That night, Rhodes carried Makarov back to his room. The old man was reeking of alcohol, still muttering things like, "I won't lose to you" and "Fairy Tail is the best."
Maybe it was because Mira usually kept a close eye on him back at the guild, but once away from ho, Makarov had no restraint and honestly, he wasn't great at controlling himself even when she was around.
Rhodes carefully helped the Master take off his shoes and coat, tucked him into bed, and placed a glass of water on the bedside table before quietly turning off the lights and leaving the room.
He wasn't ready to go to sleep just yet. Returning to his own room, Rhodes practiced his Reequip Magic for a while.
After returning from their last mission, he had been steadily training in it back at ho.
This magic was really fascinating. Once mastered, it opened a personal pocket space where you could store clothes, weapons—or basically anything you could hold in your hand, even sothing like a rock.
However, the size of the Requip space depended on the user's innate talent and hard work.
Take Erza, for example. She could store dozens of armors and hundreds of weapons. Bisca could carry hundreds of magic guns, plus a wardrobe full of outfits.
As for Rhodes, he currently had just enough space for a single wardrobe.
Not bad for a beginner, his talent wasn't incredible, but it was respectable.
If he really wanted to, he could probably switch paths and beco a Magic Swordsman. With his close-combat skills, he could easily beco a core mber in a normal guild.
But Rhodes had no such plans. A wardrobe's worth of space was enough for him. He just wanted to store so clothes and daily essentials, so he could travel light in the future without lugging around a giant suitcase.
"Re-equip!" Rhodes commanded.
A soft glow surrounded him, and with a poof, his dayti clothes vanished, only for a set of pajamas to fall right onto his head.
Yeah, the quick-change function clearly wasn't ready for public use yet.
Unfazed, Rhodes calmly picked up his pajamas, took a nice hot shower, and changed like nothing had happened.
After a bit of ditation, he drifted off into a peaceful sleep.
...
The next morning, the second day of the regular eting began early.
Rhodes had just returned from morning training when Makarov dragged him straight into the conference hall.
The eting was once again chaired by President Goldmine. The first topic on the agenda was about the Magic Council.
Not about fighting against them, rather, about how guilds should cooperate with them.
Although a lot of Fairy Tail wizards viewed the Council like so big, bad watchdog, for most people, the Council was simply an institution responsible for maintaining order in the magic world and punishing those who abused magic.
Over the years, the Council had relentlessly cracked down on dark guilds and criminal mages. Despite occasional flaws, they'd made huge contributions to the stability of the continent.
Sure, sotis they slipped up, Fiore being a remote kingdom didn't help but overall, cooperating with the Council was vital for keeping the magic world and the kingdom safe.
When the topic of working with the Council ca up, Makarov imdiately perked up.
He leaned back in his chair, arms crossed, waiting smugly for Goldmine to praise him by na.
Goldmine glanced over, but instead of ntioning Makarov, he said:
"Here we should recognize Fairy Tail's S-Class Wizard, Erza Scarlet. She's completed countless difficult assignnts for the Council. Although she sotis, causes a bit of collateral damage, overall, her contributions have been outstanding."
Makarov's face first fell, then quickly brightened again. It doesn't matter, he thought proudly. Erza's one of ours too. Praising her is praising Fairy Tail.
Even during official etings, the two old n couldn't help but spar with each other in their own way.
In the afternoon, the topic shifted from the Council to the growing threat of dark guilds.
"Speaking of dark guilds," Goldmine said seriously, "we have to ntion the Balam Alliance."
The mont the na was spoken, the entire hall fell silent.
For every guild, the Balam Alliance was a terrifying dark force.
The three major dark guilds that ford the Alliance, Tartaros, Grimoire Heart, and Oración Seis, controlled more than 90% of the dark guilds across the continent.
They were universally recognized as a power that no regular guild could fight against alone.
"Among the three," Goldman explained gravely, "Tartaros remains as mysterious as ever. No one knows where their base is hidden. Grimoire Heart occasionally shows signs of movent, but there's no clear pattern. Only Oración Seis has been getting more active lately."
Rhodes thought back to the "Naked Bandage n" guild he and Gray had taken down together. They seed to be affiliated with Oración Seis.
Goldmine continued seriously, "It's not just the main forces of Oración Seis. The dark guilds under their control have also been unusually active. I suspect they're planning sothing. Everyone, stay alert."
President Bob added, "Just recently, Ren from our Blue Pegasus encountered mbers of Iron Forest while out on a job. They seed to be searching for sothing, but unfortunately, they escaped."
Other guild leaders also chid in, sharing bits and pieces of intelligence. Nas like Corpse Soul and Red Hood were ntioned among the dark guilds that had been sighted.
Makarov fell into deep thought.
In the past, these dark guilds mostly worked in the shadows, taking on illegal jobs like kidnapping, extortion, and assassination.
When desperate for money, they might commit theft, but they usually tried to keep a low profile.
Now, however, their sudden boldness was concerning.
So of the smaller guild masters at the eting expressed their unease. Their guilds were relatively small, and so had no more than twenty mbers.
In terms of strength, many of these smaller guilds were made up of wizards who specialized in helping ordinary people with everyday troubles. Combat was never their focus.
To put it bluntly, Rhodes realized that many of these small guilds were at a level he could probably handle alone.
So were so far behind that even if they attempted Fairy Tail's S-Class Wizard Promotion Trial, they wouldn't stand a chance of qualifying.
In gaming terms, if Fairy Tail mbers were mostly combat specialists, these guilds were made up of life skill players.
Still, within the local guild alliance, there was no division between strong and weak. Unless there were personal grudges, the guilds genuinely looked out for each other.
Makarov, Bob, Goldmine, and other presidents of larger guilds imdiately reassured everyone that if the smaller guilds ever needed help, they could reach out without hesitation.
One of the guild masters stood up and marked all the areas where sightings of dark guilds had been reported on a map. Using magic, he quickly duplicated dozens of copies and handed them out to the other presidents.
Rhodes couldn't help but marvel at how strange magic was in this world, there were even human-shaped "printers."
After that, the discussion shifted to what actions ordinary wizards should take when encountering dark guilds. Everyone worked together to summarize guidelines that they could bring back and share with their own guild mbers.
The etings over the first two days went smoothly. However, on the third day, things got a little heated.
That day's the was conflict diation between guilds. All the conflicts that had piled up over the past year were brought out into the open for everyone to judge and resolve.
Although fighting between wizard guilds was strictly forbidden, minor skirmishes and personal disputes were inevitable. Since most of these weren't serious enough to involve the Magic Council, they were handled here instead.
It was often said that this part of the eting was Makarov's ho turf.
Rhodes thought he already understood how troubleso his guildmates could be, but he realized he had still underestimated them.
Out of the thirty guild masters present, at least half had sothing to say about Fairy Tail.
Most complaints were about damages caused by Fairy Tail wizards during their battles.
So accused Fairy Tail mbers of flirting with girls from their guilds and creating ssy relationships.
One even complained about waking up from a nap, only to see a naked man strolling casually past their window, way too much of a shock to handle.
As the Master of Fairy Tail and one of the Ten Wizard Saints of Ishgar, Makarov didn't get angry or try to use his authority to silence the complaints.
Instead, he apologized with genuine sincerity, and such practiced ease that Rhodes felt a little sorry for him.
What exactly had the Master gone through all these years to beco so skilled at apologizing?
It was thanks to Makarov setting such a good example early on that the rest of the guild masters followed suit. Whenever soone raised a complaint, the guild in question would explain, and once judgnt was made, they would offer a formal apology and compensation.
Because of this, the alliance maintained good unity and didn't fall apart over minor disputes.
After settling all the previous issues, the eting finally moved on to the last item on the agenda, the part Makarov hated the most.
Drawing lots to assign tasks.
Makarov was notoriously unlucky at these draws. He was the kind of person who always ended up pulling the worst assignnts.
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