Rise Of The Wrought Iron King

chapter 41: another victim

Yukino Agria wasn't quite sure how she should be feeling at the moment the previous night was without contest the absolute worst event she had ever suffered through ever since her childhood

She had worked so hard to become a member of Saber Tooth clawed her way towards that goal with every ounce of strength she had with the hopes that doing so would finally give her some sense of accomplishment of validation

That upon joining, she would at last be able to cast-off the remnants of the pathetic girl she once was by joining the strongest guild, it would be definitive proof that she wasn't weak that she wasn't useless that her existence actually meant something

And that her sister's sacrifice wouldn't have been in vain

But that all came crumbling down after a single loss because for Saber Tooth defeat is inexcusableand is worthy of punishment of the highest degree

Yukino just never realized what that truly entailed the humiliation she suffered at their hands was enough to break her down and revert her to the sad little girl that she once was and she hated that

She hated Kagura for being so merciless and for holding back her true strength She hated Ziemma for his cruelty towards her

She hated her former guildmates for leaving her to suffer, to not even try to stand up for her She especially hated the ones who took advantage of the situation by recording her shame on lacrima

Crystals and even groped her as she left But more than anything else she hated herself for being so weak despite all the hardships she endured all the training she forced herself through and the challenges she faced in order to earn her Golden Keys it still wasn't enough

After having gone through all that and still failing in the end, she was more than willing to give up on being a mage and simply live out the rest of her miserable life in isolation

However that changed after her encounter with Lucy It wasn't much but the blonde's words were enough to convince her to keep moving forward if only just barely and yet things took another turn later that same night

When she broke down once more only this time it was in front of two members from the other competing guilds her weakness was put on display once again and she hated herself for it

After a rough nights sleep at one of the less than stellar inn's Yukino had woken up to hushed whispers of an apparent attack on Crocus Gardens the place where Saber Tooth was staying

Her heart dropped at the thought that Natsu and Nightingale actually went and attacked her former guild as their defeat was all but assured

After hearing the news her body seemingly went on autopilot as she made her way towards where Chaldea was staying as she wanted to see if Nightingale was alright she would then head to Fairy Tail to check on Natsu as well

However these plans rapidly went askew when she was picked up (quite literally) by Merlin from Chaldea's team

Even with his face bruised and bandaged from who knows what.the man was quick to make his best attempts at wooing her with whatever tricks he could manage

At first Yukino was highly resistant to his advances and even tried to flail out of his grasp but she soon found herself to be far too flustered by his sweet words and improvised poetry to put up any real fight

What she failed to realize at the time was that he was utilizing a pre-recorded track of pick-up lines via an audio-lacrima that he managed to conceal through the use of flowery illusions that kept Yukino distracted

Fortunately for Merlin, he was able to reach their destination before the crystals recording ended which just so happened to be the very same place Yukino was headed for