All "Acquaintances"

Having hastily borrowed money from Makarov, Ul finally managed to send the carriage off!

When Ul returned to the guild, Makarov was still in a daze...

"Thanks, Master. I'll pay you back as soon as I can..."

Ul walked over to Makarov and spoke.

Hearing Ul's voice, Makarov snapped out of his stupor from Ul's earlier antics. He rubbed his forehead with a headache and slowly asked.

"Ul, did your mission fail?"

"No, it didn't!"

"No?" Makarov blinked in surprise.

He had assumed Ul couldn't pay the fare because the mission failed. After all, while D-rank missions weren't difficult, they were mostly taken by rookie Mages, so the success rate wasn't exactly high.

So even if Ul told him the mission failed, Makarov wouldn't have found it strange.

But now Ul was saying he completed it, which actually puzzled Makarov.

"Then what about your reward? Didn't the client give it to you?"

"Well... the reward was given to me, but due to some unexpected circumstances, I ended up using it all!" Ul scratched his head, looking a bit awkward and embarrassed.

"Used it all?" Makarov opened his mouth, not knowing what to say!

If he remembered correctly, that mission had one of the highest rewards among D-rank missions!

"Sigh, another one who can't be trusted to take care of himself!" Makarov sighed inwardly.

Though he had mentally prepared himself for this, facing it head-on still left him feeling exhausted...

Compared to when he first joined the guild, the number of people inside had increased significantly this time Ul returned.

A quick glance.

He spotted several "familiar faces"!

"Yo, Ul, long time no see! Didn't expect you to join the guild too!"

A familiar voice rang out. Ul turned around and immediately saw Natsu, his face beaming with a bright smile, followed by little Happy, whose drool was already dripping!

"Hai, long time no see, Ul... slurp... those fish on your back look really tasty!"

"?(°﹃.?)"

From the moment Happy appeared, his eyes weren't on Ul at all—they were fixed on the two nearly man-sized fish strapped to Ul's back, staring longingly, drooling...

These two big fish were a gift from Granny Is.

The fish in Granny Is's pond were practically becoming spirits. These two looked big, but in that pond, they were only medium-sized. If Ul hadn't been unable to carry more, Granny Is would have initially given him a "fish king"!

Ul had thick skin!

But faced with an old lady like Granny Is, even his thick skin couldn't stop him from feeling embarrassed!

He had just gone to complete a mission, and it ended up as "can't finish it, so take it away"—it was simply... indescribable!

"Happy, do me a favor—find someone to cook these two fish. I'm treating everyone to fish today."

Even though Ul had taken a carriage back to the guild quickly, in this scorching heat, these two big fish obviously couldn't survive out of water for long!

So before the fish went bad, Ul decided to have them cooked and use the chance to build rapport with the guild members!

"Hai, got it!"

Little foodie Happy's eyes lit up at Ul's words. He quickly agreed and scampered off to find someone!

Only then did Ul turn his attention back to the guild's interior...

The "Fairy Tail" guild was always unusually noisy, filled with a "lively" atmosphere no matter the time...

For example: Natsu, who had just been talking to Ul, was now "warmly" arguing with another black-haired youth who was shirtless, wearing only a pair of shorts. The two kept exchanging friendly "greetings"!

"You pervert..."

"You coal-burning scumbag..."

"Idiot!"

"Moron!"

"Bastard, you wanna fight?"

"Bring it on, who's afraid of who!"

After a few rounds of "greetings," the two quickly "embraced" and started rolling all over the floor...

As they rolled, they accidentally "injured" a few bystanders in the cramped guild, and soon the battlefield expanded...

In the blink of an eye!

The guild hall had turned into a scene of drunken brawlers causing chaos, with bottles flying everywhere, tables and chairs tossed about, and even the occasional flash of magic beginning to mix in!

"Stop it this instant!"

Finally, just a second before a group of Mages were about to unleash their spells, a young but authoritative female voice suddenly rang out inside the guild!

The next second!

Everyone in the guild froze mid-motion, leaving only Natsu and the black-haired boy still tangled together in their scuffle.

Thud, thud, thud.

With a series of heavy footsteps.

Ul saw a girl clad in tight knight armor, with long blood-red hair and a stern expression, step forward from the crowd and slowly walk up to Natsu and the black-haired boy...

Then... she reached out!

Everyone heard two dull thuds as Natsu and the black-haired boy were knocked flat to the ground by two heavy punches from the girl, large lumps quickly swelling on their heads, their eyes spinning, stars flashing before their vision!

Seeing this!

The others who had been fighting just moments before broke out in a cold sweat from fear, trembling one by one, terrified that this girl might give them a punch too...

Ul: "Uh..."

"This really is a familiar scene!"

Although he had often seen this scene in the anime, now that Ul was witnessing it with his own eyes, he couldn't help but feel a sense of surreal unreality flooding his mind.

These were all Ul's "old acquaintances"!

The black-haired boy was named Gray Fullbuster, one of the important supporting characters in the Fairy Tail anime, the main rival of the protagonist Natsu. He used Ice Make Magic, and his strength was on par with Natsu's!

As for the girl with the blood-red long hair, she was Erza Scarlet, later known as "Titania." A genius who passed the S-Class Mage exam at age fifteen, she was incredibly strong and used a special type of Requip Magic called "The Knight."

Both of these were major characters in the anime, completely different from supporting characters like Wakaba!

After settling the "trouble" inside the guild, Erza finally walked over to Ul and Makarov.

She first gave Ul a slightly curious glance, then spoke to Makarov: "Master, who is he..."

"Oh! Right, you haven't met him yet, have you!" Makarov seemed to remember something, and the one-meter-tall man hopped up onto the counter with a quick motion, then announced loudly to everyone: "Let me introduce you all. This is the newcomer I mentioned before, who joined our guild just a few days ago—Ul Gilde!"