On the morning of July 6th, Rhode didn't rush to the venue; instead, he unhappily dragged two people to the hotel where Group A was staying to find Lucy.
Why two people? Because a little past three in the morning, another uninvited guest showed up in his room.
This time it wasn't to steal a necklace but rather to stab his throat directly with a dagger.
The person, unsurprisingly, was subdued as well.
Rhode wasn't angry because someone wanted to kill him; after all, there were certainly more than one or two people who wanted him dead.
What really upset him was that the timing of these two "visits" was so perfect, not too long and not too short, just enough to disrupt his sleep.
Now, dragging two four-limbed guys out the door himself was partly due to some morning grumpiness.
"Thief and assassin?" Erza opened the door and, hearing Rhode's intentions, mused, "We caught a thief last night too."
"Oh?" Rhode thought for a moment, "Then the target must have been Lucy's key?"
"That's right." Erza let Rhode inside.
Since it was still early, the others were still sound asleep, only Lucy was rubbing her eyes after getting up.
Gray was unsurprisingly naked, and Natsu had only his legs on the bed, with the upper body folded to the floor, yet he managed to sleep quite soundly.
Kana was hugging a bottle of wine, dressed in pajamas yet looking disheveled, generously showcasing her rounded upper hemisphere.
However, facing such a Kana, Rhode couldn't be bothered to take another glance—because her disheveled appearance actually looked more proper than her usual dress.
Rhode glanced at the guy tied up like a dumpling with his mouth gagged on the floor, then looked at the others, and chuckled, "Lucy's alertness has increased? Worth praising."
But Lucy shamefully replied, "No... there's a reason."
Erza gave a thumbs up, laughing, "Because I slept with Lucy!"
Rhode realized, no wonder Erza's bed was so tidy, he thought she hadn't slept all night.
Lucy scratched her hair and complained, "Don't say it so proudly... and stop sneaking into people's beds!"
"It's for round-the-clock close protection because Lucy is the key figure in this incident." Erza nodded seriously, feeling very satisfied with her decision.
Indeed, it worked successfully in catching the scheming thief.
Yet Lucy refuted, "But even when we don't need protection, you do this."
Erza admitted frankly without any shyness, "Yes, because Lucy's bed is always comfortable."
Lucy covered her face, "Saying it so matter-of-factly again."
Rhode felt overwhelmed by the information.
Group A is really adept at having fun... Perhaps Wendy should team up with them less often?
Rhode switched the topic: "Anyway, shall we ask Gemini to come and help?"
"Okay." Lucy fastened the front buttons of her pajamas, simply tidied her hair, and retrieved the Gemini Constellation key.
Then she realized something was amiss.
'Have I been talking with the neckline open all this time? I feel I'm becoming more and more abnormal! And why didn't anyone give me a heads up?
'Wait, why did Rhode's gaze remain unchanged from beginning to end? Not just me, even Rhode is like Natsu, already used to this?!'
Lucy felt a bit collapsed, wondering what kind of image she had in the guild and found herself unable to activate the Celestial Spirit Magic for a moment.
Rhode noticed Lucy's face alternating between red and white and was startled: "What's wrong, did the key get replaced?"
"Huh? No, it hasn't." Lucy snapped back to reality, "Open the Gate of Gemini, Gemini!"
The magic was successful, and Rhode breathed a sigh of relief, but due to the previous odd behavior, he asked Lucy to carefully check her other keys as well.
Seeing Rhode so soon again made Gemini a bit nervous, but he still cooperated in touching the two thieves and read their minds.
"Bilibili~ They both are members of the Thief's Guild, Mercury's Hand, and they took on tasks to 'steal Rhode's necklace' and 'steal Lucy's Celestial Spirit key chain', hence they came to find you.
"Besides these two tasks, there's also a 'steal Yukino's Celestial Spirit key' task that one of their companions took."
"Very targeted." Rhode asked, "Why would they dare steal from a Ten Wizard Saint and even go to the Royal Palace where Yukino is?"
Gemini replied, "Because the reward is very generous, the contractor even prepaid part of it. The idea is if he successfully steals belongings from the Ten Wizard Saints, he would become the world's greatest thief."
Minnie commented, "Grown-up ideas really are weird."
In summary, it's all for fame and fortune, and the one taking the task to steal Yukino's key at the Royal Palace probably has the same idea.
"Ah, we need to contact Yukino quickly." Lucy exclaimed, "Closing the Eclipse Gate also requires Yukino's key!"
Rhode said, "We indeed need to confirm, but we don't need to worry too much; Yukino and her key are well-protected."
The King and Princess Jade shouldn't be foolish enough at this level that the key figures and items in the Eclipse Plan wouldn't be carefully protected.
Moreover, Rhode knew that there were still some competent mages in the Royal Palace.
Rhode asked without high hopes, "Any clues on the contractor... probably not?"
Gemini said, "Indeed, these two have the same notion in their minds. Such guild contracts are often anonymous or under fake names; this time it's the same, and the contractor's name is 'Rogue Yukelev', completely untrustworthy."
Lucy wondered, "Why does it feel somewhat familiar?"
Erza said, "You're thinking of Rogue from Sabertooth, right? I remember his full name is Rogue Cheney."
Rhode added, "And Stinger's full name is Stinger Yukelev, it's a pieced-together name."
Lucy said, "So that's it, intending to deliberately lead us to suspect Sabertooth, who we already have conflicts with."
"They more or less think the same." Gemini said, "Additionally, since the commission date was yesterday, they suspect the contractor suddenly thought of the Dragon Slayer mage battle the day before yesterday and used such a name."
That's possible, Rhode nodded. Although there's some friction with Sabertooth, they shouldn't stoop to such low tactics... Uh, considering Minerva's behavior, perhaps it's not entirely impossible.
Even if it's possible, they likely wouldn't be foolish enough to hire such weaklings... uh, maybe that's not impossible either.
But surely they wouldn't use their guild member's names... sheesh, that could be a deliberate smokescreen.
Whew, the more one thinks about Sabertooth, the more suspicious they become.