"Don't joke about that." Lucy felt a chill down her spine.
"I'm not joking." Mira said with a smile, "I think Gray has something special for Lucy."
"Wha... What's special?"
"Let me think... like walking around naked in front of you and casually breaking into your house..."
"Gray likes being naked in front of everyone, okay? That's totally perverted behavior! And the breaking into my house thing too!"
Jubia floated behind Lucy like a ghost, half her face covered in shadow, her eerie voice sounding: "Rival."
"Eek~~~" Lucy shivered and turned to defend loudly, "I said I'm not!"
Jubia stared at Lucy for a while, then floated away like a ghost.
"So, it's Natsu, right?" Mira continued gossiping, "Think about it, Natsu is quite different with you too. Since you joined the guild, Natsu has been taking good care of you."
"Didn't Mr. Rhode say it's a guild tradition for senior mages to look after newcomers?"
Mira nodded: "Yeah, when Rhode joined the guild, I was the one taking care of him. When Jubia joined, it was Gray who took care of her. So, Lucy..."
Mira deliberately ignored Tono and Gajeel.
Lucy, deceived by her serious tone, thought about all the things since joining the guild and the times Natsu took advantage of her...
Her face grew redder and redder: "No, could it be me and Natsu?"
This imaginative girl even added a filter to Natsu in her mind, turning him into a character from a shojo manga.
Against a background filled with peach-colored flowers, Natsu coolly extended his hand to her.
"No, no, no... impossible!" Lucy shook her head vigorously, trying to drive the strange images out of her mind.
"People who often team up easily develop feelings." The more Mira watched Lucy's expression, the more she found it amusing.
So she added fuel to the fire: "Look at Jet and Troy like teaming up with Reby, Alzack likes teaming up with Bisca, Rhode likes teaming up with me, and the result is..."
Except for the first group being a bit complicated, Lucy knew about the other two, and she held her head: "If things develop like this..."
"Lucy?" Natsu had a knack for showing up at times like this. He suddenly put his hand on Lucy's shoulder: "I have something to tell you."
"No, no, no!" Lucy jumped up as if electrocuted, running away while shouting 'no.'
Natsu was baffled: "What happened to her?"
Mira snickered: "Maybe she's angry, why don't you chase after her and see?"
Natsu dashed out rapidly, with Hapi hastily following.
Rhode came back after placing an order and handed the bill to Mira: "What happened? I saw Natsu running towards Lucy's house, and Lucy seemed to be chasing him?"
Mira was puzzled: "Wasn't Natsu chasing Lucy?"
Rhode thought for a moment and confirmed: "Natsu ran over first, indeed."
"So strange." Mira didn't understand why Natsu would run ahead, "Let's not talk about that, what do you think I should perform in tomorrow's competition to easily win?"
"Today might be a bit tricky." Rhode sat down, resting his chin in his hand, finding it more and more charming, but unfortunately...
"Too bad I might lower your popularity." Rhode winked at her, "If I propose a few days later, things might be a bit better."
"Hehe, if losing is because of that, it's not regrettable at all." Popularity didn't matter, Mira decided to just have fun tomorrow.
Rhode leaned closer with sparkling eyes: "You're so good with words, let me reward you."
Mira pushed him away: "Stop it."
…
The next day was October 7, the day of the Harvest Festival.
Rhode was directing some guild members to carry and move things, setting up the venue. Mira led the waitresses to clean up and hang decorations.
As the guild president, Makarov walked around with his hands behind his back, finding nothing to do.
Since the Advisory Council was gone, there's no need to write reports anymore, Makarov found himself more and more idle.
The guild's affairs basically required no attention from him; normally, he'd just gather various bits of information, including about the Advisory Council, Dark Guilds, the Western Continent, and his troublesome son Ivan.
But none of these things were particularly urgent or noteworthy for now.
So...he was very idle at the moment.
This unserious old man currently had his head filled with thoughts of the upcoming Miss Fairy Tail contest.
The guild was soon tidied up, looking very festive.
The small stage was ready, soon to be used as a platform for contestants to showcase themselves.
"Isn't Laki participating this year?" Rhode looked at Laki, who seemed unbothered, "Your new short haircut and glasses-wearing girl appeal might be quite popular."
Laki teased: "Sister Mira is right here, complimenting me on being popular in her presence, is that really okay?"
She wanted to see Mira's domestic violence on Rhode very much.
Rhode retorted: "Why can't I be gathering information about her competitors for her?"
"Humph, no need to probe, I'm not participating. I'll tell you for free, Sally and Iz don't plan to participate either." Laki thought for a bit and added,
"Mickey, who participated last year, hasn't signed up this year; she's suggesting the guild host a hand-to-hand combat competition instead."
"Hand-to-hand combat... as if she could come up with that."
Just destroying things ordinarily wasn't enough, she even wanted a legitimate way to demolish and possibly earn a bonus.