Watching Gray roll up his sleeves and flex his muscles, Cana glanced worriedly at Kabe, wanting to say something.
She did not expect Erza, standing beside her with a face full of quiet determination, to speak up first.
"Being a sparring partner to help a comrade awaken magic, that is a great idea. If possible, take me along too. We are all comrades of Fairy Tail. I want to do my part as well."
"E-Erza, even you...!"
Cana started to panic. Erza might be the last to join among the three of them, but her strength had skyrocketed, and not long ago she had officially surpassed both her "seniors," Cana and Gray.
And with Erza's serious nature, if she got into the fight, she might not hold back properly. If they were not careful, the newbie would be in real trouble.
Flustered, Cana was about to try to talk Erza out of her idea.
Right at that moment, the food Kabe had ordered finally arrived. With his meal in front of him and his stomach long since shriveled from hunger, he did not overthink anything at all. He simply agreed in one gulp.
"Alright, once I am done eating, we will start training right away."
As soon as he finished speaking, he dove straight into the dishes in front of him and began devouring them like a starving beast, sweeping them clean at a terrifying pace.
Cana, who had wanted to persuade them all a moment ago, was quickly struck speechless by Kabe's "reincarnated starving ghost" style of eating.
...
At the bar, after finishing his scolding of Kabe, Makarov had returned to his spot and pulled out the magazine he had not finished reading on the way back. He enjoyed it with great enthusiasm.
"Hehehe, this one is good, this one is very good."
"Oh ho, this one is nice too, very eye-catching."
"Oh... this, this one is absolutely incredible."
"Wonderful, too wonderful. This issue of Weekly Sorcerer is really high quality."
Just when Makarov was getting a little too worked up, breathing through both his mouth and nose and feeling heat creep up all over his body, the guild interior grew louder and louder with the shouts and exclamations of the brats. The rising noise made him frown in irritation.
"You have got to be kidding. How many days has that brat gone without eating?"
"Hey, is it just my imagination? He finished that plate of fried rice in three bites. Does he think he is performing a magic trick?"
"Hey hey hey, he is still eating. Is that brat's stomach a bottomless pit or what?"
'What now? What are they making a racket about this time?'
Reluctant to tear his eyes away from the magazine, Makarov finally lifted his head and looked toward the source of the noise.
He saw that a large group had gathered around one of the tables in the hall. Most of the guild members were standing around it, pointing toward the center and whispering to each other.
'Honestly, which idiot is doing something stupid again?'
Because he was short, Makarov could not see what was happening inside the circle. He hopped lightly down from the bar, carefully tucked his magazine away, and walked over toward the crowd, curiosity piqued.
At the center of the ring, the long table was already completely covered in empty plates. Stacked on top of each other, more than a hundred plates formed a tower so high it completely blocked Cana and the others' view across the table.
They had no choice but to move and sit beside Kabe, watching his eating from close range while frantically helping him rearrange and stack the plates.
By the time Makarov finally squeezed into the inner circle, Kabe had just tilted back a large bowl the size of a washbasin and drained the last of the meat soup in one go, finishing his first meal in this new world.
"Burp... that hit the spot. That hit the spot. Being eighty percent full is just right. Any more is bad for the body."
"T-this is only eighty percent full? That is enough food to last me a whole week..."
A burly two-meter-tall man could not help swallowing hard when he heard Kabe's mutter. His voice was full of disbelief.
Everyone else also stared at Kabe like he was some kind of monster. None of them dared underestimate this newcomer anymore.
Patting his now-round belly, Kabe turned and leaned against the table, intending to relax for a moment.
As he did, his gaze happened to land on the crowd... and on the gleaming bald spot of Makarov's head that stood out like a beacon among them.
Immediately, he raised a hand and waved, smiling in satisfaction.
"Gramps Master, the food in our guild is amazing. Please do not worry, just for the sake of these delicious meals alone, I will absolutely never leave the guild."
Makarov ignored Kabe's greeting. Instead, he stared at the stack of empty plates on the table and quickly started doing mental math on how much that one meal had cost. Then he multiplied that by three... then multiplied again by thirty.
Once he arrived at the total, Makarov could no longer bear it. Under the eyes of the entire guild, he failed to catch his breath, let out a strangled sound, and collapsed on the spot.
"Master!"
Chaos erupted throughout the guild. Members rushed over in a flurry, surrounding him in a panic.
When they turned back to look at Kabe, who stood there looking completely at a loss, a new layer of fear had appeared in their gazes.
'It is over. The Master miscalculated. If we let this brat keep eating like this, the guild really will go bankrupt.'
...
Thanks to everyone's best efforts, Makarov woke up briefly halfway through.
But the moment his eyes opened and he saw Kabe's worried face looming over him, his eyes rolled back again. He managed to get out one last line, "The guild is doomed," before passing out a second time.
In the end, with no other choice, the members had to hoist their Master onto someone's back and prepare to carry him outside town to see the guild's exclusive physician, Grandma Porlyusica.
Before leaving, Macao seemed worried that Kabe would blame himself too much. He came over on purpose and patted the boy on the shoulder to comfort him.
"Do not take it to heart. Just live here in the guild without worrying about it. Fairy Tail will not miss a few meals for you."
Kabe did notice that Macao's lips were trembling as he said this.
Even so, he still thanked him with a face full of "gratitude" and once again emphasized how much care and enthusiasm he felt from Fairy Tail. He earnestly repeated his resolve to absolutely support the guild and stay in Fairy Tail for the rest of his life.
Macao: ...That really is not necessary.
...
Once Macao and the others had left, only Kabe, Cana, Gray, and Erza remained in the guild, staring at each other.
"Um, this is one of Master's old problems. Kabe, please do not take it personally."
Erza spoke up first, worried that Kabe might shoulder all the blame himself and end up with unnecessary guilt.
"Yeah, just eat as much as you want, Kabe. Our Fairy Tail is the strongest guild in Fiore. Supplying food for you is just... um, it should be... probably not a problem."
Cana tried to comfort him as well, but the more she talked, the softer her voice became. When her eyes landed on the mountain of empty plates that no one had cleaned up yet, even she lost confidence in her own words.
Kabe: ...