"Natsu, Hapi, your wallet."
"Aye! We thought we lost it!" Hapi hugged the wallet and rubbed it on his face, "The reward from the last mission is all in here."
Natsu exclaimed excitedly, "We have money now! I want to eat the flame set meal! Ruth, I'll treat you too!"
"My name is Lucy! And did you order something suspicious?"
Rhode asked, "How did you guys ride a cart without money? And what about food?"
"Natsu still had a little change, just enough for the fare. As for food, thankfully Lucy treated us."
At this point, Hapi lowered his volume, "Actually, I secretly brought some fish, don't tell Natsu."
"I heard that!" Natsu grabbed Hapi and shook him vigorously, "You unloyal guy, next time I catch fish, I won't share with you!"
"Aye~~~~" Hapi's voice trembled as he was shaken.
Lucy sighed, "You guys really are... only quiet on the cart."
"Lucy, come over here~" Mira waved at Lucy, "The President agreed for you to join the guild~"
"Yes!" Lucy ran over excitedly.
Even after meeting so many unreliable people, she still liked this guild the same.
Rather, it seemed that even a guild like Fairy Tail, which could keep such oddballs, was all the more attractive to Lucy.
Moreover, the recent speech from the President made Lucy's fondness for Fairy Tail skyrocket.
Rhode followed her over.
The poster in his memory had gradually become blurry.
Although he often recalled it, fearing he might forget, the figures on the poster had long been replaced by the Natsu, Gray, Erza, and Wendy he had seen in person.
Only Lucy's face remained indistinct, and upon meeting Lucy, the figure in that spot became clear again.
Will life change because the main characters have gathered together?
Rhode wanted to learn more about Lucy to feel a bit more at ease.
Logically speaking, when a newcomer joins, a veteran mage should guide her for a while...
Rhode had just been in the guild for a year and, experience-wise, could be considered a seasoned mage. In terms of strength, he could also be considered a reliable senior.
However, in Lucy's case, it was generally assumed that Natsu, who brought her to the guild, would be responsible for her.
Unless Rhode went out of his way to compete for it, and even then, he had to do so without getting beaten up by Mira.
Though Mira was understanding, Rhode couldn't just rely on that without considering her feelings.
"Is it okay to stamp it here?" Lucy extended her right hand.
"Sure, what color?"
"Pink!"
"Alright~" Mira adjusted the color and size of the stamp and pressed it onto Lucy's hand.
"There, now you're a member of Fairy Tail too."
Lucy happily looked at the emblem on her hand, really having joined her favorite guild!
She now really wanted to go out and show off.
Let's go tell Natsu first!
Someone like Rhode, who joined the guild in a daze, couldn't understand Lucy's feelings at the moment.
He decided to talk business with the President first: "President, those documents you burned, we didn't back them up."
"Huh? Why would we need to back up those things?"
"To help you write a report, so you don't even forget what you need to report." Rhode said, "Even though you looked cool burning the documents, I suspect you did it out of grumpiness."
"You've thought this through quite thoroughly."
"It's just alright."
"I'm not complimenting you!"
Mira smiled and poured Makarov a cup of tea, "The compensation invoices aren't in those documents, are they?"
"Of course not, I'm not that reckless." Makarov took out a few crumpled papers and a neat envelope, "Besides the invoices, there's also a letter for you."
"For us?" Rhode and Mira leaned in to open the envelope.
What met their eyes was not the usual beginning of a letter, but different names written in various handwriting:
Jasper, Tutz, Lightning, Bucky...
They looked familiar; weren't these all people from Lavender Village?
Mira exclaimed, "A joint letter?"
The first thing that came to Rhode's mind was TV shows: "A petition from the masses?"
Makarov's mustache curled up as he laughed:
"It's from the village where you helped solve the rodent problem. The villagers sent this letter to the Advisory Council, hoping they'll commend Fairy Tail."
"Oh my..." Mira had done many high-difficulty tasks before and had never seen anyone specifically write this kind of letter.
Was it because the reward didn't match the difficulty, or because they saw Rhode collapse from exhaustion?
"Yajima said some Evaluators wanted to cause us trouble, but he brought out this letter and easily diffused the situation."
Makarov looked a bit embarrassed, "But thanks to them, your commendation went down the drain."
Mira waved the letter in her hand, "This is the best commendation."
Rhode didn't care much about such things, "I strive to do each task well just for moments like this. It's nice that it comes in handy."
Rhode was quite happy to share a bit of pressure with the President, but with everyone causing trouble at this rate...
Sooner or later, it would come back to haunt them.
Hapi flew over with a wallet, "Rhode, I want grilled fish, two, no, four!"
Rhode took back the wallet he just returned to Hapi and shoved the invoice to him, "I don't think you'll be eating grilled fish anytime soon."
Hapi counted the zeros on the invoice for a while, and sweat started to form on his cat face, "Natsu! We're out of money again!"
"What!?" Natsu, who had just filled his belly, was shocked. He realized he and Hapi's recently built small savings were going down the drain too.
This was after some of it had been offset by catching the criminal gang.
The two were now downcast.
Lucy felt a bit guilty; although Natsu was mainly responsible for the harbor destruction, she was an accomplice too.
Rhode brought over a plate of grilled fish and placed it in front of Hapi.
Hapi drooled pitifully, "We're already out of money."
"Warm wants to treat you." Even though it was with Rhode's money.
Hapi perked up, "Thank you, Warm!"
"No choice but to work." Natsu immediately ran to the bulletin board to find a suitable mission.
Just then, Romeo came in crying, "Dad hasn't come back since he went out last time..."
The President said, "Just wait at home, he'll return once he finishes his task."
"But he said he'd definitely be back in three days, and it's almost the fourth day now!"
"..." Makarov remained calm; the time has indeed been a bit long, but perhaps something has delayed him.
Rhode flipped through the mission records; it was the mission to exterminate Valken.
Hakobe Mountain isn't far, walking there and back in a day is doable, yet he hasn't returned for so long...
It's also possible that he couldn't find the target, which happens with extermination tasks too.
Macao isn't like him, able to scout from the sky, track by smell, or even conduct a thorough search; taking a bit longer is quite normal...