Chapter 23

At the Kingdom of Pergrande, on a large mansion surrounded by trees.

A handsome middle-aged man wearing nothing but luxurious shorts can be seen sunbathing beside the large and wide pool.

Suddenly, an old man that looks to be forty to fifty years old appeared beside the man. The old man is wearing a butler outfit, white hair, green eyes and a scar at the right side of his lips.

He's also quite tall and muscular.

"Master, Liem from the Smiling Reaper already found the Titan's Temple, it won't be long before they find the rest."

The middle aged man just smiled mockingly as he opened his closed eyes, "That bastard, does he think that with the help of those ancient beast and relics, they can contend against those things? Too naïve."

"400 years ago, the dragons, the leviathans, and the titans formed an alliance but they were easily massacred by those and almost went extinct! What can they do now? Especially now that those things have gotten stronger."

"Korona, call all the leaders of your pawns, the time for 'Endless Abyss' to reveal themselves is coming near."

The old butler, Korona, bowed, before leaving, a flash of light covered his body as he disappeared.

"Heh~! What a bunch of idiots, instead of fighting against those things, why not just ally with them? Hehehe~ isn't that right?"

Suddenly, an ape-like black large creature that easily reach ten meters in height appeared behind the man.

The creature has red eyes and white sharp teeth with its body seems to be made of smoke.

The man smiled as he look at the creature.

...

Magnolia, Fairy Tail guild, after a long journey, Natsu finally arrived at the guild, he was now sitting at a chair in front of all members that surrounds him.

"-...Now, I'm officially the Fourth Master of Fairy Tail." Natsu declared as he pumped his fist in the air.

"OOOOHHHH!!"

"FINALLY!!"

"NOW WE CAN GO ON JOBS!"

Natsu grinned seeing the reactions of his friends, "I also have another good news," hearing this, the guild turned quiet as they listen, "I'll be taking the Saint trials two weeks from now."

"...."

"...."

"...."

Silence engulfed the guild as their eyes widened in shock, they look at Natsu who is looking at them smugly, ans they knew he wasn't kidding.

""WHAAATTT?!!""

"How the heck did this happen!?"

"You're kidding right!?"

"Good! Now we finally don't have to worry about the council always sniffing our ȧsses out!"

"That's...gross man, stop that."

Macao, however, feels that there's something fishy going on. However, he just can't put his finger on it.

"Wait, i feel like there's something fishy here, why would the council, who hated our guts and can't wait for us disband, offer Natsu, or rather, Master Natsu a seat as one of the saints?"

Hearing this, everyone nodded and agreed, there's something fishy going on, Natsu however just shrugged it ofd, "Well, who cares? LET'S PARTY!!"

"YEEAAHH!!"

"OOOHHHH!!"

Everyone went wild as they partied all night. Chairs, were flying, tables were being thrown over, all in all, this is probably the happiest time the Fairy Tail had after the disappearance of their friends.

They partied until they ended falling asleep in the guild, while Natsu slept on his office after some time as he couldn't get drunk.

Morning came and Natsu slowly opened his eyes, he yawned and stretched his body before rubbing his eyes.

Natsu stood up and opened the window behind him, the rays of sunlight immediately greeted him as he covered his eyes for a bit.

He smiled as he observed the town, people walking with smile, owners opening their shops and many others.

"What a beautiful it is. Do you also feel like this gramps? I admit, its refreshing."

Then, his ears pick up the noise down below and knew that his 'brats' have woken up.

He went out of his office and walk downstairs, he immediately saw his guild mates cleaning amd fixing up the bar.

"Morning Natsu!"

"That's master for you!"

"Right, my bad."

"Ohh~ morning master!"

Natsu nodded and greeted them back before he took a seat and sat down, Happy appeared flying before dropping down on his legs.

He just shook his head with a wry smile as he ċȧrėss the head of the exceed.

After the guild was fixed, Natsu finally decided to turn serious, "Alright guys, please gather here!" They did not complain and immediately gathered in front of him.

"I didn't tell you this yesterday as I don't want to ruin the mood so I'll just say this now. Seven months from now, or more specifically, next year on July, a tournament between guilds will be held, there, the title as the Fiore's strongest will be determined."

Natsu look at his guild mates downcast expressions and sighed, he truly doesn't know what to say now to encourage them,

'If only gramps were here,' however he soon shook his head to rid off those thoughts, 'get it together Natsu! You're the guild master! Its your job now!'

"Alright! I admit that without our S-class mages and our main members, the chance of winning the tournament is close to none," everyone lowered their head in shame, they knew what Natsu was right even though its quite harsh.

"But so what?! One cannot possibly always win, a competition isn't always about winning, but learning and improving! So what if we lose?! What matters the most is that we did our best! ISN'T THAT RIGHT!?"

""YEEAAAHHH!!""

"That's right, so what if we lose?! We can always try again!"

"Hahaha! That right! If we lose we can always do it again!"

Natsu smiled, at least, his friends isn't so down anymore.

'Can you see it gramps? Haha, i might not be as good as you, but damn, i sure did do a damn good job.'