The Divine Empress

Chapter 5

The sound of heels clicked against the perfectly waxed white marble floor as Invel opened the two large doors. Behind the doors, sitting there, were the infamous 12 Spriggans of the Alvarez Empire. Invel first appeared, followed by Brandish as they each went to their respective seats. As Lucy appeared along with Nagi, the 12 Spriggans stood up and bowed.

"We welcome your return, Lucy-sama," they all said unanimously.

"Thank you," Lucy said with a smile.

As the Spriggans raised their heads, each one had a smile or grin plastered onto their face. Nagi stood there perplexed holding Lucy's hand. He looked towards his mother with a questioning face only to see her smiling. Nagi looked towards the person she was smiling at. His eyes widened as he saw the person not only standing at the head, but also returning the smile warmly.

"Zeref," Lucy spoke.

"Lucy," Zeref replied back. "Welcome back."

Zeref went up to her and hugged her. Lucy returned the hug with one arm as she continued to hold Nagi's hand. Zeref looked down at the small child looking at him with great curiosity.

"Mama, mama," Nagi said, shaking Lucy's hand. "He is the great black wizard, Zeref, right?"

Lucy chuckled as she stroked Nagi's hair. "That's right, Nagi."

At the mention of the word "mama", the Spriggans burst into a frenzy besides Invel, Brandish, and Zeref.

"Lucy, you had a child!" Larcade exclaimed. From the years that he knew her, he would've never expected her to have a child. Not to mention, there was no sign of the other guardian with them.

"My, my, isn't he cute?" Irene grinned. "Looks exactly like you, Lucy."

"Thanks, Irene. It's good to see you well," Lucy replied. They gave each other a fist bump and laughed. They were the best of friends and ever since they became friends, they went on missions together and there wasn't a day where they were apart. Well, Invel and Larcade were always with them, too.

"He really does look exactly like Lucy-sama," August said with closer inspection. "The look in your eyes look identical to each other."

Dimaria bent down and pulled at Nagi's cheeks.

"What do you think you're doing?!" Nagi replied rather angrily. Dimaria burst out in laughter.

"His cheeks are as squishy as Lucy's too!" Dimaria exclaimed.

"Hey!" Lucy and Nagi both said at the same time. The Spriggans began fawning over the little child that claimed to be Lucy's son. Even though they didn't believe it at first, there was no doubt that he was Lucy's son. After all, their faces look so similar to one another. Not to mention, he was so cute. Knowing Lucy's magic power, they were sure that Nagi was also a great wizard. More or less, they could feel the heavy and strong magic circling the two people, though Lucy's was much more overwhelming.

"May I ask who the other parent is?" Jacob asked.

Lucy immediately stopped smiling and the mood in the room dropped. The dreaded question was asked and Lucy did not want to reply to the same question every time. Nagi also had a dark expression on his face once he heard the question. The Spriggans jumped back at the deadly atmosphere surrounding the kid that was so cute a minute ago. Not to mention, the look of Lucy's face was beyond describable. You could tell that she was not in the mood to reply back to the question and they all immediately kneeled on the ground.

"P-Please forgive my rudeness. That was not someone like me should've said," Jacob immediately stuttered.

Zeref, Brandish, and Invel looked towards Lucy.