walk past town hall, anyway." Elicia said. "Since we're going that way, anyway, we might has well get it out of the way."

"Sounds good to me." Alfonzo said with a smile.

Like that, Alfonzo and Elicia returned to the mayor's office. They then explained what had happened and showed the lycan's head to Reno. Then, after getting a letter of completion and the reward for the quest, Reno handed them a bonus of another 450,000 Jewels for killing the lycan. They then bid Reno goodbye and returned to their hotel.

Upon returning to their room, Alfonzo and Elicia took showers in turn before falling asleep, and sleeping soundly until early the next morning.


創作者的想法
SixthSense1029 SixthSense1029

2/2

If you're interested, check out my other story, High School DxD: Scattered Cherry Blossoms.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy the story.

Comments, Reviews, and Power Stones are always appreciated.

章節 39: Erza Scarlet

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.

May 11, x776.

In Fairy Tail's guild hall, most of the Fairy Tail wizards were eating their breakfasts, though their moods seemed to be a little worse than usual. Although they were all eating and chatting like usual, the fervor with which they ate was… diminished.

"Master, can I make a suggestion?" Wakaba asked Makarov, who was sitting in his usual spot on the bar top.

"*Hiccup* What is it, Wakaba?" Makarov asked in reply with an alcohol induced blush on his face.

"I suggest that we stop Alfonzo from taking quests that will keep him away from the guild for more than a day." Wakaba said in a righteous tone.

"I agree." Macao said in a serious tone.

"Agreed!" The rest of the guild echoed with fervor.

Looking around at all his children, Makarov was happy to see that they all could agree on something… for once. However, he was thoroughly confused as to why they wanted to stop Alfonzo from taking quests like that. Maybe, had he been sober, he would have understood what they were thinking right away. Since he was not, however, he simply tilted his head in confusion.

"Why would I do that? *Hiccup*" Makarov asked, confusion evident in his tone.

"Master, how can you not understand?" Macao asked, sounding rather upset. "What that boy has done is down-right criminal!"

Almost everyone present in the guild nodded in agreement with Macao's statement with determined expressions on their faces.

"Brat, you're gonna have to be more straightforward with me." Makarov said, taking a swig from his mug.

"He… He… He got us addicted to his food!" Macao said, tears streaming down his face in a comical manner. "And then he just up and leaves to take a quest. How heartless could he be?"

While most of the guild's wizards nodded in agreement, Wakaba hugged Macao as emotional support. Meanwhile, Makarov stared at the group with a blank expression on his face. While he was also missing Alfonzo's cooking, he would never stop one of his children from growing for such a reason. Or… that was what he thought until he looked at the plate of barely touched breakfast that was sitting next to him on the bar.

'Maybe I should put a restriction on Alfonzo's quests.' Makarov thought to himself with a surprisingly serious expression on his face.

A moment later, Makarov realized what he was thinking. Then, he shook his head to get that stupid thought out of his mind.

"Are you brats stupid?" Makarov asked, raising his vice so he could be heard throughout the guild hall. "For the sake of satisfying your stomachs, you would cripple the boy's growth? For goodness' sake, it's only been three days!"

After hearing Makarov's reprimand, everyone who called for Alfonzo's quests to be restricted lowered their heads with guilt in their eyes, Makarov, on the other hand, was thinking something totally different.

'I should ask Alfonzo if he can make something to preserve food.' Makarov thought while stroking his mustache and looking at all the Fairy Tail wizards with a disappointed expression. 'Then, I can order some extra dishes for emergencies like this one.'

Meanwhile, Alfonzo and Elicia' s group of friends looked on with dumbfounded expressions.

"Did they really just ask Master Makarov to restrict Alfonzo's quests to those he could complete in a day?" Levy asked in a daze.

"That's what it sounds like." Ultear replied.

"Just so that he can make breakfast for them?" Levy continued.

"Yup." Cana replied.

*Bang!*

Before Levy could ask anymore questions in her dumbfounded state, the guild's front doors were slammed open. After hearing the noise of the doors slamming against the walls of the guild hall, everyone, without exception, looked in that direction.

When they did, they saw a girl, about ten or eleven years old with long scarlet-red hair and an eye patch over her right eye, standing in the doorway.

Ignoring the surprised stares from the Fairy Tail wizards, Erza scanned the room with her eye. Then, when her sight landed on Makarov, she began walking forward with steady steps. A few moments later, when she was standing in front of the bar, she looked up at Makarov, who returned her gaze.

"Based on the sign above the door, this is Fairy Tail, correct?" The girl asked, maintaining eye contact with Makarov.

"That's right, Little Lady." Makarov replied. "What can I do for you?"

"And am I correct to assume that you are the guild master, Master Makarov?" The girl asked, once again.

"I am." Makarov replied calmly.

"That's good." The girl said with a nod. "Then, I would like to join Fairy Tail."

Hearing that, Makarov remained silent for a moment as he tried to sense the young girl in front of him's magic power. Surprised by the amount that he could feel, Makarov was more than willing to accept her into the guild. However, he could tell there was more to this girl than meets the eye. On top of that, he was concerned by the patch covering her right eye.

"I don't mind accepting you into the guild, but why did you choose Fairy Tail.?" Makarov asked.

"Because Uncle Rob told me that if I came here, I would be able to have a family." The girl said, surprising Makarov greatly.

When Makarov heard the name, "Rob," His eyes widened in shock. At the same time, the image of one of his old teammates, a tall, muscular man with grey hair that pointed upward and long brown eyebrows that did the opposite, appeared in his mind.

"So, Rob sent you here, huh?" Makarov said, wearing a nostalgic smile on his face. "If he sent you here, then you must be a good kid. By the way, what is your name?"

"I'm Erza, Erza Scarlet." The girl, Erza, said, introducing herself.

"Well then, Erza." Makarov said, wearing a grandfatherly smile. "It's nice to meet you. And welcome to the family."

With that, the guild hall, that had remained silent ever since Erza opened the doors, burst into loud, excited cheers. Like they always did whenever a new member joined the guild, they began to party on the spot. Meanwhile, Makarov continued his conversation with Erza.

"So, how is Rob?" Makarov asked, picking up his mug to take another swig.

"He's…" Erza said, unable to finish her sentence as she lowered her head and clenched her fists.

Noticing Erza's reaction to his question, Makarov froze, his mug stopping just in front of his lips. Then, his magic power flared, putting pressure on everyone in the guild hall, with the weaker members of the guild having trouble breathing.

A moment later, Makarov regained control of his emotions. Then, he looked at Erza with sorrow in his eyes.

"Come, Child." Makarov said, placing his mug back on the bar before hopping down to the floor. "We'll continue this conversation in my office."

Makarov then began walking toward the stairs next to the bar, closely followed by Erza. Meanwhile, everyone in the guild hall simply watched them go in silence.

Eventually, after walking up two flights of stairs, Makarov and Erza reached Makarov's office on the third floor. Then, after entering and taking their seats, Makarov asked the question he most wanted an answer to.

"Please, can you tell me what happened to Rob?" Makarov asked in a grim tone. "And tell me what happened to you, and your eye."

Placing her fingers on her eye patch, Erza once again lowered her head. Then, after a few moments, she took a deep breath and raised her head while placing her hands on her lap.

"I used to live in a village called Rosemary Village." Erza said beginning her story. "But the village was destroyed by Zeref cultists, and the villagers were taken to…'

At that point, Erza's words came to a halt as she remembered something.

'If you tell anyone about where we are, you'll never see your friends alive again." A blue haired boy with a tattoo under his eye, on the left side of his face said as Erza escaped from the island where she had been enslaved.

"Child, are you alright?" Makarov asked after Erza had stopped talking for a moment.

"I'm fine." Erza said, shaking the thought away. "We were taken away and forced to build something for the cultists."

"The Tower of Heaven…" Makarov said with anger.

Surprised that Makarov knew that name, Erza looked at him with surprise in her eye. Meanwhile, after seeing Erza's expression, Makarov could only shake his head.

"Those damned Zeref cultists have already killed three of our former members." Makarov said. "In fact, you are not the only child who has come to us after their lives were ruined by those bastards. The only difference is, they were not abducted with the rest of their village."

Hearing that, Erza's eye opened wide. She would have never imagined that anyone could escape from the cultists that attacked her village.

"In fact, they should return later on today." Makarov continued with a smile. "I'm sure you'll get along just fine with Alfonzo and Elicia. They're both good kids."

Those names made Erza remember the promise she made to the Matron of the orphanage in Hargeon, Rebecca Landon.

"Their full names wouldn't be Alfonzo Marcus and Elicia Taylor, would they?" Erza asked.

"That's right, but how do you know that?" Makarov asked curiously. "Have you met them before?"

"No." Erza replied after shaking her head. "But I met the matron of an orphanage who asked me to relay a message."

"I see." Makarov said with an understanding nod. "Well, you'll get a chance to meet them soon. In the meantime, why don't you tell me the rest of your story?"

Nodding in response, Erza continued her story, telling Makarov about how she and all the other captured villagers were forced to do hard labor, barely receiving enough to eat or drink. And what they did get was more often than not rotten.

ON top of that, they were beaten quite often. Beaten for disobedience. Beaten for mistakes. Beaten when the cultists were in a bad mood. Beaten for any and all reasons.

She then got to how she lost her eye. Apparently, Erza and a group of children tried to escape their captors. However, they were discovered. Even though Erza was just following the one who came up with the plan, she was pegged as the ringleader of the escape attempt and had her eye removed as punishment.

Eventually, one of her friends was taken, sentenced to death for insubordination. Then, Erza, tired of having everything taken away from her, decided to lead a rebellion to get her friend back and escape. In the conflict, Rob was killed, protecting Erza. Then, in response to Rob's death, Erza awakened her magic power and a type of spatial magic called [Requip: The Knight].

Then, after a long, hard-fought battle, she arrive where her friend was being held… Only to find his captors dead. On top of that, he was acting quite differently. He had asked her to help him complete the tower. And when she refused, he attacked her and forced her off the island, using her friends' lives to make sure she never came back.

"After that, I used a small boat and arrived on the coast of Fiore." Erza said, bringing her story to an end. "Then, I traveled to Hargeon before making my way here."

Taking a few deep breaths to calm down, Makarov eventually put on a sympathetic expression.

"You've been through a lot, Child." Makarov said. "Let's get you a good meal before we do anything else. Then, I'll take you to see Porlyusica, Fairy Tail's healer, to see if she can do anything about your eye."

Nodding in response, Erza stood up after Makarov and followed him out of the office and back to the first floor.

Several hours later, in the rowdy atmosphere of the guild hall, Erza sat at a table, alone. Although the other children in the guild, minus Laxus' group and Nab, tried to get to know her, she did not wish to do the same. So, they simply left her alone for the time being.

"So, I can get an artificial eye." Erza muttered to herself. "That's better than nothing."

Looking up from her contemplations, Erza just happened to see the moment when the door opened. Although the door had been opened many times throughout the course of the day, she noticed that there were two kids around her age standing in the doorway this time.

Meanwhile, the two kids, Alfonzo and Elicia looked around the guild hall after being gone for three days with smiles on their faces.

"Hey everyone!" Alfonzo shouted. "We're back!"

While Alfonzo greeted the guild, Elicia's eyes were glued to a table in the corner of the guild hall. Seeing the scarlet-red hair that was sitting at that table, her eyes began to light up more and more as time passed. Eventually, she grabbed Alfonzo by the arm and dragged him out of the guild hall, surprising everyone that had been looking at them.

"Lici, what's wrong?" Alfonzo asked after Elicia dragged him away from the door.

"She's here!" Elicia screamed in a hushed tone.

"Huh?" Alfonzo exclaimed curiously. "Who's here?"

"She is!" Elicia screamed again.

"You're gonna have to give me more than that, Lici." Alfonzo said with a wry smile.

"Come on, Fonzie, you know who I'm talking about!" Elicia said, frustrated that Alfonzo could not read her mind as she was having trouble putting her words in order.

Seeing how excited Elicia was, Alfonzo knew he would not be getting a straight answer from her any time soon. So, he began thinking back to everything he remembered about the Fairy Tail timeline he read in his past life.

'Let's see, it's x776.' Alfonzo thought to himself. 'From what I remember, only two things of note happened this year. First, Sherria Blendy was born. But since that didn't have much to do with Fairy Tail, that's probably not what she's talking about. The only other thing that happened was…'

Immediately after getting to that point, Alfonzo's eyes opened wide. Then, he looked at Elicia.

"Erza's here." Alfonzo said in a quiet, excited tone.


創作者的想法
SixthSense1029 SixthSense1029

1/2

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoy the story.

Comments, Reviews, and Power Stones are always appreciated.

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