Chapter 601 - 601: Georg Reizen's Spectacularly Bad Decisions

After the Three-Continent War, Ankh had taken the time to research notable fighters from the other continents, including the Spriggan 12 and, naturally, the Guild Master of Guiltina's strongest mage guild.

Normally, for a guild to rise to the very top of an entire continent, it needed generations of accumulated strength and influence.

Fairy Tail was a perfect example. It had passed through three Guild Masters before finally becoming Ishgar's strongest guild under Makarov—and even then, that achievement came when Makarov was already nearing retirement.

Diabolos was completely different.

The Dragon Eater guild had barely existed for a few years when the Three-Continent War began.

It had risen from nothing in a single generation and rapidly climbed to the summit of Guiltina's magical world.

Part of that was because competition among Guiltina's guilds wasn't quite as vicious as it was in Ishgar, but much of the credit still belonged to the man who founded Diabolos.

Georg Reizen.

Georg was one of Guiltina's top mages, but his character left plenty to be desired.

Under his leadership, Diabolos remained technically classified as a legal guild, though its methods occasionally became aggressive enough to resemble those of a dark guild.

When Ankh first read Georg's file, his immediate impression had been simple.

The man was absurdly arrogant.

Georg was a famous dragon hunter throughout Guiltina.

Over the years, he had killed numerous young dragons and weakened survivors that had fled to the continent, earning himself an enormous reputation.

Perhaps Diabolos's explosive rise and years of constant praise had gone to his head, because Georg eventually began acting like a man who had won the lottery overnight and decided the entire world now revolved around him.

The moment he heard Guiltina was going to war with Ishgar, he immediately sent Diabolos members to interfere, hoping to grab a share of the benefits.

The result was that his Dragon Eaters were beaten back badly.

Then, when the Alvarez Empire invaded Guiltina, Georg somehow became even more reckless, openly provoking and insulting the Imperial forces.

According to Suzaku, Georg had eventually encountered an elderly man named August.

It had gone terribly.

Georg was humiliated in battle and fled back toward his guild after a crushing defeat.

The truly remarkable part was that August had initially approached him peacefully.

The old mage had offered Georg a place under Alvarez, explaining that the Empire considered Dragon Eaters valuable combat assets worth preserving.

Somehow, Georg interpreted that as fear.

So he charged August again.

And that was more or less the end of the story.

Georg had been beaten so badly that it was a miracle he still had all his eyelashes attached.

The man who had started the encounter roaring insults eventually escaped by jumping into the sea and swimming home.

Fortunately, August had a remarkably patient temperament and hadn't actually tried to kill him.

He had merely boiled the surrounding seawater badly enough that Georg almost arrived home as stewed meat.

If the opponent had been Irene instead, the lunatic probably would have become part of the ocean permanently.

"So Georg Reizen doesn't even know you intend to reconcile with Ishgar?"

After listening to everything Diabolos had suffered in Guiltina, Selene looked thoughtful.

"This is something you decided yourselves?"

The Dragon Eaters fell silent.

Suzaku was the first to answer.

"Affirmative."

His voice remained firm.

"There is no need for concern. Diabolos does not belong solely to the Guild Master. We will persuade him."

"You will?"

Ankh sounded unconvinced.

Judging from the way they had spoken about Georg, all of them were deeply dissatisfied with his obsessive pursuit of strength and his habit of provoking wars for no reason.

But they also clearly respected his power.

None of them sounded particularly eager to confront him directly.

Georg was a Four Beasts Dragon Slayer with multiple dragon kills to his name.

The dragon flesh consumed by Suzaku and Kirin of the Dark Dragon Slayer Knights had also been acquired through him.

So while Diabolos's younger generation might question Georg's ability to lead, they still seemed psychologically conditioned to regard him as untouchably strong.

Ankh wasn't so sure.

Based on what he had seen during Suzaku's fight with Erza, he seriously doubted Georg was still beyond their reach.

It was an understandable mindset.

Natsu and Gray were the same way with Makarov. On some subconscious level, both still assumed they could never truly defeat him.

But that impression had been formed when they were children and Makarov had towered over them as an impossibly powerful elder.

The magical world had changed.

It belonged to the younger generation now.

Suzaku nodded firmly, though a shadow passed through his eyes.

"Before coming to Elentear, we had already discussed this many times."

"There should be no problem on Guiltina's side. Kirin and Misaki will find a way to persuade the Guild Master."

His hand slowly clenched.

"And if persuasion fails…"

"Then we will bring him by force if necessary."

Suzaku's voice became heavier, almost as though he were trying to convince himself as much as anyone else.

"The guild needs a future."

Diabolos had only two sensible choices left.

The first was surrendering to the Alvarez Empire.

Most of the guild's members were young, proud, and hot-blooded, and very few of them were willing to accept that.

The second was relocating to Ishgar, continuing the fight against Alvarez from there, preserving their strength, and holding onto the faint possibility that they might someday reclaim Guiltina.

Unfortunately, Georg—whose brain seemed to have been kicked around by a dragon—was determined to invent a third option.

Keep fighting Alvarez to the death.

Keep antagonizing Ishgar whenever possible.

Whether Diabolos could actually win apparently didn't matter.

As long as there was a battle, Georg was happy.

Eventually, Suzaku, Misaki, and the other Dark Dragon Slayer Knights had simply had enough.

They couldn't keep watching batches of guildmates die every day in pointless clashes with Alvarez merely because their Guild Master enjoyed fighting.

At some point, respect for Georg's authority had stopped mattering.

They had begun making decisions on their own.

After quietly listening to Diabolos vent all of this frustration, Ankh finally nodded.

"Just get Georg Reizen to Ishgar."

"As long as the rest of Diabolos cooperates, one man isn't going to cause much trouble by himself."

An entire guild of Dragon Eaters…

If Ishgar could successfully absorb a guild that powerful, the continent would gain another substantial group of top-tier combatants.

Suzaku bowed deeply.

"Thank you for your generosity."

The others behind him bowed as well.

Things were very different now.

If everything went according to plan, Diabolos would soon be abandoning its homeland and relocating into Ishgar's territory.

As displaced outsiders, they naturally needed reliable connections there.

More importantly, these young Dragon Eaters respected strength above almost anything else.

And after everything they had seen, their opinion of Fairy Tail's strength had risen enormously.

Erza had decisively defeated Suzaku.

Even while heavily injured, Laxus had fought Kirin nearly evenly during their previous encounter.

And Ankh had once punched the Fire Dragon God Ignia hard enough to visibly hurt him right in front of them.

Whatever arrogance Diabolos once possessed had been thoroughly beaten out of them.

After agreeing to help arrange Diabolos's relocation once everyone returned to Ishgar, Ankh suddenly realized something.

He had entered another world simply to finish one mission.

Yet somehow, the amount of work waiting for him afterward just kept growing.

Before long, the night deepened.

Even the enormous moon above Black Moon Mountain seemed to lose some of its brilliance.

After an entire day of noise and chaos, the mountain finally fell quiet.