Wizards still needed to focus on work. After the fun and games, the Strongest Team left to do a job.
Watching Natsu, Gray, and Erza reduce the pool table to nothing in just a few moves, Lucy couldn't help but feel fearful of combat jobs all the money she had earned last time went to compensation!
Seeing her so worried, Mira immediately recommended a non-destructive daily job:
A theater owner wanted a wizard to use magic to help make his theater popular.
The job location was Onibas — an even more prosperous commercial city than Magnolia. It was also the city where the Strongest Team had destroyed most of the train station during the Lullaby incident.
Lucy happily accepted.
With the guild's strongest idiot and the two noisiest idiots gone, the temporary work area became noticeably quieter.
"It's suddenly so quiet. Feels a bit strange..."
Chase sat at the counter, glancing around. Only a few scattered people were present.
"It really does. Everyone's been very motivated lately. After all, next month is the Harvest Festival."
Mira sat across from him, hands on the counter supporting her fair, flawless face. She blinked, her gaze focused entirely on Chase. "Chase, are you really not going to take any jobs?"
"Nothing interesting. Can't take S-Class anyway."
With that, Chase's eyes suddenly lit up. "Hey, Mira, how about you—"
"You're specifically on the master's list of people who need close watching."
Instantly guessing what he was about to say, Mira raised her hands in a cross gesture and said seriously, "So no sneaking through the back door, da~!"
It wasn't that Makarov didn't trust Chase's abilities. His main concern was that once this door was opened, certain idiots in the guild might be influenced and do something stupid like secretly taking S-Class jobs.
The new guild hall wasn't finished yet. As the master, he had many things to arrange. He really didn't have time to deal with possible emergency situations.
"Hmm..."
Chase sighed, then asked, "Do you have the contact info for a construction team?"
Since he had nothing better to do, he might as well work on getting his new house built.
Although he had promised to pay Lucy's rent, and he and Lucy like brother and sister didn't sweat the small stuff, it was still a girl's place. It wasn't very convenient.
"Ara, building a new house?" Mira asked.
Seeing Chase nod affirmatively, her face lit up with joy. She reached inside her wine-red dress and rummaged around.
"Ta-da! Not only the construction team's contact info — I even designed the blueprints for you!"
Mira smiled and pulled out blueprints, still warm from her body, and spread them out. Her beautiful eyes were full of expectation.
Chase was a bit surprised.
From the Three Crows' Assassination attempt to the battle at the Tower of Heaven, Mira had been with him almost the entire time.
That meant — she had drawn these blueprints last night!
This level of care was truly touching. Only — the cute, pink, child-like art style... well, it was hard to compliment.
"Ah ha, ahaha. As expected of you. Can you go over the details?" Chase asked, scratching his head.
He could reverse-engineer the guild hall blueprints based on his memory of the original story. But this house plan — he genuinely couldn't understand a thing!
The boomerang from his earlier showing-off had precisely hit him in the back of the head.
"No problem!"
Mira, who loved sharing, didn't say much. She laid the house blueprints on the counter.
Limited by the counter's width, she pulled her chair closer, leaned forward, and pressed her upper body against the table.
Two massive objects replaced her vacated hands, pressing into strange shapes on the surface.
"First, the first floor. The entrance is naturally a spacious living room. On the side is a separate, independent gym. After all, someone like you definitely needs to exercise, right?"
Leaning on the table, Mira was very close to Chase. Her fair fingers pointed to areas on the cute blueprint in turn.
"Across from the gym is the kitchen and dining table. Behind these two are the bathroom and bath."
"Mm, for the bath, you'd definitely want a huge tub. It's very comfortable to soak in during winter."
"Then on the second floor, the wall facing the street could have floor-to-ceiling windows. The view and lighting would be great!"
After her explanation, Chase grew more and more confused or rather, stunned.
As a civil engineering graduate, he really hadn't expected that a child's graffiti no, this blueprint could contain so much information!
The magical world truly was magical.
"They're all great designs. However—"
Chase pointed to the end of the blueprint. "What's this big-headed little figure on the roof for?"
"That's your chibi statue, Chase! It's the signature feature of the whole house!"
With that, Mira's eyes sparkled, like a child eagerly waiting for praise.
"...It's ugly. Everything but that is fine." Chase rejected it without a second thought.
"How could you! That's the part I'm most proud of!"
Mira's high expectations immediately collapsed. She covered her face with both hands and started sobbing, "Boo hoo hoo."
"Other than the statue — everything else is completely fine. The design is excellent. I-I'll build it exactly according to your blueprints!"
Chase immediately panicked and hurriedly tried to comfort her.
Compared to fighting, what he couldn't stand the most was a girl's tears — even if Mira's hidden black-hearted nature meant it was quite likely she was faking.
Sure enough, Mira, who had been dropping little pearls, instantly changed her expression and smiled happily. "Really? Is that okay?!"
Chase was used to this by now. "Let me be clear no design fee."
"No way. Then I'd be working for free!"
Mira first countered seriously, then her eyes shifted. Slightly playfully, she said, "In exchange, I want to be the first to tour your new house!"
"Deal." Chase nodded.
At the distant bar area, the veteran loafers watched the pair's intimate conversation.
"Damn it! How is their relationship progressing so fast? They're already designing a love nest!" Macao gritted his teeth in envy.
"I knew it! With Chase's terrifying strength, why would he destroy his own house in battle? Turns out it was all premeditated!"
Wakaba took a deep drag from his pipe, putting on a "suddenly understanding" expression.
"I thought I heard something about a baby room just now... Do I really have no chance? It hurts! It hurts so much!"
"Shut up, you already have kids! My pain is greater than yours!"
"Oh really? At least you still have a wife you haven't divorced!"
THUD!
The sound of a barrel slamming onto the table interrupted their conversation.
Cana, slightly flushed, scolded them, "Hey, don't you two have work to do? You're bothering my drinking!"
"Someone who's dead drunk every day has no right to talk!" Macao and Wakaba were dismissive.
"No, no, no. I was just delayed by something important."
Cana raised her hand, wiped the alcohol from her mouth, and let out a very flavorful burp.
"Pfft, haha! Something important? Like drinking so much you put the bill on the Magic Council?" Macao couldn't help but laugh out loud.
All three were guild veterans. They knew each other's bad habits very well.
But this time, Macao and Wakaba were destined to be wrong.
"Heh. The me of now is not the same as before, you know."
Cana shook her head. After sobering up slightly, she pulled out three cards and smiled mysteriously. "This is a rare opportunity. Let me show you a little something."
"The results of my recent training!"
HUM.
Cana tossed all three cards out. Magic circles lit up in three different positions.
The next second, light flashed. Long swords glowing with dazzling light slowly materialized and hovered in mid-air.
"Hey, hey, you're joking, right?!"
"Isn't that Chase's magic?"
Staring at the three all-too-familiar swords of light, Macao and Wakaba — who had been dismissive just moments ago — were stunned speechless.
Even Mira, who had been chatting with Chase, curiously poked her head out. "Ara, Cana replicated Lightforce Sword?"
"It doesn't have Lightforce Sword's sealing effect, but it seems to have something extra." Chase saw through the essence of Cana's magic at a glance.
"That's right!" Cana smiled and snapped her fingers.
The card magic circles on the ground spun again. Then, the three swords of light trembled violently.
Thick iron chains, condensed from light magic, flew out from the swords' surfaces and precisely tied the caught-off-guard Macao and Wakaba.
Macao and Wakaba were shocked. They struggled hard but couldn't break free.
"I see. Hiding binding light magic inside cards to achieve the same target-restraining effect as Lightforce Sword?"
Mira suddenly understood. She sighed in surprise. "Very clever idea. And the magic power is strong too."
In contrast, Chase was much calmer.
Come to think of it, Cana — inheriting Gildarts' bloodline — had always had strong magic power. Otherwise, she couldn't have used "Fairy Glitter," the strongest single-target attack among Fairy Tail's three magic powers.
The reason she had never been impressive, failing the S-Class qualification for years in a row, was partly due to her poor mentality. But the more critical factor was the limitation of her card magic, which had a low ceiling.
"Hehe. There's more!"
Cana raised her hand and used magic on Macao and Wakaba, easily sealing them into blank cards and playing with them between her fingers.
The two old perverts ran around frantically in the pure white space.
In the original story, Cana had learned this card sealing magic from Shō. But Chase had already explained the basic principles to her earlier. It wasn't surprising she had mastered it now.
"Nice work, Cana. The activation speed and smoothness of your cards are much better than before." Chase complimented her.
Strictly speaking, he was also a card wizard. Naturally, he saw more details than Mira.
"Not bad, not bad. Still far from a monster like you." Cana smiled and rubbed her nose.
"That's true."
"Damn it!"
Cana's smile immediately froze. This damn card addict had no worldliness at all!
"But still, thanks. Without your magical inspiration and the Book of Secret Arts, I really couldn't have achieved this breakthrough." She thanked him sincerely.
Besides raising the user's magic power limit, the Book of Secret Arts also contained content about the magical path that had given her quite a bit of inspiration and insight.
"This year's S-Class... I finally see hope!"
Cana clenched her fist. Her shimmering gaze was filled with emotion.
This way, she would be qualified to reunite with that person — and stay in Fairy Tail forever!
"Provided you don't run into Chase." Mira added with a smile, twisting the knife.
Hearing this, Cana, who had been full of confidence, instantly deflated.
One spoke cuttingly, the other hid a dagger behind a smile. This damn couple's mouths were truly vicious!
***
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