Underlying Currents

"Squeak, squeak~"

"Ow~ What are you doing~"

With her paws on her hips, Cheese smugly translated Snowy's mouse-speak. Magical creatures had language barriers too, but the cat who'd been raised by hamsters since she was little could understand it.

Noah rubbed the fluffy head of the Little Snow Cat, then said to Snowy, "Snowy, hurry and spit out a Winter Snow Grass to save him."

As a magical beast even stronger than the Beast King, Snowy had more than just the incredible growth ability called Life-Magic Symbiosis.

Ordinary hamsters had cheek pouches on both sides of their mouths. After eating their fill, they stored food in those pouches, making their cheeks bulge.

As a fellow little rodent, Snowy naturally had cheek pouches too. They were just a little different from an ordinary hamster's: there was a whole world inside them, connected to two magical spaces.

Noah had no idea how big they were. It wasn't as though he could go inside and take a look.

Winter Snow Grass, a rare magical herb native to Mount Hakobe, actually wasn't scarce. Snowy had just been "eating" it as its staple food.

That was why Noah had asked Snowy to spit out a Winter Snow Grass to save the man.

"Squeak, squeak!"

Snowy rubbed its cheeks with its little paws and answered at once. Cheese translated right afterward.

"Snowy says it can, but it wants food in exchange."

Then Cheese began listing items like she was taking an order: one hundred pounds of sunflower seeds, one hundred pounds of peanuts, one hundred pounds of walnuts, one hundred pounds of corn, one hundred pounds of oats, one hundred pounds of potatoes, one hundred pounds of cucumbers...

Are you trying to stock up for a store?!

Noah immediately pinned the greedy hamster down and rubbed it into a little mouse pancake.

Once he'd had his fill of rubbing it, Noah still agreed to Snowy's demands. The hamster could eat, after all; he'd just buy it some snacks.

Holding the Winter Snow Grass Snowy had spat out, Noah found that the herb was actually dry. He'd thought it would be covered in hamster saliva.

Snowy: I'm a clean little mouse, you know.

Gray made an ice mortar and quickly ground up the Winter Snow Grass. Then Natsu spread it onto the bandages Lucy had prepared and wrapped them around the unconscious man.

By the time they'd finished applying the medicine, Mira had returned.

She'd come back empty-handed, having failed to catch the priest called Dartz. Clearly displeased, Mira said, "That guy got away. He wasn't much good in a fight, but he sure was fast on his feet. The Dark Magic Cult's priests are nothing special. Elfman can take more hits than he can."

Noah couldn't agree more. The Dark Priest they'd encountered at the Black Bird had been able to transform into threads and escape. If Noah hadn't caught him off guard and stacked Explosion Marks all over him in advance, the man might really have gotten away.

"Mira, don't take it to heart. The Dark Magic Cult are just rats in the gutter. They don't have the guts to retaliate against the guild."

With Makarov, a veteran of the Ten Wizard Saints, holding down Fairy Tail, nobody would dare cause trouble for the guild unless they were a mage of equal standing.

Of course, that didn't apply to people who showed up demanding compensation from the guild...

Mira bit her lip and puffed out her cheeks. She snatched Snowy from Noah's hands and gave it a good petting before noticing the guy wrapped up like a "mummy" in bandages.

"Who's this?"

"I don't know, but he asked us to pass along a message."

Noah repeated what had just happened to Mira.

Laharl? She felt like she'd heard that name somewhere. Mira thought about it, but couldn't remember, so she stopped worrying about it.

After a moment of silence for Laharl's thoroughly obscure reputation, Noah tore a blank sheet from Daphne's notebook.

He borrowed a pen from a townsperson and wrote a letter, signing it "Nexus." Then he asked the town postman to send it to the Magic Council's Action Team.

After that, Noah and the others boarded the Magical Train back home.

As for the reward for the Silent Town request to "defeat the evil scientist," Natsu didn't want to accept it because he'd arrived several years too late. But the townspeople insisted on paying him.

The little town wasn't wealthy, so the reward came to only 150,000. Still, no one complained. They'd come in the first place to help Natsu.

That worked out to 30,000 each for the five of them.

Inside the Magical Train's luxury carriage, Lucy excitedly counted the bills over and over.

A mere 30,000 was nothing to the Heartfilia heiress, but this was the first time she and Natsu had received the full reward since teaming up!

No destruction!

No reward docked to cover damages!

To celebrate, Lucy generously treated her companions to the luxury carriage. A single luxury ticket cost more than her share of the reward, after all.

Watching the heiress, whose joy was impossible to hide, Noah, Mira, and Gray all sighed inwardly for her without meaning to.

They returned to the guild safely. Noah told Makarov what had happened in Silent Town. Natsu had forgotten the request because of the effects of the Concealment magic, so Makarov didn't punish him.

Not getting scolded was the best reward of all. Natsu happily went to brag to his companions about how he'd shown his might, combining True Magic and Haki to take down an artificial dragon with one punch.

While there was a lull, Noah took Makarov's advice and arranged for the rescued man to stay at an inn close to the guild. Given Laharl's speed of action, someone would come to pick him up within two days.

As for whether trouble might come knocking, Makarov put it this way: "We of Fairy Tail don't go looking for trouble, but we're not afraid of it either."

Noah had no idea how the old man managed to say that with a perfectly straight face...

Magic Council, Action Team Headquarters.

Laharl opened the plain envelope addressed from "Nexus."

After thinking it over, he called in his friend Doranbalt and asked him to go to Magnolia and bring back their comrade, whom they'd believed had died.

At the same time, the communication Magic Crystal of their newest council member began to ring.

"Teacher, you actually called me yourself. Has something gone seriously wrong?" By the floor-to-ceiling window, Jellal Fernandes sat on a leather sofa, enjoying the warmth of the sunlight.

"Jellal, the rat we handed over to the Dark Magic Cult was rescued. He knows there's someone on our side among the Magic Council's higher-ups, but he doesn't know that person is you."

Listening to the calm voice coming through the Magic Crystal, Jellal Fernandes's smile widened. "What does it matter? He's just someone from the Action Team. Only two of those old geezers will listen to him."

"The ones who rescued that rat were from Fairy Tail. Makarov is a troublesome opponent, and his word carries enough weight."

The calm voice came through once more. Jellal Fernandes's smile disappeared.

Erza, I didn't expect to see you so soon. Will you still remember me?

A cloud happened to drift across the sky, blocking the sunlight.

Dark shadows fell over the young man, as if invisible chains had wrapped around and bound him. Jellal Fernandes remained completely unaware.