The thing that had troubled Lucy for an entire day and night had finally been explained!
As it turned out...
According to the Fairy Tail guild's age-old rules, at former Guild Master Makarov's suggestion, the new Guild Master, Little Annie, announced the names of this year's guild members who would take part in the S-Class Exam the very next day. That, apparently, was what had been troubling Lucy and making so many people in the guild act strangely.
This year's S-Class Mage promotion exam would be held at the guild's sacred ground, Tenrou Island, and the eight candidates were:
Etherious Natsu Dragneel, Gray Fullbuster, Juvia Lockser, Elfman Strauss, Cana Alberona, Freed Justine, Levy McGarden, and a very unfamiliar fellow named Mest Gryder.
Each of the eight candidates could choose one companion to accompany them to Tenrou Island for the trial.
However, only the single strongest winner who passed the tests administered by the guild's S-Class Mages—Erza, Mirajane, and Gildarts—and completed every challenge would be able to advance and become Fairy Tail's new S-Class Mage for the year!
In other words, eight people would take part in Fairy Tail's exam each year, but only one winner could have a chance to become an S-Class Mage! And that was only a chance, since the guild's S-Class Mage exam was extremely strict. They believed it was better to have none than to accept someone unworthy, so sometimes no one would be promoted for years.
Of course, that didn't include the troublesome little girl who'd been recognized as an S-Class Mage by former Guild Master Makarov without taking the exam, then gone on to become the current Guild Master—and was also one of the Ten Wizard Saints?
But whatever. Seven days later...
At Hargeon Harbor, everyone had returned to the place where their journey