In the royal capital, Crocus, under King Toma's orders, the kingdom's top craftsmen had worked themselves half to death through endless overtime, and the banquet hall inside Mercurius Palace had finally been repaired.
Mercurius was brightly lit.
Out in the city, the citizens were still repairing their homes with help from the army, while occasionally looking toward the palace with envy.
"I heard the king is holding a banquet in the palace for the guild mages."
"Well… they're the experts who drove back the dragons, after all."
"It's still hard to imagine that dragons really exist in this world…"
"Those noisy people are probably already dancing by now, aren't they?"
…
The next morning in the royal capital, the guild members woke up inside the palace bedrooms.
After the night of celebration yesterday, everyone's energy seemed to have recovered quite a lot.
According to the arrangements made by the guild masters, they were supposed to return to their respective guild cities early that morning.
The royal capital was still undergoing reconstruction.
Toma and the various guild masters had discussed it and decided that after the guilds returned to their home bases to reorganize, the kingdom would issue commissions for them to help push forward the rebuilding of the capital.
Because of that, the return trip became rather urgent.
Early in the morning, Makarov had already taken some of the members and hurried off first.
In order to quickly catch up with the master, Ankh and the others, after waking up from their hangovers, also had to leave right away.
Ankh wore his pajamas, yawning as he looked at the people packing their luggage in the room.
He casually asked a palace servant to help him make a cup of coffee, then asked, "Is everyone ready? We're leaving soon."
"Ready!"
Natsu had his back to everyone and was stuffing something into his backpack.
Then he turned around with an excited face.
Lucy was leisurely painting her toenails, and she did not forget to sigh with emotion. "Leaving so suddenly makes me feel a little reluctant."
Mirajane was combing Lisanna's hair. She smiled and shook her head. "We experienced so much here that it feels like we stayed in the royal capital for a very long time."
Gray was flipping through a newspaper and asked curiously, "Has everyone already left? Why the rush?"
Ankh nodded helplessly. "Who told Cana to drink with those guys from Quatro Cerberus for half the night?"
Cana, still suffering from her hangover, had her stomach exposed and was sleeping like a little pig.
Lucy went to the door and looked around, then asked in confusion, "Strange. Where's Levy-chan? She said yesterday that we'd leave together."
Juvia, who was glued to Gray's side as always, thought for a moment and said, "I don't know… Juvia didn't see her for a long time last night either."
The hand Ankh was holding his coffee with trembled.
Immediately afterward, he took a sip as though nothing had happened and said.
"She's probably with Gajeel. No need to worry."
The others understood what Ankh meant and immediately revealed strange smiles.
Erza, however, looked adorably shocked as she shouted, "Eh? Gajeel and Levy are actually?!"
Ankh: …
His little sister's information version was, as always, hopelessly outdated…
"Erza's probably the only one who couldn't tell~" Lucy habitually teased.
Then, pretending to be a relationship expert, she analyzed, "Levy-chan looks quiet and cute on the outside. She has her own opinions and is cultured, but deep down, there's actually a tiny part of her that wants to be forcefully claimed by the person she likes!"
"And although Gajeel looks fierce, he's actually pretty kind-hearted. He's very patient with Levy too. His movements are rough, but he's considerate in his own way, and that just happens to hit Levy's preferences…"
"Ah~ They really are such a perfect match~"
Happy looked up at Lucy, who was getting more and more excited as she spoke and even wiggling her hips like a pervert.
He raised a paw and commented, "Levy's been around Lucy for too long, so her mind's gotten weird too, aye!"
"What's that supposed to mean?!"
Seeing Lucy bristle, Ankh quietly added another blow. "Besides, if Miss Relationship Expert Lucy can analyze things that well, why don't you solve your own important matter first?"
"This… this…"
After being hit with one blow after another, Lucy fell silent.
Ankh could only silently bless Gajeel in his heart.
No matter what situation he was in, he absolutely had to remember to stay safe…
Amid their noisy bickering, the last group of Fairy Tail members finally set off from the royal capital.
Princess Hisui even specially came to see them off.
This time, even the slow-witted Erza could see the reluctance in the princess's eyes.
However, those who had to leave would leave in the end.
After exchanging a few words with Hisui and Yusalk inside her body, the group officially left the city.
They were going home!
With that thought in mind, compared to the excitement and unease they had felt when coming to the capital, everyone from Fairy Tail was even more excited now.
They had won the Grand Magic Games and saved the kingdom.
They were no longer Fiore's bottom-ranked guild!
After hurrying along, Ankh and the others finally caught up with the guild's main group.
The teams merged together and entered the city in high spirits.
...
In Magnolia, fireworks and salutes burst together.
Both sides of the city's central avenue were packed with fans who had watched the Grand Magic Games, all of them passionately shouting the names of Fairy Tail's members.
Looking at the crowded streets, it was probably not only Magnolia's residents.
People from other cities must have rushed over after hearing the news too.
Ankh could not help sighing.
Deciding to take part in the Grand Magic Games really had been the right choice. A team showcase like that was perfect for gaining popularity…
Wendy was currently responding stiffly to the compliments from the people on both sides of the street, while Carla reminded her to have more confidence.
Cana held a barrel of alcohol and shouted to her fans, "Let's drink together! This is celebration wine!"
"Ohhh!!"
The surrounding crowd enthusiastically shouted along.
Some of Magnolia's older residents, meanwhile, caught Laxus and praised him fiercely.
"Laxus! I saw you on the broadcast! You took on an entire guild by yourself! That was incredible!"
"And you beat Jura too! As expected of you!"
Looking at the familiar faces who had watched him grow up, Laxus could not help pulling out a smile and muttered, "What a pain…"
Erza was also surrounded by many women.
After all, her famous scenes had been extremely intimidating.
Soloing all one hundred monsters in Pandemonium, then single-handedly defeating the ace mages of two major guilds in the team battle—Erza could now be called Fiore's publicly recognized strongest female mage, the idol of female mages across the entire kingdom.
Of course, the one who received the loudest cheers was still Ankh.
Although Ankh's actions had frightened the audience quite badly at the venue, after the storm passed, countless people who liked him still supported him.
Instantly defeating Jura. Instantly defeating Minerva.
Ankh had not appeared many times, nor had he made many moves.
But that invincible image of ending things the moment he attacked had fermented through word of mouth, causing a wave of praise to spread throughout the entire kingdom.
Of course…
A certain Little Green Girl had definitely helped push things along behind the scenes.
Now, quite a few professional newspapers were already saying that with Ankh's strength, he was qualified to become one of the Four Gods of Ishgar, meaning one of the top four among the Ten Wizard Saints.
Ankh had not paid attention to that part.
After all, the opponents he cared about now had long since stopped being people on the level of the Ten Wizard Saints…
Natsu, full of excitement, reached into his bag and pulled out a…Crown?
Realizing he had taken out the wrong thing, Natsu hurriedly stuffed away the king's crown he had casually swiped and instead pulled out the Grand Magic Games winner's trophy.
Naturally, the master noticed this scene.
His old face turned blue, and he nearly collapsed on the spot from holding his breath!
Natsu carried Romeo on his shoulders.
Romeo raised the trophy high, and both of their faces were flushed with excitement as they showed the whole city Fairy Tail's honor.
Because Fairy Tail was about to return to its peak, the current mayor of Magnolia, who was very good at reading the situation, also returned Fairy Tail's guild building to them free of charge.
On top of that, he even renovated it for them!
Looking at the luxurious guild building before him, Ankh could not help smiling as he sighed.
"In the end, this city and this guild are still the places that make me feel most at ease."