Fairy Tail: My Magic is a Yu-Gi-Oh! Deck — Chapter 147

Chapter 147: The Strongest Guild Allies with the Richest Consortium!

“Ohhhh! Amazing!”

“This is the most interactive stage play I’ve ever seen! The immersion is incredible!”

After a brief moment of stunned silence, the audience—currently standing atop the literal ruins of the theater—erupted into deafening cheers. They applauded wildly, thoroughly convinced that the catastrophic destruction around them was just a spectacular special effect for the grand finale.

Down in the rubble, the members of Fairy Tail’s strongest team stood frozen, entirely bewildered by the positive reception. Meanwhile, the theater manager peeked out from behind a collapsed pillar, his eyes gleaming with the unmistakable, shrewd light of a businessman who had just struck gold.

“Exactly as expected.”

Chase casually patted the dust off his coat and snapped his fingers, dissolving the invisible magic barrier he had cast over the surrounding area. While the audience buried in the original storyline had escaped mostly unharmed, this was reality; he wasn’t about to risk civilian casualties over Natsu’s destructive tendencies.

“I definitely underestimated Natsu and the others,” Mira said, standing beside him with an apologetic smile. “I really thought this request wouldn’t end in total demolition.”

“Relax, relax. No matter what happened, the audience’s reaction doesn’t lie,” Makarov chuckled, crossing his arms in satisfaction.

“Is this what Lucy calls Mage work?! This is simply outrageous!”

Jude Hartfilia’s mustache bristled as he glared at the wreckage. As the sole heir to the Hartfilia family, Lucy had been strictly groomed to maintain the image of a dignified, flawless lady since childhood. To see her participating in such chaotic, undignified antics was a massive shock to his system.

Even though his mindset had undergone a drastic shift recently, Jude still struggled to process the sight. His face darkened, and he began marching step by step toward his daughter.

Sensing his approach, Lucy flinched. She tightened the oversized prince’s cape around her shoulders and nervously raised her eyes to meet Jude’s gaze. Even during the chaotic performance, she had felt a strong intuition that someone important was watching her. The moment their eyes met, that intuition solidified into terrifying certainty.

Her father, the man who was supposed to be drowning in endless corporate paperwork, had actually come to watch her perform.

This should have been a joyful realization. Yet, given her current ridiculous outfit and the sheer scale of the property damage around her, Lucy’s emotions tangled into a messy knot of joy, worry, and apprehension. She quietly lowered her head, not daring to face the imposing figure of her father as his footsteps drew closer.

Despite their recent reconciliation, the heavy stereotype of the strict, unyielding patriarch that had dominated her life for over a decade couldn’t be erased overnight.

The heavy footsteps finally stopped. Jude stood directly in front of her.

“Lucy.” His tone was incredibly stern.

“F-Father, I’m so sorry, I—”

Before she could stammer out an apology, her vision suddenly darkened. A heavy, warm weight settled over her shoulders. Jude had taken off his own expensive coat and draped it gently over her shivering frame.

“A pretty good performance. You looked very cool working so hard out there, Lucy,” Jude said, his deep voice softening.

It was undeniably embarrassing for a young lady of the Hartfilia family to participate in such a farce, but the girl standing before him was no longer a caged bird. She was a free, independent Mage. For a fleeting moment, Jude saw Layla’s shadow overlapping with Lucy’s silhouette—a vivid flashback to the day he first met his late wife at the commercial guild. Layla had been just like this: earnest, active, and pouring her entire soul into her work. It was exactly what had made him fall in love with her.

Overcome by the memory, Jude subconsciously reached his hands forward. He hesitated, his fingers stiffening in mid-air, unsure of where to place them. He couldn’t even remember the last time he had hugged his own daughter. Was it a few years ago? Right after Layla passed away? Or had it been even longer, back when she was just a toddler?

While he stood frozen in awkward hesitation, a heavy impact hit his chest.

Lucy had thrown herself into his arms, burying her face against his shirt. Her beautiful brown eyes overflowed with hot tears. “Thank you… thank you for coming to see me, Dad!”

Jude stood stunned for a second. Then, the careful, iron-willed president of the Hartfilia Consortium completely broke down. Tears sparkled in the corners of his aged eyes. Trembling, he wrapped his arms around Lucy, his cautious embrace gradually tightening into a fierce, protective hold.

It wasn’t until this very second that Jude fully realized what a colossal fool he had been all these years. He had nearly thrown away the most precious treasure Layla had ever left him.

Watching the emotional father-daughter embrace on the ruins, the audience blinked in confusion. ‘Wait, is this another act?’

Natsu, Gray, Makarov, and the others who knew the truth simply watched with relieved, gentle smiles.

“Ohhhh! After the prince defeats the evil dragon and saves the princess, we get the great reconciliation between the princess and the king! A super happy ending!”

A loud, obnoxious voice suddenly echoed from the crowd. Chase stood among the audience, waving his arms like a hyped-up fanboy.

“The King? Wait, so the blonde man’s character is the princess’s wicked father?” a spectator gasped.

“Ah! No wonder that guy has been wildly waving his support stick from the very beginning! It turns out the actor was standing right beside us the whole time!”

“Wow! This was totally worth the ticket price! When is the next show?!”

The crowd went absolutely wild again, showering the “King” and “Princess” with thunderous applause and enthusiastic cheers. It turned out that if you just fed a theatrical crowd a tiny bit of context, their imaginations would fill in the rest of the dramatic blanks perfectly.

“You’re doing something unnecessary again, Chase,” Mira teased, leaning close to him and blinking playfully.

“A rare, touching scene like this deserves a lively soundtrack,” Chase replied with a lazy grin.

“That’s true.”

As they chatted, a sudden splash echoed from a nearby pile of rubble. Juvia’s head popped out from beneath the broken stones, her eyes shining with intense dedication. “Ahhhh! Juvia… Juvia also wants to play the role of Gray-sama’s dog!”

Well, the word “play” might have been a bit redundant in her case.

The theater manager was so ecstatic with the explosive reception that he immediately doubled the reward and practically begged the strongest team to perform a week-long tour. After waving goodbye to Natsu’s group—who had reluctantly accepted the extended contract—Chase and the others began their journey home.

Guild Masters Bob, Goldmine, and Yajima returned to their respective cities, while Jude accompanied Makarov’s group onto the train back to Magnolia.

Jude hadn’t just come to watch a play. He had a far more critical agenda for this trip. He intended to sit down with Makarov and draft a full-scale, ironclad alliance between Fairy Tail and the Hartfilia Consortium.

Ever since Layla’s passing, Jude had understood the harsh reality of the magic world: might makes right. However, he had previously viewed Mage Guilds as nothing more than profit-driven fanatics—tools to be hired, never allies to be trusted. His disastrous decision to hire Phantom Lord to retrieve Lucy had nearly cost him his entire commercial empire.

But now, with Lucy acting as the bridge, and having personally witnessed the fierce, unyielding bond of the Fairy Tail members, Jude’s reservations had vanished completely.

Makarov, naturally, wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. He eagerly welcomed the partnership. However, an alliance of this magnitude required careful negotiation. The specific terms, profit margins, and legal boundaries had to be ironed out perfectly.

The moment they arrived in Magnolia, the two old men locked themselves in a room and plunged into a grueling war of conflicting interests. Makarov had originally tried to drag Chase into the meeting as backup, but Chase had zero interest in corporate politics. He casually summoned a Substitute Token to sit in his chair and slipped out the back door, leaving the highly capable Mira to handle the negotiations in his place.

It wasn’t until nightfall that the two sides finally hammered out the foundational terms of their cooperation.

The very next day, Jude announced the decision at the Hartfilia Consortium’s internal board meeting.

The news hit the Fiore Kingdom like a localized earthquake. The strongest Mage Guild and the wealthiest financial empire had joined forces. Countless factions, rival businesses, and dark guilds were shaken to their core. Several rival conglomerates that had been secretly plotting to undermine the Hartfilia Consortium immediately canceled their operations in sheer terror, opting instead to beg for cooperative contracts.

A tiger with teeth was dangerous, but a tiger backed by a guild of walking natural disasters was a completely different concept.

In the past, rival factions might not have panicked so badly. But according to recent intelligence gathered by underground brokers, Fairy Tail’s reputation within the Magic Council had skyrocketed. Even the hardline opposition factions in the Council had begun to waver in their anti-Fairy Tail stance. No one knew exactly what had caused this sudden political shift, but one thing was certain: Fairy Tail was now an untouchable existence in the magic world.

Unless the royal family directly intervened, the Hartfilia Consortium was destined to grow exponentially stronger.

The benefits for Fairy Tail were equally massive. With the Hartfilia family’s endless coffers backing them, the severe funding shortages that constantly gave Makarov ulcers were completely resolved. His retirement pension was finally safe.

, a massive influx of high-paying requests from the Hartfilia network flooded the guild’s request board: merchant fleet escorts, bridge demolition and reconstruction, land reclamation, and railway construction. The guild members suddenly had a buffet of lucrative jobs to choose from, completely eliminating any worries about making rent.

Of course, Makarov and Jude were seasoned veterans of their respective worlds. They knew the unwritten rules of society. To keep the Magic Council off their backs, a generous portion of their new profits was quietly funneled into the pockets of key officials as “administrative kickbacks.”

Unfortunately, S-Class requests were still temporarily suspended by the Council.

Because of this, while the rest of the guild was fired up and taking jobs left and right, Chase found himself with an abundance of free time. He spent his days leisurely checking on the construction of his new house, freeloading food and drinks at the guild’s rebuilding site, and occasionally helping Mira behind the bar when the lunch rush got too hectic.

Ten days passed in a peaceful blur.

The scaffolding around the new guild hall was finally dismantled. The exterior tiling and interior decorations were finished, and construction on the luxury additions—like the basement swimming pool and the outdoor commercial street—had officially begun.

During this time, the strongest team finally returned from their torturous week-long theatrical tour. They rested for exactly half a day before immediately rushing back out to take a subjugation request against a Dark Guild, desperate to hit something that wasn’t a stage prop.

Morning arrived with a crisp breeze. The temporary outdoor bar had finally been moved inside the newly finished guild hall.

“Chase, do you feel like the weather has gotten quite a bit colder recently?”

Mira leaned against the polished wooden counter, propping her chin in one hand. She reached into her apron pocket, pulling out two elegantly printed tickets she had prepared well in advance. She smiled warmly. “There’s not much going on today. Do you want to go to the hot spring town and soak in a bath together?”

“I was planning to go with Elfman, but it seems he’s been incredibly busy lately,” she added smoothly.

Right on cue, Elfman—who was standing directly in front of the request board arguing with Nab over who got to take an NPC role-playing job—turned around. “Huh? Mira, I haven’t found a suitable request yet!”

“Is that so?” Mira’s head tilted slightly. “Didn’t you say yesterday that you were going to take the Hartfilia railway construction escort job?”

“Huh? Did I say that?” Elfman scratched his head, his face scrunching up in utter confusion. How could he not remember taking such a massive job?

“Yes. You did.” Mira’s sweet smile suddenly sharpened into something deeply benevolent and utterly terrifying.

A cold sweat broke out across Elfman’s back. “Ah! Right, right, right! I definitely said that!” he yelled, his survival instincts kicking into overdrive. He violently tore a random request off the board and bolted out the front doors, screaming at the top of his lungs, “A real man always does his requests! I’m going, Mira!”

“I’ll register it for you! Be careful out there,” Mira called out cheerfully, waving at his rapidly retreating dust cloud.

‘Hey, hey, that was way too obvious…’ Chase thought, watching the blatant psychological manipulation unfold. He really wanted to point out the flawless extortion, but decided against it.

Instead, without a second of hesitation, he reached out and plucked the ticket from Mira’s fingers. “Then I won’t be polite.”

A faint blush dusted Mira’s cheeks, and her smile turned genuinely radiant.

At that exact same time, the strongest team was trekking back toward the guild after successfully completing their subjugation mission.

Fortunately for everyone involved, the Dark Guild had been located deep within a remote, uninhabited mountain range. Even though Natsu, Gray, and Erza had completely leveled the enemy’s headquarters and the surrounding forest, there was no civilian property damage to pay for.

Lucy, who was finally going to receive her full, un-deducted reward share, was in incredibly high spirits. She suggested they take this opportunity to visit a hot spring town to relax their tense nerves. The proposal was unanimously approved.

And so, by pure coincidence, both groups arrived at Balsam Village—a famous hot spring town located just west of Magnolia—on the exact same night. The village was renowned for its traditional oriental architecture and pristine waters, making it the premier vacation spot for Magnolia’s residents.

Late that evening, along a winding path cutting through a dense bamboo forest.

Lucy, her skin glowing and refreshed from a long soak in the hot springs, strolled aimlessly in her yukata with her little celestial spirit dog, Plue, waddling beside her.

“That was terrifying. I was so stupid to actually think I could have a normal pillow fight with those monsters,” Lucy groaned, raising a hand to rub a throbbing red bump on her forehead.

She had enthusiastically joined the pillow fight Natsu had proposed in their shared room. Predictably, she had been instantly knocked unconscious by a pillow thrown with enough kinetic force to shatter a boulder.

“Puu puu, it’s already a miracle that you didn’t die, Master~” Plue suddenly spoke, his voice echoing in the quiet bamboo grove.

“Huh? Huh?! You can talk?!” Lucy shrieked, her entire body stiffening like a wooden board.

“Puu puu, yes. I just look like a dog, but essentially, I’m still a high-level Celestial Spirit~” Plue continued, his tiny body trembling.

Wait a minute. Something was wrong. Very wrong.

Listening to that strangely familiar, grating tone, and looking at the visibly bewildered Plue, Lucy’s eyes narrowed. She quickly marched off the path, reached behind a thick cluster of bamboo stalks, and yanked out a very sneaky blue cat.

“I knew it was you causing trouble, you stupid cat!” Lucy roared, shaking Happy by the scruff of his neck.

“Oh? How did Lucy suddenly get so smart? I thought I could trick you for at least a week,” Happy grumbled, crossing his paws with a look of genuine disappointment.

“I’m really sorry for exceeding your incredibly low expectations!” Lucy snapped, her mouth morphing into a jagged, shark-like sneer as she prepared to strangle the feline troll.

Their noisy commotion echoed through the quiet forest, successfully attracting the attention of two men walking down the path.

“Oh? I didn’t expect to run into such a cute girl wandering around the hot springs at night. Talk about lucky!”

“Hey there, little sister. It’s very dangerous to be walking outside so late with just your pet cat and pet dog,” the second man sneered, his eyes raking over Lucy’s yukata.

“Hehe, don’t worry. Let us young men protect and cherish you properly!”

The two men, clearly repeat offenders who preyed on tourists, stepped off the path and surrounded Lucy, their hands reaching out to grab her.

The sudden harassment made Lucy’s brow furrow in disgust. She immediately reached down to her waist, her fingers brushing against her golden Celestial Spirit keys.

Happy, meanwhile, cowardly zipped behind a nearby rock, making sure to stick his head out just far enough to yell, “I’m not a pet cat! I’m a Mage!”

The blue cat had already assessed the situation. These two thugs had barely any Magic Power; they posed absolutely zero threat to a seasoned Fairy Tail Mage like Lucy. Since she was perfectly safe, Happy’s top priority was protecting the dried fish hidden in his little green backpack.

Lucy desperately wanted to complain about her unreliable feline companion, but dealing with the two creeps in front of her took precedence.

“Open! Gate of the Gold—”

Before she could even pull the key from her belt, a deafening BANG shattered the tranquility of the bamboo forest. The ground violently caved in as a figure dropped from the sky like a meteor.

Thick dust plumed into the air.

“You dared to lay hands on my cute sister. You must have been prepared for the consequences, right?”

Chase stood in the center of the crater, casually cracking his knuckles as the smoke cleared.

“Chase!” Lucy gasped in surprise.

She looked down at the two thugs. Both men were already embedded face-first into the shattered earth, completely unconscious and foaming at the mouth from the sheer shockwave of his landing.

Lucy stared at the overkill display, a massive sweatdrop sliding down the back of her head. “I don’t think they can fight anymore…”