69novels Chapter 15 Because We're Family
Chapter 15 Because We're Family
Under the expectant gaze of the Dark Magician Girl, Mira used a magical communication tool to contact the print editor of the Magic Weekly.
"Did I hear that right, Miss Mirajane? You mean, Dark Magician Girl wanted to shoot a photobook with you, and you agreed?" came an excited voice from the other end of the tool.
"Hmm, I don't know if it will work?" Mira nodded gently and asked softly.
"Cool!! Is there really such a good thing?"
After an exclamation of barely suppressed joy, the other end immediately replied, "There's definitely no problem!"
"A playful and adorable magical girl paired with a sexy and alluring white-haired beauty—just thinking about this combination gets my blood pumping!!"
"Can you come to the port city of Harugeon today? The filming location is on the island of Emon Ruins off the coast of Fiore. A special magic ship will take you there."
Mira didn't answer immediately, but smiled slightly: "In that case, shouldn't the commission fee be increased a little?"
"Of course, of course."
"What do you think of 50 J?"
"..."
In the headquarters office of the Magic Weekly in the capital city of Fiore, an editor with a pointed ahoge (antenna-like hair sticking up) fell silent: You call this a tiny bit?!
"Speaking of which, I think I've also received invitations from other weekly magazines for Dark Magician Girl."
Mira rested her chin on her hand and winked playfully at the Dark Magician Girl, signaling her to keep quiet.
Although she usually presents a gentle and skillful image in the guild, Mira can also be cunning and scheming at times.
If it weren't for that incident years ago, her personality might be even more "worst" than Nazgre's!
"Okay! I can apply to the company. Just please don't pay any attention to those low-class little workshop magazines!"
The person on the other end of the phone reluctantly made the promise.
After all, the combination of Mirajane and Dark Magician Girl is just too exciting, and it fits the theme of this shoot perfectly. It might even boost the overall popularity of their weekly magazine.
If that's the reason, it should be enough to convince the company to increase compensation, right?
And just like that, Mira easily won the job with a little trick.
"Mira is amazing! Not only did she get the weekly magazine to change the content of the commission, but she also increased the commission fee to 70 yen!"
The dark magician girl gazed at Mira with adoration, her beautiful eyes sparkling.
Having immersed herself in the cultivation of demonic arts, she completely lacked the negotiation skills that Mira possessed, which allowed her to manipulate situations with ease.
"Hehe, these are all very simple things."
Mira beamed with pride as she reached out and affectionately patted the dark magic girl's head. "With more reward, you can buy more beautiful clothes!"
"Following around that hothead Chase must be incredibly tough, I guess I need to treat myself properly."
The reason she was bargaining with the Magic Weekly was not for her own benefit, but to give it all to Dark Magician Girl.
"Hey, hey, that sounds like an accusation against the evil capitalists, I can't just ignore it..."
Chase, who was innocently caught in the crossfire, stood up and strongly expressed that he felt offended.
"Oops, have we been found out?"
Mira tilted her head slightly, a charming smile playing on her lips.
This woman is indeed cunning!
……
When Loki returned after his hasty escape, Mira gave him a brief explanation of the handover process.
After confirming with the Magic Weekly, they quickly packed up and left the guild with the Dark Magician Girl, heading to Magnolia Station to board the steam train to Hargeon.
"Chase, Elfman, I'm leaving the dating to you two. Just make sure you get along well with Loki."
Before leaving, Miran's smiling words almost broke the two of them on the spot.
I don't want this kind of peace of mind at all, Mila...
Elfman turned to Laxus and silently squatted in a corner of the guild, wiping away tears as if he had suffered a great injustice.
The other "victim" was, of course, Loki, who was engrossed in his work, not Chase.
With his thick skin, he didn't take the date with Loki to heart at all. He had already been invited by Cana to sit down at the table.
Kana lifted the barrel and took a big gulp, then boldly wiped the remaining liquor from the corner of her mouth.
"Maintaining the activation of card magic for such a long time and at an incredible distance, Chase, how did you manage that?"
Thinking of the dark magic girl who went out with Mira, her face was full of confusion.
As a mage who also uses card magic, most of her cards are elemental attacks such as fire and lightning.
Although there are ways to summon creatures to fight for you, the duration of these summons is quite limited, let alone the distance across several towns!
If I can get useful card magic training methods from Chess, I'll have a chance in this year's S-class mage exam!
This was her obsession that had bound her for many years, and it was also her only goal in joining Fairy Tail.
"Kana, I said this a long time ago."
Chase picked up his beer glass and downed it in one gulp. Looking at Kana, whose eyes were filled with the desire to become stronger, he said in a deep voice, "Our magic is fundamentally different. My training method is useless to you."
"Please, I'll do anything to become stronger!"
Kana slammed the empty barrel down on the table, her emotions running high.
"Hey, don't say things that sound ambiguous. It'll be troublesome if gossipy Lucy hears you."
Seeing that Kana wasn't listening to him, Chess shrugged helplessly and sighed softly, "It's been over a year, and you still can't forget about S-rank..."
In the most recent Fairy Tail S-Class Mage qualification exam, Cana was defeated by him, missing out on becoming an S-Class mage.
"I'm different from you and Erza. Without becoming an S-rank, I can't stay in the guild."
Kana's eyes gradually dimmed, and her weak voice choked with sobs at the end.
With less than six months until this year's S-class mage assessment, she had already secretly made up her mind.
If I fail again this year, I will leave Fairy Tail and give up the fantasy of recognizing my father Gildarts.
"Don't worry, even though Macao is a veteran guild member, he's incredibly weak, but he's doing just fine now."
Chess pointed to Macao, who was sitting not far away chatting with the old smoker Wakaba.
Marcao seemed to sense something, turned his head and looked over with a gloomy expression: That bastard Chess is talking bad about me again?!
"Chase, someone like you could never understand how I feel."
Kana shook her head dejectedly, then grabbed a new barrel of wine and started showing off.
"That's not necessarily true. If I'm not mistaken, it's related to family members, right?"
Chess held up a finger, chuckling and lowering his voice, "Like some man in the guild, who might be your long-lost father or something."
"How did you know?!"
Kana's expression changed drastically. She stepped onto the table and shoved her forehead directly into Chase's face.
She was absolutely certain that no one in the guild knew that she and Gildarts were father and daughter.
Even when he was completely drunk, he kept this secret.
Where did Chase get his intelligence from?
The strong smell of alcohol hit him, making Chase's nose feel uncomfortable.
He pressed down on Kana's shoulder and pushed her away slightly. A flash of light appeared at his fingertips, and a card was generated.
"Don't forget, I'm also a card mage skilled in divination."
This is obviously made up.
Kana had no doubts about this, and instead sat back down in her original seat with a dejected expression.
Even a weak mage like her could deduce some information using cards, let alone someone as strong as Chess.
"Can you keep this a secret for me?" she pleaded.
"Of course, I'm not the kind of person who likes to meddle in other people's business."
That being said, Chase flipped the card between his fingers to face up and pushed it across the table toward Cana.
"This is?"
Kana looked at the card with the image of a magic book, puzzled.
"The Book of Magical Cards: Cards I obtained by chance on the continent of Giltina. They have the effect of slightly increasing a mage's maximum magic power."
Chase explained, "Although this effect only takes effect when activated, experiencing your stronger self in advance will be somewhat helpful to you right now."
As a built-in cheat code, theoretically, no one else can use Chess's deck.
Kokana's situation is slightly different.
She is a mage specializing in cards, and can trap people in a card space completely independent of reality, so activating a magic card is not a difficult task for her.
Of course, this is on the premise that Chess's permission is obtained.
Upon hearing about the effects, Kana's eyes widened, her gaze fixed on the Book of Secrets in utter astonishment.
"Raise the magic limit?! How can I want such a precious card!" She shook her head repeatedly.
"Dream on! I'm just borrowing it from you for a few days."
"terribly sorry……"
In the end, Cana took the Book of Arcane Arts from Chess—she was a straightforward person and not one to mince words.
"Chase, why are you helping me?"
Kana carefully cradled the card in her broad chest, her head bowed, staring blankly at the barrel of wine placed in front of her.
"Isn't this just common sense, after all..."
Chase unceremoniously lifted the barrel, tilted his head back, and downed the remaining liquor in one gulp, laughing, "We're family!"
Upon hearing this, Kana was taken aback at first, then a bright smile appeared on her slightly tipsy face.
"I just can't do anything with you. I'll treat you to drinks another day, and we won't leave until we're drunk!"
"Hahaha! The kind that's on the heads of the Accounting Council?"
"Who knows?"
Kana pursed her lips and tried to evade the question.
"Nachase."
After a few seconds of hesitation, she looked up at Chess and said earnestly, "Thank you."
"You should say things like that after you've successfully reached S-rank."
As if remembering something, Chess suddenly stared at Kana with ill intent, his face full of malice, and said, "Oh right, you just said you'd do anything to become stronger, right?"
"What... what do you want to do?" Kana crossed her arms, feeling a little intimidated by his gaze.
For some reason, my heart started beating a little faster.
"Then we'll fight."
Kana, who had already mentally prepared herself, widened her eyes: "Huh?"
"Get stronger and fight me! I'm really looking forward to a duel between card mages!" Chess repeated earnestly.
The stronger Cana is, the greater the chance of getting a card drop from Duelist's Soul.
This was the first batch of "leeks" he "targeted" after returning to the guild.
Kana, clearly having misunderstood, blushed and said, "...Go to hell!"
Damn fighting idiots and destruction maniacs, give me back my mom's touching moments!
Fortunately, a sudden commotion came from the guild's commission board, easing the awkward situation.
The noise was emitted by the Lane Engine Squad, a team consisting of Princess Levy, Jet the Fast, and the Green (Plant Magic) Troy.
It seems that Jet and Troy disagreed on the matter of the commission and were arguing fiercely.
Chess pricked up his ears and eavesdropped for a while, finally understanding the whole story.
It seems that Jett and Troy were fighting over the right to protect Levy's luggage there!
Only these two would do something so bizarre. If it were Natsu and Gray, it would be a miracle if they didn't burn Lucy's luggage to pieces and freeze it to pieces!
"Shut up! Jett, Troy, can't you see I'm looking for a commission?!"
Natsu, who was lying in front of the order board, turned around and shouted at the two of them.
I don't know where he got the nerve to say something like that...
Jet and Troy, who were arguing heatedly, naturally wouldn't listen obediently, so the three of them rolled up their sleeves and got to work.
In the end, Natsu prevailed, stepping on the two of them and laughing wildly, looking extremely arrogant.
In the chaos, a commission form, which had been blown into the air by the shockwave, slowly drifted down and landed right on Natsu's head.
Natsu grabbed the order form, glanced at its contents, and his eyes lit up immediately.
"Natsu, what request did you receive?"
Harpy leaned closer curiously. "What?! 20 J for destroying a novel?!"
"That's not the point, Happy. Look, Duke Abar, the owner of this novel, is currently recruiting blonde maids!"
Natsu pointed to the detailed information recorded in the commission.
Happy instantly understood what his best friend meant and asked in confusion, "Blonde Maid? But Dark Magician Girl has already gone to Harugeon with Mira."
"You forgot? Besides Dark Magician Girl, there's another blonde in the guild."
"You mean...?"
"That's right, that's right!"
Natsu and Happy exchanged a glance, then Natsu let out a wicked grin: "Hehehe~"
"Let's go, Happy!"
"Love~!"
Kana watched the two disappear in the blink of an eye and couldn't help but sigh, "Looks like someone's about to get tricked."
"The first two words can be completely removed," Chase said with a smile as he stood up.
Unexpectedly, Nazhabi and Lucy's first official team-up request was accepted under such circumstances.
In the normal course of the story, Lucy will unlock the novel left to her son by a famous author in this commission, and obtain the Virgo Celestial Spirit, one of the twelve Zodiac constellations, who possesses considerable combat power.
Chess wasn't interested in something he already knew, and turned to walk towards the stairs to the second floor.
"Feed Chess, where are you going?" Cana asked from behind.
"I'm bored, so I'll find an S-class commission to play with." Chase waved his hand.
Let's find an S-level commission to play around with...
Kana's lips twitched, and she clenched her fists tightly: What an infuriating statement!
The emotion I felt just now because of Chase's words "we are family" has completely vanished.
Only after Chess's figure disappeared around the corner of the stairs did Cana suppress her anger, solemnly put away the Book of Magic Cards, and get up to leave the guild.
She wanted to become stronger so she could stomp on Chase's smug face!
Perhaps even she herself didn't realize that her goal of becoming an S-class mage...
It went astray without us even realizing it.