Unlucky Guild Master

"Welcome!"

The girl at the entrance of the dessert shop, responsible for greeting customers, was quite beautiful.

Rhode's assessment: not as good as Mira.

"Would you two like to sit here?"

Another cute waitress guided the two of them to their seats.

Rhode's assessment: not as good as Mira.

As they passed the cashier, the cashier gave them a gentle smile.

Rhode's assessment: not as good as Mi...

Ugh, getting worked up. Calm down, calm down.

Perhaps because it had just opened, the dessert shop was doing very good business.

After Rhode and Mira sat down, there were no more empty seats in the shop.

Most of the customers were girls who came in groups, with a small portion being male-female pairs. Soft music played in the shop, creating a very pleasant atmosphere.

"Iced coffee, hazelnut cookies, blueberry mousse cake..." Mira ordered two desserts and then showed a troubled expression.

Rhode asked at the opportune moment, "What's wrong?"

"I want to try the cream puffs too," Mira pinched her waist, which wasn't exactly flabby, under the table. "But I feel like I'll gain weight."

"Mages have these worries too?" Rhode thought for a moment. "Then I'll order. We can share."

"Good idea!" Mira's eyes lit up. "Then it won't take away from what you want to eat..."

"You know I like to try all sorts of delicious things and I don't worry about my figure, so it's fine to order a few more."

Desserts, after all. What's the difference in what you eat?

Rhode felt that with his daily high activity level, he didn't worry about calories at all.

The waitress taking their order glanced at Mira with envy and quickly wrote down her order: "Please wait a moment."

"The atmosphere here is really nice. No wonder it's so popular."

Mira took off her sun hat and placed it aside. She pushed her bangs back with her hand and then, as if by habit, put the hair tie from her wrist onto her hair, returning to her usual hairstyle.

Actually, her bangs down looked good too.

"Yeah, it's much quieter than the guild," Rhode didn't stare at her the whole time. His gaze swept over the pairs of couples and friends whispering to each other in the shop.

"It feels like this place is very suitable for afternoon tea, dates, and things like that."

Mira's passive gossip-mongering attribute was triggered: "Oh, Rhode, do you often bring girls to places like this for dates?"

"I'm not Loki," Rhode felt he had to answer this question firmly and decisively.

"I never had any female friends I was close to before, and I never went into places like dessert shops or cafes."

Before college, he didn't dare to date early. After college, he just hung out with his bros every day.

Cafes? ×

Internet cafes! √

Mira blinked her eyes: "Why do I suddenly feel a little sorry for you?"

"Hey..."

Mira chuckled: "No wonder you didn't even dare to look directly at Kana at first."

"Please forget about that," Rhode was used to it now. Now, not only could he look directly at her, but he could even fight her.

Although he wouldn't win.

"Your desserts, please enjoy." The waitress brought two cups of iced coffee and several exquisite desserts.

"Ah, the cream puffs are more delicate than I imagined. I'll try this one first."

Mira reached out with her fork, but Rhode pulled the plate away. "No."

"Huh? Why?"

"You made fun of me. I'm unhappy."

Mira laughed, clasped her hands together, and winked her left eye gently. "Then how about I apologize?"

"Hmm, I forgive you," Rhode nodded calmly, pushed the plate back, and looked out the window.

Flirting like that was too unfair. He needed to look elsewhere to calm his mood.

Then...

Rhode saw something familiar: "Stone statues? A mountain?"

"What?" Mira had a small piece of dessert on her fork, not yet in her mouth.

She followed Rhode's gaze and saw a small mountain of stacked luggage, and an Erza who looked as if she had been petrified.

Mira put down her fork: "Erza?"

Rhode nodded, "It seems she was blocked outside by the staff because there were no seats."

Mira thought for a moment, "Should we call her in? Squeeze in with us."

Of course not.

But she looked quite pitiful. Judging by her luggage cart, she had just finished a mission and came straight here without even going home.

We're all comrades.

Rhode sighed inwardly, "Then I'll go call her."

"Wait a moment," Mira stopped him.

"What's wrong?"

Mira covered her mouth and smiled, "I want to see more. Erza like this is very cute."

So devious.

Rhode also took a couple more glances. Erza, usually so dignified, looked crestfallen over such a small matter. It was indeed cute, giving off a contrasting charm.

The demons in the dessert shop eventually invited the Fairy Queen from outside.

Rhode reminded her there were no extra seats inside, but Erza immediately pulled out a folding chair from her mountain of luggage.

It wasn't an everyday style. Judging by the pictures and text on it, it looked more like a souvenir from somewhere.

It was clear she really wanted to eat dessert.

Rhode and Mira continued to sit opposite each other, while Erza sat to the side and called a waiter to order.

Strawberry cake, strawberry pudding, strawberry milkshake... She ordered over a dozen items, all strawberry-flavored.

Her preferences are a little too obvious.

The waiter quickly jotted down the order and left. Before walking away, he shot Rhode a look that seemed to say, "What a scumbag."

This lady thinks too highly of people. Who would dare be a scumbag to Erza!

Mira was already chatting with Erza, "Was the mission smooth? You came back earlier than scheduled."

"Yeah!" Erza clenched her fist and raised her arm, her eyes full of anticipation. "Because I've been looking forward to this shop for a long time."

Mira said, "As expected of Erza... But it concerns the Council's work. Is it really okay to come back early without authorization?"

"Th-that's..." Erza looked a bit guilty. "I hope it doesn't get the Guild Master scolded."

Rhode asked curiously, "What kind of mission involved the Council... Is it confidential?"

Erza looked at Mira. In principle, it was confidential until confirmation of completion, even among comrades.

But now, only clean-up work remained, and Mira was in charge.

"If Erza's work is completed, then it's fine. It'll be in the papers in a few days anyway," Mira said.

"It was a mission to assist the Council in arresting all members of the Dark Guild Scorpion's Tail."

"Doesn't the Council have its own enforcement team?" Rhode's common sense improvement plan was proving effective.

"That's right, but the Council is a continental organization. Fiore only has one branch.

Scorpion's Tail was hiding in a remote area, and troops couldn't be deployed quickly.

Usually, in such situations, the Council issues assistance requests to regional guild alliances, and then the regional guild alliances assign them to specific guilds."

"I see, so this mission was assigned to our guild by the regional guild alliance."

Rhode inferred, "It's because our guild has a high reputation within the alliance, right?"

Erza denied it, "No, it's because the Guild Master has terrible luck."

"Huh?"

"The rewards for this type of commission are usually lower than for missions of the same difficulty. So, as long as it's not an extremely dangerous mission, the assignment method is decided by the Guild Masters drawing lots."

Saying that, Erza sighed, "And our Guild Master..."

Mira smiled and continued, "...often draws the worst lot."

Rhode: "..."

The Guild Master probably used up all his luck bringing children back, and every child he brought back was S-class.