In the eastern part of the Fiore Kingdom, tucked into a modest town, was the Sabertooth Guild hall.
Or what was left of it.
Rumble!
The explosion hit without warning. Stone and wood scattered across the street. A cloud of dust rolled out from the guild entrance, thick enough to choke on. People walking nearby stopped where they were and stared.
Sitting right in the middle of it all, cross-legged at the wrecked entrance like he owned the street and everything on it, was a man in a sharp black suit. His expression was flat and mean. He watched his crew work with the ease of someone used to being obeyed, pointing here and there as his subordinates carried furniture, supplies, and whatever else they could get their hands on out through the broken entrance and loaded it onto a magic vehicle parked outside.
"Move all the valuable things. I don't care what it is. Don't even leave the food."
Inside the guild, in a corner that still had walls, Minerva, Sting, Rogue, and a few other Sabertooth members stood watching. Their eyes were red. Their bodies were covered in cuts and bruises, clothes torn, breathing heavy. They had already fought. They had already lost.
After Jiemma and the core members were arrested by the Council, the guild had collapsed fast. The mages with options had left right away, finding footing in other guilds. The ones remaining were the sick and injured, the ones with no better place to go, and the ones who just couldn't bring themselves to walk out.
To make things worse, because of what Jiemma had done, neither the other legal guilds nor the Council showed any interest in Sabertooth's situation. No one extended a hand.
If anything, this was exactly what the Council had been waiting for. We chose not to dissolve you. Whether you survive from here is entirely your problem.
"Miss! Let's fight them!"
Sting was shaking with anger. His whole body was covered in wounds and he didn't care. His eyes were still burning with the urge to do something, anything. The others looked the same. Everyone still standing in that corner had genuine feelings for this guild. That was the only reason they hadn't left.
Minerva kept her head down and said nothing. She was working hard to hold the impulse down.
Jiemma's methods had been brutal. There was no arguing that. But those same methods had shaped Minerva into someone far more clear-headed than most children her age. She could look at a situation and read it honestly even when everything in her wanted to scream.
She had awakened the magic of the Yakuma Eighteen War Gods. That was real power. But right now her magic reserves were nowhere near where they needed to be to take on a group of fully grown, experienced mages. The same was true for Sting and Rogue. Dragon Slayer magic or not, they weren't there yet.
Charging now would not be brave. It would just be stupid.
Blood seeped from Minerva's tightly clenched fists. Tears kept pushing at the edges of her eyes. She held them back.
"Let them do what they want," she said, voice low and careful for the others around her. "As long as the guild itself is still standing."
"But" Sting started.
"The guild is still standing?"
The suit man at the entrance had sharp ears. He heard Minerva's words and let out a long, slow laugh.
"Ha ha ha! Kid, don't be so optimistic. What we're taking now is just the interest. If you still can't pay up, then the whole guild gets used to settle the debt!"
That was enough for Sting.
He couldn't hold it anymore. He clenched his fists and ran straight at the man, not thinking, not planning, just going.
"Heh. Something that doesn't know its own strength."
The suit man raised his hand casually. A magic circle lit up in his palm and a thick stream of scorching purple flame poured out of it. It moved like a giant serpent baring its fangs, burning the guild floor black all the way along its path, and launched itself straight at Sting with full destructive force.
Sting froze.
His feet stopped moving. His body locked up. The purple fire was right in front of him, enormous and roaring, and in his pupils, in the very back of his wide and desperate eyes, the serpent of flame reflected perfectly as it lunged for him.
"Sting!" Both Minerva and Rogue cried out at the same moment.
It was too fast. There was no time for magic. There was no time for anything.
"Ice-Make: White Rose!"
A wave of cold swept in hard from the side.
In one collision, the purple flame serpent froze completely solid. It became a suspended ice sculpture hanging in the air right in front of Sting, every fang and coil perfectly preserved. Then, slowly, silently, ice roses began to bloom across its surface. White petals opened one by one, spreading out from the center of the sculpture in every direction.
Sting stood there and stared at it. He had survived. He wasn't entirely sure how.
"I didn't think someone would still attack a legal guild in a time like this."
Ur stepped out from among the watching crowd, wearing a simple gray jacket, unhurried. She looked up at the suit man with steady eyes. "Aren't you worried about the Guild Alliance coming down on you for this?"
The suit man blinked, genuinely caught off guard for just a moment. Then the sneer came back.
"Guild Alliance? Ha ha ha! Who in the world would care about a broken guild that everyone has already written off?" He was a mage from a legal guild himself and knew exactly how the other guilds in the area felt about Sabertooth right now.
He looked at Ur more carefully. He had recognized the Ice-Make magic she'd just used, and it made him cautious, though he kept that off his face.
"You're from out of town, obviously. I understand. You don't know how things work here." His voice went harder. "I'm giving you one piece of advice. Don't get involved in other people's business."
"Sorry." Ur smiled and stepped forward. "I'm getting involved."
She hadn't come here just to take over the guild. She would have done this even if she were only passing through. Watching someone get bullied in plain sight was not something she was capable of ignoring.
"Heh heh. You sure about that?" The suit man stood up slowly, expression dark.
"Of course."
"Then it's simple. Pay back the one million Jewel this guild owes me and I walk out right now with my people."
"One million? That's nothing, I can just" Ur stopped mid-sentence.
Something clicked.
The strong, cold aura she'd been building up disappeared completely, like someone had turned off a switch.
"Wait." She stared at him. "You're here to collect a debt?"
Fighting she could do. Paying money she absolutely could not. She didn't have a single Jewel on her.
The woman who had been preparing a very impressive entrance stood there looking completely lost, and sent a sideways glance into the crowd toward Chase, full of pure pleading.
"Of course I'm collecting a debt. Debts get paid back. We are honest, law-abiding citizens." The suit man spread his arms like this was obvious.
"One million?! We borrowed one hundred thousand from you one month ago!" Minerva's voice rang out loud and sharp from the corner. "One hundred thousand! That was the number!"
After Jiemma's fall, the Council's fines had landed directly on Sabertooth. Minerva had scraped together what she could but came up short. That was when this man had appeared with the remaining funds, all smiles and helpfulness.
"You said it was a month ago," the suit man said, unmoved. "So you think interest doesn't apply?"
Usury. Straight-up usury.
Ur put the pieces together quickly and her expression went serious. She now understood the full picture from that short exchange.
The suit man felt the cold aura sharpening toward him and quietly let magic power build in the hand he was keeping behind his back.
"Woman, if you love being a hero so much, then just pay the money. Otherwise get out of my way." He said it flat and final. "That is my last warning."
Ur's brow creased. She hesitated.
If she were back on the Northern Continent she would already have answered this with ice magic and not thought twice about it. But this was the Fiore Kingdom in Ishgar, unfamiliar ground with its own rules and politics. Moving rashly here could create bigger problems for Sabertooth than the ones they already had.
She was still wrestling with it when movement at the edge of her vision caught her attention. Someone had stepped forward.
"It's just a money problem, right?" Chase looked at the suit man calmly. "That's what this comes down to?"
In the corner, Minerva's eyes went wide. She rubbed them with the back of her hand and looked again.
Mr. Chase?!
"Heh. Another idiot who wants to play hero." The suit man looked Chase over with the same arrogant posture, seeing nothing that concerned him. "Doesn't matter who shows up. If you can't put the money on the table, stop wasting my time."
Beside him, one of his subordinates had a strange look on his face. He was staring at Chase like he was trying to put something together.
"Boss," the man said slowly. "Boss, I feel like I've seen this guy somewhere before."
"You've seen a lot of people. Stop talking nonsense." The suit man smacked him on the head.
"One million is a lot to put together quickly," Chase said. He raised one arm and spread his fingers open. "Could you give me a little time?"
"Five days?" The suit man smiled. "That's workable."
Either way he came out ahead. If this person actually brought one million Jewel in five days, the interest that had built up in that time would let him roll everything forward again. If not, the Sabertooth guild building itself was worth more than a million. He couldn't lose.
He was still enjoying that thought when Chase's voice came again.
"Five."
The suit man looked up.
"Four."
"What"
"Three."
Chase had started pulling off his dark blue cloak.
"You think you're being funny?!" The suit man's face darkened. Magic power surged. A magic circle formed at his palm and he started walking forward with full killing intent. "You have no idea what I'll do to you!"
"Two."
One side of the cloak slipped free.
"One."
It dropped completely.
What it had been covering was a well-built upper body, and on the right arm, stamped clearly in dark gold ink:
The Fairy Tail emblem.
"AHHH! FAIRY TAIL! IT'S FAIRY TAIL!"
"BOSS! I remember now, he is, he is, he is Fairy Tail's S-Class Mage, CHASE!!!"
The subordinate's scream of pure terror rang out from behind. The suit man, who one second ago had been charging forward with absolute confidence, had the color drain from his face. His legs went to jelly. His steps lost all coordination.
The momentum he'd built up from walking forward had nowhere to go. He stumbled, couldn't catch himself, and ended up sliding across the floor on his knees all the way to Chase's feet, where he stopped in a posture that looked exactly like the deepest bow of his life.
Chase stood over him with his fist still raised in the air.
He had been prepared to have a reasonable conversation. This had not gone that direction.
The raised fist stayed there, not sure what to do with itself.
"Mr. Chase. What an incredible honor." The suit man's voice had gone completely soft and apologetic. He stayed on his knees, face turned up, full of regret. "I didn't recognize you at all. I may have said some things that were a bit too loud just now. I hope you can find it in your heart to understand."
He was kneeling on the guild floor. Genuinely kneeling.
Chase looked down at him for a moment.
Ur had just come here to take over this guild. She was going to live in this town, build something here. The impression made today would follow her with the locals and the surrounding guilds. Whatever happened next, it needed to land right.
He lowered his fist.
"How much did you say Sabertooth owes you?"
"A mil, a mil" The man caught himself mid-word. "T, ten. Ten Jewel."
"Don't talk nonsense. One hundred thousand is one hundred thousand. You said it yourself, debts get paid back. We are all law-abiding citizens." Chase was already reaching into his card space, pulling out a stack of banknotes. He tossed them across to the suit man. "Can you leave now?"
"Yes! Yes! Leaving right now!"
The suit man grabbed the money, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand, scrambled upright, and started moving for the exit.
"Wait."
He stopped so hard his feet squeaked on the floor.
"Mr. Chase. Is there something else?" His nerves were completely shot.
"Aren't you going to count it? I don't want to hear later that the amount was wrong."
"No need, no need, I trust you completely, not necessary at all."
The man was in no state to count anything. He just wanted out.
"Then go. Oh, and one more thing."
Chase raised one hand and pointed at the Sabertooth guild hall, nameplate missing, walls half wrecked, completely stripped of anything worth taking.
"Remember this. From today, this guild is an ally of Fairy Tail."
The crowd outside went still. Then it erupted.
The ripple went through the watching townspeople fast. Fairy Tail and Sabertooth? Those two guilds had been openly hostile not that long ago. There had been a real conflict between them. And now this?
That was exactly what Chase had wanted. A public declaration with witnesses became a real fact faster than any official document. Anyone in this town who'd been looking at Sabertooth as an easy target now had something specific to think about before they acted.
This was the quiet task Makarov had handed him when Ur dragged him along on this trip, said with a look that didn't need many words.
"Understood. Completely understood." The suit man was nodding rapidly. "Mr. Chase, may I please go now?"
Chase waved his hand.
The entire crew disappeared from the street in seconds, like they had been waiting for exactly that signal. One moment they were there, and the next, gone.
"Not bad at all, little Chase. Bringing you was definitely the right call!" Ur came up beside him with a wide grin and a thumbs-up.
"Praise me all you want," Chase said, perfectly seriously. "The hundred thousand still gets paid back."
"Goodness. I was just thinking about wrapping up my daughter and delivering her to your door, and here you are making it transactional." Ur shook her head, but she was already filing the debt and the favor both away somewhere she'd remember them.
Then she turned and walked through the entrance of the Sabertooth Guild.
Minerva and the others were still in their corner, watching her approach with expressions that mixed wariness with complete confusion about what exactly was happening.
Ur walked up to Minerva and crouched down, bringing herself level with the girl's eyes. She took in the dried blood on her knuckles, the dust on her face, the tear tracks cutting through it, the way she was still holding herself together by pure force of will.
"You're Minerva," Ur said. It wasn't a question.
Minerva didn't answer.
"I've understood your situation for the most part." Ur's voice was simple and direct. No attempt to soften it, but nothing harsh in it either. "My name is Ur. I use Ice-Make magic. I came from the Northern Continent. I have some experience, though I'll admit honestly that things here have moved forward without me and I'm still catching up." She held Minerva's gaze. "If you're willing, I'd like to become this guild's master."
She said it straight. That was her way. No preamble, no buildup, just the thing itself.
Sting reacted first, as expected. "Guild master? Just like that? We don't even know who you are."
"Yes. Please." Minerva cut across him. Her voice was quiet. Her face was completely serious. Not a trace of hesitation in it.
Of course she couldn't hand the guild over to a complete stranger based on nothing. But this person hadn't appeared based on nothing. She'd appeared with Chase. After the Erma Ruins incident, Minerva had long since placed Chase in a category all his own. The trust and confidence she had in him were already at their ceiling.
Sting still looked uncertain until Rogue reached over and tugged at his sleeve, tilting his head toward Chase just slightly. Sting followed the look. Understood. Let out a long, slow breath.
"If there are no other objections, then it's decided?" Ur looked around at the remaining members one last time.
The Sabertooth members nodded, one by one. A few of the quicker ones already had something shifting in their faces. Not hope exactly, not yet, but the shape of it. A powerful mage willing to take over, and Fairy Tail standing behind them as allies. Things that had looked completely finished an hour ago were starting to look different.
"Good!" Ur straightened up, grabbed her jacket with both hands, and pulled it off with energy. "Then as guild master, I'm issuing the first task right now. Special training begins with clearing this site!"
Minerva: "..."
Sting, Rogue: "..."
The two Exceed cats: "..."
They were going to start right now? Could they at least introduce themselves first? And how exactly was cleaning supposed to count as special training? Also, there was really no need to take the jacket off, was there?
Chase stood in the doorway watching Ur get started on the debris while the Sabertooth members, slightly dazed, got pulled into motion around her. He had spent a good part of the road here wondering how Ur would actually settle into a place like this. Now that he was watching it happen in real time, that worry felt completely unnecessary.
"Hey! You with the cards! What are you just standing there for? Come help!"
"I'm not part of this guild."
"And you all!" Ur turned to the members, already pointing. "Since this is special training, anything unnecessary comes off. You need your skin in direct contact with the cold air and the magic particles in the atmosphere. That's how you start to feel the secrets of magic from the inside out!"
"Eh?!?!"
The sound came from several people at once.
"Hey, wait," someone muttered behind Chase. "Isn't that the training method for Ice-Make magic?"
Chase picked up a broom.
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