Just as the stage was shrouded in a cloud of dust and Natsu's crash landing debris, the audience held their breath, thinking a terrible accident had occurred.
The theater was silent for a heartbeat.
Then, a clear, magnetic voice suddenly rang out from the center of the chaos, cutting through the smoke like a blade.
"My dear princess... how could I let you be taken away by this ambitious, second-rate prince!"
Lucy, coughing and scrambling out from under a pile of broken wood, looked up in disarray.
She froze upon hearing the strange, unscripted call.
'Who is that?'
As the dust settled, everyone focused their gaze on the center stage.
Standing there was a man dressed in a deep black, form-fitting formal suit with a high collar.
He wore a distinct, stylish hood and a symbol on his chest, with a thin rapier fastened at his waist.
He looked spirited, mysterious, and utterly commanding as he faced the chaotic crowd.
It was Ankh.
Erza, still holding her fake sword, and Gray, who had been hiding in the wings, stood at the edge of the stage, staring dumbfounded at Ankh's sudden appearance.
'What's going on?!' they screamed internally. 'This wasn't in the script!!'
At this moment, Ankh had fully embraced the role.
His crimson eyes were resolute and cold, shining with a dangerous light. He had removed his mask, revealing a fair, translucent face with sharp features that even a goddess would envy.
The dark costume contrasted perfectly with his pale skin, giving him the aura of a fallen angel.
This impossibly handsome man, from the moment he appeared, instantly captured the attention of everyone present.
The air in the theater seemed to change pressure.
"This man..." a woman in the front row whispered, clutching her chest. "He is so... handsome!"
"Indeed..." her friend murmured, drooling slightly. "So dreamy... so dangerously good-looking! Is he a new actor?"
"Why would a guy of this caliber appear in a run-down theater like this?"
"Wait," an older woman in the back row stood up, adjusting her glasses. "Haven't you noticed? This man's looks... that voice... they seem familiar..."
Ignoring the murmurs, Ankh calmly looked at Erza and Lucy.
He pointed a gloved finger at the "Prince."
"I am Sieghart!" Ankh declared, his cape billowing from a wind spell he secretly cast. "You despicable prince, how dare you steal my fiancée! Draw your sword!"
Lucy, playing the princess, was immediately thrown into confusion.
Her brain short-circuited.
'What is Ankh doing? How did these lines get inserted?! And since when am I his fiancée?!'
Just then, the realization hit the audience like a lightning bolt.
The previously silent crowd below suddenly recognized Ankh's familiar face—the face that had once graced every magazine cover in Fiore.
Human nature is inherently drawn to gossip and beauty. It turned out that a significant portion of the female audience had lived through "That Era"—the era when Ankh debuted as a young prodigy and dominated the Sorcerer Weekly rankings at the peak of his popularity.
The silence broke.
"KYAAAAAAAH!"
The voices from the audience suddenly erupted like a violent tsunami, exploding throughout the theater with enough force to shake the rafters!
"It's Ankh! It's Ankh!"
"It's really him! The Dark Prince!"
"Oh my god! It's the handsome man who dominated an era with his looks back then!!"
"Darn it!! Why didn't anyone tell me Ankh would appear today! My makeup is a mess! My friends will kill me if they find out I saw Ankh in the flesh and didn't invite them!"
The theater immediately buzzed with chaotic excitement.
It was filled with the fervent shouts of beautiful girls, middle-aged housewives, and grandmothers alike.
Many even collapsed, crying tears of joy for unknown reasons.
The clueless male attendees around them watched in horror.
They saw these girls, whose pretty faces were flushed bright red, looking at Ankh as if gazing upon a long-lost lover.
The men were too frightened to utter a word.
'Weren't these women quite reserved when the performance started?' the men thought.
'Why are they all acting like they're on drugs now?!'
In the audience, a bewildered young man turned to his date.
He looked at the "goddess" he had been tirelessly pursuing for months, only to see her in an unusually frenzied state, screaming Ankh's name.
"Baby..." the young man asked in confusion. "Who is this guy? Why are you so excited? He's just an actor..."
The goddess didn't even look at him.
She impatiently swatted his hand away, trembling with fanaticism as she exclaimed.
"Shut up! You don't understand a thing!"
She pointed at the stage with a shaking finger. "This is Ankh! The idol of girls! Even now, countless people still sleep with his posters and merchandise! He is a legend!"
The young man shrank back, jealousy and resentment bubbling in his chest.
"But... he's just a man... I'm a man too..."
The girl turned to him, her eyes wild. "If you had even half—no, one-fifth—of Ankh's charm, I'd be the one chasing you! But you don't! So hush!"
The goddess broke free from the young man's grasp and continued to shout fervently at the figure on stage who was being showered with admiration.
"ANKH! MARRY ME!"
Meanwhile, the young man sat pitifully in his seat, feeling utterly defeated.
A single tear rolled down his cheek.
'So, love really does fade away, doesn't it...' he thought bitterly.
'In the end, a simp never gets the house.'
As for Ankh, standing center stage, he watched the nearly riotous female fans below.
He maintained a calm, cool, and composed appearance on the outside—the perfect "Sieghart."
But inside, he was panicking.
'Holy crap,' Ankh thought, sweating internally.
'I truly hadn't expected that even after all these years of hiding, my popularity would still be this overwhelming. It's been years!'
'Why do these fans have such good memories? Shouldn't they have moved on to someone else after their idol's downfall, disappearance, or lack of activity? Don't they like the Trimens from Blue Pegasus now?'
At this point, while the situation on stage had been salvaged from Erza's bad acting and Natsu's fall, Ankh's own predicament seemed to be spiraling out of control.
The frenzied fans below surged toward the stage like a tidal wave.
They climbed over seats, pushing past the ushers, looking as though they were about to sweep Ankh away and devour him whole.
In the VIP seats, Mirajane watched the escalating chaos below.
She covered her mouth, giggling.
"My, my," Mirajane said with a chuckle. "Ankh still underestimates his fans. Many of them never forgot him at all!"
Makarov looked on with concern, gripping the railing.
"I'm more worried that this might lead to another kind of stage accident... My insurance doesn't cover 'Stampede by Fangirls'!"
Bob, the Blue Pegasus master, couldn't help but wiggle his plump body in his seat.
He fanned himself with a handkerchief and said coyly, "Finally seeing little Ankh in person—he truly lives up to his reputation! Such charisma! Even I feel like im about to faint!"
CRACK!
Just then, the already beleaguered stage, having endured Erza's sword rain, Natsu's dragon crash, and now the pressure of the crowding audience leaning on the apron, finally met its tragic end.
The wooden beams snapped.
BOOM!
The stage collapsed.
The performers on stage quickly devolved into a full-blown guild brawl to protect themselves from the falling debris and the grabbing hands of the fans.
"Fire Dragon Roar!"
"Ice Make: Shield!"
"Get back! I am a Prince!"
In the midst of Director Lucy's despair, the performance—which had followed a scriptless, chaotic plot from start to finish—finally came to an abrupt end, concluding the farce in true Fairy Tail fashion.
Lucy sighed, burying her face in her hands.
She had known all along that any performance by Fairy Tail would inevitably end in utter chaos.
After the so-called performance concluded, the team members awkwardly dodged the fans' relentless pursuit.
They barely managed to escape the theater thanks to their athletic abilities as Mages, jumping over rooftops to flee the mob.
And so, Lucy's long-awaited performance task came to a hasty and anticlimactic end.
However, in terms of outcomes, everyone gained something from the experience.
First, there was the client, Rabian.
Although the performance ended in an explosion and a collapsed stage... Ankh's final appearance saved the day.
The news spread like wildfire.
The previously unpopular theater suddenly saw a surge in audience numbers.
Reportedly, for months afterward, most of the newcomers were female audience members.
They all insisted on visiting the "Holy Land" where Ankh had performed, buying scraps of the broken stage as souvenirs.
Rabian made a fortune selling wood chips!
Aside from him, Natsu and Gray had purely come for fun.
They ended up having a fight, destroying some property, and earning some money, so they were quite pleased with themselves.
Then there was Erza, who was probably the happiest of all.
After the performance, Erza remained completely unaware of how terrible her acting had been.
Because the audience screamed so loud (for Ankh), she assumed they were screaming for her poignant portrayal of the Prince.
For months afterward, she continued to fondly reminisce about her theater debut, threatening to perform Shakespeare in the guild hall.
As for Lucy, the unfortunate director, though her first attempt left her covered in dust and frustration, she gained valuable experience and lessons.
The biggest lesson? Write scripts in plain, understandable language, make sure the actors remember to breathe between lines, and never, ever let Natsu play as a dragon.
And finally, as for Ankh.
This experience made him realize a crucial fact: his popularity had not diminished in the slightest over the years.
If anything, the mystery of his absence had made him more desirable.
If it were before, Ankh might have grown weary of the attention.
But now, with Mirajane's assistance and the promise of an "Agent," he viewed the screaming fans differently.
He didn't see a mob..... he only saw potential customers!
He had developed many business ideas.
To put it bluntly, Ankh realized that the operational model of a mage guild is essentially a high-risk, high-reward service industry—ultimately providing assistance (labor/violence) for the wealthy.
It was inefficient.
Though the members of Fairy Tail act with carefree freedom, Ankh thought as he counted his share of the reward, we are just mercenaries.
Ankh considered himself quite superior to that.
He imagined that, like Jude Heartfilia, he could use money and influence to build an empire!
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