"I'll take the third round."
Rufus lightly adjusted the brim of his hat and smiled.
"A quiz."
Ultear and Lucy exchanged a glance before Ultear nodded.
"You take this one, Lucy."
Lucy clenched her fist and nodded confidently.
"If it's a battle of brains, leave it to me!"
Happy, who had finally recovered from his devastating popularity-contest defeat, immediately pointed out,
"Your opponent uses Memory-Make, though..."
Lector served as the quizmaster.
"First question! What is the full name of Sabertooth member Orga?"
Lucy slapped the buzzer almost instantly and raised her hand.
"Orga Nanagear!"
"Er..."
Rufus knew the answer too, but by the time he elegantly reached toward his buzzer, Lucy had already finished answering.
"Moving that quickly is somewhat lacking in elegance..."
As a bard, Rufus believed everything should be done with grace.
Rushing was simply unacceptable.
"Second question! What annual event does Sabertooth hold?"
"The Tiger-Tiger-Tiger Eating Contest!" Lucy answered immediately.
Once again, Rufus calmly and elegantly extended his hand toward the buzzer.
Lucy had already given the answer before his finger even reached it.
"Third question! Sabertooth member Rufus's finishing move: Frozen XXXX."
"Frozen Black Lightning Sword!"
There were five questions in total.
Lucy won five to zero.
Even at the very end, Rufus stubbornly refused to sacrifice elegance for speed.
Sting stomped his foot in frustration.
"WHO CARES ABOUT ELEGANCE?! I never should've picked you!"
Rufus shook his head.
"Your behavior is terribly inelegant, Master."
While Sting continued fuming, Lector announced the result.
"The winner is Lucy! That makes the score two to one!"
Minerva stepped forward.
"For the fourth round, you shall compete against me in an eating contest."
"There it is! The Young Lady's specialty!!!"
"I accept!"
Erza volunteered before anyone had the chance to stop her.
Gray hesitantly asked,
"Erza doesn't normally eat that much, does she?"
Fairy Tail's biggest eaters had always been people like Laxus, Natsu, and Gray.
These days, Kurnugi and Selene could also be added to that list.
Raizel quietly replied,
"Just assume we've already lost this round."
Unfortunately, neither Kurnugi nor Selene was there.
Selene was still in Guiltina, while Kurnugi had gone out on a job.
Erza planted her hands proudly on her hips.
"This is where fighting spirit matters! As long as I imagine everything as dessert, I can eat any amount!"
"Then this is our time to shine!"
Mira, Lisanna, and Kinana hurried into the kitchen.
Soon, enormous bowls of ramen larger than a person's face were placed on the table, followed by plates holding massive steaks and towering burgers stacked with layer after layer of beef patties.
All of it was arranged before Erza and Minerva.
Erza immediately panicked.
'There is absolutely no amount of fighting spirit that will let me finish all of this!'
"Ready..."
...
It did not take long for Erza to become completely stuffed.
She rested her chin on the table with a dazed expression and weakly muttered,
"Monster..."
Minerva, meanwhile, continued devouring food like a whirlwind.
It was an overwhelming victory.
The stack of empty plates beside Minerva reached halfway to a person's height.
Erza's empty plates, on the other hand, could still be counted at a glance—and even that was already far beyond what she normally ate.
"A crushing victory! That makes it two to two!"
Sting excitedly announced the result.
Gray, Lucy, Kagura, and the others all wore expressions that said they had expected exactly this.
"Why did you think you could win?"
Sting rested one elbow on the table.
"For the fifth and final round—arm wrestling! I'll be competing personally."
"If you can beat me, Fairy Tail wins."
"So it comes down to strength after all!"
Natsu immediately began stretching, eager to go.
"Then Natsu can take this one."
If nothing else, Natsu certainly had raw strength.
"Bring it on! I'm not losing!"
Natsu and Sting sat across from one another and clasped hands.
Both wore sleeveless jackets, making their biceps and triceps clearly visible.
Natsu in particular already had veins bulging across his arm.
Raizel placed a hand over theirs.
"Ready—GO!!!"
Both immediately used all their strength.
Their teeth clenched, veins standing out across their foreheads as their arms trembled.
"Power of White—purify the flames!"
Sting was the first to reinforce himself with Magic Power.
He also started shouting at the top of his lungs.
The balance immediately began shifting in his favor.
"Fire Dragon's... ARM-WRESTLING POWER!!! RAAAAAGH!"
Natsu shouted even louder.
The advantage slowly shifted back toward him.
Lucy stared at them with a deeply strange expression.
"Is this still an arm-wrestling match???"
Wendy awkwardly scratched her cheek.
"I... think so?"
"Sting!"
"Where's your fighting spirit?!"
"Do your best, Sting-kun!"
With Rogue, Minerva, and Lector cheering from the sidelines, Sting unleashed everything he had.
Dense white Magic Power wrapped around his entire body.
"WHITE DRAGON'S... ARM-WRESTLING POWER!!!"
"Natsu, you can do it!"
Now that Sabertooth had formed a cheering squad, Lucy and Wendy stopped questioning the situation and joined in.
"FIRE DRAGON KING'S..."
"Eh?!"
Sting's expression froze.
"ARM-WRESTLING POWER!!!"
Violent flames erupted from Natsu's right arm.
The table was instantly burned to ashes.
The floor beneath them cracked apart as well.
"DON'T DESTROY THE GUILD!!!" Erza shouted.
Ultear shook her head helplessly.
"Now I understand why they insisted on holding the competition at our guild. They were worried about their own building getting destroyed."
Regardless, the result was decided.
Sting's hand was beneath Natsu's.
Natsu had won.
The two competitors simply grinned at each other, teeth bared in mutual satisfaction.
Sting turned toward Raizel and nodded.
"We'll keep our promise. You'll be granted access to the Sabertooth Grand Library."
"Thanks."
Raizel already knew that Sting had mostly proposed the games because he wanted to have some fun.
Regardless of who actually won, Sting probably would have let them use the library in the end.
Sting shook his head.
"No need to thank me. A promise is a promise."
...
East Zania Town, Fiore Kingdom—Sabertooth Territory.
The Sabertooth Grand Library stood in the very center of town.
It was easily the tallest building in the area, towering far above Fairy Tail's newly rebuilt thirty-three-point-three-meter guild hall.
Its interior was even more enormous.
While nearly every surrounding building stood only two or three stories tall, the Grand Library rose over the town like a giant among dwarfs.
The moment Raizel stepped inside, he finally understood why it was called the greatest library in Ishgar.
The first floor alone rose more than fifteen meters.
Directly opposite the main entrance stood a statue of the library's founder.
On both sides of the statue—and extending along the walls to the left and right—were four levels of bookshelves, each roughly three meters tall.
And that was only the first floor.
There were several more levels above them.
Raizel could barely imagine how many books the place contained altogether.
"Whoa! This place is amazing!!!"
"There are so many books!"
Lucy and Wendy's amazed voices echoed continuously through the hall.
Sting placed his hands proudly on his hips.
"East, west, south, and north—from Alakitasia in the west all the way to Guiltina in the north, books from across the world are collected here."
"This library is one of Sabertooth's greatest prides."
Rogue stood beside him and added expressionlessly,
"Incidentally, Sting has never read a single one."
Frosch innocently raised a paw.
"Frosch hasn't either!"
---------
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