"Today's incident has only strengthened my view on something."
Hyberion tapped the table, opened the magazine, folded back the pictorial page, and turned it to display the advertisement. "We need to equip our front-line combat units with these portable communication devices."
The others looked at the advertisement. Rhodes cooperatively produced a sample from his pocket.
To his mild surprise, Bryliens produced an identical one.
"Oh?" Hyberion raised an eyebrow. "You're already using one, Bryliens?"
"I've been following the news on these for a while, so I picked one up as soon as they went on sale," Bryliens said. "It makes contacting the guild considerably easier when I'm out in the field. If today's personnel had been carrying one, a great deal of time would have been saved when calling for backup."
He turned to Rhodes. "Beyond direct voice calls, this portable communication crystal also has a text function. Shall we demonstrate?"
"Go ahead." Rhodes read out a number.
Bryliens tapped through the interface with the slightly unpracticed motions of someone still getting used to it. A message appeared on the screen of Rhode's crystal: "Hello, I am Bryliens."
Rhodes held it up for the room to see. "Particularly useful when reconnaissance personnel need to pass information without making a sound."
Ulfheim nodded. That kind of need came up regularly on operations.
"Exactly," Bryliens continued. "I've also heard they're considering adding positioning and detection functions in future versions, which would expand its applications considerably."
"This would undoubtedly be a substantial asset to our work. I'm in favor of wide deployment."
Hyberion leaned back, realizing his understanding of the device was still fairly limited. "If something like this is being sold as a standard magic item, criminals will be equipping themselves with it too. That concerns me."
"Which is precisely why we should be equipped with it as well," Bryliens said. "We can't afford unnecessary casualties simply because we fell behind in this area."
"We could approach the development team," Rhodes offered, "and ask them to produce a law enforcement version that isn't available on the open market."
"Agreed," Ulfheim said. "Keep the law enforcement version separate from the civilian version. Preserve whatever operational advantage we have."
"That's a reasonable approach." Hyberion nodded slowly. "Let's proceed on that basis. As for quantities—"
Warrod Sequen caught his glance and produced several figures. Current available funds, projected funds for the following month, funds accessible by next quarter.
Hyberion worked through the numbers briefly. "We order in batches. While quantities are limited in the early phase, they operate as shared equipment. Teams collect them before a mission and return them afterward. Once supply catches up, we reassess."
Rhodes had actually considered another approach while listening, which was to pay a deposit up front and push back the final payment indefinitely. He had heard that certain official bodies handled private contractor arrangements exactly that way. The final payment would be deferred on any number of grounds, inspection requirements, financial processing, pending approval from a superior, and the private party would simply wait, nudging cautiously every so often, afraid to push too hard in case the whole arrangement was forgotten.
It was a well-worn tactic.
But the Council had only just resumed operations. Establishing credibility mattered right now, and that kind of move would undermine it quickly.
Besides, Warren had a stake in this. Rhodes wasn't about to do that to him.
The man was going to make a considerable amount of money from this deal.
"Then it's settled. Jura handles the negotiations."
Rhodes remembered, only as Hyberion said it, that Jura hadn't been included in the meeting at all and was now being assigned the outcome of it before he had heard a word.
Somewhat awkward.
"Perhaps we should have Mr. Jura join us now. I also have something I'd like to raise while everyone is here."
Jura arrived at the meeting room looking mildly puzzled. "What's the urgency?"
"This afternoon I also have an appointment with representatives from the local guild alliances of Bosco and Seven to mediate the dispute between their mages."
"Please, sit." Rhodes gestured to the seat. "As for that matter — you may want to set it aside, because mediation is going to become unnecessary shortly."
Jura settled into his chair and frowned. "What do you mean by that?"
Rhodes dropped the roundabout approach. "Because a larger threat is coming. A war with the western continent."
Both Jura and Bryliens went rigid. "What?"
Wolfheim leaned forward. "Who exactly is going to war with the western continent?"
"The Alvarez Empire," Rhodes said. "Against us."
Hyberion was quiet for a moment. "You're saying that because we lost FACE and the Etherion, the western continent is going to restart the war they abandoned ten years ago?"
Rhodes nodded. "That's exactly what I'm saying."
Warrod Sequen's expression grew serious. "That is a genuine possibility."
Hades had shared certain things with him concerning Mavis over the years, never in full detail, but enough for Warrod to have pieced together a rough picture. Whatever was coming, it involved the guild. From where he stood, protecting Mavis and protecting Fairy Tail amounted to the same thing.
Bryliens was reluctant to follow the thought to its conclusion. "It's still only a possibility, isn't it? Ten years is a long time. They may have abandoned those plans entirely by now."
Jura kept his tone measured. "Is there any intelligence on the western continent's movements? Rearmament activity, troop buildups, anything recent?"
"Communication between Ishgar and the western continent is effectively cut off, and we haven't had the capacity to focus on it lately," Hyberion said. "That said, I have picked up fragments over the years. Their military expansion has been essentially continuous — it never really stopped."
Wolfheim grunted. "Then the only reasonable interpretation is that they have been preparing for war all along."
Rhodes suspected the rearmament Hyberion had been tracking was originally aimed at Acnologia. The target had likely shifted to Ishgar since, but the intelligence itself wasn't wrong either way.
He thought for a moment, then asked, "Actually — do any of you know who the Emperor of Alvarez is?"
Hyberion said, "From what I've heard, a figure known as Spriggan. Powerful, and largely a mystery."
Rhodes nodded. Then he set off the explosion. "'Spriggan' is an old word for an ugly fairy." He paused. "His true identity is Zeref."
The room went silent.
Then almost everyone in it went pale at once.
"What?!"
A Black Wizard was already a catastrophe on his own. But behind this particular Black Wizard was an entire nation — and that nation commanded an entire continent. The scale of what that meant took a moment to fully land, and when it did, it was staggering.
Hyberion steadied himself first. "Mr. Rhodes, this is an extraordinarily serious claim. Can you be certain of it?"
"I only learned this recently," Rhodes said, "but I can vouch for the reliability of the source without reservation." He let that settle, then added, "The connection between Spriggan and Zeref was a clue left behind by our late First Master, Mavis."
...
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