Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail or it's characters.

-The Enchanter of Fairy Tail-

Chapter 28: An Important Lesson

Year: X755. 29 years till Canon begins.

Cade POV:

"Ice Slicer!" I yelled, as I fired off multiple sharp slices of ice towards Gildarts direction.

"Ha! Crush!" Gildarts shouted, him getting excited. He fired off multiple yellow energy spheres at my slices of ice.

They tore through my attacks like paper, and some of them continued to fly my way.

"Hmph!" I grumbled, as I leapt up into the air to dodge the spheres. I aimed myself to fly up and over Gildarts so I could launch more attacks at him from all angles.

I fired off blades of fire from my Kaen sword, and beams of light from my Raito sword that came down to meet Gildarts hands. He simply took my magic attacks with the full force of his hand which were embedded with crush magic.

"Full Crush!" He fired off a large yellow sphere towards me in the air intending for this attack to finish the fight between us.

I gasped when seeing the attack heading my way. I quickly held up my hand and fired off small sheets of ice meant to repel me down to the ground to avoid his attack.

This sort of manoeuvre only really worked when going downwards. I didn't yet have a viable method for moving left or right while in the air.

I landed back on the ground and breathed a sigh of relief at avoiding the attack just there.

Gildarts then thrusted out his hand and fired off multiple crush spheres in my general direction.

As the large brightly coloured sphere was fired towards me, I began to quickly speed along the ice by sliding as fast as I could, while dodging left and right to avoid them.

Some of the spheres grazed my cape and were mere inches from touching me, but I was able to dodge the attacks in the end.

The last sphere in particular forced to slide back on myself quite quickly making me lose my balance slightly and fall forwards. I slammed my gloved hands onto the ice, and used the ice to prepare my next spell.

'This should keep me covered for a while.'

"Ice Wall!"

I used the ice beneath me, as well as my own Ice Magic to create summon a huge thick wall of ice from the ground. It erupted from the ice beneath us and now stood between me and Gildarts, protecting me from him for a while.

The ice was several meters thick and stretched quite wide, you could also still see through it clearly enough. The spell could be used mostly anywhere, but it worked much better when I used it over already pre-existing ice. That meant that I could use a less magic to cast the wall. In a battle like this, every bit of magic you can save helps.

"Trying to hide from me then?" Gildarts shouted to me.

The ice may be thick and solid, but it did mean that both me and whoever may be on the other side would have to shout to hear each other.

"Oh I'm not hiding from you. Just taking a quick breather." I confessed to Gildarts with a yell.

"In a battle like this, you won't really get much time to sit down and relax." Gildarts remarked, as he held out his hand to destroy my wall. "Crush! Say goodbye to your little wall!"

The yellow ball of energy shot towards my wall like a speeding bullet. I noticed that Gildarts had only summoned the one sphere to destroy my wall.

'He must be confident that he can destroy my wall like that huh?' I remarked with a grin. 'Well I bet you didn't see this coming Gildarts!' I thought maniacally.

No POV, Gildarts Clive:

As the crush sphere made its way to the wall of ice, Gildarts chuckled a little to himself. Him thinking that Cade wouldn't be able to protect himself for long now.

'It was a good fight there Cade. Nice to see how far you've come since you first joined the guild.' Gildarts remarked internally.

The sphere made contact with the wall and it let out an explosion, which covered the entire middle of the ice rink Cade and Gildarts were on with smoke. Some of the smoke went flying off and reached Gildarts who was a decent distance from the wall.

"Well that certainly done the trick." Gildarts noted "Now to finish this fight… *sniff*... ah… ACHOO!"

Gildarts suddenly sneezed quite loudly out of nowhere! He then felt something touch his nose which surprised him. He wiped the brim of his nose and looked at his hand to see what it was.

It was dust!

"What the…?" Gildarts wondered as he broke his gaze from where Cade was last seen and sniffed the dust again.

"ACHOO!" Gildarts sneezed again! However, this time after the sneeze, Gildarts was able to recognise what the dust actually was.

"What!? It's… stone dust!" He exclaimed. "But how-?"

"Ahahaha!" Came a maniacal laughter from ahead of Gildarts. Gildarts looked up in confusion, and was taken aback to see what was ahead of him.

The Ice Wall that Cade had summoned not long ago… was still standing! It only had a big hole in the center of it.

In fact, the biggest surprise was that the wall of ice, was now a wall of stone! Not only that, but Cade was now on top of the stone wall with his arms crossed grinning like a madman.

Gildarts gave a confused look at what he saw just there. Thankfully for him, Cade chose to speak up about this.

"Surprised to see the wall still standing strong?" Cade quizzed. "When you used your crush attack to try to destroy my wall of ice, I noticed that the colour of it wasn't as bright as your stronger attacks. So I took a gamble and used my Henshin spell to turn the ice into stone thinking the stone would survive your slightly weaker crush sphere. Looks like I was right." Cade grinned.

Gildarts gave a half smile when he finished hearing that. "Huh, impressive. But I can just launch a stronger attack to destroy your little castle wall." Gildarts then held up his hand and fired off a much stronger crush sphere.

The sphere went flying towards the stone wall, and Cade fired off multiple ice attacks to destroy the sphere.

"Ice Bullets!" Cade cried as he fired dozens upon dozens of small bullets to destroy Gildarts attack. This didn't work unfortunately, and the sphere did not slow down.

Cade gave a panicked look as the sphere only got closer to him.

Cade POV:

'Damn! Gotta move here!' I thought as I leapt backwards into the air as the crush sphere hit the wall right in the center.

The stone wall then exploded into pieces, causing many chunks of stone to go flying off and crashing down into the ice, cracking it.

I had leapt back far enough to where I wouldn't be caught in the explosion, and landed quite far back from where the stone wall once was.

Me and Gildarts were now a good distance apart from each other, giving me some space to think about my next move.

'What to do, what to do? I bet I gave Gildarts a nice surprise with my stone wall there. If only all of my ice attacks could be enchanted with stone then I might actually be able to fight back against his magic a lot more!' My gaze then shifted to many of the stone chunks on the ice next to me.

'Maybe I can use them.' I thought, a plan forming in my mind. 'Timing will be kind hard to get, but if I get it down this'll be a great move.'

I held out my hand at one of the big stone chunks below me. "Ice Pillar!" As I said that, a pillar made out of ice shot up from the ground underneath the chunk of stone, firing it up into the air about a metre or so.

As the chunk came back down to the ground, I immediately fired off my next spell. "Ice Pillars!" This summoned multiple pillars of ice from the ground that came out in a diagonal angle and hit the stone as down.

This caused it to go flying towards in Gildarts direction. Gildarts quickly raised his hand to counter it with a crush sphere. As he fired off his crush sphere, I kept launching up chunks of stone, and throwing them to Gildarts in an attempt to overwhelm him.

Gildarts kept casting spell after spell to destroy the stones as I was throwing them at him. Thankfully for me, I had a lot of ammunition to work with considering that he completely blew up my stone wall earlier.

I actually noticed that Gildarts was getting a little overwhelmed by all the stone flying his way. However, much to my distain, he powered up some more of his magic and casted a spell to destroy all of the chunks of stone flying towards him at once.

"Full Crush!" He bellowed, as he completed cubed all the stone in the air.

I did stop throwing stone chunks, as I now was beginning to feel a bit tired. 'This battle is really tiring me out. I've had to use almost all the spells I have on me to keep going and land some good hits.' I assessed. 'I'm gonna have to try and end this soon.'

I began to try and think of a way for me to close this fight successfully. It would have to involve getting a really good hit on Gildarts, with him being too occupied to stop the attack coming to him.

'If I try to attack Gildarts from his front then he'll just block it with his crush magic. What can I do…? Ah ha! What if I made it to where his hands are already occupied with something else, then he can't properly focus his magic into his chest to stop my attacks!' I then got myself ready to plan out my assault.

'I'll have to close the distance between us again for me to make sure my attacks will hit him where I want them to.' I then began to skate towards Gildarts, while also making sure not to slip awkwardly on the ice.

Gildarts grinned when seeing me running towards him like that. He then held out his hands and fired off multiple crush spheres meant to knock me down and out of the fight.

I simply made sure to dart to the side and leap up into the air occasionally to dodge his attacks. Though my running and dodging, I was eventually able to close the distance between us somewhat, to the point where I could aim and direct my attacks with a much better chance to have them hit Gildarts.

"Ice Beams!" I held out my hands to my left and right side, and summoned the two beams of ice. Except this time they were materialised to the left and right of Gildarts.

The beams were fired soon after being summoned. Gildarts looked a little surprised to see this, and held up his left and right hand in the direction of the beams so he could destroy them with his crush magic from his hands respectively.

The Beams were being literally crushed into small cubes by his magic. While he was occupied with that, I began to power up more of my magic and prepared to fire another attack at Gildarts chest area. As he was occupying his hands with his crush magic, then I didn't think he would be able to put the magic on his chest to stop my attack.

Truth be told, there was only one way to find out. I powered up more of my magic and fired off a very powerful ice attack right at Gildarts chest.

"Ice Buster!" I boomed with a tint of excitement in my voice.

This move was a powerful close range explosion that was better at close range, but could still be used at a far away distance. The explosion caused was quite powerful, so this attack had to do some damage to Gildarts hopefully.

My Ice Buster attack was sent speeding towards Gildarts chest. His hand were still dealing with my ice beams, meaning he was unable to use them to counter my attack just now!

Gildarts showed a look of frustration at seeing his predicament. He let out a loud cry, and suddenly magic began to explode out of his body. This completely atomised all three of my attacks that I sent to Gildarts left, right and front side.

'What the!? Did he just let out more of his magic to destroy my attacks?!' I was completely shocked by what I had just seen there. Even when attacked from three different sides, Gildarts was able to stop all of my attacks from reaching him by simply letting out more magic from his body.

Gildarts then gave me a look of excitement. "Ha! This fight's been amazing!" He grinned. He then began power up more and more of his magic.

He then fired off a huge energy wave made of crush magic in my direction. This wave of energy was utterly shredding all the ice on the ground beneath us, and all the spikes and stone that was on the ice.

'Damn that looks strong! I ain't sticking around to see how strong though!' I then leapt up off the ground and into the air to dodge the attack.

The wave of energy passed just underneath me. It thankfully missed me completely, I didn't look down to see whether it did, because I might throw up.

As I looked down to see what Gildarts was now doing, I saw that he was no longer standing where he once was on the ice.

'Where did he go!?' I thought in surprise and fear, as I looked around desperately.

"Up here." Came a voice from above me. I looked up in astonishment, and saw Gildarts just above me; him having jumped into the air to meet me up here!

Gildarts then pulled his leg back, and fired it forward where it made direct contact with my chest, sending me crashing back down to the ground.

The bad news about that was that I didn't land on my feet, rather my back crashed into the ground. Thankfully my armour took the brunt of the damage so I had no broken bones. However my chest was just sore all over from that kick just there.

I was able to get back up on my feet eventually, but it took some effort to do so. When I did, I saw Gildarts standing a decent distance away from me. He had his arms crossed and seemed to be thinking about something.

"Had enough yet Cade?" He asked firmly, while giving a serious look.

'Argh… Guess this what Gildarts is like when he gets serious in fights. Glad we're in the same guild…' I thought.

"Not yet…" I shouted to my opponent.

Gildarts simply closed his eyes and shrugged his shoulders at me. He then opened his eyes back up and held up his hand in my direction.

"Crushing Evil, Spreading the Truth: Absolute Heaven!" Gildarts fired an attack that had the highest magic power I had ever felt before, with Gildarts giving me an stern look.

As the attack flew towards me, I frantically tried to think of a way out of this.

'AHHHHHH! What can I do here!? That's the attack that he used back when fighting Ivan! I can't jump to dodge it, he'll probably be expecting me to do that. None of my spells are strong enough to pierce through his attacks like that, what can I do!' I began to desperately think of a plan to help avoid Gildarts attacks, but I couldn't think of anything!

As his attack got closer and closer to me I still struggled to think of a way survive this attack. But as I was thinking that, I remembered what Gildarts told me before we began the fight here.

—

"I actually plan to teach you something here as well. A thank you present for all the help you've given me."

"Let me tell ask something Cade. How many fights have you lost now?"

—

'It can't be…!? Is that what you were trying to teach me here Gildarts?!' I thought in realisation. 'I didn't realise it until now!' Upon understanding what Gildarts was trying to teach me, I made a shout so he can hear me.

"I surrender!" I yelled at the top of my voice.

As I said that, the attack that was speeding towards me suddenly died out and evaporated into thin air. Upon seeing that happen I collapsed to the ground exhausted, with all the adrenaline from the fight running out of me.

It was done. The fight was over… and I had lost.

I was looking down at the ground thinking about the fight, when I heard the sound of Gildarts boots on the ground. I looked up to see Gildarts looking down at me, with a relaxed and happy look.

"So how do you feel after that?" He questioned.

I was puzzled by my feelings right now.

"It's weird… I surrendered the fight because I knew I would be unable to continue fighting if I took that attack just there directly. And yet… I don't feel sad or angry." I replied with a curious face.

"That's good." Gildarts nodded. "It means you realise that you were just met with a stronger opponent. That happens to everyone once in their life, and it helps show you that you'll never be the strongest out there. There'll always be someone you just can't beat. It's important for many young wizards to learn that they aren't invincible and can be beaten." Gildarts stated. "Not that I'm accusing you of anything!" Gildarts assured me.

"I was just trying to show you that you can't always win. If we do lose, then so what? Use that to motivate yourself to get back up and keep trying. And if you do that… then maybe you'll eventually beat the person you lost to before." Gildarts told me with a smile. "It's important that we acknowledge our weaknesses so that we can stand strong and overcome them in the future!"

"You surrendered there which was the right move to make. As far as I'm aware, I don't think you would have survived that attack if it hit you – I would have cancelled it before it hit you of course." Gildarts said as he scratched his head awkwardly with a laid back smile. "There were a few points where I thought you might have thrown in the towel there, but I'm glad you didn't do it there. For one, I was having fun fighting you! And two, I felt like it was best I threw my strongest attack at you to see if that would break you or not."

"So that's why you said those things to me before we started the fight…" My suspicions now confirmed.

"Yeah, I was trying to clue you in on what I wanted in this fight. Glad you were able to get the message."

"Yeah… thanks." I thanked Gildarts with a smile.

"You know. I'm honestly glad you surrendered instead of me having to beat you up physically and into the ground." Gildarts spoke as he scratched his head.

"Hmm? Why?" I wondered.

Gildarts gave an awkward look. "Your mother would have had my head if I hurt you that badly…" He muttered.

We both shared a laugh at that, before I thought about the fight and what Gildarts had wanted from me.

You know what? I think it was for the best, losing that fight. Now that the adrenaline had worn off I was able to think about how I was probably going to lose the fight in the end, as Gildarts outclassed me in terms of strength, speed and endurance. Hell, he could have ended the fight in the first five minutes if he wanted. He just wanted to have some fun.

"While I appreciate this nice message and lesson Gildarts… Wasn't the whole point of this training lesson today meant to see if you were ready for S-Class?" I asked.

"Well, I think I've been ready for a while now. I just decided that today would be the perfect time to teach you that important lesson." Confessed Gildarts. He then lowered his hand down for me.

I nodded with a smile and took the hand. Gildarts then effortlessly pulled me up onto my feet with little difficulty. "Now then. I think we'll head back down to the town and call it a day, hmm?"

"Yeah. I think that's for the best." I said, as I clutched my chest and groaned a little. "Ow… My chest is still sore a little from that kick you gave me. Don't think anything is broken though." I mentioned, as the both of us then made our way back down into Magnolia.

The rest of the day went by relatively quickly. Everything felt like a breeze compared to the insane fight I was in earlier. The both us went back to the guild and relaxed for the rest of the day. I was confident that Gildarts would have what it took tomorrow to win the trial. Then after that he could go on S-Class jobs as much as he wanted!

We both enjoyed the rest of the day, before we went our separate ways until we would see each other tomorrow.

The next day came by quicker than expected. I went though the routine of having breakfast, getting washed, getting dressed and heading down to the guild to see Gildarts off for his trial.

I was honestly a little nervous about whether he had what it took to complete the trial today. I had prepared him well, with him being slightly stronger and having much better navigation skills now. Still the nerves were getting to me, but I had hope that he could do it.

As I approached the guild, I saw that many of the members were exiting the building and all walking in the same direction.

'Hmm? Ah they must be heading to the train station to see Gildarts and Ivan off.' I realised, as I decided to tag along with them until we got to the station.

While walking there, I got into a discussion of who would win the trial. Many of the people I overheard in the conversation firmly believed that Gildarts would take the rank of S-Class home with him. There were some people who thought that Ivan would come out on top which surprised me. They mainly thought that as Ivan was quite crafty and slippery, whereas Gildarts can be quite oblivious at times (not going to lie I saw where they were coming from there)

The debate continued as we made our way to the station. When we got there, I saw many recognisable guild members across the station platform, including Quikora.

I looked around the station some more and saw Ivan and Master Makarov at the station. Ivan was leaning against a wall with his arms crossed, while Master was taking to who looked like the train conductor. My guess was that they arrived first, as Ivan was Master's son.

Quite curious as to what the young adult thought of the next upcoming hours of his life, I chose to approach him with my hands in my pocket.

Ivan noticed me coming and raised an eyebrow. He didn't say anything snarky or sarcastic, nor did he move away. He gave me a curious look when I stopped just in front of him.

"Hey Ivan." I greeted him casually.

Ivan just nodded his head in response.

'Ok then…'

"How you feeling about the trial coming up?" I asked with interest.

"If you think I'll slip up and tell you my strategy for winning this so you can run and tell Gildarts, you can guess again." Ivan said as he glared at me.

"Good grief. I'm just here to see how you're feeling about all this." I responded in a frustrated manner. Same old Ivan…

"Well if you must know, I feel like I'll be taking the title of S-Class this year. I've spent years preparing for this. I will not lose." He answered firmly, as he raised his head a little.

'Why did I think he would be any different today…' I thought in annoyance.

"Well Gildarts has been training hard for this as well. Don't expect him to be an easy sweep." I warned.

"He hasn't been focusing on this since he first joined the guild. Unlike me." Ivan said coldly. "I've been making to sure to win as many battles as I can, and take my magic as far as I can to prepare myself for this." Ivan explained.

'And exactly what does he mean by taking his magic as far as he can, hmm?' I thought with a bit of nervousness and curiosity. But I knew better than to try and get those sort of answers out of Ivan.

"It's important that you lose some battles as well you know? Helps to give you a goal to work towards." I told the paper mage.

"If I bother to look back on a loss in my life, then it will only slow me down in my future." Ivan responded, after hearing my comment there.

"So you haven't bothered to think back on how Gildarts beat you?"

Ivan paused, and turned his whole body round to face me.

'Heh, got you now.'

Ivan gave me a thin smile which honestly unnerved me a little. "My loss to Gildarts was due to a few mistakes on my part. He is a wizard of pure strength, beating him in a one on one is near impossible." He confessed.

'You and me both…' One of the few times I agreed with Ivan on something. Rarely happens.

"You know, some of the guild members actually think you'll win this." I admitted.

"They are right to think so." Ivan said with a smirk, as he yet again leaned back against the wall. "I hear many bets have been placed this year. I think a good 90% of the wizards in the guild betted on Gildarts winning."

"Yup." I replied. "Though I have not bet myself."

"The job board will be empty when we come back from the trial then. They will be doing everything they can to catch up on the money they lost." Ivan scoffed.

"Right…" I said with a small bit of sarcasm.

Ivan gave me a cold look. "You still don't get it do you? As Master's son, I'm more than likely to win this." Ivan stated.

I blinked.

'Hold on…? No way…!'

"Wait. You think Master will let you win just because you're his son?!" I exclaimed, while making sure to have a low volume to not attract the entire guild to our conversation.

Ivan looked surprised to hear me say that. "Well yes of course! He'd be a fool to chose Gildarts over me."

'Oh boy… I get the feeling Master is the type of guy that won't show bias during these sort of things.'

"Er, r-right." I said awkwardly after.

Ivan then corked his head to the side. "Oh look here come Gildarts and his girlfriend." He dully spoke.

I turned my head in confusion and saw Gildarts walking into the station platform with Cornelia by his side. Guess she came to wish him good luck before he set off before the trial.

Many of the guild members were whispering and chanting to themselves about who this girl next to Gildarts was. I swear I even saw Master looked quite curious as to this.

"Well see ya later Ivan. Good luck with the trial." I said as I walked away with a hand in the air. I made my way over to Gildarts and Cornelia who were sitting at a bench and talking with each other. They saw me coming and stoped talking with each other to greet me.

"Hi Cade!" Cornelia greeted. "How've you been today?"

"I've been fine so far. How are you feeling Gildarts?" I asked, turning to Gildarts.

"Oh I'm feeling ready for whatever comes at me in this trial!" Gildarts said with confidence. "Master can throw whatever he wants at me, I'll be sure to pass this trial!" He clenched his fist.

I nodded. "That's good to hear. Was just speaking with Ivan earlier. He seems quite confident as well. Just don't get cocky on this ok?"

"Relax." Gildarts said as he waved a hand at me. "I've been training my strength and mind for this trial. Ivan won't know what's coming." Gildarts assured me.

"What exactly are we waiting on now? All two of the candidates are here, as well as Master and Quikora." I wondered.

"Ah, that'll be the train." Gildarts answered. "Once that arrives then the four of us will head off to the forest to begin the trial. Due to how long it takes to get there and back again, we probably won't be back until tomorrow morning."

"Ah, got it." I thanked Gildarts.

"So what do you plan to do first when you become S-Class then?" Cornelia said to Gildarts.

"Well. I plan to take an S-Class Quest and see how challenging they actually are. I've heard a lot about them from around the guild. Chances are the rumours I've heard have been jumbled up as they been passed around the guild. I feel curious to see what they'll actually be like when I'm doing them." Gildarts answered.

"Well as long as you're careful." Cornelia said with a sigh.

"So… How are things between the both of you?" I said carefully to both Cornelia and Gildarts.

"Oh, er, things are-" Gildarts began to say.

"We were going to go out for a walk around town when Gildarts comes back tomorrow." Cornelia interrupted.

"Oh I see." I said with a nod.

'Well it's good that they are still doing stuff together.' I smiled at the idea.

—

Attention. The 10:00am train is about to arrive. Please make sure you are at least a few feet away from the platform. Thank you.

—

"Hey there's the train coming now!" I said as I heard the announcement. I could then hear the sound of a train coming from far away.

I then saw Master bolt up and hurry to the centre if the station. "Alright then! Gildarts, Ivan, Quikora head over here and get ready to board the train!" Master shouted.

"Good luck Gildarts!" Came the encouraging voice of Cornelia.

"I'm rooting for you man. Come back here with the S-Class title!" I said, as I gave Gildarts a hi five for good luck.

"Don't worry. This time tomorrow, I'll be the one able to head upstairs to the second floor and not Ivan." Gildarts said with a thumbs up, as he waved us goodbye and headed over to where Master was.

He, Ivan, Master and Quikora then waited for the train to stop, before they then got on board. They all waved us goodbye (except Ivan of course) before the doors to the train then shut, and the four of them headed off to complete the S-Class trials.

Me and Cornelia watched the train until it was out of sight as it curved past a mountain, before we then both sighed.

"Well that's him away then. Hope he does well." Cornelia said nervously.

"Ah, he'll be fine." I reassured her, with a wave of my hand. I saw that many of the guild members that came to watch had gone off to do their own thing for the rest of the day.

"How about we head out of here now?" I suggested to Cornelia.

"Yeah, let's take a walk." Cornelia answered, as we also made our way out of the station.

The both of us then walked out of the station doors and into Magnolia. We then started walking through the town with no clear destination in mind.

"So." I began to say to break the silence. "How are things with you and Gildarts?" I teased.

Cornelia blushed a little when I said that. "What? Didn't I say earlier that we were doing stuff when he comes back tomorrow?" Cornelia replied a bit irritated.

"Yeah but I mean have you done anything together since your first date that ended with you drunk?" I wondered. "Gildarts hasn't said if you have since your first night out together and I find that hard to believe."

"Well… We did have another night out a few days ago." Cornelia said as her face went a bit red.

"Really? Well that's great!" I said in delight. "I'm glad things are working out between the two of you! I think you both work well together!"

Cornelia blushed a little more when I said that. "T-Thanks Cade. What do you plan to do for the rest of the day?"

"I think I'll just pass time until tomorrow morning when Gildarts and the others eventually come back." I explained with a shrug. "I could go on a job, but it may take me more than a day to do and I want to be here when Gildarts and the others comes back."

"Ah, I see. Hey speaking of the others that are with Gildarts…" Cornelia said with a mischievous tone. "I've heard rumours that Ivan's been seeing someone."

"Seeing someone…? Wait you mean someone as in a girlfriend?" My interest was now spiked.

"Oooooh yes. Gildarts told me that he saw him walking down with her in Magnolia one time. Didn't think he was then kind guy to fall in love with someone." Cornelia commented.

"Me neither." I said, still being a little surprised by that discovery. I do wonder how Master Makarov reacted when he found out. I few images of what might have transpired when that was revealed appeared in my mind, all of them being quite different from each other.

"Well I think it's about time I head back to my place. Got to help my mother with some things." Cornelia stated, as we stoped by one of Magnolia's main rivers.

"Ok. Guess I'll see you tomorrow then?"

"Yes I'll be at the station tomorrow to welcome Gildarts back. I'll see you then Cade!" Cornelia waved, as she walked away through some houses to get back to her apartment.

'Well guess I've got nothing else to do for now. I'll just head back up to the manor and fast forward to tomorrow.' I thought, as I began to make my way back up the pathway that led to home.

'Come on! Hope I'm not late to this. I really should get an alarm clock!' I grunted due to oversleeping, and not waking up on time for today.

I ended up killing more time that I thought yesterday when I headed back home. Due to that, I ended up staying awake quite late last night. That means when I woke up today, it was almost noon!

I went through my morning routine the same as usual. But when I learned what time it was, I immediately ran outside and hurried down to the station to welcome Gildarts back to Magnolia.

My feet were barely touching the ground as I ran down the path and into town. Anyone who was simply passing by would simply think I was flying lightly off the ground with my magic.

As I ran into town and headed towards the guild, I saw a huge crowd of people walking though the town as if there was a parade going on. When I looked closer, I saw that it was many members of the guild surrounding Master Makarov, Gildarts, Ivan and Quikora!

Clearly they had already returned to the town and were headed back to the guild to announce the winner of the trial.

I tried to run up and push my way through the crowd to ask Gildarts if he won or not, however the crowd was too thick. Seems the entire guild was here today. In the end I had no choice other than to wait until we got back to the guild.

The entire guild then made their way back to the guildhall at the edge of town. We then all patiently waited for Master to come forward and announce the winner of the trial. He did so and then cleared his voice.

"Attention everyone! We have returned from the S-Class trials!" Master announced proudly. This caused quite a few whispers and excited chatter to emerge from the guild members. They quickly made sure to quieten down, to let Master continue.

"Now then… the winner of this years S-Class trials are…"

I prayed internally. 'Come on…!'

"Gildarts Clive!" Master shouted with happiness.

At the mention of that, there were several cheers and applause from the guild members about Gildarts victory on the trial. I could see several of the guild members giving him compliments and praise for winning. I saw Ivan grimacing next to Master, and Quikora smiling thinly. I also saw Cornelia push through the crowd and hug Gildarts for his achievement.

I made sure to give Gildarts the applause he deserved for all his hard work to get to this point. While the applause was going on, I saw Gildarts gaze turn to look at me.

He smiled at me, and I gave him a grin and a firm nod of my head.

'Congrats Gildarts. You've earned it.'

That's another chapter done and finished. Feel free to leave a review if you liked it.

Gildarts has finally gotten S-Class! I mean… it was him or Ivan, and Gildarts was clearly taking home the promotion in this story.

With the rank of S-Class now available to him, Gildarts will be able to go on much stronger quests to earn much more money! Perhaps he'll be able to teach Cade some of that experience in his future.

Also I hope you all enjoyed the fight between Cade and Gildarts. I'll be honest, it's dead hard to write a good fight with Gildarts, mainly because his attacks are able to instantly K.O almost anyone due to how strong they are. I tried my best to write a fight between Cade and Gildarts

In case your wondering, Gildarts could absolutely DESTROY Cade if he wanted to. He just likes to have fun and see how far Cade has come as a wizard. They're partners after all. Gildarts also gave Cade the whole message of "it's ok to lose sometimes" as I felt that was a nice place to do it.

Anywho, that's all from me. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and I'll see you all in the next one!