"I can handle the rest myself."
After Mira had helped him apply medicine to the areas he couldn't reach, Rhodes felt bad about relying on her too much.
"Alright then, I'll step out for now," Mira said, setting down the medicine bottle and tweezers. "Take it easy and rest for a while."
As Mira left, Rhodes watched the door for a moment before sighing. He pulled off his T-shirt, revealing his bruised torso, and began carefully applying the ointment himself.
At the same time, he mentally reviewed his fight with Natsu.
Aside from leaving him sore all over, today's spar had actually taught him quite a bit.
For one, he could now say he'd been in a proper fight—an important milestone. At the very least, he wouldn't feel nervous just hearing the word "battle" anymore.
He also picked up the basics of using magic defensively.
Right now, it was still difficult to withstand Natsu's punches using just his magic power, but if he were up against a regular person, he was confident he could block their attacks effectively.
During the fight, Rhodes had instinctively mirrored Natsu's movements.
When Natsu threw a punch to the face, he did the same.
When Natsu sidestepped and drove an elbow toward his ribs, Rhodes followed suit.
Of course, apart from landing two solid hits, Rhodes hadn't actually managed to accomplish much.
Now that he thought about it, Natsu had clearly been holding back—giving him openings to attack and barely dodging or blocking at all.
So, in terms of total punches thrown and landed, their numbers weren't that far apart.
But in the end, Rhodes had been left sprawled on the ground, unable to move, while Natsu dusted himself off like nothing had happened before casually carrying him to the infirmary.
"Thinking about it , it feels like Natsu was deliberately acting as my sparring partner."
Rhodes glanced at his bruises and let out a helpless chuckle. "I have to thank him after getting beat up. What kind of nonsense is that?"
Although, when he went after the Scuttle Crab, that definitely wasn't training—it was just pure curiosity and excitement.
And that strange sensation when the crab disappeared, I need to look into that more carefully.
After resting in the infirmary for a bit, Rhodes finally stood up and made his way toward the tavern to help out.
Inside, Mira and Laki were already busy, but there was also another girl assisting with the service.
She had short black hair in the front, giving her a bit of a tomboyish look, but in the back, she had a long braid tied neatly down her back.
She wore a fitted red cheongsam, and her black knee-high socks bore the Fairy Tail emblem at the top.
Rhodes recognized her—her name was Sally. She used magic to switch her equipment, though she wasn't as proficient as Erza. Rather than full armor swaps, she could only change her weapons during battle.
It was said that her specialty was a pair of steel claws attached to her wrists. Clearly, she was a melee fighter, and from what Rhodes had heard, a particularly fierce one.
Unlike Rhodes, Sally didn't take many shifts at the tavern. Being a waitress was just a side gig for her. Her real income came from teaming up with three other friends to take on missions.
Aside from Sally, there was another girl named Izzy, who was in a similar situation. However, Rhodes had only seen her once before, back when he was still struggling with the language, so he wasn't very familiar with her.
"Rhodes? I heard you fought Natsu today," Sally said, balancing a tray in one hand while flashing a steel claw on the other. Her eyes sparkled with excitement. "How about it? Want to go a round with me next?"
Clearly, she was another battle maniac.
Rhodes immediately refused. "Please spare me—I'm sore all over."
"Sally, where's my drink?!" Dıscover more novels at novel※fire.net
Someone in the tavern called out impatiently, breaking her train of thought.
"Tch, so annoying! Can't you just come get it yourself?" she snapped.
Yeah, probably best not to provoke her if possible.
Even if she wasn't that strong, she could definitely still wipe the floor with Rhodes in his current state.
Deciding to play it safe, Rhodes made his way to the counter and waited.
At that moment, Gray was leaning against the bar, a mission request form spread out in front of him as Mira prepared to register it.
"Hey, Natsu hits pretty hard, huh?" Gray smirked as he glanced at Rhodes.
"Yeah..." Rhodes touched his swollen cheek with a wry smile. "Where is he, anyway?"
"Took a job and headed out with Happy." Gray picked up the signed request form that Mira handed back to him and waved it at Rhodes. "I'm heading out too. Catch you later."
Rhodes nodded. "Yeah, be careful out there."
Gray had barely taken a few steps when Mira suddenly called after him.
"Gray, your clothes!"
Gray glanced down—only to realize he was standing there in just a pair of loose shorts.
Laughing as Gray scrambled to retrieve his missing shirt and pants, Mira poured Rhodes a glass of water and slid it toward him.
"You seem to care a lot about Natsu," she observed.
Rhodes didn't answer right away. He simply held the glass, watching the water ripple gently inside.
"I guess so. After all, he's been 'taking care' of me." Rhodes sighed, his expression slightly conflicted. "It's just... a little awkward."
It was natural to feel uneasy after getting beaten, but considering how Natsu had held back in various ways—whether intentionally or not—while also teaching him a few fighting techniques, Rhodes felt he should be grateful.
Still, it was a little awkward knowing that Natsu was probably younger than him.
Rhodes realized he had a tendency to overthink things. Unlike the others, who were more straightforward, he often found himself caught up in his own thoughts.
That led to another problem—was he out of place here? Would he end up being excluded because he didn't quite fit in?
Then, he'd start feeling frustrated with himself. He was already an adult, yet he still worried about things .
And to make it worse, everyone else treated him so sincerely, while he sat here overanalyzing everything. He almost felt guilty for it.
Mira watched his shifting expressions and assumed he was simply struggling to accept his loss.
"You've only been learning magic for a few days. The fact that you can already fight is impressive," she encouraged him with a warm smile. "If you keep up this pace, you might even be able to take on some smaller jobs next month."
"Yeah. I should just focus on training for now," Rhodes muttered.
Who knew how things would turn out? Maybe he just needed to get used to fighting.
His gaze drifted across the bustling tavern, landing on a boy with neatly parted hair—Max, the chatterbox from this morning.
"Maybe I should ask him next time."
Between work, training, and enjoying the guild chef's amazing cooking, the rest of the day passed in a satisfying blur.
When he got home, Rhodes followed Laki's instructions and smashed open the sealed wooden box to retrieve the magazines inside.
Sorcerer Weekly was a well-known publication, and what Laki had given him was an entire year's worth, plus some bonus editions and special issues—altogether, about sixty copies.
The stack of magazines stood neatly on his table, more than a foot tall.
Rhodes glanced at the now-empty wooden box, running a hand over its smooth surface.
"Seems like a waste to just throw this away. How about making it into your new nest?"
He held the box up, showing it to Warm.
The box wasn't large, but it was just the right size for a Poro to curl up inside.
However, Warm didn't seem to makeshift nest. He shook his head and scurried away, retreating under the bed.
"Fine, fine," Rhodes sighed. "Just don't roll around in the dust. I haven't cleaned under there properly yet."
Deciding it was useless, he tossed the broken wooden box into the fireplace to save it as firewood. Once again, he found himself envious of how convenient Wood-Make Magic was.
He retrieved the enchanted glasses, put them on, and flipped open one of the magazines, quickly skimming through the content.
This was a feature on one of the two most famous wizard guilds in the Kingdom of Fiore. The other, of course, was Fairy Tail.
For a long time, Fairy Tail had remained relatively quiet in terms of notoriety, but in recent years, its reputation had skyrocketed.
Rhodes learned this from a weekly magazine issue that was heavily focused on Phantom Lord.
In terms of scale and membership, Phantom Lord was far larger than Fairy Tail. In addition to its headquarters, the guild had more than twenty branch locations and a massive number of wizards under its banner.
"Phantom Lord, huh." Rhodes mused, frowning slightly. "That name makes it sound more like a dark guild."
But after reading about several of Phantom Lord's top wizards—and the various "accidents" they had caused—his suspicions eased slightly.
This guild was at least as chaotic as Fairy Tail—if not more.