"Fairy Tail?!"
Minerva immediately recognized which guild the newcomers belonged to upon hearing her companion's description.
The burly man asked, "Do you know them?"
Minerva looked at him, "Who doesn't know Fairy Tail? That's what's strange!"
"I'm completely unaware of anything going on outside."
"Hm, well, that's true, since you're always hiding."
Despite joining the Dark Guild, Minerva despised the Dark Guild's style.
The burly man said, "Whatever, as long as we complete the mission, those few thieves want to run away."
"The thieves are irrelevant." Minerva smiled, "The important thing is Fairy Tail; my chance for revenge has arrived!"
...
On the other side, Fairy Tail followed the sound and ran into the trio of treasure hunters.
The trio had already rolled up their trousers and sleeves, dragging their weapons as they fled.
Thanks to the village being covered in ice, they could still run while dragging their weapons.
But because they couldn't wear their original large shoes, their feet felt a bit chilly.
Natsu stopped, looking puzzled at the three little ones, "Kids? Are these kids from the village? Hey, do you know what's happening here?"
Unlike his usual attitude towards kids, Natsu instinctively used a rough tone to interrogate them.
The trio seemed startled but looked at the somewhat foolish Natsu and turned around to huddle together, whispering in front of Natsu.
Hapi flew up to Natsu, reminding him, "They sure aren't kids from the village because this is Giant Village, children here would be giants too."
Natsu retorted, "Even giants would grow up from being kids."
Hapi found this reasonable but upon thinking further, he added, "But we just saw a dog that's larger than an elephant."
Natsu replied matter-of-factly, "It's because that's a big dog, big dogs also grow up from small dogs."
Hapi felt something was off but couldn't figure out an argument.
The trio sneakily glanced back, exchanging glances, surely this one was indeed foolish.
Meanwhile, Erza and the others caught up.
Just as they were about to inquire, the three little ones turned around, speaking with childish voices:
"We are kids from this village!"
"Help! There's a Dark Guild chasing us!"
"Boom—they turned the village into this!"
After speaking one line each, they said in unison, "Quick, chase them away, mages!"
Natsu made a fist, Gray mimicked the action, Erza summoned a longsword in her hand, and Kana took out a card.
"What?" Lucy immediately reached for the whip at her waist, ready to fight.
Thinking twice, she changed to grabbing her keychain.
Lucy rushed out a few steps, then realized it's wrong, awkwardly standing still.
Because her companions remained on the spot, suspiciously staring at the three little ones in front.
The three little ones swallowed nervously, was this right?
At this moment, a girl with red hair in a red dress dashed out, shouting, "They're lying, don't believe them!"
"You are..." Natsu thought for a moment and suddenly realized, "Rhode's woman in the prison!"
"Pfft!" Kana, knowing it's unlikely, couldn't help but laugh, "Such a bombshell!"
Hapi explained, "It's the woman Rhode took Natsu to visit in prison."
Lucy was the first to recall her name, "Miss Freyja? How come you're... Oh right, you have the emblem of Sun Village. You said you ran away from home, right?"
"Yes..." Freyja was feeling down, "This is my hometown, I was raised by giants from childhood."
"After being released by the Council, I had nowhere to go, so I returned here, but... but my family..."
Returning full of guilt after running away, only to find her family frozen, Freyja was filled with self-reproach and anger with nowhere to vent.
She tried everything but couldn't melt a single piece of ice, so she endeavored to investigate the cause of the event.
Only today, she discovered the trio from the Eye of the Dream Demon and witnessed their brief encounter with the treasure hunters while following them.
—For some reason, Freyja was particularly talented at tracking, none of the six people noticed her spying.
And just now, the three shrunken treasure hunters obviously intended to deceive Fairy Tail, so Freyja quickly stepped out to expose them.
"They came to steal the Eternal Flame, but were turned like this by the magic of three other weirdos!"
"I've realized something was off," Erza looked at their weapons, "Why would kids drag such heavy weapons when escaping?"
Kana nodded, "I also think, kids from Giant Village logically shouldn't..."
She glanced at Freyja and suddenly felt she might have been somewhat prejudiced... but her speculation was correct.
Gray chuckled, "I could tell from the first glance that their clothes were off."
Lucy teased, "How did you even notice their clothes?"
Gray looked at her calmly, the gaze seemed to say 'better than those who failed to notice anything.'
"..." Lucy felt guilty, immediately asking, "What about Natsu?"
Natsu pointed to his ear, "When they were whispering their deceit, I heard it all."
Lucy's expression froze; were her companions either discerning or had sharp ears?
Was she the only one gullibly trusting the enemy?
No! It can't be!
Lucy immediately forced a smile, awkwardly saying, "Ahaha, actually, I also..."
"Lucy." Hapi flew beside Lucy, gently patting her shoulder and shaking his head with pity.
Lucy bowed dejectedly, "Sorry, I didn't notice at all."
The precious brain she usually saved for when she was alone, or waited until critical moments to use.
Asked if the security brought by her companions was too strong, most of the time she just needed to charge ahead with everyone, thinking was too tiring?
The three treasure hunters saw the situation wasn't good and wanted to slip away.
But three cards flew in front of them, exploding with a rumble. Kana watched them with a partially joking smile, "You guys, don't you have something to say before leaving?"
"Yes!" The trio confessed honestly about their origins and purpose, and also divulged the information they knew about their enemies.
Regarding the woman dressed in a blue qipao who could create explosions out of thin air, Lucy and Kana felt somewhat familiar.
But since the Eye of the Dream Demon was a Dark Guild, they didn't think of Minerva, only believing it was similar people.
Yet the treasure hunters' purpose left everyone somewhat puzzled.
Gray directly asked, "We've heard the Eternal Flame has been frozen, this ice is difficult to melt, even if you find it, how do you plan to take it?"