Alfonzo's Work Begins Again

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, River to Margaret Town.

January, x786.

After Elicia's release from the hospital, time flowed quickly. And during that time, the x785 S-Class Promotion Exam was held. And to the participants, Fried, Laki, Levy, Gray, Elfman, Natsu, Sun, and Juvia, there were two things they were excited about.

First, Ur, the new guild master made it clear that the rule where only one wizard would be promoted each year had been changed. Meaning, there could be up to eight new S-Class wizards at the end of each exam. Naturally, this excited everyone involved while motivating everyone else to put in more effort. On the other hand, the examiners, the S-Class wizards of the gild would beeven more stringent when evaluating the candidates.

Second, each of the participants, that did not already have one, received a [Soul Armament Embryo] at the beginning of the exam, something that excited the participants and made those who did not make the cut even more determined to succeed.

In the end, there were two wizards who passed the exam and became S-Class wizards. The first, and the one who had taken the exam the most times, Fried finally reached S-Class after being eligible for six years. The second was Sun, who already had an unsealed [Soul Armament], giving her an advantage over the other competitors.

Then, after the S-Class wizards and candidates returned from Tenrou Island, Alfonzo began preparing to head to Lamia Scale's guild hall, which was located in Margaret Town. And for this trip, he decided to bring Ultear and Juvia with him.

The reason to bring Ultear was clear. On top of being one of Alfonzo's girlfriends, Ur's first disciple was a member of Lamia Scale. Alfonzo's decision to bring Juvia, however, baffled many of the wizards in the guild. But he did have a reason to do so.

Apparently, Mirajane had told Juvia about the fact that pure water does not conduct electricity. Which would, in turn, make it possible for Juvia to fight on par with, or even defeat, Laxus. Though, in Juvia's mind, she had extended that possibility to defeating Alfonzo, as well.

Currently, Alfonzo, Ultear, and Juvia were aboard Sixth Sense and making their way to Margaret Town.

"Have you ever been to Margaret Town?" Ultear, sitting in Alfonzo's lap in the ship's wheel house, asked curiously while watching the river and the shore.

"Only once." Alfonzo replied with a smile while steering the ship. "Gramps brought me with him one time when he had something to discuss with Master Ooba."

"I see." Ultear replied with a nod. "I guess that makes sense. There's no reason for Margaret to post quests for other guilds, after all. Not with Lamia Scale's guild hall right there."

"Yeah. Alfonzo replied with a nod.

With that, the conversation fell into a somewhat comfortable silence. Well, silent if you ignored the sound of boiling water coming from the wheel house's entrance.

Hearing that sound, Ultear could not help but glance towards the entrance to the wheel house. And when she did, she saw exactly what she expected to see. Currently, Juvia was poking her head around the corner and glaring at Alfonzo in jealousy.

"Are you sure it was a good idea to bring her with us?" Ultear asked while whispering into Alfonzo's ear.

"*Sigh* Honestly, I'm not sure." Alfonzo said in an exasperated tone. "But she did ask me to teach her about pure water not long before we left. And since she didn't wanna wait two months to learn about it, she asked me to bring her with me."

"And the fact that I was coming with you had nothing to do with a that, right?" Ultear asked while smiling wryly.

"Oh, I'm sure it did." Alfonzo replied while also wearing a wry smile. "But I don't think it would have made a difference. According to Mira, Juvia felt really helpless that she would have not been able to put up a fight against Laxus in the last tournament, had Team Strauss' first round match went that far."

"Yeah, I guess I can see that." Ultear said as she glanced at Juvia once again. A moment later, Ultear turned back to Alfonzo while pouting. "Still, I would have liked this to be a trip for just the two of us."

"Sorry about that, Tear." Alfonzo said before planting a kiss on Ultear's cheek, which caused the sound of boiling water to intensify. "I'll make it up to you later, I promise."

"You better." Ultear said before returning the kiss. "And if you do a good job…"

Upon reaching that point, Ultear lowered her voice to a whisper.

"I'll allow you to pleasure me." Ultear said in a sadistic, yet seductive, tone.

Rolling his eyes in response, Alfonzo decided not to respond to Ultear's usual antics. He did, however, swat her on the butt as a form of punishment.

*Smack!*

"Kya!" Ultear yelped as her face reddened. Then, while burying her face in the crook of Alfonzo's neck, she whined. "Not in front of Juvia…"

However, to both Alfonzo and Ultear's surprise, Juvia did not fly off the handle and attack Alfonzo. And when they both looked back to see what Juvia was doing, as the sound of boiling water had stopped, they saw Juvia staring at Ultear's butt blankly with blood dripping from her nose.

"I guess she's fantasizing about slapping your ass." Alfonzo said with a teasing smile. "How does that make you feel, tear?"

"Hmph! Never gonna happen." Ultear replied as she looked away. "Only I do the ass slapping. Never the other way around."

*Smack!*

"Mmm~." Ultear moaned softly from the second slap on her butt.

A moment later, with her face red, Ultear glared at Alfonzo. At the same time, Juvia slumped to the floor with a sloppy smile on her face after hearing Ultear's moan.

"*Sigh* I get the feeling this is gonna be a long two months." Alfonzo muttered with a smile on his face. "Even so, it should be fun. And hopefully, I can get Juvia to stop hating me so much, while I'm at it."

Like that, the voyage lasted for another half an hour before they could see the town they were looking for in the distance.

"Is that Margaret Town?" Ultear asked as she pointed out the wheel house's front window.

"According to the map, that should be it." Alfonzo replied with a nod. "Now would probably be a good time to wake up Juvia."

"*Sigh* Alright." Ultear said with a pout.

After Juvia passed out, Ultear had brought her to one of the cabins on the ship before returning to the wheel house and retaking her seat in Alfonzo's lap. And since then, she had been enjoying her alone time with him. However, with the trip coming to an end, she knew Alfonzo was right.

Standing up, Ultear quickly made her way out of the wheel house. Then, she made her way below deck and headed for the cabin where Juvia's luggage was. Naturally, she found Juvia still unconscious in the bed. On top of that, she was still smiling sloppily.

'*Sigh* I bet she would chill out significantly if Gray would just accept her.' Ultear muttered to herself while watching the younger girl sleep. 'Then, Mom and I wouldn't have to always have a stalker following us around. I don't even know why Gray is so against this. I mean, objectively speaking, Juvia is one of the cutest girls I've ever met. Hmm… Maybe he's gay?'

Shaking her head to rid herself of those thoughts, Ultear couldn't help but smile. She had no doubt that Gray was into women. However, like her, he just found Juvia's stalker behavior off putting.

*Knock!* *Knock!*

"Hey, Juvia." Ultear said loudly. "It's time to wake up. We'll be docking soon."

Immediately upon hearing Ultear's voice, Juvia's eyes shot open. A moment later, however, she closed them tightly once again.

"Juvia is unable to wake up on her own." Juvia said without looking in Ultear's direction. "But a kiss from Princess Ultear might be enough to wake her."

As soon as she finished speaking, Juvia puckered her lips in preparation for a kiss.

Rolling her eyes in response, Ultear turned around and got ready to go back to the wheel house.

"Fine, then I guess you'll be spending the rest of your life asleep in this cabin." Ultear said as she started walking away.

"Wait!" Juvia shouted as she sat up explosively. "It's a miracle! Juvia is awake! It must be divine intervention."

Rolling her eyes once again, Ultear could not help but smile, despite herself. Still, she did not stop her steps as she returned above deck with Juvia moving quickly to catch up.

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Margaret.

Eventually, Ultear and Juvia returned to the wheel house. And when they did, they were just in time to see the ship enter Margaret Town.

"This town is huge." Ultear said as she gazed at the town and the people moving around on either side of the river.

"Well, it is one of the bigger town's in Fiore." Alfonzo replied as he navigated to their destination. "It's got one of the larger populations in the kingdom, too."

"Is the town really that big?" Juvia asked curiously. "Juvia has never been here before."

"Yeah, I wouldn't doubt that." Alfonzo replied. "I doubt your old guild master would have ever let you take any quests near this town. Especially since Master Ooba and Gramps were so close."

"That's right." Juvia replied with a nod. "Master Jose did not let any of the wizards of Phantom Lord near Fairy Tail, Lamia Scale, Quatro Cerberus, or Blue Pegasus."

As soon as her words ended, Juvia glared at Alfonzo, looking as if she was offended that she was conversing with him. In response to the glare, Alfonzo could only smile wryly.

"So, where are we gonna stay for this trip to Lamia Scale?" Ultear asked, trying to break the awkward atmosphere.

"There." Alfonzo replied as he pointed at a two-story building with an impressively sized dock. "But I don't remember the dock being that big the last time I came to the town with Gramps."

"You did tell Lamia Scale that you would be coming by ship, didn't you?" Ultear asked curiously.

"Yeah." Alfonzo replied with a nod as he brought Sixth Sense close to the dock.

"Well, after the Tenrou Island incident with Grimoire Heart, shouldn't the Magic Council know about Sixth Sense?" Ultear asked. "And since Jura is a member of the Council now, maybe he had it remodeled after finding out how we would be travelling."

"Oh, that makes sense." Alfonzo replied with a nod. "I just didn't think they would go so far for us. I mean, they're already paying me to install the training chambers. But then again, with a dock like this, they could have larger merchant vessels dock in the town, too."

As the trio continued to chat, Alfonzo eventually brought the ship up to the dock. Then, with the use of his [Metal Magic] he moored the ship to the dock, which after the renovations, was more like a wharf.

A few minutes later, with their luggage in hand, Alfonzo, Ultear, and Juvia disembarked from Sixth Sense. At the same time, Alfonzo floated his newest magic vehicle, a royal blue vehicle resembling the Mercedes-Benz S 600, onto the street in front of the hotel where the trio would stay for the next two months.

"This place is called the Viper Inn, huh?" Ultear asked. "Sounds like the name of a place where small time criminals hang out."

"Yeah, I thought the same thing when I stayed here with Gramps." Alfonzo said with a smile. "But it's seriously just a normal in. It's a lot bigger than it was back then, though."

"If you say so." Ultear replied while shrugging her shoulders. "Anyway, let's get checked in. Then, we can go to Lamia Scale. I wonder if Lyon is there. I wanna see how much he's improved since the last time I saw him. He probably can't compare to Gray now. Especially since Gray's been training in high gravity for the last year or so."

"Hmph!" Juvia snorted. "Of course, this Lyon cannot compare to one of Juvia's soul mates."

"Well, he's actually Mom's first disciple." Ultear said with a wry smile. "So, they were on par for a long time. IN fact, until recently, Lyon was stronger. At least, that's how it was back when we took down the Oración Seis, anyway."

"Even after all the time spent training with the rest of us, Gray was still weaker than that Lyon guy?" Alfonzo asked curiously.

"Well, in terms of the amount of magic power, he was." Ultear replied. "But he probably wouldn't have lost in a fight. It probably would have been close back then, though. But now, I don't even think it would be a competition."

"I see." Alfonzo replied as he and the girls entered the inn.

And just like that, Alfonzo, Ultear, and Juvia continued to chat as they entered the Viper Inn. Then, after booking two rooms for the duration of their two month stay and putting their belongings in their rooms, the trio left the inn and jumped into the S 600 before making their way to the Lamia Scale guild hall.