First day without Rhode, I'm thinking of him.
Ugh! That guy's a bad person, I don't miss him at all!
When he said not to move hands around, did he mean just place them and not move?
Although, although... Hmph, pervert.
Mira was thinking of all sorts of weird things while doing her morning chores.
At this time, the train should have already left... soon it'll be out of Magnolia, right?
Laki reminded, "Sister Mira, you're daydreaming again."
Mira retorted, "No, I'm not."
"But you've already wiped that 'flower display container' three times."
"... Wiping the vase a few more times makes it cleaner." Mira casually found an excuse, "I was just thinking there might be some issues with yesterday's accounts."
Laki gave a playfully teasing smile, "Really?"
"Really, we need to go over the accounts carefully later." Mira emphasized the words "go over the accounts."
Laki didn't dare tease further, afraid of the reckoning.
Even though the President and Rhode are not here, the guild still needs to operate normally.
It just means Mira will have to work a little harder.
There's no shortage of servers, just call Sally and Iz to work part-time.
Unlike Lucy, they don't yearn for adventure much; they don't work full-time as servers simply because they sometimes find easier and higher-paying jobs.
But if Mira or Laki asks them, they don't mind spending more time in the tavern.
The problem lies in other tasks, like mission data collation, registration, and guild and tavern income and expenditure statistics, etc.
Mira can handle these alone too; after all, more than half a year ago, before Rhode started getting involved in these matters, it was always just like this.
It's just today she suddenly feels like something's missing, and her efficiency isn't as high as usual.
It's strange, even though usually there's some playful bickering with a certain someone, the efficiency of doing things is higher than when one focuses solely alone.
Mira wasn't completely lying to Laki; she did need to review yesterday's accounts: "What was the beer sales yesterday?"
Kana had been drinking since early morning, not drunk yet: "Huh? How would I know?"
"I wasn't asking you…" Mira turned her head, only to find the space beside her empty.
Kana gave an ambiguous smile, "Really? Already missing him right after being apart?"
"Not that exaggerated, just used to having someone help with these."
Mira argued, then after thinking for a moment, showed a sweet smile, "But maybe that could count as missing?"
Kana hugged her beloved keg, "Ah, ah, so boring, I'm not interested in seeing that expression."
"Sorry about that." An unembarrassed Mira is invincible.
Lucy also arrived at the guild very early, still hesitating over which task to choose.
"Hi~ You're Lucy, right?"
"Hmm? Yes!" Lucy saw an adorable blue-haired girl smiling at her.
"I just joined the guild a few days ago, Lucy, nice to meet you."
"Can I call you Lu-chan? I'm Reby and just like you, I'm 17!"
Reby naturally decided on a nickname for Lucy, then pointed behind her, "These are my teammates, Jet and Troy."
"Hello!" Lucy easily accepted the affectionate nickname from Reby.
Jet and Troy blushed a bit. They found that in terms of cuteness, Lucy seemed comparable to Reby.
But they had heard rumors that Lucy had taken down South Wolf from the Mercenary Guild and a gorilla-like maid... So Reby still seemed a bit cuter.
Actually, those "achievements" were Natsu's.
But thanks to the beautiful and gossip-loving Miss Demon's storytelling, many had misunderstood those were Lucy's deeds.
Thus, Lucy, the 'powerful' newcomer, had become the talk of the town in the past few days.
Natsu and Hapi also made some minute contributions to Lucy's fame, like…
"I heard you write novels, Lu-chan?"
Lucy covered her face, "Ugh… Natsu, that big mouth!"
"Actually, it was Hapi who said it…" Reby said expectantly, "Could I be your first reader? I love reading, though I can't write at all."
"But…"
"Please, please!"
Maybe it's because most girls in the guild are older than Reby, Lucy being the first the same age, made Reby very enthusiastic about her.
Their interests and similar hobbies led them to become good friends within minutes.
Through more talks, they discovered they both bought the latest version of Wind's Glasses for reading.
Thus their relationship improved even more.
The guild grew livelier; Natsu got bored waiting for Lucy to pick a task and inexplicably started a fight with Gray, even stripping his underwear and kicking him over to Lucy and Reby.
"Ah… My underwear!" Gray panicked for a moment, then calmly stood up and said to the two girls nearby, "Can you lend me your underwear?"
Reby showed a disgusted look, while Lucy punched Gray on the face, "Pervert!"
"You jerk, what did you just say to Reby?!" Jet and Troy smoothly joined the fight.
As more people joined, the scene got increasingly chaotic, involving many others, and a long bench flew towards Mira.
Mira subconsciously thought of waiting for that reliable figure.
Sadly, he was nowhere to be seen.
She transformed into her demon form, grabbing the center of the bench single-handedly, crushing it with a crunch.
The terrifying magic power pressed towards the brawl's center, with Mira maintaining her Satan's Soul form, wearing a kind smile, "Could you pay a bit more attention, please?"
The fighters froze in their movements, "Ye... Yes!"
Bigda, the culprit who kicked the bench, bowed deeply, "I'm terribly sorry!"
Mira returned to her original form, raising a fist, beaming, "Alright, please continue, keep it up!"
The crowd momentarily didn't know whether to resume fighting.
Natsu seized the chance to headbutt Nabu holding him from behind; since Mira allowed them to continue, they might as well go on fighting.
With a leader, the crowd quickly started brawling again.
Lucy was startled, "Is that really Miss Mira?"
Reby smiled awkwardly, "Of course, she is, after all, a 'demon'."
Honestly, seeing Mira like this sometimes scared her a little too.
"Hard to imagine, even though I read about Demon's return in the magazine recently, didn't expect her to be this terrifying."
Recalling the oppressive presence just now, Lucy felt lingering fear, "Could Miss Mira be the strongest mage in the guild?"
"That's not certain, even among the female mages, there's Erza who's equally matched with her."
Reby thought a bit before adding, "Two months ago, Sister Mira and Erza had a fight, and it seemed Sister Mira lost by a small margin. But she had just recovered at that time, and who knows how it is now."
"What do you mean by 'just recovered'? Did Miss Mira get injured?"
"It's a bit complicated to explain..."
As they say, 'speak of the devil and he shall appear,' just as Reby was about to explain, someone suddenly shouted, 'Erza's back!'
The guild instantly quieted down, those who reacted quickly left the brawl and returned to their seats.
Natsu and Gray stiffly slung arms over each other's shoulders.
Lucy watched in confusion as a red-haired female knight entered, holding an enormous Demon Beast Horn single-handedly.
"I'm back, are the President and Rhode here?"