There were barely twenty mages gathered in the guild hall.
Rowan Mercer let his gaze drift across the room and felt a quiet weight settle in his chest. So this was all that remained. Fairy Tail once boasted well over a hundred members. Even after the Tenrou Island disaster, they had still been close to that number. Now? Not even thirty.
Reality had thinned the ranks. It always did.
"Macau should've already explained the situation," Rowan said calmly, standing before them. "The Kingdom is hosting the Grand Magic Games. Five people per team. I'm entering. The question is simple. Who's coming with me?"
Silence answered him.
No raised hands. No eager shouts. No arguments over who deserved a slot.
The hall felt wrong like a tavern after closing time.
Back when Natsu and the others were around, this place was a war zone. Fights broke out daily, tables flew, walls collapsed, and no one ever admitted defeat. If a tournament like this had been announced back then, they would've fought each other for the right to enter before the registration even opened.
But now things were different.
Tenrou Island. The missing comrades. Fewer jobs. Too many goodbyes.
Confidence had drained out of the guild like water through cracked stone. Everyone here believed the same thing. If they went, they'd only drag Rowan down.
Rowan exhaled through his nose and smiled faintly. "If Natsu ever hears about this, he'll laugh himself sick. Fairy Tail, scared to even sign up for a tournament."
That finally stirred something.
A tired voice spoke up. "Rowan… do you really think Levy and the others are still alive?"
The speaker was Sarusuke from the Shadow Gear team. Levy's most devoted admirer. His eyes were hollow, his shoulders slumped. He looked like someone who hadn't slept properly in weeks.
Rowan had told them before that the Tenrou Island group might be sealed inside Fairy Sphere rather than killed by the Black Dragon. But hope was fragile when it had nothing solid to lean on.
There were too many doubts.
Was Rowan's judgment even correct?
Fairy Sphere was one of Fairy Tail's three great ultimate spells. Since the first Guild Master created it, no one had ever mastered it again. Could Rowan really undo it?
And most damning of all, Rowan had spent months locked away in the underground archives. No updates. No progress reports. Some had started to believe his earlier words were just comfort offered in desperation.
Rumors spread. Members drifted away.
For people like Sarusuke and Doraire who had lost both friends and the people they loved those rumors cut especially deep. They stopped taking jobs. They just lingered in the hall, day after day.
Rowan hopped up onto the bar counter, poured himself a drink, and downed it in one smooth motion.
"Right," he said, wiping his mouth. "I suppose I forgot to mention something."
Every eye snapped toward him.
"I've already broken into Fairy Sphere. Not fully, but enough to understand its structure." His tone was steady, almost casual. "Worst case, it'll take me two or three years. Best case, one or two. Either way, I will master it."
The room froze.
"And with what I know now," Rowan continued, smiling, "I can tell you for certain. Natsu, Levy, Erza, all of them… they're alive. Fairy Sphere didn't kill them. It protected them."
A heartbeat passed.
Then the hall erupted.
"Seriously?!"
"You're not lying, right?!"
"That's real?!"
Rowan raised a hand for quiet. "I'm not saying this to make you feel better. I'm saying it because it's true."
He leaned back slightly, eyes sweeping the room. "And tell me something. Do you really want them to come back one day and see Fairy Tail like this?"
That did it.
The doubt cracked.
Hope rushed in like air after a cave-in.
Rowan lifted his hand and curled it into Fairy Tail's familiar emblem gesture. "We don't wait. We don't shrink. We remind the Kingdom who we are."
His voice rang clear. "What are we?"
Every mage raised their right hand.
"We are Fairy Tail!"
The shout shook the hall.
Momentum returned all at once. Names were called out. Hands went up. Energy sparked back into the room like embers catching flame.
Rowan made his choices carefully.
Marcus, a solid mage with mastery over sand magic.
Alzack and Bisca, inseparable partners whose gun magic complemented each other perfectly.
And lastly, Laki, a calm and reliable wood-shaping mage.
A week later, the guild stood assembled outside its massive headquarters.
Macau scratched his head, eyeing the fully equipped members. "Rowan… isn't it risky for everyone to leave? If no one stays behind and something happens to the guild—"
This wasn't some ordinary building. Fairy Tail now occupied the former Phantom Lord mobile fortress. A priceless structure. Leaving it unattended felt reckless.
Rowan sighed. "I told you already. You're the Guild Master now. Stop calling me that."
Then he smiled. "And relax. The guild isn't staying behind."
Macau blinked. "What do you mean?"
"I'm taking it with us."
Silence hit harder than any explosion.
"You're… what?"
Some imagined Rowan activating the fortress and trying to march it straight to the capital, which was impossible. The city gates alone would never allow it.
"Yes," Rowan said simply. "We'll bring it along. Then bring it back."
He reached into his storage space and pulled out a small suitcase. "Everyone, step back."
Rowan murmured an ancient incantation. The ground trembled.
Under the spell's influence, the entire guild building, along with a massive section of earth beneath it, tore free from the land and rose into the air. In a seamless motion, it was drawn into the suitcase, which had been expanded internally with spatial magic.
At Rowan's current level, a case that size could house something as large as a city district. A single guild hall barely registered as effort.
The mages stared, slack-jawed.
"…That's our Rowan," someone whispered.
They remembered now. The mountain he'd moved to form an island. The battles he'd led them through. The victories he'd carved out when things looked impossible.
Confidence surged back.
This wasn't about scraping by for a middling result anymore.
With Rowan leading them, even the title of strongest guild in the Kingdom didn't feel like a fantasy.
One day, when Natsu and the others returned, they would find Fairy Tail standing at the very top.
Rowan raised his hand.
"Destination," he declared, "Crocus, the City of Blossoms."
Black iron sand surged up from the ground, forming a vast floating cloud. The mages stepped onto it as Rowan lifted them into the sky, carrying Fairy Tail straight toward the Kingdom's heart.