The Edolas incident had come to an end, and Fairy Tail returned to its usual, not-so-peaceful days.
On this day, Hope arrived at the guild as usual.
The hall was sparsely populated, with only about a third of the usual number of people present.
Aside from a few familiar faces who were still sitting in their usual spots drinking and bragging, most of the members had gone out to work after the end of the Harvest Festival.
After all, they still had to make a living.
"Cana, drinking alone today?"
Hope swaggered over and sat down opposite Cana, looking around. "It's truly rare. That drunkard uncle isn't pestering you today."
Cana waved her hand impatiently. "Don't mention Gildarts. If I had known he was so annoying, I wouldn't have admitted I was his daughter."
Ever since finding out about Cana's identity, Gildarts had suddenly turned into a doting father, constantly fussing over her.
At first, Cana was immersed in the paternal love she had once longed for so much, but after a few days, she couldn't take it anymore and drove Gildarts away to continue his adventures.
"Well, look at you, acting all annoyed."
Hope smiled. "I don't know who it was that was crying her eyes out while hugging Gildarts after they reunited."
Cana scratched her face in embarrassment and quickly changed the subject. "By the way, our young lady from the Heartfilia Conglomerate, her family seems to have gone bankrupt."
"I heard. Lucy took Natsu and Happy and went home yesterday, saying she wanted to buy back some things her father had mortgaged."
It was no secret in the guild anymore that Lucy came from the Heartfilia Conglomerate.
This conglomerate controlled a vast amount of magical railway operations, bringing in money every day, making it wealthy enough to rival a nation. As long as they didn't do anything reckless, they could remain wealthy forever.
But Lucy's father, who had built the family conglomerate into such a powerhouse, got trapped in a recent large-scale investment, leading to a break in the capital chain.
In a series of chain reactions, Lucy's father had to sell off the operating rights to the magical railways, and in the end, he even had to mortgage their massive mansion that occupied an entire hilltop.
This really worried Lucy. The day she received the news, she rushed home in a panic. She still had some money on her and was hoping to redeem some of her mother's keepsakes and other important personal items.
Cana took a sip of her drink. "Sigh, Lucy is really unlucky to be stuck with a father like that."
Hope nodded in agreement.
The relationship between Lucy and her father was bad, so bad it could even be described as terrible. He didn't allow Lucy to be in contact with magic and had kept her locked up at home alone since she was a child.
Fortunately, Lucy still had the spiritual companionship left behind by her mother.
Previously, when Lucy's father commissioned Phantom Lord to bring back his runaway daughter, it was because he was on the verge of bankruptcy and wanted to marry Lucy off to the son of some conglomerate to secure financial support through a political marriage.
To be able to do something like selling his own daughter, he really was something else.
Fortunately, in the end, Fairy Tail steamrolled Phantom Lord, otherwise Lucy might have been forced to marry a complete stranger.
"Tsk, why are there so many terrible fathers out there?"
"Hey, hey, don't use an AoE attack on everyone. Isn't Macao a good father?"
Hope rubbed his chin. "I remember he went on a high-difficulty subjugation mission all by himself for the sake of his son, Romeo."
Cana pouted. "And then he wiped out on the very last monster. It was Natsu's team who found out about it and went to save him."
"Heh..."
Hope waved his hand. "Let's not talk about that. I have a gift for you."
Cana downed her drink and smiled. "Just a heads up, big sister here won't accept any gifts other than fine wine~"
"That's a real shame."
Hope pulled out a card box, shook it in his hand, and sighed. "In that case, I'll just have to keep this set of magic cards I personally crafted for someone to play with myself."
"Apologies, this little one had too much to drink just now. Please, you absolutely must give this gift to me."
Cana slid to her knees at the speed of light.
Hope laughed and tossed the card box to her. "Take a look. This is my masterpiece."
The quality of magic cards on the market could only be described as uneven.
Moreover, high-grade magic cards were not only extremely rare but also unaffordable for average Mages. Even if one settled for mid-grade cards, a single card could often fetch a high price.
Cana had tried hard to earn money in the past, but in the end, she was defeated by the unaffordable prices of the cards. It had been over two years since she had purchased any new magic cards.
After the father-daughter reunion, Gildarts offered to buy powerful cards for Cana, but she refused.
It wasn't that she felt bad for her old man's money.
Gildarts might look unkempt and a bit sloppy, but he was actually quite wealthy. After all, he was the type who could treat S-Class missions like ordinary tasks.
The reason Cana had given up was because the potential of magic cards was too low.
Unless it was a special circumstance, the people who crafted magic cards were generally not powerful Mages. Otherwise, they could simply choose to craft weapons or armor that sold for much higher prices, so why bother with card crafting?
But Hope was no ordinary Mage.
Cana couldn't wait and opened the card box, which contained ten magic cards. "Blue-Eyes White Dragon? Red-Eyes Black Dragon? Cyber Dragon? Stardust Dragon? Red Dragon Archfiend?"
"No, with this many 'Dragons,' are you planning on holding a meeting..."
Looking at the magic cards that were completely different from the ones she remembered, Cana was a bit confused, but these cards looked quite powerful.
Hope smiled slightly. "These five cards are Monster Cards. I crafted them using 'Attachment Spell' and various 'Shaping' magics. You just need to pay the magic power, and you can summon them to fight for you."
"Also, although Cyber Dragon has 'Dragon' in its name, it's actually not a dragon."
Cana scratched her head. "Is, is there any difference?"
For a dragon enthusiast, there really was a big difference. Hope shook his head; as expected, only a card player could understand another card player.
Hope then introduced the remaining five cards in the box to Cana.
The life-saving card "Kuriboh" that could block an attack at a critical moment.
The "Cauldron of the Old Man" that could automatically produce healing potions and damage potions.
The remaining three were "Mirror Force," "Magic Cylinder," and "Half Shut." The first two could respectively counter physical and magical enemy attacks, and the latter could reduce the power of an enemy's attack.
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