"Ooooh! That was amazing!"
"That's the most interesting stage play I've ever seen! The interaction was super strong!!"
After a brief moment of stunned silence, the audience standing on the rubble cheered loudly, giving a rousing applause to this play that was, in a certain sense, extremely wonderful.
The Strongest Team members stood there dumbfounded. The theater owner, hiding in a corner, had eyes shining with the gleam of a profiteer.
"A completely unsurprising development..."
Chase dusted off his clothes and removed the magic barrier he had placed around them.
In the original story, the buried audience members had been mostly fine. But since this was a real world, he had taken some precautions just in case.
"Ara. I underestimated Natsu and the others a bit."
Mira stood beside him, an apologetic look on her face. "I really thought this job wouldn't cause any destruction."
"Don't worry, don't worry. The audience's reaction doesn't lie, right?" Makarov said cheerfully.
"So this is Lucy's work as a wizard? This is outrageous!" Jude fumed, his beard and mustache bristling.
As the young lady of the Heartfilia family, Lucy had always been a dignified, proper lady since childhood. How could she do something like this?
Although his mindset had already undergone a huge shift, Jude still couldn't quite accept it. He walked toward Lucy with a dark expression.
Lucy seemed to sense something. She tightened the not-quite-roomy prince's cape around her and looked up to meet Jude's eyes.
During the performance, she had had a strong intuition. The moment their eyes met, that intuition became certain.
Her father, who should have been extremely busy with work, had really come to watch her perform!
This should have been a happy thing. But in her current state joy, tangle, worry, fear, panic all these emotions are intertwined, making Lucy silently lowered her head, unable to face the slowly approaching Jude.
Like Jude, although the father and daughter had reconciled, the stereotypes that had existed for over a decade couldn't be erased so easily.
Finally, the footsteps stopped. Jude stood before Lucy. "Lucy."
The man's tone sounded quite serious.
"F-Father... I'm sorry, I—"
Before Lucy could apologize, her vision suddenly darkened. Then, a wave of warmth spread through her entire body — Jude had taken off his cloak and put it over her shoulders.
"A very good performance. You looked very cool working hard, Lucy," Jude said in a low voice.
It was indeed embarrassing for the young lady of the Heartfilia family to do such a thing. But the Lucy now was a free, unrestrained wizard.
For a moment, Jude was in a trance. He saw a shadow of Layla in Lucy. It was the scene of their first meeting at the trading guild.
He remembered that Layla back then had been just like Lucy now serious, positive, and giving her all to her work.
It was precisely that quality that had deeply attracted him.
Thinking this, Jude instinctively reached out his hands but for various reasons, he hesitated. They hung stiffly in mid-air, unsure where to go.
He had even forgotten the last time he had hugged his daughter.
Years ago? After Layla died? Or even further back, when she was first born?
At a loss, a heavy impact hit his chest.
The girl had thrown herself into his arms, burying her face, her beautiful eyes filled with tears. "Thank you... thank you for coming to see me, Dad!"
"Lucy..."
After a brief daze, the always meticulous Jude also broke down. Tears sparkled in his aged eyes.
He tremblingly hugged Lucy. His movements started cautious and careful, then gradually grew firmer.
Only now did Jude completely realized how much of a bastard he had been before — how he had almost lost the most important "treasure" Layla had left him!
Watching the father-daughter embrace, the melon-eating audience looked confused. Was there more to the show?
Natsu, Gray, Makarov, and the others, who knew the various reasons, smiled happily.
"Ooooh! After the prince defeats the evil dragon and rescues the princess, we get a big reconciliation between the princess and the king? A super great happy ending!"
In the crowd, a certain card game addict shouted.
"King? Is that blonde guy supposed to be the princess's wicked father?"
"Ah! No wonder that guy was waving his cheering stick from the very beginning the actor was right here among us!"
"Wow, wow, wow! This ticket was worth it! When's the next show?!"
The audience went crazy again, giving the "king" and "princess," who had reconciled on the rubble, cheers and applause.
This proved — you just needed to throw out a little hook, and the melon-eating bystanders would fill in all sorts of beautiful images themselves.
"Always doing unnecessary things, aren't you, Chase." Mira leaned close to Chase, playfully blinking.
"Rare scenes should be lively, don't you think?" Chase smiled.
"I suppose you're right."
As they chatted, plop, Juvia's head emerged from the gravel pile. "Aaaaah! Juvia, Juvia wants to play Gray-sama's dog too~"
Mm, the word "play" was quite unnecessary...
The theater owner was extremely satisfied with the performance. He immediately added to the job and its compensation, urging the Strongest Team to go on a week-long tour.
After saying goodbye to the Strongest Team, who had accepted the job, Chase and the others headed back.
Bob, Goldmine, and Yajima returned to their own cities. Jude came back to Magnolia with the group.
Besides coming to watch his daughter's performance, Jude had something even more important to do.
That was to discuss full development with Makarov and establish a Fairy Tail-Hearthfilia family alliance!
Actually, after Layla's death, Jude had deeply understood the principle that in the magical world, the fist ruled. But in his previous view, all wizard guilds were fanatics useful, but not to be befriended.
For example, hiring Phantom Lord to bring back Lucy — trusting wizard guilds too much would only ruin the business empire he had painstakingly built.
But now, with Lucy as the connection, and having personally experienced the unique bonds and passion of Fairy Tail (even if he had been the target), Jude naturally had no worries.
Makarov certainly wouldn't refuse such a gift horse. He was very positive.
But trust was trust. Since it was a business partnership, specific details and terms needed to be worked out. Every aspect had to be considered.
So, back in Magnolia, the two immediately plunged into mutually uncompromising interests tug-of-war meetings.
Makarov wanted to bring Chase along, but Chase had no interest in such troublesome matters. He used Substitute Summon and let Mira, who was familiar with guild affairs, take his place.
It wasn't until nightfall that the two sides finally hammered out the most basic co-op content.
The next day, at an internal meeting of the Heartfilia Konzern, Jude announced this decision.
News of the alliance between Fiore's strongest guild and its The richest conglomerate quickly spread, causing an earthquake within the Kingdom of Fiore. Many conglomerates and wizard guilds were moved.
Various factions that had been trying to undermine the Heartfilia Konzern became a scapegoat, canceling their original plans and instead strengthening their partnership with Heartfilia.
A tiger with teeth and a tiger without teeth were two completely different concepts.
In the past, they wouldn't have been so panicked.
But according to the undercover intelligence collected by their respective information networks, Fairy Tail's standing in the Magic Council had recently soared. Not only the neutrals, but even some opposition were starting to sway.
They didn't know what had caused this transformation. But one thing was certain: Fairy Tail was now an existence not to be easily provoked in the magical world!
Unless the royal family stepped in to sanction, otherwise, unless something unexpected happened, the Heartfilia Konzern would only grow stronger.
And the benefits for Fairy Tail were even more obvious.
With the wealthy Heartfilia family as a backing, Makarov's frequent funding problems were thoroughly solved.
His pension was saved.
The guild's request board also gained many jobs from Heartfilia: merchant escorts, bridge demolition and reconstruction, land reclamation and road building, and so on.
The members had more choices and no longer worried about finding suitable work.
Of course, all jobs were reviewed through regular channels and issued to Fairy Tail by the Magic Council.
After all, they were the regulators of all legal guilds. Not giving those people a little kickback could easily lead to big trouble!
Makarov and Jude, as magic world veterans, knew this worldliness well.
Unfortunately, S-Class jobs were still not open.
So, compared to the members' increasingly active work attitudes, Chase had much more free time. He either spent it at his new house construction site or freeloaded food and drink at the guild site, occasionally helping Mira, who couldn't handle everything, with some work.
Ten days passed quietly.
The guild's scaffolding was completely removed. The exterior wall tiles and interior wall decoration were both finished. Surrounding projects (swimming pool, commercial street) had begun.
During this time, the Strongest Team, finally finished with their tormenting performances, had returned once, rested for half a day, and then hurriedly took a job to take down a dark guild.
Early one morning.
At the temporary counter and work area inside the new guild hall.
"Chase, haven't you noticed it's been getting colder lately?"
"I was planning to go with Elfman, but he seems busy recently."
Watching Chase wolf down his breakfast, Mira propped her cheek on one hand, pulled out two pre-prepared tickets from her dress, and said with a beaming smile, "Since there's not much to do today, how about going to the hot spring town for a bath?"
With that, Elfman, who had been competing with Nab for the "NPC" status by the request board, immediately turned around. "Mira-nee, I don't seem to see any suitable jobs!"
"Really? Weren't you saying yesterday you were going to escort the Heartfilia railway construction?"
"Huh? Did I say that?" Elfman scratched his head, confused.
He didn't remember that.
"Yes, you did." Mira's smile suddenly became very kind.
"Ah, right, right, right! I did say that!"
Elfman finally caught on. Frightened, he tore a job off the board and ran out the door, shouting, "A real man! I'm going to do a job, Mira-nee!"
"I'll register it for you. Be safe." Mira smiled and waved at his retreating back.
Hey, hey... that was way too obvious...
Having witnessed the entire process, Chase wanted to complain.
Then —
Without a moment's hesitation, he snatched the tickets from Mira's hand. "Then I'll gladly accept."
Mira, slightly blushing, smiled happily.
At the same time, the Strongest Team, having finished their job, was walking back to the guild.
Fortunately, the dark guild's location was deep in an uninhabited mountain forest. So even though Natsu, Gray, and Erza had completely demolished the entire guild, they didn't have to worry about compensation.
Lucy, finally able to keep the full reward, was very happy. She thought this would be a good chance to go to the hot springs together and relax their tense nerves.
The proposal was unanimously approved.
So, by pure coincidence, both groups arrived at the Balsam Village hot spring town west of Magnolia on the same night.
This village, with its Eastern-style architecture, was famous for its hot spring street — the first choice for residents of Magnolia and surrounding cities to soak in the hot springs.
A winding, secluded bamboo path.
After her bath, Lucy aimlessly walked with her little dog, Canis Minor, Plue.
"That was so scary. I was so stupid to think I could play pillow fight with those monsters..." Lucy raised her hand to rub her still-aching forehead.
Just moments ago, she had enthusiastically joined a pillow fight proposed by Natsu.
The result, unsurprisingly, was an instant KO from a flying pillow!
"Pupu. Just surviving is something to be thankful for, Master~" Plue unexpectedly spoke.
"Huh? Ha?! You can talk?!!"
Lucy jolted. Her entire body went as stiff as a board.
"Pupu. Mm. I just look like a dog. I'm still a Celestial Spirit at heart~" Plue continued.
Not right. This was very not right!
Hearing the strangely familiar tone, and looking at the trembling, blank-faced Plue, Lucy quickly realized what was happening. She strode to the nearby bamboo grove and pulled out Happy, who had been hiding behind it with a mean expression.
"I knew it was you, you damn cat, causing trouble!"
"Ara, Lucy, since when did you get so smart? I thought I could at least fool you for a week." Happy frowned, puzzled.
"...Sorry for exceeding your expectations!!"
Feeling insulted, Lucy's teeth turned into sawtooth shapes. She wanted to drown this bitch cat with her spit.
The commotion successfully attracted two passing men.
"Oh ho? Going for a hot spring and running into such a cute girl? Lucky us!"
"Hey there, little girl. Walking around this late with a pet cat and a pet dog can be very dangerous, you know~"
"Hehehe. Let these big brothers protect and take care of you~"
They seemed to be repeat offenders. They surrounded Lucy without any hesitation and started touching her.
The sudden harassment made Lucy frown. She reached for her Celestial Spirit keys.
Happy, spineless as ever, hid far away, but still poked his head out to emphasize, "I'm not a pet cat! I'm a wizard!"
The damn cat saw it clearly: these two were just small-time thugs with barely any magic power. They weren't much of a threat to Lucy.
In this safe situation, of course, the top priority was to protect the fish in his bag!
Lucy really wanted to complain about this unreliable dead cat. But she had to deal with the two thugs first.
"Open! Gate of—"
BOOM!
Before the Celestial Spirit gate could open, a loud crash rang out.
"You dare lay hands on my cute little sister... you must be ready for a fight, right?"
Standing in the smoke, Chase cracked his knuckles.
"Chase!" Lucy was very surprised.
Looking at the two unconscious men lying on the broken ground, she couldn't help but complained, "They're already unable to fight, you know..."
***
Dive deeper into the story with 30+ advance chapters, available now on Patreon!patreon.com/CNBLUE
If you're enjoying the novel, please consider leaving a review. Your support is crucial and helps the story grow immensely. Thank you!