87 The Upgraded Barrier

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.

January, x781.

Alfonzo and the girls spent the next hour, or so, looking over all the designs Alfonzo had drawn. In the end, with the girls' help, Alfonzo decided on one. Around the same time, Marin and her father exited the guild hall. Based on the smile on Marin's face, it was clear that the conversation with Makarov had a positive result.

"Okay, Marin." I'll be heading back to Hargeon for now." Marin's father said with a smile of his own. "As soon as I got back from my business trip, we came here. I still haven't written my report for the company yet."

"Okay, Dad." Marin said, hugging her father as she spoke. "I'll be home tomorrow. I have to pack my stuff."

"You don't have to pack everything, Marin." Marin's father said while patting his daughter on the back. "No matter where you go or how strong you get, that will always be your home. Never forget that."

"I won't." Marin replied, tightening her hug. "Thanks, Dad. I love you."

"I love you too, Sweetheart." Marin's father said. "Now, go out there and make me proud. But more importantly go out there and live a life you can be proud of."

With that, Marin's father separated from Marin. Then, he started walking. Before he got too far away, he raised his right hand and waved without turning around.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Marin." Marin's father said as he walked away.

"Bye, Dad." Marin replied, waving her hand as tears of joy ran down her cheeks. Then, when she could no longer see her father, she started wiping her tears away as she spoke once again. "Look at him acting all cool. He's too plain for that to suit him."

Though Marin said that, the admiration and affection she held for her father would have been evident to anyone who saw her at that moment. Unfortunately, Marin was standing outside the guild hall all by herself. So, there was no one there to witness it.

*Smack!* x 2

"Alright! No time to get all emotional!" Marin said after smacking her cheeks. "I gotta tell Lici and the others the good news."

With that, Marin started walking toward the mansion. Meanwhile, back at the mansion, Elicia and the girls realized that they came directly to the living room after getting to the mansion instead of getting cleaned up.

"Oh, we didn't take a shower after training." Cana muttered as she put down the design in her hands. "We got too engrossed in helping you decide what your arm would look like."

"Now that you mention it…" Elicia said, sniffing her shirt. "I still smell like sweat… I can't believe I let this happen."

"It's not like you smell bad, though." Alfonzo said off-handedly.

"Have you been sniffing our sweaty bodies?" Cana asked while pretending to recoil. "Fonzie, you're such a pervert!"

"Seriously, Fonzie's a pervert." Elicia added playfully.

Both Erza and Sun could not help but start giggling at Elicia and Cana's teasing of Alfonzo. Meanwhile, Alfonzo could only roll his eyes. Then, for a moment, a mischievous grin appeared on his face before it was quickly replaced by an expression filled with repentance.

"If you two are saying that, I must have really gotten out of hand." Alfonzo said while lowering his head. A moment later, he raised his head with a resolute expression on his face. "So, from now on, There will be no more sexual activity outside of the purpose of reproduction."

Immediately, Elicia's face paled. By now, it was no secret that she enjoyed sex… a lot. And just the thought of not having sex for prolonged periods was painful for her. Cana, on the other hand, frowned heavily at Alfonzo's declaration. She had been fantasizing about her first time with Alfonzo for a while. It got even worse after His and Elicia's first time, too. But now, less than a month away from her goal, Alfonzo said something like that?

"Fonzie, I was just kidding." Elicia cried, throwing her arms around Alfonzo from the front. "There's nothing wrong with you liking the smell of your lovers. In fact, it would be weirder if you didn't. I can only imagine how difficult it would be to be with someone if you didn't like their smell, right?"

"Lici's right." Cana chimed in, mimicking Elicia, throwing her arms around Alfonzo from behind. "It was only a joke, after all. You know, just a harmless prank. There's no need to take such drastic measures over something so insignificant."

While Elicia and Cana spent the next few minutes arguing their case, Alfonzo wore an impassive expression the entire time, while simultaneously enjoying the soft bodies pressed against him. Meanwhile, Erza and Sun watched the entire spectacle with amusement.

"I've never heard either of them structure their arguments so articulately before." Erza said, able to see the glint of mischief in Alfonzo's eye from where she sat. "Also, it's been quite some time since I've seen Cana this sober. I think the last time was before Alfonzo was promoted to S-Class."

"Yes, although I haven't known Cana as long as I've known you and Elicia, she always seems to be at least a little drunk." Sun replied with a nod. "And I've never heard Elicia make such sound and logical arguments before. Is… sex… really that good?"

For the last sentence, Sun turned toward Erza. Although she began blushing heavily when she said the word sex, she was still at that age when she started to think about things like that. So, she was truly looking forward to the answer.

Meanwhile, at the guild hall, Gozaburo, who was sharing a drink with Gildarts while bragging about their daughters and trash talking Alfonzo, suddenly shuddered. Then, he slammed his mug down on the table and stood up explosively.

"What's wrong, Seto?" Gildarts asked with confusion in his tone.

"I don't know, Clive." Gozaburo replied. "But I feel like Sun is about to get further away from me. I need to go and check on her."

"Then, you should go." Gildarts said with a resolute expression on his face. Then, he stood up as well before continuing. "In fact, I'll go with you. I've been having feelings like that for the past year. But I could never figure out why. Maybe I'll understand if I go visit Cana."

"You're a good man, Clive." Gozaburo said while extending his hand for a handshake.

"No, I'm not." Gildarts replied with a shake of his head. Then, he accepted Gozaburo's handshake as he spoke once again. "I'm the same as any other man… Any other man who wishes for the best for his daughter."

After a firm handshake and a nod, Gildarts and Gozaburo ran out of the guild hall. The sound of the two shouting their daughter's names could be heard long after they left.

"*Sigh* Those two…" Ren said, after watching her husband leave.

"Yeah, they just don't know when enough is enough." Ur said, holding up her own glass of wine for a toast.

After tapping glasses with Ren, Ur took a sip from her glass. Then, a mischievous smile appeared on her face.

"Hey, wanna follow them?" Ur asked.

"*Sigh* We really should." Ren replied. "They're not gonna do anything but trouble Alfonzo."

"Although that's true, that's not the reason we should follow them." Ur said, her mischievous smile widening.

Seeing that smile, Ren quickly finished the contents of her glass. Although she did not know the details, Ur's smile made her think that something interesting was going to happen. So, after finishing her drink she stood up and turned toward the guild hall's front entrance.

"If we're going, we should hurry." Ren said. "We can't let them get too far ahead of us."

"Haha! You're gonna get a kick out of this." Ur said with a smile as she finished her own drink.

Like that, Ur and Ren also rushed out of the guild hall, following behind the overly doting fathers.

Back at the mansion, once again.

"Man, and you two had the nerve to call me perverts." Alfonzo said with a mischievous smile on his face.

"Huh?" Elicia and Cana exclaimed simultaneously.

"You two should have gone into the legal system. You definitely have a talent for it." Alfonzo continued. "I've never heard so many sound arguments and counter arguments about why having sex is not a perverted act in my life."

It took a while for Elicia and Cana to realize what happened. However, when they heard Erza and Sun giggling in the background, they finally understood the situation.

"You tricked us!" Elicia and Cana exclaimed in unison once again.

"Wow, you two are speaking in perfect unison." Alfonzo said with a smile. "You two really have gotten close over the years."

Pouting at the fact that they had been tricked, Elicia and Cana released Alfonzo and started walking away.

"Come on, Cana, let's go take a bath." Elicia said without looking at Alfonzo.

"Yeah, I bet that pervert got a pleasure overload from smelling our sweaty bodies." Cana grumbled. A moment later, her eyes glanced past Sun, then she spoke again with her eyes lighting up. "Now that I think about it, you should come with us too, Sun."

"Huh? But why?" Sun asked, confused how the topic of conversation changed to herself.

"Well, we haven't really had much time to talk since you got here." Cana said with a smile. "And they say it's easier to bond with someone in the bath, right?"

"I guess…" Sun replied.

"Besides, I'm the only one here that hasn't seen your true form." Cana continued. "And I really wanna see it!"

"Yup, I saw that coming." Elicia muttered from beside Cana.

Sun wore an unsure expression as she contemplated Cana's request. For as long as she could remember, she was told to keep her tail a secret. But now, someone was asking her to show it so openly. It made her a bit apprehensive about the whole situation. However, when Erza placed a hand on her shoulder, she looked at the older girl, the uncertainty in her eyes clear to see.

"I think it is a wonderful idea." Erza said with a smile. "We're all family now, right? So, I think letting Cana get to know you and see the real you is a good idea."

Mulling over Erza's words for a moment, Sun eventually put on a smile.

"You're right, Erza." Sun said happily before standing up. Then, she grabbed Erza by the hand and started walking toward Elicia and Cana. "Let's go! We should all take a bath together!"

Like that, Elicia, Cana, Erza and Sun left the living room.

"We're gonna use our bathroom, Fonzie!" Elicia shouted after the girls left. "It's got the biggest bath."

"Got it!" Alfonzo shouted back as he sat back down on the couch.

Then, Alfonzo straightened up all the designs. After that, he put down a new piece of drafting paper on the clean coffee table.

"*Sigh* Now I have to design a workshop." Alfonzo muttered. "I can't believe we forgot to add that in the blueprints for the house. Even the powers that be didn't warn me in a dream or something. Did they forget too, or do they not like me all that much? Food for thought, I guess."

After he was done muttering to himself, Alfonzo began drawing the floor plan for the mansion. And since he had drawn it so many times in the past, it didn't take very long for him to draw out all three floors. Before he could start inspecting the floor plans for the best place for his workshop, The barrier alerted him that someone tried to break past the walls surrounding the property.

"*Sigh* I wonder who it is this time?" Alfonzo muttered as he put down his pencil. "I thought Gildarts had already learned his lesson."

A few minutes ago, Marin was walking toward Alfonzo and Elicia's mansion. By now, she was only about a hundred feet (30 m) away from the front gate. At that moment, however, she felt the ground shaking. On top of that, she could hear people yelling from behind her.

Looking back to see what was going on, Marin saw a pair of silhouettes running in her direction at high speed. In only a few seconds, she could see their features clearly. Though she only recognized one of them, she knew that it was Gildarts, Cana's father. The other was a man she had never seen.

Before Marin could greet Gildarts, however, the two men rushed right past her while shouting Cana's and Sun's names, messing up her hair with the wind pressure their dashes produced. Marin quickly turned around and watched the two with shock on her face when two more people, Ur and Ren, stopped right next to her.

"Good, we weren't too late." Ur said.

"Miss Ur?" Marin asked, still shocked from what she had seen.

"I told you not to call me 'Miss,' Marin." Ur replied. "Anyway, I'll answer any questions you might have later. For now, just ejoy the show."

Though she was still thoroughly confused about the situation, Marin did as Ur suggested and watched Gildarts and the unfamiliar man rush toward Alfonzo and Elicia's house.

"Cana!/Sun!" Gildarts and Gozaburo shouted as they approached the gates. Then, when they were at the proper distance, they both jumped high enough to clear the wall while continuing to shout. "Daddy's come to visit!"

A moment later, just as they cleared the gate, Gildarts and Gozaburo slammed into a translucent, dome-shaped barrier, that only became visible when intruders touched it, covering the entire property. Then, the two were shot backward at even greater speeds than they used to approach the wall.

After some time spent airborne, the three women watched as Gildarts and Gozaburo sailed over their heads through the air before slamming into the ground about fifty feet (15 m) behind them.

"O. M. G." Marin said with her eyes wide open and mouth slightly agape.

Ren, on the other hand fell to her knees and began laughing uproariously while holding her stomach.

"Hmm… It looks like Alfonzo has upgraded the barrier since the last time Gildarts tried breaking in."

A moment later, Masa approached the fallen men from the direction of the guild hall.

"Boss! Are you okay?" Masa shouted as he shook the unconscious Gozaburo.

"Damn, the further you fly, the more it hurts." Gildarts groaned as he simply lay in the middle of the road leading to the mansion.