The Role of Charisma in Life
Those who cannot smile should not engage in trade.
Chinese proverb
Sephiroth
No, Mira really was a miracle, and a remarkably responsible one at that.
She didn’t just show me around the city and explain where everything was.
She took me through every shop, from vegetable stalls to magic stores.
There were almost more of the latter than food shops.
Magnolia really was a magnificent city.
She showed me where Fairy Tail members received discounts.
When merchants saw Mira, many of them lowered their prices considerably.
She didn’t even have to charm anyone like Lucy did.
Her mere presence was enough.
Apparently, my Toad had found herself a new idol.
She also showed me which places I should probably avoid for now because of some misunderstanding between a shopkeeper and the guild members.
We even went to the magistrate, where a very serious-looking woman helped us choose a plot of land.
There were finished houses available, but none suited me.
Some were badly located, some offended my aesthetic sensibilities, and others were simply impractical.
After several hours of torture, I finally strangled the Toad and bought a plot of land, along with a house designed according to my requirements.
The whole pleasure cost fifteen million jewels.
Practically all my money, by the way.
Still, the future house was definitely worth it.
The plan was drawn up right there.
The house would have two floors.
The first would be stone, with fairly powerful walls and wooden panels on the inside.
The second floor would be wooden, treated with something whose properties resembled creosote, except it wasn’t toxic or smelly.
But that wasn’t the important part.
The important part was the three basement levels.
Most of the money had gone into reinforcing the supporting structure so that the whole thing wouldn’t collapse into the void.
The location was excellent too.
It was about a ten-minute walk from the guild and even closer to Fairy Tail’s women’s dormitory.
Yeah…
very convenient.
I also spoke privately with the architect and, after slipping him a little extra money, managed to add several secret passages to the plans, along with the possibility of digging smaller tunnels from the basement.
I didn’t want the house collapsing on my head while I was digging toward the women’s dormitory.
I’d dig that tunnel myself.
Nobody needed to know about it.
Of course, I’d also need to install a trap system.
Just in case.
Paranoia was flourishing.
I suddenly remembered how Natsu and his friends used to make surprise visits to Lucy’s house.
I didn’t want visits like that, unless they came from Lucy or Erza…
Uh…
what was I talking about?
Right.
What if I happened to be working on something like nitroglycerin when someone came knocking?
In short, I’d decided that my house would be my fortress.
Minefields weren’t such a bad idea either.
Yeah, I was getting carried away.
In any case, I didn’t leave the magistrate’s office until much later, noticeably poorer but incredibly satisfied, carrying a whole stack of papers concerning the land, the construction contract, and various other documents.
The builders were fast.
They promised to finish the house in just a week.
Now all that remained was the rest of our walk and dinner.
I kept noticing that we were being followed.
Damn, even a blind man could have noticed it.
Almost the entire male population of Fairy Tail, along with some of the women, was following us while trying not to attract attention.
Elfman stood out in particular.
A white-haired man roughly two meters tall who was accustomed to charging straight ahead was never going to be good at stealth.
Mira pretended not to notice anyone, so I had to play along.
We finally lost the Fairy Tail tail, heh, only at the entrance to a restaurant, again recommended by the blonde angel.
Over dinner, we chatted about all sorts of little things.
Mira told me several funny stories from the guild’s history.
Considering that almost every day there sounded like a joke, I laughed for a long time and sincerely.
She also told me a couple of amusing stories involving Elfman.
Those nearly made me cry with laughter.
It was a lot of fun.
I didn’t even try to flirt with her.
We hadn’t known each other long enough for that.
What was the rush?
She’d known me for less than a day.
Everything had its time.
After dinner, I walked her home.
Mira tried to refuse, but gave in after I struck a heroic pose and declared in a suitably dramatic voice:
“A real man walks a girl home, especially when it’s already night!” Then, in my normal voice, I added, “Otherwise Elfman will definitely kill me, and he’ll certainly never let you go for another walk with me.”
Hmm.
Or had I imagined hearing a voice from the neighboring roof say, “You got him there, buddy,” in what sounded suspiciously like Wakaba’s voice?
“Yes…
leaving a comrade to be torn apart by his brother would be rather inhumane of me,” Mira smiled.
“Then we’d better go back to the guild.
I live right in the building.”
“I see…
Hmm.
So the Fairy Tail building is much larger than it looks from outside?
The hall is already quite large, plus the library, and now I’ve discovered there are living quarters too…”
“Magic can do a lot.
And good architects help too, of course…”
Discussing various ways to improve life with magic, we eventually reached Fairy Tail.
Mira offered me one of the guild’s guest rooms for the night, but I refused.
A hotel would be better, so we said goodbye at the entrance.
Still, she agreed to go on a picnic in the forest with me sometime.
So the day hadn’t merely been useful.
It had been excellent.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the mountains.
Lucy Heartfilia.
“Brrr, it’s freezing,” Lucy muttered, wrapping herself more tightly in her coat and silently thanking Sephiroth for reminding her about the mountain weather.
Without warm clothes, she would already have been frozen to the bone.
“Stop whining.
If you don’t like it, go back to the city.
You’re getting annoying,” Natsu growled, continuing through the snowstorm with the determination of an icebreaker.
“Yeah!” the cat cheerfully agreed.
Lucy sighed heavily.
Even though she was now a member of Fairy Tail, it would have been naive to expect everyone to immediately like her.
The famous Salamander clearly wasn’t known for elegant manners.
Then again, what kind of manners could she expect from someone raised by a DRAGON?
A gigantic fire-breathing creature was unlikely to have taught him etiquette or proper behavior around girls.
Heartfilia shivered again in the icy wind and uncorked the flask.
The scent of herbs drifted from its mouth.
She took a large swallow and blissfully closed her eyes as the liquid rushed down her throat like a hot stream, kindling a little fire in her stomach.
Warmth spread pleasantly through her body.
After shaking the flask a little, Lucy took another sip, involuntarily thinking of its owner.
Sephiroth.
Strange name.
Though its owner was clearly unusual too.
He had called himself a weak mage, yet he’d caught that giant, Elfman, in midair and sent him flying back.
He’d also protected her from another flying body and helped carry Natsu to the guild.
Lucy took another sip.
And he was handsome too.
Definitely more handsome than that rude pink-haired idiot.
Hic!
Yes.
She should have dinner with him.
Another gust of wind sobered the rapidly tipsy girl enough to remind her why they’d come into the mountains in the first place.
“Hey, Natsu, what was Macao doing here?”
“You went on a job without even knowing what it was?
Seriously?
He was dealing with a horrible monster.
They’re called Vulcans.
Heard of them?”
“Uh…
no.” The thought of encountering some vicious monster made Lucy nervous, but the alcohol gave her unnecessary courage, so returning to Magnolia never occurred to her.
“A Vulcan is a monster capable of using Absorption magic,” Happy explained.
“Absorption?”
“It steals the bodies and lives of its opponents, becoming stronger with every person it absorbs.
There have been cases where the victim absorbed the Vulcan instead, but there aren’t many.
The monster is intelligent and only absorbs weak or weakened opponents,” Happy continued.
“Uh-huh.” Lucy nodded and took another sip.
The contents of the flask were soothing her rapidly worsening mood.
“MACAAAAOOO!” Natsu shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth.
Instead of the fire mage, a gorilla-like monster burst out of the snowstorm.
It sniffed the air and roared in a distinctly inhuman voice:
“FEMALE!”
Before Natsu or Lucy could understand what was happening, the girl was grabbed and dragged upward at terrifying speed toward the mountain’s summit.
Heartfilia fought back, but the creature held her tightly and only released her inside a cave.
Drunk, battered, and thoroughly manhandled, Lucy was casually dropped onto the icy floor.
The ape jumped around her, its movements suspiciously resembling the mating dance of certain primates.
Lucy remembered reading about something similar in one of the books at home.
“Female!
Female!
I found a female!”
That was the final straw.
The freezing cold, her rude companion, being carried around in the arms of a smelly ape, and now realizing exactly what the ape intended to do with her…
“Aaargh!
I’m sick of all of you!” Lucy grabbed her trusty whip in one hand and Taurus’s Golden Key in the other.
“Gate of the Celestial Spirit, open!
Taurus!”
A massive bull-headed humanoid stepped out of the rune circle, wielding an enormous axe.
“Mmm, Lucy, you’ve still got a great figure,” the minotaur said, licking his lips.
“She’s my female!” the ape protested.
“Your female?” The bull clearly wasn’t pleased.
“How dare you?
She’s my female!”
Lucy twitched at the eye.
“Have you both completely lost your minds?” She took another drink from the flask and, abandoning magic altogether, charged with nothing but her whip.
She now had two targets.
Natsu Dragneel.
A little earlier.
“Damn, she’s troublesome!” the Dragon Slayer cursed while watching the rapidly disappearing Vulcan.
“Yeah!” the cat agreed cheerfully.
“But there’s nothing we can do.
She’s family now, so we have to get her back.
Let’s go.”
“Yeah!” Happy agreed again and flew after the kidnapper.
When the pair reached the cave, they heard strange snapping sounds and some groans.
“Damn.
If he’s doing what I think he’s doing to her, he’s dead!”
The Dragon Slayer burst into the cave, ready to save the girl from anything.
Instead, he realized that if anyone needed saving, it was the unfortunate Vulcan.
The poor ape had retreated into a corner with a bull-headed monster and was pitifully groaning while receiving blows from a whip wielded by a delicate girl’s hand.
“Taurus, return!
We’ll discuss your behavior later!”
The bull-headed spirit gave the ape a sympathetic look and vanished in golden light.
“And you…” Whip crack.
“Never…” Another strike.
“Ever…” Another.
“Touch me again!” Each word came with another blow.
On the final strike, the monster collapsed unconscious and transformed into a badly battered man in his early thirties with dark-blue hair.
“Huh?” Lucy blinked.
“Gods, Macao!” Natsu exclaimed.
“He was an ape a moment ago.
Hic!” Lucy hiccuped drunkenly.
“Then the Vulcan used Absorption on him.” Natsu didn’t waste time and began bandaging his injured guildmate.
The cat’s backpack supplied the bandages and medicine.
“Nice work.
I was about to rescue you, but you handled it yourself.”
“You?
Hic!
You were going to rescue me?” Lucy asked in surprise.
“What’s so strange about that?
Everyone in the guild is a friend.
Actually, not exactly.
We’re more like a family, and helping and saving each other is normal for us.
You’re one of us now, so get used to it.” The Dragon Slayer smiled.
Lucy blushed and reached for the flask, but it was somehow empty.
It didn’t bother her much.
The world was colorful and wonderful.
She had a real family now, where everyone helped and cared for each other.
Even rude Natsu actually worried about her.
Smiling happily, Heartfilia slowly sank to the floor and drifted into dreamland.
“F***!” Natsu expressed his opinion of the universe while staring at the two bodies lying on the blanket.
“Yeah!” the cat agreed.