Fairy Tail: The Uncrowned King of Magic

Chapter 131: Chapter 131

Thanks to the enthusiastic cooperation of the mercenaries, they quickly found the book they were looking for.

The moment Marshall picked it up, he detected traces of Script Magic lingering within its pages.

With a casual pulse of magic, he activated the spell.

The words throughout the book began to shift and rearrange themselves.

Even the title changed.

DAYBREAK became—DEAR KABY.

So the book had never truly been a terrible novel.

Kemu Zaleon had written it as a letter to his son, then used Script Magic to scramble the wording and disguise it as an ordinary book.

Within those rearranged pages was a complete record of everything Kemu had suffered while imprisoned by Duke Everlue and forced to write for him.

With this, Marshall didn’t even need to search for further evidence.

Whether it was threatening innocent residents of his territory to coerce a novelist or illegally imprisoning a Mage, either crime alone was enough to put Everlue behind bars for the rest of his life.

Neither the Magic Council nor the laws of Fiore would tolerate something like this.

Dealing with Duke Everlue had gone even more smoothly than Marshall expected.

...

Everything afterward followed naturally.

Marshall returned Dear Kaby to Kaby Melon and asked him to testify against Everlue in court.

Then he contacted the Magic Council and had the duke formally arrested.

"...And that’s everything."

Marshall was speaking to Makarov through his communication terminal.

"Everlue has been removed, and I’ve temporarily seized his assets."

"Master, see if you can work something out with the kingdom or the Magic Council and have Magnolia officially granted to Fairy Tail as our territory."

"Otherwise, if they appoint another idiot noble here in the future, I’ll have to waste my time doing all of this again."

On the other end of the call, Makarov maintained a completely expressionless face.

Internally, however, he was sweating buckets!

He genuinely didn’t know how to evaluate Marshall’s performance.

On the positive side, the boy had resisted the urge to kill anyone.

On the other hand...

He had destroyed a duke’s mansion.

Arrested the duke himself.

And seized all of the man’s property before the authorities had even arrived!

’Forget it...’

Makarov silently surrendered.

Perhaps he should stop sending Marshall on outside jobs.

That boy had absolutely no concept of moderation once he decided someone deserved punishment.

"Mm. Yes. I understand."

Makarov cleared his throat.

"You handled this... reasonably well."

"Come back first. Leave the rest to the Magic Council."

"No problem~ See you later, Master."

Marshall ended the call and waved toward Lucy.

"Lucy, the job’s finished."

"Let’s head home."

"Oh... Mm-hmm. Okay."

Lucy nodded mechanically.

She still hadn’t recovered from the overwhelming display of power Marshall had shown.

He had looked at someone and blasted straight through them.

One sweep of his eyes had sliced an entire mansion in half.

Then, with a casual movement of his hand, he had cut a whole study out of the building and transported it directly in front of them.

Was this really the kind of strength someone three years younger than her was supposed to possess?

Had Lucy wasted her entire life?

She had studied magic seriously too!

Or were all of Fairy Tail’s S-Class Mages simply monsters who couldn’t be judged by ordinary standards?

More importantly...

Why had Marshall brought her along at all?

He clearly could have completed the entire request without her.

What exactly had Lucy contributed?

She had dressed as his maid, poured him drinks, massaged his shoulders, and helped him relax.

Then she summoned Big Bear to break open a gate.

That was it!

She had been completely useless!

"Marshall..."

"Hm?"

Marshall looked over.

"What is it, Lucy?"

"Um..."

Lucy hesitated.

"Why did you bring me on this request?"

"You obviously could’ve completed it without me."

"I feel like I didn’t really contribute anything."

’Of course you didn’t.’

’I brought you because teasing you sounded fun.’

Naturally, Marshall had no intention of admitting that.

Instead, he decided to reveal another "truth."

"Oh my."

Marshall smiled.

"You figured it out, Lucy?"

"You’re surprisingly perceptive."

"Since you’ve already noticed, I suppose I have no choice but to confess."

"Lucy, the truth is..."

Marshall leaned closer.

With that unfairly handsome face suddenly only inches away, Lucy felt her heart skip a beat.

’W-Wait.’

’Is this... a confession?!’

’Is a boy three years younger than me about to confess his feelings?!’

’I knew it! There’s no way everyone else could be blind to my charms!’

’Hahaha!’

’Oh no, what am I supposed to do?’

’Getting confessed to by a younger boy...’

’Should I reject him?’

’Or should I say yes?’

’Or maybe I should accept graciously?’

"...The truth is, Master asked me to handle a request from the Heartfilia family."

Marshall smiled brightly.

"That’s why I decided to keep an eye on the young heiress who had just joined our guild~"

"Huh?"

Lucy’s dreamy smile vanished.

"HUUUHHH?!"

She collapsed against the seat.

All light disappeared from her eyes.

"My... my identity was exposed from the beginning?"

"How could this happen...?"

"Was everything I thought I had achieved fake?"

"Then the freedom I thought I’d finally won was..."

Lucy stared into the distance.

"So I’ve just been making a fool of myself this entire time..."

"My, my. Don’t overthink it, Lucy."

Marshall waved a hand.

"Only Master and I know your identity."

"No one else in the guild has any idea who you are."

"Huh?"

Lucy suddenly came back to life.

"Did you really think the Heartfilia family had enough influence to make the entire Fairy Tail guild cooperate in some elaborate performance for you?"

"Cough!"

Lucy immediately straightened.

"N-No! Of course not!"

"So only you and Master know who I am?"

"Then please tell him not to give me any special treatment!"

"I want everyone to treat me like an ordinary member!"

"I’ll become a true member of Fairy Tail through my own effort!"

Marshall laughed.

"Lucy really does think highly of herself."

"Fairy Tail wouldn’t give anyone special treatment in the first place."

"You’re worrying about something that was never going to happen."

"Huh?"

Lucy blinked.

"But Marshall, you—"

"My employer was the Master, not the Heartfilia family."

Marshall interrupted her.

"The reason I invited you to form a team was to test you."

"Or you could call it an assessment."

"Fairy Tail still needs to make sure newcomers aren’t joining with suspicious intentions."

"A-An assessment?"

"That’s right."

Marshall smiled.

"Congratulations, Lucy."

"You passed!"

"I’ve determined that you’re harmless and don’t appear to have joined Fairy Tail with any ulterior motive."

"I’ll report that honestly to Master."

He gave her a reassuring look.

"So from now on, relax and enjoy your life in the guild."

"You don’t need to worry about your family background affecting anything."

"I recognize you as one of our Fairy Tail’s companions."

"Huh?!"

Lucy stared at him blankly.

Then the implication finally reached her.

She had...

Received the approval of an S-Class Mage?

Didn’t that mean she only needed five more members to recognize her before she could become a full member?!

Yes!

This was fantastic!

Every suspicion Lucy had been harboring instantly vanished from her mind.

All that remained was overwhelming gratitude toward Marshall.

"Thank you, Marshall!"

"I’ll work really hard and become a full member!"

"Mm-hmm."

Marshall nodded encouragingly.

"Good luck, Lucy."

"Now that everything has been cleared up, there’s no reason to waste time traveling back normally."

The next instant, Marshall teleported Lucy, Ruby, and the entire magical vehicle directly outside Fairy Tail’s guildhall.

Marshall took Lucy’s hand and helped her out before smiling.

"And that concludes our first date~"

"Make sure you enjoy yourself in Fairy Tail from now on, Lucy-nee."

"I’ll be going ahead."

"Bye~ ヽ(≧▽≦)o"

Before Lucy could respond, Marshall vanished again.

She stared at the empty space where he had been, feeling both impressed and helpless.

"A date, huh...?"

"What a willful kid."

She shook her head with a small smile.

"Still, I suppose he really does think like a child most of the time."

"It’s hard to believe someone like that can become so calm and dependable the moment he faces an enemy."

Remembering the romantic misunderstanding she had entertained earlier, Lucy felt her cheeks heat with embarrassment.

Her first guild request had taken only half a day.

It had been surprisingly easy, yet still quite entertaining.

Now she only needed to earn the approval of five more guild members and become a true member of Fairy Tail.

’You can do this, Lucy!’

Lucy turned toward the guildhall.

Then she froze.

More than a dozen pairs of terrifying, bloodshot eyes were staring directly at her!

A chill ran down her spine.

"You all saw that, right...?"

"That girl... just got out of Lord Marshall’s vehicle."

"Marshall hasn’t taken a job in ages..."

"And this time he went with her."

"Did anyone else hear what he said just now?"

"He said ’date,’ didn’t he?"

"That was definitely ’date’!"

"Isn’t she from your future-girlfriend faction?"

"You damn bitch can’t even keep your own members under control?!"

Lucy stumbled backward beneath the murderous gazes.

"Huh?"

"W-Wait!"

"No! It isn’t like that!"

"Please let me explain!"

"Oh?"

One of the girls smiled dangerously.

"And what exactly do you have to say for yourself?"

"I... I..."

Lucy froze.

Wait.

There was no way to explain this!

If she wanted to keep her identity as the Heartfilia heiress secret, how was she supposed to explain why Marshall had personally taken her on a request?

’Oh no.’

’This is really bad!’

Lucy’s expression went gray.

Finally, she closed her eyes and stopped resisting.

"I... have nothing more to say."

"Do what you must."

"Hehehe..."

"So you’ve finally given up trying to defend yourself."

"It seems our newcomer still requires some very thorough attention~"

"Eeeek!"

"No! Please don’t!"

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