195 Karma Is a Bitch

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.

September, x784.

After greeting all their friends and entering the elevator, it did not take long for the group who just returned from Akane Beach to reach the top floor of the new guild hall. When they did, what they saw was far from unexpected.

Sitting behind his desk, Makarov was rubbing his temples, clearly exasperated from whatever he went through in the last few minutes, hours, or days. Meanwhile, Ur was sitting on one of the couches with her feet propped up on the coffee table with a solemn expression on her face.

At the same time, Makarov and Ur noticed the elevator door opening and looked to see who had come to see Makarov, this time.

"Well, well, well, look who it is." Ur said, the first to greet the new arrivals. "Welcome back, kids. How was your vacation? Probably not as relaxing as you were expecting, huh?"

Although she was not expecting the younger wizards in front of her to gush about just how fun their vacation was, Ur was certainly not expecting the reaction she received.

While Alfonzo looked as if a part of his soul just died, Ultear smiled brightly. Meanwhile, Elicia, Cana, and Erza started giggling as soon as they saw her.

"What's wrong with you guys?" Ur asked with a slightly confused expression after seeing the different reactions.

"Oh, I told them about that one day." Ultear replied. "You know, that one day, when Alfonzo and I dropped by unannounced after a quest?"

"Let the records show that I tried to stop her." Alfonzo added quickly after Ultear spoke.

At first, Ur wore a confused expression when she heard by they were acting like that. Since she had been drinking heavily, her memories of "that day's" events were pretty hazy. Still, after Alfonzo mentioned that he tried to stop Ultear, everything clicked for the Ice Mistress.

And as soon as her memories were jogged, Ur's confused expression turned into a smiling one. However, that smile did not reach her eyes.

"Ultear, Sweetie, I thought we came to an agreement on the events of that day." Ur said in a sickly sweet tone.

Hearing her mother's tone, Ultear's smile froze on her face. On top of that, the three laughing girls felt their laughter catch in their throats.

Along with Ur's ominous smile, she was subconsciously releasing her magic power as well. And they were surprised by what they were feeling.

"Huh? Her magic power is on par with Jose Porla's." Erza muttered once she stopped laughing with her eyes opening a little wider in surprise.

"Yeah… Now that I think about it, I don't' think I've ever felt her release the full strength of her magic power." Elicia added with a nod. "Or at least not for the last few years."

"Seriously… I knew she was a Wizard Saint Candidate a long time ago." Cana chimed in. "But I would have thought she was on par with Jura from Lamia Scale. He's ranked eighth, I think."

While Elicia, Cana, and Erza were discussing Ur's strength, Ultear had started feeling cold sweat flowing down her back. She had actually completely forgotten that the three of them were not supposed to talk about what happened that day, under the threat of her mother getting angry. Meanwhile, Alfonzo discreetly distanced himself from the girls, Ultear, specifically.

"Um… Sorry, Mom. I forgot." Ultear said with an apologetic expression on her face. "Elicia was talking about the beauty pageant she overheard you and Master talking about, and one thing led to another."

"For real, Ultear?" Elicia exclaimed in shock. "Now that you're in trouble, you get to snitching right away?"

Ultear's last statement managed to get Makarov's attention as well. Although he had been listening to the conversation, it did not particularly interest him since he had no context for it. But now that the pageant he had planned to announce to the rest of the guild in a few days had been mentioned, he was paying closer attention.

Immediately after Elicia's exclamation, she and Ultear began to bicker about snitching and the circumstances of how Elicia heard about the beauty pageant. Meanwhile, Cana and Erza looked on in amazement at how quickly things seemed to escalate.

On top of that, they both found it weird how much Ultear's statement seemed to bother Elicia. Considering how easily she told them about the gossip that she had heard, they never would have thought that she would get so upset for being exposed. Ur's next words, however, cleared up their doubts rather quickly.

"Ultear, Lici, do you think the same trick will work every time?" Ur asked, standing up from the couch as she spoke. "diverting my attention every time you get in trouble won't always be so easy, My Tear. Especially when you always use the same tactic. Though, it does amaze me how often Lici is around when you manage to get in trouble. But this little game won't work, this time."

"Well, I tried." Elicia said, stopping her quarrel with Ultear immediately after Ur exposed them. "I guess you're on your own with this one, Ultear."

Ultear could only look on blankly at Elicia. However, she did not miss the glint of satisfaction that flashed in her eyes for only an instant.

'I guess I had thrown her under the bus a lot over the years.' Ultear thought internally, trying to escape from the thought of what her mother would do to punish her. 'I mean, every time I get in trouble with Mom, when Elicia is around,, I do kinda throw Elicia under the bus. But I always make sure to mention something that she won't get in trouble for, even if someone finds out. Still, I guess the annoyance piled up over the years, huh? I should probably apologize to her later.'

It was exactly as Ultear thought, Elicia was glad that Ultear was getting what she deserved for using her as a scape goat so many times. Not that she actually wanted anything bad to happen to Ultear. And since Ur was the one doing the punishment, she knew that was the case. At worst, she would just have to go through some good ol' fashioned hell -mode training for a few days.

"Come on, Sweetie." Ultear said, maintaining that sickly sweet tone that was giving Ultear goosebumps. "Let's go have a nice, long talk."

By this point, while Ultear was trying to escape reality, Ur had reached her side and grabbed her by the arm. Then, she started dragging Ultear towards Makarov's private training room.

"Old Man, you don't mind if we use your training room for our private, mother-daughter conversation, do you?" Ur ask Makarov without changing her tone.

Like Ultear, Makarov started to get goosebumps. So, he wanted to ask Ur to stop talking like that. However, as soon as he met Ur's eyes, the only thing he could do was nod in affirmation at her question.

"Thanks, Old Man." Ur said, her smile widening as she dragged her daughter along.

A moment later, the Milkovich mother and daughter disappeared behind the training room's door. A few moments later, although the training rooms were completely sound proof, everyone in the office swore that they heard the faint sounds of Ultear screaming and crying for mercy. But since the training room was supposed to be completely sound proof, they decided that it was just a figment of their imagination.

"*Cough* Anyway, I assume you all are here to report about the Tower of Heaven incident, correct?" Makarov asked, trying to clear the awkward atmosphere.

"Yeah, that's right." Cana replied, still a bit dazed after feeling Ur's magic power. A moment later, however, she snapped out of it and looked around. "Hey, where's Fonzie?"

Elicia and Erza, who had also fallen into a daze when Ur revealed the full extent of her magic power, also snapped out of it after hearing Cana's question. After that, they looked back to where Alfonzo had been standing, only to notice that he was not there.

After scanning the room for a bit, the three girls noticed that Alfonzo was standing behind Makarov. Without anyone noticing, he had activated the sigils on the wall that allowed the outside of the guild hall to be seen and he was currently looking outside with his hands clasped behind his back.

"When did he get over there?" Erza asked, impressed by Alfonzo's ability to move undetected.

"Anyway, why don't you tell me about the whole mess with the Tower of Heaven?" Makarov asked, trying to get everyone's attention.

"Oh, sure." Elicia, Cana, and Erza replied simultaneously.

With that, Alfonzo, Elicia, Cana, and Erza began reporting on the events, starting from the point where they were attacked in the casino. Although Alfonzo was certain that he could make Makarov green with envy after talking about how he helped the girls put on sun tan oil, the old man did not need to know that. He might have a heart attack and Alfonzo was too kind to risk that.

At around the time Cana was describing her battle with Vidaldus from Trinity Raven, Ur and Ultear exited the training room. While Ur looked kind of refreshed, she threw a playful glance at Alfonzo while making her way back to the couch.

Meanwhile, Ultear did not look very happy. On her face, there was faint evidence that she had been crying. On top of that, she was walking with a slight lip. And every now and then, she would discreetly, or at least she thought she was being discreet, rub her butt.

'Ah.. I see.' Alfonzo affirmed in his head. 'So, Ur gave Ultear a spanking as punishment. While doing so, she saw the red marks I left on her ass from last night's sexy time. And that's why she looked at me like that.'

As soon as Ur sat down, she asked for a quick recap of what they discussed, which Makarov gave. Then, the five younger wizards continued reporting. Around an hour and a half later, the report was finished and Makarov and Ur was mulling over what they had just heard.

"First of all, the five of you did a great job with this." Makarov said, the first to get his thoughts together. "And doing your best to save as many of the people in the tower as you could is what I would expect from my children. Coincidentally, so is capsizing most of their escaping boats during the battle."

"That wasn't really our fault." Elicia said with a wry smile. "Besides, when Fonzie knocked down the tower, it had already happened once because of the Magic Council."

"Yeah, and if they hadn't scattered in all directions like mice when a cat shows up, all of them would have been just fine." Cana added. "Besides, we told them to sail towards the ship that was anchored off the coast of the island when we told them to leave."

"Indeed." Erza added. "But it seems they were too panicked and scared to listen to our advice."

"Easy now, Kids." Makarov said raising his hands disarmingly. "I wasn't scolding you. I just found it amusing that it took you two this long to cause some collateral damage on a quest."

When he said the last part, Makarov glanced at Alfonzo and Elicia with a grandfatherly smile.

"Okay, there are a couple things wrong with that statement, Gramps." Alfonzo said while wagging his finger. "First, we weren't on a quest. We just got dragged into some shit. We were supposed to be on vacation, remember?"

Elicia, Cana, Ultear, and Erza nodded in agreement with Alfonzo's rebuttal. Ur, on the other hand, stifled a laugh when she saw Makarov's expression after being refuted.

"Second, everything that was destroyed because of the attack I used to level the tower was property of the Cult of Zeref." Alfonzo continued. "So, none of that would count as collateral damage."

Once again, the girls nodded in agreement. Meanwhile, Ur was no longer able to hold back her laughter after seeing Makarov's face redden in embarrassment.

"Hahahaha! He got you there, Old Man." Ur said while laughing boisterously. "Maybe Laxus was right, you really are getting old. It might just be time to name a successor."

"*Sigh* You had to remind me about hat, huh?" Makarov said in an exasperated tone. "Maybe he was right, I am getting too old for this. But he was only half right. He definitely is not ready for a responsibility like being the guild master."

'So, he really told him.' Alfonzo, Elicia, Cana, Ultear, and Erza thought simultaneously.

"Well, that explains why he looked like his underwear was all bunched up when we saw him leaving the guild." Elicia said.

"Yeah, and he looked like he was going to do something stupid just to prove you right… *Cough* I mean wrong, Gramps." Alfonzo added.

"*Sigh* I figured as much." Makarov replied. "I just hope he doesn't go too far."

"If you had sat him down and set him straight after his father was excommunicated, you wouldn't be in this situation." Ur rebuked. "But because he's your grandson, you let his behavioral issues fester. And now he's like this."

"Ur's right, you know." Elicia said. "Ever since the day Fonzie and I came to Magnolia with you, he's been showing that things would end up like this. But you didn't do anything about it."

Once again, Makarov sighed, knowing that what they said was correct. Because of that, he had nothing to say in his own defense. Eventually, the conversation in his office ended and everyone, other than Makarov, boarded the elevator and went down to the first floor to mingle with the other members of the guild,

"*Sigh* I really need to start training a successor." Makarov muttered after he was the only one left in his office. "I'm getting too old for this shit."