With everyone assembled and Erza's luggage safely packed away in Rowan's bag, there was no need to arrange storage. Four mages and two Exceeds boarded the train together.
Natsu and Gray took one row with Happy wedged between them. Across the aisle sat Lucy and Erza, with Rowan in the middle.
The moment the train lurched into motion, Natsu's condition visibly deteriorated. His earlier energy vanished, replaced by a sickly pallor as he slumped in his seat.
"What's wrong with him?" Rowan asked, genuinely surprised.
Motion sickness from cars or ships made sense. A train, though? Especially for someone with Natsu's absurd physical resilience, it seemed impossible.
"Natsu gets sick on all vehicles," Happy said calmly, pulling out a dried fish and munching on it. "As long as it moves, he's like this. You get used to it."
He held another fish out to Rowan. Rowan politely declined.
"Getting sick from every vehicle… that defies logic," Rowan muttered.
Still, he raised his wand.
"Wingardium Leviosa."
Under the spell's effect, Natsu slowly lifted off his seat, floating freely without touching the floor or the chair. Almost instantly, color returned to his face.
"Ha! I'm back!" Natsu laughed, coughing up a small flame. "Thanks, Rowan!"
"As long as it works," Rowan said, nodding.
With his enhanced wand, maintaining the levitation for half an hour was effortless. Recasting it a few times would get them to their destination without issue. Natsu was one of their main combatants, after all. Keeping him functional mattered.
Erza wouldn't appreciate Rowan stepping in as a replacement fighter.
Once Natsu had stabilized, Gray finally spoke up.
"Erza, we've already departed. You still haven't told us what the problem actually is."
Erza nodded and began explaining.
A few days earlier, after finishing a mission, she had stopped by a mage-frequented tavern in Onibus. There, she overheard members of the dark guild Grimoire Ironwood discussing a legendary artifact: the Cursed Flute.
According to them, the guild had acquired it and planned to unseal its power as part of a larger scheme.
"The Cursed Flute?" Rowan's eyes lit up.
He had read about it in a reference book on magical artifacts. Originally a tool for curse-based killing magic, it was later modified by Zeref himself into a flute. Anyone who heard its melody would be struck by lethal death magic. The area of effect was enormous.
The destructive potential didn't interest Rowan. Using such an artifact would put a target on his back from the entire kingdom.
What did interest him was the illustration.
A thick wooden flute, carved roughly, topped with a skull-shaped mouthpiece.
Which meant it could be reshaped.
A wand body of that material, even a segment of it, would be exceptional. Rowan had already felt that his current wand body lagged behind its core. If he could craft a new one from the Cursed Flute, the improvement would be dramatic. Especially for curse-based magic like Severing Charms.
"Rowan, you know about the Cursed Flute?" Erza asked, noticing his reaction.
Rowan nodded and briefly summarized what he knew.
"That makes this even more serious," Erza said grimly.
Grimoire Ironwood specialized in assassinations and illegal contracts. If they were planning to use an artifact like that, it could mean mass casualties.
"I should've dealt with them on the spot," Erza said, annoyed. "I should've forced them to talk."
"So what do we do now?" Lucy asked nervously.
She was already regretting coming along.
"We go straight to Grimoire Ironwood's headquarters," Erza said without hesitation. "We storm the place, defeat every mage there, and take the flute."
Simple. Direct. Terrifying.
"That sounds fun," Gray said, cracking his knuckles.
Natsu was practically vibrating. "Beating up a whole dark guild? That's awesome!"
"I want to go home," Lucy whispered, sweat pouring down her face.
Attacking an entire dark guild head-on was insane. Especially one known for assassinations.
Rowan, however, felt relatively calm. Erza wouldn't act without confidence. If she believed this was manageable, it likely was. With Natsu and Gray backing her up, and with Lucy and Rowan added to the team, their odds were better than she was letting on.
Lucy aside, Rowan himself wasn't just support. If things turned critical, his magic and abilities were more than enough to matter.
As the train sped toward Onibus and Grimoire Ironwood's territory, far away in Clover Town, Makarov was attending the regular guild masters' council.
A blue magical bird fluttered into the hall.
"Master Makarov! You've received a letter from Mirajane!"
Makarov accepted the envelope mid-boast, channeling magic into the seal as a faint spell circle appeared on its surface.