Laxus looked down at Natsu with disdain and said,
"You can't even beat Erza, and you think you can take me on?"
Erza's face darkened as she heard that, her sharp gaze locking onto Laxus.
"What's that supposed to mean?"
She admitted that her strength might not match Laxus's, but his words were clearly belittling her.
"Hey, Erza, calm down!"
Marcus quickly stepped in to de-escalate. If Erza and Laxus fought inside the guild, it really might get destroyed.
Laxus spread his arms wide and arrogantly shouted,
"It means I'm the strongest, obviously!"
"You bastard, get down here!!"
Seeing Laxus act so cocky and disrespectful, Natsu was fuming.
"Come up here then."
Laxus smirked and provoked him even more.
And sure enough, the impulsive Natsu took the bait. He stormed toward the second-floor stairs, furious.
"You just wait!"
Whoosh!
Makarov's arm suddenly extended—growing large and long in an instant.
BAM!!
"YAAAH—!!"
Just as Natsu reached the staircase, he was slammed into the ground by Makarov's punch.
"You're not ready to go up there yet," Makarov said flatly.
Laxus leaned over the railing to look down at Natsu and said gleefully,
"Ooh, looks like you pissed off the old man."
"Hmph!!" Natsu growled in frustration.
Makarov shot a glance at Laxus.
"You need to cool it too, Laxus."
Laxus stood up, then looked around at everyone in the guild. His gaze finally landed on Kaien.
"The title of strongest in Fairy Tail? I'm not giving it up to any of you. Not Erza, not Mystogan, not that old man—and definitely not Kaien. I'm the strongest!! Hahahahahaha!!"
Laxus spread his arms wide, cackled wildly, and turned into his room.
His arrogant and overbearing attitude left many people annoyed.
Kaien, however, didn't feel much of anything. Truth be told, after seeing how Laxus was redeemed later in the Fairy Tail story, he had a pretty favorable impression of him.
A strong man, soft-hearted deep down, the type to step forward when you really needed him.
Still, he could understand why people didn't like this version of Laxus. He had only joined the guild for about half a year, and Kaien had only seen him a few times. They didn't really have any connection—just like he didn't have any connection with Mystogan either.
Elfman looked at Kaien and said,
"Kaien, are you really just gonna let Laxus act like that?"
He admitted Laxus was a powerful monster. Even his sister and Erza were probably no match for him. But he believed Kaien's strength was surely above Laxus.
Kaien blinked.
"What? Let him act however he wants. What, am I supposed to beat him up just because he's cocky?"
Gray said,
"You could challenge him, beat him, and shut him up. That would put him in his place."
"Not interested."
Laxus was still Makarov's grandson. If this were his past life, Kaien would've been desperate to curry favor with someone like that—let alone beat him up.
"You scared of losing?"
"Winning or losing doesn't matter. It's just not worth it. If I have free time, I'd rather spend it doing more missions."
Before he realized it, he hadn't taken any jobs for nearly half a month. That made him a little anxious.
'How to soothe the soul? Only a 10x draw will do.'
Kaien made up his mind. Tomorrow, he'd take on an S-Class Mission.
His hand was practically itching for it.
By evening, the guild had closed up, and everyone returned to their homes.
Lucy was humming along the riverside as she walked back to her rented place.
"Mystogan and Laxus are both super famous… add Erza and Kaien in there, and no wonder Fairy Tail is so strong!"
"I think I've got a rough idea of the guild's power levels now. At the top is the Guild Master, then that mysterious old guy, then Kaien, Erza, Laxus, and Mystogan. After that tier comes me and Natsu."
"Joining Fairy Tail really was the right choice! Starting tomorrow, I'll work hard!"
Click!
Lucy opened the door to her house.
"You're back!"
"You're ba—"
"Eeeeek!!"
The moment she opened the door, she found Natsu and Happy shirtless and drenched in sweat, working out in her living room.
"Ugh, disgusting!! If you wanna bulk up, go do it at your own place!" she scolded.
Natsu grinned and held out a pink dumbbell.
"What are you talking about? We're teammates now! Here, this is for you. You like pink, right?"
"I don't care about dumbbells at all!!" Lucy snarled.
Natsu immediately dropped to do push-ups.
"If I want to beat Erza, Laxus, and Kaien, I've gotta get way stronger."
"Aye!"
Seeing Natsu start again, Lucy cried,
"This has nothing to do with me! Go home already! Help! Somebody!!"
Suddenly—
Natsu froze.
"I've decided. I'm gonna take on an S-Class Mission!"
Happy pulled out an S-Class request form and opened it for Lucy to see.
When Lucy saw the big red S symbol on the form, she was instantly stunned.
"T-This is an S-Class mission?! But aren't we not even allowed to go upstairs?!"
Mirajane had told her—only S-Class mages could go up to the second floor. Even earlier today, Natsu tried to go up and got blocked by the Guild Master.
"I just grabbed it while I was there," Happy said casually.
"Thief!!" Lucy shouted, eyes wide.
Natsu, now dressed, beamed.
"This is our first S-Class mission, so we picked the cheapest one. Even so, the reward is 7 million J. If we pull this off, the old man might finally acknowledge my strength."
"Wait… isn't this the same mission Kaien was planning to take?"
Lucy suddenly remembered the other day—when Erza invited Kaien to join them. He'd gone up to the second floor to pick a job, and Lucy had snuck a peek. She was pretty sure it was this exact one.
"Yup! It's the only S-Class request on the second floor!" Happy confirmed.
When he snuck upstairs to grab the job, there was only one S-Class mission posted. It had to be the one Kaien was planning to take.
"No! If you two go and complete this mission, and Kaien finds out you took it before he could…"
Natsu nodded and grinned.
"He'll definitely kill me."
"Aye!"
Happy nodded solemnly. Having spent the last half-year with Kaien, they both knew just how obsessed he was with S-Class missions. Kaien absolutely refused to do regular jobs when there was an S-Class one available.
He treated S-Class missions like his personal treasure. If Kaien found out they took it from under his nose…
Even if he didn't kill them, he'd definitely beat them half to death.