"You are lying!" Mike couldn't believe that Kazu actually did that. It must have been a threatening tactic.
"Yup, I was lying."
Relief appeared on Mike's face. 'I almost thought this crazy kid actually did it.'
However, Kazu's next words shocked him.
"I was lying about negotiating with you. I had already sent the details to press companies long ago."
"W—What?... Then why did you even talk with me?"
Kazu grinned. "Just wanted to mess with you." He shrugged.
Mike astoundedly looked at him. However, shock was soon replaced by anger.
"YOU!"
CRACK
The invisible barrier holding him broke down as a pressurised wind bullet rushed at Kazu.
'Huh?' Mike felt his vision changing abruptly.
One second, he had attacked Kazu point-blank and the next second, he was... seeing the ceiling?
"You really are brave. Don't you feel fear surrounded by this many mages?" Kazu said from above.
He had a nonchalant expression.
Suddenly, Mike felt multiple killing intents from different directions, making him stiffen.
"Also, you rubbed me the wrong way. I wasn't initially planning to elaborate on this, but seeing the council sending a person who doesn't even have any remorse over their mistake made me mess with you."
Mike's stoic face returned as he got up from the ground.
"Anyway, if you want to leave in one piece, I would suggest you run now. I don't know what my guild mates might do with you." Kazu didn't have to say that, as Mike had already left.
'Well, that's done... I can finally train now.' Kazu slowly turned his head, gazing at everybody before stopping at a blue-haired man.
Macao.
---
Nov x776
Kazu stood in a clearing. Beside him was Macao.
Both were still. The clearing was silent.
Next instant, multiple light blue spheres materialised in front of Kazu, before shooting forward at insane speeds.
BOOM
Anything that came in their path found itself to have holes in it, doing nothing to those bullets.
"You really are something, kid... You reached this level of firepower in just a few months. It took me years to reach this level." Macao was astonished at Kazu's progress.
Even though he was rendered speechless by the boy's training regime, seeing the results made the fact hit differently.
"I am still not anywhere near your level yet." Kazu shook his head. He expected that grinding for months would have helped him reach this level quicker, but he was wrong.
Macao deadpanned. "Well, you are barely one-third of my age. What do you expect? Though I do like a slacker and I am a slacker, I still train even now and then at this age."
Kazu looked at Macao with a furrowed eyebrow. "You aren't even 30, yet you talk like an old man. Then you complain about everybody calling you old man."
"I..."
Macao found himself at a loss for words. Kazu's words were dead right.
"Anyway, this is pretty good enough for your level. Though calling your progress high-yield would be technically wrong, as you trained for months, it really is high-yield compared to the improvements you would see if you continue training this.
The only efficient way to improve would be to learn magical theory. That will also improve your whole skill set." Macao scrunched his face as he thought of reading books.
"..."
It was Kazu's turn to be speechless.
'Well, most of the people in the guild are the ones who like to learn by trying directly. Though forcing them to do a bit of self-reflection would definitely make them speed up their progress.'
He started walking along with Macao towards the guild.
"I am going to have a chilled beer," Macao said with a smile.
"You didn't even do much. I was the one who did the actual work. Anyway, you are right in the sentiment. It does feel like drinking something chilled and preferably sugary after such exertion." Kazu felt his throat dry as he thought of drinking some chilled water or better orange juice.
"Right, this reminds me. You haven't been in the guild for a while now, so you haven't heard, but recently, Cana got caught trying to sneakily drink alcohol. Though you don't seem like it, I would suggest you not try that."
Kazu's eyes widened. "Wait, what?... Also, she got caught. I thought she was skilled enough not to get caught."
Macao furrowed his eyebrows. He narrowed his eyes as he looked at Kazu. "What are you shocked about? She is trying to drink or getting caught."
"Getting ca— I mean obviously trying to drink. She's barely 10 years old, yet she's trying something like that." Kazu said with a righteous expression, as if feeling her act was disgraceful.
"...Right. Well, she really was careful. Unfortunately for her, the master caught her."
"Pfft...Guess her fortune-telling cards can't tell her about getting caught." Kazu shook his head.
There was silence between the two as they walked through the busy streets of Magnolia.
"Also, you already know, but Council has finally been completely revamped. Though the Ten Wizard Saints are the same, a lot of people in the lower and middle positions were removed or demoted. Also, the Magic Council had been doing a lot to appease the citizens." Macao broke the silence.
Kazu blinked. "What about the reward? Did we get the property damage exemption pass?"
Macao grinned. "Actually, I don't know why, but the Council instead decided to give the 10 billion reward. It should arrive by the end of the year. Guess they wanted to generously award our guild to keep up their image."
Kazu frowned. "Tch. Actually, it's the opposite. It probably wouldn't have mattered which reward they gave us, yet they chose this. I was hoping for the other one, guess there are still smart people in the Council."
Macao blinked for a few seconds. "Wait! Do you mean that the damage the guild will cause in the next few decades will be more than 10 Billion Jewels? That's ridiculous."
Kazu shook his head. "Not decades, but rather in less than a decade." 'Natsu would be arriving soon. Moreover, we have the Strauss siblings, too. I hope my existence doesn't fucks up their arrival.' Kazu crossed his fingers as he followed behind Macao in the tavern.
Kazu took a seat on the counter. "One Chilled orange juice with extra ice." He ordered while looking around in the guild.
'There are a few new faces. It's been so long since I actually analysed everyone. Need to check if my skill has declined or not.' Kazu looked across the lively tavern.
Due to wanting to lock in his training completely and the fact that there were almost no trees left in the guild's backyard, Kazu moved his training ground to a nearby forest.
Gray sometimes did visit, but most of the time, it was mostly Kazu training alone. Kazu only came to the guild to call Macao or ask for some advice when he faced problems.
"So, I was saying—Hey! Look, who decided to show their face?"
Kazu turned his head towards the door and saw Cana walking towards him with a grin.
"Yo! It's been a while." Kazu said, pressing both of his palms together as he kept them on the counter.
"Nearly a week. Are you done with mastering those bullets?" Cana took a seat beside him.
"Yeah. Now, I finally have some long-range attacks. My arsenal is finally all-rounded." Kazu nodded before glancing at his palms on the counter.
It was subtle, but there were small tremors in his palm.
'It's been months, yet the memories of almost killing her always pop up. Luckily, it has reduced quite a lot compared to the start, otherwise I would have really needed a therapist.' One of the driving factors to make Kazu move his training place was this.
In the guild, only Gray knew about this.
"Anyway, didn't I say that a new person joined a few months ago. Surprisingly, you guys didn't meet until now." Cana clapped, breaking him out of his ramblings.
"Right. You did mention something like that." Kazu nodded.
Cana grinned. "Well, she's right here. Beside you. Dunno how you didn't notice her. She was right behind me as I entered the tavern."
Kazu blinked. He was currently sitting on the chair, leaning on the counter, such that he was looking to the left, at Cana.
He turned to his right and noticed a blue-haired girl around their age sitting.
"Oh, my bad. Guess I completely missed you. Cana's smug face was too distracting." Kazu joked.
"Hey!"
'I really need to get my shit together. There's another Canon character already here.'
"It's all good. I am Levy McGarden. Nice to meet you. Cana had told me a lot about you." Levy smiled.
"I hope good things." Kazu sheepishly rubbed his head.
"Nope. I told all your dark secrets." Cana put her hands on her hips, puffing her cheeks.
Kazu involuntarily flinched.
"I don't think you can call those secrets, let alone dark." 'It means he does have something to hide. I wonder what.' Levy became curious towards Kazu.
"Anyway, what do you think? She knows a lot about you, yet you know almost nothing. What's your first impression?" Cana suddenly asked a random question.
'Why is she even asking that?' Kazu felt confused.
"Well, she's cute." He shrugged.
***
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