Descartes had already harbored suspicions regarding why the Royal Capital Magic Academy sent exchange students. However, suspicion was merely suspicion; he needed a definitive answer.
Layla was the first to shake her head. "I haven't heard a thing."
Descartes hadn't expected an answer from Layla anyway. He nodded and looked at the others, his gaze lingering slightly longer on Ur. In his view, while Brain likely knew the full situation, Ur was the only one among the students who might have been entrusted with the truth.
Serena, despite his strength, was far too flighty and chuunibyou. A man who issues a challenge on day one, loses in front of a crowd on day day two, and then treats everyone to dinner isn't exactly the type you entrust with matters of great import.
Bluenote was a somber giant who found even speaking a chore. Expecting him to act as a bridge between two academies was less likely than a "mute-to-speech" translation app appearing on magic phones—though, given the existence of Telepathy Magic, such an app wasn't impossible.
Silver was a decent candidate; he was easygoing, made friends quickly, and remained calm under pressure. However, his strength paled in comparison to Ur's.
"Why are you looking at me? I'm in the dark too!" Ur said, then paused as if reconsidering. "Actually, when Brain called the four of us for a meeting this afternoon, he mentioned something. There might be a connection."
"Can you share it?" Descartes felt this was likely the real reason.
"Of course. You might have heard of it—in recent years, large-scale massacres and abductions have been occurring across the continent. The total number of victims is enough to populate an entire nation."
Descartes' expression turned grim. He had indeed heard many such reports. It was because of these fanatics that his grandfather, the guild master of the Magic Council, had been losing so much hair lately.
"After extensive investigation, the Council determined the culprits are a group of cultists devoted to Zeref. Their goal is to gather slaves to build a magical device capable of resurrection. It's called the R-System!!"
The R-System? Resurrection?
Descartes immediately connected the dots. "So, these cultists want to resurrect the legendary Black Wizard, Zeref?"
"That seems to be it... but wait, there's likely more!" Ur nodded, her expression heavy. "Their crimes span the entirety of Ishgar. They likely don't just want to build an R-System, but many of them. That way, even if the Council destroys one stronghold, they have backups."
"Furthermore, I don't believe those villains would stop at just resurrecting Zeref once they have a device that can bring back the dead. Brain specifically told us about this and asked us to keep an eye out. He didn't give specific orders, but it's clear he wants us to maintain our combat readiness to coordinate with the Council's forces at a moment's notice."
"If that's the case," Descartes realized, "then those cultists have likely already extended their reach into the Kingdom of Fiore!"
A chill ran through the group. Even Serena, previously drunk out of his mind, sobered up considerably. After mulling over Ur's words, they realized her hypothesis was highly probable.
Present-day Fiore, aside from Fairy Tail, lacked any formidable magic guilds. The Fiore branch of the Council had low combat effectiveness—fine for post-battle detentions, but nowhere near enough to face dark forces head-on or handle preventative strikes.
If Zeref's followers were indeed building an R-System within Fiore, the only ones capable of saving refugees would be the wizards of Fairy Tail and the top students from the two academies.
However, Descartes knew the internal reality. Over the past few decades, Fairy Tail's combat power had severely declined, leaving a gap between generations. The strongest wizard of the previous generation was Descartes' father, whose talent didn't hold a candle to Darwin's—or even Descartes'. Fortunately, his father had found success in education; with his solid teaching skills and humorous personality, he was beloved by students and had become the Dean of the Middle School Department in just a few years.
(Note: That position was earned entirely through personal merit, and had absolutely nothing to do with having the Principal for a mother and the Vice-Principal for an aunt!)
In the current generation, the strongest in the guild were Descartes and Gildarts. Both were still technically students; while they had joined the guild, they spent most of their time at the academy or doing school tasks for credits. They were essentially in a "work-study" phase.
Aside from them, the representative figure of the younger generation was Ivan—Makarov's son. Ivan was a few years older than Gildarts, but his magical talent was even worse. He had no heart for research and had left the academy after middle school to return to the guild, where he spent his days scheming to inherit Makarov's position.
If someone like him was a "representative," the guild's overall strength was clearly lacking. Therefore, if Fiore truly needed to help the Council deal with Zeref's fanatics, they couldn't count on Fairy Tail as a whole.
They could only rely on the people present at this table, plus the absent Gildarts.
Thinking it through, Descartes breathed a long sigh of relief. "So, the two academies likely want us to form a 'Special Operations Squad' for support."
"Support what?" Serena shouted. "With the six of us, a frontal assault would be more than enough! Those guys better pray to their precious Zeref that I don't find them. If I do... hmph, I won't even leave bodies behind. I'll turn them all to dust!"
Hearing this, Layla suddenly shuddered and instinctively started counting the people at the table.
One, two, three, four, five...
"Eh?! I'm being counted as combat power too?!"