CHAPTER 4:
LITERARY LARCENY
Mirajane had helped Lucy find a nice house not far from Fairy Tail. In fact, she suspected real estate was as cheap as it was because the infamously rowdy guild was nearby. After Makarov's warning, Lucy also installed some security spells. It cost a little extra, but she got the feeling that the results would be hilarious.
And so it turned out to be, one day, when she was having a nice hot bath, only to hear a yelp of surprise, followed by some thumps. She snickered, and took her time finishing her bath and getting dressed, before leaving the bathroom and finding Natsu tied up on her couch, with Happy trying to free him, without any success. She was glad she had locked away her manuscript of the novel she was writing from these nosy parkers. "Good morning," she said pleasantly at her unwanted guests. "I see you've decided to attend my extra credit tutorial on the nature of property and trespassing."
Natsu scowled at her. "What's the big idea?!"
"The big idea, Natsu, is that I was told you had a bad habit of not respecting boundaries and property. This is the inevitable consequences of doing so."
"But we sneak into places a lot to steal stuff," Happy protested. "Well, for a few missions, anyway…"
"If we're doing a mission, fine, if the victim deserves it," Lucy said. "But doing it to your friends is, at best, extremely bad manners. At worst, it's basically acting like a thief. The courteous thing to do is knock on the door. This is basic stuff, you must understand."
Natsu scowled, as he burned the ropes away. "You tied me up."
"What we have here is failure to communicate," Lucy snarked(1).
Natsu huffed as Lucy began making tea. "Well, I wanted to know more about your magic. Like the stuff you used when we were saving Macao, or the key-guys you had. I only saw that fish-girl."
"They're not 'key-guys'," Lucy said exasperatedly. "They're Celestial Spirits."
"And how many do you have?" Happy asked.
"Six. Well, seven now," she said. She wasn't going to tell them that she could summon any of them, unofficially. They didn't seem to understand discretion, even in a dictionary sense of the word.
She thought back to how she had summoned Aries to talk to Loke. The two had a fairly long conversation, one Lucy let them have in private, before Aries departed for the Celestial Spirit Realm once more. Loke seemed relieved, and while he was yet to agree to act as a Celestial Spirit for Lucy, it was definitely on the cards. He just needed to think about it first. And Lucy was perfectly fine with that. No matter what some people thought, Loke was a person first, and a Celestial Spirit second. The only people he confessed his status to were Makarov and Mirajane, who at least understood the nature of discretion, and even if he didn't make a contract with Lucy, he certainly intended to help her anyway as a friend. He had made a quick sojourn into the Celestial Spirit Realm to recharge his batteries, so to speak, as well as confirm the rescinding of his exile.
Lucy plucked her Gate Keys out, and spread them on the table. "Four of them are Silver Gate Keys. You can get them fairly easily in magic stores. Aside from the Canis Minor one I got in Hargeon, I also have Horologium, Crux, and Lyra. Horologium summons a clock I can use to shelter from the elements or attacks, but only for a short period of time. Crux can get me information on other Celestial Spirits and summoners, but he's a bit cryptic. Lyra has knowledge on some archaic magic, but her best talent is as a harpist, playing songs to lift moods. But I can only summon her a few days in a month due to our contract."
"Contract?" Happy asked.
"I'll get to that. I also have three Golden Gate Keys. They're extremely rare. Taurus is a pervert, but he's also very powerful. He looks like a bull standing on his hind legs, wielding an axe. I'm telling you that, Natsu, because I won't have you attacking my Celestial Spirits like you nearly did to me on Hakobe Mountain."
Natsu rolled his eyes. "Fine, fine. Anyway, which one is the one with the fish lady?"
"Aquarius, the Water Bearer," Lucy said, pointing to the right key. "Aquarius…is a bit temperamental. We're on good enough terms, but I can't just summon her on a whim. She's actually on a holiday with Scorpio at the moment, so she's unavailable. The last one I have is Cancer, the Crab."
Natsu and Happy perked up at this. "Crab?"
"You can't eat him," Lucy said with a scowl. "Anyway, I really should have done this days ago. I need to make a contract with Canis Minor's Celestial Spirit, Nikora."
"But what happens if the contract goes into arrears?" Happy shrieked.
"A contract in your rear? Ouch," Natsu muttered.
"No arrears or rears are involved," Lucy said, her annoyance growing. "Nikora is fairly popular as a Celestial Spirit pet. He may not look like much, but don't ever underestimate a Celestial Spirit."
Actually, Lucy had been in contact with Nikora beforehand, and had already discussed the particulars of the contract. This was just sealing the deal, so to speak. Plus, she wanted to see the looks on Natsu and Happy's face when she summoned Nikora…
They were astonished, admittedly, when she brought out the strange but cute creature with the pointy nose. That being said, Natsu, after a certain point, began to seemingly talk with the Celestial Spirit. Lucy frowned when she heard his words in English via telepathic link.
Maybe you guys should be a team or something! I mean, that's what wizards do, right? And you and Lucy seem to get on so well.
Natsu looked unusually thoughtful, before he said, "I'll admit, Lucy, I'm glad you came with me to save Macao. Your magic really helped out. I mean, you're a bit of a weirdo, but I trust you."
Weirdo? Pot, meet Kettle, have I mentioned how black you are this morning? Lucy thought to herself. Out loud, she asked, "So, you want to be a team?"
"Yeah! Actually, we've got this job lined up!" He handed over a leaflet, presumably from the job board, and Lucy studied it.
It was in Shirotsume Town, and apparently it was to retrieve a book from the library of Duke Everlue. Lucy groaned inwardly when she saw the familiar picture of the squat, dumpy, and grotesque features of the Duke. The man was an infamous pervert and lecher. And according to the job, apparently he was on the lookout for a new blonde maid.
"And you're blonde, Lucy!" Natsu said. "You can go in in a maid costume!"
"Aye! Great idea!"
"Bad idea," Lucy said in a firm tone, shooting down that notion. "Leaving everything else aside…well, I heard some things about the Duke. It's true he's a lech…but he's got a particular fetish, so I heard."
"A maid fetish?" Happy asked.
"No. Or maybe yes, but…I heard he likes women who are as ugly as he is," Lucy said with a grimace. She knew because her father had put serious thought into marrying her off to Duke Everlue, only to hear about Everlue preferring grotesquely ugly women. Not that she was supposed to know about that, but she had overheard him. "Not only that, but…I think he has a Celestial Spirit of his own: Virgo."
Natsu nodded. "Okay. Still, you in?"
"Why not?" Everlue, from what Lucy heard, was one of the worst nobles around anyway, throwing his figurative and literal weight around. "Let's go…"
As Natsu suffered from his usual affliction of motion sickness, Lucy peered at the flyer again. "So, we've got to meet up with Kaby Melon, right? I wonder if he's any relation to Zekua?"
"Zekua?" Natsu groaned.
"Zekua Melon," Lucy explained. "I'm a pretty big fan. He's a famous novelist who used to be a wizard. He committed suicide years ago. He wrote under the pen name of 'Kemu Zaleon'. Other than that, I don't know much about him. He was a pretty private guy, apparently, despite his fame as an author. In fact, we're being asked by Kaby Melon to retrieve a book, and the going price is pretty high for such a thing, even stealing from someone like Duke Everlue. Maybe it's one of Zekua's unpublished manuscripts…"
The man who greeted them at a rather opulent mansion in Shirotsume Town was a tall, thin middle-aged man with a thin moustache, who brought them into a living room to discuss the matter. After introductions, Kaby said, "My request is somewhat simple, even if the means of achieving it won't be. Duke Everlue possesses the manuscript of an otherwise unpublished book, Daybreak. I want that book destroyed in any way possible."
"You don't want it stolen?" Natsu asked.
"While it could legally be considered theft and destruction of property…" Kaby began, leaving it up in the air.
"Well, we could always raze the building to the ground," Natsu chuckled in anticipation, only for Lucy to shoot him a glare.
"And get thrown into prison for sure?" Lucy rebuked him, before looking at Kaby. "You say we need to retrieve this book for 200 thousand Jewels."
"Actually, you must have taken the job before I posted an increase in the reward," Kaby said. "The bounty is now two million."
Lucy gaped. "…Two million?"
Natsu and Happy tried, unsuccessfully, how to split it three ways, while Lucy just looked at Kaby. "You must really want it destroyed. Natsu, can you wait outside for a moment? And don't go there yet."
Natsu seemed set to yank Lucy off her feet and go haring down to the mansion of Everlue, but eventually nodded, and walked out the door. Lucy then met Kaby's gaze. "I'm going to go out on a limb here, and guess that you're a relative of Zekua Melon, better known as Kemu Zaleon. Am I correct?"
Kaby looked shocked, before nodding. "Most people don't know my father's real name."
"So Daybreak is a novel he wrote?"
"Forced to write. I cannot prove it, but I'm certain that Duke Everlue kidnapped my father, imprisoned him, and forced him to pen the novel. He disappeared for three years, then came back. I found out the truth from him later, but…from what I heard, Everlue forced him to write a story with the Duke as the main protagonist. He didn't tell me why he agreed: he claimed it was the pay, but I think, in retrospect, Everlue may have threatened him."
Lucy frowned, before remembering that she had a special recording Lacrima with her. She usually used it for making notes if she didn't have a pen or paper, but… "…In the unlikely event that I can get Everlue to confess what he did to your father, would that be good?"
Kaby gave a painful smile. "I doubt that you can, but if you can manage that, on top of destroying Daybreak…I'd be grateful. Be wary, Lucy. We've already sent one guild team in, and they failed. Everlue has already beefed up security substantially. I know we're asking a lot of you, but…"
"We'll do it, don't worry."
Lucy had to think about the matter as she went with Natsu and Happy to the mansion. They were going to try sneaking in first rather than trying Natsu's 'maid disguise' idea. But she wondered, why was Kaby so determined to destroy his father's last work? Shame, probably. He seemed haunted, and while he didn't say anything out loud, he seemed to indicate regrets about how he treated his father in his dying days.
Lucy knew that Zekua had committed suicide. Maybe something Kaby said drove Zekua to do so, which would explain the regrets. Or maybe Zekua killed himself out of shame of writing such a book for Everlue.
Still, Lucy was intrigued. Before they destroyed the book, she intended to have a look through it first. There was something about this situation that prickled at her mind. And if Everlue had committed wrongdoing, well, she had a Lacrima ready to record his misdeeds.
Lucy thought back to her earlier life as Terra, to how Relm was conscripted by Owzer to do a painting. Not quite as bad as Duke Everlue, true, but even so, that situation found a resonance with her. Hopefully, they would have to deal with a cursed manuscript to go along with a cursed painting. Then again, knowing their luck, maybe that would happen…
She just jinxed it, didn't she?
CHAPTER 4 ANNOTATIONS:
Yes, you have, Lucy.
So, Duke Everlue's gonna get robbed. And Lucy, it seems, suspects something of the true story behind Daybreak…
1. This is a famous quote from the film Cool Hand Luke.