In the end, the daily spar between Ide and Ur still concluded with Ide's victory.
When two Slayer wizards fought, once it reached the final stage of determining the winner, it ultimately boiled down to a contest of raw magic power.
"Damn it."
"I really still can't compare to you, Ide."
Ur shook her head helplessly, lamenting the sheer magnitude of Ide's power.
"Haha."
"Ur, if you want to catch up to my current level, I'm afraid you'll need to settle down and train for another ten or eight years first."
Ide chuckled, speaking with brimming confidence.
However, given Ide's current training speed, in another eight or ten years, his strength would have likely broken through again long ago.
"Alright."
"Sparring time is over."
"Next is teaching time."
After getting his fill of combat excitement with Ur, Ide switched gears and transformed into a teacher for Ultear, Erza, Laxus, and Cana, instructing the four of them in literacy and magic.
Ide was a master of time management, never wasting a single second of his life.
Just like that, a month flew by.
During this month, Ide maintained his routine of fighting, teaching, and sleeping—a simple, three-point line of existence.
It wasn't until a few days ago, when Ur decided that practical combat was more important than theoretical teaching and took Erza, Ultear, and Cana out on a mission, that Ide finally became idle and found himself with nothing to do.
By the way, Ur had also invited Laxus to join the mission, but the boy was a bit rebellious (shy) and declined Ur's invitation, choosing to go out and complete an A-Class mission on his own instead.
During this period, Gildarts still hadn't returned to the guild.
At the bar inside the Fairy Tail guild.
"Speaking of which, what exactly did that guy Gildarts go off to do? Why hasn't he returned to the guild after so long?"
Ide sat beside Old Man Makarov, who had just returned from the Guild Master's Conference, and asked in confusion.
"Oh."
"That guy Gildarts said he wanted to prepare for challenging the '100-Year Quest' in the future, so he picked a 10-Year Quest that's rumored to be the most difficult in history. I suspect he won't be back at the guild anytime soon."
Holding a glass of wine, Makarov took a small sip and answered thoughtfully.
"Hah?!"
"With Gildarts' current strength, even if he went to complete a legendary 10-Year Quest, isn't he taking way too long?"
"Don't tell me that guy got arrested and thrown in jail in the middle of the mission for failing to hit on a married woman?!"
A smile played on Ide's lips as he blatantly mocked a certain 'King of Scumbags'.
Yes, because Ide had waited so long without Gildarts returning, he felt uncomfortable not being able to mock him to his face. So, he could only secretly speculate on the reasons for Gildarts' absence.
"You don't say."
"You really don't say."
Sweat beaded on Makarov's forehead. With that bastard Gildarts' style of doing things, he might actually do something like that.
"No."
"I absolutely cannot let Gildarts surpass me."
Thinking of this, Ide slammed his hand on the table, stood up from the bar, and strode toward the 'S-Class' request board on the second floor of the guild.
Since Ur and the others weren't at the guild anyway, and he was just idling around, he might as well go do a 10-Year Quest too.
"Ide, are you going to do a 10-Year Quest too?"
"But Ide, let me warn you first. The 10-Year Quests remaining in the guild are each trickier than the last."
Makarov followed Ide to the request board on the second floor and introduced the 10-Year Quests Fairy Tail had retained.
"Hah?"
"Are there any 10-Year Quests that aren't tricky?"
Ide didn't really care; tricky missions were exactly what he wanted.
"That's true too."
Makarov paused for a moment, then nodded.
If these missions weren't tricky, they wouldn't have sat here for over ten years without anyone being able to complete them.
"Investigate the Dark Guild Tartaros."
"Subjugate the notorious criminal Hades."
"Subjugate the Demon from the Books of Zeref, Deliora."
Ide looked at the missions laid out before him one by one. His brow furrowed, seemingly undecided on which one to tackle first.
"Excuse me, are Mr. Ide and Ms. Ur here?"
Just as Ide stood before the 'S-Class Quest' board, silently contemplating which mission to take, a soft shout rang out from the Fairy Tail guild hall.
"I'm here."
Hearing his name, Ide responded immediately.
"Hello."
"There is a letter for you."
Ide walked to the railing on the second floor and looked down at the guild hall on the first floor. He saw a young postman standing in the crowd, smiling and waving at him.
"A letter?!"
seeing this, Ide leaped directly from the second floor, landing lightly in front of the postman.
"Thanks."
Ide thanked the postman first, then took the letter mailed from the distant Kingdom of Isvan.
"I'll be taking my leave then."
Having completed his task, the postman smiled at Ide and left.
"Mmh."
Ide watched the postman leave, then gently opened the envelope in his hand and murmured:
"To Ide and Ur."
"How have you been lately?"
"Has Ultear's illness been treated?"
"When will you come back to visit your hometown?! I miss you guys a little."
As Ide expected, the letter started with some pleasantries, but then the tone suddenly shifted and got to the main point.
"Alright, actually, I really have a favor to ask!"
"Recently, a vicious demon named Deliora has inexplicably appeared in the Kingdom of Isvan."
"Rumor has it that it has already destroyed several towns in succession and is getting closer and closer to our town."
"During this time, His Majesty the King has organized no less than ten subjugation attempts against Deliora, all of which ended in failure."
"Right now, other than asking you couple for help, I really have no other options! Please, for the sake of the town and our hometown, successfully subjugate Deliora."
"Your friend—Susan."
Ide quickly finished reading the letter Susan sent to him and Ur. His brow furrowed tightly as he muttered to himself, "Subjugate the Demon Deliora? The Demon Deliora from the 10-Year Quests?"
"Ide, have you decided which mission to take?"
Just as Ide was thinking, Makarov's question came from the second floor.
"Yeah."
"Of course I have."
Ide gently folded the letter and tucked it into his robe. Then he looked up at Makarov on the second floor and said softly, "Let me go and take out that blind fool, Deliora."