Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.
August 20, x791.
'Fuck… I feel like shit.' Alfonzo muttered internally as his consciousness returned.
Ever since losing consciousness after Wendy's treatment, Alfonzo has been asleep for more than two days. During that time, Elicia and Ur returned the two airships, the Blackbird and the Fairy's Tail, to Magnolia, Alfonzo's condition was checked by both Shizuka and Porlyusica, and he was brought back to the Mansion on the Lake to rest and recuperate.
Without opening his eyes, Alfonzo tried to circulate his magic power to get a sense of the state his body was in. However, because of the low amount of magic power in his container, he found circulating his magic power much more difficult than usual.
'Damn… This is bad.' Alfonzo thought to himself. 'Although my body is fine physically, I have so little magic power that training is gonna be impossible for a few days, if not weeks.'
["Just be glad that you made it out alive."] Bedlam said, a grin audible in his tone. ["Without Wendy, you would have never made it this long after using up all of your magic power."]
'I know.' Alfonzo replied while continuing to circulate his magic power, all the while, trying to compress it even further than what it was before he ended up in this state. 'If I play my cards right, this could be a blessing in disguise. I could make my magic power even denser than it was.'
["You'd better get this shit right!"] Riot bellowed, clear irritation in his tone. ["Because the next time we see that overgrown lizard, we're gonna kill that son of a bitch, cut off his head, and mount it on the roof!"]
Alfonzo could not help but chuckle internally when he heard Riot's rant. Though, he could not disagree with the sentiment, if not the entire execution.
'Well, I'm down for killing the big bastard and cutting off his head.' Alfonzo replied with a hint of amusement in his tone. 'But I don't know about--- Hmm?'
Before Alfonzo could finish his internal response, he felt the bed shift slightly. On top of that, he could also feel a warm breath brush across his face. And judging from how close it was, and the fact that he was just waking up, he had a pretty good idea what was going on.
With a slight smile curling the corners of his lips, Alfonzo slowly, and with a fair amount of struggle, opened his eyes. And just as he expected, someone was hovering over him, staring at his sleeping face intently. However, when his eyes focused, he did not see the face of the black-haired maid that he was expecting.
"Ahh! Ma-Ma-Master Alfonzo!" The bespectacled maid with hazel eyes and maroon-colored hair shrieked in surprise as she reeled back upon seeing Alfonzo open his eyes. "You're awa--- Kya!"
*Thud!*
Unfortunately, the maid, Mey-Rin, while pulling away from Alfonzo, ended up losing her balance. As a result, she flailed around, trying to regain it. But in the end, she tumbled off the bed and crashed to the floor on her backside.
"*Sigh* Mey-Rin, are you okay?" Alfonzo asked while trying to turn his head to look at his clumsy maid.
"Ow! Ow! OW!" Mey-Rinn cried out as she rubbed her backside with a bright red blush on her face, clearly embarrassed that her clumsiness was the first thing Alfonzo saw after waking up. Then, when she heard Alfonzo's question, she lowered her head and spoke in a quiet voice. "Um… I'm okay…"
A moment later, Mey-Rin scrambled to her feet. Then, she bowed quite elegantly, despite her usual clumsiness.
"Please forgive me for my mistake, Master Alfonzo." Mey-Rin said, her tone hiding the panic she was feeling. "I'm glad to see that you have awakened. "I'm sure the ladies and the children will be happy when they hear about this, as well."
"Yeah…" Alfonzo replied with a smile while watching Mey—Rin. "I'm sure they were worried. *Sigh* I hope the kids didn't take it too hard."
'Looks like Grayfia's really put in a lot of work with her over the last few years.' Alfonzo mused. 'Back when we first hired them, Mey-Rin would have run off in a panic after a blunder like that. *Sigh* Time really flies.'
While thinking back on the past, Alfonzo's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of footsteps approaching his bedroom. A moment later, the door was opened. And through the open door, another pair of maids entered the room.
"Mey-Rin, is everything okay?" Maria asked as she entered the room. "We heard something fall from downstairs and rushed up here to help if necessary."
"It was probably just Mey-Rin being Mey-Rin." Ai said with a smile as she looked around the room to see if anything was wrong. "She probably got flustered by something and lost her balance."
"*Sigh* I hope that was all it was." Maria said while shaking her head with a smile on her face. "Master Alfonzo needs his rest, and we should not disturb him unnecessarily."
Hearing that, Alfonzo's smile widened. Meanwhile, Mey-Rin, having been seen through so easily by her colleagues, lowered her head even further as her blush intensified to a nearly incandescent hue.
At the same time, both Maria and Ai finally noticed that Alfonzo's eyes were open. And when they did, they both widened their eyes in surprise. Then, while Maria sighed in relief, Ai quickly approached the bed before throwing herself on top of Alfonzo, completely forgetting her position as a maid, letting her role as one of Alfonzo's lovers take its place.
"Tch!" The sound of a clicked tongue sounded as Ai buried her head in Alfonzo's chest. Yet, thanks to the fact that he could barely move, Alfonzo was not able to tell who it came from.
"I'm so glad you're okay, Alfonzo." Ai said quietly as her eyes reddened and she tried to hold back tears. "When I heard what happened, I was afraid of losing you. Miyuki even fainted immediately after hearing it."
"Sorry for worrying you all." Alfonzo said gently. "But you know why I had to do what I did, right? If I didn't, there's no guarantee that any of us would have made it out alive. Acnologia was just too much for any of us to handle."
"I know." Ai replied softly as she hugged Alfonzo tightly.
The room fell into silence after that.
"Anyway, who else is at home right now?" Alfonzo asked. "I can't activate [Magic Power Detection] right now. I don't have enough magic power."
"The ladies went out with the children to try and improve their moods." Maria replied. "Young Masters Amar'e and Calvin, and Young Miss Bianca did not handle seeing you unconscious very well. So, Madam Elicia and the other ladies decided they needed a change of scenery. So, they all went to Crocus to spend some time at Ryuzetsu Land."
"Lady Ireen is still in Magnolia, though." Mey-Rin said quietly.
"Well, that doesn't surprise me." Alfonzo said in response to Mey-Rin's additional comment. "She doesn't really like being around all those people. So, she very rarely goes to the capital."
Reaching that point, Alfonzo, with Ai still hugging him tightly, tried to raise his upper body to sit up. Unfortunately, his body was still too weak from complete magic power exhaustion to do so.
"Damn… I hate this feeling." Alfonzo groaned, unable to raise himself into a sitting position.
"Let me help you." Ai replied as she unwrapped her arms from around Alfonzo. "Did you want to get up? Are you hungry? Or maybe you would like to take a bath?"
"A bath and some food don't sound so bad, actually." Alfonzo said with a smile as Ai climbed off the bed to help him sit up.
"Understood." Ai replied with a smile.
Then, instead of simply helping him up, Ai reached out before hooking one arm under Alfonzo's back and the other under his knees. Then, she lifted him in a princess carry before starting to walk towards his bathroom. All the while, Alfonzo, completely caught off guard by Ai's actions, could only blink in confusion while he was carried away.
*Giggle!* x 2
At the same time, despite trying their best to hold it in, Maria and Mey-Rin could not help giggling at Alfonzo's completely dumbfounded expression. Adding to that, the sight of Ai, standing at just under 5'4", carrying Alfonzo, who stood at 6'6", like a damsel in distress, the moment was simply too funny for words.
IN fact, Maria even stealthily took out her lPhone to snap a few pictures of the moment, both for herself and the ladies of the house, who were out in Crocus, to see upon their return.
"Hey, you two come help me." Ai called out just before entering the bathroom. "Master Alfonzo is too tall. This will go faster if you give me a hand."
"Very well." Maria said calmly as she, too, approached the bathroom.
Mey-Rin, on the other hand, was not able to stay quite so calm. Just the thought of seeing Alfonzo naked made her remember the scene she walked in on between Alfonzo, Elicia, and Irene some time ago. She did eventually make her way into the bathroom, though. All the while, she could not help but wonder if something like that would happen between the three maids and their master. And if it did, would she be able to refuse.
In the end, Mey-Rin experienced both feelings of relief and disappointment when Alfonzo turned out to be too weak to make any moves on her. She also noticed that Maria, though better at hiding it, was feeling the same way.
Even so, the day continued without much of note taking place.
When Alfonzo first woke up, it was a little after noon. After being bathed by Maria, Mey-Rin, and Ai, he was brought down to the dining room. And while Mey-Rin and Ai kept him company, Maria prepared a meal for him. Then, after he finished eating, Alfonzo spent the rest of the time sitting in the living room just spacing out and chatting with the three maids.
"I know this is gonna sound like a dumb question, but Grayfia, Ikaruga, and Miyuki all went with the others to Ryuzetsu Land, right?" Alfonzo asked after looking outside and noticing that the sun was starting to set.
"No, only Ikaruga and Miyuki went with them." Ai replied while shaking her head.
"Miyuki wanted to stay here with you, though." Maria added. "But Grayfia ordered her to go with the ladies and the children, afraid that she might do something unbecoming if she were to be left without supervision."
"*Sigh* I can't even argue with that." Alfonzo said while smiling wryly. Alfonzo then shook his head lightly and continued. "Anyway, if Grayfia didn't go with them, where is she?"
"She went to deliver orders to Mr. Kitagawa." Mey-Rin said quietly as she entered the living room with a pot of tea. "You discussed the next steps for Sixth Sense Holdings with her before you left to subjugate Tartaros, correct?"
"Oh, right." Alfonzo replied, finally remembering his plans for after he returned from that mission. "What's today's date, anyway?"
"The twentieth." Ai replied as she took a freshly filled teacup from Mey-Rin and held it up to Alfonzo's lips.
"Okay, now I get it." Alfonzo said with a nod before allowing Ai to help him drink the tea. "I was supposed to go see him today. *Sigh*This is even worse than being sick. At least if I was sick, I could flood my body with my magic power and get through what I needed to do. But this…"
As his words trailed off, Alfonzo tried to raise his arms. And although they did move, they moved much slower than he intended, as he had gotten used to using minuscule amounts of magic power to aid all of his actions over the years.
"Fonzie~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!"
Before the conversation could continue, the group of four heard the sound of the elevator doors opening followed by Alfonzo's nickname being shouted at the top of someone's lungs.
"Well, I guess there back." Alfonzo said with a smile. "And Lici should be in here in three… two… one…"
In the next instant, a pink and white blur zipped into the room and landed on Alfonzo's lap. And just as he expected, the blur turned out to be Elicia, who was holding Amar'e inn her arms. Meanwhile, Alfonzo only smiled at his first wife and his firstborn son when he saw them smiling back at him.
"Hey, I think I overslept a little." Alfonzo said as he carefully took Amar'e from Elicia's arms. "Sorry for worrying you."
"You don't need to apologize." Elicia said happily. "But more important than that…"
Leaving Alfonzo completely confused, Elicia turned to look at Ai with her eyes sparkling. At the same time, Amar'e began to giggle, knowing exactly what his mother was about to say next.
"Ai, do it again!" Elicia exclaimed excitedly. "Fonzie looked so cute when you were carrying him earlier. That confused expression was totally adorable!"
"Huh?" Alfonzo's confusion was completely on display when that unfortunately unintelligent sound came out of his mouth.
Meanwhile, Ai smiled nervously. She did not expect anyone other than Maria and Mey-Rin to know about that. A moment later, however, her eyes opened in realization. She then slowly turned her head in Maria's direction.
"Maria, you didn't…" Ai said as she raised a hand to cover her mouth.
"*Whistle* I have no idea what you could possibly be referring to." Maria said, sounding absolutely suspicious.
Immediately afterwards, Alfonzo snapped his head in Maria's direction as well, the expression on his face making it obvious that he felt completely betrayed.
"Ai, do it again!" Amar'e cheered, breaking the silence. "I wanna see you carry Dad!"
Not long after that, the rest of the ladies and children entered the room. Even Irene, who did not go to Crocus with the others, showed up with Heine and Juliet. And just like that, the rest of the evening went by during this happy family atmosphere.