"Does this count as another kind of embezzlement, lining your own pockets from the inside?"
"Bastard Gray, if you cannot say something nice then keep your mouth shut. I did not expect things to turn out like this either!"
Laki waved her little fists in flustered anger, loudly defending herself. Her embarrassment at having her sore spot poked only made everyone around them burst into laughter.
Amid the laughter, Kabe led everyone into the villa.
Just then, Aries heard the voices outside and opened the door from within. Seeing the four of them carrying luggage, the pink haired maid with the curled ram horns hurried forward sensibly to help.
Ultear's steps halted again as she looked at the girl with the curved horns on her head.
"This look, and this strangely gentle aura..."
Murmuring to herself, it was as if she suddenly understood something. Her brows rose slightly and she glanced over the group.
"You people really are extravagant."
And how could they not be? What sane person would be willing to use one of the Zodiac Celestial Spirits as a maid?
"It is not that bad. I am rich, after all. I have more magic power than I know what to do with."
Kabe chuckled, rubbing Aries' hair. The little sheep spirit rewarded him with a shy, sweet smile.
"Eh, she is your Celestial Spirit? You are a Celestial Spirit mage too?"
Ultear's mind short circuited for a moment. She had originally assumed this spirit belonged to the girl called Laki. She had not expected Aries to have been summoned by Kabe of all people.
The infamous Destroyer is also a Celestial Spirit mage... If this got out, it would be enough to make the jaws of a good number of mages all over the continent hit the floor.
"Not really. I only have Aries' key. That is the only one."
As Kabe spoke, he handed all the luggage in his hands to Aries and asked her to help Laki tidy up her room.
However, Aries did not leave immediately. After hesitating for a moment, she somehow pulled out a golden key that Kabe found very familiar.
"Lord Kabe, I found this under the bed while I was cleaning the room before. It is the Celestial Spirit key of Sagittarius, Sagittarius Sachidarius."
"Sagittarius? Why would Sagittarius' key be..."
Halfway through the sentence, Kabe was still wondering where the key had suddenly come from, when he caught sight of Ultear's curious face leaning in from the corner of his eye.
That in turn made him think of Galuna Island, and of the villagers who had come to see him off before he left.
The memory clicked, and Kabe slapped his own forehead, stunned by himself.
"Crap, it was the payment from the people on Galuna Island. I completely forgot about it."
After saying it out loud, he could not help feeling a certain pain in his heart. Why had he not remembered earlier?
If he had, he could have brought it along with Leo's key and negotiated a really good price with Lucy last time.
Everyone else, hearing this, could only stare at him with dark lines on their faces.
What exactly did this guy take a precious golden Celestial Spirit key for?!
He had just casually let it roll under the bed. This was a treasure worth tens of millions, and he had forgotten it like loose change.
Scratching his head, Kabe finally sighed and instructed Aries,
"I am not a proper Celestial Spirit mage anyway. Aries, send this key to Lucy for me later. Consider it a gift. I will not charge her for it this time."
Using a key he had already forgotten as a way to deepen the goodwill of his future wife, Kabe could not help quietly praising his own brilliance.
...
After this small interlude, Laki called Aries upstairs to help her arrange her new room on the second floor.
Kabe, Erza, and Mira, meanwhile, led Gray and Ultear to the spacious living room on the first floor and had them sit down on the monster hide sofa Kabe had specially ordered.
As soon as they sat, Kabe fixed his eyes on Ultear and went straight to the point.
"Sorry for wasting so much of your time on the way here. Now you can talk, right? Why did you have Gray bring you to see me?"
At his words, everyone's gaze focused on Ultear.
Thanks to Gray's introduction earlier, Erza and Mira already knew that this woman was the daughter of his late teacher, Ur. That only made the two of them even more curious as to what Gray's senior had come to find Kabe for.
Hearing the question, Ultear instinctively averted her eyes, her gaze drifting toward Erza sitting beside Kabe.
With the Fairy Queen right in front of her, the words she had prepared suddenly felt incredibly hard to say.
Her lips trembled a few times. Only after meeting Erza's puzzled gaze did she lower her head in guilt and quietly reveal her purpose.
"I want to ask you to help me defeat Jellal, and destroy the Tower of Heaven."
Shff.
The moment Ultear spoke Jellal's name, Kabe felt a small hand suddenly clamp tightly around his own.
Following the touch up his arm, he looked over and saw that Erza's entire body had gone rigid. Her shoulders were trembling ever so slightly, the name and the tower dragging up a nightmare that had never truly faded from her heart.