As mentioned at the end of Chapter 16, the plans for the weapons got expanded thanks to talking to Alzack and Bisca and are now as follows:
- Self-Loading Rifle Mark 1 (SLR-MK1) - 8.6x66mm - based on the FN FAL 50.62 metric pattern but with no folding stock and it has ebony wood furniture. This allows for the easy conversion into the Marksman variant. 18-inch barrel. Has an integrated picatinny style mounting rail on top. Feeds from 20-round mags.
- Self-Loading Rifle Mark 2 (Marksman) (SLR-MK2) - Based on the FN FAL 50.61 metric pattern but if it was combined with a SVD Dragunov rifle. 21-inch barrel. Has an integrated picatinny mounting rail on top. Feeds from 20-round mags
- Báleygr Arms Pistol 10mm (P10) - 10x28mm - based on the SIG P210 Target model with ebony wood grip. Feeds from a 14-round mag.
- Báleygr Arms Autorevolver (R10) - 10x28mm – based on the Mateba Model 6 Unica with the 8-inch barrel, with an ebony wood grip. Has a 6-round cylinder.
21st December – 05:38 AM
Natsu stood at his workbench in the basement of his manor, slowly assembling a prototype of his new self-loading rifle while he listened to music that was being played from a nearby portable stereo system.
He had acquired the materials that he needed to make the rifle from Saiko, who had followed his recipe for alloys and treatments to create the stock he needed to machine the various parts. Using the machinery that he had set up in his workshop, he had been able to create all the parts that he needed for the weapon, though he found that it was time consuming and would have an extremely low output volume of completed firearms. The barrel blanks were drilled, reamed and honed before being cold hammer forged with a polygonal rifling mandrel. Each part was nitride, chemically treated to ensure longevity but it also gave the full weapon the same black colour that his swords had. The ebony wood was sourced from a local storehouse whose contact information was provided by Saiko. These wooden blanks were put through Natsu's CNC machine and were perfectly shaped to the design he had inputted.
"Master, the ammo you asked for has been brought over from the plant." Henrietta announced gently, not wanting to disturb the man's concentration as he carefully assembled the weapon. "Incidentally… It seems that something has popped up overnight."
"Define 'popped up'…" Natsu murmured, turning his head slightly towards the android woman but not taking his eyes of the firearm-to-be.
"An identical but larger building has appeared next to the munitions plant. I had a look inside, and it seems to be an automated factory, which has likely already been tooled up for creating your weapons."
"Gods damn it, Ceres…" Natsu shook his head lightly. "She's probably been peeking into my mind or something. While I was working on this, I was thinking about how slow the process would be. Even if I had your mechanical bodies down here and working around the clock, we wouldn't be able to crank out a sufficient number of weapons and would quickly find ourselves unable to meet demand should they turn out to be fairy popular, or we get contracted by the kingdom to arm their forces."
"Do you think that they would do that?" Henrietta tilted her head slightly and took the cardboard box from the unit in the doorway and brought it to Natsu's workbench. It was filled with twenty-round boxes of 8.6mm FMJ ammunition, ready for shipment to stores.
"Once word start getting around, I won't be surprised. It's a high-powered rifle capable of semi-automatic fire and potentially automatic fire if I decide to put it in. And should hopefully be incredibly accurate if the user trains properly." Once Natsu had assembled the rifle, he dry fired it a few times and grimaced. The trigger felt horrible, it was too sloppy and sluggish for his liking as he loved quick and snappy pulls and resets. So, he quickly disassembled the weapon and removed the trigger package to make some modifications. "In the end, she probably foresaw issues arising and acted to prevent that from impacting us down the road. And probably so I wouldn't pester her about machinery."
"I see." The android watched the man assemble and disassemble the rifle a few times, testing the trigger and honing its setup to perfection. But after this happen a few times – to her surprise – she found herself becoming bored. Henrietta took a few ammo packs from the box and started loading some twenty-round magazines so the man could test the rifle. "Shall I make a call to the guild, to see if Mrs Connell is free? I think she might be interested in your prototype."
"When I've verified that it actually operates safely, then sure."
Natsu assembled the prototype firearm once more and tested the trigger by manually cycling the bolt, pulling the trigger, cycling it once more, and releasing before pulling again. He nodded with an appreciative smile and used multiple different gauges to check the spacing. Thankfully, all the clearances were spot on, not too loose but not too tight either, they were within his reasonably tight window of tolerance. With his satisfaction showing on his face in the form of a broad, pleased grin, he shouldered the rifle and used Macro to forcibly cycle the rifle as if it were firing live ammunition.
"Master?"
"Hm?"
"How is it?"
"She runs like a dream, but I'll need to use that ammo to be certain of it."
Natsu placed the weapon down and glanced at the woman while he made the amendments to his designs based on the prototype, happy to see that she was a step ahead of him. Once completed, he engraved the weapon with its information on the left and right side.
Báleygr Arms
Made in Fiore
SLR Mk 1 #0000X
8.6mm BA (.338)
After a quick field strip and application of graphite-based dry lubricant, he placed the rifle into a black leather rifle bag and fastened it down. He quickly slotted the magazines that Henrietta had loaded into its inner pouches then zipped up the bag and placed the cardboard box of munitions into his magical pocket dimension. "Instead of calling, let's have some breakfast and head there in person."
"Yes, Master. I'll inform Natsumi and Lelyanna of our departure when they awake."
07:00 AM
"Oh! Good morning, Natsu, Henrietta. You two are surprisingly early." Mira called out as the two of the newest members of Fairy Tail entered the guild hall. She waved at them enthusiastically from next to one of the tables, a cleaning cloth in her other hand.
"Morning, Mira." Natsu replied, kindly. Next to him, Henrietta offered the woman a small smile and a short nod. "You wouldn't happen to know when Bisca usually turns up?"
"The Connells generally turn up around eight-thirty since Asuka attends the guild's school. So you'll have to wait about an hour for them." When the barmaid received a curious look from the man, she smiled warmly and elaborated for the newcomer. "You see, since a lot of people find love in other members and have children, our guild offers an education for the little ones. On the weekdays, they come in and have classes on a variety of subjects from Mathematics to History, and even Social Studies. We also offer board for when the parents go out on jobs and need to leave their child behind."
"That's rather kind, but I can imagine that it could be a bit of a handful." Natsu chuckled lightly and rested his two large swords against the side of the table before taking a seat at it. He was quickly joined by both women who sat next to him and opposite him.
"Yeah, it can be sometimes. But I think they're pretty cute." Mira glanced at the leather bag and leaned in for a better look which earned a faint smirk from the pinkette across from her. "What have you brought along?"
"I wanted to get into the Arms Manufacturing business, mainly to make my personal weapons seem a little less strange." Natsu replied while laying the bag out on the tabletop. He quickly unzipped it and flipped it open to reveal his handiwork. "It's a rifle that loads itself from those detachable magazines."
"Like the rifle on my back." Henrietta added. "It's the same calibre too, but the ammo isn't compatible."
"Actually, I did make a little change to my design; an adjustable gas block. It'll allow me to actively adjust how much gas is being let into the system." Natsu glanced at the woman and tapped on the ebony handguard. "Figured it'd be useful for when people inevitably try and recreate the ammunition I've made for this gun, and don't get it correct. The last thing I want people to do is to blame the gun and me for their own purchasing mistakes."
"Do you think that could be a common issue?" Mira asked curiously.
"I'd rather be prepared and end up pleasantly surprised." Natsu sighed softly. "I've designed and built the weapons in such a way that they shouldn't detonate even if someone accidentally loads an over-pressured round. Which could easily be done by anyone trying to handload ammunition and mistakenly uses the wrong powder, say a pistol powder."
"You must know a fair bit about firearms, Natsu." Mira's eyebrows rose, she was shocked at the extent of the man's capabilities. "Though, I guess you did use them extremely often in your world, right?"
"I did, but that's not exactly the reason why I can do all this." Natsu smiled weakly and let out a gentle sigh. "You see, when I was picked up by the goddess Ceres after wandering the wasteland of my home world for about a month, she looked after me for a week before I was sent here, sent to Lelyanna. While I was up there, she pushed this strange crystal into my body and it melded with me. She told me it contained my world's knowledge."
"Woah."
"It's a pain to use since it gives me a migraine due to the amount of concentration to actively use it. Burns through my energy too." Natsu shook his head lightly and took the rifle from the bag, holding it out for the woman. "Here, check it out. Just don't point it at anyone."
"You'll have to forgive me." Mira gave the man an apologetic smile as she rose to her feet and haphazardly shouldered the rifle. "I don't have much experience with guns since I predominantly use my Demon Takeovers." Even as she said that, she gave it her best shot. She aimed the rifle at an empty corner of the hall and looked through the iron sights. "It feels like a gun."
Natsu subtly bit his tongue, restraining himself from making a toneless sarcastic remark and instead he rose from his seat and moved behind the woman. He brought his arms around the woman's shoulders and gently adjusted her hold on the rifle and where she had it resting against her shoulder. "I know it might be a bit hard getting used to the positioning and how it interferes with your body, but this is how you should hold it. Of course, it's not the only way, but it's the way I was trained."
"What's with the two leg things attached near the front?" Mira asked lightly, looking up at the man looming over her with a faint blush dusting her cheeks thanks to his warm body.
"It's a bipod, for stabilisation. You lower them into position and rest the rifle against something – the ground, for example – and it helps you keep the weapon stable while firing."
"Oh." Mira lifted the rifle's muzzle and turned to the man, offering him the weapon. "It seems a little weightier compared Bisca's rifles, but considering it's likely more complex, I shouldn't be surprised."
"It should only be about half a kilo more, or somewhere around there." Natsu replied. He placed the rifle back into the bag and strapped it down before zipping it shut again. "That depends on her weapons though, and the ammo and ammo capacity too."
"Well, is there anything I can get for you two? Something to eat or drink?" Mira asked politely as she gathered up her cloth.
"I'm good, thanks. We had breakfast before we left." Natsu turned to Henrietta and raised an eyebrow, silently asking for her answer.
"I'm good too." The android's cold eyes softened a little and she gave the barmaid a small smile. "Thank you for the offer."
"Well, if you change your mind, just shout out or come find me at the bar!" Mira cheered, offering them a quick wave before she continued on with her task of cleaning the tables.
"Let's go find a table in one of the corners." Natsu murmured to Henrietta. He collected up his swords and the rifle bag and started heading over to the far back corner with the android remaining close to him. They took a seat at a table nestled into one of the little alcoves along the wall where they had a clear view of the large front doors but weren't very noticeable.
Over the next hour, guild members slowly filed into the hall. Some gathered at tables, others to the bar, and one man stood in front of the notice board, seemingly deeply contemplating which job to take. Eventually, the family they were waiting for had finally arrived. Asuka waved to her parents and hurried to her friends before they headed through a door and to class. Alzack and Bisca made their way to the bar and spoke to Mira before she directed them to the corner of the room where Natsu and Henrietta sat.
"Good morning, Natsu, Henrietta." Alzack greeted the two newcomers, and Bisca offered a smile alongside her own greeting. They took a seat opposite the man and both watched him with eager eyes. "Mira was saying that you brought something we'd find interesting. It can't be one of those guns, right? It hasn't been that long."
"Well, the beautiful thing is, I'm only copying a design that had already existed in my world. Everything I needed to know design-wise and trial-and-error-wise had already been completed. All I needed to do was to follow existing schematics and create the parts, then assemble it and check if it actually works. I've yet to actually test it under live fire though. It's still a prototype right now, since I need to be certain that it'll function properly and factor in anything that crops up in the trials back into the design and following prototypes." Natsu lifted the rifle bag onto the table and turned it to face the two westerners. "I'll let you two unwrap it."
Without waiting even just a fraction of a second longer, Bisca's arms shot forth and she brought the bag in front of her. The zipper flew around the track and the woman eagerly flipped the leather case open. "Hot damn. She's a beauty." She let out a low whistle and lifted the all-black rifle with a gentleness of as if it was her own child.
"This is the Self-Loading Rifle, Mark One variant." Natsu informed the couple, pointing his index finger at the weapon. "The Mark Two has a different stock and a longer barrel, that's the Marksman's variant and it will be the one you'll be receiving. After out last conversation, I made some changes to my plans and added that second version to the list of weapons I'll be creating. Also, as I told you, Alzack, I've found a design for a self-cocking revolver called an Auto-revolver."
Bisca ran her eyes across the left side of the rifle and then the right. She quickly shot to her feet and shouldered the rifle, cycling it and pulling the trigger. "Oh, that feels so good! It's light but not a hair trigger."
"Pull the bolt and release it without letting go of the trigger."
"Alright." The greenette did as the man had instructed, and she grinned when she felt the trigger set then release. "I really want to go shoot this thing right now."
"I figured as much." Natsu grinned and waved his hand over the bag to draw the woman's attention down to the loaded magazines. "We've prepared eight magazines for testing, and I've got a lot of ammo in my Requip storage so we can test it properly."
"Hell yeah! Let's get this baby warmed up and put through her paces!" Bisca placed the rifle back into the bag and swung it over her shoulder once she had zipped it up. "Come, come!"
"Is she usually this enthusiastic?" Henrietta asked curiously. She glanced between Alzack and Natsu with an eyebrow raised.
"Sometimes." Natsu gave the ashen-haired maid a small grin.
"Yeah, she's like a kid with a new toy when you give her a new gun. Asuka gets her adorableness from Bis." Alzack agreed with a hearty laugh. He stood up and waved for Natsu and Henrietta to follow them. "We'll take you to our little shooting range."
"Alright." Natsu rose to his feet and joined the two westerners on the other side of the table. He sensed Henrietta taking her usual position just a little behind and to the side of him. "Lead the way."
Natsu trudged through the snowy forest, following not far behind the Connells, and with Henrietta right behind him. The green-haired woman's giddiness had subsided a little bit during the walk, at least outwardly.
"Here we are." Bisca stepped out into an artificial clearing with stumps littered all around. There were circular metal targets mounted to wooden beams every ten metres out to fifty metres, and then every fifty metres out to four-hundred metres down the length of the clearing. There was room for more targets further along the deforested area, but they hadn't bothered setting up anything beyond the four-hundred metre mark. "It's not much, but it's out of the way."
"It looks like a forestry company has been here." Natsu murmured as he came up beside the woman. He looked around the clearing with narrowed eyes. "But I don't hear anything nearby, aside from animals. What happened?"
"The city council outlawed the deforestation of this forest for resources, and they implemented reforestation goals to recover what had been chopped down." Alzack replied. He walked over to a nearby wooden shelter and took a seat on the wooden bench. "Of course, this was before Asuka was born. I think it was about eight or nine years ago."
"Natsu, I wanted to say…" Bisca's voice turned sombre as she turned to the man with tears beginning to form in her eyes. "We weren't around to hear your story, since we needed to return to Asuka. But we heard about you and Lucy from Natsumi and Lucy… How, umm, you lost your wife and child. Children, if you count Happy…"
"Bisca, thanks for your sympathies… But please leave that subject alone." Natsu gently requested and he let out a dejected sigh. He took the rifle bag from the woman and knelt down at a stump that had been marked with paint. "That's a wound that I don't want reopened. And I'll be honest with you two, as bright and helpful as Lucy has been, and how eager she is to help me. I can't help but see my wife in her, I want to distance myself but at the same time, I don't want to do that… I can't help but to be in love with her and it pains me that there has to be a distance between us… but I won't force her to love me just because Lucy had loved me."
"Yeah, I can understand that." Alzack leaned forward on his seat and rested his arms on his knees. "If I lost Bis and Asuka then ran into Bisca in another world, I'd be in a pretty rough shape."
"She's had the best and worst impact on me. But the rest of you do impact me too. Though, that depends on how long it has been since my versions of you guys have died." Natsu removed the rifle from the bag and loaded it then rested the weapon against the stump and removed his swords and coat, resting them against Alzack's bench so they wouldn't get in his way. "Anyway, that's enough about my personal issues. I'll run a few mags through this baby and get the gas valve correctly adjusted, then you two can take some shots and see what you think of it."
The pinkette picked up the rifle and took a knee in front of the stump. He let out a slow breath of air while aiming at the 200-metre target. With the gentle pull of the trigger, he sent the rifle's first bullet downrange but missed the target. He clicked his tongue, visibly annoyed by the performance but he just adjusted the sights and tried again. Slowly but surely, he brought the rounds onto the target and got them to hit exactly where he was aiming.
"Alright, sights are zeroed in… but she's slamming the bolt back a little too hard." Natsu murmured to himself. Without even thinking about it, he slowly adjusted settings of the regulator knob at the end of the gas block then fired some more rounds, slowly dialling it in until the action was buttery smooth. Once it was sorted, he marked out the position of the knob for the Standard marker. The set-up for the Adverse setting would come later after the rifle had significant carbon build-up.
"This might be a bit of an obvious thing, but you really know your way around guns." Bisca noted, her gentle voice laced with admiration. She leaned over the man's right shoulder and watched him work, trying to burn the process into her memory.
"At this point, I don't even have to think about it. Yes, it's an old design by my standards, but it got to the point where the manual of arms was fairly similar no matter what weapon you picked up. Speaking of which…" Natsu glanced over his shoulder and flicked the rifle onto safe so he could talk to the woman properly. "I'll be writing up a booklet for these weapons that'll be included with their sales. It basically explains how to properly operate and maintain the specific weapon."
"Master, do you mind if I make use of this range while we're here?" Henrietta asked lightly while unslinging her rifle from her back. "I've got FMJs loaded and not AP ammo, though I decided it would be best to carry both for situations that call for greater penetration."
"Alright, just be sure that you don't accidentally use the Armour Piercing ones, I'd rather not ruin their targets."
"You know… I'm kinda curious to see how good you are." Bisca turned her attention to the maid and she placed her hands on her hips. "Point blanking zombies is one thing, but I want to see you hit the farthest target."
"Five-hundred metres?" Henrietta glanced at the westerner, seeking clarification. When she got a nod from the woman, she fluidly raised the rifle while slipping it off safe and into full-auto. It had barely settled into her shoulder before she let loose a barrage of gunfire. Due to her strength and posture, the gun barely moved more than a millimetre or two, and due to her ingrained skill with weaponry, each bullet impacted the distant target with loud dings.
"Show off." Natsu smirked at his maid then he glanced up at Bisca, only to see that she was practically salivating over the rifle's capabilities. "I'm hesitant to include the configure the trigger pack for full-automatic fire into these rifles since it takes more practice to keep them under control and is a bit of a waste of ammo, but what do you-"
"Put it in!" Bisca immediately rounded on the man and vehemently demanded the modification be made.
"Alright, alright." Natsu held his hands up and chuckled softly. "I'll design a new trigger pack for these rifles so they can select semi-automatic and full-automatic firing modes. Just like her rifle." He rose to his feet and handed the rifle over to the greenette. "Anyway, I've dialled her in. And since it doesn't seem like it'll blow up, you might as well have some fun with it."
"Yes! Finally!" Since she had been watching Natsu carefully, Bisca was mostly familiar with the rifle and was able to find the magazine release quickly and slot in a fresh mag. She flicked off the safety and shouldered the rifle, taking a moment to carefully aim at the hundred metre target before squeezing the trigger. The rifle thumped against her shoulder and she let out an erotic shivering gasp. "I think I'm in love."
"Try not to make a mess of yourself." Natsu rolled his eyes but couldn't stop himself from smiling at the gun-happy mage. He left the two women at the firing range and took a seat next to Alzack. "About your revolver; I'll try and get the schematics sorted out soon but it'll take a little bit longer. I've got to work on the Mark Two version of that rifle, the Marksman variant, and then I want to get the pistol sorted out."
"I wanted to talk to you about that, anyway." Alzack tilted his head towards the pinkette but kept his eyes on his wife, his lips spread in a content smile. "I have lacrima bullets that I handload into casings, which allow me to use a wide variety of magic at range. I was wondering if you could give me the diagram for the new ammo and a loading chart. I'm happy to buy the casings and powder off you too, of course. Bisca's the same, so if we could have those rifle cartridges too?"
"Yeah, I can supply you with both standard FMJs and the casings and powder you need to do your own magic bullets. Of course, both will be discounted, as I mentioned last time." Natsu casually wave his hand and threw a quick grin at the man. He summoned his tablet-like terminal and brought up his schematics in holographic format. Since he had all potential parts already individually designed, it was just a matter of switching out the trigger pack with the select-fire version. While he was at it, he brought up the Mk2 variant and made the changes from earlier that morning and also incorporated the select-fire pack into the design. "Alright. Since the Mark One seems to be working pretty well, I might prototype the Mark Two next while pushing the first one into production…"
"How are you going to make them?" Alzack asked curiously. He finally took his eyes off his wife to look at the man with a raised eyebrow.
"I was originally planning on doing it in the workshop I've got set up in my basement, which is where I built that prototype. But I realised I wouldn't have the manufacturing volume to meet contractual obligations should various city guard groups and the Fiorian military decide to arm themselves with them. So, in her legitimate infinite wisdom, Ceres decided to plop a carefully camouflaged autonomous manufacturing plant in my estate. All I need to do is to provide the schematics and materials and it will do the rest."
"Damn." The black-haired man let out a crisp whistle. "I'm guessing it was something from your world?"
"Yeah. Most likely." Natsu collapsed the projection into a two-dimensional image on the tablet's surface and switched to the pistol he was planning on making. "I haven't had the chance to look at it yet. Since it magically appeared while I was in my basement this morning; Henrietta noticed it when one of her clockwork bodies went to grab the box of ammo…" He trailed off, only just remembering that he didn't bring the cardboard box full of ammunition out from his pocket dimension. The box of ammo appeared at his feet and he used Macro to send it over next to the stump then called out to the gunslinger. "Bisca, that box has more ammo for when you run out. You'll just have to load them into the magazines; Henrietta can show you how to do it, if you need it."
"Thanks!" Bisca shouted over her shoulder. She kept her eyes on the target and continued to fire the rifle, shot after shot, until it clicked empty and she had to load in a new magazine. "Damn! This is making me want to try out your maid's rifle!"
"I mean, if you don't mind damaging your targets, you can fool around with my sniper rifle. Maybe I'll show you the anti-materiel rifle too."
"Now you've even got my attention." Alzack chuckled while Bisca spun around on the balls of her feet with the rifle's muzzle safely pointed to the ground.
"Gimme!"
Natsu let out a light-hearted sigh and with a playful reluctance, he placed the terminal down on the bench and stepped out from under the cover. First, he summoned his SR32 and held it out to the woman. "It currently has armour-piercing ammo loaded in it, so it's going to punch through your targets. If I'm being honest, I'd probably just aim for the tree trunks, just so you don't get holes in the steel."
"Alright." Bisca placed the SLR into the rifle bag and moved it onto the ground before she took the rifle. Once she finally got to hold the SR32, she quickly deployed the bipod and rested it atop the stump. "How does this sight work?"
"It's probably not the best one to start out with, since it's a smart scope that has a rangefinder and can zero itself with the click of a button on the handguard…" Natsu murmured to himself but he knelt down beside the woman and ran her through how to operate the rifle and its attachments. Once he was done, he left a few magazines worth of ammo on the stump and headed to the next one over. His largest rifle, with the barrel alone measuring at 38-inches long, appeared with its muzzle to the sky in his right hand. It instantly drew the attention of both Connells as the rifle was almost as long as Bisca was tall.
Alzack shot forward on the bench and looked on with wide eyes, shouting, "Holy crap, that thing is fucking massive!"
"What the fuck does that thing even fire?!" Bisca cursed and both she and Alzack covered their mouths. "Thank goodness that Asuka is in school and didn't hear that…"
"Yeah…" Alzack let out an awkward chuckle and shook his head. "Anyway, Natsu. Is that the rifle you were talking about, your largest?"
"Yeah. This is the Special Purpose Sniper Rifle 14.5mm, it's an anti-materiel rifle which I used against light armoured vehicles and heavily armoured soldiers wearing exoskeletons." The pinkette detached the magazines and held it out for both of them to see. It contained multiple large bullets that had multiple colours on the tips. "It is chambered for a 14.5x120mm cartridge with a multipurpose bullet. There is no lead-alloy in this besides the baseplate of the bullet. It's just a copper shell, with an incendiary compound in the tip, a high-explosive compound behind that, and a tungsten-carbide penetrator behind that. Both the penetrator and the explosive compound are encased in a mild steel cup with even more incendiary in the form of a zirconium powder shell between the cup and contents. In layman's terms; it blows shit up from the inside. And that's before I apply my curses to it."
"And you've used that against people…?" Bisca asked slowly, her eyes glued to the bullets contained within the magazine.
"War is hell." Natsu shrugged. "You see people blown apart every day. And as I said; I can actually make these things even more explosive and incendiary thanks to my Bomb and Fire curses." He turned the magazine to himself and looked at the ammunition with his face lightly scrunched up in contemplation. "You know… It's probably not a good idea to fire these things off inside a forest, even if it is winter and there's snow everywhere…" Natsu hummed lightly and looked at the treeline. After a few moments of silence, he slotted the magazine into the weapon with a devious grin and took off the suppressor. "But Fuck It."
The three other members of the group watched on with a mixture of emotions; Bisca and Alzack were both concerned yet curious, while Henrietta was mildly amused by the situation. The pinkette shouldered the massive rifle while standing, his grin slowly turning savage as he looked down the scope at an innocent tree.
BOOM
A violent concussive blast burst from the rifle's muzzle break and kicked up some snow yet the man didn't even budge nor did he allow the muzzle to climb. In the distance, a tree's trunk was blown to splinters and it came crashing to the ground.
BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM
Six more casings flew from the side of the rifle, and six more trees were harmed in the demonstration. Natsu lifted the muzzle to the sky once more and admired his handiwork with the rifle held in his right hand. "Hey, if a tree fell in the woods but nobody was there to see it, did it really fall?"
"No, it was blown apart by some salmon-haired bastard with a massive cannon disguised as a rifle." Alzack looked at the carnage with shock and disbelief written all over his face. If he hadn't seen it first hand, he'd have though whoever told him what happened was full of shit. "How the hell did you not get rocked about by that damn thing?"
"I'm even less human that Natsumi is." Natsu threw the remark over his shoulder like it was nothing. He loaded a fresh magazine into the rifle and chambered the first round but instead of levelling it on the treeline once more, he sent it away. After a quick glance at Bisca – who looked like a kid who had just had her lollipop taken from her – and he gave her an apologetic smile. "Sorry Bisca, that one will probably dislocate your shoulder."
"God damn it…" The woman whined. "I feel like I got brought right up to the edge of an amazing orgasm, only to be left tied up and left hanging there on the edge."
"What, is that sniper rifle not satisfying enough for you?" Natsu smirked and pointed to his SR32 that was being held in her limp arms. "Anyway, once you burn through those magazines, bring it to me and I'll put it away. I want you to get a good feel for the SLR and give me your feedback – and I don't mean giving it full-auto. I want to know about accuracy and whether I should put a rubber butt-pad at the end of the stock to dampen some of the shock going into the shoulder."
"I think that's for the best." Bisca nodded quickly, snapping out of her fervour and looking between the rifle in her hands and the SLR sitting in the bag. "This one is more comfortable to shoot, even if it packs a greater punch. It just feels like it is better absorbed by whatever's going on with the design of it."
"Alright, I think I'll make that change for the Marksman variant, an adjustable back and top so it can be configured to the user. And it's not like people aren't going to customise the guns however they want anyway, that's why I went for the version that had all the internals contained within the body and not having anything coming down into the stock." Natsu took a seat at the bench and grabbed his terminal. He quickly made the changes to the stock's design and added a slot inside the grip section of the thumbhole stock for a hex tool to adjust the extension of the rubber pads.
"Well, while she plays with your rifle, I'm going to test out the SLR and get a feel for it for myself." Alzack rose to his feet and hurried to the rifle bag. He carried it to another stump and readied the rifle. While his movements weren't as fluid as his wife's, he still competently operated the firearm and began to take slow shots at the fifty-metre target.
Smoke began to rise from the tree line as the trees felled by the SPSR smouldered and eventually caught fire. Natsu groaned at the sight and shot off the bench. "Ah Fuck. Can you guys stop firing for a bit while I go and deal with that? I'd rather not have to be dodging bullets while putting out fires."
23rd December – 11:00 AM
The large grandfather clock that sat near the door of Natsu's office rang eleven times as the door opened and a woman dressed in white with gold ornaments entered the room.
"I was wondering, Natsu, would you like to join me on one of my errands?" Lelyanna asked. She met Natsu's gaze, who was sat behind his desk, and her eyes narrowed at the dark half-moons under his eyes. "You haven't been sleeping well, have you?"
"I've been managing a few hours every night, so it's not like I'm getting no sleep at all." Natsu scratched the back of his head and gave the woman a weak smile. He rose from his chair and walked around his desk, coming to a stop in front of the young priestess. "Honestly, I'm feeling a little lonely. And I don't mean physically…"
"Ah… Christmas, right?" Lelyanna murmured, closing her eyes as she came to that realisation. She didn't even need to hear or see the answer from the man, not that he gave one after she so accurately guessed his issue. "This will be the first one you'll be having without them, so I can understand what's got you in a rut."
"It's not all bad." Natsu replied as he placed his hand over his mouth to stifle a yawn. He turned his head to look at a glass cabinet that stood in the corner of the room, behind his desk. "Thanks to it, I managed to complete my prototypes and ensure that all four weapons function flawlessly. And I was able to set the manufacturing plant to automatously produce the weapons. It all went smoother than I was originally expecting."
"That's all good and well…," Lelyanna huffed gently and covered the man's eyes with her hands, which quickly took on a pale turquoise radiance as she removed the physical evidence of the man's fatigue. "But you really need to get more rest. Even if you have to come into my room and slip into my bed while I'm asleep, I don't mind." She slid her hand down his head and rested them on his shoulders as she looked up at the man's cold dark-green eyes with a gentle smile. "Anyway, back to my question; I'm heading out to a noble's estate here in Magnolia, she lives a little higher up from here and closer towards the lake."
"Alright, I'll come along." Natsu stepped away from the woman and collected up his weapons, though he didn't put them on with the exception of his knife and pistol, instead he sent them into storage with Requip. As he grabbed his coat from the hanger beside the door, he looked over to the ashen-haired maid stood nearby. "Look after the place while I'm gone."
"Of course, Master. It is my duty, after all." Henrietta bowed her head with a smile.
"Have you got everything you need, Anna?" Natsu turned his attention back to the bluish-silver-haired woman. His heavy coat gave of a magic-induced flash of white light and vanished, leaving the man empty-handed.
"Yes. I incorporated the medical kit you had lent me back at that farmstead to supplement my magic but didn't ask for it back. Most of what I do is magic-based anyway, though ever since you taught me how to use Requip magic, it has made house calls much easier." Lelyanna flashed the man a warm smile, her subtly painted lips pulling back and revealing her pristine white teeth. Ever since she met Natsumi, and now Lucy, she had started to become more conscious of her own appearance and had them teach her how to use various cosmetics. She had even begun to try out some of the fragrances that she found in Natsu's world, with instruction from her two new friends. "Are we taking your car or motorcycle?"
"I've been wanting to take Nightingale for a spin, so we can take that. But you might be a little bit cold." Natsu looked down at the archbishop's dress that had on. "Don't you get a coat with that?"
"No." Lelyanna replied with a shake of her head. Her wavy silver bob had grown since they first met and now brushed against her shoulders, it tickled a little but she wanted to try growing it out again. "Not a coat but we do have a full cloak instead of this capelet. I'll put it on once we're at the estate, just so it won't get caught in the wheel."
"You can just sit on it if you don't care about creases or you can gather it up between us."
The priestess tilted her head in thought, her eyes becoming a little unfocused as she stared at the man. "Alright." She conceded, giving the man a single nod before a white cloak appeared in her hands and she fastened it around her neck. The cloak had a tapered hem, stopping at the knees at the front but coming down to half a dozen centimetres above her ankles at the back, and it had the same golden ornamentation as her capelet. "I'm ready to go."
With a quick nod, Natsu led the way out of the office and down through the manor then out to his detached garage. Instead of his helmet, he requiped a pair of black-framed aviator sunglasses onto his face which had lenses with a rich tint that matched his hair as he sat down on his bike. "We're not going fast, so don't worry about the helmet."
Lelyanna brought her veiled hood up and collected up her cloak. She took a seat behind the pinkette and secured the garment between their bodies by slipping her arms around the man's waist. "Ok, let's go."
Nightingale almost silently whirled to life and Natsu steered the superbike out onto the road. Once they were out of the estate, Lelyanna quietly guided him through the streets while keeping close to him to ward off the chilly wind. Thankfully, it hadn't snowed that morning and the skies were clear, so they weren't in any danger on the roads with the powerful motorcycle. But even if it had, she had the utmost faith in the man's ability to control their vehicle after her nerve-racking high-speed run down the ruined highway and the jump into the carrier back in Natsu's home world.
When they got close to the front gate of the Noble's estate, Lelyanna pointed it out and Natsu pulled up to the gate which had a guard in a long charcoal grey winter coat and matching hat standing in a nearby gatehouse. As the man approached the bike, Lelyanna checked the small white gold watch on her wrist, it was one that she had gotten from a store in Natsu's world, one that she fell in love with at first sight and looked great on her wrist. Though thanks to the pinkette's influence, she had taken to wearing it with the watch face on the inside of her wrist. "Good morning, Albert. Lady Elenore is expecting me."
"Ah, my apologies, Lady Lelyanna." The middle-aged man took of his hat and bowed his head to the archbishop, revealing his well-maintained black hair that had been clipped short on the sides but kept longer on top and slicked back with just a minor amount of clay used to keep it in place. "I'll call ahead to let the Lady know that you've arrived." Albert bowed his head once more before donning his hat and returning to his little booth. He pulled the lever for the gate and picked up the telephone, using the internal line to contact the main house.
Natsu didn't wait around to listen to the man though, he twisted the throttle slightly and eased forward. The powerful electric motor whirled faintly as he took off up the sweeping driveway. "What's the woman like?"
"Lady Elenore is pretty gentle, her husband and two daughters aren't that bad either, but their son is a bit…"
"A bit of a fucking bastard, I'm guessing."
"More of a spoilt slimy sleaze, but yes. The kind of guy who thinks he owns the world and can buy anything because his parents are rich nobles. He even tried to buy me like a common whore, and promptly got slapped. He's been caught stalking me numerous times but the guards can't really do anything about it because he's from a noble family."
"He wouldn't happen to be the troublemaker that you told me about when I came to this world?"
"Yes… That's him."
"Well, let's hope he doesn't find out that you've got a pistol hidden under your arm." Natsu chuckled lightly. He pulled under the porte-cochere where a woman with light-blue hair and an expensive-looking dress, which covered everything from the neck down, stood waiting for them at the top of the short flight of stairs between the driveway and the door.
"Oh my, Lelyanna, who's this you've brought with you?" Elenore tittered as she descended the stairs and approached the bike. "And on such an unusual vehicle…"
"This is a friend of mine called Natsu, he's a Jaeger that I've been working with to help those who are further afield." Lelyanna replied with a glance up at the woman. She hopped off Nightingale and smoothed out her clothing before lifting her head to meet the taller woman's gaze through her veil. "He goes by the professional name Báleygr. He isn't from Fiore but came here after his country was destroyed by war, this is one of the possessions he brought with him. As for the uniqueness of his motorcycle, it's a custom one that he made, he's quite the inventor in his spare time."
"Well, do come in, both of you." Elenore stood aside. "I'll have some lunch sorted out for us so we can eat after the check-up." She waved a hand to the door, where an attendant stood waiting. With a brief nod, they disappeared into the building.
Natsu backed the bike out of the way and climbed off it. He followed two steps behind the priestess, a flash of light briefly obscuring his body as his coat was summoned with Requip. Now that he was out of the sun, the lenses of his sunglasses began to lighten which revealed his eyes albeit with a pink tint. This caught the eyes of both women who were walking side-by-side and they stared at the glasses with a modest amount of awe. "Yes?"
"What kind of glasses are those?" Elenore asked curiously, leaning in closer to the man and looking at the lenses.
"The lenses are coated with a photochromic chemical that allows them to lighten and darken depending on the amount of sunlight hitting them." Natsu gave his reply with a disinterested glance at the woman. "Useful for wearing inside and outside."
"He doesn't actually need them to see." Lelyanna told Elenore as she let them into her manor. "His vision and attention to detail are fantastic, he's been able to spot things in the distance well before I've noticed them."
"So, you're a Jaeger who hails from another country? I won't ask your reasons for coming to our fine country, but you seem a bit more, how shall I say it… regal, when compared to most Jaegers I've seen."
"I wouldn't describe myself as that." Natsu replied, shaking his head lightly. "I was able to scrounge up some precious materials from the ruins of my country which allowed me to build up some cash here while also working as a Jaeger, I was recently able to buy a manor on an estate nearby and have been using the remainder of my cash to build up some businesses to have some passive cashflow."
"He's good at what he does, too." Lelyanna jumped in without hesitation. "He did some work for the church under a contract from me. It's one of the reasons why I trust him with my safety outside Magnolia, or within if I'm heading to dangerous districts. And… I agree with him, regal isn't exactly what I'd describe him as either." The priestess' subtly painted lips spread into a wide smile. "In his own words; who better to send to kill monsters than another monster."
"But you don't look like a monster to me." Elenore tilted her slightly, looking back at the man as she led the group into her private chambers for her check-up. "You look like a normal man to me."
"I think we should end this conversation here; my personal information isn't necessary to the check-up you're having with Lelyanna. I'm merely here as a friend of the archbishop, and a means of travel for her."
"Very well." The noblewoman moved behind a foldable privacy screen with the priestess in tow, and she removed her outer garments.
Natsu remained by the door and leaned against the wall. He felt the familiar sensation of Lelyanna's magic, which was laced with a divinity that one wouldn't recognise unless they had met a deity themselves.
"Are you the only one home?" Lelyanna asked curiously, keeping her voice quiet while she trailed her glowing fingertips down the woman's body, using her magic to scan the woman.
"Theodore is away on business in Crocus, Diane and Elizabeth are home on holidays from university, and Sebastian is somewhere in the city; I gave up trying to keep tabs on him."
Natsu turned his head slightly, shifting his focus behind him. They were on the third floor of the manor, and true to the woman's words; he could sense two women that were similar to Elenore on the same floor as them. He felt a spike of disgust come from Lelyanna at the mention of the last person's name, and he suspected that was the son she was talking about – the troublemaker.
"I'm thankful that he isn't home. I could do without his advances every time I'm here." Lelyanna let out a relived sigh. "And it's probably for the best that he isn't here. If Natsu picks up that I feel threatened and unable to control the situation, he'd instantly step in and Sebastian would undoubtably come off poorly."
"I get that he's a Jaeger, but Sebastian has been boxing since he was a little boy… I doubt he'd struggle much. His father made sure his heir was worth of succession, even if it turned him sour."
"Natsu's a former soldier. He served his country and watched it crumble around him as his loved ones fell one-by-one. He's exceptionally powerful, physically and magically. I wouldn't even call it a fight. If he was so inclined, he could kill Sebastian in the blink of an eye. But even if he's a sleaze, it's not enough of a reason for Natsu to do something so extreme as to kill him. He'd toy with Sebastian, knock him around a little bit, but providing I'm not harmed then Sebastian won't have any lasting injuries."
Elenore peeked around the end of the dressing screen, looking at the pinkette and drawing his attention. His eyes were still mostly obscured by the glasses but she noticed an overwhelming coldness emanating from them now that her attention had been brought to the kind of man he was. "I see."
"I thought I said we should end the conversation about me." Natsu muttered before raising his voice as he addressed the women. "Lady Elenore, it's for the best that your thoughts don't dwell on me. While it is true what Lelyanna has told you, that I'm a very dangerous man, it's not something that concerns you."
"And in the event that Sabastian does something?"
"The matter will be resolved with the appropriate amount of force, nothing more." He replied emotionlessly, removing his gaze from the woman and looking out the windows on the opposite side of the room.
"You seem to be healthy, Elenore. But I'm guessing this lump on your back between your right shoulder and neck is what you called me here for?"
"Yes." Elenore replied as she pulled back behind the partition. "What is it?"
"It's a cyst; basically, a sac that feels to be filled with some semi-solid material. I can get rid of it but I'll need to make an incision into your skin and take it out."
"What does that involve, exactly…?" The noblewoman asked hesitantly.
"I'll sanitise my hands and the area around where I'll be working, then numb the local area with my magic, make the incision and remove the cyst, make sure it's all clean and clear inside where it was and finally, I'll seal it up with my magic and remove the anaesthetic."
"Okay… I'm ready."
Natsu crossed the room and stood by the window, gazing out at the city beyond. He picked up on a small spike of Lelyanna's magic, she must have begun the operation. The curious lack of the ticking that plagued the city caught the man's attention, and he slightly turned his head towards the divider. "Elenore, you don't have any automatons, do you?"
"Nope, can't stand the way they look." The woman replied honestly. "All my staff are living beings, not mechanical fakes. And you?"
"I prefer having mechanical ones. But while I do find their appearances off-putting, I trust them more than having people I don't know staff my home, loose lips and whatnot."
"And out it comes…" Lelyanna announced lightly. "I just need make sure it's clear in there and then I can seal it up."
"It's going surprisingly well."
"Natsu managed to scavenge a bunch of medical journals from his old country and has allowed me to read them, I've learned a bunch of new techniques from them and incorporated what I can into my repertoire."
"That's nice of him."
"And- we're done!" Lelyanna gleefully declared. "It sealed up nicely and there is no sign that it was even there to begin with." The woman came out from behind the divider and approached Natsu with a bundled-up piece of paper in her hands. "Could you please incinerate this, Natsu." She placed the bundle on Natsu's outstretched hand and stepped back. In the blink of an eye, the paper and organic matter were reduced to ash. "Thank you."
Elenore stepped out from behind the privacy screen, her dress haphazardly covering her body as she excitedly hurried to her walk-in wardrobe. She was eager to wear something that let her skin breathe, instead of having to cover up the ugly lump that had developed on her body.
"All sorted?"
"Yes!" Lelyanna smiled broadly at the man. "It was very simple and there were no complications, thankfully. I'll go pack up and we can have lunch before heading out." She glanced at the wardrobe to see if Elenore had come back, and when she saw that she hadn't, her smile turned playful. She turned her gaze back to the man and shot up onto her toes, stealing a quick kiss from Natsu before hurrying back behind the divider.
Elenore returned shortly after, donning a long light-blue pleated dress with white lace shoulders and sleeves. It displayed her shoulders while also obscuring them with thin fabric. "Finally, I don't have to restrict what I wear due to that unsightly bump." The noblewoman clapped her hands together and turned to Natsu with a smile. "How do I look?"
"It suits you." Natsu replied blandly. He spared the woman the briefest of glances before returning his attention to the scenery beyond the window.
"Is that all?" The blunette leaned in, emphasising her breasts but she was unsuccessful in drawing the man's attention back to her.
"Don't expect to get much out of him, Elenore."
Lelyanna's gentle words put a stop to the woman's advances and she shot a sidelong glance at the priestess. "Does he swing the other way?"
"No," Lelyanna shook her head gently and walked to the man's side, placing her hand against the top of his left arm. "He lost his wife not long ago, at the climax of his war." When the man narrowed his eyes at her, she offered him a small but kind smile and turned her attention to the noblewoman. "You won't get much out of him, because someone like you – who has only just met him – would never be able to draw much out of his tough shell. It's a defence mechanism, developed from the extensive losses he has suffered."
"Lelyanna." Natsu growled softly, yet for all the ferocity of those bared fangs, there was no hostility coming from the man.
"I see…" Elenore straightened her back and a faint smile spread across her lips. "Your bond is that of mutual trust; you trust him to protect you and in turn, he trusts you to look after his wellbeing."
"Anyway," Lelyanna clapped her hands together and smiled brightly. "How about that lunch that you were talking about?"
"Yes. It should be done by now." The noblewoman nodded quickly and she hurried to the door, her heels clacking against the polished oak floor. She asked her guests to wait by the stairs as she headed along the hall and knocked on a door to one of the nearby rooms. "Di, Liz, come down and have some lunch, we've got guests."
""Coming!"" Two voices called out from beyond the closed door. It opened a moment later and two girls who seemed just a couple of years younger than Lelyanna emerged from within, one had light-blue hair like Elenore while the other had blonde hair with a faint blue tint. Their eyes flicked to the guests stood at the top of the stairs and they instantly recognised the young archbishop.
"Oh, good afternoon, Lady Lelyanna." The blonde said, cheerfully, and her sister offered her smile before greeting the woman herself.
"Who's the hottie?" The blunette asked, turning her attention from the cloaked woman to the man next to her.
Lelyanna tilted her head up towards the pinkette, cocking a hidden eyebrow as a cattish smirk danced across her lips. "This is a friend of mine, called Natsu. But his professional name as a Jaeger is Báleygr. Natsu, the blonde is Diane and the blunette is Elizabeth."
"Let's talk over lunch." Elenore ushered her daughters to the stairs, prompting them to hurry to the dining room.
Natsu and Lelyanna followed the women down the stairs and to the first floor. When they entered the dining room, the food had already been laid out on the expensive and heavy-looking table made from mahogany wood. A blonde attendant seated all four women one-by-one, respectfully letting Lelyanna keep her cloak on and her veiled hood raised. When she reached Natsu, she held up her hands with a smile.
"Allow me to take your coat."
"It might be a bit on the heavy side since it has an armoured lining between the inner and outer layers." Natsu warned the woman but allowed her to take it from him. The ghost of a grin danced across his lips as the attendant slumped forward against his back.
"My apologies." The woman tried to push herself off the man but her body was sluggish to reply to her will, reluctantly moving away from the man's incredible warmth. She hung the coat on the back of a chair and pulled out another, positioning the pinkette next to the priestess. "We've prepared salmon salad for lunch."
"Thank you for inviting us to stay for lunch." Lelyanna smiled at Elenore and bowed her head in thanks.
"Thank you for the food." Natsu added in a gruff yet polite voice.
As the five of them made a start on their lunch, Natsu tried to maintain some semblance of table manners since he was in the presence of nobles. He was drawing on what he had been taught by Lucy for when they had the chance to dine in high-class restaurants with notable members of society that were friends of her family. He was a little rusty, but that was to be expected since he had spent many years at war, there weren't many times that he could take his wife out to restaurants that had multiple World Gourmet Organisation stars.
"So, Natsu," Elenore patted her red painted lips with a napkin and shifted her gaze along the table to the pinkette. "I won't dive into your past, but do you mind telling me about some of the things going on in your life? Like what you've done with our young archbishop here."
After a few moments of consideration, Natsu set down his fork and knife and turned his head to look at the blunette. "Well, outside of my work as a Jaeger, I've been working on starting two businesses. The second one wouldn't be overly interesting to people of your station, but I'm sure you might like the first one."
"Oh? Do tell."
"In a recent job, I took in three women who were being falsely accused of being monsters. Yes, they are succubi, but they're harmless. I brought these three women back to Magnolia and sorted out somewhere for them to live and work under the agreement that they'll stay out of trouble. I know you're probably thinking I made them into sex workers, but no, I didn't." Natsu trailed of in a firm voice, his eyes narrowing at the three noblewomen who remained silent and allowed him to explain himself. "I've started a Rest and Relaxation Parlour. They offer refreshments and quiet areas to relax or hold meetings, and they also offer massages to help work the stress out of their cliental or simply a bed to sleep in should they need to recharge."
"Wait, they offer massages?" Diane blurted out, her eyes shooting wide open. "Are they good?"
"Since we're still in the process of sorting out the business side of their residence, I can't really answer that. But I'd assume they would be, given what they are. If not, it's something I can easily show them since I used to do them for my wife whenever her back was getting sore."
"Well, when the business finally opens their doors to customers then please let us know, we'd be happy to check it out." Elenore gave the man a pleasant smile. "And if it is to our liking, then we'll recommend it to friends."
"Hopefully it'll be up to your standards." Natsu gave the woman a thankful nod of his head and returned to his food.
Elenore waited for the man to swallow the food before she probed him for information once more. "What of the other business you mentioned?"
"It's an arms business using my professional name." Natsu closed his eyes and sighed within his mind before opening them once more and looking at the woman through his tinted glasses. "I recreated some of the weapons from my country and will be selling them along with ammunition for these weapons. That's all there is to it."
"It makes sense, in a way." Elenore nodded her head a few times. "If that motorcycle is anything to go by, I'm sure your weapons are a bit better than what we use here."
"They are."
"They're quite powerful too." Lelyanna added gently, looking between the noblewoman and her friend. "He's taught me how to use some of them, and they're definitely more powerful than what I've seen, which is arguably only a small number of firearms." She gave Natsu an apologetic smile, still feeling a bit of residual guilt over not being able to give him much information when he arrived.
"Definitely let us know when that parlour is completed!" Diane said eagerly, almost bouncing in her seat as her sister quickly followed up with;
"Yeah, definitely do that!"
"Oh, do I hear my sweet little Lily?"
At the man's voice, Lelyanna's smile contorted into a sneer but she quickly hid her disgust and levelled her lips. She received a trio of apologetic glances from the three noblewomen.
"Yes, the Archbishop came to help me with the lump I had. We just finished having lunch and our guests were about to leave." Elenore replied to the young blonde man who was approaching the cloaked woman from behind.
Natsu picked up on a faint magical signature coming from Lelyanna and saw a faint flash of light emanate from under her cloak as he turned his head side-on to the man, looking out the corner of his eye at him. The man seemed to be just a few years older than Lelyanna, Diane, and Elizabeth, it must have been Sebastian, the family's heir. The stench of sweat, sex, and alcohol permeated the air around this man and burned Natsu's nostrils with their pungent odour. But he chose to remain silent and observe the situation, he only planned to step in if he needed to; if Lelyanna fell out of control of the situation.
"Yes, we won't be here for much longer." Lelyanna rose from her chair while keeping her cloak close to her body. She turned her head to Natsu but made sure not to expose her face to the man approaching from her back. "We should return to your manor, Báleygr."
"Come on. Don't be like that, Lily. How about you stay the night, I'm sure this guy can find his own way home." Sebastian grinned lustfully. His arm snapped forward with the speed of a martial artist as he tried to grasp a hold of the woman's shoulder, but all he found was empty air.
Even though she could not directly see the man, she could feel his revolting gaze upon her concealed body and could gauge where he was by his obnoxiously loud boots, and thanks to the reflection in Natsu's sunglasses, she spotted the arm shooting out to grab her. Due to her training with Natsu, she was able to respond quickly and she darted under the arm and twisted around. The hem of her cloak fanned out as she spun and snatched up Sebastian's wrist, using his momentum to pull him down to the table where her left hand came racing down.
"AH FUCK! YOU WHORE!" Sebastian roared in pain. A black knife had been driven through his hand and embedded into the table. A second strike quickly followed it up; a kick to the back of his right knee which made him collapse to the floor.
"My Name is Lelyanna Wolfe." The priestess growled.
Even though she was barely even five-foot tall with boots on, she still cut an imposing figure as she as she unclasped her cloak and tore it off her body with her left hand while her right hand snapped forward, filled with a black pistol that was currently pressed firmly against the back of Sebastian's head. She was no longer in her religious garb, and was instead wearing her winter outfit that she had put together for jobs; a body-hugging white turtle-neck sweater, white-and-black pleated skirt, long white socks, and the same white knee-high boots from her usual archbishop outfit.
"I am the Archbishop of Magnolia, and the Healer for Hellhound; led by the Jaeger sat next to you. You do not own me; you have no right to my body or anything I own. And if you ever try and approach me again, I swear I'll end your life the instant you do. I'm sick and tired of having to put up with your constant and unwanted attention, sick of the guards unable to do anything about your stalking due to your money and connections."
Natsu turned in his seat and rested his elbow on the table with his cheek against his fist. He removed his glasses and revealed his cold abyssal-green eyes which bore into Sebastian's soul. But after staring silently at the shocked man, he turned his attention to the woman pressing a gun to his head. "I see you've managed to Requip things on and off your body, and at the same time too."
"Heh, I've been practicing hard to master it, I've still got a long way to go though as I can't process the spell as quickly as you can."
Elenore blinked rapidly at the sudden turn of events. But she quickly shook the haze from her mind and shot to her feet, her lips stretched into an aggressive snarl. "You MORON! How dare you try and lay a hand on the archbishop!"
"Shut it, wrench!" Sebastian shouted back at his mother. He struggled to his feet and the cold metal against the back of his head moved away, but a sudden searing pain shot through his right knee as a click faintly echoed around the room. "FUCK!"
"That's no way to speak to your mother, Sebastian." Lelyanna sneered at the man, her usually large and adorable eyes narrowed as she stared down at him with a coldness akin to the man beside her. "How about you try that again, and if you're not nice then I'll shoot the other knee."
Sebastian glared at the priestess out of the corner of his eye and remained silent. But unfortunately, that too drew Lelyanna's ire and another click rang out from the weapon in her hand. "FUCK! AGAIN?"
"Remaining silent isn't polite. I said that you should try again." Lelyanna prompted. She shifted her aim and pressed the muzzle of the suppressed handgun against Sebastian's right shoulder. But before she could do any more damage to the man, a tanned hand reached out and grasped the pistol's slide, lowering it and moving it away from the blonde man. "Natsu?"
"Deal with his injuries. If he tries anything, then I'll deal with it." Natsu ordered. He took his hand off the gun and wrenched the knife out of the table and back through the Sebastian's hand then wiped the blood off on the man's clothing. "I don't give a fuck if you don't do it properly, hell, give him a permanent fucking limp for all I care. What concerns me, is the damage that this may do to your image."
"I have every right to defend myself, even in this man's home." Lelyanna sneered at the disgusting man at her feet. And to stop him from being a headache, she roughly grabbed a fistful of his strawberry-blonde hair and forced her magic into his body.
Sebastian's body suddenly went slack as he was forced into a catatonic state. His limp body was yanked backwards and tossed carelessly to the floor before a kick was delivered to his gut.
"He's lucky the bullets didn't blow his knees completely apart like it did to that necromancer." Lelyanna grumbled quietly and replaced the magazine in her pistol with a fresh one and sent the partially used mag into storage. Once the weapon was back in the holster under her left arm, she stood on the man's hand and pushed her magic into him once more, which caused her eyes to light up with a divine glow. "Sorry about the damage and mess on the table and floor, Elenore."
"It's fine, Lady Lelyanna." The blunette crossed her arms under her bust as walked over, coming to a stop beside the bluish-silver-haired woman and giving her another apologetic smile. "I'm sorry it got to this stage. Leave him disfigured if you think it is a fitting punishment, it'll hopefully serve as a permanent reminder to fix his attitude issue and to leave you alone."
"That's a bit rough." Natsu remarked in a bored tone, watching the woman work her magic. "Though, I sense that there is no blood relation between you two, am I correct?"
"He is no son of mine." Elenore spat, her eyes flicking up to the pinkette who's dark eyes began to draw her in like a singularity. "He was from my husband's first marriage; I have no love for him."
"Neither do we," Elizabeth spoke up from her seat at the table, and her sister nodded though she was unable to speak since she had just taken a bite of her food. "He had always treated us as lesser beings."
Diane swallowed loudly and patted her chest a few times to help the food down to her stomach. She cleared her throat and gave the woman a gentle smile. "All the same, we're sorry for his actions. But… you look so good in that! I've never seen you out of your normal clothing, or even with your hood down, you're so cute!"
Lelyanna's eyes softened as she looked up at the two young women and she returned the smile, though her actions contradicted her pleasant demeanour; she stood on the man's busted knees and did the bare minimum amount of healing, just enough that the wounds wouldn't cause him to bleed out and that they'd still function but he'd still have to live with the consequences of his actions. "Thank you. They're designs from Natsu's homeland. He had photo albums with him and he showed me what his home was like, and I fell in love with some of their clothing. I had a fair number of outfits made up for me to wear when I don't want to be seen as the archbishop."
"Was that one of the guns that you'll be making, Natsu?" Elenore asked curiously.
"Not that one, no. That's one of my personal ones. However, I do have a pistol like that currently being produced, I'm just waiting until the stockpile reaches a point where I can sell them without worrying about running out." Natsu rose from his chair and slid Lelyanna's knife into the sheath at the back of her belt. Then he collected up his coat once the priestess had finished her reluctant healing of Sebastian. "Hopefully you don't have much trouble explaining this to your husband."
"Oh, he knows what his son has been up to, and he has also been losing patience with him. I'll just tell him exactly what happened here; how he pushed his luck too far and the archbishop showed him her not-so-cute side."
"He'll wake up in a few hours. I made it so he can still walk and use his hand, but he'll have pain in them until they fully recover." Lelyanna grabbed her discarded cloak and fastened it around her neck, though she left the hood lowered. "I think Natsu and I will head out now. Thank you again for the food, and if you have anything else that you need me to take a look at then don't hesitate to let the cathedral know. I'll be around as soon as I'm free."
The blonde attendant who had taken Natsu's coat returned to the group with a pail of water and a cloth, and she began to clean up the blood and gore that had been blasted from Sabastian's knees by the powerful 10mm bullets. She looked a little on the pale side and her face had a faint green tint, like she was trying to hold down her lunch.
Natsu spared the woman a brief glance before he put on his coat and glasses and made his way out of the dining room. Lelyanna stuck close behind him and seemed to be feeling better than she had been. "That was rather unexpected of you."
"I had enough of his torment, so I wanted to put an end to it." The priestess replied, her beautifully melodic voice was as cold as ice. "I hope he doesn't come near me ever again, or try and cause trouble for the church."
"If he does, then let me deal with him. I may be able to convince him to leave you alone."
Lelyanna giggled softly and took two quick steps, bringing her next to the man and she took a page out of Natsumi's playbook; she wrapped her arms around the man's left arm and buried it within her chest. "I'm sure he'd be begging to be killed if I sicced my demonic friend on him." She brushed one of her bangs behind her ear and gave the man a warm smile. "Thank you, though, I'd rather not have to kill someone just because he was tormenting me for years."
"I'd say that's a very valid outcome, given what he seemed to be like. But I get that you wouldn't want to dirty your hands over something as petty as that."
"And what about you, Natsu?"
"I mercilessly slaughtered multiple dozens of entire families because my adoptive son was brutally murdered by rioters from those families, I don't think I'm a good yardstick for this kind of thing." Natsu shook his head and stepped out the door that was held open by one of the manor staff. He offered a quick word of thanks and headed down the short flight of stairs to his motorcycle. "I'd have killed him on the spot, and I was thinking about doing that too but I was wanting to let you handle it. I was only going to step in and help in the event you lost control over the situation but you handled it well."
"I had a good teacher." While she waited for Natsu to be seated on his bike, Lelyanna raised her veiled hood. She took a seat behind the man and wrapped her arms around his waist. "I believe you had a very good reason to do that, who knows what else those rioters could've done. He most likely wasn't the only one they killed, and killing might not have been the only thing they did. It's like what you told me on the first job we did together; people don't realise it, but humans can be just as monstrous as those we label as monsters. Like those bandits, for example, they were just as bad as the goblins. And they deserved to be slaughtered. You made the right call in ending their lives so they wouldn't go on to harm anyone else."
"I did it for revenge, not for some noble reason like that." Natsu quickly replied. He shook his head and drove out of the porte-cochere. "Anyway, let's just head back home."
"Sounds good to me. I want to lie down in bed or on a couch in the library and just relax after all that."
And another rewrite has been completed. This was another minor one, just small adjustments here and there which came to a total of about 200 words.
I hope you liked the chapter, and I'll see you all in the next one.