For some reason, Mavis, who initially didn't join, joined too and was in pain like everyone else.
"She seems to feel some kind of rivalry towards Sorano," Shun shook his head, he was still not an expert in the field of emotions.
"Can't you create some miracle and lessen their pain?" Happy, who was munching on raw fish, asked.
"I mean, there isn't any value in strength that hasn't been gained through one's own effort," Shun spoke from experience.
From the initial team, only Happy, Carla, and Shun remained not in pain.
Carla was at Wendy's side, she was crying seeing Wendy in pain.
Meanwhile, the blue cat was munching on fish while Natsu was suffering.
"Aren't you going to pretend to be worried at least?" Shun asked, surprisingly, among the Fairy Tail guild, the blue cat, Happy, was one of the few that talked to Shun without any complicated emotions, like fear or respect.
"Natsu is used to getting beaten up daily, this pain will only make him stronger."
"…"
"Also, he burned my fish yesterday, even though I told him I like them raw."
"Seems like you two have a lot going on behind the scenes," Shun smiled.
Step, step.
While the two were talking, a figure that seemed to have recovered the fastest walked toward them.
"Are you fine now?" Shun asked, he had thought Erza had already awakened her second origin so she wouldn't be in pain at all.
'But it seems like she awakens it after the S-Class exam arc, probably during the fight against Azuma.'
"Yes, somehow," Erza replied weakly.
Seeing her like this, Shun felt guilty, so he offered her an ice cream.
"This is?"
"An ice cream, strawberry-flavored soft serve," Shun explained with surprising detail.
'I had stored some for Mavis or the seven dwarves, but whatever.'
"Thanks," Erza accepted the ice cream and her mood immediately improved.
"Hey, Erza, let's talk," Shun said, and walked in the opposite direction from the suffering Fairy Tail members.
Since she had already accepted the ice cream, Erza followed without argument.
For some reason, Happy started following them.
"Are you two about to have an affair?" Happy bit his tongue and spoke a bit weirdly.
"…"
"Happy, go comfort Carla, now is the time to score some points."
"!"
Happy, who was munching on fish with a dumb face, suddenly realized and dashed away.
Since it was already evening, the wind was chilly. Shun led Erza to sit somewhere and he made a campfire for warmth. He was immune to cold and heat due to learning Fire God Slayer magic, but Erza wasn't.
"What did you want to talk about?" Erza asked, her ice cream was already gone, so she was feeling a bit down.
Seeing this, Shun sighed and offered her a chocolate-flavored one this time.
"We have known each other for a long time but we don't talk to each other often, I thought now was a good opportunity."
Erza nodded as she gobbled up the ice cream.
"Then let me ask something," she spoke.
"Go on."
"You completed the mission easily, why didn't you do it earlier? The Chairman and Master Makarov were stressing about it for weeks," Erza asked what she was really curious about.
"I have two valid reasons for that," Shun spoke with a serious face.
"Two?"
"Yes, the first one is I'm not their subordinate."
"…"
"The second one is, if I were to just go and complete the mission after they told me to do it, what do you think will happen next? In a month or two, I'll be tasked with a new mission, and soon I'll have to deal with every dark guild."
"I see," Erza nodded with a serious face too.
"Well, enough about that. The guy with a tattoo earlier, Siegrain, what's your history with him?"
"…" Erza suddenly turned quiet.
After a moment, she replied, "He is an old acquaintance."
"Natsu and the others seemed to recognize him too, did you guys meet him during the trip when you went to Akane Resort?"
With Shun purposefully leading the conversation, eventually, Erza had to explain everything about what happened on the Akane Resort trip.
"But today his expression was different, as if he had finally returned to his senses."
"You think so?"
"I don't know, it could be one of his tricks again."
Erza's eyebrows furrowed, her joyful expression from earlier was long gone.
'I was planning to get close to her through negotiations, but I guess I'm not that much of a scum.'
"I'll try to check his behavior through my connections and find out the truth. If it's as you think, that he's been controlled by someone, I'll try to make him get pardoned from the prison."
"Why would you go that far for me?" Erza was surprised by this turn of events.
"Why?" Shun muttered as he fell into thought, then, "Because you're special."
"I'm special?" Erza pointed towards herself and asked.
"Ah, don't misunderstand. I'm not trying to say some cheesy stuff, I'm just stating facts."
"…"
Erza waited quietly for Shun to continue.
"I was there too, on that day when you escaped the Tower of Heaven."
"Yeah, I heard that from Sorano and others," Erza had a stoic face.
"Do you remember the guy that got destroyed in the Alvarez Empire earlier? The ugly replica with white hair," Shun described roughly.
"Yes," Erza nodded.
"That guy stood in my way on that day, I was young and not as powerful as I am today, so I couldn't beat him easily."
Erza listened quietly, she found it interesting that a different perspective of that hellish place was shared with Shun.
"What I'm trying to say is, if I arrived there even just a few minutes or seconds earlier that day, I would've met you instead of Sorano and others, and we would've been much closer than now."
"!"
Erza had a look of understanding, and for some reason, had a small blush on her face.
"Sometimes small things can change people's fate by a lot," Shun spoke with wisdom.
"…"
Erza was still quiet, the conversation with Shun made her think a lot from a different perspective.
Unexpectedly, from what she had seen of Shun in the guild, without Makarov around, Shun was actually a good guild master.
Her impression of him had greatly improved during this journey.
Meanwhile, Shun put out the campfire and got up.
"Let's go back. I'll cook something, they're probably starting to hold a grudge against me," Shun said with a smile that didn't fit his worries.
An hour later, a few minutes of walking distance from Shun and Erza, the training to awaken their second origin was still ongoing.
Soon, one by one they started to recover, starting from Natsu and ending with Wendy.
They were out of breath from the pain and screaming too much.
Step, step.
As if he were waiting for this moment, Shun appeared.
"You guys done? Good work, now wash your hands and come eat," Shun said casually, as if it were exactly what he was expecting.
"…"
They knew Shun did it for their benefit, but the pain made them hold some grudge.
Among the group, two figures held an especially high amount of grudge, they were Mavis and Sorano.
Seeing their stares behind his back, Shun sighed.
'Those two would complain if I treated them differently than the others during the awakening process, but they would also complain if I didn't treat them differently.' Shun decided to feign ignorance to their stares.
When the group, which was completely silent, followed Shun after washing their hands in a nearby river, what they saw was a luxurious buffet with all kinds of foods and desserts.
"…"
"Go ahead and eat whatever you like," Shun pointed them towards the buffet where a big square table had all kinds of food placed in order.
The group was still silent.
'Was the pain too much for them?'
Natsu was the first one to dash towards a huge roasted meat, which was from a sea-king.
Eventually, the others followed.
"Yum," Lucy said in a low voice, then, drip, drip. A tear fell from her eyes.
"…"
"Lucy-san, don't cry," Wendy said, but she was crying too.
When Shun looked around, Gray and Natsu hid their faces as they munched on meat.
"Uh? Was the pain too much?" Shun, who had initially planned to tease them, now became speechless.
'Making them cry was usually Mira's job, Mira often made the younger Gray and Natsu cry. There was a time when Mira made Natsu cry because he wasn't good at reading books, but lately it stopped happening since they matured.'
"No, it's not about the pain," Lucy said. What they felt was that being treated kindly after that hell made them feel like their strict parent was suddenly treating them gently after abusing them. The sudden contrast made their emotions burst.
A few moments later, the group ate up and calmed down. Now they had red eyes and cheeks. After calming down, it was very embarrassing for them. Luckily, Shun and the others didn't mention it.
"So, do you feel the increase in power?" Shun asked, he didn't want to talk about the scene earlier more than they did.
"Yeah! Now the next S-Class mage spot is secured!" Natsu said and then laughed loudly.
"Um, Guild Master-san," Wendy called for Shun.
"Mm?"
"About the tingly feeling in the back to enter Dragon Force, no matter how many times I try I can't enter it."
"You can just call me Shun."
"Yes."
"About the Dragon Force activation, the condition is that you must have activated it once and be somewhat familiar with it. After that, focusing your magic power on your back should work," Shun spoke as if he were an expert, but he was completely clueless.
'She will enter Dragon Force in the future anyway, having false hope is better.' Shun justified himself.
"Yes! Thank you very much!" Wendy's face brightened with a smile.
The detailed explanation earned Wendy and Carla's respect.
They might have been doubtful if they hadn't witnessed Natsu activating Dragon Force earlier with Shun's advice.
"But how did you discover this second origin thing?" Lucy suddenly asked.
"Hm? That's just one of the uses of the Arc of Time. This magic is originally used for things like obtaining power one might obtain in the future, the way I use it is the unethical way."
"That makes sense," Lucy muttered.
"There's a saying that if you can't buy something, you're not offering enough money," Shun spoke with wisdom.
"Huh?"
"Magic is the same, with enough magic power you can do most things, if not anything."
Hearing Shun speak seriously, Lucy stared for a bit then spoke.
"Shun, I thought you were just a monster with enormous magic power, but you actually have knowledge about magic, huh?"
"…"
"What is that supposed to mean?" Shun asked while pinching Lucy's cheek.
"Ah, that hurts!"
Lucy said, but she was smiling mischievously.
While the others didn't agree out loud, they agreed with what Lucy said. In just a short amount of time, Shun had increased their strength greatly.
Erza and Mavis were still around the table with desserts.
After another half an hour, the group decided to return to Magnolia.
Shun sent them back individually this time with his power.
POP!
With each sound, one of them disappeared, until only Lucy and Shun remained.
Just when he was about to teleport her, "Wait!" Lucy shouted.
"Huh? Is there something you need?" Shun asked, as he was clueless.
"Are you seriously asking that?" Lucy seemed angry.
Lucy sighed loudly then said, "The reward!"
"Reward? Ah, don't mind it. Considering our relationship, you don't need to pay me," Shun said with the tiniest smile, as he was trying not to smile.
"No, it's the mission to take Wendy back to her guild. You still didn't give me the key!"
When Lucy explained the detail of her distress. Shun had an expression as if he was having a constipation.
"About that, I didn't forget, but when I thought about it, it's a key that only twelve of exist in this world. It's a bit too precious to hand over for a mission that easy."
"Ha?!" Lucy was genuinely getting upset.
"Sometimes there are clients that try to haggle down the mission payment after the mission is done, the worst type of clients!" Lucy said and paused a bit dramatically.
"But! This time it's our own guild master?!" Lucy's frustration was clear as she was clutching Shun's collar.
"Lucy, I understand your point." Hearing that, Lucy's expression got better instantly until she heard his next words.
"Let's negotiate our payment calmly."
Lucy seethed with anger, but she at least could hear his opinion.
"Hear me out, I can give you the key right now if you can grant me a simple favor that won't take much time," Shun said as he pulled out the Celestial Spirit Virgo's golden key.
"Really?!" Lucy tried to snatch the key, but she was no match for Shun's speed.
"Yes, Can you…" Shun said, then closed their distance and whispered into her ear.
"Wha-!" Lucy couldn't even finish her words before her face turned the color of a tomato.
"Stop joking and just give me that key!" Lucy said with a high-pitched voice.
"If you don't want it, then that's fine. I'll give it to you later if you gain a huge credit in the future."
"…"
'I need that damn key so I can have any hope in gaining credits!' Lucy thought.
After what felt like forever, Lucy finally spoke in a mosquito voice, "I'll do it."
Shun's smile widened hearing it.
On Tenrou Island, in the middle of the forest, a bizarre single chair stood alone. On it sat a figure with white hair. It was Shun.
While Shun sat comfortably, in front of him kneeled a woman with blonde hair.
The blonde woman had a beautiful face and figure as she was a daughter of one of the most wealthy families, but the current action and the noises she made didn't fit her upbringing.
"Slurp!"
Lucy bobbed her head up and down awkwardly.
After what felt like forever, Lucy had completed the small favor Shun requested, and she managed to get the reward she was supposed to get a long time ago.
"…"
Today's battle: Lucy's victory.