"Forget whether their plan could even work, so what if it did? Let's be honest, we're nothing more than a regional council made up of a handful of neighboring kingdoms' guilds. Even if every last one of us dropped dead, there are still other kingdoms out there, still the Council. What they'd actually be up against is all of Ishgar."
"Do these fools seriously think getting their hands on a cursed flute makes them invincible? We might be getting on in years, but we haven't gotten so feeble that some trinket like that could just kill us off without a fight!"
"Let them come. I've spent my whole life fighting dark guilds, you think I'm scared of a few punks now!"
The guild masters erupted into a chorus of mockery aimed squarely at Iron Forest. Sure, plenty of them were well into their seventies or eighties by now, their strength a shadow of what it once was in their prime. But every single one of them had earned their seat as a guild master, and not one of them had been anything less than a renowned mage in their younger days. If this entire room, gathered together as it was, still couldn't handle Iron Forest and their so called Lullaby, they might as well drop dead right now and spare all of Fiore's mages the embarrassment.
Watching this crowd of fired up old men and women brandishing swords, staffs, and even the odd hairpin, Kabe genuinely had to fight back a laugh. Iron Forest's people clearly had a few screws loose, coming up with a plan this absurd in the first place. And yet they seemed utterly convinced of themselves, as if a single note from that flute would leave even the strongest enemy helpless and waiting to die. If it were really that simple, Lullaby wouldn't have needed sealing away in the first place, and this world would already belong to the demons.
With that, the topic of Lullaby was more or less put to rest, and everyone went back to eating, drinking, and carrying on as though nothing had happened at all. Beneath the surface, though, plenty of them were already quietly rolling up their sleeves, mentally rehearsing exactly how they planned to show off in front of their old friends once Iron Forest's people actually showed up. Kabe, meanwhile, parted ways with Makarov and the others, promptly getting dragged off by a group of younger guild masters for a round of drinking games.
Toot, toot!
After two blasts of the whistle, the train slowly pulled out of Oshibana Station. Most of the other passengers who'd gotten off at this stop had already gone their separate ways. Only Gray and Happy remained on the platform, still saddled with their two burdens.
"Bleeegh... urgh..."
On a bench along the platform, Natsu clutched a paper bag, retching violently into it. Happy hovered behind him, patting his back to help ease the misery.
Holding the other end of an ice chain wrapped around Kageyama's bound wrists, Gray shot Happy an impatient look.
"Seriously, how much longer is this guy going to keep throwing up? If we drag our feet any longer and Iron Forest's people slip away, I'm not going to be happy about it."
Happy could only shrug helplessly at Gray's impatience.
"Can't be helped, Natsu's motion sickness seems way worse than usual this time. I mean, we were on that train for almost twelve hours straight, all the way from Magnolia to here."
"...This idiot. I swear, I'm never agreeing to go on a job with him again."
Gray rubbed at his temple, thoroughly exasperated, then crouched down.
"Get him up here. We'll head to the meeting point and let him recover along the way."
"You got it, Captain!"
Happy chirped happily and hoisted Natsu onto Gray's back without delay. With Natsu secured on one side and a firm grip on the ice chain in the other hand, Gray gave it a sharp tug.
"Move. If you don't want to suffer, behave yourself and lead us straight to your hideout."
Kageyama shot Gray a resentful glance, then quickly dropped his gaze and looked away. After a moment of silence, he finally started walking, leading the way with heavy, reluctant steps.
Seeing this, Gray tilted his chin at Happy, signaling him to take to the air and keep watch from above. Gray himself, Natsu still on his back, kept his eyes locked on Kageyama's retreating figure as he followed him out of the station.