Chapter 26: 26. Getting Known
Some hours after they destroyed the unknown organization, Fairy Tail is visited by a group of officers from the Magic Council.
They come here to investigate the unknown organization and take the captured Mages. Because there are Mages in that organization, the Magic Council needs to move.
After all, it might be a Dark Guild and not just a normal criminal organization. So this case can't be handled by the town's government alone.
Makarov handles the matter alone so the members can enjoy their celebration party. It makes Alex think that being a Guild Master is really tough.
But Laxus says that it's easier if Makarov handles this alone. If the others join in, they will just make things harder because they might say unnecessary things.
"The Magic Council doesn't really like Fairy Tail, you know. We often complete our jobs, but we also cause problems often. I'm sure they really want to disband us, but they can't because we are a very strong Guild. We are also one of the very few Guilds capable of clearing 10-Years job quests. So they really can't disband us despite all the problems we've caused."
Laxus explains why it's better for Makarov to handle those troublesome things alone which makes Alex even more impressed by the small old man.
"Well, usually he will take Mest with him, but that guy is out doing a long-term job."
"Mest?"
"You haven't met him yet. He took a job before you joined and hasn't returned yet. I think he's a year younger than me, but he's good with office work, so Gramps often makes him do paperwork. That old man is just using free labor."
Alex almost forgot about Mest. He doesn't know that Mest has joined the Guild already and that he's almost as old as Laxus.
(A.n: I don't know Mest's age and there's no official statement. So I just made it that he is almost as old as Laxus instead of around Natsu's age because he can be a high-rank officer in the Magic Council and Makarov sends him as a spy, so he must've been old enough to do it.)
Alex continues his talk with Laxus and after a while, Cana suddenly comes. She tells Alex that Makarov is looking for him and asks him to go to the battle site, but he doesn't tell her what he needs Alex for.
So Alex just goes there. Laxus and Cana follow him because they are curious about what Makarov needs from Alex.
"You called me, Master?"
"Alex, I need your help a bit. You can use Earth Magic, right?"
"Eh? No, I can only use Take Over."
"Ah, sorry, I mean one of your beasts can use Earth Magic, right?"
"Oh, yes, I can use Earth Magic if I transform into Shukaku. Do you need it?"
"Yeah, we need to remove the rubble here to investigate the underground rooms that get buried during the fight. There's no one who can use Earth Magic here, so I called you."
"I see. Alright then."
Alex then used partial transformation just to transform his arms into Shukaku arms. He puts his Shukaku hands on the ground and a rather big magic circle appears on the ground.
Sand comes out of the magic circle and moves toward the rubble. The sand grabs the rubble and lifts them up. Alex moves them to an empty spot so the underground room can be cleared quickly.
When the area is cleared, the investigators quickly move to check all the items in the underground room. Many of them have been destroyed when the rooms collapse, but many are still intact too because not all of the rooms are destroyed.
"Master, these destroyed buildings, we won't be responsible for them, right?"
"No, it was an unavoidable result, after all. The town and Kingdom will compensate the owners of these buildings. Usually using the money they get from the captured organization. But because the money and everything else will be used as evidence, the Kingdom and town will use their fund first before the Magic Council sends them the compensation money taken from the criminal organization. If we destroy buildings unnecessarily, then we'll be the one responsible to compensate them. But it's not the case here."
"I see, that's good then."
"Ah, about your job. I will discuss it with the client and the town government. But rest assured. You will still get paid as a reward for finding this hideout."
Alex is relieved knowing that he will still get paid even if he doesn't do the job. The abandoned building is one of the destroyed buildings.
It gets demolished just like what the client asked, but it now involves different things as well, so he isn't sure if it still can be counted as he finishes the job.
Anyway, now this matter will be handled by the Magic Council. So Fairy Tail doesn't need to do anything else and can continue their usual activities.
The next day, Alex takes another menial job in the town. Because he can use Earth Magic, Makarov gives him jobs that require the use of Earth Magic which is to dig underground tunnels as the town is expanding its underground sewer system.
He is working with the architect that shows him where to dig and the size of the tunnels. They will use concrete as the tunnel walls later, but Alex still reinforces the soil to prevent it from collapsing before they build the walls.
The town government is so impressed by the quality of his job that they specifically request him to fix the areas that were used by that criminal organization.
After investigating everything, the Magic Council found out that the organization they destroyed before was producing illegal drugs.
The base in Magnolia is just a branch they use to store ingredients found in the forest around Magnolia. They chose to build the base in the town because Fairy Tail Mages often go to the forest, so the chance of being found is higher there.
Surprisingly, they have been operating here for 4 years. It's suspicious that they haven't been exposed for that long, so the Magic Council investigated more and found out that some town officials are involved in it.
Well, it's not Alex's job to handle those things. His job now is to bury their underground base so the town can rebuild the destroyed infrastructures.
The whole base has been cleaned, so Alex can just break the walls and fill the holes with soil. But because the whole underground facility is big, Alex needs to get soil from outside the town to fully fill them.
After that, Alex keeps doing small jobs that haven't been taken by anyone like cleaning the underground sewer, exterminating rats in the cathedral, digging a basement, finding missing pets, or even just taking a grandma on a stroll around the town because her family is currently in another town and her caretaker is sick.
His Guild Mates even wonder why he takes those jobs even though he is strong enough to take jobs like monster hunting. So he tells them he just wants to enjoy himself for a while.
He surely won't keep doing those kinds of jobs forever. Then after joining the Guild for 2 months, Alex finally takes a more serious job, hunting a magical creature.
The reason is simple, he needs money. He has saved quite a lot of money to live for a while, but if he doesn't take higher-paid jobs, then he will run out of money soon.
Also, Shukaku has been nagging him so much, telling him to get more magical creatures to break the 3rd's seal, so he doesn't have any choice because it gets annoying to listen to the fat raccoon.
For this job, Makarov tells Alex to bring Cana so she can gain experience. The target of this hunt is a creature suspected to be a Leopard that has been terrorizing a farm village near Magnolia.
The Leopard has eaten their livestock for almost a month now. Obviously the villagers are afraid that the Leopard might target them later. Even if it's not, they can't let it eat their livestock or they won't have any source of income soon.
After getting a map to the village, Alex and Cana depart to do their job. Alex is quite excited now, not because of the hunt, but because he can finally see how Cana's Card Magic works in a real battle.
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Ch. 76: Rival Guilds
Weekly Power Status
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Ranking 
-- Power
stone