Having eaten his fill, he couldn't mistreat this little cat.
Everything in the duke's mansion had been eaten completely clean by Natsu, not a single bit remained, so he could only catch one for Happy on the way back.
"Pinky promise!" Finally seizing the opportunity, Happy unhesitatingly held out his little cat paw.
Natsu, not knowing whether to laugh or cry, hooked fingers with him.
For the sake of having fish to eat, this little cat had thrown his integrity to the ground a long time ago.
The battle in the hall stopped.
Virgo looked at Lucy holding that key, just looking at her quietly without saying a word.
Currently the Celestial Spirit of that unlucky duke, as a Celestial Spirit, she would not betray her master.
Lucy took that Zodiac key and looked at it carefully: "So you're the Virgo Celestial Spirit!"
Holding the key, she walked up to Virgo: "This duke is a giant pervert, you should go find a more suitable master!"
Lucy loved writing books and also loved reading them. While searching for the book in the library, she had read quite a few.
Among them, the unlucky duke had coerced authors into writing, and the contents were all sorts of unseemly things.
As a Celestial Spirit mage, Lucy hoped that every Celestial Spirit could have a master with a healthy mindset, someone who deeply loved their Celestial Spirit.
Virgo looked at Lucy, then at Taurus. She took the key, and left with the unlucky duke.
The unlucky duke wasn't completely dead yet, and they were still in a combat environment; as a Celestial Spirit, she couldn't just leave him be.
Lucy stretched lazily: "A perfect conclusion!"
Suddenly, Lucy cried out in panic: "Ah!! I didn't find the book."
"There's no time!" Natsu rushed out from the side, grabbed Lucy, and bolted out of there as fast as his legs could carry him.
"What happened?" Lucy asked with a bewildered face.
Natsu gave a sunny smile: "The Magic Council is here!"
Lucy immediately understood and ran as fast as she could to keep up with Natsu.
The destructive power of Fairy Tail guild members was notorious within the Magic Council, having long been on their blacklist.
A perfectly good duke's mansion had been destroyed by Natsu.
If they were caught at the scene, the Magic Council wouldn't care if she had just joined Fairy Tail; they would lock her up first and ask questions later.
As long as it wasn't a dark guild, they wouldn't attack the Magic Council.
"What a pity! The mission wasn't completed," Lucy sighed softly.
"Look what I have?" Happy caught up from behind, holding a thick book in his paws.
"Daybreak!" Seeing the cover, a look of pleasant surprise immediately appeared on Lucy's face.
She and Happy had searched for so long without finding it, but the moment Natsu appeared, the book was found. As expected of the man she liked.
He always brought her good luck.
"Natsu! Thank you."
Running ahead, Natsu flashed Lucy a sunny, handsome smile that made her heart pound.
Escaping the Magic Council's encirclement, Lucy stopped to flip through the book.
As a mage and someone who loved books, she saw through the secrets hidden within the book at a glance.
As for the mission reward money, Natsu chose not to take it.
The target of the mission, that book, entrusted a father's feelings for his son; that point alone was worth Natsu giving up the reward money.
Whether in his past life or his current one, he had never experienced such a feeling.
Crazy as he might be, rowdy as he might be, Natsu deeply respected this feeling.
Furthermore, the mission client was destitute. Let alone the fact that the reward increased tenfold later, he couldn't even afford the initial 200,000 Jewels.
Selling his whole family wouldn't even fetch that much money, so the reward money didn't matter.
Besides.
Both he and Lucy had reaped benefits from this mission.
The food in the duke's mansion had kept Natsu from feeling that hollow emptiness in his stomach for two days. He still had an appetite, but that sensation of being so starved he had no energy didn't happen.
The value of the things he had eaten was definitely more than 2,000,000 Jewels!
Lucy had also gained a Celestial Spirit key.
Not long after the group left the duke's mansion, Virgo had sought them out from who knows where and handed her Celestial Spirit key to Lucy.
A Zodiac Celestial Spirit key was worth far more than that mission reward could ever compare to.
"Grumble!"
Hearing that sound, Lucy looked up at the sky with a face full of tragic grief, and roared in near desperation: "Natsu! Just what exactly do you have to do to get full?"
Devoid of strength, inching forward step by step, Natsu was so hungry his vision was swimming; he couldn't even hear Lucy's shout.
In just six days, the food he ate in the duke's mansion had been completely digested, and even the animals he hunted on the road couldn't satisfy his stomach.
"Grumble!"
Another sound rang out, and Natsu's face became even uglier.
"Natsu! Pull yourself together." Happy didn't know how to comfort Natsu.
Being starved to this extent, he didn't know how to endure it either.
"Open! Gate of the Taurus constellation, Taurus!"
Lucy directly summoned Taurus. Only this perverted bull would accept her summons at any time.
And only Taurus, whose head was full of nothing but women and muscles, would unconditionally obey Lucy's commands.