"Damn it!"
"Avenge the Boss!"
"You definitely ambushed him! Otherwise, there's no way the Boss would lose!"
"That's right! The Boss is the strongest wizard in the Kingdom of Fiore! Even stronger than the Ten Wizard Saints!"
Cohen's minions shouted angrily, charging at Ide as they spoke.
"Avenge what, you idiots?"
"Cohen got one-shotted. Rushing in now is just throwing your lives away."
"We should be taking advantage of the chaos to escape!"
Lagus watched the idiots charging to their deaths. He discreetly started backing toward the guild's rear exit, hoping these fools would be tough enough to buy him a few extra seconds to flee.
"Too noisy."
Faced with these minions who had zero situational awareness and couldn't even grasp the massive gap in power, Ide shook his head slightly. As he spoke, he unleashed a wave of boundless cold, instantly freezing everyone present into popsicles.
Of course, that included Lagus, who was trying to sneak out the back.
And just like that, Black Serpent—a Dark Guild under the command of the top-tier Dark Guild Grimoire Heart, and a persistent headache for the Magic Council—was instantly annihilated.
"Ur."
"If I knew an S-Class mission was this simple, we should have brought Ultear and Erza along. We could have treated it as a family vacation."
After freezing the entire guild solid, Ide turned to Ur behind him and complained.
"True."
Ur glanced inside the guild hall at the frozen dark wizards and shook her head helplessly. She hadn't expected this so-called S-Class mission to be this easy either.
After all, according to her intel, "Cohen the Serpent," the former captain of the anti-Dark Mage unit, was supposed to be a formidable opponent.
"No!"
"Perhaps it's not that the enemy was too weak."
"It's that we are too strong."
Ur corrected.
"Ur, notify the Magic Council to come and clean up the mess!"
"As for us? Since the mission is complete, let's head back to the guild."
Ide yawned lazily.
"Okay."
Ur nodded in agreement.
---
Several hours later.
The retrieval unit from the Magic Council's Great Prison, BLACK VOX, arrived at the location of the Black Serpent guild after receiving the notification.
"Hiss!"
"It's so cold!"
When the unit members pushed open the doors of the Black Serpent guild, they shivered as a wave of freezing air hit them. They stared in shock at the guild interior, which was covered in thick ice that hadn't melted even after several hours.
"Is this the power of the Fairy Tail guild?"
"Report this to the Council immediately!"
---
Magic Council HQ.
"Heh."
"Black Serpent was actually wiped out? That's unexpected."
"Reportedly, it was the Wizard Guild Fairy Tail from the Kingdom of Fiore that eliminated them single-handedly."
"Not only that, I heard Fairy Tail only sent two people to complete the mission."
"Is that so? Does that mean Fairy Tail is now the strongest guild in Fiore?"
Upon receiving the news from their subordinates, the Council members engaged in a heated discussion.
Among them was Councilor Torg, who had met Ide and Ur at the Bureau of Magical Development. Listening to the discussion, he smiled slightly and shook his head. "It seems Ur and Ide found themselves a very good guild."
---
Two days later.
Ide and Ur returned to Magnolia.
Creeeak.
"I'm back."
Ide pushed open the doors of the Fairy Tail guild and greeted the members inside.
"Yo."
"Ide, Ur, you're back?"
At the bar, Makarov saw Ide and Ur return safely from their subjugation mission and was moved to tears.
"Yup."
Ide sat at the bar and waved to the bartender for a cold beer.
After a job well done, nothing beat a cold beer.
Gulp, gulp, gulp.
"Ah, refreshing!"
After downing the beer in one go, Ide turned to Makarov and asked, "So, Master, why are you so excited?"
"Of course I'm excited!"
"Do you know what happened, Ide?"
"I actually received a commendation letter from the Magic Council just now!"
Makarov wiped away tears of joy as he exclaimed.
"Hah?"
"We helped the Council eliminate a Dark Guild. Even if they didn't praise us, surely they couldn't criticize us for it, right?"
"If they did, who would bother doing the Council's subjugation missions in the future?"
Ide looked at Makarov, puzzled.
Ideally, getting praised by the Council should be the norm for doing good work.
"You don't understand, Ide. You just don't understand!"
Hearing Ide's question, Makarov sighed helplessly. Some things were hard to explain.
Could he tell Ide that before he arrived, every time Fairy Tail handled a subjugation mission, they caused more damage to the local area than the Dark Guild did?
For example, when Gildarts tried to eliminate a magical beast hiding in a forest, he destroyed the entire forest?
Or when he fought off bandits invading a village, he used too much force and wiped out the village along with the bandits?
Or when he protected a harbor from pirates, he blasted both the pirates and the harbor into the sky?
Because of Gildarts, the map of the Kingdom of Fiore had to be constantly updated. A mountain that existed on the map today might be gone tomorrow.
Just dealing with the aftermath of Gildarts' missions meant Makarov had to write an apology letter to the Council on average once a week.
But thankfully, Ide and Ur had arrived!
Both of them used Ice Magic. Plus, to avoid causing too much collateral damage, they held back when casting spells. They didn't alter the terrain permanently; at most, they left behind ice and snow that would eventually melt into water.
Compared to Gildarts, Ide and Ur were practically perfect.
Simply put, Ide and Ur were "reliable adults."
"..."
Watching the macho old man tear up, Ide silently patted him on the shoulder to comfort him.
Then, taking advantage of Makarov's emotional distraction, Ide sneaked up to the second floor—which was restricted to the Guild Master and S-Class wizards—and swiped another stack of S-Class job flyers.
And thus, the nightmare for Dark Guild wizards began.