Chapter 67: Would You Eat Your Own Summoned Beast?

The sun gradually moved westward, growing larger and shifting towards an orange-red hue, with its light becoming softer.

On a seemingly flat road that appeared straight up close but winding from afar, a double-harness carriage moved forward at a leisurely pace.

Nearby, a giant crab wandered around the carriage, sometimes moving quickly, sometimes slowly, sometimes farther, sometimes nearer.

The roadside was lined with golden wheat fields. There wasn't much wind today, so there were no waves rolling through the wheat, but that didn't bother the one person and one cat peeking their heads out of the carriage window, taking in the rural scenery in silence.

"Hey! I see the mountain, we're almost there!"

The silence was broken by a young man with cherry-pink hair riding the crab's back. "Hey, coachman, hurry up!"

"You're so loud, Natsu," Happy complained.

Rhodes nodded in agreement, "Yeah, no sense of mood at all."

Natsu got annoyed seeing the two of them in such harmony and yelled, flailing his arms on the crab's back, "You two! Since when did you get so close?!"

Rhodes replied, "When you were carsick."

"Pffft~" Happy struggled to contain his laughter, "Also when you face-planted earlier."

"That's it! Stop the carriage, I'm gonna make you pay!" Natsu was so angry he almost spit fire.

After a while of messing around, Rhodes suddenly turned serious:

"Natsu, about eight or nine hundred meters ahead, there are wild boars—five, no, six of them!"

"Ohhh, you can see that far?"

Natsu stood on the crab's back, straining his eyes to see, but with the curving road, uneven terrain, and wheat fields, he couldn't spot anything.

"Why not try and see if you can smell the stink of the wild boars?" Rhodes casually suggested.

Natsu immediately put his head back, his nostrils flaring. "Got it! Leave it to me!"

With a tug on the crab's antennae, Natsu shouted, "Charge!"

"Natsu!" Rhodes wanted to say he had a plan for dealing with the boars, but Natsu dashed off too quickly—no chance to make him fall again.

Happy said, "Don't worry, wild boars are no problem for Natsu."

Rhodes responded, "I'm more worried about him burning down the fields."

"Aye, that does sound like something Natsu would do."

"Summon: Ancient Stone Beetle!"

Rhodes summoned two sets of stone beetles, instructing them to follow Natsu, ready to dig a firebreak to limit damage to the crops.

"Whoa there~"

The coachman pulled the horses to a stop. "Sorry, there's a lot of wild animal activity up ahead, and the horses are too scared to go on."

Rhodes stepped down to look around. There were indeed traces of animal activity in the wheat fields, likely leaving scents that frightened the horses.

"This is fine; the village isn't far," Rhodes said. "Happy, get down!"

"Aye, sir!" Happy flew out, carrying Natsu's bag and Rhodes' suitcase.

Seeing signs of wild animals in the vicinity, Rhodes summoned a group of sharp-beaked birds to escort the carriage a short distance for extra protection.

Seeing fire up ahead, Rhodes and Happy quickly ran in Natsu's direction.

Less than a kilometer was only a matter of a few minutes' run, hindered only by the luggage.

And within those few minutes, Natsu had already resolved the fight.

Six wild boars of varying sizes lay quietly on the ground, and the fire in the wheat fields hadn't completely died down yet.

Fortunately, the stone beetles had dug a firebreak, preventing the flames from spreading further.

"Ahahaha..." The culprit, Natsu, stood triumphantly with his hands on his hips, laughing without a care. "See, you dumb wild boars, that's what you get for messing with me!"

Happy flew over with Natsu's luggage. "Natsu~"

"Happy, Rhodes, you guys are late! I took care of all of them! Ahahaha..."

He was proud, as if he'd just won a hunting competition between the three of them.

Happy said, "Natsu is strong, but you almost burned down the entire wheat field."

"But I didn't," Natsu replied smugly.

"That's because Rhodes had the beetles dig the firebreak."

"Those are stone beetles," Rhodes corrected, then said to Natsu, "Please think it through before using fire in places like fields, forests, or villages, alright?"

"I did think it through." Natsu punched the air, a small flame accompanying his fist. "This much fire was just enough to deal with the wild boars."

Rhodes got annoyed, "I meant think about the consequences, like not burning down the field!"

"That's what you're here for!" Natsu grinned cheekily, "No wonder Mira suggested I ask you to team up!"

Even if you trust me like this, even if you bring up Mira, I still...

"Wait, no." Rhodes almost got sucked into Natsu's twisted logic. "Don't put your strange trust in me! I'm not here just to clean up your messes!"

Happy looked at the still-burning wheat and asked, "What do we do now?"

"Escape before anyone notices."

"Get Natsu to eat the fire."

Both spoke at the same time and were stunned by each other's responses, before they spoke simultaneously again:

"Would you eat your own summoned beast?"

"You were planning on running away?"

They were even more shocked this time:

"Of course you run if you make a mess!"

"Well, I guess we could try."

Listening to each other's answers, both of them spoke in unison once more:

"You said that so confidently!"

Happy, seeing them go from speaking over each other to speaking in unison, wanted to quip, "You two are so in sync!"

...

After some explanation.

Rhodes came to understand, "Oh~ So Natsu can't eat his own fire, only other people's."

Natsu then asked, "So, can you really eat your own summoned beasts?"

Rhodes shrugged, "No idea. I just figured if I was really starving, I could borrow a crab claw from the canyon swift crab and nibble on it. It can regrow them, after all."

Natsu and Happy both swallowed, "How cruel."

The canyon swift crab returned to the summoning valley.

"I was joking."

By now, the fire within the firebreak had started to subside.

Wheat straw burns quickly, and there wasn't much heat. The six boars lying there were merely charred on the outside.

Rhodes ordered the ancient stone beetles to split, then had them drag out the six wild boars.

He also had the summoned beasts dig up some dirt to cover and extinguish the remaining flames.

"Solid Script: Water."

Rhodes waved his hand, creating a basin of water that splashed out, dampening the still-hot earth.

He repeated this a few times, cooling the area to prevent any potential flare-ups.

After all this, Rhodes patted his right hand a few times—he had just said he wasn't here to clean up after Natsu, but he still ended up dealing with all of the problems Natsu had left behind.

He sighed, "Alright, let's drag these boars to the village."

"Huh? Why?"

"We burned their fields, so we should give some explanation. Besides, we haven't officially reported to the client yet," Rhodes worried there might be trouble otherwise.

"So annoying," Natsu grumbled. In his experience, he'd always just gone and talked directly with the client in such situations.

As long as the job was done, no one really cared much about these procedural details.

"And whose fault is that?!"

If he hadn't sent the stone beetles in, who knows how many acres of wheat would have been destroyed? Rhodes didn't even want to think about it.

Don't get mad, don't get mad—he wasn't mad, this was all for rent money.

But thinking about the fact that they still had a lot of fighting left to do before solving the whole beast problem...

Rhodes felt a headache coming on.

Maybe teaming Natsu up with Gray would've been the best idea?