Sephiroth.
Same place.
God damn it, Gray!
I sat there in the classic facepalm position.
So much for thinking I’d managed to calm Fullbuster’s conscience.
No, I respected his sense of honor, and I couldn’t fault him for wanting to tell the truth.
But his confession had created a very serious problem for me.
Think about how the mission had been presented according to the letter.
First, Gray acted like an idiot and distracted everyone’s attention.
Meanwhile, I found the thieves’ guild’s hideout.
Then the guild was wiped out.
Now imagine you have two mages.
One is A-rank.
The other is only C-rank.
They’re supposed to destroy an enemy organization.
Who would be expected to serve as the main combat force and handle the stronger opponents?
Especially considering the standard local fighting style of:
“Charge straight ahead, but with jutsu.”
The answer was obvious.
Now we suddenly discovered that the A-rank mage had spent the entire operation sitting comfortably in a jail cell while the C-rank mage had handled the entire operation alone.
Personally, I’d have questions.
A lot of questions.
Apparently, the guild members had them too.
Nobody said much, except Natsu, naturally.
But the curiosity hanging in the air was practically tangible.
Eventually, Makarov grew tired of the circus and slapped his palm against the bar.
It was a huge palm.
Nearly a meter across.
I watched with some sadness as my half-finished beer made its final journey through the air.
“You bunch of idiots!
Did you forget the guild rule?
Everyone decides for themselves!”
The room immediately quieted.
“But…”
Makarov turned toward me.
“I would still like to know your actual rank.”
Hmm.
I didn’t like the enthusiasm in his voice.
There was also something strange about the gleam in his eyes.
“That could be a problem.”
I shrugged.
“I have some serious gaps in theoretical knowledge, and I don’t feel particularly strong magically.
I only received a C-rank at the magistrate’s office recently, and I wouldn’t say it was especially easy.”
I paused.
“On the other hand, my previous opponent didn’t seem particularly difficult.
I’m not even sure he was actually A-rank.”
“Heh.”
Makarov grinned.
“We, Fairy Tail, are a combat guild.
Our rank examinations work a little differently.”
“I think you should take the test.
Maybe you’ve got what it takes for A-rank.”
Then, without wasting another second:
“Hey, brats!
Who wants to fight the newcomer?”
Elfman stepped forward.
Hmm.
Looks like he wanted to eliminate me preemptively before I made any moves toward his beloved sister.
“A real man never refuses a fight!”
The giant spoke proudly.
Then, so quietly that nobody else could hear:
“Besides, I need to find out who Mira’s interested in.”
Interested?
I hadn’t expected that.
Although perhaps I’d misunderstood again.
“Hey, old man!
That’s unfair!
I want to fight too!”
Natsu’s eyes lit up.
“I’M FIRED UP!”
Sure enough, flames began covering the Dragon Slayer.
And where had all that exhaustion gone?
Yeah…
Fairy Tail really was full of wonderful people.
Sometimes, however, I wanted to take the most energetic ones and beat them unconscious.
Not that I’m pointing fingers.
I’m sure everyone knows who I mean.
“All right, then.
No reason to delay.
Let’s go to the courtyard!”
Makarov was the first to head outside, completely ignoring Natsu’s protests.
Wait.
What happened to freedom of choice?
Or had it simply never occurred to Fairy Tail that someone might refuse a fight?
Fine.
I’d have to fight Elfman.
Otherwise, they wouldn’t understand.
Soon, only Mira and I remained in the guild hall.
“Sephiroth, be careful.
My brother sometimes gets carried away.”
“The first time anyone’s ever worried about me.”
I winked at the barmaid.
“That’s nice.”
Then I smiled.
“Even nicer that it’s such a beautiful woman doing it.”
I leaned slightly closer.
“Tell me, are you still interested in going on that picnic?”
“I’m not against it.”
“Then how about tomorrow afternoon?”
I gave her another charming look.
“What do you say?”
I could be incredibly sweet and charming when I really wanted something.
The girl frowned thoughtfully for about five seconds.
Then she smiled with her trademark smile and nodded.
“I agree.”
“Wonderful!”
Our little moment was interrupted by a Dragon Slayer.
“Where are you two?
Everyone’s been waiting!”
Natsu…
Damn you.
You ruined the moment.
“Coming!”
Mira headed outside, leaving me no choice but to follow.
Almost the entire guild was already outside.
They had formed something resembling a fighting ring, with Elfman standing in the center.
I noticed a faint trembling in the air above the guild members.
A defensive barrier?
Possibly.
Now the question was what I should do.
Should I deliberately lose to the giant?
I looked at the Fairies again.
No.
Bad idea.
They’d start treating me like a younger brother and trying to protect me.
And excessive protection?
No thanks.
Then I should knock him out.
Quickly.
With minimal expenditure.
As I remembered, guild members didn’t reveal their secrets.
That meant nothing that happened inside these walls would leave the guild.
At the same time, defeating Elfman this way would prove my independence.
Yes.
That seemed like the best option.
We met in the center of the ring.
The Master looked us over.
Then he said something I absolutely hadn’t expected.
“All right, brats.
I want to see a beautiful battle.”
He spread his arms dramatically.
“An honest fight!
Brutal combat!
Fight!”
Elfman didn’t hesitate.
His arm transformed into stone, and he swung it toward my head.
He was reasonably fast.
For an ordinary human.
I could have knocked him out three times with a single swing.
This was going to be boring.
Fine.
I wouldn’t reveal too much of what I could do.
I shifted slightly to the side.
Then I placed my hand over the descending stone fist and “helped” it along.
The fist slammed into the ground.
Elfman followed it.
His entire back was suddenly exposed to me.
Tap.
The edge of my palm struck the back of his head.
He exhaled.
And the giant collapsed unconscious onto the ground.
Silence.
I looked at the stunned faces of the Fairies.
“What?”
I raised an eyebrow.
“How did you do that?”
Natsu looked genuinely confused.
“What about magic?”
“Why would I need it?”
I shrugged.
“My opponent did most of the work himself.
I simply used his own strength against him.”
Makarov stared at Elfman.
“Knocking out an A-rank mage in two seconds…”
He rubbed his chin.
“And without magic.”
The Master looked genuinely confused.
“On the one hand, winning grants the right to receive an A-rank.”
He frowned.
“But on the other hand, there wasn’t even a weak spell involved…”
He threw his hands up.
“Ah, what the hell?!
You won the fight, which means you’re a good fighter.
So, as Master of Fairy Tail, I hereby grant you the rank of A-rank mage, Sephiroth.”
Then his gaze dropped to my sword.
“By the way, is that sword on your belt just decoration?”
I really didn’t like the enthusiasm in his voice.
“Or…”
I looked suspiciously at the Master.
“Or.”
“Excellent!”
The old man became even more excited.
“When Elsa returns, we absolutely have to see the two of you fight!”
That slightly manic gleam appeared in his eyes again.
Damn.
He could actually be terrifying.
Especially when he started rubbing his hands together.
Shudder.
“Mmm…”
Elfman’s unconscious mumble attracted everyone’s attention.
“Parrot…”
Mira immediately rushed to her brother and began administering first aid.
Unfortunately, she wasn’t having much success.
The giant showed no interest in waking up.
I decided to help.
“Mind if I try?”
I crouched beside the fallen giant.
Mira looked at me uncertainly, but nodded.
I summoned a small bottle of smelling salts and some cotton from my potion kit, soaked the cotton, and held it beneath Elfman’s nose.
The reaction was immediate.
The giant grimaced.
Sneezed.
And opened his eyes.
“Welcome back to reality, buddy.”
I offered him my hand.
The blond beauty’s brother grabbed it.
“Oh, man…”
He pulled himself upright.
“You really beat the hell out of me!
You’re a real man!”
He stared at me.
“How did you do that?
I didn’t even understand what happened!”
Well.
He was already standing after taking a blow like that.
He really was tough.
“Let’s just say I know a few interesting techniques.
If you want, I can show you sometime.”
“A real man never refuses to learn something new!”
He slapped me on the shoulder.
Damn.
I was beginning to remember old legends where heroes drove each other into the ground up to their knees or waists.
I didn’t actually sink into the earth.
Though I suspected that was only because the ground was heavily compacted.
Otherwise…
Who knew?
Eventually, the celebration ended.
I’m not even sure what force of nature I should thank for that.
The guild decided to celebrate my new rank.
Fortunately, after the third mug of beer, nobody noticed when the guest of honor disappeared.
I escaped somewhere nobody would think to look for me at this hour.
The guild library.
The Library
The library…
What a wonderful word.
The Fairy Tail library occupied one of the lower floors.
I strongly suspected magic was involved.
The underground space was enormous, yet I couldn’t see a single supporting pillar.
In front of me stretched an entire kingdom of books.
Thousands.
Maybe tens of thousands.
Some were simply mission reports.
But the rest…
Damn.
How was I supposed to find anything?
There were no alphabetical indexes.
No catalog.
No librarian.
Nothing.
I stared mournfully at the shelves.
Without outside help, I could probably live here for a year and still fail to find anything useful.
What a disaster.
Still, I had to start somewhere.
Assuming the books were arranged by category, I only needed to inspect one book from each section to determine what that section contained.
Fine.
Let’s begin.
I walked along the shelves, collecting books.
Somewhere Around Morning.
Library.
Wonderful.
Simply wonderful.
I’d managed to examine perhaps ten books throughout the night.
Either I’d been incredibly unlucky, or I’d misunderstood the organization system completely.
Unfortunately, I hadn’t found anything useful.
A couple of old mission reports from the previous generation.
A geographical atlas from God knew when.
And several volumes filled with bizarre calculations and definitions.
I felt like a first-grader who had accidentally grabbed a university mathematics textbook.
I understood the letters.
Most of them.
That was about it.
Then the door creaked.
Someone else entered the room.
Hmm.
The footsteps were light and quiet.
Either a girl or a trained fighter.
The question was answered a moment later.
A rather pretty girl with a mass of blue hair arranged in creative disorder emerged from between the shelves.
She noticed me and looked surprised.
“Hi.
I’m Levy.
Who are you?
I don’t think I’ve seen you before.”
“Hi.
I’m Sephiroth.
I joined the guild recently.”
I gestured toward the shelves.
“I decided to explore this treasure trove of knowledge.”
“You like reading?”
Her eyes brightened.
“Me too!”
She was genuinely delighted to see someone else in the library.
Then again, considering the personalities of the Fairy Tail members, it wasn’t particularly surprising.
Half of the guild had absolutely no reason to be in a library.
The other half should probably never be allowed within cannon-shot of one for fear of total destruction.
“Yes, I do.”
I sighed.
“Although I can’t figure out how the books are organized.”
I showed her the books I’d gathered.
“I wanted to read about magical theory, starting with the fundamentals and history, but I couldn’t find anything.”
I pointed toward the pile.
“Except these.”
The girl quickly scanned the titles.
“Yes.
Pulling advanced spell creation manuals when you’re looking for introductory theory is certainly impressive.”
Hmm.
So I hadn’t been completely wrong when I’d compared myself to a first-grader holding a university textbook.
“If you want, I can help.”
Levy smiled.
“I know my way around this library pretty well.”
Was I an idiot?
Of course I accepted.
The girl happily disappeared between the shelves, collecting the books I needed while explaining where everything was located.
I had to admit, her knowledge of the library was impressive.
It also became obvious that the Master saved a considerable amount of money on staff because of people like her.
Within ten minutes, she had brought me everything I needed.
I settled into the reading room and began studying.
Gods.
Finally.
Properly written fundamentals.
Clear explanations of what things were, why they existed, and where they came from.
Definitions of the “mage’s soul.”
Explanations of the magical reserve.
Apparently, the reserve really was stored within the body and could be trained like an ordinary muscle, even though it was an energetic component of the organism.
But most importantly…
The basic principle behind local magic.
Some spells were indeed cast intuitively.
But the actual system was much more complicated.
Originally, a mage could theoretically use any type of magic.
There were certain natural affinities toward particular schools, and those schools would naturally be easier to learn.
But theoretically, any school could be mastered.
Then came the catch.
The mana gathered by a mage’s soul was originally completely neutral.
It could be used for any school.
However, with repeated practice in a specific direction, the mana gradually adapted itself to that school.
It optimized itself for that particular type of magic.
And that made it increasingly difficult to use for other schools.
Mana also constantly passed through the mage’s body and changed it.
Again, the body adapted itself to the chosen school.
Then the body, in turn, altered the mana passing through it even more.
And so the cycle continued.
Still, that raised an interesting question.
How could some mages use multiple schools?
Perhaps they’d learned to control their mana directly.
Or perhaps they possessed multiple reserves.
But those were only my theories.
I could ask Makarov.
Though there was no guarantee he’d answer.
Some things had to be understood personally.
A question from Levy finally pulled me away from the books.
“Sorry, what?”
I blinked.
“I think I got a little carried away…”
“I said, why don’t you use these?”
She held out a pair of glasses.
“Speed-reading glasses.
They’re extremely useful.
Try them.”
I stared at the artifact.
Whoa.
What an incredibly useful thing.
The glasses scanned the book and sent the information directly into the brain, connecting the information through chains of association.
The principle was surprisingly similar to my meditation.
The difference was that I built connections based on the “similarity” between pieces of information, while the glasses simply created the connections from scratch.
And this was something you could buy in an ordinary magic shop?
Interesting.
But why did they operate at that particular speed?
Theoretically, they could be orders of magnitude faster.
Ah.
Because they’d fry the brain of an ordinary bookworm.
On the other hand, I wasn’t using a normal human brain anymore.
I’d also grown accustomed to processing enormous amounts of information.
I’d have to try them.
But later.
For today, I’d probably had enough.
I thanked Levy and headed back toward the guild.
I had a certain beautiful lady to take on a picnic.