Chapter 551 - 551: Will We Be Attacked by Them?

Noah watched the older girls happily plotting his impending doom and shook his head helplessly. He turned to Meredy, Wendy, and Yukino with a profoundly serious expression.

"You girls better not learn from them, you hear me?"

"Ahaha..." Wendy offered a dry, awkward laugh, hugging Carla tightly without giving a direct answer.

"I probably, maybe, guess I won't," Meredy smiled cryptically.

"What exactly does 'probably, maybe, guess' mean?!" Noah demanded, his eye twitching.

"It means I don't know! Come on, Yukino, let's go. We'll let Noah-nii and Ultear-nee handle their own problems," Meredy giggled, grabbing Yukino's hand and dragging the blushing girl away. Wendy shot Noah an apologetic smile and quickly scurried after them.

Watching the younger generation abandon him to the wolves, Noah sighed and shook his head.

Nearby, Sorano and the others were still fiercely debating his penalty clauses. Noah decided to tune them out. He leaned against the railing, letting the cool, high-altitude wind wash over his face.

Instantly, his mind quieted. He didn't want to think about magic, research, or apocalyptic dragons. He just wanted to stand there, soaking in the profound beauty of the world and the chaotic, joyful noise of his family laughing and arguing around him.

It was absolutely perfect.

Closing his eyes, Noah surrendered to the peaceful atmosphere, emptying his mind completely.

Noticing that Noah was finally genuinely relaxing, the rest of the guild instinctively gave him a wide berth. They all knew how insanely hard he worked; if he was finally taking a break, none of them were going to ruin it.

A long time passed. Noah was eventually pulled from his tranquil state by a soft, rhythmic chiming echoing in his mind.

He opened his eyes and blinked, shaking off the lingering daze. He dismissed the Archive's alarm and checked the time.

Nearly two hours had passed.

He had literally stood there, completely zoned out, for two hours. However, as he stretched his arms, he felt an unprecedented wave of absolute lightness. Completely emptying his hyper-active brain for a few hours had provided immense mental rest, drastically replenishing his focus and stamina.

Since he was fully refreshed, it was time to get back to work.

He opened the Archive notification. It was a medical alert. Mavis's bio-rhythms had just crossed the predetermined safety threshold.

Noah closed the interface and walked over to Levy, who was currently comparing the actual topography below with a massive paper map in her hands.

"Hey Levy, have you seen the First Master recently?" Noah asked.

"The First Master? I saw her near the library earlier, but I'm not sure if she's still there," Levy replied, looking up from her map.

"Thanks," Noah nodded.

He headed inside and checked the library, but Mavis was gone. After wandering the corridors for a few minutes, he finally tracked her down in the ship's massive kitchens.

She was currently surrounded by Ultear, Mirajane, and a few other girls, diligently working with flour and sugar.

"Hey, what are you guys up to?" Noah called out, stepping into the kitchen.

"I'm learning how to make modern desserts from them!" Mavis beamed proudly, her cheeks lightly dusted with flour.

"I honestly had no idea the First Master was this skilled at cooking," Mirajane noted, looking genuinely impressed. The other girls nodded in agreement. They had assumed Mavis, being a legendary tactician who spent most of her life on a deserted island or trapped in a crystal, wouldn't know her way around a kitchen.

"I lived entirely on my own in the wilderness for a very long time," Mavis said, a nostalgic smile touching her lips. "I learned the basics from reading old books and slowly practiced until I got decent at it. I was a complete disaster at first, though. I burned almost everything before I finally got the hang of it."

"What was your life like back then, First Master?" Sorano asked, leaning in with intense curiosity.

"Well... that is a very long story. I'll tell you all about it when we have some free time," Mavis smiled, shaking her head.

Seeing that she wasn't ready to share the details of her tragic past, the girls didn't press the issue. Ultear turned to Noah.

"You were looking for the First Master, right? Is something wrong?"

"Yeah. First Master, your bio-rhythms just hit the predetermined safety threshold. You need to sever the tether and drop the tracking spell," Noah instructed gently.

"Really? But I don't feel any fatigue at all. My mind is perfectly clear," Mavis blinked in confusion, running a quick internal diagnostic. She honestly felt absolutely fine.

"That's because I set the threshold incredibly low to ensure you wouldn't suffer any actual mental strain," Noah explained. "Because we caught it early, your recovery time will be minimal. If you pushed past this threshold, the mental exhaustion would compound exponentially, and you'd need days to recover. If you drop the spell and rest now, you'll be fully recovered by this afternoon."

"I see. That makes perfect sense. I will follow your schedule," Mavis nodded, trusting his medical judgment completely.

She closed her eyes and severed the connection. The massive, invisible ripple of tracking magic instantly vanished.

The moment the spell dropped, Mavis swayed violently on her feet. Ultear instantly shot forward, catching the petite founder before she could hit the floor.

"First Master! Are you okay?!" Ultear asked worriedly.

"I'm... fine. Just a sudden wave of dizziness... and I feel incredibly heavy," Mavis groaned, rubbing her temples.

"That's the adrenaline and magic wearing off," Noah explained calmly. "While you were actively maintaining the spell, the constant influx of magic masked the underlying mental fatigue. Now that you've stopped, your brain is finally registering the continuous exertion. A few hours of rest will clear it right up."

"Will I really be able to cast it again this afternoon if I rest now?" Mavis asked, wanting to ensure she wasn't delaying the search.

"Absolutely. Once we take our lunch break and you rest, you'll be good to go. Speaking of which, we are rapidly approaching a major city. I'll bring the ship down, and everyone can take a three-hour break to eat and stretch their legs," Noah announced, pulling up the navigation map.

Because Mavis's tracking spell required a steady, methodical sweep, the Fairy had been cruising at a relatively slow speed. They hadn't even breached the borders of Fiore yet.

"I'll escort the First Master back to her room so she can sleep. We can bring some lunch back for her," Ultear offered.

"No, I'll be fine," Mavis waved her off, slowly standing up straight as the dizziness faded. "I feel much better already. I want to go into the city with you guys! I've actually visited this city before, a very long time ago. I want to see how much it's changed."

"Alright. Let's clean up the kitchen and head out," Ultear agreed, seeing that Mavis was steadily regaining her color.

"I'll go announce the layover to the rest of the guild," Noah said, turning toward the door.

"Go ahead, we can handle the cleanup," Mirajane smiled.

Noah nodded and left the kitchen. As he walked down the corridor, he activated the ship's PA system.

"Attention everyone. We will be making a scheduled layover shortly. You will have three hours of free time to explore the city, grab lunch, and stretch your legs. Make sure you are back on the ship before the deadline. That is all."

The moment he clicked the microphone off, he could already hear the muffled cheers echoing from the upper decks.

When he reached the forward lounge, the guild was already fiercely debating lunch plans.

Because they were still within the borders of Fiore, and many members had visited this particular city for quests in the past, no one was particularly interested in shopping or sightseeing. The sole focus was food.

The veteran members who knew the city were busy recommending their favorite local restaurants and signature dishes, while the others frantically scribbled down the addresses, eager to try them out.

Noah ignored the culinary debates and settled into the captain's chair. He quickly located a wide, flat clearing roughly a ten-minute walk from the city's outskirts.

He manually guided the Fairy down, settling the massive warship gently onto the grass, and deployed the boarding ramp.

The guild members eagerly swarmed down the ramp, breaking off into small groups and heading toward the city to hunt down their chosen restaurants.

A small fraction of the guild opted to stay behind. They had pre-paid for the ship's provisions at cost and decided to utilize the massive, fully equipped kitchens to cook their own meals.

Noah left a single Thought Projection aboard the ship to monitor the systems and joined Ultear, Mavis, and the girls as they walked into town for lunch.

After a thoroughly enjoyable meal and a brief stroll through the city, everyone returned to the Fairy.

Mavis headed straight to her private quarters to rest. Ultear and the other girls, having visited this city plenty of times before, didn't feel like wandering around and opted to take a nap in their own rooms as well.

Noah took a brief rest, then immediately dove back into his laboratory to continue his magical research.

The three hours flew by. Once Noah's clone confirmed every single member was back aboard, Noah initiated the launch sequence. The Fairy took to the skies once more, heading toward their next destination.

Having fully recovered her mental stamina, Mavis successfully re-established the tether and resumed her continent-wide scan. Just as Noah had predicted, her endurance had slightly improved; she maintained the spell for a bit longer than her morning session before hitting the safety threshold. As her brain adapted to the immense sensory load, her casting windows would continue to expand.

In the late afternoon, Noah called for another stop, allowing the guild to disembark for dinner.

When night finally fell and everyone was safely back aboard, Noah didn't park the ship on the ground. Instead, he flew the Fairy high above the cloud layer and engaged the hovering arrays, parking the colossal fortress directly in the stratosphere for the night.

Parking on the ground invited the possibility of wandering beasts, curious civilians, or ambitious bandits interrupting their sleep. Parking in the sky guaranteed absolute peace and quiet.

The next morning, the ship descended to the ground so the guild could grab breakfast, then immediately resumed its flight path.

Around noon, they made a highly anticipated detour, arriving at the sprawling, magnificent Heartfilia Estate.

Jude and Layla had contacted Noah beforehand, requesting they stop by so they could see Lucy before the guild left the country for months. Naturally, Noah had happily agreed.

When the massive airship touched down on the estate's sprawling private lawns, Jude and Layla were already waiting with a massive, incredibly luxurious banquet prepared for the entire guild.

The members didn't hold back, happily gorging themselves on the exquisite, high-end cuisine.

After the meal, Jude and Layla presented Noah with a massive stockpile of specialized provisions and a heavy briefcase filled with various foreign currencies.

While Noah had already stocked the ship with basic necessities, the Heartfilia logistics network had procured highly specific, luxury items and regional currencies that were incredibly difficult to obtain on short notice.

Noah didn't refuse their generosity, but after a quick telepathic consultation with Laxus, he insisted on paying for the entire stockpile using the guild's central treasury.

Jude and Layla didn't argue, simply selling the goods at absolute wholesale cost.

After spending a few hours chatting with Lucy and giving her a long list of motherly advice for traveling abroad, Layla hugged her daughter tightly. Jude and Layla stood on the manicured lawns, waving proudly as the Fairy ascended into the sky and resumed its journey.

On the third day of the expedition, the Fairy finally approached the national borders of the Fiore Kingdom.

They could have reached the border much faster, but Mavis had insisted on running a second, incredibly meticulous sweep of Fiore just to absolutely guarantee she hadn't missed a faint resonance. To accommodate her, Noah had throttled the cruising speed down to a crawl.

"WOOHOO! WE'RE LEAVING THE COUNTRY!" Natsu roared, hanging halfway out of an open observation window.

"AYE!" Happy cheered right beside him.

"Wow, I never realized the border looked like this from the sky," Macao murmured, leaning against the glass.

"Yeah, we usually just take the train through the designated checkpoints. Seeing the actual geographic borders from above is amazing," Wakaba agreed.

"So this is where Fiore ends," another member added, staring down at the massive, heavily fortified walls and military encampments tracing the mountain ridge below.

"The border defenses are heavily armed. They have massive anti-ground artillery, and I can clearly see several high-caliber anti-air magical cannons tracking our trajectory," Erza noted, her sharp eyes easily picking out the camouflaged military emplacements.

"Naturally," Noah replied smoothly. "Even though Fiore declares itself a permanently neutral nation, maintaining a robust border defense is basic common sense.

"The only reason we aren't currently being fired upon is that I registered the Fairy's magical signature, flight path, and transponder codes with the Magic Council well in advance. If we were flying an unregistered, heavily armed warship of this size toward a sovereign border, we would be immediately classified as a hostile invasion force and shot down."

"Wait, what about the other countries?! We're flying into foreign airspace! Are they going to attack us?!" Lucy gasped, sudden panic flashing in her eyes.

Hearing Lucy's panicked question, several other members turned away from the windows, looking at Noah with sudden concern.

"Of course not," Laxus chuckled, stepping forward to ease their worries. "As Noah said, we filed all the necessary international flight plans with the Magic Council before we left.

"As long as we adhere to the approved flight corridors, maintain a safe altitude, and explicitly avoid flying directly over major population centers or restricted military airspace, we have absolute diplomatic clearance to travel across Ishgar.

"Blue Pegasus had to jump through the exact same bureaucratic hoops to get the Christina cleared for international flight."

While the rest of the guild was frantically grinding quests to save money, Laxus, Erza, and Mirajane had spent days drowning in Magic Council paperwork, securing the necessary diplomatic visas and flight clearances for a mobile warship. It was a logistical nightmare, but they had gotten it done.

The Magic Council had also provided them with highly classified aeronautical charts, detailing the exact locations of every foreign city, military base, and restricted anomaly zone on the continent. The Fairy simply had to navigate around those red zones.

While having to constantly detour around restricted airspace made Mavis's grid-search slightly more tedious, it was a minor inconvenience compared to being shot at by foreign militaries.

"Oh, thank god. That makes sense," Lucy sighed, clutching her chest in relief.

With their anxieties quelled, the guild members eagerly turned their attention back to the sprawling, unfamiliar landscapes of a brand-new country rapidly unfolding beneath them.

~~~

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