Ifrit: Damn It, Sleeping Pills!

"if we leave Ifrit alone, he'll definitely cause a huge disaster." Though Mirajane was a girl, she was no weakling. She scooped Ifrit up in a bridal carry and headed outside.

"Exactly." Cana nodded helplessly.

"I'd always heard that Phantom Lord and Fairy Tail were at odds, but I never expected them, as an official guild, to do something like this." Lucy found it unbelievable.

"That's just how that bunch operates. Over the years, they've constantly picked little fights and provoked us." Erza said, "But this time, I have a feeling it won't end like this."

"At a time like this, was getting Ifrit drunk really a good idea?" Gray sighed.

Cana took a big gulp of wine and said worriedly, "But if we don't keep him under control, there'll definitely be a lot of casualties on Phantom Lord's side. Ifrit would become a target of public condemnation because of it. We're not a Dark Guild, and Ifrit isn't a Dark Mage either."

Erza suddenly looked at Lucy and said, "Phantom Lord must be plotting something. We can't let our guard down. Lucy, for the next few days, we need to stay together as much as possible!"

"Huh?" Lucy nodded. "All right."

"That said, you all don't have to come to my house just because we're staying together!"

At Lucy's home, she stared at Erza, Natsu, Gray, and Happy in utter speechlessness.

"You don't want us here?" Erza tilted her head with a vacant look.

"It's not that..." Lucy surrendered.

"Ah, what a pain." Natsu sprawled across Lucy's low table, looking utterly deflated. He said, "I told you, we should just go over there and beat them up. Don't tell me the old man's scared."

"How could the old man be scared?" Gray said. "He's one of the Ten Wizard Saints, after all."

"What are the Ten Wizard Saints?" Lucy asked curiously.

Erza explained, "They are the ten strongest wizards on this continent, recognized by the Magic Council."

"Huh?!" Lucy was shocked. "The Guild Master is one of them? That's amazing!"

"But Phantom Lord's Guild Master, Jose, is also one of the Ten Wizard Saints, and Phantom Lord is one of the continent's top guilds as well." Happy explained, "So if two guilds like that, each with a Ten Wizard Saint and both among the strongest guilds, went to war, it would absolutely count as an earthquake capable of shaking the entire magical world."

"Exactly." Gray nodded. "That's why we absolutely can't start a war lightly."

"And." Erza said, "They also have powerful S-Class wizards known as the Element Four, as well as a Dragon Slayer Mage like Natsu—Gajeel, known as the Iron Dragon. He was most likely the culprit behind the guild's destruction this time, including those iron rods."

"Tch." Natsu turned his head away unhappily.

"Natsu." Lucy sat beside him and rubbed his head as though petting a cat.

"Hmph." Natsu snorted.

Lucy found herself getting more and more hooked on it. This feels so good... It was like she'd discovered an unexpectedly cute side of Natsu.

So, she rubbed even more enthusiastically.

Natsu did not object. He just lay there sulking.

"Natsu, don't be so quick to think of war. Fighting a guild that powerful, it's hard to guarantee that no one will die." Erza said sternly.

"If that guy Ifrit got involved..." Gray had a headache just thinking about it. "He attacks with guns. Anyone who can't block or dodge his bullets will either die or be seriously wounded."

"No wonder." Lucy finally understood why they had started with "infighting" and gotten Ifrit drunk.

"So Ifrit gets drunk as soon as he touches alcohol." Half-jokingly, she said, "Not even children are that bad, are they?"

"That's why, Lucy, nothing else matters, but you absolutely must not let that get out." Erza said seriously.

"I understand!" Lucy nodded solemnly.

"Mr. Ifrit, please go out with me!" A blonde-haired noblewoman grabbed Ifrit's hand and confessed, bashful yet brave.

"Uh..." Ifrit froze. He arranged his rejection in his mind and was just about to say it.

"Ifrit!" A shout came from afar.

A striking white-haired beauty strode over, grabbed Ifrit by the shoulder, and said bluntly, "Come do a job with me."

"Ha..." Ifrit sighed. "Give me a break. I just spent all afternoon fighting Natsu."

"Stop lying." Mirajane said. "Didn't you toss Natsu into the forest to play by himself again, then go fishing with Happy instead?"

"I did no such thing! How dare you slander me out of nowhere!" Ifrit argued.

"I could smell the fish stink on you from a long way off. Besides... before you lie, you should at least cover it up." Mirajane pointed at Ifrit's right hand. He usually held a cane in it, but this time, he was holding a rope with a fish weighing around two pounds dangling from it. The fish had long stopped moving. It had been dead for quite some time.

Mirajane said, "Gray even saw you pacing back and forth three times outside the guild entrance, pretending to just be passing by."

"If they saw me, why didn't they stop me?!" Ifrit flew into a rage. "Damn it!"

Mirajane was briefly speechless before saying, "Happy said that you went home happily after catching one fish. Based on the time he gave us, you were lost in the city for at least two hours."

"With that kind of time, you might as well come do a job with me."

"No. I'm tired." Ifrit still refused.

"Is that so?" Mirajane smiled. "You can team up with Erza, but you can't team up with me?"

Crack, crack, crack.

Mirajane's hand gradually transformed into Demon Form.

She grabbed Ifrit by the head, and her demonic hand began to squeeze.

"Ah, it hurts, it hurts!"

No matter what he did, the pain would not fade.

Ifrit felt a buzzing in his ears.

The scene before his eyes dissolved into chaos, and then a sliver of white light appeared within it.

He gradually woke up.

That just now...

A dream?

But...

The headache felt pretty real.

It still hurt now.

Both temples, his forehead, the top of his head—everything hurt badly.

The Guild Master and Cana... They really went too far.

They actually made him drink sleeping pills. Damn it!

This headache had to be a side effect of overdosing on sleeping pills!

"Ifrit." A voice came from beside him.

Ifrit turned his head.

It was Mirajane.

She sat on a stool with a gloomy expression, her eyes red as though she had been crying.

"What happened?"

Ifrit held his head and slowly sat up.

Damn side effects. Not only did his head hurt, but he was dizzy too!

He kneaded his temples. The pain from pressing them slightly eased the pain inside his skull.

This was... the infirmary that Fairy Tail had long rented at Magnolia Hospital.

"Levy..." Mirajane hesitated, then stood and pulled open the curtain separating the two beds.

A blue-haired girl covered in injuries and already treated lay there.

Perhaps because of the pain in her body, even in sleep, her brows remained tightly furrowed.