Mirajane Strauss

The air inside the cabin was so awkward it had almost congealed.

Jiang Bai stood with his back to the girl, still able to hear her breathing grow rapid with nervousness and embarrassed anger.

He broke the silence first, doing his best to sound calm and harmless.

"Um... get dressed first. I won't turn around."

He paused, feeling that an apology alone wasn't enough. He had to give her a reasonable explanation for his sudden appearance.

"I'm a mage from the Fairy Tail guild. I took a request from the village to investigate the so-called 'demon' incident. I use spatial magic, and it automatically locks onto the strongest source of magic power... so I ended up coming straight here."

Behind him, the rustling sound of the girl getting dressed stopped.

In its place came a trembling voice, choked with tears and despair.

"So... are you here... to drive me away too?"

The question caught Jiang Bai off guard.

He could imagine how much fear and rejection the girl had endured from the villagers during this time.

In their eyes, she was a demon incarnate.

"Drive you away?"

Jiang Bai scoffed inwardly and slowly turned around.

His gaze didn't waver in the slightest, nor did he show any disgust or fear.

He simply looked calmly at the silver-haired girl, who had put on her shirt but was still clutching its collar tightly with her uninjured left hand, her face full of wariness and sorrow.

His gaze fell on the grotesque demon arm, and his tone was as even as if he were discussing the weather.

"Just because of this?"

Jiang Bai pointed at her right arm. "That's not demonic possession. It's 'Take Over Magic,' a very rare form of ancient magic. You just don't know how to control that power yet."

"Take... Over... Magic?"

Mirajane froze. It was the first time she had heard someone offer a different interpretation of the change in her body.

Not a curse, not possession, but a kind of... magic?

"That's right." Jiang Bai nodded firmly, a hint of a lazy smile even appearing on his face.

"Put simply, it means taking a demon's power and making it your own. Honestly, that's quite an amazing talent. Where I come from, someone with that kind of power would only be envied, not treated like a monster."

Jiang Bai's words were like a ray of light, piercing the gloom that had long hung over Mirajane's heart.

She looked at the composed young man before her. There wasn't a trace of insincerity in his calm eyes, as if what he said were a self-evident truth.

"My name's Jiang Bai." He casually pulled over a chair and sat down without ceremony. "And you?"

The girl's lips trembled slightly. Looking at Jiang Bai's open manner, she finally felt the taut string in her heart loosen a little.

"Mirajane... My name is Mirajane Strauss."

"Mirajane, huh? Nice name."

Jiang Bai nodded and continued, "All right, can you tell me what happened now? Also, I heard you have a younger brother and sister. How are they?"

The moment Jiang Bai mentioned her younger siblings, Mirajane's expression changed. The faint trust that had just begun to form was immediately replaced by deep wariness.

She instinctively hid her demonized arm behind her back, as if afraid that the person before her would harm the family most important to her.

Mirajane's wariness was like a hedgehog raising its spines, protecting herself and her most important family at its center.

Seeing her like this, Jiang Bai felt no impatience. Instead, he thought it was only natural.

He leaned back in his chair and said conversationally, "Don't be so nervous. I'm from Fairy Tail. Our guild's foremost creed is to cherish our companions and family. I wouldn't go so far as to harm two little children."

After a good deal of persuasion, Jiang Bai managed to get Mirajane to lower her guard a little with his "family first" theory, though her wariness had not entirely disappeared.

Just then, his mental detection, which had remained active, picked up something unusual.

In the village's central square, the villagers, who had previously been scattered about, were gathering at an unusual rate.

"By the way," Jiang Bai asked casually, as if making conversation for its own sake, "is there some event in your village today? A festival or something?"

The words "your village" stabbed into Mirajane's heart like a thorn.

Her brows drew sharply together. Her expression, which had softened slightly, turned cold again, and her tone became distant. "I don't know."

Jiang Bai immediately understood why her mood had changed.

It was understandable.

She had risked taking over the demon in the church to protect the village, only to be treated as a new monster by those ignorant villagers—rejected, driven away, and even threatened with destruction.

Jiang Bai wouldn't say a single word in those villagers' defense.

Ignorance was the original sin.

Mirajane had never hurt any of them, yet she had ended up like this solely because of an arm she couldn't control.

Mirajane added coldly, "There are never any events in this village."

Jiang Bai frowned as well.

"Then that's strange." His voice grew grave. "Why are more and more people gathering in the village center? And... something doesn't seem right about the atmosphere."

Those words exploded in Mirajane's mind like a thunderclap.

She suddenly remembered that her younger brother and sister, Elfman and Lisanna, had said they were going out to find food that morning, and still hadn't returned!

Could it be...

A terrible thought surfaced in her mind, and the color instantly drained from Mirajane's face.

Could they have captured Elfman and Lisanna?!

At that thought, Mirajane could no longer sit still.

She didn't pin her hopes on the young man she had known for less than half an hour. It was better to rely on herself than ask others for help!

"Elfman! Lisanna!"

With a piercing cry, Mirajane burst through the cabin door like a gust of wind and raced madly toward the village center.

Jiang Bai watched her retreating figure stagger with fear. He slowly stood up and sighed helplessly.

The situation was worse than he had expected.

He chose not to run after her.

With a thought, his figure instantly turned illusory where he stood. The next second, space warped, and he silently vanished from the cabin.