The crowd carried Kabe all the way back into the guild and dropped him onto a long table.
After that, he did not even need to ask. Drinks and food of every kind were piled up in front of him one after another.
Irene and the other women were also brought over to the same long table. Thanks to Kabe, they got to experience Fairy Tail's highest possible level of VIP treatment.
On one side of the table sat Kabe, Irene, and the others.
On the opposite side, Erza, Mira, Levy, Cana, and of course Ultear, who absolutely refused to give up her place, had already occupied the seats.
With Kabe's glorious return, the guild naturally slipped straight into full banquet mode.
And as one guild member after another came over to clink glasses with him, Kabe accepted every single invitation without refusal.
It was only at that moment that he realized, with some surprise, that everyone in the guild was actually here.
Macao and Wakaba, with their arms around each other's shoulders.
Natsu and Gray, clinging to him and constantly pestering him for details about the mission.
Laxus, leaning against a pillar with his usual blank expression, but still raising his glass from afar in greeting, together with the Thunder God Tribe.
And then Warren, Max, Elfman, Lisanna, Levy, and all the others.
For once, the entire guild had gathered, in a way even more complete than a proper S-Class Exam.
Even Makarov could not help sighing that Fairy Tail had never been this lively before.
After draining a cup with Kabe, Natsu wiped the liquor running from the corner of his mouth.
Then, in his usual rude fashion, he leaned in close to Irene, who was currently glaring back and forth at Erza and the other girls across the table, and took a deep sniff.
Sniff, sniff.
"What are you doing, you pervert?!"
An action that practically counted as harassment naturally drew fierce hostility from Heine and Juliet.
Ignoring the sharp looks from the two women, Natsu turned toward Kabe, who was in the middle of bragging to Gray, and asked,
"Hey, Kabe, I wanted to ask before. Why does this red-haired lady smell like a dragon?"
Kabe set down his emptied glass, poured himself another drink, and gave Natsu an approving look.
"Your nose really is as sharp as ever. That is right. Irene is also a Dragon Slayer, and not just any Dragon Slayer. She is the founding ancestor of all Dragon Slayers.
So really, you should not be calling her big sis just now. You should be calling her great-grandma..."
Before the last word could fully leave his mouth, a black-faced Irene grabbed a baguette from the table, courtesy of whichever idiot had brought it over, and jammed it straight into his mouth.
With that thick, hard object forced violently into his mouth, Kabe immediately toppled backward off his chair, clutching the bread with both hands and making miserable muffled noises.
Watching Kabe get "one-shotted" so cleanly, everyone's eyes toward Irene gained a distinct trace of fear.
Of course, considering the sort of awful thing he had just said about a woman's age, nobody really felt much sympathy for him either.
That said, the shock in everyone's hearts was still very real.
Ultear gripped her wineglass tightly and stared at Irene, who radiated the mature fullness of an adult woman from head to toe, yet showed absolutely no sign of being truly old. Ultear swallowed hard.
"Y-you are joking, right? Dragon Slayer Magic was developed hundreds of years ago. Are you saying, Lady Irene, that you have actually lived for several centuries?"
Tilting her head, Irene smiled faintly and flicked back her crimson hair, then asked in return,
"What? Do I not look the part?"
'Of course not! Not even remotely!'
Judging only by Irene's face, most of them would have guessed she was barely in her early thirties at most.
Erza, meanwhile, seriously pinched her chin and stared at Irene for a long time before finally arriving at a conclusion.
"You really cannot tell at all. But it is strange. I feel like you look extremely familiar somehow."
'Of course she looks familiar! She is your mother! You two practically look identical!!!'
Brandish and the others who knew the truth could not help screaming inwardly.
Even Irene's lips twitched slightly.
She had deliberately chosen to sit directly across from Erza, and had even gone out of her way to lift and play with her long crimson hair in front of her.
The whole point had been to make Erza realize for herself that the two of them shared a blood relation.
But apparently that girl was a bit too naturally dense. Even something this obvious had failed to click for her.
On the other hand, after hearing Erza say that, Mira began scanning the two women's faces back and forth suspiciously, her brows slowly drawing together.
She was not the only one to notice something strange.
Quite a few others had caught on as well, but since they had only just met Irene, no one felt comfortable blurting out such a direct question.
And so, a perfect opportunity for mother and daughter to recognize each other was utterly derailed by Natsu, the resident idiot.
"Eh? So you are actually the founder of Dragon Slayer Magic? Wasn't that Igneel?"
Natsu held his head, looking completely unable to accept it.
"After all, every bit of my magic was taught to me by the fire dragon who raised me, Igneel."
"Just because he taught you does not mean he created the magic.
After all, what kind of dragon in their right mind would create a form of magic specifically meant to kill dragons?"
Realizing that her daughter might have more problems upstairs than she had first hoped, Irene decided not to expose the truth just yet.
Instead, she took a small sip of red wine and calmly began answering Natsu's question.
"So then, boy, do you have any questions about Dragon Slayer Magic for its creator?"