Night fell. A full moon hung high in the sky, its clear, bright moonlight showering the earth.
The quiet capital seemed particularly serene bathed in this moonlight.
But what the capital's residents didn't know was that behind this peace and tranquility brewed an unprecedented turmoil.
On an open space outside the palace walls, a large number of people had gathered.
These were no ordinary people.
They were all powerful adventurers.
And these adventurers gathered here, naturally, to eradicate the Eight Fingers.
"To think that besides us, quite a few other adventurers were invited too!"
Erza, clad in silvery-white armor, scanned the large number of adventurer teams around them and said to Kenichi beside her.
Hearing Erza's words, Wendy and Kagura also turned their gazes to those adventurers.
Suddenly, Wendy seemed to recognize someone familiar. She pointed ahead and alerted Kenichi, Erza, and the others: "Look! It's that person who was being chased by Shalltear the other day!"
'The person being chased by Shalltear?'
Kenichi, Erza, and the others all looked in the direction Wendy was pointing.
When Kenichi clearly saw the person Wendy was pointing at, his eyebrows raised slightly.
'Nail Clipper?!'
That's right. The person now in the sight of Kenichi, Wendy, and the others was none other than Brain Unglaus.
A few days ago, when Kenichi, Erza, and the group first arrived in this world, they encountered Shalltear chasing Brain.
Later, due to the intervention of the Black Scripture, Brain barely managed to escape with his life from Shalltear.
"Wendy, I'm surprised you remember this person. I'd forgotten all about him."
Erza looked at Brain and remarked casually.
"Hehe, after all, this person was the first one we saw when we came to this world, so the impression is quite deep!"
Hearing Erza's praise, Wendy gave an embarrassed, sheepish laugh.
While Erza and Wendy were talking, Lakyus, Evileye, and the other members of Blue Rose emerged from a temporarily set-up tent.
Lakyus scanned the surroundings, then called out clearly: "Leaders of each team, please gather here for a moment. Let's assign the tasks first."
After the leaders of the various adventurer teams gathered in front of the tent, Lakyus spoke again: "The enemy is a massive organization active in the capital's underworld. Tonight, we will be attacking eight locations in total. Manpower is a bit tight, so we need to make some personnel adjustments."
"Leader of Demon-Slaying Blade, your team has two priests. Please assign one priest to cooperate with the team of Heavenly Scythe."
"Finally, the leader of Fairy Tail!"
Lakyus turned her gaze to Kenichi and continued: "Your team consists almost entirely of Magic Casters. Please assign two members to cooperate with our Blue Rose's Gagaran. And this gentleman representing the palace, Brain Unglaus, will be acting together with your team."
'Act together with Brain?'
Kenichi glanced at Brain, his eyebrows raising slightly.
Kenichi understood Lakyus's intention very well.
In this world, Magic Casters were generally not skilled in close combat.
And in Lakyus's impression, Kenichi, Wendy, and the group were almost all Magic Casters.
To allocate combat power reasonably, she assigned Brain, a warrior, to join Kenichi's side.
Of course, given the strength of Kenichi, Erza, and the group, this was completely unnecessary.
But looking at [Nail Clipper] before him, Kenichi seemed to think of something interesting and didn't raise any objections.
"Since no one has any problems, please go and prepare now."
Lakyus looked at everyone and spoke.
After Kenichi and the other adventurer leaders left, Brain looked at Kenichi's retreating figure and asked Lakyus: "Didn't Marquis Raeven only invite Orichalcum-ranked adventurers? Why is there a Mithril-ranked adventurer team here?"
"Mr. Unglaus, Fairy Tail was invited by me."
"You invited them?"
"Although they are only Mithril rank for now, I guarantee their strength is definitely not inferior to yours."
If this were in the past, hearing Lakyus's words, Brain would definitely have been dismissive.
Who was he?
Brain Unglaus, the genius swordsman of the kingdom, second only to the strongest warrior captain, Gazef Stronoff.
But after his encounter with Shalltear, that arrogance of his was completely shattered.
He knew that there were many powerful monsters in this world.
So now, hearing Lakyus say that the members of Fairy Tail were not inferior to him, he didn't refute it but instead took note of her words.
"Eh, not inferior to me, huh?"
Brain stared blankly at Kenichi's retreating figure, then gave a self-mocking smile, left the tent, and walked towards a yellow-haired warrior in armor ahead.
This yellow-haired warrior was named Climb.
He was the loyal guard of the kingdom's Golden Princess, Renner.
"Mr. Brain, how did it go?"
Seeing Brain approach, Climb immediately went up to him.
"The operation plan has been issued. We are to cooperate with Fairy Tail."
"Fairy Tail?"
Clearly, Climb was also hearing the name Fairy Tail for the first time.
"It's those few over there. Let's go introduce ourselves."
Brain looked towards Kenichi, Erza, and the others and said to Climb.
With that, Brain and Climb walked together towards where Kenichi was.