Jose Porla was, of course, not crazy. He also had no time to go crazy, he was busy recuperating from his injuries, firmly in a "do not @ me" state. But his subordinates had gone crazy.
For the entire past week, Gajeel had stayed in Magnolia. He did not go after Moen, instead choosing a different approach.
Moen had defeated their guild master, Jose Porla, causing Phantom Lord to become a laughingstock throughout the entire Kingdom of Fiore, and there was even a trend of them becoming a joke across the whole continent of Ishgar.
So all he needed to do was respond in kind defeat the guild master of Fairy Tail, wasn't that enough? There was no need to defeat Moen at all!
It had to be said, Gajeel's idea was extremely brilliant, with absolutely nothing wrong in theory.
The problem was that executing it was just a tiny bit difficult.
Gajeel went to the Fairy Tail guild hall, but before he even saw the guild master, he was surrounded by a group of kids.
This Phantom Lord guy who loudly challenged Moen and challenged Guild Master Makarov naturally aroused everyone's hostility.
Natsu charged in first and immediately started fighting Gajeel. For some reason, the moment Natsu saw Gajeel, he really wanted to punch him.
Wendy watched from the side and felt like stepping in to stop the fight, of course, she wouldn't actually do it at this time. Gajeel had shown up shouting about beating Moen-nii until his teeth were scattered all over the ground, which made Wendy very unhappy. This guy was way too rude!
But for some reason, Wendy felt a strong sense of déjà vu in this scene, as if she had seen Natsu and Gajeel fight before, even though this was clearly their first meeting.
On Gajeel's first day arriving at Fairy Tail, he fought Natsu for an entire day, and the final result was a draw.
This dealt Gajeel a huge blow. He had come to challenge Moen and even the Fairy Tail guild master! Yet he ended up evenly matched with some unknown pink-haired bastard!
What was this equivalent to?
Clearly coming to fight the Boss, but before even seeing the Boss, he got tangled up with a small minion and then fought that minion to a standstill!
That night, staying at an inn, Gajeel thought about it the entire night and still couldn't figure out why things had developed so completely differently from what he had imagined?!
Wasn't it supposed to be like Moen, one punch to fame?!
Still, Gajeel did not give up because of this. The next day, he once again went to the entrance of the Fairy Tail guild hall to provoke them.
Natsu went out to fight again, clashing with Gajeel once more. The two "supremes" fought so fiercely that it felt like the very streets were about to be destroyed.
The result was naturally still a draw.
This made everyone who had deliberately come to watch the excitement on the second day completely lose interest. What kind of trash-tier mutual pecking was this?
As for Gajeel's strength, in Gray's words, it was simply "not even enough to beat the weakest among us."
Gray, who had previously defeated Natsu in a one-on-one fight, naturally had the right to say such a thing. At this stage, he truly was stronger than Natsu.
After all, Gray had been tempered by Moen since childhood, and he had also been beaten by Erza a full year earlier than Natsu—naturally, he would be stronger.
However, once Gray said this, it was inevitable that he would also be dragged into the flames of battle. Natsu definitely couldn't tolerate that.
In the end, the fight turned into a chaotic three-way brawl between Natsu, Gray, and Gajeel, becoming an absolute mess.
And Gajeel's outrageous actions also added new material to The Phantom Lord Joke Collection.
The guild master was humiliated, and the one who came for revenge was only a single kid—fine, that alone might pass. People had originally thought this child might be a once-in-a-generation genius like Moen, but instead he ended up fighting unknown Fairy Tail small fries to a standstill.
This twist was truly outrageous and completely stunned everyone, naturally turning the incident into fresh joke material to be spread around.
Along with that, the names of Natsu and Gray also spread. Neither of them had ever imagined they would become famous in this way.
Once this incident escalated, the "Three Elements" who had come with Gajeel could no longer hold it together. They had not expected things to develop like this either.
But at this point, they had no other choice but to step forward. If they didn't, they would be cursed out mercilessly. As famous figures within Phantom Lord, these "Three Elements" were naturally scolded the harshest.
Even a little kid dared to come to Fairy Tail for revenge, were all the other Phantom Lord mages eunuchs?
Faced with such questioning, the "Three Elements" naturally could no longer endure it. They directly revealed themselves, stating that they wanted to see for themselves the strength of the person who had defeated their guild master. No other meaning—just a friendly exchange.
Three adults going to trouble a child didn't sound very nice when said aloud, but if that child was Moen, then the matter became perfectly reasonable.
After all, Moen had defeated their guild master, Jose Porla, one of the Ten Wizard Saints.
The "Three Elements" said they wanted to exchange pointers with Moen, there was absolutely nothing wrong with that. They lowered their stance first and acknowledged Moen's achievements. This move was called advancing by retreating!
Admitting it now didn't matter. As long as they defeated Moen in the end, everything before would naturally be invalidated.
It had to be said, this plan was really well thought out.
They could attack if possible, retreat if necessary. The only problem was—
"If we lose…"
Totomaru felt his scalp go numb. If they ultimately lost…
Then even if their guild master really had been careless and fallen for Moen's tricks, it would still be a case of "mud falling into the crotch—even if it's not shit, it looks like shit," because even they themselves had acknowledged the result.
Unless Jose Porla could fight Moen again and wash away his humiliation.
But there was no choice. The situation no longer allowed them to think too much. And stepping back, if even they were defeated, at least they themselves wouldn't be disgraced—after all, even their guild master had been beaten. If the sky fell, the guild master would be standing in front holding it up.
"So… now a bunch of people have rushed over to watch the excitement, right?"
Listening to the enthusiastic citizens' explanations, Moen finally pieced together everything that had happened over the past week. His expression was truly something to behold.
No wonder he felt the station was unusually crowded today, it turned out they were all here to watch the show. The Phantom Lord "Three Elements" had already declared that they would wait for him to return to exchange pointers, and now the three of them had set up an arena at Fairy Tail.
"Is Moen-nii in danger?"
Juvia listened in a daze. She didn't understand the full sequence of events—she only understood that three people had come to cause trouble for Moen.
This made Juvia extremely worried. Those three guys sounded very powerful, calling themselves the "Three Elements."
"Don't worry. It's a small matter."
Moen smiled and rubbed Juvia's head.
He truly didn't care much. The "Three Elements" sounded impressive, but when it came to elemental magic, they were actually easier to deal with.
What was the most troublesome thing?
It was the kind of magic you couldn't understand—unknown magic was the most dangerous. Jose Porla certainly understood this deeply now; he had fallen for exactly that before.
"Moen! Good luck! You must beat them until they're utterly defeated!"
The citizens gathered around Moen and Juvia, cheering him on one after another, all wearing expressions of shared outrage.
This was Magnolia, the home field of Fairy Tail. Phantom Lord people coming here to cause trouble naturally stirred up public anger. Everyone hoped Moen would teach those people a lesson and make them lose face badly.
"Don't worry! I definitely won't embarrass our hometown folks!"
Faced with everyone's enthusiasm, Moen responded positively, making everyone very happy as they escorted him all the way toward the city center, toward the Fairy Tail guild hall.
Moen felt a bit helpless. He had originally thought that when he returned this time, he would be praised for his "literary fame," but instead he still had to fight. Still, that wasn't bad either, he could grind some experience hard.
As for Juvia, who was surrounded by the crowd together with Moen, her feelings at this moment were extremely strange. She could sense that peculiar emotion everyone held toward Moen-nii but what was it? Care? Trust? Support? Treating him as the pride of the city?
Juvia didn't understand. She had never experienced such emotions before, but… she liked them very much, and she was deeply moved by them.
The little girl raised her head and looked at Moen beside her, light flickering in her eyes.
'So only by becoming an excellent mage like Moen-nii can people treat you like this?'
Juvia thought of the village chief's words. Now she realized how difficult those words truly were. The more she spent time with Moen-nii, the more she came into contact with the outside world, the more she could feel how outstanding Moen-nii was. It seemed that wherever he went, he could earn people's affection.
This made Juvia feel inferior, because wherever she went, people would dislike her. The continuous rain along the way had also drawn quite a bit of complaining, and although people didn't know that the bad weather was because of her, she herself knew.
Juvia was very pessimistic. She felt that she might never be able to become like Moen-bro. She was precisely Moen-nii's opposite.
'But I really want to be like Moen-nii too.'
"Crash—crash—crash!"
The rain grew heavier and heavier, so heavy that even holding an umbrella felt exhausting, yet the downpour still failed to dampen everyone's enthusiasm.
Moen looked at Juvia, feeling somewhat surprised. What was wrong with this girl? Had she been frightened by the increasingly aggressive crowd?
Thinking of this possibility, Moen tightened his grip on Juvia's hand.
To prevent the little girl from being squeezed out of sight by the ever-growing crowd, Moen had been holding Juvia's hand the entire time.
"Don't be afraid, Juvia! I'm here!"
Moen shouted to Juvia. There were too many people, too much noise, and the rain was too heavy, if he didn't raise his voice, she wouldn't be able to hear him at all, even at close distance.
Hearing him, Juvia looked at Moen. Light shimmered in her eyes as a smile surfaced on her face, and she nodded firmly.
"Mm! Juvia isn't afraid!"
The moment the words fell, the rain suddenly became lighter. The dark, thick rain clouds almost completely dispersed in an instant. The sun stubbornly cast a beam of light through the clouds, that beam shining onto Moen and shining into Juvia's eyes.
"Go for it, Moen-nii! Beat them until they're utterly defeated!"
Juvia raised her small fist, clenched it, and waved it as she cheered for Moen, her lips pressed together with a look of shared outrage.
Moen froze. This was the first time he had seen such a vivid, lively expression on Juvia's face. Previously, aside from curiosity, Juvia had always been obedient like a doll.
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