Rowan pushed open the doors and entered the Fairy Tail Guild.
A wave of noise immediately greeted him.
Compared with yesterday, the guild was much livelier today. Large numbers of members had gathered in small groups, arguing and roughhousing, while plenty of others stood nearby cheering them on.
Hmm… how should he put it?
This certainly felt like Fairy Tail.
Rowan walked over to the bar and asked Mirajane, who was watching the commotion from the sidelines,
"What happened?"
"It's Gray," Mirajane said. "Gray is also a mage of Fairy Tail. Because he practises Ice-Make Magic, he has a habit of taking off his clothes. He accidentally threw the clothes he removed onto Cana's head, and the two of them started arguing."
Rowan let out an "Oh."
"That's it?"
Mirajane smiled faintly.
"It shows that everyone is full of energy."
Rowan was speechless.
But after thinking about it carefully, this was probably one of Fairy Tail's defining characteristics.
While the two were talking, Erza walked over.
"Good morning, Rowan."
Rowan pointed at Gray and Cana, who were still arguing.
"Aren't you going to stop them?"
Erza glanced over, then withdrew her gaze.
"As long as they don't start fighting, I won't interfere over something this minor. Besides, there's something I want to tell you."
Rowan raised an eyebrow.
"What is it?"
Erza said, "I spent all night thinking about it. I've decided which Devil Fruits I want to eat."
"You've already decided? That was quick."
"Yes."
"Then tell me. Which fruits do you want?"
Without hesitation, Erza listed the fruits she had chosen.
"The More-More Fruit, the Warp-Warp Fruit, and the Twinkle-Twinkle Fruit."
Erza understood very clearly that her fighting style was already mature. Rashly changing it would not necessarily be a good thing.
What she needed to do now was strengthen her existing combat style.
The More-More Fruit would greatly increase her offensive power.
The Warp-Warp Fruit would make her attacks far more flexible.
As for the Twinkle-Twinkle Fruit, it would greatly improve her defence.
With those three abilities, her strength would naturally rise to an entirely different level.
After hearing her choices, Rowan smiled faintly.
"As expected of you, Erza. You really understand exactly what you need."
Erza modestly replied, "Thank you for the compliment."
Rowan took out the three fruits he had prepared in advance and placed them in front of Erza.
"The fruits are ready. But before that, I need to give you an injection."
"An injection?"
Erza looked confused.
Rowan took out a syringe.
"Normally, a person can only eat one Devil Fruit. If they eat a second one, their body will explode. However, we've already deciphered the secret behind Devil Fruits."
"As long as you're injected with the Superhuman Serum, you can eat several Devil Fruits."
Hearing this, Erza decisively extended her right arm.
"Please."
"No need to be so polite."
Rowan injected the Superhuman Serum into Erza's body, then pointed toward the three fruits.
"You can eat them now. But Devil Fruits taste awful, so prepare yourself."
Erza picked up one of the fruits.
"They taste awful? That's fine."
She had eaten plenty of terrible food before. It was only a Devil Fruit. How bad could it possibly be?
Crunch!
With a crisp sound, Erza bit into the Devil Fruit.
Her expression changed dramatically in an instant, and her body nearly swayed off balance.
Mirajane asked curiously, "Are you alright, Erza?"
"I-I'm fine."
Erza forcibly swallowed the fruit, her complexion looking absolutely dreadful.
Mirajane could not help asking, "Does it really taste that bad?"
Erza remained silent for a moment before answering,
"It doesn't feel like I ate a fruit. It feels like I swallowed rotten food that had been left to spoil for a hundred days."
Mirajane's gaze toward the Devil Fruits immediately filled with disgust.
Were they really that outrageous?
Erza looked at the fruit she had bitten, wearing the expression of someone prepared to face death. Just as she was about to force herself to finish the entire thing, Rowan's voice drifted over.
"One bite from each fruit is enough."
The deathly determined Erza immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
She hurriedly threw away the fruit in her hand, then picked up the other two untouched fruits and took one bite from each.
Her entire face scrunched together.
The sight made Mirajane's heart tremble.
It seemed these things tasted even worse than she had imagined. Even Erza could barely endure them.
At that moment, Mirajane completely lost all interest in Devil Fruits.
"How do you feel?"
"Very strange."
Erza extended her right hand, and her fingers instantly transformed into diamond.
"How should I describe it? It feels as natural as breathing. It has become an instinct. There's no preparation required and no need to form a magic circle. I can use the power as soon as I think about it."
Hearing this, Mirajane's resolve wavered slightly again.
She understood perfectly what Erza meant.
Using an ability as naturally as breathing was something usually only seen when a person had practised magic so deeply that it had become ingrained in their bones.
Generally speaking, anyone who reached that level was an old monster who had lived for decades.
Even Mirajane's Take Over Magic required about one second of preparation before activation.
But Erza's Devil Fruit abilities did not.
In battle, that difference could play an extremely important role.
Perhaps Devil Fruits tasted awful, but their effects were genuinely excellent.
Maybe she should eat one too…
While Mirajane was hesitating, Erza suddenly said, "By the way, I have another matter to deal with. I won't be able to accompany you for the next few days. If you're interested in anything, you can ask Mirajane."
"Oh? Where are you going?"
"I'm going to Eisenwald."
As soon as Erza finished speaking, she disappeared from the Fairy Tail Guild.
Eisenwald was a Dark Guild in this country. In the original story, its members were secretly searching for the cursed flute Lullaby, intending to assassinate the guild masters holding their regular meeting in Clover Town.
However, Erza accidentally overheard their conspiracy while they were discussing it in a tavern.
She then returned to the guild and gathered Natsu and the others to form the Strongest Team and pursue them.
This was also the first major climax of the story.
But because of Rowan's arrival, Erza had returned to Fairy Tail early through the Door-Door Fruit.
She had not overheard Eisenwald's plot in the tavern.
Fortunately, Rowan had shown her the manga.
Therefore, even though Erza never heard Eisenwald's members discussing their plan, she still knew how events were supposed to unfold.
Her decision to visit Eisenwald now clearly meant she intended to eliminate the threat in advance.
It seemed Erza had already begun taking action to change the story.
Rowan watched Erza disappear but did not follow her.
The main reason was that Eisenwald's members were basically worthless small fry. With Erza's current strength, destroying the guild would be effortless.
There was no need for him to interfere.
He would rather use that time to eat something delicious.
So Rowan asked Mirajane, "Are there any good restaurants nearby? Somewhere that serves local specialities?"
Mirajane placed one finger against her chin.
"For food, I remember a very good barbecue restaurant. They use extremely fresh snow-mountain yak meat. It tastes excellent."
Rowan's eyes immediately lit up.
"Where is it?"
Mirajane smiled.
"If you don't mind, I can take you there at noon."
"Of course I don't mind. Thank you, Miss Mirajane."
Rowan thanked her with a smile.
…
At noon, Mirajane brought Rowan to the barbecue restaurant she had mentioned.
Rowan tasted the food, and it was indeed excellent.
The snow-mountain yak meat Mirajane recommended was especially delicious. It was clearly not ordinary beef, but meat from some kind of magical beast. Its flavour was no worse than Sea King meat.
The main reason was that the magical beast's flesh had been nourished by magic, making it exceptionally tender and delicious.
Rowan thoroughly enjoyed the meal.
After lunch, Rowan and Mirajane returned to the Fairy Tail Guild.
At that point, Rowan finally met Fairy Tail's Guild Master.
One of the Ten Wizard Saints—
Makarov Dreyar.
"You're Rowan, the new member who joined Fairy Tail yesterday?"
Although Makarov was the third Guild Master, he was undoubtedly the shortest person in the guild.
He was simply a tiny old man.
However, this little old man's strength was anything but ordinary. He had mastered Giant Magic as well as elemental magic such as fire, ice, and wind.
Putting his other magic aside, Giant Magic alone was extremely interesting.
The user could enlarge their body through this magic, but merely calling it enlargement did not fully describe how terrifying Giant Magic was.
The true core of Giant Magic was that it altered both the user's size and physical-power parameters. The increase in body size was directly proportional to the increase in strength.
Simply put, when Makarov transformed into a hundred-metre giant, his strength would also increase to the level a hundred-metre giant should possess.
In other words, as long as he had enough magical energy, Makarov could theoretically transform into a giant several thousand metres tall and lift the Himalayas.
That was terrifying.
It was practically equivalent to the legendary divine ability to manifest a colossal heavenly form.
Rowan was extremely interested in this magic.
Faced with Makarov's question, Rowan nodded.
"That's right. I'm Rowan."
Makarov examined him curiously for a few moments.
"Come with me."
He then brought Rowan into the Fairy Tail Guild's library, where many books about magic were stored.
After entering the library, Makarov found a chair and sat down.
"Erza contacted me yesterday and told me about your origins. You're someone from another world, correct?"
Rowan nodded.
"That's right."
Makarov rubbed his temples.
"If Erza hadn't been the one to tell me, I wouldn't have believed it. A person from another world is simply too absurd."
"But you still believed her, didn't you?"
"Because Erza was the one who told me," Makarov said.
He might doubt Natsu.
He might doubt Gray.
But he would never doubt Erza.
Erza would never lie to him about something this important, nor would she be easily deceived by someone else.