"Ah? Huh? Mr. Mest?!"
The little Wendy was completely dumbfounded. She stood in the wind, bewildered.
"Let's go, Happy! Target, south!"
"Aye~!"
"We'll take the northern landmark first."
"A man! Heading north!!"
The other teams didn't pause for a moment. They charged at high speed toward their pre-selected destinations.
"Sorry, Wendy. Mest's Teleportation Magic was too much of a threat to everyone, so we had to take him out first..." Lucy, at least having a conscience, hurriedly turned back to explain to Wendy as she and Cana headed east.
To make his infiltration of Fairy Tail harder to detect, Mest had deliberately "leaked" information in the memory modification magic he had cast on the guild members, revealing that he could use Teleportation Magic.
After all, as fellow guild mages, this "honesty" made him disguised identity seems more authentic and believable.
And so, tragedy had happened unexpectedly.
The unparalleled speed and mobility advantage brought by Teleportation Magic was enough to break any balance!
In fact, even if everyone hadn't tacitly "eliminated" the threat Mest posed, Makarov had already tampered with the landmark tablets to ensure Mest couldn't advance smoothly.
Tasked with the important mission of being a Council spy, he naturally couldn't become a guild S-Class mage.
At least, absolutely not before his cover was blown!
"H-how could this happen? Everyone's so mean..." Wendy's beautiful big eyes filled with tears. She looked about to cry.
"This is probably what they mean by 'the bird that sticks its head out gets shot.' It's okay, Wendy. You did your best."
Carla, the trial recorder, flew down from the sky. After offering Wendy a word of comfort, she pulled out a tablet-like magical item from her pack and used her cat paw to mark a red X over Mest's avatar.
The information was synchronized through Letter Magic to the other participants and examiners.
The second round also had elimination rules.
If a participant briefly lost the ability to fight, they would be disqualified.
Otherwise, with the blessing of Tenrou Island's buff, the fighting would never end. Though the S-Class Trial was brutal, you couldn't actually kill a guildmate, could you?
At the same time, this also made the participants somewhat restrained, preventing a free-for-all from breaking out immediately.
Wendy still looked dejected, blaming herself for not being able to be of any useful help.
If only, if only she had sensed the danger earlier and cast an enchantment spell on Mr. Mest... maybe this wouldn't have happened?
The little girl was beginning to learn to reflect and summarize.
On the other side.
On the paths leading to the landmark tablets, the participants encountered unexpected resistance.
There were large wild boars with skin like steel, crocodiles as big as small hills, and green demon giants that could speak human language.
These were magical beasts living on Tenrou Island.
Influenced by the island's special environment, they all possessed considerable formidable combat power, rivaling the fierce beasts of Bondari Forest.
Of course, this level of threat wasn't particularly dangerous to the participants.
However, to preserve their peak condition for the fierce, brutal battle of the tablets, Lucy and the others tried as much as possible to avoid direct confrontations with these beasts.
Except for Natsu, who caught and beat up any large bird that flew by.
After a somewhat tortuous journey, the Lucy-Cana alliance finally succeeded in reaching the eastern shore. Among the Gobi Desert, they found the square tablet enveloped in a red pillar of light.
It wasn't so much a tablet as it was a delicate black cube, suspended in midair, small enough to hold in one hand.
Its surface was engraved with dense, ant-sized text. These characters were projected by a miniature magic crystal inside the cube's core, reflecting onto the towering pillar of light.
[April
[July of the same year: The Second Trade War broke out.]
[February X688: Mage guilds became involved in the war. The first master Mavis's strategic talents were recognized. She was given the title 'Fairy Tactician'.]
[May X690: Yuri Dreyar married. The Second Trade War ended. The treaty prohibiting conflicts between guilds went into effect.]
[X697: The first master Mavis's grave was established on Tenrou Island. According to Mavis's dying wishes, Precht officially took over as the guild's second master.]
"Look, Cana! The history on our tablet is about the founding of the guild!"
Lucy excitedly approached the red pillar of light, her wide beautiful eyes sparkling with curiosity and longing.
The information displayed was quite detailed and full of fantasy. As someone who loved the guild and enjoyed novels, she was completely captivated. For a moment, she even forgot about the S-Class Trial.
Cana was in a similar state of mind. She had never imagined the guild was founded under such circumstances.
In fact, there were relevant historical records in the guild's underground library. It was just that, aside from a very few like Levy, almost no one in Fairy Tail ever went out of their way to read that stuff.
"The Second Trade War..." Éclair looked up at the red text on the light screen, thoughtful. "Fairy Tactician... I think I've heard of that before..."
As a young girl of only four hundred-plus years, she had naturally experienced this brutal war that had swept across nearly the entire continent. She had witnessed far too much death.
Her belief that "the power of mages only brings misfortune" had been firmly ed from that time.
Who would have thought that, after all these twists and turns, she was now a member of this very guild?
Éclair's heart was filled with countless emotions.
"'Taking it upon herself to protect the city's facilities' and 'Tactician'? That doesn't sound at all like the noisy guild we have now," Lily said, his paws crossed, noticing the rather discordant contrast.
"If the first master were still alive, it would be really hard to imagine what her expression would be like," Momon added.
Even now, the two who needed to be specifically named and shamed from the south were still in the middle of fierce fighting.
"Well, our speed isn't as fast as the other teams. We should just secure this tablet first," Cana said, stepping forward a few paces and reaching for the square tablet.
Lucy, coming to her senses, quickly pulled her back.
"Lucy?"
"A thing this important... I'd better be the one to keep it safe. Don't worry. I'll definitely share it with you as we agreed in the end."
Lucy said this as she naturally and lightly walked toward the light pillar.
Knowing exactly what she was thinking, Cana naturally wouldn't allow it. She pulled Lucy back. "A thing like this will definitely be targeted by other teams. It's much safer to store it in my cards."
"We're both participants, so we'll attract attention either way. If we're talking safety, I think it should be kept with Momon," Lucy said, her hand on Cana's arm. "Momon is a plush doll at heart. You can unzip his back and hide things inside."
"If that's the case, Lily's body can do that too!" Cana countered.
The two smiled without smiling, the force of their mutual restraint gradually increasing as they secretly competed.
Lily instinctively touched his smooth back. Um... not really?
"Honestly, Cana. Don't we have even that little bit of trust between us?"
"That's what I should be saying, you bastard Lucy! You're the one who wants to hog the landmark, aren't you?!"
"Hah? You're just saying it outright like that? You're the one with the bad idea!"
The two, pulling at each other, glared.
Almost simultaneously, they quickly jumped back. One pulled out a Celestial Spirit key, the other pulled out Tarot cards.
"Éclair, Momon (Lily)! Get ready to fight!!"
The Plastic Sisters Alliance collapsed even faster than expected. Before it could really begin, it had already reached its end.
***
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