"Here we are," Makarov said.
Noel looked up at the large building before him. It was built in a Western European style, with solid materials, and excitement welled up in his chest. He already felt a strange urge to call this place home.
Makarov pushed open the door and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Come out here and welcome the newcomer!"
"Welcome back!" everyone inside responded in unison.
Suddenly, a barrel of liquor came flying through the air and smashed directly onto Makarov's head.
Noel blinked in confusion. Was this some strange welcoming ceremony?
A man with a spiky pompadour hairstyle, a pipe hanging from his mouth, blew out a smoke ring. "Hey, old man, did you die?"
"Today we have a new member joining, so don't take it too far," Makarov said, smoke rising from his head and veins bulging as if he might explode at any moment. But glancing at Noel beside him, he swallowed his anger. He didn't want to scare the newcomer off on his first day.
"Master, is this the newcomer?" a girl asked. She had not joined the chaos of the brawl. Noel turned to look at her. She wore a soft lavender dress that complemented her long silver hair. She seemed like someone easy to get along with.
Noel's face flushed red, and his words came out stuttered. "H-hello, I'm Noel Manchester."
"I'm Mirajane Strauss, but you can call me Mira."
"Okay," Noel replied.
Mirajane… She was a famous mage, and despite being so young, she was already powerful. It seemed the mages in this guild were all quite formidable.
He had heard that there was also a mage named Erza in Fairy Tail, but she was not here today. Perhaps she was out on a job, as mages often were.
Are all mages like this? Noel wondered, his curiosity growing. He had never interacted with this world before and unconsciously assumed that all mage guilds might be this chaotic.
"Be a man! Be a man!" a young man shouted, only to get hit by a stray magic blast from somewhere and collapse instantly.
"Macao, you sneak-attacked me! How despicable!" the pompadour man yelled.
Facing him was a rough-looking man with a buzz cut and stubbled beard that only enhanced his rugged masculinity.
"Please, with your level of skill, you think I'd need to sneak attack you?"
The two men then grabbed each other, wrestling in a "manly" brawl.
Elsewhere, two boys were locked in a heated fight, one using ice magic and the other using fire.
"You exhibitionist!"
"You dead-fish eyes!"
"You exhibitionist!"
"You dead-fish eyes!"
…
They hurled insults at each other while trading powerful blows. Then, suddenly, the ice mage stripped off his clothes mid-fight, and Noel finally understood why he was called an exhibitionist.
Only a few quiet girls sat watching the guild's chaos unfold, though even among them was one rough girl who was chugging liquor straight from a barrel. Meanwhile, a blue cat flew overhead, shouting:
"Go, Natsu! You can do it!"
Noel had no idea who "Natsu" was, but the cat seemed very enthusiastic.
"Is the guild always like this?" Noel asked Makarov.
Makarov looked a bit embarrassed, worried that the new member might get scared off on his first day seeing such chaos.
"This is perfectly normal! Just guildmates bonding with each other and exchanging magic techniques. It's actually a form of training," Makarov explained with a perfectly straight face, without the slightest hint of shame.
Really? Noel thought something felt off, but Makarov's explanation was convincing enough. Still, the guild was a complete mess, though it did have a strangely warm atmosphere.
"All right, everyone, pause for a moment!" Makarov shouted, anger creeping into his voice.
Everyone stopped immediately, except for the fire mage, who shouted, "Haha! That means I win today!"
Makarov calmly walked over and knocked the boy out with a single punch, leaving Noel worried. "Is he going to be okay?"
"If I don't knock him out now, he'll be causing chaos all day," Makarov replied as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Climbing onto the bar counter, Makarov's voice boomed across the hall, and the guild members turned to look, quieting down a bit out of habit.
"This is our new companion, Noel. Let's give him a warm welcome!"
A wave of enthusiastic applause swept through the guild, followed by a barrage of questions.
"Hi, I'm Cana." It was the girl who had been chugging liquor earlier, still smelling faintly of alcohol. Perhaps she felt a sense of kinship with Noel since they seemed around the same age.
"What kind of magic do you use?"
"How old are you?"
"Do you have a girlfriend?"
A flurry of questions left Noel unsure of how to respond.
With Cana breaking the ice, everyone else joined in, surrounding Noel in a circle of warmth and curiosity, leaving him unable to keep up, flustered by the attention.
Seeing the confusion on Noel's face, Makarov cleared his throat loudly to calm the crowd, and they quieted down.
"Tell me, Noel, what is magic to you? Or rather, how do you understand what magic truly is?"
Noel thought for a moment and answered, "It's something that should exist for the sake of others. It should be used to help those in need and to protect the people we care about."
"Well said." Makarov smiled proudly. "You have a deep and flawless understanding of what magic should be. Welcome to Fairy Tail, child. Now, go get the guild's mark printed on you."
Mirajane stepped forward to help apply the guild's emblem.
"What color would you like?" she asked gently.
After a moment of thought, Noel replied, "Gold, please." For some reason, he had always liked the color gold, perhaps because it reminded him of sunlight.
Noel extended his right hand, and the Fairy Tail guild mark was stamped onto it. From that moment, he officially became a member of Fairy Tail.
The loneliness in his heart eased, replaced by a gentle warmth. The shadows left by Mond and Oliver's deaths finally began to lift.
Fairy Tail. Fairy Tail… Noel repeated the name to himself. Do fairies really have tails? It was a strange name for a guild, he thought.
"Master, do fairies really have tails?" Noel asked.
Makarov chuckled softly and replied, "Who knows? Do fairies even exist? No one truly knows. And that's precisely why it's an eternal mystery, an endless adventure. That's exactly what this name represents."
Adventure… Noel understood. His journey was far from over. Life wasn't bleak, and just as Mond and Oliver would have wanted, he would live well, embracing the adventure ahead.
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