The guild still holds a lot of influence; Mermaid's Heel and Blue Pegasus quickly sent over the task documents Rhode specifically requested.
Additionally, Lamia Scale and several smaller guilds also organized some uncertain materials and sent them over.
Rhode went through them one by one.
Mira saw him jotting down several names on the paper and cross-referencing a list and asked, "How is it?"
"It's definitely not an isolated incident," Rhode said. "Do you remember when we were at Mermaid's Heel, and they mentioned Kagura and Mirena took on a task to hunt a Cat Demon?"
Mira thought for a moment, "Hmm... could there actually be a cat constellation?"
"Indeed there is, the constellation's name is Cat," Rhode circled the Cat constellation on the list.
It was a simple list Lucy had put together yesterday before going home, recording over 30 well-known abandoned constellations.
More would require her systematic collation.
And the Cat constellation just happened to be among these 30 constellations.
"This 'Cat' attacked a Star Spirit Mage, leading to his severe injuries and eventual death."
"How could that be..." Mira found it hard to believe.
The ones their guild encountered were all resolved safely, yet a Star Spirit Mage was truly killed somewhere out there.
Mira thought if Lucy knew about this, she'd be very saddened.
Not just because of the loss of someone similar but more because the Star Spirits had grown to hate the Star Spirit Mages.
Rhode said, "It's not just this, Blue Pegasus's Ive also dealt with a giant Firebird earlier, and Ren teamed up with Lamia Scale's Jie Li to take down an Owl."
This happened a few days ago, when Mira and Rhode were visiting Blue Pegasus, and they happened to overhear about these tasks.
Mira exclaimed, "Do you mean these two as well?"
"Yes, the Flamingo Constellation and the Owl are also abandoned Star Spirits," Rhode said,
"The Owl that Ren and Jie Li handled had injured a Star Spirit Mage. Its beak was poisonous, causing the Mage to contract a severe plague and he still hasn't been discharged from the hospital.
"While Ive didn't hear any news about the Star Spirit Mage during the task, after urgent investigation yesterday, it was discovered that the place where the Firebird appeared was indeed the hometown of a Star Spirit Mage."
Rhode circled a few more constellations on the list, "Besides these, several other guilds have encountered similar incidents. These few can be mostly confirmed.
"As of yesterday, there have been three confirmed deaths of Star Spirit Mages due to these attacks, five severely injured, and only one managed to escape safely."
Mira frowned, "Is this just the result of investigations within our local guild alliance? If we expand it to the entire Kingdom of Fiore, to the whole Ishujal Continent..."
Rhode nodded, "The situation might be more serious than we imagined. This is practically a large-scale assassination operation targeting Star Spirit Mages."
"Then Lucy is in great danger, right? And Yukino too," Mira worried about the missing Yukino.
That child still hasn't come to Fairy Tail, perhaps she's trying to find her sister?
Lucy, fortunately, staying in Magnolia is quite safe, Yukino must not encounter any danger.
"Something bad has happened! Lucy has been taken!"
Hapi flew in through the main door, shouting hastily.
Rhode and Mira's hearts skipped a beat.
These Star Spirits were bold to such an extent?
Hapi flew to the center of the guild, loudly proclaiming, "Lucy has been taken by the army!"
Reby, who was discussing the next team-up time with Jet and Troy, immediately stood up, "Lu-chan? Why?"
Macao and Wakaba temporarily halted their argument, "The army? Is it the army from the Council?"
Gray followed up, "What exactly is going on, Hapi, tell us clearly."
It's not the Star Spirits? Rhode and Mira moved closer.
Lisana, Erza, Kana, Wendy… everyone gathered around at once.
From upstairs, Makarov also put down his current tasks and came over to inquire about the details.
The last ones who tried to capture Lucy were the Ghosts, who is pestering her this time?
Everyone was asking questions at once, causing the guild to become noisy, but was quickly quieted by Makarov's shout, "Everyone be quiet, listen to Hapi properly!"
Hapi anxiously said, "It was the King's Army, that knight in white armor who came during Rhode and Mira's wedding brought people to capture Lucy."
Arcadios? He's the captain of the Fiore Kingdom Knight Order, this is definitely not a simple matter.
Makarov hurriedly asked, "What's the reason?"
Hapi replied, "He said Lucy assassinated Princess Jade last night, so they must arrest her."
The guild erupted into an uproar, isn't this nonsense?
Lucy was still in the guild all afternoon yesterday, the time simply… uh, if she took a flying ship, it might be possible to make a round trip.
However, Jubia adamantly said, "Lucy would never do such a thing."
This was everyone's sentiment as well.
When Princess Jade visited last time, Lucy was having quite a pleasant conversation with her.
How could she suddenly go to assassinate the princess?
Hapi also didn't believe Lucy would do such a thing, "But that knight said so, and Natsu was also just captured, President, what should we do?"
"What happened with Natsu?" Makarov's eyes widened, a pang of dread running through him.
If that fool Natsu gets involved, things that were fine will definitely turn troublesome.
"Because…" Hapi said awkwardly, "Natsu and I wanted to go to Lucy's house for breakfast this morning, and we saw them trying to capture Lucy.
"Natsu immediately charged in, knocked a few soldiers flying, and then got captured. Lucy told me to return and report it."
Gajeel was puzzled, "Even though the Fire Dragon is a fool, how could those soldiers capture him so easily?"
Hapi lowered his head, "Because Natsu chased after Lucy all the way onto their flying ship. Once the ship took off..."
"…" Somehow, everyone could envision the scene, even imagine the entire battle process.
Hapi added, "And they also have potent magic tools, similar to Edolas's army."
The crowd chose to collectively ignore this statement from Hapi.
Everyone already knew that the army equipped themselves with magic equipment similar to Edolas, and everyone knew how Natsu behaved once he was on board.
His capture probably had little to do with the tools' power… mostly.
The charge against Lucy for assassinating the princess could be debated, but Natsu attacking the King's Army was already grave enough.
However, no one blamed him because many present, in Natsu's position, might have taken similar actions.
Now that things had already happened, they needed to quickly figure out a way to resolve it.
Wings appeared on Rhode's back, "President, I'll go catch up first and ask about the situation. The guild should prepare to negotiate with the royal family."
"Mmm, don't act impulsively." Makarov trusted Rhode, just reminding him offhandedly.
He would immediately contact the royal family as the guild president to inquire about the situation.
"Make sure everyone stays calm, don't act rashly." Rhode directed this mainly at Mira and Erza.
The old man could be quite temperamental and might initiate Fairy Law out of anger, making him definitely in need of their supervision.
The two nodded at Rhode, who then spread his wings and disappeared like the wind from the guild.