"You hear that? You bastard, do not even think about going back on your word. I am taking your money and spending it on booze."
Already unhappy about losing, Wakaba completely blew up after Macao's smug taunt.
"Bullshit. Gray only left because something came up. The fight is not over, so this round does not count at all."
As he spoke, he reached out, trying to snatch back the 5,000 jewels he had handed Macao earlier when they started the bet.
The other members who had not joined in the cheering just now immediately chimed in as soon as they heard this.
"That is right, how can that be counted as a loss? This one should not count. Macao, hurry up and give us our money back."
"Refund! Refund!"
Shoting as they closed in, a whole crowd surged toward Macao.
Seeing that they were about to play dirty, the other half of the guild who had bet on Natsu winning were never going to accept that. They also rushed toward Macao, unwilling to let anyone take their winnings.
"Bastards, a loss is a loss, stop making excuses."
"What nonsense are you spouting, which eye of yours saw Gray lose? If that accident had not happened, Gray clearly had the upper hand just now."
"What?! You sore loser, you trying to weasel out of it?"
"Who is the sore loser here? You are the one begging for a beating, you jerk."
The two sides, full of hopeless gamblers who refused to part with their money, argued louder and louder.
No one knew who threw the first punch, but in the blink of an eye, the argument turned into a full scale brawl.
Naturally, Natsu, who believed he had won, lined up on Macao's side without hesitation. On top of that, he had not fought to his heart's content earlier, so he quickly dragged Happy, who had bet a fish, into the fray as well.
In an instant, tables, chairs, and stools were flying everywhere inside the guild hall. Every now and then, an unlucky soul would be knocked out and tossed straight out the door, which drew quite a few curious passersby to stop and watch the chaos.
...
Meanwhile, Gray and Ultear walked one in front of the other on the road leading to Kabe's new house.
Gray had his hands stuffed in his pockets as he led the way. Knowing that the person walking behind him was Ur's only daughter, his fingers curled into tight fists inside his pockets.
"Ultear... about your mother, my teacher Ur, I am... sorry."
The words sounded incomplete, but Ultear understood perfectly what he meant.
A flash of sorrow crossed her heart, then she let out a quiet sigh and spoke with a firm tone.
"The one who uses Iced Shell does not truly die. You know that much, do you not?"
"Once I have atoned for my sins, I will look for a way to bring her back. If you want to apologize, save it for after she is revived and tell her yourself."
"Revive her? Ur... Ur can still be revived?!"
Gray stopped dead in his tracks, turning around with barely contained excitement.
Before he could say anything else, Ultear raised her hand and smacked him on the back of the head.
"Keep your voice down and just walk properly."
Gray, having been hit, felt the surrounding gazes fall on him. He swallowed his emotions back down and forced himself to continue leading the way.
Even so, the way he kept glancing back with words stuck in his throat made it painfully obvious just how turbulent his heart was.
"The world is so big, maybe there will be a way somewhere."
Ultear murmured softly, not even sure if she was saying it for Gray's sake or to comfort herself.
Hearing those words, Gray's heart, which had just flared with hope, slowly cooled again.
They both knew very well that the chances of restoring Ur were incredibly slim. Gray had asked Makarov in the past and had gone through quite a lot of written records.
Ultear, who had been raised by Hades, the master of Grimoire Heart, had been exposed to countless precious, even long lost, kinds of magic.
Yet even with all that knowledge, neither of them had found a single concrete method to truly revive Ur.
The so called revival might well be nothing more than their own fantasy, a bit of comforting self deception.
Because of that heavy topic, the two of them fell silent. The rest of the walk passed without another word between them.
After another twenty minutes or so, they finally arrived at a luxurious villa far from the city center, in the northeast, with the East Forest on one side and the great lake of Magnolia on the other.
As they drew closer, both of them unconsciously slowed their steps.
Ultear stared, slack jawed, at the mansion before her. In her eyes, this was the kind of place only nobles or wealthy merchants could afford to live in.
"You... you are sure this is that guy Kabe's house? Do not tell me he is some noble family's illegitimate son."
"It... it should be here. It is my first time too, but I heard about it from Laki, one of our guildmates."
Looking at the huge house, then thinking about the shabby little place he himself rented, Gray once again found himself envying Kabe's status as an S class mage.
"Turns out if you want real money, you still have to do S class jobs."
The two of them stood outside the gate, tilting their heads back to stare up at Kabe's mansion and sighing to themselves.
Neither of them noticed that four figures behind them were slowly drawing closer.
"What are you two idiots doing standing around at my front door?"