Chapter 198

Chapter 198: Chapter 198

"Shocking Scandal! Magic Council Completely Infiltrated by Dark Forces—Former Wizard Saint Exposed as an Inside Agent!"

"Magic Council Unilaterally Fires Etherion: A Failure of Humanity or Morality?"

"Fairy Tail Crushes Dark Plot! Fairy Queen Single-Handedly Conquers the Tower of Heaven!"

The Tower of Heaven incident had become the hottest news in the entire Kingdom of Fiore.

Because of its disastrous decision to authorize Etherion, the Magic Council was buried beneath an overwhelming wave of public criticism.

Even the Council couldn’t simply ignore condemnation on that scale.

In the end, every sitting Council member, including the Chairman, resigned to take responsibility, and a new round of elections began.

Ultear hadn’t done anything unnecessary before disappearing.

Her original assignment had actually included sabotaging the Council headquarters at ERA and completely paralyzing the organization, but she couldn’t be bothered.

Instead, she simply vanished without a trace.

As a result, although the Council had fallen into chaos, it could still function normally.

And with the "main culprit," Jellal, already imprisoned while Etherion had ultimately caused no actual catastrophe, the Council at least had some room to salvage its public position.

Even so, there was no denying that the Magic Council now owed Fairy Tail a tremendous favor.

If the Fairy Queen hadn’t "turned the tide" after the Council created such an enormous mess, the organization would have been in far worse trouble.

Through the ensuing media coverage, almost all the credit was piled onto Erza.

As a result, the title Fairy Queen spread throughout Fiore, and there were already faint whispers describing her as one of the leading figures of Fairy Tail’s new generation.

Marshall himself happily disappeared from the spotlight.

At most, he became a background figure mentioned as "one of the Fairy Queen’s companions."

Ahem.

To be fair, he really hadn’t done all that much publicly this time.

For most of the operation, he had simply supported Erza from the sidelines.

His most important contribution had actually been swallowing a massive portion of Etherion, preventing the Tower of Heaven from overloading and exploding after absorbing too much energy.

Naturally, that was something nobody could be allowed to know.

So Marshall deliberately minimized his own presence and avoided drawing unnecessary attention.

Thanks to Fairy Tail’s outstanding performance, the guild held an overwhelming advantage during the negotiations that followed.

The Magic Council was already too busy putting out its own fires to worry much about anything else.

As a result—the entire Tower of Heaven ended up in Fairy Tail’s hands.

The Lacrima making up the Tower now contained several hundred million worth of Magic Power.

In terms of value, it was comparable to owning a substantial Lacrima mine!

The Tower alone was worth enough to support every member of Fairy Tail for more than a decade without any of them needing to work.

Even Makarov had trouble controlling his expression when he saw how valuable the enormous crystal structure was.

They had made an absolute fortune.

There was no other way to describe it.

Of course, the old man had plenty to complain about when it came to Marshall and Erza taking it upon themselves to handle such a dangerous incident without telling him.

But Marshall had handled the situation beautifully.

Fairy Tail had suffered essentially no losses, gained enormous prestige, and walked away with an entire Lacrima tower.

In the end, Makarov couldn’t really bring himself to say much.

Instead, he happily went off to clean up the aftermath for Marshall.

After all, the consequences of the incident were enormous.

Even the authority of the Ten Wizard Saints had nearly been shaken.

The use of Etherion had caused the major guilds and the Magic Council to argue endlessly.

The large number of "victims" rescued from the Tower of Heaven also needed to be properly resettled.

All of that required a great deal of work.

Marshall had absolutely no interest in handling any of it himself.

Naturally, the guild would have to help clean up after him.

Compared with those "minor matters," however, Marshall had something far more important to deal with.

For example—

Simon.

...

"He died."

Porlyusica finished examining Simon and gave her conclusion.

"He died once."

"And although his body came back... he didn’t."

"What?!"

Sho immediately exploded.

"Old lady, what nonsense are you talking about?!"

He pointed toward Simon.

"He’s breathing! His body is still warm! How can you say he’s dead?! What kind of quack doctor are you?!"

Porlyusica’s expression darkened.

"Marshall."

"Yes?"

"Throw him out."

Marshall obediently teleported Sho straight into the forest.

Then his own expression became serious.

"This doesn’t make sense."

He looked back toward Simon.

"Simon did suffer a fatal injury, but Sloth reversed it almost immediately."

Marshall frowned.

"That’s healing through time reversal. His body should have been restored to exactly the state it was in before he was injured."

Porlyusica looked toward the small, nervous "Wendy" standing beside Marshall.

"Have you considered the possibility that the problem lies precisely in that Magic?"

Marshall went still.

Porlyusica shook her head.

"Marshall, you underestimate life too much."

"I’ll admit that your idea is ingenious."

Her expression became grave.

"But this time... you may genuinely have taken the wrong path."

She looked toward Simon.

"His condition resembles what some people call the living dead."

"His body is alive."

"But in another sense, he has already died."

Porlyusica sighed.

"I’ve encountered patients with similar conditions before."

"And even I was powerless to help them."

She turned her gaze back toward Marshall.

"Magic is not omnipotent."

"Marshall, life is not something you should treat carelessly simply because Magic can manipulate it."

Marshall stared at Simon.

’He became... a vegetable?’

And because of his spell?

Sloth’s Time Magic healed injuries by reversing the condition of a human body to an earlier point in time.

It was essentially the application of Reparo to a living person.

After Marshall’s Time Magic reached LV3, he had successfully developed the technique.

At present, its limit was roughly one minute.

Even severed limbs could theoretically be restored by rewinding the body to its previous state.

Marshall had been extremely proud when he first created it.

And theoretically—using it on Simon should have been completely correct.

No matter how severe an injury was, reversing the body far enough should restore it completely.

But...

Marshall had never actually tested the technique on someone who had already reached the brink of death.

He genuinely hadn’t known something like this could happen.

’Could Simon have ended up like this because of me?’

’If we had simply used normal Sky Magic to treat him back then...’

’Would he have been fine?’

Marshall’s expression stiffened.

’Did I... kill Simon?’

That had to be a joke.

"Grandma Porlyusica."

Marshall’s voice became quieter.

"Is there really nothing else we can do?"

"I’m sorry."

Porlyusica shook her head.

"Even my abilities have limits."

"I’ve seen people in similar conditions regain consciousness unexpectedly while being cared for by their families."

She sighed.

"So perhaps..."

"A miracle could happen."

Porlyusica was only an apothecary.

These children constantly treated her like some kind of godly doctor who could cure anything, and frankly, even she felt pressured by it sometimes.

"H-How could this happen...?"

Millianna’s eyes immediately turned red.

Her cat ears and tail drooped.

Everything had finally been moving in a better direction.

They were finally about to experience genuine freedom.

So why did Simon have to...

Erza lowered her head, grief filling her eyes.

"It’s my fault."

"I should have stopped Simon when he came back."

Her hands clenched.

"This happened because of me..."

Marshall’s expression flickered.

Then he took a deep breath.

When he spoke again, his tone had become stubbornly firm.

"No."

Everyone looked toward him.

"I’ll bring him back."

Marshall clenched his fist.

"I promise."

Porlyusica frowned.

"He already died once. How exactly do you plan to bring him back?"

Marshall immediately shot back, "I learned Heat Vision. You think I can’t figure out how to wake one unconscious patient?"

Porlyusica stared at him.

"Those two things have absolutely nothing to do with each other!"

"Magic isn’t something that inconvenient!"

Marshall refused to back down.

"I’ll prove it to you!"

Then he turned toward Erza.

"Erza."

His expression became serious.

"Bring Simon back to Cake Tower."

"I’ll prepare a dedicated treatment room for him."

Marshall looked straight into her eyes.

"I will wake him up."

"I promise."

"Marshall..."

Something bright appeared in Erza’s saddened eyes.

She reached out and pulled him into a gentle hug.

At the same time, guilt twisted painfully inside her.

She already owed Marshall far too much.

What kind of useless older sister was she...?

"Putting Simon aside for the moment..." Porlyusica suddenly spoke again.

Marshall looked over.

Her eyes were now fixed directly on him.

"Marshall."

She had noticed something unusual about him almost immediately.

"Your body..."

Porlyusica narrowed her eyes.

"Are you sure you’re all right?"