The day after the banquet, everyone began packing to return to Magnolia, which meant that Year X780 was about to arrive.
Everyone got up early to pack their tents. Natsu and Gray were somewhat reluctant to leave. It was only on Tenrou Island that they had truly experienced what freedom meant.
Every day after training, they would explore the forest, hoping to find more information about the giant bear.
But as long as Urg wished it, Natsu and the others could forget about finding it in their lifetimes.
Even so, the dozen-or-so-year-old kids had a wonderful time playing in the forest.
Sometimes they climbed trees to catch birds, and other times they went down to the river to fish.
This was a kind of life they could never experience in Magnolia. So when Allen informed everyone last night that they would be returning to the guild today, all the boys wore long faces.
Allen paid no attention to their little complaints. While everyone was asleep in the middle of the night, he patrolled all of Tenrou Island with its guardian. Only after confirming that there were no weak spots did he return to camp.
After everything had been loaded onto the ship and they had set off, Allen saw that Kana and several others had already set up a table and started playing mahjong.
Kana no longer seemed resentful about losing. Now, she was merely frustrated whenever she got a bad hand—and even happier whenever she won.
Seeing this, Allen picked up two bottles of wheat oral solution and walked over to Gildarts, who was leaning against the railing and watching Kana play mahjong.
When Gildarts saw Allen approach, he took one of the bottles from him and gulped down more than half of it in one go.
"Looks like