Village Chief, You Looked So Honest, and Yet You Pulled This on Me

Suddenly, a slightly naive voice came from outside the village.

"Thank you so much! You guys are so kind! As expected of the mages from Fairy Tail!"

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw a tall male demon striding towards the village entrance.

Natsu and Lucy looked at the demon and felt that he looked somewhat familiar.

Lucy tilted her head, feeling like she'd heard that voice somewhere before.

Natsu sniffed the air and immediately recognized the other person's identity.

"Oh! Aren't you the uncle who rows the boat?"

"Huh?"

Lucy realized what was happening too.

"Didn't the village chief say you'd already been killed by him and his men?"

Family members, does anyone understand?

When I first arrived in the village, I heard that the boatman had been killed, which made me think I had encountered a ghost ship.

The devilish uncle known as Bobo scratched his head sheepishly. "Oh dear! I was going to explain, but a huge wave crashed over me, and I was swept away before I could even say anything."

"I'm a demon, how could I possibly die from a single stab of such a small knife?"

Bobo then explained, "After that, I left Demon Island, and my memories returned."

"But I found that everyone still considered themselves as cursed humans, which frightened the demons too much, so I had no choice but to escape first."

"Bobo!"

When the village chief saw that his son was safe and sound, he rushed over excitedly and gave him a big hug.

"Dad! It seems your memory has returned too!" Bobo said happily.

"I'm sorry, son, back then... I was the one who stabbed you," the village chief said guiltily.

"It's nothing, it's nothing."

Bobo patted his father on the back.

"That little injury is nothing to us demons."

With the reunion of the father and son, the other villagers also seemed to have their deepest memories awakened.

One by one, they roared to the sky, then suddenly unfurled their enormous demonic wings, excitedly soaring into the air, flying and circling freely, celebrating their return to their true selves.

"Thank goodness, Bobo is alright too!"

"Let's have a party!"

"That's right! Let's hold a grand demon celebration!"

Lucy watched the demons dancing merrily in the night sky, their faces beaming with genuine joy.

That pure joy infected her, and her inner fear gradually disappeared.

Natsu and Happy, unable to contain themselves any longer, excitedly joined the demons' revelry.

The grand banquet has begun.

The next morning, everyone prepared to leave.

The village chief led all the villagers to see them off and tried to give them the reward.

"What? You don't want any payment?" the village chief asked in surprise.

Jiang Bai glanced at the somewhat outdated stone houses in the village, waved his hand, and said, "No need. Anyway, this was S-Class Mission that our guild members took on without authorization, breaking the rules."

"But you did complete the task after all!" the village chief insisted.

"It doesn't matter,"

Jiang Bai smiled.

"Didn't you already treat us to a sumptuous meal?"

Seeing Jiang Bai's resolute attitude, the village chief could only sigh and say, "Alright then! But... we found something on the beach earlier, and it seems that only mages can use it."

"They're useless to us, so we'll give them to you. Please accept them!"

As he spoke, the village chief pulled a gleaming golden key from his simple animal skin bag.

"This... this is!"

The moment Lucy saw the key, her eyes widened and her breathing became rapid.

"It's the key to the Zodiac, Sagittarius Sagittarius!"

She rushed forward and snatched the key from the village chief's hand in an instant. She held it in her palm and examined it carefully, as if it were a priceless treasure.

Then, she turned her head pitifully, looking at Jiang Bai with puppy-dog eyes, as if afraid that Jiang Bai would wave his hand and say that he didn't want this anymore.

Jiang Bai looked at her and smiled helplessly, "Then thank you, Village Chief."

"You're welcome, you're welcome!"

The village chief waved his hand repeatedly.

"After all, the agreed-upon reward in the contract was seven million J and this key. So, in a way, we actually got a good deal."

"Hey! Was this key on the reward? I didn't see it," Lucy said, somewhat surprised.

Happy grinned mischievously and leaned closer. "Hey~ because Lucy was blinded by money back then."

"No way!"

Lucy blushed, but stubbornly retorted.

Just then, a demon villager flapped his wings and flew in from behind the village, struggling to carry a huge sack in his hand.

"Village chief! I brought all the gold coins with me!"

The villagers threw the sacks on the ground, leaving them wide open, revealing them to be filled to the brim with gleaming ancient gold coins.

The villager scratched his head and asked honestly, "But how much is seven million? We don't know if this is enough?"

Looking at that huge bag of gold coins gleaming in the sunlight, it was worth more than seven million J; if you converted it, it would probably be worth several seven million J.

Jiang Bai's smile froze on his face.

No, village chief, you with your thick eyebrows and big eyes, you're actually trying to pull this on me.

Seeing how backward your village is, I really thought you were poor and couldn't afford this money.

Now that the boast has been made, it would be too embarrassing to go back on it.

Now that Jiang Bai thinks about it more carefully, maybe this so-called "backward" style is exactly what the demons like.

For a village by the sea inhabited by a group of demons who have lived for decades or even centuries, they must have become incredibly wealthy over the years, even if they spent their free time salvaging shipwreck treasures.

In the end, Jiang Bai and his companions left empty-handed, amidst the villagers' enthusiastic farewell.

Oh no, it was carrying a golden key that set off on their journey home.

On the way back, Jiang Bai remained silent.

Although he had earned a lot of money from completing tasks over the years, he still felt a pang of heartache watching such a large sum of money slip away before his eyes.

Lucy was overjoyed, after all, a key to the Zodiac is no less valuable than seven million J in terms of rarity and worth.

Since Gray was there to help, he didn't really care.

Only Natsu, that clueless idiot, came over without any sense of propriety.

"Hey! Jiang Bai, why don't they want money? They're clearly so rich."

"Ai!"

Happy chimed in from the side.

"That money could buy so many fish!"

Jiang Bai was already on the verge of regret, and these two clowns stirred things up, giving him an outlet for his frustration.

How dare you say that!

He grabbed Natsu's scarf, and with his other hand, he made a fist and punched him repeatedly on the head, making a series of dull "bang bang bang" sounds.

"If you hadn't secretly taken on S-Class Mission, I'd still be on a date with Mira in the guild right now! It's all your fault!"

With each tap, Jiang Bai felt a little more at ease.

After knocking, Jiang Bai's regret about the money vanished.

Happy, seeing the several large bumps on Natsu's head, quickly covered his own head in fright.

"Jiang Bai, we... we don't want that money!"

"I'm not going to hit you, what are you afraid of?"

Jiang Bai shook his hand and said cheerfully,

"When we get back, how about I treat you to the freshest grilled fish? Plenty to go!"

Upon hearing this, Happy's eyes immediately turned into stars, and all his fear vanished.

"Ah! Jiang Bai is the best!"