Shane touched his chest lightly, Igneel's warning still echoing in his ears.
"If I need to hide my aura…"
With a thought, a dim, shadowy glow gathered in his palm.
A pair of pitch-black daggers, gleaming with a cold light, seemed to grow out of the shadows themselves, soundlessly appearing in his hands.
This was a Noble Phantasm belonging to the Assassin class.
Because he still hadn't unlocked its true name, the pair of daggers couldn't yet display their full power as Noble Phantasms.
But the ability they naturally carried—Presence Concealment—was exactly the disguise Shane needed right now.
"At this level…"
Shane focused carefully and sensed the effect.
It wasn't enough to make him absolutely undetectable against the instincts or perception of true powerful, but as Igneel had said, the dragon aura lingering on him had only just barely crossed the critical line.
With this layer of concealment covering him, it was just enough to suppress that thick, intense dragon aura back below the danger threshold.
That also meant he wouldn't need to deliberately avoid using Lancer in the future.
He had to admit, the different classes really did create some unexpected combinations. Even something that looked as weak as Assassin had its own unique use.
"This should do for now."
Shane spun the daggers skillfully between his fingers, flipping them through a clean flourish before sliding them smoothly into the most convenient spot at his waist.
As long as he didn't release the Heroic Spirit form itself, simply maintaining the manifested Noble Phantasm cost almost nothing.
To be safe, he decided that from now on, he'd keep them on him at all times—even while sleeping or bathing.
Once he had adjusted himself, Shane pushed the door open and returned to the guild hall.
The noise hit him head-on, but Natsu and Lisanna—who had been making a huge fuss just moments ago—were already gone, probably too impatient to wait before trying to hatch that "dragon egg."
"What an impatient guy."
Shane shook his head helplessly.
And Mira wasn't here either, which meant today's special training plan would have to be postponed.
He had just been about to call Erza over and ask whether she wanted to pick a quest from the bulletin board for old times' sake—
Bang!
The guild doors were suddenly shoved open with force.
The harsh midday sunlight spilled through the wide-open entrance, slicing into the hall and sending dust motes spinning through the air.
Backlit by the sun, a group of fully armed guards in white cloaks filed in and quickly split to either side.
Then a middle-aged man with an arrogant expression strode into Fairy Tail in hard-soled leather boots.
"Those clothes…"
"Someone from the Council?"
The noisy guild hall fell silent in an instant. The moment the mages recognized the distinctive uniform, their eyes all turned wary.
To a bunch as free-spirited and unruly as them, those white robes almost always meant trouble and rules.
Exactly the kind of thing they hated most.
The man paid no attention to the prickling stares around him. His gaze swept across the hall before locking precisely onto Shane.
"So you're that 'Azurefall' Shane?"
He walked straight over, his tone unfriendly and full of smug scrutiny.
"Hmph. After causing such massive destruction this time, if not for another Wizard Saint and Mr. Yajima mediating on your behalf, the Council would have sent an arrest warrant instead of a bill."
"That matter should already have been settled, shouldn't it?"
Before he could even finish, Makarov had already whooshed over in front of Shane, hands on hips, tilting his head up protectively like a hen shielding her chick.
"If you're here to deliver the bill, then leave it and go. Our guild is busy. We don't have time to entertain idle outsiders."
"Crooked leadership breeds crooked followers. You're no different, Makarov."
The man snorted and pointed straight at the old man's nose as he began to scold him.
"I heard the witness reports from the scene. As guild master, not only did you fail to restrain your subordinate, you actually encouraged him to brawl right in the regular meeting venue!"
"Do you think that makes you qualified? Fairy Tail has become a lawless mess because of your kind of indulgence!"
Makarov's face darkened, and he was just about to snap back when he sensed a faint stir of air behind him.
Shane narrowed his eyes slightly. His right hand dropped naturally to his side and came to rest on the hilt of the dagger at his waist.
"Hm?"
Though Makarov had his back to him, that small movement didn't escape his senses.
What is this brat trying to do?
Startled, the old man instinctively reached back, trying to grab Shane's hand and stop him.
But right before everyone's eyes, Shane had somehow already slipped past him.
His body seemed to blend into the surrounding shadows, appearing beside the envoy with the ease of a casual stroll.
A cold flash of light—
The dagger's tip lightly sliced across the clean white waistband of the man's trousers.
The movement was so fast it didn't even stir the air.
The next second, Shane was back behind Makarov again, hands in his pockets, as if he had never moved at all.
The whole process took less than a second.
Only a tiny handful of people present had actually seen what he'd done. The envoy himself noticed nothing at all and kept right on lecturing.
"His presence completely vanished…"
Makarov turned back to glance at Shane in shock.
He had sensed a sudden shift in Shane's presence just now—his existence had become so faint it was as if he had merged into the shadows.
"Whew…"
After confirming the envoy wasn't dead and wasn't bleeding, Makarov finally let out a quiet breath of relief.
The guy in front of them was annoying, and not especially strong either.
But he still represented the Council's authority. If something really happened to him inside the guild, the trouble would be enormous—especially since Fairy Tail had already been the ones in the wrong to begin with.
"Fine. Remember what I said and take it to heart."
Pleased by what he took as Makarov's "submission," the envoy finally stopped pressing the issue and pulled a long scroll out of his coat.
"This is the compensation list for the damages."
"Give it here."
The little old man snatched it with a bad look on his face, but before he had even fully opened it, his eyes nearly popped out.
"Pffft!!!"
"Y-you… how the hell did you calculate this?!"
His hands shook as he pointed at the dizzying line of enormous figures on the scroll, his voice rising out of tune.
"It was just one meeting hall that got destroyed! How could it possibly cost this much? This is extortion!"
"The meeting hall? Are you joking?"
At that, the envoy became even more emotional than Makarov.
"What disappeared wasn't just the meeting hall!"
"The surrounding forest, the open land, even the nearby hilltops have all been turned into ruins! If that area hadn't been uninhabited, this figure would have doubled!"
"What… everything's gone?"
Shane's heart lurched, and the casual look on his face vanished at once.
He stepped out from behind Makarov and frowned.
"No. That's impossible."
"I remember the situation very clearly. My attack had a wide area of effect, yes, but it only destroyed the hall and its foundation. It absolutely did not affect the surrounding terrain."
"Where the hell did this kid just come from?"
The envoy jumped at Shane suddenly appearing and gave him a suspicious look before sneering.
"You're saying the information from our field investigation was fake?"
With that, he pulled out a stack of photos from his folder and slammed them down on the table.
"See for yourself!"
Shane and Makarov both lowered their heads to look.
The moment Shane saw them, his pupils contracted.
In the photos, the enormous glass-like crater was still there—but the forest that had once served as the meeting venue had been completely transformed.
There were no broken walls, no scattered rubble.
Instead, the entire area had become a scorched dead zone.
The earth had been torn up, as if some giant plow had ripped through it. Every tree had been carbonized into a strange, pitch-black state.
And the hill that had once stood in the distance had a massive section missing from its middle, leaving behind a huge smooth blackened gouge.
Those were marks left by an instant of overwhelming heat and impact.
"This is the fine work your guild did! Looking at this, what else do you have to say?"
The envoy jabbed a finger at the photographs as he demanded an answer.
"This kind of scorched-earth destruction—if it wasn't your pack of lawless Fairy Tail mages, then who else could it have been?"
Shane ignored the accusation.
His fingers brushed lightly over the blackened ground in the photo, and it was as if his fingertips could still feel the lingering aura of destruction.
This wasn't caused by his magic.
These traces looked more like some enormous living creature had dived down from the sky and vented out a—
Dragon breath.
It will attract 'that gaze.'
Igneel's warning exploded through his mind again.
It really came? That Black Dragon… after I left last night, did it descend on that crater?
A storm rose in Shane's chest, and cold sweat instantly soaked through his back.
If they had withdrawn even a little later, they might have faced not a bill—but those wings of despair.
But outwardly, he forced himself to stay calm.
"Sir Envoy."
He looked up, his tone once again level, even carrying a trace of professional seriousness.
"Since you questioned the other guild masters who were present, then you should already know whether this damage was caused by me or not."
Shane pointed at the carbonized fracture in the photo.
"These burn marks, this kind of pure high-temperature destruction… I'm not trying to avoid responsibility. But whatever caused this was something extremely dangerous. If the Council doesn't take it seriously and instead rushes to pin it on us, then you may miss the real threat."
"Hm?"
The envoy narrowed his eyes and looked Shane over again.
He had deliberately exaggerated the bill this much as a way of probing them.
After all, destruction on this level was simply too terrifying, and even within the Council there had been disagreement.
But judging by the reactions of the old man and the boy in front of him now…
That shock and gravity in their eyes didn't look fake. They seemed just as unaware of the true culprit behind the devastation.
"Fine. I understand."
After a moment of silence, the envoy dropped his aggressive posture, and his tone softened somewhat.
"We'll reinvestigate the matter. If it turns out a third party caused the damage, a revised bill will be prepared and delivered later."
The fact that he agreed so cleanly actually left Makarov—who had been ready to argue his case—momentarily stunned.
Do they know something?
Watching the envoy turn to leave, Shane weighed his thoughts for a second, then suddenly stepped forward.
"Please wait."
He looked at the envoy earnestly, his gaze clear.
"Even if I didn't directly cause the destruction, this incident still began because of me. If your investigation turns up any clues about that 'destroyer,' please notify me. I'll do everything I can to assist, as a way of making amends."
"And as for whether my strength would be useful to the Council… I believe you already know the answer."
He wanted to use the Council's resources to get first-hand information.
If he wanted to confirm the movements of that thing, he had to step into the situation himself.
The envoy stopped and looked at Shane in surprise, then glanced over at Makarov, who was still grieving for his wallet, his expression turning a little complicated.
"I didn't expect there to be someone even remotely normal in a guild full of lunatics like this."
He actually patted Shane on the shoulder with a strange sort of relief, his tone softening further.
"Young man, hold on to that rationality. Don't let Makarov or the bizarre atmosphere in this place influence you. I have high hopes for you."
With that, he tightened his cloak and strode out with the guards.
"Whew…"
The moment that walking disaster finally left, Makarov collapsed limply onto the bar, feeling as though his personal treasury had been saved.
And then, less than two seconds after the guild doors had shut—
"AAAH!!!"
A shrill scream came from outside.
"Who?! Who slit open my trousers?!"
Then came a furious roar:
"My underwear is showing, damn it!!"
The voice belonged to the Council envoy, who clearly hadn't gotten very far.
The hall fell silent for one second.
Then, with a boom, laughter erupted so hard it nearly blew the roof off.
"Wahahaha! Did you hear that? 'My underwear is showing'! So that pompous bastard has an exhibitionist streak after all?"
"Hmph. Just now he was self-righteously lecturing us about shame, and now he's out on the street flashing people."
"Serves him right. Drinks, drinks!"
"Cheers—!"
Amid the cheerful clinking of glasses, Makarov turned to Shane, who was calmly wiping down his dagger beside him, and said in a deeply loaded tone:
"How strange. Whatever could have happened here?"
"A… normal… person?"
He was still brooding over it. Shane fit perfectly into Fairy Tail and was pure-blooded Fairy Tail through and through—so how had someone been fooled by that surface-level act?
Shane put away the dagger and straightened up proudly.
"Master, what are you saying?"
"He was lecturing you like that just now. Wasn't I standing up for you?"
"Hmph."
The old man felt much better inside, but stubbornly turned his head away with a tsundere snort.
"Now do you understand how hard it is being guild master? In order to clean up after a bunch of troublemaking brats like you every day, I have to stand there and get scolded by Council people just like that!"
"Yes, yes. You've worked so hard. Truly suffered so much."
Shane replied with absolutely no sincerity, his eyes already starting to drift toward the exit.
"Since you know how hard I work…"
Makarov's eyes rolled, and his tone suddenly shifted.
"Then how about taking over and protecting this guild for me someday?"
He still hadn't given up on his dream of tricking Shane into becoming the next guild master.
"Stop right there."
Shane didn't even let him finish. He waved both hands wildly, every inch of him radiating refusal.
"You're still strong as ever, old man. You can do this for another fifty years easily. No need for me at all."
"Besides, I think Laxus would be great. He's strong, ambitious, and he's your actual grandson. You should seriously consider him first."
His answer was immediate and absolute, with no room for negotiation.
What kind of joke was that?
Shane had seen with his own eyes how miserable Makarov's life as guild master was—buried every day under mountains of apology letters and compensation forms.
Taking over Fairy Tail? That would be like jumping straight into a pit of fire and kissing his good life goodbye forever.
"That idiot grandson of mine…"
At the mention of that name, Makarov's face instantly darkened, and he was just about to say more—
But Shane gave him no chance.
"Erza, let's go!"
As soon as he said it, he turned around to call to the girl who had been waiting off to the side.
At a time like this, who cared about taking a quest? The smart move was obviously to run before that retirement-crazed old man latched onto him for good.
"Don't you dare run! I still have real business to discuss!"
Bzz—
A burst of magic power exploded.
Shane had barely taken a step when the light above him darkened.
A giant hand appeared out of nowhere, grabbed him by the back of the collar like a chick, and yanked him right back.
"…"
Shane's feet dangled helplessly in the air as he swayed twice.
"Master, if you've got something to say, just say it. Why are you getting handsy? This is really embarrassing."
"Not grab you?"
Makarov dismissed the giant arm, then jabbed Shane hard on the head with a finger.
"With that sneaky concealment trick of yours just now, if I only used my mouth, you'd have vanished in the blink of an eye!"
Then he glared at Shane again and scolded him:
"And another thing—going that far and cutting the man's trousers? If you'd been caught, that would've counted as assaulting a Council official. Do you know how much worse that would've made things?!"
"Master, just say what you need to say already."
Shane shrank his neck back slightly, suspecting the old man was about to vent all the frustration from being chewed out earlier onto him, so he quickly changed the subject and urged him on.
"Hmph."
Seeing Shane finally behave, Makarov cleared his throat and grew serious.
"The news that you defeated Jose has already spread all across Fiore like it's grown wings."
"In a couple of days, a reporter from Weekly Sorcerer is coming to do an exclusive interview."
"A reporter?" Shane blinked.
"That's right."
Makarov pointed straight at him, his tone leaving no room for refusal.
"You'd better be ready, and don't you dare run off when the time comes! You are going to sit down and accept that interview properly!"
"And while you're at it, do some promotion for the guild. Try to fix our image as 'rampaging destroyers' and 'savages' in other people's eyes!"
"Did you hear me?!"
~~~
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