We're Fairy Tail Wizards—How Could We Ask Soldiers for Help?

"Hmm?!"

Just as Makarov stood with both feet planted in the sea and Gildarts stood aboard the hunting ship, the two facing each other in a faint standoff, a groan suddenly rang out, and Makarov's expression froze!

Makarov lowered his head and looked into the sea beneath him. He felt as though something in the water had bitten his toe! That was highly unusual—given Makarov's current size, there were practically no sea creatures that would dare provoke him...

"What is that?!"

Confused, Makarov vigorously shook his foot, then began feeling around in the seawater before him.

He looked just like someone from the countryside wading into a river to catch fish by hand...

Before long, Makarov seemed to have found something in the sea. He promptly scooped it out of the water!

It was a strange fish over ten meters long, with black horns growing from its head and multiple pairs of eyes on its face. The mere sight of it was enough to make one's skin crawl and sanity plummet. Makarov had fished it straight out of the sea!

"Ah! There's no mistake—that strange fish is Unicel!!"

The sailors stared wide-eyed at the strange fish in Makarov's hand, which looked like nothing more than a tiny fry. That fish was the culprit that had kept the town's residents from going out to sea to hunt—the magical beast known as Unicel.

At that moment, the ruler of the sea was timidly staring at Makarov, whose head alone was twice its size, not daring to even breathe too loudly...

"Die!"

White light shone from Makarov's eyes as he examined Unicel. After recognizing what he held, he recalled Gildarts mentioning before leaving that he was going to subjugate Unicel. Makarov immediately raised the creature in his hand, aimed at Gildarts, and hurled it at him.

"Hey, hey, hey?!"

"Isn't this really bad?!"

Everyone on the ship widened their eyes as the magical beast tore through the air and rapidly approached the hunting vessel.

"That's Unicel?! You really saved us a lot of trouble, Guild Master..."

Gildarts naturally noticed the strange fish Makarov had thrown toward them. With an excited look on his face, he stepped in front of everyone and gently raised his right hand at the approaching monster.

Boom!!

In the next second, accompanied by a flash of white light, the strange fish instantly vanished before everyone's eyes!

That terrifying magical beast over ten meters long!

The culprit that had prevented an entire town's residents from fishing at sea, and had wiped out three or four groups of wizards who had come to subjugate it, was instantly reduced to countless particles beneath the white light in Gildarts's hand.

That was the power of Crush Magic! And that was why Gildarts was so bad at holding back.

In truth, as long as he did not crush his enemy into particles, it meant he was already going easy on them...

"So strong!!"

The beautiful girl Gildarts had snatched away, dressed in a cheap gown and looking like a hostess, had her hair whipped about by the terrifying gusts. Yet she still stared wide-eyed at the scene before her.

Unicel was a monster that had kept the residents of an entire town from going out to sea!

It had also defeated three or four waves of wizards sent to subjugate it, proving itself exceptionally vicious. Yet such a powerful monster had been utterly helpless before this middle-aged man with short reddish-brown hair!

Only now did the girl realize that this wizard's strength might far exceed anything she had imagined.

"W-We're saved..."

Seeing Gildarts kill Unicel in a single strike, the crew members aboard the ship all breathed sighs of relief.

When they had seen the strange fish flying toward them, they had thought they were doomed.

Boom!

Just as everyone aboard the ship relaxed, a series of noises suddenly came from beneath their feet.

Then, as if it had ignored the laws of gravity, the hunting ship flew straight into the sky...

"What's happening?"

"The ship—it's flying?!"

"What the hell is going on?!"

Everyone aboard stared at the hunting ship as it suddenly left the sea, crying out in shock.

"Big sis, look! The ship is flying!"

The messy-haired girl, around eight or nine years old, looked excitedly at her sister as the ship beneath them continued to rise.

"Yes! The ship is flying..."

The girl around twenty stared at the hunting ship taking off beneath her, her heart filled with shock.

Everything she had encountered in a single day had startled her more than everything she had experienced in the past twenty years combined.

"Is that Ywen?"

While everyone else aboard the hunting ship was stunned, Gildarts alone remained calm. The moment the ship began floating up on its own, he already knew who had acted.

"Gildarts~"

At the exact moment Gildarts sensed that immense magic power, a young man appeared at his side and greeted him warmly.

The newcomer was Ywen.

"Uh..."

"Strange, how did he get up here?"

Everyone aboard the hunting ship looked at Ywen, who had appeared out of thin air, their expressions full of confusion. They did not remember Ywen having been on this ship before.

"Anyway, what exactly happened?"

Ywen looked at Gildarts and asked.

"Here's what happened..."

"The parents of these two girls owed that boss money. After their parents died, the boss treated the girls as merchandise to pay off the debt their parents had left behind!"

"The older one was supposed to work as a hostess, while the younger one was assigned to logistics. But even the older one was only in her early teens and still underage—her makeup just made her look more mature!"

"Then, while I was discussing how to take down Unicel with that boss, I happened to run into the two of them. The older sister wanted to hire me to send her little sister, who was only eight years old, to live with their relatives! After hearing that, I accepted the request. And since I really couldn't stand that boss's behavior, I rescued both girls."

Gildarts scratched his head and explained helplessly.

"I see. I understand now..."

"As far as I remember, contracts of indenture are explicitly prohibited on the Ishgar Continent now, right?"

"So, simply put, that merchant broke the law, didn't he?"

In just a moment, Ywen figured out what had happened, though a question rose in his heart.

"If that merchant broke the law, why didn't you ask the soldiers for help?"

Ywen voiced the question on his mind to Gildarts.

"What are you talking about? We're mages from Fairy Tail. How could we ask soldiers for help?"

"If the soldiers found out that I accidentally destroyed half a town during my last job, things would get pretty bad!"

The moment Gildarts heard the word "soldiers," his body instinctively shuddered. Then he looked seriously at Ywen as he spoke.

"Uh..."

Ywen did not know what to say.

How should he put it? By normal logic, it was completely ridiculous. But by Gildarts's logic...

More precisely, by Fairy Tail logic... well, it made perfect sense.

It was like in One Piece, where Luffy always tried to deal with evil forces himself instead of reporting them to the Marines...

"Anyway, I understand!"

"Leave this matter to me..."

As Ywen spoke, he flew over to Makarov, who was rushing toward them, and whispered a few words to him.

"I see..."

Upon hearing this, the magic power Makarov had been releasing instantly dissipated, and his body began to shrink.

Very soon, he had shrunk to the size of a child. Then, with Ywen's help, he drifted gently down onto Gildarts's hunting ship.

"Big Sister! Big Sister! The giant turned into a tiny old man!"

The eight- or nine-year-old girl looked at Makarov, who had suddenly become shorter than even her, then tugged on her sister's arm and laughed.

"Shh..."

"He's a mage! Don't be so rude!"

Hearing that, the older sister immediately stopped the little girl's rude remark.

"It's all right, it's all right..."

Makarov smiled kindly at the two sisters before turning to Gildarts.

"You've really caused a huge mess this time!"

With his hands behind his back, Makarov spoke to Gildarts.

"That's how it is, Guild Master!"

"I couldn't help it! That's why I came up with this plan. Besides, that boss was chasing us closely, so I didn't have time to explain everything to you..."

Gildarts scratched his scalp as he spoke helplessly to Makarov.

"I understand!"

Makarov smiled slightly at Gildarts. Once he confirmed that Gildarts had not gone down the wrong path, Makarov felt at ease.

"So, Guild Master, do you have any good ideas?"

Gildarts raised a brow as he looked at the smiling Makarov.

Whenever Makarov wore that fox-like smile, it meant he had come up with a good solution.

"Of course~"

"Although we can't ask the soldiers for help, don't we have a better option than soldiers? They're mages too, aren't they? At the very least, they're using magic to run wild, right? I saw them using magic to race around the streets!"

Makarov smiled at Gildarts like an old fox.

Of course Makarov had seen them racing around the streets, because he had been one of the people using magic to race around the streets!

"Ah! Guild Master, you mean asking them for help! Indeed, no one could help us better with this than they could."

Gildarts looked at Makarov and seemed to realize something as well.

"..."

Ywen watched the two old foxes exchange glances and snicker, saying nothing. He had probably figured out what they were thinking too.

An hour later...

A flying vehicle slowly landed in the coastal town of Monet. Dozens of soldiers carrying magical tools stepped out. Unlike the kingdom's soldiers, however, these men came from an institution with far greater authority. They were direct pursuit officers from BLACKVOX Prison, the Magic Council's special manhunt division!

At the moment, there was no better option than asking these professionals for help...