"I can handle the rest myself."
After taking care of the spots that were inconvenient to apply medicine to, Rhode felt too embarrassed to keep making Mira help him.
"Then I'll head out first." Mira set down the medicine bottle and tweezers. "Try to get some more rest."
"Yeah, thanks."
Watching Mira leave, Rhode immediately took off his T-shirt and carefully applied medicine to the bruises on his chest.
At the same time, he reviewed his fight with Natsu.
Today's fight had left Rhode with plenty of aches and injuries, but it had also brought him quite a few gains.
First of all, he had become someone who had seriously been in a fight. That was important—at least he would no longer feel intimidated before a fight even began whenever he heard one was coming.
Then, he had also learned a small trick for using magic power defensively.
With his current amount of magic power, defending against Natsu's fists was a little difficult. But if he were fighting ordinary people, he could basically endure their punches and kicks and fight back head-on.
During his battle with Natsu, nearly every punch and kick Rhode threw had imitated Natsu's movements.
Natsu punched him in the face, so he punched Natsu in the face.
Natsu turned sideways and rammed his elbow into his abdomen, so Rhode turned sideways and rammed his elbow into Natsu's abdomen.
Of course, aside from the two hits to the river crab, Natsu had not used any magic at all.
Thinking it over carefully, it seemed that during their close-quarters fight, Natsu had deliberately left openings for him to attack. He also had not done much dodging or defending.
As a result, if they only counted the number of hits landed and received, the two of them were probably not that far apart.
But in the end, Rhode had been in so much pain that he lay on the ground, barely able to get back up.
Meanwhile, Natsu had acted as though nothing had happened. He dusted himself off and carried Rhode to the infirmary.
"Thinking about it now, it feels like Natsu was deliberately acting as my sparring partner..."
Rhode looked at the injuries on his body and smiled helplessly. "I got beaten up and still have to thank him. What kind of situation is that?"
Still, when he hit the river crab, it had probably been purely out of curiosity and an itchy hand.
Oh, and he also needed to properly investigate that strange feeling when the river crab disappeared.
After resting in the infirmary for a while, Rhode got up and went out front to help.
Besides Mira and Laki, there was another girl helping out in the tavern.
Her short, messy black hair made her look like a tomboy from the front, but she actually had a long braid tied behind her head.
She wore a short red qipao, black thigh-high socks, and the guild emblem was printed above the tops of her stockings.
Rhode recognized her as Sally. She used Requip Magic, though she was nowhere near as proficient as Erza. In battle, she could only requip weapons.
Apparently, the weapon she was best with was a pair of steel claws worn over her wrists... Clearly, she was a close-range fighter, and a particularly ferocious kind at that.
Sally had far fewer shifts than Rhode. Working as a waitress was truly only a part-time job for her; her main source of income was taking jobs with three other friends.
Besides Sally, there was another girl named Izzy in a similar situation. However, Rhode had only seen her once when he had been unable to speak, so he did not know her very well.
"Rhode? I heard everyone saying you fought Natsu today."
Sally held a tray in one hand. A flash of light gleamed from her other hand as steel claws appeared, and she asked eagerly, "So, how about a fight with me?"
Obviously, she was another battle maniac.
Rhode decisively refused. "Please spare me. My whole body hurts right now."
"Sally, my drink!"
Seeing Sally stop to chat, someone could not help urging her on.
"So annoying! Isn't it on its way?"
Yeah, she had a terrible temper. Better not provoke her if he could avoid it.
Her strength might not be all that great, but beating Rhode as he was now probably would not be a problem.
Rhode looked around, then finally went to stand by at the counter.
At that moment, Gray was leaning against the counter with a job request on the tabletop, waiting for Mira to register it. "Yo, that guy Natsu, his fists hit hard, right?"
"Yeah." Rhode gave a bitter smile and touched the swollen spot on his face. "Why haven't I seen him around?"
"He just took a job and went out to work with Happy." Gray picked up the request form Mira handed back to him and waved it at Rhode. "I'm heading out to work too. See you."
Rhode nodded. "Yeah, be careful on the road."
Gray had only taken a few steps when Mira called after him, "Gray, your clothes!"
Gray looked down and realized he was once again wearing nothing but a pair of boxers. "When did that happen?!"
Laughing as she watched Gray retrieve his shirt and pants, Mira poured Rhode a glass of water. "Are you bothered by Natsu?"
"Yeah. After all, I received his 'care,' so I feel a little..."
Rhode held the cup without drinking from it, merely staring at the gently rippling water inside. "A little conflicted."
Getting beaten up naturally felt unpleasant. But the other party had held back at every turn, intentionally or otherwise teaching him combat techniques, so Rhode ought to be grateful too.
And judging from Natsu, he seemed to be younger than Rhode, which made it even more awkward.
Rhode realized that he tended to get hung up on little things. He liked thinking about this and that, and found it hard to be as straightforward as everyone else.
From there, his thoughts would branch out into whether this made him seem out of place or likely to be excluded.
Then he would look down on himself again. He was already an adult—why was he dwelling on such pointless things?
And everyone else was being so sincere. Thinking such messy thoughts made him feel like he was somehow letting them down...
Watching Rhode's expression shift constantly, Mira could only guess that he was unwilling to accept his loss.
"You've only been learning magic for a few days. Reaching this level already is amazing. If this keeps up, maybe next month you'll be able to take on some ordinary jobs."
"You're right. I should focus on training first." Who could say what would happen in the future? Maybe he simply was not used to fighting for the first time.
Rhode looked at the people chatting and laughing in the tavern. "Who should I ask next time?"
A center-parted young man came into view—the talkative Marcus from that morning.
He would try asking him.
Work, training, and tasting the guild chef's exquisite cooking—it had been another fulfilling day.
After returning home, Rhode really did as Laki had said and smashed open the wooden box with no opening before taking out the magazines inside.
Sosara was a weekly magazine. What Laki had given Rhode was a full year's worth, along with several special issues and extra editions, totaling around sixty copies.
The sixty magazines were stacked neatly on the table, more than a handspan thick.
"What a waste of such a seamless box... Want it for a nest?"
Rhode showed the wooden box, broken open on one side, to Worm.
The box was not large, but it was more than enough to fit a Poro.
However, Worm did not like that kind of nest. He shook his head and retreated beneath the bed.
"Fine, don't use it. I haven't properly cleaned under the bed yet, so don't get covered in dust."
Rhode tossed the broken wooden box beside the fireplace to use as firewood later. Another day of envying the convenience of Shape Magic.
He took out the Wind Chant Glasses and quickly browsed through the magazines.
"Grimoire Heart..."
This was one of the Kingdom of Fiore's two most famous wizard guilds. The other was naturally Fairy Tail.
However, Fairy Tail had been quiet for quite a long time, and only in recent years had its reputation grown greater and greater.
Rhode learned this from an issue of Sosara that focused on Grimoire Heart.
In terms of scale and membership alone, Grimoire Heart surpassed Fairy Tail by a great deal. Besides its headquarters, Grimoire Heart had more than twenty branches and a vast number of members.
"It's just that the name Grimoire Heart sounds so much like a Dark Guild..."
Only after seeing several of Grimoire Heart's signature wizards and the incidents they had caused did Rhode's doubts ease slightly.
When it came to causing trouble, that guild was no less outrageous than Fairy Tail.
Before you continue