"Eh—?!"
Lucy was terrified: "Then you still dare to do it?!"
"If I don't, I'll never be able to do an S-Class mission!"
"Anyway, if you two want to do it, go ahead. I'm absolutely not going!"
Lucy refused, partly because of the guild rules—non-S-Class Mages couldn't take S-Class missions—and partly because she remembered how terrifying Qi Yan was, especially in his 'Tyrant' form. Just standing there, she felt like she was going to wet herself.
If Qi Yan found out she had secretly taken his mission, she couldn't even imagine the consequences.
"Tch, fine. And here I thought I'd bring you along. Happy, let's go."
"Aye!"
Natsu and Happy jumped out the window.
"Oh!"
Lucy sighed helplessly. Natsu was too reckless, even daring to secretly take an S-Class mission.
"Never mind, I won't think about it. Time to sleep, time to sleep."
Just as Lucy turned to go back to her bedroom to sleep, she saw a piece of paper on the floor beside her—it was the S-Class request Happy had stolen. She was startled.
"What is this?!"
"Why didn't they take this paper with them?! Doesn't this mean I stole it? What should I do?!"
At that moment, Lucy noticed the reward on the request: besides 7 million J, there was also a Golden Key.
Lucy quickly picked it up and examined it carefully: "Really? Can I really get a Celestial Spirit Gate Key?!"
Celestial Spirit Gate Keys were useless to other Mages, but they were incredibly precious to Celestial Spirit Mages. There were only twelve Celestial Spirit Gate Keys in the entire world.
She never expected one of them to be a reward for this mission.
"…"
Lucy immediately ran to the window and shouted: "Natsu—! Happy—! Wait for me!!"
*****
"Oh no—!!"
"Master, the request forms on the second floor are gone!"
Mira counted the requests every morning to ensure no missions were lost, which could cause trouble for the clients.
This morning, when Mira arrived at the second-floor request room, she saw that the request board was empty. The S-Class mission request she had prepared for Qi Yan was gone.
This immediately made Mira nervous. A lost S-Class request was no small matter. She rushed downstairs to report to Makarov.
"Pfft—!"
Makarov spit out the liquor in his mouth when he heard this, and the usually noisy guild suddenly fell silent.
Laxus's leisurely voice rang out: "Last night, I saw a cat stealthily tearing it off. Oh, and that cat had wings."
"Happy?!"
Speaking of cats with wings, in the Fairy Tail Guild, there was only Happy.
"So Natsu and Lucy were involved too?!"
"What are you thinking, those idiots. They've really messed up this time."
"They just went and took an S-Class mission?!"
Everyone in the guild looked shocked. S-Class missions were not simple tasks; they were missions where even an S-Class Mage could die from a single misjudgment. In the guild, only S-Class Mages, with the Master's explicit permission, could undertake such high-difficulty missions.
Laxus said to Makarov: "This is a serious violation of our guild's rules. When they return, they'll be kicked out of the guild, right, old man? By the way, with their half-baked skills, they probably won't make it back from an S-Class mission, hahahaha."
Mira angrily confronted Laxus: "Laxus, you knew the consequences, why didn't you stop them?!"
Laxus argued: "I only saw a gust of wind, and a cat tearing off a piece of paper and fleeing. How was I supposed to know it was Happy, or that Natsu was going to take an S-Class mission?"
Mira glared at Laxus.
Laxus didn't care in the slightest: "Oh, it's been a while since I've seen that expression on you."
Makarov asked Mira: "What mission was on the missing paper?"
He had been at a regular meeting when the mission arrived, and having recently returned, he was still dealing with the trouble Qi Yan had caused, so he didn't know what the mission was.
"The Cursed Island, Galuna Island."
Makarov's face changed drastically, and he exclaimed: "It's the Demon Island!!"
Everyone in the guild was startled to hear that. Demon Island was infamous, rumored to be inhabited by true demons, hence its name, Demon Island.
"Laxus, go bring them back for me!!"
"Are you kidding? I'm about to start work. Mages who can't clean up their own messes don't deserve to be in our guild, right?"
"Ugh…"
Makarov hadn't expected Laxus to use his own words against him.
At this moment, Mira suddenly remembered Qi Yan: "Master! Qi Yan! There's still Qi Yan! This job was originally for Qi Yan, but you weren't here at the time, so he temporarily didn't go."
Makarov's eyes lit up. That brat Qi Yan was very enthusiastic about S-Class missions. With that kid Qi Yan's strength, catching Natsu and the others would be easy.
"Salusuk! Go find Qi Yan for me immediately!"
"Yes!"
Salusuk received the order and immediately used his 'Divine Speed' magic to rush towards Qi Yan's house.
In the early morning, Qi Yan woke up, stretched, and yawned. The fatigue from being drunk the night before was completely gone, and he felt refreshed and energetic.
"The weather's nice today, perfect for a mission."
Qi Yan quickly packed his luggage, ready to head to the guild, pick up a mission, and depart.
Just then, knock, knock, knock!
A series of urgent knocks sounded.
"Who is it? Coming!"
Qi Yan was a bit curious who would come looking for him so early in the morning. He opened the door and saw Salusuk standing outside.
"Salusuk! Why are you here?"
"Qi Yan, Master needs to see you!"
"Master needs me?"
Qi Yan was a bit puzzled, but he quickly followed Salusuk to the guild.
As soon as they arrived at the guild, Mira came up to him: "Qi Yan, it's bad, Natsu and the others secretly went to do an S-Class mission."
"Let them do it. An S-Class mission isn't a big deal."
At this moment, he hadn't realized the seriousness of the problem.
"He took your S-Class mission?"
"What?!!"
Qi Yan's voice immediately rose.
Then his face became distorted: "Damn it! Do these guys want to die?! How dare they touch my mission?!"
His S-Class missions were crucial to the speed of his growth. They could touch anything else, but not his S-Class missions.
"I'm going to kill them!!"