Erza was someone who acted immediately, especially with fun activities, and she was even more skilled at it than Rhodes. Before Mira could fall victim, Rhodes woke her up.
Mira opened her eyes to see the guild filled with painted faces. "Erza?"
Erza froze, hiding the pen behind her back. "Mira? Um..."
Mira scolded playfully, "Why didn't you call me earlier for something this fun?"
"Huh?"
"Huh?"
And so, the face-painting army gained a new member.
Rhodes sat at the counter, watching the two busy and excited figures, thinking that today, at least, he wouldn't be fighting because of this. They'd better go fight those two instead.
He felt strangely disappointed.
When everyone woke up, they laughed loudly the moment they opened their eyes.
But as they laughed, they realized something was wrong. Once they became aware of their own situation, they couldn't even bother figuring out who was behind it—they just wanted to beat up anyone laughing at them.
It would be so easy to provoke these idiots into a fight, Rhodes thought to himself.
Suddenly, Rhodes said, "Mira, come a bit closer."
Mira stepped toward him. "What's wrong?"
Whoosh! A wooden beer mug flew right past where Mira had just been standing, crashing into the cabinet behind her.
"Oh my~" Mira covered her mouth, laughing softly. "Thanks."
"You're welcome. But do you have some kind of magnet for flying objects?" Rhodes asked, feeling that every time chaos erupted, something would always fly toward Mira.
When he first joined the guild, he even saw Mira get knocked down by a beer bottle, though back then, he couldn't react in time.
Mira waved it off. "How could I have something like that?"
Rhodes grabbed Mira's arm, pulling her a few meters to the side.
Elfman flew past them, landing against the wall.
Rhodes looked at Mira. "Are you sure?"
"Uh... maybe?" Mira thought for a moment. "Let's just go out; it feels like we'll need to buy a new set of tableware soon."
"Not going to help Elfman?"
"Manly!" Elfman shouted as he peeled himself off the wall and rejoined the fray.
"Alright, I guess not," Rhodes said.
He and Mira hugged the wall as they snuck out of the guild, leaving the sounds of destruction behind them.
...
"It seems like the festival atmosphere hasn't faded at all," Mira remarked.
"It'll probably take about a week for things to go back to normal," Rhodes replied.
With their shopping done, Rhodes and Mira chatted as they walked back to the guild, a canyon crab following behind them, serving as a porter.
Rhodes suggested, "Maybe we should go in through the back door?"
Mira smiled. "After all this time, they should almost—"
Suddenly, Rhodes extended his arm, stopping Mira. "Who's there?"
Mira might not have noticed, but Rhodes, with the canyon crab's perspective, could see someone hiding at the alley's entrance, seemingly hesitant to come out.
There was no response, and Mira quietly stood behind Rhodes.
"If you don't come out, I'll start a fire. Robbing people? Burning sounds like a fitting punishment," Rhodes said, pretending to use his text magic. In reality, he was getting ready to release Shadow Wolf.
"No! I'm not a bad person! Please don't attack me... Ah!"
A blue-haired girl ran out of the alley but tripped over a small stone, falling face-first onto the ground.
Rhodes, who was clutching his pendant, froze. What was this?
"Ouch." The girl got up on her own, dusting herself off skillfully.
"I told you not to rush in," a small white cat said as it emerged from behind her.
The tiny cat stood protectively in front of the girl. "And you, Fairy Tail mages—you're way too aggressive!"
The girl squatted down and whispered, "Carla, we shouldn't have been hiding in the first place."
Carla huffed, "Don't put all the blame on yourself! It's because of that attitude you always get bullied."
The girl hung her head. "Sorry."
"You're hopeless!" Carla stomped her little foot in frustration.
"Hello, I'm a mage from Fairy Tail. My name is Mirajane, and this is Rhodes." Mira slightly leaned forward, her smile full of warmth. "May I ask who you are?"
Rhodes stood beside Mira, wary in case they attacked.
He could feel the magic power within the girl, and there was an unfamiliar blue emblem on her right arm—likely indicating she was also a mage.
As for the talking cat—well, talking cats were pretty normal, even if they could fly.
"Carla, it's the real Mirajane! She's so beautiful!" the girl whispered excitedly to Carla before standing up.
She put her hands behind her back, nervously shifting her toes as she spoke. "I'm Wendy, and this is Carla. We are both mages from the Cait Shelter guild."
Rhodes thought to himself. The child was pretty cute, and she praised Mira's beauty—probably a good person.
Joking aside, dark guild mages generally wouldn't dare wander near legitimate guilds and certainly wouldn't introduce themselves like this.
Rhodes had one question, though. "I've seen the local guild alliance list, but I don't recall a guild named Cait Shelter... Are you part of a different region?"
"I'm not sure either. Our guild is located in Hilvern, south of the Southern Mountains. It doesn't seem very well-known outside," Wendy explained.
"The south side of the Southern Mountains? That's far!" Mira was surprised. "Did you come all this way by yourselves? That's incredible."
From Cait Shelter to Fairy Tail was almost a journey from the southernmost part of the country to the northeast.
They'd need to take a carriage to the port, cross nearly half of Fiore's coastline by ship to Hargeon, then travel by train to Magnolia.
The courage to make such a long journey at her age already put her ahead of Rhodes.
Wendy blushed at the praise.
But Carla chimed in, "It's just a long trip on a carriage and a boat. Any kid could do it. Don't underestimate the mages of Cait Shelter."
"I certainly don't mean to underestimate you." Mira found Carla quite cute. She might not have been strong, but she put a lot of effort into protecting Wendy and their guild.
As for the question of whether traveling across most of the country was impressive, Mira glanced at Rhodes with a smile.
Rhodes looked up at the sky. If not for the incident back then, he might still be too afraid to leave Magnolia.
This kid Wendy was already stronger than he was.
Is this world really that safe?
"Ahem..." Rhodes cleared his throat. "So, you came all this way for the Magical Parade? Did you manage to see the performance last night?"
"Yes!" Wendy nodded enthusiastically, her hands clasped at her chest, her eyes sparkling. "It was amazing—I've never seen such a wonderful performance before!"
Then Wendy seemed a bit shy, lowering her head as she nervously twisted her foot on the ground. "Also... actually..."
Carla sighed, stepping forward to speak for her. "That's one of the reasons. The main reason was to find you and someone called the 'Fire Dragon.'"
Wendy cautiously added, "Carla, isn't that a bit rude?"
"To find me? And the 'Fire Dragon'?"