Fairy Tail: I Absolutely Refuse to Be the Guild Master

"Warm?"

"Yes, Warm, because it feels so warm when you hold it," Mira explained.

"Rhodes mentioned that Poro lives in a very cold place, right? I hope that when it's by your side, you'll always feel warmth."

Rhodes thought about it. "That sounds pretty nice. What do you think?"

Poro's little horns perked up, clearly liking the idea.

"As long as you like it," Mira smiled. "That's how we came up with the name 'Happy.'"

Mira had previously introduced Rhodes to Happy, the blue talking cat who was always by Natsu's side.

She mentioned that Happy could fly and even carry people, though Rhodes hadn't seen him in flight yet.

"Then it's settled. From now on, you'll officially be called Warm."

"That's not quite how you use the phrase 'officially,'" the guild master thought about calling Hibiki back to provide after-sales service.

"Pururuu~" Warm jumped into Rhodes's arms, rubbing its head against his chest.

Rhodes hugged Warm, feeling a bit uncomfortable with the small horns poking into him.

"Mira, two beers over here!" Laki waved toward the counter.

"Coming~" Mira grabbed two wooden beer mugs, filled them, and placed them on a tray. "Rhodes, it's almost noon, time to get busy."

"Got it, I'll start now." Rhodes put down Warm and picked up the tray.

Warm looked around, then followed closely at Rhodes's heels as he went to deliver the drinks.

The customer was a middle-aged man with a pipe in his mouth, a slicked-back brown hairstyle, wearing a floral shirt, cropped pants, and flip-flops.

"Your drinks, sir."

"Eh~~ why wasn't it delivered by Mira-chan..." Wakaba casually complained but still raised his beer mug. "By the way, aren't you that guy who's been sitting at the counter the past few days..."

Rhodes felt a bit snubbed, but it was understandable. He would also prefer to be served by a beautiful woman.

"I'm Rhodes, a new member of Fairy Tail. I'm currently working as a waiter in the tavern. Pleased to meet you."

"Oh~~ a newcomer! I'm Wakaba." Wakaba got interested. A cloud of smoke from his pipe formed a hand-like shape, which picked up the other beer mug and offered it to Rhodes.

"As you can see, I use smoke magic. This beer's on me—welcome to Fairy Tail!"

"I..."

Bang! Before Rhodes could say anything, the man sitting across from Wakaba slammed the table and stood up.

"Dammit, Wakaba! Stop giving away my beer!"

This man had short purple hair, a sparse mustache, and was wearing a white trench coat. As he spoke, purple flames appeared in his hand.

The flames scattered Wakaba's smoke hand and instead grabbed the beer mug.

"If anyone's treating, it's going to be me!" He straightened his collar with a serious gesture. "Hello, I am—"

"Dammit, Macao!" Wakaba stood up and slammed his beer mug onto the table, one foot on his chair, leaning forward. "You want to fight, huh? Well?"

"Who's afraid of you!" Macao did the same, foot on his chair, leaning forward.

The two men pressed their foreheads against each other over the table, locking horns, neither willing to back down.

Thick smoke gathered above Wakaba's pipe, while purple flames swirled back into Macao's hand.

The beer mug, previously held by the flames, started to fall, and Rhodes hurriedly caught it, spilling a few drops.

"Um..."

He thought about intervening, but the two had already ignored him, rolling up their sleeves and exchanging insults, ready to fight at any moment.

Rhodes looked around for help, only to find that the people nearby were all watching with amusement.

Some were even cheering, shouting things like "Fight! Fight!" and "Teach him a lesson!"

Laki was holding a tray of empty beer mugs but had joined the crowd to watch.

She didn't forget to offer some advice though, "Rhodes, if I were you, I'd take this chance to get out of the way."

"Why..."

Whoosh! A beer mug flew right past Rhodes's ear.

Macao and Wakaba had already jumped onto the table, locking hands and starting to wrestle.

Rhodes touched his temple, decided against trying to break it up, scooped up Warm with one hand, grabbed the innocent beer with the other, tucked the tray under his arm, and dashed back to the safety of the counter.

The sight of the small figure of the guild master gave him a sense of security.

"Guild master, shouldn't you stop them?" Rhodes asked.

"Let them be." Makarov sipped from the beer Rhodes had just brought back.

Now that no one was meditating, there was no need to worry about disturbances—letting them cause a little ruckus was fine.

In fact, when someone started taking bets on whether Macao or Wakaba would fall off the table first, the old man even bet 1,000J.

"I thought the chaos from those days was just because you weren't here," Rhodes said in despair as he watched the guild master begin cheering, "Is there no one normal in this guild?"

"Don't say that." Mira continued polishing a beer mug with a smile. "It's fun this way, isn't it?"

The sounds of crashing and clattering came from where Macao and Wakaba were. The long table had soon been smashed, and chairs were overturned.

The two wrestled for quite a while before reluctantly separating, and the crowd quickly dispersed, having grown bored.

In Fairy Tail, this kind of brawl was considered small-scale; the two men had enough control to not involve others.

"Are they okay?" Rhodes looked at the two sitting apart, still fuming, feeling like he might have contributed to their fight.

"Don't worry, they're always like this. They'll be drinking together again soon."

Mira wasn't concerned at all. She turned to Makarov and said, "Guild master, that beer still counts on your tab."

"Huh? But Macao ordered it!"

"And you secretly drank it."

"Fine..." Makarov, having failed to dodge the bill, looked deflated.

The image of the kind, reliable guild master that Rhodes had in his heart was starting to crumble.

This old man doesn't seem very upright either. The guild's chaos must be because the leadership isn't proper, right?

Just as Rhodes was about to ask what they would do about the broken table, Laki walked over, making a strange hand gesture:

"Wooden Make: True Friendship Table!"

The shattered pieces of the table and broken legs began to move as if they had come to life, bending, extending, and merging back together, restoring themselves perfectly into a long table.

A bucktoothed guy nearby complained, "Why do you always use such weird names?"

Laki pushed her long purple hair behind her and adjusted her glasses. "Oh my, are you jealous of my magic and talent?"

"Who's jealous of that!"

Laki, immersed in her own world, held her face with her hands. "I'm such a sinful woman."

Rhodes: "..."

He had already sensed it before, but now he was almost certain—Laki was very narcissistic.

But her magic was quite handy, almost on par with Yamato from the neighboring film set with his Wood Release.

No wonder everyone destroyed things so recklessly.