"It's not exactly a bad draw, considering the state of our guild right now, we don't really have the luxury to pick and choose tasks."
Makarov said quite frankly, "So personally, I don't mind taking on high-difficulty tasks. But... since the target involves dealing with the Hell Three-headed Dog, the Four-headed Hound also wants to get involved."
Rhode guessed, "…Wouldn't that be just to prove the Four-headed Dog is better than the Three-headed Dog? Such a trivial reason?"
Makarov gave him a glance and laughed, "You do know Goldman quite well."
"Hehe." Rhode smirked, considering the old friend of yours, what serious ideas could he possibly have.
He asked, "Do the two guilds need to compete?"
"No, Goldman's idea is to exchange ideas, but whether it's a competition or collaboration, that's up to the youngsters to decide." Makarov said, "He probably also wants to see if we're keeping up with the times."
"Hmm... I suppose it could be seen as a positive thing; weren't our two guilds already exchanging ideas?" Rhode felt it wasn't much, "So why are you worrying?"
"Because I've never heard of such a magical beast before, even Kitchen God's Knife finds this guy odd, but can't quite pinpoint what exactly is off. So I'm worried there might be some danger..."
As he said this, Makarov looked at Rhode and laughed again, "But since you're back, why don't you go?"
"…" Rhode sighed, "Oh, what a bother, dealing with a president who doesn't consider others. Just back from a trip and without asking if I'm tired, you send me off again."
Makarov felt a bit uncomfortable, "Have you noticed that you sound a lot like Mira when you say that?"
"Do I? I'm just speaking the truth."
Makarov's beard twitched a bit, grumpily saying, "Who told you not to become the president? If you became the fourth generation, you could make me go on a trip now."
"How could I possibly order you around... I'll go, I'll go." Rhode didn't mind taking a trip, it wouldn't take too long anyway.
"So it's decided, when will you set out?"
"In the afternoon, I have a few things to finish here."
"Rhode! Come fight me again..." Natsu kicked open the door, but his challenge quickly came to a halt, "Old man?!"
"Natsu? Just in time." Makarov picked up a pile of documents, smiling at Natsu, "Come with me!"
"...Aye?" Natsu's tone changed, feeling guilty.
Makarov turned and left, now he too would start getting busy, busy with having some 'heart-to-heart' talks with these good kids.
Rhode smiled as he watched Natsu being taken away by the president, then turned around to see Mira with a troubled expression.
In front of her were Wendy and Carla.
One person and one cat seemed to be having a disagreement.
It's rare for Wendy and Carla to have a disagreement, Rhode curiously asked, "What's going on?"
Carla snorted at Wendy, and Wendy snorted back at Carla.
Mira handed a paper to Rhode and explained, "Wendy picked a somewhat dangerous task, Carla wants her to choose another one, but Wendy refused."
"What task is worth arguing over?" Rhode glanced at the reward, 500,000 J, from the reward alone it seemed a bit risky.
This level already required seasoned mages to take it seriously and complete it.
Wendy's strength... From her magic power alone, it should be qualified, but her age is too young, too innocent, hard to feel at ease.
Rhode looked at the content, the requirement was to eliminate or drive away the poisonous bees near the village and help detoxify the villagers who got stung.
"Helping with detoxification seems quite suitable for Wendy."
Wendy immediately cheered up, "See! Brother Rhode says so too."
Carla urgently said, "Hey, take a closer look at the later part, it says there have been other mages who tried, yet before dealing with the bees, they got stung while picking herbs!"
Rhode continued to read, the task location was in a small village called Lutus, initially, villagers were getting stung by bees when they went out to till the fields.
Since this kind of thing is quite common, people didn't pay much attention.
But those who got stung showed symptoms of poisoning, the village called a doctor and planned to deal with these bees themselves.
They didn't expect these bees to be hard to handle, more and more people were getting poisoned from stings, even the detoxifying herbs were running out.
They had to hire mages from a small guild in the nearby town.
As a result, two more people got involved.
That guild deemed it couldn't handle it, so they told them to entrust it to a major guild.
Originally, they planned to entrust Sabertooth, but then rumors spread about someone dismantling Sabertooth's matters...
Villagers felt Fairy Tail might be more powerful than Sabertooth, so the task ended up here, and the reward also increased quite a bit.
Wendy was very worried about the poisoned villagers, so she really wanted to go.
While Carla's intuition told her those bees weren't simple, that Wendy going would be dangerous, so she adamantly disagreed.
This one person and one cat were both like little girls, each felt the other didn't understand them, so they started quarreling a bit, having a disagreement.
Now both Wendy and Carla were staring at Rhode, hoping he would support them.
Mira suggested, "If going alone is dangerous, why not form a team?"
Upon hearing this, Wendy and Carla immediately forgot their disagreement and frowned together, "Forming a team feels tiring."
Actually, it's quite fun going out with everyone, no matter how tough the task, it always gets completed, but...
Often, it adds a lot of unnecessary exhaustion.
While it can be considered a kind of enjoyment in some way, they occasionally want to complete a task simply.
Kind-hearted Wendy softly expressed, "Miss Erza said she planned to check out some new armor today, Mr. Gray has training schedules, Mr. Natsu... "
Just called away by the president, now you can still hear the president's voice from a certain poorly soundproofed room.
The old man seemed to plan on calculating all the good deeds Natsu had done recently together.
Although Makarov would support the kids in walking their own paths, that's after the scolding.
Wendy thought for a moment, then said, "Should we invite Miss Lucy?"
Carla considered it and sighed, "Having her along doesn't put minds at ease."
Rhode laughed, "Why not invite me?"
Wendy was delighted, "Can we?"
Carla asked, "Didn't the president just give you a task?"
"I'm going to Kerber Town, the guild of the mages Lutus Village previously hired is right in that town. So we can completely act together."
Rhode smiled, "Just right, originally I should spend more time with Wendy, but was interrupted by Edolas, exams, and all sorts of things, let's take this chance to make up for it, how about that?"
Wendy was so happy she jumped up, "Great!"