The Divine Empress

Chapter 34

As Lucy, Nagi, and the others from Sabertooth began making their way out of the arena with the conclusion of the second day. The sun was high up in the air, shining brightly down upon them. 

"I didn't expect the first three events to go by in a flash," Minerva said. 

"Well, since we have Lucy on our side, it does go by rather quickly. I'm guessing that the Pandemonium event was supposed to last an entire day," Sting laughed. 

"Ah. Why else would they tell the contestants to battle 1000 of them?" Lily added. 

"Hey, where are we going now~? I'm hungry, Lucy~" Happy said as he flew closely behind them. 

"It's almost lunchtime," Lucy noted as she looked towards the sun in the sky. "Should we head somewhere to eat?" 

"Yay!" Happy said in excitement. "Let's go to a fish buffet!" 

"Hell no, blue cat!" Carla yelled in disagreement. "These past few days you've been eating fish non-stop, you're going to get a stomachache!" 

"But I want to eat fish~" Happy whined, flying down to walk on the ground. 

"I'm tired of eating fish food these past few days, too. Lucy, let's go eat something else," Lector said as he went up to Lucy. 

Lucy bent down to the exceeds' level and looked at all of them with a bright smile as she patted their heads. "This time, why don't we ask the exceeds what they want to eat." 

"That sounds like a nice idea. I'm pretty sure they have their own tastes after all," Wendy replied. 

"It's good to let one another take turns. Frosch likes this opportunity, too. Right, Frosch?" Rogue said with a kind smile. 

"En!" Frosch nodded enthusiastically. 

"Nagi, you okay with it?" Lucy asked, turning around to her child. 

"I'm fine with anything as long as it's tasty," Nagi said happily. 

"Then that settles it," Lucy said. "What do you guys want to eat?" 

The exceeds all began to think about what they wanted to eat for the afternoon. All of a sudden, their faces lit up as they came to a conclusion of what they wanted to eat. 

"Meat buffet!" Lector and Lily both said at once. 

"Fish!" Happy exclaimed. 

"A western style restaurant," Carla said, her eyes lighting up. 

"Frosch wants something sweet~" Frosch said in a daze. 

"Quite differing opinions we have here, huh?" Lucy said nervously. "How about this? I'll give each group money so that they can go where they want to go. So those that want to go have a barbecue, line up behind Lector and Lily." 

Almost everyone lined up behind Lector and Lily, including Sting, Orga, and Nagi. 

"That's basically more than half of the guild," Lucy chuckled to herself. "And those that want to eat fish?" 

No one moved and all there was was silence. A lone leaf blew in the wind, leaving Happy totally alone. 

"Why won't anyone eat fish with me?" Happy said as he knelt towards the ground, crying. 

"H-Happy, why don't you come with us?" Lily said, reaching out towards him. "Meat also includes fish after all." 

"Really?" Happy said as tears still lined his eyes. 

Lily nodded. "Y-Yeah." 

"Okay, then!" Happy exclaimed, returning back to his normal self. 

"Well that was a quick change of emotion," Nagi commented.