Chapter 218

Chapter 218: Chapter 218

"Marshall?! What did you just say? My daughter? You’re saying I have a daughter?!"

Gildarts instantly came alive.

He completely forgot about his injuries and grabbed Marshall’s arm with his remaining hand, eyes wide with shock.

"..."

Marshall took a deep breath.

He knew he had let that slip in the heat of the moment, but his mood was already terrible enough that he couldn’t bring himself to care.

He shook Gildarts’s hand off and turned toward the door.

"Think about it yourself. I’m going to bring your daughter here."

"Marshall! Wait! Don’t leave yet! Do you know who the girl’s mother is?! Hey—!"

After leaving the room, Marshall sensed Cana’s location and teleported directly to her.

Cana owned a little fortune-telling shop on Magnolia’s pedestrian street, a storefront Marshall had given her some time ago.

She ran the place entirely according to her mood, and although the damned shop stayed closed five or six days out of every week, it was still surprisingly famous and extremely popular around Magnolia.

Today happened to be one of the rare days Cana was actually working and earning some pocket money.

When Marshall appeared beside her, the previous customer—a young woman with a bright-red face—was just hurrying out of the shop.

Cana had looked thoroughly bored a moment earlier, but the instant she saw Marshall, her eyes lit up.

"Marshall~ What brings you here to see your big sister?"

"Gildarts is back."

Cana shot to her feet.

Then, almost immediately, she puffed out her cheeks and dropped back into her chair as though she didn’t care.

"Hah. So that bastard still remembers how to come home. He disappears for two or three years without sending a single message, and now he just wanders back whenever he feels like it? Whatever. I can’t be bothered to see him."

"Gildarts is badly injured."

Marshall looked at her.

"He almost died."

Cana was on her feet again before he finished speaking.

"Where is he?! Marshall, take me to him!"

She grabbed Marshall’s hand so tightly that the panic in her eyes was impossible to hide.

"...Cana... sorry. I let something slip earlier."

Marshall hesitated.

"He already knows he has a daughter, so—"

"That doesn’t matter! Just take me to him!"

Marshall said nothing more.

He took Cana’s hand and teleported with her to the hallway outside Gildarts’s hospital room.

Through the door, they could see Gildarts sitting there with one hand clutching his head, apparently racking his brain for answers.

Marshall could even hear him muttering to himself.

"Whose kid could it be...? Sarah? Naomi? Claire? Or Mary... Emma... Lila..."

"..."

Marshall fell silent, but Cana didn’t.

She shoved the door open and rushed inside.

The instant she saw Gildarts’s missing arm and leg, she covered her mouth and burst into tears.

"C-Cana?!"

Gildarts looked up.

He saw Cana crying.

Then he saw Marshall very considerately closing the door behind her.

This time, it was Gildarts’s turn to break into a cold sweat.

[H-Help me!!! Marshall! Cana is my daughter?! Do you know who her mother is?!]

Marshall’s response arrived through Telepathy immediately.

[Get lost. Figure it out yourself. If you can’t, then die.]

Marshall had no intention of helping him.

After closing the door, he leaned against the wall and sank into his own thoughts.

Inside the room, Gildarts laughed awkwardly.

"C-Cana! Ahahaha... l-long time no see. You’ve really grown into a beautiful woman. Cough... Th-That’s great."

Cana sat beside his bed and instinctively reached toward his injuries, only to stop herself before touching them.

"How did you manage to get yourself hurt this badly...?"

Her voice trembled.

"Didn’t Marshall give you those teleportation cards he made? Are you an idiot? If you run into something dangerous, you’re supposed to escape!"

"Th-This really isn’t as bad as it looks."

Gildarts was still sweating.

"Marshall already treated me. I’m not going to die. Really."

He scratched his head and avoided meeting Cana’s eyes.

"S-So... Cana."

His voice became noticeably smaller.

"Are you really my...?"

"Yes."

Cana looked directly at him.

"You’re my father."

Only after finally saying the words aloud did Cana realize how insignificant the "secret" she had carried for more than ten years suddenly seemed.

The realization was almost funny.

"I came to Fairy Tail because I wanted to find my father, but for all sorts of reasons, I could never bring myself to tell you."

She gave a small, complicated smile.

"Now that I’ve finally said it, it suddenly doesn’t seem like such a big deal anymore."

Cana wiped at her eyes.

"I’m already grown up. You don’t have to worry about it. We can just keep things the same as before—"

"I’m sorry!"

Gildarts suddenly launched himself out of the hospital bed on one leg and wrapped his remaining arm around Cana.

The grown man immediately burst into tears.

"You’re Cornelia’s daughter, aren’t you?! You have to be!"

His voice shook.

"She was my only wife. The only woman I ever truly loved."

Gildarts held Cana tightly.

"I was the one who abandoned that love back then. I honestly had no idea she’d had my child."

Tears streamed down his face.

"I’m sorry. I’m so damn sorry."

Cana stared at him.

Then her own tears started falling again.

"...I-It’s okay. I’m the one who kept hiding it all these years. I should’ve told you sooner too..."

She wiped her face and suddenly felt incredibly stupid.

It had only taken one sentence.

One simple sentence she had been too afraid to say for all these years.

And now that the truth was finally out, even all the resentment she had carried toward Gildarts seemed strangely insignificant.

"...My daughter."

Gildarts’s voice cracked.

"You were right there beside me all this time."

He lowered his head.

"I’m really, truly sorry."

"..."

Outside the room, Marshall finally let out a long breath.

If he was being fair, part of this mess was his fault too.

Maybe he should have simply exposed Cana’s secret years ago.

If Gildarts had known Cana was his daughter, perhaps he never would have taken the Hundred Years Quest in the first place.

Maybe he never would have encountered the Black Dragon.

Maybe he never would have come back missing an arm and a leg.

But thinking about that now was pointless.

At least the outcome hadn’t been completely terrible.

Still... that Black Dragon.

Marshall’s mood sank again.

When he first received the Heart of Time, he had only suspected that some unknown danger was waiting for him in the future.

Now, he could more or less identify where that threat came from.

Zeref, the most infamous Black Wizard in history.

And Acnologia, the most infamous Black Dragon in history.

Both were enemies Marshall currently had no hope of defeating.

He needed to learn far more about them.

A trace of determination flashed through Marshall’s eyes as he turned away from the treatment room.

’I’ll protect everyone.’

’I promise.’

...

Meanwhile, after Gildarts and Cana finally acknowledged each other as father and daughter, much of the gloom Cana had carried for years seemed to disappear.

She looked at his missing arm and leg and frowned.

"Your arm and leg... are you really going to be okay?"

"It’ll be fine."

Gildarts shrugged.

"I’ve got plenty of Magic Power. Worst case, I can use it to operate some prosthetics. It won’t affect me too badly."

"Have Marshall make you some useful magical prosthetics."

Cana looked thoughtful.

"He’s ridiculously capable. Maybe he’ll even find a way to make your arm and leg grow back someday."

"Ahahaha. Yeah."

Gildarts smiled.

"That kid really has changed while I’ve been gone. In only a few years, he’s already reached the point where even I have to take him seriously."

He shook his head in amazement.

"Kids these days are terrifying."

Cana suddenly remembered something.

She opened her mouth, hesitated, then looked awkwardly away.

"Um... D-Dad..."

Gildarts immediately stiffened.

"Marshall really isn’t your son, right?"

"Huh?!"

Gildarts nearly fell out of bed.

"Of course he isn’t! W-Why would you even think that?!"

Cana stared at him.

"...You tell me."

She folded her arms.

"Half the guild suspects Marshall might be your illegitimate son."

Gildarts’s face went pale.

"Do you even remember how many women you’ve been with?"

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"

Gildarts immediately protested.

"I-I took precautions, okay?! Besides, I’ve never even been to the village where Marshall grew up!"

"But Marshall was adopted."

Cana raised an eyebrow.

"He doesn’t know who his biological parents are either."

She leaned closer.

"And don’t you think he resembles you a little? Why else do the two of you get along so well?"

"H-How does he resemble me?!"

"Marshall has an aptitude for Crush Magic. His hair color is fairly close to yours."

Cana began counting on her fingers.

"And your personalities are similar too. You both love getting involved with girls..."

"..."

Gildarts actually stopped to think.

Marshall’s age.

Where Gildarts himself had been around the time Marshall would have been conceived.

And, more importantly... the number of women he had been involved with during that period.

Cold sweat slowly appeared across his forehead again.

There had been far too many!

He genuinely couldn’t be completely certain.

"Impossible!"

Gildarts shook his head violently.

"Absolutely impossible!"