Fortunately, Cana and Juvia's support was extremely reliable.
The moment Gray could no longer hold out, Crash Magic and Water Magic forced the "murderous" Silver back.
Silver looked carefully at the two women, especially Juvia.
Then his smile slowly faded. His expression darkened as he spoke to Gray behind them.
"You have comrades. Stop fighting like a lone wolf."
Gray gritted his teeth, sweat beading on his forehead as he struggled to suppress the spreading demonization.
"What do you know?!"
For Gray, the word demon was a knot in his heart that might never come undone.
Nearly every tragedy he had suffered in his life had been caused by demons.
Looking into Gray's cold, stubborn eyes, Silver swallowed the words buried in his heart.
Frost began spreading around him, and his body slowly started to fade.
His expression was complicated, but in the end, he still could not stop himself from giving one last reminder.
His cold voice drifted emptily through the air.
"Acnologia became a dragon in order to slay dragons, and then he killed them. If I were you, I'd make that powerful force my own. Who cares where it came from?"
Gray suddenly raised his head, but all he saw was drifting frost.
The man was gone.
A human…
No, a demon…
No, that was not right either.
Who exactly are you?
And why did you say those things?
Supported by the worried Juvia, Gray stood there with his thoughts in complete chaos.
The incident in Veronica had come to an end.
The Magic Council's request and Éclair's commission had both been completed perfectly.
The only small imperfection was that King Cream of Veronica had unfortunately been stabbed to death by the Phoenix.
Ankh found that deeply regrettable.
Since there were no witnesses, and both the victim Cream and the suspected culprit Phoenix had turned to ash, there was no testimony left for the Council to investigate anyway.
Besides, with how strict the current Magic Council was about punishment, Cream would not have escaped death regardless.
After the enemies in the royal capital were eliminated, the city itself was still a complete mess.
Asking Fairy Tail's members to maintain public order was, of course, asking for the impossible.
Thankfully, a few days later, the Magic Council arrived in Veronica as promised to clean up the mess and temporarily restore order to the principality.
After this, though, the Principality of Veronica would likely cease to exist.
How it would be handled was not something Ankh and the others needed to worry about.
During the days they stayed in Veronica's capital, Lucy cried exactly as expected.
Éclair's disappearance left her heartbroken.
She had truly thought she had found a new friend.
At the same time, this talented girl seemed to fall into a sentimental mood and began questioning whether magic could really bring people happiness.
She had once firmly believed it could.
But after seeing Éclair suffer for four hundred years because of magic, Lucy's worldview seemed to collapse for a while.
Then again, Lucy was Lucy because of that irreplaceable brightness everyone loved. She would never stay depressed for too long.
Magic was like fire.
It could burn everything, but it was also the beginning of warmth.
Under Natsu's "technically illegal noise disturbance" brand of concern, Lucy quickly came to understand that.
Gray, who had also been trapped in his own confusion, reached a similar conclusion.
In the days after Silver disappeared, Gray shut himself in his room and refused to come out for a long time.
Eventually, he made his decision.
"If becoming a demon is what it takes to kill demons, then fine. Let it come!"
Those were the first words Gray said after coming out.
Ankh only patted his shoulder with satisfaction.
Ankh had checked Gray's body, as well as that strange power, and he could not detect the slightest sign that it intended to harm Gray.
If anything, it felt as though someone sincerely wanted to nurture him.
Come to think of it, Ankh still had not seen Silver for himself. But he figured that enemy officer must have quite the story behind him.
After all, Silver had created an entire Slayer-type magic by himself.
And unlike God Slayer Magic, which felt like a clever imitation, his magic could genuinely alter one's constitution.
That kind of ability was absolutely not something an ordinary person could create.
After this incident, everyone seemed to start pushing themselves harder.
Aside from Gray, Gajeel appeared to have been stimulated by Natsu mastering Fire Dragon King Mode first, and he began digging deeper into his own power.
Lucy also started visiting Erza and Mirajane frequently for advice.
Apparently, she was studying Transformation Magic and Requip Magic, hoping to apply that knowledge to Celestial Spirit Magic.
And so, after a small war ended, everyone continued running forward on the path of magic as they always had, never allowing themselves to slack off.
Once the Magic Council fully took over the disaster zone that was Veronica, Fairy Tail was finally free to withdraw from the capital.
Ankh did not ask about the reward afterward, but judging from Makarov's smug, spring-breeze expression, it must have been pretty good.
After they returned to Magnolia, the Magic Council had already published Fairy Tail's commendation in the newspapers, causing another huge stir throughout the magical world.
It also surprised many guilds that had been watching from the sidelines.
The current Magic Council really had stopped suppressing guild power.
They were even willing to openly praise Fairy Tail, the guild standing at the very front.
Only one force remained in the Balam Alliance, and many guild leaders had assumed the Council would soon start discarding the bow after the birds were shot.
After all, the old Council had been exactly like that.
The birds had not even been fully dealt with, and they were already in a hurry to saw their own bow in half.
Inside the guild hall, Ankh happily drank a little wine and looked at the overwhelming praise filling the newspaper, sighing with emotion.
"The current Council members are pretty impressive. They really understand the situation."
Guild power surpassing the Council, and eventually replacing it, was something that would happen sooner or later.
The upper levels simply had not had time to prepare for it yet.
Still, starting now was a good beginning.
"Ankh, are you busy lately?"
Hearing someone call him, Ankh turned around and saw Alzack and Bisca standing together.
"Not at all. What's up?"
Ankh had businesses under him now.
Unless Lucy or Erza was short on money, or an interesting high-difficulty job appeared, he generally no longer bothered taking small jobs.
"Well…"
Alzack looked a little embarrassed as he said, "Bisca and I have work in a city pretty far away tomorrow. We probably won't be back until very late. Could we ask you to look after Asuka for a bit?"
"Look after a little girl?"
Ankh's face wrinkled like a bitter melon.
It was not that he was unwilling. He was just genuinely bad at playing with children.
If it was his own kid, they could make trouble however they wanted. But someone else's child was a different story.
Bisca said apologetically, "The church where Asuka studies is being renovated, and we don't feel safe leaving her at home alone, so…"
Ankh looked down at little Asuka on the floor. She was staring up at him with big, adorable eyes, studying him curiously.
His heart softened.
"Fine…"
"Thank you, Ankh!"
Seeing him agree, the couple immediately brightened with relief.
There was no helping it.
There were only so many reliable people in the guild, and even fewer who could look after a child.
Among the married members, people were either divorced or had strained relationships.
Among the younger men, they were either reckless hot-blooded idiots or weirdos with strange habits.
As for the women…
Who could Bisca ask?
Erza, who took everything too seriously?
Mirajane, who was always busy?
Lisanna, who loved playing even more than children did?
Laki, who had a strange fondness for interrogation tools?
Juvia, who was clingy and lovestruck?
Or Levy and Wendy, who could be instantly overloaded by a child's innocent, brutally honest questions?
At least in their eyes, Ankh was already the most reliable choice.
Unfortunately, Ankh himself had absolutely no confidence.
So he immediately began looking for backup!
Not far away, Natsu was discussing with Happy whether they could sell Lucy's novel to make money for food, only to be punished by Lucy's fist.
Ankh's eyes suddenly lit up.
A not-quite-couple in the awkward almost-dating stage looking after a child?
Perfect.