Kouen and Lucy were seated onto the side, next to the King, while Koumei sat alongside Nagi, Happy and Lily with him. As the King talked to Kouen, Lucy glanced back to look at Nagi, smiling as she did so.
I'm glad they're getting along, Lucy thought.
Catching the stare of Kouen, Lucy smiled back, causing Kouen to turn back to the King and chatting again. Lucy and them were free to get up whenever they wanted but none of them did. Noticing the spaciousness of the room they were seated in, Lucy couldn't help but think if someone else was coming.
"Your Majesty, pardon my interruption, but may I inquire something?" Lucy asked, stopping the awkward chat between Kouen and the King.
"O-Of course, Lucy-sama!" the King replied. "Please ask away!"
"Are there more people coming? With just this small of a company, there seems no need for such a big room. So I suspected that more will be joining us. Is that true?" Lucy asked, elegance and nobleness radiating from her.
The King smiled. "Thanks to everyone here, the Kouen-sama and Koumei-sama were able to come here with no harm. So, I decided to invite all of the guilds that had been called upon here," the King replied.
As he finished, there was a loud banging of doors and shouts. Standing in the doorway were their respective guilds' masters. Sabertooth, Fairy Tail, Lamia Scale, and Blue Pegasus. All of the members had been gathered. The masters walked up to His Majesty and bowed.
"It's an honor to meet you, Your Majesty," they all said at once.
"Ohohohoho! It should be my honor after what your members have done for us!" the King laughed. "Please, enjoy the party!"
The masters looked at one another and smiled. "Of course."
"Listen up, you idiots!" Makarov yelled. "Don't you dare cause any trouble or destroy this castle!"
"Yes!" they all replied, saluting.
"Same goes for you Sabertooth! I trust you guys!" Jiemma said.
"Yes, Master!" Lucy, Nagi, Happy, Lily, and the others replied.
Kouen leaned in to Lucy and whispered in her air. "That's you Master? Looks rather gruff."
Lucy chuckled. "Though he may look like that, he's really nice and caring once you meet them. Same goes for Fairy Tail's Master, Makarov. He was like a grandfather that I never had."
"Hmmmm..." Kouen said, looking at the tiny old man.
Makarov saw Lucy and smiled brightly, as if a huge weight had been lifted off of his shoulders. Lucy smiled in return. Jiemma noticed and they both came to Lucy with huge smiles.
"Well done, Lucy! I heard about what you did!" Jiemma beamed. "You guys did well, too!"
"I'm very proud of you, Lucy," Makarov smiled as he held her hand.
"I was only able to do what I did with the help of everyone," Lucy said, turning to look at her friends. Sting, Rogue, Minerva, Nagi, Happy, and Lily grinned.
Jiemma and Makarov soon noticed the stare of the person sitting next to Lucy. His sharp gaze looking right through them, as if already determining what kind of person they were. The two gulped as they stared right back.
"And this is?" Makarov asked, looking at Lucy.
"This is Ren Kouen. The Emperor of the Kou Empire. He's my childhood friend," Lucy replied.
"The Kou Empire's Emperor!!!" the two shouted. They immediately bowed to him, not daring to look at him.
"You may rise," Kouen said stoically.
Laxus saw the scene and came strolling over to where they were. Mirajane also followed upon seeing Lucy for the first time since forever. Wendy and Carla also followed. Soon, there was a huge crowd gathered around Lucy and Kouen. Each one of them wanting to know who he was and what was the relationship between them, too.
"What's the matter here?" Laxus asked upon reaching the table at where they were seated.
"Laxus! It's been a long time," Lucy said, smiling.
"It's been a long time, too, Lucy," Laxus replied with a soft gaze in his eyes as he stroked Lucy's hair. Kouen raised his eyebrow, seeing the two's interaction. He pulled Lucy towards him and away from the prying hand of Laxus.
Laxus glared at him. "Is there something you want?"
"To glare at our Kou Empire's Emperor! How dare you!" Koumei immediately rose up, banging the table as the cups clattered and fell.
The room gasped in surprise besides the one's that already knew.
"Kouen, don't be so rude," Lucy said, sitting back up.
But, even so, he still held Lucy close to him, not letting her go. Lucy sighed knowing that he wouldn't budge no matter what she did.
"Lucy, what's your relationship with him?" Mirajane asked.
"I want to know, too," Wendy said shyly.
"Oh. I'm just his fr-" Lucy was about to say but soon got cut off by Koumei.
"I, Ren Koumei, shall tell you. Lucy-sama is the peace of our kingdom. No, the very heart of our kingdom! She's our Kou Empire's one and only Empress!" Koumei declared and soon he started going on and on about the beauty and how virtuous Lucy was. He kept on dabbling on and on until Lucy's ears started to hurt from all these compliments.
"That's enough, Koumei," Kouen said as he noticed Lucy cringing.
"Ah, yes, Kouen-niisama. Please excuse my rudeness, I lost myself for a moment there," Koumei said, sitting back down.
Kouen nodded, forgiving him.
"So that means you guys are married?!" Mirajane exclaimed, squealing.
"No, I'm just the Empress in title. We're not married. I'm going to be marrying someone else. Remember the guy from the other day?" Lucy said, shaking her hands in denial.
"Ohhhhhh. Well, either way, I'm sure you're babies will come out to be pretty just like Nagi," Mirajane said cheerfully.
Lucy sweated. She really didn't hear anything I said now, did she?
With all the questions done, Sting rose with a cup in his hand. "Let's give it to Lucy! The mage who wiped out more than half of the guilds!"
"Yeahhhhhhhh!!!" everyone shouted, besides those that disliked her from Fairy Tail.
Jura came up to the two. "Lucy, Kouen-sama," he bowed, respectively.
"Did you come to pay your respects?" Lucy asked.
Jura nodded. "As one of the ten wizard saints, I welcome you to Fiore, Ren Kouen-sama."
"Thank you," Kouen nodded, smiling. "Last time I saw Jura-dono was when you were about ten years old. You still have the same personality and demeanor as you did back then."
Lucy mused at the smile on Kouen's face. "Kouen, you must really have taken a liking to Jura-dono, huh?" Lucy said once Jura left.
Kouen looked at her and slightly nodded his head, giving Lucy the answer that she needed. "It's rare for you to like someone. Especially a human mage."
"He's a person that is born every few hundred years. He's an excellent mage. A person worthy of becoming one of the generals of my Kou Empire."
"Too bad he refused," Lucy said, remembering the time when Zeref, Kouen, and she had went to visit Jura when he was ten years old. Out of all the countries, he had chosen Fiore to be a part of.
Kouen coughed, Lucy chuckled. "At least he's doing well."
"Yeah."
The party went on for hours and His Majesty was the first to retire to his quarters, leaving the drunken guild members lying around the room. Natsu, Gray, Erza, and the others have passed out. Sting, Rogue, and Minerva also laid on the table, happy expressions on their faces. Out of all the people, only Kouen, Lucy, and Nagi remained sober.
"It's already so late," Lucy said looking out one of the castle windows. "Should we retire?"
Kouen and Nagi nodded.
Nagi's head was bobbing up and down, his eyes were hardly open and was about to doze off. Before his head could hit the table, Lucy caught him and picked him up. He was already sleeping.
"Shall we go?" Lucy whispered.
Kouen nodded, the two leaving the room. Unexpectedly, as the two walked out, standing before them was a person they had least expected to come. Zeref.
"Zeref!" Lucy whispered at a higher voice. "Why are you here?"
Zeref hugged Lucy and Lucy hugged him back. "It's been a month. Can't I come see my beloved Lucy and Nagi?"
Lucy blushed and smiled. "I missed you."
"I missed you, too," Zeref said smiling as the two kissed for a moment. They were soon interrupted by a loud coughing from Kouen. His eyes were narrowed and his mouth was turned into a frown.
"It's been a while, Kouen," Zeref said with a smile but his eyes were not.
"It's been a long time, too, Zeref," Kouen said, saying the last word as if it was poison in his mouth. "I thought you were going to die all alone like you wanted to."
Lucy and Kouen laughed, lightning flashing in the background. Lucy laughed nervously. Oh, this is not going to end well.
"Sorry to say but I'm not going to die so early," Zeref replied.
"Oh, is that so. Then shall I make you die earlier?"
"I have Lucy and Nagi to take care of so dying right now isn't an option for me. You should go get a wife and kid, too, Kouen. You shouldn't remain the lonely person you are now."
"I would rather be alone instead of getting a wife and kid, thank you very much. But I wouldn't mind it if you gave me Lucy and Nagi," Kouen instantly replied.
"Do you wish to pick a fight with me?"
"When did I ever say I did?"
Lightning flashed once more and Lucy could feel the hatred aura from them both and stepped in as she held the sleeping Nagi.
"Now hey, guys," Lucy said. "Let's stop this meaningless fight. We're all tired right now and rest is something that's been hanging on my mind for a while. So can we go to sleep and do this tomorrow?"
The two looked at Lucy and then looked at each other.
"Lucy said she wants to sleep now so can you leave?" Zeref said.
"It's late so Lucy should sleep in my quarters," Kouen replied.
"We have our own house to go back to."
"My quarters are just round the corner up the stairs."
Lucy soon got agitated. "Kouen, I'm going to use your room. I need to sleep."
"L-Lucy~" Zeref said, following Lucy. Zeref turned to glare at Kouen, causing Kouen to grin victoriously at him. Zeref flared.
I won't forget this, Kouen.
And I won't forget it either, Kouen said, still grinning as he followed Lucy up back to his quarters.
The next day~
It was time to return back to each of their guilds and seeing that the Kouen and Koumei had finished their political duties with Fiore, they all decided to head home.
"Lucy, are you not coming back with us?" Minerva questioned.
"Wait, seriously?!" Sting said, eyes wide.
"I'm just going to accompany Kouen and Koumei back along the road to the Kou Empire. We still have some catching up to do after all," Lucy said.
"Oh, thank goodness," Rogue mumbled.
"Then we'll see you later, Lucy," Jiemma said as he headed off with the rest of the guild. "Come back soon!"
"Bye everyone! I'll come back in about a week!" Lucy waved back.
After sending off Sabertooth, Lucy waved goodbye to her friends and Makarov of Fairy Tail, and then Lamia Scale and Blue Pegasus. Each guild had received a reward of 10,000,000 jewels and though to Lucy it's not that much, to them it was enough to last at least three months. Zeref soon came out of hiding noticing that they were all gone now.
"Shall we go?" Zeref said, his face gloomy and dark.
"You don't have to come with me if you don't want to," Lucy said.
Zeref shook his head. "After a hundred years, his personality seems to have gotten worse. Leaving you alone with him, something bad's bound to happen."
Lucy chuckled as Nagi looked at them questioningly.
"Mama, does Zeref and Uncle Kouen not get along?" Nagi asked.
"Nagi's even calling him 'Uncle'!" Zeref said, his eyes spinning.
Lucy laughed nervously. "Hurry up and get on!" Kouen yelled from nearby. Lucy answered back with a "yes" before pulling Zeref and Nagi to the carriage to catch up on the years that she had missed with them.