Yeetus the Fetus [solo]

The blue expanse seemed to stretch on forever, the tranquil waves lapping pleasantly into infinity.  Birds circled overhead, their white silhouettes darting among the pale clouds.  However, they soon began gliding away at the sight of a small, rapidly moving blip on the horizon.  The sound of splashing intensified as the figure came into sight, any fish shadows descending deeper into the sea.  The source of the disturbance was of course Althea, once again dressed in yet another set of atypical clothes.  Well, the general sense of style all over Earthland was rather odd, so she usually didn’t stick out too badly.  But anyone would say what she was doing to cross the ocean was out of the ordinary.  It was almost like Althea was surfing across the ocean, despite the absence of a board or wave.  But when you put it like that, it was more accurate to say she was skateboarding across the waves without using a skateboard.  Her feet were simply skidding across the surface of the water, leaving a spray of water in her wake.

The slayer had already conquered her weakness of seasickness, but sometimes it was just more convenient to not bother with a ferry.  And thus, she had been working on a little something to help her traverse the sea.  And it wasn’t the first time the water mage had made her way across the ocean on foot, it’s just that she forgot it was something she could do.  As someone with her kind of magic, being able to walk on water was a given, but it had simply been too long since it was necessary, so you can’t blame her for forgetting.  Well, technically you could, but Althea would beg to differ.  Nowadays when she encounters a body of water, she simply jumps over it using footholds in the air.  It was a technique fine for the short term, but too taxing to execute for several hours straight.

However, her mode of transport wasn’t the only different thing.  This time around her appearance was completely divorced from that of a schoolgirl, instead sporting a gothic lolita look.  Her blonde locks were tied up into twin tails with black ribbons, and she didn’t wear even a hint of bright colors.  The youth’s dress was strapless and possessed the minimal amount of frills needed for quick movements.  Well, in the first place if she wanted to move easier, she wouldn’t be wearing a dress at all.  Either way, the dress was rather simple, only a few white embroidered patterns adding any flair.  But besides that she wore black satin gloves, tights, and even ankle boots.  But by far the most unique addition was her parcel--which at the moment was closed.  After all, the air pressure from moving across the salty waters could easily break it if she’d unfurled it.  But even so, Althea had the appearance akin to a doll rather than a teenager, an impression enhanced further by her childlike appearance.

Either way, Althea wasn’t traveling across the sea just on a whim.  She was off to Ca-Elum, one of the many countries she had previously never had the opportunity to visit.  The young girl didn’t have any information about it other than it was across from Fiore and had a lot of blacksmiths.  Perhaps they’d have a surprisingly delicious dish for her to try out, but otherwise she didn’t care.  What happened in Ca-Elum was of no concern to her as long as Fairy Tail wasn’t involved.  Sure, exploring was fun, but Althea found staying in Magnolia to be infinitely more enjoyable than traveling for the sake of it.  But that brings us to the reason why the blonde was even out on the sea in the first place.  She was to go and find the “Dark Fetus” located somewhere in the foreign country, kill it, and harvest its heart.

The said request had arrived at the guild, and since it was of high importance she reckoned it’d be appropriate for her to take it.  And it was a problem of such a degree that it wasn’t even considered a national problem.  Instead, her current job was being considered a “collaboration” between the country of Fiore and the country of Ca-Elum.  Despite that the latter party wouldn’t need to do a single thing other than point Althea in the right direction, it was their land, so they had the right to be involved.  Additionally, it was only a joint effort on paper, Fiore would be the country to get all the resources from the Dark Fetus.  To be honest, Althea barely even had a vague idea about what it was.  There was one in every country on the continent, but the slayer had only been asked to deal with the one in Ca-Elum.

But the thing that attracted her attention was the fact they hadn’t been dealt with earlier.  Despite being a fetus, her target sported enough power to thwart those searching to complete the 100-year quest.  And despite the length for which the request has been around, very little was known about it other than its name.  People who took the job intuitively knew where to find Dark Fetus the moment they learned of its existence, but such a convenient thing never happened for Althea.  It probably had something to do with the fact she usually stifled her natural disposition, but it wasn’t like she was going to let go just for the sake of a job.  She wanted to fight the Dark Fetus, so she’d make sure to find it one way or another.

Soon, a dark silhouette appeared in the ocean of blue: the shores of Ca-Elum.  From where the dragon slayer was, she could see the pale sand and smoke from a nearby village, but maybe that said more about her eyesight then it did about her speed.  However, before the youth even reached the beach, something already desired to pick a fight with her.  A legion of creatures was rapidly swimming her way despite the speed at which she was moving.

From what Althea could tell, they were beasts of a magical nature, and there were more than fifty of them in total.  But what was even more striking was their appearances.  Soft brown fur, round black eyes, and stubby paws, they seemed to be identical to sea otters.  Besides, of course, the needle-like swords that replaced their usual stones.  Even the water mage could admit they were cute, but no level of cuteness would let them get away with approaching her with hostile intentions.  The moment you let someone pull a knife on you and just walk away from it, who knows what they could do next?  Would they pull out a chainsaw on you next time?  Maybe they’d bring a few of their friends along too.  Yuklo, the girl she’d been accompanied by in her previous job, had done so and gotten away with it purely because Althea didn’t want to jeopardize the reputation of her guild.  It would look really bad if an executive of Fairy Tail ended up murdering a kid.

Either way, the moment something approached her with the intent to kill, the blonde usually responded with the same intentions.  The otter-like creatures were cute, but soon their blood would dye the seas red as penance for drawing their weapons on Althea.  Well, it wasn’t as definite as that, but since she had no reason not to kill them, she’d rather just go through with the massacre.  And soon, the group’s first attack came in the form of several streams of water.  However, the young girl simply answered with a larger version of the spell that engulfed all the smaller variants.  But that didn’t serve to discourage the otters.  After all, their territory was the water while humans’ were land, so naturally they’d have an advantage.  But the problem with that was how Althea’s numbers were just bigger than theirs.  If you put a lion in a lake, it doesn’t mean a crab would be able to kill it.  Additionally, the options the slayer had on the water were greater than when ones on land.  After all, the entire ocean was her playing field.  Her movement ceased, any inertia disappearing in an instant.  As opposed to the way she was skating across the ocean, now she was simply standing on it.

A group of otters split off from the main legion, bearing their blades with the intent of skewering the young girl.  They came at her in a circling maneuver, trying to make sure they’d kill her before she escaped their flurry of strikes.  However, Althea didn’t even need to move to repel the attack.  Instead she adjusted the currents of the ocean at the last moment so that the creatures missed the target on their own.  Then, as they were whisked past her, spikes of water emerged from under them, piercing cleanly through their bodies.  As the blonde watched the red liquid permeate in the water, and she couldn’t help but sigh.  She couldn’t do anything like that on land, and yet that was the location of more or less all her fights.  It wasn’t like she couldn’t use a spell to bring the ocean to her, but that’d be resource consuming for every single encounter.  There was moisture in the air, but not enough for her to take full command over it.  And even if she fused the use of Water Dragon Slayer magic with Today’s Forecast, it was rather simple to cut through the air if you needed to.

But after watching their vanguard become so easily dispatched, the rest of the otters hesitated before launching their next attack.  It seemed that they’d realized the difference between them and Althea, but it was too late for them.  As the legion prepared to retreat, a large magic circle expanded in the air.  Sure, her opponent held no will to keep fighting, but just because the combat was consensual doesn’t mean it was necessarily bad.  If the youth let them off this time, they’d just complicate issues by coming back stronger later.  Well, sometimes things like that were nice, but the blonde wasn’t in the mood at the moment.  All she wanted to do was focus on hunting down the Dark Fetus.  And thus, lances of light descended from above towards their targets in the sea.  Well, calling their element “light” was misleading as there was a thick aura of hazy black around the white projectiles.  But such was the overly ambiguous nature of prismatic chaos, it couldn’t be easily labeled no matter how hard she tried.

Althea looked over the remains of the otter monsters, checking for any signs of life she’d missed with her spell.  Then she promptly reoriented herself before resuming her venture to Ca-Elum.  She was nearly at the shore, so it was only a moment until the youth made her way to the required venue.  The gothic loli slowed as she approached the crystalline beach, stepping tentatively on the shore while unfurling her parasol.  No one was in her immediate vicinity, but that wasn’t a problem when she could already hear the hustle and bustle of a nearby coastal town.  Well, it wasn’t that close, but it was a distance negligible it would even take a minute for her to run there at full throttle.

If she had gotten her navigation right, then the smoke she’d spotted from the sea was from the town of Aecor.  But before she could go about her merry way, she had to go to the place referred to as the “Adventurer's Guild”.  The name was honestly a bit misleading, but the country seemed to have just one gigantic guild instead of the many like in Fiore.  Of course, it seemed like it was less of a commitment to join as well seeing as its presence is important on a national level.  Instead of getting a guild mark, you simply register, and no loyalty is demanded from you in return.  From what Althea could gather, it was kind of like if the Rune Knights were the only guild and also loosened their regulations a bit and mostly only did mercenary work.  In short, they were nothing like the Rune Knights.  But just having the right guild card from the Adventurer's Guild could get you just about anywhere in Ca-Elum, hence why Althea needed one.  When her target could be just about anywhere, she might need to head to some dubious places.

Why did she know so much information when she barely ever read job briefings?  Well, when heading to a different country, a certain level of cultural knowledge was needed, so she wanted to at least know the basics.  But despite this fact, she was walking around in all black for no apparent reason.

“Well, so far it’s not much different from Fiore,”  Althea muttered before heading into the woods that laid between her and Aecor.  It didn’t take long for the youth to emerge on the other side to find a vibrant town laid out in front of her.  The architecture and even the street layout didn’t seem that different from areas in Fiore, but the scents and sounds were different.  It was a tentative difference, but Althea would still conclude that the seaside town had its kind of flair.  Merchants lined the streets and quite a few people walked down the pavement with some form of weapon.  The youth was drawing in the sights when it suddenly occurred to her that she had zero ideas about where she was.  “Excuse me.”  The young girl approached one of the stalls.  “Do you know where the Adventurer's Guild is?”

The man tending looked over Althea with a slightly confuddled look, but didn’t voice any concerns, “Go down this street, take the first right, and just keep walking until you see the biggest building in the town.”  The blonde smiled at the man, paying for the information with a few jewels from her pocket.  Well, they weren’t “jewel” as in the paper money, but instead shiny rocks.  Mura had once paid using them, and since she was in a foreign country Althea reckoned she should use something more universal.  The man was rendered shocked silent, but the water mage didn’t take any notice, continuing on her way according to his directions.  Along the way, she was treated to a variety of odd stares from fellow pedestrians.  It made her regret bringing a parcel along, maybe it was too much?  It served no purpose other than for aesthetics anyway, no amount of sun would ever tan her skin.

However, it didn’t take too long before the youth finally arrived at what seemed to be the Adventurer’s Guild.  The man at the stall had described it as “the biggest building on the block”, but the slayer hadn’t expected the difference to be so immense.  Other facilities stood at around one story high, but the Adventurer’s Guild was a full two.  Additionally, the horizontal space it occupied was almost double that of any building in the immediate area.  Althea would even say it rivaled Fairy Tail’s office building in size, but that was only expected when they handled similar areas of business.  But that didn’t seem to discourage her in the slightest as she opened the doors to the Ca-Elumian guild.

Inside the building, in contrast to its large size, was rather robust.  Both the walls and floors were wooden and the lightning lacrima had a slight tinge of yellow.  The fact that it was rather rowdy didn’t help things either, with many groups of people who reeked of alcohol sitting at tables.  But the moment more and more people realized the blonde’s appearance, their jubilant conversations turned into murmurs.  Adventurers who had previously been busying themselves with a conversation or deck of playing cards stole glances at Althea as she headed to what she perceived was the main desk.  Attending it with a well-mantained smile was a young woman with nutmeg colored hair and matching eyes.  The blue and white clothes she was wearing could almost be described as maid-like, yet lacked the frills that would push it into cosplay territory.  But from the looks of the others in similar attire, she guessed that was just the Adventurer Guild’s staff uniform.

“Hello, young lady, are you here to submit a request to the guild?”  The clerk queried.

Althea shook her head, “No, I’m here to register.”  She replied, a mix of emotions pouring onto her from onlookers.  Maybe it was her age, but the water mage’s presence didn’t seem to be appreciated.

But the Adventurer’s Guild clerk’s smile remained, “Okay, but just so you know, it’s required that all adventurers are older than fourteen.  After all, many requests will have joy risking your life.”

The woman seemed to put extra emphasis on her last few words, but Althea simply nodded, “Yeah, I’m old enough.  There isn’t anything I can show you to prove it, so you’ll just have to trust me on it.”

The clerk nodded, retrieving a form from underneath her desk.  “Alright, do you know your approximate rank or should we have you measured?”

Althea frowned, she hadn’t realized that she needed to complete paperwork to register at the establishment.  Doing ace work for Fairy Tail was enough practice for her signature signing.  But regarding her rank, that was something the blonde never really kept tabs on.  The youth knew that she recently broke past S-rank, but who knows how long it’d be until she got to the next stage.  Still, she might as well tell them since being measured would just eat up more of her time.  “Oh, erm, the last time I checked it was H.”

The air froze, murmurs were replaced with silence.  The young girl searched the guild for the source of the disturbance, but there didn’t seem to be anything out of place.  Maybe it was a Ca-Elum tradition to go completely silent at a very specific time of day?  But almost as suddenly as the room fell quiet, it erupted in laughter.

By now, Althea was feeling pretty bad about missing out on the joke, but it seemed like she wasn’t the only one.  Any semblance of the guild clerk’s smile had melted away.  “Don’t mind them, but why exactly are you registering at the guild for?  You surely have a few options available.”

The blonde tilted her head quizzically.  She had no idea what the guild clerk meant by “other options”, maybe it was something to do with alternative ways to get a guild card?  “I need to register so I can move around the country as I please,”  Althea replied simply.

“Hah!  The little girl seriously doesn’t understand her standing, does she?”  One of the many onlookers who had been wheezing from laughter addressed Althea.  “You come in here copping that kind of attitude with nothing to back it up.  And yet expect to be given privileges reserved for the best among adventurers?”

“Huh?  Attitude?”  Now the youth was seriously confused.  Could it be that the big joke everyone had been laughing at… was her?!  Well, it didn’t bother her all that much.  She had attempted to be as amicable as possible, so it couldn’t be helped if people were making jokes at her expense.  The bigger problem was what the man followed up with.  “Wait, so I won’t be able to use the guild card to move around?”

The guild clerk was the one who answered, “No, you need to be higher ranked to do the things you’re talking about.”  Her stiff gaze traveled between Althea and the rowdy onlookers, “I suggest going on a request suitable for your rank first.  Or maybe you could just stop playing around, because I assure you, this is no kind of hobby.  Many people end up dying out there.”

From what Althea could understand, she registered at the guild but needed to do some preliminary work before her card had any use?  And for some reason, the guild clerk kept trying to discourage her from going out to do things at all.  Could it be that Ca-Elum’s monsters were ridiculously strong?!  Now she was interested, “Alright, can you give me the most difficult task possible?”  She chirped, unable to stop herself from smiling.  Sure, it was a bit of a detour from her current task of hunting the Dark Fetus, but it wasn’t like she had a time limit for that.

However, her words only served to sour the mood of the receptionist.  “The highest rank request you can take at the moment is G, but I suggest doing that with a party.  If you can manage to do five of those, I’ll be able to bump you up from H-rank to G.  You can find all available jobs on the board to your left, so bring back the one you want to take.”

Althea nodded energetically, moving towards the said board and picking a request at random.  All eyes were still on her, and several mocking snickers could be heard, but that was the least of her concerns.  Instead, she displayed the request she’d chosen to the guild clerk.

The woman let out a haggard sigh, “I did say you should be taking these with a party, right?”

“Yeah, but you also said that these were the highest rank request I could pick out.”

The clerk attempted to recover her smile, but it came across as stiff.  “But what are you going to fight the slimes with?”

The water mage proudly raised her hand, “With my fists of course!”  She announced self-assuredly.

The man from held his sides in a fit of laughter, “Oh man, I can’t believe this kid!  Clerk, just leave people like that alone, they’ll learn after their first attempt.  Maybe she’ll die, maybe she won’t, either way, it won’t be on your hands.”

The receptionist shot Althea a pleading look, but after hearing that she might die on a request, the slayer was sold.  Sure, getting stronger was great and all, but it also dramatically decreased the number of things she could enjoy fighting.  The otters that she had easily dispatched of at sea would probably be around the same level of wildlife she’d encountered in the Spooky Forest, yet the battle wasn’t engaging at all.  And so the young girl sped out of the Adventurer’s Guild, off to beat up some more challenging local animals.


Being a guild clerk in Aecor wasn’t an easy job.  Adventurers were rowdy as they always were anywhere, but it was even worse for a frontier town.  They were the only Adventurer's Guild for a while, so any adventurer needed to base their operations around the town.  Additionally, requests were constantly flowing in for local monster subjugations that the clerk would need to sort out.  But it wasn’t like the high population of veteran fighters in town would be willing to do such low paying work, so when a brand-new adventurer came to register the guild clerk was both happy and apprehensive.  On the one hand, they could be a great help for the residents, on the other they could end up killing themself for the sake of ambition.  The blonde girl who had walked into the guild struck her as the latter type.

She was wearing odd attire unfit for adventuring work, was much too young, and even carried a parasol while indoors.  But the guild clerk as well as the onlooking adventurers knew that higher-ranked fighters tended to be oddballs, so they at least gave her the benefit of the doubt.  It wasn’t like the names and appearances of the three transcendent ranked adventurers in Ca-Elum was common knowledge, so for all they knew she was among them.  The guild clerk of all people should know that strong individuals were often the weirdest because she was lucky to be personally acquainted with several S-ranks and even one of those transcendent rankers.  And that just served to show how respected she was in the community as the guild clerk such influential people regularly interacted with.  Even coming across them at all was a stroke of luck, and the clerk doubted she’d ever been able to meet the other two transcendent rankers.

But the moment the girl revealed herself to only be H-rank, the guild clerk knew that it was just another delusional kid.  The Adventurer's Guild ranked both individuals and parties using the same scale, and from lowest to highest it went H, G, F, E, D, C, B, A, S, and then the three transcendent individuals.  Achieving S-rank meant you were monstrous while being transcendent meant you were akin to a legend in myths.  Everyone in Ca-Elum had a rough idea where their strength laid, but if you were stubborn about ranking you’d get your magic power measured.  But in contrast to that, one didn’t even need any skills to be H-rank.  The jobs the Guild offered at that level were exclusive to clean up duty, finding lost objects, and other menial tasks.  It wasn’t flashy, but adventurers who did those tasks were still vitally important to the community.  It was typically their only source of income, but they were still deeply valued by higher-ranked fighters.

But once in a while, nobles would come in and try their hand at being famous.  People like that blonde girl would come into the Guild thinking they were off on a vacation and get themselves killed often.  Putting your life on the line always seemed easy when you only heard stories about it.  The guild clerk didn’t like the feeling of people looking down on the work adventurers did, but at the same time didn’t want a young girl to die early.  The other adventurers had no patience for such people, and their philosophy was usually along the lines of that your life was the responsibility of yourself only.  Still, it was rare for a noble child to delude themselves to such a degree that they believe they can defeat monsters with their bare hands.  The young girl was wearing a frilly dress, and her body didn’t give the impression of having undergone a single day of training.  And people were still discussing the noble girl when the guild’s doors opened.

Entering the hall was a young man with beige blonde hair tied into a long ponytail.  He had vibrant purple eyes and wore a red mantle over otherwise typical attire for the area complete with sandals and mid-length trousers.  However, the odd sword he carried signaled that he wasn’t the everyday visitor.  And one didn’t need to know much about the Adventurer's Guild to recognize the young man as the corporation's current guild master.  As to be expected, adventurers both new and old were in shock over the man behind the Guild entering it so casually, but the person in question didn't seem to mind the attention.  Instead, he simply smiled and headed straight for the guild clerk’s counter.  “Good day, how’s the business in Aecor?”

The man leaned against the clerk’s table leisurely, but the guild clerk simply sighed.  Of the many S rankers she’d come across, he was one of them.  It was impossible to imagine such a laid back individual leading a force as massive as the Adventurer's Guild, but alas, it was the truth.  His level of power wasn’t immediately apparent, but if the man let out his magic energy willy-nilly it’d give some of the locals heart attacks.  “It’s fine as usual.  But I don’t think you’re here just to visit, right Eikosi?”

The young man laughed good-naturedly, patting the guild clerk’s shoulder in a friendly manner.  “You’ve guessed right.”  He turned to address the onlooking adventurers with a smile, “I’m going to be borrowing your lovely guild clerk for a moment, okay everyone?  This’ll only take a moment.”

The woman felt her throat dry as she moved to follow Eikosi to the second floor of the guild.  If he was involved, there was no doubt it was a serious matter.  The Guildmaster regularly did checks around the country, and he had often been the one to report potential threats in the area.

Finally, the clerk and Eikosi entered a room that had a rough map of the general area sprawled out on a desk.  “No one has accepted a request to subjugate carnivorous sea otters, correct?”

The woman’s eyes opened in shock at the mention of them.  “No, I’d remember if they did.”  She answered definitively.  The guild classed them as a C-rank threat, and they could even break into B-rank if in large enough groups.  Their biggest weapon would be their intelligence, it was comparable to fighting against an army of highly organized D to C rank adventurers.  Additionally, the only way you could fight them was out in the water, which serves to severely limit offensive options.

“Yeah, I knew that’d be a stretch.”  Eikosi sighed as he pointed to the shore just north of Aecor.  “Some carcasses washed up on the beach here.  There were spell wounds, so no way it was from natural causes.  And I doubt it was the work of adventurers since no one claimed their materials.  But the main problem is just how many there were dead.”

The guild clerk’s eyes widened as she leaned in to further access the area.  “D-Don’t tell me-!!”  One of the main difficulties when hunting a large group of carnivorous sea otters was how quickly they fled.  If they judged you as an opponent they couldn’t win against, they’d use any means to escape from the battlefield.  And yet, if a massive number ended up dead, that meant there was something out in the ocean strong enough to violently suppress them.

Eikosi’s lax expression hardened, “I briefly went out to sea for the sake of more investigation, and I found magic residue of… well, I’m familiar with it, and it doesn’t spell good news.”  The young man sighed as he rolled up the map.  “I’ll be entrusting you to draft up a request from the guild for this.  If anything happens to this town, a lot of commerce will go crazy.  Siladen will be arriving in town very soon to deal with it.”

The guild clerk was stunned as the guild master uttered the name “Siladen”.  He was one of the only S ranker she was familiar with, but she hadn’t realized Eikosi was in close communication with him.  Still, the existence of a creature that prompted the mobilization of such a legend sent shivers up her spine.  The Guildmaster said that he was familiar with the magic it used to some degree, but just how horrific was it?


“How many more of these things do I need to kill?”  Althea muttered to herself as she searched the area for any signs of life.  She was currently busy hunting a weird jello monster, but it wasn’t anything like she had imagined.  Instead of being the slightest of threats, the youth felt like she was murdering a bunch of weeds in the ground.  Each squishy creature popped like a balloon the moment she put even a little power into her foot.  Then she’d have to go around and look for their gem-like core that served as proof of her defeating it.  “The guy at the guild said they’d kill me, seriously…”  Ca-Elum’s super guild had been dishing out some false advertising, was it possible to get her money back?  Wait, she hadn’t paid a dime to register, and it wasn’t like they could refund the time she wasted.

Still, she was already committed to hunting down the Dark Fetus, so she’d try asking the guild clerk a faster way to progress when she headed back to the Adventurer's Guild.  Before, she’d at least been willing to try out the usual way, but after obliterating every jello monster in her way it started to get boring.  Even Fairy Tail allowed people to take jobs according to their level, despite the period they’ve been with the guild.  And so, Althea soon turned back and headed back towards Aecor.

However, as she walked through the woods on the town’s borders, she detected a few signs of life in her general vicinity.  And it wasn’t just plants of wildlife either, it was the presence of two humans.  For some reason, they were huddled really close to the trees in front of Althea.  It was almost like they didn’t want to be seen, so the young girl opted to simply ignore them.  She was just trying to get back to town, they were playing a game of hide-and-seek, there was no need to intrude.  But the slayer was surprised to find that the two men didn’t stay behind the trees, instead of stepping out to intercept her.  From the familiar scent of alcohol she picked up on them, it seemed as if the two had just been at the guild.  They’d most likely been among the party that laughed at Althea for some indiscernible reason, but that alone didn’t seem to be a good enough reason for being intrusive.  Additionally, they were equipped with an axe and dagger respectively, their gaze filled with hostility.

“Hehe, that was quick!  I thought we’d need to wait a long time for you, but it seemed like we arrived at the ideal time!”  The one carrying a dagger stepped forward, pointing their silver blade at Althea.  “Now, little noble girl, hand over all the money you’re carrying.  If not, we can simply put a hefty ransom in exchange for your safety.”

Honestly, the moment she felt malicious intent from the pair Althea wanted to kill them.  It seemed that they’d made several incorrect conclusions, amongst them being the existence of parents to extort, her being a noble and that they could defeat her.  But she was in a foreign country, so who knew what their policies on assaults were?  Might as well try and reason with them before engaging in combat.  “Okay, so this is a misunderstanding.  I’m not a noble and I don’t have parents.”

The man wielding an axe snickered, “Nice joke, little girl.  But even if you don’t have parents, there must be someone who bought those fancy clothes for you.”

The water mage didn’t feel like her attire was all that formal though.  Maybe it was the parasol?  Well, in the first place, Tethys had suggested that she try a gothic lolita look, but it was she who paid for the clothes.  That wouldn’t stop Althea from blaming the NEET dragon though.  Additionally, it didn’t seem like the two men were in the mood to believe her, so she might as well move onto phase two of her convincing strategy.  “Unless you two have some sort of ridiculous secret weapon, there’s no way you can defeat me.”

Sadly, her plan seemed to have the converse effect, because the two men were simply angered.  “You brat!  Don’t you understand the position you’re in?!  Hand over all the money you have!”  The man with the dagger strode towards the youth with the blade trained at her face.  However, the slayer simply sighed.  Coercion didn’t seem to work, so she’d have to discard the plan and go for the self-defense route.  Sure, she didn’t have any witnesses around, but maybe they’d let her off the hook without mentioning anything to the Magic Council.  Oh, wait, she was detecting someone heading their way.

The voice came before the person, “Sir, please drop your weapon!”  Its tone was overly polite, and Althea felt like that the voice was being artificially altered with magic.  But otherwise the newcomer struck her as the perfect person to delegate the role of witness to.  Her two attackers searched their surroundings for the source of the voice, and it didn’t take long for them to finally emerge from the underbrush.  From the looks of it, it was a young man in a set of pure white armour with golden edges.  The suit bore many deep blue accents, and his cape fluttered behind him as the young man held his sword.  But other than their general stature, the plates of metal obscured every inch of skin as well as his face.  “It’s no good to threaten a lady.”

The two men were dumbfounded by the appearance of the armored stranger, but the one wielding an axe recovered first.  “H-Hey, don’t get the wrong idea.  This person isn’t a lady, they’re a brat!  I can tell you're an adventurer too, right?  Well, this kid thought our profession is some kind of joke, so we reckoned that the noble could be taught a few manners.”

“Hmm, well I doubt you need to use weapons just to teach a lady a lesson.”  The armored stranger gaze shifted between Althea and the two men.  “Anyways, what do you mean by her disrespecting adventurers?”

The man holding an axe’s expression loosened as he perceived the stranger taking his side.  “Well, you see, this brat just registered, but they’re only H-rank!  And yet they believe they can just defeat monsters without any sort of combat knowledge!  From the looks of it, she gave up half-”

“Wait, H-rank?”  The mysterious stranger seemed flabbergasted as he turned towards Althea, “Hey, is that true?”

“Yeah, why?”  The blonde responded, tilting her head to the side quizzically.  From what she could tell, the young man was a person of great power, so maybe he was highly ranked.  Who knows, maybe she could pull a few strings and get herself an instant promotion if she played her cards right.

The armored stranger sighed, turning back towards the two men, “Okay, this is a really weird situation.  Can you guys go away?  If you do, I won’t even mention it to the officials back in town.”

The dagger-wielding man’s face reddened, “What?!  Are you siding with the brat?  What kind of adventurer are you?”  He raised his dagger, “You may think you’re hot stuff, but there’s two of us and one of you.  Oh wait, the brat counts as minus one person, so it’s two v. zero!”

Althea wanted to ask a few questions about that math, but the stranger didn’t seem amused.  “Alright, I guess I’ll just restrain you guys…”  The two men rushed at him with their blades raised, but they never came in contact with him.  The adventurers couldn’t even complete their charge before being constrained by bands of light.  They served to gag them as well as prevent the use of their limbs, yet it had only taken the stranger an instant to cast it.  Seriously, immobilizing opponents sure was convenient.  Too bad the slayer didn’t know how to do anything of the sorts.  Her plans would always be limited to talking someone down or punching them hard enough that they can’t move.

“Phew, that was a close one, thanks mystery dude.”  The blonde said lightly, stepping over the two men as she continued down the path.

“W-Wait, I took them out so I could talk to you!”  The armored adventurer clumsily followed after Althea.  “I guess talking and walking is fine too since we’re both headed for Aecor.  Anyways, I’m glad you didn’t decide to do anything to hurt those two.  I’m sure it was just a momentary lapse in judgment that caused them to act that way, so I’ll remember to talk about it to them later.”  The slayer shot the armored young man a slightly confused look as he decided to follow after her.  He was taller than her, but by a much smaller margin then she’d expected.  “More importantly, why are you saying your H-rank?”

The youth confusion intensified, “Huh?  What do you mean?  I’m H-rank, it says so on my card thing-y.”  She shifted her parasol to her other shoulder to get a better look at the young man.  “Why do you ask?”

“Erm, didn’t you get measured or anything?”

“No, that’d take too long!”  She declared resolutely.  “I just need my guild card for a job I’m doing this country, but that’s also taking longer than I’d like.”

The young man pondered for a moment, “Ah, so you’re from abroad?  Well, I’m sure that it’s just some kind of misunderstanding that you’re at your current rank.  Don’t worry about it too long, I have a few strings I can pull at the guild!”  He announced proudly.  “Anyways, can I at least get your name?  You usually don’t have one on adventurer cards for the sake of privacy, but I hope you don’t mind me asking.”

Come to think of it, the guild clerk hadn’t asked her for a name when registering.  Well, she guessed that most people would just pick out a pseudonym, so might as well just leave out that bit.  “Oh, yeah, I’m Althea.  Nice to meet you.”

The armored youth flinched, “W-Wait, Althea?  I might be thinking of someone else, but do you use some kind of water magic?  And was the country you’re from Fiore.”

The young girl tilted her head quizzically.  She hadn’t many people with the name Althea, but maybe it was a common name in the country.  “Well, I do use some form of water magic.  And you were even able to guess I came from Fiore.  Why do you ask?”

She couldn’t see the youth’s expression from under his helmet, but the silence signaled that it was probably an interesting one.  “Do… Do you remember going to the Haunted Castle a while ago?  When the locals asked you to investigate something there?”

The blonde nodded brightly, “Oh yeah!  There was only a fuzzy kid in the castle though, so I never ended up fighting anyone!”

“That was me!  I was the fuz- erm,”  He paused to collect himself, seemed to inject a bit of magic into his suit of armor.  In an act that seemed to defy any sort of logic, it folded neatly onto itself to reveal the person underneath.

And instead of the armored adventurer, there stood a young boy younger than what his magically altered voice would suggest.  He had messy locks of dirty blonde and piercing blue eyes, but Althea would peg him as more cute than cool.  The boy wore typical clothes for the area, the only additions being the navy coat hanging by his shoulder, a sword at his hip, and the remnants of his white armor that were now limited to just the gauntlets and boots.  “I’m Lobel if you remember that name.  Once again I want to thank you for helping me out back then!”  His voice was a whole octave higher than when he was in a full suit of armor, but only just entered the realm of boyish.

“Eh?!  But… the fuzzy kid was all furry and soft though!”  She exclaimed, abruptly sticking her hand into Lobel’s hair.  The boy, after having his hair violently disheveled, pulled away from the youth's hands.  “I mean, it is pretty, but it used to be everywhere!”  She was weirdly distraught over this whole thing, but it was mostly attributed to the fact Lobel had grown so much since the last time she saw him.  Admittedly, she wasn’t all that powerful back then either, but the fuzzy kid even more so.  Now both he and Althea were around the same level in skill, but as for height… Well, that was the most upsetting part.  What kind of crazy puberty are you going through when you shoot right past the slayer’s proud height of 5’1”?!

Lobel let out a wry laugh, “Althea, I was cursed, this is how I usually look.”

“What, did it also curse your height too?”

“Hm?”

“Nothing.  I didn’t say anything at all.”  She said poutingly.

“Well, you’ve changed too!  The reason I could recognize you right away just from your face is because of how different your current style is!”  However, the young girl only seemed to be disheartened by Lobel’s conclusion.  If she hadn’t changed her clothes, was it true that he would’ve recognized her immediately?  Althea felt like she had changed a lot from when she first joined Fairy Tail, but she guessed that was sadly all internal.

“Well, I don’t usually dress like this anyways.  It was just on a whim.”  She sighed as Aecor’s gates came into view, “Hey Lobel, you said you can pull spaghetti in the guild, right?”

“Erm, I think you mean strings.”  The dirty blonde simply let out a sigh of exasperation, “Well, I can probably get you measured if I just ask nicely.  But first I’ve got my own business to attend to, so mind waiting until I’m done with that?”

Althea’s expression lightened immediately, “Wow, really?!  I just need my guild card to permit free movement, so if I could just skip all the jello hunting...”

“I think you mean slimes, but yeah.  I’ll probably be able to get you measured by the end of today.  You have more than enough magic power to fill the requirements, so it’ll be done in a flash!”  The pair passed the guards guarding the Aecor’s entrance.  “Anyways, did you mention you were from Fiore while registering?  Stuff like that’s important you know.”

The blonde nodded as she was led primarily by Lobel through town.  “Yep, I wrote it on the form the receptionist gave me.”

“Hm, well I think it’ll be simple to sort out this bit of confusion.”  It didn’t take long for them to arrive in front of the Adventurer Guild’s building, the pair stopping close to the door to continue conversing.  “You’re H-rank in Fiore, right?  Well, Ca-Elum has different standards, so H is actually the lowest you can go here.  I’d say that… it’s even lower than Fiore’s D-rank.  They’re the kind of people D-ranks could steamroll through given that they’re competent enough.”

Althea’s royal blue eyes widened in shock.  Maybe the confusion about her power was what led those men to try and mug her!  Also, all that other stuff they were saying made so much more sense now!  “But why is H here not the same as H in Fiore?  That’s just plain confusing.”

Lobel shrugged, “Well, it is an arbitrarily assigned rank to a letter, so different countries can give any meaning to it that they want.”  The young boy’s smile widened, “Either way, I’m glad we were able to run into each other again, Althea!  I’m off to deal with my business, so you can just sit tight.”  And with that, the boy turned and disappeared into the streets of Aecor.

Althea couldn’t help but sigh as she watched the distance between her and the dark blonde blob increase.  She didn’t know what that kid was even doing in Ca-Elum, but from the sounds of it he was fairly successful.  Well, it wasn’t like she couldn’t plan anything to fill up her afternoon.  The slayer was very good at lazing around in towns, so she might as well make the best of her time.  The first thing on the menu was finally trying out some of the local cuisines.  From her conversation with Lobel, she recognized her growing desire to eat something.  It wasn’t that consuming food was necessary to no die, Althea could maintain herself as long as she had magic power.  However, filling your face with food was just fun, and the fulfilled sensation after hitting up every single stand in a town was amazing.  The only problem was her lack of funds, the water mage doubted she had enough rocks to pay every single food vendor.  But besides that, Althea only had Fiore’s currency, and she had no idea how to convert it into Ca-Elum’s.

Good thing she was standing right in front of the Adventurer's Guild!  She’d just turn in the proof she defeated the jello monsters and gain enough profit to feed herself for the afternoon!  Just the thought filled the Fairy Tail mage with happiness, and a wide smile started to spread across her features.  And with that, she once again moved to enter the large building.  She was greeted only by sneers, but now that Althea understood how ranking worked, it was only to be expected.  But it wasn’t like she cared all that much, the blonde was occupied by imagining all the food she’d be eating.

However, the guild clerk seemed to be the opposite of pleased.  “Young lady, if you want to cancel the request you’ll have to pay a fine.”

“Hm?  No, that just a-”  Althea was going to try explaining how her being H-rank was just a matter of miscommunication, but immediately decide otherwise.  Just thinking about having to elaborate for so long was tiring, and it’d only decrease the amount of time she had for eating.  Lobel seemed plenty capable, so she was sure he could handle everything by himself.  “I’m here to turn in these jello cores.”

The clerk frowned, “If you bought these, it’d put you in big trouble in the long run.  In the first place, you’ll be purchasing them for a higher price than what the Guild will pay you for them.  And then when you artificially raise yourself to G-rank, you’ll be forced to take requests that aren’t suitable for your actual skill level.”

The young girl was still smiling despite the implications of the woman’s words.  “Yeah, don’t worry about it.  I just want to turn these in anyways.”  She produced a pouch full of the jello cores, placing them in front of the guild receptionist.

However, the adverse reaction she received wasn’t something she was prepared for.  “Okay, I was being lenient, but this is frankly ridiculous.  Not only did you come back almost immediately, but you purchased way more slime cores than you needed to.  Young lady, things like this could get you killed!”  Her eyes wandered to the onlookers at their tables.  “Monsters aren’t the only things you should be looking out for.”

Althea could clear up the misunderstanding, but that’d be complicated, right?  Additionally, at this point the guild clerk wouldn’t believe a word she said.  So then the blonde would need to do an exercise of force and--well, just thinking about it made her hungrier.  “Okay, but could I get the reward please?”

The guild clerk let out a sigh, her yielding eyes showing a mix of pity and frustration.  “Here.”  She said coldly, sliding Althea some money and tucking the slime cores under her desk.  The young girl graciously took the reward, offered the guild clerk a smile, and turned to leave the building.  But it wasn’t like she couldn’t pick up on the harsh murmurs directed her way, it’d be weirder if she didn’t.

“Look at that brat, thinking she’s hot shit just because her parents can afford to blow a few bucks.”

“Hehe, a pathetic little girl wants to be an adventurer?  Wants to be a famous transcendent ranker?  She’s looking down on our efforts, isn’t she?”

“Registering at the Adventurer's Guild isn’t some kind of fantasy.  I just wish people stopped making it out to be something it’s not.”

However, in a way their reactions only served to lighten her mood.  Sure, Althea would prefer t be liked rather be hated, but anything’s better than indifference.  As someone who went ridiculously long periods with no human interaction, even being the target of ridicule was a welcome response.  Unlike what happens when you break the law, people's dislike tends to not inconvenience you too much.  A few select people may try and get violent like the two men in the forest, but at least you weren’t being barred from all establishments.  Hate-filled eyes were something perfectly welcome to Althea, she just didn’t want to be alone.

Guided by nothing but her nose and the newfound weight in her pocket, the slayer soon picked out the first place she wanted to check out.  It was a small cafe tucked right next to an alleyway, and from the looks of things they were fairly popular as well.  They had a few tables outdoors with umbrellas to offer shade from the summer sun, a chic sign, and even a few customers sitting their indoor tables.  A sweet scent wafted out of the windows, and Althea could hardly hold herself back from violently bursting into the shop.  She had no idea why she was so darn hungry, but girls gotta eat man.  It only took a minute for the gothic lolita to enter the store, purchase the most delectable cake she could spot, and sit outside.  The blonde let out a sigh of happiness as she dug in, enjoying the texture of the cake and frosting.  Some people seemed to perceive her as a mascot of sorts because a few of the store’s subsequent customers asked where they’d “picked the loli up from”.  But now she was positive that it was mostly the fault of the parasol, it went too far into pure cosplay territory.

“Hey there, mind if I join you for your meal?”  A voice uttered, prompting Althea to tear her gaze away from her cake and towards the speaker.  It was a young man wearing a jovial expression, but the way he entered the seat across from the water mage without waiting for a response immediately gave her a bad impression.  He had ash blonde hair that was haphazardly tied into a ponytail, crimson eyes, and wore clothes typical for the area that had a dark and muted color.  If you asked Althea, she’d put him in his older teens, around the same range as Nat and Nadia.

“Who are you supposed to be?”  The youth asked bluntly, dividing her attention between the young man and her cake.

“Oh, don’t mind me, I just wanted to have a conversation with the girl who seemed to be enjoying the food here sooo much.”  He said with a smile, resting his chin in his palm.  “Anyways, are you new around here?  I’ve visited Aecor several times, but I don’t remember having seen a character like you.”

The frown on the blonde’s face was enough to signal to the man she didn’t enjoy talking while eating, but he didn’t seem to be taking the hint.  And so Althea simply sighed, lamenting the existence of socially dense individuals.  “I just arrived today.”

“Ah, did you come in by sea?  The view from the nearby beach is really nice.”

“Yeah, and I guess that the beach wasn’t the worst ones I’ve seen.”  If rating seaside beaches based on the usual expectations when arriving at such a place, Sin’s had to be the worst.  Althea didn’t mind the black sand and smell of corpses, but you have to be mindful of the masses.

“Oh, is that so?  I didn’t hear of any boats coming to port though?”

“Yeah, I didn’t go by boat, I walked.”  She replied promptly.  There was no reason for her to disguise her methods of travel, there were already plenty of people who were aware anyways.

“Wow, it must’ve been tough to walk here.”  The young man didn’t seem to question it.  “Did you run into any opponents on the way?  It isn’t completely safe even if you’re only a few miles from shore.”

“No--oh, wait,”  The dragon slayer pondered for a bit, the movement of her fork pausing.  “There were these weird otter things… Do you think they would’ve tasted nice?”

“Oh, I’m sure that they do.”  The young man was still smiling, but his eyes weren’t.  “Anyways, you can stop pretending now.  I could tell what kind of creature you were the moment I laid eyes on you.”

“Hm?  Pretending?”  Althea tilted her head, her royal blue eyes wide.  It had been a while since someone claimed she was faking anything, but in this case the young man was incorrect.  Everything from her enjoyment to her cake to the way she communicated was completely genuine.  “I’m not pretending to be anything.”

The young man let out a dry laugh, “The magic you used to kill those otters sure was interesting, could I get a quick demonstration?”

The girl’s eyes narrowed, “Hey, are you insinuating you know what my magic is?  I never even mentioned it though.”  She was getting the feeling the young man hadn’t approached her by chance.

“Ah, so you’re choosing to be stubborn?”  He let his fingers run through his hair, “Then let me make the first move.”  The young man, right there in the middle of town, released an overwhelming amount of bloodlust in her direction.  But the more concerning thing was the magic power she detected along with the presence of aether.  From what she could tell, his magic was polluted with the substance and in the same way hers was.

“Oh, so that’s how it is?”  The lack of panic from pedestrians meant that he was able to target it so acutely only Althea would pick it up, so he was undoubtedly a full step stronger than her.

“I was surprised too, y’know?  It isn’t every day that you see another aetherial just walking around in broad daylight.  You seem to have integrated well into human society.”

“Yeah, it’s a first for me.  However,”  Althea smiled, meeting the young man’s murderous gaze with her own.  Sure, he was stronger than her; she could imagine him having a fight with Psi and coming out on top.  But that just meant she’d have to, as Tethys often worded it, “break past her limits” a few times over.  “If you don’t tone down you’re killing intent, I’ll-”

“Twenty!  I was looking for you!  Huh?  And Althea’s with you?”  A young boy with dirty blonde hair interjected into the encounter: Lobel.  It seemed he was completely oblivious to the threatening aura the two had directed at each other because he casually eased himself in the last remaining seat at the table.

The young man who was referred to as Twenty broke eye contact first.  “Hey Site, I didn’t think you’d be back so soon.  You know, I was a bit busy before you came and barged in.”  He did not attempt to hide the trance of annoyance in his features, but Lobel didn’t seem to care.

“Yeah, sure.  Anyways, I couldn’t find anything in the ocean so the thing you were talking about probably moved elsewhere.”

“There’s no need for you to bother yourself with that anymore.  I already figured it all out.”  Twenty uttered as she turned his gaze away from Lobel and towards the water mage.  “So your name is Althea, huh?”

The slayer had a lighthearted smile on her visage.  “And you’re Twenty.  Hiya, nice to meet you.”

“So you two were having a conversation out here without even knowing each other's names?”  Lobel sighed, placing a hand on his forehead, “I’m surrounded by weirdos.”

Althea was willing to be called many names, but “weirdo” was pushing it.  She struggled to resist throwing out a retort and instead exercised her growing curiosity.  “Still, I didn’t know that Lobel was also Site.  Am I still calling you how I always have?”

The young boy seemed to be put into disarray by her comment, struggling to stutter out a sentence.  “Y-Yeah!  Site’s just a pseudonym!  Keep calling me Lobel!”

“Pfft,”  In contrast to Lobel’s panic, Twenty was struggling to stifle his laughter, “You told her your name was Lobel?  Okay, listen here ae-- Althea.”  He leaned towards the young girl, “This kid’s name is Site Lobel, but he thinks his first name is weird.  That’s why he always introduces himself using his last name.”

Althea was shocked, but by Mr. Site Lobel’s reaction, it was true.  “Wow, so there are people like that out there.  Site, you should respect the will of your parents and proudly use your given name!”  She announced, resuming her work at shoveling cake into her mouth.

“Don’t phrase it like I’m some kind of deviant!  And it isn’t like I never use my first name, I just--”  The young boy paused, his eyes widening, “Wait, don’t start calling me Site!  I’m Lobel!”

Twenty laughed as he lightly patted Site on his back, “Don’t worry, Site, I think your name is really cool!”

The dirty blonde sighed, his blue eyes downcast.  “Yeah, at least I don’t have a name like Twenty.”  But that comment only got his cheeks strangled in a ruthless pinch.

“Ah, that cake was really nice~”  Althea said, completely ignoring the two’s interaction in favor of her food.  “I wonder if I should order another one?  No, I’ve gotta at least try everything once before doing that…”

“Oh, right, Althea!”  Site, who’d been released from Twenty’s grip, directed his attention towards the young girl.  “I finished up with my business, so we can go ahead and let your rank reevaluated at the Guild.  It must’ve been difficult to register considering your age.”  However, his words were only met by a confused gaze from the dragon slayer.  “You know… the age restriction?  I don’t understand why Twenty put in a rule like that when he just lets me break it anyways.”

“Site, not all kids have a ridiculous amount of magic power.  Also, I think that the little lady is older than you think.”

Althea nodded, “Yeah!  I’m fifteen, so stuff like that’s no problem for me!”

Site’s eyes widened, “Wh-What?!  No way, you’re smaller than me!  Wait, now that I think about it, even back then you were-”

“You're just tall!  This is the normal height for my age!”  The girl insisted.

Twenty’s gazed between the two youths before sighing. “Wait, hold on, she’s getting registered?  And you know more about her than her name?  What have you been getting up to while I’m not watching?”

Site frowned, “I met Althea before I met you.  Remember when I got cursed?  She helped me out back then.  She’s from Fiore like me, so she’s just registered at the guild.  But there seems to be… a bit of a misunderstanding.”

“Oh, for that long?  But please, elaborate on this “misunderstanding”.”  Twenty said, leaning on the table.

“Well, you know how different countries have different standards for ranking, right?”

“Yeah?”

“In Fiore, I’d estimate our S rank is what they call… H-rank.”

Twenty was immediately wracked with laughter, “Seriously?  Actually?  Is that what happened?”  He wiped the tears from his eyes, “That’s so fitting for an aeth--you know what?  I’m tagging along too.”

“What?!  No!”  Site cried as he rose from his seat.

“My guild, my rules.”  Twenty easily brushed off the youth’s opposition.  “I went there just earlier today, but no one can tell it’s me when I look like this~”  He rose out of his seat, giving Site a mocking grin.  “You’re not good at crowd control anyways, so I’ve got to take care of you.”

“Okay, I’m glad it’s all sorted out!  Let’s get going, alright?”  Althea, who could’ve purchased and devoured another cake while the two were talking, had instead opted to at least attempt to pay attention.  They were talking about the means she’d finally be able to hunt down the Dark Fetus, but she hadn’t eaten as much cake as she wished she had.  Twenty was a character she wanted nothing to do with, but from the looks of things he’d only be keeping an eye on her.  And so the young girl left her seat, placing her entre reward for the jello subjugation next to her empty plate.


Being employed by the Adventurer's Guild was a difficult task.  You had to have a radiant smile, substantial magical power, and a cool head.  But at the moment, the guild clerk’s ability with that last trait was ruthlessly being tested.  The girl from earlier had come back to the guild, but she was being accompanied by two ridiculous individuals.  She knew that Siladen would be arriving at the guild, but it was much too soon for her to reasonably expect it.  He was in the same white armor that served as his staple, and the clerk could tell right away that it wasn’t any kind of fake.  He wasn’t the most famous S ranker, but he was by far the most accomplished one.  The guildhall buzzed with shocked murmurs as the word spread that such a high profile figure had made his appearance.

It was Twenty, one of the three transcendent rankers of Ca-Elum.  Not many knew how he looked, but the guild clerk being acquainted with him was only due to the fact he started his career in Aecor.  All the jaws of the veteran villagers dropped the moment they saw him waltz into the guild, and it wasn’t like there were many people out there who wandered around without shoes on.  Every time the guild clerk saw him waltz into the guildhall with that lofty smile, she was constantly reminded of the guild master.  But when she asked if Twenty was acquainted with Eikosi, the adventurer denied ever having met him before.  The other party said something similar as well.

“Hey receptionist, how’s the business in Aecor?”  See?  They even had the same greeting.

The guild clerk’s gaze traveled to the girl, Siladen, and then back to Twenty, “...What can I help you with today?”

“We’re here to get this little lady measured!”  Twenty uttered loud enough for the whole guild hall to hear, prompting a mass of whispers.  Not just anyone rolled up to the Adventurer's Guild with not one, but two high rankers, did the kid’s parents threaten them or something?  No, that’d be way too difficult to do against an S ranker just so that you can get a measurement.  And with a transcendent ranker it was impossible for someone to make them do anything.

And so, the receptionist was forced to resign herself to just following their request, “Alright, give me a moment.”  She said before heading up the staircase to the building’s second floor.  It didn’t take long for her to find the measurement tool: a clear, orb-like lacrima that had misty energy swirling within.  By the time the clerk returned to the first floor, all eyes were on the tool.  “Okay, just place your hand on the tool and the lacrima will tell me what rank you should be at.”  The woman chanted the speech she needed to say with each measurement, trying to retain her sanity.  “Just so you know, there is a small fee you’ll have to pay no matter the result.”

“What?!”  The young girl exclaimed, her eyes wide, “I spent all my money on cake!”

“Don’t worry about it, I can cover it.”  Siladen, who had previously remained silent, finally spoke up.

“Mmh, I’ll pay you back later,”  The youth said before stretching her hand out to the lacrima.  But the moment her finger grazed it, she received her hand abruptly.  The clerk was already too emotionally strained to voice any questions as the blonde shot a sharp gaze at Twenty.

“Take it or leave it, how else would they be able to access your strength?”  The transcendent ranker shrugged.  “You need the card for business, right?  Well this is the only way to get one.”  The girl frowned but ended up placing her hand on the lacrima.  The tool pulsed a few times, but soon the light disappeared and it returned to its original state.

“I’ll be looking at your results now… eh?”  The guild clerk inspected the lacrima’s results, but her voice stopped the moment she laid eyes on them.  “You’re… S-rank…”  The guildhall erupted with shock, the adventurers’ wide eyes trained on the girl holding a parasol.  “Why… did you say you were only H-rank?”

Siladen let out a heavy sigh, “She’s from Fiore, so ranks there are different.  It was just a misunderstanding.”

“Ah, so that’s how it is…”  The guild clerk’s voice was weak as she thought about the pain of semantics.  “Wait, Fiore, it couldn’t-!”  She turned violently towards the blonde girl.  “Could you be Ms. Eventide?”

“I prefer to be called Althea or Thea, but yeah.  How’d you know?”

“I got word that you should be,”  The receptionist struggled to articulate a sentence, “That’d you’d be coming here to register.  Forgive me, but could you show me your guild mark?”  The girl easily rolled down the glove on her left arm enough for the receptionist to see a blue Fairy Tail guild mark with a golden outline.  By now, the receptionist was struggling to keep on her feet.  “Ah, so you’re a part of a big guild too?  That’s nice…”

“Wait, so you don’t actually know where you’re supposed to be going?”  Twenty seemed to be struggling to hold back his laughter to no avail.  “People who hear about the Fetus just know where it is?  What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Don’t ask me, that’s just what they told me when I took the job!”  The dragon slayer, her newly upgraded guild card in hand, walked down the streets of Aecor with Site and Twenty.  Well, Site was still wearing that big suit of armor, but the moment they left town he’d probably take it off.

“Still, I can’t help but think it’s silly.  Do they want you to scour every inch of Ca-Elum for this Dark Fetus?”

“Who knows, maybe I’ll develop that sixth sense they were talking about when I start… but I don’t think anything like that actually exists.  But if it takes too long, I’m just going to leave.”

“I guess that’s fine.  I mean, if they seriously expect you to-”

“Hey, you two.”  Site suddenly interjected, “I feel as if I know where the fetus is.”

Twenty’s crimson eyes widened, “What?!  How’s that supposed to work?”

“I don’t know… I guess I’d only be able to explain it as a sixth sense.”  Site said with a hint of mockery.  He got a good pinch from Twenty once they entered the woods for his attitude, but if he hadn’t done anything Althea would’ve.  It wasn’t her fault she isn't receptive to mystical stuff, blame how her body worked!

As Althea and her newly formed peanut gallery ventured towards the Dark Fetus’s location, the world seemed to turn gray.  And it wasn’t as if there were just a larger amount of gray objects, she could see the color of Site’s dirty blonde hair turn bleak.  A thick feeling of melancholy engulfed the woods, but that was probably being caused by the same thing that prompted everything to become monochrome.  However, all progress ceased the moment they came across a door blocking what seemed to be the entrance to a cave.  Site attempted to open it normally, but it seemed to be sealed very well.

Althea tapped the door, trying to get an estimate on how tough it was.  “Hey Site, how do we open the door?”

“I don’t know!”

Twenty frowned, “What?!  How come?!”

“I don’t know!  There’s some kind of gimmick here and I don’t know how--you know what?”  The boy unsheathed his sword, a dark aura engulfing the blade.  He took a stance in front of the door, magic energy swirling around him, “Hyup!”  And with that, the obstacle was cleanly bisected vertically.  The two slabs that used to be a door fell to the earth with a loud thump.  “Okay, now it’s open.  Happy?”

“Very.”  The aetherial uttered just as the sky turned jet black.  From what Althea could tell from her detection, everything but the three of them were frozen in place.  Save for, of course, the creature emerging from the unsealed den.  Well, it was less of a “walking out” kind of emerging and more of a “phasing out” out.  It was as if the rocks weren’t even there, the entity just moved right past it.  And for something that was called a “fetus”, it was as tall as one of the larger trees in the forest.  Maybe the umbilical cord and baby-like limb proportions were what earned it the name?

Honestly, it was a bit of an eyesore to look at, and the sensation Althea felt while looking at it was far from pleasant.  Could it be that it was trying to use mental pollution against her?  She wasn’t sure about the peanut gallery, but she was immune to stuff like that.  When looking over at her companions, Twenty looked at the fetus with an indifferent expression while Site only seemed to be shocked by the size and while “phasing” thing.  Well, she might as well make sure.  “Hey, are you guys being affected by the mental pollution?”

Site turned towards Althea quizzically, “Huh?  Mental pollution?”

“The kid’s fine.  I am too.”

“Ah, alright.”  The blonde replied lightheartedly, turning back to face the Dark Fetus.  It was consolidating a large amount of magic power for what seemed like a large attack, but the water mage wasn’t in the mood for beating around the bush.  She grinned, releasing her hair from their twintails and throwing aside her parasol.  “This’ll be over in one attack.”

Site and Twenty retreated a fair distance as the magic power around the two combatants intensified.  Althea slowly raised her bandaged right hand as she slid back her left foot.  A mass of black expanded in the sky, but the youth’s eyes didn’t stray from her target.  It was a massive ball of black magic, slowly moving towards the earth, but she was focused on her preparations.  Then, she moved, kicking off the ground and flying at the fetus like a bullet through the air.  Althea drew back her fist, layers of magic circles forming behind her.  Rugose, Tabulata, she applied enhancement after enhancement spell as her the speed of her fist increased exponentially.  Then, in an instant, she crashed right through the middle of the eldrich creature’s head.  The largescale spell it was preparing dissolving in an instant, and the sky reverted to its usual blue.

“Wow, that was a powerful punch.  I hadn’t taken you as the physical type.”  Twenty remarked as he leisurely walked over to inspect the Dark Fetus’s corpse.  “How much magic power do you have left?”

Althea let out a sigh, attempting to flick the black gunk off her body.  “I almost depleted half of my total back then.”  She said lightheartedly as she started using her water magic to clean herself off.

Site had taken a while to recover from the spectacle, but now he was approaching the two aetherials.  “Woah, that sure was crazy.  Do you fight stuff like this often, Althea?”

“Well, I fight whatever I want to.  But it isn’t like I’m done.”  She thrust her hand into the center of the giant fetus’s chest, pulling out an oozing black heart.  “This was technically what I came here for.”  The slayer smiled as she inspected the organ.  It was a lot larger than a human’s, but the magic she detected on it was rather interesting.  However, when she turned her gaze away from the fetus’s heart and towards the peanut gallery, neither of their expressions were very good.

“Althea, at least give me a warning before you do stuff like that!”

“I get that you needed its heart, and I hate to agree with Site, but still.”

The youth frowned, squeezing the heart softly so that a bit of black blood squirted out of its chambers.  “It’s only a bit of blood, you two.”