After their trip to Ryuzetsu Land, Fairy Tail returned to their inn in the evening under the tearful leadership of Makarov.
They had finally gotten a chance to go out and have fun, only for Natsu, Gray, and the others to cause a huge scene, resulting in yet another massive compensation bill.
And on top of that, they had to write another apology letter.
Mavis deeply understood Makarov's despair in front of an apology letter, so she decisively chose to flee, vanishing without a trace like the ghost she was.
Moonlight flowed like water, casting the entire street in a dreamlike, hazy beauty.
As time passed, even the lively Flower Capital during the festival began to sink into the silence of night.
Since Fairy Tail's Team A and Team B had merged, everyone had moved into the Honey Bone Lodge, where Team A had previously been staying.
After a long, exhausting night, Mr. Makarov finally finished the apology letter that had to be handed in soon, turned off the light, and went to sleep.
Then, as the final beam of light in the inn's window went out, faint snoring soon followed.
On the street, at the corner opposite the entrance to Honey Bone Lodge, a group of suspicious figures stood in the shadows.
The one leading them was a long-nosed man in armor. It was Arcadios, who had dealt with Fairy Tail before.
Watching Honey Bone Lodge gradually fall silent, Arcadios could not help letting out a breath of relief.
As expected, after enjoying themselves for an entire day, this was when they were at their most relaxed.
The perfect time to strike!
Arcadios turned and quietly spoke to a gloomy man behind him, who wore a black robe, a black mask over his mouth, and carried two enormous scythes on his back.
"This is the place. Please, I beg of you, do not harm the members of Fairy Tail. We only need to capture the Celestial Spirit Mage alive!"
The gloomy man gave a soundless cold laugh and coldly said, "We are executioners. I cannot guarantee we won't kill anyone."
"You!"
Arcadios nearly lost his temper, but remembering how important this matter was, he suppressed his anger and spoke heavily.
"This is the princess's command! If any member of Fairy Tail truly dies, the kingdom will not hesitate to offer your lives to the guild as compensation!"
"Hmph."
The gloomy man said nothing for a moment.
At least, in the end, he still replied, "We'll do what we can."
With that, the gloomy man waved forward.
His subordinates followed him, moving silently toward Honey Bone Lodge.
Arcadios secretly let out a breath of relief, then watched their backs with faint unease.
As a knight, he naturally felt ashamed of doing something like kidnapping.
But there was no other choice.
For the survival of the kingdom and the continent, he was willing to bear that disgrace!
This unit had been deployed by the princess for this operation.
The urban legend of Crocus—the Garou Knights!
According to legend, they were the executioners of the kingdom's underground Hell Palace, as well as the kingdom's strongest combat unit of mages.
Even if they could not defeat people like Makarov or Ankh, as long as they avoided a direct confrontation, kidnapping one person should be easy enough.
…
Facing the front door, the captain of the Garou Knights waved his hand.
The four teammates behind him moved forward with practiced ease.
A silly-looking man with round eyes and a blank expression, along with a rugged giant of a man holding a bottle in his mouth, took positions on either side of the entrance.
The large man removed the bottle from his mouth and slowly dripped the liquid inside onto the door lock.
The metal of the lock rapidly began to corrode.
The remaining two women, one wearing wooden clogs with twin-tails and a loose ahoge, quietly pulled open the door.
Together with the pink-haired woman beside her, who wore a bowler hat, she slipped inside.
The moment they entered, the two women were so frightened their hearts nearly stopped.
The first-floor hall was filled with people lying everywhere from the entrance to the deepest part of the room.
It looked like the scene of a massacre!
The ahoge girl carefully observed them in the darkness.
Seeing that these Fairy Tail members were all asleep, she immediately let out a breath of relief and signaled her teammate to head upstairs.
The two women walked through the guild members sprawled across the floor like they were crossing a field of landmines.
Before long, they found the girls sleeping in the bedrooms on the second floor.
'Lucy Heartfilia.'
'Found her!'
Cosmos, the pink-haired woman, was delighted.
She quickly called for her teammate Kamika to help.
The two of them lifted her carefully and quietly, then tossed her straight out through the window.
Outside the door, the blank-eyed man, Uosuke, and the large man, Neppa, were holding a sack.
With quick, practiced movements, they stuffed the person inside.
Done!
As expected of the unit least resembling a knight order, the Garou Knights carried themselves more like a band of kidnappers than anything else.
"See? That was easy."
Neppa grinned as he slung the sack over his shoulder, smiling proudly at the captain.
The captain also looked somewhat disappointed, then thought contemptuously to himself.
'These guild people really are flowers raised in a greenhouse.'
If he wanted to, he could probably assassinate all of them in less than fifteen minutes.
"Withdraw."
The Garou captain made a gesture toward Arcadios in the distance.
The heavy stone in Arcadios's heart immediately loosened.
"Wait. Why haven't Kamika and the others come out yet?"
Neppa suddenly asked in confusion.
"They are taking too long…"
The Garou captain's brows knitted so tightly they nearly formed knots.
The inn before him suddenly gave him a terrifying feeling.
"Something's wrong. We leave first!"
The Garou captain felt his right eyelid twitching wildly, and his instincts made him issue the order to flee at once.
But after only a few steps, Arcadios ahead of them suddenly slammed into an invisible wall and fell to the ground with a pained cry.
"Jutsu Shiki?!"
The Garou captain could not help sucking in a sharp breath.
Then the sack on Neppa's back began violently struggling.
"Hah!!"
A strange cry suddenly rang out.
Neppa felt a scorching heat surge from the sack on his back, hot enough to melt a person.
Then his back took a vicious punch right over the heart.
Neppa could not stop himself from screaming as he was sent flying.
The people present looked in horror toward the "Lucy" who had jumped out of the sack.
To be precise, it was a dead pervert wearing Lucy's clothes and a blonde wig.
"Natsu Dragneel?!!"
Looking at Natsu's strange cross-dressed appearance, Arcadios almost wanted to laugh on instinct, but he still realized something was wrong and forcefully held it back.
And reality did not disappoint.
Starting from Natsu's strange cry as the signal, the inn door was violently smashed open.
A huge group of people continuously rushed out from within.
A crowd of people who looked even more like gangsters than actual gangsters filled the entire street in an instant, surrounding the kidnappers so thoroughly that there was no escape.
"So you're the ones trying to kidnap my child?!"
Makarov's vicious voice echoed through the street.
Looking at the familiar faces around him, all of whom he had seen during the Grand Magic Games, Arcadios felt half his heart turn cold.
It was over.
They had been discovered…
Freed calmly walked out from the shadows and added, "This street has already been surrounded by my Jutsu Shiki. Outsiders won't hear anything."
"Since you dared lay a hand on someone from our guild, you'd better be prepared!"