After he brought back Wendy, he finally decided to tell the dragon slayers why their dragons disappeared.
He lied to them by telling them that it was a test to see if they could live in human society and they'll be back when after 10 years because Nicolas didn't have the guts to tell them the truth.
Sting and Rogue's dragons also didn't lie to the both of them by saying that they were killed by them this time but just disappeared without saying anything like the others because they knew that doing that would result in Sting and Rogue being beaten by Nicolas for being arrogant.
....
It has now been 5 months since Nicolas and the others became members of fairy tail.
Nicolas began to take requests regularly, mostly monster extermination, because he needed to train constantly. And also bandit extermination because he hated them.
Thanks to his flight capabilities, he was able to do requests rapidly. Accomplishing even requests far away in under 4 days
The guild master even allowed him to take multiple requests at once seeing Nicolas's enthusiasm and completion rate. And also because neither the clients nor the magic council had ever filed a complaint about him so far.
Although, the missions were far too easy for him so he always wore heavy weights when doing missions.
And when he didn't take request, he was usually training Natsu and the others or drinking at the guild. Gray also "joined" them as Nicolas's new minion so he was put into the Spartan training alongside the other two.
....
01st December x777
Recently, Nicolas was told by Makarov to not take requests for a while saying that he had something planned for him.
Nicolas was now wondering what the master meant by that but his train of thought suddenly stopped as he heard bells ringing.
Everybody was excited after hearing the bell ring and everyone in the guild began to rush towards the door. Even Natsu and the other dragon slayers who didn't know what's happening rushed to the entrance to see what the fuss was all about.
As Nicolas listened to other people talking, he heard that Gildarts went on a 10 year quest.
'Oh, so that's why I've never seen him in the past 6 months'
A straight line road opened as the town split in two and Gildarts soon arrived at the guild.
Everybody began to talk to him with spark on their eyes.
As Gildarts was speaking with everyone, his eyes landed on Nicolas. Gildarts approached him and started to talk to him.
"You're Nicolas,right? The name's Gildarts Clive. Nice to meet ya!"
Nicolas was surprised as to why Gildarts knew him and suddenly talked to him but he still politely replied.
"Hehe! Not bad, kid. I'm looking forward to your performance." Gildarts said as he patted Nicolas's shoulder a couple of times leaving Nicolas even more confused as Gildarts left to talk to the master.
…
The evening soon came around and Makarov and Gildarts were now standing on the podium of the guild.
Makarov then began to speak loudly: "Attention everyone! I am now going to announce the candidates for this year's S-class selection exam."
Everybody began to cheer hoping that they would be the ones chosen this year.
"Alright then, there's only one candidate this year. And that person is…Nicolas Picaro." Makarov announced loudly.
'Oh nice. So that's why the master told me to stick around these days. I was getting bored of low-rank missions so it's a really nice surprise' Nicolas thought to himself while smirking.
Soon enough, Macao, Wakaba and the others approached him, congratulating him.
In the back, Laxus was burning with anger and jealousy because he thought that Makarov was playing favorites.
Makarov then coughed twice to get everyone's attention again and said "Since we only have one candidate this year, the only condition to pass the exam this year will be to fight Gildarts and get his approval. The exam will take place in the east forest this Sunday."
'Oh, so that's why Gildarts said that. Better prepare for the fight then. Hehe.' Nicolas thought to himself.
….
As Nicolas was on his way home, He was stopped by Laxus.
"Hey Laxus, what's up?"
"Fight me!"
Nicolas was able to deduce that it was because he was chosen for the S-rank exam.
'Rebellious phase huh. Oh well, might as well solve him ahead of time. The civil war arc wasn't that important anyway so it's better to be done with it now.'
"Alright then, follow me." Nicolas said to him while going outside the town. Laxus just obediently followed without making a fuss.
As the two of them arrived to the outskirts of the town, Nicolas began to talk
"It should be far enough to not cause collateral damages so let's fight here."
"All right. Prepare yourself." Laxus said while taking a fighting stance.
Nicolas just taunted him with a hand motion signaling Laxus to come at him.
Laxus immediately became angrier after being taunted and underestimated so he coated his fist in lightning and lunged towards Nicolas.
Nicolas coated his body in magic power and just stood there unmoved as Laxus hit him right in the gut which surprised Laxus.
"Is that all you've got?" Nicolas said in a mocking tone.
The flustered Laxus rushed again and began to launch an onslaught of punches that Nicolas calmly blocked with his arms.
As soon as Laxus's punches stopped and he retreated to retrieve his breath, Nicolas immediately followed him and punched him on the face, sending Laxus flying to the ground.
"Use your dragon slayer powers otherwise you won't stand a chance against me."
Laxus was once again surprised to know that Nicolas knew about his dragon slayer magic but he didn't care for now and stood up.
"You don't have to tell me that." Laxus said as removed his shirt.
Lightning then began to cover his whole body and he immediately used the Lightning Dragon's Roar.
Nicolas transformed his body into diamond and took the attack head on.
Laxus immediately rushed once again seeing his attack didn't work but Nicolas also rushed towards him and immediately launched a punch rush on Laxus rendering him unable to counterattack until he finally fell on the ground, unable to stand up.
"I win." Nicolas said to the fallen Laxus.
"Damn it. Damn it. Damn it. Why did I lose?" the frustrated Laxus said with his eyes tearing up a bit.
"You're pretty strong, you know. Probably strong enough to beat S-rank monsters. I'm just stronger because I've been fighting monsters since I was 5." Nicolas said while scratching his head.
"Then why didn't I get chosen?" Laxus said while looking at Nicolas.
"Oh, so it's about that." Nicolas said pretending that he didn't know why Laxus attacked him
"It's probably because you're immature, petty and narrow-minded."
"Huh?! Why am I immature and narrow-minded?"
"Well, you probably thought that your grandpa was being unfair when he didn't choose you, right?"
Laxus was left speechless since Nicolas guessed his thoughts.
"Seeing that you're speechless means I'm right and that's why you're narrow-minded. Instead of reflecting on what flaws you had for not being chosen, you chose to blame others.
Do you think your grandpa is some evil guy who targets you and drags you down on purpose? It's because he saw the changes in you and don't think you're ready for it now."
Laxus then fell deep in thought for a while and finally began to talk
"What should I do then?"
"Well, for starters, you should try to mingle more with the other people in the guild. Every time I see you, you just sit alone in a corner with headphones on so you should make more friends."
"Why should I do that?" Laxus said with a blushing face after being pointed out that he was a loner.
"At the rate you were going, sooner or later, you would've probably began to say that you'll make Fairy Tail great again by throwing out all the weaklings in the guild and get yourself banned from the guild in the end."
"As if I would do something like that" Laxus said with an angry face as he was trying to stand up since he could finally feel his body again.
Nicolas stretched his hand to help Laxus stand up. Laxus watched the hand for a bit then decided to take it.
As Laxus finally stood up, Nicolas began to say: "By the way, since you're a dragon slayer, from now on, you'll have to participate in the training sessions I do with Natsu, Gray and Gajeel."
"Huh?! Why do I have to listen to you?" Laxus yelled.
"What do you mean why? You lost to me so now I'm your boss and you're my underling. Understand?" Nicolas said while patting Laxus on the shoulder.
Laxus just snorted and resigned to his fate since he also wanted to know what kind of training Nicolas did to become so strong.
Hidden behind a tree not far away, Makarov smiled quietly seeing that his rebellious grandson finally found a friend.