Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Crocus.
August, x784.
Shortly after the raid ended and the girls were freed from the [Charm Magic], Elicia, Marin, and Lucy gathered outside the house that served as the kidnappers' hideout.
"Something didn't feel right about those kidnappers." Marin said. "They seemed a little too…"
"Fabulous." Lucy added, finishing Marin's sentence.
"Yeah, I know what you mean." Elicia replied. "And from what I saw in the basement, they definitely weren't kidnapping the girls for their own pleasure or to sell them off."
Elicia then went on to explain about the books on relationships and cosmetics she saw in the hideout's basement.
"It's almost like they were trying to make the girls into better women… or something." Marin said in a confused tone.
"But why would they do that?" Lucy asked. "I mean, they could do that without kidnapping them, right?"
"I think we'll have to wait until the interrogations are over before we can find an answer." Elicia replied with a shrug. "Anyway, you two wait here, I'll go inform the knights."
After receiving a nod from both Marin and Lucy, Elicia left the scene to find a knight while praying that she found any knight other than Darkness.
"Elicia, there you are!" Darkness shouted from half a block away, fifteen minutes after Elicia left the kidnappers' hideout. "I finally found you."
"Of course she'd be the one I run into." Elicia muttered in a depressed tone.
"I must request that you tie me up again." Darkness said with flushed cheeks as she jogged over to Elicia with her two colleagues in tow. "I think it would make for good training escaping an enemy's clutches. *Pant* But next time, maybe you should *Pant* beat me repeatedly and mercilessly while *Pant* throwing insults to make it more challenging."
As she was not speaking quietly, Darkness drew the attention of all the people on the street. And when they saw her talking about getting beaten and insulted with a sloppy smile on her face, they looked at her with disgust.
Naturally, the disgusted gazes excited Darkness even more. However, what really pushed her over the edge was the disgusted gaze Elicia was wearing while she tried to distance herself.
By now, it was clear to anyone who could see Darkness' face that she was on the verge of orgasming in public. So, before the reputation of the knights could be pulled down anymore, one of her colleagues spoke up.
"Lady Dustiness, perhaps we should discuss the training of the knights in a more private place." One of the knights said.
"That's right." The other knight added. "The training plans for the knights should not be shared with the commonfolk. Who knows if any of them are spies."
Hearing that, Darkness expression tightened up. Though the blush on her face had yet to fade.
'Lady Dustiness?' Elicia thought to herself, that's right. 'Her real name is Dustiness Ford Lalatina. And she hates being called that. Could I get her to leave me alone if I start using it? I'll try it later. For now, there's something more important to attend to.'
"Well, since you're here, I have something to report." Elicia said, putting her plans to get rid of Darkness in the back of her mind. 'Marin, Lucy, and I found the kidnappers' hideout and took them down.'
That statement was enough to clear the blush from Darkness' face. Even though she was a world-level pervert, she had sworn the oath of knighthood to protect Fiore and its citizens.
"Take us there." Darkness said in a rarely heard authoritative tone. "Tell us what you found while we move."
Having never heard Darkness speak in such a tone, Elicia and the two knights were caught completely off guard. However, they wasted no time on their confusion, instead Elicia started walking in the direction she came from while the three knights followed her.
Along the way, Elicia explained how they found the hideout, what actions they took after finding it, and the condition of the kidnappers and the girls. Then, after about fifteen minutes, Elicia, Darkness, and her colleagues arrived outside the house, where Marin and Lucy were waiting with the five kidnappers clad in bandages and magical restraints.
"I'm back!" Elicia shouted as she approached the house. "And I brought the knights."
Looking up, the first thing Marin and Lucy noticed after Elicia was Darkness. At first, they both wore a slightly bothered expression, which caused Darkness to shiver in excitement. However, since she was performing her duty, she quickly suppressed it.
"Is that really Darkness?" Lucy asked in surprise. "Is it possible for her to look so serious?"
Once again, Darkness shivered as a slight blush appeared on her cheeks. Still, she kept her expression as solemn as she could.
"No, there's no way." Marin replied with a shake of her head. "I mean, there's no way a Darkness-level pervert could wear an expression like that. She must be a fake."
This time, instead of shivering, Darkness shuddered violently while she started taking deep breaths. Still, she maintained a stoic expression.
"Elicia told us… that you've captured… the criminals." Darkness said while struggling to keep herself in check. "Please… tell me what… happened from your… perspectives."
Seeing Darkness' situation, Elicia smiled wryly on the inside.
'She's really trying, huh?' Elicia asked internally. 'Well, we need to get this situation taken care of, so I'll help her out for now.'
"Just tell her what happened, you two." Elicia said with a smile. "And this is the real Darkness. She's just concerned about the people."
Though Marin and Lucy gave Elicia unsure glances, they followed her instructions. Then, about forty minutes later, Darkness and the knights had heard the testimonies from the three people responsible for capturing the kidnappers.
After that, the three wizards and three knights brought not only the kidnappers to the knights' barracks, but also the eighteen kidnapped girls to take their statements.
After another few hours, the statements from all the parties involved had been taken. And the reason behind the kidnappings was revealed.
As it turned out, all of the five kidnappers were homosexual, something that Elicia, Marin, and Lucy had expected after their short interactions with them. There reasons for kidnapping the girls, however, was not something they had expected.
All the girls who were kidnapped were girlfriends of the same five men. Unfortunately, none of the girls knew that they were being cheated on. On top of that, the five kidnappers had each been cruelly rejected by one of those five men in the past.
Though they were rejected, that was not what led them to take these actions. Instead, it was the way the men mocked and insulted them for their sexual preferences. So, the kidnappers vowed to have their revenge.
But since they had no desire to actually hurt anyone, they came up with the idea of using [Charm Magic] to separate the girls from their unfaithful boyfriends. And any time one of those five men tried to get another girlfriend, they, too, would be kidnapped.
And since they were inconveniencing the girls, they decided to teach them everything they knew about getting a much better man while they had them under their spell. They taught them how to take care of their hair, their skin, how to apply cosmetics, what signs to look for in an unfaithful partner, etc.
In the end, no one knew what to think of the kidnappers. What they did was wrong. There's no doubt about that. However, everyone could agree that they did all the wrong things for all the right reasons.
In the end, they could only leave it to the courts, the victims, and the kidnappers' lawyers to figure it out.
After the criminals were booked, all the girls were escorted back to their homes. Elicia and Marin took responsibility for sending their client's daughter, Julia Hamilton, a beautiful sixteen year old girl with long, curly navy-blue hair and orange eyes, back to her house.
After dropping off Julia and receiving their reward, Elicia and Marin made their way back to their hotel.
"That was definitely the weirdest quest I've ever taken." Marin said with a wry smile.
"I know, right." Elicia replied with a similarly wry smile on her face. "But I'll take a quest like this over some of the stuff I've seen over the years, any day."
"When you say it like that, it makes you sound really old." Marin said with a smile.
"Oh, does it?" Elicia replied while lunging at Marin. "I'm still young enough to put you in your place, though. Besides, you're older than me."
"But I'm younger at heart!" Marin replied with a laugh as she dodged away from Elicia. "Besides, I'm only three days older than you."
"So what?" Elicia replied while laughing as she continued to chase Marin around on the streets.
Like that, Elicia and Marin ran back to the hotel cheerfully. When they arrived at the door to their hotel room, the sun had just set completely. Slightly out of breath and covered in sweat, Elicia and Marin entered the room, looking forward to a nice hot shower. However, as soon as they entered the room, they both froze.
Sitting on her bed with a dull expression, Lucy watched Darkness and Virgo chat animatedly about the best punishments. Meanwhile, Karen was sitting at the table in the corner of the room sipping from a glass of wine while wearing the most intense resting bitch face any one in the room had ever seen.
After seeing that scene, Elicia and Marin exchanged glances. Then, they quietly stepped backward until they were once again in the hallway. After that, they quietly closed the door and started walking away.
"You know, tonight feels like a great night to go to a bathhouse." Elicia said as if she had never entered the room.
"I was just thinking the same thing, Lici." Marin replied cheerfully. "In fact, I think I remember seeing one while we were driving into town."
"Really?" Elicia asked happily. "Then, we should go check it out."
*Bang!*
Before the duo could get more than ten steps away from the door, they could hear the sound of hurried footsteps before the door was swung open and slammed into the wall.
"Please, don't leave me here with them!" Lucy shouted in a distressed tone. "All this talk about bondage and whipping and nipple clamps is driving me crazy!"
With that, Lucy, not even wasting the time to shut the door, chased after Elicia and Marin.
"Princess, so it seems you're were paying attention to our conversation about the best ways to punish your maid." Virgo said, poking her head out of the door.
"Elicia, I've been waiting for you." Darkness said, also poking her head out of the door. "We need to discuss you tying me… *cough* I mean, helping with my rope escape techniques."
"Elicia, did that knight just say that you tied her up, too?" Karen asked sadly as she stepped out of the hotel room. "Now, you've tied up not one, but two people other than me? Do you not want me as your pet anymore?"
Without even looking back, Elicia and Marin started running away while Lucy continued to chase them.
A moment later, Karen, Darkness, and Virgo realized that the girls were trying to escape, so they started to chase them as well.
"Lucy, you can unsummon Virgo, right?" Marin asked.
"I think so." Lucy replied. "but forcefully unsummoning a Celestial Spirit isn't easy."
"Well, if you don't, they're never gonna stop chasing us." Elicia said as she ran alongside the other two Fairy Tail wizards.
"I'll give it a try." Lucy replied with determination.
Like that the chase continued. Eventually, Lucy was able to unsummon Virgo. Then, as soon as Elicia, Marin, and Lucy were able to break Darkness and Karen's line of sight, Elicia cast [Hiding in Plain Sight] on all three of them. After that, they quietly made their way to another hotel and booked a room for the night. They would have hopped in the Escalade and returned to Magnolia, but Darkness and Karen were expecting that. So, they decided to leave early in the morning, instead.
"*Sigh* It feels like I'm missing something fun." Elicia muttered to herself as she lay in her bed in the newly rented hotel room. "Now, I really wanna go home."
While Lucy looked at Elicia with a question mark floating above her head, Marin had a pretty good idea of what Elicia was talking about. She was there for what Elicia calls "something fun," once, after all.