322 Retiring from the Military

Earth land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Crocus.

February, x785.

"I'm back." Alfonzo said as he walked into his and Elicia's hotel room.

"Welcome back." Elicia said with a smile from atop the bed.

After that, Alfonzo slipped off his shoes before quickly making his way over to the bed and giving Elicia a hug.

"So, when she said 'Fonzie will handle the rest,' she was talking about you, Alfonzo Marcus, huh?" Maes asked from the chair in front of the desk in the room. "I guess that means you were that weird black silhouette that saved me then, right?"

"That's right." Alfonzo replied with a nod. "You're just lucky that we have the habit of scanning our surroundings when we're outside of Magnolia."

"Yeah, otherwise, those two would have killed you." Elicia added.

"Yeah, I kinda figured that." Maes said while scratching the stubble on his face. "But what were those things? I mean, I stabbed one of them in the head and the other in the throat. But they just shrugged it off like they weren't even hurt."

"Since you work with so many alchemists, I'm sure you've heard of them at least once." Alfonzo replied.

Hearing that, Maes started to explore his memories. Before he could come to the correct conclusion, however, Elicia gave the answer.

"Homunculus." Elicia said in a solemn tone.

"That's impossible." Maes replied almost immediately. "No one has ever created a homunculus successfully.

"Well, if you have a better explanation for what those things that tried to kill you were, I'm all ears." Alfonzo replied with a shrug. "Either way, that's not the most important thing to worry about, right now."

"Huh?" Maes exclaimed in confusion.

"Those things, they want you dead." Elicia said. "And I doubt they are above using your family---"

"Gracia! Elicia!" Maes shouted in panic.

"Take it easy, Lt. Colonel." Alfonzo said, stopping Maes before he could get out of control. "I sent those two things flying out of the city. So, we should have some time to secure your family before they can report back and get new orders."

Hearing that, relief washed over Maes. Then, he stood up abruptly and started walking towards the hotel room's door Seeing that, both Alfonzo and Elicia could only smile wryly.

"I guess I'll go with him." Elicia said, leaning over to give Alfonzo a kiss on the cheek. "But what are we gonna do with the Hughes family after that?"

As she spoke, Elicia extended a thread towards Maes that imbued the effects of [Hiding in Plain Sight]. It would be a waste if Maes was spotted by an informant of the homunculus after all that Alfonzo and Elicia had done, after all.

"Yeah, you should go with Hughes." Alfonzo said with a nod. "Meanwhile, I'll book another room for the family of three. Then, I'll take your car back to Magnolia and switch it out for the Escalade. We'll need a lot more room to bring them all back to Magnolia, right?"

"You wanna bring them back with us?" Elicia asked with curiosity in her tone. "But if we do that, what will they do"

"Well, other than a change in scenery, not much should happen to Gracia and Elicia." Alfonzo replied.

"Having someone around with the same name as mine is gonna take some getting used to." Elicia said while smiling wryly.

"But I think having Hughes work for the guild as an information analyst would be good for Fairy Tail." Alfonzo continued while smiling at Elicia's remark. "I mean, he is the commanding officer in the Knights investigations office, after all."

"Ooh!" Elicia exclaimed with her eyes opened wide. "If he accepts, you're gonna end up being Ur's favorite person."

After she spoke, Elicia leaned over and pecked Alfonzo on the cheek once again. Then, she stood up and quickly started walking towards the door of the hotel room.

"Well, I guess I should get going." Elicia said as she opened the door. "He's already on the ground floor."

"Okay, I'll see you some time tomorrow." Alfonzo said while waving Elicia goodbye.

After that, Elicia quickly caught up with Maes. Then, while they were both undetectable thanks to her [Camouflage magic], they made their way to Maes' apartment.

Meanwhile, Alfonzo headed down to the hotel's reception desk, and booked a room on the same floor as his and Elicia's for the next few days. Then, he left the hotel, hopped in Elicia's Z3, and started his drive back to Magnolia.

After that, the next few days passed with little issue. Maes was able to convince his wife that they had to get out of the city after he had been attacked for getting too close to the heart of a secret, and how he was saved by Elicia and her fiancée from Fairy Tail. Though, he did have to explain to his wife that he was not cheating on her with a younger woman when Gracia saw him come into the house with Elicia.

Then, Alfonzo returned with the Escalade early the next morning. After that, he and Elicia went out to look at the plots of land that the realtor had prepared for Elicia's new shop.

The Hughes family, on the other hand, stayed I the hotel room that Alfonzo had booked for them while they were all connected to Elicia with her threads. Since Alfonzo and Elicia knew about Gluttony and his ability to sniff out his targets, they were constantly under the effects of [Hiding in Plain Sight], and would remain that way until the group left for Magnolia.

Also, during those few days, Maes' daughter, Elicia, was quite taken by the older Elicia. And whenever she wasn't out surveying possible locations for her store, the two Elicias were pretty much inseparable.

On a side note, Maes tried to pull his gun on Alfonzo when Alfonzo made a toy for Elica with his [Metal Magic], and the little girl gave him a kiss on the cheek as thanks. But thanks to Alfonzo's [Metal Magic], Maes could not even pull it from its holster.

In any case, after those few days were over, Alfonzo and Elicia were satisfied with the spot they had chosen for Elicia's new store. Though, they did end up paying a little more than they expected because the owner got greedy after realizing who the buyers were. Still, as they were both pretty rich, neither of them batted an eye. Though, Alfonzo planned to bankrupt his business in the future. Through completely legal means, of course.

Then, once Alfonzo and Elicia had hired a construction company to build the shop with orichalcum lined walls, they went back to the hotel.

The next day, Elicia, concealed by her [Hiding in Plain sight Spell], accompanied Maes to the knights' headquarters where he would tender his resignation from the kingdom's military. Luckily, his resignation was accepted thanks to his years of stellar service. Though, he did have to deal with quite the guilt tripping before they agreed.

Even the commander of the knights, King Bradley made an appearance and tried to convince him otherwise. In fact, he almost succeeded. Until Elicia secretly whispered to Maes that the commander was lacking any hint of magic power in his body, just like the two who attacked him a few nights ago.

Eventually, when Maes' resignation was accepted and made official, and Maes had cleaned out his office, he and Elicia left the HQ.

"Don't panic, but someone is following us.' Elicia whispered as she and Maes walked towards a crowded street.

"*Sigh* I knew I figured out something big, but to think they'd go this far to keep me from spreading it." Maes said quietly.

"Well, you did say that a few villages and towns had been massacred in the shape of the transmutation circle used to create a Philosopher's Stone." Elicia replied. "Although not all of the country would be sacrificed, most of the kingdom's population would end up dead if they succeeded."

"*Sigh* I know." Maes replied. "Fortunately, Magnolia won't fall into the range of the giant transmutation circle."

"That's because if they tried to destroy any towns or villages near magnolia, they would probably be found out by the guild." Elicia replied while puffing out her chest in pride. "Although we've been known to cause trouble in the past, we have always been considered the strongest guild in the kingdom."

Hearing that, Maes could only smile wryly. At the same time, he and Elicia finally walked into the crowd of people roaming the capital's streets. Then, Maes simply vanished among the people, with no one seeming to notice.

"Huh? Where did he go?" Asked an extremely fat man with a large, round head, a large nose, and small, round, pupilless eyes wearing a sleeveless black body suit as he tilted his head in confusion from a rooftop overlooking the crowded Crocus street. "Lust told me I could eat him… But he disappeared."

After that, the fat man sniffed the air a few times to try and find his prey. However, the scent completely vanished in the spot where Maes disappeared. A few moments later, the fat man turned around and started heading back to his hideout.

"I hope Lust won't be mad at me." The fat man muttered to himself as he leapt from rooftop to rooftop.

The following day, with everything that needed to be taken care of out of the way, Alfonzo, the two Elicias, Maes, and Gracia piled into the Escalade after checking out of the hotel. Then, they started the drive back to Magnolia.

"So, have you considered my offer?" Alfonzo asked while steering the vehicle.

"You mean about working for Fairy Tail?" Maes asked after glancing back at his giggling daughter, who was sitting in Elici's lap, while the older girl braided her hair. "Yeah, I think I'll accept. I need to be able to provide for my family, after all."

"Good." Alfonzo replied with a smile. "Ur is gonna be over the moon to have someone who can help her sift through the information that comes in every day."

"You mentioned Ur, you mean the Ice Witch, Ur Milkovich, right?" Gracia asked from the back seat.

"That's right." Alfonzo replied. "She became the fourth Fairy Tail guild master after Gramps retired."

"I see." Gracia replied with a nod. "I've heard a lot about her over the years thanks to Sorcerer Weekly. But what's she like?"

"Ur's nice." Elicia replied with a smile.

"Unless you spill her wine or mention her age." Alfonzo added.

"She's really good with children. And she seems to like teaching them." Elicia continued without minding Alfonzo's interruption. "In fact, she's already taught five wizards. Actually, she's still teaching the fifth one…"

"Yeah, and if little Elicia shows any talent as a wizard, she'll probably jump at the opportunity to teach her, too." Alfonzo added.

Hearing her name mentioned, the younger Elicia looked towards Alfonzo from her seat on the older Elicia's lap.

"Could I be a wizard?" The little Elicia asked with her eye's sparkling.

One thing to take note of is that Elicia Hughes is six years old in this world, unlike her canon counterpart from Fullmetal Alchemist. In fact, all the characters from that franchise are older due to things not following Fullmetal's timeline thanks to all the things that have been going on in the world of Fairy Tail. On top of that, magic has made it much harder for Father to enact his plans without being noticed. So, things have been much more slow going.

"You probably could." The older Elicia replied with a smile. "I mean, you and your mom have a decent amount of magic power. Though, from what I can tell, Gracia never trained hers."

"Huh? I have magic power?" Gracia asked in a confused tone. "But no one ever told me about that."

Not only Gracia, but even Maes was completely flabbergasted by the bomb Elicia just dropped.

"Well, if I had to guess, you grew up in a village that didn't have any wizards living there, right?" Alfonzo asked.

"Yes, that's right." Gracia replied with a nod.

"And since you didn't awaken a kind of innate magic as a child, no one in the village would have ever known that you had the potential to be a wizard." Alfonzo continued. "Then, by the time you moved away from your village, everyone who noticed your magic power probably decided that you were too old to train, so they never said anything to you about it."

"Then why hasn't anyone said anything to us about Elicia?" Maes asked in a tone filled with curiosity.

In response, Alfonzo glanced at him out of the corner of his eye with a deadpan expression on his face.

"That's definitely your fault, Hughes." Alfonzo replied. "Between your super-doting daddy aura and your rank of Lt. Colonel in the kingdom's knight order, no one was brave enough to mention it to you."

Hearing that, Maes wore an exaggerated expression of shock on his face. Then, he hung his head, feeling disappointed in himself.

"Are you u saying that I could have hampered the number of choices my daughter had in life?" Maes asked in a downcast tone.

"Pretty much." Alfonzo replied with a neutral expression on his face.

In the next instant, Maes turned back towards the two Elicias. Though his attention was completely focused on his daughter.

"Sweetie, Daddy has always told you that you could be whatever you want." Maes said frantically. "So, if you wanna be a wizard when you grow up, Daddy will do all he can to support you."

After saying all that, Maes expression turned cold.

"But if any boys try to make a team with you, they'll have to talk to Daddy's gun, first." Maes said while cocking a small pistol that fell into his palm from his sleeve.

'*Sigh* Another doting daddy is gonna join Fairy Tail.' Alfonzo thought to himself while he decided to just focus on the road. 'AT least I won't have to worry about this one wanting to kill me because his daughter fell for me, right?'

'I bet he'll get along great with Cana and Sun's dads.' Elicia thought to herself as she continued to braid the little Elicia's hair.

Like that, the rest of the road trip went smoothly with the little Elicia eventually falling asleep. Then, after a couple of hours, the group pulled up outside of the Fairy Tail guild hall.