The Village Under Attack

Those three months had been the happiest days of Jiang Bai's two lives combined.

In that peace and tranquility, his bond with Erza had grown ever closer.

Jiang Bai practically raised Erza as his own little sister. Whenever he found something good to eat or fun to play with, she was always the first person he thought of.

Erza, too, had long since grown accustomed to Jiang Bai, who was like a real older brother and looked after her at all times.

But Erza, whose emotional world was still a blank slate, had noticed something very strange.

She didn't know when it had started, but she had found that she was a little afraid to meet Jiang Bai's eyes for too long.

Whenever their gazes met, if they held each other's eyes for more than three seconds, she would feel her cheeks grow slightly hot and her heart skip a beat for no apparent reason. Then she would instinctively look away like a startled little rabbit.

The feeling was strange.

Because nothing of the sort happened when she looked anyone else in the eye.

How was she so sure?

Just last month, that goofball Simon had gotten some inexplicable idea in his head and insisted on playing a game with her where the first to blink lost.

Erza had stared at him with a blank expression, and in less than ten seconds, Simon's face had turned bright red. He had shouted, "I'm not playing anymore!" and run home with his face covered.

Yet the same "staring attack" that had defeated Simon was completely useless against Jiang Bai.

Erza couldn't understand it.

And those three months of idyllic, carefree living had allowed Jiang Bai's taut nerves to relax completely.

He had almost forgotten that this was the Fairy Tail world, where danger lurked everywhere.

He had also forgotten that a bloody abyss called the "Tower of Heaven" lay hidden within Erza's carefree childhood.

And he had forgotten that the peaceful Rosemary Village before him was where that tragedy began.

Disaster often arrived quietly when people were at their happiest.

That day, Jiang Bai went hunting on the outskirts of the forest with a group led by Uncle Rob, a hunter from the village.

Calling it hunting was a stretch. He mostly just tagged along for the fun and helped gather edible mushrooms and wild vegetables.

Toward evening, the hunting party returned laden with game, every face radiant with the joy of a bountiful haul.

On the road back to the village, the burly Uncle Rob clapped Jiang Bai on the shoulder and laughed heartily. "Jiang Bai, you're pretty good, kid. You've got a sharp eye! Those flame mushrooms were hidden so well, but you still found them!"

Another hunter chimed in, "That's right! Now the village can make a few more pots of delicious soup!"

Jiang Bai grinned. "You taught me well, Uncle Rob."

"Haha, you've still got such a sweet tongue, kid!"

In high spirits, Rob extended a warm invitation.

"By the way, Jiang Bai, bring Erza over to my house for dinner tonight! My wife made meat soup, and those two little ones, Simon and Kagura, would love to have you come play!"

"Sure! Then I won't stand on ceremony. Thanks, Uncle Rob!" Jiang Bai agreed with a smile.

The group chatted and laughed as the setting sun stretched their shadows long, and all was peaceful.

As they talked and laughed, the smile on Uncle Rob's face suddenly froze. He was walking at the front of the group.

He stopped abruptly and sniffed hard, his brows knotting deeply.

"What's wrong, Rob?" a companion behind him asked in confusion.

"Do you smell that?" Rob's voice grew heavy. "Something... smells burnt."

He raised his head and looked toward the village with the sharp gaze of a hawk.

The wisps of cooking smoke that should have been rising into the sky had been replaced by thick columns of black smoke!

That wasn't cooking smoke! Those were billowing clouds of smoke produced by flames devouring houses!

"Something's wrong!" another sharp-eyed hunter cried. "That smoke is coming from the center of the village! And there's more than one fire!"

Uncle Rob's face turned deathly pale, his eyes full of terror.

"This is bad!"

He let out a piercing shout, dropped the game from his back, and charged toward the village like a maddened bull.

"Something's happened to the village!"

The other hunters behind him also saw the ominous black smoke. Their faces changed, and one after another, they dropped their things and raced after him with all their might.

"Hurry! Get back, quick!"

"My wife and kids are still in the village!"

Terrified cries echoed through the woods.

At that moment, Jiang Bai's heart sank to the bottom.

An icy chill shot from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.

He finally remembered.

That bloody plotline about the Tower of Heaven that he had forgotten.

On the way back, Jiang Bai had been as lively as a freshly caught hare.

Now he was racing madly toward the village behind Uncle Rob and the other hunters.

"Damn it!" As he ran, Jiang Bai cursed himself furiously in his heart. How could I forget something so important?

The Tower of Heaven!

The greatest nightmare of Erza's childhood!

The day Rosemary Village was destroyed!

Those three months of comfortable living had wrapped up the vigilance of a transmigrator like him as snugly as a warm quilt, leaving him to almost forget just how dangerous a world he was in.

"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!"

He clenched his fists in frustration, his nails digging deep into his palms.

He had known perfectly well this day would come, yet he had lost himself in a false illusion of peace and made no preparations at all!

He desperately searched his mind for the Fairy Tail plot.

Who were the people attacking the village? A cult that worshipped the dark wizard Zeref!

Why did they kidnap children? To build the Tower of Heaven and resurrect Zeref!

Jiang Bai tried like mad to recall those crucial details, but it was as though a thick fog had settled over his mind.

He could only remember some vague major events and main characters: Erza, Simon, and Jellal would meet in the Tower of Heaven; Erza would join Fairy Tail; and there would be a civil war within Fairy Tail.

But whenever he tried to dig deeper into the specific details, those memories slipped through his fingers like sand, rapidly blurring and breaking apart before vanishing altogether.

Somewhere in the unseen, Jiang Bai sensed an invisible resistance.

It seemed to be a rule from the world itself, a vast and cold will.

It allowed you to know where the torrent of fate was headed, but would never allow you to see clearly every drop of water that made it up.

Any key juncture involving specific times, places, or people that could alter "fate" had been obscured and hidden by an invisible force.

It was a supreme self-protection mechanism belonging to time and fate.

So that's how it is...

Jiang Bai smiled bitterly as he ran.

No wonder he had "forgotten."

It wasn't that he had truly forgotten. This world simply wouldn't allow him to remember so clearly.