Chapter 227

Chapter 227: Chapter 227

Two weeks quietly passed without anything major happening.

By now, most of Fairy Tail’s core members had gone through Marshall’s Origin Opening, and their strength had improved by leaps and bounds.

Even Lucy now possessed Magic Power comparable to an ordinary S-Class Mage from another guild.

Fairy Tail’s overall strength had essentially jumped an entire tier overnight.

More than twenty members now possessed S-Class-level combat power, a number no other guild could remotely match.

Fairy Tail had become the undisputed strongest guild in Ishgar in both name and reality.

Naturally, the sudden increase in Magic Power went straight to everyone’s heads.

One after another, the guild members became convinced they were ridiculously powerful and spent practically every day running to the duel arena to challenge each other.

Unfortunately, because everyone had gotten stronger at roughly the same time, the end result was effectively that nobody had gotten stronger.

The guild felt exactly the same as before.

At this point, Fairy Tail’s culture was beyond saving.

Gildarts hadn’t taken any new jobs lately either.

He claimed it was because he wanted to spend more time with his daughter, but in reality, he had become fascinated with how much Magnolia had developed while he was away.

A bigger city meant more people.

More people meant more beautiful women.

Gildarts had become thoroughly addicted to the nightlife and excitement of the now-bustling city and showed absolutely no desire to leave anytime soon.

Erza’s old companions were also gradually settling into the guild.

All of them had respectable magical talent, and once they became proper members, they would probably be able to keep pace with Fairy Tail’s third tier.

In other words... they could sit at Lucy’s table.

As for Marshall, his research into Simon had made some progress.

Not much, but at least there was something.

Simon’s body was healthy.

His soul was also completely intact.

Yet he still wouldn’t wake up.

Marshall had developed one hypothesis: Simon’s soul and body had become disconnected.

Marshall’s Soul Magic was already LV3, and Thought Projection itself was one application of Soul Magic.

If someone transferred all of their soul energy into a Thought Projection and left their physical body as an empty shell, it could essentially be considered a form of leaving the body as a soul.

However, even in that state, there was still an invisible "line" connecting the soul to its physical body.

Because of that connection, a Thought Projection could be thousands of miles away and still return to its original body almost instantly.

Marshall suspected that Simon’s invisible "line" had been severed.

That would explain why his soul could no longer properly return to his body.

If Marshall wanted Simon to wake up, he would somehow have to reconnect the two.

The problem was that with Marshall’s current magical knowledge, he still had no idea what that invisible connection actually was.

Was it some kind of link between soul and soul?

Or perhaps the boundary between life and death?

His research had reached a dead end.

So Marshall decided to approach the problem from another direction.

If Simon’s soul was still completely intact... could he simply place it inside another container?

Something similar to the Apostles Marshall had created.

Instead of filling an Apostle body with an artificially copied soul, what if he placed an actual human soul inside one?

Following that line of thought, Marshall decided to conduct a few preliminary experiments.

Naturally, he had no intention of immediately experimenting on Simon’s soul.

Instead, he first created an Apostle body for someone else.

The volunteer for this experiment was Ultear.

Marshall wrote a Book of Ultear and used it to create a miniature version of her.

A halo above the little Ultear’s head identified the body as an Apostle, but unlike the Seven Sins, this body was merely an empty shell.

Marshall had placed no artificial soul inside it.

"How does it feel?"

The little Ultear opened her eyes.

She looked toward her original body, which lay on a nearby bed with its eyes closed, then raised both hands and carefully examined them.

"It’s a very strange feeling."

She flexed her fingers.

"Almost like I’ve changed bodies completely. But this body itself feels... odd."

"That’s because it isn’t a normal human body."

Marshall observed the readings.

"The transfer worked. You can go back now."

He continued, "My next step will be experimenting with ways to draw an unattached soul into this artificial body."

Simon was unconscious and therefore incapable of cooperating with the experiment.

What Marshall really needed was a spell capable of establishing a connection between a wandering soul and an artificial vessel.

If he could accomplish that... perhaps he really could wake Simon up.

...

Once the experiment ended, Marshall handed Ultear a small gift box.

"Thanks for helping with the experiment. Here, this is for you."

Ultear accepted it happily.

"Thank you~ What is it?"

Marshall immediately gave her a thumbs-up, his teeth practically sparkling.

"Stockings."

"?"

"Our guild’s stocking factory officially started production recently."

Marshall smiled proudly.

"The quality is excellent. I’ve been giving several pairs to my friends, so there’s no need to thank me."

"..."

Ultear opened the box. ℯℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Inside were several pairs in black and white, including thigh-highs, garter styles, and full tights.

This brat really wasn’t pretending to be innocent anymore.

"All right."

Ultear smiled.

"I’ll wear them. If Master likes them~"

Knowing one of Marshall’s preferences was hardly a bad thing.

Apparently, she should buy a few more pairs in the future.

Marshall suddenly looked toward the door.

"Hm? Why is Wendy here again?"

A report from one of the Gugas had just reached him.

Wendy had emerged from the teleportation room and was heading directly toward his laboratory.

Marshall gestured for Ultear to return to her younger disguise, and before long, Wendy pushed open the door.

"Marshall-nii, are you busy right now?"

"What’s wrong, Wendy?"

"I just came back from seeing Grandpa Roubaul."

Wendy stepped inside.

"He asked me to speak with Master Makarov and ask Fairy Tail to support an operation against the Dark Guild Oración Seis."

She looked at Marshall.

"Marshall-nii, do you know much about that guild?"

"Hm?"

Marshall frowned.

"Why did Roubaul ask you to deliver that message?"

"I-I don’t know."

Wendy shook her head.

"Grandpa didn’t explain. He just told me I wasn’t allowed to participate."

Ultear, standing nearby, spoke up instead.

"Oración Seis has probably started moving."

Both of them looked toward her.

"The Magic Council only recently completed its reconstruction, and I’ve heard the reforms were extremely thorough."

Ultear crossed her arms.

"Under the new system, activating Etherion again is almost impossible. Oración Seis certainly wouldn’t ignore an opportunity like that."

"Eh?"

Wendy looked surprised.

"Tia-nee knows about them too?"

She moved closer.

"Can you tell me what kind of guild Oración Seis is?"

"Oración Seis..."

As Ultear began explaining the Dark Guild to Wendy, Marshall simultaneously opened a Telepathy connection with Makarov.

[Master, has Oración Seis made any major moves lately?]

Makarov answered almost immediately.

[Hm? You already heard about it too, Marshall?]

[Oración Seis has been calling its subordinate Dark Guilds together in the Worth Woodsea. Looks like they’re planning something big.]

[I’m actually about to attend the regular guild masters’ meeting and discuss the situation with the other guilds.]

Marshall glanced toward Wendy.

[I see. Wendy’s former guild master asked her to pass along a message. He wants Fairy Tail to support an operation against Oración Seis.]

[Is that so? No problem. I was already planning to support it.]

[I’m heading into the meeting now. We’ll talk later.]

The connection ended.

At almost the same time, Wendy’s eyes widened at something Ultear had just told her.

"Eh?!"

"A guild with only six members controls almost half of the underground Dark Guilds?"

She looked genuinely impressed.

"That’s incredibly powerful..."

Worry soon replaced the amazement on Wendy’s face.

Marshall walked over and gently patted her head.

"All right."

"This isn’t something a little kid needs to worry about."

Wendy looked up at him.

"I already spoke with the Master. Leave the rest to us adults."

Ultear and Wendy both turned toward Marshall at exactly the same moment.

"You’re a kid too."

"Hey!"

Marshall immediately protested.

"Watch how you talk to me! I’m a distinguished S-Class Mage!"

Still, Marshall didn’t take the matter particularly seriously.

It was only some underground Dark Guild that couldn’t even operate openly.

How much trouble could six people possibly cause?

Marshall smiled faintly.

"Time to show those worms hiding in the dark a little taste of Fairy Tail."