Laki was worried too.
"Everyone in the guild is already fine, so why are they still holding only you here for so many extra days?"
"Is it because you killed Jose, so now they are focusing on you and planning to make you take the blame?"
Juvia, whose condition had already improved and who had insisted on being moved into the main camp after hearing everyone was being detained, became agitated at once.
"If the Magic Council dares detain Kabe sama, then even if Juvia must stake her life on it, Juvia will rescue Kabe sama."
Seeing the three women grow more outrageous with every sentence, Kabe reached out and pinched both Laki's and Juvia's mouths shut.
"That is enough, you two."
"If the Council people hear this, then even if I was fine, I will suddenly become not fine."
As he spoke, he released them and patiently reassured all three women.
"From how things look right now, there should not be any major problem."
"We have Juvia as the victim and firsthand witness, and the ruined guild as physical evidence."
"That gives us more than enough reason to clear ourselves."
"And besides, if this were really strict detention, would they be letting all of you wander around the camp freely?"
"So at the moment this is mostly just a matter of procedure."
"It should not be long before they let us go."
After hearing Kabe's explanation, Mira and the others felt that it made sense.
And, as if to prove his point, just as he finished speaking, loud commotion suddenly broke out outside the tent.
A moment later, Erza and Ultear rushed in one after the other, bringing good news.
After a full week of investigation, the Magic Council had confirmed that Phantom Lord had been the side to attack first.
Fairy Tail's counterattack, while still technically against regulations, would not be pursued because of the special circumstances.
"You mean… we can go back now?!"
Laki asked in delight.
Once Erza and Ultear nodded to confirm it, she happily threw herself into Kabe's arms and burrowed into his chest like a little animal.
Heaven truly had eyes.
After finally confirming their relationship, she and Kabe had not even gotten the chance to spend proper time together before it became one thing after another, first going out to look for people, then fighting Phantom Lord.
Erza and Mira both understood that feeling well.
Their own relationship with Kabe had barely been made public before Deliora happened, and then everything after that had dragged on endlessly.
At times, both of them had even wondered whether Kabe had been cursed somehow.
Otherwise, why did every time his love life progress, some huge disaster immediately happen?
Of course, that was only a joke.
Everyone was still overjoyed to have their freedom back.
...
When Kabe led the women out of the tent, the crowd outside was already in an uproar.
Heaven knew what kind of miserable life they had endured these past few days.
In this rotten place they could not even get a proper drink.
They had long since been counting the seconds until they could leave.
The person in charge of the camp was having a terrible headache from how rowdy they were being.
In the end, he simply went straight to Kabe and politely begged him to hurry up and take his people away.
Kabe had no wish to stay in this lousy place either.
He told everyone to go pack their things, and then the entire group left the camp in high spirits and headed back to Magnolia.
...
But the moment they saw the guild, shattered and half collapsing, the smiles on their faces quickly disappeared.
The guild building was not large, but it carried everyone's memories.
Most of them had grown up there from childhood.
To many of them, the guild meant more than their own homes.
And now it had become this.
Even though they had won and crushed Phantom Lord, in front of those ruins, joy no longer came easily.
Just as everyone was sinking into memory, grief gathering in their throats, two figures, one big and one small, suddenly walked out of the guild building.
Natsu and Happy stopped dead when they saw all their guildmates gathered outside.
Then both of them lit up.
"Great, everyone is okay."
"Natsu?"
"Happy?"
The others were just as surprised.
They had not expected the two of them to get back this quickly.
Before anyone could ask anything, Natsu came storming over with an angry face and grabbed Warren by the collar, since he happened to be standing at the front.
"Where are the Phantom Lord bastards?"
"They dared wreck the guild like this."
"I am absolutely not letting them off."
"Aye, we are gonna beat them up really hard!"
Warren:
Everyone: ...
Looking at the overexcited idiot and cat, the entire crowd fell silent.
Kabe, already wearing the dead eyed face of someone who had expected exactly this, pressed a hand to his forehead.
"No need to ask."
"You two idiots definitely ignored my orders and dropped your mission on your own."
"That part is one thing, the master can deal with you once he gets back."
"But can you at least try using your brains a little and read the newspapers from the past few days?"
"If you had looked at even one of them, you would not be asking something this stupid."