Chapter 13: Phantom Thief

"Again."

Nick nodded and gave a full roundhouse kick. I blocked him by the arm and stomped kick him on his gut. Nick was quick to read my moves and caught my leg, but I twisted myself to escape his grip. I rolled away and went back on my feet. Nick went running straight at me and lifted me up, making a good hold around my waist. I tried to punch his back, but his skin had always been tough. He threw me down to the ground, knocking the wind out, but I did retaliate by kicking him like a pack mule this time.

I tried getting up, ready to return fighting but found my hands encased in a block of crystal.

I stared wide eye at my arm, and turned to meet eyes with Nick, then back to my arm, then back to Nick, "When were you able to do this?"

"Recently," he breathed out heavily, "I only got the chance to do it now... and I wanted to surprise you."

"Well, congratulation, consider me surprised." Nick brightly smiled at finally getting the drop of me because damn, this kid can really learn fast. I knew the Dragon Slayers were a powerful bunch, but this is ridiculous. Nick was dancing in his own impromptu steps at his mini-celebration until Rebecca and interrupted him with a tray of drinks and towels on hand.

"Pardon my rudeness Young Master Roy, Nick-kun, but is it necessary to train even in this god awful heat and not inside where you have a room made especially for your 'hobby'?"

And yes this year Summer is probably one of the hottest years of the century, me and Nick are sweating under the sun with our trainer and fully soaked shirt. I am in my back yard, if it can be called that, where there isn't a single greenery in sight, in lieu from the years of testing my magic and making explosions just for the heck of it. My gardener has learned that this specific back yard was to be 'out of bounds' and has long given up on it.

"First of all Rebecca, my hobby happens to help me survive thank you very much, and second, if there are real bad guys, they won't care if they attack either at the hot desert or the cold artic." I tried to point it all out with a waved of my finger but then remembered my hands were still crystal bound and shot a pleading look to Nick, who went up to me and dispel it before he sunk to the ground in exhaustion.

"Well, it's fine and well for you to keep your body in shape Young Master, but do I need to remind you that you are needed in Duke San Afalo banquet party this evening?"

"...shoot, that was today? I thought it was cancelled."

"No, just postponed because of the ominous warning of the Phantom coming tonight."

That...got me to pause as I turned back to her with apparent interest, "Phantom...don't tell me Duke San Afalo was spook by a ghost and thinks he's haunted now?"

For some reason, both Nick and Rebecca exchange glance with one another and shared a secret yet smug smile that got me slightly ticked, "What?" I asked them.

"Oh nothing Aniki, it's just... it's not every day we know something you don't."

"Never actually, so please pardon our behavior, but I must say this is quite refreshing sight." she tried so hard to hold back a satisfied smile, but it was too much for her to handle as they now look nothing less than a smiling troll.

The internet kind, not the real kind.

I rolled my eyes at their antics, "Ha, ha, enjoy it while you can you two, so can anybody tell me who or what this Phantom is?" Rebecca was about to explain, but Nick then jumped in front of her.

"Oh, let me! Let me!"

I raised an eyebrow at his antics but let him continued. He sucked on a breath before letting out a dramatic sigh as he looked straight up into my eyes, wide and severe, succeeding on creeping me out. "40 years ago, appearing like a stormy gale, was a white notice card that said to steal a sculpture that had a big diamond embedded at the chest. Belonging to a wealthy noble as a gift from an overseas friend. It was said to be a sculpture of a goddess with a legend attached to it and had targetted historical pieces, preferably one that carries dark history."

"He became famous for not only his success theft, but the fact remains that he would sometimes give back the stolen item, sometimes they don't," Rebecca continued for him, "Many tried and failed to intercept him, whether they be mages or not. No one has ever gotten even a true glimpse of what he was like, much less getting close to capture him."

"But one day, around a decade ago to be, he disappeared, only to come back again around...after 7 years I think? Anyway, his heist is always grandure, so a lot of people are actually looking forward to watch... I... I mean for him to be caught," Rebecca explained with a bit of squeal and...is she blushing?

"Rebecca you're...you're a fan of him, aren't you?"

Her blush became a bit more pronounced, "Off... off course not, that's prosperous. Admiring a criminal would be wrong and silly and...even if his mysterious demeanor and the few pictures of him sends shivers to many young girls and his ingenious escape caught many of people's attention. It is-"

"Rebecca," I said her name in utter seriousness that got her to snap her mouth shut, "You're not fooling anyone so let me say there's no shame in fangirling a criminal as long as he is not a murderer."

Immediately her shoulder sagged and she breathed out in relief, "Oh thank you Roy-sama because I've been holding it in for too long of the fact that I'm more than excited, that WE'RE GOING TO MEET THE PHANTOM KYAAAAAAAAAA!"

Dear Lord, I didn't know a girl can scream that high other than boyband concerts.

"On second thought Rebecca, please tone it down a bit, you might risk making us suffer tinnitus a bit."

"Oh, my poor ear..." Nick moaned next to her, his sharp ear and proximity didn't help him one bit.

My mind raced back to Phantom, and I grinned. Wondering what kind of person he was, what his motive, and how good he truly is. And maybe I was feeling a bit arrogant, but I was very excited of possibly being the first person to confronting him in person. My grin widened at the thought of meeting him since I feel like his appearance was like a test from the universe on how I tackle such person and the fact I might get to meet a Fairy Tail version of Kaito Kid or Lupin.

To quote Natsu Dragneel, 'I'm firing up!'

So for the first time, I can not wait to get dressed and join the banquet party.

I turned to get back to my room and maybe going to the library to get as much information of the man, before halting and turned to Rebecca who is still laughing giddily to herself with a slight drool falling from her fangirling mode.

"REBECCA!"

"Yes! I mean...what is it you need Young Master?"

"What's Phantom's target for today?"

"Oh yes, he said he'd be targetting a painting Duke San Afalo acquired a year ago. It's called the 'Rising Devil'...officially that is."

"What do you mean by that?"

"It means to the public it has a different name, and they call it, "The Angel's Blessing."

Say what now?

I blinked incredulously at her, but her tone and face showed she was serious.

I mean, I recognized few cliche stories of angelic themed artwork being demonized because of urban legend or time rotting its pure form someway or another like an angel sculpture crying blood for example but never the other way around.

My face felt it was splitting from how wide of a grin I was making. Now my interest is twice as pique.

. . .

Have I ever mentioned I hated noble clothing?

Like those formal French noble clothing which was the elaborate colored version of tux in their time. I already hate wearing regular tuxes, imagine this stuffy clothing.

"I admire you deeply from the fact you could wear this at any hour with a straight face Freed."

"Roy, mind your manners, Duke San Afalo is talking. And besides, it's not that stuffy once you get used to wearing it."

I shifted my glare to the Duke, who had invited a few nobles to his dinner party. An old bald man with a white goatee, wearing round glasses, his eyes slit, and he was about twice as tall as Makarov or the king despite being the same age. The dining room was expansive and glamorous like any stereotype rich man's room, More than one painting was on the wall, but the one in question was hanged behind the Master of the House. Large windows were arranged as the moonlight showed case the picture like a stage light. The Duke was sitting at the head of the table chair while me and Freed are in seperate table called...you guessed it...the children table.

Good news, me and Freed aren't the only kids of our age so we won't be pushed to play the part as the 'responsible' kid of the table. The not so good news, however, is that you would think the children table in a noble party would be slightly better than regular civilian children table.

Oh, how wrong I was.

"...and my Mom then gave me my own custom-made sadle for my 12th pony I have in our family's ranch, the last two had been harsh on me on just the third try."

"I know full well how hard getting a good sadle. I need one to ride my Elephant, Bobo. Yet none would take such commission because of the size, good service is tough to come by these days."

"Have you tried this cake, I heard Duke San Afalo was given water from the ice in the depth of the ever winter mountain of Mount Hakobe to use on his most of his dessert from my uncle."

"You know that's all hearsay, I know for a fact that he had the head of a wild Forest Lord from Waas Forest and hanged it above his bed. I know because my parents hunt it along with him."

Those kids...were arrogant beyond belief.

To the point I'm on the verge of stuffing my mouth and puking one of them just so I can leave this table and get them to shut up. And the kids that are decent enough were the quiet ones like Freed, and I usually would socialize with them, but my mind is too wrapped up with Phantom at the moment.

Trust me when I say nothing is more annoying than a barely teen kids acting like adults throughout the evening and gossip of all things. Crying and shouting kids is surprisingly more bearable than this. I looked to the empty seat on my side, and my face sobered, remembering Lucy's face and how I couldn't see her.

I could understand the absent of the Heartfilias. When a member of their family died, they are still stricken with grief.

I remembered that the funeral had gone off well.

Or so that's what Lucy told me in her letter.

Only the servants that had worked in the mansion and families were allowed to attend there. I suspected that Jude didn't want others to know his vulnerable side but damn that I can't be there for Lucy when she needed it.

And I might be disrespecting the dead, but I'm still a bit miffed at Layla and how little information I got from her.

"What do you mean you don't know why you were told to open Eclipse or the five Dragon Slayers?!"

"It is as I said. I never imagined that those five blinding lights were kids, nor that they were Dragon Slayers. In fact, I had thought that magic was lost all those years ago, but I suppose it makes sense if it was someone from the past," Layla weakly said.

I ground my forehead to my hand in frustration. I had hoped I would get valuable information that the future chapters couldn't provide me. The only new information I got was that Anna Freaking Heartfilia is now in the present, wandering around to find those five children. And the reason those five children were seperated because they were catapult out of the castle possibly because of the excess use of magic on them.

Unknown to her, there is a sixth Dragon Slayer outside their midst.

And here I thought there was some sort of deep reason they got seperated and it turned out it was only an accident. This feels like the kind of set-up an author used when they're out of ideas and making excuses for a supposedly dead character.

"I'm sorry..."

I looked up to Layla and soften at the guilty look she's sending me when she had done nothing wrong, "You did nothing wrong Layla-san, a little knowledge is better than nothing. However, aren't you going to question me how I know about it?"

Layla chuckled lightly, "True, I'm curious how you got to know that information only the Heartfilia and the Royal Family knows, but you are Lucy's friend."

I frown at her answer, making her chuckle at my expression and where she was going with this. "You care about Lucy," she said as a matter of factly, "and that's all I need to know for me to trust you. Whether you want to tell me the origin of your knowledge is your choice."

My eyes widened at her admission, and I wasn't sure whether to feel guilty or not that I choose not to tell her. I decided to change the subject, "Why didn't you tell Anna-san that you were dying from the Eclipse? She could have told you why you needed to open the gates. Heck! If she was such a great mage, she maybe could even save you."

Layla pondered over my question with a thoughtful look, but then she made a sheepish, slightly embarrassed smile at me, which just further confused me. "Honestly, that thought didn't occur to me."

"...HAH?!"

"It's not that different to now, what reason the duty of Heartfilia is for and whether I needed saving never really occurred to me. That night, the only thing that really mattered was to make sure Lucy never has to carry the burden of the Heartfilia and live a free life for herself."

Goddammit, this woman is a saint, does she even care about herself?

I knew that currently, my jaw dropped in awe at how sincere and selfless Layla truly was, and I was half-convinced I saw a halo above her. Though if there was, I wanted to slap it off her head and shake some sense so she would think about herself a bit more and realized how loss her family would be without her.

I sighed and decided she deserved to at least know the reason for the Eclipse. Miss Layla doesn't need to know how I know because she doesn't deserve a half-baked lie, so I told her everything; about Zeref and his relationship with Anna, about the Dragons and their plan to defeat Achnologia.

I didn't tell her about the war though or how deeply Lucy was involved. I didn't want her to die, questioning whether her daughter would be safe or not from the danger.

To say that Layla was shocked... I honestly couldn't tell. She listened to me apprehensively without interrupting until I finished. Even after I did, she stayed silent with a deep, thoughtful look, showing me a frown on her face for the first time in my life.

"I see..." she only said in the end.

Then to my surprised, she shifted and got out of her bed much to my surprise and displeasure, "Layla-san what are you doing?! You know you're not well enough to move!"

She did not pay heed to my words, and walked toward a drawer, pulling out a... book? She then continued to surprise me by handing the book over to me. "This is the book that had been passed down before even my grandmother's birth, written by Anna Heartfilia herself. The book would probably be burry along with my valuables in my grave had I not say anything, but I believe you could put this book to good use than me."

"Bu...but...but this belongs to you...to the Heartfilia's! Surely you want Lucy to have it!"

"Then give it to her if you think she needs it, you are a bright boy Roy. I believe in your judgement better than I trust my own." Before I could protest further, she pulled me in into a hug, making me speechless, "Please be there for her," she pleaded softly to me.

I didn't say anything and nodded, whether she had predicted her daughter to be at the thick of the coming battle I never knew.

I shook those memories out of that thought. My mind then wandered to a more interesting subject.

At the wall, framed gloriously behind the Duke, was the main interest of many nobles here. I've always been a guy that likes to say size doesn't matter. Still, after witnessing a 1.5-meter tall square painting of an angel reaching down from the sky, she was smiling down in gentleness down, blessing a small seedling to grow like the other trees that were painted with mix colors of yellow, red, blue and purple. Yet, it didn't look out of place along with its reflection on the serene river. What amazed me most of this painting was that after great assessment of it, the painter didn't even paint the wings at all and it looked like it was shining brilliantly along with the very being of heaven, giving life and color to the nature around her.

It was a breathtaking picture.

So why in the world was it called the 'Rising Devil'?

"Are you that interested with the Phantom?" Freed asked curiously from beside me.

My eyes didn't leave the painting as I nodded, "Yeah...I never heard of him before, so it got me really curious. Is no one anxious that someone's going to suddenly swoop in and take the painting under everyone's nose?"

For once, Freed found himself laughing, while I always feel accomplished in making him laugh. It's the first time I thought he's laughing at me, gosh this Phantom event is really a big deal, "I doubt anyone could take it out unnoticed."

"Even if you used magic?"

Freed scoffed, "What do you think the Rune Knights are for? Though they can't stop someone from using magic, the moment anyone does though they'll capture him immediately, unless you could take that picture away without magic, it's impossible to do that."

'Oh I don't know about that Freed, if Phantom is anything like Kaito Kid, then he might just think several ways to do just that.'

I refrain myself from saying that and justly mindlessly agreeing with him. Though I noticed the hint of awe tone in his choice when he said 'Rune Knights'

"Hey Freed, just out of curiosity, do you like the Rune Knights?"

Freed blinked surprised at my guess and his cheek blushed red, "Ho...how d...did you...am I that obvious that I wanted to be one?"

"Enough for a guess, though I never expected you want to be a Rune Knight." The manga never told me this either, I wonder what changed? "Can I ask why?"

Freed looked away but nodded, probably embarrassed about his own answer, "I...I wanted to be a hero."

"HAH?!"

"I know it's silly right, but...I always admired those stories about cool Knight in shining armor rescuing princesses and helping the weak, serving the country and his King. Being strong and kind, setting examples for people." Now Freed's eye was glimmering with admiration, his hands clasped as he retold the cool things about knights like a fanboy.

I was shocked, but more so I was laughing at finding out this side of Freed, but in some way, it kind of made sense if you take account the how he acted when he became a Rainjinshuu and how he deemed Laxus like his Lord or King. Can't wait to tell his rest what he was like in the past.

We talked more from there, and the longer the night stretched out, the excited I became. Duke San Afalo looked calm, but the nonstop tapping of his hands showed otherwise.

Then the lights went out.

It was both a surprise and unexpected. Then there was flurry sound of steps, scream, and shouting.

Then not long after, the lights went on, no more than ten seconds.

And the painting was gone.

There were shouts of 'What?!', 'Unbelievable!', or 'Search the painting!'

One shout took the other's notice and called out "Look out the window!"

Indeed, everyone turned to the window where Phantom was perched over the fence, wearing a white robe that flutters from the wind, and a smiling white opera mask. There where shouts for the Knights to go after him and some nobles went out to witness the great thief, others were escorted to another room for their safety until none stayed in the room.

Once it was silent, I crept out under the table. Freed and Nick was beside me since I drag them here.

"I... I can't believe it, the painting was really stolen," Freed gasped out, looking shocked at the empty wall.

Nick was looking just like an excited kid on a magic show, "As I thought, Phantom is really cool!"

My reaction? Well, honestly, I can't react appropriately.

"Pfft...PFFT...PUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH!"

Other than to hysterically laugh.

Nick and Freed looked back at me, their identical expression was mixed with worried and concern if I had gone bonkers.

I looked back at the empty wall in challenge, "Here I thought it would be something spectacular, turns out it was nothing but a magic trick."

"Roy..." Freed began to say while shaking his head, "Like I said that's impossible, the Knights made sure to scan through the mansion for anyone who used magic, and they even could track down those who did."

"Not magic Freed, magic trick, there's a difference."

"What's the difference?" Nick asked me.

I smirked at him as I stood by the wall in question, "The difference is the painting was never stolen," I grabbed the 'wall' and pulled it down, showing the still hanging frame underneath.

I relished the shock look on their faces, and mentally thanking Gosho-sensei and Kaito Kid fanfics for giving me this idea. I could understand that in a world of magic, magic tricks must be a foreign concept for them. Deciding to snap them out of their shock, I began to explain to them how the trick works.

"You see, it's not really that hard of a trick. This 'wall' we see is only a curtain identical to the real wall. All you have to do is hide it on the ceilings where one rarely looked up to see and maybe flicked a switch or a hidden string to pull it down when the lights went dark."

"That's insane!" Freed cried, "If anyone properly checks, then the trick would be exposed!"

"Which is why said Thief needed to shout 'Look out the window!' when everyone's attention was on the 'missing' painting."

The two had a dawning realization from my words. On cue, the door to the dining room opened once again to reveal a dark-skinned man in his late 20s with bright ginger hair, not a combination you see every day but ordinary in a world that natural blue hair exists wouldn't bat an eye to.

The two of us locked eyes, and he smirked, accepting the silent challenge in our battle of wits.