Important note for readers
This story is based on the Origins MCRP group's Fairy Tail Origins roleplay seasons 4-5. Characters from the old Little Club MCRP group will appear as well. I don't own any of these characters with the exception of my OCs and credit for any not made by me goes to their creators.
Fairy Tail Origins Parva Alliance AU
Chapter Thirteen: The Wolf's Claw Guild's Investigation Begins. Astrid meets Divinus Magia.
In front of the Palace stood four friends. The first was an orange haired woman in her early twenties with purple eyes. She wore a black dress with a hot pink jacket and a with her guild mark on her left arm. "I can't believe that papa sent us to investigate this incident." The woman named Katerina or Kat for short told her guildmates.
"To be fair our guild is a Royal Guild Candidate. It makes since that he'd want to send his best preforming guild members on the trial quest. Not to mention that since we have a new Grand Magic Council after the old one was found to be invalid. The only reason we've haven't been instated is because the new Grand Magic Council needs to see that all the slander that the old Grand Magic Council said about us isn't true." Said Davis, a brown haired, brown eyed man with a scruffy matching beard. His outfit consisted of a white button up shirt with a blue jacket and matching pants with brown combat boots.
During the war, the illegitimate rulers had interfered with the previous election of the Grand Magic council. Hoping to choose members that would advance their agendas for them. Thankfully after the investigation that had sparked they were found out and an emergency election was called and carefully watched.
"Let's just hope this investigation goes well, don't know about you guys but I'd like to have the benefits that royal guilds have. What I don't get is why he's here" Vitalis, a light brown skinned man with brown haired and green eyes wearing a black button up under a green jacket with black cargo pants and brown combat boots, said while pointing to Davis.
"Taro said that he wants Davis to have an easy set of missions with a team first. That's what he does for all Wolf's Claw members. I always thought that it make since you know? Joining a Guild is a life-changing decision after all." Astrid pointed out with a nod. She was a white-haired woman with blue eyes and a fair skin tone. She wore a blue off shoulder dress with white sleeves for the shoulders and a black shirt underneath and had black boots and a blue diamond necklace. Her hair had two red ribbons in it.
"Let's just get this mission done. It doesn't matter why Taro wants Davis here. What matters is that this is a royal quest. The royal family will be expecting us to perform at our best. Which means no arguing about who's using what precent of their magic." Kat said has she looked at Vitalis.
The quarte made their way into the palace only to be stopped by some guards and made to show their identification papers. This didn't seem odd to them as this was the Royal Palace of the royal family and home to many Atlantide official's offices. However it was slightly odd that a butler was waiting for them at the entrance to the palace as well has guards.
When Taro had given them the quest he told them that the king himself would be giving them the quest. However Kat recognized the butler before her. It was Clyde Dalton, his majesty's personal hand butler for him to be filling in for his majesty instead of Duke Stephen or one of the other branch family members has their quest giver meant that something had changed with the quest that made it so the royal family was under a lockdown. Approaching the butler with a frown Kat looked around to note that there were more guards present than normal too. Another sign that something about the quest had changed.
One of the benefits of being a member of a guild that was under consideration for royal guild status that actively pursuing the honor was that they were allowed more information about the palace due to the fact that they were close to getting the honor.
In Atlantide there were two ways to become a royal guild. Both ways started out the same way. The guild in question had to be a public guild for about a year before starting down either path. The Frist and most common was to apply for the guild status and gain a good reputation then meet with the royal council to find receive a quest from the royal family and complete it successfully. The second was the same way that Divinus Magia became a royal guild.
Putting the thoughts of their guild's status aside for the moment they made their way over to the butler. "Excuse me Mr. Dalton, my name is Kat and I'm from Wolf's Claw. We were sent here by are guild leader Taro Wlikerson of Wolf's Claw. We're here to take the royal guild quest for our guild."
The butler smiled and nodded. "Good to see you're here Miss Kat. May I see your identification papers please. Terribly sorry but we've had a number of imposters found throughout the palace. Has such we are under a near maximum security lock down."
"That's fine sir, but I was under the understanding that there was only one imposter, and our job was to find out how they got in. Did something change?" Kat asked has she handed her id papers to the Butler to check.
"That is correct. About thirty minutes after we sent out the call for you to come here Royal Guild Leaders Ritchie and Brandon Diabolus were found to be poisoned. For some reason, all the medical personnel on standby were too busy to respond. With that in mind, they called the med bay only for no one to answer. Has such his majesty sent an elite squad of guards to check on them and left it at that while Lady Emelia of Divinus Magia treated them. That was until the elite guard unit that was sent to check on the med bay found the personnel in there dead, and the room blocked by a guard, who turned out to be one of the imposters in question. We don't know if he was the one who killed them, but we do know that at the very least they were an accomplice. Your task here is to assist the royal elite guard with the investigation. Captain Ardryll Deaynore will provide you with the details of the investigation."
"Alright then, where can we find them?" Kat asked has a man with Brown hair and green eyes entered the area. He wore the same uniform that all members of the Atlantide Royal Elite Guard did. It consisted of white armor with turquoise trim and the crest of the royal family on their chest.
"Here, hello everyone my name is Captain Ardryll Deaynore. I'm in charge of squad ten of the royal elite guard squads. My squad and I have been tasked by his Majesty to assist you in the investigation. To start I will provide you with a summary of our investigation so far. Right now we've detected about 20 or so imposters throughout the palace with the high possibility that more could be found as we are still in the process of checking everyone's identification and backgrounds." Captain Ardryll Deaynore explained with a frown.
"I take it that the imposter we were initially told about is the prim suspect in the poisoning?" Davis asked with a frown. The captain nodded and handed the group a piece of paper.
"That is correct, He claims his name is Anthony Walter. However there was no one with his name that matched his description on the Atlantide citizen registry or the Parva Alliance registry. We've been working under the assumption that he was using an unapproved false identity since the beginning of this investigation. So far this suspension seems to be correct, but we are still unsure of his real identity. The same goes for many of the other imposters. At this time the palace is under near maximum lockdown. The royal guild leaders and their families have been evacuated to their rooms. Has for sirs Ritchie and Brandon they are in their rooms has well while receiving treatment."
"What's the status on the crime scene? Anything we need to be aware of?" Vitalis asked with a frown.
"We've almost finished securing the crime scenes. So far no one has tampered with it to our knowledge, and we are looking into the poison used on Ritchie and Brandon. Thankfully they are stable for now thanks to Lady Emelia's efforts in taking care of them and her vast medical knowledge combined with the palace's medical supplies. They've yet to regain consciousness though." Answered the captain with a frown. Kat nodded and frowned.
"Alright what else do you know about the conditions of the royal guild leader other than they are unconscious? Do you know when they will wake up or anything like that?" Kat asked with a frown.
"According to lady Emelia they should wake within the hour but will still suffer the effects of the poisons for a few months yet. If you wish for more information please go and see her in sirs Ritchie and Brandon's room." He spoke with a calm tone.
"Good, the kingdom is still recovering from the political war. We don't need a pair of dead guild leaders right now." Vitalis frowned darkly.
Kat turned to her guild mates and frowned. "Alright everyone, this is a major quest for this guild, so I want everyone to do their best. Davis you're with me, we're going to interrogate the prisoner. Astrid you're in charge of questioning the guest of honor. Vitalis I want you to stay here and wait for Kan and Astral. When they get here send Kan to Lady Emelia to help her treat the royal guild leaders of Divinus Magia and have Astral take care of questioning the guards and servants. Any questions?"
"Yeah why do I have to be the one to wait for Kan and Astral?" Vitalis asked with a frown. Kat just gave him a look and answered.
"Because of what happened on your last mission. Taro is not happy about it, and am I, so this is how it's going to be for this mission. Understand Vitalis?" Kat asked to which Vitalis was muttered something like "fine" and the rest made their way to their task.
Astrid made her way through the palace corridors to the palace guest of honor wing where all the guest of honor were under lockdown. Before entering the wing after they verified that it was her she was given a list of all the guests of honor and what room they were in. Normally when she was assigned to a quest like this she would start with the victims, in this case Ritchie and Brandon. However they weren't awake yet, so she decided to wait to question their family first. Looking at the list she saw the person in room two was named Amira Diabolus. The list that she was given said that she was Ritchie and Brandon's younger sister but didn't say how old she was.
Setting the list aside in her inventory spell she made her way to the room. Like all the other rooms the door was made of dark oak and was being guarded by an elite guard. Upon asking the guard for permission to enter the room she was granted access but not before being told that Amira was four and has such could not be questioned under Atlantide Law without a guardian present due to being a minor. Thankfully Natalie was already in the room so that wouldn't be a problem.
The room was simple yet elegant. The walls were white with paintings made by famous Atlantideian artis. The bedding in the room was soft and made to be the most comfortable for a child and was mostly colored white, blue and purple. There were also an assortment of toys and a child-size desk with art supplies. The floor was made of wood but had a turquoise carpet over most of it.
However Amira wasn't playing with any of the toys. She was sitting in the center of the room being held by a woman with blond hair. Astrid assumed that the young woman was Natalie but set that aside. "Hello, I'm Astrid Troelsen and I'm with Wolf's Claw. We've been sent here to help with the investigation, and I've been tasked with interviewing the guest of honor for the party that was supposed to happen here tonight. Is it alright if I ask you both some questions?"
It was Natalie who answered. "I don't mind, but I ask that you are careful with what you ask my younger cousin. She's had a rough day today and is still shaken from the incident." Natalie replied with a soft but firm tone to her voice. Astrid nodded and sat in front of the two while making sure that she kept her posture as friendly as possible.
"So what is your relationship with the victims outside of the guild Natalie?" Astrid asked with a curious tone. She had watched the interview earlier that day about Divinus Magia and it's members so she knew that Natalie was Ritchie and Brandon's cousin. But she didn't know about Amira since all non-guild family members of the royal guilds were kept out of the media. While Amira was considered a member of the guild she was only an honorary member.
"Me and the Diabolus twins are cousins biologically, but we grew up like siblings due to a number of series of bad decisions on their parents' part. They started living with us when they were six. We grew very close, so we often call each other siblings rather than cousins. Has for Amira she's their younger sister has you probably guessed but they only met her a few months ago." Natalie explained calmly.
"Why is it that she only meet them that recently." Astrid asked with curiosity. Natalie then explained everything leading up to her joining Divinus Magia. Astrid then began to ask questions regarding the situation at hand.
"Do either of you know anyone who would have a motive to do this? If so then who and why?" Astrid asked with a frown. Natalie gave it some thought and gave her answer in a solum tone.
"While my cousin were in a number of dark guilds while under the control of their demons. Not to mention that it's been years since the last time they joined. However, they've also taken down several of them so it's possible that it's one of them. On the other hand this wouldn't be a good opportunity for them to do so seeing as this was a highly secure area even before the incident. so if they wanted to do I'd think that they'd like to do it at a less publicly known event. On the other hand they could just be trying to confuse the investigators with a bigger plan. Another far less likely possibly is that it's my so-called aunt and uncle having someone do the dirty work again."
"And what do you mean by that? Did they do something like that be for?" Astrid asked with a frown. Ritchie and Brandon didn't talk about their parents much during the interview, so she didn't know much about their parents.
"I was four Ritchie and Brandon came to live with us. From the day I was born father and mother kept me from my aunt and uncle. He didn't tell me why, but they had a good reason to do so. I learned that same reason firsthand when I was twelve. They tried to take them back by force despite the fact that they had a restraining order and succeeded temporarily. When they came back they were hurt really badly, so much so that if Auntie Emelia hadn't treated them like she is now. Especially Brandon has they forced him to spend time with Princess Francesca Sullivan of Zathage. She's the woman who my former aunt and uncle want to marry despite Brandon having no feelings for her and they knew that well. That and the fact that she hurt him several times to try and break him. If you wish for more information on that there should be a file on the matter in our guild files and my own. However I find this serio unlikely has we are from separate worlds and mother, father, and my cousin brothers have taken measures to ensure that my disown aunt and uncle wouldn't find us."
"I see, that is actually good information to start with. What about you Amira do you know anything that could help?" Astrid asked the four-year-old softly. She shook her head and Astrid thanked the two of them and left.