Grammi's sudden appearance in Heartfilia Konzern obviously surprises everyone. They have thought that the plan to indirectly ask for the Spirits' help to relay the message has failed, but Grammi suddenly comes.
That means Cancer has successfully told Aquarius Layla's hidden message and Aquarius has relayed it to Grammi. But because of the time difference in the Spirit World and also the fact that Grammi doesn't always summon Aquarius, the message took longer to reach her.
"Grammi!" Layla runs toward Grammi happily, but Grammi runs faster than her and they hug each other.
"Madam Layla, I've missed you so much." Grammi tears up while hugging her former employer.
"Then you should have visited me more often." Layla jokingly scolds her while smiling happily.
"Yes, I'm sorry, I should have done that."
"How are you doing?"
"I am doing great, Madam. I even have a daughter now."
Grammi points out at the little green-haired girl who was left behind with her luggage after she runs toward Layla.
"Ara, such a cute girl. She really looks like you."
"The young miss also looks a lot like you." Grammi looks at Lucy who hides behind Alex.
"Seems like we have a lot to talk about, so let's get inside."
Layla asks some servants to bring Grammi's luggage even though Grammi says she'll bring them herself. But now she isn't Layla's servant anymore, so Layla tells her to just let the servants do their work because she is a guest now.
Grammi smiles as she holds her daughter's hand to enter the mansion with the others. They enter the mansion and go to the living room so the servants can prepare the Guest room for Grammi and her daughter.
In the living room, Grammi introduces her daughter, Brandish. Alex already knows her name, but obviously he doesn't say anything. He only thinks about how this little girl who doesn't look that dangerous will grow into one of the strongest Mages in the Alvarez Empire.
"Eh? You live in Alakitasia now? No wonder I couldn't find you."
Layla and Grammi are talking about a lot of things, trying to catch up with each other's lives after being separated for years. Meanwhile, the kids are also having their own conversation.
"Hey, hey, Brandish, how did you cross from Alakitasia to Ishgar?" Lucy asks very curiously.
"By ship, it floated on the sea. You know ships, right?" Brandish accuses that Lucy doesn't know ships.
"O-of course, I know ships. I've seen them many times. Hmph!"
"Then do you know about airships?"
"I-I've heard about them."
"Heh, I've seen an airship once." Brandish says it smugly.
"W-what?! Really? T-then, have you rode an air balloon?" Lucy doesn't want to lose the argument.
"A-air balloon? What's that?"
It hasn't even been that long since they met, yet they already started bragging about their experience with each other. Alex just stays silent on the side while looking at the 2 brats having a bratty and useless fight.
Seeing Brandish makes Alex think that her mother's death must've been affecting her personality so much. She was shown to be playful like this when she already got along with Lucy in the story.
But before she found out the truth about her mother's death, Brandish was known to be cruel and sadistic. She was known as Nation Destroyer for a reason, but it seems all her cruelty was caused by her mother's death.
If that's the case, then she shouldn't turn like that as long as her mother stays alive. In the story, Grammi was killed by Zoldeo because Layla sacrificed herself to open the Eclipse Gate after being unable to get the Aquarius Key that Grammi holds, so Zoldeo blamed Grammi and killed her.
But now, Grammi is here, so Layla should be able to get all the Gold Keys to open the Eclipse Gate. She already found the locations of the other Gold Keys, so she just needs to borrow them from their owners and open the Eclipse Gate at the correct time.
Everything has been moving so well that it scares Alex actually. He's afraid that these series of good coincidences are prelude for much bigger problems because that's what usually happens in those fictional stories.
A lot of things have changed too from the original story. So Alex is obviously worried about how the future will go. The effects of those changes will surely make everything that Alex knows from the story changes and he doesn't know how much they will change.
But he also knows that it's useless to worry about those changes. Instead, he should be worried if nothing changes after everything he did because that means whatever he does will be useless, and he doesn't want that, he wants to change quite a lot of things.
Layla asks the kids to play somewhere else so she and Grammi can have a serious talk. Lucy excitedly takes Brandish to her room to show off her toys. Of course, Alex needs to follow them even though he doesn't like Lucy's toys. They're all girl toys, after all.
After the kids leave, Layla tells Grammi why she called her through the Spirits. She just says that she needs to borrow Aquarius Key and Grammi doesn't even ask why before taking out the Key to give it to Layla, just like Zoldeo and Spetto.
"You don't want to know why?"
"I believe you have a very important reason for asking the Key, Madam. Else, you wouldn't try to contact me so hard that you even need to secretly ask the Spirits to relay a message. Besides, for me, this key is always yours. I simply keep it for you until you need it back or until Young Miss Lucy is ready to be a Celestial Spirit Mage."
Just from how her former servants gladly give their keys back to her without asking the reason has shown how well Layla treated them in the past that they trust her completely.
Grammi and Brandish will stay in Heartfilia residence for a while now. So Lucy will still have a playmate after Alex leaves. Alex hopes this will cause a massive change to the future, like maybe without Brandish, Alvarez won't be as strong as in the story, unless they find someone else to match her power or they still manage to recruit her somehow.
About opening the Eclipse Gate, Alex is still quite worried that something unexpected might happen even though Layla should be able to get the 12 Gold Keys now. He just can't relax before it's truly over, after all.
"Hey, what kind of magic are you using?" Brandish suddenly asks Alex after Lucy tells her that Alex is a Mage.
"Hmm? It's Take Over Magic. I can transform into different creatures."
"Like animals?" Brandish looks very interested all of a sudden.
"Well, maybe they're some kind of animals, though they aren't normal."
"Can you show me?" Brandish's eyes sparkle as she looks at Alex very closely.
"S-sure." Her excitement blinds Alex.
Transforming into Shukaku might terrify her and Isobu might still look scary for a kid. So Alex transforms into Matatabi, a mini Matatabi, not humanoid Matatabi. Still, even though it's a mini Matatabi, it's still as big as a tiger.
Alex is worried Brandish will still be scared of his mini Matatabi form because of its size and cries. Fortunately, she isn't scared and even looks amazed. Lucy somehow seems smug even though she isn't the one who uses the magic.
"How is it? Cool, right?" It's Lucy who seems proud of the transformation, not Alex.
Suddenly, Brandish jumps and hugs Alex's mini Matatabi form. She rubs her face on his big cat chest while smiling happily.
"So soft." Brandish really likes the softness of Matatabi's blue-black fire fur that feels much softer than real fur.
From that day on, Alex often transforms into mini Matatabi to play with the girls. Although it's more like he becomes their plaything and they often ride on him in that form.
He endures it because it won't keep going for too long because in less than 2 weeks after Grammi and Brandish arrived here, Alex's time to stay and work here is over. Just a few days before 7 July X777, Alex returns to Fairy Tail.
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Ch. 99: X784