A good match… where?
Levy watched the pair behind the bar laugh together; she could even see the faint flush tinting Mira's small ears.
Mira-nee… likes Aurel too?
Cana a minute ago, and now Mira. Levy sighed, weary.
Why is everyone after him!?
She could admit it—Aurel was magnetic. She'd fallen for him at first sight, after all. But every girl? That was one breath away from charm magic…
She stamped her foot, cheeks puffing.
"Uh… Levy, are you alright?"
Reedus turned slowly, scratching his head at the blue-haired girl brimming with indignation.
"S-sorry. I just remembered something unpleasant," she said with a strained smile. She inhaled, quick-stepped to the bar, and planted herself opposite Aurel.
So what if there were rivals? His first kiss was already hers. In any race, that was called a head start.
"Aurel."
She sat, cradling juice, eyes a little accusing.
Catching the look, Aurel knew exactly why. He ruffled her hair twice and smiled. "Shadow Gear business all settled? I grabbed a few good requests. Tomorrow, let's take them—just the two of us."
"Mm… okay!"
Being head-patted in the middle of the guild was mortifying, but she tipped her chin up and met his gaze anyway, face pink, and nodded.
That went smoother than expected, Aurel thought as her expression softened into a smile.
"My, you two are close already?"
Mira blinked, surprised. Two days, and they looked like lovebirds. Normally she loved guild romances—but today a strange little knot tugged at her chest.
They just didn't look right together, whispered something unhelpful.
She pressed it down, put on her sunny smile, and lied through it: "Levy-chan and Aurel look very compatible."
"Mira-nee…"
Guilt flickered through Levy. Mira had been helping them all day—and she'd pegged her as a rival.
Then drowsiness crashed over the room like a wave. Levy's vision blurred; her eyelids sank; she thunked down onto her folded arms, asleep in a heartbeat.
"Strange… suddenly so sleepy."
"That feeling…"
"Mystogan's back?"
One by one, guildmates toppled—snoring into tabletops, draped over barrels. Natsu planted face-first into the devil-hot curry.
"Don't worry," Mira murmured, swaying as she fought it. "A guildmate just came home—"
She slumped into Aurel's arms before finishing. A quiet, clean fragrance rose from her hair; the soft weight of her curves stole a beat from his heart.
"Mystogan, huh?"
Aurel looked to the doors. They had swung open soundlessly; a man in a black hood, cloak, and face wrap padded in.
Edolas's Jellal-analog. A prince from a parallel world. If Aurel remembered right, Mira-nee's little sister was there.
He glanced down. Mira slept serenely, lashes trembling. He poked her cheek twice—soft. Surprisingly satisfying.
"You always have to make a scene when you show up," came Makarov's weary voice from the second-floor railing.
If the master hadn't felt his mind dip mid-penance, he wouldn't have noticed the return either.
"And you're fine, I see," Makarov added, eyeing the only other person left standing. Not surprising—magic that dense could resist a sleep field.
"There's… someone else awake?"
Mystogan paused, startled under the hood. Usually, only the master and Laxus remained conscious. A third was new.
"This is yesterday's new member," Makarov said, lively despite the old timbre. "Name's Aurel."
Newbie?
Mystogan hesitated, then walked to the request board, plucked a sheet, held it up for the master to see, and turned to go.
"Wait—you're not dispelling it?" Makarov yawned into his hand.
"It'll wear off in a moment."
As Mystogan crossed the threshold, eyes fluttered open across the hall. Noise rolled back in like surf.
"That guy again…" Macao groaned, rubbing his temples.
"Ugh, his sleep magic's still absurd," Wakaba muttered.
"Cough—hot! Hot!" Natsu shot upright, scarlet-faced, sputtering flames from his throat.
"Mm…"
Mira stirred. Half-lidded, she blinked up at black frames and a familiar, gentle face.
She reached, plucked the glasses off; the tear mole at his eye bloomed into view.
Two seconds' quiet. Color climbed to her cheeks. She averted her gaze, thrust the glasses back into his hands.
"…You look better with them," she mumbled.
"…"
Aurel slid them on, amused. The quest panel pulsed at the edge of sight:
[Quest 3 complete. Reward available: Little Dora.]
Not now. He dismissed it, then angled his head toward Levi—still asleep—then to the board.
"Master, I'm going to clear a few small requests today."
Makarov waved amiably. "Work hard, but don't break the town."
"Understood."
Aurel snapped his fingers. Shadowkhan fanned out to bus tables; another trio fell in behind him as he stopped at the board and plucked five slips in quick succession.
— Find a lost ring at the riverside.
— Deliver a parcel to the cathedral quarter before noon.
— Help move crates at Hargeon's branch depot.
— Retrieve a book mis-shelved at Kardia Cathedral's library.
— Round up three stray "flying fish" that escaped a fishmonger's tank.
He laid them on the counter. Mira skimmed and stamped the guild seal. "These are quick but fiddly. Need a hand?"
"I've got help," he said, inclining his head toward the shadows. "You… take five minutes."
Mira hesitated, then spooned another bite of parfait, unable to hide the tiny smile tugging at her lips. "Good luck."
Aurel tapped Levy's shoulder lightly. "Back soon. Don't let Happy steal your parfait."
"Aye!" Happy saluted with a fork already primed for theft; Levy, half-asleep, reflex-smacked his hand away without looking.
— — —
By late morning, sun glinted off the river like a blade. Aurel crouched at the embankment, eyes tracing eddies. A Shadowkhan sifted silt with fanlike hands.
"Got it," Aurel murmured. He pinched a glint from a crevice: a silver ring with an aquamarine. He wiped it on his sleeve, then tossed it once—caught.
The grateful client cried; stamp.
He ghosted through side streets, a parcel tucked under one arm, shadows ferrying it overhead like a relay baton over stalled wagons. Cathedral bell: dong—dong—he slid the bundle beneath the sexton's window at the final toll. Stamp.
At the branch depot, crates rose and floated in a line of silent, red-eyed carriers. The foreman's jaw hung; stamp.
At Kardia's library, Aurel skimmed shelf marks, sensing the arcane quiet like dust on sunlight. A slim volume Ancient Scripts: Numerals peeped from Poetry. He slid it free, left a note: "Re-shelved with care." Stamp.
By the fishmonger's, he watched scales flash skyward. Flying fish corkscrewed between awnings, laughing at nets. He praised them, then simply cast a wider shadow; a cool dusk bloomed over the alley, and three silhouettes dropped neatly into waiting tubs. Stamp, stamp, stamp.
He glanced up. The sun had climbed; his power sang along with it, bright but gentle. Four stamps down, and the fifth made six with the delivery relay—good measure. The panel flickered.
[Quest 1: Task Master! complete. Reward granted: Tom Riddle's Wand.]
A slender, dark wand's weight settled in his mind—alien, sibilant. In this world, it was a blade without a sheath; a curiosity, maybe a key. He tucked the thought away.
— — —
Back at the guild, Levy blinked awake to find a small paper bag by her elbow. Inside lay a tidy sandwich and a note in clean, slanted script: Eat before we head out tomorrow.
She pressed the bag to her chest, smiling.
Mira set down an empty parfait glass, caught Levy's look, and—after a heartbeat—smiled back. If there was a sting, she hid it well.
Aurel stepped through the doors as the noon light spilled across the floor. He raised two fingers in greeting toward the bar, then toward the master on the rail.
All three quest slots on the panel were dim now, rewards waiting like wrapped gifts. He'd claim them later. For the moment, the guild's ruckus felt right: clatter, laughter, the smell of wood and sugar and spice.
"Walk me home after your shift?" Levy asked, a little bolder than before.
"Wouldn't miss it," he said.
Mira's eyes followed them for a moment, then she clapped once and leaned over the counter. "Orders up! And someone please wake Natsu before he drowns in curry!"
Happy raised a fish like a lifeguard's buoy. "Aye!"
The day rolled on—bright, noisy, good. And somewhere behind Aurel's smile, three new edges lay folded: a cat-robot's pocket, a snake's wand, and a swallow's impossible cut.
(End of Chapter)
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