"Exactly! Juvia, this won't do!"
Erza immediately followed up, just as stern, nodding firmly in agreement. Mirajane's argument was simply too reasonable to refute.
"You two, don't put too much pressure on her." Marco laughed softly, his gaze settling on Juvia with nothing but trust and encouragement.
"Juvia will calm down. It's been a long time since she's let her feelings affect other people this badly."
Back then, the reason Juvia had suffered so much rejection and cold treatment was precisely because she could not control the weather affected by her emotions.
But after Marco had taken her away from that village, she had gradually learned to master it, sparing the people of Magnolia from too much trouble.
"Yes! Juvia will control it!"
The moment she met Marco's eyes, Juvia nodded obediently.
His words worked far better on her than either Mirajane's or Erza's.
Of course, now that she had calmed down a little, Juvia herself knew what she needed to do.
She also knew very well that affecting innocent people was wrong, which was why she had been suppressing herself as best she could before Marco returned.
Seeing that she had stabilized, Marco let out a quiet sigh of relief.
If Juvia's emotions stayed unsettled, then no matter where they went, a storm would follow them.
Their whole trip back would turn into one long march through rain.
"We're going home!"
Natsu cheered, visibly fired up.
For him, seeing the Black Dragon this time had been a tremendous source of motivation.
For years, he had been searching for his father—Igneel—but had never found even the slightest clue.
Not just Igneel, either. There had been no trace of any dragon at all.
The same was true for Gajeel's Iron Dragon and Wendy's Sky Dragon. They had all vanished on the same day, and from that point onward, not a single word about them had surfaced again.
Sometimes, Natsu could not help wondering whether dragons had truly disappeared from the world entirely.
Otherwise, why had there not been even the faintest rumor of one anywhere?
But the appearance of the Black Dragon had proven one thing beyond any doubt.
Dragons still existed!
Ordinary people simply never saw them—and those who did had almost no chance of surviving the encounter.
Even Gildarts had only barely escaped alive, and only after being grievously injured.
Still, Natsu believed with absolute certainty that Igneel would never behave like the Black Dragon.
He would never slaughter innocents like that.
The same went for the Iron Dragon and the Sky Dragon. If they were creatures like the Black Dragon, they never would have raised human children in the first place.
If there had been no sign of them, then maybe they were in hiding.
The Black Dragon was said to have exterminated all dragons. Maybe that bastard had been hunting Igneel and the others all along.
Natsu's thoughts began spinning through one possibility after another.
And honestly, some of them were not bad guesses at all.
"Marco and Igneel would definitely beat the Black Dragon together!"
Natsu kept shouting variations of that idea over and over again.
Marco and the Black Dragon were both frighteningly strong, yes, but in Natsu's mind his father Igneel would not be weaker than either of them!
That was the power of childhood faith.
Natsu did not actually know how strong Igneel truly was, but he believed it anyway, without the slightest doubt.
He was convinced Igneel would be strong enough to stand beside Marco and help him fight.
"Yeah... honestly, that might not be impossible." Marco nodded instead of refuting him. "If your father's still alive, then he has to be several hundred years old by now. And if he managed to avoid being hunted down by the Black Dragon all this time, then he definitely can't be weak."
Even if the Fire Dragon Igneel was not as absurdly monstrous as the Black Dragon, he had to have something up his sleeve.
The same probably applied to the Iron Dragon and the Sky Dragon as well.
Based on Marco's many years of experience watching novels, anime, and movies, he could say with confidence that those dragons had to show up eventually in the original timeline.
The fact that they had all disappeared together was obviously suspicious.
There had to be some deeper secret hidden behind that day.
As the rain outside gradually weakened, the members of Fairy Tail finally set out on their journey home.
The torrential downpour did stop, but the drizzle never truly went away.
...
The whole way back, a thin curtain of rain followed them without pause.
There was no need to guess why.
Clearly, even though Juvia was doing everything she could to suppress her emotions, she still had not fully calmed down.
That endless light rain, pattering all along the road, felt to Mirajane like a veil of mist settling over her heart.
It made the future feel more obscure than ever, leaving her more uncertain about what would come next—or how she was supposed to face it.
At last, carrying the unforgettable weight of everything they had experienced, the group returned to Magnolia.
The city was as lively as ever.
The streets were bustling, and the townspeople greeted the returning members of Fairy Tail with the same familiar warmth they always did, completely unaware of what the guild had gone through.
Once they arrived back at the guild hall, the companions who had not gone to Tenrou Island for the S-Class Trial immediately swarmed them, bombarding them with questions and asking who had passed.
Laxus's appearance among them also drew no shortage of astonishment.
After all, he was no longer a member of Fairy Tail.
So why had he returned with everyone else?
"As for who got promoted to S-Class... that hasn't been decided yet."
The truth was that no new S-Class wizard had been chosen.
Too much had happened during this trial. There had been no time at all to think about it.
Now that they were back at the guild hall, though, it could finally be settled.
In truth, there was not much to debate.
The only ones who had truly stood out were Gray and Natsu—and both of them had already been strong candidates from the start anyway.
"But what happened to us this time is something you guys would never guess!"
At the moment, though, Natsu and Gray could not have cared less about the matter of S-Class promotion.
Together with Happy, the two boys and the blue cat launched into a wildly animated retelling of everything that had happened on Tenrou Island.
The guild members listened with rapt fascination, gasping at all the right moments.
There were skeptical voices mixed in as well, naturally.
What they were describing sounded far too unbelievable.
But those doubts did not last long.
After all, the people involved were standing right there in front of them, and even Makarov himself stepped in to confirm that every word from Natsu, Gray, and Happy was true.
Marco did not join in the bustling discussions below.
Instead, he quietly made his way up to the top floor of the guild and stepped out onto the open-air balcony.
By then, night had already fallen.
Leaning against the railing, Marco looked down over Magnolia, where countless lights glittered beneath the dark sky.
Then the exhaustion came.
His overdrawn magic power, the strain of forcing his Cosmo beyond its limits—everything came crashing back into his body all at once with startling clarity.
He never showed weakness in front of others.
He never let himself look uncertain or fragile.
That did not fit the role he had built for himself.
He had to be the sun that illuminated everyone else.
Tap... tap... tap...
Soft footsteps sounded behind him.
Marco did not turn around.
He already knew who it was.
Even from their footsteps alone, he could tell the two of them apart.
Mirajane and Erza walked up beside him and stopped, one on each side.
Neither looked at him.
Neither spoke right away.
They simply stood there with him, gazing out over the night view of the city, and for a time, silence settled around the three of them.
After a while, Mirajane was the first to speak, her voice soft with concern.
"You're exhausted, aren't you?"
"Yeah." Marco nodded, answering honestly. "That Black Dragon was even harder to deal with than I expected."
There were times when showing weakness was necessary too.
Looking at Marco leaning against the railing, worn down and visibly tired, Erza finally spoke, and there was a stubborn tenderness in her voice that she could not quite hide.
"Next time... don't carry something that heavy by yourself."
She paused, then continued, her words growing quieter.
"We're here too. The guild... everyone... we can help you bear it with you. If you keep taking everything onto your own shoulders like that... it's too much. It's too exhausting."
And as she spoke, her voice gradually changed.
What began as concern slowly became self-reproach.
In her heart, Erza blamed her own lack of strength.
If she had been stronger, Marco would not have had to bear so much alone.