What a touching display of filial affection.
Truly, they're a father and son loved one another deeply!
Makarov, Ivan, and Laxus—three generations of the same family line—were such a wonderfully "harmonious" family.
Of course, the real problem mainly lay with Ivan in the middle.
He was the rotten link between the generations, the one who had created this "father resigns, son laughs" situation.
Makarov and Laxus still shared that special bond between grandfather and grandson, especially now that the misunderstandings between them had been resolved.
So as Laxus watched Ivan get beaten up by Makarov, his emotions remained perfectly stable.
His father had already been expelled from the guild.
Not only that, he had opposed Fairy Tail and had now even tried to drive a wedge between them.
That was absolutely the wrong thing to do.
"Take your people and get lost."
After beating his son and venting his anger, Makarov told Ivan to hurry up and leave with his people.
He did not want them lingering there, causing trouble and offending everyone's eyes.
"Damn it! You Fairy Tail bastards! I'll be back!"
Clutching his face, Ivan threw out a parting threat.
He did not even need to remind them.
The Raven Tail members had already stopped playing dead, and one by one they dragged themselves to his side, preparing to leave with him.
"Wait a moment, Ivan. Why are you dressed like that? you wouldn't happen to be planning to sneak into the Grand Magic Games, would you?"
Just as Ivan Dreyar was about to leave, Marco suddenly added that one sentence.
His expression was strange, because just now, he had suddenly received a mission.
[Ding! Mission triggered!]
[Mission Name: Maintain Fairness!]
Mission Details:
Raven Tail is attempting to destroy the fairness of the Grand Magic Games.
Stop them!
Warning: Raven Tail's Guild Master, Ivan Dreyar, will disguise himself as a guild member and participate!
Mission Progress:
Stop Raven Tail from violating the rules. Incomplete.
[Mission Reward: Random Bronze Cloth or skill.]
The mission had come very suddenly, and its difficulty was low at a glance. It looked easy to complete.
But the information contained in the mission still surprised Marco.
Ivan Dreyar really had no shame at all.
As a Guild Master, he was actually planning to disguise himself and participate in the competition.
Although the Grand Magic Games now allowed S-Class Mages to participate, Guild Masters were still not permitted to compete.
After all, this was still a tournament.
If members of different guilds fought until real anger broke out, that was one thing.
At most, it meant the individuals involved did not get along.
But if Guild Masters fought until genuine hostility developed, the impact on both guilds would be huge.
This was only a competition.
There was no need to let things escalate that far.
So it was simpler to bar Guild Masters from participating entirely.
On top of that, the Grand Magic Games had originally been derived from one of Fairy Tail's old S-Class exam.
Because of that, from the beginning, Guild Masters had naturally not been allowed to participate.
At first, even S-Class Mages had not been allowed to compete.
The rules had simply been reformed step by step until they reached their current form.
If one had to say it, then perhaps in the future Guild Masters might also be allowed to participate.
But at the moment, a Guild Master entering the competition was absolutely a violation of the rules.
"W-What?! How could that be?!"
With his plan exposed by Marco, Ivan Dreyar looked shocked.
He had never expected Marco to suddenly drag the topic in that direction!
"...So it really is true."
Ivan Dreyar's reaction made Marco click his tongue.
In truth, this was an extremely unexpected matter.
If the system mission had not revealed it, Marco would never have thought of it.
Most likely, no one else would have imagined that Ivan Dreyar was shameless enough to enter the competition himself.
"Nonsense! We're leaving!"
Faced with Marco's suspicion, Ivan Dreyar roared, then immediately led his people away in a state even more miserable than when he had been beaten.
Clearly, if his rule-breaking participation was exposed, he would lose even more face than he already had, and he would face further punishment as well.
"Marco, how did you know he was planning to break the rules and compete?"
Seeing Ivan flee in defeat, Makarov came to Marco's side and asked curiously.
Everyone around them was curious too.
Truly, not a single person had thought of that possibility.
"The requirement for the participating teams is five or six people per team. Raven Tail only brought five people in total, and one of them is Ivan, their Guild Master. Isn't that strange?
"Of course, it's possible that they still have another team member who hasn't arrived yet, so I was really only testing him. I didn't expect his reaction to be that big."
Marco smiled as he explained.
His meaning was already obvious.
There really was something wrong with Ivan Dreyar.
Perhaps Marco had actually guessed correctly.
"Should we investigate them closely?"
Hisui immediately picked up the thread.
As the daughter of the "boss" behind the organizers, she could naturally go to her kingly father and make requests, such as having Raven Tail's participating members checked carefully.
"Of course. Investigate them thoroughly."
Marco nodded and gave a definite answer.
His mission was to stop Raven Tail from destroying the fairness of the Grand Magic Games, so naturally they had to investigate ruthlessly.
They had to investigate until Ivan Dreyar no longer dared participate.
Ideally, Raven Tail's qualification would be revoked entirely and they would be expelled from Crocus.
That would solve everything in one go, saving him the trouble of guarding against them causing problems halfway through.
"Understood, Master."
Hisui nodded.
She understood Master Marco's meaning behind "investigate thoroughly" very well.
They had to keep hounding Raven Tail. Ideally, they would make it impossible for them to participate at all.
Of course, everything had to be done within legal and proper boundaries.
They would not take the initiative to break the rules. They would only punish those who did.
If Raven Tail truly had no problems, then they could not do anything.
They could not simply rig things outright.