July 7, 777

"Sir Makarov, may I come in and have a chat?"

Just as Makarov was standing in front of the children, hands behind his back, trying to appear authoritative, a gentle voice sounded from behind him.

An elderly priest, dressed simply, accompanied by two nuns, slowly emerged from the dilapidated church doors.

The old priest showed no anger on his face; instead, he wore a smile and stared intently at Makarov.

Makarov was startled by the stare, his previous dignified demeanor vanishing instantly. He immediately adopted a docile, apologetic expression and scurried off with the old priest into the church.

A group of teenagers were left outside, looking at each other in bewilderment. Their student council president had gone to get scolded again; did that mean they could disband?

"Erza, Mira, shall we continue with the quest?" Cana asked timidly, afraid that the two of them would start fighting again for no reason.

"Yes, I'm so sorry about before. I was so immature. Please let me continue the mission with you." Erza said earnestly, looking remorseful.

Mira snorted and crossed her arms without saying a word, but she was clearly going too. Erza was going, so she definitely wouldn't run away.

Seeing her two friends still traveling together, Cana smiled with narrowed eyes, then, with her hands behind her back, asked Eleven about her plans, "Eleven, do you have anything to do later?"

"Of course we should keep looking for the werewolf! We haven't found the werewolf yet!" Before Eleven could even speak, Gray and Lisanna, the two little brats, blurted out.

To be honest, if they hadn't reminded him, Eleven would have completely forgotten about the werewolves. All he could think about was finding a dark room to have an in-depth discussion with Mest about Memory Magic.

"Well, let's continue searching for werewolves then," Eleven casually echoed Gray.

After all, it was a mission he had accepted, and no matter how eager he was to complete it, Eleven decided to finish it first.

As for cleaning up the mess at the church ruins, that wasn't even on Eleven's radar.

But just as they made their decision, Doug jumped out and stopped them. "Wait a minute, I have something to say about that werewolf who appeared at the orphanage!"

This time, Doug finally finished saying what he wanted to say without being interrupted, successfully capturing everyone's attention.

"Well, actually... maybe... perhaps the werewolf you're talking about is me." Doug pointed to his nose, stammering somewhat embarrassedly as he uttered the shocking words.

The guild members were stunned, speechless for a long time, especially Eleven, who simply couldn't believe that his older brother, with whom he had always shared meals and sleeps, was actually a werewolf.

Wow, my Brother Gou is amazing! He was keeping this a secret for so long!

Seeing the shocked looks on everyone's faces, Doug became even more embarrassed and scratched his head. "Um, don't misunderstand, I'm not a real werewolf. What the orphanage children saw was probably just some new magic I learned."

"Huh? Brother Gou, you've learned magic?" Eleven immediately grasped the key point and was a little excited.

"Yeah, you see, I'm leaving the orphanage, so it's always good to have more skills, right? I found someone to teach me a transformation magic."

As he spoke, a faint surge of magic power indeed welled up within Brother Gou's body. Although it couldn't even compare to Lisanna's, it was still a fluctuation of magic power.

Then, with a loud bang, Doug's head turned into a dog's head.

That's right, it's a dog's head, and the kind that's cute and not fierce at all, which is quite comical.

While Eleven and the others were still in a daze, the dog-headed creature spoke. Its mouth opened and closed, uttering human language. "This is the magic I've learned, a canine transformation spell, but I haven't mastered it yet, so only the head can become a dog's. Perhaps... perhaps it's because someone saw me practicing in this form at night that they mistook me for a werewolf."

(ㅍ_ㅍ)... Everyone fell silent for a moment.

"You're lying! How could someone like that be mistaken for a werewolf?!" Even though he was deeply immersed in the role, Gray still couldn't accept reality.

"No, if it were nighttime, a silhouette from the side could indeed be mistaken for a werewolf," Erza calmly analyzed.

"Huh? What about the real werewolves?" Lisanna asked, bewildered.

"No, not at all~" Mira gently patted her silly little sister's head.

Elfman looked up at the sky, his gaze somewhat vacant, pondering why he had gone out today.

"Brother Gou, you've learned magic! That's amazing! Now you're a mage! Do you want to join Fairy Tail? Join us, join us, let's do missions together!"

Unlike the others who started to doubt their lives, Eleven was very excited. What were werewolves compared to Brother Gou learning magic? This way, Brother Gou could join the guild and become a partner. That's great!

Doug looked at Eleven, then at his guildmates standing beside Eleven, his expression complex. Actually, it wasn't just Mest who was moved; Doug was equally touched by the genuine trust and camaraderie among the members of Fairy Tail.

Upon hearing about Mest's magic, countless dark thoughts surged within him almost instantly, and in that instant, he completely rejected Mest as a person.

But the boys before him accepted Mest without any pretense, accepting her without any impurities or ulterior motives.

Some might say they're just simple-minded, naive, and lacking in foresight. Doug actually thought so too, but it was precisely this folly that made him feel an unprecedented warmth.

Unlike the mutual trust and support found in the orphanage, the members of this guild, though mostly just there to work and earn money, unconditionally trust the guild and their partners who bear the guild emblem.

This kind of pure emotion is something Doug cannot understand.

He didn't yearn for such simplicity. Having grown up in an orphanage Doug knew the wickedness of people's hearts. He didn't want to become simple, but he also didn't want to pollute the atmosphere of this guild. Even if it was for Eleven's sake, leaving was his best choice.

Doug shook his head, smiled at Eleven, and said, "No, I might not be good enough to join you."

For the next two days, Eleven kept pestering Doug to let him join the guild, but Doug refused each time. Helpless, Eleven could only welcome another Harvest Festival with such disappointment.

During this celebration, Eleven didn't space out again. Even when he tried to space out and absorb energy, he didn't react at all; it seemed his soul had lost interest in the joyful energy.

However, it was precisely because of this that he finally managed to make it into the guild's parade this year.

This was Eleven's first time participating in the guild's parade performance, but the shameless boy wasn't nervous at all. Instead, he chose to take center stage, standing in the most conspicuous position at the front of the car.

A dazzling parade of floats, accompanied by music, slowly drove into the streets of Magnolia. The bustling crowd quickly gathered, Eleven, dressed in a magnificent suit, stood at the front of the float, beginning his long-planned performance.

Eleven dramatically tapped his forehead with his finger, and in an instant, the float's colors suddenly became dazzling in the eyes of countless people.

Even on a dark street, the floats were dazzling as if they were under the sun, with faint halos of light visible, like something out of a fairy tale.

This was, of course, just an illusion; Eleven had used his illusion magic to envelop the entire parade of floats.

Just as people were still mesmerized by the sight before them, countless little fairies, like butterflies, appeared around the floats, fluttering their wings. Some fairies danced around the floats, while others flew into the crowd to tease children and girls.

Immediately afterwards, people heard a series of melodious hoofbeats coming from the sky. Looking up, they saw an incomparably magnificent white horse galloping down from the sky. Most importantly, this white horse had a single golden horn on its forehead.

It was a unicorn, which drew cheers from countless girls.

On the back of the unicorn sat a boy whose face was obscured. The boy rode the unicorn, flying around the float, and finally leaped off the horse at the front of the float, standing upright in mid-air.

The phantom boy in the sky looked at the moon and suddenly roared. The handsome young man transformed into a gigantic and dashing werewolf, standing in the sky and howling at the moon.

This sudden turn of events startled the girls who had just been marveling at the unicorn, causing them to rush into the arms of the men around them. Eleven smiled slightly, concealing his accomplishment.

At this moment, the float procession arrived at the very center of Magnolia, where countless fireworks went off, celebrating this grandest of celebrations.

The werewolf in the sky stopped roaring and, under the glow of the fireworks, raised its right hand high, index finger pointing skyward and thumb sticking out, making a gesture of pointing a gun at the heavens. This is the Fairy Tail guild gesture, representing unity and faith.

Everyone else in the guild stopped performing and raised their right hands in the same gesture—the most solemn moment of the guild parade during the annual celebration.

The crowds cheer wildly at this time of year to celebrate that they have passed another year safely.

Behind the crowd, Doug looked at the werewolf projection in the sky, smiled sheepishly, and realized he really had no way to deal with his younger brother. He turned and left the crowd; the world was vast, and he wanted to see it.

And so, the X776 lived through a series of encounters and partings.

The year X777 was a peaceful year; time flowed by like water, and half a year passed in the blink of an eye.

Eleven glanced at the calendar and realized that today was a rather magical day: July 7th, 777—so many 7s!

Suddenly, a shooting star streaked across the night sky. Eleven seemed to sense something and abruptly turned around.

"Maria, the water's boiling! It's about to burst!"

"Ah! Really, thanks for reminding me, little Eleven!"

Hehe~

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