Natsu, Goodbye!

"Alright, Erza."

Jiang Bai stretched, breaking the silence in the carriage.

Let me tell you what we're going to do next.

Erza sat upright, a hint of solemnity on her beautiful face.

"On my way back, I overheard the group from the Eisenwald saying that they had found 'LULLABY' and were trying to break the seal."

"I originally wanted to ask the president what this 'LULLABY' was when I got back, but the president happened to be in a meeting."

"No need to ask the old man," Jiang Bai waved his hand, his tone as indifferent as if he were talking about a trivial matter. "I know."

He paused, noticing the curious looks from Erza and Lucy, and lazily explained, "'LULLABY' is a flute made with dark magic. Anyone who plays it can harvest the souls of everyone who hears its sound."

"Moreover, hidden inside that flute is a demon, the demon of the Book of Zeref."

As Jiang Bai recounted his story, Erza's expression gradually became extremely solemn, and a chilling killing intent even ignited in her crimson eyes.

"If they get it, it could cause a huge mess!"

Her tone held a hint of regret, "If I had known, I should have wiped them all out when I encountered them on the road."

"So our mission this time is to completely eradicate that dark guild called Eisenwald from this world, right?"

Jiang Bai concluded, then sighed as if talking to himself.

"Ugh, those annoying rats, why do they always like to run around everywhere?"

"That's right." Erza nodded, her voice firm and resolute.

"Ha?!"

Lucy, who had been listening silently the whole time, could no longer remain silent after hearing the words "eradicate a guild".

Cold sweat poured down her forehead like a waterfall.

"Lucy, you're so juicy!" Happy looked at her curiously.

"This is sweat!" Lucy yelled in frustration.

Then, she looked at Jiang Bai and Erza with a gaze as if they were madmen, her voice trembling.

"What you just said about destroying Eisenwald... were you kidding? There are only a few of us, how could we possibly take on an entire guild..."

"Don't worry, Lucy,"

Happy patted her on the shoulder and said in a matter-of-fact tone,

"With Jiang Bai and Erza there, they're very strong."

In this eerie atmosphere, the group chatted for a while, and then the train slowly pulled into its destination— Onibus Station.

Everyone got off the car.

"Are those guys from Eisenwald still in this town?" Gray asked, stretching his limbs.

"I don't know." Erza shook her head, and then her gaze naturally fell on Jiang Bai.

Jiang Bai nodded knowingly, and was about to activate his Mental Detection to scan the entire town.

"Huh?"

Suddenly, Happy's signature voice rang out.

Where's Natsu?

"Ah!" Lucy suddenly remembered, "Natsu... Natsu is still in the car!"

Everyone instinctively turned around and saw the train they had just been on, whirring and steaming, slowly pulling away from the platform.

The car drove away.

Happy even waved its little paw at the receding train, calling out innocently, "Natsu, goodbye--!"

"..."

Erza's body froze instantly.

"Knowing that Natsu has a fear of vehicles, I still made such a silly mistake..."

She lowered her head, her tone filled with self-reproach. Then, she suddenly raised her head and looked at Jiang Bai and Gray with an extremely serious expression.

"Anyway, just beat me up first."

"Ha?!"

Gray and Lucy were taken aback by her sudden request.

Jiang Bai looked at her, seeing that her old habit had relapsed, and smiled helplessly.

He reached out and gently ruffled Erza's long, smooth, crimson hair a couple of times.

Okay.

He withdrew his hand, spread his hands, and said in a relaxed tone.

"That's it, the beating is over."

"Let's go find that idiot first."

Erza nodded without hesitation, took long strides, and walked straight to the station manager's duty room.

She didn't explain any background or context, and went straight to the point.

That's the situation, so stop that train right now!

The middle-aged administrator wearing a hat in the duty room was completely bewildered by this sudden order.

"What... what... what happened?"

"In Fairy Tail... there really isn't a single normal person."

Lucy stood a short distance away, rubbing her forehead, and sincerely complained.

"I'm perfectly normal!"

Gray had somehow gotten close to her and, upon hearing her words, immediately retorted.

"You're the abnormal one! Exhibitionist!" Lucy retorted mercilessly.

Erza is still communicating with the administrator, trying to make them understand her urgency.

"We're all doing this for our comrades; we hope you can understand how we feel."

"Miss, please stop making things difficult for me..."

The conductor's face was full of embarrassment. "I can't possibly bring the entire train to an emergency stop just because one passenger missed their stop."

Just as Erza was about to say something, Jiang Bai walked over.

His gaze passed over the administrator's shoulder and landed on a red switch on the wall of the duty room that read "Emergency Stop Signal".

He took a step and tried to walk inside.

"Sir! Sir! What are you doing?"

Like a cat whose tail had been stepped on, the administrator rushed out and blocked Jiang Bai's way with his arms outstretched.

"Nothing,"

Jiang Bai pointed innocently to the switch.

"Just going to take a look."

"No, no!"

The administrator shook his head vigorously,

"No one except our staff is allowed to enter that place!"

"Alright," Jiang Bai readily shrugged, "Then I won't go in."

As he spoke, he actually obediently took two steps back.

The administrator, seeing this, had just breathed a sigh of relief.

Before he could even exhale completely, he saw Jiang Bai raise his hand in the air towards the direction of the power switch.

The next second, under the horrified gaze of the administrator, the emergency handbrake, which was several meters away, seemed to be grabbed by an invisible hand and pulled down with a "click"!

"Ring ring--!"

A sharp, piercing alarm instantly filled the entire station hall, red warning lights flashed wildly, and the emergency stop signal was immediately transmitted to the train that had already departed.

All the passengers in the station were startled by this sudden turn of events and began to become restless.

"I didn't go there."

Jiang Bai shrugged, a harmless smile on his face.

The administrator was speechless, his mouth agape.

But in the current situation, it's clearly more important to reassure the other passengers.

Just as he was frantically preparing to deal with the riot, Jiang Bai stuffed a golden token engraved with intricate patterns into his hand.

"Here, take this. If any soldiers or Magic Council members come looking for trouble later, just show this to them."

"I'll come back to get it once things are resolved."

Jiang Bai didn't want to cause an innocent ordinary person to lose their job because of his own little matter.

Erza, witnessing this swift and decisive scene, immediately realized what was happening.

"Now that we've stopped the train, let's hurry and catch up with Natsu!"

The group immediately understood and turned to run out of the station.

"But... but the train has already gone so far,"

Lucy, panting as she ran, asked, "How are we going to catch up?"

Erza's gaze was as sharp as a hawk's, quickly sweeping across the plaza outside the station and soon locking onto a target parked by the roadside.

"There's a magical four-wheeled vehicle over there! Hopefully we can get there before the train starts moving again!"

Jiang Bai followed her gaze, and his eyes lit up instantly when he saw the stylish, mechanically beautiful magic four-wheeled vehicle.

It was the excited gleam of a hunter spotting its prey.

"Oh ho ho, it seems..."

He cracked his wrists, producing a series of crisp "crackling" sounds, and a confident, even fanatical, smile spread across his face.

"It's time for me, 'Driving God Jiang,' to step up!"

Upon hearing Jiang Bai's overly dramatic declaration, Lucy felt a sudden sense of foreboding.