Chapter 496: Captured
On the calm sea, a ship slowly left Galak Island.
In the small room, all kinds of flowers that are not in season are blooming in the sun. The salty and humid sea breeze blows in , filling the whole room with the faint fragrance of flowers and plants. Add to that a glass table, a set of sofa chairs, and a crystal chandelier, and it looks like a leisurely atmosphere.
Brandish lazily slumped on the sofa, eating the star mango she had packed away and munching on spicy potato chips, making a crunching sound.
If you ignore the location, she looks just like a otaku girl from the Reiwa era.
"What are you going to do with those people?"
"Take it back first, and then let the old man deal with it..."
Dimalia sat opposite Brandish in a carefree manner, without any ladylike temperament. She had a calm expression and an indifferent tone, as if she was talking about a trivial matter.
Hearing this, Brandish nodded silently, and then stopped talking and continued to eat hard.
This ice cream will melt if you don't eat it!
The battle ended half a day ago. The whole process lasted only a few minutes on the surface, and did not cause much damage except for half a street and a few stalls.
In the entire history of battles related to Fairy Tail, this was the one with the least damage.
Under the combined power of shape magic and time stop magic, even strong characters like Erza and Laxus were no match and were beaten to a pulp by each time stop.
Not to mention Gray, Wendy, and the Thunder Gods who are still some distance away from them. Even Timaria doesn't need to take action, Brandish can trample them under his feet with just one move.
Therefore, the situation can almost be said to be one-sided.
Although Laxus and Erza did several sit-ups during the battle, they were helpless against the time-stop magic and were eventually defeated. They were captured along with Natsu and Lucy who had been shrunk before.
At this moment, all the people and cats from the two teams of Fairy Tail were tied up with handcuffs made of magic-sealing stones and locked in cages on the ship.
When this ship was built, there was no measure to solve the problem of Dragon Slayers' seasickness, so even if Laxus, Natsu and Wendy recovered their strength, they would still have to spend the next four or five days of the ship's journey suffering from seasickness.
"You seem to care about them?"
Dimaria rolled her eyes slyly, glanced at the Star Spirit key bag on the table, and then asked with some doubt, "Especially the blonde woman, do you really know her mother?"
Brandish didn't answer, but ate very hard, as if nothing could disturb her from enjoying the delicious food.
Although the two have known each other for many years and have a good relationship, she does not want to tell others about her past with her mother.
After a few seconds of silence, Dimalia realized that the other party had no intention of answering, so she could only shake her head helplessly: "If you don't want to say it, forget it."
After saying that, she turned and walked out of the room to deal with other matters.
The so-called other matters, of course, were not to do some messy and unspeakable things with the four captives Erza, Alba Green, Lucy and Wendy, but a very serious matter, which was also the reason why they appeared here - to let the Albareth Empire station troops on Galak Island!
This was arranged by Archon Inbel.
Without Zeref's permission, they cannot easily declare a war on Ishgar, but not fighting now does not mean not fighting in the future. After conquering Ishgar, they have to consider the travel procedures between the two continents, as well as some messy things.
In order to expand the territory of the Albares Empire, to prevent spies from infiltrating the empire, and to better manage the travel between the two continents in the future, it is necessary to occupy the island group in between.
There are a large number of these islands on the sea, with large population flows and complex cultural structures. Some of them are independent countries, while others are considered lawless areas. It will take a lot of time to incorporate them into the Albares Empire and manage them in a unified manner.
So he sent politicians to various islands to negotiate , and also sent Brandish, who did nothing but eat and drink all day, to accompany the army as a means of deterrence - of course, she didn't have to take care of the negotiations.
(This is the reason why Preshito mentioned that the Albares Empire has been restless in the past six months.)
Brandish was a lazy person and had intended to refuse Inbel, but Inbel asked Auguste to leave in the name of "for the sake of His Majesty and the Empire", so she had no choice but to obey the old man's orders. In addition, there were delicious foods like "Star Desserts" on each island, so she agreed to go. After hearing about this, Timaria volunteered to get involved.
Otherwise, if they just wanted to eat star mangoes, they would not have traveled so far, taken a warship and brought troops.
All we can say is that Laxus and his crew got there by chance.
…
In the prison, the members of Fairy Tail were dejected and depressed.
The three dragon slayer wizards could not bear the torture of seasickness. They were so nauseous that they staggered around, their mouths swollen, and they wanted to vomit but couldn't.
"I feel so seasick..."
"Harpy, take me flying..."
Natsu and Wendy both lay on the ground weakly, their heads touching each other, breathing barely.
"Sorry, Natsu! I'm locked up and can't use wing magic!" Happy felt distressed and helpless, and could only rub Natsu's face with his claws to comfort him.
Laxus was equally unbearable. His dragon-slaying magic was stronger, so the dizziness was naturally more severe, but he had a strong will and his proud character made him determined not to show his ugly appearance like Natsu in front of his companions.
You know what, it’s quite effective!
He leaned against the darkest and most marginal corner of the cage, covering his disheveled appearance with his large, black fur coat, silently enduring the nausea and vomiting coming from his body, like a lone wolf licking its wounds, without making any sound, but sweating profusely, gradually wetting his coat.
The Thunder Gods sat in a row, blocking Laxus like a thief - as Laxus's loyal followers, they would not allow anyone to see Laxus in such a miserable state, not even his fellow guild members.
"That's enough, Gray! How many times have you peeked in?"
Felide clenched his fists, tears streaming down his face, "Laxus... Laxus... he doesn't want his companions to see him weak the most!!"
Gray: “…”
I just haven't seen it, I'm just curious and want to take a closer look... I really don't mean any harm...
"This is the first time I've seen Laxus in this state..."
Erza watched with great interest, but soon she withdrew her teasing look and turned to look at the other sullen person, "Are you okay, Lucy?"
"Yeah... I'm fine..." Lucy replied softly, "Don't worry!"
She forced an ugly smile to comfort Erza, but everyone could see that she was forcing a smile. They also knew what she was worried about, and her empty waist explained the problem.
"Trust me, we can definitely get out!"
Lucy nodded silently. She didn't care whether she could get out or not. Even if she did, she wouldn't leave easily. The fact that the Star Spirit Key was stolen was like a bolt from the blue for her.
"What is the relationship between that woman and my mother?"
This question had been bothering Lucy for hours, but she still had no answer.
Lucy couldn't help but think of Brandish again. Thinking of her cold eyes, inexplicable hostility, and vague words, her face became even more worried.
'No, that's not right! She is about my age, but I have never seen her. She can't know my mother! If I guess correctly, she should be related to Aquia. But Aquia's key was handed to me by my mother herself, so her previous contractor should be my mother...'
"Damn it! If I could summon Aqua now, I could figure this out..."
The more Lucy thought about it, the weirder it seemed. Her irritable look was just like that of the yellow-haired guy who was killed by his victim.
