Chapter 445: The coalition of the three major guilds!
As soon as they returned to the guild, Lucy greeted Rhode with an exaggeratedly resentful glare, watching him all the way from the door to the counter.
Mira immediately understood why and smiled in amusement, curious to see how Rhode would handle it.
Completely unfazed, Rhode greeted Lucy with a cheerful wave, pretending to be innocent. "Hey, you’re back too! How was the mission? Did you uncover anything interesting?"
Lucy’s jaw dropped. "You liar! How can you ask me that with a straight face?!"
"Why not?" Rhode grinned. "I helped solve your rent crisis and added some excitement to an otherwise boring job. Be honest, didn’t you find the mission fun before learning who the restaurant owner was? And once you did, didn’t Natsu and Gray stop messing around so you could earn rent money in peace?"
Lucy fumed, but couldn’t exactly argue. It was true. After discovering that the restaurant owner was none other than former Council member Yajima, Natsu and Gray had been stunned into good behavior, and she had managed to work without trouble. At the time, she had almost passed out from the shock. A Fairy Tail member with their record helping investigate a Council member? She’d nearly had a heart attack.
"But you still lied to me! The Master said there wasn’t even an official investigation. It was just a last-minute request to send some wizards as restaurant staff! I thought I did all that work for nothing!"
"Blame the Master for that one," Rhode replied with a shrug. "He and Mr. Yajima had an agreement. When the restaurant opened, Fairy Tail’s strongest team would help out."
"You’re making that up! No way that’s true."
Erza walked out and nodded. "It’s true. They agreed to it around the time of last year’s Harvest Festival."
"What?!" Lucy’s head spun. That long ago? It still sounded sketchy—but Erza wouldn’t lie.