Watching Gray shoot out like a cannonball from Kabe's kick, his head buried in the wall so deep he could not yank it out, Makarov's mouth twitched. He more or less guessed why Gray had been in such a hurry.
"You deal with this yourself. I am going to the bar."
Leaving that sentence behind, Makarov clasped his hands behind his back and strolled off toward the counter, relaxed as could be.
Kabe had just opened his mouth to say something when a figure suddenly lunged in and wrapped around him like a grappling hook.
"Kabe, fight me, right now!"
"Smack!"
He reacted by pure instinct, raising his hand and slapping down.
Natsu immediately spun like a top, rotating three and a half times in midair before face-planting onto the floor.
After being jumped twice in a row like a raid boss, Kabe's good mood from finally seeing the guild again dropped straight through the floor.
"Seriously, Gray coming to me I can at least understand, but you, Natsu, what is wrong with your brain now?"
On the ground, Natsu heard the complaint, ignored the throbbing pain in his face, sprang up with a flip and shouted angrily at him:
"You bastard Kabe! You went to stir up trouble at the Council and did not bring me to something that fun?!"
"Hah?"
Kabe tilted his head and rolled his eyes.
"Where did you even hear that nonsense? Since when did I go 'rampaging through' the Council?"
He could not be bothered with the overcharged Natsu and instead walked toward Gray, who had just managed to pry his head free of the wall and was still swaying a little.
After shaking his head to clear the dizziness, Gray finally focused and noticed Kabe standing in front of him.
He scrambled up from the floor at once, but with the lesson of that first kick still fresh, at least he did not rush Kabe again. Even so, his face was tight with anxiety as he fired off questions:
"Kabe, is it true that Deliora is missing? Are the people in the Council just eating and doing nothing? Do they have any clues? I want to go bring it back!"
Hearing this string of jumbled questions that did not line up at all, Kabe pressed a hand to Gray's shoulder and said firmly:
"All right, enough. The old man already started investigating this through the local guild network. As soon as there is any news, I will head out immediately."
"Just you alone? That is Deliora we are talking about, the demon my master Ur had to sacrifice her life to seal!"
"Exactly. And you just said it yourself, it is sealed. Do you really think I am going there because I am afraid of some frozen statue? Or are you telling me you do not believe in your master's magic? That you think any random person can just waltz in and undo Absolute Ice?"
Kabe's counter questions shut Gray up at once.
As someone in the same guild, he naturally trusted Kabe's strength.
And as Ur's disciple, who had personally witnessed Deliora being sealed, he also believed the power of Absolute Ice was not something that could be undone by just anyone.
Watching Gray calm down so quickly, Kabe gave his shoulder a couple of firm pats.
"So, stop letting your emotions run your brain. Keep a cool head. You are not some hot blooded idiot like Natsu."
Natsu: "Hey! Who are you calling an idiot?!"
Seeing Kabe talk Gray down with just a few sentences, Makarov, who had just finished asking Laki about the guild's situation over the last two days at the bar, could not help secretly nodding in satisfaction.
At the moment, there were only about half as many members in Fairy Tail as usual.
Just like the other guilds, Makarov had used the communication lacrima in advance to send a message around, dispatching people to spread out and gather intel as much as possible.
Aside from Gray and Natsu, who had both been anxiously waiting for Kabe to come back so they could ask him what was really going on, only Laki, Levy, and a few other younger and weaker members were left to hold the fort.
Even the two little girlfriends Kabe missed the most were not in the guild.
Realizing this, Kabe's excitement shrank a bit.
If it had not been so long and his memory of exactly where Deliora's body ended up was not so fuzzy, he honestly would have liked to just fly out immediately, finish that whole mess, and then come back to enjoy a good long stretch of sticky sweet days with his two girlfriends.
Thanks to Kabe's words, most of the storm in Gray's chest had finally settled.
He raised a hand and called over to Laki for four drinks, then led Kabe and Natsu to a nearby table and sat down.
As soon as the three of them sat, Happy flapped his little blue wings and carefully flew over, holding out the latest issue of Weekly Sorcerer he had picked up.
"Thanks, Happy."
Kabe thanked him casually and flipped the magazine open, reading with interest.
Before long, Laki brought Levy over from the library, and the two girls delivered four glasses of juice to the table. After setting them down, they did not leave, but simply slid into seats beside the three boys.
Gray took a sip of juice, swallowed, then finally voiced the thought weighing on his mind.
"Kabe, after thinking it over, I still cannot relax about Deliora. I want to go with you and see for myself."
"You should be saying that to the guild master."
As he answered, Kabe shut the magazine and tossed it lightly back to Happy.
"And besides, what are you going to do if you go? Use Absolute Ice on it again? Do not make me laugh. A demon of that level, I am confident I can handle it even if it was at full power. It has been sealed for all these years on top of that. For all we know, it may not even still be alive."
If anyone else had said that, Gray would have immediately argued back.
But coming from Kabe, the guy who treated S class jobs like daily chores, Gray could not help but trust his confidence.
He took a sulky gulp of juice and decided not to obsess over it for the moment.
Even if he went to beg, the guild master was almost certainly not going to let him go risk his neck.
Once that topic dropped, Levy and Laki instantly changed the subject to the gossip they were most interested in.
"Kabe, I already heard about you and captain and Erza, congratulations to you three."
Levy was the first to speak. She had not been in the guild when Kabe had publicly announced the relationship; she had heard about it afterward from Laki.
In this timeline, Levy had not formed Team Shadow Gear with Jet and Droy like in the original story.
Instead, she was still part of the "Lovely Girls Squad" with Mirajane and Laki.
They had simply added Elfman (girl… right?) and Lisanna as two new members.
The five of them did not always take jobs together; they would form different combinations depending on the mission.
That was also why she and Laki still always called Mirajane "captain."
Kabe nodded and thanked Levy for her congratulations.
Then Laki quickly pulled out a drawing that made the corner of Kabe's eye twitch just looking at it, and excitedly reported their progress.
"Kabe boss, this is the finalized draft captain and Erza left before they went out. Take a look. If you think there is no problem, I will start contacting people right away and we can get the construction going."
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