Some time had passed since Byakuran’s Take Over of Mahoraga, and his life had gradually returned to peace.
Magnolia was lively in the early morning.
People came and went along the streets, the shouts from the shops on both sides rose and fell, and the aroma of freshly baked bread drifted through the air.
Byakuran strolled down the street, looking left and right as he searched for the target of today’s three meals.
A cake shop displaying a dazzling assortment of desserts soon caught his attention.
His index finger twitched with anticipation.
Without thinking twice, he walked into the shop.
After struggling to make a decision for quite some time, he finally picked out a large bag filled with desserts, including strawberry cake, cream puffs, tiramisu, and more.
Byakuran walked up to the counter and waited to pay.
At that moment, outside the shop, Erza happened to be passing by after finishing her morning training and preparing to return to the guild.
When her gaze caught sight of the exquisite strawberry cake displayed in the window, her eyes lit up instantly.
She subconsciously swallowed.
Her entire body came to a sudden stop, as if she had been frozen in place.
Yet after a moment, the figures of her companions who were still suffering in the Tower of Paradise suddenly surfaced in her mind.
A heavy sense of guilt surged through her heart once again.
Carrying the lives of my companions on my shoulders, how can I indulge in the happiness brought by something as trivial as cake?
The light in her eyes gradually faded.
Erza clenched her fists slightly and slowly looked away, her expression becoming gloomy.
“What are you doing, Erza?”
A somewhat familiar voice suddenly came from ahead.
Erza raised her head and froze for a moment.
Byakuran had just walked out of the cake shop and was now standing directly in front of her.
Erza’s expression stiffened.
She stammered, trying to conceal what she had been doing.
“…Nothing. I was just passing by.”
She hadn’t expected to encounter Byakuran here, so she quickly turned the question back on him.
“You’re the one here. What are you doing?”
Byakuran shook the bag in his hand.
“Isn’t it obvious? I came to buy desserts.”
He glanced at the cake shop.
“What about you? Aren’t you going inside to buy some? I remember strawberry cake is your favorite.”
“No.”
Erza turned her head away, her voice low.
“Indulging in the happiness brought by cake will make people weak.”
Byakuran’s smile froze.
“…Are you hinting at me?”
“Ah, no. Um…”
Erza suddenly became flustered and wanted to explain that she hadn’t meant it that way.
Before she could finish, however, Byakuran took a small cake from the bag in his hand, unwrapped it, and held it directly in front of her eyes.
“Erza, did you know that this shop’s cakes are some of the most famous in Magnolia?”
“The cake is fluffy and soft, while the cream is sweet without being greasy. It practically melts in your mouth. And the slightly sour strawberry jam in the filling perfectly complements the sweetness of the cream, blending together naturally.”
He smiled.
“One bite, and the taste is beyond words.”
Erza’s eyes stared straight at the cake.
As Byakuran’s words entered her ears one by one, her saliva began to increase uncontrollably.
Her throat moved as she swallowed.
Byakuran tilted his head slightly, staring directly at Erza.
His voice was soft, yet filled with temptation.
“Come on, Erza.”
“Are you going to eat this exquisite strawberry cake yourself…”
“Or are you going to watch it return to my shopping bag with your own eyes?”
Faced with the ultimate temptation of delicious food and Byakuran’s seductive words, Erza’s thoughts completely stopped.
Possessed by some mysterious impulse, she snatched the cake from Byakuran’s hand and immediately took a bite.
Chew, chew, chew!
It wasn’t until the happiness brought by the delicious taste filled her mind that Erza finally realized what she had done.
Her face instantly flushed red.
She stood there frozen.
When she raised her head, she was met with Byakuran’s smiling gaze.
People who say one thing but mean another will often subconsciously choose the answer that their heart truly desires.
“That’s right!”
Byakuran smiled.
“What weakness? The happiness you feel while eating something delicious is the most important thing!”
“You have to hold tightly onto every piece of happiness within your reach, Erza!”
Erza stuffed the rest of the cake into her mouth in two or three bites, puffing out her cheeks.
After finally swallowing it, she wiped the cream from the corner of her mouth.
Her cheeks were still slightly flushed, but her eyes had become clear.
She smiled brightly at Byakuran.
“Sorry. You’re right.”
“I should be honest with my own heart.”
Erza turned around.
“Wait for me a moment. I’ll buy you another one to compensate you.”
Before Byakuran could even finish saying no, Erza had already rushed into the shop.
She pointed at the strawberry cakes displayed inside.
“Please give me fifty servings of that kind of strawberry cake!”
“Fifty?!”
The shop owner widened his eyes in shock.
“Little girl, are you buying enough for a banquet?”
“No.”
Erza shook her head with a completely serious expression.
“I’ll eat forty-nine of them myself.”
Another day, outside the guild.
“Slanted eyes!”
“Droopy eyes!”
“So noisy!”
“So noisy!”
Before Byakuran had even entered the guild, he saw Natsu and Gray fighting outside the door.
The two went back and forth, dodging left and right, jumping up and down.
One punched.
The other kicked.
They traded blows continuously, evenly matched.
It was actually quite entertaining.
In the eyes of experts, this might still be nothing more than two beginners pecking at each other.
But to ordinary people, it was already a fairly impressive battle.
If these two agreed to it, perhaps they could even hold exhibition matches in the future.
They could satisfy their desire to fight while earning some ticket money on the side.
Not a bad idea.
Byakuran ignored the two noisy fighters, bypassed the crowd of spectators, and entered the guild.
The first person he encountered was Erza, who had a dark expression on her face.
Byakuran immediately stepped aside to give her room.
Looks like those two are about to have another bad day.
Without paying attention to the commotion outside, Byakuran walked toward the request board.
He had relaxed enough recently.
It was time to take on a request and stretch his muscles.
“Yo, Nobu. You’re still picking requests?”
“Yeah.”
Nobu nodded confidently.
“I have a feeling that the perfect request for me will appear soon!”
“Uh…”
Byakuran gave him an awkward smile.
“Well, I hope you get what you’re looking for…”
Fairy Tail’s new generation of members gradually began joining the guild.
Nobu, Levy, Jet, Droy, and the others arrived one after another.
The Shadow Gear trio had already appeared, so the Thunder God Tribe shouldn’t be far behind.
The only question was where Laxus would find these three talented followers.
As for Laxus’s upcoming rebellious phase, the first signs were already beginning to appear.
Whenever the guild members praised him, they would inevitably finish with something like:
“As expected of the guild master’s grandson.”
Those words had already begun to make Laxus somewhat dissatisfied.
However, right now, he was looking forward to becoming the guild’s second S-Class Mage.
He wanted everyone to look at him with new eyes, so he didn’t care too much about those comments yet.
Should I intervene?
After thinking about it, Byakuran decided against it.
The guild members’ attitudes were only one part of the fuse.
Ivan was the key.
That was something Byakuran couldn’t interfere with.
Compared to the merely tsundere Laxus, Ivan was a genuine villain.
However, he was also the guild master’s son, making it difficult for outsiders to interfere regardless of what happened.
Let’s see what requests have been posted.
The request board was covered with all kinds of request forms, pinned randomly and haphazardly onto the wooden board.
It looked incredibly casual.
Sometimes, Byakuran’s mild obsessive-compulsive tendencies made him want to organize and categorize the requests, arranging everything neatly.
But nobody else cared.
Even if he organized the board, it would become a mess again almost immediately.
So there was no point wasting his time.
Looking through the messy request board one request at a time to find something suitable was quite troublesome.
When choosing missions, Byakuran currently preferred subjugation requests.
They were simple, straightforward, and usually offered good rewards.
Exploration requests, village-saving requests, and similar missions often involved complicated situations.
Naturally, when the rewards were the same, choosing the less troublesome option was best.
One particular request caught his attention.
[Subjugation of the monster haunting Mount Hakobe — 500,000J]
Byakuran nodded in satisfaction and reached out to take the request form.
As he did so, he was already calculating how long the reward from this mission would last him.
He was completely unaware of the figure approaching from behind.
“Byakuran, let’s have a showdown!”
Under Erza’s “education,” Natsu and Gray had been forced to end their fight.
Still unwilling to let things go, Natsu entered the guild full of resentment, secretly vowing to fight Gray again.
“Damn it, that monster Erza!”
“She loves meddling in other people’s business!”
“And that underwear pervert Gray too!”
“One day, I’ll beat him into the ground!”
“Haha.”
Macao, who was sitting not far away, heard Natsu’s complaints and couldn’t help teasing him with a smile.
He actually had a pretty good impression of this single-minded fire-breathing kid.
Natsu was very much to his liking.
“Really? Byakuran?”
Natsu’s eyes widened.
“Is that guy really that strong? He clearly looks so weak.”
Macao leaned closer to Natsu and covered his mouth with one hand, adopting the posture of someone whispering an important secret.
“You shouldn’t be fooled by Byakuran’s usual appearance.”
“He simply dislikes pointless fights because of his personality.”
“He looks completely unremarkable inside the guild, but people like him are often the sneakiest.”
“They wait until the critical moment and then give you a nasty surprise.”
Macao lowered his voice further.
“Although they haven’t actually fought, Byakuran’s strength is probably even greater than Erza’s.”
Hearing this, Natsu’s face inexplicably lit up with excitement.
He suddenly stood up.
His eyes locked onto Byakuran, who was standing in front of the request board.
Then he rushed over.
“Woah~! I’m fired up!”
“Then I’ll defeat Byakuran first!”
“That way, if I beat Byakuran, I’ll become stronger than Gray and Erza!”
“Hey! Don’t mess around, Natsu!”
Macao hurriedly shouted after seeing what Natsu was about to do.
He tried to stop him.
But it was already too late.
“Alas…”
Macao sighed.
“This Natsu really doesn’t learn his lesson.”
“Isn’t this just looking for a beating?”
Then he saw Natsu run behind Byakuran.
The boy leaped into the air, raising his fist as he prepared to attack.
At that exact moment, Byakuran was still thinking about something and hadn’t noticed Natsu at all.
His hand was slowly reaching toward the request board.
Then—
BAM!
Natsu’s fist slammed directly into the back of Byakuran’s head.
Byakuran was sent flying into the request board.
The wooden board shook violently from the impact.
Several request forms fluttered down with a rustling sound.
Byakuran slid slowly down the wooden board.
His eyes had already rolled upward.
A few little stars seemed to be spinning above his head.
He lay completely motionless.
“…”
Macao’s mouth slowly fell open.
“…Huh?”
“He won just like that?”
Everyone in the guild whose attention had been drawn by Natsu’s shout also turned to look.
One person had a cup raised to his lips.
Before he could take a sip, the wine spilled down his chin.
Then the exclamations began one after another.
“Ah?! Byakuran got knocked down?”
“Byakuran really got knocked down!”
“Awesome, Natsu!”
“Haha! Byakuran, you were too careless!”
“Don’t let your guard down even inside the guild!”
Some people simply watched the spectacle.
Others immediately rushed over with concern.
“Byakuran, are you alright?”
“Natsu! Why did you launch a sneak attack?!”
Natsu scratched his head, wearing a completely bewildered expression.
“Huh?”