At the Magic Council—
the symbol of Ishgar's highest authority, charged with overseeing and preserving order throughout the magical world.
Anyone who moved freely through this place was, without exception, an elite mage of outstanding ability.
And yet, at this moment, along the wide, brightly lit corridor beneath the vaulted ceiling, those same elite mages—normally all briskly hurrying about—slowed their steps in unison.
One after another, they stepped aside, looking on with reverence at the scarlet figure striding toward them.
She was a young woman with a presence too powerful to ignore.
She wore a fitted kimono with a pure white base, edged in deep crimson patterns. At her slender waist hung a long sword, its scabbard shimmering faintly like rippling water.
That beautiful red hair, brilliant as evening clouds at sunset, fluttered lightly behind her with each hurried step.
Yet more striking than her eye-catching appearance were her eyes.
They were sharp, unquestionably sharp, yet unnervingly calm—set beneath long, elegant brows, as though they were always fixed on some vast distant thing no one else could see.
"That's… the Fairy Queen?"
Someone whispered from the back of the crowd.
"Isn't the regular session still going on inside? Why is she already leaving so soon?"
"Hmph. A mage from a hopeless thug guild like Fairy Tail."
An older official with glasses standing nearby spoke up in displeasure, his tone colored by deeply rooted prejudice.
"Even if she's been given the title of a Wizard Saint, at heart she's still just an unruly brute."
The words had barely left his mouth when the companion beside him turned pale and drove an elbow hard into his ribs.
"Shut up! Don't say things that'll get you killed!"
As if to prove that fear justified—
a calm gaze, yet one carrying an immense pressure, drifted lightly over from the other side of the corridor.
The air seemed to vanish in an instant.
The bespectacled official who had just been mouthing off immediately broke into a cold sweat, his legs going weak beneath him.
Almost on instinct, he lowered his head as far as he could.
"L-Lady Erza… my deepest apologies! I spoke out of turn!"
Erza calmly withdrew her gaze, said nothing at all, and merely quickened her pace as she continued on.
"Haaa…"
Only when that crimson figure disappeared around the far end of the corridor did the official collapse in relief, letting out a long breath.
It was only then that his companion, still shaken, wiped the sweat from his brow.
One of the Ten Wizard Saints—an emblem of the greatest power on the continent. And power of that magnitude often came with eccentricities ordinary people could never hope to understand.
Luckily, she seemed to be in a good mood today and hadn't bothered to make much of it.
If it had been someone more narrow-minded, then with them so clearly in the wrong, not even the Council might have stepped in to protect them.
Thinking of that, the man couldn't help snapping at his companion.
"You idiot! At this distance, how could a Wizard Saint not hear you gossiping?"
"No matter how much you dislike her, at least wait until you're somewhere private before complaining!"
…
After leaving the stately, palace-like Magic Council building, Erza's steps didn't falter in the slightest.
Clearly, she hadn't taken that little interruption to heart at all.
A breeze stirred her hair, and for once, the girl's usually serious mouth curved into a smile so soft she couldn't quite suppress it.
As she walked, she couldn't help reaching beneath her robe to touch the communication crystal tucked inside her inner lining.
Just moments ago, she had received a message from Cana—
that bastard who had slept for four whole years had finally woken up.
Naturally, hearing that filled Erza with delight.
If she could, she would've flown straight back to Magnolia that very second.
But the moment she thought about the three unavoidable tasks still piled up on her desk, her smile dimmed a little.
Even after ditching that long, useless meeting today, it would still take several more days of running around before she could clear all the rest.
At that thought, Erza instinctively tightened her grip on the sword at her waist in irritation.
"Mm… with Ultear's sharpness, she definitely noticed something strange when I left early."
She bit her lip lightly, thoughts turning over one after another.
"It's entirely possible… she's already found an excuse to leave and is on her way to Magnolia ahead of me."
The moment she remembered what Tia had confessed to her last year, a fierce sense of danger rose in Erza's chest for no clear reason.
At that moment, she found herself regretting ever accepting the title of Wizard Saint.
Ever since taking it on, the endless formalities and unshirkable responsibilities had never stopped.
But no matter how irritated she felt, Erza's nature was to see through any duty she had taken upon herself with absolute seriousness. Abandoning it halfway was never an option.
In the end, all she could do was grit her teeth slightly and quicken her pace again.
Meanwhile, up above the Council building, on a hidden balcony attached to a tower—
a pair of beautiful obsidian-black eyes watched the scarlet figure below grow farther and farther away.
"With someone as rigid and rule-bound as Erza, no matter how boring and pointless the meeting was, she'd never leave in the middle of it…"
"To throw even her off balance like that… did that bastard finally wake up?"
The woman murmured to herself as she stepped slowly out of the shadows of the balcony.
Her deep purple fitted dress swayed in the high wind, tracing out the provocative, aggressive lines of her body perfectly.
"Hiding here with a thought projection to spy on people really isn't a good habit, Ultear."
A slight fluctuation of magic ran through the air beside her.
Then a blue-haired man with a distinctive tattoo above his right eye appeared at her side like a peeling mirage.
Ultear tilted her head slightly, her tone bland.
"So you've already learned to put on that lecturing tone the moment you wrapped yourself in a councilor's robe, huh, Jellal?"
Jellal gave a wry smile and rubbed his cheek, immediately losing half his momentum.
"Well… considering I'm also using a thought projection to slack off, I guess I'm not really in a position to criticize you."
A great deal had happened over the past four years.
After the Grimoire Heart incident ended, burdened by guilt toward Shane, Jellal had thought it over seriously and ultimately handed over management of the Crimson Dawn he founded to Simon.
He himself had entered the Magic Academy under Ultear's recommendation, hoping to gain more influence.
And not long ago, it was thanks to the woman before him working behind the scenes that he had successfully taken a council seat.
Because of that, being so deeply indebted to her, Jellal always found himself a little short on confidence whenever he spoke to Ultear.
"You didn't go out of your way to come here with a thought projection just to say something this pointless, did you?"
Ultear cast him a sidelong glance. The meaning in her eyes was clear enough: get to the point.
That woman really was as sharp and merciless as ever…
Jellal gave a dry chuckle.
He truly had no idea how to deal with someone this prickly. Sometimes he genuinely admired Shane for being able to handle such a troublesome woman.
In order to avoid becoming the target of more mockery, Jellal quickly wiped the smile from his face and went straight to the matter at hand.
"I just got word from the intelligence network. Hades… seems to be making another move lately."
"Another play for one of the 'keys' to Zeref?"
"Yeah. Most likely." Jellal's brows drew tight, anger flashing through his eyes. "And this time… their appetite is ridiculous. It looks like they're planning to sacrifice an entire town."
"They're getting more unhinged by the day." Ultear let out a cold little laugh.
"So what do we do?" Jellal asked carefully. "Same as before? Gather the information and hand it off to Erza to deal with?"
"No need."
Ultear lifted a hand, tucking a strand of black hair behind her ear as she dismissed the idea outright.
"Erza already has enough on her plate right now. No need to bother her with this one. I'll take care of it myself."
Jellal froze, then frowned in concern.
"But alone? That's too dangerous."
Ever since Grimoire Heart's ambitions had been exposed—and with the added score of their previous ambush—he and Ultear had used the Council's vast resources over the years to quietly sabotage quite a few of Hades' plans.
By now, Ultear had long since become a thorn in Hades' side, someone he wanted dead as soon as possible.
Under those circumstances, acting alone would be unimaginably dangerous.
"Who said I was going alone?"
Ultear turned, the wind catching her long black hair.
She looked toward the direction Erza had gone, and on her usually cold face bloomed a dazzling smile.
"I'm planning to make a stop in Magnolia on the way… and ask a certain someone who just woke up and is definitely bored out of his mind."
…
…
"Grow quickly now."
A faint light gathered at Shane's fingertips, and like silk being drawn from a cocoon, he slowly guided the lingering aura of divinity still inside him into the soil.
As the dim light sank in, the seedlings in the flowerbed visibly stretched and brightened with new green life.
Shane lightly tapped them with his finger, sensed that the seeds had reached a temporary saturation point, and finally withdrew his hand in satisfaction.
Straightening up, he brushed the loose dirt from his knuckles and headed back inside in an unusually good mood.
Once these flowers bloomed fully, the curse in his body would disappear without a trace.
And when that happened, the [Trial: Innocence] would finally conclude perfectly.
By the usual settlement rules of the Book of Heroic Spirits, the next two permissions would certainly be paid out in double.
Combined with the resources he had saved up before falling asleep, the amount he'd have on hand would become downright absurd—
a full six pool-depth permissions, plus seven trait selection permissions.
Having never gone into battle this rich before, Shane found himself oddly troubled.
With so many resources, should he use the flowers as a guide and summon Ereshkigal again?
Or should he go all in on calling forth an entirely new god?
Or should he stick to the original plan and summon a mage?
What a luxurious problem to have.
With a faint smile, Shane pushed open the inner door.
But the moment he looked up, he realized Kagura—who ought to still be sprawled on the couch recovering—was nowhere to be seen.
Instead, a loud clattering racket was coming from the kitchen, like a battlefield breaking out.
Then a faintly acrid burned smell drifted out on the air.
Shane frowned and waved the smell away from his nose with a couple of swipes before crossing over to the kitchen doorway in three quick steps and peeking inside.
What he saw was both ridiculous and hilarious.
Kagura stood at the stove with both hands tightly gripping a spatula, body tense, working with the concentration of someone facing a mortal enemy.
"What are you doing?" he asked from the doorframe, leaning there curiously.
"Cooking." Kagura didn't look back. Her answer was brief and blunt.
She was intensely focused—but the blackened lump in the pan, giving off those ominous curls of smoke, made it impossible for Shane not to feel his eye twitch.
"Did Erza only teach you swordsmanship and not a single thing about cooking?"
Shane felt black lines gather across his forehead. He really couldn't watch this anymore.
He strode in and snatched the much-abused spatula out of the girl's hands.
No way in hell. This was supposed to be his first real meal after waking up. If he had to eat that, he'd feel sorry for himself.
In the movement, Shane bumped into Kagura.
She had only been forcing herself to move around in the first place, and with him suddenly crowding in this close, she lost her balance all at once.
With a little cry, her knees gave out and her legs splayed awkwardly to the side as she collapsed into a duck-sitting heap on the floor.
"Give it back!"
But even after landing like that, the girl still stubbornly tilted up her face and reached for the spatula, determined to seize it again.
Seeing how desperately serious she was, Shane raised the spatula out of reach and asked, even more curious now, "Why are you suddenly so set on making food?"
"…"
Kagura said nothing.
She only pressed her pale lips together and stared straight at him.
Stare—
Black smoke still drifted through the kitchen while the two of them remained there, one higher, one lower, locked in a silent contest of eyes.
In the end, Shane gave in first beneath that stubborn glare.
With a sigh, he asked tentatively, "Don't tell me… you were trying to bribe me with cooking?"
Kagura froze for a split second, then gave the tiniest, fastest nod.
That confirmation only made Shane feel even more helpless.
It was good that the girl's attitude had softened—but she absolutely did not need to demonstrate that homicidal cooking ability in the process.
He couldn't be bothered to argue further.
Ignoring Kagura's weak protest, he bent down, scooped her up with one arm, and half-dragged, half-carried her back to the sofa in the living room.
"You're the one who did this to yourself, so sit still and stop complaining."
Then he turned back into the kitchen, dumped out the horrifying lump of charcoal in the pan, and started over from scratch with practiced ease.
Before long, the smell of home-cooked food finally overpowered the burnt odor and filled the whole house.
Taking into account that someone had rendered herself barely mobile by acting reckless, Shane simply carried the finished dishes out and set them on the coffee table in front of the sofa.
The two of them sat crowded together at the table, eating face-to-face.
Kagura held her chopsticks and shoveled food into her mouth at an astonishing speed, like she was starving.
And yet she still kept her back rigidly straight, trying with all her might to maintain some shred of dignity in front of Shane.
"Don't be embarrassed."
Shane leisurely swallowed a piece of meat and teased offhandedly, "Erza's table manners used to be way worse than yours."
"Mmph… mmm!"
Kagura shot her head up at once, cheeks puffed full of food like a little squirrel storing nuts.
In a muffled voice, she protested, "Master's eating habits… are not excessive!"
So it had progressed all the way to this? A built-in filter so strong she was saying nonsense now?
Shane rubbed his forehead with a headache.
For a moment, he genuinely had no idea where to even begin correcting her.
When it came to food she really liked, Erza's behavior was absolutely wild. Her food-protectiveness bordered on criminal insanity.
Especially with limited-edition sweets—even he had to shamelessly beg for quite a while just to get one bite.
He looked at the girl again.
Clearly, Kagura had fully deified Erza in her mind. In her world, Erza was always right. Always perfect. Untouchable.
Compared to that, just look at his own disciple…
Sigh.
Shane let out a long internal sigh and decided what he really needed was a bath to soothe his weathered soul.
He quickly finished the rest of the food on his plate and stood up.
"I'm going to soak in the back. You can just leave the dishes here when you're done. I'll clean them up afterward."
"…"
Kagura's chopsticks paused. Her lips parted slightly, as if she wanted to say thank you—or maybe that she still had enough strength to wash dishes herself.
Before she could get the words out, Shane, who had already reached the corner of the hallway, suddenly leaned back out and cut her off.
"When you're done eating, go rest. Don't mess around. Those sword wounds I left on you should be gone after one good night's sleep."
The words reached her, and Kagura slowly lowered her eyes again.
In the end, she only gave a quiet nod.
…
Shane slid open the back door, and warm steam rushed at him at once.
Splash.
He stripped off his clothes and sank his body into the hot spring, long missed.
Wrapped all over in warm water, he leaned his head back against the stone edge and let out a deeply satisfied sigh.
"The first day after waking up really has been one thing after another…"
He rolled his sore shoulders once, staring into the drifting steam as his thoughts turned to tomorrow.
After four whole years apart, the guild was bound to have changed drastically.
Not everyone would be as shamelessly familiar as Cana, either.
And with that in mind, Shane couldn't help wondering whether going back to the guild tomorrow was really going to go smoothly at all.