As the meeting ended, several presidents greeted Rhode with a smile, saying they owed Fairy Tail a favor this time and invited them to visit their guilds whenever they had time.
Rhode agreed one by one. These might not all be major guilds, but many of them were interesting guilds that mastered various life-related magic.
For instance, the Kitchen God's Knife guild prepared some desserts for everyone before leaving this time.
Rhode planned that visiting these guilds during his future honeymoon trip would be a lot of fun.
Yes, he had already started considering the route for his honeymoon trip.
The current plan was to tour the Fiore Kingdom, and if time permitted, visit neighboring countries. Of course, the final arrangement would also consider Mira's opinion.
Rhode would occasionally indulge in imagining a beautiful future.
Due to the time delay by the Advisory Council, when Rhode and Makarov returned to Magnolia, it was already dark.
The guild had long finished for the day, and the two went their separate ways home.
Makarov went straight home, while Rhode stopped by Mira's place to say hello, share some intimacy, and then returned home.
Unfortunately, Elfman was also there, so it wasn't appropriate to go too far.
When he got home, everything was indeed clean and tidy, and the three 'sons' on the balcony were vibrant, looking lively.
But on the table was an open magazine on a page... showing Erza in a black bikini.
Rhode's heart skipped a beat, oh no, he forgot to put away the magazine and let Mira see it!
But then he thought again, something was off; he didn't even buy this issue of the magazine...
Could it be that Goodman secretly brought the magazine over to hide here and read it, and felt it wasn't suitable to take it back afterward?
Otherwise, it couldn't be that Mira intentionally brought it over, felt bored after tidying up, sat here reading while waiting for him, and then, not seeing him, left the magazine open to scare him off and then went back home, right?
There's no way Mira would do something so boring... Mira might actually do something so cute.
Put it away, and look at it in front of her tomorrow.
Rhode glanced around his territory and inadvertently spotted a strand of white hair on the bed.
Picking it up to inspect, making sure it wasn't Warm's hair, Rhode chuckled.
Secretly lying on my bed, huh? Have the guts to lie with me instead.
Rhode did some light exercise, freshened up, and meditated for a while before preparing to sleep.
Before bed, he even summoned Warm for a size comparison, sat and tested—it could already be used as a small sofa stool.
Soft and comfortable, after a while it might actually be possible to ride it, maybe even lounge on it and sleep.
Warm was easily bribed with a small cookie, letting Rhode do as he pleased. It had given up on its diet plan, decided to eat more since it would grow anyway sooner or later.
...
The next morning, Elfman was in charge of cooking.
Rhode and Mira cozied up on the sofa, flipping through the magazine together.
Mira was still wearing last night's pink slip dress, looking very refreshing.
And she looked great from every angle. Every angle.
The magazine was indeed placed on the table by her, as she said she forgot to take it.
If she says so, then it is.
Mira held onto Rhode's arm with one hand, the other hand flipping through the pages. When she reached Erza's photo page, she deliberately slowed down to sneakily observe Rhode's expression.
However, Rhode's mind wasn't there at all; the sensation on his arm made it hard to concentrate, and his gaze occasionally got distracted by interesting things.
Rhode swore he wasn't doing it on purpose.
Mira followed Rhode's wandering eyes and looked down at herself, her face blushing.
She hurriedly ran upstairs, changed into regular clothes, and came down, looking at Rhode without saying a word.
"Very pretty." Rhode assumed she was fishing for compliments, "Actually, the dress just now was quite pretty too."
Mira raised a hand threateningly: "Say it again?"
Fine, if he shouldn't say it, he wouldn't, Rhode thought, smiling to himself.
Mira puffed out her cheeks, wondering why this person was so lecherous!
But then again, if he was interested in her, then... argh, it was annoying!
Despite thinking this way, when she sat down, she still hugged Rhode's arm and leaned against him.
This time she was dressed, so the sensation was slightly different.
Rhode realized he'd changed, able to notice such things instantly now.
His focus was odd as well.
He tried to shift his attention: "How's everything in the guild these days?"
"About the same as usual." Mira thought for a moment and said, a bit vexed, "It's just that I feel like sometimes they seem a little afraid of me... like they fear Erza."
Rhode chuckled: "Well, you are Demon Mira after all."
Mira hugged his arm tighter: "What about you? Are you afraid usually?"
Rhode thought for a moment, winking at her with his left eye, controlling his voice: "Isn't it fun?"
Mira scolded playfully: "Don't mimic me!"
"Ah, I've been reprimanded, so scary, almost scared me to death." Rhode's tone was exaggerated but flat.
Mira rolled her eyes at him, indicating that if he was scared, could he take his hand off her leg?
Pervert.
"Time to eat..." Elfman hesitated for almost twenty seconds, before finally deciding to call them.
"Thanks for the meal." Mira sat at the table, as if everything was normal.
This level of intimacy was fine to be seen by her brother.
"Eh? The Iron Forest incident made the newspaper?" Rhode noticed the picture on the newspaper before sitting down. It featured the Advisory Council's team escorting Iron Forest members.
He didn't have time to look closely, accepting the cutlery Mira handed to him.
Mira explained, "Since it was a terrorist attack, and the targets were guild presidents, it immediately caused a nationwide sensation."
Iron Forest's dangerous and brutal plan shocked the people nationwide, while Fairy Tail, who successfully prevented it, gained a significant boost in reputation.
As for the damage to the train station and railway, it seemed trivial compared to thwarting the terrorist attack.
"Sister, you guys really are... real men!" Elfman exclaimed with excitement and envy, "You even got to take part in such a big event."
"Actually, most of it was Erza and the others." Mira smiled softly, long used to her brother's unique way of giving compliments.
But, since Elfman liked the term 'real man' so much, perhaps it was necessary to show him how 'manly' his sister could be during the next training session.
Completely oblivious, Elfman asked: "It seems like Ailiger escaped? Didn't Natsu say he defeated him yesterday?"
Mira explained, "He managed to escape before the Advisory Council's team arrived. That guy can use Wind Magic to fly, making him very troublesome if he is intent on escaping."
Rhode frowned; leaving an enemy defeated but unattended was a really bad habit.
But since they were chasing after Kagayama, given the urgent situation, it was somewhat understandable.
"A signature assassin Mage of Iron Forest, skilled in executing clandestine missions, still at large, and holding a grudge against our guild..." Rhode sighed, "Feels like it'll be a major hassle."
Mira said, "The Advisory Council will intensify its search. They might issue bounty tasks to major guilds as early as today."
Bounty tasks are a special type of commission; they don't need to follow the full normal extermination process. As soon as Ailiger is sighted, action can be taken.
This allows mages to legally ignore the 'No Violent Conflicts Treaty,' but only extremely dangerous individuals would be treated this way.
Certainly, completing it like a regular mission—taking the task, capturing the target, and completing it in the standard procedure—is also possible.
Another option is to report reliable information to the Advisory Council; the subsequent capture will be taken care of, without receiving the full bounty, just a small intel fee.
The fee, based on the intel's value, usually ranges from five to twenty percent of the bounty.
For someone as dangerous as Ailiger, the bounty would be quite high.
"Why don't we take on this task?" Rhode suggested. "Let's search the entire Fiore Kingdom; we're bound to find him."
If not, we could search abroad as well.
Elfman couldn't help but ask, "Are you going to find someone or going on a trip?"
Rhode gave him a look, 'Little brother, you talk too much.'