The tavern was quiet, save for the low crackle of wood in the hearth and the gentle clinking of a few empty mugs near the bar. Daylight filtered through the dusty windowpanes, casting long, lazy shadows across the wooden floorboards.
Kai lifted the porcelain cup to his lips, taking a long, unhurried sip of the dark brew.
For two seconds, nothing happened. Then, his entire face contorted in absolute revulsion. He slammed the teacup back onto the saucer with a loud, wooden clack that made the nearby salt shaker hop, his shoulders shuddering as he scrunched his eyes tight.
"Ugh! What in the seven hells is this?" Kai wiped his mouth with the back of his leather sleeve, staring at the cup with pure, unadulterated betrayal. "This tastes like crushed pine needles and bitter disappointment. Did the innkeeper boil an old boot in this?"
Across the table, Rei didn't move an inch. His crimson eyes remained cool, completely unfazed by Kai's sudden dramatic reaction. He didn't offer a single word of sympathy or explanation, simply continuing to observe the young Director with quiet, unbothered detachment.
Seeing that he wasn't going to get any sympathy, Kai let out a long, theatrical sigh that sounded like a dying forge bellows. He reached for the heavy ceramic sugar bowl sitting in the center of the table, grabbed the small wooden spoon, and began dumping spoonful after spoonful of white sugar directly into the dark liquid like an engineer calibrating a toxic compound.
One. Two. Three. Four.
Rei's left eyebrow twitched.
Five. Six.
Rei's eye twitched harder. The swordsman's calm, stoic facade cracked just a fraction as he watched the mound of sugar build up, displacing the liquid and practically turning the tea into dense mud.
Seven.
Kai finally stopped, picked up the spoon, and stirred with the rapid, mechanical precision of a laboratory mixer until the liquid turned a thick, opaque shade of pale tan. He took another sip, closed his eyes, and let out a happy, satisfied hum. "Ah, now that is human beverage material. The glucose neutralizes the tannin toxicity."
Rei stared at the sludge, his mouth pulling into a tight line. "You should have just ordered syrup," he muttered under his breath.
Kai hummed, setting the cup down gently this time. "Sure, if I'd known you had the palate of a mountain goat. It's like drinking grandma's herbal medicine. I drink tea to relax and pretend I don't have responsibilities, not to suffer."
Rei gave a single, quiet nod, opting not to engage in an argument over culinary preferences with a man who had just created syrup in a teacup.
Kai leaned back in his chair, his golden eyes drifting to the unfolded newspaper sitting on the table between them. He reached out, casually hooking a finger under the edge of the paper and pulling it toward himself. He looked at the front-page photograph of himself taken during his official inauguration ceremony months ago—a picture where he was dressed in rigid formal attire, looking thoroughly miserable.
"Man, look at this," Kai muttered, a smirk touching his lips as he admired his own annoyed expression. "They really captured the exact moment I was contemplating setting the podium on fire."
Rei watched him, a rare flicker of genuine curiosity in his red eyes. "You were annoyed at your own honor ceremony?"
"Honor ceremony? More like torture session, my friend with questionable taste," Kai said, tossing the paper back onto the table and leaning his head against his hand. "Try sitting through three hours of old men giving speeches about 'the glorious future of Fiore' while a crowd of aristocrats aggressively claps at every comma. And on top of that, I had to wear that stupid ceremonial coat. It was so stiff I was moving like a broken mechanical toy. I genuinely wanted to strip down to my drawers and walk out while cursing at the High Council."
Rei's lips twitched slightly—a subtle sign of amusement. He gave another small nod. "Sounds unbearable."
"It was," Kai agreed smoothly. Then, his golden eyes narrowed playfully as he leaned across the table, his lazy posture concealing the sudden, razor-sharp focus in his gaze. "Speaking of which... you've been reading years-old news about me. What, did you become my stalker after we left those ruins?"
Rei didn't flinch. "Don't flatter yourself. I was merely curious about you. Just as you were curious enough to have your observers try to track me."
Kai whistled innocently, looking up at the wooden rafters. "Track you? Me? I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm just a peaceful civil servant doing routine municipal surveys."
"You're the only person who came to meet me the moment I stopped moving," Rei said flatly, raising an eyebrow. "Your observers weren't subtle. One of them fell off a roof yesterday trying to adjust his spyglass."
"Hey, no need to be sour, dude," Kai smirked, waving his hand dismissively. "That was just Marcus, he's clumsy. But in our last meeting, you left me with a lot of unanswered questions. And on top of that, I learned you aren't even registered as a citizen of Fiore, yet you were hanging around inside a government-sealed ruin. Technically, as Director of the Research Division, investigating unauthorized activity around sealed magical sites falls under my job description."
Rei accepted the explanation with a quiet nod. He knew the logic was sound.
"Besides," Kai added, his smirk widening into a full, mischievous grin, "you're the one who walked right into Crocus without hiding and sat in the exact same inn for two days despite knowing my people were watching you. You basically rolled out a red carpet."
Rei remained silent, implicitly conceding the point. He had stayed in Crocus specifically to catch Kai's attention.
Kai sighed dramatically, placing a hand over his heart and looking at Rei with exaggerated pity. "You waited two whole days in a dark tavern just to see little old me? Man... that's so romantic." He shook his head sorrowfully. "Unfortunately... while you're undeniably pretty, I'm just not into dudes. I'm flattered, really, but my heart belongs to women and long naps."
Rei's jaw tightened. He glared at Kai, muttering a low curse under his breath that was drowned out by Kai's abrupt, cheerful laughter.
"Alright, alright, grumpy face," Kai hummed, setting his teacup down. He leaned forward, resting both forearms flat on the rough oak table. The playful light in his golden eyes died down, replaced by a quiet, calculating stillness. "So why did you want to see me? What's the real reason?"
Rei leaned back slightly, his left hand resting flat over the silver hilt of his sword. The atmosphere at the table shifted, the air between them growing subtly heavier.
"It's because you solved the Kaldor Ruins," Rei said, his voice low, steady, and entirely devoid of heat.
Kai didn't interrupt. He simply tilted his head, watching the swordsman's eyes.
"When we met there," Rei continued, looking directly at Kai, "I hadn't just wandered in out of curiosity. I had already spent four days inside those subterranean levels. I mapped every primary chamber, cleared three collapsed corridors, and analyzed the central array. I searched for anything that retained an active ethernano signature. I found nothing."
Rei paused, letting the statement hang in the quiet tavern space.
"So when I ran into you and your companion," Rei said, "I assumed we were both wasting our time. I had accepted that Kaldor was a dead ruin—its runic knowledge lost, its core degraded past the point of extraction. I left because I believed there was nothing left to find."
Kai remained completely still. He didn't drop a joke. He didn't smirk. His mind was clearly processing the timeline—realizing that Rei hadn't just been a casual trespasser, but someone with enough technical skill and patience to systematically dissect an ancient site for nearly a hundred hours without triggering its lethal containment wards.
"Imagine my surprise," Rei said softly, "when news reached the capital three days later stating that the Research Division had fully mapped, solved, and cleared the core matrix of Kaldor. When I went back to inspect the perimeter, the internal spatial distortion was gone. The core chamber was empty."
Rei rested both palms flat on the table, leaning in slightly. "I came to Crocus because I need to know how you bypassed a sealed ancient array that showed zero structural reactivity."
For a long moment, the only sound was the crackle of the hearth. Kai studied Rei's face, measuring the genuine intensity in the man's red eyes. The silence stretched comfortably, backed by real weight.
Slowly, Kai's lips curved upward into a dry, sharp smile—not his usual ridiculous grin, but the focused, confident smirk of a master engineer who knew he had outperformed another expert.
"You spent four days overthinking it," Kai said quietly. "You were analyzing the deep ethernano channels, studying the ancient glyphs, and trying to brute-force the entire facility's logic at once. You assumed a site that complex had to have some massive, intricate key."
Rei's eyes narrowed slightly. "And what did it actually have?"
"The entire ruin was the key," Kai replied simply. "It was one sprawling runic network governed by an ancient core that had gone rogue after centuries without maintenance. It locked down its lower levels and essentially tried to do what it was designed to do. You couldn't find the way down because you were looking for some grand magical mechanism. I was looking at the construction."
Kai gave a small shrug. "There was one pillar in the main hall that didn't make sense. No real structural purpose, no magical connection. So I checked it."
His smirk returned.
"Turns out it wasn't as decorative as it looked. I found the mechanism, got the lock open, and found the core chamber beneath us."
He paused, then added casually, "There were a few more complications after that, but that's the gist of it."
Rei stared at Kai, his breath catching slightly. A look of quiet realization flashed across his features, followed by a profound, silent respect. He had spent days tearing his mind apart over the complex magical theory, completely blind to the simple, physical tell right in front of him.
"I see," Rei whispered, leaning back into his seat. "So you didn't just stumble onto it. You actually broke the logic."
"I don't stumble onto things, emo man," Kai said, the tension dissolving as he leaned back into his chair, though his tone retained a grounded edge. "Engineering doesn't work on luck. But like I said... information like that isn't free."
Rei let out a slow, quiet breath, yielding to the ridiculous nickname without argument this time. "I know how information works. But if I am to share what I know, I need to see proof of what you actually retrieved from Kaldor. I need to be sure you possess its secrets and didn't simply trigger a localized collapse."
Kai's smirk turned razor-sharp. His golden eyes flicked downward, landing precisely on the silver-hilted weapon resting at Rei's side. He pointed a long finger directly at it.
"Since you're asking for the architectural secrets of an ancient civilization," Kai said, "I want an equal trade. Show me what that sword actually is."
Rei went still. His hand hovered over the hilt for a long, heavy moment, his fingers brushing the cool silver metal. He stayed silent for several seconds before giving a firm, decisive nod.
"It is an artifact," Rei said quietly. "Forged under the same principles as the mechanisms you found in Kaldor."
Kai's eyes lit up with genuine, unbridled engineering curiosity. "One of them, hum? So that means there are more."
Rei looked hesitant, a momentary shadow of doubt passing over his sharp features, but he ultimately nodded again. "If you are willing to share what you retrieved from Kaldor, I will tell you what I know about these weapons."
Kai leaned back, tapping his chin as he pondered the offer. "Alright. You've got a deal."
He pushed himself up from the wooden chair, grabbing his leather coat. "We should probably move somewhere open and private. As much as I want to see what that weapon can do, I can't have you swinging an ancient artifact in the middle of the artisan district. Otherwise, I'll have to listen to Arcadios yell at me about 'property damage' and 'public safety' for three hours, and I'd rather swallow glass."
Rei stood up, pulling his dark travel cloak around his shoulders. "I agree. We need an empty space for the demonstration."
Meanwhile, back inside the pristine walls of Mercurius Palace...
The sun flooded through the floor-to-ceiling glass of the royal reception lounge, bathing the luxurious velvet couches in bright warmth. An ornate silver tea set rested on the low mahogany table, though only Hisui was actually drinking from her cup.
Cana was lounged back on a plush sofa, one boot lazily propped over her knee, tossing a small wooden dice into the air and catching it. Mirajane sat upright with immaculate posture, sipping water, while Juvia sat rigidly on the edge of her seat, staring at Princess Hisui with wide, nervous blue eyes.
"So," Hisui began, setting her teacup down with a delicate clink, "Kai really acts like that in the guild too? I always assumed he was just particularly rebellious because he dislikes palace protocol."
Cana snorted loudly. "Dislikes protocol? Princess, the guy treats basic social manners like a personal insult. If you tell him to sit down, he'll lie on the floor out of spite. At the guild hall, he spends eighty percent of his time sleeping on top of the highest rafters so nobody can ask him to do requests, and the other twenty percent building dangerous lacrima contraptions that blow up Master Makarov's favorite mugs."
"He doesn't just blow things up," Mira added with a serene smile, stepping in as the voice of gentleness. "Kai is actually very sweet when he wants to be. He built an automated ice-shaver for the bar last summer, even if he did overclock the engine so hard it launched frozen mangoes through the front window."
Hisui giggled softly, leaning her chin on her hand. "That sounds exactly like him. Every time I try to ask him about his life outside the capital, he either gives me ridiculously vague answers or claims he was raised by wild mountain goats."
"He told you the goat story too?" Cana laughed, shaking her head. "Classic. I've known him longer than most people in Fairy Tail—he was the first friend I made when I wandered into Magnolia—and even I have to threaten to steal his wrenches to get him to talk about his past."
Juvia's eyes flicked toward Cana, a subtle flicker of competitive spirit entering her gaze. "Juvia may have joined Fairy Tail recently, but Juvia shares a deep, unspoken bond of mutual understanding with Kai-sama. We understand the quiet beauty of water and shadows."
Cana smirked teasingly. "Right, 'unspoken bond.' Is that what we're calling you staring at the back of his neck for twenty minutes straight on the train while drooling?"
Juvia's face flushed bright pink. "It was scientific observation!"
Hisui smiled at the lively back-and-forth, noticing the unique dynamic each woman shared with Kai. Cana had the easy, rowdy comfort of an oldest friend who could shove him without hesitation. Mira had a gentle, grounding warmth that seemed to subtly keep his unhinged impulses in check. And Juvia brought an intense, fierce devotion that was as earnest as it was comical.
After another twenty minutes of chatting, Cana stretched her arms over her head with a loud groan. "Alright, I'm bored of waiting. Let's go bother him in his office. I want to see what kind of ridiculously expensive government toys he gets to play with as Director."
"I'll accompany you," Hisui said, standing up and smoothing down her blue dress. "He's probably frozen another pile of paperwork by now."
The group made their way down the polished corridors toward the Research Division's upper executive level. Pushing open the heavy mahogany door to Kai's private office, they stepped inside—only to find the room completely silent and empty.
The velvet curtains fluttered gently in the breeze coming through the massive, wide-open bay window.
Behind the desk, Administrator Siris was calmly organizing a fresh stack of folders, his spectacles glinting in the afternoon light.
Cana crossed her arms, raising an eyebrow at the empty leather chair. "Where's the slacker? Please don't tell me he crawled under his desk to take a nap again."
Siris didn't even look up from his ledger. "Director Sunveil has left the premises for an off-site meeting."
Cana, Mira, and Juvia exchanged rapid, suspicious glances.
"An off-site meeting?" Mira repeated softly, her smile dimpling as her eyes narrowed slightly. "Without mentioning it to us?"
"He went to meet that Rei guy, didn't he?" Cana barked, taking a step forward. "That idiot ran off alone to confront a suspicious, unregistered master swordsman without telling anyone!"
Juvia's hands clenched into tight fists, water droplets briefly manifesting around her knuckles. "Kai-sama left Juvia behind again? Unforgivable!"
Cana turned her fierce glare directly onto Siris. "Alright, glasses. Where is he?"
Siris adjusted his spectacles with a crisp, measured movement. "I am not at liberty to disclose the Director's location. Furthermore, if I were to compromise his operational privacy, he would undoubtedly find a way to make my administrative duties significantly more miserable than they already are."
"Siris," Hisui spoke up, stepping forward with her hands folded imperiously in front of her dress. Her voice carried the quiet, undeniable weight of royal authority. "As Princess of Fiore, I am asking you directly. Where did Director Sunveil go?"
Siris paused. He looked at the Princess, then at the three Fairy Tail mages who looked ready to tear the room apart to find a map. He let out a long, weary sigh, realizing his day was ruined regardless of what he chose.
"The Golden Wheel," Siris admitted dryly. "An inn in the lower artisan district. That is the extent of my knowledge."
Before Siris could even finish his sentence, Cana turned on her heel. "Let me guess—he's probably already moved from there. We need to hurry!"
"Juvia will track his magical residue!" Juvia declared, her eyes burning with determination as she rushed out the door alongside Cana and Mira.
Hisui immediately lifted the skirts of her dress, preparing to sprint after them. "Wait for me! I'm coming too!"
"Your Highness, stop right there!"
Captain Arcadios suddenly appeared in the doorway, blocking the exit with his massive, armored frame. His expression was thunderous. "You cannot simply sprint out of the palace to chase after Director Sunveil's foolish errands! The lower artisan district is unmonitored and potentially dangerous!"
Hisui stopped, puffing her cheeks out in frustration before planting her hands firmly on her hips, looking up at the stern Captain with absolute resolve.
"Then bring your sword, Captain," Hisui commanded, her eyes flashing with royal stubbornness. "Because I am going with or without an escort!"
Arcadios stared down at the young princess, closed his eyes, and took a deep, agonizing breath, cursing Kai Sunveil in his heart for the thousandth time that week.
"Understood, Your Highness," Arcadios grunted, drawing his cloak tighter around his shoulders.