Surprise in the Magazine

"Another one of these ads, so annoying."

Laki's attitude towards this kind of advertisement was similar to how Rhode used to feel about software splash ads; novel at first, but annoying after seeing it too many times.

She said mysteriously, "Flip a few more pages, there's a surprise~"

"Surprise?" Rhode flipped back as instructed, and the section after the ads was the news section he wanted to see.

The surprise Laki mentioned was clearly not this, but Rhode still glanced at it.

"Raid Entertainment Company's Popular Actress's Boyfriend Exposed"

It was called an exposure, but in reality, it was just one photo of the backs of two people. Rhode didn't recognize the popular actress, but he felt the rumored boyfriend looked very much like a handsome guy in the guild.

"Council Decides to Increase Crackdown on Dark Guilds"

It seemed like an official article, but it had nothing to do with Rhode— he had asked around indirectly, and Fairy Tail was definitely not a Dark Guild.

"Fairy Tail Mage Annihilates Bandit Mountain Bandit Group"

The title was normal, but the content seemed to contain a line like, 'The bandits were extremely vicious, and the battle was very fierce, causing the pine forest on the mountainside to burn to ashes.'

Laki said this was a magazine from a few weeks ago, and Rhode couldn't be bothered to guess who did it.

After flipping past the news section, Rhode finally saw the surprise Laki had mentioned.

"This, this, this... isn't this..."

Wasn't this Mira? That iconic white hair, the hairstyle was the same as now, with the bangs tied into a bunch and combed to the top of her head.

Her smile was different from what he had seen; it was more charming than usual.

The key point was that Mira in the photo was wearing a sea-blue swimsuit, standing naturally on a beach, striking a pose with one hand lifting her hair.

The upper part had little fabric, the kind that Rhode couldn't tell if it was underwear or not.

Even if he tried hard to shift his gaze away from the very gravitational area, he would be drawn to her smooth shoulders and delicate collarbones.

The lower part was a long skirt with a high slit, or perhaps it was just a large piece of cloth tied casually and slung diagonally across her waist and hips, fully displaying a waist that would make countless girls envious.

Mira's right leg was completely covered by the long skirt, while her left leg was exposed to the air through the slit in the skirt.

—Rhode learned for the first time that Mira's guild mark was white and was imprinted on the side of her left thigh.

"Isn't she beautiful? Are you stunned?"

"Mm... Mm?" Rhode nodded subconsciously at first, then felt something was wrong and shook his head in denial.

But it still felt wrong; saying Mira wasn't beautiful would be too against his conscience.

"Really?" Laki looked regretful.

"I have a whole year's worth of Weekly Sorcerer there, and over twenty issues feature photos of Mira-nee... Don't you really want to see them, Rhode?"

"No..." Shame drove Rhode to say no, but he felt like he would regret it if he refused.

He looked conflicted: "I just wanted to understand the situation here better, so I wanted to borrow the magazine. With you asking like this, it feels weird whether I borrow it or not!"

"Hahaha..." Laki couldn't help but laugh, covering her waist with one hand and patting the counter with the other. "Just like Kana said, Rhode's reactions are too funny!"

Unlike Natsu, who was completely clueless, or like Macao and Wakaba, who were thick-skinned perverted old men.

Only people like Rhode, who understood what he should understand but were also very shy, were fun to tease.

"Kana..." Rhode remembered that drunkard, that 'bad woman'...

Although Mira said she was a good person, Rhode wanted to make a note of it.

Laki laughed for a long time, and only stopped when Rhode wanted to escape:

"Mira-nee started receiving invitations to be a special guest model for Sorcerer last year, and she was very popular from her first photoshoot..."

"Mira-nee has appeared on magazine covers more times than them," Laki pointed at the boy band on the cover.

"Right now, she should be the best cover girl among all the Mages in Fiore, and also our guild's signature lady."

So she was the guild's poster girl...

Rhode felt like he understood Mira's position: "Mira is also amazing."

Fairy Tail truly had hidden talents. Those who could fight, like the S-Class Mages, were exceptionally strong, and those who couldn't fight, like Mira, were famous in other fields.

It seemed that Fairy Tail's status as one of the most famous guilds in the country wasn't just due to their exceptional troublemaking abilities.

Although he was slightly teased, Rhode eventually managed to borrow the magazine.

Weekly Sorcerer was priced at 300J per issue.

It was about the equivalent of two of the cheapest beers. If there was one issue per week, Rhode could afford it.

It was a bit troublesome to buy past issues, though. It would be better to borrow from others and buy future ones himself.

Laki had already agreed to bring them tomorrow, saying that since they were just sitting there doing nothing, freeing up space would allow her to display another collectible.

She seemed quite resentful towards this magazine.

This was because Sorcerer claimed to introduce the latest high-quality magic products, but her favorite torture devices had never appeared in the magazine.

"Yeah, that's too much, it's false advertising." Since she had lent him things, Rhode decided to agree.

"That's right, false advertising." With Rhode's 'support,' Laki was completely convinced it was the publisher's fault. She clenched her fist, "I'm going to complain to them in this week's magazine opinion survey!"

Seeing her serious expression, Rhode felt like he might have said the wrong thing:

"Um… how about you be a bit more resolute?"

"Resolute?" Laki thought about it, then nodded heavily, "That's right, resolute, I'll make them understand my attitude!"

Rhode: …

Did I say the wrong thing again? —

"Well, I was just invited by chance to try it out, and then it was hard to refuse."

Mirajane herself wasn't particularly interested in modeling, but she didn't really mind either.

After all, she and Elfman had lost their younger sister last year, and for quite some time, both of them had been immersed in grief.

They were even barely able to do any Mage work.

If it weren't for the income from the photo shoots and some previous savings, the siblings might have been in debt like Rhode.

It was precisely because of this that, even though she didn't really need the income now, Mirajane didn't want to refuse the magazine's invitation.

"Never mind all that, Rhode, how is your training going?"

"It's going okay. I feel like I'll be able to try summoning new Wild Monsters in a few days."

"Wild Monsters?"

Rhode nodded, "Yeah, that's the general term for my summons."

Do Poro count as Wild Monsters? It's about the same anyway.

"Then, do you want to find someone to test your skills against?"

"Test my skills? Against whom?"

"Well…" Mirajane tapped her chin with her finger, "You know there are a lot of battle-loving people in the guild, just find any one of them. For the first time, pick the one you dislike the most."

Given Mirajane's mischievous personality, Rhode suspected she was trying to stir up trouble.

But it was fine, practicing alone wasn't always good. He pointed at a handsome guy in the bar, "The one I find most displeasing is him, of course! Loki!"

"Huh?" Loki, who had just been fed a drink by a beautiful woman nearby, looked up in confusion.

Mirajane's photoshoot… find it yourself, it won't pass the review if used as an illustration.