Fairy Queen

At noon, the tavern was even noisier than yesterday.

The main reason was that Natsu had returned from a job, while Gray had yet to leave.

The two had been more than ten meters apart, but the moment their eyes met, they inexplicably started arguing.

Natsu shouted things like "droopy eyes" and "ice bastard."

Gray yelled back with insults like "hanging eyes" and "fire idiot."

In no more than ten seconds, their foreheads were pressed together, and then they started brawling.

Unlike Macao and Wakaba, these two had no sense of restraint when they fought. Before long, a stool leg flew out and struck Elfman in the back.

Elfman shouted something about being a man and charged into the fray with his fists raised, only to be sent flying by a punch each from Natsu and Gray.

Flying through the air, Elfman crashed into Kana's drinking table. The bottle Kana threw then smashed into the head of a handsome man.

The handsome man, who had been chatting while holding two beautiful women, showed no anger at all. Instead, he gallantly released them. "Please wait a moment. I'm going to join in."

Before leaving, he even tossed them a flirtatious wink. The two women were practically electrified by his gaze and screamed as they cheered him on.

The tavern became increasingly chaotic. One member after another was dragged into the fight. Even Laxus, who had been drawing, Nab, who had been staring at the job board, and Levy's team were not spared.

As usual, Mira watched the excitement from behind the counter with a smile.

Laki... was already fighting. This girl was no pushover either.

Rhode decisively placed the food he had been about to deliver on the counter and stayed beside the drunken Master.

He felt safe.

He watched the various "battlefields" around the tavern with complete focus, not for entertainment, but to avoid unidentified flying objects that could come hurtling at him at any moment.

Rhode was already a seasoned employee who had joined Fairy Tail two days ago. To work in the guild, one had to learn how to protect oneself.

Seeing the situation grow more intense and the hand-to-hand fight about to escalate into a magic battle, Rhode felt it was time to wake the Master and have him stop them.

That seemed to be the usual procedure.

But before he could act, the guild doors burst open with a bang. Bright noon sunlight poured in through the entrance, outlining a slender figure.

By the time Rhode's eyes adjusted to the light, the figure had already walked steadily inside.

She had long scarlet hair, and her delicate face showed neither joy nor anger. Her black knee-high boots and blue skirt showed off her beautiful legs well, but...

Her upper body was clad in metal armor, complete with pauldrons, arm guards, and gauntlets.

If her skirt had armor plates attached to it and she held a sword, she would have looked exactly like a female knight.

But what she held was a rope about three meters long. Only when she entered could they see that the rope was pulling a flatbed cart.

Piled on the cart were suitcases stacked into a small mountain, taller than she was.

She had to be formidable. Rhode made that judgment in his heart.

Then Rhode noticed her scarlet hair and remembered what Mira had mentioned just yesterday—Erza!

As Erza dragged her luggage through the door, the noisy guild fell silent.

The people who had been making a racket moments ago froze as though someone had pressed pause, even those still clutching someone else's collar or hair.

Mira, on the other hand, smiled happily. "Welcome back, Erza!"

"Ah, I'm back." Erza responded politely, then looked at everyone else. Her expression immediately turned stern.

Everyone fell silent as cicadas in winter. Only a few bold people dared to try speaking up. "Miss Erza... did the job go well?"

He had even deliberately used an honorific.

"Don't think you can muddle through this! I heard you caused plenty of trouble again!"

"Putting that aside, Bigida, stop dancing on the tables! Nab, stop hovering around the notice board all day and take on a job properly! Wakaba, watch your ashes! Kana..."

The moment Erza arrived, she called out and criticized a whole group of problem children and troublesome old men. Those who had damaged the tables and chairs received especially severe reprimands.

Not a single person she called out dared to talk back.

Natsu and Gray especially, the two who had fought the fiercest just now, were now standing with their arms around each other's shoulders as though they were great friends.

Erza nodded in satisfaction. "Getting along peacefully is good, but Gray, your clothes."

"Huh? When did that happen?" Gray hurriedly found his pants and put them on.

But Erza had not finished. "Master, you're drunk in broad daylight again. Shouldn't you at least keep them in line?"

"What does it matter..." Makarov did not seem very clear-headed. He was even hiccuping with the smell of alcohol.

Rhode suddenly realized that the tavern had returned to normal. The people who had just been in a massive brawl were now drinking and chatting as usual.

Natsu and Gray sat facing each other. Their gazes were still full of defiance whenever they met, but the moment Erza glanced their way, they would immediately clink glasses and laugh together in perfect tacit understanding.

She was practically a disciplinary dean.

Then Erza's gaze fell on Rhode. Fortunately, it was fairly gentle. "A new face. Are you a new member, or a resident of Magnolia?"

Rhode greeted her properly. "Hello, I'm Rhode. I joined the guild two days ago.

I heard Mira mention your notorious misdeeds earlier. Your reputation precedes you."

"Not-notorious misdeeds..." Erza seemed to have suffered some kind of blow as she stared at Mira in shock.

She knew Mira liked gossip, but she had not known Mira would speak ill of people behind their backs.

"It's not like that. Rhode has some problems with the common language..." Mira rubbed her forehead. A misunderstanding had finally happened.

She explained how Rhode had learned the language, then added,

"In short, Rhode's magic and common language are both still in the learning stage. For now, he's working part-time as a waiter in the tavern."

"I see. I'm Erza." Erza was quite friendly toward the new member.

"Since you've joined the guild, you're family. If you have any difficulties, come find me. I'll do everything I can to help you!"

When she said "everything I can," Erza clenched her fist, her tone and expression both extremely serious.

"Ah... thank you." Rhode was not sure whether he should be happy.

The good news was that he had become "family" with Erza from the main group.

The bad news was that Erza had just dealt with a whole crowd of "family," and judging by how practiced she was, it definitely was not her first time.

Erza sat in the guild for a while, had something to drink, then dragged her luggage cart away. She said that after being gone so long, she needed to return home to clean her room and sort through her spoils.

Rhode curiously asked Mira what Erza's job had been.

But Mira said the client had requested confidentiality regarding the details. Broadly speaking, Erza had helped a remote border town deal with a troublesome criminal gang.

"Erza took down dozens of criminals in one go~" Mira said with a smile. "So? Isn't our 'Fairy Queen' cool?"

Rhode nodded. "Mm... she is cool."

To be fair, Erza was powerful, and her personality... for now, she seemed to be one of the rare serious people in the guild.

And she was no less beautiful than Mira. Rhode guessed she was absolutely the object of many people's affection.

But... he did not dare entertain any strange ideas at all.

Because Mira had told him about Erza's glorious record:

She had beaten Natsu so badly when he challenged her that even Happy could not recognize him; she had beaten Gray, who liked wandering around naked, until he was practically buried; she had beaten Loki, who had pursued her, until he had only one breath left...

Rhode suddenly felt that the phrase "notorious misdeeds" he had used earlier had not been wrong after all.

"Laki? What's that?"

Mira noticed that after seeing Erza off, Laki returned carrying a gift box taller than a person. "It's a local specialty Erza brought back for me."

Laki happily set down the red gift box with a thud. It sounded quite heavy.