The demon girl of Kardia Village

Space warped, and invisible ripples spread through the air like circles on the surface of water after a stone had been thrown in.

The next second, Jiang Bai appeared out of thin air on a dirt road leading to a village.

For him, getting from the guild to the job location took only a few Space Transfers, as long as he knew which direction to go.

To ensure accuracy, however, Jiang Bai always kept each transfer within the range of his Mental Detection. At present, his Mental Detection could cover all of Magnolia.

Jiang Bai had learned that through experience, after breaking the guild wall five times and taking three punches from the old man.

He looked up. Kardia Village seemed unusually quiet, even somewhat desolate, and an oppressive atmosphere hung in the air.

Jiang Bai stopped a passing villager and asked where the village chief lived, then walked over at an unhurried pace with his hands in his pockets.

The village chief was an elderly man with graying hair. His worried face and deep wrinkles showed that life had not been easy for him lately.

When he saw that the person entering his home was only a boy who looked no older than thirteen, a flicker of confusion crossed his cloudy eyes, quickly giving way to undisguised disappointment and anger.

"Whose child are you? Go home. This isn't where you belong!"

Jiang Bai couldn't be bothered with idle talk. He pulled back his sleeve and revealed the silver-white Fairy Tail mark on his wrist.

"Fairy Tail, Jiang Bai. I'm here to handle the job."

At the sight of the familiar guild emblem, the village chief's expression changed. He no longer doubted Jiang Bai's identity, but the disappointment in his eyes only deepened.

"Fairy Tail... only sent a child like you? Are they joking with us? What we're dealing with is a demon!"

The old man's voice trembled with a hint of despair.

Jiang Bai sighed inwardly.

Sometimes, showing off his strength wasn't about showing off at all. It was simply a way to make things go more smoothly and save everyone time.

He looked at the distrust written all over the village chief's face and couldn't even be bothered to say another word.

His figure flickered slightly, then vanished like a ghost.

The village chief saw a blur, and the boy was gone. He looked around in surprise and uncertainty.

A hand gently patted his shoulder.

"You don't need to worry about my strength."

A calm voice sounded as though it were right beside his ear.

The village chief stiffened, and the blood in his body seemed to freeze instantly.

He could feel the warmth of the hand behind him and hear the boy's steady breathing.

He turned his stiff neck inch by inch, meeting Jiang Bai's utterly tranquil eyes.

"Ah!"

The old village chief let out a startled cry, stumbled back several steps, and fell into his chair. His heart pounded as he stared at Jiang Bai as though he were a monster.

"Can you tell me now?" Jiang Bai asked calmly.

This time, the village chief no longer dared harbor the slightest doubt. Only awe and fear remained on his face.

With trembling lips, he recounted everything from beginning to end.

"The church in our village... starting a few months ago, every night, there were... there were demonic sounds coming from it. They sounded like both roars and wails. They made our skin crawl."

"But strangely enough, once daylight came, there was nothing in the church. It was as quiet as ever. No one dared go inside at night to investigate, and over time... everyone got used to it. We just had to walk around the church."

At this point, the village chief paused. The fear on his face became unmistakable, as though he had recalled something utterly terrifying.

"But... but just a few days ago, a girl in the village... she didn't believe in that sort of thing. She sneaked into the church alone in the middle of the night, and then... then she was possessed by a demon!"

The village chief's voice turned shrill with fear, and his body began to shake violently beyond his control.

"We all saw it! Her arm became like a monster's, and she could use that evil magic too! It was terrifying! That was definitely a demon!"

Overwhelmed by fear and the sudden appearance of hope, the old village chief could no longer hold himself up. He slid abruptly out of his chair, about to kneel and kowtow to Jiang Bai.

"My lord! Please, you must save our village and kill that demon!"

But before his knees could touch the ground, an invisible force held him steady, preventing him from kneeling no matter how he tried.

With a thought, Jiang Bai used Telekinesis to hold the village chief up.

"Don't worry. Now that I'm here, there won't be a problem, but I need to go take a look first."

Jiang Bai's voice remained matter-of-fact, as though he were speaking of something trivial.

That was what he said, but his mind was racing.

A church, a demon, possession, an arm...

Together, those key details reminded him of a plotline that had long since grown hazy in his memory.

A tragic past involving a certain white-haired girl and her younger brother and sister.

Jiang Bai frowned involuntarily, a flicker of surprise passing through his eyes.

Could it really be such a coincidence?

With that thought, Jiang Bai made up his mind and hesitated no longer.

He said a quick word to the village chief, who was still rambling on, then sent his vast mental power flooding outward with a thought, instantly enveloping all of Kardia Village.

This was not some kind of X-ray vision that could pry into people's privacy, but a higher form of perception.

In his mental world, the outlines of the village buildings, the villagers' faint signs of life, and even the magic particles flowing through the air were all clearly formed as streams of information.

Soon, a current of evil magic mixed with pain and violence appeared unmistakably in his perception, like a bonfire in the night.

The magic was not powerful; it was even somewhat weak. But its very nature was full of ill omen and chaos.

That's it.

He locked onto the coordinates, and his figure vanished once more before the village chief's horrified eyes, appearing directly at the source of the magic.

Space shifted and light warped. When his vision cleared again, Jiang Bai found himself in a simple wooden cabin.

In the middle of the room, a girl came into view.

Long silver-white hair fell smoothly over her shoulders, but her right arm was horribly out of place.

From the shoulder down, the entire arm was covered in black scales, and her right hand had transformed completely into a demonic claw that gleamed with a cold light.

With her back to the door, she was clumsily struggling to pull a clean shirt over herself with her unharmed left hand.

The faint fluctuation caused by Space Transfer finally alerted the girl, who had been focused on her struggle with the shirt.

She spun around and found herself face-to-face with Jiang Bai, who had appeared out of thin air.

Their eyes met, and the air seemed to freeze for a moment.

The next second, the girl got a clear look at the boy about her own age who had suddenly appeared in the room. Instinctive panic and embarrassment turned her face bright red, and she let out a short scream.

"Ah—!"

She instinctively clutched the shirt tightly to her chest, trying to cover her body.

Fortunately, she had already put on her underwear by the time Jiang Bai appeared, sparing them the most awkward possibility.

Jiang Bai's brain froze for a moment as well.

He had imagined all sorts of scenarios, but never this kind of opening.

When he came to his senses, he immediately spun around, an awkward blush rising on his face as he repeated, "Sorry, sorry! I didn't mean to!"

With his back to the girl, Jiang Bai's heart skipped a beat.

Long silver-white hair, an arm possessed by a demon, and a face whose beauty was hard to hide even in panic.

There's no mistake.

The girl before him was Mirajane Strauss, the future "Demon," the gentle and powerful white-haired demon who also bore so much pain.

Aside from Erza, she was also one of the female characters he admired most in Fairy Tail.

After the initial shock, Jiang Bai quickly calmed down.

He knew he had to pretend he didn't know her at all.

Otherwise, how could he explain knowing her name and what had happened to her? Such an ability to foresee things would only bring endless trouble and suspicion.

I have to think of a plausible excuse.

But for now, it was more important to calm the frightened girl first.

(Finally, my other female lead has appeared. Two girlfriends in Fairy Tail isn't too out of place, right? Look at Gildarts and Loke, and there's even a king in this world. It's not too much for the noble transmigrator Jiang Bai to have two girlfriends, is it!)