"Chairman, didn't you promise yesterday you'd clean up after me?"
Facing the enraged Makarov, Chase's momentum weakened slightly as he mumbled under his breath.
"You've practically shit your pants to the point of diarrhea—how do you expect me to clean that up?!"
Hearing this, Makarov grew even more furious. His two nostrils looked like they could shoot out twin Fire Dragon Roars.
"Oh come on, that fire dragon was the real culprit behind destroying the town. I've been a law-abiding citizen all along out there."
"Oh?"
"Okay fine, it was actually me..."
Chase scratched his head apologetically, then explained in a low voice, "But completing that Ten-Year Quest required destroying the entire town. There was no way around it."
As an extremely difficult request that no one had completed in a decade, its danger level and scale naturally couldn't be compared to ordinary tasks.
And the Ten-Year Quest Chase had taken was even more complicated than imagined—destroying the town was unavoidable.
It was during this process—whether unluckily or luckily—
He accidentally awakened the self-sealed Ignia, and then everything that followed happened.
Giant Makarov stared down at Chase with wide eyes.
After a long moment, the terrible atmosphere filled the entire guild gradually dissipated.
His huge size visibly shrank back down to that of a diminutive old man.
As the patriarch of the Fairy Tail family, Makarov knew Chase well. The guy definitely loved causing chaos, but he wasn't the type to cross boundaries or lose the bottom line.
So instead of pressing for details, he chose to unconditionally trust Chase.
"Still, this time was way over the top. Two kingdoms are involved—this is going to be a huge trouble."
Makarov bent down to pick up the several-centimeter-thick stack of documents, with a scowl on his face as he dusted them off.
"Chairman, if the Magic Council has a problem, just let me go talk to them directly." Chase patted his chest confidently.
"Destroying an Orgasso Kingdom town isn't enough—you want to demolish the Magic Council too?"
Makarov shot Chase a disdainful glance, tucked away the complaint documents, and clasped his hands behind his back. As he turned, his gaze became extremely sharp.
"Don't worry. This old man hasn't become so useless that I'd push my kids out to face the storm alone."
"As long as I'm here, let's see which bastards on the Magic Council dare to bastard!"
Internally, he could sternly scold or even punch without mercy;
Externally, he was famously protective of his cubs—never allowing anyone to harm him guild members!
Watching that tiny figure draped in the Ten Wizard Saints cloak, Chase paused for a moment, then smiled calmly.
"Really super reliable, Chairman."
"Reliable my ass! If you've got nothing better to do, go find a decent request and earn some money! Just looking at you pisses me off!"
Makarov's demeanor abruptly shifted as he turned back, spittle flying everywhere.
"Got it!" Chase nodded firmly.
"Speaking of requests, Chase, a designated request just came in for you today."
Mirajane appeared just right and pulled Chase toward the request board.
Seeing this, Makarov shook his head and slowly made his way upstairs.
Only when his figure disappeared around the stair corner did the tense atmosphere in the guild completely dissipate.
"Hey hey! Chase, did you really destroy half a town?!"
"That's so cool! Now even Guiltina across the sea knows about Fairy Tail!"
"Manly! No wonder you're our guild's Destruction King!"
Partners suddenly surrounded him, their faces filled with excitement and longing.
This scene creates a stark contrast with the sight of Maca-Super-Reliable-Lov crouching in a corner on the second floor, secretly causing a headache.
"So you're all a bunch of idiots." Cana shot the group a disdainful look.
Having just sobered up, she lifted her wine barrel and started chugging again.
Unlike everyone else's pursuits, her reason for joining Fairy Tail could be summed up in five words:
Where's Daddy?
Over at the notice board, Chase drove away the curious onlookers with his eyes, then looked at Mirajane and asked, "Mira, this specific request you mentioned—which one is it?"
"Right here." Mirajane smiled and pulled a request slip from the collar of her dress.
Chase took the still-warm slip and unfolded it in surprise.
Reading the contents, he immediately understood why they'd specified him.
[Client: Weekly Sorcerer Magazine]
[Request: Having heard that Mr. Chase has ended his long journey and returned to Fiore, the magazine specially invites Miss Dark Magician Girl to be the cover girl for the next issue]
[Reward: 200,000 Jewels]
"200,000 Jewels? That's quite a lot." Chase remarked.
In the Kingdom of Fiore, such rewards could match a dangerous crusade request like Macao's snow gorilla mission!
"It is. After all, in Weekly Sorcerer, Dark Magician Girl has always been at the top of the 'Most Anticipated Return of a Female Mage' rankings."
Mirajane raised her flawless white finger and smiled. "This morning, fans even sent admiring letters to the guild."
Though she personally wasn't too interested in photobook requests for Weekly Sorcerer—only occasionally accepting them to earn extra money for nice clothes—
She definitely knew more about the situation than Chase did.
Hearing Mirajane mention the rankings, Chase suddenly remembered he'd once been at the top too, and asked, "What about the Destruction King rankings? Is my name still on there?"
Hearing this, Mirajane rested her chin on her hand, thought for a moment, and said seriously, "Right now, Natsu and Gray have basically taken over."
"Damn it!" Chase clenched his fist in annoyance.
"Um... that's not really a glorious ranking, is it..."
Mirajane's forehead beaded with black lines as she flashed an embarrassing yet polite smile.
"Can't afford to slack off. I must reclaim what was once mine!"
Chase silently resolved, then glanced at the request slip in his hand. "As for this request—I'll need to ask Dark Magician Girl."
With that, he drew a card from the void and summoned her.
After a flash of brilliant magical light, Dark Magician Girl struck a cute pose with her magic wand, making a sparkling entrance.
"Mira-nee? Sashiburi!"
The moment she saw Mirajane, Dark Magician Girl beamed with brilliant joy and pounced like a hungry wolf, hugging Mirajane's fragrant form and rubbing against her wildly.
"Sashiburi, Dark Magician Girl."
Mirajane didn't resist at all. Instead, she reached out and hugged her back affectionately. "You seem to have grown quite a bit in the past year."
It wasn't hard to see that the two had a pretty good relationship.
Perhaps because of the unbearable painful memories concerning Lisanna, Mirajane had always treated Dark Magician Girl, who was around her age, like a younger sister.
After the two beauties finished their clingy reunion, Chase finally pulled out the request slip and waved it in front of Dark Magician Girl.
"A cover girl request for Weekly Sorcerer. So? Want to take it?"