"Fiore, your Duke has returned!"
After more than a month away, stepping onto Fiore's soil again gave Rhodes a sudden sense of familiarity.
Perhaps it was because his guild was here, and somewhere deep down, he had already come to think of this place as home.
Unfortunately, Mira didn't pick up on the sentiment. She only said, "You're not the Duke of Fiore."
"Because Fiore doesn't have that many bandits for us to suppress," Rhodes replied. He had no plans to continue collecting merits and titles. "What, do you actually like being a Duchess?"
"Hmm…" Mira thought for a moment, then smiled warmly. "Mainly, I like being Mrs. Rhodes."
This woman really did know how to make his heart skip a beat.
Rhodes leaned close and whispered something into her ear.
Mira's ears immediately turned red, and she quickly pushed him away. "Be serious. Clipperls is just up ahead."
"Oh… fine, fine," Rhodes chuckled. "Then I'll take the gift out first."
The city of Gazania was built mainly of stone, its architecture dominated by white and gray tones, with blue-tiled domed or pointed roofs.
It was a large and prosperous city, no less impressive than Magnolia.
More importantly, Gazania was home to one of the Fiore Kingdom's most powerful guilds, Sabertooth.
The couple walked through the streets, admiring the city's unique architectural charm.
Along the way, they spotted one of the city's famed attractions, an aerial garden suspended high above the center.
People always seemed fascinated by the idea of putting buildings in the sky.
Magnolia had its aerial restaurant, Crocus had its floating hotel, and Gazania had its aerial garden.
Sabertooth's location wasn't difficult to find; any passerby could point them toward it.
Soon, Rhodes and Mira stood before a grand, castle-like building, its rooftop adorned with a massive blue saber-toothed tiger sculpture.
As soon as they stepped inside, someone immediately came to greet them.
"Welcome, may I ask who you..." The short-haired receptionist suddenly froze, eyes wide. "Demon...no, Mr. Rhodes! Miss Mirajane!"
The entire guild fell silent in an instant.
Those names were legendary.
News of Rhodes single-handedly eradicating banditry across the Joya Kingdom, and being granted a dukedom, had spread far and wide.
Many believed he had chosen to settle down as a noble in the Joya Kingdom, so his sudden return to Fiore came as a surprise.
And to appear here, of all places, in Sabertooth, that was even more shocking.
Rhodes wasn't surprised by the reaction. He had experienced this many times already. Fame came with its own set of small annoyances.
"Please, please allow me…" The receptionist struggled to find her words.
It wasn't every day that someone of their status visited Sabertooth. She didn't know whether she should invite them to sit and have a drink or ask what business they had first.
Rhodes spared her the panic and said calmly, "Hello. We're here to find someone."
"Yes, of course. Who are you looking for?"
"Yukino," Mira replied gently. "Yukino Agria. Is she here?"
Her tone was soft and polite, but that only made the receptionist's face turn pale.
Because, in her mind, this could only mean trouble.
Yukino had left the guild almost two months ago, and now, one of the Ten Wizard Saints had come personally to look for her.
Could it be… that Yukino had been bullied here, and they were coming to seek justice?
The receptionist began to panic. If she said the wrong thing and angered them, it would spell disaster. She opened her mouth, stammering nervously, nearly on the verge of tears.
It was then that Rhodes and Mira realized something was off.
When they had entered, the guild members had already been watching them strangely, which they assumed was just because of their fame.
But the moment Yukino's name was mentioned, the atmosphere changed sharply.
Several people turned hostile, glaring at them, and some even slammed their tables and stood up, ready to fight.
That was strange. Rhodes and Mira had no past grudges with Sabertooth, nor any recent conflict. So where was this hostility coming from?
Was it because they had "disciplined" that ninja last time?
Mira tilted her head and asked, "What's wrong? Is Yukino on some secret mission that she can't tell us about?"
"No, no… Yukino, she..."
"She's already left Sabertooth."
A burly man with long green hair stepped out, motioning for the receptionist to stand down.
He gripped his left wrist with his right hand, loosening it up, and smiled. "You're Rhodes, the last of the Ten Wizard Saints?"
From the way he said it, his attitude was obvious; who else would pointedly stress "last"?
And those little stretches, was he warming up?
Sure enough, he went on, "I'm Orga. I hear they call you the lightning-wielding monster. How about we see whose lightning is stronger?"
As he spoke, black arcs of lightning were already crackling in Orga's hands.
"Orga's actually challenging a Ten Wizard Saint!"
"No, if it's lightning, no one beats his God Slayer Magic."
"That's right! He's just a newly minted Saint anyway."
Intriguing as "God Slayer Magic" sounded, Rhodes wasn't interested in a pissing contest and couldn't be bothered with the chatter.
He asked the inexplicably hostile green-haired man, "When did Yukino leave Sabertooth, and why?"
Orga's lips curled. The black lightning in his palm condensed into a dark sphere that blasted toward Rhodes as he shouted, "If you want to know, beat me first!"
Rhodes lifted his left hand, closed his fingers, and brought it down.
Orga heard a single ringing buzz inside his skull, and then knew nothing.
The entire guild thundered as the stone floor caved under Orga's head, a crater bursting outward in a web of cracks that raced all the way to the receptionist's feet.
Orga's head was buried in the floor, his upper body driven into the ground. His legs stood rigid for a moment, then collapsed.
Silence. Most mouths hung open.
A young man at the request board dropped the slip he had just accepted; it fluttered to the ground.
Startled by the fractures at her toes, the receptionist screamed, and the guild finally snapped out of it.
"O–one hit and he's…"
"You're kidding! That's Orga, one of our top five!"
"Hey, Orga, quit messing around, get up!"
"Yeah, that guy's just some Fairy Tail mage, how could he possibly..."
The last speaker suddenly couldn't breathe. His knees buckled and he dropped to the floor.
Rhodes tilted his chin and looked at him sideways. "What was that about a mage from Fairy Tail?"
"I...I…" The man's face went white. His lips trembled. No sound came out.
A blond youth stretched and rubbed his ear as he walked out. "What's with the noise? I can't even nap."
"You are..."
...
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