Warrod froze.
"What preparation?"
"Why, getting ready for Fairy Tail to go bust, of course!"
"Right now it's just tougher, more dangerous jobs for lower pay, but soon prices will sky-rocket and there'll be no work at all."
"Because the people in trouble won't have the money to post requests."
What?!
Fairy Tail, bankrupt?!
But it's our home!!
The gravity of it finally hit Warrod.
"So what do we do?"
"Precht, if you've seen this coming, you must have a plan, right?"
What should we do?
'Don't ask me, I have no idea!' Precht grumbled inwardly.
"Quit joking, how would I know what to do?!"
"I'm just an ordinary Wizard, not some noble, how am I supposed to handle this?"
No, even nobles probably wouldn't know.
If they did, things wouldn't have spiraled this far...
While the three were talking, Weston strolled up.
"Huh?"
"Why are you three blocking the way, striking poses?"
"If you want to look cool, climb on a table, not the doorway!"
The trio exchanged glances; hope flickered back to life.
Right!
Weston's the Guild Master!
Of course he's the one who has to fix this!
In unison they grabbed him and dragged him aside.
"Whoa, whoa..."
"What are you doing?!"
"I already have Mavis and Zera!"
"Not in broad daylight, people will talk!"
"Be gentle, please..."
Ignoring his protests and the stares of the new guildmates, they hauled him upstairs and cornered him.
"Look..."
"We're all friends; we could stand farther apart and talk, no need to gang up!"
What's gotten into these "Three Musketeers" today?
Don't tell me some weird spell made them turn on the Master?!
"Hey, Weston."
"What now?"
"Fairy Tail... it's not going bankrupt before it's even six months old, is it?"
"...Huh? Why would you think that?"
Precht sighed and laid out their findings, guesses, and worries.
Weston saw the light.
He understood exactly how they felt.
Starting a business with friends, only to hit a depression within three months, profits plummeting, morale crumbling.
Hard to swallow, indeed.
"I get it."
"Since you've noticed, I won't hide it."
"Come, let's talk in the meeting room."
He gathered the three, plus Mavis and Zera, and the six of them filed into the upstairs conference room.
A room he'd set aside for strategy back when the guild first opened.
"You've all seen it: the nearby towns are in a slump, and guild jobs are dangerous and dirt-cheap."
"That's because, starting a year ago, trade wars have been breaking out across Ishgar."
"The fighting hasn't stopped, only spread, and now over thirty countries are involved, including our own Fiore Kingdom!"
More than thirty kingdoms dragged in, even the neutral Fiore.
What?
Trade Wars?
Over thirty nations, Fiore included?
"Weston, what's going on?"
"Why haven't we heard a thing?"
With no internet or newspapers, news travels only with roaming merchants.
Magnolia sits at Fiore's southern tip; word reaches it far slower than the inland Towns near the capital.
Confirmation of "war" darkened every face.
Mavis mused, "But Fiore's a permanent neutral state; it's always stayed out of wars, why jump in now?"
"Same reason our guild's in trouble."
"When a continent-wide war erupts, staying far away and staying silent won't shield you."
Weston spread his hands, helpless.
"In short, the big powers want markets and resources, to out-compete everyone else in future trade."
"The first shots rang out over a year ago in a northern Ishgar kingdom."
"It spread, pulling neighbours in, then their neighbours, until even Fiore felt the ripple."
Fiore used to sit safely on the sidelines during past Trade Wars."
"This time is different."
They leaned in. "How?"
Weston grimaced. "Half a year ago the king of the Fiore Royal Family died."
"That became the spark that dragged Fiore into the Trade War."
"He left two princes and a princess, each ambitious, each carving out a fief, all craving the crown."
"To win a throne you need more than blood or talent, you need the biggest army."
"And armies burn money, so the three heirs are courting every guild: Magic Guilds, trade guilds, craft guilds, even Treasure Hunter guilds and mercenaries."
"One even promised to 'open trading cities' in exchange for foreign troops!"
"Civil strife plus outside pressure smashed Fiore's economy, hence the mess you've seen."
Weston paused, then added quietly, "From what I've dug up, the Blue Skull that once ruled Magnolia was likely a Black-Ops 'Pet' of one of the 'top brass'."
"What?!"
Yuri and the others clenched fists, outrage flashing in their eyes.
They knew the "top brass" meant one of those royal siblings!
"A royal heir raising a Dark Guild?!"
"Unbelievable..."