Chapter 308

“No.”

Marshall rejected the request without the slightest hesitation.

He had no plans to leave Tenrou Island anytime soon.

At the very least, he wouldn’t consider venturing into populated areas until he’d gained complete control over the Curse of Ankhseram.

The last thing he wanted was to wander into a town and accidentally kill hundreds of people because his curse happened to activate at the wrong moment.

There was also the problem of interfering with history.

The more people Marshall encountered in this era, the greater the likelihood that his actions would influence events that were supposed to unfold without him.

Those were unnecessary risks, and since he could avoid them simply by remaining on Tenrou Island, he saw no reason to take them.

As for accompanying Mavis and Zera on a sightseeing trip, Marshall was even less enthusiastic about that idea.

After all, he couldn’t go with them.

And if he sent the two girls away, wouldn’t he be losing his only reliable sources of Inspiration Points?

What was he supposed to do with himself for the remaining twelve years if both of his little companions disappeared?

“Eh? Why not?”

Mavis stared at him in confusion.

“Marshall, haven’t you already learned how to control your curse? Even if something dangerous happens, you can just teleport away in an instant, right?”

“…”

Marshall gave her a long look.

Sometimes, he genuinely suspected that this little girl cared even less about other people’s lives than he did.

‘Mavis, how can you be so selfish?!’

Apparently, his ability to teleport away from danger was all she needed to consider the problem solved.

The possibility that an entire village might be wiped out before he managed to escape didn’t seem to have entered her calculations.

“Anyway, the answer is still no,” Marshall said firmly. “I’m not leaving Tenrou Island, and that’s not up for negotiation.”

Mavis’s expression visibly collapsed.

Her bright eyes dimmed, and the little tuft of hair on top of her head drooped as she lowered her gaze.

Seeing how disappointed she looked, Marshall couldn’t help softening a little.

He sighed.

“Look, if you really want to leave that badly, I can use Spatial Magic to send you to the mainland. But you’ll have to explore the outside world yourselves, because I’m not coming along.”

Mavis was already a reasonably competent Mage.

Thanks to her natural talent and everything Marshall had taught her, she possessed enough magical ability to defend herself against most ordinary threats.

He couldn’t justify keeping her confined to the island indefinitely simply because he wanted her company.

In fact, deliberately preventing Mavis from leaving might itself constitute interference with history.

If her future required her to venture beyond Tenrou Island, then stopping her would be precisely the kind of mistake Marshall was trying to avoid.

He wasn’t particularly happy about the possibility, but if Mavis truly insisted on leaving, he wouldn’t force her to stay.

“Eh… How can you say that?”

Mavis’s disappointment deepened.

“If you’re not coming, then what’s the point…?”

She had always dreamed of exploring the world she’d read about in books, but recently that dream had begun to include Marshall.

She wanted to travel to unfamiliar places with him, see beautiful scenery together, and ask him about all the wonderful things they encountered along the way.

Apparently, she’d overestimated how much he wanted to accompany her.

“Mavis…”

Zera gently tugged at her friend’s clothes.

“Why don’t we wait another few years before going overseas? We’re still young, aren’t we? There’s no reason we have to leave right now.”

Zera hadn’t been particularly enthusiastic about leaving Tenrou Island in the first place.

Her main concern was that traveling would mean separating from Marshall.

Mavis had only managed to persuade her to come along because she’d confidently claimed that she could convince him to join them.

Now that Marshall had made his position clear, Zera had absolutely no desire to continue with the plan.

“Even you think we should stay, Zera?”

Mavis looked between the two of them before reluctantly lowering her head.

“All right… I suppose we can wait a little longer.”

At least, that was what she said.

In reality, Mavis had no intention of giving up.

She understood perfectly well that Marshall was the key to making their dream of exploring the outside world a reality.

If she could persuade him to join them, practically every problem associated with the journey would be solved.

So from that day onward, she changed her strategy.

Previously, Mavis had visited Marshall almost every day simply because she wanted to play games, talk about Magic, or spend time with him.

Now, practically every visit became another attempt to recruit him into her grand adventure.

She tried pleading with him, acting adorable, making increasingly elaborate arguments, and occasionally pretending that she merely wanted to ask an innocent question before steering the conversation back toward leaving the island.

She even learned the art of bribery.

Sometimes she arrived carrying little presents she’d made herself.

On other occasions, she’d bring homemade snacks or treats, offering them with her sweetest smile before casually mentioning how wonderful it would be if they could explore the mainland together.

For someone so young, Mavis was already developing an impressive talent for getting other people to do what she wanted.

She would undoubtedly become a formidable negotiator when she grew older.

Unfortunately for her, Marshall proved to be an extremely difficult opponent.

He happily accepted every gift.

He ate the snacks, thanked her for the presents, and generally appeared delighted by all the attention.

But whenever the subject of leaving Tenrou Island came up, his answer remained exactly the same.

“No.”

Thus began a prolonged battle of wits between Fairy Tail’s future First Master and one particularly stubborn time traveler.

Mavis repeatedly devised clever arguments and little traps intended to maneuver Marshall into making a promise he couldn’t easily break.

Unfortunately, Marshall possessed Information Magic and could read people’s thoughts.

Against someone capable of seeing through her intentions before she even spoke, Mavis’s schemes were practically doomed from the beginning.

No matter how ingenious she thought her latest plan was, Marshall always seemed to know exactly what she was trying to accomplish.

And so, another few months passed.

One morning, Marshall returned home after spending the entire night undergoing physical training beneath the ocean.

He’d barely stepped into his bedroom when he noticed something unusual.

There was a suspiciously large mound beneath his blanket.

Marshall stared at it for a moment before walking over with an expressionless face.

Then he grabbed the blanket and pulled it away.

A brown-haired little girl was curled up underneath, wearing an expression of unmistakable happiness.

“Zera.”

Marshall looked down at her.

“What exactly are you doing in my bed?”

“Ah!”

Zera sat up in surprise.

“Marshall! You’re back!”

She hurriedly adopted an innocent expression.

“I-I accidentally fell asleep!”

Marshall glanced at the blanket in his hand.

‘Accidentally fell asleep, huh?’

‘Then why did you pull the covers all the way over your head?’

He couldn’t be bothered arguing about such an obvious excuse.

Instead, he reached down, picked Zera up by the back of her clothes like a mischievous kitten, and deposited her on the floor.

“Honestly, I think I’ve been spoiling you far too much. You’re getting more shameless every day!”

He tried to look stern.

Unfortunately, the effect was rather limited.

After more than two years of spending time together, Zera had already developed an excellent understanding of Marshall’s personality.

She knew that although he occasionally complained or pretended to be angry, he almost never genuinely lost his temper with either her or Mavis.

At least, not over harmless things like this.

“Ehehe! You’re absolutely right, big brother!”

Zera cheerfully wrapped both arms around his arm, clinging to him with the familiarity of a younger sister.

Marshall sighed.

In terms of their current appearances, he was certainly several years older than Zera.

But the matter became rather strange whenever he remembered where he had actually come from.

Zera had been born a full century before his original era. Strictly speaking, that made her older than Makarov.

The thought of this little girl technically being an elderly lady from the distant past always made Marshall feel somewhat uncomfortable.

‘Time travel really makes relationships complicated.’

“All right, enough messing around.”

He looked down at her.

“What did you come here for this time?”

“Oh! It’s about Mavis!”

Zera immediately brightened.

“She’s come up with another plan to trick you into agreeing to leave Tenrou Island.”

She leaned closer and began explaining enthusiastically.

“She’s planning to do this first, and then she’s going to say that, and after that…”

Zera proceeded to reveal the entire scheme in considerable detail.

Mavis would probably never discover that she’d been living beside a traitor all this time.

Every carefully constructed plan she devised was being leaked to Marshall almost as soon as she finished preparing it.

And the person responsible was none other than her own best friend.

Marshall listened to the explanation with growing resignation.

“Seriously? That idiot still hasn’t given up?”

He sighed.

“Looks like Mavis really does want to leave Tenrou Island.”

Then he glanced toward the little informant clinging to his arm.

“What about you, Zera? Don’t you want to see the outside world?”

“Me?”

Zera considered the question for a moment.

“Actually, I do want to see it. I’ve spent my whole life on this island, after all.”

She tightened her hold on his arm slightly.

“But being with you is more important to me. If you aren’t going, then I don’t want to go either.”

“…”

Marshall sighed again.

He gently rested a hand on Zera’s head.

Over the past two years, her magically manifested body had continued developing, and she’d actually grown noticeably taller.

That was particularly irritating when compared with Marshall himself, whose physical appearance remained permanently fixed by the Curse of Ankhseram.

At this rate, Zera might eventually grow taller than him.

Still, her physical development wasn’t what concerned him most.

“Zera, you know you can’t stay beside me forever, right?”

His voice softened.

“Someday, I’m going to leave this place too.”

Zera’s expression changed immediately.

Her arms tightened around his, and she looked up at him with unmistakable panic.

“Marshall…”

She hesitated before asking the question that frightened her most.

“Y-You’re not going to abandon me, are you?”

“…”

Marshall didn’t answer immediately.

In truth, he had already made some progress toward understanding Zera’s condition.

Over the past year, he’d secretly examined Mavis’s First Origin on several occasions, carefully investigating the magical structure that sustained her extraordinary connection with Zera.

And his research had finally produced a definite result.

The good news was that he’d successfully located Zera’s complete Life Point inside Mavis’s First Origin.

That discovery confirmed many of his earlier suspicions and proved that the foundation of Zera’s existence had survived intact.

Unfortunately, there was also bad news.

Marshall couldn’t extract it.

Just as he’d suspected, Mavis was holding on to Zera with extraordinary tenacity.

Her attachment wasn’t merely emotional.

It had become an integral part of the magical phenomenon preserving Zera’s existence.

And after examining the structure more closely, Marshall had reached another important conclusion.

Mavis actually knew that Zera was dead.

Or rather, some part of her knew.

The memory of Zera’s death hadn’t disappeared completely.

Instead, Mavis had unconsciously rejected it, choosing to forget what had happened because she couldn’t bear to accept the loss of her only friend.

But her subconscious hadn’t forgotten.

Deep within herself, Mavis remained desperately unwilling to let Zera leave her.

That desire had become so powerful that she’d effectively locked Zera’s Life Point inside her own First Origin.

And therein lay the problem.

As long as Mavis refused to release Zera, Marshall couldn’t separate the two without risking serious damage to the magical structure sustaining Zera’s existence.

Yet if Mavis remembered Zera’s death and finally accepted what had happened, the miraculous Magic preserving her friend might collapse entirely.

There was no way to predict what would happen afterward.

Perhaps Zera would simply disappear.

Perhaps her remaining soul would return to Mavis’s First Origin.

Or perhaps the Life Point that had somehow survived for all these years would finally break apart.

Marshall couldn’t say for certain.

The situation presented two equally dangerous possibilities, with no obvious way to navigate between them.

Even if Mavis voluntarily released Zera, Marshall wasn’t confident that he could capture and preserve her Life Point before it dissipated.

At least, not with his current understanding of Life Magic.

‘Unless…’

‘Unless I can develop my Life Magic further.’

That remained the only promising possibility he could see.

If he achieved a deeper understanding of how Life Points functioned, perhaps he could eventually separate Zera from Mavis and establish her existence independently.

But until he reached that level, attempting the procedure would be far too dangerous.

For that reason, Marshall had deliberately refrained from taking any further action.

He also couldn’t bring himself to promise Zera that everything would work out.

He simply didn’t know whether he could save her.

And giving her assurances he couldn’t support would accomplish nothing except make the eventual disappointment even more painful.

While Marshall was considering how to answer her question, something suddenly caught his attention.

His brows drew together.

He raised his head and looked toward the window.

Zera noticed the change immediately.

“Marshall? What’s wrong?”

“Someone’s arrived on the island.”

Marshall’s expression became thoughtful.

“And their magical presence feels… rather familiar.”

“Eh?!”

Zera stiffened.

“Are they enemies?!”

A faint blue glow appeared over Marshall’s eyes as he activated his improved Telescope Magic.

His vision extended far beyond the walls of the house, passing across the forest and toward the distant coastline.

Within moments, he could clearly see the visitors who had just arrived on Tenrou Island.

Marshall’s expression became rather peculiar.

“No, I don’t think they’re enemies.”

He paused, studying the three figures on the shore.

“Actually, they seem rather familiar.”

Then a faint smile appeared on his face.

“Looks like we’ve got three… treasure hunters.”