"Wait a minute!" Marcus, the man with the brownish-yellow hair, suddenly snapped out of his daze. He looked suspiciously at the group who had returned, his gaze finally settling on the little girl with the golden-blond hair.
"Master, what did you mean just now when you said... 'First Master'?"
Hearing that, Macao and Wakaba exchanged mischievous grins.
They walked in sync behind Mavis, cleared their throats, and scanned every confused face in the guild. With an overly dramatic, drawn-out tone, they loudly announced: "Ahem! Everyone, allow us to formally introduce..."
"This lady here is the founder of the Fairy Tail Guild, the great First Guild Master—Mavis Vermillion!"
"Hello, everyone!" Mavis chimed in, raising her small hand and flashing a bright, innocent smile.
"???"
The entire guild fell silent. Everyone's expressions froze, and their eyes collectively turned into wide, tiny dots.
They looked at the adorably smiling girl, who was small enough to be a doll, and then looked back at the Master, Makarov, who was nodding gently from the counter. It was as if their brains had collectively rebooted.
Sensing the mix of shock and inquiry directed their way, Makarov stated gravely, "That's right! This is our guild's First Master."
"From now on, I expect you all to treat the First Master with respect! No being rude or familiar! Got it?"
"—!!???" 😲
The resulting shout was several times louder than before and nearly took the roof off the building.
Marcus's eyes were like dinner plates, and he subconsciously blurted out, "The First Master is actually so—"
Mid-sentence, he saw Levy and the others frantically drawing big 'X's across their chests and silently screaming with exaggerated lip movements: "D-O-N'-T—S-A-Y—S-M-A-L-L—!"
Marcus slammed on the brakes, swallowing the word he was about to say. His tongue twisted as he finished the sentence: "—so powerful!"
Sweat beaded on his forehead as he quickly tried to salvage the situation: "To be able to found an amazing guild like Fairy Tail, that's seriously incredible! Amazing! Just amazing!"
"Hehe, oh, it was nothing, you're all very sweet kids," Mavis said, a little bashfully, as she rubbed her head with her small hand. The iconic golden ahoge (cowlick) on her head bounced playfully with the movement.
Just then, Ur wheeled a giant eight-layer cake out from the back kitchen, smiling. "Alright, don't just stand around being surprised. Everyone, come and eat the cake!"
"The bakery has rolled out a lot of new items over the past few years. When the owner heard Erza and the rest of you were coming back today, he specially helped us make this massive welcome cake."
"New cake?!"
"Cake!"
Erza and Mavis's eyes instantly sparkled, practically shooting tangible stars.
Mavis tried to maintain some of her dignity as the First Master, her small face trying to project "restraint."
But when she saw Erza already sprinting toward the dessert, she only hesitated for three seconds. Her ahoge wiggled like an antenna, and she couldn't resist the temptation, letting out a little "pat-pat-pat" sound as her short legs followed Erza to the cake.
---
The moment the first bite of sweet, soft cream melted in her mouth, Mavis closed her eyes in bliss.
The next second, she snapped her eyes open. Her emerald eyes seemed to hold the entire starry sky, and the tiny wings at the sides of her head fluttered at an unprecedented speed due to extreme joy, almost stirring up a gentle breeze.
"This is amazing!!" she exclaimed, her voice full of awe and happiness, tasting sweet itself.
"This is genuinely the best thing I have ever eaten!!"
"It's great to be alive!!!"
"I'm the Flame Dragon God now, y'know!" Natsu yelled, hands on his hips, black-and-red scorching flames licking around him as he laughed arrogantly.
"Gildarts! Laxus!! Come on, let's have a match!"
"Fire Dragon!" Gajeel curled his fist, a wicked smile spreading across his face as he walked up behind Natsu.
"You really thrashed me four years ago... Today, I'm gonna wipe out that humiliation! I'm paying you back with interest!"
"Oh ho?" Natsu turned around, punching his right palm with his left fist with a loud smack, battle-lust blazing in his eyes.
"Nice! Looks like you weren't slacking off these past four years; your magic power has definitely gone up!"
Before he even finished speaking, the two crashed into each other like cannonballs. Their fists and kicks met with dull, booming thump-thump sounds, kicking up gust after gust of wind.
This seemed to be the signal: more and more people, who loved a good ruckus, began jumping into the chaotic free-for-all!
Chairs, empty mugs, and even a piece of cake thrown by an unknown culprit began flying wildly through the air. The scene instantly became unbelievably lively.
Watching the familiar, long-missed scene of chaos, Macao and Wakaba laughed and clinked their glasses. After downing their drinks in one gulp, Macao sighed contentedly, "It's true! The guild only feels like 'Fairy Tail' when the Tenrou Island folks are back!"
"Absolutely, absolutely," Wakaba agreed, refilling his cup.
"For those four years, the guild was busy, but it always felt like some core part was missing."
He chuckled, watching the pandemonium unfold before him. "Now I get it. A guild should be loud, messy, and full of this kind of lively mischief!"
Off to the side, Meredy, the girl with the pink high ponytail, was carefully savoring the cake in her hand, curiously observing the group fighting so fiercely.
She tilted her head slightly and said to Ultear, who was sitting next to her, "It's true, Ultear, just like Mama Ur said."
"The guild has feasts often, everyone roughhouses like this, and lots of unexpected, fun things happen."
"It is," Ultear replied with a gentle smile in her eyes, lightly stirring the juice in her glass as her gaze swept over everyone's smiling faces.
"Just like Mom said, it's a guild that feels incredibly warm and happy."
---
Elsewhere, Levy cautiously looked around, making sure no one was paying attention to her. Only then did she sneak over to Millianna, pull on her sleeve, and whisper in her ear, "Millianna, could—could you come with me for a second? I need to ask you something."
"Meow? What's up?" Millianna was confused but followed Levy to a relatively quiet corner anyway.
As Levy turned around to speak, her eyes were involuntarily glued to the "massive obstacles" on Millianna's chest, which swayed gently with her movement.
Levy's eyes went practically red as she stared fiercely at the things she desperately dreamed of having. Her voice trembled slightly: "Millianna... what did you eat these past four years? Or... did you do anything special?"
Millianna tilted her head, completely puzzled. "Just... the usual stuff I eat, you know? Ramen, burgers, guild food, stuff like that. Nothing special, meow."
"As for doing anything special?" She closed her eyes, thinking hard.
"Hmm... I just followed the routine, did some jobs, played around with everyone, joked around, and nothing else, meow."
"Levy, why are you asking all of a sudden?"
Hearing the utterly unhelpful answer, Levy nearly gave up in despair. "That's—that's it?!"
"Then how did your chest get so big?!"
"Oh, you mean these?" Millianna looked down and cupped her heavy round spheres, an expression of sheer annoyance on her face.
"They just... suddenly turned out like this, meow."
"Let me tell you, they are super, super heavy! They get in the way no matter what I do."
"I'm mostly used to it now, but my balance is way worse than before during fights. It's super inconvenient, meow!"
Levy listened to this "humblebragging" with wide, dull eyes. She sank into a low mood, silently weeping inside:
(Is this what they call "the thirsty stay thirsty while the drowned stay drowned"? Darn it... (T▽T) If she doesn't like them, why couldn't they have grown on me instead!)
---
On the other side, Wendy was flipping through a thick stack of drawings held by Reedus. "Wow, Mr. Reedus, are these your imagined versions of what everyone would look like after four years?"
Reedus, the tall, thin man with a hat, kept drawing, his hand never stopping as he sketched the bustling guild. "Exactly! I thought everyone would have changed a lot in four years, but I never expected that your time would all have stopped, like a scene right out of a manga, right?"
As she kept flipping, the expression on Wendy's face suddenly froze. She pulled out one drawing, rubbing her eyes in disbelief. After confirming the contents several times, her body started trembling slightly, uncontrollably.
Clutching one last sliver of hope, she held the portrait up to Reedus, her voice shaking: "Um... Mr. Reedus, this—this drawing is of—"
Reedus put down his paintbrush and looked over at the sketch.
"That's my imagined version of you, Wendy, after four years."
"You don't recognize it? I thought I captured the characteristics pretty accurately! Just like the others, everyone else recognized it immediately."
(It's BECAUSE it's too accurate! Why is there absolutely no change on my chest!!)
(And the fact that everyone recognized it immediately is an even bigger blow to me! QAQ I wish they hadn't recognized it!) Wendy was weeping internally, unable to cry real tears.
Just then, the guild doors were violently thrown open with a loud CLANG, the huge sound temporarily suppressing Wendy's sorrow. She turned curiously toward the entrance.
A cheerful male voice rang out: "We're back! The party hasn't ended, right?"
Macao, holding a glass of wine in one hand and leaning on the back of his chair with the other, turned his head and chuckled, "No, no, you're just in time! The party is in full swing, but if you'd been any later, it would have been over."
A handsome young man walked in. He had neat, spiky light-blond hair, and a faint scar above his right temple gave him a rugged look.
When he heard he hadn't missed the party, a brilliant smile broke out on his face. "Yes! Good thing we ran back! I've been looking forward to this welcome party forever!"
Following him was a black-haired young man with a slightly gloomy aura.
The dark-haired young man walked up next to him and said helplessly, "It's only because you, Sting, insisted on hunting that monster, or we would have been back ages ago."
Sting scratched the back of his head sheepishly, slapping the black-haired young man's shoulder heartily with his other hand. "Haha, don't say that, Rogue! I just wanted the people who were stuck on Tenrou Island to try some delicious monster meat!"
A vein pulsed on Rogue's forehead. His initial anger faded into resignation when he remembered his friend's personality. In the end, he just sighed. "I wasn't talking about that! I meant you running off to hunt alone and getting lost for two days!"
"If we had teamed up, we could have been back two days ago."
"Now, now, Rogue-kun, don't worry about the small stuff. As long as the result is good, right? Also, Sting, if you don't bring that monster in from outside soon, it's going to cause a panic."
A small red Exceed strolled leisurely to Sting's feet. Trailing behind him was a pink frog-like Exceed.
The frog raised its right hand and echoed, "Frosch thinks so too."
"Right, right! I'll go bring the prey in now!" Sting said, then hastily ran back out.
---
Makarov looked at the unfamiliar quartet (plus one cat and one frog) and confusedly turned to Macao. "Who are those guys... newcomers?"
Macao smiled and nodded. "That's right, they joined the guild about a year ago."
"The blonde one is Sting Eucliffe, and the black-haired one is Rogue Cheney. They're both Dragon Slayers. And the two Exceeds by their feet are Lector and Frosch."
Lucy stared at the pink creature, her eye twitching. "A cat? $\sum(0 - 0!)$ He looks like a frog to me—"
Frosch calmly raised his pink paw. "Frosch thinks so too."
Lector flew over to Lucy and quietly explained to the people nearby, "Frosch is actually an Exceed, too."
"It's just that he firmly believes he's a frog, and since he's so persistent, we haven't tried to correct him."
"Everyone just treats him like an Exceed wearing a frog costume, and it's fine."
Soon, Sting dragged the carcass of an odd-looking monster into the guild and handed it over to the kitchen staff for preparation.
Then, his gaze immediately locked onto the fiery figure fighting in the crowd.
With an excited and reverent expression, he quickly dashed over to Natsu. "Hi! Natsu-san! I finally get to meet you!!"
Natsu had just finished flinging Marcus away. He looked at the unfamiliar blonde youth, pondered for a few seconds, and said uncertainly, "I don't think I've... met you before? Scott?"
Sting didn't get upset about being called the wrong name, his smile still bright. "Natsu-san, we haven't formally met yet! My name is Sting, Sting Eucliffe!"
His tone was full of admiration. "I've always looked up to you, Natsu-san! I've heard so many stories about you!"
He clenched his fist, his eyes resolute. "I hope to be as strong as you are someday!!"
"Oh yeah?" Natsu was a little embarrassed by the direct admiration but mostly pleased. He thought for a few seconds, then laughed and clapped Sting hard on the shoulder, giving him advice like an experienced veteran: "It's easy if you want to get stronger! You just need to work hard, take lots of different jobs, and build up your magic power! And then—" He pointed to the chaotic battle around them.
"Fight lots of strong people! That's the fastest way to power up!"
"Ooh!!" Sting's face lit up with understanding, and he nodded vigorously, as if he had just heard a profound truth. "Got it, Natsu-san! I'll do it!"
Lucy watched from the side, her mouth twitching.
(=—= Is this kid going to be led astray by Natsu and become Natsu number two in the future?)
(Though, come to think of it, it's pretty rare that Natsu, who always breaks things, has an admirer...)
Rogue, standing nearby with his arms crossed, sighed helplessly and reminded him, "Sting, don't we still need to talk to Roger about the contract?"
"Oh! Right, right, right! I almost forgot about the important stuff!" Sting slapped his forehead, quickly pulling Rogue over to where Roger was sitting on the side. His face was full of anticipation, and he spoke respectfully: "Hello, Roger-san! My name is Sting, the White Dragon Slayer."
"And this is Rogue, the Shadow Dragon Slayer. We were wondering... could we make a contract with you?"
"I can," Roger said, looking at the two Dragon Slayers who, unlike the original timeline, had chosen to join Fairy Tail. Curious, he asked, "But why did you choose to join Fairy Tail?"
Sting had prepared for all sorts of questions he might be asked when signing the contract, but not this one.
He scratched the back of his head. "Well... the main reason is that I admire Natsu-san, and Rogue admires Gajeel, so that's why we decided to join the guild!"
"Besides, Fairy Tail is super famous throughout the entire Kingdom of Fiore, and it's recognized as a seriously powerful wizard guild!"
"And we also heard that everyone who signs a contract with you, Roger-san, ends up becoming very, very strong!"
He grew more and more excited as he spoke, his eyes sparkling. "So we thought, if we join the guild and sign a contract with you, we can get stronger ourselves and grow alongside the people we look up to! That's the coolest thing in the world!"
Rogue, who didn't talk much, nodded in agreement, adding, "That's right. So, as soon as we felt we had enough strength to take on independent jobs, we applied to join the guild right away."
"Even though the seniors hadn't returned from Tenrou Island then, we always believed you would all come back safely!"
Wakaba chimed in with a smile to corroborate. "We asked them the same question when they applied to join, and they gave us the exact same reasons then."
He looked at Roger. "We figured all the other Dragon Slayers in the guild have contracts with you, so it should be fine for these two as well. That's why we agreed to let them join."
"Alright," Roger said, nodding after thinking for a few seconds. He immediately signed the contract with both of them.
> Ding, acquired White Dragon Slayer Magic. (Roger)
>
> Ding, White Dragon Slayer Magic has been enhanced. Damage is doubled when using Light and Holy-type magic. Acquired special ability: Light Spirit. (Roger and Sting)
>
> Light Spirit: Can summon pure Light Spirits. They can surround the target, helping to heal injuries, dispel fatigue, and purify negative emotions. They cause powerful additional damage to Dark-type creatures.
>
> Ding, acquired Shadow Dragon Slayer Magic. (Roger)
>
> Ding, Shadow-type attacks have been enhanced. Acquired the ability to summon the Shadow Gear. (Roger and Rogue)
>
> Ding, Contract Magic level increased.
>
> Acquired ability: Summon
>
> Summon: Can forcibly summon any contracted partner to the user's side, regardless of their location.
>
> Acquired ability: Stack
>
> Stack: The contracted partner's magic and magic power can be temporarily stacked onto the contractor via the contract link, allowing certain specialized magic spells to achieve double the power.
(The Contract Magic leveled up?)
(Summon and Stack... Stack looks more useful.)
"I really got a new ability!" Sting shouted excitedly, feeling the changes within his body.
Lector was happy for him too. "That's great, Sting! Now you can become as strong as Natsu-san!"
Just then, Happy seemed to finally notice the two talking Exceeds. He clutched his face in terror with both paws, looked down at Lector and Frosch, and shrieked in a trembling voice, "Cats! The cats are talking!!"
Three black stress lines instantly appeared on everyone's heads, and the guild went quiet for a moment.
Lucy was deadpan. "=—= Should I... even bother to comment right now?"
Lector wiped a nonexistent bead of sweat. "Um, Happy-kun, we're Exceeds, just like you—"
Frosch: "Exceeds."
Carla walked over to Happy and slapped him unceremoniously on the head with her paw. "Your reaction time is way too slow!"
"S-Sorry," Happy winced, rubbing his slapped head sheepishly. "I-I just said it without thinking... I forgot we had more of our kind around."
Sting, Rogue, and the two Exceeds quickly integrated into the feast, happily chatting with everyone.
---
Not far away, Mirajane had a hint of subtle mischief in her smile as she quietly placed a portable camera Lacrima in a hidden corner, the lens pointed toward Erza.
When she confirmed that Erza had started drinking the special "spiked" mixed juice she had prepared, her wicked grin widened even further.
She walked over to Roger and fluttered her eyes innocently, her voice carrying a slight, playful plea: "Roger, I have some questions about my magic that I don't quite understand. Could I ask for your help?"
"Could we step outside for a bit and find a quiet place to talk?"
"Magic questions?" Roger was slightly startled. Although he wondered why it had to be right now, he nodded.
"Sure."
As he stood up, he casually asked, "What kind of magic questions are they?"
Mira smoothly and affectionately linked her arm through his. Keeping her smile, she said, "It's about Take Over magic, actually. I suddenly have some new ideas and concepts, but there are a few things I'm not sure about, and I'd love for you to give me some feedback and try to see if they're feasible."
The two talked as they walked toward the guild doors.
Just as they were about to step out, they suddenly heard Cana's astonished cry from behind them: "Where's my wine?! I just took it out and haven't even had two sips!!"
She looked around angrily. "Which jerk stole my secret stash while everyone was distracted!!"
Hearing the shout, the curve of Mira's smile grew even wider, and she subtly quickened her pace.
Soon, she and Roger vanished through the guild door.