Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.
May 8, x774.
After Alfonzo and Elicia finished their magical beasts subjugation quests, they both returned to Magnolia with their observers, Wakaba and Reedus, respectively. After showing their clients that they completed the quests, they both sold off the extras of the jobs. With Alfonzo selling off twenty of the twenty four horned rabbits that he hunted, earning himself a nice sum of 100,000 Jewels. Meanwhile, he kept the other four for himself, so that he could cook a celebration dinner for himself and Elicia. Naturally, he would invite Cana, Laki, and Alzack to join, as well.
Elicia, on the other hand, sold most of the materials from the six worgs, earning 65.000 Jewels. If she had been willing to sell their pelts, however, she would have been able to raise that total to a nice, round number of 100,000 Jewels like Alfonzo. Since she had plans for them, however, she missed out on a bit of extra income.
When the four wizards returned to Fairy Tail's guild hall, Neither Alfonzo nor Elicia were surprised when Makarov asked them for twenty percent of their earnings from the quest. He then explained that these fees were to keep the guild running and take care of the building's upkeep.
"It's also to pay for all the damages those brats cause while their out on their jobs." Makarov muttered, staring at Wakaba and Reedus as he spoke.
In response, Reedus smiled wryly. He never intended to cause property damage when he completed quests, but it just kind of... happened. Wakaba, on the other hand, looked away and pretended that Makarov was not currently glaring a hole in the side of his head.
"*Sigh* You brats are gonna be the death of me." Makarov said, rubbing his temples at the thought of paying the Magic Council even more money in the future for his guild's reckless behavior. A moment later, he turned his attention back to Alfonzo and Elicia. "Anyway, the percentage of the reward you have to give to the guild will go down as the rank of the quest goes up. So, stronger wizards receive better benefits."
Nodding in response, Alfonzo and Elicia both understood the concept. Although the percentage that the guild would take would decrease, the amount that it would get from each higher ranked quest would go up.
For example, the guild takes twenty percent from a D-Class quest. D-Class quests have a reward ceiling of 25,000 Jewels for a quest. Twenty percent of that is 5,000 Jewels. However, for a C-Class quest, the guild only takes fifteen percent, but the reward ceiling is 100,000 Jewels. So, the guild would take a total of 15,000 Jewels.
And as the rank goes up, so, too, does the percentage go down. Either way, the guild receives more Jewels with each step up in difficulty.
"Anyway, enough with the financial talk." Makarov said, picking up his mug. Then, he raised his mug, addressing everyone in the guild hall. "Listen up, you brats! Alfonzo and Elicia have both completed their first official quest! So, we're gonna party to celebrate!"
"Yeah~~~~~!" The members of the guild cried excitedly.
After the cheering died down, Alfonzo opened his mouth to speak to Makarov.
"Hey, Gramps, I'm gonna use the kitchen to cook me and Lici's celebration dinner." Alfonzo said with a smile. "And I'll pay for any ingredients that I use."
"Go on." Makarov said, acting as if he didn't care. "Just out of curiosity, though, what are you gonna make?"
Though his tone said he did not care, Makarov was listening too closely for that to be the case. And Alfonzo knew it.
"Oh, nothing special." Alfonzo replied. "I'm gonna make a creamy casserole with horned rabbit meet, egg noodles, spinach, and some other things."
Not only Makarov, but Elicia, Wakaba, and Reedus also gulped audibly after hearing what was on the menu. Then, Elicia lunged at Alfonzo and hugged him tightly.
"Fonzie, I love you so~~~ much!" Elicia said with a big smile. Then, she kissed him on the cheek.
At that moment, Cana, Laki, and Alzack approached the bar to congratulate Alfonzo and Elicia for completing their first quest. Naturally, Cana flared with jealousy at the sight of Elicia kissing Alfonzo, even if it was only on the cheek.
"Lici, what are you doing in a public place?" Cana asked enviously, making an excuse to reprimand Elicia for kissing Alfonzo.
Instead of reflecting on her actions, however, Elicia let go of Alfonzo. Then, she hugged Cana tightly.
"Cana, Cana, Fonzie said he was gonna make a creamy, horned rabbit meat casserole for dinner!" Elicia shouted excitedly.
Hearing that, like the other four before them, Cana, Laki, and Alzack gulped involuntarily. Then, Cana's expression melted, turning from an angry scowl to a gentle smile.
"Fonzie... Do you think... I could have some too?" Cana asked sheepishly.
"Me, too." Laki added.
"And me." Alzack requested.
"Of course." Alfonzo said. "You three are Lici and I's best friends. So, there's no way I'd leave you out of our celebration."
"Yay!" x 3
Cana, Laki, and Alzack cheered happily. Meanwhile, the three older wizards, Makarov, Wakaba, and Reedus, looked at the children with a bit of envy in their gaze. Then, after exchanging glances, Makarov, Wakaba, and Reedus came to a decision.
"Ahem!" Makarov cleared his throat, drawing the children's attention. "Do you think we could have some too?"
Looking back at the three adults, Alfonzo wore an apologetic expression.
"Ah... I'm sorry, Gramps." Alfonzo said in a feigned tone of sadness. "I only have four horned rabbits. After having them butchered, I only had enough meat to make servings for six. So..."
Once again, Makarov, Wakaba, and Reedus exchanged glances. However, this time, it felt much more... cut throat. It was obvious to anyone watching that they were prepared to stab each other in the back at any moment.
"... I'll only have enough to share with Gramps, who picked us up three years ago and gave us a home." Alfonzo continued after noticing the glances the three exchanged.
Immediately after Alfonzo finished speaking, Wakaba and Reedus looked at him as if they had been betrayed. Meanwhile, Makarov looked at him as if he was the favorite of all his children.
"Hahaha! You're such a good kid. Alfonzo." Makarov said accompanied by some hardy laughter. "Just like you're mother, you're one of my favorite children. Even if both of you share the issue of swearing too much."
Wakaba and Reedus gazes shifted from Alfonzo to Makarov. They just looked at the shameless old man with blank expressions. Meanwhile, Alfonzo looked at Wakaba and Reedus before snorting.
'Don't think you'll be getting any free meals from me.' Alfonzo thought to himself as he started walking toward the kitchen. 'The only reason Gramps can get free food is because he pays me for my work in the kitchen. Otherwise, he would be wearing the same distraught expression as the two of you.'
And just like that, the celebration in the Fairy Tail guild hall continued and those that got to try Alfonzo's creamy, horned rabbit casserole, mostly Makarov, rubbed it in the face of everyone who didn't. Naturally, this caused the celebration party to end with a guild-wide brawl.
Earth Land, Ishgar, Isvan, Nameless Mountain Forest.
August, x774
A little more than three months have passed since Alfonzo and Elicia took their first official quests as Fairy Tail wizards. In those three months or so, they have each taken a D-Class quest once a week, resulting in each of them completing twelve D-Class quests.
In their free time, both Alfonzo and Elicia have been working on their own projects. While Elicia has been expanding her clientele list, spending all her time either training or making clothes outside of questing, Alfonzo has been doing much the same. Working on his car project, cooking at the guild, or spending time reading about as many topics as he could in the guild's library.
The difference between Alfonzo and Elicia, however, is that Alfonzo can't work on his passion, the car project, whenever he wants. Instead, he can only work on it under Nell's supervision. Unfortunately for Alfonzo, though, Nell has more to do than just watch him work on the car. Otherwise, he would have been able to make much more progress in these three months.
Meanwhile, in Isvan, Ur had been training Lyon and Gray to the best of her ability as a magic teacher. Because she practiced a type of ice magic, she emphasized getting used to extremely cold temperatures. That way, they would be less affected by their own magic.
So, for the last seven months, Ur made Lyon and Gray do all their physical... Well, their training out in the snow. On top of that, they were forced to strip down to just their underwear.
When Gray first heard this, he thought that Ur was messing with him. However, when he saw her take her clothes off and stand in the snow in only a set of bra and panties, his eyes almost popped out of his head. Then, when Lyon scolded him for taking too long to get undressed while shivering as he only wore his own underwear, Gray simply gave up and followed instructions.
After a few months, Gray eventually got used to standing in the freezing cold weather in just his underwear. Though, he still thought it was absolutely insane.
On top of getting used to the cold, Lyon and Gray were both able to take the first step as [Ice-Make] wizards.
"[Ice-Make: Eagle]!" Lyon shouted after making the prerequisite hand movements.
An instant later, a white magic circle appeared in front of Lyon's outstretched hands. Then, from that magic circle, half a dozen eagles made of ice flew forth and began circling around himself, Ur, and Gray.
"[Ice-Make: Lance]." Gray said, making the same hand movements as Lyon.
An instant later, like with Lyon, a magic circle, though his was silver-blue, appeared in front of Gray's outstretched hands. Then, half a dozen sharp ice spikes grew from the magic circle and aimed to skewer the eagles that Lyon created.
*Clap!*
"Alright, that's enough for today." Ur said, happy with her student's progress. "Let's get cleaned up then we'll head to the town to stock up on supplies."
"Okay." Lyon and Gray replied simultaneously before picking up their clothes and heading inside the house to take a warm bath.
Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Ur and her pupils, behind a tree in the distance, a little girl with long black hair watched them enter the house while shedding tears.
"Did she forget me?" The black-haired little girl asked nobody in particular as the number of tears sliding down her cheeks increased. "Did she forget me after she found those two?"
As she spoke, the sad expression the little girl was wearing slowly turned into one filled with anger. Then, without looking back, and holding resentment in her heart, the little girl ran away from the house that she once called home.
A few hours later, Ur, Lyon, and Gray were in the town nearest to Ur's house. And as they usually do, while Ur was in one of the shops picking up supplies, Lyon and Gray were arguing about something inconsequential.
"Gray! What are you doing?" Ur asked as she stepped out of the shop she was in with a bag of supplies. "You can't take off your clothes in public."
"Huh? What are you talking about?" Gray asked. Then, as he started looking down at his clothes he continued. "I didn't take off.... Ah! Where are my clothes?"
After that, Gray ran round the area looking for his clothes. Luckily, it was not snowing today. So, he was able to find his clothes lying on top of the snow rather quickly. Meanwhile, Ur could only shake her head at this.
"Gray, I'm not raising you to be a pervert." Ur said in an exasperated tone.
"What are you talking about?" Gray asked angrily. "Who else's fault could this be but yours. Because of your weird training, I've started taking off my clothes without realizing it."
*Thump!*
"Ow!" Gray cried out in pain.
Immediately after Gray made his accusation, Ur dropped her fist on the top of his head for even insinuating that she was responsible for this behavior.
"I never told you to take your clothes off in public, you little brat." Ur said while grabbing and pulling Gray's cheeks.
"She's right, you know." Lyon added. "I go through the same training as you do, but I don't' take my clothes off like a streaker or a flasher."
At that moment, however, Gray overheard a conversation that caused him to tune out what Ur and Lyon had to say. In fact, he could no longer even feel the pain from Ur pulling on his cheeks either. All he could register was the words that the two men at a stall selling meat stew were saying.
"Are you serious?" The man behind the stall asked as he scooped a bowl of stew into a wooden bowl.
"Yeah, as a heart attack." The other man said. "I heard that monster that's been destroying villages is headed toward the next village over to the west."
"Damn, that village isn't that far away from here." The stall owner replied, handing over the bowl of stew. "Maybe it's time to move away from here."
"I know what you mean." The other man said while stirring the stew. "I was thinking the same thing."
"Hey! Gray!" Ur shouted, getting Gray's attention. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Gray replied absent mindedly.
"Stop spacing out." Ur reprimanded. "Come on, it's time to go home."
Nodding in response, Gray followed Ur and Lyon as they left the town and started their walk back to their house. However, Gray's mind was filled with his own thoughts, ignoring the conversation between Ur and Lyon. In fact, after hearing the two men chatting, thought of revenge were the only things that filled his mind.