"The Grand Magic Games?"
"Yes, Sir! The kingdom is going to officially announce it soon!"
"It's already that time of the year, huh?"
Finn sighed, leaning back in his heavy mahogany chair. The grand office of the Magic Council's Fiore Branch in Hargeon was bathed in the warm, golden light of the late afternoon sun streaming through the stained-glass windows. The air in the room was usually sterile, smelling faintly of ink and polished wood, but Finn's mind was elsewhere as he listened to the scratching of quills from his subordinates.
The Grand Magic Games. It was the greatest, most anticipated event on the continent. Mages from various guilds would violently clash in a grand arena to claim the title of Fiore's number one guild.
"It's going to be so busy... so unbelievably troublesome," Finn muttered, rubbing his temples.
"Haha..."
His subordinates laughed awkwardly. They knew full well that the Council would be working grueling overtime. The Kingdom of Fiore would demand their full support in managing security, crowd control, and magical regulations during the event.
Still, as the Head of the Branch Office, Finn naturally didn't have to muddy his own hands with those trivialities. He would simply delegate the grueling tasks to his underlings. That was what a good leader did, after all.
To Finn, the Games weren't about prestige; they were a goldmine. The massive influx of tourists from across the continent—and beyond—meant astronomical profits. He controlled the hospitality networks, the food distribution, the merchandise, travel agencies, teleportation lacrimas, communication networks, and the advertising space. Every cheer in that arena would line his pockets with Jewels.
The King of Fiore was easy enough to deal with—a jovial man who just wanted to enjoy the spectacle. The nobles, however, were arrogant, demanding maggots who constantly tried to throw their weight around. Finn despised dealing with them.
Yet, leaning back in his tailored suit, Finn had to admit his own reality was staggering. He was only nineteen years old, yet he stood at the absolute pinnacle of Fiore's socio-economic ladder. He didn't have a system, game-breaking cheats, or a legendary lineage. He only had a single, highly versatile ability: Take Over magic. It allowed him to completely dominate and absorb the soul, skills, and absolute essence of his targets.
"Let's do our best this year, too," Finn said, his voice smooth and authoritative.
"Yes, Sir!"
His subordinates visibly relaxed, energized by his surprisingly good mood. They immediately dove back into their paperwork.
Was this the lingering effect of Bisca?
Finn shifted in his leather chair, a sudden, stifling heat rising in his lower abdomen. Despite the open windows, the heavy, musky scent of sweet perfume and slick, wet arousal still seemed to haunt the air around his desk. Just the memory of her flushed, teary-eyed expression—the way her heavy breasts had strained against that tight, straining cowgirl top as she knelt between his legs—was intoxicating. He remembered the lewd, breathless whimpers she made, the wet, slurping sounds echoing in the quiet office as she took him deep into her throat, desperately trying to satisfy him.
Imagining throwing her over this very desk, tearing away those tight denim shorts, and making her scream until she forgot all about her husband and her debts... it made him massively hard all over again. The fabric of his trousers suddenly felt painfully tight.
Finn forced himself to exhale, forcefully suppressing his rampant libido. Focus. Improve yourself.
Strength. That was the eternal bottleneck.
If he followed a purely physical path, relying on brute force like some meathead protagonist, it might be the simplest route. After all, pure, overwhelming physical might was the hardest thing to defend against. But his current physical specs were only just above average. He needed a profound evolution.
His past memories as Suzuki reminded him of the concept of the Enlightened from Tensura—a sheer evolution of the human soul. The best way to trigger a similar evolution in this world was by violently forcing open his Second Origin.
In the original timeline, when Natsu, Erza, Lucy, and the others returned from the seven-year time skip, they were hopelessly outclassed. Their solution was to find Ultear Milkovich and use her Arc of Time magic to painfully rip open their magical vessels, awakening their Second Origin.
It was agonizing, but it was the fastest, most effective way to shatter his mortal limits. Even Zeref, the immortal dark mage, had to rely on the Fairy Heart for infinite energy because a standard mortal body simply couldn't generate the raw, overwhelming might needed to kill a true Dragon.
"Ultear, huh?" Finn murmured under his breath.
She was exceptionally good at hiding. Of course, Finn had his "Manager" and a massive, invisible network of familiars acting as his eyes and ears across the kingdom. Finding her was only a matter of time.
But would she even help him?
The chances were incredibly slim. His relationship with Crime Sorcière—the vigilante guild founded by Ultear and Jellal—was purely parasitic. They ran around the continent nobly destroying Dark Guilds. The problem was, many of those Dark Guilds secretly paid Finn massive protection fees.
When Crime Sorcière started cutting into his profits, Finn had adapted. He began deliberately leaking the locations of his most useless or troublesome Dark Guild clients to Jellal. Crime Sorcière did all the dirty, violent work of wiping them out, while Finn, as the Magic Council Head, swooped in to seize their assets, take the public credit, and absorb their wealth. He had turned a group of righteous vigilantes into his unwitting thugs.
Because of this, if Ultear ever figured out how he was using them, she was more likely to drop a crystal orb on his head than awaken his magic.
The Grand Magic Games will be the perfect hunting ground, Finn concluded, and put aside the thought of Ultear. Chaos always brought opportunity. He desperately needed a vacation to prepare for it, a quiet place to strategize. But just as he was mentally mapping out his itinerary—
"C-Chief! There is trouble outside!"
A terrified guard burst through the heavy oak doors, panting heavily. The subordinates in the room scowled at the interruption, but before anyone could reprimand him, the very foundation of the building violently shook.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOMMM!!
A deafening explosion shattered the tranquil afternoon. The sharp, suffocating stench of sulfur, ash, and burning metal instantly flooded the office. Through the window, Finn could see the Council's massive, reinforced iron front gates blown entirely off their hinges, wreathed in blistering orange flames.
"FINN HOEN! COME OUT!" a feral, roaring voice echoed across the courtyard.
The clerks and subordinates froze, their faces draining of color as they stared in absolute terror at the smoke billowing outside.
Finn sat in total silence.
CRACK.
The expensive fountain pen in his hand snapped cleanly in two, black ink bleeding over his knuckles. The serene, calculating aura he had projected moments ago vanished, replaced by a cold, suffocating pressure that made the air in the room feel heavy.
"Let them in," Finn ordered, his voice terrifyingly calm, devoid of any emotion. He casually wiped the ink from his fingers with a silk handkerchief. "And bring me all the regional financial ledgers."
"S-Sir?" a subordinate stammered.
Finn's eyes narrowed into dangerous slits. "Prepare the foreclosure notices. Freeze every single asset under the name of Fairy Tail. Seize their new property and legally ban their members from taking any official quests. I want them ruined before the smoke in my courtyard clears."
"..."
The room fell into a stunned, breathless silence.
"Your answer?" Finn asked softly.
"YES, SIR!"
The entire office scrambled into a frantic, terrified frenzy of paperwork. In a matter of seconds, Natsu Dragneel's reckless anger had just signed the absolute death warrant of Fairy Tail's future.
"Also, fire the guards at the gate."
"...."
---
By the way, I might have said this before, but I have uploaded my new original story. The title is "Checking Out at 5:15 PM" with the name "OnlyPureLove44," or I might change it to Akikan in the future.
Regardless, there are more than ten chapters now.
You can check when you want to read more of my work.
Thank you!