Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.


Chapter 8: Minerva's Quest For Creating A Cure! Neon Blue Gems & Cerulean Blue Flowers! Shared Admiration For Shades of Blue!


Fiora's POV

After carrying the sickly girl up to the top step of the staircase, my eyes took notice of the light blue rectangular windows that bordered the aegean blue front doors. Both of the front doors were arched while they had dark blue snowflakes elegantly painted on the front of them, and I aggressively knocked on the door by harshly kicking it. My powerful kicks made some snow from the rooftop fall in front of me, only for the aegean blue aura of a woman's magic to surround the snow as she got close to the doors.

When the doors opened, I smiled in a happy manner from seeing that Mistress Hyōrei was home. Mistress Hyōrei had been a survivor of Glacienne's rampage by simply hiding until Glacienne thought that she froze all of the powerful wizards to death, and I felt very happy that she was here. Not only was Mistress Hyōrei the leader of our own by default, since I appointed her that title after the mayor was killed in Glacienne's rampage, but Mistress Hyōrei was also capable of healing people by using her Ice Magic.

The aegean blue aura heavily engulfed her body as she wore an aegean blue winter coat with six neon blue buttons forming a circle near the bottom of the coat, and she wore some neon blue knee-high snow boots that had neon blue fur around them. The neon blue boots went well with her earrings, which were shaped like snowflakes while being cerulean blue. Mistress Hyōrei also had cerulean blue eyes, and they went well with her hair that had been long and flowing while she made one portion of her hair form a messy side ponytail.

Mistress Hyōrei gently touched that ponytail with one hand, before her eyes glanced down at the purple-haired girl who had been in my arms. This girl named Lucy was shivering heavily while blushing cerise pink to indicate that her fever was worsening, and her sickness really needed to be cured. That prompted Mistress Hyōrei to motion with her hands for me to come into her abode, and I walked into her house. The moment where I walked into her chalet that had an aegean blue carpet in the foyer with plain blue walls to match was when I got to hear Lucy's teammate panting heavily as she pushed herself to reach the top of the staircase and walk into the chalet.

"Don't... forget.. about.. healing me, too." She stated in an exhausted manner, looking tired and just as feverish as Lucy while she fell forward to hit the floor.

That caused Mistress Hyōrei to respond with a bored facial expression, as she walked through a doorway that was in between two plain blue staircases that led to the upper floor, "These mages aren't accustomed to the cold as much as they'd like to believe, Fiora. Fiora, make that woman on the floor help you prepare the Cosmos Neon Blue Powder for the mixture. If she's cured first, she could accelerate the healing process of her friend."

I asked aloud with a curious look on my face while being in this research room with Mistress Hyōrei, still holding Lucy, "What should I do with her friend?"

"Take her into one of the empty infirmary rooms upstairs, Fiora." Mistress Hyōrei responded to me in a somewhat bored manner, her face looking emotionless as if I asked a question that had an obvious answer.

I quickly walked out of Mistress Hyōrei's room for research, before going up the left staircase. Going up the stairs required me to apply Ice Magic to my feet, since I would have to move very quickly. I went up the stairs as fast as possible, before going through an elegant-looking aegean blue door that was on the left. This door led to a hallway of aegean blue doors, but going through the nearest door on the right side of the hallway allowed me to quickly reach the infirmary. The only mage who would need to be healed right now was Lucy, and I gently placed her on the plain blue bed.

The plain blue bed went well with the cerulean blue walls of this room, which were complimented by the cerulean blue shelves that were attached to the walls. One of the books from the nearest shelf was about to fall down near Lucy, but grabbing the neon blue book caused me to have a small smile on my face. This specific book pertained to the Cosmos Neon Blue Powder, which was used in several neon blue medicinal potions and recipes. Opening this book allowed me to see that there were indeed several medicines that could be made with that powder, along with the recipe for preparing the powder itself.

Preparing the powder would also require me to accompany a decent chef, but Mistress Hyōrei seemed like she was still too busy to make more healing recipes if I accidentally gathered too many ingredients. Getting some of the ingredients would relatively be easy, since the Cosmos Cerulean flowers grew outside of the chalet. They would need to be coupled with the Hyōkurīmu berries, which grew on the slightly cold sides of mountains in the tundra. After visiting those mountains, I would need Lucy's teammate to help me get the Glace Cream berries from the Yukipoint Forest.

After leaving the infirmary and reaching the foyer to discover that the purple-haired woman managed to create some red energy waves to make an intense level of heat surround her own body, I asked her with a curious facial expression, "What are you doing?"

Minerva responded in an exhausted manner, panting heavily as she looked miffed at me, "I'm just... letting my.. body get... hot enough to... where I can.. sweat out this... sickness."

Upon seeing a high amount of steam emerge from the pores of her body as she perspired and smelled as bad as seawater, I replied with a worried look on my face, "Well, you'll be feeling much better after you help me cure Lucy. The Cosmos Neon Blue Powder can make Sweet Blue Mint Orbs, which cure the Ice Frost Disease. You're both suffering from that, and you don't want to be cold for too long."

"This feels... much colder than that shower. Anyway, I'll... help you." Minerva told me with a disgruntled look on her face, sounding pained as one hand tightly clutched her stomach.

As I got to see some pale blue and light blue frost forming on her abdomen that had been slightly exposed, I could tell that the Ice Frost Disease was worsening. That caused me to narrow my eyes in a stern manner like a leader, and I hurriedly ran down the stairs. I gently grabbed Minerva's coat with one of my hands, pulling her out of this chalet that belonged to the researcher who I admired. Mistress Hyōrei could cure someone by extracting Ice Magic from their bodies, but getting rid of too much Water Magic was risky without the Sweet Blue Mint Orbs sending much more water into a patient's body.

Their water would be purified, along with purifying the water within a person's body. They would have the side effect of making a person sleep for several hours, but that was only because of the Cosmos Cerulean flowers. Speaking of those flowers, seeing them beautifully shine during this cold weather caused me to happily smile as I picked them up from the ground. Their cerulean blue petals were frozen, unable to have cerulean blue nectar dripping out of them. That caused me to pick some more of these flowers, and this meant that I would need more berries.

The berries from the tundra were the next item that had to be retrieved, and I quickly directed my gaze to a snow-covered slope that led down to the street. I ran over to the stairs with Lucy's teammate, before sliding down the slope as if I had been skiing. My experience with skiing led me to make more Ice Magic engulf my feet, allowing me to essentially snowboard on the street that led down to the tundra. As I could faintly feel myself getting to the tundra's cold air, I felt more confident at the thought of how this mission could truly be finished in an easy manner.


Ten minutes later, in the tundra... (Minerva's POV)

Even though I doubted that that this task could be easy to accomplish, I wanted to help Lucy be cured of the Ice Frost Disease. This sickness also affected me, but Lucy had sacrificed her own chances of being safe in that fight against Glacienne to selflessly protect me. Therefore, I would succumb myself to this sickness worsening for me and allow Lucy to get cured first. That was certainly coupled with my choice to reenter this dangerous tundra, which was like my way of sacrificing my own health to find the berries that would heal Lucy.

The Hyōkurīmu berries were in the middle of the tundra, being in a strange cave that stood by itself in the tundra while it had neon blue walls of ice with cerulean blue snow. The cerulean blue snow glistened in this cave while picking it up revealed some neon blue berries that resembled oranges. These berries certainly didn't smell like oranges or any other citrus fruit, smelling quite sweet, and they had been in several clumps of snow. These berries that oddly grew in the snow were plentiful, and I could hear the sounds of water leaking into the ground.

The melting snow must have been turning into water that nourished the roots of winter plants that grew in ice, and these frosty plants were providing me with many berries. I ended up gathering twenty of them to hold in my hands, only to see Fiora go much deeper into the cave. She was going into this cave for the purpose of collecting berries along the way, even to the point where she used a spell called Yukima's Orb. That spell caused a light blue orb of snow to form in Fiora's hands, and she slammed it against the ice.

The light blue blast that occurred was strong enough to destroy some ice while the newly-created cavern revealed a space where several berries had been growing like they were planted here beforehand. Fiora proceeded to pluck all of those berries, before gently putting them in a small pile. That pile grew much larger as she examined the snow, realizing that several berries were within it. She put her hands in the snow to grab several berries, all of them being Hyōkurīmu berries. They were all neon blue, and I smiled nicely at how we could use them in making the medicine.

"Well, we finished one step of the plan. However, there's more that we have to do." Fiora told me with a calm facial expression, as she picked up all of the berries to put them in her coat's upper left pocket.

"Does that involve exploring the rest of this cave?" I asked her with a confident smile on my face, believing that we would have to go much deeper into the cave.

Fiora responded to me with a soft smile appearing on her face, "Yes, and going through here would get us close to the forest."

If we were going to get much closer to the forest where those other berries were located, then it would be good for us to get through this cave. Getting through this cave caused me to feverishly think of possibly finding some treasure besides the berries in it, and it would be worth my time to just see if this route in the cave would take Fiora and I towards some kind of treasure. As I kept walking ahead and slid down an icy slope to get to the lower part of this route, my lips formed a small smile at the prospect of just finding some treasure.

The lower part of this route simply contained the neon blue ice forming an arch above the path that was ahead of Fiora and I, prompting us to run on to the path. The path was covered in ice, which caused me to slide forward on it while I tried to maintain my footing on the slippery surface. One of my feet stomped on the ice for a moment, since I wanted to see if this ice would be extremely thin to where it would break easily. The ice on the ground proved to be very durable, and I sighed with some relief in my voice at how it wouldn't easily crack.

The thinness of the ice in the tundra actually made me feel worried about Lucy, since it had been interesting that the ice had so much water beneath it. I honestly perceived a tundra to be the kind of environment where any icy region of Fiore would barely have any water around, but I guessed that the citizens of Blizzard Town would be able to purify the water underneath the ice. That would probably useful for creating a hot spring, and I tried to make my mind not think about the frosty weather that was outside of this cave.

As we kept going down this path to where there was an upward slope of ice in front of us, I asked Fiora in a stern manner, "Are we almost outside?"

Fiora replied with a calm facial expression, before softly giggling, "We'll be outside soon, and getting up this slope is easy."

Fiora began to climb up the upward slope while her left foot accidentally pushed against a neon blue jewel of ice that had been situated on the ground, and the gemstone appeared to be a five-sided diamond. The diamond seemed to absorb some of Fiora's Ice Magic, since it brightly glistened when her aura touched it. The brightness of the diamond caused me to smile in a confident manner, feeling like I found a treasure that Lucy and I could certainly celebrate about later. When I tried to pick up the diamond and placed it against my legs that were covered in frost, it surprisingly became surrounded by a neon blue aura.

The neon blue jewel tore the frost off of my body, before glowing brightly again, and the thin beams of light soon shined brightly to where they grew much larger. Some beams of light touched the ceiling, which resulted in the light coming back down to land on the slope of ice. The ice ended up becoming much denser, and placing one hand against it allowed me to see that the ice became as hard as a diamond while my hand didn't slip off of it. That caused me to gather up the pile of berries that I had put down, along with grabbing the diamond.

I used my Territory Magic to teleport everything in my hands to the entrance of the final doorway, which was bordered with ice that had frost emerging from it. That frost didn't bother Fiora, who picked up the berries while I quickly climbed up the lope to get the diamond. After getting the diamond and going through the doorway, I sent some light blue energy waves into the diamond for them to be in the light that shined from it, and they ended up creating light blue beams that resulted in large explosions upon hitting the snow that was above me. That also resulted in some sunlight being immediately seen, and the nearby ceiling meant that Fiora and I were now in a solid hole that had been obscured by snow in the tundra. Although, our determination to get out of this hole caused us to both smile at each other in a determined manner and we started climbing up the nearest icy wall.


30 minutes later, in the Yukipoint Forest... (Minerva's POV)

After climbing up the nearest icy wall, Fiora and I walked through the tundra until we saw a snowy path that led towards several trees that were covered in light blue snow. The rows of trees that were covered in light blue snow didn't seem as cold as the tundra, since going past several of the trees allowed me to find a light blue rock that had neon blue snow interestingly forming on it. Fiora went over to that snow, before looking at some of the light blue bushes that were on a path to the right.

Following Fiora on that path allowed us both to quickly find some Glace Cream berries, which were light blue berries that had been shaped like large snowballs. These berries also felt as soft as snowballs, their softness resembling ice cream itself. Tasting one of the berries ended up making me feel more sick, however, and the Glace Cream berries were bitter like awful-tasting medicine that had been mixed with chilly water. The berry's juice may have been quite creamy, but it still had so much bitterness in it.

That prompted me to create a neon blue energy wave on my right hand, and I gently made the energy wave touch several berries for them to become neon blue. The berries now had a very sweet scent while they would hopefully taste much better, and all seven berries that were together on this one bush were able to be plucked by me. Placing these berries on top of the beautiful diamond from the cave allowed me to see them shine, and I started smiling softly at the thought of how Lucy would've been very happy to see me find such an amazing treasure.

We could certainly sell that diamond for a high amount of jewels, since that would be very rewarding for us after going through an A-Class mission that had been dangerous for us to handle. As for these neon blue berries, changing their properties was like an interesting mission because of how I was tampering with their botanical properties. After going over to a nearby bush and changing those ten Glace Cream berries to be neon blue and have more sweetness in their flavor, I plucked them all and placed them next to the pile of light blue Glace Cream Berries that Fiora collected.

"Oh, my! You altered the Glace Cream berries into being so sweet! That is certainly a new development in science!" Fiora stated to me with an astounded look on her face, her eyes displaying feelings of disbelief.

That caused me to reply with a bored facial expression, "Even if it's a new development, I have yet to see you guide me to where we'll get the minty flavor for completing the medicine."

Fiora told me with a slightly confident smile on her face, sounding a bit arrogant, "Well, I'm sure that we have blue mint batter at home. If not, Mistress Hyōrei can just use whatever Mint Winter Berries that are still in the fridge."

Fiora's somewhat arrogant tone caused me to frown in a somewhat insecure manner, as my experiences of cooking and baking had taught me that the best chef would make sure to be prepared instead of already thinking that they had all the ingredients. Since I didn't see any Mint Winter Berries up to this point, I went past some trees that would take me into a different part of the Yukipoint Forest. This portion of the forest that I wandered into ended up having mint blue bogs in the snow, and turning around allowed me to see that some fallen mint blue trees blocked this path off from the regular route.

I could hear Fiora walking on the regular route, the scientist wanting to do things in a more structured way, but I felt that I could share Lucy's trait of going with the flow of opportunities when I saw an opening. By cutting through the trees, I had now been in a swampy area of the forest. The mint blue bushes all looked wilted, but fruits that were in a mint hue of blue were growing on them. The fruits gave off a minty aroma, before a small gust of icy wind blew past them to revitalize the wilted bushes.

Judging by the strangeness of the plants in the Yukipoint Forest, I could tell that they were infused with Ice Magic. Although, the Ice Magic in this portion of the forest seemed to have more potency. The bush that was in a clearing close to this area soon reached my view, prompting me to quickly run across the snow to enter that clearing. Running to this clearing may have involved my shoes stepping into the sticky mint blue bogs, but could my shoes have gotten more damaged after they were underwater when I ha to save Lucy? In my honest opinion, these berries would probably also help me cure Lucy.

As my eyes saw that the mint blue bush had a higher amount of the same Mint Winter Berries on it, I stated aloud in a calm manner, "Well, I'll be needing all of them."

I activated my Territory Magic again, creating rainbow-colored energy waves on one hand for all the berries to be teleported off of the bush. They all ended up being warped into my right hand, and I started walking away with all of the berries. The pile of berries had been somewhat heavy while they felt as cold as the ice in the tundra, and these berries even shined brightly as if they had been made from the clearest ice. They certainly felt as dense as ice, but these berries would needed to be part of the batter for the medicine.

Since I now had some dense Mint Winter Berries, I felt happy at how they would go well with all of the soft Glace Cream berries that had been collected. These two different textures of berries mixing together made me smile a bit, since they actually complimented each other, and the recipe would turn out great. The thought of this recipe turning out great made me smile more, ignoring my own feelings of being sick as I thought about how Lucy helped me make that cake at the cafe taste good by putting berries that were actually bitter into the mixture for me to balance out their tastes with much sweeter berries.

My sweet berries complimented Lucy's bitter berries, which made me glance down at the berries with a confident smile that matched Lucy's overly optimistic attitude. In that sense, it was like Lucy had been helpful on this small mission by going off of the normal path to find these berries. She probably would've done that, before clumsily getting herself stuck in one of the bogs. If she did end up getting stuck in the bog, then I would obviously have to save my teammate. In fact, I would see that lovely little teammate of mine in the infirmary after baking that remedy to cure her. Wait, did I just say that Lucy was lovely?


One hour later, in the chalet... (Lucy's POV)

After Minerva came back to the chalet and baked all of the ingredients with Fiora and Mistress Hyōrei, Minerva softly opened the door to the infirmary while I managed to have a loving smile on my face in this moment of waking up. My smile had been associated with the Sweet Blue Mint Orbs, which smelled similar to minty desserts with the scent of blueberry mixed in. The remedy for the Ice Frost Disease was the light blue rectangular tray of sixty cupcakes, which all had light blue powder on top of mint blue icing whilst the cupcakes themselves were cerulean blue.

Minerva wore plain blue oven mitts while picking up one of the hot cupcakes, and she stuffed it into her mouth. Minerva quickly ate the dessert, only to feel herself become engulfed by multiple blue auras. The cerulean blue aura, neon blue aura, light blue aura, and mint blue aura all surrounded Minerva's body as if she charged up an extremely high amount of magical power. Minerva suddenly felt much stronger to where large clouds of frost started to emerge from her body, along with the ice on her body beginning to loudly shatter like glass.

Before I opened my mouth, Minerva picked up one of the cupcakes and told me with a stern look on her face, "It tastes very good, and don't complain about something that required me putting in more effort than Fiora."

After opening my mouth for Minerva to stuff an extremely hot cupcake into it, I thought to myself with a pained look on my face and tears in my eyes, "This is so... bitter, and... it's quickly becoming way too sweet like medicine becoming ice cream!"

Upon seeing me slowly chew the dessert to where I could start to enjoy its sweetness, Minerva told me with an arrogant smile on her face, "Wow, Glace Cream berries do taste like high-quality ice cream when they're neon blue and I'm glad that I perfected them into tasting so good!"

As I soon saw the neon blue aura and the other auras surround my body in this moment where my fever started to fade away, I started to no longer feel pain in my body. Instead of pain, I felt like I had a large surge of strength. I ended up feeling strong enough to get out of bed, before picking up some cupcakes as the aura surrounded my hands. They were protected from getting burned by the hot tray, allowing me to quickly eat two more of the cupcakes. I wanted my body to be strengthened and healed, especially since that fight against Glacienne made me slightly frown from remembering it.

I frowned at how Minerva and I just hadn't been strong enough to easily take down Glacienne, and we almost ended up getting killed. Despite the fact that we survived, I felt that my decision of being somewhat dominant in not caring about Phoebe when she was at the request board really highlighted how Minerva couldn't rely on me to always be very dominant when she acted subservient. If Minerva hadn't displayed any feelings of weakness on that day, then would we have possibly obtained a better pair of jobs?

Although, it looked like this second task that we picked out on that fateful day was beneficial from how Minerva gained more experience with baking at the cafe. By baking that cake at the cafe, Minerva was able to make confidence be one of her necessary ingredients in preparing the cupcakes that would heal both of us. Seeing the cupcakes and Minerva's confident smile made me start to smile in a somewhat proud manner, as I had been very proud of my teammate for having the confidence to put in so much effort towards making these cupcakes.

Minerva even put in so much effort to where she didn't even mind that the ice and the cold wind left behind some spots of the coat being wet and torn, meaning that Minerva couldn't return it. Minerva's damaged coat and sickly face upon walking in really told me that she pushed herself on a journey that had mostly been arduous today without even caring about her fashion sense. Did she sacrifice the beauty of that purple coat for the desire to make me be healthier? If Minerva cared about me that much, then how could I be surprised at my heart for palpitating with feelings of warmth in this moment?

As my cheeks lightly blushed rose pink and I blissfully smiled at Minerva, she told me in an assertive tone, "Just because I healed you, don't think that I'm in love with you. Lucy, I just didn't want to have to deal with a teammate being dead."

That caused me to whisper in a loving manner, my smile remaining blissful as I looked into Minerva's eyes, "Minerva-sama, you still ate the cupcake first to encourage me that it wouldn't taste bad. From my point of view, you wanted us both to be recovering together."

The moment where I lightly closed my eyes and started to playfully smile was when Minerva responded with a look of seriousness on her face, "Don't push your luck for a kiss, Lucy. We're only starting to recover from our pain."

Minerva and I proceeded to keep recovering by eating more of the medicinal cupcakes, allowing our levels of strength to increase. Both of us also sighed happily in the moment where we felt our magical power riding for it to now be very high, and I soon saw my purple ring glisten brightly from the surges of magical power that were making it be capable of giving me more energy. I soon saw the ring shift from being lilac purple to now be wine purple, almost like my dark magic was getting upgraded to a new level of power.

As the wine purple aura started to surround my body and make me feel much stronger, I looked at Minerva in a curious manner. Did her cupcakes give us too much magical power to where our types of magic had their limits be shattered? If some restraints on my dark magic were now broken, could I now use more powerful spells of dark magic pertaining to Celestial Spirit Magic? I immediately had a dark and sinister smile on my face from wanting to test out some new spells that were being created in my mind, but my thoughts were interrupted by the sound of someone groaning as they came upstairs.

Fiora groaned in an extremely pained manner as her hands were behind her back, and she was holding a large gemstone in her palms. That five-sided diamond was large to where Fiora had to set it down, before dragging it through the doorway. She panted heavily while looking at Minerva and I, but Minerva smirked in a satisfied manner as if she was made to endure a tough day while Fiore contributed less effort to their mission. Minerva proceeded to put the tray down on one of the nearby beds, before going over to the diamond and easily picking it up with one hand.

Minerva let her coat fall to the ground in this moment for her to just be wearing her lingerie again, but I softly smiled at how Minerva was seeming to not be as insecure as before. She was truly starting to be much more confident, having such a confident posture to match her proud and confident smile. Minerva was certainly looking like a powerful queen in this moment, looking like the kind of woman who could overcome adversity to triumph over any problem that came her way. Although, she and I confidently smiled at each other and how we could have the easy task of getting our reward soon for defeating Glacienne.


Two hours later, in front of the ice statue... (Minerva's POV)

Defeating Glacienne allowed us to go back to the statue of the ice goddess, which interestingly had some frost and ice melting off of it because of how the temperature wasn't as cold as it had been earlier. The melting ice cutely made the statue's lips start to form a soft smile, and some of the townspeople interpreted that as a symbol of how Blizzard Town would now thrive. Since the town would soon be back to normal for everyone to truly go on with their daily routines, the mayor engaged in the routine of giving Lucy and I our reward money.

Since we were the mages who took down Glacienne, Lucy and I both put a hand on the light blue bag of 700,000 jewels while we calmly smiled at the mayor. Blizzard Town's mayor was a young woman who wore a plain blue winter coat with cyan blue snow boots, and her cyan blue hair was tied back into four ponytails. The mayor's cyan blue hair went well with her plain blue eyes, which expressed happiness at how the town of Blizzard could have peace again. Now that this town would be peaceful, I wouldn't have to deal with ice that had been as cold as glaciers.

Looking back at the ice in the tundra caused me to have a soft frown on my face, and I continued frowning as I silently looked at Lucy. She may have been smiling in a happy manner, but my heart felt some pain at the thought of her getting hurt by an enemy's attack again. I didn't want Lucy to be in that situation again, prompting me to tightly clench my other fist as the feeling of ambition entered my green eyes. I felt ambitious enough to make myself become stronger, and I would certainly need to learn some new spells.

One spell of Territory Magic entered my mind while staring at all of the ice, and I wondered if I could strengthen my energy waves to where they could become large orbs. If that was possible for me, then maybe I could be much stronger and have a higher chance of protecting Lucy. Lucy was my subordinate, regardless of her having much more confidence than me in that fight against Glacienne. Confident leaders who didn't have high levels of magical power were just going to make their teams get annihilated, and I wanted to have more strength that could compliment my confidence.

"Lucy, I won't let you get harmed again." I stated aloud with a determined facial expression, simply talking to myself.

That caused Lucy to reply with a happy smile on her face, before gently hugging me, "Thank you, Minerva-sama. I'm glad that you'll let me go on more fun jobs with you."

Upon hearing Lucy tell me that this job had been fun for her, I widened my eyes in a somewhat surprised manner. Lucy enjoyed being on this mission with me, even though it had been very dangerous? Even though she picked out this arduous task for us to handle, Lucy didn't even complain once about the extremely cold weather. The coldness n the air had been less important than completing the mission, which displayed to me that Lucy really did take dangerous missions very seriously. By fighting Glacienne like a dark witch who was determined to win by creating spells in the midst of a battle, Lucy showed me that she did want to be a dark witch instead of a fairy.

Since Lucy fought as hard as me and even combined her spells with mine during that fight, I felt impressed. The smile on my face started to reflect my feelings of being impressed, and I felt that Lucy would need to experience the rare reward of me letting her have most of that money. Even if I would let Lucy have 400,000 jewels from that job, her high amount of money wouldn't be much in comparison to the value of the diamond that I had acquired. Judging by how Fiora didn't view it as a mundane item, giving that gem to a jeweler would allow me to be rich.

There was a jeweler's store on one of the streets that had been behind the statue, and the gem itself had been right beside my left foot. I gently picked up the gem while smiling proudly, and I felt very glad that it would soon be sold. That caused me to slowly start walking away from the statue, only for Lucy to start following me as she happily smiled. Lucy started to gasp in an amazed manner from seeing the gem have the ice statue's light reflecting on to it, and she touched it with one finger to feel that the gem was very cold.

"This gem is very shiny, yet it's such an interesting kind of treasure." I stated to Lucy with a proud smile on my face, happy that it shined more as it was closer to the statue of ice.

Lucy asked me with a curious look on her face, smiling somewhat playfully, "Minerva-sama, shouldn't you sell it before someone tries to steal it from you?"

Upon turning around and seeing some other women share my opinion about how this gem had been very beautiful, I looked at those women with a miffed frown forming on my face. I didn't want any of them to think that they would even have the opportunity to steal this gem from my hand, prompting me to hurriedly walk away from the ice statue. Walking away from the ice statue allowed me to go down one street at a rapid pace, before turning to the right and going down another street until I reached the street where I had seen the gem shop.

The street that the gem shop had been on some came into view, and the building itself was a light blue rectangular building with gems on sale in the plain blue display window. After my eyes shifted away from the display window to the rectangular cerulean blue door, I simply pushed the door open and walked into the gem shop. The inside of the gem shop had light blue glass cases in different parts of the store while the azure blue carpeting went well with the sky blue walls, and the jeweler was a man with pale blue eyes. He also had pale blue spiky hair, which went well with his light blue tuxedo jacket.

I walked up to the jeweler with a nice smile on my face, hoping that he would tell me that this jewel had a high amount of value. He glanced at the jewel while having a stern look on his face, before putting one hand on the jewel and rubbing it. Rubbing the jewel only caused some frost to come off of it while the jewel's color did not change, which indicated that this was a real gem. He proceeded to open a dark blue book that was on the plain blue wooden counter, and the jeweler was turning pages to go through a list of gems.


In the jewelry store... (Lucy's POV)

As the jeweler was going through the list of gems, I turned away from the counter and glanced at some shelves that were near the glass cases. The plain blue shelves had light blue treasure chests on them, and the chests were opened up to interestingly display several blue gems that were on sale. I walked over to one of the treasure chests, and I smiled at some of the cobalt blue hexagon-shaped jewels that were very shiny. These cobalt blue jewels also sparkled, sparkling as beautifully as the admiral blue jewels.

The admiral blue jewels seemed like they would go well with some sapphire blue gems, which were also in the treasure chest. However, turning my head allowed me to see that there were sapphire blue gems in a nearby glass case. Going over to the glass case allowed me to be closer to the gems, only to see that they were associated with rings and necklaces. Seeing a sapphire blue necklace shine brightly beside a sapphire blue ring made me smile in a delighted manner, my eyes feeling somewhat mesmerized by the beauty of these accessories.

The temptation of buying the glittery and ring and the glistening necklace was quickly quelled by my own thoughts of insecurity, though. If I were to buy either one of these accessories for Minerva to wear, then would she be happy? There was the possibility that Minerva wouldn't be happy at what I chose to purchase for her, and that caused me to stumble a bit. I proceeded to walk over to a different glass case, which interestingly contained gems that were on bows. That seemed interesting, especially since gems weren't usually on the bows or ribbons that I would put in my hair.

However, Minerva didn't seem to wear ribbons. Based on that, she probably wouldn't like these accessories. Finding some accessories that Minerva would be a bit difficult, but I continued smiling as I went to a glass case that had been at the back of the store. This glass case had bracelets inside of it while they were all made from the gems themselves, and gently tapping my finger against the glass case caused its top lid to retract. That allowed me to get a closer look at the bracelets, which were in different hues of blue.

Upon seeing a neon blue bracelet that was made from circular gems and covered in Cerulean Cosmos flowers, I stated aloud with a happy smile on my face, "Wow, it's so beautiful!"

That caused the shopkeeper to calmly tell me, before looking down at his book and gasping in shock, "Those bracelets haven't been sold in months, but you can have them at normal price instead of thinking their expensive like-"

The jeweler stated with an astounded look on his face while his eyes shifted to Minerva's gem, "The Glacial Snow Gem! That's a priceless artifact that any jeweler would truly want! I'd have to buy it from you for 800,000 jewels!"

Minerva responded in a polite manner, sounding very happy, "I'll gladly accept that high amount of money for giving you this lovely gem."

At that moment, the sight of Minerva's gem made me start to have a look of inspiration on my face. I felt inspired to purchase the neon blue bracelet for Minerva, since it had been in the same shade of blue as that gem. Although, what shade of blue would my bracelet be? There wasn't another neon blue bracelet within this glass case, which meant that I would have to wear a different bracelet that would hopefully Minerva's neon blue bracelet. The bracelet that had been crafted from mint blue gems and had Cerulean Cosmos flowers on it seemed like an interesting choice, and my eyes stared at it for a few moments.

The mint blue bracelet seemed like it would go well with my amethyst purple ring, and the mint blue bracelet also wasn't as intensely blue as Minerva's bracelet. That prompted me to have a happy smile on my face at how my bracelet's shade of blue had less intensity than Minerva's neon blue bracelet, since Minerva was usually much more serious than me. She had even been serious enough to gather ingredients from places that were supposedly dangerous, and I really felt like Minerva deserved to perceive me as her subordinate during most of our moments together.

Being Minerva's sidekick on missions meant that I would have to follow her orders, but I felt very proud of my teammate for having much more confidence and being less insecure. As I saw Minerva confidently accept the massive bag of jewels from the shopkeeper who purchased her gem, my cheeks blushed light pink from seeing Minerva's lips form a smile of genuine confidence. The confidence in her smile, as well as in her eyes, was telling me that she was believing in herself. Minerva was believing that she could be triumphant, which caused me to giggle in a happy manner as my hands accidentally picked up the bracelets.

"You're wanting to buy those bracelets for us, Lucy?" Minerva asked me with a calm smile on her face, as she turned away from the shopkeeper to look at me.

That caused me to reply with a joyful smile on my face, feeling happy as both bracelets seemed very shiny, "Yes, Minerva-sama!"

Buying those bracelets would require me to spend 140,000 jewels, since the plain blue price tags on the bracelets informed me that each one would cost 70,000 jewels. They were just as expensive as my apartment's monthly rent, but being left with enough rent money that could cover the next eight months of my life caused me to have a satisfied smile on my face. I maintained my smile as I quickly walked up to the shopkeeper, who watched me quickly place the bracelets on the counter. The large bag of jewels had also been placed on the counter, and I looked over at Minerva.

Minerva also had a satisfied smile on her face from seeing which bracelets I had picked out, and she proceeded to gently pat my head. That caused us both to have a rose pink blush on our faces, since we both felt really close to each other on our love for fashion trends. Even if bracelets with flowers on them hadn't been a modern trend in Mauve Town, what would stop Minerva and I from preventing our bracelets from becoming trendy? The sight of the shopkeeper handing me the bracelets after taking out the necessary amount of money from the bag caused me to place Minerva's bracelet on her right wrist while mine was placed on my left wrist, and the fact that the flowers gave off sweet aromas as they touched each other caused us both to softly smile.

Smiling softly at Minerva caused me to blush more, since I really felt grateful that she did most of the work to cure us both of that sickness. Not only did Minerva and I enjoy eating those cupcakes together, but they also had the scent of Cerulean Cosmos flowers in them. Those flowers were so close to us right now, smelling lovely as Minerva also blushed more. In this moment, we both felt that it had been fun to shop together for jewelry and eat cupcakes that had flowers as one of the ingredients. As we both turned around to just glance at other pieces of jewelry that were as beautiful as our partnership, Minerva and I both felt like we could bond more over our shared interests.

How was Chapter 8? Feel free to tell me your thoughts on it. Minerva has helped Fiora cure the disease that afflicted her, as well as curing Lucy. Lucy may have given Minerva some jewelry as her little reward for going through so much trouble to improvise a medicinal cure, but Lucy will also have to learn to frequently be on the same wavelength as Minerva for a romance to occur. Lucy still has romantic feelings for Minerva, but Minerva isn't romantically reciprocating yet. Although, she may pay Lucy back for buying her some beautiful jewelry. Speaking of jewelry and gems, the leisurely quest and this chapter were meant to balance out the last chapter's immense tension.

Speaking of tension, Minerva and Lucy haven't overcome all of their insecurities yet. In fact, they may both end up feeling insecure as they try to keep themselves on the path of being confident. Gaining more confidence will also be necessary for Lucy in this arc, but that won't pertain to training with her magic. In fact, Lucy and Minerva may both need to keep their self-confidence in mind during the rest of this arc. By the way, this is the second part of the Cerulean Cosmos Arc! I'll update soon. :)

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