Chapter 131

[As soon as he stepped out, he could see Black Natsu and Gildarts sitting in the cafe outside the palace.]

["Yo! Master, are you out? What did they say?"]

[Gildarts put down the coffee cup in his hand and greeted Makarov with a smile.]

[The next moment! The thick, outrageous compensation bill, no, or rather, the compensation document.]

[Shot out directly from Makarov's direction and slammed straight into Gildarts' face.]

[In Black Natsu's eyes, Gildarts, who was just enjoying coffee with him, disappeared from his sight in an instant.]

[The next moment, a violent roar came from the side.]

[The coffee in Black Natsu's hand stopped in mid-air.]

[With a stunned gaze, he looked at Gildarts, who had been smashed into the wall of the cafe by a book.]

[His eyelids twitched slightly.]

[Then, as if it had nothing to do with him, he buried his head and continued drinking coffee.]

[At a time like this, you could guess with your butt why Makarov was so furious.]

[Therefore, it's better for me, one of the main culprits, to keep a low profile.]

[It's best to act as if I don't exist.]

["Wow! Master, are you mistaken?? I'm still a wounded person, a wounded person!!!"]

[Gildarts pried himself off the wall and then complained angrily to Makarov.]

["A wounded person?!!"]

["I'm the one who's a wounded person now!! A high-blood-pressure wounded person!! You bastard, look at what you've done?"]

[Makarov, his face flushed red, pointed angrily at the compensation document stuck to Gildarts' forehead.]

["Eh? What is this?"]

[Gildarts took off the document and opened it suspiciously to look.]

["Regarding the specific matters of compensation for Hadoran Island (Monster Paradise)?"]

[Seeing this, Gildarts' eyes widened suddenly.]

[He raised his head in disbelief and looked at Makarov.]

["No way? Is this all??"]

[Makarov puffed up his cheeks, nodded, and said nothing.]

["Hiss!!" Gildarts gasped.]

["Is there this much??"]

["If you find it troublesome, just look at the final total compensation amount."]

[Listening to Makarov's words, Gildarts hurriedly flipped to the last page.]

[One look!!!]

[Gildarts' eyes rolled back directly.]

[He felt dizzy all over.]

[It wasn't even this serious when he fought Black Natsu before.]

["..4…466 million??"]

[Pfft...]

[At the seat, Black Natsu sprayed out a mouthful of coffee and looked at Gildarts in disbelief.]

["How much??"]

[Gildarts was also a little afraid that he had misread it, so he hurriedly rubbed his eyes and looked carefully.]

[The price was still the same price.]

[But Gildarts was already numb.]

["No, did we blow up a gold mine or something??"]

["It is said that there really is a mine on that island."]

[Makarov sighed helplessly.]

["But it's not gold, it's a magic crystal mine. Although there isn't much, it is indeed valuable. Now it's all blown away by you two."]

["Just think about how to pay it back."]

["I still have to write an incident report and a letter of apology to the Council later."]

["Damn it, we were already talking about compensation with the Fiore royal family, and as a result, they even want to come and scold me, sigh..."]

[Makarov fixed his gaze on Gildarts.]

["What do you say? How much can you pay?"]

["Me?"]

[Gildarts pointed at himself, then shook his head like a rattle.]

["I live in a thatched hut, and you're asking me how much I can pay??"]

["About 1 million J..."]

["1 million J???"]

[Makarov widened his eyes and stared fixedly at Gildarts.]

["Are you kidding me? You, the strongest Black Mage of Fairy Tail, can only come up with 1 million J?"]

[Gildarts heard this and felt a bit helpless: "Master, you should know! Every time I made money, didn't I treat you to the red-light district..."]

["Cough cough!!"]

[Before Gildarts could finish his words, he was immediately covered up by Makarov's coughing.]

["We'll talk about your business later."]

[Makarov said and turned to look at Black Natsu again.]

[Before he could speak, Black Natsu spread his hands.]

["Don't look at me, I don't have money either. You know that villa isn't cheap, and I only have 10 million J at most now..."]

[Makarov felt his heart starting to ache a little.]

[Just at this moment, the cafe clerk carefully handed a note to Makarov.]

["What?"] Makarov asked, full of confusion.

["That... this is the repair bill for the wall damage, please sign it..."]

[The clerk seemed to see that Makarov was currently in a fit of rage.]

[He carefully pointed to the wall that Gildarts had just smashed through and said.]

[Makarov's eyes widened again.]

[His gaze turned to the wall just smashed by Gildarts, and his eyes rolled back suddenly.]

[He fell straight down...]

[Time seemed to have pressed the fast-forward button, flowing continuously under everyone's gaze.]

[In the blink of an eye, two years had passed since Black Natsu became an S-Class Black Mage.]

[These two years could be called an exceptionally busy two years.]

[After all, Black Natsu, who had shouldered a sky-high debt two years ago, had to work at a high frequency to pay off the debt.]

[Of course, it wasn't just Black Natsu; Gildarts was the same.]

[They were even jokingly called the Diligent Duo by the people in the guild.]

[The mission board on the second floor of the guild, specifically for posting S-Class missions, was almost entirely monopolized by the two.]

[But, suffering from the fact that there were too few S-Class missions, one person could get at most a dozen a year.]

[And not every one of them had a reward of over 10 million J.]

[Therefore, it took a full two years for the two of them to scrape together 200 million J each to pay off the debt.]

[As for the remaining 60 million-plus J, it was all covered by Makarov.]

[For this, Makarov even started selling off his property to make up the difference in this compensation.]

[In short, over these two years, in order to pay off the debt, they tried every possible method.]

[Black Natsu even opened up the villa he lived in and rented it out.]

[However, the tenants were, of course, only Erza, Mirajane, Lisanna, and others.]