Let's Take a Quest

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.

June, x784.

After making the trip back to Magnolia, Elicia, Natsu, Happy, and Lucy returned to the guild with Macao. When they did, they wasted no time in getting him to the infirmary where Ren did what she could to tend to his injuries. Eventually, Porlyusica was even called in to take a look at him. Then, with little effort, she healed him completely before leaving in her usual fashion, stating that Macao's recklessness was the reason why she hated humans.

As soon as it was announced that Macao was fine, Romeo with happy tears in his eyes and a smile on his face rushed to thank the four who rescued him.

Since then, a few weeks have passed. And in that time, Lucy joined the other young wizards in their morning training. During her training, under Alfonzo's guidance, she focused on close combat and magic power control. And although she was still way behind the others, she was making good progress.

Today, after getting cleaned up after the training, Lucy happened to look at the calendar hanging on one of the guild's walls.

"Kya~~~~~!" Lucy screamed when she saw the date.

"What's wrong?" Natsu asked while pressing a hand to his ear.

Currently, Natsu's ears were ringinging because of Lucy's loud scream and his heightened senses.

"It's been more than half a month and I haven't made any money!" Lucy shouted. "How am I gonna pay my rent?"

"Is that all?" Alfonzo asked nonchalantly.

"What do you mean, 'is that all?'" Lucy asked hysterically. "If I don't make any money, I'm gonna get kicked out of my apartment?"

"I mean, you're a wizard." Alfonzo said while looking at Lucy with a strange gaze. Then, he turned his eyes toward the quest board. "Isn't that an easy thing to fix?"

Following Alfonzo's gaze, Lucy also saw the quest board. When she did, it was as if a light bulb turned on in her head.

"If you want, I can go on the quest with you." Alfonzo said with a smile. "This will be your first quest, after all. And no one goes on their first quest alone."

"Really?" Lucy said with a happy smile.

'Wait! If we take a quest together, does that mean it will be just me and him?' Lucy asked herself. 'What if he tries to seduce me? Will I be able to resist? Then again, would that really be so bad? No! Bad Lucy! He's a playboy. But the other girls seem really happy…'

While Alfonzo and Lucy continued to discuss taking a quest together and Lucy continued to argue with herself internally, Elicia, Cana, Ultear, Erza, and Sun were discussing what they were seeing.

"Is Alfonzo actually making a move to go after Lucy?" Cana asked with her eyes narrowed.

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

"But he never made a move on me." Cana said with a bit of disgruntlement.

"Well, you didn't really give him a chance to." Elicia said with a smile. "I mean, you basically threw yourself at him from the moment you realized you liked him, right?"

"Yeah, I mean, that's true." Cana said while scratching her head.

"Besides, I had to convince him to accept more girls, remember?" Elicia continued. "So, there was no way he would have made a move on you back then. On top of that, it wasn't even necessary."

"He never made a move on me either." Ultear said. "And I…"

"Pretended you weren't into him for a long time." Cana interrupted. "So, since you were acting like you didn't like him, he had no reason to make a move."

In response, Ultear lowered her head with an embarrassed blush on her face.

"Well, he made the first move with me." Erza said casually.

"Yeah, but the circumstances forced his hand." Ultear said.

"But he said the situation was just the catalyst." Erza said.

"Yeah, he said that he would have asked her to be his eventually, even without the whole political marriage."

By now, Ultear also knew about the Seto Group's secret. However, when they tried to tell Ultear about the merfolk's' laws, Alfonzo and Elicia put their foot down. Stating that there was no need to threaten anyone with death. Since they were all part of the same guild now.

Then, after a bit of consideration, both Gozaburo and Ren agreed. They had both come to see the guild as their own. So, they just let it slide. They even agreed to not bring it up again in the future.

In response to that decision, Sun ran up and hugged both her parents. While Ren only patted her back with a smile, Gozaburo broke down in tears. And that was the straw that broke his arrogance. He finally realized that being kind to the people that Sun cared about was the best way to gain his daughter's affection.

"I don't see the problem." Sun said innocently. "I mean, Lucy seems really nice. So, it's no wonder Alfonzo likes her."

"Sun, you're too innocent for this world." Cana said in a tired tone.

"Oh, it looks like they decided on a quest." Elicia said, drawing everyone's attention to the board.

Meanwhile, in front of the quest board, Alfonzo had just pulled a quest sheet off the board.

"Let's do this one." Alfonzo said, holding the sheet out to Lucy. "I've never done a quest as a thief before. Could be fun."

Lucy took the quest sheet from Alfonzo. Then, after reading the details, her eyes widened in surprise.

"200,000 Jewels to steal a book from some rich guy's house?" Lucy exclaimed. "Even if we split the reward, I'll have enough for next month's rent. Let's do it!"

Alfonzo only smiled in response.

'We gotta take this quest.' Alfonzo thought to himself. 'Duke Everlue is in possession of the Virgo Celestial Spirit Key.'

"It even says that he's looking to hire a blonde maid." Lucy said with a crafty smile. "With my charm, getting that job will be a sinch. Then, stealing the book will be easy."

'*Sigh* I should probably tell Lucy about Everlue's rather questionable taste in women.' Alfonzo thought to himself. 'But seeing it in person will be hilarious. Plus, I'll be there to console her when her pride is damaged.'

"I don't doubt that." Alfonzo said while letting his appreciative gaze run up and down Lucy's body.

'He's totally checking me out right now.' Lucy thought to herself when she noticed Alfonzo's gaze. 'But it's not all creepy like with most guys. He's really just appreciating the beauty that is me. Well, I already knew he had good taste. His other girlfriends are so beautiful. But this confirms it. Wait! What did I mean by "other girlfriends"? I'm making it sound like I'm one of them. That doesn't sound so bad, though. No, calm down, Lucy. Take a deep breath.'

"Even if there is a good chance you'll be able to get into the mansion as one of his maids, we should still have a backup plan." Alfonzo said. "I think we should bring along Lici for this quest. Her [Camouflage Magic] is perfect for infiltration."

Marin's magic is also perfect for infiltration. In fact, she's actually done this kind of quest before with Elicia. But considering Due Everlue's taste in women, Marin would probably be against [Transforming] into one of them.

"If we split it three ways, I won't have enough reward money to pay my rent." Lucy whined.

*Smack!*

A moment later, Lucy smacked her palms against her cheeks to psych herself up.

"No, I'm a wizard now." Lucy said in a determined tone. "I can just take another job to make up for the difference."

Just like that, Alfonzo and Lucy asked Elicia to accompany them on their quest as a backup plan. Naturally, Elicia agreed to tag along. Then, it was decided that Alfonzo, Elicia, and Lucy would take the quest to steal a book from Duke Everlue's mansion in Shirotsume Town.

Forty-five minutes later, Team Shadow Gear, consisting of Levy, Jet, and Droy, were looking at the sheets hanging on the quest board. However, after looking for a while, Levy sighed in frustration.

"Man, it looks like someone took that quest to steal the book." Levy said in disappointment. "The reward was 200,000 Jewels. I could have really used that money."

"If you had decided to take the quest before going to eat, it would have been yours." Mirajane said from behind the bar. "Alfonzo, Elicia, and Lucy took it shortly after training ended."

"*Sigh* That's 200,000 for the two people in the guild that need it the least." Levy said.

"it's probably for the best." Makarov said while holding a mug of ale.

"What do you mean, Master?" Mirajane asked curiously.

"Well, I didn't have time to replace the sheet, but the reward has increased." Makarov said solemnly. "To 2,000,000."

"2,000,000!" Levy, Jet, and Droy shouted in unison.

"That's the reward for an S-Class quest!" Jet exclaimed.

"What kind of book is worth 2,000,000?" Droy asked.

"Master, Jet is right." Mirajane said worriedly. "is it okay to let them take Lucy along? With a reward like that, it should be an S-Class quest. I don't want them to get punished."

"You need not worry, Child." Makarov said with a grandfatherly smile. "Even though the reward went up, the rank did not. Still, it makes you wonder why the client would raise the reward by so much."

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Shirotsume.

Alfonzo, Elicia, and Lucy arrived in Shirotsume in the evening of the same day. Then, they immediately went to see the quest's client, Kaby Melon, a tall man, though shorter than Alfonzo, with an aged appearance, grey hair, a darker grey, small mustache, and eyes that are constantly narrowed into slits wearing a green suit with a red tie.

As soon as they arrived, they were invited into the reception room of a large mansion. Then, they were offered tea and snacks to go along with it. After a few minutes, their client, Kaby entered and took a seat across from the three wizards.

'Holy shit!' Alfonzo exclaimed internally. 'He's got a Hitler stache in real life, too.'

After that thought, Alfonzo glanced at Elicia. It was clear to him that she was thinking the same thing, too. After confirming that assumption when he made eye contact with her, they both turned their attention back to Kaby without letting their thoughts show on their faces.

"First, allow me to introduce myself." Kaby said. "I'm Kaby Melon, the son of Kemu Zaleon. And the book I want you to destroy is called 'Daybreak'."

"You're THE Kemu Zaleon's son?" Lucy asked excitedly, immediately going into fan girl mode. "Wow! He's, like, the best novelist ever. I've read all his books. Wait! But I've never heard of 'Daybreak'."

"I am." Kaby said in a solemn tone. "but I'm not so sure about how good my father was. Especially after he abandoned his family for years to write a book for Duke Everlue that depicted him as a hero."

At that point, Alfonzo, Elicia, and Lucy, who was pulled out of her fan girl mode, could see just how angry Kaby was. It seemed that praising his father would not be a good idea right now.

"You said, 'destroy the book' just now." Elicia said, trying to change the subject. "But the quest sheet only asked us to steal it."

"I guess you didn't receive the news, the quest was changed. Though the rank is still the same." Kaby said, a bit surprised they hadn't heard before they came to see him. "The reward has increased as well."

"How much we talkin'?" Alfonzo asked, pretending to be interested.

"2,000,000 Jewels." Kaby replied.

While Lucy's eyes opened wide in surprise, Alfonzo and Elicia's eyes narrowed in suspicion.

"What changed?" Alfonzo asked. "No one raises a reward like that for no reason."

With that question, Lucy's excitement from getting such a big payout dimmed. After hearing Alfonzo's question, she realized that this situation did not seem right. So, she too stared at Kaby waiting to hear his answer.

"*Sigh* To be honest, you're not the first ones to take this quest." Kaby said, letting his shoulders sag. "Before you, another team of wizards from a guild tried to complete this quest. However, they were discovered and killed by Duke Everlue. Fortunately, he thought they were there to commit arson, so he doesn't know that I want Daybreak. Otherwise, he would put it somewhere more secure than his library."

"And I'm guessing that everyone else who came here to hear the details of the quest refused after hearing about that, huh?" Elicia asked while tilting her head to the side. "So, you raised the reward so that someone would take the quest, right?"

"That's exactly right." Kaby replied. "Even though I'm angry at my father for abandoning us all those years ago, he's still my father. If that book ever got out to the public, it would ruin my father's reputation."

"Alright, We'll take it." Alfonzo said, speaking as the leader of the party. "That book will be gone by this time tomorrow."

With that, Alfonzo stood from the couch he was sitting on, quickly followed by Elicia and Lucy. A moment later, after recovering from the shock of Alfonzo's acceptance, Kaby stood up as well.

"Thank you." Kaby said while bowing his head. "Thank you very much and I wish you all the luck in the world."

"Thanks." Alfonzo said as he started walking toward the exit of the room.

"Bye bye!" Elicia said energetically. "see you tomorrow."

"Don't worry, Mr. Melon." Lucy said with determination burning in her eyes. "We'll make sure that Kemu Zaleon's reputation remains intact."

With that, the three wizards from Fairy Tail left the mansion and made their preparations for tomorrow's operation.