Chapter 537 - 537: Noah, I Have a Brilliant Idea

"With the engine finally finished, it's all up to the guild to complete the rest of the renovations," Mavis smiled, stretching her arms above her head.

"Let's go take a look," Noah suggested.

Since their primary responsibility in the engine room was complete, Noah didn't plan on lingering in the dark, windowless space. A stroll through the upper decks would serve as a nice break.

The two of them left the engine room and stepped into the main corridor.

A cacophony of cheerful shouting, hammering, and the buzz of magical tools instantly washed over them. The guild members were bustling about, covered in sweat and sawdust, working with fiery enthusiasm.

The majority of the airship's core structural modifications were already finished. The current focus was the massive interior overhaul.

New magical power conduits were being laid down, room layouts were being aggressively restructured, and chaotic debates over interior design choices were constantly breaking out. Whenever an argument reached an impasse, the members would track down one of Noah's Thought Projections to act as the ultimate judge on structural feasibility.

Even though the renovations were far from complete, the transformation was already astounding. The oppressive, dark, gothic decor of Grimoire Heart had been completely stripped away, replaced by warm, vibrant tones of white, crimson, and gold. The formerly intimidating, depressing warship now radiated a cozy, welcoming atmosphere.

As Noah and Mavis strolled through the corridors, every guild member they passed stopped to greet them enthusiastically.

Eventually, they stumbled upon Ultear, Erza, Mirajane, and the rest of the girls gathered on the upper deck. They were in the middle of excavating and tiling the new swimming pool, chatting excitedly among themselves.

"Did you and the First Master finish the engine?" Ultear asked with a bright smile, looking up from the tiling plans as Noah approached.

"Yeah. The new Lacrima core is installed, calibrated, and fully operational," Noah nodded.

"That's fantastic," Ultear beamed.

"Noah! Perfect timing! I have a brilliant idea, but I need you to tell me if it's possible," Sorano practically sprinted over, her eyes sparkling with excitement. The rest of the girls turned to look at him expectantly.

"What's your brilliant idea?" Noah asked, amused by her enthusiasm.

"Can we turn the swimming pool into a hot spring?! Think about it! In the dead of winter, we could fly the ship high into the clouds, watch the snow fall outside the observation windows, and relax in a perfectly heated, steaming hot spring! Doesn't that sound absolutely heavenly?!" Sorano practically squealed, gesturing wildly.

The other girls nodded vigorously in agreement.

"Oh! A hot spring! That does sound wonderful!" Mavis's eyes lit up immediately.

"So that's what you girls were debating," Noah chuckled.

"We all agreed it was an amazing idea, but since you're the one who designed the ship's infrastructure, we didn't know if the plumbing and power grid could handle it," Mirajane explained with a smile.

"It's easily doable. I just need to install a high-capacity thermal-regulation array along the pool's primary circulation pump," Noah replied after a moment of thought.

"YES!" Sorano cheered loudly, throwing her hands in the air. The other girls broke into wide, excited smiles.

No one had ever experienced a flying hot spring before. The sheer luxury of it was incredibly appealing.

"Actually, since we're upgrading it to a hot spring, we should probably install an automated alchemical-infusion system," Noah mused thoughtfully, his brilliant mind already optimizing the idea. "The primary health benefits of natural hot springs come from the rich, dissolved minerals in the water. We can replicate—and significantly enhance—those benefits by infusing the water with specialized restorative potions. We could formulate potions that actively rejuvenate the skin, accelerate physical recovery, and passively alleviate muscle fatigue. If you bathe in it daily, it would serve as an incredible, passive physical conditioning tool."

"Rejuvenate the skin and accelerate physical recovery?" Erza repeated, her eyes instantly sharpening with intense, predatory interest.

"That's amazing! How quickly can you build it?!" Sorano demanded, practically vibrating with excitement. The rest of the girls leaned in, completely captivated.

"Give me a minute to draft the schematics with the First Master," Noah laughed, summoning his digital Archive screens.

Mavis floated over, and the two geniuses quickly began debating the optimal runic frameworks for the thermal and infusion systems. Ultear and the others crowded around them, offering their own input and preferences.

Because they were only adding two supplementary systems to the existing pool infrastructure, the redesign took less than five minutes. Thanks to the absolute versatility of magic, the required arrays were incredibly compact. Noah quickly walked over to the pool's pump room and etched the new sigils himself.

With the technical hurdles cleared, Ultear and the girls returned to the tiling and excavation work. Their enthusiasm had noticeably doubled. They weren't just building a pool anymore; they were building the ultimate, flying luxury spa, and they wanted it finished as quickly as possible.

Leaving the girls to their frantic construction, Noah and Mavis continued their tour of the ship.

They visited the newly expanded bridge, the massive dining hall, and even the small, experimental hydroponics bay some of the members had stubbornly insisted on building. Every section of the ship was buzzing with activity.

Eventually, their tour ended in a secluded, heavily secured room deep within the ship's interior.

The room was massive, brightly lit, and filled with incredibly advanced, pristine magical equipment. This had originally been Precht's private research laboratory. Noah had systematically purged every trace of dark magic and unethical biological equipment, replacing it with the absolute cutting-edge diagnostic and alchemical tools he favored.

Because it was a critical workspace, one of Noah's clones had personally completed the renovations for this room first.

"So this is your new laboratory," Mavis noted, looking around the spotless room.

"Yeah. The equipment in here is significantly more advanced than what I have back at my house in Magnolia," Noah nodded.

"You didn't bring me here just to show it off. You want to start researching something specific, don't you?" Mavis guessed, looking up at him.

Unlike the other rooms they had briefly glanced into, Noah had deliberately led her inside and closed the door. Knowing his personality, he had a specific project in mind.

"You're sharp. Remember when you said you wanted to find your child? I brought you here so we can start formulating a specialized tracking spell to locate individuals based on direct bloodline resonance," Noah stated seriously.

"Are you sure? Shouldn't you rest for a few days first?" Mavis's eyes widened in surprise, though a flash of profound hope immediately followed.

She desperately wanted to find her child. Mathematically, her son would be 88 years old. Even if he had become a powerful mage and extended his lifespan, 88 was still an incredibly advanced age. Time was of the essence; every day mattered.

However, she also knew exactly how much Noah had exhausted himself over the last few weeks. He had worked tirelessly to revive her, and then immediately plunged into the agonizing, high-stress curse trials to guarantee her safety. She felt incredibly guilty asking him to immediately dive into another massively complex research project.

"I'm perfectly fine. I'm completely accustomed to this workload. Honestly, compared to a few years ago, my current schedule is basically a vacation," Noah waved off her concern with a smile.

Thanks to the girls constantly nagging him, his sleep schedule was incredibly healthy. He hadn't pulled a single all-nighter in months. Furthermore, maintaining multiple Thought Projections continuously for years had fundamentally evolved his mental processing power. The mental strain of continuous research simply didn't affect him the way it used to.

"Alright. But if you start feeling exhausted or overwhelmed, you must tell me," Mavis insisted firmly. She knew from the girls that Noah's habits had improved, but she still wanted to ensure he didn't push himself too hard on her behalf.

"I promise. Now, let's get to work," Noah nodded.

The two geniuses immediately began compiling a comprehensive list of all known tracking and scrying magics.

Naturally, throughout magical history, countless parents had lost children and sought ways to find them. As a result, bloodline-resonance tracking spells absolutely existed.

However, because such spells were highly situational and rarely utilized in combat or commerce, very few had survived the passage of time. The vast majority of the texts Noah and Mavis pulled from their combined archives were fragmented or hopelessly corrupted.

They only managed to find two or three complete, functional bloodline-tracking spells.

But there was a massive problem: range.

The surviving spells were designed for localized scrying. They could confirm if someone standing in the same room shared your bloodline, or perhaps locate a relative within the same town.

But Mavis's child had been born 88 years ago. They had absolutely no idea where he was. They needed a spell capable of scanning the entire continent of Ishgar—and potentially the Western Continent—to locate a single, specific magical signature. A localized scrying spell was utterly useless.

Without continent-spanning range, finding one specific 88-year-old man in a world of billions was functionally impossible.

While Noah and Mavis began the arduous task of drastically amplifying and heavily modifying the range of the ancient scrying spells, Makarov took a more practical approach.

Makarov reasoned that since Precht had been conducting his resurrection research deep beneath the Fairy Tail guildhall, he likely hadn't traveled far to dispose of the infant. As the Second Master of Fairy Tail, Precht couldn't simply vanish for weeks without drawing suspicion. Furthermore, abandoning an infant was a crime he would have executed under the cover of darkness, quickly and quietly.

Therefore, it was highly probable that Precht had abandoned the child somewhere in Magnolia or the immediately surrounding towns. Of course, if Precht had used a high-speed transport or teleportation magic, the child could be anywhere, but starting local was the most logical first step.

Hoping for a miracle, Makarov began quietly wandering the oldest districts of Magnolia and the neighboring villages, seeking out the oldest living residents to ask if they remembered rumors of an abandoned baby eighty-eight years ago.

~~~

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