Chapter 85: The new guild hall and unexpected surprises

Initially I planned that the first chapter of the week would be a bit chorter, but it seems like i was wrong?

The new guild hall was not only much bigger than the old one, especially the first floor, but in many ways completely different.

It still had the pagoda still and also had three floors, but now it had a strong similarity with a castle.

The design was also more western, it even had a bell on the last floor, aboth it was a large tower.

Two more towers were at the entrance of the guild, with long elongated glass windows running through them and weathercocks shaped like guild emblems on top.

Surrounding the building was a large fence with a large stone gate and a both a large, decorated sign with the guilds name on it.

The area before the guild had been made into an open-air café, it had a bit more than two dozen tables, a pair of benches for each table and some beach umbrellas.

And to top it all of there was even a small gift shop before the entrance of the guild, made out of bricks and had a wooden counter.

As the group entered through the gates, they couldn´t help but to just look around and take in the sight of their new guild building, although one person was surprisingly not too happy about it.

"What´s wrong Natsu? Don´t you like the new guild hall?" Lucy asked as she noticed that Natsu was not looking rather happy.

"It's not the same." Natsu said while pouting.

"Eh, but Natsu, we were not even inside yet!" exclaimed Happy.

Erza sighed while she shook her head, Gray was rolling with his eyes and Juvia was enjoying the banter quite a lot, this was something completely new for her.

"Don´t worry you two, the second that a fight breaks out, he will love the building just as much as the old one." Zeldaris said while ignoring Natsu.

"Yeah, you are right." Happy said while sighing.

"Knowing this guild, a fight will start shortly after we enter." Lucy said helplessly.

"I am sure that that nothing will happen, especially since I didn´t hear anything about the others doing something stupid."

'Only in your imagination Erza, only there you can believe something like that.'

Ophiuchus, who Aversia had just summoned so that she could also see the new guild hall, had sparkles in her eyes and was unable to say anything from the sheer amount of happiness that she was experiencing.

As they passed the tables, they were greeted by the other members of the guild, most of them talked about the new building, while some others asked about their time at the resort, and some were wondering who Juvia was.

"Oh, it's you guys, welcome back. You guys must be quite surprised by the new guild hall?" said Max, who was running the gift shop.

"I am surprised that gramps had put you behind the counter." Gray said while greeting Max with a fist bump.

"Nah, I volunteered for the job. My contract with the construction company had run out and I wasn´t interested in any of the requests." Max explained.

He then showed the group the wares that he was selling, there were normal things like Fairy Tail themed mugs, wrist bands and towels.

But also, special things like Fairy Tail themed lacrimas, Happy plushies, and most importantly figures of the members of the guild.

These figures were by far the most popular things that the shop was selling, especially the ones of the female members.

Max showed the figures that were picturing them.

With sparkling eyes, Erza picked her figure up and was presently surprised that her figures armor was also made out of metal.

Max explained that at the beginning it was planned that it wouldn´t be made out of metal, but Vulcan was against it and personally made the armors for the figurines.

'Not surprising, that he would have something against it, god dam perfectionist.' thought both half dragons.

"But then why is the skin of my figures so soft, it isn´t so soft in real life." Erza complained.

'Your skin is not made out of metal, and I am pretty sure that your skin was pretty soft when we were bathing together at the resort.' Aversia thought while thinking at the baths that Aversia had taken with Lucy, Erza, Juvia, and Miliana.

Zeldaris on the other hand was looking at the three figures that Max had placed on the counter for Zeldaris and Aversia.

The first two were rather normal, while the second one was the two together, in their true form, grey flames surrounding them and covering part of their bodies.

Honestly, Zeldaris was not sure how to feel about this one.

Aversia and Ophiuchus were currently to focused on Ophiuchus´s figure.

It showed both her human form and her actual form.

"I… I look so cool!" Ophiuchus said while inspecting every single detail that her figure had.

She then bought the figure and asked Aversia to store it for her, so that she could admire it more at home.

Zeldaris also bought the figure that was depicting him and Aversia and a few other ones, making Max giving him a sheepish grin.

Lucy meanwhile was crying over the fact that a figure depicting her was made and most importantly that you could remove the clothes leaving the figure in a white bikini.

Natsu and Gray were pretty happy with their figures.

After Lucy had calmed down and was finally able to put the clothes back on her figure, they said goodbye to Max and finally entered the guild hall.

What they saw inside the guild hall was surprisingly not too much different than the old guild hall.

The main difference was that everything was much bigger, there were tons more tables and benches in the middle.

At the end of the room was a large wooden stage, currently Mickey, Wan and Mikuni were singing a rock song.

On the right side of the room was the bar, which was also much bigger now, and Mirajane and Lisanna were currently staying behind the counter and were working at some orders.

Right beside the bar was the request board, which of course was also much bigger than before, but even that giant amount of space was barley enough to fit all of the requests that were placed on it.

Naturally, Nab was standing before the board, trying to decide which request he should take.

"Welcome back everyone! It´s quite impressive, right!?" Canna said as she noticed them and welcomed them with a bottle of alcohol in both hands.

Canna drank from one bottle before staring at Juvia.

"Wasn´t she one of the S-Class members of Phantom Lord? Why is she with you guys?"

"She wants to join us." Natsu before anyone could give Canna an explanation.

Juvia became nervous and looked at the ground.

"Is that so? Seems like quite a lot has happened on your vacation. Anyway, let me show you guys our new guild hall." Canna said while swinging around the bottles in her hands and started to show the others around, while Juvia sighed in relief.

Canna first showed them the giant indoor pool that was right behind the main hall and the giant stage.

It had been decorated to look like an outside environment, to enhance that look the room had been decorated with palms and tropical looking bushes.

There were also sunbeds and a beach umbrella, but unfortunately there was no springboard.

Instead, there were a few crates that had been piled up and the members used those as a springboard.

Next, Canna showed them the other rooms that were on the first floor, the new shower rooms which had each a large hot bath that looked similar to one of the hot springs that the mansion had; a mini library that many books with information that could be useful for the guild members on their jobs and lastly the information room that was just left of the entrance, where you could read the newest news and some other things.

There were also some changes on the second floor, normal members could now go up to the second floor, it also had a small lounge where you could watch movies, but the board with the S-Class jobs were still off limits for the normal members.

The basement had been turned into an entertainment room.

It contained a pool table, dart boards, video games, board games and many other forms of entertainment.

And lastly were the stairs to the giant, underground library that contained everything that the guild had collected over its many years.

While everyone was going through the tour, all of the members that they met greeted them joyfully, including Juvia, and truth to be told all of them were surprised and happy about the new guild, except Natsu who was pouting the whole time and saying that it was not the same.

Happy and Lucy tried to sheer him up or convince him that it still was the same.

After Canna had finished her tour she went back to her seat, where a giant barrel full of alcohol was standing on the table.

The group went toward the bar counter where both Makarov and Vulcan were sitting, drinking happily.

"Welcome back everyone, it's good to see you all again." Mirajane greeted everyone with a radiant smile.

"Welcome back Natsu, everyone. We had heard about a few things that happened. I am happy to see that you all came back in one piece." Lisanna said.

"Welcome back. Looks like you all had quite the rough time." Vulcan said while raising his drink and started to laugh loudly.

But none of them heard what the three had said because all of them were starring at the person that was sitting beside Vulcan, Gajeel.

"WHAT IS HE DOING HERE?!" yelled Natsu while pointing at the iron dragon slayer, who was currently munching on some iron.

Gajeel turned around and narrowed his eyes as he saw Natsu, Zeldaris and Aversia.

"Gihihi Surprised? I was as well as the old man and Makarov came a few days ago and asked me to join your shitty guild. And just to be clear, I only joined because I needed a job to make some money. We are no longer pretending to be siblings."

"WHAT DID YOU SAY!" Natsu yelled.

On the other hand, Zeldaris and Aversia doubted Gajeel´s words quite heavily.

"Now, now, settle down everyone. We had already planned to let Gajeel join." Makarov said.

"Are you sure about this Gramps?" Gray asked.

"I am sorry master, but I also am not sure about this!" Erza added.

"It´s not as if I wanted to be here either." Gajeel

"That´s enough from all of you. I do not want you to forgive him, I myself have not forgiven him, but what I want to ask of you is to give him a second chance. But given the current feelings of most of the members, I had to make a compromise. Vulcan is currently looking after Gajeel, and now that you guys have returned, Zeldaris and Aversia will also look after Gajeel."

Zeldaris and Aversia nodded, they wanted to spend some time with Gajeel anyway.

After saying all of that, Makarov´s demeanor became softer.

"But none the less, I am happy to see that all of you returned safely and in one piece. I only have a rough idea of what happened, and I would be happy of you could give me a full explanation later. But first… Juvia, am I right to assume that you want to join the guild?" Makarov asked Juvia while giving her a stern look.

Juvia meekly nodded and said, "Juvia… Juvia wants to join Fairy Tail."

Makarov continued to look stern before his eyes became soft and said in a warm tone, "Then Fairy Tail will welcome you with open arms, and I hope that this guild will become a new family for you."

Juvia nodded again, while holding smiling brightly while thanking Makarov.

Gajeel was looking at all of this while still eating the iron, and although he would never admit it, the edges of his mouth did rise a bit.

Makarov turned around and looked Mirajane.

"Mirajane, can I leave the rest to you?"

"Of course, master. Please come with me Juvia, so that we can finally make it official." Mirajane said and brought Juvia away.

Zeldaris walked behind the counter and continued on what Mirajane had worked on.

On the other hand, Vulcan was looking at Juvia and nodded in approval.

Everyone else was giving Lisanna and Zeldaris their orders.

Makarov smiled before saying, "Zeldaris, Aversia, there are a few things that I need to discuss with you, Gajeel and Vulcan. Could you please come with me for a moment, so that we could discuss this in peace?"

Zeldaris and Aversia just shrugged with their shoulders and agreed, to it.

The group went toward the mini library, leaving behind a curious Erza, Natsu, Gray and Lucy.

As for Happy?

He was happily eating a fresh fish, that Lisanna had just given him.

Once they had entered the mini library, Vulcan casted a enchantment that wouldn´t allow anyone to listen to their conversation.

Makarov sat on top of the desk in the middle, while Gajeel stood beside him.

"The thing that I am about to tell you is something that I want you keep away from the other, at least for the moment." Makarov started with a stern voice.

Zeldaris and Aversia agreed without any hesitation.

"Good. Last night, Gajeel had been approached by someone that claimed to be from Raven Tail."

"Raven Tail? I think that I had heard that name before. But where?" Aversia said while trying to remember.

"Wasn´t that one of the few dark guilds that wasn´t a subordinate to one of the alliance members?" Zeldaris asked.

Aversia snapped with her fingers as she remembered it, "That´s right."

Makarov nodded in approval.

"That is correct, but what you don´t know is that it is currently the number one enemy of Fairy Tail."

"WHAT WHY?" Aversia and Zeldaris yelled at the same time in surprise.

"Because it is a guild that had been created by my son, Ivan." Makarov said while closing his eyes, as some painful memories came up.

Zeldaris, Aversia and Gajeel looked at Makarov with open mouths and wide eyes.

"It was a long time ago that I had been forced to kick him out of the guild because he committed many crimes against his fellow guild members. However, he had left the guild with information that could be dangerous toward Fairy Tail and I had tried him and the guild that he had created ever since."

"You want to use Gajeel to spy on Raven Tail? Are you even sure that your son is even part of that guild?" Aversia asked.

Makarov nodded.

"The person that had approached me told me that the founder of Raven Tail was Makarov´s son and that he had no good feelings for Fairy Tail. He assumed that since I had fought against Fairy Tail, that I was hatting it and asked me to work as a spy for them. I have not much time before I need to give that person an answer." Gajeel explained.

"And what do you want us to do? I believe that this also includes the old man, right?" Zeldaris asked.

Vulcan nodded.

"That is correct, Gajeel told me about it after he came back home. The two of us had explained the situation to Makarov only this morning, since we were sure that they would be watching over our movements and that was indeed correct, I felt multiple people watching over us as we walked toward the guild hall."

"As for what I want you to do!? Simple, help Gajeel to work as a double agent. Your job is it to make sure that Gajeel can work safely and that no one finds out about this. The other members of the guild will be informed when I am sure that it is safe to reveal this information. Now, can I count on you?"

Without any hesitation, both of them answered, "Of course you can! On all three of us, isn´t that right brother?"

"Yes, that is right." Gajeel said while smiling.