After Makarov finished his questioning, Caesar returned to the guild hall. Looking at the still haggard Mirajane, Caesar raised his hands in surrender. Just as he was preparing to face the storm, Mirajane rushed up and hugged him.
"You scared me to death."
There was no blame as he expected, but the worry and fear in Mirajane's tone made Caesar almost wish she had hit him instead. He sighed slightly in his heart. Since ancient times, heroes have been unable to resist the temptation of beauty. No matter how tough you are, in front of such a gentle woman, you can only become soft around her fingers.
"Sorry, I won't do it next time," Caesar comforted Mirajane softly, but he could feel that the clothes on his chest were already wet.
As for Gildarts, he didn't get the same treatment as Caesar. Being caught and taught a lesson by Cana, Gildarts could only endure the scolding with a smug face, but he also enjoyed it.
It is undeniable that for him, this was also a kind of happiness. This matter was quickly set aside, and Caesar and Gildarts also completely quieted down. The statement to the outside world was, naturally, that they were recuperating.
As time went by, the two faded from everyone's sight, and some people started acting up again. For example, Joseph of Phantom Lord. For such a guy who only remembers to eat but not to be beaten, Caesar almost couldn't hold back his anger and was ready to give him another beating. If it weren't for Makarov's pressure, Joseph would have suffered this loss.
Of course, it's not that Makarov was weak. But Joseph learned his lesson this time and didn't dare to act too blatantly, restraining himself somewhat. Coupled with the lesson from Caesar and Gildarts, Makarov felt that he really needed to cultivate the task-response ability of the Fairy Tail members. By combining their strengths, they could respond to more situations while ensuring the other party did not interfere too much.
Makarov couldn't bear to stop such free sparring. As for Caesar, he was kept in check by Mirajane under Makarov's arrangement. Caesar had no choice but to devote himself to potion-making and wedding preparations.
Seeing Caesar so "sensible," Makarov was very pleased. Mirajane also secretly rewarded Caesar—kiss, hug, lift—nothing was left out. Caesar was full of motivation and threw himself into the final preparations.
In order to keep the wedding secret, Caesar and Gildarts were absent from this year's S-class assessment, leaving the test to others. It was the same old routine: strength test, intelligence test, and this year they even added adaptability and luck tests, like a game. In short, it was a bit more complicated.
After Caesar finished his work, news came that Mystogan had been promoted. This surprised Caesar a little. After all, there were dark horses like Ur and Cana this year, so the difficulty was still acceptable. He didn't expect Mystogan, who had been in the background, to successfully advance.
When Caesar found Mystogan, Mystogan was also confused. Mystogan had the strength, so he passed the strength test easily. He also passed the intelligence test with ease because he was meticulous. For the adaptability test, he got lucky—he took the simplest route and defeated the guarding Mirajane. After gaining her recognition, he advanced with the first pass.
As for Cana, the dark horse, she unfortunately encountered Erza, who never gives up. Even with several powerful cards from Gildarts, Cana, already quite strong, was defeated by Erza, who was extremely serious. After a fight, Cana managed to win by trickery, but ran out of time and could only lose helplessly.
For this reason, Gildarts comforted Cana for a long time. Cana eventually let it go and was no longer entangled with the S-class title.
As for Ur… it was a pity she lost to Laxus. Laxus had been training for so long that his strength was no weaker than when he was a great wizard in the original events—he had grown a lot! Ur, however, suffered from the drawbacks of body remodeling. If she still had the magic power she possessed when fighting Deliora, she could have caught Laxus and given him a spanking.
But for Ur, the S-class exam was no big deal. After all, Ultear was busy now. If anything went wrong, she could always come back and reunite with her. Ur had nothing to worry about.
As for the one who couldn't let it go—it was probably Joseph. Seeing Fairy Tail produce an S-class wizard every year, Joseph was so angry he felt torn apart. He wanted to promote more of his own people to S-class, but they couldn't compare to the Four Elements. Gajeel and Laos seemed promising, but they hadn't grown enough yet, which irritated Joseph even more.
Joseph wanted revenge for everything Caesar had done back then. Especially after learning that Caesar had broken a leg, Joseph thought Caesar was useless. Even with a prosthesis, his strength should have been greatly reduced. There was no need to worry about how strong he was. But now was still not the time.
…
Magnolia Magic Tailor Shop.
Caesar looked at the finished dress he had made, inspected it carefully, and nodded with satisfaction. After paying, Caesar went to the jewelry store and retrieved the phoenix crown. With the dress ready, the next step was the ten-mile red makeup he had envisioned.
This required the help of all Magnolia. After visiting the mayor and negotiating door-to-door, the matter was finalized. The next step was to choose the best man and bridesmaids.
On Caesar's side: Laxus, Gray, Natsu, and Elfman. On Mirajane's side: Lisanna, Erza, Cana, and Levy.
Everyone was naturally very interested in Caesar and Mirajane's wedding, so the best man and bridesmaid list was finalized quickly. Even Erza was more excited than Mirajane, the bride-to-be. She enthusiastically discussed wedding details with Caesar every day and was extremely active.
After Caesar gave them the best man and bridesmaid outfits, they tried them on, admired the look, and all gave a thumbs-up to Caesar's design and vision.
Time passed quickly as Caesar and his friends prepared. Finally, in June, all the wedding preparations were completed.
At night on June 5, the Fairy Tail Guild was very lively. They stayed up all night, decorating the guild and the entire Magnolia with festive red. Mirajane temporarily separated from Caesar and sat in the room prepared for her, quietly waiting for the arrival of the next day.