Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Chapter 16: The Sweetest Green Breads & The Lovely Aroma of White Chocolate! Lucy's Deal With Annette! Showering In Sweetness! Mikiko Orland Appears!
Lucy's POV
Minerva walked to a cafe on the other side of the town, and I calmly walked behind her as my eyes took notice of the bag of jewels that she had been holding. Minerva was probably happy that Natane gave us more money for helping out Meladori, but the battles and the tension that we recently had to endure left us both feeling very famished. I personally felt hungry for some mauve purple cakes that would taste very sweet and delicious, but I felt comfortable with eating any of the food that Minerva would buy for us.
Minerva went up to the cafe's pale green counter after we entered the cafe to see its emerald green tiled floor go well with the olive green walls, and the female cashier who had her jade green hair tied back in a ponytail seemed a bit surprised to see that Minerva was here. She started looking into Minerva's eyes, which began to be filled with sternness as Minerva started to fiercely glare at her. Minerva's stern glare prompted the cashier to pick up a plain green rectangular box to put the food in, and Minerva calmly aimed her hands at the third-lowest shelf that contained breads in varying shades of green.
The cashier wasted no time with getting the jade green bread, followed by the mint green bread, and he even put the celestial green bread into the box. That bread looked just as round as the other breads that were in different hues of green, but the celestial green bread had the designs of five slashes being on top of the bread instead of just three of them. That interesting design was somewhat similar for the olive green bread, but one slash mark went through the other four while that bread seemed somewhat larger than the others.
Even though this bread was large, that didn't stop Minerva from wanting a shamrock green bread to also be in the box while it had been large. The juniper green bread was quite large, and stuffing it into the box required the cashier to make a plain green aura engulf his hands. He sent Wind Magic down into all of the bread, evident by how the bread started getting more fluffy, and the cashier firmly sealed the box with the excessive amount of strength that had been built up in his hands. He handed the box to Minerva, who handed it to me.
After Minerva took out 70,000 jewels from the bag, she told me in a confident tone, "The breads from this cafe always taste delicious."
That caused me to ask Minerva with a calm smile on my face, "Minerva-sama, how many times have you been to this cafe?"
Minerva turned around to reply with a kind facial expression, "I've probably been here at least ten times, Lucy."
Since Minerva had been to this cafe several times, it didn't surprise me that the cashier was treating her as if she had been an extremely important person. Minerva was obviously one of the best customers that this restaurant could have, and she handed the money to the cashier for him to quickly count it. Since Minerva had given him the exact amount of money that she would need to pay for the food, the cashier let Minerva and I leave the line at a fast pace. As Minerva was walking over to an emerald green round table, two women with fern green and wavy hair started to look at her in a manner where they displayed their utmost respect.
Did these women respect Minerva for winning the fashion competition in Zephri Town? That event had been in the newspaper, which was good for us in a situation where Annette Rosia and the other women of Aroma Flair were getting high amounts of attention in Sorcerer Magazine. They were honestly being treated like goddesses while both of Minerva's victories in fashion shows were perceived as mere afterthoughts, and I honestly wished that we were somewhat more famous. Maybe we would get more fame from helping Meladori retrieve that necklace, since Natane didn't seem like the type of woman who would let her partner spew blatant lies.
Meladori really had no reason to lie about us helping her retrieve the necklace, since Natane had left the task in Meladori's hands for days to where Aroma Flair's other mages probably realized that Meladori would need assistance from a different guild's mages. Therefore, Meladori would probably let Minerva and I be credited for doing most of the work on that mission. Although, Minerva was soon getting more respectful smiles from girls that walked into this cafe while she opened up the box of breads.
"Minerva-sama, did you make the bread for this cafe at one point in time?" I asked with a curious facial expression, as we sat across from each other in pine green chairs.
Minerva responded to me with a stern look on her face, as her eyes displayed some displeasure, "No, I didn't. Although, the person who created such great recipes is someone who I'd rather not speak about.'
That last sentence prompted me to raise an eyebrow while I looked at Minerva in a manner that expressed more curiosity. It sounded like she had been acquainted with another mage of Aroma Flair, but why would their name need to be kept anonymous? Minerva never spoke of competing with any of Aroma Flair's other girls besides Annette, and I honestly wouldn't care if one of them had better baking skills than Minerva. Since they were usually so focused on beauty, making food look beautiful wouldn't be shocking or surprising.
Minerva opened the box of breads for me to see that they all certainly looked beautiful while they weren't topped with any spices, but Minerva handed the celestial green bread to me. I proceeded to eat that bread, quickly tasting the matcha green ice cream that had been in this somewhat fried bread, and the bread itself tasted like fried cake batter. That was unexpected, as I thought that this specific bread would be somewhat sour. Minerva proceeded to eat the jade green bread, which was interestingly giving off the flavor of onions and sour cream.
That sour bread actually caused Minerva to have a happy smile appear on her face, indicating that she was enjoying the taste, but Minerva suddenly ate that entire bread in a quick manner. After she was finished eating that bread, Minerva moved on to the shamrock green bread that strongly gave off the aroma of sweet green coconuts. When I closely looked at the bread Minerva bit into, I took notice of some bread subtly being on the bottom of it while that portion of bread resembled a tropical green flower. Based on that, I softly smiled in awe at how the Aroma Flair guild lived up to its name of being aromatic and stylish.
45 minutes later... (Annette's POV)
The guild of Aroma Flair truly was stylish and aromatic, especially since it only had the most fashionable and fragrant women as its guild members. I currently elicited a happy sigh that pertained to the sweet smell of chocolate, and I smiled in a proud manner as I wore a walnut brown fur coat that had six chocolate brown buttons arranged in a row near the bottom of it. They had actually been made from sweet chocolate, just like this dress and the peanut brown boots that went up to my thighs. I simply stood in this spot near the bread cafe while sultrily posing for the paparazzi, who had come from Sorcerer Magazine to also take some pictures of the newest dark brown sunglasses that were on my forehead.
These new sunglasses were part of my brand's newest fashion line, since dark brown was starting to become a popular hue of brown for lingerie, and the most fashionable women capitalized on having a pair of sunglasses that could go well with their bra or underwear if they wanted to look very sexy during the daytime. In fact, the thought of wearing these sunglasses as I wore the most elegant and syrup brown lingerie caused me to sexily smile for the cameras. The paparazzi quickly took some photos, before I took off the dark brown sunglasses that had syrup brown frames.
I placed that pair of sunglasses in the left pocket of my coat, before pulling out a different pair of sunglasses from that same pocket. These sunglasses were mocha brown with cinnamon brown circular frames, and they were also part of the newest collection. This pair of sunglasses had been so beautiful to where the cinnamon of the sunglasses gave off its wonderful fragrance as a breeze blew by, and actual cinnamon had been used in making this accessory look wonderful. These sunglasses were as lovely as the cinnamon brown bow that I recently bought for Erza-chan, and I felt that she needed some matching sunglasses.
Therefore, what would stop me from gifting these sunglasses to my stylish girlfriend? Erza may have been fashionable, but she would probably still need more money to buy this pair of sunglasses from Aroma Flair's high-end fashion store. After all, the clothes and accessories of a model's newest fashion line were always going to be the most expensive during their first week of being on sale. However, I perceived myself as a great girlfriend by gifting Erza some sunglasses before they were allowed to be sold.
One female photographer with light brown hair asked me with an excited smile on her face, "Annette Rosia, does Erza Scarlet also have such beautiful sunglasses and a beautiful coat?"
I replied with a happy smile on my face, thinking of my girlfriend's beauty, "Erza-chan recently wore a cherry red coat that went well with her carmine red skirt and apple red blouse, but she'll love to wear these sunglasses when her clothes are brown.
Another female photographer asked in a calm manner, "What do you think of Erza's chocolate brown bikini with the syrup brown trim? Didn't she wear that yesterday for a photo shoot, since it's from your brand?"
My lips formed a sultry smile as my cheeks blushed in this moment, before I happily stated, "When I received photos of Erza-chan wearing that bikini for the photo shoot, I blushed so much and perspired like I had been in a sauna. Erza-chan is very sexy, and it's so sweet that she loves my brand's clothing."
That particular bikini had been part of the recent collection that pertained to my advertisements from an earlier issue of Sorcerer Magazine, and it belonged to the photos where I had been sultrily posing on a couch with a younger woman who also had brown hair. She was supposed to wear that specific bikini while I would've worn my cinnamon brown bikini, and I would've moaned as she sucked on my toes in that hot room. However, those photos couldn't fit within the magazine's limited number of pages for that issue.
Although, I really wouldn't mind if some pages were featuring Erza as a fashion model. Even if she handled modeling jobs in the town of Magnolia, sharing the spotlight with me would allow Erza-chan to have several chances at displaying her high levels of style. After all, any girl who appeared in one of more pages of Sorcerer Magazine could even be given special treatment by high-end fashion stores. Erza may have a cherry red coat that looks stylish for its atmosphere, but appearing in Sorcerer Magazine would help her get elegant red clothes recommended to her by several employees from high-end fashion stores.
Erza would also be able to get elegant brown clothes, which would go well with her hair that was now brown, and the thought of us wearing brown outfits made feelings of happiness enter my eyes. I happily continued to pose, even to where I leaned forward to blow kisses to the photographers. They sighed happily from receiving those kisses, before I took off my sunglasses to seductively blow kisses towards their pecan brown lenses. The aroma of my kisses would smell sweet, as my brunette brown lipstick smelled like chocolate mousse mixed with dark chocolate brownies, and I took a brunette brown tube of my lipstick out of my coat's right pocket to reapply it.
As I closed my eyes and reapplied my lipstick during these few seconds, the first acknowledged female photographer asked me in a kind tone, "Annette, will you ever produce white chocolate sunglasses or white chocolate skirts?"
That caused me to respond with a mundane facial expression, not wanting to acknowledge that fashion line's failure, "If white chocolate becomes popular for clothing, then I'll think about it."
A photographer with brunette brown wavy hair and syrup brown eyes calmly asked me, "Annette, is it okay to get your opinion on Hexy Magazine's women? What do you think of Lucy Heartfilia wearing your white chocolate lingerie?"
Upon hearing that name again and thinking about Lucy being in Aoikina's sexy photos, I replied with a calm smile on my face, "Wearing my lingerie is a sign of respect, and I'm flattered that she wants to be as beautiful as me. I hope she enjoyed the taste of white chocolate, if she loved admiring me."
Despite giving such a kind and professional answer, I maintained my happy smile while resisting the urge to be baffled. Lucy was making my white lingerie look good? That white lingerie, which had been part of my white chocolate collection that hadn't been as successful as my modern campaigns in the fashion world? The fact that one of my weakest fashion lines was being made to look good by a gaudy and purple-haired girl honestly made my eyes be narrowed for a moment. If I didn't attract so much attention when I had worn those clothes, why was Lucy getting attention?
She wasn't even debuting in Sorcerer Magazine, and I had heard that she let Hexy Magazine's employees rub my skin creams into her skin. I assumed that she wanted to be oiled up, creamy, pale, and shiny in her photos. However, that strategy was just as basic as Aoikina using the water to make her skin be shiny. Lucy's tactics were nearly on the level of someone entering Sorcerer Magazine for the first time, but she would need more than sex appeal to be as good as me at modeling. In fact, I could swallow my pride for modeling and dye my hair in a different shade of brown.
Based on what I heard about Lucy's photo shoot, she didn't even dye her hair for it to be in the color of white chocolate. I just felt like that had been a wasted opportunity, especially if she didn't even put white chocolate contacts in her eyes. Lucy only seemed to respect me to a slight degree, evident by how she and her teammate suddenly emerged from a nearby store with matcha green roses that smelled like matcha green ice cream interfering with chocolate's potent scent, and I calmly finished posing for the cameras. During my last few poses, I slightly smiled with delight at thought of getting some bright white chocolate for its aroma to balance out whatever pungent plan those dark mages had for Bloom Town or Aroma Flair.
10 minutes later, in Bloom Town... (Minerva's POV)
Lucy and I planned on having a fun date in Bloom Town, since it made her feel more comfortable about being here. Lucy was softly smiling at the matcha green roses that she was holding in one hand, and she lightly sniffed them to take in their sweet scent. The sweet scent of those roses caused Lucy to sigh happily, prompting me to also have a happy smile on my face. I felt glad that Lucy was learning to enjoy some of the delightful aspects of Bloom Town, and leaving the flower shop on this street that was somewhat distant from the bakery would allow us to find the next area pertaining to our date.
The next portion of our date interestingly took us to an area that was near the Sweetened Woods, but we were getting to enjoy the aromas of tropical green flowers that bloomed in a large flowerbed. The rectangular flowerbed was bordered by a moss green and circular picket fence, but the tropical tulips in the middle row started to multiply and grow somewhat larger. They grew large enough to where they could bloom for the purpose of letting out shamrock green spheres of magic, and those spheres ended up bursting to create winds that spiraled upward.
Those shamrock green winds gave off a very pleasant aroma, smelling like clovers that were mixed with the green powder of the greenest coconuts from tropical islands near the kingdom of Fiore. The tropical scents of these flowers made me giggle in a pleased manner, as I did think that they smelled amazing. In fact, I used my Territory Magic to teleport some flowers into Lucy's bouquet of matcha green flowers. She soon gasped in a surprised manner from strongly smelling those flowers, before exhaling a soft breath in a calm manner.
Lucy calmly placed one of those flowers in my hair, putting it on the right side of my head, and I soon sniffed the aroma of the flower. Its aroma quickly reached my nose, almost as if perfume was just immensely sprayed all over my body. I elicited a calm sigh as that scent smelled so sweet, and it began to increase in sweetness as the spiraling winds came back down to the ground. I soon exhaled a calm breath, only to notice that my breath itself was spiraling, and my lips tasted as if I just finished eating a mixture of tropical green and coconut green ice cream.
"Wow, those flowers must've been made to have the most potent aromas." I stated aloud, before looking somewhat surprised.
Lucy commented with an appreciative smile on her face, as she proceeded to gently hold her bouquet up to my nose, "They even make the aromas of other flowers be more potent, Minerva-sama."
Lucy was correct about that claim, since the matcha green flowers smelled so strong to where I started to imagine that matcha green brownies were on a plate in front of me. That caused my stomach to lightly growl, and I wondered why I felt hungry after eating some of the green breads earlier today. I genuinely tried my best to focus on keeping Lucy happy while not caring much for the bread that I purchased, but Lucy's question of asking if I made breads for that shop hadn't exactly been in the back of my mind.
I actually could make breads with various green spices, and making bread was one area where I truly excelled as a chef. However, Lucy wouldn't want to hear that I learned how to be a great chef by pining for someone's acceptance. I kept wanting that person to acknowledge me, but they never viewed me as a perfect chef. Not being perfect at baking had been an insecurity that I worked incredibly hard to rectify, especially with breads and desserts. I even made fluffy bread for fried pound cakes, since I believed that frying fluffy bread could make it taste very delicious.
Speaking of fluffy bread, I soon snapped out of my thoughts as the scent of white chocolate and bread suddenly went past me. I glanced at the street to see that it had only been Annette Rosia walking down the street, and she had some bars of white chocolate in her hands. Annette gently waved the chocolate in her palm, causing its aroma to leave her hand. Before that aroma could possibly reach Lucy, I teleported some tropical green tulips out of the flowerbed and made the smell of Annette's chocolate coat them. They quickly bloomed, resulting in their own scent being overpowering as Annette casually walked away, and the flowers fell down to the ground.
Lucy asked with a bewildered facial expression, the feeling of surprise entering her eyes, "What was that for, Minerva-sama?"
I replied with a confident smile on my face, thinking very quickly, "Lucy, I was practicing a new trick that I could possibly use in the next fashion show."
"Speaking of fashion, we should probably get to Aroma Flair and just ask Annette about changing her advertisements." Lucy responded with a frown of calmness starting to appear on her face, as she began to have an emotionless look in her eyes.
If Lucy was feeling worried about dealing with Annette, then trying to efface the scent most commonly associated with Annette actually hadn't been a good idea. Lucy started to look in the direction that Annette had been walking, and she soon walked towards the aroma that had been created by the flowers. Lucy picked up those tropical green flowers to lightly sniff them, before lightly tossing them on to the grass, and Lucy started following Annette. I followed Lucy while having a somewhat concerned look on my face, realizing that we were walking towards the Aroma Flair guild.
Walking down this street allowed us to soon reach the area where the entrance to the Sweetened Woods was located, but walking several feet up an adjacent street and turning left was how I soon reached Aroma Flair's guild. The Aroma Flair guild was not only bordered by gates, but the area in front of the building had flowers in varying shades of green growing near the paved walkway. The flowers had large trees near them while the trees had some pink flowers quickly grow on them, and there was even a tree with brown flowers near the back of this guild resembling a chateau.
As Annette walked through the chocolate brown entrance doors that were under the classy-looking jade green awning, I took note of the guild's building being pale green with lime green arched windows on both floors. The lime green arched windows of the rectangular and large building went well with its seven pitched roofs, which were in different shades of green. They were basil green, avocado green, Kelly green, juniper green, mint green, neon green, and the highest one was deeply emerald green. That roof had deep emerald green glass shards forming a triangle-shaped window, and the other roofs had windows in their corresponding shades of green.
Ten minutes later, in the Aroma Flair guild... (Annette's POV)
Even though the windows and roofs of this prestigious guild were in different shades of green, the guildhall had a cinnamon brown carpet that was spread all over the floor while the carpet had the design of syrup brown roses on the borders of the carpet. There was the design of a brunette brown rose in the middle of the carpet, the design having mocha brown petals forming a circle around this specific rose. The mocha brown petals went well with the chocolate brown square tables, which were decorated with four large squares of delicious chocolate each day.
These large squares of chocolate had been light brown and dark brown, resembling the chessboard design of the tops of end tables, and the elegance our chocolate was reflected in how I always made sure to purchase the highest quality of chocolates for all of our guild members to enjoy it every morning. After all, high-quality chocolate with some level of sweetness was a privilege that could be enjoyed by all of the guild members. Most of us worked hard to associate ourselves with high-quality fashion brands, so we deserved to experience moments of sweetness.
Although, some of us felt happy from taking the jobs that were on the penny brown request board. The request board had been on the right side of the guildhall while the tawny brown counter for our gift shop had been on the left side of the guildhall, and the gift shop was currently selling some walnut brown high heels as their special item today. Those high heels would be accompanied by some pecan brown roses that lacked stems, and there was even a gingerbread brown plush of the gingerbread chocolate mousse that pertained to one of my past fashion campaigns.
As I smiled at the gingerbread chocolate mousse plush and the gingerbread brown walls of this guildhall, my smile quickly began to fade from seeing Lucy enter Aroma Flair's guild with her teammate. That woman was Minerva Orland, the person who reportedly won in Zephri Town's fashion show. However, I rolled my eyes at Lucy in an irked manner from thinking about how that third-place loser was walking in here like she had been as fashionable as the rest of us. Even if her clothes hadn't somewhat damaged from a battle, the sight of Lucy's dress just symbolized that she was arrogantly thinking that improving her fashion style would make her be on the level of Aroma Flair's women.
"Annette Rosia, we need to talk." Lucy calmly told me with a somewhat stern look on her face, walking towards me as Minerva glanced up at the hickory brown chandelier that hung in the middle of Aroma Flair's ceiling.
That caused me to ask Lucy with a somewhat annoyed facial expression, as I chose to sit on top of a bare brown table, "Lucy Heartfilia, is it? Why is Aroma Flair owed a visit from a less stylish woman such as you? Are you here for desperately-needed fashion tips?"
Lucy responded to me with more sternness in her voice, as she proceeded to glare at me with a slight bit of calmness in her eyes, "Annette, I want you to stop using my lookalike in your advertisements! Even if your fashion campaigns are thriving, you're humiliating me and you're making me look so subservient to you!"
I asked Lucy with a nonchalant look on my face, as I proceeded to look at my chocolate brown nails, "If that woman looks similar to you, how can you actually be the submissive woman in my advertisements? Did I ever make any third-rate fashion models be credited in my magazines, instead of perceiving them as meager pieces of inspiration that think they're great?"
Lucy's left eye twitched at my last question, almost like she could tell that I was referencing her placement in that recent fashion contest. If she was being bold enough to make demands to someone who never got bronze trophies, then she certainly learned nothing after our last meeting. Lucy continued walking towards me while she began to look very irked at my nonchalant attitude, and I honestly felt like she was being very petty. Even if I had been inspired to feature a girl who looked like Lucy, that first series of advertisements was a way to humiliate her for trying to put herself in my relationship with Erza.
Erza-chan hadn't told me any updates regarding Lucy, which meant that Lucy obeyed me when I wanted her to leave my girlfriend alone. Lucy did need to be humiliated at that beach in Sunnysol, and she did act like a subservient dog. Although, Lucy couldn't receive her dog collar because of Minerva interrupting my way of reprimanding Lucy. If Lucy and I had been given more time for her to actually feel my hands gently put a dog collar around her neck, then I would've only taken a photo of her wearing it. Sending that photo to Erza would've made her see that I had Lucy under control, and maybe I would've ordered Lucy to whimper and bow at my feet.
That may have seemed harsh, but Lucy received much harsher punishment for seeming like she couldn't fight her own battles. If she was Minerva's bitch now, then Minerva was probably notified about the woman who told Aroma Flair's girls in the guildhall about the story regarding green treasure. According to that story, Lucy begging the leader of those dark mages to spare her life. I had heard that Lucy even cried as she and Minerva pleaded to not die while being so unfashionable, and now Lucy was trying to assert dominance as if she hated being a little lapdog. Why did she detest that she was only being my instance of inspiration, since I had been given information about her? This girl's demands could affect my fashion career in a negative way, which would then open a path for me to blame any future failures of mine entirely on Lucy. She would probably whine to me about that stress, along with trying tackle me down again. I didn't want to possibly get knocked down from my place in the fashion industry, or be beaten down by such a lowly girl who needed to be rescued from drowning by Aoikina.
This last thought prompted me to tell Lucy with a confident smile appearing on my face while my eyes expressed dominance, "If you want me to stop humiliating you, then I can do that. Although, that means you need to make my fashion campaign's next advertisements be successful."
Lucy asked me with a startled facial expression, "Wait, how is this a fair deal? Are you asking me to actually be your assistant in fashion advertisements?"
I responded with a stern look on my face, sighing in a miffed manner, "I don't need to be seen with a third-rate fashion reject, Lucy. You'll get publicity, if you're willing to enjoy my assortment of white chocolate."
Lucy timidly asked with an expression that showed discomfort, before sounding like she agreed, "Annette, I... I have to wear your white chocolate clothes? I... I don't like white chocolate, but I'll agree to be your best fashion model if Minerva-"
"Shhhhh..." I quietly replied in a soft whisper, firmly putting a finger against Lucy's lips to seal our deal.
If Lucy was being bold enough to make demands, then she couldn't renege on those demands in situations where the other person's conditions were reasonable. I felt that I had been very plausible right now, since Lucy could give my white chocolate collection some much-needed attention for it to no longer be an unpopular fashion trend. Lucy would be modeling while wearing several of those outfits that had been designed, and they didn't need to be wasted. The most stylish and sexy outfits in that collection were like chocolate itself, meaning that they were tasteful, elegant, and even came with white chocolate that could be worn.
Shoes with white chocolates on them would look just as nice as putting a creamy cloud-shaped chocolate in Lucy's hair, but her purple hair seemed like it represented such dark thoughts. She probably had the dark thought of trying to stab me in the back by making herself look bad in those photos, but I took my finger off of her lips and sent some magical power into it. I placed that finger against Lucy's forehead for her to suddenly feel a tremendous amount of pressure, sending some stress into her mind for that arrogance to be quelled while feelings of anxiety would hopefully replace it.
Lucy gasped in a pained manner as I sent much more magical power into my finger, and I gently took my finger off of her forehead. I applied more Earth Magic to my hand, which soon rested underneath Lucy's chin in a calm manner as my stern eyes communicated my desire to have the advertisements be successful. My other hand was engulfed in an orange aura, which grew larger and spread throughout my body as I got off of the table for Lucy to instinctively get on her hands and knees. I remained standing, frowning as she clenched her teeth. As Lucy groaned in frustration and slightly crawled towards me to display her obedience, one of the women in Aroma Flair used their magic to heat up an incense that smelled like white chocolate. The aroma quickly filled the guildhall, and I rudely smirked down at Lucy to see her subserviently inhale a deep breath of it. I proceeded to sigh in a sultry manner, before sadistically and softly giggling at how this demanding girl would now work under me.
Concurrently... (Minerva's POV)
The sight of Lucy starting to look up at Annette in a fearful manner with some tears in her eyes caused me to take some steps towards them, since I didn't want Annette thinking that Lucy agreed to be a member of Aroma Flair. Lucy joining this guild of fashionable girls would only result in her being taken advantage of by other women for their own benefit, and that type of relationship didn't usually escalate into anything pleasant. Lucy didn't have a pleasant relationship with Annette, and I sternly narrowed my eyes at Annette while realizing something important.
Annette's white chocolate outfits weren't featured in any previous issues of Sorcerer Magazine, which caused me to slightly smirk in a disrespectful manner. The stylish and powerful Annette Rosia was trying to turn trash into treasure, due to the fact that Lucy and I wore her outfits in Ivaria Town, and any news of those clothes being a lackluster collection would cause controversy for her fashion and modeling career. Therefore, she was now trying to keep her career intact before anything could fall apart.
I lightly scoffed at Annette's deal, thinking that she was trying to hide her desperation. My rudeness caused Lucy to lightly smile at me, but Annette proceeded to loudly snap her fingers. That caused a woman with penny brown hair in a bob style to walk up to the situation, and Annette pointed one hand at Lucy while walking over to the gift shop. She quickly retrieved a chocolate brown magazine that featured her on the cover while she wore dark brown yoga pants with a caramel brown midriff shirt that looked elegant, and Annette brought the magazine over to that other mage.
That woman wore a penny brown fur coat with dark brown leggings while she watched Annette open to the magazine to a page displaying a different girl in the guild with white chocolate hair that had been straight and long, but accepting the magazine from Annette prompted the woman with cocoa brown eyes to motion for a woman with somewhat long and mocha brown hair to come over to this table. She wore an elegant-looking dark brown sweater with a cinnamon brown skirt, and her flat shoes were walnut brown.
"If you want to advertise Annette-sama's white chocolate collection, you'll need to seriously devote yourself to worshiping her fashion sense." The second woman told Lucy with some sternness in her cinnamon brown eyes, before looking at Lucy's dress.
Lucy nicely asked Annette with some calmness in her voice, as Annette proceeded to stand right in front of her, "Annette, what are you going to do to me?"
Annette responded with a smile of dominance on her face, bending forward to nearly make herself be at eye level with Lucy, "I'm going to make sure that white chocolate and other shades of brown are loved by you when you're representing my fashion brand, Lucy. If you want to start our deal, then it will begin when you finish your hot shower."
Lucy replied in an obedient manner, continuing to be on her hands and knees as she calmly inhaled more of the aroma from the incense, "I'll... take a hot shower."
Annette proceeded to snap her fingers towards those two mages who came to our table, and the one with penny brown hair walked over to the chocolate brown incense lamp. She hastily retrieved that lamp from the dark brown back counter that was next to the hallway's entrance on the right side of this room, and the incense strongly smelled like white chocolate right now. Annette motioned for Lucy to stand up, but the moment that Lucy got back on her feet was the moment that Annette's servant went over to Lucy to make her get a deep whiff of the incense.
Lucy elicited a deep sigh of calmness as she let her mouth and nose take in a large amount of this scent that was associated with Annette, and Lucy let out a soft and blissful sigh of pleasure as if she was smelling the sweetest perfume. She continued to inhale the incense, before Lucy saw that the girl with penny brown hair was shoved aside by Annette. Lucy watched Annette give a disapproving look to her attire, causing Lucy to frown in a subservient manner as she took off her dress. The sangria purple dress fell to the floor, followed by Lucy taking off her grape purple underwear and her light plum purple bra to be naked right now as she lightly blushed.
As Lucy kicked her bra towards me, she softly smiled at me in a compassionate manner. She smiled as if this deal was partly being done for me, but how would that make any sense? I started to scowl at Lucy in a somewhat angered manner, my eyes expressing disbelief while I felt that she could've been more assertive instead of agreeing to Annette's demands. As Annette started to smile at me in a somewhat smug manner during this moment where her servants took Lucy to that hallway on the right, I harshly glared at her.
"Why are you upset with me? If you're angry about this deal, didn't you have the opportunity to interfere with the conversation?" Annette asked me with an arrogant grin appearing on her face, before gently putting one hand under her chin.
That caused me to reply with a somewhat calmer look on my face, realizing that Annette was being rational, "I could've intervened, but I didn't want Lucy to become the type of person who would cower me. Anyway, at least I never manipulated her through fear and you better not manipulate her into just being your slave."
"I have no need for sex slaves, if that's how you view this agreement. I'm just going to make Lucy be my fashionable model, and she'd make me more famous to where her own lucky entry in Sorcerer Magazine will be because of me managing her. You should be thankful that I'm preventing her from continuing to be as uncouth as she was on that beach, since she's such a weak girl who can finally get the dog collar that she deserves." Annette retorted, iciness in her voice.
At that moment, I activated my Territory Magic and teleported to the hallway that had a syrup brown wooden floor. I didn't want Annette to put Lucy in any kind of agreement where Annette could claim her as her property at any point, since Annette seemed like she was intending to be Lucy's manager while she would exploit Lucy's modeling work for all of the profits it would bring. As I warped to be in front of Lucy and saw her compassionate smile trying to send those feelings into her eyes that displayed Lucy's emotion of being apologetic, Annette quickly sent Earth Magic into her feet.
She quickly got in front of me while I looked to the right for a moment, seeing that the dark brown arched doorway led to a chocolate brown bathroom with caramel brown walls. I got to see that Lucy would be committing herself to Annette's fashion brand by showering in a bathroom that smelled like sweet caramels, but I narrowed my eyes in a stern manner at how Aroma Flair's girls also had hair dye. If they were going to dye my girlfriend's hair for it to be a chocolate hue of brown, then I would hope that Lucy wouldn't be humiliated in any of the photos that she had to pose for.
As Lucy closed her eyes and softly smiled in a manner displaying her acceptance of this situation, Annette proceeded to smirk at me in a rude and satisfied manner at how Lucy officially devoted herself to the deal. I simply scoffed at Annette, and I proceeded to just walk out of the guild while hoping that she would truly uphold her end of the deal. Even if Lucy would make several of Annette's outfits garner high amounts of attention, nothing could stop Annette from making herself look like the more prominent person and portraying Lucy in a way that made aspects of her look awful.
Five minutes later... (Lucy's POV)
I felt that Annette genuinely wouldn't try to humiliate me, since she acted as if the fate of her fashion career was going to be in my hands. Working for Annette and wearing white chocolate attire would involve taking a shower, prompting me to walk on to the light brown tiles of the bathroom floor. The floor went well with the elegant-looking dark brown shelves, which had bottles of shampoo and body wash neatly organized alongside the towels and containers of hair dye. The portions of the shelves that contained the hair dye had some rectangular bars of soaps on the medium-length ledges protruding from them.
I walked over to a chocolate brown bar of soap that was on the nearest ledge, before grabbing a caramel brown bottle of body wash and a gingerbread brown bottle of shampoo. After grabbing the shampoo bottle, I picked up a circular container that was in the same color as white chocolate. Grabbing that container and quickly turning around allowed me to see some rectangular and classy-looking doors that had swirl patterns on them while they were in different shades of brown, and I pulled the brunette brown door to the right.
That door didn't have hot steam emerging from the space above the top of it while no one had been in this shower room, and pulling the door to the left allowed me to close it. After closing the door, I set all of the items that were held close to my breasts on a dark brown ledge. The ledge complimented the mocha brown walls, which went well with the cedar brown elegant-looking pipe that had been in between a tawny brown faucet and a chocolate brown faucet. Both faucets were shaped like roses without stems, and I turned the tawny brown faucet for water to emerge from the coffee brown showerhead that was also shaped like a rose.
The water felt very hot, its heat making me feel as if I was bathing in a hot spring right now, and I proceeded to let my feelings of arrogance be washed away. I elicited a soft breath while my eyes displayed the feeling of anxiety, and I wondered if I could truly pose well in photos for Annette's fashion collection. Putting in all of that work to avoid further humiliation could ironically lead to the humiliating experience of getting fired if I screwed up in one advertisement, but I bit my lower lip in an aggressive manner as I opened the body wash and poured it on to my breasts before I gently rubbed them.
"I need to do what Annette says, whether I want to admit it or not." I quietly whispered to myself, before picking up the shampoo to pour it into my hair.
I continued speaking, as I felt the gingerbread-scented shampoo coat my hair, "Refusing to admit that she overpowers me in several ways would be stupid, and I'm... I'm much weaker than her."
"If I try to fight her, I'll get humiliated again and Annette may even tell Sorcerer Magazine that Minerva should be embarrassed for dating me." I added with a soft smile of defeat on my face, sighing sadly as I felt bad for believing that I could move on from Annette by confronting her.
I didn't want Minerva to ever feel embarrassed for being my girlfriend, but I perceived her to be very lucky that Annette didn't feature Minerva's brown-haired lookalike in any of those past advertisements. If Minerva had been referenced as a submissive woman in those ads, then she would probably feel like a weakling who could be pushed around by Annette. Minerva was a much stronger woman who probably had a more prominent reputation after winning two fashion contests, so I didn't want all of Minerva's efforts to go to waste.
Even her efforts in posing for Hexy Magazine didn't need to be squandered, since Minerva proved that she could be a sultry queen. An amazing model like Minerva got to stay on her feet while I had been down on my hands and knees in front of Annette, and I genuinely still felt like I was a fashion model from a lower tier. Annette still viewed me as being weaker than her, and it wouldn't even matter if she had sensed my magical power earlier. The amount of strength that had been in her hands seemed intense, almost like she could break my nose with one harsh punch.
As I gently rubbed my nose and felt it to be soft and comfortable instead of feeling pained, I put down the shampoo bottle and picked up the scent of the chocolate brown bar of soap. As I started scrubbing my entire body with the chocolate-scented soap, its aroma caused me to sigh in a relaxed manner. The scent of chocolate itself didn't appeal to me, but the other scents in my shower room smelled so sweet to where the aroma of chocolate naturally mixed in with them. The chocolate brown suds of soap that were on my breasts and my ass felt nice, too.
"This is such... a sweet... chocolate bath... Ahhhh..." I stated aloud in a pleasured manner, rubbing the soap in my hair as if it was hair dye.
Annette suddenly asked me in a relaxed tone, her voice slightly sounding manipulative, "The chocolate-scented soap and the gingerbread-scented shampoo smell lovely together, don't they?"
"Yes, and the... body wash smells... like I'm in a caramel bath. Mmm..." I replied with a joyful smile on my face, gently closing my eyes as I felt the hot water keep dousing my body to make this bath feel as hot and sweet as possible.
Annette responded in a sultry manner, giggling in a somewhat friendly way, "You'll enjoy getting to borrow my caramel brown lipstick after that first successful advertisement, sweetie."
Annette proceeded to make the sound of blowing a kiss towards me, and I felt my cheeks deeply blush rose pink. Although, why was I suddenly blushing and feeling the temperature around me start to heighten? I continued to feel warmth flow throughout my body, and I started to place one arm on my breasts while my other hand gently put the soap under the hot water. As the chocolate brown soap bubbled, I proceeded to place it against my pussy and I slowly scrubbed it. I suppressed a soft moan, lightly groaning as the soap slid against my purple field of hair.
I lightly dropped that soap, before pouring some gingerbread brown body wash on to my hands. I rubbed both of my hands against my vagina, allowing my pussy's purple field of hair to be coated with the gingerbread brown liquid. The cold shampoo felt nice as it was against my pussy, and I applied some of it to my back. As the cold shampoo slid down my back, I poured some more of it in my hair and rubbed some shampoo on to my large ass. Feeling that chilly shampoo touch my ass was a nice sensation, especially since it softly went into my skin.
As the shampoo seeped down into my body, I couldn't resist the urge to softly moan at how some of it entered my pussy. I proceeded to put two fingers in my pussy while switching from hot water to cold water, and I just let the shampoo mix in with the soap as I imagined a woman with gingerbread brown and chocolate brown nails thrusted her fingers deep into my pussy. I started to gently pump my fingers in and out of my vagina, cutely moaning as my fingers gently slid around in my pussy, and the potent scent of gingerbread felt like gingerbread-scented breaths were being exhaled against my body during sex.
"I'm... I'm enjoying... this... Ahhhhh..." I stated aloud in an aroused manner, watching my body become more brown as I started to smell like chocolate.
Annette asked me with sweetness in her voice, sounding seductive in her last sentence, "Do you think about having chocolate massages, Lucy? Can you imagine your... fashionable white chocolate hair going well with my dark brown lingerie, sweetie?"
I replied in a seduced manner, as I opened my eyes to open the container of white chocolate hair dye, "Dark brown lingerie would... look wonderful with my hair. I'm going to... wear Annette's lingerie."
My heart started to palpitate faster with warmth and put the cold and creamy white chocolate hair dye on my head. I scrubbed it into every part of my long and purple hair, not minding that all of the purple dye poured down to the drain as if it had been a purple waterfall going into a bottomless lagoon. I kept looking down while happily washing my hair with my hands, loving how the extremely cold hair dye wasn't being washed away by the cold water. As some of the hair dye dripped down on to my body, I elicited a loving sigh of bliss from enjoying the hair dye strongly smelling like white chocolate.
This flavor of chocolate smelled amazing, and I definitely wanted to bathe in it. As I applied more hair dye, I started to envision myself bathing in a white chocolate hot spring with milk chocolate being added to it. That last part may have stemmed from me putting down the container and picking up the soap to rub it all over my body again, but the thought of sinking down into one of Annette's chocolate baths felt wonderful. I felt my cheeks blush light pink with happiness at the thought of embracing the scent and creaminess of chocolate, letting it overtake my thoughts.
My mind began to think about the thought of enjoying a mocha chocolate bath while wearing Annette's brunette brown lingerie, and I could hear her seductive giggle enter my mind as I imagined obeying her order to eat some squares of tawny brown chocolate that were on some light brown chocolate resembling soap. Annette was going to be sweet to me throughout our deal, her touch being as soft and sweet as sugar, and I would want to wear her clothes after finishing my shower. After all, Annette would probably love the sight of me wearing an elegant and walnut brown fur coat.
One hour later, outside of the Aroma Flair guild... (Minerva's POV)
Upon sensing a slight bit of Lucy's magic after seeing Annette come back with bags of clothes earlier, I smiled excitedly when I watched her finally come out of the Aroma Flair guild. However, the sight of Lucy's new appearance made me gasp in a startled manner as my eyes expressed the feeling of shock. Lucy now looked like a different woman, her hair being white chocolate with a chocolate hue of brown mixed into it, and her eyes were mocha brown. She blushed and smiled at me in a relaxed manner, sighing as she finished eating a square of some white chocolates that had been in her left hand.
The white chocolates complimented the high-end white chocolate coat that Lucy wore, the coat having seven brunette brown buttons right below her large breasts, and I also saw that Lucy wore a coffee brown miniskirt that had gingerbread brown ruffles at the bottom. The ruffles of her skirt complimented her cinnamon brown leggings, which had tawny brown fishnet lacing. The fishnet lacing went well with her caramel brown high heels, which had rectangle-shaped caramels on the fronts of them while those decorations were a darker hue of caramel brown. Lucy's shoes surprisingly complimented her earrings, which were hickory brown squares of chocolate.
Lucy gently touched her right earring with her right hand, before sighing happily at the chocolate that ended up being on her fingers. She put one finger in her mouth to taste the chocolate, before her cheeks blushed bubblegum pink, and Lucy elicited a soft and joyful sigh. Lucy was now enjoying the taste of chocolate? Did Annette forcibly feed Lucy some chocolates for an hour, until she admitted to acquiring a taste for it? I proceeded to put my face near her mouth, and Lucy exhaled a deep breath that smelled like chocolate mixed with caramels and gingerbread cookies.
I proceeded to take those chocolates out of her hand, not wanting her to eat more of them, and I made a white chocolate energy wave surround my right hand. I warped those chocolates into a higher part of the space around us, a space that I could reach by stretching my arms up, and the moment I grabbed the chocolates was the moment that Lucy jumped up to reach for them. She had some anxiety in her mocha brown eyes while groaning in frustration, before looking desperate enough to activate a spell, and I quickly crushed the chocolates in my hand before sprinkling all of their dust on to the ground.
"Annette's delicious... chocolates! Those were... my reward... for being such an obedient bitch!" Lucy stated aloud with a horrified frown on her face while I merely frowned at her, my mouth slightly opening at how she called herself a bitch.
As Lucy got on her hands and knees to start sucking up the melting chocolates in this moment where Annette came out of Aroma Flair, I told Lucy with a stern facial expression, "Lucy, you agreed to be Annette's subservient fashion model but you didn't need to let her brainwash you."
Annette responded to me with a patronizing frown on her face, "There was no brainwashing, dark mage. Lucy embraced the aroma of chocolate and brown hues of fashion all on her own. I didn't even have to tell her to dye her hair for all the photos that she'll take for Aroma Flair. She wanted to be devoted to this deal, whether you like it or not."
"Speaking of liking things, Lucy will like intensely working to be a first-class fashion model. Lucy, you almost forgot to look stylish without your choker." Annette told me with a smug smile on her face, before speaking to Lucy as she swung a sepia brown choker in her hand like a pendulum.
Lucy got up to tell Annette with a soft smile on her face, her eyes overly showing happiness as if she was hypnotized, "The choker looks beautiful, Annette-san."
Annette nodded in agreement, before putting the choker around Lucy's neck while I could see that its elegant-looking ruffles were mahogany brown. Lucy gently touched the choker, softly moaning as if the choker was as smooth as silk. Annette softly and smoothly put one hand in Lucy's hand, before smiling in a very satisfied manner. Judging by that look in Annette's eyes, I quickly realized that she was delighted about the deal that Lucy agreed to. Annette proceeded to blow a kiss at Lucy like she was an adoring fan who sealed her devotion with a kiss, prompting me to turn Lucy around and view her lips.
Lucy currently wore russet brown lipstick, and the lipstick looked like it had been applied instead of resulting from any kisses. Annette was wearing caramel brown lipstick, and I felt glad that she wasn't trying to flirt with my girlfriend. However, I felt that Annette was now flirting with the idea of making Lucy do all the hard work of advertising her white chocolate clothes while Annette would be receiving all of the profits. Annette made her own portion of the deal be self-beneficial, and I would have to either see it entirely occur or convince Lucy to break the deal.
I grabbed Lucy's hand and walked away with her as I felt that Annette would slyly add more conditions, since receiving fashion accessories would come at some kind of price in situations where deals were made with dominant women. Seeing Annette assert her dominance over Lucy today made me believe that she could even use any instances of Lucy's disobedience as a way to give her some punishments, and I wondered if Annette would punish Lucy by attacking her with powerful spells. She nearly did that today, since Lucy seemed a bit rude.
"You're so rude to assume that Annette-san would try to manipulate me! She's so fashionable, and posing for her in photo shoots will keep me from getting humiliated!" Lucy told me with an offended look on her face, as we reached the gates bordering the guild.
That tone of voice prompted me to tell her with a stern and offended facial expression, "Lucy, you're not addressing me as Minerva-sama. Just because I'm not partnered with you on those jobs, you better know your place around me."
"Your place around me involves wearing hideous purple dresses, which are as gaudy as your hair. Minerva-sama, maybe you need some white chocolate hair dye and-" Lucy retorted in an extremely rude tone, before I interrupted her by covering her mouth.
I honestly wouldn't need white chocolate hair dye, since I felt very confident in my own beauty right now. I even considered myself to be much more attractive than any of those women who had been in Aroma Flair's guildhall right now, since they couldn't humiliate me in a worse way than when everyone saw my underwear after Erza defeated me in the Grand Magic Games. If I had dyed my hair brown and wore striped lingerie in different hues of brown, then Lucy would probably think that my attire was beautiful. Although, I had to smile at her in a petty manner from seeing a few tears be in her anger-filled eyes.
Lucy surprisingly didn't hurt me as much as she hurt herself by saying that my newest purple dress was hideous, as she was the one to pick it out for me. Lucy was refusing to stand behind her own choices, almost as if she had been tainted to have an unhealthy mind. I glanced at Lucy's hair, before lightly sniffing the hair dye and shampoo. I quickly detected that it had been infused with some magic, since the orange aura was very faint, and Lucy let herself be corrupted into acting like a snooty girl.
Lucy's mocha brown eyes soon expressed pride for wearing Annette's clothes while she started to give me a snobbish frown, letting herself commit to the magic that had been orange like Annette's aura. If Lucy's heart and mind intended on committing herself to this deal, then she wouldn't need to treat me as if I was an enemy. I had been her strongest ally, yet Lucy trusted a seemingly stronger woman who enjoyed embarrassing her. Annette even made Lucy be naked in the guildhall, but Lucy acted as if suffering through more humiliation was part of trying to make amends for her previous instances of being humiliated in Sorcerer Magazine. If Lucy perceived me as a bad girlfriend for dragging her away from an awful client, then how would she view me for dragging her into my own issues that were on a street behind Aroma Flair?
Ten minutes later... (Mikiko's POV)
I ignored the sight of the Aroma Flair guild while stepping outside of my house, and I walked towards my emerald green mailbox. The newest issue of Sorcerer Magazine would be there, along with the magazine known as Emerald Elegance. That magazine mainly pertained to women who enjoyed reading about topics associated with this region of Fiore, and I opened my mailbox to retrieve that moss green magazine. I lightly smiled while opening it up to presumably see that Jade Kusagreen won another fashion contest, and I didn't see her previous victories because of my S-Class missions in Aroma Flair.
Jade's dresses reportedly always looked wonderful, since they would be in different shades of green. Green was such a wonderful color, evident from my emerald green eyes that complimented my amethyst purple hair. My long and straight hair fell to my hips while it went well with my moss green blouse, which complimented my olive green high heels. The high heels matched my matcha green jeans, and I smiled at the sight of my comfortable jeans as I turned some pages to see how a young winner of fashion contests could influence my own sense of style.
Upon seeing the picture of the winner, I nearly widened my eyes in shock. My lips formed an amazed facial expression, nearly matching her moment of looking so surprised for the cameras as if she was in disbelief. This woman who won the recent contest was Minerva Orland, the same girl who had been my daughter? What was she doing in beauty contests, other than trying to possibly end her losing streak? I had been just as strict as Jiemma in raising Minerva, wanting her to be the most stylish girl and most graceful woman in Fiore.
Minerva may have tried acting classy, but looking classy and failing to win beauty contests was something that a trashy woman would do. I personally felt that Minerva only deserved a smidge of respect now, since it made amends for her humiliation in the Grand Magic Games. I calmly sighed while turning the pages of this magazine, seeing Minerva go from looking shocked to an image of her performing with a happy look on her face. The next page displayed Minerva smiling confidently with a somewhat smug look in her face, but the sound of footsteps reaching my grassy green lawn caused me to look up from the magazine to see Minerva looking relaxed.
"Hello, Mother." Minerva told me, maintaining her calm smile as she and the girl beside her walked up to me.
I responded to Minerva with a miffed look on my face, as I proceeded to fold my arms, "Hello, Minerva. If you're having problems in your current guild, then I hope you didn't come here to pester me about convincing the guild mistress to let you join Aroma Flair."
Minerva replied in an irritated manner, narrowing her eyes after she groaned in frustration, "That's not why I'm here, Mother. I just... wanted to say that I'm getting much better at baking. I can even bake bread, and I see that the bake shop replicated your recipes for green breads."
I replied in a proud tone, starting to smile confidently, "It's only natural that Bloom's Town bread shop would accept my recipes, since I am the best at baking bread. I'm certainly a fantastic baker, dear, and I'll gladly give you some recipes that you can teach to whoever helps you continue your father's bloodline."
Upon mentioning Jiemma to Minerva, she proceeded to have an expression that involved nervousness being infused with some distaste. I hadn't spoken to Jiemma during the most recent Grand Magic Games, since he had been very busy with trying to make Sabertooth be the mightiest guild in Fiore, and I felt that his harsh training methods for making Minerva become stronger had been just as important as my strategies for trying to make Minerva win beauty contests. I had even pushed her to buy the fanciest dresses for fashion contests, but she didn't inherit my high-end sense of fashion.
If she was going to be walking past girls who were part of Aroma Flair, then Minerva could've at least worn a shamrock green dress with tropical green high-heeled shoes. The shoes could've even gone well with a jungle green purse, but Minerva always believed that her sense of style was better than mine. If she had been correct in believing that, then she wouldn't have lost in Bloom Town's fashion contests where Annette Rosia was the winner. Annette had so many wardrobes of fashion, so Minerva should've become powerful enough to take jobs that would pay her money to go towards improving her own fashion sense.
She could certainly improve her fashion sense by taking some inspiration from her friend, who was currently being pulled close to Minerva. She started to look up at Minerva with a surprised facial expression, which was followed by Minerva nicely smiling at her at firmly putting a finger to her lips. Minerva's partner stayed quiet in this moment where Minerva interestingly smiled with a high amount of seriousness in her eyes, and Minerva gently put her hand under her partner's chin while they both proceeded to look at me.
"Lucy, this is my mother. Her name is Mikiko Orland, but you can just stay quiet and be a good little girl when you're around her. She may dislike you." Minerva sternly told the brown-eyed girl, continuing to smile.
That prompted me to curiously ask in an assuming manner while looking somewhat miffed, "Did you think that teaming up with an elegant girl from Aroma Flair was going to make me be impressed, Minerva? Is she giving you tips for finding the perfect husband to help you expand the talents of our family's bloodline?"
Minerva responded to me in a calm and somewhat nervous tone, her cheeks blushing pink as she gently hugged Lucy and softly smiled, "No, Mother. I'm introducing you to Lucy, since she's... my girlfriend. I'm... a lesbian, Mother. I'm attracted to... other sexy women, and I'm in... a dark guild... full of women."
I exclaimed in a shocked tone, looking baffled and upset, "Minerva, you're dating women?! Did Jiemma and I raise you to be attracted to other girls?! Do you actually think I'm okay with this, just because I tend to see lesbians kiss in Aroma Flair?! Other women's daughters can date who they want, but is my daughter really degrading herself right now by being gay?!"
After asking all of those questions and clenching my fists in an angered manner, I panted heavily in frustration. Minerva had never discussed her sexuality with me during any of the times that she came to Bloom Town, since she hardly even spoke to me or even came down this street when she handled jobs, but she had the audacity to come here and give me this kind of news? Minerva being in a lesbian relationship came with the obvious difficulty of continuing our bloodlines, since I would be prevented from having a fashionable granddaughter!
Not having a fashionable granddaughter also meant that Jiemma would lose his chance to have a powerful son, and Minerva really must've hated Jiemma if she didn't want him to train the grandchildren to be powerful mages. Minerva had been around several strong wizards throughout her life, but she couldn't encounter one man who she felt attracted to? Minerva being attracted to women was something that I didn't want to hear, just like how I didn't want to suddenly drop my magazine on the ground.
I proceeded to look down at the magazine's current page, which featured Minerva looking happy on the runway in Zephri Town. Minerva had been in fashion competitions with other women, so was that the reason why she developed an attraction to other women and wanted to be in a guild with other girls? I started to fold my arms in a displeased manner while thinking that Minerva would try to blame me and Jiemma for her attraction to women, since we allowed her to participate in fashion shows with beautiful girls who would look sexy while wearing elegant or promiscuous clothes.
"I tried to make my daughter become a fashionable woman and a great chef, but I now see that the woman in front of me is an utter disgrace." I coldly stated aloud to myself, giving Minerva an icy glare.
My words of negativity suddenly prompted Lucy to have an eggplant purple aura surround her body as an orange aura stemming from her body was being absorbed into the ring, "Don't talk... about Minerva-sama... like that."
I took some steps forward while stepping on the magazine to ask Lucy with an offended look on my face, "Shouldn't you watch who you're disrespecting, you rude girl? Did you convince Minerva to become a lesbian, just for you two to have sex?"
Minerva replied to me with a displeased facial expression, holding Lucy close to her in a protective manner, "Mother, that's enough! If you don't want anything to do with my relationship, then that's fine with me!"
Minerva added with a stern facial expression, as she let go of Lucy and put her hands on her hips, "If it makes you feel better, at least Lucy loves my cooking and she views me as a wonderful chef and we're happy to be lovers."
As Minerva proceeded to grab Lucy's hand and walk away with her, I narrowed my eyes at Lucy in an annoyed manner. She seemed like she had been coated in someone else's magic, but she forgot to take off that ring presumably pertinent to Darkness Magic. Did my extremely negative thoughts reach that ring to the point where it made them become magical power for Lucy? If Lucy was currently absorbing my negativity, then she was now draining her orange aura's magic to increase her eggplant purple dark magic.
15 minutes later, in the Sweetened Woods... (Minerva's POV)
I felt surprised at how Lucy suddenly reacted to my mother's disapproval of me, but I felt more baffled at the sight of Lucy's eggplant purple dark magic emerging. It had increased in the Sweetened Woods when Lucy was thrilled with killing dark mages, and the fact that it flared up at my mother's large amount of negativity made me closely examine Lucy's body. I slowly circled around her, frowning as I noticed that the orange aura was heavily coming back. That was followed by Lucy sighing happily, her eyes displaying feelings of joy as she PRESUMABLY thought about Annette.
It seemed like Lucy's happiest thoughts were going to be about Annette, due to taking in so much of Aroma Flair's sweet scents that messed with her body and mind while Lucy chose to be devoted to her fashionable manager. Annette probably wanted Lucy to eat the rest of those chocolates as a way of increasing Lucy's desire to be loyal to her, which made me wonder if those chocolates were infused with magic. If Annette put some magic into those white chocolates, how many had Lucy eaten? I got in front of her face to sniff her breath again, and it still heavily smelled as if Lucy had eaten several white chocolates.
Lucy's hair dye also continued to give off its sweet aroma, and I wondered if Lucy's sweet and happy thoughts were strengthening Annette's influence on her. Lucy would want to take the honorable path and not let me efface all of Annette's manipulation in their deal, but Annette calling me a dark mage instead of referring to me by name felt like something that warranted an interesting consequence. I aggressively stomped on Lucy's left foot, causing her to scream in pain while tears quickly welled up in her eyes, and Lucy's body started to be surrounded by an eggplant purple aura.
The eggplant purple aura that surrounded Lucy's body was making the orange aura go into the ring, before the eggplant purple aura grew larger, and Annette's aura that coated Lucy was being consumed by Lucy's own thoughts of pain instead of corrupting her. Since Lucy wasn't being devoured by the Darkness Magic, was the ring devouring Annette's high amount of magic instead? As the orange aura slowly began to wane in the same moment where the eggplant purple aura grew, I felt that Lucy was conscious enough for us to have an important chat.
"Lucy, working under Annette and kissing her ass will never make her respect you." I sternly told Lucy with a displeased frown on my face, putting one hand on her shoulder in a comforting manner.
Lucy angrily responded to me with tears in her eyes, the orange aura slightly growing, "Annette-san will treat me wonderfully, Minerva-sama! You know that she agreed to have me as a fashion model, and she won't humiliate me anymore! This deal prevents her from humiliating you, too!"
"Even if she were to humiliate me in one group of fashion advertisements, what prevents me from looking great in a later group of fashion advertisements? Lucy, don't fashion trends exist in different magazines to where models can be perceived in shifting ways?" I asked Lucy with a frown of calmness on my face, feeling like Lucy was taking her own humiliation too seriously.
Lucy responded to me with the feeling of anxiety appearing all over her face, almost like she was trying to be defensive, "Well, you're just telling me that you don't care if a prominent woman in the fashion industry is wanting revenge on you! Minerva-sama, you're a hypocrite because you were hurt when Phoebe humiliated you!"
I may have been hurt when Phoebe defeated me in front of so many people in the Seductive Witch guild, but I looked at Lucy with a somewhat perplexed response on my face because I never made a deal with that powerful witch for her to stop bothering me. I simply felt that training hard to where I could defeat Phoebe in a battle would make her realize that I had to be respected, and I never begged Phoebe for any of the things that I received out of pity. I perceived myself to be above the idea of bowing at my enemy's feet for mercy, even if I wanted to be stronger or feel more peaceful.
Maybe Lucy would've felt more peaceful if I had sternly advised her to never beg any enemies for mercy, but this current mess had been intertwined with Lucy's earlier feelings of being so scared to confront Annette. At least encountering Annette today made Lucy realize that she didn't need to be so afraid of talking to Annette, which meant that particular issue was resolved. Although, Annette probably had a tremendous amount of strength to where Lucy believed that she couldn't take her down in an actual fight. Was that one reason for why Lucy acted so submissive to Annette?
I had seen Lucy's eyes be filled with some anxiety while she bowed down like a dog with Annette in front of her, and Lucy must've been so scared of getting beaten up again. I hadn't seen Annette's Earth Magic, but were her punches and kicks really more dangerous than the idea of sending large boulders down upon Lucy for them to crush her body? Maybe Annette was already thinking of ways to punish Lucy in situations where she didn't perform well enough, and Lucy was likely thinking that she would be able to live up to Annette's expectations.
The sound of a sudden explosion not being in my own expectations caused me to say with a shocked and annoyed facial expression, "What's going on?!"
Lucy softly replied to me with a worried facial expression, wiping her own tears away as we heard someone say some spells, "That sounds like Natane."
I asked aloud in a miffed manner, as I grabbed Lucy's hand and ran in the direction of the explosion, "Is she planning to attack us, since we're dark mages?"
If Natane wanted to attack us, then she could've easily attacked us while Lucy and I were arguing. However, the way that Lucy and I settled our problems was probably better than how Natane handled her problems with Meladori in a very close part of the Sweetened Woods. I caught a glimpse of Meladori while running towards that explosion, only for some jungle green and jade green explosions to keep getting in the way of what I needed to see. Even though I didn't see Meladori react, I assumed that she and Natane were fighting alongside each other.
When Lucy and I ran up to some mint green trees in this somewhat deep part of the Sweetened Woods, we got to see Meladori panting heavily while she wore her same outfit from earlier. Meladori's dress and hat were torn and dirtied while she was covered in bruises, some of those wounds looking like fern green cuts from sharp glass as she bled. Meladori proceeded to unleash seven shamrock green beams of Wind Magic from her palms that were close together, all of the beams being aimed at Natane.
Natane quickly dodged that attack while looking stoic, before firing a large fern green orb from her mouth. The fern green leaves on an adjacent tree glowed, before propelling themselves at her spell to greatly strengthen it whilst increasing its size. That attack was followed by a mage with jungle green hair firing a jungle green twister of leaves at Meladori, and that attack was followed up by a woman with shoulder-length and somewhat long jade green hair firing some tornadoes from her hands at Meladori.
Natane told Meladori with a stern and stoic facial expression, "Try to counter all of these attacks with the spell called Sage's Wind Shield."
Meladori exclaimed in an anxious manner, as she proceeded to rapidly spin and unleash a hastily-rotating tower of winds resembling a twister, "I... I can't control... this attack!"
Upon seeing Meladori's winds go outward to where they absorbed so much air and sliced down some trees before splitting apart, I replied with a concerned facial expression, "Whoa!"
I quickly teleported myself and Lucy to be behind Natane, who watched Meladori's twister now be broken into five smaller twisters that slammed against all of the other attacks to create shamrock green explosions that were massive. However, those massive explosions only slowed down her opponents' spells and didn't prevent them from going through the green clouds of smoke. Meladori was struck by all of those attacks, resulting in her being engulfed in blasts pertinent to different hues of green. Meladori screamed in excruciating pain, and she couldn't even focus in this moment to activate any spells.
Meladori slowly stood up with a disappointed look on her face, before trying to avert her eyes away from Natane. Natane groaned in frustration, before gently putting one hand on her own forehead as if she had been the person in a stressful situation. She fired that fern green orb again while making a fern green aura intensely surround her body, and this attack now had a somewhat lighter and fern green orb inside of it. Meladori responded to that by shakily putting up her hands, and the shamrock green aura engulfed them right before she shot out two feathery shamrock green wings.
Meladori inhaled more air, before picking up some pale green leaves, and unleashing that specific attack again caused the feathery and shamrock green wings to be pale green. They seemed to absorb the Plant Magic infused with the air surrounding the leaves, and Meladori's projectiles looked stronger than the ones that were just decimated by Natane's attack. Both speells soon clashed, resulting in a massive pale green blast that was followed by a very large shamrock green blast. That had occurred right before a somewhat smaller fern green explosion, and I got to hear Meladori elicit a sigh of relief.
"What the hell are you relieved about?! You just got lucky, and you were just as pathetic when we trained deeper in the woods before you wanted to train here!" Natane exclaimed with feelings of anger in her eyes, looking very upset and disappointed.
That prompted me to ask Natane with a miffed facial expression, "What are you doing, Natane? Why are you putting Meladori through an unfair fight, along with making the training be so severe?"
Natane responded with a harsh glare on her face, before rolling her eyes, "I'm using other girls from Aroma Flair to help me punish Meladori for shirking work during the past few days. Fighting her like S-Class enemies is a good way to get her accustomed to several dangerous jobs that we'll be handling, but some of Meladori's spells are always weak in each training session! She's still not strong enough to defeat enemies on her own, so she needs to engage in vicious fights."
"Natane, are you seriously implying that this abusive form of training has occurred before?" I asked her in a stern manner, narrowing my eyes in disapproval as I pushed Lucy forward into the clearing.
Lucy proceeded to run towards Meladori while gasping in a somewhat shocked manner, and Lucy's inexperience with certain types of mages was truly shining through. She walked up to Meladori's trembling body while we both heard Meladori let out cries of anguish. She trembled and cried at how her spells weren't strong enough in this training session, and Natane was making it seem like Meladori was entirely causing this problem. If the leader of the training session couldn't get a mage's skills up to high standards, then who was really at fault?
I personally thought that Meladori fusing two types of magic together for that final spell was a fantastic idea, and using fusion attacks could even increase their strength to levels that Meladori perceived as impossible for herself to reach. She may have also perceived it as impossible to use fusion spells that could strengthen her level of magical power, which would boost her strength and speed. However, I sighed in annoyance as I could see that Natane wasn't inspiring any feelings of confidence in her teammate.
As Meladori timidly motioned for Lucy to step aside, I watched Lucy just go into Meladori's dark shadow for a few moments. Lucy could certainly relate to the experience of having someone crush her confidence down into dust, and she started trembling in the moment where Meladori tried to stop trembling out of fear. Lucy may have been scared from seeing some of Meladori's bruises up close, but I began to look at Lucy with the feeling of concern in my eyes. I wondered if Lucy would still go into Aroma Flair with undying loyalty to Annette and being her puppet for fashion modeling, since any fashionable girl was at risk of being discarded.
How was Chapter 16? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. Lucy has finally confronted Annette, but she has to be Annette's fashion model for white chocolate clothing if she wants Annette to stop humiliating her. Lucy's devotion to her desire for getting Annette to respect her is putting a strain on Lucy's relationship with Minerva, but let me be clear. This is not a love triangle between Minerva, Lucy, and Annette. In fact, Minerva will want to stay calm in some situations where Annette chooses to be a strict fashion manager towards Lucy while Lucy may just brush off Annette's behavior and sneaky ways of making herself be the more fashionable woman throughout this agreement. Anyway, this is the third part of the Tropical Tulips Arc! I'll update soon. :)
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