The Devil Slayer & The Steam Prince Volume1

Chapter 17 Winter Wonders Part2

Gray's POV: I head back down into the cellar and yet everyone's talking rather than noticing that I'm back then I remember what Seth said back at the ball on Halloween night,so I spread ice across the entire room and freeze everything. "SHUT UP, DRINKS DOWN, BACKS STRAIGHT!" I shout loudly and suddenly everyone looks over at me. "Good now that I have everyone's attention we have a missing member, Antonio told me Seth left the Bartell home hours ago and should have been here a long time ago also it's snowing hard outside so get off your asses and stop screwing around split into teams and search the town." I roar loudly so they can tell I'm serious.
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"You heard him split up and search the town but if the snowfall gets too much for you to bear then head back to the guild if you can or find shelter somewhere for the night. Erza says in her commanding voice." Everyone eventually forms teams and Warren stays behind to sit atop the entrance to keep in contact with everyone via telepathy. I go with Juvia, Erza, Lucy, Wendy, Natsu, Happy, and Carla as everyone on the team spreads out to cover more ground of our section of the town we keep hearing the same words from everyone else. "No sign of him but he has to be here somewhere he'd never just up and leave us." "I smell something!" Wendy calls from nearby.
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I hurry over to her as does the rest of our team. "Cinnamon and apples? Wendy says puzzled." "Yes it's cinnamon and apples and hmm gingerbread, It smells like the Christmas apple crisp Seth has told us about for weeks." Wendy says as she sniffs the air walking around us in circles. "Do you think it could lead us to Seth? Asks Lucy." "Maybe, hey Gajeel your teams down by the train station right the sky dragon says as she looks to the sky." "Yeah kiddo and I already know what you're gonna ask and yes I smell that same smell of fruit and holiday spices it's gotta be him." The iron dragon says in reply. "This snow sure can pile up and bury someone easily especially if they been walking long distances all day, Levy adds in." "Levy did you just say it's enough to bury a person, Erza asks?" "Yeah, but why do you ask. The solid script mage responds." "Everyone call off your search teams I have a feeling I know where he ended up, Erza shouts demandingly!" I then see her take off back to the guild.
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Once at the entrance to the guild Erza drops to her knees and starts digging at a giant mound of snow. "Come on dammit come on he's gotta be here, Erza says as she starts to dig faster. "Erza not to sound like I'm judging but what exactly are you doing? Lucy asks the redhead." "The third day we all walked to the beach during our team vacation Seth asked me that hypothetically if he was coming back to the guild from a job and it's winter and as he's walking through town to get to the hall during a blizzard if he got buried in the snow would we send someone to find him, Erza says in response."
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I run over to her and help her dig and soon I see something that faintly shimmers. "Yo Natsu come over here we need a little light here I say to the pink haired pyro." Natsu comes over and lights a small ball of fire in his palm and holds it to the opening I then see a deer and a badger each made of silver causing them to shimmer in the light of the fire. "Those are charms that belong on only 2 charm bracelets those bracelets are in the care of Antonio and Seth, I mutter to myself." "We found him come on guys dig dammit, I call out loudly!"
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The entire team starts to dig and the girls find his other hand so Erza, Natsu and I grab hold of one hand and the other girls grab hold his other hand and we pull hard. After long enough Seth's body comes out the snow pile and we drag him into the guild hall and I put a hand to his arm and my other hand to the back of his head. "His bones are freezing cold to the touch I knew we should have taken action sooner." I say with a low growl.———————————————————————
I grab him and scoop him up into my arms I then hurry up to the guy's bath's and undress him, I drop him into the hot water and wash his body for him hoping the heat of the water will help thaw him out. "I'm sorry they didn't act sooner, your so cold I just hope you can thaw out overnight this was supposed to be your night your the one who came up with this idea after all, I say softly as I wash my frozen guild mate."
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After a while, I feel like I've done all I can do so I scoop him back up into my arms and bring him to his room wrapping him in all the blankets that he had hidden in various parts of his room. I lock his window and hope he will be back to normal by morning. I then close the door and watch the others go to bed. Erza ends up being like me and stays awake on the girl's side looking over the railing.
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"You can't sleep either can you I say barely above a whisper." "No it's just so unreal that I didn't think of calling Antonio sooner or going out to check myself, I knew he talked to me about this in the hypothetical sense I just never imagined it would happen, I along with everyone else decided to just continue with pulling names out the hat, So much for being one of his idols I guess." Erza says as she looks over at me.
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"At least someone in the guild decided to act rather then just leave him there all night, if we had waited till morning it might have been irreversible but a few hours in this frigid cold hopefully he will recover, I say as I look over my shoulder at Seth's bedroom door." "Yeah well let's get some sleep and we can have people rotate shifts for as long we need to till he wakes up, Erza says looking away." I nod in agreement and head into my room and climb into bed.
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The following morning I wake up and go check on Seth and I see he hasn't moved from how I placed him in his bed, I place my ear on his chest and hear he still has a heartbeat but he's just too cold to do anything so I just walk out his room and eat breakfast and yet I feel like there might be things I haven't tried yet to help him. "Gray if your thinking about what happened last night I'm sure Seth will be fine we just need to give it time and be patient, Wendy says calmly from across the table." "Yeah, I'm just wondering if we have done all we can for him or if that book he had back when we first met him can be of use in telling us something." I say as I absentmindedly use my fork to play with my breakfast.
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"Why do you feel so compelled to think this way and act the way you do when it comes to Seth if you don't mind me asking." Lucy says with her head cocked to one side. "I'm not all that sure but I guess I feel for him, he has had medical issues since birth,he lost his mom at a young age, and he is just such a kind-hearted person and the world needs more of them in it, Also he saved me from harm when he used all that magic power in one go on one of the first jobs he joined us on." I say as I look up over my shoulder at his door.
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Unable to just forget about it I go into his room and look around for his book from the first day we met him, eventually finding it in a drawer of his desk I open it to the first page and suddenly the hologram appears. "Hello Gray perhaps I can assist you with something you are looking for." The hologram says to me. "Does your owner write any memories of his past in this book as if it was a diary or is it just for medical use?" I ask the hologram.
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"Of course he has part of it sectioned off as a diary why do you ask this." The hologram replies with a hint of curiosity. "His body is frozen to the touch he walked home to the guild last night during a snowstorm and he just passed out and fell into a snow pile outside the guild hall." I say to the hologram. "Freezing cold to the touch hmm yes there is an entry of something like this happening in his youth." The hologram says before fading away and the pages flip rapidly by themselves.
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Eventually, I find what the hologram was referring to and see that Seth once a year would play in the snow for so long that his skin was freezing cold to the touch and his mom would have the staff wrap him in heavy warm blankets and light a fire in the fireplace and serve him soft hot food like soup and hot chocolate and he would within a few days be back to normal. I close the book and carefully slide it back into the drawer and close the drawer before walking back to my friends.
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"Find anything you think might be useful?" Erza asks me. "Yep turns out he had this kind of thing happen to him as a kid and he was given hot food and drinks and was wrapped in warm fluffy blankets by a fireplace for a few days so I think if we just follow those notes that he will be better in a few days. I say calmly in response.
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"Well I don't think we have fluffy blankets or a fireplace at the guild but his family home might have everything heck they might even know how he likes his hot drinks and food flavored." Lucy says as she joins the conversation. "Yeah, I guess I'll stay there with him till he gets better seeing as I'm the one who was concerned before anyone else in here was last night." I say calmly.
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"Gray as nice as that is of you it would be better if someone who has taken the tour of the home went with him and seeing as I'm the only one who has of all us I think it would be best if I went but don't worry I will have the house staff keep me aware of all progress and then I will let everyone here know." Lucy says as she looks over at me. "Fine fine go-ahead and I hope he comes to in time for the gift swap." I say in response as I look at her.