Chapter 17: Fairy Queen

Today at noon, the tavern was even more chaotic than yesterday.

The main reason was that Natsu had returned from a mission, while Gray had not yet left.

The two of them were ten meters apart, but once they made eye contact, they inexplicably started arguing.

Natsu shouted words like "droopy eyes" and "ice block idiot."

Gray yelled back with "hanging eyes" and "flame idiot."

In no more than ten seconds, their foreheads were pressed together, and soon enough, they were brawling.

Unlike Macao and Wakaba, these two had no sense of restraint, and soon enough, a chair leg went flying, hitting Elfman's back.

Elfman shouted something about "manliness," and swung his fists to join the fray, only to be punched and sent flying by both Natsu and Gray.

The airborne Elfman crashed into Cana's table, and the bottle Cana threw ended up hitting a handsome guy on the head.

The handsome guy, who was chatting with two beauties, didn't show any anger at all. Instead, he gracefully let go of the two women.

"Please wait a moment. I'm going to join in."

Before leaving, he even winked at them. The two beauties, enchanted by his gaze, screamed and cheered him on.

The tavern grew increasingly chaotic, with one member after another being dragged into the fight—Rita, who was drawing, Nab, who was checking the mission board, and even Levy's squad were not spared.

Mira, as usual, watched the spectacle from behind the counter with a smile.

Laki... was already in the middle of the fight. She wasn't one to be easily overlooked.

Rhodes promptly put the food he was delivering on the counter and stayed by the guild master, who was drunk.

It felt safe.

He watched the various "battlefields" around the tavern intently, not for the sake of entertainment but to avoid any random flying objects.

Rhodes had been with Fairy Tail for two days now, and working in the guild meant learning how to protect himself.

As the scene got worse and seemed about to escalate into a magic battle, Rhodes felt it was time to wake the guild master to stop them.

This seemed to be the usual procedure.

However, before he could act, the guild's door suddenly swung open with a bang, letting in the bright midday sunlight that outlined a graceful figure.

As Rhodes's eyes adjusted to the light, the figure had already entered the guild.

With long scarlet hair and an emotionless expression, she wore black knee-high boots and a blue skirt that showed off her beautiful legs. But...

On her upper body, she wore metal armor, complete with shoulder, arm, and hand guards.

If her skirt had armor plating and she held a sword, she'd look just like a knight.

But instead, she was holding a three-meter-long rope. As she stepped inside, Rhodes could see that the rope was pulling a flatbed cart.

And on that cart was a pile of luggage stacked higher than her own height.

This must be a formidable person, Rhodes thought.

Then he noticed her scarlet hair, remembering what Mira had mentioned just yesterday—Erza!

As Erza pulled her luggage inside, the noisy guild fell silent.

The people who were just arguing seemed to freeze, like they'd been paused, even those who had their hands on each other's collars or hair.

Mira, however, smiled happily, "Welcome back, Erza!"

"Ah, I'm back," Erza replied politely, then looked at everyone else, her expression turning stern.

The crowd was silent, though some brave souls attempted to speak, "Erza... Miss, was the mission successful?"

He even added an honorific.

"Don't think you can get away with it. I heard you caused trouble again!"

"Let's put that aside for now. Vijeeter, stop dancing on the table! Nab, stop just loitering in front of the mission board and pick a request! Wakaba, watch your ash! Cana..."

Erza reprimanded a group of troublemakers, including the grown-up problem children and those who had broken the tables and chairs, giving them a harsh scolding.

No one she named dared to talk back.

Especially Natsu and Gray, who were just fighting the hardest. They now had their arms around each other like best friends.

Erza nodded in satisfaction, "Getting along is great, but Gray, your clothes."

"Huh? When did—" Gray fumbled to find his pants and put them on.

However, Erza wasn't finished, "Guild Master, drunk in broad daylight again—you should at least keep them in line!"

"What's the problem..." Makarov seemed not quite sober, even hiccuping.

Rhodes suddenly noticed the tavern had returned to its usual state. The group who had just been in a brawl were now back to drinking and chatting normally.

Natsu and Gray sat across from each other. Their eyes still showed defiance when they met, but as soon as Erza glanced over, they would immediately raise their glasses and laugh.

She was like a head disciplinarian.

At this point, Erza's gaze fell on Rhodes. Fortunately, it was a kind look, "A new face. Are you a new member, or a resident of Magnolia?"

Rhodes greeted her properly, "Hello, I'm Rhodes. I just joined the guild two days ago.

Mira has already told me about your 'notorious deeds'—I've heard so much about them."

"Not... notorious deeds..." Erza seemed hurt, staring at Mira in shock.

She knew Mira liked gossip, but she didn't know she would badmouth her behind her back.

"No, no, Rhodes has some issues with the common language..." Mira felt a headache coming on. This had indeed caused a misunderstanding.

She explained how Rhodes had learned the language, adding,

"In short, Rhodes is still learning both magic and the common language, and is working part-time in the tavern as a server for now."

"I see. I'm Erza." Erza was quite friendly towards new members,

"Since you've joined the guild, you're family now. If you have any difficulties, you can come to me. I will help you with all my might!"

As she said "all my might," Erza clenched her fist, her expression and tone both extremely serious.

"Uh... thank you." Rhodes wasn't sure if he should be happy or worried.

Good news: he was now "family" with Erza, one of the main characters.

Bad news: Erza had just scolded a whole group of "family" members, and from how practiced she seemed, it was definitely not her first time.

Erza stayed in the guild for a while, had a drink, and then left with her luggage cart, saying she'd been gone too long and needed to clean her room and organize her spoils.

Curious, Rhodes asked Mira what kind of mission Erza had been on.

But Mira said the client requested confidentiality, though generally, it was about dealing with a troublesome criminal group in a remote border town.

"Erza took down dozens of criminals in one go~," Mira said with a smile. "How about it, isn't our 'Fairy Queen' impressive?"

Rhodes nodded, "Yes... very impressive."

To be honest, Erza was powerful, and her personality... so far, seemed to be one of the few serious people in the guild.

And her looks were no less than Mira's. Rhodes figured she must be the crush of many people.

But... he didn't dare have any messy thoughts.

Because Mira had already explained Erza's illustrious combat history to him:

Such as beating Natsu so badly that Happy couldn't recognize him, thrashing a wandering-around-naked Gray almost into the ground, and nearly beating Loke, who pursued her, into a coma...

Suddenly, Rhodes thought that using the term "notorious deeds" might not have been wrong.

"Laki? What's that?"

Mira noticed Laki returned with a human-sized gift box after seeing Erza out.

"It's a local specialty that Erza brought back for me."

Laki happily put down the red gift box with a heavy thud, sounding like it had a lot of weight.