I Already Knew

Mirajane's answer was just what Jiang Bai had expected.

She took a long look at the villagers who had once been her neighbors but were now like hostile strangers. The last trace of attachment in her eyes turned to cold resolve.

She knew that, whether Jiang Bai had appeared or not, she could no longer stay in this village.

Rather than remain here, drowned in endless suspicion and hatred until, perhaps one day, her younger brother and sister were caught up in it too, she would follow the mysterious, powerful young man before her to an unknown place far away.

At least he had made them a promise: a place where no one would shun her because of her arm.

"I'll go with you." Mirajane's voice was quiet, but exceptionally firm.

She took one by each hand, keeping Elfman and Lisanna close at her side.

Elfman, whose hand was held by the demon arm that was her right arm, showed no fear at all. Instead, he gripped his sister's hand tightly.

Jiang Bai nodded. Without another word, he turned and headed out of the village.

Mirajane and her siblings followed him in silence.

The four of them simply ignored the more than a hundred villagers in the square, whose expressions varied, and walked straight out of the place filled with painful memories.

No one dared stop them.

They merely watched the four figures with a complicated mixture of fear, confusion, and a little relief, paying particular attention to the silver-haired girl surrounded by the others and her unsettling demon arm, until they disappeared completely down the path at the village entrance.

After they entered the woods leading to the outside world, the light around them dimmed at once.

Mottled shadows fell across the ground, and the atmosphere grew somewhat somber.

Still shaken by what had happened, Elfman and Lisanna both pressed close to their sister without a word.

Mirajane, however, seemed a little strange.

Several times, she started to speak only to stop. She kept glancing at Jiang Bai, who was walking in front, her lips parting slightly before quickly pressing together again, hesitation and struggle written all over her face.

Naturally, Jiang Bai noticed her unusual behavior.

He didn't even need to look back.

"What is it?" Jiang Bai asked evenly from up ahead, without breaking stride. "If you have something to say, just say it. It's not like you to be so hesitant."

Mirajane stiffened slightly when he saw through her thoughts.

She took a deep breath, seemingly making up her mind at last.

"Um... actually..."

She stopped and looked at Jiang Bai's back, her voice somewhat hoarse. "In the church, after I took that demon... into my body, I felt... like there was another source of magic beneath the church."

Jiang Bai finally stopped and turned around, raising an eyebrow slightly.

"A seal?"

"Yes! A seal!" Mirajane nodded vigorously, seeming a little relieved that Jiang Bai understood. "When I went in, I saw that demon... the village chief and the others called it Satan. It wasn't wreaking havoc in the church. It was attacking the floor like crazy, trying to break through a magic circle drawn on the ground! That magic circle was a seal!"

Hearing this, Jiang Bai suddenly understood.

His mind raced, connecting countless clues that had previously seemed unrelated.

Why did this remote little village have a church with a demon sealed inside?

As it turned out, the village had probably not been established as a place to live at all, but to guard this sealed place for generations.

Unfortunately, time was the most fearsome corrosive force in the world.

As generation after generation passed, the ancestors' mission was forgotten, the guardians became ordinary villagers, and their sacred duty dwindled into a legend no one cared about.

That also perfectly explained why the concentration of magic in this godforsaken little place was unusually high.

It was high enough for not only Mirajane, Elfman, and Lisanna, three children with the potential to become mages, to be born there, but even a genius with potential like Mirajane's.

The source of it all was that ancient seal, which was constantly leaking magic.

Mirajane wasn't finished. Her voice took on a trace of trembling and guilt.

"I can feel that the seal's power is already very, very weak. It feels like it could disappear at any moment. I... I only wanted to stop that demon from destroying the seal, so I... I..."

She said no more, but her meaning was clear.

In her desperation, she had taken the demon into herself, only to become a new demon in the villagers' eyes.

At this point, Elfman and Lisanna seemed to sense their sister's pain as well. Their little hands both tightened around their sister's larger ones, trying to give her some strength.

Jiang Bai looked at her, his gaze as calm as still water.

"That's not all you wanted to say, is it?"

Mirajane trembled again. She bit her lower lip and finally voiced the deepest worry in her heart.

"Right. The important thing is... the magic beneath the seal."

She lowered her voice to barely a whisper. "After I absorbed Satan, I formed a faint connection with the seal.

"I can feel it. That magic is just as evil as Satan! Once the seal disappears completely, all that magic will leak out... I don't know what will happen, but... but it definitely won't be anything good!"

When she finished, Mirajane nervously lowered her head, clutching the hem of her clothes as she waited for the judgment to come.

She thought that Jiang Bai would fly into a rage after hearing news that could threaten the safety of the entire region.

He would berate her for not saying so sooner and scold her for disregarding countless lives to protect herself. He might even... deal with her directly as the source of a new calamity.

She was prepared to bear all his anger.

But the thunderous fury she expected never came.

It was frighteningly quiet around them.

After waiting a long time, Mirajane finally couldn't help cautiously raising her head to look at Jiang Bai.

There was not the slightest anger or surprise on the young man's face, nor even a trace of gravity.

He simply looked at her in silence, his deep eyes seeming to hold a starry sky that had seen through the ages.

Then, under Mirajane's astonished gaze, the corners of Jiang Bai's mouth slowly lifted in a faint smile, touched with a hint of laziness.

"I already knew."