The next few weeks were filled with activity, everyone was running around trying to do as many jobs as they could. When I was finally able to stop someone long enough to ask them why everyone was so excited they answered quickly before rushing off again, "It's time for the annual S-class trials, people are trying to show they have what it takes to become a S-class mage." I kind of understood why people were so frantic, but as I gave it some more thought I believed they were proving that they weren't actually ready for that responsibility. S-class were the very best, not just in magical power but also in confidence and strategic thinking. By running around like chickens with their heads cut off they were showing they lacked the ability to think ahead while also showing how they performed under pressure. I shook my head and noticed Cana slumped over the bar, drunker than usual, especially when it was so early in the morning. I walked over to see how she was doing, "Hey Cana, how come you're not part of the rush?" She turned away and mumbled something I couldn't understand. I began to worry so I guided her to one of the bathrooms and laid her in the bathtub.

Without any warning I turned on the shower and watched her sputter under the cold water. "So you ready to tell me why you're dead drunk so early in the morning?" I got a glare for my trouble and she tried to stand, but even if the frigid water had woken her up she was still very drunk. When she tried to step out of the shower she stumbled and fell. I caught her before her head hit the ground, I lifted her to her feet and gave her a hug. It took a moment for her shock to wear off but once it did the dam broke and she started to shake, sobbing into my shirt as she told me her story. I lowered us to the ground and held her as she cried, providing a shoulder to cry on. Once the sobs turned into hiccups I turned her face towards mine, "So as I see it you have two choices, you can either continue to feel sorry for yourself" I bulldozed through her building anger and gave her my second choice before she could escalate her glare to a beating, "Or you can accept my help to win the next trail." Her glare turned into an incredulous look and she started to laugh, tears once more escaped her eyes from laughing so hard.

I waited for her to finish laughing but before I could explain she beat me to the punch, "Thanks for that I needed the laugh." After she wiped her tears she saw my serious look and that incredulous look returned, "You aren't serious? Alex, you're just a B-class mage, what makes you think you can teach me something that will guarantee me to win the trials?" I gave a smirk at that, "Do you know why I have to work so hard designing my creatures? It's because when I started I had very small reserves and every little bit of excess magic had to be used so not even a single bit of my magic is wasted, it's also why I keep them summoned whenever I can. Magic is like a muscle the more you use it the stronger it grows, but you don't have that problem. In fact you have the opposite problem, you literally poison your body with alcohol just to lower your magic and not have the same control problem as your dad."

She still looked confused at this and went to ask a question but I interrupted her, "So I can design creatures that to take advantage of that fact, they don't have to work up to their full potential. Instead you can just pour your ridiculous amount of magic into summoning a legion of monsters." Her jaw dropped as she understood what I was saying but I wasn't done, "However, if you want me to do this it comes with a price. When you win the trial, tell Gildarts he is your father or I will. No more excuses." That snapped her mouth closed and a hesitant look overcame her face so I pushed further, "I guess that look means you're just afraid. It's not about being worthy, you're just scared." That made her jaw set and she pushed away from me, standing before accepting my challenge "I'm not afraid and I'll prove it, now let's see what your monster can really do. Or are you just all bark and no bite?" I grabbed the hand she offered and stood, "There's a week until the trials, right?" She nodded, "Then let's go, we have a lot of work to do if you're going to make it in time." She gave a smirk at that before sauntering out. I shook my head and led her to my house, ready to see what my magic could do when pushed to its limit.

Over the next week I pushed myself to work harder than ever and even put off improving myself. We worked from dawn until we collapsed long after the sun had set. Every moment was squeezed for its usefulness and Cana even stayed at my house as she was too tired to go home after our long days. But it was worth it, by the last day we had made a modified duel disk to control the projections and different cards had different monsters programmed into them. We ran into a few problems as that seemed to be standard for me. The first was the impractical nature of the duel disk, it was clunky and actually limited the amount of monsters she could summon so I changed its design. The final design was a bracelet with a lacrima holding the projection spell and a slot that cards could slide into, once the cards would go in they would dissipate and an image of the monster would appear above the bracelet. To summon the monster she only needed to concentrate on the monster she wanted to summon. If she wanted to keep her arsenal a surprise and not show her whole hand then a single press on the monster would make it disappear, however it could still be summoned.

That way she could summon as many monsters as her large reserves could support. The second problem was the cards themselves. Unfortunately due to the fact the cards were so thin only one creature could be stored in a card, it wasn't much of a problem now but would be more expensive as the number of cards increased. One thing I made sure to add was the ability to eject the cards so we would be able to modify or fix them. Cana didn't really understand until she realized just how expensive mythril is and how many cards she would have in the future. So while pressing the lacrima and saying the monster's name the card would be ejected. I was excited as I knew I would never have as many monster's as she would, so I would explore my imagination to the fullest. Now that I had someone to test my ideas on I could explore how different abilities performed in live combat. That way I would be able to shorten the amount of time needed to experiment which abilities to give my creatures. And hopefully someday I would be able to push it even further so they could truly reach their peak.

By the end of our time limit I had managed to make seven monsters and that plus the duel disk wiped out her finances, mythril was insanely expensive. But seeing what she could do with each monster her confidence rose and by the start of the exams she was ready to win. I waved as she left on the ship with the rest of the candidates, I was sure she would win but for now all I wanted to do was sleep. I spent last night working out all the kinks while she rested for the exams, "Kid, you alright? You look like you might knell over." I waved away the concern and trudged back to my home, barely making it into bed before I fell asleep. I slept 20 hours and didn't wake up until early the next morning, then I ate enough to feed a whole family and headed to the guild. "He's alive!" I looked around to try and figure out who had said that but the laughter it caused made that impossible. I gave a glare that just caused them to laugh harder so I ignored them and walked into the library, eager to get some peace and quiet. When I got there I decided to relax and read a book on different myths and legends from long ago.

I got back to my regular schedule the next few days, the only difference being the absence of the master causing me to get approval for jobs from some of the more senior members. 5 days after Cana left we got news that the ship had been seen entering the harbor so I rushed over to meet them. By the time I had gotten there they were finishing final landing preparations, I could see most people on the boat were excited and chattering about something. I looked for Cana and smiled when I saw her, it seems I don't have to follow through with my threat. Gildarts was giving her a hug and had the most intensely proud father face I had ever seen, Cana looked embarrassed and was trying to escape the hug. Seems like she was already regretting telling him, when she caught my eye she gave him one last push and jumped out of his arms and ran away. Her dad started to give chase but she yelled something back and he got a blissful look on his face before the look turned into determination and rushed off. Cana jumped off the ship and landed on the pier, I was only able to have one last thought before I was bowled over with a hug, how did no one notice they were related before?

"ThankyouThankyouThankyouItworkedItoldhimand…" I was able to understand the first few sentences but her babbling soon reached speeds that were incomprehensible, so I just waited for her to take a breath before I interrupted. "Cana, take a breath and slow down. I can't understand what you're saying. Why don't we go to the guild and you can tell me what happened." She blushed and nodded before grabbing my hand and dragging me to the guild. On our way there were several shouts as she barreled through the streets, I was barely able to keep my feet under me as I was dragged behind her. "SorrySorrySorry." was repeated several times before we finally made it to the guild, and once we got there she sat at the closest free table and almost vibrated out of her skin while I took my time walking around the table so I could sit across from her and waved down the waitress for some food. Once we ordered and our drinks were set down I took a slow sip and smirked at the look she was giving me. It was a mix of impatience and giddiness. She could tell I was dragging on just to get a rise out of her so I put my glass down.

"So he knows?" she nodded so fast her head blurred for a moment, "Tell me all about it." She opened her mouth and then paused, confusion passed over her face and she closed her mouth a pensive expression replaced the confusion. "The beginning is always a good place to start." She rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue before starting, "Well, when we got to the island our first task was to find three differently colored flags that were scattered across the island. There were enough colors for eight people to pass the first round. Each flag had its own test you needed to pass in order to get the flag. I used my tarot card predictions to give me basic directions of where to go. The first flag I got was red and I had to get past a bunch of magical traps in an underground tunnel. The second one was pink and I had to fight a magical beast as it was tied to their tail, it wasn't too difficult and I was able to use basic card magic to defeat it. It was something you would face on an A-rank job. The last flag took me the longest to find as it was green and hidden among the foliage. When I tried to use my tarot cards they had me walking in circles."

"I thought maybe there was some sort of formation hiding it so I sent out some flashfire cards to try and disrupt it and at least tell me where it was. The ones that made a small explosion of flame that were more powerful the more magic you put into them." I tried to keep from laughing as I could already see where this was going. She gave me a glare so I quipped, "I guess you stayed true to Fairy Tail's reputation?" She pouted and gave a nod at that, "It wasn't even on purpose, apparently as I sent out a bunch of explosions it dried the leaves enough so that when one of the explosions got a little too close the whole tree went up. I was able to keep the fire from spreading with my water spout cards and thankfully the flag was tough enough that the flames didn't burn it. Once the fire was out the only thing hanging from the tree was the flag so I grabbed it and headed back to the beach. I was the third one to make it so I rested until all eight people returned with their flags. Once the master sent everyone one failed back to the ship we moved on to the next round. This one was different as the master took out a lacrima and then I was suddenly in another place, apparently he had bought a lacrima that was charged with a spell called Nightmare. It basically trapped each participant in an illusion, the goal was for each of us to pass a unique test based on our worst fear."

I was worried that her fear would be what I thought so I reached across the table and squeezed her hand, she gave me a smile before continuing. "Yeah that one kind of sucked, but when the illusion Gildarts started to berate me and tell me that he would never want a daughter as weak as me I was able to realize what was going on pretty quickly. Thanks to your help I knew that I wasn't weak and I knew from seeing him around the guild that Gildarts would not care even if I was. With that realization I broke out of the illusion before anyone else, even the master was impressed. It took another few minutes for the next three members to break out of the illusion. Macao was second, Wakaba was third and Mest was last. Macao was puffed up when he beat Wakaba and the two started to fight, the master only shook his head and let them continue while we waited for the last member to join us. Once Mest was free from the illusion the master stopped supplying magic to the lacrima and sent the other four back to the ship. Next he took us to the grave of the first master and told us her story, I had never made it this far before so I was really moved."

I was interested in knowing about the first master so I asked her to tell me but she gave me a teasing smile, "If you want to know you'll have to learn it by getting there yourself." When I slumped she laughed at me, "Anyways, once the master finished the story he took us to an open field and had us fight in a battle royal. The last one standing would move on to the final round. After he gave the signal to start Macao and Wakaba teamed up, Wakaba made a smoke wall and had it envelop us, visibility was near zero. Mest teleported away and I didn't see again until the very end, meanwhile I decided to use my Monsters. I started by summoning Gearfried and Dark Magician, Gearfried for defense and Dark Magician to attack. Soon after I summoned my monsters, fireballs came out of the smoke and Gearfried had no trouble blocking them. More attacks came, this time they were shaped like crescents and knocked my knight back a few feet but he was still able to block them with no damage. I had no Idea he could take so much damage."

I puffed up at the compliment, this time she didn't roll her eyes and just ignored me entirely and continued with her story. "I thought I knew where the attacks were coming from so I had Dark Magician send a dark magic blast to the origin of the attacks. There was an explosion but a moment after I attacked I heard Macao shout, "You've got a lot to learn kid." But as soon as I heard that I fired off another dark magic blast where his voice had come from and this time I heard a cry of pain. But he wasn't out of the fight yet, more attacks came but this time they came from multiple directions. Gearfried was able to block half of them and my Dark magician fired dark magic blasts to destroy most of the others. I only had to dodge two fireballs and a tendril of smoke that emerged from the smoke that surrounded me. Next I used my tarot cards to predict where they would be and told the Dark Magician to fire an attack in that direction. It hit them and after a few more times of scoring hits using my tarot cards the smoke cleared, both of my opponents were on the ground."

I smiled, "Congratulations, but what about Mest?" She snickered, "Apparently he accidentally knocked himself out when he tried to take out Wakaba in a hit and run move . He teleported into the smoke expecting the smoke around Wakaba to be the same density as the rest of it. But Wakaba had hardened the smoke around him into a wall and when Mest teleported in he basically threw himself into that wall and knocked himself out. Wakaba moved him out of the smoke so he wouldn't get hit by any friendly fire, that's why he didn't join in on the first round of attacks. After I noticed him hanging from a branch at the edge of the clearing I dismissed my summons and the master walked up and congratulated me. He moved the other members back to the ship before telling me about the last part of the exam, a fight against him. I didn't have to win but I did have to impress him, so I summoned and combined three Blue Eyes and combined my Red Eyes and Summoned Skull. I was about to summon more than my Ultimate Dragon and Black Skull Dragon when the master raised his hand. When I stopped and looked at him he said, that's enough you pass."

My head tilted in confusion and she nodded in agreement, "Right? I was so confused, but he explained that the point of the test was to prove that I had the pure power needed to be S-class and the monsters I had already summoned proved that beyond a shadow of a doubt. It took a moment for me to get past my shock but once I did, I was over the moon. I practically bounced back to the ship, even though I still needed to tell Gildarts that couldn't ruin my mood. I mean I was a little nervous, but the illusion had made me realize he would never act like that and he would probably be happy that he had a daughter. When we got back to the ship the other guild members congratulated me for becoming S-class, after they were done I walked up to Gildarts, apparently he was guarding one of the flags along with the other S-class wizards. When I walked up to him he patted me on the head and congratulated me, I only hesitated for a moment before I told him. He froze when I told him and for a moment I was afraid that the illusion was right, but the next moment and for the rest of the trip I was swept up in his arms and almost hugged to death."

I laughed at her look of exasperation and she glared for a moment before she wasn't able to stop herself from laughing with me. After we both stopped laughing she told me the rest of the story, how they spent the rest of the trip talking about their lives and plans for the future. Gildarts told some of the stories of his time together with her mom. He didn't know she was pregnant when he left and she knew he was a wanderer and didn't want to tie him down. She told him how her mother died from a monster attack and some stories about the quests she had been on. He kept trying to ask about boys but she refused to answer any questions about that. Apparently he wanted her to live with him and as soon as they arrived she reminded him and he rushed off to clean his house and get it ready for a child to live in, he promised it would be ready by dinner and they would have their first family meal together. Something I couldn't get my head around was that Gildarts was actually a good cook, during the trip Cana was also doubtful and he proved it by cooking a meal for her. I smiled as I watched her gush about all the things she wanted to do now that she had a family again. I was so happy that everything had turned out well for her.