A magic merchant infiltrating Fairy Tail

"Service attitude... satisfactory!"

"Work ability...qualified!"

Kira observed and took notes, scribbling down his evaluation of the restaurant's service with his near-photographic memory, adding annotations as he silently praised, "That's it! Waitresses should wear attire that showcases the confidence of women from the Western Continent! This atmosphere will definitely attract many male diners!"

Those around noticed this scene and all showed incredulous expressions. They had originally thought Kira was just a scoundrel who ate and dashed, a hypocritical pervert, and a bully who took advantage of his power. They never expected that... he was actually true!

He actually took advantage of Lady Eileen's influence to enjoy such enviable treatment in public?!

"That's outrageous!!"

"He can be replaced!"

"A man should be like this!"

One after another, angry curses of resentment came from the mouths of the customers. The voices were very faint, but Kira could hear them clearly.

'A bunch of ignorant and blindly obedient people, what exactly has blinded you? Hmph! It's obvious just by thinking about it…'

Kira ignored the envious and jealous gazes directed at him, focusing intently on his work. He used his pen as a weapon, writing with unrestrained passion and exhilaration, like a scholar from the old days.

没过多久，就将对这家餐馆的等级和评分逐个记录在自己本子上：C－88－44－90、D－90－43－86、B－77－47－70……

Kira wrote down a series of mysterious data mixed with English letters and numbers, but what each of them represented—whether it was the store's decor or the attitude of the service—only Kira himself knew. This was something Kira deliberately omitted to prevent others from seeing his rating criteria.

'This must be the new waiter the fat boss hired, from the intelligence... He's definitely eye-catching!'

Kira didn't really care about the gimmick of beautiful waitresses, because service attitude and ability were more important than who served him! But since they had already hired them, they couldn't let the manager waste the money.

'Let's give him a little extra credit for his service attitude; I could definitely see his sincerity!'

After a long while, Kira finally put down his gun... no, he put down his pen, because all the dishes had been served.

This includes: steamed lobster, steamed crab, roast suckling pig, stir-fried vegetables, winter melon soup, boiled fish, fried rice, salad, ice cream, smoothies, ramen...

There were more than a dozen dishes, each prepared in more than a dozen different ways. The dazzling array of delicacies laid out before them made Kira gasp in surprise: "I never imagined that such a small restaurant could offer so many delicious dishes at the same time. It's truly astonishing!"

The rich aromas of the food mingled together, each with its own unique flavor. Just a gentle sniff made his stomach rumble, and Kira could only raise the beer beside him and take a big gulp.

"Cool!"

Just as Kira put down his glass and was about to start eating, a cool voice came from behind him.

"Kid, you've been having a good time these past few days, haven't you?"

Chapter 514 On the Connection Between the Culinary Contest and the Fate of the Empire

The familiar yet slightly unfamiliar voice, the immense yet restrained magic, instantly made Kira realize who was speaking.

Without a doubt, the older sister he had met not long ago... or perhaps a little while ago... was standing right behind him at that moment.

Without even looking, you can tell that she must have a faint smile on her face, those two little girls who never need to eat must be following behind her, and her figure must still be perfect.

In just a moment, Kira simulated more than a dozen possible scenarios in his mind. At the same time, he naturally stood up, turned around, and asked, "Sister Irene, what brings you here?"

Turning around, she saw Eileen, Heine, and Juliet standing quietly behind her like a single mother with two children, their eyes looking at her with inexplicable expressions.

In this situation, Kira didn't have time to think about why Erin had suddenly appeared here. He decisively put on a poker face and greeted her with a smile: "You've come at the right time. I'm currently evaluating restaurants for the 'Food Competition' in a few days. The dishes have just been served. Please sit down and let's eat together!"

What appears to be a simple sentence actually conceals Kira's multi-layered schemes.

A naturally friendly tone can unconsciously bring two people closer;

Kira greets people with a smile because he firmly believes that everyone is a person of good manners, and a person of good manners will not hit someone who smiles at you, unless it is a mocking, evil smile or other malicious smile;

He said he was conducting restaurant evaluations to show Eileen that he hadn't been lazy or slacking off, but was still working when others had left, proving that he had been working diligently and conscientiously all this time and hadn't let Eileen down. So she shouldn't believe the slander of that brainless little girl, Heine.

Finally, he invited Eileen to sit down and eat with him so that she would share the responsibility of dining and dashing...

Wait a minute! Something seems off?

Kira paused for half a second, then suddenly remembered something: Eileen can't taste food! So, inviting her to dinner would be like jumping on her landmines!

Upon realizing this, Kira's face turned deathly pale.

We're doomed!!

"Well..."

Just as Kira was about to speak up to salvage the situation, Eileen said, "Forget about eating, I already ate before I came."

"Is that so? Then I won't force you..." Kira was overjoyed. "I wonder what Lady Irene wants to see me about?"

"Humph!"

A soft, cold snort came from the maid behind Irene, Kira's secretary for the past few days, Heine.

The girl looked at Kira as if she were looking at a treacherous, two-faced scoundrel.

Spending two hours together each day gave Kira a rudimentary understanding of this brainless girl, and he quickly deciphered what she was trying to say: "Now you can call me Lady Irene? Weren't you so arrogant before, using 'Sister Irene' to intimidate me?"

Kira's eyes darted around, his meaning clear without words: "I'm working, so this is working time. Of course, I need to use a more formal title! Otherwise, wouldn't everyone think I got in through connections?"

Heine's expression was inscrutable: This guy... doesn't he know that he's already been identified by the townspeople as someone who got in through connections?

The two exchanged words in the blink of an eye, but Eileen noticed them nonetheless. However, she didn't pay any attention to it and simply stepped forward to sit down opposite Kira.

"I heard you're going to hold a 'food competition'?"

"Yes!"

"What's the reason?"

"To promote the economic development of the town!"

Kira was prepared, and his prepared remarks flowed out: "You saw the reports from a few days ago. The neighboring town recently held a 'Big Eater Contest.' This event not only made the newspapers, but it has also been a hot topic throughout the Empire for a long time. It even attracted a large number of tourists with the gimmick of a 'mysterious woman,' boosting the local tourism industry."

"I think we can learn from this and hold a similar event in our city to increase tax revenue!"

Why raise taxes? I don't need the money...

Eileen hesitated for two seconds, her beautiful brows furrowing slightly, before she softly asked, "Is this really necessary?"

“Of course we need it, Lady Eileen!” Kira felt his chance to shine had come. “I’ve observed carefully that our town’s treasury is severely depleted, which may be related to the Empire’s focus on magical military in recent decades.”

"Due to insufficient funding from the Empire, the town's magic school is quite rudimentary, with a severe shortage of both teachers and teaching resources. Many of the younger generation of children are not able to enjoy the opportunity to learn magic, which is undoubtedly a great pity!"

"For a magical military empire like the Alvarez Empire, a continuous stream of mages is a crucial cornerstone of the empire's strength. Once that cornerstone is unstable, the empire will collapse."

“I know that the Emperor and the Twelve Shields are very powerful mages, each of whom can easily conquer a small country. But without the soldiers at the bottom, even the most powerful general is just a commander without troops. Similarly, if the Empire did not have the mages at the bottom, it would just be a larger magic guild.”

"This hidden danger may not be apparent for the time being, but in a few decades, the Empire will face a shortage of high-ranking mages! And by then, it will take at least fifty years to deal with it and restore the country's strength!"

The Alvarez Empire has only existed for a little over a hundred years since its founding; surely they can convince us by saying it's been fifty years...

Kira paused briefly, took a large gulp of his drink, and looked at Irene, who was silently watching him. He continued, "But we can prevent this from happening now. By holding a small event like a 'Food Competition,' we can attract tourists to spend money, thereby increasing the town's economic income. The next step is to improve the town's magic academy, teach magic to the next generation of children, increase the number of imperial soldiers, and successfully prolong the existence of the Alvarez Empire!"

Finally finished! Were you all stunned?!

To elevate hosting a major competition to such a high level, I must be a genius!!

Kira was secretly pleased with himself and began to drink alcohol to quench his thirst.

Just as Kira had expected, his impassioned speech left Eileen and her two henchmen completely stunned. They blinked and stared at the composed Kira, as if they had seen something strange.

Standing behind Eileen, the girl in black, Heine, stared wide-eyed, her face filled with disbelief. Her only word to describe her shock was, "Who is this person? Is he still that good-for-nothing who only works less than two hours a day, using excuses like drinking water and going to the toilet to slack off? How can he spout such a ridiculous yet seemingly logical string of words? Could it really be, as Lady Eileen said, that he's not actually a traveling merchant, but a comedian?"

Irene is no naive girl; she was once a queen who ruled a country, and her political skills are far more experienced than Zeref's and most of the Twelve Shields. So after hearing Kira's speculation, she was immediately able to analyze how likely Kira's idea was to come to pass in the future.

The final conclusion is... Kira was just talking nonsense!

The whole process seems reasonable and well-founded, but the Alvarez Empire has its own national conditions. Kira's hidden dangers... make some sense and are very likely to happen, but for the empire's rulers, the decline of national power is completely irrelevant!

Jelf initially established the Alvarez Empire to pass the time. In his view, it was just a game of chess, and even the Twelve Shields were merely pawns. He didn't care about the lives of his people or the survival of the empire.

The empire has fallen? Then rebuild it!

A person dies? Then let them be reborn!

Don't know magic? Then learn!

Need fifty years to restore national strength? Then let's play around for another fifty years, what's the big deal!

Furthermore, the Alvarez Empire is very likely to launch a 'holy war of destruction' to wipe out humanity in the future, and the time until the start of this 'holy war' is no more than fifty years away.

Even for Jelf, waging war requires usable 'pieces', and over the years, the two most useful pieces he has acquired are August and Irene.

I'll leave Erin aside, August is already over 80 years old and has very little time left to live, so Zeref will definitely launch a war before August dies.

After the war ends, humanity has perished (the timeline restarts), and what would have happened afterward is no longer important.

Chapter 515 After Eileen comes Ultear.

"I don't care" and "the future is unimportant"—this is not only Jelf's mindset, but also Erin's.

Eileen is equally indifferent to the life and death of humanity, and to the survival of the Alvarez Empire!

If you were to ask her what she cares about most, it would undoubtedly be her own body!

Betrayed by her people and transformed into a dragon for four hundred years, her mind had long since collapsed. Although she received help from Zeref and used shapeshifting magic to become human, she had essentially become a dragon.

She had no taste for food, couldn't sleep at night, and was tormented by pain, loneliness, and emptiness for twenty years. Even though her body had become accustomed to this torment, she still longed to become human every moment.

Because of loneliness, he attached a part of his personality to the sword, creating two female servants to accompany him; because he lost his sense of taste, he no longer liked to eat, and even hated the idea of ​​watching others enjoy food.

I can't even enjoy my food, so why can you? And not only can you, but you're also jumping around and showing off in front of me. Do you want to die?

People who have been caught in the rain often like to tear other people's umbrellas to shreds.

This is why Irene wants to refuse Kira's invitation to the 'Food Contest'!

However... she didn't want to tell her secret to Kira, an outsider who had only recently appeared and might even have ulterior motives.

During this time, Erin handed over the town's work to Kira and assigned his personal maid, Heine, to keep an eye on him. However, she didn't just stay at home sunbathing; instead, she went to investigate Kira's background.

As a result, all they learned was that he had initially landed in a coastal city in the south, claiming to be a merchant from Ishgar. His family had gone bankrupt and moved to the western continent, and Kira and his twin brother were the bodyguards of this family.

When Eileen saw this message, only one thought echoed in her mind: What kind of nonsense is this?!

In her view, Kira's strength was no weaker than the other shields, so how could he just be an ordinary bodyguard? He wasn't the returned God of Magic! Where did all the people who came to the Alvarez Empire with him go?