"As for the investment, does it count if Uncle Jude gave me five percent of the conglomerate's shares?"
"Pffft!!!"
Makarov was so shocked he sprayed out a mouthful of wine on the spot.
"What?! Five percent of the shares?!
Just what kind of relationship do you have with the Heartfilia family? They actually gave you shares?!"
"Don't make such a big fuss. We're just ordinary friends."
That was how Kabe explained it, but Makarov did not believe that nonsense for even a second.
In the end, under the old man's relentless stare, Kabe had no choice but to admit it.
"Alright, fine. I just happen to be a little close to the Heartfilia family's eldest daughter, and I saved her once before.
That clears things up, right?"
A hero saving the beauty?
The moment he heard that, Makarov understood.
And because he understood, he felt even more like cursing this brat to death.
How did every good thing in the world keep falling into this guy's lap?
From the way Jude Heartfilia was acting, it was obvious he already viewed Kabe as his future son-in-law.
This brat was young, strong, and barring any surprises, was about to become one of the Ten Wizard Saints.
And now he had also gained an absurdly wealthy father-in-law.
Other than not having a child yet, this was basically what you called a complete and fulfilled life.
Who the hell would not be jealous of that?
...
"Wait, hold on. Weren't you supposed to be going out to bring investment into the guild?
So why did the investment end up going to you instead?!"
Kabe froze, then suddenly smacked his forehead as he finally realized he had forgotten that part.
"Ah. At first, Uncle Jude did say he wanted to sponsor the guild with 1 billion J.
But I thought that was too much, so he changed it to shares instead."
"So in other words, you rejected the 1 billion J that was supposed to go to the guild...
and took five percent of the Heartfilia Conglomerate for yourself instead."
"Uh... when you put it that way, I guess that's true."
"..."
After a brief silence, Makarov completely snapped. His face twisted as he roared in fury,
"You damned brat!! Give me back my 1 billion J!!!"
That was obviously impossible.
The dividends from the shares had not even arrived yet, and there was no way Kabe could fork over that kind of money himself.
After thinking about it, he reached into his pocket, pulled out his wallet, counted the banknotes inside, and handed them all over to Makarov.
"I've still got 100,000 J here. If you don't mind, Master, you can have it."
Watching his 1 billion turn into 100,000, the old man nearly failed to catch his breath and almost fainted on the spot.
But no matter how small a mosquito was, it was still meat. Makarov snatched the 100,000 J away in one motion and stuffed it into his own pouch.
"You little bastard. The guild finally had a chance at some proper funding, and you ruined it."
He cursed Kabe angrily, but after that, more than half his anger quickly faded.
The reason was simple.
If Makarov himself had been in that situation, he would not have accepted such an enormous sponsorship either.
It was not that he disliked money.
It was just that for a "small guild" like Fairy Tail, 1 billion J was simply too huge an amount.
Even if the guild spent as freely as it wanted, it probably would not be able to use all that money up within several years.
Still, calming down did not mean Makarov had forgiven him.
Thinking about how the new guild still needed all sorts of things bought and arranged, and how there was still a considerable gap in funds, Makarov's head started aching again.
No.
He had to find a way to open up a few more profitable channels.
Makarov, worrying over money, cast a sidelong glance at Kabe.
Directly asking Kabe for money was something he could not bring himself to do.
But asking him to help out a little and contribute to making the guild wealthier... there should not be a problem with that, right?
Once that thought occurred to him, Makarov looked at Kabe's handsome face and outstanding figure and suddenly got an idea.
"Ahem. Kabe, do you like figures?"
"What kind of question is that? Figures? Don't tell me you're into that kind of young people's hobby too, old man?"
The topic had changed so abruptly and so strangely that Kabe was momentarily dumbfounded.
He gave the old man a strange look, then lightly nodded.
"I've never really collected them on purpose, but if I run into one I like, I wouldn't mind buying it.
Though when you say figures, you do mean normal figures, right?"
"Normal. Absolutely normal. How could a figure of you be anything but normal?"
"Hah???"