After Descartes took over as the fourth Master of the guild more than a decade ago, the development of Fairy Tail had been excellent, like a midsummer following spring rain, a scene brimming with vitality. Now, the arrival of Anna and her group injected a fresh surge of vigor into the already rowdy guild.
Currently, Fairy Tail has a total of six S-class wizards, who were the other six members of the original "Seven Kin of the Holy Knights" besides Descartes. However, they no longer act as the "Seven Kin of the Holy Knights." A few years after the elimination of "Tartaros," the team was forcibly disbanded; as for the leader, Brain, he returned to the Royal Capital Magic Academy to continue as a teacher and was officially promoted to Principal this year.
A guild with six S-class wizards is a resounding reputation, but in reality, half of them are not part of the "regular combat force." Gildarts and Serena work and travel abroad year-round, returning to the guild only once in a long while; Layla, after becoming a married woman, essentially stopped taking jobs and is in a state of semi-retirement. Therefore, the resident S-class wizards in the guild are only Ur, Silver, and Bluenote.
Below the S-class, there are three strongest members in the guild known as "S-class candidates": 16-year-old Laxus Dreyar, 13-year-old Ultear Milkovich, and 12-year-old Brandish. Brandish's mother, Grammi, was originally from the Western Continent, moved to the Kingdom of Fiore with her family in her youth, and married and had her daughter in this country. Several years ago, the young Brandish awakened her magic, showing extraordinary talent. To ensure their daughter's talent wouldn't be wasted, the family moved to Magnolia to seek development, wanting Brandish to receive the best magic education at the Fairy Academy.
Although admission to the Fairy Academy is strict, there is an unwritten "hidden rule": as long as you join Fairy Tail, you can basically enter the school. Brandish's parents thus brought their young daughter to Fairy Tail. After testing by Descartes, Brandish successfully joined the guild and the Fairy Academy. Simultaneously, since Brandish and Elsie were of similar age and both girls, they quickly became close sisters; Layla and Grammi also became close friends because of this, and the two families became very tight-knit.
Below the three "S-class candidates," there are several other children in the guild. The first is Descartes and Layla's daughter, Elsie Lagrange. The young girl inherited her parents' looks and magical talent well; although she is only 10 years old this year, she possesses immense innate magic power and inherited the thirteen Golden Zodiac celestial spirit keys collected by the Lagrange family, making her strength not much different from the three S-class candidates.
The second is Silver and Ur's son, Gray Milkovich, who is 11 years old this year. Gray also inherited his parents' excellent genes, showing unique talent in ice magic at a young age, even surpassing his elder sister Ultear. The third child is Ur's direct disciple, Lyon. Lyon's talent is nearly equal to Gray's, but being slightly older, Gray usually loses more than he wins when they compete.
The fourth child is Cana Alberona. Cana was only 6 years old when she came to Fairy Tail; being an orphan, Layla doted on her very much. However, after several interactions, the observant Layla noticed Cana's unusual focus on Gildarts, so she immediately had a "long night talk" with the girl. Having just experienced the pain of losing her mother, how could the young Cana resist Layla's gentle offensive? After only a few rounds, the girl obediently revealed her background—it turned out she was the child of Gildarts and his lover! Furious upon learning the truth, Layla took Cana the next day to aggressively confront that scumbag Gildarts for justice, providing the guild members with quite a lot of gossip. After the father and daughter recognized each other, the frequency of Gildarts' returns to the guild increased, and his time staying in Magnolia became significantly longer.
These seven children—three boys and four girls—were the most troublesome problem children of Fairy Tail before. And now, there are to be five more children in the guild.
...
Inside the guild.
Anna sat in the center, introducing herself and the children to the guild members. The five Dragon Slayers who had traveled through time surrounded Anna with varying expressions, looking quite dependent on her. The youngest, Wendy, sat in Anna's lap, her face full of unease and tears half-filling her eyes, clearly having just cried; Sting and Rogue sat on either side of Anna; they weren't crying, but they were like two startled birds, with tension written all over them. All three children were only five years old; waking up to suddenly lose their familiar "home" and "parents" while being surrounded by so many strangers made such emotions inevitable.
Natsu and Gajeel were much bolder. They were a full seven years older than the other three children, now 12-year-old youths, and thus more mature in thought and stable in emotion. At this moment, the two stood on the ground, and while their gaze at the people around them was guarded, it was mostly filled with curiosity, occasionally baring their teeth like two beasts guarding their territory.
The members of Fairy Tail gathered around these new companions, listening to her tell her story—
"I am a relative of Layla's, and my profession is a preschool teacher."
"These children are named Natsu, Gajeel, Sting, Rogue, and Wendy; they are my students."
"For certain reasons, we had to come from a very long distance to seek refuge with her."
"In the future, we will settle in Magnolia, and the children will join the guild and the academy, so please take care of us!"
The fight against Acnologia was a matter of great importance. After much thought, Anna decided to temporarily hide this from the outside world and even kept it secret from the children. As for the Origin part, the phrase "certain reasons" was sufficient. After all, Natsu and the others were children without complex thoughts; if Anna lied to the companions, it might easily be seen through, causing awkwardness. On the contrary, by intentionally speaking unclearly, everyone could tell Anna didn't wish to dwell on the topic. The people in the guild respected their comrades' privacy and wouldn't pry into someone's background; seeing that Anna didn't want to talk, they wouldn't force her to explain.
After listening to Anna's account, the crowd looked at each other, and then—
"Welcome, welcome!!"
"Layla's relative? They really do look alike..."
"The children in the guild are increasing more and more; it's going to get really rowdy now, isn't it?"
"Hahaha... just leave that headache to that kid Descartes; I'm retired anyway!"