Mira set down her glass, a rather helpless smile spreading across her face.
"Blanc... actually, the Guild Master did bring it up with him before."
"Huh?! And what happened?"
"But he turned it down without a moment's hesitation."
"Why?!" Lucy's eyes widened. "That's the position of Guild Master!"
Mira rested a hand against her cheek and sighed, unsure whether to laugh or cry:
"Apparently... he was afraid he'd end up having to write all the apology reports himself, so he flat-out refused."
"..."
Lucy's mouth hung open for a long time.
"What kind of reason is that?!"
Yet after that outburst, another scene involuntarily surfaced in her mind:
The Guild Master solemnly entrusted the guild to Blanc, only for Blanc to turn deathly pale and frantically wave his hands as though he'd seen a ghost-
"Become Guild Master? Spend every day writing apology reports that never end? You've got to be kidding! That'll kill me! No way!"
Lucy immediately fell silent.
"...No, now that I think about it, that really is something he'd do."
The guild members around her, whose expressions had been grim a moment ago, all nodded in agreement.
"Can't blame him. Even the old man regularly has breakdowns over all those reports," Gray said, shrugging helplessly.
"Those terrifying reports are too much even for a real man!" Elfman lowered his head and clenched his fist.
"I wouldn't do it either." Cana took a swig of her drink and nodded in agreement.
Lucy let out a long sigh, her gaze returning to the chair Laxus had occupied earlier.
"So one doesn't want the job because it's too much trouble, while the other wants it but isn't suited for it no matter how you look at it..."
She suddenly shuddered.
"In the end... don't tell me we're really going