Chapter 92: Welcome Home

~Third POV~

[September 19, X784]

In a home away from every possible village town lies Ultear taking a bath inside the home outpost of the Grimoire Hearts as she talks to someone over a Communication Lacrima in a calm tone, "And so the problems with assigning blame are so widespread, the council will remain impotent for a while. It's even possible they might disband permanently."

On the other side of the Communication Lacrima who is revealed to be Hades replies on Ultear's assignment, "Well done, Ultear. And… what happened to Jellal."

Leaning on her bathtub enjoying the warm water along with bubbles replies but a hint of anger at the end of her tone regarding Silva, "Who knows… I doubt he died since that man dispelled my possession of him."

Hades merely pitted Jellal acting out as their pawn in their grand plan in a neutral tone, "Poor man. Convinced that he's using a woman who is using him."

*Splash*

Getting out of her bathtub agreeing with Hades' words merely replied happily about using Jellal to further their goals, "Hahaha! I found it quite fun. He was… cute. For 8 years, I acted the part of Zeref's ghost, and he never once noticed it."

Hades agreed with Ultear's means of using Jellal to further their own goal with everything going as they planned originally, "Your brainwashing techniques made the plan work flawlessly. The uproar that caught up with the Magic Council… the launch of Etherion… it went all according to plan. At least till the end that is…"

Ultear merely flinched getting dressed in how her flawless plan went only till the end where things took a different turn she replied, "Right… the plan worked as intended we just didn't expect the tower actually explode in of itself but in the end things worked in our favor. Yes… and while Jellal was on his rampage, you were able to act with impunity."

Hades merely chuckled happily obtaining one of the keys to awaken Zeref in a delighted tone, "Thanks to that, one key to breaking the seal is now mine!"

Ultear merely congratulated her master before drying herself with a towel to cover her as she continued speaking, "Congratulations. Hahaha… sorry about that Jellal-sama! It was impossible for you to resurrect Zeref from the start. I should say, it's impossible for anybody to resurrect him. After all, how can you resurrect someone who is still alive? Alive and merely sleeping."

She shook her head as she playfully put on her Grimoire Hearts uniform asking Hades for a favor to him, "Oh, right. Master, would it be alright for you to put a hit on a certain annoying man? His meddling made quite an apparent annoyance."

Hades remained silent but nonetheless agreed to Ultear's request before asking another question her about the man in question, "Very well… but I would like to ask what's the man's potential? You saw firsthand how this Silva Knights was capable of?"

Ultear for her part paused briefly of the short encounter with Silva in her memory before finally answering honestly about his potential, "Abyssal. It's as if his Magic Power is too massive to even search. It's like searching a small droplet of water in the sea. That's partially the reason I want him dead as his potential is too large to ignore if grown along with him foiling my plans."

Hades merely hummed at the other end considering Ultear someone whom he trained with massive Magic Power reserves would call another a monster in potential growth bigger than hers in recorded history.

Hades thinks to himself ending the call transmission with Ultear muttering to himself in his room in a neutral tone, "I wonder… if the spike of Magic Power a few days ago was truly detailed or have Makarov used Fairy Tail's 'Light' in that event… the power felt too much like hers…"

/////

~Silva K. POV~

Holy crap!

We finally arrived back home to the Fairy Tail guild and this place as a whole makeover from the original.

The appearance of the building is very similar to the previous one but has some slight changes. For example, this one doesn't have a bell in the central tower. The fence around the building with the big gate, as well as the open-air cafe, are missing too.

The new building has some little towers on both sides of the main tower. The banner with the guild's insignia has been replaced with a large wooden sign bearing the guild's name that resembles the one that was previously at the fence gate. On top of the main tower, there is now a flag with Fairy Tail's guild symbol.

The exterior is extravagantly different from the former building: while retaining the pagoda shape of the former building and consisting of three floors, this one strongly resembles a castle in appearance, having battlements on top of its two upper floors, while the ground floor has a more Western-looking roof than the former building, consisting of many small, square tiles of different size.

Over the battlements, several large torches are lined up. Topping the building and the last floor is a small, tower-like dome containing a large bell, which has a pointed roof made of tiles; two more towers are present at both sides of the entrance, these having elongated glass windows running through them and weathercocks shaped like Fairy Tail's symbol on their tile tops.

The front part of the top floor houses a large banner with the guild's insignia on it, while two smaller banners placed at its sides, some meters away from it, bear, respectively, the Magic Council's emblem and an unknown symbol.

Surrounding the headquarters is a fence composed of stone overtopped by the decorated railing, with some pillars over-topped by torches on its length and an open gate giving access to the guild, this possessing an upper part covered in tiles, with railing below it, bearing resemblance to an open portcullis, plus a large sign bearing the guild's name, with ornate decorations above it, including a pair of detailed statues of fairies, each wearing a dress and possessing a pair of wings and elongated ears sitting on their heads.

In front of the building, inside the fence, is the so-called open-air cafe, containing a little over two dozen tables, each complete with a pair of benches at its sides, with some of them bearing striped beach umbrellas.

There is also a small Souvenir Shop to the left of the entrance, composed of bricks and sporting a wood counter, which is run by Max Alors. Lined up the building's sides are two lines of trees; the ones farther from the entrance seem to be way taller than the others, appearing from behind the balustrades of the ground floor; either that or the first floor itself has plants on its top.

Going over I greeted Max with clear surprise viewing my man-made figurine appear as I couldn't help but comment on it in amazement, "Seriously who's your guy to get this right number of details on the figure?"

Max merely chuckled as he replied to me with a grin in a proud tone, "I just know the right people. I can help you set them up meeting him if you'd like?"

Before I could reply Cana saw us as she got our attention with a grin on her face jabbing her thumb inside, "Hm? So, you guys are back? Hurry up inside and see the new additions to the guild already!"

"Cana!"

The group replied as we soon saw the inside and small tour around our new guild with a smirk running down my face.

The first floor greatly resembles that of the old building, but much larger in size, with more tables and benches, as well as several long beams supporting the wooden mezzanines present on both sides of the hall, and a similarly long counter occupying the wall to the right from the entrance.

Above it, a large banner bearing both the guild's name and its symbol is visible. The floor is still made of wood, while the upper part of the walls, just below the mezzanines, consists of bricks.

When first entering the guild, there is a request board to the immediate right and an information desk to the immediate left. A few meters in front of them, there are two dozen restaurant tables that stretch across the length of the room.

The tables end at a large, wooden stage that has four staircases behind it on its left and right sides. Two of the staircases lead upstairs and two of them lead downstairs. In the upper right-hand corner of the guild, there is a rest/shower room.

To the right of the restaurant tables, there is a kitchen, and next to the kitchen, there is a resting room. Next to that room in the lower right-hand corner of the guild is a Data Storage Room. There is a library in the lower left-hand corner of the room, and next to that is a waiting room. To the left of that, is a storage room, which is located next to a second rest/shower room.

Behind the stage of the guild is a large, interior swimming pool that is decorated to imitate an outside environment, having its edges adorned by plants of various sorts, mainly palms and tropical-looking bushes, plus typical sunbeds complete with beach umbrellas. The pool seems to lack a proper springboard, with the guild members seemingly diving into it via some crates piled up one on the other.

The basement has been turned into an amusement center located downstairs. It is a relatively large room with brick walls, with their lower parts being composed of long, horizontal wooden planks, and a wooden ceiling, with stone pillars carved in the walls sustaining it, and it contains a pool table, dart boards, video games, and other means of entertainment.

It also has a few tables for the occupants of the room to eat and drink between playing. In a corner there are several barrels, and attached to a wall is a noticeboard complete with some notices, with more, scattered notices adorning the wall itself.

I will certainly have my time in the basement later since the call to video games is what I miss most right now.

That was when I heard the Guild Master's voice behind us as we turned around to greet him and Juvia in her new look, "The fools have returned! Welcome back, my children! Our newest member, Juvia! Ain't she sweet!"

I gestured a wave greeting her again causing her to blush a bit as I congratulated her for joining the guild, "Welcome to Fairy Tail Juvia! Glad to have you in the guild."

Juvia merely nodded in agreement expressing her happiness about joining the guild, "Juvia got in thanks to all of you! Juvia will do her best for the guild!"

Erza greeted Juvia thanking her for helping with the Tower of Heaven in a thankful tone, "You are very much welcome Juvia. Thanks for assisting us in the tower."

But for Erza's response, she froze slightly feeling challenged as she replied keeping her smile directed at us, "Your very welcome love rival but I'll be the one to win."

There was a challenging glint in Erza's eyes but that happy time would soon end when we all looked at Gajeel finally meeting him face to face with the group not pleased his here but ultimately the Master's decision as much as I loathe the idea.

But the rules are the rules however it seems like Jet and Droy having something in mind with their expressions and glint in their eyes clearly want payback but…

Sigh…

It's not something that simple to easily forgive and forget but…

Shaking my head for now though I should probably talk to them along with Levy seemingly shaking in fear from Gajeel as well as other members from Juvia because of their prior affiliations with her vouching for the guy.

She's a sweet girl but…

…

I'll be frank.

I don't like Gajeel not after harming my friends even if I do know if he was under orders or not he still harmed people I consider as friends.

It's difficult to get used to the idea or tolerate it for me. To me, it feels very complicated to have him around but just bugs me the wrong way.

Maybe Mavis can give me some insight into how I should handle this type of problem. The most I would do is probably ignore it or confront it if I let my hate for the guy build up would be bad if it blew up in the heat of the moment.

Guess that annoying feeling won't go unless I duke it out with Gajeel because despite knowing his history it still makes me angry, but that guy won't bother defending himself even if I asked for a duel showing how much he wants to be part of the guild.

It's conflicting…

Besides that, it seems like Levy needs to have an actual talk with someone about Gajeel's presence seeing the two knuckleheads Droy and Jet in their pity revenge, but I can understand how they feel.

Then what happened next was a shit, show as Makarov reminded everyone that a reporter is coming tomorrow…

Note to self-skip going into the guild tomorrow and ask Levy for a private conversation later today or tomorrow.

For now, I should just enjoy the show.

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