The heart of the Alvarez Empire is its capital, Vistarion, the capital city of the largest empire in the continent of Alakitasia. Within the city lies the palace, the residence of the ruler of the Alvarez Empire, Emperor Spriggan.

Today, a young woman dressed in revealing attire walked down one of the numerous silent corridors within the palace, her cropped short wavy golden hair bouncing slightly with every step she took. Her footsteps were loud due to the silence of her surroundings, and the golden armour that encased her right arm resounded with a soft metallic jingle with her every step.

This woman is Dimaria Yesta, a member of the Empire's Spriggan Twelve and she is in a good mood today.

Her steps brought her towards the office within the palace where she knew the general and leader of the Spriggan Twelve would be at. August took it upon himself to manage the Empire's affairs in the Emperor's absence and the mellow but stern old man always took his work seriously.

"Dimaria? Is anything the matter?"

"I sensed him," Dimaria replied with an excited grin, barely able to keep her exhilaration from leaking out. She knew August would know who she was referring to. In this entire world, there's only one man who could catch her interest like he did.

"Is that so?" August slowly put down the document that he was reading and removed the Gale Force Reading Glasses that he was using to aid him in his work. For Dimaria to be able to sense the boy would mean that the boy had tapped into that side of his power, and August knew that it is not a power that the boy would carelessly use. The boy must have found himself in a rather sticky situation.

"It was brief, like only for a few seconds, but I'm sure he used it," Dimaria insisted. "I sensed that power coming from the direction of Fiore, I'm sure of it! That must be where he ran off to."

"Fiore…" August used a hand to stroke his long beard, his thoughts bringing him back to memories from a time long past, his mother's homeland. Sooner or later, the Emperor would launch an invasion at Fiore. It's simply a matter of time and when it would be.

Come to think about it, it's been a few years since he saw that foul-mouthed boy, and August cannot help but wonder how he's doing now. It was truly a pity that Invel's little petty grudge had forced the boy to flee or the Spriggan Twelve might be a lot more powerful than they currently are today if the boy were to join their ranks. Despite his young age, he's more than worthy of deserving such a position.

"And you want me to give you the permission to bring him back, I take it?"

"Come on, old man! You know just how strong he is! That insufferable Neinhart wouldn't have made it into the Twelve if it wasn't for Invel's petty grudge! That seat belongs to Argus!"

August made a slight frown, not really liking how Dimaria spoke of their fellow colleague Neinhart, even if it's true that Neinhart's personality left a lot to be desired. Even so, that frown wasn't present on his face for long. It's true that the only reason why Neinhart managed to find a seat among them was because Argus had declined that position. Even among the Twelve, if Argus were to use his true strength he would be far from being the weakest among them in terms of sheer power alone. His Light magic, Reunion, is one of the few magics that even he, the Wizard King, cannot safely copy due to the inherent dangers stemming from the nature of that magic. Even so, the boy had mastered that magic despite that fact; that was just how powerful and skilled the boy is despite his age. He could only imagine just how much more powerful the boy must be now in the few years that they hadn't met.

As much as he preferred to have the boy back and get him to join them, there are also other considerations to think about.

"Dimaria, the current political situation outside is a delicate one. I cannot just send a member of the Twelve into Fiore like that. Even if I do so, it would have to be someone like Jacob and pardon me for saying this, you are not exactly known for being subtle."

"I know that, and I kind of expected this reply from you anyway. I was thinking that if we cannot go and get him, then we get him to come to us, and I just have the perfect thing for it."

August took the piece of paper that Dimaria passed over and his eyebrows rose so ever slightly as he read its contents. This piece of paper is a job request, a ten year quest to be exact.

"It took me a lot of effort to get my hands on this piece of information, you know? After all, this is a quest that nobody in this world could solve except for him," Dimaria looked seemingly proud of herself for managing to come across this job request. "I was thinking, if he fled to Fiore, chances are he would have joined a mage guild. So all we have to do is to get this job request into Fiore, have it circulate around, and sooner or later it will find its way into his hands because he is the only one who could possibly complete it."

"There's merit to this idea," August agreed. "If it was him, he would never pass up this job request if he learnt about it. He had been searching for it even before we knew him."

"So, old man, permission to get this plan going?"

"Permission granted," August gave his nod of approval and handed the job request back to Dimaria. If all goes well, the boy will return to Alvarez, and this time August will personally persuade the boy to willingly serve Emperor Spriggan as one of them, the Spriggan Twelve. The only reason why the boy didn't accept the offer back then was a mixture of Invel's overly hard-handed approach and the boy's distrustful and rebellious nature, something that the Wizard King cannot blame him for after he made his own independent investigations about the boy's past. To get someone like the boy on their side, a gentler approach would be needed. He's too much of an asset to the Empire for them to let him go.

"I knew you can be reasoned with," Dimaria let out a laugh as she took her leave, playfully waving the piece of paper in his direction as she bidded her goodbyes. "Alright, I'm off! Wait for my good news!"

August shook his head with a small smile. Dimaria had never been a patient person, something quite unexpected for someone who holds the power to control time.

If the boy can be brought back with Dimaria's plan, if they could get him to willingly work for them, they will be one step closer to helping their Emperor achieve his ambitions.


The dragon threat had been resolved, the Eclipse Gate had been destroyed, and yet I'm still feeling as irritable and restless as I was on the very first day of the games.

It's the third day of the games now. Here I am, sitting in a bar, having watched the proceedings of the GMG from here through a lacrima screen instead of being there in the arena myself. I had a lot to think about for the past day.

My foreknowledge of the timeline had largely ended at the GMG arc. From this point onwards, I would truly be going in blind. I remembered close to nothing about what the future would hold from here on and the only comfort I had to reassure myself, if I could even call it that, would be that I believed nobody in the guild died in any of the subsequent arcs until the series reached its happily ever after ending. Still, I trust the power of plot armour and the bullshit known as the power of friendship as much as I trust the God within me, which really isn't much.

I glugged down another big mug of booze, allowing the warm buzz of the alcohol to fill my body. I truly have no idea what the future would hold now, and I'm not even sure if the Alvarez Empire would be a key player to the future events because my memories about the future were simply covered in so much fog. Alvarez might have been mentioned at some point, or they might not, I'm really not too sure because I really couldn't recall.

But if they will be involved somehow, then Fairy Tail will really be in big trouble. The Spriggan Twelve are mages who could decimate Ishgar's Wizard Saints, I understood that better than anyone else since I had crossed paths with them before. If even Jura couldn't defeat me when I was forced to fight him with so many self-imposed restrictions in place, the future for my guild would be hopelessly bleak if Alvarez ever set their sights on Fiore.

What to do, what to do… Argh, just thinking about it is making my mood fouler than it already is.

A familiar presence sat down on the stool beside me, catching my attention.

"Why are you here?"

"Now that we are free men, Jellal had decided to go and search for his girlfriend and I think they had a lot to talk about with that Gravity mage from Mermaid Heel, still not too sure about the details about that but I think they had some history together. Ultear had decided to go and find Gray and Lyon, leaving me with nothing to do. You are the only friend that I have other than those two, so who else would I look for when I'm bored?"

"Suit yourself," I got myself another big cup of booze. "You drinking?"

"How long have you been here?" Meredy scrunched her nose and she took a look at the clock hanging on the wall. "Don't tell me that you have been here the entire day? Come to think about it, I didn't see you participating in yesterday's events either."

"Being here is better than participating in the stupid games and potentially fighting another Wizard Saint. I need to protect my sanity somehow."

"It's a wonder that Master Makarov didn't send someone to drag you back, it's already 9pm! Even if I assumed that you came here at noon you have been here for like, what, nine hours?"

"Nine hours of peace and quiet. Just the thing I need after the crazy first day."

"Funny, you've always been the crazy one."

"Yeah, no thanks to you and your two pals always trying to drive me up the wall," I snorted. "So, you drinking or not? Drinks are on me today."

"Drinks are on you? Are you really drunk? A stingy miser like you actually offered to buy me drinks?"

"Take it or-"

"Bartender! Three big cups of ale please!" Meredy instantly called out her orders to the bartender before I could retract my offer.

"You damn alcoholic."

"I don't want to hear that from you."

We drank together in comfortable silence for a short while until Meredy broke it.

"So, what's got you so gloomy? It couldn't be just the things we've been through on the first day."

"Not your business."

"Hey, I'm trying to be helpful here. You need to stop shutting people out from your life like that."

"Rather than being worried about me, what about the three of you? The Princess still trying to get you to work for her?"

"She's determined, I will give her that," Meredy shrugged her shoulders as she started on drinking the contents in her mug. "I know Jellal and Ultear are planning to take up on her offer because if we want to continue our goal in removing any of Zeref's legacy, having the full backing of the Royal Family could only be a good thing for us."

"And you?"

"I… I wanted to join Ultear. After all, wherever she goes, I want to follow," Meredy confessed. "But Ultear… She told me that I might want to reconsider because she thinks that this is her sin, not mine, and that I was dragged into this mess because of her actions. I mean, we reconciled seven years ago. I've forgiven her a long time ago, but I think a part of her still thinks that I'm… just another of her victims and…"

"She doesn't want you to be involved on her road to redemption, she doesn't want you to help pay for her sins, because to her, you are innocent and you shouldn't be needing to do this in the first place. Like she said, just another victim of hers."

"Yeah," Meredy nodded. "But if I don't join them… Where else can I go? To always be by Ultear's side was the only thing I ever knew."

"Join the bunch of crazy people that I joined and help share the insanity I experience on a near daily basis. Just a suggestion," I blurted out the first thing on my mind, finally feeling a little tipsy for all the drinking I had done ever since I stepped into this place. One of the benefits for being a vessel of God was incredible tolerance to alcohol, something that I love to abuse whenever I have the rare urge to really drink until I drop. It takes a lot to truly get me drunk.

"And deal with you on a daily basis too?"

"On second thought, forget what I just said. You raised a damn good point, I don't want to deal with you for every single day either."

"Admit it, life has been so much interesting for you ever since you met us," Meredy said with an annoying grin as she took another sip from her mug. "Ah, I can still remember you from back then. So little, so short, a smaller midget than I was. Then poof, all of a sudden you started growing like a weed and became so much more vulgar. Whatever happened to the cute little Argus that I met a long time ago?"

"Yeah I remembered that period of time too, when your chest was flatter than a washing board and then poof, they grew into melons. Whatever fertiliser did you use to grow them?"

"Hey."

"What? You started this argument. Mention anything about my height from back then, and I will talk about your chest size. I thought this was something we secretly agreed on."

"Why on earth did I keep trying to befriend someone as rude as you?" Meredy scoffed and chugged down the contents in her mug.

"Good question, I ask myself the same thing too. Why on earth did I keep involving myself in the shenanigans the three of you were always up to?"

"Just admit it, you love us."

"Hell no," I disagreed and called for the bartender to refill my mug for what could possibly be the hundredth time today.

"Awww, cutesy little Argus is living in denial~ How cute~"

"Can you stop speaking to me in such a disgusting voice?"

"Does it annoy you?"

"Obviously."

"Oh good. Ar~gus~~"

"Stop it," I warned through gritted teeth and Meredy simply laughed until she could barely catch her breath. That annoying girl.

"Seriously though, you should stop drinking already. This is not healthy."

"Just let me be, it's not like I'm going to die from an alcohol overdose. God wouldn't allow me to die in such a lame way," I emptied the contents in my newly refilled mug in just a few seconds, earning myself a disapproving frown from the pink haired mage.

"Argus."

"It's fine, it's not like this is the first time you see me drinking anyway."

"Yeah, and whenever you do, you are in a bad mood. Seriously, what's going on?"

"It's-"

"Say none of your business one more time, and I'm really going to get mad at you. We've known each other for long enough, Argus, and you know that I'm genuinely worried for you."

I looked at her, then simply released a sigh and continued with my drinking.

"Honestly? I don't know why I'm in such a bad mood either. I just suddenly felt that way. Everyone has a day or two every year where they just feel like shit, right? Today is just one of those days for me."

"And nobody can help with this?"

"Nah, I will be fine in a few days, probably," I had my mug refilled once more and raised it in her direction. "So, you drinking?"

"Somebody has to look after you," Meredy huffed as she took up her own mug and toasted to mine. "Who knows what kind of trouble you might stir up otherwise."

"I'm not the one who was an infamous dark mage wanted by the Magic Council for seven years."

"And I'm not the one who nearly got into trouble by pointing his middle finger at the Princess of the Kingdom and declaring that he will strip her naked and hang her from the rooftop of the palace."

"Surprised that she didn't put a bounty on my head for that. Was kind of hoping it would happen cos it might be fun."

"You really are insane, aren't you?"

"Never been sane ever since I left my village," I let out a silent mocking laugh as my memories briefly flickered back to those times. "Or maybe, it was determined by fate that I would never be sane the moment I was born in Nocina. I am a descendant of fanatical lunatics. How would people like us ever be sane?"

"You keep saying that, but you never did tell us anything more about your village," Meredy asked while sipping on her mug.

"What's there to talk about? The village's already gone."

"Is that it? Was this why you had been sulking here for the entirety of yesterday and today? You are homesick?"

"Homesick? Don't be ridiculous, what's there to be homesick about that stupid place? A place of lunatics and zealots and fanatics and bloody backstabbers… Damn, now that I look back, why and how am I still alive? I really shouldn't be alive. This is all that stupid God's fault."

"Argus-"

"I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm really fine," I waved Meredy's concerns off when I saw the worried look on her face. "Just let me drink everything out of my system and I will be fine, okay?"

I couldn't quite remember how many mugs I emptied that night, but I do remember having Meredy sitting beside me the entire time.


It was close to midnight when Argus finally succumbed to the effects of alcohol, lying face down onto the table that they were sitting in the bar and quietly snoring away. Meredy released a soft sigh at the sight. She purposely only drank to the point where she's only a little tipsy, already predicting that this might happen when she seeked him out and realised that he was drinking alone at a bar.

So much for drinks being on him tonight.

She paid for the tab on his behalf, trying not to gawk at the exorbitant amount of jewels she had spent doing so in the process due to the unbelievable volume of alcohol Argus had consumed for the entire day. It was fortunate that she had enough money on her person and she made a mental note to get this sum of money back from the drunkard sometime in the near future. After all, he was the one who said that the drinks were supposed to be on him.

She slung Argus' right arm over her shoulders in order to carry him back to his guild, grumbling a little under her breath about how he's much heavier than he seemed as she did so. Argus was still snoring away and he wouldn't be waking up anytime soon. Somebody needs to send him back to his lodging. He should be grateful that she had come to find him tonight or he might really be kicked out of the bar and left to sleep on the streets with the rats like a homeless mutt.

The things she does for her only friend.

Fortunately, Fairy Tail's lodgings in Crocus weren't too far away from their current location, and the streets were relatively empty due to the late hour, so it wasn't too difficult to lug the unconscious Light mage along. She found the tavern soon enough, pushed open the front door, and pointedly ignored the sea of bodies lying all across the place who were snoring away without a care in the world. Evidently, Fairy Tail had been partying hard and probably drank even harder due to the spectacular results they achieved on the third day of the games, both their teams clinching first and second place after the conclusion of today's events.

She had thought that there really wasn't a single sober person until someone walked out from behind a counter after hearing the front door being pushed open. Meredy recognised her as the Take Over mage Mirajane Strauss.

"You are Meredy, right?"

"Yes, and…" She gave a brief look at Argus who she was still carrying, then back at Mirajane, telling her everything there was to convey from that alone.

"Oh dear, I never knew he's such a drinker as well," Mirajane said in concern and helped Meredy in carrying the unconscious Light mage, heading for the stairs where they will be able to deposit Argus on a bed in one of the many rooms on the second floor.

"Haven't seen him ever since the commotion at the palace. We were a little worried about him."

"He's in a bad mood, been trying to drink himself silly in a bar the entire day. He probably was doing the same thing yesterday too," Meredy replied as both women lay him down on an empty bed and Meredy pulled the covers over him, relieved that she had finally gotten him back to his guild safely.

"Bad mood? For what reason? The palace incident? I thought that was already resolved?"

"I have no clue, he wasn't very forthcoming with it," Meredy admitted. "He's naturally distrustful of others, been that way ever since I knew him and I knew him for years. It takes a lot for him to open his heart to others. Actually, I'm surprised that he even joined a guild at all. I suspected he's a little homesick, but I could be wrong since he denied it the moment I asked."

"Alvarez…" Mirajane pondered for a short moment as both women left the room and quietly shut the door behind them. "I don't know much about that country."

"Nobody here really does. Ishgar isn't exactly on good terms with them, especially when all official diplomatic relations with them were severed in X783."

"I'm just glad that there's somebody looking out for him. He seems to be the reckless sort," Mirajane gave Meredy a pleasant smile and the sensory mage cannot help but snort at the remark.

"Tell me all about it."

"Both of you seem to be close."

"I guess you can say that. I mean, we knew each other for a few years already, even if half of our conversations were us arguing," Meredy agreed as she briefly recalled the times when she just got to know the unsociable Light mage. "Don't tell him that I said this, but if you ignore his crass language and manners he's actually a really nice guy underneath. It's just that he's easily misunderstood whenever he starts to spew all of those vulgarities out of that foul mouth of his."

"He's the type whose bark is worse than his bite?"

"Yes, that's exactly it," Meredy agreed when Mirajane found the words that she wanted to use to describe Argus but couldn't quite figure out which. The both of them started to make their ways downstairs.

"Even back then when we only just get to know each other, there were times where he took a few blows for me that could have been fatal if I was on the receiving end of it, and he would always shrug it off saying that it doesn't matter to him cos he's sure that he could survive as his God is always watching him. That's when I realised he's not as unlikeable as I thought him to be, and that other than his language and manners, he doesn't really have any other flaws to nitpick about."

"I'm just curious, are you two… in that kind of…" Mirajane made a suggestive motion with her hands and it took Meredy a few seconds to understand what she was insinuating and she vehemently denied any and all of such possibilities.

"No no no! I just see him like a little brother figure! I mean, in every place I've been to I'm always the youngest, and I, uh, I always secretly wanted a younger sibling to dote on. Argus was a lot cuter when we first met but after puberty hit him he grew up and turned into… this."

Meredy cannot help but release another sigh after speaking those words, wondering if there will ever be a day where she and Argus can properly talk to each other without breaking out into another argument every five minutes.

Sounds unlikely.

"Really?" Mirajane answered with a knowing smirk before laughing it off. "Alright, if you say so, if you say so."

Meredy was certain that Mirajane was misunderstanding something, but she couldn't be bothered to correct her misconception. Let the Take Over mage think whatever she wants, it's honestly none of her business. Her mind was still lingering on the topic that she was discussing with Argus earlier in their conversations.

Now that she is no longer a dark mage and a free man… What should she do with her life from now onwards?