Chapter 111
One month later, reconstruction of Fairy Tail’s main guildhall was completed.
After two months, every attached building was finished.
By the third month, Fairy Tail’s entire industrial district had officially opened.
The new guildhall had been expanded on its original site and was now three times its former size.
Fairy Tail had also purchased all the surrounding land, including the newly constructed residences, office buildings, and small public parks.
A swimming pool, hot-spring pavilion, and miniature amusement park had been built behind the guildhall.
Inside, there was now a game room, a cinema, and several magical projection devices installed throughout the main hall.
The entire guild had been transformed.
Marshall had redesigned the building according to the standards of a modern private club, and many of the new facilities left the members wide-eyed with amazement.
The second floor was now restricted to official members, while S-Class requests had been moved into a separate room that only S-Class Mages could enter.
Yet none of those additions became the guild’s most popular attraction.
That honor belonged to—Fairy Tail’s Duel Hall!
To satisfy the members’ ever-growing need to beat each other senseless, Makarov had spent an enormous sum constructing a dedicated arena near the guildhall.
Inside, members could fight to their hearts’ content without destroying the rest of the building.
It quickly became the liveliest place in Fairy Tail.
Every day, someone challenged another member to a duel.
The more daring spectators even organized betting pools, while tourists regularly purchased tickets to watch the chaos from the stands.
Fairy Tail’s newly expanded headquarters had become one of Magnolia’s most recognizable landmarks.
After several months of adjustment, the disruption caused by the sudden flood of new members gradually faded.
The older members eventually realized that aside from their lives becoming increasingly comfortable, Fairy Tail didn’t feel all that different from before.
Even the least perceptive members were slowly beginning to understand one undeniable fact:
Fairy Tail had become incredibly impressive.
As magical communication terminals spread across the continent, the guild emblem engraved on every device became recognizable almost everywhere.
Whenever a Fairy Tail Mage traveled while openly displaying the guild mark, people would stare at them with admiration and envy.
If nothing else, the members’ pride in their guild had reached an all-time high.
Makarov appeared so frequently on the front pages of major newspapers that his face was becoming impossible to avoid.
Fairy Tail’s prestige had never been greater.
One young woman told Makarov that this had been the happiest spring of her adult life.
She had joined Fairy Tail that year and immediately received a magical communication terminal that money could barely buy.
The guild members had welcomed her warmly, and before she could even choose her first job, several girls invited her into one of their social clubs.
She quickly made many friends.
After completing her month-long observation period, she became an official member.
The guild’s benefits and treatment were so generous that she sometimes wondered whether she was dreaming.
She said that living in Magnolia made her feel as though she had entered a golden age for Mages.
Marshall, the person most responsible for creating all of this, had chosen to remain quietly behind the scenes.
Even so, legends about him continued circulating throughout the guild.
Or rather, with the explosive growth of newcomers and reserve members, every S-Class Mage now had legends of their own.
That was the trouble with legends.
The more people repeated them, the further they drifted from reality.
After passing through enough mouths, even an ordinary story could become absurdly exaggerated.
One particularly strange consequence was that each S-Class Mage developed a fan club resembling Laxus’s Thunder God Tribe.
There was The Fairy Queen’s Order of Knights, The Bloodthirsty Witch’s Servant Corps, and even Supporters of That Old Man!
Those weren’t mocking descriptions.
They were the actual names of their group chats!
Every Fairy Tail member—even reserve members—received a communication terminal as part of their guild benefits.
As a result, most new terminal features were tested internally before being released to the public.
The devices might have seemed advanced to ordinary people, but before Marshall, a master of Information Magic, they offered almost no true privacy.
If he wished, he could intercept any information being exchanged through the network.
Naturally, Marshall wasn’t bored or shameless enough to spend his days spying on everyone’s conversations.
Most of the gossip reached him accidentally.
For example, several of the older men had noticed that every younger member belonged to some small group or another.
Feeling outdated and excluded, they created a Gildarts fan club of their own.
They named it Supporters of That Old Man.
Marshall nearly lost control of his expression when he heard about it.
But when he discovered the names of his own fan clubs, he completely failed to hold back.
As the S-Class Mage ranked first in popularity among Fairy Tail’s female members, Marshall had not one but four separate fan groups:
Marshall’s Onee-san’s Fans
Marshall’s Motherly Fans
Marshall’s Future Girlfriends
And...
The Fifth Master’s Advisory Council
That’s right.
Marshall had four competing fan clubs, and every one of them regarded the others as mortal enemies.
Having witnessed the entire situation unfold, Marshall had no idea what expression he was supposed to make.
He could only pretend he knew nothing.
In the beginning, there had only been Marshall’s Onee-san’s Fans, created by Cana.
Cana immediately declared herself Marshall’s favorite sister and presented evidence that the two of them lived together.
She then issued a stern warning to every suspicious woman with designs on Marshall:
Anyone who wanted to approach him would first need to pass her inspection.
Naturally, certain people weren’t happy about that.
Marshall’s lifelong happiness was at stake.
Why should they sit quietly while Cana made all the decisions?
Thus, the original big-sister group split apart.
The first two breakaway factions were the motherly group and the future-girlfriend group.
The stated purpose of Marshall’s Motherly Fans was:
We hope Marshall finds his own happiness in the future!
Group owner: Juvia.
The purpose of Marshall’s Future Girlfriends was:
We’ll wait until Marshall grows up, then compete fairly.
Group owner: Mirajane.
In reality, both group owners were scheming shamelessly.
The intensely jealous Juvia couldn’t tolerate sharing a group with girls she regarded as potential rivals.
She therefore separated all the seemingly harmless motherly fans into their own group, eliminating a large number of suspicious targets from her immediate surroundings.
Mira, meanwhile, feared absolutely nothing.
She created the future-girlfriend group specifically as bait.
Any foolish woman who failed to understand her own position and openly admitted to having improper intentions toward Marshall would be marked for special attention!
So Mira could deal with them later.
By the time Marshall discovered this, his scalp was tingling.
Were there any normal human beings left in this guild?
And somehow, things became even more ridiculous!
Some girls weren’t attracted to Marshall’s appearance at all.
Instead, they were overwhelmed by his intelligence.
They believed Fairy Tail’s rapid rise had only been possible because Marshall had guided everything from behind the scenes.
Convinced that he would become Fairy Tail’s Fifth Guild Master, they separated from the other fan clubs and founded The Fifth Master’s Advisory Council.
Its leader was an otherwise unknown newcomer named Laki Olietta.
Levy was deeply moved upon discovering what she considered a group of true intellectuals.
Without hesitation, she betrayed Cana, abandoned the big-sister faction, and transferred into the advisory council.
Marshall was exhausted.
There were far too many lunatics in this guild!
Some people had even infiltrated all four groups at once simply to collect more flattering photographs of Marshall, since exchanging new pictures of him had become each chat’s most important daily activity.
And Erza?
Erza hadn’t joined any group at all.
She didn’t even know that she and Marshall had fan clubs.
Since she spent nearly all her time completing jobs, the entire matter had escaped her notice.
Marshall didn’t particularly care about the existence of those little factions.
However, according to the Gugas he had stationed inside each group, Laki possessed a suspiciously detailed understanding of him.
She had correctly deduced most of his known abilities.
She had also investigated nearly everything he had accomplished over the years and organized the information into extensive charts and tables, all to prove how powerful, brilliant, and perfectly suited Marshall was to become the Fifth Guild Master.
That went far beyond ordinary admiration!
How had a newcomer obtained so much information about him?
Marshall even suspected she might be a spy.
Perhaps she had joined Fairy Tail as part of some secret conspiracy directed specifically at him.
He could no longer ignore the matter.
Marshall decided to confront the mysterious newcomer personally.
...
Their first private meeting immediately went in a direction he hadn’t expected.
Marshall had barely paid attention to Laki before.
Now that he saw her up close—the glasses, the short purple hair, that familiar face...
Why did she look so familiar?
"Senpai! I finally found you!"
The moment Laki opened her mouth, Marshall knew his life was over.
His vision darkened, and for one horrifying instant, he nearly fainted.
Marshall grabbed Laki and teleported both of them back to his castle, ensuring there would be no one nearby to overhear them.
His expression had never looked so serious.
"What nonsense are you talking about?"
He glared at her.
"Newcomer, watch your words."
"Senpai! Have you forgotten me?"
Laki stared at him eagerly.
"I’m Laki, the first president of the Magic Academy’s Hanna Fan Club!"
"We spoke four whole sentences to each other at the academy!"
Marshall felt as though the sky were collapsing.
It really was her!
Why?
He had already graduated and cut every connection with his academy identity.
How had this woman still managed to follow him all the way to Fairy Tail?!
"Senpai! Hanna-senpai!"
Laki stepped closer.
"Have you truly forgotten everything we shared?!"
"Silence!"
Marshall recoiled.
"I don’t know anyone by that name!"
"Please don’t say that!"
Laki looked heartbroken.
"I already learned the truth. I understand that you were forced to enroll under another identity."
"But I truly admired Hanna-senpai from the bottom of my heart!"
"Please don’t deny such a wonderful and inspiring name!"
Marshall waved his hand and teleported Laki into the room where he and Virgo stored their theatrical punishment equipment.
Glowing ropes wrapped around her and lifted her slightly off the floor.
Marshall picked up a training whip and forced out a stiff, increasingly dangerous smile.
"Heh... Hehehe..."
"You know far too much."
"I’m going to need to keep you under very close control."
Instead of becoming frightened, Laki looked around at the room filled with bizarre training implements, and her eyes lit up.
"So Senpai also enjoys collecting interrogation equipment!"
"How wonderful!"
"Sharing an interest with my idol makes me so happy!"
"..."
’Fuck me, there really weren’t any normal people left in Fairy Tail!’
Marshall once again felt his soul leave his body.
He took a deep breath and spoke slowly.
"You will forget everything you know."
"Laki, if the story of my time at the academy becomes public, I cannot guarantee that I’ll continue behaving rationally."
"I’ll keep it secret!"
Laki nodded furiously.
"I knew Senpai didn’t want the truth exposed, so I never told anyone!"
"Only I truly understand your talent and ambitions!"
"Senpai, we’re on the same side!"
"...You’d better be."
Marshall considered the matter before lowering her back to the floor.
She appeared to be nothing more than an excessively devoted fan.
For the moment, she didn’t seem particularly dangerous.
"Start talking."
Marshall crossed his arms.
"Why did you join Fairy Tail?"
"Who sent you?"
"What are you planning?"
"Tell me everything."
"Huh?"
Laki blinked.
"I already wrote all of that on my application."
"I recently graduated from the Magic Academy. I didn’t want to work for the Magic Council, so I came to see whether Fairy Tail would suit me."
"I never expected to meet Senpai here!"
"I already thought the senior who graduated three years ahead of me was incredible, but then I learned your real age!"
"You’re Fairy Tail’s youngest S-Class Mage, and you’ve accomplished so many magnificent—"
"Enough! Stop!"
Marshall pinched the bridge of his nose.
He could feel his blood pressure rising.
His ability to remain calm clearly required more training.
"So this was all a coincidence?"
"Yes!"
Laki paused, then corrected herself passionately.
"No! It was a reunion ordained by fate!"
"Senpai, this time I will become your most loyal subordinate!"
"Please look at me a little more!"
"...What can you actually do?"
"Huh?"
Laki’s momentum immediately faltered.
"I-I specialize in Wood-Make Magic."
"My memory is quite good, and I can handle documents and gather information..."
Her voice grew quieter with every sentence.
Laki knew she wasn’t exceptional.
That was precisely why she had admired the seemingly omnipotent Hanna-senpai, who always took first place no matter what she attempted.
She desperately wanted to stand closer to her idol.
But could someone as ordinary as her truly be useful?
"I know everything about Senpai!"
Laki forced herself to meet his eyes.
"I’m certain I can help you!"
So she really was nothing more than an absurdly devoted fan?
Had Marshall simply overthought the entire situation?
He shook his head.
His irresistible charm truly was a terrible burden for him.
"Laki."
"Yes!"
"Admiration is the emotion furthest from understanding."
Marshall looked directly at her.
"As you are now, you will never reach the Hanna who exists inside your imagination."
"Huh...?"
Laki lowered her head in disappointment.
Just as she assumed Marshall was rejecting her, he continued:
"Do you truly wish to follow me?"
"I can offer you an opportunity."
"But once you board my ship, leaving it won’t be so easy."
Laki’s eyes began shining.
Her answer carried the solemn determination of someone swearing an oath of eternal loyalty.
"I’m willing, Senpai!"
"Then remain beside me as a trainee secretary."
Marshall nodded.
"Once you pass the assessment period, I’ll give you an official position."
"Yes, Senpai!"
Marshall reached into empty space, caught a Guga that had been slacking off elsewhere, and shoved it into Laki’s arms.
"From now on, this will be your personal liaison."
"Don’t reveal your new role yet."
"When suitable assignments arise, I’ll send them to you through the Guga."
Laki saluted sharply.
"Understood, Senpai!"
"I guarantee I’ll complete every mission!"
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