CHAPTER 759: WHAT IS THIS SENSE OF SECURITY?

Rhodes walked down the stairs. Mira looked up, smiled, and asked, "You’re back? Where are Natsu and the others?"

"They’re upstairs. Throwing up."

Halfway through their flight, Rhodes had decided a teleportation gate would be faster, so he had the Hextech Dragon send them straight to the guild’s rooftop gate.

Caught completely off guard, the three of them collapsed the moment they landed and had yet to recover.

Rhodes looked at Mira, who was standing behind the counter, and felt a wave of nostalgia. "Back on duty already?"

"Laki and the others insisted." Mira chuckled. She didn’t dislike returning to her old post, and she had promised that once she settled back in, she’d help them again.

"Since you’re here, go lend a hand. Laki’s document sorting method is completely different from ours, and Macao’s old records are a nightmare."

Rhodes glanced at the nearby table. Macao was pretending not to hear, while Romeo looked mortified beside him.

The kid’s face turned red immediately. Not thick-skinned yet... which, honestly, wasn’t a bad thing.

Since his wife had spoken, Rhodes obediently rolled up his sleeves.But as he did, something by Mira’s hand caught his eye, a small, elegant-looking pudding.

"This looks good," he said, curious. "Haven’t seen it before. Where’d you buy it?"

Mira blinked playfully. "It’s a new release. A very handsome person gave it to me."

"Oh?" Rhodes replied blandly. "You mean Elfman?"

Mira gave him a pitying look, as though feeling sorry for his taste. "You actually think Elfman is handsome?"

"He’s your brother," Rhodes reminded her dryly, realizing Mira had just insulted her own family.

She smiled slyly. "Unfortunately, no."

"Then who?" Rhodes asked, feigning annoyance.

Mira put her hands on her hips. "That reaction’s way too flat. Unqualified."

Rhodes sighed dramatically. "Fine! Tell me who he is! I’ll fight him for three hundred rounds, beat him into the floor, and then warn him..."

"Warn him not to send me desserts anymore?" Mira teased.

Rhodes blinked. "Why not? If I’ve already beaten him up, I might as well warn him to send two puddings every day. Otherwise, we’ll run out."

Mira burst out laughing and gave him a light punch. "Robber."

Laki muttered from behind the counter, "It’s like this the moment you two come back. I regret asking you to help again."

"Don’t worry," Rhodes said cheerfully. "We’re not like this only when we come back. We’re like this every day."

Mira picked up the pudding, scooped a spoonful, and held it out to him. "Ah..."

Laki rolled her eyes and walked away with a tray.

"How is it? Delicious, right?" said another voice suddenly.

Erza appeared out of nowhere, gazing at them with interest. Rhodes looked at Mira, realizing immediately, ’so the ’handsome person’ was Erza.’

Mira met his glance. ’Well, isn’t Erza handsome enough?’ her eyes seemed to say.

"Erza went to a new product tasting event today," Mira explained. "She won the ’Most Engaged in Tasting Delicious Food’ award, so she brought back a bunch of puddings as prizes."

Rhodes blinked. "What kind of award is that?"

He didn’t understand why a tasting event needed prizes, but the pudding really was delicious.

"Oh, I see!" Erza suddenly clapped her hands. "The shop owner said pudding tastes best when shared. So this is what he meant!"

She promptly grabbed another pudding, scooped a spoonful, and mimicking Mira, held the spoon out to Rhodes. "Ah~"

’Last meal,’ Rhodes thought and immediately sidestepped.

Mira smoothly stepped into his place, accepted the spoonful, and smiled. "So sweet."

Erza tilted her head in confusion, completely missing the nuance.Never mind, it was all the same to her. She looked at Mira expectantly.

It took Mira a second to realize what Erza wanted... then, laughing softly, she scooped up another spoonful and tried to feed her instead.

Erza showed a genuinely happy expression, as if she had suddenly discovered a great truth, that happiness truly came from sharing.

Mira also felt that happiness, because every time she fed Erza, Erza would make such an adorably innocent face, a stark contrast to her usual serious demeanor.

Rhodes watched as his wife and another beautiful woman fed each other spoonfuls of pudding and fell into deep thought.

In the end... who was really profiting here?

Laki, for one, thought she was, because Rhodes’s bewildered, helpless expression when completely excluded from the situation was simply too funny. She nearly burst out laughing behind the counter.

After a short delay, when Natsu and the others finally came downstairs, Rhodes and Mira had already returned to their normal rhythm, both of them standing behind the counter, officially back at work.

Lucy looked at the two of them and suddenly had an overwhelming urge to take a quest right now.

Just seeing those two standing there filled her with confidence, that warm, reassuring feeling that the next quest might actually not result in financial loss this time!

Who else could understand that kind of happiness?!

Although the others weren’t as dramatic as Lucy, everyone felt the same quiet reassurance. With those two working seriously again, it felt as if Fairy Tail had truly returned to its best self.

Now, all that was missing was a drunk old man sitting at the counter, or a small old man in the back room, half-asleep while pretending to write a self-criticism with a worried face.

That night, Rhodes slept alone.

Mira had gone to share a room with Lisanna. She said sisters hadn’t seen each other in so long and had so much to talk about, and then cheerfully told Rhodes that if he felt lonely, he could always go sleep in Elfman’s room instead.

"Heh," Rhodes politely declined.

He chose to hug Warm and sleep instead.

The little old man everyone had been thinking of returned the next morning.

From his expression alone, it was clear he wasn’t in the best mood.

Everyone greeted him warmly as he walked in, and Makarov gave a distracted nod before heading further inside with a heavy sigh.

"Welcome back, Master," Mira said naturally, handing him a cup of tea. "You must be tired from your journey."

"Thank you," Makarov murmured, taking a sip.

Rhodes asked casually, "Was there anything unpleasant at the regular meeting?"

"Not really," Makarov said. "I just heard some bad news. And there’s a mission, I don’t know who to send."

Then he froze.

Something about this scene felt very familiar, and then it hit him.

He looked up, really looked, and realized who the two people standing in front of him were.

The old man’s expression shifted from shock to forced anger as he tried to scold them, "You two finally decided to come back!"

Rhodes said honestly, "Actually, we haven’t had enough fun yet."

Makarov’s glare sharpened, but Mira smiled softly and added, "But after being away for so long, we did start missing home."

That melted the old man’s act instantly.

Mira blinked innocently and said in a wounded tone, "Master, when a child finally comes home after a long journey, shouldn’t the first thing a parent says be something warmer than that?"

A pang of guilt pricked at Makarov’s heart. As head of the guild, no, as the head of this family, he suddenly felt a little ashamed.

Still, trying to save face, he forced a smile. "Wel...welcome home."

Rhodes grinned. "Thank you, Master. We missed you so much!"

Makarov sighed, rubbing his temple. These two... they were absolutely deceiving his feelings.