A head of black hair is tied up with a headscarf, cheeks slightly flushed, wearing only purple shoulder guards and arm armor on the upper body, revealing muscular chest and abs, with a wine gourd hanging at the waist, loose five-part pants and little cloth shoes below...
The incoming person is the S-Class Mage of the Four-headed Hound, Drunken Eagle Baggs.
Behind him are two more people, one is the yellow-haired Loka with the split hairstyle that Rhode had seen before, and the other is someone very bulky with a clown face.
Rhode glanced at them and said, "I also want to ask, why is it you again?"
"Because the President says we must beat Fairy Tail and also catch the Three-headed Dog to guard the gate." Baggs took a gulp from the wine gourd, "Ha~ really likes bossing people around."
"Hmm?" Rhode noted that this was different from what he knew, "Wasn't it supposed to be a friendly interaction?"
Although his own President also hinted at winning no matter what, he didn't expect the other side's President to be so blatant about it.
These old friends really do enjoy competing with each other.
Baggs drunkenly said, "Who wants to interact with men? If it were Erza, I might consider it..."
Bullshit, Erza said there wasn't a single meeting between you two that didn't end in a fight.
"Brother Rhode, we found out." At this time Wendy returned with Carla, looking somewhat puzzled at Baggs and the other two.
Lucy also came over at about the same time, asking, "Who are they?"
Before Rhode could speak, Baggs butted in, complaining, "Why does your guild have so many cute girls?"
He looked at the two underlings he brought, then at Rhode's companions and felt defeated.
That President of his should really reform the guild to attract more beautiful mages, shouldn't he?
Rhode waved his hand in disgust to dispel the alcohol fumes in front of him and introduced, "Baggs Glay, once a mage on par with Erza, not sure about now."
"Isn't he the ace of the Four-headed Hound? Called the Drunken Eagle..." Lucy had some impression of this famous person from the Wizard Weekly.
Wendy and Carla were completely unaware, but hearing Rhode say he was a match for Erza, they both showed surprise.
Rhode asked, "And then, what's your plan for this task?"
Baggs smiled, "Same as before, either do our own thing and whoever finishes first wins, or fight now, and the loser has to go back the way they came."
"Brother Baggs..." The bulky man in black clothes seemed anxious, whispering to him, "That's the Ten Wizard Saints."
"Doesn't matter, the Four-headed Hound doesn't run just because they hear a name." Baggs hiccuped and shouted, "WILD~~"
The two underlings followed, "FOUR!"
"WILD!"
"FOUR!!!"
Carla squinted her eyes, showing an expression of looking at fools.
Wendy looked a bit scared, and Lucy slightly leaned back, clearly not understanding why they suddenly started shouting slogans.
But Baggs was finally satisfied with his two underlings' spirit and turned back to Rhode, "So what, wanna fight?"
Rhode looked around the streets and declined, "Forget it, it's not the right place, and we have something urgent to do, this time let's just investigate separately."
Baggs immediately understood what was likely going on and said in annoyance, "You really have accepted another task at the same time?"
"Taking the newbies out," Rhode said, "We already encountered the Hell Three-headed Dog on the way, that creature can use Fire Magic and Earth Magic, might know Space Magic too, its saliva is likely poisonous, so be careful yourselves."
Rhode shared the information without hesitation, even telling them the place where they met the Three-headed Dog.
Loka and Semus were eager to write it down, but Baggs glared at Rhode.
"Don't look at me that way, I'm just an opponent, not an enemy. Of course, the same task should share intelligence."
Is this the magnanimity of the Ten Wizard Saints? Semus showed an expression of admiration.
Loka found it somewhat unbelievable.
Back in the day, he was Baggs' follower, and Rhode was Erza's follower. Although he was stronger than me, our positions should have been similar.
How did his growth become so startling now?
Whether in terms of strength or otherwise, it seems I've already completely lost the ability to compare to him.
Baggs staggered away with his two companions, obstinately saying, "Don't regret your generosity if you lose."
Rhode shook his head with a smile, if 'the kids' of the President's old friend got into trouble because he withheld information, that's when he'd truly regret it.
He called out, "Let's go."
However, his companions seemed to be instantly fired up.
"This concerns your reputation, we will definitely win, Mr. Rhode!"
"I don't want to lose to that kind of guy either," Carla said, "I'll give you all my 'prophecies'."
Wendy said, "I'll make sure to heal... No, maybe I should just go to Illusory Butterfly Wings by myself?"
"...Having fighting spirit is a good thing," Rhode said, "We've searched carefully and couldn't find it, it won't be easy for them to make progress either. Let's take it step by step."
If worst comes to worst, Rhode still has 'spies' along the way.
The two of them and one cat nodded in unison, but their fighting spirit seemed even stronger.
Wendy didn't want to lose because she held everyone back, and Carla didn't want Wendy to blame herself.
Lucy thought maybe next time she should directly use her ultimate move against the Three-headed Dog, or that guy Baggs.
If opening two gates at once isn't enough to make Mr. Rhode view her differently, then that move definitely will!
...
"Ro-Ro-Ro... Mr. Rhode!"
The receptionist of Illusory Butterfly Wings is actually the wife of the President, in her forties, looking quite dignified.
But seeing Rhode made her extremely nervous.
She knew there was a task assigned to Fairy Tail, but didn't expect such a significant figure would come.
Though she was keen to see the Ten Wizard Saints in person, usually there wouldn't be a need for them to come to their guild in such situations.
Did Mr. Rhode think their performance was too poor and order them to disband?
The anxious receptionist had already imagined a long string of consequences resulting from task failure.
Rhode's mood was indeed not great, because her stuttering was like feeding pigs...
But he couldn't say that, so just asked directly, "Excuse me, is Miss Phil and Mr. Doru here?"
Indeed, he was here for that task!
The receptionist lady cautiously said, "I'm sorry, the two of them are still in the hospital."
"Let's go to the hospital." Rhode said to Wendy.
Just as he was about to ask for the specific ward, the receptionist's wife mustered up the courage to say:
"Um, you can't blame them for the task, it was our guild's mistake of not understanding the difficulty, we let them go without permission, it was all my and my husband's fault, if you want to blame someone..."
Rhode: "Huh?"