"Yusalk, do you know something?"
"Well~ You should probably pay attention to the situation in the city first. It seems the 'future' has already started appearing there."
Hisui somewhat suspected that this damn entertainment-seeker was not telling her the truth, but very soon, a soldier ran over to report that chaos had broken out in the city.
She no longer had the time to press him.
...
In the royal capital, Crocus, at Honeybone Inn…
In other words, the inn where Fairy Tail had stayed when they came to participate in the Grand Magic Games.
Before long, the mysterious figure who had slipped away from the Eclipse Gate ruins sneakily glanced at the streets, which had fallen into disorder because of the appearance of many people from the future.
Taking advantage of the citizens' panic, when no one was paying attention, the mysterious figure quickly slipped into the inn.
The owner at the counter noticed someone wrapped up tightly entering, but he did not pay much attention.
These days, mages who came out to take major jobs often dressed like that.
"Hello, guest. Are you looking to stay?"
The mysterious figure walked up to the counter, and from beneath the cloak came a clear, pleasant young girl's voice.
"I'm here to find my companions. They should already have registered."
"Oh~"
The owner thoughtfully flipped through his registration book, then smiled.
"You mean the rooms that group from Fairy Tail stayed in."
In the shadows beneath the cloak, those watery eyes seemed to light up.
She quickly said, "That's right! This is the place!"
"All right, follow me."
The owner led the way for this guest while smiling and making small talk. "Quite a lot of people have come to rent the rooms Fairy Tail stayed in these past few days. They're all huge fans. Are you here to experience the atmosphere of your idols too?"
The girl's mouth twitched.
She quietly tucked the hand with a faintly engraved emblem into her pocket and replied, "Y-yeah. We all really like Fairy Tail, so we came here to throw a little party and enjoy the atmosphere."
The owner laughed knowingly. "Young people these days are all like that~"
"All right, here it is."
After the owner brought the girl to the room, he left.
Only after watching him walk away did the girl open the door and enter.
Inside the room, several young people were sitting on a few large beds. In total, there were two boys and one girl.
"You're way too slow!"
When they saw the girl enter, the others instinctively grew alert. Only after she took off her hood and revealed her face did they relax.
A boy who looked rather cold and arrogant snorted in dissatisfaction.
The girl took off her hood, reached both hands behind her neck, and let her cherry-pink hair fall down her back, revealing a cute face.
Her little mouth immediately fired back without hesitation.
"Please. All of you crossed over into the royal capital, but I ended up in the palace, okay? I almost got discovered by Queen-auntie!"
Hearing that, the cold-looking boy subconsciously frowned.
Beside him, a delicate girl with shoulder-length water-blue hair immediately asked with concern, "Are you okay?"
The girl proudly put her hands on her hips and giggled. "Don't forget, I'm wearing this cloak that lowers my presence. It's the latest product from Ram Company!"
"Compared to Queen-auntie," the black-haired boy who had not spoken until now said with sharp eyes, frowning as he analyzed, "that annoying god should have noticed you."
The moment that name was mentioned, the youths in the room instantly fell silent.
The pink-haired girl also stopped smiling.
"Brother, then what do we do?"
The blue-haired girl asked in a slight panic.
The black-haired boy she called brother glanced at the person standing frozen at the doorway and said, "Naciel, in this time period, does the diary say what everyone in the guild is doing?"
The pink-haired girl, Naciel, hurriedly took off her cloak, revealing her original outfit.
Naciel — Natsu and Lucy child.
She looked around sixteen or seventeen, wearing a tank top and an outer layer, with a scarf patterned in fiery red wrapped around her neck.
Her figure was also far more mature than someone her age should have.
Naciel pulled a notebook from her pocket, flipped through a few pages, and said, "These pages happen to mention it. The guild recently got popular again because of the Grand Magic Games, so everyone should have gone out for work. There won't be many people at the guild. We have a chance!"
The cold-looking boy curled his lips into a smile. "Perfect. While they aren't there, we'll go to Magnolia and bring 'that guy' back!"
"Then it's decided. We leave right away!"
"Wait, Grinju." (Terrible name lmao)
Young Grinju — Gray and Juvia's child.
The black-haired boy spoke again, looking like a calm older brother as he said, "In theory, everyone in Fairy Tail during this era shouldn't recognize us, but we still have to be careful. If we can avoid fighting, then we avoid fighting. This is the past, after all. If we affect the future, then…"
The black-haired boy gave an important speech from the bed.
Aside from his biological younger sister, the blue-haired girl, who raised her little face and listened seriously, Grinju and Naciel completely ignored him.
The two quietly leaned together and whispered.
Naciel could not help complaining, "Garell's acting like the big brother again. He was only born one year earlier than us…"
"Exactly. Even Galena doesn't put on airs like that, but here he is giving orders…"
The twins of Iron and Script — from Gajeel's imagination.
Garell's face turned red, and he could no longer maintain his steady aura.
He roared and pounced at them.
"You two bastards!"
"You wanna fight? Come on!"
"Watch me burn you!"
Galena helplessly held her forehead and sighed. Then she quietly walked out of the room.
The aura of the once-delicate younger sister faded, and she instead spoke with the owner in a calm and experienced manner, planning to rent a carriage first.
…
While this youth team, which looked familiar no matter how one looked at it, was preparing to rush toward Magnolia, over at the Fairy Tail guild…
"It's surprisingly quiet…"
Lucy returned to the guild, physically and mentally exhausted. Looking at the sparsely populated hall, she could not help sighing.
Ankh found a seat and sat down.
Natsu and Happy collapsed limply onto the table, and Natsu said weakly, "I'd rather go work. Taking care of Celestial Spirits is exhausting."
"Hehe… I spend every day like this."
Lucy forced a smile.
Earlier, when they had hosted Aquarius last at Star Hill, she had gone through great effort to satisfy that difficult madam.
After all, Aquarius had been the nanny-type Celestial Spirit who had accompanied Lucy since the days when she had been an annoying little brat disliked by both people and dogs.
It would be strange if Aquarius had a good temper.
"All right, let's go home and rest. We still have work tomorrow."
"Okay…"
Natsu and Lucy answered weakly. Ankh said goodbye to them and headed home.
After returning to his house, Ankh first went back to the room to check on Mirajane.
The messy state of the room and bed had already been cleaned up, while Mirajane was wearing a loose sleeping robe, her stomach exposed as she slept like a little pig.
Ankh lowered his head and kissed her cheek.
Then he quietly lay down beside Mirajane, reached out to hold her soft body, and fell asleep in great comfort.
Late at night, the manor gradually fell silent, with no more noisy voices.
At the Fairy Tail guild, it was just as quiet.
But right at the front entrance stood an extremely suspicious-looking figure, slowly revealing an eerie smile.
"They're finally all gone."