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She knew there was no escaping it.
Irene sat on the balcony sofa chair, her antler magic staff resting across her knees, and let out a complex sigh against the chair back, exuding a sense of world-weariness as if she had experienced countless stories.
Noah said nothing, simply stood up and leaned against the balcony railing.
The night was deep, and the increasingly cold wind passed through the two of them, gently unfurling the tragic life story of a legendary mage.
Irene was once the ruler of a nation.
Under the diligent rule of the young queen, her country had strict laws, a rapidly developing economy, and a peaceful, prosperous life for its citizens.
However, the stronger the country became, the more dissatisfied certain powerful ministers grew with their current authority. Their constantly swelling ambitions led them to plot a coup, attempting to make Irene their puppet.
Although Irene was young, she was a mage of considerable strength, and her astonishing power easily thwarted the coup. Even so, faced with the coercion of her ministers, Irene ultimately had no choice but to agree to a political marriage with a neighboring prince, a union she detested.
Political marriages rarely end well.
But before that day arrived, news a hundred times worse came: the evil Dragons, who regarded humans as playthings and snacks, had declared war on humanity.
Irene's country was close to the front lines of the war.
Under the pressing crisis of life and death, everyone put aside their differences and united against the common enemy, bravely resisting the Dragons' incursions.
Against the formidable Dragons, who could mitigate some magical damage, human bodies seemed so small. The war began as a one-sided massacre. Fortunately, friendly Dragons willing to coexist peacefully with humans offered their assistance.
Irene discovered that only Dragons could defeat Dragons.
Thus, with the help of the Dragon Sage Belserion, who was both her teacher and friend, Irene created a magic that could infuse human bodies with the power of Dragons.
Enchantment and Dragon Slayer Magic came into being.
The emergence of Dragon Slayer Magic undoubtedly sounded the horn of humanity's counterattack. Suddenly, many Dragon Slayers appeared, and the evil Dragons, sensing this deadly crisis, launched an all-out assault on Irene's country at any cost.
Under that frenzied offensive, one-third of Irene's country was destroyed, and Belserion, the Dragon Sage, even died in battle protecting Irene.
The climax of this madness concluded with a man named Acnologia stepping over countless corpses of evil Dragons.
Afterward, Irene never went to the front lines to fight again, remaining to wholeheartedly repair the country and resettle the suffering people. With everyone working together, her country recovered quickly, and at the same time, news arrived that the Dragon race had been wiped out by a terrifying black Dragon.
The war between humans and Dragons ended so abruptly.
But this was only the beginning of Irene's suffering.
The ill effects of overusing Dragon Slayer Magic began to manifest in Irene. Parts of her skin transformed into Dragon scales, which frightened the people who still felt lingering trepidation toward the evil Dragons.
As the creator of Dragon Slayer Magic, Irene could have explained and resolved this problem, but something unexpected happened.
She was pregnant.
Worried about the impact on her child, Irene planned to deal with her Dragonization after giving birth, so she entrusted the state affairs to her husband, who had fought alongside her on the battlefield.
However, Irene never imagined that her husband, whom she thought she could trust, had always felt humiliated by his status as a live-in son-in-law, even though Irene had given him supreme power and the position of Grand General.
Under the instigation of those ambitious ministers whose desires had not been quelled, they launched a rebellion when Irene was about to give birth, on the day she was most vulnerable.
With numerous carefully planned countermeasures against her, and concerned for the child in her womb, Irene ultimately became a prisoner.
At this time, Irene's Dragonization had advanced several more stages, which became the reason her husband and ministers announced to the public that they were "restoring order."
The people Irene had wholeheartedly protected, upon learning that their queen had become a monster, neither human nor Dragon, changed their respectful attitude and cursed her with malicious words.
Irene was utterly despairing, only wishing she could give birth to her child.
However, her heartless husband did not believe that a child born of a "monster" could still be human, and even threatened to kill the child with his own hands once it was born.
To protect her child, Irene used all her Magic Power to delay the birth of the fetus in her womb. This delay lasted for a full three years.
Three years of misery. The imprisoned Irene endured countless tortures, suffering humiliation and torment, yet she stubbornly held on, refusing to let the child be born.
Finally, the impatient husband lost interest in tormenting Irene and planned to cut the child out of her womb in front of her.
When the cruel blade broke through the flesh of her abdomen, her determination to protect her child caused the enraged Irene to unleash an unparalleled and terrifying Magic Power. While crushing the despicable, faithless man into minced meat, Irene's Dragonization was pushed to its limit, and she completely transformed into a giant Dragon.
The furious scarlet Dragon broke out of its prison, destroyed the country for which she had poured out her heart and soul, and then vanished into the vast mountain forests.
However, when Irene wanted to turn back into a human, she discovered in horror that she could no longer do so.
During her time of imprisonment and torment, Irene missed the optimal window to resolve her Dragonization. Later, the immense Magic Power she unleashed for the sake of her child completely extinguished her last hope of returning to human form.
The distraught Irene could not accept her transformation, and a Dragon's body could not give birth to a human infant, so she faced her pain alone in the deep mountains.
It wasn't until four hundred years later that a man named Zeref accidentally trespassed into Irene's territory and, with astonishing wisdom, created a magic that allowed Irene to regain a human appearance.
Although she was still fundamentally a Dragon, and due to the Dragon's power, she would lose her sense of taste and be unable to sleep forever, Irene still accepted Zeref's help.
After regaining her human form, Irene's first act was to bring the child in her womb into this world. After four hundred years, a miraculous baby girl was born.
However, four hundred years of solitude and obsession overshadowed Irene's love for her daughter. She even became so insane as to attempt to possess her daughter's body using Enchantment.
Fortunately, her daughter did not inherit Irene's Enchantment talent, preventing Irene from succeeding.
Finally, before she completely lost her mind, Irene secretly sent her child to the outskirts of a kind village. At their farewell, she named her daughter Erza.
Irene looked melancholic, recalling the unbearable past was always painful. "You can probably guess what happened after that without me telling you."
Noah nodded. After that, it was simply Irene joining the Alvarez Empire to repay Zeref.
Looking at the hideous scar on Irene's abdomen, Noah seemed to see a mother's love for her daughter.
However, four hundred years of changes in her mindset, coupled with her solitude and obsession with returning to human form, led Irene to ultimately abandon Erza again, although she also did so to prevent her insane self from harming her daughter...
Just as Irene was feeling distressed from recalling the past, Noah reached out his hand toward the scar on her abdomen, right in front of her.
Irene was suddenly flustered. He was her daughter's man! "Stop it, what are you trying to do to me?"
"Of course, I'm going to remove the scar. It's so unsightly."
Noah shrugged. "Mother-in-law, tomorrow I will help you and Erza reconcile. Your daughter is understanding and will comprehend your suffering."
Irene breathed a sigh of relief. She just didn't know how to face her daughter, which was why she hadn't reconciled with Erza. If Noah was willing to mediate, it would be ideal.
With her worries addressed, Irene looked at Noah curiously. "This scar is too old; even healing magic has no effect. Can you really help me recover?"
"Of course I can."
Noah nodded confidently. "It will just hurt a little."
Irene, however, said it didn't matter; she had long been numb to pain.
Seeing this, Noah stopped talking nonsense. He pressed his palm onto the hideous scar on Irene's abdomen. "Magnetic Field Rotation! Two hundred fifty thousand horsepower! Cell Reorganization!"
"Mmm, ah~"
In an instant, Irene felt a warm energy enter her body, followed by intense pain in her abdomen. To repair an old scar over four hundred years old, even Noah couldn't do it painlessly.
The pain of her body being forcibly altered was almost unbearable even for Irene at this moment, causing her to let out a soft moan that filled one with imagination.
However, at this moment, the door of the room was suddenly kicked open, and two young girls, one with red hair and one with white hair, burst in. Behind them were Irene's two maids.