Erza's long, delicate eyelashes fluttered a few times before she slowly opened her eyes.
Her sleepy gaze adjusted to the soft sunlight slipping through the gap in the curtains, still hazy from just waking up.
She propped herself up on her elbows out of habit, and the silk sheet slid off her shoulders, revealing faint red marks scattered across her snow-white skin—like quiet red plum blossoms blooming in the snow.
"Morning, Roger," she murmured, her voice still soft and a little husky from sleep.
Seeing her completely unaware of how she looked, Roger's eyes filled with a helpless yet doting smile. He gently reminded her, "Erza… your clothes."
"My clothes?" Erza blinked, then instinctively glanced down.
In an instant, the broken, scorching memories from last night flooded back like a tidal wave—the dim lights, tangled breaths, burning touches, and her own unusually bold moves— Her cheeks turned bright red so fast you could practically watch it happen, the blush spreading all the way to her ears.
"Ahh!"
She let out a short yelp, yanked the sheet back up, and wrapped herself in it from head to toe, curling into a tight ball as if that could block out the embarrassing memories.
From inside the blanket came her muffled, incredulous voice: "W-We… we actually did… that last night!?"
"That's right," Roger replied with a low, amused chuckle. Even through the blanket, she could feel his warm hand gently ruffling her hair.
"Erza's embarrassed? You were so forward last night."
"F-Forward?!" That word was like a key unlocking even more mortifying details.
Erza tugged the blanket down just enough to reveal a pair of shy, darting eyes. She glanced toward the corner of the room and whispered, "I-I wasn't that forward…"
"Really?" Roger raised an eyebrow, playing along with a teasing tone. "Then maybe I got it wrong. I guess I was the one being forward."
Hearing that, Erza's tense shoulders relaxed a little. She pulled the blanket down a bit more, showing her cute little nose and tightly pressed lips. She tried to defend herself in a tiny voice: "It's all that juice's fault… I was drinking juice, so how did I end up drunk?"
Roger finally couldn't hold back and laughed. He reached out and lightly pinched her burning cheek—the soft, silky touch reminding him of last night.
"Alright," he said gently, pulling his hand back. "Come on, let's go have lunch. I made red bean porridge with condensed milk, fresh milk, and osmanthus honey. It'll get cold if we wait."
"Red bean porridge!" Erza's eyes lit up instantly. With a flash of white light, she was already dressed.
She hopped out of bed and hurried to the table, reaching for the steaming bowl that smelled sweetly of red beans—then froze.
She suddenly remembered something super important. She carefully set the bowl down, turned around, and faced a very confused Roger.
Then she started twisting her neck side to side, arms stiffly swinging in a weird, rhythmic dance that looked totally bizarre.
Roger stared, totally lost. "Erza… what are you doing?"
"Huh?" Erza stopped mid-move, head still tilted to one side, looking dead serious.
"I'm doing the ritual dance."
"Mirajane said that after you… after doing that kind of thing, you have to do this dance. She told me it's an ancient custom from a certain region, and it's really important."
Roger tried hard not to laugh. "Is that so? I've never heard of that custom before."
"Never heard of it?" A big question mark popped up over Erza's head. She blinked in confusion.
"But Mirajane swore up and down that you were the one who told her about it! She even said—"
She suddenly stopped talking, frozen in place.
Her beautiful eyes slowly widened with realization, shock, and pure embarrassment.
"I've been—tricked!! That jerk!!"
The next second, furious energy practically burst into flames around her.
She roared like an angry lioness, stormed out, and slammed the door behind her, heading straight for Mirajane's room next door.
BAM! She flung the door open.
The moment it opened—click!—a blinding flash went off.
Erza instinctively squeezed her eyes shut.
When she opened them again, the room was empty. Mirajane was nowhere in sight. Only a camera on a tripod stood alone in the middle of the room, its lens somehow looking smug.
Whirr— The camera automatically spat out a freshly printed photo, which fluttered to the floor.
Erza picked it up. The picture clearly showed her just now—hair wild, face furious and humiliated after being pranked.
"Mirajane, you absolute jerk!!" She trembled with rage, fingers tightening to tear the photo to pieces.
Snap! A white light flashed, and the photo vanished from her hand.
At the same time, a small black recording lacrima nearby played Mirajane's delighted voice: "Aww~ Angry Erza is so cute~"
"How was the ritual dance I specially prepared for you? Did you have fun?"
"You—jerk—!!"
Erza's eyes blazed with fury. Magic surged uncontrollably around her.
With a flash of white light and a sharp sword slash, the black lacrima was sliced into eight pieces that scattered across the floor.
"I'm going to kill Mirajane!!" She spun around, radiating murderous intent, and almost crashed into Roger, who was standing at the door.
Roger looked at her flushed, angry face and barely held back a laugh. He cleared his throat and delivered the bad news: "Uh… Mirajane said before she left that she and Lisanna were taking a long-term job that would take about a week. By now, they're probably already far away from Magnolia."
"This! Total! Jerk!!"
A dazzling crimson magic aura exploded around Erza, shaking the walls with its sheer power.
"I'll never, ever believe a word she says again!!"
"Calm down, calm down," Roger said, handing her the still-warm bowl of red bean porridge. The sweet aroma filled the air.
"Eat something first. You'll need the energy if you want to save up your strength for revenge when Mirajane comes back, right?"
Erza's chest heaved as she took several deep breaths, barely holding back the urge to tear Mirajane's room apart.
She snatched the bowl, tilted her head back, and gulped down most of it in big, quick swallows.
The warm, sweet porridge slid down her throat, soothing her empty stomach and temporarily cooling her anger a little.
She marched into the kitchen without a word, turned her fury into appetite, and polished off every last bit of the remaining porridge in the pot.
After eating, her energy came back a bit, but the embarrassment and frustration still flickered in her heart like tiny flames.
She stormed out of the house again, heading straight for her usual training ground outside town.
Not long after, booming sounds—"BOOM! BOOM!"—echoed from far away, and the ground trembled faintly, as if a giant were pounding the earth over and over.
Roger listened to the familiar noise and shook his head with a helpless smile. "Looks like the guild master's going to have another headache."
"With that kind of power, the training ground's probably going to lose a few more hills by this afternoon."
Two days later, a crowd gathered in front of the guild's request board.
Levy stood at the front, scanning the various jobs with surprise. "There are so many extermination requests now… Four years ago, even the decent ones were hard to get. Now we can just pick whatever we want."
"Well, we've got four years' worth of requests backed up," Macao said, leaning against a pillar with a drink in hand. "During those four years, dark guilds popped up like weeds after rain."
"And the strongest members who usually handle requests were all stuck on Tenrou Island—so yeah, it's normal that there are too many jobs to finish."
"Speaking of which," Wakaba said, blowing a smoke ring and looking around the guild hall. "Where's Lucy? With her personality, she should be the first one jumping at all these easy pickings."
"But we haven't seen her for days."
"Hey!" Happy, who was lounging on the bar munching dried fish, raised a paw.
"Lucy went home to see her dad!"
He licked his paw and added, "Apparently, while we were gone these four years, her dad paid the rent for her house and even sent birthday gifts every year."
"So she took the train home the day before yesterday!"
Just then, Happy's eyes widened as he looked toward the door. Lucy walked in carrying luggage, with two familiar figures beside her. "Wendy! Charle! How come you're back with Lucy?"
"Did you run into each other on the way?"
"Nope," Lucy said with a relaxed smile, waving her hand.
"My dad's been having some health problems lately, so I specially asked Wendy to come help treat him."
"Treat him?" Happy tilted his head, confused. "Didn't Gemini turn into Wendy before?"
"Why did you need the real Wendy?"
"Sadly," Lucy shrugged, "Gemini turning into Wendy doesn't give her the special abilities from the contract with Roger. She only has the magic Wendy herself knows."
"When I summoned Gemini back then, she could diagnose my dad's illness using the medical knowledge in Wendy's head, but she couldn't fully cure it."
"In the end, we had to combine Wendy's Healing Magic and Palm Healing Technique to finally fix his stomach problems."
"Wow!" Levy's eyes sparkled with admiration as she looked at Wendy. "You can cure actual diseases now? That's amazing!"
"N-No, not really…" Wendy's cheeks flushed. She looked down, sounding a little down. "Actually… Lucy's dad still has another symptom. He's always sleepy and gets drowsy really easily."
"No matter how much I checked or used Healing Magic, I couldn't find the cause or fix it."
She lifted the small, elegant suitcase she'd been carrying and offered it to Lucy, voice full of hesitation and apology. "Um… Lucy, maybe we should just forget about the reward this time."
"We're friends, and I was just helping out. You don't need to pay me… Plus, I didn't completely heal him…"
"Don't worry about it," Lucy gently pushed the suitcase back and held Wendy's hand. "The sleepiness is probably just because he works too hard and doesn't rest enough. It's nothing serious."
"Besides, if it weren't for you, Wendy, my dad's stomach condition would've gotten way worse. This reward is yours—you earned it."
"Exactly," Charle said, arms crossed, nodding in agreement. "You basically saved his life, Wendy. Take the money without feeling guilty."
"?" Happy blinked. "Saved his life? Was Lucy's dad that sick?"
"Yeah," Lucy said as she walked farther into the guild. "Because he was always so busy with work, he hardly slept, got way too exhausted, and ate super irregularly… which led to mid-to-late-stage stomach cancer."
Her voice grew heavier. "The early symptoms aren't obvious, so hospitals often miss it."
"At first, Dad thought it was just a minor issue and ignored it."
"If I hadn't caught him coughing up blood by accident, he probably would've kept hiding it from me."
She smiled with relief. "Luckily, Wendy had read a medical book from Levy that happened to mention this exact thing."
"Following the book's advice and using her magic, we finally pulled my dad back from the brink."
"Stomach cancer?" Roger, who had been quietly scrolling on his phone at a nearby table, frowned at that. (I remember that once it reaches mid-to-late stage, people usually only have about three years left… and since this world doesn't have good treatments, that's why Lucy's dad died in the original story, right?)
"Could I get a glass of juice, please? Thanks." Lucy sat on a barstool and took the juice Gina (Quebec) handed her, glancing around curiously.
"Gina's the temporary waitress today? Where are Erza and Mirajane? Are they out on a job?"
"Nope," Roger said with a helpless shake of his head. "The two of them… had a little 'disagreement.'"
"Erza got so mad she went off to find Mirajane and settle the score."
Lucy's forehead instantly sprouted sweat-drop lines. "Dis… disagreement…?"
(←←A few days ago at noon when I left, I vaguely heard huge explosions coming from the training ground… Don't tell me that was them "settling things"?)
"Anyway," Lucy decided to change the subject. She pulled out the latest model of phone, unlocked it smoothly, and scrolled through it.
"Phones are so convenient. No wonder everyone has one."
"My dad knew I was back the moment I arrived because of the phone."
"And a lot of big magazines post their articles on phones too. It's way faster than buying the physical version."
Her finger slid across the screen, and suddenly a news headline caught her eye. "Church attacked?"
"Multiple major cathedrals in the Santo Tobia region have been hit by unknown assailants. Residents near churches, please stay alert."
"If you can provide valid clues about the attackers, you'll receive a portion of the bounty after verification."
Her voice turned surprised. "In case of danger, please evacuate immediately or use your phone to contact… the Council's guards?!"
Seeing the contact number at the bottom, Lucy's head filled with giant question marks. "You can notify the Council's guards directly with a phone now?! And there's a bounty for tips?!"
"Is this really from the Council? It's not a scam, right?"
"It's definitely official Council information," a calm male voice said from behind her.
Everyone turned and saw Simon had entered the guild at some point.
His expression was a little grim as he continued, "The church attacks have happened multiple times, but the Council hasn't been able to catch the culprits."
"Under pressure, they finally tried this new method of using citizens and the phone network."
Roger let out a soft laugh and raised an eyebrow, teasingly. "Those stubborn old fogeys at the Council actually agreed to this? That's rare."
"They didn't at first," Simon said with a wry smile. "But not long ago, someone secretly took a blurry photo of a figure after one church was destroyed and anonymously posted it on the magic network."
"That photo made us realize we couldn't keep using the old, rigid methods."
"In the past, it took time for Council forces to reach the scene. By the time they arrived, useful evidence was often gone or destroyed."
"Even if they got there quickly, delayed information meant missing the best chance to track the culprits."
"But if nearby residents can snap photos right when it happens or shortly after and send them in, the efficiency is completely different."
As he spoke, he pulled out his own phone, tapped a few times, and turned the screen toward everyone.
The photo was blurry, clearly taken from a distance in a hurry.
It showed the side profile of a man with long purple hair that reached his ears, and next to him… a fairly large red bear?
Lucy squinted and studied it carefully. "Why does this guy look… kinda familiar?"
Roger looked for a moment, then said with certainty, "That's Midnight from the Oración Seis, right? They escaped from the Council's prison?"
"Exactly," Simon nodded, his face turning serious.
"Since you guys were the ones who captured the Oración Seis back then, I remember them clearly."
"As soon as I saw the photo, I checked the prison records. All members of the Oración Seis have escaped."
"Also missing is the former master of the Iron Forest guild, Eisenwald's Erigor."
He put his phone away and continued, "I went to check the prison's surveillance lacrima crystals, but the ones from that time period were deliberately damaged."
"According to the guards on duty that night, the only visitor during that window was a cardinal from Santo Tobia who claimed he was there to give the prisoners spiritual guidance."
Simon frowned deeply, utterly puzzled. "But I can't figure out why a respected cardinal would help the Oración Seis escape."
"So I brought the damaged crystals back and asked Daphne to try repairing them."
He looked around at everyone, voice heavy. "The Oración Seis are extremely dangerous dark mages. After escaping the Council's custody, they've gone on to destroy multiple churches in Santo Tobia."
"This kind of behavior could seriously damage relations between the Council and the Church of Santo Tobia, and hurt the Council's reputation among the people."
"To catch them as quickly as possible, even the Council members who originally opposed the idea finally agreed to use the phone network to gather tips."
"The Oración Seis… after escaping, they're specifically targeting churches?" Macao rubbed his chin, frowning. "Are they after something? Or trying to break some troublesome seal?"
Just then, Romeo's energetic voice rang out from the doorway, breaking the heavy atmosphere in the guild: "Lucy-nee! Someone's here to see you—!"