Ch.43 Relaxing day

Around midday, Jax finally arrived at Crocus. His first stop was a gift shop since he needed to find a gift box to put the bracelet. It would be acceptable to hand over the bracelet to Hisui. However, considering that many people would be watching during the gift handing ceremony, he needed a beautiful gift box that looked somewhat rich.

So, the first thing he did was enter a renowned gift shop. Those shops had everything related to gifts, from small props to expensive gifts. Of course, they also had gift boxes.

Entering the shop, Jax was surprised at the number of items on the shelves. However, he didn't start to browse. He looked for the gift boxes and chose the one that caught his eye. The box had a green colour and four small pink ropes, which started from the small box's four sides and linked in the middle of the box cover to hold it together. The knot was in a flower pattern, and a few miniature roses made of tiny red crystals decorated the box. The decoration wasn't too much and added charm to the container without destroying the gift box's balance.

Taking the gift box, he brought it to the counter and bought it for twenty thousand Jewels. An incredible price for a simple gift box, but what could he do, he didn't want to embarrass himself or Hisui. He immediately opened it to store the bracelet in the interior before asking the worker to make the flower-like knot once again. After all, he had no idea how to do it, and the worker would do it quickly. So after a thank you, Jax walked towards Mercurius, the palace of the king of Fiore.

The king had invited him to arrive a day earlier to the castle to play with Hisui and give her an early surprise. Once he arrived in front of the court, he showed the royal token Hisui had given him the last time he came, and the knights immediately opened the big doors to allow Jax to enter the castle. There were no reception or complicated matters, and Jax merely made his way to Hisui's bedroom.

Knocking on the door and seeing that Hisui didn't open the door, Jax finally decided to push the door open and look inside, but after finding nothing but a mess of the room, he closed the door again and started to search the castle for the princess. It wasn't hard since he remembered from her letter that she had to take classes in the study every morning.

Walking to the study, he heard Hisui talk to herself with his enhanced hearing and confirming that there wasn't anyone else in the room; Jax used his sound magic to hide the sound of the door opening and the sound of his footsteps as he closed it back and walked to the back of Hisui with a smile on his face. Seeing her sitting on the floor with a small table in front of her with her brows in a constant frown as she tried to understand, Jax kneeled behind her and suddenly hugged her from behind out of nowhere, giving her a scare.

Trying to escape from his hug, Jax smiled slightly and stopped messing with her. "It's been so long since I've seen you, and you don't even want to hug me anymore." He said with a fake sad voice.

As she heard Jax's voice, Hisui opened her eyes in surprise as she looked behind him and immediately hugged him back as she shouted with some tears in her eyes. "You scared me! I thought someone was trying to take me away. Bad Jax!"

Lifting an eyebrow as the choice of her last two words, he pushed her back a bit with a smile. "It's okay, don't cry! I came to see you!" He said as he dried off her few tears at the corner of her eyes.

"How have you been? It's been a long time!" Asked Jax as he changed the conversation.

"I'm good, but I'm tired of studying. Let's go and play!" She said, showing a smile while getting up from the ground and leaving her study books on the table while taking his hand.

Smiling and shaking his head, they left the study. Unknowingly, not far from them, the king looked at the two of them with a fond smile. He knew that his daughter didn't have any friends, and seeing her so happy to be with Jax let him be relieved.

"It's so great that you came! I didn't know you were coming!" Said Hisui while walking towards the garden at the back of the castle.

"Yeah, your father invited me last time I came. I guess he wanted to give you a surprise." Answered Jax with a smile.

"You came for my birthday, right? So did you get me a gift?" Asked the little princess with her eyes looking straight at Jax.

"Yes, I did. I'll give it to you tomorrow when everyone gives the gifts." He answered with a smile as he discovered what she wanted.

Seeing her pouting since he didn't want to give the gift in advance, he smiled and took the lead, bringing her to the castle's pool room. "Since I came here, I've improved my control over my water magic. I'll show you when we go in the pool." He said with a mysterious smile as they both went directly to the largest pool he ever saw in his life.

With a curious look, she nodded, and they both rapidly got changed before entering the pool.

Since he started training his control over his power with the bracelets, he created different forms with his magic, giving it more uses. He played in the pool with Hisui as he made various forms such as a geyser which threw them in the air, which was safe only due size of the pool. A water giant, a tourbillon and he even changed the pool into a wave pool while creating an air bubble around both of their face, allowing them to breathe underwater.

They played for a few hours until a servant came in and invited the two to go and eat. Jax wasn't surprised that the king knew that he was in the castle as it was still his castle, and if he weren't aware of it, it would have been a problem.

The few hours that they played together allowed Jax to relax more than he had in a long time. After all, he had been training or doing jobs almost without stopping and playing with Hisui, without feeling the need to improve himself allowed him to relax a lot. He found that spending time with Hisui was quite relaxing, and he enjoyed it.

Drying both Hisui and himself after getting out of the pool, they made their way to the dining room where the king was waiting for them.

"Hi, Jax! It's been a while." Said the king as he showed a smile on his face seeing both Jax and Hisui together.

"Yes, it's been a while, Mr.Toma." Answered Jax respectfully. The king had always told him to address him as such instead of calling him king.

"Alright, let's eat." He added as the servants started to sent plates of food to the table. "So, how have you been since the last time you came here, Jax?" Asked the king as they ate.

"Not bad. When I went back to Fairy Tail, the guild received the magic council request to solve the kingdom's monster horde attack. After that, I created a new magical item, and I've been training since then. I developed my magic a lot more. I also invited someone to live with me in the house I built, and we get along well. It's more fun with more people. Finally, I have been harassed by some noble who wanted to buy my land in Magnolia at a low price forcefully, but they left after showing them the royal family token. That's about it." Answered Jax while smiling at the king. There had been a lot going on since he went back to the guild, but if the guild weren't that active, it wouldn't be Fairy Tail.

"I see." Nodded the king as he noted down the thought to look at who was trying to buy the land at a low price forcefully. It wasn't simply because they tried to buy Jax's land but that if the noble was forcefully buying at a low cost, it might not have been the first time, and a lot of civilians might have been at the receiving end of that noble tyranny. "Right. Have you bought a gift for Hisui for tomorrow? If not, I have prepared a gift for you to give her tomorrow." Asked the king as he frowned his eyebrows slightly. Jax was his daughter's only friend, and he didn't want him to get looked down upon by the rest of the aristocracy, who only looked at beauty and money.

"Well, I did prepare a gift, but what do people normally give her?" Asked Jax as he wanted to keep his gift a surprise to Hisui.

"Well, normally the nobles give expensive jewelry, dresses or all kind of invitations. The more beautiful and expensive the gift they give is, the better they look in the aristocracy community. Normally their gift value is between 500,000 and 1,000,000 Jewels." Explained the king of Fiore to Jax.

"Is there anything magical in the gifts?" Asked Jax again as he ate. He wanted to make sure that his gift was excellent and that no mishaps would happen.

"No, they are all aware that Hisui has a talent for celestial magic. Golden celestial keys are too rare and pricey, while silver celestial keys aren't worth enough to be used as a gift. As such, nothing magical is ever given to Hisui."

"Oh. In that case, that's fine; my gift is perfect." Said Jax with a confident smile on his face before he continued to eat.

For the rest of the day, Jax and Hisui played in the castle together.