"Looking at it won't kill you, why are you so nervous?" Macao teased him, winking and making funny faces as he tried to peek.
"Ahem, ahem." Makarov coughed awkwardly.
He carefully pulled back his voting slip and folded it in half, completely unwilling to let Macao see his choice.
"I saw it, you know."
Laxus, leaning against the wall nearby, wore an expression of having seen through everything long ago and looked at Makarov teasingly.
"Don't you dare say it!" Makarov's veins bulged on his forehead.
He actually hadn't noticed Laxus standing there, Damn it!
Makarov could vote secretly, but his choice absolutely could not be made public.
If the female members he didn't choose saw his selection, it would be very troublesome.
Especially Erza.
She would probably grab him by the collar and demand an explanation!
As the Guild Master, would he let something like that happen?
Impossible! Absolutely impossible!
...
"Are you really not voting?"
Gray looked at Natsu, who was still eating food from the stalls and continued to show complete disdain for the voting slip.
"I'll vote for you, Natsu!"
Happy, sitting right next to Natsu, directly snatched away Natsu's voting slip.
"What does a cat like you know about 'Miss Fairy'? What are you even voting for..." Gray was utterly speechless, his mind full of complaints he didn't know where to start voicing.
Happy, a male cat only interested in female cats all day, and Raizel actually prepared a voting slip for him...
But after thinking about it, Gray felt it made sense.
Both Happy and Wendy were like the Guild's collective pets.
Especially Raizel, who particularly liked Happy.
This was completely normal. If Carla weren't so mature for her age, she would probably be one of the collective pets too.
...
On the stage, Raizel also made his choice quickly, without a moment's hesitation.
Raizel's decision was swift; he had already made up his mind during the competition itself.
Raizel still valued the contestants' ideas more—whether they could present something that made people's eyes light up.
In Raizel's view, Cana's "Beauty and the Beast" pairing was quite eye-catching.
Laki's Wood-Make swimsuit was also a very good idea.
Mirajane's shark and frog swimsuits were creative, but Raizel felt he'd really have to pass on those...
Raizel quickly ruled out Mirajane.
Even if he chose her out of personal bias, it wouldn't make much difference against the majority vote who were disappointed by the costumes.
Raizel's top three choices were Cana, Laki, and Erza.
Erza was chosen mainly for the striking contrast she presented between her usual armor and the swimsuit.
...
"Everyone, ten seconds left!"
Raizel began the countdown, watching the clock.
"Ten, nine... three, two, one! Voting time is over!"
"Alright, please cooperate with our staff members and hand in your voting slips!"
Soon, a staff member from each row began collecting the voting slips.
"The vote tallying this time will be conducted jointly by three parties: the staff of Magnolia, members of 'Fairy Tail,' and members of Weekly Sorcerer."
"The final voting results will not only be announced in the Magnolia Newspaper but will also be published in the next issue of Weekly Sorcerer."
This could be considered Raizel's way of advertising for the weekly magazine, since the next issue would feature content about Fairy Tail.
Another reason was that there were spectators from other cities attending the competition, so this would give them an additional channel to receive ranking updates.
"Alright everyone, please exit in an orderly manner and stay safe. We'll see you again next year!!!"
After all the voting slips were collected, Raizel bid farewell to the audience.
"See you next year!!!" the enthusiastic spectators shouted back in response.
...
When Raizel returned backstage, everyone had already changed into their regular clothes and were chatting.
"Everyone is really going all out... I feel like I'm getting further away from the top three..." Lucy said with a worried expression.
This year's Fairy Miss Contest had been modified—the top three contestants would each receive 500,000 Jewels.
Lucy had initially thought it would be easy to win, but then realized each opponent was formidable...
And this was even with one strong competitor (Mirajane) having already eliminated herself.
"Don't be so discouraged. Anything is possible before the final results are announced."
Ultear patted Lucy's shoulder to comfort her.
In Ultear's view, Lucy was a fresh face who would have novelty appeal for the audience, plus she was beautiful—there was no reason she wouldn't make it into the top three.
"By the way, why did Mira-san choose such... swimwear..." Lucy couldn't quite find the words to describe Mirajane's outfit.
"I think it looks nice," Mira replied, tilting her head with a smile.
"Actually, I feel it's a bit of a pity..." Mira said with a regretful expression, lightly tapping her chin with her finger.
"What's the pity?" Lucy blinked, looking like a curious child.
"It's just that the theme we drew was 'Swimsuit'. Since I'm quite skilled at Transformation Magic, if not for the swimsuit limitation, I wanted to show everyone what it would look like with just Happy's head... um... and what it would look like with just Raizel's head..."
Lucy slightly raised her head, imagining in her mind what it would look like.
'Mira's voluptuous body... with Raizel's head...'
Lucy quickly shook her head frantically, trying to drive this terrifying image out of her mind.
Just thinking about it made her skin crawl...
"I really thank you for that! I must truly thank whoever drew the swimsuit theme..."
Raizel had originally come backstage and seen the girls chatting, thinking to quietly be invisible, but somehow still got mentioned by Mira—Raizel truly hadn't expected this.
"Well, I'm actually quite looking forward to seeing that," Ultear nodded with interest.
"Mhm, mhm, mhm," Erza, Kagura, and Cana also nodded along, clearly amused by the idea.
"To be honest, I'm also a bit curious..." Wendy timidly raised her hand from the side, her small face flushed red.
"Wendy... even you have betrayed me..." Raizel covered his face with a look of utter despair.
"Since everyone seems so interested, should I transform?" Mira looked eager to try.
"Don't!"
Raizel and the girls who had been enjoying the spectacle quickly raised their hands to stop her.
Teasing was one thing, but actually seeing it would probably give them nightmares tonight!
"What a pity... I was really looking forward to it," Mira turned around with a heartbroken expression.
"It's almost evening, should we go buy some food and have a gathering at the Guild tonight?"
"We just gathered yesterday, and we're having another gathering tonight?" Lucy complained, noting that while gatherings were nice, they'd make her gain weight.
Raizel raised a finger, putting on a very serious expression as he said.
"Lucy, allow me to teach you the First Rule of Fairy Tail."
Lucy thought she had said something wrong and asked with a confused look, "What is it???"
"It's that you don't need a reason to have a party!"
Lucy was nearly floored by Raizel's remark and retorted, "Was it necessary to be so serious about saying that!!!"
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