It's You, Four Emperors Shanks

As Hughes pondered, Makarov grieved, and the guild members buzzed with excitement, a large hole appeared in the guild wall with a sizzling sound.

Gildarts walked in through the wall, wearing a dark green cloak and sporting a bit of stubble. He beamed. "Hey! Everyone, long time no see!"

"Ha! Gildarts, you're finally back! Fight me!" Natsu jumped up happily, flames bursting from his fists as he excitedly swung at Gildarts.

Already knowing how it would end, Hughes couldn't be bothered to look. His eyes were fixed on Makarov, whose terrifying magic power was boiling over.

Sure enough, Gildarts first greeted Natsu cheerfully, then placed a palm against his stomach and sent him on a free fall.

The slightly unfortunate part was that another large hole appeared in the guild's roof. Of course, that was only unfortunate for Makarov. Hughes and the others were quite happy to watch.

"Gildarts, you bastard! You destroy the guild as soon as you get back! And do something about that bad habit of spacing out! You've wrecked more than half of Magnolia!"

"Huh? When?"

A giant fist wrapped in golden light answered Gildarts's bewilderment.

"Boom!"

A large crater was smashed into the guild's rather innocent floor. Completely unharmed, Gildarts dusted himself off and leisurely stepped out of the hole.

"Haha, don't worry, old man! My magic doesn't hurt people!"

"Of course I know that, but we have to pay for the buildings you destroy! I don't care, you're paying up this time too. I need to find a way to give Magnolia a proper overhaul."

Makarov knew he couldn't count on Gildarts to break his little habit of spacing out, so he could only look for another solution.

The moment Hughes saw Gildarts, he knew a quest would be triggered. They were too alike-not just their faces, but their voices too.

Sure enough...

[Four Emperors Red-Haired Shanks detected. Please defeat him!]

[Quest "Challenge Four Emperors Red-Haired Shanks" activated!]

Hughes opened the transparent system panel...

[Challenge Four Emperors Red-Haired Shanks: Raised from childhood by the Pirate King, Shanks became one of the emperors of the seas through his supreme Conqueror's Haki. Having inherited the Pirate King's legacy, he is dedicated to maintaining stability in the world.

Note: Are kings and nobles born to their station? If Shanks can sit on an emperor's throne, so can the host!]

Well, thanks for thinking so highly of me! Hughes retorted inwardly.

[Ding! Given the host's low strength and the considerable difficulty of this quest, accepting it now will upgrade the reward to perfect-level Conqueror's Haki. View quest objective?]

[Quest reward: Conqueror's Haki (perfect)]

[Quest penalty: Haki System shutdown]

Hughes glanced over the panel, then closed it. The super-advanced destruction magic Crush was practically a bug-level spell in the world of Fairy Tail. At his current strength, he could never stand a chance against Gildarts.

Ask Gildarts to stage a fight with him? Even if Gildarts agreed, Hughes wouldn't dare take the risk.

With Gildarts's tendency to space out, Hughes was certain he'd end up as countless little Hugheses.

He could only leave Gildarts's quest alone for now, just like Granny Porlyusica's, and wait until he'd done some experimenting in Edolas.

As he thought about it, Hughes couldn't help complaining inwardly. By the system's earlier judgment, the Fairy Tail guild was a pirate crew. Gildarts wasn't even its captain, so how could he possibly be Four Emperors Shanks?

Was it purely because their faces and voices were alike??

And if even Mira could trigger a quest, why couldn't anyone else in the guild? Did the main cast really have so little presence? Couldn't Makarov, one of the "Ten Wizard Saints," trigger a quest either?

Hughes had turned into a complaining machine, and his thoughts were "fragrant"!

Makarov pulled Gildarts along, introducing him to the guild's newest members one by one.

"Hughes is new to the guild too!"

Hughes came back to his senses and was about to stand up and greet Gildarts when a single remark from him left Hughes speechless.

"It's rare for you to recruit someone older than me, Master!" Gildarts remarked.

Makarov was now the only old man left in the guild. Of the younger generation, only Gildarts, Macao, Wakaba, and a few others remained. Laxus and the others hadn't grown up yet, and most of the rest were minors.

It really wasn't easy to see someone older than him.

"Ahem. Gildarts, Hughes is only eighteen!" Makarov said after coughing a few times.

"Eigh... eighteen? His beard's longer than mine, and you're telling me he's eighteen, Master?" Gildarts didn't believe it for a second. Makarov had to be pulling his leg.

His eye twitching, Hughes decided to buy a razor later. He'd realized that the young-looking cat might not be the only one with bad eyesight in the world of Fairy Tail.

Damn it, with this youthful face, how old could I be if not eighteen? Do you people judge age by beards?

He had a beard because the mental hospital didn't have razors or anything like that. Every time someone was brought in to cut their hair, their beards would be trimmed along with it.

"I really am eighteen!" Hughes stood up, his tone a little forceful.

Gildarts scratched his head and took Hughes's outstretched hand. "Sorry, sorry. Your looks are pretty misleading, Hughes!"

After greeting each other, the two sat at the bar with Makarov and chatted.

"Gildarts, you came back because you finished that Ten-Year Quest, right?"

In the world of Fairy Tail, quest requests were divided into ranks, from the simplest D-Class up to A-Class. Any mage could take those.

As for the S-Class and SS-Class quests above them, only S-Class Mages could take those.

Ten-Year Quests were quests that no one had been able to complete in ten years, and they ranked even higher than SS-Class.

Gildarts nodded. This Ten-Year Quest had been fairly simple, and it had only taken him a month to complete. He'd returned to the guild to take a more difficult Ten-Year Quest.

Seeing him nod, Makarov couldn't help remarking, "At your level, you're almost catching up to our generation."

Gildarts had grown up step by step under his watch. At his current rate of progress, Makarov figured it wouldn't be long before his sheer strength surpassed his own.

If Gildarts could destroy a little less while carrying out quests, Makarov would be even happier.

Makarov glanced at Hughes, who was happily drinking beside him. His face remained impassive, but inwardly he was delighted.

Although Hughes had a few problems, sooner or later he too would become famous across the continent, just like Gildarts.

"Hughes, you need to work hard too!"

"Huh? Old man, did you put something in your drink?" Hughes, who had been thinking about where he could mooch a free razor, turned to see Makarov looking at him with a complicated expression. It startled him.

"Haha, you're an interesting guy too, Hughes! Here, take this!" Thinking Hughes would be a kindred spirit, Gildarts took a book from the pack on his back and tossed it to him.

Hughes's eyes suddenly widened. "Gildarts, I, Hughes, am definitely going to be your friend."

"Gildarts, what are you doing? Hughes can't look at that stuff!"

Gildarts waved a hand dismissively. Makarov could be so rigid sometimes. "Oh, come on, Hughes is already eighteen!"

"There's something wrong with Hughes's head. Looking at that sort of thing will overstimulate him!"

"Huh? Oh no, I gave him the private collector's edition too!"