Fairy Tail: Lost One

Chapter 55: Why Can’t I Have My Vacation

On the rooftop, a tense silence fell over the gathered group. Everyone who’d just arrived stared at Rudra, still holding the unconscious Scarlet, nobody daring to speak first.

Rudra opened his mouth, ready to attempt his explanation once more.

"Let go of Scarlet!"

The shout tore through the silence, sharp with fury. Rudra turned toward the source — a blond-haired man shoving his way to the front of the group, eyes burning with open murder, one hand already curling around the hilt of his sword.

Rudra looked at him for a long, unbothered moment.

Then, without a word, he simply turned back to Leonardo instead, as though the outburst hadn’t warranted a response at all.

The dismissal only made it worse. The blond man’s expression twisted further, and he lunged forward, clearly done waiting for permission or explanation.

"Stop! Prince Julius!"

The command cracked through the air like a whip, freezing him mid-step. Julius turned sharply toward the soldier who’d shouted it, then toward Leonardo, disbelief and anger warring across his face.

"Why are you stopping him?" His voice rose, incredulous. "Leonardo, can’t you see your sister is in danger?"

Leonardo met his glare evenly. "Because she isn’t."

The simple certainty in his voice seemed to catch Julius off guard more than any explanation could have.

Leonardo didn’t elaborate further. Instead, he forced a smile — tight, strained at the edges, the kind of smile a man wears when he’s holding several conflicting emotions together through sheer willpower — and began walking toward Rudra, closing the distance across the rooftop with deliberate, measured steps.

He stopped directly in front of him.

For a moment, neither said anything. Leonardo’s eyes flicked briefly to his sister’s unconscious face, then back up to Rudra, the strain behind his forced calm becoming more apparent the longer the silence held.

"Can I have my sister back, please," he said finally, voice carefully even, though the underlying edge of please, before this gets any more complicated than it already is was impossible to miss.

Rudra shrugged, entirely unbothered by the tension thick enough to cut, and carefully transferred Scarlet’s weight into Leonardo’s waiting arms.

"Sure," he said simply. "She just passed out. Overused some kind of power, I think."

Behind them, Julius stood frozen, jaw tight, watching the exchange with an expression that suggested he still hadn’t decided whether to feel relieved or furious.

Possibly both.

Leonardo carried his sister back across the rooftop and carefully transferred her into Julius’s waiting arms, murmuring something low that Rudra couldn’t quite catch. Julius’s anger seemed to soften the moment Scarlet settled against him, though his eyes still flicked toward Rudra with lingering suspicion.

Leonardo lingered only a moment longer before turning and making his way back.

"Why are you here, sir Rudra?" he asked, some of the earlier tension still clinging to his voice.

"Looking for a girl. Name’s Mia." Rudra reached into his coat and pulled out the worn photograph, holding it out. "Supposed to be somewhere in this auction."

Leonardo took it, studying the image for a brief moment before turning to the nearest soldier. "Find this girl. Bring her up here the moment you do."

The soldier saluted and disappeared down the stairwell with two others in tow.

Leonardo’s attention shifted next, his expression hardening as he turned toward Prime Minister Godwin, who was still kneeling nearby, visibly sweating.

"Guards. Seize him."

Two soldiers moved in immediately, hauling Godwin up by the arms despite his frantic struggling.

"I didn’t do anything!" he shouted, voice cracking with desperation as they dragged him toward the stairwell. "I was only doing what the goddess instructed! You can’t arrest me for following divine will— this is madness, do you hear me? Madness!"

His protests continued, growing fainter and more incoherent as the guards hauled him further away, until the sound finally disappeared entirely behind the closing door.

Leonardo exhaled slowly, some of the exhaustion from the entire ordeal finally catching up with him, then turned to check on his sister once more, leaving Rudra behind on the rooftop.

Alone again, Rudra wandered over to the railing and settled himself on top of it, legs dangling over the edge, and pulled the bottle of alcohol back out from his coat, taking a slow, unhurried drink as he looked out over the city below.

It didn’t take long before footsteps echoed up the stairwell — the soldiers returning, a young woman walking between them, disheveled but unharmed, eyes wide and uncertain as she took in the rooftop and the people gathered on it.

The moment she recognized Leonardo and Julius, she straightened immediately, offering a low, formal bow.

"Thank you," she said, voice trembling slightly with relief. "Thank you for saving me. I don’t know what would have happened if—"

Leonardo offered a small, reassuring smile, and beside him, Julius nodded in acknowledgment, still holding Scarlet carefully in his arms.

The girl hesitated, glancing between the two of them, confusion creeping into her expression. "May I ask... why was I brought up here specifically?"

Leonardo gestured toward Rudra, still perched casually on the railing. "Sir Rudra came here looking for you."

The moment the words registered, her face drained of color.

She dropped to her knees instantly, hands pressed together, voice cracking with desperation. "Please — please don’t sell me. I need to go home. My brother, he’s alone, he needs me, please, I’ll do anything, just don’t—"

"Wait—" Leonardo started, already moving to correct the misunderstanding.

"I’m not here to buy you," Rudra cut in, voice calm, cutting through her panic before it could spiral further.

The girl froze mid-sentence, looking up at him with wide, uncertain eyes, not quite daring to believe it yet.

"I’m here to take you home," Rudra continued, hopping down off the railing and making his way toward her. "Your brother asked me to save you. Kai. Small kid, black hair, cries a lot."

Recognition flickered across her face, disbelief slowly giving way to something closer to hope.

Rudra reached her, crouched down, and scooped her up without much ceremony — the same easy, effortless motion he seemed to apply to everything.

He turned briefly toward Leonardo, giving him a single nod of acknowledgment.

Leonardo nodded back, understanding passing silently between them.

A moment later, Rudra was gone from the rooftop entirely, the girl still held securely in his arms, leaving nothing behind but the faint, fading scent of alcohol on the night air.

Julius turned to Leonardo. "Was it really alright, just letting him go like that? We don’t even know who he is."

"Yes," Leonardo said simply, eyes still lingering on the spot where Rudra had disappeared.

It’s not like we actually have the power to stop him, he added silently to himself.

"Did you say something?" Julius asked, catching the faint mutter under his breath.

"Nothing." Leonardo shook his head, straightening. "Just — take Scarlet home. She’ll need to rest properly after overusing her blessing like that."

Julius glanced down at Scarlet, still unconscious in his arms, then back up. "What about you?"

"I’ll head home once I’ve finished things up here." Leonardo gestured vaguely at the chaos still unfolding below — soldiers processing captives, Godwin’s arrest still being sorted, statements to be taken from half the mansion. "Shouldn’t take too long."

Julius held his gaze for a moment longer, clearly wanting to argue, then simply nodded and turned toward the stairwell, careful with Scarlet’s weight as he descended.

Leonardo watched him go until the door swung shut behind him.

Alone on the rooftop now, he let out a long, exhausted breath, rubbing a hand down his face.

Then, with nothing left to do but get through the rest of the night, he made his way back down to finish everything that still needed finishing.

Meanwhile, across the city, Rudra delivered Mia safely back to her front door, offering nothing more than a brief nod before turning to leave — already gone before either sibling could get more than a few words of thanks out.

By the time he made it back to his tavern room, exhaustion finally caught up with him all at once. He didn’t bother with the alcohol still tucked in his coat, didn’t bother with much of anything.

He dropped onto the bed and was asleep within seconds.

___

A few days passed, quiet and uneventful in the best possible way. Ever since Mia had been safely returned to her brother, nobody had come looking for Rudra. No desperate kids on benches, no slave auctions to storm, no prime ministers screaming about goddesses while being dragged away.

Just peace. Glorious, uninterrupted peace.

Today he sat on the same bench as before, working through a scoop of ice cream, sunlight warm on his face, nothing pulling at his attention. Life, he decided, was good.

"You know," he murmured, catching a drip before it hit his hand, "I could really get used to this."

"I sure hope nothing bad happens to your peaceful life," System replied.

The words had barely settled when a massive shadow swept over the plaza, blotting out the sun. Rudra looked up in time to see a dragon descending toward him, wings kicking up enough wind to send market awnings snapping wildly in every direction.

It landed directly in front of him with a ground-shaking thud, scattering the last of the nearby crowd.

A figure stepped down from its back — silver hair catching the light, boots landing steady on the cobblestones. She lifted the sides of her dress in a small, formal curtsy.

Rudra’s stomach dropped before she even looked up.

Scarlet.

Her expression sharpened, all traces of formality burning away into something far more serious. "I request a friendly spar. Right now."

Rudra stared at her, ice cream forgotten, already melting down over his fingers.

System, you motherfucker. His thoughts were flat, resigned. Why did you jinx us.

"I said nothing untrue," System replied, entirely too pleased with itself. "I merely voiced a hope. The universe declined to cooperate."

Scarlet tilted her head at his prolonged silence, apparently reading it as hesitation rather than sheer disbelief. "Well? Are you going to answer, or should I take the silence as agreement?"

Rudra glanced past her at the dragon, patient and enormous, then down at the ruined remains of his ice cream.

He let out a long, resigned sigh.

"Why can’t I have my peaceful vacation."