A magic merchant infiltrating Fairy Tail

"Keep going! Gray... threw a 2!"

[Punishment: Move to the nearest square of the same color!]

Move to the nearest square of the same color?

Ultear, her face grim, took two steps back to her original spot, her beautiful eyes glaring fiercely at Gray as if she wanted to devour him.

Gray: "..."

Why are you glaring at me? I didn't mean to! It's all the chairman's fault!

Kira didn't care about Ultear's tantrums behind him, because it was now his turn to roll the dice.

Kira picked up the wooden die that everyone had and gave it a slight shake. It was quite heavy, but there were tricks to rolling dice. The technique, angle, force, air friction, and so on—if you calculated it well, you could roll the number you wanted, even one as big as this.

But... Kira won't!

So he could only try.

"Since we have so many chances, the success rate should be higher once we get more proficient!"

However, just as Kira was about to roll the dice, he caught a glimpse of Gildarts's lecherous old face out of the corner of his eye, and a bold idea suddenly popped into his head.

Kira had honed his magic to the point where it was activated before his mind could process it, a level of effortless mastery. In layman's terms, his hands moved faster than his brain. So, before his brain could issue a prohibition command, his hands had already begun to act.

Boom!

The heavy piece of wood "gently" landed on Gildas's head.

"It hurts!!"

Giladas instantly regained consciousness and his mind cleared. He jumped up in alarm, crossed his arms in front of him in a defensive gesture, and looked around warily.

"Who is it?! Who is it?! Who is it…"

Everyone: "..."

Who is this lecherous old man who's so engrossed in looking at beautiful women? How embarrassing! Pull him away right now! Don't tell anyone we know him!

What? Daughter? Sorry, you've mistaken me for someone else!

"Kira!!"

Seeing that everything was safe and sound, Gildarts seemed to finally realize that he had been tricked. He turned around abruptly and stared at Kira with a dangerous look full of resentment.

"What good deeds have you done?!"

Makarov could understand Gildas's feelings at that moment, because he had also been young and had experienced this kind of thing—although he still does it often now and was just now doing it—it's normal for anyone to be angry when they are looking at a beautiful woman and are disturbed like this by the person next to them.

But he can't side with Gildarts now, because everyone's eyes have changed when they look at Gildarts. The look of "This old man is a pervert, everyone stay away from him" is impossible to hide. He can't let his lifelong reputation be ruined in an instant.

"I'm sorry, Gildas! It's not that I don't want to help you, it's just that I'm powerless to do so..."

"Sorry, Gildas! My hand slipped..."

Kira pretended to be nonchalant and said in a calm tone, "President, please relay this message!"

Makarov drew a card and shouted, "5 points! [Challenge: Solve 100 addition and subtraction problems within two digits within three minutes. If you get over 90% correct, you advance the same number of steps as the number rolled.]"

Seeing Natsu standing in his designated spot, everyone fell into deep thought: Addition and subtraction within two digits weren't difficult, but one hundred in three minutes? Achieving over 90% accuracy was a feat even a child at their peak, just learning addition and subtraction, might not be able to do. Could Natsu really manage it? Happy could probably do it better…

"Doing math problems? Me??"

Natsu looked utterly astonished: Isn't this an S-rank assessment? A test of answering questions? I'm just an ordinary, semi-literate mage raised by a dragon! This question is way too difficult for me! Answering one question every two seconds on average and maintaining a high accuracy rate... I doubt many people in the entire guild could even manage that.

"That's right, it's you!"

Seeing Natsu's helpless expression, Makarov smiled slyly. "Don't worry, Natsu! Losing won't be a big deal. At most, you'll just have wasted an opportunity..."

"Alright then!" Natsu smiled憨憨地, a bright and warm smile, just like the sun in the sky at that moment.

Makarov was taken aback. He had originally thought that if Natsu really didn't want to do it, then so be it.

That's true. Natsu isn't the kind of person who gives up easily, and his potential is actually very high. He might just be able to create a miracle!

"Then let's give it a try!"

Natsu had attended academic classes, and although he had forgotten Anna's existence due to the eclipse, his body's memory of that smell... was a memory of mathematical calculations, and it still existed in his subconscious.

However, this time he chose to take on the challenge not because of confidence, but for other reasons.

In Natsu's mind, Kira was the smartest person he had ever met, and there was no problem that could stump him, so perhaps he could do it; while Lucy was the second smartest person he had ever met, could she do it? Intuition told Natsu that no!

"Even Lucy might not be able to make it, so it's normal that I can't, right?"

Three minutes later...

"What am I even expecting... This is clearly the normal situation!"

Looking at the paper Naz handed in, which only had about 70 questions filled out and less than 80% correct, Makarov felt that he was really getting old, and even his ability to judge people had declined so much.

Natsu has good potential, but that's in combat. In situations that require strategic thinking, he might not even have much mental capacity, let alone potential.

"Oops... Challenge failed!"

Everyone nodded silently, not too surprised. If Natsu could actually do it, they would think it was a ghost.

Chapter 603 Lucy: "I'm fired up!"

The dice game was in full swing, with some interesting challenges along the way.

For example, they might dress up in someone else's clothes or loudly reveal a secret, which is almost identical to Truth or Dare. Anyway, the audience members watched with great interest.

However, as noon approached and Kira and the other eight reached the midpoint, they gradually realized that something was wrong.

Compared to the initial challenges and punishments, the card quests that appeared later seemed to intentionally or unintentionally guide the eight players to interact with each other.

It wasn't anything inappropriate; Makarov wouldn't be that inappropriate. It was just some tasks like 'playing rock-paper-scissors with the person closest to you,' 'wrestling with the person in front of you,' or 'arm wrestling with the person closest to your age,' which were clearly meant to provoke the group.

Sure enough, after Natsu made a certain forward move, an event related to the assessment was finally triggered—he stood in the same square as Lucy.

According to the rules, people standing in the same square must fight a battle for the winner to advance and the loser to return to the starting point. In other words...

"Natsu is going to hit Lucy?!"

"A scene of domestic violence..."

"I'm getting better!"

"It's finally starting to look like an assessment..."

"Wow, so cool!"

"Let's fight... let's fight..."

Everyone watched Natsu and Lucy with amusement, as if they were about to see a good show.

Kira shook his head: A bunch of gloating idiots! What's so interesting about a young couple fighting? I don't know where they learned that kind of personality from... It must be the chairman!

"Natsu, don't hold back!! Women will only be an obstacle to your advancement to S-class mage!!!"

After shouting, Kira realized he had overthought things.

What kind of person is Natsu? How could he possibly give up his goals for a woman? But he definitely wouldn't go too far with Lucy, and he's capable of subduing her without hurting her.

"Hahaha... Lucy! Let's have a showdown!!"

Natsu was all smiles, flames burning in his mouth, looking every bit the warrior; while Lucy looked terrified, her face pale, her fists clenched in front of her, her feet retreating uncontrollably.

"No! No! Absolutely not!!"

"Come on, come on... Don't worry, I'll be quick, gentle, and tender..."

One retreated, the other pressed forward step by step; it was exactly like a scene from a novel where a bully harasses a beautiful girl. Several people's eyes lit up, their hearts surged, and their breathing became heavier, especially Makarov and Gildas, those two lewd old guys. Kira almost thought they were having an asthma attack.

"What should I do...? Who can save me now??" Lucy looked desperately at the others around her—

"Ah...it's so good to be young..."

Those old scoundrels are hopeless...

"This kind of scene is really embarrassing~"

Could you please tone down your smile a bit before saying things like that, Mira-san...?

"Go back and get married right now, you two bastards!"

Kana, stop drinking and wake up! For the sake of what I did for you last year, at least say a few words of support for me!

"Go for it, Ru-chan!"

Levy is still the best to me, she knows how to care about me, but just saying it won't help...

"Don't let your guard down, go all out on the ground, Lucy!"

Erza, did you even see clearly who I was going to fight...?

Looking around, Lucy finally accepted reality: "Everyone's just watching the show. All that sisterly affection is like a pile of sand in the face of entertainment; it'll fall apart with a gust of wind..."

"Can I give up?" Helpless, Lucy could only weakly raise the white flag and surrender.

"no!"

Makarov ruthlessly rejected Lucy's request, roaring, "How can you give up without even trying when faced with difficulties?! If every mage approaches the S-rank exam with such a passive attitude, how will they ever become a qualified S-rank mage?!"

"Even if we lose, it's just a matter of going through the same path again, it's no big deal! But if you surrender right away, it means you don't even have the courage to face defeat!"

Makarov was heartbroken by Lucy's cowardly behavior and severely criticized her: "If you surrender, you can forget about participating in the S-class assessment for the next three years!"

"Three years? Natsu, Gray, Gajeel, Elfman, Wendy..."

Lucy paused, then counted on her fingers the remaining strong candidates in the guild. "At a rate of at most one person per year, three years doesn't seem like a very long time..."

Makarov's old face scrunched up: "..."

Is it a matter of length? It's a matter of mindset, young lady!

Fine, if the hard approach doesn't work, then we'll have to try the soft approach!

“Lucy, you may not realize it yourself, but you have become very strong in the past year. Even in the entire Kingdom of Fiore, you are a well-known star mage. It’s just that you can’t feel the difference because our guild is stronger.”

With a kind voice and gentle manner, Makarov changed his previous reprimanding tone to an encouraging one: "I remember that at this time last year, you were already able to defeat a member of the 'Nine Ghosts Gate' on your own, right? Each of those guys is good enough to be an ace in any other magic guild in the Kingdom of Fiore. Now, after a year of training, I believe you are no longer the same as before."

"You were able to collect all the keys to the twelve zodiac planetary spirits and gain their approval, which shows that you have a great talent in this area. I don't think you would want to waste this talent and disappoint them, would you?"