"You're that guy who was cleaning the counter before?"
The mysterious masked man deliberately made his voice sound hoarse as he asked.
"…"
Jovian did not answer the mysterious man. Still, his silence was basically an admission of his identity.
"Sorry for disturbing you. I'll be leaving right away…"
The mysterious man bowed slightly to Jovian in apology, then walked toward the board covered in job requests.
"You're back, Mystogan…"
Just as the mysterious man reached the request board, Makarov, the current guild master of Fairy Tail, who had been sitting at the counter and dozing off nonstop, forced his sleepy eyelids open and greeted the mysterious man, Mystogan.
"Yeah…"
"I'll leave as soon as I take a job…"
Mystogan nodded to Makarov, showing his respect to the guild master. Then he took the job he had his eye on and slowly left the guild.
As Mystogan walked, he softly counted under his breath. "One, two, three, four, five…"
When Mystogan reached the final number, the Mages who had been asleep inside the guild finally opened their eyes.
"Were we asleep just now?"
Lucy got up and looked around, asking in confusion.
"Everyone was asleep. In other words, that person came back, right?"
Mirajane noticed the key point and murmured softly.
"That person?"
Lucy looked at Mirajane in confusion.
"That's right…"
"One of Fairy Tail's S-Class Mages, and the most mysterious Mage in the guild, Mystogan!"
Happy came out at that moment to explain things to Lucy, spreading all sorts of Fairy Tail knowledge.
"An S-Class Mage like Erza?"
Lucy was shocked. An S-Class Mage on the same level as Erza was truly astonishing to her.
"He's the most mysterious Mage in the entire guild. Every time he comes to the guild to take a job, he uses large-scale sleep magic to put the entire guild to sleep. In other words, the guild master is the only person in the entire guild who has ever seen Mystogan's true face."
Mirajane spoke mysteriously to Lucy.
"The guild master is the only person in the entire guild who's seen his true face? That's so cool. As expected of an S-Class Mage like Erza!"
Lucy clasped her hands together, stars practically shining in her eyes. She loved mysterious and powerful characters like that the most. Just hearing about him made it feel like he had a lot of secrets.
"The old man isn't the only person in the guild who's seen Mystogan's true face. I've seen it too…"
Just as Lucy and Mirajane were talking, Laxus, who had been silent the whole time, cut in again.
"Huh? You've seen it too?"
Lucy was a little shocked. She had not expected that the yellow-haired guy in front of her, who looked like some kind of delinquent, had actually seen Mystogan's true face as well.
"Not just me. While all you small fry were sleeping, someone here was having a friendly little chat with Mystogan. Right, Jovian?"
As Laxus spoke, he looked at Jovian, who was still drinking with his head lowered, and smiled.
"Huh? Is that true?"
"Jovian has seen Mystogan's true face too?"
Lucy and the others looked at Jovian with surprised faces.
"I haven't seen it. He was wearing a mask. But I know…"
"I finished my drink, so I'm going back to work."
"You guys keep playing."
As Jovian spoke, he stood up and left Fairy Tail.
"He was wearing a mask? In other words, Jovian resisted Mystogan's magic too?"
"Jovian really is strong!"
Natsu keenly noticed what Jovian had said. He was certain that Jovian had indeed spoken with Mystogan, just as Laxus had claimed. Meanwhile, he had not even seen Mystogan's true face. That gap in strength made Natsu extremely unwilling to accept it.
"I don't care anymore…"
"Laxus, fight me!"
Natsu shook his head, pushed Jovian's matter aside, and shouted loudly at Laxus on the upper floor.
"Huh?"
"That's hilarious…"
"Why would I fight trash like you when you can't even beat Erza?"
"Natsu, if you want to beat me, go beat Erza first!"
After hearing Natsu's words, Laxus spoke coldly, his eyes carrying a trace of disdain.
"What do you mean by that, Laxus?"
"Are you looking down on my strength?"
Erza, who had originally intended to mediate, immediately sharpened her gaze after hearing Laxus's words. She drew the knight sword at her waist and pointed it at Laxus on the second floor.
"What strength do you have, Erza?"
"If you were really that strong, you wouldn't come back looking so battered every time you finished a job…"
Laxus waved casually at Erza, as if he did not take her seriously at all.
"You…"
Erza felt that Laxus's behavior had already gone too far. It was a serious provocation aimed directly at her. If she did not do something now, she would be completely looked down on.
"What, you want to fight? If it's you, I don't mind playing around a little…"
"Let me see whether you've improved at all lately."
Laxus smiled slightly at Erza, his eyes carrying a hint of wickedness.
"What? Erza and Laxus are going to fight?"
"A battle between S-Class Mages?"
"Gulp…"
Seeing that Erza and Laxus were about to clash, the Mages all swallowed nervously.
"Enough!"
Just as the atmosphere between Erza and Laxus grew heavier and it looked like they were about to fight at any moment, Makarov made his move and stopped them.
As Makarov lost his temper, the entire atmosphere instantly went quiet.
The strongest person in this guild right now was undoubtedly still the guild master, Makarov.
"…"
Jovian, who had been leaning against the outside of Fairy Tail's front doors the entire time, listened as the noise inside gradually settled down. Only then did he stand up from beside the door and leave the guild to complete his next job.
"I'll let you off today."
Seeing that the atmosphere had gradually gone quiet, Laxus did not bother making things awkward for himself. He simply walked back into the second floor alone, ignoring the weaklings below in his eyes.
"They didn't fight…"
While everyone else was relieved that the fight had not broken out, Natsu was the only one who felt extremely disappointed. He had been looking forward to seeing an S-Class Mage battle with his own eyes. That would have let him understand where he was lacking and how he could keep getting stronger.
"Isn't it a good thing that they didn't fight?"
Lucy roasted Natsu.
For a time, everything returned to calm.
Until noon the next day, when Jovian finished a job and returned to the guild, only to find that the atmosphere inside was extremely tense.
"This is bad…"
"An S-Class request is missing…"
Makarov's forehead was covered in sweat. The loss of an S-Class request was a major mistake for Fairy Tail. If a non-S-Class Mage went to complete an S-Class job, then disaster would definitely be waiting for that non-S-Class Mage.
After all, S-Class jobs were extremely difficult. Many of them were so dangerous that even S-Class Mages could not confidently say they would definitely succeed.
"I saw it yesterday."
"It was a little blue cat with wings that stole the request."
Laxus, who was on the second floor, watched everyone grow anxious. After waiting for a while and deliberately letting them panic for a moment, he finally revealed the truth.
"What?"
"A little blue cat with wings? In other words, the one who stole the request was Happy. Now that you mention it, we really didn't see Natsu and Lucy this morning. Did they sneak out to do an S-Class job?"
Mirajane spoke with a shocked expression.
"That idiot…"
Makarov cursed angrily, then looked at Laxus on the second floor.
"Laxus, go bring Natsu and the others back immediately!"
Makarov gave Laxus an order.
"I'm not going."
"I have my own job too, and it's about time for me to leave. Why should I waste my time dealing with that idiot Natsu?"
"If they're so eager to die, then let them die. They screwed up, and now they expect the guild to clean up their mess? Don't make me laugh…"
Laxus spoke coldly. He absolutely did not approve of Natsu's actions.
"You…"
After hearing Laxus's words, Makarov's eyes sharpened.
"If you don't go now, who else can bring Natsu back?"
Makarov roared loudly.
"Ah! Jovian is back…"
Just as Makarov was shouting, Mirajane called out to Jovian, who had originally planned to take a request and leave right away.
"Jovian?"
After hearing that, Makarov also noticed Jovian, who had already reached the guild entrance.
"Can you bring Natsu back?"
Makarov looked at Jovian and asked.
"That'll cost extra."
Jovian turned his head after hearing Makarov and spoke to him.
"No problem…"
Makarov answered with a pained heart.
"Good."
Jovian nodded and turned around directly.
"Jovian, you don't need to keep cleaning up after the trash in this trash guild. They're just a bunch of garbage…"
Laxus looked at Jovian as he turned around and spoke loudly.
"…"
However, Jovian directly ignored his shouting and left the guild.
Boom!
With a whistling sound, Jovian flew into the sky. Carrying a chain of sonic booms behind him, he vanished above.
"Now I can relax…"
Makarov watched Jovian leave and let out a breath.
"Tch…"
Laxus gave a disappointed cold snort, but this had nothing to do with him, so he could not be bothered to care.
Boom…
With endless thunderous sound, Jovian carved a thin white line through the sky and quickly arrived at his destination.
At the same time…
At the harbor near the cursed Galuna Island, Natsu and Lucy were trying to find a boat that could take them to the cursed island. However, every time someone heard that they wanted to go to that island, their expression would turn pained. Then they would shake their head and walk away, indicating that they would not accept the job.
"Sigh…"
"Why don't we swim there?"
Natsu looked at Lucy beside him and said with a smile.
"In your dreams!"
Lucy crossed her arms in front of her chest, refusing.
"Hey, you two…"
Just as the two of them did not know what to do, a cold voice sounded beside them.
"Hm?"
Natsu and Lucy turned their heads, and they saw Jovian's cold face.
"Crap, we got found…"
"Jovian was sent by the master to kill us, wasn't he?"
Lucy panicked when she saw Jovian arrive.
"Don't be scared, Lucy. I'll protect you…"
Flames burned around Natsu's body. He declared that he would definitely protect Lucy's safety.
Then Natsu was sent flying by a wooden plank Jovian casually picked up.
Natsu, pushed along by the wooden plank, felt the sensation of transportation. He kept vomiting and could not muster any strength from head to toe.
"Explain yourselves. Come clean and I'll go easy on you. Fight me and it gets worse."
After dealing with Natsu, Jovian looked at Lucy and spoke.
"I'll tell you everything…"
Tears filled Lucy's eyes as she nodded and explained everything about her situation.
To put it simply, she had been forced into this by Natsu.
"Lucy is sneaky!"
Happy stood to the side and roasted Lucy.
"You're the sneaky rotten cat!"
Lucy became even angrier after hearing Happy's words.
"I understand…"
"You want to experience how difficult an S-Class job is, right?"
"All right. I'll take you to see it."
Jovian nodded, indicating that he planned to take Natsu and Lucy to Galuna Island with him.
"Really?"
Lucy and Natsu asked in surprise after hearing that.
"Let's go."
Jovian wasted no words. He took Lucy, Natsu, and Happy straight into the air, then flew rapidly toward Galuna Island.
Not long after…
Once everyone arrived on the island, Lucy and Natsu stood by the shore and vomited nonstop.
"We're here."
Jovian clasped his hands behind his back and spoke softly to Lucy and Natsu.
"We're here?"
"But I don't have any strength right now. Damn it…"
Natsu wanted to stand up, but the dizziness was even worse than he had imagined. Right now, he could not tell east from west or north from south at all, and he could not steady himself.
"You can't get up? Then wait for me here."
"I'll finish the job in an hour."
As Jovian spoke, he strode forward toward the depths of Galuna Island, heading for the altar where the Moon Drip ritual was being carried out.
"Who are you?"
Along the way, Jovian encountered many people in soldier uniforms blocking his path.
Bzzzz…
Facing these people's obstruction, there was usually only a flash of red light from Jovian, and then there was no longer any obstruction.
Jovian strode forward, completely unimpeded. None of the enemies he encountered along the way could last a single round in front of him.
As he continued forward, he finally encountered the mastermind behind this ritual.
A white-haired edgelord, his three little followers, and a fake priest wearing ceremonial robes.
"Who are you? Do you know who stands before you? He is Emperor Zero!"
The fake priest introduced the white-haired edgelord to Jovian.
Boom!
However, in the next second, with a thunderous roar, the white-haired edgelord was sent flying by Jovian's punch.
"So?"
Jovian clasped his hands behind his back, floated in midair, and looked down at everyone present as he asked.
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