chapter 17 : A Strange Quest

*Thud*

 *Slash*

 *BAM*

 *SLASH*

 Ur, leaning on a wall of the mansion, watched Gray train to fight against four ice knights that he had created himself, one of them had a sword, the other had a spear, another used his fists and the last one had daggers.

 Each of them wielded their weapon to perfection, a feat that shocked Ur and above all, she recognized certain movements in the martial arts of the ice knight with her bare hands, these were in fact her uncle's combat techniques, Milo the holy knight of the fist.

 She didn't know how her statues could fight with such perfection but one thing was certain, Gray had gone to his homeland, Rusia.

 Gray had been training hellishly for several days in a row and his body could now withstand 40 tons of pressure very easily , that's what he faced his ice knights with and it gave him new scars.

 Ur looked at Gray's body covered in cuts and bruises definitely understanding why he was so strong because his training was inhumane, especially when he told him about the pressure seals he had on him permanently.

 He fought fiercely like that for long hours while Ur went to see the children of the orphanage who from the first contacts had appreciated him enormously and she even asked Gray if she could participate in their teaching because she had an educational streak and it reminded her of her times with Gray and Lyon. Naturally, he accepted.

 Shortly after the fifth hour of his fight against his Ice Knights, Gray was interrupted by Kevan the butler of his mansion who came over with a towel for him.

 Kevan: Sir, you have visitor. It's someone from the guild...

 "Make sure this person is comfortable, I'll take a bath and join you. Cook something too, we're going to have dinner…" He said as he came and took the towel to wipe off his sweat.

 Kevan: Sir...shall we do the usual for dinner?

 Gray: Yes. 

 Kevan: But…you have a guest this time…

 Gray: So what? If it's someone from the guild then that person will be far from being bothered by it.

 Kevan: Okay sir…

 After taking his bath and still dressing elegantly, he went down to the large living room where he found Ur sitting with Juvia whom she was teasing knowing that the latter was madly in love with Gray.

 Juvia, still with her usual attitude, gave him a letter from Makarov mentioning an S quest submitted by the council.

Out of everyone, aside from Gildarts who was always absent, Gray was the most reliable S-rank.

 Makarov couldn't send Natsu or Erza because they were now a quartet with Lucy and Happy.

 Only, these four had a habit of doing too much damage during their missions so Gray was naturally his first choice.

 He began to read the letter and the request came from a small kingdom in the far east of the continent, Kransilvania.

 Apparently it is about the royal family which would have been affected by an unknown illness and which now terrorizes its subjects, strange and regular disappearances occurred at night and the royalty no longer appeared in broad daylight.

 There were also stories of the dead coming back to life to attack the living at night.

 "You should read this, master…" Gray handed the letter to Ur who read it and was also interested in the letter.

 Ur: This story is quite intriguing. When are we leaving?!

 Gray: Tomorrow. When we return, your daughter's case will be dealt with immediately.

 Juvia: Gray-sama?

 Gray: Hmm?

 Juvia: Juvia was wondering if you would allow her to join you on your quest tomorrow.

 Gray: I don't see any problem with it, you can come with us and stop talking about yourself in the third person, when you have children you shouldn't talk to them like that...

 Juvia froze, blushing as she was already imagining who knew what under Ur's laughter.

 They then went to dinner where, to Juvia's astonishment, the manor staff ate with the master of the house and that was the special thing about having dinner with Gray.

 He asked his employees about their days working at the mansion, asking about their families who sometimes visited them.

 He did not treat his workers as simple employees but as friends, this had strengthened their loyalty, aroused his master's pride when she first learned of him and impressed Juvia who fell more in love with him .

 Of course, Ur could eat. From the beginning, Gray had placed a glyph on his mound to allow him to speak and feel taste.

 Furthermore, the magic inside her completely dissolved anything she ingested, she was not hungry or thirsty but eating and drinking remained a pleasure.

 Gray had thought of everything from the start with this extreme emergency solution, he had even given Ur the ability to perfectly simulate sleep at will, it was like putting a device into Standby mode thanks to the multitude of runes on its back.

 This was only a small sample of what the magic of runes and glyphs is, there are a multitude of things that he had never shown for the simple reason that he did not have any needed with all the power he already had.

 Indeed, the holy knights' skills , his physical power and his enchanted swords already made him one of the most formidable mages without even taking into account his ice magic having reached a terrifying power as well as the other magics of which he has copied the knowledge.

 The next day, they took the first class train to travel to the East of the continent. They traveled comfortably for hours when the train suddenly stopped.

Believing it was a minor problem and that the train would leave any moment, Gray stayed reading his book while Ur and Juvia chatted.

 After a few minutes, a huge jolt overturned the train to cries of terror from the other passengers.

 Definitely angry and curious about what had happened, Gray went out with the two women and once outside, they realized what was happening.

 A group of rogue mages were attacking the train and he recognized one of them who seemed to be the leader. It was actually Erigor who was beaten by Natsu.

 Gray had not participated in the mission against Eisenwald but after neutralizing the Lellaby, the council had arrested all the members of the dark guild except Erigor who had managed to escape. He was a wanted man so his face was on a lot of walls.

 "You don't seem to understand, that shaking was only preventive but next time I'm definitely going to kill everyone on this train if you don't put back the box of Dragon Slayers lachryma..." Eligoal said while three small tornadoes were generated by him to frighten the man in front of him, he was an alchemist.

 The Alchemist: I don't know what you're talking about, please…stop…

 "Dragon Slayers Lachryma…?!" Gray listened to this and was interested, he knew the secret of Laxus' power and it was a dragon slayer lightning lachryma that his father had put into him.

 He had become an artificial Dragon Slayer unlike Natsu who had been raised by a dragon who had taught him this form of powerful magic.

 Erigor floating in the air continued to question the man who denied everything until he was definitely pissed and decided to summon a huge tornado to attack the Alchemist and the train when in the void, Gray suddenly appeared near him.

 *BAM*

 He delivered a punch to Erigor that broke most of his facial bones and sent him crashing like a meteor into a crater on the ground.

 He flashed from where he was to appear near the crater where he saw Erigor completely unconscious but with several serious fractures on his body from the force of impact.

 "I should have made you suffer even more for trying to kill the old man and the other guild leaders with the Lullaby, you bastard...luckily your magic is interesting..." He said before turning back to the 15 mages that accompanied Erigor , he looked at them blankly as they trembled in fear, one of them tried to summon his magic but the second they were all frozen.

 "They weren't fast enough..." Ur who had frozen these guys said with amusement as he came near him.

 Gray: I reserved exactly the same fate for them, thank you my master.

 Juvia: Gray-sama, are you okay...?

 Gray: I'm fine Juvia, thank you for caring.

 He immediately came in front of The Alchemist and held out his hand as if waiting to be handed something.

 Alchemist: Who are you?! My name is Oswald, second seat of the Alchemist League.

 Gray: Gray Fullbuster, S-rank mage in Fairy Tail. Can you lend me one of your Drangon's Slayers lachryma ?

 Alchemist: You are the prodigy of Fairy Tail ?! Gray Fullbuster ?! Thank you for saving me but I don't have these lachryma on me.

 Gray: I know they're hidden in the stuffed animal you bring to your daughter as a gift. It's quite clever, many would have hidden them in more complex things which would ultimately have attracted more attention.

 " HOW ?! HOW DO YOU KNOW !!?" The alchemist asked in shock.

 Gray: I have means. I just want to admire one and then give it back to you, I promise.

 " I'm going to get this train back on track..." Ur said boredly before returning to the train where she summoned two ice giants with her dynamic magic which put the train back on track for several minutes where Gray analyzed the lachryma with great attention.

 In fact, he already knew the manufacturing process because this alchemist had mainly participated in it but he was doing an even more in-depth analysis.

 From his palm, thousands of light fibers came into contact with the lachryma to report the smallest details to his brain.

 "I'm finished, as promised I'll give you back your products…" He gave her his lachryma.

 Alchemist: What exactly did you do?

 Gray: Just an analysis, I'm a bit of a scholar in search of knowledge too and your lachrymas attracted my curiosity. They're imperfect but the work on them is interesting, definitely.

 He heard the people on the train thanking Ur in the distance and he greeted The Alchemist before returning without saying anything else to him with Juvia and his master. 

 Once resettled, they resumed their activities as if nothing had happened and the journey continued.