Kainoshia

Riyao let go of Gray, brushed the dust off his hands, and stood triumphantly in the middle of the hall with his hands on his hips. Sweeping his gaze over everyone groaning on the floor, he raised an eyebrow and called out, "How many floors to carry a bag of rice? Carry a bag of rice to the second floor. Too many bags of rice to give. I'm the one washing the rice."

"Ohoho, I told you not to push me. You know how powerful I am now, huh?"

"Starting today, call me Ri-soloed-the-whole-guild-yao."

He sauntered over to the bar, pleased with himself, grabbed a glass of juice, and slurped it down.

Gildarts used the bar for support as he slowly sat back down. Looking at Riyao's insufferable face, he said irritably, "When did you come up with that move, kid? Making people hit themselves—I can't believe you thought of that."

Riyao waved a dismissive hand and lifted his chin, putting on a mournful expression. "These past few days, I've known too much pain. So now I'm going to make the whole world feel my pain!"

In truth, he had remembered that Grimoire Heart had similar magic and tried modifying Life Link to achieve the same effect. Judging by the results, it had worked exceptionally well.

Riyao stopped fooling around and went over to the request board. He took down all the medical requests that had piled up over the past few days and carried them back to the bar to look through them.

Seeing that he had finally gotten down to business, Makarov waved for everyone to stop fooling around.

The master rubbed his aching bones and glared at him resentfully.

"You little brat, you actually turned Life Link into that monstrosity. It hurt so much there was no way to ease the pain."

Riyao flipped through the requests with a mischievous grin and immediately replied,

"How many floors to carry a bag of rice..."

Before he could finish, Makarov rapped him sharply on the forehead.

"Carry my ass! No more carrying!"

Riyao covered his forehead, indignant.

"Old man, watch out, or I'll use Life Link: Modified again in a bit. We'll share the good times and the bad!"

"Go ahead! You think I'm scared? Back in the day, I was once surrounded and attacked by thousands of people all by myself, and I didn't even frown!"

"Yeah, right. Where did you find thousands of people to surround you? It's not like this is the kingdom war from the First Master's time."

Makarov angrily raised his hand to hit him again, and Riyao immediately struck a pose to cast his magic.

Seeing this, Gray hurried over and hugged Makarov's short legs. He gave them a tug, and the master lost his balance. With a splat, his face smacked squarely into the bar.

"Old man, don't! Spare him, and spare us too!"

At the mention of Life Link being used again, everyone immediately began wailing, and Gray clung even more tightly to Makarov's legs, refusing to let go.

"Gray, you little bastard, let go of me!" Makarov wobbled as Gray pulled at him, bristling with anger.

Riyao slapped the bar and laughed. "Hahaha, nicely done, Gray!"

He suddenly remembered why he had come today. He stacked the requests neatly and frowned. "Right, I was just about to ask before you all interrupted with your nonsense. I came today to ask the old man if he knows what's going on with me."

Hearing that it was serious, Makarov forgot about hitting Riyao and said gravely, "I've never heard of anything like your situation."

Gildarts said from the side, "Oh, right. I might have a lead on that strange laughter you mentioned."

The others heard there was something interesting going on and gathered around. Levy flipped through a book.

"Stinky old... Senior Gildarts, have you heard of it?"

"Hm? You were about to call me a stinky old man, weren't you?"

"Oh, don't mind the point. Go on."

Gildarts couldn't be bothered to argue with Riyao about what he called him. He rubbed his chin with his fingertips, his expression growing somewhat grave.

"It was something I read in an ancient ruin on a mission once—a legend about a deity."

As soon as he finished speaking, the noisy guild fell silent, and everyone's eyes turned to him.

Gray was the first to break the silence. "A god? Do gods really exist in this world?" he asked, his face full of surprise.

The others immediately began talking over one another. Erza frowned and asked seriously, "Could it be... that the god has something to do with the terrible luck Riyao's having now?"

Cana folded her arms and chimed in confidently, "Riyao must have done something terrible and been punished by a god."

Levy excitedly scribbled in her little notebook, muttering something under her breath.

"I don't know if it's true either, but this is what the ruins said."

"Back... how many years ago was it? Never mind, that's not important. Anyway, a long, long time ago, there was a mage who could use Prophecy Magic."

"He used Prophecy Magic and saw that his hometown was about to be destroyed."

"He nipped the danger in the bud ahead of time, which should have been cause for celebration."

"But then something strange happened. Once he had protected the village through the dangerous period, he heard laughter. At the time, he thought it was just the villagers cheering and paid it no mind."

"After that, he started having frequent bouts of bad luck. Soon, within just a few days, he was struck by all kinds of inexplicable accidents."

"He wanted to know what was going on, so despite being gravely injured, he forced himself to use Precognition Magic."

"This time, he could only see one day ahead, because he died."

"That was everything the villagers at the time recorded. There was another line after that, an account from the Precognition Magic mage himself."

"It said: I saw Him. He called Himself 'Kainoshia,' a god who governs the law of fate."

"That's all."

Gildarts spread his hands, indicating that the story ended there. Everyone was still digesting the bizarre legend when Makarov suddenly came to his senses and slapped the bar.

"Seven days ago, this brat Riyao suddenly stared at me and inexplicably told me to stop laughing. I wasn't laughing at all, and I was puzzled about it for quite a while."

Riyao looked up blankly, his face full of confusion. "Did that happen?"

"Right after you said it, a flying mug knocked your face straight into your bowl of noodles!"

Realization dawned on Riyao, and his eyes widened. "Oh, right! It was exactly the same laughter! So does that mean my bad luck started then and is finally about to end now?"

Gray scratched his head and asked, utterly baffled, "But how come Riyao didn't die?"

"Huh? Did I have to die, idiot?"

Everyone turned to give him a look as though he were an idiot. Erza brought the edge of her hand down on his head and calmly offered her analysis.

"It must be because Riyao's ability to heal himself is far beyond an ordinary person's. That's how he survived."

Levy timidly raised her hand and asked in a quiet voice, "That prophecy mage was cursed by a god because he changed the future. So what did Brother Riyao do to draw His attention?"

Cana tilted her head and thought for a moment, then looked at everyone. "Come to think of it, what exactly did Riyao do seven days ago?"

After thinking for two and a half seconds, everyone looked at Erza's eyes.