Thud!
Just as Natsu and Gray were about to come to blows, a wooden plank swung in from the side, driving both of them into the ground until only their heads remained above the surface.
"Excuse me, but we're rebuilding the guild right now. Could you two try to take this seriously for once?!"
Erza's expression was tight as she slowly withdrew the plank.
She was wearing a yellow hard hat and had changed into work clothes meant for hauling bricks.
"Sir, yes, sir!" Natsu and Gray's eyes instantly became clear and obedient.
"Aye! This feels just like whack-a-mole!" Happy seized the opportunity to comment.
Seeing them settle down, Erza turned to Makarov, who was using Giant Magic to set a beam in place. "Foreman, where should this plank go?"
"Oh, Squad Leader Erza, just stack it with the other materials over there," Giant Makarov said with a smile over his shoulder.
The novel nicknames sparked quiet murmurs among Macao and the others—it felt like a mage guild had suddenly turned into a construction site.
Meanwhile, behind a pile of materials in the distance, a pair of lovesick eyes was fixed intently on Gray's forehead.
"Aaaaah, Juvia wants to be buried in the ground with Gray-sama too! That way, Juvia can have Gray-sama's children!"
"Not too many—thirty should be enough!"
Juvia swayed her hips excitedly, her mind filled with heavily filtered images of Gray and some scenes unsuitable for minors.
The sheer audacity of her train of thought was staggering.
Phantom Lord's mages had been released the night before—the same as Fairy Tail—after paying sufficient fines.
Only Jose, the guild master who had instigated the war, remained under custody, took back to the Magic Council by the Enforcement troops.
At the end of the day, a guild was simply a place for mages to find work.
When lower-ranking members caused trouble, the guild master who managed and directed them bore the responsibility. Makarov, for instance, was constantly cleaning up after Natsu, Chase, and others.
From this perspective, the Council's oversight of ordinary mages was quite lenient.
Gray, having climbed out of the ground, sensed something and snapped his head toward the area Juvia was in—but saw no one.
"Weird. I feel like I'm being watched," he muttered with a frown.
Considering there were many workers around, he didn't dwell on it.
Under Erza's supervision, he resumed competing with Natsu-er, resumed working on the new guild.
Time passed quietly, and soon it was nearly noon.
During this time, Natsu and Happy discovered some mysterious heart-shaped bento boxes and sampled them with Erza, giving them high praise.
Gray, however, was starving but couldn't bring himself to eat—some jerk had shaped the rice balls into his face!
"Natsu, Gray, have either of you seen Chase?"
In the midst of the commotion, Mira, wearing a wine-red dress, walked over holding some colorful sketches.
"I want him to be the first to critique my latest rushed design," she said, her sparkling eyes filled with anticipation.
Gray glanced at the cute, doodle-like drawings and kept his mouth firmly shut.
"No idea. Haven't seen him all day," Natsu replied without thinking.
"Aye! It's weird. This is the kind of thing Chase usually shows up for right away!" Happy scratched his head in confusion.
"Now that you mention it, something does feel off."
Erza speared one of the eye-balls from Gray's bento and popped it into her mouth, chewing thoughtfully.
Gray's eyes suddenly hurt.
"I see. Well, if you see him, please let me know. Thanks!"
Seeing that Natsu and the others hadn't seen Chase, Mira turned away disappointed and went to ask other guildmates.
Erza swallowed her food and looked around. "Speaking of which, not only Chase—I haven't seen Lucy either."
Gray's eyes hurt even more…
"Aye! Lucy should still be at home!" Happy raised his hand.
"She's so mean! She kicked us out first thing this morning, and now she's probably still sleeping in!"
Natsu grumbled, recalling Lucy's fierce shooing earlier.
"Well, then let's just go to her place and see," Gray suggested.
Though he'd grown up in Magnolia, he couldn't shake the feeling that something unclean was lurking around the construction site.
"Good idea. It's almost the foreman's lunch break anyway," Erza agreed.
Lunch break aside, she was a bit worried about Lucy after the recent Phantom Lord incident.
As for Chase—Erza completely ignored him. If that guy was missing, the people who should be most worried were whatever unlucky outsiders crossed his path and the Master!
After letting Makarov know, and under the reluctant gaze of Juvia lurking in a dark corner, the group left the construction site and soon arrived at Lucy's apartment.
Natsu and Happy climbed in through the window. Gray came in through the fireplace chimney. Erza appeared out of thin air—no telling how she'd managed it.
One thing was certain: none of them had used the front door!
The silence that pervaded the place was broken only by the absence of Lucy's usual sharp retorts, which threw everyone off.
They searched everywhere but found no sign of Lucy. Happy did, however, find a stack of unsent letters Lucy had written to her mother stuffed in the mailbox.
"Stop looking. Lucy said she was going home."
In the end, Erza found a note on the desk, pinned under an ink bottle.
"Nani? Going home?!" Natsu, Gray, and Happy all thought of the same thing at once and cried out in alarm.
The destroyed guild was just being rebuilt. If Lucy was going "home," that meant…
"That's right. The note clearly says Lucy is going to the Heartfilia estate," Erza said gravely.
"No way! Lucy doesn't even like that place!" Natsu's voice rose, laced with obvious panic.
"Maybe she doesn't want the Heartfilia Konzern to make another move against the guild."
"What are we waiting for?! Let's go drag her back! Lucy's our comrade!!"
When it came to their guildmates, no one hesitated. They immediately set off for Magnolia Station.
Meanwhile, Lucy, now changed into casual clothes, sat on the train heading home, staring with mixed emotions at the scenery flashing past the window.
And Chase, traveling by Guardian of the Fortress, was even faster. He had already arrived at the Heartfilia estate!
In the lavish, spacious study…
Jude Heartfilia sat at his mahogany desk, his expression dark as he stared at the intelligence reports about Phantom Lord's defeat laid out before him.
"A bunch of useless trash. Can't even take down Fairy Tail, and they still call themselves Fiore's strongest guild!"
The more Jude thought about it, the angrier he became. He slammed his fist on the sturdy desk, sending various documents flying.
Just as he was grinding his teeth, considering hiring multiple guilds with money to bring Lucy back…
The inexplicable silence around him made his instincts flare. "Who's there?!"
In a dark corner, his deep blue cloak swaying, Chase stepped slowly out of the shadows.
"Good afternoon, Mr. Jude Heartfilia."
***
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