Kabe cursed inwardly, utterly stunned by how bizarre this whole thing was turning out to be.
Right now, the only thing he did not know was whether Babitt himself understood Aquarius's true identity.
Thinking of that, he glanced from the corner of his eye at the Barth brothers, whose faces showed just the right amount of surprise and amazement. In that instant, everything clicked in his mind.
So the job is no longer about catching a mermaid, it is about snatching a Celestial Spirit key from the hands of a rich heiress.
He had to admit, this guy's courage was something else. Was he not worried that things would spiral out of control and land him straight in jail?
Kabe had no idea how Babitt planned to handle the aftermath, but that did not matter. None of it would stop him from going to meet the true heroine of Fairy Tail, Lucy.
Feeling the situation grow more and more interesting, Kabe shoved the remaining bread on his plate into his mouth along with four or five little jars of jam, wolfing everything down in a few bites.
Then he stood up, unable to hide his impatience.
"In that case, let us not waste time. The sooner we set off, the sooner we can fulfill Lord Babitt's wish."
No one knew why Kabe suddenly seemed so fired up, but under his urging, no one objected. They followed Babitt and left the manor at once.
...
Outside Hargeon, on a sealed-off private beach, a young blonde girl in a pale gold and white striped one-piece swimsuit was happily building a sandcastle.
After carefully shaping a pointed spire at the very top, she excitedly wiped her sandy, dirty hands on her cheeks, then spun around and shouted at the top of her lungs.
"Aquarius, Aquarius! Look, my sandcastle is done!"
Not far away, a voluptuous mermaid with the upper body of a woman and the lower body of a fish lay on a beach chair. She impatiently pulled the magazine off her face and snapped:
"Pipe down, you dumb girl. What is so great about a pile of sand shaped like a castle? Stop disturbing my sunbathing."
Lucy seemed long used to Aquarius's foul temper.
She hopped over to her side and poked curiously at Aquarius's tail.
"Hey, hey, Aquarius, sunbathing is so boring. Come build sandcastles with me instead. If we work together, I just know we can make an even bigger, prettier castle."
#!
"And anyway, Aquarius, you are a fish too, right? If you stay in the sun too long, will you turn into dried fish?"
#!#!
Aquarius's patience finally hit rock bottom.
She slapped the magazine aside and sat up with a vicious expression, roaring at Lucy:
"Brat, why do you talk so much! If you bother me one more time, I swear I will throw you into the sea right now and give you a proper bath!"
Lucy had already darted far away the moment Aquarius sat up.
Hearing the threat, she did not look scared at all. In fact, she lit up.
"Okay, okay, let us go swimming together, Aquarius!"
Looking at her carefree smile, Aquarius felt a vein throb at her temple.
No mercy, then. She took a deep breath and pulled on a cruel smile.
"You like swimming that much? I will make sure you swim to your heart's content."
Seeing that expression, Lucy's grin vanished.
She turned and ran as if she had made some grave realization.
"W-wait, I was just joking! Please do not!"
"It is too late to regret it now, brat."
Aquarius gave a cold laugh and pulled out a light gray urn from who knew where. She raised it high and swung it toward Lucy's fleeing back.
At her motion, the water magic in the air surged violently.
The calm surface of the sea suddenly reared up into a towering wave that roared forward and swallowed Lucy, who had not made it very far. The water dragged her straight into the ocean.
When the tide washed back, Aquarius casually tossed a float ring out onto the waves, then lay back down on her chair.
"Do your best, brat. You have half an hour to climb back up."
Lucy: glub glub glub...
...
Far out at sea, Kabe and the others stood at the bow of a seemingly ordinary merchant ship, watching the scene through a telescope. They saw everything clearly, from start to finish.
After two seconds of silence, Kabe lowered the telescope with a very complicated expression and looked at Babitt.
"This is what you meant by beautiful and kind hearted? I can accept the beautiful part, but the kind part does not seem to apply to her at all."
Babitt acted as if he had not heard that at all. His body trembled slightly with excitement.
"It is her. It really is her. She is just as dazzling as ever."
He spun around and shouted at the sailors.
"Hurry, move the ship closer. I want to invite her to my manor in person."
Once he had given the order, he turned anxiously to Kabe and the others.
"Masters, you saw her just now, did you not? She is my target. Later, I must ask all of you to join forces. You must capture her for me."
The Barth brothers both wore faintly grim expressions, but in the end they still nodded in agreement with the client's demand.
Karen, meanwhile, kept the telescope pressed to her eye, staring at the reclining Aquarius as if confirming something.
Mirajane tugged secretly at Kabe's sleeve and leaned close to whisper in his ear.
"Something is wrong. That mermaid does not look wild at all. She looks more like she was raised by someone. If we attack her, does that not make us thieves stealing someone else's property? That is a crime."
"Wild, raised, do you really think she is a decorative fish in a tank? Stop overthinking. Just watch me."
Snapped at out of nowhere, Mirajane's cheeks puffed up in indignation.
Kabe ignored her after that, folding his arms and watching the next developments with keen interest.
...
In the sea, Lucy flailed and struggled for a while, but thanks to the excellent swimming skills she had built up over the years, she somehow managed to break the surface and latch onto the float ring Aquarius had thrown.
She gulped in a couple of huge breaths, spat out seawater she had accidentally swallowed, and prepared to swim back to shore.
But as soon as she lifted her head, she saw the merchant ship heading straight toward them.
A flicker of confusion flashed across her little face. She quickly grabbed the float ring and paddled toward the beach as she shouted:
"Aquarius, wake up! There is a merchant ship coming this way!"
She did not need to say it, really. Long before the ship had gotten that close, Aquarius had sensed it clearly through her powerful bond with the sea. Her expression was already grave as she sat up on the lounge chair.
Lucy kicked and splashed her way to shore in just a few strokes.
She abandoned the float ring the moment she could stand, bolted across the sand, and wrapped herself around Aquarius's tail.
"This is so weird. This whole place is our private beach, and there is not even a dock for ships to stop at. So why are they coming straight toward us?"