Earth land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.
June 5, x792.
Shortly after Alfonzo finished having fun with Maria, Mey-Rin, and Miyuki, Elicia burst into his bedroom with an excited smile on her face and a letter sealed with the royal seal in her hands. However, before she could excitedly tell Alfonzo about what was happening, she came to a sudden stop.
Sniffing the air, Elicia immediately knew what was going on before she came in. In fact, she knew Alfonzo was having sex for the first time with someone well before that thanks to her Fonzie-Sense. However, when she looked around the room, her eyes finally landing on his bed, her excited smile immediately turned into a deep pout.
"Fonzie, why are you hogging all the good stuff to yourself recently." Elicia asked while crossing her arms under her chest. "I mean, I understand stopping me and Yoruichi from spying on Maria. But I didn't get to see Grayfia's, Miyuki's, or Ai's first times, either. And now, you've even kept me from seeing Mey-Rin's."
In response, Alfonzo, while drying his hair after a shower, rolled his eyes. {Pic}
"So, I was supposed to come get you from watching Amar'e to do this?" Alfonzo asked. "Or is your fetish more important than our son? Hell, if I hadn't been ambushed, I would have been making breakfast for my kids instead of playing around in bed."
Reaching that point, Alfonzo looked away and let his eyes land on the three maids sleeping in his bed.
"Not that I'm complaining." Alfonzo said quietly.
"*Sigh* I guess you're right." Elicia said in a downcast tone. "It's just been a long time since I was there for someone's first time."
"Yeah, you're really weird, Lici." Alfonzo said with a shrug. "Anyway, what's the letter in your hand about?"
"Oh, right." Elicia said. "I almost forgot. Looks like the king is gonna reward us and the rest of the guilds for the part we played in defending Fiore."
As she spoke, Elicia handed the letter to Alfonzo while reaching out for the towel he was using to dry his hair. Then, she gestured for him to take a seat at the foot of the bed while climbing up to get in a better position to dry Alfonzo's hair as he read the letter.
"Hmm… Alfonzo hummed while taking the letter out of the envelope as he took a seat in front of Elicia. "But why would they send a letter to us? I mean, wouldn't sending one to the guild be enough?"
"Well, between the two of us, we did take down three members of the Spriggan 12 and Acnologia." Elicia said as she gently dried Alfonzo's hair. "On top of that, Tear brought down Dimaria, Irene took down Bambietta, Erza and Lucy helped take down Ajeel, and you convinced August and Zeref to stop fighting without a fight. Though, I guess Mavis had a lot to do with that."
"Now that you mention it, we did take out most of them." Alfonzo said. "You actually forgot a couple of them. For example, Gray and Juvia took down Invel. Wall Eehto ran into Mira and got one-shotted. And Larcade was put down by Rika and Bisca. So, out of the twelve, Fairy Tail put down ten of them."
"Oh, I forgot about them." Elicia said with a giggle. "They went down so easy that they weren't really fights, you know?"
"Actually, the only real fight in the whole war was the fight with Acnologia." Alfonzo said while continuing to read the letter. "Oh, we're all supposed to gather at Mercurius in Crocus on the sixteenth. I guess that's when the rewards will be awarded, huh?"
"Yeah." Elicia said excitedly. "And you know what that means?"
"That we'll have to sit through a bunch of speeches from nobles that we don't give a fuck about?" Alfonzo asked in a sarcastic tone.
"Well, there's that..." Elicia said while shuddering at the thought of the long-winded speeches that will precede the award ceremony. A moment later, however, her eyes started to sparkle. "But more importantly, everyone is gonna need a new set of formal wear!"
"Yeah, I figured that was why you were so excited." Alfonzo said with a smile. "And I'm guessing you've already got everyone else's measurements. So, you came to get mine., right?"
"Exactly." Elicia said while licking her lips. "And since this is going to be my best work, I'll need to be very thorough."
Alfonzo could not have missed the lust in Aelicia's tone even if he tried. So, despite having just washed off tall the sweat from the morning's work out, he turned around, pulled his first wife into his lap, and started giving her what she wanted before she got to work.
Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Crocus.
June 16, x792.
The next ten days passed without issue. On top of that, most of the members of Fairy Tail started taking quests again. However, because they knew they needed to be in Crocus today, they did not take any quests that would take more than a day to complete.
During the ten days leading up to the award ceremony, Elicia could not be found outside of the workshop built into one of her walk-in closets. She even took meals at her workstation. She even had to give up the time she usually spent playing with Amar'e and helping with his training to make sure that all the members of the guild had brand new formal attire for the award ceremony.
However, when the Fairy Tail wizards were eventually called into the throne room, that was when all the excitement bled out of them. For almost five hours, they have been standing on a red carpet in the center of the throne room while droves of noblemen gave speeches before the king and the princess. Hell, Alfonzo was pretty sure that Natsu had fallen asleep while standing more than an hour and a half ago.
And to be honest, he wished he could do the same. Yet, that was not something that could be done. Because today, neither mavis, Ur, nor Makarov were with them. And to Alfonzo, it all seemed a little too coincidental.
First, there was Makarov, the third master of the Fairy Tail guild. Because of his role on the Magic Council, Alfonzo did not have anything to say about his absence. Especially since the Magic Council had to be busy dealing with the aftermath of the invasion. On top of that, Makarov had retired from active wizard work when he passed the position of guild master to Ur.
But Ur and Mavis…? Yeah, there was definitely a conspiracy going on with those two.
Ur, for the first time, decided to take a long quest with Gildarts. Something she had firmly resisted ever since she started dating the man. However, as soon as the letters from the Royal Family showed up, she was suddenly really interested in seeing the world. And going with her man was the perfect way to do so in her words.
Then, there was Mavis. Only three days before the award ceremony, Zeref decided to turn himself in to the Magic Council. And as the good wife that she was, she decided to go with him. And that was after sending the reply to the Royal Family that the Fairy Tail guild would attend, and their guild master would be present, as well.
Though, Alfonzo had no idea about the guild master attending part. But if he had, he would have known exactly what she was planning, and like Makarov, Ur, and mavis, he would have found a reason to be absent from the award ceremony, as well. {Pic}
{"Hey, someone wake Natsu up."} Alfonzo said over [Archive magic's Telepathic Link]. {"And make sure he can't cause a fuss when he wakes up."}
{"I'll take care of it."} Erza replied sternly.
A moment later, Erza swiftly clamped her hand over Natsu's mouth. Though, she also unintentionally covered his nose, as well. Then, once his body registered that it was no longer breathing, Natsu's eyes shot open, and he started to flail his arms in panic. However, before he could cause any trouble, he met eyes with Erza, whose gaze promised untold amounts of pain if he were to embarrass the guild.
Immediately, all the fire in Natsu's eyes was put out and he started nodding his head frantically. While also gesturing to his nose and mouth because he could not breathe. Unfortunately, Erza did not seem to notice that she was covering Natsu's nose, as well. So, when she saw Natsu's gestures, she jumped to the wrong conclusion and looked at him even more harshly.
"Um… Erza… I think he's trying to say that you're suffocating him." Lucy said quietly into Erza's ear.
Surprised by Lucy's whispers, Erza looked more closely at Natsu's face. Or, more precisely the part of his face her hand was covering. And that was when she finally noticed that she was, indeed, suffocating Natsu. She then quickly pulled her hand away from his mouth and started to bow to express her apology in her usual way.
{"Knock it off, Erza." Alfonzo said sternly. {"Otherwise, you're gonna be the one embarrassing the guild. And Natsu, if you cause a scene, I'm gonna make sure that you get a punishment that makes 'that' feel like a fucking slap on the wrist."}
Of course, for Alfonzo to make that threat come true, he would have to know what "that" was in the first place. But Natsu did not need to know that.
And just as he expected, Natsu immediately snapped to attention while paying close attention to every word coming out of the nobleman's mouth. Meanwhile, the other members of the guild, who were also connected to Alfonzo's [Telepathic Link] looked at Alfonzo like he was some kind of savior for being able to make Natsu act like a decent human being, even if that would only last for a short while.
"You're really good at this, Fonzie." Elicia whispered into Alfonzo's ear with a giggle. "No wonder Ur and Mavis wanted to make you the guild master so badly."
"Don't joke around like that, Lici." Alfonzo hissed quietly. "If I had to be the guild master for all these rowdy mother fuckers, I would go bald even faster than Gramps did."
Elicia only giggled in response
At the same time, the nobleman's speech finally came to an end, and he introduced Toma to present the awards.
"*Snore* Huh!? What!? I'm awake!" Toma stammered when he heard his name. He then looked around for a moment before wiping the small amount of drool he could feel dripping from his lips and put on a dignified expression. "Wizards of this great kingdom, it fills me with joy to have such powerful wizards living in my lands."
Seeing how her father acted, Hisui wanted to face-palm. Unfortunately, the setting was not the right time for that. As aa result, all the muscles in her face twitched as she tried to keep her royal smile in place.
Meanwhile, all the wizards from the various guilds in the throne room had the same thought at the same time.
'Yeah, just glossing over it like it never happened isn't gonna make us unsee that.'
As for Toma, his face was twitching, too. However, as the king of the kingdom, he could not allow his dignity to fall any further. So, he continued his speech. Then, when the speech concluded, he started handing out the rewards for the wizards who helped defend the kingdom.
Each guild received a large sum of money for their efforts. The wizards who made significant contributions to the kingdom's defense by taking down generals during the invasion were also rewarded with large amounts of money. Yoruichi of Mermaid Heel and Squall of Final Fantasy received even larger rewards.
And Fairy Tail was no exception. As the greatest contributors to the kingdom's defense, the guild received the largest monetary reward of all those present. On top of that, all the wizards who defeated members of the Spriggan 12 received rewards comparable to Yoruichi and squall. And if they defeated more than one, that amount was multiplied by the number of Spriggan 12 members they defeated.
However, when it came time to reward Alfonzo, who not only defeated a member of the Spriggan 12 but also defeated Acnologia almost single-handedly, the atmosphere in the throne room changed.
"Alfonzo Marcus, Sixth Master of the Fairy Tail Wizarding Guild, please step forward." Toma said, his tone having finally regained its original majesty after speaking for so long.
However, unlike every other wizard who was rewarded, Alfonzo did not step forward immediately. Instead, he stood at the front of the line of Fairy Tail wizards with his eyes wide open while his whole body trembled all over.
"Wha… What did you call me?" Alfonzo asked in a trembling voice.
The other wizards of Fairy Tail were just as surprised. However, most of them looked at Alfonzo in this state with a healthy dose of schadenfreude. Yet, they knew they could not laugh. Laughing at this moment would result in something truly heinous coming their way. Even Elicia, who knew she could get away with almost anything in front of Alfonzo wisely chose to keep her mouth shut.
"Alfonzo Marcus, the Sixth Master of the Fairy Tail Wizarding guild?" Toma asked in a confused tone. "Is there something wrong with that? You were named guild master a few days ago, were you not? Both I and the Magic Council received word from mavis. That was why no one was surprised that she was not here today."
And that's when it finally clicked into place for Alfonzo. There really was a conspiracy at play here. And Makarov, Ur, and mavis were all in on it.
"Aw, hell nah!" Alfonzo shouted angrily. "Just wait until I find those three! Shit's about to get real in this mother fucker!"
In the end, the one who caused a ruckus and made a scene was not one of the rowdier members of the guild. Instead, it was the one person no one expected to lose their cool in such a setting. And it took quite a while for Elicia and the other women in Alfonzo's life to calm him down before Toma could give him his reward, something that would lead to a whole new ruckus… Also created by Alfonzo.