Everyone returned to their respective rooms. Team B still consisted of the five of them together.
Juvia and Wendy went to wash up, leaving only Laxus, Rhodes, and Gajeel in the room.
Gajeel wore an expression of someone expecting a good show and asked, "So, I heard the First will be dealing with you personally. Feeling a lot of pressure?"
Rhodes looked at him. "Levy told you?"
"Yeah, that's not the point, is it? And don't look at me like that, it's disgusting!" Gajeel instinctively felt Rhodes's gaze was asking for a beating.
Rhodes said casually, "If anyone should feel pressure, it's you guys. In combat-type matches, if I were the First, I'd have Team A take you all out one by one, then gang up on me at the end."
Gajeel felt this tactic was familiar, like when they dealt with Phantom Lord back then.
He immediately became depressed.
Rhodes ignored him, pulled out a stack of books and his notebook, flipping through them occasionally, frowning in thought.
Laxus asked, "So, no results yet?"
"Hmm, because it involves time and such, it's very troublesome. I can't guarantee I can send Future Lucy back."
Rhodes had previously taken a detour using a Hex Gate to return to the guild, bringing back a large pile of books on spatiotemporal magic theory from the library.
After reading the Eclipse magic book today, he had many new inspirations, as well as worries: "If the Eclipse Gate is destroyed, Future Lucy and the other future person will probably disappear."
"Disappear?" Laxus asked, "Does that mean death or..."
Rhodes said, "I think it should be more like 'repatriation,' returning to their original world and time point."
"However, 'repatriation' also has two possibilities: one is that the gate in their time also disappears, and the other is to correct the 'error' of this time travel, allowing them to return to 'their past,' with the time node likely still the same as when they came to us."
Laxus pondered for a moment: "So, we need to utilize the Eclipse Plan while also stopping it?"
"Yes, the best outcome would be to protect our future here and also save Future Lucy's past. But I'm not 100% confident yet, so..." Rhodes handed his notebook to Laxus, "You help me research this too."
He suddenly remembered that Laxus was also a fierce individual who could self-learn Super Magic, so his magical theory foundation was definitely solid.
"—"
Laxus was silent for three seconds. "I'll do my best."
He actually didn't like this kind of studying; he learned Super Magic out of a burst of determination back then.
However, if he had to do it, it wasn't impossible.
He would do it for Lucy, and for Fairy Tail in that other timeline.
"Why not ask the First for help?" Gajeel asked, "With something so important, she's still spending energy memorizing contestant data."
Rhodes shook his head: "You might have some misunderstanding about the First. Memorizing that bit of data isn't really 'spending energy' for her."
"By this time, she's probably already memorized the Book of Eclipse and is now thinking about how to utilize the Eclipse."
Gajeel: "—"
Although Rhodes's words were exaggerated, he felt they made a lot of sense.
Fairy Tail never seemed to lack eccentrics, and the First's exceptional memory was no surprise.
He looked around; two of the three people in the room were flipping through books and thinking, leaving him as the only one idle, which felt inappropriate.
Gajeel, feeling indignant, picked up a book and leaned against his bed to read.
When Juvia and Wendy returned in their pajamas, they saw a strong atmosphere of study.
Rhodes and Laxus's serious demeanor made them not dare to speak after entering.
Fortunately, Gajeel, lying on the bed with a book covering his face, let out faint snores, slightly easing the atmosphere.
"Um." Wendy tentatively called out, "Rhodes-nii?"
"Hm?" Rhodes looked at them and smiled, "Oh, don't worry about it, just rest as usual. We'll be sleeping soon too."
Children who lack sleep might not grow tall, and more importantly, they didn't know what might happen tomorrow, so they had to get enough rest.
Juvia and Wendy quickly fell asleep. Rhodes and Laxus studied magic until late into the night, then turned off the lights and rested.
The night was deep and quiet.
Around two o'clock, about a hundred meters from the inn, the figure of an ordinary-looking pedestrian slowly faded, eventually becoming completely transparent.
He quietly arrived outside the window of Rhodes's room, pressed his body against the wall, squeezed, and completely merged into the wall, then passed into the room.
The person looked back, confirmed that his figure was not reflected in the glass by the moonlight, and there was no shadow on the ground. Only then did he tiptoe towards Rhodes's bed.
Rhodes was sleeping on a standard single bed. Since it was summer, he wore short-sleeved pajamas, and a thin blanket loosely covered his stomach.
At his collar, the pendant and special cord reflected a faint, shimmering glow in the moonlight.
The intruder's face lit up with joy. He cautiously extended his left hand to take the pendant, while his right hand pulled out a small, scissor-shaped tool, preparing to snip the cord that looked like metal.
Then, he was struck hard on the back of his head, revealing his form before collapsing to the ground.
Gajeel woke up with a start, sitting upright, the book that had covered his face falling onto his lap: "I accidentally fell asleep! What happened?"
"Shh!" Rhodes, who had disappeared from the bed, now fully materialized, motioned for Gajeel to be quiet and not wake Wendy. "This is interesting; it's the first time I've encountered someone trying to steal my necklace."
He squatted down, flipped the person over. It was an unfamiliar face, with an emblem on his arm that looked like a hand.
"I think I've seen that before. Isn't that a Magician's Guild emblem?"
Gajeel came over to look and whispered, "It's a thief guild, Mercury's Hand. I've caught their members before."
"This guy, he seems to be their ace. They say he can steal even the wine glasses from a king's banquet if he gets a commission."
Rhodes chuckled: "I don't know how good he is at stealing, but he's certainly bold enough to try to steal from me."
Gajeel squeezed his fists: "So, do we interrogate him?"
"No need. We'll take him directly to Gemini tomorrow."
Rhodes pulled out the magic book given to him by the Second Guild Master, found the corresponding pages using the bookmark, reviewed the knowledge, and then drew several spells on the thief to block his magic power circulation.
Gajeel immediately fashioned iron handcuffs and leg irons with negative comfort, securing him tightly.
To prevent any noise, he even made a gag and an iron muzzle for his mouth, practically treating the other person as non-human.
Rhodes expressed his approval for this inhumane act, then lay back in bed and continued to sleep.
Laxus, who had been tense on the other side, seemed to hear that nothing was wrong, relaxed, closed his eyes, and continued to sleep.
...
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