Chapter 358: FTG Chapter 355: Midnight Barbecue Stall
Several minutes later, Natsu and Erik concluded their battle. Both were panting for breath from exhaustion, lying flat on the lawn to recover their physical strength.
"How... how about it? Know my power now? Do you submit?"
"Want me to submit? You’re still a hundred years too early!"
Natsu refused to admit defeat, and Erik similarly refused to give in. The two paused for a moment, tacitly deciding to take a short break before launching a second round.
Watching the two boys who clearly had no strength left yet still acted tough with their mouths, Erzi was somewhat speechless: "I say, you two, shouldn’t that be just about enough?"
"No! Not enough!!"
Natsu shouted out: "They taken advantage of Happy last night, so I am absolutely going to demand payment for this debt on his behalf!"
Hearing these words, Erik suddenly realized something was wrong.
"What are you talking about?"
"I heard Juvia and Sorano talking this afternoon and thought it sounded pretty interesting, which is why I came over."
"How does that translate to bullying that cat last night?"
The air at the scene instantly fell silent.
"Wait, wait...!!"
Erzi quickly snapped back from her daze. Straightening out her thoughts, she asked: "So, the culprit who stole the fish Happy caught here last night wasn’t you guys?"
Erik rolled his eyes: "Of course not!"
After doing all this for so long, it turned out to be a complete misunderstanding...
The anger in Natsu’s heart toward Erik instantly dissipated by more than half, and subsequently a trace of suspicion surfaced: "If it wasn’t done by you guys, then who was it?"
The clues were broken once again.
The group wanted to reinvestigate but had no place to start, so they could only open up their minds and guess boldly—
"Do you think it’s possible that Headmaster Grandma hired someone to keep night watch in the academy, and then when that person was patrolling here last night, they happened to come across that bucket containing the fish? Combined with the fact that no one was around at the time, they just released the fish back into the wild?"
"But I’ve never heard of there being a night watchman in the academy."
"Then could it be some righteous knight who happened to pass by, saw the fish struggling in the bucket, and out of a massive burst of kindness released them?"
"This guess is slightly more plausible than the last one."
"I think, maybe those fish just grew wings and flew away themselves."
"There’s absolutely no way such a thing could happen, alright!!"
Right when everyone was at a complete loss, a faint fragrance drifted over from afar.
"What’s that smell? So fragrant!!"
"It’s grilled fish!!"
"Which one of you moved so fast, grilling fish without calling me?"
Everyone subconsciously searched for Natsu and Happy with their gazes. The reason they looked for these two was because among all the people at the scene, they were the ones with the quickest hands and feet. Combined with Natsu’s ability to start fires and Happy’s love for eating fish, they were the ones most likely to grill fish on this occasion.
However...
Natsu was currently still lying down resting alongside Erik, and Happy was also sitting quietly beside Natsu without making a move. Clearly, the ones grilling fish were not the two of them.
"The scent seems to be drifting over from that direction!"
Gajeel distinguished it carefully for a moment and quickly locked onto the target. It was in the two o’clock direction facing the pond, at the upwind location.
Everyone raised their eyes to look, only to see that far off by the pond, there appeared to be the flickering shimmer of a golden light. The fragrance of grilled fish was precisely blowing over from there, carried along by the night wind.
"Could someone be grilling fish over there in the middle of the night?"
"Should we go over and check it out?"
"Good idea! My stomach happens to be hungry too, maybe we can get some food from them!"
With the idea settled, the group immediately set off, walking along the small shoreline path that circled the pond toward the location where the firelight rose.
The closer they got, the more concentrated the fragrance became.
Natsu was the first to smell out other things within the fragrance: "It seems like it’s not just grilled fish, there’s also grilled chicken wings, grilled beef skewers, grilled mutton skewers, grilled rice cakes, grilled potatoes..."
Gray added: "And the scent of wheat beer!"
Just who on earth was it?!
Barbecuing here in the middle of the night, and eating such a sumptuous feast?!
The several children had been out for a long time, and combined with the fact that it was currently the middle of the night—the time when physical strength was most easily depleted—they were instantly provoked by this fragrance to the point of salivating continuously, their stomachs also rumbling out loud.
The group therefore quickened their pace, even going straight into a dash!
A few minutes later, the line of people finally arrived at their destination.
The golden light they had seen earlier was indeed a barbecue stall!
The tools used were a barbecue grill that could be found at any random barbecue stall in the town’s food street. Charcoal burned within the grill, with an iron mesh resting on top. Various fresh ingredients were placed on the iron mesh, including chicken, beef, mutton, and fish freshly caught from the pond.
These ingredients were brushed with oil and sprinkled with various seasonings, slowly being roasted to maturity under the high temperature, emitting a fragrance that made one’s appetite whet and mouth water.
The fragrance slowly rose into the sky, and blown by the night wind, the surroundings instantly became smoky and fiery.
A figure sat before the barbecue stall, patiently and meticulously observing the heat of the ingredients, using iron tongs from time to time to flip these items over. The firelight inside the grill dyed his slightly tipsy face a deep red, and it was even a bit oily and shiny.
From the angle at which everyone approached, they could just happen to see this person’s profile.
This was an old man who was clearly up there in years. His hair was already grizzled, and his face was full of wrinkles. The two hands manipulation the food were neither thick nor thin, yet they looked very powerful and very steady. His pair of eyes was exceptionally bright, completely lacking the kind of depleted vitality or lingering twilight deadness found in ordinary old men.
Everyone couldn’t help but whisper among themselves.
"Who is this person?"
"He looks even older than Grandpa Makarov!"
"Then doesn’t he have to be nearly a hundred years old?"
"Since he can appear here, he should also be someone from the academy, right? Could he be a professor for the upper grades?"
"Probably..."
The old man seemed to finally perceive someone approaching, slowly raising his head, looking toward everyone as he revealed a kind smile filled with an unclear meaning.
"Good evening, children!"
"Not going home to sleep in the middle of the night, running to the academy to have an adventure?"
Seeing that the other party bore no malice, everyone then plucked up their courage and stepped forward.
"Old Man, who are you? I seem to have never seen you in the academy or in town before!"
Gray stared seriously at Weston for a long time. Searching through his past memories, he was certain he had never seen this figure before, which was why he voiced the question in his heart.
"Me..."
Weston thought about it and said: "I used to be a professor who taught magic to upper-grade students in the academy, but I retired a long time ago. Currently, I live in a small cabin in the woods behind the academy to live out my retirement, and I rarely come out for activities normally. It’s perfectly normal that you haven’t seen me."
The several newly arrived exchange students didn’t know the internal situation of Fairy Academy, assuming that the academy itself had this tradition, and subconsciously grumbled in their hearts: Providing for a retired magic professor’s old age? The welfare benefits of this Fairy Academy are actually this good?
Natsu, Gajeel, and Happy were all idiots, so they didn’t realize the part that was wrong either.
Gray and Erzi, however, faintly perceived something bizarre.
In the academy woods... since when was there a small cabin?
