Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.
December, x777.
Not long after completing the mansion's tour with Makarov, Alfonzo and Elicia were laying in the master bedroom's bed, just enjoying the sensation of having a new home together. Though they were in bed together, nothing elicit was going on. They were both only twelve, after all. So, even though they were both feeling the blight on existence, as Alfonzo puts it, known as their hormones pushing them to do some more adult things, they were both firmly in control of their desires.
Instead, Elicia was simply hugging Alfonzo with a big, happy smile on her face.
"Fonzie, we finally have a house of our own." Elicia repeated for the sixth time since Makarov left.
"I know, Lici." Alfonzo said with a wry smile on his face. "So, you don't have to keep reminding me."
"But Fonzie, this…" Elicia said as she released Alfonzo and sat up in the bed. "… is ours!"
Hearing that, Alfonzo felt a great deal of pride swell up at what they were able to achieve in only six years. Although it helped that they had the mentalities of adults, it still showed just how hard they worked ever since they awakened their past lives' memories.
"Oh, I almost forgot!" Elicia said, gently knocking the knuckles of her right hand on the side of her head. "Ur, Gray, and Ultear should all be done with their quests today. So, they'll probably want to come over and see the house. We need to go grocery shopping."
"That's right." Alfonzo replied as he, too, sat up in the bed. "Well then, I guess I'd better put the finishing touches on the house."
With a grin, Alfonzo then climbed out of bed and made his way over to the love seat that was opposite the bed. Above the backrest of the small sofa, there was a small metal door on the wall. When Makarov was here, he explained that behind this small door is the device that kept the appliances running. Although that statement was true, Alfonzo did not mention exactly what was behind the door.
Opening the small door, Alfonzo was able to lay his eyes on what looked like a circuit breaker that could be found in any modern home in his past life. However, instead of switches that control the direction of electricity, these switches control the flow of magic power. There was, however, one thing that set this apart from a normal circuit breaker.
In the center of the panel with the switches, there was a hemispherical bump jutting out from the panel's surface. This bump was big enough for Alfonzo's hand to cover its entire surface, and it was made of metal, much like the rest of the panel.
In fact, every wall, floor, and ceiling in the house was lined with a thin sheet of this metal, orichalcum. Naturally, this made the building materials extremely expensive. However, after the two patent deals Alfonzo made with the kingdom, he could afford it with no issue.
The real question is why did Alfonzo line his entire house with orichalcum. Well, for defense, of course. Although orichalcum is not as durable as Adamantite, it does offer quite a bit of physical defense. But that was not the real reason behind the orichalcum layer. Instead, it was for what Alfonzo was about to do.
After placing his palm on the hemispherical metal bump, Alfonzo flared his magic power to the limit. Then, he started pumping a massive amount of magic power into the hemisphere. As he did, he was able to connect with every bit of the metal in the house.
A moment later, faster than the eye could perceive, if the layer of metal was not covered by the rest of the building materials, an uncountable number of sigils were being etched into the metal that lined the walls of the house.
These sigils had many purposes. Some of them were for climate control, causing the house to be at a comfortable 70° F (21° C) no matter what the weather was like outside. The others were for home defense. For example, some of the sigils created an invisible magic disruption barrier around both the interior and exterior walls of the house. In fact, it was strong enough to disrupt even Gildarts' passive release of his [Crash Magic].
Breathing hard from the excursion, Alfonzo pulled his hand away from the bump. Then, after getting his breathing under control, he looked back at Elicia, who was still sitting in the bed, and smiled brightly.
"There, now our house is Gildarts proof." Alfonzo said happily. "Since neither of us is strong enough to stop him from coming by, I made a magic disruption barrier that should be strong enough to negate Gildarts unconscious release of his magic."
It was a well-known fact in the Kingdom of Fiore that getting any kind of insurance was next to impossible if you had any kind of relationship with Gildarts. So, Alfonzo and Elicia knew that they had no chance considering how close they were with Cana, Gildarts' daughter. Therefore, Alfonzo took it upon himself to keep Gildarts from destroying their new, beautiful home any time he felt the urge to visit.
"I think it's good you had a safety measure in place." Elicia said with a smile and a nod. A moment later, however, her expression turned much darker. "But if he dared to put even a scratch on our new house, I would punch him in the nuts so hard that his eyes might just pop out of their sockets."
As Elicia made her threat… No… Promise to deal with Gildarts should his habit of destroying everything he touches, Alfonzo, who was standing in the same room as her, and Gildarts, who was completing a quest in some part of Ishgar shivered simultaneously with a phantom pain in their crotches.
"Anyway, let's go grocery shopping!" Elicia exclaimed in a happy, energetic tone as if her earlier display of malicious intent never happened. "Ooh, what are we gonna have for dinner? Since this will be our first meal in the new house, you're gonna make it special, right?"
Smiling wryly at Elicia's quick change in mood, Alfonzo could only slowly removed his hands from his crotch while pretending to be completely unbothered.
"Sure, I'll go all in tonight." Alfonzo said, slowly regaining his energy. "We'll stop at the butcher shop and see what the best cuts of meat are today."
"Ooh!" Elicia exclaimed once again as she hopped off the bed and started walking toward the bedroom door. "I hope they have some good steaks. Oh, and are you gonna cook breakfast for us here, too? Or are we gonna keep having it at the guild?"
"Hold on, Lici." Alfonzo said, stopping Elicia in her tracks. "before we leave, push some of your magic power into this."
When Elicia turned around, she saw Alfonzo pointing toward the metal bump in the magic power regulation device. Then, she began walking toward it with her head tilted cutely. As soon as she arrived in front of it, she placed her hand on the bump and pushed her magic power into it, until Alfonzo told her to stop.
"Okay, that's enough." Alfonzo said with a nod.
"What was that for, Fonzie?" Elicia asked with confusion in her tone.
"That registered you with the house's security system." Alfonzo explained. "Now, you'll be able to open the doors that lead outside."
"Huh?" Elicia exclaimed once again; her confusion still not alleviated.
"*Sigh* Didn't you notice, I never handed you a key to the house?" Alfonzo asked with a wry smile on his face.
"Now that you mention it…" Elicia said, realizing that was true.
"That's because there are no keys to the house." Alfonzo said, continuing his explanation. "Instead, the doors will only open for people whose magic power signatures are registered in the security system. There are even versions of these locks on each of the bedrooms upstairs."
"Fonzie! That's incredible." Elicia said, jumping on Alfonzo as she wrapped her arms and legs around him like a koala.
"Yeah, I'm pretty fucking bad ass." Alfonzo said with a smug smile on his face.
"Easy there, Fonzie." Elicia said in a reprimanding tone. "Don't' let it go to your head."
In fact, this was not even the first time Elicia had mentioned to Alfonzo that his pride was starting to get out of hand. Slowly, yet surely, his pride was raising to new levels. Although he had not started to treat the people around him differently, he was beginning to show signs of arrogance in terms of his own abilities. And Elicia knew that would not lead to anything good in the long run.
"Sorry, sorry, Lici." Alfonzo said, noticing that he was getting a bit ahead of himself. However, the smug smile remained on his face. "Anyway, let's go. We need to register with the walls and the front gate, too."
Looking into Alfonzo's eyes a bit longer, Elicia eventually climbed down and started walking toward the front door.
'I hope this doesn't get him into trouble.' Elicia said to herself, a bit worried for Alfonzo's future.
Meanwhile, Ur, Gray, and Ultear, who had met up in the town as they were returning from their quests, finally reached the guild hall's front doors.
"Ugh!" Ultear groaned as she put her hands on the guild's door. "That was a week of torture."
"What quest did you take again?" Gray asked, having never seen Ultear this tired after a quest.
"It was a guard quest, right?" Ur asked.
"That's right." Ultear said in an exasperated tone as she hung her head. "I had to guard Zast Caine's first son on a trip to Akane Beach. Ugh… And the way he stared at me.. it made me feel so uncomfortable."
Hearing Ultear's complaints, Ur's eyes narrowed, and she began emitting a dangerous vibe.
'It looks like I'm gonna have to castrate a certain young noble.' Ur thought to herself. 'I'll have to be careful not to get caught though. Don't wanna cause trouble for the guild.'
"Who is Zast Caine?" Gray asked in confusion.
"He's Fiore's Secretary of State." Ur said. "Maybe if you spent some time reading instead of fighting with Natsu and taking off your clothes in public, you would know about the important people in the kingdom."
"It's not like I want to fight with Natsu all the time." Gray said, looking away with a pout. "And what do you mean 'taking off my clothes in public'? That's your fault!"
Hearing Gray's accusation, a vein on Ur's forehead began to bulge. Then, her hand shot forward at a speed Gray could not even perceive and she grabbed him by his forehead, squeezing enough to cause pain without injuring him.
"What was that you little brat?" Ur said angrily. "Why don't you say that again. I don't think I heard you correctly."
"Ow! Stop it Master!" Gray shouted in pain.
Watching her mother and Gray's antics, Ultear could only sigh.
'Being around these ruffians in the guild has changed Mom.' Ultear thought to herself. 'I don't remember her being this violent before we came here.'
Even though she sighed and thought about how bad an influence Fairy Tail had had on her mother, Ultear did not realize that she was smiling brightly at the moment.
On top of that, Unbeknownst to Ultear, Ur was always a bit violent whenever her two disciples spoke out of line. So, Ultear's assumptions were completely wrong, not that there was anyone to correct her misunderstanding.
"Come on you two, we need to give our reports to the Master." Ultear said, bringing an end to the back and forth between Ur and Gray. "After that, we're supposed to go and see Alfonzo and Elicia's new house. Or did the two of you forget?"
With that, Ultear pushed the door open and entered the guild hall.
Ur and Gray, on the other hand, glanced at each other before they followed behind Ultear.
"Hey, Master, do you think Alfonzo is going to cook dinner tonight?" Gray asked with his eyes sparkling.
"Probably." Ur replied with a grin. "I mean, what kind of host doesn't prepare something for their guests, right?"
An hour and a half later, Ur, Gray, and Ultear had given their reports, cleaned themselves up, and just exited the guild hall. However, before they could get very far, they saw a girl, Cana, running toward the guild hall from the direction of the town.
"Hey!" Cana shouted. "Ur, Gray, Ultear! Are you going to Fonzie and Lici's new house? If so, can you wait for me? I won't take too long."
While she spoke, Cana never stopped running. And by the time she finished her last sentence, she was only a short distance from the guild's front doors, that were still open after Ur, Gray, and Ultear had just walked through them.
"Thanks! Be back in a sec." Cana said, not giving the trio the chance to answer her questions.
"Wasn't she on a B-Class quest?" Ultear asked as she turned her head and watched Cana run through the guild hall. "And didn't they say she only left two days ago?"
"Yeah, that's what Macao and Wakaba said." Ur replied.
"Does that mean she abandoned her quest?" Gray asked.
"I don't think so." Ur replied. "She's working really hard to catch up to Alfonzo and Elicia. And abandoning a quest would not help her do that."
"Then how is she back so fast?" Ultear asked.
"She must have pushed herself to complete the quest quickly." Ur said. "I guess she wasn't willing to not be one of the first visitors to visit Alfonzo and Elicia's new house. I can only imagine what kind of collateral damage she caused to finish her quest so quickly. Master Makarov is probably gonna lose it later."
"So, are we waiting for her?" Gray asked.
"Why not?" Ur replied with a shrug. "We were early anyway. So, waiting for her should make us right on time."