Fairy Tail

"So that's what happened. I'm sorry for the trouble I caused you." After hearing the two recount the entire incident, Sonia bowed in shame and apologized.

Neither Yuri nor Erza was petty, and they could understand her predicament to some extent, so they chose to forgive her.

"Hey, what about me? I haven't forgiven her yet! Are we just going to forget she called me a silly bird? I, the great Griffon, am a griffin! How could she call me something so... Mmph, mmph, mmph!"

Before Griffon could finish, Yuri pinched his beak shut. Yuri looked intently at Sonia and said, "Then there's one last question."

"Are you willing to give up the demonic power inside you? In return, I'll kill the one who murdered your mother and avenge her."

"Huh?" Sonia froze for a moment. Her voice trembled as she asked in disbelief, "You... you're still willing to help me?"

"Of course. We're friends, aren't we?" Erza replied with a smile.

"But it won't be free," Yuri added teasingly.

"I... I am!" Sonia lowered her head, her lips trembling uncontrollably as sparkling tears rolled from the corners of her eyes. "Miss Erza, Mr. Yuri, th... thank you..."

"Don't mention it." Yuri wore a friendly smile, though for some reason it looked a little sinister. He said quietly, "But this is my first time doing something like this, so it might hurt a little. Bear with it."

"Huh?"

The ambiguous wording left both girls stunned. Before they could react, Yuri suddenly summoned the demon hand and thrust it straight at Sonia's heart.

"Mr. Yuri, Miss Erza, goodbye!"

In the woods outside Caro Town, Sonia, now fully restored to human form, waved goodbye to the two of them with tears in her eyes.

She had originally wanted them to stay in town for a few more days so she could treat them well and introduce the two heroes who had saved Caro Town to the townspeople. She had also wanted to add to the reward they were owed.

But both Yuri and Erza declined. This job had not been an official request accepted by the guild, so they could not accept any additional reward from Sonia.

Yuri was also eager to leave after finding a clue he had sought for a long time, so neither of them stayed long.

In the end, Sonia was the only one who came to see them off.

Before they left, however, Sonia did give them a gift as a friend.

With that, Yuri and Erza's job in Caro Town officially came to an end.

Magnolia

was a magical commercial city with a long history in the Kingdom of Fiore.

It was home to a long-established wizard guild with a history of nearly a century. Its name was Fairy Tail.

Yuri and Erza came to the entrance of the Fairy Tail guild and looked up at the tall, three-story building before them.

The building was predominantly red with touches of yellow, and the words "FAIRY TAIL" were written in large letters on a wooden sign. Higher up hung the Fairy Tail guild's flag, bearing an emblem that resembled a flying bird.

"We were only gone a few days, but it feels like we haven't been back in ages." Looking at the home before her, which had given her warmth for a second time, Erza spoke from the heart.

"Yeah, it really has been a long time." Wearing a brand-new coat, Yuri swaggered up to the door and kicked it open.

The door flew open with a resounding bang, and the guild, previously filled with constant noise and commotion, fell silent.

Everyone inside turned toward the entrance, whether they had been sitting at tables in drinking contests, standing by the request board to take jobs, or sitting in a corner as the few children were.

Once they saw who it was, their fierce expressions immediately turned to welcoming smiles.

"Oh, it's little Erza. I thought someone had come looking for trouble."

"Well? How was your first job?"

"You must have completed it without a hitch. It's Erza, after all!"

"Hahahahaha!"

"..."

The concerned greetings kept coming, and Erza answered each one earnestly.

"Huh? Little Erza, how did you come back from a job with a little boyfriend?" Someone had noticed Yuri walking beside Erza.

"He's pretty handsome, too. No wonder he caught the eye of our usually serious Erza," another person teased with a laugh.

"Hey, young man, want to join our guild?"

Perhaps because Yuri had come back with Erza, everyone was very welcoming, and even their teasing was good-natured.

But they failed to notice that all the "old-timers" who had been in the guild longer remained silent, sitting quietly to the side with varying degrees of amusement in their eyes.

Of course, that did not include the children in the corner, who looked a little younger than Erza.

"Who's that guy? A newcomer?" asked Natsu, his cherry-pink hair bobbing as he eagerly prepared to make a move.

"If you don't want to get beaten up, I'd advise you not to mess with him. That guy joined the guild even before Cana did," warned Gray, a black-haired boy beside him who wore nothing but underwear. He had seen through Natsu's intentions at a glance.

"Before Cana? Then how come I've never seen him?" Natsu looked questioningly at Cana, the only girl at the table, who had brown hair and wore a yellow plaid dress.

"That's because Yuri's usually out on jobs. He often takes a long time to come back. It's been over half a year since he last returned to the guild, and you only joined recently, so of course you haven't seen him." When Cana finished, she turned helplessly to the side. "Speaking of which, Gray, where are your clothes?"

"Huh? When did that happen?!" Gray yelped and ran off, presumably to look for his clothes.

Though Cana was young, she was actually an "old-timer" who had been in the guild for five years. She knew most of the guild's rumors and little-known secrets.

Gray, who was searching for his clothes, had also been in the guild for three years.

Only Natsu had joined the guild just that year.

"Going on jobs?! He looks about the same age as us, so why does he get to go on jobs?" Natsu protested indignantly.

"Because Yuri's really strong." Little stars of admiration appeared in Cana's eyes without her realizing it. "Just like Gildarts, he takes nothing but high-difficulty jobs."

Really strong? High-difficulty jobs?

"So if I beat him, the old man will agree to let me go on jobs too. Hey, you, come fight me!" Having seized on the key words, Natsu's eyes lit up. He ran excitedly toward Yuri, having completely forgotten Gray's earlier warning.

Cana shook her head helplessly. "Honestly, why are they all like this?"

Paying no attention to the noise and cheering around him, Yuri walked straight to the bar.

There were few people there. Aside from a waitress, only an old man with graying temples sat at the table. He wore a bowl-shaped hat and held a cane in his arms, with a bottle of beer beside him.

"Yo, long time no see, old man."

Yuri raised a hand in greeting, sat down at the bar, and took the beer to pour himself a glass with practiced ease.

"Kid, you're not old enough to drink yet," the old man reminded him, but said nothing more.

Under the laws of the Kingdom of Fiore, one had to be at least fifteen to drink. Yuri was only thirteen, but he had already been drinking for three years.

"What's the big deal? When you're out on your own, wouldn't you die of boredom if you couldn't even have a drink?" Yuri complained.

The old man chuckled. "Doesn't Griffon travel with you? With him around, you shouldn't get bored."

"Master, were you looking for me?" Griffon's head popped out of the magic mark on Yuri's chest without warning.

Yuri grabbed him, pulled him out, and tossed him aside. "Go play somewhere else."

"I told you not to pinch my beak!" Griffon squawked, then turned and flew toward the noisy crowd. That was more his kind of place.

Seeing that the relationship between the man and the bird was the same as ever, the old man whom Griffon had respectfully addressed as "Master" smiled in relief.

Clearly, his identity was already obvious.

He was none other than Fairy Tail's guild master, Makarov Dreyar, renowned as one of the Ten Wizard Saints.