Several days passed in the blink of an eye.
That morning, Rowan strolled into the guild with a relaxed smile.
"Good morning, Rowan."
Lucy walked over and greeted him.
A few days earlier, she had reluctantly been dragged away by Natsu to complete a job and had only returned yesterday.
Although the mission had been full of twists and turns, the result had been excellent. Not only had they successfully completed it, but she had also obtained one of the twelve Zodiac Celestial Spirit Keys.
That alone had made her so happy that she could hardly contain herself. She smiled at everyone she saw.
"Good morning, Lucy."
Rowan responded, sweeping his gaze over her.
"You look radiant and full of energy. Did something good happen?"
"You could say that."
Lucy replied with a smile. Just as she was about to explain, Natsu ran over excitedly.
"Rowan, duel me!"
Lucy stared at him.
"Seriously… Just how much do you like fighting?"
"Sure."
Rowan casually agreed.
Natsu was overjoyed. He slammed his fists together as his magical energy began boiling.
"I'm all fired up! Take this—Fire Dragon's Iron—"
"Freezing Bird!"
Rowan flicked his finger, firing an icy bird at tremendous speed.
Natsu was instantly frozen solid.
Happy said, "Aye. Natsu lost."
Lucy could not help commenting, "That was fast. It didn't even take three seconds, did it?"
During their previous mission, she had once again witnessed Natsu in action. His strength was truly extraordinary.
Yet Rowan had frozen him with a simple flick of his finger.
This was what it meant when people said there was always someone stronger and a sky beyond the sky.
"The guild is as lively as ever today."
At that moment, Erza walked over. Seeing the frozen Natsu and Gray mocking him nearby, she could not help smiling.
Mirajane approached carrying several drinks she had prepared and handed one to each of them.
"Erza, did something good happen? You seem much happier than usual today."
"Is it that obvious?"
Erza touched her face.
Mirajane nodded.
"Extremely obvious."
Lucy looked at Erza several times before commenting, "I can't tell at all. Doesn't she look exactly the same as usual?"
Erza said, "Actually, something good did happen recently. Jose, the Guild Master of Phantom Lord, was arrested by the Magic Council for researching forbidden magic. Even Phantom Lord itself was disbanded."
The moment Rowan heard this, he knew Ultear had acted.
That woman's methods were as ruthless as ever.
"What? Phantom Lord was disbanded?"
Lucy was greatly shocked.
That was a guild said to rival Fairy Tail, yet it had been dissolved overnight.
Wasn't that far too unbelievable?
Mirajane was also surprised.
Only a few days ago, the Guild Master and Erza had still been troubled over Phantom Lord. Yet today, they suddenly heard that the guild had been dissolved.
Could there be something suspicious behind this?
"What exactly happened?"
Erza shook her head.
"I don't know the exact details, but the order came directly from the Magic Council and was unanimously approved. There was conclusive evidence that Jose had been researching forbidden magic, so he was arrested."
Rowan calmly said, "If I remember correctly, Jose specialises in Dark Magic."
Mirajane nodded.
Rowan continued, "Isn't it perfectly normal for someone who studies that kind of magic to eventually fall into darkness and begin researching forbidden spells?"
After all, Precht Gaebolg, one of Fairy Tail's four founding members and its second Guild Master, had also studied Dark Magic.
In his later years, he ultimately descended into the abyss of the demonic path and became a major villain.
It was entirely normal for someone like Jose to research forbidden magic.
In the original story, Jose possessed magical power on the same level as Makarov. His evil magic carried the aura of death everywhere it spread, and weaker mages would feel nauseated merely by standing in front of him.
No matter how one looked at it, that was abnormal.
It was not the kind of magical power a normal mage should possess.
Therefore, when the Magic Council claimed that Jose had studied forbidden magic, Rowan did not doubt it in the slightest.
"Even if you put it that way, isn't the timing a little too coincidental?" Mirajane asked hesitantly.
Hearing her words, Erza also frowned.
Come to think of it, not long ago, she had personally approached Ultear and asked her to use her influence to restrain Jose.
Then, shortly afterward, Jose was arrested and Phantom Lord was forcibly dissolved.
Erza had not initially thought too deeply about it, but after hearing Mirajane's suspicions, she also began to hesitate.
Could Ultear have really used her influence to frame Phantom Lord?
If that were true, wouldn't that mean they had been in the wrong?
In the end, to confirm the truth, Erza dragged Rowan back to the Magic Council and found Ultear.
She wanted to know whether there was anything suspicious behind the matter.
Inside a reception room,
after understanding Erza's concerns, Ultear looked at her with a faint smile.
"You're as upright as ever, Erza."
Erza's heart skipped a beat.
"Don't tell me you really…"
"No."
Before Erza could finish, Ultear decisively interrupted her.
"We did not falsely accuse Phantom Lord, nor did we frame Jose."
"Really?"
Erza stared firmly into Ultear's eyes.
Ultear met her gaze without fear.
"To be honest, I really did intend to do that at first. But after investigating him, I discovered that I had no need to."
"Because Jose was already filthy to begin with."
"Ever since he lost to your Guild Master, Makarov, six years ago, he has constantly wanted to defeat him and wash away that humiliation."
"But under normal circumstances, he could never defeat your Guild Master."
"So he began using human lives to cultivate Dark Magic."
"What?!"
Erza was horrified. Her heroic eyebrows rose sharply, and her crimson hair whipped through the air.
"He used human lives to cultivate Dark Magic? How is that any different from following an evil path? No, that is the very definition of evil!"
Ultear nodded.
"That's right. It is an evil practice. That is why the Magic Council arrested Jose and forcibly disbanded Phantom Lord."
Erza nodded thoughtfully before asking the key question.
"Why was this only discovered now?"
Ultear pointed at Erza.
"Because of you."
"Me?"
Erza looked confused, uncertainty filling her eyes.
Ultear explained, "When you previously asked me to restrain Jose, I originally planned to fabricate an excuse, frame him, and have him forcibly imprisoned. So I conducted an extremely thorough investigation into him."
"That was when I discovered his secret—he had been using human lives to practise Dark Magic."
"He was very cautious. He did not use ordinary civilians. Instead, he used members of illegal organisations such as Dark Guilds and assassination guilds as sacrifices."
"That is why no one discovered it until now."
In the world of Fairy Tail, several different types of guilds existed.
There were legitimate guilds officially recognised by the Magic Council, such as Fairy Tail, Blue Pegasus, and Lamia Scale.
These guilds mainly operated by accepting normal requests from clients. They also often performed charitable work.
Fairy Tail was the most common example. The guild took in children who had nowhere else to go and provided them with simple work so they could support themselves.
Dark Guilds, on the other hand, were organisations not recognised by the Magic Council.
These guilds had almost no restrictions. As long as someone paid them, they would accept practically any job.
Arson, murder, robbery—they committed every kind of crime.
The most famous example was the Balam Alliance, formed by the three great organisations Oración Seis, Tartaros, and Grimoire Heart.
The alliance sought to control the magical world, and every guild master within it possessed power surpassing that of the Ten Wizard Saints.
They were the dominant forces among Dark Guilds.
Besides them, Eisenwald had also been a Dark Guild, though it was only a smaller organisation.
In addition to legitimate guilds and Dark Guilds, there were assassination guilds.
These guilds specialised exclusively in murder.
Dark Guilds accepted all kinds of criminal jobs.
Assassination guilds did only one thing—
kill people.
Wherever someone needed to be assassinated, they could hire them.
In the original story, the Trinity Raven, who appeared during the Tower of Heaven Arc, was the most typical example. They were an elite guerrilla unit under the assassin guild Death's Head Caucus.
The leader of the Trinity Raven, Ikaruga, was a female swordswoman with long cherry-blossom-coloured hair who wore a white kimono and wooden sandals.
She had once pushed Erza to the brink of defeat.
There were also mercenary guilds and treasure-hunter guilds.
However, those latter two were generally lawful organisations.
They were completely different from Dark Guilds and assassination guilds.
Dark Guilds and assassination guilds handled dirty work, and every member was a wanted criminal.
Naturally, no one cared much when Jose used their lives to practise magic.
But whether people cared and whether it violated the law were two entirely different matters.
It was similar to how killing a wanted criminal in battle might be acceptable, but using that criminal as a subject for inhumane experimentation would be going too far.
Some matters were fine as long as they were never officially examined.
But once they were placed on the scales of judgment, they became serious problems.
Even as one of the Ten Wizard Saints, Jose did not have the right to kill people, much less use the lives of wanted criminals to cultivate magic.
Regardless of whether his victims were criminals, his actions followed an evil path and were explicitly forbidden.
After Ultear discovered the matter, she reported it directly to the Magic Council.
Every council member despised such behaviour. They immediately arrested Jose and forcibly dissolved Phantom Lord.
After understanding the entire situation, Erza released a breath of relief.
As long as Jose had not been falsely accused, everything was fine.
As for his use of human lives to cultivate magic, he had fully deserved his punishment.
Naturally, Erza would never plead for someone like that.
"Thank you for your help, Councilor Ultear."