"Eh?!"
Hearing the village chief's request, Lucy and the others were all startled.
Destroying the moon? Who could destroy the moon? Even the most powerful Mages couldn't do that.
Takeshi thought for a moment and said, "Hmm… I understand the situation you've described. I still need to investigate how to lift the curse."
"Then… when can the curse be lifted?"
"Tomorrow night." Takeshi said indifferently.
"Tomorrow night?!"
"That's great!"
"This is wonderful!"
"The curse will be lifted tomorrow night!"
The village chief and the villagers, hearing Takeshi's affirmative reply, all showed expressions of surprise and couldn't stop cheering. They had been tormented by this curse to the point of madness, and now it was finally going to be lifted.
Gray quickly leaned into Takeshi's ear and whispered, "Hey. Takeshi, we haven't even figured out the curse yet. Isn't it too rash to give an exact time so quickly?"
Takeshi smiled confidently and said, "Don't worry. I have it handled."
Hearing that Takeshi could lift the curse by tomorrow night, the village chief became enthusiastic.
"Someone! Quickly take the mages to the guest rooms to rest, and prepare fruits and food for them to enjoy."
"Yes."
Soon, guided by the villagers, the group arrived at the guest rooms. Natsu was also carried in by the villagers, covered from head to toe in bandages.. But even so, it didn't stop him from eating.
Seeing Natsu's energetic behaviour, Lucy and the others breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed Takeshi was right. Natsu had only suffered some superficial injuries.
"Ugh… Takeshi, you went too far. How could you be so heavy-handed?!" Natsu complained to Takeshi. He felt pain with every movement.
Takeshi said irritably, "If I didn't use a heavy hand, you wouldn't learn your lesson. Sneaking off to do an S-Class Quest, and even tricking Lucy into going with you, how could you even think of that?"
Natsu mumbled, "Didn't you do the same thing back then, tricking Elfman into doing an S-Class Quest with you?"
"Most importantly, it's one thing for you to secretly do an S-Class Quest, but you absolutely shouldn't have stolen my S-Class Quest. I'm already being lenient. If there's a next time, I'll break your legs. Then let's see if you can still sneak out."
S-Class Quests were crucial to the speed of his growth. Sometimes, he would spend many days at the guild just waiting for an S-Class Quest.
His S-Class Quest was almost stolen, so how could Takeshi not be angry?
Natsu was startled to hear this. Takeshi might not break his legs in his other forms, but when transforming into Tyrant, he could definitely do something like that.
However, he had no choice. There was only one S-Class Quest on the second-floor request board.
"The more I look at this moon, the creepier it gets." Happy said, looking at the purple moon in the sky outside the window.
Seeing this, Lucy quickly said, "Happy, quickly close the window. Did you forget what the village chief said?"
"What did he say?"
"If we stay in the moonlight for too long, we'll turn into demons too."
Happy said indifferently, "What does it matter? Anyway, Takeshi will lift the curse tomorrow night, and if I turn into a demon, maybe I'll be quite handsome."
Natsu asked excitedly, "By the way, Takeshi, are you going to destroy the moon tomorrow night?"
Gray retorted, "How is that possible? How can humans destroy the moon? Even if Takeshi is strong, he definitely can't do that."
Natsu said, "But their request is to destroy the moon. If we can't do it, won't it harm Fairy Tail's reputation?"
"If we can't do it, we can't do it. Besides, even if they ask us to destroy the moon, we can't actually do it. If the moon is destroyed, we won't be able to enjoy moon-gazing anymore."
"That's right. In that case, the Fairy Tail limited edition special moon-gazing steak will also be gone."
Happy also chimed in, "It's unacceptable if my moon-gazing dried fish is gone."
Lucy complained speechlessly, "How did the conversation shift to food? Aren't we talking about the curse right now? Takeshi, since you said you'll lift the curse tomorrow night, you must have thought of a way to do it, right?"
Takeshi took a bite of an apple and nodded. "That's right."
"So fast! Takeshi, you found out how to lift the curse so quickly? What exactly is this curse about?"
Everyone looked at Takeshi curiously. This curse seemed too terrifying, capable of turning people into demons. They wanted to know how Takeshi would lift the curse.
Takeshi said, "Aren't you all eager to do an S-Class Quest? Then I'll give you another chance. Tomorrow night, I will lift the curse. During this time, you can try to lift the curse yourselves. If you succeed, it will count as completing an S-Class Quest."
"Really?!"
Everyone immediately became excited upon hearing this.
"That's great. If we complete an S-Class Quest, won't we be able to go to the second floor?" Lucy said happily.
If she could go to the second floor, wouldn't her status in the guild be the same as Takeshi's?
Gray shook his head. "No, you can't go to the second floor. Even when Takeshi completed an S-Class Quest, Master didn't allow him to go to the second floor. It was only after he became an S-Class Mage that Takeshi was allowed on the second floor."
"That doesn't matter. As long as we complete an S-Class Quest, won't our guild status greatly improve?"
"Yawn... You guys can keep discussing, I'm going to sleep first."
Takeshi yawned, then lied down, covered himself, and rested. Soon, he fell into a deep sleep.
...
In the morning, the sun rose high, and its warm rays dispelled the darkness of the night, bringing the world back to life.
Takeshi stretched lazily. "So comfortable..."
Sun Breathing's inherent healing ability fully restored his body overnight, and his depleted magic power was also completely refilled after a night's rest. He was now full of vigor.
"Good morning."
A weak voice sounded behind Takeshi.
Takeshi turned his head and said, "Good… Hmm? What happened to you all?"
He saw that the three people and one cat were all listless, looking as if they were about to die.
Gray yawned, extremely sleepy, and said, "It's all because we were discussing how to lift the curse, and we didn't sleep all night."
Takeshi curiously asked, "Did you come up with any results from your discussion last night?"
Lucy shook her head. "No clue."
Everyone was very puzzled. They had all come with Takeshi, so why was Takeshi able to figure out how to lift the curse while they couldn't?
They tried to recall the details together, but no matter how they thought about it, they couldn't find any differences. Yet, Takeshi's confident demeanor didn't seem fake at all. It was clear he already knew how to break the curse.