Ichiya Vandalay Kotobuki was a short, chubby man with a rather sleazy face that seemed completely at odds with Blue Pegasus's glamorous image.
Yet not a single member of Blue Pegasus dared to look down on him. In fact, they all treated him with sincere respect.
The moment she heard the words "saved her life," Jennie's eyes lit up. She could practically smell the gossip. She hurriedly leaned closer.
"Ichiya, could you tell me about it? The story between Miss Karen and Mister Kabe."
Ichiya lifted his chin and gazed up at the ceiling at a forty five degree angle, his expression full of nostalgia, as if he had been there himself.
"Men, Karen, my adorable little rose, that was quite a twisted and thrilling tale…"
While Ichiya was enthusiastically feeding juicy gossip to the newbie, on the other side of town Kabe had already been dragged back to Karen's home.
It was a four story standalone apartment building, with a floor space far larger than the place Lucy would rent in the future, and the interior decor was more refined and cozy as well.
"Welcome home, please come in."
Smiling brightly, Karen opened the door and welcomed Kabe inside, even personally helping him change into a pair of house slippers.
They passed the entryway and Kabe originally intended to just sit in the living room on the first floor.
Karen, however, insisted on hauling him up to the third floor, into the spacious bedroom that took up most of the level and was very clearly her private boudoir.
As soon as he stepped in, Karen happily pushed him toward a heart shaped sofa whose aesthetic could only be described as "very suspicious."
She casually swept aside the various strange items piled on it, such as whips, riding crops, and assorted unidentifiable gear, then gestured for him to sit.
Kabe gave the scattered "toys" on the floor a weird look.
He cautiously reached out and patted the sofa surface first, making sure there was nothing sticky on it, only then did he dare to sit down.
"Sit tight, I will go get you some water and fruit."
She tossed that line over her shoulder and dashed out before Kabe could even answer.
Even though this was not his first time here, being alone in a woman's bedroom still made Kabe feel a little out of place.
Suddenly his nose twitched as he caught a faint fresh floral fragrance in the air.
"Smells pretty nice. Seems these years with Ichiya were not wasted."
He silently made that evaluation in his heart.
Yes, Karen was no longer a Celestial Spirit mage.
After that mission where the two of them had reunited, she had sat down and had a serious talk with Bob.
In the end, she acknowledged that she truly did not know how to properly get along with the spirits.
On Bob's recommendation, she personally went to ask Ichiya to take her as a student and began learning Perfume Magic under him.
According to Karen, she was fairly talented with perfumes and even Ichiya often praised her.
In practice though, Kabe had yet to see her actually cast any spells.
He only knew that her perfumes were indeed excellent.
These days she no longer needed to take jobs. Just by selling high end custom perfumes, she made a very comfortable income.
Thinking back on how much Karen's life had changed because of that one mission, Kabe could not help feeling a bit emotional.
A single offhand suggestion from him back then had completely altered the trajectory of a person's fate.
It was just a pity that the one who should have joined Fairy Tail, the Celestial Spirit of Leo, Loke, had also gone down a different path because Karen's fate had changed.
With that thought, Kabe let his gaze wander around the room.
Before long his eyes landed on the bedside cabinet, where two golden Zodiac Keys were lying quietly, carefully polished until they shone.
"You care about them?"
Karen's voice drifted over from the doorway.
"Now that I am no longer a Celestial Spirit mage, keeping them by my side really is a waste.
"If you want them, take them. Sell them if you like, or give them to someone you think is suitable. It is all up to you."
Kabe pulled his gaze back and could not help clicking his tongue.
"A single Golden Zodiac Key can casually sell for ten million.
"You really just say you will give them away like that. Looks like you made plenty on perfume these years."
As he spoke, he turned his head toward the door and then froze.
"You changed clothes… just to wash fruit?"
Karen's long green hair now fell loose down her back.
Her body was wrapped in a light pink slip dress.
It openly revealed her delicate collarbones and fair jade like arms.
Below the hem, a pair of full, shapely, almost luminous white legs were completely bare before his eyes.
Noticing how his eyes were practically glued to her, Karen's lips curled up for a second.
Leaning back against the door, she quietly reached behind herself with her left hand and locked it, then walked over with a beaming smile, carrying the fruit platter.
"Nothing much. The dress I wore earlier got dirty, so I just grabbed something else."
"That was some very perfectly timed dirtiness," Kabe muttered under his breath.
Then his attention was drawn downward to Karen's bare feet.
'Good thing there is a carpet. Otherwise she would catch a chill walking around barefoot.
"A girl really should not be this careless with her body.'
Karen set the fruit down and gracefully sat beside him.
Feeling his gaze occasionally flick toward her feet, she deliberately shifted her pose, leaning back into the sofa with a lazy air and crossing her left leg over her right.
For a moment he actually had the urge to reach out, lift that foot, and see how it tasted.
'What the hell, am I really this starved?'
The thought had barely surfaced when Karen's soft, warm body pressed right up against him.
"You know, it has been a very long time since you came to see me.
"The flowers at home may look pretty, but if you ask me, wildflowers still have the best scent."
As her red lips parted, a faint fragrance slowly spread out around them.
It made Kabe feel inexplicably relaxed and cheerful, and that fleeting doubt just now slipped smoothly out of his mind.
"Save it. I am not giving up an entire field just for a single flower.
"Next time I am flirting with a girl, if you dare to interfere again, I swear you will not see me for the rest of your life."
His mouth was scolding her, but his hands were anything but honest, already circling her slender waist.
Karen pretended to be pitiful and obedient, nodding repeatedly and promising she would not make the same mistake again.
Inwardly, she simply snorted. She had absolutely no intention of taking his warning seriously.
The two of them sat entwined like that and updated each other on their recent lives.
Yet when Kabe openly mentioned that he and Mira and Erza had become lovers, Karen's expression changed for an instant.
She hid it well though.
After a single sour remark, she smoothly changed the topic.
Only when nearly twenty minutes had passed, when she noticed Kabe repeatedly lifting his shirt to fan himself and his skin growing increasingly hot, did Karen finally shift the subject and show her hand.
"How long are you planning to stay at the guild this time?
"You should just spend the night here."
"That depends. I will have to see what our two guild masters decide."
"As for where I am sleeping…"
He paused, stopping the motion of fanning his chest.
His gaze flicked down to Karen's restless little bare foot, and in the end he simply could not resist the temptation.
He gave in and said: