Jura and Aria

A familiar girl's voice echoed in his mind. Then, at the seal, he saw a snow-white dragon staring at him, its huge vertical pupils revealing a mocking expression.

"Shouldn't you be accompanying Seele on the mission? Or did your Shadow Clone go with her?" Chiba was startled.

The snow-white dragon opened its mouth. "What Shadow Clone? You ate the Thought Projection of this world! I usually appear before you in the form of my Thought Projection; my real body is always inside you, okay?"

Chiba: "..."

"Then why do you keep complaining about eating snacks every Tenten! Isn't that a waste of food?!" Chiba started to feel bad about spending her money.

"Experience life! Do you even understand what experiencing life means? Nobody wants to stay sealed inside forever!" Feiyin yelled. "I've made so many sacrifices for you, and you still won't support me? Pah! You scumbag!"

Chiba: "..."

"What's wrong?" Mira asked, puzzled.

"Ah, it's nothing, it's nothing..." Chiba quickly explained.

He understood why Laxus showed hostility when talking about Phantom Lord; it was because Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord had an unpleasant incident at this year's guild leader's meeting.

That happened after the regular meeting, when all the guild leaders of the magic guilds were having a banquet. After a few rounds of drinks Fairy Tail's guild leader Makarov and Phantom Lord leader Jose started bragging about how awesome their respective guilds were, and then they got into a fight. In the end Makarov won, and Jose stormed off.

Tensions rose between the two guilds as a result.

"Who are their leaders?" Chiba asked.

Laxus replied, "Jura the Rock Iron, Aria the Wind Element..."

Chiba took a deep breath; these are all extraordinary individuals...

Jura of the Rock Iron, the Lamia Scale, Ten Wizard Saints a few years later, uses magic that can harden earth elements. In the later battle against the Oración Seis, he defeated their leader, Brain. He's an awesome old man.

Chiba even searched for information about this bald man on Baidu, and it showed he was 34 years old...

Thirty-four years after the events of Tenrou Island...

That guy doesn't look thirty-four at all...

As for Aria, she's a cunning and scheming old fox.

As the leader of the Element 4 of the Phantom Lords, Aria uses wind magic and can instantly deplete her opponent's magic power. Later, when Fairy Tail fought against the Phantom Lords, Aria secretly hid and ambushed Makarov from behind, depleting his magic power.

Chiba was a little worried that this guy might secretly attack them while they were doing a mission.

Furthermore, Aria is probably close to his peak strength now, and he's incredibly powerful, while they're still in the process of increasing their strength. To be honest, if he really wanted to sneak up on them, very few of them would be able to escape.

"Speaking of which... Chiba, are you planning to take the S-Class Mage promotion exam next year?" Erza walked over at this moment and smiled slightly.

"Erza?" Mira exclaimed in surprise, then laughed, "You're coming too?"

"Hmm." Erza nodded and said, "Laxus invited me too. I guess... if Mystogan hadn't been out of the guild, Laxus would have invited Mystogan as well..."

Laxus looked slightly embarrassed; he was really bad at interacting with people, and even when he invited Erza, he simply asked, "Are you interested?"

But in reality, if it weren't for the fact that Aria and the other Phantom Lords were accompanying him on this mission, he really wouldn't have been willing to lower himself to invite them, after all, he was an extremely proud person.

"In that case..." Chiba stood up and smiled, "Let's go together!"

"Um!"

After...

Molabai Village...

In the mission description, Chiba had initially imagined it to be a small village with flat land, neat houses, fertile fields, beautiful ponds, mulberry trees, bamboo groves, crisscrossing paths, and the sounds of chickens and dogs. But when he actually arrived, he realized that this was no small village at all! It was practically a town disguised as a village!

"You must be... members of Fairy Tail..."

Not long after entering the town, a greasy, middle-aged man with a big belly and a group of people greeted them enthusiastically.

The middle-aged man wore a dark blue suit, which was open due to his large belly, revealing a white shirt with a tie underneath. His hair shimmered in the sunlight as if it had been oiled. It was impeccably formal attire, exuding utmost respect.

Chiba glanced silently at his group. Mira was wearing a cropped purple shirt and super short shorts, paired with black stockings and black platform shoes. Erza, as always, was in her knightly armor, her face stern, always serious and responsible—that's what a disciplinary committee member should look like, right? As for himself... well, wearing a white robe to cover his mechanical arm, he looked exactly like... a cook...

In terms of attire... only Laxus is relatively normal, if you ignore the headset he always wears around his neck.

Erza went up to the fat man and started chatting. As for why Erza... Laxus was clearly not good at communicating with people, so he was out of the running. Mira's irritable and easily angered personality might just cause her to lift the fat man into the air and let him experience freefall. As for Chiba, he was wondering whether to shake hands with him using his normal right arm or his left arm's magical power-driven mechanical arm.

It's better to have Erza handle the communication; at least on the surface, she seems much more reliable than these three unreliable guys.

They chatted briefly. The fat man was the village chief, but Chiba felt he was even more imposing than the mayor of Magnolia. No wonder the mission reward was as high as twelve million; he was indeed very wealthy.

The portly village chief led them to a place resembling a village committee office; of the three groups, they seemed to be the last to arrive.

"Now that everyone's here, let's all get to know each other..." the village chief said with a smile, his fat practically overflowing from his face.

"Know each other? I'm sure everyone here knows each other..."

Just then, a discordant, cold laugh came from a certain direction.

The four Fairy Tail members turned their gaze to the speaker, a boy with black and white hair who looked about the same age as Laxus, his eyes filled with arrogance.

"He's [Fire Element] Totomaru of the Phantom Lord, the same age as Laxus, and also became an S-Class Mage this year, making him quite a prominent figure." Seeing Chiba's puzzled expression, Mira explained softly.

Chiba narrowed his eyes slightly. So this seemingly arrogant and domineering guy was the fire elementalist. Then the blindfolded fat man behind him was...

Aria Wind Element!

Chiba's gaze shifted, and he saw another group of people.

A bald young man!

Could it be... Jura of the Rock Iron?!

Chiba was utterly shocked...

The Battle of Tenrou Island took place in 784. Jura was twenty-seven years old in 784, so Jura at that time would be...

Twenty-one years old!

Twenty-one years old...

Well...