"You can tell?!"
Mira's voice carried a shock she could barely believe herself.
Then she shoved Kabe out of the middle, pushed the "blueprint" toward Erza, and asked with sparkling, hopeful eyes,
"Then look, what do you think of the new house I imagined?"
"Hmm…" Erza studied the drawing seriously and offered her own opinion. "Isn't a courtyard this big, with a fountain out front… and a swimming pool in the backyard… a little too extravagant?"
Seeing that Erza could actually understand what she meant, Mira's heart instantly lit up with the joy of finding a kindred spirit. She immediately kicked Kabe aside and started discussing the details with Erza in depth.
Kabe, meanwhile, watched the two of them earnestly debating over what was essentially a child's scribble. His eyes narrowed, then widened. He changed angles, stared from every direction… and still could not find anything resembling a fountain or a pool.
'Am I the one who can't appreciate this? No. This is definitely these two idiots' problem.
All I can say is… in a certain way, they're the same kind of airhead.'
After reaching that conclusion, Kabe could only turn with a pained expression and go borrow a fresh set of paper and pens from Reedus.
Then, following the two girls' descriptions, he personally sketched out a rough design of the new house.
His drawing skills were not great either, but at least you could tell it was a house.
With his own draft in hand, Kabe finally earned the right to join their conversation, and the three of them began excitedly debating what their future home should look like.
As they talked freely about the future, Lisanna—who had been ignored ever since entering the guild—could not help feeling sour.
'Hmph. What's so amazing about that?
When the new house is built, I'm going to bring Levy and Laki over every single day and raid your place.'
"Master Makarov! Master Makarov! A letter from the Magic Council for you!"
Right as Lisanna was grumbling in her heart, a blue bird wearing a wizard hat fluttered into the guild, wings beating urgently.
Lisanna recognized it. This bird was a magic messenger called Piki, and ever since it began following Makarov, it had taken on the job of delivering apology letters, "reflection statements," and other such paperwork between the Council, the guild, and various clients.
"Another Council letter? Which idiot caused trouble this time?
Give it here. You've worked hard."
Makarov muttered as he took the envelope from Piki's beak and quickly opened it to read.
After finishing its task, Piki circled the guild hall once, then landed on the head of a blue-haired girl of about fifteen or sixteen.
Hearing it was another Council letter, the guild members immediately lost interest.
Letters like this came several times a month anyway.
The content was always the same: Someone from Fairy Tail caused damage somewhere again, and Makarov, the Guild Master, was being scolded for failing to manage his members properly.
Natsu getting chewed out earlier was because Makarov had received a similar letter in advance.
At this point, it was practically a Fairy Tail tradition. Everyone was used to it. At most, they would privately guess which unlucky bastard was about to get the Master's wrath.
But after only two quick glances, Makarov's expression abruptly turned heavy.
When he finished reading the entire letter, he could not sit still. He stood up at once and began calling names.
"Kabe. There's an urgent job here. I need you to handle it."
"Huh?"
Kabe raised his head, puzzled. Seeing Makarov's face dark and tight with urgency as he paced behind the counter, Kabe told the two girls something quickly and walked over.
"Master, what situation could possibly need me to step in?"
"This is… a special case. Read it first."
Makarov did not explain. He simply handed him the letter.
Kabe skimmed it at high speed. Then, eyes widening as anger surged up, he clenched the paper, his palm ignited, and he burned the letter to ash.
"Heh. Deliora has gone missing? Time of disappearance unknown. The Council requests Gray report to ERA for investigation."
He let out two cold laughs, dripping with contempt.
"The Council really has no shame at all. They failed to guard a sealed demon properly, let it vanish under their watch… and then they come looking for us to blame?
They even want to drag our guildmate out to take the fall for their incompetence.
Old man, if you can swallow this, then I'll seriously start looking down on you."
Deliora—one of the demons created by the Black Mage Zeref.
A calamity said to be immortal, it had once swept across the northern lands and destroyed countless families.
Eight years ago, the strongest mage of the north, Gray's master, Ur—stepped forward. She sacrificed herself using the forbidden magic "Absolute Ice Shell" to seal that monster away.
Afterward, the Council took custody of Deliora's sealed body and claimed it would be guarded.
Yet now, not only had the Council failed in their duty, they were even trying to summon the disciple of a fallen hero and subject him to questioning.
To Kabe, that wasn't just outrageous. That was inhuman—pure filth.
Makarov's face was grim to the extreme. He was clearly suppressing his fury as he spoke, voice hard.
"You don't have to tell me. I'll demand an explanation from them myself."
With that, he hopped down from the counter, black-faced and furious, hands clasped behind his back as he strode toward the guild's exit.
"Get ready. Come with me to the Council.
I'm going to crack open the skull of every idiot who signed off on this order and see whether their brains are stuffed with mud."
"Heh. Now that is the reliable Master I know, the one everyone truly respects from the heart."
With Makarov being this uncompromising, Kabe did not hold back his praise.
The guild being pushed around like this was not something he could tolerate either.
So after informing Mira and Erza, he left with Makarov, heading straight for the Council headquarters.
The Magic Council, officially the Magic Council ERA, was an organization led by one Chairman and nine Councilors.
It did not belong to any one kingdom. It existed to maintain order in the magical world.
Its primary duties included monitoring the actions of legal wizard guilds, punishing guilds that violated regulations, and hunting dark guilds.
It also maintained investigation squads, and a military arrest unit known as the Rune Knights.
Inside a brightly lit council chamber dominated by white tones, ten Council members sat according to their ranks, arranged on both sides of an oval long table.