The Fairy-Tail Bride

The History of Beauty, and the Lady in Waiting

Yay, someone is going to read my story! Arigato, Reader-san!

PS. This is my first FairyTail fic, so please be patient with me.

In the year that Lucy Heartfilia was born, the most beautiful woman in the world was Cana Aborona, a maid in the house of Bacchus, a duke in the CuatroCerberusKingdom. It most certainly did not escape the notice of the Duke that an extraordinary creature brought in the mail each morning. Unfortunately, the Duke's notice of the girl did not escape the notice of the Duchess, either. The Duchess had, at one time, a most beautiful body herself, but those days were long gone. She had married her slightly younger husband because of political reasons, (this is well after politics,) and he married her for her money. (This was after money, but then, so is everything. But politics came shortly after.) Both were fully aware of the others intentions, but now, the couple was poor (Since the King of Cuatro had required everything from those loyal to him during a rebellion some years before.) and the Duchess saw no gain from her new political standing (Being that when the King of Cuatro lost the war against the rebels, the rebels re-worked the political structure of the kingdom, making the Duke, while still a duke, no longer in line for the Throne of Cuatro, for he was the former king's cousin, and that line was passed over for the monarchy entirely). The Duchess was, however, very smart... and she knew it well. Each day at breakfast, as she watched her husband making eyes at the fair Cana, she would scheme. And before long, she learned her rival's only flaw...

Booze.

Armed with this knowledge, the Duchess set about putting her plan in motion. Within a fortnight, the palace had become a veritable Alcoholics Anonymous deal breaker. Tray upon tray of champagne sat in the parlors. Everywhere you looked... whole kegs of beer. Bottles of wine chilled in wine coolers in the bedrooms, and brandy and whiskey waited in the halls.

Little did she know that her husband's passions for alcohol rivaled that of the maid's. The Duchess never stood a chance. Upon learning of their shared enthusiasm for all thing alcoholic, the Duke promptly left a signed notice of divorce on the chief magistrate's desk and ran off with Cana to the Kingdom of Magnolia, where they opened a bar and both drank quite a lot until old age claimed them. (Things, it might be noted, did not improve for the Duchess for years afterward. Having been divorced by the Duke, she no longer had a right to live in the Duke's home, despite the fact that he abandoned it in the name of love and alcohol. As such, not only did she no longer have the money the Duke married her for, but she also no longer had the political status she had married the Duke for. This being the case, she went to work in the mansion of the chief magistrate of Cuatro. There, she met and married the head of the housekeeping staff. Poor? Certainly. Politically advanced? By no means... but, happier than she had ever been before. This tale of the Duke, Duchess, and fair maid is well chronicled by the historian Romeo. Except that this is before Romeo.)

The year that Lucy turned ten, the most beautiful woman in the world lived in the ThunderKingdom, a cousin of the Count Laxus by the name of Evergreen. Her skin was of a creamy perfection, unseen in the Kingdom of Thunder for 50 years. (There had only been eleven perfect complexions in all the world since accurate records were kept.) Evergreen was nineteen when a case of small pox struck the region. The girl survived, even if her skin did not fare as well.

When Lucy was fifteen, Jenny Realight, of the Blue Pegasus people, was easily the loveliest creature. Jenny was twenty-one, and so far did she outshine the nearest competition, that it seemed sure that she would remain the loveliest for many years to come. But then, one day, one of her suitors, (she had 104 of them,) a young man by the name of Hibiki, exclaimed that she was surely the most flawless person yet born. Jenny was, of course, flattered. She then began to ponder the truth behind this impassioned statement. That night, she examined herself critically, pore for pore, in her mirror. (This was after mirrors... they came somewhere betwixt money and politics.) It was noon the next day before she finished her inspection. By that time, she was convinced of Hibiki's assessment. As she wandered her family's glade in the noonday sun, she was happier than she could recall ever being before. Not only am I perfect, she thought to herself, but I am probably the first perfect person in all the world. Not one part of me can be improved. How happy for me to be rich and perfect and sensitive and young and...