As dusk approached, the neon-lit streets were washed in a layer of soft gold, giving the noisy city an almost dreamlike brilliance.
Inside one of Altair's taverns, burly men drank and shouted over one another while music filled the air.
On the small performance stage, however, one figure looked completely out of place amid the rough crowd.
Lucy.
Dressed in an exotic dancer's outfit, she moved gracefully across the stage, every smile and glance drawing breathless stares from the men below.
The sway of her hips—and certain other movements that were considerably harder to ignore—had made her the undisputed center of attention.
Lucy turned slightly stiffly, putting her back to the sea of heated gazes.
Under the cover of the music, she whispered toward Ankh, who was hiding backstage.
"Why am I the one doing this again…?"
Ankh raised an eyebrow.
"Wasn't this your idea? You said you could be the beautiful woman who drew everyone's attention."
During last night's strategy meeting, Ankh had explained that stealing Zash's key required more than simply distracting the man himself.
They needed the entire tavern looking somewhere else.
Otherwise, any unusual movement around Zash would stand out.
Lucy had immediately volunteered.
With complete confidence, she had declared that her looks and figure were more than enough to captivate an entire room.
Everyone else had responded with silence.
Not because anyone doubted Lucy was attractive.
Far from it.
When it came to her figure, there were certain areas where Lucy was arguably unmatched even within Fairy Tail.
And while beauties like Erza and Mirajane had a slight edge in sheer mature allure, Lucy's bright, cute charm had long since made her one of the guild's most eye-catching women.
The problem was Lucy's track record.
For reasons nobody could explain, Lucy had always received plenty of appreciation whenever she accidentally ended up showing too much.
But whenever she deliberately attempted seduction as an actual strategy?
The universe seemed to take personal offense.
Enemies usually responded with indifference, mockery, or outright disrespect.
There had been some understandable concern.
Lucy had argued her case anyway, and eventually the job of attracting the entire tavern's attention had been entrusted to her.
Unexpectedly, today she had pulled it off perfectly.
If anything, the intensity of the audience's attention had exceeded even Lucy's expectations.
Hence the sudden nervousness.
"You're doing great."
Ankh smiled reassuringly.
Then his gaze shifted.
"Zash is here. Keep going. We're moving."
Lucy nodded and smoothly continued her dance.
...
Zash entered through the tavern doors shortly afterward.
Two black-robed figures followed him.
One had the build of an ordinary man.
The other was so enormous that he looked less like a person and more like a walking mountain of flesh.
Gray, disguised as a bartender, immediately frowned.
He touched one hand to his ear and used the Magic Mobile Phone's built-in Telepathy function to contact the others.
"Change of situation. Zash brought two bodyguards."
Backstage, Ankh narrowed his eyes.
He stared at the larger silhouette.
"That build…"
Erza glanced toward him.
"Do you think Zash noticed something?"
Ankh shook his head.
Then he spoke quietly toward Lucy.
"Lucy, put on the veil and get closer. Identify them, but don't alert anyone."
Lucy's smile never faltered.
As part of her dance, she gracefully raised a veil across the lower half of her face.
The partially hidden beauty immediately sent another wave of excited shouting through the tavern.
Lucy played to the crowd naturally, occasionally leaning toward the men below as she gradually worked her way closer to Zash's table.
The whistles and howls only grew louder.
Even Zash, who had only just entered and hadn't yet settled into the atmosphere, finally became interested.
He lowered his drink and watched the beautiful dancer with a faintly appreciative smile.
The two men beside him also raised their heads slightly.
Their hoods shifted enough to reveal part of their faces.
One was a young man wearing glasses, his brows furrowed as though the noise around him was irritating.
The other was extraordinarily fat, wearing a lecherous grin as he became completely absorbed in Lucy's performance.
Lucy's smile stiffened for the briefest instant.
She immediately turned her face away before anyone noticed.
After completing another circuit of the room, she returned to the stage.
The moment her back was turned, she urgently whispered through the communication channel.
"They're Seven Kin of Purgatory."
Everyone immediately understood.
"Kain Hikaru and Rustyrose?"
Gray's expression changed.
"The Black Magic Cult rescued all the surviving Seven Kin?"
Erza considered the situation.
"If Zash is willing to openly keep those two around him, then unlike Zancrow, they probably aren't publicly admitting to being members of the Black Magic Cult."
She looked toward Ankh.
"Do we continue tonight?"
Ankh watched the tavern floor for several seconds.
"Yeah. It should still be fine."
Then he turned toward Erza.
"We're switching roles."
The original plan had been for Erza to steal Zash's key while Ankh handled the second part of the operation—drawing Zash away and beating him unconscious somewhere private.
But now Zash had two powerful mages constantly at his side.
Erza certainly wasn't afraid of fighting either of them.
Quietly stealing something without anyone noticing, however, was a different matter.
Ankh trusted himself more for that.
He casually picked up a tray of drinks from backstage.
His appearance changed in moments.
The distinctive features everyone knew disappeared, replaced by the completely forgettable face of an ordinary tavern worker.
Then he walked steadily toward Zash's table.
Lucy immediately provided cover.
She turned toward their side of the room and sent Zash's table a flirtatious glance.
Zash and Kain Hikaru practically melted on the spot.
Both men stared at the stage with stupidly delighted expressions.
Rustyrose was the only one who remained unimpressed, his attention continuing to sweep cautiously around the tavern.
When he noticed the disguised Ankh approaching, his eyes immediately sharpened.
Ankh gave no reaction.
He walked past their table with the same bored expression any ordinary employee would wear.
Rustyrose watched him for another moment.
Seeing nothing suspicious, he gradually relaxed.
That was enough.
The instant Rustyrose's gaze shifted elsewhere, Ankh locked onto the ring-shaped key fastened at Zash's waist.
His palm rotated slightly.
A tiny pulse of Spatial Magic activated.
The ring vanished.
At the same moment, an ordinary iron ring of identical weight replaced it at Zash's waist.
'Exchange.'
It was an advanced application of Spatial Magic.
With sufficiently precise control, the caster could lock onto two objects and silently exchange their positions without producing any obvious movement.
The entire theft happened in an instant.
The tiny fluctuation of Magic Power was so faint that neither of the powerful mages beside Zash noticed a thing.
Ankh calmly walked away.
A moment later, he reached Gray behind the bar.
"Here."
He tossed over the ring.
"You can copy it now."
Gray caught it with complete confidence.
"One second."
He studied the complicated grooves and patterns engraved into the ring.
Then he closed his fist.
Cold air slipped between his fingers.
When Gray opened his hand again, a perfect ice replica of the ring rested in his palm.
With the duplicate finished, Ankh took the original back to return it to Zash.
Gray, meanwhile, slipped away toward a window where Happy and Carla were already waiting.
He handed them the copied key.
The two Exceeds immediately took flight.
Ignoring the palace defenses on the ground entirely, they crossed the night sky and entered the royal palace from above.
Waiting near the treasury were Natsu and Wendy, who had already infiltrated the grounds ahead of time.
Happy handed them the key.
So far… everything was going exactly according to plan.
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