Then a boy burst into the guild hall.
He couldn’t have been more than nine years old.
He immediately began begging Makarov to send rescuers after his father, who was also a member of Fairy Tail.
The Master listened to the boy and then casually sent him…
home.
Damn.
That man had steel balls.
He’d essentially punched a God-Equal mage in the nose.
Truly, ignorance was bliss.
The boy ran away in tears.
Natsu immediately dug in his heels and began preparing to head into the mountains after the child’s father.
Lucy looked confused by the sudden reaction.
Someone explained that sending a rescue team after a Fairy Tail mage was essentially admitting that the mage couldn’t handle the situation himself.
It was practically the same as spitting in his face.
I wasn’t sure Lucy had completely understood Makarov.
He hadn’t explained it directly, and on certain subjects, as I’d already noticed, Lucy behaved like the blonde in an old joke until someone physically pointed out the obvious.
But the Master…
I had to take my hat off to him.
Look at how beautifully he’d arranged everything.
The rescuer was burning with the desire to save his comrade, while officially there was no need to assemble a team, which would have insulted Macao.
Simple.
Elegant.
And all because of one sentence.
“Nobody decides for someone else what they should do.
Go wherever you want.”
The result?
The boy’s father would be rescued, and the guild could claim it had nothing to do with it.
Who knew why a young mage had decided to take a walk in the mountains?
I was going to remember that phrase.
Something told me it would be useful more than once.
Lucy, burning with righteous anger, decided to accompany the Dragon Slayer.
As for me, I wondered whether I should go.
It seemed everything would work out perfectly well without me.
There was also nothing worth looting in that direction.
Better to stay here and get myself settled.
Although there was one thing I could do.
I turned toward the blonde, who was already preparing to leave.
“Lucy, are you really going dressed like that?”
“Yes.
Why?”
“Nothing.
Except that there’s snow up to your knees in the mountains right now, and the temperature matches.”
“Oh!
I didn’t think about that.”
“Here.
Take this.”
I summoned a flask of tincture.
“This stuff will warm you up nicely.
Just be careful.
If you’re not used to it, it can hit you pretty hard.
And if I were you, I’d put something warm on.”
The girl nodded gratefully and hurried after the pink-haired gentleman, who hadn’t even bothered to wait for her.
Yeah.
Maybe I should have gone with them after all.
Ah, whatever.
They’d manage.
Meanwhile, the word “hit” caught Cana’s attention.
She insisted that something like that couldn’t happen if a person knew how to drink.
She certainly did.
The implication was obvious.
But my tincture wasn’t colored water masquerading as wine.
Still, everyone forged their own problems.
I didn’t particularly like drunk women, although for someone who was perpetually drunk, she had a surprisingly good figure and pleasant face.
There was hardly even any characteristic smell of alcohol.
A tiny amount, perhaps, and possibly not even from her.
In any case, I decided to follow the principle: get her drunk, but don’t let her cure the hangover by drinking more.
Sometimes that helped.
At least temporarily.
She weighed roughly fifty kilograms.
She’d already had a little wine to warm up with, so my tincture would have a nice foundation to work with.
A hundred to a hundred and fifty grams would be more than enough.
I asked Mira for a couple of mugs and generously poured from the second flask I’d summoned.
We clinked glasses and emptied them.
As I’d expected, an organism unaccustomed to that alcohol content, and already not entirely sober, couldn’t withstand the test.
Cana’s body simply shut down its owner.
From the outside, it looked roughly like this: the girl took a sip from the mug, then spent a moment desperately gulping air.
A minute later, her eyes crossed and she collapsed onto the bar.
Silence.
Absolute silence.
I shrugged melancholically.
“Well, I did warn you…”
Then I looked around.
“Hey, why is everyone staring at me like that?”
“Erm, you see…”
Mira started to explain, but straightforward Elfman immediately said exactly what was on his mind.
“This is the first time I’ve ever seen someone outdrink Cana that quickly!
You’re a real man!”
The giant slapped me on the shoulder.
The chair beneath me creaked.
Yeah.
Judging by that sound, his hand wasn’t merely heavy.
It was very heavy.
“The important thing is not to let her cure her hangover in the morning,” I warned the beautiful woman behind the bar, inwardly grinning maliciously.
“Otherwise, it could turn into a long drinking binge.”
“By the way, Mira, can I ask you a couple of questions?”
The others were slowly losing interest in what had happened.
Elfman, like a true man, carried Cana to the dormitory so she could sleep it off.
“Of course.”
“Could you tell me where I can find somewhere to live?
It’s my first day in Magnolia, so I don’t really know the city yet.
I haven’t been in Fiore very long either.”
The witch thought for a moment.
“You can check the magistrate’s office to see whether there are any houses for rent.
If you have the money, you can also buy a house or simply purchase a plot of land and have local builders construct one.”
She paused and glanced sadly at the guild door, which was hanging from a single hinge.
“And the builders give us a pretty good discount.
We’re regular customers.”
“I see.
Then another question.
Do you have a library?”
Makarov immediately perked up.
“Why do you want a library?
Normally, you can’t drag our brats in there even with chains.”
“I want to investigate a couple of things.
As an independent mage, it’s difficult to find anything beyond the simplest basics.
And you gave me something to think about earlier…”
The Master looked surprised.
“When did I do that?”
“When you burned the complaints without using any magic circles.”
“Ah.
That’s what you mean.”
The old man smirked into his mustache.
“I can explain it if you’d like.”
“No need.
I’d rather figure it out myself.
Then you can tell me whether I was right.”
“Deal.
And the library is right here in the building.
You won’t have to go far.”
“Excellent.”
I turned toward Mira.
“There’s only one thing left.
Not really a question, more of a request.”
“Mmm?”
“You see, I’m terrible at navigating cities, and my sense of direction leaves much to be desired.
I once managed to get lost in a forest and nearly went feral there.
Fortunately, some kind people found me and showed me the way out.”
Very kind people, too.
They had even generously handed over their property and the money on their heads.
“But that’s not the point.
If you have some free time, would you show me around Magnolia?”
I smiled.
“Dinner’s on me.”
The girl stared into my large, honest eyes for a while.
Eventually, she accepted.
Then a series of strange events followed.
Makarov choked on his beer and nearly drowned.
The guild fell silent again.
The only sounds were the Master’s increasingly desperate attempts to drown himself in his drink.
My enhanced hearing caught fragments of whispers.
“Mira agreed to a date…”
Technically, it wasn’t a date.
But who said I couldn’t use the opportunity to turn it into a real one?
“Damn, why is he so lucky?”
I’m simply very charming.
Although, in reality, knowing roughly what kind of person the girl was had played a much larger role.
“A real man should protect his sister from unwanted advances…”
Yeah.
That was Elfman.
You could recognize him instantly.
Apparently, he wasn’t particularly happy about this development.
No problem.
I’d convince him.
Hopefully.
Although I had to wonder how he’d returned from the dormitory so quickly.
Or had someone intercepted his cargo along the way?
I remembered that entering Fairy Hills, what an amusingly suggestive name for a women’s dormitory, wasn’t exactly easy for members of the male species.
Nothing else particularly noteworthy happened.
I waited until Mirajane finished her duties, then headed out with her to explore Magnolia.
Heh.
Life was finally looking up.