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If seeing Mavis alive was a joyful shock, and seeing Zeref was astonishing, then August's appearance brought something closer to pure terror.
That chaotic Magic Power, belonging neither to light nor darkness, could not possibly exist a second time in this world. Precht knew that power. It was precisely because of it, that ominous and unmistakable presence, that he had done something he still could not fully explain to himself: he had abandoned Mavis's child while the infant was still in swaddling clothes.
He could have hidden the boy's identity. Let him grow up quietly, have a normal childhood, stand alongside Makarov and become one of the guild's pillars. Why hadn't he done that?
Why had he been so foolish?
Overwhelmed by guilt, Precht could not bring himself to look at August. He could not meet Mavis's eyes either.
But silence would not help him here. Everyone in the room already knew August's story.
Warrod was quietly watching, waiting for someone to break the stillness, when August spoke first.
"Uncle Precht. My name is August."
He looked steadily at the old man who could not look back at him. "If you wish to ask for my forgiveness, I can only tell you there is nothing to forgive. I have never held any resentment toward you for abandoning me."
"On the contrary, I am grateful. You brought me into this world, and you made sure I would one day know who my parents were."
August's directness left Precht speechless. He had not imagined that those words could ever come from the child he had abandoned eighty years ago.
He was as gentle as Mavis.
Precht finally found the courage to look at him properly. August's hair was white, his face as lined with age as Precht's own. Eighty years had passed in what felt like a breath, and the baby he had turned away from was now an old man.
"I'm sorry."
August said nothing more to this. He stepped quietly aside, yielding the space to Mavis. There was little more for him to say to Precht; a brief, honest exchange was already the full extent of what their relationship allowed.
Mavis came to stand before him. She did not wait for Precht to find his words.
"Precht," she said simply, "have you been well, all this time?"
He forced a hollow smile. What could he possibly answer?
That committing murder and arson counted as doing well? That ordering brainwashed girls to corrupt innocent young people into darkness counted as doing well? That drawing the innocent into massacres counted as doing well?
He could not say any of it aloud.
Mavis appeared young and guileless, her mind as bright and quick as a girl of fourteen or fifteen. But she was, in the end, a genius of the highest order. She had already read far more from Precht's expression than he had said.
A small sigh passed her lips. Then her voice, soft and clear, settled over the room.
"Precht. Atone for your sins with whatever time remains to you. And I will stay with you until the end."
She paused.
"Welcome home."
The words were quiet and weightless, but they reached something inside Precht that had been wound tight for decades. The guilt he had carried, the pride he had never relinquished, the grief he had never allowed himself to feel: all of it broke at once.
Tears that had not fallen in decades slowly traced their way down his face.
He was home.
X783. This year was destined to be written into the history of the Ishgar Magic World.
At the start of the year, the three most powerful dark guilds had announced a sudden alliance, forming the most formidable coalition since dark forces first took root in the continent. They called it the Balam Alliance.
The newly risen Oración Seis.
The mightiest dark guild, Grimoire Heart.
And the mysterious demon guild, Tartaros.
When the alliance was declared, the Magic Council, charged with maintaining order across the Magic World, came to a belated reckoning: over eighty percent of all dark guilds were affiliated with the Balam Alliance in one way or another.
The news sent a chill through every government, every legitimate guild, every authority that learned of it.
Yet who could have imagined that less than a year after those three giants announced their alliance, Oración Seis would quietly dissolve its subordinate guilds and vanish without a trace, and then on the very same day, Grimoire Heart and Tartaros would both launch attacks against a single legitimate guild, and both of them, together with all their forces, would be destroyed?
The name of that guild was Fairy Tail.
"This is a bit much."
Noah sat at the dining table, sipping warm milk and reading the Magic Council's official newspaper that Mirajane had ordered.
The usually imperious Council had once again lowered its head to Fairy Tail. Every page was filled with lavish praise. The Fiore Kingdom's newspaper was no different, documenting Fairy Tail's full history from its founding to the present, and had even dug up the story of the first four members defeating the dark guild Blue Skull before the guild was officially established, polishing it into something grander than it perhaps deserved.
As Noah would have put it: the Council's flattery was clumsy, while the Kingdom's was artful.
Erza withdrew her gaze from the newspaper in his hand and returned to her sandwich, adding her own remark with characteristic bluntness. "Whatever others think, the Master must be pleased."
From the kitchen, Mirajane paused her cheerful humming and called back with a warm smile: "Not 'must be,' but 'definitely is.' When I went to the guild this morning to pick up the paper, he was already beaming."
Noah set the newspaper down with a small shrug. He had found the praise considerably less interesting than the unexpected contents of the books Kyoka and Seilah had left behind. The domestic drama between those two demonesses was unexpectedly compelling reading.
Which reminded him.
Under the curious looks of both Mirajane and Erza, Noah reached into the shadow at his side and produced a book with a dark brown cover, setting it openly on the table.
"Let me formally introduce this. The Book of E.N.D. Natsu's true name. His very existence."
Mirajane reached out and touched the cover, tilting her head with quiet curiosity. "I was wondering why no one could find it after we defeated Tartaros two days ago. So you had it the whole time."
Erza had already heard from Gildarts that Noah was keeping it safe on Natsu's behalf, so she had left the matter alone. Neither Zeref nor Natsu himself had asked about the book's whereabouts, which had made it easier to forget. But now it seemed the truth was simpler than that.
Noah gave an awkward laugh. He had been too absorbed in quietly watching Precht's emotional reunion with Mavis's family outside the Guild Master's office, and the book had simply slipped his mind.
"They're all remarkably unconcerned people," Erza observed. "Noah. Natsu. Even Zeref."
She pushed the last piece of her sandwich into her mouth and spoke around it: "What did the Master and the First Master end up doing with Precht?"
Mirajane glanced at Noah as well. Since that day, Precht had not appeared anywhere in the guild, and neither Mavis, Warrod, nor Makarov had brought him up.
Noah stretched lazily in his chair. "Zeref and August took him for research."
"Research," Erza repeated, her tone sharpening. "He's the one being researched?"
"Magic research," Noah corrected quickly. "While searching for a way to revive the First Master, Precht accidentally caused her body to accumulate infinite Magic Power and vitality. You've both heard me mention Fairy Heart."
Erza and Mirajane nodded. Noah had spoken of it on Tenrou Island, and they had learned later that the First Master's body was the guild's most closely guarded secret.
"The thing is," Noah continued, "Precht was able to draw Fairy Heart from a body afflicted with the Contradictory Curse. That was not simply luck, because he later succeeded in creating a replica of it, the Devil's Heart."
Erza's eyes sharpened. "So Zeref wants to understand exactly what Precht did when he created Fairy Heart the first time?"
"Not quite. He's more likely curious about why the First Master's Contradictory Curse never activated after she revived."
Mirajane glanced at Noah thoughtfully. She remembered that after Noah had sealed the curse on Zeref, even Zeref's magic had become inaccessible to him. Yet she had clearly sensed Magic Power on Mavis from the moment her soul returned to her body.
"That's right. I never sealed the curse on the First Master after she came back," Noah said, and explained. "When I looked more closely, I found that the endless vitality Fairy Heart provides was already suppressing the curse's death energy on its own. As long as Fairy Heart remains within her, the First Master will never trigger the Contradictory Curse."
After Noah's explanation, Erza and Mirajane both fell quiet as the implication settled.
If Fairy Heart could be replicated and given to Zeref, he might no longer have to fear the curse at all.
Noah, however, was not particularly optimistic about that outcome.
The curse on Zeref had been placed personally by Ankhseram, the God of Life and Death, as punishment for his transgressions. It was fundamentally stronger than the curse Mavis had contracted through an accident of imperfect magic. Even if they were somehow lucky enough to replicate Fairy Heart for Zeref, it would suppress only part of the curse's power. When the conditions were right, the curse would still activate.
Though there was one other possibility Noah had been quietly turning over. If Mavis's Fairy Heart were given to Zeref directly, then if the two of them were to attempt what they once had... the outcome might be different this time.
It was a thought worth keeping in mind.