A magic merchant infiltrating Fairy Tail

"It's sleep fumes!"

"Damn it!! I can't use magic?! Are these magic-sealing handcuffs?"

After a brief commotion, Natsu and Gray stood up and shouted, "You bastards!! Let us out!!"

Unexpectedly, the two suddenly stood up, which triggered a chain reaction: Natsu dragged Lucy to the ground, and Gray dragged Erza to the ground.

"what!!!"

thump! thump!

"What's going on?! What did you two do?!"

"This...this is..."

Upon closer inspection, the group realized that their chains were tangled together: the chain and shackles were originally one piece. It passed through the two round holes in one person's handcuffs, wrapped around his body twice, then passed through the shackles on another person's feet, returned to his own body, wrapped around twice, and finally shackled his wrists.

Thus, one person's handcuffs were connected to another person's leg cuffs, eventually forming a loop that linked them all together.

This restricts their movement (they must move with the main group) and they can only maintain a sitting or lying position (if someone's handcuffs are too high, someone will fall because the chains are not long enough). Since a set consists of an odd number of people (five), they cannot move by "standing and falling".

They are connected in the following way: Natsu (legs) - Erza (hands/legs) - Gray (hands/legs) - Wendy (hands/legs) - Lucy (hands/legs) - Natsu (hands)

"What kind of bizarre way of binding is this?!" ×5

Chapter 422 This woman is so rich, she's definitely the strongest one!!

Once they realized their situation, Erza and the other three were all awkwardly standing there, not knowing what to do.

"As you can see, the situation is as it is... Why don't you all take a break, or practice doing handstands..."

"Why don't you listen to what you're saying first?!"

"Anyway... don't panic! Everyone will be alright..."

"Wipe your sweat first!"

Gray knelt on the ground, his entire body ashen: "There's no way! In this situation, we have absolutely no chance of escaping on our own! Are we just supposed to wait for Kira and the others to come and rescue us?"

"Hahaha! Don't dream!! No one can escape the trap of our dark guild, 'One-Eyed Serpent'!!!"

Lucy was overjoyed: "That's right! And Kira too! If it's them, they'll definitely be able to find this place and rescue us!"

Outside the iron cage, a simple-minded henchman pointed at the people inside and said, "Boss, not only that woman, but everyone else isn't listening to you at all."

The one being called "Big Brother" was the arrogant man. After several shouts went unanswered, and then his underlings pointed it out, he lost face and angrily yelled, "Stop talking nonsense!! These people must be deaf!"

"No... no matter how you look at it, he doesn't seem deaf..."

To the other side's relief, after Erza and the others accepted their situation, someone finally started to care about those outside the iron cage. With a clang, Natsu had already moved to the edge of the iron cage.

Who are you people?!

The spacious iron cage occupied half of the room, while the other half was occupied by a group of delinquent teenagers wearing ripped vests and fierce-looking middle-aged men with muscular faces, who were drinking and chatting to their hearts' content.

A man sat on a chair directly opposite the iron cell door. He had a flamboyant hairstyle, wore sunglasses, and was adorned with gold and silver jewelry. He seemed to radiate arrogance from head to toe, clearly the leader of the group. On his left shoulder was a black guild emblem—a pair of snake eyes—representing the name of this dark guild, 'One-Eyed Serpent'.

"Huh? You're asking who I am? Hahaha... You'll be terrified when I tell you! I'm the leader of the 'One-Eyed Serpent'!"

"A one-eyed snake?"

"who?"

"I don't know, it's probably some low-level guild..."

Natsu and Gray's conversation directly enraged the arrogant man: "Huh? I say, which guild of mages are you? You don't even know about Giltina's infamous dark guild 'One-Eyed Serpent'? Oh! I see, you're trying to provoke me and disrupt my judgment! Hmph! Too bad, once the plan is exposed, it's useless..."

Seeing that the other person was talking non-stop, Nazgre and his companion immediately lost interest: "So he's an idiot."

"Hey!! Who are you calling an idiot?!"

"Boss, they're talking about you..."

The arrogant man ignored his underlings' complaints and continued talking to himself: "I know, you guys must be feeling anxious about the current situation, right? How do I know? Do you even need to ask? I've seen plenty of greenhorns like you!"

Natsu waved his hand: "No...we're not anxious at all..."

Happy, who had just woken up, rubbed his eyes and said in a soft, adorable voice from inside the small cage, "Natsu, I'm hungry~"

"Huh? You ask why we're arresting people? Do I even need to say it? Of course, it's to sell you into slavery!" The arrogant man spread his arms and threatened the group.

However, Erza and the others remained expressionless, simply responding in unison with a curt "Oh."

The underlings exclaimed in disbelief, "It's so calm?!?!?!"

"Hey! It's being sold to Persia, Persia!!"

"Please! How could they possibly understand what you're saying?! Let me explain! Persia is located in Ishgar, and even by boat and carriage, it's at least a month's journey from here. In other words, it's a place you'll never be able to return to!!"

"Then you'll be at the mercy of those nobles and royalty, exploited every day by lecherous old men and fat aunties~"

"Hahaha... They must be so scared they wet their pants by now! But who told them to be so unlucky as to fall into the hands of us, the 'One-Eyed Serpent'?"

Lucy fell into thought: "Persia... I feel like I've heard of it somewhere before? Speaking of which, being sold into slavery... it all seems so familiar..."

Suddenly, fragments of memories flashed through my mind...

"Ah! I remember now, when I first met Natsu and the others, I was almost sold to Persia by that 'fake fire dragon'!"

Happy raised his hand and laughed, "Yeah, yeah, I just remembered, Lucy really has a connection with this country..."

"Stop talking nonsense! Wait! My keys..."

Just then, Lucy suddenly remembered that she had been held captive and even her keys had been thrown into the sea, only to be retrieved by Happy. Thinking this, her gaze unconsciously drifted to her side, only to discover that her key pouch was gone!

"Where are my keys?! Where are my keys?"

"Huh? Keys? You mean this?" The arrogant man picked up Lucy's key pouch from the table next to him. "You won't need it anymore anyway, so I might as well keep it and sell it for a good price!"

"You bastard, give me back my keys!!"

However, in this situation, even if Lucy is extremely anxious, how could the other party possibly listen?

The arrogant man chuckled, "If I'm not mistaken, this should be a Protoss Key, right? A key like this can sell for a lot of money!"

Lucy was speechless: "Why...does this expression feel so familiar..."

"I think so too." ×N

"However, I heard that there are only twelve of these highest-grade golden keys, representing the twelve zodiac signs. I didn't expect you to have collected them all. You woman, could it be that..."

"Huh? Could it be that the other person has heard of my name?" Lucy was taken aback by the other person's words, and immediately became expectant of what he would say next.

"...Is he the strongest among these people?"

thump!

Lucy was speechless, her face filled with disappointment, before she realized a crucial point: 'That's it! We were caught off guard before we even made a move, so they don't know our strength! Perhaps we can use this to divert their attention to me, and then Erza and the others can take advantage of the situation…'

"No! Lucy is the weakest of us!" ×3 (Erza, Natsu, Gray)

"What are you guys doing?!"

"The weakest?" The arrogant man hesitated for two seconds, scrutinized Erza and the others for a long time, and then roared, "Do you think I'm an idiot?! The most valuable thing you guys have is these keys, you are definitely the strongest one!!"

Lucy: "Huh?!?!?!" (I was totally wrong!! What kind of logic is this guy?! I'm not only the weakest, but also the poorest!!)

Erza/Natsu/Gray: "Eh?! ...

Wendy/Happy/Charlu: "Eh?!?!?!" (How can someone be so outrageous?! ...

The shocked expressions on the faces of the group were taken by the arrogant man as surprise at having guessed correctly.

“This guy!” The other person pointed at Natsu, “He has an idiotic face, is impulsive and easily angered, and is always the first to yell. He’s definitely the most idiotic one among you! But this hot-blooded idiot can sometimes unleash amazing fighting power, so he’s also the second strongest!”

"Oh? I didn't expect this guy to actually have some intelligence; he guessed Natsu's personality correctly..."

(Gray: Hey! I'm the second strongest, right?!)

“This guy!” The other person pointed at Gray again, “He took off his clothes as soon as he came in. If I hadn’t thought it was indecent and didn’t want to leave chain marks on the slaves, you would be seeing a naked man right now. He’s definitely the most perverted person among you! But usually, the more perverted a person is, the more terrifying they are. If he didn’t have some strength, how could you have kept someone like this in the team? So he’s the third strongest person!”

'So you guessed... half right?'

(Natsu: Hahaha!! Pervert... Hahaha!!...)

"This girl!" The third person pointed at Wendy, "A little kid, skinny arms and legs. Books say 'no flesh on the chest, no strength.' Plus, she's been timid and hesitant since earlier, so she must be a little sister who's been well protected by you and has never seen the world before!"

"It feels like the more I guess, the more outrageous it gets..."

(Wendy: Waaaaah~~ What kind of rubbish books are those...)

"This girl!" The other person pointed at Erza last, "Her hair isn't tied up, her breasts are too big, her armor is too heavy—these are all burdens that slow down her fighting speed! Everything about her indicates that she's a complete novice! Therefore, she's the weakest one!!"

"That's completely wrong!!"

(Erza: Saying I'm the weakest? I can't pretend I didn't hear that!)

clap clap clap! ! !

After hearing the arrogant man's reasoning, the henchmen burst into thunderous applause.

"As expected of the boss! That's absolutely perfect reasoning!!"

"Every time I hear the boss's meticulous reasoning, I feel that the future of the guild is full of hope!"

"Is this the man known as 'the eye of a viper'? His observation skills are truly amazing. Following you has definitely been the best decision I've made in the last ten years!"

Inside the iron cage, the women and children who had been tied up there from the beginning all showed strange expressions.

In fact, they had heard this kind of 'reasoning' several times before. Although the accuracy rate of their reasoning was less than 50% each time, seeing the flattery of their underlings and the smugness of their boss, they dared not say "wrong" and could only silently lower their heads...

Try not to laugh.

Chapter 423 The Unexpected Appearance of the Bearded Uncle

Just as Erza and the others were dumbfounded and about to make a comment, an unexpected incident occurred!

Out of the corner of their eyes, everyone caught a glimpse of two white beams falling diagonally from the ceiling with lightning speed, followed by two whooshing sounds, and then two terrifying cracks appeared on the ground.

The people in the basement looked up following the cracks they had come from and saw two similar cracks on the ceiling. These were clearly two attacks from above, which had penetrated the rocks in the ground and fallen into the basement, leaving marks on the basement floor.