Gaal himself was indifferent, but his actions stirred discontent among some of the other children.
"Hey, Siegrain, are you jealous?!"
"Yeah! Jealous that Mr. Gaal's talent is higher than yours!"
"Lord Gaal! Give him a good beating!"
"We've been fed up with his arrogant attitude for a long time!"
The group of children chanted their accusations against Siegrain, while he regarded everyone with equal disdain.
Listening to the children's instigation, Gaal shrugged and laughed, saying, "I'm afraid your teacher won't agree."
In the distance, a teacher had already come running over.
"What happened?" the teacher asked.
Now, Lucas finally became noticeable, his face regaining some color as he walked over to explain what had just transpired.
The teacher realized something was amiss and quickly apologized to Lucas before instructing the children to return to the classroom.
Before leaving, Siegrain gave Gaal a side glance with a frown, suspecting that Gaal had ulterior motives, though he couldn't quite put his finger on what the guy was up to.
Afterwards, Lucas's complexion improved, and upon returning he said to Gaal, "These brats. They're simply outrageous. Do you still want to wander around the academy?"
Gaal shook his head and replied, "No need. Let's head to the nearby big city."
Discovering Siegrain as an unexpected gain was a pleasant surprise in itself; there was no need to wander any further.
Lucas nodded in agreement and said, "You're right, my mood's already ruined. Let's head to Myrville City then."
Then, Lucas restarted the airship and set course for Myrville City.
After a while, they reached the entrance of Myrville City.
Lucas maneuvered the airship to land and said to Gaal, "This is Myrville City."
At the same time, he explained while gesturing toward that tower-like building to the east, "That over there is Myrville City's train station. There are four train routes to various parts of the continent and to the Fiore Kingdom, with two trips each in the morning and evening. If you're not in a hurry, you can stroll around the city at your leisure. Myrville City is a major transportation hub; it has goods from all over the continent, and there should be something that interests you. And over there is the Myrville Auction House—I heard recently..."
Gaal nodded from time to time as Lucas piloted the airship down.
Night fell at a central inn in Myrville City, in a room on the third floor.
Gaal raised his palm, and a pale blue, holographic map of the Ishgar Continent materialized, floating above his hand.
On the holographic Ishgar map, numerous red dots flickered, scattered across the continent.
These markers indicated the positions of Gastly.
Previously in the Fiore Kingdom, Gaal had merged a group of Gastly with the shadows of the Black Magic Order's followers, transferring them through continuous contact over several months.
More than half of those Gastly had shifted into the shadows of the Black Magic Order's followers on the Ishgar Continent.
However, upon observing the locations of these red dots, Gaal couldn't help but furrow his brow and say, "Could it be?"
Although the red dots were scattered, the way they subtly formed a perimeter strongly suggested that the headquarters of the Black Magic Order might be somewhere in central Ishgar.
"This is something else. Are they playing the underhanded games just like the Magic Council?" he murmured.
Of course—even without resorting to dirty tricks, nothing could be done. With so many at the lower levels already infiltrated, even if one wanted to capture the Black Magic Order, it would be nearly impossible.
Gaal glanced at his own location and the position of the nearest Gastly.
The distance was not too far, so he used the marker to summon that nearby Gastly.
The Gastly suddenly materialized in a different spot, looking a bit dumbfounded.
But upon seeing Gaal, it smiled and excitedly rushed over.
Gaal smiled and patted Gastly as it began to relay the information it had gathered over the recent days.
The gatherings of the Black Magic Order occurred once every two weeks, each organized by a priest.
In the Fiore Kingdom, it was always the fixed priest of the order, but on the Ishgar Continent there were more.
During this period, through its constant transfers, Gastly had already encountered priests from three different factions.
Surprisingly, these different factions were all branches of the Black Magic Order.
However, the higher the level, the longer the intervals between meetings, and the ordinary followers were gathered by the priest every two weeks.
But now, the high-level priest that Gastly had attached itself to only listened to daily reports from his subordinates and took no further action.
After more than a month of infiltration, Gastly had only overheard that the priest had reported to his superiors once—using magical communication without any face-to-face meeting.
After listening, Gaal nodded and said, "That's normal. If it were that easy to locate, it wouldn't have lasted this long."
Raising his hand to pat Gastly, a surge of Essence power emanated from Gaal's palm and merged into Gastly's body.
Gastly's body began to glow, its aura steadily rising, as it started to evolve.
The next second, a Haunter with two claws appeared in the room.
A look of surprise lit up Haunter's face, and Gaal smiled as he said, "Don't move."
As he spoke, he pointed his finger at the center of Haunter's forehead.
In Haunter's mind, techniques materialized inexplicably as if they were innate: Hypnosis, Dark Gaze, Evil Wave, Dream Eater...
After transmitting the methods for these skills, Gaal said, "With these, gathering intelligence will be a lot easier. Hypnosis and Dream Eater, for instance, can be used on low-level priests—they won't notice."
Haunter nodded, "Geh~"
With these skills, it was much more exciting than the tedious wait for information.
Haunter's mind buzzed with numerous ideas on how to use them—even possibly frightening the priests into nightmares and then consuming their dreams to extract information.
Gaal patted Haunter on the head and said, "All right, let's head back."
He then activated his powers, sending Haunter back to its previous location.
After sending Haunter back, Gaal stretched and walked back to bed, beginning his meditation.
Everything that needed doing was now complete; all that was left was to wait. The only thing required now was cultivation, and it had been a long time since Gaal had practiced diligently.
Several days later.
Fiore Kingdom.
Magnolia Town, at the station.
Gaal stepped out of the station, treading on thick layers of snow as his footsteps crushed the compacted flakes.
"What deep snow!" he remarked.
Snowflakes swirled like feathers, and the entire street was deserted; even passengers who had just stepped out of the station stayed behind, watching and pointing at the falling snow.
Gaal stepped forward as snowflakes drifted onto him, leaving a trail as he headed toward the Guild Headquarters at the end of the street.
Inside the Fairy Tail Guild Headquarters, Makarov stood by the window, watching the heavy snowfall outside.
"This weather...." he murmured, then added, "A little hot wine might be nice, don't you think?"