Duke Everlue's Peculiar Taste in Women

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Shirotsume.

June, x784.

The next morning, Alfonzo, Elicia, and Lucy were standing in front of Duke Everlue's mansion. While Alfonzo and Elicia looked refreshed and well-rested, Lucy was glaring at them with a slight blush and a tired look in her eyes.

The reason for that was quite simple, actually.

After leaving the residence of Kaby Melon, the trio booked rooms at a nearby hotel. Naturally, Alfonzo and Elicia shared a room while Lucy had her own. But that's where the problem started.

Alfonzo and Elicia decided to get… intimate… last night. So, their loud, passionate sounds of love-making echoed throughout the floor they were on, as well as the floors directly above and below them, for hours.

In the end, Lucy got very little sleep. At the same time, the thought of, "can it really be that good?" continued on repeat after hearing Elicia's screams of ecstasy for most of the night.

"Oh, come on, Lucy." Elicia said with awry smile while pulling Lucy into a hug. "Stop looking at us like that. What we did was perfectly natural."

"Yeah, but did you have to be so loud?" Lucy asked with a pout.

"Lucy." Elicia said, putting on a serious expression. "Believe me when I say this, that was an inevitability."

After hearing that, Lucy did not know how she was supposed to react. Seeing the extremely serious expression on Elicia's face and the smug smile on Alfonzo's, she just decided to stop thinking about it altogether… For now.

"Anyway, we discussed the plan last night." Alfonzo said, walking closer to the pair of girls. "Lici will camouflage the two of us while you apply for the maid job. Once you get inside, we'll just follow you in. Then, while you're going through the interview, we'll look for the library and the book. Any questions?"

"No, Sir!" Elicia replied with a salute.

"Don't worry, I'll have him wrapped around my little finger before he knows what hit him." Lucy said confidently with one hand resting on her hip.

"Alright then, let's do it." Alfonzo said with a smile.

"[Camouflage Magic: Hiding in Plain Sight]." Elicia chanted and bent the light around herself and Alfonzo.

After Alfonzo and Elicia vanished from her sight, Lucy took a deep breath. Then, with a smile on her face, she made her way to the mansion's front door. Though, the front door looked more like a front gate made mostly from gold.

She wanted to knock, but Lucy was certain that she could not knock on the door hard enough to make a sound that could be heard inside the mansion. So, she did the next best thing.

"Excuse me! I heard you were looking to hire a new maid!" Lucy shouted at the top of her lungs.

With that, a few moments passed in silence. And just when Lucy was about to shout again, the ground started shaking. Then, the space right behind her started to bulge upward. In the next instant, An extremely tall, extremely overweight woman with pink hair tied into twin tails, blue eyes, and a brutish face popped out of the ground wearing shackles on her wrists and typical maid attire that was struggling to hang on to her large body.

"So, you want to apply for the position of master's maid, do you?" The pink-haired maid asked while looking down at Lucy.

"Yes." Lucy replied, clearly shocked at the size of the woman in front of her.

"Did somebody say master?" A sleezy sounding male voice said.

A moment later, the ground bulged upward once again before a short, plump man with skinny and short limbs in a black formal suit, white shirt, and blue necktie popped out of the ground in a similar fashion to the pink-haired maid.

"Well let's see what we have here." The short man, Duke Everlue, said while staring at Lucy.

"I hope you like what you see." Lucy said, leaning forward slightly and clasping her hands together in front of her thighs to emphasize her large breasts.

Taking a closer look, Lucy noticed that most of Everlue's head was bald, except for a patch of wavy brown hair on the top of his head. Also, he had a curly mustache. But instead of growing above his upper lip, it grew out from his nostrils, directly. There was also a large golden button that held his suit jacket closed and a large, decorative red flower on the left side of his chest.

'This guy is so creepy-looking.' Lucy thought to herself while maintaining her pleasant smile. 'You gotta stay strong, Lucy.'

Meanwhile, standing a few feet away, Alfonzo and Elicia, hidden by Elicia's magic, were watching the whole spectacle. Then, Alfonzo activated a sigil that he carved into his gauntlets. A moment later, he and Elicia were covered in a silencing barrier.

"I kinda feel bad for Lucy." Elicia said while watching the ongoings.

"You'd be more convincing if you weren't smiling widely over there." Alfonzo said with a wry smile.

Immediately, Elicia wiped the smile off her face. Though, the amusement in her eyes could not be hidden so easily.

"I can't help it; this was funny in the anime." Elicia said. "Especially because of…"

"Nah, I'll pass." Everlue said, turning around and starting to walk away from Lucy. "Beat it ugly."

At that, Lucy looked as if she had been stabbed in the heart.

"You heard the master." The large, pink-haired maid added. "Get lost, ugly."

With that, Lucy looked as if she had been punched in the gut.

After a few steps, Everlue turned around with a confident smile on his face.

"A man of my stature must have certain… standards." Everlue said as if he were revealing a great truth.

"That." Elicia said, finally completing her earlier sentence.

A moment later, four more maids who would in no way be called beautiful by the standards of most people popped out of the ground behind Everlue. Then all five maids began gushing over him, causing the smugness in his expression to skyrocket.

"Now that you can see the difference between you and them, scram, ugly." Everlue said as he and the five maids returned to the mansion.

Meanwhile, Lucy was swaying on her feet like a boxer who took to many punches. Then, just as she was about to fall, a pair of muscular arms wrapped around her waist.

"Are you alright, Lucy?" Alfonzo said, pulling Lucy against his chest.

However, Lucy did not answer. She was too shocked to reply. On top of that, she was too busy trying to hide the blush that she could feel heating up her face.

"You shouldn't pay that guy any mind." Alfonzo said, subconsciously starting to comb his fingers through Lucy's hair. "It's clear that guy has problems with his eyes if he can't appreciate beauty like yours."

'Damn it, why do his fingers in my hair feel so good?' Lucy asked herself as she started to melt in Alfonzo's arms. 'And why does what he's saying make me feel so good about myself.'

Then, Lucy felt another body press against her from behind.

"Fonzie's right." Elicia said, wrapping her arms around both Lucy and Alfonzo. "With a body and face like yours, anyone that calls you ugly has problems with either their eyes or brain."

'Why does it feel like Lici is trying to pull me into Alfonzo's harem, too?" Lucy wondered.

However, Lucy did not try to pull away from the two embraces. Even though she was sure she was being seduced, she also felt warmth in the two's embraces, something she had not felt since her mother passed away.

After a few more moments, Alfonzo and Elicia released Lucy. Then, in a serious tone, Alfonzo spoke.

"Looks like we're going with plan B." Alfonzo said.

Meanwhile, inside the mansion, in a monitoring room, Everlue was watching the three wizards walk away from his residence. More specifically, he was watching a monitor that was focused on the back of Lucy's right hand where a pink Fairy Tail emblem could be seen.

"So, they're wizards from Fairy Tail." Everlue said in a sinister tone. "Maybe those other wizards weren't just looking to burn down my mansion. There must be something of mine that they want. Either way, I'll show them that I, Duke Everlue, am not someone they should offend."

About an hour later, Alfonzo, Elicia, and Lucy were all hidden with Elicia's [Camouflage Magic]. And currently, they were scaling the side of Everlue's mansion. To be more precise, Alfonzo was sticking to the wall next to a third floor window by manipulating the magnetic charges of his boots and the wall, with Elicia on his back. Meanwhile, Elicia was using her threads to pull Lucy up to the same height as themselves.

"And it's open." Alfonzo said, using his [Metal Magic] to unlock the window.

A moment later, thee three Fairy Tail wizards were standing in a hallway on the third floor of Everlue's mansion.

"Alright, now that we're inside, I'm gonna make that blind fool wish he had never been born." Lucy said while clenching her fists. "How dare he call me ugly. I mean, has he looked in a mirror lately?"

"Lucy, you know you can't torture him, right?" Elicia said with a smile.

"Oh, I don't plan to." Lucy said with a devious grin on her face.

"Then what are you gonna do?" Alfonzo asked with an amused smirk on his face.

"I'm gonna find his toothbrush and use it to scrub all his toilets." Lucy said, maintaining her devious grin. "And then I'm gonna put it back like nothing happened."

After that, Lucy began to chuckle. Then, that chuckle turned into laughter which grew into uproarious laughter a few seconds later.

"Wow!" Alfonzo exclaimed. "Amazing three stage villain laughter."

"Seriously." Elicia added. "You'd make a great villain, Lucy."

"Wha?" Lucy stopped laughing with a confused expression on her face. "But I'm not a villain, I'm one of the good guys, right?"

"Anyway, we've got a book to find and destroy." Alfonzo said, turning away. "We need to be quick and quiet. We don't want to engage with Everlue or his security team."

"Hey, I'm not a villain!" Lucy shouted.

"Yeah, and while you guys do that, I'll find some evidence against Everlue." Elicia said, now wearing a solemn expression. "I'm sure he knows that we're from Fairy Tail. I mean, Lucy did nothing to hide her guild mark. And he'll probably run to the king or the Magic Council if we succeed."

"Hey guys… Why are you ignoring me?" Lucy asked, sounding a little down. "I'm not a villain."

"Of course you're not." Alfonzo said, turning back toward Lucy with a smile. "You're way too cute to be a villain."

Immediately, Lucy's blush returned.

Seeing that, Elicia could not help but giggle. Then, she faded from the view of her teammates.

"Well, I'll go find Everlue's office." Elicia said, though no one could see her. "I'll meet you back at the hotel if everything goes as we planned. And if it doesn't I'll come and find you."

"Got it." Alfonzo said with a smile and a nod. "Be careful, Lici."

After saying that, Alfonzo felt a soft body press against his own. Then, he felt a smaller soft sensation against his right cheek.

"I will." Elicia said, having just kissed Alfonzo on his cheek while invisible. "You be careful, too. Same to you, Lucy."

With that, Elicia's presence could no longer be felt in Alfonzo and Lucy's vicinity after only a moment.

"Looks like she's gone." Lucy said.

"Yeah, now let's do our part, too." Alfonzo said, his expression turning serious once.

Just like that, Alfonzo, Elicia, and Lucy split into two groups and searched Duke Everlue's mansion for Daybreak and evidence of any corruption or crimes that Everlue had most definitely committed.

Meanwhile, Everlue was trying to find traces of the three Fairy Tail wizards. Even though he saw them leave, he did not believe for a second that they would not be coming back. Unfortunately for him, he was unaware that they had already entered his mansion and were currently searching room by room for the library, his personal office, and bedroom.