The sun slowly moved westward, growing larger and shifting to a reddish-orange hue, its glow becoming softer.
On a road that seemed flat up close but appeared winding from afar, a double-horse carriage advanced at a leisurely pace.
A giant crab wandered erratically, sometimes fast, sometimes slow, sometimes near, sometimes far, around the carriage.
Beside the road lay golden wheat fields, and due to the lack of wind today, there was no scene of rolling wheat waves.
One person and a cat popped their heads out of the carriage window, contentedly admiring the rural scenery.
"Hey~ I see the mountains, we're almost there!"
The silence was broken by a pink-haired youth on the crab's back, "Coachman, hurry up a bit!"
Hapi complained, "Natsu is so noisy."
Rhode nodded, "Yeah, doesn't understand a bit of the mood."
Natsu was immediately annoyed by their teasing, flailing his arms on the River Crab's back, "Since when did you two become such pals!"
Rhode replied, "While you were getting carsick."
"Pfft~" Hapi stifled a laugh, "And when you fell flat on your face."
"Bastards, stop the carriage, I'm going to teach you a lesson!" Natsu fumed, his throat spouting flames in anger.
After a bout of commotion, Rhode suddenly turned serious:
"Natsu, about eight to nine hundred meters ahead, there are wild boars, 5, no, 6 of them!"
"Oh oh~~~ can you really see that far?"
Natsu stood up on the River Crab, trying to see into the distance, but the road wasn't straight, and the terrain and wheat fields blocked his view, so he couldn't see a thing.
"Why don't you try smelling the boars' stench instead?"
Rhode casually suggested, and Natsu immediately complied.
He slightly tilted his head back and sniffed the air, "I smell them! Leave it to me!"
Natsu tugged at the crab's antenna, "Charge!"
"Natsu!" Rhode wanted to mention his plan to deal with the boars, but Natsu rushed off too quickly, and he couldn't afford to make him fall again.
Hapi said, "Don't worry, if it's wild boars, Natsu can handle it."
Rhode said, "I'm worried he'll burn the entire field, though."
"Aye, that certainly sounds like something Natsu would do."
"Respond to the call, Ancient Stone Beetle!"
Rhode dispatched two groups of Stone Beetles to follow Natsu, ready to dig out a firebreak to minimize damage to the fields.
"Neigh~"
The coachman reined in the horses and stopped the carriage, "Sorry, this is a beast-infested area. The horses won't go any further."
Rhode got off the carriage and took a look. There were indeed signs of beasts rampaging in the wheat fields beside the road, perhaps the lingering smell made the horses too afraid to continue.
"We'll stop here. The village isn't far," Rhode said, "Hapi, get off!"
"Aye sir!" Hapi flew out, carrying Natsu's backpack and Rhode's suitcase.
Considering the presence of beasts, Rhode summoned a group of Beaked Birds to escort the carriage a short distance.
Seeing flames rising nearby, Rhode and Hapi quickly headed toward Natsu.
The distance was less than a kilometer, only a few minutes' run, and this was only because they were held back by luggage.
Within those few minutes, Natsu had already finished the battle.
The six wild boars of various sizes lay quietly on the ground, and the flames in the wheat field hadn't completely died down.
Luckily, the Stone Beetles had dug a firebreak, preventing the fire from spreading further.
"Ahahaha…" Natsu, the culprit, stood with his hands on his hips, laughing heartily, "See how tough I am, you dumb boars!"
Hapi flew carrying Natsu's belongings, "Natsu~"
"Hapi, Rhode, you're late. I took care of it all! Ahahaha..."
He was proud, like he'd won a three-person hunting contest.
Hapi said, "Natsu is strong, but you almost burned down the whole wheat field."
"It's not burned down, is it?"
"That's thanks to Rhode's earth-digging bugs."
"They're Stone Beetles," Rhode corrected, then said to Natsu,
"Could you please consider things carefully before using flames in fields, woods, or villages?"
"I've considered it," Natsu said, waving his fist which flared with flames, "This much fire is just right to take down the boars."
Rhode snapped, "I'm asking you to consider the consequences, not setting the fields on fire!"
"But you're here, aren't you?" Natsu grinned, "Mira was definitely right to have you team up with us!"
Even if you trust me like this, even if you mentioned Mira, I'm still...
"Wait." Rhode realized he was getting sidetracked by Natsu's words,
"Don't create this weird sense of trust! I'm not here to clean up your messes!"
Hapi, looking at the burning wheat stubble, asked, "What do we do now?"
"Run away before anyone notices."
"Make Natsu eat the fire."
Natsu and Rhode spoke at the same time and then stared at each other in shock, then spoke simultaneously again:
"Would you eat your own monsters?"
"You were planning to run away?"
Even more shocked, they both said:
"Of course, you'd run after causing trouble!"
"It's worth a shot."
Upon hearing each other's responses, they both exclaimed again:
"Can't believe you'd say such things with such confidence!"
Hapi, watching them switch from speaking separately to in unison, wanted to say 'you two are quite a pair.'
...
After a round of explanations.
Rhode realized, "Oh~ so Natsu can't eat the flames he spits himself, only others' flames."
Natsu asked again, "So can your monsters really be eaten?"
Rhode said, "I don't know. I just thought if I ever got too hungry, I could borrow a crab claw from the Swift Crab to nibble on. After all, crab claws can regenerate."
Natsu and Hapi swallowed hard, "How cruel."
The Gorge Swift Crab returned to the Summoner's Rift.
"I was just kidding."
As they spoke, the small area within the firebreak began to shrink.
The wheat stubble was hollow and burned weakly, without much heat. The six wild boars simply lay scorched black.
Rhode had the Ancient Stone Beetles split, then drag the six wild boars away.
He had the creatures dig up soil on-site to bury the flames and ashes.
"3D Characters · WATER."
Rhode waved his hand, drenching the warm soil with about a basin of water.
He repeated the process several times to thoroughly cool it down and prevent new fires from starting.
After doing all this, Rhode clapped his right hand a few times, having said he wouldn't do cleanup work yet ending up dealing with Natsu's leftover hazards.
He sighed, "Let's go, let's drag the wild boars to the village."
"Huh? Why?"
"It's only fair to explain about the wheat fields we burned. We haven't formally connected with the client yet," Rhode was worried about potential trouble.
"Such a hassle," Natsu complained, in situations like these he usually just went straight to explain to the client.
As long as the task was completed, few would bother about such formalities.
"Who caused the trouble, huh!"
If he hadn't sent the Stone Beetles, who knows what would have happened to the acres of wheat, Rhode didn't even dare to imagine.
He wasn't mad, not mad at all, it was all for the rent.
But just thinking about needing many more such battles to fully resolve the beast problem...
Rhode felt a slight headache.
Wouldn't it be best for Gray and Natsu to team up?