Theoretically speaking, there isn't a single king in the world who could tolerate someone stealing his crown and royal robes and then declaring himself king.
But the King of Fiore could.
When Rhode flew up, knocked Natsu out with one punch, respectfully returned the crown to the King and apologized, the King merely said, very simply:
"It's fine, the joke just went a little too far, that's all."
Makarov finally snapped out of it and remembered he should apologize to the King: "I'm terribly sorry! Natsu has absolutely no sense of proper etiquette, I'll definitely take him back and punish him properly!"
Rhode secretly gave the President a thumbs-up. As expected of the President—his first thought was still to drag Natsu back and discipline him.
"Really, there's no need to mind it. Didn't Mr. Rhode already punish him just now?" The King thought it over carefully, and still didn't get angry. Instead, he felt that Fairy Tail was actually pretty interesting—they could even pull off something like this.
He chuckled and said, "Alright, alright, allow me to go tidy up my appearance. We'll resume the awards when I get back."
He was even willing to continue giving Fairy Tail their awards!
After such a commotion in what was supposed to be a nice, proper celebration banquet and award ceremony, everyone in the guild, except for a few who loved watching drama, more or less felt both awkward and secretly relieved.
Fortunately, the whole process was still completed. The King personally handed the trophy and prize money to Fairy Tail B Team.
Reporters on site went click-click-click with their cameras, preparing to run the story in tomorrow's paper.
No one knew whether they managed to capture the moment where Natsu pretended to be the King.
There was no way the Royal Palace would let the Mages party all night, or let them stay until dawn, so the banquet ended late into the night, and the Mages all returned to their lodgings.
On the way back, Rhode took a careful look around. Within just one day, almost all the buildings had already been repaired. Only some roads and decorative structures hadn't been touched up yet.
Ultear was definitely the MVP. For all he knew, she might have gotten right back to work the moment she woke up from being knocked out by Rhode.
All the residents had received the notice that they could move back anytime. Many shops directly resumed business, planning to earn a bit more while the Mages were still in town.
Makarov had barely stepped back into the hotel before he announced that they would return to Magnolia first thing in the morning.
He figured that since Natsu had already gone so far as to steal the crown today, if they stayed any longer, who knew what kind of trouble he'd stir up next.
Of course, if anyone wanted to stay in the Royal Capital and play for a few more days, he wouldn't stop them; he just wouldn't have the Guild cover their room and board anymore.
Speaking of room and board, just thinking about it made Makarov shiver in pain—dozens of people living in the Royal Capital, the daily expenses were a huge sum.
He stared pitifully at Rhode, sending frantic, silent signals.
Rhode decided not to test the old man's heart and directly patted his suitcase, saying, "Don't worry, President. Out of the total 30 million J prize money, as agreed, 15 million J goes to the Guild, and the remaining 15 million will be split among the six of us in B Team."
Makarov was extremely excited. They finally had the money to renovate the Guild again!
The others were all full of envy, but since they didn't participate in the tournament, getting a week-long all-expenses-paid trip with free food and lodging was already more than enough.
Rhode did the math on his fingers. Splitting 15 million J six ways meant each person got 2.5…
He thought for a moment and said, "Even though A Team didn't take the championship, they worked hard for so long. How about we give each of them a 200,000 J participation bonus?"
Lucy instantly perked up: "Really? Can we? Is that really okay?"
Every sentence was a question, and every sentence was packed with expectation.
Laxus and the others had no objections. Even if they split off a million, each of them would still get over 2 million.
"Ahahaha…" Natsu realized that next month's food budget was secured, and grinned while agreeing, "Since you all put it that way…"
However, Rhode cut him off: "But we're docking Natsu's share."
"Why?!"
Rhode said, "Because you almost caused a huge mess today."
Makarov nodded on the spot. Fair and reasonable.
"Damn it…" Natsu puffed up angrily, but he had nothing to say.
And so the distribution of the prize money was happily settled. Each of the other four in A Team, excluding Natsu, pocketed 200,000.
As for B Team, Rhode and Mira each took 2.3 million, and the others 2.4 million each. The sum split perfectly, and everyone was satisfied.
...
Early the next morning, everyone in Fairy Tail except Wolian boarded their own Flying Ship.
—Wolian's long-term mission wasn't over yet. He had to stay in the Royal Capital's lab to continue developing the "portable private-telephone Magic Crystal."
Unexpectedly, Baggs from the Four-headed Hound shamelessly dragged himself onto their ship.
Rhode looked at this drunkard, puzzled. "Baggs? You… didn't come to challenge Erza to a fight, did you?"
"Of course not. We didn't even make it into the finals this time. I won't have the face to fight you guys for at least half a year."
Rhode laughed. "Isn't that just because you didn't show up during the prelims?"
"A loss is a loss. I don't need that kind of excuse to comfort myself." Baggs was very open about it. "So I'm not here for Erza—I'm here for Kana!"
"Hm?" Kana heard someone mention her name, and with similarly tipsy eyes looked over in their direction. She immediately raised her bottle. "Oh, it's you! I didn't drink my fill yesterday, let's keep going today!"
"Hahaha, that's exactly why I came!" Baggs lifted his wine gourd and saluted Kana. "The wine at the Royal Palace was nice, but it was way too stuffy. No fun at all!"
Kana laughed heartily. "I think so too. Dare to come to our Guild? As much as you can drink, but whoever passes out first treats!"
"Couldn't ask for more!"
The two drunkards happily huddled together, completely ignoring everyone else.
Rhode relaxed. "So they were drinking buddies they met at the banquet yesterday…"
Makarov didn't mind Baggs boarding at all. After taking a headcount, he waved his hand grandly. "Good, everyone's here. Let's go!"
Lisana, in charge of piloting, reminded everyone, "We're taking off in ten seconds. Everyone hold on tight!"
Laxus had already slipped into the cabin to sulk in silence, with Fried staying close to take care of him.
Gajeel and Natsu were slumped over the railings at the side of the ship, faces contorted as they muttered about wanting to jump off and walk back themselves.
Reby and Lucy stood nearby, amused, but also watching over them in case those two idiots really fell off.
The Flying Ship officially took off, and Natsu and Gajeel immediately started puking on the spot. Only after the ship entered stable flight did they ease up a tiny bit.
Natsu, forcing down his nausea, struggled to say, "Wendy… Wendy… help… hurry and use Troya…"
"O-okay… I… I'll be right—" Wendy tried to go help, but suddenly felt a wave of discomfort, as if all the strength had left her body.
Carla was startled. "Wendy? What's wrong? Are you hurt anywhere? Where do you feel off?"
"I-I don't know, mm…" Wendy's face turned pale. Halfway through speaking, she couldn't help covering her mouth. A moment later, she forced the words out with difficulty, "I feel a bit dizzy… like I'm going to throw up… and I don't have any strength…"
Carla thought for a moment. Because of Mira's symptoms a few days ago, her first ridiculous guess was pregnancy.
After driving that absurd thought out of her mind, Carla said in disbelief, "Why are you getting motion sick too?!"