"Edolas?"
Everyone nodded. For them, it hadn't been that long since the incident, and they still remembered the excitement of gaining a flying ship as Fairy Tail's exclusive vessel.
Rhodes thought for a moment and said, "Didn't the Council and engineers from Fiore also come to study the ship and help with modifications back then? I remember we even earned two medals and a pretty big bonus."
Max nodded. "That's right."
Alzack added, "Those medals saved us a lot of trouble, and the money helped us through some rough patches."
"But that isn't the important part," Max pressed on. "The real point is that the Council and the Kingdom gained a lot of technology from studying our ship."
He paused before continuing. "After their research and improvements, that technology spread rapidly through every part of life. Magic suddenly became more common and more accessible than ever before."
"I heard that Magic technology across Ishgar had long been stagnating," he explained. "But with these new breakthroughs, people suddenly had fresh ideas to build on. Innovation exploded like a geyser."
"Soon after, new Magic items were everywhere. Daily life changed, and the number of Magicians rose dramatically."
Warren and Alzack smiled faintly. Seeing Max so talkative again after years of silence felt like having a piece of the old Fairy Tail back.
Levy tilted her head. "So in a way… by letting them study our ship, we did something good, right?"
"Levy-chan is absolutely right!" Troy, now so plump he was nearly unrecognizable, blurted without thinking.
Jet shoved his face aside in disgust. "It was good at first. Life really did get better. But later… things started to go wrong."
Rhodes frowned, already guessing. "Because technology advanced too fast, people could solve their own problems with Magic tools instead of hiring Wizards?"
Warren spread his hands. "Exactly. Those new items were so easy to use that even ordinary citizens could handle them. Requests to Guilds dropped sharply. Jobs dried up everywhere."
"Some Wizards couldn't make a living anymore," Alzack admitted bitterly. "Many gave up and started living as ordinary people instead."
"Our Guild was praised at first, even thanked," Bisca said indignantly. "But later, we were blamed. People said it was our fault. In Magnolia it was tolerable, but when we traveled outside, we hardly dared speak to members of other Guilds."
Happy's ears drooped. "That's too cruel."
"But understandable," Carla said calmly. "Their livelihoods were taken away. Still, it's foolish. Magic itself will always remain an advantage."
"And that wasn't all," Max went on with a wry smile. "Because Magic tools lowered the barrier to entry, more people called themselves Magicians, and more Guilds sprang up. But there weren't enough requests to go around."
"If it weren't for the treaty banning Guild-on-Guild conflict, Ishgar might have fallen back into the chaos of one hundred years ago, when rival Guilds fought brutal wars against each other."
Warren's voice grew heavy. "And the tension didn't stop with Guilds. Nations began to clash as well. The sudden leap in Magic technology shifted the balance of military power. Bosco and Seven have already fought dozens of wars, large and small."
Alzack sighed. "Even Ka'elum, which has always been aggressive, turned its eyes toward Fiore. If not for Fiore's status as a neutral kingdom, things might have become much worse."
"Later, the Council also took action. They haven't been able to completely prevent conflicts between nations, but at least they stopped things from escalating into a third Trade War."
The words hung heavy.
In the history of Ishgar, the Trade Wars had broken out twice already, and for obvious reasons. The second one was the stage where Mavis Vermillion, Fairy Tail's first master, had shone most brilliantly as the "Fairy Tactician."
And now, years later, Fairy Tail's gift of a foreign technology, an entire self-contained system of Magic tools from Edolas, had nearly triggered a third.
Everyone shuddered. The word war always carried weight, but for mages who had grown up in Fiore's peaceful neutrality, it felt especially chilling. The thought that Fairy Tail might have been the spark for another continent-wide conflict was enough to make their stomachs turn.
Still, even if war had been avoided, it was obvious the Guild must have already taken its share of criticism.
Makarov's brow furrowed. He pushed aside international politics for now and asked the question that weighed most on his heart.
"So, what about the Guild? Is it true what I'm hearing, that there are more and more mages, but fewer and fewer requests?"
Max shook his head. "That was true two years ago. But things have changed since then."
He continued grimly. "Two years back, requests really did dry up. The number of mages surged, but there weren't enough jobs. A lot of small Guilds went bankrupt and disbanded. And in their place, Dark Guilds began to appear everywhere, taking any kind of dirty work to survive. They threw the entire Magic World into chaos."
Warren added, "And with that came a flood of dangerous jobs, escorts, monster subjugations, missions that carried high risks. But the so-called 'New School' mages, the ones who relied only on Magic items without real training, had no idea how to handle them."
"They were fragile," Max said flatly. "No combat experience, no willpower, no ability to adapt. Just ordinary people with powerful weapons in their hands. Missions failed constantly. Clients died. Mages died. The death toll that year climbed so high, it nearly matched wartime levels."
Silence fell. The tension in the air was thick.
Even those who had fought through Edolas and Grimoire Heart couldn't hide the shock in their eyes.
Compared to them, traditional holder-type mages like Lucy or Cana were battle-hardened soldiers. They had trained their bodies, cultivated their Magic Power, and could at least hold their own when things went wrong. But the "New School" mages? They were like civilians carrying pistols and grenades, dangerous in hand, but hopeless when reality pushed back.
Rhodes muttered under his breath, "Even in Edolas, people with no Magic trained their bodies desperately… That's the difference. Technology advanced too fast, and people's hearts didn't keep up."
"Exactly," Warren agreed. "The Joint Council and the Kingdoms had no choice but to impose strict new regulations. That curbed the worst of it. Over the last two years, the number of Guilds has stabilized, and people have started valuing traditional mages again."
"Most requests now are dangerous missions," Alzack admitted. "And the pay isn't always good. But a well-managed Guild can survive. We've been making it work."
Here, Max hesitated. He exchanged a look with Warren and Jet. Their smiles were bitter.
"As for our Guild…"
His voice dropped.
"With all of you gone, Fairy Tail lost its brightest stars. Clients lost confidence. And with the criticism we took from the Magic World for starting this chain of events… we've only been barely holding on."
...
Stones Plzzz
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